The Amadis romances and, indeed, all the later examples of that great kind, such as Arthur of Little Britain, which Berners translated, were distinguished on the one side by a curious convention of unsmooth running of the course of love, on the other sometimes by a much greater licence of morality than their predecessors, and always by a prodigality of the "conjuror's supernatural"-witches and giants and magic black and white.
"The English Novel"
George Saintsbury
Nor hills nor mountains there Stand steep, nor strong cliffs Tower high, as here with us; nor dells nor dales, Nor mountain-caves, risings, nor hilly chains; Nor thereon rests aught unsmooth, But the noble field flourishes under the skies With delights blooming.
"Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life"
Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey