ATIVADIS, a much-used heroic name in chivalric poetry. At the head of those heroes of romance, stands A. of Gaul, called the lion knight, from the device on his shield, and also Beltenebros, or the darkly beautiful. The other Amadises that figure in romance are represented as descendants more or less remote of A. of Gaul. He him self was what the Germans called a love-child of the fabulous king Perion of France and of Elisena, a princess of Bretagne. The relationship of several of the other Am adises to the princes and princesses of Colchis, Trebisond, Greece, and Cathay, that figure as their parents, is of the same unsanctioned kind. The romance which narrates the adventures of A. of Gaul is both the most ancient and the best of all the A. romances. It even found favor in the sight of Cervantes, who won immortal honor by the long. usurped dominion of this "evil sect." This one, however, has maintained its reputation even to the present day, not only because it was regarded by him as a literary curiosity, but also from its own merits, as the original production of a creative fancy.
The question which was early raised, and cannot yet be demonstratively settled, as to whether this romance was originally a Portuguese, a Spanish, or a French produc tion, proves at least the absence in it of all national peculiarities, and the entire want of all national traditions connected with it; and hence the want also of a living historical background, which, in the case of all really national legends, is discernible through the purely epic structure. It may be asserted with certainty, both from internal and ex ternal evidence, that this romance is the pure subjective creation of the fancy of a single individual; and that it was composed at a time when the genuine epic style of chivalric writing was near its decline, consequently not earlier than 14th century. It is also apparent that this romance must have been originally written in prose, and intended to be read, and not to be recited. Lastly, it is not to be doubted that the author was well acquainted with the earlier legendary poetry, and has imitated it in many things, but has, nevertheless, struck out for himself a perfectly new path, in an opposite direction, which naturally tended to lead his less gifted imitators into a bottomless abyss, and at last brought about the extinction of the whole class. For these chivalric romances— doubtless unintentionally—becam e by degrees more and more of an ironical cast; and only a genius like Cervantes was wanting in order to complete their extinction, by making the comic element the fundamental tone, and exaggerating the incongruity inherent in such compositions.
The Spanish A. romances consist of fourteen books, of which the first four contain the history of A. of Gaul. Yet, according to the researches of the learned Clemencin, as stated in his Commentary on Don Quixote (Madrid, 1833), it can scarcely be doubted that this most ancient part was originally written in the Portuguese language, by the knight Vasco de Lobeira of Oporto, who died in 1403; and that it must have been composed between 1342 and 1367. The original manuscript is said to have been first in
the possession of the infant Alfonso of Portugal, the son of John I., the founder of the house of Brag,anza, who died in 1461; and last, in that of the duke of Aveiro, and to have been destroyed during the earthquake in Lisbon in 1755. At least, these first four books have only been pteserved in the Spanish translation which was made by Garcia Ordofies de Montalvo, about 1460, and was first printed between 1492 and 1505. The same Montalvo added to it the fifth book, Las Scrgas [ergas, i.e., actions or deeds] de Esplandian, Hijo de ilmadis de Gaula. He began this book in 1485, but did not com plete it till 1492. The books from the 16th to the 14th contain the exploits and adven tures of Florisando, by Paez de Ribera; of Lizuarte of Greece, and of Perion of Gaul, by Juan Diaz; of A. of Greece, of Florisel of Nicea, and of Ar.axarte, by Feliciano de Silva; of Rogel of Greece, and of Silves de la Selva, by the same; of Lepolemo, and of Leandro the fair, by Pedro de Lujan; and lastly, of Penelva, by an anonymous Portuguese. The French translators and continuators, beginning with Nicolas de Herberay, Sieur des Essarts, who published the first eight books between 1540-48, have increased this series of romance to 24 books. Gilbert Saunier, Sieur de Duverdier, has written a conclusion, in seven large volumes, to all the adventures begun in the whole series of legends, which lie has called Le Roman des Romans.
How popular and widely circulated these romances were in their day, may be proved by the many editions of single legends, by the translations of most of them into Italian, English, German, and even into Dutch, and also by the numerous chivalric romances written in imitation of them. As, nevertheless, a change came over the public taste, they almost all fell into oblivion, and indeed justly so. because of their want of intrinsic merit. They were transferred from the temple of the muses to the literary lumber room, where now at best they Only serve to feast the eyes of bibliomaniacs. A. of Gaul has been deservedly excepted from this fate, and has not only found readers in the present day, but has been in modern times translated, revised, and imitated. The Portirruese Gilvicente, and the Spaniard Andres Rei de Artieda, extracted from it the materials for two Spanish comedies. De Lubert and count Tressan revived this romance in tasteful extracts; and as Bernardo Tasso formerly did in his Amadigt, so now Creuze de Lesser and William Stewart Rose have extracted from it the materials for epic poems: A. de Gayle, Poeme pliant suite aux Ckevalzers de la Table roads (Paris, 1813), and A. of Gaul, a poem in three books (London, 1803.) On the other hand, Wieland's Never A. has nothing in common with the more ancient .A.madises, except the title. See Baret, De 'Amadih de Gaule (Par., 1873.)