4 



of the Holy Sepulchre, had not, probably, either leisure 

 or inclination for mental gratifications. In the acquisition 

 of spoils, they seem to have rather exercised their prowess, 

 than their taste. But, Ave will not weary ourselves with 

 conjecture, in regard to the medivun, through Avhich those 

 fictions flowed into Europe; it is enough, for our present 

 purpose, that Ave not only find them there, during the 

 middle ages, but can trace them, in some of the popu- 

 lar romances of that period. Ariosto supplies us Avith an 

 instance in point. The story of Schariar and his bro- 

 ther, in the Arabian Nights Entertainments, evidently ap- 

 pears to have laid the foundation for the Avell-knoAvn tale 

 of Astolpho and Jocundo, in Canto XX VIII. of the Or- 

 lando I'urioso.* I am, I will confess, inclined to consider 

 Italy, as the great emporium of the fictions under consi- 

 deration. And as the monks of that delightful region, as 

 Avell as those of France, occasionally relaxed from their 

 severer studies, in excursions to Fairy-land, the Oriental 

 fictions might, through their means, have spread to the 

 neighbouring countries. Some of the early romances, as 

 well as the legends of saints, Avere undoubtedly fabricated, 

 in the deep silence of the cloister.-j- Both frequently 

 sprung from the Avarmth of fancy, Avhich religious seclu- 

 sion 



* Hole's Arthur, pref. p. viii. 



t Vid. Ritson's Dissertation on Eomance and Minstrelsy, prefixed to An- 

 cient English Metrical Romances, Vol. I. See, also, the elegant and accu- 

 rate Mr. Ellis's Historical Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the English 

 Poetry and Language, prefixed to Specimens of the Early English Poets. 



