Reference has already been made to the influence which these poems had on the Chansons de Gestes. Few of the later developments of these are worth much attention, but what may be called the last original Chanson deserves some notice. _Baudouin de Sebourc_[108] and its sequel the _Bastard of Bouillon_[109] worthily close this great division of literature, and, setting as they do a finish to the sub-cycle of the _Chevalier au Cygne_, hardly lose except in simplicity by comparison with its magnificent opening in the _Chanson d'Antioche_. They contain together some 33,000 verses, and the scene changes freely. It is sometimes in Syria, where the Crusaders fight against the infidel, sometimes in France and Flanders, where Baudouin has adventures of all kinds, comic and chivalrous, sometimes on the sea, where among other things the favourite mediaeval legend of St. Brandan's Isle is brought in. Not a little of its earlier part shows the sarcastic spirit common at the date of its composition, the beginning of the fourteenth century. The length of the two poems is enormous, as has been said; but, putting two or three masterpieces aside, no poem of mediaeval times has a more varied and livelier interest than _Baudouin de Sebourc_, and few breathe the genuine Chanson spirit of pugnacious piety better than _Le Bastart de Bouillon_. FOOTNOTES: [91] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, v. d. [92] Ed. van Hasselt. Brussels, 1866. [93] _The wooden horse._ [94] The _Songe d'Enfer_ and the _Voie de Paradis_, published by Jubinal, as the _Roman des Eles_ has been by Scheler, _Meraugis_ by Michelant, and the _Vengeance de Raguidel_ by Hippeau. [95] Ed. Crapelet. Paris, 1834. [96] Ed. Du Meril. Paris, 1856. [97] Ed. Brunet et Montaiglon. Paris, 1856. [98] Ed. Michelant. Paris, 1867. [99] Ed. Meyer. Paris, 1875. [100] Ed. Michelant. Paris, 1876. [101] Ed. Hippeau. Paris, 1863. [102] Ed. Hippeau. Paris, 1860. [103] Ed. Foerster. Halle, 1877. [104] Ed. Stengel. Tuebingen, 1873. [105] Both edited in extract by Bordier. Paris, 1869. Complete edition begun by Suchier. Paris, 1884. [106] Ed. Hofmann and Muncker. Halle, 1880. [107] Ed. Michel. [108] Ed. Boca. 2 vols. Valenciennes, 1841. [109] Ed. Scheler. Brussels, 1877. CHAPTER IX. LATER SONGS AND POEMS. [Sidenote: The Artificial Forms of Northern France.]