82 FRANCE.
beautiful diminutives furnish the most obvious in-
stance ; and they were accordingly turned to excel-
lent account by the poets, as in such lines as these:—
Elle estoyt blanche comme let,
Et doulce comme ung aignellet^
Vermeillette comme une rose.
Unfortunately, these, its most redeeming qualities,
have gradually given way before the pretended refine-
ments, that at length produced the " belle langue "
which is the most unpoetic of European tongues.
beautiful diminutives furnish the most obvious in-
stance ; and they were accordingly turned to excel-
lent account by the poets, as in such lines as these:—
Elle estoyt blanche comme let,
Et doulce comme ung aignellet^
Vermeillette comme une rose.
Unfortunately, these, its most redeeming qualities,
have gradually given way before the pretended refine-
ments, that at length produced the " belle langue "
which is the most unpoetic of European tongues.