[499] _Vid. supra_, note (d), vol. i. Essay, &c. _Et vide_ Rapin, Carte, &c. This song of _Roland_ (whatever it was) continued for some centuries to be usually sung by the French in their marches, if we may believe a modern French writer. "Un jour qu'on chantoit la _Chanson de Roland_, comme c'etoit l'usage dans les marches. Il y a long temps, dit il (John K. of France, who died in 1364), qu'on ne voit plus de Rolands parmi les François. On y verroit encore des Rolands, lui répondit un vieux capitaine, s'ils avoient un Charlemagne à leur tête." _Vid._ tom. iii. p. 202, _des Essaies Hist. sur Paris, de M. de Saintefoix_: who gives as his authority, Boethius in _Hist. Scotorum_. This author, however, speaks of the complaint and repartee, as made in an Assembly of the States (_vocato senatu_), and not upon any march, &c. _Vid._ Boeth. lib. xv. vol. 327. Ed. Paris, 1574.
[500] See on this subject, vol. i. note, s. 2, p. 404; and in note G g, p. 424, &c.
[501] The first romances of chivalry among the Germans were in metre: they have some very ancient narrative songs (which they call _Lieder_) not only on the fabulous heroes of their own country, but also on those of France and Britain, as Tristram, Arthur, Gawain, and the knights _von der Tafel-ronde_ (_vid._ Goldasti Not. in _Eginhart. Vit. Car. Mag._ 4to. 1711, p. 207.)
[502] The Welsh have still some very old romances about K. Arthur; but as these are in prose, they are not probably their first pieces that were composed on that subject.
[503] It is most credible that these stories were originally of English invention, even if the only pieces now extant should be found to be translations from the French. What now pass for the French originals were probably only amplifications, or enlargements of the old English story. That the French romances borrowed some things from the English, appears from the word _termagant_.
[504] _Recuyel of the Hystoryes of Troy_, 1471; _Godfroye of Boloyne_, 1481; _Le Morte de Arthur_, 1485; _The Life of Charlemagne_, 1485, &c. As the old minstrelsy wore out, prose books of chivalry became more admired, especially after the Spanish romances began to be translated into English towards the end of Q. Elizabeth's reign: then the most popular metrical romances began to be reduced into prose, as _Sir Guy_, _Bevis_, &c.