Finally, we may note that in every period there have been burlesque or satiric epics, tak ing their point from the very dignity of the traditional form in contrast with the triviality or meanness of its new application; such are the ancient Greek (Battle of the Frogs and Mice,' Butler's (1662) ; Boileau's (Lutrin) (1674), and Pope's (Rape of the Lock) and (Dunciad) (1712 and 1728).
The Metrical Romance.— This type of nar rative poem is especially characteristic of the mediaeval period, or, more generally, of the age of chivalry as distinguished from that of primi tive heroic life and literature. Between many of these poems, however, and the epic, the line is a very doubtful one. The greatest represen tatives of the type are found in Chrestien de Troyes, a trouvere of France in the late 12th century, and two German poets of the early 13th century, Gottfried of Strassburg and Wol fram of Eschenbach, of whom the former re wrote the story of Tristan and Isolde and the latter the story of Parsifal. But besides these, in every country of western Europe, there were uncounted nameless authors both of individual poems and of those which go to make up the great °cycles* like those of Arthur, Tristram, Gawain and other popular heroes. It is com mon to divide these romances according to the geographic source of their material, which is thus classified as °Matter of France" °Matter of Britain" (that is, the primitive Celtic region, whether continental or insular), °Matter of the Orient,* etc. But in the actual authorship and distribution of the romances, linguistic, racial and geographic lines play comparatively little part, a good portion of them having become the property of all the European peoples of their age. Like the epic, these romances represent the age of recited poetry and of professional entertainers; Scott's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel) at once describes the type and exemplifies the way in which he came to pass from the study of the early romances to the writing of modern originals. In England the finest of the ro mances are as late as of the 14th century; not ably, for the more popular sort, the 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) of a genius whose name has been lost, and for the more literary, the (Troilus and Criseyde' of Chaucer, in which a familiar episode of the old Trojan war story is treated with an interest in charac terization and in realistic humor which make it anticipatory of the modern novel. On the bor der, again, between the medieval and the mod ern spirit was the popular Italian romance of the Renaissance, Ariosto's (Orlando Furioso) (1515). In the neo-classical period, especially the 18th century, this loose and unauthenticated type of poetry was naturally regarded with little favor, and for equally obvious reasons it was enthusiastically revived by the representa tives of the °romantic revival." In England the metrical romances of Scott, already re ferred to, were the most important results of the movement, especially and (The Lady of the Lake' (1808 and 1810). In the introduction to (The Bridal of Triermain,> Scott distinguished the form from epic poetry as being free from all rules save °those which good sense, good taste and good morals apply to every species of poetry." In the later 19th century it was again revived by William Mor ris in various imitations of the work of med ieval romancers; while in Germany a notably successful specimen was Scheffel's (Trompeter von Sackingen) (1853).
The Tale, etc.— In all periods, and especi ally in modern times, narrative poetry tends to overrun the bounds of fixed types, and to appear in forms which may be vaguely called metrical tales or otherwise. In classical liter ature the most influential example of this form is the (Metamorphoses) of Ovid, whose mate rial sifted down into a great part of medieval and Renaissance poetry. In the medieval pe riod the supreme example is the (Canterbury Tales' of Chaucer, which drew upon every type of story material, combining sentiment and humor, realism and romance. In the Renais sance the Ovidian type of narrative poem is represented by Marlowe's 'Hero and Leander) and Shakespeare's (Venus and Adonis' and (Lucrece.) Dryden's (Fables) (1700) are a landmark in another period, but are largely ver sions of tales by earlier poets. Like the met rical romance, the poetic tale was abundantly revived in the period of the romantic revival, sometimes with a view to the attainment of realistic simplicity, as in Wordsworth's (Michael' or (in Germany) Goethe's 'Her mann and Dorothea,' sometimes with a prefer ence for highly romantic elaboration, like (The Eve of Saint Agnes) of Keats. Byron's °tales,* nine in number, published between 1813 and 1823, went far to supplant the popularity of Scott's metrical romances, and in some cases might very well be called by that name them selves. Space does not permit the tracing of the varied development of the less defined types of narrative poetry through the 19th cen tury. Perhaps the most remarkable experiment made in that period was Browning's (The Ring and the Book) (1868), in which a single story is told 10 times over, in a series of monologues supposed to be uttered by various persons con cerned. Tennyson, on the other hand, told the story of (Maud' (1855) in a series of mono logues and lyrics supposed to be uttered by a single person, forming a °monodrama.* Both these works are characteristic of the trend of narrative poetry in modern times, toward sub jective and spiritual qualities, as opposed to the objectivity of the increasingly rare epic method. On the other hand, the early 20th century has seen some return to the more objective tale in the Elizabethan narratives of Alfred Noyes's 'Tales of the Mermaid Tavern' and the realis tic contemporary narratives of John Masefield, notably 'Dauber.) Bibliography.— For the nature and develop ment of the more primitive types of narrative poetry, consult Gummere's (The Beginnings of Poetry' (New York 1901) and (The Popular Ballad) (Boston 1907) ; Ker's (Epic and Ro mance) (London 1897) ; Hart's (Ballad and Epic) (Harvard Studies and Notes, Boston 1907) ; Saintsbury's (The Flourishing of Ro mance and the Rise of Allegory) (London 1897); Billings's (Guide to the Middle English Metrical Romances' (New York 1901) ; Scho field's (English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer) (New York 1906) ; the introductions to the translations of 'Beowulf and the 'Song of Roland' in the 'Riverside Literature Series' (Boston) ; and the volume of 'Arthurian Chronicles' in 'Everyman's Li brary.' On the Greek epic, consult Lang's 'Homer and the on epic poetry in gen eral, Dryden's Preface to his translation of Virgil and Clark's 'History of Epic Poetry' (Edinburgh 1900) ; on English narrative poetry, Dixon's 'English Epic and Heroic Poetry' (London 1912).