Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/185

Rh Strathclyde Briton; and Geoffrey is responsible for the blunder of transferring him to South Wales. So intimately is Geoffrey connected with Arthur’s celebrity, that he is often called Galfridus Arturns. Although the Wondrous cycle of Arthurian romances scarcely originated with Geoffrey, he made the existing legends radiant with poetic colouring. They thus became the common property of Europe; and, after being modified by the trouveres in France, the minnesingers in Germany, and by such writers as Gainur, \Vace, Mapes, Robert de Borron, Luces de (last, and Helie de Borron, they were converted into a magnificent prose poem by Sir Thomas Malory, in . Malory’s -l[or{e Darth/tr, printed by Caxton in, is as truly the epic of the English mind as the [find is the epic of the Greek mind. The first English tragedy, Gorborluc, or I'lerrem ((ml I’orrex, which was written mainly by Sackville, is founded on the llislorl't Bu'lonnm. John Higgins, in The Jlirror for .llvq/islmles , borrows largely from the old legends. This work was extremely popular in the J‘Ilizrbethan period, and furnished dramatists with plots for their plays. Spenser's Fne'rie Queene is saturated with the ancient myths; and, in his Arthur, the poet gives us a noble spiritual conception of the character. In the tenth canto of Book ii. there is—

\Varner s lengthy poem entitled Albirm’s England is full of legendary British history. Drayton’s Pulyolbion is largely made up of stories from Geoffrey, begin- ning with Briminfomuliny Brute. Geoffrey’s good faith and historic accuracy are warmly contended for by Drayton, in Song x. of his work. In Shakespeare’s time Geoffrey’s legends were still implicitly believed by the great mass of the people, and were appealed to as historical documents by so great a lawyer as Sir Edward Coke. They had also figured largely in the disputes between the Edwards and Scotland. William Camden was the first to prove satisfactorily that the Ilia-lurid, was a romance. Shakespeare's King Lear was preceded by an earlier play entitled The Chronicle Hislory of Kiny Lear and his Three Daughters, Gonorill, Rug/rm, and Cordeliu, as it hath been divers rlnvl sundry times lute y tried. Shakespeare’s immediate authority was Holinshed; but the later chronicles, in so far as they were legendary, were derived from Geoffrey. The story of ' ("ymbeline is another illustration of the fascination these legends exercised over Shakespeare. An early play, ascribed by some to Shakespeare, on Locrine, Brutus’s eldest son, is a further example of how the dramatists ransacked Geoffrey’s stores. The 11 isloriu was a favourite book with Milton ; and he once thought of writing a long poem on King Arthur, whose qualities he would probably have idealized, as Spenser has done, but with still greater moral grandeur. In addition to the evidence afforded by the in- troduction to his History of Eng/land, Milton shows in many ways that he was profoundly indebted to early legendary history. His exquisite conception of Sabrina, in Comns, is an instance of how the original legends were not only appropriated but ennobled by many of our writers. In his Latin poems, too, there are some interesting passages pertinent to the subject. Dryden once intendel to write an epic on Arthur’s exploits; and Pope planned an epic on Brutus. Mason’s Caructucns bears witness to Geoffrey’s charm for poetic minds. Wordsworth has embahned the beautiful legend of Pious Iz'lillure in his own magic verse. In chapter xxxvi. of the Pickwick Papers Dickens gives what he calls “The True Legend of Prince Bladud," which is stamped through- out with the impress of the author’s peculiar genius, and lit up with his sunny humour. Alexander Smith has a poem treating of Edwin of Deira, who ﬁgures towards the close of Geoffrey’s history. And Teunyson’s Izlylls of the King furnish the most illustrious example of Geoffrey’s i’nfluenee ; although the poet takes his. stories, in the ﬁrst instance, from Malory’s illorte Darthur. The influence the legends have had in causing other legends to spring up, and in creating a love for narrative, is simply incalculable. In this way Geoffrey was really, for Englishmen, the in- ventor of a new literary form, which is represented by the romances and novels of later times.

1em 1em  GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE, (1772–1844), a celebrated French naturalist, was the son of Jean Gerard Geoffrey, procurator and magistrate of Etampes, Seine-et- Oise, where he was born, April 15, 1772. His early education was carefully superintended by his mother and paternal grandmother, and when still a boy he had already become acquainted with the masterpieces of the literature of the ancients, and of the age of Louis XIV. Destined by his friends for the church, he entered, as an exhibitioner, the college of Navarre, in Paris, where he studied natural philosophy under Brisson ; and in 1788 he obtained one of the canonicates of the chapter of Sainte Croix at Etampes, and also a beneﬁce. Science, however, offered to him a career more congenial to his tastes than that of an ecclesiastic, and, after some persuasion, he gained from his father permission to remain in Paris, and to attend the lectures at the College de France and the J ardin des Plantes, on the condition that he should likewise rcad law. He accordingly took up his residence at Cardinal Lemoine’s college, and there became the pupil and soon the esteemed associate of Brissou’s friend, Haiiy, the eminent mineral— ogist, under whose guiding influence his passion for the natural sciences daily deepened. Having, before the close of the year 1790, taken the degree of bachelor in law, he became a student of medicine, but the lectures of Fourcroy at the J ardin des Plantes, and of Daubenton at the College de France, and his favourite scientiﬁc pursuits gradually came to occupy his almost exclusive attention. His studies at Paris were at length suddenly interrupted, for, on the 12th or 13th of August 1792, Haiiy and the other profes- sors of Lemoine’s college, as also those of the college of Navarre, were arrested by the revolutionists as priests, and confined in the prison of St Firmin. Through Daubenton and other persons of distinction with whom he Was acquainted, Geoffrey on the 14th August obtained an order for the release of Haiiy in the name of the Academy; still the other professors of the two colleges, save Lhomond, who had been rescued by his pupil Tallien, remainedun conﬁnement. Geoffrey, foreseeiug their certain destruction