alen Epos" (Heidelberg, 1912).]

[Footnote 122: With what seems to us mistaken taste, Chretien frequently
thus delays mentioning the name of his leading charecters. The father
and mother of Enide remain anonymous until the end of this poem. The
reader will remark other instances of this peculiarity in "Yvain" and
"Lancelot".]

[Footnote 123: The maid Brangien was substituted for Iseut, the bride,
upon the first night after her marriage with Mark. Similar traditions
are associated with the marriage of Arthur and Guinevere, and of Pepin
and Berte aus grans pies, the parents of Charlemagne. Adenet le Roi
toward the end of the 13th century is the author of the most artistic
treatments of Berte's history (ed. A. Scheler, Bruxelles, 1874).
Cf. W.W. Comfort, "Adenet le Roi: The End of a Literary Era" in "The
Quarterly Review", April 1913.]

[Footnote 124: The reading "Sanson" (=Samson) is Foerster's most recent
(1904) suggestion to replace the word "lion" which stands in all
the MSS. Solomon's name has always been synonymous with wisdom, and
Alexander's generosity was proverbial in the Middle Ages. For Alexander,
cf. Paul Meyer, "Alexandre le Grand dans la litterature francaise du
moyen age", 2 vols. (Paris, 1886), vol ii., pp. 372-376, and Paget
Toynbee, "Dante Studies and Researches" (London, 1902), p. 144.]

[Footnote 125: Of Arthur's several nephews, Gawain is represented by
Chretien as peerless in respect of courage and courtesy. In the English
romances his character steadily deteriorates.]

[Footnote 126: This sentence contains the motive for all the action
in the sequel. The same situation is threatened in "Yvain", but there
Gawain rescues the hero from the lethargy, ignoble in the eyes of a
feudal audience, into which he was falling. Cf. also "Marques de Rome"
("Lit. Verein in Stuttgart", Tubingen, 1889), p. 36, where the Empress
of Rome thus incites her husband to the chase: "Toz jors cropez vos a
Postel; vos n'estes point chevalereus, si come vos deussiez estre, si
juenes hom come vos estes"; also J. Gower, "Le Mirour de l'omme, 22, 813
ff.:

"Rois est des femmes trop decu, Qant plus les ayme que son dieu, Dont
laist honour pour foldelit: Cil Rois ne serra pas cremu, Q'ensi voet
laisser sou escu Et querre le bataille ou lit."]

[Footnote 127: This brusque command, implying so sudden a change in
Erec's attitude toward his wife, initiates a long series of tests of
Enide's devotion, which fill the rest of the ro