364 ROMANCES. 



stood far above the love romances published by Theodore Prodromes, Nicetas 

 Eugenianus, and a number of other writers in the twelfth century. 



The Middle Ages, however, cared little for stories of profane love and 

 works of pagan origin, but in the eighth century St. John Damascenus 

 composed in Greek a sort of romance of mystic love concerning the legend 

 of St. Barlaam and Josaphat, King of India, and this fabulous story was so 

 warmly welcome that it was translated into every language. We must then 

 come down to the twelfth century to find any fabulous stories written in Latin 

 which can be connected with the literature of romance ; as, for instance, the 

 "Romance of the Seven Sages" (Septem Sapientes), translated or imitated 

 from the Hebrew by a monk of the Abbey of Haute-Selve, and the celebrated 

 compilation entitled "Gesta Romanorum." "When these two works appeared, 

 the name of romance was already given to the chansons de gcste and other 

 stories of chivalry, of wonderland, or of religion, which were written in 

 " Romance " verse or in " Romance " prose. 



For nearly half a century the most gifted scholars of France, Germany, 

 and Belgium have been endeavouring to trace the origin of the old French 

 romances, and M. Paulin Paris, more especially, has elucidated this question 

 better than any one else by being the first to publish the early text of some of 

 these romances. His system, which appears to us the most logical and the 

 most satisfactory, has been discussed and opposed by such men as Michelet, 

 Edgar Quinet, and Leon Gautier ; yet the last named, great as is his expe- 

 rience on such a subject, could only retard the solution of the literary and 

 historic problem which his predecessor, M. Paulin Paris, had all but solved. 

 We propose, therefore, to sum up the opinions given by so many learned 

 disputants, and to endeavour to draw from them some logical conclusion. 



According to M. Gautier's system, which is based upon great erudition, 

 the chansons de geste and the romances of chivalry, invented and set to verse 

 by the jugglers in the twelfth century, had their origin in the popular songs 

 and Teutonic cantilena. But M. Gautier could not discover these cantilen, 

 or original songs, in the Germanic language. He cites only one, which he 

 calls the Cantilena of Hildebrand, and which has nothing in common with the 

 chansons de geste, inasmuch as it makes mention of Odoacer, King of the 

 Heruli, at the end of the fifth century. He also mentions a popular song of 

 the seventh century, which the Bishop of Meaux, Hildegaire, has collated 

 and translated into Latin in his " Life of St. Faron," and which is supposed 



