Oddity of the Classical Romance. Its importance. The Troy story. The Alexandreid. Callisthenes. Latin versions. Their story. Its developments. Alberic of Besancon. The decasyllabic poem. The great _Roman d'Alixandre_. Form, &c. Continuations. _King Alexander._ Characteristics. The Tale of Troy. Dictys and Dares. The Dares story. Its absurdity. Its capabilities. Troilus and Briseida. The _Roman de Troie_. The phases of Cressid. The _Historia Trojana_. Meaning of the classical romance 148 CHAPTER V. THE MAKING OF ENGLISH AND THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEAN PROSODY. Special interest of Early Middle English. Decay of Anglo-Saxon. Early Middle English Literature. Scantiness of its constituents. Layamon. The form of the _Brut_. Its substance. The _Ormulum_: Its metre, its spelling. The _Ancren Riwle_. The _Owl and the Nightingale_. Proverbs. Robert of Gloucester. Romances. _Havelok the Dane._ _King Horn._ The prosody of the modern languages. Historical retrospect. Anglo-Saxon prosody. Romance prosody. English prosody. The later alliteration. The new verse. Rhyme and syllabic equivalence. Accent and quantity. The gain of form. The "accent" theory. Initial fallacies, and final perversities thereof 187 CHAPTER VI. MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN POETRY. Position of Germany. Merit of its poetry. Folk-epics: The _Nibelungenlied_. The _Volsunga saga_. The German version. Metres. Rhyme and language. _Kudrun._ Shorter national epics. Literary poetry. Its four chief masters. Excellence, both natural and acquired, of German verse. Originality of its adaptation. The Pioneers: Heinrich von Veldeke. Gottfried of Strasburg. Hartmann von Aue. _Erec der Wanderaere_ and _Iwein_. Lyrics. The "booklets." _Der Arme Heinrich._ Wolfram von Eschenbach. _Titurel._ _Willehalm._ _Parzival._ Walther von der Vogelweide. Personality of the poets. The Minnesingers generally 225 CHAPTER VII. THE 'FOX,' THE 'ROSE,' AND THE MINOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF FRANCE.