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CHAPTER XII. 
ROMANCES AND NOVELS. 
IT is a singular circumstance, that the once popular, but, of late years, almost 
forgotten romance of Amadis de Gaul, should have been brought to public notice 
by two writers in the course of the last year? To Mr. Southey we are indebted for 
a compressed prose translation of the whole ; and to Mr. Rose for a metrical version 
of the first part of this celebrated work. Of the novels which have appeared 
since the publication of our last volume, we have selected Delphine, translated from 
the French of Madame de Stael, and The Depraved Husband, originating also from 
_a French female writer ; because, from their popularity, we suspect that they have 
already done some mischief, and, if not timely opposed, may be productive of 
more. Miss Riversdale’s Letters, the St. Clair of Mrs. Helme, and Thaddeus of War- 
saw, by Miss Porter, are added to our list, as the best among the many incentives 
, Wiritam Stewarp Ross, Esq. 
‘THIS venerable romance has been 
chiefly known to the public through the 
medium of Mons. de Tressan’s French 
abridgment. Although we admit that 
_ gentleman’s lively talents, as well as the 
extent of his researches into ancient lore, 
we have never been quite satished with 
_his romances, and particularly with his 
_ Amadis. It is difficult, perhaps impos- 
sible, for any Frenchman so absolutely 
_ to forget his country, his age, and above 
all, his own dear person, as to execute 
a good and sustained picture of former 
“manners. Abeve all, the solemn and 
digniged stile of chivalry, exalted too 
by the formality of the Spanish cha- 
'Tacter, sits awkwardly upon the Pa 
fisian man of fashion. It is a mas- 
“querade disguise which he finds it im- 
possible to maintain with uniformity; 
_ and he therefore ever and anon lifts the 
“mask, slides into a bon-mot, a_compli- 
ment, or a trite sentiment about Ja 
douce humanité: ail which’ is utterly in- 
consistent with the grave and masculine 
manners of the knights and dames of 
to idleness, which the last year’s stock of the circulating libraries can exhibit. 
Arr. 1. Amadis de Gaul: a Poem, in three Books ; freely translated from the first Part 
pee French Version of Nicholas de Herberay, Sieur des Essar, with Notes. 
12mo. 
By 
old, and with the corresponding tone of 
their historians. Impressed with these 
feelings, it is with great pleasure that 
we behold an emulation among the Eng- 
lish literati to restore to his pristine ho- 
nours Amadis de Gaul, the model of 
romance and flower of knights errant. 
The public have been at the same time 
favoured with a poetical version of the 
first book by Mr. Rese, and with a prose 
translation of the whole four books by 
Mr. Southey, of which in our next ar- 
ticle. 
Amadis de Gaul differs from most 
romances of chivalry in the unity and 
simplicity of the plot, and affords at 
the same time a greater display of the 
author’s inventive powers. The nume- 
rous romances of the Round Table, as 
well as those of Charlemagne and his 
Paladins, concern a set of actors, to each 
of whom earlier tales, or perhaps remote 
tradition, had already affixed a local 
habitation and a discriminate character. 
The story, therefore, frequently referred 
to older romances on the same subject, 
Qq 3 Wants 
