his fatal curiosity: she reproaches him, and their mutual happiness is for ever lost! The moral design of the tale evidently warns the lover to revere a Woman's Secret!

Such are the works which were the favourite amusements of our English court, and which doubtless had a due effect on refining the manners of the age, in diffusing that splendid military genius, and that tender devotion to the fair sex which dazzle us in the reign of Edward III. and through that enchanting labyrinth of History constructed by the gallant Froissart. In one of the revenue rolls of Henry III. there is an entry of "Silver clasps and studs for his Majesty's great book of Romances ;" and it has been ingeniously observed by Dr. Moore, that the enthusiastic admiration of Chivalry which Edward the III. manifested during the whole course of his reign was probably in some measure owing to his having studied the clasped book in his great grandfather's library,

The Italian Romances of the fourteenth century were spread abroad in great numbers. They formed the polite literature of the day. But if it is not permitted to authors freely to express their ideas, and give full play to the imagination, these works must never be placed in the study of the rigid moralist. They indeed pushed their indelicacy to the verge of grossness, and seemed rather to seek, than to avoid scenes, which a

modern would blush to describe. They (to employ the expression of one of their authors) were not ashamed to name what God had created. Cinthio, Bandello, and others, but chiefly Boccacio, rendered libertinism agreeable by the fascinating charms of a polished style and a luxuriant imagination.

This, however, must not be admitted as an apology for immoral works; for poison is still poison, even when it is delicious. Such works were, and still continue to be, the favourites of a nation which is stigmatised for being prone to illicit pleasures and impure amours. They are still curious in their editions, and are not parsimonious in their price for what they call an uncastrated copy*. There are many Italians, not literary men, who are in possession of an ample library of these old novelists.

If we pass over the moral irregularities of these romances, we may discover a rich vein of invention, which only requires to be released from that rubbish which disfigures it, to become of an invaluable price. The Decamerons, the Hecatommiti, and the Novellas of these writers, made no inconsiderable figure in the little library of our Shak

* Cinthio's novels, in two very thick volumes 12mo, are commonly sold at the price of five or six guineas. Bandello is equally high; and even in Pope's time it appears by the correspondence of Lady Pomfret that a copy sold at fifteen guineas!

speare.

Chaucer is a notorious imitator and lover of them.-His "Knight's Tale" is little more than a paraphrase of "Boccacio's Teseoide." Fontaine has caught all their charms with all their licentiousness. From such works, these great poets, and many of their contemporaries, frequently borrowed their plots; not uncommonly kindled at their flame the ardour of their genius; but bending too submissively to their own peculiar taste, or that of their age, in extracting the ore they have not purified it of the alloy. The origin of these tales must be traced to the inventions of the Troubadours, who found and adopted them from various nations. Of these tales, Le Grand has fortunately printed a curious collection. Of these writers Mr. Ellis observes, in his elegant preface to "Way's Fabliaux," that the authors of the "Cento Novelle Antiche:" Boccacio, Bandello, Chaucer, Gower,-in short, the writers of all Europe have probably made use of the inventions of the elder fablers. They have borrowed their general outlines, which they have filled up with colours of their own, and have exercised their ingenuity in varying the drapery, in combining the groupes, and in forming them into more regular and animated pictures.

We must now turn our contemplation to the French romances of the last century. They were then carried to a point of perfection which, as

romances, they cannot exceed. To this the Astrea of D'Urfé greatly contributed. As this work is founded on several curious circumstances, I shall make it the subject of the following article; for it may be considered as a literary curiosity. It was followed by the illustrious Bassa, the great Cyrus, Clelia, &c. which, though not adapted to the present age, gave celebrity to their authors. Their style, as well as that of the Astrea, is diffusé and languid. Zaide, and the Princess of Cleves, though master-pieces of the kind, are little adapted to the genius of the present race of readers.

It is not surprising that Romances have been regarded as pernicious to good sense, morals, taste, and literature. It was in this light they were even considered by Boileau, whose temperament was never poetical, and therefore he grovelled and bit in satire.

I must not omit noticing an oration which a celebrated jesuit pronounced against these works. It is true he exaggerates; and it has been finely observed that he hurls his thunders on flowers. He entreats the magistrates not to suffer the foreign Romances to be scattered amongst the people; but to lay on them heavy penalties as on prohibited goods; and represents this prevailing taste as being more pestilential than the plague itself. He has drawn a striking picture of a family devoted to Romance reading; he there describes

women occupied day and night with their perusal children just escaped from the lap of their nurse grasping in their little hands the fairy tales; and a country squire seated in an old arm-chair, and reading to his family the most wonderful passages of the ancient works of chivalry.

These Romances went out of fashion with our square-cocked hats, said a lively writer; they had exhausted the patience of the public, but from them sprung NOVELS. They attempted to allure attention by this inviting title, and reducing their works from ten, to two volumes. The name of Romance disgusted; and they substituted those of histories, lives, memoirs, and adventures. In these works they quitted the marvellous incidents, the heroic projects, the complicated and endless intrigues, and the exertion of noble passions.-Heroes were not now taken from the throne: they were sought for even amongst the lowest ranks of the people. Scarron seems to allude to this degradation of the heroes of Fiction: for in hinting at a new comic History he had projected, he tells us he gave it up suddenly because he had heard that his hero had just been hanged at Mans.”

NOVELS, as they are manufactured now, form a library of illiterate authors for illiterate readers; but as they are created by genius, are precious to the Philosopher. They paint the manners of a nation more perfectly than any other species of composition; hence