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LIBRARY OF THE
WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
ANCIENT AND MODERN
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
EDITOR
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE
GEORGE HENRY WARNER
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Connoisseur Edition
VOL. XVI.
NEW YORK
THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
Connoisseur Edition
LIMITED TO FIVE HUNDRED COPIES IN HALF RUSSIA
_No_. ..........
Copyright, 1896, by
R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
_All rights reserved_
THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M., LL. D.,
Professor of Hebrew, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass.
THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL. D., L. H. D.,
Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of
YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.
WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH. D., L. H. D.,
Professor of History and Political Science,
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.
BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M., LL. B.,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.
JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D.,
President of the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich.
WILLARD FISKE, A. M., PH. D.,
Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages
and Literatures, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N. Y.
EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A. M., LL. D.,
Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.
ALCEE FORTIER, LIT. D.,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La.
WILLIAM P. TRENT, M. A.,
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History, UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.
PAUL SHOREY, PH. D.,
Professor of Greek and Latin Literature,
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D.,
United States Commissioner of Education,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C.
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A. M., LL. D.,
Professor of Literature in the
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOL. XVI
LIVED PAGE
AULUS GELLIUS Second Century A.D. 6253
From 'Attic Nights': Origin, and Plan of the Book;
The Vestal Virgins; The Secrets of the Senate;
Plutarch and his Slave; Discussion on One of
Solon's Laws; The Nature of Sight; Earliest
Libraries; Realistic Acting; The Athlete's End
GESTA ROMANORUM 6261
Theodosius the Emperoure
Moralite
Ancelmus the Emperour
Moralite
How an Anchoress was Tempted by the Devil
EDWARD GIBBON 1737-1794 6271
BY W. E. H. LECKY
Zenobia
Foundation of Constantinople
Character of Constantine
Death of Julian
Fall of Rome
Silk
Mahomet's Death and Character
The Alexandrian Library
Final Ruin of Rome
All from the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT 1836- 6333
Captain Reece
The Yarn of the Nancy Bell
The Bishop of Rum-ti-foo
Gentle Alice Brown
The Captain and the Mermaids
All from the 'Bab Ballads'
RICHARD WATSON GILDER 1844- 6347
Two Songs from 'The New Day'
"Rose-Dark the Solemn Sunset"
The Celestial Passion
Non Sine Dolore
On the Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln
From 'The Great Remembrance'
GIUSEPPE GIUSTI 1809-1850 6355
Lullaby ('Gingillino')
The Steam Guillotine
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 1809- 6359
Macaulay ('Gleanings of Past Years')
EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN 1831- 6373
The Duty of Criticism in a Democracy ('Problems of
Modern Democracy')
GOETHE 1749-1832 6385
BY EDWARD DOWDEN
From 'Faust,' Shelley's Translation
Scenes from 'Faust', Bayard Taylor's Translation
Mignon's Love and Longing ('Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship')
Wilhelm Meister's Introduction to Shakespeare (same)
Wilhelm Meister's Analysis of Hamlet (same)
The Indenture (same)
The Harper's Songs (same)
Mignon's Song (same)
Philina's Song (same)
Prometheus
Wanderer's Night Songs
The Elfin-King
From 'The Wanderer's Storm Song'
The Godlike
Solitude
Ergo Bibamus!
Alexis and Dora
Maxims and Reflections
Nature
NIKOLAI VASILIEVITCH GOGOL 1809-1852 6455
BY ISABEL F. HAPGOOD
From 'The Inspector'
Old-Fashioned Gentry ('Mirgorod')
CARLO GOLDONI 1707-1793 6475
BY WILLIAM CRANSTON LAWTON
First Love and Parting ('Memoirs of Carlo Goldoni')
The Origin of Masks in the Italian Comedy (same)
Purists and Pedantry (same)
A Poet's Old Age (same)
The Cafe
MEIR AARON GOLDSCHMIDT 1819-1887 6493
Assar and Mirjam ('Love Stories from Many Countries')
OLIVER GOLDSMITH 1728-1774 6501
BY CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY
The Vicar's Family Become Ambitious ('The Vicar of Wakefield')
New Misfortunes: But Offenses are Easily Pardoned Where
There is Love at Bottom (same)
Pictures from 'The Deserted Village'
Contrasted National Types ('The Traveller')
IVAN ALEKSANDROVITCH GONCHAROF 1812- 6533
BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
Oblomof
THE BROTHERS DE GONCOURT 6549
Edmond 1822-1896
Jules 1830-1870
Two Famous Men ('Journal of the De Goncourts')
The Suicide ('Sister Philomene')
The Awakening ('Renee Mauperin')
EDMUND GOSSE 1849- 6565
February in Rome
Desiderium
Lying in the Grass
RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL 1823- 6571
Heinrich Heine ('Portraits and Studies')
JOHN GOWER 1325?-1408 6579
Petronella ('Confessio Amantis')
ULYSSES S. GRANT 1822-1885 6593
BY HAMLIN GARLAND
Early Life ('Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant')
Grant's Courtship (same)
A Texan Experience (same)
The Surrender of General Lee (same)
HENRY GRATTAN 1746-1820 6615
On the Character of Chatham
Of the Injustice of Disqualification of Catholics
(Speech in Parliament)
On the Downfall of Bonaparte (Speech in Parliament)
THOMAS GRAY 1716-1771 6623
BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP
Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard
Ode on the Spring
On a Distant Prospect of Eton College
The Bard
THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY 6637
BY TALCOTT WILLIAMS
On the Athenian Dead at Plataea (Simonides); On the
Lacedaemonian Dead at Plataea (Simonides); On a
Sleeping Satyr (Plato); A Poet's Epitaph (Simmias
of Thebes); Worship in Spring (Theaetetus); Spring
on the Coast (Leonidas of Tarentum); A Young Hero's
Epitaph (Dioscorides); Love (Posidippus); Sorrow's
Barren Grave (Heracleitus); To a Coy Maiden
(Asclepiades); The Emptied Quiver (Mnesalcus);
The Tale of Troy (Alpheus); Heaven Hath its Stars
(Marcus Argentarius); Pan of the Sea-Cliff
(Archias); Anacreon's Grave (Antipater of Sidon);
Rest at Noon (Meleager); "In the Spring a Young
Man's Fancy" (Meleager); Meleager's Own Epitaph
(Meleager); Epilogue (Philodemus); Doctor and
Divinity (Nicarchus); Love's Immortality (Strato);
As the Flowers of the Field (Strato); Summer
Sailing (Antiphilus); The Great Mysteries
(Crinagoras); To Priapus of the Shore (Maecius); The
Common Lot (Ammianus); "To-morrow, and To-morrow"
(Macedonius); The Palace Garden (Arabius); The
Young Wife (Julianus AEgyptius); A Nameless Grave
(Paulus Silentiarius); Resignation (Joannes
Barbucallus); The House of the Righteous
(Macedonius); Love's Ferriage (Agathias); On a
Fowler (Isidorus) Anonymous: Youth and Riches; The
Singing Reed; First Love again Remembered; Slave
and Philosopher; Good-by to Childhood; Wishing;
Hope and Experience; The Service of God; The Pure
in Heart; The Water of Purity; Rose and Thorn;
A Life's Wandering
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME XVI
PAGE
The Alexander Romance (Colored Plate) Frontispiece
Gibbon (Portrait) 6271
Ruined Rome (Photograph) 6316
Gladstone (Portrait) 6359
Goethe (Portrait) 6385
"Faust and Margaret in Prison" (Photogravure) 6408
"The Bride's Toilet" (Photogravure) 6466
Goldoni (Portrait) 6475
Goldsmith (Portrait) 6501
Grant (Portrait) 6593
Gray (Portrait) 6623
"Stoke Poges Church and Churchyard" (Photogravure) 6626
VIGNETTE PORTRAITS
Gilbert Goncharof
Gilder De Goncourt
Giusti Gottschall
Godkin Gower
Gogol Grattan
Goldschmidt
AULUS GELLIUS
(SECOND CENTURY A. D.)
Perhaps Gellius's 'Attic Nights' may claim especial mention here, as one
of the earliest extant forerunners of this 'Library.' In the original
preface (given first among the citations), Gellius explains very clearly
the origin and scope of his work. It is not, however, a mere scrap-book.
There is original matter in many chapters. In particular, an ethical or
philosophic excerpt has often been framed in a little scene,--doubtless
imaginary,--and cast in the form of a dialogue. We get, even, pleasant
glimpses of autobiography from time to time. The author is not, however,
a deep or forceful character, on the whole. His heart is mostly set on
trifles.
Yet Gellius has been an assiduous student, both in Greece and Italy; and
his book gives us an agreeable, probably an adequate, view of the fields
which are included in the general culture of his time. Despite its
title, the work is chiefly Roman. In history, biography, antiquities,
grammar, literary criticism, his materials and authors are prevailingly
Latin. He is perhaps most widely known and quoted on early Roman life
and usages. Thus, one of his chapters gives a mass of curious
information as to the choice of the Vestal Virgins. We are also largely
indebted to him for citations from lost authors. We have already quoted
under Ennius the sketch, in eighteen hexameters, of a scholar-soldier,
believed to be a genial self-portraiture. These lines are the finest
specimen we have of the 'Annales.' Similarly, under Cato, we have quoted
the chief fragment of the great Censor's Roman history. For both these
treasures we must thank Gellius. Indeed, throughout the wide fields of
Roman antiquities, history of literature, grammar, etc., we have to
depend chiefly upon various late Latin scrap-books and compilations,
most of which are not even made up at first hand from creative classical
authors. To Gellius, also, the imposing array of writers so constantly
named by him was evidently known chiefly through compendiums and
handbooks. It is suspicious, for instance, that he hardly quotes a poet
within a century of his own time. Repetitions, contradictions, etc., are
numerous.
Despite its twenty "books" and nearly four hundred (short) chapters, the
work is not only light and readable for the most part, but quite modest
in total bulk: five hundred and fifty pages in the small page and
generous type of Hertz's Teubner text. There is an English translation
by Rev. W. Beloe, first printed in 1795, from which we quote below.
Professor Nettleship's (in his 'Essays in Latin Literature') has no
literary quality, but gives a careful analysis of Gellius's subjects and
probable sources. There is a revival of interest in this author in
recent years. We decidedly recommend Hertz's attractive volume to any
Latin student who wishes to browse beyond the narrow classical limits.
FROM 'ATTIC NIGHTS'
ORIGIN AND PLAN OF THE BOOK
More pleasing works than the present may certainly be found: my object
in writing this was to provide my children, as well as myself, with that
kind of amusement in which they might properly relax and indulge
themselves at the intervals from more important business. I have
preserved the same accidental arrangement which I had before used in
making the collection. Whatever book came into my hand, whether it was
Greek or Latin, or whatever I heard that was either worthy of being
recorded or agreeable to my fancy, I wrote down without distinction and
without order. These things I treasured up to aid my memory, as it were
by a store-house of learning; so that when I wanted to refer to any
particular circumstance or word which I had at the moment forgotten, and
the books from which they were taken happened not to be at hand, I could
easily find and apply it. Thus the same irregularity will appear in
these commentaries as existed in the original annotations, which were
concisely written down without any method or arrangement in the course
of what I at different times had heard or read. As these observations at
first constituted my business and my amusement through many long winter
nights which I spent in Attica, I have given them the name of 'Attic
Nights.' ... It is an old proverb, "A jay has no concern with music, nor
a hog with perfumes:" but that the ill-humor and invidiousness of
certain ill-taught people may be still more exasperated, I shall borrow
a few verses from a chorus of Aristophanes; and what he, a man of most
exquisite humor, proposed as a law to the spectators of his play, I also
recommend to the readers of this volume, that the vulgar and unhallowed
herd, who are averse to the sports of the Muses, may not touch nor even
approach it. The verses are these:--
Silent be they, and far from hence remove,
By scenes like ours not likely to improve,
Who never paid the honored Muse her rights,
Who senseless live in wild, impure delights;
I bid them once, I bid them twice begone,
I bid them thrice, in still a louder tone:
Far hence depart, whilst ye with dance and song
Our solemn feast, our tuneful nights prolong.
THE VESTAL VIRGINS
The writers on the subject of taking a Vestal Virgin, of whom Labeo
Antistius is the most elaborate, have asserted that no one could be
taken who was less than six or more than ten years old. Neither could
she be taken unless both her father and mother were alive, if she had
any defect of voice or hearing, or indeed any personal blemish, or if
she herself or father had been made free; or if under the protection of
her grandfather, her father being alive; if one or both of her parents
were in actual servitude, or employed in mean occupations. She whose
sister was in this character might plead exemption, as might she whose
father was flamen, augur, one of the fifteen who had care of the sacred
books, or one of the seventeen who regulated the sacred feasts, or a
priest of Mars. Exemption was also granted to her who was betrothed to a
pontiff, and to the daughter of the sacred trumpeter. Capito Ateius has
also observed that the daughter of a man was ineligible who had no
establishment in Italy, and that his daughter might be excused who had
three children. But as soon as a Vestal Virgin is taken, conducted to
the vestibule of Vesta, and delivered to the pontiffs, she is from that
moment removed from her father's authority, without any form of
emancipation or loss of rank, and has also the right of making her will.
No more ancient records remain concerning the form and ceremony of
taking a virgin, except that the first virgin was taken by King Numa.
But we find a Papian law which provides that at the will of the supreme
pontiff twenty virgins should be chosen from the people; that these
should draw lots in the public assembly; and that the supreme pontiff
might take her whose lot it was, to become the servant of Vesta. But
this drawing of lots by the Papian law does not now seem necessary; for
if any person of ingenuous birth goes to the pontiff and offers his
daughter for this ministry, if she may be accepted without any violation
of what the ceremonies of religion enjoin, the Senate dispenses with the
Papian law. Moreover, a virgin is said to be taken, because she is taken
by the hand of the high priest from that parent under whose authority
she is, and led away as a captive in war. In the first book of Fabius
Pictor, we have the form of words which the supreme pontiff is to repeat
when he takes a virgin. It is this:--
"I take thee, beloved, as a priestess of Vesta, to perform religious
service, to discharge those duties with respect to the whole body of the
Roman people which the law most wisely requires of a priestess of
Vesta."
It is also said in those commentaries of Labeo which he wrote on the
Twelve Tables:--
"No Vestal Virgin can be heiress to any intestate person of either sex.
Such effects are said to belong to the public. It is inquired by what
right this is done?" When taken she is called _amata_, or beloved, by
the high priest; because Amata is said to have been the name of her who
was first taken.
THE SECRETS OF THE SENATE
It was formerly usual for the senators of Rome to enter the Senate-house
accompanied by their sons who had taken the praetexta. When something of
superior importance was discussed in the Senate, and the further
consideration adjourned to the day following, it was resolved that no
one should divulge the subject of their debates till it should be
formally decreed. The mother of the young Papirius, who had accompanied
his father to the Senate-house, inquired of her son what the senators
had been doing. The youth replied that he had been enjoined silence, and
was not at liberty to say. The woman became more anxious to know; the
secretness of the thing, and the silence of the youth, did but inflame
her curiosity. She therefore urged him with more vehement earnestness.
The young man, on the importunity of his mother, determined on a
humorous and pleasant fallacy: he said it was discussed in the Senate,
which would be most beneficial to the State--for one man to have two
wives, or for one woman to have two husbands. As soon as she heard this
she was much agitated, and leaving her house in great trepidation, went
to tell the other matrons what she had learned. The next day a troop of
matrons went to the Senate-house, and with tears and entreaties implored
that one woman might be suffered to have two husbands, rather than one
man to have two wives. The senators on entering the house were
astonished, and wondered what this intemperate proceeding of the women,
and their petition, could mean. The young Papirius, advancing to the
midst of the Senate, explained the pressing importunity of his mother,
his answer, and the matter as it was. The Senate, delighted with the
honor and ingenuity of the youth, made a decree that from that time no
youth should be suffered to enter the Senate with his father, this
Papirius alone excepted.
PLUTARCH AND HIS SLAVE
Plutarch once ordered a slave, who was an impudent and worthless fellow,
but who had paid some attention to books and philosophical disputations,
to be stripped (I know not for what fault) and whipped. As soon as his
punishment began, he averred that he did not deserve to be beaten; that
he had been guilty of no offense or crime. As they went on whipping him,
he called out louder, not with any cry of suffering or complaint, but
gravely reproaching his master. Such behavior, he said, was unworthy of
Plutarch; that anger disgraced a philosopher; that he had often disputed
on the mischiefs of anger; that he had written a very excellent book
about not giving place to anger; but that whatever he had said in that
book was now contradicted by the furious and ungovernable anger with
which he had now ordered him to be severely beaten. Plutarch then
replied with deliberate calmness:--"But why, rascal, do I now seem to
you to be in anger? Is it from my countenance, my voice, my color, or my
words, that you conceive me to be angry? I cannot think that my eyes
betray any ferocity, nor is my countenance disturbed or my voice
boisterous; neither do I foam at the mouth, nor are my cheeks red; nor
do I say anything indecent or to be repented of; nor do I tremble or
seem greatly agitated. These, though you may not know it, are the usual
signs of anger." Then, turning to the person who was whipping him:
"Whilst this man and I," said he, "are disputing, do you go on with your
employment."
DISCUSSION ON ONE OF SOLON'S LAWS
In those very ancient laws of Solon which were inscribed at Athens on
wooden tables, and which, from veneration to him, the Athenians, to
render eternal, had sanctioned with punishments and religious oaths,
Aristotle relates there was one to this effect: If in any tumultuous
dissension a sedition should ensue, and the people divide themselves
into two parties, and from this irritation of their minds both sides
should take arms and fight; then he who in this unfortunate period of
civil discord should join himself to neither party, but should
individually withdraw himself from the common calamity of the city,
should be deprived of his house, his family and fortunes, and be driven
into exile from his country. When I had read this law of Solon, who was
eminent for his wisdom, I was at first impressed with great
astonishment, wondering for what reason he should think those men
deserving of punishment who withdrew themselves from sedition and a
civil war. Then a person who had profoundly and carefully examined the
use and purport of this law, affirmed that it was calculated not to
increase but terminate sedition; and indeed it really is so, for if all
the more respectable, who were at first unable to check sedition, and
could not overawe the divided and infatuated people, join themselves to
one part or other, it will happen that when they are divided on both
sides, and each party begins to be ruled and moderated by them, as men
of superior influence, harmony will by their means be sooner restored
and confirmed; for whilst they regulate and temper their own parties
respectively, they would rather see their opponents conciliated than
destroyed. Favorinus the philosopher was of opinion that the same thing
ought to be done in the disputes of brothers and of friends: that they
who are benevolently inclined to both sides, but have little influence
in restoring harmony, from being considered as doubtful friends, should
decidedly take one part or other; by which act they will obtain more
effectual power in restoring harmony to both. At present, says he, the
friends of both think they do well by leaving and deserting both, thus
giving them up to malignant or sordid lawyers, who inflame their
resentments and disputes from animosity or from avarice.
THE NATURE OF SIGHT
I have remarked various opinions among philosophers concerning the
causes of sight and the nature of vision. The Stoics affirm the causes
of sight to be an emission of radii from the eyes against those things
which are capable of being seen, with an expansion at the same time of
the air. But Epicurus thinks that there proceed from all bodies certain
images of the bodies themselves, and that these impress themselves upon
the eyes, and that thence arises the sense of sight. Plato is of opinion
that a species of fire and light issues from the eyes, and that this,
being united and continued either with the light of the sun or the light
of some other fire, by its own, added to the external force, enables us
to see whatever it meets and illuminates.
But on these things it is not worth while to trifle further; and I recur
to an opinion of the Neoptolemus of Ennius, whom I have before
mentioned: he thinks that we should taste of philosophy, but not plunge
in it over head and ears.
EARLIEST LIBRARIES
Pisistratus the tyrant is said to have been the first who supplied books
of the liberal sciences at Athens for public use. Afterwards the
Athenians themselves with great care and pains increased their number;
but all this multitude of books, Xerxes, when he obtained possession of
Athens and burned the whole of the city except the citadel, seized and
carried away to Persia. But King Seleucus, who was called Nicanor, many
years afterwards, was careful that all of them should be again carried
back to Athens.
A prodigious number of books were in succeeding times collected by the
Ptolemies in Egypt, to the amount of near seven hundred thousand
volumes. But in the first Alexandrine war the whole library, during the
plunder of the city, was destroyed by fire; not by any concerted design,
but accidentally by the auxiliary soldiers.
REALISTIC ACTING
There was an actor in Greece of great celebrity, superior to the rest in
the grace and harmony of his voice and action. His name, it is said, was
Polus, and he acted in the tragedies of the more eminent poets, with
great knowledge and accuracy. This Polus lost by death his only and
beloved son. When he had sufficiently indulged his natural grief, he
returned to his employment. Being at this time to act the 'Electra' of
Sophocles at Athens, it was his part to carry an urn as containing the
bones of Orestes. The argument of the fable is so imagined that Electra,
who is presumed to carry the relics of her brother, laments and
commiserates his end, who is believed to have died a violent death.
Polus, therefore, clad in the mourning habit of Electra, took from the
tomb the bones and urn of his son, and as if embracing Orestes, filled
the place, not with the image and imitation, but with the sighs and
lamentations of unfeigned sorrow. Therefore, when a fable seemed to be
represented, real grief was displayed.
THE ATHLETE'S END
Milo of Crotona, a celebrated wrestler, who as is recorded was crowned
in the fiftieth Olympiad, met with a lamentable and extraordinary death.
When, now an old man, he had desisted from his athletic art and was
journeying alone in the woody parts of Italy, he saw an oak very near
the roadside, gaping in the middle of the trunk, with its branches
extended: willing, I suppose, to try what strength he had left, he put
his fingers into the fissure of the tree, and attempted to pluck aside
and separate the oak, and did actually tear and divide it in the middle;
but when the oak was thus split in two, and he relaxed his hold as
having accomplished his intention, upon a cessation of the force it
returned to its natural position, and left the man, when it united, with
his hands confined, to be torn by wild beasts.
Translation of Rev. W. Beloe.
GESTA ROMANORUM
What are the 'Gesta Romanorum'? The most curious and interesting of all
collections of popular tales. Negatively, one thing they are not: that
is, they are not _Deeds of the Romans_, the acts of the heirs of the
Caesars. All such allusions are the purest fantasy. The great "citee of
Rome," and some oddly dubbed emperor thereof, indeed the entire
background, are in truth as unhistorical and imaginary as the tale
itself.
Such stories are very old. So far back did they spring that it would be
idle to conjecture their origin. In the centuries long before Caxton,
the centuries before manuscript-writing filled up the leisure hours of
the monks, the 'Gesta,' both in the Orient and in the Occident, were
brought forth. Plain, direct, and unvarnished, they are the form in
which the men of ideas of those rude times approached and entertained,
by accounts of human joy and woe, their brother men of action. Every
race of historic importance, from the eastern Turanians to the western
Celts, has produced such legends. Sometimes they delight the lover of
folk-lore; sometimes they belong to the Dryasdust antiquarian. But our
'Gesta,' with their directness and naivete, with their occasional beauty
of diction and fine touches of sympathy and imagination,--even with
their Northern lack of grace,--are properly a part of literature. In
these 'Deeds' is found the plot or ground-plan of such master works as
'King Lear' and the 'Merchant of Venice,' and the first cast of material
refined by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, Schiller, and other writers.
Among the people in mediaeval times such tales evidently passed from
mouth to mouth. They were the common food of fancy and delight to our
forefathers, as they gathered round the fire in stormy weather. Their
recital enlivened the women's unnumbered hours of spinning, weaving, and
embroidery. As the short days of the year came on, there must have been
calls for 'The Knights of Baldak and Lombardy,' 'The Three Caskets,' or
'The White and Black Daughters,' as nowadays we go to our book-shelves
for the stories that the race still loves, and ungraciously enjoy the
silent telling.
Such folk-stories as those in the 'Gesta' are in the main made of, must
have passed from district to district and even from nation to nation, by
many channels,--chief among them the constant wanderings of monks and
minstrels,--becoming the common heritage of many peoples, and passing
from secular to sacerdotal use. The mediaeval Church, with the acuteness
that characterized it, seized on the pretty tales, and adding to them
the moralizing which a crude system of ethics enjoined, carried its
spoils to the pulpit. Even the fables of pagan AEsop were thus employed.
In the twelfth century the ecclesiastical forces were appropriating to
their use whatever secular rights and possessions came within their
grasp. A common ardor permitted and sustained this aggrandizement, and
the devotion that founded and swelled the mendicant orders of Francis
and Dominic, and led the populace to carry with prayers and
psalm-singing the stones of which great cathedrals were built, readily
gave their hearth-tales to illustrate texts and inculcate doctrines. A
habit of interpreting moral and religious precepts by allegory led to
the far-fetched, sometimes droll, and always naive "moralities" which
commonly follow each one of the 'Gesta.' The more popular the tale, the
more easily it held the attention; and the priests with telling
directness brought home the moral to the simple-minded. The innocent
joys and sad offenses of humanity interpreted the Church's whole system
of theology, and the stories, committed to writing by the priests, were
thus preserved.
The secular tales must have been used in the pulpit for some time before
their systematic collection was undertaken. The zeal for compiling
probably reached its height in the age of Pierre Bercheure, who died in
1362. To Bercheure, prior of the Benedictine Convent of St. Eloi at
Paris, the collection of 'Gesta Romanorum' has been ascribed. A German
scholar, however, Herr Oesterley, who published in 1872 the result of an
investigation of one hundred and sixty-five manuscripts, asserts that
the 'Gesta' were originally compiled towards the end of the thirteenth
century in England, from which country they were taken to the Continent,
there undergoing various alterations. "The popularity of the original
'Gesta,'" says Sir F. Madden, "not only on the Continent but among the
English clergy, appears to have induced some person, apparently in the
reign of Richard the Second, to undertake a similar compilation in this
country." The 'Anglo-Latin Gesta' is the immediate original of the early
English translation from which the following stories are taken, with
slight verbal changes.
The word _Gesta_, in mediaeval Latin, means notable or historic act or
exploit. The Church, drawing all power, consequence, and grace from
Rome, naturally looked back to the Roman empire for historic examples.
In this fact we find the reason of the name. The tales betray an entire
ignorance of history. In one, for example, a statue is raised to Julius
Caesar twenty-two years after the founding of Rome; while in another,
Socrates, Alexander, and the Emperor Claudius are living together in
Rome.
It is a pleasant picture which such legends bring before our eyes. The
old parish church of England, which with its yards is a common
meeting-place for the people's fairs and wakes, and even for their
beer-brewing; the simple rustics forming the congregation; the tonsured
head of the priest rising above the pulpit,--a monk from the neighboring
abbey, who earns his brown bread and ale and venison by endeavors to
move the moral sentiments which lie at the root of the Anglo-Saxon
character and beneath the apparent stolidity of each yokel. Many of the
tales are unfit for reproduction in our more mincing times. The
faithlessness of wives--with no reference whatever to the faithlessness
of husbands--is a favorite theme with these ancient cenobites.
It is possible, Herr Oesterley thinks, that the conjecture of Francis
Douce may be true, and the 'Gesta' may after all have been compiled in
Germany. But the bulk of the evidence goes to prove an English origin.
The earliest editions were published at Utrecht and at Cologne. The
English translation, from the text of the Latin of the reign of Richard
II., was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde between 1510 and 1515. In 1577
Richard Robinson published a revised edition of Wynkyn de Worde's. The
work became again popular, and between 1648 and 1703 at least eight
issues were sold. An English translation by Charles Swan from the Latin
text was first published in 1824, and reissued under the editorship of
Thomas Wright in 1872 as a part of Bohn's Library.
THEODOSIUS THE EMPEROURE[A]
Theodosius reigned a wise emperour in the cite of Rome, and mighty he
was of power; the which emperoure had three doughters. So it liked to
this emperour to knowe which of his doughters loved him best; and then
he said to the eldest doughter, "How much lovest thou me?" "Forsoth,"
quoth she, "more than I do myself." "Therefore," quoth he, "thou shalt
be heighly advanced;" and married her to a riche and mighty kyng. Then
he came to the second, and said to her, "Doughter, how muche lovest thou
me?" "As muche forsoth," she said, "as I do myself." So the emperoure
married her to a duke. And then he said to the third doughter, "How much
lovest thou me?" "Forsoth," quoth she, "as muche as ye be worthy, and no
more." Then said the emperoure, "Doughter, since thou lovest me no more,
thou shalt not be married so richely as thy sisters be." And then he
married her to an earl.
[A] The story of King Lear and his three daughters.
After this it happened that the emperour held battle against the Kyng of
Egipt, and the kyng drove the emperour oute of the empire, in so muche
that the emperour had no place to abide inne. So he wrote lettres
ensealed with his ryng to his first doughter that said that she loved
him more than her self, for to pray her of succoring in that great need,
bycause he was put out of his empire. And when the doughter had red
these lettres she told it to the kyng her husband. Then quoth the kyng,
"It is good that we succor him in his need. I shall," quoth he, "gather
an host and help him in all that I can or may; and that will not be done
withoute great costage." "Yea," quoth she, "it were sufficiant if that
we would graunt him V knyghtes to be fellowship with him while he is
oute of his empire." And so it was done indeed; and the doughter wrote
again to the fader that other help might he not have, but V knyghtes of
the kynges to be in his fellowship, at the coste of the kyng her
husband.
And when the emperour heard this he was hevy in his hert and said,
"Alas! alas! all my trust was in her; for she said she loved me more
than herself, and therefore I advanced her so high."
Then he wrote to the second, that said she loved him as much as her
self. And when she had herd his lettres she shewed his erand to her
husband, and gave him in counsel that he should find him mete and drink
and clothing, honestly as for the state of such a lord, during tyme of
his nede; and when this was graunted she wrote lettres agein to hir
fadir.
The Emperour was hevy with this answere, and said, "Since my two
doughters have thus grieved me, in sooth I shall prove the third."
And so he wrote to the third that she loved him as muche as he was
worthy; and prayed her of succor in his nede, and told her the answere
of her two sisters. So the third doughter, when she considered the
mischief of her fader, she told her husbond in this fourme: "My
worshipful lord, do succor me now in this great nede; my fadir is put
out of his empire and his heritage." Then spake he, "What were thy will
I did thereto?" "That ye gather a great host," quoth she, "and help him
to fight against his enemys." "I shall fulfill thy will," said the earl;
and gathered a greate hoste and wente with the emperour at his owne
costage to the battle, and had the victorye, and set the emperour again
in his heritage.
And then said the emperour, "Blessed be the hour I gat my yonest
doughter! I loved her lesse than any of the others, and now in my nede
she hath succored me, and the others have failed me, and therefore after
my deth she shall have mine empire." And so it was done in dede; for
after the deth of the emperour the youngest doughter reigned in his
sted, and ended peacefully.
MORALITE
Dere Frendis, this emperour may be called each worldly man, the which
hath three doughters. The first doughter, that saith, "I love my fadir
more than my self," is the worlde, whom a man loveth so well that he
expendeth all his life about it; but what tyme he shall be in nede of
deth, scarcely if the world will for all his love give him five
knyghtes, _scil._ v. boards for a coffin to lay his body inne in the
sepulcre. The second doughter, that loveth her fader as muche as her
selfe, is thy wife or thy children or thy kin, the whiche will haply
find thee in thy nede to the tyme that thou be put in the erthe. And the
third doughter, that loveth thee as muche as thou art worthy, is our
Lord God, whom we love too little. But if we come to him in tyme of oure
nede with a clene hert and mynd, withoute doute we shall have help of
him against the Kyng of Egipt, _scil._ the Devil; and he shall set us in
our owne heritage, _scil._ the kyngdome of heven. _Ad quod nos_ [etc.].
ANCELMUS THE EMPEROUR[B]
Ancelmus reigned emperour in the cite of Rome, and he wedded to wife
the Kinges doughter of Jerusalem, the which was a faire woman and long
dwelte in his company.
[B] The story of the three caskets in 'The Merchant of
Venice.'
... Happing in a certaine evening as he walked after his supper in a
fair green, and thought of all the worlde, and especially that he had no
heir, and how that the Kinge of Naples strongly therefore noyed [harmed]
him each year; and so whenne it was night he went to bed and took a
sleep and dreamed this: He saw the firmament in its most clearnesse, and
more clear than it was wont to be, and the moon was more pale; and on a
parte of the moon was a faire-colored bird, and beside her stood two
beasts, the which nourished the bird with their heat and breath. After
this came divers beasts and birds flying, and they sang so sweetly that
the emperour was with the song awaked.
Thenne on the morrow the emperoure had great marvel of his sweven
[dream], and called to him divinours [soothsayers] and lords of all the
empire, and saide to them, "Deere frendes, telleth me what is the
interpretation of my sweven, and I shall reward you; and but if ye do,
ye shall be dead." And then they saide, "Lord, show to us this dream,
and we shall tell thee the interpretation of it." And then the emperour
told them as is saide before, from beginning to ending. And then they
were glad, and with a great gladnesse spake to him and saide, "Sir, this
was a good sweven. For the firmament that thou sawe so clear is the
empire, the which henceforth shall be in prosperity; the pale moon is
the empresse.... The little bird is the faire son whom the empresse
shall bryng forth, when time cometh; the two beasts been riche men and
wise men that shall be obedient to thy childe; the other beasts been
other folke, that never made homage and nowe shall be subject to thy
sone; the birds that sang so sweetly is the empire of Rome, that shall
joy of thy child's birth: and sir, this is the interpretacion of your
dream."
When the empresse heard this she was glad enough; and soon she bare a
faire sone, and thereof was made much joy. And when the King of Naples
heard that, he thought to himselfe: "I have longe time holden war
against the emperour, and it may not be but that it will be told to his
son, when that he cometh to his full age, howe that I have fought all my
life against his fader. Yea," thought he, "he is now a child, and it is
good that I procure for peace, that I may have rest of him when he is in
his best and I in my worste."
So he wrote lettres to the emperour for peace to be had; and the
emperour seeing that he did that more for cause of dread than of love,
he sent him worde again, and saide that he would make him surety of
peace, with condition that he would be in his servitude and yield him
homage all his life, each year. Thenne the kyng called his counsel and
asked of them what was best to do; and the lordes of his kyngdom saide
that it was goode to follow the emperour in his will:--"In the first ye
aske of him surety of peace; to that we say thus: Thou hast a doughter
and he hath a son; let matrimony be made between them, and so there
shall be good sikernesse [sureness]; also it is good to make him homage
and yield him rents." Thenne the kyng sent word to the emperour and
saide that he would fulfill his will in all points, and give his
doughter to his son in wife, if that it were pleasing to him.
This answer liked well the emperour. So lettres were made of this
covenaunt; and he made a shippe to be adeyned [prepared], to lead his
doughter with a certain of knightes and ladies to the emperour to be
married with his sone. And whenne they were in the shippe and hadde far
passed from the lande, there rose up a great horrible tempest, and
drowned all that were in the ship, except the maid. Thenne the maide set
all her hope strongly in God; and at the last the tempest ceased; but
then followed strongly a great whale to devoure this maid. And whenne
she saw that, she muche dreaded; and when the night come, the maid,
dreading that the whale would have swallowed the ship, smote fire at a
stone, and had great plenty of fire; and as long as the fire lasted the
whale durst come not near, but about cock's crow the mayde, for great
vexacion that she had with the tempest, fell asleep, and in her sleep
the fire went out; and when it was out the whale came nigh and swallowed
both the ship and the mayde. And when the mayde felt that she was in the
womb of a whale, she smote and made great fire, and grievously wounded
the whale with a little knife, in so much that the whale drew to the
land and died; for that is the kind to draw to the land when he shall
die.
And in this time there was an earl named Pirius, and he walked in his
disport by the sea, and afore him he sawe the whale come toward the
land. He gathered great help and strength of men; and with diverse
instruments they smote the whale in every part of him. And when the
damsell heard the great strokes she cried with an high voice and saide,
"Gentle sirs, have pity on me, for I am the doughter of a king, and a
mayde have been since I was born." Whenne the earl heard this he
marveled greatly, and opened the whale and took oute the damsell. Thenne
the maide tolde by order how that she was a kyng's doughter, and how she
lost her goods in the sea, and how she should be married to the son of
the emperour. And when the earl heard these words he was glad, and helde
the maide with him a great while, till tyme that she was well comforted;
and then he sent her solemnly to the emperour. And whenne he saw her
coming, and heard that she had tribulacions in the sea, he had great
compassion for her in his heart, and saide to her, "Goode damsell, thou
hast suffered muche anger for the love of my son; nevertheless, if that
thou be worthy to have him I shall soon prove."
The emperour had made III. vessells, and the first was of clean [pure]
golde and full of precious stones outwarde, and within full of dead
bones; and it had a superscription in these words: _They that choose me
shall find in me that they deserve._ The second vessell was all of clean
silver, and full of worms: and outwarde it had this superscription:
_They that choose me shall find in me that nature and kind desireth._
And the third vessell was of lead and within was full of precious
stones, and without was set this scripture [inscription]: _They that
choose me shall find in me that God hath disposed._ These III. vessells
tooke the emperour and showed the maide, saying, "Lo! deer damsell, here
are three worthy vessellys, and if thou choose [the] one of these
wherein is profit and right to be chosen, then thou shalt have my son to
husband; and if thou choose that that is not profitable to thee nor to
no other, forsooth, thenne thou shalt not have him."
Whenne the doughter heard this and saw the three vessells, she lifted up
her eyes to God and saide:--"Thou, Lord, that knowest all things, graunt
me thy grace now in the need of this time, _scil._ that I may choose at
this time, wherethrough [through which] I may joy the son of the
emperour and have him to husband." Thenne she beheld the first vessell
that was so subtly [cunningly] made, and read the superscription; and
thenne she thought, "What have I deserved for to have so precious a
vessell? and though it be never so gay without, I know not how foul it
is within;" so she tolde the emperour that she would by no way choose
that. Thenne she looked to the second, that was of silver, and read the
superscription; and thenne she said, "My nature and kind asketh but
delectation of the flesh, forsooth, sir," quoth she; "and I refuse
this." Thenne she looked to the third, that was of lead, and read the
superscription, and then she, saide, "In sooth, God disposed never evil;
forsooth, that which God hath disposed will I take and choose."
And when the emperour sawe that he saide, "Goode damesell, open now that
vessell and see what thou hast found." And when it was opened it was
full of gold and precious stones. And thenne the emperour saide to her
again, "Damesell, thou hast wisely chosen and won my son to thine
husband." So the day was set of their bridal, and great joy was made;
and the son reigned after the decease of the fadir, the which made faire
ende. _Ad quod nos perducat!_ Amen.
MORALITE
Deere frendis, this emperour is the Father of Heaven, the whiche made
man ere he tooke flesh. The empress that conceived was the blessed
Virgin, that conceived by the annunciation of the angel. The firmament
was set in his most clearnesse, _scil._ the world was lighted in all its
parts by the concepcion of the empress Our Lady.... The little bird that
passed from the side of the moon is our Lord Jesus Christ, that was born
at midnight and lapped [wrapped] in clothes and set in the crib. The two
beasts are the oxen and the asses. The beasts that come from far parts
are the herds [shepherds] to whom the angels saide, _Ecce annuncio vobis
gaudium magnum_,--"Lo! I shew you a great joy." The birds that sang so
sweetly are angels of heaven, that sang _Gloria in excelsis Deo_. The
king that held such war is mankind, that was contrary to God while that
it was in power of the Devil; but when our Lord Jesus Christ was born,
then mankind inclined to God, and sent for peace to be had, when he took
baptism and saide that he gave him to God and forsook the Devil. Now the
king gave his doughter to the son of the emperour, _scil._ each one of
us ought to give to God our soul in matrimony; for he is ready to
receive her to his spouse [etc.].
HOW AN ANCHORESS WAS TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL