74 THE DYING BEQUESTS AND DESIRES OF EDWARD I. XI.-Thah mi tonge were mad of stel Ant min herte yzote of bras That the pope should here pronounce the funeral panegyric of Edward I., is by no means surprising, if we consider the predominant ideas of the age. And in the true spirit of these ideas, the poet makes this illustrious monarch's achievements in the holy land, his principal and leading topic. But there is a particular circumstance alluded to in these stanzas, relating to the crusading character of Edward, together with its consequences, which needs explanation. Edward, in the decline of life, had vowed a second expedition to Jerusalem: but finding his end approach, in his last moments he devoted the prodigious sum of thirty thousand pounds to provide one hundred and forty knights [The poet says 80], who should carry his heart into Palestine. But this appointment of the dying king was never executed. Our elegist, and the chroniclers, impute the crime of witholding so pious a legacy to the advice of the king of France, whose daughter Isabel was married to the succeeding king. But it is more probable to suppose, that Edward II., and his profligate minion Piers Gaveston, dissipated the money in their luxurious and expensive pleasures. SECTION III. We have seen, in the preceeding section, that the character of our poetical composition began to be changed about the reign of the first Edward: that either fictitious adventures were substituted by the minstrels in the place of historical or traditionary facts, or reality disguised by the misrepresentations of invention; and that a taste for ornamental and even exotic expression gradually prevailed over the rude simplicity of the native English phraseology. This change, which with our language affected our poetry, had been growing for some time; and among other causes was occasioned by the introduction and the increase of the tales of chivalry. 1 MSS. Harl. 2253. f. 73. In a Miscellany called the Muses Library, compiled, as I have been informed, by an ingenious lady of the name of Cooper, there is an elegy on the death of Henry I., wrote immediately after his death, the author unknown.' p. 4. Lond. Pr. for T. Davies, 1738. octavo. But this piece, which has great merit, could not have been written till some centuries afterwards. From the classical allusions and general colour of the phraseology, to say nothing more, it with greater probability belongs to Henry VIII. It escaped me till just before this work went to press, that Dr. Percy had printed this elegy, Ball. ii. 9. The ideas of chivalry, in an imperfect degree, had been of old established among the Gothic tribes. The fashion of challenging to single combat, the pride of seeking dangerous adventures, and the spirit of avenging and protecting the fair sex, seem to have been peculiar to the northern nations in the most uncultivated state of Europe. All these customs were afterwards encouraged and confirmed by corresponding circumstances in the feudal constitution. At length the crusades excited a new spirit of enterprise, and introduced into the courts and ceremonies of European princes a higher degree of splendor and parade, caught from the riches and magnificence of eastern cities'. These oriental expeditions established a taste for hyperbolical description, and propagated an infinity of marvellous tales, which men returning from distant countries easily imposed on credulous and ignorant minds. The unparalleled emulation with which the nations of christendom universally embraced this holy cause, the pride with which emperors, kings, barons, earls, bishops, and knights strove to excel each other on this interesting occasion, not only in prowess and heroism, but in sumptuous equipages, gorgeous banners, armorial cognisances, splendid pavilions, and other expensive articles of a similar nature, diffused a love of war, and a fondness for military pomp. Hence their very diversions became warlike, and the martial enthusiasm of the times appeared in tilts and tournaments. These practices and opinions co-operated with the kindred superstitions of dragons 2, dwarfs, fairies, giants, and enchanters, which the traditions of the Gothic scalders had already planted; and produced that extraordinary species of composition which has been called ROMANCE. Before these expeditions into the east became fashionable, the principal and leading subjects of the old fablers were the achievements of king Arthur with his knights of the round table, and of Charlemagne with his twelve peers. But in the romances written after the holy war, a new set of champions, of conquests, and of countries, were introduced. Trebizonde took place of Rouncevalles, and Godfrey of Bulloigne, Solyman, Nouraddin, the caliphs, the souldans, and the cities of Egypt and Syria became the favourite topics. The troubadcurs of Provence, an idle and unsettled race of men, took up arms, and followed their barons in prodigious multitudes to the conquest of Jerusalem. They made a considerable part of the household of the 11 cannot help transcribing here a curious passage from old Fauchett. He is speaking of Louis the young, king of France, about the year 1150. 'Le quel fut le premier roy de sa maison, qui monstra dehors ses richesses allant en Jerusalem. Aussi la France commenca de son temps a s'embellir de bastimens plus magnifiques: prendre plaisir a perrieres, et autres delicatesses goustus en Levant par luy, où les seigneurs qui avoient ja fait ce voyage. *De forte qu'on peut dire qu'il a este le premier tenant Cour de grand Roy: estant si magnisique, que sa semme dedaignant la simplicite de ses predecesseurs, luy sit elever une sepulture d'argent, au lieu de perrie.' RECUEIL de la Lang. es Poes. Fr. ch. viii. p. 76. edit. 1581 He adds, thas a great number of French romances were composed about this period. 2 See Kircher's Mund. Subterran, viii. § 4. He mentions a knight of Rhodes made grand master of the order for killing a dragon, 1345. 76 POETIC CRUSADERS-THE EARLY LITERATURE OF ROMANCE. nobility of France. Louis the seventh, king of France, not only entertained them at his court very liberally, but commanded a considerable quantity of them into his retinue, when he took ship for Palestine, that they might solace him with their songs, during the dangers and inconveniencies of so long a voyage. [Velley, Hist. Fr. sub. an. 1178.] The ancient chroniclers of France mention Legions de poetes as embarking in this wonderful enterprise.' Here a new and more copious scene of fabling was opened: in these expeditions they picked up numberless extravagant stories, and at their return enriched romance with an infinite variety of oriental scenes and fictions. Thus these later wonders, in some measure, supplanted the former: they had the recommendations of novelty, and gained still more attention, as they came from a greater distance.2 In the mean time we should recollect, that the Saracens or Arabians, the same people which were the object of the crusades, had acquired an establishment in Spain about the ninth century: and that by means of this earlier intercourse, many of their fictions and fables, together with their literature, must have been known in Europe before the christian armies invaded Asia. It is for this reason the elder Spanish romances have professedly more Arabian allusions than any other. Cervantes makes the imagined writer of Don Quixote's history an Arabian. Yet exclusive of their domestic and more immediate connection with this eastern people, the Spaniards from temper and constitution were extravagantly fond of chivalrous exercises. Some critics have supposed, that Spain having learned the art or fashion of romancewriting, from their naturalised guests the Arabians, communicated it, at an early period, to the rest of Europe3. It has been imagined that the first romances were composed in 1 Massieu, Hist. Poes. Fr. p. 105. Many of the troubadours, whose works now exist, and whose names are recorded, accompanied their lords to the holy war. Some of the French nobility of the first rank were troubadours about the eleventh century: and the French critics with much triumph observe, that it is the GLORY of the French poetry to number counts and dukes, that is sovereigns, among its professors, from its commencement. What a glory! The worshipful company of Merchant-taylors in London, if I recollect right, boast the names of many dukes, earls, and princes, enrolled in their community. This is indeed an honour to that otherwise respectable society. But poets can derive no lustre from counts, and dukes, or even princes, who have been enrolled in their lists; only in proportion as they have adorned the art by the excellence of their compositions. 2 The old French historian Mezeray goes so far as to derive the origin of the French poetry and romances from the crusades. Hist. p. 416. 417. Geoffrey of Vinesauf says, that when king Richard the first arrived at the Christian camp before Ptolemais, he was received with populares Cantiones, which recited Antiquoram Præclara Gesta. IT. HIEROSOL. cap. ii. P. 332. idid. What can we 3 Huet in some measure adopts this opinion. But that learned man was a very incompetent judge of these matters. Under the common term Romance, he confounds romances of chilvalry, romances of gallantry, and all the fables of the Provencal poets. think of a writer, who having touched upon the gothic romances, at whose fictions and barbarisms he is much shocked, talks of the consummate degree of art and elegance to which the French are at present arrived in romances? He adds, that the superior refinement and politesse of the French gallantry has happily given them an advantage of shining in this species of composition. Hist. Rom. p. 138. But the sophistry and ignorance of Huet's Treatise has been already detected and exposed by a critic of another cast, in the SUPPLEMENT TO JARVIS'S PREFACE, prefixed to the Translation of Don Quixote. metre, and sung to the harp by the poets of Provence at festival solemnities: but an ingenious Frenchman, who has made deep researches into this sort of literature, attempts to prove, that this mode of reciting romantic adventures was in high reputation among the natives of Normandy, above a century before the troubadours of Provence, who are generally supposed to have led the way to the poets of Italy, Spain, and France, and that it commenced about the year 1162'. If the critic means to insinuate, that the French troubadours acquired their art of versifying from these Norman bards, this reasoning will favour the system of those, who contend that metrical romances lineally took their rise from the historical odes of the Scandinavian scalds for the Normans were a branch of the Scandinavian stock. But Fauchett, at the same time that he allows the Normans to have been fond of chanting the praises of their heroes in verse, expressly pronounces that they borrowed this practice from the Franks or French. It is not my business, nor is it of much consequence, to discuss this obscure point, which properly belongs to the French antiquaries. I therefore proceed to observe, that our Richard I., who began his reign in the year 1189, a distinguished hero of the crusades, a most magnificent patron of chivalry, and a Provencal poet3, invited to his court many minstrels or troubadours from France, whom he loaded with honours and rewards. These poets imported into England a 1 Mons. L' Eveque de la Ravalerie, in his Revolutions de Langue Francoise, a la suite des POESIES DU ROI DE NAVARRE. Ce que les Normans avoyent pris des Francois. Rec. liv. i. p. 70. edit. 1581. 3 See Observations on Spencer, i. §. i. p. 28. 29. Walpole's Royal and Noble authors, i. 5. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, ch. vii. p. 73. edit. 1693. Savarie de Mauleon, an English gentinian who lived in the service of Saint Louis king of France, and one of the Provencal poets, said of Richard, Coblas a teira faire adroitement Pou vos oillex enten dompna gentiltz. 'He could make stansas on the eyes of gentle ladies.' Rymer, ibid. p. 74. There is a curus story recorded by the French chroniclers, concerning Richard's skill in the minstrel art, which I will here relate.-Richard, in his return from the crusade, was taken prisoner about the year 1193. A whole year elapsed before the English knew where their monarch imprisoned. Blondell de Neste, Richard's favourite minstrel, resolved to find out his lord and after travelling many days without success, at last came to a castle where Richard was detained in custody. Here he found that the castle belonged to the duke of Austria, and that a king was there imprisoned. Suspecting that the prisoner was his master, he found reans to place himself directly before a window of the chamber where the king was kept; and in this situation began to sing a French chanson, which Richard and Blondell had formerly written together. When the king heard the song he knew it was Blondell who sung it; and when Blondell paused after the first half of the song, the king began the other half and comFeed it. On this, Blondell returned home to England, and acquainted Richard's barons with the place of his imprisonment, from which he was soon afterwards released. Fauchett, Rec. P. 3. Richard lived long in Provence, where he acquired a taste for their poetry. The only relic of his sonnets is a small fragment in old French, accurately cited by Walpole, and written Gurg his captivity; in which he remonstrates to his men and barons of England, Normandy, P tiers, and Gascony, that they suffered him to remain so long a prisoner. Catal. Roy, and No. Auth. i. 5. Nostradamus's account of Richard is full of false facts and anachronisms. Poet Provenc. artic. RICHARD. 4' De regno Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat.' Rog Hoved. Ric: I, P. 249. These gratuities were chiefly arms, cloaths, horses, and sometimes money, 'On a review of this passage in Hoveden, it appears to have been William bishop of Ely, chancellor to kung Richard the first, who thus invited minstrels from France, whom he loaded with favors and presents to sing his praises in the streets. But it does not much alter the docune of the text, whether he or the king was instrumental in importing the French minstrels 78 THE EARLIEST PROFESSED BOOK OF CHIVALRY IN ENGLAND. great multitude of their tales and songs; which before or about the reign of Edward II. became familiar and popular among our ancestors, who were sufficiently acquainted with the French language. The most early notice of a professed book of chivalry in England, as it should seem, appears under the reign of Henry the third; and is a curious and evident proof of the reputation and esteem in which this sort of composition was held at that period. In the revenue-roll of the twenty-first year of that king, there is an entry of the expense of silver clasps and studs for the king's great book of romances. This was in the year 1237. But I will give the article in its origin a dress. 'Et in into England. This passage is in a letter of Hugh bishop of Coventry, which see also in Hearne's benedictus Abbas, vol. ii. p. 704. sub ann 1191. It appears from this letter, that he was totally ignorant of the English language. ibid p. 708. By his contemporary Gyraldus Cambrensis, he is represented as a monster of injustice, impiety, intemperance, and lust. Gyraldus has left these anecdotes of his character, which shew the scandalous grossness of the times. Sed taceo quod ruminare solet, nunc clamitat Anglia tota, qualiter puella, matris industria tam coma quam cultu puerum professa, simulansque virum verbis et vultu, ad cubiculum belluæ istius est perducta. Sed statim ut exosi illius sevus est inventa, quanquam in se pulcherrima, thalamique thorique deliciis valde idonea, repudiata tamen est et abjecta. Unde et in crastino, matri filia, tam flagitiosi facinoris conscia, cum Petitionis effectu, terrisque non modicis eandem jure hæreditario contingentibus, virgo, ut venerat, est restituta. Tantæ nimirum intemperantiæ, et petulantiæ fuerat tam immoderatæ, quod quotidie in prandio circa finem, pretiosis tam potionibus quam cibariis ventre distento, virga aliquantulum longa in capite aculeum præferente pueros nobiles ad mensam ministrantes, eique prop'ter multimodam qua fungebatur potestatem in omnibus ad nutum obsequentes, pungere vicissim consueverit: ut eo indicio, quasi signo quodam secretiore, quem fortius, inter alios, atque frequentius sic quasi ludicro pungebat, &c. &c.' DE VIT. GALFRID. Archiepiscop. Ebor. Apud Whart. ANGL. SACR. vol. ii. p. 406. But Wharton endeavours to prove, that the character of this great prelate and statesman in many particulars had been misrepresented through prejudice and envy. Ibid. vol. i. p. 632. It seems the French minstrels, with whom the Song of ROLAND originated, were famous about this period. Muratori cites an old history of Bologna, under the year 1288, by which it appears, that they swarmed in the streets of Italy. Ut CANTATORES FRANCIGENARUM in plateis comunis ad cantandum morari non possent.' On which words he observes, 'Colle quali parole sembra verosimile, che sieno disegnati in catatore del favole romanza, ches 'spezialmente della Franzia erano portate in Italia.' DISSERT. ANTICHIT. Ital. tom. ii. c. xxix. p. 16. In Napoli, 1752. He adds, that the minstrels were so numerous in France, as to become a pest to the community; and that an edict was issued about the year 1200, to suppress them in that kingdom. Muratori, in further proof of this point, quotes the above passage from Hoveden; which, as I had done, he misapplies to our king Richard the first. But, in either sense, it equally suits his argument. In the year 1334, at a feast on Easter Sunday, celebrated at Kimini, on occasion of some noble Italians receiving the honour of knighthood, more than one thousand five hundred HISTRIONES are said to have attended. Triumphus quiden maximus fuit ibidem, &c.-Fuit etiam muititudo HISTRIONUM circa 'mille quingentos et ultra.' ANNAL. CESENAT. tom. xiv. RER. ITALIC. SCRIPTOR. col. 1141. But their countries are not specified. In the year 1227, at a feast in the palace of the archbishop of Genoa, a sumptuous banquet and vestments without number were given to the minstrels, or Joculatores, then present, who came from Lombardy, Provence, Tuscany, and other Countries. Caffari ANNAL. GENUENS. lib. vi. p. 449. D. Apud Tom. vi, ut supr. In the year 774, when Charlemagne entered Italy and found his passage impeded, he was met by a minstrel of Lombardy, whose song promised him success and victory. Contigit JOCULATOREM ex Longobardorum gente ad Carolum venire, et CANTIUNCULAM A SE COMPOSISAM, rotando in conspectu suorum, cantare.' Tom. ii. p. 2. ut supr. CHRON. MONAST. NOVAL. lib. iii. cap. x. p. 717. D. To recur to the origin of this Note. Rymer, in his SHORT VIEW OF TRAGEDY, on the notion that Hoveden is here speaking of king Richard, has founded a theory, which is consequently false, and is otherwise but imaginary. See p. 66. 67. 69. 74. He supposes, that Richard, in consequence of his connection with Raimond count of Tholouse, encouraged the heresy of the Albigenses; and that therefore the historian Hoveden, as an ecclesiastic, was interested in abusing Richard, and in insinuating, that his reputation for poetry rested only on the venal praises of the French minstrels. The words quoted are, indeed, written by a churchman, although not by Hoveden. But whatever invidious turn they bear, they belong, as we have seen, to quite another person; to a bishop who justly deserved such an indirect stroke of satire, for his criminal enormities, not for any vain pretensions to the character of a Provencal songster. |