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They were modified to meet new tastes, and in the process became superior in literary merit, but inferior in force and interest. This is especially true of the romances translated from the Spanish. Amadis of Gaul and Palmerin of England show merits of narrative sequence and elegance of expression which did not belong to the earlier romances, of which the "Morte d'Arthur" formed a compendium.
There is in such cases only one thing for any true knight, from Sir Lancelot to Sir Amadis, to do: and that is to go mad, divest himself of his garments, and take to the greenwood.
"He is another Amadis de Jocelyn! and he is actually connected with a branch of the same family! HIS ancestor was the brother of that very Amadis who lies buried at Briar Farm! Is it not strange that I should have met him! and he is going to paint my portrait!" "Is he indeed!" and Lord Blythe did not look impressed "I thought he was a landscape man."
The world's been too rough for her I misdoubt me if her fancies about love an' the like o' that nonsense aren't in the mischief, but praise the Lord that's brought her home again, an' if so be it pleases Him we'll keep her home!" As she thought this, Innocent suddenly opened her eyes. Beautiful, wild eyes that stared at her wonderingly without recognition. "Amadis!"
Don Quixote, in short, had decided to go mad, in emulation of other bold knights, such as Roland and Amadis a decision that extracted from Sancho Panza some muttered words to the effect that any one who could mistake a barber's basin for a gold helmet could not go much madder.
Captain Coxe alone, that paragon of Black-Letter antiquaries, after twice experiencing, horse and man, the perilous leap from the bridge into the lake, equal to any extremity to which the favourite heroes of chivalry, whose exploits he studied in an abridged form, whether Amadis, Belianis, Bevis, or his own Guy of Warwick, had ever been subjected to Captain Coxe, we repeat, did alone, after two such mischances, rush again into the heat of conflict, his bases and the footcloth of his hobby-horse dropping water, and twice reanimated by voice and example the drooping spirits of the English; so that at last their victory over the Danish invaders became, as was just and reasonable, complete and decisive.
Amadis! You don't mean it! say you don't mean it! You can't mean it, if you love me! ... Oh, my dearest! if you love me! ..." She stopped, half choked by a throbbing ache in her throat, and tottered against him as though about to fall. Alarmed at this he caught her round the waist to support her.
One of the horses, of course, was Baiardo, the special horse of Rinaldo. Baiardo is still living in the forest of Ardennes, he formerly belonged to Amadis de Gaul and was found in a grotto by Malagigi when he found Rinaldo's sword, Fusberta, which used to belong to the King of Cyprus.
I can give you no hope of public employment, M. de Marsac, but I can offer you an adventure if adventures be to your taste as dangerous and as thankless as any Amadis ever undertook. 'As thankless, sire? I stammered, doubting if I had heard aright, the expression was so strange. 'As thankless, he answered, his keen eyes seeming to read my soul.
The shortest way of stating her strong contribution is, I think, this: that she reached the highest romance through the lowest realism. She did not set out with Amadis of Gaul in a forest or with Mr. Pickwick in a comic club.
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