77 



,iu the progress of it, tlit good seiis6 of the host ii rtiad6 to 

 ji^reak in upon him, and interrupt him. Chaucer approves 

 l)is disgust, and changing his note, tells the simple tale of 

 Meliboeus, a vioral tale, vertuous, as he terms it, to shew what 

 sort of fictions were most expressive of real life, and most 

 proper to be put into the hands of the people. It is further 

 to be noted, that the Boke of the Giant Oliphant, and Chyle, 

 Thopas, was not a fiction of his own, but a story of antique 

 frame, and very celebrated in the days of chivalry : so that 

 nothing could better suit the author's design of discrediting 

 the old romances, than the choice of this venerable legend, 

 for the vehicle of his satire upon them." He adds, " the 

 ridicule Chaucer bestowed upon them, hastened the fall of 

 both chivalry and romance."* ,4 \^k 



The character, which truth has made it necessary to give 

 of the old romances, will not apply to the more modern ones 

 of Sir Philip Sidney, &c. &c. and of " Scudery dont la fer- 

 tile plume, pent tons les mois sans peine, enfanter un vo- 

 lume." f They, however, revived the " Old Court of 

 Leve" and the mode of spiritualising and abstracting the 

 passion, which had such an effect upon the manners of the 

 French people, as has never been effaced ; and if we con- 

 sider the character, with regard to love, of a nation which was 

 so very much engrossed with those subjects ; :J: we must con- 

 clude that their tendency is very unfavourable to virtue, 



* Kurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance. f Boileau. • ^ 



t L'Academie Franpaise traita dans ces premieres seances plusieurs sujets qui concer- 

 noient ramour, I'on rit encore dans I'hotel de Longueville, les personnes les plus qua- 



• 



