صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

6

quered into one nation; and while Norman French was the only language of honour, of chivalry, and of justice,' which continued to be the case to the time of Edward the Third, it is not without a contradiction in terms that we can speak of old English manners, as having under such circumstances come into existence. Whether we term them English, or French, or Anglo-Norman, they were still, however, the manners of our ncestors, and as such, a legitimate matter of curiosity. The nly question is, whether they admit of being brought before us ith a graphic force of description, that shall transport us in agination back to the times to which the tale refers, and deive us into the belief that in the pictures of the Novelist, we ve represented to us the realities of history.

From one obvious means of aiding to produce such an illusion, Writer is of necesity debarred by the circumstance, that the guage he is compelled to employ, is not the language of the es in which his dramatis persona are supposed to have d: at the same time there is, in the present instance, just a icient mixture of foreign and antiquated phraseology, to fix reader's attention upon the circumstance, and to give the ium employed, the awkwardness of translation. The extent is disadvantage can be judged of only by calling to mind much of the spirit and effect of the dialogue in the precedales of the Author of Waverley, arise from the recognised liarities of provincial idiom, and the comic force of quaint miliar turns of expression. We could point out more than of the ideal actors, who is indebted to this circumstance for y the whole of his dramatic individuality and importance. character of the Jester in Ivanhoe, is one of the most integ in the Tale; strange to say, however, it is an interest of eroic kind, arising from the touching display of his fidelity to naster, and his other very singular good qualities. His opriate excellence as a professed humourist, is very tolerably cated by the occasional sallies of his wit; yet, in spite of his efforts, he is, take him altogether, an exceedingly less amusing less comic personage than either Captain Dugald Dalgetty, Jousterswivel, or Dominie Sampson. In a pure romance, odern flavour of the language put into the mouths of the and gentlemen of remote times, is not felt to be a discrev; but the present work has for its design, in common with e inimitable productions of its Author, to present to us, antiquarian fidelity, the manners and customs of the age. y part, therefore, must be in more than dramatic consis

every thing bordering upon palpable anachronism, must refully avoided; and although the language must not be lusively obsolete and unintelligible,' yet no word or turn hraseology betraying an origin directly modern,' is, if pos

became extinct in consequence of the Crusades. Religious madness was hereditary, and the reader of these volumes must have often remarked how frequently, though at distant intervals, members of the same family appeared on the scene. For example, the counts of St. Paul, Flanders, and Blois, of every generation, headed their well-appointed powers, and spread the bloody cross on Paynim ground. If the crown had been aggrandized by the holy wars, we might expect to find instances of it in the French monarchy particularly, because the valorous noblesse of France entered into the Crusades with more enthusiasm than other people, and because we know that the throne of that country was more powerful at the close of the thirteenth, than at the end of the elevenih, century. In this long interval, many of the grand fiefs were re-annexed to the

Artois was gained by marriage; the county of Alençon, by purchase. Vermandois and Valois were added to the dominion of Philip Augustus by the donation of the last possessor. The same prince acquired Normandy, Maine, Touraine, Poitiers, and Anjou, because he profited by the imbecility of king John of England, and the divisions among the barons consequent on the circumstance, that some of them espoused the cause of Arthur, duke of Bretagne, and others, that of his uncle. Philip the Fair established his seignorial rights over Champagne, by virtue of his marriage with the heiress of that county. The fief of Macon, also, was united to the throne in the days of the Crusades. Not, however, in consequence of war, but because the last count and countess had no children, and the count sold it to St. Louis. The county of Perche, also a part of the Norman territories, followed after some years the fate of the parent state. The French crown regained the south of France partly by war, and partly by marriage. The county of Carcasson was added to the monarchy by St. Louis, in the time of the contests with the Albigenses. Charles of Anjou, a brother of St. Louis, received with his wife the great dower of Provence, and some years afterwards made a violent seizure of the Provençal marquisate, and of all the estates which appertained to the house of Thoulouse. Except the county and city of Bourges, which a French king purchased from a crusading knight, no regal acquisitions of arriere fiefs proceeded from the holy wars.' VolII. pp. 351-4.

If the power of the French crown was much bigber at the end of the thirteenth, than it had been at the close of the eleventh century, the influence of the Imperial throne, as Mr. Mills remarks, was materially depressed; and these opposite effects could not have been ibe simple results of the same alleged cause, the destruction of the aristocracy by the Crusades. The real causes of the different results of the feudal system in France and Germany, have been ably exposed by Mr. Hallam: the Crusades bad certainly but little share in determining the course of events. Tbey bad still less to do in establishing the independence of the cities in the North of Italy. In England, their operation is not perceptible. The monarchy stood in the me situation at the close of the reign of Richard I., as at its

a

commencement. The assumption of the cross by King John, did not take place till after he had surrendered his crown to the papal see, and the barons had formed a confederacy against him; it neither retarded, therefore, nor accelerated the progress of our liberties.

6. On the interests of Christianity, of public morals, and of religious liberty, the influence of the Crusades was most disastrous. We need but recapitulate their baleful fruits,-the traffic in indulgences, the clerical dragooning of heretics, and the execrable Inquisition. The natural tendency of war is to brutalize, but that of religious wars, is, if we may be allowed the phrase, to infernalize the mind. The Crusaders were taught to regard the slaughter of human beings as a propitiation for the foulest crimes; and every crime which can disgrace human nature, was committed by them in Palestine. At home, money procured the same impunity, for every offence had its price. Thus was religion alternately exhibited by the villany of the priests, as a system of ferocity and as a trade. While its holy precepts were in this manner nullified, its doctrines were lost amid the idolatrous corruptions of superstition. If we consider the aspect which Christianity so disguised, must have worn in the eyes of the Mussulmans, we can scarcely blame them for regarding it as a foul system of idolatry. And who shall estimate the extent to which this source of prejudice against the Christian name, has operated in retarding the conversion of the nations ? Nor is this all: circumstances which tended so directly to ob❤ struct the influence of religion upon the minds of men, making war against every principle of the Gospel, must have thwarted, and that in no small degree, the march of civilization and the development of intellect. If Christianity be, in its moral and political influence, good, the influence of events which opposed the progress of Christianity, and counteracted the operation of its principles, must have been evil,-evil in those very respects, as tending to the enslavement, instead of the emancipation of the human mind, and to the destruction, instead of the progress of social freedom and happiness. If it be still insisted,' says Mr. Berington, that some benefits in domestic, civil, or scientific knowledge were necessarily communicated to Europe, either by the expeditions themselves, or, at least, owing to our long abode in the East, I ask what those benefits were; or how it happens, that the literary and intellectual aspect of Europe exhibited no striking changes till other causes, wholly unconnected with the Crusades, were brought into action. I believe, then, that these expeditions were utterly sterile with respect to the arts, to learning, and every moral advantage, and that they neither retarded the progress of the invading enemy, nor, for a single day the fate of the Eastern empire.'

[ocr errors]

Art. II. Ivanhoe; a Romance. By "the Author of Waverley," &c. 3 vols. cr. 8vo. Edinburgh. 1820.

THERE are several good reasons for our not saying much

about the present production of the Author of Waverley. In the first place, it belongs to a class of works which has but doubtful claims upon our notice; in the next place, we have recently delivered our sentiments pretty much at large upon some preceding publications of the same Author; and we shall only add, though we have twenty reasons quite as strong in reserve, that most of our readers have before this time made up their own opinion about the merits of Ivanhoe, and will therefore care less about ours. It is almost impossible to keep pace with the pen of this prolific Writer. Before the novel in question could have completed the circulation of the reading societies, or half the subscribers to the libraries could have been satisfied, a new series of volumes is in the hands of the public, and more are understood to be behind. We might regret this rapidity of composition in a writer of so much talent, were there not reason to believe, that he is one who can execute with spirit only his first warm conceptions, and that the attempt to elaborate would, with him, be as unsuccessful as it would be irksome. He has probably taken greater pains, if not in writing, yet, in order to write the present work, than in the case of any of the preceding tales: accordingly, it contains more information of a certain kind, is in parts more highly wrought, and is richer in antiquarian details, than perhaps any other; but it has less of verisimilitude, and makes a much more evanescent, if not a less vivid impression upon the reader's fancy.

The Author was himself aware that he was making an experiment very different from any of his previous attempts, when he undertook to carry his readers six hundred years back, instead of sixty, and to obtain an interest for the traditions and manners of old England, similar to that which has been excited in behalf of those of our poorer and less celebrated neighbours.' In the Dedicatory Epistle to the Rev. Dr. Dryasdust, he anticipates and replies to the objections which à priori lie against such an attempt, founded on the remote distance of the state of society in which the scene is laid, the total dissimilarity of the circumstances and manners of that era, to any thing which comes within the range of an Englishman's experience, and the scantiness of the materials for memoirs of the domestic life of our Saxon and Norman ancestors. English is a term scarcely applicable, indeed, to the times of Richard I. At that period, the very language of the country was undergoing a transition correspondent to the change which was being wrought upon the people, by the blending down of the conquerors and the con

quered into one nation; and while Norman French was the only language of honour, of chivalry, and of justice,' which continued to be the case to the time of Edward the Third, it is not without a contradiction in terms that we can speak of old English manners, as having under such circumstances come into existence. Whether we term them English, or French, or Anglo-Norman, they were still, however, the manners of our ancestors, and as such, a legitimate matter of curiosity. The only question is, whether they admit of being brought before us with a graphic force of description, that shall transport us in imagination back to the times to which the tale refers, and deceive us into the belief that in the pictures of the Novelist, we have represented to us the realities of history.

From one obvious means of aiding to produce such an illusion, the Writer is of necesity debarred by the circumstance, that the language he is compelled to employ, is not the language of the times in which his dramatis persone are supposed to have lived at the same time there is, in the present instance, just a E sufficient mixture of foreign and antiquated phraseology, to fix the reader's attention upon the circumstance, and to give the medium employed, the awkwardness of translation. The extent of this disadvantage can be judged of only by calling to mind how much of the spirit and effect of the dialogue in the preceding tales of the Author of Waverley, arise from the recognised peculiarities of provincial idiom, and the comic force of quaint or familiar turns of expression. We could point out more than one of the ideal actors, who is indebted to this circumstance for nearly the whole of his dramatic individuality and importance. The character of the Jester in Ivanhoe, is one of the most interesting in the Tale; strange to say, however, it is an interest of an heroic kind, arising from the touching display of his fidelity to his master, and his other very singular good qualities. His appropriate excellence as a professed humourist, is very tolerably vindicated by the occasional sallies of his wit; yet, in spite of his best efforts, he is, take him altogether, an exceedingly less amusing and less comic personage than either Captain Dugald Dalgetty, or Dousterswivel, or Dominie Sampson. In a pure romance, the modern flavour of the language put into the mouths of the ladies and gentlemen of remote times, is not felt to be a discrepancy; but the present work has for its design, in common with all the inimitable productions of its Author, to present to us, with antiquarian fidelity, the manners and customs of the age. Every part, therefore, must be in more than dramatic consistency; every thing bordering upon palpable anachronism, must be carefully avoided; and although the language must not be exclusively obsolete and unintelligible,' yet no word or turn of phraseology betraying an origin directly modern,' is, if pos

[ocr errors]
« السابقةمتابعة »