nicolas de caen, himself the servitor par amours of isabella of burgundy, has elsewhere written of _domne_i (in his le roi amaury) in terms such as it may not be entirely out of place to transcribe here. baalzebub, as you may remember, has been discomfited in his endeavours to ensnare king amaury and is withdrawing in disgust.

"a pest upon this domnei!"[1: quoted with minor alterations from watson's version] the fiend growls. "nay, the match is at an end, and i may speak in perfect candour now. i swear to you that, given a man clear-eyed enough to see that a woman by ordinary is nourished much as he is nourished, and is subjected to every bodily infirmity which he endures and frets beneath, i do not often bungle matters. but when a fool begins to flounder about the world, dead-drunk with adoration of an immaculate woman—a monster which, as even the man's own judgment assures him, does not exist and never will exist—why, he becomes as unmanageable as any other maniac when a frenzy is upon him. for then the idiot hungers after a life so high-pitched that his gross faculties may not so much as glimpse it; he is so rapt with impossible dreams that he becomes oblivious to the nudgings of his most petted vice; and he abhors his own innate and perfectly natural inclination to cowardice, and filth, and self-deception. he, in fine, affords me and all other rational people no available handle; and, in consequence, he very often flounders beyond the reach of my whisperings. there may be other persons who can inform you why such blatant folly should thus be the master-word of evil, but for my own part, i confess to ignorance."

"nay, that folly, as you term it, and as hell will always term it, is alike the riddle and the masterword of the universe," the old king replies….

and nicolas whole-heartedly believed that this was true. we do not believe this, quite, but it may be that we are none the happier for our dubiety.