entures. "Cliges" apparently
connects a Byzantine tale of doubtful origin in an arbitrary fashion
with the court of Arthur. It is thought that the story embodies the same
motive as the widespread tale of the deception practised upon Solomon by
his wife, and that Chretien's source, as he himself claims, was literary
(cf. Gaston Paris in "Journal des Savants", 1902, pp. 641-655). The
scene where Fenice feigns death in order to rejoin her lover is a
parallel of many others in literary history, and will, of course,
suggest the situation in Romeo and Juliet. This romance well illustrates
the drawing power of Arthur's court as a literary centre, and its use as
a rallying-point for courteous knights of whatever extraction. The poem
has been termed an "Anti-Tristan", because of its disparaging reference
to the love of Tristan and Iseut, which, it is generally supposed,
had been narrated by Chretien in his earlier years. Next may come
"Lancelot", with its significant dedication to the Countess of
Champagne. Of all the poet's work, this tale of the rescue of Guinevere
by her lover seems to express most closely the ideals of Marie's court
ideals in which devotion and courtesy but thinly disguise free love.
"Yvain" is a return to the poet's natural bent, in an episodical
romance, while "Perceval" crowns his production with its pure and
exalted note, though without a touch of that religious mysticism
which later marked Wolfram yon Eschenbach's "Parzival". "Guillaime
d'Angleterre" is a pseudo-historical romance of adventure in which the
worldly distresses and the final reward of piety are conventionally
exposed. It is uninspired, its place is difficult to determine, and
its authorship is questioned by some. It is aside from the Arthurian
material, and there is no clue to its place in the evolution of
Chretien's art, if indeed it be his work.

A few words must be devoted to Chretien's place in the history of
mediaeval narrative poetry. The heroic epic songs of France, devoted
either to the conflict of Christendom under the leadership of France
against the Saracens, or else to the strife and rivalry of French
vassals among themselves, had been current for perhaps a century before
our poet began to write. These epic poems, of which some three score
have survived, portray a warlike, virile, unsentimental feudal society,
whose chief occupation was fighting, and whose dominant ideals were
faith in God, loyalty to feudal family ties, and br