ROMANCES. 



381 



ness. The sort of worship paid to women at this distant epoch, and the 

 delicate attentions lavished upon them by the opposite sex, contrasted very 

 strongly with the roughness and brutality of a state of society in which all 

 misunderstandings between people of noble birth were washed out in blood. 



A succinct analysis of " Tristan " will give the reader a better idea of the 

 characteristics of the Breton romance, which, according to certain critics, 

 dates from an earlier period than the romances of the Charlemagne cycle. 



Fig. 309. Tristan at the Chase. After a Miniature from the " Romance of Tristan." Manuscript 

 of the Fifteenth Century, No. 7,174. In the National Library, Paris. 



The principal action of the romance, which is the first in order of chronology 

 as of merit, unfolds itself clearly, and in a way to enthral the reader's atten- 

 tion, around three personages, whose physiognomy stands out in distinct 

 relief. Mark, King of Cornwall, is a good prince and a man of great worth, 

 the Ix'iiutiful Ysolt being his wife, and the valiant and poetic Tristan 



