I am supremely sorry that I only found this wonderful thread months too late. :(

I have really enjoyed it along with the posted YouTube links this morning. I has made my day.

So now I want to make a belated contribution - the absolutely brilliant book "Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript" published in 1967. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a copy. I was introduced to this without any explanation and had to figure it out for myself, which made it it even more hilarious when I did. So perhaps I should not give away the secret. But my reaction when I did twig it was "You rotters!"

I quote the first poem in this recently unearthed old-French collection of verses:

Un petit d'un petit
S'étonne aux Halles
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! degrés te fallent
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu'importe un petit d'un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes.

I handed this deadpan to a bilingual French-Canadian and after she read it and looked puzzled I said "Read it aloud". And then she killed herself laughing too.

If anyone is interested I'll give you the clue. I recognize that we live in a "gotta know now or we can't be bothered" world. But it goes against the grain to give you a clue before you've had a go at it.