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A man of compliments, whom right and wrong
Have chofe as umpire of their mutiny:
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our fludies fhall relate,

In high-born words, the worth of many a knight,
From tawny Spain, loft in the world's debate.

The fenfe of which is to this effect: This gentleman, fays the fpeaker, ball relate to us the celebrated ftories recorded in the old romances, and in their very file. Why he fays, from tawny Spain, is because these romances, being of the Spanish original, the heroes and the scene were generally of that country. He fays, loft in the world's debate, because the fubject of those romances were the crufades of the European Chriftians against the Saratens 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 ground-work 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, inftead of his father, they affigned the task of driving the Saracens out of France and the fouth parts of Spain the other, our Geoffry of Monmouth.

Two of thofe peers, whom the old romances have rendered most famous, were Oliver and Rowland. Hence Shakespeare makes Alenfon, in the first part of Henry VI. fay; "Froyfard, a coun"tryman of ours, records, England all Olivers and Rowlands "bred, during the time Edward the third did reign." In the Spanish romance of Bernardo del Carpio, and in that of Roncef valles, the feats of Roland are recorded under the name of Roldan el encantador; and in that of Palmerin del 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 priest in Don Quixote, when he delivers the knight's library to the fecular arm of the house-keeper, "Eccetu"ando à un Bernardo del Carpio que anda por ay, y à otro Ilma"do Roncesvalles; que eftos en llegando a mis manos, an de "eftar en las de la ama, y dellas en las del fuego fin remiffion al

Dr. Warburton is quite miftaken 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 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. Camus, in fol. Gothique." It has also appeared in English. See Ames's Typograph. p. 94, 47. PERCY.

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"guna." And of Oliver he says, "effa Oliva fe haga luego ta jas, y fe queme, que aun no queden della las cenizas." The reasonableness of this fentence may be partly feen from one story in the Bernardo del Carpio, which telis us, that the cleft called Roldan, to be feen on 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 ancestors, who were much cooler readers of these extravagances than the Spaniards, of giving ene 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 fué el "primero de Cavallerias que fe imprimiò en Efpana, y todos los “demás an tomado principio y origen defte ;" and for which he humourously condemns it to the fire, coma à Dogmatazader de una fecta 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 themselves of thefe inhofpitable guests: by the excitements of the popes, they carried their arms against them into Greece and Afia, to support the Byzantine empire, and recover the holy fepulchre. This gave birth to a new tribe of romances, which we may call of the jecond race or class. And as Amadis de Gaula was at the head of the first, fo, correfpondently to the fubject, Amadis de Gracia was at the head of the latter. Hence it is, we find, that Trebizonde is as celebrated in thefe 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 scenes and fubjects of their feveral ftories: Ariofto choosing the firft, the Saracens in France and Spain; and Taffo, the latter, the Crufade 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, make it Orlando.

The main fubject of these foaleries, 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 eaftern tales, brought thence by travellers from their crufades and pilgrimages; which indeed have a cast peculiar to the wild imagina

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tions of the eastern people. We have a proof of this in the travels of fir J. Maundevile, whofe exceffive fuperftition and credulity, to gether with an impudent monkifh addition to his genuine work, have made his veracity thought much worse of than it deferved. This voyager, fpeaking of the ifle 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 cam to the caftelle, and "cam into the cave; and went fo longe 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 my"rour. And fche turned hire toward him, and asked him what he wolde. And he feyde, he wolde ben hire limman or paraAnd fche asked him, if that he were a knyghte. And "he fayde, nay. And then sche fayde, that he myghte 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 lykeness of "a dragoun. For thoughe thou fee me hideoufe and horrible to "loken onne, I do the to wytene that it is made by enchaunte*ment. For withouten doubte, I am none other than thou feest now, a woman; and herefore drede the noughte. And zyf "thou kyffe me, thou fchalt have all this trefoure, and be my lord, and lord alfo of all that ifle. And he departed, &c." p. 29, 30. ed. 1725. Here we fee the very fpirit of a romance adThis honeft traveller believed it all, and fo, it seems, did the people of the isle. "And fome men feyne (fays he) that "in the ifle of Lango is zit the doughtre of Ypocras in forme and lykeneffe of a great dragoun, that is an hundred fadme in lengthe, as men feyn: for I have not feen hire. And thei of the ifles callen hire, lady of the land." We are not to think then, these kind of stories, 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.

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The other monkifh 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 Shakespeare in the place quoted above finely calls them, infinuating that fancy hath its infoncy as well as manhood) fhould ftop in the midft of fo extraordinary a career or confine themselves within the lifts of the terra firma.

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From bim therefore the Spanish romancers took the story of the British Arthur, and the knights of his round table, his wife Gueniver, and his conjurer Merlin. But ftil it was the same subject, (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 fulpect by defiga; 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 ferved the knights to try their fwords, and break their lances upon, was called, by the Italians and Spaniards, Saracino and Sarazine; fo closely 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 first romance of Lancelot of the Lake and King Arthur and his Knights, is called the Hiftory 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 Elifon of Montauban. For in thofe days Deuteronomy and Paralipomenon were fuppofed to be the names of holy men. And as they made faints of their 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 thofe 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 con"feffion (fays the preacher) ne vaut rien fi le cœur n'eft repentant ; "et fi tu es moult & eloigné de l'amour de noftre Seigneur, tu ne "peus eftra reccordé fi non par trois chofes: premierement par la "confeffion de bouche; fecondement par une contrition de cœur, tiercement par peine de cœur, & par ouvre d aumône & charité. Telle ett la droite voye d'aimer Dieu. Or va & fi te confeffe en cette maniere & recois 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 "devant eux tout nud en pleurant & tenant fon plein point de vint menues verges, fi les jetta devant eux, & leur dit en foupirant, qu'ils priffent de luy vengeance, car je fuis le plus vil pecheur, "&c.-Apres print difcipline & d'eux & moult doucement la re"ceut." Hence we find the divinity-lectures of Don Quixote and the penance of his fquire, are both of them in the ritual of chivalry. Laftly, we find the knight-errant, after much turmoil to himflf, and disturbance 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 thofe dialogues between Sancho and his maf

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ter, where it is gravely debated whether he should not turn faint or archbishop.

There were feveral causes of this ftrange jumble of nonsense and religion. As first, the nature of the fubject which was a religious war or crufade: fecondly, the quality of the firft 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. interdicted jufts and tournaments, because he understood they had much hindered the crufade decreed in the council of Vienna. "Torneamenta ipfa & hafliludia five juxtas in regnis "Franciæ, Angliæ, & Almanniæ, & aliis nonnullis provinciis, in "quibus ea confuevere frequentiùs exerceri, fpecialiter interdix"it." Extrav. 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 propofe it as the best means of fubduing the Turk, to affemble all the knights, errant together by proclamation. WARBURTON.

See part ii. 1. 5. c. I.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

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