, and not de la Vigne, as he is generally called by writers who have
, and not de la Vigne, as he is
generally called by writers who have occasion to name him
[for it is thus he gives his own name in his “Roman des
Oiseaux
”], was born of a noble family of the diocese of
Bayeux, about 1428. He was chaplain to king John, and
followed that prince into England after the battle of Poletiers. Being at Rochefort in 1459, he began a poem on
the chace, entitled “Le Roman des Oiseaux,
” which he
finished on his return to France. This he did at the command of the king for the instruction of his son Philip duke
of Burgundy. The abbé Goujet attributes this poem to
Gaston de Foix, from its being printed at the end of the
“Miroir de la Chasse
” by that prince, but greatly different from the manuscripts. Gaston’s work printed by
Trepperel at Paris, fol. without a date, and again in 1520,
consists of two parts, the first Gaston’s, and the second
by Bigne. Bigne is supposed, from some passages in his
work, to have been alive in 1475. The personages in this
poem, or romance, are allegorical, and dispute which
species of the chace has the pre-eminence, appealing to
the king, who, after having advised with his counsellors,
wisdom, reason, and truth, (not very usually called in)
sends away the disputants perfectly satisfied. The style is
easy, and the author’s quaintness will be agreeable to the
lovers of early poetry.