" He had tried his hand at
an immense variety of profane verse, he had written ballades, chansons,
pastourelles, vers equivoques, eclogues, laments, complaints, epitaphs,
chants-royals, blasons, contreblasons, dizains, huitains, envois; he had
been, Warton says, "the inventor of the rondeau and the restorer of the
madrigal;" and yet, in spite of his well-known ingenuity and versatility,
it occasioned much surprise and even amusement when it was known that the
gay poet had written psalm-songs and proposed to substitute them for the
love-songs of the French court. I doubt if Marot thought very deeply of the
religious influence of his new songs, in spite of Mr. Morley's belief in
the versifier's serious intent. He was doubtless interested and perhaps
somewhat infected by "Lutheranisme," though perhaps he was more of a
free-thinker than a Protestant. He himself said of his faith:--
"I am not a Lutherist
Nor Zuinglian and less Anabaptist,
I am of God through his son Jesus Christ.
I am one who has many works devised
From which none could extract a single line
Opposing itself to the law divine."
And again:--
"Luther did not come down from heaven for me
Luther was not nailed to the cross to be
My Saviour; for my sins to suffer shame,
And I was not baptized in Luther's name.
The name I was baptized in sounds so sweet
That at the sound of it, what we entreat
The Eternal Father gives.
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