MARY, an Anglo-Norman PoctcJL 39

jecls of the Welfh and Armoric lays, and the event justifies the choice fhe had made. To the fmgularity of fuch a meafure was owing its celebrity. By treating of love, and the various emotions which it excites ; of chivalry, and the a&s of valour which beauty infpires in its profeflbrs, fhe was certain of attuning her lyre to the feelings of the age, and confequently of infuring fuccefs. Upon this account her lays were extremely well received by the people. Denis Pyramus, an Anglo-Norman poet, and the contemporary of Mary, informs us that they were heard with pleafure in all the caf- tles of the Englifh barons, but that they were particularly relimed by the women of her time. He even praifes them himfelf, and this from the mouth of a rival could not but have been fincere and well deferved, fmce our equals are always the beft judges of our merit [c] . 75 fn av /- jtc , 1 Inafmuch as Mary was a foreigner, fhe expected to be criticifed with more feverity, and therefore applied herfelf with great care to the due poliming of her works. Befides, fhe thought, as fhe fays herfelf, that the chief reward of a poet cpnfifts infirft perceiving the fuperiority of his own performance, and the claims to public efteem which it deferves. Hence the unremitted attention to the one for the purpofe of laying claim to the other ; hence the repeated ef- forts to attain fo honourable a diffincHon, and the constant appre- henfion of that chagrin which refults from difappointment, and

which me has expreffed with fo much natural fimplicity. Ki de bone mateire traite, Mult li peife fi bien n'eft faite, &c. [d] She has dedicated her Lays to fome king whom Hie thus addrefles in her prologue : [r] Pyramus Vie de St. Edmond Bibl. Cotton. Domit, A. XI. [d] Prolog, des Lais de Marie, En