THE OLD FRENCH EPIC
(Chansons de Geste)
| Lateness of the extant versions | [287] |
| Competition of Epic and Romance in the twelfth century | [288] |
| Widespread influence of the Chansons de geste—a contrast to the Sagas | [289] |
| Narrative style | [290] |
| No obscurities of diction | [291] |
| The "heroic age" imperfectly represented but not ignored | [292] [293] |
| Roland—heroic idealism—France and Christendom | [293] |
| William of Orange—Aliscans | [296] |
| Rainouart—exaggeration of heroism | [296] |
| Another class of stories in the Chansons de geste, more like the Sagas | [297] |
| Raoul de Cambrai | [298] |
| Barbarism of style | [299] |
| Garin le Loherain—style clarified | [300] |
| Problems of character—Fromont | [301] |
| The story of the death of Begon unlike contemporary work of the Romantic School | [302] [304] |
| The lament for Begon | [307] |
| Raoul and Garin contrasted with Roland | [308] |
| Comedy in French Epic—"humours" in Garin in the Coronemenz Looïs, etc. | [310] [311] |
| Romantic additions to heroic cycles—la Prise d'Orange | [313] |
| Huon de Bordeaux—the original story grave and tragic converted to Romance | [314] [314] |
[CHAPTER V]
ROMANCE AND THE OLD FRENCH ROMANTIC SCHOOLS
| Romance an element in Epic and Tragedy apart from all "romantic schools" | [321] |
| The literary movements of the twelfth century | [322] |
| A new beginning | [323] |
| The Romantic School unromantic in its methods | [324] |
| Professional Romance | [325] |
| Characteristics of the school—courteous sentiment | [328] |
| Decorative passages—descriptions—pedantry | [329] |
| Instances from Roman de Troie and from Ider, etc. | [330] [331] |
| Romantic adventures—the "matter of Rome" and the "matter of Britain" | [334] |
| Blending of classical and Celtic influences—e.g. in Benoit's Medea | [334] |
| Methods of narrative—simple, as in the Lay of Guingamor; overloaded, as in Walewein | [337] |
| Guingamor | [338] |
| Walewein, a popular tale disguised as a chivalrous romance | [340] |
| The different versions of Libeaux Desconus—one of them is sophisticated | [343] |
| Tristram—the Anglo-Norman poems comparatively simple and ingenuous | [344] |
| French Romance and Provençal Lyric | [345] |
| Ovid in the Middle Ages—the Art of Love | [346] |
| The Heroines | [347] |
| Benoit's Medea again | [348] |
| Chrestien of Troyes, his place at the beginning of modern literature | [349] |
| 'Enlightenment' in the Romantic School | [350] |
| The sophists of Romance—the rhetoric of sentiment and passion | [351] |
| The progress of Romance from medieval to modern literature | [352] |
| Chrestien of Troyes, his inconsistencies—nature and convention | [352] |
| Departure from conventional romance; Chrestien's Enid | [355] |
| Chrestien's Cliges—"sensibility" | [357] |
| Flamenca, a Provençal story of the thirteenth century—the author a follower of Chrestien | [359] |
| His acquaintance with romantic literature and rejection of the "machinery" of adventures | [360] [360] |
| Flamenca, an appropriation of Ovid—disappearance of romantic mythology | [361] |
| The Lady of Vergi, a short tragic story without false rhetoric | [362] |
| Use of medieval themes by the great poets of the fourteenth century | [363] |
| Boccaccio and Chaucer—the Teseide and the Knight's Tale | [364] |
| Variety of Chaucer's methods | [364] |
| Want of art in the Man of Law's Tale | [365] |
| The abstract point of honour (Clerk's Tale, Franklin's Tale) | [366] |
| Pathos in the Legend of Good Women | [366] |
| Romantic method perfect in the Knight's Tale | [366] |
| Anelida, the abstract form of romance | [367] |
| In Troilus and Criseyde the form of medieval romance is filled out with strong dramatic imagination | [367] |
| Romance obtains the freedom of Epic, without the old local and national limitations of Epic | [368] |
| Conclusion | [370] |
[APPENDIX]
| [Note A]—Rhetoric of the Alliterative Poetry | [373] |
| [Note B]—Kjartan and Olaf Tryggvason | [375] |
| [Note C]—Eyjolf Karsson | [381] |
| [Note D]—Two Catalogues of Romances | [384] |
| [INDEX] | [391] |