CHIVALRY THERE is scarcely any subject of antiquarian research so There is scarcely any subject of antiquarian research so free from the reproach of uninteresting and unprofita ble labour, as that which relates to the origin, the causes, the institutions, and the effects of chivalry. Some of our earliest and most pleasing associations are connected with tales of romance ; and even after our judgment is disposed to reject them as rude and extravagant, the sub jects which the most admired poets, of almost every nation, have chosen, lead us back to our former plea sures, and strengthen the hold they have on our ima ginations, by enlisting on their side the approbation of a refined and cultivated taste. Nor are the antiquarian researches, which have chivalry for their object, less interesting and instructive to the philosopher. If he wish to inform himself of the opinions, the manners, and the pursuits of nations, at different periods of their pro gress from barbarism and ignorance, to civilization and knowledge ;—if lie wish to analyse, and to account for, those great and leading points of character, which dis tinguish modern from ancient manners, he must go back to the age of chivalry. Courtesy of manners, the point of honour, a more jealous and habitual attachment to truth than obtained among the nations of antiquity, and a refined, respectful, and delicate gallantry, may be traced from the period when chivalry first dawned, to the pre sent times.
Whoever is equally conversant with the early history of Greece and Rome, and with the history of those bar barians, who overran and conquered the empire of the latter, must be struck with the different manners that distinguished them ; and if he trace these manners dur ing the more advanced state of the ancient world, when every thing else indicated refinement and civilization, he will still detect the same want of courtesy, the same inattention and disregard to the rights and comforts of the female sex, and the same indifference about personal honour, which existed in the ruder state of their society ; while, on the other hand, among the barbarians, far behind the inhabitants of Greece and Rome in every other respect, he will discover those traits of character, on which the most polished modern nations particularly pride themselves.
Chivalry, therefore, characterised as it has justly been by an elegant writer, as consisting " in a passion for arms ; in a spirit of enterprise ; in the honour of knight hood ; in rewards of valour ; in splendour of equipages ; in romantic ideas of justice ; in a passion for adventures ; in an eagerness to run to the succour of the distressed ; in a pride in redressing wrongs and removing grievances; in the courtesy, affability, and gallantry, for which those who attached themselves to it were distinguished ; and in that character of religion, which was deeply imprint ed on the minds of all knights, and was essential to their institution;"—as it constitutes one of the most remark able features in the history of the ancestors of almost all European nations ; as its effects on our opinions, habits, and manners, may still be traced ; and as it is interwoven with our earliest associations, and with the highest charms of poetry of which modern times can boast—demands and deserves a full and patient investigation of its origin, causes, and institutions.
More difficulties arise in tracing and fixing the period of the origin of chivalry, than would at first be suppos ed. An institution so singular and striking, which stood forth amidst ignorance, rudeness, and barbarism, distin guished for its refinement and elegance, and which forms the subject, in a greater or less degree, of almost every writer, during the period at which it flourished, it might have been naturally imagined, would have been des cribed, and could therefore have been detected in its infancy. This, however, is not the case. Almost every distinguisling feature of it may indeed be found in the manners and institutions of different nations, and at very early periods ; hut chivalry, " properly so called, and under the idea of a distinct military order, conferred in the way of investiture, and accompanied with the so lemnity of an oath, as described in the old historians and romancers," is not distinctly mentioned till it evidenth had attained its full form, and taken deep and extensive root in almost every part of Europe.