Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/665

Rh ROMANCE 641 The same origin is to be sought for the Alexander myths found in Renart le Bestourne and the Speculum Historiale of Vincentius Bellovacensis. Quintus Curtius was largely used for the Alexandreis (c. 1176-1202) of Gaultier de Chatillon. 1 It was the theme of poetry in all European languages : six or seven German poets dealt with the subject, and it may be read in English, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Flemish, and Bohemian. Towards the close of the 15th century an anonymous writer worked up the subject into a prose romance, L'his- toire du noble et vaillant roy Alixandre le Grant (1506), in which the Historia de Prsdiis is followed with tolerable exactness. After an account of the ancient history of Macedonia and of the intrigue of Nectanebus we are told how Philip dies, and how Alexander subdues Rome and re- ceives tribute from all European nations. He then makes his Persian expedition ; the Indian campaign gives occasion to descriptions of all kinds of wonders. The conqueror visits a cannibal kingdom and finds many marvels in the palace of Porus, among them a vine with golden branches, emerald leaves, and fruit of other precious stones. In one country he meets with women, who, after burial in the winter, become alive again in the spring full of youth and beauty. Having reached the ends of the earth and con- quered all nations, he aspires to the dominion of the air. He obtains a magic glass cage, yoked with eight griffins, flies through the clouds, and, thanks to enchanters knowing the language of birds, gets information as to their manners and customs, and ultimately receives their submission. The excessive heat of the upper regions compels him to descend, and he next visits, the bottom of the sea in a kind of diving-bell. The fish crowd round him and pay hom- age. Alexander returns to Babylon, is crowned with much pomp, and mass is celebrated. He dies by poison soon afterwards. The Vceux du Paon and Rcstor du Paon are chansons de geste attached to the Alexander cycle, to which also belongs Florimont, a poem by Aime de Varennes, said to have been written in 1188. Florimont was a son of the duke of Albania and father of Philip of Macedon by the heiress of the latter country. This poem gave rise to two prose romances La conquestede Grece f aide par Philippe de Madien, by Perrinet du Pin, first printed in 1527, and Histoire du roi Florimond (1528). 3. We now come to the third order of romances in- cluded in the cycle of " Rome la Grant," or those which merely reproduce the names of antiquity. The enchanter Virgil is the most famous of those who have given rise to prose works, and what passes under his name is less a romance than a collection of popular tales, many of Eastern derivation. Among romances in verse we have Erodes, Anseys de Carthage, Cleomades, Athis et Profilias, Prote- silaus, and Ypomedon. The first part of Athis et Profilias, byAlexandre de Bernai (latter part of 12th century), is adapted from the tale of the two merchants in the Disci- plina Clericalis of Pedro Alfonso, and is the source of Boccaccio's " Tito e Gisippo " (Decam., x. 8). In Ypome- don, written by Hue of Rotelande about 1185, most of the characters are named from the Thebau. As early as the year 1210 we find a rhymed translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses in German by Albrecht von Halberstadt. From Ovid is taken the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, which is the subject of a prose work in Italian, Piramo e Tisbe (Milan, s.a.). The episode of Orpheus and Eurydice furnished the plot of the poetical Histoire d'Orphee of Guillaume de Machault (d. 1370) and the English Sir Orphes. The tale of Theseus was handled by Boccaccio and supplied the title and names to the prose romance Histoire du chevalier Theseus de 1 The author of the much-quoted line, "Incidis in Scillam cupiens vitare Charybdim." The twelve-syllabic verse known as alexandrine is supposed to have taken its name from being first iised in the French Geste d'Alexandre. Coulogne (1534). The Bible as well as the classics was laid under contribution. Gaultier de Belleperche wrote a metrical Roman de Judas Machabee about the year 1240, of which a prose reproduction is Les chroniques du prince Judas Machabeus, Vun des neufs preux, et aussi de ses quatres freres (Paris, 1514). The Enchanter Viryil. After turning the heroes of antiquity The en- into knights-errant, it was a simple task to transform ancient poets chanter and philosophers into necromancers ; and Virgil and Aristotle be- Virgil, came popularly famous, not for poetry and science, but for their supposed knowledge of the black art. One of the earliest references to the magical skill of Virgil 2 occurs in a letter of the chancellor Conrad (1194), reproduced by Arnold of Liibeck in the continua- tion of the Chronicon Slavorum of Helmold. John of Salisbury alludes to the brazen fly fabricated by Virgil ; Helinand (d. 1227) speaks of similar marvels in a work from which Vincentius Bello- vacensis has borrowed ; and Gervase of Tilbury, in his Otia Im- perialia (1212), and Alexander Neckham (d. 1217), in De Natura Rerum, have reproduced these traditions, with additions. German and French poets did not overlook this accessory to their reper- toire. The Roman de Cleomades of Adenez (12th century) and the Image du Monde, an encyclopaedic poem of Gauthier de Metz (13th century), contain numerous references to the prodigies of the en- chanter. Reynard the Fox informs King Lion that he had from the wise Virgil a quantity of valuable receipts. He also plays a considerable part in the popular folk-tale The Seven Wise Masters, and appears in the Gesta JRomanorum and that curious guide- book for pilgrims, the Mirabilia Romse. He is to be found in Gower's Confessio Amantis and in Lydgate's Bochas. A Spanish romance, Vergilios, is included by E. de Ochoa in his Tesoro (Paris, 1838), and Juan Ruiz, archpriest of Hita (d. 1351), has also written a poem on the subject. Many of the tales of magic throughout Europe were referred to Virgil, and gradually developed into a completely new life, strangely different from that of the real hero. They were collected in French under the title of Les Faitz Mer- veilleux de Virgille (c. 1499), a quarto chapbook of ten pages, which became extremely popular, and was printed, with more or less additional matter, in all languages. We are told how Virgil be- guiled the devil at a very early age, in the same fashion as the fisherman used the jinn in the Arabian Nights when he got him to re-enter Solomon's casket. Another reproduction of a widely spread tale was that of the lady who kept Virgil suspended in a basket. To revenge the affront the magician extinguished all the fires in the city, and no one could rekindle them without subject- ing the lady to an ordeal highly offensive to her modesty. Virgil made for the emperor a castle in which he could see and hear every- thing done or said in Rome, an ever-blooming orchard, statues to preserve the safety of the city, and a lamp to supply light to it. He abducted the soldan's daughter, and built for her the city of Naples upon a secure foundation of eggs. At last, having performed many extraordinary things, he knew that his time was come. In order to escape the common lot he placed all his treasures in a castle defended by images unceasingly wielding iron flails, and directed his confidential servant to hew him in pieces, which he was to salt and place in a barrel in the cellar, under which a lamp was to be kept burning. The servant was assured that after seven days his master would revive a young man. The directions were carried out ; but the emperor, missing his medicine - man, forced the servant to divulge the secret and to quiet the whirling flails. The emperor and his retinue entered the castle and at last found the mangled corpse. In his wrath he slew the servant, whereupon a little naked child ran thrice round the barrel, crying, "Cursed be the hour that ye ever came here," and vanished. Literature. On the subject generally, see A. Chassang, Histoire du roman dans I'antiquitt, 1862 ; P. Paris, Les MSS. Franyois de la Bill, dv Roi, Paris, 1835-48, 7 vols. ; H. L. D. Ward, Cat. of Romances in the Dep. of MSS., British Museum, 1883 ; E. Du Meril, Preface to Flore et Blancheflor, 1856 ; Egger, Hellen- isme en France, 1869. The Troy legend is dealt with in the elaborate work of A. Joly, Benoit de Sainte-More et le Roman de Troie, 1870-71, 2 vols. ; G. Korting, Der altfranz. Roman de Troie, 1883 ; F. Settegast, Benoit de Ste-More, Breslau, 1876 ; Frommann, Herbort v. Fritilar u. Benoit de Ste-More, Stuttgart, 1857 ; B. Jackel, Dares Phrygius u. Benoit de Ste-More, Breslau, 1875 ; E. Juste, Sur Vorigine^des poemes attrib. a Homere et sur les cycles epiques de Fantiq. et du Moyen-Age, Brussels, 1849 ; J. A. Fuchs, De varietate fabularum Troicarum qutestiones, Cologne, 1830 ; H. Dunger, Die Sage vom trojan. Kriege, Leipsic, 1869 ; G. Korting, Dictys u. Dares, Halle, 1874 ; H. Dunger, Dictys Septimius, Dresden, 1878 ; L. Havet, " Sur la date du Dictys de Septimius " (Rev. de Philol., "Sulle versione Italiane della Storia Troiana" (Site. d. k. Akad. Wien, 1871, vol. Ixvii.), and "Ueber d. Span. Versionen" (ib., 1871, vol. Ixix.); Pey, Essai sur U romans d' Eneas, 1856. The Alexander legend is treated by J. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes, Halle, 1867 ; J. Berger de Xivrey, " Sur Pseudo-Callisthenes " (Notices et Extracts, xiii., 1838) ; A. Westermann, De Callisthene, 1838-42, 4 parts ; E. Talbot, Sur la legends dAlexandre dans les romans jrangais, 1850 ; Florian 2 The Irish apostle to Carinthia, St Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg (d. 784), who held original views on the subject of antipodes, may have been the real eponym of the legend. Naples was a centre for pseudo-Virgilian stories. XX. 81