French romances Books and Science in the Middle Ages 537 Bisyde a grove, stondyng in a dale. This wydwe of wichh I telle yow my tale, Syn thilke day that sche was last a wif, In pacience ladde a ful symple lyf. In the Middle Ages, however, French, not English, was the most important of the national languages of western Europe. In France a vast literature was produced in the language of the people during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which profoundly affected the books written in Italy, Spain, Germany, and England. Two quite different languages had gradually developed in French and France from the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire. To the ™^^"Sa north, French was spoken ; to the south, Provencal. -^ Very little in the ancient French language written before the Medieval year iioo has been preserved. The West Franks undoubtedly began much earlier to sing of their heroes, of the great deeds of Clovis and Charles Martel. These famous rulers were, how- ever, completely overshadowed later by Charlemagne, who be- came the unrivaled hero of medieval poetry and romance. It was believed that he had reigned for a hundred and twenty-five years, and the most marvelous exploits were attributed to him and his knights. He was supposed, for instance, to have led a crusade to Jerusalem. Such themes as these — more legend than history- — were woven into long epics, which were the first written literature of the Frankish people. These poems, com- bined with the stories of adventure, developed a spirit of patriotic enthusiasm among the French which made them regard " fair France" as the especial care of Providence. The famous Song of J^oland, the chief character of which was one of Charlemagne's captains, was written before the First 1 Of course there was no sharp Hne of demarcation between the people who used the one language or the other, nor was Provengal confined to southern France. The language of Catalonia, beyond the Pyrenees, was essentially the same as that of Provence. French was' called langiie (Toil, and the southern language langue d^oc, each after the word used for "yes."
