SOURCE: "Character in the 'Matter of England' Romances," The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. X, 1911, pp. 429-609.

Here, Creek evaluates the relationship between characterization, plot, and setting in four Middle English romances: Havelok the Dane, King Horn, Bevis of Hampton, and Guy of Warwick. In terms of characterization, the critic claims, Bevis is closer to the simpler, more primitive forms of the genre—Havelok and Horn—but with respect to structural development, it is more akin to Guy.

For the student of medieval life and literature the dramatis personce of the romances—conventional as they are, and conventional as the romancers' treatment of them often is—are of no little interest. Professor Comfort's studies in the chansons de geste¹ have shown the importance of a knowledge of the character types of the French epic for an appreciation of the ideals and culture of medieval France. In...