3 88 ROMANCES. 



"grail" (Fig. 313), a sacred vessel in which the blood of Jesus, when He 

 dic'd upon the cross, was received by the angels. This vessel, after having 

 passed into the possession of Joseph's son and of his descendants, remained 

 concealed for several centuries, when King Arthur and his chevaliers set out 

 in quest of it, and the honour of its discovery fell upon Perceval, the Gaul, 

 who found it at the court of the King Pecheur. The author of this curious 

 romance, composed in the beginning of the thirteenth century, was the 

 trouveur, Robert de Borron, who, in the opinion of several critics, was 

 assisted by Gautier Map, chaplain to King Henry II. of England. 



The complement to the romances of the Round Table was the book which 

 is known as the "Death of Arthur," as "Bret," and as the "Quest of the 

 Holy Grail," and it is the least felicitous of them all. It was written by 

 several authors, whose one object was to bring into it all the knights of the 

 Round Table Perceval, Lionel, Hector, Palamede, Gauvain, Bliomberis, 

 Mordrain, and others, and to represent them as engaged in unceasing battle 

 with wild beasts, giants, and enchanters. It was not till the fifteenth 

 century that the romance-writers lengthened the stories contained in the 

 books of the Round Table by describing the adventures and deeds of daring 

 of Little Tristan, of Meliadus, of Perceforest, of Constant, of Little Arthur, 

 of Isaiah the Doleful, &c. 



The fourteenth century ushered in the decadence of the romances of 

 chivalry. At the end of the previous century an effort hud been made to 

 revive the popularity of these romances, which had been more than once 

 revised and altered from their original composition, the cycle of Charlemagne 

 and even that of the Round Table being no longer in vogue. Still less 

 success attended the provincial cycles, as the Gestes relating thereto were only 

 of interest to the inhabitants of the province in which the events described 

 took place. Thus the graphic " Geste des Lorrains," comprising " Ilervis de 

 Metz,""Garin le Loherain," and " Girbert et Anseis ; " the " Burgundian 

 Geste," consisting of the two romances, " Girart de Roussillon " and " Aubri 

 le Bourgoing ; " and other equally ancient Gestes, such as "Amis et Amiles," 

 "Jourdain de Blaives," "Aiol et Mirabel," "Raoul de Cambrai," &c., no 

 longer excited the enthusiasm of the hearers, who were out of patience with 

 the jugglers, and did not care to receive them into their houses on account of 

 their bad reputation. This bad reputation was in a great measure due to the 

 misconduct of their confreres, the singers and the story-tellers, and though 



