Lionel's Name and Title 119 



Achilles ; he was no whit inferior to Alexander, or less than 

 Roland in manhood.' The chronicler Jean le Bel, whom Frois- 

 sart follows in the earlier part of his work, when referring to 

 the attack on Aiguillon, near Agen, by the elder Earl of Derby-^ 

 in 1346, compares it to the most famous sieges recounted in the 

 stories of Alexander, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.-^ 

 Of the castle of Chalkis, in Euboea, we are told^* : 'The local 

 legend made it the abode of fairies, the enchanted fortress where 

 the Lady of the Lake had held Gauvain captive.' And of 

 Cephalonia,-^ on the authority of Froissart : 'Fairies and nymphs 

 inhabited this ancient realm of Odysseus.' Elsewhere I have 

 written^*^ : 'Mythical heroes are sometimes found in church- 

 sculpture of the 1 2th century. Thus Arthur and other heroes 

 of his cycle, recognizable by inscriptions, occur on the archivolt 

 of the Peschiera doorway of the Cathedral of Modena (Venturi 

 3. 164; Michel i.^ 698), while on the portal of San Zeno of 

 Verona, Nicholas represented Roland, with his sword inscribed 

 Durindarda, and Oliver opposite (-Venturi 3. 196; Michel i." 

 698). Even two episodes of the Roman de Renard occur on the 

 lintel of the doorway of the Cathedral of Modena (Michel i." 

 698).' In the Vozvs of the Heron,-'' John de Beaumont says that 

 when knights are in taverns, drinking strong wines, they seem 

 to themselves to be conquering Oliver and Roland, but that when 

 they are on horseback, benumbed with cold, and with their 

 enemies approaching, it is quite a different matter.^* According 

 to Jorga (pp. 24-25), Philippe de Mezieres (1327-1405), the 



who says : 'The allusion here is to the great mediseval Chanson de Geste 

 on the Siege of Antioch'). Again (Archer, p. 292) : 'Out of all the 

 "Gestes" of the ancients, and' out of all the tradition of those who tell 

 stories or write books from the most remote times, there never was a 

 warrior of any creed who bore himself so nobly as King Richard did 

 that day.' Finally, the Itinerarium refers to 'Richard, to whom Roland 

 himself cannot be compared' (Archer, p. 311). 



" See Hist. Background, pp. 176-7, 203, 219, 221-7, 22,7. 



"^Lavisse 4} 58. 



-'Miller, p. 366. 



■^Ib., pp. 371-2. 



"^ The Date of the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses, p. 70, note 2. 



-'Political Poems and Songs, ed. Wright, i. 21. 



-^Michelet (5. 81) speaks of the future Charles VI as having (ca. 1380) 

 his imagination spoiled by the romances of chivalry. 



