after she had obtained her freedom from as consecrated to Hammon, live according to Octavius, which are in the usual style of the fashion of the monks and nuns of the those contained in the Greek romances. fifteenth century, and not like those who existed in the early ages of Christianity. Huet has mentioned, as the principal defect As to the question of the authenticity of this production, the authors of the Bibliotheque des Romans seem to think it a genuine of the romance, that it is loaded with descripwork, but do not enter into much discussion tions of buildings, and that the palaces are on the subject. Huet remarks, that the in- not raised by the magic hand of fiction, but timate knowledge shown by the author, of by a professional architect. From this bleall those things which were discovered by mish Huet has drawn his chief argument the ancients, both in nature and art; his against the authenticity of the work. "It is wonderful acquaintance with the history of universally known," says he, " that the Carpast times, and the ancient errors he adopts, dinal Armagnac was much addicted to the into which a modern would scarcely have study of architecture: Philander, the comfallen; the Greek phraseology which shines mentator on Vitruvius, was one of his devoted even through the mist of translation; and, retainers, was the most scientific architect of above all, the dignity and grace of antiquity, his age, and was, besides, well informed in which cannot be easily imitated, and in every branch of polite literature. Now, which the whole work is clothed: all con- since the descriptions of this Athenagoras spire to vindicate from the suspicion of are closely squared to the principles of archiforgery. The bishop then proceeds to unfold tecture inculcated by him in his annotations his arguments against the genuineness of the on Vitruvius, may it not reasonably be suswork, many of which are not more conclusive pected, that Philander was the deviser of this than those adduced in favour of its authen- literary imposture, in order to support his ticity. The first reason for incredulity is, own opinions by the authority of antiquity? that the romance has not been mentioned in The fraud might have been detected, had the the dictionary of Photius ; which, if admitted work issued from the hands of Philander, or as a proof of fabrication, would render spu- the palace of the cardinal. That he might rious the romances of Longus, Chariton, and remove suspicion from himself, and conduct the three Xenophons. Nor is the argument the reader as it were to other ground, he derived from the supposed imitation of Helio- wrote an amatory romance. There, as if dorus altogether conclusive, since, upon the incidentally, he inserted the precepts of his supposition that the work in question was a art, and, concealing his own name, he ingegenuine production of Athenagoras, Thea- niously employed that of Lamané, for the genes and Chariclea may as probably have possessor of the manuscript, and Fumée for been derived from Charis and Theogenes, as the French translator. "However it may be," these from the former appellations. The he continues, "the romance is ingeniously non-existence, however, of a Greek original contrived, artfully conducted, enlightened of the romance Du Vrai et Parfait Amour, with unparalleled sentiments and precepts necessarily throws the onus probandi of its of morality, and adorned with a profusion of authenticity on its defenders; and, until pro- delightful images, most skilfully disposed. duced, a strong presumption remains, that Charis and Theogenes is nothing more than a partial change of Theagenes and Chariclea. The incidents are probable, the episodes are deduced from the main subject, the language is perspicuous, and modesty is scrupulously observed. Here there is nothing mean, noThe imposture, indeed, is clearly detected thing unnatural or affected, nothing that has by the description of manners and institutions the appearance of childishness or sophistry." unknown in the age of Athenagoras. Thus Huet, however, complains that the conclusion the author conducts a criminal trial in the of the fable of this romance is far removed heart of Greece, according to the form of from the excellence of the introduction. process before the parliament of Paris. The I have now taken a successive view of the priests and virgins introduced in the romance, Greek romances, and have attempted to fur nish such an analysis of them as may enable tions in which woman is in any degree reprethe reader to form some notion of their nature sented as assuming her proper station of the and qualities. friend and the companion of man. Hitherto One quality, it is obvious, pervades them she had been considered almost in the light all, and it is the characteristic not only of of a slave, ready to bestow her affections on Greek romance, but of the first attempt at whatever master might happen to obtain her ; prose fiction in every country: The interest but, in Heliodorus and his followers, we see of each work almost wholly consists in a her an affectionate guide and adviser-we succession of strange, and often improbable behold an union of hearts painted as a mainadventures. Indeed, as the primary object spring of our conduct in life—we are delighted of the narrator was to surprise by the inci- with pictures of fidelity, constancy, and chasdents he rehearsed, the strangeness of these tity, and are encouraged to persevere in a life was the chief object to which he directed his of virtue by the happy consequences to which attention. For the creation of these marvels it leads. The Greek romances are less valusufficient scope was afforded him, because, as able than they might have been, from giving little intercourse took place in society, the too much to adventure, and too little to manlimits of probability were not precisely ascer-ners and character ;—but these have not been tained. The seclusion, also, of females in altogether neglected, and several pleasing these early times gave a certain uniformity pictures are delineated of ancient customs and to existence, and prevented the novelist from feelings. In short, these early fictions are painting those minute and almost jinpercep- such as might have been expected at the first tible traits of feeling and character, all those effort, and must be considered as not merely developments, which render a well-written valuable in themselves, but as highly estimodern novel so agreeable and interesting. mable in pointing out the method of awaking Still, amid all their imperfections, the Greek the most pleasing sympathies of our nature, romances are extremely pleasing, since they and affecting most powerfully the fancy and may be considered as almost the first produc-[the heart. CHAPTER II Introduction of the Milesian Tales into Italy.-Latin Romances.-Petronius Arbiter.— Apuleius, &c. THE Milesian Fables had found their way into was proceeding to eat, when his tutor interItaly even before they flourished in Greece. rupted him by a long declamation against They had been received with eagerness, and luxury, and then snatching the dainty from imitated by the Sybarites, the most voluptu- his hand, devoured it with the utmost greed. ous nation in the west of Europe; whose This tale Ælian says he had read in the Systories obtained the same celebrity in Rome, barite stories (gas bagirizais), and had been that the Milesian tales had acquired in Greece so much entertained that he got it by heart, and Asia. It is not easy to specify the exact and committed it to writing, as he did not nature of the western imitations, but if we grudge mankind a hearty laugh! may judge from a solitary specimen trans- Many of the Romans, it would appear, were mitted by Elian in his Varie Historiæ (1. as easily amused as Ælian, since the Sybarite 14. c. 20), they were of a facetious descrip- stories for a long while enjoyed great popution, and intended to promote merriment. A larity; and, at length, in the time of Sylla, pedagogue of the Sybarite nation conducted the Milesian tales of Aristides were translated his pupil through the streets of a town. The into Latin by Sisenna, who was prætor of boy happened to get hold of a fig, which he Sicily, and author of a history of Rome. Plu tarch informs us in his life of Crassus, that an opinion which has been justly ridiculed by when that general was defeated by the Par- Voltaire. The satire is written in a manner thians, the conquerors found copies of Milesian which was first introduced by Varro; verses and Sybarite tales in the tents of the Roman are intermixed with prose, and jests with soldiers; whence Surena expressed his con- serious remark. It has much the air of a tempt for the effeminacy and licentiousness romance, both in the incidents and their disof his enemies, who, even in time of war, position; but the story is too well known, could not refrain from the perusal of such and too scandalous, to be particularly detailed. compositions. The scene is laid in Magna Græcia : EncolThe taste for the Sybarite and Milesian pius is the chief character in the work, and fables increased during the reign of the em- the narrator of events ;—he commences by a perors. Many imitators of Aristides appeared, lamentation on the decline of eloquence, and particularly Clodius Albinus, the competitor while listening to the reply of Agamemnon, a of the Emperor Severus, whose stories have professor of oratory, he loses his companion not reached posterity, but are said to have Ascyltos. Wandering through the town in obtained a celebrity to which their merit search of him, he is finally conducted by an hardly entitled them.' It is strange that old woman to a retirement where the inciSeverus, in a letter to the senate, in which he dents that occur are analogous to the scene. upbraids its members for the honours they The subsequent adventures-the feast of Trihad heaped on his rival, and the support they malchio-the defection and return of Gitonhad given to his pretensions, should, amid the amour of Eumolpus in Bythinia-the accusations that concerned him more nearly, have expressed his chief mortification to arise from their having distinguished that person as learned, who had grown hoary in the study of old wives' tales, such as the Milesian-Punic fables.-Major fuit dolor, quod illum pro literato laudandum plerique duxistis, cum ille neniis quibusdam anilibus occupatus, inter considerable naiveté and grace, and is by much Milesias Punicas Apuleii suit, et ludicra literaria consenesceret. voyage in the vessel of Lycus-the passion and disappointment of Circe, follow each other without much art of arrangement; an apparent defect which may arise from the mutilated form in which the satire has descended to us. The style of Petronius has been much applauded for its elegance-it certainly possesses too fine a veil for so deformed a body. Some of the verses also are extremely beautiful. But the most celebrated fable of ancient The best part of the prose, however, is the Rome is the work of Petronius Arbiter, per- well-known episode of the matron of Ephesus, haps the most remarkable fiction which has which, I have little doubt, was originally a dishonoured the literary history of any nation. Milesian or Sybarite fable. A lady of Ephesus, It is the only fable of that period now extant, on the death of her husband, not contented but is a strong proof of the monstrous corruption of the times in which such a production could be tolerated, though, no doubt, writings of bad moral tendency might be circulated before the invention of printing, without arguing the depravity they would have evinced, if presented to the world subsequent to that period. with the usual demonstrations of grief, descended with the corpse into the vault in which it was entombed, resolving there to perish with sorrow. From this design no entreaties of her own or her husband's friends could dissuade her. But at length a common soldier, who had been appointed to watch the bodies of malefactors crucified in the vicinity, The work of Petronius is in the form of a lest they should be taken down by their relasatire, and, according to some commentators, tions, perceiving a light, descended into the is directed against the vices of the court of vault, where he gazed on the beauty of the Nero, who is thought to be delineated under mourner, whom he soon persuaded to eat, to the names of Trimalchio and Agamemnon;- drink, and to live. That very night, in her 1 Milesias nonnulli ejusdem esse dicunt, quarum fama non ignobilis habetur, quamvis mediocriter scriptæ sunt.--Capitolinus vit. Clod. Albini. funeral garments, in the commencement of her grief, and in the tomb of her husband, she was united to this new and unknown lover. When the soldier ascended from his bridal age of Apuleius. Accordingly, in the comchamber, he found that the body of a criminal mencement of his work, he allures his readers had been carried off. He returned to his with the promise of a fashionable composimistress to deplore the punishment that tion,' though he early insinuates that he has awaited him for his neglect, but she imme- deeper intentions than their amusement. diately relieved his disquiet, by proposing that the corpse of the husband, whose funeral she had so vehemently mourned, should be raised, and nailed to the cross in room of the malefactor. The fable is related in the person of the author, who commences his story with representing himself as a young man, sensible of the advantages of virtue, but immoderately addicted to pleasure, and curious of magic. A story nearly the same with that in Pe- He informs the reader, that on account of tronius exists, under the title of the Widow some domestic affairs, he was obliged to travel who was Comforted, in the book known in into Thessaly, the country whence his family this country by name of the Seven Wise Mas- had its origin. At his entrance into one of ters, which is one of the oldest collections of the towns, called Hypata, he inquired for a oriential stories. There, however, the levity person of the name of Milo, and being diof the widow is aggravated by the circum- rected to his house, rapped at the door. On stance that the husband had died in conse- what security do you intend to borrow, said quence of alarm at a danger to which his a servant, cautiously unbolting it; we only wife had been exposed, and that she consented lend on pledges of gold or silver. Being at to mutilate his body, in order to give it a last introduced to the master, Apuleius preperfect resemblance to that of the malefactor sented letters of recommendation from Dewhich had been taken down from the cross. meas, a friend of the miser, and was in This story of female levity has frequently consequence asked to remain in the house. been imitated, both in its classical and orien- Milo having dismissed his wife, desired his tal circumstances. It is the Fabliau De la guest to sit down on the couch in her place, femme qui se fist putain sur la fosse de son apologising for the want of seats of a more maria. The Pere du Halde, in his History of portable description, on account of his fear of China, informs us that it is a common story robbers. Apuleius having accepted the inin that empire; but the most singular place for the introduction of such a tale was the Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying, by Jeremy Taylor, where it forms part of the 5th chapter, entitled, Of the Contingencies of Death and Treating our Dead. The Latin writers of fiction seem to have been uniformly more happy in their episodes than in the principal subject. This remark is particularly applicable to the ASS OF APULEIUS, vitation to reside in the miser's house, went out to the public bath, and on the way reflecting on the parsimony of his host, he bought some fish for supper. On coming out from the market he met Pithias, who had been his school-fellow at Athens, but was at that time ædile of Hypata, and had the superintendence of provisions. This magistrate having examined the fish his friend had purchased, condemned them as bad, ordered them to be destroyed, and having merely reprimanded the vender, left his old companion dismayed at the loss of his supper and money, and by no means satisfied with the.mode of administering justice in Thessaly. to which its readers, on account of its excel- After having visited the bath, Apuleius returned to sleep at Milo's, and rose next morning with the design of seeing whatever was curious in the city. Thessaly was the country whence magic derived its origin; and 1 At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram, auresque tuas benevolas lepido susurro of the nature of this art he had heard and were measured by hour glasses. Two women even witnessed something on his journey in deep mourning were introduced; one lafrom Rome. Hence he imagined that every mented the death of her husband, the other thing he saw was changed from its natural of her son, and both called loudly for venform, by the force of enchantment; he ex- geance on the murderer. Apuleius was found pected to behold the statues walk, and to guilty of the death of three citizens; but hear the oxen prophesy. While roaming previous to his execution it was resolved he through the town he met with a lady, called should be put to the torture, to force a disByrrhena, who, having been a friend of his covery of his accomplices, and the necessary mother, invited him to lodge at her house. preparations were accordingly completed. This he could not agree to, as he had already What had chiefly astonished Apuleius duraccepted an apartment at Milo's, but he con- ing this scene, was, that the whole court, and sented to accompany her home to supper. among others his host Milo, were all the The great hall in this lady's palace is splen- while convulsed with laughter. One of the didly described, and an animated account is women in mourning now demanded that the given of a statue of Victory, and a piece of dead bodies, which were in court, should be sculpture representing Diana, surrounded by uncovered, in order that, the compassion of her dogs. Apuleius is warned by Byrrhena to the judges being excited, the tortures might beware of Pamphile, the wife of Milo, who be increased. The demand was complied was the most dangerous magician in Thessaly. with, and the task assigned to Apuleius himShe informs him that this hag spares no self. The risibility of the audience is now charms to fascinate a young man for whom accounted for, as he sees to his utter astonishshe conceives a passion, and does not scruple ment, three immense leather bottles, which, to metamorphose those who oppose her inclinations. Apuleius returned home, hesitating whether to attach himself to Pamphile, in order to be instructed in magic, or to her servant Fotis. The superior beauty of the latter speedily fixed his resolution, and he consoled himself for the many privations he endured in the house of Milo, by carrying on an intrigue with this damsel, who acted as the handmaid of Pamphile, and the valet of her parsimonious husband. One night, while supping at the house of Byrrhena, Apuleius was informed that the following day being the festival of Momus, he ought to honour that divinity by some merry invention. on the preceding night, he had mistaken for robbers. The imaginary criminal is then dismissed, after being informed that this mock trial was in honour of the god Momus. On returning home the matter was more fully explained by Fotis, who informs Apuleius that she had been employed by her mistress to procure the hair of a young Bootian, of whom she was enamoured, in order to prepare a charm which would bring him to her house: that having failed in obtaining this ingredient, and fearing the resentment of her mistress, she had brought her some goat's hair, which fell from the scissors of a bottle-shearer. These hairs being burned by the sorceress, with the usual incantations, had (instead of leading the Boeotian to her house) given animation to the skins to which they formerly adhered, and which being then in the form of bottles, appeared, in their desire of entrance, to assault the door of Milo. The above story of the bottles probably suggested to Cervantes the dreadful combat which took place at an inn between Don Quixote and the wine skins, which he hacked to pieces, supposing all the while that he was cleaving down giants, (book iv. c. 4). Returning home somewhat intoxicated, he perceived through the dusk three large figures attacking the door of Milo with much fury. Suspecting them to be robbers, who intended to break in, he ran his sword through them in succession, and, leaving them as dead, escaped into the house. Next morning he is arrested on account of the triple homicide, and is brought to a trial in a crowded and open court. The accuser is called by a herald. An old man, who acted in this capacity, pronounced a harangue, of which the duration Apuleius agreed to forgive Fotis the uneasiwas limited by a clepsydra, as the old sermons ness she had occasioned, if she would promise D |