f an industrious simple man, without method or
much judgment. "The haste with which he worked is too perceptible; the
adventures are told without connection; you find long stories of Tristan
followed by adventures of his father Meliadus." For the latter derangement
of historical sequence we find a quaint and ingenuous apology offered in
Rustician's epilogue to Giron le Courtois:--

"Cy fine le Maistre Rusticien de Pise son conte en louant et regraciant
le Pere le Filz et le Saint Esperit, et ung mesme Dieu, Filz de la
Benoiste Vierge Marie, de ce qu'il m'a done grace, sens, force, et
memoire, temps et lieu, de me mener a fin de si haulte et si noble
matiere come ceste-cy dont j'ay traicte les faiz et proesses recitez et
recordez a mon livre. Et se aucun me demandoit pour quoy j'ay parle de
Tristan avant que de son pere le Roy Meliadus, le respons que ma matiere
n'estoist pas congneue. Car je ne puis pas scavoir tout, ne mettre
toutes mes paroles par ordre. Et ainsi fine mon conte. Amen."[9]

In a passage of these compilations the Emperor Charlemagne is asked
whether in his judgment King Meliadus or his son Tristan were the better
man? The Emperor's answer is: "I should say that the King Meliadus was the
better man, and I will tell you why I say so. As far as I can see,
everything that Tristan did was done for Love, and his great feats would
never have been done but under the constraint of Love, which was his spur
and goad. Now that never can be said of King Meliadus! For what deeds he
did, he did them not by dint of Love, but by dint of his strong right arm.
Purely out of his own goodness he did good, and not by constraint of
Love." "It will be seen," remarks on this Paulin Paris, "that we are here
a long way removed from the ordinary principles of Round Table Romances.
And one thing besides will be manifest, viz., that Rusticien de Pise was
no Frenchman!"[10]

The same discretion is shown even more prominently in a passage of one of
his compilations, which contains the romances of Arthur, Gyron, and
Meliadus (No. 6975--see last note but one):--

"No doubt," Rustician says, "other books tell the story of the Queen
Ginevra and Lancelot differently from this; and there were certain
passages between them of which the Master, in his concern for the honour
of both those personages, will say not a word." Alas, says the French
Bibliographer, that the copy of Lancelot, which fell into the hands of
poor Fran