In former times, they who wrote gests and histories of other days used to be beloved, and much prized and honoured. They had rich gifts from the barons and noble ladies; but now I may ponder long, and write and translate books, and may make many a romance and sirvente, ere I find any one, how courteous soever he may be, who will do me any honour, or give me enough even to pay a scribe. I talk to rich men who have rents and money; it is for them that the book is made, that the tale well told and written down; but noblesse now is dead, and largesse hath perished with it; so that I have found none, let me travel where I will, who will bestow ought upon me, save king Henry the second. He gave me, so God reward him, a prebend at Bayeux[4], and many other good gifts. He was grandson of the first king Henry, and father of the third[5]. Three kings--dukes and kings--dukes of Normandy, and kings of England--all three have I known, being a reading clerk, in their days. In honour of the second Henry, of the line of Roul, I have told the tale of Roul, of his noble parentage, of Normandy that he conquered, and the prowess that he showed. I have recounted the history of William Lunge-espee, till the Flemings killed him by felony and treason; of Richard his son, whom he left a child; [of the second Richard, who succeeded him; of his son the third Richard; who was soon followed by Duke Robert his brother, who went to Jerusalem, and died by poison; and now the tale will be of William his son, who was born to him of the 'meschine, Arlot of Faleise[6].'] [Footnote 1: The list in the printed 'Chronique de Normandie,' though very inaccurately given, is based upon Wace's. It may be found much more correctly in the fine MS. Chronicle of Normandy, (which ought to be printed.) in the British Museum, Bibl. Reg. 15 E. vi. fol. ccccx.] [Footnote 2: A much more correct copy is printed in the french translation of Ducarel, published in 1823.] [Footnote 3: These laments are frequent in the minstrels' songs of that age in all countries. Walther von der Vogelweide, the German minnesinger, by for the most varied and interesting poet of his day, is often very plaintive in his lamentations; 'Hie vor do was diu welt so schöne, Nu ist si worden also höne,' The world was once so beautiful, And now so desolate and dull.' See notice of his life and works in _Lays of the Minnesingers,_ London, 1825. At the conclusion of his Chronicle, Wace mentions Maistre Beneit (de Sainte-More) as commissioned to undertake a similar task, and expresses himself by no means satisfied with his patron, Henry II. Mult me duna, plus me pramist: E se il tot duné m'eust Ço k'il me pramist, mielx me fut.] [Footnote 4: The names and values of the forty-nine prebends of Bayeux appear in the _Mémoires des Antiq. Norm_. viii. 458-467. Seven of them were created by Bishop Odo, out of the forfeited lands of Grimoult du Plessis after mentioned.]