was only by opening
them that you could be sure of the dealer not having deceived you in the
quality of the cheese. 'Well,' said the Emperor, 'before sending them, cut
them through the middle, so as to see if they are what I want; you will
only have to join the two halves again by means of a wooden peg, and you
can then put the whole into a case.'"

Under the kings of the third French dynasty, a cheese was made at the
village of Chaillot, near Paris, which was much appreciated in the
capital. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the cheeses of Champagne
and of Brie, which are still manufactured, were equally popular, and were
hawked in the streets, according to the "Book of Street-Cries in Paris,"--

"J'ai bon fromage de Champaigne;
Or i a fromage de Brie!"

("Buy my cheese from Champagne,
And my cheese from Brie!")

Eustache Deschamps went so far as to say that cheese was the only good
thing which could possibly come from Brie.

The "Menagier de Paris" praises several kinds of cheeses, the names of
which it would now be difficult to trace, owing to their frequent changes
during four hundred years; but, according to the Gallic author of this
collection, a cheese to be presentable at table, was required to possess
certain qualities (in proverbial Latin, "Non Argus, nee Helena, nee Maria
Magdalena," &c.), thus expressed in French rhyme:--

"Non mie (pas) blanc comme Helaine,
Non mie (pas) plourant comme Magdelaine,
Non Argus (a cent yeux), mais du tout avugle (aveugle)
Et aussi pesant comme un bugle (boeuf),
Contre le pouce soit rebelle,
Et qu'il ait ligneuse cotelle (epaisse croute)
Sans yeux, sans plourer, non pas blanc,
Tigneulx, rebelle, bien pesant."

("Neither-white like Helena,
Nor weeping as Magdelena,
Neither Argus, nor yet quite blind,
And having too a thickish rind,
Resisting somewhat to the touch,
And as a bull should weigh as much;
Not eyeless, weeping, nor quite white,
But firm, resisting, not too light.")

In 1509, Platina, although an Italian, in speaking of good cheeses,
mentions those of Chauny, in Picardy, and of Brehemont, in Touraine;
Charles Estienne praises those of Craponne, in Auvergne, the _angelots_ of
Normandy, and the cheeses made from fresh cream which the peasant-women of
Montreuil and Vincennes brought to Paris in small wickerwork baskets, and
which were eaten sprinkled with sugar. The same author names also the
_rougerets_ of Lyon