BOOKS.
SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE.* THE book known as The Travels of Sir John. Mandeville is a real book of the Middle Ages, credulous, imaginative, and entertaining. It is legend rather than history, and though it is industriously composed like a journey, though the pre- tended traveller speaks with the aceent of a true wanderer, it is little better than a clever compilation. But• for two reasons it has an enduring interest: it gives us an insight into the medimval temper, and the version that we know plays an important part in the development of English prose.
The author writes upon hearsay after the fashion of Herodotus, yet be is readier of belief than the ancient his- torian. • Nevertheless, even he has his moments of scepti- cism, and now and again he refuses credence to some portent, because his eyes have not beheld what his ears have heard. "And some men say "—thus he writes—" that in the Isle of Lango is yet the daughter of Ypocras, in form and likeness of a great dragon, that is a hundred fathoms of length, as men say, for I have not seen her." Nor, we may surmise, had any other, for all the legend is related with such circumstance. And the hapless daughter of Ypocras was doomed to remain a dragon until a knight -had kissed her on the month. But no knight had the courage, and many adventurers were hurled • The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Edited by A. W. Pollard. London: Macmillan and Co. [3s. 6d.) to their. .deatli-ngabist- the rocks. . So he does not always approve-the lies of ether; he. re.fuses, for instance,to believe in the existence . of many monsters . which, says he, "be things- against kisact" In Cyprus especially he is sternly doubting, "And some .trow," he- writes, .`,_that there is half the cross of our Lord; but it is not so, and they, do evil that make men to believe- so." . Yet his general impulse is to put faith. in Whatever is extraordinary; and his . book is a valuable collection of those popular errors, which Sir Thomas Browne was destined to refute. Nor does he explain his fairy stories in a spirit of hesitation; he gives them the form and substance of scientific, incontrovertible facts. He marvels at the Phcenix of Egypt- with the same simplicity which in- spires Herodotus, Pliny, and the Fathers. "The priests of the temple," he writes concerning Heliopolis, "have all their writings under the date of the fowl that is clept phcenix ; and there is none but one in all the world. And he cometh to burn himself upon the altar of that temple at the end of five hundred years ; for so long he liveth. And at the five hun- dred years' end, the priests array their altar honestly; and put thereupon- spices and sulphur' vif and other things that will 'burn lightly; and then the bird phoenix cometh and burneth . himself to ashes. And. the first day, next after, men . find.: in the ashes a worm, and the. second day next after,. men find a bird quick and 'perfect ; and the third day next after- he ilieth his way. And so there is no more birds of that kind in all the 'world, but i,t alone; and truly that is a great miracle of God." Such is the legend that gained credence until the stern method-of Sir Thomas Browne abolished it, and the legend May be matched in 'every chapter of Mandeville. Miraculous; for example, is the Valley Perilous in, which none might enter- save good Christian men. Yet Mandeville and' his companions, to- the number of fourteen, ventured -Within the. dangerous vale, every- man shriven and houielect And. only nine- emerged alive, and of the five that thus last their lives two were Men of Greece and three of SPain. And.the- pismires that guard the- great hills a gold, so that no maul may-..-find- the precious metal save by great sleight; they are marvellous- also, yet not more marvellous than the sparrow=haWk,• which- sits ." upon a perch right fair and right weltmade-," kept by "a fair lady of faerie." Such, then, is the ialtie. of Mandevilre's 15-avels,—they explain with all the simplicity of conviction the romantic errors wherewith PThay and thereat befogged the .Middle Ages.
Butof all the_ errors none is more curious than the rare property. ascribed to. the_ diamond: " Natheless it befalleth oftemtime,lhat-the good-diamond .loseth his virtue by sin," he:writeic 'and for incontinence.of him that beareth it. And then. it. is needful .to. make. it to recover his virtue again, or else :it_ is of. little value.". :It is a pretty superstition, a propertoachstone- ofkidghtly. troth. But now and again the chronicler relapses into history; andwrites for a page or two with thelien of.accuracy.: Of course he gathered his facts from the :voyagea known to his time; and Mr. Pollard has ingeniously added. the works of Johannes . de Plano • Carpini and others, that, the. reader may compare the true with the false. Yet when the. knight describes the Bedouins or.discourses of Java, y-on-seeat once that he. is nearer to.the actual fact than is his wont. Ecipecially-vra,s he •aided;by others in his description of Tartary- anclof the Great Cham's Court, which is his master- piece; lint turn, to whatever. page. you will, and you will find rich colour- and 'barbaric. magnificence. These qualities, in- deed, are as -obviously characteristic of him as his dogmatic superstition audi the simple philology which persuades him to say that a certain town-is calledJaffa, "for one of the sons of Nealt.hight Japhet founded:it" Whd was- Sir John Mandeville? And whence came he ? None: -.can- tell; and only his book is. left to speak for him. IfithitiErcertainthat Sir John Mandeville was not his name, aml_ thet-the Irravels were 'first written in French. From French- they- were 'translated • into Latin, whence they got into the English- which we know. And this is the. second gronon_for theinterest which attaches - to them. Not only do thergive-us- a -glimpse, of the credulous- Middle Age; they show-ns English prose, in its infancy. As Mr. Pollard says of the compilation,.." it stands as the first; or almost the first, attempt to bring secular subjects within the domain of English prose, and that is enough to mark an epoch." But the mere fact of the prose is not so remarkable as its quality. It is simple, dignified, and wholly English. Words of Latin origin are rarely used„ although the translation was made from Latin, and it seems far nearer to the style of to- day than is the prose of the Elizabethans., In fact, our speech of to-day might lave derived straight from Mandeville, without the simplification of Addison and. the eighteenth century. But the elaboration of the si#eenth and seventeenth centuries intervened.. The romantic prose of Shakespeare's time and the Latinism of Sir Thomas Browne carried Engliah far from its origins, and it is curious tO note in Mandeville the simplicity ;Inch is zealoUslY advocated to-day. But the simplicity of Mandeville is distinguished and sincere; our own too often degenerates into commonplace.
Though the present edition is but a popular reprint, Mr. Pollard has been at the pains to revise the text and to restore "whole phrases and sentences" which the carelessness -of editors had omitted. He has, in fact, reprinted the Cotton manuscript, "warts and all," correcting only obvious non- sense from the Egerton version or from the French original. That it should be left to an editor at the end of the nine- teenth century to produce a sound text. may not be very creditable to English scholarship, but it is very creditable to Mr. Pollard, whom we have to thank for a learned, unpretentious piece of work.
To our thanks to Mr. Pollard we may add our thanks to Messrs. Macmillan, not merely for this volume, but for the whole series of which it forms a part. Nothing better has ever been done in the way of cheap reprints. We get in these volumes at a very moderate price books which for print, paper, and general get-up are worthy to stand On the shelves Of any library. We wish the series all success. It is a real boon to the scholar of small means who loves a sound book but cannot afford high prices.
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