209 
ROM. 
vipces of Scotland, as well as at the court, Norman was 
never used; and therefore it is probable that the English 
language was more cultivated in that country at an early 
period than, in England itself, where it was for a long time 
superseded by that of the conquerors. These romances, en¬ 
titled Sir Gawain , and Sir Gologras, and Sir Galeran of 
Gallo-way , have all the appearance of being original com¬ 
positions, and display considerable poetical effort. But the 
uncouth, use of words dragged in for the sake of alliteration, 
and used in secondary and oblique meanings, renders them 
extremely harsh, in construction, as well as obscure in 
meaning. 
In England it would seem that the difficulties pointed out 
by De la Brunne, threw out of fashion this ornate kind of 
composition; and the English minstrels had no readier 
resource than translating from the French, who supplied 
their language at the same time with the phrases of chivalry 
which did not exist in English. Accordingly, translations 
from the French fill up the list of English romance. They 
are generally written in short lines rhyming together; though 
often, by way of variety, the third and sixth lines are made 
to rhyme together, and the poem is thus divided into stanzas 
of three couplets each. In almost all of these legends, 
reference is made to “ the romance,” that is, some composi¬ 
tion in the French language, as to the original authority. 
Nay, which is very, singular, tales where the subjects seem to 
be of English growth, seem to have yet existed in French 
ere they, were translated into the language of the country to 
which the heroes belonged. This seems to have been the 
case with Hornehild, with Guy of Warwick, with Bevis of 
Hampton, all of which appear to belong originally to 
England ; yet are their earliest histories found in the French 
language, or at least the vernacular versions refer to such for 
their authority. Even the romance .of Rickard, England’s 
own Coeur de Lion, has perpetual references to the French 
original from which it was translated. Some original com¬ 
positions doubtless occur among so many translations, but 
they are not numerous, and few have been preserved. The 
poem of Sir Eger and Sir Greme , which seems of Scottish 
hrigip, has no French original; nor has any been discovered 
either of the Squire . of Low Degree, Sir Eglamour, Sir 
Pleindamour, or some others. But the French derivation 
of the two last names renders it probable that such may 
exist. 
With these abortive attempts the romance literature of this 
country closed. Indeed the English taste tended rather to 
plays than narratives. They seemed from the earliest times 
to delight in direct personifications of scriptural characters, 
and even of abstract virtues. In the early poets, especially 
Chaucer, we are struck with their strong yearning towards 
the dramatic style. Old Dan is continually falling from the 
high sphere of romantic fashion to the wholesome and more 
engaging field of truth and actual life. If he describes an en¬ 
chanted palace, or a garden, or a knight, he is satisfied with 
copying his predecessors, but the descriptions of the nun, 
the monk, the wife of Bath, a colloquy, or a dispute, are the 
products of his own imagination and observation, and those 
whereon he dwells with unbounded pleasure. The Fairy 
Sueen, is, perhaps, the nearest specimen of perfect romance 
that has been produced by an Englishman, and even in this 
a departure from the models is as remarkable as it is grateful. 
The association that exists between romantic fictions and 
the land of Spain is so prevalent in the mind, that it is 
astonishing to find that there is really but two original 
romances of note that have proceeded from that source, 
namely, The Adventures of the Cid, and Don Quixote. The 
Amadis de Gaul may be added to these, which, though 
not the production of a Spaniard (Dr. Southey having 
clearly traced it to Vasco de Lobeira, a Portuguese knight of 
the 14th century), was extremely popular, and very generally 
imitated in that country. 
Indeed Spain seems, in this respect, to have displayed the 
same taste as England, and to have poured forth her 
romantic feelings rather in the condensed form of ballads, 
Vol: XXII. No. 1 49o. 
A N C E. 
and other short poems, or in the soul-stirring creations of 
theatrical fiction, than in the stately and cbnfined habits of 
romance. Her serious fictions were of two kinds. —The first, 
the pastoral, was chiefly upheld by the talents of Monte 
Mayor. Of all sickly and affected compositions these seem 
to have been the worst. We all know how tedious a few 
short pastoral poems are adorned with the polished elegance 
of Virgil, or the refined and expressive verse of Theocrite. 
But the task of wading through whole volumes of puny 
dialogue, and hyperbolical pathos, is reserved for the reader 
of Spanish pastoral. The second species of romance were 
those modelled on Amadis de Gaul. The author of this 
work laid aside the worn-out features of Arthur and 
Charlemagne, and imagined to himself a new dynasty both 
of sovereigns and of heroes, to whom he ascribed a style of 
manners much more refined, and sentiments much more arti¬ 
ficial, than had occurred to the authors of Perceval or Perce- 
forest . Lobeira had also taste enough to perceive, that 
some unity of design would be a great improvement on the 
old romance, where one adventure is strung to another with 
little connection from the beginning to the end of the 
volume; and which then concludes, not because the plot was 
wound up, but because the author’s invention, or the printer’s 
patience, was exhausted. In the work of the Portuguese 
author, on the contrary, he proposes a certain end, to ad¬ 
vance or retard which all the incidents of the work have 
direct reference. This is the marriage of Amadis with 
Oriana, against which a thousand difficulties are raised by 
rivals, giants, sorcerers, and all the race of evil powers un¬ 
favourable to chivalry; whilst these obstacles are removed 
by the valour of the hero, and constancy of the heroine, 
succoured on their part by those friendly sages, and blame¬ 
less sorceresses, whose intervention gave so much alarm to 
the tender-conscieueed De la Noue. Lobeira also displayed 
considerable attention to the pleasure which arises from the 
contrast of character; and to relieve that of Amadis, who is 
the very essence of chivalrous constancy, he has introduced 
Don Galaor, his brother, a gay libertine in love, whose ad¬ 
ventures form a contrast with those of his more serious 
brother. Above all, the Amadis displays an attention to 
the style and conversation of the piece, which, although its 
effects are now exaggerated and ridiculous, was doubtless at 
the time considered as the pitch of elegance; and here were, 
for the first time, introduced those hyperbolical compliments, 
and that inflated and complicated structure of language, the 
sense of which walks as in a masquerade. 
The Amadis at first consisted only of four books, and in 
that limited shape may be considered as a very well con¬ 
ducted story; but additions were speedily made which ex¬ 
tended the number to twenty-four; containing the history of 
Amadis subsequent to his obtaining possession of Oriana, 
and down to his death, as also of his numerous descendants. 
The theme was not yet exhausted; for, as the ancient 
romancers, when they commenced a new work, chose for 
their hero some newly invented Paladin of Charlemagne, or 
knight of King Arthur, so did their successors adopt a new 
descendant of the family of Amadis, whose genealogy was 
thus multiplied to a prodigious degree. Hence came Esplan- 
dian, Florimond of Greece , Palmerin of England , and 
the other romances of this class, which soon became so very 
popular, as to supersede the elder romances almost entirely 
even at the court of France, where, according to La Nouej 
already quoted, they were introduced about the reign of 
Henry II. 
The most important epoch we have to notice in the history 
of romance writing, is the date of the appearance of The 
renowned History of Don Quixote de la Mancha. The 
author, Cervantes, after trying in vain the departments of 
comedy and pastoral romance, seized the idea of representing 
as the adventures of a crazy knight the exploits of the chi¬ 
valrous characters of the Amadis de Gaul. This work has 
been too generally viewed as a systematic endeavour on the 
part of Cervantes, to cure his countrymen of an absurd fond¬ 
ness for romantic and improbable fictions. It is not evident, 
3 II however. 
