PREFACE ix

ballads throughout all Europe generally realized, Englishmen
would surely take more than a fleeting and occasional interest in
their own very rich heritage.

In writing this book I have contracted many and deep debts
and had much encouragement from friends. Doubtless, from one
point of view I ought to have contracted still deeper obligations,
by handing over the sections of the work to experts. Almost every-
where in this wide European field, my position cannot but be that
of an amateur, running the risk of heavy censure from the experts.
But I saw no way of determining the proportions of the study
save by passing all through one mind; and, apart from the diffi-
culty of finding authorities on many of the remoter fields among
English scholars, it seemed to be of the essence of the inquiry
that the questions should be kept simple and always asked in the
same sense. How difficult that is, only one who has tried it can
know; but any alert reader is aware that symposia seldom keep
to one path and one manner. In any of its separate chapters this
study does not claim to compete with expert authority; but it is
hoped that the specialists will be guided when they step off their
own ground, and that they may rephrase some of their problems
(and perchance conclusions) in the light of a more general experi-
ence. The labours of the great collectors and critics are the first
grounds for my gratitude. Sr. Ramon Menendez PidaPs books and
articles—I think I have read nearly all of them—have been a model
and stimulus to me as to all other hispanists; our indebtedness is
not less deep if we have sometimes been tempted to cut our teeth
by disputing one or other of his conclusions. I owe a great deal
to my fellow members of the Medieval Society, and to colleagues
at the Taylor Institution: Professors H. G. Fiedler, G. Rudler,
A. Ewert, J. Boyd, C. Foligno, S. Konovalov (on many occasions),
Dr. J. Bostock, Miss Olga Bickley, and to Professor R. M.
Dawkins and Mr. N. Coghill, my companions at Exeter College.
Professor Norman, of London, has given me some useful pointers,
and I am very much in the debt of Mrs. Chadwick, not only for
her share in the monumental Growth of Literature, with its
admirable chapters on Russian and Yugoslav poetry, but also on
more private occasions. Sir William Craigie has allowed me to
consult his Icelandic and Rumanian books. Dr. L. F. Powell, of
the Taylorian Library, has indefatigably warned me of books I
ought to know. I am grateful to comrades of the P.E.N. Club