In

able for the still rarer 2 cent pink stamp of the first British Guiana issue, now worth considerably more than 1000l. But during a period which may be roughly put at 1880-95 the average rise in the price of early rarities was something like sevenfold. After that, these prices, though showing a constant tendency to rise, remained on the whole at much the same level; but in the last year or two the increase in values has again shown itself in a marked degree. If we take the value of whole collections, rather than that of single stamps, we find that a collection of stamps was sold in London in 1866 for 365l., and this was probably a record price for that period, though it may have been exceeded when the Herpin collection was sold to Mr Philbrick in the same year. We are on surer ground when we come to 1878, in which year the late Sir Daniel Cooper's collection was sold to a Parisian amateur for 3000l. This sale was then thought to exceed the wildest bounds of extravagance; but it was surpassed in 1882, when the same amateur bought the collection of Mr Philbrick for 80001. 1894 10,000l. was paid by a dealer for the Castle collection of Australian stamps alone. In 1900 the Castle collection of unused European stamps was sold to a collector for a sum approaching 30,000l., and was resold in 1906 to a dealer at a price slightly exceeding that amount. In 1906-7 the auction sale of the Le Roy d'Etiolles collection realised the sum of 36,4217.; this, however, was hardly a collection in the true sense of the word, being rather the accumulated stock of a collectordealer. In 1907 the Breitfuss collection, a general one, was bought by a dealer at a price said to be over 30,000Z.; but the record amount for a general collection was probably that obtained for the Mirabaud collection, for, though the Mirabaud auction sale in 1909 realised only 21,1207., this did not include several important sections which were privately disposed of, and of which the Swiss section alone was sold for an amount variously stated at 8000l. and 12,000l. In the same year the collection of the late Sir W. B. Avery was sold for 24,500l. to a dealer, who, in 1912, purchased a large part of Lord Crawford's collection at a still higher price.

Although it bore the date of 1862, the first catalogue of postage stamps appeared, as we have said, in Vol. 218.-No. 435

2 F

1861; and the jubilee year of philatelic literature was handsomely commemorated by the appearance of the 'Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T.,' forming the seventh volume of the 'Bibliotheca Lindesiana,' and described on the title-page of the private edition as 'a bibliography of the writings, general, special, and periodical, forming the literature of philately.' The contents of this folio volume of nearly a thousand columns are devoted to a material far vaster in extent than bibliographers had imagined; and of this material the late Lord Crawford himself stated that, so far as his experience went, no class of literature within the whole range of bibliography shows so large a proportion of rare and ephemeral works as that devoted to postage stamps. In the section dealing with periodicals we find over two thousand titles of separate publications, most of them issued in Great Britain, the United States and Germany, but accompanied by others hailing from a score of such out-of-the-way localities as San Marino, Tripoli, the Azores and Canaries, Curaçao, San Domingo, and so on. Although the work is described as being a catalogue of philatelic literature, a small proportion of the Library is formed of works on postal history generally, including a large number of Parliamentary Papers and a still more important series of 'Proclamations concerning the Post.' It is gratifying to know that this unrivalled collection of philatelic publications has recently been bequeathed to the British Museum, of which Lord Crawford was, in his lifetime, not only a trustee but also a generous benefactor.

BERTRAM T. K. SMITH.

Art. 6.—ADENET LE ROI: THE END OF A LITERARY

ERA.

1. Les Enfances Ogier; Berte aus grans piés; Bueves de Commarchis. Edited by A. Scheler. Brussels : Closson,

1874.

2. Cléomadès.

Edited by A. van Hasselt.

Devaux, 1865-66.

Brussels:

3. Histoire littéraire de la France (vol. xx). By Paulin Paris. Paris: Didot, 1842.

4. The Mediaeval Mind. By H. O. Taylor. Two vols. London and New York: Macmillan, 1911.

THE 12th and 13th centuries witnessed a memorable struggle in France-a struggle in the domain of literary taste. It was a struggle for popularity between the serious narrative poetry of history, of legend and of heroic tradition, and the artistic poetry of adventure and imagination. For the former, the French are indebted to their Germanic ancestors; for the latter, to their Celtic neighbours. Men of the day were perfectly aware of the wide cleft that separated these two schools of medieval poetry. We still follow the 13th century classification of Jean Bodel, when we refer to the poetry dealing with the legendary heroes and wars of the nation as la matière de France; while most of the romantic poems of adventure we include in the term matière de Bretagne, because they either narrate, or are inspired by, the wonderful deeds of Arthur, king of Britain, and of the knights associated with him about the Round Table.

After the middle of the 12th century, the upper classes of society looked for their ideal rather to the courteous knights modelled upon those of the Round Table than to the uncompromising old warriors of Charlemagne's bodyguard. It was in the pleasant adventures of roving knights and lorn ladies that chivalry found delight, rather than in the prolix narration of never-ending struggles with Saracens or with recalcitrant vassals. The bourgeoisie of the northern cities, however, which was to be reckoned with as a patron of literature after 1200, lagged behind in this evolution of literary taste. The bourgeoisie and the

pilgrims continued to applaud the songs about the epic heroes long after these heroes were out of favour with the aristocracy. Thus, a struggle whose outcome was never in doubt was protracted for a century and a half by the conservative taste of the middle class.

Despite its contested place, the epic poetry of France remained consciously distinct from the romances of adventure for a century and a half-indeed, to the very end of its existence. It was corrupted by the romances, but never completely assimilated by them. It was the more easy to maintain the distinction on account of the personages whom the epic poems brought into play. These were characters well known in popular literature, many of whom have recently been identified as historical, about whom chronicles had long before been written in Latin and stories had been told in French. Their poetical history was well known; their personal traits had all been set down; their genealogies had been drawn up and accepted by successive generations of poets. To have made light of them, to have treated them in a spirit of levity and frivolity, would have been thoroughly inappropriate and indecorous. Thus, in spite of the introduction of romantic episodes in the later poems, the characters portrayed remain practically intact. The romance writers do not trespass seriously upon the epic personages.

This much has been said of the literary situation at the end of the 13th century in order to make clear the somewhat unique position of Adenet le Roi. He came at a time when this contest between the old and the new style of narrative poetry had already been waged for a century. The epic had been slowly but surely losing ground. Adenet's effort to prolong its life was a veritable swan-song. His work consists of four long poems. Two of these are typical chansons de geste, or epic poems, of the later type; one is just as thoroughly a romance of adventure; and the fourth is an unusual and very artistic graft of adventure upon the old trunk of epic poetry. Our author, then, by facing both ways, by taking his inspiration from both of the contemporary literary currents, offers a singularly interesting object of study. In him the struggle is localised and made personal. In his poetry we shall find persisting the conservative traditions

of the past side by side with the imaginative flights of the modern artificer in verse.

It is not likely that much knowledge of Adenet will ever be added to that contained in the article devoted to him by Paulin Paris in the 'Histoire littéraire de la France' half a century ago. Our information about his life is scanty; but even so, it is fuller than that for the life of a score of narrative poets before 1300 whose mere names have been preserved. Judging from his references to his patrons, the first of whom was Henri III, Duke of Brabant (ob. 1261), it may be supposed that Adenet was born in the Low Countries between 1230 and 1240. Adenet is a diminutive of Adam. Concerning the significance of the surname or title of 'le roi,' opinions differ. Paulin Paris quotes analogous examples which indicate that Adenet was called 'roi' to signify his pre-eminence at the court of Flanders. This opinion is generally held. Ferdinand Wolf in 1833 thought with some reason that Adenet was a 'wappenkönig,' or kingat-arms, an explanation which entails a different conception of his duties. Some manuscripts show the poet crowned with a laurel wreath, as though to imply victory in some poetic contest. In two of his poems, which are probably the first and last in point of composition-' Les Enfances Ogier' and 'Cléomadès-our author refers to himself as 'li rois Adans,' indicating that his title of 'roi' was permanent and official, and had been bestowed before the composition of any of his extant poems. To his affection for his first patron, our poet bears loving testimony. Formerly,' he says, 'I was minstrel to the good Duke Henri. He raised me and nourished me and made me learn my profession. May God give him rest with His saints in Paradise! A loyal and generous prince he was, good, handsome, kind, open-hearted and courteous.' * When Henri died in 1261, Adenet with many others sorrowed at his death-bed. For he himself gave instructions that to all those who were gathered there the doors should be opened, in order that all who wished, both poor and rich, might come in to him. . . And I, too, was there, who dare to say that never did mortal man receive more gratitude than he. God be praised.' †

*Cléomadès,' 18577-86.

† Ib. 18619-32.