Le roman de la rose

second correction that people took it into their heads to make. Thus, the first printed editions, which are all in Gothic type original: "caractere gothique," also known as blackletter, differ very little from the last manuscripts of the 15th century, but the difference is sensible compared to those of the 14th, because there was a double correction from one to the other.

This Book having returned to favor under the reign of Francis I, Clément Marot, who was the common wit of the Court, took the resolution to reprint it. He did so in 1527 with changes so considerable that it was taken less as a correction than as a true alteration of a text he ought to have respected. In the thought, therefore, of giving it a more French turn, he risked redoing many of its Verses, adding some, inserting glosses into the text, and finally treating it as his own work. This was a boldness that Pasquier, though a friend of Marot, could not help but regard later as a condemnable temerity. This Edition first appeared in folio in Gothic type in the year 1527, and since then it was reprinted in 1529. This last Edition, by Galliot du Pré, is the only one produced in

Roman type original: "caracteres romains," the standard upright type used in modern printing, or round letters. Jean Longis reprinted this Book for the third time, but always equally corrupted. This third Edition, from the year 1537, was made in Gothic type like all those that had appeared before 1529. Since that time, the greed of the Booksellers has not even given them the desire to publish it anew, despite the rarity and excessive price of the first copies.

Versification of this Romance.

Either I am mistaken, or this is the place to say a word about the versification of this Romance, and even that of our first Poets. One must not believe that people only began to rhyme in France around the year 1250, as Petrarch claimed. Rhyme is older among us by at least a hundred years. The Romance of Alexander original: "Roman d'Alexandre", begun by Eustace and continued by Alexander Paris, dates back to the middle of the 12th century. It is not even certain that he was the first of our Poets, for it is not likely that for a first attempt at our versification, one would have begun with