ancient popular Gospel of Nicodemus), according to which Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity to Britain in the time of Vespasian. Then Robert de Borron continued his story in another work which represented the quest or rediscovery of the Grail in Avalon, Brittany, or Britain, by Perceval, the grand-nephew of Joseph of Arimathea; and Walter Map appropriated so much of De Borron's Histoire and Queste as suited him, working it up in a continuation of his story on Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, whilst adding to and altering the incidents of the narrative very considerably. Finally, Hélie de Borron (about 1190) rewrote the Tristan in something like its existent form, weaving it by enlargement into connexion with the other tales, and probably soon after 1200 united for the first time in one enormous and unharmonized corpus the full set of Arthurian stories. One reason why we cannot assign this first combination to a later date (as those do who hold the work of Rusticien of Pisa to have been something more than a mere compression) is that the Guiron, written by Hélie de Borron (probably soon after 1200), is not incorporated in the Morte Arthur, which it would assuredly have been if Rusticien (about 1270-75) had been employed to unite a number of detached stories rather than to re-edit an already existing compilation. Of Hélie de Borron we Of Hélie de Borron we only know that he was a relative of Robert; that he was the virtual author of the Bret or Tristan, in which he incorporated the substance of tales written by Luc de Gast and Gasse li Blont; that he also wrote Palamedes in two parts (Meliadus and Guiron le Courtois); and that his work was done at the request of a king of England, alleged to have been Henry II. or Henry III. Of the other early writers of Arthurian stories the chief were the trouvère Chrestien de Troyes (about 1180-90), who composed a poem upon an episode of Map's Lancelot story, and another upon the Perceval (in which he may have combined Robert de Borron and Map), and Guyot de Provins (about 1190-95), who wrote a romance of Perceval, now lost, and only known through the German translation of Wolfram von Eschenbach (about 1205). As for the Welsh stories in the Mabinogion and the Welsh Seint Greal, there is really no evidence to show their anteriority to the English Morte Arthur, except the fact that two of the tales (Geraint and the Lady of the Fountain) are of similar substance to the poems of Chrestien de Troyes, Erec et Enide and Le Chevalier au Lyon,-narratives of Arthurian personages but not embodied in the French prose romances. Even the Welsh chronicles which are supposed to have furnished the original text of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia have been ascertained to be merely translations from the Latin version. It is a safe conclusion to say that anything in Welsh literature corresponding with portions or incidents of the French romances was simply a translation made in the 13th or 14th century from a French original. This refers, of course, to what is now extant, for there can be little question that Breton and Cymric legend furnished the earlier romancists with names and legends in plenty. Returning to the consideration of names, it is obvious that when Lawnselot dy Lak appears in Welsh it is simply a corruption of the Franco-English Lancelot, and that the Cymric writer had no idea of its above-suggested origin in a British lanc-e-loc (a conjecture which is fortified by the pleonasm of du-lak or del-lak) or in a French l'ancillet. Consequently the original Lancelot story has left no trace in purely Welsh literature. With Perceval we may think differently; the Welsh name Peredur, under which he is known, is a sufficient warrant for supposing that portions of the Welsh tale are at least as ancient as Walter Map. The very form Pered-ur, like that of Arth-ur, is archaic, and with the latter it requires a different interpretation from that which Welsh scholars

have given it. Here it may be observed that the terminal ur, whatever may have been its true sense, is remarkable for its frequent use in the names of Pictish princes. As for Perceval, wherever Robert de Borron got the name (see below), Walter Map, in adopting it for the hero of the story that belongs to Peredur, made the two names thenceforward identical.

Analysis of the Arthurian Romances.

I. II. Arthur and the Round Table had no separate romance, or else it has perished. It exists now substantially as part of Lancelot (III.).

1. Merlin. Most of his story appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth Merlin. and in Wace, from whom it was probably worked up into a French poem (or prose work) by Robert de Borron about 1160-70. The French prose composition, embracing his life and, as an appendix, his prophecies (Latin by Geoffrey), was apparently written about 1200 (by Hélie de Borron) in the form in which it exists in certain MSS., and nearly as it appears in printed books. Merlin, the son malignant destiny for which his diabolical parent had begotten of an incubus, rescued at his birth by sudden baptism from the him, is always described as a magician. He is called by the Welsh Myrddin, a form which betrays the posteriority of the existing Cambrian legends not only to the date of Geoffrey but also to the French romances; in one of the earliest incidents of his story, however, he himself gives his name as Ambrosius. He is represented as living apparently at the time of the Saxon invasion of England. He was not a friend of Vortigern; this king, whom we know from English sources to have been attached more to the Saxons than to his countrymen, was represented in the old Merlin story as a usurper reigning in an interval between Moines, son of Constans, and the two brothers of Moines, Uter and Pendragon. After the successive deaths of Vortigern and Pendragon (on whose fall Uter adds his brother's name to his own) Merlin continues to be the friend and counsellor of King Uter Pendragon. In that capacity he helps the king to assume the shape of Gorlais, duke of Tintagel, and thereby to beget Arthur upon the Duchess Yguerne. (The name Pendragon and the action remind us of the fabulous birth of Alexander the Great; the name Uter, in connexion with remind us of Jupiter, Mercury, and Alemena.) The result is the the go-between Merlin, and the probable Celtic meaning of Yguerne birth of a hero who resembles both Hercules and Alexander. He grows up and is held to be merely the son of Gorlais, in spite of the fact that he was born after Yguerne (already a widow) had married Uter Pendragon; but he proves his right to royal place after the king's death by performing some extraordinary feats. In these he has Merlin's aid, as well as in the conduct of his subsequent wars with the Gauls and the Saxons. Merlin has a lover or mistress in Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, to whom in an unlucky moment (as Samson to Delilah) he betrays a certain spell. She uses it to try her power, without having learned the converse charm, and poor Merlin vanishes into the midst of a thornbush, whence his voice can be heard; but he is seen no more. Here the romance ends, one of the most interesting, as well as one of the best-constructed and most simply told of the Arthurian series. The name and deeds of the enchanter have found their way into most modern literatures. One of Merlin's actions was to institute a round table at Carduel, at which room was made for King Arthur and fifty of his nobles, with a vacant place for the Holy Grail. This was a ceremony to be performed once every year, and it was on the first of these occasions that Gorlais brought his wife Yguerne with him to court, and that King Arthur fell in love with her (as David with Bathsheba). This circumstance, although of later date than the original Merlin, leads us to the next romance in the cycle. IV. 1. The Holy Grail.-The Grail romance began with Borron's Holy poem (or prose narrative) on Joseph of Arimathea. An old tradi- Grail. tion maintained that Joseph of Arimathea (confounded in some respects with the centurion at the crucifixion and with Josephus the historian) brought the gospel to Britain or to Gaul in the first century of our era. The French romance on this subject, whichever of its existent early forms in verse and prose was the earlier, relates the story thus:-Pilate allowed Joseph to take down the body of Christ from the cross, and gave Him also son raisseul, by which was evidently meant the chalice of His passion, or the cup used at the Last Supper. Of all the numerous interpretations suggested for the word "grail" or " graal" the only tenable one is that of "cup," which plainly refers to the words "son vaisseul." In that cup Joseph collected the precious blood of his Saviour. He loses it when put in prison by the Jews, but it is restored to him in

When we remember that the Ambrosius Aurelius of Gildas was probably the Arthur of Nennius and the romances, and that Merlin was called Ambrosius Merlinus, we are drawn to believe in the RomanoBriton origin of the stories, and to conclude that "Arthur" and "Merlin" are two explicative or distinguishing epithets attached to the older names.

his cell by Christ Himself. Vespasian, son of the emperor Titus, falls ill, hears of Christ, frees Joseph from his prison, becomes a Christian, and reduces the Jews to slavery. Joseph takes leave of Vespasian, goes forth with those who had joined him and his brother-in-law Bron. After a while the adherents suffer privation for having sinned secretly, and Joseph is directed by the voice of Jesus speaking from the vaisseul (graal) to establish a test of righteousness and sin by means of the holy blood, calling to remembrance His own words about Judas, that "he who shall betray Me is eating and drinking with Me.' The place of the rejected Judas should be filled, not at the table of the Last Supper, but at another table which Joseph should make in token of it,—a square one, and not until Bron's grandson (the third man of Joseph's lineage) should be fit to take it. The table was constructed, a repast prepared, one place left empty, and the Graal put upon the board, with some fish which had been caught by Bron for the occasion. Those who could find a place at the board felt a sense of satisfaction and were known to be righteous; those who could find no place were recognized as the sinners whose secret licentiousness had caused the distress among them. Then the name of graal was given to the vaisseul, because of its gracious and delightful1 influence. A hypocrite named Moyse who attempts to sit at the table without avowing his sins is swallowed up in the earth. Alan, the son of Bron, grows up to be head of the line, and is entrusted with the knowledge of all things that Joseph could teach and a sight of the Grail. He leads his kinsmen to the far West, to the vale of Avaron or Avalon, whither the disciple Petrus or Perron precedes them with a letter given him by Joseph, after he has seen the latter transfer to Bron the custody of the vaisseul. The son of Alan is in due time to grow to manhood, to read Peter's letter, and again to see the Grail-a boon which is as it were to renew the covenant of the Saviour with the family and followers of Joseph of Arimathea-to expose and expel the false, and to bring celestial happiness upon all the true. The race is now settled in Britain, and Perceval, the son of Alan, is the third man who is to see the Grail, after having passed through a perilous quest. Up to this point the mystic and pious romance of the Grail was derived by Robert de Borron from sources other than those which furnished the Arthurian stories; but the new realm of fiction was open (it was about 1160-70), and the Franco-British tales coming to his knowledge must have supplied him with the incidents of his third man's quest and even the very name of Perceval. It is difficult to assign the exact proportion of give and take among the early romances; but at this point there is a new departure in which several writers took various parts.

IV. 2. Perceval.-The original story of the knight Perceval, before he takes up the quest, is simply that of an inexperienced youth who knows nothing of arms and chivalry, but whose rustic retirement with his mother has not deteriorated the instincts of his noble birth. After some amusing incidents, in which his youthful 1 This simply indicates a defective knowledge of etymology in the 12th century. Robert de Borron supposed the word came from gratus or agréer, not knowing that it was a Gallicization of the low Latin cratella=a cup.

awkwardness is playfully depicted, he exhibits so much courage and skill as to become a doughty champion, the vanquisher of bullies and the protector of ladies; and, when he reaches the court of King Arthur, knighthood is offered him. Chrestien de Troyes related the tale in verse (before 1191), but he probably had it from the (prose or poetic) narrative woven (about 1170-75) by Walter Map into his work which we call Lancelot. The agreement, so far, of those writers and the text of the Mabinogi of Peredur on the same subject leads to a supposition that the latter represents a Cambrian story older than Walter Map; but the introduction the cup and the lance into it invalidates the theory that its existent Welsh form is the original. Robert de Borron continued his Graal, by relating the quest of the holy vessel-still in the hands of Bron, le Roi Pêcheour, but hidden from all save the predestined perfect knight-pursued by Bron's grandson Perceval, the only man who, by his origin, had a right to search for and find it so as to fill the vacant place at the table. Robert de Borron must have written his story more than once, and the result was that he also introduced his hero to Arthur's court, where Merlin had founded a round table. This round table, probably an independent element in the Breton legends, must have caught Robert de Borron's fancy as lending a further symbol of trinity (being the third table) to his own conception of the third descendant of Joseph of Arimathea. In his relation of the quest Perceval (whom he in no way identifies with the rustic Perceval or Peredur mentioned above) starts from Arthur's court, and after various adventures sees his grandfather, the Grail, the lance, and the broken sword without knowing with whom he is or making inquiry. In a second attempt he is more successful. Bron reveals himself, explains all the signs (the lance is that which pierced the Saviour's side), and communicates the precious truths which Joseph of Arimathea had ordered to be told only to the third of his lineage. Then the fisher-king dies; all the enchantments of Britain pass away (we presume the reign of idolatry is meant); and Perceval is left as the custodian of the Grail. This version of the Perceval and the preceding Saint Graal, both by Robert de Borron, have only been printed of late years (the former as a supplement to the latter) from rare and little known MSS., and differ enormously from the old printed Grail and Perceval, and most of the MSS. which contain them. The introduction, however slightly, of Arthur, Merlin, and Gawain into Robert de Borron's Perceval simply shows that he had made acquaintance with Walter Map's Lancelot; yet the large use made by Map of the Frenchman's Grail and Perceval implies that they wrote contem poraneously, but that De Borron's second part preceded Map's second part. In the latter the young rustic is represented as the youngest son of King Pellinore, brought by an elder brother out of his retirement and presented for an inferior class of knighthood Arthur's court. He then meets all the other companions of the Round Table, to whom, as well as to Arthur and Guinevere, he makes himself very dear. He becomes one of the knights who undertake the quest of the Grail, a task which is proposed for accomplishment by him who is the best knight in the world. According to the Lancelot fiction he fails because of having slightly

infringed a vow, and the labour is achieved by one even purer than himself among the Round Table heroes, namely, Galaad, the son of Lancelot. All this is of Map's own invention, and much of it must have been posterior to Chrestien's poem, in which (although based partly on Map and partly on Robert de Borron) Perceval remained the achiever of the quest.1 The Borronesque view of Perceval as one of a line of successivo Grail-custodians or Grail-kings impressed the imagination of Guyot de Provins, and led him to regard with contempt the pleasant episodes of Perceval's youth as told by Chrestien. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem there is a long succession of Grail-kings, beginning with Titurel, and ending with Partzifal (Perceval); the scene of their rule is shifted to Anjou and Spain; the story is said to draw its origin from a book found at Toledo; several Moorish and Catalan names are found in it; and finally the Grail-kings and their people are confounded with the Templars, struggling against the heathens. The romance of Perceval le Gallois, such as we have it since its first appearance in print in 1530, is a prose compilation derived from the poem begun by Chrestien de Troyes about 1180 and finished by Manessier about 1230.

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has been busy; spies are on the watch; and, although, when the lovers are surprised, he escapes by dint of hard fighting, the stains of blood found in the queen's bed are sufficient to condemn them. She is doomed to the stake, but at the moment of execution Lancelot appears and rescues her. They fly together to his castle of Joyeuse Garde, in which he is soon besieged by King Arthur, the king's nephew Gawain, and the other faithful knights. He offers to give up the queen if no harm shall be done her; Arthur rejects the offer; and, after long fighting, news comes of a papal interdict promulgated against the kingdom so long as King Arthur refuses to take back his wife. Guinevere is then received by her husband, but Arthur is advised by Gawain to continue the war against Lancelot, whom he follows to his castle of Gannes in France. During the siege Arthur has tidings of an insurrection in Britain his nephew Mordred has seized the throne, and the queen has fortified herself in London against the usurper. He returns, and after a series of desperate battles Mordred is killed and Arthur wounded to death. Flinging his sword away, the king disappears from mortal view and is borne by fairies to Avalon. Lancelot also returns to England, laments the king's death, pays a mournful visit to the queen, now in a nunnery, retires himself to a monastery, and dies soon afterwards in sorrow and repentance. The original Lancelot was the true Arthur or Round Table romance, although when first written it probably contained no mention of Perceval and Galaad. To it all the other tales and episodes gravitated, and the above analysis represents probably its final form about the year 1200. When at a later period, in the 13th century, it was abridged, and the Bret (Tristan) also, and both of them amalgamated in the general Arthurian work now extant in many MSS. of the 14th and 15th centuries, the compilation came into existence which was translated into English by Sir Thomas Malory under the title Morte Arthur. The original complete Lancelot may be considered as a corporate work including the five branches which had previously been separate, namely, (1) Merlin; (2) Arthur and the Round Table; (3) Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot; (4) Joseph of Arimathea and the Grail; the Quest of the Grail and Perceval modified into (5) the new Quest of the Grail and Galaad. A sixth element was added in the French compilation, which formed the original of the Morte Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, namely, (6) the story of Tristan and Yseult.

III. Lancelot.-This hero, like Perceval, has furnished an addition to European nomenclature. In this romance, which there is so much evidence for ascribing to the celebrated Walter Map (see above), the substance of Geoffrey's Arthur, Guinevere, and Merlin was used as the introduction to a powerful fiction in which a new hero, Lancelot of the Lake, carries on an adulterous amour with Queen Guinevere, while at the same time he reveres and loves King Arthur and performs deeds of heroic daring under the influence of the most generous feelings. The tale, although lengthy and overladen with a crowd of adventures which have no bearing on the direct development of the plot, and notwithstanding the unpleasant nature of the chief subject, is one of extraordinary interest. The character of Lancelot remains unaltered throughout the course of the story, and is drawn with a masterly hand. Although his love is criminal, and he frequently does pious penance for his sins, yet his utter self-sacrificing devotion to the queen weakens by its exquisite fidelity the reader's sense of his treachery towards the king, whom he never ceases to regard with a feeling of the deepest affection and reverence. His faults are such that he recognizes his own incompetence to become the achiever of the quest; but he begets, upon Elaine, the daughter of King Pelles, a son Galaad, to whom the glory of winning the Grail and redeeming his father's sins is reserved. Even here the romancer takes care to show that he was not untrue to Guinevere, his senses having been deceived by a spell (used by Elaine's maid to gratify her mistress's longing), which makes him imagine that his bedfellow is the queen. Nemesis begins to work when, upon a second use of the spell, Guinevere, after having waited for him in vain, finds him in the arms of King Pelles's daughter. She reproaches him bitterly and drives him from her presence with such cruel words that he becomes insane and wanders about the woods and fields like Nebuchadnezzar. Some years elapse before he is recognized by Elaine, when chance takes him to the castle of Corbin, in which King Pelles has custody of the Grail. She cures him by means of the sacred vessel; but it is not long before he quits her again and finds his way to Camelot. Arthur and the queen and his fellow-knights are rejoiced to see the lost Lancelot again, and the usual round of tournaments begins. We now come to the episode of Galaad. On the eve of Pentecost an old man dressed in white brings a youth to Arthur's court. When all the knights are assembled at the ensuing banquet every seat is filled save that which was always left vacant for the Holy Grail, so that there is no place for young Galaad. Certain wondrous signs are pointed out by the old man which indicate that the "seat perilous" is meant to be filled by the young hero, who at once accomplishes another test which has foiled Gawain and Perceval. The Grail appears, and light and perfume fill the hall; it passes away again, and the next day the knights depart upon the quest of the holy vessel, Arthur giving way to a pathetic regret that his merry company of Round Table champions is to be broken up for ever. Galaad, the pure knight, is the only one who succeeds, and becomes king of the Holy City; then Joseph of Arimathea appears, and Galaad dies, his task accomplished. Gawain and Bors fail; Lancelot and Perceval nearly succeed, but are foiled. Bors brings back an account of Perceval's death, and Lancelot returns to court, a moody man; he and Guinevere fall back into the old sin. The queen is accused of having poisoned a knight, and is exposed to the usual ordeal. Lancelot saves her by conquering her accuser, but receives wounds which break open at the next secret meeting between them. Scandal

V. Tristan.-This beautiful Breton or Cornish romance was Tristan. originally a work totally independent of the Arthurian, Round Table, and Grail fictions; and, if it is said by Hélie de Borron to have been left incomplete by its first author, the Anglo-Norman knight Luc or Luces, of the castle of Gast, Galt, or Gau, near Salisbury, and by Gasse li Blont (Eustace Blunt), who is spoken of as a continuator, we may presume that his statement was based upon no deficiency in the original narrative, but simply on the absence of all allusion to the Round Table. He therefore set to work to produce what he called the Bret, or the complete Tristan, by constructing a number of episodes which exhibit Tristan as one of the Round Table knights, as also having engaged in the quest, and as having been with his lady-love entertained for some time at Lancelot's castle of Joyeuse Garde. The Saracen knight Palamedes, who takes an important place in the complete Tristan, and who is not one of the least interesting characters, seems to have been one of the additions. Whether the first author was really a knight or not, and whether he wrote in poetry or prose, it may here be said once for all that the earliest exoteric reference to the authors of the Round Table romances is that of Hélinand, who, writing close to the date of Walter Map's death (c. 1210), mentioned them as "quosdam proceres," a phrase which could only be used as indicating personages ranking at least as high as knights. Tristan (in the old English form, Tristram) of Lyonesse is the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall.3 Warned by a dwarf that his nephew's existence will be pernicious to him, the king resolves to compass his death. His attempt is frustrated: the child is carried to the court of the Frank king Faramond, and there grows up towards man's estate. He wins the love of Faramond's daughter, on the discovery of which he is compelled to fly to his uncle at Tintagel, with whom a reconciliation is effected. A prince called Morhoult or the Morhoult of Ireland lands in Cornwall to claim tribute of King Mark. Tristan challenges him to single combat, wounds him mortally, and compels him to reimbark in a dying condition, but is himself wounded by the poisoned lance of his adversary. Seeking afterwards a healer for his wounds, he is borne by the wind to Ireland, and well received by the king of Ireland and his daughter Yseult, who restore him to health. It is, however, observed that he is wearing the sword of Morhoult, and he is obliged to take a hasty departure. On his return to Cornwall the incidents of the complete Tristan begin to connect him with Arthur and the Round Table, but his victory over a knight, there said to have accused the

As Chrestien never finished his poem, and as he had two or three continu ators before 1244, he may not be responsible for the Borronesque ending; but it is to be remarked that Robert de Borron and Chrestien were both from Champagne.

Whatever be the meaning of the Welsh name Peredur, that of Perceval seems to be also British and to mean " possessor of the Grail." It may not have been one man's appellation but a title applicable to Bron, Alan, or the last achiever. The British words of which it seems compounded are perchen, a root which implies ownership or possession, and mail (initially inflected rail), a cup or chalice, so that the earliest form was perhaps Perchenval.

3 His father Meliadus and mother Isabel, as well as the preceding genera. tions of ancestors, were probably invented by Helie de Borron, as well as the account of his premature birth in the open country.

Is this a corruption of Muircheartarch or Murhartarch, and, if so, was it suggested by a recollection of the visit of Diarmuid MacMuircheartarch to England to claim help from the Normans in 1168?

Irish king of treason before King Arthur, is probably part of the original tale. He goes with the absolved monarch to Ireland at his request, and is prayed to accompany Yseult to Cornwall, whither her father sends her as King Mark's bride. Yseult's mother delivers a philtre or love-potion to Brangian (or Bronwen), her daughter's nurse, which the latter is commissioned to give Yseult to drink on the wedding-day, in order that she may conceive a true wifely affection for her stranger husband. Brangian, however, gives it to Tristan and Yseult, who drink, unconscious of the spell that is about to influence their lives. They love each other at once and for ever. During the voyage they land on an island, where Tristan, by overcoming an enchantment, proves that he and his companion are the best knight and fairest lady in all the world. They reach Cornwall at last, and think with dread on the approach of the fatal night which is to separate them and to make King Mark aware of his bride's fault. A device, which appeared to the old romancers one of easy performance, is suggested by Brangian, who, to save her mistress's honour, takes her place on the marriage night, trusting that King Mark's carousals and the darkness will cover the fraud. The scheme is carried out satisfactorily; but the fair Yseult hires two ruffians to slay Brangian, lest the fact should ever come to light. The intending murderers, however, are smitten with pity, and simply leave their victim bound to a tree, from which position she is soon afterwards rescued. As her rescuer was Palamedes, the Saracen knight, who must be looked upon as one of the inventions of Hélie de Borron, we may venture to hope that Yseult's unwomanly cruelty formed no part of the original story. Palamedes is a magnanimous and interesting character, who loves Yseult with a purer love than Tristan, and who spends his life in a generous antagonism to his rival. The man who invented Palamedes and Guiron must have been himself a knight of the noblest type. The intrigue of the two lovers is carried on for some time, till Mark's suspicions are aroused and Tristan leaves Cornwall. Again he receives by treachery a poisoned wound; but, as he cannot return to Mark's court to obtain healing at the hands of the fair Yseult, he decides upon going to Brittany, to seek a remedy there from her cousin, the white-handed Yseult, who is equally expert in treating wounds. She cures him and falls in love with him; he marries her from gratitude. The description of the wedding night proves that he still loves the other Yseult, for he remains faithful to her in the most material point, the white-handed lady being so innocent that she is unaware of the slight cast upon her charms. He makes his wife's brother Peredur or Pheredur his confidant, and the two quit Brittany together and reach Cornwall. A fresh source of misery opens for him now, as Pheredur falls in love with fair Yseult. Tristan becomes insane and wanders away; but after some time he is brought back to the court, where Yseult restores him to reason, at the cost, however, of reawakening the jealous wrath of King Mark, who compels him to quit Cornwall, making him swear never to return. Hélie's Tristan now joins the Round Table company at King Arthur's court, and King Mark, still unsatisfied, goes thither also with the purpose of bringing about his nephew's death. The unfavourable view of Mark's character is here heightened by making him speak and act in the most ridiculous manner. Arthur reconciles the uncle and the nephew; Tristan goes back with Mark, and frees Cornwall from an invasion by the Saxons; but he fails to win favour from the king, who puts him in a dungeon. He is released by an insurrection and King Mark himself is imprisoned; Tristan flies with Yseult and is received in Joyeuse Garde by Lancelot, until King Arthur brings about a fresh reconciliation, and Yseult is restored to Mark along with his kingdom. Tristan now returns to his neglected wife, but finds that a revolt has fortunately saved him from the necessity of repaying her devotion with caresses. He goes forth to fight, and subdues the rebel count, but is sorely wounded again. The whitehanded lady tends him, cures him, and becomes his wife in deed as well as in name. He quits her once more, and renews his secret intercourse with fair Yseult in Cornwall, until discovery compels him to return to Brittany. In giving his aid to the unsuccessful prosecution of an amour by his brother-in-law he is once more poisonously wounded. He comes to such a dangerous pass that at last he sends a secret messenger to fair Yseult, to bring her back with him if possible. Should she be able and willing to come the ship is to be rigged with white sails; with black, on the contrary, if the mission is unsuccessful. Tristan's anxiety comes to the knowledge of white-handed Yseult, who, seized with sudden jealousy, when the white-sailed vessel comes gaily dancing over the waves, goes to her sick husband and tells him that the sails are black. He bids her at once farewell and dies of a broken heart. Fair Yseult, on reaching land, hears of his death, makes her way to the chamber where his corpse is lying, and dies upon her dead hero's breast. Their bodies are conveyed to Cornwall, along with Tristan's sword, formerly Morhoult's, and Mark learns the story of the lovepotion. Seized with pity, he has the two lovers buried not far from each other, and a wondrous tree extends its branches to overshadow their two graves.

Palamedes: Meliadus and Guiron.-This, the last romance

written by any of the original writers of the Round Table stories, Meliadus was composed by Hélie de Borron about 1220 at the desire of and Henry III. of England (who paid him noble guerdon for his labour). Guiron. He had already made Palamedes (the Saracen knight finally baptized and adopted to the Round Table) so prominent and so noble a character in his Bret, or romance of Tristan, that the king wished for another book on the subject. Since the story was to be one of knightly courtesy, its name should be Palamedes. As that hero takes only a minor part in the transactions of the story it is diffi cult to believe that he meant the name as other than a metaphor. The book is divided into two distinct tales,-one relating the adventures of Meliadus, who begat Tristan upon the adulterous queen of Scotland, and the other those of a knight whose name appears here for the first time,-Guiron le Courtois. Meliadus is a dull and clumsy composition, chiefly remarkable for the circumstance that it alludes to the Charlemagne romances, and includes among its personages Aryhoan of Saxony, ancestor of Ogyers le Danois (Ogier the Dane). Even the account which it gives of Tristan's birth is wholly at variance with that which the writer had already given (or accepted) in the romance of Tristan and Yseult. As for Guiron, the beauty of his character redeems the tediousness of the narrative. From the point of view of human noble-mindedness it is the best of all the Arthurian tales, Guiron being equally free from the criminal sensuality of Lancelot and Tristan on the one hand, and distant from the superangelical purity of Galaad and Perceval on the other. Under the most trying circumstances he keeps himself chastely aloof from sin, although love is mutual between himself and his friend's wife; and, when on one occasion he reflects how near he has been to the verge of criminality, he strikes his own sword into his breast as a punishment. It is needless to say that he does not die but lives to see that same friend, Denain le Roux, carry off a maiden on whom he (Guiron) has bestowed a more justifiable affec tion. When, after a year's vain search, he meets his false friend and his ravished lady-love together, he fights and conquers Denain but spares his life, and goes away with the lady, still in love with her. Denain exhibits his friendship and gratitude effectually afterwards, but the story is left unfinished, Guiron and Bloye having been entrapped by treachery and lying still within the walls of a dungeon. The author refers to his Meliadus for an account of their liberation; but this simply shows that he intended to rewrite Meliadus. Fifty or sixty years later Rusticien of Pisa abridged the Palamedes, and inserted the incidents of the two in his compilation of Arthurian romances, now lost as a whole, although usually confounded with the Morte Arthur. From his compilation the printed Meliadus and Guiron were further abridged and finally printed so in separate form.

Ysaie le Triste, Arthus de Bretaigne, and Perceforest are three Ysaie, romances which had also considerable vogue, but, although they Arthus belong to the Arthurian cycle, they have no real connexion beyond de Bretthe use of British names and the supposed kinship of the heroes aigne, with those of the old stories. Almost as much might be alleged and against the Meliadus and the Guiron, but they were at least written Perceby one of the first authors of the genuine works, and he had pre-forest. sumably some acquaintance with the British folk-legends. The fact that Rusticien of Pisa about 1270-75 abridged and compiled in a single great book the scattered and discordant stories of the earlier period, at the request of Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.) of England, is universally conceded. That compilation has never been printed; it is even uncertain whether any MS. in existence represents it, for, although the English Morte Arthur is usually supposed to have been compendiously translated from it, we may infer with greater probability that Sir Thomas Malory used an earlier compilation, perhaps the work of Hélie de Borron. One reason to justify such a conjecture may be found in the absence of Guiron and Meliadus from the English book, which would hardly be the case if the former notion were correct, since we know that Rusticien published an abridged text of those two works. Rusticien's compilation could in fact only be recovered approximately by reuniting the texts of the various Arthurian romances as printed in French in the 15th and 16th centuries, these abridged and inferior texts having apparently been derived or rewritten from his book, not from MSS. of the separate old romances. The Morte Arthur was printed by Caxton from Sir Thomas Malory's MS. translation or adaptation made in England not many years before the printer's establishment at Westminster. As an early English text and as the only existing homogeneous embodiment of the ancient FrancoBritish romances, it is of the highest interest, while at the same time it breathes the earnest and simple feeling which animates the originals,-differing thus toto cælo from the colder, more artificial, and less interesting narratives which were invented in the 15th century, and of which the Ysaie, Arthus de Bretagne, and Perceforest are examples. All three may be referred to the first half of that century, although it has been alleged that the second was written in the 14th. Isaie forestalls to some extent the type of the 16th and 17th century French romances. It is an early instance 1 Guiron appears to be the Breton or Cymric word which means "loyal," true," or "honest," and is a fitting title for the hero.