Roncesvalles, the feats of Roland are recorded under the name of Roldan el encatador; and in that of Palmerin de Oliva, or fimply Oliva, thofe of Oliver: for Oliva is the fame in Spanish as Olivier is in French. The account of their exploits is in the highest degree monftrous and extravagant, as appears from the judgment paffed upon them by the Prieft in Don Quixote, when he delivers the Knight's library to the fecular arm of the house-keeper," Ecceptando à un Bernardo del "Carpio que anda por ay, y à otro Ilamado Roncefval"les; que eftos en Ilegando a mis manos, an de eftar en las de la ama, y dellas en las del fuego fin remifli"on alguna (1)." And of Oliver he fays; "effa "Oliva le haga luego raxas, y fe queme, que aun no "queden della las cenizas (2)." The reasonableness of this fentence may be partly feen from one story in the Bernardo del Carpio, which tells us, that the cleft called. Roldan, to be seen on the fummit of an high mountain in the kingdom of Valencia, near the town of Alicant, was made with a fingle back-stroke of that he ro's broad fword. Hence came the proverbial expreffion of our plain and sensible Ancestors, who were much cooler readers of these extravagances than the Spaniards, of giving one a Rowland for bis Oliver, that is, of matching one impoffible lye with another as, in French, faire le Roland means, to fwagger. This driving the Saracens out of France and Spain, was, as we say, the subject of the elder Romances. And the firfl that was printed in Spain was the famous Amadis de Gaula, of which the Inquifitor Prieft fays: " fegun he oydo dezir, "efte libro fuè el primero de Cavallerias que fe impri"miò en Efpana, y todos los demás an tomado principio y origen defte (3)" and for which he humouroufy condemns it to the fire, como à Dogmatizador de una fecta tan mala. When this fubject was well exhaufted, the affairs of Europe afforded them another of the fame nature. For after that the western parts had pretty well cleared themselves of thefe inhofpitable Guefts by the excitements of the Popes, they carried their arms against them into Greece and Aka, to fupport the Byzantine empire, and recover the holy Sepulchre. (2) Ibid.

(1) B. 1. c. 6.

:

(3) Ibid.

This gave birth to a new tribe of Romances, which we may call of the second race or clafs. And as Amadis de Gaula was at the head of the firft, fo, correfpondently to the fubject Amadis de Grecian was at the head of the latter. Hence it is, we find, that Trebizonde is as celebrated in these Romances as Roncesvalles is in the other. It may be worth obferving, that the two famous Italian epic poets, Ariollo and Taffo, have borrowed, from each of these classes of old Romances, the fcenes and subjects of their several stories: Ariofto choofing the first, the Saracens in France and Spain; and Taffo, the latter, the Crusade against them in Afia: Arifto's hero being Orlando or the French Roland: for as the Spaniards, by one way of tranfpofing the letters, had made it Roldan, fo the Italians by another make it. Orland.

The main fubject of these fooleries, as we have faid, had its original in Turpin's famous history of Charlemagne and his twelve peers. Nor were the monstrous embellishments of enchantments, &c. the invention of the Romancers, but formed upon eastern tales, brought thence by travellers from their crufades and pilgrimages; which indeed have a caft peculiar to the wild imaginations of the eastern people. We have a proof of this in the travels of Sir J. Maundeville, whofe exceffive superftition and credulity, together with an impudent monkish addition to his genuine work, have made his veracity thought much worfe of than it deferved. This voyager, fpeaking of the ifle of Cos, in the Archipelago, tells the following ftory of an enchanted dragon. "And also a zonge Man, that wifte not of the Ďra

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goun, went out of a Schipp, and wente thorghe the "Ifle, till that he cam to the Caftelle, and cam into "the Cave; and went fo, longe till that he fond a "Chambre, and there he laughe a Damyfelle, that kembed

hire Hede, and lokede in a Myrour and fche hadde: "meche Trefoure abouten hire: and he trowed that "fche hadde ben a comoun Woman, that dwelled there "to refceyve Men to Folye. And he abode, till the Damyfelle, faughe the fchadewe of him in the MyAnd fche turned hire toward him, and asked. "him what he wolde. And he feyde, he wolde ben VOL. II.

་་

rour.

T

"hire

"hire Limman or Paramour. And fche asked him if "that he were a Knyghte. And he fayde, nay. And "then sche fayde, that he myghte not ben hire Limman, "But fche bad him gon azen unto his Felowes, and "make him Knyghte, and com azen upon the Morwe, " and sche fchold come out of her Cave before him ; " and thanne come and kyffe hire on the Mowth and "have no drede. For I fchalle do the no maner harm, "alle be it that thou fee me in likeness of a Dragoun. For thoughe though fee me hideoufe. and horrible to "Joken onne, I do the to wytene that it is made by "Enchauntement. For withouten doubte, I am none “other than thou seeft now, a Woman:; and therefore "drede the noughte. And zif thou kyffe me, thou "fchalt have all this Trefoure, and be my Lord, and "Lord alfo of all that Ifle. And he departed, &c.”· p. 29, 30. Ed. 1725. Here we fee the very spirit of a Romance-adventure. This honeft traveller believed it all, and so, it seems, did the people of the Ifle, And fame Men feyn (fays he) that in the Ile of Lango is zit the Doughter of Ypocras in forme and lykenesse of a great Dragoun, that is an hundred Fadme in lengthe, as Men sen : For I have not feen hire. And thei of the Ifles callen bire, Lady of the Land. We are not to think then, these kind of ftories, believed by pilgrims and travellers, would have less credit either with the writers or readers of Romances: which humour of the times there fore may well account for their birth and favourable reception in the world.

The other monkifh hiftorian, who fupplied the Romancers with materials, was our Geoffry of Monmouth. For it is not to be fuppofed, that these Children of Fancy (as Shakespeare in the place quoted above finely calls them, infinuating that Fancy, hath its infancy as well as manhood) fhould ftop in the midst of fo extraordinary a career, or confine themselves within the lifts of the terra firma. From Him therefore the Spanish Romancers took the ftory of the British Arthur, and the Knights of his round table, his wife Gueniver, and his conjurer Merlin. But ftill it was the fame fubject, (effential to books of Chivalry) the Wars of Chriftians. against Infidels.. And whether it was by blunder or de

A fign

fign, they changed the Saxons into Saracens. I fufpect by defign: for Chivalry without a Saracen was fo very lame and imperfect a thing, that even that wooden Image, which turned round on an axis, and ferved the Knights to try their fwords, and break their lances: upon, was called by the Italians and Spaniards, Saracino, and Sarazino; fo clofely were these two ideas connected.

In thefe old Romances there was much religious fuperftition mixed with their other extravagancies; as appears even from their very, names and titles. The first Romance of Lancelot of the Lake and King Arthur and his Knights, is called the Hiftory of Saint Greaal. This St. Greaal was the famous relick of the holy blond, pretended to be collected into a veffel by Jofeph of Arimathea. So another is called the Kyrie Eleifon of Montauban, For in those days Deuteronomy and Paralipomenon were fuppofed to be the names of holy men. And as they made Saints of their Knights-errant, fo they made Knights errant of their tutelary Saints; and each nation advanced its own into the order of Chivalry. Thus every thing in thofe times being either a Saint or a Devil, they never wanted for the marvellous. In the old. Romance of Lancelot of the Lake, we have the doctrine, and discipline of the Church as formally delivered as in Bellarmine himself. "La confeffion (lays the preacher)

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ne vaut rienfi le cœur, n'eft repentant; & fi tu es "moult et eloigné de l'amour de noftre Seigneur, tu ne peus eftre raccordé fi non par trois chofes pre"mierement par la confeffion de bouche; fecondeinent par une contrition de cœur, tiercement par peine de cœur, & par oeuvre d'aumône & charité. Telle eft la droite voye d' aimer Dieu. Or va & fi te confeffe en cette maniere & recois la difcipline des mains de tes. confeffeurs, car c'est le figne de merite "mande le roy fes evefques, dont grande partie avoit

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-Or

en l'oft, & vinrent tous en fa chapelle. Le roy vint "devant eux tout nud en pleurant, & tenant fon plein "de menu s verges, fi les jetta devant eux, & leur dit en foupirant, qu'ils priffent de luy vengeance, car je"fuis le plus vil pecheur, &c.-Apres prinft difcipline " & d'eux & moult doucement la receut." Hence we

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find

find the divinity lectures of Don Quixote and the penance of his Squire, are both of them in the ritual of Chivalry. Laftly, we find the Knight-errant, after much turmoil to himself and disturbance to the world, frequently ended his courfe, like Charles V. of Spain, in a Monaftery; or turn'd Hermit, and became a Saint in good earnest. And this again will let us into the fpirit of thofe Dialogues between Sancho and his master, where it is gravely debated whether he should not turn Saint or Archbishop.

There were feveral caufes of this ftrange jumble of nonsense and religion. As first, the nature of the fubject, which was a religious War or Crufade: 2dly, The quality of the first Writers, who were religious Men: And 3dly, The end in writing many of them, which was to carry on a religious purpose. We learn, that Clement V. interdicted Jufts and Tournaments, because he understood they had much hindered the Crufade decreed in the Council of Vienna. "Torncamenta ipfa & "Haftiludia five Juxtas in regnis Franciæ, Angliæ, & "Almanniæ, & aliis nonnullis provinciis, in quibus ea "confuevere frequentiùs exerceri, fpecialiter interdixit." Extrav. de Torneamentis C. unic. tem. Ed. 1. Religious men, I conceive, therefore, might think to forward the design of the Crusades by turning the fondness for Tiltsand Tournaments into that channel. Hence we fee the books of Knight-errantry fo full of folemn Jufts and Tournaments held at Trebizonde, Bizance, Tripoly, &c. Which wife project, I apprehend, it was Cervantes's intention to ridicule, where he makes his Knight propofe it as the best means of fubduing the Turk, to affemble all the Knights-errant together by Proclamation *. WARBURTON.

*See Part II. lib. v. c. 1.