Domnei. A Comedy of Woman-Worship

(Pardie!) some subtle occupation
In making of his Tale of Melicent,
That stubbornly desired Perion.
What perils for to rollen up and down,
So long process, so many a sly cautel,
For to obtain a silly damosel!

—THOMAS UPCLIFFE.

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 the fact that a portion of his youth was spent in England, where he was connected in some minor capacity with the household of the Queen Dowager, Joan of Navarre. In later life, from the fact that two of his works are dedicated to Isabella of Portugal, third wife to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, it is conjectured that Nicolas was attached to the court of that prince . . . . Nicolas de Caen was not greatly esteemed nor highly praised by his contemporaries, or by writers of the century following, but latterly has received the recognition due to his unusual qualities of invention and conduct of narrative, together with his considerable knowledge of men and manners, and occasional remarkable modernity of thought. His books, therefore, apart from the interest attached to them as specimens of early French romance, and in spite of the difficulties and crudities of the unformed language in which they are written, are still readable, and are rich in instructive detail concerning the age that gave them birth . . . . Many romances are attributed to Nicolas de Caen. Modern criticism has selected four only as undoubtedly his. These are—(1) Les Aventures d'Adhelmar de Nointel, a metrical romance, plainly of youthful composition, containing some seven thousand verses; (2) Le Roy Amaury, well known to English students in Watson's spirited translation; (3) Le Roman de Lusignan, a re-handling of the Melusina myth, most of which is wholly lost; (4) Le Dizain des Reines, a collection of quasi-historical novellino interspersed with lyrics. Six other romances are known to have been written by Nicolas, but these have perished; and he is credited with the authorship of Le Cocu Rouge, included by Hinsauf, and of several Ovidian translations or imitations still unpublished. The Satires formerly attributed to him Bulg has shown to be spurious compositions of 17th century origin.

—E. Noel Codman, Handbook of Literary Pioneers.

Nicolas de Caen est un representant agreable, naif, et expressif de cet age que nous aimons a nous representer de loin comme l'age d'or du bon vieux temps … Nicolas croyait a son Roy et a sa Dame, il croyait surtout a son Dieu. Nicolas sentait que le monde etait seme a chaque pas d'obscurites et d'embuches, et que l'inconnu etait partout; partout aussi etait le protecteur invisible et le soutien; a chaque souffle qui fremissait, Nicolas croyait le sentir comme derriere le rideau. Le ciel par-dessus ce Nicolas de Caen etait ouvert, peuple en chaque point de figures vivantes, de patrons attentifs et manifestes, d'une invocation directe. Le plus intrepide guerrier alors marchait dans un melange habituel de crainte et de confiance, comme un tout petit enfant. A cette vue, les esprits les plus emancipes d'aujourd'hui ne sauraient s'empecher de crier, en temperant leur sourire par le respect: Sancta simplicitas!

—Paul Verville, Notice sur la vie de Nicolas de Caen.

THE ARGUMENT

'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 doth in herselfe contayne
All this world's Riches that may farre be found.
'If Saphyres ye desire, her eies are plaine;
If Rubies, loe, hir lips be Rubyes sound;
If Pearles, hir teeth be Pearles, both pure & round;
If Yvorie, her forehead Yvory weene;
If Gold, her locks with finest Gold abound;
If Silver, her faire hands have Silver's sheen.
'Yet that which fayrest is, but Few beholde,
Her Soul adornd with vertues manifold.'_

—SIR WILLIAM ALLONBY.

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 GREAT COUNT MANUEL.

PART ONE PERION

How Perion, that stalwart was and gay,
Treadeth with sorrow on a holiday,
Since Melicent anon must wed a king:
How in his heart he hath vain love-longing,
For which he putteth life in forfeiture,
And would no longer in such wise endure;
For writhing Perion in Venus' fire
So burneth that he dieth for desire. 

1. How Perion Was Unmasked

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 incessant laughter everywhere. They made a deal of him in Count Emmerick's pleasant home: day by day the outlaw was thrust into relations of mirth with noblemen, proud ladies, and even with a king; and was all the while half lightheaded through his singular knowledge as to how precariously the self-styled Vicomte de Puysange now balanced himself, as it were, upon a gilded stepping-stone from infamy to oblivion.

Now that King Theodoret had withdrawn his sinister presence, young Perion spent some seven hours of every day alone, to all intent, with Dame Melicent. There might be merry people within a stone's throw, about this recreation or another, but these two seemed to watch aloofly, as royal persons do the antics of their hired comedians, without any condescension into open interest. They were together; and the jostle of earthly happenings might hope, at most, to afford them matter for incurious comment.