22            MONT-SAINT-MICHEL AND  CHARTRES
fought, for Guy died in 1076. Taillefer, he said, led the Duke's bat-
tle:—
Incisor-ferri mimus cognomine dictus.
"Taillefer, a jongleur known by that name." A mime was a singer,
but Taillefer was also an actor: —
Histrio cor audax nimium quem nobilitabat.
"A jongleur whom a very brave heart ennobled." The jongleur was
not noble by birth, but was ennobled by his bravery.
Hortatur Gallos verbis et territat Anglos
Alte projiciens ludit et ense suo.
Like a drum-major with his staff, he threw his sword high in the air
and caught it, while he chanted his song to the French, and terrified
the English. The rhymed chronicle of Geoffroy Gaimer who wrote
about 1150, and that of Benoist who was Wace's rival, added the
story that Taillefer died in the mêlée.
The most unlikely part of the tale was, after all, not the singing of
the "Chanson," but the prayer of Taillefer to the Duke: —
"Otreiez mei que io ni faille
Le premier colp de la bataille."
Legally translated, Taillefer asked to be ennobled, and offered to pay
for it with his life. The request of a jongleur to lead the Duke's battle
seems incredible. In early French "bataille" meant battalion,— the
column of attack. The Duke's grant: "Io l'otrei!" seems still more
fanciful. Yet Guy of Amiens distinctly confirmed the story: "His-
trio cor audax nimium quem nobilitabat" ; a stage-player — a juggler
— the Duke's singer — whose bravery ennobled him. The Duke
granted him — octroya — his patent of nobility on the field.
All this preamble leads only to unite the " Chanson " with the archi-
tecture of the Mount, by means of Duke William and his Breton cam-
paign of 1058. The poem and the church are akin; they go together,
and explain each other.  Their common trait is their military character.