star?

"Star that I from far behold
That the moon draws to her fold,
Nicolette with thee doth dwell,
My sweet love with locks of gold,"

sings Aucassin. "And when Nicolette heard Aucassin, right so came she
unto him, and passed within the lodge, and cast her arms about his neck
and kissed and embraced him:

"Fair sweet friend, welcome be thou!"
"And thou, fair sweet love, be thou welcome!"

There the story should end, in a dream of a summer's night. But the old
minstrel did not end it so, or some one has continued his work with a
heavier hand. Aucassin rides, he cares not whither, if he has but his
love with him. And they come to a fantastic land of burlesque, such as
Pantagruel's crew touched at many a time. And Nicolette is taken by
Carthaginian pirates, and proves to be daughter to the King of Carthage,
and leaves his court and comes to Beaucaire in the disguise of a
ministrel, and "journeys end in lovers' meeting."

That is all the tale, with its gaps, its careless passages, its
adventures that do not interest the poet. He only cares for youth, love,
spring, flowers, and the song of the birds; the rest, except the passage
about the hind, is mere "business" done casually, because the audience
expects broad jests, hard blows, misadventures, recognitions. What lives
is the touch of poetry, of longing, of tender heart, of humorous
resignation. It lives, and always must live, "while the nature of man is