CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF ROMANTIC FICTION IN EUROPE.-ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY RELATING TO THE EARLY AND FABULOUS HISTORY OF BRITAIN, PARTICULARLY TO ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE.-MERLIN.-SAINTGRAAL. PERCEVAL.-LANCELOT DU LAC.-MELIADUS.TRISTAN.-ISAIE LE TRISTE.-ARTUS. GYRON. PERCEFOREST.-ARTUS DE LA BRETAGNE.-CLERIADUS.

FA

ABULOUS narrative, we have seen in a former part of this work, like almost every one of the arts of man, originated in the desire of perfecting and improving nature, of rendering the great more vast, the rich more splendid, and the gay more beautiful. It removed, as it were, from the hands of fortune the destinies of mankind, rewarded virtue and valour with success, and covered treachery and baseness with opprobrium.

It was soon perceived that men sympathize not with armies or nations, but with individuals; and the poet who sung the fall of empires, was forced to place a few in a prominent light, with whose success or misfortunes his hearers might be affected, while they were altogether indifferent to the rout or dissection of the crowds by which they were followed. At length, it was thought, that narratives might be composed where the interest should only be demanded for one or two individuals, whose adventures, happiness, or misery, might of themselves afford delight. The experiment was attended with success; and as men sympathize most readily with events which may occur to themselves, or the situations in which they have been, or may be, the incidents of fiction derived their character from the manners of the age. In a gay and luxurious country stories of love became acceptable. Hence the Grecian novels were composed, and as, in relating the ad

ventures of the lovers, it was natural to depict what might really have taken place, the general features of the times, the inroads of pirates, religious ceremonies, etc. were chiefly delineated. The ascetic habits of the monks in like manner gave rise to spiritual romance, and the notion of tranquillity in the fields of Greece may have suggested the beautiful rural images portrayed in the pastoral of Longus.

Now, when, by some great convulsion, a vast change is effected in manners, the incidents of fiction will necessarily be changed also; first, because the former occurrences become less natural, and, secondly, give less delight. From the very nature then of domestic fiction, it must vary with the forms and habits and customs of society, which it must picture as they occur successively,

"And catch the manners living as they rise."

Never, in the annals of the human race, did a greater change of manners take place than in the middle ages, and accordingly, we must be prepared to expect a prodigious alteration in the character of fictitious literature, which, we have seen, may be expected to vary with the manners it would describe. But not only was there a change in the nature of the characters themselves, and the adventures which occurred to them, but a very peculiar style of embellishment was adopted, which, as it does not seem to have any necessary connection with the characters or adventures it was employed to adorn, has given the historians of literature no little labour to explain. The species of machinery, such as giants, dragons, and enchanted castles, which forms the seasoning of the adventures of chivalry, has been distinguished by the name of Romantic Fiction; and we shall now proceed to discuss the various systems which have been formed to account for its origin.

Different theories have been suggested for the purpose of explaining the origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe. The subject is curious, but is involved in much darkness and uncertainty.

To the northern Scalds, to the Arabians, to the people of Armorica or Britany, and to the classical tales of antiquity, has been successively ascribed the origin of those

extraordinary fables, which have been "so wildly disfigured in the romances of chivalry, and so elegantly adorned by the Italian Muse."

In the investigation of this subject, a considerable confusion seems to have arisen, from the supporters of the respective systems having blended those elements of romance which ought to be referred to separate origins. They have mixed together, or at least they have made no proper distinction between, three things, which seem, in their elementary principles at least, to be totally unconnected. 1. The arbitrary fictions of romance, by which I mean the embellishments of dragons, enchanters, etc. 2. That spirit of enterprise and adventure which pervaded all the tales of chivalry. 3. The historical materials, if they deserve that name, relating to Arthur and Charlemagne, which form the ground-work of so large a proportion of this class of compositions.

In treating this subject it will therefore be proper to consider, 1. The origin of those wild and improbable fictions, those supernatural_ornaments, which form the machinery of Romance, and which alone should be termed Romantic Fiction. 2. The rise of that spirit of chivalry which gave birth to the eagerness for single combat, the fondness for roaming in search of adventures, and the obligation of protecting and avenging the fair; and, lastly, we shall consider how these fabulous embellishments, and this spirit of adventure, were appropriated to the story of individual knights, and treat of those materials concerning Arthur and the Round Table, and the Peers of Charlemagne, whose exploits, real or fictitious, have formed the subject of romance.

I. One theory (which, I believe, was first adopted by M. Mallet 1) is, that what are termed the arbitrary fictions of romance, have been exclusively derived from the northern Scalds. This system has been strenuously maintained by subsequent writers, and particularly by Dr. Percy,' who observes, that the Scalds originally performed the functions of historians, by recording the victories and genealogies of their princes in a kind of narrative song. When history,

Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc.

* Reliques of Ant. Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 3.

by being committed to prose, assumed a more stable and more simple form, and was taken out of their hands, it became their business chiefly to entertain and delight. Hence they embellished their recitals with marvellous fictions, calculated to allure the gross and ignorant minds of their audience. Long before the time of the crusades, they believed in the existence of giants and dwarfs, in spells and enchantments. These became the ornaments of their works of imagination, and they also invented combats with dragons and monsters, and related stories of the adventures of knights with giants and sorcerers.

Besides this assumption, Dr. Percy also maintains, that the spirit of chivalry, the eagerness after adventure, and the extravagant courtesy, which are its chief characteristics, existed among the northern nations long before the introduction of the feudal system, or the establishment of knighthood as a regular order.

These fictions and ideas, he asserts, were introduced into Normandy by the Scalds, who probably attended the army of Rollo in its migration to that province from the north. The skill of these bards was transmitted to their successors the minstrels, who adopted the religion and opinions of the new countries. In place of their pagan ancestors they substituted the heroes of Christendom, whose feats they embellished with the Scaldic fictions of giants and enchanters. Such stories were speedily propagated through France, and by an easy transition passed into England after the Norman Conquest.

A second hypothesis, which was first suggested by Salmasius,' and which has been followed out by Mr. T. Warton,2 ascribes to the Saracens the foundation of romantic fiction. It had at one time been a received opinion in Europe, that the wonders of Arabian imagination were first communicated to the western world by means of the crusades; but Mr. Warton, while he argues that these expeditions tended greatly to propagate this mode of fabling, contends that these fictions were introduced at a much earlier period by the Arabians, who, in the beginning of the eighth century, settled in Spain. Through See Huet, de l'Orig. d. Rom., p. 131.

2 Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. i. pp. 91, etc. ed. 1871.

that country they disseminated those extravagant inventions peculiar to their fertile genius. Those creations of fancy, the natural offspring of a warm and luxuriant climate, were eagerly received, and colder imaginations were kindled by the presence of these enlivening visitors. The ideal tales of the eastern invaders, recommended by a brilliancy of description hitherto unknown to the barren fancy of those who inhabited a western region, were rapidly diffused through the continent of Europe. From Spain, by the communication of commercial intercourse through the ports of Toulon and Marseilles, they passed into France. In the latter kingdom they received the earliest and most welcome reception in the district of Armorica or Britany. That province had been largely peopled by a colony of Welsh, who had emigrated thither in the fourth century.1 Hence a close connection subsisted between Wales and Britany for many ages. The fables current in the latter country were collected by W. Map, Archdeacon of Oxford, who presented them to Geoffrey of Monmouth. His Latin Chronicle, compiled from these materials, forms one of the principal sources of tales of chivalry, and consists entirely of Arabian inventions.

Mr. Warton [p. 103, etc.] next proceeds to point out the coincidence between fictions undoubtedly Arabic, and the machinery of the early romances. He concludes with maintaining, that if Europe was in any way indebted to the Scalds for the extravagant stories of giants and monsters, these fables must still be referred to an eastern origin, and must have found their way into the north of Europe along with an Asiatic nation, who, soon after Mithridates had been overthrown by Pompey, fled from the dominion of the Romans, and under the conduct of Odin settled in Scandinavia.

These two systems, which may be termed the Gothic and the Arabian, are those which have found the most numerous supporters. As far as relates to the supernatural

1 The Chronicle of Mont St. Michael Abbey gives 513 as the period of this flight. "Anno 513, venerunt transmarini Britanni in Armoricam, id est Minorem Britanniam." The ancient Saxon poet (apud Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script. ii. p. 148) also peoples Bretagne after the Saxon conquest.-TURNER.