The Age of Chivalry | Page 9

existed at the same time,
among the common people. Robert de Brunne, speaking of his Latin
and French authorities, says:
"Als thai haf wryten and sayd Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd, In symple
speche as I couthe, That is lightest in manne's mouthe. Alle for the luf
of symple men, That strange Inglis cannot ken."
The "strange Inglis" being the language of the previous specimen.
It was not till toward the end of the thirteenth century that the PROSE
romances began to appear. These works generally began with
disowning and discrediting the sources from which in reality they drew
their sole information. As every romance was supposed to be a real
history, the compilers of those in prose would have forfeited all credit
if they had announced themselves as mere copyists of the minstrels. On
the contrary, they usually state that, as the popular poems upon the
matter in question contain many "lesings," they had been induced to
translate the real and true history of such or such a knight from the
original Latin or Greek, or from the ancient British or Armorican
authorities, which authorities existed only in their own assertion.
A specimen of the style of the prose romances may be found in the
following extract from one of the most celebrated and latest of them,
the "Morte d'Arthur" of Sir Thomas Mallory, of the date of 1485. From
this work much of the contents of this volume has been drawn, with as

close an adherence to the original style as was thought consistent with
our plan of adapting our narrative to the taste of modern readers.
"It is notoyrly knowen thorugh the vnyuersal world that there been ix
worthy and the best that ever were. That is to wete thre paynyms, three
Jewes, and three crysten men. As for the paynyms, they were tofore the
Incarnacyon of Cryst whiche were named, the fyrst Hector of Troye;
the second Alysaunder the grete, and the thyrd Julyus Cezar, Emperour
of Rome, of whome thystoryes ben wel kno and had. And as for the
thre Jewes whyche also were tofore thyncarnacyon of our Lord, of
whome the fyrst was Duc Josue, whyche brought the chyldren of
Israhel into the londe of beheste; the second Dauyd, kyng of
Jherusalem, and the thyrd Judas Machabeus; of these thre the byble
reherceth al theyr noble hystoryes and actes. And sythe the sayd
Incarnacyon haue ben the noble crysten men stalled and admytted
thorugh the vnyuersal world to the nombre of the ix beste and worthy,
of whome was fyrst the noble Arthur, whose noble actes I purpose to
wryte in this person book here folowyng. The second was Charlemayn,
or Charles the grete, of whome thystorye is had in many places both in
frensshe and englysshe, and the thyrd and last was Godefray of
boloyn."

CHAPTER II
THE MYTHICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND
The illustrious poet, Milton, in his "History of England," is the author
whom we chiefly follow in this chapter.
According to the earliest accounts, Albion, a giant, and son of Neptune,
a contemporary of Hercules, ruled over the island, to which he gave his
name. Presuming to oppose the progress of Hercules in his western
march, he was slain by him.
Another story is that Histion, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, had
four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alemannus, and Britto, from whom

descended the French, Roman, German, and British people.
Rejecting these and other like stories, Milton gives more regard to the
story of Brutus, the Trojan, which, he says, is supported by "descents of
ancestry long continued, laws and exploits not plainly seeming to be
borrowed or devised, which on the common belief have wrought no
small impression; defended by many, denied utterly by few." The
principal authority is Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history, written in
the twelfth century, purports to be a translation of a history of Britain
brought over from the opposite shore of France, which, under the name
of Brittany, was chiefly peopled by natives of Britain who, from time to
time, emigrated thither, driven from their own country by the inroads of
the Picts and Scots. According to this authority, Brutus was the son of
Silvius, and he of Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, whose flight from Troy
and settlement in Italy are narrated in "Stories of Gods and Heroes."
Brutus, at the age of fifteen, attending his father to the chase,
unfortunately killed him with an arrow. Banished therefor by his
kindred, he sought refuge in that part of Greece where Helenus, with a
band of Trojan exiles, had become established. But Helenus was now
dead and the descendants of the Trojans were oppressed by Pandrasus,
the king of the country. Brutus, being kindly received among them, so
throve in virtue and