an expedition;—a circumstance which also contributed to give a variety to the stories. And for a number of persons in their situation, so natural, so practicable, so pleasant, I add so rational, a mode of entertainment could not have been imagined. The CANTERBURY TALES are unequal, and of various merit. Few, if any, of the stories are perhaps the invention of Chaucer. I have already spoken at large of the KNIGHT'S TALE, one of our author's noblest compositions. That of the CANTERBURY TALES, which deserves the next place, as written in the higher strain of poetry, and the poem by which Milton describes and characterises Chaucer, is the SQUIER'S TALE. The imagination of this story consists in Arabian fiction engrafted on Gothic chivalry. Nor is this Arabian fiction purely the sport of arbitrary fancy: it is in great measure founded on Arabian learning. Cambuscan, a king of Tartary, celebrates his birth-day festival in the hall of his palace at Sarra, with the most royal magnificence. In the midst of the solemnity, the guests are alarmed with a miraculous and unexpected spectacle: the minstrells cease on a sudden, and all the assembly is hushed in silence, surprise, and suspence. While that this king sit thus in his nobley, Herking his ministralles hir thinges pley, Beforne him at his bord deliciously: In at the halle dore, al sodenly, Ther came a knight upon a stede of bras; The reader will excuse my irregularity in not considering it under the CANTERBURY TALES. I have here given the reason, which is my apology, in the text. d d v. 96. See a fine romantic story of a Count de Macon: who,, while revelling in his hall with many knights, is suddenly alarmed by the entrance of a gigantic figure of a black man, mounted These presents were sent by the king of Araby and Inde to Cambuscan in honour of his feast. The Horse of brass, on the skillful movement and management of certain secret springs, transported his rider into the most distant region of the world in the space of twenty-four hours; for, as the rider chose, he could fly in the air with the swiftness of an eagle: and again, as occasion required, he could stand motionless in opposition to the strongest force, vanish on a sudden at command, and return at his master's call. The Mirrour of glass was endued with the power of shewing any future disasters which might happen to Cambuscan's kingdom, and discovered the most hidden machinations of treason. The Naked Sword could pierce armour deemed impenetrable, "Were it as thicke as is a braunched oke." And he who was wounded with it could never be healed, unless its possessor could be entreated to stroke the wound with its edge. The Ring was intended for Canace, Cambuscan's daughter; and, while she bore it in her purse, or wore it on her thumb, enabled her to understand the language of every species of birds, and the virtues of every plant. And whan this knight hath thus his tale told, on a black steed. This terrible stranger, rious tone, orders the count to follow I have mentioned, in another place, the favorite philosophical studies of the Arabians. In this poem the nature of those studies is displayed, and their operations exemplified: and this consideration, added to the circumstances of Tartary being the scene of action, and Arabia the country from which these extraordinary presents are brought, induces me to believe this story to be one of the many fables which the Arabians imported into Europe. At least it is formed on their principles. Their sciences were tinctured with the warmth of their imaginations; and consisted in wonderful discoveries and mysterious inventions. This idea of a horse of brass took it's rise from their chemical knowledge and experiments in metals. The treatise of Jeber a famous Arab chemist of the middle ages, called Lapis LAPIS PHILOSOPHORUM, contains many curious and useful processes concerning the nature of metals, their fusion, purification, and malleability, which still maintain a place in modern systems of that sciences. The poets of romance, who deal in Arabian ideas, describe the Trojan horse as made of brass". These sages pretended the power of giving life or speech to some of their compositions in metal. Bishop Grosthead's speaking brazen head, sometimes attributed to Bacon, has its foundation in Arabian philosophy. In the romance of VALENTINE and ORSON, a brazen head fabricated by a necromancer in a magnificent chamber of the castle of Clerimond, declares to those two princes their royal parentage. We are told by William of Malmesbury, that Pope Sylvester the Second, a profound f Diss. i. ii. The Arabians call chemistry, as treating of minerals and metals, SIMIA. From SIM, a word signifying the veins of gold and silver in the mines. Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 810. b. Hither, among many other things, we might refer Merlin's two dragons of gold finished with most exquisite workmanship, in Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1. viii. c. 17. See also ibid. vii. c. 3. Where Merlin prophesies that a brazen man on a brazen horse shall guard the gates of London. mathematician who lived in the eleventh century, made a brazen head, which would speak when spoken to, and oracularly resolved many difficult questions'. Albertus Magnus, who was also a profound adept in those sciences which were taught by the Arabian schools, is said to have framed a man of brass; which not only answered questions readily and truly, but was so loquacious, that Thomas Aquinas while a pupil of Albertus Magnus, afterwards an Angelic doctor, knocked it in pieces as the disturber of his abstruse speculations. This was about the year 1240m. Much in the same manner, the notion of our knight's horse being moved by means of a concealed engine, corresponds with their pretences of producing preternatural effects, and their love of surprising by geometrical powers. Exactly in this notion, Rocail, a giant in some of the Arabian romances, is said to have built a palace, together with his own sepulchre, of most magnificent architecture, and with singular artifice in both of these he placed a great number of gigantic statues, or images, figured of different metals by talismanic skill, which, in consequence of some occult machinery, performed actions of real life, and looked like living men". We must add, that astronomy, which the Arabian philosophers studied with a singular enthusiasm, had no small share in the composition of this miraculous steed. For, says the poet, He that it wrought, he coude many a gin, De Gest. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 10. Compare Maj. Symbolor. Aurea Mensæ, lib. x. p. 453. m Delrio, Disquis. Magic. lib.i. cap.4. " Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. V. ROCAIL. p. 717. a. ° v. 149. I do not precisely understand the line immediately following. And knew ful many a sele and many a bond. Sele, i. e. Seal, may mean a talismanic sigil used in astrology. Or the Hermetic seal used in chemistry. Or, connected with Bond, may signify contracts made with spirits in chemical operations. But all these belong to the Arabian philosophy, and are alike to our purpose. In the Arabian books now extant, are the alphabets out of which they formed Talismans to draw down spirits or angels. The Arabian word KIMIA, not only signifies chemistry, but a magical and superstitious science, by which they bound spirits to their will and drew from them the information required. Herbelot, Dict. Orient. p. 810. 1005. The curious and more inquisitive reader may consult Cornelius Agrippa, De Vanit. Scient. cap. xliv. xlv. xlvi. See Thus the buckler of the Arabian giant Ben Gian, as famous among the Orientals as that of Achilles among the Greeks, was fabricated by the powers of astronomy P. And Pope Sylvester's brazen head, just mentioned, was prepared under the influence of certain constellations. Natural magic, improperly so called, was likewise a favorite pursuit of the Arabians, by which they imposed false appearances on the spectator. This was blended with their astrology. Our author's FRANKELEIN'S TALE is entirely founded on the miracles of this art. For I am siker that ther be sciences, By which men maken divers appearances, For oft at festes, have I wel herd say, Afterwards a magician in the same poem shews various specimens of his art in raising such illusions: and by way of diverting king Aurelius before supper, presents before him parks and forests filled with deer of vast proportion, some of which are killed with hounds and others with arrows. He then shews the king a beautiful lady in a dance. At the clapping of the magician's hands all these deceptions disappear. These feats are said to be performed by consultation of the stars". We a manner, that for the space of one week, "See Frankel. T. v. 2820. p. 111. Urr. The Christians called this one of the diabolical arts of the Saracens or Ara |