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
of Similitudes as Elmacin reports 'T is from the Arabians in my opinion that we receive the art of Riming and I see much of probability that the Leonine Verses have been made after their example for it does not at all appear that rimes had course in Europe before the entrance of Taric and Muza into Spain whereas great quantity might be observed in the following Ages though otherwise I could easily make it appear that Verses in Rime were not altogether unknown to the Ancient Romans The Persians have not at all yielded to the Arabians in the art of Lying agreeably for notwithstanding Lies were otherwise most odious to them in conversation and they forbid their Children nothing with so great severity nevertheless in their Books and Commerce of letters these pleased them infinitely if Fictions are to be called Lies To be convinced of this one shall onely read the fabulous Adventures of their Law-giver Zoroaster Strabo saith that the Masters among them give their Disciples Moral Precepts wrapt up in Fictions he tells us in another place that much credit is not to be given to the Ancient Histories of the Persians Medes and Syrians by reason of the inclination their Writers had to relate untruths for these seeing that they who made profession of writing Fables were in esteem were perswaded that people would take pleasure to read Fables and forged Relations written after the manner of Histories The Fables of Aesop are so much to their gust that they appropriate the Author he is the same Locman of the Alcoran whom I mentioned before who is so renowned among all the people of the Levant that they will needs rob Phrygia of the honour of his birth and attribute it to themselves for the Arabians say he was of the Race of the Hebrews and the Persians say he was an Arabian Negro and lived in the Town of Casuvin which was the Arsacia of the Ancients Others on the contrary seeing that his life writ by Mirkond has much resemblance with that of Aesop which Maximus Planudes has left us and having observed that as Angels give Wisdom to Locman in Mirkond so Mercury bestows the Fable upon Aesop in Philostratus They are perswaded that the Greeks have stoln Locman from the Orientals and made thereof their Aesop but I must not here discuss this controversie I shall onely put you in mind by the way to remember what is said by strabo that the Histories of the people of the East are stuft with Lies and are in no wise faithful or exact and that it is most probable they have been Fabulous in speaking of the Author and Original of Fables as well as in all the rest and that the Greeks are more diligent and of better credit both in their Chronology and History and that the conformity of Mirkonds Locman with the Aesop of Planudes and Philostratus does no more prove that Aesop is Locman then it proves that Locman is Aesop The Persians have sirnamed Locman the Sage for that Aesop was in effect ranckt among the number of the Sages They say he was profoundly knowing in Medicine that he found out admirable Secrets and among the rest that of reviving the Dead They have so well glossed paraphrased and augmented his Fables that they as the Arabians have made thereof a very great Volum a Copy whereof is to be seen in the Vatican his Reputation has reatched even unto Egypt and into Nubia where his Name and Wisdom are in great veneration The Modern Turks have no less esteem for him and believe with Mirkond that he lived in Davids time wherein if in truth it be Aesop and that we may believe the Greek Chronologie they are mistaken but about the matter of 450 years which for the Turks is very well computed for they rarely hit so neer in their computation This would accord better with Hesiod who was Contemporary of Solomon and to whom is due according to the report of Quintilian the glory of the first invention of Fables which is attributed to Aesop There are no Poets that equal the Persians in the licence they give themselves to Lye in the lives of their Saints and about the Original of their Religion and in their Histories they have so disfigured those the truth whereof we know by the relations of the Greeks and Romans that they are not to be known again and even degenerating from that laudable aversion they heretofore had against those who served themselves with a lye for their interests they now account it an honour They are passionately in love with Poesie it is the diversion both of the Princes and People and the principal at a Begale were wanting if no Poetry were there Their works of Galantry and Love-stories have been famous and discover the Romancing Genius of this Nation The Indians also Neighbours of the Persians had like them a strong inclination to fabulous inventions Sandaber the Indian composed a Book of Paraboles which was Translated by the Hebrews and which at this day is to be found in the Libraries of the curious Father Poussin the Jesuit has joyned to his Pachymeron which he lately Printed at Rome a Dialogue between Absolom King of the Indies and a Gymnosophist upon divers questions of Morality wherein this Philosopher never expresses himself but by Paraboles and Fables after the manner of Aesop The Preface imports that this Book was made by the wisest and most knowing Men of the Nation and that it was carefully kept in the Treasury of the Charters of the Realm that Perzoez Physician of Chosroez King of Persia Translated it out of Indian into Persian some other from Persian into Arabian and Simeon Sethi from Arabian into Greek This Book is so little different from the Apologues which bear the name of the Indian Pilpay and which were seen in French some few years since that there is no doubt but that it was either the Original or the Copy for 't is said that this Pilpay was a Brachman who had share in the grand affairs of State and Government of the Indies under King Dabchelin that he comprises all his Politicks and Morals within this Book which was preserved by the Kings of the Indies as a Treasure of Wisdom and Learning that the reputation of this Book being carried so far as to Nonchirevon King of Persia he procured a Copy thereof by the means of his Physician who Translated it into Persian that Calife Abuiafar Almanzor caused it to be Translated from Persian into Arabian and another out of Arabian into Persian and that after all these Persian translations a new one was made different from all the former and from this came the French translation Certainly whoever shall read the History of the pretended Patriarchs of the Indians Erammon and Bremaw of their Posterity and Propagation shall need no other proof of the love this people have for Fables I therefore readily believe that when Horace gave the Epithete of Fabulous to the River Hydappes
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
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
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
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
not onely permitted but counselled the reading of it from one end to the other to those who profess the love of Chastity Possibly I place here too rashly that Athenagoras under whose name there goes a Romance the Title whereof is of true and perfect Love this Book has not appeared abroad but onely in French of Fumee's translation who tells us in the Preface that he had the Greek Origina from Mr. du Lamane Prothonotary of Mr. the Cardinal d'Armagnac and that he never saw it elsewhere I almost dare add that never any person saw it since for his name was never mentioned that I know of in the Catalogues of any Libraries and if at this day it have any being 't is certainly buried among the dust in the Closet of 2ome Illitenate person who possesses this Treasure and knows not of it or else 't is in the hands of the envious who might gratifie the publick therewith but will not the Translator saith further that he believes this to be the Production of that famous Athenagoras who writ the Apology for Christian Religion in the manner of a Legation addressed to the Emperours Marcus Aurelius and Commodus and a Treatise of the Resurrection The chief ground of his opinion is the style which he finds conformable to that of his works and whereof he might well enough judge having the Originals in his power And finally he takes this for a true History not understanding the art of Romances For my part though I cannot pronounce thereof with certainty not having seen the Greek Original nevertheless by reading the Translation I shall not stick to affirm that he does not without some reason attribute it to Athenagoras Author of the Apology the reasons are that the Apologist was a Christian and this speaks of Divinity after a manner which is inconsistent with any but a Christian as when he makes the Priests of Hammon say That there is but one God and that every Nation desirous to represent his essence to the simple had invented divers Images all which exprest but the same thing that their true signification being lost with the times the Vulgar believed that there were so many Gods as they saw Images and idolatry sprung from thence that Bacchus when he built the Temple of Hammon placed in it no other Image save onely that of God because as there is but one Heaven which contains but one World so in this World there is but one God who is communicated in Spirit He makes thus much and more be said by certain Egyptian Merchants to wit that the Gods of the Fable denoted the different actions of this Soveraign and one only Divinity who is without beginning and without end and whom he calls obscure and dark for that he is Invisible and Incomprehensible Moreover the discourses of the Priests and Merchants upon the Divine Essence very much resemble those of Athenagor as in his Legation the Apologist was a Priest of Athens this was on Athenean Philosopher both seem Men of sense and great learning and well read in Antiquity But on the other side many things may make us suspect not onely that this is not Athenagoras the Christian but also that the Book it self is a meer forgery Photius giving an exact account of those who had been makers of Romances before his time takes no notice of him at all no body ever saw a Copy of this Romance in any Library and that which the Translator made use of never appeared since Besides he represents the Habitation Life and Conduct of the Priests and Religious of Hammon so very like the Convents and the Government of our Monks and Religious that it ill accords with what History informs us of the time when the Monastick life began and when it arrived to perfection What among so much obscurity seems to me most probable is that this is an ancient work but later then the Apology For I find such a profound knowledge both in things of Nature and of Art so great acquaintance with the Annals of times past so many curious remarks not taken from the Ancient Authors which are left us but which relate to and explain them so much of the Greek Phrase which one may discover thorow the translation and over all a certain Character of Antiquity which cannot be counterfeited so that I cannot be perswaded that it is any production of Fumee's whose Learning was but indifferent or that the most able and ingenious person in those days could devise any thing like it if Photius have not mentioned him How many other great and famous Authors have escaped his cognisance or his diligence and if in our days onely one Copy was found which peradventure is since lost how many other excellent works have undergone the same destiny if this gives you not satisfaction but you will oblige me to push further my conjectures and essay to find out precisely the time he lived in I have nothing to support my opinion save one passage in the Preface of his Romance where he complains of the fatal blow which his Countrey Athens was about to receive in the universal desolation of Greece which cannot be understood but of the Scythians irruption into Greece which happened under the Empire of Gallienus or else of that of Alaric King of the Goths which fell out in the times of Arcadius and Honorius for Athens was not sacked since Sylla's time till the Invasion of the Scythians which was about 350. years after and that of the Goths was about 700 years after but I see more reason to apply the words of the Author to the Conquest of Alaric then to that of the Scythians for that the Scythians were readily chaced from Athens ere they had done much mischief but the Goths treated them more rudely and left there the sad marques of their barbarous cruelty Synesius who lived at that time speaks of them in the same terms with our Author and with him regrets to see learning the liberal sciences wract by the Barbarians in the very place of their Birth and Seat of their Empire but howsoever this work of Athenagoras is invented with wit conducted with Art Sententious and full of excellent moral Precepts the events agreeing with verisimility the Episodes drawn from the subject the Characters clear and distinct Decorum observed exactly all throughout nothing low nothing forced or like the Pedant stile of the Sophists The argument is double that which made one of the great Beauties of the ancient Comedy for besides the Adventures of Theogenes and Charidea he relates likewise those of Pherecydes and Melangenia whereby may appear the mistake of Giraldi who believed that the multiplying of actions was the invention of the Italians the Greeks and our old French have practised this before the Italians the Greeks with dependance and subordination to one principal action following the rules of an Heroick Poem as Athenagoras has done and Heliodorus too though not so accurately but our old French
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