EAKLY ENGLISH ROMANCE OF SIR FERUMT5RAS. 



67 



spirits after her marriage with Bothwell to be, as that writer 

 represents, a proof of ''her rooted aversion" to him, and not 

 rather the natural reaction after the fulfilment, at so vast a cost, 

 of wishes so long entertained — the shadow, cast before, of the 

 scaffold and the block? These are the sole alternatives in the 

 problem before us, and it is for us now to decide whether Hosack 

 has really established anything in arrest of the judgment come to 

 by Froude. 



Instead of a paper on Party, a paper will he read on 17th March on 



AN EAELY ENGLISH ROMANCE OF SIR FERUMBRAS 

 (ASHM. MS. 33), AND THE CHARLEMAGNE 

 ROMANCES GENERALLY. 



By jNIi!. J. Shklly. 



PROGRAMME. 



The Charlemagne of Romance. — The treatment of Charlemagne by 

 the earlier and later Romances compared. — His twelve peers. — The 

 extent of the popularity of the Romances. — Account of the English 

 Romances edited and unedited. — The Romance of Sir Ferumbras. 

 — The French Fierabras. — The story. — The two English versions 

 compared with one another and witli the French. — Some curious 

 particulars respecting the Ashmolc MS. 



ON AN EARLY ENGLISH VERSION OF SIR FERUMBRAS 

 (ASHM. MS. 33) & THE CHARLEMAGNE ROMANCES 

 GENERALLY. 



ABSTRACT OF MR. JOHN SHELLY'S PAPER. 



The following list comprises, I believe, all th(^ known English 

 Romances relating to Charlemagne. 



1. Roland. All that remains of this is a fragment (Lansd. MS. 

 388, leaf 381 to 395) of a poem, probably written in the 13th 

 century. It is not strictly alliterative, but abounds with allitera- 

 tion. An analysis and some extracts furnished by Mr. Thos. 

 Wright are printed at the end of M. Michel's edition of La 

 Chanson de Roland. The whole of the fragment will probably 

 be published by the Early English Text Society. It relates the 

 trc^achery of Gwynylon (the French Ganelon or Guenelon)^ and the 



K 2 



