systematic attempt has been made to fill the gaps, and the pernicious system of re-editing, on pretext of wrong selection of MSS. or the like, has continued. Nevertheless, the number of _chansons_ actually available is so large that no general characteristic is likely to have escaped notice; while from the accounts of the remaining MSS., it would not appear that any of those unprinted can rank with the very best of those already known. Among these very best I should rank in alphabetical order--_Aliscans_, _Amis et Amiles_, _Antioche_, _Baudouin de Seboure_ (though in a mixed kind), _Berte aus grans Pies_, _Fierabras_, _Garin le Loherain_, _Gerard de Roussillon_, _Huon de Bordeaux_, _Ogier de Danemarche_, _Raoul de Cambrai_, _Roland_, and the _Voyage de Charlemagne a Constantinoble_. The almost solitary eminence assigned by some critics to _Roland_ is not, I think, justified, and comes chiefly from their not being acquainted with many others; though the poem has undoubtedly the merit of being the oldest, and perhaps that of presenting the _chanson_ spirit in its best and most unadulterated, as well as the _chanson_ form at its simplest, sharpest, and first state. Nor is there anywhere a finer passage than the death of Roland, though there are many not less fine. [Footnote 23: Immanuel Bekker had printed the Provencal _Fierabras_ as early as 1829.] It may, however, seem proper, if not even positively indispensable, to give some more general particulars about these _chansons_ before analysing specimens or giving arguments of one or more; for they are full of curiosities. [Sidenote: _Language._ Oc _and_ oil.]