ollows and excellent example of an old French
lament for the dead. Such a wail was known in old French as a "regret",
a word which has lost its specific meaning in English.]

[Footnote 134: Many examples will be met of women skilled in the
practice of medicine and surgery. On the subject, cf. A. Hertel,
"Versauberte Oertlichkeiten und Gegenstande in der altfranzosschen
Dichtung" (Hanover, 1908); Georg Manheimer, "Etwas liber die Aerzte im
alten Frankreich" in "Romanische Forschungen", vi. 581-614.]

[Footnote 135: The reference here and in v.5891 is probably suggested by
the "Roman d'Eneas", which tells the same story as Virgil's "Aeneid",
in old French eight-syllable rhymed couplets, and which is dated by
the most recent scholarship 1160 circ. Cf. F.M. Warren in "Modern
Philology", iii. 179-209; iii. 513-539; iv. 655-675. Also M. Wilmotte,
"L'Evolution du roman francais aux environs de 1150" (Paris, 1903).
Scenes from classical and medieval romance were for a long time
favourite subject of portrayal upon cloths and tapestries, as well as of
illuminations for manuscripts.]

[Footnote 136: Various conjectures have been advanced concerning the
significance of this strange adventure and its mysterious name "La
Joie de la cour". It is a quite extraneous episode, and Tennyson in his
artistic use of our hero and heroine in the Idyl of "Geraint and Enid"
did well to omit it. Chretien's explanation, a little farther on, of "La
Joie de la cour" is lame and unsatisfactory, as if he himself did not
understand the significance of the matter upon which he was working. Cf.
E. Philipot in "Romania", xxv. 258-294; K. Othmer, "Ueber das Verhaltnis
Chrestiens Erec und Enide zu dem Mabinogion des rothen Buch von Hergest"
(Bonn, 1889); G. Paris in "Romania", xx. 152 f.]

[Footnote 137: The following description of Erec's reception is repeated
with variations at the time of Yvain's entrance in the "Chastel de Pesme
Avanture" ("Yvain", 5107 f.) (F.).]

[Footnote 138: For such conventional mediaeval descriptions of
other-world castles, palaces, and landscapes, cf. O.M. Johnston in
"Ztsch fur romanische Philologie", xxxii. 705-710.]

[Footnote 139: Tiebaut li Esclavon, frequently mentioned in the epic
poems, was a Saracen king, the first husband of Guibourne, who later
married the Christian hero Guillaume d'Orange. Opinel was also a
Saracen, mentioned in "Gaufrey", p. 132, and the hero of a lost epic
poem (see G. Paris, "Historie poetiqu