AMADIS DE GAULA, the most famous romance of chivalry in prose, was printed in its earliest extant edition at Saragossa in 15(€ Its author was Garci Rodriguez or Ordonez de Montalvo, governor of Medina del Campo in Old Castile, whose avowed purpose was to draw from ethe ancient originals," which have since perished, a story that might inspire Span ish youth with a desire to emulate the noble deeds of knighthood. Montalvo, in expanding what seems to have been a Portuguese model from three books to four, and in adding a fifth started upon its career the fiction destined to unfold in more continuations than any other known to literary history. It is presumed that the writer of the Portuguese original was Joac de Lobeira, a member of the poetical circle of King Denis of Portugal in the late 13th cen tury. Like others of his coterie, Lobeira was subject to French influence and acquainted with legends of the prowess of the knights of King Arthur and Charlemagne; but his 'Amadis' is distinguished from romances of the Arthurian and Carlovingian cycles by be ing wholly fictitious, founded neither upon tra dition nor upon history. Another Lobeira of the 14th century (Vasco, q.v.) has been credited with the authorship of the Portuguese 'Ama dis,' since its ascription to him by a chronicler of the 15th century. His claim, however, is now no longer accepted by scholars, who at most will concede to him a later manuscript version rumored to have been lost in the Lis bon earthquake. In any case, Amadis' achieved its renown, not in the Portuguese of either Lobeira, but in the Spanish of Mon talvo, who probably had Castilian as well as Portuguese versions upon which to draw. Ii the origin of 'Amadis' be obscure, its place among the monuments of literature is certain As Cervantes declared in 'Don Quixote,' it is gthe best of all books of this kind that hare ever been written.° It is also, according to
Prof. F. M. Warren, "our first modern novel.° The time of the story is snot long after the Passion of our Lord'; its scenes are laid in a mythical Great Britain and an im aginary Firm Island. Gaula signifies Wales: Amadis of Gaul is a prince of Wales born of a secret amour, reared as a knight, and serving devotedly the fair English princess Oriana. For her sake he contends against monsters and en chantments, defends her father's kingdom from an oppressor, and opposes the Roman emperor as rival. He wins a victory over the emperor, whose suit is favored by the lady's father, bat, in his hour of triumph, consents to spare the latter, and at last is formally united to On= in marriage. High ideals mark the work— pride, honor, valor, love, loyalty to the king, and religion. It contains nothing of the ex travagant code of faith and honor which grey up in the Spanish decadence, and exhibits com paratively little of the absurdity so character istic of its fantastic continuations. Of such continuations the first was Montalvo's Fifth Book° entitled 'The Deeds of Esplandian.' its hero the son of Amadis and Oriana. Most others followed the fortunes of some one of Esplandian's descendants, professing to be but additional books of the original (Amadis.' That original may be read in Robert Southey's abridgment of its Elizabethan translation by Anthony Munday. The English reader should also consult Prof. F. M. Warren's 'His tory of the Novel Previous to the Seventeenth Century' (1894). The best Spanish treatment of (Amadis' is to be found in Marceline Menendez y Pelayo's (Origenes de la novels? (1905).