te_ should be read in Dr Jonckbloet's invaluable
parallel edition with the prose of _Lancelot_ (The Hague, 1850). On
this last see M. G. Paris, _Romania_, xii. 459--an admirable paper,
though I do not agree with it.]

Next to the questions of authorship and of origin in point of
difficulty come two others--"Which are the older: the prose or the
verse romances?" and, "Was there a Latin original of the Graal story?"

[Sidenote: _Prose or verse first?_]

With regard to the first, it has long been laid down as a general
axiom, and it is no doubt as a rule true, that prose is always later
than verse, and that in mediaeval times especially the order is almost
invariable. Verse; unrhymed and half-disrhythmed prose; prose pure and
simple: that is what we find. For many reasons, however, drawn partly
from the presumed age of the MSS. and partly from internal evidence,
the earlier scholars who considered the Arthurian matter, especially
M. Paulin Paris, came to the conclusion that here the prose romances
were, if not universally, yet for the most part, the earlier. And
this, though it is denied by M. Paris's equally learned son, still
seems the more probable opinion. For, in the first place, by this time
prose, though not in a very advanced condition, was advanced enough
not to make it absolutely necessary for it to lag behind verse, as had
been the case with the _chansons de geste_. And in the second place,
while the prose romances are far more comprehensive than the verse,
the age of the former seems to be beyond question such that there
could be no need, time, or likelihood for the reduction to a general
prose summary of separate verse originals, while the separate verse
episodes are very easily intelligible as developed from parts of the
prose original.[49]

[Footnote 49: The parallel edition, above referred to, of the
_Chevalier a la Charette_ and the corresponding prose settled this in
my mind long ago; and though I have been open to unsettlement since, I
have not been unsettled. The most unlucky instance of that
over-positiveness to which I have referred above is M. Cledat's
statement that "nous savons" that the prose romances are later than
the verse. We certainly do not "know" this any more than we know the
contrary. There is important authority both ways; there is fair
argument both ways; but the positive evidence which alone can turn
opinion into knowledge has not been produced, and probably does not
exist.]

[S