C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Olivier Basselin (c. 1400–c. 1450)
Basselin or Bachelin, Olivier (bäs-la
‘). A French poet, born in the Val-de-Vire, Normandy, about 1400; died about 1450. He was a fuller by trade. Only five of his gay songs are preserved, called after his place of residence ‘Vaux-de-Vire,’ whence the modern term “vaudeville.” The songs in the collection published in 1610 are by the lawyer, Jean le Houx. In the ‘Book of New Songs and Vaux-de-Vire’ (1610) appears a collection of these Bacchanalian stanzas, the most touching of which is addressed by the singer ‘To My Nose,’ the rubescence thereof being tastefully and exquisitely celebrated.