which has its Source in Persia and finishes its course in the Indies his thought and meaning was that it begins and end its course among people very much addicted to Fiction and Disguisements These Fictions and Paraboles which you have seen make up the Prophane learning of the Nations before mentioned have in Syria been Sanctified the Sacred Authors complying with the humour of the Jews made use thereof to express the inspirations they received from Heaven The Holy Scripture is altogether Mysterious Allegorical and Aenigmatical The Talmudists believed that the Book of Job is no other but a parable of the Hebrews invention this Book that of Davia the Proverbs Ecclesiastes the Canticles and all other Holy Songs are Poetical works abounding with Figures which would seem bold and violent in our Writings and which are ordinary in those of that Nation The Book of Proverbs is otherwise called the Paraboles because Proverbs of this sort according to the definition of Quintilian are only short Fictions or Parables exprest in little The Book of Canticles is a kind of Dramatick Poem where the passionat sentiments of the Bridegroom and Spouse are exprest after a manner so tender and touching that we should be charmed thereby if these expressions and figures had some little more of conformity with our Genius or that we could devest our selves of that unjust preoccupation which makes us dislike all that is any little remote from our usage in which we condemn our selves without perceiving it since that our lightness never permits us to persevere long in the same customes Our Saviour himself scarce ever gave any precepts to the Jews but under the veil of Paraboles The Talmud contains a Million of Fables every one more impertinent then other many of the Rabbins have afterwards explained reconciled and amassed them together in their particular works and besides this have composed several Poesies Proverbs and Apologues The Cypriots and Cilicians have invented certain Fables which did bear the name of these People and the habit which the Cilicians in particular had of Lying has been noted by one of the Ancientest Proverbs which has been currant in Greece Lastly Fables have been in such vogue all over these Countries that amongst the Assyrians and Arabians according to the testimony of Lucian there were certain persons whose sole profession was to explain Fables and these men lived so regularly that they lived far longer then other People But it is not sufficient to have discovered the Source of Romances we must see by what Chanels they have been conveyed to and spread over Greece and Italy and whether they have passed from thence to us or that we have them from elsewhere The Ionians a people of Asia Minor being raised to a great Power and having acquired vast Riches were plunged in Luxurie and Voluptuousness inseperable companions of plenty Cyrus having subdued them by the taking of Craesus and all Asia Minor being with them fallen under the power of the Persians they received their manners with their Laws and mixing their Debauches with those their own inclination had before carried them to they became the most Voluptuous people in the World they refined upon the pleasures of the Table they made the addition of Flowers and Perfumes they found out new Ornaments for their Houses the finest Wools and the fairest Tapistries of the World came from them they were Authors of the Lascivious Dance called the Ionick and they became so remarkable for effeminateness that it past into a Proverb but amongst these Milesians furpassed all in the science of pleasures and were most ingenious in their delicacies these were the first who taught the Persians the Art of making Romances and travelled therein so happily that the Milesian Fables that is to say their Romances full of Love-stories and dissolute Relations were in the highest reputation 't is very likely that Romances were innocent till they fell into their hands and only contained singular and memorable adventures that these first corrupted them and stuft them with lascivions narrations and affairs of love Time has consumed all these works it has indeed preserved the name of Aristides the most famous of their Romancers who writ several Books of those called Milesian Fables I find that one Dionisins a Milesian who liv'd under the first Darius writ fabulous Histories but not being certain whether this was not onely a compilation of Ancient Fables and not seeing sufficient foundation to believe that these were of those properly called Milesian Fables I do not number him amongst the makers of Romances The Ionians who came from Attica and Peloponnesus mindful of their original maintained a great correspondence with the Greeks They sent their children reciprocally for breeding and that they might be acquainted with each others manners by this so frequent commerce Greece which of it self had inclination enough for Fables learned readily of the Ionians the art of composing Romances and did cultivate it with success but to avoid confusion I shall essay according to the order of time to give account of those Greek Writers who have been famous in this art I find none before Alexander the Great which perswaded me that the Romantick Science made no considerable progress among the Greeks before they had it from the Persians themselves when they subdued them and run it to its Source Clearcus of Soli a Town of Cilicia who lived in Alexanders time and was with him a Disciple of Aristotles is the first I find to have writ Books of Love though I do not well know whether these were not a Collection onely of several Love-passages drawn from History or vulgar Fable like that which Parthenius afterwards made under Augustus which is yet extant That which causeth this suspition is a little story cited by Atheneus out of him wherein are reckoned several tokens of love and esteem which Gyges King of Lydia gave to a Courtesan his Mistress Antonius Diogenes according to the conjecture of Photius lived some little time after Alexander and in imitation of Homers Odysseis and the hazardous Voyages of Ulisses made a true Romance of the Voyages and Amours of Dinias and Dercyllis This Romance though very faulty in many things and filled with fooleries and relations improbable and scarce excusable even in a Poet may notwithstanding be called regular Photius has an abstract thereof in his Bibliotheca and saith he believes it to be the source of that which Lucian Lucius Iamblicus Achilles Tatius Heliodorus and Damascius have writ in this kind however he adds in the same place that Antonius Diogenes makes mention of one Antiphanes more ancient then himself who he saith writ a Book of wonderful Histories like his so that he may as well be thought to have given the Idaea and matter to these Romances which he names as Antonius Diogenes I suppose he must be understood to speak of Antiphanes the Comick Poet who the Geographer Stephanus and others say made a Book of incredible
to Porsenna King of the Hetrurians whose whole incomes scarce amounted to ten thousand pounds per annum and who at one whistle could call all his Subjects together â—lelia must be made his Conquest If say they it cost an Author ought to rig out his Hero in good Cloathes and handsome Equipage to Lodge him in a sumptuous Palace and provide him a plentiful Table it then might be presumed that none would tick with him for so much but considering that all this expense is onely imagination 't is strange that any should be such a niggard of it and deny so small a matter to an Hero unless it were done on purpose to disparage Clelia and with these indignities destroy the quality and reputation of an Heroine which she so well had merited Whereas our Author gives a hint of the Runick Characters I might give account here of the famous Edda which contains the wonderful atchievments of Woden and his Wife Frigga whose names we still retain in our Wednesday and Fryday with the rest of our Gothish Ancestors a Book which for antiquity might contend with Homer and as fabulous as the best And whereas in the controversie betwixt the Greeks and the Arabians concerning Aesop our Author seems to give the balance to the Greeks I might easily turn the scales with the advantage to the Orientals And whereas he compute what time Rimes first obtained in Europe I might examine whether or no Nero who was a better Poet then Emperor had any knowledge of them and made then his diversion and likewise whether they or the Measures and Cadences of the Greeks and Latins have the advantage some affirming that Rime is trivial and childish others asserting that Rime is more agreeable more sweet and more natural then the other and though the other came first into the World yet nature like most Mothers rather gives her blessing to the Cadet then to the First born The general approbation of all Nations and the Hebrews themselves using Rime in whatever Poesies they make at this day all concur to the strengthning of this opinion But I have already too long detained thee from what will give thee greater satisfaction shall therefore onely entreat that thou mayst not impeach our Author for making Melkin and Thaliessin English seeing that Foreiners think themselves not bound to take notice when this Isle was called Albion when Britain when England besides that writing in French if he had call'd them Britains they might have passed with some for French Britains and thereby our Nation have lost the honour of having given Birth to the first Romances in Europe MONSIEUR HUET TO MONSIEUR de Ségrais SIR YOur curiosity stands with reason and the desire to know the Original of Romances is proper for you who so perfectly understand the Art to make them but the doubt is whether it be so proper for me to undertake your satisfaction I have not Books and my head at present is filled with matters of altogether another nature And I know well how cumbersome and difficult this research is 't is neither in Provence nor Spain as many believe that we may hope to find the first beginnings of this agreeable Amusement we must in quest thereof travel remotest Countries and in the most latent Paths of Antiquity However I will comply with your desire for as our ancient and strict friendship gives you right to demand me all things so it takes from me the liberty to deny you any thing Heretofore under the name of Romance were comprehended not onely those which were writ in Prose but those also which were writ in Verse Giraldi and Pigna his Disciples in their Treatises De Romanzi scarce take notice of any others and give the Boyardos and Arioste for Models But at this day the contrary usage has prevailed and they which now are properly called Romances are Fictions of Love-Adventures writ in Prose with Art for the delight and Instruction of the Readers I say Fictions to distinguish them from true Histories I add of Love-Adventures for that Love ought to be the principal subject of a Romance They must be writ it Prose to be conformable to the Mode of the times They must be writ with Art and under certain rules otherwise they will onely be a confused mass without order or beauty The chief end of a Romance or at least that which ought so to be and which the Composer ought to propose to himself is the Instruction of the Reader to whom he must always present Vertue crowned and Vice punished But as the spirit of man naturally hates to be taught and self-love does spurn against Instructions 't is to be deceived by the blandishments of pleasure and the severity of Precepts to be sweetn'd by the agreement of Examples and thus our own faults may be amended while we condemn them in others Thus the diversion of the Reader which a good Romancer seems chiefly to design is but subordinate to his principal end which is the Instruction of the mind and correction of manners And Romances are more or less regular according as they are more or less remote from this definition and end 'T is onely of these I pretend to entertain you and I presume your curiosity reaches no further I shall not therefore treat here of Romances in Verse much less of Epick Poems which besides that they are in Verse have moreover different essentials which distinguish them from Romances though otherwise there is a very great relation and following the maxime of Aristotle who teaches that a Poet is more a Poet by the Fictions he invents then by the Verse which he composes Makers of Romances may be rancked among the Poets Petronius tells us that Poems are to move in a great circumference by the Ministry of the Gods and expressions free and hardy so that they may be taken rather for Oracles thrown from a spirit full of fury then for a faithfull and exact Narration Romances are more simple are not so lofty nor have those Figures in the invention and expression Poems have more of the marvellous though always bounded within probability Romances have more of the probable though sometimes they incline to the marvellous Poems are more regular and more correct in the contrivance and receive less of matter of Events and Episodes Romances are capable of more because being not so elevate and full of Figures they do not so much stretch the wit and so suffer it to be furnished with a greater number of different Ideas In fine Poems have for their subject some Military on Politick action and treat not of Love but upon occasion Romances on the contrary have Love for their principal Theme and meddle not with War or Politicks but by accident I speak of regular Romances for the most part of the old French Spanish and Italian Romances have much more of the Souldier then the Gallant in them This made Giraldi believe that the name of Romance came from
relations and ridiculous He was of Berge a Town of Thrace but 't is not known of what Countrey Antonius Diogenes was I cannot tell precisely in what time Aristides of Miletus lived whom I spoke of before what we may be confident of is that he lieved before the Wars of Marius and Sylla for Sisenna a Roman Historian of that time translated his Milesian Fables this work was full of obscenities and thereby gave great delight and entertainment to the Romans so that the Surenasâ— or Lieutenant General of the Parthian Estate who defeated the Roman Army under Crassus his Command having found these among the Baggage of Roscius took occasion thereupon before the Senate of Seleucia to insult over and rail at the weakness and effeminate disposition of the Romans who even during the War could not be without such like diversions Lucius of Pairas Lucian of Samosata and Iamblicus were all well nigh contemporaries and lived under Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius the first of these is not to be accounted among Romancers for he onely made a collection of Metamorphoses and the Magical Transforming of Men into Beasts and of Beasts into Men dealing bona fide and believing every thing that he writ But Lucian more wise and cunning then he relates some part of his History to mock and make sport therewith according to his custom in the Book which he Intitled Lucius his Ass to intimate that that Fiction was taken from him This in effect is an Abbridgement of the two first Books of Lucius his Metamorphoses and this fragment lets us see that Photius had reason to complain of the smuttiness so frequent in him This so ingenious and renowned Ass whose History these Authors writ was much akin to another of like worth and merit whereof elsewhere the same Photius speaks after Damascius This Ass saith he was the Chattel of a certain Grammarian named Ammonius and was indued with such a gentle spirit and 2o born to be polite and capable of fine things that it would gladly even leave Meat and Drink to hear Verses repeated and would be sensibly touched and taken with the graces and beauties of the Poetry The Brancaleon is doubtless a Copy of this Ass of Lucians or of that of Apuleus this is an Italian Fiction very divertising and full of Wit Lucian besides his Lucius made two Books of wild and ridiculous Histories and which he declared to be such protesting withall that those things never have nor ever can come to pass some seeing these Books joyned to that wherein he gives directions for the writing a History well have been perswaded that he intended this for an example of what he had taught but he declares at the entrance of the Book that he had not any further design in it save only to mock at so many Poets Historians and even Philosophers themselves who with impunity delivered Fables for truths and writ such false relations of Forein Countries as Ctesias and Iambulus had done If then it be true as Photius assures us that the Romance of Antonius Diogenes has been the Source of these two Books of Lucian 't is to be understood that Lucian took occasion from this Romance as also from the Fabulous Histories of Ciesias and Iambulus to write his and thereby make their vanity and impertinence appear About the same time Iamblious published his Babylonicks for so he called his Romance in which he far excelled all those who went before for if one may judge of it by the abridgement which Photius has left us his design comprehends but one action dressed with all convenient Ornaments accornpanied with Episodes arising from the principal matter Verisimility is observed most exactly the Adventures are mixed with a World of Variety and without confusion Art onely is wanting in the contrivance of his Plot he has grosly followed the order of time and has not at his first Launching plundged the Reader as he might have done into the middle of his subject after the example Homer gives us in his Odyssis Time has been favourable to this Piece and it is to be seen in the Library of the Escurial Heliodorus has surpassed him in the disposition of his Subject as in all the rest Hitherto the World had never seen any thing better designed and more compleat among Romances then the Adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea nothing can be more chaste then their Loves Whereby may appear besides the Christian Religion whereof the Author made profession that his own nature had given him such an air of Vertue as shines throughout all his work in which not onely Iamblicus but even almost all the rest are much his Inferiours besides his Merit advanced him to the Dignity of an Episcopal Sea he was Bishop of Tricca a City of Thessalie and Socrates reports that he introduced within that Province the custom of deposing such of the Clergy as abstained not from those Women they had Espoused before they were ordained Priests All which makes me much suspect what Nicophorus a credulous Writer of little judgement or fidelity relates that a Provincial Synode understanding what danger the reading of this Romance which was authorised by the dignity of its Author made the young people fall into and having proposed to him this alternative either to consent that his Book should be burned or else to resign his Bishoprick he made choice of the latter for the rest I cannot but exceedingly wonder that a Learned Man of these times should doubt whether this was the Book of Heliodorus Bishop of Tricca or no after so evident Testimony of Socrates Photius and Nicephorua Some have been of opinion that he lived about the end of the twelft Age confounding him with Heliodorus the Arabian whose life Philostratus has writ among those of the other Sophists But it is known that he was contemporary of Arcadius and Honoriuâ— we also see that in the Catalogue which Photius made of the Romancers who he believed had imitated Antonius Diogenes where he names them according to the order of time he has placed Helioderus after Iamblicus and before Damascius who lived in the time of the Emperous Justinian By this account Achilles Tatius who made a regular Romance of the Amours of Clitophon and Leucippe should have preceded for I find nothing else whereon to ground my conjecture of his Age others think him more recent by his style but however he is not in any wise to be compared with Heliodorus neither in the regularity of his manners nor in the variety of events nor in the Artifice in unravelling his Plots his stile in my mind is to be preferr'd to that of Heliodorus he is more simple and natural but Heliodorus more forced finally some say that he was a Christian and Bishop too 't is strange that the obscenity of his Book should be so easily forgot and more then this that the Emperour Leon surnamed the Philosopher has commended the Modesty thereof in an Epigram which is yet extant and
in the Originals which he had followed His style is that of a Sophist full of affectation and violent figures hard barbarous and befitting an African Some hold that Clodius Albinus one of the pretenders to the Empire who was vanquisht and slain by the Emperour Severus disdained not a like travail Julius Capitolinus reports in his life that there were seen certain Milesian Fables under his name greatly esteemed though but indifferently written and that Severus reproched the Senate that they had commended him for a Learned Man whereas he read nothing but the Milesian Fables of Apuleus and spent all his Study in old Wives tales and such like trifles which he preferred before serious employments Martianus Capella has as Petronius given the name of Satyr to his work for that it is writ like his in Verse and Prose and that the profitable and the agreeable are there interwoven having design to treat of all those which are called the Liberal Arts he therefore takes a circumference giving them persons and feigning that Mercury who has them in his Train Espouses Philology that is to say the love of good Letters and gives her for a Nuptial present whatever they have most fair and most precious so that it is a continual Allegory which properly deserves not the name of a Romance but rather of a Fable for as I have already remarqued a Fable represents things which never have nor ever can happen and a Romance represents things which may but never have happened The artifice of this Allegory is not very subtile the style is barbarisme it self so bold and so extravagant in his figures that they were not to be pardoned the most desperate Poet and covered with an obscurity so thick that it is hardly intelligible otherwise it is Learned and full of Notions which are not common Some write that the Author was an African if he were not he might well be one his manner of writing is so harsh and forced The time wherein he lived is not known it onely appears he was more ancient then Justinian Hitherto the Art of Romancing was maintained with some splendour but it declined afterwards with Learning and the Empire when these boysterous Nations of the North carried every where with them their ignorance and barbarity Before Romances were made for delight now were devised fabulous Histories because none were acquainted with the Truth Taliessin who is said to have lived about the middle of the sixth Age under that King Arthur so famous in Romances and Melkin who was somewhat younger writ the History of England their Countrey of King Arthur and of the round Table Balaus who has put them in his Catalogue speaks of them as of Authors filled with Fables The same may be said of Hunibaldus Francus who was as some write contemporary of Clovis and whose History is no other but a mass of lyes grosly conceived In fine Sir we come to the famous Book of the exploits of Charlemagne which some ascribe very untowardly to the Archbishop Turpin though he be later then it by more then two hundred years Pigna and some others have believed ridiculously that Romances took their name from the Town of Reims whereof he was Archbishop for that his Book as Pigna reports was the Source from whence the Romances of Provence chiefly issued and that he was according to others the principal among the makers of Romances However there are to be seen many Histories of Charlemagnes life full of extravagant Fables and like that which bears the name of Turpin Such were the Histories attributed to Harcon and to Solcon Forteman to Savard the Sage to Adell Adeling and to John Son of the King of Freezland all five Freezlanders and who are also said to have lived in the time of Charlemagne Such also was the History attributed to Occon who according to the common opinion was Contemporary of Otho the Great and had Solcon before named to his great Uncle And such were those which contain the Atchievments of King Arthur and the Life of Merlin These Histories composed for delight pleased the Readers who were simple and more ignorant then those who made them they did not in those days trouble themselves in the researches after good Memoires and in being informed of the truth for writing of Histories They had the stuff in their own head and went no farther then their own invention Thus Historians degenerated into true Romancers In this Age of ignorance the Latine Tongue too as well as truth was despised The Versifiers Composers Inventers of Tales Jesters and in fine those of this Countrey who studied that which was there called the Gay Science did begin about the time of Hugh Capet to Romance it pell mell and over run France giving about their Romances and Fables composed in the Roman Tongue for heretofore those of Provence had more of Learning and Poesie among them then all France besides This Roman Tongue was that which the Romans introducted among the Gauls together with their Conquests and which being corrupted by the times with a mixture of the Gaulish Language which was before and then French or Tudesque which followed 't was neither Latin Gaulish nor French but a certain medley of all wherein Latin however was predominant the which for that reason was always called the Roman to distinguish it from the particular and natural Language of each Countrey as the French Gaulish or Celtique Aquitanique Belgique for Caser writs that these three Languages were different among themselves which Strabo explains of a difference which only was as the diverse dialects of the same Language The Spaniard use the word Romancé in the same signification with us and they call their ordinary language Romancé the Romain being then most universally undestood those of Provence who Studied Fictons made use thereof for their Fictions which from thence were called Romances The Versifiers also travaling about the Countrey were bountifully rewarded for their labours and nobly entertained by Lords whom they made visits to some whereof would be so transported with delight to hear them that they sometimes would even despoil themselves of their Robes to adorn the Versifiers therewithall Those of Provence were not the onely persons who delighted in this agreeable exercise almost every Province of France had their Romancers even to Picardy where were composed their Servantois pieces treating of Love and sometimes Satyrical and from thence come so very many of old Romances whereof some part are Printed others are rotting in Libraries the rest consumed by the length of time Spain it self which has been so fruitful in Romances and Italy too have from us received the art of composing them Mi par di poter dire che questa sorte di Poesia These are the words of Giraldi speaking of Romances Habbia haunta la prima Origine il primo suo principio da Francesi da ' i quali ha forse onco haveto il nome Da Francési pio e passata questa