enter the service of the King of Tunis, and Gianni and Olinborgo fall in the war with the Arabs. The fourth, Antonio, is employed by Pope Nicholas III. in a mission to England for the recovery of tithes. In England, his errand having been successfully accomplished, he takes service with King Edward, becomes his trusty adviser, and assists to quell the insurrection of one Brundisburgo, a personage, it is needless to say, unknown to English history. He is likewise appointed tutor to Prince Polinoro, but ultimately returns to Sicily. The fifth knight, Olivo, hires himself to the King of Servia (Rascia in Ischiavonia), marches with five hundred French knights to the aid of the King of Armenia against the Saracens, is taken prisoner, and conveyed to Babylon. His valour and address having mightily pleased the Sultan -whom, by the way, he dubs a knight-he and his comrades are released. Finally, he wends his way back to Messina, where he lights on his old friends, Gianni and Antonio.

The three survivors, it is recorded, make a "good thing" out of the adventures, " netting" between them no less than 430,000 ducats; and this ingredient in the romance adapted it for the consumption of the bourgeois magnates, now the dominant factor in Italian politics. The adventures, however-chiefly imaginary

-are in reality little more than a skeleton or framework for long-winded speeches, which latter are either translations or resettings of Cicero and Sallust. The myth that Florence owed its origin to the Catilinarian

conspiracy enthralled Busone, as it enthralled Villani and the early Italian chroniclers.1

Francia.

Lastly may be mentioned that vast reservoir of chivalrous legends, the Reali di Francia.2 The comThe Reali di pilation, which stretches from Constantine to the birth and boyhood of Roland, is due to a certain Andrea da Barberino, a cantatore in panca and "romancer"-i.e., a translator and compiler of French romances of chivalry. For example, chapters 1-4 of book vi. are based on the romance De Berte au gran pié. Andrea's French was not French of Paris, for, in explaining the name Roland, he observes, "in francioso a dire rotolare eglino dicono roolar." Not much is known about him, but he was probably born after 1370, and he made his will in 1431. The date of his death has not been ascertained. Andrea's industry, inspired, perhaps, by the "sixth sense," seems to have been untiring, and, besides the Reali di Francia, he has bequeathed a Guerrin Meschino; a Storia di Ajolfo dal Barbicone; Storie Nerbonesi; a Storia di Ugone d'Alvernia, to which is to be added La Discesa di Ugone d'Alvernia allo inferno, after the Franco-Italian before-mentioned; and an Aspromonte, only parts of which have been edited. All these works are of the same character. So prolific a writer could not in the nature of things be a great master

1 L'Avventuroso Ciciliano has been published by G. F. Nott in two editions-Florence, 1832, and Milan. A third edition, including the Capitolo sopra la divina Commedia, appeared at Florence in 1867.

2 First edition, Modena, 1491. Professor Vandelli has undertaken a new edition for the Collezione dei testi di lingua.

of style; but Andrea writes, at least, good "journalese," and his Reali di Francia is certainly an improvement on a somewhat similar attempt, the wretched Table Round of Rusticiano da Pisa, of a century previous. The latter, however, was in French.

German Epics.

In Germany there is not much to arrest attention. The most striking phenomenon is the persistent influence of Wolfram von Eschenbach, tokens of which meet us at every turn. Not that the disciples inherited aught of the master's genius-his mantle fell upon none of them-but there is abundant evidence to prove that it was the great illiterate rather than his more polished contemporaries that the "epigoni epigoni" were for the most part ambitious of emulating. Coleridge, speaking in relation to Faust, gives it almost as an axiom that continuations are foredoomed to failure. If this be true of labours undertaken by the original author, how much more likely is it to be true of mere nachwerk or imitation? No such reflection, however, deterred Claus Wisse and Philipp Colin from entering on an Erweiterung of Wolfram's Parzival. Colin had been a goldsmith at Strassburg, and in an epilogue addressed to his patron, Herr Ulrich von Rappolstein, expresses the hope that the profits of the work will enable him to resume business! The Erweiterung was executed between 1331 and 1336. It was based on continuations of Chrestien's poem by Gautier de Dourdans, Manessier, and other French writers, and the chief addition, comprising 30,000 lines, is interpolated between the thirteenth and fourteenth book of Wolfram's

Parzival, the last two books being also materially enlarged. The translation, completed with the help of a Jewish interpreter, Samuel Pine, is remarkable for nothing but its fidelity. The verse is scandalous. Many lines exceed their proper tale of syllables, and the rhymes are often of the sorriest description.

Another example of the epic-aftermath is Friedrich von Schwaben, of which the first portion is grounded on Konrad von Würzburg's Partonopier und Meliur, while names and motives have been borrowed, slightly altered, from Gottfried and Veldeke. Far more important than even these coincidences is the fact that the later adventure is taken direct from the Wieland saga. This conjunction of popular legend and court-epic is a veritable sign of the times. We meet with it again in Albrecht von Scharfenberg's Seitfried von Ardemont, which, however, is known to us only by an excerpt in Ulrich Fütrer's Book of Adventures. These late epics are invariably long, invariably dry, and invariably clumsy, and those which exist in print would certainly not repay analysis. The MSS. are not all of equal merit. Those of Friedrich are faulty and fragmentary, while in the case of the Erweiterungsuch, at least, is the belief-the original text has been preserved.

More in accord with the spirit of the age is the coarse realism of the epic in the countries adjoining the Rhine. This realism is undoubtedly Dutch influence. due to the influence of the Netherlands, which served as a halting-place for French chansons de geste, especially those relating to Charlemagne, in

C

their passage to Germany.

The tendency before

observed to pile up Pelion on Ossa, and Ossa on Olympus once more discloses itself in a gigantic compilation which, unlike Fütrer's rather similar work in the next century, makes no pretence to recast the material. Apart from verbal alterationsby no means consistent or complete-adapting them to his own dialect, the Franconian editor simply reproduces various Dutch and German poems, his own additions being relatively unimportant. The title Karlmeinet (i.e., "little Charles ") is appropriate only to the commencement.

Die Jagd.

Lastly, the allegorical romance is represented by Die Jagd, the work of a distinguished Bavarian knight, Hadamar von Laber. The chase in question is courtship, and the hunter, preceded by his heart as by a hound, pursues after the quarry -i.e., the beloved object. Other hounds are Happiness, Pleasure, Love, Consolation, Fidelity, while spies, as endangering the success of the quest, are symbolised by wolves. The poem is open to all the objections to which all allegory is exposed. It is childish and unreal; and yet, as an expression of the chivalrous spirit—especially in its reverence for woman-it is far above the average epic of the time. Allegory was not a novel feature in German literature. It had been used by Konrad in his Klage der Kunst, and by Heinzelin von Constanz in the introduction to Der Minne Lêre. Isolated examples occur also in Tristan and other chivalrous poems, while, in the religious sphere, a notable instance is the allegorico-mystical