Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/688

Rh 650 A M A - A M A AMADEUS V,, surnamed the Great, Count of Savoy, was born at Bourget in 1249, and succeeded his uncle Philip in 1285. The cautious prudence of Amadeus enabled him greatly to increase his territory by means of marriage, purchase, and donations. He gradually rose to such eminence among the European powers, that he was constituted their umpire to settle their differences an office which he performed with much reputation to himself and advantage to them. In 1310 he was created a prince of the empire by Henry VII. When the Turks attempted to retake Rhodes from the knights of St John of Jerusalem, he acquired great renown by the valour with which he led an expedition to the relief of the island. A Maltese cross with the letters F.E.R.T. (Fortitudo ejus Rhodum tenuit], it is said, became the arms of Amadeus and his successors, in memory of this victory. Amadeus undertook a journey to Avignon to persuade Pope John XXII. to preach a crusade in favour of Andronicus. He died there in the year 1323. AMADEUS VIII., Count and first Duke of Savoy, and latterly pope or anti-pope, under the name of Felix V., was born at Chambery in 1383, and succeeded his father, Amadeus VII., in 1391. Having, by purchase or other wise, added large territories to his patrimonial possessions, he became so powerful that the Emperor Sigismund erected Savoy into a duchy in 1416; and after his elevation Amadeus added Piedmont and other provinces to his dominions. After this increase of rank and of territory he suddenly, in 1434, retired to a monastery at Ripaille. He does not appear, however, to have resigned his duchy, but continued to administer it through his son Louis. It is said, too, although some historians have cast doubts upon the story, that, instead of leading a life of asceticism, he spent much of the ducal revenues in furthering his own luxury and enjoyment. In 1439, when the pope, Eugenius IV., was deposed by the council at Basle, Amadeus, although not in orders, was elected, through bribery some say, his successor; and after resigning his duchy, was crowned in the following year as Felix V. In the stormy conflict that followed, the Emperor Frederick sided with Eugenius, and the nations of Europe, except Germany, which remained neutral, declared for the one pope or the other. In 1449 Amadeus thought it prudent to renounce his claim to the pontificate in favour of Nicholas V., who had been elected on the death of Eugenius. He, however, induced Nicholas to annul all the acts of Eugenius; to confirm the determi nation of the council of Basle to appoint him perpetual apostolical legate in Savoy, Piedmont, and the other places of his own dominions; and even to confer on him the bishoprics of Basle, Lausanne, Strasburg, and Constance. It was also conceded to Amadeus that he should continue to wear the pontifical dress, except in a very few particulars; that he should not be obliged to go to Rome to attend any general council; and that he, instead of kissing the pope s toe, should be permitted to kiss his cheek. Amadeus died at Geneva in 1451. AMADIS OF GAUL. The best edition for English readers of this famous work is to be found in the abridged translation of Southey, and the best account of it is to be found in his preface, which, however, is not void of error. Here, for example, is its final sentence : &quot; Amadis of Gaul is among prose what Orlando Furioso is among metrical romances not the oldest of its kind, but the best.&quot; We, of course, in England would place the Morte d Arthur above all romances of the kind; and the praise that we allow to Amadis of Gaul is precisely that which Cervantes bestows upon it of being the earliest and best of the Spanish romances. When the licentiate and the barber burnt the library of Don Quixote, they spared from the flames only three romances Amadis of Gaul, Palmerin of England, and Tirante the White. &quot; I have heard,&quot; said the licentiate, &quot; that Amadis of Gaul was the first book of chivalry printed in Spain, and that all the rest sprung from it ; I think, therefore, as head of so pernicious a sect, we ought to condemn him to the fire without mercy.&quot; &quot; Not so, sir,&quot; said the barber, &quot; for I have heard also that it is the best of all the books of this kind ; and therefore as being unequalled in its way it ought to be spared.&quot; &quot; You are right,&quot; said the priest, &quot;and for that reason its life is granted.&quot; Although Cervantes speaks of the romance as a Spanish one, and although Southey translated it from the oldest extant edition, which is also Spanish, it is cur rently supposed to have been originally written in Portu guese by Vasco Lobeira, himself a good knight, who re ceived his spurs on the field of battle from King Joam, and who died in 1403. The work, however, has been claimed as of French origin by the Comte de Tressan. Southey ridicules this theory, and insists upon the claims of the Portuguese author. It is quite certain that the Comte de Tressan attempted to prove too much; but, on the other hand, Southey has not allowed weight enough to the fact that the Amadis of Gaul is but the first work of romance which appeared in the Portuguese and Castilian languages ; that it was preceded for more than a century by other romances of Anglo-Norman origin; and that, if not in its names and personages, yet in its idea in the character of its incidents and in much of its geography it belongs to the world of Anglo-Norman romance. What though we cannot lay our hands on the French original from which Lobeira translated, any more than we can lay our hands on Lobeira s own work from which the Castilian version has been made, we still know that all the ideas and materials, all the design, all the machinery of Amadis of Gaul, belong to the Anglo-Norman cycle of romance which was in vogue before Lobeira was born. And in this creed we cheat him of nothing when we say that we know not to what extent he is entitled to the praise of originality. Knowing what we do of these romances, it is not enough to say, for the establishment of Lobeira s claims, that we cannot trace the Amadis of Gaul to any one before him. Expressions of his own throughout his work show that if he was not a literal translator, he was at least a borrower. Thus, towards the end of his third chapter he writes &quot; Tbe author ceaseth to speak of this, and returneth to the child whom Gaudales brought up.&quot; The Spanish translator, Montalus, confesses to have taken liberties with the Portuguese version from which he worked, altering, adding, and abridging. The Comte de Tressan maintains that the original French work must have ended with the third book and the rescue of Oriana; and that from this point we can distinctly trace the work of Spanish hands. Southey, again, thinks that the work, as it left the hands of Lobeira, ended in the fourth book with the marriage of Amadis and Oriana, and that all which follows is due to the tasteless accretions of Montalus. Although this is mere conjecture, still it is natural that we should attach no little force to the correct feeling of Southey. For the story itself, it is impossible to give a summary of it the plot being too discon nected; but he who has read one such tale, or even a few chapters of one, may have a general impression of all hacking and hewing in every page, knights always at war and seeking adventures, giants in the path, lions in the forest, damsels in durance, castles to be attacked, wizards and witches with hate in their hearts, kings everywhere plentiful as blackberries, and lovely ladies abounding in tenderness. The sentiment of the work is very noble, and some of the descriptions are full of fire; but the reader owes more than he is aware to the curtailments of Southey. AMADOU (Polyporus fomentarius], a fungus that grows upon old trees, especially the oak, ash, fir, and cherry. When beaten soft it is used as a styptic for slight haemorrhage,