them to all the exceffes of military fanaticifm, which are painted fo ftrongly, but fcarcely exaggerated, in the old Ro

mances.

For instance, one of the ftrangeft circumstances in those books, and which looks most like a mere extravagance of the imagination, is that of the women-warriors, with which they all abound. Butler, in his Hudibras, who faw it in this light, ridicules it, as a moft unnatural idea, with great spirit. Yet in this reprefentation they did but copy from the manners of the times. Anna Comnena tells us, in the life of her father, that the wife of Robert the Norman, fought fide by fide with her husband, in his battles; that fhe would rally the flying foldiers, and lead them back to the charge: and Nicetus obferves, that in the time of Manuel Comnena, there were in one Crufade many women, armed like men, and on horseback.

The courtefy, affability, and gallantry, for which the Knights errant were fo fainous, are but the natural effects, we are told, and confequences of their fituation. For the castles of the Barons were the courts of thefe little fovereigns, as well as their fortreffes; and the refort of their vaffals thither, in honour of their chiefs, and for their own proper fe curity, would make the civility and politenefs, which are seen in courts, and infenfibly prevail there, a predominant part in the character of these affemblies.

Befides, the free commerce of the ladies, in those knots and circles of the great, would operate fo far on the sturdieft Knights, as to give birth to the attentions of gallantry. But this gallantry would take a refined turn, not only from the neceflity there was of maintaining the ftrict forms of deco rum, amidst a promifcuous converfation under the eye of the prince, and in his own family, but alio from the inflamed fenfe they must needs have of the frequent outrages committed by their neighbouring clans of adverfaries, on the honour of the fex, when by chance of war they had fallen into their hands. Violations of chastity being the moft atrocious crimes they had to charge on their enemies, they would pride themfelves in the glory of being its protectors and as this virtue was, of all others, the fairest and ftrongeft claim of the fcx itfelf to fuch protection, it is no wonder that the notions of it were, in time, carried to fo platonic an elevation.

Our ingenious Author now proceeds to account for that claratter of religion which was fo deeply imprinted on the

minds of all Knights, and was effential to their inftitution. The Love of God and of the Ladies, we are told, went hand in hand, in the duties and ritual of Chivalry.

For this fingularity two reafons may be affigned. First, the fuperftition of the times in which Chivalry arose; which was fo great, that no inftitution of a public nature could have found credit in the world, that was not confecrated by the Churchmen, and closely interwoven with religion. Secondly, the condition of the Chriftian world; which had been harraffed by long wars, and had but just recovered a breath-. ing-time from the brutal ravages of the Saracen armies.. The remembrance of what they had lately fuffered from these grand enemies of the faith, made it natural, and even neceffary, to engage a new military order on the fide of religion,

"And how warmly this principle, a zeal for the faith, fays our Author, was acted upon by the profeffors of Chivalry, and how deeply it entered into their ideas of the military character, we see from the term fo conftantly used by the old Romancers, of RECREANT Knight; by which they meant to exprefs, with the utmost force, their difdain of a daftard or vanquished Knight. For many of this order falling into the hands of the Saracens, fuch of them as had not imbibed the full spirit of their profeffion, were induced to renounce their faith, in order to regain their liberty. These men, as finning against the great fundamental laws of Chivalry, they branded with this name; a name of complicated reproach, which implied a want of the two most effential qualities of a Knight, COURAGE and FAITH.

"And here, by the way, the reafon appears why the Spaniards, of all the Europeans, were fartheft gone in every characteristic madness of true Chivalry. To all the other confiderations here mentioned, their fanaticism in every way was especially inftigated and kept alive by the memory and neighbourhood of their old infidel invaders.

"And thus we feem to have a fair account of that Prowefs, Generofity, Gallantry, and Religion, which were the peculiar and vaunted characteristics of the purer ages of Chivalry.

"Such was the ftate of things in the western world, when the Crufades to the Holy Land were fet on foot. Whence we fee how well prepared the minds of men were for engaging in that enterprize. Every object that had entered into

the views of the Inftitutors of Chivalry, and had been followed by its profeffors, was now at hand to inflame the military and religious ardour of the Knights to the utmost. And here, in fact, we find the ftrongest and boldeft features of their genuine character: daring to madnefs, in enterprizes of hazard burning with zeal for the delivery of the oppressed; and, which was deemed the height of religious merit, for the refcue of the holy city out of the hands of the infidels; and, laftly, exalting their honour of chastity fo high, as to profess celibacy; as they conftantly did, in the feveral orders of Knighthood created on that extravagant occafion."

Having thus endeavoured to account for the rife and genius of Knight-errantry, our Author refers us to a learned and very elaborate memoir of a French Writer, in the twentieth volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, for an idea of what Chivalry was in itself, He goes on to observe, that there is a remarkable correfpondency between the manners of the old heroic times, as painted by their great Romancer, Homer, and thofe which are reprefented to us in the books of modern Knight-errantry. A fact of which no good account, he thinks, can be given but by the affiftance of another, not lefs certain,-that the political state of Greece, in the earlier periods of its flory, was fimilar, in many refpects, to that of Europe, when broken by the feudal fyftem, into a great number of petty independent governments.

He acknowleges himself indebted for this hint to the Author of the memoir above-mentioned, who hath undertaken at his leifure to enlarge upon it." It is not my defign, fays our Letter-writer, to encroach on the province of the learned perfon to whom I owe this hint; but fome few circumstances of agreement between the heroic and gothic manners, fuch as are moft obvious, and occur to my memory while I am writing, may be worth putting down, by way of fpecimen only of what may be expected from a profeffed enquiry into this curious fubject."

He obferves, that the military enthusiasm of the Barons is but of a piece with the fanaticifm of the Heroes,-that the Grecian Bacchus, Hercules, and Thefeus, are nothing but Knights-errant, the exact counter-parts of Sir Lancelot and Amadis de Gaule - that robbery and pyracy were honourable in both-that baftardy was in credit with both-that the margames which ancient Greece delighted to celebrate on

tial

great

reat and folemn occafions, had the fame origin, and the fame urposes, as the tournaments of the Gothic Warriors, &c.

"I am aware, continues he, that in the affair of religion and gallantry, the refemblance between the Hero and Knight is not so striking. But the religious character of the Knight was an accident of the times, and no proper effect of his civil condition. And that his devotion for the fex fhould fo far furpass that of the Hero, is a fresh confirmation of my fyl tem. For, tho' much, no doubt, might be owing to the different humour and genius of the Eaft and Weft, antecedent to any custom and forms of government, and indepen dent of them, yet the confideration had of the females in the feudal conftitution will, of itself, account for this difference. It made them capable of fucceeding to fiefs as well as the men. And does not one fee, on the inftant, what refpect and dependence this privilege would draw upon them?

"It was of mighty confequence who fhould obtain the grace of a rich heirefs. And tho' in the ftrict feudal times, The was fuppofed to be in the power and difpofal of her fuperior Lord, yet this rigid ftate of things did not laft long; and, while it did laft, could not aba e much of the homage that would be paid to the fair feudatory. Thus, when intereft had begun the habit, the language of love and flattery would foon do the reft. And to what that language tended you may fee by the conftant ftrain of the Romances themfelves. Some diftreffed damfel was the spring and mover of every Knight's adventure. She was to be rescued by his arms, or won by the fame and admiration of his prowels.

"The plain meaning of all which was this: that, as in thofe turbulent feudal times a protector was neceffary to the weakness of the fex, fo the courtcous and valorous Knight was to approve himfelf fully qualified for that office. And we find, he had other motives to fet him on work than the mere charms and graces, tho' ever fo bewitching, of the perfon addreffed.

"Hence then, as I fuppofe, the cuftom was introduced: and, when introduced, you will hardly wonder it fhould operate much longer and farther than the reafon may feem to require, on which it was founded. In conclufion of this topic I muft juft obferve to you, that the two poems of Homer exprefs in the livelieft manner, and were intended to expofe, the capital mifchiefs and inconveniencies arifing from the political flate of old Greece: the Iliad, the diffentions that naturally

F 4

naturally fpring up amongst a number of independent Chiefs; and the Odyffey, the infolence of their greater fubjects, more especially when unreftrained by the prefence of their Sovereign.

"These were the fubjects of his pen. And can any thing more exactly refemble the condition of the feudal times, when, on occafion of any great enterprize, as that of the Crufades, the defigns of the confederate Chriftian States. were perpetually fruftrated, or interrupted at least, by the diffentions of their Leaders; and their affairs at home as perpetually diftreffed and difordered by the rebellious ufurpations of their greater vaffals?-So that Jerufalem was to the European, what Troy had been to the Grecian, princes. And you will now, I believe, not be furprized to find that Taffo's immortal poem was planned after the model of the Iliad."

Our ingenious Author now leads his Readers from this forgotten Chivalry to a more amusing subject, viz. the Poetry we ftill read, and which was founded upon it. He obferves, that fo far as the Heroic and Gothic manners are the fame, the pictures of each, if well taken, must be equally entertaining. But he goes farther, and maintains, that the circumftances in which they differ, are clearly to the advantage of the Gothic Defigners. Had Homer feen the manners of the feudal ages, he makes no doubt but he would have preferred them to thole of Greece; and the grounds of this preference, he fuppofes, would have been-the improved gallantry of the feudal times; and the fuperior folemnity of their fuperfitions. It is but looking into any of the old Romancers, we are told, to be convinced that the gallantry which infpirited the feudal times, was of a nature to furnifh the Poet with finer fcenes and fubjects of defcription in every view, than the fimple and uncontrouled barbarity of the Grecian,

Nothing, he obferves, fhews the difference of the two fyftems under confideration more plainly, than the effect they really had on the two greatest of our Poets; at least the Two which an English reader is moft fond to compare with Homer, viz. openfer and Milton. It is not to be doubted, he fays, but that each of thefe Bards had kindled his poetic fire from claffic fables. So that, of course, their prejudices would lie that way. Yet they both appear, when most inflamed, to have been more particularly rapt with the Gothic fables of Chivalry.

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