Car bien scavons sanz nul espoir
Q'il ne fu pius de c ans née
Q'il grans ost fu assemblée.
MS. fr. 60 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 42; contains: "Li Roumans de Tiebes qui fu racine de Troie la grant.—Item toute l'histoire de Troie la grant."
[174] "Alexandre le Grand, dans la littérature française du moyen âge," by P. Meyer, Paris, 1886, 2 vols. 8vo (vol. i. texts, vol. ii. history of the legend); vol. ii. p. 182.
[175] MS. fr. 782 at the National Library, Paris, containing poems by Benoit de Sainte-More, fol. 151, 155, 158.
[176] Benoit de Sainte-More, a poet of the court of Henry II., wrote his "Roman de Troie" about 1160 (G. Paris); it was edited by Joly, Paris, 1870, 2 vols. 4to.—"Le Roman de Thèbes," ed. L. Constans, Paris, 1890, 2 vols. 8vo, wrongly attributed to Benoit de Sainte-More, indirectly imitated from the "Thebaid" of Statius.—"Eneas," a critical text, ed. J. Salvedra de Grave, Halle, Bibliotheca Normannica, 1891, 8vo, also attributed, but wrongly it seems, to Benoit; the work of a Norman, twelfth century; imitated from the "Æneid."—The immense poem of Eustache or Thomas de Kent is still unpublished; the author imitates the romance in "alexandrines" of Lambert le Tort and Alexandre de Paris, twelfth century, ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1846.—The romances of Hue de Rotelande (Rhuddlan in Flintshire?) are also in French verse, and were composed between 1176-7 and 1190-1; see Ward, "Catalogue of Romances," 1883, vol. i. pp. 728 ff.; his "Ipomedon" has been edited by Kölbing and Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889, 8vo; his "Prothesilaus" is still unpublished.
[177] Lib. IX. cap. ii.
[178] "Hic est Arthur de quo Britonum nugæ hodieque delirant, dignus plane quod non fallaces somniarent fabulæ, sed veraces prædicarent historiæ." "De Gestis," ed. Stubbs, Rolls, vol. i. p. 11. Henry of Huntingdon, on the other hand, unable to identify the places of Arthur's battles, descants upon the vanity of fame and glory, "popularis auræ, laudis adulatoriæ, famæ transitoriæ...." "Historia Anglorum," Rolls, p. 49.
[179] Says the Wolf:
Dont estes vos? de quel païs?
Vos n'estes mie nes de France ...
—Nai, mi seignor, mais de Bretaing ...
—Et savez vos neisun mestier?
—Ya, ge fot molt bon jogler ...
Ge fot savoir bon lai Breton.
"Roman de Renart," ed. Martin, vol. i. pp. 66, 67.