ROMANCES OF ARTHUR AND OF ANTIQUITY.
[Sidenote: The Tale of Arthur. Its Origins.]
The passion for narrative poetry, which at first contented itself with
stories drawn from the history or tradition of France, took before very
long a wider range. The origin of the Legend of King Arthur, of the
Round Table, of the Holy Graal, and of all the adventures and traditions
connected with these centres, is one of the most intricate questions in
the history of mediaeval literature. It would be beyond the scope of
this book to attempt to deal with it at length. It is sufficient for our
purpose, in the first place, to point out that the question of the
actual existence and acts of Arthur has very little to do with the
question of the origin of the Arthurian cycle. The history of mediaeval
literature, as distinguished from the history of the Middle Ages, need
not concern itself with any conflict between the invaders and the older
inhabitants of England. The question which is of historical literary
interest is, whether the traditions which Geoffrey of Monmouth, Walter
Map, Chrestien de Troyes, and their followers, wrought into a fabric of
such astounding extent and complexity, are due to Breton originals, or
whether their authority is nothing but the ingenuity of Geoffrey working
upon the meagre data of Nennius[51]. As far as this question concerns
French literature, the chief champions of these rival opinions were till
lately M. de la Villemarque and M. Paulin Paris. In no instance was the
former able to produce Breton or Celtic originals of early date. On the
other hand, M. Paris showed that Nennius is sufficient to account for
Geoffrey, and that Geoffrey is sufficient to account for the purely
Arthurian part of subsequent romances and chronicles. The religious
element of the cycle has a different origin, and may possibly not be
Celtic at all. Lastly, we must take into account a large body of Breton
and Welsh poetry from which, especially in the parts of the legend which
deal with Tristram, with King Mark, &c., amplifications have been
devised. It must, however, still be admitted that the extraordinary
rapidity with which so vast a growth of literature was produced,
apparently from the slenderest stock, is one of the most surprising
things in literary history. Before the middle of the twelfth century
little or nothing is heard of Arthur. Before that century closed at
least a dozen poems and romances in prose, many of them of great length,
had elaborated the whole legend as it was thenceforward received, and as
we have it condensed and Englished in Malory's well-known book two
centuries and a half later.
[Sidenote: Order of French Arthurian Cycle.]
The probable genesis of the Arthurian legend, in so far as it concerns
French literature, appears to be as follows. First in order of
composition, and also in order of thought, comes the Legend of Joseph of
Arimathea, sometimes called the 'Little St. Graal.' This we have both in
verse and prose, and one or both of these versions is the work of Robert
de Borron, a knight and _trouvere_ possessed of lands in the
Gatinais[52]. There is nothing in this work which is directly connected
with Arthur. By some it has been attributed to a Latin, but not now
producible, 'Book of the Graal,' by others to Byzantine originals.
Anyhow it fell into the hands of the well-known Walter Map[53], and his
exhaustless energy and invention at once seized upon it. He produced the
'Great St. Graal,' a very much extended version of the early history of
the sacred vase, still keeping clear of definite connection with Arthur,
though tending in that direction. From this, in its turn, sprang the
original form of _Percevale_, which represents a quest for the vessel
by a knight who has not originally anything to do with the Round Table.
The link of connection between the two stories is to be found in the
_Merlin_, attributed also to Robert de Borron, wherein the Welsh legends
begin to have more definite influence. This, in its turn, leads to
_Artus_, which gives the early history of the great king. Then comes the
most famous, most extensive, and finest of all the romances, that of
_Lancelot du Lac_, which is pretty certainly in part, and perhaps in
great part, the work of Map; as is also the mystical and melancholy but
highly poetical _Quest of the Saint Graal_, a quest of which Galahad and
Lancelot, not, as in the earlier legends, Percival, are the heroes. To
this succeeds the _Mort Artus_, which forms the conclusion of the whole,
properly speaking. This, however, does not entirely complete the cycle.
Later than Borron, Map, and their unknown fellow-workers (if such they
had), arose one or more _trouveres_, who worked up the ancient Celtic
legends and lays of Tristram into the Romance of _Tristan_, connecting
this, more or less clumsily, with the main legend of the Round Table.
Other legends were worked up into the _omnium gatherum_ of _Giron le
Courtois_, and with this the cycle proper ceases. The later poems are
attributed to two persons, called Luce de Gast and Helie de Borron. But
not the slightest testimony can be adduced to show that any such persons
ever had existence[54].
These prose romances form for the most part the original literature of
the Arthurian story. But the vogue of this story was very largely
increased by a _trouvere_ who used not prose but octosyllabic verse for
his medium.
[Sidenote: Chrestien de Troyes.]
As is the case with most of these early writers, little or nothing is
known of Chrestien de Troyes but his name. He lived in the last half of
the twelfth century, he was attached to the courts of Flanders,
Hainault, and Champagne, and he wrote most of his works for the lords of
these fiefs. Besides his Arthurian work he translated Ovid, and wrote
some short poems. Chrestien de Troyes deserves a higher place in
literature than has sometimes been given to him. His versification is so
exceedingly easy and fluent as to appear almost pedestrian at times; and
his _Chevalier a la Charrette_, by which he is perhaps most generally
known, contrasts unfavourably in its prolixity with the nervous and
picturesque prose to which it corresponds. But _Percevale_ and the
_Chevalier au Lyon_ are very charming poems, deeply imbued with the
peculiar characteristics of the cycle--religious mysticism, passionate
gallantry, and refined courtesy of manners. Chrestien de Troyes
undoubtedly contributed not a little to the popularity of the Arthurian
legends. Although, by a singular chance, which has not yet been fully
explained, the originals appear to have been for the most part in
prose, the times were by no means ripe for the general enjoyment of work
in such a form. The reciter was still the general if not the only
publisher, and recitation almost of necessity implied poetical form.
Chrestien did not throw the whole of the work of his contemporaries into
verse, but he did so throw a considerable portion of it. His Arthurian
works consist of _Le Chevalier a la Charrette_, a very close rendering
of an episode of Map's _Lancelot_; _Le Chevalier au Lyon_, resting
probably upon some previous work not now in existence; _Erec et Enide_,
the legend which every English reader knows in Mr. Tennyson's _Enid_,
and which seems to be purely Welsh; _Cliges_, which may be called the
first Roman d'Aventures; and lastly, _Percevale_, a work of vast extent,
continued by successive versifiers to the extent of some fifty thousand
lines, and probably representing in part a work of Robert de Borron,
which has only recently been printed by M. Hucher. _Percevale_ is,
perhaps, the best example of Chrestien's fashion of composition. The
work of Borron is very short, amounting in all to some ninety pages in
the reprint. The _Percevale le Gallois_ of Chrestien and his
continuators, on the other hand, contains, as has been said, more than
forty-five thousand verses. This amplification is produced partly by the
importation of incidents and episodes from other works, but still more
by indulging in constant diffuseness and what we must perhaps call
commonplaces.
[Sidenote: Spirit and Literary value of Arthurian Romances.]
From a literary point of view the prose romances rank far higher,
especially those in which Map is known or suspected to have had a hand.
The peculiarity of what may be called their atmosphere is marked. An
elaborate and romantic system of mystical religious sentiment, finding
vent in imaginative and allegorical narrative, a remarkable refinement
of manners, and a combination of delight in battle with devotion to
ladies, distinguish them. This is, in short, the romantic spirit, or, as
it is sometimes called, the spirit of chivalry; and it cannot be too
positively asserted that the Arthurian romances communicate it to
literature for the first time, and that nothing like it is found in the
classics. In the work of Map and his contemporaries it is clearly
perceivable. The most important element in this--courtesy--is, as we
have already noticed, almost entirely absent from the Chansons de
Gestes, and where it is present at all it is between persons who are
connected by some natural or artificial relation of comradeship or kin.
Nor are there many traces of it in such fragments and indications as we
possess of the Celtic originals, which may have helped in the production
of the Arthurian romances. No Carlovingian knight would have felt the
horror of Sir Bors when the Lady of Hungerford exercises her undoubted
right by flinging the body of her captive enemy on the camp of his
uncle. Even the chiefs who are presented in the _Chanson d'Antioche_ as
joking over the cannibal banquet of the Roi des Tafurs, and permitting
the dead bodies of Saracens to be torn from the cemeteries and flung
into the beleaguered city, would have very much applauded the deed.
Gallantry, again, is as much absent from the Chansons as clemency and
courtesy. The scene in _Lancelot_, where Galahault first introduces the
Queen and Lancelot to one another, contrasts in the strongest manner
with the downright courtship by which the Bellicents and Nicolettes of
the Carlovingian cycle are won. No doubt Map represents to a great
extent the sentiments of the polished court of England. But he deserves
the credit of having been the first, or almost the first, to express
such manners and sentiments, perhaps also of having being among the
first to conceive them.
These originals are not all equally represented in Malory's English
compilation. Of Robert de Borron's work little survives except by
allusion. _Lancelot du Lac_ itself, the most popular of all the
romances, is very disproportionately drawn upon. Of the youth of
Lancelot, of the winning of Dolorous Gard, of the war with the Saxons,
and of the very curious episode of the false Guinevere, there is
nothing; while the most charming story of Lancelot's relations with
Galahault of Sorelois disappears, except in a few passing allusions to
the 'haughty prince.' On the other hand, the _Quest of the Saint Graal_,
the _Mort Artus_, some episodes of _Lancelot_ (such as the _Chevalier a
la Charrette_), and many parts of _Tristan_ and _Giron le Courtois_, are
given almost in full.
It seems also probable that considerable portions of the original form
of the Arthurian legends are as yet unknown, and have altogether
perished. The very interesting discovery in the Brussels Library, of a
prose _Percevale_ not impossibly older than Chrestien, and quite
different from that of Borron, is an indication of this fact. So also is
the discovery by Dr. Jonckbloet in the Flemish _Lancelot_, which he has
edited, of passages not to be found in the existing and recognised
French originals. The truth would appear to be that the fascination of
the subject, the unusual genius of those who first treated it, and the
tendency of the middle ages to favour imitation, produced in a very
short space of time (the last quarter or half of the twelfth century) an
immense amount of original handling of Geoffrey's theme. To this
original period succeeded one of greater length, in which the legends
were developed not merely by French followers and imitators of
Chrestien, but by his great German adapters, Wolfram von Eschenbach,
Gottfried of Strasburg, Hartmann von der Aue, and by other imitators at
home and abroad. Lastly, as we shall see in a future chapter, come
Romans d'Aventures, connecting themselves by links more or less
immediate with the Round Table cycle, but independent and often quite
separate in their main incidents and catastrophes.
The great number, length, and diversity of the Arthurian romances make
it impossible in the space at our command to abstract all of them, and
useless to select any one, inasmuch as no single poem is (as in the case
of the Chansons) typical of the group. The style, however, of the prose
and verse divisions may be seen in the following extracts from the
_Chevalier a la Charrette_ of Map, and the verse of Chrestien:--
Atant sont venu li chevalier jusqu'au pont: lors commencent
a plorer top durement tuit ensamble. Et Lanceloz lor demande
porquoi il plorent et font tel duel? Et il dient que c'est
por l'amor de lui, que trop est perillox li ponz. Atant
esgarde Lanceloz l'eve de ca et de la: si voit que ele est
noire et coranz. Si avint que sa veue torna devers la cite,
si vit la tor ou la raine estoit as fenestres. Lanceloz
demande quel vile c'est la?--'Sire, font-il, c'est le leus
ou la raine est.' Si li noment la cite. Et il lor dit: 'Or
n'aiez garde de moi, que ge dont mains le pont que ge onques
mes ne fis, ne il n'est pas si perilleux d'assez comme ge
cuidoie. Mes moult a de la outre bele tor, et s'il m'i
voloient hebergier il m'i auroient encor ennuit a hoste.'
Lors descent et les conforte toz moult durement, et lor dit
que il soient ausinc tout asseur comme il est. Il li lacent
les pans de son hauberc ensenble et li cousent a gros fil de
fer qu'il avoient aporte, et ses manches meesmes li cousent
dedenz ses mains, et les piez desoz; et a bone poiz chaude
li ont peez les manicles et tant d'espes comme il ot entre
les cuisses. Et ce fu por miauz tenir contre le trenchant de
l'espee.
Quant il orent Lancelot atorne et bien et bel si lor prie
que il s'en aillent. Et il s'en vont, et le font naigier
outre l'eve, et il enmainent son cheval. Et il vient a la
planche droit: puis esgarde vers la tor ou la raine estoit
en prison, si li encline. Apres fet le signe de la verroie
croiz enmi son vis, et met son escu derriers son dos, qu'il
ne li nuise. Lors se met desor la planche en chevauchons, si
se traine par desus si armez comme il estoit, car il ne li
faut ne hauberc ne espee ne chauces ne heaume ne escu. Et
cil de la tor qui le veoient en sont tuit esbahi, ne il n'i
a nul ne nule qui saiche veroiement qui il est; mes qu'il
voient qu'il traine pardesus l'espee trenchant a la force
des braz et a l'enpaignement des genouz; si ne remaint pas
por les filz de fer que des piez et des mains et des genous
ne saille li sanz. Mes por cel peril de l'espee qui trenche
et por l'eve noire et bruiant et parfonde ne remaint que
plus ne resgart vers la tor que vers l'eve, ne plaie ne
angoisse qu'il ait ne prise naient; car se il a cele tor
pooit venir il garroit tot maintenant de ses max. Tant s'est
hertiez et trainez qu'il est venuz jusqu'a terre.
This becomes in the poem a passage more than 100 lines long, of which
the beginning and end may be given:--
Le droit chemin vont cheminant,
Tant que li jors vet declinant,
Et vienent au pon de l'espee
Apres none, vers la vespree.
Au pie del' pont, qui molt est max,
Sont descendu de lor chevax,
Et voient l'eve felenesse
Noire et bruiant, roide et espesse,
Tant leide et tant espoantable
Com se fust li fluns au deable;
Et tant perilleuse et parfonde
Qu'il n'est riens nule an tot le monde
S'ele i cheoit, ne fust alee
Ausi com an la mer betee.
Et li ponz qui est an travers
Estoit de toz autres divers,
Qu'ainz tex ne fu ne james n'iert.
Einz ne fu, qui voir m'an requiert,
Si max pont ne si male planche:
D'une espee forbie et blanche
Estoit li ponz sor l'eve froide.
Mes l'espee estoit forz et roide,
Et avoit deus lances de lonc.
De chasque part ot uns grant tronc
Ou l'espee estoit cloffichiee.
Ja nus ne dot que il i chiee.
Porce que ele brist ne ploit.
Si ne sanble-il pas qui la voit
Qu'ele puisse grant fes porter.
Ce feisoit molt desconforter
Les deus chevaliers qui estoient
Avoec le tierz, que il cuidoient
Que dui lyon ou dui liepart
Au chief del' pont de l'autre part
Fussent lie a un perron.
L'eve et li ponz et li lyon
Les metent an itel freor
Que il tranblent tuit de peor.
* * * * * *
Cil ne li sevent plus que dire,
Mes de pitie plore et sopire
Li uns et li autres molt fort.
Et cil de trespasser le gort
Au mialz que il set s'aparoille,
Et fet molt estrange mervoille,
Que ses piez desire et ses mains.
N'iert mie toz antiers ne sains
Quant de l'autre part iert venuz.
Bien s'iert sor l'espee tenuz,
Qui plus estoit tranchanz que fauz,
As mains nues et si deschauz
Que il ne s'est lessiez an pie
Souler ne chauce n'avanpie.
De ce gueres ne s'esmaioit
S'es mains et es piez se plaioit;
Mialz se voloit-il mahaignier
Que cheoir el pont et baignier
An l'eve dont james n'issist.
A la grant dolor con li sist
S'an passe outre et a grant destrece:
Mains et genolz et piez se blece.
Mes tot le rasoage et sainne
Amors qui le conduist et mainne:
Si li estoit a sofrir dolz.
A mains, a piez et a genolz
Fet tant que de l'autre part vient.
[Sidenote: Romances of Antiquity. Chanson d'Alixandre.]
About the same time as the flourishing of the Arthurian cycle there
began to be written the third great division of Jean Bodel, 'la matiere
de Rome la grant[55].' The most important beyond all question of the
poems which go to make up this cycle (as it is sometimes called, though
in reality its members are quite independent one of the other) is the
Romance of _Alixandre_. Of the earliest French poem on this subject only
a few fragments exist. This is supposed to have been a work of the
eleventh or very early twelfth century, composed in octosyllabic verses,
and in the mixed dialect common at the time in the south-east, by
Alberic or Auberi of Besancon or Briancon. The _Chanson d'Alixandre_ is,
however, in all probability a much more important work than Alberic's.
It is in form a regular Chanson de Geste, written in twelve-syllabled
verse, of such strength and grace that the term Alexandrine has cleaved
ever since to the metre. Its length, as we have it[56], is 22,606
verses, and it is assigned to two authors, Lambert the Short[57] and
Alexander of Bernay, though doubt has been expressed whether any of the
present poem is due to Lambert; if we have any of his work, it is not
later than the ninth decade of the twelfth century. Lambert, Alexander,
and perhaps others, are thought to have known not Alberic, but a later
ten-syllabled version into Northern French by Simon of Poitiers. The
remoter sources are various. Foremost among them may undoubtedly be
placed the Pseudo-Callisthenes, an unknown Alexandrian writer translated
into Latin about the fourth century by Julius Valerius, who fathered
upon the philosopher a collection of stories partly gathered from
Plutarch, Quintus Curtius, and a hundred other authorities, partly
elaborated according to the fashion of Greek romancers. Some oriental
traditions of Alexander were also in the possession of western Europe.
Out of all these, and with a considerable admixture of the floating
fables of the time, Lambert and Alexander wove their work. There is, of
course, not the slightest attempt at antiquity of colour. Alexander has
twelve peers, he learns the favourite studies of the middle ages, he is
dubbed knight, and so forth. Many interesting legends, such as that of
the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, make their first appearance in the
poem, and it is altogether one of extraordinary merit. A specimen
_laisse_ may be given:--
En icele forest, dont vos m'oez conter,
nesune male choze ne puet laianz entrer.
li home ne les bestes n'i ozent converser,
onques en nesun tans ne vit hon yverner
ne trop froit ne trop chaut ne neger ne geler.
ce conte l'escripture que hom n'i doit entrer,
se il nen at talent de conquerre ou d'amer.
les deuesses d'amors i doivent habiter,
car c'est lor paradix ou el doivent entrer,
li rois de Macedoine en a oi parler,
qui cercha les merveilles dou mont et de la mer,
et ce fist il meismes enz ou fons avaler
en un vessel de voirre, ce ne puet n'on fausser,
qu'il fist faire il meismes fort et reont et cler
et enclorre de fer qu'il ne peust quasser,
s'il l'esteust a roche ou aillors ahurter,
et si que il poet bien par mi outre esgarder,
por veoir les poissons tornoier et joster
et faire lor agaiz et sovent cembeler.
et quant il vint a terre, nou mist a oublier:
la prist la sapience dou mont a conquester
et faire ses agaiz et sa gent ordener
et conduire les oz et sagement mener,
car ce fust toz li mieudres qui ainz peust monter
en cheval por conquerre ne de lance joster,
li gentiz et li larges et ii prex por doner.
la forest des puceles ot oi deviser,
cil qui tot volt conquerre i ot talent d'aler:
souz ciel n'a home en terre qui l'en peust torner.
While the figure of Alexander served as centre to one group of fictions,
most of which were composed in Chanson form, the octosyllabic metre,
which had made the Arthurian romances its own, was used for the
versification of another numerous class, most of which dealt with the
tale of Troy divine.
[Sidenote: Roman de Troie.]
Here also the poems were neither entirely fictitious, nor on the other
hand based upon the best authorities. Dares Phrygius and Dictys
Cretensis, with some epitomes of Homer, were the chief sources of
information. The principal poem of this class is the _Roman de Troie_ of
Benoist de Sainte More (_c._ 1160). This work[58], which extends to more
than thirty thousand verses, has the redundancy and the long-windedness
which characterise many, if not most, early French poems written in its
metre. But it has one merit which ought to conciliate English readers to
Benoist. It contains the undoubted original of Shakespeare's Cressida.
The fortunes of Cressid (or Briseida, as the French trouvere names her)
have been carefully traced out by MM. Moland, Hericault[59], and Joly,
and form a very curious chapter of literary history. Nor is this episode
the only one of merit in Benoist. His verse is always fluent and facile,
and not seldom picturesque, as the following extract (Andromache's
remonstrance with Hector) will show:--
Quant elle voit qe neant iert,
o ses dous poinz granz cous se fiert,
fier duel demaine e fier martire,
ses cheveus trait e ront e tire.
bien resemble feme desvee:
tote enragiee, eschevelee,
e trestote fors de son sen
court pour son fil Asternaten.
des eux plore molt tendrement,
entre ses braz l'encharge e prent.
vint el pales atot arieres,
o il chaucoit ses genoillieres.
as piez li met e si li dit
'sire, por cest enfant petit
qe tu engendras de ta char
te pri nel tiegnes a eschar
ce qe je t'ai dit e nuncie.
aies de cest enfant pitie:
james des euz ne te verra.
s'ui assembles a ceux de la,
hui est ta mort, hui est ta fins.
de toi remandra orfenins.
cruelz de cuer, lous enragiez,
par qoi ne vos en prent pitiez?
par qoi volez si tost morir?
par qoi volez si tost guerpir
et moi e li e vostre pere
e voz serors e vostre mere?
par qoi nos laisseroiz perir?
coment porrons sens vos gerir?
lasse, com male destinee!'
a icest not chai pasmee
a cas desus le paviment.
celle l'en lieve isnelement
qi estrange duel en demeine:
c'est sa seroge, dame Heleine.
[Sidenote: Other Romances on Classical subjects.]
The poems of the Cycle of Antiquity have hitherto been less diligently
studied and reprinted than those of the other two. Few of them, with the
exception of _Alixandre_ and _Troie_, are to be read even in fragments,
save in manuscript. _Le Roman d'Eneas_, which is attributed to Benoist,
is much shorter than the _Roman de Troie_, and, with some omissions,
follows Virgil pretty closely. Like many other French poems, it was
adapted in German by a Minnesinger, Heinrich von Veldeke. _Le Roman de
Thebes_, of which there is some chance of an edition, stands to Statius
in the same relation as _Eneas_ to Virgil. And _Le Roman de Jules
Cesar_ paraphrases, though not directly, Lucan. To these must be added
_Athis et Prophilias_ (Porphyrias), or the Siege of Athens, a work which
has been assigned to many authors, and the origin of which is not clear,
though it enjoyed great popularity in the middle ages. The _Protesilaus_
of Hugues de Rotelande is the only other poem of this series worth the
mentioning.
Neither of these two classes of poems possesses the value of the
Chansons as documents for social history. The picture of manners in them
is much more artificial. But the Arthurian romances disclose partially
and at intervals a state of society decidedly more advanced than that of
the Chansons. The _bourgeois_, the country gentleman who is not of full
baronial rank, and other novel personages appear.
* * * * *
_Note to Third Edition._--Since the second edition was published M.
Gaston Paris has sketched in _Romania_ and summarised in his _Manuel_,
but has not developed in book form, a view of the Arthurian romances
different from his father's and from that given in the text. In this
view the importance of 'Celtic' originals is much increased, and that of
Geoffrey diminished, Walter Map disappears almost entirely to make room
for divers unknown French trouveres, the order of composition is
altered, and on the whole a lower estimate is formed of the literary
value of the cycle. The 'Celtic' view has also been maintained in a book
of much learning and value, _Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_
(London, 1888), by Mr. Alfred Nutt. I have not attempted to incorporate
or to combat these views in the text for two reasons, partly because
they will most probably be superseded by others, and partly because the
evidence does not seem to me sufficient to establish any of them
certainly. But having given some years to comparative literary criticism
in different languages and periods, I think I may be entitled to give a
somewhat decided opinion against the 'Celtic' theory, and in favour of
that which assigns the special characteristics of the Arthurian cycle
and all but a very small part of its structure of incident to the
literary imagination of the trouveres, French and English, of the
twelfth century. And I may add that as a whole it seems to me quite the
greatest literary creation of the Middle Ages, except the _Divina
Commedia_, though of course it has the necessary inferiority of a
collection by a great number of different hands to a work of individual
genius.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] Nennius, a Breton monk of the ninth century, has left a brief Latin
Chronicle in which is the earliest authentic account of the Legend of
Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth, _circa_ 1140, produced a _Historia
Britonum_, avowedly based on a book brought from Britanny by Walter,
Archdeacon of Oxford. No trace of this book, unless it be Nennius, can
be found. _See note at end of chapter._
[52] Department of Seine-et-Marne, near Fontainebleau.
[53] Map as a person belongs rather to English than to French history.
He lived in the last three quarters of the twelfth century.
[54] These various Romances are not by any means equally open to study
in satisfactory critical editions. To take them chronologically, M.
Hucher has published Robert de Borron's _Little Saint Graal_ in prose,
his _Percevale_, and the _Great Saint Graal_, with full and valuable if
not incontestable notes, 3 vols.; Le Mans, 1875-1878. The verse form of
the _Little Saint Graal_ was published by M. F. Michel in 1841. An
edition of _Artus_ was promised by M. Paulin Paris, but interrupted or
prevented by his death. The great works of Map, _Lancelot_ and the
_Quest_, as well as the _Mort Artus_, have never been critically edited
in full; and the sixteenth-century editions being rare and exceedingly
costly, as well as uncritical, they are not easily accessible, except in
M. Paris' Abstract and Commentary, _Les Romans de la Table Ronde_, 5
vols., 1869-1877. _Tristan_ was published partially forty years ago by
M. F. Michel. _Merlin_ was edited in 1886 by M. G. Paris and M. Ulrich.
A complete edition of Chrestien de Troyes has been undertaken by Dr.
Wendelin Foerster and has preceded to its second volume (_Yvain_). This
under its second title of _Le Chevalier au Lyon_ has also been edited by
Dr. Holland (third edition 1886). Besides this there is the great
Romance of _Percevale_ (continued by others, especially a certain
Manessier), of which M. Potvin has given an excellent edition, 6 vols.,
Mons, 1867-1872, including in it a previously unknown prose version of
the Romance of very early date; _Le Chevalier a la Charrette_, continued
by Godefroy de Lagny, and edited, with the original prose from _Lancelot
du Lac_, by Dr. Jonckbloet (The Hague, 1850); and _Erec et Enide_, by M.
Haupt (Berlin, 1860). This piecemeal condition of the texts, and the
practical inaccessibility of many of them, make independent judgment in
the matter very difficult. What is wanted first of all is a book on the
plan of M. Leon Gautier's _Epopees Francaises_, giving a complete
account of all the existing texts--for the entire editing of these
latter must necessarily take a very long time. The statements made above
represent the opinions which appear most probable to the writer, not
merely from the comparison of authorities on the subject, but from the
actual study of the texts as far as they are open to him. (_See note at
end of Chapter._)
[55] This expression occurs in the _Chanson des Saisnes_, i. 6. 7: 'Ne
sont que iij matieres a nul home atandant, De France et de Bretaigne et
de Rome la grant.'
[56] Ed. Michelant. Stuttgart, 1846.
[57] _Li Cors_, otherwise _li tors_ 'the crooked.' Since this book was
first written M. Paul Meyer has treated the whole subject of the
paragraph in an admirable monograph, _Alexandre le Grand dans la
Litterature Francaise du Moyen Age_, 2 vols. Paris, 1886.
[58] Ed. Joly. Rouen, 1870.
[59] Moland and Hericault's _Nouvelles du XIV'eme Siecle_. Paris, 1857.
Joly, _Op. cit._ See also P. Stapfer, _Shakespeare et l'Antiquite_. 2
vols. Paris, 1880.