Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/715

Rh besides the Round Table which never existed, the Celtic family, which had existed only to destroy itself.

Gradual Formation of the existing character of Arthur in the French Romances.—We have noticed the bonhomie which was the chief characteristic of the early Cambrian Arthur. The Arthur born of the recollections and resentments of exile has a more terrible shape. In Brittany, the land of exile, was elaborated this type of a national avenger, a more moral David (Arthur slays his giant), a Solomon without his scepticism (Arthur was a great author of pro verbs). In exile this figure of a Celtic Messiah was graven with some of its most indelible traits. Arthur s own device is very far removed from the gospel ; he out-Herods Herod, and, franker than the Jesuitical cruelty of the twelve tables or of Shylock, he goes beyond the lex talionis ; &quot; a heart for an eye, a head for an arm,&quot; he says. Alain de Lille relates, in his commentaries and explanations on the prophecies of Merlin, that in his day any one who, drinking with the Bretons, would tell them that Arthur was dead and never to return, was in danger of being stoned. &quot; Like the dawn, he will arise from his mysterious retreat.&quot; To return to the Arthur of the Round Table, nothing in the romances is touched with more generous sentiment than his invariable affection for Ken (Kay of the Welsh legends), his cunning but clownish, friendly yet treacherous seneschal. For the infant Arthur had been confided by Merlin to Antor, and believed himself his son, while Ken, the real son of Antor gives place to Arthur, is neglected, and all his evil qualities are derived from the wicked nurse to whom he had been given away from his mother ; so Arthur was bound to be patient and kind to Ken in after life, and forgive him many times for being &quot;fol et vilain et fel.&quot; We shall not describe the trials to which Arthur submits, those of the sword and of the anvil, for instance, nor the essay in royalty he makes without taking the title of king, though the idea of being made a king, not only by election, but even after examination, is remarkable. Nor shall we relate how, in disguise, aided by his friends Ban and Bolior, lie rescues Leogadan from the &quot; Saisnes &quot; (Saxons) and Danes ; in disguise, as Merlin explains to Leogadan, who had thrown himself at the feet of his deliverer to entreat to know his name because thus, without naming himself, should a hero, who is the son of a king, seek out and win his wife. So Arthur woos and weds Guenever, Leogadan s daughter, the Gwcnhwyvar of the Welsh tales. The W T elsh would have their Arthur cross the Channel to succour their kindred allies in Brittany ; the Bretons, in the same way, sent their Arthur into Great Britain, hence confusions which explain each other. One reproach, which has been made at all times, by Mr P. Paris, as by William of Xew r burgh, to the revengeful instinct which was the soul of the Arthurian legend, is its monstrous vanity, which has depicted Arthur as an opponent and conqueror of the Romans. William of Xewburgh has said, &quot; the Britons were little to be feared as warriors, little to be trusted as citizens ;&quot; and this passage curiously resembles one in the legend where a Roman knight, before the battle of Langres, is made to exclaim, &quot; Behold truly the Britons slow in action, ready in menace!&quot; Whence has arisen this battle of Langres, where Arthur, allied with Claudas, king of the &quot; Terre De&quot;serte,&quot; conquers the Romans and destroys their empire. Strange to say, the fictitious battle of Langres has an authentic foundation in history, being but an echo in tradition of the obstinate and successful resistance to the Romans carried on by the Celts of the vast district called the Tractus Armor icanus, a resist ance out-lasting, indeed, the Roman power, till Clovis turned it to account and destroyed it; and of Clovis, the treacherous ally of the Arniorican Celts, the portrait is easily recognised in the Claudas of the romance. Rome has been cursed in history more often than she is named in Camilla s imprecation in Corneille s play, and we need nut wonder at the legend, wherein Arthur calls together a confederation of Greeks, Africans, Spaniards, Parthians, Medes, Libyans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Phry gians, (fee., in fact, all nations, against Rome. The legendary hero falls at last, in all his glory and in the midst of his reign of justice, on the field of Camlan. But he is not deserted by that fairy world with whom Shakespeare s soul delighted to dwell; magically transported into the Isle of Avalon, his body is cured of its wounds, and his soul sleeps, while rests his enchanted sword Excalibur,till that day comes when he shall rise again from his mysterious retreat. But that day must dawn for all nations at once, as in the veins of all peoples of Europe is hidden some Celtic blood. On the other hand, progress is barred and darkness dwells where the Celtic race remains unmixed. So it is the destiny of some peoples, while buried for ever as a temporal power, because of their irreparable faults, to live on gloriously for the good of all, but only as an idea, an instruction, a legend.

1em  ARTICHOKE. The common artichoke, Cynara Scoly- mus, is a plant belonging to the Natural Order Composite, having some resemblance to a large thistle. It has long been esteemed as a culinary vegetable ; the parts chiefly employed being the immature receptacle or floret disk, with the lower part of the surrounding leaf-scales, which are known as &quot;artichoke bottoms.&quot; In Italy the receptacles, dried, are largely used in soups ; those of the cultivated plant as Carciofo domestico, and of the wild variety as Car- ciofo spinoso. The Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus, is a distinct plant belonging to the same order, cultivated for its root-tubers, which somewhat resemble potatoes, for which they have been proposed as a substitute. It closely re sembles the sunflower, and its popular name is a corruption of the Italian Girasole Articocco, the sunflower artichoke.  ARTICLES,, of the Church of England, contain the public standard of religious belief adopted by that body. They w r ere drawn up by Archbishop Parker, sanctioned by Convocation in 15G2, and published by royal authority in the following year. The general principles of this body of doctrine, and the form into which it was thrown, had been gradually developed during the previous attempts to establish a standard of faith in England. Soon after the authority of the Pope had been thrown off by the English Church, there began to appear wide differences of opinion with regard to the extent of reformation required. One party, the conservative, held by the old practices of the Church of Rome; another, the moderate reformers, desired to abolish these practices on account of the abuses to which they were liable ; while the various sects of the Anabaptists were eager for radical reformation both of doctrine and of practice. Religious turbulence and strife prevailed to such an extent that, in 1536, a set of was published by royal authority, intended, as was expressly stated, to &quot; stablyshe Christen quiet lies and unitie among us, and to avoid contentious opinions.&quot; A considerable share in the composition of this code was taken by Henry himself. The articles were evidently intended as a compromise; they contained much that was afterwards rejected by the church, and do not seem to have given