ridiculous story of a Pagan deity! The forged and fabulous Edda, indeed, speaks of another Odin, surnamed the Persian, the father of the gods, to whom the origin of the art of the scalds was attributed, and who, according to the lying coxcomb already noticed, was defeated and put to flight by Pompey.* This groundless and absurd falsehood is, likewise, adopted by the learned and ingenious translator.† After all, it seems highly probable that the origin of romance in every age or country is to be sought in the different systems of superstition which have from time to time prevailed, whether pagan or Christian. The gods of the ancient heathens, and the saints of the more modern Christians, are the same sort of imaginary beings, who alternately give existence to romances, and receive it from them. The legends of the one, and the fables of the other, have been constantly fabricated for the same purpose, and with the same view--the promotion of fanaticism, which, being mere illusion, can only be excited or supported by romance; and, therefore, whether Homer made the gods, or the gods made Homer, is of no sort of consequence, as the same effect was produced by either cause. There is this distinction, indeed, between the heathen deities and the Christian saints, that the fables of the former were indebted for their existence to the flowery imagination of the sublime poet, and the legends of the latter to the gloomy fanaticism of a lazy monk or stinking priest. If the hero of a romance be occasionally borrowed from heaven, he is as often sent thither in return. John of Damascus, who fabricated a pious romance of Barlaam and Josaphat, in the eighth century, was the cause of these creations of his fanciful bigotry and interested superstition being placed in the empyreal galaxy, and worshipped as saints. Even Roland and Oliver, the forged and fabulous existences of the pseudo Turpin, or some other monkish or priestly impostor, have attained the same honour.‡ This idea is rendered the more plausible, if not positive, by the most ancient romances of chivalry, those of Charlemagne, for instance, and his Paladins, Arthur and his knights of the round table, Guy, Bevis, and so forth; all of whom are the strenuous and successful champions of Christianity, and mortal enemies of the Saracens, whom they voluntarily and wantonly invade, attack, persecute, slaughter, and destroy. It was not, therefore, without reason, said by whomsoever, that the first romances were composed to See Quadrio, Storia d'ogni Poesia, ii. 594, where, from the annals of Pighi, he gives the following extract: "In Roncisvalle i sauti Orlando, conte e paladino cenomanense nepote di Carlo magno, e Oliviero, duca di Ginevra martir; e sono celebrati da altri a 21 di Maggio e i altri a 17 del medesimo mese.' It is, indeed. somewhat difficult to fix the precise era of a saint that never existed. " promote the Crusades, during which period, it is certain, they were the most numerous; and to prove how radically these mischievous and sanguinary legends were impressed upon the minds of a bigoted and idiotic people for a series of no less than five centuries, about the year 1600 appeared "the famous history of the seven champions of Christendom," in which the Roland, Oliver, Guy, Bevis, etc., the fabulous heroes of old romance, are metamorphosed into Saint George, Saint Denis, Saint James, Saint Anthony, Saint Andrew, Saint Patrick, and St. David, the no less fabulous heroes of legend and religious imposture, most of whom receive a certain amount of adoration, like the pagan deities of old, by the dedication of churches, devotional days, and the like; which celebrated work being a compound of superstition and, as it were, all the lies of Christendom in one lie, is in many parts of the country believed at this day to be "as true as the Gospel." The first metrical romance, properly and strictly so-called, that is known to have existed, and may possibly be still extant in the dark recess of some national or monkish library, is the famous Chanson de Roland, which was sung by a minstrel, or juggler, named Taillefer, riding on horseback, at the head of the Norman army, when marching under Duke William to the Battle of Hastings. The earliest mention of this celebrated song appears to be made by William Somerset, a monk of Malmesbury, who finished his history and, as it is presumed, his life, in the year 1142. "Tunc," says he, in his description of the above engagement, "CANTILENA ROLLANDI inchoata, ut Martium viri exemplum pugnaturos accenderet," ," etc. Maistre Wase, or Gace, who completed his metrical romance of Le Brut, a free but excellent translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's British History, in the year 1155, is the only writer to whom we are indebted for a knowledge of the subject. of this ancient poem. His words are these: "Taillefer, qi mlt bien chantout, Sor un cheval qi tost alout, *De Gestis Regum, Book III., p. 101. All our old historians, as Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster, as well as the Chronicle of Albericus, nearly follow the words of this oldest author. Henry of Huntingdon, Ralph de Diceto, Robert of Gloucester, and Abbot Bromton, though they notice the pranks of this juggler, say nothing of his song. Fabyan, on whatever authority, mentions a still earlier instance of the military use of this favourite performance. In describing the battle of Fountanet, between Charles the Bald and his two brothers, in 941, he says: "When the shote was spente, and the speres to shateryd, then both hostes ranne togyther WYTH ROLANDS SONGE, so that, in short whyle, the grene felde was dyed into a perfyte redde " (Chronicle, 1533, fo. 93). Ed, Oliver, et des vassals, Qi morurent en Rencevals."* Geoffrey Gaimar, an earlier poet than Wace, though he only appears as his continuator, speaks likewise of this gallant minstrel; and gives a curious relation of the behaviour of his horse, the tricks he played with his spear and sword, and his exploits in the action, which are likewise mentioned by some of our old historians.t Doctor Burney, in his History of Music (ii. 276), has inserted a pretendedly genuine copy of the Chanson de Roland, by the Marquis de Paulmy, with a spirited translation; but the Marquis, in this jeu d'esprit, apparently mistook the nature of the ancient Chanson, confounding it with that of a more recent period. The Chevalier de Tressan, in his Corps d'extraits de Romans (i. 356), gives a stanza, in modern French, of a different song said to be chanted by the peasants of the Pyrenees; but most probably of his own invention. The real Chanson de Roland was, unquestionably, a metrical romance of great length upon the fatal battle of Roncevaux, of which Taillefer only chanted a part. Le Grand d'Aussy pretends that the Chanson de Roland subsisted down to the third race, as, he says, it appears by that reply so bold, known to everybody, of a soldier to King John, who reproached him with singing it at a time when there were no longer any Rolands. This assertion, however, so far as respects the above, or any other song, is an absolute falsehood. The story alluded to, which has no better authority than that of Hector Bois, a fabulous writer of the sixteenth century, is, literally, as follows: "When King John was come to Paris, calling the parliament together, he complained, with a pitiful tone, of his misfortunes and the calamities of the realm, and amongst the rest, lamented that he could now find no Rolands or Gawins; to which one of the peers, whose valour had been famous in his youth, and, therefore, an enemy to the king's sloth, answered there would be no want of Rolands if there were Charleses." The anecdote, no doubt, supposing it true, has some merit; but no sort of connection with, or allusion to, the Chanson de Roland, unless as confounded among the number of metrical romances on the same subject. This, however, or some other song or romance of Roland, appears to have been popular * Histoire ou Roman des ducs de Normandie (R. MSS. 4 c. XI.); and by no means Le Roman de Rou, as hath been completely proved by abbé de la Rue. Telfair, who well could sing a strain, Upon a horse that went amain, Who lost their lives at Roncevals." Le Brut, R. MSS. 13, A. XXI. in Italy in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, as we learn from a story of Poggius (speaking of one who deplored to the bystanders the fall and subversion of the Roman empire): hic par similis est, inquit (Antonius Luscus) viro Mediolanensi, qui die festo cum audisset unum ex grege cantorum, qui gesta heroum ad plebem decantant, recitantem MORTEM ROLANDI, qui septingentis jam ferme annis in prælio occubuit CŒPIT ACRITER FLERE, etc. wit, however, of Signor Lusco seems to have, for this once at least, been rather misplaced.* The Despairing of the existence of the Chanson de Roland among the number of ancient French poems which remain upon the subject of Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver, and Roncesvalles,† the most ancient romance in that language, still preserved, has been thought to be one upon the achievements of Charlemagne respecting the destruction of the monastery of Carcassonne and Narbonne, and the construction of that of De la Grace. This history is said to have been written, at the command of the above monarch, by a certain writer named Philomena, and to have been afterward, at the instance of St. Bernard, abbot, and the convent of the said monastery, turned into Latin by one Paduan, or Vital, between the years 1015 and 1019; but as it mentions the twelve peers of France, Le Comte de Flandres, a title which did not exist till fifty years after the death of Charlemagne, and the city of Montauban, which was not built till 1144, it cannot possibly be of such high antiquity. It is extant, though apparently in prose, in the National Library (Num. 27).‡ Another, nearly of the same age, is the Roman de Guillaume d'Orange, surnommé au Court nes (or short nose), which contains the history of St. Guillaume de Guillone, and is conjectured to be of the tenth century, but is more probably of the following. Many copies of it are extant in different libraries; and a full account of it may be seen in Catel's Memoires de Languedoc.§ The author calls himself Guillaumes de Bapaume. It appears, from a passage of Ordericus Vitalis, who flourished in 1140, to have been sung, in his time, by the minstrels, though not so worthy of attention as a more authentic narrative. His words are: 66 Canitur Vulgo à joculatoribus, de illo (Sci. S. Gulielmo) cantilena, sed jure præ * Facecie, Basil, 1488, 4to. See more concerning Roland and Oliver being sung upon the stage in the Antiquitates Italia of Muratori, ii. 844. † This romance, the authors of the Histoire Litteraire seem positive, was no other than that which bears the name of Roland et Olivier, and is marked among the MSS. of Charles V., VI., and VII.; and refer to the Histoire de L'aca, des inscrip., t. I., part I., p. 317. See Montfaucon Bib. Lit. II. 1283; Histoire Lit. de la France, IV. 211, 212, VI. 13, VII. lxxi. ; and Catel, Memoires de Languedoc, 404, 409, 547, 566. $549, 569, etc. See also Histoire Lit. de la France, VII. lxxi. Sinner's Catalogue, tome 3, page 333. ferenda est relatio authentica, quæ à religiosis doctoribus, solerter est edita, et à studiosis lectoribus reverenter lecta est in communi fratrum audientia." * Dom Calmet maintains that the Roman de Garin le Loheran, the author whereof lived in 1050, is the most ancient romance which the French have; † and to prove the age of Ogier le Danois (not that of Adenez), the authors of the Histoire Litteraire quote the authority of Metellus, a monk of Tegornsée, in Bavaria, who wrote about 1060; and having occasion to speak of the hero of that romance, adds, "whom that people (the Burgundians), singing old songs, call Osiger" (VII. lxxvi.). The next, in point of age, that is yet known, is probably a chroniclehistory of the Britons and English, from Jason and the achievement of the golden fleece to the death of Henry I., which appears to have been composed at the instance of Dame Constance FitzGilbert before the year 1147; in which year died Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural son of King Henry I., who had sent the book he had caused to be translated, according to those of the Welsh kings, to Walter Espec, who died in or before 1140, of whom Lady Constance borrowed it (this seems, from the mention of Walter the Archdeacon, to be Geoffrey of Monmouth's British History, which is addressed to Earl Robert), a fragment of which is annexed, by way of continuation, to the Brut of Maistre Wace, in the king's MSS., 13 A XXI., no other copy being known to exist. Alexandre Bernay, surnamed Paris, and Lambert li Cors, are the joint authors of a romance of Alexander in French verse, beginning "Qui vers de riche histoir veut scavoir," in 1051, or, according to others, in 1193, which may only be the date of the MS. The next is Maistre Wace, Gace, or Gasse, a native of the isle of Jersey, and canon of Caën in Normandy, an excellent poet, who composed the romance of Le Brut, as he tells us, in 1155, the Roman de Rou, the romance of William Longsword, the romance of Duke Richard I. his son, the history of the Dukes of Normandy, a compendium or abridgment of the same history, the life of St. Nicholas, and the Roman du Chevalier au Lion in 1155, all performances of considerable merit. § Benoit or Benedict de Saint * L. 6. † Histoire Lit., vi. 13. This date is ascertained by the death, in that year, of Archbishop Thurstan, a witness to his foundation-charter of Rievaux Abbey. § The Christian name of Maistre Wace is said by Huet (who cites no authority), to have been Robert (Origines de Caen, Rouen, 1702, p. 607). In La Vie de S. Nicholas, cited by Hickes, Gr. A.S.P., pp. 146, 147, he is called “mestre Guace" (Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, iv., 59); and in the MS. of Le Chevalier au Lion his name is written Gasse. Tyrwhitt suspects that Le Martyre de St. George en vers François par Robert Guaco, mentioned by M. Lebeuf as extant in the Bibl. Colbert, Cod. 3745 (Mem. de l'acad., D.I., & B.L. V., xvii., 6., 731), is by this Wace or Gace, |