AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 473 
antry, view the knights superbly mounted and caparisoned, each 
one adorned with the faveurs* of her to gain whose approving 
smile he dared every danger, plunge recklessly into the animated 
conflict. The mimic warfare over, we must transport ourselves to 
the great hall of the castle, and there—surrounded by all that is 
lovely, or gallant, or noble, or brave ; by all that is calculated to 
heat the imagination or to inflame the heart—imagine a knight, 
perhaps already crowned with the laurels of victory, stepping forth, 
and in a melodious voice, accompanied by his well-tuned harp, pro- 
posing a subject for discussion ; his rival then advancing, and in a 
stanza of similar metre answering the question. ‘The verbal con- 
test over, and the decision granted, we may easily imagine the vic- 
torious poet receiving from the hands of the fair dispensers of 
renown, the longed-for wreath of victory. In the tender and vo- 
possessing all the barbarism of the northern ordeal, without its religi- 
ous feelings); the arms used were of an offensive nature; and the com- 
batants seldom separated until one or other had received a mortal 
wound. The ‘ournameni, on the contrary, was intended merely as a mi- 
litary amusement; in which bodies of knights exercised themselves in 
mimic warfare, and contended for the approbation of the fair. The arms 
used, also, were of an inoffensive nature, being generally restricted to head- 
less spears and blunted swords and daggers. In spite, however, of all these 
precautions, innumerable accidents occurred. Ducange, in his admira- 
ble dissertation on the subject, names upwards of twenty nobles of the high- 
est rank who died inthem. ‘The evil at length grew to such an extent that 
the popes thundered forth their anathemas against those who practised them, 
averred that those who died in them would unavoidably be damned, and even 
denied them christian burial: “ Et si quis eorum ibi mortuus fierit, quamvis et 
poenitentia non denegetur, Ecclesiasticé tamen careat sepultura.”—( Coneil. Late- 
van. A. D. 1179). The exciting influences of these conflicts were too great 
to be thus easily dispensed with, and the tournaments were continued with 
unabated vigour until the year 1559 when Henry II, King of France, receiv- 
ed his death-blow in one. From this period they gradually fell into disuse , 
and their decline was not a little hastened by the invention of gunpowder, 
which altogether changed the mode of warfare. For detailed accounts of this 
subject see Ducange, Glossarium, voce “ Torneamentum ;” Ducange, Dis. 
sertations VI et VII a I’ Histoire de S. Louis ; Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, p. 
88 ; Scott’s Essay on Romance ; and last, though, in point of antiquarian re- 
search, not least, his admirable description of the tournament in Ivanhoe. 
* If the knight happened to lose this valued trifle, his mistress quickly 
gave him another ; and so eagerly did the ladies furnish their favoured lovers 
with new pledges of their affection, that at the conclusion of the conflict they 
frequently found themselves nearly destitute of decent covering. From this 
expression, faveur, is derived the bride’s favowrs.—See 8S. Palaye, Mem. sur 
LP Ancienne Cheval. tom. i, p. 95. 
VOL. 1X., NO. XXVII. 60 
