BASSELIN, OLIVIER (c. 1450), traditionally re garded as the author of a number of French drinking songs, was born in the Val-de-Vire in Normandy. He was by occupation a fuller. His drinking songs became famous under the name of Vaux-de-Vire, corrupted in modern times into "vaudeville." Basselin appears to have been killed in the English wars about the middle of the century, possibly at the battle of Formigny (1450). Early in the i 7th century a collection of songs was pub lished by a Norman lawyer, Jean le Houx, purporting to be the work of Olivier Basselin, but probably his own work.
It has been suggested that Basselin's name may be safely connected with some songs preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, and published at Caen in i866 by M. Armand Gaste. The question is discussed in M. V. Patard's La Verite dans la question Olivier Basselin et Jean le Houx d propos du Vau-de-Vire (1897) . A. Gaste's edition (1875) of the Vaux-de-Vire was translated (i885) by J. P. Muirhead.