In both of these classes, of romance, reference to historical authority is continually and ostentatiously made. In a great measure, the incidents of which they treat are to be found sketched in the chronicles, or pretended chronicles, of Turpin on the one hand, and of Geoffrey of Monmouth and his compeers on the other. There seems, however, to be no reason to doubt that the compilers of these chronicles had em bodied in them the materials used by the original bards of Britain and Armorica, and minstrels of Nor mandy. Charlemagne, for instance, is personally re presented throughout as a character very different from what he was in real history; as a rather in dolent and good-natured old man, harassed by the conflicting claims and pretensions of a set of too powerful vassals. This is very much the view of the matter, which we might imagine likely to be taken among the original Norman invaders of Neustriat such having been in fact the situation in which they, for their own luck, found the French monarchy. But it is not the view of the matter natural to persons in any other situation.
The earliest romances of both classes now in exist ence are, as has been observed above, metrical; and the oldest English metrical romances are professedly translated from the French, unless one exception be found in the Sir Tristram of Thomas of Ercildoun, which has been so ably edited of late years by Sir Walter Scott. According to that learned author's hypothesis, Thomas the Rhymer lived and composed early in the thirteenth century, close to the boundary of the old British kingdom of St•ath-Clyde, which had no doubt preserved entire for a long time the ori ginal legends of that scattered and humbled people. And indeed it is to be kept in mind, that the sites of many of the places and events most illustrious in the Arthurean romances are in the northern parts of the island. The great capital is Caerleol, (Carlisle.) Galloway is supposed to have taken its name from Sir Gawain. Berwick was the guarde joycase, the residence of Launcelot; and the tomb of the faithless Queen Guenever is still pointed out by the country people at Meiglc, in Angus. This part of Sir Walter Scott's essay an Tristram must be consulted by every one who wishes to understand the subject; as also Mr. Ellis's preface to his Specimens of the .Ineicnt English Metrical Romances, where the hypothesis first started by Sir Walter is adopted, and strenuous ly enforced.
According to the opinion of the best writers, the earliest French metrical romance about Arthur, as yet discovered, is Le Brut, the work of Robert Wace, a native of Jersey, written in 1155, and founded on the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth. For analy
ses of this and of the Chevalier au Lyon, attributed by most antiquaries to the same author, as also of the various romances of The Sangreal, Percival, &c. com posed during the two next centuries by Chretien de Troyes, Menessicr, and others, we must content our selves with referring to the works of M. Legrand, M. Tressan, &c. among the French. Many interesting particulars concerning them may also be found in the English works of Ellis and Ritson, and in the more recent history of fiction by Mr. John Dunlop.
The oldest metrical romances of the Charlemagne class are likewise in French. It is not easy to fix their dates; but Iluon de Bortrdcaux, (the foundation of the charming poem of Oberon by Wieland,) is generally supposed to be the oldest of them; and the romance of Fierabras, which king Robert Bruce de lighted to read to his companions, seems also to be among the earliest. It would be in vain to attempt even an enumeration of these works. Mr. Ellis has furnished us with admirable analyses and abundant specimens of the English translations and imitations of them, executed when the use of the French lan guage had begun to give way in this country.
About the same time various metrical romances were composed in French, and imitated both in Ger man and English, in which the old Greek heroes once more make their appearance. The composers of these followed the same plan as those of' the proper Gothic romances; that is, they took their materials from monkish chronicles of the Trojan and Macedo nian wars written in Latin. The constant habit of representing the actual manners of the writer's own time being adhered to, these romances, though pro fessing to detail the events of periods so remote, are in fact quite, or nearly as valuable, to the student of our own Gothic antiquities, as any others. Achilles is no more than a preux chevalier, and Alexander the Great is merely another shadow of Charlemagne or Arthur. Troy, Babylon, &c. are only so many dis guises for Palestine. The theme is always the success of European arms in expeditions to the east.
The expeditions of the crusaders, however, were celebrated by other romances of their own age in a more direct manner. Richard Cceur-de-Lion, God frey of Bouillon, &c. shared the favour of both bards and historians with the Rolauds and Olivers, whose real or fancied achievements had kindled their own imaginations, and whom, it must be admitted, they imitated in many particulars with wonderful success.