ht as well have protested against
Dares. Gerald de Barry cried out it was an imposture; and William of
Newbury inveighed against the impudence of "a writer called Geoffrey,"
who had made "Arthur's little finger bigger than Alexander's back."[183]
In vain; copies of the "Historia Regum" multiplied to such an extent
that the British Museum alone now possesses thirty-four of them. The
appointed chronicler of the Angevin kings, Wace, translated it into
French about 1155, with the addition of several legends omitted by
Geoffrey, that of the Round Table among others.[184] It was turned into
Latin verse, into French alexandrines, into Welsh prose; no honour was
denied it. From this time dates the literary fortune of Arthur, Merlin,
Morgan the fairy, Percival, Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guinevere,
whose deeds and loves have been sung from century to century, down to
the day of Shakespeare, of Swinburne, and Tennyson.

The finest poems the Middle Ages devoted to them were written on English
ground, and especially the most charming of all, dedicated to that
Tristan,[185] whom Dante places by Helen of Troy in the group of
lovers: "I beheld Helen, who caused such years of woe, and I saw great
Achilles ... Paris and Tristan."[186]

Tristan's youth was spent in a castle of Leonois, by the sea. One day a
Norwegian vessel, laden with stuffs and with hunting-birds, brings to
before the walls. Tristan comes to buy falcons; he lingers to play chess
with the merchants; the anchor is weighed, and Tristan is borne off in
the ship. A storm drives the vessel on the coast of Cornwall, and the
youth is conducted before King Marc. Harpers were playing; Tristan
remembers Briton lays; he takes the harp, and so sweet is his music that
"many a courtier remains there, forgetting his very name."[187] Marc
(who turns out to be his uncle) takes a fancy to him, and dubs him
knight. "Should any one," says the author of one of the versions of
Tristan, "inquire of me concerning the dress of the knights, I will tell
him in a few words; it was composed of four stuffs: courage, richness,
skill, and courtesy."

Morolt, the giant, comes to claim a tribute of sixty youths and maidens,
in the name of the king of Ireland. They were proceeding to select
these victims, when Tristan challenges the giant and kills him; but he
is wounded by a poisoned weapon, and, day by day, death draws nearer. No
one can cure this poison except the queen of Ireland, sister of t