EARLY PROSE ROMANCES.*
THE reader weary of the sober realities or of the gross and obtrusive sensationalism of recent fiction, may find some refreshment for his soul in these naive stories of " conjuration and mighty magic," and mildly exciting though impossible adventure which fascinated the unsophisticated European of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The art of weaving a fairly interesting narrative, without digression or circumlocu- tion, was better understood by our old romancists than is generally supposed, and it may be even doubted whether they have been much excelled in this respect by later writers, though it must be owned that their stories have little of the verisimili- tude, and, necessarily, nothing of the complexity of the typical modern novel, with its subtle analysis of character and motive, and its pathetic attempts to solve insoluble problems. For narrative pure and simple, however, we may safely recommend some of the old-fashioned legends which Professor Morley has brought together for us in a single volume of remarkable b:auty and cheapness.
The heroes of most of the legends are familiar names enough, but the stories themselves in their complete form have been hitherto, with the exception of the apologue of Reynard the Fox, inaccessible to the many, and probably not too well known even to the specialist. As given by Mr. Morley, the stories can hardly be said to be quite complete, and hence the student, who as a rule has no great fondness for abridgments, will not be quite satisfied with the reprint ; and even the superla- tively refined ordinary reader, not suspecting that certain passages have been silently omitted, may feel far less of gratification than of surprise that the writers of what he has hitherto regarded, and would fain still regard as a much ruder age, should appear almost as well-mannered and delicately reticent as those of his own. The old ortho- graphy is in some instances adhered to, and in the case of Reynard, a partial transcript of Caxton's homely yet ad- mirable version, the obsolete words, mostly of Dutch origin, are suffered to stand, though the editor is careful to explain
• Early Prose Romances:—Reynard the Fox ; Friar Bacon ; Robert the Devil ; Guy of Warwick ; History of Hamlet ; Friar Reap. Edited by Henry Morley, LL.D, London: George Routledge and Sons. 1889.
most of them at the foot of the page on which they occur. In the selection from the " hundred merry tales " with which the volume opens and closes, the abbreviated words of the old edition are also preserved. Whether through this judicious- mixture of concession and resistance to the laziness and pre- judices of the general reader, that somewhat enigmatic individual will find what is attractive in the present volume sufficiently in excess of what is repellent or distasteful to induce him to extend further his acquaintance with our old literature, i s- hard to say; at all events, the design is laudable, and we hope it will succeed. We would observe, however, in no unfriendly spirit, that while the indiscriminate reprinting of old books and pamphlets, simply on account of their antiquarian interest,. can do no service to the cause of genuine literature, there is a danger that it may end not only in completely alienating the many for whose benefit the reprints appear to be specially, if not exclusively designed, but even in producing a reaction in the minds of enthusiastic devotees of the nobler writers of the past. One or two at least of the stories in the present volume are merely curious, and possess very little intrinsic merit. The wit of not a few of the "merry tales" themselves would seem to have evaporated since Shakespeare's Benedick said of his Beatrice that " she had her good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales ;" and the jests are often pointless enough,. though it cannot be said that the author is ever abso- lutely dull,—his stories are too short for that; and it must be owned that he is almost always quaint, and sometimes irresistibly funny. The gravest reader must smile when he reads of the good lady who, following with " great moan " and ready to swoon, her fourth husband's hearse, and being bidden by a " gossip " to comfort herself, answered :—" I wis, good gossip, I have great cause to mourn if you knew all, for I have buried three husbands besides this man ; but I was never in the case that I am now ; for there was not one of them but when that I followed the corse to church, yet I was sure alway of another husband before that the corse came out of my house ; and now I am sure of no other husband, and therefore you may be sure I have great cause to be sad and heavy,"—by which tale, adds the author, we may see that the old proverb is true that "it is as great pity to see a woman weep as a goose to go barefoot." There is perhaps no other story in the collection quite so good as this, and good as it is, the reader will probably recall many modern stories at least equally replete with satire.
The History of Virgilius is not particularly entertaining as a narrative, nor can it be said to have any distinct literary charm. As showing us, however, what was thought of the poet in the middle and even succeeding ages by the ignorant or half-cultured, who regarded him simply as an unrivalled. magician, quite unscrupulous in the pursuit of objects of personal ambition or low passion, but ever ready to perform great services for his country, it is not without interest, and the reader will be as much amused as astonished by the con- fusion of chronology, the complete misconception of the poets- and the absolute ignorance of his real character, life, and aims, which characterise this extraordinary romance. The poet is not merely obscured, he is completely effaced, and there is not a single trait by which we can identify the arch magician with the modest and dignified singer and teacher who wrote the dEneid, and who guided his reverent and devoted pupil, Dante, through hell and purgatory.
By far the most important of the stories in the volume before us is undoubtedly The History of .Reynard the Fox,. known already to most readers through Roscoe's German Novelists. This apologue, of which Carlyle has written so eloquent and just an eulogium, appears once to have been in as little esteem among English " wits " as The Pilgrim's Progress, for we find Smith, in Halifax and Prior's Hind and. Panther Transversed, declaring Reynard to be quite as bad as the now-forgotten Dear Joy's Jests, and Dryden held up to ridicule for his known admiration of it, and made to declare that there was as good.morality and as sound precepts in the " delectable " History of Reynard the Fox as in any book he knew except Seneca, an opinion which few would now think alto- gether absurd. Although the moral of the story is of universal. application, and the human characters thinly disguised under the names of the various animals whose real or supposed. attributes they share, are common enough in all ages, there can be little doubt that some political personage of the time in which the author, whoever he was, flourished, is in almost,
every case intended, and that Reynard is really neither more nor less than a satirical historical narrative. Our acquaintance, however, with the events and personages of the period is so slight, that only conjectural explanations can now be offered, and the full significance of the book can never again be under- stood as it no doubt easily was by the intelligent on its first appearance. Yet the satire, though in its design probably local, temporary, and personal merely, is also sufficiently broad and general for any reader to enjoy it thoroughly ; and the sagacity of its criticism of life, the intimate acquaintance it everywhere displays with the almost numberless follies, weaknesses, and perversities of human nature, the vivacity and dramatic propriety of its dialogues, its unfaltering acceptance, yet without bitterness, of the unwelcome truth that the honest, undesigning, and unsuspecting among men must often be the prey of those who unite craft with energy and unscrupulous- ness with ability, its lesson that where the ruler, however well- meaning, has no gift of insight, is unable to penetrate beneath the surface of character, and is apt to regard the glib-tongued flatterer as his truest friend, justice must often be defeated, and the innocent suffer in place of the guilty ; and the humorous character of some of the adventures—notably those of Bruin—cannot fail, we think, to strike him who reads the work with any degree of attention. As for Reynard himself, for how many notable personages, political and other, in the world's history, may not that arch-deceiver well stand? His energy and cunning, his lust and greediness, his habitual hypocrisy, his insinuating and voluble speech, his treachery to friend and foe, his amazing fertility in expedients to extricate himself out of the most difficult or desperate situations, his ready invention of plausible stories to excuse or defend his most flagrant and notorious crimes, and even to make them look like dis- interested acts of virtue, his " magnetism " or power of attaching others to his person and cause, and making them rally round him when his guilt and baseness are most mani- fest and his utter ruin seems inevitable, his admirable self- possession when threatened with a violent and ignominious .death,—all these characteristics, and others besides which we have not enumerated, seem to us common to many great people of whom we have read. Nor when Reynard's nephew, the
badger, is made to say of him, that " he eateth no more than once a day, he liveth as A recluse, he chastiseth his body and weareth a shirt of hair, he doth great penance for his sins, and he is waxen much pale and lean of praying and waking, for he would be fain with God," can we flatter ourselves that
the type of religious hypocrite here satirised is even yet quite extinct among us.
Of the remaining stories we have little room to speak. The History of Guy, Earl of Warwick, is written in a half- burlesque vein, and though printed throughout as prose, by far the major portion is in unmistakable blank verse. The verse, though ambitious and high-sounding, is without genuine melody, and is as stiff and stately and regular in the recur- rence of its pauses at every tenth syllable as the blank verse of our earliest dramatists. The narrative, however, is suffi- ciently animated to be read through from beginning to end without weariness, and is imbued throughout with the spirit of old romance. The account, too, of Guy's closing days, and his voluntary humiliation, is not without a certain pathos. Though there is little of poetic feeling or colouring in this semi-serious " history," the authos's metrical skill is very con- siderable, and there is much rhetorical brilliancy in certain passages. The following lines, printed as prose in the original may be accepted as a not unfavourable specimen of the style .and diction of the whole :-
°` As the most great and glorious shining day Will have a night of darkness to succeed, In which the earth will be wrapped up in clouds, And all the world be clothed in sable weeds, Presenting us with drowsy, heavy sleep, To keep the thoughts of death in memory, So youth, the day of nature's strength and beauty, Which had a splendour like the eye of heaven, Must yield to fate by the great law of nature, When length of years shall bring life's evening on."
The History of Hamlet is mainly interesting as showing us how immeasurable was Shakespeare's superiority to any novelist writing on the same theme as himself, and how little he was really indebted to popular traditions or history for the plots of his great dramas. The story differs in many essential particulars from the tragedy we know so well, and it always differs for the worse. Hamlet's father is scarcely above the ordinary brigand, and Hamlet himself is shorn of all the nobler attributes with which Shakespeare has familiarised us. So far, too, from being slow to avenge his father's murder, he not only slays his uncle as soon as a good opportunity offers, but burns to death all the latter's adherents.
The histories of Robert the Devil, Friar Bacon, and Friar Rush, are all sufficiently amusing, and in the latter there is some exquisite satire.
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