to have a public of their own. Even in the
seventeenth century they had not passed entirely out of sight.
Palmerins, Dons Belianis and Esplandians continued to be written,
translated, adapted, paraphrased, printed, purchased, and read. There
was still a brisk trade in this sort of literature. People continued to
read "the auncient, famous and honourable history of Amadis de Gaule,
discoursing the adventures loves and fortunes of many princes;"[312] or
again "the famous history of Hercules of Greece, with the manner of his
encountering and overcoming serpents, lyons, monsters, giants, tyrants
and powerful armies."[313] Guy of Warwick, our friend of former
chapters, still carried on, with undaunted energy, his manifold exploits
throughout the world. Only, as time passes, we find that he has become
civilized; he has taken trouble to improve his mind, he has read books;
he has even gone to the play. And his choice shows him a man of taste
and feeling; a man with a memory too; for reaching a cemetery somewhere
in his travels he "took up a worm-eaten skull, which he thus addressed:
Perhaps thou wert a prince or a mighty monarch, a King, a Duke or a
Lord. But the King and the beggar must all return to the earth; and
therefore man hath need to remember his dying hour. Perhaps thou
mightest have been a Queen or a Dutchess, or a Lady varnished with much
beauty; but now thou art worms meat, lying in the grave, the sepolchre
of all creatures." We are only surprised that "Alas poor Yorick" does
not come in. The page is beautifully adorned with an engraving
representing Sir Guy in cocked hat, addressing a skull he carries in his
hand.[314]

[Illustration: SIR GUY OF WARWICK ADDRESSING A SKULL.]

The same phenomenon was taking place in France, and from France were to
come the first examples of the regular heroic romance. "I have read
[Lancelot]" says Sarasin, in a conversation reported by the well-known
Jean Chapelain, the author of "La Pucelle," and "I have not found it too
unpleasant. Among the things that have pleased me in it I found that it
was the source of all the romances which for four or five centuries
have been the noblest entertainment of all the courts of Europe and have
prevented barbarism from encompassing the whole world."[315] But as well
as Guy of Warwick, Lancelot wanted some "rajeunissement." His valour was
still the fashion, but his manners, after so many centuries, and his
dress too, were a little out of date.