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lant exploits against the Spanish Saracens, was preferred to the archbishoprick of Rheims by Charlemagne. Others believe it to have been forged under archbishop Turpin's name* about that time. Others very soon afterwards, in the reign of Charles the Bald. That is, about the year 870.

Voltaire, a writer of much deeper research than is imagined, and the first who has displayed the literature and customs of the dark ages with any degree of penetration and comprehension, speaking of the fictitious tales concerning Charlemagne, has remarked, “Ces fables qu'un moine ecrivit au onzieme siécle, sous le nom de l'archeveque Turpin "." And it might easily be shewn that just before the commencement of the thirteenth century, romantic stories about Charlemagne were more fashionable than ever among the French minstrels. That is, on the recent publication of this fabulous history of Charlemagne. Historical evidence concurs with numerous internal arguments to prove, that it must have been compiled after the crusades. In the twentieth chapter, a pretended pilgrimage of Charlemagne to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem is recorded: a forgery seemingly contrived with a design to give an importance to those wild expeditions, and which would easily be believed when thus authenticated by an archbishop".

There is another strong internal proof that this romance was written long after the time of Charlemagne. Our historian is speaking of the numerous chiefs and kings who came with their armies to assist his hero: among the rest he mentions earl Oell, and adds, "Of this man there is a song commonly sung among the minstrels even to this day." Nor will I believe, that

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the European art of war, in the eighth century, could bring into the field such a prodigious parade of battering rams and wooden castles, as those with which Charlemagne is said to have besieged the city Agennum: the crusades seem to have made these huge military machines common in the European armies. However, we may suspect it appeared before, yet not long before, Geoffrey's romance; who mentions Charlemagne's TWELVE PEERS, so lavishly celebrated in Turpin's book, as present at king Arthur's imaginary coronation at Caer-leon. Although the twelve peers of France occur in chronicles of the tenth century; and they might besides have been suggested to Geoffrey's original author from popular traditions and songs of minstrels. We are sure it was extant before the year 1122; for Calixtus the Second in that year, by papal authority, pronounced this history to be genuine. Monsieur Allard affirms that it was written, and in the eleventh century, at Vienne by a monk of Saint Andrew's'. This monk was probably nothing more than some Latin translator: but a learned French anti

[In the best MSS. of Turpin, the above passage refers to Oger king of Denmark, whose name is omitted in that followed by the editor of Turpin's history here cited. There is no work that is known to relate to Oel. The romance of Ogier Danois, originally written in rhyme, is here probably referred to. DOUCE.]-[The language of Turpin seems rather to imply a ballad or song on the achievements of this hero, such as is still to be found in the Danish Kjempe Viser. The name, however written,-Oger, Ogier, Odiger, Holger, -clearly refers to Helgi, a hero of the Edda and the Volsunga-Saga. In the earlier traditions the theatre of his actions is confined to Denmark and the neighbouring countries; but the later fictions embellish his career with all the marvels of romance; and after leading him as a conqueror over the greater part of Europe and Asia, transport him to the isle of Avalon, where he still resides with Morgan la faye.-EDIT.]

Ibid. cap. ix. f. 3. b. The writer adds, Cæterisque artificiis ad capien

66

The

dum," &c. See also cap. x. ibid. Compare SECT. iv. infr. p. 170. In one of Charlemagne's battles, the Saracens advance with horrible visors bearded and horned, and with drums or cymbals. "Tenentesque singuli TYMPANA, quæ manibus fortiter percutiebant." unusual spectacle and sound terrified the horses of the christian army, and threw them into confusion. In a second engagement, Charlemagne commanded the eyes of the horses to be covered, and their ears to be stopped. Turpin. cap. xviii. f. 7. b. The latter expedient is copied in the Romance of RICHard the first, written about the eleventh century. See SECT. iv. infr. p. 172. See also what is said of the Saracen drums, ibid. p. 177.

d Flodoard of Rheims first mentions them, whose chronicle comes down to 966.

e

Magn. Chron. Belgic. pag. 150. sub ann. Compare J. Long. Bibl. Hist. Gall. num. 6671. And Lambec. ii. p.

333.

Bibl. de Dauphiné, p. 224.

quary is of opinion, that it was originally composed in Latin; and moreover, that the most antient romances, even those of the Round Table, were originally written in that language &. Oienhart, and with the greatest probability, supposes it to be the work of a Spaniard. He quotes an authentic manuscript to prove, that it was brought out of Spain into France before the close of the twelfth century; and that the miraculous exploits performed in Spain by Charlemagne and earl Roland, recorded in this romantic history, were unknown among the French before that period: except only that some few of them were obscurely and imperfectly sketched in the metrical tales of those who sung heroic adventures. Oienhart's supposition that this history was compiled in Spain, the centre of oriental fabling in Europe, at once accounts for the nature and extravagance of its fictions, and immediately points to their Arabian origin. As to the French manuscript of this history, it is a translation from Turpin's Latin, made by Michael le Harnes in the year 1207'. And, by the way, from the translator's de

See vol. ii. p. 299. h See infr. p. 139.

Arnoldi Oienharti Notit. utriusque Vasconiæ, edit. Paris. 1638. 4to. page 397. lib. iii. c. 3. Such was Roland's song, sung at the battleof Hastings. But see this romance, cap. xx. f. 8. b. Where Turpin seems to refer to some other fabulous materials or history concerning Charlemagne. Particularly about Galafar and Braiamant, which make such a figure in Boyardo and Ariosto.

Innumerable romantic stories, of Arabian growth, are to this day current among the common people of Spain, which they call CUJENTOS DE VIEJAS. I will relate one from that lively picture of the Spaniards, RELATION DU VOYAGE D'ESPAGNE, by Mademoiselle Dunois. Within the antient castle of Toledo, they say, there was a vast cavern whose entrance was strongly barricadoed. It was universally believed, that if any person entered this cavern, the most fatal disasters would happen to the Spaniards. Thus it remained closely shut and unentered for many ages. At length king

Roderigo, having less credulity but more courage and curiosity than his ancestors, commanded this formidable recess to be opened. At entering, he began to suspect the traditions of the people to be true: a terrible tempest arose, and all the elements seemed united to embarrass him.

Nevertheless, he ventured forwards into the cave, where he discerned by the light of his torches certain figures or statues of men, whose habiliments and arms were strange and uncouth. One of them had a sword of shining brass, on which it was written in Arabic characters, that the time approached when the Spanish nation should be destroyed, and that it would not be long before the warriors, whose images were placed there, should arrive in Spain. The writer adds, "Je n'ai jamais eté en aucun endroit, où l'on fasse PLUS DE CAS des CONTES FABULEUX qu'en Espagne. Edit. a la Haye, 1691. tom. iii. p. 158, 159. 12mo. See infr. SECT. iii. p. 114. And the LIFE of CERVANTES, by Don Gregorio Mayans. §. 27. §. 47, §. 48, §. 49.

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Sce Du Chesne, tom. v. p. 60. And

claration, that there was a great impropriety in translating Latin prose into verse, we may conclude, that at the commencement of the thirteenth century the French generally made their translations into verse.

In these two fabulous chronicles the foundations of romance seem to be laid. The principal characters, the leading subjects, and the fundamental fictions, which have supplied such ample matter to this singular species of composition, are here first displayed. And although the long continuance of the crusades imported innumerable inventions of a similar complexion, and substituted the atchievements of new champions and the wonders of other countries, yet the tales of Arthur and of Charlemagne, diversified indeed, or enlarged with additional embellishments, still continued to prevail, and to be the favourite topics: and this, partly from their early popularity, partly from the quantity and the beauty of the fictions with which they were at first supported, and especially because the design of the crusades had made those subjects so fashionable in which christians fought with infidels. In a word, these volumes are the first specimens extant in this mode of writing. No European history before these has mentioned giants, enchanters, dragons, and the like monstrous and arbitrary fictions. And the reason is obvious: they were written at a time when a new and unnatural mode of thinking took place in Europe, introduced by our communication with the east.

Hitherto I have considered the Saracens either at their immigration into Spain about the ninth century, or at the time of the crusades, as the first authors of romantic fabling among the Europeans. But a late ingenious critic has advanced an hypothesis, which assigns a new source, and a much earlier

Mem. Lit. xvii. 737. seq. It is in the royal library at Paris, Num. 8190. Probably the French Turpin in the British Museum is the same, Cod. MSS. Harl. 273. 23. f. 86. See infr. p. 139. See instances of the English translating prose Latin books into English, and sometimes French, verse. SECT. ii. infr. passim.

In the king's library at Paris, there is a translation of Dares Phrygius into French rhymes by Godfrey of Waterford an Irish Jacobin, a writer not mentioned by Tanner, in the thirteenth century. Mem. Litt. tom. xvii. p. 736. Compare SECT. iii. infr. p. 128. In the Notes.

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date, to these fictions. I will cite his opinion of this matter in his own words. "Our old romances of chivalry may be derived in a LINEAL DESCENT from the antient historical songs of the Gothic bards and scalds.-Many of those songs are still preserved in the north, which exhibit all the seeds of chivalry before it became a solemn institution.-Even the common arbitrary fictions of romance were most of them familiar to the antient scalds of the north, long before the time of the crusades. They believed the existence of giants and dwarfs, they had some notion of fairies, they were strongly possessed with the belief of spells and inchantment, and were fond of inventing combats with dragons and monsters"." Monsieur Mallet, a very able and elegant inquirer into the genius and antiquities of the northern nations, maintains the same doctrine. He seems to think, that many of the opinions and practices of the Goths, however obsolete, still obscurely subsist. He adds, "May we not rank among these, for example, that love and admiration for the profession of arms which prevailed among our ancestors even to fanaticism, mad as it were through system, and brave from a point of honour?-Can we not explain from the Gothic religion, how judiciary combats, and proofs by the ordeal, to the astonishment of posterity, were admitted by the legislature of all Europe": and how, even to the present age, the people are still infatuated with a belief of the power of magicians, witches, spirits, and genii, concealed under the earth

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"For the judiciary combats, as also for common athletic exercises, they formed an amphitheatrical circus of rude stones. "Quædam [saxa] CIRCOS claudebant, in quibus gigantes et pugiles DUELLO strenue decertabant." Worm, p. 62. And again, "Nec mora, CIRCUATUR campus, milite CIRCUS stipatur, concurrunt pugiles.' p. 65. It is remarkable, that circs of the same sort are still to be seen in Cornwall, so famous at this day for the ath. letic art in which also they sometimes exhibited their scriptural interludes. vol. ii. p. 70. Frotho the Great, king of Denmark, in the first century, is

said to have been the first who commanded all controversies to be decided by the sword. Worm. p. 68. In favour of this barbarous institution it ought to be remembered, that the practice of thus marking out the place of battle must have prevented much bloodshed, and saved many innocent lives: for if either combatant was by any accident forced out of the circus, he was to lose his cause, or to pay three marks of pure silver as a redemption for his life. Worm. p. 68, 69. In the year 987, the ordeal was substituted in Denmark instead of the duel; a mode of decision, at least in a political sense, less absurd, as it promoted military skill.

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