_The Lay of Marie_.--Title.
The words _roman, fabliau_, and _lai_, are so often used indifferently
by the old French writers, that it is difficult to lay down any positive
rule for discriminating between them. But I believe the word _roman_
particularly applies to such works as were to be supposed strictly
historical: such are the romances of Arthur, Charlemagne, the Trojan
War, &c. The _fabliaux_ were generally, stories supposed to have been
invented for the purpose of illustrating some moral; or real anecdotes,
capable of being so applied. The _lai_, according to Le Grand, chiefly
differed from the _fabliau_, in being interspersed with musical
interludes; but I suspect they were generally translations from the
British. The word is said to be derived from _leudus_; but _laoi_ seems
to be the general name of a class of Irish metrical compositions, as
"Laoi na Seilge" and others, quoted by Mr. Walker (Hist. Mem. of Irish
Bards), and it may be doubted whether the word was not formerly common
to the Welsh and American dialects.--_Ellis's Specimens_.
The conclusion of Orfeo and Herodiis, in the Auchinlech MS, seems to
prove that the lay was set to music:
That lay Orfeo is yhote,
Gode is the lay, swete is the note.
In Sir Tristrem also, the Irish harper is expressly said to sing to the
harp a merry _lay_.
It is not to be supposed, what we now call metrical romances were always
read. On the contrary, several of them bear internal evidence that they
were occasionally chaunted to the harp. The Creseide of Chaucer, a long
performance, is written expressly to be read, or else sung. It is
evident that the minstrels could derive no advantage from these
compositions, unless by reciting or singing them; and later poems have
been said to be composed to their _tunes_.--_Notes to Sir Tristrem_.