Chivalry | Page 3

professional literary evaluator. Certainly
years before discussion of Cabell was artificially augmented by the
suppression of Jurgen there were many genuine lovers of romance who
had read these tales with pure enjoyment. That they did not analyse and
articulate their enjoyment for the edification of others does not lessen
the quality of their appreciation. Even in those years they found in
Cabell's early tales what we find who have since been directed to them
by the curiosity engendered by his later work, namely, a superb
craftsmanship in recreating a vanished age, an atmosphere in keeping
with the themes, a fluid, graceful, personal style, a poetic ecstasy, a fine
sense of drama, and a unity and symmetry which are the hall-marks of
literary genius.
BURTON RASCOE. New York City, September, 1921.

Contents
PRECAUTIONAL
THE PROLOGUE
I THE STORY OF THE SESTINA
II THE STORY OF THE TENSON
III THE STORY OF THE RAT-TRAP
IV THE STORY OF THE CHOICES
V THE STORY OF THE HOUSEWIFE
VI THE STORY OF THE SATRAPS
VII THE STORY OF THE HERITAGE
VIII THE STORY OF THE SCABBARD

IX THE STORY OF THE NAVARRESE
X THE STORY OF THE FOX-BRUSH
THE EPILOGUE

Precautional
Imprimis, as concerns the authenticity of these tales perhaps the less
debate may be the higher wisdom, if only because this Nicolas de Caen,
by common report, was never a Gradgrindian. And in this volume in
particular, writing it (as Nicolas is supposed to have done) in 1470, as a
dependant on the Duke of Burgundy, it were but human nature should
he, in dealing with the putative descendants of Dom Manuel and
Alianora of Provence, be niggardly in his ascription of praiseworthy
traits to any member of the house of Lancaster or of Valois. Rather
must one in common reason accept old Nicolas as confessedly a
partisan writer, who upon occasion will recolor an event with such
nuances as will be least inconvenient to a Yorkist and Burgundian bias.
The reteller of these stories needs in addition to plead guilty of having
abridged the tales with a free hand. Item, these tales have been a trifle
pulled about, most notably in "The Story of the Satraps," where it
seemed advantageous, on reflection, to put into Gloucester's mouth a
history which in the original version was related ab ovo, and as a sort
of bungling prologue to the story proper.
Item, the re-teller of these stories desires hereby to tender appropriate
acknowledgment to Mr. R.E. Townsend for his assistance in making an
English version of the lyrics included hereinafter; and to avoid
discussion as to how freely, in these lyrics, Nicolas has plagiarized
from Raimbaut de Vaqueiras and other elder poets.[1]
And--"sixth and lastly"--should confession be made that in the present
rendering a purely arbitrary title has been assigned this little book;
chiefly for commercial reasons, since the word "dizain" has been
adjudged both untranslatable and, in its pristine form, repellantly

_outré_.
2
You are to give my titular makeshift, then, a wide interpretation; and
are always to remember that in the bleak, florid age these tales
commemorate this Chivalry was much the rarelier significant of any
personal trait than of a world-wide code in consonance with which all
estimable people lived and died. Its root was the assumption
(uncontested then) that a gentleman will always serve his God, his
honor and his lady without any reservation; nor did the many
emanating by-laws ever deal with special cases as concerns this triple,
fixed, and fundamental homage.

Such is the trinity served hereinafter. Now about lady-service, or
domnei, I have written elsewhere. Elsewhere also I find it recorded that
"the cornerstone of Chivalry is the idea of vicarship: for the chivalrous
person is, in his own eyes at least, the child of God, and goes about this
world as his Father's representative in an alien country."
I believe the definition holds: it certainly tends to explain the otherwise
puzzling pertinacity with which the characters in these tales talk about
God and act upon an assured knowledge as to Heaven's private
intentions and preferences. These people are the members of one family
engrossed, as all of us are apt to be when in the society of our kin, by
family matters and traditions and by-words. It is not merely that they
are all large children consciously dependent in all things upon a not
foolishly indulgent Father, Who keeps an interested eye upon the least
of their doings, and punishes at need,--not merely that they know
themselves to act under surveillance and to speak within ear-shot of a
divine eavesdropper. The point is, rather, that they know this
observation to be as tender, the punishment to be as unwilling, as that
which they themselves extend to their own children's pranks and
misdemeanors. The point is