“En cor gentil domnei per mort no passa.”...

To Sarah Read McAdams In Gratitude and Affection...

“The complication of opinions and ideas, of affections and habits, which prompted the chevalier to devote himself to the service of a lady, and by which he strove to prove to her his love, and to meri...

It would be absorbing to discover the present feminine attitude toward the profoundest compliment ever paid women by the heart and mind of men in league⁠—the worshipping devotion conceived by Plato an...

Nicolas de Caen, one of the most eminent of the early French writers of romance, was born at Caen in Normandy early in the 15th century, and was living in 1470. Little is known of his life, apart from...

“Of how, through Woman-Worship, knaves compound With honoure; Kings reck not of their domaine; Proud Pontiffs sigh; & War-men world-renownd, Toe win one Woman, all things else disdaine: Since Melicent...

The romance of Lusignan of that forgotten maker in the French tongue, messire Nicolas de Caen. Here begins the tale which they of Poictesme narrate concerning dame Melicent, that was daughter to the g...

Perion afterward remembered the two weeks spent at Bellegarde as in recovery from illness a person might remember some long fever dream which was all of an intolerable elvish brightness and of incessa...

Perion afterward remembered the two weeks spent at Bellegarde as in recovery from illness a person might remember some long fever dream which was all of an intolerable elvish brightness and of incessa...

There was dancing afterward and a sumptuous supper. The Vicomte de Puysange was generally accounted that evening the most excellent of company. He mingled affably with the revellers and found a prospe...

Then Perion knew that vain regret had turned his brain, very certainly, for it seemed the door had opened and Dame Melicent herself had come, warily, into the panelled gloomy room. It seemed that Meli...

Then at three o’clock, as Perion supposed, someone tapped upon the door. Perion went out into the corridor, which was now unlighted, so that he had to hold to the cloak of Ayrart de Montors as the you...

“That may not be, my cousin.” It was the real Bishop of Montors who was speaking. His company, some fifteen men in all, had ridden up while Melicent and Perion looked seaward. The bishop was clothed, ...

It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling how love began between Perion of the Forest, who was a captain of mercenaries, and young Melicent, who was daughter to the great Dom Manuel, and s...

It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling how love began between Perion of the Forest, who was a captain of mercenaries, and young Melicent, who was daughter to the great Dom Manuel, and s...

Demetrios lay on a divan within the Court of Stars, through which you passed from the fortress into the Women’s Garden and the luxurious prison where he kept his wives. This court was circular in form...

Now Melicent abode in the house of Demetrios, whom she had not seen since the morning after he had wedded her. A month had passed. As yet she could not understand the language of her fellow prisoners,...

On the next day Melicent was removed to more magnificent apartments, and she was lodged in a lofty and spacious pavilion, which had three porticoes builded of marble and carved teakwood and Andalusian...

Ahasuerus came and went at will. Nothing was known concerning this soft-treading furtive man except by the proconsul, who had no confidants. By his decree Ahasuerus was an honoured guest at Nacumera. ...

It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling of what befell Perion de la Forêt after he had been ransomed out of heathenry. They tell how he took service with the King of Cyprus. And the tale...

It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling of what befell Perion de la Forêt after he had been ransomed out of heathenry. They tell how he took service with the King of Cyprus. And the tale...

Thus it was that war awoke and raged about the province of Demetrios as tirelessly as waves lapped at its shores. Then, after many ups and downs of carnage,1 Perion surprised the galley of Demetrios w...

The conqueror and the conquered sat together upon the prow of Perion’s ship. It was a warm, clear night, so brilliant that the stars were invisible. Perion sighed. Demetrios inquired the reason. Perio...

The city of Megaris (then Theodoret’s capital) was ablaze with bonfires on the night that the Comte de la Forêt entered it at the head of his forces. Demetrios, meanly clothed, his hands tied behind h...

Demetrios and Perion, by the quick turn of fortune previously recorded, were allied against all Christendom. They got arms at the Hôtel d’Ebelin, and they rode out of the city of Megaris, where the bo...

Demetrios came without any hindrance into Narenta, a free city. He believed his Emperor must have sent galleys toward Christendom to get tidings of his generalissimo, but in this city of merchants Dem...

Demetrios came to Megaris where Perion lay fettered in the Castle of San’ Alessandro, then a new building. Perion’s trial, condemnation, and so on, had consumed the better part of an hour, on account ...

Demetrios went into Perion’s cell and filed away the chains of Perion of the Forest. Demetrios thrust the gaoler’s corpse under the bed, and washed away all stains before the door of the cell, so that...

These hunted men spent the following night upon the Needle, since there it was not possible for an adversary to surprise them. Perion’s was the earlier watch, until midnight, and during this time Deme...

Then Perion turned from the Needle of Assignano, and went westward into the Forest of Columbiers. He had no plan. He wandered in the high woods that had never yet been felled or ordered, as a beast do...

It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling how Demetrios returned into the country of the pagans and found all matters there as he had left them. They relate how Melicent was summoned. And ...

It is a tale which they narrate in Poictesme, telling how Demetrios returned into the country of the pagans and found all matters there as he had left them. They relate how Melicent was summoned. And ...

Then one day Demetrios came to Melicent, and he was in a surly rage. “Rogues all!” he grumbled. “Oh, I am wasted in this paltry age. Where are the giants and tyrants, and stalwart single-hearted champ...

And then one day, when the proconsul had been absent some six weeks, Ahasuerus fetched Dame Melicent into the Court of Stars. Demetrios lay upon the divan supported by many pillows, as though he had n...

Melicent returned into the Court of Stars; and as she entered, Orestes lifted one of the red cushions from Demetrios’ face. The eyes of Ahasuerus, who stood by negligently, were as expressionless as t...

Dame Melicent walked proudly through the Women’s Garden, and presently entered a grove of orange trees, the most of which were at this season about their flowering. In this place was an artificial poo...

Orestes came into the garden with Ahasuerus and nine other attendants. The master of Nacumera did not speak a syllable while his retainers seized Callistion, gagged her, and tied her hands with cords....

When Orestes had gone, the Jew remained unmoved. He continued to dabble his fingertips in the water as one who meditates. Presently he dried them on either sleeve so that he seemed to embrace himself....

The manner of the torment of Melicent was this: A little before dawn she was conducted by Ahasuerus and Orestes to the outermost turrets of Nacumera, which were now beginning to take form and colour. ...

Now about sunset Melicent knelt in her oratory and laid all her grief before the Virgin, imploring counsel. This place was in reality a chapel, which Demetrios had builded for Melicent in exquisite en...

Into Melicent’s bedroom, about two o’clock in the morning, came Ahasuerus the Jew. She sat erect in bed and saw him cowering over a lamp which his long glistening fingers shielded, so that the lean fa...

Thus, rather suddenly, ends our knowledge of the love-business between Perion and Melicent. For at this point, as abruptly as it began, the one existing chronicle of their adventures makes conclusion,...

M. Verville, in his monograph on Nicolas de Caen,2 considers it probable that the Roman de Lusignan was printed in Bruges by Colard Mansion at about the same time Mansion published the Dizain des Rein...

One feature, though, of this romance demands particular comment. The happenings of the Melicent-episode pivot remarkably upon domnei⁠—upon chivalric love, upon the frauendienst of the minnesingers, or...

Nicolas de Caen, himself the servitor par amours of Isabella of Burgundy, has elsewhere written of domnei (in his Le Roi Amaury) in terms such as it may not be entirely out of place to transcribe here...

Les Amants de Melicent, Traduction moderne, annotée et procedée d’un notice historique sur Nicolas de Caen, par l’Abbé. * * * A Paris. Pour Iaques Keruer aux deux Cochetz, Rue S. Iaques, M.D. XLVI. Av...

Nicolas de Caen gives here a minute account of the military and naval evolutions, with a fullness that verges upon prolixity. It appears expedient to omit all this. ↩ Paul Verville, Notice sur la vie ...