ill extant many versions of the romance in every European tongue, for it
penetrated even into the frozen regions of Scandinavia and Iceland. It was
therefore recited in every castle and town by the wandering minstrels,
trouveres, troubadours, minnesingers, and scalds, who thus individually and
collectively continued the work begun so many years before by the Greek
rhapsodists. Thus for more than two thousand years the story which still
delights us has been familiar among high and low, and has served to beguile
the hours for old and young.

This cycle further includes a revised and much-transformed edition of the
adventures of Aeneas and of the early history of Rome. But although all
these tales were first embodied in metrical romances, these soon gave way
to prose versions of equally interminable length, which each relator varied
and embellished according to his taste and skill.

The extreme popularity of Benoit de Sainte-More's work induced many
imitations, and the numerous _chansons de gestes_, constructed on the same
general plan, soon became current everywhere. Sundry episodes of these
tales, having been particularly liked, were worked over, added to, and
elaborated, until they assumed the proportions of romances in themselves.
Such was, for example, the case with the story of Troilus and Cressida,
which was treated by countless mediaeval poets, and finally given the form
in which we know it best, first by Chaucer in his "Canterbury Tales," and
lastly by Shakespeare in his well-known play.

[Sidenote: Alexandre le Grant.] Another great romance of the classical
cycle is the one known as "Alexandre le Grant." First written in verse by
Lambert le Cort, in a meter which is now exclusively known as Alexandrine,
because it was first used to set forth the charms and describe the deeds of
this hero, it was recast by many poets, and finally turned into a prose
romance also.

The first poetical version was probably composed in the eleventh century,
and is said to have been twenty-two thousand six hundred lines long. Drawn
from many sources,--for the Greek and Latin writers had been all more or
less occupied with describing the career of the youthful conqueror and the
marvels he discovered in the far East,--the mediaeval writers still further
added to this heterogeneous material.

The romance of "Alexandre le Grant," therefore, purports to relate the life
and adventures of the King of Macedon; but as Lambert le Cort and his