ovencal literature all his first models.

With the decline of the Troubadours occurred the rise of the Trouveres
in northern France.

In the tenth century Normandy was invaded by Rollo the Dane, who
incorporated himself and his followers with the Normans. They adopted
the Norman-French; but gave it a power and scope it had hitherto
lacked. While the Romance-Provencal in the South was a language of
sweetness and beauty, the Northern language after the advent of Rollo,
was strong and warlike. Its poetry, which differed from the love
chansons of the South, was the song of brave warriors, recounting the
heroic deeds of their ancestors.

The Langue d'oui, as this Northern speech was called, became, in the
twelfth century, the universal medium of literature. The poets and
story writers called themselves Trouveres, and they invented the
fabliaux, the dramatic mysteries and romances of ancient chivalry. The
first great literary work of this class is a marvellous history of the
early kings of England, commencing with Brutus, a grandson of Aeneas,
who, sailing among many enchanted Isles, at length settles in England,
where he meets Arthur of the Round Table, and the old wizard, Merlin,
one of the most popular creations of the Middle Ages. Born of this
legend were some of the best known of modern romances. The word
romance, which in the early history of France was used to distinguish
the common dialect from the Latin, was later applied to all imaginative
and inventive tales. Of this class was "Tristam de Leonois," written in
1190; the "San Graal," and "Lancelot." In the same century appeared
"Alexander," a poem which became so celebrated that poetry, written in
the same measure, is to this day called Alexandrine verse.

A poetess known as Marie of France, wrote twelve lays to celebrate the
glories of the Round Table. She addresses herself to a king supposed to
be Henry VI, and has made extensive use of early British legends.
Chaucer and other English poets, have drawn many inspirations from her
poems.

The Trouveres not only originated the romances of chivalry; but they
also invented allegorical poems. The most celebrated is the "Romance of
the Rose," written in the thirteenth century. It consisted of 20,000
verses, and although tedious, because of its length, it was universally
admired, and became the foundation of all subsequent allegory among the
different nations. The poetry of the Trouveres was unlike anything in
antiqu