Heroic Romances

HEROIC ROMANCES, the name of a class of imaginative literature which flourished in the i 7th century, principally in France. The beginnings of fiction in that country took a pseudo bucolic form with the celebrated Astree (161o) of Honore d'Urf e (1568-1625) ; but this ingenious and diffuse production was the source of a vast literature, which took many and diverse forms. Although its action was, in the main, languid and sentimental, there was a side of the Astree which encouraged that extravagant love of glory, that spirit of "panache," which was now rising to its height in France. That spirit it was which animated Marin le Roy, sieur de Gomberville (1600-74), the inventor of the Hero ic Romances. In these there was experienced a violent recrudes cence of the mediaeval elements of romance, the impossible valour devoted to a pursuit of the impossible beauty, but the whole clothed in the language and feeling and atmosphere of a later age. In the Carithee of Gomberville (1621) we have a pastoral which is already beginning to be a heroic romance, and a book in which, under a travesty of Roman history, an appeal is made to an extravagantly chivalrous enthusiasm. A further development was seen in the Polyxene (1623) of Francois de Moliere, and the Endymion (1624) of Gombauld; in the latter the elderly queen, Marie de' Medici, was celebrated under the disguise of Diana, for whom a beautiful shepherd of Caria nourishes a hopeless passion. The earliest of the Heroic Romances, pure and simple, is, however, the celebrated Polexandre (1629) of Gomberville. The author began by intending his hero to represent Louis XIII., but he changed his mind, and drew a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu. The story deals with the adventures of a hero who visits all the sea coasts of the world, the most remote as well as the most fabulous, in search of an ineffable princess, Alcidiane. This absurd, yet very original piece of invention enjoyed an immense success. There was an equal amount of geography and more of ancient history in the Ariane (1632) of Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin 1676), which has been greeted by Paul Morillot as the most read able of all the Heroic Romances.

Calprenede and Scudery.

The type of that class of litera ture, however, has always been found in the highly elaborate writings of Gauthier de Coste de la Calprenede (1609-63), which enjoyed for a time a prodigious celebrity. His Cassandre, which appeared in ten volumes between 1642 and 1645, is perhaps the most characteristic of all the Heroic Romances. It deals with the decline of the empire of Alexander the Great. It must not be sup posed, however, that la Calprenede makes the smallest effort to deal with the subject accurately or realistically. The figures are seigneurs and great ladies of the court of Louis XIII., masquer ading in Macedonian raiment. The passion of love is dominant, and it is treated in the most exalted and hyperbolical spirit. La Calprenede followed up the success of his Cassandre with a Cleopdtre (1647) in 12 volumes, and a Faramond (1661) which he did not live to finish. It should be said that la Calprenede objected to his books being styled romances, and insisted that they were specimens of "history embellished with certain inven tions." He may, in opposition to his wishes, claim the doubtful praise of being, in reality, the creator of the modern historical novel.

The vogue of the historical romance was carried to its height by a brother and a sister, Georges de Scudery (1601-67) and Madeleine de Scudery 0608–'701), whose elephantine romances remain as portents in the history of literature. These novels— there are five of them—were signed by Georges de Scudery, but it is believed that all were in the main written by Madeleine. The earliest was Ibrahim, ou l'Illustre Bassa (1641) ; it was followed by Le Grand Cyrus (1648-53) and the final, and most preposter ous member of the series was Clelie . The romances of Mlle. de Scudery (for to her we may safely attribute them) are much inferior in style to those of la Calprenede. They are pre tentious, affected and sickly. The author abuses the element of analysis, and pushes a psychology, which was beyond the age in penetration, to a wearisome and excessive extent.

Vogue in England.

In England the Heroic Romance had a period of flourishing popularity. All the principal French examples were translated, and "he was not to be admitted into the academy of wit who had not read Astrea and The Grand Cyrus." The vogue of these books in England lasted from about 1645 to 1660, and led to the composition of original works in imitation of the French. The most remarkable of these was Parthenissa, published in 1654 by Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill and afterwards earl of Orrery (1621-79). Addison speaks in the Spectator of the popu larity of all these huge books, "the Grand Cyrus, with a pin stuck in one of the middle leaves, Clelie, which opened of itself in the place that describes two lovers in a bower." M. Jusserand has analysed what may be considered the very latest of the race, Pandion and Amphigenia, published in 1665 by the dramatist, John Crowne.

See G. de Percel, De l'usage des romans (1734) ; J. J. Jusserand, Le Roman anglais au X VIIe siecle (1888) ; Andre Le Breton, Le Roman au XVlle siecle (189o) ; P. Morillot, Le Roman en France depuis i6ro (1894). (E. G.; X.)