have raised a laugh among
the early readers of the romance, is that in which King Arthur's fool
Dagonet is clad in Sir Mordred's armor, and in that disguise is made to
chase before him the coward King Mark. The authors of the romances of
chivalry never attempted delineation of character. Their heroes are
good knights or bad knights, and in either case possess only the
particular qualities which would place them in one of these categories.
The female characters are still more slightly drawn, and show no
distinct attributes except beauty and a capacity to love.

In laying down the "Morte d'Arthur," and bidding farewell to the
Middle Ages with their heroes of chivalry, we come to the end of a most
picturesque period of English history,--a period marked by lights and
shadows, rather than by distinct forms. There was ferocity, and there
was courtesy; there was brilliant show and rude coarseness; there were
scenes of blood and scenes of noble chivalry. In the next chapter we
shall notice the tendencies which were at work to replace this state of
society by a better. But to the Middle Ages will always be traced much
that is distinctive of English character, and in the history of fiction
we may fairly allow to the knights of romance the legendary charm and
fascination which hang about their bright helmets in the long vista of
departed years.

[Footnote 13: Hair.]

[Footnote 14: "Morte d'Arthur." Southey's reprint from Caxton's ed.,
1485, chaps. xix and xx. book 4.]

[Footnote 15: "Morte d'Arthur," book 10, chap. xxxix.]

[Footnote 16: Southey's "Morte d'Arthur," vol. 2, p. 11.]

[Footnote 17: "Morte d'Arthur," book 4, chap. ix.]

[Footnote 18: Hit, cut.]

[Footnote 19: Cut not steel.]

[Footnote 20: "Morte d'Arthur," book 6, ch. x.]

[Footnote 21: "Morte d'Arthur," book 8, ch. i.]

[Footnote 22: Thrice.]

[Footnote 23: Liest.]

[Footnote 24: "Morte d'Arthur," book 22, chap. ii.]

[Footnote 25: "Morte d'Arthur," book 22, chap. xiii.]

CHAPTER II.

CHAUCER. POPULAR TALES. MORE'S "UTOPIA."

In the history of English intellectual development between the vague
ignorance of the Middle Ages and the new growth of learning in the
sixteenth century, stands the great figure of Chaucer. The first
English writer possessing dramatic power, he is the first also to unite
with the art of story-telling, the delineation and study of human
character. In his translation of the "Romaunt of the Rose" he belongs
to the