104 LITERARY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. astronomer to an eastern king. He lived 847 years after Noah, of whose book of astronomy he was possessed. He converts Bocchus, an idolatrous king of India, to the christian faith, by whom he is invited to build a mighty tower against the invasions of a rival king of India. But the history, no less than the subject of this piece, displays the state, nature, and migrations of literature in the dark ages. After the death of Bocchus, Sidrac's book fell into the hands of a Chaldean renowned for piety. It then successively becomes the property of king Madian, Namaan the Asyrrian, and Grypho archbishop of Samaria. The latter had a priest named Demetrius, who brought it into Spain, and here it was translated from Greek into Latin. This translation is said to be made at Toledo, by Roger de Palermo, a minorite friar, in the thirteenth century. A king of Spain then commanded it to be translated from Latin into Arabic, and sent it as a most valuable present to Emir Elmomenim, lord of Tunis. It was next given to Frederick II, emperor of Germany, famous in the crusades. This work, which is of considerable length, was translated into English verse, and will be mentioned on that account again. Sidrac is recited as an eminent philosopher, with Seneca and king Solomon, in the Marchaunt's Second tale, ascribed to Chaucer1. It is natural to conclude, that most of these French romances were current in England, either in the French originals, which were well understood at least by the more polite readers, or else by translation or imitation, as I have before hinted, when the romance of Richard Cueur de Lyon, in whose prologue they are recited, was translated into English. That the latter was the case as to some of them, at least, we shall soon produce actual proofs. A writer, who has considered these matters with much penetration and judgment, observes, that probably from the reign of our Richard I., we are to date that remarkable intercommunication and mutual exchange of compositions which we discover to have taken place at some early period between the French and English minstrels. The same set of phrases, the same species of characters, incidents, and adventures, and often the identical stories, being found in the metrical romances of both nations. From close connection and constant intercourse, the traditions and the champions of one kingdom were equally known in the other: and although Bevis and Guy were English heroes, yet on these principles this circumstance by no means destroys the supposition, that their achievements, although perhaps already celebrated in rude English songs, might be first wrought into romance by the French3. And it seems probable, i 1 Urr. p. 616. v. 1932. There is an old translation of SIDRAC into Dutch. MSS. Marshall, Bibl. Bodl. 31. fol. 2 Percy's Ess. on Anc. Engl. Minstr. p. 12. 2 Dugdale relates, that in the reign of Henry IV. about the year 1410, a lord Beauchamp travelling into 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 language, invited him to his palace, and royally feasting him, presented 'him with three precious stones of great value, besides divers cloaths of silk and gold given to that we continued for some time this practice of borrowing from our neighbours. Even the titles of our oldest romances, such as Sir Blandamore, Sir Triamore, Sir Eglamoure of Artoys1, La Mort d'Arthur, with many more, betray their French extraction. It is likewise a presumptive argument in favour of this assertion, that we find no prose romances in our language, before Caxton translated from the French the History of Troy, the Life of Charlemagne, the Histories of Jason, Paris, and Vyenne2, the Death of King Arthur, and other prose pieces of chivalry: by which, as the profession of minstrelsy decayed and gradually gave way to a change of manners and customs, romances in metre were at length imperceptibly superseded, or at least grew less in use as a mode of entertainment at public festivities. Various causes concurred, in the mean time, to multiply books of chivalry among the French, and to give them a superiority over the English, not only in the number but in the excellence of those compositions. Their barons lived in greater magnificence. Their feudal system flourished on a more sumptuous, extensive, and lasting establishment. Schools were instituted in their castles for initiating the young nobility in the rules and practice of chivalry. Their tilts and tournaments were celebrated with a higher degree of pomp; and their ideas of honour and gallantry were more exaggerated and more refined. We may add, what indeed has been before incidentally remarked, that their troubadours were the first writers of metrical romances. But by what has been here advanced, I do not mean to insinuate without any restrictions, that the French entirely led the way in these composi 'his servants.' Baron. i. p. 243. col. 1. This story is delivered on the credit of John Rouse, the traveller's contemporary. Yet it is not so very improbable that Guy's history should be a book among the Saracens, if we consider, that Constantinople (was not only a central and connecting point between the eastern and western world, but that the French in the thirteenth century had acquired an establishment there under Baldwin earl of Flanders: that the French language must have been known in Sicily, Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Antioch, in consequence of the conquests of Robert Guiscard, Hugo le Grand, and Godfrey of Bulloigne : and that pilgrimages into the holy land were excessively frequent. It is hence easy to suppose, that the Freach imported many of their stories or books of this sort into the east; which being thus understood there, and suiting the genius of the orientals, were at length translated into their language. It is remarkable, that the Greeks at Constantinople, in the twelfth century, and since, called all the Europeans by the name of Franks; as the Turks do to this day. See Selden Polyolb. § viii. p. 130. 1 In our English SYR EGLAMOUR OF ARTOYS, there is this reference to the French from which it was translated. Sign. E. i. His own mother there he wedde. In ROMAUNCE as we rede In ROMAUNCE this cronycle ys. Again, fol. ult. The authors of these pieces often refer to their original, just as Ariosto mentions Turpin for his voucher. But I must not omit here that Du Cange recites a metrical French romance in MSS. Le Roman de Girard de Vienne, written by Bertrand le Clerc. Gloss. Lat. i. IND. AUCT. p. arci. Madox has printed the names of several French romances found in the reign of Edward III. among which one on this subject occurs. Formul. Anglic. p. 12. Compare Observations on Spenser's Fairy Queen, vol. ii. § viii. p. 43. Among the royal MSS. in the British Museum, there is in verse Histoire de Gyrart de Vianne et de sus freres,, 20 D. xi a This MS. was perhaps written before the year 1300. 106 INSTITUTION IN PROVENCE OF THE COURT OF LOVE. tions. Undoubtedly the Provencial bards contributed much to the progress of Italian literature. Raimond IV. of Aragon, count of Provence, about the year 1220, a lover and a judge of letters, invited to his court the most celebrated of the songsters who professed to polish and adorn the Provencal language by various sorts of poetry. [Giovan. Villani, Istor. 1. vi. c. 92.] Charles I., his son-in-law, and the inheritor of his virtues and dignities, conquered Naples, and carried into Italy a taste for the Provencal literature. At Florence especially this taste prevailed, where he reigned many years with great splendour, and where his successors resided. Soon afterwards the Roman court was removed to Provence1. Hitherto the Latin language had only been in use. The Provencal writers established a common dialect: and their examples convinced other nations, that the modern languages were no less adapted to composition than those of antiquity2. They introduced a love of reading, and diffused a general and popular taste for poetry, by writing in a language intelligible to the ladies and the people. Their verses being conveyed in a familiar tongue, became the chief amusement of princes and feudal lords, whose courts had now begun to assume an air of greater brilliancy: a circumstance which necessarily gave great encouragement to their profession, and by rendering these arts of ingenious entertainment universally fashionable, imperceptibly laid the foundation of polite literature. From these beginnings it were easy to trace the progress of poetry to its perfection, through John de Meun in France, Dante in Italy, and Chaucer in England. This praise must undoubtedly be granted to the Provencal poets. But in the mean time, to recur to our original argument, we should be cautious of asserting in general and indiscriminating terms, that the Provencal poets were the first writers of metrical romance: at least we should ascertain with rather more precision than has been commonly used on this subject, how far they may claim this merit. I am of opinion that there were two sorts of French troubadours, who have not hitherto been sufficiently distinguished. If we diligently examine their history, we shall find that the poetry of the first troubadours consisted in satires, moral fables, allegories, and sentimental sonnets. So early as the year 1180, a tribunal called the Court of Love, was instited both in Provence and Picardy, at which questions in gallantry were decided. This institution furnished eternal matter for the poets, who threw the claims and arguments of the different parties into verse, 1 Villani acquaints us, that Prunetto Latini, Dante's master, was the first who attempted to polish the Floretnines by improving their taste and style; which he did by writing his grand work the TESORO in Provencal. He died in 1294. Villan. ibid. 1. ix. c. 135.. 2 Dante designed at first that his Inferno, and that piece should appear in Latin. But finding that he could not so effectually in that language impress his satirical strokes and political maxims on the laity, or illiterate, he altered his mind, and published those pieces in Italian. Had Petrarch written his Africa, his Eclogues, and his prose compositions in Italian, the literature of his country would much sooner have arrived at perfection. in a style that afterwards led the way to the spiritual conversations of Cyrus and Clelia1. Fontenelle does not scruple to acknowledge, that gallantry was the parent of French poetry2. [Theatr Fr. p. 13.] But to sing romantic and chivalrous adventures was a very different task, and required very different talents. The troubadours therefore who composed metrical romances form a different species, and ought always to be considered separately. And this latter class seems to have commenced at a later period, not till after the crusades had effected a great change in the manners and ideas of the western world. In the mean time, I hazard a conjecture. Cinthio Giraldi supposes, that the art of the troubadours, commonly called the Gay Science, was first communicated from France to the Italians, and afterwards to the Spaniards. [Huet, Orig. Rom. p. 108.] This perhaps may be true: but at the same time it is highly probable, as the Spaniards had their JUGLARES or convivial bards very early, as from long connection they were immediately and intimately acquainted with the fictions of the Arabians, and as they were naturally fond of chivalry, that the troubadours of Provence in great measure caught this turn of fabling from Spain. The communication, to mention no other obvious means of intercourse in an affair of this nature, was easy through the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, by which the two nations carried on from early times a constant commerce. Even the French critics themselves universally allow, that the Spaniards, having learned rhyme from the Arabians, through this very channel conveyed it to Provence. Tasso preferred Amadis de Gaul, a romance originally written in Spain, by Vasco Lobeyra, before the year 13002, to the most celebrated pieces of the Provencal poets. [Disc. del Poem Eroic. 1. ii. p. 45. 46.] But this is a subject which will perhaps receive illustration from a writer of great taste, talents, and industry, Monsieur de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, who will soon oblige the world with an ample history of Provencal poetry; and whose researches into a kindred subject, already published, have opened a new and extensive field of information concerning the manners, institutions, and literature of the feudal ages3. VARIOUS matters suggested by the Prologue of RICHARD CUEUR DE LYON, cited in the last section, have betrayed us into a long digression, and interrupted the regularity of our annals. But I could not neglect 1 This part of their character will be insisted upon more at large when we come to speak of 1.e works of Chaucer. Nic. Antonius, Bibl. Hispan. Vet. tom. ii. I. viii. c. 7. num. 291. 3 See Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie, &c. Paris, 1759. ii. tom. 12mo. 108 THE ROMANCE OF RICHARD CUEUR DE LYON. so fair an opportunity of preparing the reader for those metrical tales, which having acquired a new cast of fiction from the crusades, and a magnificence of manners from the increase of chivalry, now began to be greatly multiplied, and as it were professedly to form a separate species of poetry. I now therefore resume the series, and proceed to give some specimens of the English metrical romances which appeared before or about the reign of Edward II., and although most of these pieces continued to be sung by the minstrels in the halls of our magnificent ancestors for some centuries afterwards, yet as their first appearance may most probably be dated at this period, they properly coincide in this place with the tenour of our history. In the mean time, it is natural to suppose, that by frequent repetition and successive changes of language during many generations, their original simplicity must have been in some degree corrupted. Yet some of the specimens are extracted from manuscripts written in the reign of Edward III. Others indeed from printed copies, where the editors took great liberties in accommodating the language to the times. However in such as may be supposed to have suffered most from depravations of this sort, the substance of the ancient style still remains, and at least the structure of the story. On the whole, we mean to give the reader an idea of those popular heroic tales in verse, professedly written for the harp, which began to be multiplied among us about the beginning of the fourteenth century. We will begin with the romance of RICHARD CUEUR DE LYON, already mentioned. The poem opens with the marriage of Richard's father, Henry II., with the daughter of Carbarryne, a king of Antioch. But this is only a lady of romance. Henry married Eleanor the divorced queen of Louis of France. The minstrels could not conceive any thing less than an eastern princess to be the mother of this magnanimous hero. His barons him redde1 That they graunted hem a wyfe to wedde, Hastily he sent his sonde Into many a divers londe, They sholde bringe him to wyve. The messengers or embassadors, in their voyage, meet a ship adorned like Cleopatra's galley. |