Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/678

Rh 654 ROMANCE At the end of the 16th century a manuscript of this ver- sion was in the possession of the dukes of Aveiro at Lisbon, but since the middle of the 18th century all traces of it have been lost. There is, however, reason to believe that the earliest form of the story was in Castilian (o. 1250 T), also entirely lost. In a moral poem, El Rimado de Palacio, written about 1400, we find Pedro Lopez de Ayala speaking of having wasted his youth with " Libros de desvaneos e mentiras probadas Amadis e Lanzarote," which is sufficient to prove that Amadis existed about the period 1350-60. There is also a reference to Galaor, brother of Amadis, in the chronicle of Ramon Muntaner (1325-28), as well as to Tristan, Lancelot, and "other knights of the Round Table." There are several allusions in the Cancionero of Baena (1440-50) to an ancient version, one especially to its being " en tres lybros." The earliest form is likely to have been in verse. The author was well acquainted with the Arthurian legends, and we find a marked imitation of Tristan and especially Lancelot. Many of the names indicate a Celtic origin : Gaula cer- tainly means Wales and not France, as they who insist upon a French original of the romance would lead us to believe. There still remains much that is entirely novel. In the words of M. Baret, to whom the literary history of this romance owes so much "Si, par la tradition primitive, ' Amadis de Gaule derive de la source commune des romans de la Table Ronde, si meme il a existe une version Portugaise, c'est neanmoins h 1'Espagne que doit de- meurer 1'honneur d' avoir cree, stir un theme ancien, une composi- tion originale, en introduisant dans un cadre emprunte la nuance particuliere de sentiments et 1'art nouveau qui donnent a notre roman son importance et sa valeur speciales " (De I' Amadis, p. 21). Of the primitive Amadis, probably in three books, which charmed the youth of Ayala nothing is known. The prose romance we now possess was written about 1465 by Garci-Ordonez de Montalvo, governor of Medina del Campo, to whom we may assign all traces of a spirit later than the first years of the 14th century, and to whom the whole of the fourth book may be due. This book is more refined and more romantic than the others. One of the chief reasons of the popularity of this version is the happy manner in which the improvement in manners- is indicated. For the first time in chivalric romances we find distinct traces of the personality of the writer. The tastes, feelings, and prejudices of Spain towards the end of the 1 5th century are well expressed, without loss of the high chivalry of an earlier and simple time. It was first printed at Saragossa in 1508. 1 Within the next fifty years thirteen or fourteen more editions issued from the press, and Amadis became fully established as the popular hero of Spanish romance. When the Spaniards first saw Mexico in 1519 they were reminded of the enchantments of the story. rransla- Francis I. made acquaintance with the Amadis during his Spanish
 * ions of captivity and directed Nicolas de Herberay, seigneur of Essarts,

Ajnadis. a gentleman of Picardy, to translate it. The first four books of the original work were first printed in French in 1540. De Her- beray also translated most of the continuations down to the ninth book. He died about 1552, and Boileau, Gohorry, and others con- tinued the work. Estienne Pasquier, in his Recherchcs de la France (1611), alludes to the popularity of the French Amadis, "dans lequel vous pouvez cueillir toutes les belles fleurs de nostre langue Fran9oyse. Jamais livre ne feut ernbrasse avec tant de faveur que cestuy." De Herberay gives as his reason for the translation, "pour ce qu'il est tout certain qu'il fust premier mis en nostre langue Franijoyse, estant Amadis Gaulois et non Espagnol. Et qu'ainsi soit, j'en ai trouve encores quelque reste d'un vieil livre escrit a la main en langage Picard." This contention, which cannot seriously 1 Until recently bibliographers considered an edition printed at Salamanca in 1519 as the edttio princeps, although Clemencin and others cited one of 1510, which no one had seen. A most interesting discovery was, however, made at Ferrara in 1872 of an entirely unheard- of edition produced at Saragossa by G. Coci in 1508. be held, was insisted upon by M. de Tressan in his abridgment of the Amadis de Gaule (1779), wherein a French origin for the first three books is claimed upon the authority of certain MSS. in that language. The commencement of an Italian translation of the Amadis romances was printed at Venice in 1546, and the stories became equally popular in that language. Bernardo Tasso, while on a mission to Spain about 1535, read the Amadis with delight and afterwards based upon it his poem of Amadigi di Francia (1560). He preferred the Amadis to all the French romances, not even excepting Lancelot. Living at that time, his evidence is ex- tremely valuable. He does not seem to have heard of Lobeira's version nor yet of the French and Portuguese pretensions. In his opinion the story was taken from some ancient British history. The romance was translated into German in 1569 and into Dutch in 1619. Graesse (Tresor, vii. p. 30) describes a Hebrew translation of the first four books by Jacob ben Moses Algabbai, printed at Constantinople by Eliezer ben Gerson Soncini, without elate. The Amadis was first read in English through a version from the French by Anthony Munday (1592). Robert Southey's Amadis of Gaul (London, 1803, 4 vols. sin. 8vo) is an excellent translation, in which, however, there are constant signs of editorial pruning. W. S. Rose put the romance into verse from De Herberay's French text (London, 1803, sm. 8vo). Besides the Amadigi of Tasso, the romance gave rise to Amadis, a drama by Gil Vicente (1521), the Portuguese Plautus, to an opera by Lulli, represented at the Academic Royale de Musique at Paris (1684), to a poem by Wieland (1771), the forerunner of his Oberon, and to another by Creuze de Lesser (1813). The translation of De Herberay had an extra- ordinary success. It penetrated even to the convents. The Hugue- not La Noue and the Catholic Possevino protested against it in vain. The allusions to the Amadis and its continuations are end- less ; for instance, "La gloire de Nicquee," used for the bracket seat of a coach ; the proverbial saj'ing ' ' envoyer chez Guillot lo songeur"; " Dariolette, " the name for a confidant; "Urgandela desconnue," a phrase with Scarron and La Fontaine; and many more. The romance even furnished Christian names to some noble families, as to the lovely Corisande, countess of Guiche. The festal pageantries in vogue at the court of Charles V. were imitated from it. A poetical title of Queen Elizabeth was "the fair Oriana." Burton refers to the reading of the romance in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). The period of Los Quatro Libros del Cavallero Amadis de Sketcl Gaula is supposed to be earlier than that of Arthur or of of the Charlemagne. The hero is the illegitimate child of Perion, s ory< king of Gaul, and of Elisena, princess of Brittany, and is set adrift at sea in a cradle. He is picked up by a Scottish knight, who takes him to his own country ; he calls him the Child of the Sea and educates him at the king's court. Having been knighted, Amadis goes to the assistance of his father Perion (the relationship being then unknown), who in the meantime had married Elisena, by whom he had a lawfully begotten son, Galaor. The second child is stolen by a giant. Amadis becomes revealed to his parents through a ring, and consoles them in their new loss. He overthrows the king of Ireland, who had invaded Gaul, and returns to England. The adventures of the two brothers Amadis and Galaor in England, France, Germany, and the East occupy the remainder of the work, which is full of combats between them and other knights, magicians, and giants. While a youth at the Scottish court Amadis met Oriana, daughter of Lisuarte, king of England, who had been sent away from home in consequence of political troubles. The vicissitudes of their love form a marked feature of the tale. At one time the hero, disguised and under the name of Beltenebros, 2 retires to a hermitage upon receiving a cruel letter from Oriana. After defeating a hundred knights by whom Lisuarte had been attacked, and some further exploits, Amadis has to leave Oriana and the English court owing to the jealous suspicions of the king. He returns to rescue the princess from the Romans, and afterwards carries on a long war with Lisuarte, who is also attacked by a second enemy, Aravigo. In this per- plexity Lisuarte is generously assisted by Amadis, who 2 From the French translation "Le beau tenebreux" comes the popular application of the phrase to taciturn and melancholy lovers. The episode, parodied by Cervantes, is derived from the romance of Tristan. Amadis was also known by the names of the Knight of the Sword and the Greek Knight.