versal admiration, while the epic poems of Trissino and Alamanni, founded on the classic model, were neglected or despised. Nor can this be wholly attributed to the difference of genius in the poets themselves; for while the other writings of Ariosto sunk into oblivion, his Orlando, according to the expression of his great rival, lives in ever renovating youth. The genius of Tasso, which hardly rises above mediocrity, in tragedy, in pastoral, or in the classical refabrication of the Jerusalem, has reared the finest poem in the world on the basis of romantic fiction. Many, too, were the obligations of Spenser to the fables of romance; and in a later period they nourished the genius of a poet yet more august. "I will tell you," says Milton, "whither my younger feet wandered: I betook me among those lofty fables and romances which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood."

A change introduced in the customs and mode of life among the inhabitants of Europe, as it was the principal source of the rise, so it may be also regarded as the chief cause of the decline of romantic composition. The abolition of chivalry was the innovation which had most effect in this overthrow. However useful that institution might have been in the early stages of society, it was found

that in a regular campaign the utmost disorder resulted from an impetuous militia, which knew no laws but those of its courage, which confounded temerity with valour, and was incapable of rallying in the hour of disaster. Vigour of discipline was broken by the want of unity of command, for the army was headed by chiefs who had different interests and different motives of action, and who drew not from the same source their claims to obedience. The knights, too, had at all times perverted the purposes of their institution. If we believe the flattering picture given by Colombiere, the errant heroes of chivalry wandered through the world, redressing injuries, exterminating the banditti with which Europe was infested, or relieving those ladies who had fallen into the power of enemies. But if we examine other writers, we shall meet with a very different account of these wor thies, and shall find, according to the quaint expression of an old English author, that these errant knights were arrant knaves.

Pierre de Blois, who wrote in the twelfth century, complains that the horses of the knights were more frequently loaded with implements of gluttony and drunkenness, than with arms fit for battle. "They are burdened," says he, "not with

weapons, but wine; not with javelins, but cheeses; not with bludgeons, but bottles; not with spears, but with spits." Non ferro sed vino, non lanceis sed caseis, non ensibus sed utribus, non hastibus sed verubus onerantur. In France, during the disorders which existed in the reign of Charles VI., the contending factions, with a view to strengthen their interest, multiplied the number of knights, by which means the order was degraded. A new institution was created by Charles VII., who bestowed on his Gensdarmerie the honours that had hitherto been appropriated to knighthood, and the chivalry of France became anxious to enroll themselves amongst a body wherein they could arrive at military command, which, as simple knights, they could no longer attain. The image and amusements of chivalry now alone remained. Mankind were occasionally reminded of a previous state of society by the exhibitions of jousts and tournaments; but even these, in a short while, became unfashionable in France, from the introduction of other amusements, and the accident which terminated the life of one of its monarchs.

The wonders of chivalry had disappeared from real life, but still lingered in the memory of man: new romantic compositions, indeed, no longer were written, but the old ones were still read with ayidity, when all the powers of satire and genius were exerted; not, indeed, to ridicule the spirit of chi valry, or a state of society which had passed away, but the barbarous relaters of chimerical adventures, and those who devoted their time to their perusal.

Some writers have considered the Sir Thopas of Chaucer as a prelude to the work of Cervantes. It may be much to the honour of the English poet that he so early discerned and ridiculed the absurdities of his contemporary romancers, but it cannot be conceived that Sir Thopas had any effect in discrediting their compositions. It appeared in a reign which almost realized the wonders of romantic fiction, and at a period when the spirit of chivalry possessed too firm a hold of the mind to suffer the love of the marvellous to be easily eradicated. The satire, besides, was infinitely too recondite to have been detected in that age; what was meant as burlesque was probably considered as a grave heroic narrative, a supposition which must have been strengthened from the author having, in another composition, adopted the extravagancies which he is supposed to ridicule. In Don Quixote, on the contrary, the satire was too broad to be mistaken, and appeared when the spirit of chivalry was nearly abated. The old ro

mancers had outraged all verisimilitude in their extravagant pictures of chivalry, and its phantoms were laughed out of countenance by the ridicule of Cervantes before their substance had been presented, at least in a prose composition, by any author of genius.

I do not believe that the prevalence of the heroic, or pastoral romance, had much effect in discrediting the tales of chivalry: these rather arose in consequence of the decline of the taste for such works, and the stagnation of amusement which followed; but it is probable they were, in some measure, overshaded by the growth of other branches of literature. The study of the classics introduced method into composition, and the ambition of rivalling these new patterns of excellence produced imitation. Fancy was curbed by reflection, and rules of criticism intimidated the bold eccentricities of romantic genius. The Gothic fables, too, were superseded by the general diffusion of the works of the Italian novelists in France and England, and the numerous translations and imitations of them in both countries. Alternate pictures of ingenious gallantry and savage revenge, which these exhibit, produced a taste in reading, which, when once formed, could not easily have been recalled to a relish for the delights of romance. These