Chanson
deserves some notice. _Baudouin de Sebourc_[108] and its sequel the
_Bastard of Bouillon_[109] worthily close this great division of
literature, and, setting as they do a finish to the sub-cycle of the
_Chevalier au Cygne_, hardly lose except in simplicity by comparison
with its magnificent opening in the _Chanson d'Antioche_. They contain
together some 33,000 verses, and the scene changes freely. It is
sometimes in Syria, where the Crusaders fight against the infidel,
sometimes in France and Flanders, where Baudouin has adventures of all
kinds, comic and chivalrous, sometimes on the sea, where among other
things the favourite mediaeval legend of St. Brandan's Isle is brought
in. Not a little of its earlier part shows the sarcastic spirit common
at the date of its composition, the beginning of the fourteenth century.
The length of the two poems is enormous, as has been said; but, putting
two or three masterpieces aside, no poem of mediaeval times has a more
varied and livelier interest than _Baudouin de Sebourc_, and few breathe
the genuine Chanson spirit of pugnacious piety better than _Le Bastart
de Bouillon_.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, v. d.

[92] Ed. van Hasselt. Brussels, 1866.

[93] _The wooden horse._

[94] The _Songe d'Enfer_ and the _Voie de Paradis_, published by
Jubinal, as the _Roman des Eles_ has been by Scheler, _Meraugis_ by
Michelant, and the _Vengeance de Raguidel_ by Hippeau.

[95] Ed. Crapelet. Paris, 1834.

[96] Ed. Du Meril. Paris, 1856.

[97] Ed. Brunet et Montaiglon. Paris, 1856.

[98] Ed. Michelant. Paris, 1867.

[99] Ed. Meyer. Paris, 1875.

[100] Ed. Michelant. Paris, 1876.

[101] Ed. Hippeau. Paris, 1863.

[102] Ed. Hippeau. Paris, 1860.

[103] Ed. Foerster. Halle, 1877.

[104] Ed. Stengel. Tuebingen, 1873.

[105] Both edited in extract by Bordier. Paris, 1869. Complete edition
begun by Suchier. Paris, 1884.

[106] Ed. Hofmann and Muncker. Halle, 1880.

[107] Ed. Michel.

[108] Ed. Boca. 2 vols. Valenciennes, 1841.

[109] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, 1877.

CHAPTER IX.

LATER SONGS AND POEMS.

[Sidenote: The Artificial Forms of Northern France.]

Not the least important division of early French literature, in point of
bulk and peculiarity, though not always the most important in point of
literary excellence, consists of the later lyrical and miscellaneous
poems of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. By the end of the
thirteen