[522] Ludlow (op. cit. i. 358) translates the Basque Song of Atta-biçar, which relates to some destruction of chivalrous forces by the Pyrenean mountaineers.

[523] See Génin (op. cit. pp. xxv.-xxviii.).

[524] Introduction to Panizzi's edition of the Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso (London, Pickering, 1830), vol. i. pp. 126-128.

[525] See Dante, Inf. xxxii. 61, v. 67, v. 128. Galeotto, Lancelot's go-between with Guinevere, gave his name to a pimp in Italy, as Pandarus to a pander in England. Boccaccio's Novelliere was called Il Principe Galeotto. Petrarch in the Trionfi and Boccaccio in the Amoroso Visione make frequent references to the knights of the Round Table. The latter in his Corbaccio mentions the tale of Tristram as a favorite book with idle women. The Fiammetta might be quoted with the same object of proving its wide-spread popularity. The lyrics of Folgore da San Gemignano and other trecentisti would furnish many illustrative allusions.

[526] See above, [p. 17].

[527] The Reali di Francia sets forth this legendary genealogy at great length, and stops short at the coronation of Charles in Rome and the discovery of Roland. Considering the dryness of its subject-matter, it is significant that this should have survived all the prose romances of the fifteenh century. We may ascribe the fact perhaps to the tenacious Italian devotion to the Imperial idea.

[528] Orl. Inn. Rifac. i. 18, 26. Niccolò da Padova in the thirteenth century quoted Turpin as his authority for the history of Charlemagne which he composed in Northern French. This proves the antiquity of the custom. See Bartoli, Storia della Lett. It. vol. ii. p. 44. To believe in Turpin was not, however, an article of faith. Thus Bello in the Mambriano, c. viii.:

Ma poi che 'l non è articolo di fede,
Tenete quella parte che vi piace,
Che l'autor libramente vel concede.

[529] "Un Dio, uno Orlando, e una Roma." Morg. Magg. xxvii. 220. Compare this with Arthur's "Flos regum Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus."

[530] See Propugnatore (Anni ii., iii., iv.). La Spagna was itself two popular compilations.