badours of Provence, an idle and unsettled race of men, took up arms, and followed their barons in prodigious multitudes to the conquest of Jerusalem. They made a considerable part of the houshold of the nobility of France. Louis the Seventh, king of France, not only entertained them at his court very liberally, but commanded a considerable company of them into his retinue, when he took ship for Palestine, that they might solace him with their songs during the dangers and inconveniencies of so long a voyage. The antient chronicles of France mention Legions de poetes as embarking in this wonderful enterprise". Here a new and more copious source of fabling was opened: in these expeditions they picked up numberless extravagant stories, and at their return enriched

progress of traditionary faith-a plant of tardy growth—if we limit its first publicity to the period thus prescribed (1096-1142). With regard to Charlemagne and his peers, as their deeds were chaunted by Talliefer at the battle of Hastings (1066), it would be needless to offer further demonstrations of their early popularity; nor in fact does the accuracy of this part of Warton's statement appear to be called in question by the writer alluded to. It would be more difficult to define the degree in which these romances were superseded by similar poems on the achievements of the Crusaders; or, to use the more cautious language of the text, to state how far "Trebizonde took place of Roncevalles." But it will be recollected that in consequence of the Crusades, the action of several romances was transferred to the Holy Land, such as Sir Bevis, Sir Guy, Sir Isumbras, the King of Tars, &c.: and that most of these were "favorite topics" in high esteem, is clear from the declaration of Chaucer, who catalogued them among the "romances of Pris." In short, if we omit the names of the caliphs, and confine ourselves to the Soldans-a generic name used by our early writers for every successive ruler of the East-and the cities of Egypt and Syria, this rhapsody, as it has been termed, will contain nothing which is not strictly demonstrable by historical evidence, or the

language of the old romancers.-The Life of Godfrey of Boulogne was writ、 ten in French verse by Gregory Bechada, about the year 1130. It is usually supposed to have perished; unless, indeed, it exist in a poem upon the same subject by Wolfram Von Eschenbach, who generally founded his romances upon a French or Provençal original.EDIT.]

c

war.

Velley, Hist. Fr. sub an. 1178.

d Massieu, Hist. Poes. Fr. p. 105. Many of the troubadours, whose works now exist, and whose names are recorded, accompanied their lords to the holy Some of the French nobility of the first rank were troubadours about the eleventh century: and the French critics with much triumph observe, that it is the GLORY of the French poetry to number counts and dukes, that is sovereigns, among its professors, from its commencement. What a glory! The worshipfull company of Merchant-taylors in London, if I recollect right, boast the names of many dukes, earls, and princes, enrolled in their community. This is indeed an honour to that otherwise respectable society. But poets can derive no lustre from counts, and dukes, or even princes, who have been enrolled in their lists; only in proportion as they have adorned the art by the excellence of their compositions.

romance with an infinite variety of Oriental scenes and fictions. Thus these later wonders, in some measure, supplanted the former: they had the recommendation of novelty, and gained still more attention, as they came from a greater distance.

In the mean time we should recollect, that the Saracens or Arabians, the same people which were the object of the Crusades, had acquired an establishment in Spain about the ninth century: and that by means of this earlier intercourse, many of their fictions and fables, together with their literature, must have been known in Europe before the Christian armies invaded Asia. It is for this reason the elder Spanish romances have professedly more Arabian allusions than any other. Cervantes makes the imagined writer of Don Quixote's history an Arabian. Yet exclusive of their domestic and more immediate connection with this eastern people, the Spaniards from temper and constitution were extravagantly fond of chivalrous exercises. Some critics have supposed, that Spain having learned the art or fashion of romance-writing, from their naturalised guests the Arabians, communicated it, at an early period, to the rest of Europe'.

It has been imagined that the first romances were composed in metre, and sung to the harp by the poets of Provence at festival solemnities: but an ingenious Frenchman, who has made deep researches into this sort of literature, attempts to prove, that this mode of reciting romantic adventures was in

The old French historian Mezeray goes so far as to derive the origin of the French poetry and romances from the Crusades. Hist. p. 416, 417.

[Geoffrey of Vinesauf says, that when king Richard the First arrived at the Christian camp before Ptolemais, he was received with populares Cantiones, which recited Antiquorum Præclara Gesta. IT. HIEROSOL. cap. ii. p. 332. ibid. ADDITIONS.]

Huet in some measure adopts this opinion. But that learned man was a very incompetent judge of these matters. Under the common term Romance, he confounds romances of chivalry, romances of gallantry, and all the fables

of the Provencial poets. What can we think of a writer, who having touched upon the gothic romances, at whose fictions and barbarisms he is much shocked, talks of the consummate degree of art and elegance to which the French are at present arrived in romances? He adds, that the superior refinement and politesse of the French gallantry has happily given them an advantage of shining in this species of composition. Hist. Rom. p. 188. But the sophistry and ignorance of Huet's Treatise has been already detected and exposed by a critic of another cast in the SUPPLEMENT TO JARVIS'S PREFACE, prefixed to the Translation of Don Quixote.

high reputation among the natives of Normandy, above a century before the troubadours of Provence, who are generally supposed to have led the way to the poets of Italy, Spain, and France, and that it commenced about the year 1162. If the critic means to insinuate, that the French troubadours acquired their art of versifying from these Norman bards, this reasoning will favour the system of those, who contend that metrical romances lineally took their rise from the historical odes of the Scandinavian scalds: for the Normans were a branch of the Scandinavian stock. But Fauchet, at the same time that he allows the Normans to have been fond of chanting the praises of their heroes in verse, expressly pronounces that they borrowed this practice from the Franks or French ".

It is not my business, nor is it of much consequence, to discuss this obscure point, which properly belongs to the French antiquaries. I therefore proceed to observe, that our Richard the First, who began his reign in the year 1189, a distinguished hero of the Crusades, a most magnificent patron of chivalry, and a Provencial poet', invited to his court many minstrels or

Mons. L'Eveque de la Ravaliere, in his Revolutions de Langue Françoise, à la suite des POESIES DU ROI DE NAVARRE.

"Ce que les Normans avoyent pris des François." Rec. liv. i. p. 70. edit.

1581.

i See Observations on Spenser, i. §i. p. 28. 29. And Mr. Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, i. 5. See also Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, ch. vii. p. 73. edit. 1693. Savarie de Mauleon, an English gentleman who lived in the service of Saint Louis king of France, and one of the Provencial poets, said of Richard,

Coblas a teira faire adroitement

year 1193. A whole year elapsed before the English knew where their monarch was imprisoned. Blondell de Nesle, Richard's favourite minstrel, resolved to find out his lord; and after travelling many days without success, at last came to a castle where Richard was detained in custody. Here he found that the castle belonged to the Duke of Austria, and that a king was there imprisoned. Suspecting that the prisoner was his master, he found means to place himself directly before a window of the chamber where the king was kept; and in this situation began to sing a French chanson, which Richard and Blondell had formerly written together. When the king who sung it; and when Blondell paused heard the song, he knew it was Blondel! after the first half of the song, the king began the other half and completed it. On this, Blondell returned home to England, and acquainted Richard's barons with the place of his imprisonment, from which he was soon afterwards released. See also Fauchet, Rec. p. 93. Ri

Pou voz oillez enten dompna gentiltz. "He could make stanzas on the eyes of gentle ladies." Rymer, ibid. p. 74. There is a curious story recorded by the French chroniclers, concerning Richard's skill in the minstrel art, which I will here relate.—Richard, in his return from the Crusade, was taken prisoner about the

troubadours from France, whom he loaded with honours and rewards. These poets imported into England a great multitude of their tales and songs; which before or about the reign of Edward the Second became familiar and popular among our ancestors, who were sufficiently acquainted with the French language. The most early notice of a professed book of chivalry in England, as it should seem, appears under the reign

of Henry the Third; and is a curious and evident proof of the reputation and esteem in which this sort of composition was held at that period. In the revenue roll of the twenty-first year of that king, there is an entry of the expence of silver clasps and studs for the king's great book of romances. This was in the year 1237. But I will give the article in its original dress. "Et in firmaculis hapsis et clavis argenteis ad magnum librum ROMANCIS regisk." That this superb volume was in French, may be partly collected from the title which they gave it and it is highly probable, that it contained the Romance of Richard the First, on which I shall enlarge below. At least the victorious achievements of that monarch were so

"Ut CANTATORES FRANCIGENARUM in plateis comunis ad cantandum morari non possent." On which words he observes, "Colle quali parole sembra verosimile, che sieno disegnati i cantatore del favole romanze, che spezialmente della Franzia erano portate in Italia." DisSERT. ANTICHIT. Ital. tom. ii. c. xxix. p. 16. In Napoli, 1752. He adds, that the minstrels were SO numerous in France, as to become a pest to the community; and that an edict was issued about the year 1200, to suppress them in that kingdom. Muratori, in further proof of this point, quotes the above * passage from Hoveden; which, as I had done, he misapplies to our king Richard the First. But, in either sense, it equally suits his argument. In the year 1334, at a feast on Easter Sunday, celebrated at Rimini, on occasion of some noble Italians receiving the honour of knighthood, more than one thousand five hundred HISTRIONES are said to have attended. " Triumphus quidem maximus fuit ibidem, &c.-Fuit etiam multitudo His TRIONUM circa mille quingentos et ultra." ANNAL. CESENAT. tom. xiv. RER. ITALIC. SCRIPTOR. col. 1141. But their countries are not specified. In the year 1227, at a feast in the palace of the archbishop of Genoa, a sumptuous banquet and vestments without number were given to the minstrels, or Joculatores, then present, who came from Lombardy, Provence, Tuscany, and other countries. Caffari ANNAL. GENUENS. lib. vi. p. 449.

1/

See

To recur to the origin of this Note. Rymer, in his SHORT VIEW OF TRAGEDY, on the notion that Hoveden is here speaking of king Richard, has founded a theory, which is consequently false, and is otherwise but imaginary. p. 66. 67. 69. 74. He supposes, that Richard, in consequence of his connection with Raimond count of Tholouse, encouraged the heresy of the Albigenses; and that therefore the historian Hoveden, as an ecclesiastic, was interested in abusing Richard, and in insinuating, that his reputation for poetry rested only on the venal praises of the French minstrels. The words quoted are, indeed, written by a churchman, although not by Hoveden. But whatever invidious turn they bear, they belong, as we have seen, to quite another person; to a bishop who justly deserved such an indirect stroke of satire, for his criminal enormities, not for any vain pretensions to the character of a Provencial songster.-ADDITIONS.]

Rot. Pip. an. 21. Henr. III.