BOHN'S STANDARD LIBRARY.
HISTORY OF PROSE FICTION.
HISTORY OF PROSE FICTION
BY
JOHN COLIN DUNLOP.
A NEW EDITION
JiKVISKI) WITH NOTES, APPENDICES, AND INDEX,
BY
HENRY WILSON.
LONDON : GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,
CO VENT GARDEN.
1888.
p/v
CH1SWICK PRESS : C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,
CHANCERY LANE.
PREFACE
TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
THE value of Dunlop's "History of Fiction," now again,
after a long lapse of years, placed within reach of the
English reader, needs no demonstration ; it is amply
attested by the numerous quotations from and references
to it in all works, even of the most recent date, upon the
history of imaginative literature. The explorations in the
field of the genesis and genealogy of fiction have, indeed,
recently attained such extensive development that pro-
bably no single writer could now be found bold enough to
r.-viuw such a vast domain as forms the scope of Dunlop's
undertaking.
Writing at a period when comparatively little had been
done in the ground he occupied, Dunlop was sensible of
the magnitude of his task, and found it expedient to keep
it within practicable compass by confining his attention to
works in prose a limitation, however, as need hardly be
said, altogether artificial in tracing the evolutions of fictive
composition, which passes, according to certain social con-
ditions and by laws which might almost be determined,
from verse to prose, and again from the latter to the
metrical form.
In the domain of letters, as of material industries, in-
n-rase of labour begets its subdivision and specialization.
Investigations into the history of fictive literature while
they have recently been prosecuted with so much learning
VI PEEFACE.
and activity have become limited to the works of a single
nation, school or period, or even to a particular theme.
The endeavour of the editor has accordingly been not so
much to incorporate the results of recent research in the
present edition, a plan which would have swelled it beyond
measure, as to shew the direction of such researches, and
indicate where they may be followed further in connection
with the subjects handled by Dunlop, and, as it were,
sailing in his wake down the main current of imaginative
literature, point out, as far as may be, the course and the
recent surveys, by which the numerous affluents to the
stream of fiction may be traced towards their sources.
Dunlop's text has been retained almost intact, with the
exception of the article on the Graal romance, which the
labours of M. Paulin Paris, M. Hucher, Professor Schulze
and many other savants, rendered it necessary to re-write.
The valuable notes to F. Liebrecht's German translation
of the work have been incorporated with the notes to
the present edition, and are usually acknowledged by the
syllable : LIEB.
For a few notes the editor is indebted to Mr. Henry
Jenner. These are subscribed H. J.
Dunlop scarcely even mentions the literature of several
northern countries. This omission, it is hoped, is here to
some extent remedied by appendices on prose fiction in
Germany, Scandinavia and Russia, which additions, how-
ever, it was necessary to restrict to the most exiguous
limits.
For the rest, Dunlop's judgments and criticism are for
the most part sound, and therefore of permanent value,
his style is excellent, and the original text as full of in-
terest as ever, while, it is hoped, that the copious notes
and index now added, will prove useful to the student.
PREFACE. Ml
The author of the " History of Fiction " was born
on tin- oiith D.'ci-inl'rr, 1785, and was the son of John
Dunlop, merchant of Glasgow, and Lord Provost of that
city in 1796, Collector of Customs at Borrow-Stounness,
a in I afterwards at Port Glasgow, where he died in 1820,
author of some popular songs, among which may be
named " Oh dinna ask me gin I lo'e you," and " Here's
to the year that's awa." His wife, the mother of John
Colin Dunlop, was a daughter of Sir Thomas Miller, of
Glenlee, who was appointed Lord Justice Clerk in 1766,
and Lord President of the Court in 1788 ; and a sister of
Sir William Miller, of Glenlee, Bart., who was appointed
one of the Judges of the Court of Session in 1795.
Of the career of her son, the writer of the " History of
Fiction," comparatively little would seem to be on record.
He was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates
on the 7th March, 1807, the subject of his thesis being " De
jure jurando, sive voluntario, sive necessario, sive judiciali."
In 1816 he was appointed Sheriff of Renfrewshire, an office
he continued to hold until his death, which occurred at
12, India Street, Edinburgh, on the 26th of January, 1842.
He was said to have been a man of simple manners and
unostentati6us life, a lucid, fluent, and graceful speaker,
and a sound lawyer.
For most of the above biographical particulars, I grate-
fully acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Clerk, of the
Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.
Besides the " History of Fiction " its author also wrote :
" The History of Roman Literature, from its earliest
period to the Augustan age." London, 1823-1828. 3 vols.
8vo.
" Memoirs of Spain during the reigns of Philip IV. and
rluirles II.," 1611-1700. London, 1834. 2 vols. 8vo.
The " History of Fiction " was first published in 1814,
vm
PREFACE.
the full title running " The History of Fiction ; being a
critical account of the most celebrated prose works of
Fiction, from the earliest Greek Romances to the Novels of
the Present Day." Edinburgh, 1814. 3 vols. 8vo.
A second edition was issued in 1816, and I have seen
references to a Philadelphia reprint in two volumes, 1842,
from the second edition, and to a third edition in one
volume, 1845.
H. W.
SOME WORKS RELATING TO THE SUBJECT OF
THE PRESENT VOLUMES, OR QUOTED
THEREIN, WITH ABBREVIATED
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Guest, C. MahinoL'ion. London, 1877, 8vo.
Hunt, R. Popular Romances of the West of England. London, 1881,
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Croker, T. C. Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland. New ed. by
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Legendary Tales of the Ancient Britons rehearsed from the early
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Lettres sur les contes des Fees. Paris, 1862.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction ......... 1
CHAPTER I.
Origin of fictitious narrative Earliest writers of Greek romance
Heliodorus Achilles Tat ins Longus Chariton Joannes
Damascenus Eustathius Remarks on this species of composi-
tion !i
CHAPTER II.
Introduction of the Milesian tales into Italy Latin Romances
Petronius Arbiter Apuleius, etc. ...... 9-J
CHAPTER III.
Origin of Romantic fiction in Europe Romances of chivalry re-
lating to the early and fabulous history of Britain, particularly
to Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Merlin Saint-
Graal Perceval Lancelot dn Lao Meliadus Tristan Isaie
le Triste Artus Gyron Perceforest Artus de la Bretagne
Cleriadus 114
CHAPTER IV.
Kmiuuires of chivalry relating to Charlemagne and his peers
Chronicle of Turpin Huon de Bordeaux Guerin do Monglave
liallien Rhetore' Milles et Amys Jourdain de Blaves :
Ogier le Danois, etc 274
CHAPTER V.
ices of the Peninsula concerning Amudis de Gaul and his
descendants Romances relating to the imaginary family of the
Palmerins Catalonian romances Tirante the White Parte-
n<>pc\ ilc Blois .......
I. 6
XV111
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE
Romances of chivalry relating to classical and mythological heroes
Livre de Jason La Vie <le Hereule Alexandre, etc. . . 414
Supplementary Notes 445
Appendix ........... 476
List of some Proper Names employed in the earlier Romances . 499
Chart showing diffusion of the Kalila ve Dimna.
Chart of Aryan Exposure and Return formula.
INTRODUCTION.
THE art of fictitious narrative appears to have its origin
in the same principles of selection by which the fine
arts in general are created and perfected. Among the vast
variety of trees and shrubs which are presented to his
view, a savage finds, in his wanderings, some which pecu-
liarly attract his notice by their beauty and fragrance, and
these he at length selects, and plants them round his
dwelling. In like manner, among the mixed events of
human life, he experiences some which are peculiarly
grateful, and of which the narrative at once pleases him-
self, and excites in the minds of his hearers a kindred
emotion. Of this kind are unlooked-for occurrences, suc-
cessful enterprise, or great and unexpected deliverance
from signal danger and distress. As he collected round
his habitation those objects with which he had been
jib vised, in order that they might afford him a frequent
gratification, so he rests his fancy on those incidents which
had formerly awaked the most powerful emotions ; and
the remembrance of which most strongly excites his ten-
derness, or pride, or gratitude.
Thus, in process of time, a mass of curious narrative is
collected, which is communicated from one individual to
another. In almost every occurrence of human life, how-
ever, as in almost every scene of nature, something inter-
venes of a mixed, or indifferent description, tending to
weaken the agreeable emotion, which, without it, would
If more pure and forcible. For example, in the process
of forming the garden, the savage finds that it is not
enough merely to collect a variety of agreeable trees or
plants ; he discovers that more than this is necessary, and
I. B
2 INTRODUCTION.
that it is also essential that he should grub up from
around his dwelling the shrubs which are useless or
noxious, and which weaken or impair the pure delight
which he derives from others. He is careful, accordingly,
that the rose should no longer be placed beside the thistle,
as in the wild, but that it should flourish in a clear, and
sheltered, and romantic situation, where its sweets may be
undiminished, and where its. form can be contemplated
without any attending circumstances of uneasiness or dis-
gust. The collector of agreeable facts finds, in like
manner, that the sympathy they excite can be heightened
by removing from their detail every thing that is not in-
teresting, or that tends to weaken the principal emotion,
which it is his intention to raise. He renders, in this way,
the occurrences more unexpected, the enterprises more
successful, the deliverance from danger and distress more
wonderful. " As the active world," says Lord Bacon, " is
inferior to the rational soul, so Fiction gives to mankind
what history denies, and, in some measure, satisfies the
mind with shadows when it cannot enjoy the substance :
For, upon a narrow inspection, Fiction strongly shows that
a greater variety of things, a more perfect order, a more
beautiful variety, than can any where be found in nature,
is pleasing to the mind. And as real history gives us not
the success of things according to the deserts of vice and
virtue, Fiction corrects it, and presents us with the fates
and fortunes of persons rewarded or punished according to
merit. And as real history disgusts us with a familiar
and constant similitude of things, Fiction relieves us by
unexpected turns and changes, and thus not only delights,
but inculcates morality and nobleness of soul. It raises
the mind by accommodating the images of things to our
desires, and not, like history and reason, subjecting the
mind to things." '
From this view of the subject, it is obvious that the
fictions framed by mankind, or the narratives with which
they are delighted, will vary with their feelings, and with
the state of society. Since Fiction may be regarded as
select and highly coloured history, those adventures would
1 De Aug. Scient. lib. ii. p. 1.
INTRODUCTION. 3
naturally form the basis of it which had already come to
pass, or which were most likely to occur. Accordingly, in ^
a warlike age, it would be peculiarly employed in tales of
enterprise and chivalry, and, in times of gallantry, in the
detail of love adventures.
The History of Fiction, therefore, becomes, in a con-
siderable degree, interesting to the philosopher, and occu-
pies an important place in the history of the progress of
society. By contemplating the fables of a people, we have
a successive delineation of their prevalent modes of think-
ing, a picture of their feelings and tastes and habits. In
this respect prose fiction appears to possess advantages
considerably superior either to history or poetry. In his-
tory there is too little individuality ; in poetry too much
effort, to permit the poet and historian to portray the
manners living as they rise. History treats of man, as it
were, in the mass, and the individuals whom it paints are
regarded merely, or principally, in a public light, without
talcing into consideration their private feelings, tastes, or
habits. Poetry is in general capable of too little detail, }
while its paintings, at the same time, are usually too much ;
forced and exaggerated. But in Fiction we can discrimi- I
nate without impropriety, and enter into detail without
meanness. Hence it has been remarked, that it is chiefly '
in the fictions of an age that we can discover the modes of
living, dress, and manners of the period. " Finally," says
Borromeo, (in the preface tq the Notizia de' Novellieri
Italiani,) " we should remark the light that novels spread
on the history of the times. He who doubts of this may
read the Eulogium of Bandello, and he will be satisfied
that his Novelliero may be regarded as a magic mirror,
which distinctly reflects the customs and manners of the
sixteenth century, an age fertile in great events; and it
also acquaints us with many literary and political anec-
< lutes, which the historians of the revolutions of our states
have not transmitted to posterity. I, myself, can affirm
that in these tales I have found recorded authentic anec-
dotes of the private lives of sovereigns, which would in vain
lie sought for in ordinary histories."
But even if the utility which is derived from Fiction were
i han it is, how much are we indebted to it for pleasure
4 INTRODUCTION.
and enjoyment ! It sweetens solitude and charms sorrow
it occupies the attention of the vacant, and unbends the
mind of the philosopher. Like the enchanter, Fiction
shows us, as it were in a mirror, the most agreeable ob-
jects ; recalls from a distance the forms which are dear to
us, and soothes our own griefs by awakening our sympathy
for others. By its means the recluse is placed in the
midst of society ; and he who is harassed and agitated in
the city is transported to rural tranquillity and repose.
The rude are refined by an introduction, as it were, to the
higher orders of mankind, and even the dissipated and
selfish are, in some degree, corrected by those paintings of
virtue and simple nature, which must ever be employed by
the novelist, if he wish to awaken emotion or delight.
And such seems now to be the common idea which is
entertained of the value of Fiction. Accordingly, this
powerful instrument of virtue and happiness, after having
been long despised, on account of the purposes to which it
had been made subservient, has gradually become more
justly appreciated, and more highly valued. Works of
Fiction have been produced, abounding at once with the
most interesting details, and the most sagacious reflections,
and which differ from treatises of abstract philosophy only
by the greater justness of their views, and the higher inte-
rest which they excite. And it may be presumed, that a
path, at once so useful and delightful, will continue to be
trod : it may be presumed, that virtue and vice, the con-
duct of human life, what we are expected to feel, and what
we are called on to do and to suffer, will long be taught by
example, a method which seems better fitted to improve
the mind than abstract propositions and dry discussions.
Entertaining such views of the nature and utility of
fiction, and indebted to its charms for some solace and en-
joyment, I have employed a few hours of relaxation in
drawing up the following notices of its gradual progress.
No works are perhaps more useful or agreeable, than those
which delineate the advance of the human mind the his-
tory of what different individuals have effected in the
course of ages, for the instruction, or even the innocent
amusement, of their species. Such a delineation is attended
with innumerable advantages : It furnishes a collection of
INTRODUCTION. 5
interesting facts concerning the philosophy of mind, which
we thus study not in an abstract and introspective method,
but in a manner -certain and experimental. It retrieves
from oblivion a number of individuals, whose now obsolete
works are perhaps in detail unworthy of public attention,
but which promoted and diffused, in their own day, light
and pleasure, and form as it were landmarks which testify
the course and progress of genius. By contemplating also
not only what has been done, but the mode in which it has
been achieved, a method may perhaps be discovered of
proceeding still farther, of avoiding the errors into which
our predecessors have fallen, and of following the paths in
which they have met success. Retrospective works of this
nature, therefore, combine utility, justice, and pleasure ;
and accordingly, in different branches of philosophy and
literature, various histories of their progress and fortunes
have appeared.
I have attempted in the following work to afford such a
delineation as is now alluded to, of the origin and progress
of fiction, of the various forms which it has successively
assumed, and the different authors by whom the prose
works in this department of literature have been most
successfully cultivated and promoted. I say prose works,
since such alone are the proper objects of this undertaking.
It was objected to a former edition, that I had commenced
the History of Fiction only in the decline of literature, and
had neglected the most sublime and lofty efforts of mytho-
l<>i_r\- and poetry. But it never was my intention to con-
sider fiction as connected with these topics, (an enquiry
which, if properly conducted, would form a work of greater
extent than the whole of the present volumes, and which
well deserves a peculiar treatise,) but merely to consider
the different fictions in prose, which have been given to the
world under the name of romance or novel. That I have
lie^un late, arises from the circumstance, that the works of
which I have undertaken a description were late in making
their appearance; and I am the more strongly induced to
direet my enquiries to this subject, as I am not aware that
any writer has hitherto presented a full and eontinued
view of it, though detached parts have been separately
with much learning and ingenuity.
D INTRODUCTION.
Huet, who was the first that investigated this matter,
has written an essay on the Origin of Eomances. That part
of his work which relates to the Greek romances, though very
succinct, is sufficiently clear, and stored with sound criti-
cism. But having brought down the account of fiction to
the later Greeks, and just entered on those composed by
the western nations, which have now the name of Eomances
almost appropriated to them, " he puts the change on his
readers," as Warburton has remarked, (Notes to Love's
Labour's Lost,) " and instead of giving us an account of the
Tales of Chivalry, one of the most curious and interesting
parts of the subject of which he promised to treat, he con-
tents himself with an account of the poems of the Provencal
writers, called likewise romances ; and so, under the equi-
voque of a common term, he drops his proper subject, and
entertains us with another which had no relation to it
except in the name."
Subsequent to the publication of this treatise by Huet,
several works were projected in France, with the design of
exhibiting a general view of fictitious composition. The
first was the Bibliotheque des Eomans, by the Abbe Lenglet
Dufresnoy, in two volumes, published in 1735, under the
name of Gordon de Percel. It is a mere catalogue, how-
ever, and wants accuracy, the only quality which can
render a catalogue valuable.
In 1775, a work, also entitled Bibliotheque des Eomans,
was commenced on a much more extensive plan, and was
intended to comprise an analysis of the chief works of
fiction from the earliest times. The design was conceived
and traced by the Marquis de Paulmy, whose extensive
library supplied the contributors with the materials from
which their abstracts were drawn. The conductor was M.
de Bastide, one of the feeble imitators of the younger
Crebillon. He sxipplied, however, few articles, biit en-
joyed as co-operators, the Chevalier de Mayer, and M. de
Cardonne ; as also the Comte de Tressan, whose contribu-
tions have been likewise published in the collection of his
own works, under the title Corps d'Extraits.
In the Bibliotheque des Eomans, prose works of fiction
are divided into classes, and a summary of "one romance
from each order is exhibited in turn. This compilation
INTRODUCTION. 7
was published periodically till the year 1787, and four
volumes were annually given to the world.
Next to the enormous length, and the frequent selection
of worthless materials, the principal objection to the work
is the arrangement adopted by the editors. Thus, a
romance of chivalry intervenes between two Greek ro-
mances, or is presented alternately with a French heroic-
romance, or modern novel. Hence the reader is not
furnished with a view of the progress of Fiction in con-
tinuity; he cannot trace the imitations of successive
i'al>lers, nor the way in which fiction has been modified by
the manners of an age. There is besides little or no
criticism of the novels or romances which are analyzed,^
and the whole work seems to have been written under the 1
eye of the sultan who said he would cut off the head of the
first man who made a reflection. But even the utility of J
tlic abstracts, which should have been the principal object
of the work, is in a great measure lost, as it appears to
have been the intention of the editors rather to present an
entertaining story, somewhat resembling that of the
original, than a faithful analysis. Characters and senti-
ments are thus exhibited, incongruous with ancient ro-
mance, and abhorrent from the opinions of the era whose
manners it reflects. It is only as presenting a true and
lively picture of the age, that romance has claims on the
attention of the antiquarian or philosopher ; and if its
genuine remains be adulterated with a mixture of senti-
ments and manners of modern growth, the composition is
heterogeneous and uumstructive. (Rose's "Auiadis de
Gaul.")
Abstracts of romances omitted in the Bibliotheque des
Romans have been published in Melanges tiroes d'une
Grande Bibliothcque, which is a selection from the scarce
manuscripts and publications contained in the library of
tin- Marquis de Paulmy. The work has also been con-
tinned in the Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Romans, which
eoinprUrs abridgments of the most recent productions of
the French, English, and German novelists.
In this country there has been no attempt towards a
general History of Fiction. Dr. Percy, Warton, and
others, have written, as is well known, with much learning
8
INTRODUCTION.
and ingenuity, on that branch of the subject which relates
to the origin of Romantic Fiction the marvellous decora-
tions of chivalry. This enquiry, however, comprehends
but a small part of the subject, and even here research
has oftener been directed to the establishment of a theory,
than to the investigation of truth.
In the following work I shall try to present a faithful
analysis of those early and scarce productions which form,
as it were, the landmarks of Fiction. Select passages will
occasionally be added, and I shall endeavour by criticisms
to give such a sketch as may enable the reader to form
some idea of the nature and merit of the works themselves,
and of the transmission of fable from one age and country
to another.
EDINBURGH, 10^ Feb., 1816.
HISTORY OF FICTION.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF FICTITIOUS NARRATIVE. EARLIEST WRITERS
OF GREEK ROMANCE. HELIODORUS. ACHILLES TATIUS.
LONGUS. CHARITON. JOANNES DAMASCENUS. ETJS-
TATHIUS. REMARKS ON THIS SPECIES OF COMPOSITION.
THE nature and utility of fiction having been pointed
out, and the design of the work explained in the intro-
ductory remarks, it now remains to prosecute what forms
the proper object of this undertaking, the origin and
progress of prose works of fiction, with the analysis and
criticism of the most celebrated which have been succes-
sively presented to the world.
We have already seen that fiction has in all ages formed
the delight of the rudest and the most polished nations. It
was late, however, and after the decline of its nobler litera-
ture, that fictions in prose came to be cultivated as a
species of composition in Greece. In early times, the mere
art of writing was too difficult and dignified to be employed
in prose, and even the laws of the principal legislators were
then promulgated in verse. In the better ages of Greece,
all who felt the nu')t# <l! rut lor, and of whose studies the em-
bellishments of fiction were the objects, naturally wrote in
verse, and men of genius would have disdained to occupy
themselves with a simple domestic tale in prose. This
mode of composition was reserved for a later period, when
the ranks of poetry had been filled with great names, and
the very abundance of great models had produced satiety.
Poetical productions too, in order to be relished, require to
10 HISTORY OF FICTION. [cH. I.
be read with a spark of the same feeling in which they are
composed, and in a luxurious age, and among a luxurious
people, demand even too much effort in the reader, or
hearer, to be generally popular. To such, a simple narra-
tive, a history of ludicrous or strange adventures, forms
the favourite amusement ; and we thus find that listening
to the recital of tales has at all times been the peculiar enter-
tainment of the indolent and voluptuous nations of the
East. A taste, accordingly, for this species of narrative,
or composition, seems to have been most early and most
generally prevalent in Persia and other Asiatic regions,
where the nature of the climate and effeminacy of the in-
habitants conspired to promote its cultivation.
The people of Asia Minor, who possessed the fairest
portion of the globe, were addicted to every species of
luxury and magnificence; and having fallen under the
dominion of the Persians, imbibed with the utmost avidity
the amusing fables of their conquerors. The Milesians,
who were a colony of Greeks, and spoke the Ionic dialect,
excelled all the neighbouring nations in ingenuity, and first
caught from the Persians this rage for fiction : but the
tales they invented, and of which the name has become so
celebrated, have all perished. There is little known of
them, except that they were not of a very moral tendency,
and were principally written by a person of the name of
Aristides, whose tales were translated into Latin by
Siseniia, the Roman, historian, about the time of the civil
wars of Marius and Sylla. Huet, Vossius, 1 and the other
writers by whom the stories of Aristides have been men-
tioned, concur in representing them as short amatory nar-
ratives in prose; yet it would appear from two lines in
Ovid's " Tristia," that some of them, at least, had been
written in verse :
Junxit Aristides Milesia carmina secum
Pulsus Aristides nee tamen urbe sna est. 2
1 De Historicis Graecis. Aristides.
2 There is, however, another reading, " erimina." which Manso follows
in his German translation, remarking that Aristides 1 work was certainly
composed in prose, bisenna translated it into prose, " nee obfuit illi
Historise turpes inseruisse jocos." Trist. ii. 443. and 412. and Lucian
and Apuleius, both prose writers, speak of the Greek as their model in
CH. I.] THE MILESIAN TALES. 11
But though the Milesian tales have perished, of their
nature some idea may be formed from the stories of Par-
thenius of Nicaea, many of which, there is reason to believe,
;uv extracted from these ancient fables, or at least are
written in the same spirit. 1 The tales of Parthenius are
about forty in number, but appear to be mere sketches.
They chiefly consist of accounts of every species of seduc-
tion, and the criminal passions of the nearest relations.
The principal characters generally come to a deplorable
end, though seldom proportioned to what they merited by
their vices. Parthenius seems to have grafted the Milesian
tales on the mythological fables of Apollodorus and similar
writers, and also to have borrowed from early historians
and poets, whose productions have not descended to us.
His work is inscribed to the Latin poet Cornelius Gallus,
the contemporary and friend of Virgil. 2 Indeed the author
says that it was composed for his use, to furnish him with
materials for elegies and other poems. 3
narration and expression [Lucian, Amores, 1, and Apuleius, in the
introduction to bis Metamorphoses.] Liebrecht. The tales of Sybaris
were equally famous and infamous with those of Miletus (Ovid, Trist.
ii. 4, 17). -(Elian and Aristophanes have preserved an outline of two of the
tales of Sybaris, which, however, are naive and irreproachable enough.
(See Landau Quellen, 1884, p. 300 ; see chap. ii. of the present work).
1 The work of Parthenius, Trtpi tpu>TtKwi> 7ra3r//iarwj', is a collection
of thirty-six abstracts of love legends collected in brief form from histo-
rians and poets, and dedicated to the compiler's friend, the Roman poet
Cornelius Gallus. The object of the compilation is partly to elucidate
allusions occurring in poetical works, partly to supply themes for elegiac
'! epic narratives of love adventures, as appears from the dedication of
Parthenius. They thus afford, remarks Rohde (Griech, Rom. p. 114),
the most explicit testimony to the close connection between the Roman
artificial poetry of the early Empire with the Alexandrian school of
imaginative literature, and supply an invaluable source of information
upon the popular erotic tales, known to us otherwise only by meagre
fragments, and upon their recital in both prose and poetical writers. A
further element of value is added by the care of the compiler in generally
radicating the sources whence he has drawn, such as the Milesian,
Naxian, Pallcnian, Lydian, Trojan, and Bythinian tales. (See Rohde,
(jr. Kom. p. 114, and" Mueller, Hist. Lit. Gr. iii. p. 354.)
- Krlorr. 10.
3 Conon. the grammarian, a contemporary of Parthenius, was the
author of fifty Ai/jy//<rnf, of wlii<:h abstracts have been preserved by
Photius, Patriarch of Alexandria. They are for the most part of mythicai-
historiral character. No. 38 is essentially the story of the judgment of
12 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
/
The inhabitants of Asia Minor, and especially the Mile-
sians, had a considerable intercourse with the Greeks of
Attica and Peloponnesus, whose genius also naturally dis-
posed them to fiction : they were delighted with the tales
of the eastern nations, and pleasure produced imitation. 1
Previous, however, to the age of Alexander the Great,
little seems to have been attempted in this style of com-
position by the European Greeks ; but the more frequent
intercourse which his conquests introduced between the
Greek and Asiatic nations, opened at once all the sources
of fiction. 1 Clearchus, who was a disciple of Aristotle, and
who wrote a history of fictitious love adventures, seems to
have been the first author who gained any celebrity by this
species of composition. Of the romances, however, which
were written previous to the appearance of the Theagenes
and Chariclea of Heliodorus, I am compelled to give a very
meagre account, as the works themselves have perished,
and our knowledge of them is chiefly derived from the
summary which is contained in the Bibliotheca of Photius.
Some years after the composition of the fictitious history of
Clearchus, Antonius Diogenes wrote a more perfect romance
than had hitherto appeared, founded on the wandering
adventures and loves of Dinias and Dercyllis, entitled,
Sancho Panza on the staff (Don Quixote, pt. ii. cli. 45). This is found
in the life of St. Nicholas of Bari, in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de
Voragine, whence Cervantes may have derived it. The same legend
is current among the Mohammedans (Weil, Biblische Legenden der
Muhammedaner, p. 213), and occurs in the Talmud (Bliitter fiir Israels
Gegenwart and Zukunft Erster Jahrg. Berlin, 1845, p. 27). There is a
similar local legend in the Brandenburg March (Magazin fiir die Lite-
ratur des Auslandes, 1843, No. 77). LIEB.
1 Indian literature indeed bears traces of Greek influence subsequent
to the expedition of Alexander, and there is sparing indication of the in-
verse. See, however, note on Heliodorus (pp. 22, 23 infra). Dunlop
cites but two works, those of Clearchus and Antonius Diogenes, in sup-
port of his assertion. Opinions differ widely upon the Erotica of Clear-
chus. By some it is considered to have been a philosophic treatise upon
love, by others a romance, by others a collection of short erotic tales.
Antonius Diogenes flourished probably considerably after the commence-
ment of the Christian era, and not earlier than the end of the second
century, according to Passow (in Ersch and Gruber's " Encyclop."). His
work, moreover, exhibits no special indication of Eastern influence.
For somewhat fuller notice of this question, see Liebrecht's notes,
p. 456.
CH. I.] ANTONIUS DIOGENES DINIAS AND DERCTLLI8. 13
OP THE INCREDIBLE THINGS IN THULE.'
That island, of which the position is one of the most doubtful
points in ancient geography, was not, according to Diogenes,
the most distant of the globe, as he talks of several beyond
it : Thule is but a single station for his adventurers, and
many of the most incredible things are beheld in other
quarters of the world. The idea of the work of Diogenes
is said to have been taken from the Odyssey, and in fact
many of the incidents seem to have been borrowed from
that poem. Indeed the author mentions a number of
writers prior to himself, particularly Antiphanes, from
whom he had collected these wonderful relations. Aulus
G-ellius tells us, that coming on one occasion from Greece to
Italy, he landed at Brundusium, in Calabria, where he
purchased a collection of fabulous histories, under the
names of Aristeus, Ctesias, and Onesicritus, which were
full of stories concerning nations which saw during night,
but were blind during day, and various other fictions,
which, we shall find, were inserted in the "Incredible
Things in Thule." * The work of Diogenes is praised by
Photius for its purity of style, and the delightful variety
of its adventures ; yet, to judge from that author's abridg-
ment, it seems to have contained a series of the most
improbable incidents. But though filled with the most
trifling and incredible narrations, it is deserving of atten-
tion, as it seems to have been a repository from which
Achilles Tatius and succeeding fablers derived the materials
of less defective romances.
Dinias flying from Arcadia, his native country, arrives at
the mouth of the river Tanais. Urged by the intensity of
the cold, he proceeds towards the east, and, having made a
circuit round the globe, he at length reaches Thule [c. 2].
Here he forms an acquaintance with Dercyllis, the heroine
of the romance, who had been driven from Tyre along with
1 'Aj-Tt'ii'toi' Aioysvovf rtav virip QovXtjv airunwv Xoyoi. For a discussion
of the theories respecting the locality of Thule, see Elton's " Origins of
Knijlish History," p. 68.
a Gt-llius, however, only says that they saw better at night, a circum-
stance which has reference to the nocturnal solar phenomena in very
northern latitudes.
14 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
her brother Mantinia, by the intrigues of Paapis, an Egyp-
tian priest. She relates to Dinias how she had wandered
through Khodes and Crete, and also among the Cimme-
rians, where she had a view of the infernal regions [c. 3~l,
through favour of her deceased servant Myrto ; how,
being separated from her brother, she arrived with a
person of the name of Ceryllus at the tomb of the Syrens,
and afterwards at a city in Spain, where the people saw
during the night, a privilege which was neutralized by
total blindness during day. Dercyllis further relates how
she travelled among the Celts, and a nation of Amazons
[c. 4] ; and that in Sicily she again met with her brother
Mantinia, who related to her adventures still more extra-
ordinary than her own ; having seen all the sights in the
sun, moon, and most remote islands of the globe [c. 5].
Dercyllis, after many other vicissitudes, arrives in Thule
[c. 6], whither she is followed by her old enemy Paapis,
who, by his magic art, makes her die every night and come
alive again in the morning ; an easy kind of punishment,
being equivalent to a refreshing nap. The secret of these
incantations, which chiefly consisted in spitting in the
victim's face, is detected by Azulis, who had accompanied
Dinias into Thule, and the spells of the powerful magician
being through his means broken, Dercyllis and Mantinia
return to their native country [c. 7, 8]. After the depar-
ture of his friends, Dinias wanders beyond Thule, and ad-
vances towards the Pole. In these regions he says the
darkness continued sometimes a month, sometimes six
months, but at certain places for a whole year ; and the
length of the day was proportioned to that of the night.
At last, awakening one morning, he finds himself at Tyre,
where he meets with his old friends Mantinia and Dercyllis,
with whom he passes the remainder of his life [c. 9],
Besides the principal subject of the romance, of which an
abstract has been given by Photius, Porphyrius, in his Life
of Pythagoras, has preserved a long and fabulous account
of that mysterious philosopher, which, he tells us, formed
an episode of the Incredible Things in Thule, and was re-
lated to Dercyllis by Aristaeus, one of the companions of
her flight from Tyre, and an eminent disciple of Pytha-
goras. Mnesarchus one day found, under a large poplar,.
CH. I.] ANTONIU8 DIOGENES DINIAS AND DERCYLLIS. 15
;ni infant, who lay gazing undazzled on the sun, holding a
reed in his mouth, and sipping the dew which dropped on
him from the poplar. This child was carried home by
Mnesarchus, who bestowed on him the name of Aristaeus,
and brought him up with his youngest son Pythagoras.
At length Aristeeus became one of the scholars of that
philosopher, along with Zamolxis, the legislator of the
Getae, after he had undergone an inspectio corporis, to
which the Samian sage invariably subjected his disciples,
as he judged of the mental faculties by the external form.
Aristaeus was thus enabled to give an account of the travels
of his master, and the mystical learning he acquired among
the Egyptians and Babylonians ; of the tranquil life which
he passed in Italy, and the mode in which he healed
diseases by incantations and magic poems; for he knew
verses of such power that they produced oblivion of pain,
soothed sorrow, and repressed all inordinate appetites.
The romance of the Incredible Things beyond Thule
was dedicated to the author's sister Isidora, and consisted
of twenty-four books, in which Dinias was represented as
relating his own adventures, and those he had heard from
Dercyllis, to Cymba, who had been sent to Tyre by the
Arcadians to prevail on him to return to his native country.
The account of these adventures is, at the beginning of the
romance, described as having been engraved on cypress
tablets by one of Cymba' s attendants ; at the request of
Dinias they were placed in his tomb after his death, and
are feigned to have been discovered by Alexander the Great
during the siege of Tyre. 1
After the composition of the Dinias and Dercyllis of
I'hotius, Bibliotheca Cod. 156, p. 355, ed. 1653, Rothomagi. In the
" Reisefabulistik " Kohde discerns one of the points of departure whence
the Greek imaginary romance was developed. He is accordingly anxious
to establish the date of Diogenes, which upon a numerous array of
authorities he gives as the first half of the third century. (Gr. Rom.
p. 252.) The long series of adventures in the Romance of lamblichus
is merely a development upon the kind of work represented by the story
of the incredible things beyond Thule. The movement is entirely ob-
ject ivc. there is no play of the emotions. A couple of lovers fly before
their pursuers from land to land, amid a gloomy alternation of misfor-
tunes imminent ruin is ever averted at the last moment, and virtue
finally obtains its triumph and reward in plenary happiness. (Ibid. p.
378.)
16 HISTOKY OF FICTION. [CH. 1.
Diogenes, a considerable period seems to have elapsed
without the production of any fictitious narrative deserving
the appellation of a romance.
Lucius Patrensis and Lucian, who were nearly contem-
porary, lived during the reign of the emperor Marcus
AureHus: Lucius collected accounts of magical transfor-
mations ; l Photius remarks, that his style is delightful by
its perspicuity, purity, and sweetness, but as his work com-
prehends a relation of incidents professedly incredible, with-
out any attempt on the part of the author to give them
the appearance of reality, it cannot perhaps be properly
admitted into the number of romances.
A considerable portion of the Metamorphoses of Lucius
were abridged and transferred by Lucian into his Ass, to
which he also gave the name of Lucius ; a work which
may perhaps be again mentioned when we come to speak
of the Golden Ass of Apuleius, a longer and more cele-
brated production of the same species.
About the time these authors lived, lamblichus 2 wrote
his
BABYLONICA.
The romance itself has been lost, but the epitome given
by Photius shows that little improvement had been made
1 Called by Photius (Biblioth. Cod. 129) Mtrafiop^offMV Xoyoi
According to Photius, Lucius himself believed in these marvels, includ-
ing the transformation of men into animals, and vice versa. Lieb.
Whether the supposed Lucius of Patrte, or Lucian, is the prior author
of the story, the original of which, probably derived from early Aryan
sources, and formed one of the Milesian Tales, has been much contested
{See the matter discussed in J. P. Couriers '' La Luciade ou 1'Ane de
Lucius de Patras," Paris, 1828, preface, p. x ; E. Rohde's " Lucian's
Schrift/' 1869 ; and De Luciano libelli qui inscribitur Lucius sive
asinus actore, scripsit C. F. E., Knaut. Lipsiae, 1868). The weight of
argument, as of authority, is in favour of the supposition that Lucian
drew from Lucius, or a prior source, and Apuleius from Lucian. (See
further, art. Apuleius, p. 107.)
2 He was born of Syrian parents. In his } T outh he was placed uiider
the care of a learned Babylonian, who instructed him in the manners
and customs of his country, and particularly in its language, which by
this time must have been somewhat simplified. His Babylonish pre-
ceptor, however, was taken prisoner, and sold as a slave at the time of
Trajan's Syrian conquest. After this lamblichus applied himself chiefly
to Greek literature, but he informs us that he did not forget his magic,
for, when Antoninus sent his colleague A'erus against Vologesus, king
CH. I.] IAMBLICHTTS BABTLONICA. 17
in this species of composition, during the period which had
elapsed since the production of the Dinias and Dercyllis of
aes.
Gurmus, king of Babylon, having fallen in love with
Sinonis, but not being agreeable to the object of his affec-
tions, the lady escapes from his power along with her lover
Khodanes. The probability of this event having been
anticipated, Damas and Saca, two eunuchs who had been
appointed to watch them, (after having their nose and ears
cut off, for their negligence in allowing their flight,) are
sent out by the king to re-commit them [c. 2]. The ro-
mance principally consists of the adventures of the fugi-
tives, and their hair-breadth escapes from these royal
messengers. We are told that the lovers first sought
refuge with certain shepherds in a meadow, but a demon,
or spectre, which haunted that quarter in the shape of a
goat, (rpayov n 0doym,) having become enamoured of
Sinonis, she is compelled to leave this shelter, in order to
avoid his fantastic addresses. It is then related how
Sinonis and Rhodanes conceal themselves in a cavern, in
which they are beleaguered by Damas ; but the eunuch and
his forces are routed by a swarm of poisonous bees. 1 By
of the Parthians (A.D. 167), he predicted the progress and issue of that
contest.
Photius has given a pretty full account of the Sinon and Rhodanes of
lamblichus, in his Myriabiblia. A MS. of the romance was (says Huet)
formerly extant in the library of the Escurial, which was burnt in 1670.
Another copy was in possession of Jungerman. who died in the beginning
of the seventeenth century, but it has since disappeared. (See Passow-
Scriptores Erotici, i. p. iii.) Some fragments originally transcribed by
Vossius, from the Florentine library, were published fin 1641 by Leo
Allatius, in his excerpts from the Greek Rhetoricians (Mem. de 1'Acad.
des Inscriptions, vol. xxxiv. p. 57). This memoire, by Lebeau, has been
shown by Chardon de la Rochette (Melanges, i. p. 18) to contain many
errors, and the fragments not to belong to the Babylonica.
lamblichus, the author of this romance, must not be confounded with
either of the Platonic philosophers of that name, both of whom lived in the
reiirn of the Emperor Julian, and were great favourites of the Apostate.
The name 'Ifl/*/3Xtxoe, says Mueller, seems to be an Arabic form, and
should be pronounced with the penultima long. It is probably the
same as yam (Tj"? 73 '), (in 1 Chron. iv. 34). There is no reason for
Identifying it with jambulus.
1 This incident, as well as the subsequent one of the dog (p. 19), are
<-l<o!y imitated in Marino's " Adone," c. 14. LIEB.
I. C
18 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
this intervention the lovers escape from the cave, but
having partaken of the honey of their deliverers, which
was of a noxious quality, they faint on the way, and
during this swoon are passed as dead by the troops of
Damas. Having at length recovered, they proceed in their
flight [c. 4], and take up their abode with a man who
poisons his brother, and afterwards accuses them of the
murder ; a charge from which they are freed by the accuser
laying violent hands on himself. With singular luck in
meeting good company, they next quarter themselves with
a robber. During their stay his habitation is burned by the
troops of Damas, but the lovers escape from the eunuch,
by alleging that they are the spectres of those whom
the robber had murdered in his house. Further prose-
cuting their flight they meet with the funeral of a yoxmg
girl [c. 5], who is discovered, when on the point of inter-
ment, to be yet alive. The sepulchre being left vacant,
Sinonis and Rhodanes sleep in it during that night, and
are again passed as corpses by their Babylonian pursuers
[c. 6] ; but Sinonis having made free with the dead
clothes, 1 is taken up while attempting to dispose of them,
by Sorsechus, the magistrate of the district, who announces
his intention of forwarding his prisoner to Babylon. In
one of the respectable dwellings which they had visited in
their flight, our lovers had enjoyed an opportunity of pro-
viding themselves with poison, for an emergency of this
description. Their design, however, being suspected by
their guards, a soporific draught is substituted, of which
our hero and heroine partake, and awaken to their great
surprise, from the trance into which it had thrown them,
when in the vicinity of Babylon. Sinonis in despair stabs
herself, but not mortally ; and the compassion of Sorsechus
being now excited, he consents to the escape of his captives
[c. 7], who experience a new series of adventures, rivalling
in probability those which have been related. They first
come to a temple of Venus, situated in an island of the
Euphrates, where the wound of Sinonis is cured [c. 11],
Thence they seek refuge with a cottager, whose daughter
being employed to dispose of some trinkets belonging to
1 Which, according to custom, should have been burnt. Gronovius,
Thes. Gnec. Antiq. J. Potteri Arclueol. Grseca. Lib. iv. c. 3.
CH. I.] IAMBLICHUS BABYLONICA. 19
Sinonis, is mistaken for our heroine, and Garmus is forth-
with apprised that she had been seen in the neighbour-
hood. The cottage girl, who had remarked the suspicions
of the purchasers, flees with all possible dispatch. On her
way home she enters a house, where she witnesses the
horrible spectacle of a lover laying violent hands on himself,
after murdering his mistress ; and, sprinkled with the blood
of these unfortunate victims, she returns to her paternal
mansion. Sinonis, perceiving from the report of this girl,
that she could no longer remain with safety in her present
habitation, prepares for departure [c. 13]. Rhodanes,
before setting out with his mistress, salutes the peasant
^irl ; but Sinonis perceiving blood on his lips, and being
aware whence it had come, is seized with transports of un-
governable jealousy ; she is with difficulty prevented from
stabbing her imaginary rival [c. 14], and flies to the house
of Setapo, a wealthy but profligate Babylonian. Setapo
immediately pays bis addresses ; Sinonis feigns to yield to
his solicitations, but contrives to intoxicate him in the
course of the evening, and murders him during the night.
Having escaped at daybreak, she is pursued by the slaves
of Setapo, and committed to custody, in order to answer
for the crime [c. 15]. By this time, however, the false in-
telligence that Sinonis was discovered, had reached the
king of Babylon, who signalizes the joyful news by a
general gaol delivery throughout his dominions, in the
benefit of which the real Sinonis is of course included
[c. 16]. While our heroine was experiencing such vicissi-
tudes of fortune, Hyrcanus the dog of Ehodanes (for he too
has his adventures,) scents out the place, where, it will be
recollected, a lover had murdered his mistress. The father
of Sinonis arrives at this spot while the animal is employed
in devouring the remains of this unfortunate wom'an, and
mistaking the dead body for that of his daughter, he gives
it interment, and erects over it a monument, with the in-
sfi-iption, "Here lies the beautiful Sinonis." Rhodanes
visiting this place a short while afterwards, and perceiving
the inscription, adds to it, "and also the beautiful Rho-
diiiK's," (iou 'Po&jvrjc o KaXo'c,) but is prevented from
accomplishing his intention of stabbing himself by the
approach of the peasant girl, who had been the cause of
20 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
the jealousy of Sinonis, and who informs him that it was
another than his mistress who had perished there [c. 18].
At this time the unfortunate detention and threatened
punishment of Sorsechus, by whom the lovers had origi-
nally been allowed to escape, enables the Babylonian
officers to trace the flight of Rhodanes. He is in conse-
quence delivered up to Garmus [c. 20], and is speedily
nailed to the cross by that monarch. While he is in this
crisis, and while Garnrus is dancing and carousing round
the place of execution, a messenger arrives with intelli-
gence that Sinonis is about to be espoused by the king of
Syria, into whose dominions she had ultimately escaped.
Rhodanes is taken down from the cross, and appointed
general of a Babylonish army, which is sent against that
monarch. This is a striking but deceitful change of for-
tune, as the inferior officers are ordered by Garmus to kill
Rhodanes, should he obtain the victory, and to bring
Sinonis alive to Babylon. The king of Syria is totally
defeated, and Rhodanes recovers Sinonis ; but instead of
being slain by the officers of his army, he is chosen king
of the Babylonians. All this indeed had been clearly
foreshown by the portent of the swallow, which was seen
by Garmus, pursued by an eagle and a kite, and after
escaping the talons of the former, became the victim of an
enemy apparently less formidable !
The romance, of which the above account has been given,
is divided into sixteen books. 1 If we may judge of the
original from the epitome, transmitted by Photius, the
1 Photii Bibliotheca, cod. 94 ; but according to Suidas (sub voce
'la^/SXt^oc) are comprised thirty -nine books. The story itself was de-
rived from an eastern book, as lamblichus himself states. Chassang,
Etude sur les Romans Grecs, p. xxviii.; Eohde,Der Griech. Rom. p. 364.
Extensive use has been made of this romance, as may be seen from the
abstract of Photius in P. Von Zesen's translation (Amsterdam, 1646) of
Mdlle. de Scudery's " Sophonisbe " (Afrikanische S.), where Cleomedes
and Sophonisbe, wrongly accused of murder, pass the night in a sepul-
chre (see 1,001 Nacht., N. 247, V. 204, d. Bresl. Uebers) ; they resolve
to drink poison, for which is, however, substituted a sleeping potion (cf.
Romeo and Juliet ; see pp. 61, 62, Habrocomas and Anthia, infra), and
Merlin and Vivian are set free in a general jail delivery. Sophonisbe
is bewailed as dead, in consequence of her name being inscribed on a
tomb. See Cholevius (L.) deut. Rom. 17ten Jahrh. , p. 6, and Rohde.
Gr. Rom., p. 377.
CH. I.] IAMBLICHUS BABYLONICA. 21
ground-work of the story was well conceived, since the
close and eager pursuit by the eunuchs gives rise to narrow
escapes, which might have been rendered interesting. But
tin- particular adventures are unnatural and monotonous.
The hero and heroine generally evade the search of their
pursuers by passing as defuncts, or spirits, which pro-
duces a disagreeable sameness in a subject which admitted
of much variety. There is, besides, an unpleasant ferocity
in the character of Sinonis, and too many of the scenes are
laid among tombs and caverns, and the haunts of murderers.
Indeed most of the incidents, though often abundantly
ludicrous, are of a dark and gloomy cast; a character
which by no means appertains to the adventures in the
subsequent romances of Heliodorus, Chariton, or Tatius.
Besides these faults in the principal story, the episodes
of Berenice, queen of Egypt [c. 17], and of the Temple of
Venus, situated on an island formed by the confluence of
the Euphrates and Tigris, seem to have been extremely
tedious and ill placed. Part of the last episode, however,
is curious, as presenting us with a discussion resembling
the Tensons, or pleas for the courts of love, in the middle
ages. Mesopotamia, the youngest daughter of the priestess
of Venus, had three lovers, on one of whom she bestowed
a goblet from which she usually drank ; on the head of the
second she placed a chaplet of flowers which had encircled
her brow, while the third received a kiss. The lovers
contend which had obtained the most distinguished mark
of favour, and plead their cause in presence of Borochus, a
distinguished amatory judge, who decides in favour of the
kiss [c. 8].
lamblichus has been censured by Huet, 1 for the awkward
introduction of his episodes, and the inartistic disposition
of the whole work. He seems, according to that author,
to have entertained a complete contempt for the advice of
Horace, with regard to hurrying his readers into the middle
of the action in medias res rapere ; he never departs
from the order of time, and trudges on according to the
era of dates, with all the exactness of a chronologer.
About two centuries elapsed from the death of lamb-
1 Lettre dc M. Huet . . . De POrigine des Romans, Paris, 1678,
p. 51.
22 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
lichus, till the composition of the Theageiies and Chariclea
of Heliodorus, 1 Bishop of Tricca, an author who in every
1 Of the author of the JEthiopica nothing whatever is certainly known.
There were numerous writers called Heliodorus (see Fabricius B. Gr.
viii. 126, 127, and Meineke, Anal. Alex., p. 384), and the name is not
sufficient warranty for identifying him absolutely with the Bishop of
Tricca, as has hitherto usually been done from a passage in a writer
of the fifth century, Socrates (v. 22, p. 640 of Migne's Edition).
Socrates speaks of " a prelate who introduced into his see the celibacy
of the clergy, and who is reputed to be the author of a love-story,
written in his youth, and entitled ^Ethiopica'' (ov -Kov^fiara tpwrocti
tiffin vvv Trepi<j>iptTai li VEOQ S)v avvtra^aro Ai9iom, etc.). On the other
hand, I cannot agree with Rohde in absolutely rejecting the belief
which is recorded by Socrates, chiefly on the ground of the internal
evidence afforded by the work of its author's polytheistic and neo- Pytha-
gorean ideas, the employment of daemons in the old Greek sense, the
supremacy given to Apollo, etc., features which reflect the cardinal
tenets of Apollonius of Tyana. Nor is the recognition of malicious
spirits and of witchcraft, as it seems to me, any argument against the
Christianity of the author. Pagan deities were very generally treated
as devils by the early Christians, and the Greek canons impress one
vividly with the reality of the belief in sorcery. There is nothing im-
possible in a subsequent conversion of Heliodorus. Notwithstanding
this decided, but insufficiently grounded, view of Rohde's, his is by far
the most careful and interesting criticism of the ^Ethiopica which I have
read. In particular his remarks upon the Gymnosophists, who in the
romance appear as types of piety and godly wisdom, and whom Helio-
dorus must have derived from Apollonius, deserve attention. " The
Greeks could only be prompted to seek a special code of wisdom among
the ./Ethiopians in consequence of the frequent custom of attributing
Indian traditions to Ethiopians. While, for the most part, but a few
brief and vague passages mention the ' Philosophy ' of the Ethiopians,
Apollonius alone seems to have ascribed the Indian Gymnosophists, so
well known from the accounts of Onesicritus, and popularized by their
early incorporation into the Alexander romance, to the Ethiopian soil,
and boldly spoken of these Ethiopian sages, as if from his own know-
ledge. I do not think I am mistaken in supposing that Heliodor,
following his model, located in his land of sun that band of need-
nothing sages who, as prophets, as Brahman-like, independent coun-
sellors of the king, live only for what is good and noble. We should
not be surprised to find the characteristics of the Indians blended with
those of Apollonius's Ethiopian Gymnosophists, the less so that for
Heliodorus, with his Greek notions, there would be no essential
difference between Indians and Ethiopians ; they would be to him
merely ' eastern and western Ethiopians,' governed by one king at
Meroe. Even as Apollonius, the sun-worshipper, travels to the ' home
of Helios and the Indians' to drink of the higher lore of those who
dwell nearer to Helios, the fount of Life and of Wisdom, so Heliodorus
lets his chosen couple, under the guidance of Helios-Apollo himself, at
CH. I.] HELIODORUS THEAGENE8 AND CHAEICLEA. 23
particular, but especially in the arrangement of his fal>l<-,
far excelled his predecessors.
There are three points chiefly to be considered in a novel
or romance, the Subject, the Disposition, and the Orna-
ments ; a classification which may be regarded as compre-
hending the means of estimating the most material beauties
and defects of any fictitious narrative:
In adopting these principles of criticism, I do not mean
to affirm that a good work can be written by rule, or that
a romance is excellent merely in proportion to its con-
formity to certain critical precepts. Nothing, for instance,
can be more irregular than Tristram Shandy, and nothing
can be more regular than some of the novels of Cumber-
land ; yet no one prefers the novels of Cumberland to the
last reach the sunny land of the wise Ethiopians as the worthiest goal
of life's long arduous journey." Rohde, Griech. Rom., p. 440, etc.
A writer of the fourteenth century, Nicephorus Callistus (Hist. Eccles.
ii. '296), relates that a synod having given Heliodorus, the Bishop of
Tricca, the choice either to burn his romance or renounce his bishopric,
the prelate preferred the latter alternative. In favour of the bishop's
authorship of the work, the superior morality of the book compared
with other Greek fiction has been adduced. Koraes, who edited the
work in 1804, professes to see Christian influence in numerous passages.
The earliest Greek impression of the Ethiopics was edited at Basle in
1535, in 4to., by Vincent Obsopoens, who purchased the MS. from a
soldier who had pillaged the library of Matthias Corvinus at Buda.
This edition was followed by that of Commelinus, 1596, 8vo., and of
Bourdelotius, printed at Paris in 1619. The last and best Greek edition
is that of Koraes, Paris, 1804, 2 vols., 8vo. Soon after the Romance
was tir.^t published in Greek, it appeared in almost all the modern lan-
guages ot Europe. The whole work was turned into English prose by
Thomas Underdown, and printed 1577: part of it was also versified in
English hexameters, by Abraham Fraunce, and published in this form,
1591, 8vo. There have been at least four French translations, the
earliest of which was by Amyot, whose version is said to have so
pleased Francis I., that he presented him to the abbacy of Bellozane.
Strange, that ecclesiastical preferment should have been obtained by the
translation of a work, of which the original composition is said to have
cost its author deposition from a bishopric !
Theagones and Chariclea soon became a favourite work in France.
We are told in particular, that the preceptor of a monastery, at which
Racine was educated, having found his pupil engaged in its perusal,
took the book from him. The young poet, having procured another
copy, was again detected at the same employment by his pedagogue,
whom he now told that he was welcome to burn it, as he had got the
whole by heart.
24 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
work of Sterne. A man of genius will produce an interest-
ing composition in defiance of the laws of criticism, while
one without talent will compose a work by rule, as a stone-
cutter may hew out a statue according to the most ap-
proved proportions, which will be totally lifeless and
insignificant. But though the province of criticism is not
to confine genius to one narrow and trodden path, it does
not follow that critical rules are to be altogether dis-
regarded. The work of the man of genius would have
been still better had he not wantonly transgressed them,
and even the labour produced by the person of inferior
talents, would have been worse had he not rigidly adhered
to them. In estimating all the productions of the fine
arts, we are obliged to analyze them, and to describe them
by their grosser parts, as the etherial portion, or that which
pervades the heart and feelings, cannot be represented.
We judge of the paintings of Raphael, and criticise them
under the heads of design and invention and colouring;
but we can no more express the emotions they produce,
than we can paint the odours of the rose, though we
delineate its form and portray its colours.
The story, or subject, of
does not possess any peculiar excellence, as will appear
from the following summary.
The action of the romance is supposed to take place
previous to the age of Alexander the Great, while Egypt
was tributary to the Persian monarchs. During that
period a queen of Ethiopia, called Persina, having viewed
at an amorous crisis a statue of Andromeda, gives birth to
a daughter of fair complexion. 2 Fearing that her husband
might not think the cause proportioned to the effect, she
commits the infant in charge to Sisimithrus, an Ethiopian
senator, and chief of the Gymnosophists, and deposits in
his hands a ring and some writings, explaining the circum-
stances of her birth [bk. iv., c. 8; bk. ii., c. 31]. The
child is named Chariclea, and remains for seven years with
1 AiOiunriKun' /3i/3Xi'a cfKa.
2 Cf. the similar incident in Tasso's Gerus. Lib. XII. 23, etc.
(II. I.] HELIODOEUS THEAGENES AND CHAEICLEA. 25
her reputed father. At the end of this period he becomes
doubtful of her power to preserve her chastity any longer
in her native country. He therefore determines to carry
her along with him, on an embassy to which he had been
appointed to Oroondates, satrap of Egypt [ii. 31]. In
that land he accidently meets Charicles, priest of Delphos,
who was travelling on account of domestic afflictions, and
to him he transfers the care of Chariclea. Charicles brings
her to Delphos, and destines her for the wife of his nephew
Alcamenus. In order to reconcile her mind to this alliance,
he delivers her over to Calasiris, an Egyptian priest [ii. 26],
who at that period resided at Delphos, and undertook to
prepossess her in favour of the young man. About the
same time, Theagenes, a Thessalian, and descendant of
Achilles, comes to Delphos, for the performance of some
sacred rite [ii. 34] : Theagenes and Chariclea having seen
each other in the temple, become mutually enamoured
[iii. 5]. The contrivance of this incident seems to be
borrowed from the Hero and Leander of Musaeus, where
the lovers meet in the fane of Venus at Sestos. 1 Places of
worship, however, were in those days the usual scene of
the first interview of lovers, as women were at other times
much confined and almost inaccessible to admirers. There
too, even in a later period, the most romantic attachments
were formed. It was in the chapel of St. Clair, at Avignon,
that Petrarch first beheld Laura; and Boccaccio became
enchanted with Mary of Arragon in the church of the
Cordeliers, at Naples.
Calasiris, who had been engaged to influence the mind
of Chariclea in favour of her intended husband, is warned
in a vision by Apollo that he should return to his own
country, and take Theagenes and Chariclea along with
him [iii. 12]. Henceforth his whole attention is directed
to deceive Charicles, and effect his escape from Delphos.
Having met with some Phoenician merchants [iv. 16], and
having informed the lovers of his intention, he sets sail
along with them for Sicily, to which country the Phoenician
vessel was bound [v. 1] ; but soon after, passing Zacynthus,
tin- ship is attacked by pirates [v. 24], who carry Calasiris
1 This can hardly have been, as in all probability Musanis lived at a
later date than Heliodorus. LIEU.
26 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
and those under his protection to the coast of Egypt [v. 27].
On the banks of the Nile, Trachinus, the captain of the
pirates, prepares a feast to solemnize his nuptials with
Chariclea [v. 29], but Calasiris, with considerable ingenuity,
having persuaded Pelorus, the second in command, that
Chariclea is enamoured of him [v. 30], a contest naturally
arises between him and Trachinus during the feast, and
the other pirates, espousing different sides of the quarrel,
are all slain except Pelorus, who is attacked and put to
flight by Theagenes [v. 32]. The stratagem of Calasiris,
however, is of little avail, except to himself : for im-
mediately after the contest, while Calasiris is sitting on a
hill at some distance, Theagenes and Chariclea are seized
by a band of Egyptian robbers [v. 33] , who conduct them
to an establishment formed on an island in a remote lake.
Thyamis, the captain of the banditti, becomes enamoured
of Chariclea, and declares an intention of espousing her
[i. 19]. Chariclea pretends that she is the sister of
Theagenes, in order that the jealousy of the robber may
not be excited, and the safety of her lover endangered.
This deception is practised in other parts of the romance,
particularly when Arsace becomes enamoured of Theagenes
at Memphis. The incident has been also adopted in many
of the subsequent Greek romances, particularly in Ismene
and Ismenias, who declare themselves to be brother and
sister when they meet in a servile condition in the house
of Sostratus [ix. II]. 1 This notion was perhaps suggested
to the author of Theagenes and Chariclea, by some passages
in the Old Testament. Heliodorus was a bishop, and
though he did not arrive at that dignity till after the
composition of his romance, he must have found, in the
course of his studies, that Sarah and Abram passed, and
for similar reasons, for brother and sister while in Egypt
[1 Mos. xii. 13, xx. 2], and that Isaac and Rebecca im-
posed on the people of G-erar under pretence of the same
relationship [1 Mos. xxvi. 7].
Chariclea, however, is not long compelled to assume the
character of the sister of Theagenes. The colony is speedily
destroyed by the forces of the satrap of Egypt [i. 27], who
1 See infra, p. 79 of the present volume.
CH. I.] HELIODORUS THEAGENES AND CHAEICLEA. 27
was excited to this act of authority by a complaint from
Nausicles, a Greek merchant, that the banditti had carried
off his mistress. Thyamis, the captain of the robbers,
escapes by flight, and Cnemon, a young Athenian, who had
been detained in the colony, and with whom Theagenes
had formed a friendship during his confinement, sets out
in quest of him. Theagenes and Chariclea depart soon
after on their way to a certain village, where they had
agreed to meet Cnemon [ii. 18], but are intercepted on the
road by the satrap's forces [v. 7]. Theagenes is sent as a
present to the king of Persia ; and Chariclea being falsely
claimed by Nausicles as his mistress, is conducted to his
house. Here Calasiris had accidentally fixed his abode
[ii. 21, v. 33], since his separation from Theagenes and
Chariclea ; and was also doing the honours of the house
to Cnemon in the landlord's absence [ii. 22]. Chariclea
being recognized by Calasiris, Nausicles abandons the
claim to her which he had advanced [v. 11, 12], and sets
sail with Cnemon for Greece [vi. 8], while Calasiris and
Chariclea proceed in search of Theagenes. On arriving at
Memphis, they find that, with his usual good luck, he had
again fallen into the power of Thyamis, and was besieging
that capital [vii. 1] along with the robber. A treaty of
peace, however, is speedily concluded. Thyamis is dis-
covered to be the son of Calasiris, and is elected high-priest
of Memphis. Arsace, who commanded in that city, in the
absence of her husband, falls- in love with Theagenes ; but,
as he perseveres in resisting all her advances, and in main-
taining his fidelity to Chariclea, she orders him to be put
to the torture : she also commands her nurse, who was the
usual confidante of her amours, and instrument of her
cruelty, to poison Chariclea ; but the cup-bearer having
Driven her the goblet intended for Chariclea, she expires
in convulsions [viii. 7, 8]. This, however, serves as a pre-
text to condemn Chariclea as a poisoner, and she is accor-
dingly appointed to be burnt. After she had ascended the
pile, and the fire had been lighted, she is saved for that
day by the miraculous effects of the stone Pantarbe, which
she wore on her finger, 1 and which warded off the flames
1 See note to Habrocomas and Antbia, p. 62.
28 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
from her person [viii. 9, 11]. During the ensuing night a
messenger arrives from Oroondates, the husband of Arsace,
who was at that time carrying on a war against the Ethio-
pians [vii. 29] : he had been informed of the misconduct
of his wife, and had despatched one of his officers to Mem-
phis, with orders to bring Theagenes and Chariclea to his
camp. Arsace hangs herself ; but the lovers are taken
prisoners, on their way to Oroondates, by the scouts of the
Ethiopian army, and are conducted to Hydaspes, who was
at that time besieging Oroondates in Syene [ix. 1]. This
city having been taken, and Oroondates vanquished in a
great battle, Hydaspes returns to his capital, Meroe, where,
by advice of his Gymnosophists, he proposes to sacrifice
Theagenes and Chariclea to the sun and moon, the deities
of Ethiopia [x. 6]. As virgins were alone entitled to the
privilege of being accepted as victims, Chariclea is sub-
jected to a trial of chastity, an unfortunate precedent for
novelists, as we shall afterwards find. Theagenes, while
on the very brink of sacrifice, performs many feats of
strength and dexterity. A bull, which was his companion
in misfortune, having broken from the altar, Theagenes
follows him on horseback, subdues him, and returns on his
back. 1 At length, when the two lovers are about to be
immolated, Chariclea, by means of the ring and fillet which
had been attached to her at her birth, and had been care-
fully preserved, is discovered to be the daughter of Hy-
daspes, which is farther confirmed by the testimony of
Sisimithres, once her reputed father ; and by the oppor-
tune arrival of Charicles, priest of Delphos, who was
wandering through the world in search of Chariclea. After
some demur on the part of the G-ymnosophists, Chariclea
obtains her own release and that of Theagenes, is united
to him in marriage, and acknowledged as heiress of the
Ethiopian empire.
Such is the abstract of the story of Theagenes and
Chariclea. Now the chief excellencies of the story, or
nuda materia of a romance, are Novelty, Probability, and
1 This exercise, called TavpoKa9a\^ta, was intended to inure youth
to martial fatigue, and was much practised in Thessaly, the country of
Theagenes, whence it was afterwards introduced at Rome.
< II. I.] HELIODORUS THEAOENE8 AND CHARICLEA. 29
Variety of Incident; in each of which views it may be
proper to examine this fictitious narrative.
Of the claims of Heliodorus to originality of invention
\v< are incompetent judges, as the romances that pre-
ceded Theagenes and Chariclea have for the most part
perished. Many of the adventures, however, are probably
taken from Diogenes and lamblichus ; and it is even sus-
pected that the leading events in the story have been
founded on a tragedy of Sophocles, called the Captives
(Aiy/u<i\wroi) f not now extant. 1 A few of the incidents
seeni also to have been borrowed from the sacred writings.
The stratagem of Sarah and Abraham has been already
mentioned. From the frequent perusal of the Scriptures,
the bishop may have acquired his fondness for visions ;
and the powerful effects produced by the statue of Andro-
meda on the complexion of his heroine, would not appear
impossible to one who knew the success of the contrivance
l>y which Jacob obtained so large a portion of the lambs
of Laban.
As to probability of incident, Heliodorus outrages all
verisimilitude in different ways ; as, for example, by the
extraordinary interviews which he brings about, and the
summary manner in which he disposes of a character which
has become supernumerary. When it is convenient for
him that two persons should meet, one of them comes to
travel in a country where apparently he had nothing to
do ; and when a character becomes superfluous, the author
finds no better resource than 'informing us that he was bit
1>\ an asp, or died suddenly in the night. Unexpected
events no doubt enliven a narrative ; but if they greatly
violate the order and course of nature, that belief in an
'ideal presence, which is essential to relish or interest, is
t. it ally overthrown ; and the credence of reality being once
(li-stroyed, the waking dream cannot again be restored,
nor can the reader conceive even the probable incidents as
passing before him.
In the romance of Heliodorus, the changes of Fortune
also are too frequent and too much of the same nature, as
1 Bourdelotii Heliodorus, Animadvers, p. 3.
30 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
all the adventures and distresses in the book originate in
the hero or heroine falling into the hands of robbers. This,
it is true, gives rise to many romantic incidents, but also
produces an unvaried and tiresome recurrence of similar
misfortunes. In works of art, we wish for that diversity
exhibited in the appearances of nature, and require that
every step should bring to view some object, or some
arrangement, which has not been previously presented.
The work of Heliodorus, however, has received consider-
able embellishment from the disposition of the fable, and
the artful manner in which the tale is disclosed. The
gradual unfolding of the story of Theagenes and Chariclea,
the suspense in which the mind is held, and the subse-
quent evolution of what seemed intricate, is praised by
Tasso, who greatly admired, and was much indebted to
Heliodorus: "To keep the hearer," he says, "passing in
suspense from involved situation to distinct issue, from
the general to the particular, is Virgil's constant art, and
one of the resources which render Heliodorus so attrac-
tive." l Nor are the incidents arranged in the chronolo-
gical order of the preceding romances, and of modern
novels. The work begins in the middle of the story, in
imitation of the epic poems of Greece and Rome, in a
manner the most romantic, and best fitted to excite curiosity.
Commencing immediately after the contest had taken place
among the pirates, near the mouth of the Nile, for the posses-
sion of Chariclea, it represents a band of Egyptian banditti,
assembled at the dawn of day on the summit of a promon-
tory, and looking towards the sea. A vessel loaded with
spoil is lying at anchor. The banks of the Nile are covered
with dead bodies, and the fragments of a feast. As the
robbers advance to seize the vessel, a young lady of exqui-
site beauty, whose appearance is charmingly described, and
whom we afterwards find to be Chariclea, is represented
sitting on a rock, while a young man lies wounded beside
her. The narrative proceeds in the person of the author,
till the meeting of Cnemon and Calasiris in the house of
Nausicles, where Calasiris relates the early history of
Chariclea, the rise of her affection for Theagenes, and her
1 Opere, vol. x. p. 108. ed. Venezia.
CH. I.] HELIODORtTS THEAOENES AND CHARICLEA. 31
capture by the pirates. It must, however, be confessed,
that the author has shown little judgment in making one
of the characters in the romance recount the adventures of
a hero and a heroine. This is the most unusual and the
worst species of narration that can be adopted, especially
where an incipient passion is to be painted. The hero or
heroine, while relating their story, may naturally describe
their own feelings ; and an author is supposed to possess
the privilege of seeing into the hearts of his characters ;
but it can never be imagined that a third person in a novel
should be able perceive and portray all the sentiments and
emotions of the principal actors.
But the defects in the plan of the work do not end with
the narrative of Calasiris. After the author has resumed
the story, he destroys our interest in every event by pre-
viously informing us that the persons concerned had
dreamed it was to take place. The effect, too, of one of
the most striking situations in the work is injured by a
fault in disposition. When Chariclea is about to be sacri-
ficed in Ethiopia, we feel no terror for her fate, nor that
unexpected joy at her deliverance, so much extolled by
Huet ; l as we know she is the daughter of Hydaspes, and
has her credentials along with her. This knowledge, it is
true, increases the pleasure that arises from sympathy with
Hydaspes, and entering into his emotions ; but the interest
of the romance would have been greater, had the birth of
Chariclea been concealed till -the conclusion. This could
have been done with slight alterations, and would have
formed, if I may be allowed a technical word, an avayvu-
pung, not only to the characters in the work, but also to the
reader.
Nor can the disposition of the episodes be much com-
mended. The adventures of Cnemon, which seem to be
taken from the story of Hyppolitus, 2 have no great beauty
or interest in themselves ; they do not flow naturally from
1 Sacrificii horror! inophw, succedit laetitia, ob liberatam periculo
pra?senti puellam. Huet, de Origine Fabularum, p. 37.
2 Under the figures of Petosiris and Thyamis we discern Eteocles
and Polynice, while the closing situation between Hydaspes and Cha-
riclea recalls that of Agamemnon preparing to sacrifice Iphigenia.
Chassang, Etude, p. xxxiii.
32 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
the main subject, and are introduced too early. The only
other episode of much length is the account of the siege of
Syene, and the battle between Oroondates and Hydaspes,
which occupy the whole of the ninth book ; and, however
well described, entirely take away our concern in the fate
of Chariclea, and in fact, in proportion to the excellence of
the description, at the very moment when the story is ap-
proaching to a crisis, and when our interest would have
been raised the highest, had our impressions remained un-
interrupted.
Next to the nature of the subject, and the arrangement
of the incidents, the Ornaments of a romance should be
chiefly considered ; of these the most important are the
Style, the Characters, the Sentiments, and the Descrip-
tions.
The Style of Heliodorus has been blamed as too figura-
tive and poetical ; but this censure seems chiefly applicable
to those passages where he has interwoven verses of the
Greek poets, from whom he has frequently borrowed. All
his comparisons are said to be taken from Homer ; but
Sophocles, whom he often imitates, and sometimes copies,
appears to have been his favourite author. Yet, consider-
ing the period in which Heliodorus lived, his style is re-
markable for its elegance and perspicuity, and would not
have disgraced an earlier age. " His diction," says Photius, 1
" is such as becomes the subject ; it possesses great sweet-
ness and simplicity, and is free from affectation ; the words
used are expressive, and if sometimes figurative, as might
be expected, they are always perspicuous, and such as
clearly exhibit the object of which the delineation is
attempted. The periods too are constructed so as to cor-
respond with the variations of the story; they have an
agreeable alternation of length and shortness ; and, finally,
the whole composition is such as to have a correspondence
with the narration."
In the painting of Character, Heliodorus is extremely
defective ; Theagenes, in particular, is a weak and insipid
personage. The author, indeed, possesses a wonderful art
of introducing those who are destined to bear a part in the
1 Cod. Ixxiii. p. 158.
CH. I.] HELIODORUS THEAQENE8 AND CHARICLEA. 33
romance, in situations calculated to excite sympathy, but
as we become acquainted with them we lose all concern in
their fate from their insipidity. In fact, Chariclea is the
only interesting person in the work. She is represented as
endued with great strength of mind, united to a delicacy
of feeling, and an address which turns every situation to
the best advantage. Indeed in all the ancient romances
tin' heroine is invariably the most engaging and spirited
character ; a circumstance which cannot but surprise,
when we consider what an inferior part the women of
Greece acted in society, and how little they mingled in the
affairs of life.
Heliodorus has been ridiculed by Gabriel Gueret, the
author of Le Parnasse Reforme, for having attributed to
his hero such excessive modesty, that he gave his mis-
tress a box on the ear when she approached to embrace
him [vii. 7]. These railleries, however, are founded on
misrepresentation. Theagenes met Chariclea at Memphis,
but mistaking both her person and character from her
wretched dress and appearance, he inflicted a blow to get
rid of her importunities an unhandsome reception, no
doubt, to any woman, but which proves nothing as to his
sentiments concerning Chariclea. The reader will perhaps
remark as he advances, that pirates and robbers have a
principal share in the action of the succeeding Greek
romances, as well as in the Ethiopic adventures. Their
leaders are frequently the secpnd characters, and occupy
the part of the unsuccessful lovers of the heroine ; but are
not always painted as endued with any peculiar bad quali-
ties, or as exciting horror in the other persons of the work.
Nor is this representation inconsistent with the manners
of the period in which the action of these romances is
placed. In the early ages of Greece, piracy was not ac-
counted a dishonourable employment. In the ancient
poets, those that sail along the shore are usually accosted
with the question, whether they are pirates, as if the en-
quiry could not be considered a reproach from those who
\\'iv anxious to be informed, and as if those who were in-
trrrogated would not scruple to acknowledge their vocation.
Even at the time of the Peloponnesian war, the ^Etolians,
Ai-.irnanians, and some other nations, subsisted by piracy ;
I. D
34 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
and in the early ages of Greece, it was the occupation of all
those who resided near the coast. " The Grecians," says
Tlmcydides, in the very beginning of his History [i. 5],
" took up the trade of piracy under the command of persons
of the greatest ability amongst them ; and for the sake of
enriching such adventurers and subsisting their poor, they
landed and plundered by surprise unfortified places, or
scattered villages. Nor Avas this an employment of re-
proach, but rather an instrument of glory. Some people
of the continent are even at the present day a proof of this,
as they still attribute honour to such exploits, if performed
with due respect and humanity."
Heliodorus abounds in Descriptions, some of which are
extremely interesting. His accounts of many of the cus-
toms of the Egyptians are said to be very correct, and he
describes particular places with an accuracy which gives an
appearance of reality to his romance. 1 He seldom, how-
ever, delineates the great outlines of nature, or touches on
those accidents which render scenery sublime or beautiful
he chiefly delights in minute descriptions of the pomp of
embassies and processions, and, as was natural in a priest,
of sacrifices, or religious rites. These might be tiresome
or even disgusting in a modern novel, but the representa-
tion of manners, of customs, and of ceremonies, is infinitely
more valuable in an old romance, than pictures of general
nature.
There can be no doubt that Theagenes and Chariclea
has supplied with materials many of the early writers of
Romance. It was imitated in the composition of Achilles
Tatius, and subsequent Greek fablers ; and although I
cannot trace the resemblance which is said to exist between
the work of Heliodorus, and that species of modern novel
first introduced by Richardson, 2 it was unquestionably the
model of those heroic fictions, which, through the writings
of Gomberville and Scudcry, became for a considerable
period so popular and prevalent in France. The modern
1 Scholl (History of Greek Literature, iii. p. 154), however, disputes
the accuracy of Heliodorus, and considers his descriptions imaginary.
See also Villemain, Melanges Historiques, p. 425, Essai sur les romans
grecs, and M. Chassang, Histoire du Koman dans Pantiquite, p. 425, in
the same sense. 2 Barbauld's Preface to Richardson.
<!f. I.] HELIODORU8 THEAGENE8 AND CHARICLEA. 35
Italian poets have also availed themselves of the incidents
that occur in the work of Heliodorus. 1 Thus the circum-
stances of the birth and early life of Clorinda, related by
Arsete in the twelfth canto of the Jerusalem Delivered,
are taken, with hardly any variation, from the story of the
infancy of Chariclea.* The proposed sacrifice and subse-
quent discovery of the birth of Chariclea have likewise been
1 Giambattista Basile took also from it the subject of his " Teagene."
Lich.
' In Ethiopia once Senapus reign'd,
(And still perchance he rules the happy land)
Who kept the precepts given by Mary's son,
Where yet the sable race his doctrines own.
There I a pagan liv'd, removed from man,
The Queen's attendant midst the female train.
Though native gloom was o'er her features spread,
Hi-r beauty triumph'd through the dusky shade.
Her husband lov'd but ah ! was doomed to prove
At once th' extremes of jealousy and love :
He kept her close, secluded from mankind,
Within a lonely deep recess confin'd ;
While the sage matron mild submission paid,
And what her lord decreed, with joy obey'd.
Her pictured room a sacred story shows,
Where, rich with life, each mimic figure glows :
There, white as snow, appears a beauteous maid,
And near a dragon's hideous form display'd.
A champion through the beast a javelin sends,
And in his blood the monsters bulk extends.
Here oft the t)ueen her secret faults confess'd,
And prostrate here her humble vows address'd.
At length her womb disburthen'd gave to view
(Her offspring thou) a child of snowy hue.
Struck with th' unusual birth, with looks ama/.'d,
As on some strange portent, the matron gaz'd;
She knew what fears possess'd her husband's mind,
And hence to hide thee from his sight design'd,
And, as her own, expose to public view
A new-born infant like herself in hue :
And since the tower, in which she then remain'd
Alone her damsels and myself contaiu'd ;
To me, who loved her with a faithful mind,
Her infant charge she unbaptiz'd consign'd,
With tears and sighs she gave thee to my euro.
KYinote from thence the precious pledge to bear!
What tongues her sorrows and her plaints can tel!,
How oft she press'd thee with a last farewell
s. Liberat. Hoole's version, canto xii. v. 161, etc.
36 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
imitated in the Pastor Fido of Cruarini, and through it in
the Astrea of D'Urfe.
Racine had at one time intended writing a drama on the
subject of this romance, a plan which has been accom-
plished by Dorat, in his tragedy of Theagenes and Chari-
clea, which was acted at Paris in the year 1762. It also
suggested the plot of an old English tragi-comedy by
J. Gough, entitled The Strange Discovery (1640).
Hardy, the French poet, wrote eight tragedies in verse
on the same subject, without materially altering the ground-
work of the romance, an instance of literary prodigality
which is perhaps unexampled. The story, though well
fitted for narrative, is unsuitable for tragedy, which indeed
is acknowledged by Dorat in his preliminary discourse.
" I was seized," observes he, " with enthusiasm ; I raised a
tottering edifice with romantic proportions, and wrote with
inconceivable warmth a cold and languid drama."
If we may judge by success, the events of the romance
are better adapted to furnish materials to the artist than
the tragic poet. Two of the most striking incidents that
occur in the work of Heliodorus have been finely deli-
neated by Raphael, in separate paintings, in which he was
assisted by Giulio Romano. In one he has seized the
moment when Theagenes and Chariclea meet in the temple
of Delphos, and Chariclea presents Theagenes with a torch
to kindle the sacrifice [iii. 5]. In the other he has chosen for
his subject the capture of the Tyrian ship, in which Calasiris
was conducting Theagenes and Chariclea to the coast of
Sicily. The vessel is supposed to have already struck to the
pirates, and Chariclea is exhibited, by the light of the
moon, in a suppliant posture, imploring Trachinus that she
might not be separated from her lover and Calasiris [v. 26] - 1
Theagenes and Chariclea was received with much ap-
plause in the age in which it appeared. The popularity of
a work invariably produces imitation; and hence the
style of composition which had recently been introduced,
was soon adopted by various writers. 2
1 I have made several attempts to verify this statement and ascertain
the whereabouts of these pictures, but without success. Ed.
2 It would even appear that commentaries had been written upon it.
Rohde, pp. 443 and 522.
CH. 1.] ACHILLES TATIU8 - LEUCIPPE AN'D CLITOPHON. 37
Of these, Achilles Tatius, the author of the Erotica, or
LEUCIPPE AND CLITOPHON, 1
comes next to Heliodorus in time, and perhaps in merit.
Though in many respects he has imitated his predecessor,
it may in the first place be remarked, that he has adopted
a mode of narrative totally different. The author intro-
duces himself as gazing at the picture of Europa, which
was placed in the temple of Venus in Sidon. While thus
employed, he is accosted by Clitophon, who, without pre-
vious acquaintance, relates to him his whole adventures,
which are comprised in eight books. This way of intro-
ducing the story is no doubt very absurd, but when once
it is commenced, the plan of narration is preferable to that
part of Theagenes and Chariclea which is told by an in-
ferior character in the work.
The following is the story of the romance: Clitophon
resided at his father's house in Tyre, where his cousin
Leucippe came to seek refuge from a war which was at
that time carried on against her native country [i. 4].
These young relatives became mutually enamoured, and
wf Tar/8 'AXf^ai^psuieVEpwriicuh' j3i\ia ?/,or Td Kara Xi
i )c\Etro0<Lj'rn. Ed. Boden. Lipsiae, 1776. Little is known of Tatius.
Suidas (Lexic. 'A^eXX. Tanoc) has a very brief notice of him, according to
which he became a Christian subsequently to the composition of Leucippe
and Clitophon, and was raised to a bishopric. He is supposed by some to
have lived in the fourth century, but Bpden thinks he must have been later,
because in some of his descriptions (Ed. Hercher. xlii. 13-18) he has ob-
viously imitated the poet Musams (vers. 92-98), whom he thinks posterior
to that time. He was a rhetorician of Alexandria, and is said (but this
is improbable) to have composed various treatises connected with philo-
logy, astronomy, and history. He was perhaps a contemporary of
Nonnus. There is an epigram in praise of him, particularly of the
chastity of his romance, by the Emperor Leo Philosophus (Anthol. Gr.
ix. :H)3). The lines have also been attributed to Photius, but it is not
probable he was the author, if we consider the opinion he gives of the
work of Tatius in his Myriabibla (cod. 87). Jerome Commelinus first
undertook an edition of this romance ; but died before it was completed ;
it wus published by his nephew in 1601. About forty years afterwards
a more perfect edition was given by Salmasius, at Ley den, and the work
was illustrated by a number of notes, which have been generally added
in the more recent impressions. There have been numerous translations
of the work ; an English version, by A. Hodges, was printed at Oxford
in 1C.J8, and there is another English edition in Bonn's Classical Library.
38 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
Leucippe's mother having discovered Clitophon one night
in the chamber of her daughter, the lovers resolved to
avoid the effects of her anger by flight [ii. 30]. Accom-
panied by Clinias, a friend of Clitophon, they sailed in the
first instance for Berytus. A conversation which took
place between Clitophon and Clinias during the voyage,
seems to have been suggested by the singular disquisition
contained in the "E^wrec, attributed to Lucian, and usually
published in his works. After a short stay at Berytus,
the fugitives set out for Alexandria : the vessel was wrecked
on the third day of the voyage [iii. 1], but Clitophon and
Leucippe, adhering with great presence of mind to the
same plank, were driven on shore near Pelusimn in Egypt
[iii. 5]. At this place they hired a vessel to carry them
to Alexandria, but while sailing up the Nile they were
seized by a band of robbers who infested the banks of the
river [iii. 9]. The robbers were soon after attacked by the
Egyptian forces, commanded by Charmides, to whom
Clitophon escaped during the heat of the engagement
Leucippe, however, remained in the power of the enemy,
who, with much solemnity, apparently ripped up our
heroine close to the army of Charmides, and in the sight
of her lover, who was prevented from interfering by a deep
fosse which separated the two armies [iii. 15]. The ditch
having been filled up, Clitophon in the course of the night
went to immolate himself on the spot where Leucippe had
been interred. He arrived at her tomb, but was prevented
from executing his purpose by the sudden appearance of
his servant Satyrus, and of Menelaus, a young man who
had sailed with him in the vessel from Berytus. These two
persons had also escaped from the shipwreck, and had
afterwards fallen into the power of the robbers. By them
Leucippe had been accommodated with a false uterus,
made of sheep's skin, which gave rise to the deceptio r />>
above related [iii. 19-23]. At the command of Menelaus,
Leucippe issued from the tomb [iii. 17], and proceeded
with Clitophon and Menelaus to the quarters of Char-
mides [iii. 23]. In a short time this commander became
enamoured of Leucippe [iv. 6], as did also Gorgias, one of
his officers. Gorgias gave her a potion calculated to in-
spire her with reciprocal passion, but which, being too
CH. I.] ACHILLES TATIUS LEUCIPPE AND CLITOPHON. 39
strong, affected her with a species of madness of a very
indecorous character. 1 She is cured, however, by Chaep-a-.
another person who had fallen in love with her [v. 13],
and had discovered the secret of the potion from the ser-
vant of Gorgias [iv. 15]. Taking Chaereas along with
thrm, Clitophon and Leucippe sail for Alexandria. Soon
after their arrival, Leucippe was carried off from the neigh-
bourhood of that place, and hurried on board a vessel by
a troop of banditti employed by Chaereas. Clitophon pur-
sued the vessel, but when just coming up with it he saw
the head of a person he mistook for Leucippe struck off
}>\ the robbers [v. 7]. Disheartened by this incident, he
relinquished the pursuit and returned to Alexandria.
There he was informed that Melite, a rich Ephesian widow,
at that time residing in Alexandria, had fallen in love
with him. This intelligence he received from his old friend
Clinias [v. 11], who, after the wreck of the vessel in which
he had embarked with Clitophon, had got on shore by the
usual expedient of a plank, and now suggested to his
friend that he should avail himself of the predilection of
Melite [v. 12]. In compliance with this suggestion, he
set sail with her for Ephesus, but persisted in postponing
the nuptials till they should reach that place, spite of the
most vehement importunities on the part of the widow.
On their arrival at Ephesus the marriage took place, but
before Melite' s object in the marriage had been accom-
plished, Clitophon discovered Leucippe among his wife's
slaves ; and Thersander, Melite's husband, who was sup-
posed to be drowned, arrived at Ephesus. Clitiphon was
instantly confined by the enraged husband [v. 23] ; but,
on condition of putting the last seal to the now invalid
marriage, he escaped by the intervention of Melite. He had
not proceeded far when he was overtaken by Thersander,
ami brought back to confinement. Thersander, of course,
fell in love with Leucippe, but not being able to engage
ln.T affections, he brought two actions ; one declaratory, that
Leucippe was his slave, and a prosecution against Clito-
1 During this state of mental alienation she commits many acts of
extravagance. She boxes her lover on the ear, repulses Menelaus with
her feet, and at last quarrels with her petticoats ; ; ct trpoanra\aitt>
ilH'iv uc'tv <ppovrittffa KpvTTTeiv otra yci'/) fii] i>pd<r$ai $i\ti. 1. 4. c. 9.
40 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
phon for marrying his wife [vi. 5]. The debates [vii. 7-
12, viii. 8-16] on both sides are insufferably tiresome. The
priest of Diana, with whom Leucippe had taken refuge,
lavishes much abuse on Thersander, which is returned on
his part with equal volubility. Leucippe is at last sub-
jected to a trial of chastity in the cave of Diana, from
which the sweetest music issued when entered by those
who resembled its goddess. Never were notes heard so
melodious as those by which Leucippe was vindicated.
Thersander was of course nonsuited, and retired loaded
with infamy [viii. 14]. Leucippe then related that it was
a woman dressed in her clothes, whose head had been
struck off by the banditti, in order to deter Clitophon
from farther pursuit, but that a quarrel having arisen
among them on her account, Chaereas was slain, and after
his death she was sold by the other pirates to Sosthenes.
By him she had been purchased for Thersander, in whose
service she remained till discovered bv Clitophon [viii.
16].
In this romance many of the descriptions are borrowed
from Philostratus, and the Hero and Leander of Musseus.
Some of the events have also been taken from Heliodorus. 1
Like that author, Tatius makes frequent use of robbers,
pirates, and dreams ; but the general style of his work is
totally different. If there be less sweetness and interest
than in Theagenes and Chariclea, there is more bustle in
the action. A number of the amorous stratagems, too,
are original and well imagined such as Clitophon' s dis-
course on love with Satyrus, in the hearing of Leucippe
[i. 16-20] ; and the beautiful incident of the bee [ii. 7],
which has been adopted by D'Urfe, and by Tasso in his
Aminta, where Sylvia having pretended to cure Phyllis,
whom a bee had stung, by kissing her, Aminta perceiving
this, feigns that he too had been stung, in order that
Sylvia, pitying his pain, might apply a similar remedy. J
1 Also from Plato, Longus, Synesias, Nonnus, and others. See
Passow in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopaedia, sub voce Achilles Tatius.
" I made pretence.
As if the bee had bitten my under lip ;
And fell to lamentations of such sort,
That the sweet medicine which I dared not ask
CH. I.] ACHILLES T^TIUS LEUCIPPE AND CLITOPHON. 41
Among these devices may be mentioned the petition of
Melite to Leucippe, whom she believes to be a Thessalian,
to procure her herbs for a potion that may gain her the
affections of Clitophon. The sacrifice, too, of Leucippe by
the robbers in the presence of her lover, is happily imagined,
were not the solution of the enigma so wretched. As the
work advances, however, it must be confessed, that it
gradually decreases in interest, and that these agreeable
incidents are more thinly scattered. Towards the conclu-
sion it becomes insufferably tiresome, and the author
scruples not to violate all verisimilitude in the events
related.
Indeed, through the whole romance, want of probability
seems the great defect. Nothing can be more absurd or
unnatural than the false uterus nothing can be worse
imagined than the vindication of the heroine in the cave of
Diana, which is the final solution of the romance. When
it is necessary for the story that Thersander should be in-
With word of mouth, I asked for with my looks.
The simple Sylvia then,
Compassioning my pain,
Offered to give her help
To that pretended wound ;
And oh ! the real and the mortal wound,
Which pierced into my being,
When her lips came on mine !
Never did bee from flower
Suck sugar so divine,
As was the honey that I gathered then
From those twin roses fresh.
I could have bathed them in my burning kisses,
But fear and shame withheld
That too audacious fire,
And made them gently hang.
But while into my bosom's core, the sweetness,
Mixed with a secret poison, did go down,
It pierced me so with pleasure, that still feigning
The pain of the bee's weapon, I contrived
That more than once the enchantment was repeated."
Aminta, act i. sc. 2, Leigh Hunt's translation:
Cf. too Sir John Suckling's
" Her lips were red and one was thin.
Compared to that was next her chin,
Some bee had stung it newly."
42 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
formed who Leucippe is, the author makes him overhear a
soliloquy, in which she reports to herself a full account of
her genealogy, and an abridgement of her whole adven-
tures. A soliloquy can never be properly introduced,
unless the speaker is under the influence of some strong
passion, or reasons on some important subject ; but as
Heliodorus borrowed from Sophocles, so Tatius is said to
to have imitated Euripides. Prom him he may have
taken this unnatural species of soliloquy, as this impro-
priety exists in almost all the introductions to the tragedies
of that poet.
Tatius has been much blamed for the immorality of his
romance, and it must be acknowledged that there are
particular passages which are extremely exceptionable ;
yet, however odious some of these may be considered, the
general moral tendency of the story is good ; a remark
which may be extended to all the Greek romances. Tatius
punishes his hero and heroine for eloping from their
father's house, and afterwards rewards them for their
long fidelity. 1
1 Though in the Greek romances the surface may be often impure,
remarks M. Chassang (Hist, du Rom. p. 424), the substance is nearly
always moral. The imaginations of the writers are indeed generally
libertine, their pictures sensual, and their language broad. But we
know enough of antiquity to allow for an outrightness in expression,
which modern diction does not emulate, and to recognize happily many
differences between Greek and modern French manners. Again, in
these compositions the authors do not dilate much on duty and virtue,
nor fill pages with elaborate sentimental disquisition ; the senses are
given a prominence which shocks our modern delicacy ; but in the long
run their heroes will compare well with too many others, in the struggle
to subdue their passions, in their vigilance against surprises by the
senses, and in their triumph over abundant seductions. If they give way
to amorous delights, it is from impulse, from weakness, never on system ;
they break through the maxims of conduct, they do not seek rebellious
abolishment of them. They contain no such types as Lovelace or Saint
Preux. The literary art was not yet far enough advanced to substitute
the display of fine sentiments for the fulfilment of duty ; and while the
heroes of modern novels, elevating love into a virtue, often do not recoil
from adultery, those of Greek romances always remain virgin and pure
amidst a host of perils, and despite the obstacles which oppose their
union. One cannot but acknowledge, however, that the continence of
the heroes of the Greek romancists strikes a singular contrast with
their voluptuous proclivities. However moral their example, its effect
is destroyed by the nudity, so to speak, of particular situations. It is
CH. I.] ACHILLES TATIUS LEUCIPPE AND CLITOPHON. 43
The Clitophon and Leucippe of Tatius does not seem to
have been composed like Theagenes and Chariclea, as a
romance equally interesting and well written throughout,
but as a species of patchwork, in different places of which
11 if author might exhibit the variety of his talents. At
one time he is anxious to show his taste in painting and
sculpture ; at another his acquaintance with natural his-
tory ; and towards the end of the book his skill in decla-
mation. But his principal excellence lies in descriptions ;
and though these are too luxuriant, they are in general
beautiful, the objects being at once well selected, and so
1 tainted as to form in the mind of the reader a distinct and
lively image. As examples of his merit in this way may
be instanced, his description of a garden [i. 16], and of
a tempest followed by a shipwreck [iii. 234]. We may
also mention his accounts of the pictures of Europa [i. 1],
of Andromeda [iii. 7], and Prometheus [iii. 8], in which
liis descriptions and criticisms are executed with very con-
siderable taste and feeling. Indeed, the remarks on these
paintings form a presumption of the advanced state of the
art at the period in which Tatius wrote, or at least of the
estimation in which it was held, and afford matter of much
curious speculation to connoisseurs and artists.
Writers, however, are apt to indulge themselves in en-
larging where they excel; accordingly the descriptions of
Tatius are too numerous, and sometimes very absurdly
introduced. Thus Clitophon, when mentioning the pre-
parations for his marriage with a woman he disliked, pre-
sents the reader with a long description of a necklace
which was purchased for her, and also enters into a detail
conceming the origin of dyeing purple [ii. 11] ; he Likewise
introduces very awkwardly an account of various zoological
curiosities [ii. 14]. Indeed, he seems particularly fond of
natural history, and gives very animated and correct de-
li iifations of the hippopotamus [iv. 2, c.], of the elephant
[iv. 4], and the crocodile [iv. 19].
The description of the rise and progress of the passion
not, then, in the Greek romances that moral lessons are to be sought,
may rather supply information respecting the private life of the
ancients, though their trustworthiness in this regard is by no means
unchallenged. (See note, p. 62, 3.)
44 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
of Clitophon for Leucippe is extremely well-executed. Of
this there is nothing in the romance of Heliodorus. Thea-
genes and Chariclea at first sight are violently and mutually
enamoured ; in Tatius we have more of the restless agita-
tion of love and the arts of courtship. Indeed, this is
by much the best part of the Clitophon and Leucippe, as
the author discloses very considerable acquaintance witli
the human heart. This knowledge also appears in the
sentiments scattered through the work, though it must be
confessed that in many of his remarks he is apt to subtilize
and refine too much.
In point of style, Tatius is said by Huet and other
critics J to excel Heliodorus, and all the writers of Greek
romance. His language has been chiefly applauded for its
conciseness, ease, and simplicity. Photius, who wrote
tolerable Greek himself, and must have been a better
judge than any later critic, observes, " with regard to dic-
tion and composition, Tatius seems to me to excel. When
he employs figurative language, it is clear and natural :
his sentences are precise and limpid, and such as by their
sweetness greatly delight the ear." :
In the delineation of character Tatius is still more defec-
tive than Heliodorus. Clitophon, the principal person in
the romance, is a wretchedly weak and pusillanimous
being ; he twice allows himself to be beaten by Thersander,
without resistance he has neither sense nor courage, nor
indeed any virtue except uncommon fidelity to his mistress.
She is a much more interesting, and is indeed a heroic
character. 3
We now proceed to the analysis of a romance different
in its nature from the works already mentioned ; and of a
species which may be distinguished by the appellation of
Pastoral romance.
It may be conjectured with much probability, that pas-
toral composition sometimes expressed the devotion, and
sometimes formed the entertainment, of the first generations
of mankind. The sacred writings sufficiently inform us that
1 Huet. p. 40, Boder. prref. p. 15.
2 Photius, Bib. Cod. Ixxxvii. p. 206.
3 Durier (1605-1658) wrote a tale in imitation of Achilles Tatius.
entitled : " Les Amours de Leucippe et de Clitophon en deux journees/'
CH. I.] DAPHNI8 AND CHLOE. 45
it existed among the eastern nations during the earliest
ages. Rural images are everywhere scattered through the
Old Testament ; and the Song of Solomon in particular
beautifully delineates the charms of a country life, while it
paints the most amiable affections of the mind, and the
sweetest scenery of nature. A number of passages of
Theocritus bear a striking resemblance to descriptions in
the inspired pastoral ; and many critics have believed that
he had studied its beauties, and transferred them to his
eclogues. Theocritus was imitated in his own dialect by
Moschus and Bion ; and Virgil, taking advantage of a
different language, copied yet rivalled the Sicilian. The
Bucolics of the Roman bard seem to have been considered
as precluding all attempts of the same kind ; for, if we
except the feeble efforts of Calpurnius, and his contem-
porary Nemesianus, who lived in the third century, no
subsequent specimen of pastoral poetry was, as far as I
know, produced till the revival of literature.
It was during this interval that Longus, a Greek sophist,
who is said to have lived soon after the age of Tatius,
wrote his pastoral romance of
DAPHNIS AND CHLOE,
which is the earliest, and by far the finest example that
has appeared of this species of composition. 1 Availing
1 Rohde (Gr.Rom. p. 503) thinks that Tatius lived later than the author
of Daphnis and Chloe, and indeed imitated him in some respects (e.g.,
the sumptuous description of a garden, of a town, and the episode of
Pan and the flute. It is extremely doubtful whether Longus was ever
the name of any Greek author. Scholl (Hist, de la Litt. Gr. vi. p. 238)
supposes the alleged name of the author to be simply a false reading of
the last word of the title as found in the Florentine MS. : AtafiiaKaiv
M X.ITIK&V \6yoi ', and this suggestion is adopted by Jacobs in his
German version, 1832, and by Seiler in his edition of Longi Pastoralia,
I.ijisic-e, 1835. The last-named editor says (Praef. p. iii.) that the best
MS. begins and ends with \6yov TroipiviKuJr, instead of Aoyyou, and that
Stephens cites two copies, in one of which the heading began \6yov, and
in tho other Aoyyoy. If the author was really Longus, he was probably
a frcedman of one of the many Roman families who bore this cognomen,
lit- this as it may, we know nothing of the author's life or date, which Rohde
(Gr. Rom. p. 502) gives reasons for placing at the close of the second
century. Photius says nothing of him in his Myriabiblia, nor is he
mentioned by any of the authors with whom he is supposed to have
46 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
himself of the beauties of the pastoral poets who preceded
him, he has added to their simplicity of style, and charm-
ing pictures of Nature, a story which possesses consider-
able interest, and of which the following abstract is pre-
sented to the reader.
In the neighbourhood of Mytilene, the principal city of
Lesbos, Lamon, a goatherd, as he was one day tending his
flock, discovered an infant sucking one of his goats with
surprising dexterity. He takes home the child, and pre-
sents him to his wife Myrtale ; at the same time he delivers
to her a purple mantle with which the boy was adorned,
and a little sword with an ivory hilt, which was lying by
his side. Lamon having no children of his own, resolves
to bring up the foundling, and bestows on him the pastoral
name of Daphnis [Bk. I. c. 3]. 1
About two years after this occurrence, Dryas, a neigh-
bouring shepherd, finds in the cave of the nymphs, which
is beautifully described in the romance, a female infant,
nursed by one of his ewes. The child is brought to the
cottage of Dryas, receives the name of Chloe, and is che-
rished by the old man as if she had been his daughter
[i. 6].
When Daphnis had reached the age of fifteen, and Chloe
that of thirteen, Lamon and Dryas, their reputed fathers,
had corresponding dreams on the same night. The nymphs
of the cave in which Chloe had been discovered appear to
each of the old shepherds, delivering Daphnis and Chloe to
a winged boy, with a bow and arrows, who commands that
Daphnis should be sent to keep goats, and the girl to tend
been contemporary. His book itself shows that he was a clever and
well-read sophist of the school of Luciah and the Philostrati ; and the
style and tone of the novel, no less than its proper title Atn^iciKa, or
' Lesbian Adventures,' place it in the same class with the -3ithiopica of
Heliodorus. Mueller, Hist. Lit. Gr. p. iii. p. 357. See further an ex-
cellent article, which is from the pen of Professor Maiden, in Knight's
Quarterly Magazine, vol. i. pp. 277-295, on this romance. For the
bibliography of the Lesbiaca, see Scholl, Hist. Gr. Lit. iii. p. 161, but
and especially the Notice bibliographique par A. ,1. Pons appended to
the French translation published by Quantin, of Paris, in 1878.
1 In the indication of the chapters it has been thought best to follow
M. Zevort's French translation (Romans Grecs, pre'cede d'une intro-
duction sur le Roman chez les Grecs. Paris, 1856).
CH. I.] DAPHNIS AND CHLOE. 47
the sheop : Daphnis and Chloe have not long entered on
thfir new employments, which they exercise with a care of
their flocks, increased by a knowledge of the circumstances
of their infancy, when chance brings them to pasture on
ilii- same spot [i. 8]. It was then, says the romance, tin-
In -Binning of spring, and every species of flower bloomed
tli rough the woods, the meadows and mountains. The
tender flocks sported around the lambs skipped on the
hills the bees hummed through the valleys and the birds
filled the groves with their song. Daphnis collects the
wandering sheep of Chloe, and Chloe drives from the rocks
the goats of Daphnis. They make reeds in common, and
share together their milk and their wine ; their youth,
their beauty, the season of the year, every thing tends to
inspire them with a mutual passion : which is further
strengthened in Chloe's breast by the sight of Daphnis
bathing in the stream. Chloe had, however, another ad-
mirer, Dorco, a cow-herd, who had rescued Daphnis from a
pit into which he had tumbled. Between him and Daphnis
a discussion arose as to which of them was the handsomer.
When both of them had spoken, Chloe, who was umpire,
decided in favour of Daphnis, and bestowed upon him the
award for victory, a kiss [i. 16]. 1
Chloe's other admirer, Dorco, the cow-herd, having in
vain requested her in marriage from Dryas, her reputed
father, resolves to carry her off by force ; for this purpose
he disguises himself as a wolf, and lurks among some
luishes near a place where Chloe used to pasture her sheep.
In this garb he is discovered and attacked by the dogs,
who entered into his frolic with unexpected alacrity, but is
preserved from being torn to pieces by the timely arrival
of Daphnis. From the example of Dorco this became a
favourite stratagem among pastoral characters. In the
Pastor Fido (act iv. sc. ii.), Dorinda disguises herself as a
1 Those two episodes (Bk. i. 13-17) form the fragment which was
omitted in all editions published before 1810. It was found by P. L.
Courier in 1807 in a Manuscript in the Laurentian Library in Florence,
and has been reintegrated with the work in subsequent issues. In the
English translation of J. Craggs (1719, 172), Mr. H. Jenner tells me,
" a passage was ingeniously invented to supply the deficiency, which
is however far more precipitate in its action than the real words of
Longus."
48 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
wolf, and the troubador Vidal was hunted down in conse-
quence of a similar experiment. 1
Spring was now at an end summer beamed forth and
all Nature nourished the trees were loaded with fruits,
the fields were covered with corn, and the woods were filled
with melody every thing tended to inspire pleasure the
sweet hum of the cicada, the fragrance of the ripening
apples, and the bleating of the sheep. The gliding streams
were heard as if they modulated the song, and the breezes
rustling among the pines seemed the breath of the flute.
In the beginning of autumn some Tyrian pirates having
landed on the island [i. 28], seize the oxen of Dorco, and
carry off Daphnis, whom they meet sauntering on the shore.
Chloe hearing Daphnis calling for assistance from the ship,
flies for help to Dorco, and reaches him when he is just ex-
piring of the wounds inflicted by the corsairs of Tyre. Be-
fore his death he gives her his pipe, on which, after she had
closed his eyes, she plays according to his instructions a
certain tune (probably the Kanz des Vaches), which being
heard by the oxen in the Tyrian vessel, they all leap over-
board and overset the ship. The pirates being loaded with
heavy armour are drowned, but Daphnis swims safe to
shore.
Here ends the first book ; and in the second the author
proceeds to relate, that during autumn Daphnis and Chloe
were engaged in the labours, or rather the delights, of the
vintage. 2 After the grapes had been gathered and pressed,
and the new wine treasured in casks, having returned to
feed their flocks, they are accosted one day by an old man
named Philetus, who tells them a long story of seeing Cupid
in a garden, adding, that Daphnis and Chloe were to be
1 See Diez, Leben und Werke der Troubadours, p. 169.
2 A great deal is said in this romance concerning the vintage. Lesbos
had in all times been celebrated for its wine, which was scarcely of an
intoxicating quality.
" Hie innocentis pocula Lesbii
Duces sub umbra ; nee Semeleius
Cum Marte confundet Thyoneus
Praelia." Hor. Carm. i. 17.
For the qualities of Lesbian wine, see Athenseus, lib. i. c. 22, and Aul.
Gellius, xiii. c. 5.
CH. I.] DAPHNI8 AND CHLOE. 49
dedicated to his service ; the lovers naturally enquire who
Cupid is, for, although they had felt his influence, they
were ignorant of his name. Philetas describes his power
and his attributes, and points out the remedy for the pains
he inflicts. 1
The instructions of this venerable old man to the lovers
were sufficiently explicit, but, spite of the lesson they had
received, they appear to have made very little advancement.
Their progress was on one occasion interrupted by the ar-
rival of certain youths of Methymnaea, who landed near that
part of the island where Daphnis fed his flocks, in order to
enjoy the pleasures of the chase during vintage [ii. 12].
The twigs by which the ship of these sportsmen was tied
to the shore had been eaten through by some goats, and
the vessel had been carried away by the tide and the land
breeze. Its crew having proceeded up the country in search
of the owner of the animals, and not having found him,
seize Daphnis as a substitute, and lash him severely, till
other shepherds come to his assistance. Philetas is ap-
pointed judge between Daphnis and the Methymnseans, but
the latter refusing to abide by his decision, which was un-
favourable to them, are driven from the territory. They
return, however, next day, and carry off Chloe, with a great
quantity of booty. Having landed at a place of shelter
which lay in the course of their voyage, they pass the night
in festivity, but at dawn of day they are terrified by the
unlooked-for appearance of Pan, who threatens them with
being drowned before they arrive at their intended place of
destination, unless they set Chloe at liberty [ii. 27, 28].
Through this respectable interposition, Chloe is allowed to
return home, and is speedily restored to the arms of
Daphnis. The grateful lovers sing hymns to the nymphs.
On the following day they sacrifice to Pan, and hang a goat's
skin on a pine adjoining his image. The feast which fol-
lows this ceremony is attended by all the old shepherds in
the neighbourhood, who recount the adventures of their
youth, and their children dance to the sound of the pipe.
The third book commences with the approach of winter,
and from the description of that season which is given in
.a, 7TEjOifo\>), Kcti avi'KaraKXiOi'ivai yc^roTf aibfiam.
50 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
the romance, it would appear that at the period of its com-
position the temperature of the Lesbian climate was colder
than it is now represented by travellers. We are told in the
pastoral, that early in winter a sudden fall of snow shuts
up all the roads, the peasants are confined to their cottages,
and the earth nowhere appears except on the brinks of
rivers, or sides of fountains. ~No one leads forth his flocks
to pasture ; but by a blazing fire some twist cords for the
net, some plait goat's hair, and others make snares for the
birds ; the hogs are fed with acorns in the sty, the sheep
with leaves in the folds, and the oxen with chaff in the
stalls.
The season of the year precludes the interviews of
Daphnis and Chloe. They could no longer meet in the
fields, and Daphnis was afraid to excite suspicion by visit-
ing the object of his passion at the cottage of Dryas. He
ventures, however, to approach its vicinity, under pretext
of laying snares for birds [iii. 6]. 1 Engaged in this em-
ployment, he waits a long time without any person appear-
ing from the house. At length, when about to depart,
Dryas himself comes out in pursuit of a dog who had run
off with the family dinner [iii. 7]. He perceives Daphnis
with his game, and accordingly, as a profitable speculation,
invites him into the cottage. The birds he had caught are
prepared for supper, a second cup is filled, a new fire is
kindled, and Daphnis is asked to remain next day to attend
a sacrifice to be performed to Bacchus. By accepting the
invitation, he for some time longer enjoys the society of
Chloe. The lovers part, praying for the revival of spring ;
but while the winter lasted, Daphnis frequently visits the
habitation of Dryas.
When spring returns, Daphnis and Chloe are the first to
lead out their flocks to pasture. Their ardour when they
meet in the fields is increased by long absence, and the
season of the year, but their hearts remain innocent ; a
purity which the author still imputes not to virtue, but to
ignorance.
Chromis, an old man in the neighbourhood, had married
a young woman called Lycsenium, who falls in love witli
1 The bird-catching episode occurs also in the Letters of Alciphron
(iii. 30), who was a contemporary of Lucian. See Kohde, p. 502.
CH. I.] DAPHNI8 AND CHLOE. 51
Daphnis ; she becomes acquainted with the perplexity in
which he is placed with regard to Chloe, and resolves at
once to gratify her own passion, and to free him from his
embarrassment.
Daphnis, however, still hesitates to practise with Chloe
the lesson he had received from Lycsenium ; and the reader
is again tired with the repetition of preludes, for which he
can no longer find an excuse.
In the fourth book we are told that, towards the close of
summer, a fellow- servant of Lamon arrives from Mytilene,
to announce that the lord of the territory on which the re-
puted fathers of Daphnis and Chloe pastured their flocks,
would be with them at the approach of vintage.
Lamon prepares everything for his reception with much
assiduity, but bestows particular attention on tlft embel-
lishment of a spacious garden which adjoined his cottage
[iv. 2], and of which the different parts are described, as
having been arranged in a manner fitted to inspire all the
agreeable emotions which the art of gardening can produce.
" It was," says the author, " the length of a stadium, and
the breadth of four plethra, was in a lofty situation, and
formed an oblong. It was planted with all sorts of trees ;
with apples, myrtles, pears, pomegranates, figs, olives, and
the tall vine, which, reclining on the pear and apple trees,
seemed to vie with them in its fruits. Nor were the forest
trees, as the plane, the pine, and the cypress, less abun-
dant. To them clung not the vine, but the ivy, whose large
and ripening berry emulated the grape. These forest trees
surrounded the fruit-bearers, as if they had been a shelter
formed by art ; and the whole was protected by a slight
inclosure. The garden was divided by paths the stems*
of the trees were far separated from each other, but the
brunches entwined above, formed a continued arbour: here
too were beds of flowers, some of which the earth bore
spontaneously, while others were produced by cultiva-
tion ; roses, hyacinths, were planted and tended ; the
ground of itself yielded the violet and the narcissus. Here
were shade in summer, sweetness of flowers in spring, the
pleasures of vintage in autumn, and fruits in every season
<>t' the year. Hence too the plain could be seen, and flocks
feeding ; the sea also, and the ships sailing over it ; so that
52 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
all these might be numbered among the delights of the
garden. In the centre there was a temple to Bacchus, and
an altar erected ; the altar was girt with ivy the temple
was surrounded with palm : within were represented the
triumphs and loves of the god."
On this garden Daphnis had placed his chief hopes of
conciliating the good- will of his master, and through his
favour of being united to Chloe ; for it would appear the
consent of parties was not sufficient for this, and that in
Greece, as among the serfs in Russia, the finest gratifica-
tion of the heart was dependent on the will of a master.
Lampis, a cowherd, who had asked Chloe in marriage from
Dryas, and had been refused, resolves on the destruction
of this garden. Accordingly, when it is dark, he tears out
the shrubs by the roots, and tramples on the flowers.
Dreadful is the consternation of Lamon, in beholding on
the. following morning the havoc that had been made
[iv. 7]. Towards evening his terror is increased by the
appearance of Eudroinus, one of his master's servants,
who gives notice that he would be with them in three
days.
Astylus (the son of Dionysophanes, proprietor of the
territory) arrives first, and promises to obtain pardon from
his father of the mischance that had happened to the
garden. Astylus is accompanied by a parasite, Gnatho,
who is smitten with a friendship, a la Grecque, for Daphnis :
this having come to the knowledge of Lamon, who over-
hears the parasite ask and obtain Daphnis as a page from
Astylus, he conceives it incumbent on him to reveal to
Pionysophanes, who had by this time arrived, the mysteries
attending the infancy of Daphnis. He at the same time
produces the ornaments he had found with the child, on
which Dionysophanes instantly recognizes his son. Having
married early in youth, he had a daughter and two sons,
but being a prudent man, and satisfied with this stock, he
had exposed his fourth child, Daphnis ; a measure which
had become somewhat less expedient, as his daughter and
one of his sons died immediately after on the same day, and
Astylus alone survived.
The change in the situation of Daphnis does not alter his
attachment to Chloe. He begs her in marriage of his
CH. I.] DAPHNI8 AND CHLOE. 53
father, who, being informed of the circumstances of her
infancy, invites all the distinguished persons in the neigh-
bourhood to a festival, at which the articles of dress found
along with Chloe are exhibited. This was not his own
scheme, but had been suggested to him in a dream by the
nymphs ; for in the pastoral of Longus, as in most other
Greek romances, the characters are only
Tune recta scientes cum nil scire valent.
The success of this device fully answers expectation ; Chloe
being acknowledged as his daughter by Magacles, one of
the guests, who was now in a prosperous condition, but
rivalling his friend Dionysophanes in paternal tenderness,
had exposed his child while in difficulties. There being
now no farther obstacle to the union of Daphnis and Chloe,
their marriage is solemnized with rustic pomp, and they
li-ad through the rest of their days a happy and a pastoral
life.
In some respects a prose romance is better adapted than
the eclogue or drama to pastoral composition. The eclogue
is confined within narrow limits, and must terminate before
interest can be excited. A series of Bucolics, where two or
more shepherds are introduced contending for the reward of
a crook or a kid, and at most descanting for a short while
on similar topics, resembles a collection of the first scenes
of a number of comedies, of which the commencement can
only be listened to as unfolding the subsequent action.
The drama is, no doubt, a better form of pastoral writing
than detached eclogues, but at the same time does not well
accord with rustic manners and description. In dramatic
composition, the representation of strong passions is best
calculated to produce interest or emotion, but the feelings
of rural existence should be painted as tranquil and calm.
In choosing a prose romance as the vehicle of pastoral
writing, Longus has adopted a form that may include all
the beauties arising from the description of rustic manners,
IT the scenery of nature, and which, as far as the incidents
of rural life admit, may interest by an an agreeable fable,
and delight by a judicious alternation of narrative and
dialogue.
has also avoided many of the faults into which
54 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
his modern imitators have fallen, and which have brought
this style of composition into so much disrepute ; his
characters never express the conceits of affected gallan-
try, nor involve themselves in abstract reasoning ; and he
has not loaded his romance with those long and constantly
recurring episodes, which in the Diana of Monteraayor, and
the Astrea of D'TJrfe, fatigue the attention and render us
indifferent to the principal story. Nor does he paint that
chimerical state of society, termed the golden age, in which
the characteristic traits of rural life are erased, but at-
tempts to please by a genuine imitation of Nature, and by
descriptions of the manners, the rustic occupations, or rural
enjoyments, of the inhabitants of the country where the
scene of the pastoral is laid.
Huet, who seems to have considered the chief merit of a
romance to consist in commencing in the middle of the
story, has remarked, I think unjustly, that it is a great de-
fect in the plan of this pastoral, that it begins with the in-
fancy of the hero and heroine, and carries on the story
beyond the period of their marriage. 1 The author might,
perhaps, have been blameable had he dwelt long on these
periods ; but, in fact, the romance concludes with the nup-
tials of Daphnis and Chloe ; and the reader is merely told
in a few lines that they lived a pastoral life, and had a son
and daughter. Nor, if the reader be interested in the
characters of the preceding story, is it unpleasant for him
to hear in general terms, when it comes to an end, how
these persons passed their lives, and whether their fortune
was stable. I do not see that in a pastoral romance, even
a more ample description of conjugal felicity would have
been so totally disgusting as the critic seems to imagine ;
far less is an account of the childhood of the characters
objectionable, even where it is more minute than that given
by Longus.
1 " L'economie mal entendue de sa fable est un defaut encore plus
essentiel. II commence grossierement, a la naissance de ses bergers,
et ne finit pas meme a leur mariage. II etend sa narration jusq' a leurs
enfants et a leur vieillessc ; " and again, " C'est sortir entitlement du
vrai caractere de cette espece d'ecrits: il les faut finir an jour des
noces, et se taire sur les suites du mariage. Une heroine de Roman
grosse et accoucb.ee est un etrange personnage.'' Huet, de FOrigine des
Romans.
CH. I.] DAPHNIS AND CHLOE. 55
The pastoral is in general very beautifully written ; the
style, though it has been censured on account of the reite-
ration of the same forms of expression, and as betraying
the sophist in some passages by a play on words, and
affected antithesis, is considered as the purest specimen of
the Greek language produced in that late period ; ' the de-
scriptions of rural scenery and rural occupations are ex-
tremely pleasing, and, if I may use the expression, there is
a sort of amenity and calm diffused over the whole romance.
This, indeed, may be considered as the chief excellence in a
pastoral ; since we are not so much allured by the feeding
of sheep as by the stillness of the country. In all our active
pursuits, the end proposed is tranquillity, and even when
we lose the hope of happiness, we are attracted by that of
repose ; hence we are soothed and delighted with its re-
presentation, and fancy we partake of the pleasure.
In some respects, however, this romance, although its
excellencies are many, is extremely defective. It displays
little variety, except what arises from the vicissitude of the
seasons. The courtship of Daphnis is to the last degree
monotonous, and the conversations between the lovers ex-
tremely insipid. The mythological tales also are totally
uninteresting, and sometimes not very happily introduced. 2
Although the general moral attempted to be inculcated
in the romance is not absolutely bad, yet there are par-
ticular passages so extremely reprehensible, that I know
nothing like them in almost any work whatever. 3 This de-
1 " Son style est simple, aise', nature!, et concis sans obscurite ; ses ex-
pressions sont pleine de vivacite et de feu, il produit avec esprit, il peint
avrc- agrement,et dispose ses images avec adresse." De 1'Orig. des Rom.
"Longi oratio pura, Candida, suavis, mutis articulis mcmbrisque con-
cisa et tamen numerosa, sine ullis salibus melle dulcior prottuit, tanquam
amnis argenteus virentibus utrinque sylvis innmbratus ; et ita florens,
its picta, ita expolita est ut in ea, verborum omnes, omnes sententiarum
illigentur Icpores. Translationes casteraque dicendi lumina ita aptedis-
ponit ut pictures colorum varietatem." Villoison, Prooem to his ed.
177*. Longus is also called by Muretus, ' dulcissimus ac suavissimus
scriptor " (var. lect. 9, 16); and by Scaliger, ' auctor amrenistimus, et
eomelior quo simplicior" (Miscell. c. 2).
M See Koriies, Heliodorus, p. 13.
1 Tliis seems somewhat exaggerated blame. There are certainly no
-i-s in this tale to be compared with many in, for instance, the
Metamorphoses of Apuleius, and in many other works which Dunlop
must have read before writing this history. H. JENSKR.
56 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
pravity is the less excusable, as it was the professed design
of the author to paint a state of the most perfect innocence.
There can be no doubt that the pastoral of Longus had
a considerable influence on the style and incidents of the
subsequent Greek romances, particularly those of Eusta-
thius 1 and Theodorus Prodromus ; 2 but its effects on
modern pastorals, particularly those which appeared in
Italy during the sixteenth century, is a subject of more
difficulty. Huet is of opinion, that it was not only the
model of the Astrea of D'TJrfe, and the Diana of Monte-
mayor, but gave rise to the Italian dramatic pastoral.
This opinion is combated by Villoison, on the grounds that
the first edition of Longus was not published till 1598, 3
and that Tasso died in the year 1595. It is true that the
first Greek edition of Longus was not published till 1598,
but there was a French translation by Amyot, which ap-
peared in 1559, and one in Latin verse by Gambara in
1569, either of which might have been seen by Tasso. But
although this argument brought forward by Villoison 4 be
of little avail, he is probably right in the general notion he
has adopted, that Daphnis and Chloe was not the origin of
the pastoral drama. The Sacrificio of Agostino Beccari,
which was the earliest specimen of this style of composi-
tion, and was acted at Ferrara in 1554, was written pre-
vious to the appearance of any edition or version of Longus.
Nor is there any similarity in the story or incidents of the
Aminta to those in Daphnis and Chloe, which should lead
us to imagine, that the Greek romance had been imitated
by Tasso.
It bears, however, a stronger likeness to the more recent
dramatic pastorals of Italy. These are frequently founded
on the exposure of children, who, after being brought up as
shepherds by reputed fathers, are discovered by their real
parents by means of tokens fastened to them when they
1 See pp. 77, etc.
2 Theodorus Prodromus lived in the first half of the twelfth century,
and wrote a romance entitled, The Loves of Dorante and Dosicles.
3 By Colombanus in Florence. The editor states it was printed from
a MS. which he procured from the library of Luigi Alamanni, and
which was compared by one of the editor's friends, Fulvius Ursinus,
with a MS. at Rome, and the various readings transmitted to him.
4 In Introduction to his edition of Longus. Paris, 1778.
CH. I.] DAPHNIS AND CHLOE. 57
are abandoned. There is also a considerable resemblance
between the story of Daphnis and Chloe and that of the
Gentle Shepherd : the plot was suggested to Ramsay by
one of his friends, who seems to have taken it from the
Greek pastoral. Marmontel, too, in his Annette and Lubin,
has imitated the simplicity and inexperience of the lovers
of Longus. 1 But of all modern writers the author who has
most closely followed this romance is Gessner. In his
Idylls there is the same poetical prose, the same beautiful
rural descriptions, and the same innocence and simplicity
in the rustic characters. In his pastoral of Daphnis, the
scene of which is laid in Greece, he has painted, like
Longus, the early and innocent attachment of a shepherdess
and swain, and has only embellished his picture by the in-
cidents that arise from rural occupations, and the revolu-
tions of the year.
We shall conclude this article with remarking, that the
story of Daphnis and Chloe is related in the person of the
author. He feigns, that while hunting in Lesbos, he saw
in a grove consecrated to the nymphs a most beautiful
picture, in which appeared children exposed, lovers plight-
ing their faith, and incursions of pirates that, having
found an interpreter of this painting, he had expressed in
writing what it represented, and produced a gift to Cupid,
to Pan, and the nymphs ; but which would be pleasing to
all men, a medicine to the sick, a solace to the afflicted,
which would remind him, who had felt the power of love,
of his sweetest enjoyments, and- teach the inexperienced the
nature and happiness of that passion.
Although the work of Longus was much admired by his
contemporaries, and although many of the incidents were
adopted in the fictitious narratives by which it was suc-
* vcded, none of the subsequent Greek fablers attempted to
write pastoral romance, but chose Heliodorus, or rather
Tatius, as their model.
1 So also has Bernardine de St. Pierre in Paul et Virginie. See
Schiill's Hist, de la litt. grecque, iii. 161, and an article upon the
" collection des romans grecs traduit en franfais ; avec des notes, par
MM. Courier, Larcher, et autres Helle'nistes, Paris, 1822," etc. in the
Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. v. p. 135. Perhaps, too, there is
sufficient resemblance to warrant the mention in the same connection
of Goethe's " Hermann and Dorothea" and Longfellow's " Evangeline."
58 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
Chariton, the earliest of these imitators, has been con-
sidered as inferior to Tatius in point of style, in which he
exhibits a good deal of the sophist, but he far excels him
in the probability and simplicity of his incidents he also
surpasses him in the general conduct of his work, since, as
the romance advances, the interest increases to the end, and
the fate of the characters is carefully concealed till the
conclusion. Nor is it loaded with those episodes and
lengthened descriptions which encumber the CHtophon and
Leucippe of Tatius. The author is also more careful than
his predecessor not to violate probability, and seems anxious
to preserve an appearance of historical fidelity.
A considerable part of the commencement of the
CHAEKEAS AND CALLIRRHOE l
of Chariton has been lost, and the first incident we now
meet with is the marriage of the hero and heroine. The
other suitors of Callirrhoe, enraged at the preference given
to Chaereas, contrive to make him jealous of his wife. In
a transport of passion he kicks her so violently that she
swoons, and is believed dead [i. 5]. This incident is one
of the worst imagined, to be met with in any of the Greek
romances. It leaves such an impression of the brutality of
the principal character, that we are not reconciled to him
by all his subsequent grief and diligent search after Callir-
1 Xapirwvog 'A0po<(Tie riav irtpi Xaipsav Kai KaXXip/ooj/v IpwTiK&v
e?i jjy;/iarw v Xoyot i). Chariton Aphrodisiensis is as little known as the other
writers of Greek romance. Indeed, it has been suspected by some, that
his graceful name is entirely fictitious ; by others it has been conjectured
that he was born at Aphrodisia, a city in Caria, and it is supposed, from
the imperfection of his style, that the author, whoever he was, existed
posterior to the age of Heliodorus or Tatius. His romance was published
at Amsterdam, 1750, by D'Orville, from a copy, taken by his friend
Antonio Cocchi, of a MS. found in a monastery at Florence. The Latin
translation by Keiskius is executed with uncommon spirit and fidelity.
The romance itself consists of 144 pages, and the notes added by
d'Orville occupy 788. " Charitonis contextum," says he, " paucis ubi
opus videbatur illustrandum duxi." The trouble the commentator has
taken is the more extraordinary, as he seems to have entertained but an
indifferent opinion of the merit of the romance, " et vere dicere licet,
Charitonem potius insignibus vitiis carere, quam magnis virtutibus esse
commendabilem. In 1753, there appeared an Italian translation, through
the medium of which the English one (Lond. 1764) has been executed.
CH. I.] CHABITON CHAEREA8 AND CALLIBRHOE. 59
rhoe ; our disgust might perhaps have been lessened, had
the author made him employ a dagger or poison.
After her supposed death, Callirrhoe is buried along
with a great quantity of treasure. It was customary in
Greece that effects of a value proportioned to the rank of
the deceased should be deposited in tombs. It is men-
tioned in Strabo, [1. 8, c. 6], that the persons who were
sent by Caesar to colonize Corinth, left no tornb unexplored ;
ovceva Tatyov aoKevwptjTov ; an anecdote which evinces the
xistence of that species of depredation which forms a lead-
ing incident in this and so many of the other Greek
romances. 1 Callirrhoe revives soon after her interment,
and at this critical moment, Theron, a pirate, who had
witnessed the concealment of the treasure [i. 7], breaks
open the sepulchre, which was placed near the shore, and
sets sail with the booty and Callirrhoe [i. 11]. At Miletus
he sells her to Dionysius, an Ionian prince, who soon be-
comes enamoured of his slave [ii. 3] . Chariton is the first
writer of romance who has introduced an interesting male
character. Dionysius is represented generous, learned,
valiant, and tender ; nor was there any thing improper in
his attachment to Callirrhoe, as she disclosed the nobleness
of her birth, but concealed that she was 1 the wife of an-
other ; he makes love to her with all possible delicacy, and
imposes no restraint on her inclinations. Callirrhoe, hav-
ing already one husband, feels some scruples at accepting a
second ; but at length agrees to espouse Dionysius, with
the view of giving a nominal father to the child of which
she was pregnant [ii. 11].
The following portion of the romance is occupied with
the attempts of Mithridates, satrap of Caria, to obtain pos-
session of Callirrhoe [iv. 3], for whom he had conceived a
violent affection the search made by Chaereas for his wife
after discovering that she was innocent, and yet alive [iii.
4] and his arrival in Asia to reclaim her from Dionysius
[iv.4].
1 See in this connection the seventy-six epigrams of St. Gregory
N a /um y.i-n against the desnoilersof the dead. (Anth. Gr. viii. 179-254.)
Lieb. This episode of the plundering of the tomb has been bor-
rowed (according to Kohdc) by Chariton. (See his Romance, next de-
scribed.)
60 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
At length all parties are summoned to Babylon, to main-
tain their cause before Artaxerxes. Mithridates and Chae-
reas appear first, and afterwards Dionysius arrives, accom-
panied by Callirrhoe [v. 3]. There is no part of the
romance so unnatural as the account of the extraordinary
effects produced by the beauty of Callirrhoe on the be-
holders at Babylon, and the regions through which she
passed on her journey ; but after her arrival, the flattery
which we may suppose paid to a despot in an eastern court,
by satraps and eunuchs, is finely touched [vi. 3] ; and the
meeting of Chaereas with Callirrhoe in the palace, while
the cause is under cognizance, is happily imagined. Ar-
taxerxes, as was to be expected, having become enamoured
of the object of dispute, defers giving any decision, in order
to protract her stay in Babylon [vi. 2]. Accounts, mean-
while, arrive of a revolt of the Egyptians, and their inva-
sion of Syria. The king, accompanied by Dionysius, pro-
ceeds against them, and, according to the custom of the
Persian monarchs, takes the ladies of the court, among
whom Callirrhoe was now numbered, along with him [vi.
9] . But, as they are found to be cumbersome on the march,
they are left at Ardo, an island at a short distance from the
continent [vii. 4j . Chaereas, exasperated by a false report
that the king had bestowed Callirrhoe on Dionysius [vii. 1],
joins the Egyptian forces, takes Tyre by stratagem [vii. 4],
and, in consideration of his talents as a general, is appointed
to command the fleet [vii. 5]. Having destroyed the Per-
sian navy soon after his elevation, in a great battle which
was fought near Arado, he takes possession of the island,
and recovers Callirrhoe [viii. 1]. In the course of the
night succeeding the day which had been so propitious to
the love and glory of Chaereas, a messenger arrives at
Arado with accounts of the total overthrow of the Egyptian
army, which had been chiefly effected by the skill and
valour of Dionysius [vii. 5]. To him Callirrhoe writes a
very handsome letter, and returns with Chaereas to Syra-
cuse [viii. 6].
About the time of Chariton, there lived three persons of
the name of Xenophon, 1 each of whom wrote a romance.
1 Peerlkamp (in his edition of Xenophon, the Ephesian, Harlemi,
1818) is of opinion that this name, as well as those of Achilles, Tatius,
CH. I.] HABROCOMAS AND ANTHIA. 61
These authors were distinguished by the names of Antio-
chenus, Cyprius, and Ephesius. Antiochenus, in imitation
of lamblicnus, called his romance, BABYLONICA : l the
second Xenophon entitled his work, (which relates the
loves of Cinyras, Myrrha, and Adonis,) CYPEIACA.
The Ephesiaca (which alone is known to us,) consists of
ten books, and comprehends the loves of
HABROCOMAS AND ANTHiA. 2
In this work the incidents are extremely similar to those
that occur in the preceding romances. The hero and heroine
become enamoured in the temple of Diana [i. c. 2, 3] ; they
are married early in the work, but in obedience to an oracle
of Apollo, are forced by their parents to travel, and in the
course of their wanderings experience the accustomed ad-
ventures with robbers and pirates. On one occasion Anthia,
when separated from her husband by a series of misfor-
tunes, falls into the hands of banditti [ii. 11], from whom
she is rescued by a young nobleman, named Perilaus, who
becomes enamoured of her. Anthia, fearing violence,
affects a consent to marry him [ii. 13] ; but on the arrival
of the appointed time swallows a soporific draught 3 which
she had procured from a physician [iii. 6], who was the
Longus, and Chariton, were assumed. (Mueller, Hist. Gr. Lit. iii.
p. 354.)
1 According to Peerlkamp (p. 66), the names fiafivXwvuca and KvirfjiaKa
were given to the romances of the two other Xenophons, from the birth-
place of the principal characters. The information respecting these
authors is derived from Suidas. This system of nomenclature is very
common in Greek romances; cf. ^Ethiopica of Heliodorus, Lesbioca of
Longus (Daphnis and Chloe), Babylonica of Iamblichus,etc. H. JENNER.
2 'E<t>t<naKU ra Kara 'kvO'tav Kal ' AjSpoKo^v ; or rather five books.
The number given in the text is taken from Huet, in whose time the
romance \vas. tor the most part, only known from Suidas, who certainly
ten books. Angelo Poliziano, in his Liber. Miscell., ch. Ii., had
already mentioned the work; and in 1723 an Italian translation ap-
jx'iiivd. The Greek was first printed in 1726. (See also Chardon dela
U'M-liette, Melanges, etc., p. 70, and Peerlkamp's edition of Xenophon.)
Peerlkamp suggests that under ten books Suidas included another work
by Xenophon. H. JENM K.
1 On Soporifics, see note to Massuccio di Salerno's third novel, in
vol. ii.
62 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
friend of Perilaus, and to whom she had intrusted the
secret of her story. Much lamentation is made for her
death, and she is conveyed with great pomp to a sepulchre.
As she had only drunk a sleeping potion, she soon awakes
in the tomb, which is plundered by pirates for the sake of
the treasure it contained [iii. 8]. 1
Mr. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, has pointed
out the resemblance between this adventure and the lead-
ing incident of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The
Ephesiaca, he acknowledges, was not published at the time
when Luigi da Porto wrote the novel, supposed to be
Shakspeare' s original, but he thinks it very probable he
had met with the manuscript of the Greek romance. 2
Throughout the work the author of the Ephesiaca seems
to think it necessary that every woman who sees Habro-
comas, should fall in love with him, and that all the male
characters should become enamoured of Anthia. The story
also is extremely complicated ; and a remark which was
f ormerly made respecting Heliodorus may be 'applied with
double force to Xenophon ; the changes of fortune in his
romance are too numerous, and too much of the same
nature. Xenophon, however, has received much commen-
dation from the critics, for the elegance of his style, which
is said to bear a strong resemblance to that of Longus, and
is declared by Politian to be smooth as that of a more re-
nowned Xenophon. " Sic utique Xenophon scribit, non
quidem Atheniensis ille, sed alter eo non insuavior Ephe-
sius." (Polit. Misc. c. 15.) 3
1 See Lapaume (Prsef. ad Erot. de Apoll. Tyr. Fab. p. 603). Other
incidents recall Heliodorus. Habrocomas is saved from the already
ignited pyre (iv. 2) in a miraculous way; and Chariclea (viii. 9) is
saved by similar agency (see p. 27) ; cf. Parthenius, 5, Muller Fr.
Hist. i. p. 41. Cases of Divine interposition in similar situations are re-
corded in the acts of the Christian martyrs (e.g. Acta Pauli et Thecl<e r
c. 22), and reports of these marvels may have been seized by the nove-
lists as matter for their compositions. (See the Propugnatore, vi.)
2 Eecent criticism does not coincide in this view. (See infra, Mas-
succio di Salerno's third novel).
3 Eohde (p. 401), on the other hand, judges it for the most part curt
and bald, as if a mere outline or abstract of a narrative had been jotted
down. Chassang, following Koraes, considers its triviality indicates
the period of decadence as near the date of the author; while Rohde
(p. 390-404), from his description of the Temple of Diana of Ephesu^
CH. I.] HABROCOMAS AND ANTHIA. 63
After the age in which Chariton and the Xenophons are
supposed to have lived, more than three centuries elapsed
without the production of any fictitious narrative deserving
attention. The first romance that appeared at the end of
this long interval, was of a totally different nature from
those which preceded it. The love it breathes is not of an
earthly, but a heavenly nature ; and its incidents consist
not in the adventures of heroes, but the sufferings of
martyrs.
In the times which succeeded the earliest ages of Chris-
tianity, the spirit of the new religion appears to have been
but imperfectly understood by many of its most zealous
ministers ; and it is to the dispassionate investigation of
modern times, that we are indebted for the restoration of
its primitive simplicity and purity.
As the first corruption of the doctrines of Christianity
was owing to the eastern gnostics, so, with the Therapeutw,
and other oriental sects, was developed the notion that
the renunciation of the Creator's bounties in this world
is the best title to an immeasurable beatitude in the
next. 1
With a view of promoting a taste for monastic seclusion,
St. John of Damascus (a monk of Syria, who lived in the
eight century, during the reign of the emperor Leo Isau-
ricus,) appears to have written his Lives of
laid waste with the city in A.D. 263, and of which no mention is found
subsequent to about 235, and from other internal evidence is inclined to
place him somewhere about the end of the second century, and between
lurnhlichus and Heliodorus, and earlier than Chariton. It may further
be observed that the toleration of unnatural love in Habrocomas and
Anthia as in Leucippe and Clitophon, and in Daphnis and Chloe, would
seem to stamp them as essentially pagan works, and refer them to an
earlier period than Chsereas and Callirrhoe, Hysmine and Hysminias,
of Eumatliius Macrembolites (published by Hirschig), and the History
of Apollonius of Tyre, in which no trace of this vice is found, doubtless
in deference to the growing influence of Christianity.
Eohde (p. 398) remarks that Xenophon of Ephesus is the first extant
romancist who has confined the scene of his narrative to Egypt, Asia
Minor, and a few districts in Italia Inferior and Sicily, and is inclined
to discern in this restriction to some of the best, civilized provinces of the
Roman Empire, a tendency to eschew the fantastic in favour of the
civilian romance.
3 See Migne, Dictionnaire d'Ascetisme, sub voce The'rapeutes.
64 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
BARLAAM AND JosAPHAT. 1
He states that the incidents had been told to him by
certain pious Ethiopians, by which he means Indians, who
had found them related by engravings on tablets of iin-
suspected veracity.
1 'laropla ^/u^a>X/}c K.r.X. it' y o /Bloc; /3a/}\acifi KM I(i><ra0, first pub-
lished in Greek by Boissonade, Paris, 1829. There are at least two
Latin editions of the fifteenth century. At Bagdad, at the court of that
Khalif Almansur, where Abdallah ibn Almokaffa translated the fables
of Kalila and Dimna from Persian into Arabic, there lived a Christian,
by name Sergius, who was for many years high treasurer to the Khalif.
His son, to whom he gave the best education then to be had his chief
tutor being Cosmas, an Italian monk, who had been captured and sold
as a slave by the Saracens upon the death of Sergius succeeded him
for some time as the Khalif's chief councillor ; but suddenly, influenced,
no doubt, by the teachings of Cosmas, he resolved to withdraw from the
world, and joined the monastery of St. Saba, near Jerusalem, where he
soon earned a fame for piety and theological learning which has given
him a place among the saints of both the Eastern and Western Churches.
He must have known Arabic, and probably Persian ; his mastery of
Greek won him the epithet of Chrysorrhoas, or gold-flowing. He
became famous as the defender of sacred images, and as the opponent
of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, about 726.
St. John Damascene, whom tradition and probability alike indicate
(Max Mueller, Chips, iv. p. 176) as the author of Barlaam and Josaphat,
evidently took his hero and his story from an Indian source. The early
life of Josaphat is exactly the same as that of Gautama Sakyamuni,
best known to us under the name of Buddha. In the Lalita Vistara
(French trans, by P. E. Foucaux, 1884), the life, though no doubt the
legendary life of Buddha, Buddha's father is a king, and after the birth of
a son, an astrologer, the Brahman Asita, predicts an alternative of earthly
glory or religious sanctity. His father vainly seeks to keep from him the
cognizance of mundane miseries. He drives out : on one drive he sees
two men, one maimed, the other blind, and returns home saddened with
a knowledge of the existence of disease ; on another drive, from sight of a
decrepit old man, he learns of infirmity and decline ; a third drive gives
him knowledge of death, as he passes a corpse ; and on a fourth he
meets an ascetic, whose sort of life he decides to adopt, as " it will," he
says, " lead us to a real life, to happiness and immortality." No wonder
that the illustrious and cultured St. John Damascene availed himself of
such a narrative to enforce that doctrine, in obedience to which he had
quitted a high station at a pagan court. Fa Hian, three centuries prior
to the time of Damascenus, saw still standing among the ruins of Kapil-
avastu the towers which commemorated Gautama Buddha's drives, so
celebrated in the Buddhist scriptures. The (see Bigandet's " Life or
Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese," two vols., 1880, pub-
lished in Triibners Oriental Series) coincidences between the Indian and
CH. I.] BAKLAAM AND JOSAPHAT. 65
This story, which is supposed to be the model of our
spiritual romances, is said, and with some probability, to
be founded in truth ; though the prophetic orthodoxy of
Damascenus has anticipated discussions which were not
agitated for centuries after the era of his saints.
To a carnal mind, the tale in itself is destitute of inte-
rest. Martyrs and magicians, theological arguments and
triumphs over infidelity, alternately occupy the narrator,
while Satan and his agents lie in wait for every opportu-
nity to entrap the unwary Neophytes.
The style of the work is formed on the sacred writings,
and it is not altogether without reason that the origin of
spiritual romance has been traced to the apocryphal books
of Scripture. The long discourses of Barlaam abound with
parabolical allusions in agreeable and ingenious simili-
tudes. Indeed, in so long a composition, and of such a
species, it is surprising that the author should have con-
the Christian story are so palpable, that they have been pointed out in-
dependently of each other, by M. Laboulaye (Debats, 1859, July 21 and
26), Dr. Liebrecht (Die Quellen des Barlaam, etc., Jahrb. fur Roman,
und Engl. Litteratur, 1860, ii. p. 314), and Mr. S. Beal (Travels of Fah-
hiun and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims from China to India (400 A.D.
518 A.D.. translated from the Chinese 1869). Possibly even a proper
name may have been transferred from the sacred canon of the Buddhists
to the pages of the Greek writer. Buddha's coachman is called Cuan-
daka, in Burmese, Sanna. Barlaam's companion, is called Zardan.
Reinaud, in his Memoire sur 1'Inde, p. 91 (1849), was the first, it
seems, to point out that Youdasf, mentioned by Massoudi as the founder
of the Sahti-an religion, and Youasaf, mentioned as the founder of
Buddhism by the author of the Kitab-al-Fihrist, are both meant for
Bodhisatt va, a corruption quite intelligible with the system of transcrib-
ing that name with Persian letters. Professor Benfey (Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. xxiv. p. 480) has identi-
fied Theudiis. the sorcerer, in Barlaam and Joseph, with the Deva-
datta of the Buddhist scriptures. The story of Barlaam and Josaphat,
through the Latin translation (attributed to George of Trebi/ond), and
quoted by Vincent of Beauvais in the middle of the thirteenth century,
bivume immensely popular in the middle ages, and seems to have been
translated into nearly all the European languages, as well as into
Arabic, Kthiopic, Armenian, Hebrew, and Syriac. The Russian Early
Texts Society has recently (1881) published a Serbian Version made
from the Greek in the fifteenth century by the Serbian writer
Pachomius.
See Professor Max Mueller's Essay on the Migration of Fables, from
which thf pnveding remarks have been chiefly taken (Max Mueller,
Chips from a German Workshop, 1875, vol. iv. p. 145, etc.).
I. F
66 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
trived so much to enliven the dialogue, and render it so
little tedious.
When the Christian religion had spread abroad in
Egypt, and the fame of the sanctity of its teachers reached
even to India, where many, relinquishing their property,
dedicated themselves to the solitary worship of God, there
reigned in the east a certain king, named Abenner. This
personage was distinguished by the elegance of his form,
and success in war, but darkened his other bright qualities
by a superstitious regard to idols. All things prospered
under his hands, and the want of children alone appears to
have reminded him of the inadequacy of his power for
securing happiness.
In the midst of this prosperity, Abenner was annoyed
by the troops of monks and Christians, who, by their zeal
in preaching, brought over from the worship of idols
many of the most considerable nobles of the country. En-
raged at this defection, and unacquainted with the truth of
the doctrines disseminated, the king instituted a grievous
persecution against all who professed the new religion.
Many of the ordinary worshippers tottered in their faith ;
but the monastic class, by suffering martyrdom, enjoyed a
glorious opportunity of showing their zeal [c. 1]. A dis-
tinguished satrap, moreover, unterrified by the sufferings
of the Christians, embraced the occasion for declaring his
conversion, and in an elaborate speech endeavoured to
seduce the king. His majesty, however, with rare forbear-
ance, dismissed him, without conferrin'g the crown of mar-
tyrdom ; but as a testimony of the inefficacy of his preach-
ing, increased the rigour of his persecution, and bestowed
new honours on the worshippers of idols [c. 2].
After these aberrations a son is born to Abenner of sin-
gular beauty ; overjoyed by the accomplishment of his
strongest wish, he proclaims a great festival, and assembles
about fifty of the most eminent of the astrologers skilled
in the learning of the Chaldeans. These sages predict that
the young prince would surpass in wealth, power, and
glory, all his predecessors. 1 Daniel alone of their number
1 Dr. Liebrecht, who has published a German edition of the romance
translated from the Greek, states that in the original no name is given to
the astrologer.
CH. I.] BAELAAM AND JOSAPHAT. 67
ton -tells his distinguished zeal for the Christian religion,
and declares that the glory to which he was destined was
reserved for him in another and a better world.
The king, dismayed by this prophecy, bethinks himself
of human means to avert its completion. For this purpose
he builds a splendid palace, in which he places his son, and
where, by providing him with teachers and attendants of
the most healthy and beautiful appearance, he is careful
tluit no symptoms of death, or disease, or poverty, or any-
thing that could molest him, should fall tinder his ob-
servation.
After these arrangements, so well calculated for the good
education of a young prince, finding that some of the
monks still survived, Abenner renews the persecution
[c. 3], and on two of their number he bestows the crown of
martyrdom, which indeed they appear to have eagerly
solicited [c. 4].
Meanwhile Prince Josaphat waxed strong, and possess-
ing great ingenuity, and a prodigious love of learning, gives
much disquietude to his teachers, whom he frequently
puzzles by his questions.
Notwithstanding the anxiety of the king, to keep the
mind of his son unacquainted with every idea productive
of pain, the irksomeness of his confinement, and a desire
to learn its cause, harass and distress him. Having, there-
fore, persuaded one of his attendants to inform him of the
prediction of the astrologer, and the cause of the persecu-
tion of the Christians, he obtains permission from the
king to leave his prison, his guards receiving instructions
that wherever he went he should be sxirrounded with all
imaginable delights : But in spite of the vigilance of those
about him, to remove all unseemly objects from his sight,
he one day steals a glance at a leper, and soon after has a
full view of an old man in the last stage of decrepitude,
I > y which means he gradually acquires the ideas of disease
and of death [c. 5].
In these days the word of God came to Barlaam, a pious
monk, who dwelt in the wilderness of Sennaar, and moved
him to attempt the conversion of Josaphat. Having,
therefore, girt himself with worldly vesture, he journeyed,
in <lisguise of a merchant, towards India, till he arrived at
68 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
the residence of the young prince. Here he insinuated
himself into the confidence of the attendant who had re-
vealed to Josaphat the prediction of the astrologer. He
informed this person that he wished to present the prince
with a gem which was of great price, and was endowed
with many virtues. Under this similitude of a worldly
jewel, he typified the beauties of the gospel; and the
prince having heard the story of the merchant, ordered
him to be instantly introduced [c. 6]. Barlaam having
thus gained admittance, premises his instructions with a
summary of sacred history, from the fall of Adam to the
resurrection of our Saviour ; and, having in this way
excited the attention and curiosity of Josaphat, who con-
jectures that this is the jewel of the merchant [c. 7, 8], he
gradually proceeds to unfold all the mysteries and incul-
cate all the credenda of Christianity.
The sacrament of baptism [c. 8], and the communion
under both species faith works and the resurrection,
with all the various topics such subjects involve, are suc-
cessively expounded and illustrated. Josaphat yields im-
plicit assent to the doctrines of Barlaam, and is admitted
to a knowledge of all the questions which agitated the
church in these early periods.
The consideration of the seclusion of the monks, and the
efficacy of retirement in withdrawing their minds from this
world, with a warm eulogy on this species of martyrdom
[c. 12], prepare the way for Barlaam to throw off the ter-
restrial habiliments of the merchant, and to appear before
his pupil in all the luxury of spiritual cleanness. An
ancient goat-skin (from the effect of the sun, almost in-
corporated with his fleshless bones) served him as a shirt,
a rough and ragged hair-cloth descended from his loins to
his knees, and a cloak of the same texture suspended from
the shoulders composed the upper garment of this disciple
of St. Anthony.
Unappalled by the horror of this picture, Josaphat en-
treats the monk to release him from confinement, and to
accept him as a companion in the desert ; but is dissuaded
by the prudence of Barlaam, who fears that, by the failure
of such a premature step, he might be debarred from the
completion of his pious work [c. 18],
CH. I.] BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT. 69
Having, therefore, baptized Josaphat, and left him his
leathern doublet and hair-cloth as memorials of his con-
version, and to ward off the attacks of Satan, he departs
to the deserts after a profusion of prayer for the prince's
]H-rseverance in well-doing [c. 21].
During his absence, Josaphat continues to manifest his
zeal by every kind of mortification and prayer. Unfortu-
nately, however, Zardan, one of his attendants, who was
apprised of his conversion, uneasy at the neglect of his
trust, reveals to the king the visits of Barlaam.
Forthwith Abenner, being grievously enraged and
troubled, betakes himself to Arachis, a celebrated astro-
loger, to whom he discovers the lamentable predicament
of his son.
Arachis soon restores composure to the king, by pro-
posing two expedients for the removal of this grievance.
The first of these was to lay hold of Barlaam, and, by
threatening the torture, to compel him to confess the false-
hood of his doctrine. Should Barlaam escape, he next
proposed to persuade Nachor, an ancient mathematician,
who had a strong resemblance to the monk, to allow him-
self to be discomfited in a disputation on the truth of
Christianity ; by which means he expects that Josaphat
will without difficulty come over to the triumphant party.
In their endeavours to overtake Barlaam the Impious
are unsuccessful ; but the king again suffers his wrath
against the monks to overpower his humanity, and seven-
teen of these ascetics, who refuse, with many contemptuous
reproaches, to discover the retreat of Barlaam, are tortured
and put to death [c. 22, 23].
Recourse was now had to the second expedient of
Arachis, who, having arranged matters with Nachor, signi-
fies that he had got hold of Barlaam ; and the king having
proclaimed an amnesty, invites the Christians, with the
most learned of the heathen, to be present at a public dis-
putation with the hermit, on the merits of the new faith.
The invitation to the Christians, however, appears not to
have been accepted, for, with the exception of Barachias
(who will appear in a still more dignified situation here-
after), no one comes forward in behalf of the pretended
Barlaam [c. 26]. Spite of this untoward circumstance,
70 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
the false Barlaam, like the celebrated Balaam of old
[4 Moses, xxii.], instead of cursing the king's enemies,
blesses them altogether [c. 27]. The menaces of Josaphat,
who, having discovered the imposition, threatened to tear
out the heart and tongue of Nachor with his own hands,
should he be overcome in the argument, appear to have
operated on him as the naming sword of the angel on the
prudent and patient monitor of Balaam [c. 26]. However
this may be, to the astonishment and displeasure of Aben-
ner, Nachor, in his reply to the idolaters, proves the errors
of their tenets, and the divine nature of Christianity.
Dividing the different religions into three classes, the
worship of the gods, the Jewish faith, and the belief in
Christ, he exposes the absurdity of the two first, and con-
cludes his harangue by demonstrating the superiority of
the New Religion. All this the Magi are unable to refute,
and the king, after many vain attempts to remind Nachor
of his instructions, is obliged to dissolve the assembly,
with the intention of renewing the conference on the fol-
lowing day [c. 27]. Josaphat, however, in the course of
the night completes the conversion of Nachor, who betakes
himself in the morning to the wilderness, to work out his
salvation in private.
When these things come to the knowledge of the king,
he is, as usual, much irritated ; and the prudent monks
being no longer exposed to his resentment, his wise men
and astrologers are flogged, and dismissed with disgrace.
But, spite of these tokens of impartiality, his time was not
yet come, though he no longer offers sacrifice to the gods,
nor holds their ministers in honour [c. 28].
The servants of the idols perceiving the estrangement of
the king, and fearing the loss of offerings he was wont to
make to the gods, call to their aid Theudas, a celebrated
magician, by whose instigation Abenner is again induced
to interfere with the tranquillity of his son.
Presuming on the influence of the sexual passion,
Abenner [c. 29], by advice of Theudas, orders the atten-
dants of the prince to be removed, and in their room
damsels of most alluring beauty are placed ai'ound him.
Josaphat appears to have borne their assaults with won-
derful fortitude, though the proceedings of one of them
CH. I.] BAELAAM AND JOSAPHAT. 71
were so violent, that the pious Damascenus ascribes them
to the operation of demons, who were understood by 1 1n-
primitive Christians to be the authors and patrons of
idolatry. 1
A more dangerous trial, however, is yet reserved for
Josaphat. The most beautiful of his maiden attendants
was a young princess, a captive of Abenner. In this damsel
the prince takes a peculiar interest, and, reflecting on her
misfortunes, he uses every endeavour to solace her by con-
version to Christianity. Instigated by the demons, she
promises to accede to this change of religion, on condition
that the prince should espouse her ; and on his declining
a tie incompatible with his vow of celibacy, she labours to
convince him of its innocence, supporting her arguments
by the example of the patriarchs, and others distinguished
by their piety. Josaphat, however, is determined against
this formal breach of his engagements ; and the princess
is at length compelled to promise that she will embrace
Christianity on more moderate terms. This was too much
for the piety of Josaphat to resist, and the glory of redeem-
ing the soul of the damsel, appeared to him to atone for
the corporeal defilement, on which she insisted as a pre-
liminary.
At this perilous crisis, and when the princess seems to
have been on the brink of conversion, Josaphat bethinks
himself of prayer. After some hours spent in tears and
supplications, he falls into a profound sleep, during which
it appeared to him that he was conveyed to an immense
meadow, adorned with beautiful and fragrant flowers, and
with trees bearing every species of fruit, whose leaves, when
shaken by the breeze, produced at once celestial melody
and delicious odour. The eyes were refreshed by streams
which glided along more pure than crystal, while couches,
scattered through the meadow and luxuriously prepared,
invited to repose. Thence he was carried into a city which
shone with ineffable splendour. The walls were formed
of burnished gold, and the bulwarks, which towered above
tin-in, were of precious stones, superior to those produced
iu the mines of this world. A supernatural light, diffused
1 Cf. also Barlaam et Jos., c. 32, c. 33, c. 35 ; Milton's " Paradise
Lost," i. v. 376-52:2 ; and Turpin's Chronicle, c. 4. LIEU.
72 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
from above, illumined the streets. JEtherial bands, clothed
in shining vestments, chaunted strains which had never
yet reached the ear of mortal, and a voice was heard saying,
" This is the rest of the just, this is the joy of those who
have pleased the Lord." His guides refusing the re-
quest of Josaphat to remain in one of the corners of this
city, he, was again carried across the meadow, and on the
opposite side he entered dark and gloomy caverns, through
which whirlwinds blew with unceasing violence, and the
worm and serpent rioted on the souls of sinners in a furnace
blown to fury by the breath of demons.
Josaphat awakens greatly exhausted by this vision, and
fortified in his virtuous resolutions by the very striking
contrast which had been exhibited. At the same period
likewise, the demons (as afterwards appeared from their
own confession), had been put to flight by a sign of the
cro'ss which the prince had fortunately made, and thus left
him to combat with his earthly antagonist alone.
The scheme of the idolaters having thus failed, and the
captive princess being abandoned to virginity and reproba-
tion, Theudas attempts in a conference to shake the faith
of Josaphat ; but the latter victoriously converts the
magician, and sends him, like Nachor, to the desert, where
'he is baptized, and passes the remainder of his life in vent-
ing tears and groans, and in producing other fruits of
repentance [c. 81, 32].
At length the king determines no longer to harass his
son on the score of religion ; but, by the advice of Arachis,
divides his kingdom with him, hoping that the cares of
government may withdraw him from his ascetic habits.
The first use, however, which Josaphat makes of his new-
acquired power, is to erect the cross on every tower of the
city where he dwells, while the temples and the altars of
the idols are levelled with the dust ; he also dedicates to
our Saviour a magnificent cathedral, where he preaches the
gospel to his subjects, calls many from darkness to light,
and distributes his treasures among the poor. Now God
(says the pious author of this history) was with him
whithersoever he walked, and all that he did prospered
under his hands ; but it was not so with the household
of Abenner, which daily waxed weaker and weaker [c. 33].
CH. I.] BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT. 73
Presuming that this distinction would not have been
made without a cause, the king finally allows himself to
be converted by Josaphat ; whose spiritual son he thus be-
comes, to the unutterable edification and comfort of the
monks ; and then retires from the government of his king-
dom to a solitary place, where he chiefly employs himself
in throwing dust on his head, and at length gives up the
ghost after a long course of penitence and mortification
[c. 35].
Josaphat being now left without check, resolves to retire
from the world, and pass the remainder of his days with
Barlaam in the desert. Having therefore harangued his
people, and compelled Barachias, the person who stood for-
ward to defend the false Barlaam, to ascend the vacant
throne, much against the inclination of the prince elect, he
escapes with some difficulty from his subjects [c. 36].
After a painful pilgrimage of many days, in the course
of which he meets with numberless demons, tempting him
sometimes in the form of springs of water, and sometimes
in the less acceptable shape of wild beasts and serpents
[c. 37], he arrives at the cell of Barlaam [c. 38].
There, after due preparation by devout exercises, the
old man dies, and is buried by Josaphat, who spends thirty-
five years in supplications to heaven, for a speedy removal
from this life. The holy men of these times indeed appear
to have passed their existence, as if they had been brought
into this world only for the purpose of praying for their
deliverance from its thraldom [c. 39].
The prayers of Josaphat are at length heard, and he is
buried by a neighbouring hermit in the grave of Barlaam.
When the account of his demise reaches his successor,
Barachias, he comes with a great retinue to the desert ;
and having raised the bodies of Josaphat and Barlaam,
which he finds perfectly entire, and (which could not have
been expected in the lifetime of the saints) emitting a most
grateful odour, he transports them to his metropolis.
There they are deposited in a magnificent church, in which
they continued to work miracles, as they had done in the
course of their journev, and before they were again interred
[c. 40].
Such is the principal story of Josaphat and Barlaam,
74 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
but the romance is interspersed with many beautiful
parables and apologues, most of which bear evident marks
of oriental origin. These are chiefly introduced as having
been told by Barlaam to the young prince, in order to
illustrate and embellish the sacred doctrines which he was
inculcating.
A man flying from an unicorn, by which he was piirsued,
had nearly fallen into a deep pit, but saved himself by
grasping the twigs of a slender shrub which grew on the
side [c. 12]. While he hung suspended over the abyss by
this feeble hold, he observed two mice, the one white and
the other black, gnawing the root of the plant to which he
had trusted. At the bottom of the gulf he saw a monstrous
dragon, breathing forth flames, and preparing to devour
him ; while by this time the unicorn was looking at him
over the verge of the precipice. In this situation he per-
ceived honey distilling from the branches to which he
clung, and, unmindful of the horrors by which he was sur-
rounded, he satiated himself with the sweets which were
dropping from the boughs. Here the unicorn typifies
death, by which all men are pursued ; the pit is the world,
full of evils ; the shrub, of which the root was corroded by
the white and black mouse, is life, diminished, and at
length consumed, by the hours of day and night ; the
dragon is hell ; and the honey temporal pleasures, which
we eagerly follow, regardless of the snares which are every-
where spread for our destruction. 1
In order to inculcate the wisdom of laying up treasures
in heaven, we are told [c. 14] , that a certain state observed
the custom of choosing a foreigner for its king, and after
allowing him to pass a certain time in all imaginable
delights, drove him, by a general insurrection, into a
remote and desert island. One of these monarchs, learning
how frail was the tenure by which he held the sovereignty,
1 This parable, which forms chap. iv. of the Kalilah ve Dimnah, has
found its way from Indian sources into almost every literature in the
world. See Max Mueller's " Chips from a German Workshop," 1875
ed., vol. iv. p. 178. Cf. Benfey, Pansehatantra, i. 80, ii. 528 ; S. Julien,
Avadanas, i. 132, 191 ; Gesta Romanorunij cap. 168 ; Homayun Nameh,
caput iv. ; Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. ii. p. 798 ; F. Liebrecht,
Jahrbiicher fur Kom. und Engl. Literatur. 1860; Loiseleur Deslong-
ohamps, Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, p. 64, &c.
CH. I.] BARLAAM AND JO8APHAT. 75
instead of consuming his time, like his predecessors, in
feasts and carousals, employed himself in amassing heaps
of gold and silver and precious stones, which he transmitted
to the island to which he expected to be conveyed. Thitlit-r
(when the period of banishment at length arrived) he be-
took himself without pain or reluctance, and while he saw
his foolish predecessors perishing with want, he passed the
remainder of his days in joy and abundance. 1
A powerful and magnificent king, during an excursion
through the streets of his capital [c. 16], observed a glim-
mering light, and looking through a chink of the door
whence it issued, he perceived a subterraneous habitation,
in which was seated a man clothed in rags, and apparently
in the last extremity of want. By him sat his wife, hold-
ing an earthen cup in her hand, but singing and delighting
her husband with all sorts of merriment. The king ex-
pressing his wonder at the thoughtlessness of those who
could rejoice in such penury, his minister embraced the
opportunity of teaching him, that princes who exult in
splendid palaces and royal vestments, appear still more
thoughtless to the glorified inhabitants of the eternal
mansions.
There is also related a story [c. 13], which has been fre-
quently imitated, of a person who was prosecuted for a
debt due to the crown, and who, on applying to friends
whom he had supported, or for whom he had exposed his
life, is repulsed by them all, but is at length relieved by
an enemy, whom he had oppressed and persecuted. 2
1 This parable is likewise of Oriental extraction, and is essentially the
s:im<> as No. 1509 of Achmcd Ben Arabschah, given by Cardonne, in
Melanges de Litt. orient., i. 68. F. W. V. Schmidt (Wien. Jahrb. xxvi.
41) gives further references to the various forms of this parable ; it is,
moreover, the source of the 40th chapter of the Conde Lucanor. LIKI;.
2 Upon this parable see Val. Schmidt's remarks in his Comment. Dis-
cipl. Cler., p. 95, et seqq. An imitation of it is found in T. Wright's
' Si-lection of Latin Stories" from MSS. of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, London, 1842, No. 108.
Among other parables in Barlaam and Jos. is that (c. 6) of the caskets
immortalized by Shakspere in the Merchant of Venice. See upon
this Schmidt's remarks in Beitraege zur Geschichte der Komantischen
Poesie, p. 100.
A king seeing two emaciated men in ragged clothes, descends from
his carriage and throws himself at their feet. The magnates of the king-
76 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
It was probably in consequence of the number and
beauty of these parables that Josaphat and Barlaam be-
came so great a favourite, and was so frequently imitated
during the middle ages. In a later period it gave rise to
more than one of the tales of Boccaccio, as will appear
when we come to treat of the Italian novelists ; and it was
unquestionably the model of that species of spiritual
fiction, which was so prevalent in France during the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries.
Josaphat and Barlaam, however, was the last example of
this species of composition produced during the existence
of the eastern empire ; the only Greek romance by which
it was succeeded, being formed on the model of Theagenes
dom evince displeasure, and the king's brother gives expression to the
same sentiment. It was the custom of the land to send a herald to
sound a blast on his trumpet at the doors of such as were condemned to
death. The king despatches a messenger of this kind to his brother,
who presents himself with his family before the prince, with all the signs
of despair. '' Fool," says the King to him, " thou fearest the messenger
of thy brother, although thou art not conscious of any offence, and yet
thou blamest me for humbly greeting the heralds of my God, who with
clear sound announced my death and the awful approach of the Lord,
before whom I am guilty of great and numerous sins." In order to
abash the magnates, he causes four caskets to be made. Two richly gilt
but filled with stinking bones, with gold locks ; two covered with pitch,
bound with cords, filled with precious stones, pearls, and fragrant oint-
ments. The reproachful grandees, upon being commanded to choose,
select the gilt coffers, and the King exclaims, " I knew it, for ye see the
outward with the eyes of sense." What in Boccaccio (x. 1), where the
caskets are not differenced, is laid to the caprice of fortune, is here as-
cribed to spiritual blindness and perversity of judgment. For an account
of this legend and its remote origin, see infra. Boccaccio's " Decameron,"
day x. story 1, and note.
Upon the parable (c. 10) of the bird, and to three lessons, see Val.
Schmidt notes to Discipl. Cler. p. 151, and to Straparola, p. 288, and
Graesse on No. 167 of the Gesta Rom.
The parable (c. 29 or 30) popularized by Boccaccio (page iv, Intro-
duction) is translated almost literally from Barlaam, in No. 13 of the
Cento Novelle Antiche, while another reproduction is found in Cornaz-
zano' Proverbi, Prov. 9. Hans Sachs, 4, 2, 125, tells the story just as it
is in Barlaam, but of the son of the Swedish King Haldan. See F. W. V.
Schmidt, Beitraege, p. 27, also V. d. HagenGesammtabenteuer, No. 23,
T. Wright, Latin Stories, Nos. 3 and 78. and Herolt, Promptuarium ex-
emplorum, No. 24. According to I)u Meril,Histoire de la Poesie Scan-
dinave, p. 348, the story of this attempted seduction as narrated by Boc-
caccio bears a close resemblance with an episode of the Ramayana called
the Seduction of Rikyafriuga (Chezy Sacountala, p. 278). LIEB.
CH. I.] EUSTATHIUS - HT8MENE AND HYSMEN1AS. 77
and Chariclea, or rather of the Clitophou and
Iii-lt.-ed, in this last and feeble example of Grecian fiction,
we seldom meet with an incident of which we have not the
prototype in the romances of Heliodorus or Tatius. It is
entitled :
HYSMENE AND HYSMENIAS/
and was written by Eustathius, sometimes called Euma-
thius," who flourished, as Huet terms it, in the 12th cen-
tury, during the reign of the emperor Emanuel Comnenus.
The commencement of the story, and the mode in which
the hero and heroine become acquainted, is evidently
taken from Heliodorus. Ismenias or Hysnienias is sent
as a herald from his native city, Eurycornis, for the
performance of some annual ceremony, to Aulycoinis,
where he is hospitably entertained by Sosthenes, the
father of Ismene or Hysmene. This young lady is seized.
with a passion for the herald, on seeing him for the
first time at dinner ; she presses his hand, makes love
to him under shelter of the table, and at length pro-
ceeds so far that Ismenias bursts into laughter [1. i.].
Heliodorus has painted his Arsace, and Tatius his Melite,
as women of this description ; but Eustathius is the
first who has introduced his heroine avowing love with-
out modesty and without delicacy. 3 To her advances
1 To Ka^' 'Yrr/nriat' KU'I 'Yfftutnf? dpafia, iroit]/j.a Ev<rra9iov 7rporo>w/3-
Xirri'jioc KO.I fjityaXov \apTotyv\aKvQ rof; TrapffifioXtTov (some MSS. have
fuucpeppoXiTov, the meaning of the epithet seems in either case to be un-
known. Graesse, p. 768, infers Eustathius to have been a Christian
from a passage resembling part of Psalm cxxxix., which. however, Kohde
(p. 5:23) shows is imitated rather from his usual model Achilles Tatius.
Indeed, the whole story is, according to Kohde (p. 525), merely a cari-
cature of the work of Tatius. See Graesse, Lehrb. Bd. i. p. 768.
2 As in the Vatican Codex. 114, see xii. or xiii., which is, however, the
best of the MSS., above twenty in number, which are known. The work
is in eli- vcn books. Eustathius. it is considered, cannot have written bafore
865, as in his collection of riddles mention is made of the Russian people,
\\ IIOM- first contact with Byzantium is referred to that year. See Nicolai.
Griechische Literaturgeschiehte. iii. pp. 359, CO, where an account of the
various MSS. and editions will be found. It has been suspected that
Gaulmin. who published the work with a Latin translation in 1618,
Adopted the name of Eustathius, in order to make the public believe that
the romance was written by the commentator on Homer of that name.
' Thi.i forwardness M. Gidel looks upon as an outcome of the exct>s-
78 HISTORY OF FICTION. L CH. I.
Ismenias at length makes some return [1. iv.], and the
period of his embassy being expired, he departs to his
native place, Eurycomis, accompanied by Sosthenes and
his daughter Ismene, whom he entertains in his father's
house [1. v.]. One day, at dinner, Sosthenes accidentally
mentions that his daughter is speedily to be married.
Ismene, who appears to have been previously unacquainted
with this projected change in her situation, insists, in the
course of the following night, on an immediate elopement
with Ismenias. She dragged me along (says Ismenias,
who relates the story), nor would she quit her hold, though
I affirmed that the things necessary for her departure were
not prepared. I with difficulty, at length, escaped from
sive deference and respect shown to women in the West and reflected in
Eustathius' work.
In the romance of Aioul, a maiden presents herself at the couch of a
knight and places herself at his discretion (Histoire Litteraire de la
France, t. xxii.). In I Reali di Francia which is but a translation of
divers French romances, the maidens behave similarly. Fegra Albano
di Barbaria, Dusolina and Galeana are enamoured of Fioravante, and do
not hesitate to tell him so. Galeana dies from grief at seeing herself
despised (Lib. ii. ch. iv.). A captain's daughter falls in love with Gis-
berto upon hearing his praise, and resorts to him in prison (Lib. iii.
c. 8). Druziana, daughter of King Erminione, declares her love to
Buovo d'Antona (the Italian Sir Be vis of Hampton), Lib. iv. cc. 10, 11,
etc. A. C. Gidel, Etudes sur la Litterature grecque Moderne, Paris,
1866, p. 14.
How early Western romances may have found readers in the East it
would be difficult to determine. About 1410, however, a lord Beau-
champ, travelling in the East, was hospitably received at Jerusalem by
the Soldan's lieutenant, " who hearing that he was descended from the
famous Guy of Warwick, whose story they had in books of their own lan-
guage, invited him to his palace, etc." Baron, i. p. 243, col. i. ; Warton.
Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, 1871, vol. ii. p. 145 note.
Works such as Avfivarpog KCU 'Poci/.ivrj, BtXQavdpog KCU Xpiwh'rja
seem to have been works composed after Frankish models rather than
translations. Belthandros is probably an Oriental form of Bertrand,
'PodotyiXoG, his father's name, a felicitous equivalent of Rodolphe, and
perhaps 3>i\appog, brother of Belthandros, is for Willermus. In Byzan-
tine historians Guillaume is sometimes rendered rwXiapjuoe. In the
Libystros, the name Btpfopi^oc is according to Crusius (Turco-Grzecidse,
libri viii. p. 489), is Frederick, and in " rwpa cnroQvi]aKii <TKs\7re," the
last word is the German Schelm. He considers the romance may have
been written at the time when the Germans, French, and Venetians,
reigned at Constantinople under the Counts of Flanders. Gidel, Etudes,
chap. iii.
CH. I.] EUSTATHIUS HYSMENE AND HYSMENIAS. 79
her hands, calling all the gods to witness. Ismenias, how-
ever, on leaving her, does not go to prepare for the elope-
ment, but to sleep [1. vi.] ; which, indeed, is the constant
resource of the hero of this romance in every emergency.
Throughout the whole work he consults his pillow, in cir-
cumstances which should have converted a sleeper of
Ephesus into an Argus. At length, by the exertions of
Cratisthenes, the friend of Ismenias, a vessel is procured,
in which the lovers embark. A storm having arisen, and
a victim being thought necessary by the sailors to appease
Neptune, the lot falls on Ismene, who is accordingly
thrown overboard. The wind of course is allayed ; but as
the lover of Ismene disturbs the crew with his lamenta-
tions, he is set ashore on the coast of Ethiopia [1. vii.].
After being thus disembarked, he experiences the usual
adventures with pirates, and is at last sold as a slave at
Daphnipolis, to a Greek master ; who soon after goes as
herald to another city in Greece, and carries Ismenias
along with him [1. viii.]. The herald and his slave are
received in the house of Sostratus, where Ismenias dis-
covers Ismene, living in a servile condition. When thrown
into the sea, she had been preserved by the exertions of a
dolphin, and had afterwards been sold by pirates to Sos-
tratus [1. ix. xi.]. This gentleman, with his daughter, and
also Ismene, attend the master of Ismenias to Daphni-
polis. In the middle of the night which followed their
arrival in that city, the whole band proceed to worship in
the temple of Apollo. Here the father and mother of
Ismenias, and the parents of Ismene, are discovered tear-
ing their hair, and lamenting in full chorus. The lovers
are recognized by their parents, and redeemed from servi-
tude, after the heroine has been subjected to the usual
trial of chastity.
In this romance, which consists of eleven books, no dis-
tressing incident (except indeed to the reader) occurs till
tlif sixth, in which Ismene' s intended marriage is first
alluded to by her father. The five preceding books pre-
sent one continued scene of jollity, and the long descrip-
tious of festivity are seldom interrupted, except by still
Linger accounts of dreams, which are represented as having
been infinitely more agreeable than could be expected, from
80 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
the loaded stomachs of the sleepers. As the work ad-
vances, these dreams become quite ridiculous, from their
accurate minuteness, and the long reasonings carried on in
them by persons whose stock of logic, even when awake,
does not appear to have been very extensive.
The story of Ismene and Ismenias is not intricate in
itself, but is perplexed by the similarity of names. The
reader must be far advanced in the work before he learns
to distinguish the hei'o from the heroine ; especially as the
latter acts a part which in most romances is assigned to
the former. Eurycomis is the city from which Ismenias is
sent as herald. In Aulycornis he is received by Sosthenes,
the father of Ismene ; and is sold to a Greek master at
Daphnipolis, who goes as herald to Artycomis, where he is
entertained by Sostratus. Eustathius has perhaps fallen
into this blemish by imitating Heliodorus, in whose ro-
mance Chaereas, Calasiris, and Cnemon are the names of
the principal characters.
Eustathius resembles the author of Clitophon and Leu-
cippe, in his fondness for descriptions of paintings. The
second and fourth books are full of accounts of allegorical
pictures in the temples and summer-house of the garden
of Sosthenes, which were hung with representations of the
four cardinal virtues, and also with emblems of each of the
twelve months of the year. A reaper is drawn for July ; a
person bathing for August ; and one sitting by the tire for
February. Some of these allegories, however, are rather
far-fetched ; thus it is not very apposite to make a soldier
the emblem of March, because that month is the most
favourable for military expeditions. From. Tatius also the
author of Ismene and Ismenias borrows that ticklish ex-
periment, which winds up the fable of so many of the
Greek romances, with such honour to the heroines, and
such satisfaction to their lovers. From Longus, according
to Huet, he has taken that celebrated piece of gallantry, 1
which consists in drinking from the part of a goblet which
had been touched by the lips of a mistress. But this
artifice, which has been introduced in so many amatory
compositions, 2 may be traced much higher than the Daphnis
1 Elegans urbanitatis genus. Huet, Orig. Fab.
2 Moore's ode : The Fall of Hebe.
(If. I.] EUSTATHIUS HTSMENE AND HYSMENIAS. 81
and Chloe of Longus. It is one of the counsels given by
Ovid in his Art of Love : (de Art. Amat. lib. i. 575.)
Fac primus rapias illius tacta labellis
Jfocula : quaque bihit parte puella, bibe.
Lnrian, too, in one of his dialogues, 1 makes Jupiter pay
this compliment to Ganymede ; and the same conceit may
be found in a collection of letters by the sophist Philo-
stratus, who wrote in the second century. " Drink to me,"
savs he, " with thine eyes only, or if thou wilt, putting the
cuj> to thy lips, fill it with kisses, and so bestow it upon me." *
On account of his numerous plagiarisms, Eustathius is
-violently attacked by Huet, who says that he rather tran-
scribes than imitates the work of Tatius. " Indeed," con-
tinues he, "there can be nothing more frigid than this
romance, nothing meaner, nothing more unpleasant and
disgusting. In the whole there is no decency, no probability,
in) invention, no happy disposition of incident. The author
introduces the hero relating his own adventures; but one
cannot discover whom he addresses, or why he is discoursing.
Ismene is first enamoured, she first confesses and offers
love without modesty, without shame, and without art.
Ismenias takes no hint from these caresses, nor does he
make any return. This may be praiseworthy in morals or
philosophy, but is wretched in romance. In short, the
whole is the work of some raw school-boy, or unskilful
sophist, from whose hands the birch ought never to have
bri-ii withdrawn."
These remarks of Huet may in general be well founded,
but his censure of Eustathius for not having created a cha-
rarter to whom the hero recounts his history would be ap-
pliraMr. if just, not only to the work he criticises, but to
many of our best modern novels and romances. The
method adopted by Achilles Tatius, of introducing a listener,
1 Dialog. Deor. vol. i. p. 129. .
y K/x ("> /'n'oif TrpoTTU'e TOig ofifiantv. 'Ei ct /3\i roif \ti\fvi irpoff-
$ipnaa -\i\iin (JHXtjfJMTwv ro t(C7ra/^a, KO.I ru>t; iu. '24. This idea, along
with many other t;ir-ietched conceits of Philostratus, has been imitated
l>y lit.'ii Jonson, in his poem entitled the Forest :
" Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine ;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine."
I. O
82 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
seems now exploded ; and if we fancy that the hero or
heroine speaks, the narration must be regarded as a
soliloquy from beginning to end. But in the modern novel,
and in the Greek romance of Ismene and Ismenias, the per-
sons who relate their story are neither conceived to address
a friend, nor to report their adventures to themselves, but
are supposed to have written what the reader peruses.
Notwithstanding its defects, Ismene and Ismenias lias
been imitated by subsequent poets and writers of romam v.
D'Urfe, in particular, has taken the description of the
fountain of love introduced in the Astrea, 1 from that of
Diana at Artycomis [1. 8] ; and many of the incidents and
names in the work of Eustathius have been transferred to
the Spanish pastoral of Montemayor.
Besides those Greek romances that have been enumerated,
there is one entitled DOSICLES AND RHODANTES, by Theo-
doras Prodromus, who wrote about the middle of the
twelfth century, and was nearly contemporary with Eusta-
thius, but which shall not be farther mentioned ; as, besides
being very indifferently written, it is in iambics, and is
rather a poem than a romance. 2 It was followed by a great
many others of a similar description, in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, all of which are written in iambics ;
and contain a series of wandering adventures, strung to-
gether with little art or invention, as the loves of CHARICLES
AND DROSSILLA, by Nicetas Eugenianus, etc.
Of all these an account has been given by Fabricius. in
his Bibliotheca Grseca [1. 5. c. 6.], but the only one deserving
of notice or attention, is
THE HISTORY OF APOLLONIUS OF TYRE,
which is written in such barbarous verse, that I can scarce!)
be considered as breaking through my plan, by giving
short account of it. 3 The original Greek, I believe, has onlj
1 See infra, Astree.
2 Gaulmin also edited the Dosicles and Rhodantes, a MS. copy of which
was transmitted to him by Salmasius, and printed at 1'aris in lol.~>. Tin.
author of this romance, he informs us, was originally from Russia, bu)
became soon after his arrival in Greece, a priest, a physician, and ;i
philosopher.
3 Dunlop has mistaken the Neo-Hellenic version of Gabriel Kontianos
from the Latin, published circ. 1500, for the original Greek work, no
(If. I. HISTOET OF APOLLONIUS OF TYRE. 83
Keen recently edited, but a Latin prose translation, formed
;is curly as the eleventh century, was published soon after
tin- invention of printing, under the title of Apollonii Tyrii
Historia. In this romance, we are told that Autiochus,
king of Syria, who entertained towards his daughter warmer
niients than those of paternal affection, in order to
retain her in his own palace, propounded to her numerous
suitors a riddle to be explained as the price of her hand.
AjMillonius, king of Tyre, having fallen in love with the
]irincc>s I iy report, arrives at the capital of Antiochus, and
s the enigma, which contained an allusion to the
criminal passion of the father. The king of Syria lays
s for the destruction of Apollonius, who escapes from
his dominions, and after various adventures is driven by a
stonn into the states of a monarch, where his regal descent
1 icing discovered by the majesty of his appearance, and
the variety of his accomplishments, the king's daughter
f which is known. That the novel is a translation appears from
tin- numerous Gra-i-isms found in it (Hiese, p. xi-xiii). In c. 34, one
jMiuiid of irold is coined into fifty pieces, which was the custom since the
time ui' ( ';iracalla, while after Constantine it became usual to go by
sulidi. whence the original would appear to have been composed in the
time between Caracalla and Constantine (W. Christ. Trans, of the
Munich Ac-ad. Phil. Hist., CI. r872, p. 4). The translation must have
composed after Symposius (circ. 500) whose enigmas are inserted,
and hefuiv the treatise Do Dubiis Nominibus (sa-o. vii.), in which the
iinM-l is quoted. It is also mentioned in a catalogue of books of the
ahlicy of St. Wandrille, in Normandy, A.D. 747. (Peru, Monumenta
liei-mania- Histories, ii. p. 287. Ward, Cat., p. 161.) The author of the
ul work was a native of Asia Minor (W. Teuffel. Kh. Mus. xxvii,
KIM. and a pagan. The translator dressed up the work, though care-
. in a Christian garb, and at the same time barbari/ed, enlarged,
and, towards the end, abbreviated the original work. The sentences are
built up in a plebeian manner and diction, the style is without any
literary culture, and there are words and phrases which belong to the
sermo plebeius and remind us greatly of the Romance languages (Riesc,
p. xiii-xv). About 100 MSS. of tlio tale are known. It was very freely
dcult with, and arbitrarily abridged or altered. Three principal reduc-
tions lisne !,een traced. ' See further W. S. Teuftel, Horn. Lit., p. 560;
al>n 1,'ohde der Griech. Kom., p. 408, etc. ; Villemain, Essai sur les
Koinans irrccs ; Chassang, Hist, du Horn., p. 411; and Nicolai, Ges-
chidite (iriech. iii. p. 3G2-3. The popularity of this romance in the west
iue io t!ie combination of mediaeval romantic elements, both Greek
:imi Ka-tern, wliich it presented in a dress adapted to frankish taste
Bvius Geschichte der Deutschen Pocsie nach ihren antiken Klemen-
tcn. i. p. i:,-2 : '1'h. Grasse Die Grossen Sagenkreise des Mittelalters, ii. :;.
84 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
falls in love with him, and, in order to protract his stay,
requests that he may be appointed her preceptor in those
arts in which he had shown himself so skilful. In the
course of his instructions, Apollonius forgets the princess
of Syria, and lays claim to the hand of his fair pupil.
Some months after the marriage had been solemnized, in-
telligence arrives that Autiochus and his daughter had
been struck dead by lightning, and that the appearance of
Apollonius in Syria would be the signal of a general
declaration in his favour. With the view of obtaining
this vacant sovereignty, he sets sail with his wife, who gives
birth to a daughter during the voyage ; but while in a
swoon, into which she had soon after fallen, she is believed
dead, and from the superstition of the crew with regard to
the malignant influence of corpses at sea, she is immediately
thrown overboard in a chest. Apollonius lands in a state
of despair on the coast of Syria, where he entrusts his
infant daughter to persons on whose fidelity he coulc
depend, and then sets out as a wanderer on the face of the
earth. When his daughter grows up she is carried off
pirates, and sold at a Grecian city, where she is preservec
from infamy by the compassion and continence of a young
man, called Athenagoras, to whose embraces she was pre-
sented by her purchaser. She continues to earn a sub-
sistence by her skill in music, till her father, who in the
course of his wanderings had arrived at that city, in a
mourning and dejected habit, attracted by the heavenly
melody of her voice, enters her humble dwelling. For his
solace and recreation, she sung with exquisite pathos the
unhappy story of her infancy, from which Apollonius dis-
covered that she was indeed his daughter. He affiancec
her to Athenagoras, to whom she had been indebted foi
more than the preservation of life, and then, warned by a
celestial vision, he departed for Ephesus. There he found
his long-lost queen, who, having been wafted to that coast
when thrown overboard, had been picked up by a phy-
sician, who at length succeeded in restoring the almost
extinguished animation. 1
Besides the Latin prose version already mentioned, the
1 A version of the History of Apollonius is found in a Xeo-Hellcnic
folk-tale, No. 50 of Halm's collection ; in the South Slavonic countries
CH. I.] HISTORY OF A.POLLONIUS OF TYRE. 85
romance, or history of Apollonius, was translated into
L;it in verse about the end of the twelfth century, by God-
t'iv\ of Viterbo, who introduced it in his Pantheon, or
Universal Chronicle, as part of the history of Antiochus
thr Third of Syria. It was also inserted in the Gesta,
K'omunorum [c. 150], which was written in the four-
teenth century, and became soon after the subject of a
French prose romance, which was the origin of the English
Kvnge Apolyne of Tyre, printed by Wynkin de Worde
in 1510. 1 It was from the metrical version, however, of
(iooM'ivv of Viterl><>.- that the story came to Gower, who
has tohl it with little variation in his Confessio Amantis.
(lower is introduced as speaking the prologue to each of
th" tive acts of Pericles, prince of Tyre ; whence it may be
presumed that the author of that play derived his plot
from the English poet. The drama of Pericles, as is well
known, has been the subject of much discussion; 3 the
composition of the whole, or greater part of it, having
been attributed to Shakspeare, by some of his commentators,
chirtly on the authority of Dryden:
Your Ben and Fletcher in their first young flight,
Did no Volpone, no Arbaces write ;
Shakspeare's own muse his Pericles first bore,
The Prince of Tyre is elder than the Moor.
Besides the romances which have been enumerated,
there appeared during the existence of the eastern empire,
a. number of Greek tales, chiefly' derived from mythological
es, and resembling those of Parthenius Nicenus; but
several confused versions are also current, for one variant of which see
from Twelve Tongues, London, 1882 ; The Miller's Daughter, etc.
1 In tin' library of Corpus Christ! College, Cambridge, there is an
Anglo-Saxon version of the Apollonius. which was edited by B. Thorpe,
U. It has a gap in the middle of it and the Kiddles are thus lost.
-.1, Cat. p. 16:2.
- Chaplain and Clerk to the Emperors Conrad III. (1138), Frederick
I. (ll.'i^i. and Henry VI. (1190-1198). This metrical version is part of
a chronicle entitled the " Pantheon," dedicated to Pope Urban III.
;,- 1187). Ward, Cat., p. 16.3 ami 169.
' Shakespeare is also supposed to have been indebted to Lawrence
Tw;i\ nc's compilation: "The 1'atterne of painefull Adventures,'' first
published probably in 1576. The story in a modern dress was published
liy M. It- Brim in 1710. under the title of Avantures d'Apollonius de
Thyr. \Vurton, Hist. Poet., ii. p. 303 note.
86 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
sometimes combined with long discussions on the nature
of love. 1 However, as these are not written according to
the rules of romance, but are founded on heathen fables,
they are not included in the plan that I have adopted.
A curious account is given by Huet, of a romance of
disputed authenticity, which appeared under the name of
Athenagoras, entitled, Du Vrai et Parfait Amour. A copy
of this work, written in French, was sent, in the year 1569,
to M. Lamane, by Martin Funiee, who professes himself
to be merely the translator. He informs us in the preface
that he received the Greek copy from this M. Lamane, who
was protonotary to the cardinal of Armagnac ; that he
had -never seen any other manuscript of the work, and
adds, that it is the production of that Athenagoras, who
addressed an apology for the Christian religion to the
emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, which would
make him considerably prior to Heliodorus. In 1599,
thirty years after it was written or translated by Fuinc'e,
the romance was published by Bernard of Sanjorry, with
a preface, in which he says that he found among his
papers a copy of the work, transcribed from the manuscript
which Fumee had sent to M. de Larnane.
Huet speaks of this romance at considerable length, in
the work I have so often quoted. He in the first place
extols the splendid and interesting manner in which the
romance opens. " There," says he, " as in a picture, is
represented the lofty triumph of Paulus Emilius. where,
amidst so many remarkable objects, the king of Macedon
is exhibited loaded with chains, and hurried along with
his children before the chariot of his conqueror. There
the enamoured Charis, grieving beyond measure that she
had fallen into the power of the Romans, and that she
had been torn from Theogenes, her lover, is touched with
delight, on unexpectedly beholding him ; and at the same
moment is affected with the most poignant anguish, be-
1 Constantine Manasses, who lived in the reign of Manuel Comnenus,
(1143-1180) composed a verse romance in nine books, Tu KUT 'Anivrar-
Spov KO.I K.aX\iQeat', known to us only from extracts contained in the
'Pociitvui of Macarius Chrysocephalos (see F. Boissonade, Marcian. 4.")2 !.
It exceeds, in absurdity of style and extravagance, all previous compo-
sitions of the Erotic School (Villoison. Aned. Owe., ii. 75, etc.). For
editions, etc., see Nicolai, Griech. Literaturgeschichte, p. 362.
< H. I.] GREEK ROMANCES. 87
cause she sees him among the captives." It is from tin-
In .use of Octavius, a Roman general, into whose power
>he had fallen, that Charis views the triumph that excites
sin -li jarring emotions. Melangenia, who turns out to be
an elderly gentlewoman of Carthage, but was at that time
tin- slave pf Octavius, is sent to console her. These two
fniiales recount to each other their early loves and misfor-
tunes, the recital of which occupies the first six books of
the romance, and the remaining four contain the adven-
tures of Charis after she had obtained her freedom from
(.Mavins, which are in the usual style of those contained
in the (Jreek romances.
A s to the question of the authenticity of this produc-
tion, the authors of the Bibliotheque des Komans seem to
think it a genuine work, but do not enter into much dis-
i Mission on the subject. Huet remarks, that the intimate
knowledge shown by the author, of all those things which
were discovered by the ancients, both in nature and art :
his wonderful acquaintance with the history of past
times, and the ancient errors he adopts, into which a
modern would scarcely have fallen; the Greek phraseology
which shines even through the mist of translation; and,
above all, the dignity and grace of antiquity, which cannot
1 asily imitated, and in which the whole work is clothed ;
all conspire to vindicate from the suspicion of forgery.
The bishop then proceeds to unfold his arguments against
the genuineness of the work, many of which are not more
conclusive than those adduced in favour of its authen-
ticity. The first reason for incredulity is, that the romance
has not been mentioned in the dictionary of Photius ;
which, if admitted as a proof of fabrication, would render
sjiurius the romances of Longus, Chariton, and the three
Xenophons. Nor is the argument derived from the sup-
posed imitation of Heliodorus altogether conclusive, since,
upon the supposition that the work in question was a
'_' nuine production of Athenagoras, Theagenes and Cha-
riclen may as probably have been derived from Charis and
ThcM^cnes, as these from the former appellations. The
non.e\istence, however, of a Greek original of the romance
ln Vrai et j.arfait Amour, necessarily throws the onus
j>i-"1>ii/iill of its authenticity on its defenders; aud, until
88 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
produced, a strong presumption remains, that Charis and
Theogenes is nothing more than a partial change of
Theagenes and Chariclea.
The imposture, indeed, is clearly detected by the de-
scription of manners and institutions unknown in the age
of Athenagoras. Thus the author conducts a criminal
trial in the heart of Greece, according to the form of pro-
cess before the parliament of Paris. The priests and
virgins introduced in the romance, as consecrated to Ham-
mon, live according to the fashion of the monks and nuns
of the fifteenth century, and not like those who existed in
the early ages of Christianity. 1
Huet has mentioned, as the principal defect of the
romance, that it is loaded with descriptions of buildings,
and that the palaces are not raised by the magic hand of
fiction, but by a professional architect. From this blemish
Huet has drawn his chief argument against the authen-
ticity of the work. " It is universally known," says he,
" that the Cardinal Armagnac was much addicted to the
study of architecture : Philander, the commentator on
Vitruvius, was one of his devoted retainers, was the most
scientific architect of his age, and was, besides, well in-
formed in every branch of polite literature. Now, since
the description of this Athenagoras are closely squared to
the principles of architecture inculcated by him in his
annotations on Vitruvius, may it not reasonably be sus-
pected, that Philander was the deviser of this literary im-
posture, in order to support his own opinions by the autho-
rity of antiquity ? The fraud might have been detected,
had the work issued from the hands of Philander, or the
palace of the cardinal. That he might remove suspicion
from himself, and conduct the reader as it were to other
ground, he wrote an amatory romance. There, as if inci-
dentally, he inserted the precepts of his art, and, conceal-
ing his own name, he ingeniously employed that of La-
mane, for the possessor of the manuscript, and Fumee for
the French translator. " However it may be," he con-
tinues, " the romance is ingeniously contrived, artfully
conducted, enlightened with unparalleled sentiments and
1 Scholl, Hist, de la Lit. Gr., and Pauli, Real. Encyl. s. v. Athenagoras,
reject the work as spurious.
CH. I.] GREEK ROMANCES. 89
precepts of morality, and adorned with a profusion of
delightful images,, most skilfully disposed. The incidents
ar' probable, the episodes are deduced from the main sub-
ject, the language is perspicuous, and modesty is scrupu-
lously observed. Here there is nothing mean, nothing
11 n natural or affected, nothing that has the appearance of
childishness or sophistry." Huet, however, complains that
the conclusion of the fable of this romance is far removed
from the excellence of the introduction.
I have now taken a successive view of the Greek romances,
and have attempted to furnish such an analysis of them as
may enable the reader to form some notion of their nature
and qualities.
One quality, it is obvious, pervades them all, and it is
the characteristic not only of Greek romance, but of the
first attempt at prose fiction in every country : The interest
of each work almost wholly consists in a succession of
strange, and often improbable adventures. Indeed, as the
primary object of the narrator was to surprise by the inci-
dents he rehearsed, the strangeness of these was the chief
object to which he directed his attention. For the creation
of these marvels sufficient scope was afforded him, because,
as little intercourse took place in society, the limits of pro-
baliility were not precisely ascertained. The seclusion,
also, of females in these early times gave a certain unifor-
mity to existence, and prevented the novelist from painting
those minute and almost imperceptible traits of feeling and
character, all those developments, which render a well-
written modern novel so agreeable and interesting. Still,
amid all their imperfections, the Greek romances are ex-
tremely pleasing, since they may be considered as almost
11 if first productions in which woman is in any degree re-
presented as assuming her proper station of the friend and
the companion of man. Hitherto she had been considered
almost in the light of a slave, ready to bestow her affec-
tions on whatever master might happen to obtain her ; but,
in lleliodorus and his followers, we see her an affectionate
guide and adviser we behold an union of hearts painted
as a main-spring of our conduct in life we are deliglite.l
with pictures of fidelity, constancy, and chastity, and are
encouraged to persevere in a life of virtue by the happy
90 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. I.
consequences to which it leads. The Greek romances are
less valuable than they might have been, from giving too
much to adventure, and too little to manners and charac-
ter ; but these have not been altogether neglected, and
several pleasing pictures are delineated of ancient customs
and feelings. In short, these early fictions are such as
might have been expected at the first effort, and must be
considered as not merely valuable in themselves, but as
highly estimable in pointing out the method of awaking
the most pleasing sympathies of our nature, and affecting
most poAverfully the fancy and the heart. 1
1 Phlegonof Tralles in Lydia. one of Hadrian's freedmen, may further
be mentioned before dismissing the present subject. Under his name
the Emperor, as is supposed, wrote his own biography (Spartiani Vita
Hadriaui, c. 16). His work Trtpi Savfiaatwv (printed in Jac. Gronovii
Thes. Grace. Anth-. viii. p. 2694) consists of a collection of marvellous
tales and ghost stories, not altogether unlike those which have been so
popular in the German literature of the present century. The first
portion of the book is lost, and therewith the commencement of the
story of Philinnion returned from the grave (borrowed by Phlegon from
a letter of Hipparchus, Philipp's Commandant of Amphipolis, to
Arrhidaeus, see liob.de, p. 391), which Goethe adapted in his Bride of
Corinth. The tale of Phlegon is undoubtedly connected with the tales
current in south-eastern Europe of vampyres, and dead who rise from
their graves and suck the blood of the living, especially of their nearest
relatives, and called in modern Greek Buthrolakkas, or Burkolassas
[fiovpicoXaKKae] .
Here, too, are found the stories of the Succubi (e^nrovaai), or female
sprites (Alp.). See Dobeneck, J)es Deutschen Mittelatus Volksglaube,
i. 32, who cites a pre-Christian example of this kind of being from
Philostratus.
See, further, note on Morgant le Geant, Chassang, p. 400, the tables
of Lamide, Gorgons, Ephialta, Mormolyce, Manducus.
Another fictionist unmentioned by Dunlop is Damascius, recorded by
Photius (cod. 130), but without any biographical information about him.
He was probably a Christian at a time when Christianity had become
generally diffused. Photius gives only the titles of his books which are :
Of Incredible Stories, 352 chapters ; Tales of Demons, 52 chapters ;
Wonderful Stories of Apparitions, 63 chapters, and of Incredible Natures,
105 chapters. Photius pronounces them to have been full of extrava-
gances, and of gloomy Pagan superstition, but composed in a clear and
elegant style. LIES.
A contemporary of Theodorus Prodromus, Constantino Manasses,
composed the metrical romance of Aristander and Callithea in nine books.
The only extracts from this work which have come down show it to have
contained the usual accumulation of adventures and vicissitudes found
in the Greek romances.
CH. I.] OBEEK ROMANCES. 91
In general, remarks F. W. V. Schmidt (Wien. Jalirb. Bd. 26, p. 46),
iiii,' of the later Greek romances, and especially the work> \
thius, Theodoras Prodromus, and Xicctas Eugenianos, the perusal
of these works, important as they are for the knowledge of philology
ami literature, leaves upon the reader the impression conveyed by seeing
an old man in his dotage.
Tin- contact with the western nations effected by the Crusades with
tlic etl'cte civilization of Byxantiiim, and French domination in the Morea,
Milisiinitcd Frankish romances for ancient models, or poor imitations
thereof, and narrative literature received themes from both east and
. as the stories of the Fankyatranta and Sindibad had already been
introduced into the popular Byzantine literature ; separate French corn-
posit ions were now translated, such as stories from the Round Table, of
la IJelle Maguelonne, Flores and Blanchefleur, etc. Many of these
stories became in this way so popularized that they are still recognizable
in the modern Greek folk tales. (See note to Apollonius, p. 83, and
Nicolai, Gesch. des Xeugriech, Literatur. p. 11.) An instance is the
story of the good Florentia, or the history of the faithful wife vainly
tempted by her brother-in-law during her husband's absence, then
turned adrift, resisting the amorous proposals of divers men whom she
meets, wlio subsequently come to be healed at a monastery whither she
had retired, and where she had become celebrated for miraculous cures,
and whom she heals from their ailments upon their confessing their
guilt ; whereupon she is reconciled to her husband. For an account of
i In variants of this story of the good Florentia of Rome, see Graesse,
irgeschiehte, iii. i. 286, 287. The same story is current with but
little dilt'erence in Janina Hahn, Griech. Marchen, N. 16 (1, p. 1 40, etc.).
The legend probably found its way in the popular mouth from some
Greek version of a Frankish original. The ultimate source of the Saga
(which is found in various forms, such as that of Genoveva, of Crescentia,
see v. d. Hagen Gesammtabentener, vii. and i. 101 ; also CEsterley, on
Kin-hot's Wendunnuth, 2, 23; G. Rom. 249, p. 747, of Hildegard ;
Grimm. Deutsche Sugen, X. 437) is to be found in the Indian cycle of
the Papageicnbuch in the oldest form of that collection which is accessible
to us, Night 33, as well as in the Turkish Tooti Nameh : Rose, i.
'8. See Rohde, p. 533, etc., and Gidel, Etudes. For further
information on the perpetuation of popular fiction among the Greeks,
the following works may be consulted : Berington's " Literary History
of the Middle Ages," Appendix I. Bikelas, Die Griechen des Mittclalters
nnd ihre EinHues auf die Europaische Cultur, Giittersloh, 1878.
Nicolai, Geschichte der Neugriechischen Literatur, Leipzig, 1876.
:. Etudes N'ouvelles Etudes sur la Litterature grecque moderne,
1 -1)6, 1878. Schmidt, Bernhardt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen und
llellenische Altcrthum, Leip/ig, 1*71, and the same author's
<.ri"i iiisrhe Marchen, etc., 1877. Hahn, Griechisehe und Albanesische
M:irchcn. isiU. Miss J. E. Harrison's < Myths of the Odyssey in Art
and Literature," London, 1882. Cierland, Altgriechische Marchen in
der (My.-see. Magdeburg, 1869. (Jeldart. Folklore of Modern (iivei-c.
London, 1882. VV. Wagner, Shakespeare in < iriechenland, Leipzig,
and chaps. 2 1,28-30, of Rev. II. F. Tozi-r's l,V>earc!u-sin the Highlands
of Turkey."
CHAPTER II.
INTRODUCTION OF THE MILESIAN TALES INTO ITALY. LATIN
ROMANCES. PETRONIUS ARBITER. APULEITJS, ETC.
r ~PHE Milesian Fables had found their way into Italy
-*- even before they flourished in Greece. They had been
received with eagerness, and imitated by the Sybarites, the
most voluptuoxis nation in the west of Europe ; whose
stories obtained the same celebrity in Rome, that the
Milesian tales had acquired in Greece and Asia. It is not
easy to specify the exact nature of the western imitations,
but if we may judge from a solitary specimen transmitted
by .Lilian in his Varise Historic (1. 14. c. 20), they were of
a facetious description, and intended to promote merriment.
A pedagogue of the Sybarite nation conducted his pupil
through the streets of a town. The boy happened to get
hold of a fig, which he was proceeding to eat, when his
tutor interrupted him by a long declamation against luxury,
and then snatching the dainty from his hand, devoured it
with the utmost greed. This tale Julian says he had read
in the Sybarite stories (^opiate avpapiTiKaiG), and had been
so much entertained that he got it by heart, and committed
it to writing, as he did not grudge mankind a hearty laugh !
Many of the Romans, it would appear, were as easily
amused as .ZElian, since the Sybarite stories for a long
while enjoyed great popularity ; and, at length, in the
time of Sylla, the Milesian tales of Aristides were trans-
lated into Latin by Sisenna, who was praetor of Sicily, and
author of a history of Rome. Plutarch informs us in his
life of Crassus [c. 32], that when that general was defeated
by the Parthians, the conquerors found copies of Milesian
and Sybarite tales in the tents of the Roman soldiers ;
whence Surena expressed his contempt for the effeminacy
and licentiousness of his enemies, who, even in time of war,
could not refrain from the perusal of such compositions.
<>!. II.] PETRONIUS ARBITER. 93
The taste for the Sybarite and Milesian fables increased
during the reign of the emperors. Many imitators of
Aristides appeared, particularly Clodius Albinus, the com-
petitor of the Emperor Severus, whose stories have not
readied posterity, but are said to have obtained a celebrity
to which their merit hardly entitled them. 1 It is strange
that Severus, in a letter to the senate, in which he upbraids
its members for the honours they had heaped on his rival,
und the support they had given to his pretensions, should,
amid accusations that concerned him more nearly, have
expressed his chief mortification to arise from their having
distinguished that person as learned, who had grown hoary
in the study of old wives' tales, such as the Milesian-Punic
fables. Major fuit dolor, quod ilium pro literato laudan-
dum plerique duxistis, cum ille neniis quibusdam anilibus
occupatus, inter Milesias Punicas Apuleii suit, et ludicra
literaria consenesceret. 2
But the most celebrated fable of ancient Rome is the
work of Petronius Arbiter, perhaps the most remarkable
fiction which has dishonoured the literary history of any
nation. It is the only fable of that period now extant, 3 but
is a strong proof of the monstrous corruption of the times
in which such a production could be tolerated, though, no
doubt, writings of bad moral tendency might be circulated
before the invention of printing, without arguing the de-
pravity they would have evinced, if presented to the world
subsequent to that period.
The work of Petronius is in the form of a satire, and,
accord ing to some commentators, is directed against the
vices of the court of Nero, who is thought to be delineated
under the names of Trimalchio and Agamemnon ; an opinion
1 Milesias nonnulli fjusdem esse dicunt, quorum fama non ignohilis
habetur, quamvis mediocriter scriptte sunt. Capitolinus vit. Clod.
Albini.. C. 11.
- Ibid. c. 1-2.
3 And extant only in a fragmentary form. Being employed for ex-
ri'rpts in anthologies, the work itself was all the sooner lost, which it
!ij>]R>ars to have been as early as the seventh century. The MSS. known
have on the whole the same gaps and corruptions, and must therefore
IT derived from, and the same original MSS., which contained only ex-
cerpts from the complete works of Petronius. Teuffel. His. Rom. Lit.
ii. p. 88.
94 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
which has been justly ridiculed by Voltaire [Ecrivains franc.
du Siecle de Louis XIV. s. v. Nodot]. The satire is written
in a manner which was first introduced by Varro ; verses
are intermixed with prose, and jests with serious remark.
It has much the air of a romance, both in the incidents and
their disposition ; but the story is too well known, and too
scandalous, to be particularly detailed. The scene is laid
in Magna Grsecia ; Eucolpius [c. 91], is the chief character
in the work, and the narrator of events ; he commences by
a lamentation on the decline of eloquence [c. 2], and while
listening to the reply of Agamemnon, a professor of oratory,
he loses his companion Ascyltos. Wandering through the
town in search of him [c. 6], he is finally conducted by an.
old woman to a retirement where the incidents that occur
are analogous to the scene. The subsequent adventures
the feast of Trimalchio the defection and return of G-iton.
the amour of Euniolpus in Bythinia the voyage in the
vessel of Lycus the passion and disappointment of Circe,
follow each other without much art of arrangement ; an
apparent defect which may arise from the mutilated form
in which the satire has descended to us.
The style of Petronius has been much applauded for its
elegance it certainly possesses considerable naiveti' and
grace, and is by much too fine a veil for so deformed a
body. 1 Some of the verses also are extremely beautiful.
The best part of the prose, however, is the well-known
episode of the matron of Ephesus [c. Ill, 112], which, I
have little doubt, was originally a Milesian or Sybarite
fable. A lady of Ephesus, on the death of her husband,
not contented with the usual demonstrations of grief, de-
scended with the corpse into the vault in which it was en-
tombed, resolving there to perish with sorrow. From this
design no entreaties of her own or her husband's friends
could dissuade her. But at length a common soldier, who
had been appointed to watch the bodies of malefactors
crucified in the vicinity, lest they should be taken down by
their relations, perceiving a light, descended into the vault,
1 The council of Trent declined to put the work on the Index on
account of its Latinity. For a very readable account of Petronius, who
is now generally considered to have been a contemporary of Nero, see-
Sincox. Latin Literature, ii. 83.
cil. II.] PETRONIUS ARBITER. 95
where he gazed on the beauty of the mourner, whom he
soon persuaded to eat, to drink, and to live. That very
ui'_, p ht, in her funeral garments, in the commencement of
IHT grief, and in the tomb of her husband, she was united
lot his new and unknown lover. When the soldier ascended
from this bridal chamber, he found that the body of a
criminal had been carried off. He returned to his mistress
i o ( loplore the punishment that awaited him for his neglect,
but she immediately relieved his disquiet, by proposing
that the corpse of the husband, whose funeral she had so
vehemently mourned, should be raised, and nailed to the
cross in room of the malefactor.
A story nearly the same with that in Petronius exists,
under title of the Widow who was Comforted, in the book
known in this country by name of the Seven wise Masters, 1
which is one of the oldest collections of oriental stories.
There, however, the levity of the widow is aggravated by
tin- circumstance that the husband had died in consequence
of alarm at a danger to which his wife had been exposed,
and that she consented to mutilate his body, in order to
gi vo it a perfect resemblance to that of the malefactor which
had been taken down from the cross.
This story of female levity has frequently been imitated,
both in its classical and oriental circumstances. 2 It is the
Fill >liau De la f emme qui se fist putain sur la fosse de son
mari. The Pere du Halde, in his History of China,
informs us that it is a common story in that empire ; 3 but
tin- most singular place for the introduction of such a tale
was the Rule and Exercise of holy Dying, by Jeremy
1 See Beufey Pancha, i. 460.
2 In the Cento Novelle antiche, No. 56, Sercambi, Nov. 16, Annibale
Compeggi and Eustazio Manfred! ; in French by St. Evremond, CEuvres
Meslees, i. 236, London, 1705 ; Tragicomedie de Pierre Brinon, Paris,
1614: Hist. Theat. franc, iv. 188 ; La Fontaine, La Matrone d'Ephese ;
Voltaire in Zadig, c. 2, Le Nez Coupe. It is also the subject of The
Widow's Tears, a comedy of the beginning of the seventeenth century,
Hxlsley's Collection, vol. vi. It also occurs in the De Nugis Curialium
(1. viii. c. 11) of John of Salisbury.
8 A wise man of Song, Chouang-tse by name, meets in a burial-place
a young widow who is tanning her husband's irrave with her fan. In
reply toChouang-tse's inquiries, she explains in tears, and without desist-
ing, as courtesy required, from her exercise, that she had promised her
hitskuid upon his death-bed not to enter wedlock anew until the mould
96 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
Taylor, where it forms part of the 5th chapter, entitled, Of
the Contingencies of Death and Treating our Dead.
The Latin writers of fiction seem to have been uniformly
more happy in their episodes than in the principal subject.
This remark is particularly applicable to the
GOLDEN Ass
of Apuleius, its readers, on account of its excellence, as is
generally supposed, having added the epithet of Golden.
Warburton, however, conjectures, from the beginning of
one of Pliny's epistles, that Aurice was the common title
given to the Milesian, and such tales as strollers used to
tell for a piece of money to the rabble in a circle : " Assem
para et accipe aureani fabulam" [1. ii. ep. 20]. These
Milesian fables were much in vogue in the age of Apuleius.
Accordingly, in the commencement of his work, he allures
Ms readers with the promise of a fashionable composition, 1
at one end of the grave-mound was quite dry, a desiccation she devoutly
wished and assiduously promoted by the unflagging employment of her
fan. Upon Chouang's proffer of assistance she produced another fan
and handed it to him.
The sage, on returning home, relates his adventure to his wife Tien,
who reviles the widow, and protests that she herself after such bereave-
ment would never re-marry. Shortly afterwards Chouang dies, and his
widow is at first inconsolable. However, a former pupil of Chouang's
puts in an appearance, and desires at once to pay the last tribute of
respect to the remains of his deceased master, and then to avail himself
of his books to prosecute his studies. The widow receives him into her
house, falls in love with him, and their marriage is forthwith celebrated,
while the body of Chouang is thrust into a wretched shed. When about
to climb into the nuptial couch the bridegroom is seized with cramps,
which his servant says can only be cured by a potion composed of wine
mixed with human; brain. The bride, providing herself with an axe,
hastens to the place where the corpse of her late husband lay, hews open
the coffin, and is about to proceed as summarily with the skull, when
Chouang awakes from a long trance, and returns home with her. The
hollowness of her previous protestations evinced by the festal signs
visible in the house, Tien hangs herself for shame, while her husband
sets the dwelling and all within it, including her bodj r , on fire, the
scholar and his servant have, however, secured their safety by flight.
Chouang thenceforward devoted himself to travel and philosophy and
celibacy. The General History of China, iii. pp. Io4-l55, London,
1736. This story is also iii. and No. 3 of Contes Chinois traduits, pub-
lished by Remusat. Paris. 1827.
1 At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram. auresijue
tuas benevolas lepido susurro permulceam.
CH. II.] APULEIUS THE GOLDEN ASS. 97
though he early insinuates that he has deeper intentions
than their amusement.
The fable is related in the person of the author, who
commences his story with representing himself as a young
man, sensible of the advantages of virtue, but immoderately
addicted to pleasure, and curious of magic. He informs
the reader, that on account of some domestic affairs, he was
thli^ed to travel into Thessaly, the country whence his
family had its origin. At his entrance into one of the
towns, called Hypata, he enquired for a person of the name
of Milo, and being directed to his house, rapped at the
door. On what security do you intend to borrow ? said a
servant, cautiously unbolting it ; we only lend on pledges
of gold or silver. Being at last introduced to the master,
Apuleius presented letters of recommendation from Demeas,
a friend of the miser, and was in consequence asked to
remain in the house. Milo having dismissed his wife,
ili 'sired his guest to sit down on the couch in her place,
apologizing for the want of seats of a more portable de-
scription, on account of his fear of robbers. Apuleius
having accepted the invitation to reside in the miser's
house, went out to the public bath, and on the way reflect-
ing on the parsimony of his host, he bought some fish for
supper. On coming out from the market he met Pithias,
who had been his school-fellow at Athens, but was at that
time sedile of Hypata, and had the superintendence of pro-
visions. This magistrate having examined the fish his
friend had purchased, condemned them as bad, ordered
them to be destroyed, and having merely reprimanded the
vendor, left his old companion dismayed at the loss of his
supper and money, and by no means satisfied with the mode
of administering justice in Thessaly.
After having visited the bath, Apuleius returned to sleep
at Milo's [1. 1], and rose next morning with the design of
seeing whatever was curious in the city. Thessaly was the
country whence magic derived its origin ; and of the nature
of this art he had heard and even witnessed something on
his journey from Korne. Hence he imagined that every
thing he saw was changed from its natural form, by the
ton-oof enchantment; he expected to behold the statues
walk, and to hear the oxen prophesy. While roaming
i. H
98 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
through the town he met with a lady, called Byrrhena,
who, having been a friend of his mother, invited him to
lodge at her house. This he could not agree to, as he had
already accepted an apartment at Milo's, but he consented
to accompany her home to supper. The great hall in this
lady's palace is splendidly described, and an animated
account is given of a statue of Victory, and a piece of
sculpture representing Diana, surrounded by her dogs.
Apuleius is warned by Byrrhena to beware of Parnphile, the
wife of Milo, who was the most dangerous magician in
Thessaly. She informs him that this hag spares no charms
to fascinate a young man for whom she conceives a passion,
and does not scruple to metamorphose those who oppose
her inclinations. Apuleius returned home, hesitating
whether to attach himself to Pamphile, iii order to be in-
structed in magic, or to her servant Fotis. The superior
beauty of the latter speedily fixed his resolution, and he
consoled himself for the many privations he endured in the
house of Milo, by carrying on an intrigue with this damsel,
who acted as the handmaid of Pamphile, and the valet of
her parsimonious husband.
One night, while supping at the house of Byrrhena,
Apuleius was informed that the following day being the
festival of Momus, he ought to honour that divinity by
some merry invention.
Returning home somewhat intoxicated, he perceived
through the dusk three large figures attacking the door of
Milo with much fury. Suspecting them to be robbers, who
intended to break in, he ran his sword through them in
succession, and, leaving them as dead, escaped into the
house [1. 2]. Next morning he is arrested 011 account of
the triple homicide, and is brought to trial in a crowded
and open court. The accuser is called by a herald. An
old man, who acted in this capacity, pronounced a ha-
rangue, of which the duration was limited by a clepsydra,
as the old sermons were measured by hour-glasses. Two
women in deep mourning were introduced ; one lamented
the death of her husband, the other of her son, and both
called loudly for vengeance on the murderer. Apuleius
was found guilty of the death of three citizens ; but pre-
vious to his execution it was resolved he should be put to
CH. II.] APULEIUS THE GOLDEN ASS. 99
the torture, to force a discovery of his accomplices, and the
necessary preparations were accordingly completed. What
.had chiefly astonished Apuleius during this scene, was,
that the whole court, and among others his host Milo,
were all the while convulsed with laughter. One of the
women in mourning now demanded that the dead bodies,
which were in court, should be uncovered, in order that,
the compassion of the judges being excited, the tortures
might be increased. The demand was complied with, and
the task assigned to Apuleius himself. The risibility of
the audience is now accounted for, as he sees, to his utter
astonishment, three immense leather bottles, which, on the
preceding night, he had mistaken for robbers. The imagi-
nary criminal is then dismissed, after being informed that
this mock trial was in honour of the god Mom us.
On returning home the matter was more fully explained
l>v Fotis, who informs Apuleius that she had been em-
ployed by her mistress to procure the hair of a young
Boeotian, of whom she was enamoured, in order to prepare
a charm which would bring him to her house : that having
failed in obtaining this ingredient, and fearing the resent-
ment of her mistress, she had brought her some goat's hair
which had fallen from the scissors of a bottle-shearer.
These hairs being burned by the sorceress, with the usual
incantations, had (instead of leading the Boeotian to her
house,) given animation to the skins to which they formerly
adhered, and which being then in the form of bottles,
appeared, in their desii'e of entrance, to assault the door of
Milo. The above story of the bottles probably suggested
rvaiites the dreadful combat which took place at an
inn between Don Quixote and the wine skins, which he
hacked to pieces, supposing all the while that he was cleav-
ing down giants (book iv. c. 4).
Apuleius agreed to forgive Fotis the uneasiness she had
occasioned, if she would promise to exhibit her mistress to
him while engaged in one of her magical operations. On
the following night Fotis came to him in great agitation,
and informed him that her mistress was about to assume
the shape of a bird, to fly to some object of her affections.
Looking through au opening in the door, he saw Pamphile
take out several bottles, and rub herself with an ointment
100 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
contained in one of them. Then having muttered certain
words, her body is covered with feathers, her nails are
lengthened into claws ; and forthwith, in shape of an owl,
she flies out of her chamber. Apuleius next requested
Fotis that she would favour him with some of the ointment,
that he might follow her mistress in the same form, to his
restoration from which he understood nothing farther was
necessary than a draught of spring water, mixed with
anise and laurel leaves. Fotis, however, gave him a diffe-
rent ointment from that which she had intended, so that,
instead of being changed into a bird, he assumed the figure
of an Ass. In this shape he retains his former feelings
and understanding, but is told by Fotis that he cannot be
restored to the human form but by eating rose leaves.
The remainder of the story is occupied with the search of
Apuleius after this valuable article, and the hardships he
suffers under the degraded form to which he was reduced;
a part of the work, which seems in its literal significa-
tion to have suggested the idea of such compositions as
the Adventures of a Lap-dog, the Perambulations of a
Mouse, &c.
Apuleius in the first place descended to the stable, where
he was very roughly treated by his own horse, and the ass
of Milo. In a corner of his new habitation he perceived
the shrine of Hippona, the goddess of stables, adorned with
fresh-gathered roses ; but in attempting to pluck them he
was beat back with many blows by his own groom, who felt
indignant at the meditated sacrilege.
At this instant Milo' s dwelling was broken into by robbers,
who, having pillaged the house, loaded the horse and the
two asses which they found in the stable with the booty.
Apuleius observed several rose bushes in a garden through
which he passed on his way to the habitation of the ban-
ditti ; but restrained himself from partaking of their
flowers, lest he should be murdered by his new masters on
resuming the human figure [1. 3], After a long journey,
and when almost ready to sink under the weight of his
burden, he arrived at the abode of the robbers. This
residence is described in a manner extremely similar to the
habitations of banditti, in all modern romances. We have
the rugged mountain, impenetrable forest, inaccessible
CH. II.] APUXEIU8 THE GOLDEN ASS. 101
rocks, and even the solid and lofty tower, with the subter-
raneous cavern. In this frightful abode supper was served
up by an old woman, who was the only domestic; and
during the repast another troop arrived bearing a rich
At daybreak the band set out on a new expedition, and
returned a few hours afterwards with a young lady as their
prize, whom they consigned to the care of the old woman.
She informed this hag that she had been carried off on the
lay of her nuptials with a young man, to whom she was
much Attached. The old woman, to alleviate her distress,
entertained her with a story which she said was taken from
the Milesian fables, and which is the celebrated tale of
Cupid and Psyche [1. 4]. 1
Apuleius was employed in different expeditions with the
robbers ; he also made several attempts to escape from
their power, which proved abortive [1. 6]. At length, one
of their number, who had been left in the town where
Milo resided, returned to his band, and informed them
that they were not not suspected of the robbery, which
hed been laid to the charge of a person of the name of
Apuleius, who had forged letters from a friend of Milo,
and had disappeared after pillaging the house. He also
introduced a stranger, who represented himself as the cele-
brated robber Heinus, the terror of all Thessaly ; and who,
of consequence, was gladly chosen the leader of the ban-
ditti. Apuleius, by attending to the conversation which
]>a>sed between this person and the young lady, discovered
that the pretended outlaw was her husband, who had
assumed a false character, in order to effect her escape.
This lu> accomplished one evening by intoxicating his com-
panions, when, having bound them with cords, and placed
his bride on the back of Apuleius, he returned with her to
the town in which she had formerly resided.
There is a striking coincidence of the occurrences at the
habitation of the robbers with some of the early incidents
in Gil Bias. The gloomy habitation of the robbers the
manner in which it is secured the revelry of the banditti
the old woman by whom they are attended the arrival
1 See infra, p. 107, etc.
102 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
of a new troop during the entertainment the captivity of
the young lady and final escape, are, I think, resemblances
too strong to have been merely accidental.
The new master of Apuleius, in gratitude for the service
he had rendered, determined he should be sent to his
mares in the country, to aid in the propagation of mules.
Unfortunately the groom he was entrusted to had a wife,
who totally marred the amorous expectations of Apuleius,
by setting him to turn a mill. Nor was his situation
improved when the groom, at length recollecting his orders,
sent him on the service to which he was originally destined ;
as he met with a most inhospitable reception from some
horses who were his fellow suitors.
After this mortification, Apuleius was employed to bring
burdens of wood from the mountains, under the guidance
of a boy, who treated him with the utmost cruelty, and
spread such a report of his mischievous disposition, that
he was at the point of being for ever disqualified for the
multiplication of mules [1. 7]. Intelligence, however, op-
portunely arrived that his master had been treacherously
murdered by a former lover of his wife's, and that this
lady, after taking a savage revenge on her perfidious
admirer, had laid violent hands on herself. On receiving
this intelligence, the groom pillaged his master's house in
the country, loaded Apuleius with the booty, and fled with
the rustics who were his accomplices. In the course of
their journey through a wild and desolate country, they
met with various adventures ; and at length arrived in a
populous town, where the groom resolved to fix his resi-
dence. Here Apuleius was purchased by an old eunuch,
one of the priests of the Syrian goddess. While in his
possession he was witness to the dreadful debaucheries of
the ministers of that divinity ; and inadvertently braying
with astonishment at their excesses, one of the neighbours,
who had lost an ass, burst into the house, which rendered
public the infamy of these wretches.
In consequence of this exposure, the eunuchs were
obliged to remove to another town, whither Apuleius,
bearing the statue of the Syrian goddess, accompanied
them. Here they lodged in the house of one of the inhald-
tants, who had a great veneration for that deity. A dog
CH. II.] APULEIU8 THE GOLDEN ASS. 103
unfortunately ran off with a haunch of venison, with which
he had intended to entertain her votaries. The cook pro-
posed to hang himself in despair, but. his wife persuaded
him to leave that operation as his last resource, and mean-
while to substitute an ass's leg in room of the one he had
lost. Apuleius having understood that he was the intended
victim [1. 8], rushed into the hall where the host was
entertaining the priest, and overset the tables. A report
having been circulated that a mad dog had been seen in
the stable, this act of Apuleius was ascribed to hydrophobia ;
and he would have been sacrificed to this suspicion, if he
had nor instantly drunk some water from a vase.
The eunuchs soon after removed, and in travelling about
with them, Apuleius heard the recital of the tale concern-
ing the tub which forms the second story of the seventh
day of the Decameron. Apuleius at length was sold at
the market of one of the towns through which he passed,
to a baker, who meets with the adventure related by
Boccaccio in the tenth novel of the fifth day [1. 9]. He
next fell into the possession of a gardener, from whom he
was forcibly carried off by a Roman soldier, and sold to
two brothers who lived together ; the one being the cook,
and the other the pastry-cook, of a man of wealth and
importance. When they went out they made it a rule
to lock the door of the tent in which they baked and
dressed victuals, and left only their ass in it. At their
return they invariably found that the pastry and other
provisions had disappeared. As the ass always left his
corn and hay unconsumed, he became an object of sus-
picion ; and being watched one day by the brothers, was
detected at his dainty repast. The cooks were much enter-
tained with the spectacle, and the account of this piece of
epicurism having reached the ears of their master, Thyasus,
Apuleius was purchased by him, and taught a variety of
tricks by one of his freedmen. The possession of this
singular animal threw much lustre on the proprietor, in
tin- estimation of his fellow-citiaens, and he was in con-
sequence appointed chief magistrate of Corinth for five
consecutive years.
Apuleius was also of great value to the freedman who
hud charge of him, as he was exhibited for money to the
104 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
inhabitants. He received besides frequent visits from
ladies, which, at their solicitation, he was privately sent to
return. 1
A splendid fete was now given by his master, in honour
of his election to the magistracy. The judgment of Paris
was represented, and Apuleius was destined to act a prin-
cipal part in a species of afterpiece, which was by no means
consonant to his feelings as a public exhibition.
He fled, unperceived, to the fields, and having galloped
for three leagues, he came to a retired spot on the shore of
the sea. The moon, which was in full splendour, and the
awful silence of the night, inspired him with sentiments of
devotion. He purified himself in the manner prescribed
by Pythagoras, and addressed a long prayer to the great
goddess Isis. In the course of the night she appeared to
him in a dream. ; and, after giving a strange account of
herself, announced to him the end of his misfortunes ; but
demanded, in return, the consecration of his whole life to
her service. When he awakens from this dream, he feels
confirmed in the resolution of aspiring to a life of virtue.
On this change of disposition, and conquest over his
passions, the author finely represents all Nature as assum-
ing a new face of cheerfulness and gaiety. " Tanta hilari-
tudine, prseter peculiarem nieam, gestire mihi cuncta vide-
bantur, ut pecua etiam cujuscemodi, et totas domos, et
ipsam diem serena facie gaudere sentirem" [1. 11].
While in this frame of mind, Apuleius perceived an
innumerable multitude advancing towards the shore, to
celebrate the festival of Isis. Amid the crowd of priests
he remarked the sovereign pontiff, with a crown of roses on
his head ; and approached to pluck them. The pontiff,
yielding to a secret inspiration, held forth the garland.
Apuleius resumed his former figure, and the promise of
the goddess was fulfilled. He was then initiated into her
rites, returned to Eome, and devoted himself to her
service. This information, he remarks, will not surprise
those who know that he is decurion of the temple of Osiris,
1 See La Pucelle, chant, xx. note 4. ; ' L'ane d'Apule'e (says Vol-
taire) ne parla point ; il ne put jamais prononcer que Oh et non : mais
il cut une bonne fortune avec une dame, cornme on pent le voir dans
1' Apuleius en deux volumes in 4 cum notis ad usum Dclphiiii." LIEB.
CH. II.] APULEITTS THE GOLDEN ASS. 105
and who are not ignorant that Isis and Osiris are one
divinity [1. II]. 1
Apuleius was finally invited to a more mystic and
solemn initiation, by the goddess herself, who rewarded
him for his accumulated piety, by an abundance of temporal
blessings.
Such is the general outline of the subject of the Golden
Ass, which the contemporaries of the author, and critics
of the succeeding age, regarded as a trivial fable, written
with the sole intention of amusing the vulgar : " Quibus
fabulis," says Macrobius, " Apuleium nonnunquam lusisse
miramur." At an early, though subsequent period, a very
different opinion was adopted. It was no longer ques-
tioned that Apuleius had some profound intention ; but it
was not agreed in what his aim consisted. St. Augustine
[De Civ. Dei. xviii., 18,] permitted himself to doubt whether
the account given by Apuleius of his change into an ass,
was not a true relation. " Aut indicavit," says he, " aut
finxit." The popular sentiment was, that the work was
chiefly intended as a satire on the vices of the author's
countrymen ; and that, in imitation of a great predecessor,
he had been too anxious to particularize the maladies
which he wished to remedy, Beroaldus, the learned com-
mentator on Apuleius, imagines the transformation into
an ass to signify that man becomes brutified when im-
mersed in sensual pleasures ; but that when roses are
tasted, by which science and wisdom are typified, he re-
turns to religion and virtue ; a change which is allego-
rically painted by a restoration to the human form.
In his " Divine Legation of Moses " [Book iv. 4 ] ,
Dr. Warburton has entered into much learned and inge-
nious, though often far-fetched speculation, on this subject.
He introduces this topic, (which, at first sight, seems to
bear a very remote analogy to the mission of the Jewish
legislator,) while attempting to demonstrate that all nations
1 The remark placed in the mouth of Apuleius by Dunlop probably
refers to the passage (Ed. Oiulendorp, 1. xi. p. 817): -'Osiris ... nesacris
suis gregi cetero permixtus deservirem, in collegium me Pastophorum
suorum, immo inter ipsos Decurionum quinquennales elegit. And
(ibid., p. 811) " Connexa, immo vero unicu ratio numinis religionisijiu-."
106 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
have inculcated the general doctrine of a Providence, and
the belief in a future state of rewards and punishments,
by some circumstantial and popular method, as the Insti-
tution of Mysteries. The learned prelate contends that
the author had conceived an inveterate dislike to the Chris-
tian religion. He proves, from several passages in the
Apology, another work of Apuleius, that his brother-in-
law, by whom he was prosecuted on a charge of magic,
was of this persuasion ; and in the Golden Ass, the vices
of the baker's wife are summed up, by informing us that
she was a Christian [1. 9] ; hence his prepossession in
favour of the pagan worship was increased, and he was
induced to compose a work for the express purpose of
extolling this superstition, and recommending an initiation
into its mysteries, as a remedy for all vices whatever. On
this system, the author of the Divine Legation proceeds
to explain the prominent incidents of the romance. The
ancients believed that a deliverance from a living death
of brutality and vice, and a return to a new existence of
virtue and happiness, which form the principal subject of
the Golden Ass, might be effected by initiation into the
mysteries. Byrrhena is the representation of virtue ; Apu-
leius refuses her invitation, and gives way to his passion
for pleasure and magic, till the crimes and follies into
which they lead him, end in his transformation to a brute ;
in which shape every change of condition makes his situa-
tion more wretched and contemptible. The description of
the enormities committed by the priests of Cybele is in-
tended as a contrast to the pure rites of Isis. Roses, by
which the restoration to the human form is effected, were,
among the ancients, symbols of silence ; a requisite quality
of the initiated, particularly among the Egyptians, who
worshipped Harpocrates, the first-born of Isis : hence the
statues of Isis were crowned with chaplets of these flowers,
and hence the phrase, " under the rose," has become in
modern times proverbial. The solemn initiation, which is
fully described, and the account of which concludes the
work, agrees with what other writers have delivered
concerning the mysteries.
If the Golden Ass of Apuleius was written, as War-
burton believes, in support of the pagan worship, it is
CH. II.] CUPID AND PSYCHE. 107
perhaps strange that its author should have chosen, as a
prototype, the Ass of Lucian ; which, like many other
works of that satirist, was intended to ridicule the hea-
then mythology. Both compositions derived their origin
from the writings of Lucius Patrensis, 1 which are not now
xtaiit ; but are supposed to have been an account of me-
tamorphoses according to the popular theology. One of
these transformations was, for the sake of ridicule, adopted
by Lucian in his Ass ; which, though the leading incidents
are the same, is a mere sketch or outline of the Golden
Ass of the Roman. Thus Apuleius has added the story of
the assassination of the bottles, and the mock trial which
ensued. He has also given a serious and sacred air to the
ivsi oration to the human form, which Lucian accidentally
effects by plucking some roses from a bystander, when
condemned to an exhibition similar to that from which
Apuleius escaped. The long description of the initiation
into the mysteries, is substituted for the ludicrous inci-
dent which terminates the adventures of Lucian ; who
having, in his original shape, sought refuge with a lady in
whose sight he often found favour as an ass, was turned out
with disgrace on account of the diminution of his charms.
The G-olden Ass is also enriched with numerous episodes,
which are the invention of Apuleius, or at least are not to
be found in the work of Lucian. Of these, the best known,
and by far the most beautiful, is the story of
CUPID AND PSYCHE,
which is related by the female servant of the banditti to
the young lady whom they had taken captive [1. 4, 5, 6].
A certain king had three daughters, of whom the
youngest and most lovely was named Psyche. Her charms
indeed were so wonderful, that her father's subjects began
to adore and pay her the homage which should have been
reserved for Venus. The exasperated goddess commands
her son to avenge her on this rival, by inspiring Psyche
with a passion for some unworthy object ; but while em-
ployed in this design, Cupid himself becomes enamoured
1 See supra, p. 16.
108 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
of the princess. Meanwhile, in obedience to the response
of an oracle, Psyche is exposed on a barren rock, where
she is destined to become the prey of a monster. From
this hapless situation she is borne by the commissioned
Zephyr, who wafts her to a green and delightful valley.
Here she enjoys a refreshing sleep; and on awakening
perceives a grove, in the centre of which was a fountain,
and near the fountain a splendid palace. The roof of this
structure was supported by golden pillars, the walls were
covered with silver, and every species of animal was repre-
sented in exquisite statuary at the portal : Psyche enters
this edifice, where a splendid feast is prepared ; she hears
a voice inviting her to partake of this repast, but no one
appears. After this sumptuous banquet is removed, she
listens to a delightful concert, which proceeds from unseen
musicians. In this enchanting residence she is espoused
and visited every night by Cupid. Her husband, who was
ever invisible, forbids her to attempt to see him ; adding,
that her happiness depended on obedience to the prohi-
bition. In these circumstances Cupid, at her earnest soli-
citation, reluctantly agrees to bring her sisters to the
palace. These relatives, being envious of the happiness of
their younger sister, try to persuade her that her husband
is a serpent, by whom she would be ultimately devoured.
Psyche, though by this time she should have been suffi-
ciently qualified to judge how far this suspicion was well
founded, resolves to satisfy herself of the truth by oracular
demonstration. Bearing a lamp in one hand, and a dagger
in the other to destroy him should he prove a monster, she
approaches the couch of her husband while he is asleep.
In the agitation produced by the view of his angelic form,
she allows a drop of scalding oil to fall on his shoulder.
The irritated god flies from her presence, and leaves her a
prey to remorse and despair. The enchanted garden and
the gorgeous palace vanish along with him. Psyche finds
herself alone and solitary on the banks of a river. Under
the protection of Pan she wanders through the country,
and successively arrives at the kingdom of her sisters. l>y
each of whom she is repulsed. The victim equally of the
rage of Venus and of her son, she roams through all regions
of the earth in search of the celestial lover whose favour
CH. II.] CUPID AND PSYCHE. 109
she had forfeited. She is also subjected to various trials
by Venus, one of which is to bring water from a fountain
guarded by ever- watchful dragons. Jupiter, at length,
tak-s pity on her misfortunes, endows her with immor-
tality, and confirms her union with her forgiving husband.
On this occasion the Hours empurple the sky with roses ;
the Graces shed aromatic odours through the celestial
halls ; Apollo accompanies the lyre with his voice ; the
god of Arcadia touches his sylvan reeds; and the Muses
join in the chorus.
This allegory is supposed by some writers to be founded
on an obscure tradition of the fall of man, and to form an
emblem of his temptation, transgression, repentance, and
subsequent reception into the favour of the godhead. Its
meaning, however, is probably more restricted, and only
comprehends the progress of the soul to perfection, the
possession of divine love, and reward of immortality. From
the earliest times the influence of religious sentiments has
been typified by the hopes and fears of an amatory attach-
ment. This style of composition was adopted by the
rhapsodists of Hindostan and Persia, and bewitched the
luxuriant imagination of the wisest of mankind. 1 Bryant,
in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology (vol. ii. 388), in-
forms us that one of the emblems among the Egyptians
was Psyche (^i/^jj,) who, though represented as a beauti-
ful female, was originally no other than the Aurelia, or
butterfly, an insect which remains in a state of torpor dur-
ing winter, but at the return of spring comes forth with
new life, and in beautiful attire. This was deemed a pic-
ture of the soul of man, and of the immortality to which
he aspired ; and more particularly of Osiris, who, after
being confined in a coffin, enjoyed a renewal of life. This
second birth is described under the character of Psyche,
and as it was the fruit of divine love, of which Eros was
1 See Benfey Pantschatantra, i. 255. Schopenhauer was led to the
same conclusion upon internal evidence (Parerga, ii. 444). Niehbuhr
(Kleine Schriften, 2te Samml., p. 263) seems to consider Italy as the
original home of the fable. Dr. Zinzow (Rohdo ueber Lucian, p. 18)
sees a radically Greek impress in the legend, and considers it is, at least
in the form it is found in in Apuleius, as genuinely Milesian. There is
said to be a distinct parallel to the Story of Eros and Psyche in the folk
tales of Zululand. See also, infra, note to Perrr ult.
110 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
the emblem, we find him often introduced as a concomitant
of Psyche 1 .
Whatever may be the concealed meaning of the allegory,
the story of Cupid and Psyche is certainly a beautiful fic-
tion. Of this, the number of translations and imitations
may be considered as a proof. Mr. Rose, in the notes to
his version of Partenopex de Blois, has pointed out its
striking resemblance to that romance, as also to the Three
Calendars, and to one of the Persian Tales. 2 The prohibi-
1 The archaeological as well as the symbolical aspect of the legend
will be found treated at length in Dr. A. Zinzow's " Psyche nnd Eros,"
Ein Milesisches Marchen, etc., Halle, 1881. The fable has been ex-
plained in many ways ever since the interpretation of Fulgentius
(sect, vi.), which is the earliest that has come down to us.
- i Le parallelism which has been pointed out by Grimm and others
between the classic Romance and the tale of the W< >odcutter's Daughter
appended to the collection of Indian stories, called Somadeva Bhatta
(German translation by H. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1843, Th. ii. p. 190),
can 1 1 ! be overlooked. See also Hildebrand's edition of Apuleius,
p. xxvii., etc.
i e story of the woodcutters daughter is here given for the English
reader :
in ni. Eastern realm lived a poor woodcutter, Xur Singh, with his
w.t'e and his daughter Tulisa. When the beautiful Tulisa was grown up
sh< wen i one day into the wood, and as she approached a ruined fountain,
a \oue called her by name, and asked thrice if she would be his wife.
She . ,u_ r lu her father, who consented, in view of the wealth which was
pn.ihised to him. As the nuptial day drew nigh precious bridal gifts
we/i norne into the hut by unseen hands. The bride, beautifully
ar. 'Veil, came with her parents to the fountain. First, the father had
to ] i >ce upon Tulisa's h'nger a ring, which came floating through the
air. Th. n a splendid repast was made in tent hard by; and at last
aji tared a litter, which the bride entered with fear and hesitation.
I i cen carriers bore her away. The parents followed, and arrived at
a \ailev where stood a great palace, through whose doors the litter dis-
api c red : so they turned back home, with their minds at ease.
i he woodcutter became rich, but was calumniated by his envious
ne glil inns, thrown into prison, and condemned by the king to death.
(.) the morrow, when the sentence was to be enforced, all the inhabi-
tuii s were slain by serpents. The woodcutter and the king alone in
tin- ty remained alive. Upon the prayer of the king, the wood-
cutter summoned his invisible son-in-law; and the serpents were com-
m u< ed to revive the slain by the means known alone to them (in
Sp/ing time).
.Vi-Hiiwliile Tulisa lived very happily with her spouse, whom she (like
P>y< he) saw only at night ; she was not at liberty to quit the palace,
win re, however, all delights were provided for her. Once she rescued a
CH. II.] CUPID AND PSYCHE. Ill
tion of Cupid, and the transgression of Psyche, has sug-
gested the Serpentin Vert of Mad. d'Aulnoy ; indeed the
labours to which Psyche is subjected seem to be the origin
squirrel which she saw pursued by a larger animal, and the squirrel
became her friend. Nevertheless she languished for intercourse with
mortals. One day she beheld from her window an old woman, who im-
plured her to be allowed to enter. She was moved by her entreaties,
and let down a sheet from the window, by means of which the old
woman mounted. The old woman counselled her to beg her husband to
eat out of the same dish with her. In the evening TuTisa did so. Her
spouse consented, but eat nothing. Some time afterwards another old
woman came in the same way to her, who counselled her to ask her hus-
band to give her as a sign of his love a betel leaf to chew, and hand her
food. But again he evaded her. A third old woman advised her to ask
her husband his name. He conjured her to refrain from doing this, as
it wnulrl bring ruin upon her; but she persisted. At last he brought
her to a river brink, and, as she still persisted in her question, he went
slowly, ever repeating his request, into the water, until only his head
and shoulders were visible. And as she still persevered, he cried out,
My name is Basnak Dow!" Then a serpent's head rose from the
water, and he sank in the stream ; and we see the nether god of Light
thus sinks beneath the Hood, separated from her by the earth goddess.
Tulisa now stood again (in her earthly nature) in her torn garments ;
her palace had disappeared, and she found her parents, too, in their old
poverty. Their complaints and reproaches pained her in the poverty to
which she had grown unaccustomed, and still more she herself yearned
for the bliss she had lost. Once she fell asleep in the forest, whither
she had returned as of yore to collect wood, and there, as she awoke, she
heard two squirrels conversing. From them she learned that the wicked
mother of her husband had regained all her power, in consequence of the
mortal spouse of her son having been persuaded by her confederate
Sarkasoukis, disguised as an old woman, to ask after his name ; that he
had now, according to his netherworld 'nature, become King of Snakes ;
and there was but one means to give back to Basnak Dow his former
power, viz.. for Tulisa (as Goddess of Moonlight) to go eastwards, until
she reached a broad stream teeming with snakes. This she must swim
across, and seek on the opposite bank the nest of the bird Huma, and
place its egg in her breast until it should be hatched. Then she must
go to the palace of her wicked mother-in-law, the goddess of the under
world, and offer her services. If she is unable to perform the task
exacted of her, she will be devoured by serpents, and remain with her
husband in the under world, according to her earthly nature.
Tulisa set out on her (Moon) wandering as she reached the Snake
River (Milky Way), which she crossed unharmed on a raft, which she
ci instructed of reeds and pitchers, and encouraged by two squirrels.
uid squirrels conducted her to the Huma's nest, whose egg she
disposed of as directed. At last she reaches the palace of the queen,
whom she finds lying upon cushions, with the green snake round her
lurk. Tulisa's h'rst (Spring) task, to collect in a crystal vase the
112 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. II.
of all fairy tales, particularly G-racieuse et Percinet. 1 The
whole story has also been beautifully versified by Marino
in his poem L'Adone. Cupid is introduced in the fourth
book relating' it for the amusement of Adonis, and he tells
it in such a manner as to form the most pleasing episode
of that delightful poem. I need not mention the well-
known imitation by Fontaine, nor the drama of Psyche,
which was performed with the utmost magnificence at
Paris in 1670, and is usually published in the works of
Moliere, but was in fact the effort of the united genius of
that author, Corneille, Quinault, and Lulli.
Nor have the fine arts less contributed to the embellish-
ment of this fable : the marriage of Cupid and Psyche has
furnished Raphael with a series of paintings, which are
among the finest of his works, and which adorn the walls
of the Farnese Palace in the vicinity of Rome. In one
compartment he has represented the council of the gods
deliberating on the nuptials in another the festival of the
reconciliation. The frieze and casements are painted with
the sufferings of Psyche, and the triumphs of Cupid over
each individual god.
The monuments, too, of ancient sculpture represented
Cupid and Psyche in the various circumstances of their
adventures. 2 It is from an ancient intaglio, a fine onyx in
fragrance of a thousand blossoms, which grew in a garden en-
closed with high walls. Unnumbered bees brought each their little bag
of scent, and the vase was soon filled. Xext da} T a large vessel of seed
was given her, from which she was to make a set of jewels. Squirrels
came trooping to her, put gems in the vessel, and took a similar number
of seeds out, so that every seed on the earth was changed to a gem.
This second task fulfilled, Tulisa learns from her frjends the squirrels
that Sarkasukis can only be prevented from entering the castle by burn-
ing certain herbs. Tulisa fumigates incessantly, until the young Huma,
the Spring-bird-god, is hatched. He grew with incredible rapidity ;
Hew to the queen's shoulder ; pecked out the eyes of the green (Winter)
serpent. The queen shrieked ; Sarkasukis fell to earth as a hideous
devil. Long processions of genii, of (new born) squirrels, and (moulted
snakes) bore their ruler. Basnak Dow (the new-born Spring-god of Light
and the Earth), up from the deep (to his recovered throne). And Tulisa
is reunited with him as queen of a spiritual world (in heaven and on
earth), and her parents received their lost wealth again. See supp. note.
1 See Cinderella, La Belle au Bois, Ranking, Streams, Lond. 1872.
2 In this connection should be mentioned the Eros in the British
Museum, which has been ascribed to Praxiteles, and the Psyche in the
CH. II.] CUPID AND P8TCHE. 113
possession of the Duke of Maryborough, and from another,
of which there is a print in Spence's " Polymetis," that
Danvin has drawn his beautiful picture in the fourth canto
of the Botanic Garden :
So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone
Fair Psyche kneeling at the ethereal throne,
Won with coy smile the admiring court of Jove,
And warmed the bosom of unconquered Love.
Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers,
< Inward they march to Hymen's sacred bowers ;
With lifted torch he lights the festive train
Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain :
Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows,
And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows.
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,
Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing.
Museum at Naples, a fine example of Graeco-Roman art. Both works
arc unfortunately mutilated.
The first rendering of Apuleius into English was not until the year
1. "it'iii, but the book must have taken a very speedy hold upon the public
fancy. For shortly after 1579 we find Stephen Gosson, a precursor of
Prynne and Jeremy Collier, stigmatizing the Golden Asse amongst the
books which he mentions as having " been thoroughly ransackt to fur-
nish the Playhouses" There seems no evidence, however, for this
sweeping statement of any greater foundation than the fact, for which
In- vouches, of a play on the subject of Cupid and Psyche having been
" played at Paules," and probably no other portion of the book was
dramatized.
The quarto first edition of 1566. translated by William Adlington, was
reprinted in 1571, 1596, 1600, and 1639. An octavo edition, now very
rare, was published in 1582. A translation by J. Lockman was pub-
lished in 1744, another by Thomas Taylor in 1822, and another by Sir
G. Head in 1851. An English edition of the works of Apuleius was
published in 1853 by Mr. Bohn. Of the poetical treatment of the Myth
in Kngland, the first instance (apart from that lost play cited above)
would seem to be Cupid's Courtship; or, the Celebration of a Marriage
between the God of Love and Psiche, mentioned by Hazlitt. This was
followed in 1637 by S. Marm ion's "A Morall Poem, intituled the
Legend of Cupid and Psyche, etc.," and in 1799 by a now forgotten
poem by Mr. Hudson Gurney. Mrs. Tighe, in the year 1805. produced
a poem on the same subject, which went through two later editions.
This, as well as Mr. Gurney's poem, are affixed to Mr. Bohn's edition,
already mentioned. But it was reserved for our own times to give the
worthy rendering of the story in the poem of Cupid and Psyche, with
which Mr. William Morris opens the second volume of his Earthly
Parudise. See B. M. Ranking. Streams from Hidden Sources. Lond.,
1872. See supp. note at end of vol.
CHAPTEE HI.
ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION IN EUROPE. ROMANCES
OF CHIVALRY RELATING TO THE EARLY AND FABULOUS
HISTORY OF BRITAIN, PARTICULARLY TO ARTHUR AND
THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. MERLIN. SAINT-
GRAAL. PERCEVAL. LANCELOT DU LAC. MELIADUS.
TRISTAN. ISAIE LE TRISTE. ARTUS. GYRON. PERCE-
FOREST. ARTUS DE LA BRETAGNE. CLERIADUS.
FABULOUS narrative, we have seen in a former part of
this work, like almost every one of the arts of man,
originated in the desire of perfecting and improving nature,
of rendering the great more vast, the rich more splendid,
and the gay more beautiful. It removed, as it were, from
the hands of fortune the destinies of mankind, rewarded
virtue and valour with success, and covered treachery and
baseness with opprobrium.
It was soon perceived that men sympathize not with
armies or nations, but with individuals ; and the poet who
sung the fall of empires, was forced to place a few in a
prominent light, with whose success or misfortunes his
hearers might be affected, while they were altogether in-
different to the rout or dissection of the crowds by which
they were followed. At length, it was thought, that nar-
ratives might be composed where the interest should only
be demanded for one or two individuals, whose adventures,
happiness, or misery, might of themselves afford delight.
The experiment was attended with success ; and as men
sympathize most readily with events which may occur to
themselves, or the situations in which they have been, or
may be, the incidents of fiction derived their character
from the manners of the age. In a gay and luxurious
country stories of love became acceptable. Hence the
Grecian novels were composed, and as, in relating the ad-
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 115
ventures of the lovers, it was natural to depict what might
really have taken place, the general features of the times,
tin- inroads of pirates, religious ceremonies, etc. were chiefly
delineated. The ascetic habits of the monks in like manner
_r;iv<' rise to spiritual romance, and the notion of tran-
quillity in the fields of Greece may have suggested the
Beautiful rural images portrayed in the pastoral of
4'US.
Now, when, by some great convulsion, a vast change is
effected in manners, the incidents of fiction will necessarily
!" changed also; first, because the former occurrences
become less natural, and, secondly, give less delight. From
the very nature then of domestic fiction, it must vary with
the forms and habits and customs of society, which it must
picture as they occur successively,
" And catch the manners living as they rise."
Never, in the annals of the human race, did a greater
change of manners take place than in the middle ages, and
accordingly, we must be prepared to expect a prodigious
u It i -ration in the character of fictitious literature, which,
we have seen, may be expected to vary with the manners it
would describe. But not only was there a change in the
nature of the characters themselves, and the adventures
which occurred to them, but a very peculiar style of embel-
lishment was adopted, which, as it does not seem to have
any necessary connection with the characters or adventures
it was employed to adorn, has given the historians of
literature no little labour to explain. The species of ma-
chinery, such as giants, dragons, and enchanted castles,
which forms the seasoning of the adventures of chivalry,
has been distinguished by the name of Romantic Fiction ;
and we shall now proceed to discuss the various systems
which have been formed to account for its origin.
Different theories have been suggested for the purpose
of explaining the origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe.
The subject is curious, but is involved in much darkm-ss
and uncertainty.
To the northern Scalds, to the Arabians, to the people
of Armorica or Britany, and to the classical tales of anti-
quity, has been successively ascribed the origin of those
116 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
extraordinary fables, which have been " so wildly dis-
figured in the romances of chivalry, and so elegantly
adorned by the Italian Muse."
In the investigation of this subject, a considerable con-
fusion seems to have arisen, from the supporters of the
respective systems having blended those elements of ro-
mance which ought to be referred to separate origins.
They have mixed together, or at least they have made no
proper distinction between, three things, which seem, in.
their elementary principles at least, to be totally uncon-
nected. 1. The arbitrary fictions of romance, by which I
mean the embellishments of dragons, enchanters, etc. 2.
That spirit of enterprise and adventure which pervaded all
the tales of chivalry. 3. The historical materials, if they
deserve that name, relating to Arthur and Charlemagne,
which form the ground-work of so large a proportion of
this class of compositions.
In treating this subject it will therefore be proper to
consider, 1. The origin of those wild, and improbable fic-
tions, those supernatural ornaments, which form the ma-
chinery of Romance, and which alone should be termed
Romantic Fiction. 2. The rise of that spirit of chivalry
which gave birth to the eagerness for single combat, the
fondness for roaming in search of adventures, and the
obligation of protecting and avenging the fair ; and, lastly,
we shall consider how these fabulous embellishments, and
this spirit of adventure, were appropriated to the story of
individual knights, and treat of those materials concerning
Arthur and the Round Table, and the Peers of Charle-
magne, whose exploits, real or fictitious, have formed the
subject of romance.
I. One theory (which, I believe, was first adopted by M.
Mallet ') is, that what are termed the arbitrary fictions of
romance, have been exclusively derived from the northern
Scalds. This system has been strenuously maintained by
subsequent writers, and particularly by Dr. Percy," who
observes, that the Scalds originally performed the functions
of historians, by recording the victories and genealogies of
their princes in a kind of narrative song. When history,
1 Introduction a 1'Histoire de Dannemarc.
2 Reliques of Ant. Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 3.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 117
by being committed to prose, assumed a more stable and
more simple form, and was taken out of their hands, it
1 < -ame their business chiefly to entertain and delight.
Hence they embellished their recitals with marvellous fic-
tions, calculated to allure the gross and ignorant minds of
their audience. Long before the time of the crusades, they
believed in the existence of giants and dwarfs, in spells
ami enchantments. These became the ornaments of their
works of imagination, and they also invented combats with
<1 nitons and monsters, and related stories of the adven-
tures of knights with giants and sorcerers.
Besides this assumption, Dr. Percy also maintains, that
the spirit of chivalry, the eagerness after adventure, and
tin- extravagant courtesy, which are its chief characteristics,
ted among the northern nations long before the intro-
duction of the feudal system, or the establishment of
knighthood as a regular order.
These fictions and ideas, he asserts, were introduced into
Normandy by the Scalds, who probably attended the army
of Kollo in its migration to that province from the north.
The skill of these bards was transmitted to their successors
the minstrels, who adopted the religion and opinions of
tli.' new countries. In place of their pagan ancestors they
sul'stitnted the heroes of Christendom, whose feats they
embellished with the Scaldic fictions of giants and en-
chanters. Such stories were speedily propagated through
Franco, and by an easy transition passed into England
after the Norman Conquest.
A second hypothesis, which was first suggested by Sal-
masius, 1 and which has been followed out by Mr. T.
Wart on," ascribes to the Saracens the foundation of romantic
fiction. It had at one time beeiPar receired opinion in
"Europe, that the wonders of Arabian imagination were
first communicated to the western world by means of the
crusades ; but Mr. Wart on, while he argues that these
expeditions tended greatly to propagate this mode of
faMiug. contends that these fictions were introduced at a
much earlier period by the Arabians, who, in the begin-
ning of the eighth century, settled in Spain. Through
1 Sec Hurt. dc I'Orig. d. Rom. .p. 131.
- Hist, of Knir. PC 11 -try. vol. i. pp. '.!, etc. cd. 1871.
118 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
that country they disseminated those extravagant inven-
tions peculiar to their fertile genius. Those creations of
fancy, the natural offspring of a warm and luxxiriant
climate, were eagerly received, and colder imaginations
were kindled by the presence, of these enlivening visitors.
The ideal tales of the eastern invaders, recommended by
a brilliancy of description hitherto unknown to the barren
fancy of those who inhabited a western region, were rapidly
diffused through the continent of Europe. From Spain,
by the communication of commercial intercourse through
the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, they passed into
France. In the latter kingdom they received the earliest
and most welcome reception in the district of Armorica or
Britany. That province had been largely peopled by a
colony of Welsh, who had emigrated thither in the fourth
century. 1 Hence a close connection subsisted between
Wales and Britany for many ages. The fables current in
the latter country were collected by W. Map, Archdeacon
of Oxford, who presented them to Geoffrey of Monmouth.
His Latin Chronicle, compiled from these materials, forms
one of the principal sources of tales of chivalry, and
consists entirely of Arabian inventions.
Mr. Warton [p. 103, etc.] next proceeds to point out the
coincidence between fictions undoubtedly Arabic, and the
machinery of the early romances. He concludes with
maintaining, that if Europe was in any way indebted to
the Scalds for the extravagant stories of giants and
monsters, these fables must still be referred to an eastern
origin, and must have found then" way into the north of
Europe along with an Asiatic nation, who, soon after
Mithridates had been overthrown by Pompey, fled from
the dominion of the Romans, and under the conduct of
Odin settled in Scandinavia.
These two systems, which may be termed the Gothic and
the Arabian, are those which have found the most nume-
rous supporters. As far as relates to the supernatural
1 The Chronicle of Mont St. Michael Abbey gives 513 as the period
of this flight. " Anno 513, venerunt transmarini Britanni in Armori-
cam, id est Minorem Britanniam." The ancient Saxon poet (apud
Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script. 5i. p. 148) also peoples Bretagne after
the Saxon conquest. TURNER.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 119
ornaments of romance (for it is this branch aloue that is
.it pn-M-nt to l>e considered,) the two theories, though very
different, are by no means incompatible. From a view of
the character of Arabian and Gothic fiction, it appears
that neither is exclusively entitled to the credit of having
given birth to the wonders of romance. The early framers
of the tales of chivalry may be indebted to the northern
liards for those wild and terrible images congenial to a
i'r-'zen region, and owe to Arabian invention that magni-
ficence and splendour, those glowing descriptions and luxu-
riant ornaments, suggested by the enchanting scenery of
an eastern climate,
And wonders wild of Arabesque combine
With Gothic imagery of darker shade.
Warton's hypothesis of the flight of Odin from the
Roman power to Scandinavia, and which exclusively assigns
to the eastern nations all the fictions of romance, seems to
on no solid foundation. Indeed Richardson, in the
Preface to his Persian Dictionary, maintains that the whole
was a mere Scaldic fable, invented to trace the origin of
Gothic and Roman enmity, as the story of Dido and J^neas
was supposed to account for the irreconcileable antipathy
of Rome and Carthage. 1 Besides, no modification of climate
and manners, strong as their influence may be, could have
produced the prodigious difference that now appears be-
u Oriental and Gothic or Northern fictions ; for it can-
ii"! be denied, and indeed has been acknowledged by Mr.
Warton," that the fictions of the Arabians and Scalds are
totally different. The fables and superstitions of the
northern bards are of a darker shade, and more savage
complexion, than those of the Arabians. There is some-
thing in their fictions that chills the imagination. The
formidable objects of nature with which they were fami-
liarized in their northern solitudes, their precipices, and
fro /.en mountains, and gloomy forests, acted on their fancy,
and gave a tincture of horror to their imagery. Spirits,
who send storms over the deep, who rejoice in the shriek
of the drowning mariner, or diffuse irresistible pestilence ;
1 Cf. Herodotus. Bk. i. c. 1-6. where a similar account is given of the
origin of the enmity of the Greeks and Persians. LIED.
* Warti'ii. Hist. Eng. Poet., pp. 115. etc. cd. 1*71.
120 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
spells which preserve from poison, blunt the weapons of
an enemy, or call up the dead from their tombs these are
the ornaments of northern poetry. The Arabian fictions
are of a more splendid nature ; they are less terrible in-
deed, but possess more variety and magnificence ; they lead
us through delightful forests, and raise up palaces glittering
with gold and diamonds. 1
But while it seems impossible to trace the wilder fictions
of the north to an eastern source, it may be observed, on
the other hand, that, allowing the early Scaldic odes to be
genuine, we find in them no dragons, giants, magic rings,
or enchanted castles. 2 These are only to be met with in
the compositions of the bards, who flourished after the
native vein of Runic fabling had been enriched by the
tales of the Arabians. But if we look in vain to the early
Gothic poetry for many of those fables which adorn the
works of romancers, we shall easily find them in the ample
field of oriental fiction. Thus the Asiatic romances and
chemical works of the Arabians are full of enchantments,
similar to those described in the Spanish, and even in the
French, tales of chivalry. Magical rings were an important
part of the eastern philosophy, and seem to have given
rise to those which are of so much service to the Italian
poets. In the eastern Peris we may trace the origin of the
European fairies in their qualities, and perhaps in their
name. The griffin, or hippogriff, of the Italian writers,
seems to be the famous Simurgh of the Persians, which
makes such a figure in the epic poems of Saadi and Ferdusi. 3
1 Warton's " Hist, of Eng. Poetry."
2 There is scarcely need to tell the reader of to-day that Dunlop's
supposition that there are no dragons, giants, etc., in Teutonic mytho-
logy is erroneous. As will be evident upon perusal of the author's text,
he envisages his subject entirely from its romance aspect, seldom troubling
about Germanic fiction, and, indeed, apparently unacquainted with it.
(See Appendix on German Fiction.) With reference to the difference
between Eastern and Western Fiction, see Grimm, Teutonic Mytho-
logy* PP- 978 > 980 "8, etc. Lond., 1883.
3 " The bird Simurg has its marvellous nest upon Mount Alburs. upon
a peak that touches the sky, and which no man has ever yet seen. The
child Sal is exposed upon this mountain ; the Simurg hears his cry,
pities him, and carries him to its solitary peak. When the boy grows
up, and departs, the bird gives him one of its feathers which he is to burn,
when in danger, and the Simurg will come to his assistance, and take
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF BOMANTIC FICTION. 121
A great number of these romantic wonders were collected
in the east by the numberless pilgrims and palmers who
visited the Holy Land through curiosity, restlessness, or
devotion, and who, returning from so great a distance,
imposed every fiction on a believing audience. They were
subsequently introduced into Europe by the fablers of
France who took up arms, and followed their barons to
the conquest of Jerusalem. At their return they imported
into Europe the wonders they had heard, and enriched
romance with an infinite variety of oriental fictions.
This mode of introduction of the eastern fables into
Europe is much more natural than that pointed out by Mr.
Warton. The Arabians were not only secluded from the
other inhabitants of Spain, but were the objects of their
deepest animosity ; and hence the Castilians would not
readily imbibe the fictions of their enemies. It is unfortu-
nate too that the intermediate station from the Moorish
dominions in Spain should be fixed in Armorica, one of the
provinces of France most remote from Grenada.'
But if Armorica cannot without difficulty be adopted as
a resting-place of romantic fiction, far less can it be con-
sidered its native soil, as has been assumed in a third
hypothesis, maintained by Mr. Leyden in his Introduction
to the Complaynt of Scotland. It is there argued, that a
colony of Britons took refuge in Armorica during the fifth
CL-utury, from the tyranny of the Saxons, and carried with
them the archives which had escaped the fury of their
conquerors.- The memory of Arthur and his knights was
thus preserved in Armorica as fresh as in Wales or Corn-
wall ; and the inhabitants of Armorica were the first
people in France with whom the Normans had a friendly
intercourse. Besides, the class of French romances relating
1 'liarlcmagne ascribed to that monarch the feats of
Charles Ma rid, an Arniorican chief, whose exploits would
more probably be celebrated by the minstrels of his own
country than by Turpin, or any other writer of fabulous
him back to his kingdom. The bird then carries the young hero to his
father's palace." Ct'. the Pentamerone, bk. iv. siory 3. De Gubernatis,
ical MvthnloLry. Loud. 1^7-2, ii. p. 190.
1 But sec, infra, Spanish Romance.
3 See notes, pp. 118 and 144 of this vol.
122 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
chronicles. In short, all the French romances originated
in Britany, and all the nations of Europe derived their
tales of chivalry from the French.
I am far from meaning to deny that copious materials of
fiction were amassed in Britany, and were thence dissemi-
nated through France and England ; but it cannot be
believed that the machinery of romance was created in a
country, which, on the most favourable supposition, can
only be regarded as a link in the chain of fiction ; and far
less can it be thought that this pitiful kingdom was the
only cradle of that spirit of chivalry, which at one time
pervaded all the nations of Europe.
In short, this Armorican system seems to have arisen
from, mistaking the collection of materials for the sources
whence they derived their embellishment. 1
IV. A fourth hypothesis has been suggested, which repre-
sents the machinery and colouring of fiction, the stories of
enchanted gardens, 2 monsters, and winged steeds, which
have been introduced into romance, as derived from the
classical and mythological authors ; and as being merely
the ancient stories of Greece, grafted on modern manners,
and modified by the customs of the day. The classical
authors, it is true, were in the middle ages scarcely known ;
but the superstitions they inculcated had been prevalent
for too long a period, and had made too deep impression on
the mind, to be easily obliterated. The mythological ideas
which still lingered behind, were diffused in a multitude of
popular works. In the Travels of Sir John JVIandeville,
1 See San Marthe (Die Arthur-Sage und die Marchen des Rothen
Buchs von Hergest, pp. 37, etc.), who, with De la Rue in his Essai sur
les Bardes et Jongleurs Anglo- Normands, p. 57, and Villemarque
(Contes, i. p. 11, etc.), considers the home of these romantic fictions to be
Britany, where they, as well as their fabulous embellishments, arose
from the popular beliefs. (See Huet, Orig. des Rom., p. 155 ; Ritson,
Ancient Metrical Romances, i. p. xix, etc.)
See also Caylus, Orig. de Fancienne Chevalerie et des anciens
Romans, in Hist, de FAcad. des Inscrip., t. xxiii. p. 237. See also
Warton's " History of English Poetry/' ed. by W. C. Hazlitt, London,
1871. vol. i. p. 91, note, and T. Wright, Latin Stories, Berington, pp.
230-31 . and Hallam, Introduction to Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth,
Sixteenth, and Seventeenth centuries. 54, etc.
2 See Motes on Albertus Magnus, Decameron of Boccaccio, x. 5, and
supra, p. 51.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 123
tin -re are frequent allusions to ancient fable; and, as
}Ii<Mleton ' has shown that a great number of the rites of
tin Latin Church were derived from pagan ceremonies, it
is scarcely to be doubted that many classical were con-
vrrt.-'l into romantic fictions. This, at least, is certain,
that the classical system presents the most numerous and
1. a>t \< -'ptionable prototypes of the fables of romance.
In many of the tales of chivalry there is a knight
detained from his quest, by the enticements of a sorceress,
and who is nothing more than the Calypso or Circe of
Homer. The story of Andromeda might give rise to the
fable of damsels being rescued by their favourite knight
when on the point of being devoured by a sea-monster.
Thf heroes of the Iliad and /Eneid were both furnished
with enchanted armour ; and, in the story of Polyphemus,
a giant and his cave are exhibited. Herodotus, in his
history [iii. 116], speaks of the Arimaspi, a race of Cyclops
who inhabited the north, and waged perpetual war with the
tril't' of griffons, which guarded quantities of gold. The ex-
pedition of Jason in search of the golden fleece ; the apples
of the Hesperides, watched by a dragon ; the king's
laughter who is an enchantress, who falls in love with and
saves the knight, are akin to the marvels of romantic
fiction; especially of that sort supposed to have been in-
troduced by the Arabians. Some of the less familiar
fal'les of classical mythology, as the image in the Theo-
ir>ny of Hesiod of the murky prisons in which the Titans
wriv pent up by Jupiter, under the custody of strong armed
iriants. l.ear a striking resemblance to the more wild sub-
limity of the Gothic fictions.
Besides, a great number of those fables now considered
i stern, appear to have been originally Greek traditions,
which were carried to Persia in the time of Alexander the
Great, and were afterwards returned to Europe, with the
modification they had received from oriental ideas.
Perhaps it may be considered as a confirmation of the
classical theory, that, in the 13th century, many classii-ul
stories appeared both in prose and in a metrical form,
veiled in the garb of romantic fiction. Of this sort are the
1 Letter from Rome, etc., vol. 5.
124 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Latin works of Dares Phrygius, and Dictys Cretensis, con-
-cerning the wars of Troy ; and the still more ample
chronicle of G-uido de Colonna, formed from these authors
through the medium of the French metrical work of Benoit
<le Saint More. But these and similar compositions will be
more particularly mentioned when we come to treat of the
classical romances in which Achilles, Jason, and Hercules,
were adopted into chivalry, and celebrated in common
with Lancelot, Roland, and Amadis, whom they so nearly
resembled in the extravagance of their adventures. 1
Mr. Kitson 2 has successively attempted to ridicule the
Gothic, Arabian, and Classical systems ; and has main-
tained, that the origin of romance, in every age or country,
must be sought in the different sorts of superstition which
have from time to time prevailed. It is, he contends, a
vain and futile endeavour, to seek elsewhere for the origin
of fable. The French tales of chivalry, in particular, are
too ancient to be indebted for their existence to any bar-
barous nation whatever. In all climes where genius has
inspired, fiction has been its earliest product, and every
nation in the globe abounds in romances of its own inven-
tion, and which it owes to itself alone.
And, in fact, after all, a great proportion of the wonders
of romance must be attributed to the itnagination of the
authors. A belief in superhuman agency seems to have
prevailed in every age and country ; and monsters of all
sorts have been created by exaggeration or fear. It was
natural for the vulgar, in an ignorant age, as we see from
the Turks even of the present day, to believe a palace, sur-
passingly beautiful, to be the work of enchanters. To this
we must join the supernatural wonders conjured, up by a
superstitious fancy, and the natural ones supplied by a
mind unacquainted with the constitution of things. Thus
to the deceptions of sight, produced by certain dispositions
of light and shade to the reflecting and magnifying
power, possessed by mists and clouds, may be partly attri-
buted the prevalence of stories of ghosts, giants, &c., in
hilly or cloudy regions intersected by deep valleys and
lakes, or by woods, rocks, and rivers.
1 See L. F. A. Maury , Croyances, etc., and E. Le veque, Les M ythes, etc.
a Ancient English Metrical Romance, vol. i. |>. xix, etc.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION.
Jam turn Koligio pavids terrebat agrestes
Dira loci ; jam turn sylvam saxumque tremebant.
Hoc nemus, hunc, inquit, frondoso vertice collem,
(Quis Deus, incertum est) habitat deus. Arcades ipsum
Credunt se vidisse Jovcm : cum sa>pe nigrantem
JEgida. concuteret dextra, nimbosque cieret.
s, viii. 349, etc.
To all this must be added the chimeras produced by in-
dulgence in frolicsome combination. Such were the em-
blematic cherub of the Hebrews [Ezekiel i. and x.], the
compound images of the Egyptians, and the monster of
mythology, which was described as
Prima leo, postrema draco, media inde capella.
Lucret. V. v. 901.
In like manner the griffin is compounded of the lion and
eagle ; the snake and lizard comprise the analysis, and may
have suggested the notion of a dragon. 1 The idea once
1 " This solution of the origin of dragons was very ingenious until
the progress of geology in modern times brought to light the pterodactyl
and ichthyosaurus. The former is almost the exact dragon of fiction.
For a discussion on this subject, see a review of Mrs. Jameson's 'Sacred
and Legendary Art,' by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, in Fraser's Maga-
zine, March, 1849, reprinted in his ' Miscellanies.' vol. i." H. Jenner.
It has been suggested, but upon scarcely sufficient grounds, that the
representations of dragons in Chinese art, due, as they doubtless are, to
traditions of extreme antiquity, are derived originally from memories of
animal forms long since extinct. In this connection we may refer to an
article on birds with teeth, in the Popular Science Review for 1875.
In Dr. Zachary Grey : s notes on Hudibras (vol. i. p. 125) there is a
story of a man making a dragon from a rat. " Mr. Jacob Bobart.
botany professor of Oxford, did, about forty years ago, find a dead rat
in the physii-al garden, which he made to resemble the common picture
of dragons, by altering head and tail, and thrusting in taper sharp sticks,
which distended the skin on each side, till it mimicked wings. He let it
dry as hard a.s possible. The learned pronounced it a dragon ; and one
of them sent an accurate description to Magliabecchi, librarian to tha
Grand Duke of Tuscany. Several fine copies of verses were wrote on so
rare a subject; but at last Mr. Bobart owned the cheat. However, it
was looked upon as a masterpiece of art, and, as such, deposited in the
museum or anatomy school, where I saw it some years after/' A truly
appalling exhibition of terrific artificial monsters is to be seen at the
Colonial Museum of the Hague. It consists of a collection of the most
frightful combinations of different animals : winged serpents, reptiles
with human heads, or with two or more heads, etc. These are con-
structed by the natives of some of the Dutch colonies. They are, indeed,.
well calculated to strike the beholder with terror and horror. The joint-
126 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
formed of a being of larger dimensions than his fellow-
mortals, it was easy to increase his proportions, and to
diversify his shape with every variety of monstrous attri-
bute ; and it was natural, as in the case of G-oliah, to
bestow a ferocity of disposition, corresponding to the
terrors of aspect. When once the notion of an enchanter
was conceived, it was not difficult to assign him more
extensive powers, to render his spells more potent, and
their effects more awful or splendid. " Impenetrable
armour," says Mr. Hobbes, " enchanted castles invul-
nerable bodies iron men flying horses, and other such
things, are easily feigned by them that dare."
II. Although the theories which have now been detailed
may be sufficient, separately or united, to explain the
origin of the supernatural ornaments of romance, still they
are to be considered merely as embellishments of those
ings are neatly effected, and the scales and other external appurtenances
of the animals, which are carefully retained in these composite monsters,
add, of course, to their repulsive realism.
A combination of diverse animal forms was one of the favourite re-
sources of the mediaeval artist for representing Satan and his imps ; note
also the fauns, satyrs, hippogriffs, etc., of classic mythology. That in
its endeavour to evoke entirely new conceptions, the mind can after all
but fall back upon known forms, and devise perverse distortions or in-
congruous combinations of them, is but a proof of the poverty of human
invention and of the gulf between creature and Creator.
The dragon, according to Sir Walter Scott, was familiar to the Celtic
tribes at an early period, and was borne on the banner of Pendragon,
who from that circumstance derived his name. Arthur's standard was
also a dragon. A description of this banner, the magical work of Mer-
lin, occurs in the romance of Arthur and Merlin in the Auchinleck MS.,
printed for the Abbotsford Club, 1838 :
" Merlin bar her gonfanoun ;
Upon the top stode a dragoun,
Swithe griseliche a litel croune,
Fast him biheld al tho in the toune,
For the mouth he had grinninge
And the tong out flatlinge
That our kest sparkes of fer,
Into the skies that flowen cler," etc.
The dragon is repeatedly mentioned in the Welsh triads. In a battle
fought at Bedford, about 752, betwixt Ethelbald, king of Mercia, and
Cuthred, king of Wessex, a golden dragon, the banner of the latter, was
borne in front of the combat by Edelheim or Edelhun, a chief of tin-
West Saxons. Notes on Sir Tristram, p. 290. Park. (See Warton, i.
p. 105.) See supp. note at end of vol.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 127
chivalrous adventures which occupy by far the greatest
proportion of romantic compilation.
The Classical System, allowing it to be well founded
with regard to the introduction of giants, hippogriffs, or
enchanters, cannot explain the enterprise, the gallantry,
and romantic valour, attributed to the knights of chivalry.
It is, no doubt, true, that a striking analogy subsists
between the manners of the heroic and Gothic times. In
both periods robbery was regarded as honourable ; or, at
le; t st, was not the forerunner of infamy. Bastardy, in both
ages, was in peculiar reputation: The most renowned
knights of chivalry, as Eoland and Amadis, were illegiti-
mate ; and the heroes of antiquity were the spurious off-
spring of demigods and nymphs. The martial games, too,
may in their design and their effects be considered as
analogous to tournaments. Equal encouragement was
given to the bards of Greece, and the minstrels of the
middle ages ; while Hercules and Bacchus, who are repre-
sented as roaming through their country, inflicting punish-
ment on robbers, and extirpating monsters, may be re-
garded as the knights errant of antiquity. But these re-
semblances arose merely from a corresponding state of
manners; since, at a similar stage of the social prog
similar ideas and customs are prevalent amongst different
nations.
Still less can it be believed that the spirit of chivalry
received its impulse from the knight errantry of Arabia.
This part of his system, Mr. Warton has but feebly urged.
The nature of Arabian and chivalrous enterprise was by no
means the same ; nor is it probable that the Europeans
derived the dominant part of their manners and institu-
tions from a secluded and a hostile people.
But Dr. Percy, and other supporters of the Gothic
system, have strenuously maintained that the ideas of
chivalry, the soul and subject of romance, subsisted from
the earliest period among the northern nations, and were
thence transfused into the fictions of a subsequent age. 1 I
1 Qoamquam severa illic matrimonia : nor ulhun inoruni parteni
magis laudavcris: nam prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus content!
exceptis admodum pane-is, qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem,
plurimis nuptiis ainbiuntur. I)otem non uxormarito, sed uxori niaritns.
128 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
conceive, however, that although the rudiments of chivalry
may have existed, these notions were not sufficiently general,
nor developed, to have become, without farther preparation,
the reigning topics of composition. Instances, too, of chi-
valrous gallantry would have been found in the earlier
ages of the history of France, but the manners during the
two first races of its monarchs, were far from exhibiting
any symptoms of courtesy.
It was under the feudal establishments, subsequently
erected in Europe, that chivalry received its vigour, and
was invested with the privileges of a regular institution.
The chivalry, therefore, unfolded in romance, was the off-
spring of existing manners, and was merely an exaggerated
picture of the actual state of society, of which oppression,
anarchy, and restless courage, were the characteristics,
but which sometimes produced examples of virtue and
enthusiasm.
On the fall of the Roman empire, the lands overrun by
the barbarous nations being parcelled out amongst a num-
ber of independent chieftains, whose aims and interests
frequently interfered, it became an object with every baron
to assemble round his person, and to attach, by the strongest
bonds, the greatest possible number of young men of rank
and courage. The knight, or soldier, at the same time
found it necessary to look to some superior for support,
against the oppression of other chieftains.
That these ties might be rendered closer, and that the
candidate for knighthood might be instructed in courtesy
and the art of war, it was customary to remove him at an
early age from his father's house to the court or castle of
his future patron.
Those who were destined for this sort of life, first acted
offert, etc. Tacitus, De Mor. Germ, xviii., etc. "Plusque ibi boni
mores valent, quam alibi bonse leges," xix.
Ubi quis ex principibus [Germanorum] in concilio dixit. " Se ducem
fore ; qui sequi velint profiteantur ;" consurgunt ii, qui et causam et
hominem probant, suumque auxilium pollicentur, atque ab multitudine
collaudantur : qui ex iis secuti non sunt, in desertorum ac proditorum
numero ducuntur, omniumque iis rerum postea fides derogatur. Hospites
violare, fas non putant ; qui quaque de causa ad eos venerint, ab injuria
prohibent, sanctosque habent : iis omnium domus patent, victusque
communicatur." Caesar, De Bello Gall., vi. 23.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 129
as pages or varlets ; they performed menial services, which
at that time were not considered as degrading ; they were
initiated into the ceremonial of a court, and were at the
time instructed in those bodily exercises which were
considered the best preparation for their future career.
Tin- castle in which the candidate for knighthood re-
<l his education, was usually thronged with young
jTsons of a different sex. The intercourse which he thus
enj< >yed was the best school for the refinements of courtesy :
lit- \\;is taught to select some lady as the mistress of his
si ml, to whom were referred all his sentiments and actions.
Her image was implanted in his heart, amid the fairy
scenes of childhood, and was afterwards blended with its
recollections. In the middle ages, society was in an inter-
mediate state, removed from the extremes of indigence and
luxury, which is most favourable to love : and that passion
was sometimes so nourished by obstacles, that it was
exalted into a species of devotion.
Thus the service of a mistress became the future glory
and occupation of the candidate for knighthood. At the
same time that this duty was inculcated, the emulation of
military excellence was excited by the example of his com-
peers and his patron. When the youth passed to the con-
dition of squire, they attended their master abroad ; if he
engaged in battle they took no part in the rencounter, but
remained spectators of the combat, and, by attention to the
various movements, were instructed in the art of war.
Their time was also, in a great 'measure, devoted to those
sports which were kindred to the occupations of war, and
the knowledge of which was an essential preliminary to
ffjition into the order of knighthood.
If that investiture be merely considered as a ceremony,
by which young persons destined to the military profession
: ved their arms, its institution, we are told, is as ancient
e age of Charlemagne; but, if considered as a dignity,
which, by certain forms, conferred the first rank in the
military order, it cannot easily be traced higher than the
llth century. In the forests of Germany, the initiation of
a youth into the profession of a warrior, had been attended
with appropriate ceremonies. The chieftain of the tribe
i'ated him with a sword and armour [Tacitus, Germ. c.
130 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
xiii.] a simple form, which, in the progress of the feudal
system, was converted into a mysterious and pompous rite.
On his reception into this order, the knight became
bound to the observance of loyalty to his superior, to an
impartial distribution of justice to his vassals, to an in-
violable adherence to his word, and attention to a courtesy
which embellished his other qualities, and softened his
other duties. All those who were unjustly oppressed, or
conceived themselves to be so, were entitled to claim his
protection and succour. The ladies in this respect enjoyed
the most ample privileges. Destitute of the means of sup-
port, and exposed to the outrages of avarice or passion,
they were consigned to his special care, and placed under
the guardship of his valiant arm.
The promotion of knights, which sometimes took place
after the performance of military exploits, but more fre-
quently on church festivals, coronations, baptisms, or the
conclusion of peace, was generally followed by jousts and
tournaments. Of these institutions (which were of French
invention, and were introduced about the time of the first
crusade,) the former was of a more private and inferior, the
latter of a more pompous and public description. Both
were contrived for the purpose of interesting the mind, when
scenes of real warfare did not present themselves, and of
displaying, at the same time, the magnificence of the prince
or baron. 1
1 Henry the Fowler, Emperor of Germany from 918 to 936, in his
war with the Hungarians, was enabled, by the help of the nobles he had
summoned to his aid, to conclude an armistice for a year. Fearing his
auxiliaries might not be disposed to resume war at the expiry of the term
if he allowed them to disperse, he proposed to them to remain at Mag-
deburg, and to enliven the tedium of the prolonged stay devised a sort
of contest of skill tournaments, in fact. The nobles fell into the plan,
each adopting a peculiar colour or badge on his shield to distinguish him
from the others. Some pushed these distinctions much farther, causing
their retainers to wear their particular colours, or having their pecu-
liar badge embroidered upon their dress ; others again went to a whim-
sical extent by dressing up the men who held their shields when not
actually in use, as stags, apes, lions, unicorns, or any other favourite
animal, real or fictitious. When these persons held the shield so that it
covered their heads, they were designated supports, but if their heads ap-
peared above the shield then they were called holders, according to M.
Genouillac, who discerns in this practice the origin of those figures of men
or animals which are often placed on each side of an escutcheon, and are
CH. III.] ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 131
Some time before the exhibition of a tournament, heralds
W'-iv despatched through the country, to invite all knights
It > contend for prizes, and merit the affection of their
mistresses.
After the tournaments were proclaimed, they frequently
commenced with skirmishing between the squires ; and
those who particularly distinguished themselves were
allowed to enter the lists with the knights. When it
came to the turn of the latter, each knight usually declared
himself the servant of some lady, who generally presented
him with a token of favour, a veil, a scarf, a bracelet, or,
as we are told by Chaucer in his story of Troilus, a pencel
of her sleeve, with which he adorned his shield or helmet,
and by means of which his person was recognized in all the
vehemence of the conflict. If these marks of distinction were
carried off during the contest, the lady sent him others
to reanimate his courage, and invigorate his exertions.
In all these rencounters certain rules of combat were
1 established, which it was considered infamous to violate.
!Thus, it was not lawful to wound an adversary's horse, nor
to strike a knight who took off his visor or his helmet.
When the tournaments were concluded, the conquerors
[were conducted, with much solemnity, to the palace of the
j prince or baron, where they were attired in the most splen-
I did habits of peace, and disarmed by the hands of the fair ;
I their deeds were inscribed on the records of the heralds at
is, and formed the subject of the lays of the minstrel,
I which were spread through the neighbouring courts, to ex-
uiulation or envy.
But it would be endless to describe those ceremonies by
| which tournaments were prepared, accompanied, or followed,
[and which occupy, I am sure, more than a fourth part of
le romances of chivalry, which, in this respect, have
m 'rely presented an embellished picture of what actually
occurred.
As the genius of chivalry had ever studied to represent
generally called supporters. The very terms blazon and heraldry
jare both of German origin, from blasen. to blow the trumpet which sig-
Inalled the commencement of the spectacle, while the herault had to pro-
claim aloud (old German haren, " to cry," cf. " harum scarurn,'') the
ames of the combatants and the conditions of the contest.
132 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
in tournaments a faithful picture of the labours and dan-
gers of war, it had ever preserved in war an image of the
courtesy which prevailed in tournaments. The desire of
pleasing some lady, and of appearing worthy of her, was in
the true, as in the fictitious combat, one of the strongest
motives that prompted to heroic action. That champion
who, while rushing into combat, expressed a wish, as we
are told, that his lady beheld him, must also have been
stimulated by the hope that she might one day listen to
the report of his prowess. In real battle the knight was
frequently decked with the device of his mistress, and seri-
ously offered combat to an enemy (not, indeed, as a primary
cause of quarrel, but where other grounds of hostility
existed), to dispute the pre-eminence of the beauty of their
mistresses, and the strength of their attachment. As the
valour, too, of a single combatant was conspicuous, and
had a considerable influence on the fortune of the day, the
same individuals were led frequently to encounter each
other, which gave rise to that peculiar species of combat
painted in the fables of romance.
The policy which employed love, united with reverence
for the ladies, and the thirst of glory, to inspire sentiments
of bravery and honour, also joined the heroes of its creation
by the ties of friendship. They became united for all their
future exploits, or for the accomplishment of some exalted
emprise, which had a limited object ; and hence the frater-
nity of arms, by which knights are frequently associated in
tales of chivalry.
The restless spirit of the feudal system, and the institu-
tions of chivalry, stimulated their votaries to roam in quest
of such adventures for the mere pleasure of achieving them.
At their return, the knights were obliged by oath to give
the heralds-at-arms a faithful account of their exploits ; an
obligation which explains their declining no service of dan-
ger, though it was to be performed without witnesses, and
might have been avoided without detection.
Enough, I trust, has been said to account for that
passion for arms, that love of enterprise, and that extrava-
gant species of gallantry, which were the inevitable conse-
quence of the feudal principles, and are the characteristic-
features of romance.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF EOMANTIC FICTION. 133
Next to those encounters, sought from love of enterprise,
or of the fair, the great proportion of combats described in
romance may be termed judicial. These took place on a
defiance of the challenger to the accepter, or an accusation
against a third party in whom the accepter was interested,
or whose cause he espoused from a spirit of chivalry. Such
i inters were suggested by those judicial combats by
which, during the middle ages, disputes in civil courts were
actually decided. The judge, or magistrate, unable to re-
si niin the violence of litigants, and wishing not to lose all
shadow of authority, contented himself with superintend-
ing the ceremonies and regulating the forms of a mode of
Incision so consonant to their temper. This prompt appeal
to the sword was also encouraged by a retributive principle
in the human mind, which renders it natural to believe
th;it guilt will be punished and innocence vindicated. The
impatience of mankind led them to imagine that the inter-
vention ought to take place in this world, and that a solemn
appeal to Heaven would be followed by a discovery of its
will ; an opinion strengthened in those times by means of
the clergy, whose interest it was to represent Divine power
as dispensing with the laws of nature on the most frivolous
occasions.
In consequence too of the well-known circumstances
which tended to promote the influence of the church,
the real knight was frequently characterized by the
appearance at least of a warm and zealous devotion. His
religions duties consisted in visiting holy places, in depo-
siting his own arms, or those of conquered enemies, in
monasteries or temples, in the observance of different
festivals, or the practice of exercises of penitence. A
bigoted veneration for the monastic profession, even in-
duced many individuals, both knights and princes, to finish
their days in spiritual seclusion. Hence a romance of
chivalry, as will be afterwards seen, exhibits examples of
the most superstitious devotion, and frequently terminates
with the retirement of the principal character to a monas-
r hermitage.
To the love of war, and of enterprise, to the extravagant
gallantry, united with superstition, by which the order of
knighthood was distinguished, may be traced the greater
184 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
proportion of the adventures delineated in romance. There
we shall hardly find a motive of action which may not be
referred to some of the principles by which society in those
times was in reality actuated. On this favourable basis of
manners and ideas, the credulity or fancy of the age grafted
the supernatural wonders drawn from the sources that have
already been traced ; and the adventures of knights, em-
bellished by these additional marvels, were exaggerated,
extended, and multiplied to infinity by the imagination of
romancers.
Such are probably the sources whence fablers have been
supplied with the general adventures of chivalry, and the
romantic embellishments by which they have been adorned.
III. We must now consider how these adventures and
embellishments have been appropriated to individual
knights, and turn our attention to the materials which
have supplied the leading subjects and the principal cha-
racters of romantic composition.
At a time when chivalry excited such universal admira-
tion, and when its effects were at least ostensibly directed
to the public good, it was natural that history and fable
should be ransacked to furnish examples which might in-
crease emulation.
Arthur and Charlemagne, with their peers, were the heroes
most early and most generally selected for this purpose. The
tales concerning these warriors are the first specimens extant
of this sort of composition, and from their early popularity,
from the beauty of the fictions with which they were in the
beginning supported, and from flattering the vanity of the
two first nations in Europe, they long continued (diversified
indeed, and enlarged by subsequent embellishments,) to be
the prevalent and favourite topics.
And here it is proper to divide the prose romances, with
which we shall be afterwards engaged, into four classes :
1. Those relating to Arthur and the knights of the Bound
Table. 2. Those connected with Charlemagne and his
Paladins. 3. The Spanish and Portuguese romances, which
chiefly contain the adventures of the imaginary famili*
Atnadis and Palmerin. 4. What may be termed classical
romances, which represent the heroes of antiquity in the
guise of romantic fiction.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 135
When we come to treat of the romances relating to Char-
lemagne, we shall consider the influence of the chronicle at-
tributed to Turpin ; but our attention is in the first place
demanded by the romances of Arthur and the Round Table,
us they form the most ancient and numerous class of which
any trace remains. These originated in the early and chi-
merical legends of Armorica and Wales ; the ancient Latin
dm uiicles of this island, which have been founded on them ;
and the subsequent metrical romances of the English and
Norman minstrels.
The Norman conquerors are said first to have become in-
terested in the history and antiquities of Britain during the
reign of Stephen, as by that period they had begun to con-
sider themselves natives.
From the writings of Gildas or Nennius, however, they
could not easily have extracted a consistent or probable story.
Gildas, or, as Mr. Gibbon has styled him, the British
Jeremiah, is the author of Lamentations over the Destruc-
tion of Britain, which is a whining elegy, and of an epistle,
which is a frantic satire on the vices of his countrymen :
he has given exaggerated expressions, and distorted facts,
instead of presenting an authentic narrative of our early
annals, an important object which he might easily have ac-
complished ; as, according to tradition, he was the son of
Caw, a British prince, who lived in the sixth century, and
was engaged along with his father in the wars carried on
by his countrymen against the Northumbrian Saxons.
After the defeat of the Britons 'at Cattraeth, he fled into
Wales, and acted as schoolmaster at Bangor. 1
Nennius is said to have lived about the middle of the
ninth century : his work is merely a dry epitome ; nor even
of this abstract does there exist a pure and perfect copy.
Hi- is solicitous to quote his authorities, but unfortunately
they are not of the most unexceptionable nature, as they
consist of the lives of saints and ancient Briti/sh traditions,
on which he bestows credit in proportion to their absurdity.
In one of his chapters he has given an outline of the story
of Brut, which coincides with the account of Geoffrey of
Monmouth ; and in chapter fourth he commences a circum-
1 About the personality of (Jildas scarcely anything is positively
known. See Smith's " Diet, of Christian Biography," ii. 672 (1880).
136 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
stantial detail of the life of Merlin, corresponding, in many
respects, with the incidents of romance. 1
Besides the lachrymal history of Grildas, and the jejune
narrative of Nennius, there existed many Welsh tradi-
tions, which seem to have occupied the attention of Norman
antiquaries.
The annals and poetry of "Wales had long laboured in
Arthur's commendation. Compelled to yield their country,
the Welsh avenged themselves on the Saxons by creating,
in the person of Arthur, not only a phantom of glory which
towered above every warrior, but a political saviour, who
like the Barbarossa of German popular superstition, was
only temporarily hid, and would one day reappear and re-
assert the national independence. This apparition seenis
to have acquired its chief magnitude and terrors in the
traditions and legends of Britany. Walter Calenius, or
G-ualtier, as he is sometimes called, Archdeacon of Ox-
ford, of whom a good account will be found in Movley's
" English Writers " (vol. i. pp. 584-600), amassed a
great collection of these materials during an expedition
to Armorica, or Britany, a province from which the
royal ancestors of Arthur were believed to have origi-
nally issued. On his return to England, the archdeacon
presented this medley of historical songs and traditions to
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 2 who founded on them a chronicle
1 Ellis's " Early Metrical Romances," vol. i.
2 Geoffrey of Monmouth, called in Welsh Galffrai or Gruffjdd ap
Arthur, was, as the Welsh name implies, the son of one Arthur, of whom
nothing is known. It has indeed been supposed by some that lie was nick-
named " Arthur." on account of the chief hero of his romance or history,
this opinion being chiefly gathered from certain derogatory remarks of
William of Newburgh (who died 1198). However, as he appears under the
name of " Gaufridus Artur " in the foundation charter of Oseney Abbey
in 1129 (for which see the Register of the Abbey. Cotton MS. vitell. E.
xv. f. 6), in company with his friend Walter the Archdeacon, it is evi-
dent that it was his real patronymic. Losing his father at an early age
he was brought up by his uncle Uchtryd, Archdeacon, and afterwards
Bishop of Llandaff. It is possible that he began his history somewhere
about 1129, when, as we have seen, he was at Oxford with Archdeacon
Walter, but, as he himself says, he had hardly got half way through it
when Alexander. Bishop of Lincoln, set him to translate the Prophecies
of Merlin from Welsh into Latin, and this work, which is largely quoted
by Ordericus Vitalis in his twelfth book, which was written in 1136 or
1137, must have been finished about that date. The first recension of
CH. III.] GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH. 137
of Britain, which was written in Latin prose, and is sup-
posed to have been finished about 1140. A notion has
been adopted by some authors that Geoffrey composed, or
invented, most part of the chronicle which he professed to
the history, which is now lost, is quoted by Henry of Huntingdon in
1 1 39. us the work of Gant'ridus Arturus, so it is probable that he did not
ben >ine Archdeacon of Moiiraouth till 1140, when his uncle Uchtryd was
made Bishop. Having lost his patrons, Kobert of Gloucester, and
Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, as well as his uncle Uchtryd in 1147-8,
he seems to have sought for a patron at Stephen's Court, and to have
addressed the poem known as the u Vita Merlini," to Kobert dc Chesney,
the new Bishop of Lincoln, in 1149. He was ordained priest by Arch-
bishop Theobald, February 15th. 1152, and on the 24th of the same
month was consecrated Bishop of St. Asaph, but as the Gwentian "Brat
y Tvvysoysogion " says, he never entered upon his functions, but died at
Llandaff, in 1154.
The existence of the Welsh original of Geoffrey's history has been
doubted by some, principally on account of the playful tone of his epi-
logue. There are, however, good reasons for believing in its existence.
Two of the Welsh versions have colophons stating that Walter the Arch-
deacon translated the work from Welsh into Latin in his younger days,
and again in his old age translated from Latin into Welsh, and Geoffrey
Gaimar states in the epilogue to his poem that he had taken passages
from the good book of Oxford, " Ki fust Walter 1'arcediaen." This last,
however, may have been either the book brought out of Brittany, or a
copy of Xennius. M. Paulin Paris thinks that the book from Brittany
was nothing but a Nennius, and that that work was written on the Con-
tinent; this opinion, however, will hardly hold good. The Historia
Britoiuini, originally ascribed to Gilclas, but now to Nennius. a monk of
Bangor. was compiled by several writers, the last of whom gives his
date as 946, adds that this was the fifth year of Edmund. King of the
English (see Kev. W. Gunn's edition of the Vatican MS. of the Chro-
nicle). The other dates refer almost exclusively to the British Islands,
and only one very slight mention is made of Armorica, and the composi-
tion, according to Mr. W. F. Skene (Chronicles of the Picts and Scots,
Sic.), is markedly Welsh. Mr. Skene conjectures that it was made
known to the Saxons through the conquests of King Edmund in Strath-
clyde in 94,">. William of Malmesbury refers to it as the " Gesta Bri-
tonum," and Henry of Huntingdon speaks of it as the work of Gildas.
Geoffrey makes several quotations from Bede and Gildas, with or with-
out acknowledgment, but though he makes far more considerable quota-
tions from Xennius he never once mentions him. and on one occasion
while using the words of Xennius about St. Germanus, he refers to
(Jildas. whose extant works do not mention that saint. The whole ques-
tion is very ably discussed in Mr. H. L. I). Ward's Catalogue (vol. i.
pp. -2o:>--2-2'2). from which this note is chiefly borrowed. Mr. Ward is of
opinion that the Breton book was not a mere copy of Xennius, but that
much of the history was founded on it. The sites of the chief Arthurian
events, vi/. the twelve ballads, as given by Xennius. may bo fairly iden-
138 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
translate from British originals. This idea was first started
by Polydore Virgil [Historia Anglicana, Lugd. Bat. 1649,
c. i. p. 25], who has been followed by later writers ; but it
has been satisfactorily shown by Mr. Ellis that there is no
solid reason to doubt the repeated assertions of Geoffrey,
that he has merely rendered into Latin the text of Breton
authorities. His fabulous relations concerning Brut, Ar-
thur, and Merlin, coincide with those contained in Nennius,
or the Lives of the Saints, and therefore could not have
been invented by Geoffrey. The history, too, bears internal
tified with places along the line of the Roman wall between Clyde and
Forth (see Skene's " Four Ancient Books of Wales," vol. i. pp. 50-58) ;
but the story of Arthur had travelled south before the days of Geoffrey.
The monks of Laon, who visited Cornwall in 1113, were shown rocks
called Arthurs Chair and Arthur's Oven (which still exist between
Bodmin and Camelford, the latter being a Kistvaen), and were told that
this was his native land, and they narrowly escaped assault at Bodmin
for doubting that Arthur was yet alive. They also mention that similar
legends existed in Brittany (see Hermannus, De Miraculis S. Marise Lau-
dunensis, bk. ii. 15. 16, in Migne's " Patrologia Latina," torn. 156, col.
983). Thus, since also Geoffrey's Arthur is the grandson of an Armori-
can prince, and his Armorican cousin Hoel is his companion both at
home and in Gaul, and Cadwalader finds a last hope for the degenerate
Britons in Armorica, one can hardly doubt that Geoffrey derived much
of the last part of his history from a Breton source.
As regards Walter the Archdeacon little is known. He is mentioned
(according to White Kennet. Bishop of Peterborough, Laus. MS. 935 in
the British Museum) as Archdeacon of Oxford in 1104 and 1111. In
1 115 he witnessed a grant, copied in the Chronicon de Abingdon, he acted
as Justiciary at Winchester in 1123, and at Peter'aorough in 1 1-25 (see
Chronicon de Abingdon, Rolls edition, vol. ii. pp. 62, 63, 116, and Gun-
ton's " History of the Church of Peterborough." p. 274). In 1129, he
witnessed the foundation charter of Oseney (see above). His successor,
Robert Foliot. was appointed in 1151. In documents of his own time he
has no further designation, and he has been frequently confounded with
another Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, the celebrated Walter Map,
who held that office in 1196. Bale (Script orum Brytanie Catalogus,
1559) calls him Walter Calenius. This epithet some have connected with
Calne. others with Galena, a corruption of' Calleva Atrebatum," gene-
rally identified with Silchester. In Lehmd's time Galena was taken to
mean Oxford, in which sense Bale probably understood it. Carnden,
however, started a theory that Galena was a corruption of " Gwall Nen "
(the old wall), stated by him to have been the British name of Walling,
ford. This view was adopted by Kennet, and from the latter by Le
Neve in his Fasti, and thus, to quote Mr. Ward, " Archdeacon Walter
is now commonly styled Walter of Wallingford. "
For a fuller account of the History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, see
Ward's " Catalogue." H. JENNEB.
CH. III.] OKIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 139
evidence of its Armorican descent, as it ascribes to Hoel, a
hero of that country, many of the victories which tradition
attributes to Arthur.
But whether this celebrated chronicle be the invention of
Geoffrey, or whether it presents a faithful picture of the
traditions and fables at that period received as history,
there can be no doubt, according to the expression of Mr.
Ellis, who has given an analysis of the whole work, that it
is one of the corner-stones of romance.
This chronicle consists of nine books, each of which is
divided into chapters, and commences with the history of
Brutus, the son of Sylvius, and grandson of Ascanius, who,
being exiled from Italy in consequence of having acciden-
tally slain his father, takes refuge in Greece. There he
obtains the hand of Imogen, daughter of a king of that
country, and a fleet, with which he arrives in Albion (then
only inhabited by a few giants), and founds the kingdom
called Britain from his name. There is next presented an
account of the fabulous race of Brutus, particularly Arthur,
and the whole concludes with the reign of Cadwallader, one
of the descendants of that hero.
It would indeed be difficult to extract any authentic his-
tory from the chronicle of Geoffrey, but it stamped with
the character of veracity the exploits of the early knights
of chivalry, and authorized a compilation of the fables re-
liitt-d of these fanciful heroes. In the age in which the
chronicle appeared it was difficult to arrive at truth, and
ermr was not easily detected. 'Criticism was hardly called
into existence, and falsehood was adopted with an eagerness
proportioned to its envelopment in the fascinating garb
of wonder. The readers were more ignorant than the authors,
and a credulous age readily grafted on stories that were
evidently false, incidents that were physically impossible.
These were drawn from the sources already pointed out, and
were added, according to fancy, to unauthentic histories,
which thus degenerated, or were exalted, into romance.
In the chronicle of Geoffrey, indeed, there is nothing said
of the exploits of Tristran and Lancelot, or con quest of the
-ireal, or Holy Grail, which constitute so large a propor-
tion of the Round Table romances. These were subsequent
additions, but probably derived, like the chronicle, from
140 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
ancient British originals, as the names of the heroes, and
the scenes of their adventures, are still British.
The work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and such tradi-
tionary fables, were the foundation of those tales which
appeared in a metrical form, the shape in which, it is ac-
knowledged, romance was first exhibited.
It seems, also, unquestionable, that these metrical ro-
mances, though written in England, first appeared in the
French language.
In its earliest signification, the term Romance was ap-
propriated to the dialects spoken in the different European
provinces that had been subjected to the Roman empire,
and of which Latin was the basis, though other materials
might enter into the construction. The romance was at
one time the colloquial language of G-aul. Subsequently,
indeed, various dialects were introduced into that country,
but it was still preserved in Normandy ; and thence was
again diffused through the other provinces north of the
Loire. Hence Romance was first merely a general designa-
tion applied to works written in the vernacular as opposed
to those composed in Latin ; and was often applied to real
history. Its first application to an epic poem was in the
title of Wace's " Roman du Brut."
The earliest specimens of northern French literature are
metrical Lives of the Saints. These are supposed to have
been translated from Latin compositions about the middle
of the eleventh century. In the beginning of the next
century they were followed by several didactic works, as
the Bestiarius, a poem on natural history, by Philip de
Thaun, addressed to the queen of Henry I. of England,
and a metrical treatise on chronology by the same author.
It is believed, however, that no trace of a professed work
of fiction no specimen of what we should now term a
romance, is to be found before the middle of the twelfth
century. Then, indeed, the minstrels introduced a great
variety of their own compositions, and formed new combi-
nations from the numerous materials in their possession.
Before this time the language in which they wrote had
passed into England by means of the Norman Conquest.
The English, indeed, previous to this event had been pre-
pared for the reception of the French language. Edward
CH. III.] OBIGIN OF EOMANTIC FICTION. 141
the Confessor had been educated in France, and, on his
accession to the throne of England, promoted his con-
tinental favourites to the highest dignities. Under their
influence the nation began to lay aside its English customs,
and to imitate the language and manners of the French.
(Ingulph. Hist. Croyl. p. 62, ed. Tyrwhitt, vol. iv., or
Loud., 1843, p. xvii. n. 5.) These fashions having been
adopted in compliance with the caprice of the reigning
monarch, might probably have expired under his succes-
sors ; but before this extirpation could be -effected, the
French language, by means of the Norman Conquest,
became interwoven with the new political system. The
king, the chief officers of state, and a great proportion of
the nobility, were Normans, and understood no tongue but
that of their own country. Hence the few Saxons who
were still admitted at court had the strongest inducements
to acquire the language of their conquerors. William the
First also distributed a share of his acquisitions among his
great barons who had attended him ; and who, when it
was in their power, retired from court to their feudal
domains, followed by vassals from among their country-
men. Hence the language which was used in their common
conversation and judicial proceedings, was diffused through
tin- most distant provinces. All ecclesiastical preferments,
too, were bestowed on Norman chaplains, and those who
were promoted to abbacies were anxious to stock their
monasteries with foreigners. Thus the higher orders of
the clergy and laity spoke the French language, while the
lower retained the use of their native tongue, but fre-
quently added a knowledge of the dialect of the con-
querors. Matters continued in this state with little varia-
tion during the reigns of the Norman kings and the first
monarchs of the house of Plantagenet.
The Norman minstrels, accordingly, who had followed
their barons to the English court, naturally wrote and
recited their metrical compositions in the language which
was most familiar to themselves, and which, being most
l>iv\alent, procured them the greatest number of readers of
rank and distinction.
From the early connection of the Normans with the
people of Britany, the minstrels -nad received from the
142 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
latter those traditions, the remains of which they brought
over with them to England. 1
These they found in a more perfect state among the
Welsh of this island. 2 The invasion of the Normans, and
the overthrow of the Saxons, were events beheld with exul-
tation by the descendants of the aboriginal Britons, who
readily associated with those who had avenged them on
their bitterest enemies ; while to the Normans the legends
of the Welsh must have been more acceptable than those
of the Saxons. In the long course of political intrigue,
carried on between the period of the Norman invasion and
final subjugation of Wales, an intercourse must have
taken place between that country and England sufficient
1 Ellis's " Early Metrical Romances," vol. i. p. 36.
a At the present time opinions diametrically opposite are held about
the importance of the early Welsh traditions as a factor in the Romances
of Chivalry. While Herr Schulz says that the poems of Aneurin,
Taliessin, Hywarch, Meradin, &c., offer a direct reflection of the person
of Arthur, Mr. Nash, with far deeper scholarship and sounder judgment,
says, it is by no means clear that the Welsh had ever heard of Arthur
as a king before the twelfth century, when Rhys ap Tewdwr brought
the roll of the Round Table to Glamorganshire. There is not. says
the same author! ty, a single ancient poem extant which relates to any
warlike feat of Arthur against the Saxons (Taliesin, p. 328). The
poetical (with, I suppose, the triadic) was undoubtedly the earliest un-
written form of Welsh literature. Now, Mr. W. D. Nash, in his
Taliesin, or the Bards and Druids of Britain, etc., Lond. 1858,
points out as an unparalleled phenomenon in literary history that
the bards, minstrels, and singers, who teemed among the Welsh,
have not handed down one single love-song or one tale of adven-
ture ... in poetry. This has been done, however, in prose, hence he
argues that such productions were a late foreign importation, and con-
cludes that the Welsh probably derived more from, than they imparted
to the Romantic literature of Europe. That the prose tales (in the
Mabinogion, published by Lady Guest, new ed., London, 1877) contain
many incidents which have a common origin with those found in the
Romances of Chivalry is undeniable, but how far that pristine source is
Celtic is far from determined. Mr. Matthew Arnold is willing to admit
in the tales of the Mabinogiou a reflection of astronomical and solar
myths. The personages in these tales, he says, '' belong to an older
pagan mythological world. The very first thing," he truly adds, " that
strikes one in reading the Mabinogion is, how evidently the me-
diaeval story-teller [the oldest manuscript of these tales is of the four-
teenth century] is pillaging an antiquity of which he does not fully pos-
sess the secret ; he is like a peasant building his hut on the site of Hali-
carnassus or Ephesus : he builds, but what he builds is full of materials
of which he knows not the history."
CH. III.] ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION. 143
to account for the interchange of any literary materials.
Tlif British lays communicated to the French minstrels in
England were seldom committed to writing. Hence the
same story was repeated with endless variations, and this
svstem of traditional incident was added to the more
.stable relations contained in the chronicle of Geoffrey of
Monmouth.
It seems to be generally believed that French romances
in rhyme appeared in England and Normandy previous to
any attempt of this nature at the court of Paris. This is
evinced by the more liberal patronage of the English
princes, the style and character of the romances them-
selves, and the persons to whom the poems were originally
addressed.
The oldest of these French metrical romances is one
founded on the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and
entitled Le Brut : l it was written in the year 1155, by
Robert Wace, a native of Jersey, who brought down his
work from the time of the imaginary Brutus to the death
of Cadwallader, the aera where Geoffrey ends ; but it was
subsequently carried on by Gaimar'' and others to the age
of William Rufus. Wace is also the author of Le Roman
le Rou, a fabulous and metrical history of the Dukes of
Normandy from the time of Rollo. These metrical his-
tories soon introduced compositions professedly fictitious,
in which the indefatigable Wace first led the way. The
Chevalier au Lion 3 seems to be one of the earliest
romances in rhyme which has descended to our knowledge,
lu the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth
1 Gaimar is believed to have been the first who translated Geoffrey of
Monmouth into any modern language. At all events he obtained a copy
of the Historia Britonum for that purpose from Walter Espec, who
died in 1153. But Gaimar's " Brut," which was soon eclipsed by that
of Wace (finished in 1155), has now disappeared, having been replaced
In U'acr's composition in the four extant copies of the Estorie des
Kii'_cles,see British Museum Catalogue of Manuscript Romances, compiled
liv II. L. 7). Ward, edited by E. M. Thompson, vol. i. p. 423.
' 2 Gaimar wrote before Wace, so could hardly have been his con
tinuator. LIEU.
3 This pdcin is not by Waco, but by Chrestien de Troyes. For an
account of \Var<> and his works, see J. G. T. Grasse's " Lehrbuch einer
allgemeinen Literargeschichte," etc., Bd. 2, Abth. 3, p. 104 et seq.
Li KB.
144 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
century, an infinite variety of French metrical romances
on the subject of Arthur and his knights of the Bound
Table 1 appeared in England and Normandy, as the San-
greal, Perceval, &c., written by Chrestien de Troves, Menes-
sier, and others.
About the same period a great number of French
romances, in which classical heroes are celebrated, were
founded on the history of the Trojan war. Few of these,
however, at least at an early period, were converted into
prose, while the metrical romances relating to the Round
Table, either from accident or from flattering the vanity
and prejudices of a nation by the celebration of its fictitious
heroes, have, for the most part, been reduced into prose,
and constituted, thus transformed, a formidable compila-
tion, which came in time to supersede the metrical
originals.
These prose romances, which form the proper subject of
" He [Arthur] made the round table for their behoue
yt none of them shold sitt aboue."
See The Green Knight, p. 224,1. 13, in Sir F. Madden's edition of" Syr
Gawayne," 1839 ; he adds, p. 353, ' the earliest authority for this tradi-
tion is Wace, who inserts it in his translation of Geoffrey, and adds that
the round table was instituted by Arthur for the purpose of avoiding
disputes of precedence among his knights." See Le Roux de Lincy's
edition of the Eoman de Brut, 1836, 1. 2, p. 74. Robert of Brunne trans-
lates this literally in the inedited portion of his Chronicle [MS. Inner
Temple Library. Xo. 511, fo. 62b.]. Lazamon goes further, and not only
gives the history of the Table at much greater length, but adds the nar-
rative (for which he cites no source) of a quarrel which was the more
immediate occasion of the institution. An inedited Arthurian romance
preserved in the Red Book of Bath of the fifteenth century, contains
some lines on this subject.
Precedence at table was a point of great importance and matter of
legislation with the Welsh. In the laws of Howel Dda, all the officers
of the palace have their places in the hall specified, some having their
seats above and some below the partition, which is supposed to have cor-
responded with the dais still seen at the upper end of baronial halls. See
Myv. Arch. 2nd ed. ii. p. 104, etc. See also the account of Celtic
banquets, by Posidonius, in Athena-us Naucratita, Deipnosophisue, Lib.
iv. c. 32. "Orav ce TrXtiWec avvStnnnoaiv, Kr/)'rai ^niv iv KVK\W. peace
fif o Kpc'iTLffTOQ we ctv KOpvQaiog \opov, cio.<j>eptiti> rHiv aXXaij' ?/ Kara, rrjv
TroXe/uicjjf iv\f.pfiav, i"/ Kara TO ytroc, ?/ Kara TrXouror, etc.
From Britany the Institution of the Round Table or, at least, its tra
dition, was introduced into Celtic Britain by Rhys ap Tewdur, see Nash,
Taliesin, p. 198.
CH. III.] ORIGIN OP ROMANTIC FICTION. 145
our enqxiiry, were mostly written in the course of the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. It is ex-
vmely difficult, however, to ascertain the precise date of
the composition of each, or to point out the authors by
whom they were written.
The data by which we might attempt to fix the chronology
of the prose romances, and which, at first view, would
a].]M>ar to be at once easy and certain, are, 1. The antiquity
of the language ; 2. The manners represented ; since in
ancient romances a delineation is given not of the customs,
ceremonies, or dress of the period in which the imaginary
heroes are feigned to have existed, but of those which pre-
vailed at the time of the composition of the work. The
tournaments in particular, with a description of which
every romance is filled, should assist in this research.
Thus, at the institution of these spectacles, the persons
who had been long admitted into the order of chivalry con-
tended during the first day, and the new knights on the
succeeding ones. In process of time the new knights opened
the tournament, and the squires were allowed to joust
with them, but at length the distinctions which had
formerly existed between the knight and the squire became,
hi a great measure, confounded. The light, however, that
might naturally be expected to be drawn hence, has been
darkened by the authors of the prose romances having
servilely copied, in some instances, their metrical proto-
types, and thus, without warning, represented the manners
of a preceding age. In most instances, I believe, the prose
romances were accommodated to the opinions and manners
subsisting at the period of this new fabrication ; but it is
impossible to say with certainty what has been adopted
and what is original. 3. The name of the person to whom
the romance is addressed, or at whose solicitation it is said
to be written, may be of use in ascertaining the date. But
the authors title their patrons in so general a way, that the
inference to be drawn is vague and uncertain. Their works
are written at the desire of King Henry or King Edward
of England, and hence the period of their composition is
only limited to the reign of one of the numerous monarchs
who bore these names. 4. The date of the publication
may be of assistance in fixing the chronology of some of
I. L
146 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
the later romances of chivalry. But even this trifling aid
is in most instances denied, the earliest impression being
generally without date. Hence I am afraid that these
data will be found, in most cases, to afford but feeble and
uncertain assistance.
With respect to the authors of the prose romances, it
may be in the first place remarked, that these compositions
were not announced to the reader as works of mere imagi-
nation, but, on the contrary, were always affirmed by their
authors (who threw much opprobrium on the lying metrical
romances), to contain matter of historical fact. Nor was
this doubted by the simplicity of the readers ; and the
fables which had been disbelieved while in verse, were
received without suspicion on their conversion into prose.
Hence it became the interest of the real authors, in order
to give their works the stamp of authority, to abjure
the metrical romances, from which they were in fact com-
piled, and to feign either that these fables had been trans-
lated by them from Latin, or revised from ancient French
prose, in which they had been originally written, aver-
ments which should never be credited unless otherwise
established to be true. Indeed, some writers, though theirs
is not the general view, have supposed that this system of
mendacity was carried still farther, and that fictitious
names were generally assumed by the real authors. 1
MERLIN. 2
The demons, alarmed at the number of victims which
daily escaped their fangs since the birth of our Saviour,
held a council of war. It was there resolved that one
their number should be sent to the world with instructions
to engender on some virgin a child, 3 who might act as
1 Kitson, Ancient English Metrical Romances, vol. i. p. 45.
2 Sensuyt le pmier volume de Merlin. Qui est le premier liure de la
Table ronde. Avec plusieurs choses moult recreatiue. P. le Noir,
Paris, 1528. See supp. note.
3 Cf. Tobit, iii. 8, etc., and vi. 13, 14, etc. See also, infra, the story
of Belphagor by Macchiavelli, and the Oriental Saga of the angels
Harut arid Marut, in the commentators on (Sura, ii. 96) the Koran. In
the Chronicle of Philippe Mouskes, Bishop of Tournai, a diabolical
CH. III.] MERLIN. 147
their vicegerent on earth, and thus counteract the great
plan that had been laid for the salvation of mankind.
With this view the infernal deputy, having assumed a
human form, insinuated himself into the confidence, and
obtained admittance into the house, of a wealthy Briton
[i. fol. 1, Paris, 1528]. The fiend (though this was foreign
f nun the purpose of his mission), could not resist embracing
an early opportunity of strangling his host, and then pro-
ceeded to attempt the seduction of his three daughters,
which was more peculiarly an object of his terrestrial
sojourn. The youngest of the family alone resisted his
artifices [i. fol. 4], but she at length experienced the fate
of her sisters, while rendered unconscious by sleep. On
awakening, she was much perplexed by what had occurred,
and confessed herself to a holy man called Blaise, who had
all along been her protector, but who acknowledged him-
self altogether incompetent to account for the events of
tin 1 preceding night [i. f. 5].
The judges of the land, who soon after discovered the
pregnancy of the young lady, were about to condemn her
to death [i. f. 6], according to the law and custom of the
country ; l but Blaise represented that the execution should
origin is attributed to Eleonora of Aquitaine, who espoused Louis-le-
Jeune, King of France, and J. Brompton has preserved (Hist. Franc.,
xiii. 215) a similar legend, and in the Livre de Baudouin (p. 13) Com-
:esse Jeanne de Flandre is supposed to be a daughter of the evil spirit.
See Reiffenberg, Introduction to Chronicle of Philippe de Motiskos,
p. Ixviii. See supp. note.
1 In another old romance, a regulation of this sort is said to have
existed in France. " C'estoit la coustume, en ce terns, telle, que quand
une t'emme estoit grosse, que ce n'estoit de son Mari, ou qu'elle ne fust
mariee, on 1'ardoit." (L. Hist, plaisante du noble Siperis de Vinevaulx
et de ses dix sept fils.) In the Orlando Furioso this punishment is at-
tributed to the law of Scotland ;
" L'aspralegge di Scoziaempia e sevcra " (C. iv. st. 59, 1. 425 Chalmers).
Rinaldo on hearing of it, exclaims with indignation,
" Sia maladetto chi tal legge pose,
E maladetto chi la puo patire ;
Debitamente muore una Crudele,
Non chi da vita al suo amator fidele " (C. iv. st. 63).
See also Jubinal, Nouv. liec. i. 9. In later times, at all events, the
laws were milder, under Saint Louis disinheritance was the punishment
for tille noble qui s'est laissee engrosser. In Maine and Anjou, ' les filles
148 HISTORY OF FICTION. ~CH. III.
be at least deferred, as the child who was about to come
into the world ought not to be involved in the punish-
ment of the mother. The criminal was accordingly shut
up in a tower, where she gave birth to the celebrated
Merlin, 1 whom Blaise instantly hurried to the baptismal
font, and thus frustrated the hopes of the demons when
on the verge of completion [i. f. 7]. Merlin, however, in
spite of this timely redemption, retained many marks of
qui avaient atteint vingt-cinq ans pouvoient impunement devenir en-
ceintes. La coutume alors donnoit tort aux parents ; elle supposoit que
c'etoit leur faute, puisquils avoient attendu si tard a marier leurs filles."
See Le Grand d'Aussy's note to the Fabliau du Voleur que Notre Dame
Sauva. LIEB.
In Scotland a distinction is made between Notour and simple adultery.
Notour is when the guilty parties live openly at bed and board and
beget children. By a statute, 1551, c. 26, this crime was punished by loss
of movables ; hut afterwards by an act in 1563, cap. 74, it was renderec
capital ; and during the seventeenth century in particular, several person
were actually executed for adultery. See the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia
ed. by Sir D. Brewster, 1830, art. Adultery, where an account will bf
found of punishments for adultery, which were in many countries ver
severe. At Harlem, in Holland, is shown a kind of barrel open at eithe
end, in whichoffendersagainst public morals were drawn through the town
In England " carting " was a punishment meted out to brothel-keepers
For instance, on Nov. 23rd, 1575, Elizabeth Hollande was sentenced t
" be put into a carte at Newgate and be carted with a paper on her he<
shewinge her offence from thence to Smythfeilde, from thence to he
howse, from thence to Cornehill, from thence to the Standerd in Cheepe
from thence to Bridewell, and all the way basons to be runge before her
at Bridewell to be punished, and from thence to be brought to Newgate
there to remaine untill she have payed a fine of xl. li and put in sewertie
for the same, and to be bounde for her good behaviour." On the firs
of January following Prudence Crispe was sentenced " to be had t
Newgate and ther to be put into a carte, from thence to be carted t
Smithefeilde, from thence to her howse, from thence to Cornehill, an
from thence to the Standard in Cheepe, so to Bridewell, then to be
whipped, then to Newgate, and fined at xl. li. and to be bound to he
goode behaviour." (Middlesex Sessions Rolls. Published by the Middle
sex County Records Society, vol. i. pp. 234, 235.)
1 Surnamed Ambrose, and not to be confounded with a Merlin whos<
epoch is about a century later, and who is surnamed Wyllt (Silvester
and Calidonius (or perhaps more accurately Celidonius from the wooc
Kelidon or Celydon in Lincolnshire, or, according to Stuart Glennh
(Arthurian Localities, p. Ixxv*) part of the Ettrick forest in the Scottisl
border to which he retired stricken by insanity). Both Merlins are
however, frequently confounded with each other. See Graesse, Sagen
kreise, p. 197, etc. ; also San Marte Arthursage, p. 87, etc. ; and Ville
marqu, Contes Populaires des Anciens Bretons, i. 42, etc. LJEB.
CH. III.] MERLIN. 149
his unearthly origin, of which his premature elocution
afforded an early and unequivocal symptom. Immediately
after his baptism, the mother took the child in her arms,
and reproached him as the cause of the melancholy death
she was about to suffer. But the infant smiling to her,
replied, Fear not, my mother, you will not die on my
account. Accordingly the prosecution being resumed, and
^Merlin, the corpus delicti, being produced in court, he
addressed the judges, and revealed the illegitimacy of one
of their number, who was not the son of his reputed
lather, but of a Prior; and who thus, out of regard to
his own mother, was forced to prevent the condemnation of
Merlin's [i. f. 11].
At this time there reigned in Britain a king called
>tans, who had three sons, Moines, Pendragon, and
Vter. 1 Moines, soon after his accession, which happened
on the death of his father, was vanquished by the Saxons
[i. f. 13], in consequence of being deserted by his seneschal
Vbrtiger, formerly the chief support of his throne. Grow-
ing unpopular, through misfortune, he was soon after
killed by his subjects, and the traitor Vortiger chosen in
liis place [i. f. 14].
As this newly-elected monarch was in constant dread of
Hie preferable claims of Uter and Pendragon, the sur-
viving sons of Constans, he began to construct a strong
lower for defence. This bulwark, however, three times
fell to the ground without any apparent cause, when
brought by the workmen to a certain height. The king
(onsulted seven astronomers on this phenomenon in archi-
tecture. These sages having studied the signs, avowed to
each other that they could not solve the mystery. But in
the course of their observations they had incidentally dis-
covered that their lives were threatened by a child, who
ha ' I lately come into the world without the intervention of
a mortal father. They therefore resolved to deceive the
king, in order to secure their own safety ; a and announced
10 him, as the result of their calculations, that the edifice
1 In Geoffrey of Monr.ioutli, Ilistoria Britonum (vi. 7), Constans
has two infant brothers, Utl.er Pendragon and Aurelius Ambrosius.
Their father was Constantine. a Cf. Matth. ii.
150 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
would abide by the ordinary rules of architecture if the
blood of a child of this genealogy were shed on the first
stone of the foundation. 1
Though the king could not doubt the efficacy of this ex-
pedient, his plans were not much promoted by the response,
for the difficulty was to find a child of this anomalous
lineage. That nothing, however, might be wanting on his
part, he despatched messengers over all the kingdom [i. f.
17]. Two of his emissaries fell in with certain children
who were playing at cricket. 2 Merlin was of the party, and,
having divined the cause of their search, instantly made
himself known to them. When brought before the king,
he informed his majesty of the imposition of the astro-
logers, and showed that the instability of the tower was
occasioned by two immense dragons which had fixed their
residence under it, and, being rivals, shook its foundation
with their mighty combats [i. f. 22], The king invited
all his barons to an ensuing contest announced by Merlin.
Workmen having dug to an immense depth below the
tower, discovered the den of these monsters, who gratified
the court with the exhibition that was expected. The red
dragon was totally defeated by his white opponent, and
only survived for three days the effects of this terrible
encounter.
These animals, however, had not been solely created for
the amusement of the court, for, as Merlin afterwards ex-
plained [i. f. 25], they typified in the most unequivocal
manner the invasion of Uter and Pendragon, 3 the surviving
brothers of Moines. These two princes had escaped into
Britany on the usurpation of Vortiger, but now made a
descent upon England. Vortiger was defeated in a great
battle, and afterwards burned alive in the castle he had
taken such pains to construct [i. f. 31].
On the death of Vortiger, Pendragon ascended the throne.
This prince had great confidence in the wisdom of Merlin,
who became his chief adviser, and frequently entertained
the king, while he astonished his brother Uter, who was
1 See supp. note, Merlin ; see infra, i. pp. 156, 157.
2 "Ilz virenten ung chap ung tropeau de garcons qui sesbatoyent &
iouoyent a la crosse."
3 See note, p. 12G.
CH. III.] MERLIN. 151
not aware of his qualifications, by his skill in necromancy
[i. f. 34].
About this time a dreadful war arose between the Saxons
and Britons. Merlin obliged the royal brothers to swear
fidelity to each other, but foretold that one of the two must
fall in the first battle [i. f. 36]. The Saxons were totally
routed in the fight, and Pendragon, having fulfilled the
prediction of Merlin, was succeeded by liter, who now as-
sumed, in addition to his own name, the appellation of
Pendragon [i. f. 38].
Merlin still continued a court favourite. At the request
of Uter he transported by magic art enormous stones from
Ireland to form the sepulchre of Pendragon ; and next
proceeded to Carduel, (Carlisle,) to prepare the Round
Table, 1 at which he seated fifty or sixty of the first nobles
in the country, leaving an empty place for the Sangreal
[i. f. 40, etc.].
1 The prototype of this table was that which Joseph of Arimathia at
Christ's command established, and which in its turn was analogous to
the one at which Christ had sat with his Apostles at the Last Supper.
In the Metrical San Graal, however, a square table is mentioned,
" Ou non de cele table quier, (1. 2491)
Une autre, et fei appareiller."
Uter Pendragon's Round Table was subsequently revived. With
reference to still later renewals of the round table (namely, by Edward
the Confessor in 1043, see Graesse Sagenkreise, p. 149, 150, where fur-
ther the names of all the knights are given, and notices of round tables in
other countries), see Chenu, Kecueil des Antiquitez de Bourges, Paris,
1621. There was an order of Knights of the Round Table at Bourges.
The Round Table, says Schmidt (Wiener Jahrbuch., vol. 29, p. 86),
secures the personage whose duty it is to allot the places from the embar-
rassment arising from rival claims to precedence on the part of the ban-
queters, as all seats are equal. This was accordingly a patent reason
which might suggest to princes the expedient of a round table for the
Pares Regni. The custom had been adopted among the Gauls for this
reason ; according to Posidonius (see supra, p. 144, note), however, the
exact opposite, viz., that the sitters took their places in accordance with
their rank and distinction, nor does he make any allusion whatever to
trials of skill as taking place after the banquets, as Villemarque (Contes
pop. des anc. Bret. i. 40) erroneously states. LIEB.
A round table with an order of knights thereto pertaining was founded
by Theodoric, king of the East Goths, according to Aurelius Cassio-
dorus [variar. libri xii.], Wiener Jahrb., Bd. ix. 1825, p. 85. In the Saga
of Dietrich, the Czar Cartsuis is also made to institute a knightly round
table. See Graesse, Bd. ii. Abth. 3, p. 150.
152 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Soon after this institution the king invited all his barons
to the celebration of a great festival, which he proposed
holding annually at Carduel [i. f. 42].
As the knights had obtained permission from his majesty
to bring their ladies along with them, the beautiful
Yguerne accompanied her husband, 1 the Duke of Tintadiel,
to one of these anniversaries. The king became deeply
enamoured of the duchess, and revealed his passion to
Ulfinus or Ulfin, 2 one of his counsellors. Yguerne with-
stood all the inducements which Ulfin held forth to pre-
possess her in favour of his master, and ultimately dis-
closed to her husband the attachment and solicitations of
the monarch. On hearing this, the duke instantly removed
from court with Yguerne, and without taking leave of
Uter. The king complained of this want of duty to his
council, who decided that the duke should be summoned
to court, and if refractory should be treated as a rebel.
As he refused to obey the citation [i. f . 45], the king carried
war into the estates of his vassal, and besieged him in the
strong castle of Tintadiel, 3 in which he had shut himself up.
Yguerne was confined in a fortress at some distance, which
was still more secure. During the siege, Ulfin informed
his master that he had been accosted by an old man, who
promised to conduct the king to Yguerne, and had offered
to meet him for that purpose on the following morning.
Uter proceeded with Ulfin to the rendezvous. In an old
blind man, whom they found at the appointed place, they
recognized the enchanter Merlin, who had assumed that
appearance : he bestowed on the king the form of the Duke
of Tiutadiel, while he endowed himself and Ulfin with the
figures of his grace's two squires. Fortified by this triple
1 Gorlais by name. In a mythological poem of the Welsh bard Talies-
sin is narrated how Uter Pendragon (Uter Dragon-Head) became a wulf,
Welsh gorlais, to beget Arthur, and Gorlais is the name of Yguerne's
spouse, and thus the origin of this Welsh myth, which is perhaps, not
as Dunlop supposes, derived from the story of Jupiter and Alcmena.
(See Villemarque, Contes pop. des a. Bret., i. 18, 5i.)
2 See Appendix, No. 1.
3 Some vestiges of the castle of Tintadiel. or Tintagel, remain on a
rocky peninsula of prodigious declivity towards the sea, on the northern
coast of Cornwall. [These " vestiges " consisted chiefly of work of the
early Norman period, though a small amount of Roman masonry has
been found. H. JEKKER.]
CH. III.] MEELIN. 153
metamorphosis, they proceeded to the residence of Yguerne,
who, unconscious of the deceit, received the king as her
husband [i. f. 48].
This deception has been evidently suggested by the
classical story of Jupiter and Alcmena [see supp. note]. The
duke corresponds to Amphytrion, and Merlin to the Mer-
cury of mythology ; while Arthur, who, as we shall find,
was the fruit of the amour, holds the same rank in the
romantic as Hercules in the heroic ages.
The fraud of Merlin was not detected, and the war con-
tinued to be prosecuted by Uter with the utmost vigour.
At length the duke was killed in battle, and the king, by
the advice of Merlin, espoused Yguerne. Soon after the
marriage she gave birth to Arthur, whom she believed to
be the son of her former husband, as Uter had never com-
municated to her the story of his assumed appearance
[i. f. 57].
After the death of Uter [i. f. 57], there was an interreg-
num in England, as it was not known that Arthur was his
son. This prince, however, was at length chosen king, in
consequence of having unfixed, from a miraculous stone, 1
a sword which two hundred and one of the most valiant
1 Et quant il fut jusques a 1'evangille [of the Christmas mass], & elle
fut chantee aulcuns de scs chevaliers & des gens qui oyoient sa messe
yssirent hors de l'e"glise. Si virent que il fut presque iour & trouverent
devant le portail de 1'eglise une place ou il y avoit ung perron de trois
carreaux mais ilz ne sceurent oncques a dire de quelle pierre ilz estoyent
fors que aucuns disoient que cestoit marbre, et sur ce perron avoit au
meilleu une enclume de fer bien large environ de demy pied de hault.
Et dedans ceste enclume avoit une espee ficheo iusques du perron, et
quant ceulx de 1'eglise veirent ce si eurent grans merveilles de veoir ce
perron . . . Larcevesque brice . . . vint ... & veil 1'espee au parmy toute
debout et unes lettres escriptes d'or sur 1'espee qui disoient ainsi cestui
qui lira 1'espee hors de son lieu fera roy de ceste terre par 1'admonition
de ihesus." (Fol. Iviii, vol. i. of the Merlin. Paris, 1528.)
Theseus, the Athenian hero, had to take from beneath a stone the sword
placed thereunder by his father. In northern mythology Odin drives
his sword up to its hilt in an oak. Sigmund draws it out. Ordeals
were abolished by the Fourth Council of Lateran, 1215. The account of
the sword in Lancelot is somewhat different. It was called Excalibur,
more properly Escalibur, the Celtic languages not admitting the x sound,
a conjectural etymology compounds the name of the Celtic words sgaile,
bright, flaming, or sgal, a champion, and bar, noble. Caliburn, as the
sword is sometimes called, has been derived from call, and cailleac/id,
noble, and buircan, a loud sound.
154 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
barons in the realm had been singly unable to extract
[i. f. 58]. At the beginning of his reign, Arthur was en-
gaged in a civil war, as the mode of his election, however
judicious, was disapproved by some of the barons ; and
when he had at length overcome his domestic enemies, he
had long wars to sustain against the Gauls and Saxons
[i. f. 79, 82, etc].
In all these contests the art of Merlin was of great ser-
vice to Arthur, as he changed himself into a dwarf, a harp
player, or a stag, as the interest of his master required ; or,
at least, threw on the bystanders a spell to fascinate their
eyes, and cause them to see the thing that was not. The
notion of these transformations seems to have been sug-
gested by the power ascribed in classical times to Proteus
and Vertumnus,
Nunc equa, nunc ales, modo bos, modo cervus abibat.
On one occasion Merlin made an expedition to Rome,
entered the king's palace in the shape of an enormous stag,
and in this character delivered a formal harangue, to the
utter amazement of one called Julius Caesar, not the Julius
whom the knight Mars killed in his pavilion, but him
whom Grauvain slew because he had defied king Arthur
[ii. f. 19].
At length this renowned magician disappeared entirely
from England. His voice alone was heard in a forest,
where he was enclosed in a bush of hawthorn ; he had been
entrapped in this awkward residence by means of a charm
he had communicated to his mistress Vivlian or Viviane, 1
who, not believing in the spell, had tried it on her lover.
The lady was sorry for the accident, but there was no ex-
tracting her admirer from his thorny coverture.
The earliest edition of this romance was printed at Paris,
in three volumes folio, 1498 ; this impression, which has
become extremely rare, was followed by another in quarto
(1528), which is much less esteemed than the other, but is
also exceedingly scarce.
Though seldom to be met with, the Roman de Merlin is
one of the most curious romances of the class to which it
1 See note on Vivian in J. S. Stuart Glennie's " Arthurian Locali-
ties," p. Ixxiii*.
CH. III.] MERLIN. 155
belongs. 1 It comprehends all the events connected with
the life of the enchanter from his supernatural birth to his
magical disappearance, and embraces a longer period of
interesting fabulous history, than most of the works of
chivalry. Some of the incidents are entertaining, and no
]>;irt of the narrative is complicated. Yguerne, though she
appears but for a short while, is a more interesting female
character than is usually portrayed in romances of chivalry.
The passion of Uter for this lady, which is well described,
is by much the most interesting part of the work ; and
though the marvellous pervades the whole production, it is
not carried to such an extravagant length as in the tales
of the Round Table, by which it was succeeded. The
language, which is very old French, is remarkable for its
beauty and simplicity : Indeed, the romance bears every-
where the marks of very high antiquity. It has been
generally attributed to Robert de Borron, to whom so
many other works of the same nature have been assigned.
The author lived in the time of Henry III. and Edward I.,
as Rusticien de Pise, who lived during these reigns, calls
him, in his prologue to Meliadus, his companion in arms.
But, great as the antiquity of the romance no doubt is,
its author can lay but little claim to originality of invention.
Most of the incidents appear in the chronicle of Geoffrey
of Monmouth, from which they were transferred into the
romance through the medium of the Brut, a metrical
version of that fabulous history, written by Wace. (See
supra, pp. 140, 143.)
The notion of procreating demons, which forms the
basis of the romance, and accounts for Merlin's super-
natural powers, seems to have been taken from the Vita
Merlini, the Life of the Scotch 2 Merlin, by Geoffrey of
Monmouth :
Kt sibi multotiens ex acre corpore sumpto
Nobis apparent, et plurima saepe sequuntur ;
Quin etiam coitu mulieres aggrediuntur,
Et faciunt gravidas, generantes more profano.
It would appear from Jocelin's Life of St. Eentigern, the
1 It has been published for the Early English Text Society.
* Or rather Calydonian. (See note '2, p. 148.)
156 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
account of whose birth resembles that of Merlin, 1 that our
grandmothers were frequently subject to nocturnal attacks
of the nature described in the romance ; " audivimus fre-
quenter sumptis transfigiis puellarem pudicitiam expug-
natam esse, ipsamque defloratam corruptorem sui minime
nosse. Portuit aliquid hujusmodi huic puellse accidisse." '
Yet, perhaps, the account of the birth and early part of
the life of Merlin may be traced to a yet more ancient and
venerable source. 3
At an early period the story of Merlin became current
and popular in most of the countries in Europe. The
French romance, of which we have given an abstract, was
translated into Italian by Antonio Tedeschi, a Venetian,
and was written by him while in the prison of Florence,
where he was confined for debt. The history of Merlin
appeared also in English, in a metrical form, 4 in which the
incidents are nearly the same with those in the French
romance. [Ellis, Specimens of Early Metrical Romances,
i. 205, where a summary will be found, p. 75].
Merlin is frequently introduced in the subsequent tales
of chivalry, but chiefly on great occasions, and at a period
subsequent to his death, or magical disappearance. He
has also found his way into the English metrical version
of the Seven Wise Masters. [It is called " the Proces of
the Sevyn Sages," see Weber, English Metrical Romances,
vol. iii. p. 91 ; and Ellis, Specimens, vol. iii.] Herowdes,
1 See Merlin and Kentigern, Black wood's Magazine, December, 1885.
2 Pinkerton's " Vita; Antiquse," Loud. 1789, p. 200, ap. Ellis's " Spe-
cimens," p. 211, vol. i. A curious tradition of this sort is related in
Boethius' " Historia Scotorum," Paris, 1574, 1. viii. 119. See, infra, note
to Huon of Bordeaux.
3 Tobit, iii. 8, etc., and vi. 13, 14, etc. Upon this subject see also
Dobeneck, Des Deutsehen Mittelalters Volksglauben, i. 28, etc. ; Boais-
tuau, Histoires prodigieuses, ch. vii. . Caes. Heisterbach, Mirac. et
Hist., iii. 6, 7, 8, 9 ; AVoIf, Niederliind. Sagen, No. 105; Scheible
Kloster, v. 197, etc. ; the Story of the Frankish King Ciodio, Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology, p. 391 (364 of Ger. ed. 1843, Gottingen) ; Kaspar
vonder Ron's " Heldenbuch, the Story of the Meerwunder ;" also Dietrich
of Bern's Descent ; W. Grimm, Deutsche Ilelden Sage, p. 294, No. 9. See
also, infra, note, on the story of Count Baldwin of Flanders. LTEB.
4 Leland (Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis, A. Hall's edition,
i. p. 191) puts this poem among the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Mr. Ward, who discusses its authorship at some length, is favourable to
this ascription. See Ward's Cat. i. pp. 279-286.
CH. III.] MERLIN. 157
emperor of Rome, had seven sages in his council, who
abused the confidence reposed in them by their master.
This emperor, while one day preparing to go on a hunting
party, is suddenly struck blind ; the wise men are con-
voked, and ordered to account for his majesty's obstructed
vision. They are forced to confess that they are unpre-
pared with an answer, but are afterwards advised by an
old man to consult the invisible Merlin. Two of their
number are sent on this errand, who find out the enchanter
with great difficulty, and bring him to the king. Merlin
is prepared with a prescription, and informs his majesty
that nothing more is necessary to obtain complete restora-
tion to sight, than striking off the heads of his seven sages.
Herowdes, delighted to find that his cure could be so
cheaply purchased, caused his counsellors to be successively
beheaded, and the recovery of his sight coincided with the
decapitation of his last minister.
Nor have the fables connected with Merlin been confined
to idle tales or romances of chivalry, but have contributed
to the embellishment of the finest productions. In the
romantic poems of Italy, and in Spenser, Merlin is chiefly
represented as a magical artist. The fountain of love 1 in
1 It is rather the fountain of oblivion :
" This Fountaine more then wondrous for delight,
Was carvde with Alabaster passing fine,
Set out with gold, adorning it so bright,
As all the Meadow sun-like made to shine :
MERLIN it built, (a famous conjuring Wight)
Because worthie Sir Tristram at that time
Drinking thereof, should leave that lovely Queene,
Who was in th'end his utter ruine seen." St. 34.
Bojardo's " Orlando Innamorato," the three first Books . . . trans-
lated by R, T[oft]. Lond., 1598.
In antiquity, a similar power was attributed to the River Selemnos,
Pausan. vii. 23, 2. LIEB.
" This Spring was one of those four fountains rare,
Of those in France produced by Merlin's sleight ;
Encompassed round about with marble fair,
Shining and polished, and than milk more white.
There in the stone's choice figures chisseled were,
By that magician's god-like labour dight ;
Some voice was was wanting, these you might have thought
Were living and with nerve and spirit fraught."
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto xxvi., st. 30, Rose's translation.
158 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
the Orlando Innamorato [1. 3.], is said to have been the
work of Merlin ; and in the 26th canto of the Orlando
Furioso, there is described a fountain, one of four which
the enchanter formed in France. It was of the purest
marble, on which coming events were portrayed in the
finest sculpture. In the same poem, Bradamante arrives
one night at the lodge of Tristan (Rocca di Tristano),
where she is conducted into a hall adorned with prophetic
paintings, which demons had executed in a single night
under the direction of Merlin.
In the third canto of the Einaldo, the knight of that
name arrives with Isolero at two equestrian statues ; the
one of Lancelot, the other of Tristan, both sculptured by
the art of Merlin. Spenser represents Merlin as the
artificer of the impenetrable shield, and other armour of
Prince Arthur [Faery Queene, b. i. c. 7. st. 33-36], and of
a mirror in which a damsel viewed her lover's shade. But
Merlin had nearly obtained still higher distinction, and was
on the verge of being raised to the summit of fabulous
renown. The greatest of our poets, it is well known,
before fixing on a theme more worthy of his genius, in-
tended to make the fabulous history of Britain the subject
of an epic poem, as he himself announces in his Epitaphium
Damonis [v. 162, etc.] :
Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per aequora puppes
Dicam, et Paudrasidos regnum vetus Inogenue,
Bronnumque Arviragumque duces, priscumque Belinum,
Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos ;
Turn gravidam Arturo fatali fraude logernen,
Mendaces vultus assumptaque Gorlois anna
Merlini dolus. l
It has been mentioned, in the abstract just given of the
romance of Merlin, that when the magician, who is the
chief character in the work, prepared the round table at
Carduel, he left a place vacant for the St. G-raal, or Holy
Vessel brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. Its
quest is the most fertile source of adventures to the knights
of the Bound Table.
Derived 2 from the most varied sources reflecting most
1 Cf. Milton's " Mansus," v. 80.
2 From this point to the Perceval, p. 172 is by the present Editor.
CH. III.] MERLIN. 159
opposite characteristics, modified to suit their contempora-
ries by successive copyists, and loosely linked on one to
another, the Romances of the Round Table, or Arthurian
Cycle, present rather a motley patchwork than a sequential
combination. That they embody elements of vitality is
best evidenced by the fact that they afforded a fruitful theme
for the most renowned productions of those dialects of
Europe which were then crystallizing into the chief lan-
guages of the West ; that they powerfully aided the sur-
vival of the dialects reserved for this destiny ; and, that in
our own day, as in the past, they supply subjects for some
of the greatest pens in literature.
They comprise not only elements, but tendencies the
most diverse, and the conjunction must, at least viewed from
the standpoint of modern criticism, I think, on the whole,
be admitted to be crude, violent, and incongruous. We
find too often unintelligibly and unsatisfactorily associated
with the incidents of the story cloudy reminiscences of a
Celtic heroic age and mythology, vague echoes of Celtic
struggles with other Aryan peoples that in Great Britain
and Little Britain alike were ever pressing the Kymri
westwards from their lands. These again are mingled
with episodes of knightly daring and generous dealing,
while a lax morality the reflex, perhaps, of pagan liberty
or troubadour licence alternates with strivings after high
Christian ideals.
To all this is superadded an element not only Christian,
but mystical and ascetical, of clearly ecclesiastical origin ;
it is made to serve indeed in some sort as a connecting
thread between the romances of the Graal, Merlin, the
Quest of the Graal, Lancelot of the Lake, and Morte
Arthur, and yet appears as a somewhat alien and incon-
gruous interpolation, and may have been introduced as
an antidote to the immorality prevailing through many
parts of the cycle. This mystical element is embodied
in the
ROMANCE OF THE GBAAL/
which is usually placed at the head of the group of
romances above specified, supplying the place of an intro-
1 See supp. note, and appendix No. 2.
160 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
duction without which they are incomplete. The opening
portion of the Graal legend is clearly traceable to very
early sources, and the whole story has been indefinitely
varied by Chrestien de Troyes, Menessier, Wolfram von
Eschenbach, Albrecht von Scharfenberg, Eobert de Thorn-
ton, Lonelich, and other mediaeval poets. The oldest literary
composition, hoAvever, in which the story has come down
to us, and which is more immediately the groundwork of
these romances, appears to be the Joseph of Arimathea or
Short Graal, generally ascribed to and ostensibly written by
Robert de Borron, 1 a trouvere and sort of secretary attached
to Gautier de Montfaucon. Of this work in a metrical
dress, which was probably Borron's form of composition,
one MS. 2 of the late thirteenth century alone is known.
Several MSS. of the same work in prose are extant, and
their interconcordance shows them to contain a text not
widely differing from the original production.
It should, however, be stated that it has been inferred
from allusions in Wolfram von Eschenbach's " Parzival,"
composed early in the thirteenth, that in the preceding
century a French trouvere, Guyot, was the first to compose
on the subject of the Graal a poem, now lost, which supplied
the basis not only of Wolfram's " Parzival," but of the
Perceval-le-Gallois left unfinished by Chretien de Troyes,
who flourished in the same century, as well as of Borron's
and all subsequent compositions on the same theme.
Borron winds up the poem by saying he would fain
follow up the adventures of Alain and Petrus, two of the
personages, but believes no one could do so without know-
ing the Great History of the Graal, which at the time of
writing had never been reproduced by mortal hand [from
the divinely written volume of which more anon] .
A ce terns que je la retreis,
O mon Seigneur Gautier en pels
Qui de Montbelial esteit,
Uncques retreite este n'aveit
La grant estoire dou graal,
Par nul home qui fut mortal.
1 See Hucher, Le Saint-Graal, tome i., p. 368, etc.
2 Published by F. Michel, Bordeaux, 1841, 300 copies, reprinted at
the end of vol. i. of Lonelieh's " Seynt Graal," by the Roxburghe Club.
1861.
CH. III.] ROMANCE OF THE GRAAL. 161
And further announces his intention of collecting or com-
bining the remaining histories, if he can get access to the
book containing them, and since published as M. Paulin
Paris interprets.
Mais je fais bicn a tons savoir
Qui cest livre vourront avoir
Que se Dicu me donne sant
Kt vie, bien ai volente
Do ces parties assembler
So en livre les puis trouver.
The verses, however, are not free from ambiguity, from
which the best French scholars have been unable to clear
them. Borron meanwhile proceeds to the Merlin.
The grant estoire dou G-raal has been thought to refer to
the longer Graal, not to be confounded with the quest of the
Graal, an entirely different work, ascribed to a Welshman,
Walter Map, archdeacon of Oxford towards the latter part
of the twelfth century, which professes in the prologue to be
a volume written by Christ himself, and given to a hermit
in "Britain" in the year A.D. 717, and which, together
with its recipient, underwent many preternatural vicissi-
tudes, including a trip to Norway and back.
This romance may be regarded as a recast of the Shorter
Graal of Borron, composed, however, in a much more
imaginative vein, and augmented with numerous adven-
tures, episodes, and spiritual allegories, wholly wanting in
the Shorter Graal, and, indeed, .quite foreign to its bald
and meagre character. It has been suggested that it
was produced in collaboration by Map and Borron, who
may have met at Fontainebleau, near which, according to
\ M. Hucher, Borron's estates were situate during a mission
on which Map is known to have been sent to Louis le Jeune.
I do not, however, see how this theory can be reconciled
: with the lines quoted above, unless the statement which
i indeed usually appears in the manuscripts of the Greater
'Graal, that the work was translated by Borron from a
Latin original, be taken in good faith. It is most ques-
tionable whether it should be so taken, and I think the
, following considerations render the point very doubtful.
The Longer Graal was probably feigned to have been trans-
ited from Latin simply because that was the only language
M
162 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
in which it would plausibly support its pretended Divine
origin. This purpose would, however, be as well served by a
bare assertion, as by the adhibition of a Latin text, which
accordingly never existed, for the work is patently intended
for perusal in knightly circles where the clerkly tongue
would be unintelligible. It is, too, altogether unlikely that
Borron knew Latin indeed, I think his writings furnish
indications that he did not. Moreover, the Greater Graal,
though ecclesiastical inspiration is easily discernible in it,
is unlike works written in Latin, and does not bear the
stamp of a monastic story, with the exception of those
parts that are identic in substance with the Shorter Graal,
which probably embodies monkish legends based on apo-
cryphal Scriptures.
I proceed here to give a brief abstract of the Shorter
Graal, noting by the way some of the differences between
it and the Greater Graal.
Upon hearing of Christ's death, the "Chevalier" Joseph
of Arimathea, the subordinate and friend of Pilate, obtains
from the latter the body of the Redeemer. As the Jews
object to the grant, Pilate orders Nicodemus to support
Joseph with his authority. To the latter Pilate gives a
dish which a Jew had brought to him from the house of
Simon the leper, where the Saviour had used it for the
Last Supper. 1 In this " vaissel " Joseph, while preparing
the body of our Lord for sepulture, collects the gore from
the sacred wounds, remembering that the rock at the foot
of the cross had been split by the blood of Christ which
had fallen on it. 2
Subsequently the Jews, fearing the popular effect of the
resurrection, plot secretly to kill Joseph and Nicodemus, so
that, should the Emperor Titus require them to produce
Christ's body, they might say that it had been given to
Joseph and Nicodemus, and that these had since disap-
peared. Nicodemus escapes, but Joseph is, by order of
1 In the Greater Graal it is Joseph himself who takes the dish from
the house where the Last Supper had been celebrated.
2 This is an old tradition frequently mentioned in ancient accounts of
the Holy Places. It was a pious allegorical idea, rather than a belief,
that the Cross had been erected over the tomb of the first man, and that
the blood of the Second Adam had fallen upon the skull of the tirst
Adam, when redemption of his progeny was consummated.
CH. III.] EOMANCE OF THE GBAAL. 163
Caiaphas, immured in a tower without light or food, where
the Saviour, in a great brightness, appears to him, 1 comforts
him, and restores to him the Vessel, instructs him to whom
he is to transmit it, and teaches him the " secrets which
are said in the great sacrament which is made on the Graal,
that is to say, on the chalice." The vessel is to supply
Joseph sole and sufficient support and heavenly refection
during his captivity, which terminates in the following way.
The Emperor Titus in Rome comes to hear of Christ's
life and miracles from a " chevalier " who has just returned
from a " pilgrimage," and who had seen the cures wrought
by Him. Titus hereupon despatches a commission 2 to
Judaea to inquire into Pilate's conduct, and the truth of
the story, and also to bring back some article which had
belonged to Christ, which as this knight assured him would
have virtue to heal the emperor's son Vespasian from the
leprosy with which he is afflicted, the pilgrim knight being
meanwhile confined as a hostage for the truth of his story. 3
Pilate clears himself before the commissioners, who bring
back with them to Rome an old woman, Verrine, who had
preserved the towel with which she had wiped Christ's face.
Vespasian is healed by looking upon this towel, and he
and Titus proceed in force to Judsea, where they institute
inquiries, and arrest numerous Jews, who, as they cannot
produce Christ's body, are burned. One Jew, however, on
condition of being spared, conducts Vespasian to Joseph's
dungeon. Vespasian descends into it and is prophetically
recognized by the captive. The Jew is not indeed actually
1 Gospel of Nicodemus, chaps, ix. and xi.
2 Vindicta Salvatoris, where the imprisonment of Joseph is also
narrated.
3 This returned pilgrim is, in the Greater Graal, called a " Knight of
Capernaum ; " instead of being confined, he is himself commissioned by
Titus to Juda;a, where he instructs Felix (not Pilate), the governor, to
issue a proclamation, in consequence of which " Marie la venissienne "
produces the veronica, or divinely-impressed portrait. It is this woman
who, in the Greater Graal, denounces the abettors of the crucifixion,
and it is Joseph's wife (Helyab) who begs for her husband's deliverance,
whil<; Caiaphas discloses the dungeon where Joseph is imprisoned, on
condition of having his life spared. Joseph, to whom his forty two
years' captivity have seemed but as one day, indicates the culprits con-
d in the crucifixion, and they are condemned to the stake ;
Caiaphas is cast adrift in a boat.
164 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
put to death, but is with his family committed to the
mercies of the sea in an open boat.
Thus far the main features of the narrative are based
upon extant apocryphal writings which date from a high
antiquity. Of the subsequent portion we have no earlier
form. It is in the Shorter Graal almost wholly mystic and
spiritual, but in the Greater G-raal is largely expanded by
the wars and knightly deeds of prowess of a number of
personages unknown to the shorter romance.
Joseph, his sister Enysgexis (Enigee), and her husband
Brons, 1 with a number of their kinsfolk and other prose-
lytes, now receive baptism at the hands of St. Clement,
and set out for a distant country where they settled. Many
natives were converted, and the colony prospered a while,
then everything went ill famine reduced them to extre-
mity they were being visited for a great sin, " et cil
pechiez estoit luxure sanz raison." [He]brons is consulted,
and refers to Joseph, who prays before the Holy Vessel for en-
lightenment, and is inspired by Heaven with a test whereby
to discover the sinner. "Remember," he is told in a vision,
" that at the Last Supper, at the house of Simon, I said
that he that was eating and drinking with Me would be-
tray Me. The guilty man knew these words applied to
him, he was ashamed and drew away, and his place has
never been filled, but shall be, at another table." Joseph
is instructed to make a table, and to direct Brons who is a
wise man and one of whom many a wise man shall be de-
scended to catch a fish. This fish is to be laid next the
Graal which is set before Joseph's place at the table. When
the company sit, one vacant place is left on the right of
Joseph and left of Brons, and this represents Judas's
place, and shall only be filled by the grandson of Brons
and Enygeus. Joseph tells his people if they believe in
the Trinity and the Commandments, to sit down to the
Grace of God. Some sat, others refrained, the table, ex-
1 In the Greater Graal the part of Brons is filled by '' Josephes,"
" Josaphe," or " Josephe," Joseph's son. He and his kinsfolk, as also
Vespasian with his company, these secretly, are baptized by St. Philip.
St. Clement is not mentioned in the metrical Shorter Graal, in which the
forms Hebron, Hebrons, Hebrun, as well as Brons, occur both circum-
stances which seem in favour of its anteriority. See supp. note.
CH. III.] EOMANCE OF THE GBAAL. 165
cept the Judas place, being full. 1 One of the sitters, Petrus,
says that if the abstainers do not feel that grace and bliss
which fills those who are seated at the table, it is because
of the sin, and they withdraw in shame. Joseph bids
the company reassemble daily at the hour of Tierce 2 to the
" service " of the vessel.
The sinners desiring to know the name of the vessel, are
told that it is properly called G-raal (or G-real), as none shall
see it but those who are agreeable to it.
Par droit Graal Papelera ;
Car nus le Graal no verra,
Ce croi-je, qu'il ne li agree.
One of the sinners, Moses, a hypocrite and everything else
that is bad besides, begs to be let remain ; Joseph says
nothing can prevent him if he is as good as he pretends to
be he endeavours to seat himself in the vacant place :
but, lo ! the earth opens and engulfs him.
Aleyn is, in commemoration of the fish, henceforth
known as the Eich Fisher. 3 (Eiche Pecheour.)
1 It seems possible not only that some of the marvels narrated in the
Greater Graal, but also some of the incidents in the earlier story may
have been imported from the East by the Crusaders. Taken in connec-
tion with the table of Brons, the following passage is curious : " Re-
member when the Apostles said : O Jesus, Son of Mary, is Thy Lord
able to send down a table (md 'idah, a table, especially one covered with
victuals) to us out of heaven ? He said, Fear God, if ye be believers.
They said : We desire to eat therefrom, and to have our hearts assured;
and to know that thou hast indeed spoken truth to us, and we be
witnesses thereof. Jesus Son of Mary, said : O God, our Lord, send
down a table to us out of heaven, that it may become a recurring festival
t<> us, to the first of us, and to the last of us, and a sign from Thee ; and
do Thou nourish us, for Thou art the best of nourishers." Koran, Surah
v. 112-114. See also Weil, the Bible, the Koran, etc., p. 2-27, etc.
2 The office of Tierce used immediately to precede the celebration of
mass in conventual establishments.
u M. Paulin Paris suggests that an allusion to the Fisherman's ring
and the Papal power is here intended, in other works of the Graal Cycle
it is the Koi Pecheur. The Fisherman's King seems to be mentioned
about 1265, as applied to private letters of the Pope, but was probably
so used for some time previously. (See Waterton in Archfeologia, xi.
]>. 1 ">$, 1856.) I think the more probable allusion is to the Fish, a symbol
of Christ, retained from the early Church by which it was much em-
pliivi'd in the times of persecution on account of the hidden meaning of
tin- (ireek letters which compose it, i\Qve, the initials of 'Irjcrur
Qtov viof !'uir//i>.
166 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Joseph is divinely informed that the vacancy represent-
ing Judas' s place at the Last Supper shall not be filled up
before the day of doom. But for his comfort an analogous
place at another (Merlin's Round) Table shall be filled by
Bron's grandson, and no more shall be heard of Moses
until he is found in the abyss by that future occupant of the
seat [the " siege perillous "] which he had essayed to usurp.
Of the twelve sons of Brons, Aleyn elects to remain celi-
bate, 1 and to him his married brethren are to be subject by
direction of Joseph, who shows him the Graal which is
eventually to pass into the custody of Aleyn's son. Petrus
receives a letter from heaven, and sets out for the vales of
" Avaron," where he will remain alive till Aleyn's son
come and read that letter and possess the Graal, which
meanwhile is confided to the guardianship of Brons, by
Joseph, who teaches him the secret words imparted to
himself by Christ in the prison of Caiaphas. He is to go to
the West, where he will await the coming of Aleyn's son,
who is to receive the Holy Vessel. Joseph himself goes to
Britain, Aleyn also and his brethren start for foreign lands.
The narrative in the Greater Graal is expanded by an
almost interminable series of marvellous feats, adventures
and voyages, temptations on the rock Perilous, 3 transfor-
mations of fair females into foul fiends, conversions whole-
sale and individual, allegorical visions, miracles and por-
tents. Eastern splendour and Northern weirdness, angelry
and devilry, together with abundant fighting and quite a,
phenomenal amount of swooning, which seem to reflect a
strange medley of Celtic, pagan, and mythological tradi-
tions and Christian legends and mysticism, alternate in a
kaleidoscopic maze that defies the symmetry which modern
esthetic canons associate with every artistic production.
A large portion of the story is taken up with the wars,
conversions, dreams of Evilac and Seraphe, eventually bap-
tized (ix.) by the names respectively of Nasciens and Mor-
drains, before the transfer of the narrative to Britain, which
is reached by Josephes and some of his followers upon his
1 This choice is narrated, in the Greater Graal, before the fish incident.
4 See also below in Perceforest, the account of this mission.
3 It is apposite to note that the Norman Mont St. Michel was known
to medireval writers as Mons Scti Michaelis de Periculo Maris.
CH. III.] ROMANCE OP THE GRAAL. 167
shirt, which bears them over the waters, while the rest
follow in a ship that had been preserved, and had been one
of Solomon's navy. Once in Britain the adventures extend
to Northumbria, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and probably
embody reminiscences of early British historical events, but
the geography if not purely imaginary is hopelessly vague
and confused. In these various regions, all originally
peopled by " Saracens," we are presented with a fresh suc-
cession of wars, sieges, heaven-aided conquests, alliances,
conversions, and prodigies. Here it is the episodes of the
fish, and the attempts of Moses to sit in the siege perilous are
narrated, and here we find Moses' fate is differently devised.
Seven naming hands from heaven hurl fire upon him and
carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush,
where he is found towards the close of the story. The in-
cident of the fish is also differently narrated. The good-
livers go to service and are fed by the Holy Graal. The
sinners, on the contrary, not being thus fed, beg Josephes,
Joseph's son, to pray for them ; and he orders Bron's
twelfth son, Aleyn or Alain le Gros, to take the net from
the Graal table, and fish with it. He catches one fish,
which the sinners say will not suffice. But Aleyn having
prayed satisfies them all with it, and is thenceforward called
the Rich Fisher. Joseph dies, and his body is buried at
" Glay," while his son transmits the Graal to Aleyn. By
Aleyn' s instrumentality the leper king Galafres, of the land
of Foreygne, is converted and christened Alphasan. He
is healed by looking upon the Graal, and builds Castle
Corbenic, which is to be the repository and shrine of the
Holy Cup, as Vespasian was healed by looking on the
Veronica.
Much is said about the genealogy of some of the chief
personages towards the close. " Descendances " is the word
used. In the early portion Josephes was miraculously
consecrated a bishop, and the same chrism was preserved
by an angel, and with it all the Kings of Britain till Uther
Pendragon, Arthur's father, are anointed.
The stronghold of Corbenic answers to the wood-girt
fastness-shrine of Monsalvatsch in the Parzival of Wolfram
1 See Stuart Glennie, Arthurian Localities.
168 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IIL
von Eschenbach and the Titurel of Albrecht von Scharf en-
burg, which are German poems of the thirteenth century
upon the theme of the G-raal.
The Castle Corbenic is also called the " Palace of Ad-
venture," for the reason that no knight but one might sleep
there, without incurring the speedy penalty of death for his
presumption. Alphasan is so punished within ten days. A
Flaming man appears to him and stabs him in both thighs.
There are several similar episodes of mystical wounding in
the thigh by spear-head or sword. For instance, in chap,
xvi., an angel with a fiery visage appears and drives a lance
(leaving the head in the wound) into Joseph's thigh, for
some remissness, and (chap, xvii.) draws out the lance by
putting the haft into it. 1 With the blood from the wound
sight is restored to Nasciens who had been struck blind for
lifting up the plateyne which covers the Graal. Joseph,
moreover, tells him that when the lance drips blood the
secrets of the G-raal shall be known, and predicts that the
last of Nasciens' line, shall be the only man who shall be
thereafter wounded by the lance and who shall see the
wonders of the Graal.
The earlier incidents in the story are derived either
directly, or more probably through legends no longer
known, from the early apocryphal writings. The immure-
ment of Joseph of Arimathea is clearly traceable to the
Gospel of Nicodemus, chap. ix. and xi., and the expedition
of the Emperor and the Veronica story from a Greek
apocryphal work known as Vindicta Salvatoris. 2
The Graal story in its earlier form is clearly due in the
main to ecclesiastical legends. The Greater Graal far sxir-
1 This wounding in the thigh and marvellous cure is remarkable,
possibly an idea derived from Jacob's withered thigh suggested by St.
Augustine's comment. It will be remembered that the mortal wound
inflicted by the spear of Achilles in the thigh of Telephos could only be
cured by the rust of the weapon. Cf. also the legend of St. Koch, who,
during a vision received a wound in the thigh, and was afterwards as
miraculously healed.
2 Published in Evangelia Apocrypha, ed. Tischendorf, 1853. There
were Anglo-Saxon versions of the Gospel of Nicodemus in the eighth
century (see Vuelcker, Das Ev. Nicodemi in der Abenlandischen Lite-
ratur., Paderborn, 1872). but no trace of it in' Celtic literatnre is found
before the twelfth century. No early translation, on the contrary, is
known of the Vindicta, but an Anglo-Saxon version of the Veronica
CH. III.]
ROMANCE OP THE GBAAL.
169
passes it in imaginativeness and claims, like the Book of
Mormon, not only Divine inspiration but celestial penman-
ship. Private devotional compositions were indeed some-
times commended by a statement that they had been given
to mortals in some miraculous way ; but the application of
such a daring figment to a mere romance is characteristic
of the bold treatment of the legend in this later form. In
that uncritical age of ready faith, there was no clear
border-line between history and fiction or spiritual marvels,
and here this audacious assertion of a supernatural origin
is, according to M. Paulin Paris, only part of the politico-
literary plot which evolved the story of the G-raal and of the
decurion's apostolate in Britain for the purpose of giving
weight and prestige to the side of Henry II. in his struggle
with Rome, and developing the story of an independent
British Church, a design to which Henry's trusted personal
friend Map, Archdeacon of Oxford, lent the influential
support of his genial and brilliant pen. This assumption
of antiquity, it cannot be denied, was put forward at
several councils. 1
Certain it is, however, that neither was there prior to
Henry H.'stime, a chapel at Grlastonbury, dedicated to St.
Joseph of Arimathea, nor is there extant any trace of a
tradition or a cultus of the pious decurion's apostolate in
this island, although the Gospel of Nicodenius which speaks
of him at length was known and translated into several
dialects of Anglo- Saxon in the eighth century.
legend occurs in the same codex as the above Anglo-Saxon Gospel of
Nicodemus, preserved in the Public Library, Cambridge. (See 0. \V.
Goodwin on Anglo-Saxon Legends of St. Andrew and St. Veronica, in
the publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.) This legend
was originally, as Tischendorf points out, derived from the Vindicta,
doubtless, however, through a Latin version of great antiquity. A " Cura
S;mit;ttis Tiberii Cesaris August! et damnatio Pilati," was published at
Florence in 1741. Editions of " La Vendetta di Cristo " were pub-
lished at tlie same city early in the sixteenth century, and probably
before, while a French version was printed at Lyons in 1517. The
name Veronica is applied by mediaeval writers to the veil impressed
with Christ's face, as if equivalent to vira icon. It may, however, per-
haps be a corrupted form from Berenice, daughter of King Agrippa.
with whom Titus, Vespasian's son, has a liaison. Vorberg (P. Pilatna in
Bibel (ieschichte und Sage, 1881, 8vo.).
1 Montalembert, Moines de I'Uccident, t. iii. p. 26.
170 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Richer, a monk of Senones in the Vosges, in his Chronicon
Senonense, written in the thirteenth century, relates how
Fortunatus, patriarch of Grado, a favourite of Charle-
magne's, though, it must be noted, a man of no exalted cha-
racter, 1 obtained for a lengthened period the hospitality of
the monks of Moienmontiers (Medianum Monasterium) in
the Vosges, and left them, as alleged, the body (" corpus ")
of St. Joseph of Arimathea, which he had brought with him
from the East, and how subsequently these relics had been
stolen translated in the dead of night by foreign monks
at some date, unspecified, but prior to 980. This singular
story, penned more than four centuries after the incident it
relates, finds no corroboration in contemporaneous records
or facts, or in the earlier -written annals of the monastery.
Yet M. Paulin Paris assumes at once in his ingenious
article in vol. i. of the Romania, that the foreign monks
were brethren of G-lastonbury, 2 who wished to strengthen
as far as possible the story of Joseph's foundation of that
sanctuary, by at least having his bones, intended doubt-
less for subsequent public veneration, within their walls.
But on this supposition the religious must have been
gifted with truly marvellous prescience, for the predatory
exploit in question was achieved more than a century and
a half before Henry II., the benefactor whom it was
desired to serve, mounted the throne, and before William
of Malmesbury 3 had penned the first hint, which has
reached our own time, of the traditional advent of Joseph
of Arimathea to G-lastonbury. It is, moreover, remarkable,
considering the readiness with which the bodies of Arthur
and Gruenever were forthcoming at an opportune juncture, 4
that there are only obscure references to a grave of St.
1 Leo III. writes of him to Charlemagne, "... non audivimus de eo
sicut decet de archiepiscopo."
2 The Glastonian brotherhood were not at a later period wholly with-
out a reputation in such achievements. Witness their theft removal
real or alleged, of the relics of St. Dunstan from Canterbury in 1011,
which was the subject of a long correspondence between the archbishop
and the abbey.
3 Gul. Malm. De. Antiq. Glaston. Eccl. c. i. apud Hearne, vol. i. p. 5.
4 In 1189, when the Welsh renewed their resistance to the English
3'oke, and maintained that Arthur would return to lead them to triumph.
Cf. infra, note to Arthur on Arthur's Chace. See Dugdale, Monast. i.
p. 5.
CH. III.] ROMANCE OF THE GRAAL. 171
Joseph, not to a shrine or reliquary, as we should expect.
Leland visiting the abbey in 1540, while noting the tombs
of Arthur and his queen, makes no mention of that of St.
Joseph of Arimathea, though William of Worcester speaks
of the body of the decurion as being there in 1478. It
is probable, therefore, that if the supposed relics were ever
transported from Moienmoutiers to Glastonbury, which
seems very questionable, they were subsequently dis-
credited. The belief in Palestine, about 1190, was that
the body of St. Joseph was still preserved there. 1 M. Paulin
Paris's theory is, therefore, more ingenious than convincing ;
and we think the facts, if facts they be, recorded by Richer,
have really little to do with the story, which is far more
mystical and spiritual than the other romances of chivalry,
and may not improbably have been, as supposed, the work
of the churchman Map. There are parts of the romance
the engendering of Sir Galahad the Pure 2 alone destined
to deserve the achievement of the Graal, may be instanced,
that appear to me to contain allusions to the doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception, which from the middle of the
eleventh century had begun to attain prominence, and was
rather timidly advocated by the Englishman, Duns Scotus,
one of the most celebrated theological writers of the follow-
ing century. In its composition it is very clear that, what-
ever the contemporary political bias of its author, the in-
culcation of faith and purity have been held in view through-
out, and that the mysterious healing Graal is treated as a
figure of the Eucharist. That worthiest of all the knights,
the virgin Sir Galahad, was alone " agreeable " to it, and in
its strength, he could say :
I rode
Shattering all evil customs everywhere,
And past thro' Pagan realms and made them mine,
And clash'd with Pagan hordes and bore them down,
And broke thro' all.
1 See Riant, Exuviae Constantinopolitanre, t. ii. p. 216.
J Anchois estoieiit ambedoi si espris de la souueraine amour du
sauueour ke de chele partie ne lor pooit corages venir. Ne lors n'en
j orent il mie corage quant il engenrerent Galaad lor darrain enfant par
le commandement nostre signour qui le commanda que il li apparillast
de sa semenche, i. nouiel fruit de quoi il empliroit en duant la Terre on
il Ics uoloit mener. MS. Bib. Beg. xiv. E 3 FurnivaTs ed. of Lonelich
printed by Koxburghe Club.
172 HISTORY OF FICTION. [cH. III.
The romance is a Christian allegory where the " Holy Cup
of Healing " is the mysterious source of a Power which
triumphs over all that is false and lends a spiritual invin-
cibility to its servants.
Notwithstanding all that has recently been written on
this romance, much is yet left to explore. We cannot in the
space to which we are limited, enter further upon the sub-
ject, but append at the end of the volume a few further
notes on the story.
PERCEVAL, 1
a romance of the fifteenth century, where a great deal is
written concerning the attainment and final disappearance
of the G-raal.
I believe the only impression of Perceval is that of Paris,
in 1530. It is not known who was the author of the prose
romance, 2 but in his preface he informs us that Philip of
Flanders had ordered his chronicler to compile the story
of Perceval ; but both Philip and his chronicler having
died shortly after, Joanne, Countess of Flanders, ordered
Menessier, ung sien familier orateur, to continue what his
predecessor had merely commenced. His metrical com-
position was the chief foundation of the prose romance ;
but its author has also availed himself of the metrical work
on the same subject written by Chrestien de Troyes in the
twelfth century.
Though the conquest of the Sangreal be the chief sub-
ject of the latter part of Perceval, the early chapters are
merely the story of an artless and inexperienced youth's
first entrance into the world. The father and two elder
brothers of Perceval had fallen in tournaments or battle ;
1 Trespreulx et vaillant Cheuallier Perceval legalloysjadischeuallier
de la Table ronde, Leql acheua les aduetures du saict Graal. auec
aulchuns faictz belliqueulx du noble Cheualier Gauuai, etc. Paris,
1530. Tresplaisante et Recreatiue Hystoire du Vaillant Perceval,
Chevalier de la Table Ronde, lequel acheva les adventures du Saint Greal,
avec aucuns fails belliqueux du Chevalier Gauvain et autres.
- Concerning the author and origin of this romance, see above, p. 159.
Besides the works on the subject of Perceval which are there mentioned,
there is an English metrical romance, Percy veil of Galles, which was
preserved in the library of Lincoln cathedral, and is supposed to have
been written by Robert de Thornton, in the reign of Henry VI., printed
by the Camden Society.
CH. III.] PEECEVAL. 173
and hence, as the lost hope of the family, he had been kept
at home by his mother, who resided in Wales, where he was
brought up in total ignorance of arms and chivalry [fol. 2]. 1
At length, however, Perceval 2 is roused to a desire of
military renown, by meeting in a forest five knights,
arrayed in complete armour. When he has determined on
leaving the family mansion, his mother gives him some
rurious instructions concerning the duties of a knight.
After receiving these admonitions, he sets out for the
court of Arthur, and on his way falls in with various ad-
ventures, in the course of which he makes some whimsical
applications of the lessons of his mother.
On his arrival at Carduel, where Arthur then resided,
he encounters a knight in red armour leaving the palace,
and is asked by him where he is going, to which Perceval
replies, "To King Arthur to demand your armour." In
prosecution of this equitable claim, Perceval without
farther ceremony enters on horseback into the hall, where
Arthur is seated with his knights. This mode of presen-
tation was not uncommon in the ages of chivalry. Stow
mentions, 3 that when Edward II. was sitting royally with
1 Cf. Achilles disguised in female attire, and sent by his mother to
the Court of Lycomedes to prevent him from incurring the dangers of the
Trojan war.
2 See Appendix No. 3 Perceval. Bergmann (The San Greal, 1870,
p. 30) maintains that this name, invented by Guyot, is doubtless derived
from fdrisi-fdl, a compound Persian word signifying ignorant knight, and
alludes to the ignorance of young Parzival, who, in consequence of the
extreme solicitude of his mother to shelter him from every danger, had
been deprived of all knightly education. Chrestien de Troyes, unac-
quainted with the foreign origin of this word, explains it as signifying
one who pierces or wanders through vales to seek adventures. M. de la
Yillemarque (Romans de la Table Honde, 1860, p. 396), considers Perceval
synonymous with the Pheredur of Celtic Saga, Per = basin, and both
Ke'val and Kedur = companion, so that either name =: companion of the
Tase. The Basin or vessel being in the Pheredur tradition the Cauldron
of Ceridwen or Celtic camp-kettle of heroes, a utensil figured on Celtic
coins. See Hucher's Le Saint Graal, Paris, 1875-8, and hisL'Art Gaulois
ou les Gaulois d'apres medailles, etc. Paris, 1868-74.
3 Survey of London, 1G33, p. 521. Cf. Percy Essay on Ancient Min-
strelsy. Note Z. prefixed to his Reliques, Lond. 1839, and series I. B.I.,
No. 6. In the Welsh Mabinogi Kilwych and Olwen, the former rides
into the hall where Arthur is nt table. Cf. San Morte Beitrage zur
Bretonischen u. Celtisch-german. Heldensage, p. 7, and Villemarque
Contes Populaires, etc., ii. 288.
174 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. III.
his peers, solemnizing the feast of Pentecost, there entered
a woman attired like a minstrel, sitting on a great horse
trapped, who rode about the table showing pastime. In
the legend of King Estmere, the prince of that name in-
troduces himself in a similar manner :
King Estmere he stabled his steede
Sae fayre at the hall bord ;
The froth that came from his brydle bittc,
Light in Kyng Bremor's beard.
Arthur at this time happened to be holding full court
(Cour Pleniere). At the time in which Perceval was writ-
ten, the French sovereigns, from whose customs the royal
manners in these romances are frequently described, did
not, as afterwards, maintain a court continually open, but
lived shut up with their families and the officers of their
household, and only displayed their magnificence on cer-
tain occasions, which occurred three or four times a year.
These festivals are said to have owed their origin to the
diets convoked by Charlemagne to deliberate on State
affairs, which were re-established by Hugh Capet ; they
were announced by heralds at the town or castle where
they were to be celebrated, the barons and strangers were
invited, and the entertainment consisted in feasts and
dancing, joined to the exercise of the talents of the minstrel.
It was on a solemn occasion of this nature, that Per-
ceval behaved with the bluntness that has been described.
Arthur, however, promises to make him a knight if he will
dismount from his horse, and pay his vows to G-od and the
saints. But Perceval would only receive the honour he
solicited on horseback, because, as he said, the knights he
met in the forest were not dismounted ; and he added
another condition to his reception into the order of knight-
hood, which was, that the king should grant him permis-
sion to acquire the arms of the Bed Tonight, who, it seems,
was the mortal enemy of Arthur. On expressing his in-
tention to gain them by his own valour, Keux, the king's
seneschal, who is introduced in most of the romances of
the Bound Table, but is always represented as a detractor,
a coward, and a boaster, nearly resembling the character
-which Shakspeare has painted in so many of his dramas,
CH. III.]
PERCEVAL.
175
begins to jeer Perceval. On this a damsel, who, we are in-
formed, had not smiled for ten years, conies up to Perceval,
and tells him, smiling, that if he live he will be one of the
bravest and best of knights. The seneschal, exasperated
at her good humour and the prospects held out to Perceval,
gives the maiden a blow on the cheek ; and, seeing the
king's fool sitting near a chimney, kicks him into the fire,
between the two andirons, because the fool had been ac-
customed to say that this damsel would not smile till she
had seen him who would be the flower of chivalry [fol. 64].
A fool was a common appendage to the courts of those days
in which the romance was written. This embellishment was
derived from the Asiatic princes. In Europe, a fool was
the ornament held in next estimation to a dwarf ; his head
was shaved, he wore a white dress with a yellow bonnet,
and carried a bell or bauble in his hand. If, however, the
scene which took place between the fool, the seneschal, and
the damsel, be a just picture of the manners of a court in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the presence of a
king must in those days have inspired very little reverence.
Perceval having at length been knighted on his own
terms, sets out in quest of the Red Knight, and obtains
the arms he desired by slaying him in single combat ; but
as he did not understand how to open or close a helmet,
and knew nothing of the fabric of the other parts of
armour, he would have been much puzzled without the
assistance of his squire, Guy on, who aids in arming him ;
and also tries to persuade him to change his under dress
for that of the knight he had slain. " I will never," replied
he, "quit the good hempen shirt that my mother made me."
Thus Perceval would only take the armour of the knight,
and the squire is obliged to put the spurs over the gathers
which his master would on no account part with. He
then teaches him to put his foot in the stirrup, for Perce-
val had never used stirrup nor spur, but had rode without
saddle, and urged on his horse with a stick. The squire
then carries the news of Perceval's success to the court of
Arthur, to the great joy of the fool, and consternation
of the seneschal [f. 7, etc.].
After this, chance (which does so much in all romances
of chivalry) conducts Perceval to the house of a knight
176 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
who instructs him in the exercises and duties of his pro-
fession, and persuades him, though not without difficulty,
to forsake his rustic garb for an attire more magnificent
and warlike [f. 9].
The romance of Perceval is almost the only one which
relates the story of a raw and inexperienced countryman's
first entrance into the world, and his immediate admission
into the order of knighthood. In other romances the
heroes are introduced to our acquaintance in the plenitude
of glory, or we follow them through their gradual initia-
tion, while they are bred up among arms, and pass through
the regular steps in their advancement to knighthood.
The first pages of Perceval are also by much the most
comic of the Round Table romances ; in none of the other
knights of Arthur do we meet with the same bluntness arid
naivete as in the young Welshman.
After Perceval has been trained to the exercises of
chivalry, and equipped in his military garb, the incidents
of the romance bear a perfect resemblance to those of the
other fabulous histories with which it has been classed.
Our hero having left his instructor, arrives at the castle
of Beaurepaire. Soon after his entrance he finds that it
is blockaded by an enemy, and in the course of the day he
feels that it is reduced to extremities for want of provisions.
Blanchefleur, the lady of the castle, makes up, in the best
way in her power, for his bad entertainment at table, and
he in return frees her from the besiegers, by overthrowing
in single combat their chiefs, whom he sends prisoners to
the court of Arthur, charging them to inform the smiling
damsel that he would avenge her of the blow she had re-
ceived from the seneschal [f. 10],
Having raised the siege of Beaurepaire, Perceval pro-
ceeds to the residence of his uncle the King Pecheur, at
whose court he sees the Sangreal or Saint Grraal and sacred
lance [f. 18]. The wounds which this prince received in
his youth had never yet healed up. They would, indeed,
have been cured had his nephew thought proper to ask
certain questions concerning these relics, as what is the
use of the Sangreal, and why does blood drop from the
lance? These pertinent inquiries, however, do not sug-
gest themselves ; and by his want of curiosity he incurs,
CH. III.]
PERCEVAL.
177
as we shall afterwards find, the displeasure of the Lady
Hideous.
Leaving his unfortunate uncle unquestioned, Perceval
sets out on his return to the court of Arthur, where he is
preceded by many knights whom he vanquishes on his way,
and sends thither as prisoners [f. 19]. On his arrival he
takes vengeance on the seneschal Kreux, and accompanies
Arthur to Carlion, where that prince holds a full court.
During his stay there, he one day sees the Lady Hideous
pass, who loads him with her maledictions. Her neck and
hands, says the romance, were brown as iron, which was
the least part of her ugliness ; her eyes were blacker than
a Moor's, and as little as those of a mouse ; she had
the nose of a cat or an ape, and lips like an ox ; her teeth
were red, like the yolk of eggs ; she was bearded like a
goat, was humped before and behind, and had both legs
twisted. This paragon makes her excxises to King Arthur
for not tarrying at his court, as she had a long journey
before her, but points out a castle where 570 knights, each
with his lady, were detained in captivity [f. 26].
The deliverance of these prisoners opens a vast field of
enterprise, and the adventures of many knights, particu-
larly of Gauvain, the nephew of Arthur, are related at
great length.
Perceval dedicated himself for five years to exploits of
chivalry, and neglected all exercises of devotion. He is at
length replaimed by meeting in a forest a procession of ten
ladies and three knights, who were doing penance for past
transgression, and were walking barefooted for the sake of
mortification. Perceval is much edified by their conversa-
tion, and goes to confess himself to a hermit, who proves
to be his uncle, the brother of King Pecheur [f. 34].
From the hermitage Perceval sets out with the view of
revisiting this piscatory monarch, and of propounding the
proper interrogatories concerning the Sangreal. In wan-
dering from wood to wood, he comes again to the castle of
Beaurepaire, where, spite of his late conversion, he passes
three days with Blanchefleur [f. 143, etc.].
After having accomplished the visit to his uncle, whose
wounds he at length heals up by virtue of his questions
[f. 180, 207], Perceval returns to the court of Arthur
I. N
178 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
[f. 218]. Soon after his arrival, intelligence is brought to
him of his uncle's death, who, it would appear, had only
thriven by his infirmities, as some persons are kept alive
by their gout. Arthur and all his court set out with
Perceval for the kingdom of his deceased relative, to be
present at the coronation. In succeeding to his sinful pre-
decessor, Perceval also inherited a number of sacred curio-
sities. Of these the chief was the Sangreal, whose wonders
were manifested much to the satisfaction of Arthur and
his barons : it appeared daily at the hour of repast in the
hands of a damsel, who carried it three times round the
table, which was immediately replenished with all the
delicacies the guests could desire.
Arthur returns to his usual residence, and Perceval,
soon after his accession, retires to a hermitage, taking with
him the Sangreal, which provided for his sustenance till
the day of his death [f. 219]. The moment he expired,
says the romance, the Sangreal, the sacred lance, and silver
trencher or paten which covered the Graal, were carried up
to the holy heavens in presence of the attendants, and
since that time have never anywhere been seen on earth. 1
Perceval, after his death, was conveyed to the Palais
aventureux, where he was buried by the side of King
Pecheur, and this epitaph was inscribed on his tomb:
Cy-Git Perceval le Gallois, qui du Saint Greal les adven-
tures acheva.
Many incidents of the life of Perceval are related in
other romances of the Round Table, especially in Lancelot
du Lac [iii. fol. 56, etc.], where a full account, but with
considerable variation, is given of the early part of his
career ; he is brought to the court of Arthur by an elder
1 The aim of the author of the poem of Parzival (Wolfram von Eschen-
bach), was the solution of that great problem which at all times, and
especially in the Middle Ages, has most deeply moved the minds of
men, and is ever the most weighty theme of art: the satisfaction of
man's quest after happiness. But the problem can only be solved when
this infinite yearning for happiness meets with an adequate object, and
this indeed is not to be found on earth. . . . The fancy of the poet, there-
fore, conceived such an object in the Holy Graal, the resuscitated
Adamitic paradise, the existence of which was made intelligible and
attested by the doctrine of the Redemption and the introduction of a
special divine favour. Domanig, Parzival Studien, Heft. ii. p. 106.
CH. III.] LANCELOT DU LAC. 179
brother ; and a lady, who had not spoken, in place of not
having smiled, for ten years, foretells his future eminence,
and expires on having uttered the prediction.
But the chief difference is in the circumstances con-
nected with the acquisition of the Sangreal, the conquest
of which is a leading incident in
LANCELOT DU LAC, 1
and occupies a considerable portion of that romance.
Heuce it has been classed among the continuations of the
history of the Sangreal; but the second part, which re-
lates to the acquirement of that relic, is by no means the
most interesting in the work, nor that in which Lancelot 2
himself has the greatest share. The account of the earliest
years of his life is the most romantic, and his intrigue
with Queen Geneura the most curious part of the com-
position.
King Ban of Britany was, in his old age, attacked by
I his enemy Claudas, a neighbouring prince, and after a
long war was besieged in the strong hold of Trible, which
was the only place that now remained to him, but was
considered as an impregnable fortress [i. fol. 1, Paris,
[1533]. Being at length reduced to extremities, he departs
[from this castle with his wife Helen and his infant son
[Lancelot, in order to beg assistance from his suzerain
ig Arthur ; and, meanwhile,' intrusts the defence of
Trible to his seneschal. While prosecuting his route he
nds a hill, from the top of which he perceives his
i>' on fire, for it had been treacherously surrendered by
1 Roman fait et compose a la perpetuation des vertueux faits et gestes
le plusieurs nobles et vaillants cheualliers, qui furent au temps du roi
\rtii.-,, compactions de la Table- Honde, specialement a la louange de
Lancelot du Lac. 5 parts, 1488, vol. i. printed at Rouen ; and vol. ii. at
Paris. Le premier ( tiers volume) de Lancelot du Lac nouvellement
Imprime. etc. :3 vols. A. Verard, Paris, 1494, fol. Other editions
n-aivd at Paris in 1503, 1513, 1520, 1533. See Ward Cat., p. 345.
M. do la Villemurque (Les Romans de la Table Ronde, pp. 58-9),
ntines Lancelot, or L'Ancelot, with a Cymric chieftain, Mael, whose
jharacter and career, as recited in the chronicles and bardic records,
Inswers to those of Lancelot. Mael signifies servant in Celtic, as does
Itncel, or its diminutive Ancelot, in Romance. See also J. S. Stuart
lilennie, Essay on Arthurian Localities, p. Iv*. See supp. note on names.
180 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
the seneschal, who in romance is generally represented as
a coward or traitor. At this sight the old man is struck
with despair, and instantly expires. Helen, leaving her
child on the brink of a lake, flies to receive the last sighs
of her husband ; on returning she perceives the little
Lancelot in the arms of a nymph, who, on the approach
of the queen, throws herself into the lake with the child.
" Et quand la royne approcha des chevaulx, qu'estoient
dessus le lac, si voit son fils deslye hors du berceau, et une
damoiselle qui le tient tout nud en son giron, et le estrainct
et serre moult doulcement entre ses deux mammelles, et
luy baise souvent les yeulx et la bouche : car c'estoit ung
des plus beaulx enfans de tout le monde. Et lors la Royne
dist a la damoiselle Belle doulce amye, pour Dieu laissez
mon enfant ; car assez aura desonnais de dueil et de
inesaise : il est cheu en trop grand pourete et mi sere ; car
il a perdu toutes joyes. Son pere est orendroit mort et sa
terre perdue qui n'estoit mye petite si Dieu la luy eusi
gardee. A chose que la Royne die la damoiselle ne reponc
ung seul mot. Et quant elle la voit approcher si se lieve
a tout 1'enfant, et s'en vient droictement au lac, et joinct
les pieds et se lance dedans. La Royne voyant son fils
dedans le lac se pasme incontinent." [vol. i., f. 4, recto]
This nymph was Vivian, mistress of the enchanter Merlin
better known by name of the Lady of the Lake. Lancelot
received the appellation of Lac from having been educated
at the court of this enchantress, whose palace was situated
in the midst, not of a real, but, like the appearance whiol
deceives the African traveller, of an imaginary lake, whose
deluding resemblance served as a barrier to her residence
Here she dwelt not alone, but in the midst of a numerous
retinue, and a splendid court of knights and damsels.
The queen, after her double loss, retired to a convent
where she was joined by the widow of Bohort, for this
good king had died of grief on hearing of the death of his
brother Ban. His two sons, Lyonel and Bohort, are
rescued by a faithful knight called Farien, from the fun
of Claudas. They arrive in the shape of greyhounds a
the palace of the lake, where, having resumed their natura
form, they are educated along with their cousin Lancelot
[i. f. 6, 15].
CH. III.] LANCELOT DU LAC. 181
When this young prince has attained the age of eighteen,
the Lady of the Lake carries him to the court of Arthur, that
he may be admitted to the honour of knighthood [i. f . 29,
etc.]. On his first appearance he makes a strong impression
on the heart of Geneura. The history of Arthur receives a
singular colouring from the amours of his queen with
Lancelot. It is for her sake that the young knight lays
whole cargoes of tributary crowns at the feet of her hus-
band ; for her he accomplishes the conquest of North-
umberland, where he takes the castle of Douloureuse
Garde (Berwick), afterwards, under the name of Joyeuse
Garde, the favourite residence and burying-place of the
knight. In compliment to Geneura, he attacks and defeats
Kiiig Gallehaut, who becomes his chief confidant, and
brings about the first stolen interview between his friend
and Geneura. It is even at the suggestion of this queen
that he excites Arthur and his knights to a long war of
vengeance against Claudas, the usurper of his own domi-
nions. When Arthur, deceived by the artifices of a woman,
who insisted that she was the real Geneura, repudiates
his queen, leaving her at liberty to indulge, without re-
straint, her passion for Lancelot, the knight is not satisfied ;
he deems it necessary for the dignity of his mistress that
she should be restored to the throne of Britain, and that,
protected in her reputation by the cloak of marriage and
tin- sword of her lover, she should pass her life in re-
putable adultery [i. f. 133, etc]. Hence a great propor-
tion of his exploits are single combats, undertaken in
defence of the innocence of his mistress, in which his
success is usually greater than he deserved from the
justice of his cause. To Geneura, too, on the most trying
occasions his fidelity remains inviolate, as appears from
the indignation he expresses at having been betrayed
into the embraces of a damsel, who inconsiderately as-
sumed the character of Geneura [ii. f . 86] " Trop dure-
nient damoyselle ni'avez vous mocquc ; mais vous en
mourrez ; car Je ne vueil pas que jamais decevez Chevalier
en telle mauiere comme vous m'avez deceu. Lors dressa
1'espi'e contremont, et la damoyselle qui grant paour avoit
<lc lu.mrir luy cria mercy a joinctes mains, en luy disant
haa franc Chevalier ne m'occiez mye, pour celle pitie que
182 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Dieu eut de Marie Magdaleine. Si s'arresta tout pensif
si la veit la plus belle que oncques avoit veu : et il trem-
bloit si durement d'yre e t de maltalent que a peine pouoit
il tenir son espee, et pensoit s'il occiroit, ou si il la laisse-
roit vivre. Et continuellement la damoyselle luy crioit
mercy ; et estoit devant luy, toute nue, en sa chemise, a
genoulx : et luy, en regardant sa viz et sa bouclie, en quoy
il avoit tant de beaulte, luy dist. Damoyselle, Je m'en
yrai tout vaincu et tout recreant comme celluy qui ne
s'ose de vous venger, car trop seroye cruel et desloyal si
grant beaulte destruisoye." A more convincing proof of
his fidelity, however, is exhibited in his reply to a damsel
who makes to him an explicit declaration of love. " Ma
voluntee y est si bien enracinee que Je n'auroye pas le
couriage de Ten oter. Mon cueur y est nuyt et jour, car
mon cueiir ne mes yeux ne tendent tous jours fors celle
part, ne mes oreilles ne peuent ouyr bonnes nouvelles que
d'elle. Que vous dirois mon ame et mon corps sont
tous a elle. Ainsi suis Je tout a son plaisir, ne Je ne puis
rien faire de moy, non plus que le serf peult faire autre
chose que son seigneur luy commande."
Nor does Lancelot merely signalize his attachment by
the preservation of his fidelity, or by engaging in those
enterprises which were congenial to the feelings of a
knight, but submits to disgraces which no one of his pro-
fession could endure ; thus, for the purpose of overtaking
Geneura when a horse could not be procured, he ascends a
cart, the greatest infamy to which a knight could be sub-
jected : " En ce temps la estoit accoustumee que Charrette
estoit si vile que nul n'estoit dedans qui tout loz et tout
honneur n'eust perdu : et quant s'invouloit a aucun tollir
honneur si le faisoit s'en monter en une Charrette : Car
Charrette servit, en ce temps la, de ce que Pilloris servent
orendroit ; ne en chascune bonne ville n'en avoit, en ce
temps la, que une" [ii. f. 3].
At length the intrigue of Lancelot and G-eneura is
detected by the fairy Morgain [i. 155], the sister of Arthur,
and revealed [iii. f. 126] to that prince by her and Airra-
vain [iii. f. 133], one of the knights of the Round Table.
for a vassal would have become criminal had he concealed
anything from his lord. After this detection Lan<
CH. III.] LANCELOT DU LA.C. 183
sustains a long war against Arthur and his knights, first
in his castle of Joyeuse Garde, and afterwards in his states
of Britany. Arthur is recalled from the prosecution of
this contest by the usurpation of Mordrec ; ' and as he
disappears after the battle which he fights with this un-
natural son, he is believed to have been slain with the
rest of his chivalry. 2 Greneura, as if she thought pleasure
only gratifying while criminal, withdraws to a convent.
Lancelot having arrived in Britain after the battle, retires
to a hermitage [iii. f. 150], and is joined in his solitude
by his brother Hector of Mares, the only other Knight
of the Bound Table who had survived the fatal battle
with Mordrec.
Tims, although Lancelot du Lac is not free from the
defect (common to all the Round Table romances) of a
want of unity in the action, there is yet one ruling passion
that animates the story. The unconnected adventures of
the Duke of Clarence [i. f. 140, etc.], as well as those of
Lyonel and Boort, the two cousins of Lancelot, are, in-
deed, related at full length, and the conclusion of the
romance is principally occupied by the quest of the San-
greal, in which Lancelot acts only a subordinate part ; but
as far as the hero of the work is concerned, his passion
for G-eneura is the ruling principle by which all his actions
are guided, and the main spring of the incidents of the
romance. The adventures of the principal character, in-
deed, are too much of the same- cast : he is too often taken
prisoner, and too often rescued; and his fits of insanity
are also too frequently repeated [i. 149, ii. 1, &c.]. Lance-
lot, however, has been perhaps the most popular of all
the romances of the Round Table. On the French playing-
cards one of the knaves bears the name of Lancelot ; a
1 Mordred, Mod red, and Medrawd. Mordred is sometimes called
Arthur's nephew, sometimes his bastard son. An explanation is found
in the Giglan, v. 2. " Son propre fils naturel qu'il avoit engendre en sa
soeur avant quelle fust mariee, car il ne scavoit pas quelle Cut sa soeur
leciuel avoit nom Mordret," etc. Schmidt, Wien. Jahrb. xxix. p. 103.
Nor is the c.isc of Arthur and Mordred the sole instance in folktale of
this relationship. Sii-gmund (in the Volsunga Saga) has a son, Sinfiotli,
hy liis sister Siirne, who, under an assumed form, was unrecognized by
him. LiKit. See infra, note on the Gregory Legend, vol. ii.
- See Appendix, No. 2.
184 HISTORY OF FICTION. [cH. III.
proof of the estimation in which the work was held at the
time this game was invented.
There is a metrical romance on the subject of Lancelot,
entitled " La Charette," which was begun by Chrestien de
Troves in the twelfth century, and finished by Geoffrey
de Ligny. This work is more ancient than the prose
Lancelot, 1 but, as the incidents are different, it cannot be
regarded as the original of that composition. Mr. Warton,
and the authors of the Bibliotheque, seem to agree in
thinking that the work, of which I have given the above
abstract, was originally written in Latin; but Warton
ascribes the French version to Robert de Borron, on the
authority of a MS. Lancelot du Lac, where it is said to
be mis en Francois par Robert de Borron par le comande-
ment de Henri Roi d'Angleterre. This manuscript, how-
ever, is not the same with the printed Lancelot. In one
passage of the Bibliotheque the composition of the prose
romance of Lancelot is attributed to Gualtier Map, who is
also mentioned as the French author in the preface to
Meliadus, 2 Ce n'est mye de Lancelot car Maistre Gual-
tier Map en parla assez suffisamment en son livre. The
authors of the Bibliotheque have elsewhere attributed
Lancelot du Lac to Gasse le Blond, a mistake which seems
to have arisen from a misconception of a passage in the
same preface, where it is said that he was the author of
the adventures of Lancelot, meaning those connected with
this hero, which are related in the romance of Tristan.
Whoever may have been the author of the prose Lancelot,
it is certainly of very high antiquity : indeed it is evidently
older than Tristan, which is generally accounted the
earliest prose romance of chivalry. No mention is made
in the story of Lancelot, of the achievements of Tristan ;
and surely, if the work devoted to his exploits had been
written first, so renowned a knight would not have been
passed over in silence. The Livre de Tristan, on the other
hand, is full of the adventures of Lancelot, many of which
coincide with those related in the romance of that name.
The romance of Lancelot was first printed at Paris in
1 See Romania, i. p. 477.
a And in MSS. See Paulin Paris, Manuscrits Fran^ais de la Biblio-
theque du Roi, i. p. 146.
CH. III.] LANCELOT DU LAC. 185
1494, which is considered as the best edition : it afterwards
appeared in 1513, and lastly in 1533, which impression is
held in higher estimation than that by which it was
immediately preceded.
In some of the editions, Lancelot is divided into three
parts, 1 comprising the adventures of Agravain, the Quest
of the Graal, and the Morte d'Artus, which is the origin
of the celebrated metrical romance Morte Arthur. The
English prose work of that name, also called the History
or Boke of Arthur, was compiled from the romances
of Lancelot, Merlin, and Tristan, by Sir Thomas Malory,
in the beginning of the reign of Edward IV., and was
printed by Caxton in 1485. 2 Mr. Bitson imagines that the
English metrical romance of Morte Arthur was versified
from the prose one of the same title, but as it differs essen-
tially from Malory's prose work, and agrees exactly with
the last part of the French romance of Lancelot, it is more
probable that it has been versified from this composition. 3
1 In the same way as the heading Graal sometimes covered seven
romances more or less distinct from each other, viz., (1) The Graal and its
Guardianship, by J. Arimath, (2) The Quest of the Graal (the latter,
however, often included under Lancelot), (3) Merlin, (4-7), Lancelot.
So under Lancelot we find
1. The early adventures of the Knight and his adultery withGenever,
or Lancelot, properly so called. This first part is often divided into two
sections, the pausing place being at the departure of Lancelot from
Arthur's Court in company with Gallehaut. See Ward, Cat. i. p. 345, etc.
2. Agravain the Proud.
:5. Quest of the Graal.
4. Morte Arthur.
- Malory's ' Morte Arthur " portrays in an unjust light the characters
of Sir Gavain and other Knights of the Kound Table, though a work of
tin- gr< iiti-st interest and composed in the true sentiment of chivalry.
^ir Walter Scott's remarks in his introduction to Sir Tristrem,
Ko. II. Sir Thomas Malory's book was edited with an introduction in
1868. by Sir Edward Strachey.
3 Uunlop copies Kills in saving that this metrical version (printed in
1819 for the Koxburghe club) was translated immediately from the
French text. Had he taken the trouble of comparing them toother,
he would not have- hazarded such an assertion. F. Madden. An Eng-
lish (or rather SeottishJJmetrical version of Lancelot of the Laik, about
l4'.HM500, has been edited by Mr. Skeat from a manuscript in the
Library of the University of Cambridge, for the Early English Text
Society, London, 1865. The earlier edition, published for the Maitland
Club in l.*39, is very inaccurate.
186 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
To Malory, Spenser was greatly indebted, as Warton has
shown at much length in his remarks on that poet's imita-
tions of the old romances, 1 where he also attempts to prove
that Ariosto borrowed from Lancelot du Lac the notion of
Orlando's madness, of his enchanter Merlin, and of his
magic cup.
The fairy Morgana, who is a principal character in this
romance, and discovered to Arthur the intrigue of Geneura
with Lancelot, is a leading personage not only in other tales
of chivalry, but also in the Italian poems. In the Orlando
Furioso she convinces her brother of the infidelity of his
queen, by means of a magical horn. About a fifth part of
the Orlando Innamorato, beginning at canto thirty-six, is
occupied with the Fata Morgana. She is there represented
as dispensing all the treasures of the earth, and as inhabit-
ing a splendid residence at the bottom of a lake. Thither
Orlando penetrates, and forces her to deliver up the knights
she detained in captivity, by seizing her by a lock of hair,
and conjuring her in the name of her master Demogorgon.
She thus became a well-known character in Italy, where
the appellation of Fata Morgana is given to that strange
and almost incredible vision which, in certain states of the
tide and weather, appears on the sea that washes the coast
of Calabria. Every object at Reggio is then a thousand
times reflected on a marine mirror, or, when vapours are
thick, on a species of aerial skreen, elevated above the sur-
face of the water, on which the groves and hills and towers
are represented as in a moving picture. (Swinburne's
Travels, v. i. p. 365. Houel, Voyage Pittoresque des Isles
de Sicile, Ac. v. ii. p. 2. 2 )
1 Hist. Poet. 1871, vol. ii. p. 118, etc. The only MS. exhibiting the
story of Balin and Balan, in Malory's " Morte Arthur/' belonged to
Mr. Henry Huth, and is understood to be in preparation for publication.
2 Morgana is the Breton equivalent of sea- woman (Mor, sea, and gwen
splendens foemina). Sec Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, pp. 64 1 . 41 :; .
Villemarque, on the other hand (Contes populaires, etc. ii. 127, Note ix.
and p. 39), explains that Morgan Hud is Arthur's head physician. " Ce
personnage, dont les traditions celtiqucs et, d'apres elles tons les
romanciers de 1'Europe au moyen age, ont raconte 1'histoire sur tous les
tons, semble apparaitre ici sous son jour veritable. Son nom qui pent
s'appliquer aux etres des deux sexes, aide a comprendrepar quelle me'prise
les chanteurs populaires bretons,et leurs imitateurs,en ont fait une femme :
CH. III.] LANCELOT DU LAC. 187
We have now discussed the romances which have been
considered as relating more particularly to the matter of
the Sangreal. The family history of the princes of Leon-
noys, which is comprised in the romances of Meliadus and
Tristan, who were knights of the Bound Table, and con-
temporary with Arthur, and of their descendant Isaie le
Triste, is next to be considered.
The country of Leonais, or Leonnoys, of which Meliadus
was kini:, and which was the birth-place of Tristan, though
once contiguous to Cornwall, has now disappeared, and is
said to be more than forty fathoms under water. An ac-
count of it has been fished up by Carew in his Survey of
Cornwall, and has been quoted in the notes to Way's
Fabliaux [vol. ii. p. 179] : "The sea gradually encroach-
ing on the shore hath ravined from Cornwall the whole
tract of country called Lionnesse, 1 together with divers
other parcels of no little circuite ; and that such a country
as Lionnesse there was, these proofs are yet remaining.
The space between the Lands-End and the isles of Scilly,
being about thirteen miles, to this day retaineth that name,
in Cornish Lethowsow, and carrieth continually an equal
depth of 40 or 60 fathom, (a thing not usual in the seas
proper dominion,) save that about the midway there lieth
a rocke, which at low water discovereth its head. They
term it the gulphe, suiting thereby the other name of
le sobriquet de Hud (industries-, par extension enchant cur et enchanter esse)
qui repoiul exactement au mot fae, fee, dans la langue romane" (" Kn
ci-luy temps estait appelc./a cil qui s'entremettoit d'enchantements . . .
et moult en estoient pour lors principalement en la Grand' Bretaigne."
Horn an de Lancelot du Lac), joint a sa qualite de medecin, explique
1'origine de sa renommee fabuleuse, etc. LIED.
' An Tiling to an extract from Perceforest contained in the Marquis
d'Argenson's " Melanges tires d'une grande Bibliotheque," xii. p. 144,
the kingdom of Leonnoys received its name from the brilliant tourna-
ments of Perceforest, where Lyonnel of Glar was king of the mysterious
dominion of the magician Darnant. In the romance of Perceforest
itx-lf, however, iv. fol. 6, Perceforest says merely, " I give you herewith
the whole of the country which Durnant the magician possessed, and
which I formerly conquered, and I will that it belong to your kingdom,
which shall, in honour of your name, be called the Kingdom Lyonnel.''
Another passage in Perceforest (iii. c. 16 end, fol. 37) reads : " It was
called the kingdom of Lyonnel because that was the name of its first
king, ami it passed from heir to heir until Meliadus became its king."
MI. r. Wiener Jahrluu-h. Bd. 29, p. 98.
188 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Scilla. Fishermen also, casting their hooks thereabouts,
have drawn up pieces of doors and windows."
Of the romances relating to the heroes of the country
which has been thus overflowed, the first in the order of
events, though not the earliest written, is
MELIADUS OF LEONNOYS/
which was printed at Paris 1528. Eusticien de Pise, the
original author of this romance, commences his prologue
by returning thanks to the Trinity, for having enabled
him to finish the Romance of Brut, and to have thus ac-
quired the favour of King Henry of England, whom his
work had so greatly pleased that he had ordered him to
write another of the same sort, because his former one had
not comprehended every thing relating to the subject. 2
1 Meliadus de Leonnoys. Ou present volume sont contenus les nobles
faicts d'armes du vaillant Roy Meliadus de Leonnoys. Ensemble plu-
sieurs autres nobles proesses de cheualerie faictes taut par le roy Artus,
Palamedes, le Morhoult dirlande, le bon Chevalier sus paour, Galehault
le Brun, Segurades, Galaad que autres bons chevaliers estans au temps
du dit roy Meliadus. Histoire singuliere et recreative nouvellement
imprimee a Paris Galliot du Pre. 1528. Meliadus and Guiron le
Courtois form parts of the Great Romance of Palamedes, by Helie de
Borron.
2 This Prologue (in which Bret, that is Tristan, has been transcribed
Brut by Dunlop), where the author calls himself Helis de Borron, was
published at the beginning of Meliadus (Paris, 1528), with no very im-
portant alteration, and in the prologue of the publisher (Galliot du
Pre), this, the author's, prologue is attributed to Rusticien de Pise.
This prologue has also been published with a few verbal alterations, by
Paulin Paris. Manuscrits Frangois (Paris, 1838), ii. pp. 346-351. At
the end of it M. Paris says that Palamedes is evidently a name inserted
by mistake, and that the hero of the romance, in its original entirety, is
the mirror of " Cortoisie," Guiron le Courtois ; and accordingly he
always describes it under that name. Still there is some other evidence
that the original romance was known as Palamedes, for it was probably
to this that the emperor Frederick II. referred in his letter of thanks to
the Segreto of Messina, for sending him a book that had formerly be-
longed to one Johannes Roman/orius. His letter is dated 5th February,
1240, and runs thus : " De Liv. quaternis scriptis de libro Palamidis qui
fuerunt quondam magistri Johannis Romanzori, quos nobis per notarium
Symonem de Potramajore mictere te scripsisti, gratum ducimus et
acceptum." See Hist. Dipl. Frid H 1 "', edited by Huillard-Brebolles,
torn. v. (Paris, 1859), p. 722. Gyron le Courtoys is the name given tc a
CH. in.] MELIADU8 OP LEONNOYS. 189
" In this book, therefore," says he, " will be contained what-
ever is wanting in Brut, and the other works extracted
from the matter of the Sangreal." After this formidable
declaration, in order to give an appearance of authenticity
to his fables, he talks of his labour in translating from tin-
Latin ; he also dwells with much complacency on his writ-
ings, and informs us that he had received two castles from
King Henry as a reward for them. He then declines
interfering with the adventures of Lancelot, as Gualtier
Map had said enough of them ; or of Tristan, as he himself
had treated that subject in the Brut. King Henry having
shown a predilection for Palamedes, who, we shall find, is
a principal character in the romance of Meliadus, 1 Rusticien
wisely resolved to gratify the humour of a monarch, who
remunerated the compilation of old wives' tales with a
couple of castles.
This prodigal monarch must have been Henry 111., for
Rusticien informs us in his Gyron the Courteous, that the
romance of that name was compiled from the book of his
Lord Edward, when he went to the Holy Wars. It is
evident this was Edward the First, who embarked for
Palestine in 1270, during the life-time of his father
Henry III. Now, if Rusticien compiled from a book be-
longing to Edward I., his existence could not have com-
menced in the reign of Henry II., who died in 1189, nor
separate romance (published by Verard, Paris, about 1501), and there
attributed to the same Rusticien. "Paulin Paris (vol. ii. pp. 355-360
and vol. iii. pp. 56-61 and p. 64 of his Manuscrits Francois, Paris, 1838)
has given some account of Kusticien de Pise, from whose Arthurian com-
pilations both these printed romances, the Meliadus and the Gyron, were
drawn. Kusticien himself informs us, in a passage printed at the begin-
ning of the Gyron, that he had been engaged upon what he terms
" translating " a great book of romances belonging to Edward I. of Eng-
land, whilst he (at that time only prince), was absent in the Holy Land,
that is, in 1271-72. Paulin Paris has printed the words of Kusticien
more fully (vol. ii. p. 356), and from these, and the work to which they
form the preamble, it appears that this " translation " was, in fact, a
compilation of several Arthurian Komances, especially the Quest of the
Saint Graal, the Tristram, and the Palamedes (or (iuiron le Courtois).
Subsequent copyists, says M. Paris (iii. p. 64), picked out individual ad-
ventures of this or that hero, and hence were derived the printed Guiroa
and Meliadus. Ward, Cat. of Komances, i. pp. 366-7.
1 In spite of which he is not mentioned in the abstract which follows,,
and but little in the original romance.
190 HISTOET OF FICTION. [CH. III.
could it have been protracted to the accession of Henry IV.,
who succeeded in 1399.
The prologue of Eusticien is the only part of the com-
position which has reached us in its original form, and the
romance of Meliadus is now only extant as corrected by a
more modern author, who must nevertheless have lived at
a very remote period. It is this Redacteiir, as he is termed,
who acquaints us in his preface that Rusticien de Pise was
the name of his predecessor. He also informs us, that he
himself laboured by order of Edward King of England ;
but what Edward he has left to conjecture, which has fixed
on the fourth monarch of that name. He bestows much
commendation on the original author, but complains
bitterly of his not having been sufficiently explicit on the
subject of his hero's genealogy. This deficiency it was
then fortunately too late to supply, so that the romance,
at least in its corrected form, begins with the adventures
which happened in England to two Babylonish hostages,
who had been sent by their own monarch to Rome, and
had been allowed by the emperor to pass on their parole
into Britain. They visited Arthur at Kamalot (Win-
chester), which was his chief city next to London, and his
favourite residence, on account of the fine rivers and woods
by which it was surrounded. Some curious delineations
are given in this part of the romance concerning the
manners of the court, and form of the government of this
fabulous monarch.
During the stay of the Babylonians at the court of
Arthur, a romantic story occurs of a knight who arrives
incognito in a vessel, and defies all the companions of the
Round Table, but is severely wounded in a combat with
one of their number. Arthur receives this unknown knight
in his palace, and treats him with kindness, even after he
discovers that the stranger is Pharamond, King of the
Franks, his mortal enemy.
Being cured of his wounds, the French king embarks
for his own country ; he sails down a stream, and enjoys
a favourable breeze till he comes to the mouth of the river.
There a storm arising, he lands and reposes himself by the
side of a fountain, which was surrounded by a grove of
pines, and where the grass was green and abundant.
CH. III.] MELIADUS OP LEONNOT8. 191
When refreshed, he sends to demand joust from Trarsin,
11 ii' lord of the territory, a brave but felonious knight.
This adversary he speedily overthrows ; but afterwards
encounters Morhault, or Morhoult, of Ireland, a celebrated
character in the romances of the Round Table, and by
him he is in turn defeated. After the combat, these op-
ponents, who were unknown to each other, mutually re-
count their adventures ; and, while thus engaged, a damsel
arrives to inform Morhoult that her lady, who was the
wife of Trarsin, and the most beautiful woman in the
kingdom, expected him to an interview. This, however,
was a snare laid by the husband, who had suspected his
wife's fidelity, and had bribed the damsel to bring Mor-
hoult into his power. A punishment is prepared for the
lovers, which seems to have suggested to Tasso the situation
in which he places Olindo and Sophrouia, in the 2nd canto
of the Jerusalem. Brehus, who afterwards received the
surname of Pitiless, attempts to rescue the lovers, but in
vain. After his failure in this trial, while ranging through
a forest he meet Yvain, the nephew of Arthur, with a lady
in his company. 1 Brehus kills the lady, owing to the
hatred he had conceived against the fair sex, on account
of the damsel who had betrayed Morhoult. A combat
ensues between Brehus and Yvain, who could not be per-
suaded of the justice of this retaliation. When both are
nearly exhausted with fighting, the Knight without Fear
arrives on the spot, and accompanied by Brehus again
proceeds to attempt the rescue of Morhoult. This is at
length effected, and Morhoult carries off the lady from
Trarsin ; but, when he has travelled a short way, he is
i met and vanquished by Meliadus, who restores the lady to
| her husband, after exacting a promise that he would use
I her well for the future, and cease to interrupt her
LTallantries.
This is the first appearance of the hero of the remain .
j though the preceding part occupies 29 chapters of the 173,
which ci institute the whole work. Meliadus again vanishes,
1 \\c hear little more of him till the 43rd chapter. The
intervening sections are chiefly filled with the exploits of
1 Ste Appendix, No. 5.
192 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Morhoult and of the Knight without Fear. Afterwards,
however, Meliadus enters on a long series of adventures,
chiefly warlike, of which the principal is the deliverance of
Arthur and his companions from the castle of the rock.
At the end of twenty chapters, entirely occupied with
" tournaments and trophies hung," the reader is pleased,
though it redounds little to the honour of the hero, to find
a love story, which the author has introduced at the 65th
chapter. Meliadus, in the course of his wanderings, meets
with the queen of Scotland in a castle, where he was enter-
tained, and becomes deeply enamoured of her. He returns
to his own country in a languishing state of health, and
imparts the story of his love to one of his knights, who
undertakes to acquaint the queen with his passion, and to
repeat to her a lay which his master had written, expressive
of his sentiments. Meliadus afterwards prosecutes his
suit personally, with the utmost success, at the court of
Arthur, where his mistress then resided, till the king of
Scotland being informed of the intrigue, surprises Meliadus
with his queen ; but promises him, qu'il ne feroit aucun
mal a la reine pour chose qu'il eut vue. The khig con-
siders it prudent, however, to depart from court with his
consort ; but on his way to Scotland he is overtaken by
Meliadus, and the queen is carried off. On accoiint of this
outrage, Arthur declares war against Meliadus. This
prince, in consequence, retires to his own states, whence
he describes his situation, and demands aid from Phara-
mond, in a poetical epistle, and is promised assistance, in a
similar form. A long account is given of the contest
carried on in Leonnoys ; Meliadus is taken prisoner, and
the war concludes, in the 106th chapter, with the surrender
of his capital, and re-delivery of the queen of Scotland to
her husband. Meliadus amuses himself, while in confine-
ment, with playing on the harp, and composing songs,
particularly a lay, entitled, Dueil sur Dueil, which, the
romance informs us, was the second that ever was written.
He is allowed to solace himself in this manner till Arthur,
being attacked by the Saxons, frees him from prison, in
order to avail himself of his assistance in his contest with
these enemies, which is, at length, terminated by Meliadus
overthrowing Ariohan, the Saxon chief, in single combat.
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 193
In more regular works of fiction, the late appearance of
the hero would, no doubt, be considered as a blemish ; but
in few of the ancient romances of chivalry is unity of
action and interest, or any other rule of art, accurately
attended to. Meliadus is destitute, however, of the principal
charm of works of this nature, a variety of enchantments,
of giants, and of monsters, which are the only embellish-
ments that can compensate for the want of regularity and
breach of the laws of composition. The knights in Meliadus
wander for ever amid gloomy forests, and there is more of
the sombre mythology of the north, with less eastern
splendour and imagination, than in almost any of the tales
of chivalry. 1
Towards the conclusion, the romance is occupied with
the exploits of the son of Meliadus, whose adventures form
the subject of a separate romance, called
TRISTAN, 2
from the name of its hero. This composition has been the
most popular of all the romances of the Round Table, and
is considered as the work which best characterizes the
ancient spirit of French chivalry. It was first printed at
Rouen, 1489, one volume folio ; afterwards in two volumes
folio at Paris, by Verard, without date, and again at the
same place in 1522 and 1569. The date of its composi-
tion, however, is much earlier than that of its first
pul >lication.
The story of Tristan seems to have been current from
the earliest times. It was the subject of a number of
metrical tales in the romance language, which were versi-
fied by the French minstrels from ancient British authori-
ties. From these original documents, or from the French
metrical tales, was compiled the Sir Tristrem, attributed to
Thomas of Erceldoune, and which has been edited by Mr.
Respecting another romance of Meliadus, entitled Meliadus Cheva-
lier de la Croix, see Graesse's Litterargeschichte, vol. ii., Abth. iii. p. 21 1 .
It is there spoken of as " halb mystic-hen." II. JENNER.
3 Roman du trv.s vuillant noble et excellent cheualier Tristan, fils
da noble Roi Meliadus de Leonnoys, . . . par Luce Chevalier, Seigneur
de Chasteau de Gast. Rouen, 1498, 2 pts. See infra, p. 207.
I. O
194 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
[Sir Walter] Scott. There are also extant two fragments
of metrical versions, which are supposed to be parts of one
whole work, written by Raoul de Beauvais, who lived in
the middle of the thirteenth century. But the immediate
original of the prose Tristan is understood to be the his-
tory of Mark and Yseult, written in verse by Chrestien de
Troves, who flourished early in the twelfth century. The
MSS. of this work have not reached us, and the prose com-
position of which it is the original is of a date long poste-
rior. Mr. Scott believes that the author of the prose Tris-
tan is the same with the earliest writer of Meliadus, who
was certainly Rusticien de Pise, and who li ved in the reign
of Henry in. 1 The author of Tristan, however, informs
1 Helie de Borron, the author of the original Palamedes, and, there-
fore, author of the Meliadus, completed the unfinished Tristan of Luces
de Gast ; and hence Scott's view is partly right. See Paulin Paris's
" Manuscrits Fran<;ais," etc., i. 137, where the epilogue of H. de Borron
is quoted from MS. 6776, in the Bibliotheque Du Roi (now Bibliotheque
Nationale) at Paris.
The poet, who has done most fo immortalize the theme of Tristan and
Isolde, is Gottfried of Strasburg, who lived in the early part of the thir-
teenth century. He declares that he had found difficulty in obtaining an
authentic copy of the Romance, on account of the number and variety of
versions of the work; but had found in the course of his reading a
large number of foreign (Walschen) and Latin compositions, that
Thomas von Britanie, who was very conversant with the britunschen
bucken, had related the story accurately. Southey (p. liii of his Intro-
duction to Morte Arthur) identifies this Thomas with Thomas the
Rymer, of Erceldoun, the supposed author of the Auchinleck MS. of the
fourteenth century, published by Sir Walter Scott. It is, however, by
no means clear who Thomas von Britanie was, or in what language, or
at what time he wrote. Not improbably he may be the author of
various detached fragments of an early French metrical Tristan which
exists in various libraries, and is the original which Thomas of Erceldoun
followed. The existence of early Scandinavian versions of the Romance
which agree with the Auchinleck MS. would favour this hypothesis.
Chrestien de Troyes says himself at the commencement of his Cliges
that he had written the Romance, Dou roi Marc et d'Iseut la Blonde.
The poem, however, has disappeared, though there are extant various
fragments of a Romance of Tristan, which ma} 7 have formed part of it.
F. Michel has carefully collected the various passages in the chansons of
the troubadours which mention the story of Tristan. The earl:
that in a poem by Rambaud, Count of Orange, about the middle of the
twelfth century. He gives no fewer than thirteen other Provencal poets
who refer to the subject, as well as numerous allusions in early English
poems. For further information on the history of the Romance we may
refer the reader to F. Michel's " The Poetical Romances of Tristan."
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 195
us at the beginning of the romance, that he is Luce
Seigneur de Gust : " I, Luce Seigneur de Gast have compiled
the authentic history of Tristan; who, next to Lancelot
and Galaad, was the most renowned knight of the Round
Table." Mr. Warton l attributes it to the same author, on
the authority of a title-page, in a MS. copy of the romance
Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult traduit de Latin en
Fra^ois, par Lucas Chevalier du Gast, pres de Sarisberi,
iiLjlois. In the preface to Meliadus, we are informed
flint it was begun by this Lucas de Gast, or Lucas de lau,
;is IK- is there called, the first who extracted from the
matter of the St. Greal ; that Gasse le Blond next wrote
the part which relates to Lancelot, after which the story
was concluded by Robert and Helie de Borron. 2 " Aussi
London, 1835; also to Villemarque's "Les Romans de la Table Ronde,"
etc.. Paris, 1861 (p. 72, where the author gives great prominence to the
undoubted curly Celtic elements of the story); Sir Walter Scott's intro-
duction to his edition of the Auchinleck MS. ; Ten Brink's " Geschichte
der Englischon Literatur," i. p. 298, and Eugen Kolbing's " Die
nordische und die Englische version der Tristan -Sage," Heilbronn,
1878-83. The very favour in which this romance was held, and its
consequent wide diffusion is, perhaps, a reason why there have been
fewer imitations of it than of many other romances.
1 Vol. i. p. 118, ed. 1824.
2 A translation of the French romance appeared in Spain at the com-
mencement of the sixteenth century, and is mentioned by Don Quixote.
Cervantes himself, in all probability, owed to the old Celtic legend the
hero of his immortal satire on the romances of Chivalry, for the
corrupted form Tristrcm, which was commonly derived from the Welsh
words tri*t (sad) and trem (a face), exactly answers to the Knight of
Woeful Countenance. Cf. also Irish dreac (visage) and from (sad). The
other English form Tristram is explained in the romance as follows :
" When he is christened let call him Tristram, that is as much as to say
as a sorrowful birth" (Morte Arthur, bk. vii.). Ferguson, in his work,
The Teutonic Name System, is equally at fault when he suggests that
Tristram may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon thrist (bold, daring) and
ram (a raven). F. Michel in his notes (vol. i. p. xii) gives : " ZVuf,
sad, Tristys and Tristans, sorrow," from a Cornish-English vocabulary;
" Trystaii (trust), a noisy one, a blusterer. Trist (ty-rhist), pensive, sad,"
from Owen's ' \Velsh Dictionary;" "Trist, Tvineach. sad, weary,"
from an Irish-English Dictionary; "Try*, Trus, sad," etc. Davies
(Mythology and Kites of the British Druids. Lond., 1809, pp. 439, 440)
Try*f<i/i in the Tr'unls the meaning of " herald." E. T. Leith
he Legend of Tristan, Bombay, 1868) says Essyllt (Yslt) has
been identified with the old Gaulish Adsalluta (in Henzen, Nos. 5864,
5911), ibid., p. 33.
196 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Luces de lau translata, en laugue Francoise, une partie de
1'Hystoire de Monseigneur Tristan, et moins assez que il ne
deust. Moult commenca bien son livre, et si ny mist tous
les faicts de Tristan, ains la greigneur partie. Apres s'en
entremist Messire Gasse le Blonc qui estoit parent au Roy
Henri, et devisa 1'Hystoire de Lancelot du Lac, et d'autre
chose ne parla il mye grandement en son livre. Messire
Robert de Borron s'en entremist, et Helye de Borron par
la priere du dit Robert de Borron ; et pour ce que com-
paignons feusmes d'armes longuement Je commencay mon
livre," &c. It was formerly shown that Rusticien de Pise,
by whom this preface to Meliadus was written, lived in the
reigns of Henry III. and Edward I., since he talks of the
expedition of the latter to the Holy Land. Now, since
Rusticien mentions Robert and Helye de Borron, by whom
Tristan was completed, as his contemporaries, that cele-
brated romance could not have been finished before the
reign of Henry ILL Indeed, in the MS. of Helye de
Borron' s portion of the work, entitled La Mort de Tristan,
it is said to have been written at the desire of Henry III.
The early part of the prose romance of Tristan is occu-
pied with an account of the ancestors of the hero, and
many generations pass successively in review before the
birth of Meliadus. This prince was married to Isabella,
sister of Marc, 1 king of Cornwall ; a fairy fell in love with
him, and drew him away by enchantment, while he was
engaged in the exercise of hunting. His queen set out in
1 M. F. Michel, Poet. Rom. Tristan, vol. i. p. cxiv, gives a number of
authorities from Pausanias (x. 19, 6) downwards, showing March or Marc
to have in Welsh the signification of horse, Anglo-Saxon = Mearh, equus,
Meare, equa, English mare. King Marc takes in respect of his horses'
ears the place of Midas in classic tale. See Villemarque, Contes popu-
laires, i. 82, 99, etc. Sir W. Scott's introduction to Sir Tristram,
Jakob Grimm in the Gb'ttingen Gelehrte, Anzeiger, 1824, st. 12. p. 118.
In the life of St. Paul de Leon, born about the end of the fifth century,
is this passage: "Rex quidam Marcus nomine, in vicino (Scil. Cornubia
vel Cambria) florebat eodem tempore, cujus imperii dominatus leges
dabat quatuor gentibus, linguarum famine dissidentibus." St. Paul con-
verted this king, Acta SSorum, 12 March, torn. ii. p. 114, quoted by
M. F. Michel, p. lii of his first volume.
Tristan seems to have been recognized generally as a patron of the
chase, as appears from the numerous allusions to him in this sense in old
English works on Venery, many of which are given by M. Michel.
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 197
k
quest of him, but was seized with the pains of child-birth
during her journey, and expired soon after being delivered
of a son, whom, from the melancholy circumstances of his
birth, she called Tristan before her death. 1
1 The story of Tristan's birth and childhood belongs to the widely-
spread myth of the royal Foundling, who is secretly nurtured and after-
wards happily reinstated in his rights. See Appendix.
Trystan, son of Tallwch, was a celebrated leader, who lived about the
middle of the sixth. century. He was, with Griediol and Gwgon, one of
the three heralds of Britain ; Trystan, with Gwair and Kai, was called
one of the three crowned princes. With Coll and Pryderi, he was one of
the three powerful swineherds from whom the expedition of Arthur,
Marc, Kai, and Bedwyr failed to procure, whether by gift or purchase,
fraud or force, so much as a single pig. He was one of the three desig-
nated obstinate chieftains, whom it was impossible to divert from their
projects, and one of the three faithful lovers on account of his attach-
meut to Esyllt, wife of his uncle March. See F. Michel, The Poetical
Romances of Tristan, xlviii-li.
The incidents in the Tristan story, concludes Mone (Ueber die Sage
von Tristan, etc., Heidelberg, 1822, p. 20), have the same character of
original traditions as are found in the Triads, the Mabinogion, and other
productions of the Celtic bards, and they betray a common ultimate
fount of such romantic poems. The Mabinogion and similar productions
are not properly speaking history, but shed a faint ray where history-
denies her light. They embody sagas from remote times, when Druid
lore still numbered many friends, and in this respect agree with the most
genuine records of the ancient British faith.
Thus under the figure of the three powerful swineherds we have a
reminiscence of the earliest religion of our Celtic ancestors, which
appears to have been a corrupt patriarchal form of worship, combined
with a strong antagonism to Sab&ism. Coll and his mystical sow
(mother ?) is the type of a new doctrine, which was introduced in Corn-
wall, and thence borne to Wales and Britain. It agreed in general with
the older creed, but comprised a worship of the celestial luminaries,
and represented the deified patriarch (Xoah) as identical with the sun.
Tristan's existence represents the advance of this heretical belief, which,
with foreign admixture, spread over a great part of Britain, and was
even accepted in Ireland, though its earliest and central stronghold was
In Cornwall. Mone maintains further that the faith represented by
Tristan was of Teutonic character. See also Sir G. W. Cox's " Mytho-
.1' the Aryan Nations," pp. 96, 136 ; and the same writers " Intro-
duction to Comparative Mythology," Appendix iii. Lcith (p. 35) con-
siders " that the Tristan legend was originally an Archaic Aryan
myth; that is, it was carried westwards into Britain with the wave of
Celtic migration ; that it passed at a very early period from thence into
Brit uny ; and that it owed its preservation there mainly to the fact of
that province being the last resting-place of the Celtic language in
Banco."
The relations which exist between Tristram, Isolte, and King Marc
198 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
G-ouvernail, the queen's squire, who had accompanied
her, took charge of the child, and restored him to his father,
who at length burst the enchantment of the fairy, and re-
turned to his capital.
A dwarf having foreshown to Marc, the uncle of Tristan,
that he would be dethroned by means of his nephew, this
monarch vowed the death of Tristan. The emissaries he
employed surprised and slew Meliadus during a chace, but
Gouvernail saved his son, and conveyed him to the court
of Pharamond. As the young prince grew up, Belinda, the
daughter of this French monarch, became enamoured of
him ; but, her passion being discovered by her father, Tris-
tan found it necessary to leave the court. 1
precisely reproduce those which are found between Sigurd, Brynhild,
and Gunnar in the Volsung tale. The naked sword which Sigurd
places between himself and Brynhild, when he lies down to sleep by her
side, is placed again by Tristram between himself and Isolte, and is used
for the same purpose in the German story of the Two Brothers, the
Norse Legend of Big Bird Dan, and the Arabian Nights tale of Allah-
ud-cleen. These instances alone suffice to prove not only the common
origin of these popular stories, but their nature, and to justify the
remark of Sir G. Dasent, that " these mythical deep-rooted germs,
throwing out fresh shoots from age to age in the popular literature of
the race, are far more convincing proofs of the early existence of these
traditions than any mere external evidence." Sir G. W. Cox, Introduc-
tion to Mythology and Folklore, pp. 328, 329.
1 Of Camalot or Camelot, where Arthur chiefly held hiscourt,Caxton,in
his preface to Sir T. Malory's " Morte Arthur," speaks as though it were
in Wales, probably meaning Caerleon, where the Roman Amphitheatre
is still called Arthur's Round Table. Malory himself, though (bk. ii. ch. 1)
he seems to connect Camelot with Avelion or Glastonburj-, yet farther
on (bk. ii. ch. 19) says distinctly that Camelot " is in English Win-
chester," where, too, there is a Round Table, mentioned by Caxton, and
still to be seen an oaken board with the knights' names on it. And
yet at the time these authorities wrote Camelot itself existed in Somer-
setshire, with its proper name, and with all the remains of an important
town and fortress, and doubtless the traditions of Arthur, which Leland
found there, and which in great part, at least, remain to this day.
Leland calls it Camallate, or Camalat, " sometime a famous town or
castle, upon a very torre or hill, wonderfully enstrengthened of nature "
(Itinerary, ii. pp. 38, 39 ; ed. Herne, 1711). This appears as the Castle of
Camellek in maps of the dates of 1575 and 1610, and in that of vol. iv.,
pub. 1727, of Camden's " Magna Britannia," the text of which says, " the
inhabitants call it King Arthur's Palace" [p. 804]. But soon after then a
learned antiquarian states in a manuscript, written about 1736, "that
the name had been superseded by that of Cadbury Castle. . . . The
CH. III.] TBI8TAN. 199
A reconciliation was now effected between Tristan and his
uncle Marc, who, at this time, resided at the castle of Tin-
tagel, rendered famous by the amour of Uter and Yguerne
[supra, p. 152]. In this court, Tristan became expert in all
the exercises incumbent on a knight. Nor was it long till he
had an opportunity of practically exhibiting his valour and
skill. The celebrated Morhoult [Welsh, Martholouc'h],
brother to the queen of Ireland, arrived to demand tribute
from Marc. Tristan encountered this champion, who was
forced to fly and embark, bearing with him a mortal wound.
This was the first, and perhaps the most glorious, of the
exploits of Tristan ; but the lance of Morhoult had been
poisoned, and a wound his opponent had received grew
daily more envenomed. He departed from Cornwall, with
the view of finding in a foreign country the relief which
could not be obtained in his own. A breeze of fifteen
days' continuance conveyed him to the coast of Ireland.
He was ignorant to what shore he had been carried, for he
seems to have steered at random : he disembarked, how-
ever, on this unknown country, tuned his harp, and began
to play. It was a summer evening, and the king of Ire-
land and his daughter, the beautiful Yseult, were at a
window which overlooked the sea. The strange harper
was conveyed to the palace, and his wounds were cured by
Yseult. But after his recovery he was found out, from the
circumstance of wearing the sword of Morhoult, 1 to be the
neighbouring villages which, according to Leland, bore the name of
Camalat, with an addition, as ' Queen-Camel,' still exist as Queen-
Camel, or East Camel and West Camel, and near by runs the river
Camel, crossed by Arthur's Bridge, while Arthur's Well still springs
from the hill-side" (Sir Edward Strachey, Introduction to Sir T.
Malory's " Morte Arthur," pp. xi., xii., and J. S. Glennie Stuart's
" Essay on Arthurian Localities," prefixed to the edition of Merlin, pub-
lished by the Early English Text Society, 1879, p. xxvi*). The author
of this elaborate and erudite dissertation places the Arthur-land in
Scotland. In the copy of the " Britannia " before me the name in the
map is " Camelek."
1 This sword was afterwards conveyed to Italy, according to the
Chronicle of Galvano Fiammi (Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script., xii. col.
1027E), cited by Sir Walter Scott, Tristram, 1819, p. 298, or (according
to a charter published by Kymer, 2nd edit., i. pt. 1, p. 99) fell into the
hands of John of Lackland. (Bailey, History and Antiquities of the
Tower of London, 1825, vol. i. p. 183.)
200 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. III.
person who had killed that knight, and was in consequence
obliged to quit the country.
On his return to Cornwall, Tristan fell in love with the
wife of Segurades, a Cornish nobleman, and followed her
into the dominions of Arthur, whither she had been carried
by Bliomberis. While in England he defeated a knight
called Blaanor, who had accused the king of Ireland of
treason, before the court of Arthur. The king being thus
acquitted of the charge, Tristan, at his request, accom-
panied him to Ireland, where he finally yielded to the
solicitations of his champion, and promised to bestow his
daughter Tseult in marriage on the king of Cornwall.
The mother of Yseult gave to her daughter's confidant,
Brangian, an amorous potion, to be administered on the
night of her nuptials. Of this beverage, Tristan and
Yseult, during their voyage to Cornwall, unfortunately
partook. Its effects were quick and powerful : nor was its
influence less permanent than sudden ; but, during the re-
mainder of their lives, regulated the affections and destiny
of the lovers. A medical potion, producing a temporary
love, or rather passion, is said to have been frequently
composed ; but the power of the beverage quaffed by Tris-
tan and Yseult was not believed to be confined to its im-
mediate effects, nor to derive its power from stimulating
ingredients, but was supposed to continue its influence by
the force of magic, through the lives of those who shared
in the draught. Nor was the belief in such philtres the
offspring of the middle ages : rules for their composition
are to be found in every author who treats of drugs, from
Pliny's " Natural History," to the works of the seventeenth
century.
In the course of a delightful, though unprosperous
voyage, Tristan and Yseult arrive on an unknown island,
where they are detained as prisoners, along with a number
of knights and damsels, who had previously landed. But
the uncourteous customs of this castle being destined to
end, when it should be visited by the bravest knight and
fairest woman in the world, Tristan is enabled, by over-
coming a giant, to effect the deliverance of the captives,
after which he becomes the friend of Gallehault, the lord
of the manor.
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 201
After the arrival of Tristan and Yseult in Cornwall, and
the nuptials of the latter with King Marc, an uneasiness
arises lest the husband should discover the imperfections
of his bride. Brangian, the confidant of Yseult, who had
never yielded to the weakness which occasioned the em-
barrassment of her mistress, agrees, by a deception fre-
quently practised in the romances of chivalry, to occupy
her place for a single night. Marc being thus guarded
from suspicion, the provident Yseult, to escape the possi-
bility of detection, delivers her late substitute to two
ruffians, with orders to murder her in a wood. The
assassins, having somewhat more mercy than their fair
employer, leave their commission unexecuted, and only
tie her to a tree, from which she is soon released by
Palamedes.
After this, a great part of the romance is occupied with
the contrivances of Tristan, and the tender Yseult, to pro-
cure secret interviews, which are greatly furthered by
Dinas, Marc's seneschal.
Tristan, at a time when he was forced to leave Cornwall,
on account of the displeasure of his uncle, was wounded
one day while sleeping in a forest, with a poisoned arrow,
by the son of a person he had killed. The ladies of those
days, and particularly Yseult, were very skilful leeches ;
but to return to Cornwall in the present circumstances
was impossible. He was, therefore, advised to repair to
Britany, where Yseult with the. White Hands was as cele-
brated for her surgical, operations, as Yseult of Cornwall.
Tristan was cured by this new Yseult, and married her,
more out of gratitude than love, if we may judge from his
apathy after the nuptials. 1 He employed himself solely
in building a vessel in which he might sail to Cornwall,
and at length embarked on receiving a message from the
queen of that country ; but was driven by a tempest on
the coast of England, near the forest of Darnant, where he
dflivcivtl King Arthur from the power of the Lady of the
Lake. Having experienced a number of adventures he
readied Cornwall, accompanied by Pheredin, his wife's
brother, whom he had made the confidant of his passion,
1 See Appendix, No. 6.
202 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
and who had followed him through the whole course of
this expedition. These friends had no sooner arrived in
Cornwall, than Pheredin became enamoured of the queen.
Tristan was seized with a fit of jealousy, retired to a forest,
and went inad. After many acts of extravagance and
folly, he allowed himself to be conducted to court, where
he was soon restored to reason by the attention of Tseult.
But, on his recovery, the jealousy of Marc revived, and he
was compelled to take a solemn oath that he would leave
Cornwall for ever.
Our hero proceeded to the dominions of Arthur, which
again became the theatre of unnumbered exploits. The
jealousy of Marc, however, was not extinguished by the
absence of Tristan ; he set out for England with a view of
treacherously killing his nephew, and in his progress
through the kingdom made himself ridiculous by that
cowardice for which most of the knights of Cornwall were
notorious. At the court of Arthur he became the laugh-
ing-stock of all the knights, by flying before Daguenet,
the king's fool, whom he mistook for Lancelot du Lac.
While there, however, Arthur effected a reconciliation
between him and his nephew, and after their return to
Cornwall, Tristan delivered that kingdom from the in-
vasion of the Saxons, by whom it had been brought to
the verge of ruin. Marc, however, behaved with signal
ingratitude, for his suspicions being again awakened, he
threw Tristan into prison. He was freed by an insurrec-
tion of the people of Cornwall, and in turn shut up Marc
in the same prison in which he had been himself confined.
Tristan took this opportunity of eloping with the queen of
Cornwall, to the dominions of Arthur, where he resided at
Joyeuse Garde, 1 the favourite castle of Lancelot, and which
that knight assigned the lovers as their abode, till Arthur
again reconciled all parties. Marc was then delivered
from prison, and restored to the enjoyment of his rebellious
kingdom and his fugitive spouse.
Tristan, subsequent to these events, returned to Britany
and to his long- neglected wife. Soon after his arrival, in-
formation was brought that the Count of Nantes had
1 By some supposed to be Berwick.
CH. III.] TRISTAN.
thrown off his allegiance to Runalen, brother of the white-
handed Yseult, who had lately succeeded his father in the
duchy of Britany. Tristan defeated the rebels, but while
mounting a tower by a scaling ladder, he was struck to
the ground by a stone thrown from the garrison, and
severely wounded.
It was during the attendance of Yseult on Tristan, that
she first became his wife in the tenderest acceptation of the
term. The Count de Tressan, in his extract, 1 has repre-
sented this late fulfilment of his obligations, as the primary
cause of the death of Tristan ; but, in reality, he recovered
from his wound and its consequences, and forgot Yseult of
Britany, and the white hands, who was now doubly his
own, in the arms of Yseult of Cornwall. He had obtained
admission to the palace of Marc in the disguise of a fool,
and had many secret interviews with the queen ; but, being
at length discovered, he was forced to return to Britany.
Runalen, the brother-in-law of Tristan, was at this time
engaged in an intrigue ; our hero had assisted him in
forging false keys to enter the castle of the knight with
whose lady he was enamoured, and even consented to
accompany him to a rendezvous which his mistress had
appointed. Tristan had already retired, when the husband
unexpectedly returned from the chase : Runalen and
Tristan escaped in the first instance, but were pursued and
overtaken by the husband and his people : Runalen was
killed, and Tristan received a wound from a poisoned
weapon. Of the physicians who attended him, an obscure
doctor from Salerno 2 was the only one who understood
his case; but the other physicians insisted on his dis-
missal, and Tristan was soon reduced by their remedies to
the lowest ebb. In this situation, as a last resource, he
despatched a confidant to the queen of Cornwall, who was
so celebrated for her surgical skill, to try if he could induce
her to accompany him to Britany. Should his endeavours
prove successful, he was ordered to display, while on his
1 Bibliotheque des Komans, 1776, Avril, vol. i. p. 230, etc.
2 As early as the ninth century the Medical School of Salerno
obtained a wide, reputation. In the twelfth or thirteenth century
it began to decline and was soon thrown into the shade by the Schools
of Paris and Bologna.
204 HISTOET OP FICTION. [CH. III.
return, a white sail, and a black one if his persuasions
were fruitless ; an idea which every one will trace to a
classic and mythological origin. The messenger arrived
in Cornwall in the character of a merchant ; in this dis-
guise he had an early opportunity of seeing the queen, and
persuaded her, in the absence of Marc, to return with him
to Britany.
Meanwhile Tristan awaited the arrival of the queen with
such impatience, that he employed one of his wife's dam-
sels to watch at the harbour, and report to him when the
black or white sail should appear over the wave. Yseult,
who was not in the secret, demanded the reason of this per-
petual excubation, and was, for the first time, informed
that Tristan had sent for the queen of Cornwall. It was
but lately that this white-handed bride had learned the
full value of a husband, and the jealousy to which she had
hitherto been a stranger took possession of her soul.
Now the vessel which bore the queen of Cornwall is
wafted towards the harbour by a favourable breeze, all its
white sails unfurled. Yseult, who was watching on the
shore, flew to her husband, and reported that the sails
were black. Tristan, penetrated with inexpressible grief,
exclaimed, " Haa doulce amye a Dieu vous command Ja-
mais ne me veerez, ne moy vous : A Dieu je vous salue.
Lors bat sa coulpe, et se commande a Dieu, et le cueur
luy creve, et I'ame s'en va."
The account of the death of Tristan was the first intelli-
gence which the queen of Cornwall heard on landing. She
was conducted almost senseless into the chamber of
Tristan, and expired holding him in her arms ; " lors
I'embrasse de ses bras tant comme elle peut, et gette ung
souspir, et se pasme sur le corps ; et le cueur lui part, et
I'ame s'en va."
Tristan, before his death, had requested that his body
should be sent to Cornwall, and that his sword, with a
letter he had written, should be delivered to King Marc.
The remains of Tristan and Yseult were embarked in a
vessel, along with the sword, which was presented to the
king of Cornwall. He was melted with tenderness when
he saw the weapon which slew Morhoult of Ireland, which
so often saved his life, and redeemed the honour of his
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 205
kingdom. In the letter Tristan begged pardon of his
uncle, and related the story of the amorous potion.
Marc ordered the lovers to be buried in his own chapel.
From the tomb of Tristan there sprung a plant, which
went along the walls, and descended into the grave of the
queen. By order of Marc it was cut down three times,
but every morning the obdurate vegetable sprung up more
verdant than before, and this miracle has ever since shaded
the tombs of Tristan and Yseult. 1
Such plants are common in the old ballads. The Scotch
ballad, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, concludes,
" Lord Thomas was buried without kirk wa',
Fair Annet within the quiere ;
And o' the tane thair grew a birk,
The other a bonny briere,
And ay they grew, and ay they threw,
As they would fain be near."
Percy's " Reliques."
Similar verses, but with some verbal alterations, con-
clude Prince Robert, published in the Minstrelsy of the
Border ; and we have plants possessed of the same powers
of sympathy and vegetation in the wild romantic ballad of
the Douglas Tragedy.
1 Grimm notices an old Spanish fragment of our legend, which con-
tains an incident unknown to any other version. Isolde the Fair is
therein represented to have become a mother in consequence of partaking
of a lily, which grew on Tristan's grave. This lily, as Kurtz suggests,
corresponds to the rose and vine of the other romances. We light here,
however, upon a curious class of myths, which we find in most ages and
countries. The idea they represent probably originated in the employ-
ment by early races of certain trees and plants as phallic symbols.
Among the Hindus such a one was the Lotus ; another was the Indian
flower Kambal, to which the sage Nachiketa owed his birth. The
Chinese have also a legend concerning the miraculous conception of the
Divine Keason by his holy mother, Shing-mu, after she had eaten of the
flower Lien-wa (Nelumbium). Besides these tales, there is another
related by Ovid (Fasti, v. 229), according to which Juno, anxious to
have offspring, touched a certain flower at the bidding of Florn, and
thereupon obtained the fulfilment of her wishes in the birth of VuK-an.
in rivalry with Jupiter, who had produced Minerva from his brain. ( Y.
A. De Gubernatis, Mythologie des Plantes ; Kadamba, Lis, etc. Lecky
(History of Rationalism,!, p. 233) mentions an old superstition connected
with this subject. Leith, Tristan, p. 17. Cf. also Dubricius and
Taliesin, Nash, p. 196-7.
206 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
The fabulous history of Tristan has generally been con-
sidered as the most beautiful of the romances of the
Bound Table. " The character of Palamedes (says Sir W.
Scott), the despairing adorer of Yseult, is admirably con-
trasted with that of Tristan, his successful rival. Nor is
there a truer picture of the human mind, than the struggles
between the hatred of rivalship, and the chivalrous dic-
tates of knightly generosity, which alternately sway both
the warriors. The character of Dinadan, brave and
gallant, but weak in person and unfortunate in his under-
takings, yet supporting his mischances with admirable
humour, and often contriving a witty and well-managed
retort on his persecutors, is imagined with considerable
art. The friendship of Tristan and Lancelot, and of their
two mistresses, with a thousand details which display great
knowledge of human nature, render Tristan interesting in
the present day, in spite of those eternal combats, to which,
perhaps, the work owed its original popularity. The
character of King Marc is singular and specific ; it is well
brought out from the canvas, and a similar one is not to
be met with in other romances of chivalry. In the early
metrical tales, he is merely represented as weak and
uxorious. The darker shades of character have been
added in the prose romance, to excuse the frailty of Yseult."
I am not certain if the idea of the amorous potion, which
is Yseult' s great apology, and forms the groundwork of
the romance, be well conceived ; for, if in one respect it
palliates the conduct of the lovers, it diminishes our admi-
ration of their fidelity. The character of the queen of
Cornwall can hardly excite love or compassion, as the
savage atrocity of her conduct to Brangian starts up everv
nioment in the recollection of the reader. The pitiful
malice of the white-handed Yseult, who, to serve no end,
brings a false report to her husband in his last moments,
renders her as contemptible as the heroine is hateful, and the
dishonourable manner in which Tristan comes by his death,
diminishes the pity we might otherwise feel for his fate. 1
1 Though the favour accorded to Tristan has been universal, its critics
are far from unanimous.
" The simple grace and delicacy of sentiment evinced by Tristan in his
passionate love of Isolt pass imagination," writes a French author.
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 207
\Vhatever may be its beauties or defects, the romance
was well known, and popular in all the countries of
Europe ; it was repeatedly printed in France in its original
form, and modernized into the language of that country
by Jean Maugin dit le petit Angevin, 1554, under the title
of Le Nouveau Tristan.
A translation of Tristan was printed in Spanish, 1 at
Seville, 1528, and again in 1534 ; and a romance, some-
what different in the adventures it contains, was published
in 1552-5, in Italian, entitled I-due Tristan!. 2
" Lacking the resources of fairy creation which appear for the first time
in Ysaie le Triste (see pp. 212-222, infra), the work bears tbe impress of a
tender melancholy. We would willingly exchange more than one recent
or contemporary epic effusion of which we wot for but a few pages from
the pen of the barbarous author of this romance."
Southey expresses himself thus : " I began the perusal of this
(Tristan) as being the most celebrated of all these romances, with great
expectations ; those expectations were not answered. The story in its
progress not only disappointed, but frequently disgusted me. Vile as
tlu- thought is of producing by a philtre that love upon which the whole
history turns, and making the hero, or rather both the heroes, live in
adultery, and that, too, in both instances of an aggravated kind, these
are the conditions of the romance, which must be taken with it for better,
for worse ; they are the original elements, of which the author was to
make the best he could. But it is the fault of the author that so many
of the leading incidents should shock, not merely our ordinary morals,
which are conventional, and belong to our age, but those feelings which
belong to human nature in all ages. The characters also are in many
instances discordant with themselves ; and the fault, so frequent in such
books, of degrading one hero to enhance the fame of another, is carried
here to great excess. An author may do what he will with the creatures
of his own imagination they are as clay in the potter's hand, but it is
a foul offence in literature to take up the personage whom another writer
has described as a knight of prowess and of worth, and engraft vices
upon him, and stain him with dishonour. Who could bear Desdemona
represented as an adulteress ? " Introduction to the " Byrth, Lyf, and
Actes of Kini^ Arthur, etc. ," London, 1817, i. p. xv.
Koger Ascham, in his Schoolemaster (bk. i.), condemns this among
other romances of chivalry composing the Morte Arthur as offending
" in two special points, in open manslaughter and bold bawdry. In
which book those be counted the noblest knights that do kill most men
without any quarrel, and commit foulest adulteries by subtlest .shift. . . .
And yet ten Morte Arthurs," he adds, " do not the tentli part so much
harm us one, of these books made in Italy (the Italian novels)."
1 The first Spanish edition was that printed in Gothic letter with
wo i-nlcuts, at Valladolid, in 1501.
a This romance coincides in its circumstances with a very scarce
208 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. III.
Nor has any romance of the Bound Table furnished such
ample materials of imitation to the Italian novelists and
poets. The story of the Greyhounds, a favourite dog in
the middle ages, which has been successively copied by the
Queen of Navarre and Bonaventure des Perriers, may be
found in Tristan. 1 There Dinas, King Marc's seneschal,
pursued his wife, who had been carried off by a knight,
and had taken her husband's greyhounds along with her ;
the seneschal overtakes the fugitives, and, trusting to the
affection of his wife, agrees that she should be left to her
Italian poem, by Nicolo Agostini, the continuator of Boiardo, printed at
Venice in 1520, entitled II secondo e terzo libro de Tristano, nel quale si
tracta come re Marco di Cornouaglia trovandolo un giorno con Isotta
1'uccise a tradimento, e come la ditta Isotta vedendolo morto di dolore
mori sopra il suo corpo. Concerning a MS. in Italian prose of the his-
tory of Lancelot and Tristan, prepared in 1447, see Bandini, Codd. Lat.
v. 208, Ebert. Many of the Italian poets allude to Tristan and Isolt.
Dante gives Tristan a place among the lovers, whom he describes flying
in company with storks :
" Vidi Paris, Tristano e piu di mille
Ombre mostrommi, e nominommi a dito,
Che amor di nostra vita dipartille."
Inferno, Canto v. 67.
A German translation from an old French prose form of the romance
was printed by H. Schonsperger, at Augsburg, in 1498. Nyerup
notices an early Danish prose version of Tristan, see Almindelig
Morskabsldesning i Danmark og Norje igjennem Aarhundreder Copen-
hagen, 1816, p. 118, etc.
An ancient Icelandic Saga upon the same subject dates from the first
half of the thirteenth century, and follows, says Professor P. E. Miiller,
the English poem of the Auchinleck Manuscript of the fourteenth cen-
tury, edited by Sir Walter Scott. This Saga of Tristram was published,
in 1878, by the Copenhagen Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift Selskab.
Evidences everywhere abound of the widespread popularity of this
romance. A manuscript was found in the Vatican containing a frag-
ment of Tristan in corrupt Greek, in politic verse. This was printed in
Breslau, in 1821, by F. V. der Hagen, and again by F. Michel in his
Poet. Rom. Tristan, London, 1835. See note, p. 194. Hans Sachs
composed a drama on the subject.
1 This statement, indeed, is made by Count Tressan (Bibl. d. Rom.
1776, Avril, p. 161), from whom, perhaps, Dunlop borrowed it. Yet,
according to Schmidt, no such story is found, either in Boccaccio, or in
Queen Margaret's " Heptameron," nor, according to Liebrecht, in the
Contes Nouvelles et Joyeux Devis of her chamberlain, Bonaventure
Desperiers.
CH. III.] TRISTAN. 209
own choice. The lady follows the knight, hut the lovers
instantly return and demand the greyhounds, concerning
which a similar agreement is made ; but they, more faith-
ful than the lady, and deaf to the voice of a stranger,
remain with their old master. The same story is told in
the Fabliau of the Chevalier a 1'Epee : and is related of
Gauvain in the metrical romance of Perceval, but has not
been introduced into the prose one of that name. It is
also in the printed Lancelot, but not in the most ancient
MS. of that romance.
I will not say that the phrensy of Orlando has been
imitated from that of Tristan ; but in some circumstances
the resemblance between them is striking. Jealousy was
the cause of both, and the paroxysms are similar. Ariosto,
however, though perhaps through the medium of his pre-
decessor Boiardo [see note p. 157, siipra], is indebted to
this romance for the notion of the fountains of love and
hatred, which occasion such vissitudes in the loves of
Einaldo and Angelica. Tristan also makes a conspicuous
figure in the 32d canto of the Orlando Furioso, where a
story is related concerning Tristano, which is borrowed
from this romance. Bradamante, overtaken by night, is
directed to a building which still retained the name of the
Tower of Tristan. In this retreat, Clodion, the son of
Pharamond, had confined a beauty of whom he was
jealous. Tristan had arrived there at eve, and, being at
first refused admission, had procured it by force of arms.
After this the usage was established, that a knight should
only obtain entrance if he overcame those knights who
had found reception before his arrival, and the lady, if she
surpassed in charms the females by whom the castle was
already occupied. From the romance of Tristan, Ariosto
had also borrowed the story of the enchanted horn, by
which the husband discovers the infidelity of his wife, by
his otvn way of drinking, and which is said to have been
originally given by Morgana to convince Arthur of the in-
fidelity of Geneura :
Qual gia per fare accorto il suo fratello
Del fallo di Gineura fo Morgana;
Chi la Moglie ha pudica bee con quello,
Ma non vi puo gia her chi 1' ha puttana,
I. P
210 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Che 1' vin quando lo crede in bocca porre
Tutto si sparge, e fuor nel petto scorre.
C. 43, St. 28. 1
In Tristan, however, the discovery is made by the Culprit's
mode of drinking. In that romance, during one of King
Marc's fits of jealousy, a knight, who was an enemy of
Tristan, brings a lady to court who possesses an enchanted
horn, which was so framed that those wives, who had been
unfaithful to their husbands, spilled the liquor with which
it was filled, in attempting to drink from it. They all
perform so awkwardly, that Marc, in the first heat of his
resentment, orders a bon-fire to be prepared for the general
reception of the ladies of the court. This horn is also in-
troduced in Perceval, but there the experiment is also tried
on the knights. A similar trial is made on the ladies at
the court of Arthur in the English Morte Arthur. The
fiction, however, may be traced higher than the romance of
Tristan. Le Grand thinks that it has been imitated from
the Short Mantle in one of the Fabliaux he has published,
which was too short or too long for those ladies who had
been false to their husbands or lovers. 2 This story was
" A drinking-cup will I for that assay,
Give you (she said) of virtue strange and rare :
Such was for Arthur made by Morgue the fay,
To make him of Genevra's fault aware.
The chaste wife's lord thereof may drink ; but they
Drink not whose wedded partners wanton are :
For when they would the cordial beverage sup,
Into their bosom overflows the cup."
Rose's Version.
In his turn Lafontaine borrows this cup from Ariosto. The lotus fur-
nishes a somewhat similar test in the Vrihat-Katlia and Tooti-Nameh.
See Deslongchamps, Fables Indiennes, p. 107. See Supp. note on
names.
2 Of similar virtue was the mantle of Tegau Euvron, counted among
the thirteen precious things of the Island of Britain. See San Marte,
Beitrage zur Bretonischen, etc , Heldensage, p. 62. See further Graesse,
p. 184, etc., and Von der Hagen's " Gesammtabenteuer," iii. p. Ixxxix,
etc., upon these tests of virtue and fidelity. An old German popular
song having reference to the same subject is quoted in Mone's " An-
zeiger," 8, 354, No. 1. Cf. also p. 378, No. 165, where twelve kings are
unable to pass the test which is in this case a crown. In Basile, Penta-
mercme, iii. 4 (" Sapia Liccarda ") ; and in Flore and Blanchefleur we also
CH. HI.] TEISTAN. 211
originally called in the Fabliaux, Le Court Mantel, but
was translated into prose in the sixteenth century, under
the name of Le Manteau mal taille. There is, however, a
Breton lay, entitled Lai du Corn, by Robert Bikez, which
bears a nearer resemblance to the story in Tristan. A
magical horn is brought by a boy during a sumptuous
feast given by Arthur, which, in a similar mode, disclosed
the same secrets as that in Tristan. The stories of the
Mantle and the Horn have been united in an English
ballad of the reign of Henry VI. published by Percy, 1
entitled The Boy and the Mantle, where the cup is the
test of a dishonoured husband, and the mantle of a faith-
less woman. Some mode of trial on this point is common
in subsequent romances and poems. In Perceforest [iv.
ch. 16, 17 ; v. ch. 42] it is a rose ; in Amadis de Gaul [lii.
14, 15] a garland of flowers, which bloom on the head of
her that is faithful, and fade on the brow of the incon-
stant. The reader of Spenser is well acquainted with the
girdle of Florimell, the former cestus of Venus. (B. 4.
Canto v. s. 3.)
Some experiment for ascertaining the fidelity of women
in defect of evidence, seems, in reality, to have been re-
sorted to from the earliest ages. By the Levitical law,
(Numbers, c. v. 11-31,) there was prescribed a proof of
chastity, which consisted in the suspected person drinking
water in the tabernacle. The mythological fable of the
trial by the Stygian fountain, which disgraced the guilty
by the waters rising so as to cover the laurel wreath of the
unchaste female who dared the examination, 2 probably had
its origin in some of the early institutions of Greece or
Egypt. Hence the notion was adopted in the Greek
romances, the heroines of which, we have seen, were in-
find a proof of virginity : in the first case it is a ring, and in the second
consists in crossing a stream. See Flecke's " Gedicht," verse 4462, etc.
See also above, p. 40; Gesta Komanorum, cap. 102; and Bandello, No.
21, p. 267, Lieb.; and Grimm Rechtsalterth, p. 932, Lieb.
1 In the Reliques, and subsequently in Bishop Percy's Folio Manu-
script, ed. 1867, vol. ii. pp. 304-311.
a There was, however, no particular connexion between the Stygian
fountain and such ordeals. The text contains rather a reminiscence of
such passages as those in Achilles Tatius, viii. 12, and Eustathius,
Ismenias and Ismene, xi., &c.
212 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
variably subjected to a magical test of this nature, 1 which
is one of the few particulars wherein any similarity of in-
cident can be traced between the Greek novels and the
romances of chivalry : the Grecian heroines, however,
underwent the experiment in a cave, or some retirement, 2
though they might have exhibited with credit openly, while
the ladies of chivalry are always exposed in public in a
full court or crowded assembly ; the former, too, are only
subjected to a trial of virginity, the latter more frequently
to some proof of conjugal fidelity.
We have been long detained with Tristan and Yseult ;
it is now time that we proceed to the romance of
YSAIE LE TRISTE, 3
in which is related the history of their son, who was the
fruit of the interviews procured for these lovers by the
accommodating Dinas.
When Tristan departed for the court of Arthur, the
queen was obliged to ask permission to make a distant
pilgrimage. The necessity of this request conveys a most
cruel, and, if we believe other romances, a most unfounded
insinuation against King Marc. Yseult had proceeded no
farther in her journey than the skirts of the forest of
Mouris, when she gave birth to a son [ch. i. fol. ii.]. She
sent for a hermit who resided in the vicinity, but who,
spite of the urgency of the occasion, refused to baptize the
child till the mother had revealed her foibles, and thus paid
the tribute which in those days conscience owed to religion.
He then baptized the infant by submersion in a neighbour-
ing fountain, and called him Ysaie le Triste ; an appellation
compounded of the names of his parents. After this the
1 See Miihly Die Schlange in Mythus und Cultus der Classischen
Volker. Basel, 1867, p. 13, etc.
2 Chariclea and Ismene underwent these tests openly. See pp. 28,
40, and 80.
3 Sensuit 1'histoire dysaie le triste, Filz de Trista de leonnois cheua-
lier de la table ronde, et de la royue Jzeut Eoyne de Cornouaille. En-
semble les nobles prouesses de Marc 1'exille filzdu ditYsaye, . . . reduit
du viel langaige franfoys. Several editions were published in Paris
about 1500, and subsequently. See p. 222.
CH. III.] Y8AIE LE TRI8TE. 213
queen returned to her husband, and the recluse carried the
little Ysaie along with him to his hermitage [f ol. iii. verso] .
One clear moonlight evening when the hermit had retired
to his devotions, and was kneeling before the altar, his
attention was distracted by the sound of delightful and
unearthly music, which he heard at a distance in the
forest, and which gradually approached his solitary dwell-
ing. Looking through a window which opened from this
oratory into his cell, he perceived a group of fairies, who
made free to light a comfortable fire, and having warmed
themselves and washed the child, departed to the same
tune to which they had entered [f. iv.].
At this visit the hermit felt considerable inquietude, for
the fairies were not Christians ; but the benevolence with
which they had treated the child, and their liberality in
leaving a plentiful supply of provisions, induced him to
consider them as such. Some nights after, his new guests
returned, and introduced themselves in due form ; one as
the Vigorous Fairy, another as the Courageous Fairy, &c.
They announced that they frequently resorted to the bush
which confined the magician Merlin, with whom they had
lately enjoyed a full conversation on the merits of different
knights, and other important affairs of chivalry. In par-
ticular, Merlin had mentioned the death of Tristan, and
recommended his child to their best attentions : accordingly
they now endued Ysaie with the gifts which each had the
power of bestowing, one giving him strength, another
courage, and so forth. They also directed the hermit to
proceed with his ward, as soon as he passed the period of
infancy, through the Green Forest ; and then, on hearing
the cock crow, they suddenly vanished.
After some years had elapsed, the hermit set out with
Ysaie, according to the route which had been prescribed to
him by the fairies [ch. iv.]. Having passed through the
11 Forest, they came to a plain, in the midst of which
stood a fountain, and from the middle of the fountain grew
a tree, which shaded it with spreading branches. Around
sat the protecting fairies, who now bestowed on Ysaie, as
an attendant, an ill-favoured dwarf, called Tronc, whose
personal deformity was compensated by the quickness of
his understanding.
214 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
Having left the fairies, chance conducted our adventurers
to the tomb of the enchanter Merlin, whence deep groans
were heard to issue : Tronc interrogated the voice of the
magician, which informed them of the overthrow of Arthur
with his chivalry, and directed his audience to proceed to
the hermitage of Lancelot du Lac, who having alone sur-
vived the fatal battle with Mordrec, was now the only per-
son worthy to invest Ysaie with the order of knighthood,
and to bestow a new Tristan on the world. In obedience
to the exhortation of Merlin, they proceeded to the retreat
of Lancelot ; but found on their arrival that it was no
longer inhabited, as the knight had met in repose the
death which had so often spared him in battle. By advice
of the dwarf Tronc, they repaired to the tomb of Lancelot,
where a mausoleum of noble simplicity rose in view. The
marble which covered the body of the warrior was raised,
and the hermit dubbed Ysaie a knight with the right arm
of the skeleton, accompanying this ghastly inauguration
with a harangue, which seems to form a compendium of
the duties of knighthood : " Chevalier, soies cruel a tes
ennemys, debonnaire a tes amys, humble a non puissans,
et aidez toujours le droit a soustenir, et confons celluy qui
tort a Yefes dames poures pucelles et orphelins ; et poures
gens aymes toujours a ton pouoir, et avec aime toujours
Saincte Eglise " [ch. ix.].
Ysaie returned to the hermitage, but the recluse having
died after a time, he set out in quest of adventures, in all
which the stratagems and ingenuity of Tronc were of great
service to his master. The state of the country at this
period gave ample scope for chivalrous exploits. After the
death of Arthur, a number of petty sovereignties had been
erected, and were maintained by cruelty and oppression.
Ysaie, however, abolished the evil customs which had been
established at different castles, and in their place substi-
tuted others more consonant to the genuine spirit of
chivalry.
By these means the fame of Ysaie reached the court of
King Irion. It is not said where this monarch reigned,
but he had a beautiful niece, called Martha. This princess
had a strong prepossession in favour of knights, as her nurse
had persuaded her that the bravest heroes were the most
CH. III.] Y8AIE LE TEI8TE. 215
tender lovers. She resolved to be beloved by Ysaie, and
immediately wrote to him on the subject [ch. xxiv.J. Our
hero returned a favourable answer, but his speed not keep-
ing pace with her wishes, she prevailed on her uncle to
proclaim a tournament, in the hope that he would repair
to the exhibition. On the eve of its celebration, while Irion
was dining in his hall with four hundred knights and an
equal number of ladies, and while the second course (second
metz) was serving, the pleasure of the repast was suddenly
interrupted by the arrival of Tronc, whom his master had
sent on before, and who entered, to the utter amazement
and consternation of the assembly, Car trop estoit hideux a
merveilles. Having discovered Martha seated between two
knights, who were clothed in black and purple, he delivered
her a letter from Ysaie announcing his speedy approach.
Ysaie arrived during supper at the palace of the king,
where he knocked out the brains of the porter who refused
him admittance. On ascending the stairs he discovered
Martha, by whom he was received as he had reason to
expect [ch. xxx.]. Their interview was interrupted by the
approach of the king ; but the host, with whom Ysaie had
taken up his quarters, came soon after to inform the prin-
cess that her knight had proceeded no farther than the first
house in the suburbs. In consequence of this intimation
she repaired in the evening to the rendezvous, where she
gave her lover the most decisive proofs of her benevolence.
On the following day Ysaie, who was arrayed in white
armour, distinguished himself at the tournaments ; but
during the entertainment by which they were succeeded,
a defiance was brought from the giant, styling himself
Lord of the Black Forest, addressed to Ysaie in his cha-
racter of reformer of abuses, and declaring that he (the
giant) meant to persevere in the practice which he had
hitherto observed, of delivering all ladies whom he caught
within his jurisdiction to his grooms (varlets de chevaulx),
and afterwards throwing them into the ditch surrounding
his castle, which, as the romancer very justly remarks,
" Estoit la plus laide coustume du monde."
Our hero proceeded to destroy this monster, and on
the road conversed with Tronc on his late happiness ; who,
it would appear, had little cause to rejoice at the amorous
216 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
success of his master: " Je en suis Je," says he, " moulu
et dechire. Les Fees, vos amies et protectrices, m'ont fait
chierement payer vos plaisirs ; ores dansiez vous aux nopces
et payois Je les violons ;' et disoient elles que en ina chair
devois Je resentir le tort que avoit la votre."
While Ysaie was engaged in discomfiting the giant, and
in making converts by force of arm to the true faith, the
Princess Martha had felt the consequences of a frank letter
and an imprudent rendezvous. King Irion pardoned her
transgression, and indeed swore " Par Saincte croix si c'est
du chevalier au blanc escu Je ne fus oncques si joyeulx."
But, however much gratified by hearing that it was the
white-shielded knight, he could not help expressing his
astonishment that Ysaie, having passed only twenty-four
hours in his territories, should have employed them in
knocking down his porter and seducing his niece.
Martha having given birth to a son, who was called Marc
[ch. xl.], adopted, though somewhat late, the intention of
uniting herself in marriage to Ysaie. With this view she
set out in quest of him, disguised as a minstrel, and
wandered from tower to tower singing lays expressive of
her pain and her passion : " Lors tire la harpe et la
trempe, et puis commence a harper si melodieusenient que
c'estoit merveilles a ouyr. Et puis chantoit avec ce tant
bien que le palays en retentissoit." On one occasion she
poured forth her melody at the gates at the castle of
Argus, where Ysaie happened at that time to reside. Un-
fortunately she was recognised by Tronc, who, still mindful
of the chastisement of the fairies, informed her, after
having disguised himself, that Ysaie had gone to the next
town, and that she would easily overtake him [ch. xlv.].
While Martha thus wastes her steps and her music, her
son Marc passed the period of infancy: "Et bien saichez
que c'estoit le pyre de son aage que oncques fust veu. Si
vous diray en quelle maniere ; de prime face quant le Roy
mengeoit il venoit a la table et espandoit le vin et tiroit
la nappe et les hanaps a luy et boutoit tout a terre : Et
puis venoit en la cuisine et respandoit les pots. Aux petis
enfans faisait il tant de hont que c'estoit merveilles. Le
roy avoit avec luy ung sien nepveu fils de son frere : une
heure regardoit en la court dedans ung puis ; Marc le leva
CH. III.] YSAIE LE TBISTE. 217
par les piez et le bouta dedans, et fut noye. Quant le Roy
Irion le sceut si en fust moult courrouce." It was no
wonder then that the knight, " qui 1'endoctrinoit," com-
plained to the king, " que c'est la plus cruelle piece de
chair qui oncques nasquit de mere. Et vous ditz, que se
tantost ne fais oye ce que il dist il meteroit hors par les
fenestres de la tour : Et sachez que au jour de 1'escremie
il a tuc vostre Boutillier, et ung des maistres d' hostel.
Mon Dieu, fait le Roy Irion, J'estoye tout esbahy que Je
ne les veoye plus aller ne venir." The king on receiving
this account sends for his nephew, and instead of repri-
manding him, " Beau nepveu, fait le roy, Je suis desormais
ancien homme et tout maladif , et vous etes fort, et puissant
et saige; se vous voulez, si vouldroye que par le conseil des
saiges que gouvernissiez mon royaume en contester centre
tous ceux qui mal vouldroyent faire."
The first exercise of power on the part of this wise
young prince was to proclaim a tournament, during which
he displayed more courage than courtesy. The knights
and courtiers of King Irion, being jealous of the authority
of a prince whose recommendation to sovereign power
seems to have consisted in his dexterity in throwing chil-
dren into wells, and beating out the brains of butlers,
entered into a conspiracy against him, of which the plot is
so singular, and so similar to the stories of haunted apart-
ments in modern romance, that I have thought it deserv-
ing of a place in the Appendix. 1
After Marc had triumphed over all the machinations of
his enemies, and foiled Satan by a good shrift, intelligence
arrived that the Amiral of Persia had just landed in
Britain, accompanied by his nephew, the king of Nubia,
surnamed the Red Lion ; as also by the kings of Castille,
Seville, and Arragon, who had all sworn by Mahomet and
Tervagant that they would not return to their own country
till tlu'v had extirpated Christianity [ch. Iviii.].
It would appear that the Saracen commander had
divided his army into two portions. A few troops pro-
ceeded against the capital of Irion, but the main body,
under the orders of the Amiral in person, remained near
1 See Appendix, No. 7.
218 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
the coast on which they had disembarked. Marc ad-
vanced against the latter division, which, with the assist-
ance of a few peasants, he totally defeated. After the
engagement he found the beautiful Orimonda, daughter of
the Amiral, reposing in the pavilion of her father. He
conducts this princess as a trophy to his tent, sups with
her, baptizes her, and promises to espouse her on his
return to the court of King Irion, but meanwhile prevails
on her to invert the usual ceremonies which constitute a
legal marriage :
II n'est rien de si doux pour des coeurs pleins de gloire,
Que la paisible nuit qui suit une victoire ;
Donnir sur un trophee est un charmant repos,
Et le champ de bataille est le lict d'un heros.
Scudery, Alaric. c. x. 1. 1-4.
Next morning the son of Tsaie set out in pursuit of the
remaining Saracen army, but his father had been before-
hand with him. Ysaie had proceeded with great rapidity
in the work of conversion ; but as he had nearly extirpated
the native infidels, he was much delighted with this fresh
supply, which he had, accordingly attacked and defeated
under the walls of the capital of King Irion. The father
and son, equally victorious, met and recognised each
other on the field of battle, where Orimonda was presented
by Marc to his father. A moment of yet greater transport
was reserved. Tronc being now associated to Marc in the
adventures he undertook, it was partly by his means that
Martha was delivered from traitors, who were leading her
to death, and finally restored to the arms of Ysaie [ch. xci.].
The posterity of Tristan were thus happy and united.
The nuptials of the father and son were celebrated, and
the son was knighted by the father. During the festival
that ensued, the protecting fairies again appeared. To the
faithful Tronc a recompence was still wanting. They in-
formed him that he had the good fortune to belong to
their family, being the son of Julius Caesar by their eldest
sister the Fairy Morgana. Strange events, which are
written in the Chronicles of Fairies, had forced him to
endure a long and severe penance. His aunts the fairies,
in order to enable him to pass the time more agreeably,
had transformed him into a hideous dwarf, and linked
CH. III.] T8AIE LE TB18TE. 219
him to the fate of their protege. But the period of dis-
grace was at length expired. The fairies cleansed him
from his deformities, and he now appeared the handsomest
prince in the world, as he had formerly been the most
witty and ingenious. The smallness of his stature, which
did not exceed three feet, was the only imperfection that
remained. His aunts bestowed on him a kingdom, and
in this new form and dignity he was known by the title of
Aubron [Oberon], under which denomination he performed
many wonders, related in the beautiful romance of Huon
of Bordeaux. Before departing for the Vergier des Fees,
where he was about to establish his empire, he left with
Ysaie a magic horn, which is the origin of that in Huon :
" Or quant Tronc fut baptize se dist a Ysaie tenez ce cor
sur vous et le portez ; si vous avez besoing vous ou Marc
si le sonnez, mais gardez vous bien que point ne le sonnez
si ce n'est pour grant besoing, et Je vous viendray aider
et secourir."
The romance of Ysaie derives its chief excellence from
the singular character of Tronc his attachment, wit, and
endless resources. His fidelity is the same to Ysaie and
Marc, whose behaviour to him is singularly contrasted ; by
the former, who is a more polished warrior, he is invariably
treated with tenderness and respect ; while he is often
driven from the presence of his impetuous son, and reminded
that he is " trop defigure, trop hideux a veoir, et plus
laide creature du monde."
Ysaie le Triste has also received much novelty from
Tronc' s relatives the fairies, as it is the first tale of
chivalry in which they are introduced acting a decided
part. This new species of machinery has given rise to
gorgeous descriptions, and pictures of magnificence, hitherto
unknown. The representation of the Vergier des Fe"es,
which Tronc and Ysaie visit in the course of their adven-
tures, is perhaps the richest and most splendid in ro-
mance. " And the while they spake Marc beholds a great
valley and at the end thereof trees in marvellous abun-
dance ; and there birds sang so sweetly that it was delight
to hear. And Marc stopped a little, that he might hear
maidens singing so doucely that he was amazed, for he
had never before seen the like, and therewith harmonized
220 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
such sweet melody that all hearts found pleasure therein.
. . . But neither dames nor damosels did they see, nor
any being ; and there was such a lovely mead as was
solace to behold, for all manner of goodly flowers and
aromatic herbs were there, and there blossomed there such
a sweetness that all hearts must f ain find pleasure therein.
He rode forward a little and came to a very beautiful
orchard enclosed by a little wall built of divers kinds of
precious stones, and all round was a vigne wholly of gold
having grapes wholly of emeralds ; and in this orchard
was set a table, and the trestles thereof were of jet, and
the table itself of jasper, and the tableclothe of white silk
so cunningly worked as it was marvellous to look on ; and
near unto the table was a beautiful dresser the which was
all laden with precious stones, and a great plenty of costly
jewels ; and near thereto was a little low fountain which
was of topaz, whereunto the water flowed in a conduit of
ruby, and it was so clear that no other water might com-
pare therewith ; and when the fountain was full the water
issued therefrom by a conduit which was of crystal, and
entered into the earth so cunningly that no man might
perceive. And on the other side of the garden was a bed,
wherof the stead was of ivory carved and cunningly
wrought into great images, and therein was contained the
historie of Lancelot and the Dame du lac, and it was
covered with a great cloth of divers colours cunningly in-
terwoven, and there were there broidered so many histories
that the eyes were dazzled therewith." [c. Ixxx.]
It is the introduction of fairies, and the frequently re-
curring descriptions of those splendid wonders they pro-
duce, or by which they are attended, that induce me to
place the composition of this romance in the end of the
fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, which is
a century and a half later than the date of Tristan. In
that work, in Lancelot du Lac, and other romances of the
Round Table, there are no doubt fairies, but they are of a
different species from the protectresses of Ysaie. They are
merely women, as Morgain or Vivian, instructed in magic.
They indeed have all hell at their command, can perform
the greatest miracles, and occasion to any one the severest
misfortunes. All this, however, is accomplished by inter-
CH. III.] YSAIE LE TEI8TE. 221
mediate agency, and they are only formidable by the inter-
vention of demons, with whom they have formed advanta-
geous connections : but the second class of fairies, as those
in the romance of Ysaie, were self-supported beings they
were a species of nymph or divinity, and possessed a power
inherent in themselves. Nor were these creatures merely
the offspring of the imagination of romancers, but were be-
lieved to exist in the age in which they wrote. At a period
much later than the composition of Ysaie, the first ques-
tion asked of the Maid of Orleans, in the process carried
on against her, was, if she had any familiarity with those
who resorted to the Sabat of the fairies, or if she had ever
attended the assemblies of the fairies held at the fontaine
des Groseillers beneath the shade of the Arbre aux Fees
near Domremy, round which the evil spirits danced ; and
the Journal of Paris, in the reigns of Charles VI. and VII.
states, that she acknowledged that, in spite of her father
and mother, she had frequented the beautiful fountain of
the fairies in Lorraine, which she named the good fountain
of the fairies of our Lord.
There are other circumstances, besides the machinery of
fairies, which may lead us to assign a late period to the
composition of Ysaie ; as, for instance, the introduction of
Saracens, instead of Saxons, as enemies of the heroes of the
romance. The French is also evidently more modern, being
much less difficult, but also less energetic, than the lan-
guage of Tristan or Lancelot. . It is true, that the romance,
as now extant, is said in the title to be " redige et reformc
en commun langaige vulgaire." The pretended Redacteur
professes to have adhered to the story " selon 1'intention
du premier hystoriographe ; " but he declares that "1'ori-
ginal estoit en si estrange et maulvais langaige mis et couchc
que a grant peine en ay peu entendre le sens et elucider la
forme de la matiere." All this, however, was probably as-
serted in order to give the stamp of authority, and I have
little doubt that the language and story of this romance
are of the same antiquity. " The romance of Ysaie," say
the authors of the Bibliotheque des Romans, " is as infe-
rior to those by which it was preceded, in characters, sen-
timents, and incidents, as in language ; yet the history of
Ysaie offers many interesting situations, and presents many
222 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
coups de theatre : but what renders it chiefly valuable is,
that it makes us acquainted with the difference of manners
which prevailed in the beginning of the twelfth and end of
the fourteenth century. The world, which is so readily
accused of growing worse, had no doubt wonderfully de-
generated in point of chivalry, at least during these three
centuries. At the conclusion of that period, too, the
deepest shades of ignorance had gathered, and mankind
were strangers to all delicacy of sentiment. The knights,
indeed, still fought with courage, and hence the writers of
romance continued to describe the most terrible combats.
Principles of honour yet existed in the heart of the Cheva-
lier, but they were concealed under a rude exterior. Devo-
tion was fervent and sincere, but it was ill understood and
worse directed. All this will be remarked in the history of
Ysaie."
This romance is also one of the scarcest of the class to
which it belongs, which is strong evidence of its fancied in-
feriority. As far as I know, it is one of the few romances
which never appeared in a metrical form. There is no
MS. of it extant, and there have been but few editions,
one printed at Paris, 1522, small folio, Gallyot du Pre, and
two others, 4to., without date, by Philippe le Noir, and J.
Bonfons, and according to Duverdier another 4to. without
date at Lyons, by Olivier Arnoullet.
The romance of
ARTHUR 1
contains little more than the events of which we have al-
ready given an account in the preceding fabulous stories of
the knights of the Bound Table. The incidents, however,
are better arranged, and presented in one view. It com-
1 Le Roman du Roy Artus et des compagnons de la Table Ronde, &c.
Such is the indication of the title given by Dunlop. The work meant
seems to be the " Tierce partie de Lancelot du Lac .... compile
et extraict precisement et au juste des vrayes histoires faisantes de
ce mencion, par tres notable homme et tres expt historien maistre
Gaultier map, et imprime a Paris par Jehan du pre. En la de grace
mil. cccc. iiii. xx. et viii. le xvi. iour de septembre." See supra, note to
Lancelot, p. 185, and Ward, Cat. i., p. 347.
CH. III.] ARTHUR.
prebends the history of the Round Table, of which Arthur
was the founder, or at least the restorer, and gives an ac-
count of that monarch from his birth to the period of his
tragical death.
The authors of the Bibliotheque inform us, with most
absurd credulity (or rather solemn irony perhaps), that
this romance was written by one of the Sire Clerks or an-
nalists of the Round Table : they even fix on the name of
the author of Artus, and assert that it was Arrodian de
Cologne, who, they say, retired with Lancelot du Lac into
his hermitage after the defeat of Arthur. They argue,
that it is impossible to assign an earlier origin to the ro-
mance, as it gives an account of the catastrophe of almost
all the knights of the Round Table. " Selon ioute apparence,
ces chroniqueurs sont les Sires Clercs, ou officiers historiens
et annalistes de cette premiere chevalerie du monde. Nous
savons nieme leurs noms, et I' on pent conjecturer, que c'est
ici 1'ouvrage du premier d'entre eux, nomme Arrodian
de Cologne. On croit qu'il se retira avec Lancelot du Lac,
dans un meme hermitage, apres la terrible defaite ou peri-
rent le Roy Artus, et la plus grande partie de ses chevaliers.
La preuve que cette chronique ne fut terminee qu' apres
cette catastrophe c'est qu'on y voit la fin de presque tous
ces heros."
In the body of the work itself, it is said to have been
written by Gualtier Map ; it was printed at Paris, 1488,
folio, by Jehan du Pre.
After a narrative of the events connected with the birth
and succession of Arthur to the kingdom, which have been
formerly related in the Book of Merlin, the romance in-
forms us that he drove the Saxons out of his dominions,
by which means he secured the public peace ; but he still
continued to receive much disquiet from his own family.
His four nephews, especially Gauvain, on pretence of the
illegitimacy of their uncle, refused to acknowledge him as
king. He defeated them in the field by his own skill and
the sagacity of Merlin, and afterwards so far conciliated
their favour by his bravery and good conduct, that they
became the most faithful of his vassals.
Arthur then set out with his knights to the assistance of
Laodogant, King of Carmelide in Scotland. This prince
224 HISTORY or FICTION. [CH. in.
had been attacked by King Ryon, 1 a man of a disposition
so malevolent that he had formed to himself a project of
possessing a mantle furred with the beards of those kings
he should conquer. He had calculated with the grand-
master of his wardrobe that a full royal cloak would re-
quire forty beards : he had already vanquished five kings,
and reckoned on a sixth beard from the chin of Laodogant.
Arthur and his knights totally deranged this calculation by
defeating King Eyon. Laodogant, in return for the assis-
tance he had received, offered his daughter, the celebrated
G-eneura, 2 in marriage to Arthur. Merlin, however, who
does not appear to have been a flattering courtier, and who
does not seem to have attached to the conservation of
Laodogant' s beard the importance that it merited, declared
that his master must first deserve the princess. In obedi-
ence to his oracle and enchanter, Arthur, in order to qualify
himself for the nuptials, made an expedition to Britany,
where he defeated Claudas, king of Bern, who had un-
provokedly attacked a vassal of the British monarch.
After this exploit, Arthur returned to the court of
Laodogant, where preparations were now made for his
union with Geneura. This princess is described as the
1 King Ryon and his mantle are mentioned in a Welsh legend (San
Marte, "Beitraege zur bretonischen .... Heldensage," p. 60. and by
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Hist. Keg. Brit. x. c. 3, where he is called
Sython, in Merlin (pt. ii. fol. 105), in the Roman de Brut, v. 11957, etc.
where his name is written Riton, and in the Chevalier aux deux Epees,
where he appears as Ris. See Leroux de Lincy on this passage in the
Brut. LIEB.
2 The beauty of the Queen Geneura or Guenever is a constant theme
with the old romancers, and appears to rest on historical tradition. In the
Welsh version of Ywaine and Gawaine, edited by Lady Charlotte Guest,
in the Mabinogion, the expression, " more lovely than Gwenhwyvar,"
occurs, p. 42 ; and she is celebrated in the Triads as one of the three fair
ladies of Arthur's court. In the Latin chronicle of Geoffrey, lib. ix. cap. 9,
the queen is equally praised for her beauty and courteous manners, and
this is repeated by Wace and his translators, or imitators. The most
naive and elaborate personal description cji her appearance is given in
the very rare Roman de Merlin, vol. i. i. cxxxvii. See also another
passage quoted by Southey in his notes on Morte d' Arthur, vol. ii.
p. 462. Her yzen gray (yeux vaires) are mentioned; such were con-
sidered in the times of romances as undoubted characteristics of beauty.
See examples (out of many) in the Erie of Zolous ap. Ritson. metr. rom.
iii. 107. Lawnful, ibid. i. 209. Thomas of Ersyldoune ap. Laing pop.
poetr. 1. 89.
CH. III.] ARTHUR. 225
finest woman in the universe her stature was noble and
elegant her complexion fair, and her eyes the finest blue of
the heavens : the expression of her countenance was lively
yet dignified, but sometimes tender her understanding,
naturally just, was well cultivated her heart was feeling,
compassionate, and capable of the most exalted sentiments.
On the second day of the tournaments (for without
these no great festival was exhibited,) an unknown knight,
of a ferocious aspect, came to defy the combatants. He
entered the lists, but was speedily unhorsed by Arthur,
and afterwards slain by him in mortal combat (combat a
outrance.) This knight was, after his death, discovered to
be King Ryon, by the mantle which he carried under his
cuirass, half furnished with the spoils of vanquished
inonarchs.
Arthur, after his return to England with his bride, re-
established the Round Table, which was transported from
Scotland, for King Laodogant had it in deposit since the
death of Uter, the father of Arthur. Merlin dictated the
laws and regulations of this renowned association. 1 The
kings of Scotland and Norway, the princes of Armorica and
Gaul, disdained not to pay a species of tribute to the Eng-
lish monarch, in order to be admitted into this celebrated
society. The glory of the institution was completed by
Pharamond, the king of the Franks, and conqueror of
Gaul, arriving incognito in Britain to obtain, by his prowess
and exploits, a seat at this renowned board.
The knights of the Round Table had no exterior and
characteristic mark of their order, but each had a peculiar
device and motto of his own. 2 Thus Arthur carried for
1 In the Melanges tires d'une grande Bibliotheque, it is stated that the
statutes of the Round Table are not found in any of the Arthurian
romances, but occur in the second volume of Anadis, the Knight of the
Sun." Schmidt Wiener Jahrbuch. Bd. 29, p. 104, quoted by Liebrccht.
3 A curious little book is devoted to this subject ; its title runs : La
devise des Armes des Chevaliers de la Table Ronde qui estoicnt du
temps du tresrenome et vertueux Artus roy de la grant Bretaigne.
Avec la desc-riptio de leurs armoiries. Paris (? 1520), 16mo. An
English translation was published at London in 1583, entitled : The
Auncient Order Societie and Unitie laudable of Prince Arthure, etc.
The genealogy of the heroes of Arthurian and Carlovingian romance is
given in Ferrario's " Storia ed Analisi degli antichi romanzi di Caval-
leria," &c. Milano, 1828, 1829, 8vo; and in a little volume: Tables
I. Q
226 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
his arms thirteen golden crowns, with the motto Moult de
couronnes plus de vertus.
Lancelot du Lac had six bends of or and azure Haut en
naissance en vaillance en amour.
His brother Hector of Mares a golden star Pour etre
heureux un bel astre suffit.
King Pharamond bore the Fleur de Lis Que de beaux
fruits de ces fleurs doivent naitre.
After the institution of the Round Table, Arthur con-
ceived the design of obtaining possession of the Sangreal ;
but this precious relic, according to the oracles, could only
be acquired by a knight who had a very rare qualification,
and Perceval, it seems, was the only one whose purity of
morals fitted him for this enterprise.
The story of the false Greneura, the credulity of Arthur,
and the final triumph of the queen, which has been men-
tioned in the account of Lancelot, is fully related in the
romance of Arthur.
After Geneura was reinstated in the affections of her
husband, the glory and domestic felicity of Arthur seem to
have been at their height, but the period of the destruction
of the first chivalry in the world was now fast approaching.
Mordred, the son of Arthur, by the Queen of Orkney, dis-
puted the right of succession with the nephews of that
monarch. Arthur sustained the claims of his nephew
Gauvain against this unworthy and illegitimate son, and
Mordred assembled under his banners all those who had
solicited and had been refused admittance to the Bound
Table. Some of the knights of Arthur were still engaged
with Perceval in the conquest of the Sangreal ; the rest
defended themselves with unexampled valour, but Arthur
and his chivalry were finally overthrown. The Saracens, 1
genealogiques des heros des romans (? Paris, 1794); and the arms and
devices are prefixed to Gyron le Courtois.
1 Mordred and his allies included Saracens. This appears to be a
most important feature of the transition into the succeeding cycle of
romances. In the earlier stories of the Round Table, Arthur's external
foes are Saxons, not Saracens. Schmidt Wien. Jahrb.rBd. 29, p. 103.
Graesse, p. 242. It is still doubtless Saxons that are signified under
the term Saracens, the romancists classing all heathens indiscriminately
under this name, See Sir W. Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,
vol. i. p. 270. Note i. ed. Baudry (On the Fairies of Popular Supersti-
tion, sect, iii.), and Percy's " lieliques," note on the Ballad of King
CH. III.] AKTHUE. 227
who supported Mordred, reached the division commanded
by the king. Arthur was overpowered by numbers and
mortally wounded ; his faithful squire, Goifled, who saw
lii in expire, carried off his famous sword Escalibor, and
threw it into a lake. Lancelot, who in the romance of his
own name does not arrive in England till after this battle,
h;ul meanwhile attacked the battalion which Mordred com-
manded, put it to flight, and pursued its leader to the sea-
shore. There he overtook him, and plunged his sword into
his bosom. Lancelot having routed his whole host, re-
turned exulting to the tents of Arthur, where he learned
the fate of his sovereign. After these events the beautiful
Genexira retired to a convent, and Lancelot closed his life
in a hermitage.
It appears strange at first sight, that Arthur and his
knights should be represented in romance as falling in
battle, as well as Charlemagne with all his peerage, at a
time when success in war was thought necessary to com-
plete the character of a warrior. But the same fate has
been attributed to all the fabulous chiefs of half-civilized
nations, who have invariably represented their favourite
leaders as destroyed by a concealed and treacherous enemy.
Achilles, at least according to the fables of the middle age,
was thus slain by Paris ; and Rustan, the great Persian
hero, fell a victim to the snares of Bahaman, the son of
his mortal foe Isfendar. This has probably arisen from
poets and romancers wishing' to spare their heroes the
suspicion of having died in bed by the languor of disease,
to which any violent death is preferred by barbarous
nations. " He'll be strapped up on the kind gallows of
Crieff, where his father died, and his goodsire died, and
where I hope he'll live to die himself, if he's not shot or
slashed in a creagh." " You hope such a death for your
f ricud, Evan ? " " And that do I e'en ; would you have
me wish him to die in yon den of his, like a mangy tyke ? "
(Waverley, ch. xviii.)
But though Arthur was universally believed to have
V.-' mere (Series i. B. i.). Similarly in King Home, the Pagan Danes
arc culled ' Saracens." See Thomas Wriirht, St. Patrick's Purgatory,
p. 14. Lond. 1844. In the Chanson des Saxons, composed by Jean
Bodel in the reign of Philippe August e (1 ISO-I'2'23), the Saxons are also
represented :i s worshippers of Mahomet. LIKH.
228 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. III.
been discomfited, and was by some supposed to have
perished in the battle with Mordred ; the expectation of his
return to restore the Round Table, and to rule over Britain,
was long and fondly cherished in Wales. Alanus de In-
sulis, who was born in 1109, says, that if any one were
heard in Bretagne to deny that Arthur was yet alive, he
would be stoned. 1 This tradition formed a favourite sub-
1 Prophetia Anglicana (Merlini) . . . una cum septem libris explana-
tionum in eandem prophetiam Alani de Insulis, etc., 1. iii. c. 26.
According to Juan del Castillo (Historia de los Keyes Godos que
rinieron a Espana, Madrid, 1624, p. 365), it was reported that Philip II.
was obliged at his espousals with Mary of England to swear to forego
his claims to the English throne in case of Arthur's return. Cf. Don
Quixote, i. c. 13. F. W. V. Schmidt. LIEB. See in the note on
Geoffrey of Monmouth, p. 138, the treatment of the monks of Laon in
the church at Bodmin.
The reader is at once reminded of the ready popular belief accorded
to such pretenders as Perkin Warbeck, and many others, who have
claimed to be the bearers of esteemed and favourite names ; various other
popular legends bear witness to a similar expectation. See Grimm,
Deutsche Myth. 2nd ed. p. 903, and English ed., p. 961. Graesse,
p. 341, note. Cf. also the Breton Saga of Morvan Lez-Breiz (Ville-
marque, Barzaz-Breiz, vol. i. No. 12). The North American story of
Rip van Winkle, in W. Irving's " Sketch-book."
The people is not ungrateful to its benefactors and heroes, and pre-
serves the memory of the traits of its darlings ineffaceably laid up in
the heart. It is loath to admit that death can have taken them away
for ever, and loves to cherish the idea that they are still alive and will
return in an hour of the country's need. Who does not know the tradi-
tion that Frederick Barbarossa still sits at a stone table in the Kyffhauser
Mountains, with his long red beard enveloping in mighty coils the legs
of the table ? (See Massmann Kaiser Friedrich im Kytfenhauser, Qued-
linbnrg, 1850.) The Serbs deny that then* champion Kraljevic Marco is
dead, and maintain that he is asleep in a cave in Sumadia, until the
hour of Serbia's delivery shall arrive. They say that he retired thither
after he had seen the first firearms, bewailing the victory of cunning
over courage, and the unavailingness of bravery and heroism, since now
the most tottering coward could lay low the bravest warrior from a vile
lurking place. There he sleeps on, stretched out by the side of his
horse, which is eating green moss from a golden manger. His Handzar
unrusted hangs from the wall. In the hour of action it will fall, and
wake the hero by the noise of falling, who will then arise and liberate
the Serbs.
The Moravian country-folk still hope for the return of the lost
prince-child Jecminek, as the Bohemian peasant still looks for St. Wenzel
and his hosts on Mount Blanik. The announcement of the death of the
great friend of the people, Joseph II., was received in Bohemia with
widespread incredulity. It was said that the clergy had kidnapped him
CH. III.] ARTHUR. 229
of the legends of the bards ; and on his imaginary
there was inscribed,
Hie jacet Arthurus rex quondam rexque futurus.
The belief in Arthur's return probably originated * with the
stories in the romance of Lancelot, and other tales of
chivalry, concerning his disappearance with his sister
Morgana, after the battle ; some of which bear a striking
resemblance to what Homer tells us of Sarpedon, that
Apollo washed his wounds in a stream, anointed them with
ambrosia, and having clothed him in ambrosial garments,
delivered him to the care of Sleep, to be conveyed to
Lycia. But though no doubt was entertained as to the re-
appearance of Arthur, very different notions prevailed with
regard to his state of intermediate being. According to
some traditions, he drove through the air in a chariot with
prodigious noise and velocity ; * while, according to others,
from Vienna, and ware keeping him in prison in Rome; it was but a
wax effigy of the monarch that was exposed in the vault of the Capuchins
at Vienna. For many years it was reported in Bohemia that pilgrims
had seen in the neighbourhood of Rome a poorly-clad silver-haired old
man, who had told them he was the Emperor Joseph II., and was even
then returning from captivity to his dominions. At a subsequent time
lie was believed to be a prisoner at Kunradic, and numbers of credulous
dupes were found to subscribe money for his ransom. See the Bohemia
quoted in the Berlin Voss Zeitung, of March 2, 1849. Liebrecht
quotes rather more in extenso. Note also the traditions of return asso-
ciated with the Khalif Mansur, Charlemagne, Ogier le Dannois, the
Slavonic Sviatopolk, the Irish parl Desmond, and Sebastian I. of
Brazil, who are at some future day to reappear in the flesh, vanquish
their enemies, and claim their own.
1 The verse given in the text is only one of several epitaphs, said to
have been found on Arthurs tomb. See an article by Paulin Paris, in
Romania I., on the Romances of the Round Table. The supposed dis-
covery of Arthur's grave may have been a stratagem favoured by
Henry II., to whose policy, of course, the belief in Arthur's return was
directly opposed. The identification of the mysterious Celtic land of
the Hesperides with Glastonbury (the Bury of the family Glastinga),
the Altic Avallun, Affelwyn, or Isle of Apples, has no better foundation
than a passage in Geoffrey of Monmouth. See note, supra, p. 170.
- The so-called Arthur's Chace, similar to the nocturnal rides of the
wild huntsman in Germany, in reference to which may be consulted
Graesse. p. ti t. note * * (Literarg, Bd. 2, a) ; Grimm, Teutonic Mytho-
logy, oh. xxxi. ; also the account of the 1 lessian trooper, or headless horse-
man, in the State of New York, in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, given in
Washington Irving's " Sketch-book ;" note by Graesse on Pausanias, i.
230 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
he had assumed the shape of a raven, 1 a bird which it be-
32, 3, at p. 893, and at p. 895, on Villemarque's " Barzaz-Breiz,"
vol. i. No. 8. Schwarz-Schulprogramm des Friedrich-Werderschen
Gymnasium in Berlin, 1850, p. 8, etc. See also Graesse, upon Arthur's
transformation into a raven, p. 162. (Connection between Herodias and
the Wild Huntsman, see Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, pp. 883, 933 ; also
Bock, L' Amphitheatre de Constantinople, Bruxelles, 1849, p. 55, note).
Akin to these legends is that of the Irish O'Donoghue, whose name
is so closely associated with Killarney .... either up the mountain,
along the valleys, upon the water, or in any one of the islands, you are
sure to find some object connected with it; every rock of unusual form
is forced into an illustration of the story ; the guides and boatmen will
point out to the tourist O'Donoghue's horse, O'Donoghue's prison, his
stable, his library, his pigeon-house, his table, his cellar, his honeycombs,
his pulpit, his broom ; and almost on the summit of lofty Mangerton, a
huge stone is described as the shaft of his jaunting-car, which he broke
one night i-eturning from a revel with the arch enemy, who, to give a
fitting reception to his gallant guest, had filled for that night the
" Devil's Punch Bowl" with the genuine dew of the mountain. Scores
of the peasantry may be encountered who have as firm a belief in the
existence of the spirit-chieftain as they have in their own. Although
its variations are numerous, the original story may be told in a few
words. In ages long past, O'Donoghue of Ross was lord of the lake, its
islands, and the surrounding land. His sway was just and generous,
and his reign propitious ; he was the sworn foe of the oppressor ; he
was brave, hospitable, and wise. Annually since his death, or rather
disappearance, he is said to revisit the pleasant places among which he
lived .... Every May morning he may be seen gliding over the lake
mounted on a white steed, richly caparisoned, preceded and followed by
youths and maidens who strew spring flowers in his way ; while sounds
of unearthly sweetness glide along the waters, and become thunder as
they make their way up the surrounding hills. Although he appears
in state only on May morning, he is seen on various other occasions ;
and lucky is the child of earth by whom the immortal spirit is en-
countered ; for be he peer or peasant, good fortune is sure to wait upon
him, etc. See " Ireland, its Scenery, Character," etc., by Mr. and Mrs.
S. C. Hall, part iv. pp. 192, etc., where the belief is regarded as a real
phenomenon due to mirage. Similarly the chieftain Desmond, who
perished in Elizabeth's reign, is believed to emerge once in seven years
from his sublacustrine palace, and ride, armed at all points, round the
waters of Lough Gur. It would scarcely be wonderful if the midnight
rides of the late King of Bavaria gave rise to some local legend. See
also note to Boccaccio (Dec. v. 8).
1 Or according to the Cornish tradition, that of a red-legged chough
( Tregilus graculus) now seldom seen.
" And mark yon bird so black of wing,
Talons and beak all red with blood,
The spirit of the long lost king
Passed in that shape from Camlan's flood.''
R. S. Hawker, Vicar of Morwinstow. H. JENNEB.
CH. III.] ARTHUR. 231
came a capital crime in Wales to destroy. It was more
generally fabled that he remained in subterraneous exis-
t'-nce, a superstition alluded to by Milton :
" Arthur, their chief, who even now prepares
In subterraneous being future wars."
Milton. [Mansus, v. 81.] '
The various traditions concerning the disappearance and
coming of this fabulous monarch, have been embodied in
Warton's " Grave of King Arthur," and are represented as
sung by the Welsh bards, for the amusement of Henry II.,
when he passed through their country on an expedition to
Ireland :
" Then gifted bards, a rivai throng,
From distant Mona, nurse of song ;
From Teivi, fringed with umbrage brown,
From Elvy's vale and Cader's crown,
From many a sunless solitude
Of Radnor's inmost mountains rude ;
From many a shaggy precipice,
That shades lerne's hoarse abyss,
To crown the banquet's solemn close,
Themes of British glory chose.
" O'er Cornwall's cliffs the tempest roared,
High the screaming seamew soared ;
On Tintaggel's topmost tower.
Darksome tell the sleety shower,
When Arthur ranged his red-cross ranks
On conscious Camlan's crimsoned banks,
By Mordred's faithless guile decreed,
Beneath a Saxon spear to bleed !
Yet, in vain, a Paynim foe
Armed with fate the mighty blow ;
For when he fell, an Elfin Queen,
All in secret and unseen,
O'er the fainting hero threw
Her mantle of ambrosial blue ;
And bade her spirits bear him far,
In Merlin's agate-axled car,
To her green isles enamelled steep,
Far in the navel of the deep.
O'er his wounds she sprinkled dew,
From flowers that in Arabia grew ;
On a rich enchanted bed
She pillowed his majestic head ;
1 A similar allusion occurs in Balbuena's epic poem, " El Bernardo,"
c. v. st. 17, 18. LIEB.
232
HISTORY OF FICTION.
[CH. III.
O'er his brow with whispers bland.
Thrice she waved an opiate wand ;
And to soft music's airy sound
Her magic curtains closed around :
There renewed the vital spring,
Again he reigns a mighty king ;
And many a fair and fragrant clime,
Blooming in immortal prime,
By gales of Eden ever fanned,
Owns the monarch's high command :
Thence to Britain shall return,
If right prophetic rolls I learn,
Borne on victory's spreading plume,
His ancient sceptre to resume ;
Once more in old heroic pride,
His barbed courser to bestride ;
His knightly table to restore
And brave the tournaments of yore."
He ceased : when on the tuneful stage
Advanced a bard of aspect sage.
" When Arthur bowed his haughty crest,
No princess veiled in azure vest,
Snatched him by Merlin's potent spell,
In groves of golden bliss to dwell;
Where crowned with wreaths of mistletoe,
Slaughtered kings in glory go.
But when he fell, with winged speed
His champions on a milk-white steed,
From the battle's hurricane,
Bore him to Joseph's towered fane,
In the fair vale of Avalon :
There with chaunted orison
And the long blaze of tapers clear,
The stoled fathers met the bier ;
Through the dim aisles, in order dread
Of martial woe the chief they led,
And deep entombed in holy ground
Before the altar's solemn bound :
Around no dusky banners wave,
No mouldering trophies mark his grave,
The faded tomb, with honour due,
'Tis thine, O Henry ! to renew.
There shall thine eye, with wild amaze,
On his gigantic stature gaze,
There shalt thou find the monarch laid
All in warrior weeds arrayed,
Wearing in death his helmet crown,
And weapons huge of old renown
Martial prince, 'tis thine to save,
From dark oblivion, ARTHUR'S GRAVE."
CH. III.] GYRON LE COURTOIS. 233
I have now given an account of the romances of the
fabulous history of Britain, as far as Arthur and his
knights are concerned, which form by far the largest pro-
portion of the number.
There are two romances connected with the imaginary
history of Britain, preceding the time of Arthur, and two
which relate the fabulous incidents posterior to his reign.
Those which are first in the order of events, happen to
be also the earliest, considered as to the dates of their com-
position. 1 One of these relates the adventures of
GYEON LE Cor/Riois, 2
a romance which chiefly hinges on the disinterested friend-
ship of Gyron for Danayn the Red, and the ungrateful
return he receives. 3
This work was written by Eusticien de Pise, who was
also the author of Meliadus, and lived during the reigns of
Henry III. and Edward I. of England. Busticien informs
us, that Gyron was translated by him from the book of
Edward I., when he went to the conquest of the Holy
Land [1271-72], " et saichez tout vrayement que cestuy
livre fut translate du livre du Monseigneur Edouard le
roi d'Angleterre, en celluy terns que il passa oultre la mer,
au service de nostre seigneur, pour conquester le Saint
Sepulchre. Et maistre Rusticien de Puise compila ce
Roniant : car de cellui livre au roi Edouart d'Angleterre
1 " Notwithstanding Dunlop's statement the events of the romance
must be intended as contemporaneous with Arthur. Near the commence-
ment of the work, the comrades Gyron and Danayn meet Arthur's
Seneschal and Twain, a well-known knight of the Round Table."
Schmidt, in the Wiener Jahrb. Bd. 29, p. 105, quoted by Lieb.
2 Gyron le Courtois. Avecques le deuise des armes de tous les
chevaliers <le la table ronde.
3 The original story, together with the Meliadus, formed part of the
great romance Palamedes (or as M. Paulin Paris prefers to call the
whole, Giron le Courtois, this personage being the chief hero through-
out), written by Eliede Borron, who was alive in the twelfth century,
probably about one hundred years before Kusticien, whose composition
is the basis of the work as printed. See note, p. 188, and Mr. Ward's
Cat. pp. 366-67 ; and Paulin Paris, Manuscrits Francois, Paris, 1838, ii.
pp. 346-360, and iii. pp. 5K-61, 64. In MS. Brit. Museum. Add. 23930,
the name is always spelt Guron.
234 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
translata il toutes les merveilleuses advantures qui sont
en cestuy livre." Who the original author was from whom
Rusticien compiled, or what was the nature of this book of
King Edward's, which Rusticien used, it is impossible to
conjecture. 1 The romance of Gyron, as written by Rusti-
cien de Pise, was first printed by Verard, Paris, 1494, 2
in folio ; and afterwards in 1519.
In this fabulous work we are informed that Brehus,
surnamed Sans Pitie, in the course of his unmerciful ad-
ventures, one day entered a cavern fitted up with dead
bodies [Ed. 1519, fol. 122-3], and inhabited by two old
knights, who prove to be the father and grandfather of the
hero of this romance. Having boasted of the exploits
which were performed by their companions in arms in their
own days, Brehus contends that they were surpassed by
those of a knight, who excelled all others in courtesy and
valour, and was the admiration of the British court, though
it was unknown whence he came, or what was his lineage.
Grant Pere Gyron, as he is called, conjectures from this
description that Brehus alluded to his grandson, Gyron
the Courteous. 3 The oldest Gyron and his son had quitted
the inheritance of the throne of Gaul, in order to devote
themselves to knight errantry, which they had in turn
Abandoned for the tranquil and temperate life they were
then enjoying. They thought it necessary, however, to
make an apology for their meagre and squalid appearance,
which they attributed to the want of provisions, " car nous
mangeons si pourement en cestuy lieu, ou vous nous voyez,
que a grant peine en pouons nous soubstenir nostre vie."
[f. 126.]
1 Paulin Paris has (says Mr. Ward) printed the words of Eusticien
more fully (Manuscrits .Frai^ois, Paris, 1838, vol. ii. p. 356-58) and
from these, and the work to which they form the preamble, it appears
that this " translation" was in fact a compilation of several Arthurian
romances, especially the Quest of the Saint Graal, the Tristram, and
the Palamedes (or Guiron le Courtois). Subsequent copyists, continues
Paulin Paris (vol. iii. p. 64), picked out individual adventures of this or
that hero, and hence were derived the printed Guiron and Meliadus.
Ward, Cat. i. p. 367. But see note on Meliadus, supra, p. 188.
2 Brunet, however, gives 1501 as the probable date.
3 The word courtois, says Wieland in his preface to Gyron der
Adelige, implies nobility alike of mind, of manners, and of birth.
LIEB.
CH. III.] OYEON LE COTTBTOIS. 235
The crown which the Gyrons abdicated had been usurped
by Pharamond ; and their descendant, Gyron the Courteous,
had been compelled to embrace the life of a knight errant.
In the course of his adventures he became the companion
in arms of Danayn the Red, lord of the castle of Maloanc,
whose wife, the lady of Maloanc, was the most beautiful
woman in Britain. This lady was enamoured of Gyron,
and saw that she was by no means indifferent to the
knight ; but all her inducements proved ineffectual to
persuade him to betray his friend.
At length Gyron and Danayn proceeded to a tournament,
proclaimed at the British court, whither they were followed
by the lady of Maloanc. During the celebration of the
tournament, Danayn was unexpectedly called home, in
order to avenge the death of one of his relatives, who had
been treacherously murdered. At his departure he con-
signed his wife to the charge of Gyron, who was now dis-
tracted by the new temptation presented, and the additional
claim on his honour. While roaming through a forest,
perplexed with these conflicting emotions, he overheard
Messire Lac, as he is called, express a passion for the lady
of Maloanc ; Lac accosted him, and commenced a long and
tedious story, which he had no sooner concluded, than he
proposed to tell another. This is declined by Gyron, but
is insisted on by Lac, " en nom Dieu, fait le Chevalier,
Je vous en compteray ung autre. Je n'en vueil point
ouyr, fait Gyron. Nostre vassal, fait le Chevalier, or
saichez qu'il est mestier que vous 1'escoutez ; et que si
vous ne le me laissez compter en telle maniere que Je soies
couroussc, Je le vous compteray done en telle guyse qu'il
ne sera jour de vostre vie qu'il ne vous en souviengne "
[f. 32]. Messire Lac accordingly proceeds to tell his story
at the point of the sword. The object of these tedious
narratives was to detain Gyron till Lac's arrangements for
carrying off the lady of Maloanc had been completed.
Gyron, however, ultimately frustrates all his designs, over-
throws Lac in single combat, and rescues the lady of
Maloanc, who had fallen under his power. " Et quant la
belle dame de Maloanc, qui ja avoit toute sa paour oublie,
se voit toute seule avec le Chevalier du monde qu'elle
aymoit le plus, et qui si preud homme des arines estoit qu'il
236 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
avoit tout le monde passe, et qui estoit plus beau et plus
gracieulx que tous les autres en toutes choses, elle ne scait
a celluy point quelle en doit dire ; tout le coeur luy va
remuant. Orendroit luy veult elle parler d'amours, et
maintenant s'en retient." At length, when they had reached
the side of a delightful fountain, she ventures to ask Gyron
if he be in love. The knight, unable longer to restrain his
emotions, confesses that she was and had long been the
sole object of his adoration. A mutual confession of a
secret, but long subsisting attachment, spares the minutiae
of courtship ; and Gyron appears to have been on the eve
of violating that fidelity to his friend, which he had so
long preserved, when he fortunately casts his eyes on the
hilt of his sword, where was inscribed the motto, Loyaulte
passe tout Faulsete honit tout. 1 He is awakened to such
a sense of his unworthiness, and of self-indignation, by
this inscription, that he plunges the sword into his bosom.
While lying wounded by the side of the fountain, Danayn,
who had heard some false report of the infidelity of his
wife and his friend, arrives at the spot, on his return to
the British court. G-yron conceals the part which the lady
bore in the adventure, and merely relates, that he had in-
flicted the wound as a punishment of his mental infidelity.
The friendship of Danayn, instead of being diminished, is
thus redoubled, and the wounded knight is conveyed to
the castle of Maloanc [f. 65],
When Gyron was restored to health, he formed a new
attachment to a damsel, called Bloye, of whom he daily
became more deeply enamoured. With this lady Danayn
also fell in love, and secretly carried her off, regardless of
the happiness of his friend, and unmindful of the striking
example which he had experienced of his fidelity. The
resentment of Gyron was proportioned to the injury he
had received, and the ingratitude of him by whom it was
inflicted : he immediately set out in quest of the traitor,
and during a year's wandering experienced many perilous
1 The passage reads in the edition, Paris, 1519, fol. 40 : " Loyaulte
passe tout et faulcete se honnit tout et deceit tous hommes dedans qui
elle se heberge," and as though the writer forefelt an attempt to garble
the inscription, he adds, " et ny avoit ne plus me moins en escript."
LIEB.
CH. III.] GYRON LE COURTOI8. 237
and romantic adventures, totally foreign to the object of
his search [f. 93].
One day, says the romance, when the season was fair and
rlt'ur, as it might be in the end of October, it happened that
the road which Gyron held conducted him to the foot of a
hill. The hill was white with snow, for it was winter, but
the plain was green as if it had been the month of May.
At the foot of this hill, in the plain, and beneath a tree,
gurgled a fountain most beautiful and most delightful, and
under that tree sat a knight, armed with hauberk and
greaves ; his other arms were near him, and his horse was
tii (! to the tree. By the knight sat a lady so beautiful that
she was a miracle to behold ; and if any one were to ask
who was the knight, I would say it was Danayn the Red,
the brave knight ; as the lady seated before him was no
other than the beautiful Lady Bloye, who had been so much
bt-loved by Gyron. 1
A desperate combat ensued between the knights, in
which Danayn was vanquished : Gyron spared his life, but
refused to be reconciled to him, and departed with Bloye,
of whom he was more enamoured than ever [f. 162, etc].
Some years afterwards, Bloye engaged in an adventure
with her lover Gyron which had a very unfortunate issue,
as they were both imprisoned, and it was not till after a
long period that they were freed by the valour of Danayn,
who thus made some reparation for the injuries he had
formerly inflicted on his friend. Gyron and his lady, how-
ever, were a second time thrown into confinement by the
treachery of the Knight of the Tower, and are left in thral-
dom at the termination of the work, which concludes with
the exploits of a son of Gyron by Bloye, referring the reader
for an account of the deliverance of his parents to the ro-
mance of Meliadus : " Mais quant ils furent delivrez ne
f ais Je point de mention, pour ce que le livre de Latin se
finist en ceste endroit quant a leurs faits ; mais le Romant
du Roy Meliadus de Leonnoys dit la maniere comment ils
furent delivrez, et par qui" [fol. 219, etc.].
The great fault, however, of the romance of Gyron is, not
that it terminates too soon, but that it is too long pro-
1 See Appendix, No. 8.
238 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
tracted. It ought to have concluded with the overthrow
of Danayn and the recovery of Bloye by G-yron ; for the
adventures of their son, which form a considerable part of
the romance, are miserably tagged to the main subject.
Indeed it is a common blemish in romances of chivalry,
that there is no repose in them, and that the reader is led
on from generation to generation after the principal inte-
rest is exhausted. The earlier part, however, of the ro-
mance is uncommonly interesting, and the style is perhaps
the finest of all the old fabulous histories of Britain ; accord-
ingly it was extremely popular in this country and France,
and was translated at an early period into many different
languages of Europe. It is the subject of an Italian poem
of the sixteenth century, entitled Girone Cortese, versified
in ottava rima, and containing twenty-four cantos. This
poem was written by the celebrated Alamanni, author of
the Coltivazione, but never obtained much popularity,
owing to an injudicious imitation of the ancient epic poems
in a romantic subject [see G-raesse, p. 241]. That part of
the romance which relates to the adventures of Gyron with
the lady of Maloanc, has been beautifully versified by
Wieland, the German poet, well known as the author of
Oberon.
The second romance concerning events preceding the
reign of Arthur, to which I alluded, and which exhibits a
different set of heroes from the tales of the Eound Table,
is
PERCEFOREST, 1
which comprehends the fabulous history of Britain, pre-
vious to the age of Arthur. It is the longest and best
1 La tres elegante, delicieuse, melliflue, et tres plaisante hystoire du
tres noble, victorieux, et excellentissime Roy Perceforest Roy de la
Grant Bretaigne, fundat.eur du Franc Palais et du Temple du Souverain
Dieu ; avec les merveilleuses enterprinses, faits, et adventures du tres
belliqueulx Gaddiffer Roy d'Escosse, lesquelz 1'Empereur Alexandre le
Grant couronna Roys soubz son obeissance : en lacquelle hystoire le lec-
teur pourra veoir la source et decoration de toute Chevalerie, culture de
vraye noblesse, prouesses et conquestes infinies accomplies des le temps
de Julius Cesar ; avecques plusieurs propheties, compte's d'amans et
leurs diverses fortunes. Paris, 1528, 6 torn.
See a notice of this Romance by F. W. V. Schmidt in the Wiener
Jahbiicher der Literatur, 1825, pp. 108-124.
CH. III.] PERCEFOEE8T. 239
known romance of the class to which it belongs, and is the
work which St. Palaye, and similar writers, have chiefly
selected for illustrations and proofs of the manners of the
times, and institutions of chivalry.
It is strange that Perceforest, which sets all chronology,
geography, and probability at defiance, more boldly than
almost any other romance, should begin with a profound,
and by no means absurd, investigation concerning the topo-
graphy of Britain, and the earliest ages of its history.
Julius Caesar, Pliny, Bede, and Solinus, are cited with the
utmost ostentation of learning.
The author, however, soon enters on the regions of fic-
tion. That part of his work which immediately succeeds
the geographical disquisition, corresponds pretty closely
with the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth ; he re-
lates [B. i. c. 3] that Brutus, or Brut, the son of Sylvius,
and great grandson of ^Eneas, having killed his father by
mischance, fled to the states of a Greek king, called Pan-
drasus, whose daughter Imogene he espoused. From this
kingdom he fitted out an expedition, and landed in Albion,
since called Britain [i. 9] from his name, and conquered
the whole country with the assistance of Corinseus, another
Trojan chief whom he had picked up on his voyage. Most
of the European nations were anciently fond of tracing
their descent from Troy. The greater part of them had
been at one time provincial to the Romans ; and the Britons,
who remained so long under. their dominion, may have im-
bibed a general notion of the Trojan story from their con-
querors. As Rome, from becoming the capital of the
supreme pontiff, was a city highly reverenced and distin-
guished, and as the Trojans were believed to be its founders,
an emulation gradually arose among the nations of Europe,
of claiming descent from the same respectable origin. Nor
were the monks and other ecclesiastics (the only writers and
readers of the age,) uninterested in broaching and main-
taining such an opinion. But, as to the story of Brutus,
who is represented as the founder of the kingdom of Bri-
tain, in Geoffrey and Perceforest, and is the hero of the
most ancient, as well as the most celebrated of all the me-
trical romances, it may be presumed that it was not invented
till after the ninth century, as Nennius, who lived towards
240 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. III.
the close of it, mentions him with great obscurity, and
seems totally unacquainted with the British affairs which
preceded Caesar's invasion.
After the death of Brutus, the author of Perceforest drags
us through the history of his numerous descendants. One
of these monarchs is King Leyr [i. 11], whose story was
first related of a Roman emperor in the Gresta Eomanorum,
and was afterwards told of the British monarch, in the
Chronicle of Greoffrey of Monmouth. These works were
the origin of Shakspeare's celebrated tragedy, which, how-
ever, differs so far from them that both in Greoffrey 's
Chronicles and Perceforest, the events have a happy conclu-
sion, as Cordelia defeats her sisters, and reinstates her
father on the throne. From Perceforest the tale had found
its way into Fabyan's " Concordance of Histories," l written
in the time of Henry VII. and thence passed into various
Lamentable ballads of the death of King Leyr and his
three daughters, of which the catastrophe probably sug-
gested to Shakspeare the tragic termination which he has
given to his drama. The story of King Lear is also in the
fifteenth chapter of the third book of Warner's " Albion's
England," and in Spenser's " Faery Queen," (book 2, canto
10,) where, in conformity with the romance and chro-
nicle, the war against the sisters has a successful termina-
tion :
So to his crown she him restored again,
In which he dyde, made ripe for death by eld.
Grorboduc, who succeeded to the crown of Britain, soon
after the death of Lear, profited so little by the example of
his predecessor, that he divided his realm during his life
between his two sons, Ferrex and Porrex, whose bloody his-
tory is the subject of the first regular English tragedy : it
was written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville Lord
Buckhurst, was acted in 1561, and afterwards printed in
1565, under the name of Gorboduc. Sir Philip Sidney says *
1 The Chronicle of Fabyan, whiche he nameth the concordance of
histories newly perused, and continued from the beginnyng of Kyng
Henry the Seventh to thende of Queen Mary. J. Kyngston, London,
1559, fol. and several subsequent editions.
2 Defence of Poesie.
(II. III.] PEBCEFOREST. 241
that t iiis dr;un;i dimbs to the height of Seneca, and Pope has
proMHiiiii-ril t lie much higher eulogy, that it possesses "an
unaffected perspicuity of style, and an easy flow in the
numbers ; in a word, tliat chastity, correctness, and gravity
of style, which are so essential to tragedy, and which all the
tragic poets who followed, not excepting Shakspeare him-
self, either little understood or perpetually neglected."
Both in the drama and romance, the princes, between whom
the kingdom had been divided, soon fell to dissension, and
tin- younger stabbed the elder: 1 the mother, who more
dearly loved the elder, having killed his brother in revenge,
the people, indignant at the cruelty of the deed, rose in re-
bellion, and murdered both father and mother. The nobles
tin -u assembled and destroyed most of the rebels, but
afterwards became embroiled in a civil war, in which they
and their issue were all slain.
Brennus and Belinus were the first monarchs who reigned
over the almost depopulated country. These joint sove-
reigns, who, we are informed, with rare historical confu-
sion, were contemporary with Artaxerxes, king of Greece,
having subdued Gaul, besieged and burned Rome during
the consulship of Fabius and Porsenna [i. 15],
At length, after a long succession of princes of the family
of Brutus, his race fortunately became extinct on the de-
mise of King Pyr [i. 1] ; 2 during this interregnum the
goddess Venus recommended to the inhabitants to watch
for a certain time on the sea-shore, where they would find
a king properly qualified to govern them.
About this period Alexander the Great was employed
in the conquest of Asia. Pannenio, his lieutenant, slew
Gaddiffer, governor of Galde, a city between India and
Babylon, who had imprudently attacked the Greek army,
on account of some depredations it had committed. Alex-
ander, who was a generous prince, took the children of
Gaddiffer under his protection, and in a great battle de-
feated Claurus, who had seized on their territory. Claurus
was killed in the engagement, and his son Porus taken
1 In the Romance, however, the younger brother, Porrex, falls in
battle. LIEB.
2 This Pyr is noticed in Wace's " Roman de Brut." Edit. Rouen,
1836, line 3,800.
I. K
242 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
prisoner. Alexander, however, restored to the latter his
father's kingdom, on condition that he should marry
Feronas, a lady of whom he knew that Porus was ena-
moured. Wives are also provided by this bounteous
monarch for Betis, 1 afterwards called Perceforest, and his
brother Gaddiffer, the two sons of old G-addiffer, governor
of Galde.
The nuptials of Porus were celebrated in the city of
Glodof ard. About a league from this town, there was an
island of the sea called Ciceron, 1 where Venus was wor-
shipped. To this isle Alexander set out on a pilgrimage
with all his knights [i. 19], but scarcely had they sailed
when a frightful tempest arose, which drove their fleet on
the coast of England ; and a frightful tempest it must
have been which carried a fleet from the East Indies to the
shores of Britain.
Alexander landed with his barons at the moment the
inhabitants, in obedience to the oracle of Venus, were
waiting by the sea-side to receive a king, and being accord-
ingly entreated to give them a monarch, he crowned Betis
king of England, and Gaddiffer of Scotland. The Mace-
donian hero solemnized their coronation by the institution
of tournaments, of which the intention was to renovate the
ancient valour of Britons, who, even in that early age, were
suspected of degenerating from their forefathers. These
spectacles, which were attended by all the ladies and
knights of the surrounding countrv, are described at full
length [i. 29-34].
After the tournaments were concluded, King Betis con-
ceived the project of constructing a palace from the wood
of the forest of Glar, which enchanters defended by the
most formidable incantations. Betis accordingly set out
on this expedition, and proceeded a considerable way in
the forest without experiencing any adventures. At length
he came to a fountain, where stood an image with an ivory
horn, which the statue sounded on his approach. On this
warning, the magician Darnant, the inhabitant and guar-
1 Betis was the name of the brave defender of Gaza against Alexander.
2 Curtius, iv. 6.
2 The modern name of the island of Cjfhera, of old sacred to Venus,
is Cerigo.
CH. III.] PEECEPOEE8T. 243
dian of the grove, issued forth in knightly armour. A
combat ensued, and Darnant being defeated, fled away
[i. 34]. Betis, in the pursuit, met with enchanted rivers
and other obstacles, raised by the power of magic. He at
hist overtook Darnant at the gate of a delightful castle,
but, when about to slay him, the sorcerer changed himself
to the resemblance of the beautiful Idorus, the wife of
Betis. The king then embraced him with transport, but
received a wound in return, on which he instantly cut off
the head of the magician. 1 The enchantments were now
at an end, and Betis, on account of this exploit, acquired
the name of Perceforest [i. 35, 36], But the wood was
ever after known by the name of the forest of Darnant.
"We are told in the romance of Lancelot du Lac, that
Merlin was confined by his mistress in the forest of Dar-
nant, " qui marchoit a la mer de Cornouailles et a la mer de
Sorelloys." '' The idea of this forest may have arisen from
that of Marseilles, in Lucan's "Pharsalia" [iii. 399, etc.],
which was hewn down by Caesar, and may in turn have
suggested the enchanted wood to Tasso [c. xiii. and xviii.].
Like Rinaldo, Betis surmounts the obstacles presented by
necromancy to his design. As the resolution of the Italian
hero is for a moment shaken by a demon from the tree
assuming the appearance of the beautiful Armida ; so the
king of England is about to save the chief magician, who
had clothed himself with the form of the fair Idorus.
The labours of Perceforest were not completed by the
death of Darnant, as he had many combats to sustain with
the son and brothers of that enchanter. Alexander, sur-
prised at his delay in returning from the forest, set out in
quest of him : on his way he encountered the family of
Darnant, and carried on a long intrigue with Sibille, the
Lady of the Lake in those days, from which amour sprung
the ancestor of the renowned Arthur.
After the termination of a long war against the posterity
of Darnant, of which the siege of Malebranche [i. 42-49]
is the leading incident, tournaments were exhibited by the
knights of a new order of chivalry, instituted by Alexander
1 See Appendix, No. 9.
2 Cf. Sorolois, p. 253, infra, a name perhaps suggested by Charollais,
or Charolais, a district of France.
244 HISTORY OF FICTION. [cH. III.
and Perceforest. These were attended by the hermit
Pergambu, who had been a companion of Brut, and seems
to have lived through the intervening centuries for no end
but to be present at these tiresome spectacles. The tour-
naments being concluded, Alexander, whom we have
hitherto seen acting so conspicuous a part in this romance,
set off for Babylon [i. 162]. The Macedonian monarch
was introduced into many other tales of chivalry ; he was
chiefly indebted for his romantic decoration to a fabulous
account of his conquests, which was compiled from eastern
fictions by Simeon Seth, 1 but passed under the name of
Callisthenes, and was translated into almost all the lan-
guages of Europe during the middle ages.
About the time that Alexander returned to Asia, Gad-
differ, the brother of Perceforest, went to take possession
of his kingdom of Scotland [ii. 1], of which country there
is more said in this work than in any other romance of
chivalry. After Gaddiffer arrived in Scotland, he pro-
ceeded on an excursion through his dominions, for the
sake of dispensing justice and reforming the savage
manners of his subjects ; and the king and his courtiers,
says the romance, entered on the deserts of Scotland, and
travelled two days without seeing town, castle, or human
being. At length they came to a delightful meadow,
through which a fine river flowed. The king regretted
that this district was so thinly peopled, but at length per-
ceived some tame cows, and children of ten or twelve years
of age running amongst them. The knight Estonne seized
one of these tender savages, who, like her companions, was
clothed with a sheep skin, but proved to be a girl of twelve
years of age. She was extremely handsome, but much
more remarkable for beauty than good manners ; for, on
looking down, the knight perceived that his fair prisoner
was gratifying either her hunger or resentment, by demo-
lishing the neck of his courser. She also spoke such bad
Greek that it was impossible to comprehend her verbal
communications, though accompanied by gestures un-
usually energetic [ii. 2]. 2
1 See infra at pp. specified in index.
2 The end of chap, cxlii. and chap, cxliii. of vol. ii. are borrowed from
the French version of the Disciplina Clericalis. Chastoiement d'unpere a
CH. III.] PEECEFOEEST. 245
After Graddiffer had done all in his power to amend the
unpolished fashions of his infant kingdom, the incidents
related have but a very remote connection with his history,
or that of his brother Perceforest, the titular hero of the
romance. Everything like unity of action is disregarded,
and the rest of the work is occupied with the insulated
adventures of individual knights. A great proportion of
these is attributed to Estonne, lord of the Scotch deserts.
This great landed proprietor was in the good graces of a
spirit called Zephyr, who, assuming a variety of shapes,
carried his favourite wherever he desired. Estonne, at
length, while dozing by an enchanted fountain, was mur-
dered by Bruyant Without Faith [iv. 8]. His death was
revenged by his son Passelion [iv. 14], whose adventures
are the most entertaining in the latter part of the romance ;
when only two years old he became a paragon of chivalry,
and not long after was carried, by a spirit, around Tartarus,
in a manner which may have suggested some of the scenes
in the Commedia of Dante.
Near the middle of the romance, an account is given of
the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. This chief had
landed on a former occasion, but had been worsted in
single combat by the British knight Lyonnel ; his second
attempt was more successful, owing to the treachery of
the wife of Bethides, son of Perceforest, a lady to whom
the author assigns an intrigue with Luces, a Roman se-
nator [iv. 22]. All the knights of Britain were destroyed
in a great battle. Their bodies are indeed still preserved
in Aran, an Irish island, where the climate is such that
nothing can decay ; but the exploits of a new race of
heroes fill up the romance. Of these the chief is Gallifer,
;j;r; indson of old Gaddift'er, king of Scotland, who expe-
rienced innumerable adventures in his pursuit of the lady
son fils according toF. W. V. Schmidt in Wiener Jahrb., bd. 29, p. 116.
Jt is remarkable than an episode in Perceforest was printed before the
appearance of the whole romance as a separate work. This was " His-
toire du Chevalier anx armes dore'es, et de la pucelle Cceur d'acier," and
is mentioned in Melanges tires d'une Grande Bibliotheque, vol. 5, p. 132,
as having been printed between 1480-1490, without date. The Chevalier
aux armes dorees is doubtless Nestor, Gaddiffer's second son, whose ad-
ventures extend, in the longer romance from chap, cxliii. of vol. ii. to
the end of vol. iii. Iliid.
246 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
with two dragons [v. 1-6, 31]. He also put an end to
the enchantments at the tomb of Darnant, which seems to
have been the rendezvous of all the evil spirits in Great
Britain [vi. 2]. At length, having delivered his country
from the anarchy in which it was left by the Romans, he
was acknowledged as sovereign of Britain, but did not
long enjoy this exaltation, as he was expelled by Scapiol, 1
a German knight, who usurped the throne [vi. 57J. 2 Olofer,
one of the deposed monarch's sons, became a great favourite
of the new king ; the other, named Gallafer, retired to a
distant part of the island, at first studied astronomy, and
afterwards founded a new sovereignty [vi. 62, etc.].
In this kingdom the royal astronomer was visited and
converted by Alain, 3 a Christian disciple, who persuaded
him to change his heathenish name of Gallafer into
Arfaren. He soon after resigned his crown to Josue,
Alain's brother, and proceeded to preach the gospel to his
ancestors, Perceforest and Gaddiffer, who, the reader will
be surprised to hear, were yet in existence, and residing in
the island of Life (1'isle de vie, perhaps Wight). Perceforest
had been severely handled in the wars with the Romans ; he
had received twelve mortal wounds on the head ; he had
left his right hand on the field of battle ; the other hung
by a fibre ; his belly was laid open in four places, and he
was lame of his left foot. In this fractional state he had
passed into the island of Life, where he was joined by his
brother Gaddiffer, and afterwards by the deposed Gallifer.
On landing on this island, King Arfaran beheld a temple,
and, looking in, perceived a group of worshippers before
the altar. They were clothed in sheep's-skins ; their hair,
whiter than snow, descended to their heels ; their beards
covered their breasts, and thence extended to their knees.
These antiques consisted of Dardanon, who had come to
Britain soon after Brut ; Gaddiffer, with his queen ; Galli-
fer, and the relics of Perceforest. King Arfaran having
given them an abridgment of the doctrines of the Old
1 Perhaps a reminiscence of Ostorius Scapula, governor of Britain,
with the title of proprietor. (A.D. 50-51.)
2 Towards the close of the work (vi. 56), we find the author making
use of the gospel of Nicodemus. F. W. V. Schmidt in Wiener Jahrb.,
bd. 29, p. 116.
3 See supra, the Graal Romance, p. 166.
CH. III.] PEBCEFORE8T. 247
iiii-l New Testament, and baptised them [vi. 66], they ex-
pressed a great desire of death. For this special purpose
they departed from the isle of Life, and arrived on a shore
where five monuments had spontaneously arisen for their
accommodation. Dardanon, as the oldest, is honoured
with sepulchral precedence, and the rest follow according to
seniority. These monuments may have suggested to Tasso,
the self-formed sepulchre which rose to receive the body
of Sueno (Gerus. Lib. c. 8 ;) and that which in his Einaldo
miraculously enclosed the Knight of the Tomb (c. 7). 1
In this romance the concluding incident of the tombs is
indeed abundantly ludicrous, but it has been rendered
impressive by description. Nothing can be better painted
than the voyage from the isle of Life, and arrival at the
unknown solitary shore; the mysterious voice directing
whither to proceed ; the midnight journey through the
wood ; the five monuments rising under the light of the
moon ; the gradual decay of the venerable band, and the
voluntary resignation of their breath into the hands of
their Creator.
Indeed, ludicrous incident and beautiful description
form the chief characteristics of the work. I know no
romance of chivalry which more abounds in the beauties
and faults of that species of composition ; all unity of
action, probability, and chronological accuracy are laid
aside ; but there is an endless variety of enchantments,
and a wonderful luxuriance of description.
There is a great difference among the romances concern-
ing the early history of Great Britain, with regard to the
introduction of marvellous embellishments. Thus it is
impossible to conceive two works more completely different
than Perceforest and Meliadus, of which we have formerly
given an account. The latter is almost entirely filled with
descriptions of battles and tournaments, and is adorned
with no supernatural ornaments. Perceforest, on the
other hand, abounds with evil spirits, fairies, enchanters,
and all those specious wonders which constitute the soul
of romance. Dreams, too, and visions, which we have seen
1 Compare also the legend of the Mausoleum which rose miraculously
to cover the body of St. Clement, who was said to have been cast into
the sea in the reign of Trajan.
248 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
were so much used by Heliodoms, Tatius, etc., and so
little in the other romances of chivalry, are common in
Perceforest.
From the endless variety of enchantments it contains,
this romance is, perhaps, the most entertaining, and has
become the most popular of the class with which it has
been ranged. In consequence of the information it com-
prehends concerning the manners of the period in which
it was written, especially the solemnities observed at tour-
naments, and the costume of our ancestors, it is also the
most instructive, and has been chosen as a text-boot by
M. de Sainte Palaye, and other inquirers into the history
and habits of the middle ages. It is said that Perceforest
was one of the books which Charles IX., during his educa-
tion, chiefly busied himself in reading ; and that to this
study he was enjoined (I cannot discover with what view)
by his mother Catherine de Medicis.
Mr. Warton informs us [without, however, adducing
authority for the statement,] that Perceforest was origi-
nally written in verse about the year 1220. It is difficult
to say precisely at what time it was reduced to prose, but
it was probably subsequent to the annexation of Dau-
phiny to the crown of France, as the son of the King of
Galles (Wales) is called the dauphin, which, I think,
also proves that the author was a Frenchman. With
regard to his name I cannot give even the inconsistent
information which I have collected concerning the other
writers of romance. 1 There is nothing said on this sub-
ject in the preface, which is merely an address to the
French nobility, loaded with extravagant compliments,
and containing a summary of the whole. The author just
hints that he had borrowed the incidents, contained in
Perceforest, from a preceding work. It is in the second
1 The MS. Perceforest in the British Museum is, according to the pro-
logue prefixed thereto, revised by David Aubert. Librarian to Philip the
Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1419-1467. This MS. does not altogether
agree with the work as printed. A very curious phase of the sleeping
beauty myth is found in the romance of Perceforest. "Zelhinriine is de-
livered of a child in her sleep ; the child is laid by her sule, clutches at
one of her fingers, and sucks it, and presently begins to cough ; the
mother awakes, and the child coughs up the sleep-thorn.'' Ward's Cat.,
vol. i., pp. 377-381.
CH. III.] PEKCEFOBE8T. 249
chapter that the fabulous story of its origin is related.
We are there told that Philip, Count of Hainault, attended
the daughter of the King of France to England, in order
to be present at her nuptials with Edward, which were
celebrated in 1286. During the count's residence in
England, he went on an excursion to the northern part of
the kingdom, and arrived one day at a monastery situated
on the banks of the Humber. The abbot received him
with much politeness, and conducted him through the
apartments of the convent. Among other places they
entered an old tower, which was then repairing, where
the abbot pointed out a vault in the deep walls, which had
lately been discovered by the workmen. He informed his
guest that in this vault there had been found an old chro-
nicle which no one could read, till a Greek Clerc having
come to study philosophy in this country, translated it
from the Greek into the Latin language. The count in-
sisted on having a loan of the Latin version ; and, on his
return to his own territories, he took it with him to Hain-
ault, where it was copied. We are farther told in the
course of the work, that the first part of this MS. was
originally written by Cressus, maitre (f hotel to Alexander
the Great. To Cressus the knights every year related
their exploits on oath. He was thus enabled to make a
compilation, which was preserved by Paustounet, a min-
strel, and read by his son Pousson at the coronation of
King Gallifer. With this recital the court were so much
delighted, that Pousson was commanded by the king to
continue the adventures of the knights of his own period,
and his labours accordingly formed the last part of the
romance of Perceforest [vi. 31].
The whole work occupies three volumes folio, which were
first printed in 1528, Gallyot du Pre, at Paris, and after-
wards at the same place in 1531, 2.
It has already been mentioned that there are two
romances which recount events subsequent to those con-
cerning Arthur or his knights Artus de la Bretagne, and
Cleriadus, both of which maybe regarded as continuations
of the fabulous history of the Round Table. The authors
of these works do not fix the period in which these two
descendants of the great Arthur flourished ; but the ro-
250 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
mances themselves have no doubt been composed at a date
much posterior to Lancelot or Tristan.
ARTUS DE LA BRETAGNE, 1
which, I think, is the earliest of the two, is supposed by
the authors of the Bibliotheque des Romans, to have been
written during the reign of Charles VI. of France (1380
1422). First, because the decorations given to the
knights and heroines are the same with those which were
in fashion while Charles swayed the sceptre ; and, secondly,
because the language is nearly of the same antiquity with
that of Froissard, who lived in the time of that monarch.
In the court of his queen, Isabella of Bavaria, it is said,
splendour and gallantry reigned in spite of disorder and
proscription. Festivals and tournaments were revived by
her to amuse the clouded mind of her husband, or occupy
his attention when gleams of reason disclosed to him the
miseries of his kingdom. These exhibitions served to
relume that romantic spirit of chivalry which had blazed
with so much lustre in the better ages of France, and which
was not unsuitable to the character of its unfortunate
monarch.
I suspect, however, that too early a date has been
assigned to this as to most other romances of chivalry ; and
there is good reason to suppose that it was not written till
some years after the accession of Charles VIII., who
ascended the throne in 1483. The subject of the romance
is the adventures of a duke of Britany, and the disgrace of
Perona, an Austrian princess, whose alliance having been
solicited, was finally rejected by the heir to that dukedom,
under circumstances by no means creditable to the lady,
after she had arrived at his court. Now, it is well known,
that in 1489, the French council determined to send back
1 Published in 1493, under the title of Le Petit Artus de Bretaigne,
and republished at Lyons in 1496, and at Paris in 1502 and 1514. An
English translation by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, appeared early in
the sixteenth century, and a second edition about 1520-30. This was
republished in 1814, with a critical preface by E. V. Utterson, who
places the composition of the French original in the beginning of the
fourteenth century, before the accession of John III. to the Duchy of
Britany. (See Ward, Cat., p. 382, and Lieb.)
CH. III.] ARTUS DE LA BEETAGNE. 251
the princess Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian,
to whom the young monarch had been long betrothed, and
who had arrived at Paris, where she bore the title of
Madame la Dauphine. At the same time the council re-
solved to demand Anne of Britany in her place, and the
nuptials by which that last great fief was united to the
dominions of France, were celebrated in 1491. Now the
romance of Arthur of Britany was first printed in 1493,
and I have little doubt was written immediately before its
publication, during these important transactions at the
court of France, in order to compliment the new queen by
celebrating the exploits of her ancestors, and recording the
disgrace of her rival. The language of the romance, I
confess, appears somewhat too ancient for the close of the
fifteenth century ; but it was natural for an author of
romance and chivalry, rather to adopt the phraseology
which was falling into disuse, than to affect a style which
had recently come into vogue.
The distinguished part which Anne of Britany performed
on the political theatre of France, during the reigns of
Charles VIII. and Lewis XII., to whom she was succes-
sively united ; and the great popularity of her character,
may have contributed to the circulation of Artus de la Bre-
tagne, of which there were three editions subsequent to that
in 1493 ; one in 4to, 1502 ; a second in 1539, and the last
in 1584.
This romance comprehends the adventures of Arthur,
son of John duke of Britany, who was descended from the
celebrated Lancelot du Lac. A renowned knight, called
Gouvernau from his employment, was appointed tutor to
this young prince. One day, while engaged in the plea-
sures of the chase, the preceptor and his pupil being sepa-
rated from their party in a forest, arrive at a cottage,
where an elderly lady, whose husband had been once a
powerful baron, resided with her daughter Jeannette.
Arthur is enchanted with the beauty of the damsel, be-
stows on her the revenues of the spot, and often repeats
his visit. 3
The mother of Arthur, afraid, from his frequent absence,
1 See Appendix, No. 10.
252 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
that lie is about to be betrayed into an alliance unsuitable
to his birth, proposes to the duke to demand Perona,
daughter of the duchess of Austria, in marriage for their
son. This young lady possessed but an indifferent reputa-
tion, and the duke for some time declines the connection,
but is at last forced to consent to the wishes of his wife.
The seneschal is sent as a proxy, and Perona, who had
cogent reasons to accelerate her nuptials, arrives soon after
with great ceremony at Nantes [c. 9].
During the preparations for his marriage, Arthur con-
tinues to frequent the cottage. He finds Jeannette less
troubled than he expected by the news of his approaching
nuptials ; she merely informs him, that she also was about
to be united, that her intended husband resembled Arthur
in form, and was matchless in nobility and power.
These ambiguous expressions of Jeannette, and her ap-
parent indifference, are accounted for in the following
manner: During the preparations for the marriage,
Lucca, the mother of Perona, had been in some tribulation,
as she was aware of the backsliding of her daughter.
Ancel, one of her knights, for he too was in the secret,
suggests to the Austrian family a stratagem similar to
that which for some time preserved the fame of Yseult of
Cornwall. He explains that there is a damsel in the neigh-
bourhood called Jeannette, whose mother might be bribed
to lend her daughter as a substitute for Perona till Arthur
should fall asleep, after which the princess could occupy
the place that was allotted her without hazard of
detection.
In pursuit of this speculation Ancel proceeds to the
cottage. He finds the mother little disposed to engage in
this sort of traffic ; but Jeannette overpowers all scruples
by a torrent of argument, which may have been satisfac-
tory to herself on the score of her future intentions, but
certainly possessed very little plausibility for the conviction
of others [c. 11].
The nuptials of Arthur and Perona are solemnized, and
Jeannette performs the part she had chosen. It seems to
have been the custom in Britany that on the night after a
marriage the husband should present his wife with a ring
and act of dowry. Jeannette does not neglect to demand
CH. III.] ABTUS DE LA BRETAONE. 253
the performance of this ceremony, hoping that she will
thus be entitled to assert claims to Arthur as her hus-
band. Fortified with these credentials, she readily resigns
her place to Perona when the opportunity is presented
[c. 12].
Arthur next morning pays a visit to Jeannette, who
produces the ring ; and at the same time gives him some
insight into the character of Perona. This lady is also a
good deal nonplussed on being asked by the duke to show
hi in the act of dowry. Gouvernau, who had been at the
cottage with Arthur on his last visit, reveals the whole
story on his return. Jeannette is confronted with the
Austrian family, and Perona is utterly disgraced. Lucca
leaves the court with her daughter, and when they came to
the fields the mother began to lament, and Perona was so
much grieved that she died ; at which, says the romance,
Arthur and his court had great joy, and Jeannette above
all the rest.
Now Arthur remained with Jeannette four years in his
father's court. At the end of this period he has a dream,
in which Florence, his predestined consort, appears to him,
and his other adventures are very clearly portrayed by a
vision of eagles and griffins. Arthur is induced by this
dream to ask leave of his father to travel in quest of his
future mistress. This being granted, he sets out with his
cousin Hector, son of the Count of Blois, Gouvernau, and
a squire [c. 15].
At this time a king called Emendus reigned in Sorolois, 1
an empire little known in modern geography, but which
the romance declares to be situated in the heart of Meso-
potamia. This monarch had four vassal kings, who ruled
over the uncouth lands of Normal, Valfondee, &c., and a
queen called Fenice, who possessed the contiguous terri-
tories of Constantinople and Denmark. On one occasion
the royal pair held their court at Corinth, and gave a grand
festival to their peers, at which the queen sat on the right
hand of the king. It would appear that her majesty had
intended to take the liberty of bringing forth in presence
of her court, but the king of Yrcania having looked at her,
1 Cf. Sorelloys, p. 243.
254 HISTOBY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
declared she must instantly retire to the place where the
king wished her to be confined. A discussion arose at
table concerning the most suitable situation. At length it
was determined that the castle of the Black Grate (Porte
Noire,) lying on the Perilous Mount, guarded by every
species of monster, and surrounded by a river, abounding
in all sorts of vermin, would be the most commodious spot
for the ensuing parturition. Another advantage of this
situation was, that the castle belonged to a fairy called
Proserpine, who, if duly propitiated, might bestow a nuin-
ber of fine qualities on the infant. The daughter to whom
the queen gives birth receives the name of Florence. She
is educated with Stephen, son to the king of Yalfondec,
and proves, when she grows up, a miracle of beauty
[c.19].
The great object of Arthur is the quest of this incom-
parable princess ; but he is frequently diverted from his
chief design by the enticements held out to him in the
destruction of monsters and giants. His exploits, how-
ever, principally consist in disenchanting castles, one of
which is the Porte Noire, the birth-place of Florence,
where an image, holding a hat which it was foredoomed to
place on the head of the destined husband of Florence, had
been in attendance from time immemorial. 1 But the period
of this inauguration was not yet arrived. Arthur had still
to encounter
fierce faces threatening wars,
Giants of mighty bone and bold emprise.
In these exploits he is neither assisted by Hector of Blois,
whom at the beginning of his career he had married to the
countess of Brueil, a lady whom he had freed from her
enemies, nor does G-ouvernau attend him in many of his
expeditions, but experiences separate, though similar, ad-
ventures. He is frequently enabled, however, to track
Arthur by the carcases he finds on the roads ; and he
walked, says the romance, till he saw ten robbers lying
slain ; then Gouvernau said to Jaquet, My lord has been
here [c. 57].
1 Cf. the statue du commandeur in Don Juan. Note also the current
phrase, "if the cap fits," etc.
CH. III.] ARTUS DE LA. BEETAONE. 255
But Arthur occasionally meets with a different species of
allurement from that presented in an intercourse with
giants and monsters. Proserpine, the protecting fairy of
Florence, in order to try his fidelity to her protegee, risks
her own honour by throwing herself in his way at the foot
of an oak in a forest he was traversing. Nor is this vigi-
lant fairy satisfied with one experiment. She contrives a
plot by which Arthur comes to her palace, where her own
blandishments being again resisted, she employs one of her
damsels, who is treated with an indifference as satisfactory
to Proserpine as provoking to the damsel, who did not feel
the same interest as the fairy in this triumph of constancy
[c. 54].
Florence, in the mean time, was exposed to similar diffi-
culties. The emperor of India had demanded her in mar-
riage, and had lately arrived at her father's court to
prosecute his suit in person. This alliance was as accept-
able to King Emendus as it was disagreeable to the party
chiefly interested. Matters, however, having come to a
crisis, Florence is obliged to request that the celebration
of her nuptials be deferred till a splendid tournament is
proclaimed, the fame of which she trusts will lead Arthur
to court ; for of his approach and attachment she had been
apprized by her confidant Stephen, who had met with him
at Porte Noire and other places [c. 22].
Arthur, according to expectation, appears at the tourna-
ment, and Florence obtains an interview with him, by the
intervention of Stephen, or the Master, as he is generally
called [c. 61].
On the first day of the tournaments Arthur greatly dis-
tinguishes himself, and Florence, in order that her lover
might not be exhausted with two days continued exertion,
feigns sickness on the following morning, and requests
that the tournament be delayed. " Auraelle ce meschef,"
says Emendus, on hearing of the illness of his daughter,
" Je serois courrouce si elle se mouroit sans hoir de son
corps." [c. 63.] This paternal monarch is conducted to
the chamber of Florence by Stephen, who there commences
a harangue, which may give some idea of the mode of
managing sick princesses in those times. " My lady, God
to-day has done you great honour. Never were there so
256 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
many people assembled by the sickness of a princess as there
are to visit you ; for here is an emperor, ten kings, thirty
dukes, and the whole chivalry of the sovereign of India."
But in this chamber there was something still more im-
portant than all this blaze of quality. In a corner of the
room stood the image with the hat, which Stephen, who
dabbled in magic, had lately smuggled from Porte Noire
by a stroke of necromancy. The company assembled are
informed that the person on whom this statue confers the
hat will be acknowledged as the husband of Florence.
The emperor of India first presents himself, but the image
continues motionless. To the vassal kings of Emendus it
is equally unpropitious ; till at length Arthur approaching
receives the token that was reserved for him [c. 64] .
In spite of this unequivocal demonstration on the part
of the image, Emendus still persists in his intention of
bestowing his daughter on the emperor of India. This
resolution compels Florence to fly to the Porte Noire, ac-
companied by the kings and knights who were friendly to
her cause ; while the fairy Proserpine, who exactly resem-
bled her in figure, occupies her place at court. The im-
posture, however, being at length detected, Florence is
besieged in Porte Noire by her father and the emperor of
India with immense armies. During the siege, Proserpine
is observed by the latter flying from the castle. As she
had assumed the shape of Florence, he overtakes her, and
extorts a promise of marriage. Thdn, having assured her
of his protection, he conducts her to Emendus, who, on
her entrance, salutes her with his foot. This commentary
on her returning obedience not being relished by the em-
peror, a squabble arises between. the monarchs, during
which Proserpine disappears, and the emperor soon after
retires to his own country [c. 71].
The night succeeding his departure, Stephen throws the
whole army of Emendus into a profound sleep, and then,
with the assistance of five knights, conveys the king, white
in bed, to Porte Noire. 1 By this trick of legerdemain he
1 In Les Quatre Filz Aymon (c. 23) is, by a similar device, transported
by Malagis, or Maugis, into Montalban, which was besieged by him.
Indeed the figure of Master Stephen seems in general to have been
borrowed from that of the magician Malagis. LTEB.
CH. III.] ARTU8 DE LA BBETAONE. 257
is obliged, when he awakes, to give his consent to his
laughter's marriage with Arthur. Previous to their union
that prince pays a visit to Britany, where he has rather an
awkward interview with Jeannette. On his return to
Porte Noire, he is accompanied by a number of the peers
of France, the duke and duchess, and also Jeannette,
whose presence was certainly superfluous. Stephen on the
journey informs Arthur, that he had discovered by his
books that Florence had left Porte Noire, and was now
besieged in the White Tower by the emperor of India, who
had returned to the war. Arthur is advised to proceed
thither with his host, but he determines on a plan of
action more suited to his impatience, and to his confidence
in his own prowess [c. 77]. He presses forward in dis-
guise, followed by three knights, to the White Tower,
where he signalizes his arrival by cutting up a whole army,
with wounds that exhibit great anatomical variety. His
other friends having come up soon after, the gates of the
White Tower are purposely left open, and the emperor,
thinking it defenceless, enters with the remains of his
army, still amounting to fifty thousand men. These are
speedily despatched ; the emperor himself is taken prisoner,
and soon after dies of grief.
No farther obstacle remaining to the marriage of Arthur,
a splendid tournament celebrates the triple nuptials of
Arthur with Florence, Gouvernau with Jeannette, and
Stephen the Master with Margaret, a princess whom
Arthur had reinstated in her kingdom early in the romance
[c. 50].
Florence in due season produces a son, whom the accu-
rate romancer informs us she conceived the night of the
espousals. The birth of this child King Emendus solem-
nizes by dying of joy. Arthur is, of course, crowned king
of Sorolois ; he reigned, says the romance, thirty-two years,
and left the care of his child, and all that he possessed, to
Hector, Gouvernau, and the Master "et d'autre chose
plus rien n'en diet 1'histoire, ains elle se tait."
The chief excellence of the romance of Artus de la Bre-
tagne is, that it possesses more unity of design than the
works of the same nature by which it was preceded. The
story of Jeannette at the beginning is indeed episodical,
258 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
but it is discussed in fourteen chapters, and through the
remainder of the work the adventures relate to one com-
mon original, the object that appeared in the dream ; and
to one common end, the union of Arthur and Florence.
Accordingly, the chief employment of Arthur is the search
of Florence, and her deliverance from the power of the
emperor ; and though these objects be occasionally lost sight
of by the irresistible temptations thrown out by giants or
monsters, they are never entirely abandoned. But in
Tristan, Meliadus, Perceforest, and the older romances,
there is no permanent motive that inspires the action. In
them the momentary gratification of passion, an occa-
sional display of valour, and a concluding paroxysm of de-
votion, comprise the incidents of the romance.
Neither is there any romance of the Bound Table in
which so great a war is carried on for the sake of a single
woman, as in that just analyzed. We do not behold two
knights occasionally tilting for the heart or favours of a
lady, but the whole forces of India ranged against the
chivalry of France. A single knight, in a paroxysm of
valour, overthrows the army of an empire ; and though the
combats are usually described more circumstantially than
intelligibly, the slaughter is always conducted on a mag-
nificent scale, and tends to one purpose.
But though the unity of design in this romance be
commendable, the design itself is by no means deserving
of applause. Nothing can be more absurd than that
Arthur should be enchanted with a woman he had never
beheld, desert a beloved mistress, and set out in quest of
the unknown fair, in consequence of an obscure vision. 1
1 Examples of such dream-begotten passion are by no means rare in
romantic compositions. Athenseus observes : " We have no cause for
wonder when we hear of people having fallen in love from hearsay, for
Chares of Mytilene relates in the twelfth book of his History of Alex-
ander, that many persons have become enamoured who have never seen
the object of their attachment but in dreams," and then proceeds to
quote an apposite story from Chares himself (cf. Lucian in Hermotimus,
73, in reference to Medea, and Hyginus, Fab. 20). An instance is
found in Amadis of Greece, in Palmerin d'Oliva in the Romans des
Sept Sages (Keller's ed., v. 4218, etc.), in the Fabliau of the Chevalier
a la Trappe, in the Xibelungenlied, st. 13, etc.). So common, indeed,
was this mode of love in the romances of chivalry, that Chaucer seems
(Rime of Sir Thopas. v. 13717, etc.) to deride it. Nor are the poets of
CH. III.] ABTTJ8 DE LA BEETAONE. 259
There is something, too, extremely cold and hard-hearted
in thus abandoning Jeannette, which gives us, at the first,
a very unfavourable idea of the character of the hero.
Nor, as we advance, do we find him possessed of a single
quality, except strength and courage, to excite respect or
interest. This remark might, perhaps, be justly extended
to all the other characters in the romance, except Stephen,
or the Master, as he is called. That young and royal
astrologer is painted and endowed with every personal grace
and accomplishment he has endless resources in every
emergency he possesses a delightful frankness and gaiety,
united to an invincible heroism ; the utmost warmth of
friendship for Arthur, and an unshaken fidelity to Florence.
He also constantly amuses the reader by raising up de-
lightful gardens, 1 fountains, and singing birds, by the
operations of natural magic, a knowledge of which was
at one time believed to be a common attainment, and was
known in Scotland by the name of glamour. The Jon-
gleurs were professors of this mystery ; and Sir John Man-
deville saw many proficients in the East. In particular
[c. 22] , he gives a description of the marvels displayed before
the khan of Tartary, so strikingly similar to those in the
romance of Arthur, as to afford a strong presumption that
such exhibitions were actually attempted in the middle
ages, and were not merely the offspring of the romancer's
fancy. " And than comen jogulours and enchantoures that
don many marvaylles : for they maken to come in the ayr
the sonne and the mone, be seeminge to every man's sight.
And after they maken the nyght so derk, that no man
may see no thing. And aftre they maken the day to come
agen fair and plesant, with bright sonne, to every mannes
sight. And than they bringen in daunces of the fairest
damyselles of the world, and richest arrayed. And after
they maken to comen in other damyselles, bringinge coupes
the East strangers to this device ; Suleicha, Potiphar's wife, becomes
enamoured of Jonssouf in dream (cf. Fortluge Vorlesungen uber die
Geschichte der Poesie, p. 200), and similarly Kamrup and Kala be-
come mutually enamoured. (Les Avantures de Kamrup, par Jahcin
Uddin, trad, de 1'Hindoustani, par Garcin de Tassy, ch. iii. and iv.).
LIEU.
1 See Scheiblc's " Kloster,"Bd. v. p. 190, etc. Humboldt's "Cosmos,"
ii. 130. Note to Boccaccio (x. 5), and index.
260 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
of gold, and geven drynke to lordes and to ladyes. An
than they make knyghtes to jousten in armes' full lusty ly ;
and they breken here speres so rudely, that the tronchouns
flen in peces alle aboute the halle. And than they make
to come in huntyng for the hert and for the boor, with
houndes renning with open mouthe, and many other thinges
they don be craft of hir enchauntments that it is marveyle
for to see." And elsewhere the traveller remarks, " And
wher it be by craft or nygromancye, I wot nere."
It can hardly be doubted that the leading incident of
the romance of Arthur of Britany suggested to Spenser
the plan and outline of his Faery Queene ; where Arthur,
the hero, sees in a vision, and, seeing, falls in love with the
fairy queen, whose quest is the great object through the
whole of that romantic poem.
CLERIADUS l
is the last romance that has been ranked among those of
the Bound Table. It does not strictly belong to that class
of fictions, but has been numbered with them, as a great
proportion of the adventures happen in England, and as
the hero was married to a princess descended from the
great Arthur.
Philippon, king of England, one of the successors of
Arthur, being far advanced in life, sent to Spain, in order
to request that the count of Asturias, a man renowned for
his wisdom, would come to England to assist him in the
government of his kingdom. The count arrived according
to invitation, and brought with him his son Cleriadus, who
soon became enamoured of Meliadice, the daughter of
Philippon. To render himself worthy of her affections, he
engaged in many hazardous enterprises both in Britain and
in his native country. Among other exploits, he subdued
a lion which ravaged all England, but who turned out to
be a gallant knight metamorphosed by the malevolence of
a fairy ; and on one occasion he challenged and overcame
1 Published by Antoine Verard at Paris in 1495 ; an edition unknown
till 1850 (Brunei), and again in 1514, and twice subsequently. An ab-
stract of the romance is given in the Bibliotheque des Romans for
January, 1777, pp. 26-68. Ward, Cat., p. 384.
CH. III.] CLERIADUS. 261
all the heroes of the court of Philippon. After this exhibi-
tion, Philippon gave a splendid entertainment in honour of
Cleriadus, who contributed a,pic-nic of sparrowhawks and
dressed dogs, which seem to have been the delicacies
of the time ; he also danced for the amusement of the
company, and sung a duet with Meliadice by order of the
king.
The final happiness of the lovers seemed fast approach-
ing, when ambassadors arrived from the court of Cyprus
to beg assistance against the Saracens, who had invaded
that island. Though this enterprise was somewhat out of
the line of his English majesty's politics, yet, in order to
testify his zeal for the Christian cause, he sent eight hun-
dred men to Cyprus, with Cleriadus at their head, an ex-
pedition which may, perhaps, have been suggested to the
imagination of the romancer by the circumstance of a king
of Cyprus having resided in England during the reign of
Edward HI.
The Queen of England had a brother Thomas, Count of
Langarde, a man of infamous character, who had conceived
an incestuous passion for his niece. As his proposals were
rejected with horror, he seized the absence of Cleriadus as
a fit opportunity for revenge. He forged letters, which he
made appear to have passed between Cleriadus and Melia-
dice, in which the lovers agreed to poison the king, and
ascend the throne in his stead. The good monarch, though
he seems generally to have dispensed with the trouble of
reflection, at first betrayed an inclination for a trial, but at
the persuasion of Langarde, Meliadice, without farther
ceremony, is sent under the charge of four ruffians to be
murdered in a wood. Two of their number, however, are
seized with compunction, and persuade their comrades to
agree in saving her. She is accordingly allowed to escape
on condition of leaving England, but is previously stripped,
that she might not draw observation by the splendour of
her dress. Thus she wanders through the country, in a
dishabille which was fully as likely to attract attention as
her royal vestments. At many gates she was refused ad-
mittance, as a person of suspicious character ; but at length
found refuge in the cottage of an old woman, who gave her
clothes, and sent her, with letters of introduction, to a
262 HISTOBY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
merchant, who lived on the sea-coast, and was speedily to
embark for Spain. After a prosperous voyage she was
landed at Villablanca, the capital of Asturias, where she
entered into service with a female cousin of the merchant.
Meanwhile Cleriadus having conquered the Saracens,
returned to England, where he was informed of the death
of Meliadice. He also found that his father, having lost
all influence, had retired to Asturias, and that the def amer
of his mistress was acting as viceroy. He assaulted Lan-
garde next morning, and defied him to single combat ; but
that traitor preferring the certainty of immediate execu-
tion to the risk of a battle, confessed his crime. Philippon,
as may be imagined, was inconsolable for the loss of his
daughter, but, spite of his entreaties, Cleriadus would not
consent to remain in England. He assumed a pilgrim's
habit, and embarked on board a vessel which was bound
for the Tagus. The ship, however, fortunately encoun-
tered a storm on the coast of Gascony, which forced it to
enter the port of Villablanca. Although Cleriadus had
formally renounced his country, he could not refrain from
ascending a hill in the neighbourhood to take a last geo-
graphical survey of the abode of his parents.
While ruminating on his misfortunes, a young woman,
whom the reader divines to be Meliadice, arrived, bearing
a water-pitcher on her head. Seeing him plunged in dis-
tress, she attempted to console him, and concluded with
offering charity. She persuaded him to disclose the cause
of his grief ; and while he was yet speaking she recognized
her lover, broke her water-pitcher, and threw herself into
his arms. 1 The happy couple set off for the seat of the
count of Asturias, who, in a few days, accompanied them to
England. There they were legally united with the consent of
Philippon, who soon after resigned his crown to Cleriadus.
The above work is the foundation of a Scotch metrical
romance, written in the reign of Queen Mary, and entitled
Clariodus, of which there is a MS. copy in the Advocates'
Library at Edinburgh. 2
1 See supplementary note to Apollonius of Tyre at the end of this
volume.
2 This was printed in 1830 for the Maitland Club. The preface con-
tains a brief account of the romance.
CH. in.] L'HISTOIEE DE QIGLAN. 263
There exists one other prose romance of the knights of
the Round Table, Giglan.
L'HISTOIRE DE GIGLAN.
If the prologue prefixed to this work is to be believed,
" frere Claude Platin humble religieux de 1'ordre Monseig-
neur Sainct Anthoine found one day in a little librairie
where he was a big parchment book in very old writing, in
Spanish verse ... in which book he found a little history,
which seemed to him very entertaining . . . and resolved
to translate the said history into French prose," which was
printed at Lyons in 1530. 1 I have never seen this romance ;
but to judge from extracts, it is not scarcer than it de-
serves to be.
Besides the metrical romances from which the prose
compilations above analyzed have been chiefly formed,
there are a number of others which existed in MS. in the
library of M. de Sainte Palaye. Of those which were
written by the Trouveurs of the north of France an abridged
version has been given in the admirable selection of Le
Grand. A great proportion of the metrical romances con-
cerning Arthur and his knights was written in the twelfth
century by Chrestien de Troyes, 2 and many of them were
1 L'histoire de Gigla filz de messire Gaunain qui fut roy de Galles.
Et de Geoffrey de Maience son compaignom tous deux chevaliers de la
table Ronde. Lyon. Several other editions are mentioned by Benecke in
the advertisement to his edition of Wirnt von Gravenberg's Wigalois. the
Knight of the Wheel, Berlin, 1819. See appendix. An account of Giglan
is given in the Bibliotheque des Romans, October, 1777, i. p. 59. (See
also Melanges tires d'une Grande Bibliotheque.) Benecke (loc. cit.)
gives an account of the work and allied stories. The romance, says
F. W. V. Schmidt, deserves far better than Artus de Bretagne, or
Cleriadus, to close the Arthurian series; it abounds in marvel, adventure,
and variety. The German Wigalois (Gwi von Galais), the French
Giglain, and the English " Lybeaus Desconnus " published in vol. ii. of
Ritson's " Metrical Romances," are in great part substantially the same,
the original of which, however, does not seem to have been traced. (See
F. W. V. Schmidt, Wiener Jahrb., Bd. xxix. pp. 125, 126, 127.) For
mention of several other works which may be attached to the Arthurian
romances, see ibid.
2 See C. Potvin, Bibliographie de Chrestien, etc., 1863, and W. L.
Holland, Chrestien de Troies, eine Litteraturgeschichtliche Untersu-
chung, 1854.
264 HISTORY or FICTION. [CH. in.
afterwards continued by Huon de Mery. Some of these
relate new adventures concerning knights of the Bound
Table, and others introduce new heroes.
1. One of the most beautiful of these metrical tales is
EEEC AND ENIDE/
by Chrestien de Troyes. Erec vanquishes a knight who
had insulted an attendant of Queen G-eneura at a national
hunt. After the battle, Erec discovered on the domains
of the person he had conquered, his beautiful niece, called
Enide, who resided near her uncle's castle, but had been
allowed by him to remain in the utmost poverty. Erec
marries this lady, and soon forgets all the duties of
chivalry in her embraces ; his vassals complain bitterly of
his sloth, and Enide rouses him to exertion. Attended by
her alone he sets out in quest of adventures, of which a
variety are related. One day Erec swoons through fatigue,
and Enide readily believes him dead. A baron, whose
castle was in the neighbourhood, happens to pass at the
time, and Enide is married to him while her husband is in
the fainting fit. 2 A nuptial feast is prepared in the room
where Erec lay, but a squabble arising between the baron
and his bride, on account of the obstinacy of the latter in
refusing to eat, Erec is roused by the noise ; and being, it
would appear, much refreshed by his swoon, instantly beats
out the brains of his rival, and disperses the attendants.
1 This is the story of Geraint (or Gerontius) ab Erbin, King of
Defriaint (Devon and Cornwall). He was called in the Triads one of
the three Llynghesawg, or naval commanders, of the Isle Britain, Gwen-
wynwyn ap Naf and March ap Merchion (the husband of Isolt and
uncle of Tristan) being the other two. He was slain at the battle of
Llongborth (probably Langport in Somerset), and is celebrated in the
elegy of Llywarch Hen. He was buried, according to local tradition, in
a golden ship, at Gerrans, not far from Truro. The romance has been
used, in the form in which it occurs in a Welsh MS. in the Hengwrt
collection (published in Lady C. Guest's " Mabinogion," vol. ii), as the
groundwork of one of Lord Tennyson's " Idylls of the King." German
and Icelandic versions of Chrestien de Troye's poem exist. (See " Ma-
binogion," vol. ii. p. 178, for full descriptions.) H. JENNER.
Cf. Graesse, p. 249. Villemarque", Contes Popul., etc. i. p. 156, ii. 329.
San Marte, Arthursage, p. 321 ; Gottinger Gelehrt. Anzeiger, 1843, Xo.
101, p. 1007. LIEB.
1 Cf. Widow of Ephesus, p. 94, etc., supra.
CH. III.] LE CHEVALIER DE LA CHAERETTE. 265
As the provisions had by this time cooled, he immediately
departs with Enide, and arrives in safety at his own castle,
after experiencing a curious adventure in a subterraneous
labyrinth, from which he rescued a lady who was there
detained by enchantment.
The romance of
LE CHEVALIER DE LA CHARRETTE,
the first part of which was written by Chrestien de Troyes,
and the conclusion by Geoffrey de Ligny, relates the early
adventures of Lancelot, and the commencement of his
amour with Queen Geneura. This was published at Rheims
in 1849, with a notice of the life and works of the authors
by P. Tarbe, and again by W. J. A. Jonckbloet, at the
Hague in 1850, under the title, " Le Eoman de la Cha-
rette d'apres Gautier Map et Chrestien de Troies." It con-
tains both the versified romance and the portion of the
prose Lancelot, which corresponds thereto. (See supra,
pp. 182, 184.) Among the familiar Arthurian personages
who retain their characteristic physiognomies two new
figures play prominent parts, the traitor Meleagans and
his father Baudemagus. The Charrette has been much
praised for its literary merit. The following passage may
convey some idea of the style. The queen is withdrawing
to her apartment, and Lancelot can only escort her with his
eyes and his heart, but the eyes had all too short a distance
to travel, for the queen's chamber was near, and they would
fain have entered it, if it might be. The heart, which is a
more puissant seignour and master, and endowed with
greater power, entered in after her, but the eyes, full of
tears, remained with the body outside.
Et Lanceloz jusqua Fantree
Des ialz et de 1'cuer la convoie,
Mes as ialz fu corte la voie
Que trop estoit la chambre pres ;
Et il fusst antre apres
Molt volontiers s'il poist estre.
Li cuers, que plus est sire et mestre,
Et de plus grant pooir assez,
San est outre apres li passe/.,
Et li oil sont remes dehors
Plein de lermes avec li cors.
266 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
The
CHEVALIER ATT LiON 1
has been generally attributed to Chrestien de Troyes, but
the Abbe de la Rue ascribes it to Wace. This romance
must not be confounded with another of the same name,
of which Perceval is the hero. In the present wort Yvain
is the principal character, and it has given rise to an old
English poem, Twain and G-awain, published by Mr.
Ritson [i. 1-169] . 2 A knight at the court of Arthur re-
lates that he had been induced to try the adventure of a
fountain, where a dreadful storm was raised by throwing
the water on a marble stone, and that the commotion
brought to the spot a valiant knight, by whom he had
been defeated. Yvain resolves to try this stormy experi-
ment, and the expected combatant appears. Our hero
kills this champion, and marries his widow, who resided
in a castle in the neighbourhood, and finds that a knight
is necessary to defend her territories, and reply to the
whirlwinds from the fountain. After remaining some
time with his wife, Yvain sets out in quest of new adven-
tures, promising to return in a year. When he had ex-
ceeded the appointed time, a damsel on the part of his
wife comes unexpectedly to the court of Arthur, and re-
proaches him with his infidelity. Yvain instantly goes
mad, and roams through the country, committing extra-
vagancies, which, it may be remarked, bear much closer
resemblance to those of Orlando, than the transports of
Lancelot or Tristan. It is after being cured of this phrensy
that he rescues the lion, which he finds engaged in a peri-
1 The Chevalier au Lion is printed in full as an appendix to the
" Jarlles y Ftynnawn " (Lady of the Fountain), an abridgment in Welsh
prose of the same story in Lady C. Guest's " Mabinogion," vol. i., where
may be found copious notes on the subject. H. JENNKR.
2 For the fullest analysis and comparison of the various versions of
the story, see the essay by George Stephens, forming the third part
(Inledning, m. m.) of the Swedish metrical version, Herr Ivan Lejon-
Riddaren, published by the Svenska Fornskrift, Sallskapet, 1845-49.
(See also Eugen Kolbing, in his introduction to Ivents saga, in his
Riddarasogur (Strassburg, 1872). Ward, Cat., p. 392. See also Ville-
marque, Contes Popul., i. 109, 305 ; ii. 328. The evidence in favour of
the Celtic origin of the story is strong.
CH. III.] LE CHEVALIER A I/EPEE. 267
lous combat with a dragon. The grateful animal attends
him ever after, and is of great service in all his adven-
tures. Yvain at last thinks of being reconciled to his wife,
and begins his overtures towards accommodation, by raising
storms from the fountain. The lady, who had resolved
against agreement, is shaken by this species of eloquence :
as she finds she must either be reconciled to her husband,
or pass her life in an eternal hurricane. This notion of a
knight having obliged, and being afterwards accompanied
by a lion, which is the leading incident in the above tale,
seems to be a fiction common to all nations : every one
knows the story of the Roman knight, and in the Teu-
tonic romance of the Book of Heroes, written in the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, Wolfdietrich having aided
a lion in a combat with a dragon, is ever after followed by
the grateful quadruped. 1
There are a great number of fabliaux relating to the
knights of Arthur, of which Gauvain is generally the hero,
but which also contain a vast deal about Queux, Keux,
or Kay, the seneschal of Arthur.
In *
LE CHEVALIER A L'EPEE,
erroneously ascribed by some to Chrestien de Troyes,
Gauvain is received in a splendid castle, where it was a
rule that every person should be put to death who found
fault with any thing he saw in the habitation. Owing to
a hint he received from a peasant on entering this cere-
monious residence, he abstains from all criticism : but he
was not aware of a second regulation, that an enchanted
sword cut off the head of those who took liberties with the
daughter of the Chatelain. On the second night of his
stay, the father locks him up in the same chamber with
his daughter ; but the lady having taken a liking to him,
warns him of his danger, and he escapes with a slight
1 Or rather slave. Cf. the story of Androclus in Gellius Noct. Att.,
v. 14. Cf. Robert, Fables Ined., ii. 473 ; Gesta Rom., No. 104, and La
Chronique du bon Chevalier Gilles de Chin., ch. 32, and the story of
Godfrey de la Tour, and allied legends in Mone's " Anzeiger," viii. 351,
No. 64. Cf. also F. W. V. Schmidt in his notes to Straparola, p. 342 ;
and see Migne, Diet, des Superstitions, Lion.
268 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
wound in the arm. This damsel was afterwards married
to Gauvain, and f her is related the example of female
infidelity, contrasted with canine attachment, which has
been given in the abstract of Tristan.
LA MULE SANS FREIN
has by some been attributed to Payans Maizieres, and
by others to Chrestien de Troyes. A disconsolate lady,
mounted on a mule without a bridle, comes to the court
of Arthur, and requests that one of his knights would go
in search of this bridle, declaring that the mule knew the
road to the place where it lay. Queux, the seneschal,
offers his services, but speedily returns, appalled by the
dangers he encounters. Gauvain then sets out, and after
much procedure with giants and monsters, recovers the
treasure from the lady's elder sister, who had robbed the
younger of it. In the original romance there is not the
smallest advantage to be derived from the possession of
this bridle ; but, in an abstract in the Bibliotheque des
Eomans [Fevrier, 1777, p. 98], it is feigned to procure for
the holder the comforts of eternal youth and unfading
beauty, which gives a semblance of probability to the con-
test of these freakish sisters. A prose rifacimento is con-
tained inLegrand d'Aussy's "Fabliaux ouContes," i. p. 13.
The tale has been versified by Mr. Way and by the
German poet Wieland [Des Maulthier's Zaurn].
The well-known story of
LE COURT MANTEL,
printed in the sixteenth century, and analyzed by Le
Grand, under the title of Le Manteau mal Taille, or
fabliau of the Mantel rnautaille. It is found combined
with the Lai du corn of Robert Bikez, in an English
ballad. (See Ward, Cat., i. p. 404).
History of the
ADVENTURES OF FOUR BROTHERS,
Agravain, Gueret, Galheret, and Gauvain, sons of Loth,
King of Orkney, all of whom set out in different direc-
:
!
CH. III.] ADVENTUBES OF FOUR BEOTHEE8. 269
tions, in quest of Lancelot du Lac. Agravain, as a coup
d'essai, kills Druas, a formidable giant, but is in turn van-
quished by Sornehan, the brother of the deceased. His
life is spared at the request of the conqueror's niece, and
he is confined in a dungeon, where his preserver secretly
brings him refreshments. Gueret also concludes a variety
of adventures, by engaging Sornehan, and being overcome,
is shut up in the same dungeon with his brother. Gal-
heret, the third of the fraternity, arrives at a castle, where
he is invited to play with its lady at chess, on condition
that if he win he is to possess her person and castle, but
should otherwise become her slave. The chess men are
ranged in compartments on the floor of a fine hall, are
large as life, and glitter with gold and diamonds. Each
of them besides is a fairy, and moves on being touched by
a talisman. Galheret loses the game, and is confined with
a number of other check-mated knights. Gauvain, how-
ever, soon after arrives, and vanquishes the lady at her
own arms ; but only asks the freedom of the prisoners,
among whom he finds his brother. Having learned from
an elfish attendant of the lady, the fate of his two other
kinsmen, he equips himself in the array of the chess king.
In this garb he engages Sornehan, who, being dazzled by
the brightness of his attire, is easily conquered, by which
means Agravain and Gueret are delivered from confinement.
This story is told, with little variation, in the prose
romance of Lancelot du Lac, 1 to which it was probably
transferred from the metrical tale above mentioned.
An account has now been presented of the romances of
the Bound Table, the most ancient class of chivalrous
composition. 2 Of the usual tone of incident in these works,
1 And in Perceval. See also San Marte, Arthursage, p. 214, No. 29,
and Villemarque, Contes Popul., ii. p. 296.
2 Graesse, Literarg, Bd. 2, 3, p. 249, enumerates several other ro-
mances of chivalry, among which, on account of its rarity, may here be
Paris, mentioned Triumphe des neuf Preux (abstract in Bibl. des Romans,
1782, 4to., i. p. 71). The author feigns that there appeared to him in a
vision nine heroes, and in a second vision a tenth hero, viz., Josua, David,
Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander the Great, Julius Csesar ; and
then Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon, and finally Bertrand
du Guesclin ; they charge him to undertake the description of their Lives
and Feats, in order that Lady Triumphe who appears with them may be
270 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
I trust the reader may have formed some idea from the
abstracts already given. In many of those points that
have been laid down, as constituting excellence in the
materials of fictitious narrative, they will be found ex-
tremelv defective. The novelty of adventure is not great,
as most of the events related were drawn from those me-
trical romances, by which the prose ones were preceded.
But, if we at one view consider the originals and imita-
tions, the incidents are of such a nature as were never
before presented in combination to the world, and form
in every particular a complete contrast to the Greek ro-
mances. As the fictions concerning the Round Table, in
common with all other tales of chivalry, are full of stories
of giants and enchanters, they have no claim to proba-
bility of incident in one sense of the term, and even that
species of verisimilitude, which we expect in the actions
and machinations of unearthly beings, is more often violated
than preserved.
A modern reader, too, is shocked by the glaring ana-
enabled to decide which of them has deserved her crown. The writer
performs this task with many divergences, however, from the records of
sacred and profane history. Differently to the account in Lancelot (p.
183), Arthur is here made to commit incest knowingly with his sister,
the consort of Lot, King of Orcania, she, however, being innocent. Brunei
gives the titles and editions of the original as ostensibly a translation
from the Spanish. The nine heroes of this romance are not infrequently
mentioned in the earlier English literature. Shakespeare alludes in Love's
Labour's Lost (act v. sc. 2), to the Nine Wort hies (Douce, Illustrations of
Shakespeare, p. 149. Cf. also the Provencal Roman de Flamenca, in
Raynouard's " Lexique Roman," vol. i. p. 10, etc.) Further, they appear
in the verses which precede the Low-German history of Alexander the
Great (Brim's "Altplattdeutsche Gedichte," p. 336, etc. See also Warton,
vol. iv. p. 151, note a, Lond. 1824). They figure also in tapestry and
paintings (Warton, ii. p. 44, note 9). This selection of thrice three
heroes may very likely have originated in the Welsh Triads, where (see
San Marte, Arthursage, p. 46) the three Pagan, Jewish, and Christian
Trinities are enumerated as follows : Hector, Alexander, and Julius
Caesar ; Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus; Arthur, Charlemagne,
and Godfrey de Bouillon. For Godfrey is sometimes substituted Guy
of Warwick. (See Douce, loc. cit., p. 1 JO, etc., and Graesse, Literarg, Bd.
2, 3, p. 255). LIEB. In the Histoire Litteraire de la France, t. xix..
are given abstracts, p. 678, of the Philippide d'Aymes de Varannes, of
which there are both verse and prose romances in the Paris Bibliotheque
Nationale, p. 681, of the Romance of Julius Caesar, by J. Forrest; p. 735,
of the Romance of Trubert, by Doins de Laverne.
CH: III.] ADVENTURES OP FOUR BROTHERS. 271
chronisms and geographical blunders which deform the
romances of chivalry. These and other absurdities have
been happily ridiculed by Butler in his Hudibras :
Some writers make all ladies purloined,
And knights pursuing in a whirlwind ;
Others make all their knights in fits
Of jealousy to lose their wits;
Some force whole regions in despite
Of geography, to change their site,
Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before come after.
The story is invariably told in the person of the author,
and in this the writers of romance have perhaps acted
judiciously. As the exploits of so many knights were to
be related, it would not have suited to put the account of
them in the mouth of the principal character, as he could
not be minutely acquainted with adventures, in which, for
the most part, he had no concurrence. The story is never
carried on, as in the Greek romances, in the form of an
epic poem, commencing in the middle of the action, but
truly begins with the egg of Leda the adventures of the
father or grandsire of the hero. After being protracted
through a period of twenty or thirty years, the romance
concludes with the death of the principal character, or his
retirement into a hermitage ; or drags us through a long
list of descendants. The interest, also, is too much divided,
and the part of the titular hero is not always the most
considerable. He appears and vanishes like a spirit, and
we lose sight of him too soon to regard him as the most
important character in the work. In the Greek romances,
all the adventures accelerate or impede the solution of the
fable ; but in the tales of chivalry there is a total want of
unity of design, which prevents our carrying on the story
in our mind, and distracts the attention. Indeed, I believe
that in the metrical romances, and those few that were
originally written in prose, the author had no idea where
he was to stop ; he had formed no skeleton of the story,
nor proposed to himself a conclusion to which his insulated
adventures should lead.
With respect to those excellencies which have been
termed the ornaments of fictitious narrative : the characters
272 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. III.
of the heroes are not well shaded nor distinguished. The
knight, however, is always more interesting than the
heroine, which must appear strange when we reflect that
these romances were composed in an age when devotion to
the ladies formed the essence of chivalry, and that it is
quite the reverse in the Greek romances, though, at the
time in which they were written, women acted a very in-
ferior part in society. In the romance of Perceval, he
appears a great deal, and Blanchefleur very little. Some
romances, as Meliadus, have no heroine at all, and the
mistresses of Lancelot and Tristan are women of abandoned
character,
In all these works the sentiments are thinly scattered,
and perhaps a greater number would not have been appro-
priate in that species of composition. During the chival-
rous ages, as Madame de Stael has well remarked, " L'hon-
neur et 1'amour agissoient sur le coeur de 1'homme comme
la fatalite chez les anciens, sans qu'on reflechit aux motifs
des actions, ni que 1'incertitude y fut admise."
The charm of style and beauty of description form the
most pleasing features of the romances of chivalry. There
is something in the simplicity of the old French tongue
which surpasses that of all other nations, and, from an
assiduous perusal of romances, where it is exhibited in its
greatest richness and beauty, we may receive much addi-
tional insight into the etymology of our own language.
M. de Sainte Palaye talks in high terms of the light
which these works are calculated to throw on the labours
of the genealogist, and of the information which they
afford with regard to the progress of arts among our
ancestors. That writer was an enthusiast for this species
of lore ; and, like other enthusiasts, was disposed to exag-
gerate its importance and value. It may indeed be granted,
that the romances of chivalry are curious as a picture of
manners, and interesting as efforts of the imagination, in a
certain stage of the progress of the human mind ; but with
this exception, and the pleasure occasionally afforded by
the naivete of the language, the most insipid romance of
the present day equals them as a fund of amusement, and
is not much inferior to them as a source of instruction.
Those, too, who have been accustomed to associate the
CH. III.] ADVENTURES OF FOUE BEOTHEE8. 273
highest purity of morals with the manners of chivalry,
will be greatly deceived. Indeed, in their moral tendency,
many of the romances are highly reprehensible. 1 In some,
as Perceforest, particular passages are exceptionable, and
the general scope in others, where the principal character
is a knight, engaged, with the approbation of all, in a love
intrigue with the wife of his friend or his sovereign. In
one of the best of these romances, Tristan carries on an
amour through the whole work with the queen of his bene-
factor and uncle. I need not mention the gallantries of
Lancelot and Geneura, nor the cold hard-hearted infidelity
of Artus de la Bretagne. " The whole pleasure of these
bookes," says Ascham, with some truth and n&wete,
" standeth in two specyall poyntes, in open mans slaghter
and bolde bawdrie, in which bookes those be counted the
noblest knights that doe kill most men without any quar-
rell, and commit fowlest adoulteries by sutlest shifts, as
Syr Launcelott with the wife of Kyng Arthure his maister ;
Syr Tristram with the wife of Kyng Marke his vncle ; Syr
Lamerocke with the wife of Kyng Lote, that was his own.
aunte. This is good stuffe for wise men to laugh at, or
honest men to take pleasure at."
1 Much of the morality blamed by Ascham is doubtless derived from
semi-historical material, which the romancer could not suppress any
more than Lord Tennyson in his Idylls of the King, without ceasing to
embody in his work a mass of received legend which it must be remem-
bered was current and to a large extent believed. In many episodes
there seems an attempt to mitigate_ prior records in accordance with a
higher standard. " If it were to be conceded that Wace, Layamon, and
the whole cycle of romances of the Round Table, might have been con-
signed to oblivion without any serious injury to the cause of literature,
we may be reminded that Don Quixote certainly, and Ariosto's Orlando
most probably arose out of them. Perhaps Gorboduc, and Ferrex, and
Porrex, might not be much missed from the dramatic literature of
Europe ; but what should we think of the loss of Lear and Cymbeline ?
Let us, then, thankfully remember Geoffrey of Rlonmouth, to whom
Shakespeare was indebted for the groundwork of those marvellous produc-
tions, and without whose Historia Britonum we should probably never have
had them." Quarterly Review, March, 1848, Rev. R. Garnett. Other
romances evolved from or connected with Celtic or British traditions, would
naturally find a place here, but the limits of our work would be unduly
extended by notice of them. It will be sufficient to' refer the reader for
the most recent information upon them to Mr. Ward's " Catalogue of
Romances," in the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum, 1883, etc.,
where he will find ample indications for the further pursuit of the subject.
CHAPTEE IV.
ROMANCES OF CHIVALBT RELATING TO CHARLEMAGNE AND
HIS PEERS. CHRONICLE OF TURPIN. HUON DE BOR-
DEAUX. GUERIN DE MONGLAVE. GALLIEN RHETORE.
MILLES ET AMYS. JOTJRDAIN DE SLAVES. OGIER LE
DANOIS, ETC.
IT was formerly shown that the romances relating to
Arthur and the knights of the Round Table were in a
great measure derived from the History of Geoffrey of
Monmouth. It now remains for us to investigate what
influence the chronicle falsely attributed to Turpin, or
Tilpin, archbishop of Rheims, the contemporary of Charle-
magne, exercised over the fabulous stories concerning that
prince and his paladins.
The chronicle of Turpin is feigned to be addressed
from Viennes, in Dauphiny, to Leoprandus, dean of Aquis-
granensis (Aix la Chapelle), but was not written, in fact,
till the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth
century. Its real author seems not to be clearly ascer-
tained, but is supposed by some to have been a Canon of
Barcelona, who attributed his work to Turpin. 1
1 Tilpinus, or Turpinus, said by Flodoardus (oh. 966) in his Historia
Ecclesise Remensis, lib. ii. c. 16, to have been Archbishop of Rheims from
about 753 to 800. The writers of Gallia Christiana say that he died in
794. He was archbishop in 778, when Charlemagne made his only re-
corded expedition into Spain, when the French rearguard was defeated
in the Pyrenees, and, as Eginhart says, " Hruodlandus, Brittanici
limitispnefectus," was slain. It is therefore quite possible that Tilpinus
pronounced a funeral oration over Roland at Roncesvaux, an event
which forms the climax of the present work, but no one now supposes
that there is any real connection between the chronicler and the arch-
bishop.
R. P. A. Dozy (Recherches sur 1'histoire de la litterature del'Espagne
pendant le moyenage, Paris, 1881, ii. pp. 372-431) has shown that the
CH. IT.] CHEONICLE OF TURPIN. 275
This production, it is well known, turns on the expedi-
tion of Charlemagne to the peninsula. Some French
writers have denied that Charlemagne ever was in Spain,
but the authority of Eginhart is sufficient to establish the
fact. It seems certain, that about the year 777, the assis-
tance of Charlemagne was invoked by one of those nume-
rous sovereigns, among whom the Spanish provinces were
at that time divided ; that, on pretence of defending this
ally from the aggressions of his neighbours, he extended
his conquests over a great part of Navarre and Arragon ;
and, finally, that on his return to France he experienced a
partial defeat from the treacherous attack of an unexpected
enemy. These simple events have given rise to the
famous battle of Roncesvalles, and the other extravagant
fictions recorded in the chronicle of Turpin.
Charlemagne, according to that work, having conquered
Britain, Italy, Germany, and many other countries, pro-
posed to give himself some repose, though the Saracens
were not yet extirpated ; but, while in this frame of mind,
being fortunately addicted to star-gazing, he one night
perceived a cluster of stars, 1 which, commencing their pro-
cession at the Frisian sea, moved by way of Germany and
France into Gallicia. This phenomenon being repeated,
attracted the thoughts of Charles, but he could form no
rational conjecture as to what was portended. The pro-
digy, which eluded the waking researches of the monarch,
was satisfactorily expounded in a vision. A figure ap-
peared to Charles while he was asleep, introduced itself as
the apostle James, and announced that the planetary
first five chapters of Turpin were the work of a French monk at Com-
postella, and cannot have been written before 1065, and probably not
before 1131. He agrees with Gaston Paris (De Pseudo-Turpino, Paris,
1865) that the remaining chapters are by another hand, or rather by
other htmds. G. Paris has reviewed Dozy's work in the Romania, July,
1882, pp. 419, etc., accepting most of his conclusions, and finally con-
jecturing that the whole work may have been completed towards 1150
by Ainicri Picaud, the author of the Itinerary to Compostella. Turpin's
Chronicle has been republished by the Montpellier Societe pour 1'Etude
<lc> Laiiiriu-s Romanes, by F. Castets, under the title of Turpini Historia
Karoli Magni et Kotholandi, 1880. See Ward, Cat., vol. i. pp. 950, 951
and 546-560.
1 " Intentione sagaci," says Eginhart, " siderum cursum curiosissime
rimabatur." (C. 25.)
276 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
march typified the conquest of Spain, adding, that he had
himself been slain by King Herod, and that his body had
long lain concealed in G-allicia. Hence, continued he,
I am astonished that you have not delivered my land from
the yoke of the Saracens. The apostle's appropriation of
territory was somewhat whimsical, but Charles did not
dispute his title. This prince, however, seems not to have
been renowned for a retentive memory, and accordingly
the apostle took the precaution, on the following night, of
renewing his suggestion.
In consequence of these successive admonitions, Charles
entered Spain with a large army [c. 1], and in vested Pam-
peluna. He lay three months before this town, but could
not take it ; because, says the chronicle, it was impreg-
nable. At the end of this period, however, he bethought
himself of prayer, on which the walls followed the example
of their tottering prototypes of Jericho. The Saracens who
chose to embrace Christianity were spared, but those who
persisted in infidelity were put to the sword. Charles
then paid his respects to the sarcophagus of James, and
Turpin had the satisfaction of baptizing a great proportion
of the Gallicians in the neighbourhood [c. 2].
The main object with this bishop and his master was
.to destroy all the idols which could be discovered ; an
undertaking which, among a people who abominate
idolatry, must have required a very patient research. At
length these images were completely extirpated, except an
obstinate inawmet at Cadiz, which could not be broken,
because it was inhabited by a cluster of demons [c. 4],
After this Charles founded a number of churches, and
endowed them with much wealth ; grants which were
afterwards reclaimed with great zeal by a successor, who
boasted him as a prototype [c. 5].
Charles had scarcely returned to France, when a
strenuous pagan, named Aigolandus, recovered the whole
country, which obliged the French monarch to return with
great armies, of which he gave the command to Milo, the
father of Orlando [c. 6].
While these troops were lying at Bayonne, a soldier,
named Romaricus, died, after having ordered one of his
relations to sell his horse, and distribute the price among
CH. IV.] CHRONICLE OF TURPIN. 277
the clergy and the poor. His kinsman sold the horse, but
spent the money in carousing. After thirty days the
deceased, who had been detained that time in purgatory,
appeared in a dream, upbraided his faithless executor for
the misapplication of the alms, and notified to him that
he might depend on being in Tartarus in the course of the
following day. While reporting this uncomfortable assur-
ance next morning to his fellow- soldiers, he is hurried off
by a flight of demons, and dashed against a rock as a pre-
liminary to subsequent punishment [c. 7J.
After this there follows a long account of the war with
Aigolandus, which was first carried on by two hundred, or
two thousand, soldiers, on one part, engaging an equal
number of the enemy : but at length a general battle was
fought, in which were slain forty thousand Christians, Milo
the commander of the forces, and the horse of Charles.
Next day, however, the French having been reinforced by
four thousand men from the coast of Italy, Aigolandus fled
to a different part of the peninsula, and Charles departed
for France [c. 8].
Aigolandus now carried the war into Gascony, followed
by the Moabitee, Ethiopians, Parthians, and Africans [c.
9]. At Sanctona (Saintonge), previous to a great battle,
certain Christians having fixed their spears in the ground
towards night, found them decorated next morning with
leaves, which signified to the proprietors of these warlike
instruments that they were about to obtain the crown of
martyrdom [c. 10] . Aigolandus was defeated in the battle
with the loss of four thousand of his troops, and fled to
Pampeluna. Thither he was followed by Charles, and an
army of a hundred and thirty -four thousand men [c. 11].
On this occasion the reader is presented with a list of the
chief warriors, among whom are mentioned the names of
Orlando, Kinaldo, Oliviero, and Grano. Charles having ar-
rived at Pampeluna, received a message from Aigolandus,
requesting a truce till his army should come forth fully
prepared for war [c. 12].
This being granted, Aigolandus in the interval paid a
visit to Charles, and was much astonished to hear himself
attacked as an usurper in the Arabic tongue, which Charles
had learned at Coletus (Toulouse). Aigolandus expostu-
278 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
lated, that his competitor had no right either in his own
person, or derived from his ancestors, to the throne of Spain ;
but Charles replied, that the country must be conquered
for the extension of the Christian religion. This brought
on a theological dispute between the two sovereigns, which
terminated in a resolution to fight on the following day,
with a hundred soldiers against a hundred, and a thousand
against a thousand : but Aigolandus being ultimately van-
quished in this singular species of warfare, agreed to be
baptized with his people. For this purpose he came to
Charles next day, and found that monarch carousing, while
thirteen naked beggars were sitting on the ground looking
on the feast. The malapert heathen asked who these were.
Charles replied, rather unfortunately, that they were the
people of God whom he was feeding, and that they re-
presented the apostles. Aigolandus thereupon notified
that he would have nothing to do with such a faith
[c. 14]. 1
Next day a pitched battle was fought, in which Aigolandus
having only a hundred thousand troops, and his enemy a
superiority of thirty-four thousand, was entirely defeated,
and was himself slain, which demonstrated the propriety
of the mode which Charles had adopted of entertaining the
representatives of the apostles [c. 15],
The French monarch next carried on a war against Furra,
a prince of Navarre. On the approach of a battle, he
prayed that the sign of the cross might appear on the
shoulder of those who were predestined to perish in the
action. In order to evade the decrees of Providence, Charles
shut up the soldiers who had been marked in consequence
of this application, in his oratory ; but on returning from
the battle, in which he vanquished the enemy, he found
that all those he had in ward were dead, to the number of
a hundred and fifty, which evinced the impiety of his pre-
caution [c. 17].
While in Navarre, it is reported to Charles that a Syrian
giant of first-rate enormity, called Ferracutus (the Ferrau
1 A similar story occurs in the Cento Novelle Antiche, No. 24. In
this case the answer is " gli amiei di lor Signore." Sachetti (Nov. 115),
tells the same story, with a Spanish Jew instead of a Sultan. H.
JENNER.
CH. IV.] CHRONICLE OP TUBPIN. 279
of the Italians), 1 had appeared at Nagera. This creature
possessed most exuberant proportions : he was twelve
cubits high, his face was a cubit in length, and his nose
a measured palm. As soon as Charles arrived at Nagera,
this unwieldy gentleman proposed a single combat, but
the king was so little tempted by a personal survey, that
he declined his offer. Ogerius the Dane was therefore se-
lected as the Christian champion, but the giant trussing
him under one arm, carried him off to the town, and
served a succession of knights in a similar manner, Or-
lando at length went out against him. The Saracen, as
usual, commenced the attack by pulling his antagonist from
the saddle, and rode off with him, till Orlando, exerting all
his force, seized him by the chin, and both fell to the
ground. When they had remounted, the knight thinking
to kill the pagan, only cut off the head of his horse. Fer-
rau being now on foot, Orlando struck a blow on his arm
that knocked the sword from his hand ; on which the
giant slew his adversary's horse with a pat of his fist.
After this the opponents fought on foot, and with swords,
till towards evening, when Ferrau demanded a truce till
next day.
In the morning Orlando had recourse to a new sort of
implement ; he attacked his enemy with an immense club,
which had no more effect than the finer weapon. The
champions now assaulted each other with stones ; but when
this species of warfare was at the hardest, giants being
naturally prone to somnolency, Ferrau became overpowered
with sleep, and again begged a truce. When he had com-
posed himself to rest, his courteous antagonist placed a
stone below his head, that he might sleep more softly.
When he awoke, Orlando took an opportunity of asking
him how he was so hardy, that he neither dreaded sword
nor batoon. The giant, who must have been more remark -
1 Boiardo (Orlando Innamorato, i. iv. 8) with whom Berni agrees,
calls Ferragu's father Falsirone and his mother Laufusa, mentioned as
a witch by Ariosto (Orl. Fur., xxv. 74, xxxv. 74). The incidents of
Ferragu's carrying off his antagonists under his arm is used by Boiardo,
i. 4, 40, 7, 12, and of his religious disputation, i. 18, 41, etc. Seo
further respecting Farragut in Boiardo's " Roland," von G. Regis,
Glossar., p. 407.
280 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
able for strength, than caution, explained the whole mys-
tery, by acknowledging that he was everywhere invulner-
able except in the navel. Ferrau, in his turn, made less
pertinent enquiries concerning the name, lineage, and faith
of his foe. This last subject being started, Orlando, hoping
to make a convert, explained the articles of his creed. The
giant opened the controversy by questioning the possibility
of three being one, but Orlando vanquished his arithmetical
scruples by a number of ingenious illustrations ; as that an
almond is a single nut, though it consists of three things,
the husk, the shell, and the kernel. The disputant replied,
that he had now a very clear conception how three made
one, but that he was scandalized at a virgin producing.
Orlando reminded him that there was nothing more re-
markable in this, than in the original creation of Adam.
Our giant readily waived this point, but could not compre-
hend how a God could die. The arguments on this head
he seems to have been as little prepared to canvass as the
other topics, but entrenched himself within what he con-
sidered his last stronghold, that the God who died could
not come alive again. It was argued by Orlando, that
there was nothing impossible in this, as Elijah and Elisha
readily revived after their death, and that the dead cubs of
a lioness can be resuscitated on the third day, by the breath
of the mother. Orlando must, no doubt, have expected,
that the ingenuity of this last illustration would have com-
pleted the work of conversion ; what then must have been
his disappointment, when the pertirfacious Saracen, by de-
manding that a sword should be admitted into the con-
ference, proved that his head was as impenetrable to argu-
ment as his body to the incomparable edge of Durindana.
In the ensuing combat, Orlando made great use of the in-
formation he had received concerning the perforable part
of his antagonist, who being slain in consequence, the
city of Nagera surrendered to the arms of Charlemagne
[c.18].
After this success, the French monarch received intelli-
gence that Ebraim, king of Sibilia (Seville), who had
escaped from, the battle before Pampeluna, was encamped
at Cordova, ready to resist his invasion. Charles, without
loss of time, marched to the south of Spain. When the
CH. IV.] CHEONICLE OF TUEPIN. 281
French vanguard approached the enemy, it found that the
troops of the hostile army wore bearded masks, that they
had added horns to their heads, and that each soldier held
a drum in his hand', which he beat with prodigious violence.
The horses, quite unaccustomed to this sort of masquerade,
immediately took fright, and spread considerable confusion
in the Christian army, which with difficulty retreated to an
eminence. Next day, however, previous to an attack,
Charles ordered his horses to be hoodwinked, and their
ears to be stopped with wax. This stratagem, or ars mira-
liUix, as it is called in the chronicle, rendered useless the
martial prelude of the enemy, and gained Charles the vic-
tory. A similar device is resorted to, on a like occasion, in
the metrical romance of Richard Coaur de Lion, by the
English monarch. 1
The capture of Cordova was the immediate fruit of the
success of Charlemagne, and Spain being now entirely sub-
dued, the conqueror made a proper partition cf the king-
dom. He bestowed Navarre on the Britons, Castille on the
French, and Arragon on the Greeks, while Andalusia and
Portugal were assigned to the Flemings [c. 19].
After the account of this distribution, the historian most
seasonably introduces a description of the person of his
hero, and the capacities of his stomach. As to his external
appearance, he had dark hair, a ruddy countenance, a stern
aspect, but a graceful and elegant form. This, indeed, ap-
pears from his dimensions, fox his legs were thick, his alti-
tude eight feet, and his belly protuberant. His daily con-
sumption of provisions, though almost incredible, scarcely
exceeds that of Louis XIV., of whose diet an account has
been served up in the Walpoliana. 2 During night, Charles
was guarded by a hundred and twenty of the orthodox,
who relieved each other during three watches, ten being
placed at his head, ten at his feet, and the same number
on either side, each holding a naked falchion in one hand
and a burning torch in the other [c. 21].
When Charles had arrived as far as Pampeluna on his
return to France, he bethought himself that he had yet left
in Spain two Saracen kings, Marsirius (the same who in
1 See Ellis, Metr. Rom. iii. p. 267, etc.
3 This reference of Dunlop's would seem to be erroneous.
282 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. TV.
Ariosto is present at the siege of Paris by Agramante), and
his brother Beligandus, who reigned jointly at Caesarau-
gusta (Saragossa). To these miscreants he despatched
Gannalon (the Gan Traditor of Italian poets) l to expatiate
on the necessity of their paying tribute and receiving bap-
tism. They sent Charles a quantity of sweet wine and a
thousand houris, but at the same time bribed the ambas-
sador to betray his master. Gannalon, on his return to
head-quarters, reported that Marsirius was well disposed
to become a Christian and to pay tribute. Trusting to this
information, Charles made a disposition on his march to
France, by which he lost the half of his army. He him-
self passed the Pyrenees in safety with part of his troops ;
but the second division, commanded by Orlando, consisting
of 20,000 men, was unexpectedly attacked in the defiles of
1 Ganelon is placed by Dante (Inf. xxxii.) in the second division of
the ninth circle of Hell :
" I turn'd
And saw before and underneath my feet
A lake whose frozen surface liker seem'd
To glass than water .... thus low
Blue pinched and shrined in ice the spirits stood,
Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.
His face each downward held ; their mouth the cold,
Their eyes expressed the dolour of their heart.
******
If I misdeem not, Soldanieri bides,
With Ganellon, and Tribaldello," etc.
While, on the one hand, very various etymologies have been suggested
for the word Ganelon, on the other it has been sought to derive from it
the Romance verb ingannare, enganar, to cheat, a word from which more
probably, however, the name itself took origin. Ingannare, old French
engigner, is probably from ingenium in its later sense of dolus, astutia.
Ganelon became a mediaeval proverbial type of perfidy. The historical
personage which underlies the character is probably the Aquitanian
Duke Lope or Lupus, see Grimm (Einleitung zum Rolandslied, p. cxix.),
who cites a document dated January 21, 845, issued by Charles the
Bald, wherein the latter calls Lupus, " omnibus pejoribus pessimus, ac
perfidissimus supra omnes mortales, operibus et nomine Lupus, latro
potius quam dux dicendus," etc. See F. W. V. Schmidt, Wiener
Jahrb., bd. xxxi. p. 101, and Regis, Boiardo, p. 415-16. See also Du-
cange (voc. Ganelo), who conjectures an identity between Ganelon and
Guinille or Wenille, upon whom Charles the Bald conferred the arch-
bishopric of Sens.
CH. IV.] CHRONICLE OF TURPIN. 283
Koncesvalles, by a guerilla of 50,000 Saracens, and was cut
to pieces, except Orlando and a few knights [c. 22]. l
The main body of the pagans having retired, Orlando
discovered a stray Saracen, whom he bound to a tree.
After this exploit he ascended an eminence, and sounded
his ivory horn, 2 which rallied around him a hundred Chris-
tians, the remains of his army. Though the pagans had,
with little loss to themselves, reduced his soldiers from
20,000 to 100, Orlando by no means despaired of dis-
comfiting the host of his enemy. He returned with his
small band to the Saracen he had put in durance, and
threatened to kill him unless he would show him Mar-
sirius. The Saracen yielded to so powerful an argument,
and pointed out his king, who was distinguished by his
bay horse and round shield. Orlando rushed among the
pagans and slew their monarch, which induced Beligandus
to fall back with his army on Saragossa. In this brilliant
enterprise the hundred Christians were killed, and their
commander severely wounded. Wandering through a
forest, Orlando arrived alone at the entrance to the pass of
Cisera, where, exhausted with wounds, and grieving for
the loss of his army, he threw himself under a tree. As a
refreshment, he commenced a long address to his sword
Durindana, 3 which he complimented with all the super-
1 The valley of Roncesvalles, where this catastrophe is supposed to
have happened, lies to the north-east of Pampeluna. It extends to St.
Jean Pied de Porte in Basse Navarre, and receives its name from the
mountain of Roncesvalles, which terminates this plain, and is accounted
the highest of the Pyrenees.
9 Named Olivant or Oliphant. Turpin calls it " tuba eburnea."
3 The name is found with several variations, Durandal, Durendar,
Durrenda, Durandarda. Boiardo makes it first Hector's, then Almont's,
then Roland's sword. For conjectured etymologies see Ducange, Gloss.
See also Regis, Boiardo, p. 406, for an account of the weapon. In the
same connection may be consulted an article upon swords in the Con-
temporary Review, vol. xxxviii. p. 595, etc. Plutarch says (Mallet's
Northern Antiquities, cit.) that the heroes of the Cimbri called their
swords by such names as might inspire terror.
See an article on Swords of Celtic Romance, All the Year Round,
1879, xxii. p. 271.
SWORD NAMES.
Balmuug, in the Nibelungenlied. Siegfried's sword.
Ascalon. St. George's. Seven Champions.
284 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
latives in the Latin language " Fortitudine firmissime,
capulo eburneo candidissime, cruce aurea splendidissime,"
&c. &c.
The dying champion next blew his horn with such force
that he burst it. 1 Charles, who was then in G-ascony,
heard the peal distinctly, and wished to return to the suc-
cour of his nephew, but was persuaded by Gannalon that
he could be in no danger, and that he was merely taking
the diversion of hunting in the forests. The blast, however,
brought to him Theodoricus, the only surviving knight.
Orlando had received the Sacrament that morning, and
had confessed himself to certain priests, which this learned
chronicle informs us was the universal custom of knights
before proceeding to battle. Nothing, therefore, remained
for the hero but to make a long prayer before he expired. 2
Marandaise. Ryance's.
Excalibur or Caliburn. King Arthur's.
Arondight. Lancelot's.
Joyeuse. Charlemagne's.
Durindana. Roland's.
Floberge. Renaud de Montauban's.
Maroke. Sir Eglamour's.
Morglay. Sir Bevis of Hampton's.
Tizona (Firebrand). The Cid's.
Colada. The Cid's second.
Bowannee. Sivajee's (India).
Corouge. Sir Otuel's.
Curtana. At coronation of Henry III.
Crocea Mors. J. Caesar's.
1 This horn has been of infinite service to future poets and romancers.
Logystilla, in the Orlando Furioso (c. 15, 14), bestows it on Astolpho, and
Prince Arthur's squire is furnished with a similar one by Spenser
(Faery Queen, b. i. c. viii. st. 3, 4). Warton (History of English Poetry,
ed. 1871, ii. p. 135) thinks the idea of this potent horn may have origi-
nated in Simeon Seth's " Life of Alexander." Warton, however,
merely writes as he says from memory, and may have had in his mind
the history De Cornu Sancti Simeonis, apud Gervase, Tilbur. Otia Im-
per. iii. 70. These marvellous horns are perhaps to be traced to that of
Alecto in -#5neis vii. 513.
The idea, says Liebrecht, in a note on the present passage, may be
more plausibly regarded as a reflection of the Gjallarhorn of Heimdal,
audible throughout the world, and wherewith he is to give the signal for
battle at the Twilight of the Gods. The whistle of the Slavonic robber
chief Solovyof is audible afar and slays all (except the hero) whose ears
it reaches.
2 It may be noted, however, that the knights sometimes confessed one
CH. IV.] CHRONICLE OF TURPIN. 285
At this very moment Turpin was standing by King
Charles, saying mass for the souls of certain persons lately
deceased, and informs the reader, that while thus em-
ployed, he heard the songs of the angels who were convey-
ing Orlando to Heaven. At the same time a phalanx of
demons passed before the archbishop, and notified that
they were so far on their way to Gehenna with the soul of
one Marsirius, but that Michael, with an angel crowd, was
conveying the trumpeter aloft (Tubicinem virum cum
multis Michael fert ad superna). As no person could doubt
the accuracy of these respectable deponents, Turpin an-
nounced to Charles the death of his nephew. Charles
immediately returned to Eoncesvalles, where he uttered a
learned lamentation over the remains of Orlando, whom
he compared to Samson, Saul, Jonathan, and Judas Mac-
cabeus, and then embalmed the body with balsam, myrrh,
and aloes.
Charles now thought of taking vengeance on the hea-
then, as an incitement to which the sun held out to him
the same encouragement it had formerly done to Joshua.
By this means he came up with the Saracens, while yet
reposing on the banks of the Ebro in the neighbourhood
of Saragossa. Of them he killed four thousand, a favourite
number with this historian, and then returned to Ron-
cesvalles. Here he instituted an inquiry into the conduct
of Gannalon, and the champion of that traitor having been
slain in single combat, he was tied to the four most ferocious
horses in the army, and thus torn to pieces.
There is next related the manner in which the Chris-
tians preserved the bodies of their friends, and the final
interment of each species of mummy. 1
to another, when no priest was at hand. Sec Joinville, Histoire de St.
Louis, cd. De Wailly, Paris, 1874, p. 195. There were also symbolical
or superstitious forms of communion, with leaves, etc. See Chanson de
Roland, ed. L. Gautier, line 2023, and note. See also Caesarius Heister-
bacensis Dial, de Mirac. Distinctio 5, cap. xix. ; and Hugo Grotius,
Dissert, de Coanse Administratione ubi pastores non sunt. Letters con-
taining some information on these points appeared in the " Tablet,"
January and February, 1886.
1 The origin and incidents of this expedition of Charlemagne are told
in a totally different manner by the Spanish historians. They assert
that Charlemagne was called into Spain by Alphonso, king of Leon, on
286 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. IV.
The emperor having returned to Paris, St. Denis in-
formed him, in a dream, that all those who had fallen in
Spain had their sins forgiven ; and at the same time took
the opportunity of mentioning that a similar mercy would
be extended to those who gave money for building his
church. Those who contributed willingly were freed from
all servitude, whence the name of Graul was changed into
France.
Charles had been much debilitated by his campaign in
the peninsula. For the sake of the warm baths he re-
paired to Leodio (Liege), where he built a palace, in which
was painted the story of his wars in Spain. Now it fell
out that one day, while Turpin, who resided at Viennes,
was officiating before the altar, a host of demons, who
seem to be the newsmongers in this history, passed before
him with unusual velocity. Having interrogated one of
these, who resembled an Ethiopian, and was lagging be-
hind the rest, he was advertised that they were all going
to attend at the death of Charles, and hurry his soul to
Tartarus. Turpin requested that, having despatched their
errand, they would return with the earliest intelligence.
The fiends were faithful to their appointment, but were
reduced to the mortifying acknowledgment that a G-ali-
cian, without a head, having weighed the sins and merits
of Charles, had deprived them of their expected prize, and
conveyed the soul in a quite contrary direction from what
they had intended. In fifteen days after, a special mes-
senger or express arrived at Viennes, who confirmed the
deposition of the demons as to the death of Charles, a loss
which could have excited no surprise, as the sun and moon
a promise to nominate him as a successor if he would assist in the expul-
sion of the Moors. Charlemagne was successful in his efforts against the
infidels, but the nobles and chieftains of Alphonso disapproving of the
ulterior part of their sovereign's compact, supported by Bernardo del
Carpio, and at length by their own monarch, attacked and cut to pieces
an immense army, with which the French emperor had encamped on the
plain of Roncesvalles. The incidents are represented in a similar manner
in the Spanish romantic poems. In the Orlando of Nicholas Espinosa,
Con el verdadero successo de la famosa Batalla de Koncesvalles, pub-
lished 1557, Bernardo del Carpio stifles Orlando to death, and the poet
declares,
" Cantera la verdad aquesta historia,
Y no segun Turpin Frances lo siente."
CH. IV.] CHEOKICLE OP TURPIN. 287
had prepared the minds of his subjects for the event, by
assuming a black colour for six days preceding his decease.
Besides, his name was spontaneously effaced from a church ;
and a wooden bridge over the Rhine, which took six years
to build, had been recently consumed by internal fire.
Turpin concludes his history with a remark, which seems
to be intended as the moral of the whole work, that he
who builds a church on earth cannot fail of obtaining a
palace in Heaven.
I have given this minute analysis of the absurd chronicle
of Turpin in deference to the common opinion, that it had
a remarkable influence on the early romances relating to
Charlemagne, and thence on the splendid monuments of
human genius that have been erected by the Italian poets.
It must, however, be remarked, that there are few incidents
in this work which breathe the spirit of romantic fiction.
There are no castles nor dragons, no amorous knights, and
no distressed damsels. The chronicle is occupied with
wars on an extensive scale, and with the theological con-
troversies of chiefs in the Saracen and Christian armies.
Indeed the campaign of Charlemagne seems to have been
chiefly formed on the model of the wars of Joshua. Jericho
and Pampeluna fall in the same manner into the hands of
the besiegers : the stratagem of Marsirius resembles that
of the Gribeonites, and the victors divide the conquered
lands in a similar manner among their followers. Many
wonders, it is true, are related in the chronicle of Turpin,
but they more resemble the miracles of the monkish legends
than the beautiful fables that decorate romance. These
fictions, according to the principles already established,
must have flowed from other sources, though the historical
materials to be found in some of the romances of Charle-
magne may have been derived from the chronicle. 1 It has
been much doubted whether the Italian poets consulted
the original Turpin. Ariosto quotes him for stories of
which he does not say a single word, and which are the
most absurd and incredible in his poem ; as Voltaire, subse-
quently, in the Pucelle d'Orleans, laid the onus probandi
on the Abbe Tritheme. Thus in the Orlando Furioso,
1 Modern critics no longer hold this view. See note infra, p. 293.
288 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
Scrive Turpino, come furo ai Passi
Dell alto Atlante, che i cavalli loro
Tutti in un punto diventaron Sassi. C. 44, st. 23.
Boiardo, whose Orlando Innamorato, in its original form,
is the most serious of the romantic poems of Italy, jocularly
calls the chronicle of Turpin his True History, as Cervantes
terms his feigned authorities,
La vera Historia di Turpin ragiona
Che regnava in la terra d'Oriente, &c.
ORL. INN., c. 1, st. 4.
The incidents in the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci are those
which approach nearest to the chronicle, yet Crescimbeni
has asserted that it was never seen by that father of
romantic poetry. 1 The conclusion of the Morgante, how-
ever, seems almost copied from Turpin. Grano is there sent
ambassador to King Marsilio to negotiate a treaty : he trea-
cherously writes that this king is ready to pay tribute, and
requests Charlemagne to send his paladins to Roncesvalles
to receive it. There they are attacked by the Saracens.
Orlando sounded his horn, but Gano at first persuaded
Charles that he was hunting. At the third blast, however,
the king proceeded to Spain, but Orlando was dead before
his arrival. He then besieged and took Saragossa ; and,
after the return to France, Grano was pulled to pieces by
four horses. These circumstances bear a stronger resem-
blance to the chronicle of Turpin than to any intermediate
romance, for it is clear that the French romance of Mor-
gante is not the original, but a version of the Italian poem.
But whatever may have been its effect on the Italian
poems, it is probable, from its wide circulation and great
popularity, that the chronicle of Turpin had some influence
on the romances of Charlemagne, or at least the metrical
tales from which they were immediately formed. 2 The
work was very generally read in the fourteenth century,
and was several times translated into French with varia-
tions and additions. Of these versions the first is by
1 " Luigi Pulci spesso volta la cita piu per giuoco, crediam noi, che
perche egli 1' avesse veduta." Istoria della Volg. Poes., i. 329.
a See note, p. 293, and Romania, Nos. 55-56, p. 398, etc.
CH. IV.] CHRONICLE OP TUBPIN. 289
Michel de Harnes, who lived as early as the time of Philip
Augustus, 1 and the next by Gaguin, who was librarian to
Charles VIII. 2 There were also a number of French
metrical paraphrases, which were nearly coeval with the
original chronicle.
Tn the reign of St. Louis (1226-1270) there appeared a
romance in verse on the exploits of Charlemagne by Jean
Bodel, which chiefly relates to the wars of that monarch
with the Saxons and their celebrated chief Guitichens
(Witikend).
About the time of Philip the Hardy (1270-1285), G-irard,
or Girardin, of Amiens, composed a metrical romance on the
actions of Charlemagne, divided into three books. Of these
the first gives an account of an early expedition of Charles,
under the name of Maine, into Arragon, to assist Galaf re, a
Saracen, whose daughter he marries after vanquishing her
father's enemies ; a story which, in a much later romance,
is told of Charles Martel. The second book contains his
wars in Italy against Didier, king of the Lombards, and
differs little from what is contained in the authentic
histories relating to Charlemagne. The third book is a
rhythmical version of the chronicle of Turpin.
Nearly at the same time, in another voluminous metrical
romance, an account was given of Charlemagne's prepara-
tions for his expedition to the Holy Land, and the adven-
tures of some of his knights who preceded him to that
region. Nothing, however, is said of the conquest of
Palestine, and indeed the reality of this enterprise is denied
by all authentic historians, though it found its way into
many of the absurd and fabulous chronicles of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries. 3
1 See Ducange, Glossaire to Villehardouin's " Histoire de 1'Empire de
Constantinople, Paris, 1657, s.v. Bozine, Guenchir, etc. According,
however, to Reiffenberg, see in Philippe, Mouskes, ii. p. clxxix., it
was composed by Maistre Jean at the behest of Michel de Harnes, a
Belgian nobleman. LIEB.
2 Hist. Litt. de la France, iv. p. 209.
3 On this Chanson du pelerinage de Charlemagne, see an article in
Romania, ix. (1880), pp. 1-50, by M. Gaston Paris, who shows that it
may probably have been composed in the eleventh century, before the
first crusade, but not have received its present form till the thirteenth
century. An analysis and account of the work is given by Leon Gautier,
I. TT
290 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
PHILOMENA.
There is another work somewhat resembling the chronicle
of Turpin, which, according to the authors of L'Histoire
Litteraire de la France, was not later than the middle of the
tenth century, while the Count de Cajlus places its compo-
sition in the reign of Louis IX. (1226-1270). It is called
in Epopees Francises, iii. (1880). It has been edited by F. Michel,
London, 1836, and by E. Koschwitz, in the Altfranzosische Bibliothek
(Heilbronn, 1880), from the only MS. extant, formerly in the British
Museum (Keg. 16, E. viii.). Simon de Pouille, another chanson de geste
of about 5,200 alexandrines, relating an expedition sent by Charlemagne
against the Saracens in the East, is also analyzed by Michel in the work
above mentioned. Ward, Cat. i. pp. 625-629. The printed prose version
of Charlemagne's pilgrimage, which appeared under the name of Galyen
Rhetore, or Restore, will be found described further on, p. 315. Albericus
Trium Fontium, under date 802, mentions an expedition of Charlemagne
to Constantinople and Jerusalem. LIEB.
This figment of Charlemagne's voyage to the East offers a striking
example of the growth of fiction about a historical personage, and, in
accordance with the scope of the present work, affords an opportunity
for presenting the reader with a view of the filiation of the different
versions of the romance, as deduced from the internal evidence of the
material extant, by modern specialist critics, and will be as good a way
as any of giving some idea of the nature of their labour, though by no
means of its extent, which has in recent years attained enormous pro-
portions.
The Danish fifteenth century Karl Magnus's " Kronicke," and the old
Swedish version, have both been deduced to a common source, which is
no longer extant, and may, therefore, be hypot helically designated by <r.
Similarly, the four known Norse manuscripts, distinguished into two
groups, are all derived through probable intermediate texts, a, /3, from
a prior supposed text, K, which also perhaps was the basis of the Ice-
landic rhymed Geiplur. c and a are regarded as descended from the
Karlamagnus Saga in the text edited Christiania, 1860. Now, besides
the above Scandinavian forms of the work, several French prose versions
of the romance exist : that known as the Arsenal Library MS., and
that which passed under the name of Galiende Restore, which itself has
various texts. These later prose versions exhibit indications of an imme-
diate metrical source, no longer known, v, which in its turn proceeds,
with the Karlamagnus Saga, from a common fount, again hypothetical,
y. In collateral relation to this fount, y, stands the Welsh Ystoria
Charles of the Mabinogion, both being further referred to a supposed
text, z, which again is derived from the same original, o, as the old
French Chanson du pelerinage de Charlemagne, Brit. Mus. Reg. 16,
E. viii. So that the stemma may be thus represented :
CH. IV.] PHILOMENA. 291
Philomena, 1 a name derived from that of a presumed con-
temporary of Charlemagne, to whom it was attributed, and
by whom it was reported to have been composed en langue
vulgaire. It is said to have been subsequently translated into
Latin, between 1015-1019, by a certain Vidal or Grilles, at the
request of Bernard, abbot of the monastery of Notre Dame
Ualien Rethore,
Viaggio in Ispag-
na, ed. by Ceruti.
Eighteenth cen-
tury imitations by
La Chaussee, and
M. J. Chcnier.
The works which have been consulted for these remarks, and in which
tliu subject may be further pursued are :
G. Paris, Histoire Poetique de Charlemagne, Paris, 1865 ; E. Kosch-
witz, Karls des Grossen Keise nach Jerusalem, Bd. ii. of the Allfranzo-
sischc Bibliothek, Heilbronn, 1880 ; E. Koschwitz, Sechs Bearbeitungen
des Altfranzosischen Gedichts von Karls . . . Keise, etc., Heilbronn,
1879 ; and E. Koschwitz, Ueberlieferung und Sprache der Chanson du
Voyage de Charlemagne, etc., Heilbronn, 1876, and M. Leon Gautier's
fine work, " Les Epopees Fran<;aises," etc., 1878, etc., vol. iii.
1 The Philomena has been edited by S. Ciampi, under the title, Gesta
Caroli Magni ad Carcassonam et Narbonam et de sedificatione Monas-
terii Crassensis (Florence, 1823). This Latin text is pronounced by
M. Paul Meyer (Kecherches sur 1'Epopee francaisc, 1867, pp. 26-33) to
be a translation from the Provencal text, composed about 1200, which
has been preserved only, as far as is known, in[the British Museum MS.
21,218, and in a Gascon variety in the Bibliothequc Nationale MS. Fr.
223-2. See Ward, Cat., vol. i. p. 596-8, where reference to various
notices of the work will be found. Specimens of the Provensal text,
which has not been printed as yet in extenso, will be found in the Bib-
liotlir<iue des Romans, October, 1777, i. p. 170. See also the Academie
des Inscriptions, etc., vol. xxi. ; Gaillard, Hist, de Charlemagne,
iii. 384.
292 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
de la G-rasse. It contains an account of the exploits of the
emperor against the Moors of Spain, but is more especially
devoted to the history and miracles of the abbey, the
foundation of which the author attributes to Charlemagne.
In the
REALI DI FRANCIA/
an ancient Italian chronicle, we are presented with a
fabulous account of the early periods of the French
monarchy previous to the age of Charlemagne, the first
exploits of that monarch, and the amours of Milo, father
of Orlando, with Bertha, Charlemagne's sister.
There were also many rhythmical French romances on
the subject of the paladins of Charlemagne. The northern
bards, who followed Rollo to France, introduced their native
traditions ; those, for instance, relating to Ogier the Dane,
and other northern heroes, who were afterwards enlisted
into the tales of chivalry. The earliest French metrical
romances related, as we have seen, to Arthur ; but when
Normandy had fallen under the dominion of the kings of
France, and that country began to look on England with
an eye of jealousy, which was the prelude to more open
hostility, the native minstrels changed their theme of the
praises of the Round Table knights to the more acceptable
subject of the paladins of Charlemagne. In the thirteenth
century, Adenez, who was a kind of poet laureat to
Henry III., duke of Brabant, wrote the metrical romance,
L'Fjnfance d'Ogier le Danois ; and about the same period,
Huon de Villeneuve produced the still more celebrated
compositions of Regnauld de Montauban, Doolin de
Mayence, Maugis d'Aigremont, and Quatre fils Aimon.
1 Li sei libri de li Reali di Franza: ne liquali se contienenola genera-
tions delli Imperatori ; Re ; Duchi ; Principi ; Baroni ; Paladini di
Franza : con li gran fatti & battaglie da loro fatte. Commenzando da
Constantino Imperatore fino ad Orlando conte Daglante. Dunlop says,
so little of this work, notwithstanding its importance in connection with
the Carlovingian romances, that one is led to think he may not have seen
the work itself, which, despite numerous impressions, is rare in the old
editions, while the later North-Italian popular reprints are often very
incomplete, and sometimes want the sixth book. Wiener Jahrb., xxxi.
p. 105.
CH. IV.] EEALI DI FEANCIA. 293
The metrical romances above mentioned l may be con-
1 The popular ballads, or cantilenes, as French writers have styled
them, where the exploits of the great Charles were sung and handed
down from his own to later days, formed at once the basis of the longer
chansons de gcste and of such spurious relations as Turpin's Chronicle.
Wholly distinct from sober history, as recorded in works such as Egin-
hart's " Memoir of Charlemagne," written in Latin, and therefore acces-
sible to but few, they were composed in the language of the people,
uncommitted to writing, and consequently subject to all the diversify-
ing and differentiating influences of oral tradition. The French, the
Spaniards, and the Gascons have all their different versions of the
defeat of Koncesvalles. Turpin's Chronicle, far from being the founda-
tion of this early poetical fund (see supra, pp. 287, etc.), is composed
either from the Chanson de Koland, as it is now known, or upon the
previously existing materials which supplied the foundation of that poem,
now claimed by the French as a national epic. In the absence of written
monuments recent French criticism, taking into consideration Charle-
magne's Frankish nationality, has manifested a strong tendency to re-
gard this earlier ballad literature as Teutonic in language, though a
reaction against this theory may be surely looked for soon. The ballads
no doubt celebrated single episodes and incidents, and must have been
sung in both Romance and Teutonic dialects. There is, indeed, a record
of how one such metrical tale (see Gautier, Roland, Introd., p. xvii.)
was handed down and sung in chorus by women. They may, perhaps,
be looked on as analogous with the numerous early ballads of Spain, or
with those which were incorporated into the Saxon Chronicle. In the
eleventh century we find \kejongleurs, or wandering minstrels, forming
a class in France, whose profession it was to amuse by chanting or
reciting such ballads. They had thus the opportunity and materials
for the combination of these into the longer chansons de geste, a work
which was also done by the trouveurs, or professional poets, who com-
mitted their works to writing, which have thus remained to us, while the
earlier songs, the original scattered components, have been lost. These
longer works in the fifteenth century were reproduced in prose, a form
in which they have been fixed by the invention of printing, while it has
been left for the erudite of the present century to re-awaken national
interest in the poems which had remained so long the manuscript trea-
sures of libraries and the learned. The prose form of these romances is
that from which they were conveyed to England, as for instance in the
translations of Lord Berners (Huon), and that (of Aymon) ascribed to
Cuxton and others. It is to be regretted that the prose romances were
so degenerate in comparison with the poems on which they were founded.
Charlemagne, the hero of the earlier works, often becomes a mere dotard
in the later compositions. It is unnecessary to dwell longer here on this
subject, whereon so much has recently been written. Good articles in
si'MTiil leading English maga/.ines upon the Song of Roland have been,
during the last few years, particularly numerous. Information of a
more detailed character will be found in the introduction to M. Leon
Gautier's edition of Roland, in M. Gaston Paris' dissertation on Turpin,
294 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
sidered as sources which supplied with materials the early
writers of the prose romances relating to Charlemagne ;
but though they may have suggested his expedition to
Spain and the Holy Land, with several other circum-
stances, the authors of the prose romances of Charlemagne
seem to have written more from fancy, and less slavishly
to have followed the metrical tales by which they were
preceded, than the compilers of the fables concerning
Arthur. They added incidents which were the creatures
of their own imagination, and embellished their dreams
with the speciosa miracula, derived from the fables of
Arabia, or from northern and classical mythology. Heroes
of romance, besides, are frequently decorated with the
attributes belonging to their predecessors or descendants.
Many of the events related in the romantic story of
Charlemagne are historically true with regard to Charles
Martel. When the fame of the latter was eclipsed by the
renown of Charlemagne, the songs of the minstrels and
legends of the monks transferred the exploits of the
Armorican chief to his more illustrious descendant.
Thus, from the ancient chronicles and early metrical
romances ; from the exploits of individual heroes, concen-
trated in one ; from the embellishments added by the
imagination of the author, and the charms of romantic
fiction, sprung those formidable compilations we are about
to encounter, and which form the second division of Ro-
mances of Chivalry.
It is still more difficult to fix the dates of the fabulous
times relating to Charlemagne than of those of the Bound
Table.
HtTON DE BOURDEAUX, 1
though written in verse as far back as the thirteenth cen-
in remarks of Lee, Hausknecht, and others, prefixed to the Charlemagne
romances published by the English Text Society, and, accessible to
everyone, the introduction prefixed to O'Hagan's English verse transla-
tion of the Song of Roland, where much information on the subject will be
found inavery readable form. See Romania, Juill.-Oct., 1885, p. 398, etc.
1 Les prouesses et faictz merveilleux du noble Huon de bordeaulx, per
de France, due de guyenne. Paris, Le Noir, 1516. The original chanson
de geste is supposed from its dialect, etc. , to be the work of a trouverc of
Artois. See Guessard. Les Anciens Poetes Francais.
CH. IV.] HUON DE BOUBDEAUX. 295
tury, is not, in its present form, supposed to be long ante-
rior to the invention of printing, as there are no manu-
scripts of it extant. It is said, indeed, at the end of the
work, that it was written by desire of Charles Seigneur de
Rochfort, and completed on the 29th of January, 1454 ;
but it is suspected that the conclusion is of a date some-
what more recent than the first part of the romance. The
oldest edition is one in folio, without date, and the second
is in quarto, 1516. ' There are also different impressions
in the original language of a more recent period. Huon
of Bordeaux, indeed, seems to have been a favourite ro-
mance, not only among the French, but also with other
nations. The English translation, executed by Lord Ber-
ners in the reign of Henry VIII., has gone through three
editions, and it has lately formed the subject of the finest
poem in the German language.
As the incidents in the Oberon of Wieland are nearly
the same with those in the old French romance, and are
universally known through the beautiful translation of
Mr. Sotheby, it will not be necessary to give so full an
analysis of the work as it would be otherwise entitled to,
from its antiquity, singularity, and beauty.
Huon, and his brother Girard, while travelling from
their own domains of Guyenne to pay homage to Charle-
magne, are treacherously waylaid by Chariot, the em-
peror's son, who, by the advice of evil counsellors, had
formed the design of appropriating their possessions.
Having killed, though in self-defence, the favourite son of
his sovereign, Huon could not obtain pardon, except on
the whimsical condition that he should proceed to the
court of the Saracen Amiral, or Emir Gaudisse, who ruled
in Bagdad that he should appear while this potentate
was at table cut off the head of the bashaw who sat at
his right hand kiss his daughter three times, and bring,
as a tribute to Charlemagne, a lock of his white beard, and
four of his most efficient grinders.
Before setting out on this excursion, Huon proceeds to
Rome, where he is advised by his uncle, the pope, 2 to per-
1 A copy in the British Museum, printed by Le Noir, bears the date
" mil. v. cens et treize."
2 Huon claims relationship also with the Abbot of Clugny (see infr.
296 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
form a pilgrimage to Palestine, and thence depart on tlie
remainder of his expedition.
Having complied with this injunction, and visited the
holy sepulchre, Huon sets out for the coast of the Red
Sea, but wanders in a forest, where he supports himself
with wild fruits and honey till the end of the third day,
when he meets an old man of gigantic stature, naked, as
far as clothes were concerned, but covered with long hair.
This ancien preudhomme, as he is called, addresses Huon
in a dialect of the French language, informs him that his
name is G-erasmes, and that he is brother to the mayor of
Bordeaux ; he had been made prisoner in a battle with
the Saracens, but having escaped from slavery, and pos-
sessing much of the syavoir vivre, he had judiciously
chosen to reside thirty years in the forest in his present
comfortable predicament.
Gerasmes informs Huon that from this wilderness two
roads led to the states of Gaudisse, one a journey of forty
days, the other less tedious, but extremely dangerous, as
it passed through the forest inhabited by Oberon, 1 who
metamorphosed the knights who were bold enough to
trespass, into hobgoblins, and animals of various de-
scriptions.
p. 308), with Garyn of Saint Omers, with Macaire, and many others.
The absurd length to which the author " pushes the endeavour, that
characterizes the later poems of the jongleurs, to bring his hero into
lineal relationship with all sorts and conditions of men with whom he
comes in contact on his journeyings, is another testimony to the lateness
of the present form of the legend." See Huon, p. xxvii.
1 Oberon, as the son of Julius Caesar and Morgan the Fay. is con-
nected with the Arthurian genealogy. He resembles in many respects
the Elberich in the story of Otnit (see infra, p. 309, etc.). Grimm
connects the name with Alp, Alb, = elf, and he may be regarded as
an importation from the Teutonic Pantheon, invested, however, with
many Keltic and Christian, as well as Asiatic attributes. M. Longnon,
in the Romania, vol. iii., has carefully worked out the probable connec-
tion of Huon with the reign of Charles the Bald. Whatever the historical
element in the romance, Oberon became an essential part in it as early
as the thirteenth century. Albericus Trium Fontium. in his Chronicles,
finished about 1240, says that in the year 810, " Hugo, qui Karolum,
filium Karoli, casu interfecit, Almaricumproditorem in duello vicit, exul
de Patria ad mandatum regis fugit, Alberonem, virum mirahilem et for-
tunatum reperit, et caetera sive fabulosa sive historica connexa." See
S. L. Lee, Introduction to Huon, Eng. trans., 1882.
CH. IV.] HUON DE BOUBDEATTX. 297
Our hero having, of course, decided in favour of the
most perilous road, he and Grerasmes penetrate into the
thickest part of the forest of Oberon. Having followed a
path through the wood to a considerable distance, they sit
down almost exhausted with famine under an oak. At
this hour Oberon, who was apparently a child of four
years of age, of resplendent beauty, and clothed in a robe
sparkling with precious stones, was parading through the
forest. The dwarf accosts Huon and his attendants, but,
enraged at their silence, raises a frightful tempest. Huon
attempts to escape through the thickets, but is soon over-
taken by Oberon, who allays the storm, and sounds a
magic horn, which throws the attendants of Huon into
convulsions of merriment and dancing. Oberon, at length
having ceased to blow the horn, enters into conversation
with the knight : he commences an account of his own
pedigree, and declares that he is the son of Julius Csesar
and a fairy, who was lady of the Hidden Isle, now Chifa-
lonia, in which she had received the Eoman chief, when
on his voyage to Thessaly to attack Pompey. Many rare
endowments had been bestowed on Oberon at his birth,
but a malevolent fairy, offended at not being invited to
attend on that occasion, had decreed that his stature
should not increase after he was three years of age. Oberon
farther professed the utmost esteem for Huon and his
kindred, as a proof of which he immediately raised up a
sumptuous palace for his reception, where he was enter-
tained with a magnificent banquet, at which the fairy pre-
sided in great state. After the repast he presented Huon
with a goblet, which, in the hands of a good man, sponta-
neously filled with wine, and also the ivory horn, which, if
softly sounded, would make everyone dance who was not
of irreproachable character, and, if blown with violence,
would bring Oberon himself to his assistance, at the head
of 100,000 soldiers.
Fortified with these gifts, Huon proceeds on his jour-
ney. After travelling a few days, he arrives at the city of
Tourmont, which he finds is governed by one of his uncles,
who, in his youth, had gone on a penitential pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, and having become the slave of the Emir G-au-
disse, had been deputed to govern a Saracen city as a
298 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
reward for renouncing the Christian faith. In this place
Huon attracts immediate notice by feasting all the poor of
the city out of his enchanted cup. This procures Huon a
visit from his apostate uncle, to whom he introduces him-
self as a nephew, and presents him with the goblet filled
with wine ; but as his relative was a person of abandoned
character, the liquor instantly disappears. The renegado
receives his nephew with apparent kindness, but privately
meditates his destruction. He accordingly invites him
and Gerasmes to a sumptuous banquet, but orders one of
his agas to place guards in the ante-chamber, who should
be ready to attack the Christians. This officer was of
French birth, and having been befriended in his youth by
the father of Huon, he fills the ante-room with Christian
prisoners, whom he had set at liberty. Accordingly the
traitor's command for an attack on Huon is the signal for
a general massacre of the pagans. The emir, however,
having escaped, assembles his forces and besieges his
nephew, who remained in the palace. Huon, considering
this as an occasion sufficiently important to demand the
assistance of Oberon, sounds his horn, and while the be-
siegers are in consequence dancing with prodigious agility,
the Christians are reinforced by an army of a hundred
thousand men, with the fairy as a generalissimo. The
governor's troops being immediately cut to pieces, and he
himself slain, Huon prepares for his departure. Oberon
gives him a last advice concerning his journey, warning
him particularly not to approach the tower possessed by
Angoulaffre, a cruel giant, who could only be vanquished
by a person defended by a certain hauberk, which the
monster unfortunately kept in his custody.
To this very tower Huon directs his course, and, entering
it while the giant is asleep, he arms himself with the fatal
hauberk, awakens the lord of the manor, and kills him by
the assistance of a lady, who was confined there, and who
finds a kinsman in her deliverer.
Huon follows up this exploit by possessing himself of a
ring which had been sent to the giant as a tribute from
Gaudisse. Here he dismisses Gerasmes and the rest of his
retinue, and having crossed an arm of the Red Sea on the
back of Malebron, one of the spirits of Oberon, he at length
CH. IV.] HUON DE BOUBDEAUX. 299
arrives at Babylon (Bagdad) in Arabia, where that emir
held his court.
Having entered the palace, and passed the saloon where
the emir was banqueting with a few tributary sultans,
Huon suddenly interrupts the pleasures of the entertain-
ment by removing the head of the king of Hyrcania, who
was the intended husband of Esclarmonde, the daughter of
Gaudisse, and was then seated at the right hand of her
father. He next fulfils the second part of his mission, on
the lips of the princess, and concludes with promulgating
his designs against the beard and grinders of the emir.
This potentate was but ill prepared with an answer to so
novel a proposition, and a mode of address somewhat un-
usual at his board. Huon, however, having produced the
ring of Angoulaffre, is at first heard with tolerable patience ;
but when he mentions how he became possessed of it, the
emir orders him to be apprehended. The knight at first
defends himself with great courage, and kills many of the
assailants, but is at last overpowered by numbers. It was
now in vain to have recourse to his horn ; at the first gate
of the palace, Huon, in order to gain admittance, had
professed himself a Mussulman, a falsehood which rendered
the horn of no avail, since from that moment his character
had ceased to be irreproachable. He is loaded with chains
and precipitated into a dungeon, where the emir intended
he should be tormented with the punishments of hunger
and bondage, as preparatory to that of being burned alive,
which was in reserve. Huon receives sustenance, however,
and many consolatory visits, from the beautiful Esclar-
monde, interviews which must have been the more agree-
able, as he could not be conscious of any claims to the
favour of that princess, farther than having cut off the head
of her lover, insulted her father, and knocked out the brains
of his body-guards.
After a few tender conversations, Esclarmonde professes
her readiness to become a Christian. In many of the ro-
mances of Charlemagne, the fable hinges on the assistance
given by Saracen princesses to Christian knights, and the
treasons practised for their lovers' sake against their fathers
or brothers. It must, indeed, be confessed, that they are not
of the sex to which the Mahometan religion is most seductive.
300 HT8TOET OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
When this good understanding had been established, in
order to secure Huon against the dangers with which he
was threatened, his jailer, who had been bribed by Esclar-
nionde, informs the emir that his prisoner had died two
days ago, and had been interred in the dungeon.
At this period, Gerasmes, whom we left at the tower of
Angoulaffre, arrives at Bagdad, and, along with Esclar-
monde, plots the deliverance of Huon. The princess had
now become so furious a Christian, that she declared to
Huon, " que n'est homme que plus Je hais que 1' admiral
G-audisse mon pere, pource qu'il ne croit en nostre seigneur
Jhesu Christ." Her hatred, indeed, had risen to so high a
pitch, that she insisted on her father being murdered in his
sleep. "A 1'heure de minuit Je vous meneray en la
chambre de mon pere ; vous le trouverez dormant, puis in-
continent le occirez : Et quant est a moy, Je vueil bien
estre la premiere qui le premier coup luy baillera." These
plans are aided by the invasion of Agrapard, the brother
of Angoulaffre, who enters the capital at the head of a for-
midable army, reproaches the emir (most unreasonably one
should think) for not having avenged the death of that
giant, and suggests the alternative of paying a triple tribute
or denuding himself of his kingdom.
The emir could find no person at his court who would
encounter this champion. After cursing his gods at con-
siderable length, and to no purpose, Esclarmonde embraces
this favourable opportunity to confess that Huon is still in
existence. The knight is accordingly brought forth from
his dungeon, and the emir promises that if he vanquish
Agrapard, he will not only allow his beard to be plucked,
but will patiently submit to a partial extraction of his
grinders.
Huon, having overcome the giant, proposes to Gaudisse,
that, in lieu of the despoliation of his beard and grinders,
he should consent to be baptized. This alteration in the
agreement not being relished by the emir, he orders Huon
to be seized, who, trusting that his long sufferings had now
appeased Oberon, sounds the horn with the requisite vehe-
mence. The surmise of the knight is justified by the
event : the fairy king appears with a formidable army, and
the head of the emir is struck off by an invisible hand.
CH. IV.] HUON DE BOURDEAUX. 301
The beard and teeth thus become an easy prey to the con-
queror, and are sewed up by Oberon in the side of
Gerasmes, who was in attendance. Huon loads two vessels
with the treasures of the emir, and sails for Italy with
Esclarmonde, after being threatened by Oberon with the
severest punishments, if he should anticipate the delights
of matrimony previous to the fulfilment of its graver
ceremonies.
In most romances, when a superior being receives a
mortal into favour, some test of obedience is required.
This is usually violated, and the consequent misfortunes
form a series of endless incidents. As to Huon, he seems
never to have received any injunction from Oberon, without
acting in direct opposition to it. Gerasmes, foreseeing the
fate of the lovers, sets sail for France in one of the ships,
carrying in his side the precious deposit of beard and
grinders. Scarcely had he left the vessel in which Huon
and Esclarmonde are conveyed, when their conduct gives
rise to a tempest l more boisterous than the description of
the youngest poet. The ship goes to pieces on a desert
island, where the lovers wander about for some time, and
renew the offence that had given rise to the late hurricane ;
but, though on shore, they are not permitted to violate the
injunctions of Oberon with impunity. A band of corsairs
arriving on the island, one of their number, who had been
a subject of the emir Gaudisse, immediately recognizes
Esclarmonde. These pirates, leave Huon in the island,
bound to a tree, and, in hopes of a great recompense, sail
with the princess for the capital of Yvoirin, emir of Mont-
brant, and uncle of Esclarmonde. Though Huon was not
in the vessel, a tempest drives it to the coast of Anfalerne.
The captain having entered one of the ports of that king-
1 Cf. the following passage in Hector Boethius : " Navicularius tan-
tarn tamque insolitam aeris inclementiam, eo temporis demiratus (suberat
enim solstitium aestivum) quum id non sideri sed malorum dajmonum,
qui hominibus semper sunt infesti, insidiis magnis tribueret clamoribus :
reddita est vox ex ima navi mulieris se misere incusantis, quod incubo
humana sub effigie, qui cum per multos anteactos annos habuisset con-
suetudinem, iam tune fuisset commixta et ab eo subacta: mari ergo
celerius se tradendam, ut ipsa pereunte, qiue tanti mali imminentis
causam praestitisset," etc. Scotorum Historke, lib. viii. p. 149, ed.
Paris, 1575.
302 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
dom, Galafre, the ruler of the country, comes on board,
and on their refusal to deliver up the princess, puts the
whole crew to death, with the exception of one pirate, who
escapes to Montbrant. Esclarmonde is conducted to the
seraglio, and informed that she must prepare to accept the
hand of her new master ; but she pretends that she had
lately made a vow of chastity for two years, which the
emir promises to respect.
Oberon, meanwhile, being touched with pity for the
misfortunes of Huon, permits Malebron, one of his spirits,
to go to his assistance. This emissary, taking Huon on
his back, lands him in the territory of King Yvoirin. As
the mercy of the fairy king had not extended so far as to
provide the delinquent with victuals or raiment, he wanders
naked through the country in quest of provisions. In a
meadow he falls in with an old man eating heartily, who
had formerly been a minstrel at the court of Gaudisse, and
engages Huon to carry his harp and his wallet for food
and clothing. On the same evening they arrive at the court
of Yvoirin. The minstrel performs in such a manner as
to obtain rewards from all the courtiers : his attendant also
attracts much notice, and by command of Yvoirin, plays
at chess with his daughter, on conditions which show that
this emir possessed the greatest confidence in the skill of
the princess, or had very little regard to the honour of his
family. The lady, who fell in love with Huon during the
game, purposely allows herself to be checkmated. But
the knight being resolved to preserve his fidelity to Esclar-
monde, commutes the stake he had gained for a sum of
money, " Et la pucelle sen alia moult dolente et cour-
roucee, et dist en elle mesme ; ha maulvais cueur, failly
de Mahom, soys confondu, car si J'eusse sceu que autre
chose n'eusses voulu faire, Je te eusse matte, si en eusses
eu le chief tranche."
Yvoirin, long before this time, had been informed of
the detention of his niece by Galafre. He had accordingly
sent to demand the restitution of Esclarmonde, which
being refused, hostilities had commenced between these
neighbouring sultans. The day after the arrival of Huon
at the court of Yvoirin had been fixed for an invasion of
the enemy's territories. Huon having learned the cause
CH. IV.] HITON DE BOTTRDEAUX. 303
of the war, feels every motive for exertion : he procures
some rusty arms, mounts an old hackney, and, though
thus accoutred, his valour chiefly contributes to the defeat
of Galafre.
A new resource, however, presents itself to the van-
quished monarch. It will be recollected that Gerasmes
had left Huon at a most momentous crisis, and the lover
had rendered himself culpable so soon after the departure
of his friend, that the ship in which Gerasmes was em-
barked, had experienced the full force of the tempest which
wrecked the vessel of Huon and Esclarmonde. He had, in
consequence, been driven out of his course, and, after being
long tempest-tossed, had sought shelter in the port of An-
falerne. To Gerasmes the king communicates the situation
of his affairs, and proposes that he should defy a cham-
pion of the army of Yvoirin. Gerasmes having consented
to this, goes out from Anfalerne with a few Christian
friends, and, in a short time, finds himself engaged with
Huon of Bordeaux. Having recognized each other in the
course of the combat, Gerasmes, with great presence of
mind, proposes that they should unite their arms, and de-
feat the miscreants. The small band of Christians makes
a prodigious slaughter in the Saracen army, and push-
ing on at full speed, gets possession of the capital of
Galafre.
That prince, who seems to have been no less remarkable
for rapidity of conception than the Christians, joins the
remains of his forces to those of Yvoirin, and begs him to
lead them on against Huon, to recover his capital. Galafre
is as unsuccessful in the coalition as he was singly. The
allied army is totally repulsed in an attack upon the city,
and Esclarmonde being now delivered from her captivity
in the seraglio, the Christians possess themselves of the
treasure of Galafre, and embark on board a vessel in
which the mayor of Bordeaux, with more good fortune
than probability, had arrived during the siege. Huon is
landed safe in Italy, and is formally united to Esclarmonde
at Rome : but, on his road to the court of Charlemagne,
he is waylaid by his brother Girard, who had possessed
himself of his dukedom, and was ruling over it with un-
exampled tyranny. The usurper pays his brother an appa-
304 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
rently kind visit at the abbey of St. Maurice, where he
lodged a few days on his journey to Paris. Having learned
from Huon the secret of the treasure contained in the side
of Gerasmes, he attacks the bearer on his way from the
monastery, opens his side, takes out the beard and grinders,
and sends him along with his master and Esclarmonde in
chains to Bordeaux. The traitor then proceeds to Paris,
informs Charlemagne that his brother has not accom-
plished the object of his mission, and asks a gift of his
dukedom. Charlemagne repairs to Bordeaux, where Huon
is tried by the peers, and after much deliberation he is
finally condemned by the voice of the emperor. Huon and
Gerasmes are sentenced to be drawn and quartered, and
Esclarmonde to be led to the stake. Charlemagne defers
the execution till midday, that while seated at dinner he
may feast his eyes with the punishment of the destroyer
of his son. The spectacle is about to commence, when
suddenly the gates of the hall in which the emperor was
seated are seized by a formidable army. A splendid table
is prepared, and elevated above the sovereign's. Oberon
enters the hall to the sound of trumpets and cymbals.
The chains drop from the prisoners, and they are arrayed
in splendid vestments. Oberon reproaches Charlemagne
with injustice, and threatens him with the disclosure of
his most secret crimes. He concludes with producing the
spoils of the emir, and delivering up Girard to the punish-
ment that had been destined for Huon. The fairy then
retires with the same solemnity with which he had entered,
after inviting Huon and Esclarmonde to pay him their
respects in his enchanted dominions.
The story of Huon of Bordeaux is here completely
finished, but there is a long continuation, which seems to
be by a different hand, and is apparently of a much later
date than the work of which an abstract has been given.
In the original romance^ Huon begins his exploits by slay-
ing the son of Charlemagne. He recommences his career
in this second production by cutting off the head of the
son of Thiery, emperor of Germany. That monarch in
revenge carries war into the states of Guienne. Huon de-
fends himself successfully for some time, but at length
sets out for the east, to beg assistance from the brother of
CH. IV.] HUON DE BOURDEAUX. 305
Esclannonde, to whom, though he had slain his father and
seduced his sister, he thought himself entitled to apply.
During his absence Bourdeaux is taken, Gerasmes killed,
and Esclarmonde conducted captive to the German court,
where she is persecuted with love propositions by the em-
peror.
While on his voyage to Asia, Huon experiences a tremen-
dous storm. When the tempest has abated, the vessel is
carried away by a rapid and irresistible current, which
draws it into a dangerous whirlpool. Huon perceiving a
man swimming in the midst of the waters, and hearing him
utter deep lamentations, orders the seamen to slack sails in
order to gratify his curiosity. The swimmer proclaims him-
self to be Judas Iscariot, and declares that he was doomed
to be tossed in this gulf to all eternity, with no protection
from the fury of the elements but a small piece of cloth,
which, while on earth, he had bestowed in charity. 1 Judas
also recommends to Huon to use every exertion to get out
of the whirlpool. At his suggestion, all the sails being
set, the vessel is carried before a favourable wind, and the
master of the vessel makes for a distant shore, on which he
descries what appears to him a small house, surrounded by
a wood. After four days' sail these objects prove to be a.
palace of miraculous magnitude and splendour, and the
masts of innumerable vessels which had been wrecked on
the rock of adamant on which this magnificent structure
was situated. 2 The pilot having now no longer power over
the helm, the ship strikes on the rock, to which it was irre-
1 St. Brandan in the course of his travels likewise comes across Judas
Iscariot suffering tortures upon a rock in the open sea. LIES. Cf.
also the expiation in the Gregory legend, see infra.
2 The fable of the loadstone island, familiar to our youth in the story
of Sinbad and the old man of the sea, was widely diffused both in the
east and west, but more especially as it would appear in China. See
Mandeville's "Travels," ed. 1839, pp. 318, 163, and ch. 15 and 27.
Also Felicis Fabri Evagatorium, ii. 469, published by the Stuttgard
Literarischer Verein. See also Von Hagen and Biisching, Deutsche
Gedichte des Mittelalters, Bd. i., note 49 to Hcrzog Ernst, p. xii., and
the Altdeutsches Museum, i. p. 298, etc. Graesse, p. 339, remarks upon
the above works as well as upon verse 4505, etc., of the Gudrunlied,
also on verse 1727 of Gott Amur (der Werden Minne lere, published by
the Stuttgard Literarischer Verein, v. 263, etc.). Cf. also Konrad von
Wiirzburg's Goldene Schmiede, verse 139, etc. LIEB.
I. X
306 HISTOET OF FICTION. [CH. IT.
sistibly attracted. Huon alone gets safe on shore, and
after wandering for some time among tremendous pre-
cipices and sterile valleys, he climbs to the enchanted palace,
which is beautifully described. 1 Here he enjoys no society
for a long while but that of a hideous serpent, which he
has the pleasure of despatching ; but at length, in a remote
apartment, he discovers five fairies performing the office of
pastry cooks, who explain to him that this building had
been constructed by the Lady of the Hidden Isle to pro-
tect her lover Julius Caesar from the fury of three kings of
Egypt, whose vessels, while in pursuit, had struck on the
rock of adamant, and from whose treasures the palace had
been so splendidly furnished. After a long stay in this
island Huon is at length carried off by a griffin, 2 which oc-
casionally haunted the shore; and at the end of a long
aerial voyage, is set down on the top of a high mountain,
which seems to have been a place of rendezvous for these
animals. Our hero kills four of their number, which was
rather an ungrateful return for the safe conduct which he
had received from their fellow-monster. Soon after his
arrival on this spot he discovers the Fountain of Youth, in
which he has no sooner bathed than he feels recruited from
the effects of his late perils and labours, and recovers his
pristine vigour. This fiction of the fountain of youth has
been almost as universal as the desire of health and lon-
gevity. There is a fountain of this nature in the Greek
romance of Ismene and Ismenias, 3 in the German Book
of Heroes, and the French Fabliau of Coquaigne,
La Fontaine de Jovent
Qui fit rajovenir le gent.
1 See Appendix, No. 11.
2 See De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, supra, p. 120. Cf. Sin-
bad's second voyage, Duke Ernest of Bavaria (published in Simrocks,
Volksbiicher, Bd. iii.), verses 3359, etc. , the Soruadheva Stories, chap, xii..
the Story of Rupinika, and chap, xxvi., the Story of Saktivega. LIEB.
3 F. W. V. Schmidt, in his notes to his selection of Tales from Stra-
parola, Berlin, 1817, p. 276, etc., gives account of similar rejuvenating
springs and apples. Cf. also the Swedish story of the Land of Youth,
in Old Norse Fairy Tales, translated by Arlberg. Delrius (Disquisi-
tionum Magicarum, lib. sex, lib. ii. p. 241, ed. 1657) mentions two
springs credited with similar virtues in the New World. The belief in
healing waters is common among the Slavonians.
CH. IV.] HUON DE BOUBDEATTX. 307
By the margin of this fountain, in which Huon had im-
mersed himself, grew a tree, of which the apples partook
of the resuscitating properties of the waters by which its
roots were nourished. Huon is permitted by a celestial
voice to gather three of these apples, and is also directed to
the path by which he is to proceed. Having therefore de-
scended the hill, he reaches the banks of a river, and em-
barks in a pinnace decked with gold and precious stones.
This boat is carried down a stream with surprising velocity,
and enters a subterraneous canal l lighted by the radiance
of gems, 2 which formed the channel of the water, and of
which Huon gathers a handful. The roar of the waves and
tempest above is distinctly heard, but after a few days'
voyage the bark emerges into a tranquil sea, which he re-
cognizes to be the Persian Gulf. He lands in safety at the
port of Tauris, where a skilful lapidary having inspected
the precious stones which he had picked up during his sub-
terraneous voyage, declares that one preserved from fire
and poison, a second cured all diseases, a third repressed
hunger and thirst, and a fourth rendered the wearer in-
visible. The possession of these very valuable articles pro-
cures for Huon a favourable reception from the old sultan
of that district, on whom our hero bestows one of the
apples of youth, which he had no sooner tasted than he re-
ceives the strength and appearance of a man of thirty.
From motives of gratitude the sultan permits himself to
l)i' baptized, and places a fleet and army under the com-
mand of Huon, with which he now proceeds to the assis-
tance of Esclarmonde. On his way he lands at the desert
island of Abillant in quest of adventures, and his fleet
being instantly dispersed by a storm, he is forced to remain.
After wandering about for some time he ascends a moun-
tain, whose summit formed a plain, round which a cask was
rolling with wonderful noise and velocity. Huon arrests
its progress with a hammer, and the inhabitant proclaims
hi in self to be Cain, adding, that the cask is full of serpents
1 Cf. the subterraneous voyages in Sinbad's sixth voyage, in the
Arabian Nights, Hcrzog Ernst, verse 3554, etc., Voltaire's " Candide,"
i'l. 17, etc., Tasso's " Gerusalemme Liberata," xiv. 32. LIEB. See
infra, p. 310.
2 Luminous stones. See index.
308 HISTOET OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
and sharp spikes, and that he is doomed to roll in it till
the day of judgment. The knight accordingly refuses to
interfere in his punishment, and leaves him to prosecute
his career in this uncomfortable conveyance.
In the course of his conversation with Cain, Huon was
informed that a demon, who had been the contractor for
this machine, was waiting for the fratricide in a boat near
the shore. Availing himself of this hint he proceeds to
the beach, and the evil spirit mistaking him for Cain, whom
he personates, receives him into the bark and lands him on
the opposite coast, a contrivance which shows that the
knight had not altogether forgotten the practices by which,
in his youth, he gained admission to the hall of the emir of
Babylon, and by which he first forfeited the favour of
Oberon. In the present instance, however, his departure
from truth is not followed by any punishment or disaster :
on the contrary, he rejoins his fleet on the coast to which
he had been transported by the fiend, and thence sets sail
for France.
Huon does not seem to have been in any great haste to
bring assistance to Esclarmonde. He visits Jerusalem on
his way, and enters most gratuitously into a war with the
sultan of Egypt.
On arriving at Marseilles he dismisses the Asiatic fleet,
and proceeds to pay a visit to his uncle, the abbot of
Clugny, whom he presents with one of the apples of youth.
In the habit of a pilgrim he next comes to the court of
Thierry, emperor of Germany, who at length agrees to re-
store his wife, and receives the third apple as his reward.
Huon and Esclarmonde pay a short visit to their dominions,
and then set out, according to invitation, for the enchanted
forest of Oberon, who installs his favourite knight in the
empire of Faery, and expires shortly after. The remainder
of the romance, or rather fairy tale, contains an account of
the reign of Huon, and his disputes with Arthur (who had
hoped for the appointment) as to the sovereignty of Fairy-
land; and also the adventures of the Duchess Clairette,
the daughter of Huon and Esclarmonde, from whom was
descended the illustrious family of Capet. 1
1 Various continuations and extensions of Huon exist, which have been
published by Professor Graf from a fourteenth century MS. at Turin (I
CH. IV.] HTION DE BOUBDEAUX. 309
There are few romances of chivalry which possess more
beauty and interest than Huon of Bourdeaux ; the story,
however, is too long protracted, and the first part seems to
have exhausted the author's stores of imagination. Huon
is a more interesting character than most of the knights of
Charlemagne. Even his weakness and disobedience of
Oberon arise from excess of love or the ardour of military
enterprise; and our prepossession in his favour is much
enhanced by a mildness of nature and tenderness of heart,
superior to that of other heroes of chivalry. The sulx>rdi-
nate characters in the work are also happily drawn : no-
thing can be better represented than the honest fidelity and
zeal of Gerasmes, the struggles in the breast of the mother
of Huon between maternal tenderness and devoted loyalty
to Charlemagne, and the mixed character of that monarch,
in which equity and moderation predominate, but are ever
warped by an excess of blind paternal affection.
The early part of the romance of Huon bears a striking
resemblance to the adventures of Otnit, king of Lombardy, 1
compliment! della Chanson d'Huon, etc., Halle, 1878). Numbers of
MSS. of the metrical romance in various forms and languages remain to
prove its extensive popularity, while very numerous editions in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries attest the wide dissemination of the
prose work founded on them. It was dramatized for representation by
the Fraternity of the Passion and Resurrection during the Christmas-tide
of 1557, but was permitted only on condition that it should be performed
when no church services were taking place, and "without scandal."
The strictly religious character of the French drama of the period made
the work, no doubt, appear in the light of a profane innovation. An
English translation by Lord Berners, who follows the French text of
15:30 with great fidelity, was published probably between 1530 and 1540.
The only copy known belongs to Lord Crawford and Balcarres. At
least two other editions appear to have been published. The text of
Lord Berners lias been reprinted for the Early English Text Society,
witli an admirable notice of the work prefixed, by S. L. Lee, to which
the reader is referred, and to which I am mainly indebted for the fore-
^.unir remarks. Further information will be found in Guessard's " Les
Am-ifiis 1'ortcs Francais," pt. 5; Leon Gautier's "Epopees Fran-
- ;" Gaston Paris, in the Revue Germanique. xvi. p. 350-90, and
notices in vols. iii., vii., and viii. of the Romania. Mr. Lee (in his intro-
duction to Huon, pp. xlvii.-liii.), gives an interesting though brief account
of "Oberon in Knglish Literature."
' See Romania, iii. p. 494. A. Kirpichnikof, Opyt cravnitelnavo
izouchenia zapadnavo i rousskavo eposa. Poemy Lombardskavo tsikla.
Moscow, 1873.
310 HISTOBY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
related near the commencement of that celebrated produc-
tion, the Teutonic metrical romance of The Book of Heroes
(ascribed to Wolfram von Eschenbach and Heinrich von
Ofterdingen), written early in the thirteenth century, and
of which an entertaining analysis has been given in the
Illustrations of Northern Antiquities. 1 Otnit, we are told,
before setting out for Syria in order to gain the hand of its
princess, met the dwarf Elberich, who was clothed in ar-
mour dighted with gold and diamonds. This dwarf pre-
sented Otnit with various gifts which possessed a magic
power, and which prove of infinite service on his arrival in
Syria. Elberich afterwards gave him personal assistance
in his contest with the heathen father of his destined mis-
tress ; and on one occasion, having rendered himself in-
visible, he tore a handful of hair from the beard of the
pagan, and pulled out several of the teeth of his queen.
The princess becomes enamoured of the knight, and is at
last willingly delivered into his hands by the dwarf, who
warns him, however, not to be guilty of any amorous indis-
cretions till his bride should be baptized. 2
Some analogy also subsists between the second part of
Huon and the second and sixth voyages of Sindbad ; but
its resemblance to the voyages of Aboulfaouaris, in the
Persian Tales, is much more striking. Judas swimming in
the gulf corresponds with the story of the man whom the
Persian adventurer fished up on his first voyage, and who
had whirled about for three years, as a penance, in the sea
near Java. This renowned mariner also escapes from an
island, on which he had been wrecked, by a subterraneous
passage which the sea had formed through one of its
mountains ; and by the assistance of a neighbouring king
he is enabled to succour his wife, of whose danger he had
been apprised in a dream. The story of Cain and the at-
tendant fiend in Huon is the model or imitation of the
Brazen Island, to which the ship of Aboulfaouaris is car-
ried by an irresistible current, and in which he beholds the
1 Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, from the earlier Teutonic and
Scandinavian romances, being an Abstract of the Book of Heroes, and
Nibelungen Lay, etc. Edinburgh, 1814, 4to. It has been suggested that
Otnit is a corrupted form of Odenatus, assassinated at Emesa in 267.
2 See Keightly's " Fairy Mythology ,' p. 206.
CH. IV.] GUERIN DE MONTGLAVE. 311
punishment of the Afrite or Rebel Genius. Indeed the
works of eastern fable are full of traditions concerning the
punishments of Cain, one of which, it is somewhere said,
was, that he could not be killed by spikes piercing his
body. The author of the Arabic Catena, a collection of
oriental commentaries on scripture, makes him proof against
all the elements ; a sword could not hurt him, fire could
not burn, water could not drown, nor lightning strike him
(c. 8), a curse resembling that which was imposed by
Kehama.
The next romance relating to knights, contemporary with
Charlemagne, is that of
GUEKIN DE MONTGLAVE. '
" A Tissue de 1'yver que le joly temps d'estc commence, et
qu'on voit les arbres florir et leurs fleurs espanyr, les oysil-
lons chanter en toute joye et doulceur tant que leurs tons
et doulx chants retentissent si melodieusement que toute
joye et lyesse est de les escouter et ouyr ; tant que cueurs
tristes pensifs et dolens s'en esjouissent et esmeuvent a de-
laisser dueil et toute tristesse, et se perforcent de valoir
mieux en celuy temps estoit a Montglave le noble Due
Guerin qui tant fut en son temps preux et vaillant cheva-
lier." This Guerin, who was brother of the duke of
Aquitaine, and ruled in Montglave (Lyons), a city he had
acquired by his own prowess, had four sons. After re-
proaching them at a high' festival for indolence and
gluttony, he dismisses them from his palace in order to
push their fortunes in the world. Arnaud, the eldest, is
sent to his uncle Girard, duke of Aquitaine ; Millon, the
second, proceeds to Pavia, and Girard and Eegnier to the
court of Charlemagne. The romance contains the separate
adventures of the four knights, of which those of Arnaud
alone are in any degree interesting.
1 Histoire du tres preux et vaillant Guerin de Montglave, lequel fit
en son temps plusieurs nobles et illustres faits en armes ; et aussi parle
dos terribles & merueilleux faictz de Robastre & Perdigon pour secourir
le diet Guerin et ses enfans. A. Lotrian, Paris, no date, 4to. For
Critical account, full bibliography, analysis, and genealogical table of this
romance, see Gautier's " Epopees Franchises," 2nd ed., Paris, 1883, vol. ii.
p. 126, etc. The earliest edition is of 1518.
312 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
Arnaud on his arrival at the capital of Aquitaine finds
that G-irard was dead, and that Hunault, his natural
brother, had seized on the dukedom ; but, though attended
only by a single squire, so completely was the usurper
detested, that the principal inhabitants immediately invest
Arnaud with the sovereignty. Hunault, unable openly to
withstand this general disaffection, has recourse to strata-
gem. He pretends that he had only meant to preserve
the dukedom for his brother, gradually insinuates himself
into the confidence of Arnaud, and becomes his chief
adviser. In a short while he proposes to him an union
with the Saracen princess Fregonda, the daughter of a
sultan, called Florant, who reigned in Lombardy ; and
farther, persuades him to pay a visit to the court of that
monarch. Hoping to obtain a beautiful princess, and
convert an infidel, Arnaud sets out for Lombardy, accom-
panied by Hunault, who had previously informed the sultan
that his brother was coming to solicit his daughter in
marriage, and to abjure the Christian religion. The
sultan and Arnaud are thus put at cross purposes. The
former leaves the work of conversion to his daughter, but
this princess had no sooner begun to love Arnaud, than
she found that she could not endure Mahomet. Hunault
is informed of the sentiments of the princess by his brother
Arnaud, and immediately acquaints the sultan. In com-
municating this intelligence, he proposes that Arnaud
should be confined in a dungeon, and at the same time
offers on his own part to assume the turban, should
Florant agree to assist him in recovering possession of
Aquitaine. These proposals being accepted, Arnaud is
thrown into confinement, and Hunault sets out by a
retired road for the duchy. On his way he is suddenly
seized with remorse for his apostacy and treason. Hearing
a clock strike while in the midst of a forest, he turns
towards the place whence the sound proceeded, and arrives
at the gate of a hermitage, which is opened by a giant of
horrible aspect. This singular recluse was Eobastre, who
had been the companion in arms of Guerin of Montglave,
and had retired to this forest to perform penance. Hunault
insists on confessing his sins, and the catalogue being
finished, Kobastre immediately knocks out his brains. The
CH. IV.] QTTEBIN DE MONTGLAVE. 313
ground of this commentary on the confession is, that he
would thus die penitent ; but that if he lived, he would
infallibly relapse into iniquity ; a train of reasoning
certainly more gigantic than theological.
Robastre next turns his attention to the best means of
delivering Arnaud from prison. He first goes to consult
with Perdigon, who had been formerly a companion of
G-uerin, and was once tolerably versed in the black art,
but had for some time renounced all his evil practices, and
retired to a cell in the same forest with Robastre. This
enchanter is at first scrupulous about renewing his inter-
course with the devil, but at length satisfies his conscience
on the score of good intentions.
The giant arms himself with an old cuirass, which was
buried below his hermitage, and throwing over it a robe,
trains admittance to the court of the sultan Florant in the
character of a mendicant dervis. He soon obtains a
private interview with the princess, and introduces himself
as a Christian, and the friend of Arnaud. In return he is
informed by her that she pays frequent visits in secret to
Aruaud, to whom she promises to procure him access.
With this view she acquaints her father that Robastre is
the most learned Mollah she had ever conversed with, and
that if admitted to the prisoner he could not fail to con-
vert him. Robastre is thus introduced into the dungeon,
and privately concerts with Arnaud the means of escape.
In the course of the ensuing night the princess arrives
with provisions, with which the Mahometan ladies in
romance are always careful abundantly to supply their
lovers. Robastre taking a goblet of water, baptizes the
princess, and unites her to Arnaud. Having then knocked
out the brains of the jailer, he breaks open the trap-door
of the prison, and thus gets possession of the tower, of
which the dungeon formed the foundation.
Arnaud escapes to Aquitaine, that he may assert his
reign ty, and afterwards return to the assistance of
Robastre and the princess, who remain together in the
tower. In that hold they are besieged by the sultan and
his forces, but Robastre makes different sorties, in which
he is always successful, being aided by the enchantments
of his friend Perdigon, who at one time pelts the Saracens
314 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
with incessant hail, and at others cuts them up by means
of fantastic knights in black armour. Robastre, availing
himself of the confusion into which the Saracens were
thrown by one of these attacks, escapes with the princess,
and arrives safe in Aquitaine. Here they have the morti-
fication to find that Arnaud had been imprisoned by the
maternal uncles of Hunault. They are vanquished, how-
ever, in single combat by Robastre. Arnaud is then
restored to his dukedom, and soon after succeeds to the
Lombard principality, by the conversion and abdication of
his father-in-law. His subjects also become Christians,
for in those days they implicitly conformed to the religion
of their prince, instead of forcing him to adopt the faith
of his people.
During these interesting transactions, Millon, the second
son of Guerin of Montglave, had married his cousin, the
daughter and heiress of the duke of Pavia. Regnier had
been united to the duchess of G-enoa, after defeating a
ponderous giant, who was an unwelcome suitor, and Girard
had espoused the countess of Thoulouse by the interest of
Charlemagne, who conceived himself obliged to provide for
the children of Guerin of Montglave, as he had, on one
occasion, lost his whole kingdom to him at a game of
chess.
To these provisions, however, there seems to have been
no end, for Aimery, Arnaud's son, having grown up, came
to demand a settlement on the plea of the game at chess.
During one of his audiences, at which the queen was pre-
sent, he seizes her majesty by the foot and overthrows her.
Charlemagne thinks it necessary to avenge this insult by
besieging Viennes, the capital of Grirard's territories, who
is assisted in his defence by his three brothers and Robastre.
After a good deal of general and promiscuous fighting, it
is agreed that the quarrel should be decided by single
combat. Roland is chosen on the part of Charlemagne,
and Olivier, son of Regnier, duke of Genoa, on the side of
Girard. 1 These two champions had become acquainted
during a truce, and recognizing each other in the heat of
combat, they drop their arms and embrace with much
1 See Appendix, No. 12.
CH. IV.] OALTEN EHETOEE. 315
cordiality. By their means a reconciliation is effected, and
tin- paladins of Trance resolved to turn their united arms
against the Saracens.
During the combat with Olivier, Roland had been at one
time in imminent danger, and Charlemagne had vowed a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The account of that expedition
is detailed in the commencement of the romance of
GALYEN RHETORE/
which was first printed at Paris in the year 1500. In that
work Charlemagne and his paladins, among whom was
Olivier, son of the duke of Genoa, proceed incognito to
Jerusalem. Having betrayed themselves at that place
ly their eagerness in search of relics, the patriarch of
Jerusalem considers it indispensable that they should pay a
visit of ceremony to King Hugues. They find this monarch
encamped on a vast plain with his grandees, who were
all neat-herds or drovers, and his majesty a waggoner.
Roland looked into court, where he counted 100,000 hogs,
who were feeding on wheat. The paladins inquired if there
was lodging for them, and were told by the porter that he
had room for four thousand. On the day of their arrival
the French peers were very kindly entertained at table,
but, notwithstanding the ample accommodation, they were
lodged in the same apartment at night. King Hugues,
though a very good man, was extremely curious to learn
what strangers said of his hospitality, and accordingly
concealed an interpreter in a corner of the chamber allotted
to his guests. The peers being unable to sleep, began to
brag (gaber)* Roland boasted that he could sound his
horn with such force that it would bring down the palace :
Ogier le Danois averred that he would crumble to dust one
of the chief pillars of the edifice : the boasts of Olivier, the
youngest of the peers, related to the beautiful Princess
1 . . . . le romant de Galyen Rethorc auec les batailles faictes a
ronceualx par la trahison de Cannes per de France auec sa miserable
execution faicte de par lempereur Charlemaigne . ... A. Verard,
Paris, 1520. Other editions at Paris, Lyon, Troyes.
a For an account of this word, see Menagiana, iii. p. 96, and Graesse,
292.
316 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
Jacquelina, the daughter of Hugues. The king is informed
of this conversation before retiring to rest, and being much
disappointed at hearing nothing but improbable lies,
instead of the expected praises of his hospitality, he treats
his guests with much less civility, next morning, than he
had formerly used. Having learned the cause of his re-
sentment, the paladins deputed Orlando to acquaint him
that their boasts were mere pleasantries. 1 King Hugues,
however, informs him that he thought they were in very
bad taste, and that the paladins must consent to remain
his prisoners, or perform what they had undertaken. No-
thing but a very bitter aversion to liars could have driven
the good king to this hasty measure, since he was obliged
in its execution to expose the honour of his family in a
very delicate point. The French peers accept the latter
alternative proposed to them ; and from the fulfilment of
the boast of Olivier, sprung Galyen, the hero of the ro-
mance, surnamed Rhetore, or Restaure, by the fairy who
presided at his birth, because by his means there was to
be revived in France the high spirit of chivalry, which was
in danger of being lost by the death of the paladins, who
perished at Roncesvalles.
This young prince having grown up, set out for Europe
in quest of his father. Having arrived at Genoa, he
learned that Charlemagne and his peers were engaged in
an expedition against the Saracens of Spain. To Spain he
accordingly directed his course, but met with many adven-
tures, and performed a variety of exploits, before reaching
the camp of Charlemagne. Thence he departed for a divi-
sion of the army, in which he understood his father was
brigaded. He arrived after the defeat of Roncesvalles, and
was only recognized by Olivier in his expiring moments. 2
Galyen having performed the last duties to his father, was
of great service in the subsequent war with Marsilius, and
also detected the treason, and insisted on the punishment,
of Gano (or Ganellon) ; the account of which nearly corre-
1 The gabs are analyzed in the Menagiana, 1715, p. 110. These
famous gabs are first met with in a romance of the twelfth century, pub-
lished by J. Michel, from a MSS. in the Brit. Mus., 12mo., London,
1836. Madden.
2 See Appendix, No. 13.
OH. IV.] MILLES ET AMY8. 317
s|">uds with the detail in the chronicle of Turpin. He was
.-">ii, however, obliged to depart on hearing of the death
of Hugues, and the usurpation of the crown by the brothers
of that prince ; he vanquishes them in single combat,
nes his mother, whom they had condemned to death,
and afterwards, in her right, ascends the throne.
The two following romances are believed to have been
written in the beginning of the fifteenth century, but the
first edition of both is without date. In the prologue to
MILLES ET AMYS. 1
which shall be first mentioned, the work is said to be ex-
tracted from ancient chronicles. " J'ay voulu extraire leurs
t'aicts et gestes, et les fortunes a eux advenues ainsi comme
Je les ay trouvees en histoires anciennes jadis trouvees et
enregistrees en plusieurs livres faisant mention d'eux par
immiere de croniqv.es," and in the 58th chapter, "ilest
assavoir que ceste hystoire icy a este extraicte de 1'une des
trois gestes du royaume de France, et ne furent que trois
gestes au dit pays qui ont eu honneur et renomme, dequoy
le premier a este Doolin de Mayence, 1'autre Ghierin, la
tim-e si a este de Pepin dequoy est issu le Roy Charle-
magne." This detail about the ancient histories, and the
three Gestes, is probably feigned to give the stamp of
authority. Milles and Amys, however, are mentioned in
the Chronicle of Albericus Trium Fontium [Leibnitz, Access,
histor. ii. s. 1, p. 108], but it is also related in the earlier
metrical Ogier le Danois of Raimbert de Paris (v. 5884, &c.),
an author of the thirteenth century, who says they perished
in the year 774, in an expedition undertaken by Charle-
magne against Didier, king of the Lombards. Their story
is besides related in the Speculum Historiale of Vincent de
Beauvais [xxiii. c. 162], and is there said to have occurred
in the reign of Pepin. The early part of the romance,
particularly that which relates to the leprosy of Amys, and
his cure by sacrifice of the children of Milles, is the subject
1 La tres ioyeuse plaisante & recreatiue hystoire dos faitz, gestes,
triiunphes & prouesses des .... vaillans chevaliers Milles et Amys,
The first edition, wit a title in verses, was published, according to
Brunei, about 1503, by A. Verard at Paris.
318 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
of the English metrical Amys and Amylion, of which an
account has been given by Mr. Ellis, in his Specimens of
Metrical Eomances [iii. p. 396-432, ed. 1811]. l
Milles was the son of Anceaume, count of Clermont, and
Amys of his seneschal. The former came into the world
with the mark of a sword on his right hand, to the utter
1 This story was one of the most renowned and widely diffused.
Numerous versions of it are found, especially in poetry, in the different
European countries from Italy to England and from Spain to Iceland.
See Weber, Metrical Romances, ii. pp. 369-473. The germ of it is
found in the Seven Wise Masters. See Loiseleur Deslongchamps,
Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, p. 163, 166. Conrad of Wiirtzburg
translated it into German, calling the heroes Engelhard and Engeldrud.
It furnished the subject for an Italian drama, and found its way to Ice-
land (Saga bibliothek med Anmserkninger, etc., af. P. F. Mueller,
Kiceb., 1820, iii. p. 480). Grimm's notes to Der arme Heinrich, p. 188,
etc., 161; Keller, Li Romans di Sept Sages, 1856, p. ccxxxvi., etc. ;
Warton, History of English Poetry, etc. The text of the Celtic version
from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest (fourteenth century), together with
French translation, will be found in the Revue Celtique, Paris, 1880, t.
iv. p. 201, etc. A new rhymed version of it, entitled the Dit des trois
pommes, ed. by Trebutien, Paris, 1836, was made in the fourteenth
century, at which time was also composed the Miracle de Nostre-dame
d'Amis et d'Amille, edited by Mommerque' and Michel, in the Theatre
Fran9ais du Moyen Age. Like so many other poems it was reduced into
prose in the fifteenth century. The legend is imitated in another
romance, often printed, called Hystoire de Olivier de Castille et de
Arthur d'Algarbe, son loyal compagnon. See Melanges tires d'une
grande Bibliotheque, vol. i. p. 79, etc. At last it dwindled into a street
ballad. Amis and Amiloun are there transformed into Alexander and
Lodowick, princes of Hungary and France, the Steward into Guido,
Prince of Spain, and the part of Duke is given to the Emperor of Ger-
many. Evans, Old Ballads, vol. i, p. 77. See F. Michel's concise
notice of the story in the Theatre Francais du Moyen Age, p. 216-218.
Dr. C. Hofmann has a monograph on the legend : " Amis et Arniles
und Jourdain de Blaives. Zwei Altfranz. Heldengedichte." Erlangen,
1882. See also Kb'lbing (E.), Zur Ueberlieferung der Sage von Amicus
und Amelius, in Paul and Braune's " Beitrage zur geschichte der
deutschen Spracheu. Literatur," 1877, iv. p. 272, etc. See also Depping
(Romancers, ii. 191), who connects the tale with different Spanish
romances ; also J. W. Wolf's " Niederlandische Sagen," No. 38. Cf.
an old Spanish chronicle in F. Wolf, Ueber die Roman/en Poesie der
Spanier, p. 2, and F. Wolf, Ueber eine Sammlung Spanischer Romanzen
in fliegenden Blattern, etc., Wien, 1850, pp. 82, 181 ; also Ward's
" Catalogue of Romances," i. pp. 674-680. See also Graesse, Lehrbuch
Bd. ii. abth. 3, p. 348 ; Wiener Jahrb., Bd. xxxi. p. 130, and Acta Sane
torum, Octobris, torn. vi. p. 130-133. See also an article in the thir
vol. of the Romania.
CH. IV.] MILLES ET AMTS. 319
amazement of the pope, who held him at the baptismal
font. His parents, in gratitude for his birth, set out on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The count was taken cap-
tivt- by the sultan of Acre, and banished to an island
which for forty years had been governed by a griffin. But
instead of being devoured by this monster, as was in-
tended, he contrived to despatch him by favour of St.
George, who descended from heaven on horseback, clad in
white armour bright as the sun [c. 7].
During the absence of Anceaume, however, the Count
de Limoges seizes on Clermont. The nurse of Milles is in
consequence forced to fly with her charge, and beg alms
from province to province. Amys, son of the seneschal,
is meanwhile brought up as a foundling by his uncle
K- 'U'liier of Langres, who durst not educate him as his
nephew, being a vassal of the Duke of Burgundy, who was
an ally of the Count de Limoges [c. 10].
Milles commences his career in chivalry by purloining
his nurse's hoard, which she had amassed while flying
with him from Clermont. With this treasure he repairs
to the province of Burgundy, where he forms an intimate
friendship with Amys. Their perfect resemblance in ap-
pearance is the amusement of everyone, and gives rise to
many comical mistakes [cc. 17, 47].
At length Milles being discovered to be the son of the
rightful count of Clermont, is forced to leave Burgundy,
and escapes with his friend Amys to Constantinople. Here
Milles meets with his mother, the countess of Clermont,
who had escaped from the power of the sultan of Acre,
and was acting as governess to the Greek princess Sidoina.
The city was at that time besieged by the sultan, but he
is totally defeated, and the father of Milles, who was still
detained prisoner by the Saracen monarch, is freed from
captivity ; Milles marries Sidoina. and soon after ascends
in her right the throne of Constantinople [c. 29] .
After some time spent in the cares of empire, Milles
departs with Amys for France, recovers his paternal in-
heritance, and bestows a dukedom on his friend. In his
absence the Saracens burn his capital, his empress, and
her mother ; and Milles, in consequence of this conflagra-
tion, espouses Bellisaude, daughter of Charlemagne, while
320 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. IV.
Amys is united to Lubiane, the heiress of the duke of
Friezeland [c. 43].
Some years having passed in unwonted repose, the
friends at length set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
When about to return, Amys is unexpectedly smitten with
leprosy. On their arrival Milles is joyfully received by
Bellisande ; but his unfortunate companion is driven from
his own castle by his wife, who appears to have been
ignorant of the value of a husband of this description. 1
The servants whom she detaches to drown him, being
moved with compassion, conduct their master to the castle
of Milles, where he is received with the utmost hospitality
[c. 53].
Soon after his arrival it is revealed to Amys in a dream,
that he could only be cured of the leprosy with which he
was afflicted, if bathed in the blood of the children of
Milles. The leper informs his friend of the prescriptio
he had received, which I suppose was in those days ac-
counted a specific for this disorder, as Grower, in the 2nd
book of his Confessio Amantis, tells a story of Constan-
tine, when struck with leprosy, ordering a bath of this
description. 2 The heads of his two infants are imme-
diately struck off by the father. Amys thus enjoys the
benefit of the prescribed bath, and Milles soon after re-
turning to lament over the bodies of his children, finds
them in as perfect health as before they had been be-
headed, " et se jouoyent dedans le lict, 1'un a 1'autre,
1 Contrary to modern medical opinion, lepers were in the Middle Ages
popularly credited with great sexual vigour. Women who were willing
to do so were permitted to marry lepers by the Gregorian Decretals.
2 See infra, note to Ser Giovanni, iv. 1, Grimm's notes on Der arme
Heinrich, p. 173 ; Von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, iii. p. clii.,
etc. ; Germania, vii. p. 323, etc., and Wolf, Niederlandische Sagen, No.
434.
The Mongol chief Tcharmaghoun, who nourished in the earlier part
of the thirteenth century, is reported to have been apprised by a Jew
that he would recover from a malady which afflicted him by plunging
his feet into the entrails of young children newly killed. For this pur-
pose he caused thirty infants to be massacred, but when the remedy
proved ineffectual he caused the Jew to be put to death. See'Lebeau,
Histoire du Bas Empire, vol. xvii. p. 456, note by Brosset. See on
this subject an article in The Month, Feb., 1885, entitled : The Pound
of Flesh.
CH. IV.] MILLES ET AMYS. 321
d'une pomme que nostre Seigneur leur avoit domic "
[c. 54].'
In gratitude for these miraculous cures, the two friends
set out on a pilgrimage ; but on their return through
Lombardy they are treacherously killed by Ogier the
Dane, who was at that time in rebellion against Charle-
magne [c. 58].
Milles, when he proceeded on his pilgrimage, left his
two children, Anceaume and Florisell, in the cradle.
These infants were constantly guarded by an ape, who
acted as an assiduous nurse, and was gifted with a most
excellent understanding and benevolent disposition. " Si
n'est point de memoire d'homme que jamais on n'ouyt
parler de la condition de tel Cinge : Car il avoit en luy
grant sens et memoire, et mainte bonne maniere avoit
apprise tandis qu'on le nourissoit. Sy aymoit parfaicte-
ment ce Cinge les deux petis enfans du Comte, tellenient
que nuict et jour ne les pouoit laisser ; et ne sceut on
oncques garder qu'il ne couchast toutes les nuicts avec-
ques eux sans leur faire nulle mesprision, ny aucun mal :
ne pour quelque bature qu'on luy sceust faire jamais ne
vouloit laisser les petis enfans, et tout le long du jour leur
tenoit compagnie, et estoit toute son intention aux enfans.
Et ne faisoit que les baiser et accoller, et jamais ne vouloit
ne Loire ne nienger si ce n'estoit de la propre viande qu'on
bailloit aux enfans." This ape had prepared the minds
of the household of Milles for the intelligence of his
death, by equipping his children in a complete suit of
mourning [c. 58].
Lubiane, the wicked widow of Amys, seeing that the
children were now left without the protection of a father,
resolves, in concert with her brother, on their destruction.
The countess, their mother, is privately put to death, and
the children carried off, to the great consternation of the
ape, who insists on accompanying them. After three
months' detention at the residence of Lubiane, they are
thrown by her command into the sea. The ape swims after
them till two angels of paradise descend in disguise of
1 The Welsh version does not mention this apple, but states that each
had a rod mark like a silk thread round his neck in attestation of the
miracle.
I. Y
322 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
swans, and bear away the children safe through the sea ;
one carries Anceaunie to the coast of Provence, where he is
picked up and educated by a woodman [c. 74]. The other
conducts Florisell to the shores of Genoa, where he is taken
under the protection of a lioness, who introduces him to
her cubs, with which he is gradually accustomed to hunt.
The ape having lost sight of them, continues to swim till
he is received on board a merchant vessel, which soon after
comes into harbour. Its crew propose to take him home
to their own country, but he hastily wishes them good
morning. " Et pour le bien qu'ils luy avoient fait ne leur
dist aultre grant mercy, sinon qu'il leur fist la inoue."
Our ape spent fifteen days in a forest, searching for the
children, for whose sake he subsisted all that time on herbs
and water, although habitually he was somewhat addicted
to the pleasures of the table. Finding his search in the
forest vain, he set out for Clermont, the paternal inheri-
tance of his wards, where he was received with acclama-
tions by the populace ; but he declined the honours of a
public entertainment, as he felt his spirits depressed on
account of the loss of the children : it would also appeal-
that he was in very bad humour, " car il niordoit et esgra-
tignoit tous, qui n'estoit pas sa coustunie." He paid his
first visit to Eicher, the old seneschal of Milles, whom he
persuaded to proceed to the palace of Lubiane, to ascertain
the fate of the children. The seneschal is immediately
thrown into prison by Lubiane [c. 79], who sets out, accom-
panied by her brother, for the court of Charlemagne, to
obtain a grant of the county of Clermont, on pretence that
the race of Milles is extinct. Meanwhile the ape having
insinuated himself into the confidence of the jailer, gains
access to the seneschal, and at the very first interview sug-
gests the propriety of writing to Charlemagne, to give him
some insight into the character of the claimants. The ape
charges himself with the letter, but from the badness of
the roads and want of relays, he does not reach Paris till
some days after the traitors. He makes his first appear-
ance at court, though still in his travelling dress, during a
great festival, and signalizes his arrival by assaulting the
Countess Lubiane, rending her garments, and even com-
mitting ravages on her person. He then respectfully pre-
CH. IV.] MILLE8 ET AMTS. 323
sents the letter to Charlemagne [c. 82], who thinks the
matter of sufficient importance to consult his peers. The
difficulty is to find a champion to maintain the accusation:
tin- a]-*-, however, readily steps forth as opponent to one of
tin- relatives of Lubiane, who offered himself as her
defender. Defiances of this description, singular as they
may appear, were not unknown in France about the period
of the composition of this work. In Monfau9on (Monu-
mens de la Monarchic Fran9oise, vol. iii. p. 68), there is an
account of a combat which took place in 1371, between a
invy hound and a knight who had treacherously slain the
dog's master. This animal attacked the assassin with such
violence whenever they happened to meet, that suspicion
was at length excited, and Charles appointed a solemn
combat between the parties. The knight was provided
with a club : the dog had only his natural arms, but was
supplied with an open cask as a place of retreat ; the just
cause prevailed, the traitor was forced to confess his crime,
and a sculpture commemorating the event long adorned
the chimney-piece in the hall of the castle of Montargis. 1
On the present occasion, too, the good cause and our ape
are triumphant. The champion of Lubiane is soon obliged
to confess himself vanquished, in order to avoid being torn
piecemeal : according to the established customs, he is
hanged after the combat, and Lubiane is burned alive.
We are informed by the author of the romance [c. 85], that
1 Joseph Scaliger also relates the event. The actual circumstances
were that Aubry de Montdidier was assassinated by a certain Chevalier
Macaire, in the forest of Bondy. and buried at the foot of a tree. His
faithful dog only left the spot when urged by the pangs of hunger, and
went to the house of a friend of Aubry's in Paris, and by his behaviour
induced search to be made, which led to the discovery of the body.
Some time afterwards the animal perceived Macaire, whom he attacked
with fury. The King heard of this, and declared qu'il eckeait gage de
bataille, that is. ordered one of those combats, called jitgements de Dieu,
on which innocence, it was supposed, was privileged to triumph. M. de
Saintc Foix. in his Essais historiques sur Paris, i. 215, places the
event in the time of Philippe Augustus. See further, Graesse,
ii. ab. 3, p. 352. and Hagen : s Gesammtubenteuer, i. cv., etc. Liebrecht
recalls a passage of Plutarch's " Moralia, de Sollertia Animal.." c. xiii.,
and makes the following quotation from Pliny's "Natural History," viii.
40 (61) : " Ab alio (sc. cane) in Epiro agnitum in conrentu percussorem
domini. laniatuque et latratu coactum fateri scelus."
324 HISTOET OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
the history of the ape, and particularly of this judicial
combat, were delineated in his time on the -walls of the
great hall of the palace of Paris, which was burned, I
believe, in 1618.
While the ape was thus distinguishing himself at court,
and preparing materials for the genius of future artists,
Florisell, the son of Milles, having followed his comrades,
the young lions, in the course of their field sports as far as
the Venetian territory, is caught by Gloriant, the Saracen
king of that country, who delighted in the chase of wild
beasts [c. 87]. In a few days the lioness and her cubs
came to Venice, to reclaim him, but by this time her eleve
had fallen in love with the king's daughter, " parquoy Flo-
rissell ne pensa plus au lion, ne n'entint conte ; " and they
are accordingly obliged to return without him to their den,
after depopulating the neighbourhood [c. 88].
Anceaume, the other son of Milles, being detected in uii
intrigue with the daughter of the woodman, is driven from
the house, and flies for refuge to an adjacent monastery.
To this place Richer, the seneschal, accompanied by the
ape, comes to pay his devotions. The animal, by the
fineness of his nose, soon recognizes his young master, and
persuades the seneschal to take him along with them.
He is accordingly introduced by the ape at the court of
Charlemagne, and serves in an expedition undertaken by
that monarch against Venice, of which the professed object
was to recover the body of St. Mark, which had been in-
terred there about five hundred years before [c. 93]. In
this campaign Florisell distinguishes himself on the side of
the Saracens, and Anceaume on that of the Christians.
Anceaume takes Gloriant, king of Venice, prisoner ; and
Florisell overthrows and sends captive to Venice the bravest
peers of Charlemagne. At length the two brothers are
sent out against each other, and after a furious contest,
being both tired, they sit down to rest. The young war-
riors are thus led mutually to recount the story of the
early part of their lives. From this reciprocal detail they
conjecture that they are related, and Florisell in conse-
quence proceeds with Anceaume to the camp of Charle-
magne [c. 110]. There the surmises of the brothers are
confirmed by the testimony of Richer and of the ape, who
CH. IV.] JOURDAIN DE SLAVES. 325
embraces them alternately with much sympathy. "Les
d ux freres s'en allerent coucher ensemble, et le Cinge s'en
ul hi avec eux, et se mussa dessoubz leur lict ainsi qu'il
a \-uit apprins. Et puis, quant ils furent couchez, les vint
a i -roller et baiser tout a son ayse; tout ne plus ne moins
(pic fait ung amant qui baise s'amye. Si fut ce Cinge celle
nuit si surprins d'amour, qu'il se coucha entre les deux
enfans, la ou il mourut la nuict de joye. Et quant le roy
Charlemagne le sceut si en getta niaint soupir, et alia dire
Haa Cinge moult avois le cueur scavant ; Je scay de vray
(jiif tu es mort de joye." '
The romance of
JOUEDAIN DE BLAVES 2
may in one respect be regarded as a continuation of Milles
and Amys ; Jourdain, who gives name to the work, being
flu- son of Girard of Blaves, one of the children of Amys.
It is said to be " extraite d'ung viel livre moult ancien
quY'stoit en Ryme et viel Picart;" a form in which it is
oft rii cited by Du Cange in his Glossary. Having been
converted into prose, it was printed at Paris in 4to., with-
out date, and at the same place in folio, 1520.
The hero of this romance came into the world with one
( if his legs white as snow, and the other black as ebony ;
while the right arm appeared of a rose, and the left of a
citrine colour. A clerk explained that these personal
peculiarities portended a chequered life that at one time
this party-coloured infant would be seated on a throne,
that at another he would be poor and in captivity.
1 Sec supp. note.
2 Les fait/, et prouesses du noble et vaillant cheualier Jourdain de
Blaues, .... lequel .... conquesta plusieurs royaulmes sur les
Surru/.ins. etc. Paris, Michel le Noir, 1520. See Keiffenberg's intro-
duction to his edition of the Chronicle of Mouskes, where he notices
(ii. rc-liv.) ;i MS. of this romance in theTournay library. This MS. con-
tains about '22,000 verses. It is very different, at least in form, from
the Romance similarly entitled, of which F. Michel has given an extract
in his edition of the Chanson de Roland (p. xxxi.-xxxv.). The romance
of Joiirdsiin cited by Renouard, Journal des Savants (July, 1833, p. 389),
MS. Bibl. du Roy, supp. fr. 632-15, is likewise different. See also notices
by Reiffenberg in the Bulletin de 1'Academie Royale de Bruxelles, torn,
iv. and v., 1837-8, and Hofmann (C.), Amis et Amiles und Jourdain de
Blaves. Erlangen 1882.
826 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
These predictions are verified by the event, for Jourdain
in his youth is so much persecuted by a knight who had
treacherously slain his father, that he is obliged to abandon
his paternal estates. On his voyage from Blaves, being
unfortunately shipwrecked, he is preserved, not by a
dolphin or a swan, but by a stag which was luckily in
waiting, and which carries him to the shore of Gardes.
The incidents that occurred on that coast have a strong
resemblance to the landing of Ulysses in the kingdom of
Alcinous, and his interview with Nausicaa. Jourdain, like
the Grecian hero, is discovered by Driabelle, the king's
daughter, while he was reposing under a tree, and although
he did not use the modest precaution of Ulysses, 1 he is
accosted by the princess, who conducts him to her father's
palace, and clothes him in suitable raiment. He is at first
mistaken for a person of low degree ; but having van-
quished an host of pagans and giants, by which the king-
dom of Gardes was attacked, he receives the Princess
Driabelle in marriage as the reward of his prowess.
Soon after the nuptials, Jourdain sets out with his bride
for France, in order to recover his paternal inheritance.
During the voyage a storm having arisen, it is proposed
that Driabelle, who was by this time pregnant, should be
thrown overboard as a victim, to appease the tempest. Her
husband at first hesitates, but one of his knights removes
his scruples by suggesting that if an air-hole were bored
in one side, she might be placed in a large cask, fitted up
with a comfortable bed, and stocked with gold and silver.
On his return to Gardes, Jourdain boasts of this admirable
expedient to his father-in-law, who of course could feel no
uneasiness as to the fate of a daughter thrown overboard
in a cask which contained so much gold and silver, and
had an air-hole bored in its side.
Some years after, our hero having succeeded to the
crown of Gardes, sets out in quest of Driabelle, and, after
a long search, finds her residing with a female hermit on
the borders of a forest in the territory of Pisa. The
wooden cask in which she had been enshrined was picked
'Ec TrvKivi/f 'v\t](; TrropBo)' K\aot \fipi
$v\\<iiv we; pvaairo iripi ^poi filiCta <f**r6f.
ODYSSEY, vi. 128. 129.
( H. IV.] DOOLIN DE MAYENCE. 327
ii] i on the shore, to which it had miraculously floated, by
;t miller in the neighbourhood, who received Driabelle in
his house, but exposed the daughter to whom she shortly
iiftt-r gave birth. To avoid the amorous solicitations with
which she was persecuted by her host, she had sought
ivl'uge with the recluse. Soon after this discovery, Jour-
daiu, while hunting one day in the forest, meets his
(laughter in company with two fawns and a hind, by
whom she had been kindly entreated when exposed by the
miller. Fortunately the princess had inherited some IT-
sonal peculiarities from her father, whence the queen is
enabled to identify her by certain marks that had been
oliM-rved on her person shortly after birth; and as she
was very beautiful, and of course well educated, she was
betrothed to Sadoine, the Saracenic king of Scotland,
whom Jourdain had recently converted along with his
people to the true faith.
In this work the leading incident bears a striking re-
semblance to the history of Apollonius of Tyre, whose
queen, to appease a storm, was thrown overboard in a chest,
which floated to the coast of Ephesus. (See above, p. 84.)
The romance of
DOOLIN DE MAYENCE '
is supposed to have been written during the reign of Charles
VIII. of France, that is, about the end of the fifteenth
century. This inference has been drawn partly from the
language of the work partly from the character and
actions attributed to Charlemagne. The romancers who
wrote a few centuries after his death did justice to his
talents and virtues ; but their successors have painted
him as an unreasonable monarch, and sometimes even as a
cowardly knight. At whatever period written, the work
was first published in 1501, at Paris, by Verard. This
edition was followed by a second in 1549, 4to., from the
same place ; and a third at Rotterdam, 1604.' 2
Doolin of Mayence, the hero of this tale of chivalry, was
1 Doolin de Maience (la fleur des batailles), chevalier preux et hardi,
fils ilu noble et cheualeureux Guy, Comte de Maience.
2 An analysis is given in the Count de Tressan's ' Bibliotheque des
328 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
the son of G-uyon de Mayence, who, while engaged in the
chase, had the misfortune to run down a hermit in mistake
for a stag. As a suitable penance for this inadvertence, he
resolved to occupy the cell of the deceased for the re-
mainder of his days. During his absence the seneschal
having seized on Mayence, his countess is condemned to
death, on pretence that she had privately procured the
assassination of her husband, and all she can obtain is a
delay in the execution of the sentence, in hopes that some
champion may appear to espouse her quarrel. Her chil-
dren are also committed to a ruffian, with instructions that
they should be murdered : this design is accomplished on
the younger children, but Doolin escapes, and is found by
his father wandering in the neighbourhood of the her-
mitage. There he is brought up in perfect seclusion, till,
having attained the proper age, he and his father set out
to recover Mayence, and to rescue the countess. On their
way to the city G-uyon is struck with sudden blindness,
which was a manifest indication of the will of Heaven
that he should not quit his retirement. Doolin therefore
proceeds alone, and after experiencing a singular adven-
ture at a castle which lay on his route, 1 he arrives at
Mayence. There, by overthrowing her accuser, who must
have been possessed of wonderful patience, he rescues his
mother from the death that had so long awaited her. He
is now invested with the sovereignty of Mayence, but has
soon to sustain a war with Charlemagne, who had been
exasperated at Doolin having failed on some occasion to
salute him with proper respect. In the course of this war
the conduct of Charlemagne is that of a weak and tyran-
nical prince ; but he at length attempts to effect a recon-
ciliation, by offering his enemy the hand of the countess of
Nivemois, who was his niece. This proposal is rejected
by Doolin, who was fully as unreasonable as Chaiiemagne,
Komans," 1771, Fev. 1-70, Melanges tirs. See also Reichard, Bibl.
der Eom., iv. 45-90, and Schmidt, Wiener Jahrb., xxxi. p. 125, etc.
Graesse, All. Lit., iii. 3, p. 340, says it is extant only in the French
prose versions. There is, however, an incomplete poem of the story,
MS. 7635 A. fondde Bruxelles, Bib. Nat., and also, perhaps, a very old
metrical text of the same, also incomplete, in the library of St. Mark.
See P. Lacroix, MSS. Ital., p. 163.
1 See Appendix, No. 14.
CH. IV.] OGIEE LE DANOIS. 329
with great contempt. " Vrayment," says Charlemagne,
1 >< -an sire Doolin, Je ne me puis assez esbair de vous
troiiver si dur a appointer." Doolin, however, had placed
his affections on the daughter of the lord of Vauclere, a
city li.-yond the Khine, not on account of her beauty or
accomplishments, but because she was beloved by the
sultan of Turkey, "lequel est si beau damoyseau que
merveille ; " and he coveted possession of the city, not for
its extent or riches, but because it was held by a cruel
giant, the lady's father, who had under him thirty thousand
Saracens of uncommon stature and ferocity. Charlemagne
expresses his astonishment that Doolin should be "si
outrecuide et indiscret, qu'il cuide que Je luy feray don de
la chose ou Je n'ay nul droict, non plus que a ce qui est
au plus profond des Indes." The refusal of Charlemagne
to bestow this territory on Doolin, produces a single
combat between them, which is interrupted by an angel,
who commands the emperor to acquire it for Doolin by
force of arms. Accordingly the remainder of the romance
is occupied with the wars against Vauclere and the king of
Denmark, who supported the pretensions of the handsome
sultan. These campaigns terminate with the capture of
Vauclere, the marriage of Doolin with the giant's daughter,
and his accession to the throne of Denmark by right of
conquest.
The exploits of Doolin are the subject of a German
poem, by Alxinger, in the style of Oberon, and which, next
to the work of Wieland, is accounted the best in the mixed
class of heroic and comic poetry. But whatever may be
the merit of the poem, the Histoire de Doolin is not an
interesting romance, and its hero is chiefly remarkable as
the ancestor of a long race of Paladins, particularly Ogier
the Dane, so frequently mentioned by the Italian poets.
The fabulous history of
OGIER LE DANOIS, *
though not printed till about the same period with that of
1 . . . le rommant nome ogier le dannoys, A. Vcrard, Paris, cm -a
1498, and numerous subsequent editions.
" Aueharius gloriosissimus dux " is mentioned by Paul I. in a letter
330 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IT.
Doolin, was written at a much earlier date, or at least the
incidents were earlier imagined. There can be little doubt
that a northern hero of the name of Ogierus, or Hulgerus,
to King Pepin in 760, as one of the two envoys sent by Pepin to compel
the Lombard king, Desiderius, to restore certain places to the Pope (G.
Cenni's " Monumenta dominationis Pontificiae," i. p. 163, Rom., 1760;
other recensions of the papal letter spell " Autharius "). In the Life of
Pope Adrian I., written in the ninth century by Anastasius, the Vatican
librarian, " Autcharius" appears five times : he is a refugee at the court
of Desiderius ; he takes part in the march of the Lombards towards
Rome ; he is warned back by Adrian ; he flies before Charlemagne into
Verona; and he surrenders in 774, together with the widow and the
two orphan sons of Carloman, the brother of Charlemagne (Anast. Vit.
Rom. Pont., Rome, 1718, i., sections 296, 307, 308. 310, and 314, pp.
236, 243, 244, 246, 247). The monk of St. Gall (fl. circ. 885) describes
" Otkerus " (or " Oggerus," according to some MSS.) as standing on
one of the towers of Pavia to watch the approach of the French army,
and as pointing out to Desiderius the person of the iron Charles (" fer-
reus Karolus," Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist., ii., Han., 1829, p. 759). A
church legend, headed " Conversio Othgerii militis," describing the re-
tirement of Ogier, with an old comrade, into the abbey of St. Faron, at
Meaux, occurs in a MS. (Bib. Xat. anc. S. Germain des pres, Xo. 1607,
sxc. x. vel xi.), printed in Acta SS. ord. Benedict!, by Achery and
Mabillon. Ogier is distinguished from the Lombards by the epithet
" Francus." In a chronicle published in Pertz's " Monumenta Germ."
(1829, ii. p. 214), St. Martin's Abbey, Cologne, is stated to have been
restored " per Otgerum Danise ducem, adjuvante Karolo Magno."
" Olgerum" would seem to be the reading in the MS., which is not later
than 1050, and thus furnishes the earliest connection of the name with
Denmark ; but it is not quite impossible that such connection may have
originated with some poet of his own century. There seems to have
been at one time, at all events, a fashion at the court of Louis le Debon-
naire to derive the Franks in general from the Danes. '' We mu^t ad-
mit, however, continues Mr. Ward, " that it is much more likely that
Ogier's traditionary surname was a growth of the usual wild kind.
Barrois, the editor of the oldest version of the Chanson of Ogier (pub-
lished in 1842), has made out a very plausible case in favour of his
theory, that tradition began with giving Ogier lands in Ardennes, and
calling the country Ardenemarche and the hero PArdenois ; and that
these names were afterwards corrupted into Danemarche and Danois.
He has certainly shown that in the two MSS. which he has used, of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the two appellations just mentioned
are interchanged ; for Tierris d'Ardane . . . who is sometimes styled
' 1'Ardenois,' is in one line of the earlier MS. called ' Ii Danois :' whilst
Ogier himself is in one line of the later MS. called ' 1'Ardenois.' "-
Ward, Cat. i. pp. 604-6. See also Ward, Cat. i. p. 628, on the MS.
(Royal. 15, E. vl.) of Simon de Pouille, wherein Thierri of Ardenne is in
one'place (at fol. 42, col. 2, 1. 4) called " le dannois " instead of " 1'Ar-
dennois." We may add that it is difficult to localize " Ardenne ;" the
CH. IV.] OOIEE LE DANOI8. 331
:i< tinilly existed in the age of Charlemagne. Bartholinus,
in his " Dissertatio Historica de Hulgero Dano qui Caroli
ma^ni tempore floruit," cites a great mass of old Frem-h
an* I German chronicles as authorities for his existence and
martial exploits, his being sent as a hostage to Paris, his
Hiu r lit to Lombardy, and marriage to an English princess.
Th- traditions concerning this hero were probably first com-
municated to the French nation by the Norman invaders,
and were embodied in a number of metrical romances,
written in the reign of Philip the Hardy (1270-85). Of
these the longest is Les Enfances d'Ogier le Danois, which
was written by Adenez, or Adans, as he is sometimes
called, herald to Henry III., duke of Brabant, 1 and sur-
named Eoy, from having been crowned in a poetical con-
He informs us that the materials of his romance
\vt-iv communicated to him by a monk, called Savary, from
certain northern legends preserved in the abbey of St.
Denis. This metrical work of Adenez, and others of a
similar description, were the foundation of the prose
romance which was formed not long after the appearance
word occurs frequently in French topography, and was no doubt generic
(= ? fort s(icr). Cf. our Arden and Dean. See infra, p. 342.
1 he prose romance," writes Mr. Ward (i. p. 609), " which was formed
with u few alterations from the present version (of the Chanson de geste,
Royal. 15, E. vi.), and not, as Brunei asserts, from the work of Adenet le
Roi, was published in 1498, and several times in the sixteenth century.
. . . Remarks of great interest, by Paulin Paris upon the history of
... are to be found in Histoire litteraire, xx. (1842), pp. 689-694,
and xxii. (1852), pp. 643-659, and also in Les MSS. Franais de la Biblio-
tht'que du Roi, vi. (1845), pp. 122-123. A critical notice of Ogier is
given by Gaston Paris, Histoire Poe'tique de Charlemagne (1865), pp.
306-313. L. Gautier, in his Epopees Fran^aises, iii. (ed. 1880), pp. .52-
55, has published some remarks upon the historical elements of the
( t^k-r legend, and upon its further development ; but he has reserved
his biographical notice of the subject for his sixth volume, which is to
deal with the cycle of Doon de Mayence."
An abstract of the romance is contained in Melanges tires d'unc
Grande Bibl., t. viii.
In 1'hilomena (see p. 290) there are two paladins named Ogier. Auge-
rius Danesus and Augerius de Normandia.
" Icy endroit est cil livre tint-/.
Qui des Enfances d'Ogier est apelez ;
( >r vueille Diex qu'il soit parachevez,
En tel maniere qu'estre n'en puisse blamez
Li Roy Adans, par ki il est rimez."
332 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
of its metrical prototypes. The infamous and traitorous
character assigned in the prose romance to the knights
templar, makes it probable that it was written in the time
of Philip the Fair, in whose reign that order was suppressed,
on account of real or alleged enormities.
Doolin of Mayence had by his wife, Flandrina, a son
called Geoffrey, who succeeded to him in the kingdom of
Denmark, and Ogier the Dane was son to this monarch.
The fairies, who only act a part in the more recent
romances of the Bound Table, appear in the earliest tales
relating to Charlemagne. Not fewer than six of these
intermeddling beings presided at the birth of Ogier. Five
of the number bestowed on him the most precious gifts
and accomplishments, while Morgane, the sister of Arthur,
who was the sixth, decreed, that when Ogier had passed a
long life of glory, he should come to her palace of Avallou
in his old age, and, laying his laurels at her feet, partake
with her the enjoyments of love in the finest residence in
the universe.
Some disputes having arisen between the king of Den-
mark and Charlemagne, Ogier, who was now ten years of
age, was, at the adjustment of differences, sent as a
hostage to Paris, where he was instructed in all the accom-
plishments of the time. At the end of four years, Charle-
magne, irritated by some new transgression of the king of
Denmark, banished Ogier to the castle of St. Onier. There
his confinement and exile were soothed by the kindness of
the governor, and still more sweetly solaced by the atten-
tions of his daughter, the beautiful Bellissande. Ogier
seems to have been on no occasion disposed to abide the
amorous old age reserved him by decree of the fairies ; but
he was unfortunately withdrawn from a residence which
love had begun to render delightful, and summoned to
attend Charlemagne to Italy, on an expedition against the
Saracens. In the romance there is a long, but not very
interesting account, of the services he performed for Charle-
magne, and his narrow escapes from the plots of Chariot,
Charlemagne's unworthy son, who was envious of his re-
iiown. The emperor having at length triumphed over all
his enemies, and re-established Leo in the pontifical throne,
returned to France, accompanied by Ogier.
CH. IV.] OGIEB LE DANOI8. 333
The first intelligence the Danish hero learned on his
arrival, was, that Bellissande had made him father of a
son, and the next, that he had succeeded to the crown of
Denmark by the demise of his parents. He took immediate
possession of this sovereignty, but after a reign of some
years he resigned it, and returned to France.
Meanwhile the son of Ogier and Bellissande had grown
up, and was a deserved favourite at the court of Charle-
magne. One day, having unfortunately vanquished Chariot
at a game of chess, that prince, who was not remarkable
for his forbearance, struck him dead with the chess board.
The exasperated father of the victim insulted his sovereign
so grossly in consequence of this outrage, that he was
forced to fly into Loinbardy. Didier, king of that country,
was then at war with Charlemagne ; but, spite of the
assistance of Ogier, he was worsted by the French monarch.
The Danish hero escaped from a castle in which he was
besieged, but while asleep by the side of a fountain, he
was taken captive by Archbishop Turpin. Ogier refused
to be reconciled to his sovereign, unless the guilty Chariot
was delivered up to his vengeance. These conditions were
complied with, but when Ogier was about to strike off the
head of the prince, his arm was arrested by the voice of an
an<_:vl, commanding him to spare the son of Charlemagne.
After this interposition, Ogier returned to his obedience,
and was soon after employed to combat a Saracen giant,
who had landed with a grea.t army in France, but was
defeated and slain according to the final lot of all pagans
and giants. Ogier received as a reward the hand of the
princess Clarice of England. This lady had followed her
father to France, who came there to do homage for his
iTown. She had been intercepted, however, and detained
by the pagans, from whom she was rescued by the exer-
tions of Ogier, who, soon after his union, passed over to
England, and in right of his wife, was there acknowledged
as king : but, tired of the enjoyment of an empire which
had been so easily gained, he soon after set out in quest
of new adventures, the account of which forms the second
part of the romance.
Of this division of the work, a considerable portion is
occupied with the wars in Palestine. Our adventurer sue-
334 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
cessively seized on Acre, Jerusalem, aud Babylon, of
which cities he was declared king, but resigned them in
turn to his kinsmen, who had accompanied him on his
expedition, and anew set sail for France. For some time
he enjoyed a favourable breeze, but at length his vessel
was driven by a tempest on a rock, to which it became
immovably fixed. In proportion as provisions failed, the
sailors were in turn thrown overboard. When all his crew
had been thus disposed of, Ogier landed and directed his
steps to a castle of adamant, which, though invisible
during day, shone by night with miraculous splendour.
His first entrance into this mansion has a striking resem-
blance to a description in the romance of Partenopex :
everything is magnificently arranged, but no person
appears. At length, having entered a saloon, he perceived
a repast prepared, and a horse 1 seated at table, who, on
the approach of Ogier, instantly rose, presented him with
water, and then returned to his chair. The hospitable
quadruped next made signs to his guest to partake of the
viands, but Ogier, little accustomed to fellowship with such
hosts, and scarce comprehending his imperfect gesticu-
lation, left the whole repast for behoof of the landlord,
who, after a plentiful supper, conducted the stranger to
a magnificent chamber prepared for his repose. Next
morning Ogier went abroad, and followed a path which
conducted him to a delightful meadow. " Welcome," said
the fairy Morgana, who now appeared richly attired, amidst
an assemblage of beautiful nymphs "welcome to the
palace of Avallon, 2 where you have been so long ex-
pected." She then re-conducted him to the palace of
adamant ; but the reader hears no more of the horse, nor
any satisfactory reason why he was preferred to the office
of croupier, and selected to do the honours of the castle,
for which he must have been but indifferently qualified,
either by his dexterity in carving, or his talents for
conversation.
On his arrival at the palace, Morgana placed a ring on
the hand of Ogier, who, though at that time upwards of a
1 Named Papillon in the Metrical Ogier, MS. Brit. Museum, Royal,
15 E. vi.
8 See supra, pp. 229, 198 notes, and Romania xii., 510.
CH. IV.] OOIER LE DANOI8. 335
hundred years of age, immediately assumed the appear-
ance of a man of thirty. She afterwards fixed on his brow
a golden crown, adorned with precious stones, which formed
leaves of myrtle and of laurel. From this moment the
court of Charlemagne and its glories were effaced from
his recollection the thrones of Denmark and Palestine
vanished from his view Morgana was now the sole object
of his devotion. The delights of her garden and palace
were ever varied by magic ; and, as described in the ro-
iiiaiK-.-. remind us of the illusions of Alcina. The fairy
also introduced her lover to the acquaintance of her brother
Arthur, who had resided with her for the last four hun-
dred years. Oberon, too, another brother of Morgana,
frequently visited his sister, and placed at her disposal a
troop of spirits, who assumed a variety of forms, appear-
ing in the shape of Lancelot, Tristan, or some other knight
ut the Round Table, who came as if to consult their sove-
reign on the interpretation of the laws of that celebrated
institution, and to discourse with him on their former
exploits. Sometimes they were pleased to take the figures
of giants and monsters, and in these characters attacked
the pavilion of the monarch. Ogier and the British king
were delighted with each other's society, and were fre-
quently engaged in joust and tournament with these
imaginary foes. 1
Two hundred years having elapsed in these amusements,
the moment arrived at which Ogier was destined to be
separated for a short while from his mistress. The crown
of oblivion having been removed from his brow, the glories
of his former life burst on his memory, and he suddenly
departed ~ for the court of France, where he was destined
to revive, under the first of the Capets, that spirit of
chivalry which had sunk under the feeble successors of
Charlemagne. The romance describes, in a way amusing
enough, the astonishment of the courtiers at the appearance
of this celebrated but old-fashioned hero, and his reciprocal
surprise at the change that had taken place in manners
and customs. France, and even Paris, were at this time
1 See Appendix, No. 15.
2 Riding upon Papillon, according to the British Museum, Ogier,
f. 132.
336 HISTORY OF FICTION. _CH. IV.
threatened by the northern nations who had settled in
Normandy. Ogier was appointed to command an expedi-
tion against them, and by restoring the genuine spirit of
chivalry in his army, entirely defeated the enemy. After
his return he assisted at the meetings of the councils
and, in the course of a twelvemonth, revived throughout
the kingdom the vigour of the age of Charlemagne.
As Ogier still bore the ring he had received froi
Morgana, which gave him the appearance of unfadec
youth, he was highly favoured by the ladies of the court.
The secret, however, had nearly transpired by means of
the old countess of Senlis, who, while making love to
Ogier, drew this talisman from his hand and placed it on
her own. She instantly blossomed into youth, while Ogier
shrunk into decrepitude. The countess was forced to give
back the ring, and former appearances were restored ; but,
as she had discovered its value, she employed thirty
champions to regain it, all of whom were successively
defeated by the knight.
About this time the king of France having died, the
queen wisely resolved to espouse a hero, who, with the
bloom and vigour of thirty, possessed the experience of
three centuries :' but while the marriage ceremony was
performing, the bridegroom was suddenly earned away by
Morgana, and, to the misfortune of chivalry, has never
since been heard of. The fairies of romance are much in
the habit of conveying away mortals who possess the
qualities that engage their affections. In the Arabis
Nights, Ahmed, son of the sultan of the Indies, is trans-
ported to the castle of the fairy Pari Banou, who wa
enamoured of him ; and in the fabliau of Lanval, 1 the
knight of that name was borne away, like Ogier, to Avallon,
whence he has never yet returned.
Ogier le Danois is certainly one of the most interesting
stories of the class to which it belongs, and has according!)
gone through a great number of editions, of which th
earliest was printed at Paris, in folio, by Verard, without
date, and the next at Lyons, in 1525.
The hero of this popular work has been the subject of
1 In Legrand d'Aussj's collection, i. p. 165.
CH. IV.] MEURVIN. 337
two romantic poems in Italy, II Danese Uggieri, and La
Morte del Danese. He is also frequently mentioned by
Ariosto and Boiardo. Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore,
alludes in a jocular manner to the fiction of his long-pro-
tracted existence :
E del Danese che ancor vivo sia
Dicono alcun (ma non la Istoria mia),
E che si truova in certa grotta oscura,
E spesso annul' > a caval par che slia,
Si che chi il vede gli metle paura.
Morg. Mag. c. 28.
There exists a romance which gives an account of the
exploits of the son of Ogier and Morgane, called
METJRVIN, 1
from whom the celebrated Godfrey of Bouillon is feigned
to have been descended. This work has gone through
many editions, but seems totally uninteresting. Meurvin
was the father of Oriant, a progenitor of Helias the Knight
of the Swan, whose daughter Ida espoused Count Eustace
of Boulogne, great grandfather of Godfrey de Bouillon.
The novel, which was a late composition, will be found
analyzed in the Bibliotheque des Romans, 1778, Feb. pp.
168-179.
It has already been mentioned, that Ogier le Danois
was grandson of Doolin of Mayence. Doolin appears to
have been the patriarch of chivalry ; for, besides his eldest
son Geoffrey, the father of Ogier, he had a child of his
own name, who inherited the country of Mayence, and was
the ancestor of Gan, who acts so villainous a part in the
Italian poems. The exploits of a third son form the sub-
ject of the romance Gerard d'Euphrate, which the author
says he was employed for thirty years in translating from
the Walloon rhyme, and which was published in folio,
1549. The scene of most of the adventures is laid in the
east, and the whole work is very freely interspersed with
enchantments, and the machinations of magicians and
fairies, some of whom were friendly and others hostile to
1 Lhistoire du preux Meuruin filz d'Oger le dannoys, lequel par sa
prouesse conquist Hierusalem, Babilone, etc. See Graesse, ii. 3, p. 344 ;
Tressan, Extr., t. ii. p. 146*160 ; Wiener Jahrb., xxxi. p. 129, 130.
I. Z
338 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
Gerard, the hero of the romance. A fourth son of Doolin
was Beuves, count of Aigremont, who was father of Vivian
and the Christian enchanter Maugis, the Malagigi of
Ariosto. Aymon, count of Dordogne, the youngest son of
Doolin, left a posterity still more illustrious, having been
the parent of Eenaud de Montauban and his three brothers,
whose names suggest everything that is splendid and
romantic in poetry or fiction.
There are different French romances, both in prose and
verse, concerning the adventures and exploits of the four
sons of Aymon. In these the same circumstances are fre-
quently repeated, which renders a separate analysis of each
superfluous.
The History of
MAUGIS 1
and his brother Vivian derives considerable interest from
the novelty of the character of its hero, and the singular
enchantments he employs. In his infancy Maugis was
stolen by a Moorish slave, with the intention of carrying
him into paganism. He was rescued, however, by the
united efforts of a lion and leopard, and was picked up by
a benevolent fairy, who was fortunately traversing the
desert at the moment. A dwarf, whom the fairy kept in
pay, soon after acquainted her with the lineage of the
child. Having received this information, she conferred on
him the benefits of baptism, and sent him to her brother
to be initiated in magic, the rudiments of which he acquired
with wonderful facility. His first magical experiment was
of the boldest description, he personated the devil, and
in that character passed into the island of Boucault, where
he subdued and tamed the horse Bayardo, an exploit
attributed by Tasso to Einaldo. This unruly steed in-
1 La tres playsante hystoyre de Maugist Daygremont et de Uiuian son
frere, en laquelle est contenu coment Maugist a layde de Oriande hi
Faee samye alia en lysle de Boucault ou il sehahilla en diable. Et puis
commet il enchanta le deable Kaouart, et occist le serpent qui gardoit
la roche par laquelle chose il conquist le cheual Bayard et aussi con-
questa le grant Geant Sorgalant. A. Lotrian, Paris, 4to. This is the
title given by Brunet, who assigns no date, but considers that it is later
than an impression of the work by J. Trepperel, Paris, noticed by several
bibliographers ; numerous subsequent editions.
CH. IV.] MAUOI8. 339
habited a cavern which was guarded by a horrible dragon,
and was in the vicinity of a volcano which formed one of
the principal mouths of hell. There is a striking resem-
blance between this adventure and the eastern story of the
Eakshe, a winged horse, which rendered the Dry island
uninhabitable until he was subdued by Housheng, king of
Persia, who tamed and mounted him in all his wars with
the Dives. 1 Maugis having signalized himself by the con-
quest of Bayardo, was admitted to the necromantic univer-
sity of Toledo, where he completed his studies, and, ac-
cording to some accounts, held the professor of magic's
chair in that city, which was distinguished as a school for
the mysteries of the black art :
The city of Toledo erst
Fostered the lore of necromancy,
Professors there, in magic versed,
From public chair taught pyromancy,
Or geomancy ; or rehearsed
Experiments in hydromancy. 3
iving perfected himself in the mysteries of magic, the
enchanter assisted Marsirius, king of Spain, in his wars
1 Liebrecht enumerates the following notices of winged horses, etc. :
Krsch and Gruber's " Encyclopaedia," sub. voc. Huschenck ; Loiseleur
Deslongchamps, Fabl. Indiennes, p. 35, n. 2 ; Schmidt's notes to Strapa-
rola, p. 269, etc. ; Grimm's " Teutonic Mythology," English ed., p. 392 ;
Graesse's " Sagenkreise," p. 191, etc. ; Dissertation upon Fortunatus.
This tale is, perhaps, of Indian origin, cf. Germania, vol. ii. p. 265, etc.
Klettkt-'s ' Marchensaal," bd. iii. p. 4. As for the horse Bayard, in its
supernatural pedigree, its fidelity, its prospect of perishing by water,
and the yearly neighing and turmoil in the forest (in the Quatre fils
Aymon, see Grimm, ubi supra), bears a remarkable resemblance to
Graelent's horse in the poems of Marie de France (i. 549, etc.), which
idea is again borrowed from a Breton legend. See Villemarque, Burzaz-
lirci/, vol. i. No. 6, and p. 31, English version by Tom Taylor, Ballads
and Songs of Brittany, p. 31, etc. LIEB.
" Questa citta di Tolletto solea,
Tenere studio di Negromanzia,
Quivi di magica arte si leggea
Publicamente, et di Piromanzia ;
E molti Geomanti sempre avea
E sperimenti assai de Hidromanzia."
Pulci's " Morg. Mag." c. 25.
Not only Toledo, but also Salamanca, and in Italy the schools on the
banks of the Lacus Nursinus and in the Spelseum Visignianuin were
340 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. IV,
with the Amiral of Persia, and availed himself of his in-
cantations to forward and conceal his own intrigue with
the queen. He also aided Arnaud of Montcler in his con-
test with Charlemagne, deceiving the enemy by fascinating
their eyes, or entering the hostile camp in various disguises,
after the manner of Merlin.
The story of the enchantments and amours of Maugis is
prosecuted in
THE CONQUEST or TBEBIZOND, BY EINALDO. *
This romance opens with an account of a magnificent
tournament proclaimed by Charlemagne, to which Einaldo
comes incognito, and bears away all the honour and prizes.
At length the ceremony is interrupted by an embassy from
the king of Cappadocia, announcing his intentions of em-
barking for France in order to joust with all the knights
of Charlemagne. Einaldo, however, anticipates his design,
and having landed in Cappadocia, overthrows and deposes
its monarch. Maugis, who had accompanied Einaldo,
meanwhile engaged in an intrigue with the daughter
of the king of Cyprus. His amour was detected by a.
dwarf, who revealed it to the king. It is true the princess
burnt the dwarf, but this could not prevent her father
from besieging Maugis in a citadel into which he had
thrown himself. The emperor of Trebizond aided the-
king of Cyprus, and Einaldo came to the assistance of
Maugis. The allied monarchs were defeated and slain in
a great battle, after which Einaldo was elected by the army
emperor of Trebizond. This romance is the foundation
of the Italian poem entitled " Trabisonda, nel quale si tratta
nobillissime battaglie con la vita e morte de Einaldo."
celebrated for (natural?) maic. See Delrio, Disquis. Magic.T, 1. if.
qu. i. p. 110, ed. Colon. 1657, also Cracow ; see Scheible's " Kloster," v.
114. LIEB.
1 SEnsuyt la coqueste du trespuissant empire de Tresbisonde, et de-
la spacieuse Asie. En laquelle sont coprinses plusieurs batailles tant
par mer que par terre. Ensemble maintes triumphantes entrees de villes
& prinses d'icelles decorees par stille poetique et descriptions de pays
avec plusieurs comptes damours qui iusques cy nont este veuz. Paris*
without date, 4 to.
CH. IV.] FOUR SONS OF AYMON. 341
FOUR SONS OF AYMON '
is a romance of which there are several variants, and which
IKIS grown out of the Cantilenes or popular ballads which
ruininemorated for many succeeding generations the
struggles of Charles the Bald with his feudatories.
Charlemagne, irritated by the refusal of Beuves d'Aigre-
mont to attend his Cour pleniere, is further exasperated
by the execution of the ambassador he had sent to the
knight, and proceeds to war against the four sons of Ay-
niDii of Dordogne, Renaud, Allard, Guichard, and Richard,
and their cousin the magician Maugis, in consequence of
their abstention from hostilities against their relative
Beuves, who, after a brief struggle, surrenders and is par-
doned. Ganelon, a favourite of Charlemagne, is, however,
resolved on the ruin of Beuves, whom he accuses of con-
spiring to kidnap the emperor. The latter commissions
him merely to keep a watch upon d'Aigremont with 400
men. He musters, instead, 4,000 men, wounds the duke
Beuves, and then treacherously assassinates him, and thus
in his name bequeaths to future romance a synonym for
tivason.
Upon the refusal of Charlemagne to accord reparation
for this perfidy, and his condonation of Ganelon's action,
the victim's brother Aymon and his son Renaud declare
themselves absolved from their fealty to the emperor, and
Renaud, with an ominous partiality, displayed more than
once, for the game of chess, engages in that intellectual
recreation with the emperor's nephew Berthelot. Rallied
by this player upon his distraction, Renaud strikes him
dead with a blow of the golden chessboard. The emperor
1 Quatre fils Aymon, Paris, 1525, folio. For the above brief abstract
I am gratefully indebted to M. Charles Grellet Balguerie, author of
various learned researches into the earlier history of Aquitaine,
who is at present engaged upon a historical investigation dealing with
the Romance of the Sons of Aimon, the scene of which, really the
south of France, had been supposed to be in the northern Ardennes.
He identifies Aimon with Aimon II., Count of Perigord, who maintained
a struggle with Charles le Chauve, who here, as in other romances, is
represented by the Charlemagne of song and story. The aper^u of his
forthcoming book, with which M. Grellet Balguerie has so kindly
favoured me, is too long and elaborate to admit of its insertion in
oxtonso in the present work. See Appendix, No. 16.
342 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [cH. IV.
orders his arrest, but his escape is secured by his brothers
and Maugis, who afterwards rejoin him, and the fugitives
are pursued by 2,000 horsemen. The foremost three of
these are killed by Renaud, who thus provides mounts for
his brothers, while the magical steed Bayard, 1 who tra-
verses ten leagues at a stretch, proves equal to the trans-
port of both Renaud and Maugis.
Charlemagne exacts an oath from Aymon that he will
afford no aid to his sons, and the latter having pushed on
to the vicinity of the paternal demesne of Dordogne, the
duchess Aye, 2 their mother, desirous to avoid all suspicion
of complicity, induces them to withdraw by promising them
as much gold as they desire. They retire to a forest
Ardenne 3 where in the valley of fairies, upon an escarped,
rock commanding the Meuse, 4 they constructed the re-
doubtable fortress of Montfort. 5
Here they are beleaguered by Charlemagne, but Re-
uaud performing prodigies of valour, breaks a passage
through the expanded ranks of the besiegers, cutting the
enemy down like corn, and after a sanguinary defeat
Charlemagne is compelled to retire. Renaud re-enters the
1 This most intelligent and illustrious steed of chivalry plays a con-
spicuous part throughout the romance. He and the sword Floberge were
presented to Renaud by the magician Maugis. Bayard performs good
service by his swiftness, by giving the alarm by neighing or beating
Renaud's shield with his hoofs on emergencies. He plays a prominent
role in a curious racing episode. Charlemagne, desirous of securing a
good charger for Boland, institutes a race. Near the goal are displayed
the various prizes, including the imperial crown itself. The winner, how-
ever, is to be given to Roland. Maugis, versed besides other arts, in
turfish tricks, dyes the black Bayard white. Thus disguised he wins the
race, jockeyed by Renaud, also disguised, who rides off with all the
prizes, vainly pursued by the emperor's horsemen. Bayard's white coat
dissolves and he is recognized, and Renaud avows his identity, but makes
good his escape on the fleet and faithful steed.
2 An Aga or Aya was the wife of Aymon I., Comte de Perigueux, at
some time subsequent to 780.
3 A generic appellation applied to many forests.
4 Or rather the Dordogne, Meuse having been doubtless substituted
by a confusion arising from the word Ardenne. M. Rajna, however,
(Origini dell' epopea francese, Firenze, 1884,) connects Renaud with
Dortmund, and in general maintains the Germanic origin of the French
traditions, in which he is in the main supported by Gaston Paris, see
Romania, No. 52.
5 The imposing ruins of which may still be seen overhanging the
Dordogne.
CH. IV.] FOUR SONS OF AYMON. 343
stronghold, although pursued by his father Aymon, whom
he will only oppose so far as to kill his horse.
The castle of Montfort succumbs, nevertheless, after a
year's siege, but only through treachery, in which Charle-
magne participates, and Renaud and his brothers are
ml need to the condition of outcast fugitives. Aided,
however, by the supplies of their mother and the resources
of Maugis, and after abundant vicissitudes and adventures,
in which Bayard plays no insignificant part, they erect the
citv and fortress of Montauban near the confluence of the
Dordogne and Grironde. Here they are again besieged by
Charlemagne, but in the absence of the latter' s commander-
iu-chief Roland, Renaud sallies out, and after carrying
havoc into the investing host, captures the dragon which
floats over the tent of Roland and hoists it on the highest
tower of Montauban. The brave garrison is subsequently
betrayed into an ambuscade by Yon (or Sancion), King of
Gascony. 1
Maugis, however, borne by the fleet and faithful Bayard,
comes to the rescue, and a sanguinary struggle ensues in
which Richard was so grievously wounded in the abdomen
that, in order to ply his antagonist, he was obliged to
maintain his extruding intestines with his left hand. 2 He is
afterwards healed by Maugis, his cousin, and they return
in triumph to Montauban.
At length his generalissimo Roland, Oger, and others,
implure Charlemagne to pardon Aymon's sons and Maugis,
and, as they threaten defection, he accedes to their prayer
on condition that Renaud' s children be hostages, that
Renaud betake himself to Palestine to fight the Saracens,
and that he surrender Bayard. Renaud agrees, and after
embracing his well-tried friend Bayard, , transfers him
to the emperor. But the faithful charger will allow none to
mount him. The emperor causes him to be weighted with
stones and thrown into the river ; he succeeds, however, in
disengaging himself and gaining the opposite bank. Re-
' Identified, by M. Longnon, with Eudon, Duke of Aquitaine in the
eighth century, and, consequently, Charles with Charles Martel.
Romania, Hi., p. 610.
* A soni* still popular in the south of France, and particularly in the
de'partements of Gers and Lot, celebrates this memorable feat, attributing
it, however, to Henaud. See Appendix, No. 16.
344 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
naud continues his feats of prodigious valour in Palestine,
but refuses the kingship in favour of Godfrey of Bouillon,
and returns to his native country. He finds his wife
Clarissa, like Penelope, importuned by suitors, had died of
grief at his supposed death, and Renaud, like so many of
the figures of chivalrous romance, elects to finish his days
as a hermit ; but, for the sake of occasional exercise, hired
himself out as a mason. His piety drew on him the hatred
of his fellow labourers, and one day, while he was praying
at the bottom of the wall of a church which they were
building, they threw on his head an enormous stone, by
which he was slain before he had completed his devotions.
The concluding scenes of the life of Maugis are exhibited
in the Chronicle of
MABEIAN. 1
Like his cousin Binaldo, this enchanter had retired to a
hermitage ; he emerges, however, from this seclusion, and
repairs to Rome, where he attracts so much notice by his
eloquence and the sanctity of his manners, that on the
death of Leo he is raised to the pontifical chair. He soon,
however, abdicates his new-acquired dignity, and again
betakes himself to the hermitage. About this time
Kichardette, the youngest brother of Binaldo, was assassi-
nated by the treachery of Gano, or Ganelon. Alard and
Guichard, his two surviving brothers, suspecting that the
crime had been committed by the command, or with the
connivance, of Charlemagne, publicly insult their sovereign,
and after this imprudence fly for refuge to the hermitage of
Maugis. The emperor having discovered the place of their
retreat, kindled faggots at the entrance of the cavern, and
smoked the heroes to death.
There also exists a French romance concerning Charle-
magne and the family of Aymon, entitled
1 Histoire singuliere & fort reereatiue CStenat la (sic) reste des faitz
& Gestes des quatre filz Aymon, Kegnault, Allard, Guichard, et le petit
Richard. Et de leur cousin le subtil Maugis . . . Semblablemcnt la
cronicque et hystoire . . . du cheualeureux . . . price Mabrian roy de
Hierusalem . . . le tout traduict de vieil lagaige en vulgaire francoys.
J. Nyverd, Paris, without date, fol., numerous editions. See Schmidt,
Wiener Jahrb., xxxi. p. 113 ; Abstract, in Bibl. des Horns., 1778, July,
pp. 102-159 ; Graesse, iii. 3, p. ,337-342.
< H. IV.] MOEGANT LE GEANT. 345
MOEGANT LE GEANT, 1
tin- incidents of which correspond precisely with those of
the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci. It is probable, however,
that the romance was translated from the poem, as it was
not customary with the Italians to versify so closely the
lying productions of preceding fablers. 3
1 Histoire de Morgant le geant lequel avec ses freres persecutoient
tonjours lea chrestienset serviteurs de Dieu. Maisfinablement furent ces
<l<-ux freres occis par le conte Koland, etc. A. Lotrian, Paris, no date.
There \vsis an edition before this, in 1519. Pulci's work is a rifacimento
of a poem of the fourteenth century. See Romania, Hi. p. 599.
* With the class of romances relating to Charlemagne we may range
the \vell-known story of Valentine and Orson, which was written during
tin- reign of Charles VIII., and was first printed in 1495, at Lyons, in
folio.
There are a few romances of chivalry concerning French knights
which cannot properly be classed among those connected with Charle-
magne and his paladins. Of these the only one worth mentioning is Le
Petit Jehan de Saintre', which was composed in the middle of the
fifteenth century by Anthony de la Sale, a Burgundian author, and
printed in 1517 and 1723. Tressan says, that this work gives a great
deal of insight into the manners of the age and customs of the French
court ; in short, that it may be considered as the most national of all
the French romances. "I have not seen," says Warton, " any French
romance which has preserved the practices of chivalry more copiously
than this of Saintre. It must have been an absolute masterpiece for the
rules of tilting, martial customs, and public ceremonies prevailing in
its authors age." Warton's " Hist, of Eng. Poet.," 1871, vol. ii. p. 292.
Baudouin, or Baldwin, count of FJanders, is the hero of another
romance printed at Lyons in 1478 and 1509, at Chambery in 1484, and
several times at Paris, which may be here mentioned. This count is re-
presented as inflamed with such excessive pride, that he refused the
daughter of the king of France in marriage. One day. while hunting in
a forest, he met a lady of majestic stature, arrayed in magnificent attire,
who accosted him, and declared that she was the heiress of a splendid
throne in Asia; but that she had fled from the court of her father to
avoid a marriage which was disagreeable to her. The count, incited by
love and ambition, espoused her and carried her to the French court.
When a year had elapsed, the Asiatic princess brought him two beautiful
daughters ; yet Baldwin, though in the enjoyment of great domestic
felicity, awaited with much impatience the return of a courier he had
despatched to the dominions of his royal father-in law. Meanwhile a
hermit having obtained admittance to the presence of the count, ex-
pressed his doubts as to the existence of this Asiatic empire, and con-
cluded with begging leave to dine in company with the princess. The
request being complied with, when the other guests are seated at table
the hermit enters the apartment, and, without further exordium, com-
346 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
The romance of
BERINUS l
enjoyed considerable popularity. Fannus, who, " as Mar-
tiaulx says," resided outside the walls of Rome, had a son
named Berinus (iii.). His wife, Agea, shortly after died, and
mands the landlady to return to the hell whence she had originally
issued. This mode of address, which unfortunately none of the count's
visitors had hitherto thought of employing at his board, has the desired
effect on the hostess, who vanishes with hideous yells, but not without
doing irreparable damage both to the dwelling and the dinner.
The fact is, that Baldwin, as a punishment for his pride, had been un-
wittingly married to the devil. The remainder of the romance is occii-
pied with a crusade performed by the husband, as an expiation for this
unfortunate connection, and with the adventures of his two daughters,
who turn out better than could have been anticipated from their diabo-
lical descent. Van Hasselt has given a notice of the romance of Bau-
douin in the Independent du 28 Nov., 1836, and in the Revue de
Bruxelles, Aout, 1837.
Unions of the description formed in this romance were not only
common fictions, but were credited by the vulgar. It was at one time
generally believed that an ancestor of Geoffrey of Plantagenet had
espoused a demon, and from this alliance Fordun accounts for the pro-
fligacy of King John. Andrew of Wyntoun. in his Urygynale Cronykil
of Scotland, attributes a similar origin to Macbeth ; and a story founded
on this species of connection is related as a fact in the thirty-fifth chapter
of Luther's " Colloquia Mensalia." In the same connection may be cited
Csesarius Heisterbach, Mirac. et His., iii. c. 10. 11. of. 12, the History
of St. Macarius, as also the legend of the demoniacal descent of Eleanor of
Aquitaine (consort of Louis VII. of France, and afterwards of Henry II.
of England). See also Reiffenbergon Philip Mouskes, vol. ii. p. Ixviii. ;
Wolf, Niederlandische Sagen, No". 183, and Tannhauser in Grimm's Teu-
tonic Mythology (English ed., p. 935), and Graesse, Sage vom Hitter
Tannhauser, Dresden, 1846; further, thesagaof Astrolabius.intheKaiser-
chronik, verse 13,117, etc., which again manifests a connection with the
legend of Charlemagne's magic ring (Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, No. 453,
Eng. ed.), and Von der Hagen's " Gesammtabenteuer," Band. iii. p.
clxii., etc., Nos. 98 and 99 ; but see Massmann on the lines above speci-
fied of the Kaiser Kronik. See also notes to p. 146 supra, and the account
of Merlin's birth, etc.
Hemricourt, Miroir des Nobles de la Hesbaye, ed. Salbray, p. 139,
relates how the young knight, Ameil-a-1'Oeil de Lerhy, afforded a
night's protection to a beautiful young damsel, who professed to be a
pilgrim to the Holy Land, but acquainted her amorous host next morn-
ing with her real nature, and vanished, leaving him blind of one eye for
life. LIEB.
This superstition, indeed, appears to have existed in all ages and coun-
1 Le Cheualier Berinus, etc. See App. No. 17.
CH. IV.] BERIND8. 347
Fannus re-married Raine (vii.), who prejudiced her hus-
1 ami against her stepson. The latter obtained from his
father five ships of merchandise (vi.), and settled in
Blandie (vii.), where one of his first feats was to cheat his
host at chess (viii.). He was befriended by a certain
Geoffroy, who pleaded his cause before the Seneschal (xxiii.),
and he was brought to the palace to King Isopes. Meanwhile
Gianor, with a bevy of ladies, arrives at Blandie (xxvi.), and
Mirames married Agriano's sister, Giganio (xxvii.). Thus
fortified himself, he proceeds to repair the fortresses of
tries, and seems one of the most prevalent to which mankind have been
addicted. Tho Jewish Rabbis believed in an intercourse between the fallen
is and daughtersof the children of men ; in particular, they believed
thiit Cain was the progeny of the devil, having been the offspring of the
woman and the serpent. The marriage, however, of Baldwin, count of
Flanders, above related, and other unions of a similar description, seem to
have been suggested by the story of Menippus, in Philostratus' Life of
Apollonius of Tyana. A young man, called Menippus, while travelling in
the neighbourhood of Corinth, was accosted by a beautiful woman, who
said she was a Phoenician, and avowed she was captivated with his love.
She assured him that she was possessed of ample revenues, and was
proprietor of a magnificent palace in the vicinity of Corinth, where they
might reside in the indulgence of every imaginable luxury and pleasure.
Menippus went with her to this abode in the evening, continued for
some time to frequent her society, and at length fixed on a day for the
celebration of the nuptial ceremony. Meanwhile the philosopher Appol-
lonius, remarking some peculiarities in the aspect of Menippus, thus
addressed him : " I perceive plainly, O Menippus, that you harbour or
are harboured by a serpent." Menippus replied, that serpent or not, he
was to espouse her on the morrow. Apollonius invited himself to the
nuptial banquet: during the entertainment he positively declared the
golden vessels, precious furniture, and delicious viands to be accursed
delusion and phantom, and he denounced the lady as a Lamia, who de-
voured those whom she attracted by her charms. The bride entreated
him to change the subject of conversation, but Apollonius persisting in
his invective, she in turn began to revile the philosophers and sophists.
Meanwhile the furniture was disappearing, and the viands were per-
ceptibly melting away, on which the bride burst into tears, and begged
to be excused from revealing her name and lineage. The philosopher,
however, whom she had irritated by her rash attack on the sophists,
was inexorable, and would not be satisfied till she explicitly confessed
that she was, in truth, a confirmed Lamia, who had inveigled Menippus
merely for the pleasure of devouring him, a privilege she would ha\f
enjoyed as soon as the nuptial ceremony was completed. She faitlu-r
admitted, that she was much in the use of this practice, which gave her
special delight. Menippus was a good deal surprised, thanked Appol-
lonius for this deliverance, and became in future more circumspect in his
amours.
348 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
Blandie, which he had conquered, and neglected to pay
tribute (truage) to Agrian (xxx.).
The king Isopes offers Berinus his niece Clepatras in
marriage (xli.). &The barons of Blandie sent word to
Logres, a rival suitor, of this news (xlii.), who in conse-
quence arrived at Blandie, but is conquered by Beri-
nus (lv.), who is in consequence led in triumph through
the city in a robe of cloth of gold, after which the nuptials
took place (Ixi.). The union resulted in a son and a
daughter, Aigres and Rommaine. Isopes died, and the
barons sent to search out Logres to make him. king (Ixiv.).
Berinus and his family were brought " vitupereusement "
to Logres (Ixvi.) by traitors whom Logres to their great
surprise hung (Ixvii.). Berinus, however, who seems to
have been incurably addicted to yachting, was drawn to
the rock of Adamant (Ixx.), upon which they at once pro-
ceed to begin deep mourning (Ixxi.). It was decided by
lot that Aigres should remain here (Ixxii.) while the rest
departed to Rome, where Berinus found his old master
Geoff roy. The experiences of Berinus on the rock were of the
most variegated visions, phantoms, robbers. The latter
he killed and routed (Ixxix.), but retained their servant for
his own use, which servant showed him their treasures.
Aigres conquered the king Danemont, and converted him,
by this unusual means securing his friendship (IxxxL).
Aigres found diplomatic service in a mission to demand of
king Absalon his daughter for the hand of King Holo-
fernes (Ixxxiii. and Ixxxiiii.) ; he was however imprisoned
with lions, which he slew unaided, an exploit which was
reported by the seneschal Maugis to the king.
Absalon announces he will only bestow his daughter upon
him who can overcome two marvellous lions (Ixxxvii.).
Aigres kills the animals (Ixxxviii.), and marries Melia, the
princess, but his disloyal companion Accars thrusts him
into a well, and abducts Melia ; she was shortly seized, how-
ever, by a king Abilaus. Aigres conquered Abilaus and
took off Melia (xciiii.). Aigres, with his horse Moreau, re-
turns at length to his father Berinus.
The latter portion of the romance recounts the robbery of
the treasury of the emperor (cxiii. etc.), which is a version
of the Rhanipsinitus story in Herodotus (ii. 121). Aigres
CH. IV.] BERINTTS. 349
cuts off his father's head to prevent his recognition (cxix.,
cxx.), and meeting a knight on his return kills him to
avoid detection (cxx.).
The Seven Sages (among whom Cicero) advise that the
trunk of Bcrinus should be drawn through Rome (cxxv.).
Aigres, however, takes down the body to a hermit for se-
pulture, whom he pays for prayers (cxxxiii.) The emperor
sends for the Seven Sages, who had failed in the recovery
of the treasure, and tells them they are not wise (cxxxvii.).
Aigres however departs and eventually reaches Rome,
where he espouses Melia in great solemnity.
The romances of the second class, or those which relate
to Charlemagne, so closely resemble the fictions concerning
Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, that the same,
or nearly the same, observations apply to both. The
foundations of each are laid from supposed histories :
Arthur wars against the Saxons, and Charlemagne against
the Saracens ; both 'princes are unhappy in their families,
and sometimes unsuccessful in their undertakings. In
each class of compositions the characters of these sovereigns
are degraded below their historical level, for the purpose
of giving greater dignity and relief to their paladins and
chivalry ; since otherwise the monarchs would have been
the only heroes, and the different warriors would not have
appeared in their proper light. But, by lowering as it
were the sovereign princes, the writers of romance delineated
the manners of their times, and pleased perhaps those
haughty barons, who took delight in representations of
vassals superior in prowess and in power to their lords.
The authors of the romances concerning Charlemagne
wrote under considerable disadvantages : the ground had
been already occupied by their predecessors, and they
could do little more than copy their pictures of tented
fields, and their method of dissecting knights and giants.
On the other hand, circumstances were in some degree
more favourable to them than to the authors of the fictions
concerning Arthur and the companions of the Round
Table. The Saracens were a more romantic people than
the Saxons ; and tales of eastern fairies and eastern mag-
350 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. IV.
nificence offered new pictures to delight and astonish, the
mind. " The knights of Charlemagne," says Sismondi,
" no longer wandered, like those of the Round Table,
through gloomy forests, in a country half civilized, and
which seemed always covered with storms and snow. All
the softness and perfumes of regions most favoured by
nature were now at the disposal of romancers ; and an
acquisition still more precious was the imagination of the
east, that imagination so brilliant and various, which
was employed to give animation to the sombre mythology
of the north. Magnificent palaces now arose in the desert :
enchanted gardens or groves, perfumed with orange trees
and myrtles, bloomed amidst burning sands, or barren
rocks surrounded by the sea." All these are much less
agreeable than genuine pictures of life and nature ; but
they are better, at least, than descriptions of continual
havoc, and the unprovoked slaughter of giants. Of all
kinds of warfare the gigantomachia is, in truth, the least
interesting, as we invariably anticipate what will be the
final lot of the giant, who, from the unlucky precedent of
the Titans and Groliah, has constantly fallen under the arm
of his adversary. Indeed, in proportion to his bulk and
stature, his destruction appears always the more easy and
his fate more certain. Butler pronounces it to be a heavy
case, that a man should have his brains knocked out for
no other reason than because he is tall and has large bones ;
but the case seems still harder, that strength and stature,
while they provoked aggression, should have been of no
service in repelling it, and that a giant's power and
prowess should have proved of no avail except to his
antagonist. In this respect, however, it must be confessed,
that the book of nature differs little from the volumes of
chivalry, since, while the race of mites and moths remain,
the mammoth and megatherion are swept away.
1 The following works may be noted in connexion with the subject :
Le Origini dell' epopea francese, indagate da Pio Kaina, Firenze, 1884,
of which a critical account is given by M. G. Paris in Romania, Oct.
1884. (See note, p. 342, supra). G. Paris, Histoire poetique Charle-
magne, 1865, etc. A. Pakscher, Zur Kritik und Geschichte des alt-
franzosischen Rolandsliedes, Berlin, 1885. L. Gautier, Epopees Fran-
Daises. 1880, etc.
CHAPTER V.
ROMANCES OP THE PENINSULA CONCERNING AMADI8 DE
GAUL AND HIS DESCENDANTS. ROMANCES RELATING TO
THE IMAGINARY FAMILY OF THE PALMERINS. CATA-
LONIAN ROMANCES. TIRANTE THE WHITE. PARTENOPEX
DE BLOIS.
THE reader, who has now toiled through the romances
of the Bound Table, and those relating to Charlemagne,
has not yet completed the whole of his labour :
Alter erit mine Tiphys, et altcra quae vehat Argo
Delectos heroas : erunt etiam altera bella.
VIRG. Eel. 4.
Had it been my intention, indeed, merely to compose a
pleasing miscellany, I should not only refrain from analyzing
any other romances of chivalry, but should even have
omitted many of which an abstract has been given. But
the value of a work of the description which I have under-
taken, consists, in a considerable degree, in its fulness.
The multiplicity of the productions of any species is evi-
dence of the kind of literature which was in fashion at the
time of their composition, and therefore indicates the taste
of the age. Even the dulness of the fictions of chivalry is,
in some degree, instructive, as acquainting us with the
monotonous mode of life which prevailed during the
]>friods which gave them birth ; while, at the same time,
by a comparison of the intellectual powers exhibited in
romance with the exertions of the same ages in law, theo-
lu r y, and other pursuits, we are enabled to form an esti-
mate of the employment of genius in those distant periods,
and to behold in what arts and sciences it was most
successfully displayed.
While the other European nations were so much occupied
with romance writing, it was not to be expected that the
Portuguese and Spaniards should altogether have neglected
352 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
a species of composition so fascinating in itself, and at this
time so much in vogue. The subject of Arthur, and the
topics connected with Charlemagne, had been exhausted,
and it was now requisite to find a new chief and a new
race of heroes. Arthur had been selected as a leader in
romance, less perhaps from national vanity than from
being in possession of some traditional glory, and thus
forming a kind of head and support, by which unity was
given to the adventures of subordinate knights. Charle-
magne was naturally adopted by the romance writers o:
the neighbouring country as having many analogies with
Arthur. In Portugal, however, where we shall find the
first great romance of the series on which we are now
entering was formed, 1 there seems to have been no prince
nor leader who was thus clothed with traditional fame
Accordingly an imaginary hero was chosen, and, as the
first romance which was written in the peninsula was pos-
sessed of great literary merit, it had an overpowering anc
subduing effect on succeeding fablers. In imitation of the
former author, they continued the family history, supposing
perhaps, that the interest which had been already excitec
on the subject, which formed the source of their works
would be f avourable to their success. This also f urnishec
a certain facility of magnifying their heroes, as it was noi
difficult to represent each new descendant as surpassing
his predecessor. Unfortunately the successive writers oi
romance supposed that what had pleased once must please
always ; in the same manner that it was long thought
necessary that an epic writer should have in his poem the
same number of books as Homer, and should employ the
same forms of address, comparison, and description. Ac-
cordingly the heroes of most romances of the peninsula
are illegitimate ; there are usually two brothers, a Platouist
and Materialist ; and, in short, a general sameness of cha-
racter and incident. The opponents of the knights are,
however, different from those in the romances of Arthur
or Charlemagne ; they are no longer the Saxons or Saracens,
but the Turks ; and as the Greek empire was now trem-
bling to its base, many of the scenes of warfare are laid at
1 See, however, note on p. 354, respecting the authorship of the
Amadis.
CH. V.] AMADIS DE OAUL. 353
>tantinople. In some of the concluding romances of
tin- series, indeed, happier fictions are introduced, and an
attempt is made to vary with new incidents, and the
splendour of eastern enchantments, the perpetual havoc
which occurs in the preceding fables. But I am, perhaps,
anticipating too much the reflections of the reader, and
shall therefore, without farther delay, proceed to
AMADIS DE GAUL,*
which has generally been considered as one of the finest
and most interesting romances of chivalry. Hence, per-
haps, different nations have anxiously vindicated to them-
selves the credit of its origin. Lopez de Vega, in his
Fortunas de Diano, attributes it to a Portuguese lady. On
the authority of Nicholas Antonio, Warton has assigned
the composition of Amadis de Gaul to Vasco Lobeira, a
Portuguese officer, who died at Elvas in 1403, or, according
to Sismondi, 2 in 1325. This opinion has been also adopted
by Mr. Southey, who has entered at considerable length
into the reasons on which it is grounded. The original
work he believes to be lost, but he conceives that Amadis
was first written in the Portuguese language ; and he argues
that Lobeira was the author, from the concurrent testi-
mony of almost all Portuguese writers, particularly of
Gomes Eaiines de Zurrara, 3 in his chronicle of Don Pedro
de Menezes, which appeared only half a century after the
death of Lobeira. He also thinks the Portuguese origin
of the romance is established from a sonnet by an uncer-
tain poet, but a contemporary of Lobeira, praising him as
tin.- author, and from the circumstance that in the Spanish
version by Montalvo, it is mentioned that the Infant
Don Alphonso of Portugal had ordered some part of the
story to be altered.
The French writers, on the other hand, and particularly
ilif Comte de Tressan, in his preface to the Traduction
lihre d' Amadis de Gaule, have insisted that the work (or
at least the three first of the four books it contains) was
originally written in French, in the reign of Philip
1 Los quatro libros del Cavallero Amadis de Gaula.
a De la Literature du midi de TEurope.
3 Keeper of the Archives of Portugal in 1454.
I. A A
354 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
Augustus, or one of his predecessors. His arguments rest
on some vague assertions in old French manuscripts, that
Amadis had been at one time extant, and on the similarity
of the manners, and even incidents, described in Amadis,
with those of Tristan and Lancelot, which are avowedly-
French : he thinks it also improbable that while such
hatred subsisted between the French and Spaniards, an
author of the latter nation should have chosen a Gallic
knight for his favourite hero ; but this argument strikes
only against a Spanish and not a Portuguese original. To
the reasons of Tressan, however, may be added the tes-
timony of one Portuguese poet, Cardoso, who says that
Lobeira translated Amadis from the French by order of
the Infant Don Pedro, son of Joan First ; l and also the
1 It is worthy of notice that towards the end of the third chapter,
Lobeira writes : " The author ceaseth to speak of this, and returneth
to the child whom Gandales brought up." Ticknor, however, attaches
little weight to the arguments against Lobeira's authorship. " The
Portuguese original," he says, " can no longer be found. At the end
of the sixteenth century, we are assured it was extant in manuscript in
the archives of the Dukes of Aveiro at Lisbon ; and the same assertion
is renewed on good authority about the year 1750. From this time,
however, we lose all trace of it ; and the most careful inquiries render
it probable that this curious manuscript, about which there has been so
much discussion, perished in the terrible earthquake and conflagration
of 1755, when the palace occupied by the ducal family of Aveiro was
destroyed with all its precious contents." The fact that the original
manuscript of Amadis de Gaula " was in the Aveiro collection is stated
by Ferreira, Poemas Lusitanos, where is the sonnet, No. 33 ... in
honour of Lobeira, which Southey, in his preface to his Amadis of
Gaul, erroneously attributes to the Infante Antonio of Portugal, and
thus would make it of consequence in the present discussion. Nic
Antonio," a writer of by no means unimpeachable accuracy, " who
leaves no doubt as to the authorship of the sonnet in question, refers to
the same note in Ferreira to prove the deposit of the manuscript of the
Amadis ; so that the two constitute only one authority, and not two
authorities as Southey supposes. (Bib. Vetus, lib. viii. cap. vii. sect.
291.) Barboso is more distinct. (Bib. Lusitana, torn, iii., p. 775.) He
says, ' () original se conservava em casa dos Excellentissimos Duques
de Aveiro.' But there is a careful summing up of the matter in
Clemencin's notes to Don Quixote (torn. i.,pp. 105, 106)." That the work,
at least in the form in which it has been known since the middle of the
fourteenth century, belongs to Spain seems to be shown almost to cer-
tainty by Dr. Braunfels in his Kritischer Versuch iiber den Roman
Amadis von Gallien, Leip., 1876. See also E. Baret, De 1'Amadis de
Gaule et de son influence sur les mceurs et la litte'rature, etc. Paris, 1853.
CH. V.] AMADI8 DE GAUL. 355
assertion of D'Herberay, a translator of Amadis from the
Spanish into French, about the middle of the 16th
century, who declares that he had seen fragments of a MS.
in the Picard language, which seemed to be the original of
Amadis de Gaul : " J'en ay trouve encore quelque reste
d'un viel livre, escrit a la main, en langage Picard, sur
lesquel J'estime que les Espagnols ont fait leur traduction,
non pas du tout suyvant le vrai original comme Ton
pourra veoir par cestuy, car ils en ont obmis en aucuns
endroits et augmente aux autres." The testimony of Ber-
nardo Tasso, author of the Amadigi, a poem taken from the
romance, is also against a peninsular origin. To his evi-
il-'iico considerable weight is due, as he lived at a period of
no great distance from the death of Lobeira, and from
l>t -ing engaged in a poem on the subject of Amadis, he
would naturally be accurate and industrious in his re-
searches. Now the Italian bard is decidedly of opinion,
that the romance of Amadis has been taken from some
ancient English or Breton history. " Non e dubbio," (says
he in one of his letters to Girolamo Ruscelli,) "che lo
scrittore di questa leggiadra e vaga invenzione 1'ha in parte
cavata da qualche istoria di Bertagna, e poi abbelitola e
r inlutala a quella vaghezza che il mondo cosi diletta ; " (vol.
ii., let. 166,) and again, " Gaula in lingua Inglese dalla quale
e cavata quest' Istoria vuol dir Francia," (vol. ii. let. 93).
It also appears from various passages of the letters of
B. Tasso, that as much doubt and misapprehension existed
with regard to the country of the hero as concerning the
original author of the romance. He says that the refab-
rirntor of the work from the British history thought that
Gaul meant Wales, and that he had erroneously styled his
hero Amadis of Gaul, " per non avere inteso quel vocabulo
Gaules, il qual nella lingua Inglese vuol dir Gallia." But
Gaules signifying Gallia, or France, Tasso concludes that
France was the country of Amadis ; he therefore resolves
to call his poem' Amadigi di Francia, and expresses his con-
fidence that the reasons he has assigned will be sufficient,
" a divellere questo invecchiato abuso dall opinion degli
uomini." This general opinion, that Wales was the country
of Amadis, was not an unnatural one, since Gaules and
Gaula, in old English, was the name for Wales as well as
356 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. V.
France : " I say G-allia and G-aul French and "Welsh
soul-curer and body-curer," exclaims the host in the Merry
Wives of Windsor, (act. iii. scene i.) while addressing the
French doctor and the Welsh parson. There are also
several circumstances in the romance itself, which might
have led to the mistake. Thus Amadis proceeding from
Gaul to the court of the king of England, which was then
held at Vindilisora (Windsor) sails to a goodly city in
Great Britain, called Brestoya (Bristol,) a strange port to
land at in crossing from France to England, but a very
convenient harbour for one proceeding from South Wales
to Windsor. On the whole, however, Tasso seems right
in supposing that by Gaula the author of Amadis meant
France ; for we are told in the course of the work, that
Perion, king of Gaul, and father of Amadis, summons to
a council the bishops and lords of his kingdom, command-
ing them to bring the most celebrated clerks in their
respective districts, and two members of the council were
in consequence attended by Clerk Ungan of Picardy, and
Alberto of Champagne. 1
Though the Spaniards do not lay any claim to the
original composition of this romance, nor to its hero as
their countryman, the most ancient impression of it now
extant is in their language, and was printed in 1526, at
Seville. This work was compiled from detached Spanish
fragments, which had appeared in the time of Ferdinand
and Isabella. It was subsequently revised and compared
with the old manuscript fragments by Garcias Ordognez
Montalvo, who at length published an amended edition in
1547, at Salamanca. 2 From the prior edition of 1526, D'Her-
1 Dr. Braunfels, however (op. cit. p. 1 64, etc.), adduces various points,
of internal evidence in favour of Wales.
2 Note from Clemencin's edition of " Don Quixote" (torn. i. p. 107) r
quoted by Ticknor. There is a difficulty about the original composition
and construction of the Amadis of which I was not aware when the first
edition of this History was published (1849), and which I will now
(1858) explain as well as I can, chiefly from the notes of Gayangos to-
his translation (torn. i. pp. 520-522), and from his Discurso Preliminar
to the fortieth volume of the Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, which
contains the Amadis and Esplandian.
The difficulty in question arises, I think, in a great degree from the
circumstance that the preface of Montalvo is given differently in the
different early editions of the Amadis, and would lead to different in-
< II. V AMADI8 DE GAUL. 357
bi-rry formed his translation of the four booksof Amadis, de-
dicated to Francis I., and printed 1540. To these he added
other four books, containing the exploits of the descendants
of Amadis, which were drawn from Spanish originals : the
family history was subsequently carried to the twenty -
fourth book by translators who also wrought from Spanish
originals, but sometimes added interpolations of their
own ; and the whole received the name of Amadis de Gaul,
which was the title of all the peninsular prototypes. The
lirst. books, which relate peculiarly to the exploits of
Amadis, were compressed by the Count de Tressan, in his
l'iv translation, into two volumes 12mo. His labour was
entirely useless, as he has, in a great measure, changed the
incidents of the romance, and hid the genuine manners
and feelings of chivalry under the varnish of French
seatiment. A late version by Mr. Southey is greatly pre-
f i Table, as the events are there accurately related, and the
manners faithfully observed.
ferences. In the one by Cromberger, 1520, which I have never seen,
but which is cited by Gayangos, we are told of Montalvo, "que en su
tiempo solo se conocian ires libros del Amadis, y quel el aiiadiu, tras-
lud'*> y enmendo el quarto." The same fact of its being originally known
in three books is set forth in some of the poems in Baena's " Cancionero,"
published 1851, and especially in a poem by Pedro Ferrus, who, perhaps,
wrote as early as 1379, but lived a good deal later. From these and
other circumstances of less consequence, Gayangos infers that there
\\ u-, current in Spain an Amadis in three books before Lobeira prepared
his version of the story, which can, he thinks, hardly have been much
before 1390, as the Infante Alfonso, who induced him to modify the
story of Briolania, was not born till 1370. But who can have written
these three books, if they existed so early, or in what language they
were written, is not even to be conjectured. Lobeira may have been
their author as early as 1350 or 1370, and have altered the story of
Briolania afterwards as late as 1390 to please the prince, as he says he
did. and so the distinct and clear averment of Eannes de Zurara stand
untouched. At any rate I do not see how we can get behind his tes-
timony that Lobeira was the author, or behind Montalvo's testimony
that the Amadis we now possesss was a translation made by him, wifh
alterations and improvements.
An English translation by Thomas Paynel from the French was pub-
lished in 1507 with the title, " The most excellent and ploasaunt Booke,
ontitulcd : The treasurie of Amadis of Fraunce : Conteyning eloquente
orations, pythie Epistles, learned Letters, and fervent Complaynt.'s,
An Italian translation appeared in 1546, and suggested the
Ainadigi di Francia of Bernardo Tasso. Du Verdier wrote a satire
upon the Amadis, entitled the Chevalier Hypocondriaque.
358 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
The era of the exploits of Amadis is prior to the age of
Arthur or Charlemagne, and he is the most ancient as
well as the most fabulous of all heroes of chivalry. He is
said in the romance to have been the illegitimate offspring
of Perion, king of Gaul, and Elisena, princess of Britany.
The mother, to conceal her shame, exposed the infant,
soon after his birth, in a cradle, which was committed to
the sea. He was picked up by a knight of Scotland, who
was returning from Britany to his own country, and who
reared him under the name of Child of the Sea. When
twelve years of age he was sent to be educated at the court
of the king of Scotland. There a mutual attachment was
formed between him and Oriana, who was daughter of
Lisuarte, king of England, but had been sent to Scotland
on account of the commotions in her own country. After
Amadis had received the honour of knighthood, he pro-
ceeded to the succour of Perion, king of Gaul, who by this
time had espoused Elisena, and had become the father of
another son, named Galaor. This second child had been
stolen by a giant, who wished to educate him according to
his own system ; but Perion was consoled for the loss by
the recognition of Amadis, who was discovered to be his
son by means of a ring, which had been placed on his
finger when he was exposed. His parents derived the
greater satisfaction from this acknowledgment, as Amadis
had already proved his valour by the overthrow of the
king of Ireland, who had invaded Gaul, an exploit simi-
lar to that with which it may be recollected Tristan began
his career.
It is impossible to give any account of the adventures of
Amadis after his return to England, though they only
divide the romance with those of his brother Galaor the
wars of extermination he carried on against giants the
assistance he afforded to Lisuarte against the usurper
Barsinian and the enchanter Arcalaus his long retirement
under the name of Beltenebros to a hermitage, after re-
ceiving a cruel letter from his mistress Oriana, one of the
chief points of Don Quixote's fantastic imitation the
battleshe fought, after quitting this abode, against Cildadan,
king of Ireland the defeat of a hundred knights, by whom
Lisuarte had been attacked ; and, finally, his innumerable
OH. V.] AMADIS DE GAUL. 359
exploits in Germany and in Turkey, when the jealousy and
suspicion of Lisuarte, excited by evil counsellors, had forced
him to leave Oriana and the court of England.
A Hindis returned, however, in sufficient time to rescue
his beloved princess from the power of the Romans, to
whose ambassadors Lisuarte had given her up, to be es-
poused by the emperor's brother. Their fleet having been
intercepted by Amadis, and totally defeated, Oriana was
conveyed to the Firm Island by her lover. A long war
was then carried on between Lisuarte and Amadis, in which
tin- former was worsted; and when weakened by two
dreadful battles, he was unexpectedly attacked by an old
enemy, Aravigo, who was urged on by the enchanter
Arcalaus. When in this dilemma, he was saved by the
generosity of Amadis, who having turned to his assistance
the arms he had lately employed against him, defeated
his enemies, slew Aravigo, and took Arcalaus prisoner.
On account of this conduct, and a discovery that the de-
lights of matrimony had been anticipated, Lisuarte con-
sented to the formal union of his daughter with Amadis.
Their nuptials were celebrated on the Firm Island, and
Oriana terminated the wonderful enchantments of that
sj M .1 , by entering the magic apartment, which could only
be approached by the fairest and most faithful woman in
the world.
The notion of a chamber, a tower, or island, accessible
only to a certain hero or beauty, and which occurs in
many of the subsequent books of Amadis, is evidently
derived from oriental fiction, which, as naturally to be ex-
pected, abounds more in the romances of the peninsula,
than in those of France or England. We are told in an
eastern story, that Abdalmalek, fifth caliph of the Ommi-
ades, and one of the first who invaded Spain, arrived at a
castle erected by the fairies, on one of the most remote
mountains in Spain. The gate was secured, not by a lock,
but by a dragon's tooth, and over it was an inscription, which
imported that it was accessible to none but Abdalmalek.
But while eastern fictions have supplied some magical
adventures, especially towards the conclusion of the work,
the earlier and greater part of Amadis de Gaul is occupied
with combats, which are generally described with much
360 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
spirit, yet are tiresome by frequent repetition ; and at length
scarcely interest us, as we become almost certain of the
success of the hero from the frequent recurrence of victory.
Though the story does not lead us, like many other
romances, through the adventures of a multitude of knights,
changing without method from one to another, it suspends
our attention between the exploits of Amadis and those of
his brother Galaor.
Amadis excels the French romances of chivalry in the
delineation of character. There is much sweetness in the
account of the infancy and boyhood of the Child of the
Sea, and the early attachment betwixt him and Oriana.
This princess, however, proves to be of weak intellect and
peevish disposition, and is frequently disquieted with ill-
founded jealousy. Amadis is an interesting character, and
is well distinguished from his brother Galaor ; they are
equally valiant, but the elder wants the gaiety of the
younger; he also remains faithfully attached to one
mistress, while Galaor is constantly changing the object
of his affections, a fraternal contrast which has been ex-
hibited in most of the Spanish romances relating to the
descendants of Amadis.
In the morals displayed, and in the general conduct of
the incidents, these continuations are much inferior to the
work which they follow, but they become, as they advance,
more splendid in their decorations, and more imposing in
their machinery. The TJrganda of the original Amadis,
as Mr. Southey remarks, is a true fairy, like Morgaine le
JFay, and the Lady of the Lake ; but the Urganda, who, in
the subsequent books of Amadis, sails about in the Green
Serpent, is an enchantress of a more formidable description
and her rivals, Zerfea and Melia, are as tremendous as the
Medea of classical mythology.
Of the series of fictions, this first romance is the
EXPLOITS OF ESPLANDIAN/
the son of Amadis, the greater part of which is the
1 Quinto libro d'Amadis de Gaula, o las Sergas dell cavallero Esplan-
dian hijo d'Amadis de Gaula. Seville, 1542. Saragossa, 1587. Sergas
is probably a corruption of the plural of the Greek word Ergon (opus)
corresponding to hechos in Spanish. Dunlop.
" The oldest edition of the Esplandian now known to exist was
< II. V.] EXPLOITS OF ESPLANDIAN. 361
work of Montalvo, the Spanish translator of Amadis. In
<>nl<T to shelter himself under a popular name, the author
railed it the fifth book of Amadis ; on which it thus be-
came the burden and excrescence. This example was
imitated by the followers of Montalvo the history of
Lisuarte formed the seventh and eighth books, and that
of Amadis of Greece the ninth and tenth of Amadis de
Gaul. The Spanish romancers thus proceeded from gene-
ration to generation ; and, in order to give some plausibility
t<> the title they bestowed, they kept Amadis himself alive,
who thus became the perennial prop of his otherwise
insupportable descendants.
None of the progeny degenerated more from the merits
of the parent than his immediate successor Esplandian ;
and Cervantes, who tolerated Amadis de Gaul as the first
and best of the kind, hath most justly decreed, " that the
excellence of the father should not avail the son, but that
he should be thrown into the court to give a beginning to
the bonfire."
The part of Amadis de Gaul, however, which contains an
account of the infancy of Esplandian, is one of the most beau-
tiful portions of that romance. Oriana having given birth
to a son, the fruit of her stolen interviews with Amadis, de-
livered the child to her confidants, that he might be con-
veyed to a remote part of the country for the sake of con-
cealment. Those to whom the infant was entrusted, in
order to travel more privately, struck into a forest. A
lioness, which resided in this quarter, made free to carry
off the child as provender for her whelps. Unfortunately
for them she had a respectable hermit for a neighbour,
who met and rebuked her before she reached the den with
her prey. She was quite disconcerted at being thus un-
expectedly caught, and at length, by her good neighbour's
seasonable remonstrances, was brought to a better way of
thinking, and was induced to undertake the office of nurse
to the child, who was now conveyed to the hermitage.
There Esplandian was accordingly suckled with much
Maudishinent by the reformed lioness, and when she went
to prowl, her place was supplied by an ewe and a she-goat.
printed iii 1521, and five others appeared before the end of the century,
o that it seems to have enjoyed its full share of popular favour."
Ticknor.
362 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
Other heroes of chivalry, it may be recollected, were
fostered in a similar manner ; fictions, no doubt, suggested
by the classical fable of Eomulus and Remus.
As Esplandian grew up, the lioness acted as a dry
nurse ; she -guarded him when he walked out from the
hermitage, and afterwards accompanied him in the chase.
One day King Lisuarte, in the course of his field sports,
entered the forest where Esplandian was bred up by the
hermit and the motherly lioness, and perceived the boy
leading in a leash this animal, which he loosed, when a
stag was started, and hallooed her to the prey. When the
game was overtaken, the lioness and two spaniels had
their shares of the spoil. The king was surprised at
beholding this singular group, and Esplandian being
carried to the verge of the forest, where the queen had
pitched her pavilion, was recognised by Oriana as her son
by means of certain characters on his breast. In the sub-
sequent romances, the descendants of Esplandian are
usually discovered by some inscription of this nature, or
other personal mark, as a cross or flaming sword, an
awkward alteration on the Greek romances, where children
are identified by certain articles of apparel or decoration
which they wore at the time of their loss or exposure.
Esplandian was brought up at the court of King
Lisuarte, and was in due time admitted into the order o1
knighthood. The romance, which is appropriated to his
exploits, commences immediately after this inauguration
During a sleep, into which he fell soon after the ceremony
he was carried, with his squire, by means of Urganda the
Unknown, to that incomprehensible machine the Ship o:
the great Serpent, wherein he was conveyed to the foot o:
a castle, the enchantments of which he was destined to
terminate.
Thence, under the name of the Black Knight (an appel-
lation bestowed from the colour of his armour,) he sailec
to the Forbidden Mountain, a stronghold on the confines
of Turkey and Greece, and which, in this romance, is the
chief theatre of exploits. Esplandian took possession oJ
it in behalf of the Greek emperor, having slain its former
gigantic and heathenish proprietors. He did not, however
long occupy this fortress in quiet, as it was soon besiegec
CH. V.] EXPLOITS OF ESPLANDIAN. 363
by Armato, the soldan of the Turks, with a great army.
But Esplandian had now additional motives to exert him-
self iii behalf of the Greek emperor. Leonorina, the
emperor's daughter, and our knight, though they had
iii-ver met, hail become mutually enamoured, and main-
tain, during the romance, an interchange of amatory
embassies. Armato, instead of recovering possession of
the Forbidden Mountain, was defeated and made prisoner.
Encouraged by this success, Esplandian carried the war
into the heart of Turkey, and took the principal city.
Hearing, however, that his mistress was offended at his
neglect in not having come to visit her, he departed for
Constantinople ; and on the night of his arrival was
privately conveyed into her apartment in a cedar coffer, of
which he had requested her acceptance.
On his return the war was prosecuted against the Turks
with new vigour. The Christians were assisted by TJr-
ganda, who, in all his adventures, had highly favoured
Amadis, and extends her protection to his latest posterity.
On the other hand, the infidels were supported by the en-
chantress Melia, the sister of Armato. That soldan having
effected his escape from confinement on the back of a
dragon, which had been provided by his sister, speedily
raised an immense army, and besieged Constantinople.
He was aided by all the eastern caliphs and soldans, and
especially by an Amazonian queen, who brought, as her
contingent, a flight of fifty prime griffins, well equipped,
which flew over the bulwarks of the city, and committed
internal devastations. The Greeks, on their part, were
assisted by Amadis de Gaul and the western potentates.
After a protracted warfare, it was agreed that the contest
should be settled by a double combat. Amadis and his
son Esplandian were selected on the one side ; the
Amazonian queen and a choice soldan on the other. The
latter were worsted, yet, notwithstanding the agreement,
the Paynim army attacked the Christians, but was totally
defeated and expelled the Greek dominions. The emperor
then resigned his kingdom in favour of Esplandian, who-
espoused Leonorina, daughter of the abdicated monarch.
Now, after a time, Urganda by her great knowledge
discovered that Amadis, Galaor, Esplandian, and all her
364 HISTORY OF FICTION. ["CH. V.
favourite knights, were in a short time to pay the debt of
nature. She therefore sent for them to the Firm Island,
and informed them that the only way to escape mortality,
was to remain in the dormant state into which she could
throw them, till disenchanted by Lisuarte, son of Esplan-
dian, acquiring possession of a certain magic sword, when
they would all spring to life with renovated vigour.
Thus, although new heroes are always rising on the
stage, the reader never gets free of the old ones. They
.subsist through the whole romance of
LISUARTE OF GREECE/
son of Esplandian aud Leonorina, who was destined to
recall them, to their former inquietude. His exploits
occupy the 7th and 8th books of Amadis, which are said
to have been written by Juan Diaz, bachelor of canon law.
Perion, who was son of Amadis de G-aul and Oriana, and
born after their legal union, is the second character in this
romance, which commences with the account of a voyage
undertaken by Perion, from England to Ireland, in order
to be dubbed a knight by the king of the latter country.
On his way he is separated from his followers by a lady
cruising in a boat managed by four apes, who insist that
he should accompany their mistress, for the fulfilment of
a great emprise. His attendants proceed to Constanti-
nople, where they report his adventure, and Lisuarte, in
consequence, sets out in quest of his kinsman Perion.
This prince had meanwhile arrived in Trebizond, and fallen
in love with one of the emperor's daughters ; he had not,
however, leisure to prosecute his suit, as She of the Apes
hurries him away to accomplish the enterprise he had
undertaken.
Soon after his departure, Lisuarte also arrived in Trebi-
zond, and fell in love with Onoloria, the emperor's other
daughter : but while enjoying himself in the society of his
mistress, a lady of gigantic stature came to court, and
asked from Lisuarte a gift. This, as usual, was promised
1 Chronica de los famosos esforcados cavalleros Lisuarte de Grccia,
bijo d'Esplandian ; y de Perion de Gaul, hijo d'Amadis de Gaula.
Seville, 1525, folio.
CH. V.] LI8UAETE OP GREECE. 365
without any inquiries as to its nature, and it proved to be
tin- attendance of Lisuarte for a twelvemonth, wherever
she chose to demand. Now this lady was in the interest
of the pagans, and had fallen on this device to remove
Lisuarte, who was the chief support of the Grecian throne.
The emperor of Trebizond was informed of her stratagem
soon after the departure of Lisuarte, by a letter which was
closed with sixty-seven seals, and which also announced
that Constantinople was about to be besieged by Armato,
the Turkish soldan, who had placed himself at the head of
a league of sixty- seven princes a coalition ingeniously
denoted by the number of seals.
Lisuarte, meanwhile, was delivered in charge to the
khiij of the Giants' Isle, whose daughter Gradaffile fell in
love with the prisoner, procured his escape, and followed
him to Constantinople. There Lisuarte performed many
feats of valour in combating the pagan enemies by whom
the city was now besieged, and was soon assisted in the
defence by Perion, who arrived in Greece after having
accomplished the enterprise in which he had been so long
engaged. At length Lisuarte having obtained possession
of the fatal sword, Amadis de Gaul, Esplandian, and the
Grecian princes burst the enchantment into which they
had been lulled by Urganda, in the Firm Island. The
city being relieved by the return of these potent and
refreshed auxiliaries, Lisuarte set out for Trebizond, but,
on his way thither, met with, various adventures which
detained him. Perion arrived before him, but left Trebi-
zond for a time, at the request of the duchess of Austria,
whom he restored to her dominions, and received from her
the highest reward she could bestow. In this romance
Lisuarte is the Amadis, or constant lover, Perion, the
Galaor, or general lover. Perion, however, differs from
his prototype in this, that Galaor was altogether undis-
tinguishing in his amours, and had no preference for any
mistress ; whereas Perion, though guilty of occasional in-
fidelities, still retains the first place in his affections for
tin- princess of Trebizond.
At length Perion and Lisuarte meet at the palace of
of their mistresses, who, as usual, admit their lovers to
the privileges, before they have possessed the characters,
HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
of husbands. It afterwards occurred to them to send
ambassadors to Esplandian and Amadis de Gaul, to talk
of their nuptials : but, meanwhile, the emperor of Trebi-
zond and Perion were carried off by pagan wiles, during a
hunting match ; and Lisuarte having gone in quest of
them, came to the spot where they were detained, and was
imprisoned in the same confinement.
While her lover Lisuarte thus remained in durance, the
princess of Trebizond gave birth to a son, afterwards
known by the name of
AMADIS OF GREECE/
whose adventures, blended with those of his sempiternal
ancestry, form the ninth book of the family history, which
is feigned, in the commencement of the second part, to
have been imitated in Latin from the Greek, and thence
translated into the Romance language : " Sacada de Griego
in Latin, y de Latin en romance, segun lo escrivio el gran
sabio Alquife en las magicas."
The imprudent anticipation of Onoloria rendered con-
cealment necessary, and, during the baptism of her infant,
which was performed at a retired fountain, he was carried
off by corsairs, and sold by them to the Moorish king of
Saba (Sheva). It has been remarked, that the lineage of
Amadis generally had from infancy some striking personal
peculiarity, which, in the untoward circumstances of their
birth and childhood, was essential to a future acknow-
ledgment by their parents. Amadis of Greece was dis-
tinguishable by the representation of a sword on his breast.
Hence, when, at the age of fourteen, he obtained some
order of chivalry from the king of Saba, he assumed the
name of the Knight of the Flaming Sword. A black
courtier being jealous of the favour which He of the
Flaming Sword enjoyed with the king, accused him to
his master of a criminal intrigue with the queen. Amadis
was obliged privately to escape from the wrath of the in-
censed monarch, and thus at an early age enters on the
career of adventure.
1 Amadis de Grecia hijo de Don Lisuarte. Burgos, 1535.
< '!!. V.] AMADIS OF GEEECE. 367
The exploits in this romance commence, as they did
in that of Esplandian, at the Forbidden Mountain.
Annul is, who was yet an obdurate heathen, defeated and
-x]M'l Ifil the Christian possessors who held it for the
Greeks, and afterwards defended it in single combat
,-Against the Emperor Esplandian himself, who came in
person to recover that important citadel. After this he
iVll in with the king of Sicily; their acquaintance com-
nifiiced with a combat, but Amadis subsequently aided
him in various enterprises, to which he was stimulated by
tin- passion he had conceived for this monarch's daughter.
In the course of his navigation to Sicily, Amadis arrived
nl an island where he disenchanted the emperor of Trebi-
zond, Lisuarte, Perion, and Gradaffile. These princes, and
their female companion Gradaffile, as was mentioned in
tin.' end of the last romance, had been carried off by pagan
stratagems, and were lying in the dormant state into
which they had been lulled by the sorcery of a pagan
princess, in the same manner, though with different views,
that their ancestors had been put to rest by Urganda.
When these heroes were completely roused, Amadis de
Gaul having set out in quest of adventures, met with the
(juccn of Saba, who was scouring the seas in search of a
champion to defend her against the false charge of conjugal
iniiurlity. Amadis espoused her quarrel, and having
arrived in Saba, overthrew her accuser, and established to
ihf satisfaction of the king the innocence of his wife, and
his Eleve of the Flaming Sword.
After the account of this exploit, a considerable portion
of the romance is occupied with the unremitting pursuit,
l>v Amadis of Greece, of a knight whom he erroneously
imagined to be in love with the princess of Sicily, because
In- overheard him reciting amorous verses. He long pur-
sued him with unabating animosity, and met with many
adventures during his chase ; but was at length undeceived
at a personal interview, at which he seems to have learned,
for tin.- first time, that there could be other subjects of
amatory verses besides the princess of Sicily.
While Amadis was thus occupied, his father Lisuarte
had returned to Trebizond, and had formally requested
the hand of Onoloria. Unfortunately for his pretensions,
368 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
Zario, sultan of Babylon, had become enamoured of this
princess in a dream, and had arrived at Trebizond, accom-
panied by his sister Abra, to demand her in marriage.
His propositions were much relished by the emperor, but,
being of course opposed by Lisuarte, the sultan resorted
to warlike measures to obtain possession of Onoloria ; he
accordingly besieged Trebizond, but the champions he
selected to decide his pretensions were defeated by Gradaf-
file, who appeared in the disguise of a knight. The sultan
afterwards forcibly carried off the object of his passion,
but his fleet was encountered by Amadis de Gaul, who was
sailing to the relief of Trebizond. Onoloria was rescued,
and the sultan himself was slain.
Abra, his sister, succeeded to the throne of Babylon.
This princess, when she accompanied her brother to Trebi-
zond, had become enamoured of Lisuarte: her suit had
been rejected, and the pangs of ill-requited affection, added
to the desire of avenging the death of her brother, indxiced
her to raise up knights in all parts of the world to attempt
the destruction of Lisuarte. One of her damsels, while on
this quest, met with Amadis of Greece, and made him
promise to grant her mistress the head of Lisuarte as a
gift. Hence, on the arrival of Amadis at Trebizond, there
was a dreadful combat between the father and son, which
must have terminated fatally to one or other, had it not
been broken off by the appearance of Urganda, who now
revealed that Amadis was the offspring of Lisuarte.
This, however, was but an incidental exploit on the part
of Amadis ; his attention had lately been engrossed by
objects different from those by which it had been formerly
absorbed. Niquea, the daughter of an eastern soldan, had
fallen in love with Amadis by report, and had already
despatched conciliatory messages, and sent a gift of her
portrait by a favourite dwarf. Like the princess in the
Persian Tales, Niquea was of such resplendent beauty,
that all who beheld her died, or at least were deprived of
reason. She was in consequence shut up by her father in
an almost inaccessible tower, to which her family alone
had admittance ; and afterwards, to preserve her from the
passion of her brother Anastarax, this prince was enclosed
by the magician Zirfea in a magic palace, surrounded by
CH. V.] AMADI8 OF GEEECE. 369
impassable flames. The view of the portrait of this beauty
overcame the fidelity which Amadis had hitherto preserved
to the princess of Sicily. In order to obtain access to his
new mistress, Amadis, soon after the period of his late
combat with Lisuarte, so arranged matters that he was
sold, in the disguise of a female slave, to her father the
soldan ; he thus obtained admittance to his daughter, and,
after a promise of marriage, was received by her in the
character of a husband.
Meanwhile, Abra being disappointed in the issue of the
combat between Amadis and Lisuarte, assembled a great
army, and led it against Trebizond. Her forces were
totally defeated, but Onoloria dying about this time,
Lisuarte, at the persuasion of Gradaffile, finally agreed to
espouse the Babylonian queen.
The situation of Niquea now requiring retirement from
a father's observation, she eloped with Amadis, and soon
after arrived with him at Trebizond, where she was
solemnly espoused, and gave birth to a son, named Florisel
de Niquea.
That part of the family history which relates particu-
larly to the exploits of Amadis of Greece, concludes, like
the romance of Esplandian, with the enchantment of all
the Greek heroes and princesses by Zirfea, in the Tower of
tin- Universe, in order that they might evade the period
appointed for their decease. There everything that passed
in the universe was magically exhibited ; a display which
this assembly, while seated in easy chairs, was destined to
contemplate at leisure for the ensuing century.
This romance of Amadis of Greece, and all its succes-
sors, have suffered the severest censure from Cervantes.
" The next, said the barber, is Amadis of Greece, yea, and
all these on this side are of the lineage of Amadis. Then
into the yard with them all, quoth the priest, for rather
than not burn the queen Pintiquinestra, and the shepherd
Darinel, with his eclogues, and the devilish intricate dis-
courses of its author, I would burn the father who begot
ni', did I meet him in the garb of a knight errant." It is
in the 10th book of Amadis de Gaul, which is feigned to
have been written by Cirfea, queen of the Argives, and
which chiefly contains the adventures of
I. B B
370 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
FLORISEL DE NIQUEA,'
son of Amadis of Greece and Niquea, that the character of
Darinel, which seems so strongly to have excited the rage
of Cervantes, is exhibited. This shepherd is a new cha-
racter in romance, being an amorous pastoral buffoon, who
is in love with Sylvia, the heroine of the work. Sylvia was
the fruit of one of the stolen interviews of Lisuarte and
Onoloria ; she of course was removed from her parents in
her infancy, and had been educated in the vicinity of
Alexandria. As she grew up she was beloved by Darinel,
a neighbouring swain ; but as the fair one exercised un-
usual rigour towards her lover, he resolved to expose him-
self to perish on the top of the highest mountain in the
empire of Babylon. In this region he met with Florisel,
who was at that time residing at the Babylonish court. To
this prince, Darinel gave such an animated description of
the beauty of Sylvia, that he disguised himself as a shep-
herd, and prevailed on Darinel to conduct him to her
abode. Sylvia was as unrelenting to the pretended as she
had been to the real shepherd; but, on hearing from
Florisel an account of the enchantment of Anastarax, who
was still enclosed in his fiery palace, she became enamoured
of that prince, and persuaded Florisel, and also Darinel,
(who had for a time relinquished his scheme of exposure
on the top of the highest mountain of Babylon,) to set out
with her to attempt his deliverance. They departed to-
gether, but having arrived at the ,spot, they understood
that this adventure was reserved for Alastraxare, an Ama-
zon, who was the fruit of an amour between the queen of
Caucasus and Amadis of Greece. The achievements of
Alastraxare occupy a considerable part of the romance j
and in their search for this heroine, the pastoral party
met with many adventures, of which the chief is that of
Florisel with Arlanda, princess of Thrace, who had fallen
in love with him by report, followed him in his travels,
and, finally, contrived to gratify her passion, by coming to
him in the dusk, disguised in the clothes of Sylvia.
1 El deceno libro de Amadis, que es el cronica de Don Florisel de
Niquea, hijo de Amadis de Grecia. Valladolid, 1532.
CH. V.] FLOEISEL DE NIQUEA. 371
At length Sylvia was separated from Florisel and Dari-
nel during a tempest, and returned to the flaming prison,
or hell, as it is called, of Anastarax. There she met Alas-
traxare, and their united efforts accomplished the disen-
chantment. Nearly at the same time there arrived at this
spot a number of the Greek princes, who were travelling to
the Tower of the Universe, to attempt the deliverance of
their kindred. Sylvia was then discovered to be the
daughter of Lisuarte, and was soon after united to her be-
l.'vrti Anastarax.
Meanwhile Florisel and Darinel had been driven to the
coast of Apolonia, where Florisel, forgetting Sylvia, be-
came enamoured of Helena, princess of that country, but
was soon forced to leave his new mistress, and, during his
absence, accomplished the deliverance of his kindred ; an
adventure, the completion of which had all along been re-
served for him.
On his way back to Apolonia he landed at Colchos,
where he met with Alastraxare. Falanges, a Greek knight,
and the constant companion of Florisel in his expeditions,
fell in love with and finally espoused this Amazon. Flori-
sel, on his arrival in Apolonia, found his mistress, Helena,
on the eve of a marriage with the prince of Gaul, an infi-
delity to which she had been constrained by her father ;
but Florisel interrupted the marriage ceremony, by carry-
ing off the bride. This rape of the second Helen, as she
is itTined, produced a great war. The forces of all the
potentates of the west of Europe laid siege to Constanti-
nople, and defeated the Greek army, chiefly by aid of the
Russians. The savage monarch of that people, however,
offended that his assistance had not been solicited by
either party, was anxious for the destruction of both. Ac-
cordingly the Greeks having made an attempt to retrieve
matters, the Russians unexpectedly fell on their former
allies, and thus delivered Constantinople from the western
invasion, and secured Florisel in the possession of Helena.
Here the romance might have received termination, and
the reader repose, but there yet remain two-thirds of the
family history, and the adventures of a long series of
heroes, who of course must be ushered in by an account of
the previous amours of their ancestors. Amadis of Greece,
372 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
in pursuing the treacherous Russians, to whom his country
had been so much indebted, and who set sail immediately
after their late notable exploit, was driven on a desert
island, where he resolved to stay and do penance, on ac-
count of his infidelity to the princess of Sicily. 1 Here he-
remained till that princess accidentally landed on the island,
and, after the proper expostulations, persuaded him to re
turn to his wife Niquea. Meanwhile the Greet knights
particularly Florisel and Falanges, had set out in quest o
Amadis, and had arrived at the isle of Guinday. Sidonia
the queen of this country, proposed to marry Falanges
but, as he was scrupulous in maintaining his fidelity to
Alastraxare, Florisel agreed to substitute himself in the
place of his friend, and accordingly espoused her majesty
under the feigned name of Moraizel. He soon after aban
doned his bride, but the effect of this short intercourse was.
the birth of Diana, the most beautiful of all the princesses
of romance, and heroine of the eleventh and twelfth books-
of this enormous history, which chiefly contain the adven-
tures of
AGESILAN OF COLCHOS,
son of Falanges and Alastraxare. A representation of the-
figure of the incomparable Diana having been rashly ex-
hibited at Athens, where Agesilan was prosecuting his
studies, he was inspired with such an irresistible passion,
that he repaired, in the disguise of a female minstrel, to-
the court of Queen Sidonia, the mother of his mistress, and
was presented to her daughter as an amusing companion.
Here he occasionally entertained the court ladies by th&
exercise of his musical' and poetical talents, but at other
times distinguished himself as an amazon, in combating
the knights, who on various pretexts came to molest
Sidonia. The circumstance of a lover residing with his
mistress, and unknown to her, in disguise of a female, is-
frequent in subsequent romances, as in the Astrsea, the
Arcadia and Argenis, and its origin must be looked for in
the story of the concealment of Achilles.
1 V. Schmidt remarks that the relations between Armaclis and
Armida have supplied Tasso with the situation of his Einaklo ar
Armida.
CH. V.] AOE8ILA.N OF COLCHO8. 373
Agesilan at length having sufficiently signalized himself
}>v his exploits, appeared in his real character, and under-
took to bring Sidonia the head of Florisel, against whom,
shirr, he had married and abandoned her, under the name
of Moraizel, she had conceived the most bitter resentment.
In prosecution of this scheme, Agesilan repaired to Con-
stantinople, and defied Florisel to mortal fight. It was
arranged that this combat should take place in the
dominions of Sidonia, but it was there discovered, on the
arrival of the champions, that Florisel might be turned to
1 letter account by employing him in defence of the island,
which had been recently invaded by the Russians. Having
got rid of these enemies, Agesilan and Diana were affianced,
and the general joy was increased by the arrival of the
elder and younger Amadis. The Greek princes then set
sail for Constantinople, where it was intended that the
nuptials of Agesilan and Diana should be solemnized. A
tempest having arisen during the voyage, Agesilan and
Diana were separated from the rest of their kindred, and
thrown together on a desert rock, where they would have
perished, had not a knight mounted on a griffin picked
them up, and conveyed them to his residence in the Green
Isle, one of the Canaries. Next morning their preserver
having become enchanted with the beauty of Diana,
privately carried her off to a remote part of the island, and
was proceeding to give her the most lively demonstrations
of attachment, when she was rescued by corsairs who had
accidentally landed, and was conveyed on board their
vessel. Agesilan having missed their host, and being also
unable to find Diana, set out in quest of her on the griffin.
Having in vain surveyed the island from the back of this
winged monster, he traversed many other atmospheres,
and at length descended in the country of the Griramantes.
The king of this region, on account of his pride, had been
struck blind, and had been sentenced to have the food pre-
pared for him devoured by a nauseous dragon, which was
now driven off by Agesilan. This story corresponds with
that iu the Orlando Furioso [c. 33. st. 102, &c.], of Senapus,
kin^ of Ethiopia, who, on account of his overweening pride,
had been deprived of sight, and had his food daily polluted
l>y harpies, till relieved by Astolpho, who descended as
374 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
from heaven on a winged steed. Besides these circum-
stances of resemblance, the nations, both in the poem and
romance, are of the Christian faith, both monarchs reside
in the most sumptuous palaces, and both deliverers are
mistaken for deities on their descent. The origin of these,
as of most other stories of the same sort, is classical, and
is derived from the story of Phineus and the Harpies in
the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius :
There on the margin of the beating flood,
The mournful mansions of sad Phineus stood :
Taught by the wise Apollo to descry
Unborn events of dark futurity,
Vain of his science, the presumptuous seer
Deigned not Jove's awful secrets to revere ;
Hence Jove, indignant, gave him length of days,
But quenched in endless night his visual rays ;
Nor would the vengeful god indulge his taste
With the sweet blessings of a pure repast,
Though (for they learned his fate), the country round
Their prophet's board with every dainty crowned.
For, lo .' descending sudden from the sky,
Bound the piled banquet shrieking harpies fly,
Whose beaks rapacious, and whose talons, tear
Quick from his famished lips the untasted fare.
Fawkes Ap. Rhodius, b. 2.
The Argonauts touch at the mansion of Phineus on their
voyage to Colchos, and two of their number, the winged
children of Boreas, deliver the prophet from this dis-
turbance.
After having re-installed the king of the Garamantes in
the pleasures of a comfortable meal, Agesilan set out on
the farther quest of Diana, and arrived at the Desolate
Isle. The god Tervagant had fallen in love with the queen
of this country ; but, being baulked in his amour, had let
loose a band of destructive hobgoblins, who ravaged the
land. An oracle of the god declared, that Tervagant would
only be appeased, if the inhabitants daily exposed on the
sea- shore a fresh beauty, till such time as he found one he
liked as well as the queen. As the fair offering to the
fastidious god was every day devoured by a sea-monster,
the island was now nearly depopulated, and corsairs w'iv
employed to ravage other countries, in quest of victims.
Diana had fallen into the hands of this crew, and, on her
CH. V.] AQESILAN OF COLCHO8. 375
arrival, was bound to the rock. That very day Agesilan
descended on his griffin, and offered his services against
the sea-monster. On proceeding to the place of combat,
the discovery of the situation of his mistress invigorated
liis exertions. Having slain the monster after a dreadful
combat, he placed his beloved Diana on his hippogriff,
and skimmed with her towards Constantinople.
It may be remembered, that in the Orlando Furioso
[c. 8], Proteus, being offended at the bad treatment the
princess of Eubuda had received, in consequence of an
affair of gallantry in which she had engaged with him,
commissioned herds of marine monsters to depopulate the
country, and would only be appeased by a daily offering of
a damsel, to glut an ork which was stationed on the shore,
in readiness to receive her. Angelica was brought to this
country by seamen, who scoured the main for victims, and
was bound to the fatal rock when delivered by Euggiero,
who arrived on his winged courser. This, like the story
of the blind king and the dragon, is of classical origin, and
has been doubtless suggested by the fiction of Perseus and
Andromeda.
On his flight to Constantinople, Agesilan spied beneath
him the ship of Amadis, from which he had been originally
separated, and which was still on its voyage. He dexte-
rously alighted on this vessel, and proceeded with the rest
of his kindred to the Grecian capital, where his nuptials
were solemnized with Diana.
Agesilan of Colchos is the faithful lover of this part of
the family chronicle. Rogel of Greece, whose adventures
occupy a considerable part of the romance, is the Galaor,
or general lover. He was the son of Florisel and Helena,
and is, I think, by far the most rakish of his kindred. It
is true he is specially attached to Leonida, a Greek princess,
whom he finally marries ; but, at the solicitation of any
damsel, he sets out to the relief of her mistress : he usually
l'--ius the adventure by an intrigue with the ambassadress,
and concludes by an amour with the lady he had served.
The reader, I presume, does not wish any farther to
pursue the involved genealogy of the romantic issue of
Amadis, and a few words will bring us to the latest
posterity.
376 HISTORY OP FICTION. [CH. V.
Many of the chief heroes of the family of Amadis pos-
sess a sentimental and platonic female friend, like the
Gradaffile of Lisuarte. Finistea acted in this capacity to
Amadis of Greece, and attended him in his long quest of
his empress Niquea, who had been carried off while on her
way to visit her father. In the course of their peregrina-
tions, Amadis and Finistea came to a desert island, where,
having partaken of a certain fruit, they totally divested
themselves of their platonic habits, and a son was in
consequence produced, who, from the place of his birth, was
called
SlLVIO DE LA SELVA. 1
This prince first distinguished himself at the siege of
Constantinople by the Russians, whose king had lately
transmitted, by twelve dwarfs, a defiance to the Grecian
princes, in which he mentioned that he had entered into a
confederacy with a hundred and sixty eastern monarchs, to
burn all the habitations of the Greeks, that they might be
rebuilt on an improved plan by his subjects the Russians.
A long account is given of the war, which terminated suc-
cessfully for the besieged ; but they are hardly freed from
their Russian foes, when the whole bevy of Greek empresses
and princesses are carried off by one fell stroke of necro-
mancy. All the knights and heroes set out in search of
them, and meet with the accustomed adventures, in which
Silvio de la Selva particularly distinguishes himself. After
the princesses are brought back to their own habitations,
it is found that, during their absence, many have given
birth to children. Spheramond, son of Rogel of Greece,
and Amadis of Astre, son of Agesilan, are of the number.
When Spheramond and Amadis grow up, they are both
sent to Parthia, for it was destined they should be there
admitted into the order of chivalry. Here they fall in love
with two Parthian princesses, Rosaliana and Richarda,
whom they espouse after they have gone through the requi-
site number of adventures. Among others, they had been
present at a great battle between the Christians and
Pagans, who, as usual, had besieged Constantinople. In
1 Hechos de Silvio de la Selva, hijo de Amadis de Grecia.
CH. V.] SILVIO DE LA 8ELVA. 377
tliis combat the king of the Island of Terror was slain on
the side of the paynims. His widow resolves to be avenged,
and accomplishes her purpose by carrying away the young
prince Saphiraman, son of Spheramond and the princess
Kirharda, as also Hercules d'Astre, son of Amadis d'Astre
ami Rosaliana. These two princes are shut up in an im-
pregnable tower ; and the adventures of different knights
who attempt their deliverance are related at great length.
This is finally effected by Fulgarine, son of Rogel of
Greece ; and the family history concludes with the exploits
of these princes after they have received their freedom ;
but what relates to them is chiefly of French invention.
A Spanish romance concerning Flores of Greece, sur-
named Knight of the S^van, second son of the Emperor
Esplandian, a work also translated by D'Herberay, may be
associated to the history of Amadis. The adventures of
the Knight of the Sun l and his brother Rosiclair, may also
be considered as belonging to the same series of romance,
since Perion, the parent of Amadis de Gaul, was descended
from Trebatius, father to the Knight of the Sun. Nicolas
Antonio, in one part of his Bibliotheca Hispaniae, says,
that the first two books of this romance were written by
Diego Ortunes, and elsewhere that they were from the pen
of Pedro de la Sierra. A third part was composed by
Marcos Martinez, and a fourth by Feliciano de Selva :
Nevertheless the work is not finished, and the knights are
left under enchantment. Cervantes says it contains some-
thing of the inventions of the Italian poet Boiardo ; but I
imagine the Orlando Innamorato was prior to the Spanish
work. The whole romance has been translated into Eng-
lish, under the title of the Mirrour of Knighthood, 2 and
into French literally from the Spanish, in eight volumes.
It has also been compressed into two by the Marquis de
Paulmy, who has used it as a frame, in which he has en-
closed what he considered the finest delineations of the
1 Espejo de principes e cavalleros, o Cavallero del Febo. Saragossa,
1580, 2 vol. folio.
u The Mirrour of Princely deedes and Knighthood . . . Now newly
translated out of Spanish into our vulgar English tongue, by M[ar-
garet] T[ilcr]. 1578. 4to. This is the first English edition of the
UrM part of this romance. Other portions appeared subsequently.
378 HISTOKT OF FICTION. [CH. V.
whole family picture. The romantic story of the issue of
Amadis has been wound up in the Roman des Romans,
a work originally French, and written by Duverdier.
The fables relating to Amadis de Gaul, and his lineage,
often supplied with materials the poets and dramatists of
the neighbouring countries. Both the Amadigi and Flori-
dante of Bernardo Tasso are formed on the first work of
the series, and innumerable French and Italian dramas
have been founded on incidents which occur in Amadis of
Greece and Agesilan of Colchos. The romances of the
peninsula, however, in general, had less influence on the
early literature of this country than either the French
romances, or Italian novels. This Mr. Southey attributes
to the wretched manner in which jthe early translations of
them were executed. He has mentioned, however, that in
Amadis of Greece may be found the original of the Zel-
mane of Sidney's " Arcadia," the Florizel of Shakespeare's
" Winter's Tale," and Masque of Cupid in the Faery
Queene.
Having now discussed the history of Amadis and his
descendants, we come to the second family chronicle, car-
ried on in the romances of the peninsula. Of this new
series, the first romance, at least considered in relation to
the order of events, is
PALMERIN DE OLivA. 1
There is no dispute concerning the language in which
this work was originally written, as there is with regard to
so many of the other tales of chivalry belonging to this
third class of romances. It first appeared in Spanish,
and was printed at Salamanca in 1511, at Seville in
1525, and, also in Spanish, at Venice in 1526, and is
dedicated, in a prologue, to Caesar Triulsci, who was
then learning that language. The work afterwards ap-
peared in 1533, 12mo., also at Venice, corrected by the
Spaniard Juan Matheo da Villa, and addressed to the
Senor Juan de Nores Conde de Tripoli, Embarador dell
Universidad de Chipro, who is told that it is dedicated to
1 El libro del famoso Cavallero Palmerin de Olivia (sic). Cum privi-
legio. First edition, Salamanca, 1511, fol.
CH. V.] PALMEB1N DE OLIVA. 379
lii in that, as he had a taste for languages, he might learn
tin- Spanish, and that this tongue might be ennobled by
his acquiring it. In 1546, there was published at Paris,
in folio, a French version, of which Jean Maugin, called
Le petit Angevin, is announced as the author. This pro-
duction professes to be revised and amended from a former
French translation, which is by an uncertain hand, and
which, as is acknowledged in the preface, has only drawn
the matiere principale from the Spanish. Accordingly,
Maugin, who wrought on it, has enlarged in some places
on the original, and abridged in others ; the mode of war-
t'uiv too has been altered, and the love intrigues have been
Frenchified and modernized. This edition is adorned with
cuts, which might suit any Spanish romance of chivalry,
and are in fact adopted in the French edition of Amadis
of Greece; they represent a lady in child-bed a young
man receiving the order of knighthood an equestrian
combat a city scaled ships in a storm an interview be-
tween a lady and knight. The romance of Palmerin de
Oliva was also translated into English by Anthony Mun-
<l;i\, and published in the year 1588, 4to., in black
letter. 1
Like many other heroes of Spanish romances, the knight
who gives name to this work was of illegitimate birth.
Eeymicio, the eighth emperor of Constantinople from
Constantine, had a daughter named Griana, whom he
destined as the wife of Tarisius, son to the king of Hun-
gary, and nephew to the empress. The princess Griana,
however, preferred Florendos of Macedon, with whom she
had an interview one night in an orchard, of which the
consequence was the production of the hero of this romance.
Griana, by pretending sickness, concealed her pregnancy ;
and on the birth of the child she entrusted him to one of
her confidants to be exposed. The infant was discovered
1 > y a peasant in the neighbourhood, who carried him to his
n >t t age, brought him up as his son, and bestowed on him
the name of Palmerin d'Oliva, from his being found on a,
hill which was covered with olives and palms. Palmerin
was for a time contented with his humble destiny, but when
1 And, according to Lowndes, by Thomas Creed in 1586. 4to.
380 HISTOET OF FICTION. [CH. V.
lie grew up and discovered that he was not the son of his
reputed father, he longed to signalize himself by feats of
arms.
One day, while in a forest, Palmerin had an opportunity
of delivering from the jaws of a lioness a merchant who
was returning to his own country from Constantinople.
Our hero was taken to the city of Hermide by the person he
had preserved, and there furnished with arms and a horse.
'Thus equipped, he proceeded to the court of Macedon to
receive the order of knighthood from Florendos, who was
son to the king of that country, and (though this was un-
known to both parties) the father of Palmerin.
After obtaining the honour he required, the first exploit
of our young hero was destroying a serpent that guarded a
fountain, of which the waters were essential to the recovery
of the health of Primaleon, king of Macedon. While en-
gaged in this adventure, he received the privilege of being
proof against enchantment from certain fairies who resorted
to this fountain, and had a pique at the serpent.
The fame of this exploit of Palmerin being spread abroad,
many neighbouring princes applied to him for assistance.
In all the enterprises undertaken at their request, Palmerin
was eminently successful. At length, extending his succour
to more distant quarters, he delivered the emperor of Ger-
many from the knights by whom he was besieged in the
town of Gand (Ghent). Here Palmerin fell in love with
the emperor's daughter, Polinarda, the heroine of the
romance, and who, before this time, like the mistress of
Artus de la Bretagne, had appeared to her lover in a
dream. Having distinguished himself at a tournament in
Germany, Palmerin proceeded to one which had been pro-
claimed in France by the prince of that country, for the
purpose of driving into his opponents a due sense of the
peerless beauty of his mistress, the duchess of Burgundy :
but Palnierin, of course, established the superior excellence
of the charms of Polinarda. After his return to Germany,
this princess still continued in the retirement in which she
lived at the time of his departure, but at length, by the
intervention of his dwarf Urgando, he was admitted to her
embraces.
Now about this time messengers arrived at court from
CH. V.] PALMEEIN DE OLIVA. 381
the king of Norway, to implore assistance for their master
in a war in which he was unfortunately engaged with the
king of England. The emperor agreed to send an army to-
his relief ; but Trineus, the emperor's son, being enamoured
of Agriola, daughter of the English monarch, privately de-
parted with Palmerin, and arrived in Britain with the view
of aiding the father of his mistress. England now becomes
the chief theatre of adventures, which at length terminate
with the departure of Palmerin and Trineus, who eloped
with Agriola, the king's daughter. They all set sail in the
same vessel, and during their voyage experienced a storm
of some days' continuance. When it ceased, they found
they were somewhat out of their reckoning, for instead of
having reached the north of Germany, as intended, they
had made the coast of the Morea. During the calm, by
which the tempest was followed, Palmerin landed at the
adjacent island of Calpa, for the purpose of hawking, a
diversion which, next to the pleasures of the chase, seems
to have been the chief amusement of persons of rank, and
which continued to be so till the improvement in firearms.
In the absence of Palmerin, the ship in which he had left
his friends was taken by two Turkish galleys. The prin-
cess Agriola was presented by her captors to the Grand
Turk ; but Trineus having been set ashore on an island,
which is the counterpart of that of Circe, was converted
into a lapdog.
Palmerin, meanwhile, was discovered in the island of
Calpa by Archidiana, daughter of the sultan of Babylon.
This lady carried him with her, and took him into her ser-
vice, as did also her cousin Ardemira, who then resided at
the Babylonish court. Palmerin, however, maintained his
fidelity to Polinarda, and resisted the importunate solicita-
tions of these princesses. The disappointment had so
powerful an effect on Ardemira, that she burst a blood-
vessel and expired. Amaran, son of the king of Phrygia,
to whom she had been affianced, came, on hearing of her
demise, to the court of Babylon, charged the princess
Archidiana with her death, and offered to maintain his
accusation by an appeal to arms. Palmerin espoused her
quarrel, killed Amaran in single combat, and, in conse-
quence, became a great favourite of the soldan, whom he
382 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
assisted in carrying on a prosperous war against the lineage
of Amaran. The soldan, elated with this success, fitted
out an expedition against Constantinople, which Palmerin
was ordered to accompany. That knight, however, seized
the opportunity of a tempest, which arose during the
voyage, to separate from the Asiatic fleet, and forced the
seamen of his own vessel to steer for a port in Germany.
Having lauded, he immediately proceeded to the capital of
the emperor, where he passed some time with Polinarda.
After remaining fifteen days, he set out in quest of Trineus ;
and having arrived at Buda, he learned that Florendos,
prince of Macedon, had lately slain Tarisius, who, it will be
recollected, was his rival in the affections of Griana, prin-
cess of Constantinople, and had been united to her in mar-
riage by compulsion of her father. Florendos, having been
taken captive by the family of Tarisius, had been sent to
Constantinople, where he was condemned to the flames
along with Griana, who was suspected as his accomplice.
Palmerin instantly repaired to Constantinople ; maintained
their innocence ; defeated their accusers, the nephews of
Tarisius ; and thus, though unknown to himself, preserved
the lives of his parents. While confined to bed, in conse-
quence of the wounds he had received in their vindication,
he was visited by Griana, who discovered, from a mark on
his face, and from his mentioning the place where he had
been exposed, that he was indeed her child. He was then
joyfully received by the emperor, and acknowledged as his
successor ; his own son and grandson having been slain in
the battle with the Assyrians, who, after their separation
from Palmerin, had landed in Greece, but had been totally
defeated.
After these events Palmerin continued his quest of
Trineus, but in sailing over the Mediterranean he was
taken captive by the Turkish galleys, and conducted to
the palace of the Grand Turk. There he was instrumental
in liberating the princess Agriola from the power of that
monarch. He afterwards arrived at the court of a princess,
with whom Trineus at that time resided in quality of her
dog, having been lately presented to her by the enchantress,
by whom he was originally transformed. Palmerin agreed
to accompany this princess on a visit which she paid to
CH. V.] PALMEEIN I)E OLIVA. 383
Mussal>elin, a Persian magician, in expectation of being
cured of a distemper in her nose. The necromancer in-
formed her, at the first consultation, that this cure could
only be effected by the flowers of a tree which grew in the
castle of the Ten Steps, an edifice which was guarded by
enchantment. This adventure was undertaken and achieved
by Palmerin, who gained the flowers of the tree, and an
enchanted bird, which was destined, in due season, to
announce to him, by an unearthly shriek, the approaching
termination of his existence. He also put an end to the
spells of the castle, by which means Trineus, who, in his
canine capacity, had accompanied his friend and owner,
was restored to his original form.
The exploit is followed by a long series of adventures,
bearing, however, a strong resemblance to those already
related ; new combats, new enchantments, and new soldans
with inflammable daughters. Palmerin and Trineus at
length returned to Europe, and the latter was soon after
married to Agriola. At the same time Palmerin espoused
Polinarda, and on the death of his grandsire Reymucio
ascended the throne of Constantinople.
It has been suspected, from what has been said in some
Latin verses at the end of Palmerin d'Oliva, that this
romance was written by a woman : and if so, it gives us
no very favourable impression of her morals. 1 Nor does
she atone for this defect by genius or felicity of invention.
M. de Paulmy, indeed, prefers Palmerin d'Oliva to all the
romances of the family history of the Palmerins, and
thinks it as superior to them as Ainadis de Gaul to its
1 " The Palmerin," says Ticknor, "has generally been regarded as
Portuguese in its origin ; but this is not true. It was the work
strange to say of a carpenter's daughter in Burgos, and was first
printed at Salamanca in 1511. ... A continuation, too, by the same fair
author appeared, called, in form, The Second Book of Palmerin,
which treats of the achievements of his sons, Primaleon and Polendos,
and of which we have an edition dated in 1516." Ticknor, however,
neither quotes the title, nor gives the authority for his statement of the
authorship. Brunei mentions an edition with the title, La His tor ia
de Palmerin de Uliva, traducida de Griego en espafiol por Francisco
Vasquez. Salamanca, si xxii. de Marco de 1516," adding, however,
" Cctte edition semble avoir disparu ; les editeurs de 1'Ensayo de una
Bibl. Espanola ne la citent que d'apres le Catologo de la Colombina con-
serve a Seville."
384 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
continuations. But more weight is to be given to the
opinion of the author of Don Quixote, and even from the
abstract that has been presented, the reader will, I think,
be satisfied of the justness of the sentence by which
Cervantes condemned it to the flames. "Then opening
another volume he found it to be Palmerin d'Oliva. Ha t
have I found you, cried the curate ; here, take this Oliva,
let it be hewn in pieces and burnt, and the ashes scattered
in the air."
The next romance in the series of the Palmerin histories
is that of
PRIMALEON, 1
son of Palmerin d'Oliva and Polinarda, which was written
originally in Castilian, and professes to be translated from
the Greek by Francisco Delicado. It was first printed in
1516 ; afterwards at Seville in 1524 ; at Venice in 1534 ;
Bilboa, 1585 ; and Lisbon, 1598. An Italian translation
was published at Venice in 1559, and a French one at
Lyons in 1572. Anthony Munday translated into English,
first, that part of the romance which relates to the exploits
of Polendos, which was dedicated, in some Latin verses, to
Sir Francis Drake, and published in 1589. He afterwards
continued his labours, and produced the complete version
of the romance, printed in 1595 and 1619.
Near the commencement of this work there are related
the adventures of Polendos, which form the most inte-
resting part of the romance of Primaleon. The first exploit
of this hero was not brilliant. While he yet resided in
the court of his mother, the queen of Tharsus, returning
one day from the chase, he perceived a little old woman
sitting on the steps of the palace, and, on account of some
imaginary offence, kicked her to the foot of the staircase.
The old lady, when she had reached the bottom, muttered
that it was not so his father Palmerin d'Oliva succoured
the unfortunate. Polendos thus learned the secret of his
birth, for, in fact, he was the son of Palmerin, whose
1 Libro que trata de los valerosos Hechos en armas de Primaleon hijo
del Emperador Palmerin, y de su hermano Polendos, y de Don Duardos
Principe de Inglaterra, y de otros preciados Cavalleros de la Corte del
Emperador Palmerin.
CH. V.] PLATIR. 385
fidelity to Polinarda had been, on one occasion, overcome
by an intoxicating beverage he had received from the
queen of Tharsus. The prince now burned to signalize
himself by more splendid actions than the one he had just
committed. Accordingly, he departed for Constantinople
to make himself known to his father, and performed the
usual exploits on the way. He did not, however, remain
long at that city, but set out to rescue the princess France-
lina, of whom he had become enamoured, from the hands
of a giant and dwarf, by whose power she was confined in
an enchanted castle.
Polendos returned to Constantinople during a great
tournament, which was held to celebrate the nuptials of
one of the emperor's daughters. On this occasion, Prima-
leon, being stimulated to the desire of glory by the exploits
of his half-brother Polendos, was admitted into the order
of chivalry, and greatly distinguished himself. The re-
mainder of the romance is occupied with his adventures,
and those of Duardos (Edward) of England. A duchess
of Ormedes, incensed at Palmerin d'Oliva because he had
slain her son, had declared she would only grant her
daughter, the beautiful Gridoina, in marriage to the knight
who should bring her the head of Primaleon. This raised
up many enemies to that young hero, and, as he invariably
slew the lovers of Gridoina, he became the object of her
deepest detestation. The lady lived shut up in a remote
castle, where Primaleon accidentally arrived one evening,
and being unknown, he completely possessed himself of
her affections before his departure.
The author of Primaleon designed
PL ATI E,'
the son of Primaleon and Gridoina, to succeed his father
in chivalry, and a romance, of which he is the hero, was
accordingly written to continue the series, which was
printed at Valladolid in 1533. This work is one of those
t;ilrs of chivalry condemned to the flames by Cervantes.
"Here is the noble Don Platir, cried the barber. It is
1 Chronica del muy valente y esforzado Cavallero Platir hijo del
Emperador Primaleon.
I. CO
386 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
an old book, replied the curate, and I can think of nothing
in him that deserves a grain of pity : away with him
without more words ; and down he went accordingly."
This indifferent romance was superseded, as the legiti-
mate continuation of the family history of the Palmerins,
by the superior merit of the romance of
PALMERIN OF ENGLAND/
son to Don Duardos, prince of England, and Flerida,
daughter of the Emperor Palmerin d'Oliva.
The most ancient edition of Palmerin of England is in
the French language ; it was printed at Lyons, 1553, is
dedicated to Diana of Poictiers, duchess of Valentinois,
and is said in the title-page to be translated by Jacques
Vincent from the Castilian. In 1555, an edition in the
Italian language was published at Venice, which also pur-
ports that it was translated from the Spanish. This
romance next appeared in Portuguese in 1567, dedicated
to the Infanta Dona Maria, by Francesco de Moraes. Of
Moraes little farther is known than that he was born at
Bragan9a ; that he was treasurer to King Joam III., and
perished by a violent death at Evora in 1572. He informs
the reader, in the dedication, that being in France, he had
discovered a French MS. chronicle of Palmerin, which he
had translated into Portuguese.
In spite of this declaration of Moraes, and of the circum-
stance that the French and Italian editions appeared
twelve or fourteen years previous to the Portuguese, both
professing to be translated from Spanish, Mr. Southey
has maintained that Palmerin of England was neither
written in Spanish, as alleged in the French and Italian
editions, nor translated from ancient chronicles, as pre-
tended by Moraes ; but that the Portuguese is the language
in which it was originally composed, and that Moraes
himself is the author.
With regard to the assertion of Moraes, it is argued
justly that original romances were very frequently repre-
sented by the authors as translated from old manuscripts ;
1 Libro del famosissimo y muy valeroso Cavallero Palmerin de Inga-
laterra hijo del Key Don Duarte.
CH. V.] PALMERIN OF ENGLAND. 387
that the account which he gives of discovering the chro-
nicles implies that the story is his own, was meant to be so
understood, and was understood so ; and that i the work
had not been original, the pretence concerning the manu-
scripts could not have escaped detection, as the French and
Italian versions could not have been unknown in Lisbon at
the period of its publication.
The difficulty arising from the priority of the French and
Italian translations, Mr. Southey resolves by adducing-
similar instances in which translations have been made
from written copies, and published before the original, and
by conjecturing that Moraes wrote the book in France, but
delayed printing it till his return to Portugal, and that
meanwhile it was translated into French and Italian. As
to the assertion in the title-pages of the French editions,
that it was taken from the Castilian, he believes that term
to be used as synonymous with Spanish, which was, at that
time, employed to denote generally the language of all the
writers of the peninsula. He remarks, besides, that the
Spaniards lay no claim to the romance, and that he knows
no proof that it exists in their language.
Thus the way is cleared for the evidence of its Portu-
guese original, which consists in an assertion of Cervantes,
that there was a report that it was composed by a wise king
of Portugal, 1 which, though a mistake as to the author,
evinces the general belief that it was written in Portuguese.
There is also, according to Mr. Southey, internal evidence
that Palmerin of England was the work of an inhabitant
of Portugal, since to much of the scenery the author has
given not only natural but local truth. 2
In Palmerin, as in many other romances of chivalry, the
author gives an account not only of the infancy of the hero,
1 Seep. 72.
2 A copy of the romance in the Spanish language, printed at Toledo
in two parts in 1547 and 1548, was discovered by Salva. It contains, at
the end of the dedication, " a few verses addressed by the author to the
reader, announcing it, in an acrostic, to be the work of Luis Hurtado,
known to have been at that time a poet in Toledo." See Ticknor, who
cites bibliographical authorities for the "attribution" in a note; and
Braunfels, op. cit. p. 145. See also Zeitschrift fur Komanischen Philo-
logie, vi. 2, 3, p. 216, etc.; and Romania, xi. pp. 618, 619, in favour
of Moraes' authorship.
388 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
but the adventures of his parents. Don Duardos, son of
Fadrique, king of England, was united, as mentioned in
the romance of Primaleon, to Flerida, daughter of Palmerin
d'Oliva. One day, while pursuing a wild boar in a forest
of England, this prince loses his way and arrives at a castle,
into which he is admitted, and is afterwards treacherously
detained by a giantess called Eutropa, with the view of re-
venging the death of her brother, who had been slain by
Palmerin d'Oliva. This giantess had a nephew called
Dramuziando, who resided in the castle, and was the son
of the person who had been killed by Palmerin. Dramu-
ziando presents the character (a very singular one in ro-
mance) of an amiable and accomplished giant. He was,
we are told, pleasant in discourse, and (which was probably
no difficult matter) surpassed all his kindred in courtesy ;
he conceived a friendship for Duardos, and, contrary to the
intentions of the aunt, treated him with much kindness
while he was detained a prisoner in the castle.
Flerida having set out in search of her husband Duardos
with a large escort, is seized in a forest with the pains of
labour, and gives birth to two sons, who are baptized by a
chaplain who was in attendance. This ceremony was
scarcely concluded when a savage man, who inhabited the
forest, approached, leading two lions, and possessed him-
self of the infants, one of whom had just been named
Palmerin, the future hero of the romance, and the other
Florian. Both these unfortunate children he straightway
conveys to his den, and destines them as food for his lions.
After this mishap, Flerida returns disconsolate to the
palace, and a messenger is despatched to Constantinople to
inform the emperor and his court of the recent loss, and
also of the captivity of Duardos. On receiving this intel-
ligence, Primaleon and a number of knights depart for
England. A great proportion of the early part of the
romance is occupied with the adventures of those engaged
in attempting the deliverance of Duardos. Most of the
knights fall under the power of the giant Dramuziando,
but the only revenge he takes is employing them, as he of
late had employed Duardos, to combat each new enemy
that approached.
Meanwhile the wife of the savage man had prevailed on
CH. V.] PALMERIN OP ENGLAND. 389
her husband to relinquish his intentions of dismembering
Palmerin and Florian for behoof of his lions, and the two
young princes are brought up as his own children, along
with his son Selvian. One day, when Florian had roamed
to a considerable distance in pursuit of a stag, he meets
Sir Pridos, son to the duke of Wales, who takes him to the
English court, where he is introduced to the king and
Florida, and trained up by them with much care, under
the name of Child of the Desert.
Some time after this, Palmerin having strayed to the
sea coast, accompanied by Selvian, the savage man's son,
sees a galley strike on the shore. From this vessel Polen-
dos, mentioned in the romance of Primaleon, disembarks,
having come to England, with other Greek knights, in quest
of Duardos. At their own request he takes Palmerin and.
Selvian on board his ship, and sails with them to Constan-
tinople. Here they are introduced to the emperor, who
remains ignorant of the extraction of Palmerin, but is cer-
tified of his high rank by special letters from the Lady of
the Lake. Our hero was in consequence knighted, and had
his sword girt on by Polinarda, the daughter of Primaleon.
During his residence at court a tournament is held, in which
he and an unknown knight, who bore for his device a savage
leading two lions, chiefly distinguished themselves. The
stranger departs without discovering himself, but he is
afterwards found out to be Florian of the Desert, and is
thenceforth denominated the- Knight of the Savage.
Palmerin having become enamoured of Polinarda, the
daughter of Primaleon, and having expressed his sentiments
rather freely to the princess, she forbids him her presence.
In the depth of despair he forsakes the Grecian court, and
journeying towards England, under the name of the Knight
of Fortune, succours on his way many injured ladies, and
bears away the prize from many knights. He is always
accompanied in these exploits by Selvian, who acted as his.
squire. Having arrived in England, while passing through
a wood, they are met and recognized by the savage man.
In the neigh bourhood, of London, Palmerin is received in
a castle, of which the lady asks him to combat the Knight
of the Savage, who had slain her son. On his arrival in
London, the first business of Palmerin is to defy Florian of
390 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V,
the Savage. It is customary in most Spanish romances to-
stake against each other the two brothers, who are the
chief characters in the work. On the present occasion,,
however, the combat is interrupted at the entreaty of the
princess Flerida. Nor is it ever resumed, for Palmerin
having overcome Dramuziando, and set Duardos at liberty,
the birth of the champions is revealed by Daliarte the magi-
cian, whose declaration is confirmed by the deposition of
the savage man.
Florian and Palmerin now leave the court of England in
company, but it is impossible to follow them through the
long series of adventures in which they engage. A great
proportion of the exploits in the romance are performed by
the brothers, separately or united. Some of the adven-
tures of Palmerin, particularly those in the Perilous Isle,
possess considerable beauty and interest. A number of
exploits are, however, attributed to subordinate characters,
and a proper share is assigned to the giant Dramuziando,
who, though he had been vanquished by Palmerin, is
allowed to retain his castle, on account of his courtesy and
good treatment of Duardos. Eutropa, nevertheless, still
retains her illwill to the family of the Palmerins ; and
many of the incidents in the romance arise from her machi-
nations, and those of other aggrieved giants, to avenge
themselves on the brothers ; but all their efforts are ulti-
mately counteracted by the magician Daliarte.
The chief scene of adventure is the castle of Almourol.
There, under care of a giant, dwelt the beautiful but
haughty Miraguarda, whose portraiture was delineated on
a shield, which hung over the gate of the castle. This pic-
ture was, in rotation, protected by knights, who had be-
come enamoured of the original, against all other knights
who had the audacity to maintain that the charms of their
ladies were comparable to those of Miraguarda. At length,
during a period when the picture was guarded by the giant
Dramuziando, one of the adorers of the original, it is stolen
by Albayzar, soldan of Babylon, who had been positively
commanded to gain this trophy by his mistress the Lady
Targiana, daughter of the Grand Turk.
Finally, all the knights being assembled at Constan-
tinople, espouse their respective ladies. Palmerin is united
CH. V.] PALMERIN OF ENGLAND. 391
to Polinarda, and his brother Florian to Leonarda, queen
of Thrace, whose disenchantment had been one of the prin-
cipal adventures of Palmerin.
The romance, however, does not conclude with these
marriages. Florian, whose character resembles that of the
younger brothers in the history of Amadis, while residing
at the court of the Grand Turk, had run off with his
daughter. That princess was now married to Albayzar,
soldan of Babylon, who had stolen for her sake the portrait
of Miraguarda ; but as she still retained a strong resent-
ment at the conduct of her former lover, she employed a
magician to avenge her on the queen of Thrace, who had
been lately united to Florian. This queen, while disporting
in a garden, is unexpectedly carried off by two enormous
griffins, and conveyed to a magic castle, where she is con-
fined in the image of a huge serpent. Florian' s attention
is now occupied by the discovery and disenchantment of his
queen, in which he at length succeeds by the assistance of
the magician Daliarte. The scheme of revenge having thus
failed, Albayzar, on account of the affront which had been
offered to his queen by Florian, and exasperated at the re-
fusal of the emperor to deliver that prince into his power,
invades the Greek territories with two hundred thousand
men, and accompanied by all the kings and soldan s of the
east. Three desperate engagements are fought between
the Christians and Turks, in which Albayzar is slain, and
the pagan army totally annihilated ; not, however, without
great loss on the other side, for though Palmerin, Prima-
leon, Dramuziando, and Florian survive, a large proportion
of the Christian knights perish in these fatal encounters.
The fame and reputation of this romance, which divides
the palm of popularity with Amadis de Gaul, has probably
been, in some measure, owing to the commendations of
Cervantes. For, if we may judge from the number of
editions, Palmerin was less read in the age during which
tales of chivalry were in fashion than many of its contem-
poraries ; and hence its celebrity was probably the conse-
quence of the extravagant eulogy of Cervantes. " And this
Palm of England, let it be kept and preserved as a thing
unique ; and let another casket be made for it, such as that
which Alexander found among the spoils of Darius, and
392 HISTOBY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
set apart, that the works of the poet Homer might be kept
in it. This book, Sir Comrade, is of authority, for two
reasons ; the one, because it is a right good one in itself,
and the other, because the report is that a wise king of
Portugal composed it. All the adventures at the castle of
Miraguarda are excellent, and managed with great skill;
the discourses are courtly and clear, observing, with much
propriety and judgment, the decorum of the speaker. I
say then, saving your good pleasure, Master Nicholas, this
and Amadis de Gaul should be saved from the fire, and all
the rest be, without farther search, destroyed." Cervantes,
who had so keen a perception of the absurdities of the pro-
ductions of knight errantry, would not so strongly have
praised this romance unless it had deserved some commen-
dation ; but though Palmerin be certainly the most enter-
taining of the romances of the peninsula, I cannot help
thinking the author of Don Quixote has somewhat over-
rated its merit. The arrangement of the incidents is as wild
and perplexed as in other tales of chivalry. Besides, the
individual adventures of Palmerin are invariably pros-
perous, and we never feel any fear or interest on his account,
as we are assured of a happy issue by the frequent recur-
rence of success. The sentiments, too, are trivial, and the
characters of the heroines insipid, even beyond what is
common in romances of chivalry. Indeed, the author
seems to have entertained a very unfavourable opinion of
the fair sex, and indulges in many ill-bred reflections on
their envy, unreasonableness, and inconstancy ; but he has
not decked out his females even with these attributes. The
portraits of the knights, however, are better brought out
and discriminated. As in many other Spanish romances,
Palmerin represents a faithful lover, and Florian a man of
gallantry, though more than usually licentious. But the
most interesting characters are Daliarte, a learned and soli-
tary magician, who resides in the Valley of Perdition, im-
mersed in profound study; and the giant Dramuziando,
for whose safety we feel principally anxious during the
last terrible conflicts. The Emperor Palmerin d'Oliva, too,
is here represented as a fine old man, with a high sense of
honour and great courtliness of speech. The damsels, the
strange knights, and the castles which abound in this ro-
CH. V.] PALMERIN OF ENGLAND. 393
mance, are generally introduced and described in such a
manner as to excite considerable curiosity concerning them ;
and I know no work of the kind where interest and sus-
pense, with regard to the conclusion, are kept up with
greater success. If in the rival work of Amadis de Gaul
there be more fire and animation, in Palmerin there is in-
finitely more variety, delicacy, and sweetness.
Mr. Southey, however, has drawn a parallel between this
romance and Amadis de Gaul, which, on the whole, is
much to the advantage of the latter. " In the description
of battles," he says, " the author of Amadis exceeds all
poets and all romancers, as he fairly fixes attention on the
champions. But Moraes sets everything else before the
eyes ; he is principally occupied with the lists and specta-
tors, and enters into the feelings both of those who are en-
gaged and of those who look on. The magic of Moraes," he
continues, " is not good ; the cup of tears is a puerile fiction
compared with the garland which blossoms out on the head
of Oriana. The hero of Moraes is courageous, virtuous,
and generous, to the height of chivalry ; but it is abstract
courage, virtue, and generosity, with nothing to stamp and
individualize the possessor. The Florian of Moraes, how-
ever, is admirably supported, and he is a more prominent
character than Galaor. But libertinism is only a subordi-
nate feature of Galaor ; that which stands foremost is his
high sense of chivalrous honour. Florian has his wit, his
good-lmmour, and his courage, to palliate his faults ; but
these are not sufficient, and he is never respected by the
reader as Galaor is. What is excused in one as a weak-
ness, is condemned in the other as a vice. This is unfor-
tunately managed ; for, as he is the cause of the final war,
his character should have been clearer. Had Targiana
been sister instead of wife to Albayzar, it would have been
felt the Turks were in the right ; and as it is, they are not
so manifestly in the wrong, as the author should have
made them."
The romance of Palmerin was translated from French
into English by Anthony Munday, the Grub-street patriarch,
as he has been called, towards the close of the sixteenth
century. This work, however, according to Mr. Southey,
was extremely ill executed, as it was, in a great measure,
394 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
performed by journeymen who understood neither French
nor English. It has lately been translated from the
original, with much elegance, by the author so often
quoted in the above inquiries concerning the romances of
the peninsula. 1
The work with which we have been last occupied may
be regarded as closing the family history of the Palmerins.
It was, I believe, subsequently carried on in Portuguese,
but this continuation obtained no celebrity nor success. 2
There is, however, a very pretty French romance of the
sixteenth century, by Gabriel Chapuis, who translated so
many of the Spanish tales of chivalry, entitled Darinel,
son of Primaleon. The most interesting adventures relate
to the Palace of Illusions, raised by a magician, in which
everyone who entered fancied he enjoyed all things that
he wished. This work is announced as translated from
the Spanish, but was in fact the composition of Chapuis.
Besides the romances concerning the imaginary families
of Amadis and Palmerin, there are mentioned in the
scrutiny of Don Quixote's library, Don Olivante de Laura,
by Antonio de Torquemada, which is condemned for its
arrogance and absurdity, and Felixmarte of Hyrcania,
which is sent to the bonfire in the court, for the harshness
and dryness of the style, spite of the strange birth and
chimerical adventures of its hero. Dr. Johnson, I suppose,
is the only person in this land who has been guilty of
reading the whole of Felixmarte of Hyrcania. Bishop
Percy informed Boswell, " That the doctor, when a boy,
was immoderately fond of romances of chivalry, and he
retained his fondness for them through life; so that,
spending part of a summer at my parsonage-house in the
country, he chose for his regular reading the old Spanish
romance of Felixmarte of Hyrcania, in folio, which he
1 Palmerin of England, translated from the Portuguese of Frances de
Moraes, by Robert Southey, 1807, 12mo.
2 " A third and fourth part, indeed," remarks Ticknor, " containing
The Adventures of Duardos the Second, appeared in Portuguese,
written by Diogo Fernande/., in 1587 ; and a fifth and sixth are said to
have been written by Alvares do Oriente, a contemporary poet of no
mean reputation. But the last, two do not seem to have been printed,
and none of them were much known beyond the limits of their native
country," i. 250.
CH. V.] SPANISH BOMANCES OF CHIVALET. 395
read quite through." Boswell's " Life of Johnson," 1884,
8vo. vol. i. p. 22.
The more celebrated romance of
DON BELIANIS OP GREECE,'
is frequently alluded to in Avellaneda's continuation of
Don Quixote, and is also mentioned by Cervantes more
favourably than most others of the same " description,
in the scrutiny of the library. " This which I have in my
hands, said the barber, is the famous Belianis. Truly,
cried the curate, he with his second, third, and fourth
parts, had need of a dose to purge his excessive choler :
Besides, his castle of Fame should be demolished, and a
heap of other rubbish removed, in order to which I give my
vote to grant them the benefit of a reprieve, and as they
show signs of amendment, so shall mercy or justice be
used towards them : In the mean time take them into cus-
tody, and keep them safe at home ; but let none be per-
mitted to converse with them."
It would be needless to detain and tire the reader with
any account of the history of the Invencible Cavallero Don
Polindo, son of the king of Numidia, and his love with the
Princess Belisia ; of the Valeroso Cavallero Don Cirongilio
of Thrace, son of the king of Macedonia, written by Ber-
nardo de Vargas, or of the Esforzado Cavallero Don Clarian
de Landanis, by Geronimo Lopez.
There still remain, however, two romances of consider-
able beauty and interest, which first appeared in the dialect
of Catalonia.
When the Romans were expelled from Spain by the
northern invaders, the language they bequeathed was
adopted, but soon disfigured by the conquerors. During the
ninth century it was still farther corrupted by the inroads
of the Moors, and had at length so far degenerated, that
the Arabic became the chief vehicle of literary composition.
In the eleventh century the French Romans language
1 Libro primero del valoroso e invencible prencipe Don Belianis de
Grecia, hijo del Emperador Don Belanio de Grecia, sacada de lengua
Griega en la qual le escrivio el sabio Frisian por un hijo del vertuoso
varon Toribio Fernandez. Printed 1564 and 1579.
396 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
was introduced into the peninsula by Prince Henry of
Lorraine, who married a daughter of Alphonso VI. of Cas-
tile, and was diffused by the intercourse which subsisted
between the French and Spanish nations, in their mutual
resistance of the Saracens. A great change in consequence
took place in the language of Spain, and five or six different
dialects were spoken in the peninsula. Of these, the
earliest, the most widely extended, and the one which bore
the strongest resemblance to the southern French Romans,
was that adopted in Catalonia. It was spoken in that
province, in Roussillon and Valentia ; and, till the period
of the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, (when the Cas-
tilian tongue became prevalent,) it was the language which
afforded the best specimens, both of prose and poetical
composition. Petrarch is said to have been largely in-
debted to the amatory verses of the Troubadours of this
region, and two of the earliest and most interesting ro-
mances that have been produced in Spain, appeared in the
dialect of Catalonia, previous to their translation into the
Castilian.
Of these the earliest, and perhaps the most curious, is
TlRANTE THE WHITE, 1
the first part of which was written in the Catalonian
dialect by Pedro Juan Martorell, 2 a knight of Valencia, but
being left unfinished by him, it was completed by Juan
1 Los cinco libros del effor^ado y invencibile Cavallero Tirante el
Blanco di Eoca Salada Cavallero de la Garrotera, el qual por su alta
Cavalleria alcan^o a ser principe y Cesar del imperio de Grecia.
2 There can be little doubt that Martorell is himself the author of the
romance, though that he originally wrote it in Portuguese, into which
he professes to have first translated it, rather than in his native Valen-
tian dialect, is improbable (see this question elucidated in Dr. Ludwig
Braunfels' " Kritischer Versuch iiber den Roman Amadi's von Gallien."
Leipzig, O. Wigand, 1876,pp. 145-155). Doubtless he embodied in it much
matter gathered in England, whither he is supposed to have come in the
suite of Peter, Duke of Coimbra, son of John I. of Portugal, in 1425.
This princely visitor to our shores " was magnificently entertained at the
court of our Henry VI. (then a child), by the king's uncles, and actually
installed a Knight of the Garter ; so that the author might have been an
eye-witness of the ceremony. One reason of the fiction adopted by Mar-
torell might be, that as his patron Ferdinand was great-grandson to
John of Gaunt (who, under the title of Duke of Lancaster, ... is actu-
ally introduced as a distinguished character in the work), he was likely
CH. V.] TIBANTE THE WHITE. 397
de Galba. The first of these authors informs us he trans-
lated it from the English, by which Mr. Warton conjec-
tures he meant the Breton language, in which it may have
been originally written. It is difficult to say whether this
assertion of the author be true, or whether he has framed
the story, to give some appearance of authenticity to his
romance, which relates the exploits of a Breton knight.
That part of it which contains the history of the earl of
Warwick, is, I think, most probably translated, as it
closely corresponds with the old English romance, Guy of
Warwick, which was versified from the original French in
the beginning of the fourteenth century ; a period long
preceding the composition of Tirante the White in Spain.
At what time this romance was written or translated by
Martorell, is not precisely ascertained. It was first printed,
however, at Valencia, in 1490 ; and there is mentioned in
it a work on chivalry, entitled : L'Arbre des Batailles, which
was written in 1390 ; so that it must have been composed
between these two periods. But the date may, I think, be
to be more gratified with the idea of its being an English story than
with the naked truth. Be all this, however, as it may, the work is
perhaps superior to every other composition of the same nature. Every
writer who has read it, and particularly in the original, is lavish in its
praise. Antonio Bastero, in his Crusca Provenzale, . . . calls the author
one of the clearest lights of the Pruvenzal tongue, of which the Catalan
is considered as a branch. He takes particular notice of the variation of
his style and manner, not only in .Tirant's reply to his rivals and his
letters to his beautiful and constant lady, the Princess Carme.sina, but
in his own Dedication to the King (Prince) of Portugal, whom he
addresses in a language very different from that which he uses to the
reader in his Preface. This particularity is likewise insisted on by
Vicente Ximeno, in his Escritores del Keyno de Valencia, . . . where he
says . . . the author has accommodated with adroitness and propriety the
language and style to the person speaking ; and indeed the artful discri-
mination of character must strike everyone who peruses the work even
in the translation from a translation."
In Ritson's " General Catalogue of Romances," a MS. now in the
British Museum, there is a long and interesting notice of this work.
Ritson's remarks, which would occupy too much space here, will be
found printed at length in the British Museum Grenville Catalogue,
part i. pp. 734-736, to which I must refer the curious reader.
This romance was printed at Valencia in 1490. Three copies of this
edition only are known. It was printed again at Barcelona in 1497.
The romance has been reprinted from these editions in Aquilo y Fuster's
" Biblioteca Catalana," Barcelona, 1872, etc.
398 HISTOEY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
still farther limited. The Canary Islands were discovered
in 1326, and began to be well known in Europe about 1405. *
Now, from the false notions expressed concerning them in
Tirante, and the extravagant idea which seems to be enter-
tained of their power and magnitude, it is probable this
romance was written before their precise situation and ex-
tent were ascertained in the peninsula. On the whole,
therefore, the era of its composition may be pretty safely
fixed about the year 1400.
Tirante, as has been mentioned, was first published in
the Catalonian dialect at Valencia, in 1490. It was thence
transferred into the Castilian language, and published at
Valladolid in 1511, one volume folio. There has been no
subsequent Spanish edition, but the Italian translation by
Lelio Manfredi has passed through three impressions, of
which the first appeared in 1538. The Count de Caylus
more lately brought it forward in a French garb, after the
fashion of the Count de Tressan ; he has altered the inci-
dents of the story in some places ; in others he has consider-
ably abridged the work, by omitting precepts of chivalry,
and has almost everywhere rendered it more licentious.
The hero of this romance, while on his journey to attend
the tournaments, which were about to be celebrated in
England (on account of the marriage of the king of that
country with a princess of France), is accidentally Separated
from his companions, and having fallen asleep on his
horse, arrives in rather an unwarlike attitude at the her-
mitage of William, earl of Warwick.
This nobleman, disgusted with the European world, had
1 These isles, owing to their remoteness, were long invested with the
haze of mystery ; they were, however, known to the ancients, and were
noticed by Pliny and other writers of antiquity ; after which, according
to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, " There is no farther mention of them
until we read of their rediscovery about 1334, by a French vessel driven
amongst them by a storm."
During the whole of the fifteenth century the Canaries attracted
many adventurers, and were the object of several expeditions which
started mostly from Spain, and met with very effectual resistance from
the natives, who were not all brought into subjection to the Spanish
throne until near the close of the century. Don Luis, great-grandson
of Alphonso the Wise, obtained a bull from Clement VI. in 1334, be-
stowing upon him the lordship of the Fortunate (or Canary) Islands, to
remain in fief to the Holy See, upon an annual payment of 400 florins.
CH. V.] TIEANTE THE WHITE. 399
gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thence he spread a
report of his death, which seems to have been eagerly re-
o-ivu-d in England, returned to his own country in disguise,
and established himself in a retirement near the castle in
which his countess resided. After he had passed some time
in solitude, fortune gave him an opportunity of rendering
signal service to his country. The great king of the Canary
Islands had landed in Britain with a formidable army, and
had subdued nearly the whole of England, while the
monarch of the conquered country, driven successively
from London and Canterbury, had sought refuge in the
town of Warwick, which was soon invested by the Canary
forces. At this crisis, the earl, who lived in the neighbour-
hood, came to the assistance of his prince ; killed the in-
trusive monarch in single combat, and defeated his suc-
cessor in a pitched battle. After these important services
the earl discovered himself to his countess, and again retired
to his hermitage. In the English metrical romance of Guy
of Warwick, translated from the French, that earl, after a
long absence, returns to England in disguise of a palmer,
visits his countess unknown to her, and delivers King
Athelstane from an invasion of the Danes, who had be-
sieged him in Winchester, by overthrowing their cham-
pion in single combat.
William of Warwick was engaged in the perusal of
L'Arbre des Batailles, when the unknown and drowsy
knight arrived at his habitation. When roused from the
sleep in which he was plunged, he informed the earl that
his name was Tirante el Blanco, that he was so called be-
cause his father was lord of the marches of Tirranie, situated
in that part of France which was opposite to the coast of
England, and that his mother was daughter to the duke of
Britany. After this genealogical sketch, he mentioned his
design of attending the tournaments, and receiving the
honour of knighthood. His host accordingly read to him
a chapter from L'Arbre des Batailles, which was a work on
the institutions of chivalry. This prelection he accompanied
with a learned commentary, explaining the different sorts
of arms which were used in combats, and dwelling on the
exploits of ancient knights : " But, as it is late," continues
he, " your company must be at a distance ; you are ignorant
400 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
of the roads, and you will be in danger of losing yourself
in the woods, with which this district is covered. I there-
fore recommend an immediate departure." The above argu-
ments might certainly have supported a more hospitable
conclusion, but Tiran is dismissed with a present of the
Tree of Battles, as a manual of chivalry, and a request to
revisit the hermitage on his return from the tournaments.
Tiran accordingly, when the festival, which lasted a
twelvemonth, was concluded, repaired to the hermitage,
and, encouraged by the proofs he had formerly received of
the hospitable disposition of the earl, brought his com-
panions, to the number of thirty- eight, along with him.
The earl, after he had recovered from his consternation,
demanded an account of the tournaments, and inquired
who had most distinguished himself. He is answered by
Diofebo, one of his guests, that it was Tiran himself ; that
a French lord, called Villermes, having objected to his
wearing a knot which had adorned the bosom of the beau-
tiful Agnes, daughter to the duke of Berri, had defied him
to mortal combat, and had required that they should fight
armed with a paper buckler and a helmet of flowers. The
combatants having accordingly met in this fantastic array,
Villermes was killed in the encounter. Tiran having re-
covered from eleven wounds he had received, six of which,
according to surgical etiquette, ought to have been mortal,
killed in one day four knights, who were brothers in arms,
and who proved to be the dukes of Burgundy and Bavaria,
and the kings of Poland and Friezeland. This last monarch
found an avenger in one of his subjects, Kyrie Eleison, or,
Lord have mercy upon us, who was suspected of a descent
from the ancient giants. On arriving in England, this
champion visited the tomb of his master, and expired of
grief on beholding his monument, and the arms of Tiran
suspended over the banners of his sovereign. His place
was supplied by his brother Thomas of Montauban, whose
stature afforded still more unequivocal symptoms of gigantic
ancestry. In spite of his pedigree, or perhaps in conse-
quence of it, as giants were always unlucky in the romantic
ages, he was overthrown by Tiran, and consented to beg his
life.
Here ends the relation of the exploits of Tiran, during
CH. V.] TIRANTE THE WHITE. 401
tin- inarriau r <' festivals of England. From the hermitage
of the earl of Warwick he returns to Britany, where a
ni< ssenger soon after arrives with intelligence that Khodes
an<l its knights are closely besieged by the Genoese and
the sultan of Cairo. Tiran sets out for the relief of this
island, and takes Philip, the youngest son of the king of
France, along with him. In the course of their voyage
they anchor in the roads of Palermo. The king of Si<-ily
throws over a platform from the port to the vessel of
Tiran, and covers it with tapestry, hanging down to the
sea. Tiran and his companions, having been treated on
shore with corresponding magnificence, proceed on their
destination. The siege of Rhodes is raised immediately on
their landing, and after this success they return to Sicily,
where Philip is united to the princess of that country.
Soon after the marriage of Philip and the princess, a
messenger from the emperor of Constantinople announces
the invasion of his master's territories by a Moorish soldan
and the Grand Turk. Our hero proceeds to the succour of
the Greek empire, and immediately on his arrival is en-
trusted by its sovereign with the chief command of the
forces. After Tiran receives this appointment, a great
part of the romance is occupied with long details of the war
carried on against the Turks, who are defeated in several
pitched battles. In one of these the kings of Cappadocia
and Egypt, and a hundred thousand men, are killed on the
part of the enemy ; the sultan, the king of Africa, the
Grand Turk, and Grand Turk's son, are severely wounded ;
with a loss of only twelve hundred and thirty-four men on
the side of the Greeks. Being unable to withstand such
inequality of slaughter, the Turks are forced to solicit a
truce. This being granted, the interval of repose is occu-
pied with splendid festivals and tournaments, held at Con-
stantinople. During this period, Urganda, sister of the
renowned Arthur, arrives at Constantinople in quest of her
brother. The emperor exhibits to her an old gentleman
he kept in a cage, whom she speedily recognizes as the ob-
ject of her search. As long as he retains his sword, the
famed Escalibor, in his hand, he returns most pertinent
answers to the questions addressed to him ; but when de-
prived of this support, his observations become extremely
I. D D
402 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
infantile. Urganda is permitted to take him along with
her. On the same evening she gives a splendid supper, in
the vessel in which she had arrived, to the emperor and his
court, and sets sail with her brother next morning. But it
is not said how Arthur found his way to Constantinople,
nor where he went after his departure. In this stage, too,
of the romance, the intrigues of the Greek ladies with the
French knights who had accompanied Tiran to Constan-
tinople, are related, and the particulars of some of them
detailed with unnecessary minuteness. Hyppolito seduces,
or rather is seduced by, the empress ; and Diofebo, after-
wards created duke of Macedonia, carries on an amour with
Stephania, one of the attendants of Carmesina, daughter of
the emperor. Tiran becomes enamoured of this princess,
who, during day, was always surrounded by a hundred and
seventy damsels; but at other seasons he has frequent
interviews with her, by favour of one of her attendants,
called Plazirdemavida. The good understanding, however,
which subsisted between Tiran and the princess, is at length
interrupted by the plots of the Vedova Reposada, another
attendant, who, having fallen in love with Tiran, contrives
to make him jealous of her mistress, by a stratagem re-
sembling that which deceives Claudio in Much Ado about
Nothing, and also the lover of Geneura in the fifth canto of
the Orlando Furioso.
The truce between the Turks and Christians being ex-
pired, Tiran sets out for the army without taking leave of
the princess. While the vessel in which he was to be con-
veyed is still at anchor in the roads, she despatches Plazir-
demavida to inquire into the reasons of his conduct ; but
a storm having meanwhile arisen, and the ship having
been driven from its moorings, her emissary is unable to
return to Constantinople, and the vessel is carried towards
the coast of Africa. Two mariners convey Plazirdemavida
on shore. Tiran remains with a single sailor in the
vessel, until it is at length wrecked on the coast of Tunis.
While wandering on the shore, our hero meets accidentally
with the ambassador of the king of Tremecen, is con-
ducted by him to court, and proves of great service to
that monarch in the wars in which he was engaged. On
one occasion Tiran besieges the town of Montagata, when,
CH. V.] TIEANTE THE WHITE. 403
to his great surprise, Plazirdemavida, whom he believed
lost, comes to his camp to intercede for the inhabitants,
and is now appointed queen of an extensive territory.
Tiran, by means of similar alliances and conquests, is
enabled to embark a hundred and fifty thousand infantry,
and eighty-eight thousand cavalry, for the succour of the
Greek emperor. Soon after his retum to Constantinople
with this formidable armament, he burns the Turkish
fleet, and, by taking a strong position in rear of their
tinny (which rendered a retreat impracticable), he ulti-
mately secures an advantageous peace.
Splendid preparations are now made for the nuptials of
Tiran and Carmesina ; an event which Tiran had rendered
insipid before his last expedition against the Turks. While
on his return to Constantinople, after the conclusion of the
treaty, he receives orders, at the distance of a day's journey
from the city, to wait till the preparations be completed.
In this interval, while lounging one day on the banks of a
river, and conversing on his happiness with the kings of
Ethiopia, Fez, and Sicily, he is seized with a pleurisy, and
expires soon after. When this intelligence is brought to
Constantinople, the emperor dies of grief ; and the demise
of the princess on the same day completes the triple mor-
tality. The empress having given orders for the funerals,
passes the ensuing night with her lover Hyppolito, who
redoubles her impatience to share with him the throne to
which she had now succeeded. After a joint reign of three
years, she bequeaths to him the empire, and her place is
supplied by a daughter of the king of England. 1
I have been thus minute in the account of Tirante the
White, as it is one of the three romances preserved in the
scrutiny of Don Quixote's library. "By her taking so
many romances together," says Cervantes, " there fell one
at the barber's feet, who had a mind to see what it was,
and found it to be Tiraute the White. God save me,
1 The celebrated Baron Grimm, " who did not, it seems, add to his
other qualifications the charms of an agreeable person, took incredible
pains to supply his natural deficiency by the artificial resources of the
toilet. The quantity of ceruse, or white paint, with which he daily
filled up the lines and wrinkles of his face, joined to his want of mode-
ration in the enjoyment of his bonnes fortunes, procured for him the
appellation of Tyran le Blanc."
404 HISTORY OF FICTION. [~CH. V.
quoth the priest, with a loud voice, is Tirante the White
there ? Give me him here, neighbour, for I shall find in
him. a treasure of delight and a mine of entertainment.
Here we have Don Kyrie Eleison of Montalvan, a valorous
knight, and his brother Thomas of Montalvan, and the
knight Fonseca, and the combat which the valiant De-
triante fought with Alano ; and the smart conceits of the
damsel Plazerdemavida, with the amours and artifices of
the widow Reposada, and madam the empress in love with
her squire Hyppolito." He then advises the housewife to
take it home, and read it ; " for though," continues the
priest, " the author deserved to be sent to the galleys for
writing so many foolish things seriously, yet, in its way, 1
it is the best book in the world. Here the knights eat and
sleep, and die in their beds, and make their wills before
their death, with several things which are wanting in all
other books of this kind."
It cannot, indeed, be denied, that Tirante the White is
of a nature altogether different from the other romances of
chivalry. It possesses much more quaintness and plea-
santry. Nor is it occupied with the detached adventures
of a dozen different knights ; the attention is constantly
fixed on the adventures of Tiran, of whom the reader never
loses sight, and, except in the account of the fetes in Eng-
land, which occupies a small part of the work, there are
hardly any tournaments or single combats. Tiran is more
a skilful commander than a valiant knight, and subdues
his enemies more by a knowledge in the art of war, than
by his personal courage. In other romances the heroes are
only endowed with bravery, all besides is the work of
magicians. Tiran, on the contrary, performs nothing in-
credible, everything he does lies within the sphere of
human capacity. Giants, so prevalent in other romances,
are here dwindled to nothing. Kyrie Eleison and his
brother Thomas are but meagre monsters. No helpless
females are protected, no enchanted castles restored to the
ordinary properties of stone and lime. I remember,
indeed, no magical story, except that of Espertius, who,
while on his way from Africa to assist Tiran at Constan-
1 Per su estilo. This has been rendered " in point of style/' by some
of the translators of Cervantes.
CH. V.] TIRANTE THE WHITE. 405
linople, is driven on the island of Cos, where he restores
the daughter of Hippocrates to her original form. She
appeared to him in the shape of a dragon, into which she
had been changed by Diana ; but, by consenting to kiss
her on the mouth, the knight effected her transformation.
A belief in a tradition precisely the same is attributed to
the inhabitants of Cos, in a book of modern French
travels, of which I have forgotten the title. Sir John
Mandeville, in his Travels, also relates a story somewhat
similar. Speaking of an enchanted dragon in the isle of
Cos, " a yonge man," says he, " that wiste not of the
dragoun, went out of a shippe, and went throghe the isle,
till that he cam into the cave ; here he saw a damsel who
bad him come agen on the morwe, and then come and
kysse hire on the mouth, and have no drede, for I schall
do the no manner harm, alle be it that thou see me in like-
ness of a dragoun, for thoughe thou see me hideous and
horrible to loken onne, I do the to wyten that it is made
be enchantment, for withouten doubt I am none other
than thou seest now, an woman, and zyff thou kysse me
thou shalt have all this tresure, and be my lord, and lord
also of that isle." This ambiguous lady, however, was not
the daughter of Hippocrates, the dragon of the Spanish
romance, who, according to Sir John Mandeville, fre-
quented a different island, " and some men seyne that in
the isle of Lango is yit the daughter of Ypocras, in forme
and likenesse of a great dragoun, that is a hundred fadme
in length as men seyne, for I have not seen hire, and thei
of the isles callen hire Ladie of the Land," a fiction
which may partly have originated in one of that physician's
children being called Draco, a circumstance mentioned by
Suidas on the authority of Galen. The story of Espertius
and the daughter of Hippocrates was probably conveyed to
the author of Tirante by some obscure, but prevalent tradi-
tion ; and, through the medium of this work, a similar
incident has been adopted in innumerable tales of wonder
and many romantic poems. In the 25th and 26th cantos
of the second book of Berni's " Orlando Inamorato," the
paladin Brandimarte, after surmounting many obstacles,
penetrates into the recesses of an enchanted palace. There
he tinds a fair damsel seated upon a tomb, who announces
406 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
to him, that in order to achieve her deliverance, he must
raise the lid of the sepulchre, and kiss whatever being
should issue forth. The knight, having pledged his faith,
proceeds to open the tomb, out of which a monstrous
snake raises itself with a tremendous hiss. Brandimarte
with much reluctance fulfils the conditions of the adven-
ture, and the monster is instantly changed into a beautiful
fairy, who loads her deliverer with benefits (Scott's " Min-
strelsy," vol. ii. p. 84). In the ballad of Kempion, the
prince of that name effects a similar transformation by a
similar effort. There is a like story in the 6th tale of the
Contes Amoureux de Jean Flore, written toward the end
of the fifteenth century.
The second Catalonian romance to which I formerly
alluded, is that of
PARTENOPEX DE BLOis, 1
which was written in the Catalonian dialect in the thirteenth
century, and printed at Tarragona in 1488. The Castilian
translation appeared at Alcala, 1513, 4to, and afterwards
in 1547. 2 M. Le Grand, however, has endeavoured to
establish that this work was originally French, and informs
us that his own modern version, appended to his Contes et
Fabliaux, is made from a manuscript poem in the library
of St. Germain des Pres, which he conjectures to be of the
twelfth century.
The Princess Melior succeeded her father Julian in the
Greek empire. Though well qualified to govern, from
natural talents, and the advantages derived from a know-
ledge of magic, her subjects insisted on her selecting a
husband, but granted two years for the choice. She ac-
cordingly despatched emissaries to all the courts of
Europe, with instructions to enable these messengers to
make a judicious election.
At this time there lived in France a young man, called
1 Libro del esforzado Cavallero Conde Partinuples que fue Emperador
de Constantinople.
2 A Danish version was printed in 1560 and 1572. The story was
circulated as a chapbook among the Netherlands in the seventeenth
century.
CH. V.] PAETENOPEX DE BLOIS. 407
Partenopex de Blois, who was nephew to the king of Paris.
One day, while hunting with his uncle in the forest of
Ardennes, he is separated from his party while pursuing a
wild boar, and night falling, he loses his way in the woods.
On the following day, after long wandering, he conies to
the sea- shore, and perceives a splendid vessel moored near
the land, which he enters to ascertain if any person were
on board, but he finds no one. Now this pinnace happened
to be enchanted, and, disdaining the vulgar operations of a
pilot, as soon as Partenopex had embarked, it spontaneously
steered a right course, and after a prosperous voyage,
arrived in the bay of a delightful country. Vessels of this
sort are common in romance. There is one in the beautiful
fabliau of G-ugemar. In the 7th canto of the Rinaldo we
have an enchanted bark, which was solely directed by the
force of magic, and invariably conducted the knights who
entered it to some splendid adventure. 1 A self -navigated
gondelay is also introduced in Spenser's " Faery Queen "
(b. ii. c. 6) :
Eftsoones her shallow ship away did slide,
More swift than swallow sheres the liquid skye,
Withouten oare or pilot it to guide,
Or winged canvas with the wind to fly;
For it was taught the way which she would have,
And both from rocks and flats itself could wisely save.
The finest of these barks is that which conducts the
Christian knights, in their .search of Einaldo, to the resi-
dence of Armida. This fiction, however, was not the
invention of the middle ages, but is of classical origin ;
vessels of this nature being described by Alcinous to
Ulysses, in the 8th book of the Odyssey :
So shalt thou instant reach the realms assign 'd,
In wondrous ships self -moved, inspired with mind ;
No helm secures their course, no pilot guides,
Like man, intelligent, they plough the tides,
Conscious of every coast, and every bay,
That lies beneath the sun's all-seeing ray ;
Though clouds and darkness veil the encumberd sky,
Fearless through darkness and through clouds they fly.
1 Spiritually directed ships also form a feature in the Greater Graal
Romance.
408 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
Partenopex having disembarked from his magical con-
veyance, approached and entered a castle of marvellous
extent and beauty, which stood near the harbour. In the
saloon, which was lighted by diamonds, 1 he finds prepared
an exquisite repast, but no one appears. Attendance could
1 Truth is stranger than fiction. It would be perfectly possible to rea-
lize approximately this idea by the aid of modern science. In a lecture de-
livered at the Royal Institution on April 4, 1879, Mr. William Crookes,
F.R.S., exhibited the phosphorescent phenomena of diamonds and rubies
in glass vessels from which the air had been nearly exhausted, and the
remaining atmospheric molecules set in movement by electricity. One
diamond shone with a brilliant blue light, another " with as much light as
a candle, phosphorescing of a bright green." Mr. Crookes considered the
diamond the most sensitive substance he had met with " for ready and
brilliant phosphorescence. . . . Next to the diamond the ruby is one of
the most remarkable stones for phosphorescing." At the same lecture
a small heap of these stones was exhibited, " shining with a brilliant
rich red colour, as if they were glowing hot." See, supra, Huon of
Bordeaux, p. 307. See also the story, from the Gesta Romanorum,
entitled De Imagine cum digite dicente, and note upon it. The belief in,
the inherent luminosity of certain stones seems to have been widely
diffused ; at all events luminous gems are an important property in
legendal and imaginative literature. According to an Eastern story the
pit into which Joseph was cast by his brethren was illumined by a jewel
(Weil. Bible, Koran, and Talmud Story of Joseph). The Eastern ruby
especially seems to have been credited with the power of giving light.
The Persians called it " Torch of the Night" (Chardin, Voyages, Paris,
1811). Mahomet's tomb was feigned to be illuminated by such a stone.
Une lampe de cristal cler ;
Devant la tombe de Mahon pent.
II n'a riens dedens, et si rent
Tel clarte k'il saule qu' ele art ;
Elle i fut assise par art.
Chil qui Puevre sutilia
Auchune piere mise i a,
Prope a escarboucle fine
Qui la lampe enlumine.
Roman de Mahomet, v. 1934, ed. Da Pont, p. 81.
Prope (pyrope) is a name given to the ruby on account of its supposed
luminosity, just as carbunculus refers to an incandescant coal. Cf. also
the following verses of the mediaeval sequence, Ave Virgo Nobilis,
etc. :
" Approbat carbunculus,
Lucens nocte oculus,
Longe, late, largiter
Laudis tuae jugiter
Pamam dilatari."
See, further, Add. Note on Luminous Stones.
CH. V.J PAETENOPEX DE BLOI8. 409
IK- the better dispensed with, as the dainties placed them-
selves of their own accord on his lips. After he had taken
advantage of their hospitality, a lighted torch showed him
tin- way to his bed-chamber, where he was undressed by
im isible hands. The notion of such a palace, like many
other incidents in this romance, must have been suggested
liv the story of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius. A similar
fiction has been adopted by the earliest romantic poet of
Italy : in the second canto of the Morgante Maggiore, that
giant comes with his master Orlando to a splendid and
mysterious castle, in which the apartments are richly
furnished, and the table spread with every sort of wines
and provisions. After the guests have partaken of a
sumptuous repast, they retire to rest on rich couches pre-
pared for their repose, no one having appeared in the
course of the entertainment.
When Partenopex had gone to bed, and the lights had
been extinguished, a lady entered the apartment, who,
after some tedious expostulation on the freedom he had
used in usurping the usual place of her repose, evinced
a strong determination not to be put out of her way. In
the course of the night his companion acquaints him that
si ic is Melior of Constantinople, who, it will be remembered,
was a great empress and a fairy at the same time. Having
fallen in love with Partenopex, on report of her emissaries,
she had contrived the enchantments he had lately wit-
nessed. She farther intimated, that he was to remain at
her castle, but that he would forfeit her affections if he
attempted to obtain a sight of her person before the lapse
of two years ; a deprivation for which she seemed disposed
to compensate by the most ample gratification of his other
senses. In the morning the most splendid habiliments
were brought him by Uracla, the sister of the empress
fairy. Having dogs and horses at his command, he
usually spent the day in hunting, and in the evenings was
entertained by a concert from invisible musicians.
Anxious, at length, to revisit his native country, which
he learned had been attacked by foreign enemies, Parteno-
]>f\ hazarded an exposition of his wishes to his mistress,
who, after exacting a promise of return, accommodates
him with the magic sloop in which he had arrived, and
410 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
which in a short while conveys him to France. On the
evening he landed he sets out for Paris, and on his way
meets with a knight, whom he discovers to be GTaudin, the
lover of TJracla. The strictest intimacy arises between
these two persons after a dreadful combat ; a mode of
introduction, which, though now fallen into disuse, was the
usual commencement of friendship in those chivalrous
ages :
Deux Chevaliers qui se sont bien battus,
Soit a Cheval, soit a la noble escrime,
Avec le sabre on de longs fers point us,
De pied en cap tout converts, ou tout nus,
Ont 1'un pour 1'autre une secrete estime ;
Et chacun d'eux exalte les vertus
Et les grands coups de son digne adversaire,
Lorsque surtout il n'est plus en colere :
Mais s : il advient, apres ce beau conflit,
Quelque accident quelque triste fortune,
Quelque misere a tous les deux commune,
Incontinent, le Malheur les unit;
L'Amitie nait de leurs destins contraires,
Et deux heros persecutes sont Freres.
La Pucelle, Preface au chant ix.
ExpelFd their native homes by adverse fate,
They knock'd alternate at each others gate ;
Then blazed the castle at the midnight hour
For him whose arms had shook its firmest tower.
Soon after the arrival of Partenopex in France, Angelica,
the pope's niece, who was at this time residing at the court
of Paris, falls in love with him, and in order to detach him
from his engagement with the fairy, which she had dis-
covered by means of an intercepted letter, she employs a
holy man, who repaired to Partenopex, and denounced
Melior as a demon. He found that her lover was proof
against an insinuation with regard to his mistress possess-
ing a serpent's tail, which he begged to be excused from
crediting, but that he was somewhat startled by the assurance
that she had a black skin, white eyes, and red teeth.
Partenopex having returned to the residence of the fairy,
resolves to satisfy himself the first night he passes in her
company, as to the truth of her possessing the perfections
attributed to her in France. On raising a lamp to her
countenance, he has the satisfaction to find she has been
CH. V.] PARTENOPEX DE BLOI8. 411
cruelly traduced ; but, as she unfortunately awakes, from
a drop of wax falling on her bosom, he incurs her utmost
resentment. His life is spared at the intercession of Uracla,
but, being forced to leave the castle, he repairs to the forest
of Ardennes, having adopted the scheme of presenting his
person as food for the wild beasts, with which that district
ul >< Minded. This consummation, however desirable, was
retarded by unaccountable circumstances ; for though tan-
talized during a whole night by the roaring of lions and
hissing of serpents, who gave repeated demonstrations of
accommodating the knight, the provoking animals avoided
all personal intercourse, and one of the monsters selected
the horse of Partenopex in preference to his master. The
neighings of the steed brought Uracla to the spot, who had
set out in quest of Partenopex on perceiving some relenting
symptoms on the part of her sister. Partenopex, all hopes
of personal deglutition being at an end, consented to ac-
company Uracla to her castle in Tenedos, there to await the
resolves of the empress fairy. Leaving Partenopex in this
abode, Uracla set out on a visit to her sister, and, relying
on the prowess of Partenopex, persuaded her to declare
that she would bestow her hand on the victor, in a tourna-
ment she was about to proclaim. The princesses of ro-
mance frequently offer their hand to the conqueror in a
tournament, perhaps on the same principle on which Bayle
says Penelope promised to espouse the suitor who should
bend the bow of Ulysses.
While preparations were making for the tournaments,
Parseis, an attendant of Uracla, having become enamoured
of Partenopex, took him out one day in a boat. After
some time, Partenopex remarked to her the distance they
were from land. The damsel then made an unequivocal
declaration of attachment, and confessed she had recourse
to this stratagem to have an opportunity for the avowal.
Partenopex, who perhaps saw no insurmountable objec-
tion to a communication of this nature on shore, began to
express much dissatisfaction at his cruise ; but his com-
plaints were interrupted by a tempest, which drove the
vessel to the coast of Syria ; Partenopex, being forced to
land, was seized by the natives, and became the prisoner of
King Herman. During his captivity, the sultan of Persia
412 HISTORY OF FICTION. [CH. V.
ordered this tributary monarch to accompany him to the
tournaments which were about to be celebrated at Constan-
tinople. After his departure, Partenopex having contrived
to interest the queen in his behalf, was allowed to escape,
and arrived in the capital of the eastern empire just as the
tournaments commenced. His most formidable antagonist
was the sultan of Persia, but Partenopex is at length, by
his strength and courage, permitted to lay claim to the
hand of the rejoiced and forgiving empress.
The romance of Partenopex is obviously derived from
the fable of Cupid and Psyche, so beautifully told by
Apuleius. 1 Psyche is borne on the wings of Zephyr to the
palace of her divine admirer. Partenopex is transported in
a self -navigated bark, before a favourable breeze, to the
mansion of Melior. Both are entertained at a banquet
produced by invisible agency, and similar restrictions on
curiosity are imposed : both are seduced into disobedience
by the false insinuations of friends, and adopt the same
method of clearing up their suspicions. Banishment, and
a forfeiture of favour, are the punishments inflicted on both ;
and, after a long course of penance, both are restored to
the affections of their supernatural admirers. These re-
semblances are too close to permit us to doubt, that the
story of Psyche has, directly or indirectly, furnished niate-
t a As to this, " there are not many points of criticism on which there
has been a more general consent, among those who have paid attention
to the subject." So writes the Rev. W. E. Buckley, in his introduction
to his edition of " the English version of Partonope of Blois," printed
for the Roxburghe Club, in 1862, to which we refer the reader for a
careful account of this romance. From Mr. Buckley's remarks it will
be seen that M. Francisque Michel has found Denis Pyramus to be the
author of the romance, or at least to claim the invention and versi-
fication of the poem, which M. Amainy Duval would include among
the Romances of the Round Table, and M. Robert, on the other hand,
would attach to the Carlovingian cycle. The name Partonope, or Par-
thenopex. or Partonopeus, has been derived by Mone and Graesse from
Parthenay, in Poitou, and not from Parthenopseus, one of the Seven
against Thebes, to which derivation Mr. Ward leans in his Catalogue,
i. p. 700. A. Mussafia, in his Ueber die Spanischen Versionen der
Historia Trojana, shows part of the Spanish versions to have been made
directly from the French of Benoit de St. More, while others, including
a Catalonian translation made in 1367 by J. Conaesa, is directly from
Colonna's text. The Italian Binduccio vvorked on the French version.
See Ward, Catalogue of Romances, etc.
CH. V.] PABTENOPEX DE BLOIS. 413
rials for the fiction with which we have been engaged.
Some of the incidents in Partenopex have also a close re-
semblance to the story of the Prince of Futtun and Mher-
banou, in the Bahar-Danush, or Garden of Knowledge.
That work was indeed posterior to the composition of Par-
tenopex ; but the author Inatulla acknowledges that it was
compiled from Brahmin traditions. The Peri, who is the
heroine of that tale, is possessed of a barge covered with
jewels, which steered without sails or oars ; and the prince,
while in search of its incomparable mistress, arrives at a
palace, in which he finds the richest effects and prepara-
tions for festivity, but no person appears.
Partenopex de Blois was translated into German, pro-
bably from the French romans, as early as the thirteenth
century, the hero and his mistress being denominated
Partenopier and Meliure. It has also been recently versi-
fied by Mr. Rose. The subject is happily chosen, as the
romantic nature of the incidents, and tenderness of the
amatory descriptions, are highly susceptible of poetical
embellishment. Melior's enchanted palace is thus de-
scribed :
Fast by the margin of the tumbling flood,
Crown'd with embattled towers, a castle stood.
The marble walls a chequer'd field display 'd,
With stones of many-coloured hues inlaid ;
Tall mills, with crystal streams encircled round,
And villages, with rustic plenty crown'd
There, fading in the distance, woods were seen
With gaily glittering spires, and battlements between.
Beneath the porch, in rich mosaic, blaze
The sun, and silver lamp that drinks his rays.
Here stood the symbol'd elements pourtray'd,
And nature all her secret springs display'd :
Here too was seen whate'er of earlier age,
Or later time, had graced the historic page ;
And storied loves of knights and courtly dames,
Pageants and triumphs, tournaments and games.
CHAPTER VI.
EOMANCES OF CHIVALRY RELATING TO CLASSICAL AND
MYTHOLOGICAL HEROES. LIVRE DE JASON. LA VIE DE
HERCTJLE. ALEXANDRE, ETC.
IT has been suggested in a former part of this work, that
many arbitrary fictions of romance are drawn from the
classical and mythological authors ; and in the summary
given of the tales of chivalry, a few instances have been
pointed out, in which the ancient stories of Greece have
been introduced, modified merely by the manners of the
age.
Since so much of the machinery of romance has been
derived from classical fiction, it would have been strange
had not the heroes of antiquity been also enlisted under
the banners of chivalry. Accordingly we find that Achilles,
Jason, and Hercules, were early adopted into romance, and
celebrated in common with the knights of the Round Table,
the paladins of Charlemagne, and the imaginary lineage of
Amadis and Palmerin.
And though the purer streams of classical learning were
probably withheld from the romancers of the middle ages,
spurious materials were not wanting to make them in some
degree " conscious of a former time."
The " Tale of Troy Divine " had been kept alive in two
Latin works, which passed under the names of Dares
Phrygius and Dictys Crete 
