[496] The author of the Essay on the Genius of Pope, p. 282.
[497] Ibid. p. 283. Hist. Lit. tom. 6, 7.
[498] Voir Preface aux "Fabliaux & Contes des Poetes François des xii. xiii. xiv. & xv. siècles, &c., Paris, 1756, 3 tom. 12mo." (a very curious work).
[499] Vid. supra, note (d), vol. i. Essay, &c. Et vide Rapin, Carte, &c. This song of Roland (whatever it was) continued for some centuries to be usually sung by the French in their marches, if we may believe a modern French writer. "Un jour qu'on chantoit la Chanson de Roland, comme c'etoit l'usage dans les marches. Il y a long temps, dit il (John K. of France, who died in 1364), qu'on ne voit plus de Rolands parmi les François. On y verroit encore des Rolands, lui répondit un vieux capitaine, s'ils avoient un Charlemagne à leur tête." Vid. tom. iii. p. 202, des Essaies Hist. sur Paris, de M. de Saintefoix: who gives as his authority, Boethius in Hist. Scotorum. This author, however, speaks of the complaint and repartee, as made in an Assembly of the States (vocato senatu), and not upon any march, &c. Vid. Boeth. lib. xv. vol. 327. Ed. Paris, 1574.
[500] See on this subject, vol. i. note, s. 2, p. 404; and in note G g, p. 424, &c.
[501] The first romances of chivalry among the Germans were in metre: they have some very ancient narrative songs (which they call Lieder) not only on the fabulous heroes of their own country, but also on those of France and Britain, as Tristram, Arthur, Gawain, and the knights von der Tafel-ronde (vid. Goldasti Not. in Eginhart. Vit. Car. Mag. 4to. 1711, p. 207.)
[502] The Welsh have still some very old romances about K. Arthur; but as these are in prose, they are not probably their first pieces that were composed on that subject.
[503] It is most credible that these stories were originally of English invention, even if the only pieces now extant should be found to be translations from the French. What now pass for the French originals were probably only amplifications, or enlargements of the old English story. That the French romances borrowed some things from the English, appears from the word termagant.
[504] Recuyel of the Hystoryes of Troy, 1471; Godfroye of Boloyne, 1481; Le Morte de Arthur, 1485; The Life of Charlemagne, 1485, &c. As the old minstrelsy wore out, prose books of chivalry became more admired, especially after the Spanish romances began to be translated into English towards the end of Q. Elizabeth's reign: then the most popular metrical romances began to be reduced into prose, as Sir Guy, Bevis, &c.
[505] See extract from a letter, written by the editor of these volumes, in Mr. Warton's Observations, vol. ii. p. 139.