Chrestien de Troyes, in his romances, extolled
knightly exploits and the service of woman, thus producing by the
combination of the older and the newer ideals the novel of adventure
which has fascinated the world for centuries. It is a mistake to believe
that Don Quixote has struck at the root of it; to this day the masses
wax enthusiastic in reading of the doughty deeds of knights, the beauty
of ladies and their unswerving, undying love.
In addition to the great and heroic subjects, there were lesser, more
intimate, and frequently sentimental, romances, especially enjoyed and
widely circulated by the ladies. The baron, riding forth, left his young
wife at home, shut up in her bower and surrounded by spies; sometimes
even physically branded as his property. A prisoner behind bars, her
imagination went out--not to the unloved husband who had married her for
the sake of her broad acres, and could send her back to her parents as
soon as he found a wealthier bride (he had but to maintain that she was
related to him in the fifth degree and the Church was ready to annul the
marriage), not to him, her lord and master, but to the unknown knight,
the passionate lover, who would gladly give his life to win her.
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