The Project Gutenberg EBook of Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut, by Wace

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Title: Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut

Author: Wace

Release Date: December 16, 2003 [EBook #10472]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1

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ARTHURIAN CHRONICLES: ROMAN DE BRUT

by

WACE

TRANSLATED BY EUGENE MASON

INTRODUCTION

"... In the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights."

SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet cvi.

I.--WACE

In the long line of Arthurian chroniclers Geoffrey of Monmouth
deservedly occupies the first place. The most gifted and the most
original of their number, by his skilful treatment of the Arthurian
story in his _Historia Regum Britanniae_, he succeeded in uniting
scattered legends attached to Arthur's name, and in definitely
establishing their place in chronicle history in a form that persisted
throughout the later British historical annals. His theme and his
manner of presenting it were both peculiarly adapted to win the favour
of his public, and his work attained a popularity that was almost
unprecedented in an age that knew no printed books. Not only was it
accepted as an authority by British historians, but French chroniclers
also used it for their own purposes.

About the year 1150, five years before the death of Geoffrey, an
Anglo-Norman, Geoffrey Gaimar, wrote the first French metrical chronicle.
It consisted of two parts, the _Estorie des Bretons_ and the _Estorie des
Engles_, of which only the latter is extant, but the former is known to
have been a rhymed translation of the _Historia_ of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Gaimar's work might possibly have had a longer life if it had not been
cast into the shade by another chronicle in verse, the _Roman de Brut_,
by a Norman poet, Wace, which fills an important and interesting place
among our Arthurian sources, not merely because of the author's qualities
as a poet and his treatment of the Arthurian story, but also