[4] _Prologue des Lais de Marie._
[5] _Lai du chevrefeuille_.
[6] Pyramus, Vie de St Edmund, Bibl. Cotton. Domit. A. XI.
[7] Prolog. des Lais de Marie.
[8] It is reasonable to conclude, that writers flocked in
greater numbers to the court where they were most in request, and were
likely to be most liberally rewarded. Now it is evident that the Dukes
of Normandy, when possessed of the crown of England, were incomparably
more wealthy, though not in the same proportion more powerful, than the
contemporary Kings of France; and it may be presumed that the crowd of
candidates for their patronage, was consequently, much more numerous.
Our Henry the Second possessed, in right of his father, Maine, Anjou,
and Touraine; in right of his wife Eleanor, divorced by Louis le Jeune,
the counties of Poictou and Guienne; in right of his mother Matilda,
Normandy and England; and his power in the latter, the most valuable
part of his dominions, was paramount and uncontrolled, while Louis was
surrounded by powerful and rival vassals. We are, therefore, justified
in suspecting that the courts of our Norman sovereigns, rather than
those of the Kings of France, produced the birth of romance literature;
and this suspicion is confirmed by the testimony of three French
writers, whose authority is the more conclusive, because they have
formed their opinion from separate and independent premises.
The first of these is M. de la Ravallere. In his Essay on the
Revolutions of the French Language, a work of considerable learning,
supported by original authorities, whose words he almost constantly
quotes, he distinctly asserts that the pretended patronage of the French
princes, anterior to Philippe Auguste, had no visible effect on their
domestic literature; that while so many poets were entertained at the
courts of the Anglo-Norman princes, no one can be traced to that of
Louis le Jeune; that the chronicles of Britain and Normandy, the
subjects chosen by Wace and his contemporaries, were not likely to
_interest_ the French, &c.
The second authority is M. le Comte de Tressan, a writer, perhaps, of no
deep research, but whose good taste is conclusive on points of internal
evidence. In his preface to the prose romance of "La Fleur des
Batailles," (one of those relating to Charlemagne) he says--The style
and character of these romances lead us to think that they were composed
at the court of the English kings, descended from William the Conqueror.
We find in those of the Round Table, a marked affectation of dwelling on
every thing which can contribute to the glory of the throne and court of
England, whose princes and knights always play the chief and most
brilliant part in the piece.
Thirdly, the Abbé de la Rue may be considered as having proved the fact,
by pointing out, in English history, the persons to whom the original
romances were addressed. His three dissertations on the Anglo-Norman
poets, in the twelfth and thirteenth volume of the Archaelogia, will
convince the reader that no man has studied, with more attention, the
early history and poetry of France; and he has given it as his decided
opinion, that "_it was from England and Normandy that the French
received the first works which deserve to be cited in their
language."--Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances_.
[9] Prolog. des Lais de Marie.
[10] Oeuvres de Fauchet, 579. Recherches de la France, l.8. s. i.
[11] Pyramus loco citate.
[12] Oeuvres de Fauchet, p. 579.
[13] Conclusion of Mary's Fables.
[14] Dictionaire Raisonnée de Diplomatique Verbo _Comte_.
[15] Martineus Dict. Geographique, v. Dampierre.
[16] Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England,
p. 114.
[17] Ibid, p. 116, and M. Paris, p. 817
[18] Sandford, ibid.
[19] Fabliaux, vol. iv. p.330.
[20] Conclusion of Mary's Fables.
[21] Phaedr. Prolog. lib. i.
[22] Preface to Mary's Fables.
[23] Fabric. Bibl. Latin, lib. ii. c. 3.
[24] Preface to the Fables of Mary
[25] Vincent Bellovac, lib. iv. c. 2.
[26] Fabric. loco citato.
[27] Menage Diction. Etymol. V. Romans. Duchesne, Oeuvres de
Maistre Alain Chartris, p. 861.
[28] Pasquier Recherches, liv. viii. c. 1.
[29] Asser, Vita Alfredi, Malsmb.
[30] Madox's Hist. of the Exchequer, c. 4.
[31] Ordoric. Vitalis Hist. apud Duchesne, pp. 488, 681, &
1084.
[32] See his Works amongst the Harleian MSS. No. 4333.