R O M 



II O M 



other theatre feems to have been ufed for this purpofc in of Athenagoras, Theodovus Prodromus, Euflathius, and 

 that city till 1679, when the opera of " Dov' e Amore, Longus. 



e Pieta," fet by Bernardo Pafquini, the famous organilt, 

 was reprefented Nella Sala de' Signori Capranica. This 

 theatre ftill fubfifts. 



Romans, King of the, in Modern Hi/lory, is a prin 

 elected and defigned fucceftor to the German empire. 

 Roman Alum. See Roman Alum. 

 Roman Balance, Statera Romana, the fteel-yard. 

 A Roman Charity, among Painters, is a picture of a 

 woman fuckling an old man. 



Roman Indiclion. See Indiction. 

 Roman Knight, Sec. See Knight, &c. 

 Roman Language, Sec. See Latin, &c. 

 Roman Order, in Architecture, is that more ufually called 

 the Compofite. 



Roman Purple now denotes the dignity of a cardinal. 

 Roman Roads. See Road and Way. 

 Roman Year, Sec. See Year, &c. 

 ROMANCE, anciently Romaunt, and Romant, a fa- 

 bulous relation of certain intrigues and adventures in the 

 way of love and gallantry, invented to entertain and inftruft 

 the readers. 



M. Fontenelle calls romances poems in profe ; and Boll 11 

 is not averfe to their being admitted as poetical pi 

 though not written in verfe. 



Setting afide the verfification, it is certain an epic poem 

 and a romance are almoft the fame thing. The juft notion, 

 therefore, of a romance is, that it is a difcourfe invented 

 with art to pleafe and improve the mind, and to form or 

 mend the manners, by inftru&ions, difguifed under the alle- 

 gory of an action, or feries of actions, related in profe, in a 

 delightful and probable, yet furprifing manner. 



A juft romance confiits of two parts: viz. a moral, as 

 its foundation, and end ; and a fable, or action, as the fu- 

 perftrudture and means. 



It mull alfo have the manners; that is, the characters 

 muft be diftinguifhed, and the manners muft be necefiary 

 and it muft have all the other qualities of poetical manners. 



Indeed antiquity could fcarce be reconciled to fuch pieces, 

 and always looked on them as abufes. Photius, in his 

 Bibliotheca, cod. lxxxvii. gives a frightful account of that 

 of Tatius ; and the Ethiopics of Heliodorus, though one 

 of the molt modeft and molt refcrved pieces of the kind, met 

 with a very fevere treatment. The author was bifhop of 

 Tricca, in Theffalia, in the fourth century. Nicephorus 

 tells us, that a fynod, confidering the danger which might 

 accrue to youth trom reading his romance, authorifed as it 

 was by the dignity of its author, propofed it to him, either 

 to fupprefs his book, or renounce his bifhopric ; and that 

 he chofe the latter. But this hiltory is a little doubtful. 



Be this as it will, Heliodorus has ferved as a model to all 

 the romances written fince ; and the marriage of Theagenes 

 and Chariclea has produced a very numerous ilfue, even all 

 the romances now extant in the world. 



Mr. T. Warton, in his " Dillertation on the Origin of 

 Romantic Fiction in Europe," prefixed to the " Hiltory of 

 Englifh Poetry," vol. i. is of opinion, that the peculiar and 

 arbitrary fpecies of fiction, which we call romantic, was en- 

 tirely unknown to the writers of Greece and Rome ; and it 

 app ars to have been imported into Europe by a people, 

 whole modes of thinking, and habits of invention, are not 

 natural to that country. Whatever be their origin, which 

 will be a fubject of inquiry in the fequel of this article, it 

 mult be allowed that the ancient metrical romances were 

 very early (jiperfeded by prole works upon the fame fubjedts. 

 Thefe lait, although far inferior, in intereft and merit, to 

 the poetical tales which preceded them, claimed and ob- 

 tained a fuperior degree of credit, founded upon the fiction 

 alleged to be infeparable from metre ; upon the degraded 

 ftatc of the minftrels, whofe province it was to recite thefe 

 difparaged rhyming legends ; and, above all, upon a grave 

 pretext fet up by the author of each profe work, that he 

 had tranflated it verbatim et literatim from an ancient Greek 

 or Latin original. As no fuch Greek or Latin original for 

 a romance of chivalry has ever been produced, we may be 



The incidents muft be delightful, and, to that end, rightly fafely allowed to doubt whether any fuch ever exifted. But 



difpofed and furprifing. The fentiments fall under the fame 

 rules as in the drama. 



But the diction is allowed to be more lofty and figurative ; 

 as being a narration, and not having terror or pity, but ad- 

 miration for its end. 



A romance of chivalry, according to the definition of a 

 late writer, is any fabulous narration, in verfe or profe, in 

 which the principal characters are knights, conducting them- 

 felves, in their feveral fituations and adventures, agreeably 

 to the inftitutions and cuftoras of chivalry 



our anceftors received thefe accounts with unhefitating cre- 

 dulity, and gravely read the voluminous romances of Lan- 

 celot du Lac, and Palmerin of England, as tranflations from 

 ancient annals, while they rejected with fcorn the rhyniing 

 legends of the minltrels on the fame fubjedts. Thus the 

 metrical romances were obliged to give way to the prole 

 works, which were, in fact, borrowed from them ; and fo 

 complete was the fubltitution of the one fpecies of fable for 

 the other, that the prefs, which was then invented about the 

 period of this revolution in public tafte, groaned under the 



As compofitions of this kind have a long time been little fplendid folios of the former, while the latter remained in 



elfe but hiitories of amorous adventures, and feats of knight- obfeure manufcripts, or were only printed in the meaneit 



errantry, the origin of romances is referred to that of love- manner, and for the meaneft of the people. Thus the very 



hiftories ; and accordingly Dearchus, a difciple of Ariltotle, exiitence of the metrical romance, as a diftinct, feparate, 



who firft wrote of thole matters, is ufually termed the ori- and more ancient kind of compofition, was unknown and 



ginal author of romances. Though Photius is of opinion, unnoticed till the publication of the works of fome modern 



that Antonius Diogenes's book on the errors and amours of writers. 



Dinias and Dercylhs gave birth to molt of the works of this Bifhop Percy, the venerable editor of the " Reliques of 



kind. Be this as it will, it is certain the ancients have had Ancient Poetry," feems to have been the firlt perfon in our 



their romances as well as we. Such are the amours of Rho- country who directed the public attention to this fubjedt* 



danis and Simonides, defcribed in iambics ; fuch is the ro- by an " ElTay upon Metrical Romance," prefixed to the 



mance of Leucippe and Clitophon, compofed by Achilles third volume of his work, in which the merits and qualities 



Tatius, a Greek writer, afterwards a bifhop ; fuch are the of the poetry and chivalry are critically inveftigattd, and a 



Four Books of Incredible Things, written by Damafcius ; lift given of fuch metrical romances as had come to his 



fuch are the Ethiopics of Heliodorus, in which he relates knowledge, The learned prelate was followed by Mr. T. 



the amours of Theagenes and Chariclea. Laftly, under the Warton; and not to mention the collectors and publishers, 



fame clafs may be ranked the Fables of Parthenius Niccnus, of fome of the fhorter and more ancient of our metrical tales 



