-Oriental medley of the Pseudo-Callisthenes and the bit of bald
euhemerism which had better have been devoted to Hephaestus than
ascribed to his priest. But, by another very curious fact, the two
great and commanding examples of the Romance of Antiquity were
executed each under the influence of the flourishing of one of the two
mightiest branches of mediaeval poetry proper. When Alberic and the
decasyllabist (whoever he was) wrote, the _chanson de geste_ was in
the very prime of its most vigorous manhood, and the _Roman
d'Alixandre_ accordingly took not merely the outward form, but the
whole spirit of the _chanson de geste_ itself. And when Benoit de
Sainte-More gave the first shapings of the great story of Troilus and
Cressida out of the lifeless rubbish-heap of Dares, it was at the
precise minute when also, in hands known or unknown, the greater story
of Arthur and Gawain, of Lancelot and Guinevere, was shaping itself
from materials probably even scantier. Even Guido of the Columns, much
more Boccaccio, had this story fully before them; and Cressida, when
at last she becomes herself, has, if nothing of the majesty of
Guinevere, a good deal of Iseult--an Iseult more faithless to love,
but equally indifferent to anything except love. As Candace in
_Alexander_ has the crude though not unamiable naturalism of a
_chanson_ heroine, so Cressid--so even Briseida to some extent--has
the characteristic of the frail angels of Arthurian legend. The cup
would have spilled wofully in her husband's hand, the mantle would
scarcely have covered an inch of her; but though of coarser make, she
is of the same mould with the ladies of the Round Table,--she is of
the first creation of the order of romantic womanhood.

CHAPTER V.

THE MAKING OF ENGLISH AND THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEAN PROSODY.

SPECIAL INTEREST OF EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH. DECAY OF
ANGLO-SAXON. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE. SCANTINESS OF
ITS CONSTITUENTS. LAYAMON. THE FORM OF THE 'BRUT.' ITS
SUBSTANCE. THE 'ORMULUM': ITS METRE, ITS SPELLING. THE
'ANCREN RIWLE.' THE 'OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE.' PROVERBS.
ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER. ROMANCES. 'HAVELOK THE DANE.' 'KING
HORN.' THE PROSODY OF THE MODERN LANGUAGES. HISTORICAL
RETROSPECT. ANGLO-SAXON PROSODY. ROMANCE PROSODY. ENGLISH
PROSODY. THE LATER ALLITERATION. THE NEW VERSE. RHYME AND
SYLLABIC EQUIVALENCE. ACCENT AND QUANTITY. THE GAIN OF FORM.
THE "ACCENT" THEORY. INITIA