This section contains 1,924 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
SOURCE: “Aucassin and Nicolette” in Letters on Literature, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889, pp. 80-91.
In the following essay, originally written as a letter to Lady Violet Lebas, Lang reviews the form and plot of Aucassin et Nicolette, describing the work as a “sympathetically told love story.”
To the Lady Violet Lebas.
Dear Lady Violet,—I do not wonder that you are puzzled by the language of the first French novel. The French of Aucassin et Nicolette is not French after the school of Miss Pinkerton, at Chiswick. Indeed, as the little song-story has been translated into modern French by M. Bida, the painter (whose book is very scarce), I presume even the countrywomen of Aucassin find it difficult. You will not expect me to write an essay on the grammar, nor would you read it if I did. The chief thing is that ‘s’ appears as the sign...
This section contains 1,924 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |