since the existence of Turpin's History at a much earlier period has been demonstrated by Warton (Hist. of English Poetry, dissert. 1.) from a Bull of Pope Calixtus II. dated 1122, decreeing its authenticity. Neither is the circumstance of its being so favourable to the Spanish nation to be regarded as of much weight, seeing that the victory which it ascribes to the Spaniards is treated merely as the result of fraud and treachery; whereas the class of romances which have adopted the fabulous Bernardo del Carpio for their hero, and which are evidently of Spanish parentage, is of a cast altogether different, and calculated at once to feed the common prejudice against France, and exalt the sentiments of national honour and patriotism.

But, whether of French or Spanish origin, and whether composed in Latin, or translated into that language from any and what verna cular idiom (for this also is matter of speculation), it seems to be now pretty generally agreed that the celebrated Chronicle, bearing

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the title of "Joannis Turpini Historia de Vita Caroli Magni et Rolandi," and purporting to be the work of the Archbishop of Rheims already mentioned, was in fact a literary forgeof no older date than the commencement of the twelfth century. The History of Eginhart, which, for want of more full and satisfactory information, must for this purpose be assumed as containing the only authentic narrative of the event in question, is so far adhered to that it is still the rear guard only of Charlemagne's army which is surprised and slaughtered in its passage through the defile of Roncesvalles. But the cause of the expedition itself, the quality and numbers of the enemy by whom the assault was made, the miracles by which it was attended, the treason of Ganellon, the return of Charlemagne and utter discomfiture by him of the whole Moorish army, and, above all, the dying exploits and chivalrous character of the hero Roland, are solely attributable to the fertile invention of the author; and it is in these fictitious de

tails that all the interest of this celebrated occurrence consists, an occurrence which, notwithstanding the barrenness of the dry historical record, will ever remain associated with all grand and pathetic images;—for

"Sad and fearful is the story

Of the Roncesvalles fight"—

and, as an eminent French critic* has lately observed, 6. Il Il y a, même dans les récits grossiers attribués à Turpin, un fond d'intérêt que rien ne peut détruire†.”

In this persuasion, I shall need no further apology for having overlooked the manifest advantage, especially under the late circumstances of the French and Spanish nations, which must accrue to a poet who, in treating

* Ginguené, Hist. Littéraire d'Italie, part. 2. chap. iv. (tom. iv. p. 192.)

+ See Warton ubi suprà. Ellis's Specimens of Early English Romances, Romances relating to Charlemagne, vol. ii. p. 283. Rodd's History of Charles the Great and Orlando, translated from the Latin, &c.—and Spanish Ballads relating to the Twelve Peers of France.

the battle of Roncesvalles, adopts the Spanish legends for the outline of his fable. But the truth is, that the plan of my poem was formed, and a considerable part of it composed, long ago, from a perusal of the "Morgante Maggiore" of Luigi Pulci, of which the four last cantos are framed on the model of Turpin's Chronicle.

It remains then that I should say a few words on the subject of this last-mentioned poem, the earliest of those Italian romances which are esteemed classical, but not the first of those which treat the history of Charlemagne and his Peers, or even of those which quote the fabulous Archbishop of Rheims as their authority *.

On this subject, I again refer to M. Ginguené. After the Reali di Francia, a prose romance ascribed to the commencement of the fourteenth century, followed a poem in the ottava rima entitled Buovo d'Antona, in which it seems somewhat extraordinary that the French critic did not immediately recognise our English Bevis of Hampton. On the other hand, Mr. Ellis seems not to have been aware of the connection between this

Pulci is well known to have composed this curious work at the instigation and for the amusement of Lorenzo de' Medici, his friend and patron; and the poet himself takes occasion to acknowledge the assistance he derived in its composition from the famous Politian, who at one time was very currently reported to be its real author. The share in it ascribed by tradition to Marsilius Ficinus, which will be more particularly pointed out in some of the ensuing Notes, may perhaps rest on a more authentic foundation.

The poet gives us to understand that the task assigned him was that of composing a poem in honour of the great restorer of his native Florence; and that his friend Politian

latter fable, which he pronounces of Saxon origin, and the Romances of Charlemagne, or the reputed descent of its hero from the same august stock with the son of Pepin. This most ancient specimen of the ottava rima was followed by the romance of La Spagna; the first which treats of the battle of Roncesvalles and the expedition preceding it, in which it very closely copies the Chronicle of Turpin.