NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER

dance and song, and we may well believe that a class of dances, thus originat- ing and denominated generally balU, were more animated than the dansa bassa. Although a Greek derivation has been ascribed to the word roegarse, Cian affirms that the dance thus named was of French origin. The earliest French translator of The Courtier renders the word by rouergot'se, which is apparently derived from Rouergue, the name of an ancient French province to the south-west of Lyons. 353