A. Scheler, Bruxelles, 1874). Cf.
W.W. Comfort, "Adenet le Roi: The End of a Literary Era" in
"The Quarterly Review", April 1913.
(24) The reading "Sanson" (=Samson) is Foerster's most recent
(1904) suggestion to replace the word "lion" which stands in
all the MSS. Solomon's name has always been syonymous with
wisdom, and Alexander's generosity was proverbial in the
Middle Ages. For Alexander, cf. Paul Meyer, "Alexandre le
Grand dans la litterature francaise du moyen age", 2 vols.
(Paris, 1886), vol ii., pp. 372-376, and Paget Toynbee,
"Dante Studies and Researches" (London, 1902), p. 144.
(25) Of Arthur's several nephews, Gawain is represented by
Chretien as peerless in respect of courage and courtesy. In
the English romances his character steadily deteriorates.
(26) This sentence contains the motive for all the action in the
sequel. The same situation is threatened in "Yvain", but
there Gawain rescues the hero from the lethargy, ignoble in
the eyes of a feudal audience, into which he was falling.
Cf. also "Marques de Rome" ("Lit. Verein in Stuttgart",
Tubingen, 1889), p. 36, where the Empress of Rome thus
incites her husband to the chase: "Toz jors cropez vos a
Postel; vos n'estes point chevalereus, si come vos deussiez
estre, si juenes hom come vos estes"; also J.
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