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
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
a Greek word which signifies Force and Valour because these Books were made to set forth and vaunt the valour and prowess of the Palladines but Giraldi was mistaken in this as you shall see afterwards Neither are these Histories comprehended here which are observed to contain many falsehoods such as that of Herodotus who by the way is not so guilty as many think The Navigation of Hanno the Life of Apollonius writ by Philostratus and many others These works are true in the mane and false in some parts Romances on the contrary are true in some particulars and false in the gross those contain truth mingled with some falsehood these are falsehoods with some intermixture of truth I would say that truth has the greater stroke in Histories but that falsehood is predominant in the Romance insomuch that these may indeed be altogether false both in the parts and in the whole Aristotle teaches us that Tragedy the argument whereof is known and taken from History is the most perfect because 't is neerer verisimility then that whose argument is new and mere invention nevertheless he condemns not the later his reason is for that notwithstanding the argument be drawn from History yet the greater number of the Spectators are ignorant of it and it is new in respect of them and fails not however to give diversion to all the World The same may be â—aid of Romances with this distinction always that a total Fiction of the argument is more allowable in Romances where the Actors are but of indifferent Fortune as in the Comick Romances then in the Heroick Romances where Princes and Conquerours are the Actors and where the adventures are Memorable and Illustrious because 't is in no wise probable that the great Transactions and Events lay hid to the World and neglected by Historians and probability which is not always found in History is essential to a Romance I exclude also from the number of Romances certain Histories which in the gross and in the detayl are mere invention but invented onely for default of truth such are the imaginary Originals of most Nations especially of the most Barbarous of which sort are those Histories so grosly forged by the Monk Annius Viterbensis which have merited the indignation or contempt of all the Learned I put the same difference between Romances and these kinde of works as betwixt those who by an innocent artifice disguise and go in Masquerade to divert themselves while they give diversion to others And Rogues who taking the name and persoâ—â—â—ing such as are dead or absent possess themselves of their goods by favour of some resemblance Lastly I exclude Fables also from my Subject for a Romance is the Fiction of things which may but never have happened Fables are Fictions of things which never have nor ever can happen After having agreed what works properly deserve the name of Romances I assert that their invention is due to the Orientals I mean to the Egyptians Arabians Persians and Syririans You will avow the same without doubt when I have shewn that most of the great Romancers of Antiquity sprung from these people Clearcus who made Books of Love was of Cilicia a Province neer Syria Iamblicus who writ the Adventures of Rhodanes and Sinonis was born of Syrian Parents and educated at Babylon Heliodoras Author of the Romance of Theogenes and Chariclea was of Emeses a Town of Phoenicia Lucian who writ the Metamorphosis of Lucius into an Ass was of Samosata chief City of Comagena a Province of Syria Achilles Tatius who taught us the Amours of Clitophon and Lencippe was of Alexandria in Egypt The Fabulous History of Barlaam and Josaphat was composed by St. John of Damas Metropolis of Syria Damascius who made four Books of Fictions not only incredible as he Intitles them but gross and far remote from all probability was also as Photius assures us of Damas. The three Xenophons Romancers which Suidas speaks of one was of Antioch in Syria and another of them of Cyprus an Isle near that Countrey so that this Countrey deserves rather to be call'd the Countrey of Fables then Greece whither they were onely Transplanted but withall they found the Soil there so good and agreeable that they have admirably well taken Root 'T is also hardly credible how all these People have a Genius singularly disposed and addicted to Poetry Invention and Fiction all their discourse is Figures they never express themselves but in Allegories their Theologie and Philosophie but principally their Politicks and Morals are all couched under Fables and Paraboles By the Hieroglyphicks of the Egyptians we may see to what point that Nation was Mysterious every thing with them was expressed by Images all in disguise their Religion was vayled they never made discovery of it to the Prophane but under the Masque of Fables and they never â—ook off this Masque but for such as they judged worthy to be imitated in their Mysteries Herodotus saith that the Greeks had from them their Mythologick Theologie and he tells some stories which he learned of the Egyptian Priests the which for all he is so credulous and fabulous himself he relates onely as Tales which Tales failed not to be agreeable and tickle the curious wit of the Greeks a people as Heleodorus testifies desirous to learn and lovers of Novelty And it was without doubt from these Priests that Pythagoras and Plato in their Voyages to Egypt learned to transform their Philosophie and to hide it under the shadow of Mysteries and Disguisements For the Arabians consult their Books you will find nothing but Metaphores drawn by the head and shoulders similitudes and fictions Their Alcoran is of this sort Mahumet saith he made it so to the end it might be learned with less difficulty and noâ— so easily be forgotten They have translated Esops Fables into their Tongue and some among them have composed the like That Locman so renowned throughout all the East is no other but Aesop his Fables which the Arabians have amassed together into a huge Volum got him so great esteem among them that the Alcoran vaunteth his Wisdom in one Chapter which is therefore Intitled by the name of Locman The lives of their Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles are all fabulous Nothing relishes so deliciously with them as Poesie which with them is the ordinary study of their best Wits This inclination of theirs is not new it possessed them before Mahumet and they have Poems of those times Aerpennius affirms that all the World beside put together have not had so many Poets as single Arabia They reckon sixty which are among them as it were Princes of Poesie and which have great Troops of Poets under them The best have treated of Love in their Eclogues and some of their Books on this Subject have passed into the West Many of their Caliphs have not thought Poesie unworthy of their application Abdalla one amongst them signalized himself upon this occasion and made a Book
have multiplyed them without any order connexion or art these are them whom the Italians have imitated taking from them their Romances and their faults together and this is an error in Giraldi worse then the former that he would endeavour to commend this fault and make thereof a vertue if it be true which himself acknowledges that a Romance should resemble a perfect Body and consist of many different parts and proprotions all under one head it follows then that the principal action which is as it were the head of a Romance should onely be one and illustrious above the rest and that the subordinate actions which are as it were members ought to have relation to this head yield to it in dignity and beauty adorn sustain and attend it with dependance otherwise it would be a Body with many Heads monstrous and deformed The example of Ovid alledged in his favour and that of other Cyclick Poets which he might also cite does not justifie him in the least for the Metamorphoses of the ancient Fable which Ovid proposed to himself to amass into one Poem and those of the Cyclick Poets consisting all of actions which have no dependance on or relation to one another and being all well nigh of equal beauty and eminence it was altogether as impossible to make thereof one regular Body as to build one complete Structure with Sand only The applause which the faulty Romances of his Nation have received and which he relles so much upon does yet justifie him less one must not judge of a piece by the number but by the sufficiency of the approbators every one assume to themselves the licence to judge and censure Poesie and Romance the sumptuous Palaces and the common Streets are made Tribunals where the merits of greatest works is Soveraignly decided There every one shoots his bolt and presumes boldly to set the value of an Epick Poem upon the reading of a comparison or a description and one Verse somewhat harsh such as the place and matter sometimes requires may there ruine the reputation of all one happy thought or tender sentiment makes there the fortune of a Romance and one expression a little forc't or one superannuated word destroys it but they who compose them will in no wise submit to these decisions but like the Comedian in Horace who being hissed from the Stage by the people contented himself with the approbation of the Chevalliers These are content that they please the nicest and most able Judges who have other kind of Laws to judge by and these Laws are known to so very few that as I often have said before a good Judge is as rarely to be met withall as a good Romancer or a good Poet and that in the small number of those who understand and can judge of Prose hardly one can be found who understands Poesie or who is sensible and apprehends that Poesie and Prose are things altogether different These Criticks whose Sentence is the certain rule to value Poems and Romances by did avow to Giraldi that the Italian Romances have many very pretty things in them and deserve many other commendations but not that of regularity contrivance nor justess of design I return to the Romance of Athenagoras where the discovery of the plot though without machine is less happy then the rest it goes not of smartly enough it presents it self before the passion and impatience of the Reader be sufficiently warmed and is made with too much repetition but his greatest fault is the unseasonable ostentation wherewith he displays his skill in Architecture what he writes thereof might be admirable elsewhere but is vicious and out of of its place where he puts it Ne doe anco il Poeta saith Giraldi nel descrivere le Fabrichu volersi mostrare in guisa Architettore che descrivendo troppo minutamente le cose a tale arte appartinenti lasci quello che conviene al Poeta alla quase cosa egli doe soura ogni cosa mirare se cerca loda oltre che queste descrittioni di cose mechaniche recano con loro vilta sono â—ontane dall uso dal grande dell Heroico A Poet ought not in describing a Fabrick to shew himself an Architect for in describing too minutely the particulars appertaining to such an art he leaves what is properly a Poets work which it concerns him principally to look to if he expect commendation besides that such mechanick descriptions debase the work are too mean and far below the grandeur and magnificence of an Heroick Poem He has taken many things from Heliodorus or Heliodorus from him for as I believe them contemporaries I know not to whether is due the glory of the invention The names and characters of Theogenes and Charidea resemble those of Theagenes and Chariclea Theogenes and Charidea see and fall in love with each other at a Feast of Minerva as Theagenes and Chariclea at a Feast of Apollo Athenagoras makes one Harondates Governour of the lower Egypt Heliodorus makes Oroondates Governour of Egypt Athenagoras feigns Theogenes ready to be Sacrificed by the Scythians Heliodorus makes Theagenes ready to be Sacrificed by the Aethiopians and Athenagoras like Heliodorus has divided his work into ten Books I shall not put among the number of Romances the Books of Paradoxes of Damascius the Heathen Philosopher who lived under Justinian for notwithstonding Photius saith that he imitated Antonius Diogenes the model of most Greek Romancers 't is to be understood that he writ like him Histories Fabulous and Incredible but not Romantick nor after the manner of Romances he relating onely the apparitions of Spectres and Goblins and Events above Nature either too lightly believed or invented with little address and becoming the Atheism and impiety of the Author Two years after Damascius was the History of Barlaam and Josephat composed by St. John Damascenus Many ancient Manuscripts father it on John the Sinaite who lived in the time of Theodosius but without reason as Billius makes it appear because the disputes against the Iconoclasts which are inserted in this work were not then moved nor were till long time after by the Emperour Leon Isanricus under whom lived St. John Damascenus 'T is a Romance but a Spiritual one it treats of Love but 't is the love of God and there one may find much blood spilt but 't is the blood of Martyrs it is writ in the fashion of a History not according to the rules of Romance and notwithstanding that the verisimility is there exactly enough observed It bears with it so many marks of Fiction that it is not to be read but with some little discernment to discover it In the rest one may perceive the fabulous Genius of the Authors Nation by the great number of Paraboles Comparisons and Similutudes which are there in abundance The Romance of Theodorus Prodromus and that which some attribute to Eustathius Bishop of Thessalonica who flourished under the Empire of of Manuel
strictly allied they then learned of the Milesians the art of Fictions and Sybaritick Fables were as common in Italy as the Milesian Fables were in Asia it is not easie to say what was their model Hesychius gives us to understand in one passage very much corrupted that Aesop being in Italy his Fables there were so well approved that they did improve upon them and named them Sybariticks when they were changed and they became a Proverb but he discovers not wherein consisted that alteration Suidas believed that they were like those of Aesop he is mistaken in this as frequently else where The old Comentator upon Aristophones saith that the Sabarites made use of Beasts in their Fables and Aesop made use of men in his this passage is certainly corrupted for as it appears that Aesops Fables imployed Beasts it follows that those of the Sybarites made use of Men and thus too he saith in an other place in express terms those of the Sybarites were pleasant and provoked laughter I find a piece of one of them in Elian 't is a little story which he saith he took from the History of the Sybarites that is to say as I take it from the Sybaritick Fables you may judge there of by the story it self A Child of Sybaris going to School along with his School-Master met in the Street one that sold Figgs and stole from him one of them the Schoolmaster sharply reproving him snatches the Fig from him eats it But these Fables were not onely facetious but smutty withall Ovid puts the Sybaritida which was composed some little time before him among the number of the most lascivious pieces Many Learned Men believe that he intends the work of Hemitheon the Sybarite whereof Lucian speaks as of a mass of smuttiness this appears to me without ground for one cannot at all perceive that the Sybaritida did any other wise agree with the Book of Hemitheon then in this that both the one and the other were Books of Debauchery and this was common to all the Sybaritick Fables Bbesides this the Sybaritida was made but a little before Ovids time whereas the Town of Sybares was absolutely ruined by the Crotoniates 500 years before him 'T is therefore more credible that this Sybaritida was composed by some Roman and so called because it was made in imitation of the ancient Sybaritick Fables A certain old Author whose name I believe you do not much value gives us to understand that their style was curt and Laconick but all this doth not convince us that these Fables had nothing of the Romance in them This passage of Ovid makes it clear that in his time the Romans had given admittance to the Fables of the Sybarites amongst them and he teaches us in the same Book that the famous Historian Sisenna had also translated for them the Milesian Fables of Aristides This Sisenna lived in Sylla's time and was with him of the great and Illustrious Family of the Cornelians He was Praetor of Sicily and Acaia he writ the History of his Countrey and was preserred before all Historians of his Nation who went before him If the Roman Republick disdeigned not the reading of these Fables then while it yet retained an austere Discipline and rigid manners 't is no wonder if being fallen under the power of the Emperours and after their example being abandoned to luxury and pleasures it was likewise toucht with those which Romances gave the mind Virgil who lived a little after the first rise of the Empire gives not any more agreeable diversion to the Naides Daughters of the River Peneus while they were assembled together under their Fathers Waters then to relate the Amours of the Gods which were the subject of the Romances of Antiquity And Ovid Virgils contemporary makes the Daughters of Menius tell Romantick Tales and while their hands were busie and employed their tongues and wit were at liberty The first is of the Loves of Pyramus and Thisbe the second of those of Mars and Venus the third of those of Salmacis for Hermaphrodite By this appears the esteem Rome heretofore had for Romances which is yet more clear by the Romance which Petronius one of their Consuls and the most polished man of his time composed he made it in form of a Satyr of that kind which Varre had invented intermixing agreeably Prose with Verse and the serious with the jocose the which he named Menippian because Menippus before him had treated of grave matters in a pleasant and scoffing style This Satyr of Petronius fails not to be a true Romance it contains nothing but agreeable and ingenious Fictions but very often too wanton and immodest Hiding under the bark a fine and tart raillery against the vices of Nero's Court. Seeing what remains of it are onely some fragments which scarce have any coherence at all one with another or rather the collections of some industrious person one cannot exactly discern the form and tissue of the whole piece nevertheless it appears to be conducted with order And 't is probable the incoherent parts would make up a complete body with those that are wanting Though Petronius seems to be a very great Critick and of an exquisite taste in learning his style does not always altogether answer to the delicatness of his judgement something of affectation may be observed he is somewhat too much Painted and Studied and degenerates from that natural and majestick simplicity of the happy age of Augustus So true is it that the art of speaking which all the World practises and which so very few understand is yet much easier to understand then to practise well Some say that the Poet Lucan who also lived in Nero's time composed Saltick Fables that is as some think fables wherein are recounted the loves of Satyrs and Nymphs This agrees well with a Romance and the wit of that Age which was Romantick confirms my suspicion But in regard nothing is left us but the Title and that too does not clearly enough express the nature of the piece I shall say nothing thereof The Metamorphosis of Apuleus so well known under the Title of the Golden Ass was made under the Antonins It had the same Original with the Ass of Lucian being taken out of the two first Books of the Metamorphoses of Lucius of Patras with this difference always that these Books were abridged by Lucian and augmented by Apuleus The work of this Philosopher is regular for notwithstanding he seems to begin with his infancy yet what is there said is onely by way of Preface and to excuse the Barbarousness of his style The true beginning of his History is at his Voyage into Thessalia He has given us an Idea of the Milesian Fables in this piece which he declares withall to be of that sort he has inriched it with pretty Episodes and among others with that of Psyche which no person is ignorant of and he has not at all retrencht the smuttiness which was
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
taken therewith though these other are so too but after another manner These are touched with the beauties of Art and that which proceeds from the intellect but the former such as are children and the simple are sensible onely of that which strikes their imagination and stirs their passions they love fictions in themselves without looking further Now Fictions being nothing but narrations true in appearance and false in effect the minds of the simple who discern only the bark are pleased with this show of truth and very well satisfied But these who penetrate further and see into the solid are easily disgested with this falsity so that the first love the falsehood because it is concealed under an appearance of truth these others are distasted with this Image of truth by reason of the real falsehood which is couched under it if this falsehood be not otherwise ingenious mysterious and instructive and buoys it self up by the excellence of the invention and art And S. Augustin saith somewhere that these falsities which are significative and couch a hidden meaning are not lyes but the Figures of truth which the most Sage and Holy persons and our Saviour himself have made use on upon occasion Since then 't is true that lyes ordinarily flow from ignorance and the grossness of our intellectuals and that this inundation of the Barbarians who issued from the North spread over all Europe and plunged it in so profound an ignorance as it could not clear it self from till after two Ages or thereabouts is it not then very probable that this ignorance caused the same effect in Europe which it always had produced every where besides and is it not in vain to seek for that in chance which we find in nature there is then no reason to contend but that French Gorman and English Romances and all the Fables of the North are of the Countrey 's growth born upon the place and not imported from elsewhere that they never had other Original then the Histories stuff with falsities and made in obscure and ignorant times when there was neither industry nor curiosity to discover the truth of things nor art for discribing it that these Histories mixed with true and false having been well received by the rude and half-barbarous people the Historians thereupon took the boldness to present them such as were purely forged which are the Romances 'T is also a common opinion that the name of Romance has been heretofore given to Histories and was applyed afterwards to Fictions which is an irrefragable testimony that the one has come from the others Ramanzi saith Pigna secondo la commune opinione in Francese detti erano gliannali percio le Guerre di parte in parte notate sotto questo nome uscivano poscia alcuni dalla verita partendosi quantunque favoleggiassero cosi apunto chiamorono li scritti loro Romances according to the common opinion in France were the Annals and for that the History of the War published part after part had that Name some afterwards who neglected the truth howsoever Fabulous they were gave their writings also the same Title Strabo in a passage I have already alledged saith that the Histories of the Persians Medes and Syrians have not deserved much credit for that those who writ them seeing that the Inventers of Fables were in great esteem believed they might be so too by writing of Fables in the form of Histories that is to say Romances whence one may conclude that Romances according to all appearances and likelyhood have among us had the same Original which they had heretofore among these people But to return to the Troubadours or Trouverres so were called these Poets of Provence who were the Princes of Romancery in France about the end of the tenth Age their mystery was so generally approved of that all the Provinces of France as I have said had also their Trouverres They produced in the eleventh Age a matchless multitude of Romances both in Prose and Verse many whereof maugre the envy of time are preserved even to our days Of this number were the Romances of Garin le Loheran of Tristram of Lancelot du Lake of Bertain of St. Greal of Merlyn of Arthur of Perceval of Perceforest and of most part of those 127 Poets who lived before the year 1300. of whom the President Fauchet has given his censure I shall not undertake to make you a Catalogue of them nor examine whether the Amadis de Gaul be Originally from Spain Flanders or France and whether the Romance of Tiel Ulespiegel be a Translation from the German nor in what language the Romance of the seven wise Men of Greece was first written or that of Dolopathos which some say was taken from the parables of Sandaban the Indian some say likewise that it is to be found in Greek in some Libraries which has furnished the matter of an Italian Book called Erastus and of many of Bocace his Novels as the same Fauchet has remarked which was writ in Latin by John Monâ—k of the Abbeyde Hauteselue whereof anciâ—nt Copies are to be seen and Translated into French by the Clerk Hebert about the end of the twelfth Age and into High Dutch about â—00 years after and after an hundred years more from High Dutch into Latin again by a Learned person who changed the Names thereof and was ignorant that the Dutch had come from the Latin It will suffice that I tell you all these works to which ignorance has given Birth did bear along with them the marks of their Original and were no other then a fardle of Fictions grosly huddled together without head or foot and infinitely short of that Soveraign degree of Art and Elegance whereunto the French Nation has afterwards brought Romances 'T is truely a subject of wonder that having yielded to others the Bayes for Epick Poesie and History we have carried these to so high a pitch that the best of their Romances do not equal the very meanest of ours We owe I believe this advantage to the refinement and politness of our Galantry which proceeds in my opinion from the great liberty in which the Men in France live with the Women these are in a manner recluses in Italy and Spain and are seperated from Men by so many obstacles that they are scarce to be seen and not to be spoken with at all Wherefore Men have there neglected the art of cajoling them agreeably because the occasions for it are so rare All the study and business there is to surmount the difficulties of access and this being effected they make use of the time without amusing themselves with forms But in France the Dames go at large upon their Parole and being under no custody but that of their own heart make thereof a Fort more strong and sure then all the Keys and Grates and all the vigilance of the Douegnaes The Men hereby are obliged to lay a formall Siege to this Fort and imploy so much