It was always either for the excitement or for the amusement of warriors that the earliest poets of every nation exerted their art ; and it is wonderful what simi larity is perceptible among all the various relics and monuments that have come down to us of their efforts. The song which the old bard Demodocus sung at the feast in the Odyssey, is essentially of the very same character with the amorous Fabliaux, which enlivened the halls of the Breton and Norman barons in the young days of modern Europe : nor is it easy to discover much difference between the services of Tyrtxus among the old Spartans, and those of Taillefer the Norman, who at the battle of Hastings " Decant le Duc alloit chantant De Karlemagne et de itolant." Among the Gothic ancestors of the modern European nations, however, it is quite certain that the warlike song formed a constant prelude to the joining of the conflict. Taditus speaks of this as the universal custom among his Germans. The prophetess Veleda marched sing ing before the ranks of the Batavi, when they, after long following the Roman banners, at last took up arms in as sertion of their freedom : and so much a matter of course was this, that long afterwards we find in a war song, used by Lewis, King of the East Franks (a singular relic of antiquity which has now survived nine centuries,) the strain begin with— Lied war gesungen Schlacht war begunnen that is, Now the song was done, And the battle begun.
Thus each succeeding generation marched to the con flict, inspired by the minstrelsy which celebrated their forefathers ; and listened afterwards during the hours of ease and revelry to strains calculated either to flatter the same military propensities, or to shed the colourings of fancy over the recreations most natural in such states of society. The great German romance of the Nibelungen lied—the most perfect, perhaps, of all that the Gothic nations possess—begins in words which might with equal propriety be prefixed either to the Iliad, or to the Odyssey, to the Arabic romance of Antar, or the Spanish Poema del Cid " Von Freuden and festes zeiten, von weinen, and von klagen, Von kuhner helden streiten, mogt ihr nun wunder horen sagen." which may be rendered 1 sing of loves and wassaillings, if you will lend your ears, Strange tales of bold men's combatings, and gentle ladies' tears;— In other words, prepare to listen to an Historical Ro M a 1I ce.- There can now be no doubt that every step made in historical, and in perhaps its surest department, philolo gical research, is a step towards the immutable confir mation of the fact, that all the nations of the world are de scended from one common ancestry. One position has already been established beyond all reach of cavil, viz. that the Greek nation was only a somewhat earlier off set of the same race from which our own Gothic ances tors were derived. This, indeed, cannot any longer be made the subject of a doubt, since it has been proved, that of the 3000 roots now existing in the German lan guage, at least one-half are common to it and the ancient Greek. Such being the ease, nothing could be more interesting than a lengthened and leisurely research in to the really essential distinctions to be found between the progress and descent of the fictitious narrative (origi nally, of course heroic and historical) in old Greece on the one hand, and the forms and shapes through which materials, originally of the same character, have passed in the hands of the kindred nations and tribes of that great family, which, for distinction's sake, we must still be contented to speak of under the name of Gothic.—
This, however, would obviously open a field by far too wide for our present means and opportunities. \Ve must therefore be satisfied with alluding very briefly to a few of the main differences only, that are perceptible to ev ery one who compares these two great branches of lite rature. Of the Romans we need say nothing as to these matters, for they never had any imaginative literature but what was directly inspired by, and founded on Greek models.
The earliest fictitious narrative of the ancients, and that of the moderns, were both groundedon the achievements of bar. They both called into their service the machine ry of supernatural beings—and that machinery is in the two cases wonderfully similar as to all points of real im portance, witchcraft, incantation, charms, dreams, pro phecies, local spirits, &c. &c. being common to both. The purpose being, under whatever veil of cloud, orna ment, and figure, to represent human life, love, of course, forms a principal topic in each class. But here comes the great line of demarcation. Love was idealised and elevated into an all but heavenly character among the nations where the institutions of chivalry had their ori gin. Here is not the place to trace the causes of this— but such is, and such is universally admitted to be the fact ;—whereas love among the people of classical anti quity preserved,from the earliest period in which we can trace their history, a character of much greater coarse ness. Their women were their slaves—the objects of every kind of passion, but not of intellectual respect and reverence. Such reverence was, in a great measure extended among the other peoples, even to those of the fair sex, who could not be considered as perfect models of purity—it breathed an air of lofty and generous cour tesy over every situation in which man could be brought into contact with the fortunes of the feebler sex. On the other hand, even in the highest xra of Greek ro mance, even an Andromache, pure and spotless, royally born, and universally esteemed, is represented even by a Greek poet, as neither expecting, nor having any reason to expect, any better fate, in ease Troy were taken, than that of forming part of the haram of some Greek Prince. There is nothing so rude as this, even in the old German romances, which celebrate the achievements of Attila ; and it would be worse than idle to show how diametrical ly such a conception is at variance with the tone of sen timent that predominates over the works of the same class, which belong to the other two great cycles of he roes, illustrious in the historical romance of our Gothic ancestors. It is in this alone that we find the essential difference between these two classes of imaginative li terature. It is a difference which is equally discernible in every branch of modern European Literature (pro perly so called), which we have the means of comparing with any class of works composed for similar purposes among the classic peoples of the ancient world. It has always in fact formed the great distinction between all ancient poetry, and all modern poetry, worthy of being talked of as such ; nay, it forms to this day the great dis tinction between the actual manners of the ancient world and those of the modern.