376 



ROMANCES. 



work, as well as the Chronicle of Turpin, served as a theme for several 

 romances, which made the princes and lords who took part in later Crusades 

 feel quite certain that Charlemagne had undertaken the journey to Palestine 

 (Fig. 307). 



In any event, the authors of many of the early romances remain unknown, 

 and it was not until the second epoch of this period of literature that the 

 trouveurs appended their names either at the beginning or at the end of 

 their works. Moreover, there is good ground for believing that the jugglers, 

 who recited or sang the romances, were very chary of giving the author's 

 name, as they very often claimed the authorship for themselves. The first 

 romances preceded by only a very few years the period of the Crusades, and must 

 have almost coincided with the inauguration of the feudal epoch, according to 

 Claude Fauchet, who says, " It was at this time, I believe, that romances 

 began to be written, and that the jugglers, trouveurs, and singers frequented 

 the courts of these princes (grand feudatories of the crown of France), to 

 recite and sing their narratives without rhyme, their songs, and other poetic 

 inventions, using the rustic Romance language as well as that which was 

 understood by more people." Thus we see that Claude Fauchet appears 

 convinced that the romances in prose were anterior to the romances in rhyme. 

 He even says in so many words, " If any of you believe that the romance was 

 written only in rhyme, I will tell him that there were also romances not 

 rhymed and in prose. For in the " Life of Charles the Great " (Chronicle of 

 Turpin), put into French before the year 1200 at the request of Yoland, 

 Comtesse de St. Paul, sister of Baudoin, Comte de Hainau, surnamed the 

 Bastisseur, in the fourth book the author says, " Baudoin, Comte de Hainau, 

 discovered at Sens in Burgundy the ' Life of Charlemagne,' and, when on his 

 death-bed, gave it to his sister Yoland, Comtesse de Sainct Paul, who asked 

 me to publish it in a prose romance, because many people who would not read 

 it in Latin would read it as a romance." 



The rhymed romance of Charlemagne, which the translator of Turpin 

 declared to be spurious, was apparently the famous " Chanson de Roland," 

 which is attributed to a trouveur named Turolde, and which, according to 

 M. Leon Gautier, was composed after popular songs of Teutonic origin and 

 tendencies, while M. Paulin Paris and other learned critics believe that it 

 belongs to the Romance or rustic language. The "Chanson de Roland" is 

 a true French Iliad, full of lofty, generous, and patriotic ideas, and it may be 



