well, we have not even that. Nobody forgets


"The lady I love will soon be a bride."


Nobody remembers our cultivated epics and esoteric sonnets, oh
brother minor poet, mon semblable, mon frere! Nor can we rival,
though we publish our books on the largest paper, the buried
popularity of


"Gaily the troubadour
Touched his guitar
When he was hastening
Home from the war,
Singing, "From Palestine
Hither I come,
Lady love! Lady love!
Welcome me home!"


Of course this is, historically, a very incorrect rendering of a
Languedoc crusader; and the impression is not mediaeval, but of the
comic opera. Any one of us could get in more local colour for the
money, and give the crusader a cithern or citole instead of a
guitar. This is how we should do "Gaily the Troubadour" nowadays:-


"Sir Ralph he is hardy and mickle of might,