sufficient to give some account when we come to the compositions which
chiefly influenced it, namely the romances of Arthur and of antiquity.

[Sidenote: Chanson de Roland.]

The _Chanson de Roland_, the most ancient and characteristic of these
poems, though extremely popular in the middle ages[19], passed with them
into obscurity. The earliest allusion to the Oxford MS., which alone
represents its earliest form, was made by Tyrwhitt a century ago.
Conybeare forty years later dealt with it in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
of 1817, and by degrees the reviving interest of France in her older
literature attracted French scholars to this most important monument of
the oldest French. It was first published as a whole by M. F. Michel in
1837, and since that time it has been the subject of a very great amount
of study. Its length is 4001 decasyllabic lines, and it concludes with
an obscure assertion of authorship, publication or transcription by a
certain Turoldus[20]. The date of the Oxford MS. is probably the middle
of the twelfth century, but its text is attributed by the best
authorities to the end of the eleventh. There are other MSS., but they
are all either mutilated or of much later date. The argument of the poem
is as follows:--

Charlemagne has warred seven years in Spain, but king Marsile of
Saragossa still resists the Christian conqueror. Unable however to meet
Charlemagne in the field, he sends an embassy with presents and a
feigned submission, requesting that prince to return to France, whither
he will follow him and do homage. Roland opposes the reception of these
offers, Ganelon speaks in their favour, and so does Duke Naimes. Then
the question is who shall go to Saragossa to settle the terms. Roland
offers to go himself, but being rejected as too impetuous, suggests
Ganelon--a suggestion which bitterly annoys that knight and by
irritating him against Roland sows the seeds of his future treachery.
Ganelon goes to Marsile, and at first bears himself truthfully and
gallantly. The heathen king however undermines his faith, and a
treacherous assault on the French rearguard when Charlemagne shall be
too far off to succour it is resolved on and planned. Then the traitor
returns to Charles with hostages and mighty gifts. The return to France
begins; Roland is stationed to his great wrath in the fatal place, the
rest of the army marches through the Pyrenees, and meanwhile Marsile
gathers an enormous host to fall upon t