MEDIAEVAL LITERATURE. 481' 



their love of genial laughter. We may rest secure that it was by 

 no means his intention to compose a parody of the Carolingian 

 epic. His reverence for the emperor-king, the favourite of heaven, 

 is equal in its intensity to that of the most fervent and solemn 

 worshipper of Charlemagne. The scene, for instance, in which he- 

 introduces Charles and his twelve paladins sitting down in the 

 sacred stalls of the church at Jerusalem must, in all fairness, be 

 reckoned among the most arresting fragments in the entire range 

 of French epic poetry. His veneration for the holy relics is second 

 to none, and on a par with that of the most pious visitors of the 

 abbey of St. Denis. The great king strutting up and down, like 

 a prinking peacock, in front of his courtiers, was probably not so* 

 ridiculous a perfonnance in those days as it would appear to' 

 us at present. Even in the dignified "Chanson de Roland" it is 

 one of Charlemagne's fads to dress in full array, his "barbe 

 fleurie" flowing majestically over his shining coat of mail, and, 

 mounted on his charger, to trot to and fro before his admiring 

 court. No, the author does not want to scoff; he wants to make 

 his audience laugh, and with complacency he expatiates on the 

 funny episodes of his tale. He wishes to blend the serious and 

 the jocose, the respectful and the laughable, and in doing so he 

 stands decidedly apart from his colleagues. He has entwined and 

 wrought into one two kinds of epic subject matter of different 

 extraction. As a matter of fact there was a legend abroad about 

 a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which Charlemagne was believed 

 to have undertaken at some time or another, a legend indeed which 

 had no other foundation than the really keen interest which the 

 historical Charles had always taken in the Christians of Jerusalem, 

 and which he had shown by building for them a hospital and a 

 church both sacred to the Holy Virgin. On the other hand there 

 was a kind of fairy tale rife in those days, which later on was dis- 

 covered to be also incorporated in Arabian Nights, in the Breton 

 romances of King Arthur, and even in Norse mythology ; and 

 according to which a king, or a god, whose superiority over all the 

 other mortals some unlucky earthling ventures to doubt and gain- 

 say, undertakes a long journey in order to bid defiance and fling 

 the gauntlet down to this hypothetical rival. 



Possibly the episode of the "gabs" was partly borrowed rrom 

 some similar source and partly of the poet's own invention. In 

 fact, to collect data for these "gabs" he had only to rook about 

 in his own surroundings, where he was sure to find plenty of 

 models. For, does not he make Charles say to King Hugo: "Sire, 

 it is a time-honoured custom in Paris and at Chartres to brag and 

 bluster in this way over one's cups?" We shall not be far wrong 

 in taking it for granted that the poem was a huge success in its 

 time. We feel so in spite of the fact that what has been preserved 

 of it is not its original form. Of all the copies which were 

 undoubtedly made of it in Paris from time to time not one is left. 

 Luckily, however, there was an Englishman among the pilgrims 

 to the famous Lendit, who was wealthy enough to buy a copy for 

 himself. He took it home and had it copied there. His Paris 



