ontinental possessions of English kings--French
ideal--Unification of origins--Help from chroniclers and
poets--The Trojan ancestor 104

CHAPTER II.

LITERATURE IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE UNDER THE NORMAN
AND ANGEVIN KINGS.

I. Diffusion of the French Language.--The French
language superimposed on the English one--Its progress; even
among "lowe men"--Authors of English blood write their works
in French 116

II. The French Literature of the Normans and
Angevins.--It is animated by their own practical and
adventurous mind--Practical works: chronicles, scientific
and pious treatises 120

III. Epic Romances.--The Song of Roland and the
Charlemagne cycle--Comparison with "Beowulf"--The matter
of Rome--How antiquity is _translated_--Wonders--The
matter of Britain--Love--Geoffrey of Monmouth--Tristan and
Iseult--Lancelot and Guinevere--Woman--Love as a passion
and love as a ceremonial 125

IV. Lays and Chansons.--Shorter stories--Lays of
Marie de France--Chansons of France--Songs in French
composed in England 141

V. Satirical and Ironical Works.--Such works
introduced in England--The pilgrimage of Charlemagne--The
"Roman de Renart," a universal comedy--Fabliaux--Their
migrations--Their aim--Their influence in England 146

CHAPTER III.

LATIN.

I. The Ties with Rome.--William I., Henry II.,
John--Church lands--The "exempt" abbeys--Coming of the
friars--The clergy in Parliament--Part played by prelates
in the State--Warrior prelates, administrators, scavants, saints 157

II. Spreading of Knowledge.--Latin education--Schools
and libraries--Book collectors: Richard of Bury--Paris, chief
town for Latin studies--The Paris University; its origins,
teaching, and organisation--English students at Paris--Oxford
and Cambridge--Studies, battles, feasts--Colleges, chests,
libraries 166

III. Latin Poets.--Joseph of Exeter and the Trojan
war--Epigrammatists, satirists, fabulists, &c.--Nigel Wireker
and the ass whose tail was too short--Theories: Geoffrey of
Vinesauf and his New Art of Poetry 176

IV. Latin Prosa