_Fierabras_, _Garin le Loherain_, _Gerard de Roussillon_, _Huon
de Bordeaux_, _Ogier de Danemarche_, _Raoul de Cambrai_, _Roland_, and
the _Voyage de Charlemagne a Constantinoble_. The almost solitary
eminence assigned by some critics to _Roland_ is not, I think,
justified, and comes chiefly from their not being acquainted with many
others; though the poem has undoubtedly the merit of being the oldest,
and perhaps that of presenting the _chanson_ spirit in its best and
most unadulterated, as well as the _chanson_ form at its simplest,
sharpest, and first state. Nor is there anywhere a finer passage than
the death of Roland, though there are many not less fine.

[Footnote 23: Immanuel Bekker had printed the Provencal _Fierabras_ as
early as 1829.]

It may, however, seem proper, if not even positively indispensable, to
give some more general particulars about these _chansons_ before
analysing specimens or giving arguments of one or more; for they are
full of curiosities.

[Sidenote: _Language._ Oc _and_ oil.]

In the first place, it will be noticed by careful readers of the list
above given, that these compositions are not limited to French proper
or to the _langue d'oil_, though infinitely the greater part of them
are in that tongue. Indeed, for some time after attention had been
drawn to them, and before their actual natures and contents had been
thoroughly examined, there was a theory that they were Provencal in
origin. This, though it was chiefly due to the fact that Raynouard,
Fauriel, and other early students of old French had a strong southern
leaning, had some other excuses. It is a fact that Provencal was
earlier in its development than French; and whether by irregular
tradition of this fact, or owing to ignorance, or from anti-French
prejudice (which, however, would not apply in France itself), the part
of the _langue d'oc_ in the early literature of Europe was for
centuries largely overvalued. Then came the usual reaction, and some
fifty years ago or so one of the most capable of literary students
declared roundly that the Provencal epic had "le defaut d'etre perdu."
That is not quite true. There is, as noted above, a Provencal
_Fierabras_, though it is beyond doubt an adaptation of the French;
_Betonnet d'Hanstone_ or _Beton et Daurel_ only exists in Provencal,
though there is again no doubt of its being borrowed; and, lastly, the
oldest existing, and probably the original, form of _Gerard de
Roussillon_,