ABSTRACT
The French romances of chivalry, the earliest of which date from the thirteenth century, may be divided into two classes: those connected with the legend of Charles the Great, and those connected with the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table. The first Romance of Chivalry printed in Spain is written in the Valencian dialect, thus marking the foreign origin of the class. Few of the official chronicles deserve mention as literary works; they are generally merely bald relations of events and notable feats of arms, or, at most, are interspersed with inflated and improbable speeches modelled on those of the classical historians. More interesting from an artistic point of view than the official chronicles, though still falling within the province of the antiquary rather than that of the student of literature, are the chronicles of particular events and persons.
