25 ([return])
[ The present cathedral of Beauvais is dedicated to St. Peter, and its construction was begun in 1227. The earlier structure here referred to, destroyed in 1118, probably was also dedicated to the same saint. (F.)]
26 ([return])
[ The real kernal of the Cligés story, stripped of its lengthy introduction concerning Alexandre and Soredamors, is told in a few lines in "Marques de Rome", p. 135 (ed. J. Alton in "Lit. Verein in Stuttgart", No. 187, Tubingen, 1889), as one of the tales or "exempla" recounted by the Empress of Rome to the Emperor and the Seven Sages. No names are given except that of Cligés himself; the version owes nothing to Chrétien's poem, and seems to rest upon a story which the author may have heard orally. See Foerster's "Einleitung to Cligés" (1910), p. 32 f.]
27 ([return])
[ This criticism of ignoble leisure on the part of a warrior is found also in "Erec et Enide" and "Yvain".]
28 ([return])
[ This allegorical tribute to "largesse" is quite in the spirit of the age. When professional poets lived upon the bounty of their patrons, it is not strange that their poetry should dwell upon the importance of generosity in their heroes. For an exhaustive collection of "chastisements" or "enseignements", such as that here given to Alexandre by his father, see Eugen Altner, "Ueber die chastiements in den altfranzosischen chansons de geste" (Leipzig, 1885).]
29 ([return])
[ As Miss Weston has remarked ("The Three Days' Tournament", p. 45), the peculiar georgraphy of this poem "is distinctly Anglo-Norman rather than Arthurian".]