Other romances relate the deeds of the
offspring
of fairy and mortal
union as, for instance, Sir Degare and Sir Gowther.
union as, for instance, Sir Degare and Sir Gowther.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v01
Manners
became more refined and a code of chivalry was evolved.
Heightened sensibility was, moreover, revealed in the increased
appreciation of the beautiful—the beauty of womanhood, the
beauty of nature, the beauty of noble conduct. And the refine-
ment of fancy made fairyland seem possible.
Jean Bodel's classification of the romances has already been
mentioned. Regarding them, however, from the point of view
of the motives and influences they embody, it is seen that they
fall into certain groups: Carolingian or Old French, Old English,
classical, oriental and Celtic.
The Carolingian element is represented in medieval English
romance by Sir Otuel, Roland and Vernagu and Sir Ferumbras.
The first is an account of a Saracen attack upon France. Sir Otuel
is the Saracen emissary who insultingly defies Charlemagne in his
own hall and is, in consequence, challenged by Roland. A stiff
fight follows; but, in answer to Charlemagne's prayers, a white
dove alights upon the shoulders of the Saracen; whereupon he
capitulates and undertakes to embrace the Christian faith. Roland
and Vernagu deals with Charlemagne's exploits in Spain. Its
main incident consists of a combat, spread over two days, between
Roland and Vernagu, the gigantic black champion of the sultan of
Babylon. At one point of the protracted duel the giant is over-
come with sleep; and this leads to an exhibition of knightly
courtesy. So far from taking advantage of his slumbering rival,
Roland seeks to make those slumbers easy by improvising a
rough pillow beneath his head. Sir Ferumbras relates the capture
of Rome by the Saracen hosts and its relief by Charlemagne. The
usual combat takes place, this time between Olivier and Ferumbras,
son of the sultan of Babylon. The Saracen is, as usual, overcome
and accepts Christianity. His sister Floripas, who is in love with
the French Sir Guy, afterwards her husband, assists the Christians,
and both brother and sister are subsequently rewarded with
territory in Spain.
In these works there is obviously embalmed the fierce heroic
temper of the Carolingian era. The animating spirit is that of the
crusades. Saracen champions are consistently worsted and forcibly
persuaded, after sanguinary combat, of the beauties of Christian
doctrine. The chivalrous ideal is still in the making, and
the self-restraint and courtesy of Christian heroes are shown
to contrast favourably with the brutal manners of Saracen
## p. 303 (#323) ############################################
Havelok
303
warriors. But chivalry, as such, is still a battle-field grace; its
softening virtues have yet to be developed in other spheres of
activity. The glory of womanhood lies in ferocity and daring, in
a strong initiative, if needs be, in affairs of love. Floripas, in
Sir Ferumbras, for the sake of her love, deceives her father,
overpowers her governess and brains a jailor: and other Caro-
lingian heroines like Blancheflour and Guiboux are similarly
formidable.
The romances which spring directly from English soil are
animated by essentially different motives and reflect a different
society from that of the French group. In Havelok and Horn,
in Guy of Warwick and Beves of Hamtoun there exists
primarily the viking atmosphere of tenth century England,
though the sagas, in their actual form, have acquired, through alien
handling, a certain crusade colouring. In Horn, for instance,
Saracens are substituted for vikings in plain disregard of historical
verisimilitude; and again, in Guy of Warwick, the English
legend has been invested with fresh motives and relentlessly
expanded with adventures in Paynim. After removing such
excrescences, however, we shall find something of earlier English
conditions. Such situations as they depict, arising out of usurpa-
tion on the part of faithless guardians of royal children, spring, in
a great measure, out of pre-Conquest unsettlement. They were
situations not uncommon in the day of small kingdoms and restless
viking hordes. Havelok is a tale of how a Danish prince and an
English princess came to their own again. The hero, son of the
Danish king Birkabeyn, is handed over by his wicked guardian
Godard, to a fisherman Grim, to be drowned. A mystic light,
however, reveals Havelok's royal birth to the simple Grim, who
saves the situation by crossing to England. They land at Grimsby,
a town that still cherishes the name of Havelok and the characters
of the tale, in its streets and its seal; and the hero, by a happy
coincidence, drifts, as a kitchen-boy, into the household of Godrich,
guardian of Goldburgh. This guardian, however, is no better than
Godard, for he has likewise deprived the daughter of the English
Aethelwold of her inheritance. Havelok is a strong, handsome
youth, who soon becomes famous for feats of strength; whereupon
Godrich, who had promised Aethelwold that he would marry
Goldburgh to the "best man" in the country, maliciously keeps
his promise by forcing her to marry bis “cook's knave," a
popular hero by reason of his athletic deeds. By degrading
## p. 304 (#324) ############################################
304
Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
Goldburgh into a churl's wife, Godrich hopes to make his hold
upon her inheritance secure. The princess naturally bewails her
lot when led away by Havelok, but she becomes reconciled when
mysterious signs assure her, as they had previously assured Grim,
of her husband's royal origin. Meanwhile, the faithful Ubbe, who
has set matters right in Denmark, appears in England, when all
wrongs are righted and the united futures of hero and heroine
are straightway assured.
Horn is a viking story plainly adapted to romantic ends.
The hero is the youthful son of the king of Suddene (Isle of
Man), who, after the death of his father, at the hands of raiding
Saracens (vikings), is turned adrift in a rudderless boat. Wind
and tide bring the boat with its living freight to the land of
Westernesse (Wirral? ), where the princess Rymenhild, falling
in love with the stranded hero, endeavours, with womanly art, to
win his love in return. Horn is knighted through Rymen-
hild's good offices; but, before he can surrender himself to the
pleasant bondage of love, he longs to accomplish knightly deeds.
He therefore departs in quest of adventure, but leaves behind
him a traitorous companion, Fikenhild, who reveals to the king the
secret of the lovers. Horn is banished and only returns on learn-
ing that Rymenhild is about to wed. He appears in pilgrim garb,
is forgiven and rescues the princess from a distasteful suitor. But,
after marriage, the old knightly instincts again assert themselves;
and he crosses to Suddene, which he rids of invaders. The
treacherous Fikenhild had, however, in the meantime carried off
Rymenhild, and Horn, after avenging this deed, returns once more
to his homeland, this time not alone.
In the ponderous but popular Guy of Warwick we recog-
nise a tedious expansion of a stirring English legend. Sir Guy
was regarded as a national hero, who, by his victory over
Colbrand the Dane, had rescued England from the grip of the
invader. In the romance this appears—but in company with
other episodes which destroy the simplicity of the earlier narrative,
confuse its motive and change its colouring. When he first
comes on the scene, Guy is madly in love with Felice the
beautiful daughter of the earl of Warwick; but his suit is denied
on account of his inferiority of standing, for he is but the son of
the earl's steward. He, therefore, ventures abroad, and returns in
a few years, laden with honours: but only to be repulsed once
more by his too scrupulous mistress, who now fears that wedded
life may transform her hero into a slothful and turgid knight.
## p. 305 (#325) ############################################
Guy of Warwick
305
Once more he goes abroad; and, after brisk campaigning, he is
welcomed on his return by Aethelstan, at whose request he rids
Northumbria of an insatiable dragon. After this, Felice can hold
out no longer, The lovers are united; but now Guy begins to
entertain scruples. The rest of his life is to be spent in hardship
and penance, and he leaves again for uncouth lands. He returns
in due course to find king Aethelstan hard pressed by the Danish
Anlaf; but Guy's overthrow of Colbrand saves the kingdom and he
sets out forthwith on his way to Warwick. Disguised as a palmer,
he finds his wife engaged in works of charity; but, without revealing
his identity, he stoically retires to a neighbouring hermitage, where
the much-tried couple are finally united before he breathes his last.
Beves of Hamtoun, like Horn, springs from English soil,
but the transforming process traced in the one is completed
in the other. Beves presents almost entirely crusading tendencies,
but few traces remain of the earlier form. Beves, who has been
despatched as a slave to heathen parts by a treacherous mother,
ultimately arrives at the court of the Saracen king Ermyn.
Here he is the recipient of handsome favours, and is offered
the hand of the princess Josian, on condition that he for-
sakes the Christian faith. This he refuses to do, but the valour
he displays in staggering exploits still keeps him in favour, and
Josian, for his love, is prepared to renounce her native gods. The
king hears of this, and Beves is committed to a neighbouring
potentate, by whom he is kept in a horrible dungeon for some
seven years. After a marvellous escape from his terrible sur-
roundings, Beves seeks out Josian, and both flee to Cologne,
where they are duly wedded. The hero's career continues to be as
eventful as ever; but he is finally induced to turn towards home,
where he succeeds in regaining his inheritance, and is recognised
as a worthy knight by the reigning king Edgar.
In attempting to estimate the contribution made by these four
works to Middle English romance, it must be remembered that,
although they originate ultimately from the England of the
vikings, of Aethelstan and Edgar, they have all been touched
with later foreign influences. In them may be perceived, how-
ever, an undeveloped chivalry, as well as reminiscences of Old
English life and thought. The code of chivalry is as yet unfor-
mulated. In Havelok we see the simple ideal of righting the
wrong. In Horn and Guy of Warwick is perceptible a refinement
of love which makes for asceticism; but the love details are not, in
general, elaborated in accordance with later chivalrous ideals.
E. L. I. CH. XIV.
20
## p. 306 (#326) ############################################
306 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
Rymenhild and Josian both woo and are wooed; but they lack
the violence of Carolingian heroines. In Felice alone do we find
traces of that scrupulous niceness encouraged in the era of the
courts of love. With regard to the existence of earlier English
reminiscences, in both Horn and Havelok can be seen the joy in
descriptions of the sea characteristic of Old English verse. Both Guy
and Beves, again, have their dragons to encounter after the fashion
of Beowulf. The marvellous, which, to some extent, appears in
Havelok, is of the kind found in Germanic folk-lore; it is distinct
in its essence from the product of Celtic fancy. The plebeian
elements in the same work, which embody a detailed description
of humble life, and which are in striking contrast to the mono-
tonous aristocratic colouring of the romance elsewhere, witness,
undoubtedly, to a primitive pre-Conquest community. And, last,
Guy's great fight with Colbrand breathes the motive of patriotism
-the motive of Byrhtnoth-rather than the religious zeal which
fired crusading heroes in their single combats.
The English medieval romance levied contributions also upon
the literature of antiquity. Such levies were due neither to
crusading zeal, which loved to recall Charlemagne's great fights
against Saracen hosts, nor to the impulse which clung tightly to
native history and homespun stories. They were, rather, the out-
come of a cherished conceit based on a piece of ingenious etymology,
according to which Englishmen, as inhabitants of Britain, held
themselves to be of Trojan descent in virtue of Brutus. In this
way did the literature of antiquity suggest itself as, to some extent,
an appropriate field for the business of romancing. The Gest
Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy and King Alisaunder may
be taken as typical of this class. The former of these consists
of an epitome of the well-known story with, however, many
modifications characteristic of medieval genius. It sets forth the
antique world interpreted in terms of medievalism; Greek warfare,
Greek customs and Greek religion alike appearing in the garb of
the Middle Ages. And, together with these changes, were tacitly
introduced fairy reminiscences and magical details. But, most
interesting of all, in the Troy narrative, are those elements of the
story of Troilus and Briseida taken over from Benoît de Ste More,
and subsequently moulded into one of the world's greatest stories.
In King Alisaunder we see fashioned the historical and legend-
ary hero, his career being supplemented with hosts of fanciful stories
drawn from the east. His birth is alike mysterious and marvellous.
## p. 307 (#327) ############################################
Richard Cour de Lion 307
His youth and manhood are passed in prodigious undertakings.
He tames the fiery Bucephalus. He captures Tyre and burns
Thebes. Darius falls before him. He advances through Persia and
onwards to the Ganges, conquering, on his way, the great Porrus
of India. His homeward journey is a progress through wonderland.
All the magic of the east lies concentrated in his path; he passes
by crowned snakes and mysterious trees, and beholds, in the
distance, cliffs sparkling with diamonds. He is ultimately poisoned
by a friend and honourably buried in a tomb of gold.
The ruling motive of these classical romances, as compared
with others of their kind, is clearly that of depicting, on a large scale,
the heroic element in humanity and of pointing out the glories of
invincible knighthood. They concern themselves, not with chivalrous
love, but with chivalrous valour and knightly accomplishments.
Their aim is to point to the more masculine elements of medieval
chivalry. The joy of battle is everywhere articulate-not least so
in the picturesque movements of warlike bodies, and in the varied
sounds of the battlefield. The method of developing this motive
is, for the most part, by bringing the west into touch with the
east. The treasuries of Babylonian and antique fable are ran-
sacked to glorify the theme of warlike magnificence. The wider
mental horizon and the taste for wonders which attracted con-
temporaries in Mandeville's Travels are here enlisted in the work
of romance.
Closely akin to the Alexander romance is Richard Cour de
Lion, which may, therefore, be considered here, though its story is
not of either eastern or classical origin. The scheme in both is much
the same. Richard's birth is mysterious as was Alexander's. In
early manhood Richard wrenches out the lion's heart; Alexander
tames Bucephalus. Both march to the east to perform great
things : both are presented as types of valorous greatness. In
the romance, Richard appears as the son of Henry II and the
beautiful enchantress Cassodorien. He is imprisoned in Germany
as the result of an escapade on his way home from the Holy Land,
and it is here that he tears out the heart of a lion set loose in his
cell. The proclamation of a general crusade soon afterwards
appeals to Richard and he joins Philip of France on his way to
the east. The French king is consistently treacherous and jealous,
while Richard is no less hasty and passionate, and, in consequence,
ruptures are frequent. After avenging an insult received from
Cyprus, Richard hastens to Syria, where fight succeeds fight
with great regularity, and the Saracens under Saladin are gradually
ood Richo birth is origin. The
2042
## p. 308 (#328) ############################################
308 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
discomfited. At last a truce of three years is arranged, at which
point the romancer is content to conclude. The romance is one of
the most stirring of the whole group. It deals with the crusades;
but its central theme, like that of the Alexander saga, is the glorifica-
tion of the romance of war, the exaltation of the fighting hero. It is,
moreover, fiercely patriotic. Scorn is heaped on the braggadocio of
the French, and the drawing of Philip's character is far from flatter-
ing. On the other hand, Cour de Lion's haughty arrogance is the
glory of Englishmen; on his side fight St George and big battalions
of angels. His humour appears as grim as his blows. He feasts
on Saracens and provides the same dish for Saracen ambassadors
The ideal man of action, as here depicted, is one in whom the
elements are mixed. He is by no means deficient in knightly
instincts and courtesy; but, mingled with these, are coarse-grained
characteristics. He is rude and blunt, forceful and careless of
restraint-all of which traits represent the English contribution
to the heroic picture.
Oriental fable appears in English romance with other effects
than were obtained in the work of King Alisaunder. The more
voluptuous qualities of the east, for instance, are reproduced in
Flores and Blancheflour and result in a style of romance tolerably
distinct. In The Seven Sages of Rome, again, the story-book is
employed in oriental fashion. The heroine of the first, Blancheflour,
is a Christian princess carried off by the Saracens in Spain and
subsequently educated along with their young prince Flores.
Childish friendship develops into love, and Flores is promptly
removed—but not before his lady has given him a magic ring
which will tarnish when the giver is in danger. Danger soon
threatens her in the shape of false accusation; but this peril, being
revealed to Flores by means of his ring, is duly averted, though
subsequent treachery succeeds in despatching the princess to
Egypt as a slave. Thither Flores pursues her; and, by dint of
bribery and stratagem, he succeeds in entering the seraglio
where she is detained. The inevitable discovery follows, but the
anger of the emir having vanished on his learning all the
circumstances, the trials of the lovers come to a pleasant end.
In this work the central theme is, once again, that of love;
but, in the manner of treatment, there are visible certain
departures. According to western standards, the tone is, in fact,
somewhat sentimental. It is felt that soul-stirring passions are
not involved; the whole seems wanting in the quality of hardihood.
## p. 309 (#329) ############################################
Flores and Blancheflour
309
Flores, for instance, swoons in your true sentimental fashion. He
finds heart's-ease in exile by tracing his lady's name in flower-
designs. He wins his cause by dint of magic and persuasion rather
than by the strength of his own right arm. An oriental colouring is
also noticeable in the sensuous descriptions of garden and seraglio,
as well as in the part played by the magic ring. We have here
material and motives which enlarged the domain of the medieval
romance, and which appealed to Chaucer when he set about
writing his Squire's Tale. In The Seven Sages of Rome other
aspects of the east are duly represented. Diocletian's wicked
queen, failing in her attempt to ensnare her stepson Florentine,
viciously accuses him of her own fell designs. Whereupon,
Florentine's seven tutors plead on his behalf by relating seven
tales of the perfidy of woman. The queen, as plaintiff, relates
a corresponding number concerning the wickedness of counsellors.
The tales are told, the queen is unmasked and duly punished.
In an age dedicated by the west to the worship of women we
have here represented the unflattering estimate of womankind
held by the east. The framework and the device of a series of
tales is, likewise, oriental, and so is the didactic tendency which
underlies the whole. The aim is to set forth the dangers to which
youth is subject, not only from the deceit of men, but, also, from
the wiles of women.
Of far greater importance, however, than any of the foregoing
influences is that derived from Celtic sources. The stories of
Arthur, of Tristram and Gawain, while, in response to formative
influences of the time, they present certain details in common with
the other romances, have yet a distinct atmosphere, fresh motives
and new colouring. Points of similarity exist, but with a difference.
The incessant combats of the Carolingian saga find a counterpart
in the “derring-doe" of Arthurian heroes. As in Horn and
Havelok, the scene in the Celtic romances is laid in Britain; but
the background is Celtic rather than English. Again, just
as King Alisaunder and Richard Coeur de Lion are magni-
ficats of splendid heroic figures, so the glorification of Arthur is
the persistent theme of this Celtic work. And, last, the love-strain
and the magic which came from the east, and were embodied in
Flores and Blancheflour, correspond, in some measure, with Celtic
passion and Celtic mysticism. For such points of contact the
spirit of the age must be held accountable : for such differences as
exist, individual and national genius.
## p. 310 (#330) ############################################
310
Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
The effect of the Celtic genius upon English romance, if, indeed,
such a statement may be ventured upon, was to reveal the passions,
to extend the fancy and to inculcate sensibility. The Celtic element
revealed love as a passion in all its fulness, a passion laden with
possibilities, mysterious and awful in power and effect. It opened
up avenues to a fairy-land peopled with elvish forms and lit by
strange lights. It pointed to an exalted chivalry and lofty ideals,
to a courtesy which was the outcome of a refinement of sentiment.
In the romance of Sir Tristram is embodied the Celtic revela-
tion of love. The English poem is based on the version of Thomas,
and is distinct from that of Béroul. This story of “death-marked”
affection is well known : how Tristram and the fair Iseult are
fatally united by the magic love-potion, quaffed in spite of
Iseult's approaching union with Mark of Cornwall; how their
love persists in spite of honour and duty; how Tristram marries
Iseult of the White Hand and comes to lie wounded in Britanny;
how his wife, distracted with jealousy, falsely announces the ominous
black sail coming over the seas; and how the fair Iseult glides
through the hall and expires on the corpse of her former lover. Here
we feel that the tragedy of love has been remorselessly enacted.
It appears to us as a new and irresistible force, differing alike
from the blandishments of the east and the crudeness of the north.
A sense of mystery and gloom enfolds it all like a misty veil over
cairn and cromlech. The problem is as enduring as life itself.
Enchantment is suggested by means of the love-potion, yet the
weakness is mortal, as, indeed, is the sombre climax. Passion
descends to the level of reality, and the comfortable medieval ending
is sternly eschewed. Love is conducted by neither code nor nice
theory: it moves, simple, sensuous, passionate, to its appointed end,
and relentlessly reveals the poetry of life.
In the romances which deal with the relations between mortal
and fairy we find elements of the richest fancy. Here and else-
where, in this Celtic section, are discovered landscapes and scenes
which charm the imagination with their glamour and light. Fays
come and go, wrapped in ethereal beauty, and horrible spirit-shapes
appear to the accompaniment of mad symphonies of the elements.
Knights of faërie emerge out of weird forbidden tracts, strange
enchantments dictating or following their various movements.
Mystic commands lightly broken entail tragic penalties, and
mortals become the sport of elvish visitants.
Of the romances which relate to love-passages between mortal
and fairy, Sir Launfal, Sir Orfeo and Emare may be taken as
## p. 311 (#331) ############################################
Celtic Romances
311
types. In Sir Launfal, the hero receives love-favours from a
beautiful fay, but breaks his bond by carelessly betraying his
secret to the queen. He is condemned to death and abandoned
by the fay, who, however, relents in time and, riding to Arthur's
court, succeeds in carrying the knight off to the Isle of Avalon.
Sir Orfeo may be briefly described as a Celtic adaptation of the
familiar classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Queen Heurodys
is carried off into fairyland, in spite of all that human efforts can
do King Orfeo follows her in despair, as a minstrel, but his
wonderful melodies at last succeed in leading her back to the
haunts of men. In Emare we have a beautifully told story of the
Constance type, with the addition of certain mystical elements.
The heroine is a mysterious maiden of unearthly beauty who is cast
off by her unnatural father and drifts to the shores of Wales where
she wins Sir Cador's love. After the marriage, Sir Cador goes
abroad, and the young wife is once more turned adrift by an in-
triguing mother-in-law. She reaches Rome, and there, in due
course, she is happily discovered by the grief-stricken Cador.
Other romances relate the deeds of the offspring of fairy and mortal
union as, for instance, Sir Degare and Sir Gowther. The former
is an account of the son of a fairy knight and a princess of Britain.
He is abandoned in infancy by the princess, who, however, leaves
with him a pair of magic gloves which will fit no hands but hers.
The child in time becomes a knight, and his prowess in the lists
renders him eligible for the hand of the princess, his mother. By
means of the gloves, however, they learn their real relationship;
whereupon Sir Degare relinquishes his claim and succeeds in the
filial task of re-uniting his parents. In Sir Gowther, the hero is the
son of a “fiendish” knight and a gentle lady whom he had betrayed.
The boy, as was predicted, proved to be of a most savage tempera-
ment, until the offending Adam was whipped out of him by means
of self-inflicted penance. He then wins the love of an earls
daughter by glorious achievements in the lists, and piously builds
an abbey to commemorate his conversion.
It is in the Arthurian romances and, more particularly, in those
relating to Sir Gawain, that we find the loftier ideals of chivalry
set forth. Gawain is depicted as the knight of honour and courtesy,
of loyalty and self-sacrifice. Softer manners and greater magna-
nimity are grafted upon the earlier knighthood. Self-restraint
becomes more and more a knightly virtue. The combats are not
less fierce, but vainglorious boasting gives way to moods of humility.
Victory is followed by noble concern for the vanquished. Passing
## p. 312 (#332) ############################################
312 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
over Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, which is treated else-
where, we find in Golagros and Gawane these knightly elements
plainly visible. The rudeness of Sir Kay, here and elsewhere, is
devised as a foil to the courtesy of Gawain. Arthur in Tuscany
sends Sir Kay to ask for quarters in a neighbouring castle. His
rude, presumptuous bearing meets with refusal, though, when
Gawain arrives, the request is readily acceded to. The domains
of Golagros are next approached. He is an aggressive knight of
large reputation, whom Arthur makes it his business forthwith to
subdue. A combat is arranged, in which Gawain proves victor;
whereupon the noble Arthurian not only grants the life of the
defiant Golagros, but spares his feelings by returning to his castle
as if he himself were the vanquished. Matters are afterwards
explained, and Golagros, conquered alike by arms and courtesy,
becomes duly enrolled in Arthur's train. In the Awntyrs [Adven-
tures) of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne we find something of the
same elements, together with an exhortation to moral living. The
romance deals with two incidents alleged to have occurred while
Arthur was hunting near Carlisle. The first, however, is an
adaptation of the Trentals of St Gregory. A ghastly figure is
represented as emerging from the Tarn, and appearing before
Guinevere and Gawain. It is Guinevere's mother in the direst
torments. The queen thereupon makes a vow as to her future
life, and promises, meanwhile, to have masses sung for her mother's
soul. The second incident is of a more conventional kind, and
deals with the fight between Gawain and Galleroun.
Ywain and Gawain is another romance which embodies much
that is characteristic of Arthurian chivalry. Ywain sets out on a
certain quest from Arthur's court. He defeats a knight near the
fountain of Broceliande, pursues him to his castle and marries
Laudine, mistress of that place. After further adventures in love and
war, in most of which he has the company of a friendly lion, he falls
in with Gawain and, ignorant of each other's identity, they engage
in combat. The fight is indecisive, and each courteously concedes
to the other the victory-an exchange of compliments which is
speedily followed by a joyful recognition. The Wedding of Sir
Gawain, again, points to loyalty and honour, as involving supreme
self-sacrifice. It relates how Gawain, to save Arthur's life, under-
takes to marry the loathsome dame Ragnell. His noble unselfish-
ness, however, is not unrewarded: the dame is subsequently
transformed into the most beauteous of her kind. Libeaus
Desconus, the story of Gyngalyn, Gawain's son, is constructed
## p. 313 (#333) ############################################
The Gawain Cycle
313
on rather conventional lines. The fair unknown has several
adventures with giants and others. He visits a fairy castle, where
he meets with an enchantress, and rescues a lady transformed
into a dreadful serpent, who, afterwards, however, becomes his
wife. The scene of the Avowing of Arthur is once more placed
near Carlisle. Arthur is hunting with Sir Gawain, Sir Kay and
Sir Baldwin, when all four undertake separate vows. Arthur is
to capture single-handed a ferocious boar; Sir Kay to fight all
who oppose him. The king is successful; but Sir Kay falls before
a knight who is carrying off a beautiful maiden. The victor, how-
ever, is afterwards overcome in a fight with Gawain, and then
ensues a significant contrast in the matter of behaviours. Sir Kay
sustains his earlier reputation by cruelly taunting the beaten
knight; while Sir Gawain, on the other hand, mindful of the claims
of chivalry, is studiously kind and considerate towards his fallen
foe. The riming Mort Arthur, and the alliterative work of
the same name, deal with the close of Arthur's life. In the first
occurs the story of the maid of Ascolot, and her fruitless love for
the noble Lancelot. The narrative is instinct with the pathos
of love, and here, as in Tristram, the subtlety of the treatment
reveals further possibilities of the love theme. Lancelot is, more-
over, depicted as Guinevere's champion. The queen is under
condemnation, but is rescued by Lancelot, who endures, in con-
sequence, a siege in the Castle of Joyous Garde. The end of the
Arthurian story begins to be visible in the discord thus intro-
duced between Lancelot and Gawain, Arthur and Modred. The
alliterative Morte Arthure is more seriously historical. Arthur
is represented as returning home from his wars with Lucius on
hearing of Modred's treachery. He fights the traitor, but is
mortally wounded, and is borne to Glastonbury, where he is given
a magnificent burial.
In addition to the romances already mentioned as representative
in some measure of definite influences at work, there yet remain
certain others which call for notice. We have, in the first place,
a group of some five romances which may be considered together as
studies of knightly character. They are works which may be said to
deal, incidentally perhaps, with the building up of the perfect knight
and Christian hero, though anything like psychological treatment
is, of course, entirely absent. In Ipomedon, we see the knight as
a gallant if capricious lover. Marriage having been proposed
between young Ipomedon, prince of Apulia, and the beautiful
## p. 314 (#334) ############################################
314 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
queen of Calabria, the former determines to woo for himself.
He arrives incognito at the court of the queen, wins her favour
by manly exploits, and then departs somewhat capriciously. He
is, however, induced to return on hearing that a tournament is
to be held of which the queen herself is to be the prize. But,
again, his conduct is strange. He loudly proclaims his dislike for
boisterous tournaments, and ostentatiously sets out on hunting
expeditions on the days of the contests. But he actually
goes to a neighbouring hermitage, whence he issues to the
tournament, clad, on successive days, in red, white and black
armour-a favourite medieval method of disguise adopted by
Sir Gowther and others. He carries all before him and then
vanishes as mysteriously as ever, without claiming his prize or
revealing his identity. Soon afterwards, the queen is hard pressed
by a neighbouring duke, and the hero appears once more to fight
her battles, this time disguised as a fool. It is only after further
adventures, when he feels he has fooled to the top of his bent,
that he declares his love with a happy result. In this stirring
romance we see the knight-errant in quest of love. The assumed
slothfulness and fondness for disguise were frequent attributes
of the medieval hero: the one added interest to actual exploits,
the other was an assurance that the love of the well-born was
accepted on his own individual merits.
In the beautiful romance of Amis and Amiloun we have friend-
ship set forth as a knightly virtue. It is depicted as an all-absorbing
quality which involves, if necessary, the sacrifice of both family and
conscience. Amis and Amiloun are two noble foster-brothers, the
medieval counterparts of Orestes and Pylades, much alike in ap-
pearance, whose lives are indissolubly linked together. Amiloun
generously, but surreptitiously, takes the place of Amis in a trial by
combat, for which piece of unselfishness, with the deception involved
in it, he is, subsequently, visited with the scourge of leprosy. Some
time afterwards, Amis finds his friend in pitiable plight, but fails, at
first, to grasp his identity. It is only after a dramatic scene that
the discovery is made, and then Amis, grief-stricken, proceeds to
remove his friend's leprosy by the sacrifice of his own children.
But such a sacrifice is not permitted to be irrevocable. When
Amis and his wife Belisante go to view their slaughtered children,
they are found to be merely sleeping. The sacrifice had been one
upon which the gods themselves threw incense. The romance, as
it stands, is one of the most pathetic and elevating of the whole series.
Knightly love and valour were eloquent themes of the
## p. 315 (#335) ############################################
The Squire of Low Degree 315
medieval romance : in Amis and Amiloun, the beauty of friend-
ship is no less nobly treated. In Sir Cleges, the knightly character
is further developed by the inculcation of charity, wit and shrewd-
ness. The story is simply, but picturesquely, told. The hero is
a knight who is reduced to poverty by reckless charity. When
his fortunes are at their lowest ebb he finds a cherry-tree
in his garden laden with fruit, though snow is on the ground and
the season is yuletide. With this goodly find he sets out to king
Uther at Cardiff, in the hope of restoring his fallen fortunes; but
court officials bar his way until he has promised to divide amongst
them all his reward. The king is gratified, and Cleges is asked
to name his reward. He asks for twelve strokes, which the
officials, in accordance with the bargain, duly receive, to the
unbounded delight of an appreciative court. The identity of
the knight then becomes known and his former charity is suitably
recognised.
The theme of Sir Isumbras is that of Christian humility, the
story itself being an adaptation of the legend of St Eustace. Sir
Isumbras is a knight who, through pride, falls from his high estate
by the will of Providence. He is severely stricken; his posses-
sions, his children and, lastly, his wife, are taken away; and he
himself becomes a wanderer. After much privation nobly endured,
he has learnt his lesson and arrives at the court of a queen, who
proves to be his long-lost wife. His children are then miraculously
restored and he resumes once more his exalted rank.
The Squire of Low Degree is a pleasant romance which does
not belie an attractive title. Its theme suggests the idea of
the existence of knightly character in those of low estate, a
sentiment which had appealed to a conquered English people
in the earlier Havelok. The humble squire in the story wins the
affection of “the king's daughter of Hungary,” as well as her
promise to wed when he shall have become a distinguished knight.
An interfering and treacherous steward is righteously slain by the
squire, who then suffers imprisonment, and the king's daughter,
who supposes her lover dead, is thereby reduced to the direst
straits. She refuses consolation, though the king categorically
reminds her of much that is pleasant in life and draws up, in fact,
an interesting list of medieval delights, its feasts, its finery, its
sports and its music. Persuasion failing, the king is obliged to relent.
The squire is released and ventures abroad on knightly quest. He
returns, in due course, to claim his own, and a pleasant romance
ends on a pleasant note. The story loses nothing from the manner
## p. 316 (#336) ############################################
316 Metrical Romances, 1200—1500
of its telling ; it is, above all, “mercifully brief. ” Its English origin
and sentiment, no less than its pictures of medieval life, continue
to make this romance one of the most readable of its kind.
Besides these romances which deal, in some sort, with the
knightly character, there are others which embody variations of
the Constance theme, namely, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour of
Artois and Torrent of Portugal. Like Emarè, they belong to
the “reunion of kindred” type-a type which appealed to Chaucer
and, still more, to Shakespeare in his latest period. One well-known
romance still calls for notice. This is William of Palerne, a tale of
love and action which embodies the primitive belief in lycanthropy,
according to which certain people were able to assume, at will,
the character and appearance of wolves. The tradition was wide-
spread in Europe, and it still appears from time to time in modern
works dealing with ghouls and vampires. The story relates how
William, prince of Apulia, is saved from a murderous attack by the
aid of a werwolf, who, in reality, is heir to the Spanish throne. The
werwolf swims with the prince across the straits of Messina, and
again renders aid when his protégé is fleeing from Rome with his
love, Melchior. William, subsequently, recovers his royal rights,
and then helps to bring about the restoration to the friendly
werwolf of his human form.
It is striking and, to some extent, characteristic of the age,
that, although the field of English romance was thus wide and
varied, the personality of scarcely a single toiler in that field
has come down to posterity. The anonymity of the work em-
bodied in our ancient cathedrals is a parallel to this, and neither
fact is without its significance. With the Tristram legend is
connected the name of Thomas, a poet of the twelfth century, who
is mentioned by Gottfried of Strassburg in the early thirteenth
century. The somewhat misty but historical Thomas of Erceldoune
has been credited with the composition of a Sir Tristram story,
but this was possibly due to a confusion of the twelfth century
Thomas with his interesting namesake of the succeeding century.
The confusion would be one to which the popular mind was
peculiarly susceptible. Thomas the Rhymer was a romantic
figure credited with prophetical gifts, and a popular tale would
readily be linked with his name, especially as such a process
was consistent with the earlier Thomas tradition as it then
existed.
In the case of three other romances there seem to be certain
grounds for attributing them to a single writer. All three works,
## p. 317 (#337) ############################################
The Age of Romance
317
King Alisaunder, Arthur and Merlin and Richard Cour de Lion,
are, apparently, of much the same date, and alike hail from Kent.
Each is animated by the same purpose—that of throwing on to a
large canvas a great heroic figure; there is also to be found in
each of them a certain sympathy with magic, The handling of
the theme in each case proceeds on similar lines; the close
parallel in the schemes of King Alisaunder and Richard Coeur de
Lion has already been noticed; and the narrative, in each, moves
along in easy animated style. Moreover, similarities of technique
are found in all. The recurrence of similes and comparisons as
well as riming peculiarities in common, suggest the working of
a single mind. In King Alisaunder and Arthur and Merlin
appears the device of beginning the various sections of the nar-
rative with lyric, gnomic, or descriptive lines, presumably to
arouse interest and claim attention. In Richard Coeur de Lion
something of the same tendency is also visible, as when a delight-
ful description of spring is inserted after the gruesome account of
the massacre of a horde of Saracens. All three works betray a joy
in fighting, a joy expressed in vigorous terms. In all is evinced
an ability to seize on the picturesque side of things, whether of
battle or feasting ; Saracens fall "as grass before the scythe";
the helmets of the troops shine “like snow upon the mountains. ”
But if the identity of a common author may thus seem probable,
little or nothing is forthcoming as regards his personality. Certain
coarse details, together with rude humour, seem to suggest a
plebeian pen; and this is, apparently, supported by occasional
references to trades. But nothing certain on the subject can be
stated. The personality of the poet is, at best, but shadowy,
though, undoubtedly, his work is of outstanding merit.
In certain respects these romances may be said to reflect the age
in which they were written. They bear witness in two ways to the
communistic conception of society which then prevailed: first, by
the anonymous character of the writings generally and, secondly,
by the absence of the patriotic note. The individual, from the
communistic standpoint, was but a unit of the nation; the nation,
merely a section of a larger Christendom. The sense of indi-
vidualism, and all that it implied, was yet to be emphasised by a
later renascence. It is, therefore, clear that the anonymity of
the romances, as in the case of the Legendaries and Chronicle,
was, in part, the outcome of such conceptions and notions. The
works represent
The constant servico of the antique world
When service sweat for duty, not for meed.
## p. 318 (#338) ############################################
318 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
And the absence of patriotism from the romances results from the
same conditions: national consciousness was not yet really awakened.
The mental horizon was bounded not by English shores, but by the
limits of the Holy Roman Empire Cour de Lion's career alone
appealed to latent sympathies; for the rest, the romance is un-
touched by national feeling. French and other material was
adapted without any re-colouring.
The romance also reflects the medieval love of external beauty.
The picturesqueness of the actual, of medieval streets and buildings,
the bright colours in dress, the love of pageantry and pictorial effects,
all helped to inspire, and are, indeed, reflected in the gay colouring
of the romances. If the stories, again, make considerable demands
upon the credulity, it was not remarkable in regard to the cha-
racter of the times. All things were possible in an age of faith:
the wisdom of credo quia impossibile was to be questioned in
the succeeding age of reason. Moreover, the atmosphere which
nourished the romantic growth was that of feudalism, and an
aristocratic note everywhere marks its tone and structure. But
it is a glorified feudalism which is thus represented, a feudalism
glorious in its hunting, its feasting and its fighting, in its brave men
and fair women; the lower elements are scarcely ever remembered,
and no pretence is made at holding up the mirror to the whole
of society.
Lastly, like so much of the rest of medieval work, the romance
moves largely amidst abstractions. It avoids close touch with the
concrete: for instance, no reflection is found of the struggles of the
Commons for parliamentary power, or even of the national strivings
against papal dominion. The problems of actual life are carefully
avoided; the material treated consists, rather, of the fanciful
problems of the courts of love and situations arising out of the
new-born chivalry.
The romance has many defects, in spite of all its attractions and
the immense interest it arouses both intrinsically and historically.
It sins in being intolerably long-winded and in being often devoid
of all proportion. A story may drag wearily on, long after the
last chapter has really been written, and insignificant episodes
are treated with as much concern as those of pith and moment.
Further, it makes demands upon the “painful” reader, not only by
its discursiveness and love of digression, but also by the minuteness
of its descriptions, relentlessly complete, which leave nothing to the
imagination. “The art of the pen is to rouse the inward vision. . .
because our flying minds cannot contain a protracted description. "
This truth was far from being appreciated in the age of the school.
## p. 319 (#339) ############################################
319
General Defects
men, with their encyclopaedic training. The aristocratic tone of
the romance, moreover, tends to become wearisome by its very
monotony. Sated with the sight of knights and ladies, giants and
Saracens, one longs to meet an honest specimen of the citizen
class; but such relief is never granted. To these and other short-
comings, however, the medieval eye was not always blind, though
romances continued to be called for right up to the end of
the fourteenth century and, indeed, after. Chaucer, with his
keen insight and strong human sympathies, had shown himself
aware of all these absurdities, for, in his Sir Thopas, designed
as a parody on the romance in general, these are the points
on which he seizes. When he rambles on for a hundred lines
in Sir Thopas without saying much, he is quietly making the
first point of his indictment. He is exaggerating the discur-
siveness and minuteness he has found so irksome. And, in the
second place, he ridicules the aristocratic monotone by introducing
a bourgeois note into his parodied romance. The knight swears
an oath on plain "ale and bread”: while, in the romantic forest
through which he is wandering, lurk the harmless “buck and hare,”
as well as the homely nutmeg that flavours the ale. The lapse from
romance is sufficiently evident and the work silently embodies
much sound criticism. The host, with blunt remark, ends the
parody, and in him may be seen a matter-of-fact intelligence
declaiming against the faults of romance.
But, with all its shortcomings, the romance has a peculiar
interest from the modern standpoint in that it marks the begin-
ning of English fiction. In it is written the first chapter of the
modern novel. After assuming a pastoral form in the days of
Elizabeth, and after being reclaimed, with all its earlier defects,
in the seventeenth century, romance slowly vanished in the dry
light of the eighteenth century, but not before it had flooded
the stage with astounding heroic plays. The later novels, how-
ever, continued the functions of the earlier romances when they
embodied tales of adventures or tales of love whether thwarted or
triumphant. Nor is Richardson's novel of analysis without its
counterpart in this earlier creation. He treated love on psycho-
logical lines. But charming love-problems had exercised the minds
of medieval courtiers and had subsequently been analysed in the
romances after the approved fashion of the courts of love. It is
only in the case of the later realistic novel that the origins have
to be sought elsewhere—in the contemporary fabliaux, which
dealt, in a ready manner, with the troubles and the humours of
a lower stratum of life.
## p. 320 (#340) ############################################
CHAPTER XV
PEARL, CLEANNESS, PATIENCE AND
SIR GAWAYNE
AMONG the Cottonian manuscripts in the British Museum, a
small quarto volume, numbered Nero A. x, contains the four Middle
English poems known as Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir
Gawayne and the Grene Knight. The manuscript is in a hand
which seems to belong to the end of the fourteenth or the early
years of the fifteenth century; there are neither titles nor rubrics,
but the chief divisions are marked by large initial letters of blue,
flourished with red; several pictures, coarsely executed, illustrate
the poems, each occupying a full page; the writing is “small,
sharp and irregular. " No single line of these poems has been
discovered in any other manuscript.
The first of the four poems, Pearl, tells of a father's grief for a
lost child, an infant daughter who had lived not two years on earth.
In a vision he beholds his Pearl, no longer a little child, transfigured
as a queen of heaven; from the other bank of a stream which
divides them she instructs him, teaches him the lessons of faith and
resignation and leads him to a glimpse of the new Jerusalem. He
sees his “little queen” in the long procession of maidens; in his
effort to plunge into the stream and reach her he awakes, to find
himself stretched on the child's grave-
Then woke I in that garden fair;
My head upon that mound was laid,
there where my Pearl had strayed below.
I roused me, and felt in great dismay,
and, sighing to myself, I said:-
“Now all be to that Prince's pleasure" 1,
Naturally arising from the author's treatment of his subject,
many a theological problem, notably the interpretation of the
parable of the vineyard, is expounded. The student of medieval
theology may find much of interest in Pearl, but the attempt to
read the poem as a theological pamphlet, and a mere symbolical
allegory, ignores its transcendent reality as a poet's lament. The
1 The renderings into modern English, throughout the chapter, are from the
writer's edition of Pearl, 1891,
## p. 321 (#341) ############################################
Sources of Pearl
321
personal side of the poem is clearly marked, though the author
nowhere directly refers to his fatherhood. The basis of Pearl is to
be found in that verse of the Gospel which tells of the man “ that
sought the precious margarites; and, when he had found one to his
liking, he sold all his goods to buy that jewel. ” The pearl was
doomed, by the law of nature, to flower and fade like a rose; there-
after it became a "pearl of price"; "the jeweller” indicates clearly
enough the reality of his loss.
A fourteenth century poet, casting about for the form best
suited for such a poem, had two courses before him: on the one
hand, there was the great storehouse of dream-pictures, The
Romaunt of the Rose; on the other hand, the symbolic pages
of Scripture. A poet of the Chaucerian school would have chosen
the former; to him the lost Marguerite would have suggested an
allegory of “the flour that bereth our alder pris in figuringe," and
the Marguerite would have been transfigured as the type of
truest womanhood, a maiden in the train of love's queen, Alcestis.
became more refined and a code of chivalry was evolved.
Heightened sensibility was, moreover, revealed in the increased
appreciation of the beautiful—the beauty of womanhood, the
beauty of nature, the beauty of noble conduct. And the refine-
ment of fancy made fairyland seem possible.
Jean Bodel's classification of the romances has already been
mentioned. Regarding them, however, from the point of view
of the motives and influences they embody, it is seen that they
fall into certain groups: Carolingian or Old French, Old English,
classical, oriental and Celtic.
The Carolingian element is represented in medieval English
romance by Sir Otuel, Roland and Vernagu and Sir Ferumbras.
The first is an account of a Saracen attack upon France. Sir Otuel
is the Saracen emissary who insultingly defies Charlemagne in his
own hall and is, in consequence, challenged by Roland. A stiff
fight follows; but, in answer to Charlemagne's prayers, a white
dove alights upon the shoulders of the Saracen; whereupon he
capitulates and undertakes to embrace the Christian faith. Roland
and Vernagu deals with Charlemagne's exploits in Spain. Its
main incident consists of a combat, spread over two days, between
Roland and Vernagu, the gigantic black champion of the sultan of
Babylon. At one point of the protracted duel the giant is over-
come with sleep; and this leads to an exhibition of knightly
courtesy. So far from taking advantage of his slumbering rival,
Roland seeks to make those slumbers easy by improvising a
rough pillow beneath his head. Sir Ferumbras relates the capture
of Rome by the Saracen hosts and its relief by Charlemagne. The
usual combat takes place, this time between Olivier and Ferumbras,
son of the sultan of Babylon. The Saracen is, as usual, overcome
and accepts Christianity. His sister Floripas, who is in love with
the French Sir Guy, afterwards her husband, assists the Christians,
and both brother and sister are subsequently rewarded with
territory in Spain.
In these works there is obviously embalmed the fierce heroic
temper of the Carolingian era. The animating spirit is that of the
crusades. Saracen champions are consistently worsted and forcibly
persuaded, after sanguinary combat, of the beauties of Christian
doctrine. The chivalrous ideal is still in the making, and
the self-restraint and courtesy of Christian heroes are shown
to contrast favourably with the brutal manners of Saracen
## p. 303 (#323) ############################################
Havelok
303
warriors. But chivalry, as such, is still a battle-field grace; its
softening virtues have yet to be developed in other spheres of
activity. The glory of womanhood lies in ferocity and daring, in
a strong initiative, if needs be, in affairs of love. Floripas, in
Sir Ferumbras, for the sake of her love, deceives her father,
overpowers her governess and brains a jailor: and other Caro-
lingian heroines like Blancheflour and Guiboux are similarly
formidable.
The romances which spring directly from English soil are
animated by essentially different motives and reflect a different
society from that of the French group. In Havelok and Horn,
in Guy of Warwick and Beves of Hamtoun there exists
primarily the viking atmosphere of tenth century England,
though the sagas, in their actual form, have acquired, through alien
handling, a certain crusade colouring. In Horn, for instance,
Saracens are substituted for vikings in plain disregard of historical
verisimilitude; and again, in Guy of Warwick, the English
legend has been invested with fresh motives and relentlessly
expanded with adventures in Paynim. After removing such
excrescences, however, we shall find something of earlier English
conditions. Such situations as they depict, arising out of usurpa-
tion on the part of faithless guardians of royal children, spring, in
a great measure, out of pre-Conquest unsettlement. They were
situations not uncommon in the day of small kingdoms and restless
viking hordes. Havelok is a tale of how a Danish prince and an
English princess came to their own again. The hero, son of the
Danish king Birkabeyn, is handed over by his wicked guardian
Godard, to a fisherman Grim, to be drowned. A mystic light,
however, reveals Havelok's royal birth to the simple Grim, who
saves the situation by crossing to England. They land at Grimsby,
a town that still cherishes the name of Havelok and the characters
of the tale, in its streets and its seal; and the hero, by a happy
coincidence, drifts, as a kitchen-boy, into the household of Godrich,
guardian of Goldburgh. This guardian, however, is no better than
Godard, for he has likewise deprived the daughter of the English
Aethelwold of her inheritance. Havelok is a strong, handsome
youth, who soon becomes famous for feats of strength; whereupon
Godrich, who had promised Aethelwold that he would marry
Goldburgh to the "best man" in the country, maliciously keeps
his promise by forcing her to marry bis “cook's knave," a
popular hero by reason of his athletic deeds. By degrading
## p. 304 (#324) ############################################
304
Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
Goldburgh into a churl's wife, Godrich hopes to make his hold
upon her inheritance secure. The princess naturally bewails her
lot when led away by Havelok, but she becomes reconciled when
mysterious signs assure her, as they had previously assured Grim,
of her husband's royal origin. Meanwhile, the faithful Ubbe, who
has set matters right in Denmark, appears in England, when all
wrongs are righted and the united futures of hero and heroine
are straightway assured.
Horn is a viking story plainly adapted to romantic ends.
The hero is the youthful son of the king of Suddene (Isle of
Man), who, after the death of his father, at the hands of raiding
Saracens (vikings), is turned adrift in a rudderless boat. Wind
and tide bring the boat with its living freight to the land of
Westernesse (Wirral? ), where the princess Rymenhild, falling
in love with the stranded hero, endeavours, with womanly art, to
win his love in return. Horn is knighted through Rymen-
hild's good offices; but, before he can surrender himself to the
pleasant bondage of love, he longs to accomplish knightly deeds.
He therefore departs in quest of adventure, but leaves behind
him a traitorous companion, Fikenhild, who reveals to the king the
secret of the lovers. Horn is banished and only returns on learn-
ing that Rymenhild is about to wed. He appears in pilgrim garb,
is forgiven and rescues the princess from a distasteful suitor. But,
after marriage, the old knightly instincts again assert themselves;
and he crosses to Suddene, which he rids of invaders. The
treacherous Fikenhild had, however, in the meantime carried off
Rymenhild, and Horn, after avenging this deed, returns once more
to his homeland, this time not alone.
In the ponderous but popular Guy of Warwick we recog-
nise a tedious expansion of a stirring English legend. Sir Guy
was regarded as a national hero, who, by his victory over
Colbrand the Dane, had rescued England from the grip of the
invader. In the romance this appears—but in company with
other episodes which destroy the simplicity of the earlier narrative,
confuse its motive and change its colouring. When he first
comes on the scene, Guy is madly in love with Felice the
beautiful daughter of the earl of Warwick; but his suit is denied
on account of his inferiority of standing, for he is but the son of
the earl's steward. He, therefore, ventures abroad, and returns in
a few years, laden with honours: but only to be repulsed once
more by his too scrupulous mistress, who now fears that wedded
life may transform her hero into a slothful and turgid knight.
## p. 305 (#325) ############################################
Guy of Warwick
305
Once more he goes abroad; and, after brisk campaigning, he is
welcomed on his return by Aethelstan, at whose request he rids
Northumbria of an insatiable dragon. After this, Felice can hold
out no longer, The lovers are united; but now Guy begins to
entertain scruples. The rest of his life is to be spent in hardship
and penance, and he leaves again for uncouth lands. He returns
in due course to find king Aethelstan hard pressed by the Danish
Anlaf; but Guy's overthrow of Colbrand saves the kingdom and he
sets out forthwith on his way to Warwick. Disguised as a palmer,
he finds his wife engaged in works of charity; but, without revealing
his identity, he stoically retires to a neighbouring hermitage, where
the much-tried couple are finally united before he breathes his last.
Beves of Hamtoun, like Horn, springs from English soil,
but the transforming process traced in the one is completed
in the other. Beves presents almost entirely crusading tendencies,
but few traces remain of the earlier form. Beves, who has been
despatched as a slave to heathen parts by a treacherous mother,
ultimately arrives at the court of the Saracen king Ermyn.
Here he is the recipient of handsome favours, and is offered
the hand of the princess Josian, on condition that he for-
sakes the Christian faith. This he refuses to do, but the valour
he displays in staggering exploits still keeps him in favour, and
Josian, for his love, is prepared to renounce her native gods. The
king hears of this, and Beves is committed to a neighbouring
potentate, by whom he is kept in a horrible dungeon for some
seven years. After a marvellous escape from his terrible sur-
roundings, Beves seeks out Josian, and both flee to Cologne,
where they are duly wedded. The hero's career continues to be as
eventful as ever; but he is finally induced to turn towards home,
where he succeeds in regaining his inheritance, and is recognised
as a worthy knight by the reigning king Edgar.
In attempting to estimate the contribution made by these four
works to Middle English romance, it must be remembered that,
although they originate ultimately from the England of the
vikings, of Aethelstan and Edgar, they have all been touched
with later foreign influences. In them may be perceived, how-
ever, an undeveloped chivalry, as well as reminiscences of Old
English life and thought. The code of chivalry is as yet unfor-
mulated. In Havelok we see the simple ideal of righting the
wrong. In Horn and Guy of Warwick is perceptible a refinement
of love which makes for asceticism; but the love details are not, in
general, elaborated in accordance with later chivalrous ideals.
E. L. I. CH. XIV.
20
## p. 306 (#326) ############################################
306 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
Rymenhild and Josian both woo and are wooed; but they lack
the violence of Carolingian heroines. In Felice alone do we find
traces of that scrupulous niceness encouraged in the era of the
courts of love. With regard to the existence of earlier English
reminiscences, in both Horn and Havelok can be seen the joy in
descriptions of the sea characteristic of Old English verse. Both Guy
and Beves, again, have their dragons to encounter after the fashion
of Beowulf. The marvellous, which, to some extent, appears in
Havelok, is of the kind found in Germanic folk-lore; it is distinct
in its essence from the product of Celtic fancy. The plebeian
elements in the same work, which embody a detailed description
of humble life, and which are in striking contrast to the mono-
tonous aristocratic colouring of the romance elsewhere, witness,
undoubtedly, to a primitive pre-Conquest community. And, last,
Guy's great fight with Colbrand breathes the motive of patriotism
-the motive of Byrhtnoth-rather than the religious zeal which
fired crusading heroes in their single combats.
The English medieval romance levied contributions also upon
the literature of antiquity. Such levies were due neither to
crusading zeal, which loved to recall Charlemagne's great fights
against Saracen hosts, nor to the impulse which clung tightly to
native history and homespun stories. They were, rather, the out-
come of a cherished conceit based on a piece of ingenious etymology,
according to which Englishmen, as inhabitants of Britain, held
themselves to be of Trojan descent in virtue of Brutus. In this
way did the literature of antiquity suggest itself as, to some extent,
an appropriate field for the business of romancing. The Gest
Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy and King Alisaunder may
be taken as typical of this class. The former of these consists
of an epitome of the well-known story with, however, many
modifications characteristic of medieval genius. It sets forth the
antique world interpreted in terms of medievalism; Greek warfare,
Greek customs and Greek religion alike appearing in the garb of
the Middle Ages. And, together with these changes, were tacitly
introduced fairy reminiscences and magical details. But, most
interesting of all, in the Troy narrative, are those elements of the
story of Troilus and Briseida taken over from Benoît de Ste More,
and subsequently moulded into one of the world's greatest stories.
In King Alisaunder we see fashioned the historical and legend-
ary hero, his career being supplemented with hosts of fanciful stories
drawn from the east. His birth is alike mysterious and marvellous.
## p. 307 (#327) ############################################
Richard Cour de Lion 307
His youth and manhood are passed in prodigious undertakings.
He tames the fiery Bucephalus. He captures Tyre and burns
Thebes. Darius falls before him. He advances through Persia and
onwards to the Ganges, conquering, on his way, the great Porrus
of India. His homeward journey is a progress through wonderland.
All the magic of the east lies concentrated in his path; he passes
by crowned snakes and mysterious trees, and beholds, in the
distance, cliffs sparkling with diamonds. He is ultimately poisoned
by a friend and honourably buried in a tomb of gold.
The ruling motive of these classical romances, as compared
with others of their kind, is clearly that of depicting, on a large scale,
the heroic element in humanity and of pointing out the glories of
invincible knighthood. They concern themselves, not with chivalrous
love, but with chivalrous valour and knightly accomplishments.
Their aim is to point to the more masculine elements of medieval
chivalry. The joy of battle is everywhere articulate-not least so
in the picturesque movements of warlike bodies, and in the varied
sounds of the battlefield. The method of developing this motive
is, for the most part, by bringing the west into touch with the
east. The treasuries of Babylonian and antique fable are ran-
sacked to glorify the theme of warlike magnificence. The wider
mental horizon and the taste for wonders which attracted con-
temporaries in Mandeville's Travels are here enlisted in the work
of romance.
Closely akin to the Alexander romance is Richard Cour de
Lion, which may, therefore, be considered here, though its story is
not of either eastern or classical origin. The scheme in both is much
the same. Richard's birth is mysterious as was Alexander's. In
early manhood Richard wrenches out the lion's heart; Alexander
tames Bucephalus. Both march to the east to perform great
things : both are presented as types of valorous greatness. In
the romance, Richard appears as the son of Henry II and the
beautiful enchantress Cassodorien. He is imprisoned in Germany
as the result of an escapade on his way home from the Holy Land,
and it is here that he tears out the heart of a lion set loose in his
cell. The proclamation of a general crusade soon afterwards
appeals to Richard and he joins Philip of France on his way to
the east. The French king is consistently treacherous and jealous,
while Richard is no less hasty and passionate, and, in consequence,
ruptures are frequent. After avenging an insult received from
Cyprus, Richard hastens to Syria, where fight succeeds fight
with great regularity, and the Saracens under Saladin are gradually
ood Richo birth is origin. The
2042
## p. 308 (#328) ############################################
308 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
discomfited. At last a truce of three years is arranged, at which
point the romancer is content to conclude. The romance is one of
the most stirring of the whole group. It deals with the crusades;
but its central theme, like that of the Alexander saga, is the glorifica-
tion of the romance of war, the exaltation of the fighting hero. It is,
moreover, fiercely patriotic. Scorn is heaped on the braggadocio of
the French, and the drawing of Philip's character is far from flatter-
ing. On the other hand, Cour de Lion's haughty arrogance is the
glory of Englishmen; on his side fight St George and big battalions
of angels. His humour appears as grim as his blows. He feasts
on Saracens and provides the same dish for Saracen ambassadors
The ideal man of action, as here depicted, is one in whom the
elements are mixed. He is by no means deficient in knightly
instincts and courtesy; but, mingled with these, are coarse-grained
characteristics. He is rude and blunt, forceful and careless of
restraint-all of which traits represent the English contribution
to the heroic picture.
Oriental fable appears in English romance with other effects
than were obtained in the work of King Alisaunder. The more
voluptuous qualities of the east, for instance, are reproduced in
Flores and Blancheflour and result in a style of romance tolerably
distinct. In The Seven Sages of Rome, again, the story-book is
employed in oriental fashion. The heroine of the first, Blancheflour,
is a Christian princess carried off by the Saracens in Spain and
subsequently educated along with their young prince Flores.
Childish friendship develops into love, and Flores is promptly
removed—but not before his lady has given him a magic ring
which will tarnish when the giver is in danger. Danger soon
threatens her in the shape of false accusation; but this peril, being
revealed to Flores by means of his ring, is duly averted, though
subsequent treachery succeeds in despatching the princess to
Egypt as a slave. Thither Flores pursues her; and, by dint of
bribery and stratagem, he succeeds in entering the seraglio
where she is detained. The inevitable discovery follows, but the
anger of the emir having vanished on his learning all the
circumstances, the trials of the lovers come to a pleasant end.
In this work the central theme is, once again, that of love;
but, in the manner of treatment, there are visible certain
departures. According to western standards, the tone is, in fact,
somewhat sentimental. It is felt that soul-stirring passions are
not involved; the whole seems wanting in the quality of hardihood.
## p. 309 (#329) ############################################
Flores and Blancheflour
309
Flores, for instance, swoons in your true sentimental fashion. He
finds heart's-ease in exile by tracing his lady's name in flower-
designs. He wins his cause by dint of magic and persuasion rather
than by the strength of his own right arm. An oriental colouring is
also noticeable in the sensuous descriptions of garden and seraglio,
as well as in the part played by the magic ring. We have here
material and motives which enlarged the domain of the medieval
romance, and which appealed to Chaucer when he set about
writing his Squire's Tale. In The Seven Sages of Rome other
aspects of the east are duly represented. Diocletian's wicked
queen, failing in her attempt to ensnare her stepson Florentine,
viciously accuses him of her own fell designs. Whereupon,
Florentine's seven tutors plead on his behalf by relating seven
tales of the perfidy of woman. The queen, as plaintiff, relates
a corresponding number concerning the wickedness of counsellors.
The tales are told, the queen is unmasked and duly punished.
In an age dedicated by the west to the worship of women we
have here represented the unflattering estimate of womankind
held by the east. The framework and the device of a series of
tales is, likewise, oriental, and so is the didactic tendency which
underlies the whole. The aim is to set forth the dangers to which
youth is subject, not only from the deceit of men, but, also, from
the wiles of women.
Of far greater importance, however, than any of the foregoing
influences is that derived from Celtic sources. The stories of
Arthur, of Tristram and Gawain, while, in response to formative
influences of the time, they present certain details in common with
the other romances, have yet a distinct atmosphere, fresh motives
and new colouring. Points of similarity exist, but with a difference.
The incessant combats of the Carolingian saga find a counterpart
in the “derring-doe" of Arthurian heroes. As in Horn and
Havelok, the scene in the Celtic romances is laid in Britain; but
the background is Celtic rather than English. Again, just
as King Alisaunder and Richard Coeur de Lion are magni-
ficats of splendid heroic figures, so the glorification of Arthur is
the persistent theme of this Celtic work. And, last, the love-strain
and the magic which came from the east, and were embodied in
Flores and Blancheflour, correspond, in some measure, with Celtic
passion and Celtic mysticism. For such points of contact the
spirit of the age must be held accountable : for such differences as
exist, individual and national genius.
## p. 310 (#330) ############################################
310
Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
The effect of the Celtic genius upon English romance, if, indeed,
such a statement may be ventured upon, was to reveal the passions,
to extend the fancy and to inculcate sensibility. The Celtic element
revealed love as a passion in all its fulness, a passion laden with
possibilities, mysterious and awful in power and effect. It opened
up avenues to a fairy-land peopled with elvish forms and lit by
strange lights. It pointed to an exalted chivalry and lofty ideals,
to a courtesy which was the outcome of a refinement of sentiment.
In the romance of Sir Tristram is embodied the Celtic revela-
tion of love. The English poem is based on the version of Thomas,
and is distinct from that of Béroul. This story of “death-marked”
affection is well known : how Tristram and the fair Iseult are
fatally united by the magic love-potion, quaffed in spite of
Iseult's approaching union with Mark of Cornwall; how their
love persists in spite of honour and duty; how Tristram marries
Iseult of the White Hand and comes to lie wounded in Britanny;
how his wife, distracted with jealousy, falsely announces the ominous
black sail coming over the seas; and how the fair Iseult glides
through the hall and expires on the corpse of her former lover. Here
we feel that the tragedy of love has been remorselessly enacted.
It appears to us as a new and irresistible force, differing alike
from the blandishments of the east and the crudeness of the north.
A sense of mystery and gloom enfolds it all like a misty veil over
cairn and cromlech. The problem is as enduring as life itself.
Enchantment is suggested by means of the love-potion, yet the
weakness is mortal, as, indeed, is the sombre climax. Passion
descends to the level of reality, and the comfortable medieval ending
is sternly eschewed. Love is conducted by neither code nor nice
theory: it moves, simple, sensuous, passionate, to its appointed end,
and relentlessly reveals the poetry of life.
In the romances which deal with the relations between mortal
and fairy we find elements of the richest fancy. Here and else-
where, in this Celtic section, are discovered landscapes and scenes
which charm the imagination with their glamour and light. Fays
come and go, wrapped in ethereal beauty, and horrible spirit-shapes
appear to the accompaniment of mad symphonies of the elements.
Knights of faërie emerge out of weird forbidden tracts, strange
enchantments dictating or following their various movements.
Mystic commands lightly broken entail tragic penalties, and
mortals become the sport of elvish visitants.
Of the romances which relate to love-passages between mortal
and fairy, Sir Launfal, Sir Orfeo and Emare may be taken as
## p. 311 (#331) ############################################
Celtic Romances
311
types. In Sir Launfal, the hero receives love-favours from a
beautiful fay, but breaks his bond by carelessly betraying his
secret to the queen. He is condemned to death and abandoned
by the fay, who, however, relents in time and, riding to Arthur's
court, succeeds in carrying the knight off to the Isle of Avalon.
Sir Orfeo may be briefly described as a Celtic adaptation of the
familiar classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Queen Heurodys
is carried off into fairyland, in spite of all that human efforts can
do King Orfeo follows her in despair, as a minstrel, but his
wonderful melodies at last succeed in leading her back to the
haunts of men. In Emare we have a beautifully told story of the
Constance type, with the addition of certain mystical elements.
The heroine is a mysterious maiden of unearthly beauty who is cast
off by her unnatural father and drifts to the shores of Wales where
she wins Sir Cador's love. After the marriage, Sir Cador goes
abroad, and the young wife is once more turned adrift by an in-
triguing mother-in-law. She reaches Rome, and there, in due
course, she is happily discovered by the grief-stricken Cador.
Other romances relate the deeds of the offspring of fairy and mortal
union as, for instance, Sir Degare and Sir Gowther. The former
is an account of the son of a fairy knight and a princess of Britain.
He is abandoned in infancy by the princess, who, however, leaves
with him a pair of magic gloves which will fit no hands but hers.
The child in time becomes a knight, and his prowess in the lists
renders him eligible for the hand of the princess, his mother. By
means of the gloves, however, they learn their real relationship;
whereupon Sir Degare relinquishes his claim and succeeds in the
filial task of re-uniting his parents. In Sir Gowther, the hero is the
son of a “fiendish” knight and a gentle lady whom he had betrayed.
The boy, as was predicted, proved to be of a most savage tempera-
ment, until the offending Adam was whipped out of him by means
of self-inflicted penance. He then wins the love of an earls
daughter by glorious achievements in the lists, and piously builds
an abbey to commemorate his conversion.
It is in the Arthurian romances and, more particularly, in those
relating to Sir Gawain, that we find the loftier ideals of chivalry
set forth. Gawain is depicted as the knight of honour and courtesy,
of loyalty and self-sacrifice. Softer manners and greater magna-
nimity are grafted upon the earlier knighthood. Self-restraint
becomes more and more a knightly virtue. The combats are not
less fierce, but vainglorious boasting gives way to moods of humility.
Victory is followed by noble concern for the vanquished. Passing
## p. 312 (#332) ############################################
312 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
over Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, which is treated else-
where, we find in Golagros and Gawane these knightly elements
plainly visible. The rudeness of Sir Kay, here and elsewhere, is
devised as a foil to the courtesy of Gawain. Arthur in Tuscany
sends Sir Kay to ask for quarters in a neighbouring castle. His
rude, presumptuous bearing meets with refusal, though, when
Gawain arrives, the request is readily acceded to. The domains
of Golagros are next approached. He is an aggressive knight of
large reputation, whom Arthur makes it his business forthwith to
subdue. A combat is arranged, in which Gawain proves victor;
whereupon the noble Arthurian not only grants the life of the
defiant Golagros, but spares his feelings by returning to his castle
as if he himself were the vanquished. Matters are afterwards
explained, and Golagros, conquered alike by arms and courtesy,
becomes duly enrolled in Arthur's train. In the Awntyrs [Adven-
tures) of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne we find something of the
same elements, together with an exhortation to moral living. The
romance deals with two incidents alleged to have occurred while
Arthur was hunting near Carlisle. The first, however, is an
adaptation of the Trentals of St Gregory. A ghastly figure is
represented as emerging from the Tarn, and appearing before
Guinevere and Gawain. It is Guinevere's mother in the direst
torments. The queen thereupon makes a vow as to her future
life, and promises, meanwhile, to have masses sung for her mother's
soul. The second incident is of a more conventional kind, and
deals with the fight between Gawain and Galleroun.
Ywain and Gawain is another romance which embodies much
that is characteristic of Arthurian chivalry. Ywain sets out on a
certain quest from Arthur's court. He defeats a knight near the
fountain of Broceliande, pursues him to his castle and marries
Laudine, mistress of that place. After further adventures in love and
war, in most of which he has the company of a friendly lion, he falls
in with Gawain and, ignorant of each other's identity, they engage
in combat. The fight is indecisive, and each courteously concedes
to the other the victory-an exchange of compliments which is
speedily followed by a joyful recognition. The Wedding of Sir
Gawain, again, points to loyalty and honour, as involving supreme
self-sacrifice. It relates how Gawain, to save Arthur's life, under-
takes to marry the loathsome dame Ragnell. His noble unselfish-
ness, however, is not unrewarded: the dame is subsequently
transformed into the most beauteous of her kind. Libeaus
Desconus, the story of Gyngalyn, Gawain's son, is constructed
## p. 313 (#333) ############################################
The Gawain Cycle
313
on rather conventional lines. The fair unknown has several
adventures with giants and others. He visits a fairy castle, where
he meets with an enchantress, and rescues a lady transformed
into a dreadful serpent, who, afterwards, however, becomes his
wife. The scene of the Avowing of Arthur is once more placed
near Carlisle. Arthur is hunting with Sir Gawain, Sir Kay and
Sir Baldwin, when all four undertake separate vows. Arthur is
to capture single-handed a ferocious boar; Sir Kay to fight all
who oppose him. The king is successful; but Sir Kay falls before
a knight who is carrying off a beautiful maiden. The victor, how-
ever, is afterwards overcome in a fight with Gawain, and then
ensues a significant contrast in the matter of behaviours. Sir Kay
sustains his earlier reputation by cruelly taunting the beaten
knight; while Sir Gawain, on the other hand, mindful of the claims
of chivalry, is studiously kind and considerate towards his fallen
foe. The riming Mort Arthur, and the alliterative work of
the same name, deal with the close of Arthur's life. In the first
occurs the story of the maid of Ascolot, and her fruitless love for
the noble Lancelot. The narrative is instinct with the pathos
of love, and here, as in Tristram, the subtlety of the treatment
reveals further possibilities of the love theme. Lancelot is, more-
over, depicted as Guinevere's champion. The queen is under
condemnation, but is rescued by Lancelot, who endures, in con-
sequence, a siege in the Castle of Joyous Garde. The end of the
Arthurian story begins to be visible in the discord thus intro-
duced between Lancelot and Gawain, Arthur and Modred. The
alliterative Morte Arthure is more seriously historical. Arthur
is represented as returning home from his wars with Lucius on
hearing of Modred's treachery. He fights the traitor, but is
mortally wounded, and is borne to Glastonbury, where he is given
a magnificent burial.
In addition to the romances already mentioned as representative
in some measure of definite influences at work, there yet remain
certain others which call for notice. We have, in the first place,
a group of some five romances which may be considered together as
studies of knightly character. They are works which may be said to
deal, incidentally perhaps, with the building up of the perfect knight
and Christian hero, though anything like psychological treatment
is, of course, entirely absent. In Ipomedon, we see the knight as
a gallant if capricious lover. Marriage having been proposed
between young Ipomedon, prince of Apulia, and the beautiful
## p. 314 (#334) ############################################
314 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
queen of Calabria, the former determines to woo for himself.
He arrives incognito at the court of the queen, wins her favour
by manly exploits, and then departs somewhat capriciously. He
is, however, induced to return on hearing that a tournament is
to be held of which the queen herself is to be the prize. But,
again, his conduct is strange. He loudly proclaims his dislike for
boisterous tournaments, and ostentatiously sets out on hunting
expeditions on the days of the contests. But he actually
goes to a neighbouring hermitage, whence he issues to the
tournament, clad, on successive days, in red, white and black
armour-a favourite medieval method of disguise adopted by
Sir Gowther and others. He carries all before him and then
vanishes as mysteriously as ever, without claiming his prize or
revealing his identity. Soon afterwards, the queen is hard pressed
by a neighbouring duke, and the hero appears once more to fight
her battles, this time disguised as a fool. It is only after further
adventures, when he feels he has fooled to the top of his bent,
that he declares his love with a happy result. In this stirring
romance we see the knight-errant in quest of love. The assumed
slothfulness and fondness for disguise were frequent attributes
of the medieval hero: the one added interest to actual exploits,
the other was an assurance that the love of the well-born was
accepted on his own individual merits.
In the beautiful romance of Amis and Amiloun we have friend-
ship set forth as a knightly virtue. It is depicted as an all-absorbing
quality which involves, if necessary, the sacrifice of both family and
conscience. Amis and Amiloun are two noble foster-brothers, the
medieval counterparts of Orestes and Pylades, much alike in ap-
pearance, whose lives are indissolubly linked together. Amiloun
generously, but surreptitiously, takes the place of Amis in a trial by
combat, for which piece of unselfishness, with the deception involved
in it, he is, subsequently, visited with the scourge of leprosy. Some
time afterwards, Amis finds his friend in pitiable plight, but fails, at
first, to grasp his identity. It is only after a dramatic scene that
the discovery is made, and then Amis, grief-stricken, proceeds to
remove his friend's leprosy by the sacrifice of his own children.
But such a sacrifice is not permitted to be irrevocable. When
Amis and his wife Belisante go to view their slaughtered children,
they are found to be merely sleeping. The sacrifice had been one
upon which the gods themselves threw incense. The romance, as
it stands, is one of the most pathetic and elevating of the whole series.
Knightly love and valour were eloquent themes of the
## p. 315 (#335) ############################################
The Squire of Low Degree 315
medieval romance : in Amis and Amiloun, the beauty of friend-
ship is no less nobly treated. In Sir Cleges, the knightly character
is further developed by the inculcation of charity, wit and shrewd-
ness. The story is simply, but picturesquely, told. The hero is
a knight who is reduced to poverty by reckless charity. When
his fortunes are at their lowest ebb he finds a cherry-tree
in his garden laden with fruit, though snow is on the ground and
the season is yuletide. With this goodly find he sets out to king
Uther at Cardiff, in the hope of restoring his fallen fortunes; but
court officials bar his way until he has promised to divide amongst
them all his reward. The king is gratified, and Cleges is asked
to name his reward. He asks for twelve strokes, which the
officials, in accordance with the bargain, duly receive, to the
unbounded delight of an appreciative court. The identity of
the knight then becomes known and his former charity is suitably
recognised.
The theme of Sir Isumbras is that of Christian humility, the
story itself being an adaptation of the legend of St Eustace. Sir
Isumbras is a knight who, through pride, falls from his high estate
by the will of Providence. He is severely stricken; his posses-
sions, his children and, lastly, his wife, are taken away; and he
himself becomes a wanderer. After much privation nobly endured,
he has learnt his lesson and arrives at the court of a queen, who
proves to be his long-lost wife. His children are then miraculously
restored and he resumes once more his exalted rank.
The Squire of Low Degree is a pleasant romance which does
not belie an attractive title. Its theme suggests the idea of
the existence of knightly character in those of low estate, a
sentiment which had appealed to a conquered English people
in the earlier Havelok. The humble squire in the story wins the
affection of “the king's daughter of Hungary,” as well as her
promise to wed when he shall have become a distinguished knight.
An interfering and treacherous steward is righteously slain by the
squire, who then suffers imprisonment, and the king's daughter,
who supposes her lover dead, is thereby reduced to the direst
straits. She refuses consolation, though the king categorically
reminds her of much that is pleasant in life and draws up, in fact,
an interesting list of medieval delights, its feasts, its finery, its
sports and its music. Persuasion failing, the king is obliged to relent.
The squire is released and ventures abroad on knightly quest. He
returns, in due course, to claim his own, and a pleasant romance
ends on a pleasant note. The story loses nothing from the manner
## p. 316 (#336) ############################################
316 Metrical Romances, 1200—1500
of its telling ; it is, above all, “mercifully brief. ” Its English origin
and sentiment, no less than its pictures of medieval life, continue
to make this romance one of the most readable of its kind.
Besides these romances which deal, in some sort, with the
knightly character, there are others which embody variations of
the Constance theme, namely, Sir Triamour, Sir Eglamour of
Artois and Torrent of Portugal. Like Emarè, they belong to
the “reunion of kindred” type-a type which appealed to Chaucer
and, still more, to Shakespeare in his latest period. One well-known
romance still calls for notice. This is William of Palerne, a tale of
love and action which embodies the primitive belief in lycanthropy,
according to which certain people were able to assume, at will,
the character and appearance of wolves. The tradition was wide-
spread in Europe, and it still appears from time to time in modern
works dealing with ghouls and vampires. The story relates how
William, prince of Apulia, is saved from a murderous attack by the
aid of a werwolf, who, in reality, is heir to the Spanish throne. The
werwolf swims with the prince across the straits of Messina, and
again renders aid when his protégé is fleeing from Rome with his
love, Melchior. William, subsequently, recovers his royal rights,
and then helps to bring about the restoration to the friendly
werwolf of his human form.
It is striking and, to some extent, characteristic of the age,
that, although the field of English romance was thus wide and
varied, the personality of scarcely a single toiler in that field
has come down to posterity. The anonymity of the work em-
bodied in our ancient cathedrals is a parallel to this, and neither
fact is without its significance. With the Tristram legend is
connected the name of Thomas, a poet of the twelfth century, who
is mentioned by Gottfried of Strassburg in the early thirteenth
century. The somewhat misty but historical Thomas of Erceldoune
has been credited with the composition of a Sir Tristram story,
but this was possibly due to a confusion of the twelfth century
Thomas with his interesting namesake of the succeeding century.
The confusion would be one to which the popular mind was
peculiarly susceptible. Thomas the Rhymer was a romantic
figure credited with prophetical gifts, and a popular tale would
readily be linked with his name, especially as such a process
was consistent with the earlier Thomas tradition as it then
existed.
In the case of three other romances there seem to be certain
grounds for attributing them to a single writer. All three works,
## p. 317 (#337) ############################################
The Age of Romance
317
King Alisaunder, Arthur and Merlin and Richard Cour de Lion,
are, apparently, of much the same date, and alike hail from Kent.
Each is animated by the same purpose—that of throwing on to a
large canvas a great heroic figure; there is also to be found in
each of them a certain sympathy with magic, The handling of
the theme in each case proceeds on similar lines; the close
parallel in the schemes of King Alisaunder and Richard Coeur de
Lion has already been noticed; and the narrative, in each, moves
along in easy animated style. Moreover, similarities of technique
are found in all. The recurrence of similes and comparisons as
well as riming peculiarities in common, suggest the working of
a single mind. In King Alisaunder and Arthur and Merlin
appears the device of beginning the various sections of the nar-
rative with lyric, gnomic, or descriptive lines, presumably to
arouse interest and claim attention. In Richard Coeur de Lion
something of the same tendency is also visible, as when a delight-
ful description of spring is inserted after the gruesome account of
the massacre of a horde of Saracens. All three works betray a joy
in fighting, a joy expressed in vigorous terms. In all is evinced
an ability to seize on the picturesque side of things, whether of
battle or feasting ; Saracens fall "as grass before the scythe";
the helmets of the troops shine “like snow upon the mountains. ”
But if the identity of a common author may thus seem probable,
little or nothing is forthcoming as regards his personality. Certain
coarse details, together with rude humour, seem to suggest a
plebeian pen; and this is, apparently, supported by occasional
references to trades. But nothing certain on the subject can be
stated. The personality of the poet is, at best, but shadowy,
though, undoubtedly, his work is of outstanding merit.
In certain respects these romances may be said to reflect the age
in which they were written. They bear witness in two ways to the
communistic conception of society which then prevailed: first, by
the anonymous character of the writings generally and, secondly,
by the absence of the patriotic note. The individual, from the
communistic standpoint, was but a unit of the nation; the nation,
merely a section of a larger Christendom. The sense of indi-
vidualism, and all that it implied, was yet to be emphasised by a
later renascence. It is, therefore, clear that the anonymity of
the romances, as in the case of the Legendaries and Chronicle,
was, in part, the outcome of such conceptions and notions. The
works represent
The constant servico of the antique world
When service sweat for duty, not for meed.
## p. 318 (#338) ############################################
318 Metrical Romances, 1200-1500
And the absence of patriotism from the romances results from the
same conditions: national consciousness was not yet really awakened.
The mental horizon was bounded not by English shores, but by the
limits of the Holy Roman Empire Cour de Lion's career alone
appealed to latent sympathies; for the rest, the romance is un-
touched by national feeling. French and other material was
adapted without any re-colouring.
The romance also reflects the medieval love of external beauty.
The picturesqueness of the actual, of medieval streets and buildings,
the bright colours in dress, the love of pageantry and pictorial effects,
all helped to inspire, and are, indeed, reflected in the gay colouring
of the romances. If the stories, again, make considerable demands
upon the credulity, it was not remarkable in regard to the cha-
racter of the times. All things were possible in an age of faith:
the wisdom of credo quia impossibile was to be questioned in
the succeeding age of reason. Moreover, the atmosphere which
nourished the romantic growth was that of feudalism, and an
aristocratic note everywhere marks its tone and structure. But
it is a glorified feudalism which is thus represented, a feudalism
glorious in its hunting, its feasting and its fighting, in its brave men
and fair women; the lower elements are scarcely ever remembered,
and no pretence is made at holding up the mirror to the whole
of society.
Lastly, like so much of the rest of medieval work, the romance
moves largely amidst abstractions. It avoids close touch with the
concrete: for instance, no reflection is found of the struggles of the
Commons for parliamentary power, or even of the national strivings
against papal dominion. The problems of actual life are carefully
avoided; the material treated consists, rather, of the fanciful
problems of the courts of love and situations arising out of the
new-born chivalry.
The romance has many defects, in spite of all its attractions and
the immense interest it arouses both intrinsically and historically.
It sins in being intolerably long-winded and in being often devoid
of all proportion. A story may drag wearily on, long after the
last chapter has really been written, and insignificant episodes
are treated with as much concern as those of pith and moment.
Further, it makes demands upon the “painful” reader, not only by
its discursiveness and love of digression, but also by the minuteness
of its descriptions, relentlessly complete, which leave nothing to the
imagination. “The art of the pen is to rouse the inward vision. . .
because our flying minds cannot contain a protracted description. "
This truth was far from being appreciated in the age of the school.
## p. 319 (#339) ############################################
319
General Defects
men, with their encyclopaedic training. The aristocratic tone of
the romance, moreover, tends to become wearisome by its very
monotony. Sated with the sight of knights and ladies, giants and
Saracens, one longs to meet an honest specimen of the citizen
class; but such relief is never granted. To these and other short-
comings, however, the medieval eye was not always blind, though
romances continued to be called for right up to the end of
the fourteenth century and, indeed, after. Chaucer, with his
keen insight and strong human sympathies, had shown himself
aware of all these absurdities, for, in his Sir Thopas, designed
as a parody on the romance in general, these are the points
on which he seizes. When he rambles on for a hundred lines
in Sir Thopas without saying much, he is quietly making the
first point of his indictment. He is exaggerating the discur-
siveness and minuteness he has found so irksome. And, in the
second place, he ridicules the aristocratic monotone by introducing
a bourgeois note into his parodied romance. The knight swears
an oath on plain "ale and bread”: while, in the romantic forest
through which he is wandering, lurk the harmless “buck and hare,”
as well as the homely nutmeg that flavours the ale. The lapse from
romance is sufficiently evident and the work silently embodies
much sound criticism. The host, with blunt remark, ends the
parody, and in him may be seen a matter-of-fact intelligence
declaiming against the faults of romance.
But, with all its shortcomings, the romance has a peculiar
interest from the modern standpoint in that it marks the begin-
ning of English fiction. In it is written the first chapter of the
modern novel. After assuming a pastoral form in the days of
Elizabeth, and after being reclaimed, with all its earlier defects,
in the seventeenth century, romance slowly vanished in the dry
light of the eighteenth century, but not before it had flooded
the stage with astounding heroic plays. The later novels, how-
ever, continued the functions of the earlier romances when they
embodied tales of adventures or tales of love whether thwarted or
triumphant. Nor is Richardson's novel of analysis without its
counterpart in this earlier creation. He treated love on psycho-
logical lines. But charming love-problems had exercised the minds
of medieval courtiers and had subsequently been analysed in the
romances after the approved fashion of the courts of love. It is
only in the case of the later realistic novel that the origins have
to be sought elsewhere—in the contemporary fabliaux, which
dealt, in a ready manner, with the troubles and the humours of
a lower stratum of life.
## p. 320 (#340) ############################################
CHAPTER XV
PEARL, CLEANNESS, PATIENCE AND
SIR GAWAYNE
AMONG the Cottonian manuscripts in the British Museum, a
small quarto volume, numbered Nero A. x, contains the four Middle
English poems known as Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir
Gawayne and the Grene Knight. The manuscript is in a hand
which seems to belong to the end of the fourteenth or the early
years of the fifteenth century; there are neither titles nor rubrics,
but the chief divisions are marked by large initial letters of blue,
flourished with red; several pictures, coarsely executed, illustrate
the poems, each occupying a full page; the writing is “small,
sharp and irregular. " No single line of these poems has been
discovered in any other manuscript.
The first of the four poems, Pearl, tells of a father's grief for a
lost child, an infant daughter who had lived not two years on earth.
In a vision he beholds his Pearl, no longer a little child, transfigured
as a queen of heaven; from the other bank of a stream which
divides them she instructs him, teaches him the lessons of faith and
resignation and leads him to a glimpse of the new Jerusalem. He
sees his “little queen” in the long procession of maidens; in his
effort to plunge into the stream and reach her he awakes, to find
himself stretched on the child's grave-
Then woke I in that garden fair;
My head upon that mound was laid,
there where my Pearl had strayed below.
I roused me, and felt in great dismay,
and, sighing to myself, I said:-
“Now all be to that Prince's pleasure" 1,
Naturally arising from the author's treatment of his subject,
many a theological problem, notably the interpretation of the
parable of the vineyard, is expounded. The student of medieval
theology may find much of interest in Pearl, but the attempt to
read the poem as a theological pamphlet, and a mere symbolical
allegory, ignores its transcendent reality as a poet's lament. The
1 The renderings into modern English, throughout the chapter, are from the
writer's edition of Pearl, 1891,
## p. 321 (#341) ############################################
Sources of Pearl
321
personal side of the poem is clearly marked, though the author
nowhere directly refers to his fatherhood. The basis of Pearl is to
be found in that verse of the Gospel which tells of the man “ that
sought the precious margarites; and, when he had found one to his
liking, he sold all his goods to buy that jewel. ” The pearl was
doomed, by the law of nature, to flower and fade like a rose; there-
after it became a "pearl of price"; "the jeweller” indicates clearly
enough the reality of his loss.
A fourteenth century poet, casting about for the form best
suited for such a poem, had two courses before him: on the one
hand, there was the great storehouse of dream-pictures, The
Romaunt of the Rose; on the other hand, the symbolic pages
of Scripture. A poet of the Chaucerian school would have chosen
the former; to him the lost Marguerite would have suggested an
allegory of “the flour that bereth our alder pris in figuringe," and
the Marguerite would have been transfigured as the type of
truest womanhood, a maiden in the train of love's queen, Alcestis.
