Bravery. A bravery our Shakespear makes their cha- In high-born words, the worth of many a Knight, The fenfe of which is to this effect: This Gentleman, fays the fpeaker, fhall relate to us the celebrated Stories recorded in the old Romances, and in their very ftile. Why he fays, from tawny Spain, is because, these Romances being of Spanish Original, the Heroes and the Scene were generally of that country. He fays, loft in the world's debate, because the fubject of thofe Romances were the Crufades of the European Chriftians against the Saracens of Afia and Africa. Indeed, the wars of the Chriftians against the Pagans were the general fubject of the Romances of Chivalry. They all feem to have had their groundwork in two fabulous monkish Hiftorians: The one, who, under the name of Turpin Archbishop of Rheims, wrote the Hiftory and Atchievements of Charlemagne and his twelve Peers; to whom, instead of his father, they affigned the task of driving the Saracens out of France and the South parts of Spain: the other, our Geoffry of Monmouth. 66 Two of thofe Peers, whom the old Romances have rendered most famous, were Oliver and Rowland. Hence Shakespear makes Alanfon, in the firft part of Henry VI. fay, Froyfard, a countryman of ours, records, England "all Olives and Rowlands bred, during the timeEdward "the Third did reign." In the Spanish Romance of Bernardo del Carpio, and in that of Roncefvalles, the feats of Roland are recorded under the name of Roldan 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 judgment paffed upon them by the Prieft in Don Quixote, when he delivers the Knight's library to the fecular-arm of the houfe-keeper," Exceptando à un Bernardo del Carpio "que anda por ay, y à otro llamado Roncesvalles; "que eftos en llegando a mis manos, an de eftar en las de la ama, y dellas en las del fuego fin remiffion "alguna"." And of Oliver he fays; "effa Oliva "fe haga luego raxas, y fe queme, que aun no queden "della las cenizas."" The reasonablenefs of this fentence may be partly feen from one story in the Bernardo del Carpio, which tells us, that the cleft called Roldan, to be feen on the fummit of an high moun-` tain 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 Ancestors, who were much cooler readers of thefe extravagances than the Spaniards, of giving one a Rowland for his Oliver, that is, of matching one impoffible lye with another: as, in French, faire le Roland means, to fwagger. This driving the Saracens out of France and Spain, was, as we fay, the fubject of the elder Romances. And the firft that was printed in Spain was the famous Amadis de Gaula, of which the Inquifitor Prieft fays; " fegun ❝he oydo dezir, efte libro fuè el primero de Caval"lerias que fe imprimiò en Efpaña, y todos los demás an tomado principio y origen defte;" and for which he humouroufly condemns it to the fire, como à Dogmatizador de una feta tan 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 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 1 B. 1. c. 6. these . thefe inhofpitable Guests; 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 Sepulchre. This gave birth to a new tribe of Romances, which we may call of the fecond race or class. And as Amadis de Gaula was at the head of the first, fo, correfpondently to the fubject, Amadis de Grecia was at the head 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, Arifto and Taffo, have borrowed, from each of these claffes of old Romances, the fcenes and fubjects of their feveral stories: Ariofto choofing the firft, the Saracens in France and Spain; and Talo, the latter, the Crusade against them in Afia: Ariofto's hero being Orlando or the French Roland: for as the Spaniards, by one way of tranfpofing the letters, had made it Roldan, fo the Italians, by another, made it Orland. The main fubject of thefe fooleries, as we have faid, had its original in Turpin's famous hiftory of Charlemagne and his twelve peers. Nor were the monftrous 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 J. Maundevile, whofe exceffive fuperftition and credulity, together with an impudent monkish addition to his genuine work, have made his veracity thought much worse of than it deferved. This voyager, fpeaking of the isle of Cos, in the Archipelago, tells the following ftory of an enchanted dragon. And alfo a zonge Man, that "wifte not of the Dragoun, went out of a Schipp, and went thorghe the Ifle, till that he came to the "Caftelle, and cam into the Cave; and went fo longe • till till that he fond a Chambre, and there he faughe "a Damyfelle, that kembed hire Hede, and lokede in a Myrour: and fche hadde meche Trefoure "abouten hire: and he trowed that sche hadde ben a "comoun Woman, that dwelled there to refceyve "Men to Folye. And he abode, till the Damyfelle, "faughe the schadewe of him in the Myrour. And "fche turned hire toward him, and asked him what "he wolde. And he feyde, he wolde ben hire Lim"man or Paramour. And fche asked him, if that "he were a Knyghte. And he fayde, nay. And "then fche feyde, that he myghte not ben hire "Limman. But fche bad him gon azen unto his "Felowes, and make him Knighte, and come azen "upon the Morwe, and fche fcholde come out of her "Cave before him; and thanne come and kyffe hire "on the Mow the and have no drede. For I fchalle "do the no maner harm, alle be it that thou see me "in lykeness of a Dragoun. For thoughe thou fee "me hideouse and horrible to loken onne, I do the "to wytene that it is made be Enchauntement. For "withouten doute, I am none other than thou feest "now, a Woman; and therefore drede the noughte. "And zif thou kyffe me, thou fchalt have alle this "Trefoure, and be my Lord, and Lord also of all that Ifle. And he departed, &c." p. 29, 30. Ed. 1725. Here we fee the very fpirit of a Romanceadventure. This honeft traveller believed it all, and fo, it feems, did the people of the ifle. And fome Men feyn (fays he) that in the Ifle of Lango is zit the Doughtre of Ypocras in forme and lykenese of a gret Dragoun, that is an hundred Fadme in lengthe, as Men feyn: For I have not feen hire. And thei of the Ifles callen bire, Lady of the Land. We are not to think then, these kind of ftories, believed by pilgrims and travellers, would have lefs credit either with the writers or readers of Romances: which humour of the times therefore therefore may well account for their birth and favourable reception in the world. The other monkish hiftorian, who fupplied the Romancers with materials, was our Geoffry of Monmouth. For it is not to be fuppofed, that thefe Children of Fancy (as Shakespear in the place quoted above finely calls them, infinuating that Fancy hath its infancy as well as manhood) fhould ftop in the midft of fo extraordinary a carrier, or confine themfelves within the lifts of the terra firma. From Him therefore the Spanish Romancers 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 that wooden Image, which turned round on an axis, and served the Knights to try their swords, and break their lances upon, was called, by the Italians and Spaniards, Saracino and Sarazino; fo clofely were these two ideas connected. In thefe old Romances there was much religious fuperftition mixed with their other extravagancies; as appears even from their very names and titles. The firft Romance of Lancelot of the Lake and King Arthur and his Knights, is called the Hiftory of Saint Greaal. This St. 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 Eleison of Montauban. For in thofe days Deuteronomy and Paralipomenon were fuppofed to be the names of holy men. And as they made Saints of their Knights-errant, fo they made Knights-errant of their tutelary Saints; and each nation advanced its own into the order of Chivalry. Thus every thing in those times being either a Saint or |