er.[84] The fruit of Scott's acquaintance
with Froissart appears prominently in his essay on _Chivalry_ and in
various introductions to ballads in the _Minstrelsy_, as well as in the
novels of chivalry. Scott at one time proposed to publish an edition of
Malory, but abandoned the project on learning that Southey had the same
thing in mind.[85]

The first periodical review Scott ever published was on the subject of
the _Amadis de Gaul_, as translated by Southey and by Rose. The article
is long and very carefully constructed, and expresses many ideas on the
subject of the mediaeval romance in general that reappear again and
again, particularly in the essay on _Romance_ written in 1823 for the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. Among these general ideas that found frequent
expression in his critical writings, one which in the light of his
creative work becomes particularly interesting to us is his judgment on
the distinctions between metrical and prose romances. He always
preferred the poems, though he was so interested in the prose stories
that he talked about them with much enthusiasm, and it sometimes seems
as if he liked best the kind he happened to be analyzing at the moment.

Other matters that necessarily presented themselves when he was treating
the subject of romance were the problem of the sources of narrative
material, especially the perplexed question concerning the development
of the Arthurian cycle, and the problem, already discussed in connection
with ballads, concerning the character of minstrels. The minstrels
reappear throughout Scott's studies in mediaeval literature, and were
perhaps more interesting to him than any other part of the subject.
Though, as we have seen, he formulated a compromise between the opposing
opinions of Percy and Ritson, no one who reads the description of the
Last Minstrel can doubt what was the picture that he preferred to carry
in his mind.

His ideas on the subject of the origin and diffusion of narrative
material were those of the sensible man trying to look at the matter in
a reasonable way. Here again he adopted an attitude of compromise, in
that he admitted the partial truth of various theories which he
considered erroneous only in so far as any one of them was stretched
beyond its proper compass. "Romance," he said, "was like a compound
metal, derived from various mines, and in the different specimens of
which one metal or other was alternately predominant."[86]

On the subj