Geoffrey of Monmouth's story of King Arthur and his knights
captivated all Western Europe when it appeared in the middle of the twelfth century, and supplied poets and prose- writers with material for generations to come. One somewhat neglected side of the question has been fully treated by Professor Edmund G. Gardner in The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature (Dent, 12s. 6d.). Arthur, Gawain, Tristan became popular Christian names in twelfth-century Italy. The early thirteenth-century poets of Norman Sicily delighted in the legends, following the example of their King, Frederic II, who was reading the story of Palamedes in 1240. The writers of short stories (novelle) used and modified the tales. Dante's interest in them is discussed at length. The great sixteenth- century poets, Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso, were the last in the long train of Italian writers who were fascinated by the " matter of Britain." Professor Gardner's book, with its well chosen illustrations from manuscripts, is a real contribution to literary history. * * *
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