affiliated peoples, whose centre was Alexandria, expressed | famous as those of Miletus. Aristophanes (as well as Ovid) their fancies in novels rather than in epics. When, about the 1st century of the Christian era, verse gave place in general favour to rhetorical prose the greater ease of the style lent itself to more detailed narratives than the eclogue and love-poem; and the sophist who might formerly have devoted his attention to poetry became in the decadence of Greek literature a writer of novels. From this period to the 10th century were published the works it is now proposed to analyse. The Greek novel being a late, and it must be confessed an inferior, kind of prose, it would be well if one could trace its rise, progress, and development. This is, however, impossible here; it is sufficient to refer in passing to the fables of primitive invention, the tales inserted by historians, the Atlantis of Plato, the Cyropædia of Xenophon, the forged histories of Alexander, the fictitious lives of eminent men, the fabulous voyages,1 and the apocryphal sacred books of Christians and Jews, as supplying in turn material for building up the highly artificial novel which we find first represented by Iamblichus. One element may, however, be spoken of specially, although it is rather a forerunner of the tale as distinct from the novel or Milesian romance. The Ionic Greeks, living under an Asiatic sky tales. and corrupted by Oriental luxury, were the first to cultivate to any extent that kind of literature which, without demanding any intellectual labour, tickles the fancy by voluptuous pictures told in a brief and witty manner. Miletus was especially famous for such tales; hence they were usually known as Milesian (Miλŋoiaká). What was their exact shape it is difficult to say, as they have entirely perished, leaving only the reputation of the universal favour they enjoyed. Perhaps the story of the Ephesian matron told by Petronius in the Satire, and (though less likely) that of Cupid and Psyche in the Asinus of Apuleius, are more closely allied to them than anything we now possess. They must be considered as a natural growth of the imagination, although some may have been contributed by Orientals or Egyptians; and, while forming a portion of the materials upon which the later Hellenistic novel was constructed, they differed widely from it in form and matter. Oyid cannot be considered as a person easily shocked, yet in two passages of the Tristia he says 4 specially refers to them. Yet after all they exercised but little influence upon the Hellenistic novel beyond perhaps furnishing the more indecent incidents. The lost 'Epwriká of Clearchus of Soli, a pupil of Aristotle, may have been more closely connected with that branch of our subject. The love-stories (IIepi épwтiкŵν ταonμáτwv) of Parthenius of Nicea are also different. They consist of thirty-six brief tales ending in an unfortunate manner, and were dedicated to Cornelius Gallus as forming subjects for poetical treatment. The author carefully indicates the sources whence he took them, thus giving a special value to his collection. He informs us that some were derived from the Milesian adventures" of Hegesippus, and also mentions Naxian, Pallenian, Lydian, Trojan, and Bithynian tales. Like Parthenius, Conon was of the Augustan age, and compiled a collection of fifty narratives (Aynoes) of heroic times, relating chiefly to the foundation of colonies. They are analysed by Photius. Cervantes has used one of them in Don Quixote. The first we hear of the Greek or Hellenistic novel is in Greek the time of Trajan (c. 110), when Iamblichus, a Syrian by novels. descent and a freeman, born and educated at Babylon, wrote in Greek his Babylonica, which is known from Suidas, Photius, and a scholium discovered by Henry Estienne on an ancient MS. of the latter writer. A complete codex existed in 1671; and a considerable fragment has been reprinted by Mai (Nova Coll. Script. Vet., ii. 349, &c.). Suidas states that the Babylonica consisted of thirty-nine books, but Photius, who gives a full abstract (Bibliotheca, cod. 94), only mentions seventeen. The story is that of Sinonis and Rhodanes, married lovers, persecuted by Garmus, king of Babylon, who is fascinated by Sinonis. They fly, and are pursued by the royal eunuchs, who give them no peace through many adventurous scenes. A remarkable resemblance between the fugitives and another couple, Euphrates and Mesopotamia, is the chief subject of the plot. We now meet, incorporated in the works of writers whose dignity might be supposed above the suspicion of story-telling, short tales of a didactic nature, such as those given by Plutarch under the title "On the Virtues of Women." Dion Chrysostom, the most eminent of the rhetoricians and sophists, has also left among his orations a short novel called The Hunter. The narrator is supposed to have been wrecked on the shores of Euboea and meets a hunter who tells him his history. Two married couples (the hunter and his wife being one) were living in friendly Historia turpes inseruisse jocos" (ib., 443-444). Plutarch (Crassus, 32) refers to the fact of a copy of this very translation by L. Cornelius Sisenna (a contem-solitude, when one day a stranger came, and asking for porary of Sulla) having been found in the baggage of a Roman officer, which gave occasion for Surenas to animadvert upon the Romans carrying with them infamous books during war time. This testimony gives sufficient indication of the nature of the Milesian tales. They must have been short and witty anecdotes, turning chiefly upon the subject of love in its grosser form, and may be regarded as the prototypes of the Italian novelle and the Provençal and French fabliaux. All that remains to us consists of the names of a few writers and some imitations and translations. The best-known writer whose fame has reached us is Aristides of Miletus, though we are ignorant of his life and even of the age in which he lived. A more recent author of the same class was Clodius Albinus, the rival of Septimius Severus. We also hear of Ephesian, Cyprian, and Sybaritic tales, the last almost as 1 Strabo considered all those who had written about India down to his time as mere fictionists, and at their head he placed Daimachus and Megasthenes. From the analysis furnished by Diodorus Siculus (ii. 55-60) of the Fortunate Island of Iambulus we are led to believe that the writer, who lived before the 1st century, intended the work as a kind of social utopia similar to the Atlantis,-full of marvels and surprises like all the other imaginary voyages. money received all the recluses were able to give in the shape of two deerskins. The hunter goes to the city with the traveller, and his first impressions are happily told. He is frightened by the bustle and excitement, and debates with an idler upon the comparative advantages of town and country life. The return home is very delicately drawn. Lucian of Samosata, one of the chief essay-writers of the post-Christian age, has left two romances, Lucius or the Ass and the True History, both of which have been briefly analysed in the article LUCIAN (vol. xv. p. 43). The former was considered by Photius (cod. 129) to have been taken from a fable by Lucius of Patræ and to have thus had a common origin with the Asinus of Apuleius; others consider Lucian himself to have been the original inventor of the story. The True History has been drawn on by Rabelais, Cyrano de Bergerac, Swift, and the author of Baron Munchausen, Like the productions of more modern satirists, it loses much of its point and meaning when the allusions upon which the chief interest is based can no longer be understood. Rather of the nature of the fictitious voyage was The Wonders beyond Thule of Antonius Diogenes, only known from the account given by Photius Erotic (cod. 166), who was of opinion that he belonged to a remote age, shortly after Alexander, and that he served as model to all subsequent writers of romance, including Lucius. A preliminary letter to a friend, Faustinus, indicates by the Latin name a much later origin. The heroes visit the Celts and the Aquitanians, both unknown to the Greeks at an early period. Certain paragraphs of the life of Pythagoras by Iamblichus are nearly identical with pass-mark have praised it,—Amyot, who translated it; Racine, ages in Diogenes, who in his turn has similar correspondence with parts of Nicomachus Gerasenus, who lived under Tiberius. The natural inference is that all three writers copied from the same source. Modern authorities place Diogenes at the beginning of the 3d century. The recitals of their travels given by the Arcadian Dinias, the Phœnician Dercyllis, and her brother Mantinias are such as would be imagined by persons who had never left their native hamlet. The itinerary of the routes followed by the different personages is extremely confused. By Thule the writer probably understood Iceland or Norway, deriving his information from Pytheas. The Latin Apollonius of Tyre is undoubtedly derived romances from a lost Greek original, and therefore claims a place here, as representing one of the earliest love-stories we can assign to that literature. It may date from the 3d or 4th century, and was perhaps translated into Latin verse in the 5th century. What we now possess (beyond the Anglo-Saxon version mentioned below) is a second Latin prose translation made in the 12th or 13th century. The first mention of the work is in a list of books belonging to Wando, abbot of Fontanelle (742), in the diocese of Rouen. The story runs that Antiochus, king of Syria, entertaining an undue affection for his daughter Tarsia, keeps off suitors by an unsolvable riddle. But Apollonius, king of Tyre, discovers the answer, is obliged to fly, and (as well as Tarsia) undergoes many trials from pirates and other persecutors. An abridgment is included in the Gesta Romanorum. An ancient Anglo-Saxon translation was printed by Thorpe in 1834. Gower derived his adaptation in the Confessio Amantis (bk. viii.) from the rhymed redaction of Godfrey of Viterbo (1185). This formed the foundation of Shakespeare's Pericles (1609). The earliest English version (1510) is made from the French Appollyn, Roy de Thire. to. This The author of the Cyropædia has already been alluded Suidas mentions other writers of fictions of the name of Xenophon, a native of Antioch, who wrote Babylonica like Iamblichus; a native of Cyprus, who composed a similar book under the title of Cypriaca; and Xenophon of Ephesus, of whom alone we possess anything. last is the author of the romance Ephesiaca, or the Loves of Anthia and Abrocomas, of which the Monte Cassino MS. (first published in 1726) is the only one extant. His age is unknown by Locella, one of his editors, he is placed in the time of the Antonines; Peerlkamp, another editor, considers him to be the oldest of the romancers writing in Greek, and that similar writers imitate him closely. Some go so far as to regard him as an imitator of Achilles Tatius and of Heliodorus, and bring him down to the 5th or 6th century. The story runs that Anthia and Abrocomas are married, and, being forbidden by an oracle to travel, of course do so, and are captured by pirates, who take them to Tyre, where Manto, daughter of the chief, falls in love with Abrocomas. Repelled by him, she marries Moeris and accuses Abrocomas of an attempt to violate her. Moeris in his turn pays improper attentions to Anthia. The great beauty of the hero and heroine causes them many trials at the hands of pirates, brigands, and other stock ornaments of the Greek novel. The local names of the tales of Iamblichus and Xenophon were probably suggested by the Minoriakά collected by the earlier writers Dionysius and Aristides of Miletus. This is the weakest of the class we have under review; its only merit lies in a simple and natural style. By far the best of the romances is the Ethiopica of HELIODORUS of Emesa (q.v.). From its first appearance and throughout the whole Byzantine period this work enjoyed a reputation which it has not entirely lost. Within recent times three Frenchmen of with whom it was a favourite; and Boileau, who compared it with the Télémaque of Fénelon. It influenced considerably the French romance-writers of the 17th century, D'Urfé, Gomberville, and Mademoiselle de Scudéry. The dénoûment is imitated in the Pastor Fido of Guarini; Tasso drew from it the early life of Clorinda in Gerusalemme Liberata; and Raphael painted scenes from it. It was first brought to light in modern times in a MS. from the library of Matthias Corvinus, found at the sack of Buda (Ofen) in 1526, and printed at Basel in 1534. Other codices have since been discovered. The title is taken from the fact that the action of the beginning and end of the story takes place in Æthiopia. The daughter of Persine, wife of Hydaspes, king of Ethiopia, was born white through the effect of the sight of a marble statue upon the queen during pregnancy. Fearing an accusation of adultery, the mother gives the babe to the care of Sisimithras, a gymnosophist, who carries her to Egypt and places her in charge of Charicles, a Pythian priest. The child is taken to Delphi, and made a priestess of Apollo under the name of Chariclea. Theagenes, a noble Thessalian, comes to Delphi and the two fall in love with each other. He carries off the priestess with the help of Calasiris, an Egyptian, employed by Persine to seek for her daughter. Then follow many perils from sea-rovers and others, but the chief personages ultimately meet at Meroe at the very moment when Chariclea is about to be sacrificed to the gods by her own father. Her birth is made known, and the lovers are happily married. The rapid succession of events, the variety of the characters, the graphic descriptions of manners and of natural scenery, the simplicity and elegance of the style, give the Ethiopica great charm. Its chaste tone compares favourably with many of the other works of the same class. Perhaps the most widely known is the delightful pastoral of Daphnis and Chloe (or Aeoẞiaká), generally attributed to Longus, a Greek sophist, who is supposed to have lived in the 4th or the early part of the 5th century. Longus shows traces of an imitation of the Ethiopica of Heliodorus, with whom he may be placed in the first rank of such writers. His work formed the model of the Sireine of Honoré d'Urfé, the Diana of Montemayor, the Aminta of Tasso, and the Gentle Shepherd of Allan Ramsay, and has been translated into every European language. The translation of Amyot, afterwards revised by P. L. Courier, has made it extremely popular in France, where the subject has frequently been made use of by Gérard and other painters. The celebrated Paul et Virginie is an echo of the same story. Daphnis and Chloe, two children found by shepherds, grow up together, nourishing a mutual love which neither suspects. The development of this simple passion forms the chief interest, and there are few incidents. Chloe is carried off by the inevitable pirate, and ultimately regains her family. A few rivals alarm the peace of mind of Daphnis; but the two lovers are recognized by their parents, and return to a married and happy life in the country. The picture of rural felicity and the innocent affection of the children make the charm of a book which comes nearer perhaps in spirit to the modern novel than any other of its class. Unfortunately there are details here and there which shock modern ideas of decent propriety. Achilles Tatius or Statius, an Alexandrian rhetorician of Early Christian romances. likeness, and usually either close with a martyrdom or are written in praise of a monastic life. To the former class belong the Clementine Recognitions (2d century), Paul and Thekla (3d century), and Cyprian and Justina, which contains the germs of the episode of Faust and Gretchen. The ascetic novels include Xenophon and his Sons, Euphrosyne, Zosimus and Mary, Thais, &c. Christian imaginary travels are represented by the Voyage of Macarius to Paradise and comic tales by Agape, Irene, and Chionia. the latter half of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century, | Their contributions to our subject have a strong family Achilles Tatius is the last of these authors who can be Equally frigid was The Loves of Hysmine and Hysminias Under BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT (vol. iii. p. 375) will be found the origin and development of the story by St John of Damascus, which belongs rather to religious apologues than to romances. Its origin is entirely Eastern, from India. The early Christians eagerly seized upon fiction as affording them a vehicle for spreading their views. Besides the forged letters attributed to men of mark, Fictitious we have from the Greek sophists collections of fictitious letters. letters serving the same purpose as the epistolary novels of Rousseau and Richardson. The best known of those writers were Alciphron, Aristænetus, and Theophylactus Simocatta. Alciphron, the most eminent, of whom we possess 116 Letters in three books, lived in the 3d or 4th century. Many of the letters are written by courtezans and supply curious information on contemporary life and manners. The fifty Erotic Epistles of Aristænetus form a much less entertaining series than those of Alciphron. Theophylactus Simocatta, an Egyptian by birth, died at Constantinople about the year 640. He wrote eighty-five Letters, divided into moral, rustic, and amatory. They are little else than brief moral treatises mingled with stories. romance The review of the origines of the Greek novel shows that Review it arose with the decay of old Greek literature and carried of Greek on a feeble existence down to the 12th century. Two' facts make themselves apparent. First, the romance (or novel) proper came late into the field, where it remained in a secondary place; and secondly, it invariably turned upon a hackneyed circle of incidents and never attained anything of the highly artistic development reached by modern examples. The sameness observable in Greek romance arises from the fact that it was the product of literary decrepitude and impotence. The writers were incapable of rivalling the glories of the old Hellenic literature, and they endeavoured to supply originality with reminiscences more or less disguised. The literary and social surroundings in which these authors passed their lives gave them few fresh subjects for investigation, and the characters they describe are mere names. Human nature and the human heart have little meaning for them; but, as with the Western writers of fiction who closely follow them in point of date, incident is crowded upon incident to the verge of satiety, in order that the attention of the reader may never flag. The contributions of Roman literature are limited to Roman productions by two writers, Petronius and Apuleius and romances. one story by Martianus Capella, of more recent date and less typical nature. In the comic romance of PETRONIUS ARBITER (q.v.), the tale of the matron of Ephesus first appears among Western popular fictions. This was undoubtedly one of the Ephesian tales already referred to. We find it reproduced in the Seven Wise Masters, in the French fabliaux, and in Brantôme. It is also to be found in the Chinese. The opening words of the Golden Ass of Apuleius indicate that his romance and the Ass of Lucian were both inspired from the same source, perhaps through the medium of Lucius of Patræ mentioned by Photius. Lucian seems to have reproduced the story in a condensed form; the Latin writer paraphrased and embellished it with other tales, among which the best known is that of Cupid and Psyche,-an antique gem an unworthy setting. The hero, punished for his curiosity by being turned into an ass, passes through adventures similar in kind to those depicted in the Greek romance. The story ends with a fine description of the mysteries of Isis, into which the hero is initiated and through in which he becomes purified. The first two books of the cyclopædia of the 5th century, the Satyrica of Martianus Capella, known as De Nuptiis Philologia et Mercurii, form a kind of philosophico-allegorical romance in prose mingled with verse. Mercury, wishing to marry, goes, accompanied by Virtue, to Apollo on Parnassus and finds him occupied in taking from four urns the elements of all things. Apollo proposes that Mercury should marry Philology, but the consent of Jupiter must be asked. Jove hesitates and assembles a council of the gods to decide the question. The request is granted and Philosophy transcribes a decree permitting mortals of superior merit to be admitted among the gods. The second book is devoted to the marriage. At first Philology has fears as to its advisability, and the Muses form a chorus by whom she is admonished. She is visited by Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and the three Graces. At last the bride goes to Mercury's house and all set out for the palace of Jupiter, who receives them surrounded by the gods and many deified mortals. (1864, sm. Svo); A. Chassang, Hist. du roman dans l'antiq. grec. et lat. (1862, sm. 8vo); P. D. Huet, De orig. fab. rom. (Hague, 1682); P. Paciaudi, De Libris Eroticis Antiquorum (Leipsic, 1803, 8vo); H. Paldamus, Römische Erotik (Greifswald, 1833, 8vo). (b) Pseudo-Classical Works. The literature of the Middle Ages recognized three great epic cycles, distinctly defined by Jean Bodel (13th century) in his Chanson des Saisnes (i.e., Saxons): "Ne sont que troi materes, a nul homme entendantDe France, de Bretaigne, et de Rome la Grant; Et de ces troi materes n'i a nule semblant." Under "Rome la Grant" were comprehended the stories of Troy and the Trojans, Æneas, Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Judas Maccabæus, &c., from Latin sources, -that is to say, the whole ancient world seen through the language of Rome. The romances derived from antiquity may be arranged in three classes-(1) those which were believed to be direct reproductions, such as Eneas, Thebes, César, and the Roman de Troie, whose authors acknowledged indebted Dictys Cretensis, &c.; (2) those based upon ancient histories not previously versified, for example, the legend of Alexander from Quintus Curtius and the Pseudo-Callisthenes; (3) those which merely reproduce the names of antiquity and nothing else, such as Athis et Profilias, Ypomédon, and Protésilaus. Of these three works the last does not comply withness, after their fashion, to Virgil, Statius, Dares Phrygius, all our conditions, and of the first two Apuleius is after all merely a translator. The Satire of Petronius is thus the sole genuine representative of Latin prose romance. When compared with the Greek compositions it will be found to offer a remarkable variation. In the Satire we at once come in contact with contemporary scenery and habits; the characters have well-marked individuality; and the book is full of life. It must not, however, be considered merely as a novel; its chief object was to satirize the manners of the time. The same tendency to draw a strongly marked picture of the vices and follies of the hour appears also in the Asinus. In the qualities of vigour, interest, and originality of form and substance Apuleius and Petronius are far beyond their Greek rivals. 1. The chief of the first class was the Roman de Troie, Legend which exercised greater influence in its day and for cenof Troy. turies after its appearance than any other work of the same order. Just as the chansons de geste of the 10th century were the direct ancestors of the prose romances which afterwards spread throughout Europe, so, even before the novels of Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius, there were quasi-histories which reproduced in prose, with more The texts of the Scriptores Erotici Græci have been edited by C. or less exactness, the narratives of epic poetry. Among W. Mitscherlich (Zweibrücken, 1792-94, 3 vols. in four parts); by these nothing has ever equalled in vitality the tale of the F. Passow (Leipsic, 1824-33, 2 vols. 8vo); in Didot's collection, the two sieges and capture of Troy, and the subsequent most complete (Paris, 1856, la. 8vo); and by R. Hercher (Leipsic, destinies of the Trojan and Greek heroes. "It would 1858-59, 2 vols. 12mo). The texts of many of the fictitious historians and biographers are given in Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum require a large volume," says Grote (History of Greece, i. (Paris, 1841-51, 4 vols. la. 8vo), and Scriptores de Rebus Alexand. p. 386), "to convey any tolerable idea of the vast extent M. (ib., 1846, 8vo). Photius (Bibliotheca, Berlin, 1824, 2 vols. 4to) and expansion of this interesting fable, first handled by so has analysed a great many writings now lost. Early biographical many poets, epic, lyric, and tragic, with their endless addiinformation (not always trustworthy) is supplied by Suidas, and latterly and more perfectly by Fabricius (Biblioth. Græca). Trans- tions, transformations, and contradictions, then purged and lations into French are contained in Bibliothèque des romans grecs, recast by historical inquirers, who, under colour of setting tr. en françois (Paris, 1797, 12 vols. 18mo); Collection de romans aside the exaggeration of the poets, introduced a new vein grees, tr. avec des notes par Courier, Larcher, &c., précédée d'un essai of prosaic invention." Long previous to the 'Hpwikós of sur les romans grecs par M. Villemain (Paris, 1822, 12 vols. 18mo, unfinished); Romans grecs, tr. en fran. par Ch. Zevort, précédés d'une Philostratus (2d century) the Trojan War had been the introduction sur le roman chez les grecs (Paris, 1856, 2 vols. sm. 8vo). subject of many a prose fiction dignified with the title of In Italian we have Erotici greci (Florence, 1814-17, 6 vols. 8vo), history; but to remodel the whole story almost in the and in English, Greck Romances, by C. Smith (1855, sm. 8vo). shape of annals, and to give a minute personal description The general authorities are referred to under GREECE (vol. xi. 147). The following are special treatises on the subject:-J. C. F. of the persons and characters of the principal actors, were Manso, "Ueber den griech. Roman," in his Verm. Schriften (Leipsic, ideas which belonged to an artificial stage of literature. 1801); F. Jacobs, "Conjecture de locis nonnullis Achillis Tatii," This task was commenced by PHILOSTRATUS (q.v.), whose &c., in Wolf's Litt. Analecten (Berlin, 1820); Wiedemann, "Der Hpwikós bears ample traces of having been compiled from T. Roman," in Arb. der kurländ. Ges., 1848, hft. 3; R. Hercher, "Zur Litt. d. gr. Erotiker," in Jahrb. f. class. Phil., 1858, vol. lxxvii.; a number of current figments. Philostratus, however, O. Jahn, "Eine antike Dorfgeschichte," in Aus d. Alterthums.; H. only pictures several characters and a few isolated scenes. Peter, "Der Roman bei den Griechen," in Neues Schweiz, 1866; A. His method was subsequently followed in a more complete Nicolai, Ucher Entstehung u. Wesen d. gr. Romans (Berlin, 1867, fashion by two anonymous writers, who either borrowed Svo); B. Erdmannsdörffer, "Das Zeitalter der Novelle in Hellas,' from him or from a more ancient source common to all in Preus, Jahrb., vol. xxv.; C. Hartung, "Die byzantinische Novelle," in Archiv f. d. Stud. d. n. Spr., 1872; H. Usener, "Zur three. A spurious history, professing to give the chief Gesch. des gr. Romans," in Rhein. Mus., 1873, vol. xxviii. (N. F.); incidents of the siege, and said to have been written by E. Rohde, "Ueber gr. Novellendichtung," in Versamml. deutscher Dietys of Crete, a follower of Idomeneus, was known as Philologen, 1875; Id., Der gr. Roman u. seine Vorläufer (Leipsic, 1976, Svo); J. Wimmer. "Der gr. Roman," in Blätter f. d. bayer, early as the time of Elian, and has been largely quoted Gunn, 1877); "Greek Romances," in For. Quar. Rev., Nov. 1829; by the Byzantine chroniclers. This was translated into "Early Greek Romances," in Blackwood's Mag., July 1843; S. Latin prose at an early period under the title of Dictyos Baring Gould, Early Christian Greek Romances," in Contemp. Cretensis de Bello Trojano libri VI. With Dictys is always Rev., Oct. 1877; Chardon de la Rochette, "Notice sur les romans associated Dares, a pseudo-historian of more recent date. grees," in Mélanges (Paris, 1812, vol. ii.); Struve, "Romans et nouvelles chez les grecs," in Journal gén. de l'Instr. Publ., 13th Old Greek writers mention an account of the destruction Aug., 17th Sept., 1835; V. Chauvin, Les romanciers grecs et latins of the city earlier than the Homeric poems, and also in the statement, "ex nobilissimo et antiquo Trojanorum reliquiarum sanguine nati." The fact is repeated by chroniclers and panegyrical writers, who also considered the History of Troy by Dares to be the first of national books. Succeeding kings imitated their predecessors in giving official sanction to their legendary origin: Charles the Bald, in a charter, uses almost the same words as Dagobert-"ex præclaro et antiquo Trojanorum sanguine nati." In England a similar tradition had been early formulated, as appears from the Pseudo-Nennius (put together between the 7th and 9th centuries) and Geoffrey of Monmouth. Otto Frisingensis (12th century) and other German chroniclers repeat the myth, and the apocryphal hypothesis is echoed in Scandinavian sagas. the time of Ælian this Iliad of Dares, priest of Hephaestus | the Danube, and the sea. In a charter of Dagobert occurs at Troy, was believed to exist. Nothing has since been heard of it; but an unknown Latin writer living between 400 and 600 took advantage of the tradition to compile what he styled Daretis Phrygii de Excidio Troja Historia, It is in prose, and professes to be translated from an old Greek manuscript. Of the two works that of Dares is the later, and is inferior to Dictys. The matter-of-fact form of narration recalls the poem of Quintus Smyrnæus. Both compilations lack literary merit; the gods and everything supernatural are suppressed; even the heroes are degraded. The long success, however, of the two works distinguishes them above all apocryphal writings, and they occupy an important position in literary history on account of the impetus they gave to the diffusion of the Troy legend throughout western Europe. The Byzantine writers from the 7th to the 12th century exalted Dictys as a firstclass authority, with whom Homer was only to be contrasted as an inventor of fables. Western people preferred Dares, because his history was shorter, and because, favouring the Trojans, he flattered the vanity of those who believed that people to have been their ancestors. Many MSS. of both writers were contained in old libraries; and they were translated into nearly every language and turned into verse. In 1272 a monk of Corbie translated " sans rime L'Estoire de Troiens et de Troie [de Dares] du Latin en Roumans mot à mot" because the Roman de Troie (to be mentioned lower down) was too long. Geoffrey of Geoffrey of Waterford put Dares into French prose; and the British Museum possesses three Welsh MS. translations of the same author, works indeed of a much later period. We know that the taste for Greek letters was never entirely lost in western Europe. Eginhard tells how Eginhard tells how Charlemagne understood Greek and how he encouraged the study. Alcuin states, with pardonable pride, that the library at York contained "Græcia vel quidquid transmisit clara Latinis," which may, however, simply refer to Latin translations. Under any circumstances, however, this knowledge must have been confined to a few. It was through Latin that the Middle Ages knew the ancient world, and in that language read the Pseudo-Dares and Dictys, the Fables of Æsop, and the Iliad of Homer.1 Through these translations came many of the traces of Greek literature which occur in the fabliaux and romances. How numerous these traces were in the Arthurian cycle will be pointed out. The tale of the Dog of Montargis, familiar to readers of Milles et Amys (Carolingian cycle), is derived from Plutarch. Cerberus may be found in the Chanson d'Antioche; the story of Tarquin in the chanson de geste Moniage Guillaume; the judgment of Paris in Foulkes de Candie; and Cupid and Psyche in the romance of Partenopex of Blois. For a thousand years the myth of descent from the dispersed heroes of the conquered Trojan race was a sacred literary tradition throughout western Europe, of which a possible survival still remains in the popular phrase which speaks of a generous and courageous fellow as a Trojan. The classical traditions of extensive colonization subsequent to the Trojan War were adopted by Western nations at a very early date. The first Franco-Latin chroniclers considered it a patriotic duty to trace their history to the same origin as that of Rome, as told by the Latin poets of the Augustan era; and in the middle of the 7th century Fredegarius Scholasticus (Rer. Gall. Script., ii. 461) relates how one party of the Trojans settled between the Rhine, 1 The name of Homer never ceased to be held in honour; but he is invariably placed in company with the Latin poets. Few of those who praised him had read him except in the Latin redaction in 1100 verses which passed under the name of Pindar. It supplied the chief incidents of the Iliad with tolerable exactness and was taught in schools. de Troie In the 11th century the tale of Troy became the theme of Neo-Latin verse. About 1050 a monk named Bernard wrote De Excidio Troja, and in the middle of the 12th century Simon Chèvre d'Or followed with another poem on the fall of the city and the adventures of Æneas, blending the Homeric and Virgilian records. We now come to a work on the same subject in a modern language, which in its own day and for centuries afterwards exercised an extraordinary influence throughout Europe. Benoît de Benoit's Sainte-More, the Anglo-Norman trouvère who wrote in Roman verse Chroniques des Ducs de Normandie, composed in England, under the eyes of Henry II., about the year 1184 a poem in 30,000 lines entitled Roman de Troie. It forms a true Trojan cycle and embraces the entire heroic history of Hellas. The introduction relates the story of the Argonauts, and the last 2680 verses are devoted to the return of the Greek chiefs and the wanderings of Ulysses. With no fear of chronological discrepancy before his eyes, Benoît reproduces the manners of his own times, and builds up a complete museum of the 12th century,-its arts, costumes, manufactures, architecture, arms, and even religious terms. Women are repeatedly introduced in unwarranted situations; they are spectators of all combats. The idea of personal beauty is different from that of the old Greeks; by Benoît good-humour, as well as health and strength, is held to be one of its chief characteristics. The lovepictures are another addition of the modern writer. We find traces of the Odyssey of Homer and the trilogy of Eschylus 2 as well as of Ovid and Virgil. The author speaks enthusiastically of Homer, but his chief source of information was the pseudo-annals of Dictys and Dares, more especially the latter, augmented by his own imagination and the spirit of the age. It is to Benoît alone that the honour of poetic invention is due, and in spite of its obligation for a groundwork to Dictys and Dares we may justly consider the Roman de Troie as an original work. From this source subsequent writers drew their notions of Troy, mostly without naming their authority and generally without even knowing his name. This is the chef d'œuvre of the pseudo-classical cycle of romances: it shows the most lofty conception, and in it poetical imagination has the freest and most lively play. The Roman de Troie was extremely popular. When Benoît, by reason of his lengthiness, failed to please, the Latin version of Guido revived general interest. The story passed through every country of Europe, first in verse and then as a prose fiction, and portions of it furnished matter for the genius of Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Benoît. The first work inspired by the success of the Roman de ImitaTroie was the De bello Trojano of Joseph of Exeter, in six tionsf books, a genuine poem of no little merit, written soon after Benoît's work or about the years 1187-88. It was directly 2 The Middle Ages had their Latin Oresteia, see Orestis Tragedia, carmen epicum seculo post Christum natum sexto compositum, ed. S. Schenkl, Prague, 1867, 8vo. |