Beginning of Literature proper.]

It is however with the eleventh century that the history of French
literature properly so called begins. We have indeed few Romance
manuscripts so early as this, the date of most of them not being earlier
than the twelfth. But by the eleventh century not merely were laws
written in French (charters and other formal documents were somewhat
later), not merely were sermons constantly composed and preached in that
tongue, but also works of definite literature were produced in it. The
_Chanson de Roland_ is our only instance of its epic literature, but is
not likely to have stood alone: the mystery of _The Ten Virgins_, a
medley of French and Latin, has been (but perhaps falsely) ascribed to
the same date; and lyric poetry, even putting aside the obscure and
doubtful _Cantilenes_, was certainly indulged in to a considerable
extent. From this date it is therefore possible to abandon generalities,
and taking the successive forms and developments of literature, to deal
with them in detail.

Before however we attempt a systematic account of French literature as
it has been actually handed down to us, it is necessary to deal very
briefly with two questions, one of which concerns the antecedence of
possible ballad literature to the existing Chansons de Gestes, the other
the machinery of diffusion to which this and all the early historical
developments of the written French language owed much.

[Sidenote: Cantilenae.]

It has been held by many scholars, whose opinions deserve respect, that
an extensive literature of _Cantilenae_[12], or short historical
ballads, preceded the lengthy epics which we now possess, and was to a
certain extent worked up in these compositions. It is hardly necessary
to say that this depends in part upon a much larger question--the
question, namely, of the general origins of epic poetry. There are
indeed certain references[13] to these Cantilenae upon which the
theories alluded to have been built. But the Cantilenae themselves have,
as one of the best of French literary historians, the late M. Paulin
Paris, remarks of another debated product, the Provencal epic, only one
defect, 'le defaut d'etre perdu,' and investigation on the subject is
therefore more curious than profitable. No remnant of them survives save
the already-mentioned Latin prose canticle of St. Faron, in which
vestiges of a French and versified original are thought to be visible,
and the ballad of Sauco