s of the Arthurian group, to the main subject.

[Footnote 33: This will explain the frequent recurrence of the title
"_Enfances ----_" in the list given above. A hero had become
interesting in some exploit of his manhood: so they harked back to his
childhood.]

[Sidenote: _Summary of the_ geste _of William of Orange._]

It seems necessary, therefore, or at least desirable, especially as
these poems are still far too little known to English readers, to give
in the first place a more or less detailed account of one of the
groups; in the second, a still more detailed account of a particular
_chanson_, which to be fully illustrative should probably be a member
of this group; and lastly, some remarks on the more noteworthy and
accessible (for it is ill speaking at second-hand from accounts of
manuscripts) of the remaining poems. For the first purpose nothing can
be better than _Guillaume d'Orange_, many, though not all, of the
constituents of which are in print, and which has had the great
advantage of being systematically treated by more than one or two of
the most competent scholars of the century on the subject--Dr
Jonckbloet, MM. Guessard and A. de Montaiglon, and M. Gautier himself.
Of this group the short, very old, and very characteristic
_Couronnement Loys_ will supply a good subject for more particular
treatment, a subject all the more desirable that _Roland_ may be said
to be comparatively familiar, and is accessible in English
translations.

[Sidenote: _And first of the_ Couronnement Loys.]

The poem as we have it[34] begins with a double exordium, from which
the _jongleur_ might perhaps choose as from alternative collects in a
liturgy. Each is ten lines long, and while the first rhymes
throughout, the second has only a very imperfect assonance. Each
bespeaks attention and promises satisfaction in the usual manner,
though in different terms--

"Oez seignor que Dex vos soit aidant;"

"Seignor baron, pleroit vos d'un exemple!"

[Footnote 34: Ed. Jonckbloet, _op. cit._, i. 1-71.]

A much less commonplace note is struck immediately afterwards in what
may be excusably taken to be the real beginning of the poem:--

"A king who wears our France's crown of gold
Worthy must be, and of his body bold;
What man soe'er to him do evil wold,
He may not quit in any manner hold
Till he be dead or to his mercy yold.
Else France shall lose her praise she hath of old.
Falsely he's cr