ollows
nothing can be further from the writer's wish than to emulate the
confident dogmatism of those who claim to have proved or disproved
this or that fact or hypothesis. In the nature of the case proof is
impossible; we cannot go further than probability. It is unfortunate
that some of the disputants on this, as on other kindred subjects,
have not more frequently remembered the admirable words of the
greatest modern practitioner and though he lacked some more recent
information, the shrewdest modern critic of romance itself.[45] I
need only say that though I have not in the least borrowed from
either, and though I make neither responsible for my views, these
latter, as they are about to be stated, will be found most to resemble
those of Sir Frederic Madden in England and M. Paulin Paris in
France--the two critics who, coming after the age of wild guesswork
and imperfect reading, and before that of a scholarship which,
sometimes at least, endeavours to vindicate itself by innovation for
the sake of innovation, certainly equalled, and perhaps exceeded, any
others in their familiarity with the actual texts. With that
familiarity, so far as MSS. go, I repeat that I do not pretend to vie.
But long and diligent reading of the printed material, assisted by
such critical lights as critical practice in more literatures than one
or two for many years may give, has led me to the belief that when
they agreed they were pretty sure to be right, and that when they
differed, the authority of either was at least equal, as authority, to
anything subsequent.

[Footnote 45: "Both these subjects of discussion [authorship and
performance of Romances] have been the source of great controversy
among antiquaries--a class of men who, be it said with their
forgiveness, are apt to be both positive and polemical upon the very
points which are least susceptible of proof, and least valuable, if
the truth could be ascertained."--Sir Walter Scott, "Essay on
Romance," _Prose Works_, vi. 154.]

[Sidenote: _Wace._]

The known or reasonably inferred historical procession of the Legend
is as follows. Before the middle of the twelfth century we have
nothing that can be called a story. At almost that exact point (the
subject of the dedication of the _Historia Britonum_ died in 1146)
Geoffrey supplies the outlines of such a story. They were at once
seized upon for filling in. Before many years two well-known writers
had translated Geoffrey's Latin into