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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 : ;. ^'- ' ^
 
 J TM. 
 
 ii'h
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF FICTION.
 
 .
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF FICTION : 
 
 BEING 
 
 A CRITICAL ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE MOST CELEBRATED 
 
 PROSE WORKS OF FICTION, 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST GREEK ROMANCES TO THE 
 NOVELS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 
 
 By JOHN DUNLOP. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. 
 
 FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON. 
 
 1816.
 
 AOITOHl r iO YHOT3IH 
 

 
 
 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 When two volumes of the following work were 
 printed, and most part of the third sent to the press, 
 I received the 26th Number of the Quarterly Re- 
 view, containing a criticism on the first edition of the 
 History of Fiction. In the present edition, IJlatter 
 myself I have greatly improved the book, partly by 
 adding a variety of new articles partly by a more 
 exact analysis of some rare productions, of which I 
 had formerly been unable to obtain a perusal, and 
 concerning which I was therefore obliged to trust to 
 
 842S26
 
 VI ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 secondary sources. It is not impossible, however, 
 that those "who candidly admit that they engage in 
 the charitable " employment of groping about for 
 flaws and blemishes," ( Quart. Review, p. 406.) may 
 still discover or make some of their Dulcia Vitia. 
 I certainly do not yet pretend to have visited " all the 
 ancient and secluded regions of romance," by ivhich, 
 I suppose, is meant every " lumber-house of books" 
 in the country, but have myself taken considerable 
 pains, and {as some possessors of old romances will 
 probably allow) have given considerable trouble to 
 others on the subject. In professing, however, to 
 exhibit an accurate analysis of the chief prose works 
 of 'fiction, I certainly would not be understood to 
 mean, that the work is so minutely exact, as to con- 
 tain a muster-roll of all the knights who fought with 
 Lancelot, or a return of all the giants who were slain 
 by Amadis or Esplandian, on the coast of Ethiopia. 
 Although I am by no means desirous to be consi- 
 dered of the number of those who " speken " with 
 irreverence
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. vii 
 
 Of men that romances rede 
 
 Of Keveloke, Horn, and of Wade. 
 
 nevertheless, I cannot help remarking an unlucky 
 peculiarity which takes place in the republic o/"black 
 letters, and tvhich may be set down as a salutary cau- 
 tion to those who presume to venture into that region. 
 In most other districts of literature, the possession 
 of a book is not supposed to confer, like an amulet, 
 any supernatural skill on its owner ; nor does a per- 
 son, for example, who is so lucky as to have a copy 
 of the JEneid, suppose himself qualified, from this 
 sole circumstance, to write a critique on epic poetry, 
 or a review of Roman literature. The case is differ' 
 ent in the republic to which I have alluded. There, 
 If a person chance to light on a few leaves, which 
 were informer times 
 
 Redeemed from tapers and defrauded pies, 
 
 he immediately sets up as an adept, and is even by 
 his brethren acknowledged as such, though all the 
 information he has to bestow, is, of how many pages
 
 Ill ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 or lines his fragment consists. It matters not how 
 perfectly unimportant may be this fragment of 
 
 The classics of an age that heard of none ; 
 
 and those who Jiave not learned how many lines, half 
 lines, capital letters, and blank pages it contains, are 
 regarded as no more " entitled to courtesy than the 
 Hermanticor of the Heafrates." 
 
 The author of the critique in the Quarterly Re- 
 view, after begging leave to shut his eyes on pagan- 
 ism, (by which is meant the romances written by the 
 Bishop of Tricca and others, during the reigns of 
 the Christian and orthodox emperors qf Constanti- 
 nople^) proceeds to compare himself and his coadju- 
 tors to the " Seven Sleepers of Ephesus" (Quart. 
 Review, p. 386.) And sorry I am to observe, that 
 {unless the critic procured only a fragment of my 
 Work) sleeping he must have been, or he coxdd not 
 have made the following observation : " Mr Dunlop 
 has confined himself to the French romances relating 
 to Arthur and Charlemagne ; but it would have been
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. IX 
 
 advisable to include in a History of Fiction, an ac- 
 count of such of the ancient romances, as, though ir- 
 reducible to either of these classes, are valuable from 
 their intrinsic merit or literary relationship" (p. 395.) 
 Notv, so far from confining myself to romances rela- 
 ting to Arthur and Charlemagne, I have devoted 
 nearly half a volume, both in the present and former 
 edition, to Amadis and his descendants, and to those 
 romances of which classical or mythological charac- 
 ters are the heroes. 
 
 The same slumber which closed his eyes on this 
 part of the work, has exhibited to the Reviewer a 
 tower in the romance of Merlin, where no tower 
 existed. He has attributed to me an inaccuracy, 
 in stating that the enchanter was enclosed in a bush 
 instead of a tower ; but any person who reads the 
 passage, will see that he was in reality enclosed 
 in the bush, but that, by the force of magic, it 
 appeared to him that he was shut up in a strong 
 tower. " La DamoyseUe fst ung cerne autour du 
 buysson et entour Merlin, fyc, et quant il s esveilla
 
 X ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 luy fut advis qtC il estoit cnclos en la plus forte tour 
 du tnondc." This phrase, luy fut advis, is the one 
 constantly used in romance, to express the delusions 
 of enchantment. Thus, when Perceforest mistakes 
 the magician Darnantfor his wife Idorus, when the 
 sorcerer had assumed her appearance, it is said, 
 " Lots dresse V espSe pour luy coupper la tele, et le 
 prent par les cheveulx, et le voulutjerir ; mais il luy 
 fut advis qu il tenoit la plus belle damoiselle que 
 oncques veit par les cheveulx." That Merlin was 
 enclosed in a bush, is also the interpretation of the 
 editors qfthe Bibliotheque des Romans, who, what- 
 ever may be their faults in other respects, at least 
 understood French as ivell as the reviewer, and who, 
 in their account of Merlin, say, " Messire Gauvain 
 et autres chevaliers se mirent en marche pour l-e 
 (Merlin) chercher en differentes contries, mais ce 
 Jid inutilement, et sa voix seulejut entendue dans 
 laforet de Broceliande, ou Messire Gauvain le 
 trouvoit enclos, arrete et invisible, a 1' ombre d' un 
 bois d' aubepine par le moyen d 1 un charme." Sfc.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. XI 
 
 But I have much better authority to produce on 
 this subject, than either my own or that of the au- 
 thors of the Bibliotheque des Romans. In the ro- 
 mance of Ysaie h Triste, the fairy Glorianda, whose 
 credibility on this point cannot be called in question, 
 depones to the confinement of Merlin in a tree. She 
 and other fairies, protectresses of Ysaie, having in- 
 formed the hermit, by whom the child of Tristan 
 was brought up, of the demise of his parents, the 
 recluse, who was not aware of the quality of his 
 guests, presumes to ask their authority for these me" 
 lancholy tidings. " 72 n' y a gueres," replies the 
 eldest of their number, " que nous estions en la 
 Grande Bretaigne, en un bois que I* on appelle la 
 forest d'Avaritez ; et environ au meilleu a le plus 
 bel arbre que oncques vissiez, dessoubz lequel 
 Merlin est enferme par Y engin de la Dame du 
 Lac : ne* jamais ne bougera tant que le siecle dure- 
 ra. Or avons accoustume que quand nous allons 
 jouer par la forest voluntiers nous y reposons, et 
 parlons a icelluy Merlin ; et il nous respond : Lti
 
 XII ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 nous divisons, aucunesjbis toule la nu.it entiere.' 1 
 (L'Histoire de Isaie le Triste, c. Hi.) So much for 
 the belief of the reviewer that Merlin infiabits an 
 aerial garret of tke highest tower in the universe ! 
 
 Nor need the reviewer " admire the caprice which 
 induced Mr Dunlop to confine himself to little more 
 than a meagre outline of the life of the prophet" 
 {p. 394) ; for, though one of the most curious ro- 
 mances of the class to which it belongs ; " tke Book 
 of Merlin exactly corresponds," as the reviewer well 
 remarks, " with the metrical romance so ably ana- 
 lyzed by Mr Ellis," and of course is already known 
 to the English reader in a form more agreeable than 
 I could pretend to exhibit it. A similar caprice has 
 induced me to " confine myself to little more than a 
 meagre outline " of the romance of Amadis de Gaul, 
 though " one of the most curious of the class to which 
 it belongs," because it has recently been foithfully 
 and ably translated by Mr Southey. 
 
 The mention of Amadis de Gaul reminds me of 
 another heavy charge that I have not treated the
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. Xlll 
 
 romances of chivalry in a manner sufficiently serious, 
 and have even presumed to sneer at the society I 
 have chosen {p. 4-08). Now certainly I did not 
 think it necessary to contemplate the exploits of chi- 
 valry with the gravity of Ysaie le Triste, or the 
 productions in which they are detailed, with the sad 
 and sorrowful solemnity of the Knight of the Wqful 
 Countenance. Had I used the privilege recommend- 
 ed to me by the reviewer, 
 
 Nomimbus motlire licet mala ; futca tocetur 
 Nigrior Illyrica cui pice sanguis erit, 
 
 I fear I should be considered as having fallen into 
 the phrensy of him who discovered a beautiful in- 
 fanta in the coarse skin of Maritornes, and " mis- 
 took her hair, which was rough as a horse's mane, 
 for soft f owing threads of curling gold." It is in- 
 deed difficult to know how to proceed, since it ap- 
 pears, from the same critique, that gravity is 
 equally fatal to romantic topics, and equally to be 
 avoided as levity : We are there informed of the
 
 XIV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 melancholy fact, That the u last legend of Wade has 
 missed us, in consequence of the provoking gravity 
 of Speght and Kynaston, who have left untold the 
 wonderful birth of Wade, or Vade, the son of King 
 Vilkinus and the Sea Quean !" (p. 397.) / share 
 all the critics indignation at this hystorie, which I 
 doubt not would have been right pleasaunt and de- 
 lectable to rede, having missed us ; and promise, on 
 my own part, to assume the proper solemnity, when- 
 ever a graduated and accredited scale is published 
 for that purpose. 
 
 There is, however, one important charge made 
 in the critique, and on which I shall be as serious 
 as the reviewer chuses. It is said, that in stating 
 the machinery of early romance to be rather of clas- 
 sical than oriental origin, I have concealed that the 
 honour of this discovery is duo to Mr Southey ; and 
 the charge is so worded as ingeniously to imply that 
 I wished to appropriate the hypothesis to myself (p. 
 390). Now, in the first place, in introducing this 
 subject I have said, " A fourth hypothesis has been
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. XV 
 
 suggested, xvhich represents the machinery and co- 
 louring of fiction, the stories of enchanted gardens, 
 fyc. which have been introduced into romance, as 
 derived from classical and mythological authors." 
 (Hist, of Fie. vol. i. p. 140, 1st ed<p. 167, 2d ed.) 
 In the next place, I have said that Mr Ritson had 
 successively ridiculed the Gothic, Arabian, and clas- 
 sical systems an observation which, whether correct 
 or not as to Ritson, shows at least that I had no de- 
 sign of appropriating the credit of the hypothesis to 
 myself. " Mr Ritson" says the Review, " could not 
 well ridicule this classical system, since, as it hap- 
 pens, it had not then been promulgated." (p. 390.) 
 If by not being promulgated, the critic means that 
 it was not inserted in the Acts of Parliament, he is 
 more correct than usual ; but nothing can be more 
 erroneous than to suppose that the hypothesis was 
 suggested for the first time in Mr Southey's preface 
 to Amadis de Gaul. The reviewer's head is probably 
 "stuffed too full of Gammer Gurtons Needle," and 
 the Pytefull Kronykil of AppoUyn of Tire, to have
 
 XVI ADVERTISEMEKT. 
 
 room for publications of more modern literature, 
 or he might have known thai Joseph fVarton, in his 
 Essay on the Genius of Pope, which was written 
 about 1760, shows that the romantic stories of the 
 middle ages are in general mere modifications of the 
 classical fables. " The writers" says Warton, " of 
 the old romances, from whom Ariosto and Spenser 
 have borrowed so largely, are supposed to have had 
 copious imaginations ; but may they not be indebt- 
 ed for their invulnerable heroes, their monsters, their 
 enchantments, their gardens of pleasure, their wing- 
 ed steeds, and the like, to the Echidna, to the Circe, 
 to the Medea, to the Achilles, to tfie Syrens, to the 
 Harpies, to the Phryxus, and the BeUerophon qf 
 the ancients ?" Then, after adducing a variety of 
 other examples, he continues, " Some faint traditions 
 of the ancients might have been kept glimmering and 
 alive during the whole barbarous ages, as they are 
 called ; and it is not impossible, but these have been 
 the parents qf the Genii in the eastern, and the 
 Fairies in the western world. To say that Amadis 
 11
 
 ADVERTISEMENT; XVU 
 
 and Sir Tristan have a classical foundation, may at 
 first sight appear paradoxical ; but if the subject were 
 examined to the bottom, I am inclined to think that 
 the wildest chimeras in those books of chivalry, with 
 which Don Quixote's library was furnished, would 
 be found to have a close connection with classical 
 mythology." (vol. ii. sec. 8. p. 65, fyc.) It so hap- 
 pens that the same system has been promulgated 
 by various other writers : And Mr Southey surely 
 has too many genuine titles to public esteem and 
 admiration to require or lay claim to such as are 
 fictitious. 
 
 But the reviewer denies that Mr Ritson has ridi- 
 cided any of the systems invented to account for the 
 origin of romantic fiction : " Mr Dunlop is incor- 
 rect in saying that Mr Ritson successively ridiculed 
 the Gothic, Arabian, and Classical fictions. Ritson 
 did no such thing," (p. 390). / therefore beg leave 
 to extract a Jew passages from Ritson s Introduction 
 to the Metrical Romances. In speaking of Warton 
 
 vol. I. b
 
 XVUI ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 and his Arabic system he says, " This eloquent and 
 fowery historian, whose duty it was to ascertain truth 
 from the evidence of facts, and not to indulge his 
 imagination in reverie and romance, has not the 
 slightest authority for this visionary system," (p. 22). 
 And again, " This poetical historian is very ready 
 at a venture to affirm any thing, however imagi- 
 nary : he says, that Gormund, king of the Africans, 
 occurs ; and to prove how well he understood Geof- 
 frey of Monmouth, and how accurately this impos- 
 tour was acquainted with Arabian allusions, this 
 Gormund was a king of the Danes !" {p. 23). A 
 few pages on, he calls Mister Warton a lyeing cox- 
 comb, and concludes, " Warton, misled by that ignis 
 fatuus Warburton, and even wishing, it would seem, 
 to emulate and outdo that confident and mendacious 
 prelate, has been induced to assert, * Before these 
 expeditions into the east became fashionable, the 
 principal and leading subjects of the old fables were 
 the exploits of King Arthur ; but in the romances 
 written after the Holy War, a new set of champions,
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. XIX 
 
 Sfc. were introduced into romance! In all this 
 rhapsody there is scarcely a single word of tndh" 
 (p. 51 and 52). Percy and his Gothic system are 
 ridiculed in similar terms. 
 
 In their approach to the more modern fictions, 
 the " Seven Sleepers" have not been able to shake 
 off" the drowsiness that has hung on their eye-lids 
 during their progress through the romances of chi- 
 valry. Thus, in speaking of the heroic romances of 
 Calprenede and Mad. Scuderi, " It is observed by 
 Mr Dunlop, that much of the heroic romance has 
 been also derived from the ancient Greek romances ; 
 but it appears to us that the Cleopatra and Cassan- 
 dra arose out of the Amadis," Sfc. (p. 399.) Now, 
 from this passage, the reader would suppose that I 
 had denied the influence of romances of chivalry on 
 the heroic romance, or at least that I had written 
 nothing on the subject. I have said, however, in the 
 very commencement of the chapter, which treats of 
 Heroic Romance, " Many of the elements of which 
 the heroic romance is compounded must be sought in
 
 XX ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 anterior and more spirited compositions. Thus, tee 
 Jind in the heroic romance, a great deal of ancient 
 chivalrous delineation," (vol. Hi. p. 179, in 1st 
 edition, p. 221 of 2d edition.) And in mentioning 
 the Polexandre, which is usually considered as the 
 earliest heroic romance, " This ponderous work may 
 be regarded as a sort of intermediate production 
 between these later compositions and the ancient Ja- 
 bles of chivalry. It has, indeed, a closer affinity to 
 the heroic romance, but many of the exploits of the 
 hero are as extravagant as those of a paladin or 
 knight of the Round Table. In the episode of the 
 Peruvian Inca, there is a formidable giant ; and, 
 in another part of the work, we are introduced to a 
 dragon, which lays waste a whole kingdom. An in- 
 finite number of tournaments are also interspersed 
 through the volumes. In some qf its features, Po- 
 lexandre bears a striking resemblance to the Greek 
 romance" (vol. Hi. p. 186, 1st ed. p. 230, Id. ed.) 
 The origin, however, of the heroic romance has been 
 morejidly considered in the present edition.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. XXI 
 
 While alluding to the improvements in this new 
 edition of my work, I cannot omit expressing my 
 obligations to those by whom my researches have been 
 facilitated. The names of Mr Scott, Mr Douce, 
 and Mr Heber, need only be mentioned, since any 
 eulogy of mine would merely be repeating to a Jew 
 what is universally known and acknowledged. To 
 Mr Goldsmid, Mr Utter son, and several other in- 
 dividuals, I am also much indebted : and I shall 
 ever regard it as one of the most agreeable circum- 
 stances 'which have attended the publication of the 
 History of Fiction, that it introduced me to the ac- 
 quaintance of a number of gentlemen, equally dis- 
 tinguished by their talents and by their readiness to 
 oblige. 
 
 Even to the Sleepers ofEphesus, I must express 
 my acknowledgments, for having half opened their 
 eyes on the first edition of so trifling a publication 
 as the History of Fiction : And I beg leave to wish 
 them in return many a comfortable nap (though not 
 quite so long as that of their prototypes,) over the
 
 XX11 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 quarto bokes emprynted by Wynkin, or the folio 
 pages of the Mirrour of Knighthood and Delectable 
 Legend of Don Belianis. 
 
 Edinburgh, 10th Feb. 1816.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 _L he art of fictitious narrative appears to 
 have its origin in the same principles of se- 
 lection by which the fine arts in general are 
 created and perfected. Among the vast va- 
 riety of trees and shrubs which are present- 
 ed to his view, a savage finds, in his wander- 
 ings, some which peculiarly attract his notice 
 by their beauty and fragrance, and these he 
 at length selects, and plants them round his 
 dwelling. In like manner, among the mixed 
 events of human life, he experiences some 
 which are peculiarly grateful, and of which 
 the narrative at once pleases liimself, and ex- 
 cites in the minds of his hearers a kindred 
 emotion. Of this kind are unlooked-for oc-
 
 XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 currenccs, successful enterprise, or great and 
 unexpected deliverance from signal danger 
 and distress. As he collected round his habi- 
 tation those objects with which he had been 
 pleased, in order that they might afford him 
 a frequent gratification, so he rests his fancy 
 on those incidents which had formerly awaked 
 the most powerful emotions ; and the remem- 
 brance of which most strongly excites his ten- 
 derness, or pride, or gratitude. 
 
 Thus, in process of time, a mass of curious 
 narrative is collected, which is communicated 
 from one individual to another. In almost 
 every occurrence of human life, however, as 
 in almost every scene of nature, something 
 intervenes of a mixed, or indifferent descrip- 
 tion, tending to weaken the agreeable emo- 
 tion, which, without it, would be more pure 
 and forcible. For example, in the process 
 of forming the garden, the savage finds that 
 it is not enough merely to collect a variety of 
 agreeable trees or plants; he discovers that 
 more than this is necessary, and that it is also
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 essential that he should grub up from around 
 his dwelling the shrubs which are useless or 
 noxious, and which weaken or impair the 
 pure delight which he derives from others. He 
 is careful, accordingly, that the rose should 
 no longer be placed beside the thistle, as in 
 the wild, but that it should flourish in a clear, 
 and sheltered, and romantic situation, where 
 its sweets may be undiminished, and where 
 its form can be contemplated without any 
 attending circumstances of uneasiness or dis- 
 gust. The collector of agreeable facts finds, 
 in like manner, that the sympathy they excite 
 can be heightened by removing from their 
 detail every thing that is not interesting, or 
 that tends to weaken the principal emotion, 
 which it is his intention to raise. He ren- 
 ders, in this way, the occurrences more un- 
 expected, the enterprises more successful, the 
 deliverance from danger and distress more 
 wonderful. " As the active world," says Lord 
 Bacon, " is inferior to the rational soul, so 
 Fiction gives to mankind what history denies,
 
 XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and, in some measure, satisfies the mind with 
 shadows when it cannot enjoy the substance : 
 For, upon a narrow inspection, Fiction strong- 
 ly shows that a greater variety of things, a 
 more perfect order, a more beautiful variety, 
 than can any where be found in nature, is 
 pleasing to the mind. And as real history 
 gives us not the success of things according 
 to the deserts of vice and virtue, Fiction cor- 
 rects it, and presents us with the fates and 
 fortunes of persons rewarded or punished ac- 
 cording to merit. And as real history dis- 
 gusts us with a familiar and constant similitude 
 of things, Fiction relieves us by unexpected 
 turns and changes, and thus not only de- 
 lights, but inculcates morality and nobleness 
 of soul. It raises the mind by accommoda- 
 ting the images of things to our desires, and 
 not, like history and reason, subjecting the 
 mind to things." * 
 
 From this view of the subject, it is obvious 
 
 ' De Aug. Scient. lib. II. p. 1.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXV11 
 
 that the fictions framed by mankind, or the 
 narratives with which they are delighted, will 
 vary with their feelings, and with the state of 
 society. Since Fiction may be regarded as 
 select and highly coloured history, those ad- 
 ventures would naturally form the basis of it 
 which had already come to pass, or which 
 were most likely to occur. Accordingly, in a 
 warlike age, it would be peculiarly employ- 
 ed in tales of enterprise and chivalry, and, in 
 times of gallantry, in the detail of love ad- 
 ventures. 
 
 The History of Fiction, therefore, becomes, 
 in a considerable degree, interesting to the 
 philosopher, and occupies an important place 
 in the history of the progress of society. By 
 contemplating the fables of a people, we 
 have a successive delineation of their preva- 
 lent modes of thinking, a picture of their 
 feelings and tastes and habits. In this respect 
 prose fiction appears to possess advantages 
 considerably superior either to history or po- 
 etry. In history there is too little individu-
 
 XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ality ; in poetry too much effort, to permit the 
 poet and historian to pourtray the manners 
 living as they rise. History treats of man, as 
 it were, in the mass, and the individuals whom 
 it paints are regarded merely, or principally, 
 in a public light, without taking into consi- 
 deration their private feelings, tastes, or ha- 
 bits. Poetry is in general capable of too lit- 
 tle detail, while its paintings, at the same 
 time, are usually too much forced and exag- 
 gerated. But in Fiction we can discriminate 
 without impropriety, and enter into detail 
 without meanness. Hence it has been re- 
 marked, that it is chiefly in the fictions of an 
 age that we can discover the modes of living, 
 dress, and manners of the period. " Finally," 
 says Borromeo, (in the preface to the Notizia 
 de Novellieri Italiani,) " we should remark 
 the light that novels spread on the history of 
 the times. He who doubts of this may read 
 the Eulogium of Bandello, and he will be sa- 
 tisfied that his Noveilkro may be regarded as 
 a magic mirror, which distinctly reflects the
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 customs and manners of the sixteenth centu- 
 ry, an age fertile in great events ; and it also 
 acquaints us with many literary and political 
 anecdotes, which the historians of the revo- 
 lutions of our states have not transmitted to 
 posterity. I, myself, can affirm that in these 
 tales I have found recorded authentic anec- 
 dotes of the private lives of sovereigns, which 
 would in vain be sought for in ordinary his- 
 tories." 
 
 But even if the utility which is derived from 
 Fiction were less than it is, how much are we 
 indebted to it for pleasure and enjoyment ! 
 It sweetens solitude and charms sorrow it 
 occupies the attention of the vacant, and un- 
 bends the mind of the philosopher. Like the 
 enchanter, Fiction shows us, as it were in a 
 mirror, the most agreeable objects; recalls 
 from a distance the forms which are dear to 
 us, and soothes our own griefs by awakening 
 our sympathy for others. By its means the 
 recluse is placed in the midst of society ; and 
 he who is harassed and agitated in the city is
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 transported to rural tranquillity and repose. 
 The rude are refined by an introduction, as 
 it were, to the higher orders of mankind, and 
 even the dissipated and selfish are, in some 
 degree, corrected by those paintings of virtue 
 and simple nature, which must ever be em- 
 ployed by the novelist, if he wish to awaken 
 emotion or delight. 
 
 And such seems now to be the common 
 idea which is entertained of the value of Fic- 
 tion. Accordingly, this powerful instrument 
 of virtue and happiness, after having been 
 long despised, on account of the purposes to 
 which it had been made subservient, has gra- 
 dually become more justly appreciated, and 
 more highly valued. Works of Fiction have 
 been produced, abounding at once with the 
 most interesting details, and the most sagaci- 
 ous reflections, and which differ from treatises 
 of abstract philosophy only by the greater 
 justness of their views, and the higher interest 
 which they excite. And it may be presumed, 
 that a path, at once so useful and delightful, 
 8
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 will continue to be trod : It may be presumed, 
 that virtue and vice, the conduct of human 
 life, what we are expected to feel, and what 
 we are called on to do and to suffer, will long 
 be taught by example, a method which seems 
 better fitted to improve the mind than abstract 
 propositions and dry discussions. 
 
 Entertaining such views of the nature and 
 utility of fiction, and indebted to its charms 
 for some solace and enjoyment, I have em- 
 ployed a few hours of relaxation in drawing 
 up the following notices of its gradual pro- 
 gress. No works are perhaps more useful or 
 agreeable, than those which delineate the ad- 
 vance of the human mind the history of what 
 different individuals have effected in the course 
 of ages, for the instruction, or even the inno- 
 cent amusement, of their species. Such a de- 
 lineation is attended with innumerable advan- 
 tages : It furnishes a collection of interesting 
 facts concerning the philosophy of mind, which 
 we thus study not in an abstract and intro- 
 spective method, but in a manner certain and
 
 XXX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 experimental. It retrieves from oblivion a 
 number of individuals, whose now obsolete 
 works are perhaps in detail unworthy of pub- 
 lic attention, butwhich promoted and diffused, 
 in their own day, light and pleasure, and form 
 as it were landmarks which testify the course 
 and progress of genius. By contemplating 
 also not only what has been done, but the 
 mode in which it has been achieved, a me- 
 thod may perhaps be discovered of proceed- 
 ing still farther, of avoiding the errors into 
 which our predecessors have fallen, and of 
 following the paths in which they have met 
 success. Retrospective works of this nature, 
 therefore, combine utility, justice, and plea- 
 sure ; and accordingly, in different branches 
 of philosophy and literature, various histories 
 of their progress and fortunes have appeared. 
 I have attempted in the following work to 
 afford such a delineation as is now alluded to, 
 of the origin and progress of fiction, of the 
 various forms which it has successively assu- 
 med, and the different authors by whom the
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXtll 
 
 prose works in this department of literature 
 have been most successfully cultivated and 
 promoted. I say prose works, since such 
 alone are the proper objects of this underta- 
 king. It was objected to a former edition, 
 that I had commenced the History of Fiction 
 only in the decline of literature, and had ne- 
 glected the most sublime and lofty efforts of 
 mythology and poetry. But it never was my 
 intention to consider fiction as connected with 
 these topics, (an enquiry which, if properly 
 conducted, would form a work of greater ex- 
 tent than the whole of the present volumes, 
 and which well deserves a peculiar treatise,) 
 but merely to consider the different fictions 
 in prose, which have been given to the world 
 under the name of romance or novel. That I 
 have begun late, arises from the circumstance, 
 that the works of which I have undertaken a 
 description were late in making their appear- 
 ance ; and I am the more strongly induced to 
 direct my enquiries to this subject, as I am 
 not aware that any writer has hitherto pre- 
 vol. i. c
 
 XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sented a full and continued view of it, though 
 detached parts have been separately treated 
 with much learning and ingenuity. 
 
 Huet, who was the first that investigated 
 this matter, has given us a treatise, formally 
 entitled De Origint Fabularum. That part of 
 his essay which relates to the Greek romances, 
 though very succinct, is sufficiently clear, and 
 stored with sound criticism. But having 
 brought down the account of fiction to the 
 later Greeks, and just entered on those com- 
 posed by the western nations, which have now 
 the name of Romances almost appropriated 
 to them, "he puts the change on his read- 
 ers," as Warburton has remarked, (Notes to 
 Love's Labour's Lost,) "and instead of giving 
 us an account of the Tales of Chivalry, one 
 of the most curious and interesting parts of 
 the subject of which he promised to treat, he 
 contents himself with an account of the poems 
 of the Provencal writers, called likewise ro- 
 mances ; and so, under the equivoque of a 
 common term, he drops his proper subject,
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 and entertains us with another which had no 
 relation to it except in the name." 
 
 Subsequent to the publication of this trea- 
 tise by Huet, several works were projected in 
 France, with the design of exhibiting a gene- 
 ral view of fictitious composition. The first 
 was the Bibliotheque des Romans, by the Abbe 
 Lenglet Dufresnoy, in two volumes, publish- 
 ed in 1735, under the name of Gordon de 
 Percel. It is a mere catalogue, however, and 
 wants accuracy, the only quality which can 
 render a catalogue valuable. 
 
 In 1775, a work, also entitled Bibliotheque 
 des Romans, was commenced on a much more 
 extensive plan, and was intended to comprise 
 an analysis of the chief works of fiction from 
 the earliest times. The design was conceived 
 and traced by the Marquis de Paulmy, whose 
 extensive library supplied the contributors 
 with the materials from which their abstracts 
 were drawn. The conductor was M. de Bas- 
 tide, one of the feeble imitators of the young- 
 er Crebillon. He supplied, however, few ar-
 
 XX5CV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tides, but enjoyed as co-operators, the Cheva- 
 lier de Mayer, and M. de Cardonne ; as also 
 the Comte de Tressan, whose contributions 
 have been likewise published in the collection 
 of his own works, under the title Corps d' 
 Ex traits. 
 
 In the Bibliotheque des Romans, prose 
 works of fiction are divided into classes, and 
 a summary of one romance from each order 
 is exhibited in turn. This compilation was 
 published periodically till the year 1 787, and 
 four volumes were annually given to the 
 world. 
 
 Next to the enormous length, and the 
 frequent selection of worthless materials, the 
 principal objection to the work is the arrange- 
 ment adopted by the editors. Thus, a ro- 
 mance of chivalry intervenes between two 
 Greek romances, or is presented alternately 
 with a French heroic romance, or modern 
 novel. Hence the reader is not furnished 
 with a view of the progress of Fiction in con- 
 tinuity; he cannot trace the imitations of
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXVU 
 
 successive fablers, nor the way in which fic- 
 tion has been modified by the manners of an 
 ao-e. There is besides little or no criticism 
 of the novels or romances which are analyzed, 
 and the whole work seems to have been writ- 
 ten under the eye of the sultan who said he 
 would cut off the head of the first man who 
 made a reflection. But even the utility of the 
 abstracts, which should have been the princi- 
 pal object of the work, is in a great measure 
 lost, as it appears to have been the intention 
 of the editors rather to present an entertain- 
 ing story, somewhat resembling that of the 
 original, than a faithful analysis. Characters 
 and sentiments are thus exhibited, incongru- 
 ous with ancient romance, and abhorrent from 
 the opinions of the era whose manners it re- 
 flects. It is only as presenting a true and 
 lively picture of the age, that romance has 
 claims on the attention of the antiquarian or 
 philosopher ; and if its genuine remains be 
 adulterated with a mixture of sentiments and 
 manners of modern growth, the composition 
 
 10
 
 XXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is heterogeneous and uninstructive. (Rose's 
 Amadis de Gaul.) 
 
 Abstracts of romances omitted in the Bi- 
 bliotheque des Romans have been published in 
 Melanges tirees d' une Grande Bibliotlieque, 
 which is a selection from the scarce manu- 
 scripts and publications contained in the li- 
 brary of the Marquis de Paulmy. The work 
 has also been continued in the Nouvelle Bibli- 
 otlieque des Romans, which comprises abridg- 
 ments of the most recent productions of the 
 French, English, and German novelists. 
 
 In this country there has been no attempt 
 towards a general History of Fiction. Dr 
 Percy, Warton, and others, have written, as 
 is well known, with much learning and inge- 
 nuity, on that branch of the subject which re- 
 lates to the origin of Romantic Fiction the 
 marvellous decorations of chivalry. This en- 
 quiry, however, comprehends but a small part 
 of the subject, and even here research has oft- 
 ner been directed to the establishment of a 
 theory, than to the investigation of truth.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 In the following work I shall try to present 
 a faithful analysis of those early and scarce 
 productions which form, as it were, the land- 
 marks of Fiction. Select passages will occa- 
 sionally be added, and I shall endeavour by 
 criticisms to give such a sketch as may enable 
 the reader to form some idea of the nature and 
 merit of the works themselves, and of the 
 transmission of fable from one age and coun- 
 try to another.
 
 HISTORY OF FICTION, &c. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 HISTORY OF FICTION, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Origin of [fictitious Narrative. Earliest Writers 
 of Greek Romance. Heliodorus. Achilles 
 Tatius. Longus. Chariton. Joannes Da- 
 mascene. Eusta thins. Remarks on this 
 Species of Composition. 
 
 I he nature and utility of fiction having been 
 pointed out, and the design of the work explained 
 in the introductory remarks, it now remains to 
 prosecute what forms the proper object of this 
 undertaking, the origin and progress of prose 
 works of fiction, with the analysis and criticism of 
 the most celebrated which have been successively 
 presented to the world. 
 
 We have already seen that fiction has in all ages 
 formed the delight of the rudest and the most po-
 
 4f ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 lished nations. It was late, however, and after 
 the decline of its nobler literature, that fictions in 
 prose came to be cultivated as a species of com- 
 position in Greece. In early times, the mere art 
 of writing was too difficult and dignified to be 
 employed in prose, and even the laws of the prin- 
 cipal legislators were then promulgated in verse. 
 In the better ages of Greece, all who felt the 
 mens divinior, and of whose studies the embellish- 
 ments of fiction were the objects, naturally wrote 
 in verse, and men of genius would have disdained 
 to occupy themselves with a simple domestic tale 
 in prose. This mode of composition was reserved 
 for a later period, when the ranks of poetry had 
 been filled with great names, and the very abun- 
 dance of great models had produced satiety. Poe- 
 tical productions too, in order to be relished, re- 
 quire to be read with a spark of the same feeling 
 in which they are composed, and in a luxurious 
 age, and among a luxurious people, demand even 
 too much effort in the reader, or hearer, to be 
 generally popular. To such, a simple narrative, 
 a history of ludicrous or strange adventures, forms 
 the favourite amusement ; and we thus find that 
 listening to the recital of tales has at all times 
 been the peculiar entertainment of the indolent 
 and voluptuous nations of the East. A taste,
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 5 
 
 accordingly, for this species of narrative, or com- 
 position, seems to have been most early and most 
 generally prevalent in Persia and other Asiatic 
 regions, where the nature of the climate and effe- 
 minacy of the inhabitants conspired to promote its 
 cultivation. 
 
 The people of Asia Minor, who possessed the 
 fairest portion of the globe, were addicted to every 
 species of luxury and magnificence ; and having 
 fallen under the dominion of the Persians, im- 
 bibed with the utmost avidity the amusing fables 
 of their conquerors. The Milesians, who were a 
 colony of Greeks, and spoke the Ionic dialect, 
 excelled all the neighbouring nations in ingenuity, 
 and first caught from the Persians this rage for 
 fiction : but the tales they invented, and of which 
 the name has become so celebrated, have all pe- 
 rished. There is little known of them, except 
 that they were not of a very moral tendency, and 
 were principally written by a person of the name 
 of Aristides, whose tales were translated into La- 
 tin by Sisenna, the Roman historian, about the 
 time of the civil wars of Marius and Sylla. Huet, 
 Vossius, 1 and the other writers by whom the sto- 
 ries of Aristides have been mentioned, concur in 
 
 ' De Ilistoricis Graccis Aristides.
 
 6 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 lepresenting them as short amatory narratives in 
 prose ; yet it would appear from two lines in 
 Ovid's Tristia, that some of them, at least, had 
 been written in verse : 
 
 Junxit Aristides Milesia carmina setum 
 Pulsus Aristides nee tamen urbe sua est. 
 
 But though the Milesian tales have perished, of 
 their nature some idea may be formed from the 
 stories of Parthenius Nicenus, 1 many of which, 
 there is reason to believe, are extracted from these 
 ancient fables, or at least are written in the same 
 spirit. The tales of Nicenus are about forty in 
 number, but appear to be mere sketches. They 
 chiefly consist of accounts of every species of se- 
 duction, and the criminal passions of the nearest 
 relations. The principal characters generally come 
 to a deplorable end, though seldom proportioned 
 to what they merited by their vices. Nicenus 
 seems to have grafted the Milesian tales on the 
 mythological fables of Apollodorus and similar 
 writers, and also to have borrowed from early 
 historians and poets, whose productions have not 
 descended to us. His work is inscribed to the 
 Latin poet Cornelius Gallus, the contemporary 
 
 ' rUf 0iv< Nixaiai; wtf f jamxw Ta$tifJiaron.
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 7 
 
 and friend of Virgil. 1 Indeed the author says that 
 it was composed for his use, to furnish him with 
 materials for elegies and other poems. 
 
 The inhabitants of Asia Minor, and especially 
 the Milesians, had a considerable intercourse with 
 the Greeks of Attica and Peloponnesus, whose 
 genius also naturally disposed them to fiction : 
 they were delighted with the tales of the eastern 
 nations, and pleasure produced imitation. 
 
 Previous, however, to the age of Alexander the 
 Great, little seems to have been attempted in this 
 style of composition by the European Greeks ; 
 but the more frequent intercourse which his con- 
 quests introduced between the Greek and Asiatic 
 nations, opened at once all the sources of fiction. 
 Clearchus, who was a disciple of Aristotle, and 
 who wrote a history of fictitious love adventures, 
 seems to have been, the first author who gained 
 any celebrity by this species of composition. Of 
 the romances, however, which were written pre- 
 vious to the appearance of the Theagenes and 
 Chariclea of Heliodorus, I am compelled to give 
 a very meagre account, as the works themselves 
 have perished, and our knowledge of them is 
 
 Eclog. 10.
 
 8 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 chiefly derived from the summary which is con- 
 tained in the Bibliotheca of Photius. 
 
 Some years after the composition *of the ficti- 
 tious history of Clearchus, Antonius Diogenes 
 wrote a m6re perfect romance than had hitherto 
 appeared, founded on the wandering adventures 
 and loves of Dinias and Dercyllis, entitled, " Of 
 the incredible Things in Thule." * That island, of 
 which the position is one of the most doubtful 
 points in ancient geography, was not, according 
 to Diogenes, the most distant of the globe, as he 
 talks of several beyond it : Thule is but a single 
 station for his adventurers, and many of the most 
 incredible things are beheld in other quarters of 
 the world. The idea of the work of Diogenes is 
 said to have been taken from the Odyssey, and in 
 fact many of the incidents seem to have been bor- 
 rowed from that poem. Indeed the author men- 
 tions a number of writers prior to himself, parti- 
 cularly Antiphanes, from whom he had collected 
 these wonderful relations. Aulus Gellius informs 
 us, that coming on one occasion from Greece to 
 Italy, he landed at Brundusium, in Calabria, where 
 he purchased a collection of fabulous histories, 
 
 * Avramtr bmytiut W tin g &tt\m awij-w Xeyoi.
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 9 
 
 under the names of Aristeus, Ctesias, and Onesi- 
 critus, which were full of stories concerning na- 
 tions which saw during night, but were blind 
 during day, and various other fictions, which, we 
 shall find, were inserted in the " Incredible Things 
 in Thule." The work of Diogenes is praised by 
 Photius for its purity of style, and the delightful 
 variety of its adventures ; yet, to judge from that 
 author's abridgment, it seems to have contained 
 a series of the most improbable incidents. But 
 though filled with the most trifling and incredible 
 narrations, it is deserving of attention, as it seems 
 to have been a repository from which Achilles Ta- 
 tius and succeeding fablers derived the materials 
 of less defective romances. 
 
 Dinias flying from Arcadia, his native country, 
 arrives at the mouth of the river Tanais. Urged 
 by the intensity of the cold, he proceeds towards 
 the east, and, having made a circuit round the 
 globe, he at length reaches Thule. Here he forms 
 an acquaintance with Dercyllis, the heroine of the 
 romance, who had been driven from Tyre along 
 with her brother Mantinia, by the intrigues of 
 Paapis, an Egyptian priest. She relates to Dinias 
 how she had wandered through Rhodes and Crete, 
 and also among the Cimmerians, where she had a 
 view of the infernal regions, through favour of her
 
 10 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 deceased servant Myrto ; how, being separated 
 from her brother, she arrived with a person of the 
 name of Ceryllus at the tomb of the Syrens, and 
 afterwards at a city in Spain, where the people 
 saw during the night, a privilege which was neu- 
 tralized by total blindness during day. Dercyllis 
 farther relates how she travelled among the Celts, 
 and a nation of Amazons ; and that in Sicily she 
 again met with her brother Mantinia, who related 
 to her adventures still more extraordinary than 
 her own ; having seen all the sights in the sun, 
 moon, and most remote islands of the globe. Der- 
 cyllis, after many other vicissitudes, arrives in 
 Thule, whither she is followed by her old enemy 
 Paapis, who, by his magic art, makes her die every 
 night and come alive again in the morning ; an 
 easy kind of punishment, being equivalent to a 
 refreshing nap. The secret of these incantations, 
 which chiefly consisted in spitting in the victim's 
 face, is detected by Azulis, who had accompanied 
 Dinias into Thule, and the spells of the powerful 
 magician being through his means broken, Der- 
 cyllis and Mantinia return to their native country. 
 After the departure of his friends, Dinias wanders 
 beyond Thule, and advances towards the Pole. 
 In these regions he says the darkness continued 
 sometimes a month, sometimes six months, but
 
 ORIGIN OP FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 11 
 
 at certain places for a whole year ; and the length 
 of the -day was proportioned to that of the night. 
 At last, awakening one morning, he finds himself 
 at Tyre, where he meets with his old friends 
 Mantinia and Dercyllis, with whom he passes the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 Besides the principal subject of the romance, 
 of which an abstract has been given by Photius, 
 Porphyrius, in his Life of Pythagoras, has pre- 
 served a long and fabulous account of that mys- 
 terious philosopher, which, he tells us, formed an 
 episode of the Incredible Things in Thule, and 
 was related to Dercyllis by Aristaeus, one of the 
 companions of her flight from Tyre, and an emi- 
 nent disciple of Pythagoras. Mnesarchus one day 
 found, under a large poplar, an infant, who lay 
 gazing undazzled on the sun, holding a reed in 
 his mouth, and sipping the dew which dropped 
 on him from the poplar. This child was carried 
 home by Mnesarchus, who bestowed on him the 
 name of Aristaeus, and brought him up with his 
 youngest son Pythagoras. At length Aristaeus be- 
 came one of the scholars of that philosopher, along 
 with Zamolxis, the legislator of the Getae, after he 
 had undergone an inspectio corporis, to which the 
 Samian sage invariably subjected his disciples, as 
 he judged of the mental faculties by the external
 
 12 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 form. Aristacus was thus enabled to give an ac- 
 count of the travels of his master, and the mystical 
 learning he acquired among the Egyptians and 
 Babylonians ; of the tranquil life which he passed 
 in Italy, and the mode in which he healed diseases 
 by incantations and magic poems ; for he knew 
 verses of such power that they produced oblivion 
 of pain, soothed sorrow, and repressed all inordi- 
 nate appetites. 
 
 The romance of the " Incredible Things in 
 Thule " consisted of twenty-four books, in which 
 Dinias was represented as relating his own adven- 
 tures, and those he had heard from Dercyllis, to 
 Cymba, who had been sent to Tyre by the Ar- 
 cadians to prevail on him to return to his native 
 country. The account of these adventures is, at 
 the beginning of the romance, described as having 
 been engraved on cypress tablets by one of Cym- 
 ba's attendants ; at the request of Dinias they 
 were placed in his tomb after his death, and are 
 feigned to have been discovered by Alexander 
 the Great during the siege of Tyre." 
 
 After the composition of the Dinias and Der- 
 cyllis of Diogenes, a considerable period seems 
 
 l Photius Bibliotheca Cod. 156, p. S55. ed. 1653. Ro- 
 tbomagi.
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 13 
 
 to have elapsed without the production of any 
 fictitious narrative deserving the appellation of a 
 romance. 
 
 Lucius Patrensis and Lucian, who were nearly 
 contemporary, lived during the reign of the empe- 
 ror Marcus Aurelius : Lucius collected accounts 
 of magical transformations ; Photius remarks, that 
 his style is delightful by its perspicuity, purity, 
 and sweetness,' but as his work comprehends a 
 relation of incidents professedly incredible, with- 
 out any attempt on the part of the author to give 
 them the appearance of reality, it cannot per- 
 haps be properly admitted into the number of 
 romances. 
 
 A considerable portion of the Metamorphoses 
 of Lucius were transferred by Lucian into his 
 Ass, to which he also gave the name of Lucius ; a 
 work which may perhaps be again mentioned when 
 we come to speak of the Golden Ass of Apuleius, 
 a longer and more celebrated production of the 
 same species. 
 
 About the time these authors lived, Jamblichus 
 wrote his Babylonica.* The romance itself has 
 been lost, but the epitome given by Photius shows 
 
 1 v {-tv Se t>sv <f>gatr/v a-a<Jif tj xa.) xaQagof xal f[\o; yAwnJniTSf 
 Photius. Bib. 
 
 * ta(uCxnttf \^afx,arwov t X9. App. No. I.
 
 14- ORIGIN OP FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 that little improvement had been made in this spc- 
 cies of composition, during the period which had 
 elapsed since the production of the Dinias and 
 Dercyllis of Diogenes. 
 
 Garmus, king of Babylon, having fallen in love 
 with Sinonis, but not being agreeable to the object 
 of his affections, the lady escapes from his power 
 along with her lover Rhodanes. The probability 
 of this event having been anticipated, Damas and 
 Saca, two eunuchs who had been appointed to 
 watch them, (after having their nose and ears cut 
 off, for their negligence in allowing their flight,) 
 are sent out by the king to re-commit them. The 
 romance principally consists of the adventures of 
 the fugitives, and their hair-breadth escapes from 
 these royal messengers. We are told that the lo- 
 vers first sought refuge with certain shepherds in 
 a meadow, but a demon, or spectre, which haunt- 
 ed that quarter in the shape of a goat, (r^aya ?i 
 <pccafMt,) having become enamoured of Sinonis, she 
 is compelled to leave this shelter, in order to avoid 
 his fantastic addresses. It is then related how Si- 
 nonis and Rhodanes conceal themselves in a ca- 
 vern, in which they are beleaguered by Damas ; 
 but the eunuch and his forces are routed by a 
 swarm of poisonous bees. By this intervention 
 the lovers escape from the cave, but having par-
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 15 
 
 taken of the honey of their deliverers, which was 
 of a noxious quality, they faint on the way, and 
 during this swoon are passed as dead by the troops 
 of Damas. Having at length recovered, they pro- 
 ceed in their flight, and take up their abode with 
 a man who poisons his brother, and afterwards ac- 
 cuses them of the murder ; a charge from which 
 they are freed by the accuser laying violent hands 
 on himself. With singular luck in meeting good 
 company, they next quarter themselves with a 
 robber. During their stay his habitation is burn- 
 ed by the troops of Damas, but the lovers escape 
 from the eunuch, by alleging that they are the 
 spectres of those whom the robber had murdered 
 in his house. Further prosecuting their flight they 
 meet with the funeral of a young girl, who is dis- 
 covered, when on the point of interment, to be yet 
 alive. The sepulchre being left vacant, Sinonis 
 and Rhodanes sleep in it during that night, and are 
 again passed as corpses by their Babylonian pur- 
 suers ; but Sinonis having made free with the dead 
 clothes, is taken up while attempting to dispose of 
 them, by Soraechus, the magistrate of the district, 
 who announces his intention of forwarding his pri- 
 soner to Babylon. In one of the respectable dwel- 
 lings which they had visited in their flight, our 
 lovers had enjoyed an opportunity of providing 
 11
 
 16 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 themselves with poison, for an emergency of this 
 description. Their design, however, being suspect- 
 ed by their guards, a soporific draught is substitu- 
 ted, of which our hero and heroine partake, and 
 awaken, to their 'great surprise, from the trance 
 into which it had thrown them, when in the vicini- 
 ty of Babylon. Sinonis in despair stabs herself, 
 but not mortally ; and the compassion of Sora> 
 chus being now excited, he consents to the escape 
 of his captives, who experience a new series of ad- 
 ventures, rivalling in probability those which have 
 been related. They first come to a temple of Ve- 
 nus, situated in an island of the Euphrates, where 
 the wound of Sinonis is cured. Thence they seek 
 refuge with a cottager, whose daughter being em- 
 ployed to dispose of some trinkets belonging to 
 Sinonis, is mistaken for our heroine, and Garmus 
 is forthwith apprized that she had been seen in 
 the neighbourhood. The cottage girl, who had 
 remarked the suspicions of the purchasers, flies 
 with all possible dispatch. On her way home she 
 enters a house, where she witnesses the horrible 
 spectacle of a lover laying violent hands on him- 
 self, after murdering his mistress ; and, sprinkled 
 with the blood of these unfortunate victims, she 
 returns to her paternal mansion. Sinonis, per- 
 ceiving from the report of this girl, that she could
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 17 
 
 no longer remain with safety in her present ha- 
 bitation, prepares for departure. Rhodanes, be- 
 fore setting out with his mistress, salutes the pea- 
 sant girl ; but Sinonis perceiving blood on his 
 lips, and being aware whence it had come, is 
 seized with transports of ungovernable jealousy ; 
 she is with difficulty prevented from stabbing her 
 imaginary rival, and flies to the house of Setapo, 
 a wealthy but profligate Babylonian. Setapo im- 
 mediately pays his addresses; Sinonis feigns to 
 yield to his solicitations, but contrives to intoxi- 
 cate him in the course of the evening, and mur- 
 ders him during night. Having escaped at day- 
 break, she is pursued by the slaves of Setapo, 
 and committed to custody, in order to answer for 
 the crime. By this time, however, the false in- 
 telligence that Sinonis was discovered, had reach- 
 ed the king ot Babylon, who signalizes the joy- 
 ful news by a general jail delivery throughout 
 his dominions, in the benefit of which the real 
 Sinonis is of course included. While our heroine 
 was experiencing such vicissitudes of fortune, the 
 dog of Rhodanes (for he too has his adventures) 
 scents out the place, where, it will be recollected, 
 a lover had murdered his mistress. The father 
 of Sinonis arrives at this spot while the animal is 
 employed in devouring the remains of this unfor- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 tuaate woman, and mistaking the dead body for 
 that of his daughter, he gives it interment, and 
 erects over it a monument, with the inscription, 
 " Here lies the beautiful Sinonis." Rhodanes 
 visiting this place a short while afterwards, and 
 perceiving the inscription, adds to it, " and also 
 the beautiful Rhodanes," (K* PoJam? Z Kx?,) 
 but is prevented from accomplishing his inten- 
 tion of stabbing himself bj the approach of the 
 peasant girl, who had been the cause of the 
 jealousy of Sinonis, ami who informs him that it 
 was another than his mistress who had perished 
 there. At this time the unfortunate detention 
 and threatened punishment of Sorachus, by whom 
 the lovers had originally been allowed to escape, 
 enables the Babylonian officers to trace the flight 
 of Rhodanes. He is in consequence delivered up to 
 Garmus, and is speedily nailed to the cross by that 
 monarch. While he is in this crisis, and while 
 Garmus is dancing and carousing round the place 
 of execution, a messenger arrives with intelligence 
 that Sinonis is about to be espoused by the king 
 of Syria, into whose dominions she had ultimately 
 escaped. Rhodanes is taken down from the cross, 
 and appointed general of a Babylonish army, which 
 is sent against that monarch. This is a striking 
 but deceitful change of fortune, as the inferior of- 
 ficers are ordered by Garmus to kill Rhodanes,
 
 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 19 
 
 should he obtain the victory, and to bring Sinonis 
 alive to Babylon. The king of Syria is totally de- 
 feated, and Rhodanes recovers Sinonis; but in- 
 stead of being slain by the officers of his army, he 
 is chosen king of the Babylonians. All this in- 
 deed had been clearly foreshown by the portent 
 of the swallow, which was seen by Garmus, pur- 
 sued by an eagle and a kite, and after escaping the 
 talons of the former, became the victim of an ene- 
 my apparently less formidable ! * 
 
 The romance, of which the above account b .6 
 been given, is divided into sixteen books. If we 
 may judge of the original from the epitome, trans- 
 mitted by Photius, the ground-work of the story 
 was well conceived, since the close and eager pur- 
 suit by the eunuchs gives rise to narrow escapes, 
 which might have been rendered interesting. But 
 the particular adventures are unnatural and mono- 
 tonous. The hero and heroine generally evade 
 the search of their pursuers by passing as defuncts, 
 or spirits, which produces a disagreeable sameness 
 in a subject which admitted of much variety. 
 There is, besides, an unpleasant ferocity in the 
 character of Sinonis, and too many of the scenes 
 are laid among tombs and caverns, and the haunt* 
 
 ' Photii Bibliotheca, cod. 94, p. 235.
 
 20 ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. 
 
 of murderers. Indeed most of the incidents, 
 though often abundantly ludicrous, are of a dark 
 and gloomy cast ; a character which by no means 
 appertains to the adventures in the subsequent ro- 
 mances of Heliodorus, Chariton, or Tat ins. 
 
 Besides these faults in the principal story, the 
 episodes of Berenice, queen of Egypt, and of the 
 Temple <n Venus, situated on an island formed by 
 the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, seem 
 to have been extremely tedious and ill placed. 
 Part of the last episode, however, is curious, as pre- 
 senting us with a discussion resembling the Ten- 
 sons, or pleas for the courts of love, in the middle 
 ages. Mesopotamia, the youngest daughter of the 
 priestess of Venus, had three lovers, on one of 
 whom she bestowed a geblet from which she usu- 
 ally drank ; on the head of the second she placed 
 a chaplet of flowers which had encircled her brow, 
 while the third received a kiss. The lovers con- 
 tend which had obtained the most distinguish- 
 ed mark of favour, and plead their cause in pre- 
 sence of Borochus, a distinguished amatory judge, 
 who decides in favour of the kiss. 
 
 Jamblichus has been censured by Huet, 1 for 
 the awkward introduction of his episodes, and the 
 
 ' De Ong. Fab.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 21 
 
 inartificial disposition of the whole work. He 
 seems, according to that author, to have enter- 
 tained a complete contempt for the advice of Ho- 
 race, with regard to hurrying his readers into the 
 middle of the action ; he never departs from the 
 order of time, and trudges on according to the era 
 of dates, with all the exactness of a chronologer. 
 
 About two centuries elapsed from the death of 
 Jambhchus, till the composition of the Theagenes 
 and Chariclea of Heliodorus, 1 Bishop of Tricca, 
 an author who in every particular, but especially 
 in the arrangement of his fable, far excelled his 
 predecessors. 
 
 There are three points chiefly to be considered 
 in a novel or romance, the Subject, the Disposition, 
 and the Ornaments ; a classification which may be 
 regarded as comprehending the means of estima- 
 ting the most material beauties and defects of any 
 fictitious narrative. 
 
 In adopting these principles of criticism, I do 
 not mean to affirm that a good work can be writ- 
 ten by rule, or that a romance is excellent mere- 
 ly in proportion to its conformity to certain criti- 
 cal precepts. Nothing, for instance, can be more 
 irregular than Tristram Shandy, and nothing can 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 2.
 
 22 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 be more regular than some of the novels of Cum- 
 berland ; yet no one prefers the novels of Cum- 
 berland to the work of Sterne. A man of genius 
 will produce an interesting composition in defi- 
 ance of the laws of criticism, while one without 
 talent will compose a work by rule, as a stone- 
 cutter may hew out a statue according to the most 
 approved proportions, which will be totally lifeless 
 and insignificant. But though the province of cri- 
 ticism is not to confine genius to one narrow and 
 trodden path, it does not follow that critical rules 
 are to be altogether disregarded. The work of 
 the man of genius would have been still better had 
 he not wantonly transgressed them, and even the 
 labour produced by the person of inferior talents, 
 would have been worse had he not rigidly adhe- 
 red to them. In estimating all the productions of 
 the fine arts, we are obliged to analyze them, and 
 to describe them by their grosser parts, as the 
 etherial portion, or that which pervades the heart 
 and feelings, cannot be represented. We judge 
 of the paintings of Raphael, and criticise them 
 under the heads of design and invention and co- 
 louring ; but we can no more express the emo- 
 tions they produce, than we can paint the odours 
 of the rose, though we delineate its form and por- 
 tray its colours.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 23 
 
 The story, or subject, of Theagenes and Cha- 
 riclea, l does not possess any peculiar excellence, 
 as will appear from the following summary. 
 
 The action of the romance is supposed to take 
 place previous to the age of Alexander the Great, 
 while Egypt was tributary to the Persian mo- 
 narchs. During that period a .queen of Ethiopia, 
 called Persina, having viewed at an amorous cri- 
 sis a statue of Andromeda, gives birth to a daugh- 
 ter of fair complexion. Fearing that her husband 
 might not think the cause proportioned to the ef- 
 fect, she commits the infant in charge to Sisimi- 
 thres, an Ethiopian senator, and deposits in his 
 hands a ring and some writings, explaining the 
 circumstances of her birth. The child is named 
 Chariclea, and remains for seven years with her 
 reputed father. At the end of this period he be- 
 comes doubtful of her power to preserve her chas- 
 tity any longer in her native country. He therefore 
 determines to carry her along with him, on an em- 
 bassy to which he had been appointed to Oroon- 
 dates, satrap of Egypt. In that land he acci- 
 dentally meets Charicles, priest of Delphos, who 
 was travelling on account of domestic afflictions, 
 and to Jhim he transfers the care of Chariclea. 
 
 1 H>iiJ<h Ai6(*)7nxv SiSXia ttna..
 
 24 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 I ha rides brings her to Delphos, and destines heV 
 for the wife of his nephew Alcamenus. In order 
 to reconcile her mind to this alliance, he delivers 
 her over to Calasiris, an Egyptian priest, who at 
 that period resided at Delphos, and undertook to 
 prepossess her in favour of the young man. About 
 the same time, Theagenes, a Thessalian, and de- 
 scendant of Achilles, comes to Delphos, for the 
 performance of some sacred rite : Theagenes and 
 Chariclea having seen each other in the temple,, 
 become mutually enamoured. The contrivance of 
 this incident seems to be borrowed from the Hero 
 and Leander of Musaeus, where the lovers meet in 
 the fane of Venus at Sestos. Places of worship, 
 however, were in those days the usual scene of the 
 first interview of lovers, as women were at other 
 times much confined and almost inaccessible to 
 admirers. There too, even in a later period, the 
 most romantic attachments were formed. It was 
 in the chapel of St Clair, at Avignon, that Pe- 
 trarch first beheld Laura; and Boccaccio became 
 enchanted with Mary of Arragon in the church of 
 the Cordeliers, at Naples* 
 
 Calasiris, who had beea engaged to influence 
 the mind of Chariclea in favour of her intended 
 husband, is warned in a vision by Apollo that 
 he should return to his own country, and take
 
 GHEEK ROMANCES. 25 
 
 Theagenes and Chariclea along with him. Hence- 
 forth his whole attention is directed to deceive 
 Charicles, and effect his escape from Delphos. 
 Having met with some Phoenician merchants, 
 and having informed the lovers of his intention, 
 he sets sail along with them for Sicily, to which 
 country the Phoenician vessel was bound ; but 
 soon after, passing Zacynthus, the ship is attack- 
 ed by pirates, who carry Calasiris and those un- 
 der his protection to the coast of Egypt. On 
 the banks of the Nile, Trachinus, the captain of 
 the pirates, prepares a feast to solemnize his nup- 
 tials with Chariclea, but Calasiris, with consider- 
 able ingenuity, having persuaded Pelorus, the se- 
 cond in command, that Chariclea is enamoured of 
 him, a contest naturally arises between him and 
 Trachinus during the feast, and the other pirates, 
 espousing different sides of the quarrel, are all 
 slain except Pelorus, who is attacked and put to 
 flight by Theagenes. The stratagem of Calasiris, 
 however, is of little avail, except to himself : for 
 immediately after the contest, while Calasiris is 
 sitting on a hill at some distance, Theagenes and 
 Chariclea are seized by a band of Egyptian rob- 
 bers, who conduct them to an establishment form- 
 ed on an island in a remote lake. Thyamis, the
 
 26 CHEEK ROMANCES. 
 
 captain of the banditti, becomes enamoured of 
 Chariclea, and declares an intention of espousing 
 her. Chariclea pretends that she is the sister of 
 Theagenes, in order that the jealousy of the rob- 
 ber may not be excited, and the safety of her lo- 
 ver endangered. This deception is practised in 
 other parts of the romance, particularly when Ar- 
 sace becomes enamoured of Theagenes at Mem- 
 phis. The incident has been also adopted in many 
 of the subsequent Greek romances, particularly in 
 Ismene and Ismenias, who declare themselves to 
 be brother and sister when they meet in a servile 
 condition in the house of Sostratus. This notion 
 was perhaps suggested to the author of Theagenes 
 and Chariclea, by some passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment. Heliodorus was a bishop, and though he 
 did not arrive at that dignity till after the compo- 
 sition of his romance, he must have found, in the 
 course of his studies, that Sarah and Abram pass- 
 ed, and for similar reasons, for brother and sister 
 while in Egypt, and that Isaac and Rebecca im- 
 posed on the people of Gerar under pretence of 
 the same relationship ; stratagems which have been 
 much applauded by St Chrysostom, St Ambrose, 
 and other fathers of the church. 
 
 Chariclea, however, ig not long compelled to
 
 GREEK ROMANCES, 27 
 
 assume the character of the sister of Theagenes. 
 The colony is speedily destroyed by the forces of 
 the satrap of Egypt, who was excited to this act 
 of authority by a complaint from Nausicles, a 
 Greek merchant, that the banditti had carried off 
 his mistress. Thyamis, the captain of the robbers, 
 escapes by flight, and Cnemon, a young Athenian, 
 who had been detained in the colony, and with 
 whom Theagenes had formed a friendshiD during 
 his confinement, sets out in quest of him. Thea- 
 genes and Chariclea depart soon after on their way 
 to a certain village, where they had agreed to meet 
 Cnemon, but are intercepted on the road by the 
 satrap's forces. Theagenes is sent as a present to 
 the king of Persia ; and Chariclea being falsely 
 claimed by Nausicles as his mistress, is conducted 
 to his house. Here Calasiris had accidentally fix- 
 ed his abode, since his separation from Theagenes 
 and Chariclea ; and was also doing the honours of 
 the house to Cnemon in the landlord's absence. 
 Chariclea being recognised by Calasiris, Nausicles 
 abandons the claim to her which he had advanced, 
 and sets sail with Cnemon for Greece, while Calasi- 
 ris and Chariclea proceed in search of Theagenes. 
 On arriving at Memphis, they find that, with his 
 usual good hick, he had again fallen into the power 
 of Thyamis, and was besieging that capital along
 
 28 GREEK ROMANCE?; 
 
 with the robber. A treaty of peace, however, is 
 speedily concluded. Thyamis is discovered to be 
 the son of Calasiris, and is elected high-priest of 
 Memphis. Arsace, who commanded in that city, 
 in the absence of her husband, falls in love with 
 Theagenes ; but, as he perseveres in resisting all 
 her advances, and in maintaining his fidelity to 
 Chariclea, she orders him to be put to the torture : 
 she also commands her nurse, who was the usual 
 confidante of her amours, and instrument of her 
 cruelty, to poison Chariclea ; but the cup-bearer 
 having given the nurse the goblet intended for 
 Chariclea, she expires in convulsions^ This, how- 
 ever, serves as a pretext to condemn Chariclea as 
 a poisoner, and she is accordingly appointed to be 
 burnt. After she had ascended the pile, and the 
 fire had been lighted, she is saved for that day 
 by the miraculous effects of the stone Pantarbe, 
 which she wore on her finger, and which warded 
 off the flames from her person. During the ensu- 
 ing night a messenger arrives from Oroondates, 
 the husband of Arsace, who was at that time car- 
 rying on a war against the Ethiopians : he had 
 been informed of the misconduct of his wife, and 
 had despatched one of his officers to Memphis, 
 with orders to bring Theagenes and Chariclea to 
 his camp. Arsace hangs herself; but the lovers 
 
 8
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 29 
 
 are taken prisoners, on their way to Oroondates, 
 by the scouts of the Ethiopian army, and are 
 conducted to Hydaspes, who was at that time be- 
 sieging Oroondates in Syene. This city having 
 been taken, and Oroondates vanquished in a great 
 battle, Hydaspes returns to his capital, Meroe, 
 where, by advice of his Gymnosophists, he pro- 
 poses to sacrifice Theagenes and Chariclea to the 
 sun and moon, the deities of Ethiopia. As virgins 
 were alone entitled to the privilege of being ac- 
 cepted as victims, Chariclea is subjected to atrial 
 of chastity, an unfortunate precedent for novelists, 
 as we shall afterwards find. Theagenes, while on 
 the very brink of sacrifice, performs many feats 
 of strength and dexterity. A bull, which was his 
 companion in misfortune, having broken from the 
 altar, Theagenes follows him on horseback, sub- 
 dues him, and returns on his back. 1 At length, 
 when the two lovers are about to be immolated, 
 Chariclea, by means of the ring and fillet which 
 had been attached to her at her birth, and had 
 been carefully preserved, is discovered to be the 
 daughter of Hydaspes, which is farther confirm- 
 
 1 This exercise, called Taurokathaps-a, was intended to 
 inure youth to martial tatigue, and was much practised in 
 Thessaly, the countr\ of Theagenes, whence it was after- 
 wards introduced at Rome.
 
 30 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 ed by the testimony of Sisimithres, once her re- 
 puted father ; and by the opportune arrival of 
 Charicles, priest of Delphos, who was wandering 
 through the world in search of Chariclea. After 
 some demur on the part of the Gymnosophists, 
 Chariclea obtains her own release and that of 
 Theagenes, is united to him in marriage, and ac- 
 knowledged as heiress of the Ethiopian empire. 
 
 Such is the abstract of the story of Theagenes 
 and Chariclea. Now the chief excellencies of the 
 story, or nuda materia of a romance, are Novelty, 
 Probability, and Variety of Incident ; in each of 
 which views it may be proper to examine this fic- 
 titious narrative. 
 
 Of the claims of Heliodorus to originality of 
 invention we are incompetent judges, as the ro- 
 mances that preceded Theagenes and Chariclea 
 have for the most part perished. Many of the 
 adventures, however, are probably taken from 
 Diogenes and Jamblichus ; and it is even suspect- 
 ed that the leading events in the story have been 
 founded on a tragedy of Sophocles, called the Cap- 
 tives, (A#i*a*ti) not now extant. 1 A few of the 
 incidents seem also to have been borrowed from 
 
 1 Bourdelotii Animadvers. p. 3. Casaub, ad Atheo. I. 1. 
 c.23.
 
 GRBEK ROMANCES. 31 
 
 the sacred writings. The stratagem of Sarah and 
 Abraham has been already mentioned. From the 
 frequent perusal of the Scriptures, the bishop may 
 have acquired his fondness for visions ; and the 
 powerful effects produced by the statue of Andro- 
 meda on the complexion of his heroine, would not 
 appear impossible to one who knew the success of 
 the contrivance by which Jacob obtained so large 
 a portion of the lambs of Laban. 
 
 As to probability of incident, Heliodorus out- 
 rages all verisimilitude in different ways ; as for 
 example, by the extraordinary interviews which he 
 brings about, and the summary manner in which 
 he disposes of a character which has become su- 
 pernumerary. When it is convenient for him that 
 two persons should meet, one of them comes to 
 travel in a country where apparently he had no- 
 thing to do ; and when a character becomes super- 
 fluous, the author finds no better resource than 
 informing us that he was bit by an asp, or died 
 suddenly in the night. Unexpected events no 
 doubt enliven a narrative ; but if they greatly vio- 
 late the order and course of nature, that belief in 
 an ideal presence, which is essential to relish or 
 interest, is totally overthrown ; and the credence 
 of reality being once destroyed, the waking dream
 
 32 CHI EK KOil A \Ci.>. 
 
 cannot again be restored, nor can the reader con- 
 ceive even the probable incidents as passing be- 
 fore him. 
 
 In the romance of Heliodorus, the changes of 
 Fortune also are too frequent and too much of the 
 same nature, as all the adventures and distresses in 
 the book originate in the hero or heroine falling 
 into the hands of robbers. This, it is true, gives 
 rise to many romantic incidents, but also produces 
 an unvaried and tiresome recurrence of similar mis- 
 fortunes. In works of art, we wish for that diver- 
 sity exhibited in the appearances of nature, and 
 require that every step should bring to view some 
 object, or some arrangement, which has not been 
 previously presented. 
 
 The work of the Bishop of Tricca, however, 
 has received considerable embellishment from the 
 disposition of the fable, and the artful manner in 
 which the tale is disclosed. The gradual un- 
 folding of the story of Theagenes and Chariclea, 
 the suspense in which the mind is held, and the 
 subsequent evolution of what seemed intricate, is 
 praised by Tasso, who greatly admired, and was 
 much indebted to Heliodorus : " II lasciar," says 
 he, " l'auditor sospeso procedendo dal confuso al 
 distinto, dall universale a' particolari e arte per-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 33 
 
 petua di Vergilio, e questa e una delle cagioni 
 che fa piacer tanto Eliodoro." ! Nor are the in- 
 cidents arranged in the chronological order of 
 the preceding romances, and of modern novels. 
 The work begins in the middle of the story, in 
 imitation of the epic poems of Greece and Rome, 
 in a manner the most romantic, and best fitted to 
 excite curiosity. Commencing immediately after 
 the contest had taken place among the pirates, 
 near the mouth of the Nile, for the possession of 
 Chariclea, it represents a band of Egyptian ban- 
 ditti, assembled at the dawn of day on the summit 
 of a promontory, and looking towards the sea. A 
 vessel loaded with spoil is lying at anchor. The 
 banks of the Nile are covered with dead bodies, 
 and the fragments of a feast. As the robbers ad- 
 vance to seize the vessel, a young lady of exquisite 
 beauty, whose appearance is charmingly described, 
 and whom we afterwards find to be Chariclea, is 
 represented sitting on a rock, while a young man 
 lies wounded beside her. The narrative proceeds 
 in the person of the author, till the meeting of 
 Cnemon and Calasiris in the house of Nausicles, 
 where Calasiris relates the early history of Cha- 
 
 1 Opere, vol. X. p. 103. ed. Venezia. 
 VOL. I. C
 
 34 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 riclea, the rise of her affection for Theagenes, and 
 her capture by the pirates. It must, however, 
 be confessed, that the author has shown little 
 judgment in making one of the characters in the 
 romance recount the adventures of a hero and 
 heroine. This is the most unusual and the worst 
 species of narration that can be adopted, espe- 
 cially where an incipient passion is to be painted. 
 The hero or heroine, while relating their story, 
 may naturally describe their own feelings ; and 
 an author is supposed to possess the privilege of 
 seeing into the hearts of his characters ; but it 
 can never be imagined that a third person in a 
 novel should be able to perceive and portray 
 all the sentiments and emotions of the principal 
 actors. 
 
 But the defects in the plan of the work do not 
 end with the narrative of Calasiris. After the au- 
 thor has resumed the story, he destroys our inte- 
 rest in every event by previously informing us that 
 the persons concerned had dreamed it was to take 
 place. The effect, too, of one of the most striking 
 situations in the work is injured by a fault in dis- 
 position. When Chariclea is about to be sacrificed 
 in Ethiopia, we feel no terror for her fate, nor 
 that unexpected joy at her deliverance, so much
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 35 
 
 extolled by Huet ; f as we know she is the daugh- 
 ter of Hydaspes, and has her credentials along 
 with her. This knowledge, it is true, increases 
 the pleasure that arises from sympathy with Hy- 
 daspes, and entering into his emotions ; but the 
 interest of the romance would have been greater, 
 had the birth of Chariclea been concealed till the 
 conclusion. This could have been done with slight 
 alterations, and would have formed, if I may be 
 allowed a technical word, an Anagnorosis, not 
 only to the characters in the work, but also to the 
 reader. 
 
 Nor can the disposition of the episodes be much 
 commended. The adventures of Cnemon, which 
 seem to be taken from the story of Hyppolitus, 
 have no great beauty or interest in themselves ; 
 they do not flow naturally from the main subject, 
 and are introduced too early. The only other 
 episode of much length is the account of the siege 
 of Syene, and the battle between Oroondates and 
 Hydaspes, which occupy the whole of the ninth 
 book ; and, however well described, entirely take 
 away our concern in the fate of Chariclea, and in 
 
 1 Sarrificii horrori incpina snrcedit laetitia, ob Iibratam 
 periculo pisesenti puellam Uuet. de Origine Fabularum, 
 p. 37. 
 
 1
 
 36 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 fact, iii proportion to the excellence of the de- 
 scription, at the very moment when the story is 
 approaching to a crisis, and when our interest 
 would have been raised the highest, had our im- 
 pressions remained uninterrupted. 
 
 Next to the nature of the subject, and the ar- 
 rangement of the incidents, the Ornaments of a 
 romance should be chiefly considered ; of these 
 the most important are the Style, the Characters, 
 the Sentiments, and the Descriptions. 
 
 The Style of Heliodorus has been blamed as too 
 figurative and poetical ; but this censure seems 
 chiefly applicable to those passages where he has 
 interwoven verses of the Greek poets, from whom 
 he has frequently borrowed. All his comparisons 
 are said to be taken from Homer ; but Sophocles, 
 whom he often imitates, and sometimes copies, 
 appears to have been his favourite author. Yet, 
 considering the period in which Heliodorus lived, 
 his style is remarkable for its elegance and per- 
 spicuity, and would not have disgraced an earlier 
 age. " His diction," says Photius, 1 " is such as 
 becomes the subject ; it possesses great sweetness 
 and simplicity, and is free from affectation ; the 
 words used are expressive, and if sometimes figu- 
 
 1 Cod. Ixxiii. p. 153.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 37 
 
 rative, as might be expected, they are always per- 
 spicuous, and such as clearly exhibit the object of 
 which the delineation is attempted. The periods 
 too are constructed so as to correspond with the 
 variations of the story ; they have an agreeable 
 alternation of length and shortness ; and, finally, 
 the whole composition is such as to have a corre- 
 spondence with the narration." 
 
 In the painting of Character, Heliodorus is ex- 
 tremely defective ; Theagenes, in particular, is a 
 weak and insipid personage. The author, indeed, 
 possesses a wonderful art of introducing those 
 who are destined to bear a part in the romance, in 
 situations calculated to excite sympathy, but as we 
 become acquainted with them we lose all concern 
 in their fate from their insipidity. In fact, Cha- 
 riclea is the only interesting person in the work. 
 She is represented as endued with great strength 
 of mind, united to a delicacy of feeling, and an 
 address, which turns every situation to the best 
 advantage. Indeed in all the ancient romances 
 the heroine is invariably the most engaging and 
 spirited character ; a circumstance which cannot 
 but surprise, when we consider what an inferior 
 part the women of Greece acted in society, and 
 how little they mingled in the affairs of life. 
 
 Heliodorus has been ridiculed by the author of
 
 38 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 the Parnassus Reformed, for having attributed t 
 his hero such excessive modesty, that he gave his 
 mistress a box on the ear when she approached to 
 embrace him. These railleries, however, are found- 
 ed on misrepresentation. Theagenes met Chariclea 
 at Memphis, but mistaking both her person and 
 character from her wretched dress and appearance, 
 he inflicted a blow to get rid of her importunities 
 an unhandsome reception, no doubt, to any wo- 
 man, but which proves nothing as to his sentiments 
 concerning Chariclea. The reader will perhaps 
 remark as he advances, that pirates and robbers 
 have a principal share in the action of the suc- 
 ceeding Greek romances, as well as in the Ethio- 
 pic adventures. Their leaders are frequently the 
 second characters, and occupy the part of the 
 unsuccessful lovers of the heroine ; but are not 
 always painted as endued wkh any peculiar bad 
 qualities, or as exciting horror in the other per- 
 sons of the work. Nor is this representation 
 inconsistent with the manners of the period in 
 which the action of these romances is placed. 
 In the early ages of Greece, piracy was not ac- 
 counted a dishonourable employment. In the 
 ancient poets, those that sail along the shore are 
 usually accosted with the question, whether they 
 are pirates, as if the enquiry could not be consi-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 39 
 
 dered a reproach from those who were anxious to 
 be informed, and as if those who were interro- 
 gated would not scruple to acknowledge their 
 vocation. Even at the time of the Peloponnesian 
 war, the .ZEtolians, Acarnanians, and some other 
 nations, subsisted by piracy ; and in the early ages 
 of Greece, it was the occupation of all those who 
 resided near the coast, f* The Grecians," says 
 Thucydides, in the very beginning of his History, 
 " took up the trade of piracy under the command 
 of persons of the greatest ability amongst them ; 
 and for the sake of enriching such adventurers 
 and subsisting their poor, they landed and plun- 
 dered by surprise unfortified places, or scattered 
 villages. Nor was this an employment of reproach, 
 but rather an instrument of glory. Some people 
 of the continent are even at the present day a 
 proof of this, as they still attribute honour to such 
 exploits, if performed with due respect and hu-> 
 manity." 
 
 Heliodorus abounds in Descriptions, some of 
 which are extremely interesting. His accounts of 
 many of the customs of the Egyptians are said to 
 be very correct, and he describes particular places 
 with an accuracy which gives an appearance of 
 reality to his romance. He seldom, however, de- 
 lineates the great outlines of nature, or touches on
 
 40 GKKEK ROMANCES. 
 
 those accidents which render scenery sublime or 
 beautiful he chiefly delights in minute descrip- 
 tions of the pomp of embassies and processions, 
 and, as was natural in a priest, of sacrifices, or 
 religious rites. These might be tiresome or even 
 disgusting in a modern novel, but the representa- 
 tion of manners, of customs, and of ceremonies, is 
 infinitely more valuable in an old romance, than 
 pictures of general nature. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Theagenes and Cha- 
 riclea has supplied with materials many of the 
 early writers of Romance. It was imitated in 
 the composition of Achilles Tatius, and subse- 
 quent Greek fablers ; and although I cannot 
 trace the resemblance which is said to exist be- 
 tween the work of Heliodorus, and that species 
 of modern novel first introduced by Richard- 
 son, 1 it was unquestionably the model of those 
 heroic fictions, which, through the writings of 
 Gomberville and Scuderi, became for a consider- 
 able period so popular and prevalent in France. 
 The modern Italian poets have also availed them- 
 selves of the incidents that occur in the work 
 of Heliodorus. Thus the circumstances of the 
 birth and early life of Clorinda, related by Arsete 
 in the twelfth canto of the Jerusalem Delivered, 
 
 ' Barbanld's Preface to Richardson.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. '11 
 
 are taken, with hardly any variation, from the 
 story of the infancy of Chariclea. 1 The proposed 
 
 Kcsse gia l'fctiopia, e forse regge : 
 Senapo ancor, con fortunato impero. 
 Quivi Io pagan fui servo e fui tra greggc 
 D'ancelle avvolto in femminil mesticro, 
 Ministro fatto della regia Moglic, 
 Che bruna e si, ma il bruno il bel non toglie. 
 
 D' Una pietosa istoria, e di devote 
 Figure la sua stanza era dipinta. 
 Verginc bianca il bel volto, e le gote 
 Vermiglia e quivi presso un Drago avvinta. 
 Coll asta il monstro il cavalier percuote ; 
 Giace la fera nel suo sanguc estinta : 
 Quivi sovente eila s'atterra, e spiega 
 Le sue tacite colpe, e piange, e prega. 
 
 Ingravida frattanto,ed espon fuori 
 
 (E tu fosti colei) Candida figlia : 
 
 Si turba, e degl' insoliti colori, 
 
 Quasi li'uii nuovo mostro, ha maraviglia; 
 
 Ma perche il Re conosce, e i suoi furori, 
 
 CelargVi il parto alfin si riconsiglia ; 
 
 Ch' egli avria dal candor, che in te si vede, 
 
 Argomentato in lei non bianca fede, 
 
 Ed in tua vece una fanciulla nera 
 Pensa mostrarjli poco innanzi nata. 
 li perche fu la torre, ove chins' era, 
 Dalle donne, e da me solo abitata ; 
 A me, cha le fui servo, c con sincera 
 Mente l'amai ti die non battezzata :
 
 42 CREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 sacrifice and subsequent discovery of the birth of 
 Chariclea have likewise been imitated in the Pas- 
 tor Fido of Guarini, and through it in the Astrea 
 of D'Urfe. 
 
 Ilacine had at one time intended writing a dra- 
 ma on the subject of this romance, a plan which 
 has been accomplished by Dorat, in his tragedy 
 of Theagenes and Chariclea, which was acted at 
 Paris in the year 1762. It also suggested the plot 
 of an old English tragi-comedy by an unknown 
 author, entitled The Strange Discovery. 
 
 Hardy, the French poet, wrote eight tragedies 
 in verse on the same subject, without materially 
 altering the ground-work of the romance, an 
 instance of literary prodigality which is perhaps 
 unexampled. The story, though well fitted for 
 narrative, is unsuitable for tragedy, which indeed 
 is acknowledged by Dorat in his preliminary dis- 
 course. " I was seized," observes he, " with en- 
 thusiasm ; I raised a tottering edifice with romantic 
 proportions, and wrote with inconceivable warmth 
 a cold and languid drama." 
 
 Ne gia potcva allor battesroo darti, 
 Che l'uso nol sostien lit quelle parti. 
 
 rian;cm!i> a me ti porse, e mi commise, 
 Ch' io lontaoa a nudrir ti conducessi. 
 
 tiertu* Liber, canto 12. st. 2J, &c.
 
 CREEK ROMANCES. 43 
 
 If we may judge by success, the events of the 
 romance are better adapted to furnish materials to 
 the artist than the tragic poet. Two of the most 
 striking incidents that occur in the work of He- 
 liodorus have been finely delineated by Raphael, 
 in separate paintings, in which he was assisted by 
 Julio Romano. In one he has seized the moment 
 when Theagenes and Chariclea meet in the tem- 
 ple of Delphos, and Chariclea presents Theagenes 
 with a torch to kindle the sacrifice. In the other 
 he has chosen for his subject the capture of the 
 Tyrian ship, in which Calasiris was conducting 
 Theagenes and Chariclea to the coast of Sicily. 
 The vessel is supposed to have already struck to 
 the pirates, and Chariclea is exhibited, by the 
 light of the moon, in a suppliant posture, implo- 
 ring Trachinus that she might not be separated 
 from her lover and Calasiris. 
 
 Theagenes and Chariclea was received with 
 much applause in the age in which it appeared. 
 The popularity of a work invariably produces 
 imitation ; and hence the style of composition 
 which had recently been introduced, was soon 
 adopted by various writers. 
 
 Of these, Achilles Tatius ' comes next to Heli- 
 
 1 Aji\Xti? Tana AXifavJjtaij, K^mrunn &Jxt Utd, Ed. 
 Budeu. Lipsiffi, 1116. aee Appeudix, i\o. 3.
 
 44 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 odorus in time, and perhaps in merit. Though in 
 many respects he has imitated his predecessor, it 
 may in the first place be remarked, that he has 
 adopted a mode of narrative totally different. The 
 author introduces himself as gazing at the picture 
 of Europa, which was placed in the temple of 
 Venus in Sidon. While thus employed, he is 
 accosted by Clitophon, who, without previous ac- 
 quaintance, relates to him his whole adventures, 
 which are comprised in eight books. This way 
 of introducing the story is no doubt very absurd, 
 but when once it is commenced, the plan of nar- 
 ration is preferable to that part of Theagenes and 
 Chariclea which is told by an inferior character 
 in the work. 
 
 The following is the story of the romance : 
 Clitophon resided at his father's house in Tyre, 
 where his cousin Leucippe came to seek refuge 
 from a war which was at that time carried on 
 against her native country. These young relatives 
 became mutually enamoured, and Leucippe's mo- 
 ther having discovered Clitophon one night in the 
 chamber of her daughter, the lovers resolved to 
 avoid the effects of her anger by flight. Accom- 
 panied by Clinias, a friend of Clitophon, they sail- 
 ed in the first instance for Berytus. A conversation
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 45 
 
 which took place between CHtophon and Clinias 
 during the voyage, seems to have been suggest- 
 ed by the singular disquisition contained in the 
 Egom?, attributed to Lueian, and usually publish- 
 ed in his works. After a short stay at Berytus, 
 the fugitives set out for Alexandria : the vessel 
 was wrecked on the third day of the voyage, but 
 CHtophon and Leucippe, adhering with great pre- 
 sence of mind to the same plank, were driven on 
 shore near Pelusium, in Egypt. At this place they 
 hired a vessel to carry them to Alexandria, but 
 while sailing up the Nile they were seized by a 
 band of robbers who infested the banks of the ri- 
 ver. The robbers were soon after attacked by 
 the Egyptian forces, commanded by Charmides, 
 to whom CHtophon escaped during the heat of the 
 engagement Leucippe, however, remained in 
 the power of the enemy, who, with much solem- 
 nity, apparently ripped up our heroine close to 
 the army of Charmides, and in the sight of her lo- 
 ver, who was prevented from interfering by a deep 
 fosse which separated the two armies. The ditch 
 having been filled up, CHtophon in the course of 
 the night went to immolate himself on the spot 
 where Leucippe had been interred. He arrived 
 at her tomb, but was prevented from executing 
 his purpose by the sudden appearance of his ser-
 
 46 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 vant Satyrus, and of Menelaus, a young man wlw 
 had sailed with him in the vessel from Berytu9. 
 These two persons had also escaped from the 
 shipwreck, and had afterwards fallen into the 
 power of the robbers. By them Leucippe had 
 been accommodated with a false uterus, made of 
 sheep's skin, which gave rise to the deceptio visus 
 above related. At the command of Menelaus, 
 Leucippe issued from the tomb, and proceeded 
 with Clitophon and Menelaus to the quarters of 
 Charmides. In a short time this commander be- 
 came enamoured of Leucippe, as did also Gorgi- 
 as, one of his officers. Gorgias gave her a potion 
 calculated to inspire her with reciprocal passion, 
 but which, being too strong, affected her with a 
 species of madness of a very indecorous charac- 
 ter. 1 She is cured, however, by Chaereas, an- 
 other person who had fallen in love with her, and 
 had discovered the secret of the potion from the 
 servant of Gorgias. Taking Chaereas along with 
 them, Clitophon and Leucippe sail for Alexan- 
 dria. Soon after their arrival, Leucippe was car- 
 
 ' During this slate of mental alienation she commits 
 many arts of extravagance. She boxes her lover on the 
 ear, repulses Mpnrlaus with her feet, and at Inst quarrels 
 with her petticoats; 'n it ar^xrvniXaai h/uXt *Ji <f>joTitw 
 *{ivmy era yvir, f*n ogae-Siii SiMi. I. 4. c. 9.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 47 
 
 tied off from the neighbourhood of that place, and 
 hurried on board a vessel by a troop of banditti 
 employed by Chaereas. Clitophon pursued the 
 vessel, but when just coming up with it he saw 
 the head of a person he mistook for Leucippe 
 struck off by the robbers. Disheartened by this 
 incident, he relinquished the pursuit and returned 
 to Alexandria. There he was informed that Melite, 
 a rich Ephesian widow, at that time residing in 
 Alexandria, had fallen in love with him. This in- 
 telligence he received from his old friend Clinias, 
 who, after the wreck of the vessel in which he had 
 embarked with Clitophon, had got on shore by the 
 usual expedient of a plank, and now suggested to 
 his friend that he should avail himself of the pre- 
 dilection of Melite. In compliance with this sug- 
 gestion, he set sail with her for Ephesus, but per- 
 sisted in postponing the nuptials till they should 
 reach that place, spite of the most vehement impor- 
 tunities on the part of the widow. On their arrival 
 at Ephesus the marriage took place, but before Me- 
 lite's object in the marriage had been accomplish- 
 ed, Clitophon discovered Leucippe among his 
 wife's slaves ; and Thersander, Melite's husband, 
 who was supposed to be drowned, arrived at 
 Ephesus. Clitophon was instantly confined by
 
 48 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 the enraged husband ; but, on condition of put- 
 ting the last seal to the now invalid marriage, he 
 escaped by the intervention of Melite. He had 
 not proceeded far when he was overtaken by Ther- 
 sander, and brought back to confinement. Tber- 
 sander, of course, fell in love with Leucippe, but 
 not being able to engage her affections, he brought 
 two actions ; one declaratory, that Leucippe was 
 his slave, and a prosecution against Clitophon for 
 marrying his wife. The debates on both sides are 
 insufferably tiresome. The priest of Diana, with 
 whom Leucippe had taken refuge, lavishes much 
 abuse on Thersander, which is returned on his 
 part with equal volubility. Leucippe is at last 
 subjected to a trial of chastity in the cave of Dia- 
 na, from which the sweetest music issued when 
 entered by those who resembled its goddess. Ne- 
 ver were notes heard so melodious as those by 
 which Leucippe was vindicated. Thersander was 
 of course nonsuited, and retired loaded with in- 
 famy. Leucippe then related that it was a wo- 
 man dressed in her clothes, whose head had been 
 struck off by the banditti, in order to deter Clito- 
 phon from farther pursuit, but that a quarrel ha- 
 ving arisen among them on her account, Chaereas 
 was slain, and after his death she was sold by the
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 49 
 
 other pirates to Sosthenes. By him she had been 
 purchased for Thersander, in whose service she 
 remained till discovered by Clitophon. 
 
 In this romance many of the descriptions are 
 borrowed from Philostratus, and the Hero and 
 Leander of Musaeus. Some of the events have 
 also been taken frOm Heliodorus. Like that au- 
 thor, Tatius makes frequent use of robbers, pi- 
 rates, and dreams ; but the general style of his 
 work is totally different. If there be less sweetness 
 and interest than in Theagenes and Chariclea, 
 there is more bustle in the action. A number of 
 the amorous stratagems, too, are original and well 
 imagined such as Clitophon's discourse on love 
 with Satyrus, in the hearing of Leucippe ; and 
 the beautiful incident of the bee, which has been 
 adopted by D'Urfe, and by Tasso in his Aminta, 
 where Sylvia having pretended to cure Phyllis, 
 whom a bee had stung, by kissing her, Aminta 
 perceiving this, feigns that he too had been stung, 
 in order that Sylvia, pitying his pain, might apply 
 a similar remedy. 1 Among these devices may be 
 
 1 Fingendo, ch' un ape avessc morso 
 II niio labro di sotto, incominciai 
 A lamentarmi di cotal maniera, 
 Che quella medicina, cbe la lingua 
 Non richiedeva, il volto richiedeva. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 50 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 mentioned the petition of Melite to Leucippe, 
 whom she believes to be a Thessalian, to procure 
 her herbs for a potion that may gain her the affec- 
 tions of Clitophon. The sacrifice, too, of Leucippe 
 by the robbers in the presence of her lover, is hap- 
 pily imagined, were not the solution of the enig- 
 ma so wretched. As the work advances, however, 
 it must be confessed, that it gradually decreases in 
 interest, and that these agreeable incidents are 
 more thinly scattered. Towards the conclusion 
 it becomes insufferably tiresome, and the author 
 
 La seraplicetta Silvia, 
 
 Fietosa del mio male, 
 
 S' offri di dar aita 
 
 A la finta ferita, A hi lasso, e fecr 
 
 Pin cupa, e piu mortale 
 
 La mia paga verace. 
 
 Quando le labra sue 
 
 Giunse a le labra mie, 
 
 Ne 1' api d' alcun fiore 
 
 Coglion si dolce il mel, ch' allhora Io col.-i 
 
 Da quelle fresche Roe 
 
 Ma mentre al cor scendeva 
 
 Quella dolcezza mista 
 
 D' un secreto veleno, 
 
 Tal diletto n' havea, 
 
 Cbe fingendo ch' ancor nou mi passassc 
 
 II dolor di quel mono, 
 
 Fei si, ch' ella piu volte 
 
 Vi replico 1' iucanto. 
 
 Aminta, act 1. SC. 2.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 51 
 
 scruples not to* violate all verisimilitude in the 
 events related. 
 
 Indeed, through the whole romance, want of 
 probability seems the great defect. Nothing can 
 be more absurd or unnatural than the false ute- 
 rus nothing can be worse imagined than the 
 vindication of the heroine in the cave of Diana, 
 which is the final solution of the romance. When 
 it is necessary for the story that Thersander should 
 be informed who Leucippe is, the author makes 
 him overhear a soliloquy, in which she reports 
 to herself a full account of her genealogy, and 
 an abridgement of her whole adventures. A soli- 
 loquy can never be properly introduced, unless 
 the speaker is under the influence of some strong 
 passion, or reasons on some important subject ; 
 but as Heliodorus borrowed from Sophocles, so 
 Tatius is said to have imitated Euripides. From 
 him he may have taken this unnatural species of 
 soliloquy, as this impropriety exists in almost all 
 the introductions to the tragedies of that poet. 
 
 Tatius has been much blamed for the immora- 
 lity of his romance, and it must be acknowledged 
 that there are particular passages which are ex- 
 tremely exceptionable ; yet, however odious some 
 of these may be considered, the general moral 
 tendency of the story is good ; a remark which
 
 52 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 may be extended to all the Greek romances. Ta- 
 tius punishes his hero and heroine for eloping 
 from their fathers' house, and afterwards rewards 
 them for their long fidelity. 
 
 The Clitophon and Leucippe of Tatius does not 
 seem to have been composed like Theagenes and 
 Chariclea, as a romance equally interesting and 
 well written throughout, but as a species of patch- 
 work, in different places of which the author might 
 exhibit the variety of his talents. At one time he 
 is anxious to shew his taste in painting and sculp- 
 ture ; at another his acquaintance with natural his- 
 tory ; and towards the end of the book his skill in 
 declamation. But his principal excellence lies in 
 descriptions ; and though these are too luxuriant, 
 they are in general beautiful, the objects being at 
 once well selected, and so painted as to form in 
 the mind of the reader a distinct and lively image. 
 As examples of his merit in this way may be in- 
 stanced, his description of a garden, (1. i. c. 16,) 
 and of a tempest followed by a shipwreck, (1. iii. 
 c. 234.) We may also mention his accounts of the 
 pictures of Europa, (1. i. c. 1,) of Andromeda, (1. 
 iii. c. 7,) and Prometheus, (1. iii. c. 8,) in which 
 his descriptions and criticisms are executed with 
 very considerable taste and feeling. Indeed, the 
 remarks on these paintings form a presumption of
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 53 
 
 the advanced state of the art at the period in which 
 Tatius wrote, or at least of the estimation in which 
 it was held, and afford matter of much curious 
 speculation to connoisseurs and artists. 
 
 Writers, however, are apt to indulge themselves 
 in enlarging where they excel ; accordingly the 
 descriptions of Tatius are too numerous, and some- 
 times very absurdly introduced. Thus Clitophon, 
 when mentioning the preparations for his marri- 
 age with a woman he disliked, presents the reader 
 with a long description of a neck-lace which was 
 purchased for her, and also enters into a detail 
 concerning the origin of dying purple, (1. ii. c. 11 ;) 
 he likewise introduces very awkwardly an account 
 of various zoological curiosities. (1. ii. c. 14.) In- 
 deed, he seems particularly fond of natural his- 
 tory, and gives very animated and correct deline- 
 ations of the hippopotamus, (1. iv. c. 2, &c.) of 
 the elephant, (1. iv. c. 4,) and the crocodile, (1. iv, 
 c. 19.) 
 
 The description of the rise and progress of the 
 passion of Clitophon for Leucippe is extremely 
 well executed. Of this there is nothing in the ro- 
 mance of Heliodorus. Theagenes and Chariclea 
 at first sight are violently and mutually enamour- 
 ed ; in Tatius we have more of the restless agita- 
 tion of love and the arts of courtship. Indeed,
 
 .31 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 this is by much the best part of" the Clitophon and 
 Leucippe, as the author discloses very consider- 
 able acquaintance with the human heart. This 
 knowledge also appears in the sentiments scatter- 
 ed through the work, though it must be confessed 
 that in many of his remarks he is apt to subtilize 
 and refine too much. 
 
 In point of style, Tatius is said by Huet and 
 other critics* to excel Heliodorus, and all the 
 writers of Greek romance. His language has 
 been chiefly applauded for its conciseness, ease, 
 and simplicity. Photius, who wrote tolerable 
 Greek himself, and must have been a better judge 
 than any later critic, observes, " with regard to 
 diction and composition, Tatius seems to me to 
 excel. When he employs figurative language, 
 it is clear and natural; his sentences are pre- 
 cise and limpid, and such as by their sweetness 
 greatly delight the ear,"* 
 
 In the delineation of character Tatius is still 
 more defective than Heliodorus. Clitophon, the 
 principal person in the romance, is a wretchedly 
 weak and pusillanimous being ; he twice allows 
 himself to be beaten by Thersander, without re- 
 sistance^ he has neither sense nor courage, nor 
 
 1 ITue(. p. 40 Bo ler. praef. p. 15. 
 - 1'hotius, Bib. Cod. lxxxvii. p. S06.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 55 
 
 indeed any virtue except uncommon fidelity to 
 his mistress. She is a much more interesting, and 
 is indeed a heroic character. 
 
 We now proceed to the analysis of a romance 
 different in its nature from the works already 
 mentioned ; and of a species which may be dis- 
 tinguished by the appellation of Pastoral ro- 
 mance. 
 
 It may be conjectured with much probability, 
 that pastoral composition sometimes expressed the 
 devotion, and sometimes formed the entertainment, 
 of the first generations of mankind. The sacred 
 writings sufficiently inform us that it existed among 
 the eastern nations during the earliest ages. Ru- 
 ral images are every where scattered through the 
 Old Testament ; and the Song of Solomon in par- 
 ticular beautifully delineates the charms of a coun- 
 try life, while it paints the most amiable affections 
 of the mind, and the sweetest scenery of nature. 
 A number of passages of Theocritus bear a stri- 
 king resemblance to descriptions in the inspired 
 pastoral ; and many critics have believed that he 
 had studied its beauties, and transferred them to 
 his eclogues. Theocritus was imitated in his own 
 dialect by Moschus and Bion ; and Virgil, taking 
 advantage of a different language, copied yet ri- 
 valled the Sicilian. The Bucolics of the Roman
 
 56 OREKK. ROMANCES. 
 
 bard seem to have been considered as precluding 
 all attempts of the same kind ; for, if we except 
 the feeble efforts of Calpurnius, and his contem- 
 porary Nemesianus, who lived in the third cen- 
 tury, no subsequent specimen of pastoral poetry 
 was, as far as 1 know, produced till the revival of 
 literature. 
 
 It was during this interval that Longus, a Greek 
 sophist, ' who is said to have lived soon after the 
 age of Tatius, wrote his pastoral romance of Daph- 
 nis and Chloe, which is the earliest, and by far the 
 finest example that has appeared of this species 
 of composition. Availing himself of the beauties 
 of the pastoral poets who preceded him, he has 
 added to their simplicity of style, and charming 
 pictures of Nature, a story which possesses consi- 
 derable interest, and of which the following ab- 
 stract is presented to the reader. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Mytilene, the princi- 
 pal city of Lesbos, Lamon, a goatherd, as he was 
 one day tending his flock, discovered an infant 
 sucking one of his goats with surprising dexterity. 
 He takes home the child, and presents him to his 
 wife Myrtale ; at the same time he delivers to her 
 a purple mantle with which the boy was adorned, 
 and a little sword with an ivory hilt, which was 
 
 1 Appendix, No. 4.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 57 
 
 lying by his side. Lamon having no children of 
 his own, resolves to bring up the foundling, and 
 bestows on him the pastoral name of Daphnis* 
 
 About two years after this occurrence, Dryas, 
 a neighbouring shepherd, finds in the cave of the 
 nymphs, which is beautifully described in the ro- 
 mance, a female infant, nursed by one of his ewes. 
 The child is brought to the cottage of Dryas, re- 
 ceives the name of Chloe, and is cherished by the 
 old man as if she had been his daughter. 
 
 When Daphnis had reached the age of fifteen, 
 and Chloe that of twelve, Lamon and Dryas, their 
 reputed fathers, had corresponding dreams on the 
 same night. The nymphs of the cave in which 
 Chloe had been discovered appear to each of the 
 old shepherds, delivering Daphnis and Chloe to a 
 winged boy, with a bow and arrows, who com- 
 mands that Daphnis should be sent to keep goats, 
 and the girl to tend the sheep : Daphnis and 
 Chloe have not long entered on their new em- 
 ployments, which they exercise with a care of 
 their flocks, increased by a knowledge of the cir- 
 cumstances of their infancy, when chance brings 
 them to pasture on the same spot. It was then, 
 says the romance, the beginning of spring, and 
 every species of flower bloomed through the 
 woods, the meadows and mountains. The ten-
 
 58 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 der flocks sported around the lambs skipped on 
 tin' hills the bees hummed through the vallies 
 and the birds filled the groves with their song. 
 Daphnis collects the wandering sheep of Chloe, 
 and Chloe drives from the rocks the goats of 
 Daphnis. They make reeds in common, and 
 share together their milk and their wine ; their 
 youth, their beauty, the season of the year, every 
 thing tends to inspire them with a mutual passion : 
 at length Daphnis having one day fallen into a 
 covered pit which was dug for the wolf, and be- 
 ing considerably hurt, receives from Chloe a kiss, 
 which serves as the first fuel to the flame of love. 
 Chloe had another admirer, Dorco, the cow- 
 herd, who having in vain requested her in marri- 
 age from Dryas, her reputed father, resolves to 
 carry her off by force ; for this purpose he dis- 
 guises himself as a wolf, and lurks among some 
 bushes near a place where Chloe used to pasture 
 her sheep. In this garb he is discovered and at- 
 tacked by the dogs, who entered into his frolic 
 with unexpected alacrity, but is preserved from 
 being torn to pieces by the timely arrival of Daph- 
 nis. From the example of Dorco this became a 
 favourite stratagem among pastoral characters. 
 In the Pastor Fido, (act iv. sc. ii.) Dorinda dis- 
 guises herself as a wolf, and the troubadour Vidal
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 59 
 
 was hunted down in consequence of a similar ex- 
 periment. 
 
 Spring was now at an end summer beamed 
 forth and all Nature flourished the trees were 
 loaded with fruits, the fields were covered with 
 corn, and the woods were filled with melody 
 every thing tended to inspire pleasure the sweet 
 hum of the cicada, the fragrance of the ripening 
 apples, and the bleating of the sheep. The gliding 
 streams were heard as if they modulated the song, 
 and the breezes rustling among the pines seemed 
 the breath of the flute. 
 
 In the beginning of autumn some Tyrian pirates 
 having landed on the island, seize the oxen of 
 Dorco, and carry off Daphnis, whom they meet 
 sauntering on the shore. Chloe hearing Daphnis 
 calling for assistance from the ship, flies for help 
 to Dorco, and reaches him when he is just ex- 
 piring of the wounds inflicted by the corsairs of 
 Tyre. Before his death he gives her his pipe, on 
 which, after she had closed his eyes, she plays 
 according to his instructions a certain tune, (pro- 
 bably the Ronce des Vaches,) which being heard 
 by the oxen in the Tyrian vessel, they all leap 
 overboard and overset the ship. The pirates be- 
 ing loaded with heavy armour are drowned, but 
 Daphnis swims safe to shore.
 
 60 OREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 Here ends the first book ; and in the second the 
 author proceeds to relate, that during autumn 
 Daphnis and Chloe were engaged in the labours, 
 or rather the delights, of" the vintage. 1 After the 
 grapes had been gathered and pressed, and the 
 new wine treasured in casks, having returned to 
 feed their flocks, they are accosted one day by 
 an old man named Philetas, who tells them a long 
 story of seeing Cupid in a garden, adding, that 
 Daphnis and Chloe were to be dedicated to his 
 service ; the lovers naturally enquire who Cupid 
 is, for, although they had felt his influence, they 
 were ignorant of his name. Philetas describes his 
 power and his attributes, and points out the re- 
 medy for the pains he inflicts.* 
 
 The instructions of this venerable old man to 
 the lovers were sufficiently explicit, but, spite of 
 the lesson they had received, they appear to have 
 
 * A great deal is said in this romance concerning the 
 vintage Lesbos had in all times beeu celebrated for its 
 wine, which was scarcely of an intoxicating quality. 
 
 Hie inaocentis pocula Lesbii 
 Duces sub umbra ; nee Semeleius 
 Cum Marte confundet Thyoneus 
 Pnrlia. 
 
 For the qualities of Lesbian wine, see Athenasus, lib. 1. c. 
 ?S. and Aul. Gellius, 13. c 5.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 6.1 
 
 made very little advancement. Their progress 
 was on one occasion interrupted by the arrival of 
 certain youths of Methymnaea, who landed near 
 that part of the island where Daphnis fed his 
 flocks, in order to enjoy the pleasures of the chace 
 during vintage. The twigs by which the ship of 
 these sportsmen was tied to the shore had been 
 eaten through by some goats, and the vessel had 
 been carried away by the tide and the land breeze. 
 Its crew having proceeded up the country in 
 search of the owner of the animals, and not having 
 found him, seize Daphnis as a substitute, and lash 
 him severely, till other shepherds come to his 
 assistance. Philetas is appointed judge between 
 Daphnis and the Methymnaeans, but the latter 
 refusing to abide by his decision, which was un- 
 favourable to them, are driven from the terri- 
 tory. They return, however, next day, and carry 
 off Chloe, with a great quantity of booty. Having 
 landed at a place of shelter which lay in the course 
 of their voyage, they pass the night in festivity, 
 but at dawn of day they are terrified by the un- 
 looked-for appearance of Pan, who threatens them 
 with being drowned before they arrive at their in- 
 tended place of destination, unless they set Chloe 
 at liberty. Through this respectable interposition, 
 Chloe is allowed to return home, and is speedily
 
 02 CREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 restored to the arms of Daphnis. The grateful 
 lovers sing hymns to the nymphs. On the follow- 
 ing day they sacrifice to Pan, and hang a goat's 
 skin on a pine adjoining his image. The feast 
 which follows this ceremony is attended by all the 
 old shepherds in the neighbourhood, who recount 
 the adventures of their youth, and their children 
 dance to the sound of the pipe. 
 
 The third book commences with the approach 
 of winter, and from the description of that season 
 which is given in the romance, it would appear 
 that at the period of its composition the tempera- 
 ture of the Lesbian climate was colder than it is 
 now represented by travellers. We are told in 
 the pastoral, that early in winter a sudden fall of 
 snow shuts up all the roads, the peasants are con- 
 fined to their cottages, and the earth nowhere 
 appears except on the brinks of rivers, or sides of 
 fountains. No one leads forth his flocks to pas- 
 ture ; but by a blazing fire some twist cords for 
 the net, some plait goat's hair, and others make 
 snares for the birds ; the hogs' are fed with acorns 
 in the sty, the sheep with leaves in the folds, and 
 the oxen with chaff in the stalls. 
 
 The season of the year precludes the interviews 
 of Daphnis and Chloe. They could no longer meet 
 in the fields, and Daphnis was afraid to excite sus-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 63 
 
 picion by visiting the object of his passion at the 
 cottage of Dryas. He ventures, however, to ap- 
 proach its vicinity, under pretext of laying snares 
 for birds. Engaged in this employment, he waits 
 a long time without any person appearing from 
 the house. At length, when about to depart, 
 Dryas himself comes out in pursuit of a dog who 
 had run off with the family dinner. He perceives 
 Daphnis with his game, and accordingly, as a pro- 
 fitable speculation, invites him into the cottage. 
 The birds he had caught are prepared for supper, 
 a second cup is filled, a new fire is kindled, and 
 Daphnis is asked to remain next day to attend a. 
 sacrifice to be performed to Bacchus. By accept- 
 ing the invitation, he for some time longer enjoys 
 the society of Chloe. The lovers part, praying 
 for the revival of spring ; but while the winter 
 lasted, Daphnis frequently visits the habitation of 
 Dryas. 
 
 When spring returns, Daphnis and Chloe are 
 the first to lead out their flocks to pasture. Their 
 ardour when they meet in the fields is increased 
 by long absence, and the season of the year, but 
 their hearts remain innocent ; a purity which the 
 author still imputes not to virtue, but to ignorance. 
 
 Chromis, an old man in the neighbourhood, had 
 married a young woman called Lycaenium, who
 
 64 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 falls in love with Daphnis ; she becomes acquaint- 
 ed with the perplexity in which he is placed with 
 regard to Chloe, and resolves at once to gratify 
 her own passion, and to free him from his embar- 
 rassment. 
 
 Daphnis, however, still hesitates to practise with 
 Chloe the lesson he had received from Lycaenium ; 
 and the reader is again tired with the repetition 
 of preludes, for which he can no longer find an 
 excuse. 
 
 In the fourth book we are told that, towards the 
 close of summer, a fellow-servant of Lamon ar- 
 rives from Mytilene, to announce that the lord 
 of the territory on which the reputed fathers of 
 Daphnis and Chloe pastured their Hocks, would 
 be with them at the approach of vintage. 
 
 Lamon prepares every thing for his reception 
 with much assiduity, but bestows particular at- 
 tention on the embellishment of a spacious garden 
 which adjoined his cottage, and of which the dif- 
 ferent parts are described as having been arran- 
 ged in a manner fitted to inspire all the agreeable 
 emotions which the art of gardening can produce. 
 " It was," says the author, " the length of a sta- 
 dium, and the breadth of four plethra, was in a lof- 
 ty situation, and formed an oblong. It was plant- 
 ed with all sorts of trees ; with apples, myrtles.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 65 
 
 pears, pomegranates, figs, olives, and the tall vine, 
 which, reclining on the pear and apple trees, seem- 
 ed to vie with them in its fruits. Nor were the fo- 
 rest trees, as the plane, the pine, and the cypress, 
 less abundant. To them clung not the vine, but 
 the ivy, whose large and ripening berry emulated 
 the grape. These forest trees surrounded the 
 fruit-bearers, as if they had been a shelter formed 
 by art ; and the whole was protected by a slight 
 inclosure. The garden was divided by paths 
 the stems of the trees were far separated from 
 each other, but the branches entwined above, 
 formed a continued arbour : here too were beds 
 of flowers, some of which the earth bore sponta- 
 neously, while others were produced by cultiva- 
 tion ; roses, hyacinths, were planted and tended ; 
 the ground of itself yielded the violet and the 
 narcissus. Here were shade in summer, sweet- 
 ness of flowers in spring, the pleasures of vintage 
 in autumn, and fruits in every season of the year. 
 Hence too the plain could be seen, and flocks 
 feeding ; the sea also, and the ships sailing over 
 it ; so that all these might be numbered among 
 the delights of the garden. In the centre there 
 was a temple to Bacchus, and an altar erected j 
 the altar was girt with ivy the temple was sur- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 66 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 rounded with palm : within were represented the 
 triumphs and loves of the god." 
 
 On this garden Daphnis had placed his chief 
 hopes of conciliating the good-will of his master, 
 and through his favour of being united to Chloe ; 
 for it would appear the consent of parties was not 
 sufficient for this, and that in Greece, as among 
 the serfs in Russia, the finest gratification of the 
 heart was dependent on the will of a master. Lam- 
 pis, a cow-herd, who had asked Chloe in marriage 
 from Dryas, and had been refused, resolves on the 
 destruction of this garden. Accordingly, when it 
 is dark, he tears out the shrubs by the roots, and 
 tramples on the flowers. Dreadful is the conster- 
 nation of Lamon, in beholding on the following 
 morning the havoc that had been made. Towards 
 evening his terror is increased by the appearance 
 of Eudromus, one of his master's servants, who 
 gives notice that he would be with them in three 
 days. 
 
 Astylus (the son of Dionysophanes, proprietor 
 of the territory,) arrives first, and promises to 
 obtain pardon from his father of the mischance 
 that had happened to the garden. Astylus is ac- 
 companied by a parasite, Gnatho, who is smitten 
 with a friendship, a la Grecque, for Daphnis : this 
 11
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 67 
 
 having come to the knowledge of Lamon, who 
 overhears the parasite ask and obtain Daphnis as 
 a page from Astylus, he conceives it incumbent 
 on him to reveal to Dionysophanes, who had by 
 this time arrived, the mysteries attending the in- 
 fancy of Daphnis. He at the same time produces 
 the ornaments he had found with the child, on 
 which Dionysophanes instantly recognises his son. 
 Having married early in youth, he had a daugh- 
 ter and two sons, but being a prudent man, and 
 satisfied with this stock, he had exposed his fourth 
 child, Daphnis ; a measure which had become 
 somewhat less expedient, as his daughter and one 
 of his sons died immediately after on the same 
 day, and Astylus alone survived. 
 
 The change in the situation of Daphnis does 
 not alter his attachment to Chloe. He begs her 
 in marriage of his father, who, being informed of 
 the circumstances of her infancy, invites all the 
 distinguished persons in the neighbourhood to a 
 festival, at which the articles of dress found along 
 with Chloe are exhibited. This was not his own 
 scheme, but had been suggested to him in a dream 
 by the nymphs ; for in the pastoral of Longus, as 
 in most other Greek romances, the characters are 
 only 
 
 Tunc recta seientes cum nil scire valent.
 
 68 GREEK ROMANCES* 
 
 The success of this device fully answers expecta- 
 tion ; Chloe being acknowledged as his daughter 
 by Megacles, one of the guests, who was now in 
 a prosperous condition, but rivalling his friend 
 Dionysophanes in paternal tenderness, had ex- 
 posed his child while in difficulties. There being 
 now no farther obstacle to the union of Daphnis 
 and Chloe, their marriage is solemnized with rus- 
 tic pomp, and they lead through the rest of their 
 days a happy and a pastoral life. 
 
 In some respects a prose romance is better adapt- 
 ed than the eclogue or drama to pastoral compo- 
 sition. The eclogue is confined within narrow 
 limits, and must terminate before interest can be 
 excited. A series of Bucolics, where two or more 
 shepherds are introduced contending for the re- 
 ward of a crook or a kid, and at most descanting 
 for a short while on similar topics, resembles a col- 
 lection of the first scenes of a number of comedies, 
 of which the commencement can only be listened 
 to as unfolding the subsequent action. The dra- 
 ma is, no doubt, a better form of pastoral writing 
 than detached eclogues, but at the same time does 
 not well accord with rustic manners and descrip- 
 tion. In dramatic composition, the representation 
 of strong passions is best calculated to produce 
 interest or emotion, but the feelings of rural ex-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 69 
 
 istence should be painted as tranquil and calm. In 
 chusing a prose romance as the vehicle of pastoral 
 writing, Longus has adopted a form that may 
 include all the beauties arising from the descrip- 
 tion of rustic manners, or the scenery of nature, 
 and which, as far as the incidents of rural life 
 admit, may interest by an agreeable fable, and 
 delight by a judicious alternation of narrative and 
 dialogue. 
 
 Longus has also avoided many of the faults into 
 which his modern imitators have fallen, and which 
 have brought this style of composition into so 
 much disrepute ; his characters never express the 
 conceits of affected gallantry, nor involve them- 
 selves in abstract reasoning ; and he has not loaded 
 his romance with those long and constantly recur- 
 ring episodes, which in the Diana of Montemayor, 
 and the Astrea of D'Urfe, fatigue the attention 
 and render us indifferent to the principal story. 
 Nor does he paint that chimerical state of society, 
 termed the golden age, in which the characteris- 
 tic traits of rural life are erased, but attempts to 
 please by a genuine imitation of Nature, and by 
 descriptions of the manners, the rustic occupa- 
 tions, or rural enjoyments, of the inhabitants of 
 the country where the scene of the pastoral is 
 laid.
 
 70 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 Huet, who seems to have considered the chief 
 merit of a romance to consist in commencing in 
 the middle of the story, has remarked, I think 
 unjustly, that it is a great defect in the plan of 
 this pastoral, that it begins with the infancy of 
 the hero and heroine, and carries on the story 
 beyond the period of their marriage. 1 The author 
 might, perhaps, have been blameable had he dwelt 
 long on these periods ; but, in fact, the romance 
 concludes with the nuptials of Daphnis and Chloe ; 
 and the reader is merely told in a few lines that 
 they lived a pastoral life, and had a son and 
 daughter. Nor, if the reader be interested in the 
 characters of the preceding story, is it unpleasant 
 for him to hear in general terms, when it comes 
 to an end, how these persons passed their lives, 
 and whether their fortune was stable. I do not 
 see that in a pastoral romance, even a more ample 
 description of conjugal felicity would have been 
 
 1 L'economie inal entendue de sa fable est un defaut en- 
 core plus essentiel. II commence grossicrement, a la nais- 
 sance de ses bergers, et ne finit pas meme a leur manage. 
 II eteud sa narration jusq' a lenrs enfants et a leur vieil- 
 lesse ; and again, Cest sortir entierement du vrai caractere 
 de cette espe.ee d'ecrits : il les faut finir au jour des noces, 
 et se taire sur les suites du manage. Une heroine de Roman 
 grosse et aceouchee est un etrange personnage. Huet de 
 I'Origine de* Romans.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 71 
 
 so totally disgusting as the critic seems to ima- 
 gine ; far less is an account of the childhood of 
 the characters objectionable, even where it is more 
 minute than that given by Longus. 
 
 The pastoral is in general very beautifully writ- 
 ten ; the style, though it has been censured on 
 account of the reiteration of the same forms of 
 expression, and as betraying the sophist in some 
 passages by a play on words, and affected anti- 
 thesis, is considered as the purest specimen of the 
 Greek language produced in that late period ; * 
 the descriptions of rural scenery and rural occu- 
 pations are extremely pleasing, and, if I may use 
 the expression, there is a sort of amenity and calm 
 diffused over the whole romance. This, indeed, 
 
 * Son style est simple, aise, naturcl, et concis sans obscu- 
 rite ; ses expressions sont pleine de vivacite et de feu, il 
 produit avcc esprit, il peint avec agrement, et dispose ses 
 images avec adresse. De I'Orig. des Rom. 
 
 Longi oratio pura, Candida, suavis, mutis articulis mem- 
 brisque concisa et tamen numerosa, sine ullis salibus melle 
 dulcior profluit, tanquam amnis argenteus virentibus utrin- 
 qoesylvis inumbratus; et ita florens, ita picta, ita expolita 
 est ut in ea, verborum omnes, omnes sententiarum illigentur 
 lepores. Translationes caeteraque dicendi lumina ita apte 
 disponit ut pictores coloruiu varietatem. Villoison prooem. 
 Longus is also called by Muretus, dulcissimus ac suavissimus 
 scriptor ; and by Scaliger, auctor amaenissimus, et eo liielior 
 quo simplicior.
 
 72 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 may be considered as the chief excellence in a 
 pastoral ; since we are not so much allured by the 
 feeding of sheep as by the stillness of the coun- 
 try. In all our active pursuits, the end proposed 
 is tranquillity, and even when we lose the hope of 
 happiness, we are attracted by that of repose ; 
 hence we are soothed and delighted with its re- 
 presentation, and fancy we partake of the plea- 
 sure. 
 
 In some respects, however, this romance, al- 
 though its excellencies are many, is extremely 
 defective. It displays little variety, except what 
 arises from the vicissitude of the seasons. The 
 courtship of Daphnis is to the last degree mono- 
 tonous, and the conversations between the lovers 
 extremely insipid. The mythological tales also 
 are totally uninteresting, and sometimes not very 
 happily introduced. 
 
 Although the general moral attempted to be 
 inculcated in the romance is not absolutely bad, 
 yet there are particular passages so extremely 
 reprehensible, that I know nothing like them in 
 almost any work whatever. This depravity is the 
 less excusable, as it was the professed design of 
 the author to paint a state of the most perfect 
 innocence. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the pastoral of
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 73 
 
 Longus had a considerable influence on the style 
 and incidents of the subsequent Greek romances, 
 particularly those of Eustathius and Theodoras 
 Prodromus ; but its effects on modern pastorals, 
 particularly those which appeared in Italy during 
 the sixteenth century, is a subject of more diffi- 
 culty. Huet is of opinion, that it was not only the 
 model of the Astrea of D'Urfe, and the Diana of 
 Montemayor, but gave rise to the Italian dramatic 
 pastoral. This opinion is combated by Villoison, 
 on the grounds that the first edition of Longus 
 was not published till 1598, and that Tasso died 
 in the year 1595. It is true that the first Greek 
 edition of Longus was not published till 1598, but 
 there was a French translation by Amyot, which 
 appeared in 1559, and one in Latin verse by 
 Gambara in 1569, either of which might have 
 been seen by Tasso. But although this argument 
 brought forward by Villoison be of little avail, 
 he is probably right in the general notion he has 
 adopted, that Daphnis and Chloe was not the 
 origin of the pastoral drama. The Sacrificio of 
 Agostino Beccari, which was the earliest speci- 
 men of this style of composition, and was acted 
 at Ferrara in 1554, was written previous to the 
 appearance of any edition or version of Longus.
 
 74 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 Nor is there any similarity in the story or inci- 
 dents of the Aniinta to those in Daphnis and 
 Chloe, which should lead us to imagine that the 
 Greek romance had been imitated by Tasso. 
 
 It bears, however, a stronger likeness to the 
 more recent dramatic pastorals of Italy. These 
 are frequently founded on the exposure of chil- 
 dren, who, after being brought up as shepherds 
 by reputed fathers, are discovered by their real 
 parents by means of tokens fastened to them when 
 they were abandoned. There is also a consider- 
 able resemblance between the story of Daphnis 
 and Chloe and that of the Gentle Shepherd : the 
 plot was suggested to Ramsay by one of his friends, 
 who seems to .have taken it from the Greek pas- 
 toral. Marmontel, too, in his Annette and Lu- 
 bin, has imitated the simplicity and inexperience 
 of the lovers of Longus. But of all modern wri- 
 ters the author who has most closely followed this 
 romance is Gessner. In his Idylls there is the 
 same poetical prose, the same beautiful rural de- 
 scriptions, and the same innocence and simpli- 
 city in the rustic characters. In his pastoral of 
 Daphnis, the scene of which is laid in Greece, he 
 has painted, like Longus, the early and innocent 
 attachment of a shepherdess and swain, and has
 
 GREEK ROMANXES. 75 
 
 only embellished his picture by the incidents that 
 arise from rural occupations, and the revolutions 
 of the year. 
 
 We shall conclude this article with remarking, 
 that the story of Daphnis and Chloe is related in 
 the person of the author. He feigns, that while 
 hunting in Lesbos, he saw in a grove consecrated 
 to the nymphs a most beautiful picture, in which 
 appeared children exposed, lovers plighting their 
 faith, and incursions of pirates 'that, having found 
 an interpreter of this painting, he had expressed 
 in writing what it represented, and produced a gift 
 to Cupid, to Pan, and the nymphs ; but which 
 would be pleasing to all men, a medicine to the 
 sick, a solace to the afflicted, which would remind 
 him, who had felt the power of love, of his sweet- 
 est enjoyments, and teach the inexperienced the 
 nature and happiness of that passion. 
 
 Although the work of Longus was much ad- 
 mired by his contemporaries, and although many 
 of the incidents were adopted in the fictitious nar- 
 ratives by which it was succeeded, none of the 
 subsequent Greek fablers attempted to write pas- 
 toral romance, but chose Heliodorus, or rather 
 Tatius, as their model. 
 
 Chariton, the earliest of these imitators, has 
 been considered as inferior to Tatius in point of
 
 76 GREEK ROMANCKS. 
 
 style, in which he exhibits a good deal of the so- 
 phist, but he far excels him in the probability and 
 simplicity of his incidents he also surpasses him 
 in the general conduct of his work, since, as the 
 romance advances, the interest increases to the 
 end, and the fate of the characters is carefully 
 concealed till the conclusion. Nor is it loaded with 
 those episodes and lengthened descriptions which 
 encumber the Clitophon and Leucippe of Tatius. 
 The author is also more careful than his prede- 
 cessor not to violate probability, and seems an- 
 xious to preserve an appearance of historical fide- 
 lity. 
 
 A considerable part of the commencement of 
 the Chaereas and Callirhoe ' of Chariton has been 
 lost, and the first incident we now meet with is 
 the marriage of the hero and heroine. The other 
 suitors of Callirhoe, enraged at the preference gi- 
 ven to Chaereas, contrive to make him jealous of 
 his wife. In a transport of passion he kicks her 
 so violently that she swoons, and is believed dead. 
 This incident is one of the worst imagined, to be 
 met with in any of the Greek romances. It leaves 
 such an impression of the brutality of the princi- 
 
 1 Xaeirtnof A4>joJi<ritf tw ;-! Xaij-sav tun K<tXXi{f>m igam**v 
 Jiuyi/LMtTtfv X:yof. 8. Appendix, No. 5.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 77 
 
 pal character, that we are not reconciled to him 
 by all his subsequent grief and diligent search af- 
 ter Callirhoe ; our disgust might perhaps have 
 been lessened, had the author made him employ a 
 dagger or poison. 
 
 After her supposed death, Callirhoe is buried 
 along with a great quantity of treasure. It was 
 customary in Greece that effects of a value pro- 
 portioned to the rank of the deceased should be 
 deposited in tombs. It is mentioned in Strabo, 
 (1. 8,) that the persons who were sent by Caesar 
 to colonize Corinth, left no tomb unexplored ; 
 tvfov* TttQov &<miva>riTov ; an anecdote which 
 evinces the existence of that species of depreda- 
 tion which forms a leading incident in this and so 
 many of the other Greek romances. Callirhoe re- 
 vives soon after her interment, and at this critical 
 moment, Theron, a pirate, who had witnessed the 
 concealment of the treasure, breaks open the se- 
 pulchre, which was placed near the shore, and sets 
 sail with the booty and Callirhoe. At Miletus he 
 sells her to Dionysius, an Ionian prince, who soon 
 becomes enamoured of his slave. Chariton is the 
 first writer of romance who has introduced an in- 
 teresting male character. Dionysius is represent- 
 ed generous, learned, valiant, and tender ; nor 
 was there any thing improper in his attachment to
 
 78 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 Callirhoe, as she disclosed the nobleness of her 
 birth, but concealed that she was the wife of an- 
 other ; he makes love to her with all possible 
 delicacy, and imposes no restraint on her incli- 
 nations. Callirhoe, hiving already one husband, 
 feels some scruples at accepting a second ; but at 
 length agrees to espouse Dionysius, with the view 
 of giving a nominal father to the child of which 
 she was pregnant. 
 
 The following portion of the romance is occu- 
 pied with the attempts of Mithridates, satrap of 
 Caria, to obtain possession of Callirhoe, for whom 
 he had conceived a violent affection the search 
 made by Chaereas for his wife after discovering 
 that she was innocent, and yet alive and his arri- 
 val in Asia to reclaim her from Dionysius. 
 
 At length all parties are summoned to Babylon, 
 to maintain their cause before Artaxerxes. Mith- 
 ridates and Chaereas appear first, and afterwards 
 Dionysius arrives, accompanied by Callirhoe. 
 There is no part of the romance so unnatural as 
 the account of the extraordinary effects produced 
 by the beauty of Callirhoe, on the beholders at 
 Babylon, and the regions through which she pass- 
 ed on her journey ; but after her arrival, the flat- 
 tery which we may suppose paid to a despot in 
 an eastern court, by satraps and eunuchs, is finely
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 79 
 
 touched ; and the meeting of Chaereas with Cal- 
 lirhoe in the palace, while the cause is under cog- 
 nizance, is happily imagined. Artaxerxes, as was 
 to be expected, having become enamoured of the 
 object of dispute, defers giving any decision, in 
 order to protract her stay in Babylon. Accounts, 
 meanwhile, arrive of a revolt of the Egyptians, 
 and their invasion of Syria. The king, accompa- 
 nied by Dionysius, proceeds against them, and, 
 according to the custom of the Persian monarchs, 
 takes the ladies of the court, among whom Callir- 
 hoe was now numbered, along with him. But, as 
 they are found to be cumbersome on the march, 
 they are left at Arado, an island at a short distance 
 from the continent. Chaereas, exasperated by a 
 false report that the king had bestowed Callirhoe 
 on Dionysius, joins the Egyptian forces, takes 
 Tyre by stratagem, and, in consideration of his 
 talents as a general, is appointed to command the 
 fleet. Having destroyed the Persian navy soon 
 after his elevation, in a great battle which was 
 fought near Arado, he takes possession of the is- 
 land, and recovers Callirhoe. In the course of 
 the night succeeding the day which had been so 
 propitious to the love and glory of Chaereas, a 
 messenger arrives at Arado with accounts of the 
 total overthrow of the Egyptian army, which had
 
 SO (.KEEK ROMANCES. 
 
 been chiefly effected by the skill and valour of 
 Dionysius. To him Callirhoe writes a very hand- 
 some letter, and returns with Chaereas to Syra- 
 cuse. 
 
 About the time of Chariton, there lived three 
 persons of the name of Xenophon, each of whom 
 wrote a romance. These authors were distin- 
 guished by the names of Antiochenus, Cyprius, 
 and Ephesius. Antiochenus, in imitation of Jam- 
 blichus, called his romance, Babylonica : the se- 
 cond Xenophon entitled his work, (which relates 
 the loves of Cinyras, Myrrha, and Adonis,) Cy- 
 priaca. 
 
 The Ephesiaca (which has alone been publish- 
 ed,) consists of ten books, and comprehends the 
 loves of Habrocomas and Antliia. In this work 
 the incidents are extremely similar to those that 
 occur in the preceding romances. The hero and 
 heroine become enamoured in the temple of Dia- 
 na ; they are married early in the work, but in 
 obedience to an oracle of Apollo, are forced by 
 their parents to travel, and in the course of their 
 wanderings experience the accustomed adventures 
 with robbers and pirates. On one occasion An- 
 tliia, when separated from her husband by a se- 
 ries of misfortunes, falls into the hands of banditti, 
 from whom she is rescued by a young nobleman,
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 81 
 
 named Perilaus, who becomes enamoured of her. 
 Anthia, fearing violence, affects a consent to mar- 
 ry him ; but on the arrival of the appointed time 
 swallows a soporific draught which she had procu- 
 red from a physician, who was the friend of Peri- 
 laus, and to whom she had intrusted the secret of 
 her story. Much lamentation is made for her 
 death, and she is conveyed with great pomp to a 
 sepulchre. As she had only drunk a sleeping po- 
 tion, she soon awakes in the tomb, which is plun- 
 dered by pirates for the sake of the treasure it 
 contained. 
 
 Mr Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, 
 has pointed out the resemblance between this ad- 
 venture and the leading incident of the tragedy of 
 Romeo and Juliet. The Ephesiaca, he acknow- 
 ledges, was not published at the time when Luigi 
 da Porto wrote the novel, supposed to be Shak- 
 speare's original, but he thinks it very probable 
 he had met with the manuscript of the Greek ro- 
 mance. 
 
 Throughout the work the author of the Ephesi- 
 aca seems to think it necessary that every woman 
 who sees Habrocomas, should fall in love with 
 him, and that all the male characters should be- 
 come enamoured of Anthia. The story also is 
 
 vol. i. v
 
 82 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 extremely complicated ; and a remark which was 
 formerly made respecting Heliodorus may be ap- 
 plied with double force to Xenophon ; the changes 
 of fortune in his romance are too numerous, and 
 too much of the same nature. Xenophon, how- 
 ever, has received much commendation from the 
 critics, for the elegance of his style, which is said 
 to bear a strong resemblance to that of Longus, 
 and is declared by Politian to be smooth as that of 
 a more renowned Xenophon. " Sic utique Xeno- 
 phon scribit, non quidem Atheniensis ille, sed al- 
 ter eo non insuavior Ephesius." (Polit. Misc. c. 
 15.) 
 
 After the age in which Chariton and the Xeno- 
 phons are supposed to have lived, more than three 
 centuries elapsed without the production of any 
 fictitious narrative deserving attention. The first 
 romance that appeared at the end of this long in- 
 terval, was of a totally different nature from those 
 which preceded it. The love it breathes is not of 
 an earthly, but a heavenly nature ; and its inci- 
 dents consist not in the adventures of heroes, but 
 the sufferings of martyrs. 
 
 In the times which succeeded the earliest ages 
 of Christianity, the spirit of the new religion ap- 
 pears to have been but imperfectly understood by 
 many of its most zealous ministers ; and it is to
 
 CREEK ROMANCES. 83 
 
 the dispassionate investigation of modern times, 
 that we are indebted for the restoration of its 
 primitive simplicity and purity. 
 
 As the first corruption of the doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity was owing to the eastern gnostics, so, with 
 the Therapeutae, and other oriental sects, origina- 
 ted the notion so fatal to the practice of genuine 
 religion, that the rejection of the Creator's boun- 
 ties in this world is the best title to an immeasu- 
 rable beatitude in the next. 
 
 With a view of promoting a taste for monastic 
 seclusion, St John of Damascus (a pious monk of 
 Syria, who lived in the eighth century, during the 
 reign of the emperor Leo Isauricus,) appears to 
 have written his Lives of Barlaam and Josaphat. 1 
 He feigns that the incidents had been told to him 
 by certain pious Ethiopians, by which he means 
 Indians, who had found them related by engra- 
 vings on tablets of unsuspected veracity. 
 
 This story, which is supposed to be the model 
 of our spiritual romances, is said, and with some 
 probability, to be founded in truth ; though the 
 prophetic orthodoxy of Damascenus has anticipa- 
 ted discussions which were not agitated for centu- 
 ries after the era of his saints. 
 
 ' Appendix, No. 6.
 
 84 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 To a carnal mind, the tale in itself is destitute 
 of interest. Martyrs and magicians, theological 
 arguments and triumphs over infidelity, alternate- 
 ly occupy the narrator, while Satan and his agents 
 lie in wait for every opportunity to entrap the un- 
 wary Neophytes. 
 
 The style of the work is formed on the sacred 
 writings, and it is not altogether without reason 
 that the origin of spiritual romance has been traced 
 to the apocryphal books of Scripture. The long 
 discourses of Barlaam abound with parabolical al- 
 lusions in agreeable and ingenious similitudes. 
 Indeed, in so long a composition, and of such a 
 species, it is surprising that the author should have 
 contrived so much to enliven the dialogue, and 
 render it so little tedious. 
 
 When the Christian religion had spread abroad 
 in Egypt, and the fame of the sanctity of its teach- 
 ers reached even to India, where many, relinquish- 
 ing their property, dedicated themselves to the so- 
 litary worship of God, there reigned in the east a 
 certain king, named Abenner. This personage 
 was distinguished by the elegance of his form, and 
 success in war, but darkened his other bright qua- 
 lities by a superstitious regard to idols. All things 
 prospered under his* hands, and the want of chil-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 85 
 
 dren alone appears to have reminded him of the 
 inadequacy of his power for securing happiness. 
 
 In the midst of this prosperity, Abenner was 
 annoyed by the troops of monks and Christians, 
 who, by their zeal in preaching, brought over from 
 the worship of idols many of the most considerable 
 nobles of the country. Enraged at this defection, 
 and unacquainted with the truth of the doctrines 
 disseminated, the king instituted a grievous perse- 
 cution against all who professed the new religion. 
 Many of the ordinary worshippers tottered in their 
 faith ; but the monastic class, by suffering martyr- 
 dom, enjoyed a glorious opportunity of showing 
 their zeal. A distinguished satrap, moreover, un- 
 terrified by the sufferings of the Christians, embra- 
 ced the occasion for declaring his conversion, and 
 in an elaborate speech endeavoured to seduce the 
 king. His majesty, however, with a rare forbear- 
 ance, dismissed him, without conferring the crown 
 of martyrdom ; but as a testimony of the inefficacy 
 of his preaching, increased the rigour of his per- 
 secution, and bestowed new honours on the wor- 
 shippers of idols. 
 
 After these aberrations a son is born to Aben- 
 ner, of singular beauty ; overjoyed by the accom- 
 plishment of his strongest wish, he proclaims a 
 great festival, and assembles about fifty of the most
 
 86 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 eminent of the astrologers skilled in the learning 
 of the Chaldeans. These sages predict that the 
 young prince would surpass in wealth, power, and 
 glory, all his predecessors. Daniel alone of their 
 number foretells his distinguished zeal for the 
 Christian religion, and declares that the glory to 
 which he was destined was reserved for him in an- 
 other and a better world. 
 
 The king, dismayed by this prophecy, bethinks 
 himself of human means to avert its completion. 
 For this purpose he builds a splendid palace, in 
 which he places his son, and where, by providing 
 him with teachers and attendants of the most 
 healthy and beautiful appearance, he is careful 
 that no symptoms of death, or disease, or poverty, 
 or any thing that could molest him, should fall 
 under his observation. 
 
 After these arrangements, so well calculated for 
 the good education of a young prince, finding that 
 some of the monks still survived, Abenner renews 
 the persecution, and on two of their number he 
 bestows the crown of martyrdom, which indeed 
 they appear to have eagerly solicited. 
 
 Meanwhile Prince Josaphat waxed strong, and 
 possessing great ingenuity, and a prodigious love 
 of learning, gives much disquietude to his teach- 
 ers, whom he frequently puzzles by his questions.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 87 
 
 Notwithstanding the anxiety of the king, to 
 keep the mind of his son unacquainted with every 
 idea productive of pain, the irksomeness of his con- 
 finement, and a desire to learn its cause, harass 
 and distress him. Having, therefore, persuaded 
 one of his attendants to inform him of the predic- 
 tion of the astrologer, and the cause of the perse- 
 cution of the Christians, he obtains permission 
 from the king to leave his prison, his guards re- 
 ceiving instructions that wherever he went he 
 should be surrounded with all imaginable delights : 
 But in spite of the vigilance of those about him, 
 to remove all unseemly objects from his sight, he 
 one day steals a glance at a leper, and soon after 
 has a full view of an old man in the last stage of 
 decrepitude, by which means he gradually ac- 
 quires the ideas of disease and of death. 
 
 In these days the word of God came to Barlaam, 
 a pious monk, who dwelt in the wilderness of Sen- 
 naar, and moved him to attempt the conversion of 
 Josaphat. Having, therefore, girt himself with 
 worldly vesture, he journeyed, in disguise of a 
 merchant, towards India, till he arrived at the re- 
 sidence of the young prince. Here he insinuated 
 himself into the confidence of the attendant who 
 had revealed to Josaphat the prediction of the as-
 
 83 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 trologer. He informed this person that he wish- 
 ed to present the prince with a gem which was of 
 great price, and was endowed with many virtues. 
 Under this similitude of a worldly jewel, he typi- 
 fied the beauties of the gospel ; and the prince ha- 
 ving heard the story of the merchant, ordered him 
 to be instantly introduced. Barlaam having thus 
 gained admittance, premises his instructions with 
 a summary of sacred history, from the fall of Adam 
 to the resurrection of our Saviour ; and, having in 
 this way excited the attention and curiosity of Jo- 
 saphat, who conjectures that this is the jewel of 
 the merchant, he gradually proceeds to unfold all 
 the mysteries and inculcate all the credenda of 
 Christianity. 
 
 The sacrament of baptism, and the communion 
 of bread and wine faith works and the resur- 
 rection, with all the various topics such subjects 
 involve, are successively expounded and illustra- 
 ted. Josaphat yields implicit assent to the doc- 
 trines of Barlaam, and is admitted to a knowledge 
 of all the questions which agitated the church in 
 these early periods. 
 
 The consideration of the seclusion of the monks, 
 and the efficacy of retirement in withdrawing their 
 minds from this world, with a warm eulogy on this
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 89 
 
 species of martyrdom, prepare the way for Bar- 
 laam to throw oft* the terrestrial habiliments of 
 the merchant, and to appear before his pupil in 
 all the luxury of spiritual cleanness. An ancient 
 goat-skin (from the effect of the sun, almost in- 
 corporated with his fleshless bones,) served him 
 as a shirt, a rough and ragged hair-cloth descend- 
 ed from his loins to his knees, and a cloak of the 
 same texture suspended from the shoulders com- 
 posed the upper garment of this disciple of St 
 Anthony. 
 
 Unappalled by the horror of this picture, Josa- 
 phat entreats the monk to release him from con- 
 finement, and to accept him as a companion in 
 the desert ; but is dissuaded by the prudence of 
 Barlaam, who fears that, by the failure of such a 
 premature step, he might be debarred from the 
 completion of his pious work. 
 
 Having, therefore, baptized Josaphat, and left 
 him his leathern doublet and hair-cloth as memo- 
 rials of his conversion, and to ward off the attacks 
 of Satan, he departs to the deserts after a profu- 
 sion of prayer for the prince's perseverance in 
 well-doing. 
 
 During his absence, Josaphat continues to ma- 
 nifest his zeal by every kind of mortification and 
 prayer. Unfortunately, however, Zardan, one of
 
 90 GEEEK ROMANCES. 
 
 liis attendants, who was apprized of his conver- 
 sion, uneasy at the neglect of his trust, reveals to 
 the king the visits of Barlaam. 
 
 Forthwith Abenner, being grievously enraged 
 and troubled, betakes himself to Arachis, a cele- 
 brated astrologer, to whom he discovers the la- 
 mentable predicament of his son. 
 
 Arachis soon restores composure to the king, by 
 proposing two expedients for the removal of this 
 grievance. The first of these was to lay hold of 
 Barlaam, and, by threatening the torture, to com- 
 pel him to confess the falsehood of his doctrine. 
 Should Barlaam escape, he next proposed to per- 
 suade Nachor, an ancient mathematician, who had 
 a strong resemblance to the monk, to allow him- 
 self to be discomfited in a disputation on the 
 truth of Christianity ; by which means he expects 
 that Josaphat will without difficulty come over to 
 the triumphant party. 
 
 In their endeavours to overtake Barlaam the 
 Impious are unsuccessful ; but the king again 
 suffers his wrath against the monks to overpower 
 his humanity, and seventeen of these ascetics, 
 who refuse, with many contemptuous reproaches, 
 to discover the retreat of Barlaam, are tortured 
 and put to death. 
 
 Recourse was now had to the second expedient
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 91 
 
 of Arachis, who, having arranged matters with 
 Nachor, signifies that he had got hold of Barlaam ; 
 and the king having proclaimed an amnesty, in- 
 vites the Christians, with the most learned of the 
 heathen, to be present at a public disputation with 
 the hermit, on the merits of the new faith. 
 
 The invitation to the Christians, however, ap- 
 pears not to have been accepted, for, with the 
 exception of Rrachias, (who will appear in a still 
 more dignified situation hereafter,) no one comes 
 forward in behalf of the pretended Barlaam. Spite 
 of this untoward circumstance, the false Barlaam, 
 like the celebrated Balaam of old, instead of cur- 
 sing the king's enemies, blesses them altogether. 
 The menaces of Josaphat, who, having discovered 
 the imposition, threatened to tear out the heart 
 and tongue of Nachor with his own hands, should 
 he be overcome in the argument, appear to have 
 operated on him as the flaming sword of the angel 
 on the prudent and patient monitor of Balaam. 
 However this may be, to the astonishment and 
 displeasure of Abenner, Nachor, in his reply to 
 the idolaters, proves the errors of their tenets, and 
 the divine nature of Christianity. 
 
 Dividing the different religions into three class- 
 es, the worship of the gods, the Jewish faith, and 
 the belief in Christ, he exposes the absurdity of
 
 92 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 the two first, and concludes his harangue by de- 
 monstrating the superiority of the New Religion. 
 AH this the Magi are unable to refute, and the 
 king, after many vain attempts to remind Nachor 
 of his instructions, is obliged to dissolve the as- 
 sembly, with the intention of renewing the con- 
 ference on the following day. Josaphat, however, 
 in the course of the night completes the conver- 
 sion of Nachor, who betakes himself in the morn- 
 ing to the wilderness, to work out his salvation in 
 private. 
 
 When these things come to the knowledge of 
 the king, he is, as usual, much irritated ; and the 
 prudent monks being no longer exposed to hig 
 resentment, his wise men and astrologers are flog- 
 ged, and dismissed with disgrace. But, spite of 
 these tokens of impartiality, his time was not yet 
 come, though he no longer offers sacrifice to the 
 gods, nor holds their ministers in honour. 
 
 The servants of the idols perceiving the es- 
 trangement of the king, and fearing the loss of 
 offerings he was wont to make to the gods, call 
 to their aid Theudas, a celebrated magician, by 
 whose instigation Abenner is again induced to in- 
 terfere with the tranquillity of his son. 
 
 Presuming on the influence of the sexual pas- 
 sion, Abenner, by advice of Theudas, orders the
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 93 
 
 attendants of the prince to be removed, and in 
 their room damsels of most alluring beauty are 
 placed around him. Josaphat appears to have 
 borne their assaults with wonderful fortitude, 
 though the proceedings of one of them were so 
 violent, that the pious Damascenus ascribes them 
 to the operation of demons, who were understood 
 by the primitive Christians to be the authors and 
 patrons of idolatry. 
 
 A more dangerous trial, however, is yet reser- 
 ved for Josaphat. The most beautiful of his maid- 
 en attendants was a young princess, a captive of 
 Abenner. In this damsel the prince takes a pecu- 
 liar interest, and, reflecting on her misfortunes, he 
 uses every endeavour to solace her by conversion 
 to Christianity. Instigated by the demons, she 
 promises to accede to this change of religion, on 
 condition that the prince should espouse her ; and 
 on his declining a tie incompatible with his vow of 
 celibacy, she labours to convince him of its inno- 
 cence, supporting her arguments by the example 
 of the patriarchs, and others distinguished by their 
 piety. Josaphat, however, is determined against 
 this formal breach of his engagements ; and the 
 princess is at length compelled to promise that 
 she will embrace Christianity on more moderate 
 terms. This was too much for the piety of Josa-
 
 94 GREEK ROMAN < 
 
 phat to resist, and the glory of redeeming the soul 
 of the damsel, appeared to him to atone for the 
 corporeal defilement, on which she insisted as a 
 preliminary. 
 
 At this perilous crisis, and when the princess 
 seems to have been on the brink of conversion, 
 Josaphat bethinks himself of prayer. After some 
 hours spent in tears and supplications, he falls 
 into a profound sleep, during which it appeared 
 to him that he was conveyed to an immense mea- 
 dow, adorned with beautiful and fragrant flowers, 
 and with trees bearing every species of fruit, whose 
 leaves, when shaken by the breeze, produced at 
 once celestial melody and delicious odour. The 
 eyes were refreshed by streams which glided along 
 more pure than crystal, while couches, scattered 
 through the meadow and luxuriously prepared, 
 invited to repose. Thence he was carried into a 
 city which shone with ineffable splendour. The 
 walls were formed of burnished gold, and the bul- 
 warks, which towered above them, were of pre- 
 cious stones, superior to those produced in the 
 mines of this world. A supernatural light, diffu- 
 sed from above, illumined the streets. iEtherial 
 bands, clothed in shining vestments, chaunted 
 strains which had never yet reached the ear of 
 mortal, and a voice was heard saying, " This is
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 95 
 
 the rest of the just, this is the joy of those who 
 have pleased the Lord." His guides refusing the 
 request of Josaphat to remain in one of the cor- 
 ners of this city, he was again carried across the 
 meadow, and on the opposite side he entered dark 
 and gloomy caverns, through which whirlwinds 
 blew with unceasing violence, and the worm and 
 serpent rioted on the souls of sinners in a furnace 
 blown to fury by the breath of demons. 
 
 Josaphat awakens greatly exhausted by this 
 vision, and fortified in his virtuous resolutions by 
 the very striking contrast which had been exhibit- 
 ed. At the same period likewise, the demons (as 
 afterwards appeared from their own confession,) 
 had been put to flight by a sign of the cross which 
 the prince had fortunately made, and thus left 
 him to combat with his earthly antagonist alone. 
 
 The scheme of the idolaters having thus failed, 
 and the captive princess being abandoned to vir- 
 ginity and reprobation, Theudas attempts in a 
 conference to shake the faith of Josaphat; but 
 the latter victoriously converts the magician, and 
 sends him, like Nachor, to the desert, where he is 
 baptized, and passes the remainder of his life in 
 venting tears and groans, and in producing other 
 fruits of repentance. 
 
 At length the king determines no longer to 
 8
 
 96 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 harass his son on the score of religion ; but, by 
 the advice of Arachis, divides his kingdom with 
 him, hoping that the cares of government may 
 withdraw him from his ascetic habits. The first 
 use, however, which Josaphat makes of his new- 
 acquired power, is to erect the cross on every tow- 
 er of the city where he dwells, while the temples 
 and altars of the idols are levelled with the dust ; 
 he also dedicates to our Saviour a magnificent 
 cathedral, where he preaches the gospel to his 
 subjects, calls many from darkness to light, and 
 distributes his treasures among the poor. Now 
 God (says the pious author of this history,) was 
 with him whithersoever he walked, and all that he 
 did prospered under his hands ; but it was not so 
 with the household of Abenner, which daily wax- 
 ed weaker and weaker. 
 
 Presuming that this distinction would not have 
 been made without a cause, the king finally al- 
 lows himself to be converted by Josaphat ; whose 
 spiritual son he thus becomes, to the unutterable 
 edification and comfort of the monks ; and then 
 retires from the government of his kingdom to a 
 solitary place, where he chiefly employs himself 
 in throwing dust on his head, and at length gives 
 up the ghost after a long course of penitence and 
 mortification.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 97 
 
 Josaphat being now left without check, resolves 
 to retire from the world, and pass the remain- 
 der of his days with Barlaam in the desert. Ha- 
 ving therefore harangued his people, and com- 
 pelled Barachias, the person who stood forward 
 to defend the false Barlaam, to ascend the vacant 
 throne, much against the inclination of the prince 
 elect, he escapes with some difficulty from his 
 subjects. 
 
 After a painful pilgrimage of many days, in 
 the course of which he meets with numberless 
 demons, tempting him sometimes in the form of 
 springs of water, and sometimes in the less ac- 
 ceptable shape of wild beasts and serpents, he 
 arrives at the cell of Barlaam. 
 
 There, after due preparation by devout exer- 
 cises, the old man dies, and is buried by Josaphat, 
 who spends thirty-five years in supplications to 
 heaven, for a speedy removal from this life. The 
 holy men of these times indeed appear to have 
 passed their existence, as if they had been brought 
 into this world only for the purpose of praying 
 for their deliverance from its thraldom. 
 
 The prayers of Josaphat are at length heard, 
 and he is buried by a neighbouring hermit in the 
 grave of Barlaam. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 When the account of his demise reaches his 
 successor, Barachias, he comes with a great reti- 
 nue to the desert ; and having raised the bodies of 
 Josaphat and Barlaam, which he finds perfectly 
 entire, and (which could not have been expected 
 in the lifetime of the saints,) emitting a most 
 grateful odour, he transports them to his metro- 
 polis. There they are deposited in a magnificent 
 church, in which they continued to work miracles, 
 as they had done in the course of their journey, 
 and before they were again interred. 
 
 Such is the principal story of Josaphat and Bar- 
 laam, but the romance is interspersed with many 
 beautiful parables and apologues, most of which 
 bear evident marks of oriental origin. These are 
 chiefly introduced as having been told by Barlaam 
 to the young prince, in order to illustrate and 
 embellish the sacred doctrines which he was in- 
 culcating. 
 
 A man flying from an unicorn, by which he was 
 pursued, had nearly fallen into a deep pit, but 
 saved himself by grasping the twigs of a slender 
 shrub which grew on the side. While he hung sus- 
 pended over the abyss by this feeble hold, he ob- 
 served two mice, the one white and the other 
 black, gnawing the root of the plant to which he
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 99 
 
 had trusted. At the bottom of the gulf he saw a 
 monstrous dragon, breathing forth flames, and 
 prepared to devour him ; while by this time the 
 unicorn was looking at him over the verge of the 
 precipice. In this situation he perceived honey 
 distilling from the branches to which he clung, 
 and, unmindful of the horrors by which he was 
 surrounded, he satiated himself with the sweets 
 which were dropping from the boughs. Here the 
 unicorn typifies death, by which all men are pur- 
 sued ; the pit is the world, full of evils ; the shrub, 
 of which the root was corroded by the white and 
 black mouse, is life, diminished, and at length 
 consumed, by the hours of day and night ; the 
 dragon is hell ; and the honey temporal pleasures, 
 which we eagerly follow, regardless of the snares 
 which are everywhere spread for our destruction. 
 In order to inculcate the wisdom of laying up 
 treasures in heaven, we are told that a certain 
 state observed the custom of chusing a foreigner 
 for its king, and after allowing him to pas a cer- 
 tain time in all imaginable delights, drove him, by 
 a general insurrection, into a remote and desert 
 island. One of these monarchs, learning how 
 frail was the tenure by which he held the sove- 
 reignty, instead of consuming his time, like his 
 predecessors, in feasts and carousals, employed
 
 100 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 himself in amassing heaps of gold and silver and 
 precious stones, which he transmitted to the island 
 to which he expected to be conveyed. Thither 
 (when the period of banishment at length arrived,) 
 he betook himself without pain or reluctance, and 
 while he saw his foolish predecessors perishing 
 with want, he passed the remainder of his days 
 in joy and abundance. 
 
 A powerful and magnificent king, during an 
 excursion through the streets of his capital, ob- 
 served a glimmering light, and looking through 
 a chink of the door whence it issued, he per- 
 ceived a subterraneous habitation, in which was 
 seated a man clothed in rags, and apparently in 
 the last extremity of want. By him sat his wife, 
 holding an earthen cup in her hand, but singing 
 and delighting her husband with all sorts of mer- 
 riment. The king expressing his wonder at the 
 thoughtlessness of those who could rejoice in such 
 penury, his minister embraced the opportunity of 
 teaching him, that princes who exult in splendid 
 palaces and royal vestments, appear still more 
 thoughtless to the glorified inhabitants of the eter- 
 nal mansions. 
 
 There is also related a story which has been 
 frequently imitated, of a person who was prose- 
 cuted for a debt due to the crown, and who, on
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 101 
 
 applying to friends whom he had supported, or 
 for whom he had exposed his life, is repulsed by 
 them all, but is at length relieved by an enemy, 
 whom he had oppressed and persecuted. 
 
 It was probably in consequence of the number 
 and beauty of these parables that Josaphat and 
 Barlaam became so great a favourite, and was so 
 frequently imitated during the middle ages. In 
 a later period it gave rise to more than one of the 
 tales of Boccaccio, as will appear when we come 
 to treat of the Italian novelists ; and it was un- 
 questionably the model of that species of spiritual 
 fiction, which was so prevalent in France during 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 Josaphat and Barlaam, however, was the last 
 example of this species of composition produced 
 during the existence of the eastern empire ; the 
 only Greek romance by which it was succeeded, 
 being formed on the model of Theagenes and Cha- 
 riclea, or rather of the Clitophon and Leucippe. 
 Indeed, in this last and feeble example of Grecian 
 fiction, we seldom meet with an incident of which 
 we have not the prototype in the romances of 
 Heliodorus or Tatius. It is entitled Ismene and 
 Ismenias, 1 and was written by Eustathius, some-
 
 102 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 times called Eumathius, who flourished, as Huet 
 terms it, in the 12th century, during the reign of 
 the emperor Emanuel Comnenus. The commence- 
 ment of the story, and the mode in which the hero 
 and heroine become acquainted, is evidently taken 
 from Heliodorus. Ismenias is sent as a herald from 
 his native city, Eurycomis, for the performance 
 of some annual ceremony, to Aulycomis, where he 
 is hospitably entertained by Sosthenes, the father 
 of Ismene. This young lady is seized with a pas- 
 sion for the herald, on seeing him for the first 
 time at dinner ; she presses his hand, makes love 
 to him under shelter of the table, and at length 
 proceeds so far that Ismenias bursts into laughter. 
 Heliodorus has painted his Arsace, and Tatius his 
 Melite, as women of this description ; but Eusta- 
 thius is the first who has introduced his heroine 
 avowing love without modesty and without deli- 
 cacy. To her advances Ismenias at length makes 
 some return, and the period of his embassy being 
 expired, he departs to his native place, Euryco- 
 mis, accompanied by Sosthenes and his daughter 
 Ismene, whom he entertains in his father's house. 
 One day, at dinner, Sosthenes accidentally men- 
 tions that his daughter is speedily to be married. 
 Ismene, who appears to have been previously un-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 103 
 
 acquainted with this projected change in her situ- 
 ation, insists, in the course of the following night, 
 on an immediate elopement with Ismenias. She 
 dragged me along, (says Ismenias, who relates 
 the story,) nor would she quit her hold, though 
 I affirmed that the things necessary for her de- 
 parture were not prepared. I with difficulty, at 
 length, escaped from her hands, calling all the 
 gods to witness. Ismenias, however, on leaving 
 her, does not go to prepare for the elopement, 
 but to sleep ; which, indeed, is the constant re- 
 source of the hero of this romance in every emer- 
 gency. Throughout the whole work he consults 
 his pillow, in circumstances which should have 
 converted a sleeper of Ephesus into an Argus. 
 At length, by the exertions of Cratisthenes, the 
 friend of Ismenias, a vessel is procured, in which 
 the lovers embark. A storm having arisen, and a 
 victim being thought necessary by the sailors to 
 appease Neptune, the lot falls on Ismene, who 
 is accordingly thrown overboard. The wind of 
 course is allayed ; but as the lover of Ismene 
 disturbs the crew with his lamentations, he is set 
 ashore on the coast of Ethiopia. After being 
 thus disembarked, he experiences the usual ad- 
 ventures with pirates, and is at last sold as a slave 
 at Daphnipohs, to a Greek master ; who soon af-
 
 101 GIIEEK ROMANCES. 
 
 ter goes as herald to another city in Greece, and 
 carries Ismenias along with him. The herald and 
 his slave are received in the house of Sostratus, 
 where Ismenias discovers Ismcne, living in a ser- 
 vile condition. When thrown into the sea, she had 
 been preserved by the exertions of a dolphin, and 
 had afterwards been sold by pirates to Sostratus. 
 This gentleman, with his daughter, and also Is- 
 mene, attend the master of Ismenias to Daphni- 
 polis. In the middle of the night which followed 
 their arrival in that city, the whole band proceed 
 to worship in the temple of Apollo. Here the 
 father and mother of Ismenias, and the parents 
 of Ismene, are discovered tearing their hair, and 
 lamenting in full chorus. The lovers are recogni- 
 sed by their parents, and redeemed from servitude, 
 after the heroine has been subjected to the usual 
 trial of chastity. 
 
 In this romance, which consists of eleven books, 
 no distressing incident (except indeed to the read- 
 er,) occurs till the sixth, in which Ismene's intend- 
 ed marriage is first alluded to by her father. The 
 five preceding books present one continued scene 
 of jollity, and the long descriptions of festivity are 
 seldom interrupted, except by still longer accounts 
 of dreams, which are represented as having been 
 infinitely more agreeable than could be expected,
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 105 
 
 from the loaded stomachs of the sleepers. As the 
 work advances, these dreams become quite ridi- 
 culous, from their accurate minuteness, and the 
 long reasonings carried on in them by persons 
 whose stock of logic, even when awake, does not 
 appear to have been very extensive. 
 
 The story of Ismene and Ismenias is not intri- 
 cate in itself, but is perplexed by the similarity 
 of names. The reader must be far advanced in 
 the work before he learns to distinguish the hero 
 from the heroine ; especially as the latter acts a 
 part which in most romances is assigned to the 
 former. Eurycomis is the city from which Isme- 
 nias is sent as herald. In Aulycomis he is received 
 by Sosthenes, the father of Ismene ; and is sold 
 to a Greek master at Daphnipolis, who goes as 
 herald to Artycomis, where he is entertained by 
 Sostratus. Eustathius has perhaps fallen into this 
 blemish by imitating Heliodorus, in whose ro- 
 mance Chaereas, Calasiris, and Cnemon, are the 
 names of the principal characters. 
 
 Eustathius resembles the author of Clitophon 
 and Leucippe, in his fondness for descriptions of 
 paintings. The second and fourth books are full 
 of accounts of allegorical pictures in the temples 
 and summer-house of the garden of Sosthenes, 
 which were hung with representations of the four
 
 106 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 cardinal virtues, and also with emblems of each 
 of the twelve months of the year. A reaper is 
 drawn for July ; a person bathing for August ; 
 and one sitting by the fire for February. Some of 
 these allegories, however, are rather far-fetched ; 
 thus it is not very apposite to make a soldier the 
 emblem of March, because that month is the most 
 favourable for military expeditions. From Tatius 
 also the author of Ismene and Ismenias borrows 
 that ticklish experiment, which winds up the fable 
 of so many of the Greek romances, with such 
 honour to the heroines, and such satisfaction to 
 their lovers. From Longus, according to Huet, 
 he has taken that celebrated piece of gallantry, 1 
 which consists in drinking from the part of a gob- 
 let which had been touched by the lips of a mis- 
 tress. But this artifice, which has been introduced 
 in so many amatory compositions,' may be traced 
 much higher than the Daphnis and Chloe of Lon- 
 gus. It is one of the counsels given by Ovid in 
 his Art of Love : (de Art. Amat. lib. i. 575.) 
 
 Fac primus rapias illius tacta labellis 
 Pocula : quaque bibit parte puclla, bibe. 
 
 1 Elegans urbanitatis genus Huet. Orig. Fah. 
 * Achilles Tatius, &c.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 107 
 
 Lucian, too, in one of his dialogues, 1 makes Ju- 
 piter pay this compliment to Ganymede ; and the 
 same conceit may be found in a collection of let- 
 ters by the sophist Philostratus, who wrote in the 
 second century. " Drink to me," says he, " with 
 thine eyes only, or if thou wilt, putting the cup to 
 thy lips, fill it with kisses, and so bestow it upon 
 me." * 
 
 On account of his numerous plagiarisms, Eusta- 
 thius is violently attacked by Huet, who says that 
 he rather transcribes than imitates the work of 
 Tatius. " Indeed," continues he, " there can be 
 nothing more frigid than this romance, nothing 
 meaner, nothing more unpleasant and disgusting. 
 In the whole there is no decency, no probability, 
 no invention, no happy disposition of incident. 
 The author introduces the hero relating his own 
 adventures; but one cannot discover whom he 
 
 ' Dialog Deor. vol. I. p. 129. 
 
 4 E/UOl & (AQVOIZ K^OTtm TO?? OfJLfA.aTiV' ^Ej is #tfXSi T81J ^(iiKlTl 
 
 jrfoa-<j>Ea<rft irXngu ^iKnfxwriiv to tx7rtf^a. t Mel stwj StoV 21. 
 This idea, along with many otbcr far-fetched conceits of 
 Philostratus, has been imitated by Ben Jonson, in his poem 
 entitled the Forest : 
 
 " Drink to me only with thine eyes, 
 
 And I will pledge with mine 
 Or leave a kiss but in the cup, 
 
 And I'll not look for wine."
 
 108 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 addresses, or why he is discoursing. Ismene is 
 first enamoured, she first confesses and offers love 
 without modesty, without shame, and without art. 
 Ismenias takes no hint from these caresses, nor 
 does he make any return. This may be praise- 
 worthy in morals or philosophy, but is wretched 
 in romance. In short, the whole is the work of 
 some raw school-boy, or unskilful sophist, from 
 whose hands the birch ought never to have been 
 withdrawn." 
 
 These remarks of Huet may in general be well 
 founded, but his censure of Eustathius for not ha- 
 ving created a character to whom the hero re- 
 counts his history would be applicable, if just, not 
 only to the work he criticizes, but to many of our 
 best modern novels and romances. The method 
 adopted by Achilles Tatius, of introducing a list- 
 ener, seems now exploded ; and if we fancy that 
 the hero or heroine speaks, the narration must be 
 regarded as a soliloquy from beginning to end. 
 But in the modern novel, and in the Greek ro- 
 mance of Ismene and Ismenias, the persons who 
 relate their story are neither conceived to address 
 a friend, nor to report their adventures to them- 
 selves, but are supposed to have written what the 
 reader peruses. 
 
 Notwithstanding its defects, Ismene and Isme-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 109 
 
 nias has been imitated by subsequent poets and 
 writers of romance. D'Urfe, in particular, has 
 taken the description of the fountain of love in- 
 troduced in the Astrea, from that of Diana at 
 Artycomis ; and many of the incidents and names 
 in the work of Eustathius have been transferred to 
 the Spanish pastoral of Montemayor. 
 
 Besides those Greek romances that have been 
 enumerated, there is one entitled Dosicles and 
 Rhodantes, by Theodorus Prodromus, who wrote 
 about the middle of the 12th century, and was 
 nearly contemporary with Eustathius, but which 
 shall not be farther mentioned ; as, besides being 
 very indifferently written, it is in iambics, and is 
 rather a poem than a romance. It was followed 
 by a great many others of a similar description, 
 in the 12th and 13th centuries, all of which are 
 written in iambics ; and contain a series of wan- 
 dering adventures, strung together with little art 
 or invention, as the loves of Charicell and Drosil- 
 la, by Nicetas Eugenianus, &c. 
 
 Of all these an account has been given by Fa- 
 bricius, in his Bibliotheca Graeca, (1. 5. c. 6.,) but 
 the only one deserving of notice or attention, is 
 the History of Appollonius of Tyre, which is 
 written in such barbarous verse, that I can scarce- 
 ly be considered as breaking through my plan, by
 
 110 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 giving a short account of it. The original Greek, 
 I believe, has only been recently edited, but a La- 
 tin prose translation, formed as early as the 11th 
 century, was published soon after the invention of 
 printing, under the title of Appollonii Tyrii His- 
 toria. In this romance, we are told that Antiochus, 
 king of Syria, who entertained towards his daughter 
 warmer sentiments than those of paternal affection, 
 in order to retain her in his own palace, propound- 
 ed to her numerous suitors, a riddle to be ex- 
 plained as the price of her hand. Appollonius, 
 king of Tyre, having fallen in love with the prin- 
 cess by report, arrives at the capital of Antiochus, 
 and solves the enigma, which contained an allu- 
 sion to the criminal passion of the father. The 
 king of Syria lays snares for the destruction of Ap- 
 pollonius, who escapes from his dominions, and 
 after various adventures is driven by a storm into 
 the states of a monarch, where his regal descent 
 being discovered by the majesty of his appear- 
 ance, and the variety of his accomplishments, the 
 king's daughter falls in love with him, and, in or- 
 der to protract his stay, requests that he may be 
 appointed her preceptor in those arts in which he 
 had shown himself so skilful. In the course of his 
 instructions, Appollonius forgets the princess of 
 Syria, and lays claim to the hand of his fair pupil.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 111 
 
 Some months after the marriage had heen solem- 
 nized, intelligence arrives that Antiochus and his 
 daughter had been struck dead by lightning, and 
 that the appearance of Appollonius in Syria, would 
 be the signal of a general declaration in his favour. 
 With the view of obtaining this vacant sovereign- 
 ty, he sets sail with his wife, who gives birth to a 
 daughter during the voyage ; but while in a swoon, 
 into which she had soon after fallen, she is belie- 
 ved dead, and from the superstition of the crew 
 with regard to the malignant influence of corpses 
 at sea, she is immediately thrown overboard in a 
 chest. Appollonius lands in a state of despair on 
 the coast of Syria, where he entrusts his infant 
 daughter to persons on whose fidelity he could 
 depend, and then sets out as a wanderer on the face 
 of the earth. When his daughter grows up she is 
 Carried off by pirates, and sold at a Grecian city, 
 where she is preserved from infamy by the com- 
 passion and continence of a young man, called 
 Athenagoras, to whose embraces she was present- 
 ed by her purchaser. She continues to earn a 
 subsistence by her skill in music, till her father, 
 who in the course of his wanderings had arrived 
 at that city, in a mourning and dejected habit, 
 attracted by the heavenly melody of her voice, 
 enters her humble dwelling. For his solace and 
 1
 
 112 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 recreation, she sung with exquisite pathos the un- 
 happy story of her infancy, from which Appollo- 
 nius discovered that she was indeed his daughter. 
 He affianced her to Athenagoras, to whom she 
 had been indebted for more than the preservation 
 of life, and then, warned by a celestial vision, he 
 departed for Ephesus. There he found his long- 
 lost queen, who, having been wafted to that coast 
 when thrown overboard, had been picked up by a 
 physician, who at length succeeded in restoring 
 the almost extinguished animation. 
 
 Besides the Latin prose version already men- 
 tioned, the romance, or history of Appollonius, 
 was translated into Latin verse about the end of 
 the 12th century, by Godfrey of Viterbo, who in- 
 troduced it in his Pantheon, or Universal Chroni- 
 cle, as part of the history of Antiochus the Third 
 of Syria. It was also inserted in the Gesta Roma- 
 norum, which was written in the 14th century, and 
 became soon after the subject of a French prose 
 romance, which was the origin of the English 
 Chronicle of Apolyn of Tyre, printed by Wynkin 
 de Worde, in 1510. It was from the metrical ver- 
 sion, however, of Godfrey of Viterbo, that the 
 story came to Gower, who has told it with little 
 variation in his Confessio Amantis. Gower is in- 
 troduced as speaking the prologue to each of the
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 113 
 
 five acts of Pericles, prince of Tyre ; whence it 
 may be presumed that the author of that play 
 derived his plot from the English poet. The drama 
 of Pericles, as is well known, has been the sub- 
 ject of much discussion ; the composition of the 
 whole, or greater part of it, having been attri- 
 buted to Shakspeare, by some of his commenta- 
 tors, chiefly on the authority of Dry den : 
 
 Your Ben and Fletcher in their first young flight, 
 Did no Volpone, no Arbaces write ; 
 Shakspeare's own muse his Pericles first bore, 
 The Prince of Tyre is elder than the Moor. 
 
 Besides the romances which have been enume- 
 rated, there appeared during the existence of the 
 eastern empire, a number of Greek tales, chiefly 
 derived from mythological stories, and resembling 
 those of Parthenius Nicenus ; but sometimes com- 
 bined with long discussions on the nature of love. 
 However, as these are not written according to 
 the rules of romance, but are founded on heathen 
 fables, they are not included in the plan that I have 
 adopted. 
 
 A curious account is given by Huet, of a ro- 
 mance of disputed authenticity, which appeared 
 under the name of Athenagoras, entitled, Du Vrai 
 
 vol. i. h
 
 114 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 et Parfait Amour. A copy of this work, written 
 in French, was sent, in the year 1569, to M. La- 
 mane, by Martin Fumee, who professes himself to 
 be merely the translator. He informs us in the 
 preface that he received the Greek copy from this 
 M. Lamane, who was prothonotary to the cardinal 
 of Armagnac ; that he had never seen any other 
 manuscript of the work, and adds, that it is the 
 production of that Athenagoras, who addressed an 
 apology for the Christian religion to the emperors 
 Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, which would 
 make him considerably prior to Heliodorus. In 
 1599, thirty years after it was written or transla- 
 ted by Fumee, the romance was published by 
 Bernard of Sanjorry, with a preface, in which he 
 says that he found among his papers a copy of 
 the work, transcribed from the manuscript which 
 Fumee had sent to M. de Lamane. 
 
 Huet speaks of this romance at considerable 
 length, in the work I have so often quoted. He in 
 the first place extols the splendid and interesting 
 manner in which the romance opens. " There," 
 says he, " as in a picture, is represented the lofty 
 triumph of Paulus Emilius, where, amidst so many 
 remarkable objects, the king of Macedon is exhi- 
 bited loaded with chains, and hurried along with 
 his children before the chariot of his conqueror.
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 115 
 
 There the enamoured Charis, grieving beyond 
 measure that she had fallen into the power of the 
 Romans, and that she had been torn from Theo- 
 genes, her lover, is touched with delight, on unex- 
 pectedly beholding him ; and at the same moment 
 is affected with the most poignant anguish, because 
 she sees him among the captives." It is from the 
 house of Octavius, a Roman general, into whose 
 power she had fallen, that Charis views the tri- 
 umph that excites such jarring emotions. Me- 
 langenia, who turns out to be an elderly gentle- 
 woman of Carthage, but was at that time the slave 
 of Octavius, is sent to console her. These two 
 females recount to each other their early loves 
 and misfortunes, the recital of which occupies the 
 first six books of the romance, and the remaining 
 four contain the adventures of Charis after she 
 had obtained her freedom from Octavius, which 
 are in the usual style of those contained in the 
 Greek romances. 
 
 As to the question of the authenticity of this 
 production, the authors of the Bibliotheque des 
 Romans seem to think it a genuine work, but do 
 not enter into much discussion on thesubject. Huet 
 remarks, that the intimate knowledge shown by the 
 author, of all those things which were discovered by
 
 116 CREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 the ancients, both in nature and art ; his wonder- 
 ful acquaintance with the history of past times, and 
 the ancient errors he adopts, into which a modern 
 would scarcely have fallen ; the Greek phraseolo- 
 gy which shines even through the mist of transla- 
 tion ; and, above all, the dignity and grace of an- 
 tiquity, which cannot be easily imitated, and in 
 which the whole work is clothed ; all conspire to 
 vindicate from the suspicion of forgery. The bish- 
 op then proceeds to unfold his arguments against 
 the genuineness of the work, many of which are 
 not more conclusive than those adduced in favour 
 of its authenticity. The first reason for incredu- 
 lity is, that the romance has not been mentioned 
 in the dictionary of Photius ; which, if admitted as 
 a proof of fabrication, would render spurious the 
 romances of Longus, Chariton, and the three Xe- 
 nophons. Nor is the argument derived from the 
 supposed imitation of Heliodorus altogether con- 
 clusive, since, upon the supposition that the work 
 in question was a genuine production of Athena- 
 goras, Theagenes and Chariclea may as probably 
 have been derived from Charis and Theogenes, as 
 these from the former appellations. The non-ex- 
 istence, however, of a Greek original of the ro- 
 mance Du Vrai et parfait Amour, necessarily
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 117 
 
 throws the onus probandi of its authenticity on its 
 defenders ; and, until produced, a strong pre- 
 sumption remains, that Charis and Theogenes is 
 nothing more than a partial change of Theagenes 
 and Chariclea. 
 
 The imposture, indeed, is clearly detected by 
 the description of manners and institutions un- 
 known in the age of Athenagoras. Thus the au- 
 thor conducts a criminal trial in the heart of 
 Greece, according to the form of process before 
 the parliament of Paris. The priests and virgins 
 introduced in the romance, as consecrated to 
 Hammon, live according to the fashion of the 
 monks and nuns of the fifteenth century, and not 
 like those who existed in the early ages of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Huet has mentioned, as the principal defect of 
 the romance, that it is loaded with descriptions of 
 buildings, and that the palaces are not raised by 
 the magic hand of fiction, but by a professional ar- 
 chitect. From this blemish Huet has drawn his 
 chief argument against the authenticity of the 
 work. " It is universally known," says he, " that 
 the Cardinal Armagnac was much addicted to the 
 study of architecture : Philander, the commenta- 
 tor on Vitruvius, was one of his devoted retainers,
 
 118 GREEK ROMANCES. 
 
 was the most scientific architect of his age, and 
 was, besides, well informed in every branch of po- 
 lite literature. Now, since the descriptions of this 
 Athenagoras are closely squared to the principles 
 of architecture inculcated by him in his annota- 
 tions on Vitruvius, may it not reasonably be sus- 
 pected, that Philander was the deviser of this li- 
 terary imposture, in order to support his own opi- 
 nions by the authority of antiquity ? The fraud 
 might have been detected, had the work issued 
 from the hands of Philander, or the palace of the 
 cardinal. That he might remove suspicion from 
 himself, and conduct the reader as it were to other 
 ground, he wrote an amatory romance. There, as 
 if incidentally, he inserted the precepts of his art, 
 and, concealing his own name, he ingeniously em- 
 ployed that of Lamane, for the possessor of the 
 manuscript, and Fumee for the French translator. 
 " However it may be," he continues, " the ro- 
 mance is ingeniously contrived, artfully conduct- 
 ed, enlightened with unparalleled sentiments, and 
 precepts of morality, and adorned with a profu- 
 sion of delightful images, most skilfully dispo- 
 sed. The incidents are probable, the episodes are 
 deduced from the main subject, the language is 
 perspicuous, and modesty is scrupulously obser-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 119 
 
 ved. Here there is nothing mean, nothing unna- 
 tural or affected, nothing that has the appearance 
 of childishness or sophistry." Huet, however, 
 complains that the conclusion of the fable of this 
 romance is far removed from the excellence of the 
 introduction. 
 
 I have now taken a successive view of the 
 Greek romances, and have attempted to furnish 
 such an analysis of them as may enable the read- 
 er to form some notion of their nature and* qua- 
 lities. 
 
 One quality, it is obvious, pervades them all, 
 and it is the characteristic not only of Greek ro- 
 mance, but of the first attempt at prose fiction in 
 every country : The interest of each work almost 
 wholly consists in a succession of strange, and of- 
 ten improbable adventures. Indeed, as the pri- 
 mary object of the narrator was to surprise by the 
 incidents he rehearsed, the strangeness of these was 
 the chief object to which he directed his attention. 
 For the creation of these marvels sufficient scope 
 was afforded him, because, as little intercourse 
 took place in society, the limits of probability were 
 not precisely ascertained. The seclusion, also, of 
 females in these early times gave a certain uni- 
 formity to existence, and prevented the novelist 
 from painting those minute and almost impercep-
 
 120 CHEEK ROMANCES. 
 
 tible traits of feeling and character, all those 
 developements, which render a well-written mo- 
 dern novel so agreeable and interesting. Still, 
 amid all their imperfections, the Greek romances 
 are extremely pleasing, since they may be consi- 
 dered as almost the first productions in which 
 woman is in any degree represented as assuming 
 her proper station of the friend and the companion 
 of man. Hitherto she had been considered almost 
 in the light of a slave, ready to bestow her affec- 
 tions on whatever master might happen to obtain 
 her ; but, in Heliodorus and his followers, we see 
 her an affectionate guide and adviser we behold 
 an union of hearts painted as a main-spring of our 
 conduct in life we are delighted with pictures of 
 fidelity, constancy, and chastity, and are encou- 
 raged to persevere in a life of virtue by the happy 
 consequences to which it leads. The Greek ro- 
 mances are less valuable than they might have 
 been, from giving too much to adventure, and too 
 little to manners and character ; but these have 
 not been altogether neglected, and several plea- 
 sing pictures are delineated of ancient customs 
 and feelings. In short, these early fictions are 
 such as might have been expected at the first ef- 
 fort, and must be considered as not merely valu- 
 able in themselves, but as highly estimable in point-
 
 GREEK ROMANCES. 121 
 
 ing out the method of awaking the most pleasing 
 sympathies of our nature, and affecting most pow- 
 erfully the fancy and the heart.
 
 J 22 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Introduction of the Milesian Tales into Italy. 
 Latin Romances. Petronius Arbiter. 
 Apuleius, fyc. 
 
 The Milesian Fables had found their way into 
 Italy even before they flourished in Greece. They 
 had been received with eagerness, and imitated by 
 the Sybarites, the most voluptuous nation in the 
 west of Europe ; whose stories obtained the same 
 celebrity in Rome, that the Milesian tales had ac- 
 quired in Greece and Asia. It is not easy to 
 specify the exact nature of the western imitations, 
 but if we may judge from a solitary specimen trans- 
 mitted by iElian in his Variae Historiae, (1. 14. c. 
 20,) they were of a facetious description, and in- 
 tended to promote merriment. A pedagogue of 
 the Sybarite nation conducted his pupil through 
 the streets of a town. The boy happened to get
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 123 
 
 hold of a fig, which he was proceeding to eat, 
 when his tutor interrupted him by a long decla- 
 mation against luxury, and then snatching the 
 dainty from his hand, devoured it with the ut- 
 most greed. This tale iEiian says he had read 
 in the Sybarite stories, (?g<*<s <7-f/3g<T<*s,) and 
 had been so much entertained that he got it by 
 heart, and committed it to writing, as he did not 
 grudge mankind a hearty laugh ! 
 
 Many of the Romans, it would appear, were as 
 easily amused as iElian, since the Sybarite stories 
 for a long while enjoyed great popularity ; and, at 
 length, in the time of Sylla, the Milesian tales of 
 Aristides were translated into Latin by Sisenna, 
 who was praetor of Sicily, and author of a history 
 of Rome. Plutarch informs us in his life of Cras- 
 sus, that when that general was defeated by the 
 Parthians, the conquerors found copies of Mi- 
 lesian and Sybarite tales in the tents of the Ro- 
 man soldiers ; whence Surena expressed his con- 
 tempt for the effeminacy and licentiousness of his 
 enemies, who, even in time of war, could not re- 
 frain from the perusal of such compositions. 
 
 The taste for the Sybarite and Milesian fables 
 
 increased during the reign of the emperors. Many 
 
 imitators of Aristides appeared, particularly Clodi* 
 
 us Albinus, the competitor of the Emperor Severus, 
 
 11
 
 124; LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 whose stories have not reached posterity, but are 
 said to have obtained a celebrity to which their me- 
 rit hardly entitled them. 1 It is strange that Severus, 
 in a letter to the senate, in which he upbraids its 
 members for the honours they had heaped on his 
 rival, and the support they had given to his pre- 
 tensions, should, amid accusations that concerned 
 him more nearly, have expressed his chief mortifi- 
 cation to arise from their having distinguished 
 that person as learned, who had grown hoary in 
 the study of old wives' tales, such as the Milesian- 
 Punic fables. Major fuit dolor, quod ilium pro 
 literato laudandum plerique duxistis, cum ille ne- 
 niis quibusdam anilibus occupatus, inter Milesias 
 Punicas Apuleii suit, et ludicra literaria consenes- 
 ceret. 
 
 But the most celebrated fable of ancient Rome 
 is the work of Petronius Arbiter, perhaps the most 
 remarkable fiction which has dishonoured the li- 
 terary history of any nation. It is the only fable 
 of that period now extant, but is a strong proof of 
 the monstrous corruption of the times in which 
 such a production could be tolerated, though, no 
 
 1 Milesias nonnulli ejusdem esse dicunt, quarum fama non 
 ignobilis habetur, quamvis mediocriter scripts sunt. Capi- 
 tolinus tit. CUd. Albim.
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 125 
 
 doubt, writings of bad moral tendency might be 
 circulated before the invention of printing, with- 
 out arguing the depravity they would have evin- 
 ced, if presented to the world subsequent to that 
 period. 
 
 The work of Petronius is in the form of a satire, 
 and, according to some commentators, is directed 
 against the vices of the court of Nero, who is 
 thought to be delineated under the names of Tri- 
 malchio and Agamemnon ; an opinion which has 
 been justly ridiculed by Voltaire. The satire is 
 written in a manner which was first introduced by 
 Varro ; verses are intermixed with prose, and jests 
 with serious remark. It has much the air of a ro- 
 mance, both in the incidents and their disposition ; 
 but the story is too well known, and too scandal- 
 ous, to be particularly detailed. The scene is laid 
 in Magna Graecia ; Encolpius is the chief character 
 in the work, and the narrator of events ; he com- 
 mences by a lamentation on the decline of elo- 
 quence, and while listening to the reply of Aga- 
 memnon, a professor of oratory, he loses his com- 
 panion Ascyltos. Wandering through the town 
 in search of him, he is finally conducted by an old 
 woman to a retirement where the incidents that 
 occur are analogous to the scene. The subse- 
 quent adventures the feast of Trimalchio the
 
 126 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 defection and return of Giton the amour of Eu- 
 molpus in Bythinia the voyage in the vessel of 
 Lycus the passion and disappointment of Circe, 
 follow each other without much art of arrange- 
 ment ; an apparent defect which may arise from 
 the mutilated form in which the satire has de- 
 scended to us. 
 
 The style of Petronius has been much ap- 
 plauded for its elegance it certainly possesses- 
 considerable naivete and grace, and is by much 
 too fine a veil for so deformed a body. Some of 
 the verses also are extremely beautiful. The 
 best part of the prose, however, is the well- 
 known episode of the matron of Ephesus, which, 
 I have little doubt, was originally a Milesian or 
 Sybarite fable. A lady of Ephesus, on the death of 
 her husband, not contented with the usual demon- 
 strations of grief, descended with the corpse into 
 the vault in which it was entombed, resolving there 
 to perish with sorrow. From this design no entrea- 
 ties of her own or her husband's friends could dis- 
 suade her. But at length a common soldier, who had 
 been appointed to watch the bodies of malefactors 
 crucified in the vicinity, le6t they should be taken 
 down by their relations, perceiving a light, de- 
 scended into the vault, where he gazed on the 
 beauty of the mourner, whom he soon persuaded
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 127 
 
 to eat, to drink, and to live. That very night, in 
 her funeral garments, in the commencement of 
 her grief, and in the tomb of her husband, she 
 was united to this new and unknown lover. When 
 the soldier ascended from this bridal chamber, he 
 found that the body of a criminal had been carried 
 off. He returned to his mistress to deplore the pu- 
 nishment that awaited him for his neglect, but she 
 immediately relieved his disquiet, by proposing 
 that the corpse of the husband, whose funeral she 
 had so vehemently mourned, should be raised, 
 and nailed to the cross in room of the malefactor. - 
 
 A story nearly the same with that in Petronius 
 exists, under title of the Widow who was Com- 
 forted, in the book known in this country by name 
 of the Seven wise Masters, which is one of the 
 oldest collections of oriental stories. There, how- 
 ever, the levity of the widow is aggravated by the 
 circumstance that the husband had died in conse- 
 quence of alarm at a danger to which his wife had 
 been exposed, and that she consented to mutilate 
 his body, in order to give it a perfect resemblance 
 to that of the malefactor which had been taken 
 down from the cross. 
 
 This story of female levity has frequently been 
 imitated, both in its classical and oriental circum- 
 stances. It is the Fabliau De la femme qui se fist 
 putain sur la fosse de son mari. The Pere du
 
 128 JLATIX ROMANCES. 
 
 Halde, in his History of China, informs us that it 
 is a common story in that empire ; but the most 
 singular place for the introduction of such a tale 
 was the Rule and Exercise of holy Dying, by 
 Jeremy Taylor, where it forms part of the 5th 
 chapter, entitled, Of the Contingencies of Death 
 and Treating our Dead. 
 
 The Latin writers of fiction seem to have been 
 uniformly more happy in their episodes than in 
 the principal subject. This remark is particularly 
 applicable to the 
 
 ASS OF APULEIUS, 
 
 to which its readers, on account of its excellence, 
 as is generally supposed, added the epithet of 
 Golden. Warburton, however, conjectures, from 
 the beginning of one of Pliny's epistles, that Auriee 
 was the common title given to the Milesian, and 
 such tales as strollers used to tell for a piece of 
 money to the rabble in a circle : " Assem para et 
 accipe auream fabulam." (L. ii. Ep. 20.) These 
 Milesian fables were much in vogue in the age of 
 Apuleius. Accordingly, in the commencement of 
 his work, he allures his readers with the promise 
 of a fashionable composition, 1 though he early in- 
 
 1 At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conse- 
 ram, aure.-que tuas benevolas lepido sosurro permulceam.
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 129 
 
 sinuatts that he has deeper intentions than their 
 amusement. 
 
 The fable is related in the person of the author, 
 who commences his story with representing him- 
 self as a young man, sensible of the advantages of 
 virtue, but immoderately addicted to pleasure, and 
 curious of magic. He informs the reader, that on 
 account of some domestic affairs, he was obliged 
 to travel into Thessaly, the country whence his 
 family had its origin. At his entrance into one of 
 the towns, called Hypata> he enquired for a per- 
 son of the name of Milo, and being directed to his 
 house, rapped at the door. On what security do 
 you intend to borrow, said a servant, cautiously 
 unbolting it ; we only lend on pledges of gold or 
 silver. Being at last introduced to the master, 
 Apuleius presented letters of recommendation 
 from Demeas, a friend of the miser, and was in 
 consequence asked to remain in the house. Milo 
 having dismissed his wife, desired his guest to sit 
 down on the couch in her place, apologizing for 
 the want of seats of a more portable description, 
 on account of his fear of robbers. Apuleius ha- 
 ving accepted the invitation to reside in the mi- 
 ser's house, went out to the public bath, and on 
 the way reflecting on the parsimony of his host, 
 he bought some fish for supper. On coming out 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 130 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 from the market he met Pithias, who ha4 been 
 his school-fellow at Athens, but was at that time 
 aedile of Hypata, and had the superintendance of 
 provisions. This magistrate having examined the 
 fish his friend had purchased, condemned them as 
 bad, ordered them to be destroyed, and having 
 merely reprimanded the vender, left his old com- 
 panion dismayed at the loss of his supper and mo- 
 ney, and by no means satisfied with the mode of 
 administering justice in Thessaly. 
 
 After having visited the bath, Apuleius return- 
 ed to sleep at Milo's, and rose next morning with 
 the design of seeing whatever was curious in the 
 city. Thessaly was the country whence magic 
 derived its origin ; and of the nature of this art he 
 had heard and even witnessed something on his 
 journey from Rome. Hence he imagined that 
 every thing he saw was changed from its natural 
 form, by the force of enchantment ; he expected 
 to behold the statues walk, and to hear the oxen 
 prophesy. While roaming through the town he 
 met with a lady, called Byrrhena, who, having 
 been a friend of his mother, invited him to lodge 
 at her house. This he could not agree to, as 
 he had already accepted an apartment at Milo's, 
 but he consented to accompany her home to sup- 
 per. The great hall in this lady's palace is splen- 
 
 6
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 131 
 
 didly described, and an animated account is given 
 of a statue of Victory, and a piece of sculpture re- 
 presenting Diana, surrounded by her dogs. Apu- 
 leius is warned by Byrrhena to beware of Pam- 
 phile, the wife of Milo, who was the most dan- 
 gerous magician in Thessaly. She informs him 
 that this hag spares no charms to fascinate a young 
 man for whom she conceives a passion, and does 
 not scruple to metamorphose those who oppose 
 her inclinations. Apuleius returned home, hesi- 
 tating whether to attach himself to Pamphile, in 
 order to be instructed in magic, or to her servant 
 Fotis. The superior beauty of the latter speedily 
 fixed his resolution, and he consoled himself for 
 the many privations he endured in the house of 
 Milo, by carrying on an intrigue with this damsel, 
 who acted as the handmaid of Pamphile, and the 
 valet of her parsimonious husband. 
 
 One night, while supping at the house of Byr- 
 rhena, Apuleius was informed that the following 
 day being the festival of Momus, he ought to ho- 
 nour that divinity by some merry invention. 
 
 Returning home somewhat intoxicated, he per- 
 ceived through the dusk three large figures attack- 
 ing the door of Milo with much fury. Suspect- 
 ing them to be robbers, who intended to break 
 in, he ran his sword through them in succession,
 
 132 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 and, leaving them as dead, escaped into the house. 
 Next morning he is arrested on account of the 
 triple homicide, and is brought to trial in a crowd- 
 ed and open court. The accuser is called by a 
 herald. An old man, who acted in this capacity, 
 pronounced a harangue, of which the duration 
 was limited by a clepsydra, as the old sermons 
 were measured by hour glasses. Two women in 
 deep mourning were introduced ; one lamented 
 the death of her husband, the other of her son, 
 and both called loudly for vengeance on the mur- 
 derer. Apuleius was found guilty of the death of 
 three citizens ; but previous to his execution it 
 was resolved he should be put to the torture, to 
 force a discovery of his accomplices, and the ne- 
 cessary preparations were accordingly completed. 
 What had chiefly astonished Apuleius during this 
 scene, was, that the whole court, and among others 
 his host Milo, were all the while convulsed with 
 laughter. One of the women in mourning now 
 demanded that the dead bodies, which were in 
 court, should be uncovered, in order that, the 
 compassion of the judges being excited, the tor- 
 tures might be increased. The demand was com- 
 plied with, and the task assigned to Apuleius 
 himself. The risibility of the audience is now ac- 
 counted for, as he sees, to his utter astonishment.
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 133 
 
 three immense leather bottles, which, on the pre- 
 ceding night, he had mistaken for robbers. The 
 imaginary criminal is then dismissed, after being 
 informed that this mock trial was in honour of the 
 god Momus. 
 
 On returning home the matter was more fully 
 explained by Fotis, who informs Apuleius that she 
 had been employed by her mistress to procure the 
 hair of a young Boeotian, of whom she was ena- 
 moured, in order to prepare a charm which would 
 bring him to her house : that having failed in ob- 
 taining this ingredient, and fearing the resent- 
 ment of her mistress, she had brought her some 
 goat's hair, which fell from the scissars of a bottle- 
 shearer. These hairs being burned by the sor- 
 ceress, with the usual incantations, had (instead 
 of leading the Boeotian to her house,) given anima- 
 tion to the skins to which they formerly adhered, 
 and which being then in the form of bottles, ap- 
 peared, in their desire of entrance, to assault the 
 door of Milo. The above story of the bottles pro- 
 bably suggested to Cervantes the dreadful combat 
 which took place at an inn between Don Quixote 
 and the wine skins, which he hacked to pieces, 
 supposing all the while that he was cleaving down 
 giants (book iv. c. 4.). 
 
 Apuleius agreed to forgive Fotis the uneasiness
 
 134- LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 she had occasioned, if she would promise to ex- 
 hibit her mistress to him while engaged in one of 
 her magical operations. On the following night 
 Fotis came to him in great agitation, and inform- 
 ed him that her mistress was about to assume the 
 shape of a bird, to fly to some object of her affec- 
 tions. Looking through an opening in the door, 
 he saw Pamphile take out several bottles, and rub 
 herself with an ointment contained in one of them. 
 Then having muttered certain words, her body is 
 covered with feathers, her nails are lengthened 
 into claws ; and forthwith, in shape of an owl, she 
 flies out of the chamber. Apuleius next request- 
 ed Fotis that she would favour him with some of 
 the ointment, that he might follow her mistress in 
 the same form, to his restoration from which he 
 understood nothing farther was necessary than a 
 draught of spring water, mixed with anise and 
 laurel leaves. Fotis, however, gave him a different 
 ointment from that which she had intended, so 
 that, instead of being changed into a bird, he as- 
 sumed the figure of an Ass. In this shape he 
 retains his former feelings and understanding, but 
 is told by Fotis that he cannot be restored to the 
 human form but by eating rose leaves. 
 
 The remainder of the story is occupied with the 
 search of Apuleius after this valuable article, and
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 135 
 
 the hardships he suffers under the degraded form 
 to which he was reduced ; a part of the work, 
 which seems in its literal signification to have 
 suggested the idea of such compositions as the 
 Adventures of a Lap-dog, the Perambulations of 
 a Mouse, &c. 
 
 Apuleius in the first place descended to the 
 stable, where he was very roughly treated by his 
 own horse, and the ass of Milo. In a corner of his 
 new habitation he perceived the shrine of Hip- 
 pona, the goddess of stables, adorned with fresh- 
 gathered roses ; but in attempting to pluck them 
 he was beat back with many blows by his own 
 groom, who felt indignant at the meditated sacri- 
 lege. 
 
 At this instant Milo's dwelling was broken into 
 by robbers, who, having pillaged the house, load- 
 ed the horse and the two asses which they found 
 in the stable with the booty. Apuleius observed 
 several rose bushes in a garden through which he 
 passed on his way to the habitation of the bandit- 
 ti ; but restrained himself from partaking of their 
 flowers, lest he should be murdered by his new 
 masters on resuming the human figure. After a 
 long journey, and when almost ready to sink under 
 the weight of his burden, he arrived at the abode 
 of the robbers. This residence is described in
 
 136 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 a manner extremely similar to the habitations of 
 banditti, in all modern romances. We have the 
 rugged mountain, impenetrable forest, inaccessi- 
 ble rocks, and even the solid and lofty tower, with 
 the subterraneous cavern. In this frightful abode 
 supper was served up by an old woman, who was 
 the only domestic ; and during the repast another 
 troop arrived bearing a rich booty. 
 
 At day-break the band set out on a new expe- 
 dition, and returned a few hours afterwards with 
 a young lady as their prize, whom they consigned 
 to the care of the old woman. She informed this 
 hag that she had been carried off on the day of 
 her nuptials with a young man, to whom she was 
 much attached. The old woman, to alleviate her 
 distress, entertained her with a story which she 
 said was taken from the Milesian fables, and which 
 i6 the celebrated tale of Cupid and Psyche. 
 
 Apuleius was employed in different expeditions 
 with the robbers ; he also made several attempts to 
 escape from their power, which proved abortive. 
 At length, one of their number, who had been left 
 in the town where Milo resided, returned to his 
 band, and informed them that they were not sus- 
 pected of the robbery, which had been laid to the 
 charge of a person of the name of Apuleius, who 
 had forged letters from a friend of Milo, and had
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 137 
 
 disappeared after pillaging the house. He also 
 introduced a stranger, who represented himself as 
 the celebrated robber Hemus, the terror of all 
 Thessaly ; and who, of consequence, was gladly 
 chosen the leader of the banditti. Apuleius, by at- 
 tending to the conversation which passed between 
 this person and the young lady, discovered that 
 the pretended outlaw was her husband, who had 
 assumed a false character, in order to effect her 
 escape. This he accomplished one evening by 
 intoxicating his companions, when, having bound 
 them with cords, and placed his bride on the back 
 of Apuleius, he returned with her to the town in 
 which she had formerly resided. 
 
 There is a striking coincidence of the occur- 
 rences at the habitation of the robbers with some 
 of the early incidents in Gil Bias. The gloomy 
 habitation of the robbers the manner in which it 
 is secured the revelry of the banditti the old 
 woman by whom they are attended the arrival 
 of a new troop during the entertainment the 
 captivity of the young lady and final escape, are, 
 I think, resemblances too strong to have been 
 merely accidental. 
 
 The new master of Apuleius, in gratitude for 
 the service he had rendered, determined he should 
 be sent to his mares in the country, to aid in the
 
 138 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 propagation of mules. Unfortunately the groom 
 he was entrusted to had a wife, who totally marred 
 the amorous expectations of Apuleius, by setting 
 him to turn a mill. Nor was his situation impro- 
 ved when the groom, at length recollecting his 
 orders, sent him on the service to which he was 
 originally destined ; as he met with a most inhos- 
 pitable reception from some horses who were his 
 fellow suitors. 
 
 After this mortification, Apuleius was employ- 
 ed to bring burdens of wood from the mountains, 
 under the guidance of a boy, who treated him with 
 the utmost cruelty, and spread such a report of his 
 mischievous disposition, that he was at the point 
 of being for ever disqualified for the multiplica- 
 tion of mules. Intelligence, however, opportunely 
 arrived that his master had been treacherously 
 murdered by a former lover of his wife's, and that 
 this lady, after taking a savage revenge on her 
 perfidious admirer, had laid violent hands on her- 
 self. On receiving this intelligence, the groom 
 pillaged his master's house in the country, loaded 
 Apuleius with the booty, and fled with the rustics 
 who were his accomplices. In the course of their 
 journey through a wild and desolate country, they 
 met with various adventures ; and at length ar- 
 rived in a populous town, where the groom re-
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. J 39 
 
 solved to fix his residence. Here Apuleius was 
 purchased by an old eunuch, one of the priests of 
 the Syrian goddess. While in his possession he 
 was witness to the dreadful debaucheries of the 
 ministers of that divinity ; and inadvertently bray- 
 ing with astonishment at their excesses, one of 
 the neighbours, who had lost an ass, burst into 
 the house, which rendered public the infamy of 
 these wretches. 
 
 In consequence of this exposure, the eunuchs 
 were obliged to remove to another town, whither 
 Apuleius, bearing the statue of the Syrian god- 
 dess, accompanied them. Here they lodged in 
 the house of one of the inhabitants, who had a 
 great veneration for that deity. A dog unfortu- 
 nately ran off with a haunch of venison, with which 
 he had intended to entertain her votaries. The 
 cook proposed to hang himself in despair, but his 
 wife persuaded him to leave that operation as his 
 last resource ; and meanwhile to substitute an ass's 
 leg in room of the one he had lost. Apuleius ha- 
 ving understood that he was the intended victim, 
 rushed into the hall where the host was entertain- 
 ing the priest, and overset the tables. A report 
 having been circulated that a mad dog had been 
 seen in the stable, this act of Apuleius was ascri- 
 bed to hydrophobia ; and he would have been sa-
 
 140 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 crificed to this suspicion, if he had not instantly 
 drunk some water from a vase. 
 
 The eunuchs soon after removed, and in travel- 
 ling about with them, Apuleius heard the recital 
 of the tale concerning the tub which forms the se- 
 cond story of the seventh day of the Decameron. 
 Apuleius at length was sold at the market of one 
 of the towns through which he passed, to a baker, 
 who meets with the adventure related by Boccac- 
 cio in the tenth novel of the fifth day. He next 
 fell into the possession of a gardener, from whom 
 he was forcibly carried off by a Roman soldier, 
 and sold to two brothers who lived together ; the 
 one being the cook, and the other the pastry-cook, 
 of a man of wealth and importance. When they 
 went out they made it a rule to lock the door of 
 the tent in which they baked and dressed victuals, 
 and left only their ass in it. At their return they 
 invariably found that the pastry and other pro- 
 visions had disappeared. As the ass always left 
 his corn and hay unconsumed, he became an ob- 
 ject of suspicion ; and being watched one day by 
 the brothers, was detected at his dainty repast. 
 The cooks were much entertained with the spec- 
 tacle, and the account of this piece of epicurism 
 having reached the ears of their master, Thyasus, 
 Apuleius was purchased by him, and taught a va-
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 141 
 
 riety of tricks by one of his freedraen. The pos- 
 session of this singular animal threw much lustre 
 on the proprietor, in the estimation of his fellow- 
 citizens, and he was in consequence appointed 
 chief magistrate of Corinth for five consecutive 
 years. 
 
 Apuleius was also of great value to the freed- 
 man who had charge of him, as he was exhibited 
 for money to the inhabitants. He received besides 
 frequent visits from ladies, which, at their solici- 
 tation, he was privately sent to return.' 
 
 A splendid fete was now given by his master, 
 in honour of his election to the magistracy. The 
 judgment of Paris was represented, and Apuleius 
 was destined to act a principal part in a species 
 of afterpiece, which was by no means consonant 
 to his feelings as a public exhibition. 
 
 He fled, unperceived, to the fields, and having 
 gallopped for three leagues, he came to a retired 
 spot on the shore of the sea. The moon, which 
 was in full splendour, and the awful silence of the 
 night, inspired him with sentiments of devotion. 
 
 1 See La Pucelle, chant, xx. note 4. " L'ane d'Apulee 
 (says Voltaire) ne par la point ; il ne put jamais prononcer 
 que Oh et non : mais il eut uoe bonne fortune avec uue dame, 
 comme on pcut le voir dans l'Apuleius en deux volumes in 
 \ cum notis ad utum BclphiniJ"
 
 142 LATIN KOMANCES. 
 
 He purified himself in the manner prescribed by 
 Pythagoras, and addressed a long prayer to the 
 great goddess Isis. In the course of the night she 
 appeared to him in a dream ; and, after giving a 
 strange account of herself, announced to him the 
 end of his misfortunes ; but demanded, in return, 
 the consecration of his whole life to her service. 
 When he awakens from this dream, he feels con- 
 firmed in the resolution of aspiring to a life of 
 virtue. On this change of disposition, and con- 
 quest over his passions, the author finely repre- 
 sents all Nature as assuming a new face of cheer- 
 fulness and gaiety. " Tanta hilar itudine, prater 
 peculiarem meam, gestire mihi cuncta videbantur, 
 ut pecua etiam cujuscemodi, et tot as domos, et 
 ipsam diem serena facie gaudere sentirem." 
 
 While in this frame of mind, Apuleius perceived 
 an innumerable multitude advancing towards the 
 shore, to celebrate the festival of Isis. Amid 
 the crowd of priests he remarked the sovereign 
 pontiff, with a crown of roses on his head ; and 
 approached to pluck them. The pontiff, yield- 
 ing to a secret inspiration, held forth the garland. 
 Apuleius resumed his former figure, and the pro- 
 mise of the goddess was fulfilled. He was then 
 initiated into her rites returned to Rome, and 
 devoted himself to her service. This information,
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 143 
 
 he remarks, will not surprise those who know that 
 he is decurion of the temple of Osiris, and who 
 are not ignorant that Isis and Osiris are one divi- 
 nity. 
 
 Apuleius was finally invited to a more mystic 
 and solemn initiation, by the goddess herself, who 
 rewarded him for his accumulated piety, by an 
 abundance of temporal blessings. 
 
 Such is the general outline of the subject of the 
 Golden Ass, which the contemporaries of the au- 
 thor, and critics of the succeeding age, regarded 
 as a trivial fable, written with the sole intention 
 of amusing the vulgar : " Quibus fabulis," says 
 Macrobius, " Apuleium nonnunquam lusisse mi- 
 ramur." At an early, though subsequent period, 
 a very different opinion was adopted. It was no 
 longer questioned that Apuleius had some pro- 
 found intention ; but it was not agreed in what 
 his aim consisted. St Augustine permitted himself 
 to doubt whether the account given by Apuleius 
 of his change into an ass, was not a true relation. 
 " Aut indicavit" says he, " aut finxit." The po- 
 pular sentiment was, that the work was chiefly 
 intended as a satire on the vices of the author's 
 countrymen ; and that, in imitation of a great 
 predecessor, he had been too anxious to particu- 
 larize the maladies which he wished to remedy.
 
 144 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 Beroaldus, the learned commentator on Apuleius, 
 imagines the transformation into an ass, to sig- 
 nify that man becomes brutified when immersed 
 in sensual pleasures ; but that when roses are 
 tasted, by which science and wisdom are typified, 
 he returns to religion and virtue ; a change which 
 is allegorically painted by a restoration to the hu- 
 man form. 
 
 In the Divine Legation of Moses, Dr Warbur- 
 ton has entered into much learned and ingenious, 
 though often far-fetched speculation, on this sub- 
 ject. He introduces this topic, (which, at first 
 sight, seems to bear a very remote analogy to the 
 mission of the Jewish legislator,) while attempting 
 to demonstrate that all nations have inculcated 
 the general doctrine of a Providence, and the be- 
 lief in a future state of rewards and punishments, 
 by some circumstantial and popular method, as 
 the Institution of Mysteries. The learned prelate 
 contends that the author had conceived an inve- 
 terate dislike to the Christian religion. He proves, 
 from several passages in the Apology, another 
 work of Apuleius, that his brother-in-law, by 
 whom he was prosecuted on a charge of magic, 
 was of this persuasion ; and in the Golden Ass, 
 the vices of the baker's wife are summed up, by 
 informing us that she was a Christian ; hence
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 145 
 
 his prepossession in favour of the pagan worship 
 was increased, and he was induced to compose a 
 work for the express purpose of extolling this su- 
 perstition, and recommending an initiation into its 
 mysteries, as a remedy for all vices whatever. On 
 this system, the author of the Divine Legation 
 proceeds to explain the prominent incidents of 
 the romance. The ancients believed that a deli- 
 verance from a living death of brutality and vice, 
 and a return to a new existence of virtue and happi- 
 ness, which form the principal subject of the Gold- 
 en Ass, might be effected by initiation into the 
 mysteries. Byrrhena is the representation of vir- 
 tue; Apuleius refuses her invitation, and gives 
 way to his passion for pleasure and magic, till the 
 crimes and follies into which they lead him, end 
 in his transformation to a brute ; in which shape 
 every change of condition makes his situation more 
 wretched and contemptible. The description of 
 the enormities committed by the priests of Cybele 
 is intended as a contrast to the pure rites of Isis. 
 Roses, by which the restoration to the human 
 form is effected, were, among the ancients, sym- 
 bols of silence ; a requisite quality of the initiated, 
 particularly among the Egyptians, who worship- 
 ped Harpocrates, the first-born of Isis: hence 
 the statues of Isis were crowned with chaplets of 
 VOL. i. k
 
 146 JLATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 these flowers, and hence the phrase, " under the 
 rose," has become in modern times proverbial. The 
 solemn initiation, which is fully described, and the 
 account of which concludes the work, agrees with 
 what other writers have delivered concerning the 
 mysteries. 
 
 If the Golden Ass of Apuleius was written, as 
 Warburton believes, in support of the pagan wor- 
 ship, it is perhaps strange that its author should 
 have chosen, as a prototype, the Ass of Lucian ; 
 which, like many other works of that satirist, was 
 intended to ridicule the heathen mythology. Both 
 compositions derived their origin from the writings 
 of Lucius Patrensis, which are not now extant ; 
 but are supposed to have been an account of me- 
 tamorphoses according to the popular theology. 
 One of these transformations was, for the sake of 
 ridicule, adopted- by Lucian in his Ass ; which, 
 though the leading incidents are the same, is a 
 mere sketch or outline of the Golden Ass of the 
 Roman. Thus Apuleius has added the story of 
 the assassination of the bottles, and the mock trial 
 which ensued. He has also given a serious and 
 sacred" air to the restoration to the human form, 
 which Lucian accidentally effects by plucking 
 some roses from a by-stander, when condemned to 
 an exhibition similar to that from which Apuleiu6
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 14T 
 
 ^scaped. The long description of the initiation into 
 the mysteries, is substituted for the ludicrous inci- 
 dent which terminates the adventures of Lucian ; 
 who, having, in his original shape, sought refuge 
 with a lady in whose sight he often found favour 
 as an ass, was turned out with disgrace on account 
 of the diminution of his charms. 
 
 The Golden Ass is also enriched with numerous 
 episodes, which are the invention of Apuleius, or 
 at least are not to be found in the work of Lucian. 
 Of these, the best known, and by far the most 
 beautiful, is the story of Cupid and Psyche, which 
 is related by the female servant of the banditti to 
 the young lady whom they had taken captive. 
 
 A certain king had three daughters, of whom 
 the youngest and most lovely was named Psyche. 
 Her charms indeed were so wonderful, that her 
 father's subjects began to adore and pay her the 
 homage which should have been reserved for Ve- 
 nus. The exasperated goddess commands her son 
 to avenge her on this rival, by inspiring Psyche 
 with a passion for some unworthy object ; but 
 while employed in this design, Cupid himself be- 
 comes enamoured of the princess. Meanwhile, 
 in obedience to the response of an oracle, Psyche 
 is exposed on a barren rock, where she is destined 
 to become the prey of a monster. From this hap-
 
 14* LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 less situation she is borne by the commissioned 
 Zephyr, who wafts her to a green and delightful 
 valley. Here she enjoys a refreshing sleep ; and 
 on awakening perceives a grove, in the centre of 
 which was a fountain, and near the fountain a 
 splendid palace. The roof of this structure was 
 supported by golden pillars, the walls were cover- 
 ed with silver, and every species of animal was 
 represented in exquisite statuary at the portal : 
 Psyche enters this edifice, where a splendid feast 
 is prepared ; she hears a voice inviting her to par- 
 take of this repast, but no one appears. After 
 this sumptuous banquet is removed, she listens to 
 a delightful concert, which proceeds from unseen 
 musicians. In this enchanting residence she is 
 espoused and visited every night by Cupid. Her 
 husband, who was ever invisible, forbids her to 
 attempt to see him ; adding, that her happiness 
 depended on obedience to the prohibition. In 
 these circumstances Cupid, at her earnest solici- 
 tation, reluctantly agrees to bring her sisters to 
 the palace. These relatives, being envious of the 
 happiness of their younger sister, try to persuade 
 her that her husband is a serpent, by whom she 
 would be ultimately devoured. Psyche, though by 
 this time she should have been sufficiently qua- 
 lified to judge how far this suspicion was well
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 149 
 
 founded, resolves to satisfy herself of the truth 
 by ocular demonstration. Bearing a lamp in one 
 hand, and a dagger in the other to destroy him 
 should he prove a monster, she approaches the 
 couch of her husband while he is asleep. In the 
 agitation produced by the view of his angelic 
 form, she allows a drop of scalding oil to fall on 
 his shoulder. The irritated god flies from her 
 presence, and leaves her a prey to remorse and 
 despair. The enchanted garden and the gorgeous 
 palace vanish along with him. Psyche finds her- 
 self alone and solitary on the banks of a river. 
 Under the protection of Pan she wanders through 
 the country, and successively arrives at the king- 
 doms of her sisters, by each of whom she is re- 
 pulsed. The victim equally of the rage of Venus 
 and of her son, she roams through all regions of 
 the earth in search of the celestial lover whose 
 favour she had forfeited. She is also subjected 
 to various trials by Venus, one of which is to 
 bring water from a fountain guarded by ever- 
 watchful dragons. Jupiter, at length, takes pity 
 on her misfortunes, endows her with immortality, 
 and confirms her union with her forgiving hus- 
 band. On this occasion the Hours empurple the 
 sky with roses ; the Graces shed aromatic odours 
 through the celestial halb; Apollo accompanies 
 1
 
 150 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 the lyre with his voice ; the god of Arcadia touches 
 his sylvan reeds ; and the Muses join in the cho- 
 rus. 
 
 This allegory is supposed by some writers to be 
 founded on an obscure tradition of the fall of man, 
 and to form an emblem of his temptation, trans- 
 gression, repentance, and subsequent reception 
 into the favour of the godhead. Its meaning, how- 
 ever, is probably more restricted, and only com- 
 prehends the progress of the soul to perfection, 
 the possession of divine love, and reward of im- 
 mortality. From the earliest times the influence 
 of religious sentiments has been typified by the 
 hopes and fears of an amatory attachment. This 
 style of composition was adopted by the rhapso- 
 dists of Hindostan and Persia, and bewitched the 
 luxuriant imagination of the wisest of mankind. 
 Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 
 (vol. ii. 388,) informs us that one of the emblems 
 among the Egyptians was Psyche (*"t#i,) who, 
 though represented as a beautiful female, was ori- 
 ginally no other than the Aurelia, or butterfly, an 
 insect which remains in a state of torpor during 
 winter, but at the return of spring comes forth 
 with new life, and in beautiful attire. Tin's was 
 deemed a picture of the soul of man, and of the 
 hnmortality to which he aspired ; and more par-
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 151 
 
 ticularly of Osiris, who, after being confined in a 
 coffin, enjoyed a renewal of life. This second 
 birth is described under the character of Psyche, 
 and as it was the fruit of divine love, of which 
 Eros was the emblem, we find him often introdu- 
 ced as a concomitant of Psyche. 
 
 Whatever may be the concealed meaning of 
 the allegory, the story of Cupid and Psyche is 
 certainly a beautiful fiction. Of this, the number 
 of translations and imitations may be considered 
 as a proof. Mr Rose, in the notes to his version of 
 Partenopex de Blois, has pointed out its striking 
 resemblance to that romance, as also to the Three 
 Calenders, and to one of the Persian Tales. The 
 prohibition of Cupid, and the transgression of 
 Psyche, has suggested the Serpentin Vert of 
 Mad. d'Aulnoy ; indeed the labours to which 
 Psyche is subjected seem to be the origin of 
 all fairy tales, particularly Gracieuse ct Percinet. 
 The whole story has also been beautifully versi- 
 fied by Marino in his poem L' A done. Cupid is 
 introduced in the fourth book relating it for the 
 amusement of Adonis, and he tells it in such a 
 manner as to form the most pleasing episode of 
 that delightful poem. I need not mention the 
 well-known imitation by Fontaine, nor the dra- 
 ma of Psyche, which was performed with the ut-
 
 152 LATIN ROMANCES. 
 
 most magnificence at Paris in 1670, and is usu- 
 ally published in the works of Moliere, but was 
 in fact the effort of the united genius of that au- 
 thor, Corneille, Quinault, and Lulli. 
 
 Nor have the fine arts less contributed to the 
 embellishment of this fable : the marriage of Cupid 
 and Psyche has furnished Raphael with a series 
 of paintings, which are among the finest of his 
 works, and which adorn the walls of the Farnese 
 Palace in the vicinity of Rome. In one com- 
 partment he has represented the council of the 
 gods deliberating on the nuptials in another the 
 festival of the reconciliation. The frieze and case- 
 ments are painted with the sufferings of Psyche, 
 and the triumphs of Cupid over each individual 
 god. 
 
 The monuments, too, of ancient sculpture repre- 
 sented Cupid and Psyche in the various circum- 
 stances of their adventures. It is from an ancient 
 intaglio, a fine onyx in possession of the Duke of 
 Marlborough, and from another, of which there 
 is a print in Spence's Polymetis, that Darwin has 
 drawn his beautiful picture in the fourth canto of 
 the Botanic Garden : 
 
 So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone 
 Fair Psyche kneeling at the ethereal throne, 
 "Won with coy smile the admiring court of Jove, 
 And wanned the bosom of unconquered Love.
 
 LATIN ROMANCES. 153 
 
 Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers, 
 Onward they march to Hymen's sacred bowers ; 
 With lifted torch he lights the festive train 
 Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain ; 
 Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows, 
 And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows. 
 Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling, 
 Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing.
 
 \54f 6RIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe Ro- 
 mances of Chivalry relating to tlie early and 
 fabulous History of Britain, particularly to 
 Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table 
 Merlin Sangreal Perceval Lancelot 
 du Lac Meliadus Tristan Isaie le Tristc 
 Artus Gyron Perceforest Artus de la 
 Bretagne Cleriadus. 
 
 Fabulous narrative, we have seen in a former 
 part of this work, like almost every one of the arts 
 of man, originated in the desire of perfecting and 
 improving nature, of rendering the great more 
 vast, the rich more splendid, and the gay more 
 beautiful. It removed, as it were, from the hands 
 of fortune the destinies of mankind, rewarded vir- 
 tue and valour with success, and covered treachery 
 and baseness with opprobrium.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 155 
 
 It was soon perceived that men sympathize not 
 with armies or nations, but with individuals ; and 
 the poet who sung the fall of empires, was forced 
 to place a few in a prominent light, with whose 
 success or misfortunes his hearers might be affect- 
 ed, while they were altogether indifferent to the 
 rout or dissection of the crowds by which they 
 were followed. At length, it was thought, that 
 narratives might be composed where the interest 
 should only be demanded for one or two individu- 
 als, whose adventures, happiness, or misery, might 
 of themselves afford delight. The experiment was 
 attended with success ; and as men sympathize 
 most readily with events which may occur to them- 
 selves, or the situations in which they have been, 
 or may be, the incidents of fiction derived their 
 character from the manners of the age. In a gay 
 and luxurious country stories of love became ac- 
 ceptable. Hence the Grecian novels were com- 
 posed, and as, in relating the adventures of the 
 lovers, it was natural to depict what might really 
 have taken place, the general features of the times, 
 the inroads of pirates, religious ceremonies, &c. 
 were chiefly delineated. The ascetic habits of 
 the monks in like manner gave rise to spiritual 
 romance, and the notion of tranquillity in the 
 fields of Greece may have suggested the beau-
 
 156 ORIGIN .OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 tiful rural images portrayed in the pastoral of 
 Longus. 
 
 Now, when, by some great convulsion, a vast 
 change is effected in manners, the incidents of fic- 
 tion will necessarily be changed also ; first, because 
 the former occurrences become less natural, and, 
 secondly, give less delight. From the very nature 
 then of domestic fiction, it must vary with the 
 forms and habits and customs of society, which it 
 must picture as they occur successively, 
 
 " And calcb the manners living as they rise." 
 
 Never, in the annals of the human race, did a 
 greater change of manners take place than in the 
 middle ages, and accordingly, we must be prepa- 
 red to expect a prodigious alteration in the cha- 
 racter of fictitious literature, which, we have seen, 
 may be expected to vary with the manners it 
 would describe. But not only was there a change 
 in the nature of the characters themselves, and 
 the adventures which occurred to them, but a 
 very peculiar style of embellishment was adopted, 
 which, as it does not seem to have any necessary 
 connection with the characters or adventures it 
 was employed to adorn, has given the historians 
 of literature no little labour to explain. The spe-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 157 
 
 cies of machinery, such as giants, dragons, and 
 enchanted castles, which forms the seasoning of 
 the adventures of chivalry, has been distinguished 
 by the name of Romantic Fiction ; and we shall 
 now proceed to discuss the various systems which 
 have been formed to account for its origin. 
 
 Different theories have been suggested for the 
 purpose of explaining the origin of Romantic Fic- 
 tion in Europe. The subject is curious, but is in- 
 volved in much darkness and uncertainty. 
 
 To the northern Scalds, to the Arabians, to the 
 people of Armorica or Britany, and to the classi- 
 cal tales of antiquity, has been successively ascri- 
 bed the origin of those extraordinary fables, which 
 have been " so wildly disfigured in the romances 
 of chivalry, and so elegantly adorned by the Ita- 
 lian Muse." 
 
 In the investigation of this subject, a consider- 
 able confusion seems to have arisen, from the sup- 
 porters of the respective systems having blended 
 those elements of romance which ought to be re- 
 ferred to separate origins. They have mixed to- 
 gether, or at least they have made no proper dis- 
 tinction between, three things, which seem, in 
 their elementary principles at least, to be totally 
 unconnected. 1. The arbitrary fictions of ro- 
 mance, by winch I mean the embellishments of
 
 158 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 dragons, enchanters, &c. 2. That spirit of enter- 
 prise and adventure which pervaded all the tales 
 of chivalry. 3. The historical materials, if they 
 deserve that name, relating to Arthur and Char- 
 lemagne, which form the ground-work of so large 
 a proportion of this class of compositions. 
 
 In treating this subject it will therefore be pro- 
 per to consider, 1. The origin of those wild and 
 improbable fictions, those supernatural ornaments, 
 which form the machinery of Romance, and which 
 alone should be termed Romantic Fiction. 2. The 
 rise of that spirit of chivalry which gave birth to 
 the eagerness for single combat, the fondness for 
 roaming in search of adventures, and the obliga- 
 tion of protecting and avenging the fair; and, 
 lastly, we shall consider how these fabulous em- 
 bellishments, and this spirit of adventure, were ap- 
 propriated to the story of individual knights, and 
 treat of those materials concerning Arthur and the 
 Round Table, and the Peers of Charlemagne, 
 whose exploits, real or fictitious, have formed the 
 subject of romance. 
 
 I. One theory (which, I believe, was first adopt- 
 ed by M. Mallet 1 ) is, that what are termed the 
 arbitrary fictions of romance, have been exclu- 
 
 * Introduction a 1' Histoire de Dannemarc.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 159 
 
 sively derived from the northern Scalds. This 
 system has been strenuously maintained by sub- 
 sequent writers, and particularly by Dr Percy,* 
 who observes, that the Scalds originally perform- 
 ed the functions of historians, by recording the 
 victories and genealogies of their princes in a kind 
 of narrative song. When history, by being com- 
 mitted to prose, assumed a more stable and more 
 simple form, and was taken out of their hands, it 
 became their business chiefly to entertain and de- 
 light. Hence they embellished their recitals with 
 marvellous fictions, calculated to allure the gross 
 and ignorant minds of their audience. Long be- 
 fore the time of the crusades, they believed in the 
 existence of giants and dwarfs, in spells and en- 
 chantments. These became the ornaments of 
 their works of imagination, and they also invent- 
 ed combats with dragons and monsters, and rela- 
 ted stories of the adventures of knights with giants 
 and sorcerers. 
 
 Besides this assumption, Dr Percy also main- 
 tains, that the spirit of chivalry, the eagerness af- 
 ter adventure, and the extravagant courtesy, which 
 are its chief characteristics, existed among the 
 northern nations long before the introduction of 
 
 1 Rcliqucs of Ant. Eng. Poetry, vol. iii.
 
 160 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 the feudal system, or the establishment of knight- 
 hood as a regular order. 
 
 These fictions and ideas, he asserts, were intro- 
 duced into Normandy by the Scalds, who proba- 
 bly attended the army of Hollo in its migration to 
 that province from the north. The skill of these 
 bards was transmitted to their successors the min- 
 strels, who adopted the religion and opinions of 
 the new countries. In place of their pagan an- 
 cestors they substituted the heroes of Christen- 
 dom, whose feats they embellished with the Seal- 
 die fictions of giants and enchanters. Such sto- 
 ries were speedily propagated through France, 
 and by an easy transition passed into England af- 
 ter the Norman Conquest. 
 
 A second hypothesis, which was first suggested 
 by Salmasius, and which has been followed out by 
 Mr T. Warton, 1 ascribes to the Saracens the foun- 
 dation of romantic fiction. It had at one time 
 been a received opinion in Europe, that the won- 
 ders of Arabian imagination were first communi- 
 cated to the western world by means of the cru- 
 sades ; but Mr Warton, while he argues that these 
 expeditions tended greatly to propagate this mode 
 of fabling, contends that these fictions were intro- 
 
 * Hist, of Eng. Poetry, vol. i.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 161 
 
 duced at a much earlier period by the Arabians, 
 who, in the beginning of the eighth century, set- 
 tled in Spain. Through that country they disse- 
 minated those extravagant inventions peculiar to 
 their fertile genius. Those creations of fancy, the 
 natural offspring of a warm and luxuriant climate, 
 were eagerly received, and colder imaginations 
 were kindled by the presence of these enlivening 
 visitors. The ideal tales of the eastern invaders, 
 recommended by a brilliancy of description hither- 
 to unknown to the barren fancy of those who in- 
 habited a western region, were rapidly diffused 
 through the continent of Europe. From Spain, by 
 the communication of commercial intercourse 
 through the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, they 
 passed into France. In the latter kingdom they 
 received the earliest and most welcome reception 
 in the district of Armorica or Britany. That pro- 
 vince had been chiefly peopled by a colony of 
 Welsh, who had emigrated thither in the fourth 
 century. Hence a close connection subsisted 
 between Wales and Britany for many ages. The 
 fables current in the latter country were col- 
 lected by Gualtier, Archdeacon of Oxford, who 
 presented them to Geoffrey of Monmouth. His 
 Latin Chronicle, compiled from these materials, 
 forms one of the principal sources of tales of 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 162 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 chivalry, and consists entirely of Arabian inven- 
 tions. 
 
 Mr Warton next proceeds to point out the co- 
 incidence between fictions undoubtedly Arabic, 
 and the machinery of the early romances. He 
 concludes with maintaining, that if Europe was in 
 any way indebted to the Scalds for the extrava- 
 gant stories of giants and monsters, these fables 
 must still be referred to an eastern origin, and 
 must have found their way into the north of Eu- 
 rope along with an Asiatic nation, who, soon after 
 Mithridates had been overthrown by Pompey, fled 
 from the dominion of the Romans, and under the 
 conduct of Odin settled in Scandinavia. 
 
 These two systems, which may be termed the 
 Gothic and the Arabian, are those which have 
 found the most numerous supporters. As far as 
 relates to the supernatural ornaments of romance 
 (for it is this branch alone that is at present to be 
 considered,) the two theories, though very differ- 
 ent, are by no means incompatible. From a view 
 of the character of Arabian and Gothic fiction, it 
 appears that neither is exclusively entitled to the 
 credit of having given birth to the wonders of ro- 
 mance. The early framers of the tales of chivalry 
 may be indebted to the northern bards for those 
 wild and terrible images congenial to a frozen re-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 163 
 
 gion, and owe to Arabian invention that magnifi- 
 cence and splendour, those glowing descriptions 
 and luxuriant ornaments, suggested by the en- 
 chanting scenery of an eastern climate, 
 
 And wonders wild of Arabesque combine 
 With Gothic imagery of darker shade. 
 
 Warton's hypothesis of the flight of Odin from 
 the Roman power to Scandinavia, and which ex- 
 clusively assigns to the eastern nations all the 
 fictions of romance, seems to rest on no solid 
 foundation. Indeed Richardson, in the Preface to 
 his Persian Dictionary, maintains that the whole 
 was a mere Scaldic fable, invented to trace the 
 origin of Gothic and Roman enmity, as the story of 
 Dido and iEneas was supposed to account for the 
 irreconcileable antipathy of Rome and Carthage. 
 Besides, no modification of climate and manners, 
 strong as their influence may be, could have pro- 
 duced the prodigious difference that now appears 
 between Oriental and Gothic fictions ; for it can- 
 not be denied, and indeed has been acknowledged 
 by Mr Warton, that the fictions of the Arabians 
 and Scalds are totally different. The fables and 
 superstitions of the northern bards are of a darker 
 shade, and more savage complexion, than those
 
 164 ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 of the Arabians. There is something in their fic- 
 tions that chills the imagination. The formidable 
 objects of nature with which they were familiar- 
 ized in their northern solitudes, their precipices, 
 and frozen mountains, and gloomy forests, acted 
 on their fancy, and gave a tincture of horror to 
 their imagery. Spirits, who send storms over the 
 deep, who rejoice in the shriek of the drowning 
 mariner, or diffuse irresistible pestilence ; spells 
 which preserve from poison, blunt the weapons of 
 an enemy, or call up the dead from their tombs 
 these are the ornaments of northern poetry. The 
 Arabian fictions are of a more splendid nature ; 
 they are less terrible indeed, but possess more va- 
 riety and magnificence ; they lead us through de- 
 lightful forests, and raise up palaces glittering with 
 gold and diamonds. 1 
 
 But while it seems impossible to trace the wild- 
 er fictions of the north to an eastern source, it 
 may be observed, on the other hand, that, allow- 
 ing the early Scaldic odes to be genuine, we find 
 in them no dragons, giants, magic rings, or en- 
 chanted castles. These are only to be met with 
 in the compositions of the bards, who flourished 
 after the native vein of Runic fabling had been 
 
 Warton's Hist, of ling. Poetry.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 165 
 
 enriched by the tales of the Arabians. But if 
 we look in vain to the early Gothic poetry for 
 many of those fables which adorn the works of 
 romancers, we shall easily find them in the am- 
 ple field of oriental fiction. Thus the Asiatic ro- 
 mances and chemical works of the Arabians are 
 full of enchantments, similar to those described in 
 the Spanish, and even in the French, tales of chi- 
 valry. Magical rings were an important part of 
 the eastern philosophy, and seem to have given 
 rise to those which are of so much service to the 
 Italian poets. In the eastern Peris we may trace 
 the origin of the European fairies in their quali- 
 ties, and perhaps in their name. The griffin, or 
 hippogriff, of the Italian writers, seems to be 
 the famous Simurgh of the Persians, which makes 
 such a figure in the epic poems of Saadi and 
 Ferdusi. 
 
 A great number of these romantic wonders were 
 collected in the east by that idle and lying horde 
 of pilgrims and palmers who visited the Holy Land 
 through curiosity, restlessness, or devotion, and 
 who, returning from so great a distance, imposed 
 every fiction on a believing audience. They were 
 subsequently introduced into Europe by the fa- 
 blers of France, who took up arms, and followed 
 their barons to the conquest of Jerusalem. At
 
 166 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 their return they imported into Europe the won- 
 ders they had heard, and enriched romance with 
 an infinite variety of oriental fictions. 
 
 This mode of introduction of the eastern fables 
 into Europe is much more natural than that point- 
 ed out by Mr Warton. The Arabians were not 
 only secluded from the other inhabitants of Spain, 
 but were the objects of their deepest animosity ; 
 and hence the Castilians would not readily imbibe 
 the fictions of their enemies. It is unfortunate too 
 that the intermediate station from the Moorish do- 
 minions in Spain should be fixed in Armorica, one 
 of the provinces of France most remote from Gre- 
 nada. 
 
 But if Armorica cannot without difficulty be 
 adopted as a resting place of romantic fiction, far 
 less can it be considered its native soil, as has 
 been assumed in a third hypothesis, maintained by 
 Mr Leyden in his Introduction to the Complaynt 
 of Scotland. It is there argued, that a colony of 
 Britons took refuge in Armorica during the fifth 
 century, from the tyranny of the Saxons, and car- 
 ried with them the archives which had escaped the 
 fury of their conquerors. The memory of Arthur 
 and his knights was thus preserved in Armorica as 
 fresh as in Wales or Cornwall ; and the inhabitants 
 ef Armorica were the first people in France with
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 167 
 
 whom the Normans had a friendly intercourse. 
 Besides, the class of French romances relating to 
 Charlemagne ascribed to that monarch the feats 
 of Charles Martel, an Armorican chief, whose ex- 
 ploits would more probably be celebrated by the 
 minstrels of his own country than by Turpin, or 
 any other writer of fabulous chronicles. In short, 
 all the French romances originated in Britany, 
 and all the nations of Europe derived their tales 
 of chivalry from the French. 
 
 I am far from meaning to deny that copious 
 materials of fiction were amassed in Britany, and 
 were thence disseminated through France and 
 England ; but it cannot be believed that the ma- 
 chinery of romance was created in a country, 
 which, on the most favourable supposition, can 
 only be regarded as a link in the chain of fiction ; 
 and far less can it be thought that this pitiful 
 kingdom was the only cradle of that spirit of chi- 
 valry, which at one time pervaded all the nations 
 of Europe. 
 
 In short, this Armorican system seems to have 
 arisen from mistaking the collection of materials 
 for the sources whence they derived their embel- 
 lishment. 
 
 A fourth hypothesis has been suggested, which 
 represents the machinery and colouring of fiction.
 
 168 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 the stories of enchanted gardens, monsters, and 
 winged steeds, which have been introduced into 
 romance, as derived from the classical and my- 
 thological authors ; and as being merely the anci- 
 ent stories of Greece, grafted on modern manners, 
 and modified by the customs of the day. The 
 classical authors, it is true, were in the middle 
 ages scarcely known ; but the superstitions they 
 inculcated had been prevalent for too long a pe- 
 riod, and had made too deep impression on the 
 mind, to be easily obliterated. The mythological 
 ideas which still lingered behind, were diffused in 
 a multitude of popular works. In the Travels of 
 Sir John Mandeville, there are frequent allusions 
 to ancient fable ; and, as Middleton has shown 
 that a great number of the popish rites were de- 
 rived from pagan ceremonies, it is scarcely to be 
 doubted that many classical were converted into 
 romantic fictions. This, at least, is certain, that 
 the classical system presents the most numerous 
 and least exceptionable prototypes of the fables 
 of romance. 
 
 In many of the tales of chivalry there is a knight 
 detained from his quest, by the enticements of a 
 sorceress, and who is nothing more than the Ca- 
 lypso or Circe of Homer. The story of Andro- 
 meda might give rise to the fable of damsels be-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 169 
 
 ing rescued by their favourite knight when on the 
 point of being devoured by a sea-monster. The 
 heroes of the Diad and iEneid were both furnish- 
 ed with enchanted armour ; and, in the story of 
 Polyphemus, a giant and his cave are exhibited. 
 Herodotus, in his history, speaks of the Arimas- 
 pi, a race of Cyclops who inhabited the north, 
 and waged perpetual war with the tribe of griffons, 
 which guarded mines of gold. The expedition of 
 Jason in search of the golden fleece ; the apples 
 of the Hesperides, watched by a dragon ; the 
 king's daughter who is an enchantress, who falls 
 in love with and saves the knight, are akin to the 
 marvels of romantic fiction ; especially of that 
 sort supposed to have been introduced by the Ara- 
 bians. Some of the less familiar fables of classi- 
 cal mythology, as the image in the Theogony of 
 Hesiod of the murky prisons in which the Titans 
 were pent up by Jupiter, under the custody of 
 strong armed giants, bear a striking resemblance 
 to the more wild sublimity of the Gothic fictions. 
 Besides, a great number of those fables now 
 considered as eastern, appear to have been origi- 
 nally Greek traditions, which were carried to Per- 
 sia in the time of Alexander the Great, and were 
 afterwards returned to Europe, with the modifica- 
 tion they had received from oriental ideas.
 
 170 OHIGIK OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 Perhaps it may be considered as a confirmation 
 of the classical theory, that, in the 13th century, 
 many classical stories appeared both in prose and 
 in a metrical form, veiled in the garb of romantic 
 fiction. Of this sort are the Latin works of Dares 
 Phrygius, and Dictys Cretensis, concerning the 
 wars of Troy ; and the still more ample chronicle 
 of Guido de Colonna, formed from these authors 
 through the medium of the French metrical work 
 of Benoit de Saint More. But these and similar 
 compositions will be more particularly mentioned 
 when we come to treat of the classical romances 
 in which Achilles, Jason, and Hercules, were 
 adopted into chivalry, and celebrated in common 
 with Lancelot, Roland, and Amadis, whom they 
 so nearly resembled in the extravagance of their 
 adventures. 
 
 Mr Ritson has successively attempted to ridi- 
 cule the Gothic, Arabian, and Classical systems ; 
 and has maintained, that the origin of romance, in 
 every age or country, must be sought in the dif- 
 ferent sorts of superstition which have from time 
 to time prevailed. It is, he contends, a vain and 
 futile endeavour, to seek elsewhere for the origin 
 of fable. The French tales of chivalry, in parti- 
 cular, are too ancient to be indebted for their ex- 
 istence to any barbarous nation whatever. In all
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 171 
 
 climes where genius has inspired, fiction has been 
 its earliest product, and every nation in the globe 
 abounds in romances of its own invention, and 
 which it owes to itself alone. 
 
 And, in fact, after all, a great proportion of the 
 wonders of romance must be attributed to the ima- 
 gination of the authors. A belief in superhuman 
 agency seems to have prevailed in every age and 
 country ; and monsters of all sorts have been cre- 
 ated by exaggeration or fear. It was natural for 
 the vulgar, in an ignorant age, as we see from 
 the Turks even of the present day, to believe a 
 palace, surpassingly beautiful, to be the work of 
 enchanters. To this we must join the supernatu- 
 ral wonders conjured up by a superstitious fancy, 
 and the natural ones supplied by a mind unac- 
 quainted with the constitution of things. Thus to 
 the deceptions of sight, produced by certain dis- 
 positions of light and shade to the reflecting and 
 magnifying power, possessed by mists and clouds, 
 may be partly attributed the prevalence of stories 
 of ghosts, giants, &c, in hilly or cloudy regions 
 intersected by deep valleys and lakes, or by woods, 
 rocks, and rivers. 1 To all this must be added the 
 
 ' Jam turn Religio pavidos terrebat agrestes 
 Dira loci; jam turn sylvam saxumque tieraebant.
 
 172 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 chimeras produced by indulgence in frolicsome 
 combination. Such were the emblematic cherub 
 of the Hebrews, the compound images of the 
 Egyptians, and the monster of mythology, which 
 was described as 
 
 Prima leo, postrema draco, media inde capella. 
 
 In like manner the griffin is compounded of the 
 lion and eagle ; the snake and lizard comprise 
 the analysis, and may have suggested the notion 
 of a dragon. 1 The idea once formed of a being 
 
 Hoc nemus, nunc, inquit, frondoso vertice collero, 
 (Quis Deus, incei turn est) habitat deus. Arcades ipsum 
 Credunt se vidisse Jovem : cum saepe nigrantem 
 iEgida concuteret dextra, nimbosque cieret. 
 1 In Dr Zachary Grey's notes on Hudibras, (vol. I. p. 
 1S5,) there is a story of a man making a dragon from a rat. 
 " Mr Jacob Bobart, botany professor of Oxford, did, about 
 forty years ago, find a dead rat in the physical garden, which 
 he made to resemble the common picture of dragons, by al- 
 tering head and tail, and thrusting in taper sharp sticks, 
 which distended the skin on each side, till it mimicked 
 wings. He let it dry as bard as possible. The learned pro* 
 nounced it a dragon ; and one of them sent an accurate de- 
 scription to Magliabecchi, librarian to the Grand Duke of 
 Tuscany. Several fine copies of verses were wrote on so 
 rare a subject ; but at last Mr Bobart owned the cheat. 
 However, it was looked upon as a master-piece of art, and, 
 as such, deposited in the museum or anatomy school, where 
 I saw it some years after."
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 173 
 
 of larger dimensions than his fellow-mortals, it 
 was easy to increase his proportions, and to di- 
 versify his shape with every variety of monstrous 
 attribute; and it was natural, as in the case of 
 Goliah, to bestow a ferocity of disposition, cor- 
 responding to the terrors of aspect. When once 
 the notion of an enchanter was conceived, it was 
 not difficult to assign him more extensive powers, 
 to render his spells more potent, and their effects 
 more awful or splendid. " Impenetrable armour," 
 says Mr Hobbes, " enchanted castles invulner- 
 able bodies iron men flying horses, and other 
 such things, are easily feigned by them that dare." 
 
 II. Although the theories which have now been 
 detailed may be sufficient, separately or united, to 
 explain the origin of the supernatural ornaments 
 of romance, still they are to be considered merely 
 as embellishments of those chivalrous adventures 
 which occupy by far the greatest proportion of 
 romantic compilation. 
 
 The Classical System, allowing it to be well 
 founded with regard to the introduction of giants, 
 hippogriSs, or enchanters, cannot explain the en- 
 terprise, the gallantry, and romantic valour, attri- 
 buted to the knights of chivalry. It is, no doubt, 
 true, that a striking analogy subsists between the
 
 174 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 manners of the heroic and Gothic times. In both 
 periods robbery was regarded as honourable ; or, 
 at least, was not the forerunner of infamy. Bas- 
 tardy, in both ages, was in peculiar reputation : 
 The most renowned knights of chivalry, as Roland 
 and Amadis, were illegitimate ; and the heroes of 
 antiquity were the spurious offspring of demigods 
 and nymphs. The martial games, too, may in their 
 design and their effects be considered as analo- 
 gous to tournaments. Equal encouragement was 
 given to the bards of Greece, and the minstrels of 
 the middle ages; while Hercules and Bacchus, 
 who are represented as roaming through their 
 country, inflicting punishment on robbers, and 
 extirpating monsters, may be regarded as the 
 knights errant of antiquity. But these resem- 
 blances arose merely from a corresponding state 
 of manners ; since, at a similar stage of the social 
 progress, similar ideas and customs are prevalent 
 amongst different nations. 
 
 Still less can it be believed that the spirit of 
 chivalry received its impulse from the knight 
 errantry of Arabia. This part of his system, Mr 
 Warton has but feebly urged. The nature of 
 Arabian and chivalrous enterprise was by no 
 means the same ; nor is it probable that the Eu-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 175 
 
 ropeans derived the dominant part of their man- 
 ners and institutions from a secluded and a hos- 
 tile people. 
 
 But Dr Percy, and other supporters of the 
 Gothic system, have strenuously maintained that 
 the ideas of chivalry, the soul and subject of ro- 
 mance, subsisted from the earliest period among 
 the northern nations, and were thence transfused 
 into the fictions of a subsequent age. I conceive, 
 however, that although the rudiments of chivalry 
 may have existed, these notions were not suffi- 
 ciently general, nor developed, to have become, 
 without farther preparation, the reigning topics of 
 composition. Instances, too, of chivalrous gal- 
 lantry would have been found in the earlier ages 
 of the history of France, but the manners during 
 the two first races of its monarchs, were far from 
 exhibiting any symptoms of courtesy. 
 
 It was under the feudal establishments, subse- 
 quently erected in Europe, that chivalry received 
 its vigour, and was invested with the privileges of 
 a regular institution. The chivalry, therefore, un- 
 folded in romance, was the offspring of existing 
 manners, and was merely an exaggerated picture 
 of the actual state of society, of which oppression, 
 anarchy, and restless courage, were the character- 
 
 10
 
 176 ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTIOX. 
 
 istics, but which sometimes produced examples of 
 virtue and enthusiasm. 
 
 On the fall of the Roman empire, the lands 
 overrun by the barbarous nations being parcelled 
 out amongst a number of independent chieftains, 
 whose aims and interests frequently interfered, it 
 became an object with every baron to assemble 
 round his person, and to attach, by the strongest 
 bonds, the greatest possible number of young men 
 of rank and courage. The knight, or soldier, at 
 the same time found it necessary to look to some 
 superior for support, against the oppression of 
 other chieftains. 
 
 That these ties might be rendered closer, and 
 that the candidate for knighthood might be in- 
 structed in courtesy and the art of war, it was 
 customary to remove him at an early age from his 
 father's house to the court or castle of his future 
 patron. 
 
 Those who were destined for this sort of life, 
 first acted as pages or varlets; they performed 
 menial services, which at that time were not con- 
 sidered as degrading ; they were initiated into the 
 ceremonial of a court, and were at the same time 
 instructed in those bodily exercises which were 
 considered the best preparation for their future 
 career.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 177 
 
 The castle in which the candidate for knight- 
 hood received his education, was usually thronged 
 with young persons of a different sex. The inter- 
 course which he thus enjoyed was the best school 
 for the refinements of courtesy : he was taught to 
 select some lady as the mistress of his soul, to 
 whom were referred all his sentiments and actions. 
 Her image was implanted in his heart, amid the 
 fairy scenes of childhood, and was afterwards blend- 
 ed with its recollections. In the middle ages, so- 
 ciety was in an intermediate state, removed from 
 the extremes of indigence and luxury, which is 
 most favourable to love : and that passion was 
 sometimes so nourished by obstacles, that it was 
 exalted into a species of devotion. 
 
 Thus the service of a mistress became the future 
 glory and occupation of the candidate for knight- 
 hood. At the same time that this duty was incul- 
 cated, the emulation of military excellence was 
 excited by the example of his compeers and his 
 patron. When the youth passed to the condition 
 of squire, they attended their master abroad ; if 
 he engaged in battle they took no part in the ren- 
 counter, but remained spectators of the combat, 
 and, by attention to the various movements, were 
 instructed in the art of war. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 Their time was also, in a great measure, de- 
 voted to those sports which were kindred to the 
 occupations of war, and the knowledge of which 
 was an essential preliminary to reception into the 
 order of knighthood. 
 
 If that investiture be merely considered as a 
 ceremony, by which young persons destined to 
 the military profession received their arms, its 
 institution, we are told, is as ancient as the age of 
 Charlemagne ; but, if considered as a dignity, 
 which, by certain forms, conferred the first rank 
 in the military order, it cannot easily be traced 
 higher than the 11th century. In the forests of 
 Germany, the initiation of a youth into the pro- 
 fession of a warrior, had been attended with ap- 
 propriate ceremonies. The chieftain of the tribe 
 decorated him with a sword and armour, a sim- 
 ple form, which, in the progress of the feudal 
 system, was converted into a mysterious and pom- 
 pous rite. 
 
 On his reception into this order, the knight 
 became bound to the observance of loyalty to his 
 superior, to an impartial distribution of justice to 
 his vassals, to an inviolable adherence to his word, 
 and attention to a courtesy which embellished his 
 other qualities, and softened his other duties. All
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 179 
 
 those who were unjustly oppressed, or conceived 
 themselves to be so, were entitled to claim his pro- 
 tection and succour. The ladies in this respect 
 enjoyed the most ample privileges. Destitute of 
 the means of support, and exposed to the outrages 
 of avarice or passion, they were consigned to his 
 special care, and placed under the guardship of 
 his valiant arm. 
 
 The promotion of knights, which sometimes took 
 place after the performance of military exploits, 
 but more frequently on church festivals, corona- 
 tions, baptisms, or the conclusion of peace, was 
 generally followed by jousts and tournaments. Of 
 these institutions (which were of French inven- 
 tion, and were introduced about the time of the 
 first crusade,) the former was of a more private 
 and inferior, the latter of a more pompous and 
 public description* Both were contrived for the 
 purpose of interesting the mind, when scenes of 
 real warfare did not present themselves, and of 
 displaying, at the same time, the magnificence of 
 the prince or baron. 
 
 Some time before the exhibition of a tourna- 
 ment, heralds were despatched through the coun- 
 try, to invite all knights to contend for prizes, 
 and merit the affection of their mistresses.
 
 180 ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 After the tournaments were proclaimed, they 
 frequently commenced with skirmishing between 
 the squires ; and those who particularly distin- 
 guished themselves were allowed to enter the lists 
 with the knights. When it came to the turn of 
 the latter, each knight usually declared himself 
 the servant of some lady, who generally present- 
 ed him with a token of favour, a veil, a scarf, a 
 bracelet, or, as we are told by Chaucer in his 
 story of Troilus, a pencel of her sleeve, with 
 which he adorned his shield or helmet, and by 
 means of which his person was recognized in all 
 the vehemence of the conflict. If these marks of 
 distinction were carried off during the contest, 
 the lady sent him others to reanimate his courage, 
 and invigorate his exertions. 
 
 In all these rencounters certain rules of combat 
 were established, which it was considered infa- 
 mous to violate. Thus, it was not lawful to wound 
 an adversary's horse, nor to strike a knight who 
 took off his visor or his helmet. 
 
 When the tournaments were concluded, the 
 conquerors were conducted, with much solemnity, 
 to the palace of the prince or baron, where they 
 were attired in the most splendid habits of peace, 
 and disarmed by the hands of the fair ; their deeds
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 181 
 
 were inscribed on the records of the heralds at 
 arms, and formed the subject of the lays of the 
 minstrel, which were spread through the neigh- 
 bouring courts, to excite emulation or envy. 
 
 But it would be endless to describe those ce- 
 remonies by which tournaments were prepared, 
 accompanied, or followed, and which occupy, I 
 am sure, more than a fourth part of the romances 
 of chivalry, which, in this respect, have merely 
 presented an embellished picture of what actually 
 occurred. 
 
 As the genius of chivalry had ever studied to 
 represent in tournaments a faithful picture of the 
 labours and dangers of war, it had ever preserved 
 in war an image of the courtesy which prevailed 
 in tournaments. The desire of pleasing some lady, 
 and of appearing worthy of her, was in the true, 
 as in the fictitious combat, one of the strongest 
 motives that prompted to heroic action. That 
 champion who, while rushing into combat, ex- 
 pressed a wish, as we are told, that his lady beheld 
 him, must also have been stimulated by the hope 
 that she might one day listen to the report of his 
 prowess. In real battle the knight was frequently 
 decked with the device of his mistress, and seri- 
 ously offered combat to an enemy (not, indeed; as a
 
 182 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 primary cause of quarrel, but where other grounds 
 of hostility existed), to dispute the preeminence 
 of the beauty of their mistresses, and the strength 
 of their attachment. As the valour, too, of a 
 single combatant was conspicuous, and had a con- 
 siderable influence on the fortune of the day, the 
 same individuals were led frequently to encounter 
 each other, which gave rise to that peculiar spe- 
 cies of combat painted in the fables of romance. 
 
 The policy which employed love, united with 
 reverence for the ladies, and the thirst of glory, 
 to inspire sentiments of bravery and honour, also 
 joined the heroes of its creation by the ties of 
 friendship. They became united for all their fu- 
 ture exploits, or for the accomplishment of some 
 exalted emprise, which had a limited object ; 
 and hence the fraternity of arms, by which knights 
 are frequently associated in tales of chivalry. 
 
 The restless spirit of the feudal system, and the 
 institutions of chivalry, stimulated their votaries 
 to roam in quest of such adventures for the mere 
 pleasure of achieving them. At their return, the 
 knights were obliged by oath to give the heralds 
 aj; arms a faithful account of their exploits ; an 
 obligation which explains their declining no ser- 
 vice of danger, though it was to be performed
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 183 
 
 without witnesses, and might have been avoided 
 without detection. 
 
 Enough, I trust, has been said to account for 
 that passion for arms, that love of enterprise, and 
 that extravagant species of gallantry, which were 
 the inevitable consequence of the feudal principles, 
 and are the characteristic features of romance. 
 
 Next to those encounters, sought from love 
 of enterprise, or of the fair, the great proportion 
 of combats described in romance may be term- 
 ed judicial. These took place on a defiance of 
 the challenger to the accepter, or an accusation 
 against a third party in whom the accepter was 
 interested, or whose cause he espoused from a 
 spirit of chivalry. Such encounters were suggest- 
 ed by those judicial combats by which, during the 
 middle ages, disputes in civil courts were actually 
 decided. The judge, or magistrate, unable to re- 
 strain the violence of litigants, and wishing not to 
 lose all shadow of authority, contented himself 
 with superintending the ceremonies and regulating 
 the forms of a mode of decision so consonant to 
 their temper. This prompt appeal to the sword 
 was also encouraged by a retributive principle in 
 the human mind, which renders it natural to be- 
 lieve that guilt will be punished and innocence 
 vindicated. The impatience of mankind led them
 
 184 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 to imagine that the intervention ought to take 
 place in this world, and that a solemn appeal to 
 Heaven would be followed by a discovery of its 
 will ; an opinion strengthened in those times by 
 means of the clergy, whose interest it was to re- 
 present Divine power as dispensing with the laws 
 of nature on the most frivolous occasions. 
 
 In consequence too of the well-known circum- 
 stances which tended to promote the influence of 
 the church, the real knight was frequently charac- 
 terized by the appearance at least of a warm and 
 zealous devotion. His religious duties consisted in 
 visiting holy places, in depositing his own arms, 
 or those of conquered enemies, in monasteries or 
 temples, in the observance of different festivals, 
 or the practice or exercises of penitence. A bi- 
 gotted veneration for the monastic profession, 
 even induced many individuals, both knights and 
 princes, to finish their days in spiritual seclusion. 
 Hence a romance of chivalry, as will be afterwards 
 seen, exhibits examples of the most superstitious 
 devotion, and frequently terminates with the re- 
 tirement of the principal character to a monastery 
 or hermitage. 
 
 To the love of war, and of enterprise, to the 
 extravagant gallantry, united with superstition, by 
 which the order of knighthood was distinguished.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 185 
 
 may be traced the greater proportion of the ad- 
 ventures delineated in romance. There we shall 
 hardly find a motive of action which may not be 
 referred to some of the principles by which society 
 in those times was in reality actuated. On this fa- 
 vourable basis of manners and ideas, the credulity 
 or fancy of the age grafted the supernatural won- 
 ders drawn from the sources that have already 
 been traced ; and the adventures of knights, em- 
 bellished by these additional marvels, were exag- 
 gerated, extended, and multiplied to infinity by 
 the imagination of romancers. 
 
 Such are probably the sources whence fablers 
 have been supplied with the general adventures 
 of chivalry, and the romantic embellishments by 
 which they have been adorned. 
 
 III. We must now consider how these adven- 
 tures and embellishments have been appropriated 
 to individual knights, and turn our attention to 
 the materials which have supplied the leading 
 subjects and the principal characters of romantic 
 composition. 
 
 At a time when chivalry excited such universal 
 admiration, and when its effects were at least os- 
 tensibly directed to the public good, it was natural 
 that history and fable should be ransacked to fur- 
 nish examples which might increase emulation.
 
 186 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 Arthur and Charlemagne, with their peers, were 
 the heroes most early and most generally selected 
 for this purpose. The tales concerning these war- 
 riors are the first specimens extant of this sort 
 of composition, and from their early popularity, 
 from the beauty of the fictions with which they 
 were in the beginning supported, and from flatter- 
 ing the vanity of the two first nations in Europe, 
 they long continued (diversified indeed, and en- 
 larged by subsequent embellishments,) to be the 
 prevalent and favourite topics. 
 
 And here it is proper to divide the prose ro- 
 mances, with which we shall be afterwards en- 
 gaged, into four classes: 1. Those relating to 
 Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. 2. 
 Those connected with Charlemagne and his Pala- 
 dins. 3. The Spanish and Portuguese romances, 
 which chiefly contain the adventures of the ima- 
 ginary families of Amadis and Palmerin. 4. What 
 may be termed classical romances, which repre- 
 sent the heroes of antiquity in the guise of ro- 
 mantic fiction. 
 
 When we come to treat of the romances rela- 
 ting to Charlemagne, we shall consider the influ- 
 ence of the chronicle attributed to Turpin ; but 
 our attention is in the first place demanded by 
 the romances of Arthur and the Round Table, as
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 187 
 
 they form the most ancient and numerous class of 
 which any trace remains. These originated in 
 the early and chimerical legends of Armorica and 
 Wales ; the ancient Latin chronicles of this island, 
 which have been founded on them ; and the sub- 
 sequent metrical romances of the English and 
 Norman minstrels. 
 
 The Norman conquerors are said first to have 
 become interested in the history and antiquities of 
 Britain during the reign of Stephen, as by that 
 period they had begun to consider themselves 
 natives. 
 
 From the writings of Gildas or Nennius, how- 
 ever, they could not easily have extracted a con- 
 sistent or probable story. 
 
 Gildas, or, as Mr Gibbon has styled him, the 
 British Jeremiah, is the author of Lamentations 
 over the Destruction of Britain, which is a whining 
 elegy, and of an epistle, which is a frantic satire 
 on the vices of his countrymen : he has given ex- 
 aggerated expressions, and distorted facts, instead 
 of presenting an authentic narrative of our early 
 annals, an important object which he might easily 
 have accomplished ; as, according to tradition, he 
 was the son of Caw, a British prince, who lived 
 in the sixth century, and was engaged along with 
 his father in the wars carried on by his country-
 
 188 ORIGIN OK ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 men against the Northumbrian Saxons. After the 
 defeat of the Britons at Cattraith, he fled into 
 Wales, and acted as schoolmaster at Bangor. 
 
 Nennius is said to have lived about the middle 
 of the ninth century : his work is merely a dry 
 epitome ; nor even of this abstract does there exist 
 a pure and perfect copy. He is solicitous to quote 
 his authorities, but unfortunately they are not of 
 the most unexceptionable nature, as they consist 
 of the lives of saints and ancient British traditions, 
 on which he bestows credit in proportion to their 
 absurdity. In one of his chapters he has given an 
 outline of the story of Brut, which coincides with 
 the account of Geoffrey of Monmouth ; and in 
 chapter fourth he commences a circumstantial de- 
 tail of the life of Merlin, corresponding, in many 
 respects, with the incidents of romance. 1 
 
 Besides the lachrymal history of Gildas, and the 
 jejune narrative of Nennius, there existed many 
 Welsh traditions, which seem to have occupied 
 the attention of Norman antiquaries. 
 
 The annals and poetry of Wales had long la- 
 boured in Arthur's commendation. Compelled 
 to yield their country without hope of recover- 
 ing it, the Welsh avenged themselves on the Sax- 
 
 ! Ellis's Early Metrical Romances.
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 189 
 
 ons by creating, in the person of Arthur, a phan- 
 tom of glory which towered above every warrior. 
 This apparition seems to have acquired its chief 
 magnitude and terrors in the traditions and le- 
 gends of Britany. Walter Calenius, or Gualtier, 
 as he is sometimes called, Archdeacon of Oxford, 
 amassed a great collection of these materials du- 
 ring an expedition to Armorica, or Britany, a 
 province from which the royal ancestors of Arthur 
 were believed to have originally issued. On his 
 return to England, the archdeacon presented this 
 medley of historical songs and traditions to Geof- 
 frey of Monmouth, who founded on them a chro- 
 nicle of Britain, which was written in Latin prose, 
 and is supposed to have been finished about 1140. 
 A notion has been adopted by some authors that 
 Geoffrey composed, or invented, most part of the 
 chronicle which he professed to translate from 
 British originals. This idea was first started by 
 Polydore Virgil, who has been followed by later 
 writers ; but it has been satisfactorily shown by 
 Mr Ellis that there is no solid reason to doubt the 
 repeated assertions of Geoffrey, that he has merely 
 rendered into Latin the text of Breton authorities. 
 His fabulous relations concerning Brut, Arthur, 
 and Merlin, coincide with those contained in Nen- 
 nius, or the lives of the Saints, and therefore
 
 190 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 could not have been invented by Geoffrey. The 
 history, too, bears internal evidence of its Armo- 
 rican descent, as it ascribes to Hoel, a hero of 
 that country, many of the victories which tradition 
 attributes to Arthur. 
 
 But whether this celebrated chronicle be the 
 invention of Geoffrey, or whether it presents a 
 faithful picture of the traditions and fables at that 
 period received as history, there can be no doubt, 
 according to the expression of Mr Ellis, who has 
 given an analysis of the whole work, that it is one 
 of the corner-stones of romance. 
 
 This chronicle consists of nine books, each of 
 which is divided into chapters, and commences 
 with the history of Brutus, the son of Sylvius, and 
 grandson of Ascanius, who, being exiled from 
 Italy in consequence of having accidentally slain 
 his father, takes refuge in Greece. There he ob- 
 tains the hand of Imogen, daughter of a king of 
 that country, and a fleet, with which he arrives in 
 Albion (then only inhabited by a few giants), and 
 founds the kingdom called Britain from his name. 
 There is next presented an account of the fabu- 
 lous race of Brutus, particularly Arthur, and the 
 whole concludes with the reign of Cadwallader, 
 one of the descendants of that hero. 
 
 It would indeed be difficult to extract any au-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 191 
 
 thentic history from the chronicle of Geoffrey, but it 
 stamped with the character of veracity the exploits 
 of the early knights of chivalry, and authorized a 
 compilation of the fables related of these fanciful 
 heroes. In the age in which the chronicle appear- 
 ed it was difficult to arrive at truth, and error was 
 not easily detected. Criticism was hardly called 
 into existence, and falsehood was adopted with an 
 eagerness proportioned to its envelopement in the 
 fascinating garb of wonder. The readers were 
 more ignorant than the authors, and a credulous 
 age readily grafted on stories that were evidently 
 false, incidents that were physically impossible. 
 These were drawn from the sources already point- 
 ed out, and were added, according to fancy, to 
 unauthentic histories, which thus degenerated, or 
 were exalted, into romance.; 
 
 In the chronicle of Geoffrey, indeed, there is 
 nothing said of the exploits of Tristan and Lance- 
 lot, or conquest of the Sangreal, which constitute 
 so large a proportion of the Round Table ro- 
 mances. These were subsequent additions, but 
 probably derived, like the chronicle, from ancient 
 British originals, as the names of the heroes, and 
 the scenes of their adventures, .are still British. 
 
 The work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and such 
 traditionary fables, were the foundation of those 
 10
 
 192 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 tales which appeared in a metrical form, the shape 
 in which, it is acknowledged, romance was first 
 exhibited. 
 
 It seems, also, unquestionable, that these me- 
 trical romances, though written in England, first 
 appeared in the French language. 
 
 In its earliest signification, the term Romance 
 was appropriated to the dialects spoken in the dif- 
 ferent European provinces that had been subjects 
 ed to the Roman empire, and of which Latin was 
 the basis, though other materials might enter into 
 the construction. The romance was at one time 
 the colloquial language of Gaul. Subsequently, 
 indeed, various dialects were introduced into that 
 country, but it was still preserved in Normandy ; 
 and thence was again diffused through the other 
 provinces north of the Loire. 
 
 The earliest specimens of northern French lite- 
 rature are metrical Lives of the Saints. These are 
 supposed to have been translated from Latin com- 
 positions about the middle of the eleventh cen- 
 tury. In the beginning of the next century they 
 were followed by several didactic works, as the 
 Bestiarius, a poem on natural history, by Philip 
 de Thaun, addressed to the queen of Henry I. of 
 England, and a metrical treatise on chronology by 
 the same author. It is believed, however, that no
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 193 
 
 trace of a professed work of fiction no specimen 
 of what we should now term a romance is to be 
 found before the middle of the twelfth century. 
 Then, indeed, the minstrels introduced a great 
 variety of their own compositions, and formed 
 new combinations from the numerous materials in 
 their possession. 
 
 Before this time the language in which they 
 wrote had passed into England by means of the 
 Norman Conquest. The English, indeed, previous 
 to this event had been prepared for the reception of 
 the French language. Edward the Confessor had 
 been educated in France, and, on his accession to 
 the throne of England, promoted his continental 
 favourites to the highest dignities. Under their 
 influence the nation began to lay aside its English 
 customs, and to imitate the language and manners 
 of the French. (Ingulph. Hist. Croyl. p. 62. ap. 
 Tyrwhitt, vol. iv.) These fashions having been 
 adopted in compliance with the caprice of the 
 reigning monarch, might probably have expired 
 under his successors ; but before this extirpation 
 could be effected, the French language, by means 
 of the Norman Conquest, became interwoven with 
 the new political system. The ting, the chief 
 officers of state, and a great proportion of the no- 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 19i ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 bility, were Normans, and understood no tongue 
 but that of their own country. Hence the few 
 Saxons who were still admitted at court had the 
 strongest inducements to acquire the language of 
 their conquerors. William the First also distribu- 
 ted a share of his acquisitions among his great 
 barons who had attended him ; and who, when 
 it was in their power, retired from court to their 
 feudal domains, followed by vassals from among 
 their countrymen. Hence the language which was 
 used in their common conversation and judicial 
 proceedings, was diffused through the most distant 
 provinces. All ecclesiastical preferments, too, were 
 bestowed on Norman chaplains, and those who 
 were promoted to abbacies were anxious to stock 
 their monasteries with foreigners. Thus the higher 
 orders of the clergy and laity spoke the French 
 language, while the lower retained the use of their 
 native tongue, but frequently added a knowledge 
 of the dialect of the conquerors. Matters conti- 
 nued in this state with little variation during the 
 reigns of the Norman kings and the first monarch s 
 of the house of Plantagenet. 
 
 The Norman minstrels, accordingly, who had 
 followed their barons to the English court, natu- 
 rally wrote and recited their metrical compositions 
 in the language which was most familiar to them-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 195 
 
 selves, and which, being most prevalent, procured 
 them the greatest number of readers of rank and 
 distinction. 
 
 From the early connection of the Normans with 
 the people of Britany, the minstrels had received 
 from the latter those traditions, the remains of 
 which they brought over with them to England. 1 
 
 These they found in a more perfect state among 
 the Welsh of this island. The invasion of the 
 Normans, and the overthrow of the Saxons, were 
 events beheld with exultation by the descendants 
 of the aboriginal Britons, who readily associated 
 with those who had avenged them on their bitter- 
 est enemies ; while to the Normans the legends of 
 the Welsh must have been more acceptable than 
 those of the Saxons. In the long course of po- 
 litical intrigue, carried on between the period 
 of the Norman invasion and final subjugation of 
 Wales, an intercourse must have taken place be- 
 tween that country and England sufficient to 
 account for the interchange of any literary ma- 
 terials. The British lays communicated to the 
 French minstrels in England were seldom com- 
 mitted to writing. Hence the same story was re- 
 peated with endless variations, and this system of 
 
 1 Ellis's Early Metrical Romances, vol. I.
 
 196 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 traditional incident was added to the more stable 
 relations contained in the chronicle of Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth. 
 
 It seems to be generally believed that French 
 romances in rhyme appeared in England and Nor- 
 mandy previous to any attempt of this nature at 
 the court of Paris. This is evinced by the more 
 liberal patronage of the English princes, the style 
 and character of the romances themselves, and 
 the persons to whom the poems were originally 
 addressed. 
 
 The oldest of these French metrical romances 
 is one founded on the chronicle of Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth, and entitled Le Brut : it was written 
 in the year 1155, by Robert Wace, a native of 
 Jersey, who brought down his work from the time 
 of the imaginary Brutus to the death of Cadwal- 
 lader, the aera where Geoffrey ends ; but it was 
 subsequently carried on by Gaimar and others 
 to the age of William Rufus. Wace is also the 
 author of Le Roman le Rou, a fabulous and me- 
 trical history of the Dukes of Normandy from the 
 time of Rollo. These metrical histories soon in- 
 troduced compositions professedly fictitious, in 
 which the indefatigable Wace first led the way. 
 His Chevalier au Lion seems to be one of the 
 earliest romances in rhyme which has descended
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 197 
 
 to our knowledge. In the end of the twelfth and 
 beginning of the thirteenth century, an infinite 
 variety of French metrical romances on the sub- 
 ject of Arthur and his knights of the Round Ta- 
 ble appeared in England and Normandy, as the 
 Sangreal, Perceval, &c, written by Chrestien de 
 Troyes, Menessier, and others. 
 
 About the same period a great number of 
 French romances, in which classical heroes are 
 celebrated, were founded on the history of the 
 Trojan war. Few of these, however, at least at 
 an early period, were converted into prose, while 
 the metrical romances relating to the Round Ta- 
 ble, either from accident or from flattering the va- 
 nity and prejudices of a nation by the celebration 
 of its fictitious heroes, have, for the most part, 
 been reduced into prose, and constituted, thus 
 transformed, a formidable compilation, which came 
 in time to supersede the metrical originals. 
 
 These prose romances, which form the proper 
 subject of our enquiry, were mostly written in the 
 course of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
 centuries. It is extremely difficult, however, to as- 
 certain the precise date of the composition of each, 
 or to point out the authors by whom they were 
 written. 
 
 The data by which we might attempt to fix the
 
 198 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 chronology of the prose romances, and which, at 
 first view, would appear to be at once easy and 
 certain, are, 1. The antiquity of the language; 2. 
 The manners represented ; since in ancient roman- 
 ces a delineation is given not of the customs, ce- 
 remonies, or dress of the period in which the ima- 
 ginary heroes are feigned to have existed, but of 
 those which prevailed at the time of the compo- 
 sition of the work. The tournaments in particular, 
 with a description of which every romance is filled, 
 should assist in this research. Thus, at the institu- 
 tion of these spectacles, the persons who had been 
 long admitted into the order of chivalry contend- 
 ed during the first day, and the new knights on the 
 succeeding ones. In process of time the new 
 knights opened the tournament, and the squires 
 were allowed to joust with them, but at length the 
 distinctions which had formerly existed between 
 the knight and the squire became, in a great mea- 
 sure, confounded. The light, however, that might 
 naturally be expected to be drawn hence, has been 
 darkened by the authors of the prose romances 
 having servilely copied, in some instances, their 
 metrical prototypes, and thus, without warning, 
 represented the manners of a preceding age. In 
 most instances, I believe, the prose romances were 
 accommodated to the opinions and manners sub-
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 199 
 
 sisting at the period of this new fabrication ; but 
 it is impossible to say with certainty what has been 
 adopted and what is original. 3. The name of the 
 person to whom the romance is addressed, or at 
 whose solicitation it is said to be written, may be 
 of use in ascertaining the date. But the authors 
 title their patrons in so general a way, that the in- 
 ference to be drawn is vague and uncertain. Their 
 works are written at the desire of King Henry or 
 King Edward of England, and hence the period 
 of their composition is only limited to the reign 
 of one of the numerous monarchs who bore these 
 names. 4. The date of the publication may be of 
 assistance in fixing the chronology of some of the 
 later romances of chivalry. But even this trifling 
 aid is in most instances denied, the earliest im- 
 pression being generally without date. Hence I 
 am afraid that these data will be found, in most 
 cases, to afford but feeble and uncertain assist- 
 ance. 
 
 With respect to the authors of the prose ro- 
 mances, it may be in the first place remarked, 
 that these compositions were not announced to 
 the reader as works of mere imagination, but, on 
 the contrary, were always affirmed by their au- 
 thors (who threw much opprobrium on the lying 
 metrical romances) to contain matter of historical
 
 200 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 fact. Nor was this doubted by the simplicity of 
 the readers ; and the fables which had been dis- 
 believed while in verse, were received without 
 suspicion on their conversion into prose. Hence 
 it became the interest of the real authors, in order 
 to give their works the stamp of authority, to ab- 
 jure the metrical romances, from which they were 
 in fact compiled, and to feign either that these 
 fables had been translated by them from Latin, or 
 revised from ancient French prose, in which they 
 had been originally written, averments which 
 should never be credited unless otherwise esta- 
 blished to be true. 
 
 But 6ome writers have supposed that this sy- 
 stem of mendacity was carried still farther, and 
 that fictitious names were generally assumed by 
 the real authors. " Those," says Mr Ritson, 
 " whose names appear as the authors of the old 
 prose romances, are mostly men of straw : Of this 
 sort are Robert de Borron, the pretended author, 
 or rather translator, of Lancelot ; Lucas Sieur de 
 Gast, the translator from Latin into French of the 
 romance of Tristrem ; Gualter Map, who, though 
 he really existed and was a poet of some eminence, 
 was not in reality the author of Histoire de Roy 
 Artus ; and Rusticien de Pise, who was feigned to 
 have translated Gyron the Courteous." It is in 
 
 6
 
 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 201 
 
 the prefaces alone that any notices can be found 
 with regard to the old romances or their authors ; 
 but it requires some discernment to discover what 
 is true, and to distinguish correct information from 
 what was merely thrown out in jest, or intended 
 to give the stamp of authority with the vulgar. 
 In general the account given in their prefaces by 
 the romancer & concerning their fellow-labourers is 
 accurate, D*ut every thing relating to themselves, 
 or their own works, must be received with great 
 suspicion. 
 
 Any information that can be elsewhere derived 
 is in the highest degree inconsistent. Thus the 
 metrical Perceval, according to the authors of 
 the Bibliotheque des Romans, was written by 
 Raoul de Beauvais. According to Tyrwhitt it 
 was composed previous to 1191, in sixty thousand 
 verses, by Chretien de Troyes, and from this, he 
 says, was formed the French prose translation 
 printed in 1530. Ritson informs us, that, accord- 
 ing to some, Menessier was the author of the me- 
 trical Perceval : now, if we believe the authors of 
 the Bibliotheque, this Menessier was the prose 
 translator. The Abbe de la Rue says that Per- 
 ceval was written in prose by Chretien de Troyes. 
 I may add to these elucidations, that Warton 
 alleges it was written in rhyme by Chretien de
 
 202 ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 
 
 Troyes, but that it also appeared in a metrical 
 shape by Menessier, and that the prose version is 
 formed from the latter poem. Much has been said 
 by modern writers of Warton's inaccuracy, but 
 his account of the romance of Perceval is the 
 only one which has any pretensions to correct- 
 ness. On the whole, however, I am inclined to 
 believe that too early a period has been generally 
 assigned to the composition of the prose romances 
 of chivalry, and the existence of their authors. 
 Rusticien de Pise, the author of Meliadus and 
 Gyron, and whom some writers represent as li- 
 ving in the reign of Henry I., talks in one of his 
 prefaces of the expedition of Edward I. to the 
 Holy Land, and he mentions Robert de Borron, 
 the author of Merlin, and Helye de Borron, who 
 wrote part of Tristan, as his companions in lite- 
 rature and arms. 
 
 It will not excite surprise that the earliest of 
 the French romances should be devoted to the ce- 
 lebration of a British monarch, when we consider 
 that they were not written for the amusement of 
 the French, but of the English nation. From the 
 popularity of the British tales among the Norman 
 minstrels, they obtained, as has btfen already 
 shown, an early and extensive acquaintance with 
 the traditional history of Arthur. He was the 

 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 203 
 
 theme of their metrical compositions, and hence 
 became the favourite hero in the prose romances 
 of chivalry. 
 
 Of these, the earliest relating to that fabulous 
 monarch, is the romance or book of 
 
 MERLIN. 
 
 The demons, alarmed at the number of victims 
 which daily escaped their fangs since the birth of 
 our Saviour, held a council of war. It was there 
 -resolved that one of their number should be sent 
 to the world with instructions to engender on some 
 virgin a child, who might act as their vicegerent 
 on earth, and thus counteract the great plan that 
 had been laid for the salvation of mankind. With 
 this view the infernal deputy, having assumed a 
 human form, insinuated himself into the confi- 
 dence, and obtained admittance into the house, of 
 a wealthy Briton. The fiend (though this was fo- 
 reign from the purpose of his mission) could not 
 resist embracing an early opportunity of strangling 
 his host, and then proceeded to attempt the se- 
 duction of his three daughters, which was more 
 peculiarly an object of his terrestrial sojourn. 
 The youngest of the family alone resisted his ar-
 
 204- ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 tifices, but 6he at length experienced the fate of 
 her sisters, while rendered unconscious by sleep. 
 On awakening, she was much perplexed by what 
 had occurred, and confessed herself to a holy man 
 called Blaise, who had all along been her protec- 
 tor, but who acknowledged himself altogether in- 
 competent to account for the events of the prece- 
 ding night. 
 
 The judges of the land, who soon after discover- 
 ed the pregnancy of the young lady, were about to 
 condemn her to death, according to the law and 
 custom of the country;* but Blaise represented 
 that the execution should be at least deferred, as 
 the child, who was about to come into the world, 
 
 1 In another old romance, a regulation of this sort is said 
 to have existed in France. C'estoit la coustume, en ce terns, 
 telle, que quaud une femmc estoit grosse, que ce n'estoit de 
 son Mari, ou qu' elle ne fust marine, on 1' ardoit. (L- Hist, 
 plaisan'te du noble Siperis de Vinevaulx et de ses dix sept 
 tils.) In the Orlando Furioso this punishment is attributed 
 to the law of Scotland ; 
 
 L'aspra logge di Scozia empia e severa : 
 
 Rinaldo on hearing of it, exclaims with indignation, 
 
 Sia maladetto chi tal legge pose, 
 
 maladetto chi la puo patire; 
 
 Debitamenle muore una Crudele, 
 
 Non chi da vita al suo amator fidele. (C. 4.)
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 205 
 
 ought not to be involved in the punishment of the 
 mother. The criminal was accordingly shut up 
 in a tower, where she gave birth to the celebrated 
 Merlin, whom Blaise instantly hurried to the bap- 
 tismal font, and thus frustrated the hopes of the 
 demons when on the verge of completion. Mer- 
 lin, however, in spite of this timely redemption, 
 retained many marks of his unearthly origin, of 
 which his premature elocution afforded an early 
 and unequivocal symptom. Immediately after 
 his baptism, the mother took the child in her 
 arms, and reproached him as the cause of the me- 
 lancholy death she was about to suffer. But the 
 infant smiling to her, replied, Fear not, my mo- 
 ther, you will not die on my account. Accord- 
 ingly the prosecution being resumed, and Merlin, 
 the corpus delicti, being produced in court, he ad- 
 dressed the judges, and revealed the illegitimacy 
 of one of their number, who was not the son of 
 his reputed father, but of a Prior ; and who thus, 
 out of regard to his own mother, was forced to 
 prevent the condemnation of Merlin's. 
 
 At this time there reigned in Britain a king 
 called Constans, who had three sons, Moines, Pen- 
 dragon, and Uter. Moines, soon after his acces- 
 sion, which happened on the death of his father, 
 was vanquished by the Saxons, in consequence of
 
 206 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 being deserted by bis seneschal Vortiger, formerly 
 the chief support of his throne. Growing unpo- 
 pular, through misfortune, he was soon after killed 
 by his subjects, and the traitor Vortiger chosen in 
 his place. 
 
 As the newly-elected monarch was in constant 
 dread of the preferable claims of Uter and Pen- 
 dragon, the surviving sons of Constans, he began 
 to construct a strong tower for defence. This bul- 
 wark, however, three times fell to the ground 
 without any apparent cause, when brought by the 
 workmen to a certain height. The king consulted 
 seven astronomers on this phenomenon in architec- 
 ture. These sages having studied the signs, avow- 
 ed to each other that they could not solve the mys- 
 tery. But in th course of their observations they 
 had incidentally discovered that their lives were 
 threatened by a child, who had lately come into 
 the world without the intervention of a mortal fa- 
 ther. They therefore resolved to deceive the king, 
 in order to secure their own safety ; and announ- 
 ced to him, as the result of their calculations, that 
 the edifice would abide by the ordinary rules of ar- 
 chitecture if the blood of a child of this genealogy 
 were shed on the first stone of the foundation. 
 
 Though the king could not doubt the efficacy of 
 this expedient, his plans were not much promo-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 207 
 
 ted by the response, for the difficulty was to find 
 a child of this anomalous lineage. That nothing, 
 however, might be wanting on his part, he des- 
 patched messengers over all the kingdom. Two 
 of his emissaries fell in with certain children who 
 were playing at cricket. Merlin was of the party, 
 and, having divined the cause of their search, in- 
 stantly made himself known to them. When 
 brought before the king, he informed his majesty 
 of the imposition of the astrologers, and showed 
 that the instability of the tower was occasioned by 
 two immense dragons which had fixed their resi- 
 .dence under it, and,. being rivals, shook its founda- 
 tion with their mighty combats. The king invited 
 all his barons to an ensuing contest announced by 
 Merlin. Workmen having dug to an immense 
 depth below the tower, discovered the den of these 
 monsters, who gratified the court with the exhibi- 
 tion that was expected. The red dragon was to- 
 tally defeated by his white opponent, and only sur- 
 vived for three days the effects of this terrible en- 
 counter. 
 
 These animals, however, had not been solely 
 created for the amusement of the court, for, as 
 Merlin afterwards explained, they typified in the 
 most unequivocal manner the invasion of Uter 
 and Pendragon, the surviving brothers of Moines.
 
 208 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 These two princes had escaped into Britany on 
 the usurpation of Vortiger, but now made a de- 
 scent upon England. Vortiger was defeated in a 
 great battle, and afterwards burned alive in the 
 castle he had taken such pains to construct. 
 
 On the death of Vortiger, Pendragon ascended 
 the throne. This prince had great confidence in 
 the wisdom of Merlin, who became his chief advi- 
 ser, and frequently entertained the king, while he 
 astonished his brother Uter, who was not aware of 
 his qualifications, by his skill in necromancy. 
 
 About this time a dreadful war arose between 
 the Saxons and Britons. Merlin obliged the royal 
 brothers to swear fidelity to each other, but fore- 
 told that one of the two must fall in the first bat- 
 tle. The Saxons were totally routed in the fight, 
 and Pendragon, having fulfilled the prediction of 
 Merlin, was succeeded by Uter, who now assu- 
 med, in addition to his own name, the appellation 
 of Pendragon. 
 
 Merlin still continued a court favourite. At the 
 request of Uter he transported by magic art enor- 
 mous stones from Ireland to form the sepulchre 
 of Pendragon ; and next proceeded to Carduel, 
 (Carlisle,) to prepare the Round Table, at which 
 he seated fifty or sixty of the first nobles in the 
 country, leaving an empty place for the Sangreal.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 209 
 
 Soon after this institution the king invited all 
 his barons to the celebration of a great festival, 
 which he proposed holding annually at Carduel. 
 
 As the knights had obtained permission from 
 his majesty to bring their ladies along with them, 
 the beautiful Yguerne accompanied her husband, 
 the Duke of Tintadiel, to one of these anniversa- 
 ries. The king became deeply enamoured of the 
 duchess, and revealed his passion to Ulsius, one 
 of his counsellors. 1 Yguerne withstood all the 
 inducements which Ulsius held forth to prepossess 
 her in favour of his master, and ultimately dis- 
 closed to her husband the attachment and solici- 
 tations of the monarch. On hearing this, the 
 duke instantly removed from court with Yguerne, 
 and without taking leave of Uter. The king com- 
 plained of this want of duty to his council, who 
 decided that the duke should be summoned to 
 court, and if refractory should be treated as a 
 rebel. As he refused to obey the citation, the 
 king carried war into the estates of his vassal, and 
 besieged him in the strong castle of Tintadiel,* 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 7. 
 
 * Some vestiges of the castle of Tintadiel, or Tintaggel, 
 remain on a rocky peninsula of prodigious declivity to. 
 wards the sea, on the northern coast of Cornwal. 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 210 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 in which he had shut himself up. Yguerne was" 
 confined in a fortress at some distance, which was 
 still more secure. During the siege, Ulsius in- 
 formed his master that he had been accosted by 
 an old man, who promised to conduct the king to 
 Yguerne, and had offered to meet him for that 
 purpose on the following morning. Uter pro- 
 ceeded with Ulsius to the rendezvous. In an old 
 blind man, whom they found at the appointed 
 place, they recognised the enchanter Merlin, who 
 had assumed that appearance : he bestowed on the 
 king the form of the Duke of Tintadiel, while he 
 endowed himself and Ulsius with the figures of his 
 grace's two squires. Fortified by this triple me- 
 tamorphosis, they proceeded to the residence of 
 Yguerne, who, unconscious of the deceit, received 
 the king as her husband. 
 
 This deception has been evidently suggested by 
 the classical story of Jupiter and Alcmena. The 
 duke corresponds to Amphytrion, and Merlin to 
 the Mercury of mythology ; while Arthur, who, 
 as we shall find, was the fruit of the amour, holds 
 the same rank in the romantic as Hercules in the 
 heroic ages. 
 
 The fraud of Merlin was not detected, and the 
 war continued to be prosecuted by Uter with the 
 utmost vigour. At length the duke was killed in
 
 JIOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 211 
 
 battle, and the king, by the advice of Merlin, es- 
 poused Yguerne. Soon after the marriage she 
 gave birth to Arthur, whom she believed to be 
 the son of her former husband, as Uter had never 
 communicated to her the story of his assumed 
 
 appearance. 
 
 After the death of Uter, there was an interreg- 
 num in England, as it was not known that Arthur 
 was his son. This prince, however, was at length 
 chosen king, in consequence of having unfixed, 
 from a miraculous stone, a sword which two hun- 
 dred and one of the most valiant barons in the 
 realm had been singly unable to extract. At the 
 beginning of his reign, Arthur was engaged in a 
 civil war, as the mode of his election, however 
 judicious, was disapproved by some of the barons ; 
 and when he had at length overcome his domestic 
 enemies, he had long wars to sustain against the 
 Gauls and Saxons. 
 
 In all these contests the art of Merlin was of 
 great service to Arthur, as he changed himself into 
 a dwarf, a harp player, or a stag, as the interest of 
 his master required ; or, at least, threw on the by- 
 standers a spell to fascinate their eyes, and cause 
 them to see the thing that was not. The notion 
 >f these transformations seems to have been sug-
 
 212 ROMANCES 0* CHIVALRY. 
 
 gested by the power ascribed in classical times to 
 Proteus and Vertumnus, 
 
 Nunc equa, nunc ales, modo bos, niodo cervus abibat. 
 
 On one occasion Merlin made an expedition to 
 Rome, entered the king's palace in the shape of 
 an enormous stag, and in this character delivered 
 a formal harangue, to the utter amazement of one 
 called Julius Caesar, not the Julius whom the 
 knight Mars killed in his pavilion, but him whom 
 Gauvain slew because he had defied king Arthur. 
 
 At length this renowned magician disappeared 
 entirely from England. His voice alone was heard 
 in a forest, where he was enclosed in a bush of 
 hawthorn ; he had been entrapped in this awkward 
 residence by means of a charm he had communi- 
 cated to his mistress Viviane, who, not believing 
 in the spell, had tried it on her lover. The lady 
 was sorry for the accident, but there was no ex- 
 tracting her admirer from his thorny coverture. 
 
 The earliest edition of this romance was printed 
 at Paris, in three volumes folio, 1498 ; this impres- 
 sion, which has become extremely rare, was fol- 
 lowed by another in quarto, which is much less 
 esteemed than the other, but is also exceedingly 
 scarce.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 213 
 
 Though seldom to be met with, the Roman de 
 Merlin is one of the most curious romances of the 
 class to which it belongs. It comprehends all the 
 events connected with the life of the enchanter 
 from his supernatural birth to his magical disap- 
 pearance, and embraces a longer period of inte- 
 resting fabulous history, than most of the works 
 of chivalry. Some of the incidents are entertain- 
 ing, and no part of the narrative is complicated. 
 Yguerne, though she appears but for a short 
 while, is a more interesting female character than 
 is usually portrayed in romances of chivalry. The 
 passion of Uter for this lady, which is well de- 
 scribed, is by much the most interesting part of 
 the work ; and though the marvellous pervades 
 the whole production, it is not carried to such an 
 extravagant length as in the tales of the Round 
 Table, by which it was succeeded. The langu- 
 age, which is very old French, is remarkable for 
 its beauty and simplicity: Indeed, the romance 
 bears every where the marks of very high antiquity. 
 It has been generally attributed to Robert de Bor- 
 ron, to whom so many other works of the same 
 nature have been assigned. This author lived in 
 the time of Henry III. and Edward I., as Rusti- 
 cien de Pise, who lived during these reigns, calls
 
 '^14) ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 him, in his prologue to Meliadus, his companion 
 in arms. 
 
 But, great as the antiquity of the romance no 
 doubt is, its author can lay but little claim to ori- 
 ginality of invention. Most of the incidents apr 
 pear in the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
 from which they were transferred into the romance 
 through the medium of the Brut, a metrical ver- 
 sion of that fabulous bistory, written by VVace. 
 
 The notion of procreating demons, which forms 
 the basis of the romance, and accounts for Merlin's 
 supernatural powers, seems to have been taken 
 from the Vita Merlini, the Life of the Scotch 
 Merlin, by Geoffrey of Monmouth : 
 
 " Et sibi multoticns ex acre corpora sumpto 
 Nobis apparent, et pluriir.a saepe sequuntur ; 
 Quin ctiam coitu mulieres ajrgrediuntur, 
 lit faciunt gravidas, generanles more profano." 
 
 It would appear from Jocelin's Life of St Kente- 
 gern, the account of whose birth resembles that 
 of Merlin, that our grandmothers were frequently 
 subject to nocturnal attacks of the nature descri- 
 bed in the romance; "audivimus, frequenter sump- 
 tis transfigiis puellarem pudicitiam expugnatam 
 esse, ipsamque defloratam corruptorem sui mini-, 
 me nosse. Potuit aliquid hujusmodi huic puellac
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 215 
 
 accidisse." x Yet, perhaps, the account of the birth 
 and early part of the life of Merlin may be traced 
 to a yet more ancient and venerable source. 
 
 At an early period the story of Merlin became 
 current and popular in most of the countries in 
 Europe. The French romance, of which we have 
 given an abstract, was translated into Italian by 
 Antonio Tedeschi, a Venetian, and was written by 
 him while in the prison of Florence, where he was 
 confined for debt. The history of Merlin appear- 
 ed also in English, in a metrical form, in which 
 the incidents are nearly the same with those in the 
 French romance. 
 
 Merlin is frequently introduced in the subse- 
 quent tales of chivalry, but chiefly on great occa-. 
 sions, and at a period subsequent to his death, or 
 magical disappearance. He has also found his way 
 into the English metrical version of the Seven 
 Wise Masters. Herowdes, emperor of Rome, had 
 seven sages in his council, who abused the confi- 
 dence reposed in them by their master. This em- 
 peror, while one day preparing to go on a hunting 
 party, is suddenly struck blind ; the wise men 
 
 ' Pinkerton's Vitae Antiques, p. 200. ap. Ellis's Speci- 
 mens, p. 211. vol. i. A curious tradition of this sort is re. 
 'ated in Boethius' History of Scotland.
 
 216 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 are convoked, and ordered to account for his ma- 
 jesty's obstructed vision. They are forced to con- 
 fess that they are unprepared with an answer, but 
 are afterwards advised by an old man to consult 
 the invisible Merlin. Two of their number are 
 sent on this errand, who find out the enchanter 
 with great difficulty, and bring him to the king. 
 Merlin is prepared with a prescription, and in- 
 forms his majesty that nothing more is necessary 
 to obtain complete restoration to sight, than stri- 
 king off the heads of his seven sages. Herowdes, 
 delighted to find that his cure could be so cheaply 
 purchased, caused his counsellors to be successive- 
 ly beheaded, and the recovery of his sight coin- 
 cided with the decapitation of his last minister. 
 
 Nor have the fables connected with Merlin been 
 confined to idle tales or romances of chivalry, but 
 have contributed to the embellishment of the finest 
 productions. In the romantic poems of Italy, and 
 in Spenser, Merlin is chiefly represented as a ma- 
 gical artist. The fountain of love in the Orlando 
 Innamorato (1. 3.), is said to have been the work 
 of Merlin ; and in the 26th canto of the Orlando 
 Furioso, there is described a fountain, one of four 
 which the enchanter formed in France. It was of 
 the purest marble, on which coming events were 
 portrayed in the finest sculpture. In the same
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 217 
 
 poem, Bradamante arrives one night at the lodge 
 of Tristan (Rocca di Tristano), where she is con- 
 ducted into a hall adorned with prophetic paint- 
 ings, which demons had executed in a single night 
 under the direction of Merlin. 
 
 In the third canto of the Rinaldo, the knight of 
 that name arrives with Isolero at two equestrian 
 statues ; the one of Lancelot, the other of Tristan, 
 both sculptured by the art of Merlin. Spenser 
 represents Merlin as the artificer of the impene- 
 trable shield, and other armour of Prince Arthur 
 (Faery Queene, b. i. c. 7.), and of a mirror in 
 which a damsel viewed her lover's shade. But 
 Merlin had nearly obtained still higher distinc- 
 tion, and was on the verge of being raised to the 
 summit of fabulous renown. The greatest of our 
 poets, it is well known, before fixing on a theme 
 more worthy of his genius, intended to make the 
 fabulous history of Britain the subject of an epic 
 poem, as he himself announces in his Epitaphium 
 Damonis : 
 
 " Ipse ego Dardanias Rutnpina per aequora puppes 
 Dicam, et Pandrasidos regnuin vetus Inogeniae, 
 Brennumque Arviragumquc duces, priscumque Belinum, 
 Turn gravidam Arluro fatali fraude logernen, 
 Mendaces vultus assumptaque Gorlois arma 
 Mcrlini dolus. "
 
 218 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 It has been mentioned, in the abstract just 
 given of the romance of' Merlin, that when the 
 magician, who is the chief character in the work, 
 prepared the round table at Carduel, he left a 
 place vacant for the St Graal, the vessel from 
 which our Saviour was supposed to have drunk at 
 the last supper, and which was afterwards filled 
 with the blood which flowed from the wounds with 
 which he was pierced at the crucifixion. The 
 early history of this relic, the quest of which is 
 the most fertile source of adventures to the knights 
 of the Round Table, is related in the romance 
 entitled 
 
 ST GRAAL, or SANGREAL,* 
 
 &o called from Grasal, which signifies a cup in old 
 French, or from the Sanguis Realis, with which 
 it was supposed to have been filled. This work 
 is one of the dullest of the class to which it be- 
 
 1 L'JIistoire, ou le Roman du Saint-(ircal, qui est le fon- 
 dt-ment ct le premier de la Table Ronde; lequel traite de 
 plusieurs matiers recreatives, ensemble la queste du diet 
 Saint-Grenl faite par Lancelot, Galaad, Roort et Perceval, 
 qui est le dernier livre de Li Table Ronde ; translate du 
 Latin en Rime Francoise, et dc Rime en Prose, 
 1
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 219 
 
 longs ; it s,eems written with a different intention, 
 and on a different plan, from the other romances 
 of the Round Table, and has much the appear- 
 ance of having come from the pen of an eccle- 
 siastic. The name of the author, however, and 
 the sources whence his composition was derived, 
 are involved in the same darkness and inconsis- 
 tent information, which obscure the origin of so 
 many similar productions. 
 
 Mr Warton has given an extract from a metri- 
 cal Sangreal, a fragment consisting of 40,000 lines, 
 which was written by Thomas Lonelich, in the 
 reign of Henry VI. This is neither the original, 
 nor a paraphrase, of the French prose Sangreal, 
 but is a version of that part of Lancelot du Lac 
 which contains the adventures of the Sangreal. 
 With regard to the history of the Sangreal, pro- 
 perly so called, we are informed in the Bibliothe- 
 que des Romans, that it was first written in verse 
 by Chretien de Troyes, towards the end of the 
 12th century ; that it was thence translated into 
 Latin prose in the 13th, and, finally, in the 14<th 
 century, into French prose, by Gautier Map, by 
 order, as he informs us, of his lord Henry, by 
 whom, as he was an Englishman, the authors of 
 the Bibliotheque suppose that he means Henry 
 III. This, however, would place the composition
 
 220 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 not in the 14th, but in the preceding century, as 
 that monarch died in 1272. Tyrwhit says there is 
 a tradition that Gautier Map was the author of the 
 St Greal in French. There i6 also a passage in the 
 romance of Tristan which is consistent with thig 
 information. " Quant Boort ot conte l'aventure 
 del Saint Graal, teles come eles etoient avenues, 
 eles furent mises en escrit, gardees en lamere de 
 Salibreres dont Mestre Galtier Map l'estrest a fai6t 
 son livre du Saint Graal, per l'amor du Roy Herri, 
 son senger qui fist l'estoire tralater del Latin en 
 Romanz." From a passage, however, in Lancelot 
 du Lac, we are led to believe that Map wrote the 
 Sangreal in Latin, while some modern writers have 
 attributed the French work to Robert de Borron. 
 Ritson, as has been already mentioned, considers 
 Borron as a fictitious personage, and ridicules the 
 notion of Map having ever written a romance. 
 At whatever time, and by whatever author it was 
 composed, the Sangreal was first printed in French 
 prose, in 1516, two volumes folio, by Gaily ot du 
 Pre, and afterwards 1523, folio : both of these edi- 
 tions are so rare, that the Sangreal is the scarcest 
 romance of the Round Table. 
 
 From the extract given by M. Barbazan, of the 
 poetical Sangreal, it appears to commence with 
 the genealogy of our Saviour, and to detail the,
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 221 
 
 whole of the Sacred History. The prose romance 
 does not go so far back. It begins with Joseph of 
 Arimathea, who was long believed in this country 
 to have existed for many centuries after the cru- 
 cifixion. Matthew Paris informs us, that an Ar- 
 menian bishop who came to England in his time, 
 related that this Jewish senator had dined at his 
 table before he left the east. At the end of every 
 century he fell into a fit of ecstacy, and when he 
 recovered he returned to the same state of youth 
 in which he was when his master suffered. 
 
 The author of the Sangreal has availed himself 
 of this popular tradition ; he in the first place 
 relates, that, on the day of the crucifixion, Joseph 
 of Arimathea obtained possession of the Hanap, 
 or cup, from which his master had on the prece- 
 ding evening drunk with his apostles. Before he 
 interred the body of our Saviour, he filled the ves- 
 sel with the blood which flowed from his wounds ;* 
 but the exasperated Jews soon after deprived him 
 of this holy relic, and sent him to a prison in the 
 neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Here his departed 
 vnaster appeared to him, and comforted him in 
 his captivity, by restoring the sacred Hanap. At 
 length, in the forty -second year of his confine- 
 
 * See Appendix, No. 8,
 
 J.2'2 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY, 
 
 merit, he was freed from prison by Titus, the Ro-* 
 man emperor. After his deliverance he proceeded 
 to preach the gospel in this country, and on his 
 way converted to Christianity, Enelach, king of 
 Sarraz, who was thus enabled to conquer the 
 Egyptians, with whom he was at war. After the 
 arrival of Joseph with the sacred cup in Britain, 
 the romance is chiefly occupied with the miracles 
 accomplished by the Sangreal ; the preparation 
 of the Round Table by Arthur, who left a place 
 vacant for this relic ; and, finally, the achieve- 
 ments performed by his knights to recover this 
 treasure, which had fallen into the possession of 
 King Pecheur, so called from his celebrity as an 
 angler, or his notoriety as a sinner. The author of 
 the romance has enlivened his story with some cu- 
 rious adventures, which happened to the knights 
 of the Round Table, during the period of this 
 quest ; but the incidents related are, I think, on 
 the whole, less interesting than those generally 
 contained in the class of fictions with which we 
 are at present engaged. 
 
 The history of the Sangreal is the commence- 
 ment of a series of romances, in which the acqui- 
 sition of that relic is a leading object. Its qucs' 
 and attainment is continued in
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 223 
 
 PERCEVAL, 1 
 
 a romance of the fifteenth century, where a great 
 deal is written concerning its utility and final dis- 
 appearance. 
 
 I believe the only impression of Perceval is that 
 of Paris, in 1530. It is not known who was the 
 author of the prose romance, 1 but in his preface 
 he informs us that Philip of Flanders had ordered 
 his chronicler to compile the story of Perceval; 
 but both Philip and his chronicler having died 
 shortly after, Joanne, countess of Flanders, order- 
 ed Menessier, ung sien Jamttier orateur, to conti- 
 nue what his predecessor had merely commen- 
 ced. His metrical composition was the chief foun- 
 dation of the prose romance ; but its author has 
 also availed himself of the metrical work on the 
 
 ' Le Roman de Vaillant Perceval, Chevalier de la Table 
 Ronde, lequcl acheva los adventures du Saint Greal, avcc 
 aucuns faits belliqueux du Chevalier Gauvain et autres. 
 
 a Concerning the author and origin of this romance, see 
 above, p. 201. Besides the works on the snbject of Perce- 
 val which are there mentioned, there is a metrical romance, 
 Percyvell of Galles, which was preserved in the library of 
 Lincoln cathedral, and is supposed to have been written 
 by Robert de Thornton, iu the reign of Henry VI*
 
 224 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 same subject written by Chretien de Troyes in 
 the twelfth century. 
 
 Though the conquest of the Sangreal be the 
 chief subject of the latter part of Perceval, the 
 early chapters are merely the story of an artless 
 and inexperienced youth's first entrance into the 
 world. The father and two elder brothers of Per- 
 ceval had fallen in tournaments or battle ; and 
 hence, as the last hope of the family, he had been 
 kept at home by his mother, who resided in Wales, 
 where he was brought up in total ignorance of 
 arms and chivalry. 
 
 At length, however, Perceval is roused to a 
 desire of military renown, by meeting in a fo- 
 rest five knights, arrayed in complete armour. 
 When he has determined on leaving the family 
 mansion, his mother gives him some curious in- 
 structions concerning the duties o a knight. Af- 
 ter receiving these admonitions, he sets out for 
 the court of Arthur, and on his way falls in with 
 various adventures, in the course of which he 
 makes some whimsical applications of the lessons 
 of his mother.* 
 
 On his arrival at Carduel, where Arthur then 
 resided, he encounters a knight in red armour 
 
 See Appendix, No. 9.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 225 
 
 leaving the palace, and is asked by him where he 
 is going, to which Perceval replies, " To King 
 Arthur to demand your armour." In prosecution 
 of this equitable claim, Perceval without farther 
 ceremony enters on horseback into the hall, where 
 Arthur is seated with his knights. This mode of 
 presentation was not uncommon in the ages of 
 chivalry. Stow mentions, that when Edward II. 
 was sitting royally with his peers, solemnizing the 
 feast of Pentecost, there entered a woman attired 
 like a minstrel, sitting on a great horse trapped, 
 who rode about 7 the table showing pastime. In 
 the legend of King Estmere, the prince of that 
 name introduces himself in a similar manner : 
 
 " King Estmere he stabled bis steede 
 
 Sae fayre at the hall bord ; 
 The froth that came from his brydle bitte, 
 
 Light iu Kyog Brcmor's beard." 
 
 Arthur at this time happened to be holding full 
 court (Cour Pleniere). At the time in which Per- 
 ceval was written, the French sovereigns, from 
 whose customs the royal manners in these ro- 
 mances are frequently described, did not, as af- 
 terwards, maintain a court continually open, but 
 lived shut up with their families and the officers 
 of their household, and only displayed their mag- 
 
 VOL. i. p
 
 226 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 nificence on certain occasions, which occurred 
 three or four times a year. These festivals are 
 said to have owed their origin to the diets con- 
 voked by Charlemagne to deliberate on state af- 
 fairs, which were re-established by Hugh Capet ; 
 they were announced by heralds at the town or 
 castle where they were to be celebrated, the 
 barons and strangers were invited, and the enter- 
 tainment consisted in feasts and dancing, joined 
 to the exercise of the talents of the minstrel. 
 . It was on a solemn occasion of this nature, that 
 Perceval behaved with the bluntness that has been 
 described. Arthur, however, promises to make 
 him a knight if he will dismount from his horse, 
 and pay his vows to God and the saints. But 
 Perceval would only receive the honour he solicit- 
 ed on horseback, because, as he said, the knights 
 he met in the forest were not dismounted; and 
 he added another condition to his reception into 
 the order of knighthood, which was, that the king 
 should grant him permission to acquire the arms 
 of the Red Knight, who, it seems, was the mortal 
 enemy of. Arthur. On expressing his intention to 
 gain them by his own valour, Lreux, the king's se- 
 neschal, who is introduced in most of the romances 
 of the Round Table, but is always represented 
 as a detractor, a coward, and a boaster, nearly
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 227 
 
 resembling the character which Shakspeare has 
 painted in so many of his dramas, begins to jeer 
 Perceval. On this a damsel, who, we are inform- 
 ed, had not smiled for ten years, comes up to 
 Perceval, and tells him, smiling, that if he live 
 he will be one of the bravest and best of knights. 
 The seneschal, exasperated at her good humour 
 and the prospects held out to Perceval, gives the 
 maiden a blow on the cheek ; and, seeing the 
 king's fool sitting near a chimney, kicks him into 
 the fire between the two andirons, because the 
 fool had been accustomed to say that this damsel 
 would not smile till she had seen him who would 
 be the flower of chivalry. A fool was a common 
 appendage to the courts of those days in which 
 the romance was written. This embellishment was 
 derived from the Asiatic princes. In Europe, a 
 fool was the ornament held in next estimation to 
 a dwarf; his head was shaved, he wore a white 
 dress with a yellow bonnet, and carried a bell or 
 bawble in his hand. If, however, the scene which 
 took place between the fool, the seneschal, and 
 damsel, be a just picture of the manners of a court 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the pre- 
 sence of a king must in those days have inspired 
 very little reverence.
 
 228 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 Perceval having at length been knighted on his 
 own terras, sets out in quest of the Red Knight, 
 and obtains the arms he desired by slaying him in 
 single combat ; but as he did not understand how 
 to open or close a helmet, and knew nothing of 
 the fabric of the other parts of armour, he would 
 have been much puzzled without the assistance of 
 his squire, Guyon, who aids in arming him ; and 
 also tries to persuade him to change his under 
 dress for that of the knight he had slain. I will 
 never, replied he, quit the good hempen shirt that 
 my mother made me. Thus Perceval would only 
 take the armour of the knight, and the squire is 
 obliged to put the spurs over the gathers which 
 his master would on no account part with. He 
 then teaches him to put his foot in the stirrup, 
 for Perceval had never used stirrup nor spur, but 
 bad rode without saddle, and urged on his horse 
 with a stick. The squire then carries the news 
 of Perceval's success to the court of Arthur, to 
 the great joy of the fool, and consternation of the 
 seneschal. 
 
 After this, chance (which does so much in all 
 romances of chivalry,) conducts Perceval to the 
 house of a knight who instructs him in the exer- 
 cises and duties of his profession, and persuades
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 229 
 
 him, though not without difficulty, to forsake his 
 rustic garb for an attire more magnificent and 
 warlike. 
 
 The romance of Perceval is almost the only one 
 which relates the story of a raw and inexperienced 
 countryman's first entrance into the world, and 
 his immediate admission into the order of knight- 
 hood. In other romances the heroes are intro- 
 duced to our acquaintance in the plenitude of 
 glory, og we follow them through their gradual 
 initiation* while they are bred up among arms, and 
 pass through the regular steps in their advance- 
 ment to knighthood. The first pages of Perceval 
 are also by much the most comic of the Round 
 Table romances ; in none of the other knights of 
 Arthur do we meet with the same bluntness and 
 naivete as in the young Welshman. 
 
 After Perceval has been trained to the exercises 
 of chivalry, and equipped in his military garb, the 
 incidents of the romance bear a perfect resem- 
 blance to those of the other fabulous histories 
 with which it has been classed. 
 
 Our hero having left his instructor, arrives at 
 the castle of Beaurepaire. Soon after his entrance 
 he finds that it is blockaded by an enemy, and in 
 the course of the day he feels that it is reduced to 
 extremities for want of provisions. Blanchefleur,
 
 230 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the lady of the castle, makes up, in the best way 
 in her power, for his bad entertainment at table, 
 and he in return frees her from the besiegers, by 
 overthrowing in single combat their chiefs, whom 
 he sends prisoners to the court of Arthur, char- 
 ging them to inform the smiling damsel that he 
 Mould avenge her of the blow she had received 
 from the seneschal. 
 
 Having raised the siege of Beaurepaire, Perce- 
 val proceeds to the residence of his uncle the King 
 Pecheur, at whose court he sees the Sangreal and 
 sacred lance. The wounds which this prince re- 
 ceived in his youth had never yet healed up. They 
 would, indeed, have been cured had his nephew 
 thought proper to ask certain questions concern- 
 ing these relics, as what is the use of the Sangreal, 
 and why does blood drop from the lance ? These 
 pertinent enquiries, however, do not suggest them- 
 selves ; and by his want of curiosity he incurs, as 
 we shall afterwards find, the displeasure of the 
 Lady Hideous. 
 
 Leaving his unfortunate uncle unquestioned, 
 Perceval sets out on his return to the court of 
 Arthur, where he is preceded by many knights 
 whom he vanquishes on his way, and sends thither 
 as prisoners. On his arrival he takes vengeance 
 on the seneschal Lreux. and accompanies Arthur
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 231 
 
 to Carlion, where that prince holds a full court. 
 During his stay there, he one day sees the Lady 
 Hideous pass, who loads him with her maledic- 
 tions. Her neck and hands, says the romance, 
 were brown as iron, which was the least part of 
 her ugliness ; her eyes were blacker than a Moor's, 
 and little as those of a mouse ; she had the nose 
 of a cat or an ape, and lips like an ox ; her teeth 
 were red, like the yolk of eggs ; she was bearded 
 like a goat, was humped before and behind, and 
 had both legs twisted. This paragon makes her 
 excuses to King Arthur for not tarrying at his 
 court, as she had a long journey before her, but 
 points out a castle where 570 knights, each with 
 his lady, were detained in captivity. 
 
 The deliverance of these prisoners opens a vast 
 field of enterprise, and the adventures of many 
 knights, particularly of Gauvain, the nephew of 
 Arthur, are related at great length. 
 
 Perceval dedicated himself for five years to ex- 
 ploits of chivalry, and neglected all exercises of 
 devotion. He is at length reclaimed by meeting 
 in a forest a procession of ten ladies and three 
 knights, who were doing penance for past trans- 
 gression, and were walking barefooted for the sake 
 of mortification. Perceval is much edified by
 
 232 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 their conversation, and goes to confess himself to 
 a hermit, who proves to be his uncle, the brother 
 of King Pecheur. 
 
 From the hermitage Perceval sets out with the 
 view of revisiting this piscatory monarch, and of 
 propounding the proper interrogatories concern- 
 ing the Sangreal. In wandering from wood to 
 wood, he comes again to the castle of Beaur epaire, 
 where, spite of his late conversion, he passes three 
 days with Blanchefleur. 
 
 After having accomplished the visit to his uncle, 
 whose wounds he at length heals up by virtue of 
 his questions, Perceval returns to the court of 
 Arthur. Soon after his arrival, intelligence is 
 brought to him of his uncle's death, who, it would 
 appear, had only thriven by his infirmities, as 
 some persons are kept alive by their gout. Arthur 
 and all his court set out with Perceval for the 
 kingdom of his deceased relative, to be present at 
 the coronation. In succeeding to his sinful pre- 
 decessor, Perceval also inherited a number of sa- 
 cred curiosities. Of these the chief was the San- 
 greal, whose wonders were manifested much to the 
 satisfaction of Arthur and his barons : it appeared 
 daily at the hour of repast in the hands of a dam- 
 sel, who carried it three times round the table,
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 233 
 
 which was immediately replenished with all the 
 delicacies the guests could desire. 
 
 Arthur returns to his usual residence, and Per- 
 ceval, soon after his accession, retires to a hermit- 
 age, taking with him the Sangreal, which provided 
 for his sustenance till the day of his death. The 
 moment he expired, says the romance, the San- 
 greal, the sacred lance, and silver trencher, were 
 carried up to the holy heavens in presence of the 
 attendants, and since that time have never any 
 where been seen on earth. 1 
 
 Perceval, after his death, was conveyed to the 
 Palais aventureux, where he was buried by the 
 side of King Pecheur, and this epitaph was in- 
 scribed on his tomb : Cy-Git Perceval le Gallois, 
 qui du Saint Greal les adventures acheva. 
 
 Many incidents of the life of Perceval are rela- 
 ted in other romances of the Round Table, es- 
 pecially in Lancelot du Lac, where a full account, 
 but with considerable variation, is given of the 
 early part of his career ; he is brought to the court 
 
 ' The Genoese, however, boasted that they were in pos- 
 session of the St Graal, which they pretended to have ac- 
 quired as their share of booty at the taking of Jerusalem 
 in the beginning of the 11th century. Jehan d'Autun in- 
 forms us that the relic was exhibited to Lewis XII. whea 
 he visited Genoa in 1502. (Croniques de Louis XII.)
 
 234 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of Arthur by an elder brother ; and a lady, who 
 had not spoken, in place of not having smiled, for 
 ten years, foretells his future eminence, and ex- 
 pires on having uttered the prediction. 
 
 But the chief difference is in the circumstances 
 connected with the acquisition of the Sangreal, 
 the conquest of which is a leading incident in 
 
 LANCELOT DU LAC, 
 
 and occupies a considerable portion of that ro- 
 mance. Hence it has been classed among the con- 
 tinuations of the history of the Sangreal ; but the 
 part which relates to the acquirement of that re- 
 lic, is by no means the most interesting in the 
 work, nor that in which Lancelot himself has the 
 greatest share. The account of the earliest years 
 of his life is the most romantic, and his intrigue 
 with Queen Geneura the most curious part of the 
 composition. 
 
 King Ban of Britany was, in his old age, at- 
 tacked by his enemy Claudas, a neighbouring 
 prince, and after a long war was besieged in the 
 strong hold of Trible, which was the only place 
 that now remained to him, but was considered as
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 235 
 
 an impregnable fortress. Being at length reduced 
 to extremities, he departs from this castle with his 
 wife Helen and his infant son Lancelot, in order 
 to beg assistance from his suzerain King Arthur ; 
 and, meanwhile, intrusts the defence of Trible 
 to his seneschal. While prosecuting his route he 
 ascends a hill, from the top of which he perceives 
 his castle on fire, for it had been treacherously 
 surrendered by the seneschal, who in romance is 
 generally represented as a coward or traitor. At 
 this sight the old man is struck with despair, and 
 instantly expires. Helen, leaving her child on 
 the brink of a lake, flies to receive the last sighs 
 of her husband ; on returning she perceives the 
 little Lancelot in the arms of a nymph, who, on 
 the approach of the queen, throws herself into the 
 lake with the child. " Et quand la royne approcha 
 des chevaulx, qu' estoient dessus le lac, si voit son 
 fils deslye hors du berceau, et une damoiselle qui 
 le tient tout nud en son giron, et le estrainct et 
 serre moult doulcement entre ses deux mammel- 
 les, et luy baise souvent les yeulx et la bouche : car 
 c' estoit ung des plus beaulx enfans de tout le 
 monde. Et lors la Royne dist a la damoiselle 
 Belle doulce amye, pour Dieu laissez mon enfant ; 
 car assez aura desormais de dueil et de mesaise : il 
 est cheu en trop grand pourete et misere ; car il a 
 10
 
 236 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 perdu toutes joyes. Son pere est orendroit mort 
 et sa terre perdue qui n'estoit mye petite si Dieu 
 la luy eust gardee. A chose que la Royne die la 
 damoiselle ne repond ung seul mot. Et quant elle 
 la voit approcher si se lieve a tout 1' enfant, et s' en 
 vient droictement au lac, et joinct les pieds et se 
 lance dedans. La Royne voyant son fits dedans 
 le lac se pastne incontinent." (V. 1. F. 4. recto.) 
 This nymph was Vivian, mistress of the enchanter 
 Merlin, better known by name of the Lady of the 
 Lake. Lancelot received the appellation of Lac 
 from having been educated at the court of this en- 
 chantress, whose palace was situated in the midst, 
 not of a real, but, like the appearance which de- 
 ceives the African traveller, of an imaginary lake, 
 whose deluding resemblance served as a barrier to 
 her residence. Here she dwelt not alone, but in 
 the midst of a numerous retinue, and a splendid 
 court of knights and damsels. 
 
 The queen, after her double loss, retired to a 
 convent, where she was joined by the widow of 
 Bohort, for this good king had died of grief on 
 hearing of the death of his brother Ban. His two 
 sons, Lyonel and Bohort, are rescued by a faithful 
 knight called Farien, from the fury of Claudas. 
 They arrive in the shape of greyhounds at the pa- 
 lace of the lake, where, having resumed their na-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 237 
 
 tural form, they are educated along with their 
 cousin Lancelot. 
 
 When this young prince has attained the age of 
 eighteen, the Lady of the Lake carries him to the 
 court of Arthur, that he may be admitted to the 
 honour of knighthood. On his first appearance he 
 makes a strong impression on the heart of Gene- 
 ura. The history of Arthur receives a singular co- 
 louring from the amours of his queen with Lance- 
 lot. It is for her sake that the young knight lays 
 whole cargoes of tributary crowns at the feet of 
 her husband; for her he accomplishes the con- 
 quest of Northumberland, where he takes the cas- 
 tle of Douloureuse Garde (Berwick), afterwards, 
 under the name of Joyeuse Garde, the favourite 
 residence and burying place of the knight. In 
 compliment to Geneura, he attacks and defeats 
 King Gallehaut, who becomes his chief confidant, 
 and brings about the first stolen interview between 
 his friend and Geneura. It is even at the sugges- 
 tion of this queen that he excites Arthur and his 
 knights to a long war of vengeance against Clau- 
 das, the usurper of his own dominions. When 
 Arthur, deceived by the artifices of a woman, 
 who insisted that she was the real Geneura, repu- 
 diates his queen, leaving her at liberty to indulge, 
 without restraint, her passion for Lancelot, the
 
 238 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 knight is not satisfied ; he deems it necessary for 
 the dignity of his mistress that she should be re- 
 stored to the throne of Britain, and that, protect- 
 ed in her reputation by the cloak of marriage and 
 the sword of her lover, she should pass her life in 
 reputable adultery. Hence a great proportion of 
 his exploits are single combats, undertaken in de- 
 fence of the innocence of his mistress, in which 
 his success is usually greater than he deserved 
 from the justice of his cause. To Geneura, too, 
 on the most trying occasions his fidelity remains 
 inviolate, as appears from the indignation he ex- 
 presses at having been betrayed into the em- 
 braces of a damsel, who inconsiderately assumed 
 the character of Geneura. " Trop durement da- 
 moyselle m' avez vous mocque ; mais vous en 
 mourrez ; car Je ne vueil pas que jamais decevez 
 Chevalier en telle maniere comme vous m' avez 
 deceu. Lors dressa 1' espee contremont, et la 
 damoyselle qui grant paour avoit de mourir luy 
 cria mercy a joinctes mains, en luy disant haa 
 franc Chevalier ne m' occiez mye, pour celle pitie 
 que Dieu eut de Marie Magdaleine. Si s' arres- 
 ta tout pensif si la veit la plus belle que oncques 
 avoit veu : et il trembloit si durement d' yre et de 
 maltalent que a peine pouoit il tenir son espee, et 
 pensoit s' il occiroit, ou si il la laisseroit vivre.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 239 
 
 Et continuellement la damoyselle luy crioit mercy ; 
 et estoit devant luy, toute nue, en sa chemise, a 
 genoulx : et luy, en regardant sa viz et sa bouche, 
 en quoy il avoit tant de beaulte, luy dist. Da- 
 moyselle, Je m' en yrai tout vaincu et tout recre- 
 ant corame celluy qui ne s' ose de vous venger, 
 car trop seroye cruel et desloyal si grant beaulte 
 destruisoye." A more convincing proof of his fi- 
 delity, however, is exhibited in his reply to a dam- 
 sel who makes to him an explicit declaration of 
 love. " Ma voluntee y est si bien enracinee que 
 Je n' auroye pas le couriage de Y en oter. Mon 
 cueur y est nuyt et jour, car mon cueur ne mes 
 yeux ne tendent tous jours fors celle part, ne mes 
 oreilles ne peuent ouyr bonnes nouvelles que d' 
 elle. Que vous dirois mon ame et mon corps 
 sont tous a elle. Ainsi suis Je tout a son plaisir, 
 ne Je ne puis rien faire de moy, non plus que le 
 serf peult faire autre chose que son seigneur luy 
 commande." 
 
 Nor does Lancelot merely signalize his attach- 
 ment by the preservation of his fidelity, or by en- 
 gaging in those enterprises which were congenial 
 to the feelings of a knight, but submits to disgraces 
 which no one of his profession could endure ; thus, 
 for the purpose of overtaking Geneura when a 
 horse could not be procured, he ascends a cart,
 
 240 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the greatest infamy to which a knight could be 
 subjected : " En ce temps la estoit accoustumee 
 que Charrette estoit si vile que nul n' estoit de- 
 dans qui tout loz et tout honneur n' eust perdu : 
 et quant s' invouloit a aucun tollir honneur si le 
 faisoit s" en monter en une Charrette : Car Char- 
 rette servit, en ce temps la, de ce que Pilloris ser- 
 vient orendroit ; ne en chascune bonne ville n' en 
 avoit, en ce' temps la, que une." 
 
 At length the intrigue of Lancelot and Geneura 
 is detected by the fairy Morgain, the sister of Ar- 
 thur, and revealed to that prince by her and Agra- 
 vain, one of the knights of the Round Table, for a 
 vassal would have become criminal had he con- 
 cealed any thing from his lord. After this detec- 
 tion Lancelot sustains a long war against Arthur 
 and his knights, first in his castle of Joyeuse Garde, 
 and afterwards in his states of Britany. Arthur is 
 recalled from the prosecution of this contest by the 
 usurpation of Mordrec ; and as he disappears after 
 the battle which he fights with this unnatural son, 
 he is believed to have been slain with the rest of 
 his chivalry. 1 Geneura, as if she thought pleasure 
 only gratifying while criminal, withdraws to a con- 
 vent. Lancelot having arrived in Britain after 
 
 * See App<*Ddix,No. 10.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 241 
 
 the battle, retires to a hermitage, and is joined in 
 his solitude by his brother Hector of Mares, the 
 only other knight of the Round Table who had 
 survived the fatal battle with Mordrec. 
 
 Thus, although Lancelot du Lac is not free from 
 the defect (common to all the Round Table ro- 
 mances) of a want of unity in the action, there 
 is yet one ruling passion that animates the sto- 
 ry. The unconnected adventures of the Duke 
 of Clarence, as well as those of Lyonel and Boort, 
 the two cousins of Lancelot, are, indeed, rela- 
 ted at full length, and the conclusion of the ro- 
 mance is principally occupied by the quest of the 
 Sangreal, in which Lancelot acts only a subordi- 
 nate part ; but as far as the hero of the work is 
 concerned, his passion for Geneura is the ruling 
 principle by which all his actions are guided, and 
 the main-spring of the incidents of the romance. 
 The adventures of the principal character, indeed, 
 are too much of the same cast : he is too often ta- 
 ken prisoner, and too often rescued ; and his fits of 
 insanity are also too frequently repeated. Lance- 
 lot, however, has been perhaps the most popular 
 of all the romances of the Round Table. On the 
 French playing cards one of the knaves bears the 
 name of Lancelot ; a proof of the estimation in 
 
 VOL. I, Q
 
 'J 12 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY* 
 
 which the work was held at the time this gamfr 
 was invented. 
 
 There is a metrical romance on the subject of 
 Lancelot, entitled La Charette, which was begun 
 by Chrestien de Troyes in the twelfth century, and 
 finished by Geoffrey de Ligny. This work is more 
 ancient than the prose Lancelot, but, as the inci- 
 dents are different, it cannot be regarded as the 
 original of that composition. Mr Warton, and the 
 authors of the Bibliotheque, seem to agree in 
 thinking that the work, of which I have given the 
 above abstract, was originally written in Latin ; but 
 Warton ascribes the French version to Robert de 
 BorrOn, on the authority of a MS. Lancelot du 
 Lac, where it is said to be mis en Francois par 
 Robert de Borron par le comandement de Henri 
 Roi d'Angleterre. This manuscript, however, is 
 not the same with the printed Lancelot. In one 
 passage of the Bibliotheque the composition of the 
 prose romance of Lancelot is attributed to Gual- 
 tier Map, who is also mentioned as the French au- 
 thor in the preface to Meliadus, Ce n' est mye de 
 Lancelot car Maistre Gualtier Map en parla as- 
 sez suffisamment en son livre. The authors of 
 the Bibliotheque have elsewhere attributed Lance- 
 lot du Lac to Gasse le Blond, a mistake which 
 seems to have arisen from a misconception of a
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 43 
 
 passage in the same preface, where it is said 
 that he was the author of the adventures of Lan- 
 celot, meaning those connected with this hero, 
 which are related in the romance of Tristan. 
 Whoever may have been the author of the prose 
 Lancelot, it is certainly of very high antiquity : 
 indeed it is evidently older than Tristan, which is 
 generally accounted the earliest prose romance of 
 chivalry. No mention is made in the story of 
 Lancelot, of the achievements of Tristan ; and 
 surely, if the work devoted to his exploits had 
 been written first, so renowned a knight would 
 not have been passed over in silence. The Livre 
 de Tristan, on the other hand, is full of the ad- 
 ventures of Lancelot, many of which coincide 
 with those related in the romance of that name. 
 The romance of Lancelot was first printed at Pa- 
 ris in 1494-, which is considered as the best edi- 
 tion : it afterwards appeared in 1513, and lastly 
 in 1533, which impression is held in higher esti- 
 mation than that by which it was immediately pre- 
 ceded. 
 
 In some of the editions, Lancelot is divided into 
 three parts, the last of which is the origin of the ce- 
 lebrated metrical romance Morte Arthur, The 
 English prose work of that name, also called the 
 History or Bpke of Arthur, was compiled from
 
 24f AOMAKCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the romances of Lancelot, Merlin, and Tristan, I>y 
 Sir Thomas Malory, in the beginning of the reign 
 of Edward IV., and was printed by Caxton in 1485. 
 Mr Ritson imagines that the English metrical ro- 
 mance of Morte Arthur was versifiedfrom theprose 
 one of the same title, but as it differs essentially from 
 Malory's prose work, and agrees exactly with the 
 last part of the French romance of Lancelot, it is 
 more probable that it has been versified from this 
 composition. To Malory, Spenser was greatly in- 
 debted, as Warton has shown at much length in 
 his remarks on that poet's imitations of the old 
 romances, where he also attempts to prove that 
 Ariosto borrowed from Lancelot du Lac the no- 
 tion of Orlando's madness, of his enchanter Mer- 
 lin, and of his magic cup. 
 
 The fairy Morgana, who is a principal charac- 
 ter in this romance, and discovered to Arthur the 
 intrigue of Geneura with Lancelot, is a leading 
 personage not only in other tales of chivalry, but 
 also in the Italian poems. In the Orlando Furi- 
 oso (c. 43,) she convinces her brother of the infi- 
 delity of his queen, by means of a magical horn. 
 About a fifth part of the Orlando Innamorato, be- 
 ginning at canto thirty-six, is occupied with the 
 Fata Morgana. She is there represented as dis- 
 pensing all the treasures of the earth, and as in-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 246 
 
 iiabiting a splendid residence at the bottom of a 
 lake. Thither Orlando penetrates, and forces 
 her to deliver up the knights she detained in cap- 
 tivity, by seizing her by a lock of hair, and con- 
 juring her in the name of her master Demogor- 
 gon. She thus became a well-known character 
 in Italy, where the appellation of Fata Morgana is 
 given to that strange and almost incredible vision 
 which, in certain states of the tide and weather, 
 appears on the sea that washes the coast of Cala- 
 bria. Every object at Reggio is then a thousand 
 times reflected on a marine mirror, or, when va- 
 pours are thick, on a species of aerial skreen, ele- 
 vated above the surface of the water, on which 
 the groves and hills and towers are represented as 
 in a moving picture. (Swinburne's Travels, v. i. 
 p. 365. Houel Voyage Pittoresque des Isles de 
 Sicile, &c. v. ii. p. 2,) 
 
 We have now discussed the romances which 
 have been considered as relating more particularly 
 to the matter of the Sangreal. The family history 
 of the princes of Leonnoys, which is comprised in 
 the romances of Meliadus and Tristan, who were 
 knights of the Round Table, and contemporary 
 with Arthur, and of their descendant Isaie le 
 Triste, is next to be considered. 
 
 The country of Leonais, or Leonnoys, of which
 
 SM ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Meliadus was king, and which was the birth-place 
 of Tristan, though once contiguous to Cornwall, 
 has now disappeared, and is said to be more than 
 forty fathoms under water. An account of it has 
 been fished up by Carew in his Survey of Corn- 
 wall, and has been quoted in the notes to Way's 
 Fabliaux : " The sea gradually encroaching on 
 the shore hath ravined from Cornwall the whole 
 tract of country called Lionnesse, together with 
 divers other parcels of no little circuite ; and that 
 such a country as Lionnesse there was, these proofi? 
 are yet remaining. The space between the Lands- 
 End and the isles of Scilley, being about thirteen 
 miles, to this day retaineth that name, in Cornish 
 Lethowsow, and carrieth continually an equal 
 depth of 40 or 60 fathom, (a thing not usual in the 
 seas proper dominion,) save that about the mid- 
 way there lieth a rocke, which at low water disco- 
 vered its head. They term it the gulphe, suiting 
 thereby the other name of Scilla. Fishermen also, 
 casting their hooks thereabouts, have drawn up 
 pieces of doors and windows." 
 
 Of the romances relating to the heroes of the 
 country which has been thus overflowed, the first 
 in the order of events, though not the earliest 
 written, is
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 247 
 
 MELIADUS of LEONNOYS, 1 
 
 which was printed at Paris 1528. Rusticien de 
 Pise, the original author of this romance, com- 
 mences his prologue by returning thanks to the 
 Trinity, for having enabled him to finish the ro- 
 mance of Brut, and to have thus acquired the fa- 
 vour of King Henry of England, whom his work 
 had so greatly pleased that he had ordered him to 
 write another of the same sort, because his former 
 one had not comprehended every thing relating to 
 the subject. " In this book, therefore," says he, 
 " will be contained whatever is wanting in Brut, 
 and the other works extracted from the matter of 
 the Sangreal." After this formidable declaration, 
 in order to give an appearance of authenticity to 
 
 1 Meliadus de Leonnoys : du present volume sont contenus 
 les nobles faicls d'armes du vaillant Roy Meliadus de Leon- 
 noys : ensemble plusieurs autres nobles proesses de cheva- 
 lerie faictes (ant par le Roy Anus, Palamedes, le Morhoult 
 d'lrlande, le bon Chevalier sans paour, Galehault le Brun, 
 Segurades, Galaad que autres bons chevaliers estans au 
 temps du dit Roy Meliadus. Hiatoire singulitre et Recreu- 
 iive nouvtlltment imprimte a Paris chez Galliot du Pre.
 
 218 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 his fables, he talks of his labour in translating from 
 the Latin ; he also dwells with much complacency 
 on his writings, and informs us that he had recei- 
 ved two castles from King Henry as a reward for 
 them. He then declines interfering with the ad- 
 ventures of Lancelot, as Gualtier Map had said 
 enough of them ; or of Tristan, as he himself had 
 treated that subject in the Brut. King Henry ha- 
 ving shown a predilection for Palamedes, who, we 
 shall find, is a principal character in the romance 
 of Meliadus, Rusticien wisely resolved to gratify 
 the humour of a monarch, who remunerated the 
 compilation of old wives' tales with a couple of 
 castles. 
 
 This prodigal monarch must have been Hen- 
 ry III., for Rusticien informs us in his Gyron 
 the Courteous, that the romance of that name was 
 compiled from the book of his Lord Edward, when 
 he went to the Holy Wars. It is evident this was 
 Edward the First, who embarked for Palestine in 
 1270, during the life-time of his father Henry III. 
 Now, if Rusticien compiled from a book belonging 
 to Edward I., his existence could not have com- 
 menced in the reign of Henry II., who died in 
 1 189, nor could it have been protracted to the ac- 
 cession of Henry IV., who succeeded in 1399.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 24-9 
 
 The prologue of Rusticien is the only part of the 
 composition which has reached us in its original 
 form, and the romance of Meliadus is now only ex- 
 tant as corrected by a more modern author, who 
 must nevertheless have lived at a very remote period. 
 It is this Redacteur, as he is termed, who acquaint* 
 us in his preface that Rusticien de Pise was the 
 name of his predecessor. He also informs us, that 
 he himself laboured by order of Edward King of 
 England ; but what Edward he has left to conjec- 
 ture, which has fixed on the fourth monarch of 
 that name. He bestows much commendation on 
 the original author, but complains bitterly of his 
 not having been sufficiently explicit on the subject 
 of his hero's genealogy. This deficiency it was 
 then fortunately too late to supply, so that the 
 romance, at least in its corrected form, begins 
 with the adventures which happened in England to 
 two Babylonish hostages, who had been sent by 
 their own monarch to Rome, and had been allow- 
 ed by the emperor to pass on their parole into 
 Britain. They visited Arthur at Lramalot (Win- 
 chester), which was his chief city next to Lon- 
 don, and his favourite residence, on account of 
 the fine rivers and woods by which it was sur- 
 rounded. Some curious delineations are given in 
 this part of the romance concerning the manners
 
 250 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRT. 
 
 of the court, and form of the government of this 
 fabulous monarch. 
 
 During the stay of the Babylonians at the court 
 of Arthur, a romantic story occurs of a knight 
 who arrives incognito in a vessel, and defies all the 
 companions of the Round Table, but is severely 
 wounded in a combat with one of their number. 
 Arthur receives this unknown knight in his pa- 
 .lace, and treats him with kindness, even after he 
 discovers that the stranger is Pharamond, King 
 of the Franks, his mortal enemy. 
 
 Being cured of his wounds, the French king 
 embarks for his own country ; he sails down a 
 stream, and enjoys a favourable breeze till he 
 comes to the mouth of the river. There a storm 
 arising, he lands and reposes himself by the side 
 of a fountain, which was surrounded by a grove of 
 pines, and where the grass was green and abun- 
 dant. When refreshed, he sends to demand joust 
 from Trarsin, the lord of the territory, a brave but 
 felonious knight. This adversary he speedily over- 
 throws ; but afterwards encounters Morhault, or 
 Morhoult, of Ireland, a celebrated character in the 
 lomances of the Round Table, and by him he is 
 in turn defeated. After the combat, these oppo- 
 nents, who were unknown to each other, mutually 
 recount their adventures ; and, while thus enga-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 251 
 
 ged, a damsel arrives to inform Morhoult that her 
 lady, who was the wife of Trarsin, and the most 
 beautiful woman in the kingdom, expected him to 
 an interview. This, however, was a snare laid by 
 the husband, who had suspected his wife's fideli- 
 ty, and had bribed the damsel to bring Morhoult 
 into his power. A punishment is prepared for the 
 lovers, which seems to have suggested to Tasso the 
 situation in which he places Olindo and Sophro- 
 nia, in the 2d canto of the Jerusalem. Brehus, 
 who afterwards received the surname of Pitiless, 
 attempts to rescue the lovers, but in vain. After 
 his failure in this trial, while ranging through a 
 forest he meets Yvain, the nephew of Arthur, with 
 a lady in his company.* Brehus kills the lady, 
 owing to the hatred he had conceived against 
 the fair sex, on account of the damsel who had 
 betrayed Morhoult. A combat ensues between 
 Brehus and Yvain, who could not be persuaded of 
 the justice of this retaliation. When both are 
 nearly exhausted with fighting, the Knight with- 
 out Fear arrives on the spot, and accompanied by 
 Brehus again proceeds to attempt the rescue of 
 Morhoult. This is at length effected, and Morhoult 
 carries off the lady from Trarsin; but, when he 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. lit
 
 552 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 has travelled a short way, he is met and van- 
 quished by Meliadus, who restores the lady to her 
 husband, after exacting a promise that he would 
 use her well for the future, and cease to inter- 
 rupt her gallantries. 
 
 This is the first appearance of the hero of the 
 romance, though the preceding part occupies 29 
 chapters of the 173, which constitute the whole 
 work. Meliadus again vanishes, and we hear little 
 more of him till the 43d chapter. The intervening 
 sections are chiefly filled with the exploits of Mor- 
 hoult and of the Knight without Fear. After- 
 wards, however, Meliadus enters on a long series 
 ef adventures, chiefly warlike, of which the prin- 
 cipal is the deliverance of Arthur and his compa- 
 nions from the castle of the rock. At the end of 
 twenty chapters, entirely occupied with " tour- 
 naments and trophies hung," the reader is plea- 
 sed, though it redounds little to the honour of 
 the hero, to find a love story, which the author 
 has introduced at the 65th chapter. Meliadus, 
 in the course of his wanderings, meets with the 
 queen of Scotland in a castle, where he was en- 
 tertained, and becomes deeply enamoured of her. 
 He returns to his own country in a languishing 
 state of health, and imparts the story of his love
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 255 
 
 to one of his knights, who undertakes to acquaint 
 the queen with his passion, and to repeat to her a 
 lay which his master had written, expressive of 
 his sentiments. Meliadus afterwards prosecutes 
 his suit personally, with the utmost success, at the 
 court of Arthur, where his mistress then resided, 
 till the king of Scotland being informed of the 
 intrigue, surprises Meliadus with his queen ; but 
 promises him, qu' il ne feroit aucun mal a la reine 
 pour chose qu' il eut vue. The king considers it 
 prudent, however, to depart from court with his 
 consort ; but on his way to Scotland he is over- 
 taken by Meliadus, and the queen is carried off. 
 On account of this outrage, Arthur declares war 
 against Meliadus. This prince, in consequence, 
 retires to his own states, whence he describes his 
 situation, and demands aid from Pharamond, in 
 a poetical epistle, and is promised assistance in a 
 similar form. A long account is given of the con- 
 test carried on in Leonnoys ; Meliadus is taken 
 prisoner, and the war concludes, in the 106th 
 chapter, with the surrender of his capital, and re- 
 delivery of the queen of Scotland to her husband. 
 Meliadus amuses himself, while in confinement, 
 with playing on the harp, and composing songs, 
 particularly a lay, entitled, Dueil sur Dueil, which, 
 the romance informs us, was the second that ever
 
 254 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 was written. He is allowed to solace himself 
 in this manner till Arthur, being attacked by the 
 Saxons, frees him from prison, in order to avail 
 himself of his assistance in his contest with these 
 enemies, which is, at length, terminated by Meli- 
 dus overthrowing Ariohan, the Saxon chief, in 
 single combat. 
 
 In more regular works of fiction, the late ap- 
 pearance of the hero would, no doubt, be consi- 
 dered as a blemish ; but in few of the ancient ro- 
 mances of chivalry is unity of action and interest, 
 or any other rule of art, accurately attended to. 
 Meliadus is destitute, however, of the principal 
 charm of works of this nature, a variety of en- 
 chantments, of giants, and of monsters, which are 
 the only embellishments that can compensate for 
 the want of regularity and breach of the laws of 
 composition. The knights in Meliadus wander 
 for ever amid gloomy forests, and there is more 
 of the sombre mythology of the north, with less 
 eastern splendour and imagination, than in almost 
 any of the tales of chivalry. 
 
 Towards the conclusion, the romance is occu- 
 pied with the exploits of the son of Meliadus. 
 whose adventures form the subject of a separate 
 romance, called
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 255 
 
 TRISTAN, 1 
 
 from the name of its hero. This composition has 1 
 been the most popular of all the romances of the 
 Round Table, and is considered as the work which 
 best characterises the ancient spirit of French chi- 
 valry. It was first printed at Rouen, 1489, one 
 volume folio ; afterwards in two volumes folio at 
 Paris, by Verard, without date, and again at the 
 same place in 1522 and 1569. The date of its 
 composition, however, is many centuries prior to 
 that of its first publication. 
 
 The story of Tristan seems to have been current 
 from the earliest times. It was the subject of a 
 number of metrical tales in the romance language, 
 which were versified by the French minstrels from 
 ancient- British authorities. From these original 
 documents, or from the French metrical tales, was 
 compiled the Sir Tristrem, attributed to Thomas 
 of Erceldoune, and which has been edited by Mr 
 Scott. There are also extant two fragments of 
 
 1 Roman du noble et vaillant Chevalier Tristan, fils da 
 noble Roi Meliadus de LeoDnoys, compile par Luce Che- 
 valier, Seigneur de Chastean de Gust.
 
 c 256 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 metrical versions, which are supposed to be parts 
 of one whole work, written by Raoul de Beau- 
 vais, who lived in the middle of the 1 3th century. 
 But the immediate original of the prose Tristan 
 is understood to be the history of Mark and 
 Yseult, written in verse by Chrestien de Troyes, 
 who flourished early in the 12th century. The 
 MSS. of this work have not reached us, and the 
 prose composition of which it is the original is of 
 a date long posterior. Mr Scott believes that the 
 author of the prose Tristan is the same with the 
 earliest writer of Meliadus, who was certainly 
 Kusticien de Pise, and who lived in the reign of 
 Henry III. The author of Tristan, however, in- 
 forms us at the beginning of the romance, that his 
 name is Luce Sieur de Gast : " I, Luce Seigneur 
 de Gast have compiled the authentic history of 
 Tristan ; who, next to Lancelot and Galaad, was 
 the most renowned knight of the Round Table." 
 Mr Warton attributes it to the same author, on 
 the authority of a title-page, in a MS. copy of the 
 romance Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult traduit 
 de Latin en Francois, par Lucas Chevalier du 
 Gast, pres de Sarisberi, Anglois. In the prefaci 
 to Meliadus, we are informed that it was begun 
 by this Lucas de Gast, or Lucas de Iau, as he 
 is there called, the first who extracted from the 
 1
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 257 
 
 matter of the St Greal ; that Gasse le Blond next 
 wrote the part which relates to Lancelot after 
 which the story was concluded by Robert and 
 Helias de Borron. " Aussi Luces de Iau transla- 
 ta, en langue Francoise, une partie de l'Hystoire 
 de Monseigneur Tristan, et moins assez que il ne 
 deust. Moult commenca bien son livre, et si ny 
 mist tous les faicts de Tristan, ains la greigneuv 
 partie. Apres s'en entremist Messire Gasse le 
 Blonc qui estoit parent au Roy Henri, et devisa 
 l'Hystoire de Lancelot du Lac, et d'autre chose 
 ne parla il mye grandement en son livre. Messire 
 Robert de Borron s'en entremist, et Helye de 
 Borron par la priere du dit Robert de Borron j et 
 pour ce que compaignons feusmes d'armes lon- 
 guement Je commencay mon livre," &c. It was 
 formerly shown that Rusticien de Pise, by whom 
 this preface to Meliadus was written, lived in the 
 reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. since he talks 
 of the expedition of the latter to the Holy Land. 
 Now, since Rusticien mentions Robert and Helye 
 de Borron, by whom Tristan was completed, as 
 his contemporaries, that celebrated romance could 
 not have been finished before the reign of Henry 
 III. Indeed, in the MS. of Helye de Borron's 
 portion of the work, entitled La Mort de Tristan. 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 '258 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 it is said to have been written at the desire of 
 Henry the Third. 
 
 The early part of the prose romance of Tristan 
 is occupied with an account of the ancestors of the 
 hero, and many generations pass successively in 
 review before the birth of Meliadus. This prince 
 was married to Isabella, sister of Marc, king of 
 Cornwall ; a fairy fell in love with him, and drew 
 him away by enchantment, while he was engaged 
 in the exercise of hunting. His queen set out 
 in quest of him, but was seized with the pains of 
 child-birth during her journey, and expired soon 
 after being delivered of a son, whom, from the 
 melancholy circumstances of his birth, she called 
 Tristan before her death. 
 
 Gouvernail, the queen's squire, who had accom- 
 panied her, took charge of the child, and restored 
 him to his father, who at length burst the enchant- 
 ment of the fairy, and returned to his capital. 
 
 A dwarf having foreshown to Marc, the uncle 
 of Tristan, that he would be dethroned by means 
 of his nephew, this monarch vowed the death of 
 Tristan. The emissaries he employed surprised 
 and slew Meliadus during a chace, but Gouvernail 
 saved his son, and conveyed him to the court of 
 Pharamond. As the young prince grew up, Be- 
 linda, the daughter of this French monarch, be-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 2S9 
 
 came enamoured of him ; but, her passion being 
 discovered by her father, Tristan found it neces- 
 sary to leave the court. 
 
 A reconciliation was now effected between Tris- 
 tan and his uncle Marc, who, at this time, resided 
 at the castle of Tintagel, rendered famous by the 
 amour of Uter and Yguerne. In this court, Tris- 
 tan became expert in all the exercises incumbent 
 on a knight. Nor was it long till he had an op- 
 portunity of practically exhibiting his valour and 
 skill. The celebrated Morhoult, brother to the 
 queen of Ireland, arrived to demand tribute from 
 Marc. Tristan encountered this champion, who 
 was forced to fly and embark, bearing with him a 
 mortal wound. This was the first, and perhaps the 
 most glorious, of the exploits of Tristan ; but the 
 lance of Morhoult had been poisoned, and a wound 
 his opponent had received grew daily more enve- 
 nomed. He departed from Cornwall, with the 
 view of finding in a foreign country the relief 
 which could not be obtained in his own. A breeze 
 of fifteen days continuance conveyed him to the 
 coast of Ireland. He was ignorant to what shore 
 he had been carried, for he seems to have steered 
 at random : he disembarked, however, on this 
 unknown country, tuned his harp, and began to 
 play. It was a summer evening, and the king of
 
 '260 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Ireland and his daughter, the beautiful Yseult, 
 were at a window which overlooked the sea. The 
 strange harper was conveyed to the palace, and 
 his wounds were cured by Yseult. But after his 
 recovery he was found out, from the circumstance 
 of wearing the sword of Morhoult, to be the per- 
 son who had killed that knight, and was in conse- 
 quence obliged to quit the country. 
 
 On his return to Cornwall, Tristan fell in love 
 with the wife of Segurades, a Cornish nobleman, 
 and followed her into the dominions of Arthur, 
 whither she had been carried by Bliomberis. While 
 in England he defeated a knight called Blaanor, 
 who had accused the king of Ireland of treason, 
 before the court of Arthur. The king being thus 
 acquitted of the charge, Tristan, at his request, 
 accompanied him to Ireland, where he finally 
 yielded to the solicitations of his champion, and 
 promised to bestow his daughter Yseult in mar- 
 riage on the king of Cornwall. The mother of 
 Yseult gave to her daughter's confidant, Brangian, 
 an amorous potion, to be administered on the 
 night of her nuptials. Of this beverage, Tristan 
 and Yseult, during their voyage to Cornwall, un- 
 fortunately partook. Its effects were quick and 
 powerful : nor was its influence less permanent 
 than sudden ; but, during the remainder of their
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 261 
 
 lives, regulated the affections and destiny of the 
 lovers. A medical potion, producing a tempo- 
 rary love, or rather passion, is said to have been 
 frequently composed ; but the power of the be- 
 verage quaffed by Tristan and Yseult was not 
 believed to be confined to its immediate effects, 
 nor to derive its power from stimulating ingredi- 
 ents, but was supposed to continue its influence 
 by the force of magic, through the lives of those 
 who shared in the draught. Nor was the belief 
 in such philtres the offspring of the middle ages : 
 rules for their composition are to be found in 
 every author who treats of drugs, from Pliny's 
 Natural History, to the works of the 17th century. 
 
 In the course of a delightful, though unprosper- 
 ous voyage, Tristan and Yseult arrive on an un- 
 known island, where they are detained as prison- 
 ers, along with a number of knights and damsels, 
 who had previously landed. But the uncourteous 
 customs of this castle being destined to end, when 
 it should be visited by the bravest knight and fair- 
 est woman in the world, Tristan is enabled, by 
 overcoming a giant, to effect the deliverance of 
 the captives, after which he becomes the friend 
 of Gallehault, the lord of the manor. 
 
 After the arrival of Tristan and Yseult in Corn- 
 wall, and the nuptials of the latter with King
 
 262 ROMANCES Or CHIVALRY. 
 
 Marc, an uneasiness arises lest the husband should 
 discover the imperfections of his bride. Brangian, 
 the confidant of Yseult, who had never yielded 
 to the weakness which occasioned the embarrass- 
 ment of her mistress, agrees, by a deception fre- 
 quently practised in the romances of chivalry, to 
 occupy her place for a single night. Marc being 
 thus guarded from suspicion, the provident Yseult, 
 to escape the possibility of detection, delivers her 
 late substitute to two ruffians, with orders to mur- 
 der her in a wood. The assassins, having somewhat 
 more mercy than their fair employer, leave their 
 commission unexecuted, and only tie her to a tree, 
 from which she is soon released by Palamedes. 
 
 After this, a great part of the romance is occu- 
 pied with the contrivances of Tristan, and the ten- 
 der Yseult, to procure secret interviews, which are 
 greatly furthered by Dinas, Marc's seneschal. 
 
 Tristan, at a time when he was forced to leave 
 Cornwall, on account of the displeasure of his 
 uncle, was wounded one day while sleeping in a 
 forest, with a poisoned arrow, by the son of a per- 
 son he had killed. The ladies of those days, and 
 particularly Yseult, were very skilful leeches ; but 
 to return to Cornwall in the present circumstances 
 was impossible. He was, therefore, advised to 
 repair to Britany, where Yseult with the White 
 6
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 263 
 
 Hands was as celebrated for her surgical opera- 
 tions, as Yseult of Cornwall. Tristan was cured 
 by this new Yseult, and married her, more out of 
 gratitude than love, if we may judge from his 
 apathy after the nuptials. 1 He employed himself 
 solely in building a vessel in which he might sail 
 to Cornwall, and at length embarked on receiving 
 a message from the queen of that country ; but 
 was driven by a tempest on the coast of England, 
 near the forest of Darnant, where he delivered 
 King Arthur from the power of the Lady of the 
 Lake. Having experienced a number of adven- 
 tures he reached Cornwall, accompanied by Phe- 
 redin, his wife's brother, whom he had made the 
 confidant of his passion, and who had followed 
 him through the whole course of this expedition. 
 These friends had no sooner arrived in Cornwall, 
 than Pheredin became enamoured of the queen. 
 Tristan was seized with a fit of jealousy, retired 
 to a forest, and went mad. After many acts of 
 extravagance and folly, he allowed himself to be 
 conducted to court, where he was soon restored 
 to reason by the attention of Yseult. But, on his 
 recovery, the jealousy of Marc revived, and he 
 was compelled to take a solemn oath that he would 
 leave Cornwall for ever. 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 12.
 
 264 nOMAKCBS OF chivalry. 
 
 Our hero proceeded to the dominions of Arthur, 
 which again became the theatre or' unnumbered 
 exploits. The jealousy of Marc, however, was not 
 extinguished by tlve absence of Tristan ; he set out 
 for England with a view of treacherously killing 
 his nephew, and in his progress tlirough the king- 
 dom made himself ridiculous by that cowardice for 
 which most of the knights of Cornwall were noto- 
 rious. At the court of Arthur he became the 
 laughing-stock of all the knights, by flying before 
 Daguenet, the king's fool, whom he mistook for 
 Lancelot du Lac. While there, however, Arthur 
 effected a reconciliation between him and his ne- 
 phew, and after their return to Cornwall, Tristan 
 delivered that kingdom from the invasion of the 
 Saxons, by whom it had been brought to the verge 
 of ruin. Marc, however, behaved with signal in- 
 gratitude, for his suspicions being again awakened, 
 he threw Tristan into prison. He was freed by an 
 insurrection of the people of Cornwall, and in turn 
 shut up Marc in the same prison in which he had 
 been himself confined. Tristan took tins oppor- 
 tunity of eloping with the queen of Cornwall, to 
 the dominions of Arthur, where he resided at Joy- 
 euse Garde, the favourite castle of Lancelot, and 
 which that knight assigned the lovers as their 
 abode, till Arthur again reconciled all parties.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 265 
 
 Marc was then delivered from prison, and resto- 
 red to the enjoyment of his rebellious kingdom 
 and his fugitive spouse. 
 
 Tristan, subsequent to these events, returned 
 to Britany and to his long-neglected wife. Soon 
 after his arrival, information was brought that the 
 Count of Nantes had thrown off his allegiance to 
 Runalen, brother of the white-handed Yseult, who 
 had lately succeeded his father in the duchy of 
 Britany. Tristan defeated the rebels, but while 
 mounting a tower by a scaling ladder, he was 
 struck to the ground by a stone thrown from the 
 garrison, and severely wounded. 
 
 It was during the attendance of Yseult on Tris- 
 tan, that she first became his wife in the tenderest 
 acceptation of the term. The Count de Tressan, 
 in his extract, has represented this late fulfilment 
 of his obligations, as the primary cause of the death 
 of Tristan ; but, in reality, he recovered from his 
 wound and its consequences, and forgot Yseult of 
 Britany, and the white hands, who was now doubly 
 his own, in the arms of Yseult of Cornwall. He 
 had obtained admission to the palace of Marc in 
 the disguise of a fool, and had many secret inter- 
 views with the queen ; but, being at length disco- 
 vered, he was forced to return to Britany. 
 
 Runalen, the bxother-in-law of Tristan, was at
 
 266 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 this time engaged in an intrigue ; our hero -had 
 assisted him in forging false keys to enter the 
 castle of the knight with whose lady he was ena- 
 moured, and even consented to accompany him 
 to a rendezvous which his mistress had appointed. 
 Tristan had already retired, when the husband un- 
 expectedly returned from the chace : Runalen 
 and Tristan escaped in the first instance, but 
 were pursued and overtaken by the husband and 
 his people ; Runalen was killed, and Tristan re- 
 ceived a wound from a poisoned weapon. Of the 
 physicians who attended him, an obscure doctor 
 from Salerno* was the only one who understood 
 his case ; but the other physicians insisted on his 
 dismissal, and Tristan was soon reduced by their 
 remedies to the lowest ebb. In this situation, as 
 a last resource, he despatched a confidant to the 
 queen of Cornwall, who was so celebrated for her 
 surgical skill, to try if he could induce her to ac- 
 company him to Britany. Should his endeavours 
 prove successful, he was ordered to display, while 
 on his return, a white sail, and a black one if his 
 
 ' Tn the middle ages, a number of quack-doctors, mostly 
 Italians, were educated at the Jewish university of Salerno. 
 They commonly undertook the tour of Europe, after they 
 left college, accompanied by a punch or merryman, paying 
 their way by the fees received for their advice.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 26T 
 
 persuasions were fruitless : an idea which every, 
 one will trace to a classic and mythological ori- 
 gin. The messenger arrived in Cornwall in the 
 character of a merchant ; in this disguise he had 
 an early opportunity of seeing the queen, and 
 persuaded her, in the absence of Marc, to return 
 with him to Britany. 
 
 Meanwhile Tristan awaited the arrival of the 
 queen with such impatience, that he employed 
 one of his wife's damsels to watch at the harbour, 
 and report to him when the black or white sail 
 should appear over the wave. Yseult, who was 
 .not in the secret, demanded the reason of this per- 
 petual excubation, and was, for the first time, in- 
 formed that Tristan had sent for the queen of 
 Cornwall. It was but lately that this white-hand- 
 ed bride had learned the full value of a husband, 
 and the jealousy to which she had hitherto been a 
 stranger took possession of her soul. 
 
 Now the vessel which bore the queen of Corn- 
 wall is wafted towards the harbour by a favourable 
 breeze, all its white sails unfurled. Yseult, who. 
 was watching on the shore, flew to her husband, 
 and reported that the sails were black. Tristan, 
 penetrated with inexpressible grief, exclaimed, 
 " Haa doulce amye a Dieu vous command Ja- 
 mais ne me veerez, ne moy vous : A Dieu je vous
 
 268 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 salue. Lors bat sa coulpe, et se commande a Dieu, 
 et le cueur luy creve, et Fame s'en va." 
 
 The account of the death of Tristan was the 
 first intelligence which the queen of Cornwall 
 heard on landing. She was conducted almost 
 senseless into the chamber of Tristan, and expi- 
 red holding him in her arms ; " lors l'embrasse 
 de ses bras tant comme elle peut, et gette ung 
 souspir, et se pasme sur le corps ; et le cueur lui 
 part, et l'ame s'en va." 
 
 Tristan, before his death, had requested that his 
 body should be sent to Cornwall, and that his 
 eword, with a letter he had written, should be de- 
 livered to King Marc. The remains of Tristan 
 and Yseult were embarked in a vessel, along with 
 the sword, which was presented to the king of 
 Cornwall. He was melted with tenderness when 
 he saw the weapon which slew Morhoult of Ire- 
 land, which so often saved his life, and redeemed 
 the honour of his kingdom. In the letter Tristan 
 begged pardon of his uncle, and related the story 
 of the amorous potion. 
 
 Marc ordered the lovers to be buried in his own 
 chapel. From the tomb of Tristan there sprung 
 a plant, which went along the walls, and descended 
 into the grave of the queen. By order of Marc it 
 was cut down three times, but every morning the
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 269 
 
 obdurate vegetable sprung up more verdant than 
 before, and this miracle has ever since shaded the 
 tombs of Tristan and Yseult. 
 
 Such plants are common in the old ballads. 
 The Scotch ballad, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 
 concludes, 
 
 " Lord Thomas was buried without kirk wa*, 
 
 Fair Annet within thequiere; 
 And o' the tane thair grew a birk, 
 
 The other a bonny briere, 
 And ay they grew, and ay they threw, 
 
 As they would fain be near." Percy's Relics, 
 
 
 Similar verses, but with some verbal alterations, 
 conclude Prince Robert, published in the Min- 
 strelsy of the Border ; and we have plants pos- 
 sessed of the same powers of sympathy and vege- 
 tation in the wild romantic ballad of the Douglas 
 Tragedy. 
 
 The fabulous history of Tristan has generally 
 been considered as the most beautiful of the ro- 
 mances of the Round Table. " The character of 
 Palamedes, (says Mr Scott) the despairing ado- 
 rer of Yseult, is admirably contrasted with that of 
 Tristan, his successful rival. Nor is there a truer 
 picture of the human mind, than the struggles be- 
 tween the hatred of rivalship, and the chivalrous
 
 270 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 dictates of knightly generosity, which alternately 
 sway both the warriors. The character of Dina- 
 dan, brave and gallant, but weak in person and 
 unfortunate in his undertakings, yet supporting his 
 mischances with admirable humour, and often con- 
 triving a witty and well-managed retort on his per- 
 secutors, is imagined with considerable art. The 
 friendship of Tristan and Lancelot, and of their 
 two mistresses, with a thousand details which dis- 
 play great knowledge of human nature, render 
 Tristan interesting in the present day, in spite of 
 those eternal combats, to which, perhaps, the work 
 owed its original popularity. The character of 
 King Marc is singular and specific ; it is well 
 brought out from the canvass, and a similar one is 
 not to be met with in other romances of chivalry. 
 In the early metrical tales, he is merely represent- 
 ed as weak and uxorious. The darker shades of 
 character have been added in the prose romance, 
 to excuse the frailty of Yseult." I am not certain 
 if the idea of the amorous potion, which is Yseult's 
 great apology, and forms the ground-work of the 
 romance, be well conceived ; for, if in one respect 
 it palliates the conduct of the lovers, it diminishes 
 our admiration of their fidelity. The character of 
 the queen of Cornwall can hardly excite love or 
 compassion, as the savage atrocity of her conduct
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 271 
 
 to Brangian starts up every moment in the recol- 
 lection of the reader. The pitiful malice of the 
 white-handed Yseult, who, to serve no end, brings 
 a false report to her husband in his last moments, 
 renders her as contemptible as the heroine is hate- 
 ful, and the dishonourable manner in which Tristan 
 comes by his death, diminishes the pity we might 
 otherwise feel for his fate. 
 
 Whatever may be its beauties or defects, the 
 romance was well known, and popular in all the 
 countries of Europe ; it was repeatedly printed in 
 France in its original form, and modernized into 
 the language of that country by Jean Maugin dit 
 le petit Angevin, 1554, under the title of Le Nou- 
 veau Tristan. 
 
 A translation of Tristan was printed in Spanish, 
 at Seville, 1528 ; and a romance, somewhat differ- 
 ent in the adventures it contains, was published 
 in 1552, in Italian, entitled I-due Tristani. * 
 
 1 This romance coincides in its circumstances with a very 
 scarce Italian poem, by Nicolo Agostini, the continuator 
 of Boiardo, printed at Venice in 15i0, entitled II secondo 
 e tcrzo libro de Tristano, nel quale si tracta come re Mar- 
 co di Cornouaglia trovandolo un giorno con Isotta 1'uccise 
 a tradimento, e come la ditta Isotta vedendola morto di do- 
 lore mori sopra il suo corpn.
 
 272 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Nor has any romance of the Round Table fur- 
 nished such ample materials of imitation, to the 
 Italian novelists and poets. The story of the 
 Greyhounds, a favourite dog in the middle ages, 
 which has been successively copied by the queen 
 of Navarre and Bonaventure des Perriers, may 
 be found in Tristan. There Dinas, King Marc's 
 seneschal, pursued his wife, who had been car- 
 ried off by a knight, and had taken her husband's 
 greyhounds along with her ; the seneschal over- 
 takes the fugitives, and, trusting to the affec- 
 tion of his wife, agrees that she should be left to 
 her own choice. The lady follows the knight, 
 but the lovers instantly return and demand the 
 greyhounds, concerning which a similar agree- 
 ment is made ; but they, more faithful than the 
 lady, and deaf to the voice of a stranger, remain 
 with their old master. The same story is told in 
 the Fabliau of the Chevalier a 1'Epee : and is re- 
 lated of Gauvain in the metrical romance of Per- 
 ceval, but has not been introduced into the prose 
 one of that name. It is also in the printed Lance- 
 lot, but not in the most ancient MS. of that ro- 
 mance. 
 
 I will not say that the phrensy of Orlando has 
 been imitated from that of Tristan ; but in some
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 273 
 
 circumstances they have a striking resemblance. 
 Jealousy was the cause of both, and the paroxysms 
 are similar. Ariosto, however, though perhaps 
 through the medium of his predecessor Boiardo, is 
 indebted to this romance for the notion of the 
 . fountains of love and hatred, which occasion such 
 vicissitudes in the loves of Rinaldo and Angelica. 
 Tristan also makes a conspicuous figure in the 32d 
 canto of the Orlando Furioso, where a story is re- 
 lated concerning Tristano, which is borrowed from 
 this romance. Bradamante, overtaken by night, is 
 directed to a building which still retained the name 
 of the Tower of Tristan. In this retreat, Clodion, 
 the son of Pharamond, had confined a beauty of 
 whom he was jealous. Tristan had arrived there 
 at eve, and, being at first refused admission, had 
 procured it by force of arms. After this the usage 
 was established, that a knight should only obtain 
 entrance if he overcame those knights who had 
 found reception before his arrival, and the lady, 
 if she surpassed in charms the females by whom 
 the castle was already occupied. From the ro- 
 mance of Tristan, Ariosto has also borrowed the 
 story of the enchanted horn, by which the husband 
 discovers the infidelity of his wife, by his oxvti way 
 of drinking, and which is said to have been origi- 
 VOL. i. 1
 
 274 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 nally given by Morgana to convince Arthur of the 
 infidelity of Geneura : 
 
 Qual gia per fare accorto il suo fratello 
 
 Del fallo di Gineura fe Morgana ; 
 
 Cbi la Moglie ha pudica bee cod quello, 
 
 Ma non vi puo gia ber cbi 1' ha puttana, 
 
 Che 1' vin quando lo crede in bocca porre 
 
 Tutto si sparge, e fuor nel petto scorre. (C. 43.) 
 
 In Tristan, however, the discovery is made by 
 the Culprit's mode of drinking. In that romance, 
 during one of King Marc's fits of jealously, a knight, 
 who was an enemy of Tristan, brings a lady to 
 court who possesses an enchanted horn, which was 
 so framed that those wives, who had been unfaith- 
 ful to their husbands, spilled the liquor with which 
 it was filled, in attempting to drink from it. They 
 all perform so awkwardly, that Marc, in the first 
 heat of his resentment, orders a bon-fire to be pre- 
 pared for the general reception of the ladies of the 
 court. This horn is also introduced in Perceval, but 
 there the experiment is also tried on the knights. 
 A similar trial is made on the ladies at the court of 
 Arthur in the English Morte Arthur. The fiction, 
 however, may be traced higher than the romance 
 of Tristan. Le Grand thinks that it has been 
 imitated from the Short Mantle in one of the Fa-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 275 
 
 bliaux he has published, which was too short or 
 too long for those ladies who had been false to 
 their husbands or lovers. This story was origi- 
 nally called in the Fabliaux, Le Court Mantel, 
 but was translated into prose in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, under the name of Le Manteau mal taille. 
 There is, however, a Breton lay, entitled Lai du 
 Corn, which bears a nearer resemblance to the 
 story in Tristan. A magical horn is brought by 
 a boy during a sumptuous feast given by Arthur, 
 which, in a similar mode, disclosed the same se- 
 crets as that in Tristan. The stories of the Man- 
 tle and the Horn have been united in an English 
 ballad of the reign of Henry VI., published by 
 Percy, entitled The Boy and the Mantle, where 
 the cup is the test of a dishonoured husband, and 
 the mantle of a faithless woman. Some mode 
 of trial on this point is common in subsequent ro- 
 mances and poems. In Perceforest it is a rose ; 
 in Amadis de Gaul a garland of flowers, which 
 blooms on the head of her that is faithful, and 
 fades on the brow of the inconstant. The reader 
 of Spenser is well acquainted with the girdle of 
 Florimel. B. 4-. 1. 5. s. 3. 
 
 Some experiment for ascertaining the fidelity of 
 women in defect of evidence, seems, in reality, to 
 have been resorted to from the earliest ages. By
 
 276 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the Levitical law, (Numbers, c. v. 11 31,) there 
 was prescribed a proof of chastity, which consisted 
 in the suspected person drinking water in the ta- 
 bernacle. The mythological fable of the trial by the 
 Stygian fountain, which disgraced the guilty by 
 the waters rising so as to cover the laurel wreath 
 of the unchaste female who dared the examina- 
 tion, probably had its origin in some of the early 
 institutions of Greece or Egypt. Hence the no- 
 tion was adopted in the Greek romances, the he- 
 roines of which, we have seen, were invariably 
 subjected to a magical test of this nature, which 
 is one of the few particulars wherein any simila- 
 rity of incident can be traced between the Greek 
 novels and the romances of chivalry : the Grecian 
 heroines, however, underwent the experiment in a 
 cave, or some retirement, though they might have 
 exhibited with credit openly, while the ladies of 
 chivalry are always exposed in public in a full 
 court or crowded assembly ; the former, too, are 
 only subjected to a trial of virginity, the latter 
 more frequently to some proof of conjugal fidelity. 
 We have been long detained with Tristan and 
 Yseult ; it is now time that we proceed to the ro- 
 mance of
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 277 
 
 YSAIE LE TRISTE, 1 
 
 in which is related the history of their son, who 
 was the fruit of the interviews procured for these 
 lovers by the accommodating Dinas. 
 
 When Tristan departed for the court of Arthur, 
 the queen was obliged to ask permission to make a 
 distant pilgrimage. The necessity of this request 
 conveys a most cruel, and, if we believe other 
 romances, a most unfounded insinuation against 
 King Marc. Yseult had proceeded no farther in 
 her journey than the skirts of the forest of Mou- 
 ris, when she gave birth to a son. She sent for a 
 hermit who resided in the vicinity, but who, spite 
 of the urgency of the occasion, refused to baptize 
 the child till the mother had revealed her foibles, 
 and thus paid the tribute which in those days con- 
 science owed to religion. He then baptized the 
 infant by submersion in a neighbouring fountain, 
 and called him Ysaie le Triste ; an appellation 
 
 1 Le Roman du vaillant Chevalier Ysaie le Triste, fils de 
 Tristan de Leonnoys Chevalier de la Table Ronde, et de la 
 princesse Yseult Royne de Cornouaille; avec les nobles 
 prouesses de Marc 1' Lxille fils du dit Ysaie, reduit du vieil 
 language Francois.
 
 278 nOMANCES OF chivalry. 
 
 compounded of the names of his parents. After 
 this the queen returned to her husband, and the 
 recluse carried the little Ysaie along with him to 
 his hermitage. 
 
 One clear moonlight evening when the hermit 
 had retired to his devotions, and was kneeling be- 
 fore the altar, his attention was distracted by the 
 sound of delightful and unearthly music, which he 
 heard at a distance in the forest, and which gra- 
 dually approached his solitary dwelling. Looking 
 through a window which opened from this oratory 
 into his cell, he perceived a group of fairies, who 
 made free to light a comfortable fire, and, having 
 warmed themselves and washed the child, depart- 
 ed to the same tune to which they had entered. 
 
 At this visit the hermit felt considerable inquie- 
 tude, for the fairies were not Christians ; but the 
 benevolence with which they had treated the 
 child, and their liberality in leaving a plentiful 
 supply of provisions, induced him to consider them 
 as such. Some nights after, his new guests re- 
 turned, and introduced themselves in due form ; 
 one as the Vigorous Fairy, another as the Cou- 
 rageous Fairy, &c. They announced that they 
 frequently resorted to the bush which confined 
 the magician Merlin, with whom they had lately 
 enjoyed a full conversation on the merits of differ-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALitY. 279 
 
 ent knights, and other important affairs of chival- 
 ry. In particular, Merlin had mentioned the death 
 of Tristan, and recommended his child to their 
 best attentions : accordingly they now endued 
 Ysaie with the gifts which each had the power of 
 bestowing, one giving him strength, another cou- 
 rage, and so forth. They also directed the her- 
 mit to proceed with his ward, as soon as he pass- 
 ed the period of infancy, through the Green Fo- 
 rest; and then, on hearing the cock crow, they 
 suddenly vanished. 
 
 After some years had elapsed, the hermit set 
 out with Ysaie, according to the route which had 
 been prescribed to him by the fairies. Having 
 passed through the Green Forest, they came .to a 
 plain, in the midst of which stood a fountain, and 
 from the middle of the fountain grew a tree, which 
 shaded it with spreading branches. Around sat 
 the protecting fairies, who now bestowed on Ysaie, 
 as an attendant, an ill-favoured dwarf, called Tronc, 
 whose personal deformity was compensated by the 
 quickness of his understanding. 
 
 Having left the fairies, chance conducted our 
 adventurers to the tomb of the enchanter Merlin, 
 whence deep groans were heard to issue : Tronc 
 interrogated the voice of the magician, which in- 
 formed them of the overthrow of Arthur with his.
 
 280 HOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 chivalry, and directed his audience to proceed to 
 the hermitage of Lancelot du Lac, who having 
 alone survived the fatal battle with Mordrec, was 
 now the only person worthy to invest Ysaie with 
 the order of knighthood, and to bestow a new 
 Tristan on the world. In obedience to the ex- 
 hortation of Merlin, they proceeded to the retreat 
 of Lancelot ; but found on their arrival that it 
 was no longer inhabited, as the knight had met 
 in repose the death which had so often spared him 
 in battle. By advice of the dwarf Tronc, they re- 
 paired to the tomb of Lancelot, where a mauso- 
 leum of noble simplicity rose in view. The mar- 
 ble which covered the body of the warrior was 
 raised, and the hermit dubbed Ysaie a knight 
 with the right arm of the skeleton, accompany- 
 ing this ghastly inauguration with a harangue, 
 which seems to form a compendium of the du- 
 ties of knighthood : " Chevalier, soies cruel a 
 tes ennemys, debonnaire a tes amys, humble a 
 non puissans, et aidez toujours le droit a souste- 
 nir, et confons celluy qui tort a Vefves dames 
 poures pucelles et orphelins ; et poures gens ay- 
 mes toujours a ton pouoir, et avec ce aime tou- 
 jours Saincte Eglise." 
 
 Ysaie returned to the hermitage, but the re- 
 cluse having died after a time, he set out in quest
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 281 
 
 of adventures, in all which the stratagems and in- 
 genuity of Tronc were of great service to his mas- 
 ter. The state of the country at this period gave 
 ample scope for chivalrous exploits. After the 
 death of Arthur, a number of petty sovereignties 
 had been erected, and were maintained by cruelty 
 and oppression. Ysaie, however, abolished the 
 evil customs which had been established at differ- 
 ent castles, and in their place substituted others 
 more consonant to the genuine spirit of chivalry. 
 By these means the fame of Ysaie reached the 
 court of King Irion. It is not said where this 
 monarch reigned, but he had a beautiful niece, 
 called Martha. This princess had a strong pre- 
 possession in favour of knights, as her nurse had 
 persuaded her that the bravest heroes were the 
 most tender lovers. She resolved to be beloved 
 by Ysaie, and immediately wrote to him on the 
 subject. Our hero returned a favourable answer, 
 but his speed not keeping pace with her wishes, she 
 prevailed on her uncle to proclaim a tournament, 
 in the hope that he would repair to the exhibi- 
 tion. On the eve of its celebration, while Irion 
 was dining in his hall with four hundred knights 
 and an equal number of ladies, and while the se- 
 cond course (second metz) was serving, the plea- 
 sure of the repast was suddenly interrupted by the
 
 282 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 arrival of Tronc, whom his master had sent on 
 before, and who entered, to the utter amazement 
 and consternation of the assembly, Car trop estoit 
 hideux a merveilles. Having discovered Martha 
 seated between two knights, who were clothed in 
 black and purple, he delivered her a letter from 
 Ysaie announcing his speedy approach. 
 
 Ysaie arrived during supper at the palace of the 
 king, where he knocked out the brains of the por- 
 ter who refused him admittance. On ascending 
 the stairs he discovered Martha, by whom he was 
 received as he had reason to expect. Their inter- 
 view was interrupted by the approach of the king ; 
 but the host, with whom Ysaie had taken up his 
 quarters, came soon after to inform the princess 
 that her knight had proceeded no farther than the 
 first house in the suburbs. In consequence of this 
 intimation she repaired in the evening to the ren- 
 dezvous, where she gave her lover the most de? 
 cisive proofs of her benevolence. 
 
 On the following day Ysaie, who was arrayed 
 in white armour, distinguished himself at the tour- 
 naments ; but during the entertainment by which 
 they were succeeded, a defiance was brought from 
 the giant, styling himself Lord of the Black Fo- 
 rest, addressed to Ysaie in his character of re- 
 former of abuses, and declaring that he the giant
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 283 
 
 meant to persevere in the practice which he had 
 hitherto observed, of delivering all ladies whom 
 he caught within his jurisdiction to his grooms 
 (varlets de chevaulx), and afterwards throwing 
 them into the ditch surrounding his castle, which, 
 as the romancer very justly remarks, " Estoit la 
 plus laide coustume du monde." 
 
 Our hero proceeded to destroy this monster, 
 and on the road conversed with ^Tronc on his late 
 happiness ; who, it would appear, had little cause 
 to rejoice at the amorous success of his master : 
 " Ja en suis Je," says he, " moulu et dechire. Les 
 Fees, vos amies et protectrices, m' ont fait chiere- 
 ment payer vos plaisirs ; ores dansiez vous aux 
 nopces et payois Je les violons ; et disoient elles 
 que en ma chair devois Je resentir le tort que 
 avoit la votre." 
 
 While Ysaie was engaged in discomfiting the 
 giant, and in making converts by force of arms to 
 the true faith, the Princess Martha had felt the 
 consequences of a frank letter and an imprudent 
 rendezvous. King Irion pardoned her transgres- 
 sion, and indeed swore " Par Saincte croix si c'est 
 du chevalier au blanc escu Je ne fus oncques si 
 joyeulx." But, however much gratified by hear- 
 ing that it was the white-shielded knight, he could 
 not help expressing his astonishment that Ysaie,
 
 284 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 having passed only twenty -four hours in his terri- 
 tories, should have employed them in knocking 
 down his porter and seducing his niece. 
 
 Martha having given birth to a 6on, who was 
 called Marc, adopted, though somewhat late, *he 
 intention of uniting herself in marriage to Ysaie. 
 With this view she set out in quest of him, dis- 
 guised as a minstrel, and wandered from tower to 
 tower singing lays expressive of her pain and her 
 passion : " Lors tire la harpe et la trempe, et 
 puis commence a harper si melodieusement que 
 c' estoit merveilles a ouyr. Et puis chantoit avec 
 ce tant bien que le palays en retentissoit." On 
 one occasion she poured forth her melody at the 
 gates of the castle of Argus, where Ysaie happen- 
 ed at that time to reside. Unfortunately she was 
 recognised by Tronc, who, still mindful of the 
 chastisement of the fairies, informed her, after 
 having disguised himself, that Ysaie had gone to 
 the next town, and that she would easily overtake 
 him. 
 
 While Martha thus wastes her steps and her 
 music, her son Marc passed the period of infancy : 
 " Et bien saichez que c'estoit le pyre de son aage 
 que oncques fust veu. Si vous diray en quelle 
 maniere ; de prime face quant le Roy mengeoit il 
 venoit a la table et espandoit le vin et tiroit la
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 285 
 
 nappe et les hanaps a luy et boutoit tout a terre : 
 Et puis venoit en la cuisine et respandoit les pots. 
 Aux petis enfans faisait il tant de hont que c'estoit 
 merveilles. Le roy avoit avec luy ung sien nepveu 
 fils de son frere : une heure regardoit en la court 
 dedans ung puis ; Marc le leva par les piez et le 
 bouta dedans, et fut noye. Quant le Roy Irion le 
 sceut si en fust moult courrouce." It was no 
 wonder then that the knight, " qui Tendoctrinoit," 
 complained to the king, " que c'est la plus cruelle 
 piece de chair qui oncques nasquit de mere. Et 
 vous ditz, que se tantost ne fais oye ce que il dist 
 il meteroit hors par les fenestres de la tour : Et 
 sachez que au jour de l'escremie il a tue vostre 
 Boutillier et ung des maistres d' hostel. Mon 
 Dieu, fait.le Roy Irion, J'estoye tout esbahy que 
 Je ne les veoye plus aller he venir." The king on 
 receiving this account sends for his nephew, and 
 instead of reprimanding him, " Beau nepveu, fait 
 le roy, Je suis desormais ancien homme et tout 
 maladif, et vous etes fort, et puissant et saige ; se 
 vous voulez, si voul drove que par le conseil des 
 saigesque gouvernissiez mon royaume en contester 
 contre tous ceux qui mal vouldroyent faire." 
 
 The first exercise of power on the part of this 
 wise young prince was to proclaim a tournament, 
 duringwhich he displayed more courage than cour- 
 10
 
 286 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 tesy. The knights and courtiers of King Irion, 
 being jealous of the authority of a prince whose 
 recommendation to sovereign power seems to have 
 consisted in his dexterity in throwing children into 
 wells, and beating out the brains of butlers, en- 
 tered into a conspiracy against him, of which the 
 plot is so singular, and so similar to the stories of 
 haunted apartments in modern romance, that I 
 have thought it deserving of a place in the Ap- 
 pendix. 1 
 
 After Marc had triumphed over all the machi- 
 nations of his enemies, intelligence arrived that 
 the Amiral of Persia had just landed in Britain, 
 accompanied by his nephew, the king of Nubia, 
 surnamed the Red Lion ; as also by the kings of 
 Castille, Seville, and Arragon, who had all sworn 
 by Mahomet and Tervagant that they would not 
 return to their own country till they had extirpa- 
 ted Christianity. 
 
 It would appear that the Saracen commander 
 had divided his army into two portions. A few 
 troops proceeded against the capital of Irion, but 
 the main body, under the orders of the amiral in 
 person, remained near the coast on which they had 
 disembarked. Marc advanced against the latter di- 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 13.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 287 
 
 vision, which, with the assistance of a few peasants, 
 he totally defeated. After the engagement he 
 found the beautiful Orimonda, daughter of the 
 amiral, reposing in the pavilion of her father. 
 He conducts this princess as a trophy to his 
 tent, sups with her, baptizes her, and promises to 
 espouse her on his return to the court of King 
 Irion, but meanwhile prevails on her to invert the 
 usual ceremonies which constitute a legal mar- 
 riage : 
 
 II n'est rien de si doux pour descoeurs pleins de gloire, 
 Que la paisible nuit qui suit une victoire ; 
 Dormir sur un trophee est un charmant repos, 
 Et le champ de bataille est le lict d'un heros. 
 
 Alaric. 
 
 Next morning the son of Ysaie set out in pur- 
 suit of the remaining Saracen army, but his father 
 had been beforehand with him. Ysaie had pro- 
 ceeded with great rapidity in the work of conver- 
 sion ; but as he had nearly extirpated the native 
 infidels, he was much delighted with this fresh 
 supply, which he had accordingly attacked and 
 defeated under the walls of the capital of King 
 Irion. The father and son, equally victorious, 
 met and recognised each other on the field of 
 battle, where Orimonda was presented by Marc to
 
 288 ROMANCES OF CHIVALKY. 
 
 liis father. A moment of yet greater transport 
 was reserved. Tronc being now associated to 
 Marc in the adventures he undertook, it was 
 partly by his means that Martha was delivered 
 from traitors, who were leading her to death, and 
 finally restored to the arms of Ysaie. 
 
 The posterity of Tristan were thus happy and 
 united. The nuptials of the father and son were 
 celebrated, and the son was knighted by the fa- 
 ther. During the festival that ensued, the pro- 
 tecting fairies again appeared. To the faithful 
 Tronc a recompence was still wanting. They in- 
 formed him that he had the good fortune to belong 
 to their family, being the son of Julius Caesar by 
 their eldest sister the Fairy Morgana. Strange 
 events, which are written in the Chronicles of 
 Fairies, had forced him to endure a long and se- 
 vere penance. His aunts the fairies, in order to 
 enable him to pass the time more agreeably, had 
 transformed him into a hideous dwarf, and linked 
 him to the fate of their protege. But the period 
 of disgrace was at length expired. The fairies 
 cleansed him from his deformities, and he now 
 appeared the handsomest prince in the world, as 
 he had formerly been the roost witty and inge- 
 nious. The smallness of his stature, which did not 
 exceed three feet, was the only imperfection that
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 289 
 
 remained. His aunts bestowed on him a kingdom, 
 and in this new form and dignity he was known 
 by the title of Aubron, under which denomination 
 he performed many wonders, related in the beau- 
 tiful romance of Huon of Bourdeaux. Before de- 
 parting for the Vergier des Fees, where he was 
 about to establish his empire, he left with Ysaie 
 a magic horn, which is the origin of that in 
 Huon : " Or quant Tronc fut baptize se dist a 
 Ysaie tenez ce cor sur vous et le portez ; si vous 
 avez besoing vous ou Marc si le sonnez, mais 
 gardez vous bien que point ne le sonnez si ce 
 n'est pour grant besoing, et Je vous viendray aider 
 et secourir." 
 
 The romance of Ysaie derives its chief excel- 
 lence from the singular character of Tronc his 
 attachment, wit, and endless resources. His fide- 
 lity is the same to Ysaie and Marc, whose be- 
 haviour to him is singularly contrasted; by the 
 former, who is a more polished warrior, he is inva- 
 riably treated with tenderness and respect ; while 
 he is often driven from the presence of his impe- 
 tuous son, and reminded that he is " trop defigure, 
 trop hideux a veoir, et plus laide creature du 
 monde." 
 
 Ysaie le Triste has also received much novelty 
 from Tronc's relatives the fairies, as it is the first 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 '290. .ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY^ 
 
 tale of chivalry in which they are introduced act- 
 ing a decided part. This new species of machi- 
 nery has given rise to gorgeous descriptions, and 
 pictures of magnificence, hitherto unknown. The 
 representation of the Vcrgier des Fees, which 
 Tronc and Ysaie visit in the course of their ad- 
 ventures, is perhaps the richest and most splendid 
 in romance. " Et ainsi qu'ils parloient voyt Marc 
 une grande valee, et au fons du val avoit taut 
 d'arbres que merveilles ; et y chantoient oyseaulx 
 tant doulcement que e'estoit plaisance a ouyr. Et 
 Marc s'arresta ung petit, si entend chanssons de 
 damoyselles chantans tant doulcement que tout es- 
 bahy en estoit, car oncques tels choses ouy n'avoit; 
 et avec ce s'accordoient divers instrumens de mu- 
 sic tant et si melodieusement que tous cueurs 
 sen pouoient esjouyr . . . Mais ne veirenet ne 
 dames, ne damoyselles, ne creature nulle ; et y 
 avoit ung si beau pre que e'estoit soulas a veoir, 
 car toutes manieres de bonnes fleurs et herbes 
 aromtiques y estoient, et si y fleuroit tant souef 
 que tous cueurs y debvoient prendre plaisance. 
 Si chevaucha ung petit avant, et trouva ung moult 
 beau verger enclos et advironne d'ung petit mur 
 tout de diverses manieres de pierres precieuses, et 
 tout entour y avoit une vigne qui estoit toute d'or 
 et y avoit grapes toutes d'esmeraudes ; et en ce
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 291 
 
 verger avoit une table mise, et estoient les tre- 
 teailx de jayet, et la table de jaspe, et la nappe de 
 blanche soye si subtillement ouvree que c'estoit 
 rnerveilles a veoir : Et assez pres de la table avoit 
 ung beau dressouer qui estoit tout charge de pi- 
 erres precieuses et de grant pi inte de joyaulx 
 precieux ; au pres avoit une petite fontaine plate 
 qui estoit d'une topase, et y venoit l'eaue par ung 
 couloir de rubis qui estoit si cler que autre eaue 
 ne si pouoit comparer ; et yssoit l'eaue de la fon- 
 taine quant elle estoit plaine par ung conduit qui 
 estoit de crystal, et entroit en terre tant subtille- 
 ment que on ne le pouoit appercevoir : Et a 1' au- 
 tre coste du verger avoit ung lyt dont la chalit 
 estoit d' yvoire entaille en grans ymages eslevez 
 moult subtillement ; et la estoit contenue If hys- 
 toire de Lancelot et de la Dame du lac, et estoit 
 couvert d' ung grant drap de diverses couleurs 
 moult subtillement entrelace, et y avoit tant d' 
 hystoires que les yeulx en estoient tous eblouis." 
 c. 80. 
 
 It is the introduction of fairies, and the fre- 
 quently recurring descriptions of those splendid 
 wonders they produce, or by which they are at- 
 tended, that induce me to place the composition 
 of this romance in the end of the fourteenth or 
 beginning of the fifteenth century, which is a
 
 292 ROMANCES or CHIVALRY. 
 
 century and a half later than the date of Tristan. 
 In that work, in Lancelot du Lac, and other ro- 
 mances of the Round Table, there are no doubt 
 fairies, but they are of a different species from the 
 protectresses of Ysaie. They are merely women, 
 as Morgain or Vivian, instructed in magic. They 
 indeed have all hell at their command, can per- 
 form the greatest miracles, and occasion to any one 
 the severest misfortunes. All this, however, is ac- 
 complished by intermediate agency, and they are 
 only formidable by the intervention of demons, 
 with whom they have formed advantageous con- 
 nections : but the second class of fairies, as those 
 in the romance of Ysaie, were self-supported be- 
 ings they were a species of nymph or divinity, 
 and possessed a power inherent in themselves. 
 Nor were these creatures merely the offspring of 
 the imagination of romancers, but were believed 
 to exist in the age in which they wrote. At a 
 period much later than the composition of Ysaie, 
 the first question asked at the Maid of Orleans, in 
 the process carried on against her, was, if she had 
 any familiarity with those who resorted to the Sa- 
 bat of the fairies, or if she had ever attended the 
 assemblies of the fairies held at the fountain near 
 Domprein, round which the evil spirits danced ; 
 and the Journal of Paris, in the reigns of Charles
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 293 
 
 VI. and VII. states, that she acknowledged that, 
 in spite of her father and mother, she had fre- 
 quented the beautiful fountain of the fairies in 
 Lorraine, which she named the good fountain of 
 the fairies of our Lord. 
 
 There are other circumstances, besides the ma- 
 chinery of fairies, which may lead us to assign a 
 late period to the composition of Ysaie ; as, for 
 instance, the introduction of Saracens, instead 
 of Saxons, as enemies of the heroes of the ro- 
 mance. The French is also evidently more mo- 
 dern, being much less difficult, but also less ener- 
 getic, than the language of Tristan or Lancelot. 
 It is true, that the romance, as now extant, is 
 said in the title to be " redige et reforme en 
 commun langaige vulgaire." The pretended Re- 
 dacteur professes to have adhered to the story 
 " selon 1' intention du premier hystoriographe ;" 
 but he declares that " 1' original estoit en si es- 
 trange et maulvais langaige mis et couche que a 
 grant peine en ay peu entendre le sens et elucider 
 la forme de la matiere." All this, however, was 
 probably asserted in order to give the stamp of 
 authority, and I have little doubt that the lan- 
 guage and story of this romance are of the same 
 antiquity. " The romance of Ysaie," say the au- 
 thors of the Bibliotheque des Romans, " is as infe-
 
 294 HOMAKCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 rior to those by which it was preceded, in cliaruc- 
 ters, sentiments, and incidents, as in language ; 
 yet the history of Ysaie offers many interesting 
 situations, and presents many coups de theatre : 
 but what renders it chiefly valuable is, that it 
 makes us acquainted with the difference of man- 
 ners which prevailed in the beginning of the 12th 
 and end of the Hth century. The world, which 
 is so readily accused of growing worse, had no 
 doubt wonderfully degenerated in point of chi- 
 valry, at least during these three centuries. At 
 the conclusion of that period, too, the deepest 
 shades of ignorance had gathered, and mankind 
 were strangers to all delicacy of sentiment. The 
 knights, indeed, still fought with courage, and 
 hence the writers of romance continued to de- 
 scribe the most terrible combats. Principles of 
 honour yet existed in the heart of the Chevalier, 
 but they were concealed under a rude exterior. 
 Devotion was fervent and sincere, but it was ill 
 understood and worse directed. All this will be 
 remarked in the history of Ysaie." 
 
 This romance is also one of the scarcest of the 
 class to which it belongs, which is strong evidence 
 of its fancied inferiority. As far as I know, it is 
 one of the few romances which never appeared in a 
 metrical form. There is no MS. of it extant, ami
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 295 
 
 there have been but two editions, one printed at 
 Paris, 1522, small folio, Gaily ot du Pre, and the 
 other 4to, without date, by Filippe le Noire. 
 The romance of 
 
 ARTHUR* 
 
 contains little more than the events of which we 
 have already given an account in the preceding 
 fobulous stories of the knights of the Round Ta- 
 ble. The incidents, however, are better arranged, 
 and presented in one view. It comprehends the 
 history of the Round Table, of which Arthur was 
 the founder, or at least the restorer, and gives an 
 account of that monarch from his birth to the pe- 
 riod of his tragical death. 
 
 The authors of the Bibliotheque inform us, 
 with most absurd credulity, that this romance was 
 written by one of the Sire Clerks or annalists of 
 the Round Table : they even fix on the name of 
 the author of Artus, and assert that it was Arro- 
 dian de Cologne, who, they say, retired with Lan- 
 celot du Lac into his hermitage after the defeat 
 
 1 l,e Roman du Roy \rtus et des compagnons de la Tabic 
 Ttonde, &c.
 
 ^96 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of Arthur. They argue, that it is impossible to 
 assign an earlier origin to the romance, as it gives 
 an account ot the catastrophe of almost all the 
 knights of the Round Table. " Selon toute ap- 
 parence, ces chroniqueurs sont les Sires Clercs, 
 ou officiers historiens et annalistes de cette pre- 
 miere chevalerie du monde. Nous savons meme 
 leurs noms, et /' on peut conjecturer, que c' est ici 
 1' ouvrage du premier d' entre eux, nomme Arro- 
 dian de Cologne. On croit qu' il se retira avec 
 Lancelot du Lac, dans un meme hermitage, apres 
 la terrible defaite ou perirent le Roy Artus, et la 
 plus grande partie de ses chevaliers. La preuve 
 que cette chronique ne fut terminee qu' aprea 
 cette catastrophe c' est qu' on y voit la fin de 
 presque tous ces heros." 
 
 In the body of the work itself, it is said to have 
 been written by the equivocal Gualtier Map; it 
 was printed at Paris, 1488, folio, by Jehan de Pre. 
 
 After a narrative of the events connected with 
 the birth and succession of Arthur to the king- 
 dom, which have been formerly related in the 
 Book of Merlin, the romance informs us that he 
 drove the Saxons out of his dominions, by which 
 means he secured the public peace ; but he still 
 continued to receive much disquiet from his own 
 family. His four nephews, especially Gauvain,
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 297 
 
 on pretence of the illegitimacy of their uncle, re- 
 fused to acknowledge him as king. He defeated 
 them in the field by his own skill and the sagacity 
 of Merlin, and afterwards so far conciliated their 
 favour by his bravery and good conduct, that they 
 became the most faithful of his vassals. 
 
 Arthur then set out with his knights to the as- 
 sistance of Laodogant, King of Carmelide in Scot- 
 land. This prince had been attacked by King 
 Ryon, a man of a disposition so malevolent that 
 he had formed to himself a project of possessing a 
 mantle furred with the beards of those kings he 
 should conquer. He had calculated with the 
 grand-master of his wardrobe that a full royal 
 cloak would require forty beards : he had already 
 vanquished five kings, and reckoned on a sixth 
 beard from the chin of Laodogant. Arthur and 
 his knights totally deranged this calculation by 
 defeating King Ryon. Laodogant, in return for 
 the assistance he had received, offered his daugh- 
 ter, the celebrated Geneura, in marriage to Ar- 
 thur. Merlin, however, who does not appear to 
 have been a flattering courtier, and who does not 
 seem to have attached to the conservation of La- 
 odogant's beard the importance that it merited, 
 declared that his master must first deserve the 
 princess. In obedience to his oracle the enchant-
 
 298 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 ter, Arthur, in order to qualify himself for the 
 nuptials, made an expedition to Britany, where 
 he defeated Claudas, king of Berri, who had un- 
 provokedly attacked a vassal of the British mo- 
 narch. 
 
 After this exploit, Arthur returned to the court 
 of Laodogant, where preparations were now made 
 for his union with Geneura. This princess is de- 
 scribed as the finest woman in the universe her 
 stature was noble and elegant her complexion 
 fair, and her eyes the finest blue of the heavens : 
 the expression of her countenance was lively yet 
 dignified, but sometimes tender her understand- 
 ing, naturally just, was well cultivated her heart 
 was feeling, compassionate, and capable of the 
 most exalted sentiments. 
 
 On the second day of the tournaments (for with- 
 out these no great festival was exhibited,) an un- 
 known knight, of a ferocious aspect, came to defy 
 the combatants. He entered the lists, but was 
 speedily unhorsed by Arthur, and afterwards slain 
 by him in mortal combat (combat a outrance.) This 
 knight was, after his death, discovered to be King 
 Ryon, by the mantle which he carried under his 
 cuirass, half furnished with the spoils of vanquish- 
 ed monarchs. 
 
 Arthur, after his return to England with his
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 299 
 
 bride, re-established the Round Table, which was 
 transported from Scotland, for King Laodogant 
 had it in deposit since the death of Uter, the fa- 
 ther of Arthur. Merlin dictated the laws and re- 
 gulations of this renowned association. The kings 
 of Scotland and Norway, the princes of Armorica 
 and Gaul, disdained not to pay a species of tribute 
 to the English monarch, in order to be admitted 
 into this celebrated society. The glory of the in- 
 stitution was completed by Pharamond, the king 
 of the Franks, and conqueror of Gaul, arriving in- 
 cognito in Britain to obtain, by his prowess and 
 exploits, a seat at this renowned board. 
 
 The knights of the Round Table had no exte- 
 rior and characteristic mark of their order, but 
 each had a peculiar device and motto of his own. 
 Thus Arthur carried for his arms thirteen golden 
 crowns, with the motto Moult de couronnes plus 
 de vertus. 
 
 Lancelot du Lac had six bends of or and azure 
 Haut en naissance en vaillance en amour. 
 
 His brother Hector of Mares a golden star. 
 Pour etre heureux un bel astre suffit. 
 
 King Pharamond bore the Fleur de Lis Que 
 de beaux fruits de ces fleurs doivent naitre. 
 
 After the institution of the Round Table, Ar- 
 thur conceived the design of obtaining possession
 
 300 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of the Sangreal ; but this precious relic, according 
 to the oracles, could only be acquired by a knight 
 who had a very rare qualification, and Perceval, it 
 seems, was the only one whose purity of morals 
 fitted him for this enterprise. 
 
 The story of the false Geneura, the credulity of 
 Arthur, and the final triumph of the queen, which 
 has been mentioned in the account of Lancelot, 
 is fully related in the romance of Arthur. 
 
 After Geneura was reinstated in the affections 
 of her husband, the glory and domestic felicity of 
 Arthur seem to have been at their height, but the 
 period of the destruction of the first chivalry in 
 the world was now fast approaching. Mordret, 
 the son of Arthur, by the Queen of Orkney, dis- 
 puted the right of succession with the nephews of 
 that monarch. Arthur sustained the claims of his 
 nephew Gauvain against this unworthy and ille- 
 gitimate son, and Mordret assembled under his 
 banners all those who had solicited and had been 
 refused admittance to the Round Table. Some of 
 the knights of Arthur were still engaged with Per- 
 ceval in the conquest of the Sangreal ; the rest de- 
 fended themselves with unexampled valour, but 
 Arthur and his chivalry were finally overthrown. 
 The Saracens, who supported Mordret, reached 
 the division commanded by the king. Arthur was
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 301 
 
 overpowered by numbers and mortally wounded ; 
 his faithful squire, Goifled, who saw him expire, 
 carried off his famous sword Escalibor, and threw 
 it into a lake. Lancelot, who in the romance of 
 his own name, does not arrive in England till af- 
 ter this battle, had meanwhile attacked the batta- 
 lion which Mordret commanded, put it to flight, 
 and pursued its leader to the sea-shore. There 
 he overtook him, and plunged his sword into 
 his bosom. Lancelot having routed his whole 
 host, returned exulting to the tents of Arthur, 
 where he learned the fate of his sovereign. Af- 
 ter these events the beautiful Geneura retired 
 to a convent, and Lancelot closed his life in a 
 hermitage. 
 
 It appears strange at first sight, that Arthur 
 and his knights should be represented in romance, 
 as falling in battle, as well as Charlemagne with 
 all his peerage, at a time when success in war was 
 thought necessary to complete the character of a 
 warrior. But the same fate has been attributed 
 to all the fabulous chiefs of half-civilized nations, 
 who have invariably represented their favourite 
 leaders as destroyed by a concealed and treacher- 
 ous enemy. Achilles, at least according to the 
 fables of the middle age, was thus slain by Paris ; 
 and Rustan, the great Persian hero, fell a victim
 
 302 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 to the snares of Bahaman, the son of his mortal. 
 foe Isfendar. This has probably arisen from poets 
 and romancers wishing to spare their heroes the 
 suspicion of having died in bed by the languor of 
 disease, to which any violent death is preferred by 
 barbarous nations. " He'll be strapped up on the 
 kind gallows of Crieff, where his father died, and 
 his goodsire died, and where I hope he'll live to 
 die himself, if he's not shot or slashed in a creagh." 
 " You hope such a death for your friend, Evan ?" 
 " And that do I e'en ; would you have me wish 
 him to die in yon den of his, like a mangy tyke ?" 
 ( JVaverley.) 
 
 But though Arthur was universally believed to 
 have been discomfited, and was by some supposed 
 to have perished in the battle with Mordret ; the 
 expectation of his return to restore the Round 
 Table, and to rule over Britain, was long and 
 fondly cherished in Wales. Alanus de Insulis, 
 who was born in 1 109, says, that if any one were 
 heard in Bretagne to deny that Arthur was yet 
 alive, he would be stoned. This tradition formed 
 a favourite subject of the legends of the bards ; 
 and on his imaginary tomb there was inscribed, 
 
 Hie jacet Aithurus rex quondam rexque futurus. 
 The belief in Arthur's return probably originated
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 303 
 
 with the stories in the romance of Lancelot, and 
 other tales of chivalry, concerning his disappear- 
 ance with his sister Morgana, after the battle ; 
 some of which bear a striking resemblance to what 
 Homer tells us of Sarpedon, that Apollo washed 
 his wounds in a stream, anointed them with am- 
 brosia, and having clothed him in ambrosial gar- 
 ments, delivered him to the care of Sleep, to be 
 conveyed to Lycia. But though no doubt was 
 entertained as to the re-appearance of Arthur, 
 very different notions prevailed with regard to his 
 state of intermediate being. According to some 
 traditions, he drove through the air in a chariot 
 with prodigious noise and velocity ; while, ac- 
 cording to others, he had assumed the shape of a 
 raven, a bird which it became a capital crime in 
 Wales to destroy. It was more generally fabled 
 that he remained in subterraneous existence, a 
 superstition alluded to by Milton : 
 
 Arthur, their chief, who even now prepares 
 In subterraneous being future wars 
 
 Cowper's Milton. 
 
 The various traditions concerning the disappear- 
 ance and coming of this fabulous monarch, have 
 been embodied in Warton's Grave of King Arthur,
 
 304? ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 and are represented as sung by the Welch bards, 
 for the amusement of Henry II., when he passed 
 through their country on an expedition to Ire- 
 land : 
 
 " Then gifted bards, a rival throng, 
 From distant Mona, nurse of song; 
 FromTeivi, fringed with umbrage brown, 
 From lilvy's vale and Cader's crown, 
 From many a sunless solitude 
 Of Radnor's inmost mountains rude; 
 From many a shaggy precipice, 
 That shades lerne's hoarse abyss, 
 To crown the banquet's solemn close, 
 Themes of British glory chose* 
 
 * O'er Cornwall's cliffs the tempest roared, 
 High the screaming seamew soared ; 
 On Tintaggel's topmost tower, 
 Darksome fell the sleety shower, 
 When Arthur ranged bis red-cross ranks 
 On conscious Camlan's crimsoned banks, 
 By Mordred's faithless guile decreed, 
 Beneath a Saxon spear to bleed ! 
 Yet, in vain, a Paynim foe 
 Armed with fate the mighty blow; 
 For when he fell, an Linn Queen, 
 Ail in secret and unseen, 
 O'er the fainting hero threw 
 Her mantle of ambrosial blue ; 
 And bade her spirits bear him far, 
 In Merlin's agate-axled car,
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 305 
 
 To her green isles enamelled steep, 
 
 Far in tbe navel of the deep. 
 
 O'er his wounds she sprinkled dew, 
 
 From flowers that in Arabia grew $ 
 
 On a rich enchanted bed 
 
 She pillowed his majestic head ; 
 
 O'er his brow with whispers bland, 
 
 Thrice she waved an opiate wand ; 
 
 And to soft music's airy sound 
 
 Her magic curtains closed around ; 
 
 There renewed the vital spring, 
 
 Again he reigns a mighty king ; 
 
 And many a fair and fragrant clime, ' 
 
 Blooming in immortal prime, 
 
 By gales of Eden ever fanned, 
 
 Owns the monarch's high command : 
 
 Thence to Britain shall return, 
 
 If right prophetic rolls 1 learn, 
 
 Borne on victory's spreading plume, 
 
 His ancient sceptre to resume; 
 
 Once more in old heroic pride, 
 
 His barbed courser to bestride ; 
 
 His knightly table to restore 
 
 And brave the tournaments of yore." 
 
 He ceased : when on the tuneful stage 
 Advanced a bard of aspect sage. 
 ' When Arthur bowed his haughty crest, 
 No princess veiled in azure vest, 
 Snatched him by Merlin's potent spell, 
 In groves of golden bliss to dwell ; 
 Where crowned with wreaths of misletoe, 
 Slaughtered kings in glory go. 
 
 VOL. I. V
 
 306 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 But when he fell, with winged speed 
 
 His champions on a milk-white steed, 
 
 From the battle's hurricane, 
 
 Bore him to Joseph's towered fane, 
 
 In the fair vale of Avalon : 
 
 There with chaunted orison 
 
 And the long blaze of tapers clear, 
 
 The stoled fathers met the bier; 
 
 Through the dim aisles, in order dread 
 
 Of martial woe the chief they led, 
 
 And deep entombed in holy ground 
 
 Before the altar's solemn bound : 
 
 Around no dusky banners wave, 
 
 No mouldering trophies mark his grave, 
 
 The faded tomb, with honour due, 
 
 'lis thine, O Henry I to renew. 
 
 There shall thine eye, with wild amaze, 
 
 On his gigantic stature gaze, 
 
 There shalt thou find the monarch laid 
 
 All in warrior weeds arrayed, 
 
 Wearing in death his helmet crown, 
 
 And weapons huge of old renown 
 
 Martial prince, 'tis thine to save, 
 
 From dark oblivion, Arthur's Grave. 
 
 I have now given an account of the romances 
 of the fahulous history of Britain, as far as Arthur 
 and his knights are concerned, which form by far 
 the largest proportion of the number. 
 
 There are two romances connected with the 
 imaginary history of Britain, preceding the time
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 307 
 
 of Arthur, and two which relate the fabulous in- 
 cidents posterior to his reign. 
 
 Those which are first in the order of events, 
 happen to be also the earliest, considered as to 
 the dates of their composition. One of these re- 
 lates the adventures of 
 
 GYRON LE COURTOIS, 1 
 
 a romance which chiefly hinges on the disinterest- 
 ed friendship of Gyron for Danayn the Red, and 
 the ungrateful return he receives. 
 
 This work was written by Rusticien de Pise, 
 who was also the author of Meliadus, and lived 
 during the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. of 
 England. Rusticien informs us, that Gyron was 
 translated by him from the book of Edward L, 
 when he went to the conquest of the Holy Land, 
 " et saichez tout vrayement que cestuy livre fut 
 
 1 Le Roman de Gyron le Courtois translate de Branor le 
 Brun le vieil Chevalier qui avoit plusde centai.s d' age, le- 
 quel vint a la cour du roy Artus, accnmpugne d'une demoi- 
 selle pour e' eprouver a I encontrc des jeunes Chevaliers, 
 &c. Et traite ledit des plus grandcs adventures que jadis 
 advinrent aux Chevaliers J. nans ; avec la devise et les ar- 
 ures de tous les Chevaliers de la Table Itonde.
 
 308 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 translate du livre du Monseigneur Edouart le roi 
 d'Angleterre, en celluy tems que il passa oultre la 
 mer, au service de nostre seigneur, pour conques- 
 ter le Saint Sepulchre. Et maistre Rusticien de 
 Puise corapila ce Romant : car de cellui livre au 
 roi Edouart d' Augleterre translata il toutes les 
 merveilleuses qui sont en cestuy livre." Who the 
 original author was from whom Rusticien compi- 
 led, or what was the nature of this book of King 
 Edward's, which Rusticien used, it is impossible 
 to conjecture. The romance of Gyron, as writ- 
 ten by Rusticien de Pise, was first printed by Ve- 
 rard, Paris, 14-94, in folio ; and afterwards in 
 1519. 
 
 In this fabulous work we are informed that 
 Brehus, surnamed Sans Pitie, in the course of his 
 unmerciful adventures, one day entered a cavern 
 fitted up with dead bodies, and inhabited by two 
 old knights, who prove to be the father and grand- 
 father of the hero of this romance. Having boast- 
 ed of the exploits which were performed by their 
 companions in arms in their own days, Brehus 
 contends that they were surpassed by those of a 
 knight, who excelled all others in courtesy and 
 valour, and was the admiration of the British 
 court, though it was unknown whence he came, 
 or what was his lineage. Grant Pere Gyron, as
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 309 
 
 he is called, conjectures from this description that 
 Brehus alluded to his grandson, Gyron the Cour- 
 teous. The oldest Gyron and his son had quitted 
 the inheritance of the throne of Gaul, in order to 
 devote themselves to knight errantry, which they 
 had in turn abandoned for the tranquil and tem- 
 perate life they were then enjoying. They thought 
 it necessary, however, to make an apology for 
 their meagre and squalid appearance, which they 
 attributed to the want of provisions, " car nous 
 mangeons si pourement en cestuy lieu, ou vous 
 nous voyez, que a grant peine en pouons nous 
 soubstenir nostre vie." 
 
 The crown which the Gyrons abdicated had 
 been usurped by Pharamond ; and their descend- 
 ant, Gyron the Courteous, had been compelled to 
 embrace the life of a knight errant. In the course 
 of his adventures he became the companion in 
 arms of Danayn the Red, lord of the castle of 
 Maloanc, whose wife, the lady of Maloanc, was 
 the most beautiful woman in Britain. This lady 
 was enamoured of Gyron, and saw that she was 
 by no means indifferent to the knight ; but all her 
 inducements proved ineffectual to persuade him to 
 betray his friend. 
 
 At length Gyron and Danayn proceeded to a 
 tournament, proclaimed at the British court, whi-
 
 310 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 ther they were followed by the lady of Malo- 
 anc. During the celebration of the tournament, 
 Danayn was unexpectedly called home, in or- 
 der to avenge the death of one of his relatives, 
 who had been treacherously murdered. At his 
 departure he consigned his wife to the charge of 
 Gyron, who was now distracted by the new temp- 
 tations presented, and the additional claim on his 
 honour. While roaming through a forest, per- 
 plexed with these conflicting emotions, he over- 
 heard Messire Lac, as he is called, express a pas- 
 sion for the lady of Maloanc ; Lac accosted him, 
 and commenced a long and tedious story, which 
 he had no sooner concluded, than he proposed to 
 tell another. This is declined by Gyron, but is in- 
 sisted on by Lac, "en nomDieu, fait le Chevalier, 
 Je vous en compteray ung autre. Je n' en vueil 
 point ouyr, fait Gyron. Nostre vassal, fait le Che- 
 valier, or saichez qu' il est mestier que vous 1' es- 
 coutez ; et que si vous ne le me laissez compter 
 en telle maniere que Je soies courousse, Je le vous 
 compteray done en telle guyse qu' il ne sera jour 
 de vostre vie qu' il ne vous en souviengne." Mes- 
 sire Lac accordingly proceeds to tell his story at 
 the point of the sword. The object of these te- 
 dious narratives was to detain Gyron till Lac's 
 arrangements for carrying off the lady of Malo-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 311 
 
 anc had been completed. Gyron, however, ul- 
 timately frustrates all his designs, overthrows 
 Lac in single combat, and rescues the lady of 
 Maloanc, who had fallen under his power. " Et 
 quant la belle dame de Maloanc, qui ja avoit 
 toute sa paour oublie, se voit toute seule avec le 
 Chevalier du monde qu' elle aymoit le plus, et 
 qui si preud homme des armes estoit qu' il avoit 
 tout le monde passe, et qui estoit plus beau et 
 plus gracieulx que tous les autres en toutes choses, 
 elle ne scait a celluy point quelle en doit dire; 
 tout le coeur luy va remuant. Orendroit luy 
 veult elle parler d' amours, et maintenant s' en re- 
 tient." At length, when they had reached the 
 side of a delightful fountain, she ventures to ask 
 Gyron if he be in love. The knight, unable long- 
 er to restrain his emotions, confesses that she 
 was and had long been the sole object of his ado- 
 ration. A mutual confession of a secret, but 
 long subsisting attachment, spares the minutiae of 
 courtship ; and Gyron appears to have been on 
 the eve of violating that fidelity to his friend, 
 which he had so long preserved, when he fortu- 
 nately casts his eyes on the hilt of his sword, 
 where was inscribed the motto, Loyaulte passe 
 tout Faulsete honit tout. He is awakened to
 
 312 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 such a sense of his own unworthiness, and of 
 self-indignation, by this inscription, that he plun- 
 ges the sword into his bosom. While lying 
 wounded by the side of the fountain, Danayn, 
 who had heard some false report of the infidelity 
 of his wife and his friend, arrives at the spot, on 
 his return to the British court. Gyron conceals 
 the part which the lady bore in the adventure, 
 and merely relates, that he had inflicted the 
 wound as a punishment of his mental infidelity. 
 The friendship of Danayn, instead of being di- 
 minished, is thus redoubled, and the wounded 
 knight is conveyed to the castle of Maloanc. 
 
 When Gyron was restored to health, he form- 
 ed a new attachment to a damsel, called Bloye, 
 of whom he daily became more deeply enamoured. 
 With this lady Danayn also fell in love, and secret- 
 ly carried her off, regardless of the happiness of 
 his friend, and unmindful of the striking example 
 which he had experienced of his fidelity. The 
 resentment of Gyron was proportioned to the in- 
 jury he had received, and the ingratitude of him 
 by whom it was inflicted : He immediately set 
 out in quest of the traitor, and during a year's 
 wandering experienced many perilous and roman- 
 tic adventures, totally foreign to the object of his 
 search.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 313 
 
 One day, says the romance, when the season 
 was fair and clear, as it might be in the end of 
 October, it happened that the road which Gyron 
 held conducted him to the foot of a hill. The hill 
 was white with snow, for it was winter, but the 
 plain was green as if it had been the month of 
 May. At the foot of this hill, in the plain, and 
 beneath a tree, gurgled a fountain most beautiful 
 and most delightful, and under that tree sat a 
 knight, armed with hauberk and greaves ; his other 
 arms were near him, and his horse was tied to the 
 tree. By the knight sat a lady so beautiful that 
 she was a miracle to behold ; and if any one were 
 to ask who was the knight, I would say it was 
 Danayn the Red, the brave knight ; as the lady 
 seated before him was no other than the beautiful 
 Lady Bloye, who had been so much beloved by 
 Gyron." 
 
 A desperate combat ensued between the knights, 
 in which Danayn was vanquished : Gyron spared 
 his life, but refused to be reconciled to him, and 
 departed with Bloye, of whom he was more ena- 
 moured than ever. 
 
 Some years afterwards, Bloye engaged in an 
 adventure with her lover Gyron which had a very 
 
 ' See Appendix, No. 14.
 
 314* ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 unfortunate issue, as tliey were both imprisoned, 
 and it was not till after a long period that they 
 were freed by the valour of Danayn, who thus 
 made some reparation for the injuries he had for- 
 merly inflicted on his friend. Gyron and his lady, 
 however, were a second time thrown into confine- 
 ment by the treachery of the Knight of the Tower, 
 and are left in thraldom at the termination of the 
 work, which concludes with the exploits of a son 
 of Gyron by Bloye, referring the reader for an 
 account of the deliverance of his parents to the 
 romance of Meliadus : " Mais quant ils furent 
 delivrez ne fais Je point de mention, pour ce que 
 le livre de Latin se finist en ceste endroit quant a 
 leurs faits ; mais le ltomant du Roy Meliadus de 
 Leonnoys dit la maniere comment ils furent de- 
 livrez, et par qui." 
 
 The great fault, however, of the romance of 
 Gyron is, not that it terminates too soon, but that 
 it is too long protracted. It ought to have con- 
 cluded with the overthrow of Danayn and the re- 
 covery of Bloye by Gyron ; for the adventures of 
 their son, which form a considerable part of the 
 romance, are miserably tagged to the main sub- 
 ject. Indeed it is a common blemish in romances 
 of chivalry, that there is no repose in them, and
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 315 
 
 that the reader is led on from generation to gene- 
 ration after the principal interest is exhausted. 
 The earlier part, however, of the romance is un- 
 commonly interesting, and the style is perhaps 
 the finest of all the old fabulous histories of Bri- 
 tain ; accordingly it was extremely popular in 
 this country and France, and was translated at an 
 early period into many ditferent languages of Eu- 
 rope. It is the subject of an Italian poem of the 
 16th century, entitled Girone Cortese, versified in 
 ottava rima, and containing 24 cantos. This poem 
 was written by the celebrated Alamanni, author 
 of the Coltivazione, but never obtained much po- 
 pularity, owing to an injudicious imitation of the 
 ancient epic poems in a romantic subject. That 
 part of the romance which relates to the adven- 
 tures of Gyron with the lady of Maloanc, has been 
 beautifully versified by Wieland, the German poet, 
 well known as the author of Oberon. 
 
 The second romance concerning events prece- 
 ding the reign of Arthur, to which I alluded, and 
 which exhibits a different set of heroes from the 
 tales of the Round Table, is
 
 316 ItOMANCES OF CHIVALIIY. 
 
 PERCEFOREST, 1 
 
 which comprehends the fabulous history of Bri- 
 tain, previous to the age of Arthur. It is the 
 longest and best known romance of the class to 
 which it belongs, and is the work which St Palaye, 
 and similar writers, have chiefly selected for illus- 
 trations and proofs of the manners of the times, 
 and institutions of chivalry. 
 
 It is strange that Perceforest, which sets all 
 chronology, geography, and probability at defi- 
 ance, more boldly than almost any other romance, 
 should begin with a profound, and by no means 
 absurd, investigation concerning the topography 
 
 1 La tres elegante, delicieuse, mellifiue, et tres plaisante 
 bystoire du tres noble, victorieux, et excellentissime Roy 
 Perceforest Roy de la Grant Bretaigne, fundateur da Franc 
 Palais et du Temple du Souverain Dieu ; avec les merveil- 
 leuses enterprises, faits, et adventures du tres bell iqueulx 
 Gaddiffer Roy d' Escosse, lesquelz 1'Empereur Alexandre 
 le Grant couronna Roys sonbz son obeissaoce : en lacquelle 
 hystoire le lecteur pourra veoir la source et decoration de 
 toule Chevalerie, culture de vraye noblesse, prouesses et 
 conquestes infinies accomplies des le temps de Julius Cesar; 
 avecques plnsieurs prophctics, comptes d'amans et leurs di- 
 verses fortunes.
 
 \ 
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 317 
 
 of Britain, and the earliest ages of its history. 
 Julius Caesar, Pliny, Bede, and Solinus, are cited 
 with the utmost ostentation of learning. 
 
 The author, however, soon enters on the regions 
 of fiction. That part of his work which immedi- 
 ately succeeds the geographical disquisition, cor- 
 responds pretty closely with the fabulous history 
 of Geoffrey of Monmouth ; he relates that Brutus, 
 or Brut, the son of Sylvius, and great grandson 
 of JEneas, having killed his father by mischance, 
 fled to the states of a Greek king, called Pandra- 
 sus, whose daughter Imogene he espoused. From 
 this kingdom he fitted out an expedition, and land- 
 ed in Albion, since called Britain from his name, 
 and conquered the whole country with the assist- 
 ance of Corinaeus, another Trojan chief whom he 
 had picked up on his voyage. Most of the Euro- 
 pean nations were anciently fond of tracing their 
 descent from Troy. The greater part of them had 
 been at one time provincial to the Romans ; and 
 the Britons, who remained so long under their 
 dominion, may have imbibed a general notion of 
 the Trojan story from their conquerors. As Rome, 
 from becoming the capital of the supreme pontiff*, 
 was a city highly reverenced and distinguished, 
 and as the Trojans were believed to be its found- 
 ers, an emulation gradually arose among the na-
 
 318 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 tions of Europe, of claiming descent from the 
 same respectable origin. Nor were the monks and 
 other ecclesiastics (the only writers and readers 
 of the age,) uninterested in broaching and main- 
 taining such an opinion. But, as to the story of 
 Brutus, who is represented as the founder of the 
 kingdom of Britain, in Geoffrey and Perceforest, 
 and is the hero of the most ancient, as well as the 
 most celebrated of all the metrical romances, it 
 may be presumed that it was not invented till after 
 the ninth century, as Nennius, who lived towards 
 the close of it, mentions him with great obscurity, 
 and seems totally unacquainted with the British 
 affairs which preceded Caesar's invasion. 
 
 After the death of Brutus, the author of Perce- 
 forest drags us through the history of his numer- 
 ous descendants. One of these monarchs is King 
 Leyr, whose story was first related of a Roman 
 emperor in the Gesta Romanorum, and was af- 
 terwards told of the British monarch, in the Chro- 
 nicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth. These works 
 were the origin of Shakspeare's celebrated trage- 
 dy, which, however, differs so far from them that, 
 both in Geoffrey's Chronicles and Perceforest, the 
 events have a happy conclusion, as Cordelia de- 
 feats her sisters, and reinstates her father on the 
 throne. From Perceforest the tale had found its
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 319 
 
 way into Fabian's Concourdance of Stories, writ- 
 ten in the time of Henry VII. and thence passed 
 into various Lamentable ballads of the death of 
 King Leyr and his three daughters, of which the 
 catastrophe probably suggested to Shakspeare the 
 tragic termination which he has given to his dra- 
 ma. The story of King Lear is also in the 15th 
 chapter of the third book of Warner's Albion's 
 England, and in Spenser's Faery Queen, (book 
 2, canto 10,) where, in conformity with the ro- 
 mance and chronicle, the war against the sisters 
 has a successful termination : 
 
 So to his crown she him restored again, 
 
 In which he djde, made ripe for death by eld. 
 
 Gorboduc, who succeeded to the crown of Bri- 
 tain, soon after the death of Lear, profited so little 
 by the example of his predecessor, that he divided 
 his realm during his life between his two sons, Fer- 
 rex and Porrex, whose bloody history is the sub- 
 ject of the first regular English tragedy ; it was 
 partly written by Thomas Sackville Lord Buck- 
 hurst, was acted in 1561, and afterwards print- 
 ed in 1565, under the name of Gorboduc. Sir 
 Philip Sidney says that this drama climbs to the 
 height of Seneca, and Pope has pronounced the
 
 320 HOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 much higher eulogy, that it possesses " an un- 
 affected perspicuity of style, and an easy flow in 
 the numbers; in a word, that chastity, correct- 
 ness, and gravity of style, which are so essential 
 to tragedy, and which all the tragic poets who 
 followed, not excepting Shakspeare himself, either 
 little understood or perpetually neglected." Both 
 in the drama and romance, the princes, between 
 whom the kingdom had been divided, soon fell to 
 dissension, and the younger stabbed the elder : 
 the mother, who more dearly loved the elder, ha- 
 ving killed his brother in revenge, the people, 
 indignant at the cruelty of the deed, rose in re- 
 bellion, and murdered both father and mother. 
 The nobles then assembled and destroyed most of 
 the rebels, but afterwards became embroiled in a 
 civil war, in which they and their issue were all 
 slain. 
 
 Brennus and Belinus were the first monarch* 
 who reigned over the almost depopulated country. 
 These joint sovereigns, who, we are informed, with 
 rare historical confusion, were contemporary with 
 Artaxerxes, king of Greece, having Subdued Gaul, 
 besieged and burned Rome during the consulship 
 of Fabius and Porsenna. 
 
 At length, after a long succession of princes of 
 the family of Brutus, his race fortunately became
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 321 
 
 extinct on the demise of King Pyr : during this 
 interregnum the goddess Venus recommended to 
 the inhabitants to watch for a certain time on the 
 sea-shore, where they would find a king properly 
 qualified to govern them. 
 
 About this period Alexander the Great was 
 employed in the conquest of Asia. Parmenio, his 
 lieutenant, slew Gaddiffer, governor of Galde, a 
 city between India and Babylon, who had impru- 
 dently attacked the Greek army, on account of 
 some depredations it had committed. Alexan- 
 der, who was a generous prince, took the children 
 of Gaddiffer under his protection, and in a great 
 battle defeated Claurus, who had seized on their 
 territory. Claurus was killed in the engagement, 
 and his son Poms taken prisoner. Alexander, 
 however, restored to the latter his father's king- 
 dom, on condition that he should marry Feronas, 
 a lady of whom he knew that Porus was enamour- 
 ed. Wives are also provided by this bounteous 
 monarch for Betis, afterwards called Perceforest, 
 and his brother Gaddiffer, the two sons of old 
 Gaddiffer, governor of Galde. 
 
 The nuptials of Porus were celebrated in the 
 city of Glodofard. About a league from this town, 
 there was an island of the sea called Ciceron, 
 where Venus was worshipped. To this isle Alex- 
 
 vol. i. x
 
 322 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 ander set out on a pilgrimage with all his knights, 
 but scarcely had they sailed when a frightful tem- 
 pest arose, which drove their fleet on the coast of 
 England ; and a frightful tempest it must have 
 been which carried a fleet from the East Indies 
 to the shores of Britain. 
 
 Alexander landed with his barons at the mo- 
 ment the inhabitants, in obedience to the oracle 
 of Venus, were waiting by the sea-side to receive 
 a king, and being accordingly entreated to give 
 them a monarch, he crowned Betis king of Eng- 
 land, and Gaddiffer of Scotland. The Macedonian 
 hero solemnized their coronation by the institution 
 of tournaments, of which the intention was to re- 
 novate the ancient valour of Britons, who, even 
 in that early age, were suspected of degenerating 
 from their forefathers. These spectacles, which 
 were attended by all the ladies and knights of the 
 surrounding country, are described at full length. 
 
 After the tournaments were concluded, King 
 Betis conceived the project of constructing a pa- 
 lace from the wood of the forest of Glar, which 
 enchanters defended by the most formidable in- 
 cantations. Betis accordingly set out on this ex- 
 pedition, and proceeded a considerable way in the 
 forest without experiencing any adventures. At 
 length he came to a fountain, where stood an image
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 323 
 
 with an ivory horn, which the statue sounded on 
 his approach. On this warning, the magician 
 Darnant, the inhabitant and guardian of the grove, 
 issued forth in knightly armour. A combat en- 
 sued, and Darnant being defeated, fled away. Be- 
 tis, in the pursuit, met with enchanted rivers and 
 other obstacles, raised by the power of magic. 
 He at last overtook Darnant at the gate of a de- 
 lightful castle, but, when about to slay him, the 
 sorcerer changed himself to the resemblance of 
 the beautiful Idorus, the wife of Betis. The king 
 then embraced him with transport, but received a 
 wound in return, on which he instantly cut off the 
 head of the magician. 1 The enchantments were 
 now at an end, and Betis, on account of this ex- 
 ploit, acquired the name of Perceforest. But the 
 wood was ever after known by the name of the 
 forest of Darnant. We are told in the romance of 
 Lancelot du Lac, that Merlin was confined by his 
 mistress in the forest of Darnant, " qui marchoit a 
 la mer de Cornouailles et a la mer de Sorelloys." 
 The idea of this forest may have arisen from that of 
 Marseilles, in the Pharsalia, which was hewn down 
 by Caesar, and may in turn have suggested the 
 enchanted wood to Tasso. Like Rinaldo, Betis 
 
 i See Appendix, No. 15.
 
 324 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 surmounts the obstacles presented by necromancy 
 to his design. As the resolution of the Italian 
 hero is for a moment shaken by a demon from 
 the tree, assuming the appearance of the beautiful 
 A rmida ; so the king of England is about to save 
 the chief magician, who had clothed himself with 
 the form of the fair Idorus. 
 
 The labours of Perceforest were not completed 
 by the death of Darnant, as he had many combats 
 to sustain with the son and brothers of that en- 
 chanter. Alexander, surprised at his delay in 
 returning from the forest, set out in quest of him : 
 on his way he encountered the family of Darnant, 
 and carried on a long intrigue with Sibille, the 
 Lady of the Lake in those days, from which amour 
 sprung the ancestor of the renowned Arthur. 
 
 After the termination of a long war against the 
 posterity of Darnant, of which the siege of Male- 
 branche is the leading incident, tournaments were 
 exhibited by the knights of a new order of chi- 
 valry, instituted by Alexander and Perceforest. 
 These were attended by the hermit Pergamon, 
 who had been a companion of Brut, and seems to 
 have lived through the intervening centuries for 
 no end but to be present at these tiresome spec- 
 tacles. The tournaments being concluded, Alex- 
 ander, whom we have hitherto seen acting so con-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 325 
 
 spicuous a part in this romance, set off for Baby- 
 lon. The Macedonian monarch was introduced 
 into many other tales of chivalry ; he was chiefly 
 indebted for his romantic decoration to a fabulous 
 account of his conquests, which was compiled 
 from eastern fictions by Simeon Seth, but passed 
 under the name of Callisthencs, and was translated 
 into almost all the languages of Europe during 
 the middle ages. 
 
 About the time that Alexander returned to 
 Asia, Gaddiffer, the brother of Perceforest, went 
 to take possession of his kingdom of Scotland, of 
 which country there is more said in this work than 
 in any other romance of chivalry. After Gaddiffer 
 arrived in Scotland, he proceeded on an excursion 
 through his dominions, for the sake of dispensing 
 justice and reforming the savage manners of his 
 subjects ; and the king and his courtiers, says 
 the romance, entered on the deserts of Scotland, 
 and travelled two days without seeing town, cas- 
 tle, or human being. At length they came to a 
 delightful meadow, through which a fine river 
 flowed. The king regretted that this district was 
 so thinly peopled, but at length perceived some 
 tame cows, and children of ten or twelve years of 
 age running amongst them. The knight Estonne 
 seized one of these tender savages, who, like her
 
 326 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 companions, was clothed with a sheep skin, but 
 proved to be a girl of twelve years of age. She 
 was extremely handsome, but much more remark- 
 able for beauty than good manners ; for, on look- 
 ing down, the knight perceived that his fair pri- 
 soner was gratifying either her hunger or resent- 
 ment, by demolishing the neck of his courser. 
 She also spoke such bad Greek, that it was im- 
 possible to comprehend her verbal communica- 
 tions, though accompanied by gestures unusually 
 energetic. 
 
 After Gaddiffer had done all in his power to 
 amend the unpolished fashions of his infant king- 
 dom, the incidents related have but a very remote 
 connection with his history, or that of his brother 
 Perceforest, the titular hero of the romance. 
 Every thing like unity of action is disregarded, 
 and the rest of the work is occupied with the in- 
 sulated adventures of individual knights. A great 
 proportion of these is attributed to Estonne, lord 
 of the Scotch deserts. This great landed proprie- 
 tor was in the good graces of a spirit called Ze- 
 phyr, who, assuming a variety of shapes, carried 
 his favourite wherever he desired. Estonne, at 
 length, while dozing by an enchanted fountain, 
 was murdered by Bruyant Without Faith. His 
 death was revenged by his son Passeiion, whose
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 327 
 
 adventures are the most entertaining in the latter 
 part of the romance ; when only two years old he 
 became a paragon of chivalry, and not long after 
 was carried, by a spirit, around Tartarus, in a 
 manner which may have suggested some of the 
 scenes in the Comedia of Dante. 
 
 Near the middle of the romance, an account 
 is given of the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. 
 This chief had landed on a former occasion, but 
 had been worsted in single combat by the British 
 knight Lyonnel ; his second attempt was more suc- 
 cessful, owing to the treachery of the wife of Be- 
 thides, son of Perceforest, a lady to whom the au- 
 thor assigns an intrigue with Luces, a Roman se- 
 nator. All the knights of Britain were destroyed 
 in a great battle. Their bodies are indeed still 
 preserved in Aran, an Irish island, where the cli- 
 mate is such that nothing can decay ; but the ex- 
 ploits of a new race of heroes fill up the romance. 
 Of these the chief is Gallifer, grandson of old 
 GaddifFer, king of Scotland, who experienced innu- 
 merable adventures in his pursuit of the lady with 
 two dragons. He also put an end to the enchant- 
 ments at the tomb of Darnant, which seems to 
 have been the rendezvous of all the evil spirits in 
 Great Britain. At length having delivered his 
 country from the anarchy in which it was left by
 
 328 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the Romans, he was acknowledged as sovereign 
 of Britain, but did not long enjoy this exaltation, 
 as he was expelled by Scapiol, a German knight, 
 who usurped the throne. Olofer, one of the de- 
 posed monarch's sons, became a great favourite 
 of the new king ; the other, named Gallafer, re- 
 tired to a distant part of the island, at first studi- 
 ed astronomy, and afterwards founded a new so- 
 vereignty. 
 
 In this kingdom the royal astronomer was visit- 
 ed and converted by Alain, a Christian disciple, 
 who persuaded him to change his heathenish name 
 of Gallafer into Arfaran. He soon after resigned 
 his crown to Josue, Alain's brother, and proceed- 
 ed to preach the gospel to his ancestors, Perce- 
 forest and Gaddiffer, who, the reader will be sur- 
 prised to hear, were yet in existence, and residing 
 in the island of Life (supposed Wight.) Percefo- 
 rest had been severely handled in the wars with 
 the Romans ; he had received twelve mortal 
 wounds on the head ; he had left his right hand 
 on the field of battle ; the other hung by a fibre ; 
 his belly was laid open in four places, and he was 
 lame of his left foot. In this fractional state he 
 had passed into the island of Life, where he was 
 joined by his brother Gaddiffer, and afterwards by 
 the deposed Gallifer. On landing on this island,
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 329 
 
 King Arfaran beheld a temple, and, looking in, 
 perceived a group of worshippers before the altar. 
 They were clothed in sheep^-skins ; their hair, 
 whiter than snow, descended to their heels ; their 
 beards covered their breasts, and thence extend- 
 ed to their knees. These antiques consisted of 
 Dardanon, who had come to Britain soon after 
 Brut ; Gaddiffer, with his queen ; Gallifer, and 
 the relics of Perceforest. King Arfaran having 
 given them an abridgement of the doctrines of 
 the Old and New Testament, they expressed a 
 great desire of death. For this special purpose 
 they departed from the isle of Life, and arrived on 
 a shore where five monuments had spontaneously 
 arisen for their accommodation. Dardanon, as 
 the oldest, is honoured with sepulchral prece- 
 dence, and the rest follow according to seniority. 
 These monuments may have suggested to Tasso, 
 the self-formed sepulchre which rose to receive 
 the body of Sueno (Gerus. Lib. c. 8;) and that 
 which in his Rinaldo miraculously enclosed the 
 Knight of the Tomb (c. 7.). 
 
 In this romance the concluding incident of the 
 tombs is indeed abundantly ludicrous, but it has 
 been rendered impressive by description. Nothing 
 can be better painted than the voyage from the 
 isle of Life, and arrival at the unknown solitary
 
 330 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 shore ; the mysterious voice directing where to 
 proceed ; the midnight journey through the wood ; 
 the five monuments, rising under the light of the 
 moon ; the gradual decay of the venerable band, 
 and the voluntary resignation of their breath into 
 the hands of their Creator. 
 
 Indeed, ludicrous incident and beautiful de- 
 scription form the chief characteristics of the 
 work. I know no romance of chivalry which more 
 abounds in the beauties and faults of that species 
 of composition ; all unity of action, probability, 
 and chronological accuracy are laid aside ; but 
 there is an endless variety of enchantments, and 
 a wonderful luxuriance of description. 
 
 There is a great difference among the romances 
 concerning the early history of Great Britain, with 
 regard to the introduction of marvellous embel- 
 lishments. Thus it is impossible to conceive two 
 works more completely different than Perceforest 
 and Meliadus, of which we have formerly given an 
 account. The latter is almost entirely filled with 
 descriptions of battles and tournaments, and is 
 adorned with no supernatural ornaments. Per- 
 ceforest, on the other hand, abounds with evil 
 spirits, fairies, enchanters, and all those specious 
 wonders which constitute the soul of romance. 
 Dreams, too, and visions, which we have seen
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 331 
 
 were so much used by Heliodorus, Tatius, &c. } 
 and so little in the other romances of chivalry, 
 are common in Perceforest. 
 
 From the endless variety of enchantments it 
 contains, this romance is, perhaps the most en- 
 tertaining, and has become the most popular of 
 the class with which it has been ranged. In con- 
 sequence of the information it comprehends con- 
 cerning the manners of the period in which it was 
 written, especially the solemnities observed at 
 tournaments, and the costume of our ancestors, it 
 is also the most instructive, and has been chosen 
 as a text-book by M. de Sainte Palaye, and other 
 enquirers into the history and habits of the mid- 
 dle ages. It is said that Perceforest was one of 
 the books which Charles IX., during his educa- 
 tion, chiefly busied himself in reading ; and that to 
 this study he was enjoined (I cannot discover with 
 what view) by his mother Catherine de Medicis. 
 
 Mr Warton informs us that Perceforest was ori- 
 ginally written in verse about the year 1220. It is 
 difficult to say precisely at what time it was redu- 
 ced to prose, but it was probably subsequent to the 
 annexation of Dauphiny to the crown of France, 
 as the son ot the King of Galles (Wales) is called 
 the dauphin, which, I think, also proves that the 
 author was a Frenchman. With regard to his
 
 332 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 name I cannot give even the inconsistent informa- 
 tion which I have collected concerning the other 
 writers of romance. There is nothing said on this 
 subject in the preface, which is merely an address 
 to the French nobility, loaded with extravagant 
 compliments, and containing a summary of the 
 whole. The author just hints that he had bor- 
 rowed the incidents, contained in Perceforest, 
 from a preceding work. It is in the second chap- 
 ter that the fabulous story of its origin is related. 
 We are there told that Philip, Count of Hainault, 
 attended the daughter of the King of France to 
 England, in order to be present at her nuptials 
 with Edward, which were celebrated in 1286. Du- 
 ring the count's residence in England, he went on 
 an excursion to the northern part of the kingdom, 
 and arrived one day at a monastery situated on 
 the banks of the Humber. The abbot received 
 him with much politeness, and conducted him 
 through the apartments of the convent. Among 
 other places they entered an old tower, which 
 was then repairing, where the abbot pointed out 
 a vault in the deep walls, which had lately been 
 discovered by the workmen. He informed his 
 guest that in this vault there had been found an 
 old chronicle which no one could read, till a Greek 
 Clerc having come to study philosophy in this
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 333 
 
 country, translated it from the Greek into the La- 
 tin language. The count insisted on having a loan 
 of the Latin version ; and, on his return to his own 
 territories, took it with him to Hainault, where it 
 was copied. We are farther told in the course of 
 the work, that the first part of this MS. was origi- 
 nally written by Cressus, maitre d' hotel to Alexan- 
 der the Great. To Cressus the knights every year 
 related their exploits on oath. He was thus ena- 
 bled to make a compilation, which was preserved 
 by Paustounet, a minstrel, and read by his son 
 Pousson at the coronation of King Gallafer. With 
 this recital the court were so much delighted, that 
 Pousson was commanded by the king to continue 
 the adventures of the knights of his own period, 
 and his labours accordingly formed the last part 
 of the romance of Perceforest. 
 
 The whole work occupies three volumes folio, 
 which were first printed in 1528, Gallyot du Pre, 
 at Paris, and afterwards at the same place in 1531. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that there are 
 two romances which recount events subsequent 
 to those concerning Arthur or his knights Ar- 
 tus de la Bretagne, and Cleriadus, both of which 
 may be regarded as continuations of the fabulous 
 history of the Round Table. The authors of these 
 M'orks do not fix the period in which these two
 
 334 IIOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 descendants of the great Arthur flourished ; but 
 the romances themselves have no doubt been 
 composed at a date much posterior to Lancelot 
 or Tristan. 
 
 ARTUS DE LA BRETAGNE, 
 
 which, I think, is the earliest of the two, is sup- 
 posed by the authors of the Bibliotheque des Ro- 
 mans, to have been written during the reign of 
 Charles the Sixth of France, who died in 1422. 
 First, because the decorations given to the knights 
 and heroines are the same with those which were 
 in fashion while Charles swayed the sceptre ; and, 
 secondly, because the language is nearly of the 
 same antiquity with that of Froissard, who lived 
 in the time of that monarch. In the court of his 
 queen, Isabella of Bavaria, it is said, splendour and 
 gallantry reigned in spite of disorder and proscrip- 
 tion. Festivals and tournaments were revived by 
 her to amuse the clouded mind of her husband, 
 or occupy his attention when gleams of reason 
 disclosed to him the miseries of his kingdom. 
 These exhibitions served to relume that romantic 
 spirit of chivalry which had blazed with so much 
 lustre in the better ages of France, and which was
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 335 
 
 not unsuitable to the character of its unfortunate 
 monarch. 
 
 I suspect, however, that too early a date has 
 been assigned to this as to most other romances 
 of chivalry ; and there is good reason to suppose 
 that it was not written till some years after the 
 accession of Charles VIIL, who ascended the 
 throne in 1483. The subject of the romance is 
 the adventures of a duke of Britany, and the dis- 
 grace of Peronna, an Austrian princess, whose 
 alliance having been solicited, was finally rejected 
 by the heir to that dukedom, under circumstances 
 by no means creditable to the lady, after she had 
 arrived at his court. Now, it is well known, that 
 in 1489, the French council determined to send 
 back the princess Margaret of Austria, daughter 
 of Maximilian, to whom the young monarch had 
 been long betrothed, and who had arrived at Paris, 
 where she bore the title of Madame la Dauphine. 
 At the same time the council resolved to demand 
 Anne of Britany in her place, and the nuptials by 
 which that last great fief was united to the domi- 
 nions of France, were celebrated in 1491. Now 
 the romance of Arthur of Britany was first print- 
 ed in 1493, and I have little doubt was written 
 immediately before its publication, during these 
 important transactions at the court of France, in
 
 336 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 order to compliment the new queen by celebra- 
 ting the exploits of her ancestors, and recording 
 the disgrace of her rival. The language of the 
 romance, I confess, appears somewhat too ancient 
 for the close of the 15th century ; but it was natu- 
 ral for an author of romance and chivalry, rather 
 to adopt the phraseology which was falling into 
 disuse, than to affect a style which had recently 
 come into vogue. 
 
 The distinguished part which Anne of Britany 
 performed on the political theatre of France, du- 
 ring the reigns of Charles VIII. and Lewis XII., 
 to whom she was successively united ; and the 
 great popularity of her character, may have con- 
 tributed to the circulation of Artus de la Bre- 
 tagne, of which there were three editions subse- 
 quent to that in 1493 ; one in 4to, 1502; a se- 
 cond in 1539, and the last in 1584. 
 
 This romance comprehends the adventures of 
 Arthur, son of John duke of Britany, who was de- 
 scended from the celebrated Lancelot du Lac. A 
 renowned knight, called Gouvernau from his em- 
 ployment, was appointed tutor to this young 
 prince. One day, while engaged in the plea- 
 sures of the chase, the preceptor and his pupil 
 being separated from their party in a forest, ar- 
 rive at a cottage, where an elderly lady, whose 
 10
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 337 
 
 husband had been once a powerful baron, resided 
 with her daughter Jeannette, Arthur is enchant- 
 ed with the beauty of the damsel, bestows on her 
 the revenues of the spot, and often repeats his 
 visit. 1 
 
 The mother of Arthur, afraid, from his frequent 
 absence, that he is about to be betrayed into an 
 alliance unsuitable to his birth, proposes to the 
 duke to demand Perona, daughter of the duchess 
 of Austria, in marriage for their son. This young 
 lady possessed but an indifferent reputation, and 
 the duke for some time declines the connection, 
 but is at last forced to consent to the wishes of 
 his wife. The seneschal is sent as a proxy, and 
 Perona, who had cogent reasons to accelerate her 
 nuptials, arrives soon after with great ceremony 
 at Nantes. 
 
 During the preparations for his marriage, Ar- 
 thur continues to frequent the cottage. He finds 
 Jeannette less troubled than he expected by the 
 news of his approaching nuptials ; she merely in- 
 forms him, that she also was about to be united, 
 that her intended husband resembled Arthur in 
 form, and was matchless in nobility and power. : 
 
 These ambiguous expressions of Jeannette, and 
 
 See Appendix, No. 16. 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 338 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 her apparent indifference, are accounted for in the 
 following manner : During the preparations for 
 the marriage, Lucca, the mother of Perona, had 
 been in some tribulation, as she was aware of the 
 backsliding of her daughter. Ancel, one of her 
 knights, for he too was in the secret, suggests to 
 the Austrian family a stratagem similar to that 
 which for some time preserved the fame of Yseult 
 of Cornwall. He explains that there is a damsel 
 in the neighbourhood called Jeannette, whose mo- 
 ther might be bribed to lend her daughter as a 
 substitute for Perona till Arthur should fall asleep, 
 after which the princess could occupy the place 
 that was allotted her without hazard of detection. 
 
 In pursuit of this speculation Ancel proceeds to 
 the cottage. He finds the mother little disposed 
 to engage in this sort of traffic ; but Jeannette 
 overpowers all scruples by a torrent of argument, 
 which may have been satisfactory to herself on the 
 score of her future intentions, but certainly pos- 
 sessed very little plausibility for the conviction of 
 others. 
 
 The nuptials of Arthur and Perona are solemn- 
 ized, and Jeannette performs the part she had 
 chosen. It seems to have been the custom in 
 Britany that on the night after a marriage the 
 husband should present his wife with a ring and
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 339 
 
 act of dowry. Jeannette does not neglect to de- 
 mand the performance of this ceremony, hoping 
 that she will thus be entitled to assert claims to 
 Arthur as her husband. Fortified with these cre- 
 dentials, she readily resigns her place to Perona 
 when the opportunity is presented. 
 
 Arthur next morning pays a visit to Jeannette, 
 who produces the ring ; and at the same time gives 
 him some insight into the character of Perona. 
 This lady is also a good deal nonplust on being 
 asked by the duke to show him the act of dowry. 
 Gouvernau, who had been at the cottage with Ar- 
 thur on his last visit, reveals the whole story on 
 his return. Jeannette is confronted with the Aus- 
 trian family, and Perona is utterly disgraced. Luc- 
 ca leaves the court with her daughter, and when 
 they came to the fields the mother began to la- 
 ment, and Perona was so much grieved that she 
 died ; at which, says the romance, Arthur and his 
 court had great joy, and Jeannette above all the 
 rest. 
 
 Now Arthur remained with Jeannette four years 
 in his father's court. At the end of this period he 
 has a dream, in which Florence, his predestined 
 consort, appears to him, and his other adventures 
 are very clearly portrayed by a vision of eagles 
 and griffins. Arthur is induced by this dream to
 
 340 KOMANCES OF CHIVALRT. 
 
 ask leave of his father to travel in quest of his fu- 
 ture mistress. This being granted, he sets out 
 with his cousin Hector, son of the Count of Blois, 
 Gouvernau, and a squire. 
 
 At this time a king called Emend us reigned in 
 Sorolois, an empire little known in modern geo- 
 graphy, but which the romance declares to be 
 situated in the heart of Mesopotamia. This mo- 
 narch had four vassal kings, who ruled over the 
 uncouth lands of Normal, Valfondee, &c, and a 
 queen called Fenice, who possessed the contigu- 
 ous territories of Constantinople and Denmark. 
 On one occasion the royal pair held their court at 
 Corinth, and gave a grand festival to their peers, 
 at which the queen sat on the right hand of the 
 king. It would appear that her majesty had in- 
 tended to take the liberty of bringing forth in 
 presence of her court, but the king of Yrcania ha- 
 ving looked at her, declared she must instantly re- 
 tire to the place where the king wished her to be 
 confined. A discussion arose at table concerning 
 the most suitable situation. At length it was de- 
 termined that the castle of the Black Gate ( Porte 
 Noire,) lying on the Perilous Mount, guarded by 
 every species of monster, and surrounded by a ri- 
 ver, abounding in all sorts of vermin, would be the 
 most commodious spot for the ensuing parturition.
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 34-1 
 
 Another advantage of this situation was, that the 
 castle belonged to a fairy called Proserpine, who, 
 if duly propitiated, might bestow a number of fine 
 qualities on the infant. The daughter to whom 
 the queen gives birth receives the name of Flo- 
 rence. She is educated with Stephen, son to the 
 king of Valfondee, and proves, when she grows 
 up, a miracle of beauty. 
 
 The great object of Arthur is the quest of this 
 incomparable princess ; but he is frequently di- 
 verted from his chief design by the enticements 
 held out to him in the destruction of monsters and 
 giants. His exploits, however, principally consist 
 in disenchanting castles, one of which is the Porte 
 Noire, the birth-place of Florence, where an image, 
 holding a hat which it was foredoomed to place 
 on the head of the destined husband of Florence, 
 had been in attendance from time immemorial. 
 But the period of this inauguration was not yet 
 arrived. Arthur had still to encounter 
 
 fierce faces threatening wars, 
 
 Giants of mighty bone and bold emprise. 
 
 In these exploits he is neither assisted by Hector of 
 Blois, whom at the beginning of his career he had 
 married to the countess of Brueil, a lady whom he
 
 342 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 had freed from her enemies, nor does Gouvernau 
 attend him in many of his expeditions, but expe- 
 riences separate, though similar, adventures. He 
 is frequently enabled, however, to track Arthur by 
 the carcases he finds on the roads ; and he walked, 
 says the romance, till he saw ten robbers lying 
 slain ; then Gouvernau said to Jaquet, My lord 
 has been here (c. 57). 
 
 But Arthur occasionally meets with a different 
 species of allurement from that presented in an in- 
 tercourse with giants and monsters. Proserpine, 
 the protecting fairy of Florence, in order to try his 
 fidelity to her protegee, risks her own honour by 
 throwing herself in his way at the foot of an oak 
 in a forest he was traversing. Nor is this vigilant 
 fairy satisfied with one experiment. She contrives 
 a plot by which Arthur comes to her palace, where 
 her own blandishments being again resisted, she 
 employs one of her damsels, who is treated with an 
 indifference as satisfactory to Proserpine as pro- 
 voking to the damsel, who did not feel the same 
 interest as the fairy in this triumph of constancy. 
 
 Florence, in the mean time, was exposed to si- 
 milar difficulties. The emperor of India had de- 
 manded her in marriage, and had lately arrived at 
 her father's court to prosecute his suit in person. 
 This alliance was as acceptable to King Emendus
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 343 
 
 as it was disagreeable to the party chiefly interest- 
 ed. Matters, however, having come to a crisis, 
 Florence is obliged to request that the celebration 
 of her nuptials be deferred till a splendid tourna- 
 ment is proclaimed, the fame of which she trusts 
 will lead Arthur to court ; for of his approach and 
 attachment she had been apprized by her confi- 
 dant Stephen, who had met with him at Porte 
 Noire and other places. 
 
 Arthur, according to expectation, appears at 
 the tournament, and Florence obtains an inter- 
 view with him, by the intervention of Stephen, or 
 the Master, as he is generally called. 
 
 On the first day of the tournaments Arthur 
 greatly distinguishes himself, and Florence, in or- 
 der that her lover might not be exhausted with 
 two days continued exertion, feigns sickness on 
 the following morning, and requests that the tour- 
 nament be delayed. " Aura elle ce meschef," says 
 Emendus, on hearing of the illness of his daugh- 
 ter, " Je serois courrouce si elle se mouroit sans 
 hoir de son corps." (c. 63.) This paternal mo- 
 narch is conducted to the chamber of Florence 
 by Stephen, who there commences a harangue, 
 which may give some idea of the mode of mana- 
 ging sick princesses in those times. " My lady, 
 God to-day has done you great honour. Never
 
 344 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 were there so many people assembled by the sick- 
 ness of a princess as there are to visit you ; for 
 here is an emperor, ten kings, thirty dukes, and 
 the whole chivalry of the sovereign of India." 
 
 But in this chamber there was something still 
 more important than all this blaze of quality. In 
 a corner of the room stood the image with the hat, 
 which Stephen, who dabbled in magic, had lately 
 smuggled from Porte Noire by a stroke of necro- 
 mancy. The company assembled are informed that 
 the person on whom this statue confers the hat 
 will be acknowledged as the husband of Florence. 
 The emperor of India first presents himself, but 
 the image continues motionless. To the vassal 
 kings of Emendus it is equally unpropitious ; till 
 at length Arthur approaching receives the token 
 that was reserved for him. 
 
 In spite of this unequivocal demonstration on 
 the part of the image, Emendus still persists in his 
 intention of bestowing his daughter on the empe- 
 ror of India. This resolution compels Florence to 
 fly to the Porte Noire, accompanied by the kings 
 and knights who were friendly to her cause ; while 
 the fairy Proserpine, who exactly resembled her 
 in figure, occupies her place at court. The impos- 
 ture, however, being at length detected, Florence 
 is besieged in Porte Noire by her father and the
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 34a 
 
 emperor of India with immense armies. During 
 the siege, Proserpine is observed by the latter fly- 
 ing from the castle. As she had assumed the shape 
 of Florence, he overtakes her, and extorts a pro- 
 mise of marriage. Then, having assured her of 
 his protection, he conducts her to Emendus, who, 
 on her entrance, salutes her with his foot. This 
 commentary on her returning obedience not be- 
 ing relished by the emperor, a squabble arises 
 between the monarchs, during which Proserpine 
 disappears, and the emperor soon after retires to 
 his own country. 
 
 The night succeeding his departure, Stephen 
 throws the whole army of Emendus into a pro- 
 found sleep, and then, with the assistance of five 
 knights, conveys the king, while in bed, to Porte 
 Noire. By this trick of legerdemain he is obliged, 
 when he awakes, to give his consent to his daugh- 
 ter's marriage with Arthur. Previous to their 
 union that prince pays a visit to Britany, where he 
 has rather an awkward interview with Jeannette. 
 On his return to Porte Noire, he is accompanied 
 by a number of the peers of France, the duke and 
 duchess, and also Jeannette, whose presence was 
 certainly superfluous. Stephen on the journey in- 
 forms Arthur, that he had discovered by his books 
 that Florence had left Porte Noire, and was now
 
 34*6 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 besieged in the White Tower by the emperor of 
 India, who had returned to the war. Arthur is 
 advised to proceed thither with his host, but he 
 determines on a plan of action more suited to 
 his impatience, and to his confidence in his own 
 prowess. He presses forward in disguise, follow- 
 ed by three knights, to the White Tower, where 
 he signalizes his arrival by cutting up a whole 
 army, with wounds that exhibit great anatomical 
 variety. His other friends having come up soon 
 after, the gates of the White Tower are purposely 
 left open, and the emperor, thinking it defenceless, 
 enters with the remains of his army, still amount- 
 ing to fifty thousand men. These are speedily des- 
 patched ; the emperor himself is taken prisoner, 
 and soon after dies of grief. 
 
 No farther obstacle remaining to the marriage 
 of Arthur, a splendid tournament celebrates the 
 triple nuptials of Arthur with Florence, Gouver- 
 nau with Jeannette, and Stephen the Master with 
 Margaret, a princess whom Arthur had reinstated 
 in her kingdom early in the romance. 
 
 Florence in due season produces a son, whom 
 the accurate romancer informs us she conceived 
 the night of the espousals. The birth of this child 
 King Emendus solemnizes by dying of joy. Ar- 
 thur is, of course, crowned king of Sorolois ; he 
 11
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 347 
 
 reigned, says the romance, thirty-two years, and 
 left the care of his child, and all that he possess- 
 ed, to Hector, Gouvernau, and the Master " et 
 d' autre chose plus rien n' en diet 1' histoire, ains 
 elle se tait." 
 
 The chief excellence of the romance of Artus 
 de la Bretagne is, that it possesses more unity of 
 design than the works of the same nature by which 
 it was preceded. The story of Jeannette at the 
 beginning is indeed episodical, but it is discussed 
 in fourteen chapters, and through the remainder 
 of the work the adventures relate to one common 
 original, the object that appeared in the dream ; 
 and to one common end, the union of Arthur and 
 Florence. Accordingly, the chief employment of 
 Arthur is the search of Florence, and her deliver- 
 ance from the power of the emperor ; and though 
 these objects be occasionally lost sight of by the 
 irresistible temptations thrown out by giants or 
 monsters, they are never entirely abandoned. But 
 in Tristan, Meliadus, Perceforest, and the older 
 romances, there is no permanent motive that in- 
 spires the action. In them the momentary gratifi- 
 cation of passion, an occasional display of valour, 
 and a concluding paroxysm of devotion, comprise 
 the incidents of the romance.
 
 348 ROMANCES OF CHIVALHV. 
 
 Neither is there any romance of the Round 
 Table in which so great a war is carried on for 
 the sake of a single woman, as in that just ana- 
 lyzed. We do not behold two knights occasion- 
 ally tilting for the heart or favours of a lady, but 
 the whole forces of India ranged against the chi- 
 valry of France. A single knight, in a paroxysm 
 of valour, overthrows the army of an empire ; and 
 though the combats are usually described more 
 circumstantially than intelligibly, the slaughter is 
 always conducted on a magnificent scale, and 
 tends to one purpose. 
 
 But though the unity of design in this romance 
 be commendable, the design itself is by no means 
 deserving of applause. Nothing can be more ab- 
 surd than that Arthur should be enchanted with a 
 woman he had never beheld, desert a beloved mis- 
 tress, and set out in quest of the unknown fair, in 
 consequence of an obscure vision. There is some- 
 thing, too, extremely cold and hard-hearted in 
 thus abandoning Jeannette, which gives us, at the 
 first, a very unfavourable idea of the character of 
 the hero. Nor, as we advance, do we find him 
 possessed of a single quality, except strength and 
 courage, to excite respect or interest. This re- 
 mark might, perhaps, be justly extended to all the
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 349 
 
 other characters in the romance, except Stephen, 
 or the Master, as he is called. That young and 
 royal astrologer is painted as endowed with every 
 personal grace and accomplishment he has end- 
 less resources in every emergency he possesses 
 a delightful frankness and gaiet\ , united to an in- 
 vincible heroism ; the utmost warmth of friendship 
 for Arthur, and an unshaken fidelity to Florence. 
 He also constantly amuses the reader by raising up 
 delightful gardens, fountains, and singing birds, 
 by the operations of natural magic, a knowledge 
 of which was at one time believed to be a common 
 attainment, and was known in Scotland by the 
 name of glamour. The Jongleurs were professors 
 of this mystery ; and Sir John Mandeville saw 
 many proficients in the East. In particular, he 
 gives a description of the marvels displayed before 
 the khan of Tartary, so strikingly similar to those 
 in the romance of Arthur, as to afford a strong pre- 
 sumption that such exhibitions were actually at- 
 tempted in the middle ages, and were not merely 
 the offspring of the romancer's fancy. " And than 
 comen jogulours and enchantoures that don many 
 marvaylles : for they maken to come in the ayr 
 the sonne and the mone, be seeminge to every 
 man's sight. And after they maken the nyght so
 
 350 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 derk, that no man may see no thing. And aftre 
 they maken the day to come agen fair and ple- 
 sant, with bright sonne, to every mannes sight. 
 And than they bringen in daunces of the fairest 
 damyselles of the world, and richest arrayed. And 
 after they maken to comen in other damyselles, 
 bringinge coupes of gold, and geven drynke to 
 lordes and to ladyes. An than they make knyghtes 
 to jousten in armes full lustyly ; and they breken 
 here speres so rudely, that the tronchouns flen 
 in peces alle aboute the halle. And than they 
 make to come in huntyng for the hert and for the 
 boor, with houndes renning with open mouthe, 
 and many other thinges they don be craft of hir 
 enchauntments that it is marveyle for to see." 
 And elsewhere the traveller remarks, " And wher 
 it be by craft or nygromancye, I wot nere." 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that the leading inci- 
 dent of the romance of Arthur of Britany suggest- 
 ed to Spenser the plan and outline of his Faery 
 Queene ; where Arthur, the hero, sees in a vision, 
 and, seeing, falls in love with the fairy queen, 
 whose quest is the great object through the whole 
 of that romantic poem.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 351 
 
 CLERIADUS 
 
 is the last romance that has been ranked among 
 those of the Round Table. It does not strictly 
 belong to that class of fictions, but has been num- 
 bered with them, as a great proportion of the ad- 
 ventures happen in England, and as the hero was 
 married to a princess descended from the great 
 Arthur. 
 
 Philippon, king of England, one of the success- 
 ors of Arthur, being far advanced in life, sent to 
 Spain, in order to request that the count of Astu- 
 rias, a man renowned for his wisdom, would come 
 to England to assist him in the government of his 
 kingdom. The count arrived according to invita- 
 tion, and broughfwith him his son Cleriadus, who 
 soon became enamoured of Meliadice, the daugh- 
 ter of Philippon. To render himself worthy of her 
 affections, he engaged in many hazardous enter- 
 prises both in Britain and in his native country. 
 Among other exploits, he subdued a lion which 
 ravaged all England, but who turned out to be a 
 gallant knight metamorphosed by the malevolence 
 of a fairy ; and on one occasion he challenged and 
 overcame all the heroes of the court of Philippon. 
 After this exhibition, Philippon gave a splendid
 
 >.~j2 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY, 
 
 entertainment in honour of Cleriadus, who contri- 
 buted a.pic-nic of sparrowhawke and dressed dogs, 
 which seem to have been the delicacies of the 
 time ; lie also danced for the amusement of the 
 company, and sung a duet with M eliadice by or- 
 der of the king. 
 
 The final happiness of the lovers seemed fast 
 approaching, when ambassadors arrived from the 
 court of Cyprus to beg assistance against the Sa- 
 racens, who had invaded that island. Though this 
 enterprise was somewhat out of the line of his 
 English majesty's politics, yet, in order to testify 
 his zeal for the Christian cause, he sent eight hun- 
 dred men to Cyprus, with Cleriadus at their head, 
 an expedition which may, perhaps, have been sug- 
 gested to the imagination of the romancer by the 
 circumstance of a king of Cyprus having resided 
 in England during the reign of Edward the Third. 
 
 The Queen of England had a brother Thomas, 
 Count of Langarde, a man of infamous character, 
 who had conceived an incestuous passion for his 
 niece. As his proposals were rejected with horror, 
 he seized the absence of Cleriadus as a fit oppor- 
 tunity for revenge. He forged letters, which he 
 made appear to have passed between Cleriadus 
 and Meliadice, in which the lovers agreed to poi- 
 son the king, and ascend the throne in his stead.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 353 
 
 The good monarch, though he seems generally to 
 have dispensed with the trouble of reflection, at 
 first betrayed an inclination for a, trial, but at the 
 persuasion of Langarde, Meliadice, without far- 
 ther ceremony, is sent under the charge of four 
 ruffians to be murdered in a wood. Two of their 
 number, however, are seized with compunction, 
 and persuade their comrades to agree in saving 
 her. She is accordingly allowed to escape on 
 condition of leaving England, but is previously 
 stripped, that she might not draw observation by 
 the splendour of her dress. Thus she wanders 
 through the country, in a dishabille which was 
 fully as likely to attract attention as her royal 
 vestments. At many gates she was refused ad- 
 mittance, as a person of suspicious character ; but 
 at length found refuge in the cottage of an old 
 woman, who gave her clothes, and sent her, with 
 letters of introduction, to a merchant, who lived 
 on the sea- coast, and was speedily to embark for 
 Spain. After a prosperous voyage she was land- 
 ed at Villablanca, the capital of Asturias, where 
 she entered into service with a female cousin of 
 the merchant. 
 
 Meanwhile Cleriadus having conquered the Sa- 
 racens, returned to England, where he was inform- 
 ed of the death of Meliadice. He also found that 
 
 vol. i. z
 
 354- ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 his father, having lost all influence, had retired to 
 Asturias, and that the defamer of his mistress was 
 acting as viceroy. He assaulted Langarde next 
 morning, and defied him to single combat ; but 
 that traitor preferring the certainty of immediate 
 execution to the risk of a battle, confessed his 
 crime. PhilippOn, as may be imagined, was incon- 
 solable for the loss of his daughter, but, spite of his 
 entreaties, Cleriadus would not consent to remain 
 in England. He assumed a pilgrim's habit, and 
 embarked on board a vessel which was bound for 
 the Tagus. The ship, however, fortunately en- 
 countered a storm on the coast of Gascony, which 
 forced it to enter the port of Villablanca. Al- 
 though Cleriadus had formally renounced his 
 country, he could not refrain from ascending a 
 hill in the neighbourhood to take a last geogra- 
 phical survey of the abode of his parents. 
 
 While ruminating on his misfortunes, a young 
 woman, whom the reader divines to be Meliadice, 
 arrived, bearing a water-pitcher on her head. See- 
 ing him plunged in distress, she attempted to con- 
 sole him, and concluded with offering charity. She 
 persuaded him to disclose the cause of his grief ; 
 and while he was yet speaking she recognised her 
 lover, broke her water-pitcher, and threw herself 
 into his arms. The happy couple set off for the
 
 UOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 355 
 
 seat of the count of Asturias, who, in a few days, 
 accompanied them to England. There they were 
 legally united with the consent of Philippon, who 
 soon after resigned his crown to Cleriadus. 
 
 The above work is the foundation of a Scotch 
 metrical romance, written in the reign of Queen 
 Mary, and entitled Clariodus, of which there is a 
 MS. copy in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. 
 
 There exists one other prose romance of the 
 knights of the Round Table, the history of Gig- 
 Ian, (son of Gauvain) and Geoffrey of Mayence ; 
 it was translated from the Spanish by Claude 
 Platin, and was printed, according to De Bure, 
 in 1530. I have never seen this romance ; but to 
 judge from extracts, it is not scarcer than it de- 
 serves to be. 
 
 Besides the metrical romances from which the 
 prose compilations above analyzed have been chief- 
 ly formed, there are a number of others which 
 existed in MS. in the library of M. de Sainte Pa- 
 laye. None of them have been printed at full 
 length, but of those which were written by the 
 Trouveurs of the north of France an abridged 
 version has been given in the admirable selection 
 of Le Grand. A great proportion of the metrical 
 romances concerning Arthur and his knights was 
 written in the twelfth century by Chrestien de
 
 356 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Troyes, and many of them were afterwards con- 
 tinued by Huon de Mery. Some of these relate 
 new adventures concerning knights of the Round 
 Table, and others introduce new heroes. 
 
 1. One of the most beautiful of these metrical 
 tales is Erec and Enide, by Chrestien de Troyes. 
 Erec vanquishes a knight who had insulted an at- 
 tendant of Queen Geneura at a national hunt. Af- 
 ter the battle, Erec discovered on the domains of 
 the person he had conquered, his beautiful niece, 
 called Enide, who resided near her uncle's castle, 
 but had been allowed by him to remain in the ut- 
 most poverty. Erec marries this lady, and soon 
 forgets all the duties of chivalry in her embraces ; 
 his vassals complain bitterly of his sloth, and Enide 
 rouses him to exertion. Attended by her alone he 
 sets out in quest of adventures, of which a variety 
 are related. One day Erec swoons through fati- 
 gue, and Enide readily believes him dead. A ba- 
 ron, whose castle was in the neighbourhood, hap- 
 pens to pass at the time, and Enide is married to 
 him while her husband is in the fainting fit. A 
 nuptial feast is prepared in the room where Erec 
 lay, but a squabble arising between the baron and 
 his bride, on account of the obstinacy of the latter 
 in refusing to eat, Erec is roused by the noise ; 
 and being, it would appear, much refreshed by
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 357 
 
 his swoon, instantly beats out the brains of his 
 rival, and disperses the attendants. As the pro- 
 visions had by this time cooled, he immediately 
 departs with Enide, and arrives in safety at his own 
 castle, after experiencing a curious adventure in 
 a subterraneous labyrinth, from which he rescued 
 a lady who was there detained by enchantment. 
 
 2. La Charette, the first part of which was writ- 
 ten by Chrestien de Troyes, and the conclusion 
 by Geoffrey de Ligny, relates the early adven- 
 tures of Lancelot, and the commencement of his 
 amour with Queen Geneura. 
 
 3. The Chevalier au Lbn has been generally 
 attributed to Chrestien de Troyes, but the Abbe 
 de la Rue ascribes it to Wace. This romance 
 must not be confounded with another of the same 
 name, of which Perceval is the hero. In the pre- 
 sent work Yvain is the principal character, and it 
 has given rise to an old English poem, Ywain and 
 Gawain, published by Mr Ritson. A knight at 
 the court of Arthur relates that he had been in- 
 duced to try the adventure of a fountain, where a 
 dreadful storm was raised by throwing the water on 
 a marble stone, and that the commotion brought 
 to the spot a valiant knight, by whom he had been 
 defeated. Yvain resolves to try this stormy expe- 
 riment, and the expected combatant appears. Our
 
 358 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 hero kills this champion, and marries his widow, 
 who resided in a castle in the neighbourhood, 
 and finds that a knight is necessary to defend her 
 territories, and reply to the whirlwinds from the 
 fountain. After remaining some time with his 
 wife, Yvain sets out in quest of new adventures, 
 promising to return in a year. When he had ex- 
 ceeded the appointed time, a damsel on the part 
 of his wife comes unexpectedly to the court of 
 Arthur, and reproaches him with his infidelity. 
 Yvain instantly goes mad, and roams through the 
 country, committing extravagancies, which, it may 
 be remarked, bear much closer resemblance to 
 those of Orlando, than the transports of Lancelot 
 or Tristan. It is after being cured of this phrensy 
 that he rescues the lion, which he finds engaged in 
 a perilous combat with a dragon. The grateful 
 animal attends him ever after, and is of great ser- 
 vice in all his adventures. Yvain at last thinks of 
 being reconciled to his wife, and begins his over- 
 tures towards accommodation, by raising storms 
 from the fountain. The lady, who had resolved 
 against agreement, is shaken by this species of elo- 
 quence ; as she finds she must either be reconciled 
 to her husband, or pass her life in an eternal hur- 
 ricane. This notion of a knight having obliged, 
 and being afterwards accompanied by a lion, which
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 359 
 
 is the leading incident in the above tale, seems 
 to be a fiction common to all nations : every one 
 knows the story of the Roman knight, and in the 
 Teutonic romance of the Book of Heroes, written 
 in the beginning of the 13th century, Wolfdietrich 
 having aided a lion in a combat with a dragon, is 
 ever after followed by the grateful quadruped. 
 
 There are a great number of fabliaux relating 
 to the knights of Arthur, of which Gauvain is ge- 
 nerally the hero, but which also contain a vast 
 deal about Queux, the seneschal of Arthur. 
 
 4-. In le Chevalier a l'Epee, erroneously ascri- 
 bed by some to Chrestien de Troyes, Gauvain is 
 received in a splendid castle, where it was a rule 
 that every person should be put to death who 
 found fault with any thing he saw in the habita- 
 tion. Owing to a hint be received from a peasant 
 on entering this ceremonious residence, he ab- 
 stains from- all criticism : but he was not aware 
 of a- second regulation, that au .enchanted sword 
 cut off the head of those who took liberties with 
 the daughter of the Chatelain. On the second 
 night of his stay, the father locks him up in the 
 same chamber with his daughter ; but the lady 
 having taken a liking to him, warns him of his 
 danger, and he escapes with a slight wound in the 
 arm. This damsel was afterwards married to
 
 360 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Gauvain, and of her is related the example of fe- 
 male infidelity, contrasted with canine attachment, 
 which has been given in the abstract of Tristan. 
 
 6. La Mule sans Frein has by some been at- 
 tributed to Paysans Maisiriers, and by others to 
 Chrestien de Troyes. A disconsolate lady, mount- 
 ed on a mule without a bridle, comes to the court 
 of Arthur, and requests that one of his knights 
 would go in search of this bridle, declaring, that 
 the mule knew the road to the place where it 
 lay. Queux, the seneschal, offers his services, but 
 speedily returns, appalled by the dangers he en- 
 counters. Gauvain then sets out, and after much 
 procedure with giants and monsters, recovers the 
 treasure from the lady's elder sister, who had rob- 
 bed the younger of it. In the original romance 
 there is not the smallest advantage to be derived 
 from the possession of this bridle ; but, in an ab- 
 stract in the Bibliotheque des Romans, it is feign- 
 ed to procure for the holder the comforts of eter- 
 nal youth and unfading beauty, which gives a 
 semblance of probability to the contest of these 
 freakish sisters. The tale has been versified by 
 Mr Way, and by the German poet Wieland. 
 
 7. The well-known story of le Court Mantel, 
 printed in the 16th century, and analyzed by Le 
 Grand, under the title of Le Manteau mal Taille.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 361 
 
 8. History of the adventures of four brothers, 
 Agravain, Gueret, Galheret, and Gauvain, all of 
 whom set out in different directions, in quest of 
 Lancelot du Lac. Agravain, as a coup d' essai, 
 kills Druas, a formidable giant, but is in turn 
 vanquished 'by Sornehan, the brother of the de- 
 ceased. His life is spared at the request of the 
 conqueror's niece, and he is confined in a dungeon, 
 where his preserver secretly brings him refresh- 
 ments. Gueret also concludes a variety of ad- 
 ventures, by engaging Sornehan, and being over- 
 come, is shut up in the same dungeon with his 
 brother. Galheret, the third of the fraternity, ar- 
 rives at a castle, where he is invited to play with 
 its lady at chess, on condition that if he win he is 
 to possess her person and castle, but should other- 
 wise become her slave. The chess men are ranged 
 in compartments on the floor of a fine hall, are 
 large as life, and glitter with gold and diamonds. 
 Each of them besides is a fairy, and moves on 
 being touched by a talisman. Galheret loses the 
 game, and is confined with a number of other 
 check-mated knights. Gauvain, however, soon af- 
 ter arrives, and vanquishes the lady at her own 
 arms ; but only asks the freedom of the prisoners, 
 among whom he finds his brother. Having learn- 
 ed from an elvish attendant of the lady, the fate
 
 362 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of his two other kinsmen, he equips himself in the 
 array of the chess king. In this garb he engages 
 Sornehan, who, being dazzled by the brightness 
 of his attire, is easily conquered, by which means 
 Agravain and Gueret are delivered from confine- 
 ment. 
 
 This story is told, with little variation, in the 
 prose romance of Lancelot du Lac, to which it 
 was probably transferred from the metrical tale 
 above-mentioned. 
 
 An account has now been presented of the ro- 
 mances of the Round Table, the most ancient class 
 of chivalrous composition. Of the usual tone of 
 incident in these works, I trust the reader may 
 have formed some idea from the abstracts already 
 given. In many of those points that have been 
 laid down, as constituting excellence in the ma- 
 terials of fictitious narrative, they will be found 
 extremely defective. The novelty of adventure 
 is not great, as most of the events related were 
 drawn from those metrical romances, by which 
 the prose ones were preceded. But, if we at one 
 view consider the originals and imitations, the in- 
 cidents are of such a nature as were never before 
 presented in combination to the world, and form 
 in every particular a complete contrast to the 
 Greek romances. As the fictions concerning the
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 363 
 
 Round Table, in common with all other tales of 
 chivalry, are full of stories of giants and enchant- 
 ers, they have no claim to probability of incident 
 in one sense of the term, and even that species of 
 verisimilitude, which we expect in the actions and 
 machinations of unearthly beings, is more often 
 violated than preserved. 
 
 A modern reader, too, is shocked by the glaring 
 anachronisms and geographical blunders which de- 
 form the romances of chivalry. These and other 
 absurdities have been happily ridiculed by Butler 
 m his Hudibras : 
 
 Some writers make all ladies purloined, 
 And knights pursuing in a whirlwind ; 
 Others make all their knights in fits 
 Of jealousy to lose their wits; 
 Some force whole regions in despite 
 Of geography, to change their site, 
 Make former times shake hands with latter, 
 And that which was before come after. 
 
 The story is invariably told in the person of the 
 author, and in this the writers of romance have 
 perhaps acted judiciously. As the exploits of so 
 many knights were to be related, it would not have 
 suited to put the account of them in the mouth of 
 the principal character, as he could not be mi-
 
 364 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 nutely acquainted with adventures, in which, for 
 the most part, he had no concurrence. The story 
 is never carried on, as in the Greek romances, in 
 the form of an epic poem, commencing in the 
 middle of the action, but truly begins with the egg 
 of Leda the adventures of the father or grand- 
 sire of the hero. After being protracted through 
 a period of twenty or thirty years, the romance 
 concludes with the death of the principal charac- 
 ter, or his retirement into a hermitage ; or drags 
 us through a long list of descendants. The inte- 
 rest, also, is too much divided, and the part of the 
 titular hero is not always the most considerable. 
 He appears and vanishes like a spirit, and we lose 
 sight of him too soon to regard him as the most 
 important character in the work. In the Greek 
 romances, all the adventures accelerate or impede 
 the solution of the fable ; but in the tales of chi- 
 valry there is a total want of unity of design, 
 which prevents our carrying on the story in our 
 mind, and distracts the attention. Indeed, I be- 
 lieve that in the metrical romances, and those few 
 that were originally written in prose, the author 
 had no idea where he was to stop ; he had formed 
 no skeleton of the story, nor proposed to himself 
 a conclusion to which his insulated adventures 
 should lead. 1 1
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 365 
 
 With respect to those excellencies which have 
 been termed the ornaments of fictitious narrative : 
 the characters of the heroes are not well shaded 
 nor distinguished. The knight, however, is always 
 more interesting than the heroine, which must ap- 
 pear strange when we reflect that these romances 
 were composed in an age when devotion to the 
 ladies formed the essence of chivalry, and that it is 
 quite the reverse in the Greek romances, though, 
 at the time in which they were written, women 
 acted a very inferior part in society. In the ro- 
 mance of Perceval, he appears a great deal, and 
 Blanchefleur very little. Some romances, as Me- 
 liadus, have no heroine at all, and the mistresses 
 of Lancelot and Tristan are women of abandoned 
 character. 
 
 In all these works the sentiments are thinly scat- 
 tered, and perhaps a greater number would not 
 have been appropriate in that species of composi- 
 tion. During the chivalrous ages, as Madame de 
 Stael has well remarked, " L' honneur et Y amour 
 agissoient sur le coeur de 1* horarae comme la fa- 
 talite chez les anciens, sans qu' on reflechit aux 
 motifs des actions, ni que Y incertitude y fut ad- 
 mise." 
 
 The charm of style and beauty of description 
 form the most pleasing features of the romances
 
 366 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of chivalry. There is something in the simplicity 
 of the old French tongue which surpasses that of 
 all other nations, and, from an assiduous perusal 
 of romances, where it is exhibited in its greatest 
 richness and beauty, we may receive much addi- 
 tional insight into the etymology of our own lan- 
 guage. 
 
 M. de Sainte Palaye talks in high terms of the 
 light which these works are calculated to throw on 
 the labours of the genealogist, and of the informa- 
 tion which they afford with regard to the progress 
 of arts among our ancestors. That writer was 
 an enthusiast for this species of lore ; and, like 
 other enthusiasts, was disposed to exaggerate its 
 importance and value. It may indeed be granted, 
 that the romances of chivalry are curious as a pic- 
 ture of manners, and interesting as efforts of the 
 imagination, in a certain stage of the progress of 
 the human mind ; but with this exception, and 
 the pleasure occasionally afforded by the naivetS 
 of the language, the most insipid romance of the 
 present day equals them as a fund of amusement, 
 and is not much inferior to them as a source of in- 
 struction. 
 
 Those, too, who have been accustomed to asso- 
 ciate the highest purity of morals with the man- 
 ners of chivalry, will be greatly deceived. Indeed,
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 367 
 
 in their moral tendency, many of the romances are 
 highly reprehensible. In some, as Perceforest, 
 particular passages are exceptionable, and the ge- 
 neral scope in others, where the principal charac- 
 ter is a knight, engaged, with the approbation of 
 all, in a love intrigue with the wife of his friend 
 or his sovereign. In one of the best of these ro- 
 mances, Tristan carries on an amour through the 
 whole work with the queen of his benefactor and 
 uncle. I need not mention the gallantries of 
 Lancelot and Geneura, nor the cold hard-hearted 
 infidelity of Artus de la Bretagne. " The whole 
 pleasure of these bookes," says Ascham, with 
 some truth and naivete, " standeth in two specyall 
 poyntes, in open mans slaghter and bolde baw- 
 drie, in which bookes those be counted the noblest 
 knights that doe kill most men without any quar- 
 rell, and commit fowlest adoulteries by sutlest 
 shifts, as Syr Launcelott with the wife of Kyng 
 Arthure his maister ; Syr Tristram with the wife 
 of Kyng Marke his vncle; Syr Lamerocke with 
 the wife of Kyng Lote, that was his own aunte. 
 This is good stufFe for wise men to laugh at, or 
 honest men to take pleasure at."
 
 368 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Romances of Chivalry relating to Charlemagne 
 and his Peers. Chronicle of Turpin. Huon 
 de Bourdeaux. Guerin de Monglave. Gal- 
 lien Rhetore. Milles et Amys. Jourdain de 
 Blaves. Ogier le Danois, fyc. 
 
 It was formerly shown that the romances relating 
 to Arthur and the knights of the Round Table 
 were in a great measure derived from the History 
 of Geoffrey of Monmouth. It now remains for us 
 to investigate what influence the chronicle false- 
 ly attributed to Turpin, or Tilpin, archbishop of 
 Rheims, the contemporary of Charlemagne, ex- 
 ercised over the fabulous stories concerning that 
 prince and his paladins. 
 
 The chronicle of Turpin is feigned to be address- 
 ed from Viennes, in Dauphiny, to Leoprandus, 
 dean of Aquisgranensis ( Aix la Chapelle), but was
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 369 
 
 not written, in fact, till the end of the eleventh or 
 beginning of the twelfth century. Its real author 
 seems not to be clearly ascertained, but is suppo- 
 sed by some to have been a Canon of Barcelona, 
 who attributed his work to Turpin. 
 
 This production, it is well known, turns on 
 the expedition of Charlemagne to the peninsula. 
 Some French writers have denied that Charle- 
 magne ever was in Spain, but the authority of 
 Eginhart is sufficient to establish the fact. It 
 seems certain, that about the year 777, the assist- 
 ance of Charlemagne was invoked by one of those 
 numerous sovereigns, among whom the Spanish 
 provinces were at that time divided ; that, on pre- 
 tence of defending this ally from the aggressions of 
 his neighbours, he extended his conquests over a 
 great part of Navarre and Arragon ; and, finally, 
 that on his return to France he experienced a 
 partial defeat from the treacherous attack of an 
 unexpected enemy. These simple events have 
 given rise to the famous battle of Roncesvalles, 
 and the other extravagant fictions recorded in the 
 chronicle of Turpin. 
 
 Charlemagne, according to that work, having 
 conquered Britain, Italy, Germany, and many 
 other countries, proposed to give himself some 
 repose, though the Saracens were not yet extir-; 
 
 vol. i. 2 a
 
 370 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 pated; but, while in this frame of mind, being 
 fortunately addicted to star-gazing, he one night 
 perceived a cluster of stars, 1 which, commencing 
 their procession at the Frisian sea, moved by way 
 of Germany and France into Gallicia. This phe- 
 nomenon being repeated, attracted the thoughts 
 of Charles, but he could form no rational conjec- 
 ture as to what was portended. The prodigy, which 
 eluded the waking researches of the monarch, was 
 satisfactorily expounded in a vision. A figure ap- 
 peared to Charles while he was asleep, introduced 
 itself as the apostle James, and announced that the 
 planetary march typified the conquest of Spain, 
 adding, that he had himself been slain by King 
 Herod, and that his body had long lain concealed 
 in Gallicia. Hence, continued he, I am astonished 
 that you have not delivered my land from the 
 yoke of the Saracens. The apostle's appropriation 
 of territory was somewhat whimsical, but Charles 
 did not dispute his title. This prince, however, 
 seems not to have been renowned for a retentive 
 memory, and accordingly the apostle took the 
 precaution, on the following night, of renewing 
 his suggestion. 
 
 1 *' Intcntione sagaci," says Eginhart, * siderum cursum 
 curiosissime rimabatur." (C. 25.)
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 371 
 
 In consequence of these successive admonitions, 
 Charles entered Spain with a large army, and in- 
 vested Pampeluna. He lay three months before 
 this town, but could not take it ; because, says the 
 chronicle, it was impregnable. At the end of this 
 period, however, he bethought himself of prayer, 
 on which the walls followed the example of their 
 tottering prototypes of Jericho. The Saracens 
 who chose to embrace Christianity were spared, 
 but those who persisted in infidelity were put to 
 the sword. Charles then paid his respects to the 
 sarcophagus of James, and Turpin had the satis- 
 faction of baptizing a great proportion of the Gal- 
 licians in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The main object with this bishop and his master, 
 was to destroy all the idols which could be disco- 
 vered ; an undertaking which, among a people who 
 abominate idolatry, must have required a very pa- 
 tient research. At length these images were com- 
 pletely extirpated, except an obstinate mawmet at 
 Cadiz, which could not be broken, because it was 
 inhabited by a cluster of demons. 
 
 After this Charles founded a number of church- 
 es, and endowed them with much wealth ; grants 
 which were afterwards reclaimed with great zeal 
 by a successor, who boasted him as a prototype.
 
 372 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Charles had scarcely returned to France, when 
 a strenuous pagan, named Aigolandus, recovered 
 the whole country, which obliged the French mo- 
 narch to return with great armies, of which he 
 gave the command to Milo, the father of Or- 
 lando. 
 
 While these troops were lying at Bayonne, a sol- 
 dier, named Romaricus, died, after having ordered 
 one of his relations to sell his horse, and distribute 
 the price among the clergy and the poor. His 
 kinsman sold the horse, but spent the money in 
 carousing. After thirty days the deceased, who 
 had been detained that time in purgatory, appear- 
 ed in a dream, upbraided his faithless executor for 
 the misapplication of the alms, and notified to him 
 that he might depend on being in Tartarus in the 
 course of the following day. While reporting this 
 uncomfortable assurance next morning to his fel- 
 low soldiers, he is hurried off by a flight of demons, 
 and dashed against a rock as a preliminary to sub- 
 sequent punishment. 
 
 After this there follows a long account of the 
 war with Aigolandus, which was first carried on by 
 two hundred, or two thousand, soldiers, on one 
 part, engaging an equal number of the enemy : 
 but at length a general battle was fought, in which 
 10
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 373 
 
 were slain forty thousand Christians, Milo the 
 commander of the forces, and the horse of Charles. 
 Next day, however, the French having been re- 
 inforced by Jour thousand men from the coast of 
 Italy, Aigolandus fled to a different part of the 
 peninsula, and Charles, departed for France. 
 
 Aigolandus now carried the war into Gascony, 
 followed by the Moabites, Ethiopians, Parthians, 
 and Africans. At Sanctona (Xantonge), previous 
 to a great battle, certain Christians having fixed 
 their spears in the ground towards night, found 
 them decorated next morning with leaves, which 
 signified to the proprietors of these warlike in- 
 struments that they were about to obtain the 
 crown of martyrdom. Aigolandus was defeated 
 in the battle with the loss of four thousand of his 
 troops, and fled to Pampeluna. Thither he was 
 followed by Charles, and an army of a hundred 
 and thirty-four thousand men. On this occasion 
 the reader is presented with a list of the chief 
 warriors, among whom are mentioned the names 
 of Orlando, Rinaldo, Oliviero, and Gano. Charles 
 having arrived at Pampeluna, received a message 
 from Aigolandus, requesting a truce till his army 
 should come forth fully prepared for war. 
 
 This being granted, Aigolandus in the interval
 
 074 KOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 paid a visit to Charles, and was much astonished 
 to hear himself attacked as an usurper in the Ara- 
 bic tongue, which Charles had learned at Coletus 
 (Thoulouse). Aigolandus expostulated, that his 
 competitor had no right either in his own person, 
 or derived from his ancestors, to the throne of 
 Spain ; but Charles replied, that the country must 
 be conquered for the extension of the Christian 
 religion. This brought on a theological dispute 
 between the two sovereigns, which terminated in 
 a resolution to fight on the following day, with a 
 hundred soldiers against a hundred, and a thousand 
 against a thousand : but Aigolandus being ulti- 
 mately vanquished in this singular species of war- 
 fare, agreed to be baptized with his people. For 
 this purpose he came to Charles next day, and 
 found that monarch carousing, while thirteen na- 
 ked beggars were sitting on the ground looking 
 on the feast. The malapert heathen asked who 
 these were. Charles replied, rather unfortunately, 
 that they were the people of God whom he was 
 feeding, and that they represented the apostles. 
 Aigolandus thereupon notified that he would have 
 nothing to do with such a faith. 
 
 Next day a pitched battle was fought, in which 
 Aigolandus having only a hundred thousand troops, 
 and his enemy a superiority of thirty-four thou-
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 375 
 
 sarvd, was entirely defeated, and was himself slain, 
 which demonstrated the propriety of the mode 
 which Charles had adopted of entertaining the 
 representatives of the apostles. 
 
 The French monarch next carried on a war 
 against Furra, a prince of Navarre. On the ap- 
 proach of a battle, he prayed that the sign of the 
 cross might appear on the shoulder of those who 
 were predestined to perish in the action. In or- 
 der to evade the decrees of Providence, Charles 
 shut up the soldiers who had been marked in con- 
 sequence of this application, in his oratory ; but 
 on returning from the battle, in which he van- 
 quished the enemy, he found that all those he had 
 in ward were dead, to the number of a hundred 
 and fifty, which evinced the impiety of his pre- 
 caution. 
 
 While in Navarre, it is reported to Charles that 
 a Syrian giant of first-rate enormity, called Ferra- 
 cutus (the Ferrau of the Italians), had appeared 
 at Nagera. This creature possessed most exube- 
 rant proportions : he was twelve cubits high, his 
 face was a cubit in length, and his nose a measu- 
 red palm. As soon as Charles arrived at Nagera, 
 this unwieldy gentleman proposed a single com- 
 bat, but the king was so little tempted by a perso- 
 nal survey, that he declined his offer. Ogerius the
 
 376 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Dane was therefore selected as the Christian cham- 
 pion, but the giant trussing him under one arm, 
 carried him off to the town. Having served a suc- 
 cession of knights in a similar manner, Orlando 
 at length went out against him. The Saracen, as 
 usual, commenced the attack by pulling his an- 
 tagonist from the saddle, and rode off with him, 
 till Orlando, exerting all his force, seized him by 
 the chin, and both fell to the ground. When 
 they had remounted, the knight thinking to kill 
 the pagan, only cut off the head of his horse. Fer- 
 rau being now on foot, Orlando struck a blow on 
 his arm that knocked the sword from his hand ; 
 on which the giant slew his adversary's horse with 
 a pat of his fist. After this the opponents fought 
 on foot, and with swords, till towards evening, 
 when Ferrau demanded a truce till next day. 
 
 In the morning Orlando had recourse to a new 
 sort of implement ; he attacked his enemy with an 
 immense club, which had no more effect than the 
 finer weapon. The champions now assaulted each 
 other with stones ; but when this species of war- 
 fare was at the hardest, giants being naturally 
 prone to somnolency, Ferrau became overpower- 
 ed with sleep, and again begged a truce. When 
 he had composed himself to rest, his courteous 
 antagonist placed a stone below his head, that he
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 377 
 
 might sleep more softty. When he awoke, Or- 
 lando took an opportunity of asking him how he 
 was so hardy, that he neither dreaded sword nor 
 batoon. The giant, who must have been more re- 
 markable for strength than caution, explained the 
 whole mystery, by acknowledging that he was 
 every where invulnerable except in the navel. Fer- 
 rau, in his turn, made less pertinent enquiries con- 
 cerning the name, lineage, and faith of his foe. 
 This last subject being started, Orlando, hoping 
 to make a convert, explained the articles of his 
 creed. The giant opened the controversy by 
 questioning the possibility of three being one, but 
 Orlando vanquished his arithmetical scruples by 
 a number of ingenious illustrations ; as that an 
 almond is a single nut, though it consists of three 
 things, the husk, the shell, and the kernel. The dis- 
 putant replied, that he had now a very clear concep- 
 tion how three made one, but that he was scanda- 
 lized at a virgin producing. Orlando reminded him 
 that there was nothing more remarkable in this, than 
 in the original creation of Adam. Our giant rea- 
 dily waved this point, but could not comprehend 
 how a God could die. The arguments on this 
 head he seems to have been as little prepared to 
 canvass as the other topics, but entrenched himself 
 within what he considered his last strong-hold, that
 
 378 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the God who died could not come alive again. It 
 was argued by Orlando, that there was nothing 
 impossible in this, as Elijah and Elisha readily re- 
 vived after their death, and that the dead cubs of 
 a lioness can be resuscitated on the third day, by 
 the breath of the mother. Orlando must, no doubt, 
 have expected, that the ingenuity of this last illus- 
 tration would have completed the work of conver- 
 sion ; what then must have been his disappoint- 
 ment, when the pertinacious Saracen, by demand- 
 ing that a sword should be admitted into the con- 
 ference, proved that his head was as impenetrable 
 to argument as his body to the incomparable edge 
 of Durindana. In the ensuing combat, Orlando 
 made great use of the information he had received 
 concerning the perforable part of his antagonist, 
 who being slain in consequence, the city of Na- 
 gera surrendered to the arms of Charlemagne. 
 
 After this success, the French monarch recei- 
 ved intelligence that Ebraim, king of Sibilia (Se- 
 ville), who had escaped from the battle before 
 Pampeluna, was encamped at Cordova, ready to 
 resist his invasion. Charles, without loss of time, 
 marched to the south of Spain. When the French 
 vanguard approached the enemy, it found that the 
 troops of the hostile army wore bearded masks, 
 that they had added horns to their heads, and that
 
 ROMANCBS OF CHIVALRY. 379 
 
 each soldier held a drum in his hand, which he 
 beat with prodigious violence. The horses, quite 
 unaccustomed to this sort of masquerade, imme- 
 diately took fright, and spread considerable con- 
 fusion in the Christian army, which with difficulty 
 retreated to an eminence. Next day, however, 
 previous to an attack, Charles ordered his horses 
 to be hood-winked, and their ears to be stopped 
 with wax. This stratagem, or ars mirabilis, as it 
 is called in the chronicle, rendered useless the mar- 
 tial prelude of the enemy, and gained Charles the 
 victory. A similar device is resorted to, on a like 
 occasion, in the metrical romance of Richard Cceur 
 de Lion, by the English monarch. 
 
 The capture of Cordova was the immediate fruit 
 of the success of Charlemagne, and Spain being 
 now entirely subdued, the conqueror made a pro- 
 per partition of the kingdom. He bestowed Na- 
 varre on the Britons, Castille on the French, and 
 Arragon on the Greeks, while Andalusia and Por- 
 tugal were assigned to the Flemings. 
 
 After the account of this distribution, the histo- 
 rian most seasonably introduces a description of 
 the person of his hero, and the capacities of his 
 stomach. As to his external appearance, he had 
 dark hair, a ruddy countenance, a stern aspect, 
 but a graceful and elegant form. This, indeed,
 
 380 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 appeafs from his dimensions, for his les were 
 thick, his altitude eight feet, and his belly protube- 
 rant. His daily consumption of provisions, though 
 almost incredible, scarcely exceeds that of Lewis 
 XIV., of whose diet an account has been served 
 up in the Walpoliana. During night, Charles was 
 guarded by a hundred and twenty of the orthodox, 
 who relieved each other during three watches, ten 
 being placed at his head, ten at his feet, and the 
 same number on either side, each holding a naked 
 falchion in one hand and a burning torch in the 
 other. 
 
 When Charles had arrived as, far as Pampeluna 
 on his return to France, he bethought himself that 
 he had yet left in Spain two Saracen kings, Mar- 
 sirius (the same who in Ariosto is present at the 
 siege of Paris by Agramante), and his brother 
 Beligandus, who reigned jointly at Cacsaraugusta 
 (Saragossa). To these miscreants he despatched 
 Gannalon (the Gan Traditor of Italian poets) to 
 expatiate on the necessity of their paying tribute 
 and receiving baptism. They sent Charles a quan- 
 tity of sweet wine and a thousand houris, but at 
 the same time bribed the ambassador to betray his 
 master. Gannalon, on his return to head-quar- 
 ters, reported that Marsirius was well disposed to 
 become a Christian and to pay tribute. Trusting
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 381 
 
 to this information, Charles made a disposition on 
 his march to France, by which he lost the half of 
 his army. He himself passed the Pyrenees in safe- 
 ty with part of his troops ; but the second division, 
 commanded by Orlando, consisting of 20,000 men, 
 was unexpectedly attacked in the defiles of Ron- 
 cesvalles, by a guerilla of 50,000 Saracens, and was 
 cut to pieces, except Orlando and a few knights.* 
 The main body of the pagans having retired, 
 Orlando discovered a stray Saracen, whom he 
 bound to a tree. After this exploit he ascended 
 an eminence, and sounded his ivory horn, which 
 rallied around him a hundred Christians, the re- 
 mains of his army. Though the pagans had, with 
 little loss to themselves, reduced his soldiers from 
 20,000 to 100, Orlando by no means despaired of 
 discomfiting the host of his enemy. He returned 
 with his small band to the Saracen he had put in 
 durance, and threatened to kill him unless he 
 would show him Marsirius. The Saracen yielded 
 to so powerful an argument, and pointed out his 
 king, who was distinguished by his bay horse and 
 
 ' The valley of Roncesvaltes, where this catastrophe is 
 supposed to have happened, lies to the north- east of Pani- 
 peluna. it extends to St Jean Pied de Porte in Basse Na- 
 varre, and receives its name from the mountain of Ronces- 
 valles, which terminates this plain, and is accounted the 
 highest of the Pyrenees.
 
 382 ItOMANCES OF chivalry. 
 
 round shield. Orlando rushed among the pagans 
 and slew their monarch, which induced Beligandus 
 to fall back with his army on Saragossa. In this 
 brilliant enterprise the hundred Christians were 
 killed, and their commander severely wounded. 
 Wandering through a forest, Orlando arrived alone 
 at the entrance to the pass of Cisera, where, ex- 
 hausted with wounds, and grieving for the loss of 
 his army, he threw himself under a tree. As a 
 refreshment, he commenced a long address to his 
 sword Durindana, which he complimented with all 
 the superlatives in the Latin language " Forti- 
 tudine firmissime, capulo eburneo candidissime, 
 cruce aurea splendidissime," &c. &c. 
 
 The dying champion next blew his horn with 
 such force that he burst it. 1 Charles, who was 
 then in Gascony, heard the peal distinctly, and 
 wished to return to the succour of his nephew, 
 but was persuaded by Gannalon that he could be 
 
 . 
 1 This horn has been of infinite service to future poets 
 and romancers. Logystilla, in the Orlando Furioso (c. 15.), 
 bestows it on Astolpbo, and Prince Arthur's squire is fur- 
 nished with a similar one by Spenser. The notion proba- 
 bly came to Turpin from Simeon Seth's Life of Alexander, 
 where that monarch gives his war signal by a born of im- 
 mense power. All these have perhaps been derived from 
 the horn of Alccto, in the 7th book of the yEneid.
 
 ltOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 383 
 
 in no danger, and that he was merely taking the 
 diversion of hunting in the forests. The blast, 
 however, brought to him Theodoricus, the only 
 surviving knight. Orlando had received the sa- 
 crament that morning, and had confessed himself 
 to certain priests, which this learned chronicle 
 informs us was the universal custom of knights 
 before proceeding to battle. Nothing, therefore, 
 remained for the hero but to make a long prayer 
 before he expired. 
 
 At this very moment Turpin was standing by 
 King Charles, saying mass for the souls of cer- 
 tain persons lately deceased, and informs the 
 reader, that while thus employed, he heard the 
 songs of the angels who were conveying Orlando 
 to Heaven. At the same time a phalanx of de- 
 mons passed before the archbishop, and notified 
 that they were so far on their way to Gehenna 
 with the soul of one Marsirius, but that Michael, 
 with an angel crowd, was conveying the trumpeter 
 aloft (Tubicinem virum cum multis Michael fert 
 ad superna). As no person could doubt the ac- 
 curacy of these respectable deponents, Turpin 
 announced to Charles the death of his nephew. 
 Charles immediately returned to Roncesvalles, 
 where he uttered a learned lamentation over the 
 remains of Orlando, whom he compared to Sam-
 
 384 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 son, Saul, Jonathan, and Judas Maccabeus, and 
 then embalmed the body with balsam, myrrh, and 
 aloes. 
 
 Charles now thought of taking vengeance on the 
 heathen, as an incitement to which the sun held 
 out to him the same encouragement it had for- 
 merly done to Joshua. By this means he came up 
 with the Saracens, while yet reposing on the banks 
 of the Ebro in the neighbourhood of Saragossa. 
 Of them he killed four thousand, a favourite num- 
 ber with this historian, and then returned to Ron- 
 cesvalles. Here he instituted an enquiry into the 
 conduct of Gannalon, and the champion of that 
 traitor having been slain in single combat, he was 
 tied to the four most ferocious horses in the army, 
 and thus torn to pieces. 
 
 There is next related the manner in which the 
 Christians preserved the bodies of their friends, and 
 the final interment of each species of mummy. 1 
 
 The origin and incidents of this expedition of Charle- 
 magne are told in a totally different manner by the Spanish 
 historians. They assert that Charlemagne was called into 
 Spain by Alphonso, king of Leon, on a promise to nominate 
 him as a successor if he would assist in the expulsion of the 
 Moors. Charlemagne was successful in his efforts against 
 the infidels, but the nobles and chieftains of Alphonso dis- 
 approving of the ulterior part of their sovereign's compact, 
 supported by Bernardo del Carpio, and at length by their
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY* 385 
 
 The emperor having returned to Paris, St Denis 
 informed him, in a dream, that all those who had 
 fallen in Spain had their sins forgiven ; and at the 
 same time took the opportunity of mentioning that 
 a similar mercy would be extended to those who 
 gave money for building his church. Those who 
 contributed willingly were freed from all servi- 
 tude, whence the name of Gaul was changed into 
 France. 
 
 Charles had been much debilitated by his cam- 
 paign in the peninsula. For the sake of the warm 
 baths he repaired to Leodio (Liege), where he 
 built a palace, in which was painted the story of 
 his wars in Spain. Now it fell out that one day, 
 while Turpin, who resided at Viennes, was offi- 
 ciating before the altar, an host of demons, who 
 seem to be the newsmongers in this history, pass- 
 ed before him with unusual velocity. Having in- 
 
 own monarch, attacked and cut to pieces an immense army. 
 with which the French emperor had encamped on the plain 
 of Itoncesvalles. The incidents are represented in a similar 
 manner in the Spanish romantic poems. In the Orlando of 
 Nicholas Espinosa, Con el verdadero successo de la famosa 
 Batalla de Itoncesvalles, published 1557, Bernardo del Car- 
 pio stifles Orlando to death, and the poet declares, 
 
 Cantera la verdad aquesta historia, 
 Y no segua Turpin Frances lo sieote. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 B
 
 386 UOMANCES OF chivalry. 
 
 terrogated one of these, who resembled an Ethio- 
 pian, and was lagging behind the rest, he was ad- 
 vertised that they were all going to attend at the 
 death of Charles, and hurry his soul to Tartarus. 
 Turpin requested that, having despatched their 
 errand, they would return with the earliest intelli- 
 gence. The fiends were faithful to their appoint- 
 ment, but were reduced to the mortifying acknow- 
 ledgement that a Galician, without a head, having 
 weighed the sins and merits of Charles, had de- 
 prived them of their expected prize, and conveyed 
 the soul in a quite contrary direction from what 
 they had intended. In fifteen days after, a special 
 messenger or express arrived at Viennes, who con- 
 firmed the deposition of the demons as to the death 
 of Charles, a loss which could have excited no 
 surprise, as the sun and moon had prepared the 
 minds of his subjects for the event, by assuming 
 a black colour for six days preceding his decease. 
 Besides, his name was spontaneously effaced from 
 a church ; and a wooden bridge over the Rhine, 
 which took six years to build, had been recently 
 consumed by internal fire. 
 
 Turpin concludes his history with a remark, 
 which seems to be intended as the moral of the 
 whole work, that he who builds a church on earth 
 cannot fail of obtaining a palace in Heaven.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 387 
 
 I have given this minute analysis of the absurd 
 chronicle of Turpin in deference to the common 
 opinion, that it had a remarkable influence on 
 the early romances relating to Charlemagne, and 
 thence on the splendid monuments of human ge- 
 nius that have been erected by the Italian poets. 
 
 It must, however, be remarked, that there are 
 few incidents in this work which breathe the spirit 
 of romantic fiction. There are no castles nor 
 dragons, no amorous knights, and no distressed 
 damsels. The chronicle is occupied with wars on 
 an extensive scale, and with the theological con- 
 troversies of chiefs in the Saracen and Christian 
 armies. Indeed the campaign of Charlemagne 
 seems to have been chiefly forrced on the model 
 of the wars of Joshua. Jericho and Pampeluna 
 fall in the same manner into the hands of the be- 
 siegers : the stratagem of Marsirius resembles that 
 of the Gibeonites, and the victors divide the con- 
 quered lands in a similar manner among their 
 followers. Many wonders, it is true, are related 
 in the chronicle of Turpin, but they more resem- 
 ble the miracles of the monkish legends than the 
 beautiful fables that decorate romance. These 
 fictions, according to the principles already esta- 
 blished, must have flowed from other sources.
 
 388 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 though the historical materials to be found iu 
 some of the romances of Charlemagne may have 
 been derived from the chronicle. It has been 
 much doubted whether the Italian poets consult- 
 ed the original Turpin. Ariosto quotes him for 
 stories of which he does not say a single word, 
 and which are the most absurd and incredible in 
 his poem ; as Voltaire, subsequently, in the Pu- 
 celle d'Orleans, laid the onus probandi on the 
 Abbe Tritheme. Thus in the Orlando Furioso, 
 
 Scrive Turpino, come furo ai Pass! 
 Dell alto Atlante, die i cavalli loro 
 Tutti in un punto diventaron Sassi. C. 44. 
 
 Boiardo, whose Orlando Innamorato, in its origi- 
 nal form, is the most serious of the romantic poems 
 of Italy, jocularly calls the chronicle of Turpin 
 his True History, as Cervantes terms his feigned 
 authorities, 
 
 La vera Historia di Turpin ragiona 
 Che regnava in la terra d'Oriente, &c. 
 
 The incidents in the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci 
 are those which approach nearest to the chro- 
 nicle, yet Crescimbeni has asserted that it was
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 389 
 
 never seen by that father of romantic poetry. 1 
 The conclusion of the Morgante, however, seems 
 almost copied from Turpin. Gano is there sent 
 ambassador to King Marsilio to negociate a trea- 
 ty : he treacherously writes that this king is ready 
 to pay tribute, and requests Charlemagne to send 
 his paladins to Roncesvalles to receive it. There 
 they are attacked by the Saracens. Orlando sound- 
 ed his horn, but Gano at first persuaded Charles 
 that he was hunting. At the third blast, however, 
 the king proceeded to Spain, but Orlando was 
 dead before his arrival. He then besieged and 
 took Saragossa ; and, after the return to France, 
 Gano was pulled to pieces by four horses. These 
 circumstances bear a stronger resemblance to the 
 chronicle of Turpin than to any intermediate ro- 
 mance, for it is clear that the French romance of 
 Morgante is not the original, but a version of the 
 Italian poem. 
 
 But whatever may have been its effect on the 
 Italian poems, it is probable, from its wide circu- 
 lation and great popularity, that the chronicle of 
 Turpin had some influence on the romances of 
 Charlemagne, or at least the metrical tales from 
 
 Luigi Pulci spesso volta la cita piu per giuoco, crediam 
 uoi, che percbe egli 1' avesse veduta.
 
 390 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 which they were immediately formed. The work 
 was very generally read in the fourteenth century, 
 and was several times translated into French with 
 variations and additions. Of these versions the 
 first is by Michel de Harnes, who lived as early 
 as the time of Philip Augustus, and the next by 
 Gaguin, who was librarian to Charles VIII. There 
 were also a number of French metrical para- 
 phrases, which were nearly coeval with the origi- 
 nal chronicle. 
 
 In the reign of St Louis there appeared a ro- 
 mance in verse on the exploits of Charlemagne by 
 an unknown author, which chiefly relates to the 
 wars of that monarch with the Saxons, and their 
 celebrated chief Guitichens (Witikend.) 
 
 About the time of Philip the Hardy, Girard, or 
 Girardin, of Amiens, composed a metrical romance 
 on the actions of Charlemagne, divided into three 
 books. Of these the first gives an account of an 
 early expedition of Charles, under the name of 
 Maine, into Arragon, to assist Galafre, a Saracen, 
 whose daughter he marries after vanquishing her 
 father's enemies ; a story which, in a much later 
 romance, is told of Charles Martel. The second 
 book contains his wars in Italy against Didier 
 king of the Lombards, and differs little from what 
 is contained in the authentic histories relating to
 
 aOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 391 
 
 Charlemagne. The third book is a rhythmical 
 version of the chronicle of Turpin. 
 
 Nearly at the same time, in another voluminous 
 metrical romance, an account was given of Char- 
 lemagne's preparations for his expedition to the 
 Holy Land, and the adventures of some of his 
 knights who preceded him to that region. No- 
 thing, however, is said of the conquest of Pales- 
 tine, and indeed the reality of this enterprise is 
 denied by all authentic historians, though it found 
 its way into many of the absurd and fabulous chro- 
 nicles of the 13th and 14th centuries. 
 
 There is another work somewhat resembling the 
 chronicle of Turpin, which, according to the au- 
 thors of L' Histoire Literaire de la France, was 
 written in 1015, while the Count de Caylus places 
 its composition in the reign of Lewis IX. It is 
 called Philumena, a name derived from that of a 
 pretended secretary of Charlemagne, but it was 
 in fact written by a monk of the Abbey de Grasse. 
 It contains an account of the exploits of the em- 
 peror against the Moors of Spain, but is more es- 
 pecially devoted to the history and miracles of the 
 abbey, the foundation of which the author attri- 
 butes to Charlemagne. 
 
 In the Reali di Francia, an ancient Italian chro- 
 nicle, we are presented with a fabulous account of
 
 392 BOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the early periods of the French monarchy previous 
 to the age of Charlemagne, the first exploits of 
 that monarch, and the amours of Milo, father of 
 Orlando, with Bertha, Charlemagne's sister. 
 
 There were also many rhythmical French ro- 
 mances on the subject of the paladins of Charle- 
 magne. The northern bards, who followed Rollo to 
 France, introduced their native traditions ; those, 
 for instance, relating to Ogier the Dane, and other 
 northern heroes, who were afterwards enlisted into 
 the tales of chivalry. The earliest French metri- 
 cal romances related, as we have seen, to Arthur ; 
 but when Normandy had fallen under the domi- 
 nion of the kings of France, and that country be- 
 gan to look on England with an eye of jealousy, 
 which was the prelude to more open hostility, 
 the native minstrels changed their theme of the 
 praises of the Round Table knights to the more ac- 
 ceptable subject of the paladins of Charlemagne. 
 In the 13th century, Adenez, who was a kind oi' 
 poet laureat to Henry III., duke of Brabant, 
 wrote the metrical romance, L'Enfance d' Ogier 
 le Danois ; and about the same period, Huon 
 de Villeneuve produced the still more celebrated 
 compositions of Regnauld de Montauban, Doolin 
 de Mayence, Maugis d' Aigremont, and Quatrc 
 fils Aimon.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 393 
 
 The ancient chronicles and metrical romances 
 above mentioned, may be considered as sources 
 which supplied with materials the early writers of 
 the prose romances relating to Charlemagne ; but 
 though they may have suggested his expedition to 
 Spain and the Holy Land, with several other cir- 
 cumstances, the authors of the prose romances 
 ef Charlemagne seem to have written more from 
 fancy, and less slavishly to have followed the me- 
 trical tales by which they were preceded, than 
 the compilers of the fables concerning Arthur. 
 They added incidents which were the creatures 
 of their own imagination, and embellished their 
 dreams with the speciosa miracula, derived from 
 the fables of Arabia, or from northern and classi- 
 cal mythology. Heroes of romance, besides, are 
 frequently decorated with the attributes belong- 
 ing to their predecessors or descendants. Many 
 of the events related in the romantic story of 
 Charlemagne are historically true with regard to 
 Charles Martel. When the fame of the latter was 
 eclipsed by the renown of Charlemagne, the songs 
 of the minstrels, and legends of the monks, trans- 
 ferred the exploits of the Armorican chief to his 
 more illustrious descendant. 
 
 Thus, from the ancient chronicles and early 
 metrical romances ; from the exploits of indivi-
 
 394 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 dual heroes, concentrated in one; from the em- 
 bellishments added by the imagination of the 
 author, and the charms of romantic fiction, sprung 
 those formidable compilations we are about to 
 encounter, and which form the second division of 
 Romances of Chivalry. 
 
 It is still more diificult to fix the dates of the 
 fabulous tales relating to Charlemagne than of 
 those of the Round Table. 
 
 HUON de BOURDEAUX/ 
 
 though written in verse by Huon de Villeneuve, 
 as far back as the 13th century, is not, in its pre- 
 sent form, supposed to be long anterior to the 
 invention of printing, as there are no manuscripts 
 of it extant. It is said, indeed, at the end of 
 the work, that it was written by desire of Charles 
 Seigneur de Rochfort, and completed on the 29th 
 of January, 1454 ; but it is suspected that the 
 conclusion is of a date somewhat more recent 
 than the first part of the romance. The oldest 
 
 1 Les prouesses et faicts merveilleux du noble Huon de 
 Bordeaulx, Per de France, Dae de Cayenne.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 395 
 
 edition is one in folio, without date, and the se- 
 cond is in quarto, 1516. There are also different 
 impressions in the original language of a more re- 
 cent period. Huon of Bourdeaux, indeed, seems 
 to have been a favourite romance, not only among 
 the French, but also with other nations. The Eng- 
 lish translation, executed by Lord Berners in the 
 reign of Henry VIII., has gone through three edi- 
 tions, and it has lately formed the subject of the 
 finest poem in the German language. 
 
 As the incidents in the Oberon of Wieland are 
 nearly the same with those in the old French ro- 
 mance, and are universally known through the 
 beautiful translation of Mr Sotheby, it will not 
 be necessary to give so full an analysis of the work 
 as it would be otherwise entitled to, from its anti- 
 quity, singularity, and beauty. 
 
 Huon, and his brother Girard, while travelling 
 from their own domains of Guyenne to pay ho- 
 mage to Charlemagne, are treacherously way-laid 
 by Chariot, the emperor's son, who, by the ad- 
 vice of evil counsellors, had formed the design of 
 appropriating their possessions. Having killed, 
 though in self-defence, the favourite son of his 
 sovereign, Huon could not obtain pardon, except 
 on the whimsical condition that he should proceed 
 to the court of the Saracen Amiral, or Emir Gau-
 
 396 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 disse, who ruled in Bagdad that he should ap- 
 pear while this potentate was at table cut off the 
 head of the bashaw who sat at his right-hand 
 kiss his daughter three times, and bring, as a tri- 
 bute to Charlemagne, a lock of his white beard, 
 and four of his most efficient grinders. 
 
 Before setting out on this excursion, Huon 
 proceeds to Rome, where he is advised by his 
 uncle, the pope, to perform a pilgrimage to Pa- 
 lestine, and thence depart on the remainder of 
 his expedition. 
 
 Having complied with this injunction, and visit- 
 ed the holy sepulchre, Huon sets out for the coast 
 of the Red Sea, but wanders in a forest, where he 
 supports himself with wild fruits and honey till 
 the end of the third day, when he meets an old 
 man of gigantic stature, naked, as far as clothes 
 were concerned, but covered with long hair. This 
 ancien preudhomme, as he is called, addresses Huon 
 in a dialect of the French language, informs him 
 that his name is Gerasmes, and that he is brother 
 to the mayor of Bourdeaux ; he had been made 
 prisoner in a battle with the Saracens, but having 
 escaped from slavery, and possessing much of the 
 sf avoir vivre, he had judiciously chosen to reside 
 thirty years in the forest in his present comfort- 
 able predicament.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 397 
 
 Gerasraes informs Huon that from this wilder- 
 ness two roads led to the states of Gaudisse, one 
 a journey of forty days, the other less tedious, but 
 extremely dangerous, as it passed through the fo- 
 rest inhabited by Oberon, who metamorphosed 
 the knights who were bold enough to trespass, 
 into hobgoblins, and animals of various descrip- 
 tions. 
 
 Our hero having, of course, decided in favour 
 of the most perilous road, he and Gerasmes pene- 
 trate into the thickest part of the forest of Obe- 
 ron. Having followed a path through the wood 
 to a considerable distance, they sit down almost 
 exhausted with famine under an oak. At this hour 
 Oberon, who was apparently a child of four years 
 of age, of resplendent beauty, and clothed in a 
 robe sparkling with precious stones, was parading 
 through the forest. The dwarf accosts Huon and 
 his attendants, but, enraged at their silence, raises 
 a frightful tempest. Huon attempts to escape 
 through the thickets, but is soon overtaken by 
 Oberon, who allays the storm, and sounds a ma- 
 gic horn, which throws the attendants of Huon 
 into convulsions of merriment and dancing. Obe- 
 ron, at length having ceased to blow the horn, 
 enters into conversation with the knight : he com- 
 mences an account of his own pedigree, and de-
 
 398 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 clares that he is the son of Julius Caesar and 
 a fairy, who was lady of the Hidden Isle, now 
 Chifalonia, in which she had received the Roman 
 chief, when on his voyage to Thessaly to attack 
 Pompey. Many rare endowments had been be- 
 stowed on Oberon at his birth, but a malevolent 
 fairy, offended at not being invited to attend on 
 that occasion, had decreed that his stature should 
 not increase after he was three years of age. Obe- 
 ron farther professed the utmost esteem for Huon 
 and his kindred, as a proof of which he immediate- 
 ly raised up a sumptuous palace for his reception, 
 where he was entertained with a magnificent ban- 
 quet, at which the fairy presided in great state. 
 After the repast he presented Huon with a goblet, 
 which, in the hands of a good man, spontaneously 
 filled with wine, and also the ivory horn, which, if 
 softly sounded, would make every one dance who 
 was not of irreproachable character, and, if blown 
 with violence, would bring Oberon himself to his 
 assistance, at the head of 100,000 soldiers. 
 
 Fortified with these gifts, Huon proceeds on 
 his journey. After travelling a few days, he ar- 
 rives at the city of Tourmont, which he finds is 
 governed by one of his uncles, who, in his youth, 
 had gone on a penitential pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 
 and having become the slave of the Emir Gau- 
 10
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 399 
 
 disse, had been deputed to govern a Saracen city 
 as a reward for renouncing the Christian faith. 
 In this place Huon attracts immediate notice by 
 feasting all the poor of the city out of his enchant- 
 ed cup. This procures Huon a visit from his apos- 
 tate uncle, to whom he introduces himself as a ne- 
 phew, and presents him with the goblet filled with 
 wine ; but as his relative was a person of aban- 
 doned character, the liquor instantly disappears. 
 The renegado receives his nephew with apparent 
 kindness, but privately meditates his destruction. 
 He accordingly invites him and Gerasmes to a 
 sumptuous banquet, but orders one of his agas 
 to place guards in the antichamber, who should 
 be ready to attack the Christians. This officer 
 was of French birth, and having been befriended 
 in his youth by the father of Huon, he fills the 
 anti-room with Christian prisoners, whom he had 
 set at liberty. Accordingly the traitor's command 
 for an attack on Huon is the signal for a general 
 massacre of the pagans. The emir, however, ha- 
 ving escaped, assembles his forces and besieges 
 his nephew, who remained in the palace. Huon, 
 considering this as an occasion sufficiently impor- 
 tant to demand the assistance of Oberon, sounds 
 his horn, and while the besiegers are in conse- 
 quence dancing with prodigious agility, the Chris-
 
 400 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 tians are reinforced by an army of a hundred 
 thousand men, with the fairy as generalissimo. 
 The governor's troops being immediately cut to 
 pieces, and he himself slain, Huon prepares for 
 his departure. Oberon gives him a last advice 
 concerning his journey, warning him particularly 
 not to approach the tower possessed by Angou- 
 laftre, a cruel giant, who could only be vanquished 
 by a person defended by a certain hauberk, which 
 the monster unfortunately kept in his custody. 
 
 To this very tower Huon directs his course, and, 
 entering it while the giant is asleep, he arms him- 
 self with the fatal hauberk, awakens the lord of 
 the manor, and kills him by the assistance of a 
 lady, who was confined there, and who finds a 
 kinsman in her deliverer. 
 
 Huon follows up this exploit by possessing him- 
 self of a ring which had been sent to the giant as 
 a tribute from Gaudisse. Here he dismisses Ge- 
 rasmes and the rest of his retinue, and having 
 crossed an arm of the Red Sea on the back of 
 Malebron, one of the spirits of Oberon, he at length 
 arrives at Babylon (Bagdad) in Arabia, where that 
 emir held his court. 
 
 Having entered the palace, and passed the sa- 
 loon where the emir was banqueting with a few 
 tributary sultans, Huon suddenly interrupts the
 
 KOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 401 
 
 pleasures of the entertainment by removing the 
 head of the king of Hyrcania, who was the intend- 
 ed husband of Esclarmonde, the daughter of Gau- 
 disse, and was then seated at the right-hand of 
 her father. He next fulfils the second part of 
 his mission, on the lips of the princess, and con- 
 cludes with promulgating his designs against the 
 beard and grinders of the emir. This potentate 
 was but ill prepared with an answer to so novel a 
 proposition, and a mode of address somewhat un- 
 usual at his board. Huon, however, having pro- 
 duced the ring of Angoulaffre, is at first heard 
 with tolerable patience ; but when he mentions 
 how he became possessed of it, the emir orders 
 him to be apprehended. The knight at first de- 
 fends himself with great courage, and kills many 
 of the assailants, but is at last overpowered by 
 numbers. It was now in vain to have recourse to 
 his horn ; at the first gate of the palace, Huon, in 
 order to gain admittance, had professed himself a 
 mussulman, a falsehood which rendered the horn 
 of no avail, since from that moment his character 
 had ceased to be irreproachable. He is loaded 
 with chains and precipitated into a dungeon, where 
 the emir intended he should be tormented with 
 the punishments of hunger and bondage, as pre- 
 vol. i. 2 c
 
 402 HOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 paratory to that of being burned alive, which was 
 in reserve. Huon receives sustenance, however, 
 and many consolatory visits, from the beautiful 
 Esclarmonde, interviews which must have been 
 the more agreeable, as he could not be conscious 
 of any claims to the favour of that princess, far- 
 ther than having cut off the head of her lover, in- 
 sulted her father, and knocked out the brains of 
 his body-guards. 
 
 After a few tender conversations, Esclarmonde 
 professes her readiness to become a Christian. In 
 many of the romances of Charlemagne, the fable 
 hinges on the assistance given by Saracen prin- 
 cesses to Christian knights, and the treasons prac- 
 tised for their lovers' sake against their fathers or 
 brothers. It must, indeed, be confessed, that they 
 are not of- the sex to which the Mahometan reli- 
 gion is most seductive. 
 
 When this good understanding had been esta- 
 blished, in order to secure Huon against the dan- 
 gers with which he was threatened, his jailor, who 
 had been bribed by Esclarmonde, informs the 
 emir that his prisoner had died two days ago, and 
 had been interred in the dungeon. 
 
 At this period, Gerasmes, whom we left at the 
 tower of Angoulaffre, arrives at Bagdad, and, 
 along with Esclarmonde, plots the deliverance of
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 403 
 
 Huon. The princess had now become so furious 
 a Christian, that she- declared to Huon, " que n' 
 est homme que plus Je hais que 1' admiral Gau- 
 disse mon pere, pource qu'il ne croit en nostre 
 seigneur Jhesu Christ." Her hatred, indeed, had 
 risen to so high a pitch, that she insisted on her 
 father being murdered in his sleep. " A 1' heure 
 de minuit Je vous meneray en la chambre de mon 
 pere ; vous le trouverez dormant, puis incontinent 
 le occirez : Et quant est a moy, Je vueil bien es- 
 tre la premiere qui le premier coup luy baillera." 
 These plans are aided by the invasion of Agra- 
 pard, the brother of Angoulaffre, who enters the 
 capital at the head of a formidable army, re- 
 proaches the emir (most unreasonably one should 
 think) for not having avenged the death of that 
 giant, and suggests the alternative of paying a 
 triple tribute or denuding himself of his kingdom. 
 The emir could find no person at his court who 
 would encounter this champion. After cursing 
 his gods at considerable length, and to no pur- 
 pose, Esclarmonde embraces this favourable oppor- 
 tunity, to confess that Huon is still in existence. 
 The knight is accordingly brought forth from his 
 dungeon, and the emir promises that if he van- 
 quish Agrapard, lie will not only allow his beard
 
 404; ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 to be plucked, but will patiently submit to a par- 
 tial extraction of his grinders. 
 
 Huon, having overcome the giant, proposes to 
 Gaudisse, that, in lieu of the despoliation of his 
 beard and grinders, he should consent to be bap- 
 tized. This alteration in the agreement not being 
 relished by the emir, he orders Huon to be seized, 
 who, trusting that his long sufferings had now ap- 
 peased Oberon, sounds the horn with the requisite 
 vehemence. The surmise of the knight is justi- 
 fied by the event : the fairy king appears with a 
 formidable army, and the head of the emir is 
 struck off by an invisible hand. The beard and 
 teeth thus become an easy prey to the conqueror, 
 and are sewed up by Oberon in the side of Geras- 
 mes, who was in attendance. Huon loads two 
 vessels with the treasures of the emir, and sails for 
 Italy with Esclarmonde, after being threatened 
 by Oberon with the severest punishments, if he 
 should anticipate the delights of matrimony pre- 
 vious to the fulfilment of its graver ceremonies. 
 
 In most romances, when a superior being re- 
 ceives a mortal into favour, some test of obedience 
 is required. This is usually violated, and the con- 
 sequent misfortunes form a series of endless inci- 
 dents. As to Huon, he seems never to have re-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 4-05 
 
 ceived any injunction from Oberon, without act- 
 ing in direct opposition to it. Gerasmes, foreseeing 
 the fate of the lovers, sets sail for France in one 
 of the ships, carrying in his side the precious de- 
 posit of beard and grinders. Scarcely had he left 
 the vessel in which Huon and Esclarmonde are 
 conveyed, when their conduct gives rise to a tem- 
 pest more boisterous than the description of the 
 youngest poet. The ship goes to pieces on a 
 desert island, where the lovers wander about for 
 some time, and renew the offence that had given 
 rise to the late hurricane ; but, though on shore, 
 they are not permitted to violate the injunctions 
 of Oberon with impunity. A band of corsairs 
 arriving on the island, one of their number, who 
 had been a subject of the emir Gaudisse, immedi- 
 ately recognises Esclarmonde. These pirates leave 
 Huon in the island, bound to a tree, and, in 
 hopes of a great recompense, sail with the prin- 
 cess for the capital of Yvoirin, emir of Montbrant, 
 and uncle of Esclarmonde. Though Huon was 
 not in the vessel, a tempest drives it to the coast 
 of Anfalerne. The captain having entered one of 
 the ports of that kingdom, Galafre, the ruler of 
 the country, comes on board, and on their refusal 
 to deliver up the princess, puts the whole crew to 
 death, with the exception of one pirate, who es-
 
 406 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 capes to Montbrant. Esclarmonde is conducted 
 to the seraglio, and informed that she must pre- 
 pare to accept the hand of her new master ; but 
 she pretends that she had lately made a vow of 
 chastity for two years, which the emir promises to 
 respect. 
 
 Oberon, meanwhile, being touched with pity for 
 the misfortunes of Huon, permits Malebron, one 
 of his spirits, to go to his assistance. This emis- 
 sary, taking Huon on his back, lands him in the 
 territory of King Yvoirin. As the mercy of the 
 fairy king had not extended so far as to provide 
 the delinquent with victuals or raiment, he wanders 
 naked through the country in quest of provisions. 
 In a meadow he falls in with an old man eating 
 heartily, who had formerly been a minstrel at 
 the court of Gaudisse, and engages Huon to car- 
 ry his harp and his wallet for food and clothing. 
 On the same evening they arrive at the court of 
 Yvoirin. The minstrel performs in such a man- 
 ner as to obtain rewards from all the courtiers : 
 his attendant also attracts much notice, and by 
 command of Yvoirin, plays at chess with his 
 daughter, on conditions which show that this 
 emir possessed the greatest confidence in the skill 
 of the princess, or had very little regard to the 
 honour of his family. The lady, who fell in love
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 407 
 
 with Huon during the game, purposely allows 
 herself to be check-mated. But the knight being 
 resolved to preserve his fidelity to Esclarmonde, 
 commutes the stake he had gained for a sum of 
 money, " Et la pucelle sen alia moult dolente et 
 courroucee, et dist en elle mesmes, ha maulvais 
 cueur, failly de Mahom soys confondu, car si J' 
 eusse sceu que autre chose n' eusses voulu faire Je 
 te eusse matte, si en eusses eu le chief tranche." 
 
 Yvoirin, long before this time, had been inform- 
 ed of the detention of his niece by Galafre. He 
 had accordingly sent to demand the restitution of 
 Esclarmonde, which being refused, hostilities had 
 commenced between these neighbouring sultans. 
 The day after the arrival of Huon at the court of 
 Yvoirin had been fixed for an invasion of the ene- 
 my's territories. Huon having learned the cause 
 of the war, feels every motive for exertion : he 
 procures some rusty arms, mounts an old hack- 
 ney, and, though thus accoutred, his valour chiefly 
 contributes to the defeat of Galafre. 
 
 A new resource, however, presents itself to the 
 vanquished monarch. It will be recollected that 
 Gerasmes had left Huon at a most momentous cri- 
 sis, and the lover had rendered himself culpable so 
 soon after the departure of his friend, that the ship 
 in which Gerasmes was embarked, had experienced
 
 408 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the full force of the tempest which wrecked the 
 vessel of Huon and Esclarmonde. He had, in 
 consequence, been driven out of his course, and, 
 after being long tempest-tost, had sought shelter 
 in the port of Anfalerne. To Gerasmes the king 
 communicates the situation of his affairs, and pro- 
 poses that he should defy a champion of the army 
 of Yvoirin. Gerasmes having consented to this, 
 goes out from Anfalerne with a few Christian 
 friends, and, in a short time, finds himself engaged 
 with Huon ofBourdeaux. Having recognised each 
 other in the course of the combat, Gerasmes, with 
 great presence of mind, proposes that they should 
 unite their arms, and defeat the miscreants. The 
 small band of Christians makes a prodigious slaugh- 
 ter in the Saracen army, and pushing on at full 
 speed, gets possession of the capital of Galafre. 
 
 That prince, who seems to have been no less 
 remarkable for rapidity of conception than the 
 Christians, joins the remains of his forces to those 
 of Yvoirin, and begs him to lead them on against 
 Huon, to recover his capital. Galafre is as un- 
 successful in the coalition as he was singly. The 
 allied army is totally repulsed in an attack upon 
 the city, and Esclarmonde being now delivered 
 from her captivity in the seraglio, the Christians 
 possess themselves of the treasure of Galafre, and
 
 KOMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 409 
 
 embark on board a vessel in which the mayor of 
 Bourdeaux, with more good fortune than probabi- 
 lity, had arrived during the siege. Huon is land- 
 ed safe in Italy, and is formally united to Esclar- 
 monde at Rome : but, on his road to the court of 
 Charlemagne, he is way -laid by his brother Girard, 
 who had possessed himself of his dukedom, and 
 was ruling over it with unexampled tyranny. The 
 usurper pays his brother an apparently kind visit 
 at the abbey of St Maurice, where he lodged a 
 few days on his journey to Paris. Having learned 
 from Huon the secret of the treasure contained in 
 the side of Gerasmes, he attacks the bearer on his 
 way from the monastery, opens his side, takes out 
 the beard and grinders, and sends him along with 
 his master and Esclarmonde in chains to Bour- 
 deaux. The traitor then proceeds to Paris, informs 
 Charlemagne that his brother has not accomplish- 
 ed the object of his mission, and asks a gift of his 
 dukedom. Charlemagne repairs to Bourdeaux, 
 where Huon is tried by the peers, and after much 
 deliberation he is finally condemned by the voice 
 of the emperor. Huon and Gerasmes are sentenced 
 to be drawn and quartered, and Esclarmonde to 
 be led to the stake. Charlemagne defers the exe- 
 cution till mid-day, that while seated at dinner he 
 may feast his eyes with the punishment of the
 
 410 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 destroyer of his son. The spectacle is about to 
 commence, when suddenly the gates of the hall 
 in which the emperor was seated, are seized by a 
 formidable army. A splendid table is prepared, 
 and elevated above the sovereign's. Oberon en- 
 ters the hall to the sound of trumpets and cym- 
 bals. The chains drop from the prisoners, and 
 they are arrayed in splendid vestments. Obe- 
 ron reproaches Charlemagne with injustice, and 
 threatens him with the disclosure of his most se- 
 cret crimes. He concludes with producing the 
 spoils of the emir, and delivering up Girard to 
 the punishment that had been destined for Huon. 
 The fairy then retires with the same solemm'ty 
 with which he had entered, after inviting Huon 
 and Esclarmonde to pay him their respects in his 
 enchanted dominions. 
 
 The story of Huon of Bourdeaux is here com- 
 pletely finished, but there is a long continuation 
 which seems to be by a different hand, and is ap- 
 parently of a much later date than the work of 
 which an abstract has been given. In the original 
 romance, Huon begins his exploits by slaying the 
 son of Charlemagne. He recommences his career 
 in this second production by cutting off the head 
 of the son of Thiery, emperor of Germany. That 
 monarch in revenge carries war into the states of
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 411 
 
 Guienne. Huon defends himself successfully for 
 some time, but at length sets out for the east, to 
 beg assistance from the brother of Esclarmonde, 
 to whom, though he had slain his father and se- 
 duced his sister, he thought himself entitled to 
 apply. 
 
 During his absence Bourdeaux is taken, Ge- 
 rasmes killed, and Esclarmonde conducted cap- 
 tive to the German court, where she is persecuted 
 with love propositions by the emperor. 
 
 While on his voyage to Asia, Huon experiences 
 a tremendous storm. When the tempest has aba- 
 ted, the vessel is carried away by a rapid and irre- 
 sistible current, which draws it into a dangerous 
 whirlpool. Huon perceiving a man swimming in 
 the midst of the waters, and hearing him utter 
 deep lamentations, orders the seamen to slack sails 
 in order to gratify his curiosity. The swimmer 
 proclaims himself to be Judas Iscariot, and de- 
 clares that he was doomed to be tossed in this 
 gulf to all eternity, with no protection from the 
 fury of the elements but a small piece of cloth, 
 which, while on earth, he had bestowed in chari- 
 ty. Judas also recommends to Huon to use every 
 exertion to get out of the whirlpool. At his sug- 
 gestion, all the sails being set, the vessel is carried 
 before a favourable wind, and the master of the
 
 412 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 vessel makes for a distant shore, on which he de- 
 scries what appears to him a small house, surround- 
 ed by a wood. After four days sail these objects 
 prove to be a palace of miraculous magnitude and 
 splendour, and the masts of innumerable vessels 
 which had been wrecked on the rock of adamant 
 on which this magnificent structure was situated. 
 The pilot having now no longer power over the 
 helm, the ship strikes on the rock, to which it was 
 irresistibly attracted. Huon alone gets safe on 
 shore, and. after wandering for some time among 
 tremendous precipices and sterile vallies, he climbs 
 to the enchanted palace, which is beautifully de- 
 scribed. 1 Here he enjoys no society for a long 
 while but that of a hideous serpent, which he has 
 the pleasure of despatching ; but at length, in a 
 remote apartment, he discovers five fairies per- 
 forming the office of pastry cooks, who explain to 
 him that this building had been constructed by 
 the Lady of the Hidden Isle to protect her lo- 
 ver Julius Caesar from the fury of three kings of 
 Egypt, whose vessels, while in pursuit, had struck 
 on the rock of adamant, and from whose treasures 
 the palace had been so splendidly furnished. Af- 
 ter a long stay in this island Huon is at length 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 17.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 413 
 
 carried off by a griffin, which occasionally haunt- 
 ed the shore ; and at the end of a long aerial voy- 
 age, is set down on the top of a high mountain, 
 which seems to have been a place of rendezvous 
 for these animals. Our hero kills four of their num- 
 ber, which was rather an ungrateful return for the 
 safe conduct which he had received from their 
 fellow monster. Soon after his arrival on this spot 
 he discovers the Fountain of Youth, in which he 
 has no sooner bathed than he feels recruited from 
 the effects of his late perils and labours, and re- 
 covers his pristine vigour. This fiction of the 
 fountain of youth has been almost as universal as 
 the desire of health and longevity. There is a 
 fountain of this nature in the Greek romance of 
 Ismene and Ismenias, in the German Book of He- 
 roes, and the French Fabliau of Coquaigne, 
 
 La Fontaine de Jovent 
 
 Qui fit rajnvcnir le gent. 
 
 By the margin of this fountain, in which Huon 
 had immersed himself, grew a tree, of which the 
 apples partook of the resuscitating properties of 
 the waters by which its roots were nourished. 
 Huon is permitted by a celestial voice to gather 
 three of these apples, and is also directed to the 
 path by which he is to proceed. Having there-
 
 414- ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 fore descended the hill, he reaches the banks of a 
 river, and embarks in a pinnace decked with gold 
 and precious stones. This boat is carried down a 
 stream with surprising velocity, and enters a sub- 
 terraneous canal lighted by the radiance of gems, 
 which formed the channel of the water, and of 
 which Huon gathers a handful. The roar of the 
 waves and tempest above is distinctly heard, but 
 after a few days voyage the bark emerges into a 
 tranquil sea, which he recognises to be the Per- 
 sian Gulf. He lands in safety at the port of Tau- 
 ris, where a skilful lapidary having inspected the 
 precious stones which he had picked up during 
 his subterraneous voyage, declares that one pre- 
 served from fire and poison, a second cured all 
 diseases, a third repressed hunger and thirst, and 
 a fourth rendered the wearer invisible. The pos- 
 session of these very valuable articles procures 
 for Huon a favourable reception from the old sul- 
 tan of that district, on whom our hero bestows 
 one of the apples of youth, which he had no sooner 
 tasted than he receives the strength and appear- 
 ance of a man of thirty. From motives of grati- 
 tude the sultan permits himself to be baptized, and 
 places a fleet and army under the command of 
 Huon, with which he now proceeds to the assist- 
 ance of Esclarmonde. On his way he lands at the
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 415 
 
 desart island of Abillant in quest of adventures, 
 and his fleet being instantly dispersed by a storm, 
 he is forced to remain. After wandering about far 
 some time he ascends a mountain, whose summit 
 formed a plain, round which a cask was rolling 
 with wonderful noise and velocity. Huon arrests 
 its progress with a hammer, and the inhabitant 
 proclaims himself to be Cain, adding, that the cask 
 is full of serpents and sharp spikes, and that he is 
 doomed to loll in it till the day of judgment. The 
 knight accordingly refuses to interfere in his pu- 
 nishment, and leaves him to prosecute his career 
 in this uncomfortable conveyance. 
 
 In the course of his conversation with Cain, 
 Huon was informed that a demon, who had been 
 the contractor for this machine, was waiting for 
 the fratricide in a boat near the shore. Availing 
 himself of this hint he proceeds to the beach, and 
 the evil spirit mistaking him for Cain, whom he 
 personates, receives him into the bark and lands 
 him on the opposite coast, a contrivance which 
 shows that the knight had not altogether forgotten 
 the practices by which, in his youth, he gained ad- 
 mission to the hall of the emir of Babylon, and by 
 which he first forfeited the favour of Oberon. In 
 the present instance, however, his departure from 
 truth is not followed by any punishment or disas- 
 
 11
 
 4-16 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 tcr : on the contrary, he rejoins his fleet on the? 
 coast to which he had been transported by the 
 fiend, and thence sets sail for France. 
 
 Huon does not seem to have been in any great 
 haste to bring assistance to Esclarmonde. He 
 visits Jerusalem on his way, and enters most gra- 
 tuitously into a war with the sultan of Egypt. 
 
 On arriving at Marseilles he dismisses the Asi- 
 atic fleet, and proceeds to pay a visit to his un- 
 cle, the abbot of Clugny, whom he presents with 
 one of the apples of youth. In the habit of a pd- 
 grim he next comes to the court of Thiery, empe- 
 ror of Germany, who at length agrees to restore 
 his wife, and receives the third apple as his re- 
 ward. Huon and Esclarmonde pay a short visit 
 to their dominions, and then set out, according to 
 invitation, for the enchanted forest of Oberon, 
 who installs his favourite knight in the empire of 
 Faery, and expires shortly after. The remainder 
 of the romance, or rather fairy tale, contains an 
 account of the reign of Huon, and his disputes 
 with Arthur (who had hoped for the appointment,) 
 as to the sovereignty of Fairy-land ; and also the 
 adventures of the Duchess Clairette, the daugh- 
 ter of Huon and Esclarmonde, from whom was 
 descended the illustrious family of Capet.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 417 
 
 There are few romances of chivalry which pos- 
 sess more beauty and interest than Huon of Bour- 
 deaux ; the story, however, is too long protract- 
 ed, and the first part seems to have exhausted the 
 author's stores of imagination. Huon is a more 
 interesting character than most of the knights of 
 Charlemagne. Even his weaknesses and disobe- 
 dience of Oberon arise from excess of love or the 
 ardour of military enterprise ; and our preposses- 
 sion in his favour is much enhanced by a mild- 
 ness of nature and tenderness of heart, superior 
 to that of other heroes of chivalry. The subor- 
 dinate characters in the work are also happily 
 drawn : nothing can be better represented than 
 the honest fidelity and zeal of Gerasmes, the strug- 
 gles in the breast of the mother of Huon be- 
 tween maternal tenderness and devoted loyalty to 
 Charlemagne, and the mixed character of that 
 monarch, in which equity and moderation predo- 
 minate, but are ever warped by an excess of blind 
 paternal affection. 
 
 The early part of the romance of Huon bears a 
 striking resemblance to the adventures of Otnit, 
 king of Lombardy, related near the commence- 
 ment of the Teutonic metrical romance of The 
 Book of Heroes, which was written by the knight 
 vol. i. 2d
 
 118 IIOMAXCES OF CIIIVALIl*. 
 
 Wolfram of Bavaria early in the 13th century, 
 and of which an entertaining analysis has been 
 given in the Illustrations of Northern Antiquities. 
 Otnit, we are told, before setting out for Syria in 
 order to gain the hand of its princess, met the 
 dwarf Elberich, who was clothed in armour (light- 
 ed with gold and diamonds. This dwarf presented 
 Otnit with various gifts which possessed a magic 
 power, and which prove of infinite service on his 
 arrival in Syria. Elberich afterwards gave him 
 personal assistance in his contest with the heathen 
 father of his destined mistress ; and on one occa- 
 sion, having rendered himself invisible, he tore a 
 handful of hair from the beard of the pagan, and 
 pulled out several of the teeth of his queen. The 
 princess becomes enamoured of the knight, and is 
 at last willingly delivered into his hands by the 
 dwarf, who warns him, however, not to be guilty 
 of any amorous indiscretions till his bride should 
 be baptized. 
 
 Some analogy also subsists between the second 
 part of Huon and the second and sixth voyages of 
 Sindbad ; but its resemblance to the voyages of 
 Aboulfaouaris, in the Persian Tales, is much more 
 striking. Judas swimming in the gulf corresponds 
 with the story of the man whom the Persian ad-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 419 
 
 venturer fished up on his first voyage, and who 
 had whirled about for three years, as a penance, 
 in the sea near Java. This renowned mariner also 
 escapes from an island, on which he had been 
 wrecked, by a subterraneous passage which the sea 
 had formed through one of its mountains ; and by 
 the assistance of a neighbouring king he is enabled 
 to succour his wife, of whose danger he had been 
 apprized in a dream. The story of Cain and the 
 attendant fiend in Huon, is the model or imi- 
 tation of the Brazen Island, to which the ship of 
 Aboulfaouaris is carried by an irresistible current, 
 and in which he beholds the punishment of the 
 Afrite or Rebel Genius. Indeed the works of 
 eastern fable are full of traditions concerning the 
 punishments of Cain, one of which, it is somewhere 
 said, was, that he could not be killed by spikes 
 piercing his body. The author of the Arabic 
 Catena, a collection of oriental commentaries on 
 scripture, makes him proof against all the ele- 
 ments; a sword could not hurt him, fire could 
 not burn, water could not drown, nor lightning 
 strike him (c. 8), a curse resembling that which 
 was imposed by Kehama. 
 
 The next romance relating to knights, contem- 
 porary with Charlemagne, is that of
 
 420 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 GUERIN de MONTGLAVE.* 
 
 " A 1' issue de 1' yver que le joly temps d* este 
 commence, et qu' on voit les arbres florir et lews 
 fleurs espanyr, les oysillons chanter en toute joye 
 et doulceur tant que leurs tons et doulx chants 
 retentissent si melodieusement que toute joye et 
 lyesse est de les escouter et ouyr ; tant que cueurs 
 tristes pensifs et dolens s' en esjouissent et esmeu- 
 vent a delaisser dueil et toute tristesse, et se per- 
 forcent de valoir mieux en celuy temps estoit a 
 Montglave, le noble Due Guerin, qui tant fut en 
 son temps preux et vaillant chevalier." This Gue- 
 rin, who was brother of the duke of Aquitaine, 
 and ruled in Montglave (Lyons), a city he had ac- 
 quired by his own prowess, had four sons. After 
 reproaching them at a high festival for indolence 
 and gluttony, he dismisses them from his palace 
 in order to push their fortunes in the world. Ar- 
 naud, the eldest, is sent to his uncle Girard, duke 
 
 * Ilistoirp du tres preux et vaillant Guerin de Montglave, 
 lequel fit en son temps plusieurs nobles et illustres raits en 
 armes; et aussi parle drs terrible* et met veilleux fails de 
 Kobastre et Perdi^on pour sccourir lc dit Guerin et ses en- 
 fant^ Paris, ians date, 4to.
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 421 
 
 of Aquitaine ; Millon, the second, proceeds to 
 Pavia, and Girard and Regnier to the court of 
 Charlemagne. The romance contains the separate 
 adventures of the four knights, of which those of 
 Arnaud alone are in any degree interesting. 
 
 Arnaud on his arrival at the capital of Aquitaine 
 finds that Girard was dead, and that Hunault, his 
 natural brother, had seized on the dukedom ; but, 
 though attended only by a single squire, so com- 
 pletely was the usurper detested, that the principal 
 inhabitants immediately invest Arnaud with the 
 sovereignty. Hunault, unable openly to withstand 
 this general disaffection, has recourse to strata- 
 gem. He pretends that he had only meant to 
 preserve the dukedom for his brother, gradually 
 insinuates himself into the confidence of Arnaud, 
 and becomes his chief adviser. In a short while 
 he proposes to him an union with the Saracen 
 princess Fregonda, the daughter of a sultan, call- 
 ed Florant, who reigned in Lombardy; and farther, 
 persuades him to pay a visit to the court of that 
 monarch. Hoping to obtain a beautiful princess, 
 and convert an infidel, Arnaud sets out for Lom- 
 bardy, accompanied by Hunault, who had pre- 
 viously informed the sultan that his brother was 
 coming to solicit his daughter in marriage, and 
 to abjure the Christian religion. The sultan and
 
 122 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 Arnaud are thus put at cross purposes. The former 
 leaves the work of conversion to his daughter, but 
 this princess had no sooner begun to love Arnaud, 
 than she found that she could not endure Maho- 
 met. Hunault is informed of the sentiments of the 
 princess by his brother Arnaud, and immediately 
 acquaints the sultan. In communicating this in- 
 telligence, he proposes that Arnaud should be con- 
 fined in a dungeon, and at the same time offers on 
 his own part to assume the turban, should Florant 
 agree to assist him in recovering possession of 
 Aquitaine. These proposals being accepted, Ar- 
 naud is thrown into confinement, and Hunault sets 
 out by a retired road for the duchy. On his way 
 he is suddenly seized with remorse for his apostacy 
 and treason. Hearing a clock strike while in the 
 midst of a forest, he turns towards the place whence 
 the sound proceeded, and arrives at the gate of 
 a hermitage, which is opened by a giant of hor- 
 rible aspect. Tin's singular recluse was Robastre, 
 who had been the companion in arms of Guerin of 
 Montglave, and had retired to this forest to perform 
 penance. Hunault insists on confessing his sins, 
 and the catalogue being finished, Robastre imme- 
 diately knocks out his brains. The ground of this 
 commentary on the confession is, that he would 
 thus die penitent ; but that if he lived, he would
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 423 
 
 infallibly relapse into iniquity ; a train of reason- 
 ing certainly more gigantic than theological. 
 
 Robastre next turns his attention to the best 
 means of delivering Arnaud from prison. He first 
 goes to consult with Perdigon, who had been 
 formerly a companion of Guerin, and was once 
 tolerably versed in the black art, but had for some 
 time renounced all his evil practices, and retired 
 to a cell in the same forest with Robastre. This 
 enchanter is at first scrupulous about renewing his 
 intercourse with the devil, but at length satisfies 
 his conscience on the score of good intentions. 
 
 The giant arms himself with an old cuirass, which 
 was buried below his hermitage, and throwing over 
 it a robe, gains admittance to the court of the sul- 
 tan Florant in the character of a mendicant der- 
 vis. He soon obtains a private interview with the 
 princess, and introduces himself as a Christian, 
 and the friend of Arnaud. In return he is inform- 
 ed by her that she pays frequent visits in secret to 
 Arnaud, to whom she promises to procure him 
 access. With this view she acquaints her father 
 that Robastre is the most learned Mollah she had 
 ever conversed with, and that if admitted to the 
 prisoner he could not fail to convert him. Robastre 
 is thus introduced into the dungeon, and privately 
 concerts with Arnaud the means of escape. In
 
 424 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the course of the ensuing night the princess ar- 
 rives with provisions, with winch the Mahometan 
 ladies in romance are always careful abundantly to 
 supply their lovers. Robastre taking a goblet of 
 water, baptizes the princess, and unites her to Ar- 
 naud. Having then knocked out the brains of the 
 jailor, he breaks open the trap-door of the prison, 
 and thus gets possession of the tower, of which 
 the dungeon formed the foundation. 
 
 Arnaud escapes to Aquitaine, that he may as- 
 sert his sovereignty, and afterwards return to the 
 assistance of Robastre and the princess, who re- 
 main together in the tower. In that hold they 
 are besieged by the sultan and his forces, but Ro- 
 bastre makes different sorties, in which he is always 
 successful, being aided by the enchantments of his 
 friend Perdigon, who at one time pelts the Sara- 
 cens with incessant hail, and at others cuts them 
 up by means of fantastic knights in black armour. 
 Robastre, availing himself of the confusion into 
 which the Saracens were thrown by one of these 
 attacks, escapes with the princess, and arrives safe 
 in Aquitaine. Here they have the mortification 
 to find that Arnaud had been imprisoned by the 
 maternal uncles of Hunault. They are vanquish- 
 ed, however, in single combat by Robastre. Ar- 
 naud i6 then restored to his dukedom, and soon
 
 ROMANXES OF CHIVALRY. 425 
 
 after succeeds to the Lombard principality, by 
 the conversion and abdication of his father-in-law. 
 His subjects also become Christians, for in those 
 days they implicitly conformed to the religion of 
 their prince, instead of forcing him to adopt the 
 faith of his people. 
 
 During these interesting transactions, Millon, 
 the second son of Guerin of Montglave, had mar- 
 ried his cousin, the daughter and heiress of the 
 duke of Pavia. llegnier had been united to the 
 duchess of Genoa, after defeating a ponderous 
 giant, who was an unwelcome suitor, and Girard 
 had espoused the countess of Thoulouse by the 
 interest of Charlemagne, who conceived himself 
 obliged to provide for the children of Guerin of 
 Montglave, as he had, on one occasion, lost his 
 whole kingdom to him at a game of chess. 
 
 To these provisions, however, there seems to 
 have been no end, for Aimery, Arnaud's son, ha- 
 ving grown up, came to demand a settlement on 
 the plea of the game at chess. During one of his 
 audiences, at which the queen was present, he 
 seizes her majesty by the foot and overthrows her. 
 Charlemagne thinks it necessary to avenge this in- 
 sult by besieging Viennes, the capital of Girard's 
 territories, who is assisted in his defence by his 
 three brothers and Robastre. After a good deal
 
 +26 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of general and promiscuous fighting, it is agreed 
 that the quarrel should be decided by single com- 
 bat. Roland is chosen on the part of Charlemagne, 
 and Olivier, son of Regnier duke of Genoa, on 
 the side of Girard. 1 These two champions had 
 become acquainted during a truce, and recogni- 
 sing each other in the heat of combat, they drop 
 their arms and embrace with much cordiality. By 
 their means a reconciliation is effected, and the 
 paladins of France resolve to turn their united 
 arms against the Saracens. 
 
 During the combat with Olivier, Roland had 
 been at one time in imminent danger, and Charle- 
 magne had vowed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The 
 account of that expedition is detailed in the com- 
 mencement of the romance of 
 
 GALYEN RHETORE,* 
 
 which was first printed at Paris in the year 1500. 
 In that work Charlemagne and his paladins, among 
 whom was Olivier, son of the duke of Genoa, pro- 
 
 ' See Appendix, No. 18. 
 
 1 Nobles prouesses et vailiances de Galyen Rhetore, fils 
 du noble Olivier le Marquis et de la belle Jacqueline fill'- 
 du Jtoi Hugues, qui fut Empereur de Constantinople.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 427 
 
 ceed incognito to Jerusalem. Having betrayed 
 themselves at that place by their eagerness in 
 search of relics, the patriarch of Jerusalem consi- 
 ders it indispensable that they should pay a visit 
 of ceremony to King Hugues. They find this mo- 
 narch encamped on a vast plain with his grandees, 
 who were all neat-herds or drovers, and his majesty 
 a waggoner. Roland looked into court, where he 
 counted 100,000 hogs, who were feeding on wheat. 
 The paladins enquired if there was lodging for 
 them, and were told by the porter that he had 
 room for four thousand. On the day of their ar- 
 rival the French peers were very kindly entertain- 
 ed at table, but, notwithstanding the ample accom- 
 modation, they were lodged in the same apartment 
 at night. King Hugues, though a very good man, 
 was extremely curious to learn what strangers said 
 of his hospitality, and accordingly concealed an 
 interpreter in a corner of the chamber allotted to 
 his guests. The peers being unable to sleep, be- 
 gan to brag (gaber). Roland boasted that he could 
 sound his horn with such force that it would bring 
 down the palace : Ogier, the Dane, averred that 
 he would crumble to dust one of the chief pillars 
 of the edifice : the boasts of Olivier, the youngest 
 of the peers, related to the beautiful Princess Jac- 
 quelina, the daughter of Hugues. The king i*
 
 428 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 informed of this conversation before retiring^to 
 rest, and being much disappointed at hearing no- 
 thing but improbable lies, instead of the expected 
 praises of his hospitality, he treats his guests with 
 much less C'vility, next morning, than he had for- 
 merly used. Having learned the cause of his re- 
 sentment, the paladins depute Orlando to acquaint 
 him that their boasts were mere pleasantries. King 
 Hugues, however, informs him that he thought 
 they were in very bad taste, and that the paladins 
 must consent to remain his prisoners, or perform 
 what they had undertaken. Nothing but a very 
 bitter aversion to liars could have driven the good 
 king to this hasty measure, since he was obliged 
 in its execution to expose the honour of his family 
 in a very delicate point. The French peers accept 
 the latter alternative proposed to them ; and from 
 the fulfilment of the boast of Olivier, sprung Ga- 
 lyen, the hero of the romance, surnamed Rhetore, 
 or Restaure, by the fairy who presided at his birth, 
 because by his means there was to be revived in 
 France the high spirit of chivalry, which was> in 
 danger of being lost by the death of the paladins, 
 who perished at Roncesvalles. 
 
 This young prince having grown up, set out 
 for Europe in quest of his father. Having arrived 
 at Genoa, he learned that Charlemagne and his
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 429 
 
 peers were engaged in an expedition against the 
 Saracens of Spain. To Spain he accordingly di- 
 rected his course, but met with many adventures, 
 and performed a variety of exploits, before reach- 
 ing the camp of Charlemagne. Thence he depart- 
 ed for a division of the army, in which he under- 
 stood his father was brigaded. He arrived after the 
 defeat of Roncesvalles, and was only recognised by 
 Olivier in his expiring moments. 1 Galyen having 
 performed the last duties to his father, was of great 
 service in the subsequent war with Marsilius, and 
 also detected the treason, and insisted on the pu- 
 nishment, of Gano ; the account of which nearly 
 corresponds with the detail in the chronicle of 
 Turpin. He was soon, however, obliged to depart 
 on hearing of the death of Hugues, and the usurp- 
 ation of the crown by the brothers of that prince ; 
 he vanquishes them in single combat, rescues his 
 mother, whom they had condemned to death, and 
 afterwards, in her right, ascends the throne. 
 
 The two following romances are believed to have 
 been written in the beginning of the fifteenth cen 
 tury, but the first edition of both is without date. 
 v In the prologue tp 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 19.
 
 430 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 MILLES et AMYS, 1 
 
 which shall be first mentioned, the work is said to 
 be extracted from ancient chronicles. " J' ay 
 voulu extraire leurg faicts et gestes, et les fortunes 
 a eux advenues ainsi comrae Je les ay trouvee 
 en histoires anciennes jadis trouvces et enregis- 
 trees en plusieurs livres faisant mention d' eux par 
 maniere de croniques," and in the 58th chapter, 
 " il est assavoir que ceste hystoire icy a este ex- 
 traicte de 1' une des trois gestes du royaume de 
 France, et ne furent que trois gestes au dit pays 
 qui ont eu honneur et renomme, dequoy le pre- 
 mier a este Doolin de Mayence, 1' autre Guerin, 
 la tierce si a este de Pepin dequoy est issu le Roy 
 Charlemagne.'' This detail about the ancient his- 
 tories, and the three Gestes, is probably feigned to 
 give the stamp of authority. Milles and Amys, how- 
 ever, are mentioned in the Chronicle of Alberic 
 de Troisfontaines, an author of the 13th century, 
 who says they perished in the year 774, in an ex- 
 pedition undertaken by Charlemagne against Di- 
 
 1 Le Roman des-vaillans chevaliers Milles et Amys, Ies- 
 quels en Icur vivanl firent de grandcs prouesse^.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 431 
 
 dier, king of the Lombards. Their story is besides 
 related in the Speculum Historiale of Vincent de 
 Beauvais, and is there said to have occurred in the 
 reign of Pepin. The early part of the romance, 
 particularly that which relates to the leprosy of 
 Amys, and his cure by sacrifice of the children 
 of Miiles, is the subject of the English metrical 
 Amys and Amylion, of which an account has been 
 given by Mr Ellis, in his Specimens of Metrical 
 Romances. 
 
 Miiles was the son of Anceaume, count of Cler- 
 mont, and Amys of his seneschal. The former came 
 into the world with the mark of a sword on his 
 right hand, to the utter amazement of the pope, 
 who held him at the baptismal font. His parents, 
 in gratitude for his birth, set out on a pilgrimage 
 to the Holy Land. The count was taken captive 
 by the sultan of Acre, and banished to an island 
 which for forty years had been governed by a 
 griffin. But instead of being devoured by this 
 monster, as was intended, he contrived to despatch 
 him by favour of St George, who descended from 
 heaven on horseback, clad in white armour bright 
 as the sun. 
 
 During the absence of Anceaume, however, 
 the Count de Limoges seizes on Clermont. The 
 nurse of Miiles is in consequence forced to fly
 
 432 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 with her charge, and beg alms from province to 
 province. Amys, son of the seneschal, is mean- 
 while brought up as a foundling by his uncle 
 Regnier of Langres, who durst not educate him 
 as his nephew, being a vassal of the duke of Bur- 
 gundy, who was an ally of the Count de Limoges. 
 
 Milles commences his career in chivalry by 
 purloining his nurse's hoard, which she had amass- 
 ed while flying with him from Clermont. With 
 this treasure he repairs to the province of Bur- 
 gundy, where he forms an intimate friendship 
 with Amys. Their perfect resemblance in ap- 
 pearance is the amusement of every one, and 
 gives rise to many comical mistakes. 
 
 At length Milles being discovered to be the 
 son of the rightful count of Clermont, is forced to 
 leave Burgundy, and escapes with his friend Amys 
 to Constantinople. Here Milles meets with his 
 mother, the countess of Clermont, who had esca- 
 ped from the power of the sultan of Acre, and 
 was acting as governess to the Greek princess Si- 
 doina. The city was at that time besieged by the 
 sultan, but he is totally defeated, and the father 
 of Milles, who was still detained prisoner by the 
 Saracen monarch, is freed from captivity ; Milles 
 marries Sidoina, and soon after ascends in her 
 right the throne of Constantinople.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 433 
 
 After some time spent in the cares of empire, 
 Milles departs with Amys for France, recovers 
 his paternal inheritance, and bestows a dukedom 
 on his friend. In his absence the Saracens burn 
 his capital, his empress, and her mother; and 
 Milles, in consequence of this conflagration, es- 
 pouses Bellisande, daughter of Charlemagne, 
 while Amys is united to Lubiane, the heiress of 
 the duke of Friezeland. 
 
 Some years having passed in unwonted repose, 
 the friends at length set out on a pilgrimage to 
 Jerusalem. When about to return, Amys is un- 
 expectedly smitten with leprosy. On their arrival 
 Milles is joyfully received by Bellisande ; but his 
 unfortunate companion is driven from his own 
 castle by his wife, who appears to have been ig- 
 norant of the value of a husband of this descrip- 
 tion. The servants whom she detaches to drown 
 him, being moved with compassion, conduct their 
 master to the castle of Milles, where he is recei- 
 ved with the utmost hospitality. 
 
 Soon after his arrival it is revealed to Amys 
 in a dream, that he could only be cured of the le- 
 prosy with which he was afflicted, if bathed in the 
 blood of the children of Milles. The leper informs 
 his friend of the prescription he had received, 
 
 vol. i. 2 E
 
 134- ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 which I suppose was in those days accounted a 
 specific for this disorder, as Gower, in the 2d book 
 of his Confessio Amantis, tells a story of Con- 
 stantine, when struck with leprosy, ordering a 
 bath of this description. The heads of his two 
 infants are immediately struck off by the father. 
 Amys thus enjoys the benefit of the prescribed 
 bath, and Milles soon after returning to lament 
 over the bodies of his children, finds them in as 
 perfect health as before they had been behead- 
 ed, " et se jouoyent dedans le lict, 1' un a 1' au- 
 tre, d' une pomme que nostre Seigneur leur avoit 
 donne." 
 
 In gratitude for these miraculous cures, the 
 two friends set out on a pilgrimage ; but on their 
 return through Lombardy they are treacherously 
 killed by Ogier the Dane, who was" at that time in 
 rebellion against Charlemagne. 
 
 Milles, when he proceeded on his pilgrimage, 
 left his two children, Anceaume and Florisell, 
 in the cradle. These infants were constantly 
 guarded by an ape, who acted as an assiduous 
 nurse, and was gifted with a most excellent un- 
 derstanding and benevolent disposition. " Si n* 
 est point de memoire d' homme que jamais on 
 n' ouyt parler de la condition de tel Cinge : Car 
 il avoit en luy grant sens et memoire, et mainte
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 435 
 
 bonne maniere avoit apprise tandis qu' on le nou- 
 rissoit. Sy aymoit parfaictement ce Cinge les 
 deux petis enfans du Comte, telleraent que nuict 
 et jour ne les pouoit laisser ; et ne sceut on onc- 
 ques garder qu' il ne couchast toutes les nuicts 
 avecques eux sans leur faire nulle mesprision, ny 
 aucun mal : ne pour quelque bature qu' on luy 
 sceust faire jamais ne vouloit laisser les petis en- 
 fans, et tout le long du jour leur tenoit compag- 
 nie, et estoit toute son intention aux enfans. Et 
 ne faisoit que les baiser et accoller, et jamais ne 
 vouloit ne boire ne menger si ce n' estoit de la 
 propre viande qu' on bailloit aux enfans." This 
 ape had prepared the minds of the household of 
 Milles for the intelligence of his death, by equip- 
 ping his children in a complete suit of mourning. 
 Lubiane, the wicked widow of Amys, seeing 
 that the children were now left without the pro- 
 tection of a father, resolves, in concert with her 
 brother, on their destruction. The countess, their 
 mother, is privately put to death, and the children 
 carried off, to the great consternation of the ape, 
 who insists on accompanying them. After three 
 months detention at the residence of Lubiane, 
 they are thrown by her command into the sea. 
 The ape swims after them till two angels of pa- 
 radise descend in disguise of swans, and bear
 
 4-36 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 away the children safe through the sea ; one car- 
 ries Anceaume to the coast of Provence, where 
 he is picked up and educated by a woodman. 
 The other conducts Florisell to the shores of 
 Genoa, where he is taken under the protection of 
 a lioness, who introduces him to her cubs, with 
 which he is gradually accustomed to hunt. The 
 ape having lost sight of them, continues to swim 
 till he is received on board a merchant vessel, 
 which soon after comes into harbour. Its crew 
 propose to take him home to their own country, 
 but he hastily wishes them good morning. " Et 
 pour le bien qu' ils luy avoient fait ne leur dist 
 aultre grant mercy, sinon qu' il leur fist la moue." 
 Our ape spent fifteen days in a forest, searching 
 for the children, for whose sake he subsisted all 
 that time on herbs and water, although habitu- 
 ally he was somewhat addicted to the pleasures of 
 the table. Finding his search in the forest vain, he 
 set out for Clermont, the paternal inheritance of 
 his wards, where he was received with acclamations 
 by the populace ; but he declined the honours of 
 a public entertainment, as he felt his spirits de- 
 pressed on account of the loss of the children : 
 it would also appear that he was in very bad hu- 
 mour, " car il mordoit et esgratignoit tous, qui n* 
 estoit pas sa coustume." He paid his first visit to
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALHT. 437 
 
 Richer, the old seneschal of Milles, whom he per- 
 suaded to proceed to the palace of Lubiane, to 
 ascertain the fate of the children. The seneschal 
 is immediately thrown into prison by Lubiane, 
 who sets out, accompanied by her brother, for 
 the court of Charlemagne, to obtain a grant of 
 the county of Clermont, on pretence that the 
 race of Milles is extinct. Meanwhile the ape ha- 
 ving insinuated himself into the confidence of the 
 jailer, gains access to the seneschal, and at the 
 very first interview suggests the propriety of wri- 
 ting to Charlemagne, to give him some insight 
 into the character of the claimants. The ape 
 charges himself with the letter, but from the bad- 
 ness of the roads and want of relays, he does not 
 reach Paris till some days after the traitors. He 
 makes his first appearance at court, though still in 
 his travelling dress, during a great festival, and 
 signalizes his arrival by assaulting the Countess 
 Lubiane, rending her garments, and even com- 
 mitting ravages on her person. He then respect- 
 fully presents the letter to Charlemagne, who 
 thinks the matter of sufficient importance to con- 
 sult his peers. The difficulty is to find a cham- 
 pion to maintain the accusation : the ape, how- 
 ever, readily steps forth as opponent to one of the 
 relatives of Lubiane, who offered himself as her
 
 438 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 defender. Defiances of this description, singular 
 as they may appear, were not unknown in France 
 about the period of the composition of this work. 
 In Monfaucon (Monumens de la Monarchic Fran- 
 coise, vol. iii. p. 68,) there is an account of a com- 
 bat which took place in 1371, between a grey- 
 hound and a knight who had treacherously slain 
 the dog's master. This animal attacked the as- 
 sassin with such violence whenever they happen- 
 ed to meet, that suspicion was at length excited, 
 and Charles the Wise * appointed a solemn com- 
 bat between the parties. The knight was provi- 
 ded with a club : the dog had only his natural 
 arms, but was supplied with an open cask as a 
 place of retreat; the just cause prevailed, the 
 traitor was forced to confess his crime, and the 
 memory of the event was preserved in a painting 
 in the hall of the castle of Montargis. On the 
 present occasion, too, the good cause and our ape 
 are triumphant. The champion of Lubiane is 
 soon obliged to confess himself vanquished, in or- 
 der to avoid being torn piecemeal : according to 
 the established customs, he is hanged after the 
 
 1 M. de Sainte Foix, however, in his Essais Histojriques 
 jr Paris, says this dog flourished in the time of Philip'Aa- 
 gustns.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 439 
 
 combat, and Lubiane is burned alive. We are in- 
 formed by the author of the romance, that the his- 
 tory of the ape, and particularly of this judicial 
 combat, were delineated in his time on the walls of 
 the great hall of the palace of Paris, which was 
 burned, I believe, in 1618. 
 
 While the ape was thus distinguishing himself 
 at court, and preparing materials for the genius of 
 future artists, Florisell, the son of Milles, having 
 followed his comrades, the young lions, in the 
 course of their field sports as far as the Venetian 
 territory, is caught by Gloriant, the Saracen king 
 of that country, who delighted in the chase of 
 wild beasts. In a few days the lioness and her 
 cubs came to Venice, to reclaim him, but by this 
 time her eleve had fallen in love with the king's 
 daughter, " parquoy Florissell ne pensa plus au 
 lion, ne n' entint conte ;" and they are according- 
 ly obliged to return without him to their den, af- 
 ter depopulating the neighbourhood. 
 
 Anceaume, the other son of Milles, being de- 
 tected in an intrigue with the daughter of the 
 woodman, is driven from the house, and flies for 
 refuge to an adjacent monastery. To this place 
 Richer, the seneschal, accompanied by the ape, 
 eomes to pay his devotions. The animal, by the
 
 44 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 fineness of his nose, soon recognises his young 
 master, and persuades the seneschal to take him 
 along with them. 
 
 He is accordingly introduced by the ape at the 
 court of Charlemagne, and serves in an expedition 
 undertaken by that monarch against Venice, of 
 which the professed object was to recover the 
 body of St Marc, which had been interred there 
 about five hundred years before. In this cam- 
 paign Florisell distinguishes himself on the side 
 of the Saracens, and Anceaume on that of the 
 Christians. Anceaume takes Gloriant, king of 
 Venice, prisoner ; and Florisell overthrows and 
 sends captive to Venice the bravest peers of 
 Charlemagne. At length the two brothers are 
 sent out against each other, and after a furious 
 contest, being both tired, they sit down to rest. 
 The young warriors are thus led mutually to 
 recount the story of the early part of their lives. 
 From this reciprocal detail they conjecture that 
 they are related, and Florisell in consequence 
 proceeds with Anceaume to the camp of Char- 
 lemagne. There the surmises of the brothers 
 are confirmed by the testimony of Richer and 
 of the ape, who embraces them alternately with 
 much sympathy. " Les deux freres s* en alle-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 441 
 
 rent caucher ensemble, et le Cinge s' en alia avec 
 eux,' et se mussa dessoubz leur lict ainsi qu' il 
 avoit apprins. Et puis, quant ils furent couchez, 
 les vint accoller et baiser tout a son ayse ; tout 
 ne plus ne moins que fait ung amant qui baise s' 
 amye. Si fut ce Cinge celle nuit si surprins d' 
 amour, qu' il se coucha entre les deux enfans, la ou 
 il mourut la nuict de joye. Et quant le roy Char- 
 lemagne le sceut si en getta maint soupir, et alia 
 dire Haa Cinge moult avois le cueur scavant ; Je 
 scay de vray que tu es mort de joye." 
 The romance of 
 
 JOURDAIN de BLAVES 1 
 
 may in one respect be regarded as a continuation 
 of Milles and Amys ; Jourdain, who gives name 
 to the work, being the son of Girard of Blaves, 
 one of the children of Amys. It is said to be 
 " extraite d' ung viel livre moult ancien qu' estoit 
 en Ryme et viel Picart ;" a form in which it is of- 
 
 1 Les faits et prou esses du noble et vaillant chevalier 
 Jourdain de Blaves, lequel conqueta plusieurs royaumes 
 barbares les peines qu 1 il eut a obtenir I" amour de la belle 
 Driabelle fille au fort roi Kicbard de Gardes.
 
 442 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 ten cited by Du Cange in his Glossary. Having 
 been converted into prose, it was printed at Pa- 
 ris in -1 to., without date, and at the same place in 
 folio, 1520. 
 
 The hero of this romance came into the world 
 with one of his legs white as snow, and the other 
 black as ebony ; while the right arm appeared of 
 a rose, and the left of a citrine colour. A clerk 
 explained that these personal peculiarities por- 
 tended a chequered life that at one time this 
 party-coloured infant would be seated on a throne, 
 that at another he would be poor and in captivity. 
 
 These predictions are verified by the event, for 
 Jourdain in his youth is so much persecuted by a 
 knight who had treacherously slain his father, that 
 he is obliged to abandon his paternal estates. On 
 his voyage from Blaves, being unfortunately ship- 
 wrecked, he is preserved, not by a dolphin or a 
 swan, but by a stag which was luckily in waiting, 
 and which carries him to the shore of Gardes. 
 The incidents that occurred on that coast have a 
 strong resemblance to the landing of Ulysses in 
 the kingdom of Alcinous, and his interview with 
 Nausicaa. Jourdain, like the Grecian hero, is 
 discovered by Driabelle, the king's daughter, 
 while he was reposing under a tree, and although
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 443 
 
 he did not use the modest precaution of Ulysses, 1 
 he is accosted by the princess, who conducts him 
 to her father's palace, and clothes him in suitable 
 raiment. He is at first mistaken for a person of 
 low degree ; but having vanquished an host of pa- 
 gans and giants, by which the kingdom of Gardes 
 was attacked, he receives- the Princess Driabelle 
 in marriage as the reward of his prowess. 
 
 Soon after the nuptials, Jourdain sets out with 
 his bride for France, in order to recover his pa- 
 ternal inheritance. During the voyage a storm 
 having arisen, it is proposed that Driabelle, who 
 was by this time pregnant, should be thrown over- 
 board as a victim to appease the tempest. Her 
 husband at first hesitates, but one of his knights 
 removes his scruples by suggesting that if an air- 
 hole were bored in one side, she might be placed 
 in a large cask, fitted up with a comfortable bed, 
 and stocked with gold and silver. On his return 
 to Gardes, Jourdain boasts of this admirable ex- 
 pedient to his father-in-law, who of course could 
 feel no uneasiness as to the fate of a daughter 
 thrown overboard in a cask which contained so 
 
 Ex irvxms S'uXwj irrofdn xXttrt ^tip ' ra Jt , ' 1 i>
 
 4-44 110MANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 much gold and silver, and had an air-hole bored 
 in its side. 
 
 Some years after, our hero having succeed- 
 ed to the crown of Gardes, sets out in quest of 
 Driabelle, and, after a long search, finds her re- 
 siding with a female hermit on the borders of a 
 forest in the territory of Pisa. The wooden cask 
 in which she had been enshrined was picked up 
 on the shore, to which it had miraculously float- 
 ed, by a miller in the neighbourhood, who recei- 
 ved Driabelle in his house, but exposed the daugh- 
 ter to whom she shortly after gave birth. To 
 avoid the amorous solicitations with which she 
 was persecuted by her host, she had sought re- 
 fuge with the recluse. Soon after this discovery, 
 Jourdain, while hunting one day in the forest, 
 meets his daughter in company with two fawns and 
 a hind, by whom she had been kindly entreated 
 when exposed by the miller. Fortunately the 
 princess had inherited some personal peculiarities 
 from her father, whence the queen is enabled to 
 identify her by certain marks that had been ob- 
 served on her person shortly after birth ; and as 
 she was very beautiful, and of course well edu- 
 cated, she was betrothed to Sadoine, the Sarace- 
 nic king of Scotland, whom Jourdain had recent-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 445 
 
 ly converted along with his people to the true 
 faith. 
 
 In this work the leading incident bears a stri- 
 king resemblance to the history of Appollonius 
 of Tyre, whose queen, to appease a storm, was 
 thrown overboard in a chest, which floated to the 
 coast of Ephesus. (See above, pp. Ill, 112.) 
 
 The romance of 
 
 DOOLIN de MAYENCE ! 
 
 is supposed to have been written during the reign 
 of Charles VIII. of France, that is about the end 
 of the 15th century. This inference has been 
 drawn partly from the language of the work 
 partly from the character and actions attributed 
 to Charlemagne. The romancers who wrote a 
 few centuries after his death did justice to his ta- 
 lents and virtues ; but their successors have paint- 
 ed him as an unreasonable monarch, and some- 
 times even as a cowardly knight. At whatever 
 
 1 L' Histoire da preux et vaillaut Dolin de Mayence, en 
 son temps la fleur des chevaliers Francais, con tenant ses fai ts, 
 gestes, batailles et aventures amirables ; ensemble les prou- 
 esses et haut faits d' amies de Charlemagne et autrei che- 
 valiers.
 
 446 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 period written, the work was first published in 
 1501, at Paris, by Verard. This edition was fol- 
 lowed by a second in 1549, 4to., from the same 
 place ; and a third at Lyons, 1604. 
 
 Doolin of Mayence, the hero of this tale of 
 chivalry, was the son of Guyon de Mayence, who, 
 while engaged in the chace, had the misfortune to 
 run down a hermit in mistake for a stag. As a 
 suitable penance for this inadvertence, he resol- 
 ved to occupy the cell of the deceased for the re- 
 mainder of his days. During his absence the senes- 
 chal having seized on Mayence, his countess is 
 condemned to death, on pretence that she had pri- 
 vately procured the assassination of her husband, 
 and all she can obtain is a delay in the execution 
 of the sentence, in hopes that some champion may 
 appear to espouse her quarrel. Her children are 
 also committed to a ruffian, with instructions that 
 they should be murdered : this design is accom- 
 plished on the younger children, but Doolin es- 
 capes, and is found by his father wandering in the 
 neighbourhood of the hermitage. There he is 
 brought up in perfect seclusion, till, having at- 
 tained the proper age, he and his father set out to 
 recover Mayence, and to rescue the countess. On 
 their way to the city Guyon is struck with sudden 
 blindness, which was a manifest indication of the
 
 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 447 
 
 will of Heaven that he should not quit his retire- 
 ment. Doolin therefore proceeds alone, and af- 
 ter experiencing a singular adventure at a castle 
 which lay on his route, 1 he arrives at Mayence. 
 There, by overthrowing her accuser, who must 
 have been possessed of wonderful patience, he re- 
 scues his mother from the death that had so long 
 awaited her. He is now invested with the so- 
 vereignty of Mayence, but has soon to sustain 
 a war with Charlemagne, who had been exas- 
 perated at Doolin having failed on some occa- 
 sion to salute him with proper respect. In the 
 course of this war the conduct of Charlemagne is 
 that of a weak and tyrannical prince ; but he at 
 length attempts to effect a reconciliation, by of- 
 fering his enemy the hand of the countess of Ni- 
 vernois, who was his niece. This proposal is reject- 
 ed by Doolin, who was fully as unreasonable as 
 Charlemagne, with great contempt. " Vrayment," 
 says Charlemagne, " beau sire Doolin, Je ne me 
 puis assez esbair de vous trouver si dur a appoint - 
 er." Doolin, however, had placed his affections on 
 the daughter of the lord of Vauclere, a city beyond 
 the Rhine, not on account of her beauty or accom- 
 plishments, but because she was beloved by the sul- 
 tan of Turkey, " lequel est si beau damoyseau que 
 
 See Appendix, No. 30.
 
 448 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 merveille ;" and he coveted possession of the city, 
 not for its extent or riches, but because it was held 
 by a cruel giant, the lady's father, who had under 
 him thirty thousand Saracens of uncommon sta- 
 ture and ferocity. Charlemagne expresses his asto- 
 nishment that Doolin should be "si outrecuide et 
 indiscret, qu' il cuide que Je luy feray don de la 
 chose ou Je n' ay nul droict, non plus que a ce qui 
 est au plus profond des Indes." The refusal of 
 Charlemagne to bestow this territory on Doolin, 
 produces a single combat between them, which is 
 interrupted by an angel, who commands the em- 
 peror to acquire it for Doolin by force of arms. 
 Accordingly the remainder of the romance is oc- 
 cupied with the wars against Vauclere and the king 
 of Denmark, who supported the pretensions of the 
 handsome sultan. These campaigns terminate with 
 the capture of Vauclere, the marriage of Doolin 
 with the giant's daughter, and his accession to the 
 throne of Denmark by right of conquest. 
 
 The exploits of Doolin are the subject of a Ger- 
 man poem, by Alxinger, in the style of Oberon, 
 and which, next to the work of Wieland, is ac- 
 counted the best in the mixed class of heroic and 
 comic poetry. But whatever may be the merit 
 of the poem, the Histoire de Doolin is not an in- 
 teresting romance, and its hero is chiefly remark-
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 449 
 
 able as the ancestor of a long race of Paladins, 
 particularly Ogier the Dane, so frequently men- 
 tioned by the Italian poets. 
 The fabulous history of 
 
 OGIER le DANOIS,* 
 
 though not printed till about the same period with 
 that of Doolin, was written at a much earlier date, 
 or at least the incidents were earlier imagined. 
 There can be little doubt, that a northern hero, 
 of the name of Ogierus, or Hulgerus, actually ex- 
 isted in the age of Charlemagne. Bartholinus, in 
 his " Dissertatio Historica de Hulgero Dano qui 
 Caroli magni tempore floruit," cites a great mass 
 of old French and German chronicles, as autho- 
 rities for his existence and martial exploits, his 
 being sent as an hostage to Paris, his flight to 
 Lombardy, and marriage to an English princess. 
 The traditions concerning this hero were proba- 
 bly first communicated to the French nation by 
 the Norman invaders, and were embodied in a 
 number of metrical romances, written in the reign 
 
 1 Romans du preux et vaillant Chevalier Ogier le Da- 
 nois due de Danemarcke, &c. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 F
 
 450 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 of Philip the Hardy. Of these the longest is Les 
 Enfances d' Ogier le Danois, which was written 
 by Adenez, or Adans, as he is sometimes called, 
 herald to Henry III., duke of Brabant, 1 and sur- 
 named Roy, from having been crowned in a poeti- 
 cal contest. He informs us that the materials of 
 his romance were communicated to him by a 
 monk, called Savary, from certain northern le- 
 gends preserved in the abbey of St Denis. This 
 metrical work of Adenez, and others of a similar 
 description, were the foundation of the prose ro- 
 mance which was formed not long after the ap- 
 pearance of its metrical prototypes. The infa- 
 mous and traitorous character assigned in the 
 prose romance to the knights templar, makes it 
 probable that it was written in the time of Philip 
 the Fair, in whose reign that order was suppress- 
 ed, on account of real or alleged enormities. 
 
 Doolin of Mayence had by his wife, Flandrina, a 
 son called Geoffrey, who succeeded to him in the 
 kingdom of Denmark, and Ogier the Dane was 
 son to this monarch. 
 
 1 Icy endroit est cil livre finez, 
 Qui ties Enfances d' Ogier est apelez ; 
 Or vucillc Diez qu' il soit parachevez, 
 En tel manicre qu' estre n' en puissc blamrz 
 Li Hoy Adans, par ki il est rimez.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 451 
 
 The fairies, who only act a part in the more re- 
 cent romances of the Round Table, appear in the 
 earliest tales relating to Charlemagne. Not fewer 
 than six of these intermeddling beings presided at 
 the birth of Ogier. Five of the number bestowed 
 on him the most precious gifts and accomplish- 
 ments, while Morgane, the sister of Arthur, who 
 was the sixth, decreed, that when Ogier had pass- 
 ed a long life of glory, he should come to her pa- 
 lace of Avallon in his old age, and, laying his lau- 
 rels at her feet, partake with her the enjoyments 
 of love in the finest residence in the universe. 
 
 Some disputes having arisen between the king 
 of Denmark and Charlemagne, Ogier, who was 
 now ten years of age, was, at the adjustment of 
 differences, sent as an hostage to Paris, where he 
 was instructed in all the accomplishments of the 
 time. At the end of four years, Charlemagne, ir- 
 ritated by some new transgression of the king of 
 Denmark, banished Ogier to the castle of St Omer. 
 There his confinement and exile were soothed by 
 the kindness of the governor, and still more sweetly 
 solaced by the attentions of his daughter, the beau- 
 tiful Bellissande. Ogier seems to have been on 
 no occasion disposed to abide the amorous old age 
 reserved him by decree of the fairies ; but he was 
 unfortunately withdrawn from a residence which
 
 4s52 ROMANCES OF CHIVAL11Y. 
 
 love had begun to render delightful, and summon- 
 ed to attend Charlemagne to Italy, on an expedi- 
 tion against the Saracens. In the romance there 
 is a long, but not very interesting account, of the 
 services he performed for Charlemagne, and his 
 narrow escapes from the plots of Chariot, Charle- 
 magne's unworthy son, who was envious of his re- 
 nown. The emperor having at length triumphed 
 over all his enemies, and re-established Leo in the 
 pontifical throne, returned to France, accompanied 
 by Ogier. 
 
 The first intelligence the Danish hero learned 
 on his arrival, was, that Bellissande had made him 
 father of a son, and the next, that he had suc- 
 ceeded to the crown of Denmark by the demise 
 of his parents. He took immediate possession of 
 this sovereignty, but after a reign of some years he 
 resigned it, and returned to France. 
 
 Meanwhile the son of Ogier and Bellissande had 
 grown up, and was a deserved favourite at the 
 court of Charlemagne. One day, having unfortu- 
 nately vanquished Chariot at a game of chess, that 
 prince, who was not remarkable for his forbear- 
 ance, struck him dead with the chess board. The 
 exasperated father of the victim insulted his sove- 
 reign so grossly in consequence of this outrage, 
 that he was forced to fly into Lombardy. Didier,
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 453 
 
 king of that country, was then at war with Char- 
 lemagne ; but, spite of the assistance of Ogier, he 
 was worsted by the French monarch. The Danish 
 hero escaped from a castle in which he was be- 
 sieged, but while asleep by the side of a fountain, 
 he was taken captive by Archbishop Turpin. Ogi- 
 er refused to be reconciled to his sovereign, un- 
 less the guilty Chariot was delivered up to his 
 vengeance. These conditions were complied with, 
 but when Ogier was about to strike off the head 
 of the prince, his arm was arrested by the voice 
 of an angel, commanding him to spare the son of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 After this interposition, Ogier returned to his 
 obedience, and was soon after employed to com- 
 bat a Saracen giant, who had landed with a great 
 army in France, but was defeated and slain ac- 
 cording to the final lot of all pagans and giants. 
 Ogier received as a reward the hand of the prin- 
 cess Clarice of England. This lady had followed 
 her father to France, who came there to do homage 
 for his crown. She had been intercepted, how- 
 ever, and detained by the pagans, from whom she 
 was rescued by the exertions of Ogier, who, soon 
 after his union, passed over to England, and in 
 right of his wife, was there acknowledged as 
 king : but, tired of the enjoyment of an empire
 
 454 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 which had been so easily gained, he soon after 
 set out in quest of new adventures, the account of 
 which forms the second part of the romance. 
 
 Of this division of the work, a considerable por- 
 tion is occupied with the wars in Palestine. Our 
 adventurer successively seized on Acres, Jerusa- 
 lem, and Babylon, of which cities he was declared 
 king, but resigned them in turn to his kinsmen, 
 who had accompanied him on his expedition, and 
 anew set sail for France. For some time he en- 
 joyed a favourable breeze, but at length his vessel 
 was driven by a tempest on a rock, to which it 
 became immoveably fixed. In proportion as pro- 
 visions failed, the sailors were in turn thrown 
 overboard. When all his crew had been thus dis- 
 posed of, Ogier landed and directed his steps to a 
 castle of adamant, which, though invisible during 
 day, shone by night with miraculous splendour. 
 His first entrance into this mansion has a striking 
 resemblance to a description in the romance of 
 Partenopex : every thing is magnificently arran- 
 ged, but no person appears. At length, having 
 entered a saloon, he perceived a repast prepared, 
 and a horse seated at table, who, on the approach 
 of Ogier, instantly rose, presented him with wa- 
 ter, and then returned to his chair. The hospita- 
 ble quadruped next made signs to his guest to
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 455 
 
 partake of the viands, but Ogier, little accustom- 
 ed to fellowship with such hosts, and scarce com- 
 prehending his imperfect gesticulation, left the 
 whole repast for behoof of the landlord, who, af- 
 ter a plentiful supper, conducted the stranger to 
 a magnificent chamber prepared for his repose. 
 Next morning Ogier went abroad, and followed a 
 path which conducted him to a delightful mea- 
 dow. ' Welcome,' said the fairy Morgana, who 
 now appeared richly attired, amidst an assemblage 
 of beautiful nymphs * welcome to the palace of 
 Avallon, where you have been so long expected.' 
 She then re-conducted him to the palace of ada- 
 mant ; but the reader hears no more of the horse, 
 nor any satisfactory reason why he was preferred 
 to the office of croupier, and selected to do the ho- 
 nours of the castle, for which he must have been 
 but indifferently qualified, either by his dexterity 
 in carving, or his talents for conversation. 
 
 On his arrival at the palace, Morgana placed a 
 ring on the hand of Ogier, who, though at that 
 time upwards of a hundred years of age, immedi- 
 ately assumed the appearance of a man of thirty. 
 She afterwards fixed on his brow a golden crown, 
 adorned with precious stones, which formed leaves 
 of myrtle and of laurel. From this moment the
 
 456 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 court of Charlemagne and its glories were effaced 
 from his recollection the thrones of Denmark 
 and Palestine vanished from his view Morgana 
 was now the sole object of his devotion. The de- 
 lights of her garden and palace were ever varied 
 by magic ; and, as described in the romance, re- 
 mind us of the illusions of Alcina. The fairy also 
 introduced her lover to the acquaintance of her 
 brother Arthur, who had resided with her for the 
 last four hundred years. Oberon too, another 
 brother of Morgana, frequently visited his sister, 
 and placed at her disposal a troop of spirits, who 
 assumed a variety of forms, appearing in the shape 
 of Lancelot, Tristan, or some other knight of the 
 Round Table, who came as if to consult their 
 sovereign on the interpretation of the laws of that 
 celebrated institution, and to discourse with him 
 on their former exploits. Sometimes they were 
 pleased to take the figures of giants and monsters, 
 and in these characters attacked the pavilion of 
 the monarch. Ogier and the British king were 
 delighted with each other's society, and were fre- 
 quently engaged in joust and tournament with 
 these imaginary foes. 1 
 
 1 See Appendix, No. 21.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 457 
 
 Two hundred years having elapsed in these 
 amusements, the moment arrived at which Ogier 
 was destined to be separated for a short while 
 from his mistress. The crown of oblivion ha- 
 ving been removed from his brow, the glories of 
 his former life burst on his memory, and he sud- 
 denly departed for the court of France, where 
 he was destined to revive, under the first of the 
 Capets, that spirit of chivalry which had sunk un- 
 der the feeble successors of Charlemagne. The 
 romance describes, in a way amusing enough, the 
 astonishment of the courtiers at the appearance 
 of this celebrated but old-fashioned hero, and his 
 reciprocal surprise at the change that had taken 
 place in manners and customs. France, and even 
 Paris, were at this time threatened by the northern 
 nations who had settled in Normandy. Ogier 
 was appointed to command an expedition against 
 them, and by restoring the genuine spirit of chi- 
 valry in his army, entirely defeated the enemy. 
 After his return he assisted at the meetings of the 
 councils ; and, in the course of a twelvemonth, 
 revived throughout the kingdom the vigour of the 
 age of Charlemagne. 
 
 As Ogier still bore the ring he had received 
 from Morgana, which gave him the appearance 
 of unfaded youth, he was highly favoured by the
 
 458 UOMANCES OF chivalry. 
 
 ladies of the court. The secret, however, had 
 nearly transpired by means of the old countess of 
 Senlis, who, while making love to Ogier, drew this 
 talisman from his hand and placed it on her own. 
 She instantly blossomed into youth, while Ogier 
 shrunk into decrepitude. The countess was forced 
 to give back the ring, and former appearances 
 were restored ; but, as she had discovered its va- 
 lue, she employed thirty champions to regain it, 
 all of whom were successively defeated by the 
 knight. 
 
 About this time the king of France having died, 
 the queen wisely resolved to espouse a hero, who, 
 with the bloom and vigour of thirty, possessed the 
 experience of three centuries : but while the mar- 
 riage ceremony was performing, the bridegroom 
 was suddenly carried away by Morgana, and, to 
 the misfortune of chivalry, has never since been 
 heard of. The fairies of romance are much in the 
 habit of conveying away mortals who possess the 
 qualities that engage their affections. In the Ara- 
 bian Nights, Ahmed, son of the sultan of the Indies, 
 is transported to the castle of the fairy Pari Banou, 
 who was enamoured of him ; and in the fabliau of 
 Lanval, the knight of that name was borne away, 
 like Ogier, to Avallon, whence he has never yet 
 returned.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 459 
 
 Ogier le Danois is certainly one of the most 
 interesting stories of the class to which it belongs, 
 and has accordingly gone through a great number 
 of editions, of which the earliest was printed at 
 Paris, in folio, by Verard, without date, and the 
 next at Lyons, in 1525. 
 
 The hero of this popular work has been the 
 subject of two romantic poems in Italy, II Danese 
 Uggieri, and La Morte del Danese. He is also 
 frequently mentioned by Ariosto and Boiardo. 
 Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore, alludes in a jo- 
 cular manner to the fiction of his long-protracted 
 existence : 
 
 " E del Danese clie ancor vivo sia 
 Dicono alcun, (ma non la Istoria roia), 
 E che si truova in certa grotta oscura, 
 E spesso armato a caval par che stia, 
 Si che chi il vede gli mette paura." 
 
 Morg. Mag. c. 28. 
 
 There exists a romance which gives an account 
 of the exploits of the son of Ogier and Morgane, 
 called Meurvin, from whom the celebrated God- 
 frey of Bouillon is feigned to have been descend- 
 ed. This work has gone through many editions, 
 but seems totally uninteresting.
 
 460 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 It has already been mentioned, that Ogier the 
 Dane was grandson of Doolin of Mayence. Doo- 
 lin appears to have been the patriarch of chivalry ; 
 for, besides his eldest son Geoffrey, the father 
 of Ogier, he had a child of his own name, who 
 inherited the country of Mayence, and was the 
 ancestor of Gan, who acts so villainous a part in 
 the Italian poems. The exploits of a third son 
 form the subject of the romance Gerard d' Eu- 
 phrate, which the author says he was employed 
 for thirty years in translating from the Walloon 
 rhyme, and which was published in folio, 1549. 
 The scene of most of the adventures is laid in the 
 east, and the whole work is very freely inter- 
 spersed with enchantments, and the machinations 
 of magicians and fairies, some of whom were 
 friendly and others hostile to Gerard, the hero of 
 the romance. A fourth son of Doolin was Beuves, 
 count of Aigremont, who was father of Vivian 
 and the Christian enchanter Maugis, the Mala- 
 gigi of Ariosto. Aymon, count of Dordogne, the 
 youngest son of Doolin, left a posterity still more 
 illustrious, having been the parent of Renaud de 
 Montauban and his three brothers, whose names 
 suggest every thing that is splendid and romantic 
 in poetry or fiction.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 461 
 
 There are different French romances, both in 
 prose and verse, concerning the adventures and 
 exploits of the four sons of A} r mon. In these 
 the same circumstances are frequently repeated, 
 which renders a separate analysis of each super- 
 fluous. 
 
 The History of Maugis * and his brother Vivian 
 derives considerable interest from the novelty of 
 the character of its hero, and the singular en- 
 chantments he employs. In his infancy Maugis 
 was stolen by a Moorish slave, with the intention 
 of carrying him into Paganism. He was rescued, 
 however, by the united efforts of a lion and leo- 
 pard, and was picked up by a benevolent fairy, 
 who was fortunately traversing the desert at the 
 moment. A dwarf, whom the fairy kept in pay, 
 soon after acquainted her with the lineage of the 
 child. Having received this information, she con- 
 ferred on him the benefits of baptism, and sent 
 him to her brother to be initiated in magic, the 
 rudiments of which he acquired with wonderful 
 
 ' La Ires plaisante histoire de Maugis d' Aigremont et de 
 Vivian son frere, en laquelle est contenu comme le dist 
 Maugis a 1' aide dc Oriande la Fee s>' amie alia en 1' isle de 
 Boucault ou il s' habilla en diable, et comment il enchanta 
 le diable Raouart et occist le serpent qui gardoit la rocbe 
 par laquelle chose il conquist le bon cheval Bayard et aussi 
 conquesta le grant Sorgalant. Pari*, 1527, 4to.
 
 462 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 facility. His first magical experiment was of 
 the boldest description, he personated the de- 
 vil, and in that character passed into the island 
 of Boucault, where he subdued and tamed the 
 horse Bayardo, an exploit attributed by Tasso to 
 Rinaldo. This unruly steed inhabited a cavern 
 which was guarded by a horrible dragon, and was 
 in the vicinity, of a volcano which formed one of 
 the principal mouths of hell. There is a striking 
 resemblance between this adventure and the east- 
 ern story of the Rakshe, a winged horse, which 
 rendered the Dry island uninhabitable till he was 
 subdued by Housheng, king of Persia, who tamed 
 and mounted him in all his wars with the Dives. 
 Maugis having signalized himself by the conquest 
 of Bayardo, was admitted to the necromantic uni- 
 versity of Toledo, where he completed his stu- 
 dies, and, according to some accounts, held the 
 professor of magic's chair in that city, which was 
 distinguished as a school for the mysteries of the 
 black art : 
 
 " Questa chta di Tolletto solea, 
 Tenere studio di Negromanzia, 
 Qaivi di raagica arte si leggea 
 Publicaroente, et di Peromanzia; 
 E molti Geomanti semprc avea 
 E sperimcnti assai de Tetremauzia." 
 
 Morg. Mag. c. 25.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 4-63 
 
 Having perfected himself in the mysteries of ma- 
 gic, the enchanter assisted Marsirius, king of 
 Spain, in his wars with the Amiral of Persia, and 
 availed himself of his incantations to forward and 
 conceal his own intrigue with the queen. He also 
 aided Arnaud of Montcler in his contest with 
 Charlemagne, deceiving the enemy by fascinating 
 their eyes, or entering the hostile camp in various 
 disguises, after the manner of Merlin. 
 
 The story of the enchantments and amours of 
 Maugis is prosecuted in The Conquest of Trebi- 
 zond, by Rinaldo. 1 This romance opens with an 
 account of a magnificent tournament proclaimed 
 by Charlemagne, to which Rinaldo comes incog- 
 nito, and bears away all the honour and prizes. 
 At length the ceremony is interrupted by an em- 
 bassy from the king of Cappadocia, announcing 
 his intentions of embarking for France in order to 
 joust with all the knights of Charlemagne. Ri- 
 naldo, however, anticipates his design, and having 
 landed in Cappadocia, overthrows and deposes its 
 monarch. Maugis, who had accompanied Rinaldo, 
 meanwhile engaged in an intrigue with the daugh- 
 ter of the king of Cyprus. His amour was de- 
 
 * La Conqueste de tres puissaut Empire de Trebtesonde,, 
 par Renaud de Montaubao. Parts, sans date, Ato. 
 
 11
 
 4-64 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 tected by a dwarf, who revealed it to the king. 
 It is true the princess burnt the dwarf, but this 
 could not prevent her father from besieging Mau- 
 gis in a citadel into which he had thrown him- 
 self. The emperor of Trebizond aided the king of 
 Cyprus, and Rinaldo came to the assistance of 
 Maugis. The allied monarchs were defeated and 
 slain in a great battle, after which Rinaldo was 
 elected by the army emperor of Trebizond. This 
 romance is the foundation of the Italian poem en- 
 titled " Trabisonda nel quale si tratta nobillissime 
 battaglie con la vita e morte de Rinaldo." 
 
 Maugis continues to act a distinguished part in 
 the popular romance of the Four Sons of Aymon,* 
 which was taken from a metrical tale written by 
 Huon de Villeneuve as far back as the 1 3th century. 
 In the prose work there is detailed the events of 
 a war carried on by Charlemagne against the four 
 brothers, in revenge for the loss of his nephew, 
 who had been slain by Rinaldo, a contest in which 
 Maugis renders, by his usual arts, the most power- 
 ful assistance to his rebellious kinsmen. There is 
 also an account of the reiterated treasons of Gano, 
 and the victories which Rinaldo gains over the 
 Saracen invaders of the dominions of Yvon, king 
 
 1 Quatre fils Aymon, Paris, 1525, flio.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 465 
 
 of Gascony, who bestows on his champion the 
 castle of Montauban and his sister Clarice, which, 
 it will be recollected, is the name of the heroine 
 in the Rinaldo of Tasso. At length this cele- 
 brated paladin retired to a hermitage ; but, for 
 the sake of occasional exercise, hired himself out 
 as a mason. His piety drew on him the hatred 
 of his fellow labourers, and one day, while he was 
 praying at the bottom of the wall of a church 
 which they were building, they threw on his head 
 an enormous stone, by which he was slain before 
 he had completed his devotions. 
 
 The concluding scenes of the life of Maugis are 
 exhibited in the Chronicle of Mabrian. Like his 
 cousin Rinaldo, this enchanter had retired to a 
 hermitage ; he emerges, however, from this seclu- 
 sion, and repairs to Rome, where he attracts so 
 much notice by his eloquence and the sanctity of 
 his manners, that on the death of Leo he is raised 
 to the pontifical chair. He soon, however, ab- 
 dicates his new-acquired dignity, and again be- 
 takes himself to the hermitage. About this time 
 Richardette, the youngest brother of Rinaldo, was 
 assassinated by the treachery of Gano. Alard 
 and Guichard, his two surviving brothers, sus- 
 pecting that the crime had been committed by 
 the command, or with the connivance, of Charte* 
 
 vol. i. 2 G
 
 466 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 magne, publicly insult their sovereign, and after 
 this imprudence fly for refuge to the hermitage 
 of Maugis. The emperor having discovered the 
 place of their retreat, kindled faggots at the en- 
 trance of the cavern, and smoked the heroes to 
 death. 
 
 There also exists a French romance concerning 
 Charlemagne and the family of Aymon, entitled 
 Morgant le Geant, the incidents of which corre- 
 spond precisely with those of the Morgante Mag- 
 giore of Pulci. It is probable, however, that the 
 romance was translated from the poem, as it was 
 not customary with the Italians to versify so closely 
 the lying productions of preceding fablers.* 
 
 1 With the class of romances relating to Charlemagne 
 wc may range the well-known story of Valentine and Or- 
 son, which was written during the reign of Charles VIII. 
 and was first printed in 1495, at Lyons, in folio. 
 
 There are a few romances of chivalry concerning French 
 knights, which cannot properly be classed among those 
 connected with Charlemagne and his paladins. Of these 
 the only one worth mentioning is Le Petit Jehan de Sain- 
 tre, which was composed in the middle of the fifteenth 
 century by Anthony de la Sale, a Burgundian author, and 
 printed in 151? and 1723. Tressan says, that this work 
 gives a great deal of insight into the manners of the age 
 and customs of the French court ; in short, that it may be 
 considered as the most national of all the French romances. 
 " I have not seen," says Warton, " any French romance
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 467 
 
 The romances of the second class, or those 
 which relate to Charlemagne, so closely resemble 
 the fictions concerning Arthur and his knights of 
 
 which has preserved the practices of chivalry more copi- 
 ously than Saintre. It must have been an absolute master- 
 piece for the rules of tilting, martial customs, and public 
 ceremonies prevailing in the author's age." -Warton's 
 Hist . of Eng. Poet. vol. I. p. 334. 
 
 Baudouin, or Baldwin, count of Flanders, is the hero of 
 another romance, which may be here mentioned. This 
 count is represented as inflamed with such excessive pride, 
 that he refused the daughter of the king of France in mar- 
 riage. One day, while hunting in a forest, he met a lady 
 of majestic stature, arrayed in magnificent attire, who ac- 
 costed him, and declared that she was the heiress of a splen- 
 did throne in Asia ; but that she had fled from the court of 
 her father to avoid a marriage which was disagreeable to 
 her. The count, incited by love and ambition, espoused and 
 carried her to the French court. When a year had elapsed, 
 the Asiatic princess brought him two beautiful daughters ; 
 yet Baldwin, though in the enjoyment of great domestic 
 felicity, awaited with much impatience the return of a cou- 
 rier he had despatched to the dominions of bis royal father- 
 in-law. Meanwhile a hermit having obtained admittance 
 to the presence of the count, expressed his doubts as to the 
 existence of this Asiatic empire, and concluded with beg- 
 ging leave to dine in company with the princess. The re- 
 quest being complied with, when the other guests are seat- 
 ed at table the hermit enters the apartment, and, without 
 farther exordium, commands the landlady to return to the 
 hell whence she had originally issued. This mode of ad- 
 dress, which unfortunately none of the count's visitors had
 
 468 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 the Round Table, that the same, or nearly the 
 same, observations apply to both. The founda- 
 tions of each are laid from supposed histories : 
 
 hitherto thought of employing at his board, has the desired 
 effect on the hostess, who vanishes with hideous yells, but 
 not without doing irreparable damage both to the dwelling 
 and the dinner. 
 
 The fact is, that Baldwin, as a punishment for his pride, 
 had been unwittingly married to the devil. The remainder 
 of the romance is occupied with a crusade performed by 
 the husband, as an cipiation for this unfortunate connec- 
 tion, and with the adventures of his two daughters, who 
 turn out better than could have been anticipated from their 
 diabolical descent. 
 
 Unions of the description formed in this romance were 
 not only common fictions, but were credited by the vulgar. 
 It was at one time generally believed that an ancestor of 
 Geoffrey of Plantagenet had espoused a demon, and from 
 this alliance Fordun accounts for the profligacy of King 
 John. Andrew of Wyntoun, in his Orygynale Cronykil of 
 Scotland, attributes a similar origin to Macbeth ; and a 
 story founded on this species of connection is related as a 
 fact in the 35th chapter of Luther's Colloquia Mensalia. 
 This superstition, indeed, appears to have existed in all 
 ages and countries, and seems one of the most prevalent 
 to which mankind have been addicted. The Jewish Rab- 
 bins believed in an intercourse between the fallen angels 
 and daughters of the children of men ; in particular, they 
 believed that Cain was the progeny of the devil, having 
 been the offspring of the woman and the serpent. The 
 marriage, however, of Baldwin, count of Flanders, above 
 related, and other unions of a similar description, seem
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 469 
 
 Arthur wars against the Saxons, and Charlemagne 
 against the Saracens ; both princes are unhappy 
 in their families, and sometimes unsuccessful in 
 
 lo have been suggested by the story of Menippus, in Phi- 
 lostratus' Life of Appollonius of Tyana. A young man, 
 called Menippus, while travelling in the neighbourhood of 
 Corinth, was accosted by a beautiful woman, who said she 
 was a Phoenician, and avowed she was captivated with his 
 love. She assured him that she was possessed of ample 
 revenues, and was proprietor of a magnificent palace in the 
 vicinity of Corinth, where they might reside in the indul- 
 gence of every imaginable luxury and pleasure. Menippus 
 went with her to this abode in the evening, continued for 
 some time to frequent her society, and at length fixed on a 
 day for the celebration of the nuptial ceremony. Mean- 
 while the philosopher Appollonius remarking some peculi- 
 arities in the aspect of Menippus, thus addressed him : " I 
 perceive plainly, O Menippus, that you harbour or are 
 harboured by a serpent." Menippus replied, that serpent 
 or not, he was to espouse her on the morrow. Appollonius 
 invited himself to the nuptial banquet : during the enter- 
 tainment he positively declared the golden vessels, precious 
 furniture, and delicious viands to be accursed delusion and 
 phantom, and he denounced the lady as a Lamia, who de- 
 voured those whom she attracted by her charms. The 
 bride entreated him to change the subject of conversa- 
 tion, but Appollonius persisting in his invective, she in turn 
 began to revile the philosophers and sophists. Meanwhile 
 the furniture was disappearing, and the viands were per- 
 ceptibly melting away, on which the bride burst into tears, 
 and begged to be excused from revealing her name and 
 lineage. The philosopher, however, whom she had irritated
 
 470 ROMANCES OP CHIVALRY. 
 
 their undertakings. In each class of composi- 
 tions the characters of these sovereigns are de- 
 graded below their historical level, for the pur- 
 pose of giving greater dignity and relief to their 
 paladins and chivalry ; since otherwise the mo- 
 narchs would have been the only heroes, and the 
 different warriors would not have appeared in 
 their proper light. But, by lowering as it were 
 the sovereign princes, the writers of romance de- 
 lineated the manners of their times, and pleased 
 perhaps those haughty barons, who took delight 
 in representations of vassals superior in prowess 
 and in power to their lords. The authors of the 
 romances concerning Charlemagne wrote under 
 considerable disadvantages : the ground had been 
 already occupied by their predecessors, and they 
 could do little more than copy their pictures of 
 tented fields, and their method of dissecting knights 
 
 by her rash attack en the sophists, was inexorable, and 
 would not be satisfied till she explicitly confessed that she 
 was, in truth, a confirmed Lamia, who bad inveigled Me- 
 nippus merely for the pleasure of devouring him, a privi- 
 lege she wonld have enjoyed as soon as the nuptial cere- 
 mony was completed. She farther admitted, that she was 
 much in the use of this practice, which gave her special 
 delight. Menippus was a good deal surprised, thanked 
 Appollonius for this deliverance, and became in future more 
 circumspect in his amours.
 
 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 471 
 
 and giants. On the other hand, circumstances 
 were in some degree more favourable to them than 
 to the authors of the fictions concerning Arthur 
 and the companions of the Round Table. The 
 Saracens were a more romantic people than the 
 Saxons ; and tales of eastern fairies and eastern 
 magnificence offered new pictures to delight and 
 astonish the mind. " The knights of Charlemagne," 
 says Sismondi, " no longer wandered, like those 
 of the Round Table, through gloomy forests, in a 
 country half civilized, and which seemed always 
 covered with storms and snow. All the softness 
 and perfumes of regions most favoured by nature 
 were now at the disposal of romancers ; and an 
 acquisition still more precious was the imagination 
 of the east, that imagination so brilliant and va- 
 rious, which was employed to give animation to 
 the sombre mythology of the north. Magnificent 
 palaces now arose in the desert : enchanted gar- 
 dens or groves, perfumed with orange trees and 
 myrtles, bloomed amidst burning sands, or barren 
 rocks surrounded by the sea." All these are much 
 less agreeable than genuine pictures of life and 
 nature ; but they are better, at least, than de- 
 scriptions of continual havoc, and the unprovoked 
 slaughter of giants. Of all kinds of warfare the 
 gigantomachia is, in truth, the least interesting,
 
 472 ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 as we invariably anticipate what will be the final 
 lot of the giant, who, from the unlucky precedent 
 of the Titans and Goliah, has constantly fallen 
 under the arm of his adversary. Indeed, in pro- 
 portion to his bulk and stature, his destruction 
 appears always the more easy and his fate more 
 certain. Butler pronounces it to be a heavy case, 
 that a man should have his brains knocked out 
 for no other reason than because he is tall and has 
 large bones ; but the case seems still harder, that 
 strength and stature, while they provoked aggres- 
 sion, should have been of no service in repelling 
 it, and that a giant's power and prowess should 
 have proved of no avail except to his antagonist. 
 In this respect, however, it must be confessed, 
 that the book of nature differs little from the vo- 
 lumes of chivalry, since, while the race of mites 
 and moths remain, the mammoth and megatherion 
 are swept away.
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 C 475 ] 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 1. p. 13. 
 
 JAMBLICHUS 
 
 Vv AS born of Syrian parents. In his youth he was 
 placed under the care of a learned Babylonian, who in- 
 structed him in the manners and customs of his coun- 
 try, and particularly in its language, which by this time 
 must have been somewhat simplified. His Babylonish 
 preceptor, however, was taken prisoner, and sold as a 
 slave at the time of Trajan's Syrian conquest. After this 
 Jamblichus applied himself chiefly to Greek literature, 
 but he informs us that he did not forget his magic, for, 
 when Antoninus sent his colleague Verus against Volo- 
 gesus, king of the Parthians, he predicted the progress 
 aud issue of that contest 
 
 Photius has given a pretty full account of the Sinon and 
 
 Rhodanes of Jamblichus, in his Myriabibla. A MS. of 
 
 the romance was formerly extant in the library of the Es- 
 
 curial, which was burnt in 1670. Another copy was 
 
 10
 
 476 APPENDIX. NO. 2. 
 
 in possession of Jungerman, who died in the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, but it has since disappeared. 
 Some fragments originally transcribed by Vossius, from 
 the Florentine library, were published in 1641, by Leo 
 Allatius, in his excerpts from the Greek Rhetoricians 
 (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, vol. xxxiv. p. 57). 
 
 Jamblichus, the author of this romance, must not be 
 confounded with either of the Platonic philosophers of 
 that name, both of whom lived in the reign of the Em- 
 peror Julian, and were great favourites of the Apostate. 
 
 No. 2. p. 21.' 
 HELIODORUS, 
 
 towards the close of his romance, informs us, that he 
 was of the race of the Sun, and indeed his name seems 
 expressive of some alliance with that luminary. Though 
 of this high mythological extraction, he accepted of the 
 bishopric of Tricca, in Thessaly, under the Christian 
 emperors Arcadius and Honorius, who reigned in the 
 beginning of the fifth century. It has been said, that a 
 synod having given him the choice either to burn his 
 romance, or renounce his bishopric, the author preferred 
 the latter alternative. This deposition, however, seems 
 nearly as questionable as the solar origin of the family 
 of Heliodorus. 
 
 The earliest Greek impression of the iEthiopics was 
 edited at Basle, in 1535, in 4 to, by Vincent Obsopoeus,
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 2. 477 
 
 who purchased the MS. from a soldier who had pillaged 
 the library of Matthias Corvinus at Buck. This edition 
 was followed by that of Commelinus, 1596, 8vo., and of 
 Bourdelotius, printed at Paris in 1619. The last and 
 best Greek edition is that of Coray, Paris, 1804, 2 vols., 
 3vo. Soon after the Romance was first published in 
 Greek, it appeared in almost all the modern languages of 
 Europe. The whole work was turned into English prose 
 by Thomas Underdown, and printed 1577 : part of it 
 was also versified in English hexameters, by Abraham 
 Fraunce, and published in this form, 1591, 8vo. There 
 have been at least four French translations, the earliest 
 of which was by Amyot, whose version is said to have 
 so pleased Francis I., that he presented him to the abbacy 
 of Bellozane. Strange, that ecclesiastical preferment 
 should have been obtained by the translation of a work, 
 of which the original composition is said to have cost its 
 author deposition from a bishopric ! 
 
 Theagenes and Chariclea scon became a favourite 
 work in France. We are told in particular, that the 
 preceptor of a monastery, at which Racine was educated, 
 having found his pupil engaged in its perusal, took the 
 book from him. The young poet, having procured ano- 
 ther copy, was again detected at the same employment 
 by his pedagogue, whom he now told that he was wel- 
 come to burn it, as he had got the whole by heart.
 
 478 APPENDIX. NO. 3. 
 
 No. 3. p. 43. 
 ACHILLES TATIUS 
 
 is supposed by some to have lived in the fourth century, 
 but Boden thinks he must have been later, because, in 
 some of his descriptions he has obviously imitated the 
 poet Musaeus, whom he thinks posterior to that time. He 
 was a rhetorician, and is said to have composed various 
 treatises connected with astronomy and history. There 
 is an epigram in praise of him, particularly of the chas- 
 tity of his romance, by the emperor Leo Philosophus. 
 The lines have also been attributed to Photius, but it is 
 not probable he was the author, if we consider the opi- 
 nion he gives of the work of Tatius in his Myriubibla. 
 Jerome Commelinus first undertook an edition of this 
 romance ; but, as he died before it was completed, it was 
 published by his nephews in 1601. About forty years af- 
 terwards, a more perfect edition was given by Salmasius, 
 at Leyden, and the work was illustrated by a number of 
 notes, which have been generally added to the more re- 
 cent impressions, of which the last was in 1792, forming 
 the first volume of an intended Bipontine edition of the 
 Scrip toret erotici. Clitophon and Leucippe was tran- 
 slated into French by the Abbe Desfontaines. There is 
 also a German version by Seybold, with a criticism pre- 
 fixed, and an English one printed at Oxford in the seven- 
 teenth century.
 
 APPENDIXNO. 4. 479 
 
 No. 4. p. 56. 
 LONGUS. 
 
 It seems to be very uncertain who Longus was, or at 
 what time he lived. Photius says nothing of him in his 
 Myriabibla, nor is he mentioned by any of the authors 
 with whom he is supposed to have been contemporary. 
 It has been conjectured, however, that he was born in 
 Lesbos, and, it is supposed from his style, that he did not 
 live later than the fourth or fifth century. But, in fact, 
 this is a very uncertain mode of coming to any result, 
 for I cannot see why, by an assiduous study of the ancient 
 Greek authors, he might not have written as purely in the 
 tenth as in the fifth century. Those writers who lived du- 
 ring the latter ages of the Greek empire, particularly the 
 Sophists, (an appellation generally added to the name of 
 Longus,) applied themselves to some ancient writer, as 
 Plato, Demosthenes, &c, whose style they tried to emu- 
 late, and to this imitation alone they trusted for excel- 
 lence. The first Greek edition of the pastoral of Longus 
 was by Columbanus, Florence, 1598. The editor informs 
 us, it was printed from a MS. which he procured from 
 the library of Luigi Alamanni, and which was compared 
 by one of the editor's friends, Fulvius Ursinus, with a 
 MS. at Rome, and the various readings transmitted to 
 him. This impression was followed by that of Junger-
 
 480 APPENDIX. NO. 5. 
 
 man, in 1601, and a great variety of others, most of 
 which have been used by Villoison, who boasts in the 
 preface to his edition of 1778, that he had studied Greek 
 twelve hours daily from his infancy. His labours have 
 formed the basis of the latest and best edition of this 
 romance, printed at Leipsic in 1803. Previous to its 
 publication in Greek, Gambara translated this pastoral 
 romance from the MS. into Latin verse, and this work 
 was printed 1569. In 1559 it was rendered into French 
 by Amyot, and of his version there have been a great 
 number of impressions, one of which was published with 
 figures designed by the regent duke of Orleans. It has 
 also been exhibited in an Italian form by Annibal Caro, 
 the celebrated translator of Virgil. 
 
 No. 5. p. 76. 
 
 CHARITON APHRODISIENSIS 
 
 is as little known as the other writers of Greek romance. 
 Indeed, it has been suspected by some, that his graceful 
 name is entirely fictitious ; by others it has been conjec- 
 tured that he was born at Aphrodisia, a city in Caria, and 
 it is supposed, from the imperfection of his style, that 
 the author, whoever he was, existed posterior to the age 
 of Heliodorus or Tatius. His romance was published at 
 Amsterdam, 1750, by D'Orville, from a copy, taken by 
 his friend Antonio Cocci ii, of a MS. found in a monas- 
 tery at Florence. The Latin translation by Reiskius is 
 executed with uncommon spirit and fidelity. The ro-
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 6. 481 
 
 mance itself consists of 144 pages, and the notes added 
 by D'Orville, occupy 788. " Charitonis contextum," says 
 he, " paucis ubi opus videbatur illustrandum duxi." The 
 trouble the commentator has taken is the more extraor- 
 dinary, as he seems to have entertained but an indiffer- 
 ent opinion of the merit of the romance, " et vere dicere 
 licet, Charitonem potius insignibus vitiis carere, quam 
 magnis virtutibus esse commendabilem." In 1753, there 
 appeared an Italian translation, through the medium of 
 which the English one has been formed. 
 
 No. 6. p. 83. 
 
 JOANNES DAMASCENUS 
 
 was born in the seventh or eighth century, in Syria, 
 and his spiritual romance is said to have been originally 
 written in the language of that country, but it was trans 
 lated into Greek at an early period. His youth was 
 spent in the service of a Mahometan calif, but he after- 
 wards retired into the monastery of St Sabas, in Syria, 
 where he became a monk, and died at the age of eighty- 
 four. Besides his Lives of Josaphat and Barlaam, he is 
 the author of many theological and controversial wri- 
 tings, particularly several works in favour of images 
 against the Iconoclastes, which subjected him to much 
 persecution. His hand, indeed, was cut off on account 
 of the tenets he professed, but was afterwards miracu- 
 lously restored to him by the Virgin. 
 VOL. I. 2 H
 
 482 APPENDIX. NO. 7. 
 
 Little is known with regard to the remaining writers 
 of Greek romance. Eustathius, the author of Isinene 
 and Ismenhs, is called Eumathius in the manuscripts of 
 that production ; and it has been suspected t hat Gualmi- 
 nus, who published the work with a Latin translation in 
 1618, adopted the name of Eustathius, in order to make 
 the public believe that the romance was written by the 
 commentator on Homer of that name. Gualminus was 
 also editor of the Dosicles and Rhodantes of Theodorus 
 Prodromus, a MS. copy of which was transmitted to him 
 by Salmasius, and printed at Paris in 1615. The author 
 of this romance, he informs us, was originally from 
 Russia, but became, soon after his arrival in Greece, a 
 priest, a physician, and a philosopher. 
 
 No. 7. p. 209. 
 MERLIN. 
 
 Quand les Chevaliers et Dames et Damoyselles fu- 
 rent arrivez, Dieu sait la joye que le Roy leur fist ; et 
 s'en vint a Yguerne et a son Mari, et les fist menger en 
 sa table, et fist seoir le Due de coste lui. Et fist tant le 
 Roy par ses paroles que Yguerne ne se peut defiendre 
 qu' die ne print de ses jouyaulx, tant qu' elle sceut bien 
 de vrai, que le Roy l'aimoit ; et apres que la feste fut 
 passee, chascun se en voulut retourner, et prinrent con- 
 gie du Roy. Et le Roy leur pria qu' ils revinssissent 
 tousjours, ainsi qu' il leur avoit coinmande ; si Iuy actor-
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 7. 483 
 
 derent chascun. Si endura le Roy cette peine d' amours 
 jusques a long-temps. Si ne peut plus endurer ce maf- 
 tyre, et luy convint se descouvrir a deux des plus privz 
 de son conseil, et leur dit 1' angoisse qu' ii souffroit pour 
 
 'amour d' Yguerne. t quant le jour de la feste fut 
 
 venu, chascun se trouva a Cardeuil avecque leurs appa- 
 reils, tant Dames et Damoyselles, de quoy le Roy fut 
 moult joyeux ; et quant le Roy sceut que chascun fut 
 arrive, et le Due de Tintaiel, et sa femme Yguerne, si 
 prist sa couronne, et se presenta devant tous les Barons 
 auxqueulx il donna plusieurs riches jouyaulx, et aux dames 
 et Damoyselles aussi. Et quant se vint a la table, que 
 chascun fut assis pour menger, le Roy fut moult joyeux 
 et lye Si parla a ung sien conseiller auquel il se fioit, 
 qui fut nomme Ulsius. Et lui dist que 1' amour d' Ygu- 
 erne le tuoit, et le feroit mounr, et qu' il ne povoit du- 
 rer s' il ne la veoit, et que quant il en perdoit la vue, le 
 cueur lui meurdrissoit, et que s' il n' avoit remede d' elle, 
 qu' il ne povoit longuemeut vivre. Et Ulsius lui re- 
 spondit: Sire, cuideriez vous bien mourir pour 1' amour 
 d' une dame ? Saichez, que Je ne suis que ung povre 
 Gentilhomme ; mais Je ne cuiderois point mourir pour 
 1' amour d' une femme Car Je ne ouy parler de femme 
 (pourveu qu' elle fust bien requise) qui, pour ce qu' on 
 luy presente plusieurs dons, ne se consentye a la voulente 
 de celui qui la requiert. Et toy qui es Roy, te esbahis 
 tu comme tu pourras avoir l'amour d' une dame ! II sem- 
 ble que tu ayes le cueur bien couart qui n' oses requir- 
 rir une dame d'aymer. Et le Roy luy dist: tu ditz 
 vrai, tu sees qu' il convient a teile chose Si te prie que 
 tu in' ay des en toutes les man ie res que tu pourras. Si,
 
 484 APPENDIX. NO. 7. 
 
 prens en mon tresor, ce que tu vouldras pour lui donner, 
 et a ceulx et a colics qui sont autour d' elle ; et pense de 
 faire a cliascun son plaisir, et va parler a Yguerne. Et 
 Ulsius respondit : Je sauray bien faire ce que ra' avez 
 commando. Ainsi tint la court huit jours en grant joye, 
 et avoit le Roy tousjours a sa compaignie, et lui donna 
 de moult riches jouyaulx, et a ses compagnons aussi. Et 
 Ulsius s' en alia parler a Yguerne, et luy dist ce qu' il 
 convenoit a parler d' amours, et luy porta plusieurs 
 beaulx jouyaulx, et riches Et jamais Yguerne n' en 
 voulut riens; tant qu'il advint ung jour que Yguerne tira 
 Ulsius a conseil a une part, et luy dist. Ulsius, pourquoi 
 me offres tu tant de si beaulx jouyaulx ? Et Ulsius re- 
 spondit ; pour le grant sens et belle contenance que Je 
 voy en vous, votre grant beaulte. Et saichez que tout 
 avoir de ce Royaume est a vous ; et tous les gens aussi 
 sont a faire vostre plaisir et vostre voulente. Et elle re- 
 spondit : comment sais tu ce ? Et il respondit : Dame 
 vous avez le cueur de celuy a qui est le Royaume. Et elle 
 dist; qui est le cueur ? C'est le cueur du Roy, dist il. 
 Comment ? dist elle ; le Roy a le cueur bien felon et 
 bien traitre de monstrer a monseignenr si grant semblant 
 qu' il 1' aime, si il me veult trahir et deshonnourer ; Je 
 te diray, Ulsius, gardes sur ta vie que jamais tu ne me 
 paries de tieulx parolles, que bien saiches que Je le di- 
 rois au Due, et s' il le scavoit, il te conviendroit mourir. 
 Ne ja ne le celeray que ceste foys. Et Ulsius respondit; 
 se Je mouroye pour le Roy, se me seroit grant honneur. 
 Puis il lui dit : Dame, Je me esbahis que vous reffusez le 
 Roy pour vostre amy, qui plus vous aime que luy meme ; 
 et veuillez savoir qu' il meurt pour vous, et qu' il mour- 
 ra si n' avez mercy de luy. Et elle respondit : vous vous
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 8. 4*85 
 
 gabez. Et il luy respondit : Pour Dieu, Dame, aycz 
 mercy du Roy et de vous-mesmes ; car si vous n' en avez 
 mercy, vous en verrez venir grant mal : Ne vous, ne vo- 
 tre seigneur, ne vous saurez deffendre contre sa voulente. 
 Et a done Yguerne respondit en pleurant tendrement: 
 Si feray ; Je m' en defFendrai bien. Car jamais ne me 
 trouveray, la feste pass6e, en la compaignie du Roy, ny 
 en sa cour ne me trouveray ; ne pour quelque mande- 
 ment qu'il face ne viendray. Ainsi se departirent Ulsius 
 et Yguerne. 
 
 No. 8. p. 221. 
 SANGREAL. 
 
 Au jour que le Sauveur du monde soffri mort fust mort 
 destruite et nostre vie restoree, A cet jour estoient 
 moult poi de gent qui creissent en luy; mais il estoit ung 
 chevalier qui avoit a nom Joseph d' Arrimachie. En 
 cette cite estoit Joseph ne3, mais il estoit venus en 
 Jherusalem sept an devant ce que nostre sire fu mis en 
 Crois, et avoit radiate" le creanche Jhesu Crist; mais 
 il n' en osoit faire samblant por les felons Juis : II 
 estoit plein de sapiencte, il estoit net d'envie et d' 
 orguel, il secouroit les poures, totes bontds estoient 
 en lui et de lui parole le premier salme del sautier. Ce 
 Joseph estoit en Jherusalem, et moult ot grant duel de la 
 mort Jhesu Crist, et se pensa qu' il onnorroit. Enfin 
 Joseph avoit este" dans la maison ou Jhesu-Crist avoit
 
 486 APPENDIX. NO. 9. 
 
 fait la cene avec ses apotres : II y trouva Y escuelle ou 
 le fiex Dieu avoit mengte, si s* en sesist ; il la porta chez 
 lui, et il s' en servit pour ramasser le sang qui coula des 
 cotes et des autres plaies ; et celle escuelle est appellee 
 le Saint Graal. 
 
 No. 9. p. 224. 
 PERCEVAL. 
 
 Premierement, dist la mere de Perceval, si vous trou- 
 vez, ne pres, ne loin, Dame qui ait de vous betoing, ou pu- 
 celle desconseili, ou qui de votre ayde ait metier, ne lui 
 veuillez denier votre service. Car Je vous dy que tout 
 honneur est a 1' homme perdu, qui honneur a dame ne 
 porte ; et quiconque honore veut etre, lui faut a puceHe 
 et a Dame honneur referer. Ung autre enseignement 
 retiendrez : S' il echiet que pucelle ayez gagnee, ou que 
 pucelle de vous soit amie privee, si le baiser elle ne vous 
 denie, le baiser pouvez prendre ; mais le reste, Je vous 
 le deffens : fors que si en doigt elle a anneau, ou aumo- 
 niere a sa ceinture, si, par amour, anneau ou aumoniere 
 vous donne, licitement le don vous pouvez, en la reuier- 
 ciant, prendre, et le don d'icelle emporter. Perceval prit 
 conge de sa mere, et s* achemina vers la cour du Roy 
 Artus. Le lendemain aux premiers rayons de soleil il 
 decouvrit un riche pavilion. 
 
 Quant pres du pavilion fut arrive^ ouvert le trouva, 
 dedans lequel vit un lict noblenient accoutre, sur lequel
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 9. 487 
 
 etoit une pucelle seulc endormie, laquelle avoient laissee 
 ses demoyselles qui etoient alld cueiller des fleurs pour le 
 pavilion jolier et parier, comme de ce fiure etoient accou- 
 Uim^es. Lors est Perceval du lict de la Pucelle appro- 
 che, courrant assez lourdement dessus son cheval : adonc 
 s' est la pucelle assez effrayement eveillee. A laquelle, 
 dit Perceval, " Pucelle, Je vous salue, comme ma mere 
 m' a apprins, laquelle m' a commande que jamais pucelle 
 De trouvasse, que humblement ne la saluasse." Aux pa- 
 roles du jeune Perceval, se print la pucelle a trembler, 
 car bien luy sembloit qu' il n' etoit gueres sage, comme 
 le montroit assez son parier : et bien se reputoit folle, 
 que ainsi seule 1' avoit trouvee endormie. Puis elle lui 
 dit : " Amy pense bien-tot d' icy te departir, de peur que 
 mes amis ne t' y trouvent, car si icy te rencontroient, il 
 (;' en pourroit mal advenir." " Par ma foi," dit Perceval, 
 "jamais d'icy ne partirai que, premier, bais6e ne vous 
 aye." A quoy repond la pucelle que non fasse, mais que 
 bientot pense de departir, que ses amis la ne le treuvent. 
 " Pucelle (fait Perceval) pour votre parier, d' icy ne par- 
 tirai tant que de vous aye eu ung baiser ; car ma mere 
 m' a a ce faire ainsi enseignc." Tant s' est Perceval de 
 la Pucelle approche, qu' il 1' a par force baisee ; car pou- 
 voir n' eut elle d' y resister, combien qu' elle se defifen- 
 dit bien. Mais tant etoit lors Perceval lafre et lourd, 
 que la defense d' icelle ne luy put profiler, qu' il ne luy 
 prit baiser, voulsit elle ou non, voire, comme dit le conte, 
 plus de vingt fois. Apres que Perceval eult par force prit 
 de la pucelle baiser, advisa qu' en son doigt elle avoit 
 ung anneau d' or, dedans lequel etoit une belle claire es- 
 raeraude enchassee, lequel pareillement par force lui ota 
 comme le baiser avoit eu : puis le mit en son doigt oul-
 
 488 APPENDIX. NO. 9. 
 
 trc le gre" de la pucelle, qui fort s' etoit defendue quand 
 cet anneau luy a otc. Lors Perceval prenant 1' anneau 
 de la Pucelle, usa de tcllcs parolles, com me il avoit fait 
 au baiser, disaut que sa mere 1' avoit a ce faire enseigne, 
 mais que plus avant ne ailleurs ne toucheroit. coinmc 
 par sa mere luy avoit ete commando. La pucelle se voy- 
 | ant ainsi despouillee et perforcee de son anneau et de 
 son baiser, se print si fort a lamenter et gemir, que le 
 cueur luy cuida partir. Puis dit a Perceval : " Amy, Je te 
 prie, n' emporte point mon anneau ; car par trop en se- 
 rois blamee, et toy, possible, en perdrois la vie." Perceval 
 ne prcnd a cueur ce que la pucelle luy dit ; mais connne 
 depuis qu' il fut de chez sa mere parti, n' avoit mange 
 ne bu, par*<quoy ne fut au pavilion de la pucelle sans 
 grand appetit. Et luy, en ce desire de manger, coinme 
 tout aflame, advise d' aventure un boucal plein de vin, 
 aupres duquel etoit un hanap d' argent. Puis recarde 
 une touaille, fort blanche et assez fine, qu' il souleve et 
 prend; et dessous icelle trouve trois pates froids, de 
 chair de Chevreuil. Gueres n' arreta, quand les pates en 
 sa main tint, de se mettre en debvoir d' en taster ; car, 
 comme ai dit grand faim avoit. Partant, si-tot qu' il les 
 tint, en froissa un entre ses mains, et apres en avoir 
 mange non sobrement, souvent retournoit visiter le bou- 
 cal. Puis dit a la pucelle : " Dame, Je vous prie, venez 
 et faites comme moy ; quand vous aurez ung paste mange, 
 et moy ung autre, encore en restera til ung pour les sur- 
 venants." La Pucelle voyant Perceval ainsi dereglement 
 manger, s' en esbahit, et rien ne luy repond ; mais d' au- 
 tre chose ne se peut alleger, fors que de se prendre a 
 pleurer et a gemir tendrement Perceval, qui peu garde 
 y prenoit, de la pucelle print conge, apres qu' il eut re- 
 couvert le reate des pates dessous la touaille.
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 10. 489 
 
 No. 10 p. 240. 
 
 LANCELOT DU LAC. 
 
 Et quelle part cuydez vous aller beau Sire, dit Girflet. 
 Le ne vous diray Je pas, dist le Roy, car Je ne puis : et 
 quant Girflet veit qu' d n' en scauroit plus, ll se. partit 
 tantost du Roy Artus. Et si-tost comme il fut departy 
 commenca une pluye a ciieoir grande et merveilieuse, qui 
 lui dura jusques a ung tertre qui estoit loing du Roy en- 
 viron demy lieue ; et puis quant il fut venu au dit tertre 
 il descendit, et s' arresta dessoubs ung arbre taut que la 
 pluye fust passee, et commenca a regarder celle part ou 
 il avoit laisse le Roy; si veit venir parmy la mer une N'ef 
 qui estoit toute plaine de dames et de duinoysedes, et 
 quant elles vindrent a la rive la dame d' elles qui estoit 
 Seur au Roy Anus 1' appella, et sitost que le Roy Artus 
 veit Morgain sa seur il se leva incontinent, et Mortal n le 
 print par la main et luy dist qu' il entrast dedans ia nef ; 
 si print son cheval et ses armes et entra detlans la nef. 
 
 Et quant Girflet, qui estoit au tertre, eut veu comment 
 le Roy estoit entr en la nef avecques les dames, d re- 
 tourna vers la riviere taut qu' il peut du cheval courre : 
 et quant il y fut revenu il veit le Roy Artus entre les 
 dames. Si congneut bien Morgain la Faee, car plusieures 
 foys 1' avoit veue. Et la nef si estoit ja plus eslongnee 
 que une arbalestre neust sceu tirer a deux foys.
 
 490 APPENDIX. NO. 11. 
 
 No. 11. p. 251. 
 
 MELIADUS DE LEONNOYS. 
 
 Brehus encontra ung Chevalier arme de toutes pieces, 
 qui menoit en sa compagnie une damoyselle et deux escu- 
 yers taut seullement. Et sachez que la damoyselle estoit 
 bien vestue, et moult noblemcnt, comme ce feust este 
 une Royne ; et estoit montee sus ung pallefroy blanc, et 
 chevauchoient plaisamment parmy la forest, elle et le Che- 
 valier errant. Le chevalier estoit sus ung grant cheval, 
 et en faisoit mener ung autre en main. Le Chevalier 
 alloit chantant une chanson nouvelle qu' avoit estc faicte 
 nouvellement en la maison du Roy Artus ; et estoit la 
 chanson ainsi : 
 
 En grant joye m' a amour mis, 
 Et de grant douleur m' a oste, 
 Alaulgre tons mcs cnnemys 
 Je suis si haultement monte, 
 Que pour son ami m' a compte 
 Celle qui passe fleur de Lys; 
 Et quant pour son homme m* a pris, 
 Bien ay le monde surmontc.
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 12. 4-91 
 
 No. 12 p. 228. 
 TRISTAN. 
 
 Tristan se couche avec Yseult sa femme. Le lumi- 
 naire ardoit si cler, que Tristan pouvoit bien veoir la 
 beaute" d' Yseult ; elle avoit la bouche vermeille er ten- 
 dre, yeux pers rian9, les sourcils bruncs et bien a&s.'s, la 
 face claire et vermeille comme une rose a 1' aube <iu jour. 
 Sy Tristan la baise et 1' acolle ; mais quant ii lui soi<\ ient 
 de Yseult de Cornouailles, sy a toute perdue la voulonte 
 du sur[)lus. Cette Yseult est devant lui, et 1' autre est 
 en Cornouailles qui lui def'ent que a 1 autre Yseuit ne 
 fasse nul riens que a villeinie lui tourne. Ainsi demcure 
 Tristan avec sa female ; et elle qui d' acoller et tie bai- 
 ser ne savoit riens, s' endort entre les bras de Tristan; 
 et Tristan aussi d' autre part s' endort e.itre les bras d* 
 Yseult, jusques a lendemain que les dames et tiamuiselles 
 vinrent veoir Yseult et Tristan. Tristan se ueve, puis 
 vient au palais.
 
 492 APPEKDIX. NO. 13 
 
 No. 13. p. 288. 
 YSAIE LE TRISTE 
 
 Les chevaliers avoyent tant d'envie sur luy qu' a mer- 
 veilles. Lors s' appensent comment ils pourront mettre 
 Marc a mort, a leur honneur, et au moins de parolles : 
 Si s' adviserent comment ce scroit fait. 
 
 *' Bernard mon compaignon fait d' ivoirie a ceste ville a 
 1' hostel d' iing Lombard, et y a une chambre en laquelle 
 nul n' ose habiter qu' il ne sen repente trop grossement, 
 especialiement si par nuyt y repose. Nous nous trairons 
 pres de luy et luy prierons qu' il y voise, et il yra comme 
 celuy qui de riens na paour. Et vous voirres qu' il luy 
 mescherra en telle maniac que jamais ce ne luy pourra 
 ayder." A ce se sont tous accordez. Une heure entre 
 les autres estoyent les chevaliers avec Marc, et par- 
 loyent de plusieurs besongnes tant qu il advint que mes- 
 sire Bertrand dist a Marc " Sire en ceste ville a ung 
 hostel qui souloit estre a Isaac le Lombard ; mais il n' 
 est nul si hardy qu' en une chambre qui y est osast 
 entrer, ne heberger une nuyt tant soit hardy." 
 
 " Par ma foy," fait Marc, il seroit bien sot que pour 
 telle chose y lairroit a aller. Je y seray en nuyt quoy quil 
 en adviengne." Et vers le vespre il fist faire ung grant 
 feu en la chambre ou ces merveilles estoyent, et fist 
 mettre les tables et allumer environ vingt torches, et y
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 13. 493 
 
 avoit bien a boire et a menger. Lors s' enferma dedans 
 tout arme, et fist tout yssir hors, fors luy. Ceux et celles 
 de la ville disoyent communement qu' il estoit alle a la 
 mort ; mais s' assist a table, et commenca a boire et a 
 menger. Mais guieres neut et6 a table quant table et 
 tout versa ; et puis ouyt ung si grant bruyt par 1' hostel, 
 que c' estoit merveilles a ouyr. Lors que Marc ouyt telle 
 noise sault sus, et tire 1' espee, et commence a fuyr com- 
 me ung enraige ; mais il ny voit ntilly. A' tant vient 
 vers le feu, et redresse sa table, et remet tout sus, et se 
 rassiet ; mais en 1* heure fut tout a bas corume devant. 
 Lors ressault sus si courroucfc que plus ne peult. " Se 
 vous estes de bon pere ou de bonne mere passez avant de 
 par dieu ou de par le dyable." Mais oncques plus tost 
 ne eust dit ce mot que toute la lueur qui lean3 estoit fut 
 estainte. Et fut Marc prins, et tant mal mene quil ne 
 se peult ayder de membres qu il eust, et demoura tout 
 coy estandu emmy la place. 
 
 Le lendemain on vint prendre garde de luy, mais on 
 le trouva en tel estat que mieulx sembloit estre mort que 
 vif. Dela fut emport . Et quant il fut guary feist mander 
 ses armes et s' arma , et fist tant aincois que nul en fust 
 adverty qu il fut en la salle, ou il avoit este si mallement 
 atourne ; et y beut et mengea, et y jeut. Vers mynuyt 
 fut tant mal atourne que tous ses membres estoyent sans 
 force, et perdit la parolle et le sens ; mais touteffois il 
 advint que gens vindrent leans pour veoir le lieu, et estoit 
 jour, car de la nuyt ny eussent ose aller, et le trouverent 
 ainsi que mort. 
 
 Et quant il fut reguary, ung homme de religion, nomm6 
 Annas, alia avec Marc en une chambre. Et quant ils 
 1
 
 494 appendix. no. 13. 
 
 furent seul a seul : ** Bd amy." fait Annas, " Je vous jure 
 sur les saincts. que se voult z faire cc que Je vous con- 
 seilleray vous ) rez en la salle, aultrt nn nt non ; " * Or 
 dictes," fait Marc, " et sans doubte Je feray ce que roe 
 conseillerrz;" " Certes," fait Annas, " Je le vueil. 
 
 " il est vray," fait Annas, '* que Je suis prebstre, et 
 pource vnua piaise me dire tous vos pechez." " Voulen- 
 tiers," fait Marc : lors luy conte, et quant il eut tout dit 
 si luy bailla Annas absoluti >n ; et puis luy enchargea, en 
 penitence, que jamais, se il n' estoit premier assail) v, ne 
 tuast homme, et aidast a son poure amy. " Le ferav Je 
 voulentiers," fait Marc, ff Or beau sire," fait Annas, 
 ** Or pouez hardiment aller ou vous avez entreprins, car 
 tel avoit devant pouoir sur vous, que maintenant n'a mil 
 poucir de vous mal faire." 
 
 Quant ce vit, vers le vespre Marc ne s' oublia mie, 
 aincois s' arma, et vint en la salle ou tant de 'ouiraite 
 avoit eu ; mais guieres n' y eut ete quant le dyable vinst 
 a luy, et luy dht " que quieres tu ei ce que est nostre." 
 * Et pourquoy vostre," fait Marc : " pource, fait I' ennemy, 
 que 'a maison a este faicte des biens qui estoient nostres, 
 que nous avions preste a celuy qui ce fist faire. lequel est 
 en nostre demaine et nostre subject. Et est en nostre 
 pouoir, et emprisonne, en noz prisons pour plusieurs ar- 
 retaiges qu' il nous doit, lesquelz il naura jamais payez ; 
 et p.-urce veux Je que tu en sortes, car nul ny a drok 
 que nous." " Par sainct Jacques, fait Marc, tu 1' auras 
 aincois de ton corps gaingne contre le mien." " Je ne vueii 
 point combatre a toy, fait 1' ennemy, car tu es plus fort 
 arme que tu ne souloies." " Fuy d' icy done," fait Marc. 
 Lors tire 1' espee ; et sen vient vers luy, et 1' ennemy 
 ' en fuit entour la salle. Et Marc le cbasse, 1' espee au
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 14. 495 
 
 poing, longuement, et par loisir. Mais en la fin bouta 1' 
 enneray le feu par V hostel : et puis s' esvanouyt. 
 
 Quant Marc veit que tout arduit si en fut tout esbahy, 
 et se part. Et quant il en court si conta son adventure, 
 dont plusieurs personnes enfurent esbahys, et en y eu 
 maint qui plus souvent se confesserent que devant. Et 
 especiallement les chevaliers quant ils debvoient entrer 
 en bataille ; et disoient qu estoit la plus seure armeure 
 du monde que confession. 
 
 No. 14. p. 313. 
 
 GYRON LE COURTOIS. 
 
 Ung jour que le temps etoit bel et clair, comme il pou- 
 voit etre en la fin d' Octobre, advint que le chemin que 
 Gyron tenoit, 1' amena tout droictement au pi6 d' un ter- 
 tre. Ce tertre etoit tout blanc de la niege, car il faisoit 
 hyver ; mais la plaine etoit toute verte, comme si ce fut 
 au mois de May. Au pie de cette montagne, en la plaine, 
 tout droictement dessous ung arbre, sourdoit une fon- 
 taine moult belle et moult delectable; et dessous celluy 
 arbre, etoit assis un Chevalier arme de haubert et de 
 chasses chevaleresqties ; et ses autres armes etoient pres 
 de luy, et son cheval etoit attache a 1' arbre. Devant le 
 Chevalier seoit une Damoyselle tant belle, que c' etoit 
 mcrvcilles que sa beaute. Et si quelqu' un me deman- 
 doit qui etoit le Chevalier, Je dirois que c' etoit Danayn- 
 le-Roux, le fort Chevalier ; comme aussi la Damoyselle
 
 +96 APPENDIX. NO. 15. 
 
 qui etoit assise devant luv, n' etoit autre que la belle D*- 
 moyselle Bloye, qui avoit tant aime Gyron. 
 
 No. 15. p. 323. 
 PERCEFOREST. 
 
 Lors dresse 1* espee pour luy coupper la tete, et le 
 prent par les cheveulx, et le voulut ferir : mais il luy fut 
 advis qu' il tenoit la plus belle Damoiselle que oncques 
 veit, par les cheveulx. Lors le rega^de, et veoit que c' es- 
 toit Ydorus sa femme la Ro) ne. Adonc fut tout esbahy si 
 va dire : ha Doulce amye este vous icy. Adonc luy fut 
 advis qu* rile dist Oiiy vra\ement doulx amy; ayez 
 mercv de moi. Et le nam qui estoit la crioit tons jours 
 comme enrage Gentil Roy occis le ou tu es mort. Ce 
 re valut p s maille; car le Roy s' assit, et embrasse Dar- 
 nant. et le print a accoller comme sa femme, et dist : Belle 
 seur. pardonnez moy mon mefnVct, car J' este deceu. 
 Et Darnant tira ung couteau Galoys et fiert le Roy en 
 la poictrine ung si grant coup qu* il luy fist passer a 
 1' autre lez. mais Dieu le ayda que ce fust au dextre coste 
 ung peu dessoubz 1' espaule. Quant le roy sentit le coup 
 il sault sus tout effraie, et le navn recommenca a dire: 
 Roy occis le ou tu es mort Quant le roy se sentit na- 
 vre si cruellement il s' apperceut qu' il estoit enchante. 
 Lors leve 1* espee et couppe au chevalier la teste, et le 
 corps s' estend, et 1' ame s* en va ou elle devoit aller. Et 
 tautost commenca en la forest une noyse et une tour-
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 16, 497 
 
 mente si grant de mauvais Esperitz que c' estoit hydeur 
 a ouyr. 
 
 No. 16. p. SS7. 
 
 ARTUS DE LA BRETAGNE. 
 
 Et quant Artus la vit, elle luy pleut plus que quant la 
 vit premierement : si la print par la main et s' assirent a 
 une part entre eux deux ; et la Dame et Gouvernau furent 
 d' autre part. Si fut la matinee belle et claire, et la 
 rosce grande ; si chantoient les oysellets par la forest : 
 si que les deux enfans s' en esjouissoient en grande liesse 
 pour le doux temps, comme ceux qui estoient jeunes et 
 a qui il ne failloit que jouer et rire, et qui s' entre ay- 
 moient de bon cueur sans villenie et sans mal que 1' un 
 eust vers V autre. Lors dist Artus tout en riant Ma 
 Damoiselle Jeannette avez vous point d' Amy ? et elle 
 en souzriant et en regardant Artus doucement luy re- 
 sponds : Par la foy que Je vous doit ouy, bel et gracieux. 
 Et d' ou est il Jeannette ? Sire il est d' un pays dont il 
 est Et comme est il appelle, dist Artus : la fille dist, vous 
 vous souffrirez; mais pourtant veux bien que maintenant 
 scachez que le Roy Artus fut un bon chevalier et preux 
 et de grand vertu ; et vous dis que mon amy est aussi 
 bon, si meilleur n' est, et si resemble a vous mieux qu' a 
 personne qui vive, d' aller, et de venir, de corps, et de 
 toutes les choses que nul peut ressembler a 1' autre. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 1
 
 498 APPENDIX. NO. 17. 
 
 No. 17. p. 412. 
 
 HUON DE BOURDEAUX. 
 
 II entra dedans la salle laquelle il regarda a grant mer- 
 veilles, car tant estoit bel et riche a le veoir que il n' est 
 clerc au jourdhuy au monde qui la beaulte ne la richesse 
 qui la dedans estoit vous sceust escrire. La eussiez peu 
 veoir autour de la dicte salle les huys des riches cham- 
 bres qui a la costiete de la salle estoyent, toute la macon 
 nerie de leans, autant qu' elle duroit, estoit faicte et com- 
 posee du plus beau inarbre blanc et poly que oncquea 
 peust veoir ; les poustres qui par la salle estoyent furent 
 toutes de cuyure dore" de fin or : d' aultrepart au bout de 
 la salle avoit une cheminte, dont les deux pilliers qui le 
 manteau soubstenoyent estoyent de jaspre, et le manteau 
 fut fait et compasse d' ung moult riche cassidoyne, et la 
 Estel qui soubstenoit la clere voye estoit faicte toute de 
 fines enneraudes, et la clere voye estoit faicte de une 
 vigne entergect^e laquelle estoit de fin or, et les grappes 
 de raisin estoyent faictes des plus fins saphirs du monde. 
 Tant belle et tant riche estoit la cheminee que la pareille 
 on ne trouva en tout le monde ; et tous les pilliers qui 
 en la salle du palays estoyent estoyent fais de ung ver- 
 meil cassidoyne, et le pavement qui en la salle estoit, 
 estoit tout d' ambre.
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 17. 
 
 Quant le Due Huon eust bien advise la salle il ouvrit 
 une chambre. Quant il fut entre il regard* amont et 
 aval, et veit la chambre tant richement garnye et aournee 
 tendue et encourtinee des plus riches draps que oncques 
 eust veu en sa vie. Les bancs qui la estoyent et les 
 challis des licts et des couches estoyent tous d' ung fin 
 yvoire blanc,tant richement entaillez ouvrez et garnys de 
 pierres preciuses qu' il n' est langue humaine d' homme 
 ne de femme qui dire le vous sceust ; et estoit tout ce 
 fait par enchanterie : le palais que Je vous dy estoit moult 
 grant et large et bien gamy de riches chambres. Quant 
 Huon eut veu icelle chambre il feust tout esbahy de ce 
 que leans neveoit homme ne femme; il regarda ungaultre 
 huys sur lesquel estoit escript de lettres d' or, ainsi com- 
 me il avoit trouve a 1' huys de la chambre ou il avoit este, 
 et print la clef, si ouvrit 1' huys et entra dedans, et choisit 
 tant d' or de richesses de joyaulx de pierres precieuses 
 que grant beaulte estoit a les veoir. Vray Dieu, ce dist 
 Huon, Je cuyde que en tout le monde on ne scauroit ne 
 pourroit trouver la richesse qui est icy amassd ; et puis 
 quant la eust cte une espace de temps il regarda et veit 
 une aultre chambre ; puis quant dedans fut entre, si grans 
 richesses avoit veues encores, les trouva il plus grans, car 
 la dedans estoyent unes ausmoires moult riches et grandes 
 a merveilles, qui estoyent faictes de fine yvoire tant riche- 
 ment ouvrees et entailltes que beste ne oyseau qui au 
 monde fust on ne avoit laisse que la ne fust en,taille par 
 grant maitrise ; dedans les ausmoires y avoit robbes de 
 fin drap d' or et de moult riches manteaulx soubelins et 
 toutes aultres choses qui appartenoyent a vestir a hom- 
 me ; puis estoyent les licts et les couches tant richement 
 couvcrts et parez que n' est nul qui dire le vous sceust.
 
 500 APPENDIX. NO. 18. 
 
 Car tant estoit la chambre belle et riche que Huon ne se 
 pouoyt saouller de la voir : Leans avoit fenestras et voir- 
 rieres moult riches par lesquelles 1' on veoit ung jardin, 
 lequel estoit tant bel et si bien garny de flours moult 
 odorans, et de tous arbres chargers de plusieurs frgicts, 
 lesquclz estoyent tant delicieux a manger que il nestoyt 
 que seullement a sentir 1' odeur ne feust ressazie et 
 remply. D'aultre part y avoit d' herbes et de fleurs que 
 si tres grant odeur rendoyent que il sembloyt que tout le 
 jardin feust plain de basme. 
 
 No. 18, p. 426 
 
 GUERIN DE MONTGLAVE. 
 
 Or sont les champions dedans le pare corps a corps 
 pour combatre : si s' eslongnent lung de P autre ; puis 
 brochent leurs chevaulx et vont ung contre P autre 
 comme preux Chevalliers qu' ils estoient, et se donnent 
 trois coups de glaive sans rompre ne entamer haulbers 
 ne sans tumber a terre. La quatrieme fois rompirent 
 leurs lances puis tirerent leurs brands d' acier ; Roland 
 avoit Durandal sa bonne espee ; et en geta ung coup a 
 Olivier, et Olivier se couvre de son escu ; mais 1' espee y 
 entra plus tP ung pied et demy. Vassal, dist Roland, vous 
 devez bien aymer escu que vous a saulve ce coup : et 
 ainsi que Roland tiroit son espee Olivier le frapa ung tel 
 coup que Roland n' eust puissance de lever Durandal, et 
 Durandal tombe a terre. Et Olivier suyvit Roland tant
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 18. 501 
 
 eomme il peust, et se combatyrent assez longuement: 
 mais Roland n' osoit approcher d' Olivier, car Olivier 
 avoit bonne espee dont il fiert Roland de toutes pars : si 
 alia tant variant et fuyant Olivier que les destriers furent 
 moult las : et Roland s' est eslongne" et broche de P 
 esperon, et descend a pied vueille Olivier ou non. Et 
 quant Olivier Ie voit si fust bien courrouce, et voit bien 
 que s* il ne descend qu' il luy occira son destrier. Si est 
 descendu Olivier, et Roland prent Durandal : et quant il 
 la tint il ne' 1' eust pas donnee pour tout 1' or du monde. 
 Or sont les barons a pied, et tint chascun son blason 
 et chascun sa bonne esp e, et se donnent de grans 
 coups ; car chascun est fier et de grant puissance. Oli- 
 vier le ferit ung coup sur le coeffe d' acier tant que le 
 sercle qui estoit d' or cheut en la pree, et fust de ce coup 
 tout etonne, tant qu' il chancela troys coups la teste 
 contre bas. Et quant Roland revint en force il eut grant 
 honte, et regarda Belleaude qni estoyt sur la Tour. Par 
 mon chef, dist Rolant, or ne vaulx Je riens si Je ne me 
 delivre tantost docire Olivier. Lors fiert Olivier tantost 
 sur sa targe tel coup qu' il emporta la piece jusques a 
 terre: puis courut sus a Olivier tellement qu' ils sont 
 tous deux cheuz. Or sont les deux barons tumbez a terre, 
 et laisserent leurs espees, et se embrassent et estraignent 
 1' ung 1' autre; mais ne 1' ung ne 1' autre ne le peust 
 oncques gaigner ne avoir son compaignon; si frappent des 
 ganteletz d' acier 1' ung contre 1' auter, par le visaige, si 
 que le sang en coule a terre ; si furent tant en ce point 
 lassez et travaillez qu' ils se sont relevez par accord, et 
 revont aux espees comrae devant.
 
 502 APPENDIX. NO. 19. 
 
 No. 19. p. 429. 
 GALYEN RHETORE. 
 
 Sitot que Galyen eut advise le Pere qui 1' engendra, il 
 descendit de dessus son Cheval et 1' ala embrasser ; et 
 moult courtoisement Y osta hors de 1' estour, et le porta 
 decoste le rocher, et le posa a terre sur le bel herbe vert; 
 puis se coucha decost lui, et moult piteusement le regreta 
 en disant " Helas pere, Je voy qu' il vous convient 
 jnourir ; mal venistes oncques par deca. Jaqueline ma 
 mere qui m' a long temps nourry en Constantinople ne 
 vous verra jamais." Et Olivier lui respont " Tu dits vrai, 
 mon tres doulx file, mais ung jour qui passu lui avoie fait 
 promesse de retourner et de 1' epouser : mais nous venis- 
 mes deca qui men a garde ; ne oncques puis ne retournay 
 en France, dont mon cueur est dolent Je la commande 
 a Dieu qui le Monde forma. Le Due Regnier mon pere, 
 et ma dame de mere, qui en ses flans me porta, ne ma 
 seur Bellaude jamais ne me verra : Helas Doulx Jesus ! 
 quelle douleur aura le Roy Charlemaigne de ceste mort 
 quand il le saura helas pourquoy ne venez vous cy 
 Charlemaigne ! Et vous mon chier enfant, qui souvent 
 me baisez, Dieu vous veuille tousjours avoir en sa saincte 
 protection et garde. Adieu mon tres gracieulx et doulx 
 enfant, qui en vostre giron et sur vos genoulx me tenez 
 Adieu Jaqueline ma tres doulce Amye; pardonnez
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 20. 503 
 
 moi gentil Damoyselle car Je ne vous ay pas term pro- 
 messe : ce a et6 par les faulx desloyaulx paiens que Dieu 
 mauldie Adieu vous dy plaisante Seur Bellaude, car 
 moult grant douleur aurez de ma mort quant vous le 
 scaurez: de vos beaulx yeux vers et rians arrouserez 
 souvent votre doulce face. Tres doulce seur plus ne me 
 baiserez, puis qu* a la mort Je dois le corps rendre." Le 
 vaillant Conte Olivier estoit couche sur la terre nue, ou 
 la mort angoisseussement le tourmentoit, et son fils Gal- 
 yen lui faisoit ombre pour la chaleur de Soleil, qui mer- 
 veilleusement estoit chault, qui raioit sur sa face ; ct Ro- 
 lant estoit au pres qui moult regretoit sa mort et piteuse- 
 ment plouroit a grosses larmes. Adonc Olivier se com- 
 manda a Dieu, et la veue lui alia troubler, et lui partit 
 1' ame du corps. A 1' heure, eust eu le cueur bien dur 
 qui n' eust ploure de pitie, du dueil qui demenoit Galyen 
 et Rolant. 
 
 No. 20. p. 447. 
 
 DOLIN DE MAYENCE. 
 
 Se trouvant ainsi seulet Dolin commenca a cercher par 
 le palais deca et dela, mais il n' y trouva creature vivant. 
 Mais comme il n' eust de ce jour gueres mange 1' ap- 
 petit luy commenca a venir, parquoy il descendit en la 
 cuisine ou il trouva viandes a foison, chair fresche et salee 
 toutehabille, et venaison, vollaibles, pain, vin et autres 
 victuailles a plant*. Et ainsi qu' il vouloit couvrir la 
 11
 
 504? APPENDIX. NO. 20. 
 
 table, pour prendre sa refection, il ouyt une douce voix 
 qui chantoit fort melodieusement, tellement qu ii navoit 
 one ouyi chose qui fust si plaisant a ouyr, et pensoit as- 
 surement que ce fust quelque Ange du ciel, parquoy il 
 jura que il ne mangeroit ne prendroit viande, premier qu' 
 il cust seen ce que c' estoit. Alors il commenca a cercher 
 d' un coste et d' autre par le palais, tant que finalement 
 il se trouva pres d' une chambre en laquelle il apperceut 
 une belle jeune damoyselle toute seule, assise sur un lict 
 couvert d' un samis verd, laquelle il regarda a travers une 
 fonte de 1' lmis, et la trouva si belle qu' a son ad vis il 
 estoit impossible de trouver au monde son parragon; sa 
 robbe estoit d' un fin 9atin verd, faicte a 1' Alemand, bor- 
 dee de quatre bonis de passement blanc, et avoit ceinte 
 une ceinture qui estoit faicte toute de perles et pierreries 
 montant a la valeur de plus de cent marcs d' argent ; elle 
 avoit les yeux clairs et estincellans comme 1' estoile de 
 jour, la bouche petite et riante, le couleur vermeille com- 
 me la rose, les cbeveux longs pendans sur les espaules 
 jaunes comme fil d' or, et avoit sur son chef un chappeau 
 de perles fines. Elle estoit aagee seulement de seize ans 
 et deux mois, mais elle estoit tant sage et bien apprise 
 que merveilles, gracieuse et fort courtoise en son langagc : 
 elle s' estoit retir e en ceste chambre pour un peu reposer 
 apres disnee, et s' estoit mise a chanter pour chasser le 
 sommerl. Dolin la contemplant a son aise disoit a part 
 soy, que jamais il n' avoit veu si belle creature ; comme 
 aussi il n' en avoit pas beaucoup veu : Je ne scay, dist 
 il si c' est un Ange du ciel, ou quelque autre chose en- 
 core plus divine, car Je croy qu' one il n' en fut telle de 
 mere nee : et fut alors si ardemment esprits de 1' amour 
 d' elle, qu' il ne pouvoit penser a autre chose qu' a sa 
 divine beaultt. Estant de tout euibrasc de 1' ardeur que
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 20. 505 
 
 ce jeune archer aveugle luy faisoit sentir jusques au moel- 
 les il ne scavoit en quoy se resoudre, craignant par trop 
 de 1' offenser s' il luy rompoit son repos ; ce neantmoint 
 apres avoir stir ce longuement discource en son esprit il 
 se print a hurter a 1' huis de la chambre tout belleinent, 
 et luy dist : Gracieuse Damo) selle, Je vous prie par cour- 
 toisie que vueillez m' ouvrir 1' huis de ceste chambre. 
 Elle cuidant que ce fust un sien cousin, qui ordinaire* 
 ment hantoit en la maison, luy feit ouverture de la cham- 
 bre, parquoy Dolin entra dedans, et la salue comme il sca- 
 voit bien faire ; mais elle voyaut que ce n' estoit celuy 
 qu' elle avoit cuule estre changea de coulenr, parquoy 
 son teinct n' en devint que plus beau, et luy ayant rendu 
 son saint luy dist : Je me donne grand merveille Seig- 
 neur, qui vous a donne tant de licence de me venir trou- 
 ver en ce lieu. A quoy il respondit promptement : Cer- 
 tainement ma Dame, 1' amour vehemente que Je vous 
 porte, et non autre respect, m' a achemine en ce 
 lieu, non point pour vous donner ennuy ou fascherie, 
 mais pour vous presenter mon service, s' il vous plaist 1' 
 avoir pour agreable, vous priant me dire pourquoy vous 
 vous tenez ainsi seulette en ce chambre. Sire Chevalier, 
 respondit elle, la courtoisie de voz parolies m' incite a 
 vous declarer chose qui ne m' est de moindre importance 
 que de la vie. Scachez que la tristesse et angoisse qui 
 m' afflige le coeur ne me permettent reposer de nuict ni 
 de jour, et ce pourtant que mon pere a delibere' de me 
 bailler pour femme a un ancien chevalier qui de n' 
 agueres m' a demandee en mariage, lequel venant a estre 
 consomme Je n' auray de ma vie un seul jour de soulas, 
 pourtant que Je ne pourray jamais aymer celuy qui est :i 
 moy si inegal. Ma dame vous estes maintenant delivre 
 vol. r. 2 K
 
 506 APPENDIX. so. 20. 
 
 d' un lei manage, et pourtant si cest vostre plaisir de 
 prendre ma foy, et me donner Ja vostre, Je vous emme- 
 neray avec moy en mon patais, ou vous serez servie et 
 honnoree, et la Je vous espouseray solennellement : mais 
 entretant, Je vous prie qu' il vous plaise avoir esgard a 
 1' amour grand que Je vous porte, et le recompenser d' 
 un amour reciproque, en ne me refusant ce point tant 
 desire que 1' on nomme le don de merci. Quand elle 1' 
 entendit parlerce langage elle commenca a muer couleur, 
 mais il la print entre ses bras et la baisa. Puis il dressa 
 la table, laquelle il couvrit de plusieurs sortes de mets, 
 et de pain et vin excellent ; puis il s' assit tout aupres d' 
 elle, et en la reconfortant, luy dist. Ma dame et mai- 
 tresse de mon coeur, Je vous prie ne vous melancoliez 
 que le moins que vous pourrez, car, moyennant la grace 
 de Dieu, J' espere vous faire en brief Dame de Mayence 
 la Grande. Ainsi ils soupperent et se repeurent a leur 
 aise, ne prenans propos que d' amour, et durant le soup- 
 per ne se pouvoyent saouler de regarder 1' un 1' autre. 
 Apres le souppcr, ils s' en allerent tous deux coucher en 
 un beau lict richement garni, ou les baisers et accolades 
 qu' ils s' entredonnerent furent infinies et sans nombre; 
 s' ils se contenterent de cela seulement Je le laisse 
 penser a ceux qui autres fois se sont trouvea en telles 
 escarmouches : vray est que V un et 1' autre estoit 
 nprentif a tel mestier, mais il ne tarda gueres qu' ils y 
 furent aussi bons maistres que les plus experimentez, et 
 cussent voulu que la nuict eust dure* un an entier tant 
 ils estoyent ravis.
 
 APPENDIX. NO. 21. 507 
 
 No. 21. p. 456. 
 
 OGIER LE DANOIS. 
 
 Adonc Morgue la Fae le rnena par la main aa Chas- 
 teau d' Avallon, la ou estoit le Roy Artus son frere, et 
 Auberon, et Mallabron ung Liiyton de Mer. Or quant 
 Morgue approcha du dit Chasteau, les Faes vindrent au 
 devant d' Ogier, chantant le plus melodieusement qu' on 
 scauroit jamais ouyr : si entra dedans la salle pour soy 
 deduire totallement. Adonc vist plusieurs dames Faes 
 aournees, et toutes couronnees de couronnes tres sump- 
 tueusement faictes, et moult riches ; et toute jour chan- 
 toient, dansoient et menoient vie tres joieuse, sans penser 
 a nulle quelcuonque meschante chose, for3 prendre leura 
 mondains plaisirs. Et ainsi qu' Ogier se devisoit avec- 
 ques les dames, tantost arriva le Roy Artus auquel Mor- 
 gue la Fae dist " Approuchez vous, Monseigneur mon 
 Frere, et venez saluer la fleur de toute Chevalerie, 1' hon- 
 iieur de toute la noblesse de France ; celuy ou bonte, 
 loyaulte, et toute vertu est enclose c' est Ogier de Dan- 
 nemarcke, mon loyal amy, et mon seul plaisir, et auquel 
 git toute 1' esperance de ma lyesse." Adonc le roy Ar- 
 tus vint embrasser Ogier tres amiablement et luy dit 
 " Ogier tres noble Chevalier vous serez le tres bien venu, 
 et regrace-Je nostre seigneur doulcement de ce qu' il 
 m' envoye ung si notable chevalier." Puis Morgue la Fae 
 1
 
 508 APPENDIX. MO. 21. 
 
 lui mist sur son chief une couronne riche et tres preci- 
 cuse, que nul vivant ne la scauroit priser, et avecques ce 
 elle avoit une vertu en die merveilleuse, car tout homme 
 qui la portoit sur son chief il oublioit tout dueil, tristesse 
 et melencholie, ne jamais luy souvenoit des pays, ne de 
 parens qu' il eut * * * * *. Et Ogier et Morgue la Fae 
 s' entraymerent si loyaultement que ce fut merveille, 
 non pensens a chose de monde fors d' escouter les sons 
 de tous les instrumens dont on se puisse corder ; sonnans 
 si doulcement qu' il n' estoit si dur cueur qui n' oubliast 
 tout dueil, tristesse et melencolie seulement pour leur 
 prestrer 1' oreille ; car c' estoit ung lieu si delectable, qu' 
 il n' estoit possible a homme de souhaiter chose qu' il ne 
 trouvast leans. Et penses qu' Ogier, qui tant avoit veu 
 de chose, en estoit si esbay, qu' il ne scavoit qu' il devoit 
 faire, ne dire, si non qu' il cuidoit mieulx estre en Para- 
 dis que a nulle autre region. 
 
 END OF VOLUME I. 
 
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