FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[153]Thus com lo Engelond · in to Normandies hond;And the Normans ne couthe speke tho · bot hor owe speche,And speke French as hii dude atom · and hor children dude also teche,So that heiemen of this lond · that of hor blod comeHoldeth alle thulke speche · that hii of hom nome;Vor bote a man conne Frenss · me telth of him lute,Ac lowe men holdeth to engliss · and to hor owe speche yute.Ich wene ther ne beth in al the world · contreyes noneThat ne holdeth to hor owe speche · bote Engelonde one.W. A. Wright, "Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester" (Rolls), 1887, vol. ii. p. 543. Concerning Robert, see below, p. 122.[154]Letter of the year 1209, by which Gerald sends to King John the second edition of his "Expugnatio Hiberniæ"; in "Giraldi Cambrensis Opera" (Rolls), vol. v. p. 410. Further on he speaks of French as of "communi idiomate."[155]"La parleure est plus delitable et plus commune à toutes gens." "Li livres dou Trésor," thirteenth century (a sort of philosophical, historical, scientific, &c., cyclopædia), ed. Chabaille, Paris, "Documents inédits," 1863, 4to. Dante cherished "the dear and sweet fatherly image" of his master, Brunetto, who recommended to the poet his "Trésor," for, he said, "in this book I still live." "Inferno," canto xv.[156]For the laws, see the "Statutes of the Realm," 1819-28, Record Commission, 11 vols, fol.; for the accounts of the sittings of Parliament, "Rotuli Parliamentorum," London, 1767-77, 6 vols. fol.; for the accounts of lawsuits, the "Year Books," ed. Horwood, Rolls, 1863 ff.[157]Author of a "Chronique de la guerre entre les Anglois et les Escossois," 1173-74, in French verse, ed. R. Howlett: "Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I." (Rolls), 1884 ff., vol. iii. p. 203.[158]See below, pp. 122, 123, 130, 214.[159]Example: "Romanz de un chivaler e de sa dame e de un clerk," written in French by an Englishman in the thirteenth century, ed. Paul Meyer, "Romania," vol. i. p. 70. It is an adaptation of the well-knownfabliauof the "Bourgeoise d'Orléans" (in Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," 1872, vol. i. p. 117). See below, p. 225.[160]"Croniques de London ... jusqu'à l'an 17 Ed. III.," ed. Aungier Camden Society, 1844, 4to.[161]"Image du Monde," thirteenth century, a poem, very popular both in France and in England, of which "about sixty MSS. are known," "Romania," vol. xv. p. 314; some of the MSS. were written in England.—"Petite Philosophie," also in verse, being an "abrégé de cosmographie et de géographie," "Romania," xv. p. 255.—"Lumière des laïques," a poem, written in the thirteenth century, by the Anglo-Norman Pierre de Peckham or d'Abernun,ibid.p. 287.—"Secret des Secrets," an adaptation, in French prose, of the "Secretum Secretorum," wrongly attributed to Aristotle, this adaptation being the work of an Irishman, Geoffrey de Waterford, who translated also Dares and Eutrope, thirteenth century (see "Histoire Littéraire de la France," vol. xxi. p. 216).—To these may be added translations in French of various Latin works, books on the properties of things, law books, such as the "Institutes" of Justinian, turned into French verse by the Norman Richard d'Annebaut, and the "Coutume de Normandie," turned also into verse, by Guillaume Chapu, also a Norman, both living in the thirteenth century.[162]See above, p. 113. The wealth of this historical literature in the French tongue is greater at first than that of the literature produced by the subjects of the French kings. Besides the great chronicles, many other works might be quoted, such as lives of saints, which are sometimes historical biographies (St. Edward, St. Thomas Becket, &c.); the "Histoire de la Guerre Sainte," an account of the third crusade, by Ambrose, a companion of King Richard Cœur-de-Lion (in preparation, by Gaston Paris, "Documents inédits"); the "Estoire le roi Dermot," on the troubles in Ireland, written in the thirteenth century ("Song of Dermot and the Earl," ed. Orpen, Oxford, 1892, 8vo;cf.P. Meyer, "Romania," vol. xxi. p. 444), &c.[163]This Life was written in the thirteenth century, by order of Earl William, son of the hero of the story. Its historical accuracy is remarkable. The MS. was discovered by M. Paul Meyer, and published by him: "Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal," Paris, 1892 ff., Société de l'histoire de France. On the value of this Life, see an article by the same, "Romania," vol. xi. The slab in the Temple Church is in an excellent state of preservation; the image of the earl seems to be a portrait; the face is that of an old man with many wrinkles; the sword is out of the scabbard, and held in the right hand; its point is driven through the head of an animal at the feet of the earl.[164]Jean de Waurin, who wrote in French prose in the fifteenth century his "Chroniques et anchiennes istoires de la Grant-Bretaigne" (ed. Hardy, Rolls, 1864 ff.) was a Frenchman of France, who had fought at Agincourt on the French side. The chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, canon of Bridlington, Yorkshire, who lived under Edward I. and Edward II., was printed by Thomas Wright, 1866 (Rolls), 2 vols. 8vo.[165]Engelond his a wel god lond · ich wene ech londe best ...The see geth him al aboute · he stond as in an yle,Of fon hii dorre the lasse doute · bote hit be thorgh gyle ...Plente me may in Engelond · of alle gode ise.W. A. Wright, "Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester," 1887 (Rolls), vol. i. pp. 1, 2. Robert's surname, "of Gloucester," is not certain; see Mr. Wright's preface, and his letter to theAthenæum, May 19, 1888. He is very hard (too hard it seems) on Robert, of whose work he says: "As literature it is as worthless as twelve thousand lines of verse without one spark of poetry can be."[166]Among writings of this sort, written in French either by Frenchmen or by Englishmen, and popular in England, may be quoted: Penitential Psalms, a French version very popular in England, in a MS. preserved at the University Library, Cambridge, thirteenth century ("Romania," vol. xv. p. 305).—Explanation of the Gospels: the "Miroir," by Robert de Greteham, in 20,000 French verses (Ibid.).—Lives of Saints: life of Becket in "Materials for the history of Thomas Becket," ed. Robertson, 1875 ff., 7 vols., and "Fragments d'une vie de St. Thomas" (with very curious engravings), edited by Paul Meyer, 1885, 4to, Société des Anciens Textes; life of St. Catherine, by Sister Clemence de Barking, twelfth century (G. Paris, "Romania," xiii. p. 400); life of St. Josaphaz and life of the Seven Sleepers, by Chardry, thirteenth century ("Chardry's Josaphaz," &c., ed. Koch, Heilbronn, 1879, 8vo); life of St. Gregory the Great, by Augier, of St. Frideswide's, Oxford, thirteenth century (text and commentary in "Romania," xii. pp. 145 ff.); lives of St. Edward (ed. Luard, Rolls, 1858); mention of many other lives in French (others in English) will be found in Hardy's "Descriptive Catalogue," Rolls, 1862 ff.—Manuals and treatises: by Robert Grosseteste, William de Wadington and others (see below, p. 214).—Works concerning Our Lady: "Adgars Marien Legenden," ed. Carl Neuhaus, Heilbronn, 1886, 8vo (stories in French verse of miracles of the Virgin, by Adgar, an Anglo-Norman of the twelfth century; some take place in England); "Joies de Notre Dame," "Plaintes de Notre Dame," French poems written in England, thirteenth century (see "Romania," vol. xv. pp. 307 ff.).—Moralised tales and Bestiaries: "Bestiaire" of Philippe de Thaon, a Norman priest of the twelfth century, in French verse (includes a "Lapidaire" and a "Volucraire," on the virtues of stones and birds), text in T. Wright, "Popular Treatises on Science," London 1841, Historical Society, 8vo; (see also P. Meyer, "Recueil d'anciens textes," Paris, 1877, 8vo, p. 286), the same wrote also an ecclesiastical "Comput" in verse (ed. Mall, Strasbourg, 1873, 8vo); "Bestiaire divin," by Guillaume le Clerc, also a Norman, thirteenth century (ed. Hippeau, Caen, 1852, 8vo), to be compared to the worldly "Bestiaire d'Amour," of Richard de Fournival, thirteenth century (ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1840, 8vo); translation in French prose, probably by a Norman, of the Latin fables (thirteenth century) of Odo de Cheriton, "Romania," vol. xiv. p. 388, and Hervieux, "Fabulistes Latins," vol. ii.; "Contes moralisés de Nicole Bozon," ed. P. Meyer and Lucy Toulmin Smith, Paris, 1889, 8vo, Société des Anciens Textes, in French prose, fourteenth century.—Sermons: "Reimpredigt," ed. Suchier, Halle, 1879, 8vo, in French verse, by an Anglo-Norman; on sermons in French and in Latin, see Lecoy de la Marche, "La Chaire française an moyen âge," Paris, 1886, 8vo, 2nd ed.; at p. 282, sermon on the Passion by Geoffrey de Waterford in French verse, Anglo-Norman dialect.[167]"Reimpredigt," ed. Suchier, Halle, 1879, p. 64. There were also sermons in English (see next chapter); Jocelin de Brakelonde says in his chronicle that sermons were delivered in churches, "gallice vel potius anglice, ut morum fieret edificatio, non literaturæ ostensio," year 1200 (Camden Society, 1840, p. 95).[168]"La Chanson de Roland, texte critique, traduction et commentaire," by Léon Gautier, Tours, 1881, 8vo; "La Chanson de Roland, traduction archaïque et rythmée," by L. Clédat, Paris, 1887, 8vo. On the romances of the cycle of Charlemagne composed in England, see G. Paris, "Histoire poétique de Charlemagne," 1865, 8vo, pp. 155 ff. The unique MS. of the "Chanson," written about 1170, is at Oxford, where it was found in our century. It was printed for the first time in 1837. Other versions of the story have come down to us; on which see Gaston Paris's Introduction to his "Extraits de la Chanson de Roland," 1893, 4th ed.[169]Croist li aciers, ne fraint ne s'esgruignet;Et dist li cuens: "Sainte Marie, aiude!...E! Durendal, com iés et clére et blanche!Contre soleil si reluis et reflambes!...E! Durendal, com iés bèle et saintisme!"[170]Cil Sarrazins me semblet mult herites.[171]Ne a muillier n'a dame qu'as veütN'en vanteras el' regne dunt tu fus.[172]"Car le Royaume de France ne fut oncques si desconfis que on n'y trouvast bien tousjours à qui combattre." Prologue of the Chronicles, Luce's edition, vol. i. p. 212.[173]Car bien scavons sanz nul espoirQ'il ne fu pius de c ans néeQ'il grans ost fu assemblée.MS. fr. 60 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 42; contains: "Li Roumans de Tiebes qui fu racine de Troie la grant.—Item toute l'histoire de Troie la grant."[174]"Alexandre le Grand, dans la littérature française du moyen âge," by P. Meyer, Paris, 1886, 2 vols. 8vo (vol. i. texts, vol. ii. history of the legend); vol. ii. p. 182.[175]MS. fr. 782 at the National Library, Paris, containing poems by Benoit de Sainte-More, fol. 151, 155, 158.[176]Benoit de Sainte-More, a poet of the court of Henry II., wrote his "Roman de Troie" about 1160 (G. Paris); it was edited by Joly, Paris, 1870, 2 vols. 4to.—"Le Roman de Thèbes," ed. L. Constans, Paris, 1890, 2 vols. 8vo, wrongly attributed to Benoit de Sainte-More, indirectly imitated from the "Thebaid" of Statius.—"Eneas," a critical text, ed. J. Salvedra de Grave, Halle, Bibliotheca Normannica, 1891, 8vo, also attributed, but wrongly it seems, to Benoit; the work of a Norman, twelfth century; imitated from the "Æneid."—The immense poem of Eustache or Thomas de Kent is still unpublished; the author imitates the romance in "alexandrines" of Lambert le Tort and Alexandre de Paris, twelfth century, ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1846.—The romances of Hue de Rotelande (Rhuddlan in Flintshire?) are also in French verse, and were composed between 1176-7 and 1190-1; see Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," 1883, vol. i. pp. 728 ff.; his "Ipomedon" has been edited by Kölbing and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889, 8vo; his "Prothesilaus" is still unpublished.[177]Lib. IX. cap. ii.[178]"Hic est Arthur de quo Britonum nugæ hodieque delirant, dignus plane quod non fallaces somniarent fabulæ, sed veraces prædicarent historiæ." "De Gestis," ed. Stubbs, Rolls, vol. i. p. 11. Henry of Huntingdon, on the other hand, unable to identify the places of Arthur's battles, descants upon the vanity of fame and glory, "popularis auræ, laudis adulatoriæ, famæ transitoriæ...." "Historia Anglorum," Rolls, p. 49.[179]Says the Wolf:Dont estes vos? de quel païs?Vos n'estes mie nes de France ...—Nai, mi seignor, mais de Bretaing ...—Et savez vos neisun mestier?—Ya, ge fot molt bon jogler ...Ge fot savoir bon lai Breton."Roman de Renart," ed. Martin, vol. i. pp. 66, 67.[180]Gildas, "De Excidio Britanniæ," ed. J. Stevenson, English Historical Society, 1838, 8vo; Nennius, "Historia Britonum," same editor, place, and date.[181]His "Historia" was edited by Giles, London, 1844, 8vo, and by San Marte, "Gottfried von Monmouth Historia regum Britanniæ," Halle, 1854, 8vo. Geoffrey of Monmouth, or rather Geoffrey Arthur, a name which had been borne by his father before him (Galffrai or Gruffyd in Welsh), first translated from Welsh into Latin the prophecies of Merlin, included afterwards in his "Historia"; bishop of St. Asaph, 1152; died at Llandaff, 1154. See Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. pp. 203 ff.[182]Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. p. 210.[183]"Quidam nostris temporibus, pro expiandis his Britonum maculis, scriptor emersit, ridicula de eisdem figmenta contexens, ... Gaufridus hic dictus est.... Profecto minimum digitum sui Arturi grossiorem facit dorso Alexandri magni." "Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia," ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1719, 3 vols. 8vo, "Proemium"; end of the twelfth century.[184]"Le Roman de Brut," ed. Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen, 1836-38, 2 vols. 8vo.Cf.P. Meyer, "De quelques chroniques anglo-normandes qui ont porté le nom de Brut," Paris, 1878, "Bulletin de la Société des Anciens Textes français."[185]The oldest poem we have in which the early songs on Tristan were gathered into one whole was written in French, on English soil, by Bérou about 1150. Another version, also in French verse, was written about 1170 by another Anglo-Norman, called Thomas. A third was the work of the famous Chrestien de Troyes, same century. We have only fragments of the two first; the last is entirely lost. It has been, however, possible to reconstitute the poem of Thomas "by means of three versions: a German one (by Gotfrid of Strasbourg, unfinished), a Norwegian one (in prose, ab. 1225, faithful but compressed), and an English one (XIVth century, a greatly impaired text)." G. Paris, "La Littérature française au moyen âge," 2nd ed., 1890, p. 94. See also "Tristan et Iseut," by the same,Revue de Paris, April 15, 1894.Texts: "The poetical Romances of Tristan in French, in Anglo-Norman, and in Greek," ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1835-9, 3 vols. 8vo.—"Die Nordische und die Englische Version der Tristan-Sage," ed. Kölbing, Heilbronn, 1878-83, 2 vols. 8vo; vol. i., "Tristrams Saga ok Isoudar" (Norwegian prose); vol. ii., "Sir Tristram" (English verse).—"Gottfried von Strassburg Tristan," ed. Reinhold Bachstein, Leipzig, 1869, 2 vols. 8vo (German verse).[186]"Inferno," canto v.[187]The following analysis is mainly made after "Tristan et Iseult, poème de Gotfrit de Strasbourg, comparé à d'autres poèmes sur le même sujet," by A. Bossert, Paris, 1865, 8vo. Gotfrit wrote before 1203 (G. Paris, "Histoire Littérarie de la France," vol. xxx. p. 21).[188]En sa chambre se set un jor,E fait un lai pitus d'am[o]r:Coment dan Guirun fu surpris,Pur l'amur de sa dame ocis....La reine chante dulcement,La voiz acorde el estrument;Les mainz sunt bels, li lais b[o]nsDulce la voiz [et] bas li tons.Francisque Michel,ut supra, vol. iii. p. 39.[189]On this incident, the earliest version of which is as old as the fourteenth centuryb.c., having been found in an Egyptian papyrus of that date, see the article by Gaston Paris's, Part I.[190]Swinburne, "Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems."[191]Bosert, pp. 62, 68, 72, 82.[192]"Et vous deistes, ales a Dieu, beau doulx amis. Ne oncques puis du cueur ne me pot issir; ce fut li moz qui preudomme me fera si je jamais le suis; car oncques puis ne fus à si grant meschief qui de ce mot ne me souvenist; cilz moz me conforte en tous mes anuys; cilz moz m'a tousjours garanti et gardé de tous périlz; cilz moz m'a saoulé en toutes mes faims; cilz moz me fait riche en toutes mes pouretés. Par foi fait la royne cilz moz fut de bonne heure dit, et benois soit dieux qui dire le me fist. Mais je ne le pris pas si acertes comme vous feistes. A maint chevalier l'ay je dit là où oncques je n'y pensay fors du dire seulement." MS. fr. 118 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 219; fourteenth century. The history of Lancelot was told in verse and prose in almost all the languages of Europe, from the twelfth century. One of the oldest versions (twelfth century) was the work of an Anglo-Norman. The most famous of the Lancelot poems is the "Conte de la Charrette," by Chrestien de Troyes, written between 1164 and 1172 (G. Paris, "Romania," vol. xii. p. 463).[193]"Omnis consuevit amans in coamantis aspectu pallescere," &c. Rules supposed to have been discovered by a knight at the court of Arthur, and transcribed in the "Flos Amoris," or "De Arte honeste amandi," of André le Chapelain, thirteenth century; "Romania," vol. xii. p. 532.[194]On these romances, see, in "Histoire Littéraire de la France," vol. xxx., a notice by Gaston Paris. On the MSS. of them preserved in the British Museum, see Ward, "Catalogue of MS. Romances," 1883 (on Merlin, pp. 278 ff.; on other prophecies, and especially those by Thomas of Erceldoune, p. 328; these last have been edited by Alois Brandl, "Thomas of Erceldoune," Berlin, 1880, 8vo, "Sammlung Englischer Denkmäler," and by the Early English Text Society, 1875).[195]On legends of Hindu origin and for a long time wrongly attributed to the Arabs, see Gaston Paris, "le Lai de l'Oiselet," Paris, 1884, 8vo. See also the important work of M. Bédier, "les Fabliaux," Paris, 1893, 8vo, in which the evidence concerning the Eastern origin of tales is carefully sifted and restricted within the narrowest limits: very few come from the East, not the bulk of them, as was generally admitted.[196]For Amis, very popular in England, see Kölbing, "Amis and Amiloun," Heilbronn, 1884 (cf.below, p. 229), and "Nouvelles françoises en prose du treizième siècle," edited by Moland and d'Héricault, Paris, 1856, 16mo; these "Nouvelles" include: "l'Empereur Constant," "les Amitiés de Ami et Amile," "le roi Flore et la belle Jehanne," "la Comtesse de Ponthieu," "Aucassin et Nicolette."—The French text of "Floire et Blanceflor" is to be found in Edelstand du Méril, "Poèmes du treizième siècle," Paris, 1856, 16mo.—For Marie de France, see H. Suchier, "Die Lais der Marie de France," Halle, Bibliotheca, Normannica, 1885, 8vo; her fables are in vol. ii. of "Poésies de Marie de France," ed. Roquefort, Paris, 1819, 2 vols. 8vo. See also Bédier's article in theRevue des Deux Mondes, Oct. 15, 1891, also the chapter on Marie in Hervieux, "Fabulistes Latins," 1883-4, 2nd part, chap. i.[197]On this subject, see Gaston Paris's criticism of the "Origines de la poésie lyrique en France" of Jeanroy, in the "Journal des Savants," 1892.[198]One fact among many shows how constant was the intercourse on the Continent between Frenchmen of France and Englishmen living or travelling there, namely, the knowledge of the English language shown in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the authors of several branches of the "Roman de Renart," and the caricatures they drew of English people, which would have amused nobody if the originals of the pictures had not been familiar to all. (See Branches I^b and XIV. in Martin's edition.)[199]Jeanroy, "Origines de la poésie lyrique en France, au moyen âge," Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 68. An allusion in a crusade song of the twelfth century shows that thismotifwas already popular then. It is found also in much older poetry and more remote countries, for Jeanroy quotes a Chinese poem, written before the seventh century of our era, where, it is true, a mere cock and mere flies play the part of the Verona lark and nightingale: "It was not the cock, it was the hum of flies," or in the Latin translation of Father Lacharme: "Fallor, non cantavit gallus, sed muscarum fuit strepitus,"ibid., p. 70.Onchansonswritten in French by Anglo-Normans, see "Mélanges de poésie anglo-normande," by P. Meyer, in "Romania," vol. iv. p. 370, and "Les Manuscrits Français de Cambridge," by the same,ibid., vol. xv.[200]Anglo-Norman song, written in England, in the thirteenth century, "Romania," vol. xv. p. 254.[201]"La Plainte d'amour," from a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge, GG I. 1, "Romania,"ibid.[202]Bele Aliz matin leva,Sun cors vesti e para,Enz un verger s'entra,Cink flurettes y truva,Un chapelet fet en aDe rose flurie;Pur Deu, trahez vus en làVus ki ne amez mie.The text of the sermon, as we have it is in Latin; it has long but wrongly been attributed to Stephen Langton; printed by T. Wright in his "Biographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman period," 1846, p. 446.[203]"Le Pélerinage de Charlemagne," eleventh century. Only one MS. has been preserved, written in England, in the thirteenth century; it has been edited by Koschwitz, "Karls des Grossen Reise nach Jerusalem und Konstantinopel," Heilbronn, 1880, 8vo.Cf.G. Paris, "La poésie française au moyen âge," 1885, p. 119, and "Romania," vol. ix.[204]"Le Roman de Renart," ed. E. Martin, Strasbourg, 1882-7, 4 vols. 8vo; contains: vol. i., the old series of branches; vol. ii., the additional branches; vol. iii., variants; vol. iv., notes and tables. Most of the branches were composed in Normandy, Ile-de-France, Picardy; the twelfth is the work of Richard de Lison, a Norman, end of the twelfth century; several, for example the fourteenth, evince on the part of their author a knowledge of the English tongue and manners. Concerning the sources of the "Roman," see Sudre, "Les Sources du Roman de Renart," Paris, 1892, 8vo.[205]Caricature of a funeral ceremony:—Brun li ors, prenez vostre estole ...Sire Tardis li limaçonsLut par lui sol les trois leçonsEt Roenel chanta les vers. (Vol. i. p. 12.)[206]Seigneurs, oï avez maint conteQue maint conterre vous raconte,Conment Paris ravi Eleine,Le mal qu'il en ot et la paine ...Et fabliaus, chansons de geste ...Mais onques n'oïstes la guerre,Qui tant fu dure et de grant finEntre Renart et Ysengrin.(Prologue of Branch II.)[207]"Or dont," dit Nobles, "au deable!Por le cuer be, sire Ysengrin,Prendra ja vostre gerre fin?"(Vol. i. p. 8.)[208]... Sire Chanticler li cos,Et Pinte qui pont les ues grosEt Noire et Blanche et la RosseteAmenoient une chareteQui envouxe ert d'une cortine.Dedenz gisoit une gelineQue l'en amenoit en litèreFete autresi con une bère.Renart l'avoit si maumenéeEt as denz si desordenéeQue la cuisse li avoit freteEt une ele hors del cors trete.(Vol. i. p. 9.)[209]... Renart ne l'en laissaDe totes cinc que une soule:Totes passèrent par sa goule.Et vos qui là gisez en bère,Ma douce suer m'amie chère,Con vos estieez tendre et crasse!Que fera vostre suer la lasse?(Vol. i. p. 10.)[210]Pinte la lasse à ces parolesChaï, pamée el pavementEt les autres tot ensement.Por relever les quatre dames,Se levèrent de leurs escamesEt chen et lou et autres bestes,Eve lor getent sor les testes.[211]Par mautalant drece la teste.Onc n'i ot si hardie beste,Or ne sangler, que poor n'etQuant lor sire sospire et bret.Tel poor ot Coars li lèvresQue il en ot deus jors les fèvres.Tote la cort fremist ensemble,Li plus hardis de peor tremble.Par mautalent sa coue drece,Si se débat par tel destreceQue tot en sone la meson,Et puis fu tele sa reson.Dame Pinte, fet l'emperere,Foi que doi à l'ame mon père....[212]Examples of sculptures in the stalls of the cathedrals at Gloucester, St. David's, &c.; of miniatures, MS. 10 E iv. in the British Museum (English drawings of the beginning of the fourteenth century, one of them reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 309); of manuscripts: MS. fr. 12,583 in the National Library, Paris, "Cest livre est à Humfrey duc de Gloucester, liber lupi et vulpis"; of a translation in English of part of the romance: "Of the Vox and the Wolf" (time of Edward I., in Wright's "Selection of Latin Stories," Percy Society; see below, pp. 228 ff.). Caxton issued in 1481 "Thystorye of Reynard the Foxe," reprinted by Thoms, Percy Society, 1844, 8vo. The MS. in the National Library, mainly followed by Martin in his edition, offers "a sort of mixture of the Norman and Picard dialects. The vowels generally present Norman if not Anglo-Norman characteristics." "Roman de Renart," vol. i. p. 2.[213]In Migne's "Patrologia," vol. lxxvii. col. 153. "Dialogorum Liber I."; Prologue.[214]"De vita eremitica," in Migne's "Patrologia," vol. xxxii. col. 1451, text below, p. 213.[215]Council of Sens, 1528, in "The Exempla, or illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry," ed. T. F. Crane, London, 1890, 8vo, p. lxix. The collection of sermons withexempla, compiled by Jacques de Vitry (born ab. 1180, d. ab. 1239), was one of the most popular, and is one of the most curious of its kind.[216]Si che le pecorelle, che non sanno,Tornan dal pasco pasciute di vento ...Ora si va con motti, e con iscedeA predicare....Di questo ingrassa il porco Sant' Antonio,Ed altri assai, che son peggio che porci,Pagando di moneta senza conio.("Paradiso," canto xxix.)[217]To be found,e.g., in Jacques de Vitry,ibid.p. 105: "Audivi de quadam vetula que non poterat inducere quandam matronam ut juveni consentiret," &c. See below, pp. 225, and 447.[218]Bédier, "Les Fabliaux," Paris, 1893, 8vo, p. 241; Bédier's definition of the same is as follows: "Les fabliaux sont des contes à rire, en vers," p. 6. The principal French collections are: Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux et contes des poètes français," Paris, 1808, 4 vols. 8vo; Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général et complet des Fabliaux," Paris, 1872-90, 6 vols. 8vo.[219]Ge sai contes, ge sai fableax,Ge sai conter beax diz noveax, &c."Des deux bordeors ribauz," in Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général," vol. i. p. 11.

[153]Thus com lo Engelond · in to Normandies hond;And the Normans ne couthe speke tho · bot hor owe speche,And speke French as hii dude atom · and hor children dude also teche,So that heiemen of this lond · that of hor blod comeHoldeth alle thulke speche · that hii of hom nome;Vor bote a man conne Frenss · me telth of him lute,Ac lowe men holdeth to engliss · and to hor owe speche yute.Ich wene ther ne beth in al the world · contreyes noneThat ne holdeth to hor owe speche · bote Engelonde one.W. A. Wright, "Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester" (Rolls), 1887, vol. ii. p. 543. Concerning Robert, see below, p. 122.

[153]

Thus com lo Engelond · in to Normandies hond;And the Normans ne couthe speke tho · bot hor owe speche,And speke French as hii dude atom · and hor children dude also teche,So that heiemen of this lond · that of hor blod comeHoldeth alle thulke speche · that hii of hom nome;Vor bote a man conne Frenss · me telth of him lute,Ac lowe men holdeth to engliss · and to hor owe speche yute.Ich wene ther ne beth in al the world · contreyes noneThat ne holdeth to hor owe speche · bote Engelonde one.

W. A. Wright, "Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester" (Rolls), 1887, vol. ii. p. 543. Concerning Robert, see below, p. 122.

[154]Letter of the year 1209, by which Gerald sends to King John the second edition of his "Expugnatio Hiberniæ"; in "Giraldi Cambrensis Opera" (Rolls), vol. v. p. 410. Further on he speaks of French as of "communi idiomate."

[155]"La parleure est plus delitable et plus commune à toutes gens." "Li livres dou Trésor," thirteenth century (a sort of philosophical, historical, scientific, &c., cyclopædia), ed. Chabaille, Paris, "Documents inédits," 1863, 4to. Dante cherished "the dear and sweet fatherly image" of his master, Brunetto, who recommended to the poet his "Trésor," for, he said, "in this book I still live." "Inferno," canto xv.

[156]For the laws, see the "Statutes of the Realm," 1819-28, Record Commission, 11 vols, fol.; for the accounts of the sittings of Parliament, "Rotuli Parliamentorum," London, 1767-77, 6 vols. fol.; for the accounts of lawsuits, the "Year Books," ed. Horwood, Rolls, 1863 ff.

[157]Author of a "Chronique de la guerre entre les Anglois et les Escossois," 1173-74, in French verse, ed. R. Howlett: "Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I." (Rolls), 1884 ff., vol. iii. p. 203.

[158]See below, pp. 122, 123, 130, 214.

[159]Example: "Romanz de un chivaler e de sa dame e de un clerk," written in French by an Englishman in the thirteenth century, ed. Paul Meyer, "Romania," vol. i. p. 70. It is an adaptation of the well-knownfabliauof the "Bourgeoise d'Orléans" (in Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général des Fabliaux," 1872, vol. i. p. 117). See below, p. 225.

[160]"Croniques de London ... jusqu'à l'an 17 Ed. III.," ed. Aungier Camden Society, 1844, 4to.

[161]"Image du Monde," thirteenth century, a poem, very popular both in France and in England, of which "about sixty MSS. are known," "Romania," vol. xv. p. 314; some of the MSS. were written in England.—"Petite Philosophie," also in verse, being an "abrégé de cosmographie et de géographie," "Romania," xv. p. 255.—"Lumière des laïques," a poem, written in the thirteenth century, by the Anglo-Norman Pierre de Peckham or d'Abernun,ibid.p. 287.—"Secret des Secrets," an adaptation, in French prose, of the "Secretum Secretorum," wrongly attributed to Aristotle, this adaptation being the work of an Irishman, Geoffrey de Waterford, who translated also Dares and Eutrope, thirteenth century (see "Histoire Littéraire de la France," vol. xxi. p. 216).—To these may be added translations in French of various Latin works, books on the properties of things, law books, such as the "Institutes" of Justinian, turned into French verse by the Norman Richard d'Annebaut, and the "Coutume de Normandie," turned also into verse, by Guillaume Chapu, also a Norman, both living in the thirteenth century.

[162]See above, p. 113. The wealth of this historical literature in the French tongue is greater at first than that of the literature produced by the subjects of the French kings. Besides the great chronicles, many other works might be quoted, such as lives of saints, which are sometimes historical biographies (St. Edward, St. Thomas Becket, &c.); the "Histoire de la Guerre Sainte," an account of the third crusade, by Ambrose, a companion of King Richard Cœur-de-Lion (in preparation, by Gaston Paris, "Documents inédits"); the "Estoire le roi Dermot," on the troubles in Ireland, written in the thirteenth century ("Song of Dermot and the Earl," ed. Orpen, Oxford, 1892, 8vo;cf.P. Meyer, "Romania," vol. xxi. p. 444), &c.

[163]This Life was written in the thirteenth century, by order of Earl William, son of the hero of the story. Its historical accuracy is remarkable. The MS. was discovered by M. Paul Meyer, and published by him: "Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal," Paris, 1892 ff., Société de l'histoire de France. On the value of this Life, see an article by the same, "Romania," vol. xi. The slab in the Temple Church is in an excellent state of preservation; the image of the earl seems to be a portrait; the face is that of an old man with many wrinkles; the sword is out of the scabbard, and held in the right hand; its point is driven through the head of an animal at the feet of the earl.

[164]Jean de Waurin, who wrote in French prose in the fifteenth century his "Chroniques et anchiennes istoires de la Grant-Bretaigne" (ed. Hardy, Rolls, 1864 ff.) was a Frenchman of France, who had fought at Agincourt on the French side. The chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, canon of Bridlington, Yorkshire, who lived under Edward I. and Edward II., was printed by Thomas Wright, 1866 (Rolls), 2 vols. 8vo.

[165]Engelond his a wel god lond · ich wene ech londe best ...The see geth him al aboute · he stond as in an yle,Of fon hii dorre the lasse doute · bote hit be thorgh gyle ...Plente me may in Engelond · of alle gode ise.W. A. Wright, "Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester," 1887 (Rolls), vol. i. pp. 1, 2. Robert's surname, "of Gloucester," is not certain; see Mr. Wright's preface, and his letter to theAthenæum, May 19, 1888. He is very hard (too hard it seems) on Robert, of whose work he says: "As literature it is as worthless as twelve thousand lines of verse without one spark of poetry can be."

[165]

Engelond his a wel god lond · ich wene ech londe best ...The see geth him al aboute · he stond as in an yle,Of fon hii dorre the lasse doute · bote hit be thorgh gyle ...Plente me may in Engelond · of alle gode ise.

W. A. Wright, "Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester," 1887 (Rolls), vol. i. pp. 1, 2. Robert's surname, "of Gloucester," is not certain; see Mr. Wright's preface, and his letter to theAthenæum, May 19, 1888. He is very hard (too hard it seems) on Robert, of whose work he says: "As literature it is as worthless as twelve thousand lines of verse without one spark of poetry can be."

[166]Among writings of this sort, written in French either by Frenchmen or by Englishmen, and popular in England, may be quoted: Penitential Psalms, a French version very popular in England, in a MS. preserved at the University Library, Cambridge, thirteenth century ("Romania," vol. xv. p. 305).—Explanation of the Gospels: the "Miroir," by Robert de Greteham, in 20,000 French verses (Ibid.).—Lives of Saints: life of Becket in "Materials for the history of Thomas Becket," ed. Robertson, 1875 ff., 7 vols., and "Fragments d'une vie de St. Thomas" (with very curious engravings), edited by Paul Meyer, 1885, 4to, Société des Anciens Textes; life of St. Catherine, by Sister Clemence de Barking, twelfth century (G. Paris, "Romania," xiii. p. 400); life of St. Josaphaz and life of the Seven Sleepers, by Chardry, thirteenth century ("Chardry's Josaphaz," &c., ed. Koch, Heilbronn, 1879, 8vo); life of St. Gregory the Great, by Augier, of St. Frideswide's, Oxford, thirteenth century (text and commentary in "Romania," xii. pp. 145 ff.); lives of St. Edward (ed. Luard, Rolls, 1858); mention of many other lives in French (others in English) will be found in Hardy's "Descriptive Catalogue," Rolls, 1862 ff.—Manuals and treatises: by Robert Grosseteste, William de Wadington and others (see below, p. 214).—Works concerning Our Lady: "Adgars Marien Legenden," ed. Carl Neuhaus, Heilbronn, 1886, 8vo (stories in French verse of miracles of the Virgin, by Adgar, an Anglo-Norman of the twelfth century; some take place in England); "Joies de Notre Dame," "Plaintes de Notre Dame," French poems written in England, thirteenth century (see "Romania," vol. xv. pp. 307 ff.).—Moralised tales and Bestiaries: "Bestiaire" of Philippe de Thaon, a Norman priest of the twelfth century, in French verse (includes a "Lapidaire" and a "Volucraire," on the virtues of stones and birds), text in T. Wright, "Popular Treatises on Science," London 1841, Historical Society, 8vo; (see also P. Meyer, "Recueil d'anciens textes," Paris, 1877, 8vo, p. 286), the same wrote also an ecclesiastical "Comput" in verse (ed. Mall, Strasbourg, 1873, 8vo); "Bestiaire divin," by Guillaume le Clerc, also a Norman, thirteenth century (ed. Hippeau, Caen, 1852, 8vo), to be compared to the worldly "Bestiaire d'Amour," of Richard de Fournival, thirteenth century (ed. Hippeau, Paris, 1840, 8vo); translation in French prose, probably by a Norman, of the Latin fables (thirteenth century) of Odo de Cheriton, "Romania," vol. xiv. p. 388, and Hervieux, "Fabulistes Latins," vol. ii.; "Contes moralisés de Nicole Bozon," ed. P. Meyer and Lucy Toulmin Smith, Paris, 1889, 8vo, Société des Anciens Textes, in French prose, fourteenth century.—Sermons: "Reimpredigt," ed. Suchier, Halle, 1879, 8vo, in French verse, by an Anglo-Norman; on sermons in French and in Latin, see Lecoy de la Marche, "La Chaire française an moyen âge," Paris, 1886, 8vo, 2nd ed.; at p. 282, sermon on the Passion by Geoffrey de Waterford in French verse, Anglo-Norman dialect.

[167]"Reimpredigt," ed. Suchier, Halle, 1879, p. 64. There were also sermons in English (see next chapter); Jocelin de Brakelonde says in his chronicle that sermons were delivered in churches, "gallice vel potius anglice, ut morum fieret edificatio, non literaturæ ostensio," year 1200 (Camden Society, 1840, p. 95).

[168]"La Chanson de Roland, texte critique, traduction et commentaire," by Léon Gautier, Tours, 1881, 8vo; "La Chanson de Roland, traduction archaïque et rythmée," by L. Clédat, Paris, 1887, 8vo. On the romances of the cycle of Charlemagne composed in England, see G. Paris, "Histoire poétique de Charlemagne," 1865, 8vo, pp. 155 ff. The unique MS. of the "Chanson," written about 1170, is at Oxford, where it was found in our century. It was printed for the first time in 1837. Other versions of the story have come down to us; on which see Gaston Paris's Introduction to his "Extraits de la Chanson de Roland," 1893, 4th ed.

[169]Croist li aciers, ne fraint ne s'esgruignet;Et dist li cuens: "Sainte Marie, aiude!...E! Durendal, com iés et clére et blanche!Contre soleil si reluis et reflambes!...E! Durendal, com iés bèle et saintisme!"

[169]

Croist li aciers, ne fraint ne s'esgruignet;Et dist li cuens: "Sainte Marie, aiude!...E! Durendal, com iés et clére et blanche!Contre soleil si reluis et reflambes!...E! Durendal, com iés bèle et saintisme!"

[170]Cil Sarrazins me semblet mult herites.

[170]

Cil Sarrazins me semblet mult herites.

[171]Ne a muillier n'a dame qu'as veütN'en vanteras el' regne dunt tu fus.

[171]

Ne a muillier n'a dame qu'as veütN'en vanteras el' regne dunt tu fus.

[172]"Car le Royaume de France ne fut oncques si desconfis que on n'y trouvast bien tousjours à qui combattre." Prologue of the Chronicles, Luce's edition, vol. i. p. 212.

[173]Car bien scavons sanz nul espoirQ'il ne fu pius de c ans néeQ'il grans ost fu assemblée.MS. fr. 60 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 42; contains: "Li Roumans de Tiebes qui fu racine de Troie la grant.—Item toute l'histoire de Troie la grant."

[173]

Car bien scavons sanz nul espoirQ'il ne fu pius de c ans néeQ'il grans ost fu assemblée.

MS. fr. 60 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 42; contains: "Li Roumans de Tiebes qui fu racine de Troie la grant.—Item toute l'histoire de Troie la grant."

[174]"Alexandre le Grand, dans la littérature française du moyen âge," by P. Meyer, Paris, 1886, 2 vols. 8vo (vol. i. texts, vol. ii. history of the legend); vol. ii. p. 182.

[175]MS. fr. 782 at the National Library, Paris, containing poems by Benoit de Sainte-More, fol. 151, 155, 158.

[176]Benoit de Sainte-More, a poet of the court of Henry II., wrote his "Roman de Troie" about 1160 (G. Paris); it was edited by Joly, Paris, 1870, 2 vols. 4to.—"Le Roman de Thèbes," ed. L. Constans, Paris, 1890, 2 vols. 8vo, wrongly attributed to Benoit de Sainte-More, indirectly imitated from the "Thebaid" of Statius.—"Eneas," a critical text, ed. J. Salvedra de Grave, Halle, Bibliotheca Normannica, 1891, 8vo, also attributed, but wrongly it seems, to Benoit; the work of a Norman, twelfth century; imitated from the "Æneid."—The immense poem of Eustache or Thomas de Kent is still unpublished; the author imitates the romance in "alexandrines" of Lambert le Tort and Alexandre de Paris, twelfth century, ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1846.—The romances of Hue de Rotelande (Rhuddlan in Flintshire?) are also in French verse, and were composed between 1176-7 and 1190-1; see Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," 1883, vol. i. pp. 728 ff.; his "Ipomedon" has been edited by Kölbing and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889, 8vo; his "Prothesilaus" is still unpublished.

[177]Lib. IX. cap. ii.

[178]"Hic est Arthur de quo Britonum nugæ hodieque delirant, dignus plane quod non fallaces somniarent fabulæ, sed veraces prædicarent historiæ." "De Gestis," ed. Stubbs, Rolls, vol. i. p. 11. Henry of Huntingdon, on the other hand, unable to identify the places of Arthur's battles, descants upon the vanity of fame and glory, "popularis auræ, laudis adulatoriæ, famæ transitoriæ...." "Historia Anglorum," Rolls, p. 49.

[179]Says the Wolf:Dont estes vos? de quel païs?Vos n'estes mie nes de France ...—Nai, mi seignor, mais de Bretaing ...—Et savez vos neisun mestier?—Ya, ge fot molt bon jogler ...Ge fot savoir bon lai Breton."Roman de Renart," ed. Martin, vol. i. pp. 66, 67.

[179]Says the Wolf:

Dont estes vos? de quel païs?Vos n'estes mie nes de France ...—Nai, mi seignor, mais de Bretaing ...—Et savez vos neisun mestier?—Ya, ge fot molt bon jogler ...Ge fot savoir bon lai Breton.

"Roman de Renart," ed. Martin, vol. i. pp. 66, 67.

[180]Gildas, "De Excidio Britanniæ," ed. J. Stevenson, English Historical Society, 1838, 8vo; Nennius, "Historia Britonum," same editor, place, and date.

[181]His "Historia" was edited by Giles, London, 1844, 8vo, and by San Marte, "Gottfried von Monmouth Historia regum Britanniæ," Halle, 1854, 8vo. Geoffrey of Monmouth, or rather Geoffrey Arthur, a name which had been borne by his father before him (Galffrai or Gruffyd in Welsh), first translated from Welsh into Latin the prophecies of Merlin, included afterwards in his "Historia"; bishop of St. Asaph, 1152; died at Llandaff, 1154. See Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. pp. 203 ff.

[182]Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," vol. i. p. 210.

[183]"Quidam nostris temporibus, pro expiandis his Britonum maculis, scriptor emersit, ridicula de eisdem figmenta contexens, ... Gaufridus hic dictus est.... Profecto minimum digitum sui Arturi grossiorem facit dorso Alexandri magni." "Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia," ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1719, 3 vols. 8vo, "Proemium"; end of the twelfth century.

[184]"Le Roman de Brut," ed. Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen, 1836-38, 2 vols. 8vo.Cf.P. Meyer, "De quelques chroniques anglo-normandes qui ont porté le nom de Brut," Paris, 1878, "Bulletin de la Société des Anciens Textes français."

[185]The oldest poem we have in which the early songs on Tristan were gathered into one whole was written in French, on English soil, by Bérou about 1150. Another version, also in French verse, was written about 1170 by another Anglo-Norman, called Thomas. A third was the work of the famous Chrestien de Troyes, same century. We have only fragments of the two first; the last is entirely lost. It has been, however, possible to reconstitute the poem of Thomas "by means of three versions: a German one (by Gotfrid of Strasbourg, unfinished), a Norwegian one (in prose, ab. 1225, faithful but compressed), and an English one (XIVth century, a greatly impaired text)." G. Paris, "La Littérature française au moyen âge," 2nd ed., 1890, p. 94. See also "Tristan et Iseut," by the same,Revue de Paris, April 15, 1894.Texts: "The poetical Romances of Tristan in French, in Anglo-Norman, and in Greek," ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1835-9, 3 vols. 8vo.—"Die Nordische und die Englische Version der Tristan-Sage," ed. Kölbing, Heilbronn, 1878-83, 2 vols. 8vo; vol. i., "Tristrams Saga ok Isoudar" (Norwegian prose); vol. ii., "Sir Tristram" (English verse).—"Gottfried von Strassburg Tristan," ed. Reinhold Bachstein, Leipzig, 1869, 2 vols. 8vo (German verse).

Texts: "The poetical Romances of Tristan in French, in Anglo-Norman, and in Greek," ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1835-9, 3 vols. 8vo.—"Die Nordische und die Englische Version der Tristan-Sage," ed. Kölbing, Heilbronn, 1878-83, 2 vols. 8vo; vol. i., "Tristrams Saga ok Isoudar" (Norwegian prose); vol. ii., "Sir Tristram" (English verse).—"Gottfried von Strassburg Tristan," ed. Reinhold Bachstein, Leipzig, 1869, 2 vols. 8vo (German verse).

[186]"Inferno," canto v.

[187]The following analysis is mainly made after "Tristan et Iseult, poème de Gotfrit de Strasbourg, comparé à d'autres poèmes sur le même sujet," by A. Bossert, Paris, 1865, 8vo. Gotfrit wrote before 1203 (G. Paris, "Histoire Littérarie de la France," vol. xxx. p. 21).

[188]En sa chambre se set un jor,E fait un lai pitus d'am[o]r:Coment dan Guirun fu surpris,Pur l'amur de sa dame ocis....La reine chante dulcement,La voiz acorde el estrument;Les mainz sunt bels, li lais b[o]nsDulce la voiz [et] bas li tons.Francisque Michel,ut supra, vol. iii. p. 39.

[188]

En sa chambre se set un jor,E fait un lai pitus d'am[o]r:Coment dan Guirun fu surpris,Pur l'amur de sa dame ocis....La reine chante dulcement,La voiz acorde el estrument;Les mainz sunt bels, li lais b[o]nsDulce la voiz [et] bas li tons.

Francisque Michel,ut supra, vol. iii. p. 39.

[189]On this incident, the earliest version of which is as old as the fourteenth centuryb.c., having been found in an Egyptian papyrus of that date, see the article by Gaston Paris's, Part I.

[190]Swinburne, "Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems."

[191]Bosert, pp. 62, 68, 72, 82.

[192]"Et vous deistes, ales a Dieu, beau doulx amis. Ne oncques puis du cueur ne me pot issir; ce fut li moz qui preudomme me fera si je jamais le suis; car oncques puis ne fus à si grant meschief qui de ce mot ne me souvenist; cilz moz me conforte en tous mes anuys; cilz moz m'a tousjours garanti et gardé de tous périlz; cilz moz m'a saoulé en toutes mes faims; cilz moz me fait riche en toutes mes pouretés. Par foi fait la royne cilz moz fut de bonne heure dit, et benois soit dieux qui dire le me fist. Mais je ne le pris pas si acertes comme vous feistes. A maint chevalier l'ay je dit là où oncques je n'y pensay fors du dire seulement." MS. fr. 118 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 219; fourteenth century. The history of Lancelot was told in verse and prose in almost all the languages of Europe, from the twelfth century. One of the oldest versions (twelfth century) was the work of an Anglo-Norman. The most famous of the Lancelot poems is the "Conte de la Charrette," by Chrestien de Troyes, written between 1164 and 1172 (G. Paris, "Romania," vol. xii. p. 463).

[193]"Omnis consuevit amans in coamantis aspectu pallescere," &c. Rules supposed to have been discovered by a knight at the court of Arthur, and transcribed in the "Flos Amoris," or "De Arte honeste amandi," of André le Chapelain, thirteenth century; "Romania," vol. xii. p. 532.

[194]On these romances, see, in "Histoire Littéraire de la France," vol. xxx., a notice by Gaston Paris. On the MSS. of them preserved in the British Museum, see Ward, "Catalogue of MS. Romances," 1883 (on Merlin, pp. 278 ff.; on other prophecies, and especially those by Thomas of Erceldoune, p. 328; these last have been edited by Alois Brandl, "Thomas of Erceldoune," Berlin, 1880, 8vo, "Sammlung Englischer Denkmäler," and by the Early English Text Society, 1875).

[195]On legends of Hindu origin and for a long time wrongly attributed to the Arabs, see Gaston Paris, "le Lai de l'Oiselet," Paris, 1884, 8vo. See also the important work of M. Bédier, "les Fabliaux," Paris, 1893, 8vo, in which the evidence concerning the Eastern origin of tales is carefully sifted and restricted within the narrowest limits: very few come from the East, not the bulk of them, as was generally admitted.

[196]For Amis, very popular in England, see Kölbing, "Amis and Amiloun," Heilbronn, 1884 (cf.below, p. 229), and "Nouvelles françoises en prose du treizième siècle," edited by Moland and d'Héricault, Paris, 1856, 16mo; these "Nouvelles" include: "l'Empereur Constant," "les Amitiés de Ami et Amile," "le roi Flore et la belle Jehanne," "la Comtesse de Ponthieu," "Aucassin et Nicolette."—The French text of "Floire et Blanceflor" is to be found in Edelstand du Méril, "Poèmes du treizième siècle," Paris, 1856, 16mo.—For Marie de France, see H. Suchier, "Die Lais der Marie de France," Halle, Bibliotheca, Normannica, 1885, 8vo; her fables are in vol. ii. of "Poésies de Marie de France," ed. Roquefort, Paris, 1819, 2 vols. 8vo. See also Bédier's article in theRevue des Deux Mondes, Oct. 15, 1891, also the chapter on Marie in Hervieux, "Fabulistes Latins," 1883-4, 2nd part, chap. i.

[197]On this subject, see Gaston Paris's criticism of the "Origines de la poésie lyrique en France" of Jeanroy, in the "Journal des Savants," 1892.

[198]One fact among many shows how constant was the intercourse on the Continent between Frenchmen of France and Englishmen living or travelling there, namely, the knowledge of the English language shown in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the authors of several branches of the "Roman de Renart," and the caricatures they drew of English people, which would have amused nobody if the originals of the pictures had not been familiar to all. (See Branches I^b and XIV. in Martin's edition.)

[199]Jeanroy, "Origines de la poésie lyrique en France, au moyen âge," Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 68. An allusion in a crusade song of the twelfth century shows that thismotifwas already popular then. It is found also in much older poetry and more remote countries, for Jeanroy quotes a Chinese poem, written before the seventh century of our era, where, it is true, a mere cock and mere flies play the part of the Verona lark and nightingale: "It was not the cock, it was the hum of flies," or in the Latin translation of Father Lacharme: "Fallor, non cantavit gallus, sed muscarum fuit strepitus,"ibid., p. 70.Onchansonswritten in French by Anglo-Normans, see "Mélanges de poésie anglo-normande," by P. Meyer, in "Romania," vol. iv. p. 370, and "Les Manuscrits Français de Cambridge," by the same,ibid., vol. xv.

Onchansonswritten in French by Anglo-Normans, see "Mélanges de poésie anglo-normande," by P. Meyer, in "Romania," vol. iv. p. 370, and "Les Manuscrits Français de Cambridge," by the same,ibid., vol. xv.

[200]Anglo-Norman song, written in England, in the thirteenth century, "Romania," vol. xv. p. 254.

[201]"La Plainte d'amour," from a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge, GG I. 1, "Romania,"ibid.

[202]Bele Aliz matin leva,Sun cors vesti e para,Enz un verger s'entra,Cink flurettes y truva,Un chapelet fet en aDe rose flurie;Pur Deu, trahez vus en làVus ki ne amez mie.The text of the sermon, as we have it is in Latin; it has long but wrongly been attributed to Stephen Langton; printed by T. Wright in his "Biographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman period," 1846, p. 446.

[202]

Bele Aliz matin leva,Sun cors vesti e para,Enz un verger s'entra,Cink flurettes y truva,Un chapelet fet en aDe rose flurie;Pur Deu, trahez vus en làVus ki ne amez mie.

The text of the sermon, as we have it is in Latin; it has long but wrongly been attributed to Stephen Langton; printed by T. Wright in his "Biographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman period," 1846, p. 446.

[203]"Le Pélerinage de Charlemagne," eleventh century. Only one MS. has been preserved, written in England, in the thirteenth century; it has been edited by Koschwitz, "Karls des Grossen Reise nach Jerusalem und Konstantinopel," Heilbronn, 1880, 8vo.Cf.G. Paris, "La poésie française au moyen âge," 1885, p. 119, and "Romania," vol. ix.

[204]"Le Roman de Renart," ed. E. Martin, Strasbourg, 1882-7, 4 vols. 8vo; contains: vol. i., the old series of branches; vol. ii., the additional branches; vol. iii., variants; vol. iv., notes and tables. Most of the branches were composed in Normandy, Ile-de-France, Picardy; the twelfth is the work of Richard de Lison, a Norman, end of the twelfth century; several, for example the fourteenth, evince on the part of their author a knowledge of the English tongue and manners. Concerning the sources of the "Roman," see Sudre, "Les Sources du Roman de Renart," Paris, 1892, 8vo.

[205]Caricature of a funeral ceremony:—Brun li ors, prenez vostre estole ...Sire Tardis li limaçonsLut par lui sol les trois leçonsEt Roenel chanta les vers. (Vol. i. p. 12.)

[205]Caricature of a funeral ceremony:—

Brun li ors, prenez vostre estole ...Sire Tardis li limaçonsLut par lui sol les trois leçonsEt Roenel chanta les vers. (Vol. i. p. 12.)

[206]Seigneurs, oï avez maint conteQue maint conterre vous raconte,Conment Paris ravi Eleine,Le mal qu'il en ot et la paine ...Et fabliaus, chansons de geste ...Mais onques n'oïstes la guerre,Qui tant fu dure et de grant finEntre Renart et Ysengrin.(Prologue of Branch II.)

[206]

Seigneurs, oï avez maint conteQue maint conterre vous raconte,Conment Paris ravi Eleine,Le mal qu'il en ot et la paine ...Et fabliaus, chansons de geste ...Mais onques n'oïstes la guerre,Qui tant fu dure et de grant finEntre Renart et Ysengrin.(Prologue of Branch II.)

(Prologue of Branch II.)

[207]"Or dont," dit Nobles, "au deable!Por le cuer be, sire Ysengrin,Prendra ja vostre gerre fin?"(Vol. i. p. 8.)

[207]

"Or dont," dit Nobles, "au deable!Por le cuer be, sire Ysengrin,Prendra ja vostre gerre fin?"(Vol. i. p. 8.)

"Or dont," dit Nobles, "au deable!Por le cuer be, sire Ysengrin,Prendra ja vostre gerre fin?"

(Vol. i. p. 8.)

[208]... Sire Chanticler li cos,Et Pinte qui pont les ues grosEt Noire et Blanche et la RosseteAmenoient une chareteQui envouxe ert d'une cortine.Dedenz gisoit une gelineQue l'en amenoit en litèreFete autresi con une bère.Renart l'avoit si maumenéeEt as denz si desordenéeQue la cuisse li avoit freteEt une ele hors del cors trete.(Vol. i. p. 9.)

[208]

... Sire Chanticler li cos,Et Pinte qui pont les ues grosEt Noire et Blanche et la RosseteAmenoient une chareteQui envouxe ert d'une cortine.Dedenz gisoit une gelineQue l'en amenoit en litèreFete autresi con une bère.Renart l'avoit si maumenéeEt as denz si desordenéeQue la cuisse li avoit freteEt une ele hors del cors trete.(Vol. i. p. 9.)

(Vol. i. p. 9.)

[209]... Renart ne l'en laissaDe totes cinc que une soule:Totes passèrent par sa goule.Et vos qui là gisez en bère,Ma douce suer m'amie chère,Con vos estieez tendre et crasse!Que fera vostre suer la lasse?(Vol. i. p. 10.)

[209]

... Renart ne l'en laissaDe totes cinc que une soule:Totes passèrent par sa goule.Et vos qui là gisez en bère,Ma douce suer m'amie chère,Con vos estieez tendre et crasse!Que fera vostre suer la lasse?(Vol. i. p. 10.)

(Vol. i. p. 10.)

[210]Pinte la lasse à ces parolesChaï, pamée el pavementEt les autres tot ensement.Por relever les quatre dames,Se levèrent de leurs escamesEt chen et lou et autres bestes,Eve lor getent sor les testes.

[210]

Pinte la lasse à ces parolesChaï, pamée el pavementEt les autres tot ensement.Por relever les quatre dames,Se levèrent de leurs escamesEt chen et lou et autres bestes,Eve lor getent sor les testes.

[211]Par mautalant drece la teste.Onc n'i ot si hardie beste,Or ne sangler, que poor n'etQuant lor sire sospire et bret.Tel poor ot Coars li lèvresQue il en ot deus jors les fèvres.Tote la cort fremist ensemble,Li plus hardis de peor tremble.Par mautalent sa coue drece,Si se débat par tel destreceQue tot en sone la meson,Et puis fu tele sa reson.Dame Pinte, fet l'emperere,Foi que doi à l'ame mon père....

[211]

Par mautalant drece la teste.Onc n'i ot si hardie beste,Or ne sangler, que poor n'etQuant lor sire sospire et bret.Tel poor ot Coars li lèvresQue il en ot deus jors les fèvres.Tote la cort fremist ensemble,Li plus hardis de peor tremble.Par mautalent sa coue drece,Si se débat par tel destreceQue tot en sone la meson,Et puis fu tele sa reson.Dame Pinte, fet l'emperere,Foi que doi à l'ame mon père....

[212]Examples of sculptures in the stalls of the cathedrals at Gloucester, St. David's, &c.; of miniatures, MS. 10 E iv. in the British Museum (English drawings of the beginning of the fourteenth century, one of them reproduced in "English Wayfaring Life," p. 309); of manuscripts: MS. fr. 12,583 in the National Library, Paris, "Cest livre est à Humfrey duc de Gloucester, liber lupi et vulpis"; of a translation in English of part of the romance: "Of the Vox and the Wolf" (time of Edward I., in Wright's "Selection of Latin Stories," Percy Society; see below, pp. 228 ff.). Caxton issued in 1481 "Thystorye of Reynard the Foxe," reprinted by Thoms, Percy Society, 1844, 8vo. The MS. in the National Library, mainly followed by Martin in his edition, offers "a sort of mixture of the Norman and Picard dialects. The vowels generally present Norman if not Anglo-Norman characteristics." "Roman de Renart," vol. i. p. 2.

[213]In Migne's "Patrologia," vol. lxxvii. col. 153. "Dialogorum Liber I."; Prologue.

[214]"De vita eremitica," in Migne's "Patrologia," vol. xxxii. col. 1451, text below, p. 213.

[215]Council of Sens, 1528, in "The Exempla, or illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry," ed. T. F. Crane, London, 1890, 8vo, p. lxix. The collection of sermons withexempla, compiled by Jacques de Vitry (born ab. 1180, d. ab. 1239), was one of the most popular, and is one of the most curious of its kind.

[216]Si che le pecorelle, che non sanno,Tornan dal pasco pasciute di vento ...Ora si va con motti, e con iscedeA predicare....Di questo ingrassa il porco Sant' Antonio,Ed altri assai, che son peggio che porci,Pagando di moneta senza conio.("Paradiso," canto xxix.)

[216]

Si che le pecorelle, che non sanno,Tornan dal pasco pasciute di vento ...Ora si va con motti, e con iscedeA predicare....Di questo ingrassa il porco Sant' Antonio,Ed altri assai, che son peggio che porci,Pagando di moneta senza conio.("Paradiso," canto xxix.)

Si che le pecorelle, che non sanno,Tornan dal pasco pasciute di vento ...

Ora si va con motti, e con iscedeA predicare....

Di questo ingrassa il porco Sant' Antonio,Ed altri assai, che son peggio che porci,Pagando di moneta senza conio.

("Paradiso," canto xxix.)

[217]To be found,e.g., in Jacques de Vitry,ibid.p. 105: "Audivi de quadam vetula que non poterat inducere quandam matronam ut juveni consentiret," &c. See below, pp. 225, and 447.

[218]Bédier, "Les Fabliaux," Paris, 1893, 8vo, p. 241; Bédier's definition of the same is as follows: "Les fabliaux sont des contes à rire, en vers," p. 6. The principal French collections are: Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux et contes des poètes français," Paris, 1808, 4 vols. 8vo; Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général et complet des Fabliaux," Paris, 1872-90, 6 vols. 8vo.

[219]Ge sai contes, ge sai fableax,Ge sai conter beax diz noveax, &c."Des deux bordeors ribauz," in Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général," vol. i. p. 11.

[219]

Ge sai contes, ge sai fableax,Ge sai conter beax diz noveax, &c.

"Des deux bordeors ribauz," in Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil général," vol. i. p. 11.

CHAPTER III.

LATIN.

The ties with France were close ones; those with Rome were no less so. William had come to England, politically as the heir of the Anglo-Saxon kings, and with regard to ecclesiastical affairs as the Pope's chosen, blessed by the head of Christianity. In both respects, notwithstanding storms and struggles, the tradition thus started was continued under his successors.

At no period of the history of England was the union with Rome closer, and at no time, not even in the Augustan Age of English literature was there a larger infusion of Latin ideas. The final consequence of Henry II.'s quarrel with Thomas Becket was a still more complete submission of this prince to the Roman See. John Lackland's fruitless attempts to reach absolute power resulted in the gift of his domains to St. Peter and the oath of fealty sworn by him as vassal of the Pope: "We, John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy, earl of Anjou, ... Wishing to humiliate ourselves for Him who humiliated Himself for us even unto death ... freely offer and concede to God and to our lord Pope Innocent and his Catholic successors, all the kingdom ofEngland and all the kingdom of Ireland for the remission of our sins,"[220]May 15, 1213.

From the day after Hastings the Church is seen establishing herself on firm basis in the country; she receives as many, and even more domains than the companions of the Conqueror. In the county of Dorset, for instance, it appears from Domesday that "the Church with her vassals and dependents enjoyed more than a third of the whole county, and that her patrimony was greater than that of all the Barons and greater feudalists combined."[221]

The religious foundations are innumerable, especially at the beginning; they decrease as the time of the Renaissance draws nearer. Four hundred and eighteen are counted from William Rufus to John, a period of one hundred years; one hundred and thirty-nine during the three following reigns: a hundred and eight years; twenty-three in the fourteenth century, and only three in the fifteenth.[222]

This number of monasteries necessitated considerable intercourse with Rome; many of the monks, often the abbots, were Italian or French; they had suits in the court of Rome, they laid before the Pope at Rome, and later at Avignon, their spiritual and temporal difficulties; the most important abbeys were "exempt," that is to say, under the direct jurisdiction of the Pope without passingthrough the local episcopal authority. This was the case with St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Albans, St. Edmund's, Waltham, Evesham, Westminster, &c. The clergy of England had its eyes constantly turned Romewards.

This clergy was very numerous; in the thirteenth century its ranks were swelled by the arrival of the mendicant friars: Franciscans and Dominicans, the latter representing more especially doctrine, and the former practice. The Dominicans expound dogmas, fight heresy, and furnish the papacy with its Grand Inquisitors[223]; the Franciscans do charitable works, nurse lepers and wretches in the suburbs of the towns. All science that does not tend to the practice of charity is forbidden them: "Charles the Emperor," said St. Francis, "Roland and Oliver, all the paladins and men mighty in battle, have pursued the infidels to death, and won their memorable victories at the cost of much toil and labour. The holy martyrs died fighting for the faith of Christ. But there are in our time, people who by the mere telling of their deeds, seek honour and glory among men. There are also some among you who like better to preach on the virtues of the saints than to imitate their labours.... When thou shalt have a psalter so shalt thou wish for a breviary, and when thou shalt have a breviary, thou shalt sit in a chair like a great prelate, and say to thy brother: 'Brother, fetch me my breviary.'"[224]

Thirty-two years after their first coming there were in England twelve hundred and forty-two Franciscans, with forty-nine convents, divided into seven custodies: London, York, Cambridge, Bristol, Oxford, Newcastle, Worcester.[225]"Your Holiness must know," writes Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, to Pope Gregory IX., "that the friars illuminate the whole country by the light of their preaching and teaching. Intercourse with these holy men propagates scorn of the world and voluntary poverty.... Oh! could your Holiness see how piously and humbly the people hasten to hear from them the word of life, to confess their sins, and learn the rules of good conduct!..."[226]Such was the beginning; what followed was far from resembling it. The point to be remembered is another tie with Rome, represented by these new Orders: even the troubles that their disorders gave rise to later, their quarrels with the secular clergy, the monks and the University, the constant appeals to the Pope that were a result of these disputes, the obstinacy with which they endeavoured to form a Church within the Church, all tended to increase and multiply the relations between Rome and England.

The English clergy was not only numerous and largely endowed; it was also very influential, and played a considerable part in the policy of the State. When the Parliament was constituted the clergy occupied many seats, the king's ministers were usually churchmen; the high Chancellor was a prelate.

The action of the Latin Church made itself also felt on the nation by means of ecclesiastical tribunals, the powers of which were considerable; all that concerned clerks, or related to faith and beliefs, to tithes, to deeds and contracts having a moral character, wills for instance, came withinthe jurisdiction of the religious magistrate. This justice interfered in the private life of the citizens; it had an inquisitorial character; it wanted to know if good order reigned in households, if the husband was faithful and the wife virtuous; it cited adulterers to its bar and chastised them. Summoners (Chaucer's somnours) played the part of spies and public accusers; they kept themselves well informed on these different matters, were constantly on the watch, pried into houses, collected and were supposed to verify evil reports, and summoned before the ecclesiastical court those whom Jane's or Gilote's beauty had turned from the path of conjugal fidelity. It may be readily imagined that such an institution afforded full scope for abuses; it could hardly have been otherwise unless all the summoners had been saints, which they were not; some among them were known to compound with the guilty for money, to call the innocent before the judge in order to gratify personal spite.[227]Their misdeeds were well known but not easy to prove; so that Chaucer's satires did more to ruin the institution than all the petitions to Parliament. These summoners were also in their own way, mean as that was, representatives of the Latin country, of the spiritual power of Rome; they knew it, and made the best of the stray Latin words that had lodged in their memory; they used them as their shibboleth.

Bishops kept seigneurial retinues, built fortresses[228]and lived in them, had their archers and their dogs, hunted, laid siege to towns, made war, and only had recourse to excommunication when all other means of prevailing over their foes had failed. Others among them became saints: both in heaven and on earth they held the first rank. Like the sovereign, they knew, even then, the worth of public opinion; they bought the goodwill of wandering poets, as that of the press was bought in the day of Defoe. The itinerant minstrels were the newspapers of the period; they retailed the news and distributed praise or blame; they acquired over the common people the same influence that "printed matter" has had in more recent times. Hugh de Nunant, bishop of Coventry, accuses William de Longchamp, bishop of Ely, and Chancellor of England, in a letter still extant, of having inspired the verses—one might almost say the articles—that minstrels come from France, and paid by him, told in public places, "in plateis," not without effect, "for already, according to public opinion, no one in the universe was comparable to him."[229]

Nothing gives so vivid an impression of the time that has elapsed, and the transformation in manners that hasoccurred, as the sight of that religious and warlike tournament of which England was the field under Richard Cœur-de-Lion, and of which the heroes were all prelates, to wit: these same William de Longchamp, bishop of Ely, and Hugh de Nunant, bishop of Coventry; then Hugh de Puiset, bishop of Durham, Geoffrey Plantagenet, archbishop of York, &c.

Hugh de Puiset, a scion of the de Puisets, viscounts of Chartres, grandson of the Conqueror, cousin to King Richard, bishop palatine of Durham, wears the coat of mail, fortifies his castles, storms those of his enemies, builds ships, adds a beautiful "Lady chapel" to his cathedral, and spends the rest of his time in hunting.

William de Longchamp, his great rival, grandson of a Norman peasant, bishop of Ely, Chancellor of England, seizes on Lincoln by force, lives like a prince, has an escort of a thousand horsemen, adds to the fortifications of the Tower of London and stands a siege in it. He is obliged to give himself up to Hugh de Nunant, another bishop; he escapes disguised as a woman; he is recognised, imprisoned in a cellar, and exiled; he then excommunicates his enemies. Fortune smiles on him once more and he is reinstated in his functions.

Geoffrey Plantagenet, a natural son of Henry II., the only child who remained always faithful to the old king, had once thought he would reach the crown, but was obliged to content himself with becoming archbishop of York. As such, he scorned to ally himself either with Longchamp or with Puiset, and made war on both impartially. Longchamp forbids him to leave France; nevertheless Geoffrey lands at Dover, the castle of which was held by Richenda, sister of the Chancellor. He mounts on horseback and gallops towards the priory of St. Martin; Richenda sends after him, and one of the lady's men was putting his hand on the horse's bridle,when our lord the archbishop, shod with iron, gave a violent kick to the enemy's steed, and tore his belly open; the beast reared, and the prelate, freeing himself, reached the priory. There he is under watch for four days, after which he is dragged from the very altar, and taken to the castle of Dover. At last he is liberated, and installed in York; he immediately commences to fight with his own clergy; he enters the cathedral when vespers are half over; he interrupts the service, and begins it over again; the indignant treasurer has the tapers put out, and the archbishop continues his psalm-singing in the dark. He excommunicates his neighbour Hugh de Puiset, who is little concerned by it; he causes the chalices used by the bishop of Durham to be destroyed as profaned.

Hugh de Puiset, who was still riding about, though attacked by the disease that was finally to carry him off, dies full of years in 1195, after areignof forty-three years. He had had several children by different women: one of them, Henri de Puiset, joined the Crusade; another, Hugh, remained French, and became Chancellor to King Louis VII.[230]

These warlike habits are only attenuated by degrees. In 1323 Edward II. writes to Louis de Beaumont, bishop of Durham, reproaching a noble like him for not defending his bishopric any better against the Scotch than if he were a mutterer of prayers like his predecessor. Command is laid upon bishop Louis to take arms and go and camp on the frontier. In the second half of the same century, Henry le Despencer, bishop of Norwich, hacks the peasants to pieces, during the great rising, and makes war in Flanders for the benefit of one of the two popes.

Side by side with these warriors shine administrators, men of learning, saints, all important and influentialpersonages in their way. Such are, for example, Lanfranc, of Pavia, late abbot of St. Stephen at Caen, who, as archbishop of Canterbury, reorganised the Church of England; Anselm of Aosta, late abbot of Bec, also an archbishop, canonised at the Renaissance, the discoverer of the famous "ontological" proof of the existence of God, a paradoxical proof the inanity of which it was reserved for St. Thomas Aquinas to demonstrate; Gilbert Foliot, a Frenchman, bishop of London, celebrated for his science, a strong supporter of Henry II.; Thomas Becket, of Norman descent, archbishop and saint, whose quarrel with Henry II. divided England, and almost divided Christendom too; Hugh, bishop of Lincoln under the same king, of French origin, and who was also canonised; Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, who contributed as much as any of the barons to the granting of the Great Charter, and presided over the Council of London, in 1218, where it was solemnly confirmed[231]; Robert Grosseteste,[232]famous for his learning and holiness, his theological treatises, his sermons, his commentaries on Boethius and Aristotle, his taste for the divine art of music, which according to him "drives away devils." Warriors or saints, all these leaders of men keep, in their difficulties, their eyes turned towards Rome, and towards the head of the Latin Church.

II.

At the same time as the monasteries, and under the shadow of their walls, schools and libraries multiplied. The Latin education of the nation is resumed with an energy and perseverance hitherto unknown, and this time there will be no relapse into ignorance; protected by the French conquest, the Latin conquest is now definitive.

Not only are religious books in Latin, psalters, missals and decretals copied and collected in monasteries, but also the ancient classics. They are liked, they are known by heart, quoted in writings, and even in conversation. An English chronicler of the twelfth century declares he would blush to compile annals after the fashion of the Anglo-Saxons; this barbarous manner is to be avoided; he will use Roman salt as a condiment: "et exarata barbarice romano sale condire."[233]Another, of the same period, has the classic ideal so much before his eyes that he makes William deliver, on the day of Hastings, a speech beginning: "O mortalium validissimi!"[234]

A prelate who had been the tutor of the heir to the throne, and died bishop palatine of Durham, Richard de Bury,[235]collects books with a passion equal to that whichwill be later displayed at the court of the Medici. He has emissaries who travel all over England, France, and Italy to secure manuscripts for him; with a book one can obtain anything from him; the abbot of St. Albans, as a propitiatory offering sends him a Terence, a Virgil, and a Quinctilian. His bedchamber is so encumbered with books that one can hardly move in it.[236]Towards the end of his life, never having had but one passion, he undertook to describe it, and, retired into his manor of Auckland, he wrote in Latin prose his "Philobiblon."[237]In this short treatise he defends books, Greek and Roman antiquity, poetry, too, with touching emotion; he is seized with indignation when he thinks of the crimes of high treason against manuscripts, daily committed by pupils who in spring dry flowers in their books; and of the ingratitude of wicked clerks, who admit into the library dogs, or falcons, or worse still, a two-legged animal, "bestia bipedalis," more dangerous "than the basilisk, or aspic," who, discovering the volumes "insufficiently concealed by the protecting web of a dead spider," condemns them to be sold, and converted for her own use into silken hoods and furred gowns.[238]Eve's descendants continue, thinks the bishop, to wrongfully meddle with the tree of knowledge.

What painful commiseration did he not experience on penetrating into an ill-kept convent library! "Then we ordered the book-presses, chests, and bags of the noble monasteries to be opened; and, astonished at beholding again the light of day, the volumes came out of their sepulchres and their prolonged sleep.... Some of them, which had ranked among the daintiest, lay for ever spoilt, in all the horror of decay, covered by filth left by the rats; they who had once been robed in purple and fine linen now lay on ashes, covered with a cilice."[239]The worthy bishop looks upon letters with a religious veneration, worthy of the ancients themselves; his enthusiasm recalls that of Cicero; no one at the Renaissance, not even the illustrious Bessarion, has praised old manuscripts with a more touching fervour, or more nearly attained to the eloquence of the great Latin orator when he speaks of books in his "Pro Archia": "Thanks to books," says the prelate, "the dead appear to me as though they still lived.... Everything decays and falls into dust, by the force of Time; Saturn is never weary of devouring his children, and the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion, had not God as a remedy conferred on mortal man the benefit of books.... Books are the masters that instruct us without rods or ferulas, without reprimands or anger, without the solemnity of the gown or the expense of lessons. Go to them, you will not find them asleep; question them, they will not refuse to answer; if you err, no scoldings on their part; if you are ignorant, no mocking laughter."[240]

These teachings and these examples bore fruit; in renovated England, Latin-speaking clerks swarmed. It is often difficult while reading their works to discover whether they are of native or of foreign extraction; hates with them are less strong than with the rest of theircompatriots; most of them have studied not only in England but in Paris; science has made of them cosmopolitans; they belong, above all, to the Latin country, and the Latin country has not suffered.

The Latin country had two capitals, a religious capital which was Rome, and a literary capital which was Paris. "In the same manner as the city of Athens shone in former days as the mother of liberal arts and the nurse of philosophers, ... so in our times Paris has raised the standard of learning and civilisation, not only in France but in all the rest of Europe, and, as the mother of wisdom, she welcomes guests from all parts of the world, supplies all their wants, and submits them all to her pacific rule."[241]So said Bartholomew the Englishman in the thirteenth century. "What a flood of joy swept over my heart," wrote in the following century another Englishman, that same Richard de Bury, "every time I was able to visit that paradise of the world, Paris! My stay there always seemed brief to me, so great was my passion. There were libraries of perfume more delicious than caskets of spices, orchards of science ever green...."[242]The University of Paris held without contest the first rank during the Middle Ages; it counted among its students, kings, saints, popes, statesmen, poets, learned men of all sorts come from all countries, Italians like Dante, Englishmen like Stephen Langton.

Its lustre dates from the twelfth century. At that timea fusion took place between the theological school of Notre-Dame, where shone, towards the beginning of the century, Guillaume de Champeaux, and the schools of logic that Abélard's teaching gave birth to on St. Geneviève's Mount. This state of things was not created, but consecrated by Pope Innocent III., a former student at Paris, who by his bulls of 1208 and 1209 formed the masters and students into one association,universitas.[243]

According to a mediæval custom, which has been perpetuated in the East, and is still found for instance at the great University of El Azhar at Cairo, the students were divided into nations: France, Normandy, Picardy, England. It was a division by races, and not by countries; the idea of mother countries politically divided being excluded, in theory at least, from the Latin realm. Thus the Italians were included in the French nation, and the Germans in the English one. Of all these foreigners the English were the most numerous; they had in Paris six colleges for theology alone.

The faculties were four in number: theology, law, medicine, arts. The latter, though least in rank, was the most important from the number of its pupils, and was a preparation for the others. The student of arts was about fifteen years of age; he passed a first degree called "déterminance" or bachelorship; then a second one, the licence, after which, in a solemn ceremony termedinceptio, the corporation of masters invested him with the cap, the badge of mastership. He had then, according to his pledge, to dispute for forty successive days with every comer; then, still very youthful, and frequently beardless, he himself began to teach. A master who taught was called a Regent,Magister regens.

The principal schools were situated in the "rue du Fouarre" (straw, litter), "vico degli Strami," says Dante, a street that still exists under the same name, but the ancient houses of which are gradually disappearing. In this formerly dark and narrow street, surrounded by lanes with names carrying us far back into the past ("rue de la Parcheminerie," &c.), the most illustrious masters taught, and the most singular disorders arose. The students come from the four corners of Europe without a farthing, having, in consequence, nothing to lose, and to whom ample privileges had been granted, did not shine by their discipline. Neither was the population of the quarter an exemplary one.[244]We gather from the royal ordinances that the rue du Fouarre, "vicus ultra parvum pontem, vocatus gallice la rue du Feurre," had to be closed at night by barriers and chains, because of individuals who had the wicked habit of establishing themselves at night, with theirribaudes, "mulieres immundæ!" in the lecture-rooms, and leaving, on their departure, by way of a joke, the professor's chair covered with "horrible" filth. Far from feeling any awe, these evil-doers found, on the contrary, a special amusement in the idea of perpetrating their jokes in thesanctumof philosophers, who, says the ordinance of the wise king Charles V., "should be clean and honest, and inhabit clean, decent, and honest places."[245]

Teaching, the principal object of which was logic, consisted in the reading and interpreting of such books as were considered authorities. "The method in expounding is always the same. The commentator discusses in aprologue some general questions relating to the work he is about to lecture upon, and he usually treats of its material, formal, final, and efficient causes. He points out the principal divisions, takes the first member of the division, subdivides it, divides the first member of this subdivision, and thus by a series of divisions, each being successively cleft into two, he reaches a division which only comprises the first chapter. He applies to each part of the work the same process as to its whole. He continues these divisions until he comes to having before him only one phrase including one single complete idea."

Another not less important part of the instruction given consisted in oratorical jousts; the masters disputed among themselves, and the pupils did likewise. In a time when paper was scarce and parchment precious, disputes replaced our written exercises. The weapons employed in these jousts were blunt ones; but as in real tournaments where "armes courtoises" were used, disputants were sometimes carried away by passion, and the result was a true battle: "They scream themselves hoarse, they lavish unmannerly expressions, abuse, threats, upon each other. They even take to cuffing, kicking, and biting."[246]

Under this training, rudimentary though it was, superior minds became sharpened, they got accustomed to think, to weigh the pros and cons, to investigate freely; a taste for intellectual things was kept up in them. The greatest geniuses who had come to study Aristotle on St. Geneviève's Mount were always proud to call themselves pupils of Paris. But narrow minds grew there more narrow; they remained, as Rabelais will say later, foolish and silly, dreaming, stultified things, "tout niais, tout rêveux et rassotés." John of Salisbury, a brilliant scholar of Paris in the twelfth century, had the curiosity to come, after a long absence, and see his old companions "that dialectics stilldetained on St. Geneviève's Mount." "I found them," he tells us, "just as I had left them, and at the same point; they had not advanced one step in the art of solving our ancient questions, nor added to their science the smallest proposition.... I then clearly saw, what it is easy to discover, that the study of dialectics, fruitful if employed as a means to reach the sciences, remain inert and barren if taken as being itself the object of study."[247]

During this time were developing, on the borders of the Isis and the Cam, the Universities, so famous since, of Oxford and Cambridge; but their celebrity was chiefly local, and they never reached the international reputation of the one at Paris. Both towns had flourishing schools in the twelfth century; in the thirteenth, these schools were constituted into a University, on the model of Paris; they were granted privileges, and the Pope, who would not let slip this opportunity of intervening, confirmed them.[248]

The rules of discipline, the teaching, and the degrees are the same as at Paris. The turbulence is just as great; there are incessant battles; battles between the students of the North and those of the South, "boreales et australes," between the English and Irish, between the clerks and the laity. In 1214 some clerks are hung by the citizens of the town; the Pope's legate instantly makes the power of Rome felt, and avenges the insult sustained by privileged persons belonging to the Latin country. During ten years the inhabitants of Oxford shall remit the students half their rent; they shall pay down fifty-two shillings each year onSt. Nicholas' day, in favour of indigent students; and they shall give a banquet to a hundred poor students. Even the bill of fare is settled by the Roman authority: bread, ale, soup, a dish of fish or of meat; and this for ever. The perpetrators of the hanging shall come barefooted, without girdle, cloak or hat, to remove their victims from their temporary resting-place, and, followed by all the citizens, bury them with their own hands in the place assigned to them in consecrated ground.

In 1252 the Irish and "Northerners" begin to fight in St. Mary's Church. They are obliged by authority to appoint twelve delegates, who negotiate a treaty of peace. In 1313 a prohibition is proclaimed against bearing names of nations, these distinctions being a constant source of quarrels. In 1334 such numbers of "Surrois" and "Norrois" clerks are imprisoned in Oxford Castle after a battle, that the sheriff declares escapes are sure to occur.[249]In 1354 a student, seated in a tavern, "in taberna vini," pours a jug of wine over the tavern-keeper's head, and breaks the jug upon it. Unfortunately the head is broken as well; the "laity" take the part of the victim, pursue the clerks, kill twenty of them, and fling their bodies "in latrinas"; they even betake themselves to the books of the students, and "slice them with knives and hatchets." During that term "oh! woe! no degrees in Logic were taken at the University of Oxford."[250]In 1364 war breaks out again between the citizens and students, "commissum fuit bellum," and lasts four days.

Regulations, frequently renewed, show the nature of the principal abuses. These laws pronounce: excommunication against the belligerents; exclusion from the University against those students who harboured "littlewomen" (mulierculas) in their lodgings, major excommunication and imprisonment against those who amuse themselves by celebrating bacchanals in churches, masked, disguised, and crowned "with leaves or flowers"; all this about 1250. The statutes of University Hall, 1292, prohibit the fellows from fighting, from holding immodest conversations together, from telling each other love tales, "fubulas de amasiis," and from singing improper songs.[251]

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