* We may define capital as goods or funds used to produce goods for consumption; a capitalist as an investor or provider of capital; capitalism as an economic system or process dominated by capitalists.
* The assumption that these two decrees referred to a law of the Salic Franks prohibiting the inheritance of land by women is now generally rejected;8 the inheritance of land by women had long since become ordinary in France.
* It was already a century old, for cannon had been used by the Berbers at Sidgilmessa in 1247.12
* This was apparently at first a proper name, Delphinus (Dolphin), which, often repeated in the ruling families of Vienne and Auvergne, became (c. 1250) a title of dignity. In 1285 it was officially conferred upon the eldest son of the Count of Vienne, and Delphinatus 01 Dauphiné was thenceforth used to designate the county, of which Grenoble is now the principal seat. In 1349 Count Humboldt II of the Viennois sold the Dauphiné, with the title Dauphin, to Charles of Valois, son of King John II. When Charles became king in 1364 he transferred the title to his eldest son; and thereafter the eldest son of a French king was regularly known as the Dauphin of the Viennois.
* Playing cards entered Europe probably in the fourteenth century; the first definite mention of them is in 1379. Apparently they came from the Moslems through Africa, Spain, and the crusaders. The Chinese claim to have used them as early A.D. 1120.34
* O age of lead, perverse time, sky of
brass, Land without fruit, sterile and profitless, People accursed,
with every sorrow full!—Is it not right that I should mourn you
all?
For I see nothing in tomorrow’s world, Grievously sad and all
disorderly, Comprising every evil in its deeds. Today the time of
tribulation comes.
* The year has changed his mantle cold
Of wind, of rain, of bitter air;
And he goes clad in cloth of gold,
Of laughing sun and season fair;
No bird or beast of wood or wold
But doth with cry or song declare,
The year lays down his mantle cold.57
* O God! how good it is to see her,
Gracious one, so good and fair!
For all choice virtues that are in her
Each will offer praises rare.
Who then can weary of her beauty,
Fresh each day beyond compare?
O God! how good it is to see her,
Gracious one, so good and fair!
†
Salute for me all the company
Where now you meet in comradery,
And say how gladly I would be
One of their band if it could be;
Age holds me in captivity,
In time long past Youth joyously
Governed my life; gone now is he.
Lover was I, ne’er more must be;
In Paris led a life so free.
Good-by, good times I ne’er shall see!...
Salute for me all the company.