The Popularity of Middle English Romance

The Middle English romance has elicited throughout the centuries a curious mixture of indifference, hostile apprehension, and contempt that perhaps no other literature — except its most likely offspring, modern best-sellers — has provoked. Philologists, historians, and folklorists have written copiously about the romance, and recent attempts have been made to describe its structure, style, and oral tradition. Yet many of these narratives lack both readers and admirers, even among medievalists; and no satisfactory explanation of their undenied early and sustained popularity but subsequent lack of reputation has been offered.