THE SPRINGS OF ROMANCE IN THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE AN ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 1910. A 'It is not the contexture of words but the effects of action that gives glory to the times. . . .' 'It is but the clouds gathered about our owne judgement that makes us think all other ages wrapt up in mistes, and the great distance betwixt us, that causes us to imagine men so farre off to bee so little in respect of ourselves. 'It is not bookes but onely that great booke of the world and the all-over-spreading grace of heaven that makes men truly judicial. . . . S. DANIEL, Defence of Rhime, 1603. THE SPRINGS OF ROMANCE IN THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE It was not easy to choose a theme for an address to Edinburgh University. Your unbounded belief in Rectorial discretion permits a latitude that is almost embarrassing. For guidance I had nothing but a sense of my own limitations and a prospect of the scene that confronts me. These suggested a search over the vast province of learning for some plot, not wholly unexplored by your Rector, that should also be linked with the fame of your ancient city. The world allows, and Scott's monument attests, that, from Edinburgh, and by his genius, 'impulse and area' were added to the great movement of the last century which we call the Romantic Revival. That movement changed the literature, architecture, painting, and furniture of Europe, and reversed the attitude of scholarship towards the Middle Ages; a fact of world-wide importance: incidentally it renewed the bond between Scotland and France; a fact of peculiar interest to the capital of your country. It so happens that, long before I ever dreamed of the honour you have conferred, the phrase-Romantic Revival-made me wonder, what was revived. 'What,' I asked myself, 'is Romance?' Unable to answer, I turned to another question- When did Romance first come into the |