The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory - (Periods of European Literature, vol. II)
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| Publié par | ictoi |
| Publié le | 08 décembre 2010 |
| Nombre de lectures | 28 |
| Langue | English |
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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory, by George Saintsbury This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) Author: George Saintsbury Release Date: May 24, 2007 [EBook #21600] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLOURISHING OF ROMANCE *** *** Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's Notes: To improve readability, dashes between entries in the Table of Contents and in chapter subheadings have been converted to periods. This e-book contains some Anglo-Saxon characters and phrases in ancient Greek, which may not display properly in all browsers, depending on the user's available fonts. For short phrases, hover the mouse over the phrase (which may display as boxes or question marks) to see a pop-up transliteration. For longer passages, a transliteration is provided below the passage. Periods of European Literature EDITED BY PROFESSOR SAINTSBURY II. THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES Contents PERIODS OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE. EDITED BYPROFESSORSAINTSBURY. "The criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working to a common result." —MATTHEWARNOLD. In 12 Crown 8vo Volumes. Price 5s. net each. The DARK AGES Professor W.P. KER. The FLOURISHING OF ROMANCE AND THE RISE OF ALLEGORY THEEDITOR. The FOURTEENTH CENTURY F.J. SNELL. The TRANSITION PERIOD The EARLIER RENAISSANCE The LATER RENAISSANCE DAVIDHANNAY. The FIRST HALFOF17THCENTURY The AUGUSTAN AGES OLIVERELTON. The MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The ROMANTIC REVOLT EDMUNDGOSSE. The ROMANTIC TRIUMPH WALTERH. POLLOCK. The LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY THEEDITOR. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH ANDLONDON.
THE FLOURISHING OF ROMANCE AND THE RISE OF ALLEGORY BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A. PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCVII
PREFACE. ASthis volume, although not the first in chronological order, is likely to be the first to appear in the Series of which it forms part, and of which the author has the honour to be editor, it may be well to say a few words here as to the scheme of this Series generally. When that scheme was first sketched, it was necessarily objected that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain contributors who could boast intimate and equal knowledge of all the branches of European literature at any given time. To meet this by a simple denial was, of course, not to be thought of. Even universal linguists, though not unknown, are not very common; and universal linguists have not usually been good critics of any, much less of all, literature. But it could be answered that if the main principle of the scheme was sound—that is to say, if it was really desirable not to supplant but to supplement the histories of separate literatures, such as now exist in great numbers, by something like a new "Hallam," which should take account of all the simultaneous and contemporary developments and their interaction—some sacrifice in point of specialist knowledge of individual literatures not only must be made, but might be made with little damage. And it could be further urged that this sacrifice might be reduced to a minimum by selecting in each case writers thoroughly acquainted with the literature which happened to be of greatest prominence in the special period, provided always that their general literary knowledge and critical habits were such as to render them capable of giving a fit account of the rest. In the carrying out of such a scheme occasional deficiencies of specialist dealing, or even of specialist knowledge, must be held to be compensated by range of handling and width of view. And though it is in all such cases hopeless to appease what has been called "the rage of the " specialist himself—though a Mezzofanti doubled with a Sainte-Beuve could never, in any general history of European literature, hope to satisfy the special devotees of Roumansch or of Platt-Deutsch, not to mention those of the greater languages—yet there may, I hope, be a sufficient public who, recognising the advantage of the end, will make a fair allowance for
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necessary shortcomings in the means. As, however, it is quite certain that there will be some critics, if not some readers, who will not make this allowance, it seemed only just that the Editor should bear the brunt in this new Passage Perilous. I shall state very frankly the qualifications which I think I may advance in regard to this volume. I believe I have read most of the French and English literature proper of the period that is in print, and much, if not most, of the German. I know somewhat less of Icelandic and Provençal; less still of Spanish and Italian as regards this period, but something also of them: Welsh and Irish I know only in translations. Now it so happens that—for the period —French is, more than at any other time, the capital literature of Europe. Very much of the rest is directly translated from it; still more is imitated in form. All the great subjects, the great matièresthe exception of the national work of Spain,, are French in their early treatment, with Iceland, and in part Germany. All the forms, except those of the prose saga and its kinsman the German verse folk-epic, are found first in French. Whosoever knows the French literature of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, knows not merely the best literature in form, and all but the best in matter, of the time, but that which all the time was imitating, or shortly about to imitate, both in form and matter. Again, England presents during this time, though no great English work written "in the English tongue for English men," yet the spectacle, unique in history, of a language and a literature undergoing a sea-change from which it was to emerge with incomparably greater beauty and strength than it had before, and in condition to vie with—some would say to outstrip—all actual or possible rivals. German, if not quite supreme in any way, gives an interesting and fairly representative example of a chapter of national literary history, less brilliant and original in performance than the French, less momentous and unique in promise than the English, but more normal than either, and furnishing in the epics, of which theNilubeenngedli andKudrun are the chief examples, and in the best work of the Minnesingers, things not only of historical but of intrinsic value in all but the highest degree. Provençal and Icelandic literature at this time are both of them of far greater intrinsic interest than English, if not than German, and they are infinitely more original. But it so happens that the prominent qualities of form in the first, of matter and spirit in the second, though intense and delightful, are not very complicated, various, or wide-ranging. If monotony were not by association a question-begging word, it might be applied with much justice to both: and it is consequently not necessary to have read every Icelandic saga in the original, every Provençal lyric with a strictly philological competence, in order to appreciate the literary value of the contributions which these two charming isolations made to European history. Yet again, the production of Spain during this time is of the smallest, containing, perhaps, nothing save thePoem of the Cid, which is at once certain in point of time and distinguished in point of merit; while that of Italy is not merely dependent to a great extent on Provençal, but can be better handled in connection with Dante, who falls to the province of the writer of the next volume. The Celtic tongues were either past or not come to their chief performance; and it so happens that, by the confession of the most ardent Celticists who speak as scholars, no Welsh or Irishtextsaffecting the capital question of the Arthurian legends can be certainly attributed to the twelfth or early thirteenth centuries. It seemed to me, therefore, that I might, without presumption, undertake the volume. Of the execution as apart from the undertaking others must judge. I will only mention (to show that the book is not a mere compilation) that thechapter on the Arthurian Romancesfirst time in print, the result of twenty years' the summarises, for independent study of the subject, and that the views on prosody given inchapter v. not are borrowed from any one. I have dwelt on this less as a matter of personal explanation, which is generally superfluous to friends and never disarms foes, than in order to explain and illustrate the principle of the Series. All its volumes have been or will be allotted on the same principle—that of occasionally postponing or antedating detailed attention to the literary production of countries which were not at the moment of the first consequence, while giving greater prominence to those that were: but at the same time never losing sight of theeralgenliterary drift of the whole of Europe during the whole period in each case. It is to guard against such loss of sight that the plan of committing each period to a single writer, instead of strapping together bundles of independent essays by specialists, has been adopted. For a survey of each time is what is aimed at, and a survey is not to be satisfactorily made but by one pair of eyes. As the individual study of different literatures deepens and widens, these surveys may be more and more difficult: they may have to be made more and more "by allowance." But they are also more and more useful, not to say more and more necessary, lest a deeper and wider ignorance should accompany the deeper and wider knowledge. The dangers of this ignorance will hardly be denied, and it would be invidious to produce examples of them from writings of the present day. But there can be nothing ungenerous in referring—honoris, notinvidiæ causa—to one of the very best literary histories of this or any century, Mr Ticknor'sSpanish LiteratureThere was perhaps no man of his time who was more. widely read, or who used his reading with a steadier industry and a better judgment, than Mr Ticknor. Yet the remarks on assonance, and on long mono-rhymed or single-assonanced tirades, in his note on Berceo (History of Spanish Literature, vol. i. p. 27), show almost entire ignorance of the whole prosody of thechansons de geste, which give such an indispensable light in reference to the subject, and which, even at the time of his first edition (1849), if not quite so well known as they are to-day, existed in print in fair numbers, and had been repeatedly handled by scholars. It is against such mishaps as this that we are here doing our best to supply a guard.[1] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE FUNCTION OF LATIN. PAGE Reasons for not noticing the bulk of mediæval Latin literature. Excepted divisions. Comic Latin literature. Examples of its verbal influence. The value of burlesque. Hymns. TheDies IræThe rhythm of Bernard. Literary perfection of the Hymns. Scholastic. Philosophy. Its influence on phrase and method. The great Scholastics1 CHAPTER II. CHANSONS DE GESTE. European literature in 1100. Late discovery of thechansons. Their age and history. Their distinguishing character. Mistakes about them. Their isolation and origin. Their metrical form. Their scheme of matter. The character of Charlemagne. Other characters and characteristics. Realist quality. Volume and age of thechansons. Twelfth century. Thirteenth century. Fourteenth, and later.Chansonsin print. Language:oc andoïl. Italian. Diffusion of thechansons. Their authorship and publication. Their performance. Hearing, not reading, the object. Effect on prosody. Thesleurojgn.Jseseresongl, &c. Singularity of thechansons. Their charm. Peculiarity of thegeste the system. Instances. Summary of geste of Orange. And first of the of WilliamCouronnement Loys. Comments on the Couronnement. William of Orange. The earlier poems of the cycle. TheCharroi de Nîmes. ThePrise d'Orange. The story of Vivien.acsilAns.The end of the story. Renouart. Some otherchansons. Final remarks on them22 CHAPTER III. THE MATTER OF BRITAIN. Attractions of the Arthurian Legend. Discussions on their sources. The personality of Arthur. The four witnesses. Their testimony. The version of Geoffrey. Itslacunæ. How the Legend grew. Wace. Layamon. The Romances proper. Walter Map. Robert de Borron. Chrestien de Troyes. Prose or verse first? A Latin Graal-book. The Mabinogion. The Legend itself. The story of Joseph of Arimathea. Merlin. Lancelot. The Legend becomes dramatic. Stories of Gawain and other knights. Sir Tristram. His story almost certainly Celtic. Sir Lancelot. The minor knights. Arthur. Guinevere. The Graal. How it perfects the story. Nature of this perfection. No sequel possible. Latin episodes. The Legend as a whole. The theories of its origin. Celtic. French. English. Literary. The Celtic theory. The French claims. The theory of general literary growth. The English or Anglo-Norman pretensions. Attempted hypothesis86 CHAPTER IV. ANTIQUITY IN ROMANCE. Oddity of the Classical Romance. Its importance. The Troy story. The Alexandreid. Callisthenes. Latin versions. Their story. Its developments. Alberic of Besançon. The decasyllabic poem. The greatRoman d'Alixandre. Form, &c. Continuati ons.King Alexander. Characteristics. The Tale of Troy. Dictys and Dares. The Dares story. Its absurdity. Its capabilities. Troilus and Briseida. TheRoman de Troie. The phases of Cressid. TheHistoria Trojana. Meaning of the classical romance148 CHAPTER V. THE MAKING OF ENGLISH AND THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEAN PROSODY. Special interest of Early Middle English. Decay of Anglo-Saxon. Early Middle English Literature. Scantiness of its constituents. Layamon. The form of theBrut. Its substance. TheOrmulum: Its metre, its spelling. TheAncren Riwle. TheOwl and the Nightingale. Proverbs. Robert of Gloucester. Romances.Havelok the Dane. King Horn.The prosody of the modern languages. Historical retrospect. Anglo-Saxon prosody. Romance prosody. English prosody. The later alliteration. The new verse. Rhyme and syllabic equivalence. Accent and quantity. The gain of form. The "accent" theory. Initial fallacies, and final perversities thereof187 CHAPTER VI. MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN POETRY. Position of Germany. Merit of its poetry. Folk-epics: ThedienlgeunbileN. TheVagnuslo saga. The German version. Metres. Rhyme and language.Kudrun. national Shorter
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