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mance of Bernardo del Carpio, and in that of Roncesvalles, the feats of Roland are recorded under the name of Roidan el encantador; and in that of Palmerin de Oliva, or fimply Oliva, thofe of Oliver: for Oliva is the fame in Spanish as Olivier is in French. The account of their exploits is in the highest degree monftrous and extravagant, as appears from the judgement palled upon them by the prieft in Don Quixote, when he delivers the knight's library to the fecular arm of the house-keeper, "Exceptuando á un Bernardo del Carpio que anda por ay, y á otro llamado Roncefvalles; que eftos en llegando á mis manos, han de eftar en las del ama, y dellas en las del fuego in remifion alguna. "† And of Oliver he fays, effa Oliva fe haga luego raxas, y fe queme, que aun no queden della las cenizas.it. The re fouablenefs of this fentence may be partly feen from one story in the Bernardo del Carpio, which tells us, that the clett called Roldan, to be feen in the fummit of an high mountain in the kingdom of Valencia, near the town of Alicant, was made with a fingle back-ftroke of that hero's broad-fword. Hence came the proverbial expreffion of our plain and fenfible anceflois, who were much cooler readers of thefe extravagancies than the Spaniards, of giving one a Rowland for his Oliver, that is of matching one impoffible lye with another; as, in Freuch, faire le Roland means, to fwagger. This driving the Saracens out of France and Spain, was, as we say, the fubject of the elder romances. And the first that was printed in Spain was the famous Amadis de Gaula, of which the inquifitor priest says: fegun he oydo dezir, efte libro fue el primero de Cavallerias que fe imprimió en Elpana, y todos los demas han tomado principio y origen defte;" and for which he humouroufly condemns it to the fire, como á Dogmatazador de una feta lan mala. When this fubject was well exhaufted, the affairs of Europe afforded them another of the fame nature. For after that the western parts had pretty well cleared themfelves of these inhofpitable guefts, by the excitements of the popes, they carried their arms against them into Greece and Afia, to fupport the Byzantine empire, and recover the holy fepulchre. This gave birth to a new tribe of romauces, which we may call of the fecond race or clafs. And as Amadis de Gaula was at the head of the first, fo, correfpondently to the fubje&t, Amadis de Græcia was at the head * Dr. Warburton is quite mistaken in deriving Oliver from (Palmerin de) Oliva, which is utterly incompatible with the genius of the Spanish language. The old romance, of which Oliver was the hero, is entitled in Spanish, "Hiftorias de los nobles Cavalleros Oliveros de Caftilla, y Artus de Algarbe, in fol. en Valladolid, 1501, in fol. en Sevilla, 1507; and in French thus, "Hiftoire d'Olivier de Caftille, & Artus d'Algarbe fon loyal compagnon, & de Heleine, Fille au Roy d'Angleterre, &c. tranflatée du Latin par Phil. Kamus, in fol. Gothique." It has alfo appeared in English. See Ames's Typograph. p. 94, 47.

B. i. c. 6.

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of the latter. Hence it is, we find, that Trebizonde is as celebrated
in these romances as Roncesvalles is in the other. It may be worth
obferving, that the two famous Italian epic poets, Ariofto and
Taffo, have borrowed, from each of these claffes of old romances,
the fcenes and fubjects of their feveral ftories Ariosto choofing
the fift, the Saracens in France and Spain; and Taffo, the latter,
the Crufade again them in Afa: Ariofto's hero being Orlando
the French Roland: for as the Spaniards, by one way of tranfpofing
the letters, had made it Roldan, fo the Italians, by another, make
it Orland.

or

The main fubject of these fooleries, as we have faid, had its original in Turpin's famous Hiftory of Charlemagne and his Twelve Peers. Nor were the monstrous embellishments of enchantments, &c. the invention of the romancers, but formed upon eastern tales, brought thence by travellers from their crufades and pilgrimages; which indeed have a caft peculiar to the wild imaginations of the eaftern people. We have a proof of this in the travels of Sir John Maundeville, whofe exceffive fuperftition and credulity, together with an impudent monkith addition to his genuine work, have made his veracity thought much worfe of than it deserved. This voyager,

speaking of the ifle of Cos in the Archipelago, tells the following ftory of an enchanted dragon. "And also a zonge man, that wilt not of the dragoun, went out of the fchipp, and went through the ile, till that he cam to the caftelle, and cam into the cave; and went fo longe till that be fond a chambre, and there he faughe a damyfelle, that kembed hire hede, and lokede in a myrour: and fche hadde moche trefoure abouten hire: and he trowed that sche hadde ben a comoun woman, that dwelled there to receive men to folye. And he abode till the damyfelle faughe the schadowe of him in the myrour. And fche turned hire toward him, and afked him what he wolde.

And he feyde, he wolde ben hire limman or paramour. And fche afked him, if that he were a knyghte. And he fayde, nay. And then fche fayde, that he might not ben hire limman. But fche bad him gon azen unto his felowes, and make him knyghte, and come azen upon the morwe, and fche fcholde come out of her cave before him; and thanne come and kyffe hire on the mowth and have no drede. For I fchalle do the no maner harm, alle be it that thou fee me in lvkeness of a dragoun. For thoughe thou fee me hideoufe and horrible to loken onne, I do the to wytene that it is made be enchauntement. For withouten doubte, I am none other than thou feeft now, a woman; and herefore drede the noughte. And zyf thou kyffe me, thou schalt have all this trefoure, and by my lord, and lord alfo of all that ille. And he departed, &c. p. 29, 30, ed. 1725. Here we fee the very fpirit of a romance adventure. This honeft traveller believed it all, and fo, it seems did the people of the ifle. "And fome men feyne (fays he) that in the ifle of Lango is zit the doughtre of Ypocras in forme and

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lykeneffe of a gret dragoun, that is an hundred fadme in lengthe, as men feyn: for I have not feen hire. And they of the ifles calle hire, lady of the land. " We are not to think then, these kind of ftories, believed by pilgrims and travellers, would have less credit either with the writers or readers of romances: which humour of the times therefore may well account for their birth and favourable reception in the world.

The other moukish hiftorian, who fupplied the romancers with materials, was our Geoffry of Monmouth. For it is not to be fuppofed, that these children of fancy (as Shakspeare in the place quoted above, finely calls them, infinuating that fancy hath its infancy as well as manhood,) fhould ftop in the midst of so extraordinary a career, or confine themselves within the lifts of the terra firma. From him therefore the Spanish romances took the ftory of the British Arthur, and the knights of his round table, his wife Gueniver, and his conjurer Merlin. But ftill it was the fame fubject, (effential to books of chivalry,) the wars of Chriftians against Infidels. And, whether it was by blunder or defign, they changed the Saxons into Saracens, I fufpect by defign; for chivalry without a Saracen was fo very lame and imperfect a thing, that even the wooden image, which turned round on an axis, aud ferved the knights to try their fwords, and break their lances upon, was called by the Italians and Spaniards, Saricino and Sarazino; fo clofely were thefe two ideas connected.

In these old romances there was much religious fuperftition mixed with their other extravagancies; as appears even from their very names and titles. The firit romance of Launcelot of the Lake and King Arthur and his Knights, is called the Hillory of Saint Greaal. This faint Greaal was the famous relick of the holy blood pretended to be collected into a veffel by Jofeph of Arimathea. So another

is called Kyrie Eleifon of Montauban. For in thofe days Deuteronomy and Paralipomenon were supposed to be the names of holy men. And as they made faints of the knights-errant, fo they made knights-errant of their tutelary faints; and each nation advanced its own into the order of chivalry. Thus every thing in those times being either a faint or a devil, they never wanted for the marvellous. In the old romance of Launcelot of the Lake, we have the doctrine and difcipline of the church as formally delivered as in Bellarmine himself. "La confeflion (fays the preacher) ne vaut rien fi le cœur

For it is not to be fuppofed, that these Children of Fancy, as Shakspeare calls them, infinuating thereby that fancy hath its infancy as well as manhood, should ftop. &c.]

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I cannot conceive how Shakipeare, by calling Armado the Child of Fancy, infinuates that fancy hath its infancy as well as manhood. The showing that a woman had a child, would be a strange way of proving her in her infancy.-By calling Armado the Child of Fancy, Shakipears means only to defcribe him as fantaftical. M. MASON.

n'eft repentant; & fi tu es moult & eloigné de l'amour de noftre Seigneur, tu ne peus eftre recordé fi non par trois chofes: premierement par la confeffion de bouche; fecondement par une contrition de cœur; tiercement par peine de cœur, & par oeuvre d'aumône & charité. Telle eft la droite voye d'aimer Dieu. Or va & fi te confeffe en cette manière & reçois la difcipline des mains de tes confeffeurs, car c'est le figne de merite. Or mande le roy fes evefques, dont grande partie avoit en l'oft, & vinrent tous en fa chapelle. Le roy vint devant eux tout nud en pleurant, & tenant fon plein point de vint menuës verges, fi les jetta devant eux, & leur dit en foupirant, qu'ils priffent de luy vengeance, car je fuis le plus vil pecheur, &c. Après prinft difcipline & d'eux & moult doucement la receut. Hence we find the divinity ledures of Don Quixote and the penance of his 'fquire, are both of them in the ritual of chivalry. Laftly, we find the knight-erraut, after much turmoil to himself, and difturbauce to the world, frequently ended his courfe, like Charles V. of Spain, in a monaftery; or turned hermit, and became a faint in good earnest. And this again will let us into the spirit of those dialogues between Sancho and his mafter, where it is gravely debated whether he fhould not turn faint or archbishop.

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There were feveral causes of this ftrange jumble of nonsense and religion. As firft, the nature of the subje&, which was a religious war or crufade: fecondly, the quality of the first writers, who were religious men; and thirdly, the end of writing many of them, which was to carry on a religious purpose. We learn, that Clement V. interdi&ed jufts and tournaments, because he understood they had much hindered the crufade decreed in the council of Vienna. “Torneamenta ipsa & hastiludia five juxtas in regnis Franciæ, Angliæ, & Almanniæ, & aliis nonnullis provinciis, in quibus ea confuevere frequentiús exerceri, fpecialiter interdixit. Extrav.

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de Torneamentis C. unic. temp. Ed. I. Religious men, I conceive, therefore, might think to forward the defign of the crufades by turning the fondnefs for tilts and tournaments into that channel. Hence we fee the books of knight-errantry fo full of folemn jufts and torneaments held at Trebizonde, Bizance, Tripoly, &c. Which wife project, I apprehend, it was Cervantes's intention to ridicule, where he makes his knight propose it as the best means of fubduing the Turk, to assemble all the knights-errant together by proclamation. * WARBURTON.

It is generally agreed, I believe, that this long note of Dr. Warburton's is, at least, very much misplaced. There is not a fingle paffage in the character of Armado, that has the leaft relation to any Atory in any romance of chivalry. With what propriety therefore a

See Part II. 1. 5. c. 1.

differtation on the origin and nature of those romances is here intro. duced, I cannot fee; and I fhould humbly advise the next editor of Shakspeare to omit it. That he may have the lefs fcruple upon that head, I fhall take this opportunity of throwing out a few remarks, which, I think, will be fufficient to fhow, that the learned writer's bypothefis was formed upon a very hafty and imperfect View of the fubject.

At fetting out, in order to give a greater value to the information which is to follow, he tells us, that no other writer has given any tolerable account of this matter; and particularly, -` that

Monfieur Huet, the bijhop of Avranches, who wrote a formal treatife of the Origin of Romances, has faid little or nothing of these books of chivalry in that fuperficial work. -The fact is true, that Monfieur Huet has faid very little of Romances of chivalry; but the imputation, with which Dr. W. proceeds to load him, of the change upon his reader,' dropping his proper fubject” for another, "that had no relation to it more than in the name," is unfounded.

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It appears plainly from Huet's introductory addrefs to De Segrais, that his object was to give some account of thofe romances which were then popular in France, fuch as the Aftrée of D'Urfé, the Grand Cyrus of De Scuderi, &c. He defines the Romances of which he means to treat, to be. “fictions des avantures amoureuses ;” and he excludes epic poems from the number, because Enfin les poëmes ont pour sujet une action militaire ou politique, & ne traitent d'amour que par occafion; les Romans au contraire ont l'amour pour sujet principal, & ne traitent la politique & la guerre que par incident. Je parle des Romans réguliers; car la plupart des vieux Romans François, Italiens, & Efpagnols font bien moins amoureux que militaires." this declaration, furely no one has a right to complain of the author for not treating more at large of the old romances of chivalry, or to ftigmatife his work as fuperficial, upon account of that omission. I fhall have occafion to remark below, that Dr. W who, in turning over this fuperficial work, (as he is pleafed to call it,) feems to have hut his eyes against every ray of good sense and juft obfervation, has condefcended to borrow from it a very grofs miftake.

After

Dr. W's own pofitions, to the fupport of which his fubfequent facts and arguments might be expected to apply, are two; 1. That Romances of chivalry being of Spanish original, the heroes and the Scene were generally of that country; 2. That the subject of these romances were the crufades of the European Chriflians against the Saracens of Afa and Africa. The firft pofition, being complicated, should be divided into the two following; 1. That romances of chivalry were of Spanish original; 2. That the heroes and the Scene of them were generally of that country.

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