I knowe no more to ryme of dedes of kyng Richard :
Who fo wille his dedes all the fothe fe,

The romance that men reden ther is propirte.
This that I have said it is Pers fawe".

Als he in romance lad ther after gan I drawe '.

It is not improbable that both these rhyming chroniclers cite from the English translation: if fo, we may fairly fuppose that this romance was translated in the reign of Edward the first, or his predeceffor Henry the third. Perhaps earlier. This circumftance throws the French original to a still higher period.

In the royal library at Paris, there is "Hiftoire de Richard "Roi d'Angleterre et de Maquemore d'Irlande en rime*.? Richard is the last of our monarchs whofe atchievements were adorned with fiction and fable. If not a fuperftitious belief of the times, it was an hyperbolical invention started by the minstrels, which foon grew into a tradition, and is gravely recorded by the chroniclers, that Richard carried with him to the crufades king Arthur's celebrated sword CALIBURN, and that he prefented it as a gift, or relic, of inestimable value to Tancred king of Sicily, in the year 1191'. Robert of Brunne calls this sword a jewel".

And Richard at that time gaf him a faire juelle,

The gude fwerd CALIBURNE which Arthur luffed fo well ".

indeed the Arabian writer of the life of the Sultan Saladin, mentions fome exploits of Richard almost incredible. But, as Lord Lyttelton juftly observes, this hiftorian is highly valuable on account of the knowledge he had of the facts which he relates. It is from this writer we learn, in the most authentic manner, the actions and negotiations of Richard in the courfe of the enterprise for the recovery of the holy land, and all the particulars of that memorable

war .

But before I produce a specimen of Richard's English romance, I ftand ftill to give fome more extracts from its Prologues, which contain matter much to our present purpose as they have very fortunately preserved the subjects of many romances, perhaps metrical, then fashionable both in France and England. And on these therefore, and their origin, I fhall take this opportunity of offering fome remarks.

Many romayns men make newe
Of good knightes and of trewe:
Of ther dedes men make romauns,
Both in England and in Fraunce;
Of Rowland and of Olyvere,

And of everie Dofepere",

Of Alyfaundre and Charlemayne,

Of kyng Arthur and of Gawayne ;

How they wer knyghtes good and courtoys,

Of Turpin and of Oger the Danois.

Of Troye men rede in ryme,

Of Hector and of Achilles,

What folk they flewe in pres, &c.

And again in a fecond Prologue, after a pause has been

made by the minstrel in the course of finging the

• See Hift. of Hen. II. vol. iv. p. 361. App. Charlemagne's Twelve Peers. Douze Pairs. Fr.

poem.

a Fol. I. a.

Herkene

Herkene now how my tale gotheo
Though I fwere to you no othe
I wyll you rede romaynes none
Ne of Pertonape, ne of Ypomedon,
Ne of Alifaunder, ne of Charlemayne,
Ne of Arthur, ne of Gawayne,
Ne of Lancelot du Lake,

Ne of Bevis, ne of Guy of Sydrake',
Ne of Ury, ne of Octavian,
Ne of Hector the strong man,
Ne of Jafon, neither of Achilles,·
Ne of Eneas, neither Hercules: '.

Perhaps Parthenope, or Parthenopeus." Read, "ne of Guy ne of Sydrake.” Signat. P. iii. To fome of these romances the author of the manufcript LIVES OF THE SAINTS, written about the year 1200, and cited above at large, alludes in a fort of prologue. See SECT. i. p. 14. fupr. Wel auht we loug cristendom that is fo dere y bougt,

With oure lorde's herte blode that the spere hath y fougt.

Men wilnethe more yhere of batayle of kyngis,

And of knygtis hardy, that mochel is le-
fyngis.

Of Roulond and of Olyvere, and Gy of
Warwyk,

Of Wawayen and Triftram that ne foundde

kind, which were more agreeable to the
generality of readers. MSS. Laud, K. 53.
f. 117. Bibl. Bodl.

Men lykyn Jeftis for to here
And romans rede in divers manere
Of Alexandre the conquérour,
Of Julius Cefar the emperour,
Of Greece and Troy the ftrong ftryf,
Ther many a man loft his lyf:
Of Brut that baron bold of hand
The first conquerour of Englond,
Of kyng Artour that was fo ryche,
Was non in hys tyme so ilyche:
Of wonders that among his knyghts felle,
And auntyrs dedyn as men her telle,
As Gaweyn and othir full abylle
Which that kept the round tabyll,
How kyng Charles and Rowland fawght
With Sarazins, nold thei be cawght;
Of Tryftram and Youde the fwete,
How thei with love first gan mete.
Of kyng John and of Ijenbras
Of Ydoyne and Amadas.
Stories of divers thynges

Of princes, prelates, and kynges,
Many fongs of divers ryme

As English, French, and Latyne, &c.
This ylke boke is translate
Into English tong to rede
For the love of English lede
Ffor comyn folk of England, &c.
Syldyn yt ys for any chaunce

English tong preched is in Fraunce, &c.
See Montf.Par.MSS.7540. And p. 119. fupr.

R

Here, among others, fome of the moft capital and favourite ftories of romance are mentioned, Arthur, Charlemagne, the Siege of Troy with its appendages, and Alexander the Great: and there are four authors of high esteem in the dark ages, Geoffry of Monmouth, Turpin, Guido of Colonna, and Callifthenes, whofe books were the grand repofitories of these fubjects, and contained most of the traditionary fictions, whether of Arabian or claffical origin, which constantly supplied materials to the writers of romance. I fhall speak of thefe authors, with their fubjects, diftin&ly.

But I do not mean to repeat here what has been already obferved concerning the writings of Geoffry of Monmouth and Turpin. It will be fufficient to fay at prefent, that these two fabulous hiftorians recorded the atchievements of Charlemagne and of Arthur: and that Turpin's history was artfully forged under the name of that archbishop about the year 1110, with a design of giving countenance to the cru fades from the example of fo high an authority as Charlemagne, whose pretended vifit to the holy fepulchre is described in the twentieth chapter.

As to the Siege of Troy, it appears that both Homer's poems were unknown, at least not understood in Europe, from the abolition of literature by the Goths in the fourth century, to the fourteenth. Geoffry of Monmouth indeed, who wrote about the year 1160, a man of learning for that age, produces Homer in attestation of a fact afferted in his hiftory but in fuch a manner, as fhews that he knew little more than Homer's name, and was but imperfectly acquainted with Homer's fubject. Geoffry fays, that Brutus having ravaged the province of Acquitain with fire and fword, came to a place where the city of Tours now stands, as Homer teftifies *. But the Trojan ftory was ftill kept alive

in two Latin pieces, which paffed under the names of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretenfis. Dares's hiftory of the destruction of Troy, as it was called, pretended to have been tranflated from the Greek of Dares Phrygius into Latin profe by Cornelius Nepos, is a wretched performance, and forged under thofe fpecious names in the decline of Latin literature. Dictys Cretenfis is a profe Latin hiftory of the Trojan war, in fix books, paraphrased about the reign of Dioclefian or Conftantine, by one Septimius, from fome Grecian history on the fame fubject, faid to be discovered under a fepulchre by means of an earthquake in the city of Cnoffus, about the time of Nero, and to have been composed by Dictys, a Cretan, and a foldier in the Trojan war. The fraud of discovering copies of books in this extraordinary manner, in order to infer from thence their high and indubitable antiquity, fo frequently practised, betrays itself. But that the present Latin Dictys had a Greek original, now loft, appears from the numerous grecifms with which it abounds and from the literal correfpondence of many paffages with the Greek fragments of one Dictys cited by antient authors. The Greek original was very probably forged under the name of Dictys, a traditionary writer on the subject, in the reign of Nero, who is said to have been fond of the Trojan ftory. On the whole, the work appears to

In the Epistle prefixed, the pretended tranflator Nepos fays, that he found this work at Athens, in the hand-writing of Dares. He adds, fpeaking of the controverted authenticity of Homer, De ea re Athenis JUDICIUM fuit, cum pro infano Homerus haberetur quod deos cum hominibus belligeraffe deferipfit. In which words he does not refer to any public decree of the Athenian judges, but to Plato's opinion in his REPUBLIC. Dares, with Dictys Cretenfis next mentioned in the text, was firft printed at Milan in 1477. Mabillon fays, that a manufcript of the Pfeudo-Dares ocours in the Laurentian library at Florence,

upwards of eight hundred years old. Muf. Ital. i. p. 169. This work was abridged by Vincentius Bellovacenfis, a friar of Burgundy, about the year 1244. See his Specul. Hiftor. lib. ii. 63.

z See Perizon. Differtat. de Di&t. Cretenf fect. xxix. Conftantinus Lafcaris, a learned monk of Conftantinople, one of the restorers of Grecian literature in Europe near four hundred years ago, fays that Dictys Cretenfis in Greek was loft. This writer is not once mentioned by Euftathius, who lived about the year 1170, in his elaborate and extenfive commentary on Homer.