ROMANCE. 



377 



Resetn- 

 blance be- 

 tween those 

 of Arthur 

 and Charle- 

 magne. 



Founded 

 on chroni- 

 cles in 



Latin. 



we may state with AS much confidence as is attainable 

 in .-my 'matters of the kind, that the earliest metrical 

 romances both of the Charlemagne class and of the 

 i.tlu-r veif composed in Norman French, for the 

 amusement of tin- Anglo-Xorman court of the early 

 Plantagenets, and their powerful barons, who, in that 

 a#e held estates for the most part both in Normandy 

 nml England, and among whom the language of their 

 old duchy was used almost exclusively for the better 

 part of three centuries, subsequent to the invasion of 

 vVilliam I. They are all composed in l\\e Langned'Oi/.* 

 The Abbe has traced in a vast number of instances the 

 persons to whom they are dedicated and addressed ; 

 And, lastly, he has pointed out with such acuteness, 

 and such convincing tact, the innumerable, the perpe- 

 tual complimentary allusions to the power and great- 

 ness of the Anglo-Normans, that altogether the mass 

 of evidence is quite irresistible. We refer our readers 

 to his interesting works for the details of his masterly 

 exposition. 



Another important particular, in which these two 

 classes of romance coincide, is this, (we have already 

 alluded to it) that the great and leading inspiration 

 of both, seems to lie in the representation of Christian 

 knighthood arrayed against the spirit of paganism. In 

 both, we have a great monarch surrounded by a cycle 

 of knightly brothers, all living under the rules of an 

 established brotherhood of chivalry. The great object 

 of both cycles, is the assertion of the cause of Christ 

 against that of a warlike race of misbelievers. Arthur 

 and his knights are opposed to the bloody heathenism 

 of the Saxon hordes, who invaded the civilized, in so 

 far at least, and christianized provinces of Britain. 

 Charlemagne, and the peers of his cycle, are opposed 

 in precisely the same manner to the Mahometans, who, 

 in the days of the historical Charlemagne, certainly 

 threatened to obliterate every trace of western civiliza- 

 tion, and to eradicate the Christian faith from the soil 

 of Europe. This is the great and presiding idea in 

 these two kindred classes of romance ; and the picture 

 i.< filled up in them both with materials and colourings 

 of a wonderfully similar nature. In each, the monarch 

 knight forms the centre of a band of brothers, among 

 whom the great and leading diversities of human cha- 

 racter and disposition are divided. In each, prophe- 

 cies, charms, enchantments, giants, dwarfs, witches, 

 are called in to supply the marvellous ; in each, amo- 

 rous and ludicrous adventures are employed to relieve 

 the solemnity of the main body of the fiction ; in each, 

 we find a crowd of minor characters and incidents di- 

 verging in all directions from the great centre, yet all 

 in some way or other attesting their connection with 

 it. \Vhat Charlemagne is to his peers, the romance of 

 Charlemagne is to its age ; arxl exactly so as to Arthur, 

 and the body of fictions of which his round table is the 

 centre point. 



In both of these classes of romance, reference to 

 historical authority is continually and ostentatiously 

 made. In a great measure, the incidents of which they 

 treat are to be found sketched in the chronicles, or pre- 

 tended chronicles, of Turpin on the one hand, and of 

 Geoffrey of JMonmouth and his compeers on the other. 

 There seems, however, to be no reason to doubt that 

 the compilers of these chronicles had embodied in them 



the materials used by the original bards of Britain and 

 Ai mourn, and minstrels of Normandy. Charlemagne, 

 fur instance, is personally represented throughout as a 

 character very different from what he was in real his- 

 tory ; as a rather indolent and good-natured old man, 

 harassed by the conflicting claims itnd pretensions of a 

 set of too powerful vassals. This is very much the view 

 of the matter, whicli we mipht imagine likely to bt 

 taken among the original Norman invaders of Neu- 

 stria ; such having been in fact the situation in which 

 they, for their own luck, found the French monarchy. 

 But it is not the view of the matter natural to persona 

 in any other situation. 



The earliest romances of both classes now in exist- 

 ence are, as has been observed above, metrical ; and 

 the oldest English metrical romances are professedly 

 translated from the French, unless one exception be 

 found in the Sir Tristram of Thomas of Ercildoun, 

 which has been so ably edited of late years by Sir Wal- 

 ter Scott. According to that learned author's hypo- 

 thesis, Thomas the Rhymer lived and composed early 

 in the thirteenth century, close to the boundary of the 

 old British kingdom of Strath-Clyde, which had no 

 doubt preserved entire for a long time the original le- 

 gends of that scattered and humbled people. And in- 

 deed it is to be kept in mind, that the sites of many of 

 the places and events most illustrious in the Arthurean 

 romances are in the northern parts of the island. The 

 great capital is Caerleol, (Carlisle). Galloway is sup- 

 posed to have tnken its name from Sir Gawain. Ber- 

 wick was the guarde joyeuse, the residence of Launce- 

 lot; and the tomb of the faithless Queen Guenever is 

 still pointed out by the country people at Meigle, in 

 Angus. This part of Sir Walter Scott's essay on Tris- 

 tram must be consulted by every one who wishes to 

 understand the subject; as also Mr. Ellis's preface to 

 his Specimens of the dncient English Metrical Romances, 

 where the hypothesis first started by Sir Walter is 

 adopted, and strenuously enforced. 



According to the opinion of the best writers, the ear- 

 liest French metrical romance about Arthur, as yet dis- 

 covered, is Le Brut, the work of Robert Wace, a na- 

 tive of Jersey, written in 1155, and founded on the 

 chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth. For analyses of 

 this and of the Chevalier au Lyon, attributed by most 

 antiquaries to the same author, as also of the various 

 romances of The Sangreal, Perciiai ; &c. composed 

 during the two next centuries by Chretien de Troyes, 

 Menessier, and others, we must content ourselves with 

 referring to the works of M. Legrand, M. Tressan, &c. 

 among the French. Many interesting particulars con- 

 cerning them may also be found in the English works 

 of Ellis and Ritson, and in the more recent history of 

 fiction by Mr. John Dunlop. 



The oldest metrical romances of the Charlemagne 

 class are likewise in French. It is not easy to fix their 

 dates ; but Htion de Bourdeaux, (the foundation of the 

 charming poem of Oberon by Wieland,) is generally 

 supposed to be the oldest of them ; and the romance 

 of Fierabras, which king Robert Bruce delighted to 

 read to his companions, seems also to be among the 

 earliest. It would be in vain to attempt even an enu- 

 meration of these works. Mr. Ellis has furnished us 

 with admirable analyses and abundant specimens of 



!( ::.r.e: 



Oldert 



Engli.li 



romance* 

 and tran<- 



Sir Tru- 

 tram an ex- 

 ception. 



Robert 

 Wace, A*. 



Huon de 

 Bourdcaux, 



The Lortgue d'Oil was the dialect of northern France, in contradistinction to the Langiie tTOc, that of the southern province still to 

 called. These dialects were so named, from the circumstance that in the one of them, when the Roman tongue became corrupted, the af- 

 tirmative aio (some say utiquc) was retained under the form of oil, afterwards vul ; while in the other, hoc, (this, nothing but this,) was pre- 

 served under the form of oc. Sic, shortened to i, gave in like manner a distinctive name to the vulgar dialect of Italy herself. Hence 

 Dante's II lei Paete la doue il si te Suona. 



VOL. XVII. PART II. 



S B 



