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neither French nor English. Nomenclaturing (page 109), is likewife a new word. In page 142, will is twice ufed for fall. And we fcarcely approve of mediums (page 97), and craniums (page 147).

ART. X. Amadis de Gaul. By Vafco Lobeyra. From the Spanish Verfion of Garciordonez de Montalvo. Ey Robert Southey. Four Volumes 12mo.

London.

Amadis de Gaul: A Poem, in Three Books. Freely Tranflated from the First Part of the French Verfion of Nicolas de Herberay, Sieur des Effars. With Notes, by William Stewart Rofe, Efq. Izmo. London.

THE HE fame of Amadis de Gaul has reached to the prefent day, and has indeed become almoft provincial in moft languages of Europe. But this diftinction has been attained rather in a mortifying manner: for the hero feems much less indebted for his prefent renown to his hiftorians, Lobeira, Montalvo, and Herberay, than to Cervantes, who felected their labours, as one of the best known books of Chivalry, and therefore the moft prominent object for his ridicule. In this cafe, as in many others, the renown of the victor has carried down to pofterity the memory of the vanquished; and, excepting the few ftudents of black letter, we believe no reader is acquainted with Amadis de Gaul, otherwife than as the prototype of Don Quixote de la Mancha. But the ancient knight feems now in a fair way of being refcued from this degrading ftate of notoriety, and of once more refuming a claim to public notice upon his own proper merits; having, with fingular good fortune, engaged in his caufe two fuch authors as Mr Southey and Mr Rofe. As the fubject of the two articles before us, is in fact the fame, we fhall adopt the profe verfion of Mr Southey, as forming the fulleft text for the general commentaries which we have to offer; referving till the conclufion, the particular remarks which occur to us upon Mr Rofe's

poem.

Mr Southey has prefixed to his tranflation certain preliminary notices, which, by an odd and rather affected arrangement, he has fplit into fections or chapters, numbered rft, 2d, 3d, &c.; a divifion which is the more arbitrary, as no titles are given to these fections. Many readers, thus left to conjecture the caufes and purpose of the arrangement, muft find themselves at a lofs; and we readily confefs ourselves to be of the number: for an unbroken

broken inquiry refpecting the author of Amadis, occupies most of the paragraphs thus unneceffarily detached from each other. This inquiry, particularly connected as it stands with the hiftory of romance in general, has claim to our peculiar attention.

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The earliest copy of Amadis de Gaul, now known to exift, is the Spanish edition of Garcia Ordognez de Montalvo, which is used by Mr Southey in his tranflation. Montalvo profeffes, in general terms, to have revised and corrected this celebrated work from the ancient authorities. He is fuppofed principally to have ufed the verfion of Vafco de Lobeira, a Portuguefe knight who died in the beginning of the 15th century. But a difpute has arisen, whether even Lobeira can justly claim the merit of being the original author of this famous and interefting romance. Nicolas de Herberay, who tranflated Montalvo's work into French in 1575, afferts pofitively, that it was originally written in that language; and adds this remarkable paffage: F'en ay trouvé encores quelques refte d'un vieil livre efcrit à la main en langage Picard, fur lequel Jefime que les Espagnols ont fait leur traduction, non pas de tout Juyvant le vrai original, comme l'on pourra veoir par ceftuy, car ilz en ont obmis en aucuns endroits et augmenté aux autres. Southey, however, fetting totally afide the evidence of Herberay, as well as of Monfieur de Treffan, who alfo affirms the existence of a Picard original of Amadis, is decidedly of opinion, that Vafco de Lobeira was the original author. It is with fome hefitation that we venture to differ, from Mr Southey, knowing, as we well know, that his acquaintance with the Portuguese literature entitles him to confiderable deference in fuch an argument: yet, viewing the matter on the proofs he has produced, and confidering alfo the general history and progrefs of romantic compofition, we incline ftrongly to think with Mr Rofe, that the story of Amadis is originally of French extraction.

Mr

The earliest tales of romance which are known to us, are uniformly in verfe; and this was very natural; for they were in a great measure the compofition of the minftrels, who gained their livelihood by chanting and reciting them. This is peculiarly true of the French minstrels, as appears from the well-known quotation of Du Cangé from the Romance of Du Guefclin, where the champions of romantic fiction are enumerated as the subject of their lays.

ROLLANS

Les quatre fils HAIMON, Et CHARLON li plus grans
Li dus LIONS DE BOURGES, et GULON DE CONNANS
PERCEVAL LI GALOIS, LANCELOT, et TRISTANS
ALEXANDRE, ARTUS, GODEFROI li fachans

De quoy cils mencftiers font les nobles romans.

There

There are but very few profe books of chivalry in the world, which are not either ftill extant, or are at least known to have existed originally in the form of metrical romances. The very name by which fuch compofitions are diftinguished, is derived from the ro mance or corrupted Latin employed by the minstrels, and long fignified any history or fable narrated in vulgar poetry. It would be almost endless to cite examples of this propofition. The Tales of Arthur and his Round Table, by far the moft fertile fource of the romances of chivalry, are all known to have exifted as metrical compofitions long before the publication of the profe folios on the fame fubject. These poems the minstrels ufed to chant at folemn festivals: nor was it till the decay of that extraordinary profeffion that romances in profe were fubftituted for their lays. The invention of printing haftened the declenfion of poetical romance. The fort of poetry employed by the minstrels, differed only from profe in being more eafily retained by the memory; but when copies were readily and cheaply multiplied by means of the prefs, the exertion of recollection became unneceffary.

As early as the fifteenth century, numerous prose versions of the most celebrated romances were executed in France and England, which were printed in the courfe of the fixteenth. Thefe works are now become extremely rare. Mr Southey attributes this to their great popularity. But if their popularity lafted, as he fuppofes, till they were worn out by repeated perufal, the printers would have found their advantage in fupplying the public with new editions. The truth is, that the editions first publifhed of thefe expenfive folio romances were very fmall. Abridgments and extracts ferved the purpose of the vulgar. Meanwhile, the taste of the great took another turn; and the books of chivalry difappeared, in confequence of the neglect and indifference of their owners. More than a century elapsed betwixt their being read for amusement, and fought for as curiofities; and such a lapfe of time would render any work fcarce, were the editions as numerous as thofe of the Pilgrim's Progrefs.

To return to our fubject-It appears highly probable to us, that Lobeira's profe Amadis was preceded by a metrical romance, according to the general progrefs which we obferve in the hiftory of fimilar productions.

Another general remark authorises the fame conclufion. It is well known that the romances of the middle ages were not announced to the hearers as works of mere imagination. On the contrary they were always affirmed by the narrators to be matter of hiftorical fact; nor was this difputed by the fimplicity of the audience. The gallant knights and lovely dames, for whofe delight these romances were compofed and fung, were neither hocked by the incongruities of the work, nor the marvellous

turn

turn of the adventures. Some old tradition was adopted for the fubject of the tale; favourite and well known names were introduced. An air of authenticity was thus obtained; the prejudices of the audience conciliated; and the feudal baron believed as firmly in the exploits of Roland and Oliver, as a flurdy Celt of our day in the equally fophifticated poems of Offian.Hence, the grand fources of romantic fiction have been traced to the Brut of Maifter Wace, himself a tranflator of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who put into form the traditions of the bards of Wales and Armorica; to the fabulous hiftory of Turpin, from which fprung the numerous romances of Charlemagne and his twelve Peers; and, finally, to the fiege of Troy, as narrated by Dares Phrygius, and to the exploits of Alexander. Other and later heroes became alfo the fubject of romance. Such were William of Orange, called Short nofe, Richard of Normandy, Ralph Blundeville Earl of Chefter, Richard Coeur de Lion, Robert the Bruce, Bertrand du Guefclin, &c. &c. The barons alfo, before whom these tales were recited, were often flattered by a fabulous genealogy which deduced their pedigree from fome hero of the ftory. A peer of England, the Duke of Buckingham, if we recollect aright, conceited himself to be defcended of the doughty Knight of the Swan; and, what is fomewhat to our prefent purpose, the French family of Bonneau deduce their pedigree from Dariolette, the complaifant confidant of Elifene, mother to Amadis.-See Mr Rofe's work, p. 52.

A Portuguese minstrel would therefore have erred grofsly in choofing for his fubject a palpable and abfolute fiction, in which he could derive no favour from the partialities and preconceived o pinions of thefe whofe applaufe he was ambitious to gain. But if we fuppofe Amadis to have been the exclufive compofition of Lobeira, we must fuppofe him to have invented a story, not only altogether unconnected with the hiftory of his own country, but identified with the real or fabulous hittory of France, which was then the ally of Caftile, and the mortal foe of Portugal. The difficulty is at once removed, if we allow that author to have adopted from the French minstrels a tale of their country, founded probably upon fome ancient and vague tradition, in the fame manner as they themselves had borrowed from the British bards, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, their tranflator, the flender foundation upon which they erected the voluminous and fplendid hiftory of Arthur, and the doughty chivalry of his Round Table. This is the more probable, as we actually find Amadis enumerated among other heroes of French romance mentioned in an ancient collection of ftories called Curfor Mundi, tranflated from the French into English metre.

• Men

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Of Alexandre the conquerour ;
Of Julius Cæfar the emperour;
Of Greece and Troy the ftrong ftryfe;
There many a man loft his lyf;
Of Brut, that baron bold of hond,
The first conquerour of Englond;
Of Kyng Artour, that was fo ryche,
Was non in his tyme fo ilyche;
Of wonders that among his knights fell,
And auntyrs deden as men her telle:
As Gaweyn and othir full abylle,
Which that kept the round tabyll;
Hou King Charles & Rowland fawghte
With Sarazins nold thei be cawght;
Of Triftram and Yfoude the swete,
Hou thei with love first gan mete;
Of King John & of Ifenbras ;
Of Ydoine and Amadas.'

Warton's Hiftory of Poetry.

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If the hero last mentioned be really Amadis de Gaul, the queftion as to the existence of a French or Picard history of his exploits, is fairly put to reft. For, not to mention that the date of the poem above quoted is at least coeval with Vafco de Lobeira, it is admitted, that no French tranflation of the Portuguese work was made till that of Herberay in 1575; and, confequently the author of the Curfor Mundi muft have alluded to a French original, altogether independent of Lobeira's work.

Mr Southey himself, with the laudable impartiality of an editor more attached to truth than fyftem, has produced the evidence of one Portuguese author, who fays that Pedro de Lobeira tranflated the hiftory of Amadis de Gaul from the French language, at the inftance of the Infant Don Pedro. Agiologio Lufitano, tom. 1. p. 480.-Now, although this author has made a miftake, in calling Lobeira, Pedro, instead of Vafco, yet his authority at least proves, that there exifted, even in Portugal, fome tradition that Amadis had originally been compofed in French, although the authors of that country have, with natural partiality, endeavoured to vindicate Lobeira's title to the fame of an original author. One fingular circumstance tends to corroborate VOL. III. NO. 5.

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what

The evidence of Nicola Antonia, in the Vetus Hifpanæ Bibliotheca, is, as remarked by Mr Rose, extremely inconclufive. He adds ut fama ef to his affirmation that Lobeira was the original author of Amadis, and quotes the equally cautious expreffion of Antonius AuguftinusQuarum fabularum primum fuiffe auctorem Vafcum Lobeiram, Lufi tani ja@ant.' Amadis de Gaule, a poem, Introd. p. vi.

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