be understood as an addition to Roldan's name, but merely as a participle, expreffing that he was enchanted, or made invulnerable by enchantment. But this is a fmall matter. And perhaps encantador may be an error of the prefs for encantado. From this digreffion Dr. W. returns to the fubject of the old romances in the following manner. "This driving the Saracens out of France and Spain, was, as we say, the Subject of the elder romances, And the first that was printed in Spain was the famous Amadis de Gaula. According to all common rules of conftru&ion, I think the latter fentence must be understood to imply, that Amadis de Gaula was one of the elder romances, and that the fubject of it was the driving of the Saracens out of France and Spain: whereas, for the reafons already given, Amadis, in comparifon with many other romances, muft be confidered as a very modern one; and the fubjed of it has not the least connection with any driving of the Saracens whatsoever. But what follows is ftill more extraordinary. "When this fubject was well exhausted, the affairs of Europe afforded them another of the fame nature. For after that the western parts had pretty well cleared themselves of thefe inhof❤ pitable guests; by the excitements of the popes, they carried their arms against them into Greece and Afia, to Support the Byzantine empire, and recover the holy Sepulchre. This gave birth to a new tribe of romances, which we may call of the fecond race or clafs. And as Amadis de Gaula was at the head of the first, fo, correspondently to the fubject Amadis de Græcia was at the head of the latter. It is impoffible I apprehend, to refer this fubject to any antecedent but that in the paragraph laft quoted, viz. the driving of the Saracens out of France and Spain. So that, according to one part of the hypothesis here laid down, the fubje&t of the driving the Saracens out of France and Spain, was well exhaufted by the old romances (with Amadis de Gaula at the head of them) before the Crufades; the firft of which is generally placed in the year 1095: and, according to the latter part, the crufades happened in the interval between Amadis de Gaula, and Amadis de Græcia; a space of twenty, thirty, or at most fifty years, to be reckoned backwards from the year 1532, in which year an edition of Amadis de Græcia is mentioned by Du Fresnoz. What induced Dr. W. to place Amadis de Græcia at the head of his fecond race or class of romances, I cannot guess. The fact is, that Amadis de Græcia is no more concerned in Supporting the Byzantine empire, and recovering the holy Sepulchre, than Amadis de Gaula in driving the Saracens out of France and Spain. And a ftill more pleasant circumftance is, that Amadis de Gracia, through more than nine tenths of his hiftory, is himself a declared Pagan. And here ends Dr. W.'s account of the old romances of chivalry, which he supposes to have had their ground-work in Turpin's hiftory. Before he proceeds to the others, which had their groundwork in our Geoffry, he interpofes a curious folution of a puzzling queftion concerning the origin of lying in romances." 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 imagination of the eastern people. We have a proof of this in the Travels of Sir J. Maundevile. He then gives us a story of an enchanted dragon in the ile of Cos, from Sir J. Maundevile, who wrote his Travels in 1356; by way of proof, that the tales of enchantments, &c. which had been current here in romances of chivalry for above two hundred years before, were brought by travellers from the Eaft! The proof is certainly not conclufive. On the other hand, I believe it would be easy to fhow, that, at the time when romances of chivalry began, our Europe had a very fufficient flock of lies of her own growth, to furnish materials for every variety of monftrous embellishment. At most times, I conceive, and in most countries, imported lies are rather for luxury than neceflity. Dr. W. comes now to that other ground-work of the old romances, our Geoffry of Monmouth. And him he difpatches very shortly, becaufe, as has been obferved before, it is impoffible to find any thing in him to the purpose of crufades, or Saracens. ludeed, in treating of Spanish romances, it must be quite unneceffary to fay much of Geoffry, as, whatever they have of the British Arthur and his conjurer Merlin," is of fo late a fabrick, that, in all probability, they took it from the more modern Italian romances, and not from Geoffry's own book. As to the doubt, "Whether it was by blunder or defgn that they changed the Saxons to Saracens," I should wish to poftpone the confideration of it, till we have fome Spanish romance before us, in which king Arthur is introduced carrying on a war against Saracens. And thus, I think, I have gone through the several facts and arguments which Dr. W. has advanced in fupport of his third pofition. In fupport of his two firft pofitions, as I have observed already, he has faid nothing; and indeed nothing can be said. The remainder of his note contains another hypothefis concerning the strange jumble of nonfenfe and religion in the old romances, which I fhall not examine. The reader, I prefume, by this time is well aware, that Dr. W.'s information upon this fubject is to be received with caution. I fhall only take a little notice of one or two facts, with which he fets out. In thefe old romances there was much religious fuperftition mixed with their other extravagancies; as appears even from their very names and titles. The firft romance of Lancelot of the Lake and King Arthur and his Knights, is called the Hiftory of Saint Greal. So another is called Kyrie eleifon of Montauban. For in thofe days Deuteronomy and Paralipomenon were supposed to be the names of holy men. I believe no one, who has ever looked into the common romance of king Arthur, will be of opinion, that the part relating to the Saint Greal was the first romance of Lancelot of the - font les quatre livres d'Amadis de Gaule, Lake and King Arthur and his Knights. And as to the other fuppofed to be called Kyrie eleifon of Montauban, there is no reason to believe that any romance with that title ever exifted. This is the mistake, which, as was hinted above, Dr. W. appears to have borrowed from Huet. The reader will judge. Huet is giving an account of the romances in Don Quixote's library, which the curate and barber faved from the flames. Ceux qu'ils jugent dignes d'être gardés Palmerin d'Angleterre, Don Belianis; le miroir de chevalerie; Tirante le Blanc, & Kyrie éleifon de Montauban (car au bon vieux temps on croyoit que Kyrie éleifon & Paralipomenon etoient les noms de quelques fainis) où les fubtilités de la Demoiselle Plaifir-de-ma-vie, & les tromperies de la Veuve repofee, font fort louées. It is plain, I think, that Dr. W. copied what he fays of Kyrie eleifon of Montauban, as well as the witticifm in his laft fentence, from this paffage of Huet, though he has improved upon his original by introducing a faint Deuteronomy, upon what authority I know not. It is fill more evident (from the paffage of Cervantes, which is quoted below) that Huet was miftaken in fuppofing Kyrie eleifon de Montauban to be the name of a feparate romance. He might as well have made La Demoiselle Plaifir-de-mavie and La Veuve repofée the names of feparate romances. are merely characters in the romance of Tirante le Blanc. much for Dr. W.'s account of the origin and nature of romances of chivalry. TYRWHITT. All three And fo No future editor of Shakspeare will, I believe, readily confent to omit the differtation here examined, though it certainly has no more relation to the play before us, than to any other of our author's dramas. Mr. Tyrwhitt's judicious obfervations upon it have given it a value which it certainly had not before; and, I think, I may venture to foretell, that Dr. Warburton's futile performance, like the pifmire which Martial tells us was accidentally incrufted with amber, will be ever preferved, for the fake of the admirable comment in which it is now enshrined. quæ fuerat vità contempta manente, Funeribus facta eft nunc pretiofa fuis. MALONE. * Don Quix, lib. 1. c. 6. "Valame Dios, dixo el Cura, dando una gran voz, que aquí está Tirante el Blanco Dadmele aca, compadre, que hago cuenta que he hallado en el un teforo de contento, y una mina de pafatiempos. Aqui eftá Don Quiricleyfon de Montalvan, valerofo Cavallero, y fu hermano Tomas de Montalvan, y el Cavallero Fonseca, con la batalla que el valiente de Tirante hizo con el alano, y las agudezas de la Donzella Plazerdemi vida, con los amores, y embufles de la viuda Repofada, y la Segnora Emperatriz, enamorada de Hippolito fu efcudero." Aqui eftȧ Don Quirielefon, &c. HERE, i. e. in the romance of Tirante el Blanco, is Don Quirieleyfon, &c." THE END OF THE SEVENTH VOLUME. Books printed and fold by J. J. THURNEISEN. Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study of Hiftory, vol. Gibbon's History of the Roman Empire, his miscellaneous Works, with his life written by himself, 21 vol. Robertfon's Hiftory of the Emperor Charles Vth., 4 vol. Kippis's Life of Captain James Cook, 2 vol. Hume's Hiftory of England, 12 vol. Gillie's Hiftory of Ancient Greece, 5 vol. Middleton's Life of Cicero, 4 vol. Ferguson's Effay on the Hiftory of Civil Society, 1 vol. Keate's Account of the Pelew-Ilands, 1 vol. Delolme's Conftitution of England, 1 vol. Robertfon's Hiftory of Scotland, 3 vol. Difquifition concerning India, I vol. Burke's Inquiry into the Sublime, 1 vol. Berrington's Hiftory of Abeilard and Heloifa, 2 vol. Hume's Effays and Treatifes, 4 vol. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, 2 vol. Junius's Lettres, 1 vol. Smollet's Continuation of Hume's Hiftory of England, Montague's Ancient Republics, 1 vol. Millar's Diftinction of Ranks, 1 vol. Home's Sketches of Man, 4 vol. Elements of Criticism, 3 vol. 8 vol. Bolingbroke's Remarks on the History of England, 1 vol. China in the years 1792, 1793 et 1794; with a defcription of the country, the cuftoms, manners, &c,, I vol. Stewart's Political Economy, 5 vol. Gibbon's mifcellaneous Works, with his Life written by himself, 7 vol. Gaft's Hiftory of Greece, from the acceffion of Alexander till its final Subjection to the Roman Power; 2 vol. |