THE EFFECTS OF CHIVALRY.

I. A CHECK on the Feudal system.

"Had it not been for the spirit of chivalry, the superstition, ferocity, and barbarism would have extinguished every good feeling in English nobility."

The Crusaders brought back many new species of fruits and vegetables. Just as the seeds for the fruit of the physical man were scattered all over Europe, so the seeds for the spiritual man were sown in new soilsoil rich and productive.

II. Influence.-General good due to influence of the female character. Woman had never been a factor in society until this time. Hers had been a subordinate position. Knights of the Golden Shield were enjoined to honor and revere the ladies. The ideal woman was a woman of modesty—a womanly woman.

No mock sentimentality in this age. The age of masculine strength is the age of gentle, beautiful woman. III. The Great Lesson.

Chivalry taught that marriage was an honorable and holy estate. The knight must make himself worthy of the lady. All the requirements upon marriage tended to realize the beautiful definition Scott has given,

"True love's the gift which God to man hath given, The silver link, the silken tie" etc.

Byron defines love as follows:

"Yes, love indeed is light from Heaven, To lift from earth our low desire."

THE EFFECTS OF CHIVALRY ON LITERATURE.

In love is the inspiration of the most beautiful poetry ever written. (A genuine poet must be inspired by love.)

The Moors of Spain were great poets. They wrote myriads of exquisite love poems.

The ladies or knights established Courts of Love. A knight accused of treason had to defend himself in verse. This in itself did much to develope a taste for poetry and encourage the growth of literature.

The spirit of Chivalry, together with the institutions which it developed produced thousands of poets. Beginning with Chivalry and the poetry which it developed, we have the beginning of all modern literature.

France has produced a great many painters and art critics but no Shakespeare. Germany has produced a Goethe but no Milton.

There is a beauty, a music, a charm in Tennyson not found in Anglo-Saxon poems.

If there is a more striking contrast in the world it is between the shores of the Baltic and the shores of the Mediterranean. There is nothing in Italy to compare with the scenery in southern France. Southern France inspired Goethe to sing some of his sweetest songs.

From 1070 to 1270 it was known as the garden-spot of the world with its delightful climate and beautiful and simple language. The spirit of devotion was adapted to this climate.

AN IMPORTANT CENTURY.

1070-1170. More than one hundred poets lived in this century. Poetic art was cultivated in all ranks. This century is regarded by all thorough students in literature as an exceedingly important epoch. The form came from Spain-the Arabian scholars-brought down from the Grecian poets. Astronomy and medicine were studied here which led to the spirit of inquiry and this led to destruction.

TROUBADOURS AND TROUVERES.

The poets of south France were called Troubadours. They were remarkable men. Their poetry was of love and description of nature. The characteristics of this poetry was lyric. It was to be sung, not recited.

The northern dialect of the French Romance, Langued'Oc, was used by the Troubadours.

At the beginning of the 12th century a great number of the Troubadours wandered into North France.

The Trouveres were poets of North France. Their subjects were always historical and romantic. Instead of love their inspiration was chivalry. They recounted the deeds of valiant knights. Their verse was not lyric, but epic. After they had exhausted the marvelous stories of that century, they gathered up all the traditions, then extant among them. The central figures in these traditional poems are "Alexander the Great; "" Charlemagne, and King Arthur. Most of their poems were written in twelve syllable verse. This kind of verse to-day is called Alexandrian.

Then they came down to the history of Roland.

"Chanson de Roland" the song of Roland is a true French Illiad. It was written to stimulate the lords of France. This and others came in 1095. They were long narratives; but sometimes condensed into short poems with beautiful simplicity.

In Brittany the Celts have preserved the deeds of Arthur and his "Round Table."

The poems of the Trouveres were not to be sung, but recited.

The Troubadours produced a Petrarch-the Trouveres, a Chaucer.

The work of old poets is reproduced in Tennyson's Arthurian collection-"Idylls of the King." Elaine is one of the rarest little gems in modern literature. Who, on reading this, can not see the old boatman in his little barge, with his precious charge, floating past the palace window, just as the mad queen in her frenzy, dashes the nine diamonds for which Lancelot had striven, nine years, into the water below, and they go to meet the ripples that come from underneath the boat.

AN INCIDENT.

A YOUNG knight is engaged to a young princess. He unfortunately falls in love with another princess. They have a clandestine meeting on which his new lady-love gives him a red scarf. His betrothed learning of this arranges a meeting at night and there personates his new fancy. She disguises her voice and gives him a white scarf. He is arraigned before the Courts of Love and the decision rendered. They are all to be put into a dark room together and after the knight has thrice turned around, he presents the scarf to one of the princesses. The fortunate one becomes his bride. This decision is irrevocable.

(Read Scott's Ivanhoe for an extended account of Knighthood. Read the "Idylls of the King"-Especially, "Elaine.")

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS.

THE conquest now coming into literature is not a conquest of arms, but a conquest of spirit-not a mortal spirit but a spirit of purity.

Some one has asserted that without the work of the Troubadours we would have no English Literature.

Chaucer learned from the Italian how to tell a story. From the Troubadours he got the form-from the Trouveres, the substance.

"It is instructive to note that it was the home of the Albigensian heresy, the land that had felt the influence of every Mediterranean civilization, that was also the home of Troubadour literature. (Myers.)

AN INCIDENT.

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There was a countess in the East noted for her beneficence and kindness to the Crusaders." Accounts of her charity were numerous. A Troubadour" sailed for the Levant in search of the beautiful countess of whom he had heard so much. Already he was hopelessly infatuated. He was taken sick on the voyage ind died at the harbor of the home of the countess. She, hearing that a poet was dying so near her, went to see him. She arrived in time for him to murmur a few passionate words to her ere he died in her arms.

Such incidents and stories, as the one just related, were fruitful sources of inspiration for the writersespecially the poets-of these times.