The existence of a primitive Prise d'Orange, now unhappily lost, is better attested than that of any lost poem of the Geste de Guillaume. Indeed, there are more references to this poem than to the majority of the poems still extant in the Geste.

The French poems Troie, Thèbes, and Énéas, contemporaneous with one another in the sixth and seventh decades of the twelfth century, have many characteristics in common. They each repeat in a modernized form, and with incidents and details suited to their own age, the story of one of the great epics of classical antiquity, the Iliad, the Thebaid, and the Aeneid. They also combine with this traditional outline of adventure and conquest the narrative of romantic love and courtship, as conceived by Western Europe in the Middle Ages. And finally they each and all show an effort to attain some degree of excellence in style and composition. Thus they form a class by themselves, animated, as they are, by the same spirit and having the same purpose in view, and are the first exponents in the modern tongues of the ideals of chivalry. The sources of these poems, therefore, are an object of unusual interest to the student of mediaeval literature.

Chaucer's prologues and connecting links in the Canterbury Tales deserve special study, for they are by far the most characteristic and original part of his writings. When telling his tales he seems to feel himself in a measure bound to reproduce the stories as he finds them. In the general Prologue, ll. 731–736, he says:

“Who-so shal telle a tale after a man,
He moot reherce, as nv as ever he can,
Everich a word, if it be in his charge,
Al speke he never so rudeliche and large;
Or elles he moot telle his tale untrewe,
Or feyne thing, or finde wordes newe.”

The Canterbury pilgrims, more fortunate than we, had heard to the end the Squire's Tale, and were busy exchanging with one another looks of approval and satisfaction. Now was the Franklin's opportunity. He determined to be the one to break the significant silence and become the spokesman of the praise of his companions, not only by reason of his very genuine enjoyment of the narrative just concluded, but also because of the chance he thus secured to bring himself into honorable association with the gentles on the pilgrimage.

In the Hous of Fame, Chaucer mentions amongst harpers “the Bret Glascurion” (v. 1208). This personage was long ago identified with Glasgerion, the hero of a famous ballad; and a further identification of Glascurion with the Welsh bard Geraint (Y Bardd Glas Keraint) was made in 1845 by the Rev. Thomas Price. Professor Child was inclined to accept these identifications, though he expressed himself cautiously.

An interesting chapter might be written on the interrelations of Spanish and English literatures in the early part of the nineteenth century, and it might aid materially in dispelling the prevalent delusions as to Spanish ‘aloofness’ in matters of general culture. The present paper, which is not offered as by any means exhaustive of the subject, is intended to present in brief outline an account of English influence upon Spanish literature during the period indicated, that is, the first forty years of the century.