"'I SING OF DEATH'" Painting by Howard Pyle

Chivalry

By

James Branch Cabell

"And I, according to my copy, and
after the simple cunning that God hath
sent to me, have down set this in print,
to the intent that noble men may see and
learn the noble acts of chivalry."

Illustrated

New York and London
Harper & Brothers Publishers
1909

Copyright, 1909, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

All rights reserved.
Published October, 1909.

TO
Anne Branch Cabell

"AINSI À VOUS, MADAME, À MA TRÈS HAULTE ET
TRÈS NOBLE DAME, À QUI J'AYME À DEVOIR
ATTACHEMENT ET OBÉISSANCE,
J'ENVOYE CE LIVRET."

Precautional

Imprimis, as concerns the authenticity of these tales perhaps the lessdebate may be the higher wisdom, if only because this Nicolas de Caen,by common report, was never a Gradgrindian. And in this volume inparticular, writing it (as Nicolas is supposed to have done) in 1470,as a dependant on the Duke of Burgundy, it were but human nature shouldour author be a little niggardly in his ascription of praiseworthytraits to any member of the house of Lancaster or of Valois. Rathermust one in common reason accept him as confessedly a partisan writer,who upon occasion will recolor an event with such nuances as will beleast inconvenient to a Yorkist and Burgundian bias.

The reteller of these stories needs in addition to plead guilty ofhaving abridged the tales with a free hand. Item, these tales havebeen a trifle pulled about, most notably in "THE STORY OF THESATRAPS," where it seemed advantageous, on rejection, to put intoGloucester's mouth a history which in the original version was relatedab ovo, and as a sort of bungling prologue to the story proper. Item,some passages have been restored in book-form—pre-eminently to "THESTORY OF THE HOUSEWIFE"—that in an anterior publication had beenunavoidably deleted through consideration of space.

And—"sixth and lastly"—should confession be made that in