Line 10. _Noé._ The tendency to drop final letters, especially the _l_,
is very marked in popular patois, and this is, of course, a song based
on popular language. Most French peasants north of the Loire would still
say "Noé" for "Noël." _Noël_ is, of course, _Natalem_ (diem).
Verse 2, line 2. _Cas de si hault faict_=so great a matter.
TWO EPIGRAMS. Epigram 1, line 2. _Vostre._ Marguerite of Navarre. As I
have remarked, in the text, she had sent him a Dixaine (some say he
wrote it himself). This one is written in answer.--_Ay._ Note, till the
verb grew over simple in the classical French of the seventeenth century
there was no more need for the pronoun than in Latin. Thus Montaigne
will omit the pronoun, but Malherbe never.
Line 5. _Cuydans_=thinking (_Cogitare_=_Cogtare_=_Coyde_=_cuider_, the
_oi_ became _ui_ by a common transition; _cf._ noctem, octem, noit,
nuit, huit.) The word is now archaic.
Line 9. _Encor._ Without the final e. This is not archaic but poetic
licence. _Encore_="hanc horam," and a post tonic "am" in Latin always
means a final mute e in French.
Epigram 2, line 1. _Maint_ (now archaic) is a word of Teutonic origin,
our _many_.
Line 6. _Coulpe_=Culpam, of course; a fault.
Line 9. _Emport_. Note the old subjunctive without the final e. _Vide
supra_, on "_Chant_." The modern usage is incorrect. For the first
conjugation making its subjunctive in _em_, should lose the final
syllable in French: a post tonic _em_ always disappears. The modern
habit of putting a final e to all subjunctives is due to a false analogy
with verbs from the third conjugation. These made their subjunctive in
_am_, a termination which properly becomes the mute e of French.