CONTENTS. Page Of the Crigin of Romantic Fiction in Europe Note B. by Mr. Price on the Lais of Marie de France Note C. by Mr. Price on the Saxon Ode on the Victory of Athelstan State of Language. Prevalence of the French Language before and after the Norman Conquest. Specimens of Norman-Saxon poems. Legends in verse. Earliest Love-songs. Alexandrine Verses. Satirical Pieces. Satirical Ballad in the Thirteenth Century. The King's Poet. Robert of Gloucester. Antient Political Ballads. Robert of Brunne. The Brut of England. Le Roman de Rou. Gests and Jestours. Ercel- doune and Kendale. Bishop Grosthead. Monks write for the Min- strels. Monastic Libraries full of Romances. Minstrels admitted into the Monasteries. Regnorum Chronica and Mirabilia Mundi. Early European Travellers into the East. Elegy on Edward the First.. Effects of the Increase of Tales of Chivalry. Rise of Chivalry. Crusades. Rise and Improvements of Romance. View of the Rise of Metrical Romances. Their Currency about the End of the Thirteenth Century. French Minstrels in England. Provencial Poets. Popular Romances. Dares Phrygius. Guido de Colonna. Fabulous Histories of Alex- ander. Pilpay's Fables. Roman d'Alexandre. Alexandrines. Com- munications between the French and English Minstrels. Use of the Examination and Specimens of the Metrical Romance of Richard the First. Greek Fire. Military Machines used in the Crusades. Mu- sical Instruments of the Saracen Armies. Ignorance of Geography in TO HIS GRACE GEORGE, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, MARQUIS OF BLANDFORD, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, AUTHOR'S PREFACE. IN age advanced to the highest degree of refinement, that species of curiosity commences, which is busied in contemplating the progress of social life, in displaying the gradations of science, and in tracing the transitions from barbarism to civility. That these speculations should become the favourite pursuits, and the fashionable topics, of such a period, is extremely natural. We look back on the savage condition of our ancestors with the triumph of superiority; we are pleased to mark the steps by which we have been raised from rudeness to elegance; and our reflections on this subject are accompanied with a conscious pride, arising in great measure from a tacit comparison of the infinite disproportion between the feeble efforts of remote ages, and our present improvements in knowledge. In the mean time, the manners, monuments, customs, practices, and opinions of antiquity, by forming so strong a contrast with those of our own times, and by exhibiting human nature and human inventions in new lights, in unexpected appearances, and in various forms, are objects which forcibly strike a feeling imagination. Nor does this spectacle afford nothing more than a fruitless gratification to the fancy. It teaches us to set a just estimation on our own acquisitions; and encourages us to cherish that cul |