Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/682

Rh 658 ROMANCE sound Gunter's horn and is saluted as king. He returns to England, fights with Edelsi, and gains the day through Argentine's device of setting up the dead warriors on stakes. When Edelsi dies Have- lok and Argentille reign in Lindsey as well as in Norfolk. The tale may have filtered through Welsh channels, as it seems to have gathered British elements before it was taken up by the Anglo- Danes. Argentille (or Argantel) appears to be formed from a Welsh name, which the early English writers converted to Goldborough. The French chanson belongs to the early part of the 12th century. It has no direct prose representative. Gaimar's text was first edited by Madden (Roxburghe Club, 1828), in the Monumenta, Hist. Brit. (1848), and by T. Wright (Caxton Soc., 1850). A French frit on the same subject is included in the Roxburghe and in the Caxton volumes ; it was issued separately by Francisque Michel in 1833. An English poem is also to be found in the Roxburghe volume, and was likewise edited by W. W. Skeat (Early Eng. Text Soc. 1868). Guy of Guy of Warwick is dealt with in vol. xi. p. 341. Besides the Warwick, many editions of the prose romance, there is an unpublished Heraud tf Ardennes, sometimes known under the name of its other hero Rembrun, the son of Guy of Warwick, who is found in English metrical versions. King King Horn. The primitive English form of the poem is lost, but Horn. is represented in the existing chanson de geste (Horn et Rimenhild, 12th century). An early version supplied some of the incidents for Richard of Ely's Gesta Herewardi Saxonis (first half of 12th century), which claims to be partly derived from an old book written by Leofric, Hereward's chaplain at Bourne. English MSS. (in verse) are preserved at the British Museum, Oxford, and Cam- bridge. Allof, king of Sudenne, is killed by Saracen (Danish) pirates, who also drive away his wife Godylt and turn their son Horn adrift at sea, with Athulf, Fykenild, and ten other children. They laud at Westness (Cornwall) and the children are reared by King Aylmer. Horn is banished for a love passage with the king's daughter, Rymenild, and sails for Ireland under the name of God- mod. He returns with Irish warriors and by himself joins a feast held to celebrate the espousals of Rymenild with a King Mody. Horn, disguised as a pilgrim, drops a ring into Rymenild's cup with the words "Drink to Horn of horn." He defeats Mody and rein- states his mother in Sudenne. Rymenild is carried off by Fykeuild, who is ultimately killed by the hero, by whom the lady is rescued. The only copy known of the knightly romance of Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild is the Auchinleck MS. The story was very popular in Scotland. Horn and Horn Childe have both been printed by Ritson (Ancient Eng. Metr. Rom., 1802, ii., iii.). Francisque Michel has edited Horn et Rimenhild, including the English and Scottish poems (Bannatyne Club, 1845). The Cambridge MS. was edited by J. R. Lumby for the Early Eng. Text Soc. (1866) and by E. Matzner in Altenglische Sprachproben (1867), and the Oxford text by C. Horstmann in Herrig's Achiv (1872). Ponthus et la Belle Sidoine. In this prose romance the soldan of Babylon sends his three sons to seek their fortune at sea. One of them, Broadas, occupies Galicia and kills King Thibor, whose young son Pontus with the other children is sent off in a boat to France. They are wrecked off the coast of Brittany, and the story proceeds very much as in the poem of Horn. Nearly all the names are changed, however, and there are additional knightly episodes. The romance was first printed at Lyons about 1480. A German translation appeared at Augsburg in 1483, and an English version was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1511. The Anglo-Danish cycle of romance, by reason of its origin and type of adventures, may be fitly supplemented by the stories, eminently English in character, although furnished with an Anglo-Norman setting, which have been called "outlaw romances." Outlaw Tales of outlaws form a considerable portion of English fiction, and, as elsewhere, the same incidents occur over and ces< over again, being always attributed to the favourite hero of the day. The oldest was that of Hereward the Saxon, whose exploits against William were renowned in prose and verse soon after his own time. Most of the outlaw stories remain in ballad form ; a prose example is the French Fulk Fitzwarin (about 1320), descriptive of outlaw life in the Welsh marches and other parts of England, Spain, &c., an embellished record of actual events from 1201 to 1203. We learn that Payn Peverel, having over- come a devil that tenanted the body of a Cornish giant, Geomagog, who haunts a ruined British village in Shrop- shire, builds a castle near the place with the assistance of his kinsfolk. A certain Melette Peverel marries Warin de Meez, and their son Fulk Fitzwarin is himself the father of five sons, who go through scenes many of which are obviously suggested by the Charlemagne chansons, such as the fatal chess-board quarrel, the taunting of Ogier by Roland, &c. The five brothers are outlawed and seek adventures. One of their followers, John de Rampayne, resembles Friar Tuck in his skill in playing, singing, and the use of the quarterstaff. The story ends with the sub- mission and pardon of Fulk, the eldest of the brothers, the death of his wife Mahaud, his marriage with Clarice de Auberville, and his subsequent blindness, all real his- torical events. It was the first wife of Fulk who became a personage as Maid Marian in the Robin Hood stories and in the plays of Monday and Chettle. The romance was first published by Francisque Michel in 1840, by T. Wright in 1855 (Warton Club), and at the end of Ralph de Coggesliall (Rolls Series, 1875). The exploits of the earlier outlaws, Hereward and Fulk Robi Fitzwarin, reappear under the name of ROBIN HOOD (q.v.). Hoo< The extensive ballad literature relating to the last and his companions Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John, &c., needs only a passing reference. The Life of Robin Hood, a prose rendering of the Geste of Robyn Node (Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1495), is reproduced by W. J. Thorns in his Early Eng. Prose Romances, 1858. One of the most popular stories connected with the Robin Hood cycle is Gamelyn (c. 1340), sometimes inserted among Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Here three sons are left equal shares in their father's property, Gamelyn, the youngest, being under the charge of the eldest, John, who neglects him. At the age of sixteen he gains a ram at a wrestling match and invites the spectators home. After the guests retire John and Gamelyn quarrel. The latter is imprisoned, but released by Adam the Spencer, an old servant, and the two escape together. Gamelyn is made king of the outlaws and John becomes sheriff. Gamelyn is captured, but is bailed out by his other brother, Ote. Finally, John is hanged by Gamelyn. The tale was used by T. Lodge for Rosalynde (1590) and dramatized by Shakespeare in As You Like It (ed. W. W. Skeat, 1884). (e) Unaffiliated Romances. The works of this class are of less importance than those Una which belong to the great cycles ; for, indeed, there are few ated which have not been drawn somehow into one or pther of m these last. Amongst the most striking we have Pierre de Provence et la Belle Maguelonne, a story of love, adventure, and magic, which existed in Provencal verse at the end of the 12th century, but was first compiled in French prose in 1457 (the text being printed at Lyons about 1478). It was very popular in Spain, and a Spanish translation appeared as a quarto volume at Toledo in 1526. A similar romance is Paris et Vienne, belonging apparently to the first half of the 15th century ; the first edition was printed at Antwerp, by Gerard Leeuw, in 1487, five years after the appearance of an Italian translation (Treviso, 1482), and two years after Caxton had issued an English version (Westminster, 1485). Another French romance (better corresponding to the modern use of the word) is Jean de Paris (Paris, c. 1535), written by Pierre de la Sippade (1490-1500). It is a pleasant fiction, full of disguises and surprises like the works of G. P. R. James, and may be compared with Le petit Jehan de Saintre (Paris, 1517), written by Antoine de la Sale about 1470, in which we find a true picture of the manners of the French court in the first half of the 15th century. The Trois Filz de Roys is a heavy and dull romance written in Flanders late in the 15th century. A work of far superior order is Tirant lo Blanch, written in the Valencian language in the 1 5th century by Joannot Martorell. This was printed, with the fourth book added after the author's death, at Valencia in 1490, and has the honour of being the first romance which came from the Spanish press. The author professes to derive his stories from English sources, but he seems to be indebted only to Guy of Warwick for some