fure disappointed in his expectations, Aravigo held it for moft expedient to fall upon Lifuarte in his retreat, whom, after a valiant refiftance, he reduces to the last extremity: this is the moment which the author has chofen to exhibit the magnanimity of Amadis, and to bring about a reconciliation. The inftant he hears of Lifuarte's danger, our hero flies to his affiftance, and the reader will anticipate with what fuccefs: Aravigo is flain, and Arcalaus made prifoner and cooped up in a cage of iron. The father of Oriana is reconciled to her lover; and the introduction of Efplandian has its effect in haftening fo defirable an event. The nup tials of Amadis and Oriana take place; and the other heroines are diftributed among the champions of the Firm Ifland, with great regard to merit. One thing yet remained. To finish the enchantments of the Firm Ifland, it was neceffary that the fairest dame in the world should enter the enchanted chamber. Need we add, that dame was Oriana? Then was the feast spread, and the marriage-bed of Amadis and Oriana made in that cham→ ber which they had won.'

Through the whole of this long work, the characters affigned to the different perfonages are admirably fuftained. That of Amadis is the true knight-errant. Of him it might be faid, in the language of Lobeira's time, that he was true, amorous, sage, fecret, bounteous, full of prowefs, hardy, adventurous, and chivalrous.' Don Galaor, the Ranger of knight-errantry, forms a good contrast to his brother. Lifuarte, even where swayed by the most unreasonable prejudices, fhows, as it were occafionally, his natural goodnefs, fo as always to prevent the total ailenation of our good opinion and intereft. The advantage given by the author to the vaffals and dependants over the Suzerain, fhows plainly a wish to please the numerous petty princes and barons at the expence of the liege lord. This may be remarked in many romances of chivalry, particularly in thofe of Charlemagne and his Paladins. Even the inferior characters are well, though flightly sketched. The prefumption of the Emperor, the open gallan try and dry humour of old Grumedan the King's standard-bearer, the fidelity of Gandalin fquire to Amadis, the profeffional manners of Mafter Helifabad the physician, with many others, are all in true ftyle and costume.

The machinery introduced in Amadis, does not, as Mr Southey obferves, partake much of the marvellous. Arcalaus is more to be redoubted for his courage and cunning, than for his magic. Urganda is a fay fimilar to those which figure in the lays of Brittany, and, except her character of a prophetefs, and fome legerde-main tricks of transformation, has not much that is fupernatural in her character. We differ toto cælo from Mr Southey, in

I 2

deriving

deriving this clafs of beings from classical antiquity: the nymphs and naïads of the Greeks and Romans in no fhape meddled with magic; nor were they agents out of the limits of their own proper elements. Some faint traces of Gentile fuperftition may be traced in the creed of the middle ages; but the Oriental geni and peris feem the prototype of the faeries of romance. The very word faery is identified with the peri of the Eaft, which, according to the enunciation of the Arabs or Saracens, from whom the Europeans probably derived the word, founds pheri, the letter not occuring in the Arabic alphabet. We do not mean, however, by any means, to adopt Mr Warton's fyftem, which derives chivalry and romance exclufively from the Eaft. On the contrary, although eaftern fuperftitions, and particularly that of the fatæ, fade, or peri, feem to have been adopted by the romancers, the fyftem of chivalry itfelf appears of northern origin; and romance is chiefly indebted for its fubjects to the hiftorical traditions of the Celtic tribes, although the minstrels, by whom they were celebrated, were of Gothic extraction.

It remains to make fome obfervations on Mr Southey's mode of executing his tranflation, which appears to us marked with the hand of a master. The abridgements are judicioufly made; and although fome readers may thing too much has ftili been retained, yet the objection will only occur to fuch as read merely for the ftory, without any attention to Mr Southey's more important object of exhibiting a correct example of thofe romances, by which our forefathers were fo much delighted, and from which we may draw fuch curious inferences refpecting their customs, their morals, and their modes of thinking. The popular romance always preferves, to a certain degree, the manners of the age in which it was written. The novels of Fielding and Richardson are even already become valuable, as a record of the English manners of the last generation. How, much then, fhould we prize the volumes which defcribe thofe of the era of the victors of Crefly and Poitiers! The style of Mr Southey is, in general, what he proposed, rather antique, from the form of expreffion, than from the introduction of obfolete phrafes. It has fomething of the fcriptural turn, and much refembles the admirable tranflation of Froiffart. * Some words

*He that would acquire an idea of the language of chivalry, cannot too often ftudy the work of Bourchier Lord Berners. It is with pain we see a new tranflation of Froiffart propofed to the public. It is impoffible that the fpirit of that excellent author can ever be fo happily transfufed into modern English, as into the fterling language of Lord Berners. The liberality of the propofed tranflator would furely

be

words have inadvertently been used, which, to us, favour more of vulgarity than befeems the language of chivalry. Such are the phrafes, devilry,' Sir Knave,' Don Falfe One,' and fome others. But we only mention thefe, to show that our geneTal praife has not been incomfiderately bestowed.

Mr Southey has made an apology for not tranflating the names, which convey fome meaning in the original: I have ufed Beltenebros, instead of the Beautiful Darkling, or the Fair Forlorn, Floreftan, instead of Forefter; El Patin, inftead of the Emperor Gofling; as we fpeak of Barbaroffa, not Red-Beard; Boccanegra, not Black Muzzle; St Peter, not Stone the Apostle.' We cannot help thinking this apology as unneceffary, as the examples are whimsical. Proper names are never rendered into a familiar dialect, but with a view of making them ridiculous; although they are fometimes tranflated into a lefs known language, to give them dignity. Thus, Mr Wood is faid to have been converted into Dr Lignum, and to have gained by the exchange; while it is well known, that the Portugueze ambaffador, Don Pedro Francifco Correo de Sylva, was chafed from the court of Charles the Second, by the ridicule attached to the nickname of Pierre du Bois, into which his founding title was rendered by the Duke of Buckingham: and, furely, to talk of the Chief Conful Good-part, would be as abfurd as the epithet would be inapplicable. As for Stone the Apofile, we have only heard of one bearing that name, who had alfo the fate of a prophet; for his doctrines were no otherwife honoured in his own country, than by the notice of the King's attorney-general.

In one refpect, where we were entitled, from Mr Southey's well known poetical powers, to hope for great fatisfaction, we have been moft wofully difappointed. Inftead of a verfion of the fonnets which occur in Amadis, executed by Mr Southey, he has been pleafed to prefent the public with what himself calls the Shadow of a fhade, the tranflation from Hierberay's French into Anthony Munday's English. We are furprifed, that, in a book to which he places a name well known in the poetical world, he fhould admit fuch deggrel as,

I loft my liberty, while I did gaze

Upon thofe lights, which fet me in a`maze ;

I 3.

And

be better employed in giving the public a new edition of the former tranflation, which is now become extremely scarce; and his learning and talents for literature would' find no trivial employment in correcting mistakes, and collecting illustrations from cotemporary writers.

And of one free, am now become a thrall.
Put to fuch pain, thou ferv'ft thy friends withal:
And yet I do efteem this pain a pleasure,
Endured for thee, whom I love out of measure.
Leonor, fweet rofe, all other flowers excelling,

For thee I feel strange thoughts in me rebelling,' &c. There is another piece of incomprehenfible nonfenfe, beginning,

Sith that the victory, of right deserved,

By wrong they do withhold, for which I ferved;
Now fith my glory thus hath had a fall,

Glorious it is to end my life withal,' &c.

The difgrace of this abominable ftuff does not reft with poor, Anthony Now-Now, whofe talents could afford nothing better; far lefs with the Spanish author, whofe fonnets, though quaint, are not devoid of fome merit; but with Mr Southey, whom we feriously exhort, in the name of poetry and common fenfe, to give us a decent tranflation in his next edition, and no more to Thelter himself behind Munday for his verfe, than he has done for his profe.

So much for the profe edition of Amadis, with the perufal of which we have been highly gratified.

We have already given it as our opinion, that the history of Amadis was, in its original ftate, a metrical romance. We remember, alfo, to have feen an Italian poem in ottava rima, called Il Amadigi, chiefly remarkable for the whimfical rule which the poet had impofed upon himself, of opening each canto with a defcription of the morning, and closing it with a defcription of the night. Mr William Stewart Rofe has now favoured the public with a poetical verfion of the First Book of Amadis, con, taining the birth and earlier adventures of the hero, and clofing with his gaining poffeffion of Oriana.

In our remarks upon this poem, we are more inclined to blame, in fome degree, Mr Rofe's plan, than to find fault with the execution, which appears to us, upon the whole, to be nearly as perfect as the plan admitted. Mr Rofe has indeed stated his preten fions fo very modeftly, that perhaps we are warranted in thinking, that a culpable degree of diffidence has prevented him from af fuming a tone of poetry more decided and animated.

That the extract I now prefent to the public,' fays Mr Rofe, ' is closely tranflated, I cannot venture to affirm. I have, I confefs, attempted to introduce fome of those trifling ornaments, which even the fimpleft style of poetry imperiously demands, and

have, in many inftances, altered the arrangement, and very much contracted the narration of the original: I truft, however, that I shall not be convicted of having, in my trifling deviations, introduced any thing which is at variance with the fpirit or tone of the celebrated romance.'

With the alterations and abbreviations of Mr Rofe, we have not the most diftant intention of quarrelling; on the contrary, we think that his too close adherence to his original, is the greatest defect in the book. Mr Rofe was not engaged in tranflating a poem, but in compofing one; the ftory of which was adopted from a profe work. We therefore do not conceive that he was obliged to limit himself to trifling ornaments, or to the very fimpleft style of poetry. Even in modernizing ancient poetry, and that, too, the poetry of Chaucer, containing no fmall portion of fire, Dryden thought himself at liberty to heighten and enlarge the defcriptions of his great mafter. But in his verfions from those pieces, (in the tale of Theodore and Honoria, for example), he borrowed from Boccacio only the outline of the ftory: the language, the conduct, and the fentiment, were all his own, and all in the higheft ftrain of poetry. In like manner, we cannot fee why Mr Rofe fhould have thought himself obliged to follow in any respect the profe of Herberay, while he himself was writing poetry. We can eafily conceive that a profe romance may be converted into a metrical romance or epic poem; but we cannot allow, that there ought to fubfift betwixt two works, the style of which is fo very different, the relations of a tranflation and an original work. In confequence of Mr Rofe's plan, it appears to us that his poem has fuffered fome injury. The neceflity of following out minutely the profe narrative, produces an occafional languor in the poem, for which fimple, and even elegent verfification does not atone. We will, however, frankly own, that the cafual circumftance of having perufed Mr Southey's profe work before the poem of Mr Rofe, may have had fome in fluence upon our criticism; fince our curiofity being completely foreftalled, we may have felt a diminished interest in the latter, from a caufe not imputable to want of merit.

The avowed model upon which Mr Rofe has framed his Amadis, is, the tranflation of Le Grand's Fabliaux, by Mr Way: and it is but justice to state, that, in our opinion, he has fully attained what he propofed. An eafy flow of verfe, partaking more of the fchool of Dryden than of Pope, and chequered, occafionally, with ancient words and terms of chivalry, feems well calculated for the narration of romance and legendary tale. The following paffage is a fuccefsful imitation of Chaucer: