Domnei A Comedy of Woman-Worship by Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958

--E. Noel Codman, _Handbook of Literary Pioneers._

Nicolas de Caen est un representant agreable, naif, et expressif de cet age que nous aimons a nous representer de loin comme l'age d'or du bon vieux temps ... Nicolas croyait a son Roy et a sa Dame, il croyait surtout a son Dieu. Nicolas sentait que le monde etait seme a chaque pas d'obscurites et d'embuches, et que l'inconnu etait partout; partout aussi etait le protecteur invisible et le soutien; a chaque souffle qui fremissait, Nicolas croyait le sentir comme derriere le rideau. Le ciel par-dessus ce Nicolas de Caen etait ouvert, peuple en chaque point de figures vivantes, de patrons attentifs et manifestes, d'une invocation directe. Le plus intrepide guerrier alors marchait dans un melange habituel de crainte et de confiance, comme un tout petit enfant. A cette vue, les esprits les plus emancipes d'aujourd'hui ne sauraient s'empecher de crier, en temperant leur sourire par le respect: _Sancta simplicitas!_

--Paul Verville, _Notice sur la vie de Nicolas de Caen._

THE ARGUMENT

_"Of how, through Woman-Worship, knaves compound With honoure; Kings reck not of their domaine; Proud Pontiffs sigh; & War-men world-renownd, Toe win one Woman, all things else disdaine: Since Melicent doth in herselfe contayne All this world's Riches that may farre be found.

"If Saphyres ye desire, her eies are plaine; If Rubies, loe, hir lips be Rubyes sound; If Pearles, hir teeth be Pearles, both pure & round; If Yvorie, her forehead Yvory weene; If Gold, her locks with finest Gold abound; If Silver, her faire hands have Silver's sheen.

"Yet that which fayrest is, but Few beholde, Her Soul adornd with vertues manifold."_

--SIR WILLIAM ALLONBY.

THE ROMANCE OF LUSIGNAN OF THAT FORGOTTEN MAKER IN THE FRENCH TONGUE, MESSIRE NICOLAS DE CAEN. HERE BEGINS THE TALE WHICH THEY OF POICTESME NARRATE CONCERNING DAME MELICENT, THAT WAS DAUGHTER TO THE GREAT COUNT MANUEL.

PART ONE

PERION _How Perion, that stalwart was and gay, Treadeth with sorrow on a holiday, Since Melicent anon must wed a king: How in his heart he hath vain love-longing, For which he putteth life in forfeiture, And would no longer in such wise endure; For writhing Perion in Venus' fire So burneth that he dieth for desire._

1.

_How Perion Was Unmasked_

Perion afterward remembered the two weeks spent at Bellegarde as in recovery from illness a person might remember some long fever dream which was all of an intolerable elvish brightness and of incessant laughter everywhere. They made a deal of him in Count Emmerick's pleasant home: day by day the outlaw was thrust into relations of mirth with noblemen, proud ladies, and even with a king; and was all the while half lightheaded through his singular knowledge as to how precariously the self-styled Vicomte de Puysange now balanced himself, as it were, upon a gilded stepping-stone from infamy to oblivion.

Now that King Theodoret had withdrawn his sinister presence, young Perion spent some seven hours of every day alone, to all intent, with Dame Melicent. There might be merry people within a stone's throw, about this recreation or another, but these two seemed to watch aloofly, as royal persons do the antics of their hired comedians, without any condescension into open interest. They were together; and the jostle of earthly happenings might hope, at most, to afford them matter for incurious comment.