issuing its volumes to a very limited number of persons, still continues to produce those quartos which we all admire so much when we see them enriching and adorning the great libraries of the country. The Bannatyne Club, founded at Edinburgh in 1823, the Maitland Club at Glasgow

gentleman - it was said to the death club, originated on an expensive plan, and because, on account of his scholarship, a high official had elected him to edit some State documents belonging to a period when (so-called) religious feelings ran high? The same narrowness of soul dwells within us all, and circumstances only are required to develop this narrowness into a persecution on the one hand, or the founda- 1828, the Surtees Society at Durham in tion of rival societies on the other. 1834, the Camden Society in London in This latter course ought to be a gain. 1838, the Spalding Club at Aberdeen The more societies are formed for printing in the following year, the Percy Society and reprinting our early literature, the and the Shakespeare Society in 1810, sooner will our work be done. It is only the Chetham Society at Manchester in required that each society should work 1813, have done, and several of them with perfect honesty; that Texts should are now doing good work. Some, havnot be tampered with to suit any bias, re-ing finished the work originally placed ligious or political; that editors should be so far competent for the work they undertake that readers may have confidence in them. If they work in a friendly rivalry so much the better; but let them avoid going over the same ground.

before them, or from other causes, have ceased to exist; but they have bequeathed to us an invaluable legacy. The others still run their course as vigorously and successfully as at first, year by year issuing volumes containing the treasures of our national and private libraries.

་་

Our printing societies are, we consider, an honour to our country. We have These old societies, founded many of been blamed because we have not done them before we were born, have been supmore. We have been blamed because plemented during the last decade by many Chaucer has been allowed to lie So more. Recognizing the changed times, long in comparative neglect. We have and the more widespread desire for early been blamed because the Chaucer Texts literature, a few able men set to work to issued were not edited with that care and devise some means for gratifying this accuracy which the times demand. For desire, and at the same time for reall these faults and shortcomings we are moving the grounds of reproach hinted willing to suffer. Those who make them at above. Mr. Payne Collier's various have had to endure peculiar hardships. 'coloured" series, J. Russel Smith's 66 LiDwelling away from our great libraries, or brary of Old Authors," Mr. Arber's "Reiu distant countries, they have been unable prints," unpretending in appearance, but to avail themselves of our manuscript marvels of cheapness and of great value; stores; they have been unable to make the Chaucer Society's publications, the even an attempt to clear away the diffi- Spenser Society's almost too luxurious volculties which beset the text of the poet, umes, the Ballad Society's work; these all because they could not depend upon the cluster round the Early English Text Soreadings given by his editors. Scholars ciety, which was founded in 1861, "with who felt themselves thus hampered, did the object of publishing a series of Early well to be angry, and were wise in endeav- English Texts, especially those relating to ouring to stir us up to a better apprecia- King Arthur." This object has not been tion, not only of our responsibilities as the strictly adhered to, it having been found custodians of this literature, but also of its impracticable; and now its issues value. Not that we were altogether ignor-classed as ant or careless of these things. Nearly sixty years ago the Roxburghe Club was instituted, its first issue, "Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenacis, turned into English Meter," bearing the date of 1814. This

are

I.

Arthur and other Romances.

II.

Works illustrating our Dialects and the History of our Language, including a Series of re-editions of our Early Dictionaries.

III. Biblical Translations and Religious

Treatises.

IV. Miscellaneous.

The age which gave birth to the great est Romances we possess was probably that part of the Medieval Period which

A programme like this ought to satisfy was comprised in the eleventh, twelfth, the most fastidious.

and thirteenth centuries. Then the Catholic organization of society attained its highest perfection; the Crusades afforded the brightest examples of heroism and magnanimity. Art, greatly influenced by Orientalism, achieved its greatest triumphs, triumphs which are now the glory of Europe, notwithstanding all the advances we have since made; and literature made a corresponding advance. *

Yet it has been urged, we observe, that the volumes partake too much of a religious character. It is difficult to conceive how it could be otherwise when we call to mind to what class our early writers almost invariably belonged. If the Church in those "dark days" possessed the power, there is no denying that it possessed the learning too; and this will account for the prevalence of religious literature over that of a more general or | have already said, to our greatest Romancsecular kind. We propose to examine es, of which we shall have to say somebriefly some portion of this literature.

The Medieval age gave birth, as we

what more it also produced its Chaucer, A convenient division of the fifteen cen- its Gower, its Wickliffe, and, though menturies of our Christian era is that which tioned last, not the least, its Langland, classes them in three fives. The first, whose Vision must ever stand as one of the Imperial age, in which the Roman Em- the marvels of a marvellous age. "With pire extended over the East and the West. the sixteenth century begins our present It was the age of the greatest achieve- Modern or Transition Age; a period ments of the Christian religion, the age of marked, not as was the Medieval Age, by Apostles, Fathers, and Martyrs. From the general acceptance of an established the opening of the sixth to the close of system of thought and of government; but the tenth century is the Barbarian or Pre- a period distinguished by the manifestly mediæval age. The Empire of Rome had progressing destruction of all the political ceased to extend its authority over North-forms and intellectual foundations of the ern and Western Europe, and the tribes social system of the age preceding it, and of barbarians, held in awe by the soldiers a no less certain, though perhaps less of the Empire, were engaged in perpetual manifest, preparation of a new and higher conflicts one with another, causing un- system of social organization." † known misery, but laying the foundations, and "cementing them with blood and iron," of a better state of society, the influences of which are felt even at this day. This period of Barbarianism, occupied in the elemental wars which consolidated the Neo-Latin, the Teutonic, and Celtic nationalities, was succeeded by the Medieval Period, embracing the five hundred years from the eleventh to the fifteenth century inclusive. As the second period had been employed by the barbarian tribes in working out the nationalities named above, so this period exercised its energies in wars between these three, who, in their turn, worked out a higher unity, and caused the idea of Europe as distinct from Asia to stand before men.*

The renowned Arthur, whose exploits have occupied the minds of men for eight hundred years, and whose history we must here consider, could hardly have been the idle creation of some poet's brain. He and his mysterious Merlin must have had some foundation in historic truth, or their characters and histories would scarcely have so impressed and influenced men's minds as they have done. We see age after age turning with renewed attention to the subject. Arthur, "but a leader of barbarians," Merlin, "but a barbarian compound of madman and poet, of prophet and bard," serve to bring home to Our minds the great idea of "the continuity of human development; " they serve to

"Arthurian Localities," p. xviii. By J. S. Stu"Arthurian Localities," p. xix. By J. 8. Stu- art Glennie, E.E.T.S. 1869. art Glennie, E.E.T.S. 1869. ↑ J. S. S. Glennie, p. xix.

show "the traditions of the barbarian conflicts of one age taken up by the next, and used as the formal material of the creations of a magnificent poesy;" they show "the rude lives of an earlier period living again in the ideal heroes of succeeding ages;" they show that, "though the tribes of whom these traditions are the historic memorials were conquered, absorbed, and extinguished as separate political organizations, yet they died not; they show that, "in the succession of Humanital, as in the sequence of natural phenomena, there is, in fact, no such thing as Death; that there is but decease only and Transformation. "*

plicity we are told that after a time the children began to strive, as it was ever the custom among children at play, and that one smote the other. The lad who suffered became extremely angry, and said, " Merlin, wicked man, why hast thou this done to me? Thou hast done me much shame, therefore thou shalt have grief. I am a king's son, and thou art born of nought; thou oughtest not in any spot to have free man's abode." Other reproaches followed, the knights listened in astonishment, and finally concluding that Merlin was the child they sought, sent him and his mother to Vortiger.*

"The Prose Romance," written some three hundred years later than the "Brut" already quoted, opens with a discussion among the fiends in hell respecting our Lord's descent thither, and His return with Adam and Eve, and how they might

had lost. The means they adopted to bring about the birth of a child, whose father should not be human, need not be described here. Suffice it to say, the devil's counsels came to nothing, and when Merlin was born, although he had the wit of the fiend who was his father, and knew things past, present, and to come, our Lord took him to his own use on account of the mother's repentance; and instead of being an instrument in the devil's hands to work men mischief, he becomes a preacher and tells of "the loving of Jesus Christ." At this point the "Prose Romance" begins to treat of King Vortiger and his tower.

To the necromantic skill and wise counsels of Merlin, Arthur owes his birth, his crown, and his victories; † and to him we must first direct our attention. Though it is most likely that Arthur and Merim lived in the sixth century, it is not till recover the authority over man which they the eighth that we have any written record of the wonderful boy Merlin, whose generation is ascribed to a spirit. In the Historia Britonum " he is called Ambrosius, the name of Merlin being unknown. But in Layamon's "Brut," written long after the Historia attributed to Nennius, he is introduced by the name of Merlin, under the following strange circumstances. Vortiger, being in great danger of an attack from Hengist, determined to build a strong castle in Wales. His ditch was dug, lime and stone were provided in great abundance, and the wall was begun. To the dismay of the King and his builders, all that was built in the day fell down in the night; no matter how strong they The later writer throws in various built, the King lost his labour. Sages and touches significant of the times. While world-wise men were sought after, and the Church preserved its purity men were when found were commanded to try incan- not given to slandering the Priest, but in tations and so ascertain why the wall the fifteenth century the seeds of corrupcould not be made to stand. For three nights they practised their crafts in vain. Then came one Joram and declared that he had found a remedy- -a male child, that never had father, must be discovered. When found his breast was to be opened, and the blood flowing from the wound was to be mingled with the lime, and then the walls would stand to the end of the world. Messengers were sent out to search the country for what it seemed hopeless to expect to find. Weary and sad, two of them reached the "burgh where Caermarthen now is, and sat down to lighten their care with the gambols of children at play. With a charming sim

* J. S. S. Glennie, pp. xxi. xxii.

tion were springing, and the fruits of a system which condemned men to celibacy were not far off. While the Brut is silent respecting the judge who was bent upon destroying Merlin's mother, and was only prevented by having his own paternity exposed by Merlin, the "Prose Romance not only relates all the particulars with the utmost minuteness, but finishes the story by teiling how the parson drowned himself as soon as the discovery was made. The grim humour with which Merlin amuses his guards while journeying to

Layamon's "Brut." ii. pp. 226-228. Edited by Madden.

"Merlin; or, the Early History of King Ar thur." Edited by Henry B. Wheatley, E.E.T.S.

"Merlin the Enchanter and Merlin the Bard." 1865-9. p. i. By W. D. Nash. E.E.T.S. 1865.

Merlin, &c., p. 23.

Vortiger is also worthy of notice, espe- infernal agency; his marvellous childhood; cially as one of the incidents bears upon his finding by Vortiger's messengers; his the morality of the priests. As they were clearing up of the king's difficulty; and his travelling they passed through a town foretelling the king's end, all bear the in which was a market, and when they stamp of romance, and all probably were were passed through they overtook a the accretions of hundreds of years. churl, that had bought a pair of strong shoes, and also strong leather to clout them with. And when Merlin saw the churl he began to laugh. The messengers asked him wherefore he laughed. 'I laugh,' quoth he,' at this churl that hath bought him so strong shoes, and also clout leather, and I tell you certainly he shall be dead before he fully come to his house.' . . . They had not followed the churl half a mile, that they found him dead, in the middle of the way, and his shoes about his neck." The next story is better still:-"And as they passed through a town, they saw a dead child on a bier, borne to church to be buried. And after the corse was made great dole and weeping. And when Merlin saw the weeping, and saw the priest and the clerks who went singing before, he began to laugh, and said to his fellows I see a marvel.' And they asked, What?' Quoth Merlin, Ye see that good man that maketh this great sorrow?' And they said, 'Yea.' And see ye the priest that singeth all before?' Quoth they, We see him well.' Forsooth,' quoth Merlin, he ought to make the sorrow that the other good man maketh, for know it well that the child is the priest's son; and the other man weepeth, and hath more cause to laugh." *

Stories like this of Merlin do not lose so much as they gain. The germ of truth is overlaid in its passage from mouth to mouth, from bard to bard. The wonder which we may imagine to have been felt by the listeners to these romances, and the popularity which always greeted the story-teller, would not tend to diminish that desire, natural to the rude and uncultivated mind, to add wonder to wonder and marvel to marvel. Merlin may have been a rude barbarian bard; strange fits of melancholy may have closed his lips for days and weeks; and then stranger flights of fancy may have occupied his soul and urged him to utter words having reference to past events and dimly foreshadowing the changes which were likely to come. All this is easily imagined; and on such a superstructure there could have been little difficulty in erecting, as times went on and manners and ideas changed, the edifice which we are now considering. The troublous times when the Danes made continual descents on the country, burning and slaying all they could not devour or carry away, yielded incidents in plenty to strike with awe the minds of the superstitious, at a time when the influences of Christianity were feebly felt and possibly unknown in some parts of our island. Merlin, when he arrived before Vorti- Carried by the hands of men who had no ger, had no difficulty in explaining why settled home, or who, living in fear of forthe castle walls fell down. He com- eign incursions, were continually on the manded the King to dig deeper into the move, it is no wonder that the West of earth and he should find a stone, under England, Wales, Scotland, and France the stone water, and when the water was have all claimed to be the true Arthurian drained off, two dragons, whose fighting Land. Each of these can point to spots during the night always caused the wall to and localities bearing names commemoratumble. At this interview, according to tive of some Arthurian event a feast, a the Brut, Merlin foretold among other battle, or a grave. But we are under no things the coming of Arthur. Uther," anxiety to have these mists removed, he said, "shall have a son, who shall come which, while they partly dim the outline of out of Cornwall; he shall be like a wild Arthur's knightly form, and make darker boar bristled with steel, and shall consume the darkness that enshrouds Merlin the the cities and devour the traitors with au- prophet-bard, and enhance the virtues of thority. He shall kill all thy rich kindred; Sir Galahad, the bravery of Sir Lancelot, he shall be most brave and uoble in and the beauty of the fair Maid of Ascalot, thought; to Rome shall his authority ex-give also to the whole that grand and wontend, and he shall fell all his foes to the ground."+

It is evident that thus far all is legendary respecting Merlin: his generation by

Merlin, &c., pp. 33, 34.
Layamon's "Brut," ii. 250.

derful indefiniteness which still leaves room, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years, for the full play of the imagination of the poet and painter of our own time. Petty tribes have been welded into mighty empires, and these have fallen, broken by the iron hand of time, and have become

forgotten; but Arthur and his Knights | from it, care being taken to read all proofs still live on, ever increasing in nobleness with the manuscript so as to insure corof character, ever undergoing that refining rectness. The story contained in this process which will never end till they stand poem opens at Camelot. Arthur and his before us as perfect models of what we company are keeping the Festival of are fond enough to imagine Englishmen to Christmas, and are as joyous as they can have been in the times of chivalry, and of be, no cares having as yet befallen them. what we desire Englishmen should still Suddenly a huge knight in green enters strive to be.. the hall, and challenges the bravest to strike him. Amazed by his impudence and the strangeness of his appearance, they eye him with silent astonishment, until his taunts bring them back again to reason. Then Arthur seizes his axe and brandishes it ready for the blow, but yields to Sir Gawayne's entreaty that he might strike for his uncle. The Green Knight inquires the name of Sir Gawayne, who promises to receive a blow from him twelve months hence. This being settled, the stranger adjusts himself, and Gawayne, with one mighty stroke, cuts off his head. To the further astonishment of the beholders, the Knight, bleeding profusely, picked up his head, turned it towards the company, challenged Sir Gawayne to meet him at the Green Chapel on the appointed day, and then, coolly mounting his charger, rode away, carrying his head in his hand!

The battle on Salisbury Plain between Uther and Pendragon on the one side, and the Danes on the other, ended disastrously for the invaders, and was fatal to Pendragon, whose name was assumed by Uther as a surname. Pendragon was buried on Salisbury Plain, and those mighty stones the wonder of every succeeding age — which Merlin "ordained to endure to the world's end' were brought from Ireland and placed in their positions over Pendragon's grave by the potent arts of the prophet. At this point of the story we gain the first glimpses of the institution of the Round Table, without which the associations of Arthur would be shorn of half their charms. The first Table was that at which the Last Supper was eaten; a second was made by Joseph of Arimathea, on which he placed the Holy Graal. At this table was a void place which betokened the place of Judas, "there as he sat at the supper, which he left when he heard our Lord say that he who ate with lim should betray him.' The third table Merlin advised Utherpendragon to make in the Name of the Trinity, promising him that he should gain great honour and profit by so doing. This was to be set up at "Cardoell, in Wales." The feasting round this celebrated Table at once led to great events. To the gathering many famous men were invited, and many fair ladies; but none were more famous than Gorlois, Duke of Tintagel, none fairer than Ygerne, his wife. With her Utherpendragon fell violently in love, and in the end, after "using curious arts," married her, the Duke having been slain while repelling an attack on one of his castles. The beautiful Ygerne became the mother of Arthur, who, as soon as he was born, was transferred to Merlin, by whom he was brought up.

Of other Arthurian records we may mention first Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight. This Romance was originally edited by Sir F. Madden for the Bannatyne Club in 1839. The new edition was made

The remainder of the Poem, which consists of about two thousand five hundred lines, is taken up with the preparations for Gawayne's journey, the adventures which befell him on his way, and his meeting with the Green Knight, abiding his blow (by which he is slightly wounded), and his return to Arthur's Court. The whole story is full of interest, and is told with a considerable amount of spirit, while certain "passages, which throw light on the manners and amusements of our ancestors," add materially to its attractions.

Coming next in date is the "Lincoln Morte Arthure."* We cannot do better than quote the Editor's own words on this remarkable Poem :

"In almost all early poetry may be noted a simplicity of language united with what may be termed a recklessness of assertion and a contempt of the conditions required for constituting the probable. Effect is sought to be produced not by the subtle analysis of thought and feeling, nor by the description of scenery and natural objects. but by the crowding together of startling incidents, and the ascription of marvellous powers and prowess to the favoured hero. Early poetry is, as it were, the expression of inexperience, of thoughtlessness, and

↑ "Morte Arthure." Edited from Robert ThornAl- ton's MS. By George G. Perry, M.A., &c. E.E.T.S. Ed-1865. The poem was edited by Mr. Halliwell in 1847. Only seventy-five copies were then issued.