CHRONICLES, HISTORIES, MKMofRS. 469 



greater credence for their works of imagination, did not scruple to declare 

 that they had derived their entohvn (stories) from the uivhive.s of St. Denis. 

 (See chapter on Romance*.) The author of the prose romance, "Beufve 

 d'Antonne," says, " Materials for a narrative of the deeds of King Charles 

 Miirtel are to be found in the Chronicles of Beufve d'Antonne and elsewhere, 

 as also at St. Denis, where there is nothing but chronicle." The author of 

 the romance in verse, " Doolin de Mayence," says : 



" Les saiges clers d'adonc, par leur scnifiance, 

 En limit lea Croniques qui sout de graut vaillance, 

 Et sont en 1'abbaie de Saint-Denys en France ; 

 Puis, ont este estraitcs, par moult bele ordonnance, 

 De latin en roman." . . . 



The first historical romances were originally given as history in rhyme, and 

 the jugglers, who visited the chateaux and the plenary courts to recite and 

 chant the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table and other lays 

 already alluded to, taught their credulous and uneducated hearers as much as 

 any of these nobles cared to learn concerning ancient history. The romances 

 of " Rou " and " Brut," of " Godfrey de Bouillon," and a host of others of a 

 kindred sort, composed in verse, were accepted as documents of unimpeach- 

 able veracity. The result was that the true historians, in order to prevent 

 the jugglers from having a monopoly of public favour, invented metrical 

 histories, which did, in fact, effect that purpose. In this way Guillaume 

 Guiart set to rhyme a Chronicle (from 1165 to 1306) which he entitled the 

 " Branche cles Royaulx Lignages ; " Godfrey de Paris composed a Chronicle, 

 of his time, under the reign of Philippe le Bel ; and Philippe Mouskes a 

 Universal History consisting of thirty-two thousand lines, and relating the 

 history of Flanders from the earliest ages to the end of the thirteenth century. 

 These metrical Chronicles had a special class of readers among the lovers of 

 poetry, and two centuries later the lawyer-poet Martial d'Auvergne still 

 further perfected the metrical Chronicle by composing the " Vigiles du Roi 

 Charles VII." (Figs. 362 and 363), one of the best histories of that prince; 

 while his contemporary, Guillaume Cretin, precentor and canon at the Sainte- 

 Chapelle of Vincennes, set to work at rhyming the Chronicles of France from 

 Charlemagne to Francois I. 



Geoffrey, Sire de ViUehurdouin, Marshal of Champagne, who had taken 



