Page:The Waning of the Middle Ages (1924).djvu/80

60 known that the word miles with Roman authors did not mean a miles in the sense of medieval Latin, that is to say, a knight, or that a Roman eques differed from a feudal knight? Consequently, Romulus, because he raised a band of a thousand mounted warriors, was taken to be the founder of chivalry.

The life of a knight is an imitation; that of princes is so too, sometimes. No one was so consciously inspired by models of the past, or manifested such desire to rival them, as Charles the Bold. In his youth he made his attendants read out to him the exploits of Gauvain and of Lancelot. Later he preferred the ancients. Before retiring to rest, he listens for an hour or two to the “lofty histories of Rome.” He especially admires Cæsar, Hannibal and Alexander, “whom he wished to follow and imitate.” All his contemporaries attach great importance to this eagerness to imitate the heroes of antiquity, and agree in regarding it as the mainspring of his conduct. “He desired great glory”—says Commines—“which more than anything else led him to undertake his wars; and longed to resemble those ancient princes who have been so much talked of after their death.” The anecdote is well known of the jester who, after the defeat of Granson, called out to him: “My lord, we are well Hannibaled this time!” His love of the “beau geste” in antique style was observed by Chastellain at Mechlin in 1467, when he made his first entry there as duke. He had to punish a rising. He sat down facing the scaffold erected for the leader of the insurgents. Already the hangman has drawn the sword and is preparing to strike the blow. “Stop,” said the duke then, “take the bandage from his eyes and help him up.” “And then I perceived”—says Chastellain—“that he had set his heart on high and singular purposes for the future, and on acquiring glory and renown by extraordinary works.” Thus the aspiration to the splendour of antique life, which is the characteristic of the Renaissance, has its roots in the chivalrous ideal. Between the ponderous spirit of the Burgundian and the classical instinct of an Italian of the same period there is only a difference of nuance. The forms which Charles the Bold affected are still flamboyant Gothic, and he still read his classics in translations.

The chivalrous element and the Renaissance element are