Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and the Drama  

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Romance as defined by Samuel Johnson in his A Dictionary of the English Language of 1756. The first edition being 1755, there is no reason to assume that it was different. Romance is defined as a "military fable of the middle ages; a tale of wild adventures in war and love. Milton. Waller. Dryden." It is also defined as "a lie; a fiction." From the lemma romantick is omitted (because it is on the next column): "3. Fanciful; full of wild scenery. Thomson."

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"Essay on Romance" (c. 1813) is an essay on the nature of the novel by Walter Scott. Written as supplements to the EB, they were later collected in Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and the Drama.

It references Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.

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AN ESSAY ON ROMANCE.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.

ESSAY ON ROMANCE.

DR JOHNSON has defined Romance, in its primary sense, to be “a military fable of the middle ages; a tale of wild adventures in love and chivalry.” But although this definition expresses correctly the ordinary idea of the word, it is not sufficiently comprehensive to answer our present purpose. A composition may be a legitimate romance, yet neither refer to love nor chivalry — to war nor to the middle ages. The “wild adventures” are almost the only absolutely essential ingredient in Johnson's definition. We would be rather inclined to describe a Romance as “a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents;” being thus opposed to the kindred term Novel, which Johnson as “a smooth tale, generally of love;" but which we would rather define as “a fictitious narrative, differing from the Romance, because the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events, and the modern state of society.”

Assuming these definitions, it is evident, from the nature of the distinction adopted, that there may exist compositions which it is difficult to assign pre cisely or exclusively to the one class or the other and which, in fact, partake of the nature of both . But, generally speaking, the distinction will be found broad enough to answer all general and use 3 ful purposes. The word Romance, in its original meaning, was far from corresponding with the definition now assigned. On the contrary, it signified merely one or other of the popular dialects of Europe, founded ( as almost all these dialects were) upon the Roman tongue, that is, upon the Latin. The name of Romance was indiscriminately given to the Italian, to the Spanish, even in one remarkable instance at least) * to the English language. But it was espe

• This curious passage was detected by the industry of Ritson in Giraldus Cambrensis, “ Ab aqua illa optima, quæ Scottice

vocata est FROTH ; Brittanice, WAITE ; Romane vero Scotte Wattre. ” Here the various names assigned to the Frith of Forth are given in the Gaelic or Earse, the British or Welsh ; and the phrase Roman is applied to the ordinary language of England. But it would be difficult to show another instance of the English language being termed Roman or Romance. ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 157 cially applied to the compound language of France ; in which the Gothic dialect of the Franks, the Cel tic of the ancient Gauls, and the classical Latin, formed the ingredients. Thus Robert De Brunne : “ All is calde geste Inglis, That in this language spoken is Frankis speech is caled Romance, So sayis clerkis and men of France . ” At a period so early as 1150, it plainly appears that the Romance Language was distinguished from the Latin , and that translations were made from the one into the other ; for an ancient Romance on the subject of Alexander, quoted by Fauchet, says it was written by a learned clerk, “ Qui de Latin la trest, et en Roman la mit. ” 22 That is, “ who translated the tale from the Latin , and clothed it in the Romanece anguage." The most noted metrical tales or chronicles of the middle ages were usually composed in the Romance or French language, which, being spoken both at the Court of Paris and that of London, under the kings of the Norman race , became in a peculiar degree the speech of love and Chivalry. So much is this the case, that such metrical narratives as are writ ten in English always affect to refer to some French original, which usually, at least, if not in all in 158 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. stances, must be supposed to have had a real exist ence. Hence the frequent recurrence of the phrase, “ As in romance we read;" Or, Right as the romaunt us tells ;" and equivalent terms, well known to all who have at any time perused such compositions. Thus, very naturally, though undoubtedly by slow degrees, the very name of romaunt, or romance , came to be transferred from the language itself to that peculiar style of composition in which it was so much em ployed, and which so commonly referred to it. How early a transference so natural took place, we have no exact means of knowing ; but the best authority assures us, that the word was used in its modern and secondary sense so early as the reign of Edward III. Chaucer, unable to sleep during the night, informs us, that, in order to pass the time,, Upon my bed I sate upright, And bade one rechin me a boke, A ROMAUNCE, and it me took To read and drive the night away. ” The book described as a Romance contained, as we are informed , Fables That clerkis had , in old tyme, And other poets, put in rhyme. " 1 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 159 And the author tells us, a little lower, “ This book ne spake but of such things, Of Queens' lives and of Kings. ” The volume proves to be no other than Ovid's Me tamorphosis ; and Chaucer, by applying to that work the name of Romance, sufficiently establishes that the word was, in his time, correctly employed under the modern acceptation. Having thus accounted for the derivation of the word, our investigation divides itself into three prin cipal branches, though of unequal extent. In the FIRST of these we propose to inquire into the gene ral History and Origin of this peculiar species of composition, and particularly of Romances relating to European Chịvalry, which necessarily form the most interesting object of our inquiry. In the SECOND, we shall give some brief account of the History of the Romance of Chivalry in the differ ent states of Europe. THIRDLY, We propose to notice cursorily the various kinds of Romantic Composition by which the ancient Romances of Chivalry were followed and superseded, and with these notices to conclude the article. I. In the views taken by Hurd, Percy, and other older authorities, of the origin and history of roman 160 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. ✓ tic fiction , their attention seems to have been so ex clusively fixed upon the Romance of Chivalry alone, that they appear to have forgotten that, however in teresting and peculiar, it formed only one species ofa very numerous and extensive genus. The progress of Romance, in fact, keeps pace with that of society, which cannot long exist, even in the simplest state, without exhibiting some specimens of this attrac tive style of composition. It is not meant by this assertion, that in early ages such narratives were invented, as in modern times, in the character of mere fictions, devised to beguile the leisure of those who have time enough to read and attend to them . On the contrary, Romance and real history have the same common origin. It is the aim of the former to maintain as long as possible the mask of veracity ; and indeed the traditional memorials of all earlier ages partake in such a varied and doubt ful degree of the qualities essential to those opposite lines of composition, that they form a mixed class between them ; and may be termed either romantic histories, or historical romances, according to the proportion in which their truth is debased by fic tion, or their fiction mingled with truth . A moment's glance at the origin of society will satisfy the reader why this can hardly be otherwise. The father of an isolated family, destined one day | 2 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 161 to rise into a tribe, and in farther progress of time to expand into a nation , may, indeed , narrate to his descendants the circumstances which detach ed him from the society of his brethren, and drove him to form a solitary settlement in the wilderness, with no other deviation from truth , on the part of the narrator, than arises from the infidelity of me mory, or the exaggerations of vanity. But when the tale of the patriarch is related by his children , and again by his descendants of the third and fourth generation, the facts it contains are apt to assume a very different aspect. The vanity of the tribe augments the simple annals from one' cause — the X love of the marvellous, so natural to the human mind, contributes its means of sophistication from another — while, sometimes, from a third cause , the king and the priest find their interest in casting a holy and sacred gloom and mystery over the early period in which their power arose. And thus alter ed and sophisticated from so many different motives, the real adventures of the founder of the tribe bear as little proportion to the legend recited among his children, as the famous hut of Loretto bears to the highly ornamented church with which superstition has surrounded and enchased it. Thus the defini tion which we have given of Romance, as a fictitious narrative turning upon the marvellous or the su VOL . VI. L 162 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. pernatural, might, in a large sense, be said to em brace quicquid Græcia mendax Audet in historia, or, in fine, the mythological and fabulous history of all early nations. It is also important to remark, that poetry, or rather verse - rhythm at least of some sort or other, is originally selected as the best vehicle for these traditional histories. Its principal recommendation is probably the greater facility with which metrical narratives are retained in the memory — a point of the last consequence, until the art of writing is generally introduced ; since the construction of the verse itself forms an artificial association with the sense, the one of which seldom fails to recall the other to recollection . But the medium of verse, at first adopted merely to aid the memory, becomes soon valuable on account of its other qualities. The march or measure of the stanza is gratifying to the ear, and, like a natural strain of melody, can be restrained or accelerated, so as to correspond with the tone of feeling which the words convey ; while the recurrence of the necessary measuré rhythm, or rhyme, is perpetually gratifying the hearer by a sense of difficulty overcome. Verse being thus adopted as the vehicle of traditional history, there needs but the existence of a single man of genius, ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 163 in order to carry the composition a step higher in the scale of literature than that of which we are treating. In proportion to the skill which he attains in his art, the fancy and ingenuity of the artist him self are excited ; the simple narrative transmitted to him by ruder rhymers is increased in length ; is decorated with the graces of language, amplified in detail, and rendered interesting by description ; until the brief and barren original bears as little resemblance to the finished piece, as the Iliad of Homer to the evanescent traditions, out of which the blind bard wove his tale of Troy Divine. Hence the opinion expressed by the ingenious Percy, and assented to by Ritson himself. When about to pre sent to his readers an excellent analysis of the old Romance of Lybius Disconius, and making several remarks on the artificial management of the story , the Bishop observes, that “ if an Epic poem may be defined a fable related by a poet to excite admi ration and inspire virtue, by representing the action of some one hero favoured by Heaven , who executes a great design in spite of all the obstacles that oppose him, I know not why we should withhold the name of Epic Poem from the piece which I am X about to analyse." Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, III. xxvii . The Pre .. late is citing a discourse on Epic Poetry, prefixed to Telemachus. 164 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. Coestay stry X toweld two , though ,in ena wash Yet although this levelling proposition has been laid down by Percy, and assented to by Ritson ( writers who have few opinions in common ), and al though, upon so general a view of the subject, the Iliad, or even the Odyssey, of Homer might be degraded into the class of Romances, as Le Beau Deconnu is elevated into that of epic poems, there lies in ordinary speech, and in common sense, as wide a distinction between these two classes of com position, as there is betwixt the rude mystery or morality of the middle ages, and the regular drama by which these were succeeded. Where the art and the ornaments of the poet chiefly attract our atten tion — where each part of the narrative bears a due proportion to the others, and the whole draws gra dually towards a final and satisfactory conclusion where the characters are sketched with force, and sustained with precision — where the narrative is enlivened and adorned with so much, and no more, of poetical ornament and description, as may adorn, without impeding its progress — where this art and taste are displayed, supported, at the same time, by a sufficient tone of genius, and art of composition, the work produced must be termed an Epic Poem , and the author may claim his seat upon the high and honoured throne occupied by Homer, Virgil, and Milton . On the other hand, when a story lan ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 165 guishes in tedious and minute details, and relies for the interest which it proposes to excite, rather upon the wild excursions of an unbridled fancy, than upon the skill of the poet - when the super natural and the extraordinary are relied upon ex clusively as the supports of the interest, the author, though his production may be distinguished by occasional flashes of genius ,and though it may be interesting to the historian, as containing some mi nute fragments of real events, and still more so to the antiquary, from the light which it throws upon ancient manners, is still no more than a humble romancer, and his works must rank amongst those rude ornaments of a dark age, which are at present the subject of our consideration. Betwixt the extremes of the two classes of composition, there must, no doubt, exist many works, which partake in some degree of the character of both ; and after having assigned most of them each to their proper class, according as they are distinguished by regu larity of composition and poetical talent, or, on the contrary, by extravagance of imagination, and irre gularity of detail, there may still remain some, in which these properties are so equally balanced , that it may be difficult to say to which class they belong. But although this may be the case in a very few instances, our taste and habits readily acknowledge 166 ESSAY ON ROMANCE ., So,differ Amerients as complete and absolute a difference betwixt the Epopeia and Romance, as can exist betwixt two distinct species of the same generic class. We have said of Romance, that it first appears in the form of metrical history, professes to be a narrative of real facts, and is, indeed, nearly allied to such history as an early state of society affords ; which is always exaggerated by the prejudices and partialities of the tribe to which it belongs, as well as deeply marked by their idolatry and superstition. These it becomes the trade of the romancers still more to exaggerate, until the thread of truth can scarce be discerned in the web of fable which in volves it ; and we are compelled to renounce all hope of deriving serious or authentic information from the materials upon which the compounders of fic tion have been so long at work , from one generation to another, that they have at length obliterated the very shadow of reality or even probability. The view we have given of the origin of Ro mance will be found to agree with the facts which the researches of so many active investigatorsof this curious subject have been able to ascertain . It is found, for example, and we will produce instances in viewing the progress of Romance in particular countries, that the earliest productions of this sort, known to exist, are short narrations or ballads, ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 167 Highlands which were probably sung on solemn or festival oc casions, recording the deeds and praises of some famed champion of the tribe and country, or per haps the history of some remarkable victory or sig nal defeat, calculated to interest the audience by the associations which the song awakens. These poems, of which very few can now be supposed to exist, are not without flashes of genius, but brief, rude, and often obscure, from real antiquity or af fected sublimity of diction . The song on the battle of Brunanburgh, preserved in the Saxon Chronicle, is a genuine and curious example of this aborigiual style of poetry. Even at this early period,* there may be obser ved a distinction betwixt what may be called the Temporal and Spiritual Romances ; the first desti ned to the celebration of worldly glory,—the second to recording the deaths of martyrs and the miracles of saints ; both which themes unquestionably met with an almost equally favourable reception from their hearers. But although most nations possess, in their early species of literature, specimens of both kinds of Romance, the proportion of each , as was naturally to have been expected, differs according

• The religious Romances of Barlaam and Jehosaphat were

composed by John of Damascus in the eighth century. 168 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. as the genius of the people amongst whom they oc cur leaned towards devotion or military enterprise. Thus, of the Saxon specimens of poetry, which ma nuscripts still afford us, a very large proportion is devotional, amongst which are several examples of the Spiritual Romance, but very few indeed of those respecting warfare or chivalry. On the other \ hand, the Norman language, though rich in ex amples of both kinds of Romancet, is particularly abundant in that which relates to battle and war like adventure. The Christian Saxons had become comparatively pacific, while the Normans were cer tainly accounted themost martial people in Europe. However different the Spiritual Romance may be from the temporal in scope and tendency, the nature of the two compositions did not otherwise greatly differ. The structure of verse and style of composition was the same ; and the induction , even when the most serious subject was undertaken , exactly resembled that with which minstrels intro duced their idle tales, and often contained allusions to them . Warton quotes a poem on the Passions, which begins, I hereth one lutele tale, that Ich eu wille telle, As wi vyndeth hit invrite in the godspelle, Nuz hit nouht of Carlemeyne ne of the Duzpere, Ac of Criste's thruurynge, &c . ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 169 The Temporal Romances, on the other hand, often commenced by such invocations of the Deity, as would only have been in place when a much more solemn subject was to be agitated. The ex ordium of the Romance of Ferumbras may serve as an example of a custom almost universal : God in glorye of mightis moost That all things made in sapience, By virtue of Word and Holy Gooste, Giving to men great excellence, & c . The distresses and dangers which the knight en dured for the sake of obtaining earthly fame and his mistress's favour, the saint or martyr was expo sed to for the purpose of securing his rank in hea ven, and the favour of some beloved and peculiar patron saint. If the earthly champion is in peril from monsters, dragons, and enchantments, the spi ritual hero is represented as liable to the constant assaults of the whole invisible world, headed by the ancient dragon himself. If the knight is succoured at need by some favouring fairy or protecting ge nius, the saint is under the protection not only of the whole heavenly host, but of some one divine patron or patroness who is his especial auxiliary. Lastly, the conclusion of the Romance, which usu ally assigns to the champion a fair realm , an abun dant succession , and a train of happy years, consigus 170 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. EN to the martyr his fane and altar upon earth, and in heaven his seat among saints and angels, and his share in a blessed eternity. It remains but to say , that the style and language of these two classes do not greatly differ, and that the composers of both employ the same structure of rhythm and of lan guage, and draw their ideas and their incidents from similar sources ; so that, having noticed the exist ence of the Spiritual Romance, it is unnecessary for the present to prosecute this subject farther. Another early and natural division of these works of fiction seems to have arranged them into Serious and Comical. The former were by far the most numerous, and examples of the latter are in most countries comparatively rare . Such a class, however, existed, as proper Romances, even if we hold the Comic Romance distinct from the Contes and Fa bliaux of the French , and from such jocular Eng lish narratives as the Wife Lapt in Morils Skin , The Friar and the Boy , and similar humorous tales : of which the reader will find many examples in Ritson's Ancient English Poetry, and in other collections. The scene of these gestes being laid in low, or at least in ordinary life, they approach in their nature more nearly to the class of novels, and may perhaps be considered as the carliest spe cimens of that kind of composition. But the pro XХ 2 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 171 per Comie Romance was that in which the high , terms and knightly adventures of chivalry were a burlesqued, by ascribing them to clowns, or others , of a low and mean degree. Such compositions form- / ed, as it were, a parody on the Serious Romance, to which they bore the same proportion as the anti masque, studiously filled with grotesque, absurd, and extravagant characters, “ entering," as thestage direction usually informs us, “ to a confused mu sic, ” bore to the masque itself, where all was dig nified , noble, stately, and harmonious. An excellent example of the Comic Romance is the Tournament of Tottenham , printed in Percy's Reliques, in which a number of clowns are intro duced practising one of those warlike games, which were the exclusive prerogative of the warlike and noble. They are represented making vows to the swan, the peacock, and the ladies ; riding a tilt on their clumsy cart horses, and encountering each other with plough -shares, and flails ; while their defensive armour consisted of great wooden bowls and troughs, by way of helmets and cuirasses. The learned editor seems to have thought this sin gular composition was, like Don Quixote, with which he compares it, a premeditated effort of sa tire, written to expose the grave and fantasticman ners of the Serious Romance. This is considering 172 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . the matter too deeply, and ascribing to the author of the Tournament of Tottenham , a more critical purpose than he was probably capable of concei ving. It is more natural to suppose that his only ambition was to raise a laugh, by ascribing to the vulgar the manners and exercises of the noble and valiant ; as in the well- known farce of High Life Below Stairs, the ridicule is not directed against the manners described, but against the menials who affect those that are only befitting their su periors. The Hunting of the Hare, published in the collection formed by the late industrious and ac curate Mr Weber, is a comic Romance of the same order. A yeoman informs the inhabitants of a country hamlet that he has found a hare sitting, and inquires if there is any gentleman near who keeps greyhounds, for the purpose of coursing her. The villain to whom he communicates this infor mation replies, there is no need of sending for a gentleman's assistance, and proceeds to enumerate the catalogue of ban -dogs, which are the property of himself and the other clowns of the village : “ Hob Andrew Y thynke on now, He has a dogge wyll take a sow, And bryng hur to the cowtte ; Ther is no thyng he wyll forsake, Ye schall se hym this hare take, And gnaw ate hur throwtte. ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 173 “ Parkyn the potter, hase iij that wyll not fayll ; Short schonkes and neuer a tayll : No kalfe so greyt, as Y wene, So has Dykon and Jac Gryme, So has yonge Raynall and Sym, And all the schall hom sene. " When the chase is assembled, the yeoman puts up the hare, who with little difficulty makes her escape from the mongrel mastiffs, and breaks a ring which had been formed by the peasants, armed with their great clubs and bats. Great is the terror of the individual over whom she ran in her retreat, and who expected fully that she would have torn his throat out. The inexperienced curs and mastiffs, instead of pursuing the game, commence a battle royal amongst themselves ,—their masters take part in the fray, and beat each other soundly. In short, the hunting of the hare, scarce less doleful than that of Cheviot, concludes like the latter, with the women of the village coming to carry off the wound ed and slain . It can hardly be supposed the satire is directed against the sport of hunting itself ; since the whole ridicule arises out of the want of the necessary knowledge of its rules, incident to the ignorance and inexperience of the clowns, who undertook to practise an art peculiar to gentlemen. The ancient poetry of Scotland furnishes several 174 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . examples of this ludicrous style of romantic com position ; as the Tournament at the Drum , and the Justing of Watson and Barbour, by Sir David Lindsay. It is probable that these mock encoun ters were sometimes acted in earnest ; at least King James I. is accused of witnessing such practical jests ; “ sometimes presenting David Droman and Archie Armstrong, the King's fool, on the back of other fools, to tilt at one another till they fell to gether by the ears." -- (Sir Antony Weldon's Court of King James.) In hastily noticing the various divisions of the Romance, we have in some degree delayed our pro mised account of its rise and progress ; an inquiry which we mean chiefly to confine to the Romance of the middle ages. It is indeed true that this species of composition is common to almost all na tions, and that even if we deem the Iliad and Odys sey compositions too dignified by the strain of poe try in which they are composed to bear the name of Metrical Romances ; yet we have the Pastoral Romance of Daphnis and Chloe, and the Historical Romance of Theagenes and Chariclea , which are sufficiently accurate specimens of that style of com position . The Milesian fables and the Romances of Antonius Diogenes, described by Photius, could they be recovered, would also be found to belong to ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 175 the same class. It is impossible to avoid noticing that the Sybarites, whose luxurious habits seem to have been intellectual, as well as sensual, were pecu liarly addicted to the perusal of the Milesian fables ; from which we may conclude that the narratives were not of that severe kind which inspired high thoughts and martial virtues. But there would be little advantage derived from extending our re searches into the ages of classical antiquity respect ing a class of compositions, which , though they existed then, as in almost every stage of society, were neither so numerous nor of such high repute as to constitute any considerable portion of that literature. Want of space also may entitle us to dismiss the consideration of the Oriental Romances, unless in so far as in the course of the middle ages they came to furnish materials for enlarging and varying the character of the Romances of knight-errantry. That they existed early, and were highly esteemed both among the Persians and Arabians, has never been disputed ; and the most interesting light has been lately thrown on the subject by the publication of Antar, one of the most ancient, as well as most rational, if we may use the phrase, of the Oriental fictions. The Persian Romance of the Sha - Nameh is well known to Europeans by name, and by copious 178 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. extracts ; and the love-tale of Mejnoun and Leilah is also familiar to our ears, if not to our recollec tions. Many of the fictions in the extraordinary collection of the Arabian Tales, that of Codadad and his brethren, for example, approach strictly to the character of Romances of Chivalry ; although in general they must be allowed to exceed the more tame northern fictions in dauntless vivacity of inven tion , and in their more strong tendency to the mar vellous. Several specimens of the Comic Romance are also to be found mingled with those which are serious ; and we have the best and most positive authority that the recital of these seductive fictions is at this moment an amusement as fascinating and general among the people of the East, as the peru sal of printed Romances and novels among the European public. But a minute investigation into this particular species of Romance would lead us from our present field , already sufficiently extensive for the limits to which our plan confines it . The European Romance, wherever it arises, and in whatsoever country it begins to be cultivated, had its origin in some part of the real or fabulous history of that country ; and of this we will produce, in the sequel, abundant proofs. But the simple tale of tradition had not passed through many mouths, ere some one, to indulge his own propensity for the 1 6 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 177 wonderful, or to secure by novelty the attention of his audience, augments the meagre chronicle with his own apocryphal inventions. Skirmishes are ele vated into great battles ; the champion of a remote , age is exaggerated into a sort of demi-god ; and the enemies whom he encountered and subdued are multiplied in number, and magnified in strength , in order to add dignity to his successes against them. Chanted to rhythmical numbers, the songs which celebrate the early valour of the fathers of the tribe become its war- cry in battle, and men march to conflict, hymning the praises and the deeds of some real or supposed precursor who had marshalled their fathers in the path of victory. No reader can have forgotten, that, when the decisive battle of Hastings commenced, a Norman minstrel, Taillefer, advanced on horseback before the inva ding host, and gave the signal for onset, by singing the Song of Roland, that renowned nephew of Charlemagne, of whom Romance speaks so much, and history so little ; and whose fall, with the chi valry of Charles the Great in the pass of Ronces valles, has given rise to such clouds of romantic fic tion, that its very name has been for ever associated with it. The remarkable passage has been often quoted from the Brut of Wace, an Anglo -Norman metrical chronicle. VOL . VI. M 178 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. Taillefer, qui moult bien chantont Sur un cheval gi tost alont, Devant le Duc alont chantant De Karlemaigne et de Rollant, Et d'Oliver et des vassals, Qui morurent en Rencevals. Which may be thus rendered : Taillefer, who sung both well and loud, Came mounted on a courser proud ; Before the Duke the minstrel sprung , And loud of Charles and Roland sung, Of Oliver and champions mo, Who died at fatal Roncevaux. This champion possessed the sleight-of-hand of the juggler, as well as the art of the minstrel. He toss ed up his sword in the air, and caught it again as he galloped to the charge, and showed other feats of dexterity. Taillefer slew two Saxon warriors of distinction, and was himself killed by a third. Rit son , with less than his usual severe accuracy, sup posed that Taillefer sung some part of a long metri cal Romance upon Roland and his history ; but the words chanson, cantilena, and song, by which the composition is usually described, seems rather to apply to a brief ballad or national song ; which is also more consonant with our ideas of the time and place where it was chanted. But neither with these romantic and metrical chronicles did the mind long remain satisfied . More ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 179 details were demanded, and were liberally added by the invention of those who undertook to cater for the public taste in such matters. The same names of kings and champions, which had first caught the national ear, were still retained , in order to secure attention ; and the same assertions of authenticity , and affected references to real history, were stoutly made, both in the commencement and in the course of the narrative. Each nation, as will presently be seen , came at length to adopt to itself a cycle of heroes like those of the Iliad ; a sort of common property to all minstrels who chose to make use of them , under the condition always that the general character ascribed to each individual hero was pre served with some degree of consistency. Thus, in the Romances of The Round Table, Gawain is usually represented as courteous ; Kay as rude and boastful; Mordred as treacherous; and Sir Launce lot as a true though a sinful lover, and in all other respects a model of chivalry. Amid the Paladins of Charlemagne, whose cycle may be considered as peculiarly the property of French in opposition to Norman -Anglo Romance, Gan, or Ganelon of May ence, is always represented as a faithless traitor, engaged in intrigues for the destruction of Christi anity ; Roland as brave, unsuspicious, devotedly loyal, and somewhat simple in his disposition ; 180 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . Renaud, or Rinaldo, who possessed the frontier fortress, is painted with all the properties of a bor derer, valiant, alert, ingenious, rapacious, and un scrupulous. The same conventional distinctions may be traced in the history of the Nibelung, a composition of Scandinavian origin , which has sup plied matter for so many Teutonic Romances. Meis teir Hildebrand, Etzel, Theodorick , and the cham pion Hogan, as well as Chrimhilda and the females introduced, have the same individuality of character, which is ascribed, in Homer's immortal writings,to the wise Ulysses, the brave but relentless Achilles, his more gentle friend Patroclus, Sarpedon the favourite of the gods, and Hector the protector of cm mankind. It was not permitted to the invention of a Greek poet to make Ajax a dwarf, or Teucer a giant, Thersites a hero, or Diomedes a coward ; and it seems to have been under similar restrictions respecting consistency, that the ancient romancers exercised their ingenuity upon the materials sup plied them by their predecessors. But, in other respects, the whole store of romantic history and tradition was free to all as a joint stock in trade, on which each had a right to draw as suited his particular purposes. He was at liberty not only to select a hero out of known and established names which had been the theme of others, but to imagine ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 181 a new personage of his own pure fancy, and com bine him with the heroes of Arthur's Table or Charlemagne's Court, in the way which best suited his fancy. He was permitted to excite new wars against those bulwarks of Christendom, invade them with fresh and innumerable hosts of Saracens, re duce them to the last extremity, drive them from their thrones, and lead them into captivity, and again to relieve their persons, and restore their sovereignty, by events and agents totally unknown in their former story. In the characters thus assigned to the individual personages of romantic fiction , it is possible there might be some slight foundation in remote tradi tion, as there were also probably some real grounds for the existence of such persons, and perhaps for a very few of the leading circumstances attributed to them But these realities only exist as the few grains of wheat in the bushel of chaff, incapable of being winnowed out, or cleared from the mass of fiction with which each new romancer had in his turn overwhelmed them . So that Romance, though certainly deriving its first original from the pure font of History, is supplied, during the course of a very few generations, with so many tributes from the Imagination, that at length the very name comes to be used to distinguish works of pure fiction . 182 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. When so popular a department of poetry has attained this decided character, it becomes time to inquire who were the composers of these numerous, lengthened, and once admired narratives which are called Metrical Romances, and from whence they drew their authority. Both these subjects of dis cussion have been the source of great controversy among antiquarians ; a class ofmen who, be it said with their forgiveness, are apt to be both positive and polemical upon the very points which are least susceptible of proof, and which are least valuable if the truth could be ascertained ; and which , there fore, we would gladly have seen handled with more diffidence, and better temper, in proportion to their uncertainty. The late venerable Dr Percy, Bishop of Dro more, led the way unwarily to this dire controversy, by ascribing the composition of our ancient heroic songs and metrical legends, in rather too liberal language, to the minstrels, that class of men by whom they were generally, recited . This excellent person, to whose memory the lovers of our ancient lyre must always remain so deeply indebted , did not, on publishing his work nearly fifty years ago, see the rigid necessity of observing the utmost and most accurate precision either in his transcripts or his definitions. The study which he wished to ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 183 introduce was a new one — it was his object to place it before the public in an engaging and interesting form ; and, in consideration of his having obtained this important point, we ought to make every allow ance, not only for slight inaccuracies, but for some hasty conclusions, and even exaggerations, with which he was induced to garnish his labour of love. He defined the minstrels, to whose labours he chiefly ascribed the metrical compositions on which he desired to fix the attention of the public, as " an order of men in the middle ages, who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sung to the harp verses composed by themselves or others.” * In a very learned and elegant essay upon the text thus announced, the reverend Prelate in a great measure supported the definition which he had laid down ; although it may be thought that, in the first editions at least, he has been anxious to view the profession of the minstrels on their fairest and most brilliant side ; and to assign to them a higher station in so ciety than a general review of all the passages con nected with them will permit us to give to a class ofpersons, who either lived a vagrant life, depend ent on the precarious taste of the publie for a hard 等 Essay on Ancient Minstrels in England, prefixed to the first volume of Bishop Percy's Reliques. 184 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. earned maintenance, or, at best, were retained as a part of the menial retinue of some haughty baron, and in a great measure identified with his musical band. The late acute, industrious, and ingenious Mr Joseph Ritson, whose severe accuracy was connect ed with an unhappy eagerness and irritability of temper, took advantage of the exaggerations oc casionally to be found in the Bishop's Account of Ancient Minstrelsy, and assailed him with terms which are anything but courteous. Without find ing an excuse, either in the novelty of the studies in which Percy had led the way, or in the viva city of imagination which he did not himself share, he proceeded to arraign each trivial inaccuracy as a gross fraud, and every deduction which he con sidered to be erroneous as a wilful untruth , fit to be stigmatized with the broadest appellation by which falsehood can be distinguished. Yet there is so little room for this extreme loss of temper, that, upon a recent perusal of both those ingenious essays, we were surprised to find that the reverend Editor of the Reliques, and the accurate Antiquary, have differed so very little, as, in essential facts, they ap pear to have done. Quotations are, indeed, made by both with no sparing hand ; and hot arguments, and, on one side at least, hard words, are unsparing ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 185 I ly employed ; while, as is said to happen in theo logical polemics, the contest grows warmer, in pro portion as the ground concerning which it is carried on is narrower and more insignificant. But not withstanding all this ardour of controversy, their systems in reality do not essentially differ. Ritson is chiefly offended at the sweeping con clusion, in which Percy states the minstrels as sub sisting by the arts of poetry and music, and reciting to the harp verses composed by themselves and others. He shows very successfully that this defi nition is considerably too extensive, and that the term minstrel comprehended, of old, not merely those who recited to the harp or other instrument romances and ballads, but others who were distin. guished by their skill in instrumental music only ; and, moreover, that jugglers, sleight-of-hand per formers, dancers, tumblers, and such like subordi. natè artists, who were introduced to help away the tedious hours in an ancient feudal castle, were also comprehended under the general term of minstrel. But although he distinctly proves that Percy's defi nition applied only to one class of the persons term ed minstrels, those namely who sung or recited Verses, and in many cases of their own composition ; the bishop's position remains unassailable, in so far as relates to one general class, and those the most 186 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. distinguished during the middle ages. All min strels did not use the harp, and recite or compose romantic poetry ; but it cannot be denied that such was the occupation of the most eminent of the or der. This Ritson has rather admitted than de nied ; and the number of quotations which his in dustry has brought together, rendered such an ad mission inevitable. Indeed, the slightest acquaintance with ancient Romances of the metrical class, shows us that they were composed for the express purpose of being re cited , or, more properly, chanted , to some simple tune or cadence for the amusement of a large audi ence. Our ancestors, as they were circumscribed in knowledge, were also more limited in conversational powers than their enlightened descendants ; and it seems probable, that, in their public festivals, there was great advantage found in the presence of a min-. strel, who should recite some popular composition on their favourite subjects of love and war, to pre vent those pauses of discourse which sometimes fall heavily on a company, even of the present ac complished age, and to supply an agreeable train of ideas to those guests who had few of their own. It is, therefore, almost constantly insinuated , that the Romance was to be chanted or recited to a large and festive society, and in some part or other ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 187 of the piece, generally at the opening, there is a request of attention on the part of the performer ; and hence, the perpetual “ Lythe and listen, lord ings free,” which in those, or equivalent words, forms the introduction to so many Romances. As, for example, in the old poem of Guy and Colbrand, the minstrel speaks of his own occupation : “ When meat and drink is great plentye, Then lords and ladyes still will be, And sit and solace lythe. Then it is time for mee to speake, Of kern knights and kempes greate, Such carping for to kythe.” Chaucer, also , in his Ryme of Sir Thopas, assigns to the minstrels of his hero's household the same duty, of reciting Romances of spiritual or secular heroes, for the good knight's pastime while arming for battle : “ Do cum , " he sayd, “ my minestrales, And jestours for to tellen tales Anon in min arming, Of romaunces that ben reales, Of popes and of cardinales, And eke of love- longing." Not to multiply quotations, we will only add one of some importance, which must have escaped Rit son's researches ; for his editorial integrity was such, as rendered him incapable of suppressing evidence on either side of the question. In the old Romance 188 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. or legend of True Thomas and the Queen ofEl land, Thomas the Rhymer, himself a minstrel, is gifted by the Queen of the Faery with the facul ties of music and song. The answer of Thomas is not only conclusive as to the minstrel's custom of recitation , but shows that it was esteemed the high est branch of his profession, and superior as such to mere instrumental music : “ To harp and carp, Thomas, wheresover ye gon, Thomas take the these with the ” . “ Harping, ” he said, “ ken I non, Fortong is chefe of Mynstralse.' We, therefore, arrive at the legitimate conclusion , that although, under the general term minstrels, were comprehended many who probably entertained the public onlywith instrumental performances, with ribald tales, with jugglery, or farcical representa tions, yet one class amongst them , and that a nu merous one, made poetical recitations their chief, if not their exclusive occupation. The memory of these men was, in the general case, the depository of the pieces which they recited ; and hence, al though a number of their Romances still survive, very many more have doubtless fallen into oblivion .

• Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol . II . p. 27.

ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 189 That the minstrels were also the authors of many of these poems, and that they altered and enlarged others, is a matter which can scarce be doubted, when it is proved that they were the ordinary re citers of them . It was as natural for a minstrel to become a poet' or composer of Romances, as for a player to be a dramatic author, or a musician a com poser of music. Whatsoever individual among a class, whose trade it was to recite poetry, felt the least degree of poetical enthusiasm in a profession so peculiarly calculated to inspire it, must, from that very impulse, have become an original author, or translator at least : thus giving novelty to his recitations, and acquiring additional profit and fame. Bishop Percy, therefore, states the case fairly in the following passage :- “ It can hardly be expect ed, that we should be able to produce regular and unbroken annals of the minstrel art and its profess ors, or have sufficient information , whether every minstrel or bard composed himself, or only repeated, the songs he chanted . Some probably did the one, and some the other ; and it would have been won derful, indeed, if men, whose peculiar profession it was, and who devoted their time and talents to entertain their hearers with poetical compositions, were peculiarly deprived of all poetical genius them selves, and had been under a physical incapacity of 190 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. composing those common popular rhymes, which were the usual subjects of their recitation . " * While, however, we acquiesce in the proposition, that the minstrels composed many, perhaps the greater part, of the metrical Romances which they sung, it is evident they were frequently assisted in the task by others, who, though not belonging to this pro fession , were prompted by leisure and inclination to enter upon the literary or poetical department as amateurs. These very often belonged to the cleri cal profession, amongst whom relaxation of disci pline, abundance of spare time, and impatience ofthe routine of ceremonious duties, often led individuals into worse occupations than the listening to or com posing metrical Romances. It was in vain that both the poems and the minstrels who recited them were, by statutę, debarred from entering the more rigid monasteries. Both found their way frequent Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 30. Another authority of ancient date, the Chronicle of Bertrand Guesclin , distinctly attributes the most renowned Romances to the composition of the minstrels by whom they were sung. As the passage will be afterwards more fully quoted, we must here only say, that after enumerating Arthur, Lancelot, Godfrey, Ro land, and other champions, he sums up his account of them as being the heroes “ De quoi cils minestriers font les nobles romans . ” ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 191 ly to the refectory, and were made more welcome than brethren of their own profession ; as we may learn from a memorable Gest, in which two poor travelling priests, who had been received into a monastery with acclamation, under the mistaken idea of their being minstrels, are turned out in dis grace, when it is discovered that they were indeed capable of furnishing spiritual instruction, but un derstood none of the entertaining arts with which the hospitality of their hosts might have been re paid by itinerant bards. Nay, besides a truant disposition to a forbidden task , many of the grave authors may have alleged, in their own defence, that the connexion between history and Romance was not in their day entirely dissolved. Some eminent men exercised themselves in both kinds of composition ; as, for example, Maitre Wace, a canon of Caen, in Normandy, who, besides the metrical chronicle of La Brut, contain ing the earliest history of England, and other his torical legends, wrote in 1155, the Roman de Che valier de Lyon, probably the same translated un der the title of Ywain and Gawain . Lambert li Cors, and Benoit de Saint-Maur, seem both to have been of the clerical order ; and, perhaps, Chretien de Troyes, a most voluminous author of Romance, was of the same profession. Indeed, the extreme 192 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . length of many Romances being much greater than any minstrel could undertake to sing at one or even many sittings, may induce us to refer them to men of a more sedentary occupation than those wander ing poets. The religious Romances were, in all probability, the works of such churchmen as might wish to reconcile an agreeable occupation with their religious profession . All which circumstances must be received as exceptions from the general proposi tion, that the Romances in metre were the compo sition of the minstrels by whom they were recited or sung, though they must still leave Percy's pro position to a certain extent unimpeached. To explain the history of Romance, it is neces sary to digress a little farther concerning the con dition of the minstrels by whom these compositions were often made, and, generally speaking, preser ved and recited. And here it must be confessed , that the venerable Prelate has, perhaps, suffered his love of antiquity, and his desire to ennoble the pro ductions of the middle ages, a little to overcolour the importance and respectability of the minstrel tribe ; although his opponent Ritson has, on the other hand, seized on all circumstances and infer ences which could be adduced to prove the degra dation of the minstrel character, without attending to the particulars by which these depreciating cir 13 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 193 cumstances were qualified. In fact, neither of these excellent antiquarians has cast a general or philoso phic glance on the necessary condition of a set of men , who were by profession the instruments of the pleasure of others during a period of society such as was presented in the middle ages. In a very early period of civilization , ere the divi sion of ranks has been generally adopted, and while each tribe may be yet considered as one great fa mily, and the nation as a union of such independent tribes, the poetical art, so nearly allied to that of ora tory or persuasion, is found to ascertain to its profess ors a very high rank . Poets are, then, the historians and often the priests of the society. Their com mand of language, then in its infancy, excites not merely pleasure, but enthusiasm and admiration. When separated into a distinct class, as was the case with the Celtic Bards, and, perhaps, with the Skalds of Scandinavia , they rank high in the scale of society, and we not only find kings and nobles listening to them with admiration, but emulous of their art, and desirous to be enrolled among their numbers. Several of the most renowned northern kings and champions valued themselves as much upon their powers of poetry as on their martial ex ploits ; and of the Welsh princes, the Irish kings, and the Highland chiefs of Scotland, very many VOL . VI. N 194 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. | practised the arts of poetry and music. Llwarch Hen was a prince of the Cymraig, Brian Bo romhe, a harper and a musician ,-and, without re sorting to the questionable authenticity of Ossian, several instances of the same kind might be produ ced in the Highlands. But, in process of time, when the classes of so ciety come to assume their usual gradation with re spect to each other, the rank of professional poets is uniformly found to sink gradually in the scale, along with that of all others whose trade it is to contribute to mere amusement. The profes sional poet, like the player or the musician, be comes the companion and soother only of idle and convivial hours ; his presence would be unbecoming on occasions of gravity and importance ; and his art is accounted at best an amusing but useless luxury. Although the intellectual pleasure deri ved from poetry, or from the exhibition of the dra ma, be of a different and much higher class than that derived from the accordance of sounds, or from the exhibition of feats of dexterity, still it will be found, that the opinions and often the laws of so ciety, while individuals of these classes are cherish ed and held in the highest estimation , have de graded the professions themselves among its idle, dissolute, and useless appendages. Although it may ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 195 be accounted ungrateful in mankind thus to re ward the instruments of their highest enjoyments, yet some justification is usually to be drawn from the manners of the classes who were thus lowered in public opinion. It must be remembered, that, as professors of this joyous science, as it was called, the minstrels stood in direct opposition to the more severe part of the Catholics, and to the monks in particular, whose vows bound them to practise vir tues of the ascetic order, and to look upon every thing as profane, which was connected with mere worldly pleasure. The manners of the minstrels themselves gave but too much room for clerical cen sure. They were the usual assistants at scenes, not merely of conviviality, but of licence ; and, as the companions and encouragers of revelling and excess, they became contemptible in the eyes, not only of the aged and the serious, but of the libertine him self, when his debauch palled on his recollection. The minstrels, no doubt, like their brethren of the stage, sought an apology in the corrupted taste and manners of their audience, with which they were obliged to comply, under the true but melan choly condition, that they who live to please must please to live. But this very necessity, rendered more degrading 196 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. by their increasing numbers and decreasing repu tation , only accelerated the total downfall of their order, and the general discredit and neglect into which they had fallen . The statute of the 39th of Queen Elizabeth, passed at the close of the six teenth century, ranks those dishonoured sons of song among rogues and vagabonds, and appoints them to be punished as such ; and the occupation, though a vestige of it was long retained in the habits of travelling ballad - singers and musicians, sunk into total neglect and contempt. Of this we shall have to speak hereafter ; our business being at present with those Romances, which, while still in the zenith of their reputation, were the means by which the minstrels, at least the better and higher class among them , recommended themselves to the favour of their noble patrons, and of the audiences whom they addressed. It may be presumed, that, although the class of minstrels, like all who merely depend upon gratify ing the public, carried in their very occupation the evils which first infected, and finally altogether der praved, their reputation ; yet, in the earlier ages, their duties were more honourably estimated , and some attempts were made to introduce into their motley body the character of a regular establish ment, subjected to discipline and subordination . ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 197 what all this concern with behavior of Minstrels Several individuals, both of France and England, bore the title of King of Minstrels, and were in vested probably with some authority over the others. The Serjeant of Minstrels is also mentioned ; and Edward IV. seems to have attempted to form a Guild or exclusive Corporation of Minstrels. John of Gaunt, at an earlier period, established ( between jest and earnest, perhaps) a.Court Baron of Min strels, to be held at Tilbury. There is no reason , however, to suppose, that the influence of their esta blishments went far in restraining the licence of a body of artists so unruly as well as numerous. It is not, indeed, surprising that individuals, whose talents in the arts of music, or of the stage, rise to the highest order, should, in a special degree, attain the regardand affection of the powerful, ac quire wealth, and rise to consideration ; for, in such professions, very high prizes are assigned only to pre eminent excellence ; while ordinary or inferior prac tisers of the same art may be said to draw in the lottery something worse than a mere blank. In the useful arts, a great equality subsists among the mem bers, and it is wealth alone which distinguishes a tradesman or a mechanic from the brethren of his guild ; in other points their respectability is equal. The worst weaver in the craft is still a weaver, and the best, to all but those who buy his web, is little 198 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . móre - as men they are entirely on a level. In what are called the fine arts, it is different; for excellence leads to the highest point of consideration ; medio crity, and marked inferiority, are the object of neglect and utter contempt. Garrick, in his chariot, and whose company was courted for his wit and talent, was, after all, by profession, the same with the unfor tunate stroller, whom the British laws condemn as a vagabond, and to whose dead body other countries refuse even the last rites of Christianity. In the same manner it is easy to suppose, that when, in compliance with the taste of their age, monarchs entertained their domestic minstrels,* those persons might be admitted to the most flattering intimacy with their royal masters ; sleep within the royal chamber, † amass considerable fortunes, found hos pitals, f and receive rewards singularly over-propor

• Berdic ( Regis Joculator ), the jongleur or minstrel of Wil

liam the Conqueror, bad, as appears from the Domesday record, three vills and five caracates of land in Gloucestershire without rent. Henry I. had a minstrel called Galfrid who received an annuity from the Abbey of Hide. + A minstrel of Edward I., during that prince's expedition to the Holy Land, slept within his tent, and came to his assistance when an attempt was made to assassinate him. | The Priory and Hospital of Saint Bartholomew , in London, was founded in the reign of Henry I. by Royer, or Raher, a min Strel of that prince. ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 199 tioned to the perquisites of the graver professions ; * and even practise, in company with their royal mas ters, the pleasing arts of poetry and music, which all are so desirous of attaining ; † whilst, at the same time, those who ranked lower in the same profession were struggling with difficulty to gain a precarious subsistence, and many, of a rank still more subordi nate, were incurring all the disgrace usually attach ed to a vagabond life and a dubious character. In the fine arts, we repeat, excellence is demanded, and mere mediocrity is held contemptible ; and, while the favour with which the former is loaded , sometimes seems disproportioned to the utility of the art itself, nothing can exceed the scorn poured out on those who expose themselves by undertaking arts which they are unable to practise with success ; and it follows, that as excellence can only be the property of a few individuals, the profession in ge neral must be regarded as a degraded one, though these gifted persons are allowed to pass as eminent

• In 1441 , the monks of Maxlock, near Coventry, paid a do

nation of four shillings to the minstrels of Lord Clinton for songs, harping, and other exhibitions, while, to a doctor who preached before the community in the same year, they assigned only six pence. + The noted anecdote of Blondel and his royal master, Rich ard Cæur de Lion, will occur to every reader. 200 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. exceptions to the general rule. Self-conceit, how ever, love of an idle life, and a variety of combined motives, never fail to recruit the lower orders of such idle professions with individuals, by whose per formances, and often by their private characters, the art which they have rashly adopted is discredited, without any corresponding advantage to themselves. It is not, therefore, surprising, that while such distinguished examples of the contrary appeared amongst individuals, the whole body of minstrels, with the Romances which they composed and sung, should be reprobated by graver historians in such severe terms as often occur in the monkish chro nicles of the day. Respecting the style of their composition, Du Cange informs us, that the minstrels sometimes de voted their strains to flatter the great, and sing the praises of those Princes by whom they were protect ed ; while he owns, at the same time, that they often recommended to their hearers the path of vir tue and nobleness, and pointed out the pursuits by which the heroes of Romance had rendered them selves renowned in song. He quotes from the

• MINISTELLI dicti præsertim Scurræ , mimi, joculatores,

quos etiamnum vulgo Menestreux vel Menestriers, appellamus. -Porro ejusmodi scurrarum erat Principes non suis duntaxat lu ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 201 Romance of Bertrand Guesclin, the injunction on those who would rise to fame in arms to copy the valiant acts of the Paladins of Charles, and the Knights of the Round Table, narrated in Roman ces ; and it cannot be denied, that those high tales, in which the virtues of generosity, bravery, devo tion to his mistress, and zeal for the Catholic reli gion, were carried to the greatest height of roman tic perfection in the character of the hero, united with the scenes passing around them , were of the utmost importance in affecting the character of the X dicris oblectare, sed et eorum aures variis avorum , adeoque ipso rum Principum laudibus, non sine assentatione, cum cantilenis et musicis instrumentis, demulcere.Interdum etiam virorum insignium et heroum gesta, aut explicata et jucunda narratione commemorabant, aut suavi vocis inflectione, fidibusque decanta bant, quo sic dominorum , cæterorumque qui his intererant ludi cris, nobilium animos ad virtutem capessendam et summorum virorum imitationem accenderent : quod fuit olim apud Gallos Bardorum ministerium , ut auctor est Tacitus. Neque enim alios à Ministellis, veterum Gallorum Bardos fuisse pluribus probat Henricus Valesius ad 15. Ammiani. - Chronicon BertrandiGues clini : Qui veut avoir renom des bons et des vaillans Ill doit aler souvent à la pluie et au champ, Et estre en la bataille, ainsy quefu Rollans, Les quatre fils Haimon et Charlon li plus grans, Li Dus Lions de Bourges, et Guion de Connans, Perceval li Galois, Lancelot et Tristans, Alexandres, Artus, Godefroy li sachans, De quoy cils Menestriers font les nobles Romans. 202 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. | age. The fabulous knights of Romance were so completely identified with those of real history, that graver historians quote the actions of the former in illustration of, and as a corollary to, the real events which they narrate. * The virtues recommended in Romance were, however, only of that overstrained and extravagant cast which consisted with the spirit of chivalry. Great bodily strength, and perfection X in all martial exercises, was the universal accom plishment inalienable from the character of the hero, and which each romancer had it in his power to confer. It was also easily in the composer's power to devise dangers, and to free his hero from them by the exertion of valour equally extravagant. But it was more difficult to frame a story which should illustrate the manners as well as the feats of Chi valry ; or to devise the means of evincing that de votion to duty, and that disinterested desire to sa crifice all to faith and honour ; —that noble spirit of achievement which laboured for others more than itself — which form , perhaps, the fairest side of the system under which the noble youths of the middle X Х

• Barbour, the Scottish historian, censures a Highland chief,

when, in commending the prowess of Bruce in battle, he likened him to the Celtic hero, Fin Mac Coul, and says, he might in more mannerly fashion have compared him to Gaudifer, a champion celebrated in the Romance of Alexander. ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 203 ages were trained up. The sentiments of Chivalry, as we have explained in our article on that subject, were founded on the most pure and honourable prin ciples, but unfortunately carried into hyperbole and extravagance ; until the religion of its professors approached to fanaticism , their valour to frenzy, their ideas of honour to absurdity, their spirit of en terprise to extravagance, and their respect for the female sex to a sort of idolatry. All those extra vagant feelings, which really existed in the society of the middle ages, were magnified and exaggera ted by the writers and reciters of Romance ; and these, given as resemblances of actual manners, be came, in their turn , the glass by which the youth of the age dressed themselves; while the spirit of Chivalry and of Romance thus gradually threw light upon and enhanced each other. The Romances, therefore, exhibited the same sys tem of manners which existed in the nobles of the age. The character of a true son of chivalry was raised to such a pitch of ideal and impossible per fection, that those who emulated such renown were usually contented to stop far short of the mark. The most adventurous and unshaken valour, a mind capable of the highest flights of romantic generosity, a heart which was devoted to the will of some fair idol, on whom his deeds were to reflect 204 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. glory, and whose love was to reward all his toils--- these were attributes which all aspired to exhibit who sought to rank high in the annals of chivalry ; and such were the virtues which the minstrels cele brated . But, like the temper of a tamed lion, the fierce and dissolute spirit of the age often showed itself through the fair varnish of this artificial sys tem of manners. The valour of the hero was often stained by acts of cruelty, or freaks of rash despera tion ; his courtesy and munificence became solemn foppery and wild profusión ; his love to his lady often demanded and received a requital inconsistent with the honour of the object ; and those who affected to found their attachment on the purest and most delicate metaphysical principles, carried on their actual intercourse with a licence altogether inconsistent with their sublime pretensions. Such were the real manners of the middle ages, and we find them so depicted in these ancient legends. So high was the national excitation in conse quence of the romantic atmosphere in which they seemed to breathe, that the knights and squires of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries imitated the wildest and most extravagant emprises of the heroes of Romance ; and, like them , took on themselves the most extraordinary adventures, to show their own gallantry, and do most honour to the ladies of X ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 205 their hearts. The females of rank, erected into a species of goddesses in public, and often degraded as much below their proper dignity in more pri vate intercourse, equalled in their extravagances the youth of the other sex. A singular picture is given by Knyghton of the damsels- errant who attended upon the solemn festivals of chivalry, in quest, it may reasonably be supposed, of such adventures as are very likely to be met with by such females as think proper to seek them. " These tournaments are attended by many ladies of the first rank and greatest beauty, but not always of the most untaint ed reputation. These ladies are dressed in party coloured tunics, one -half of one colour, and the other half of another ; their lirripipes, or tippets, are very short ; their caps remarkably little, and wrapt about their heads with cords ; their girdles and pouches are ornamented with gold and silver ; and they wear short swords, called daggers, before them , a little below their navels ; they are mounted on the finest horses, with the richest furniture. Thus equipped, they ride from place to place in quest of tournaments, by which they dissipate their fortunes, and sometimes ruin their reputation." - (Knyghton , quoted in Henry's History, vol. VIII. p. 402. ) The minstrels, or those who aided them in the composition of the Romances, which it was their tomboys ? 206 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. profession to recite, roused to rivalry by the uncea sing demand for their compositions, endeavoured emulously to render them more attractive by sub jects of new and varied interest, or by marvellous incidents which their predecessors were strangers to. Much labour has been bestowed, somewhat unpro fitably, in endeavouring to ascertain the sources from which they drew the embellishments of their tales, when the hearers began to be tired of the unvaried recital of battle and tournament which had satisfied the simplicity of a former age. Percy has contended for the Northern Sagas as the un questionable origin of the Romance of the middle ages ; Warton conceived that the Oriental fables, borrowed by those minstrels who visited Spain, or who in great numbers attended the crusades, gave the principal distinctive colouring to those remark able compositions ; and a later system, patronised by later authors, has derived them , in a great mea sure, from the Fragments of ClassicalSuperstition, which continued to be preserved after the fall of the Roman Empire. All those systems seem to be inaccurate, in so far as they have been adopted, exclusively of each other, and of the general propo sition , That fables of a nature similar to the Ro mances of Chivalry, modified according to manners and state of society, must necessarily be invented in 1 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 207 every part of the world, for the same reason that grass grows upon the surface of the soil in every climate and in every country. “ In reality ,” says! Mr Southey, who has treated this subject with his usual ability, “ mythological and romantic tales are current among all savages of whom we have any full account ; for man has his intellectual as well as his bodily appetites, and these things are the food of his imagination and faith . They are found where ever there is language and discourse of reason, in other words, wherever there is man. And in simi lar stages of civilization, or states of society, the fic tions of different people will bear a corresponding resemblance, notwithstanding the difference of time and scene. ” * To this it may be added, that the usual appear ances and productions of nature offer to the fancy, in every part of the world, the same means of diver sifying fictitious narrative by the introduction of prodigies. If in any Romance we encounter the description of an elephant, we may reasonably con clude that a phenomenon , unknown in Europe, must have been borrowed from the east ; but whosoever has seen a serpent and a bird, may easily aggravate

Preface to Southey's edition of the Morte D'Arthur, vol . II. Lond. 1817. 208 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. the terrors of the former by conferring on a fictitious monster the wings of the latter ; and whoever has seen or heard of a wolf, or lion , and an eagle, may, by a similar exertion of invention, imagine a griffin or hippogriff. It is imputing great poverty to the human imagination , to suppose that the speciosa miracula, which are found to exist in different parts of the world, must necessarily be derived from some common source ; and perhaps we should not err more grossly in supposing, that the various kinds of boats, skiffs, and rafts, upon which men have dared the ocean on so many various shores, have been all originally derived from the vessel of the Argonauts. On the other hand, there are various romantic incidents and inventions of a nature so peculiar, that we may boldly, and at once, refer them to some particular and special origin. The tale of Floral and Blanchefleur, for example, could only be in vented in the east, where the scene is laid, and the manners of which are observed with some accuracy. That of Orfeo and Herodiis, on the contrary, is the classical history of Orpheus and Euridice, with the Gothic machinery of the Elves or Fairies, sub stituted for the infernal regions. But notwith standing these and many other instances, in which the subjects or leading incidents of Romance can be distinctly traced to British or Armorican tradi , 5 13 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 209 tions, to the tales and history of Classic Antiquity, to the wild fables and rich imagery of Arabia , or to those darker and sterner themes which were first treated of by the Skalds of the north, it would be assuming greatly too much upon such grounds, to ascribe the derivation of romantic fiction , exclusive ly to any one of these sources. In fact, the founda tion of these fables lies deep in human nature, and the superstructures have been imitated from various authorities by those who, living by the pleasure which their lays of chivalry afforded to their au dience, were especially anxious to recommend them by novelty of every kind ; and were undoubtedly highly gratified when the report of travellers, or pil grims, or perhaps their own intercourse with min strels of other nations, enabled them to vary their usual narrations with circumstances yet unheard in bower and hall. Romance, therefore, was like a compound metal, derived from various mines, and in the different specimens of which one metal or other was alternately predominant; and viewed in this light, the ingenious theories of those learned antiquaries, who have endeavoured to seek the ori gin of this style of fiction in one of these sources alone, to the exclusion of all others, seem as vain as that of travellers affecting to trace the proper head of the Nile to various different springs, all of which VOL . VI. 210 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. / are allowed to be accessary to form the full majesty of his current. As the fashion of all things passes away, the Metrical Romances began gradually to decline in public estimation, probably on account of the depre ciated character of the minstrels by whom they were recited. Tradition, says Ritson, is an alche my, which converts gold into lead ; and there is little doubt, that, in passing from mouth to mouth, and from age to age, the most approved Metrical Romances became gradually corrupted by the defect of memory of some reciters and the interpolations of others ; since few comparatively can be supposed to have had recourse to the manuscripts in which some have been preserved. Neither were the reci ters in the latter, as in the former times, supplied with new productions of interest and merit. The composition of the Metrical Romance was gradual ly abandoned to persons of an inferior class. The art of stringing together in loose verse a number of unconnected adventures, was too easy not to be practised by many who only succeeded to such a degree as was discreditable to the art, by showing that mere mediocrity was sufficient to exercise it. And the licentious character, as well as the great number of those who, under the various names of glee-men, minstrels, and the like, traversed the ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 211 country, and subsisted by this idle trade, brought themselves and their occupation into still greater contempt and disregard. With them , the long recitations formerly made at the tables of the great, were gradually banished into more vulgar society. But though the form of those narratives under went a change of fashion, the appetite for the fic tions themselves continued as ardent as ever ; and the Prose Romances which succeeded, and finally superseded those composed in verse, had a large and permanent share of popularity. This was, no doubt, in a great degree owing to the important invention of printing, which has so much contributed to alter the destinies of the world . The Metrical Roman ces, though in some instances sent to the press, were not very fit to be published in this form . The dull amplifications which passed well enough in the course of a half-heard recitation , became intolerable when subjected to the eye ; and the public taste gradually growing more fastidious as the language became more copious, and the system of manners more complicated, graces of style and variety of sentiment were demanded instead of a naked and unadorned tale of wonders. The authors of the Prose Romance endeavoured, to the best of their skill, to satisfy this newly awakened and more re fined taste, They used, indeed , the same sources 212 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. - A4 %***** เจอ ที่ใน ข วง 2526 of romantic history which had been resorted to by their metrical predecessors ; and Arthur, Charle · magne, and all their chivalry, were as much cele brated in prose as ever they had been in poetic nar rative. But the new candidates for public favour pretended to have recourse to sources of authentic information, to which their metrical predecessors had noaccess . They refer almost always to Latin and sometimes to Greek originals, which certainly had no existence ; and there is little doubt that the venerable names of the alleged authors are invent ed, as well as the supposed originals from which they are said to have translated their narratives. The following account of the discovery of La tres elegante delicieux melliflue et tres plaisante Hys toire du tres noble RoyPerceforest ( printed at Paris in 1528 by Galliot du Pré) , may serve to show that modern authors were not the first who invented the popular mode of introducing their works to the world as the contents of a newly -discovered manu script. In the abridgment to which we are limited, we can give but a faint picture of the minuteness with which the author announces his pretended dis covery, and which forms an admirable example of the lie with a circumstance. In the year 1286, Count William of Hainault had, it is averred , cross ed the seas in order to be present at the nuptials of 1 1 1 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 213. Edward, and in the course of a tour through Bri tain, was hospitably entertained at an abbey situa ted on the banks of the Humber, and termed, it seems, Burtimer, because founded by a certain Bur timericus, a monarch of whom our annals are silent, but who had gained, in that place, a victory over the heathens of Germany. Here a cabinet, which was inclosed in a private recess, had been lately discovered within the massive walls of an ancient tower, and was found to contain a Grecian manu script, along with a royal crown . The abbot had sent the latter to King Edward, and the Count of Hainault with difficulty obtained possession of the manuscript. He had it rendered from Greek into Latin by a monk of the abbey of Saint Landelain, and from that language it is said to have been trans lated into French by the author, who gives it to the world in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and for the edification of nobleness and chivalry. By such details, the authors of the Prose Roman ces endeavoured to obtain for their works a credit for authenticity which had been denied to the rhyth mical legends. But in this particular they did great injustice to their contemned predecessors, whose reputations they murdered in order to rob them with impunity. Whatever fragments or shadow ings of true history may yet remain hidden under 214 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . 1 the mass of accumulated fable, which had been heap ed on them during successive ages, must undoubt edly be sought in the Metrical Romances ; and according to the view of the subject which we have already given, the more the works approach in point of antiquity to the period where the story is laid, the more are we likely to find those historical tra ditions in something approaching to an authentic state . But those who wrote under the imaginary names of Rusticien de Puise, Robert de Borron , and the like, usually seized upon the subject of some old minstrel ; and, recomposing the whole narrative after their own fashion , with additional characters and adventurers, totally obliterated in that operation any shades which remained of the first, and probably authentic tradition , which was the original source of the elaborate fiction. Am plification was especially employed by the prose romancers, who, having once got hold of a subject, seem never to have parted with it until their power of invention was completely exhausted . The Me trical Romances, in some instances, indeed, ran to great length, but were much exceeded in that par ticular by the folios which were written on the same or similar topics by their prose successors. Proba bly the latterjudiciously reflected, that a book which addresses itself only to the eyes, may be laid aside ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 215 when it becomes tiresome to the reader ; whereas it may not always have been so easy to stop the min strel in the full career of his metrical declamation . Who, then, the reader may be disposed to in quire, cap have been the real authors of those pro lix works, who, shrouding themselves under borrow ed names, derived no renown from their labours, if successful, and who, certainly, in the infant state of the press, were not rewarded with any emolument ? This question cannot, perhaps, be very satisfactori ly answered ; but we may reasonably suspect that the long hours of leisure which the cloister permit ted to its votaries, were often passed away in this manner ; and the conjecture is rendered more pro bable, when it is observed that matters are introdu ced into those works which have an especial con nexion with sacred history, and with the traditions of the church. Thus, in the curious Romance of Huon de Bourdeaux, a sort of second part is added to that delightful history, in which the hero visits the terrestrial paradise, encounters the first mur derer Cain, in the performance of his more matter to the same purpose, not likely to occur to the imagination of a layman ; besides that the laity of the period were, in general, too busy and too ignorant to engage in literary tasks of any kind. The mystical portion of the Romance of the penance, with 216 ESSAY ON ROMANCE . Round Table seems derived from the same source. It may also be mentioned, that the audacious and sometimes blasphemous assertions, which claimed for these fictions the credit due even to the inspired writings themselves, were likely to originate amongst Roman Catholic churchmen , who were but too fa miliar with such forgeries for the purpose of au thenticating the legends of their superstition. One almost incredible instance of this impious species of imposture occurs in the history of the Saint Graal, which curious mixture of mysticism and chivalry is ascribed by the unfearing and unblush ing writer to the Second Person of the Trinity. Churchmen, however, were by no means the only authors of these legends, although the Sires Clercs, as they were sometimes termed , who were account ed the chronicles of the times in which they lived, were usually in orders ; and although it appears that it was upon them that the commands of the sovereigns whom they served often imposed the task of producing new Romances, under the usual disguise of ancient chronicles translated from the learned languages, or otherwise collected from the ruins of antiquity. As education became improved, and knowledge began to be more generally diffused , individuals among the laity, and those of no mean rank, began to feel the necessity, as it may be call ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 217 ✓ ed, of putting into a permanent form the “ thick coming fancies ” which gleam along the imagina tion of men of genius. Sir Thomas Malony, who compiled the Morte d'Arthur from French ori ginals, was a person of honour and worship ; and Lord Berners, the excellent translator of Froissart, and author of a Romance called The Chevalier de la Cygne, is an illustrious example that a nobleman of high estimation did not think his time misem ployed on this species of composition . Some literary fame must therefore have attended these efforts ; and perhaps less eminent authors might, in the later ages, receive some pecuniary advantages. The trans lator of Perceforest, formerly mentioned, who ap pears to have been an Englishman or Fleming, in his address to the warlike and invincible nobility of France, holds the language of a professional author, who expected some advantage besides that of plea sing those whom he addressed ; and who expresses proportional gratitude for the favourable reception of his former feeble attempts to please them . It is possible, therefore, that the publishers, these lions of literature, had begun already to admit the authors into some share of their earnings. Other printers, like the venerable Caxton, compiled themselves, or translated from other languages, the Romances which they sent to the press ; thus uniting in their 218 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. own persons the three separate departments of author, printer, and publisher.

The Prose Romance did not, in the general con duct of the story, where digressions are heaped on digressions, without the least respect to the prin cipal narrative, greatly differ from that of their me trical predecessors, being, to the full, as tedious and inartificial; nay, more so , in proportion as the new Romances were longer than the old. In the trans ference from verse to prose, and the amplification which the scenes underwent in the process, many strong, forcible, and energetic touches of the origi nal author have been weakened, or altogether lost; and the reader misses with regret some of the re deeming bursts of rude poetry which , in the Metri cal Romance, make amends for many hundred lines of bald and rude versification . But, on the other hand, the Prose Romances were written for a more advanced stage of society, and by authors whose language was much more copious, and who certainly belonged to a more educated class than the ancient minstrels. Men were no longer satisfied with hearing of hard battles and direful wounds ; they demanded, at the hand of those who professed to entertain them, some insight into nature, or at least into manners ; some description of external scenery, and a greater regard to probability both in ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 219 0 1 respect of the characters which are introduced , and the events which are narrated . These new demands the Prose Romances endeavoured to supply to the best of their power. There was some attention shown to relieve their story, by the introduction of new characters, and to illustrate these personages by characteristic dialogue. The lovers conversed with each other in the terms of metaphysical gal lantry, which were used in real life ; and, from being a mere rhapsody of warlike feats, the Romance began to assume the nobler and more artificial form of a picture of manners. It is in the prose folios of Lancelot du Lac, Perceforest, and others, that antiquarians find recorded the most exact accounts of fights, tournaments, feasts, and other magnificent displays of chivalric splendour ; and as they descend into more minute description than the historians of the time thought worthy of their pains, they are a mine from which the painful student may extract much valuable information. This, however, is not the full extent of their merit. These ancient books, amid many pages of dull repetition and uninterest ing dialect, and notwithstanding the languor of an inartificial, protracted, and confused story, exhibit from time to time passages of deep interest, and situations of much novelty, as well as specimens of spirited and masculine writing. The general read 220 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. er, who dreads the labour of winnowing out these valuable passages from the sterile chaff through which they are scattered, will receive an excellent idea of the beauties and defects of the Romance from Tressan’s Corps d'Extraits de Romans de Chevalrie, from Mr Ellis's Specimens of Early English Romances, and from Mr Dunlop’s His tory ofFiction. These works continued to furnish the amusement of the most polished courts in Europe so long as the manners and habits of Chivalry continued to animate them. Even the sagacious Catherine of Medicis considered the Romance of Perceforest as the work best qualified to form the manners and amuse the leisure of a young prince ; since she im pressed on Charles IX. the necessity of studying it with attention. But But byby degrees degrees the progress of new opinions in religion, the promulgation of a stricter code of morality, together with the import ant and animating discussions which began to be carried on by means of the press, diverted the pub lic attention from these antiquated legends. The Protestants of England, and the Huguenots of France, were rigorous in their censure of books of chivalry, in proportion as they had been patroni sed formerly under the Catholic system ; perhaps because they helped to arrest men's thoughts from ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 221 } more serious subjects of occupation . The learned Ascham thus inveighs against the Romance of Morte d'Arthur, and at the same time acquaints us with its having passed out of fashion : “ In our forefathers' tyme, when Papistrie, as a standyng poole, covered and overflowed all Englande, fewe bookes were read in our tongue, savying certaine bookes of chevalrie, as they said for pastime and pleasure ; which, as some say, were made in mo nasteries by idle monks, or wanton chanons. As for example, La Morte d'Arthur, the whole plea sure of which booke standeth in two speciall poyntes, in open manslaughter, and bold bawdrye : in which booke they are counted the noblest knightes that do kill most men without any quarrell, and commit fowlest adulteries by sutlest shiftes ; as Sir Launce lote , with the wife of King Arthur his master ; Sir Tristram , with the wife of King Marke his uncle; Sir Lamerocke, with the wife of King Lote, that was his own aunt. This is goode stuffe for wise men to laughe at, or honest men to take pleasure at : yet I know, when God's Bible was banished the court, and La Morte d'Arthur received into the prince's chamber.” * The brave and religious La Noue is not more 1

• Works of Roger Ascham , p. 254. Fourth edition .

222 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. + favourable to the perusal of Romances than the learned Ascham ; attributing to the public taste for these compositions the decay of morality among the French nobility. “ The ancient fables whose relikes doe yet remaine, namely, Lancelot of the Lake, Pierceforest, Tristran, Giron the Courte ous, and such others, doe beare witnesse of this olde vanitie ; herewith were men fed for the space of 500 yeeres, untill our language growing more polished, and our mindes more ticklish, they were driven to invent some nouelties wherewith to delight us. Thus came ye bookes of Amadis into light among us in this last age. But to say ye truth, Spaine bred thē, and France new clothed thē in gay gar ments. In ye daies of Henrie the Second did they beare chiefest sway , and I think if any man would then have reproved thē, he should have bene spit at, because they were of themselves playfellowes and maintainers to a great sort of persons ; whereof some, after they had learned to amize in speech , their teeth watered, so desirous were they even to taste of some small morsels of the delicaces therein most livelie and naturally represented.” * The gal

• The Politicke and Militaire Discourses' of the Lord De La

Nowe, pp. 87, 88. Quarto, Lond. 1587. ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 223 lant Marechal proceeds at considerable length to refute the arguments of those who contended, that these books were intended as a spur to the practice of arms and honourable exercises amongst youth, and labours hard to show that they teach dishonest practices both in love and in arms. It is impossible to suppress a smile when we find such an author as La Noue denouncing the introduction of spells, witchcrafts, and enchantments into these volumes, not because such themes are absurd and nonsensi cal, but because the representing such beneficent enchanters as Alquife and Urganda, is, in fact, a vindication of those who traffic with the powers of darkness ; and because those who love to read about sorceries and enchantments become, by degrees, fa miliarized with those devilish mysteries, and may at length be induced to have recourse to them in good earnest. The Romances of Chivalry did not, however, sink into disrepute under the stern rebuke of reli gious puritans or severe moralists, but became gra dually neglected as the customs of chivalry itself fell into disregard ; when, of course, the books which breathed its spirit, and were written under its in fluence, ceased to produce any impression on the public mind, and, superseded by better models of composition, and overwhelmed with the ridicule of 224 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. Cervantes, sunk by degrees into utter contempt and oblivion . Other works of amusement, of the same general class, succeeded the proper Romance of Chivalry. Of these we shall take some notice hereafter ; since we must here close our general view of the history of Romance, and proceed briefly to give some ac count of those peculiar to the various European nations. II. We can here but briefly touch upon a sub ject of great interest and curiosity, the peculiar cha racter and tone, namely, which the Romance of Chivalry received from the manners and early his tory of the nations among whom it is found to exist ; and the corresponding question, in what degree each appears to have borrowed from other countries the themes of their own minstrels, or to have made use of materials common to the whole. Scandinavia, as was to be expected, may be safe ly considered as the richest country in Europe in ancient tales corresponding with the character of Romance ; sometimes composed entirely in poetry or rhythm , sometimes in prose, and much more fre quently in a mixture of prose, narrative, and ly rical effusions. Their well-known Skalds or bards held a high rank in their courts and councils. The 3 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 225 character of a good poet was scarce second to that of a gallant leader, and many of the most celebra ted champions ambitiously endeavoured to unite both in their own persons. Their earlier sagas or tales approach to the credit of real history, and were unquestionably meant as such , though, as usual at an early period, debased by the intermixture of those speciosa miracula , which the love of the wonderful early introduces into the annals of an infant coun try. There are, however, very many of the sagas, indeed by far the greater number of those now known to exist, which must be considered as falling rather under the class of fictitious than of real narratives ; and which, therefore, belong to our present subject of inquiry. The Omeyinger Saga, the Heim skringla, the Saga of Olaf Triggwason, the Eir byggia Saga, and several others, may be consider ed as historical ; whilst the numerous narratives re ferring to the history of the Nibilungen and Vol sungen are as imaginary as the Romances which treat of King Arthur and of Charlemagne. These singular compositions, short, abrupt, and concise in expression, full of bold and even extravagant meta phor, exhibiting many passages of forceful and ra pid description, hold a character of their own ; and while they remind us of the indomitable courage and patient endurance of the hardy Scandinavians, VOL . VI. Р 226 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. at once the honour and the terror of Europe, rise far above the tedious and creeping style which charac terised the minstrel efforts of their successors, whe ther in France or England. In the pine forests also, and the frozen mountains of the north , there were nursed, amid the relics of expiring Pagan ism , many traditions of a character more wild and terrible than the fables of classical superstition ; and these the gloomy imagination of the skalds fail ed not to transfer to their romantic tales. The late spirit of inquiry which has been so widely spread through Germany, has already begun to throw much light on this neglected storehouse of romantic lore, which is worthy of much more attention than has yet been bestowed upon it in Britain . It must, however, be remarked , that although the north pos sesses champions and Romances of its own, un known to southern song, yet, in a later age, the inhabitants of these countries borrowed from the French minstrels some of their most popular sub jects ; and hence we find sagas on the subject of Sir Tristrem, Sir Percival, Sir Ywain, and others, the well-known themes of French and English Ro mance. These, however, must necessarily be con sidered later in date, as well as far inferior in inte rest, to the sagas of genuine northern birth. Mr Ritson has indeed quoted their existence as depre ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 227 ciating the pretensions of the northern nations to the possession of poems of high antiquity of their own native growth. Had he been acquainted with the Norman -Kiempe - Datur, a large folio, printed at Stockholm in 1737, he would have been satisfied, that out of the numerous collection of legends re specting the achievements of Gothic champions, far the greater part are of genuine Norse origin ; and although having many features in common with the Romances of southern chivalry, are , in the other marked particulars, distinctly divided from that class of fictitious composition. The country of Germany, lying contiguous to France, and constantly engaged in friendly and hostile intercourse with that great seat of romantic fiction , became, of course, an early partaker in the stores which it afforded . The minnesingers of the Holy Empire were a race no less cherished than the troubadours of Provence, or the minstrels of Normandy ; and no less active in availing them selves of their indigenous traditions, or importing those of other countries, in order to add to their stock of romantic fiction . Godfred of Strasburgh composed many thousand lines upon the popular subject of Sir Tristrem ; and others have been equally copious, both as translators and as origi nal authors, upon various subjects connected with 228 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. French Romance ; but Germany possessed mate rials, partly borrowed from Scandinavia, partly pe culiar to her own traditional history, as well as to that of the Roman empire, which they applied to the construction of a cycle of heroes as famous in Teutonic song as those of Arthur and Charlemagne in France and Britain . As in all other cases of the kind, a real conquer or, the fame of whose exploits survived in tradition , was adopted as the central object, around whom were to be assembled a set of champions, and with whose history was to be interwoven the various feats of courage which they performed, and the adven tures which they underwent. Theodorick , King of the Goths, called in these romantic legends, Dide rick of Bern ( i. e. Verona) , was selected for this purpose by the German minnesingers. Amongst the principal personages introduced are Ezzel, King of the Huns, who is no other than the celebrated Attila ; and Gunter, King of Burgundy, who is identified with a Guntachar of history, who really held that kingdom. The good knight Wolfram de Eschenbach seems to have been the first who assembled the scattered traditions and minstrel tales concerning these sovereigns into one large volume of German verse, entitled Helden - Buch, or the Book of Heroes. In this the author has availed ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 229 himself of the unlimited license of a romancer ; and has connected with the history of Diderick and his chivalry a number of detached legends, which had certainly a separate and independent existence . Such is the tale of Sigurd the Horny, which has the appearance of having originally been a Norse Saga. An analysis of this singular piece was pub lished by Mr Weber, in a work entitled Illustra tions of Northern Antiquities, from the earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances ; and the subject has been fully illustrated by the publica tions of the learned Von der Hagen in Germany, and those of the Honourable William Herbert. It is here only necessary to say, that Theodorick, like Charlemagne and Arthur, is considered in the Romance as a monarch more celebrated for the va lorous achievements of the brotherhood of chivalry whom he has drawn around him than for his own, though neither deficient in strength nor courage. His principal followers have each their discrimina tory and peculiar attributes. Meister Hildebrand, the Nestor of the band, is, like the Maugis of Charlemagne's heroes, a magician as well as a cham pion . Hogan, or Hagan, begot betwixt a mortal and a sea-goblin, is the fierce Achilles of the con federation . It is the uniform custom of the roman cers to conclude by a general and overwhelming 230 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. catastrophe, which destroys the whole ring of chi valry whose feats they had commemorated. The ruin which Roncesvalles brought to the Paladins of Charlemagne, and the fatal battle of Camlan to the Knights of the Round Table, fell upon the warriors of Diderick through the revengeful treach ery of Crimhilda, the wife of Ezzel ; who, in re venge for the death of her first husband, and in her inordinate desire to possess the treasures of the Ni flunga or Burgundians, brought destruction on all those celebrated champions. Mr Weber observes, that these German fictions differ from the Roman ces of French Chivalry, in the greater ferocity and less refinement of sentiment ascribed to the heroes ; and also in their employing to a great extent the machinery of the Duergar, or Dwarfs, a subterra nean people to whom the Helden - Buch ascribes much strength and subtilty, as well as profound skill in the magic art ; and who seem , to a certain extent, the predecessors of the European fairy. The same excellent authority affords us another curious Romance of German origin , entitled Duke Ernest of Bavaria, which appears deeply tinged with Oriental learning and imagination. The hero, at no greater distance than the Isle of Crete, has the good fortune, such at least he must have esteem ed it, in his capacity of a knight-errant, to meet with ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 231 a people having necks and heads like storks. He is in danger of being shipwrecked in a mountain of adamant — is carried away by a roc, and meets with sundry other adventures, which remind us of those of the celebrated Sinbad. Italy, so long the seat of classical learning, and where that learning was first revived, seems never to have strongly embraced the taste for the Gothic Romance. They received, indeed, the forms and institutions of chivalry ; but the Italians seem to have been in a considerable degree strangers to its spirit, and not to have become deeply enamoured of its literature. There is an old Romance of Chivalry proper to Italy, called Guerino the Wretched, but we doubt if even this be of indigenous growth. Indeed, when they did adopt from the French the fashionable tales of Charlemagne and his Paladins, they did not attract the attention of the classical Italians, until Boiardo, Berni, Pulci, and, above all, the divine Ariosto, condescended to use them as the basis of their well-known romantic poems ; and thus the fictitious narratives originally composed in metre, and after re- written in prose, were anew decorated with the honours of verse. The romantic poets of Italy did not even disdain to imitate the rambling, diffuse , and episodical style proper to the old Romance ; and Ariosto, in particular, although 232 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. he torments the reader's attention by digressing from one adventure to another, delights us, upon frequent perusals, by the extreme ingenuity with which he gathers up the broken ends of his narra tive, and finally weaves them all handsomely toge ther in the samepiece. But the merits and faults of romantic poetry form themselves the fruitful sub ject of a long essay. We here only notice the ori m gin of those celebrated works, as a species of com position arising out of the old Romance, though surpassing it in regularity, as well as in all the beauties of style and diction . With Spain the idea of Romance was particu larly connected ; and the associations which are formed upon perusing the immortal work of Cer vantes, induce us for a long time to believe that the country of Don Quixote must be the very cradle of romantic fiction . Yet, if we speak of priority of date, Spain was among the last nations in Europe with whom Romance became popular. It was not indeed possible that, among a people speaking so noble and poetical a language, engaged in con stant wars, which called forth at once their courage and their genius, there should not exist many his torical and romantic ballads descriptive of their rencounters with the Moors. But their native poets scem to have been too much engaged with the ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 233 events of their own age, or of that which had just preceded them, to permit of their seeking subjects in the regions of pure fiction ; and we have not heard of a Spanish Metrical Romance, unless the poems describing the adventures of the Cid, should be supposed to have any affinity to that class of composition. The Peninsula, however, though late in adopting the prevailing taste for romantic fiction , gave origin to one particular class, which was at least as popular as any which had preceded it. Amadis de Gaul, the production, it would seem , of Vasco de Lobeira, a Portuguese knight, who lived in the fourteenth century, gave a new turn to the tales of chivalry ; and threw into the shade the French Prose Romances, which, until the appear ance of this distinguished work, had been the most popular in Europe. The author of Amadis, in order, perhaps, to faci litate the other changes which he introduced, and to avoid rushing against preconceived ideas of events or character, laid aside the worn- out features of Arthur and Charlemagne, and imagined to him self a new dynasty both of sovereigns and of heroes, to whom he ascribed a style of manners much more refined, and sentiments much more artificial, than had occurred to the authors of Perceval or Perce forest. Lobeira had also taste enough to perceive, 234 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. that some unity of design would be a great improve ment on the old Romance, where one adventure is strung to another with little connexion from the beginning to the end of the volume ; which thus concluded, not because the plot was winded up, but because the author's invention, or the printer's patience, was exhausted. In the work of the Por tuguese author, on the contrary, he proposes a cer tain end, to advance or retard which all the inci dents of the work have direct reference. This is the marriage of Amadis with Oriana, against which a thousand difficulties are raised by rivals, giants, sor cerers, and all the race of evil powers unfavourable to chivalry ; whilst these obstacles are removed by the valour of the hero, and constancy of the heroine, succoured on their part by those friendly sages, and blameless sorceresses, whose intervention gave so much alarm to the tender -conscienced De la Noue. Lobeira also displayed considerable attention to the pleasure which arises from the contrast of charac ter ; and to relieve that of Amadis, who is the very essence of chivalrous constancy, he has introduced Don Galaor, his brother, a gay libertine in love, whose adventures form a contrast with those of his more serious relative. Above all, the Amadis dis plays an attention to the style and conversation of the piece, which, although its effects are now exag ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 235 gerated and ridiculous, was doubtless at the time considered as the pitch of elegance ; and here were, for the first time, introduced those hyperbolical com pliments, and that inflated and complicated struc ture of language, the sense of which walks as in a masquerade. The Amadis at first consisted only of four books, and in that limited shape may be considered as a very well- conducted story ; but additions were speedily made which extended the number to twen ty -four ; containing the history of Amadis subse quent to his obtaining possession of Oriana, and down to his death , as also of his numerous descend ants. The theme was not yet exhausted ; for, as the ancient romancers, when they commenced a new work, chose for their hero some newly -invented Paladin of Charlemagne, or knight of King Ar thur, so did their successors adopt a new descend ant of the family of Amadis, whose genealogy was thus multiplied to a prodigious degree. For an account of Esplandian, Florimond ofGreece, Pal merin ofEngland, and the other Romances of this class, the reader must be referred to the valuable labours of Mr Southey, who has abridged both Amadis and Palmerin with the most accurate attention to the style and manners of the original. The books of Amadis became so very popular as to 236 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. supersede the elder Romances almost entirely, even at the court of France, where, according to La Noue, already quoted, they were introduced about the reign of Henry II. It was against the extra vagance of these fictions, in character and in style, that the satire of Cervantes was chiefly directed ; and almost all the library of Don Quixote belongs to this class of Romances, which, no doubt, his ad ventures contributed much to put out of fashion . In every point of view, France must be consider ed as the country in which Chivalry and Romance flourished in the highest perfection ; and the origi nals of almost all the early Romances, whether in prose or verse, whether relating to the history of Arthur or of Charlemagne, are to be found in the French language ; and other countries possess only translations from thence. This will not be so sur prising when it is recollected, that these earlier Romances were written, not only for the use of the French, but of the English themselves, amongst whom French was the prevailing language during the reigns of the Anglo-Norman monarchs. Indeed, it has been ingeniously supposed, and not without much apparent probability, that the fame of Arthur was taken by the French minstrels for the founda tion of their stories in honour of the English kings, who reigned over the supposed dominions of that ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 237 British hero ; while, on the other hand, the min strels who repaired to the court of France, celebra ted the prowess of Charlemagne and his twelve peers as a subject more gratifying to those who sat upon his throne. It is, perhaps, some objection to this ingenious theory, that, as we have already seen , the battle of Hastings was opened by a minstrel, who sung the war- song of Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne; so that the Norman duke brought with him to England the tales that are supposed, at a much later date, to have been revived to soothe the national pride of the French minstrels. How the French minstrels came originally by the traditional relics concerning Arthur and Mer lin , on which they wrought so long and so largely, must, we fear, always remain uncertain . From the Saxons we may conclude they had them not ; for the Saxons were the very enemies against whom Arthur employed his good sword Excalibar ; that is to say, if there was such a man, or such a weapon. We know, indeed, that the British , like all the branches of the Celtic race, were much attached to poetry and music, which the numerous relics of ancient poetry in Wales, Ireland, and the High lands of Scotland, sufficiently evince. Arthur, a name famous among them, with some traditions concerning the sage Merlin, may have floated either 238 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. in Armorica, or among the half - British of the bor ders of Scotland, and of Cumberland ; and, thus preserved, may have reached the ear of the Norman minstrels, either in their newly- conquered domi nions, or through their neighbours of Britanny. A theme of this sort once discovered , and found accept able to the popular ear, gave rise, of course, to a thousand imitations ; and gradually drew around it a cloud of fiction which, embellished by such poetry as the minstrels could produce, arranged itself by degrees into a system of fabulous history, as the congregated vapours touched by the setting sun, assume the form of battlements and towers. We know that the history of Sir Tristrem , first versified by Thomas the Rymer of Ercildoune, was derived from Welsh traditions, though told by a Saxon poet. In fact, it may be easily supposed, that the romancers of that early period were more eager to acquire popular subjects than delicately scrupulous of borrowing from their neighbours ; and when the foundation -stone was once laid, each subsequent minstrel brought his contribution to the building. The idea of an association of knights assembled around one mighty sovereign, was so flattering to all the ruling princes of Europe, that almost all of them endeavoured to put themselves at the head of some similar institution , and the various Orders of ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 239 Chivalry are to be traced to this origin . The his torical foundation of this huge superstructure is almost imperceptible. Mr Turner has shown that the evidence rather inclinés to prove the actual existence of King Arthur ; and the names of Ga-: wain, his nephew, and of Geneura, his faithful spouse, of Mordred, and Merlin , were preserved by Welsh tradition. To the same source may be referred the loves of Tristrem and Ysolde, which , although a separate story, has become, in the later Romances, amalgamated with that of Arthur. But there can be little doubt that all beyond the bare names of the heroes owes its existence to the imagi nation of the romancers. It might be thought that the Romances refer ring to the feats of Charlemagne ought to contain more historical truth than those concerning Arthur ; since the former relate to a well-known monarch and conqueror, the latter to a personage of a very doubtful and shadowy existence. But the Roman ces concerning both are equally fabulous. Charles had, indeed, an officer, perhaps a kinsman, named Roland, who was slain with other nobles in the field of Roncesvalles, fighting, not against the Saracens or Spaniards, but against the Gascons. This is the only point upon which the real history of Charle magne coincides with that invented for him by 240 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. romancers. Roland was Prefect of Bretagne, and his memory was long preserved in the war - song which bore his name. A fabulous chronicler, calling him self Turpin, compiled, in or about the eleventh century, a romantic history of Charlemagne ; but it may be doubted whether, in some instances, he has not availed himself of the fictions already devised by the early romancers, while to those who succeeded them his annals afforded matter for new figments. The personal character of Charlemagne has suffered considerably in the hands of the roman tic authors, although they exaggerated his power and his victories. He is represented as fond of flat tery, irritable in his temper, ungrateful for the ser vices rendered him by his most worthy Paladins, and a perpetual dupe to the treacherous artifices of Count Gan, or Ganelon, of Mayence ; a renegade to whom the romancers impute the defeat at Ron cesvalles, and all the other misfortunes of the reign of Charles. This unfavourable view of the Prince, although it may bear some features of royalty, nei ther resembles the real character of the conqueror of the Saxons and Lombards, nor can be easily reconciled with the idea, that he was introduced to flatter the personal vanity of the Princes of the Va lois race , by a portrait of their great predecessor. The circumstance, that Roland was a lieutenant 4 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 241 of Britanny, and the certainty that Marie borrow ed from that country the incidents out of which she composed her lays, seems to fortify the theory, that the French minstrels obtained from that country much of their most valuable materials ; and that, after all that has been said and supposed, the history of Arthur probably reached them through the same channel. The Latin writers of the middle ages afforded the French romancers the themes of those metrical legends which they have composed on subjects of classical fame. The honour of the prose Romances of Chivalry, exclusive always of the books of Amadis, belongs entirely to the French , and the curious volumes which are now the object of so much rèsearch amongst collectors, are almost universally printed at Paris. England, so often conquered, yet fated to receive an accession of strength from each new subjugation, cannot boast much of ancient literature of any kind ; and, in the department of which we treat, was to tally inferior to France. The Saxons had, no doubt, Romances (taking the word in its general accepta tion ) ; and Mr Turner, to whose researches we are so much indebted , has given us the abridgement of one entitled Caedmon, in which the hero, whose VOL. VI. 242 ESSAY ON ROMANCE, adventures are told much after the manner of the ancient Norse Sagas, encounters, defeats, and final ly slays an evil being called Grendel, who, except in his being subject to death, seems a creature of a supernatural description. * But the literature of the Saxons was destroyed by the success of William the Conqueror, and the Norman knights and barons, among whom England was in a great measure divided, sought amusement, not in the lays of the vanquished, but in those composed in their own language. In this point of view, England, as a country, may lay claim to many of the French Ro mances, which were written, indeed, in that lan guage, but for the benefit of the court and nobles of England, by whom French was still spoken . When the two languages began to assimilate to gether, and to form the mixed dialect termed the Anglo - Norman, we have good authority for saying that it was easily applied to the purpose of ro mantic fiction , and recited in the presence of the nobility Robert de la Brunne, who composed his History of England about this time, has this remarkable passage, which we give, along with the commentary

• The English public are now made more fully acquainted

with this ancient process, by the ample and more interesting analysis, furnished by Mr Connybran. ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 243 of the Editor of Sir Tristrem , as it is peculiarly illustrative of the subject we are inquiring into. Als thai haf wryten and sayd Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd, In simple speche as I couthe, That is lightest in manne's mouthe. I made noght for no disours, Ne for no seggers, no harpours, Bot for the luf of symple men, That strange Inglis cannot ken ; For many it ere that strange Inglis, In ryme wate never what it is ; And bot thai wist what it mente, Ellis methought it were alle schente. I made it not for to be praysed, Bot at the lewed men were aysed. If it were made in ryme couwee, Or in strangere, or enterlacé, That rede Inglis it ere inowe That couthe not have coppled a kowe. That outher in cowee or in baston, Sum suld haf ben fordon ; So that fele men that it herde Suld not witte howe that it ferde. I see in song, in sedgeying tale, Of Erceldoune and of Kendale, Non tham says as thai tham wroght, And in ther saying it semes noght, That may thou here in Sir Tristrem , Over gestes it has the steem, Over all that is or was, If men it sayd as made Thomas ; Bot I here it no man so say, That of some copple som is away. So thare fayre saying here beforne, Is thare travaile nere forlorne ; 24 : ESSAY ON ROMANCE. Thai sayd it for pride and nobleye, That were not suylke as thei. And alle that thai willed overwhere, Alle that ilke will now forfare. Thai sayd it in so quaint Inglis, That many wate not what it is. Therfore heuyed wele the more In strange ryme to travayle sore And my wit was our thynne ; So strange speche to travayle in ; And forsoth I couth noght So strange Inglis as thai wroght, And men besoght me many a tyme To turne it bot in light ryme. Thai seyd if I in strange ryme it turn, To here it many on suld skurne ; For in it ere names fulle selcouthe, That ere not used now in mouthe. And therfore, for the commonalté, That blythely wild listen to me, On light lange I it began, For luf of the lewed man . “ This passage requires some commentary, as the sense has been generally mistaken . Robert de Brunne does not mean, as has been supposed, that the minstrels who repeated Thomas's Romance of Sir Tristrem , disguised the meaning by putting it into “ quainte Inglis ; but, on the contrary, that Kendal and Thomas of Erceldoune did themselves use such quainte Inglis,' that those who repeated the story were unable to understand it, or to make it intelligible to their hearers. Above all, he com plains, that by writing an intricate and complicated stanza, as ' ryme cowee, strangere,' or entrelacé,' it ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 245 was difficult for the disours to recollect the poem ; and of Sir Tristrem , in particular, he avers, that he never heard a perfect recital, because of some one copple' or stanza, a part was always omitted. Hence he argues at length, that he himself, writing not for the minstrel or harper, nor to acquire per sonal fame, but solely to instruct the ignorant in the history of their country, does well in choosing a simple structure of verse , which they can retain correctly on their memory, and a style which is popular and easily understood. Besides which, he hints at the ridicule he might draw on his poem , should he introduce the uncouth names of his per sonages into a courtly or refined strain of verse. They were Great names, but hard in verse to stand. While he arrogates praise to himself for his choice, he excuses Thomas of Erceldoune and Kendale for using a more ambitious and ornate kind of poetry. They wrote ," he says, ' for pride ( fame) and for nobles, not such as these my ignorant hearers.' » * If the editor of Sir Tristrem be correct in his commentary, there existed in the time of Thomas de Brunne minstrels or poets who composed Eng

• Sir Tristrem , Introduction, pp. lxi. lxii. lxiii. lxiv. Ixv.

Edin. 1804. 246 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. of the great, lish poetry to be recited in the presence of the and who, for that purpose, used a singularly diffi cult stanza, which was very apt to be mutilated in recitation. Sir Tristrem , even as it now exists, shows likewise that considerable art was resorted to in constructing the stanza, and has, from begin ning to end, a concise, quaint, abstract turn of ex pression, more like the Saxon poetry than the sim ple, bald , and diffuse details of the French min strel. Besides Sir Tristrem , there remain , we con ceive, at least two other examples of " gestes written in quainte Inglis,” composed, namely, according to fixed and complicated rules of verse, and with much attention to the language, though the effect pro duced is far from pleasing. They are both of Scot tish origin, which may be explained, by recollecting that in the Saxon provinces of Scotland, as well as at the court, Norman was never generally used ; and therefore it is probable that the English lan guage was more cultivated in that country at an early period than in England itself, where, among the higher classes, it was for a long time superse ded by that of the French conquerors. These Ro mances, entitled Sir Gawain, and Sir Gologras, and Sir Galeran of Galloway, have all the appear ance of being original compositions , and display con siderable poetical effort. But the uncouth use of ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 247 words dragged in for the sake of alliteration, and used in secondary and oblique meanings, renders them extremely harsh in construction, as well as obscure in meaning. In England it would seem that the difficulties pointed out by De la Brunne early threw out of fashion this ornate kind of composition ; and the English minstrels had no readier resource than tran slating from the French, who supplied their lan guage at the same time with the phrases of chivalry which did not exist in English. These compositions presented many facilities to the minstrel. He could, if possessed of the slightest invention, add to them at pleasure, and they might as easily be abridged, when memory failed, or occasion required. Accord ingly, translations from the French fill up the list of English Romance. They are generally written in short lines rhyming together ; though often , by way of variety, the third and sixth lines are made to rhyme together, and the poem is thus divided into stanzas of three couplets each . In almost all of these legends, reference is made to “ the Ro mance, ” that is, some composition in the French language, as to the original authority. Nay, which is very singular, tales where the subjects appear to be of English growth, seem to have yet existed in French ere they were translated into the language of the country to which the heroes belonged. This 248 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. seems to have been the case with Hornchild , with Guy of Warwick, with Bevis of Hampton, all of which appear to belong originally to England ; yet are their earliest histories found in the French language, or at least the vernacular versions refer to such for their authority. Even the Romance of Richard , England's own Cour de Lion, has perpetual references to the French original from which it was translated. It must naturally be sup posed that these translations were inferior to the originals ; and whether it was owing to this cause, or that the composition of these rhymes was attended with too much facility, and so fell into the hands of very inferior composers, or that they were com posed for the ruder and more illiterate part of the nation , it is certain , and is proved by the highest authority, that of Chaucer himself, that even in his time these rhyming Romances had fallen into great contempt. The Rime of Sir Thopas, which that poet introduces as a parody, undoubtedly, of the rhythmical Romances of the age, is interrupted by mine host Harry Bailly with the strongest and most energetic expressions of total and absolute contempt. But though the minstrels were censu red by de la Brunne for lack of skill and memory, and the poems which they recited were branded as drafty rhymings,” by the far more formidable sen tence of Chaucer, their acceptation with the public ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 249 in general must have been favourable, since, besides many unpublished volumes, the two publications of Ritson and Weber bear evidence of their popular ity . Some original compositions doubtless occur among so many translations, but they are not nume rous, and few have been preserved. The very curious poem of Sir Eger and Sir Greme, which seems of Scottish origin, has no French original ; nor has any been discovered either of the Squire of Low Degree, Sir Eglamour, Sir Pleindamour, or some others. But the French derivation of the two last names renders it probable that such may exist. The minstrels and their compositions seem to have fallen into utter contempt about the time of Henry VIII. There is a piteous picture of their condition in the person of Richard Sheale, which it is impossible to read without compassion, if we con sider that he was the preserver at least, if not the author, of the celebrated heroic ballad of Chevy Chace, at which Sir Philip Sidney's heart was wont to beat as at the sound of a trumpet. This luckless minstrel had been robbed on Dunsmore Heath, and, shame to tell, he was unable to persuade the public that a son of the muses had ever been pos sessed -of the twenty pounds which he averred he had lost on the occasion . The account he gives of the effect upon his spirits is melancholy, and yet ridiculous enough. 250 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. After my robbery my memory was so decayde, That I colde neather syng nor talke, my wytts wer so dismayde. My audacitie was gone, and all my myrry tawk, Ther ys sum heare have sene me as myrry as a hawke ; But nowe I am so trublyde with phansis in my mynde, That I cannot play the myrry knave, accordyng to my kynd. Yet to tak thought, I perseve, ys not the next waye To bring me out of det, my creditors to paye. I may well say that I hade but evil hape, For to lose about threscore pounds at a clape. The losse of my mony did not greve me so sore, But the talke of the pyple dyde greve me moch mor. Sum sayde I was not robde, I was but a lyeng knave, Yt was not possyble for a mynstrell so much mony to have ; In dede, to say the truthe, that ys ryght well knowene, That I never had so moche mony of myn owene, But I bad frendds in London, whos namys I can declare, That at all tyms wold lende me cc.lds. worth of ware, And sum agayn such frendship I founde, That thei wold lend me in mony nyn or tene pownde. The occasion why I cam in dete I shall make relacion, My wyff in dede ys a sylk woman be her occupacion, And lynen cloths most chefly was her greatyste trayd , And at faris and merkytts she solde sale - ware that she made ; As shertts, smockys, partlytts, hede clothes, and othar thinggs, As sylk thredd, and eggyngs, skirrts, bandds, and strings. From The Chant of Richard Sheale, British Bibliographer, No. XIII. p. 101. Elsewhere, Sheale hints that he had trusted to his harp, and to the well-known poverty attached to those who used that instrument, to bear him safe through Dunsmore Heath. From this time, the poor degraded minstrels seem literally to have me rited the character imposed on them by the satirist Dr Bull, and quoted with such glee by Ritson, ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 251 whose enmity against Dr Percy seems to have ex tended itself against the race. 66 When Jesus went to Jairus house, [ Whose daughter was about to dye, ] He turn'd the minstrels out of doors, Among the rascal company : Beggars they are with one consent, And rogues, by Act of Parliament. " At length the order of English minstrels was for mally put down by the act 39th of Queen Eliza beth , classing them with sturdy beggars and vaga bonds ; in which disgraceful fellowship they only existed in the capacity of fiddlers, who accompanied their instrument with their voice. Such a character is introduced in the play of Monsieur Thomas, as the 56 poor fiddler who says his songs. ” Such, too, was Sheale, already mentioned : the “ Minstrel's Farewell,” by this unlucky child of the muses, inti mates the degraded character of his profession, the professors of which now sung for their victuals. Now for the good chear that ye have had heare, I gyve you hartte thanks, with bowyng off my shanks. Desyryng you be petycyon to graunte me suche commission, Becaus my name ys Sheale, that bothe by meat and meale . Το you I maye resorte, sum tyme to mye Comforte. For I perseive here at all tymes is good chere, Both ale, wyne, and beere, as hit dothe nowe apere. I perseve wythoute fable, ye kepe a good table, Sum tyme I wyll be your gueste, or els I were a beaste, Knowynge off your mynde, yff I wolde not be so kynde, 252 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. Sumtyme to tast youre cuppe, and wyth you dyne and suppe. I can be contente, yf hit be oute of Lente, A peace of byffe to take mye honger to aslake : Rothe mutton and veile ys goode for Rycharde Sheale ." British Bibliographer, No. XIII. p. 105. The Metrical Romances which they recited also fell into disrepute, though some of the more popu lar, sadly abridged and adulterated, continued to be published in chap books, as they are called. About fifty or sixty years since , a person acquired the nick name of Rosewal and Lilian from singing that Romance about the streets of Edinburgh, which is probably the very last instance of the proper min strel craft. If the Metrical Romances of England can boast of few original compositions, they can show yet fewer examples of the Prose Romance. Sir Tho mas Malory, indeed, compiled, from various French authorities, his celebrated Morte d'Arthur, indis putably the best Prose Romance the language can boast. There is also Arthur of Little Britain ; and the Lord Berners compiled the Romance of the Knight ofthe Swan. The books of Amadis were likewise translated into English ; but it may be doubted whether the country in general ever took that deep interest in the perusal of these records of love and honour with which they were greeted in France. Their number was fewer ; and the atten ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 253 tion paid to them in a country where great political questions began to be agitated, was much less than when the feudal system still continued in its full vigour. III. We should now say something on those various kinds of romantic fictions which succeeded to the Romance of Chivalry. But we can only notice briefly works which have long slumbered in oblivion, and which certainly are not worthy to have their slumbers disturbed . Even in the time of Cervantes, the Pastoral Romance, founded upon the Diana of George of Monté Mayor, was prevailing to such an extent as made it worthy of his satire. It was, indeed, a sys tem still more remote from common sense and rea lity than that of chivalry itself. For the maxims of chivalry, high -strained and absurd as they are, did actually influence living beings, and even the fate of kingdoms. If Amadis de Gaule was a fic tion, the Chevalier Bayard was a real person . But the existence of an Arcadia, a pastoral region, in which a certain fantastic sort of personages, despe rately in love, and thinking of nothing else but their mistresses, played upon pipes, and wrote son nets from morning to night, yet were supposed all the while to be tending their flocks, was too mon strously absurd to be long credited or tolerated. 254 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. A numerous, and once most popular, class of fic tions, was that entitled the Heroic Romance of the Seventeenth Century. If the ancient Romance of Chivalry has a right to be called the parent of those select and beautiful fictions which the genius of the Italian poets has enriched with such peculiar charms, another of its direct descendants, The Heroic Romance of the Seventeenth Century, is, with few exceptions, the most dull and tedious species of composition that ever obtained temporary popularity. The old Ro mance of Heliodorus, entitled Theagenes and Cha riclea, supplied, perhaps, the earliest model of this style of composition ; but it was from the Romances of Chivalry that it derives its most peculiar charac teristics. A man of a fantastic imagination, Ho noré d'Urfé, led the way in this style of composi tion. Being willing to record certain love intrigues of a complicated nature which had taken place in his own family, and amongst his friends, he ima gined to himself a species of Arcadia on the banks of the Lignon, inhabited by swains and shepherd esses, who live for love and for love alone. There are two principal stories, said to represent the fami ly history of D'Urfé and his brother, with about thirty episodes, in which the gallantries and in trigues of Henry IV's court are presented under borrowed names. Considered by itself, this is but ESSAY ON ROMANCE. 255 an example of the Pastoral Romance ; but it was so popular, that three celebrated French authors, Gomberville, Calprenede, and Madame Scuderi, seized the pen, and composed in emulation many interminable folios of Heroic Romance. In these insipid performances, a conventional character, and a set of family manners and features, are ascribed to the heroes and heroines, although selected from dis tant ages and various quarters of the world . The heroines are, without exception , models of beauty and perfection ; and so well persuaded of it them selves, that to approach them with the most humble declaration of love was a crime sufficient to deserve the penalty of banishment from their presence ; and it is well if the doom were softened to the audacious lover, by permission, or command to live, without which , absence and death were to be accounted sy nonymous. On the other hand, the heroes, whatso ever kingdoms they have to govern , or other earthly duties to perform , live through these folios for love alone; and the most extraordinary revolutions which can agitate the world are ascribed to the charms of a Mandane or a Statira acting upon the crazy under standing of their lovers. Nothing can be so uninter esting as the frigid extravagance with which these lovers express their passion ; or, in their own phrase, nothing can be more freezing than their flames, 256 ESSAY ON ROMANCE. more creeping than their flights of love. Yet the line of metaphysical gallantry which they exhibited had its date, and a long one, both in France and England. They remained the favourite amuse ment of Louis XIV th’s court, although assailed by the satire of Boileau. In England they continued to be read by our grandmothers during the Augus tan age of English, and while Addison was amusing the world with his wit, and Pope by his poetry, the ladies were reading Cležia, Cleopatra, and the Grand Cyrus. The fashion did not decay till about the reign of George I. ; and even more lately, Mrs Lennox, patronized by Dr Johnson , wrote a very good imitation of Cervantes, entitled , The Female Quixote, which had those works for its basis. They are now totally forgotten .

The Modern Romance, so ennobled by the pro ductions of so many master hands, would require a long disquisition . But we can here only name that style of composition in which De Foe rendered fic tion more impressive than truth itself, and Swift could render plausible even the grossest impossibi lities. *

• There was the less occasion to continue and complete this Es say, as the author has, in the lives of the British Novelists, ex pressed the opinions he entertains upon the subject of Modern Romance, and its connexion with the elder fictions by which it

was preceded.