Chap. XIX.] Romances and Novels, 071 



Ethiopics, from the scene of the adventures htmg 

 laid ill 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 bisliop- 

 ric, and deposed from the clerical office. M. Bayle 

 humorously observes, that the marriage of Th^a- 

 gines and Chariclea, 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 Ileliodorus romances became 

 still more extravagant and absurd in their charac- 

 ter. The times and principles of Chivalry con- 

 ferred upon them new features, and gave them a 

 different cast from all the fictitious writings whicii 

 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 of the old romantic^writings. They 



rus were really the first romance. Some suppose that instances 

 of this kind of writing may be traced back ns far as the time of 

 Aristotle. Others have thought that, from the Asiaiic llestarc/us, 

 and other modern publications on oriental literature, there is rea- 

 son to believe that the native country of Romance is tlie East, 

 which seems to have produced many extravagant specimens from 

 time immemorial, See Curiosities of Literature, by d Israeli. 



2 B i> 



