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COLLECTIONS FOR HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

AND POETRY.

Astrea,1

IR Philip Sidney tacked together the pastoral and the epic romance. D'Urfé has united them. He has done this with

great skill, and involved the fates of his shepherds and his heroes, so as to form a well-constructed whole.

This romance has one wearying and insupportable fault. Love questions after the Provençal fashion are continually arising; and set speeches are made pro and con, like the Plaidoyen Historiques of Tristan. It has also too much dialogue, which was thought very spiritual in its day, but which is very dull and very worthless.

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"Mandragne the witch, finding them both dead, cursed her art, hated all her demons, death of these two faithful lovers, and her tore her hair, and extremely grieved at the own contentment," &c.

A lover has resolved upon suicide: “and but for Olimborn, perhaps I had served my own turn; for he was so careful of me, that I could not do any thing to myself, but gave me so many diverting reasons to the conPart i. trary, that he kept me alive," &c. p. 417.

An instance of extraordinary ignorance seems to mark this "person of quality" for throughout which he is spoken of in the fea woman. P. i. p. 12, is a picture of Saturn, minine gender, and called a hag. No man could be so uneducated as to have made these blunders. It appears too that she began to translate the book before she had read it, for p. 12, mention is made of the den of an old Mandrake. I marked this

place with a note of astonishment and a peared that Mandragne is the name of a Quid diabolus? but after a while it ap

sorceress.

This is probably the book in which Sterne found the tomb of the two lovers.

What magic there is, is good; it is the central point to which every thing tends. All the strangers come to the fountain, or are sent by the oracle, and the whole is well managed. I scarcely ever read a work of fiction in which the events could so little be foreseen.

La Fontaine valued this book above all others. except Marot and Rabelais; and

here it was that he studied his rural de- | Frenchifying the manners of all ages, espescriptions.

"This pastoral romance," says Gifford, "which once formed the delight of our grandmothers, is now never heard of, and would in fact exhaust the patience and weary the curiosity of the most modest and indefatigable devourer of morals at a watering place, or a boarding school."-B. J. vol. v. p. 394, &c.

"Astrea," Gifford says, "bears a remote or allegorical allusion to the gallantries of the court of Henry IV."-Ibid.

Pharamond.

WHOEVER was the inventor of the French heroic romance, Calprenade is the writer who carried it to its greatest perfection.

(Les Trois Siècles, tom. i. p. 230. Le seul nom,-le même genre.)1

It is the fault of the romances of chivalry that they contain so many adventures of the same character, one succeeding the other, which have no necessary connection with the main story, and which might be left out without affecting it; in fact they are in the main made up of these useless episodes. The fault of Calprenade is of an opposite character: he ran into the other extreme, and his three romances for variety of adventures and character, and for extent and intricacy of plot, are perhaps the most extraordinary works that have ever appeared. There is not one of them which would not furnish the plots for fifty tragedies, perhaps for twice the number, and yet all these are made into one whole. For this kind of invention, certainly he never has been equalled.

The old romances gave true manners, though they applied them to wrong times; but the anachronism was of little import. Every thing in them was fiction. A double sin was committed by the French romancers in chusing historical groundwork, and in

This evidently is the beginning and the end of an intended extract.-J. W. W.

cially in the abominable fashion of fine letter writing. Story is involved within story, like a nest of boxes; or they come one after another, so that you have always to go back to learn what has happened, and the main business seldom goes on; this was inevitable from the prodigious number of characters which were introduced.

Pharamond was the romance which he composed with most care; but he did not live to finish it. Seven parts of the twelve he printed; the remainder were added by M. de Vaumoriere. The story is by no means so ably conducted as in the former part. I perceived the great inferiority before I knew the cause of it.

Gyron le Courtoys.

THE utter want of method in this book makes it appear as if it consisted of several metrical romances transposed.

It begins with an adventure of Branor le Brun, an old knight above 120 years of age, who, though he had not borne arms for forty years, comes to Kamelot to try whether the knights of the present time were as good as those of his days. He stands quintain against Palamedes, Gavaine, and many others; but honours Tristan, Sir Lancelot, and King Arthur enough to take a spear against them, and overthrows them all like so many children.

Then follows an adventure of Tristan and Palamedes, which is in Mort Arthur.

Gyron now appears. He goes (wherefrom does not appear) to Maloane, the castle of his friend Danayn le Roux. The lady of Maloane twice tempts him, but in vain. They go to a tournament. Sir Lac, the friend of K. Meliadus, falls in love with the lady, and waylays her after the tournament, and wins her from her guard of twenty-five knights. Gyron (who is all this while unknown, and indeed supposed to be dead,) wins her then from him; but Sir Lac's love for her has now inflamed him, his heart gives way to

the temptation, and he leads her to a fountain in the forest. As he is disarming himself to commit the sin, his sword drops into the water, and in taking it out he is struck by the motto, "Loyaulte passe tout y faulsete si honnit tout et decoit tous hommes dedans quels elle se herberge.” Upon this, his remorse for having sinned even in thought is such, that he stabs himself; the lady prevents him from repeating the blow. After sundry adventures, Danayn finds them in this situation, learns the whole truth, and loving Gyron better than ever for this his courtesy, as it is termed, takes him home to Maloane, where he is soon healed. A great deal by way of episode is related of Hector le Brun to K. Meliadus.

There are no other divisions than of chapters, but what may be called the second part is upon this story. Gyron sends Danayn to bring him his damsel; he carries her off for himself; is pursued; overtaken at last, and defeated after a desperate battle. Gyron, though he had resolved to kill him, spares him for courtesy, and then rescues him from a giant immediately after. The incidental parts are a story of Galahalt le Brun, with whom in his youth Gyron had been companion, and a curious adventure which befals Breus sans pitie, in which he finds the bodies of Febus and the damsel of Northumberland in a house cut in the rock, and learns their history from the son of Febus, a very old man, who dwells there, leading a life of penance with his son, the father of Gyron, but Gyron knows not his birth.

Then comes a good adventure of the knight sans paour, in the valley of Serfage, where Naban le Noir makes serfs of every body who enters. This is an excellent adventure. For the sequel we are referred to the romance of Meliadus.

Danayn delivers Gyron and his damsel, who had been betrayed, and was tied to a tree, to suffer from the severity of the weather in the cold country of Sorolois. They are reconciled, separate each on adventure, and are both made prisoners. Here too, we are referred to Meliadus for their release;

| the "Latin book from which this is translated saying no farther." And the romance ends with a chapter in which Galinans le Blanc, son of Gyron and the damsel, who is born the chapter before, defeats the best knights of the Round Table one after another; but he is a wicked knight, having been brought up by the false traitor who imprisoned his father.

Everywhere the knights are represented as children to those of Uterpendragon's days. The prowess of these worthies exceeds in hyperbole any thing in Esplandian. They make nothing of singly attacking large armies, and killing giants with a blow of the fist.

I think I can perceive that oftentimes he who began one of these adventures planned it as he went on; and often ended with a different feeling of character from that which he began with.

I never read a romance so completely free from all impurity of thought or word. Yet what morals does it indicate! Gyron acts from no other principle than that of courtesy; and his damsel, whom he married, Danayn carries off as his concubine.

Monnon de la Selve, or, Hennor de la Selve, as the name is sometimes printed, the son of a forester, seems to be the original of Braggadochio.

Meliadus de Leonnoys.

THIS book professed to have been written by the author of the Brut, at the request of King Henry of England, and recompiled from the Latin, in which it had been rudely and confusedly written by Maistre Rusticien de Pise, at the desire of King Edward of England. What is curious, is, that it was to have been about Palamedes, and in the name of Palamedes the author says he begins it. He brings Esclabor, the father of the knight, from Babylon to Rome, and from Rome to Northumberland; and having thus got to King Arthur, nothing more is said about him. A few desultory adventures of K. Pha

ramond by the Morhoult d'Irland, brings on the stage K. Meliadus, and the Bon Chevalier sans paour, the two heroes of the book. Many tales of their heroism and of their rivalry are related, just in the manner of the episodes in Gyron, so much so indeed, as to identify the author, and the business of the first half of the book ends in a tournament, where they take different sides, and in which, on the whole, the Chevalier is most fortunate. The manner in which each speaks of his rival is always very fine, in the noblest spirit of chivalry.

Meliadus falls in love with the Queen of Scotland, and forcibly carries her off, out of King Arthur's dominions; for which, he is attacked in his own kingdom, conquered by the prowess of the Bon Chevalier sans paour, and taken. Arthur imprisons him. His confinement is more rigorous than the king either intended or knew. Meantime Arthur falls sick his vassals go to war with each other, and Ariohan, a terrible Saxon, at the suggestion of some of them invades Logres. The king recovers, and sends to all his liege men. The Chevalier sans paour refuses to come, saying, Arthur has disgraced and injured all chivalry by his imprisonment of the best knight living. In consequence of this Meliadus is delivered. He accepts the defiance of Andhar, and concludes the war by defeating him. When the author had got thus far, he filled up the rest of his book with any stories which came into his head about the round table. Galchad le Brun, Segurades, Gyron, Tristan, &c. are introduced without the slightest connection of time, place, or any thing else, and the whole ends with the death of Meliadus, in the words wherein it is related in Tristan.

Tristan.

THIS Romance has disappointed me, it is very inferior to Meliadus. The characters are in many instances so discordant, and the leading circumstances of the story so little consonant not merely with our ordinary

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morals, but our ordinary feelings, that the general effect of the book is far from being pleasant. There is something vile in producing that love on which the whole history turns-by a philtre,-in making both the heroes live in adultery,—and in the unworthy usage of the second Yseult. That everlasting fault of the romancers in sacrificing the character of one hero to enhance the fame of another, is carried to a great degree here. With the creatures of his own creation an author may do what he will, but it is a literary crime to take up the hero whom others have represented as a knight of prowess and of worth, and to engraft vices upon him and stain him with dishonour. Palamedes is better conceived than any other personage in the book.

Sainct Greaal.1

JOSEPH of Arimathea ung gentilhomme chevalier. He was shut in prison and forgotten there for forty-two years without food. But Vespasian, the son of Titus, being cured of leprosy by the S. Veronice, went against Jerusalem to revenge the death of our Lord, and he opened the prison, which was a great pillar, and there found Joseph alive and well, for our Lord had visited him, and he thought he had slept from Good Friday till the Sunday following.

P. 14. Joseph prays "nudz coutes et nudz genoulx."

14. The prophet David taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar.

18. Christ consecrates Joseph the son a bishop, and the mystery of transubstantiation is shown in a miracle as hideous as the doctrine; for he is made, very much

"Yet true it is, that long before that day, Hither came Joseph of Arimathy, Who brought with him the Holy Grayle, (they say),

And preach't the truth; but since it greatly did decay."

SPENSER. Faerie Queene, II. x. 53.
J. W. W.

against his will, to, dismember a beautiful infant who appears in the Ciborium.' The body breaks like a cake, and it lies on the patine like a piece of bread, but becomes a child again when he puts it to his mouth. "Et quant il le vit si le cuyda traire hors de sa bouche, mais il ne peust. Et quant il eut use cel enfant si luy fut advis que toutes doulceurs que langue d'homme pourroit nommer, ne penser, estoyent en son corps."

22. "Et si nestoyt mye le chastel de hault fielle ne desclos (?) ains estoit tout environne de moult riches murs quarres de marbre vermeil et vert et bis et blanc."

56. "Car celluy seroit plain de trop folle hardiesse qui oseroit monstre mensonge en si haulte chose comme est ceste saincte hys

toire que le vray Crucifix fist et escripvit de sa propre main, et pour ce doit il estre tenu en plus grant honneur." He then says that our Saviour only wrote twice in his mortal life, according to the Scriptures, when he composed the Lord's prayer, and when the woman was taken in adultery. "Ja ne trouvons si hardy clerc qui dye que Dieu fist oncques escripture puis la resurrection, ne mais la saincte escripture du Sainct Greaal seullement, et qui vouldroit | dire que puis il eust fait autre escripture de auctorite il seroit tenu a menteur, et si dy bien quil seroit de trop folle hardyesse qui mensonge vouldroit mettre en si haulte chose comme est ceste hystoire que le filz de Dieu escripvit luy mesmes de sa propre main, puis que il eust mis la mortelle vie hors et revestu la mageste celestielle!"

Fictions of this kind have obtained authority in the Sanscrit, and things as impudent in the Romish Church.

59. The same story of the tree of life as in Lancelot du Lac.

Pierre Celicolen.

84. Sire Robert de Berron "qui ceste histoire translata de latin en françoys."

2 Ciborium, appellant Scriptores Ecclesiastici, quod Ordo Romanus tegimen et umbraculum Altaris."-Du CANGE, in v.-J. W. W.

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95. Joseph's wife, soon after her arrival in England, lay in in a richly built castle. He was called Galaad, and when he grew up, Galaad le fort, and therefore the castle in which he was born was called Galleford; which is probably the etymology of Guildford in this romance.

101. "Messire Robert de Bosrou que ceste histoire translata de latin en françoys par le commandement de Saincte Eglise."

This book makes no reference to the legend concerning Glastonbury, though it is in the days of King Luce.

Its dreams and types very much in the manner of the Gesta Romanorum.

145. In the apartment with the S. Greaal appears a chess board with pieces of ivory and gold. Gawain plays the ivory, and the gold play themselves and check mate him.

150. Perceval's uncle, the hermit, has a mule which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea when he was in Pilate's service!

169. Perceval. "En toute le monde neust len sceu trouves ung plus beau chevalier que luy, plus gros, ne mieulx quarre de bras corps et jambes."

Oh the

37. K. Euelach- Pygmalion! difference between a Grecian and a monkish imagination!

47-2. A wild phoenix.

89. Joseph, with 148 companions, sailed from Babylon to Great Britain upon Joseph's shirt, which he took off for that purpose and spread upon the water. The night was fair and serene, and the sea fair and peaceable and without tempest, and the moon shone bright, and it was in the month of April, on Easter eve, when they embarked, or emshirted, to speak more properly, and at break of day they arrived in England, this being in every respect the most remarkable passage that ever was made from the Persian gulf.

The conclusion of the first part refers to Merlin, Lancelot, Tristan, and other books of the Round Table, of which I take this to be one of the latest.

136. A guillotine invented for love of Gawain, Lancelot, and Perceval, by Lor

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