Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. 3: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets, Together with Some Few of Later Date (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. 3: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets, Together With Some Few of Later Date

The Latin Tongue, as is obferved by an ingenious writer (i), ceafed to be fpoken in France about the ninth century, and was fucceeded by what was called the romance Tongue, a mixture of the language of the Franks and bad Latin. As the Songs of Chivalry became the moft popular compofitions in that language, they were emphatically called Romans or Romntv'rs; though this name was at firft given to any piece of poe try. The Romances of Chivalry can be traced as early as the eleventh century (it). I know not if the Roman dc Brut written in Sti' was fuch: But if it was, it was by no means the fir poem of the kind; others more ancient are {till extant (i). And we have already feen, that, in the preceding centu when the Normans marched down to the battle of ailings, they animated themfelves, by finging (in fome popular romance or ballad} the exploits of roland and the other heroes of Chivalry (m).

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