Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/70

88 WORKMEN AND HEROES pict and the style of language in which they are composed." These latter rarely mention Arthur, but the former belong, as Mr. Skene puts it. to the "full-blown Arthurian romance." Chretien de Troies, the most famous of the old French trouveres in the latter part of the twelfth century, made the Arthur legend the subject for his " Romans " and " Contes," as well as for two epics on Tristan ; the Holy Grail, Peredur, etc., belonging to the same cycle. Early in the same century the Arthurian metrical romance became known in Germany, and there assumed a more animated and artistic form in the " Parzival " of Wolfram of Eschenbach, " Tristan und Isolt " of Gottfried of Strasburg, " Erec and Iwein " of Hartmann, and " Wigalois " of Wirnt. The most renowned of the heroes of the Arthurian school are Peredur (Parzival or Perceval), Tristan or Tristram, Iwein, Erec, Gawein, Wigalois, Wigamur, Gauriel, and Lancelot From France the Arthurian romance spread also to Spain, Provence, Italy, and the Nether- lands, even into Iceland, and was again transplanted into England. One of the publications that issued from the press of Caxton (1485) was a collection of stories by Sir Thomas Malory, either compiled by him in English, from various of the later French prose romances, or translated directly from an already exist- ing French compendium. Copland reprinted the work in 1557, and in 1634 the last of the black-letter editions appeared. A reprint of Caxton's " Kynge Arthur," with an introduction and notes by Robert Southey, was issued in 1 8 1 7 " The Byrth, Lyfe, and Actes of Kyng Arthur." The most complete edition is that by Thomas Wright, from the text of 1634. The name of King Arthur was given during the Middle Ages to many places and monuments supposed to have been in some way associated with his exploits, such as <! Arthur's Seat," near Edinburgh, " Arthur's Oven," on the Carron, near Falkirk, etc. What was called the sepulchre of his queen was shown at Meigle, in Strathmore, in the sixteenth century. Near Boscastle, in Cornwall, is Pentar- gain, a headland called after him " Arthur's Head." Other localities take his name in Brittany. In the Middle Ages, in Germany, Arthur's Courts were buildings in which the patricians assembled. One such still remains at Danzig, There was one anciently at Thorn, about which a ballad and legend exist. Mil- ton was meditating an Arthurian epic in 1 639 ; and in our own day the interest of the legends about King Arthur and his knights has been revived by Tenny- son's " Idylls of the King " and some of Wagner's operas. We must not omit to note the magnificent life-sized ideal bronze figure of Arthur, cast for the monument of Maximilian I., now in the Franciscan church at Innsbruck, and regarded as the finest among the series of heroes there represented.