ether any
French, except a fragment of a translation of Boethius, in verse, is
extant of an earlier age than the twelfth. Introduction to Hist. of
Literat. 3rd edit. p. 28.]

[862] Hist. Litt. t. ix. p. 149; Fabliaux par Barbasan, vol. i. p. 9,
edit. 1808; Mem. de l'Academie des Inscr. t. xv. and xvii, p. 714, &c.

[863] Mabillon speaks of this as the oldest French instrument he had
seen. But the Benedictines quote some of the eleventh century. Hist.
Litt. t. vii. p. 59. This charter is supposed by the authors of Nouveau
Traite de Diplomatique to be translated from the Latin, t. iv. p. 519.
French charters, they say, are not common before the age of Louis IX.;
and this is confirmed by those published in Martenne's Thesaurus
Anecdotorum, which are very commonly in French from his reign, but
hardly ever before.

[864] Ravaliere, Revol. de la Langue Francoise, p. 116, doubts the age
of this translation.

[865] Archaeologia, vols. xii. and xiii.

[866] Millot says that Richard's sirventes (satirical songs) have
appeared in French as well as Provencal, but that the former is probably
a translation. Hist. des Troubadours, vol. i. p. 54. Yet I have met with
no writer who quotes them in the latter language, and M. Ginguene, as
well as Le Grand d'Aussy, considers Richard as a trouveur.

[Raynouard has since published, in Provencal, the song of Richard on his
captivity, which had several times appeared in French. It is not
improbable that he wrote it in both dialects. Leroux de Lincy, Chants
Historiques Francais, vol. i. p. 55. Richard also composed verses in the
Poitevin dialect, spoken at that time in Maine and Anjou, which
resembles the Langue d'Oc more than that of northern France, though,
especially in the latter countries, it gave way not long afterwards. Id.
p. 77.]

[867] This derivation of the romantic stories of Arthur, which Le Grand
d'Aussy ridiculously attributes to the jealousy entertained by the
English of the renown of Charlemagne, is stated in a very perspicuous
and satisfactory manner by Mr. Ellis, in his Specimens of Early English
Metrical Romances.

[868] [Though the stories of Arthur were not invented by the English out
of jealousy of Charlemagne, it has been ingeniously conjectured and
rendered highly probable by Mr. Sharon Turner, that the history by
Geoffrey of Monmouth was composed with a political view to display the
independence and dignity of the British crown, and was intended,
consequently