156 Romances and Novels. 



Ethiopics, from the scene of the adventures being 

 laid in Ethiopia. And although it was a decent 

 and moral performance, and the inhabitants of 

 Antioch attested that it had reformed the females 

 of their city; yet the author, for writing, and re- 

 fusing to suppress it, was deprived of his Bishopric, 

 and deposed from the clerical office. M. Bayle 

 humorously observes, that the marriage of Thea- 

 gines and Charidea, the hero and heroine of this 

 romance, was the most prolific of any that he had 

 read of; having produced all the romances which 

 have been written since that time. 



After the time of Heliodorus romances be- 

 came still more extravagant and absurd in their 

 character. The times and principles of Chivalry 

 conferred upon them new features, and gave them 

 a different cast from all the fictitious writings which 

 had before appeared. In these performances the 

 reader was continually presented with the wild ab- 

 surdities, and the heroic exploits of knight-errantry. 

 Giants, dragons, enchanted castles, fairies, ghosts, 

 and all the tribes of imaginary wonders were con- 

 stantly passing before him. Probability, and .even 

 possibility, were little consulted. To arrest, asto- 

 nish, and intoxicate the mind, seem to have been 

 their principal objects. But extravagance was not 

 the only fault ofthe old romantic writings. They 

 were often grossly immoral in their nature and 

 tendency, abounding in every species of impure 

 and corrupting exhibition of vice. They were 

 also, in general, tediously diffuse, extending to 

 many volumes, and fatiguing the reader with their 

 unnecessary prolixity. 



Romance retained its empire in every literary 

 part of Europe, until the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century, about which time Micuel de 

 Cervantes, a native of Madrid, published his ce- 

 lebrated satirical romance, entitled The History of 



