'2. Romantic fiction in 'western Europe.—The first thing to be clearly understood in connection with this branch of literature is, that it is not a continuation of the Graeco Byzantine or classical fiction, though, curiously enough, it began to spring up in the west just as the other was dying out in the east. It is a completely new growth, the product of new historical circumstances, which were but very slightly affected by Byzantine influences of any kind; and it transports us into a world of ideas, sentiments, beliefs, and actions, as different from what we find in the Erotikoi as could well be imagined. In the latter, the principal characters are mere lovers forced into adventures by the ministers of fate; in the former, they are real heroes, of the old Homeric type, and seek dangers greedily and joyously. When we read the Erotikoi we are reminded in many ways that we are in the midst of a corrupt and decaying civilization; when we turn to the romances of chivalry in spite of certain superficial and barbarous vices—such as the prevalence of bastardy, and the indifference displayed to bloodshed—we feel that we are in the presence of a youth ful, healthy, vigorous, and growing social life. That these romances, generally from beginning to end, consist of a series of extraordinary and utterly impossible exploits, in which the magic, the mystery, and the enchantments of the Arabian Nights are rivaled or outshone, is unquestionable; but this proves no more than that the races of western Europe, who slowly, during the dark ages, rose, by the help of the church, out of bar barism into feudalism—the first step toward the civilization of the modern world—were ignorant, credulous, and wonder-loving. Their prodigious vigor and vehe menu of character, having no proper intellectual pabulum, was forced to supply its craving for a knowledge which was beyond its immediate attainment, by the exaggera tions of a fancy that was without law or limit. We need not go so far as to assert that, in the medimval romance, everything is of native or "Gothic" origin; the fact is very much the reverse. This extreme theory, propounded by Mallet, and supported by bishop Percy, and other writers, is totally inadequate to account for all that is contained in these romances. Not less inadequate is another theory, first suggested by Salmasius, and after ward elaborated by Warton, that the medimval romance is mainly of Saracenic and was probably introduced by the Moorish conquerors into Spain, and thence propa gated into France and Britain; while a third theory, which has also found supporters, viz., that it was derived from the classical mythology of ancient Greece, is the most inadequate of all. The true explanation of the matter appears to be that medimval romance had its root and foundation in chivalry (q.v.)—a genuine product of western Europe—and although the machinery, so to speak, the exploits and the marvels, may have often been derived from the foreign sources we have mentioned, yet the spirit, scenery, sentiment, and life of the legends thoroughly reflect the characteristics of the earlier ages of feudalism. The notions of dragons, giants, magic rings, enchanted cas tles, are probably of Saracenic origin, and may have been introduced into Europe by the horde of pilgrims who visited the east in the time of the crusades; such incidents as the detaining of a knight from his quest by the enchantments of a sorceress may have been a tradition of the Odyssey of Homer; but the gallantry, the courtesy, the romantic valor, the tournaments, the noble friendships of brother-knights—all that distinguishes the romances of chivalry from Hunic legends, or the Arabian Nights, cannot be traced to any other source than the new-born chivalry of Europe.
The medieval romances are divisible into three great series-1. Those relating to Arthur and the knights of the round-table. 2. Those relating to Charlemagne and his paladins. 3. Those relating to Amadis de Gaul, and his descendants.
The'Arthurian series is, in its essence, of Welsh and Armoric origin. Its genesis is as
follows: First came the legendary chronicles composed in Wales or Brittany, such as the Da Excidio Britannia of Gildas (q.v.); the chronicle of Nennius)belongin7 to the 9th c.; the Armoric collections of Walter Calenius or Gualtier, archdeacon of Oxford; and the famous Chronicon site llistoria Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth (q.v.)—from these, and from the multitude of floating unrecorded traditions, sprung the Metrical, which in turn gave birth to, and were ultimately superseded by, the prose romances. It is with the latter alone that we have here to do. They, like the metrical romances, were composed by Anglo-Norman authors (whose names are unknown) during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, who took all the more willingly to the old British legend that in these the "Saxons" werethe objects of tlieauthors' hatred and The principal romances of the Arthurian cycle are those of krerlin (q.v.), the enchanter; of Arthur (q.v.); of; the Sangrenl (see GRAAL); of Perceral; of Lancelot du Lac; of the princes of Lyonnesse, Me!blus and his son Tristan; and of bale le Triste, the son of Tristan. They relate the marvelous adventures, exploits, loves, and gallantries of the knights of the round-table, and are probably in substance the oldest of the medieval prose romances. The scenes are generally laid in Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Ireland, or Scotland; only in one or two of the series are we taken as far as Egypt or India; and though Arthur is slain by " Saracens" who supported his nephew, Mordred, and a general eastern coloring is present in the cycle, yet it is "Saxons" who are his principal foes.
The series of Charlemagne and his paladins is of purely French origin, and originated in a somewhat similar fashion to the Arthurian cycle; that is to say, there was first a legendary chronicle (in verse, however), entitled Ristoria de Vita llama Magni et Rolunch; erroneously attributed to Turpin or Tilpin, archbishop of Rheims, and contemporary of Charlemagne, but probably executed in the 11th or 12th centuries; then came a series of metrical romances, strictly so called, which were gradually supplanted by their prose counterparts, the authors of which last, however, appear to have diverged more from the metrical originals, and to have been more free and fanciful than their predecessors of toe Arthurian cycle. The principal are Iluon of Bordeaux (the incidents of which are fol lowed by Wieland in his Oberon), Guerin de Mongtare, Gaylen Rhetore (in.which Charle. magne and his paladins proceed incognito to the Holy Land), Miles and Ames, Jourdain de Blares, Doolin de Mayenee, Ogler le Danois, and Mangis the Enchanter. In these romances we are, in some respects, on totally different ground from that on which we find ourselves in the Arthurian series. We are transferred to the east—to Africa, Pales tine, Arabia, Bagdad, Constantinople, India, Persia, the Caspian sea, etc. We are intro duced to the courts of Saracen "princes," "sultans," and " emirs:" and see Mohamme dan maidens of peerless beauty falling in love with Christian knights, and for their sakes abandoning, or even betraying father, mother, brethren, and kinsmen. Fairies, who figure but slightly in the Arthurian romances, play a frequent and an important part in these; demons, dervishes, apes, talismans, palaces with cupolas and gilded roofs, splendid jewels. diamonds, etc.—everything, in fact, shows the influence exercised on the imagi nation of western Europe by the glowing scenery, the brilliant life, and time gorgeously fanciful superstitions of oriental lands.
The series relating to Amadis de Gaul and his descendants is sufficiently characterized under the head of Amadis (q.v.). We may only observe, as a proof of the comparative lateness of their composition, that the "Saracens" of the French romances here give place to " Turks:" and as the eyes of Europe were turned toward the tottering Greek empire, many of the scenes of warfare are laid at Constantinople.