Medieval Romance

Abstract

It is a commonplace of literary history to describe medieval romance as the prototype of the modern novel, yet this is surely a case where the commonplace is inaccurate. It is easy, on the other hand, to recognise why medieval romance should be so regarded: the very existence of such a large body of narrative fiction would naturally lead one to presume a connection between it and later narrative forms. And from presumption seems to have come conviction. The actual facts of the situation show, however, that English narrative was in a state of utter moribundity in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and was only rescued from imminent death by the introduction of Spanish picaresque and newly-translated Greek romances. In spite of implications to the contrary, a study of any of the many histories of the English novel supports the suggestion that medieval romance played little or no part in the development of the novel. Ernest A. Baker’s The History of the English Novel, which devotes literally hundreds of pages to a discussion of medieval romance, is a case in point. One continually wonders what exactly is the relevance for the English novel, of all the romances Baker discusses and analyses. It is hardly sufficient reason to discuss them simply because they exist. Only very seldom does Baker suggest why the romances he discusses are relevant: he adverts to ‘realistic’ scenes now and again, and claims, for example, that Chrétien de Troyes:

was not content merely to relate love stories; he meditated and analysed and interpreted, much in the style of a modern novelist … Hence, through his work, and the cycles of romance that were directly or at further removes founded upon it, modern fiction is ultimately affiliated, not only to medieval poetry, but also to the oldest imaginative creations of the Aryan race.¹