Chapter II: Chansons De Geste

European literature in 1100. Late discovery of the _chansons_. Their age and history. Their distinguishing character. Mistakes about them. Their isolation and origin. Their metrical form. Their scheme of matter. The character of Charlemagne. Other characters and characteristics. Realist quality. Volume and age of the _chansons_. Twelfth century. Thirteenth century. Fourteenth, and later. _Chansons_ in print. Language: _oc_ and _oïl_. Italian. Diffusion of the _chansons_. Their authorship and publication. Their performance. Hearing, not reading, the object. Effect on prosody. The _jongleurs_. _Jongleresses_, &c. Singularity of the _chansons_. Their charm. Peculiarity of the _geste_ system. Instances. Summary of the _geste_ of William of Orange. And first of the _Couronnement Loys_. Comments on the _Couronnement_. William of Orange. The earlier poems of the cycle. The _Charroi de Nîmes_. The _Prise d'Orange_. The story of Vivien. _Aliscans._ The end of the story. Renouart. Some other _chansons_. Final remarks on them 22

CHAPTER III.

THE MATTER OF BRITAIN.

Attractions of the Arthurian Legend. Discussions on their sources. The personality of Arthur. The four witnesses. Their testimony. The version of Geoffrey. Its _lacunæ_. How the Legend grew. Wace. Layamon. The Romances proper. Walter Map. Robert de Borron. Chrestien de Troyes. Prose or verse first? A Latin Graal-book. The Mabinogion. The Legend itself. The story of Joseph of Arimathea. Merlin. Lancelot. The Legend becomes dramatic. Stories of Gawain and other knights. Sir Tristram. His story almost certainly Celtic. Sir Lancelot. The minor knights. Arthur. Guinevere. The Graal. How it perfects the story. Nature of this perfection. No sequel possible. Latin episodes. The Legend as a whole. The theories of its origin. Celtic. French. English. Literary. The Celtic theory. The French claims. The theory of general literary growth. The English or Anglo-Norman pretensions. Attempted hypothesis 86

CHAPTER IV.

ANTIQUITY IN ROMANCE.

Oddity of the Classical Romance. Its importance. The Troy story. The Alexandreid. Callisthenes. Latin versions. Their story. Its developments. Alberic of Besançon. The decasyllabic poem. The great _Roman d'Alixandre_. Form, &c. Continuations. _King Alexander._ Characteristics. The Tale of Troy. Dictys and Dares. The Dares story. Its absurdity. Its capabilities. Troilus and Briseida. The _Roman de Troie_. The phases of Cressid. The _Historia Trojana_. Meaning of the classical romance 148

CHAPTER V.

THE MAKING OF ENGLISH AND THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEAN PROSODY.

Special interest of Early Middle English. Decay of Anglo-Saxon. Early Middle English Literature. Scantiness of its constituents. Layamon. The form of the _Brut_. Its substance. The _Ormulum_: Its metre, its spelling. The _Ancren Riwle_. The _Owl and the Nightingale_. Proverbs. Robert of Gloucester. Romances. _Havelok the Dane._ _King Horn._ The prosody of the modern languages. Historical retrospect. Anglo-Saxon prosody. Romance prosody. English prosody. The later alliteration. The new verse. Rhyme and syllabic equivalence. Accent and quantity. The gain of form. The "accent" theory. Initial fallacies, and final perversities thereof 187

CHAPTER VI.

MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN POETRY.

Position of Germany. Merit of its poetry. Folk-epics: The _Nibelungenlied_. The _Volsunga saga_. The German version. Metres. Rhyme and language. _Kudrun._ Shorter national epics. Literary poetry. Its four chief masters. Excellence, both natural and acquired, of German verse. Originality of its adaptation. The Pioneers: Heinrich von Veldeke. Gottfried of Strasburg. Hartmann von Aue. _Erec der Wanderære_ and _Iwein_. Lyrics. The "booklets." _Der Arme Heinrich._ Wolfram von Eschenbach. _Titurel._ _Willehalm._ _Parzival._ Walther von der Vogelweide. Personality of the poets. The Minnesingers generally 225