proportion to the amount of their love. He has honoured me by asking
me to introduce them to that wider public to which they now make
their appeal.


I.


Almost all literary roads lead back to Greece. Obscure as still
remains the origin of that genre of romance to which the tales before
us belong, there is little doubt that their models, if not their
originals, were once extant at Constantinople. Though in no single
instance has the Greek original been discovered of any of these
romances, the mere name of their heroes would be in most cases
sufficient to prove their Hellenic or Byzantine origin. Heracles,
Athis, Porphirias, Parthenopeus, Hippomedon, Protesilaus, Cliges,
Cleomades, Clarus, Berinus--names such as these can come but from one
quarter of Europe, and it is as easy to guess how and when they came
as whence. The first two crusades brought the flower of European
chivalry to Constantinople and restored that spiritual union between
Eastern and Western Christendom that had been interrupted by the
great schism of the Greek and Roman Churches. The crusaders came
mostly from the Lands of Romance. Permanent bonds of culture began
to be formed between the extreme East and the extreme West of Europe
by intermarriage, by commerce, by the admission of the nobles of
Byzantium within the orders of chivalry. These ties went on
increasing throughout the twelfth century till they culminated at its
close with the foundation of the Latin kingdom of Constantinople. In
European literature these historic events are represented by the
class of romances represented in this volume, which all trace back to