custom probably was there too at first introduced by chance only It is very credible that the Italians were first brought to the composing of Romances by the example of those in Provence then when the Popes held their Sea at Avignon and even by the example of other French then when the Normans and Charles Comte d' Anjou Brother to Saint Louis a vertuous Prince a lover of Poesie and a Poet himself made War in Italy for the Normans also would be tampering with the Gray Science And History reports that they sung the deeds of Roland before they gave that memorable Battail which won the Crown of England to William the Bastard All Europe in those days was covered with darkness and thick ignorance but France England and Germany less then Italy which then produced but a small number of Writers and scarce any makers of Romances at all Those of that Countrey who had a mind to make themselves distinguished by some tincture of knowledge came for it to the University of Paris which was the mother of Sciences and Nource of the Learned of Europe St. Thomas Aquinas St. Bonaventure the Poet Danfe and Bocace came thither to Study and the President Fauchet shews that this last took most part of his Novels from French Romances and that Petrarch and the other Italian Poets have pilfred the richest phansies and conceits from the Songs of Thiband King of Navar from Gaces Brussez Chastelain de Corcy and the old French Romancers 'T was then in my opinion in this mixture of the two Nations that the Italians learned from us the Science of Romances which by their own confession they owe to us as well as the Science of rimes Thus Spain and Italy had from us an art which was the fruit of our ignorance and rudness and which the politness of the Persians Ionians and Greeks had produced In effect as in necessity to preserve our lives wanting Bread we nourish our Bodies with herbs and roots so when the knowledge of truth which is the propre and natural Food of the mind begins to fail us we nourish it with Lies which are the imitation of truth and as in plenty to satisfie our pleasure we often quit Bread and our ordinary Viands for Ragousts Thus when our minds are acquainted with the truth they often forsake the Study and speculation thereof to be diverted with the Image of Truth which is Fiction for the Image and imitation according to Aristole are often more agreeable then the truth it self so that two Paths directly opposite which are ignorance and learning rudeness and politness often carry Men to one and the same end which is the Study of Fictions Fables and Romances Hence it is that the most Barbarous Nations love Romantick inventions as well as those which are the most polisht The Origines of all the Savages of America and particularly those of Peru contain nothing but Fables no otherwise then the Origines of the Goths which they writ heretofore in their ancient Runick Characters upon great stones whereof I have seen some remains in Denmark And if ought were left us of those Works which the Bards among the Ancient Gauls composed to eternise the memory of their Nation I question not at all but we should find them inricht with abundance of Fictions This inclination to Fables which is common to all Men is not the result of ratiocination imitation or custom 'T is natural to them and has its bait in the very frame and disposition of their mind and soul for the desire to know and to learn is particular to man and no less does distinguish him from other creatures then his reason One may find even in other creatures some sparks of a rude and imperfect reason but the coveting of knowledge was never observed save in Man only This proceeds according to my sense from that that the faculties of our Soul being of too vast an extent and of a capacity too large to be filled by the present objects the Soul does ransack and search in what is past and what is to come in truth and in fictions in imaginary spaces and in impossibility for wherewith to exercise and employ it Brutes find in the objects which present themselves to their sense wherewith to satisfie the powers of their Soul and are not concerned further so that one sees not in them this restless desire which agitates incessantly the mind of Men and carries it to the research of new knowledge to proportion if possible the object to the faculty and find there a pleasure resembling that we enjoy in appeasing a violent hunger or quenching a long thirst 'T is this Plato would express by the Fable of the Marriage of Porus and Penia that is to say Riches and Poverty whereof he saith is born pleasure the object is signified by Riches which are not riches but in the usage and otherwise remain unfruitful and in no wise beget pleasure The faculty is intended by Poverty which is sterile and always attended with inquietude while it is seperated from Riches but when it is joyned thereunto pleasure is the issue of this union All this we meet withall exactly in our soul Poverty that is to say ignorance is natural to it and it sighs continually after Science which is its riches which when it is possessed of this enjoyment is followed by pleasure but this pleasure is not always equal it often costeth it much pains and traval as when the soul applyes it self to difficult speculations and occult Sciences the matter whereof is not present to our senses and where the imagination which acts with facility has a less part then the understanding whose operations are more laborious and for that labour is naturally ircksome to us the soulis not carryed to hard and spinous learning unless in prospect of the fruits or in hopes of a remote pleasure or else by necessity but the knowledge which attracts the soul and delights it most is that which is acquired without pain and where the imagination in a manner alone does act and on matters like those which fall ordinarily under our sense and especially if this knowledge excites our passions which are the great movers in all the actions of our life Such are these Romances there is required no great contention or torment of the mind to comprehend them No long reasonings to be made nor the memory over-burth-end nothing is required but the phancy imagine onely and 't is enough They move not our passions save onely to appease them they stir not our fear or compassion but to make us see out of danger or misery those we feared or complained for they touch not our tenderness but to let us see them happy we had a love and tenderness for Finally all of our passions find themselves there agreeably provoked and calmed 'T is therefore that they who act more by passion then by reason and travail more with their imagination then their understanding are most
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
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