Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Hooper.djvu/38

xxx fifth crusade followed at the distance of abont twenty years; but upwards of thirty elapsed before the sixth and last. The blood and coin that had been so uselessly lavished might well conduce to satisfy the most enthusiastic crusader, and stem the torrent of popular superstition: while the surprising frenzy that had so long desolated both hemispheres, from its very intensity, was calculated to subside, and introduce a juster mode of thinking, and more rational ideas. Time, which allays all other passions, could not but temper this; and the last of these frantic expeditions appears, to my imagination, the desperate effort of expiring fanaticism—the last violent struggle of religious persecution in the East. With the decline of chivalry, the fictions, which principally attained their celebrity during its zenith (because they had become incorporated with it; though originally independent and extraneous), would naturally cease to be regarded; and the extravagant conceptions which this institution cherished, would, when good sense resumed or assumed her proper place, necessarily fall into decay.

I now hasten to the ; and purpose giving a brief outline of its history, with a notice of certain stories which, without reference to their own individual merit, have been raised into higher importance by furnishing the groundwork of many popular dramas. I shall also take occasion to offer a few remarks upon the translation now before the public, elucidatory of certain points which seem to require explanation.

The was one of the most applauded compilations of the Middle Ages. The method of instructing by fables is a practice of remote antiquity; and has always been attended with very considerable benefit. Its great popularity encouraged the monks to adopt this medium, not only for the sake of illustrating their discourses, but of making a more durable impression upon the minds of their illiterate auditors. An abstract argument, or logical deduction (had they been capable of supplying it), would operate but faintly upon intellects rendered oven more obtuse by the rude nature of their customary occupations; while, on the other hand, an apposite story would arouse attention, and stimulate that blind, and uninquiring devotion, which is so remarkably characteristic of the Middle Ages.