AM'ADIS OF GAUL. A legendary hero of the most fvous of mediaeval romances, which even the barber of Don Quixote had not the heart to consign to the flames. It was the cen tre and parent of a cycle of similar tales of chivalry which have their representatives in. every literary language of mediceval Europe, and even in Hebrew. In what language it was first written is uncertain. Portugal, Spain, France, and England claimed its nativity, and, with the exception of Portugal, all with some show of justice. Antadis owes its inspiration to the Arthurian cycle, and so to Britain. It appears to have been developed in northern France, the home of the medieval epic, to have migrated thence to Provence, and to have been carried by the troubadours, either as a complete story or as a tradition, to Spain, where we find the epic mentioned by poets in the middle of the fourteenth century in a way to indicate that it was already widely popular there, though no contemporaneous trace of it has been found in Italy. (Consult Braunfels, Kritischer Ver such fiber den Roman Amadis von Gaula, Leipzig, 1876.) The earliest surviving Amadis legend is by the Spaniard Garcia Ordofiez de MantaIvo, and app._ars to have been finished about 1470. He allowed himself considerable liberties with the tradition, especially toward the close. and his anonymous successors extended the romance to twelve books and more than three times the length he had given it. It was first printed in 1519, and so fully embodies the taste of the generation that had given it birth that it almost immediately became part and parcel of the lit erary consciousness of Europe, each nation recog nizing and reclaiming its share in it, although they claimed no part of the continuation by Mon talvo, in which lie described, out of his own invention, the deeds of the son of Amadis.
Esplandian. Amadis was rendered into Italian in 1546, and into German before the end of the century. It attracted the attention of Francis I. during his captivity at Madrid, and at his command was translated by Nicolas de Herberay, who rendered two-thirds of the Spanish epic into polished French, finishing his work in 154S. Ten translations followed this, with supple mentary adventures and imitations, till the whole swelled at last to twenty-five books, de tailing the adventures of an entire family. In its simpler form it tells how its hero, Amadis, the illegitimate son of Perion, King of Gaul. and Elisena, a princess of Brittany, was placed by his mother in a river in a box, was rescued at sea by a Scottish knight, and educated at the Scottish court, was enamored of Oriana. daughter of King Lisuarte of England, married her, returned to Gaul. and spent the rest of his life, there and elsewhere, in manifold adventures. Both the French and the Spanish Amadis were criticised in their own day for defective struc ture. hyperbolic phantasy, immorality, and irre ligion. Their popularity lasted until they them selves had raised up worthier imitators of their example. The first of these was d'Urfe's dstree.
An English version of Amadis, much shortened to its advantage, was made by Southey (London, 1803). For the origin of the story. consult: Grasse, Littc•aturgcschichtc (Dresden. 1444-50) ; and Kiirting. Gcschichte des franrosischen Ro mans ins S171. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, ISS5) for further bibliography, Braga, Grundriss der romanischen Philologic (Strassburg, 1893).