HISTORY OF FICTION. CHAPTER VII. ORIGIN OF ITALIAN TALES.-FABLES OF BIDPAI. SEVEN WISE MASTERS.-GESTA ROMANORUM. -CONTES ET FABLIAUX.-CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE.-DECAMERON OF BOCCACCIO. IT seems not a little remarkable that Italy, which pro duced the earliest and finest specimens of romantic poetry, should scarcely have furnished a single prose romance of chivalry. This is the more remarkable, as the Italians seem to have been soon and intimately acquainted with the works of the latter description produced among the neighbouring nations. Nor does this knowledge appear merely from the poems of Pulci and Boiardo, but from the authors of a period still more remote, in whom we meet with innumerable allusions to incidents related in the tales of chivalry. Dante represents the perusal of the story of Lancelot, as conducting Paolo and Francesca al doloroso passo (Inf. c. 5), and elsewhere shows his acquaintance with the fabulous stories of Arthur and Charlemagne (Inf. c. 31 and 32, Parad. c. 16 and 18). Petrarch also appears to have been familiar with the exploits of Tristan and Lancelot (Trionfi, &c.). In the Cento Novelle Antiche there exists the story of King Meliadus and the Knight without Fear; as also of the Lady of Scalot, who died for love of Lancelot du Lac. There, too, the passion of Yseult and the phrensy of Tristan are recorded; and in the sixth tale of the tenth day of the Decameron, we are told that a Florentine gentleman had two daughters, one of whom was called Gineura the Handsome, and the othe Yseult the Fair. Nevertheless the Italians have produced no origina prose work of any length or reputation in the romanti style of composition. This deficiency may be partly attri buted to national manners and circumstances. Since th transference of the seat of the Roman empire to Constan tinople, the Italians had never been conquerors, but had always been vanquished by barbarous nations, who were successively softened and polished at the same time that they became enervated. The inhabitants possessed neither that extravagant courage nor refined gallantry, the delineation of which forms the soul of romantic composition. At a time when, in other countries, national exploits, and the progress of feudal institutions, were laying the foundation for this species of fiction, Italy was overrun by the incursions of enemies, or only successfully defended by strangers. Hence it was difficult to choose any set of heroes, by the celebration of whose deeds the whole nation would have been interested or flattered, as England must have been by the relation of the achievements of Arthur, or France by the history of Charlemagne. The fame of Belisarius was indeed illustrious, but as an enemy he was hated by the descendants of the northern invaders; and, as a foreigner, his deeds could not gratify the national vanity of those he came to succour. His successor's exploits were liable to the same objections, and were besides performed by a being of all others the worst calculated to become a hero in a romance of chivalry. The early division, too, of Italy into a number of small and independent states, was a check on national pride. A theme could hardly have been chosen which would have met with general applause, and the exploits of the chiefs of one district would often have been a mortifying tale to the inhabitants of another. Besides, the mercantile habits so early introduced into Italy repressed a romantic spirit. It is evident from the Italian novelists, that the manners of the people had not caught one spark of the fire of chivalry, which kindled the surrounding nations. In the principal states of Italy, particularly Florence, the military profession was rather the conceits of the Italian sonnetteers: Thus, "it is said that jealousy is love, but I deny it, for though jealousy be produced by love, as ashes are by fire, yet jealousy extinguishes love, as ashes smother the flame." Of the tales themselves, few are original; for, except about half a dozen which are historically true, and are mentioned as having fallen under the knowledge and observation of the Queen of Navarre, they may all be traced to the Fabliaux, the Italian novels, and the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. Few are either of a serious or atrocious description-they consist for the most part in contrivances for assignations-amorous assaults ingeniously repelled-intrigues ingeniously accomplished or ludicrously detected. Through the whole work, the monks, especially the Cordeliers, are treated with much severity, and are represented as committing, and sometimes with impunity, even when discovered, the most cruel, deceitful, and immoral actions. When we have already seen ecclesiastical characters treated with much contumely by private writers, in the age, and near the seat, of papal supremacy, it will not excite surprise that they should be so represented by a queen, who was a favourer of the new opinions, and an enemy to the Romish superstitions. But while so many tales of the Queen of Navarre have been borrowed from earlier productions, they appear in their turn to have suggested much to subsequent writers. The 8th tale (Mesaventure de Bornet, qui se fait coca lui-même), which is from the fabliau of Le Meunier d'Aleus,' and also occurs in the Facetiae of Poggio, in Sacchetti, and the 9th of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, seems the version of the story which has suggested the plot of Shirley's comedy of the Gamester, (afterwards printed under the title of The Gamesters,) where Mrs. Wilding substitutes herself for Penelope, with whom her husband Legrand D'Aussy, iii. 256. Leroux de Lincy-Recueil de Fabhaux, ii. 31. The tale is also the one in the Decameron, viii. 4. Morlini's 79, Malespini's ii. 96. Margaret, says Montaiglon, could have been acquainted with Boccaccio and Poggio only through translations. See l'Heptaméron ed. by Le Roux de Lincy and A. de Montaiglon, iv. 232. had an assignation, and he, to discharge a game debt gives up the adventure to his friend Hazard. The 10th tale is the Châtelaine de Vergy. The 29th tale has a striking resemblance to the story of Theodosius and Constantia, whose loves and misfortunes have been immortalized by Addison in the Spectator, No. 164.1 The 30th coincides with the 35th of the 2d part of Bandello, and the plot of Walpole's "Mysterious Mother" (see above, vol. ii. p. 219.) The 36th story concerning the President of Grenoble. which is taken from the 6th novel of the 3d decade of Cinthio, or the 47th of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, has suggested to the same dramatist that part of his Love's Cruelty, which turns on the concealment of Hippolito's intrigue with Clariana, by the contrivance of her husband. The 38th which was originally the 72d tale of Morlini,* is the story of a lady whose husband went frequently to a farm he had in the country. His wife suspecting the cause of his absence, sends provisions and all accommodations to the mistress for whose sake he went to the farm, in order to provide for the next visit, which has the effect of recalling the alienated affections of her husband. This story is in the MS. copy of the Varii Successi of Orologi, mentioned by Borromeo [p. 233, &c.]. The French and Italian tales agree in the most minute circumstances, even in the name of the place where the lady resided, which is Tours in both. This tale is related in a colloquy of Erasmus, entitled Uxor Meuliyapos sive Conjugium. It also occurs in Albion's England, a poem, by William Warner, who was a celebrated writer in the reign of Queen Elizabeth: those stanzas, which contain the incident, have been extracted from that poetical epitome of British history, and pub lished in Percy's "Relics," under the title of the Patient Countess [Ser. I. B. 3, No. 6]. 45. La Servante Justifiée of Fontaine, is from the 45th novel of this collection. It was probably taken from the 1 Cf. Langhorne's "Correspondence of Theodosius and Constantia." 2 This story does not agree with Morlini's 72d in the editions which I have been able to consult. |