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THOMAS JOHNES, ESQ.
Memoirs of the life of Sir John Froissart
page 70
Secondly, Hat fhe clock markod twenfy-fonr .hours, feeginhing with
••ne to twelve, and then repeating tfhe feme m fécond time.
Thinly, Tint Ac dial went raund, and the homr was marked by a Iked .point, which fenred for a hand.
Fourthly, That inftead of m pendulum or balance wheel, which were •nut then nranted, tfac docks had a piece called f§lmtf which bore two finall weights -called mgmk$$ -whole nfe mm te retord or advance the clock, as they were brought more or Ms near to the center of the foliot.
Befide the differences in the conûru&ion of clacks, we .remark in this ' poem lèverai terms of clockrmaking which mre then «Mf and aie now m longer current.
The iewer caled D% which iacefaetiy turns to the fin» is celebrated in a poem under the title of « Le Dit de la Marguerite/ This flower was formed, according to the poet, from the teats the young Hwes.fhed over the tomb of Cephçus her lover. Mercury was accidentally led to the fpot of this metamorptiofis, as he was driving his iock to pafture : iurprifed to €ee fo bomtiftjl a lower in the montii of January, when all the others were lifelefs, and delighted with its brilliancy, he made a chapktt pf k, and lent it % his meienger Liris to the fair Heres. So rare a prefent caufed another change more happy than tho firft: die nymph, hitherto cruel, became affectionate. The god, fui of love and gratitude for a flower to which he owed the happineft of his life, determined to wear it ever after, as an ornament to his head.
This fi&ion is written with much delicacy and ingenuity : the purity •with which the author protefts to love eternally this flower, the fubje& of hk poem, it expœâèd with too much tendoraeft not ta conceal a -real •paflon, perhaps for a lady of a fiojikr nanti*
The greater number of Froiflarfs paftorals are on the prizes offered in. •diffèrent parts of Flanders and Picaidy, to the faireft fhepherdcfe of the diftriâ, or to the fwain who (hould the heft celehrate his love in fong.
M. de la Curne defignedly fupprefTes many details concerning the drefs of that age, the various muficai inftrumenls ufed in the country, and other jpaitMin of the fame fort. He Mkcwifè jiaffes over feverat padual*
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