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December 29, 1855,1 T H E L E A D E R. 1...
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EARLY GREEK ROMANCE. The GreeJt Romances...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Essays For The Age. Eatayafor The Age. B...
sex , Right is meekness , and Wordsworth ' s Excursion ; Wrong is Byron , and the ¦ vol uptuous Moore . Right is baby-linen for the poor , and slippers of Tyrian hue for Sybarite divines ; Wrong is too much confidence and trustingness , qualities which generally bring forth ruin and shame . Right is caution , contentment , and Marthaism ; Wrong is marrying a poor brave man whom you love . For the sterner sex , Right is a tight umbrella and a " right-and-proper " conventional tone ; Wrong , the utterance of any chivalrous sentiment or freehearted speech . Right is demureness and subserviency ; Wrong is sincerity and candour . Eight is Sir John Paul , Bates , and Company , with a godly company of Saints , and a Chapel with patrons , who give Evangelical tea-parties , where the scandal of the neighbourhood is well discussed—all , of course , for the glory of religion , and the honour of virtue . Such a community necessarily grows rich , being well fed by the loaves of the devout and free-will offerings of the pious . When was it ever known that the righteous was deserted , or his seed begging their bread ? Certainly not . Chapel pews always let for high rentals , on purpose to fulfil those words of the Psalmist .
December 29, 1855,1 T H E L E A D E R. 1...
December 29 , 1855 , 1 T H E L E A D E R . 1253
Early Greek Romance. The Greejt Romances...
EARLY GREEK ROMANCE . The GreeJt Romances ofHeliodorus , Long us , and Achillas Tatius . Translated from the Greek , with Notes , bv the Rev . kowland Smith , M . A ., formerly of St . John ' s College , Oxford . " London : Bonn . Fisw books have had a greater influence on modern literature than the three works here reprinted by Mr . Bolin , in a cheap form , and worthily included in his " Classical Library ; " yet , until now , it was with the utmost difficulty that a copy of any of them could be procured . The lover of early romance was obliged to search the British Museum , or some other large collection , before he could make himself acquainted with these renowned elder brothers of the great family of fiction , either in their original language , or in the form of translations ; and evenliterary men have been obliged to content themselves with the summaries given by Dunlop , in his " History of Fiction , " and to take the reputed merits of the originals for granted . Consequently , the re-issue , for five shillings , of Heliodorus , Longus , and Achilles Tatius , will be welcomed in many humble libraries .
Heliodorus—the chief of the triad , both as regards length of composition , and priority of birth—has been regarded by many as the father of Romance . Yet lie can scarcely maintain the position . Not to speak of that vast world of fiction which is embodied in ancient poetry—not to include the stories sprinkled thickly throughout the Bible , though many of these are confessedly put forth as inventions or parables—not , in short , to go so far a-field , but to confine ourselves to elaborate narrations in prose , written mainly with a design to entertain , it must be acknowledged , even with this limitation , that Heliodorus had his predecessors . Indeed , the " Ethiopies , or the Adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea , " exhibit an elaborate and highly artificial state of fiction-writing ; and we do not find that any branch of literature has sprung at once into such ample growth . It is impossible , moreover , to conceive that Europe ( to put Asia out of the question ) would have waited until the fourth or fifth century after Christ for a species of literary composition so obvious and so delightful ; and , upon investigation , it has been found that , Greek of Asia
long before the period of Heliodorus , the Milesians—a colony Minor—were celebrated for their amatory tales , the germs of which were probably derived from the nations of the East . Antonius Diogenes , who lived a little while after Alexander the Great , wrote a romance called " Dinias and Dercillis ; " Petronius Arbiter may be described as a romance -writer of the time of Nero ; and Jamblichus , a native of Babylonia , but a Greek by descent , composed , in the course of the second century , the " History of the Amours of Rhodis and Sinonides . " In the same century , Apuleius produced his " Golden Ass "—a romance imitated from the earlier works of Lueian and Lucius , and of a nature not to be confounded with history or mythology . The " Life of Apollonius of Tyana , " by Philostratus , though pretending to be the veritable biography of that singular union of philosophy and imposture , is so mixed with extravagant adventures and continual reference to the supernatural , that it may fairly be ranked as a work of fiction , even if " founded on fact : " and instances to the same effect might be multiplied .
Thus , we see that , some centuries previous to the year 400 ( at which period I-Ieliodorus appears first to have distinguished himself ) , Romance was known in Europe . It is possible , however , that Heliodorus may have piven a new character to fiction-writing ; may have extended its limits—enriched it with a more wealthy and vital imagination —adorned it with greater variety and strangeness of incident—and , by separating from its texture all satire and all obviously didactic purpose , made it more fit for entertainment and mental recreation . Certain it is that " Theagenes and Chariclea" was for many centuries regarded as the model for compositions of the same kind ; that it l of the whl
has had an influence perfectly astounding upon the iterature nearly oe of Europe ; and that , by the medium of numerous translations , paraphrases , & c , it has permeated , not only through the prose fiction of Italy , Spain , trance , and England , but has reached even the poetry of some of those countries , and has found its way to the stage , and to the canvass of the artist , Hie interminable romances which , o » the revival of learning , became popular all over Europe—the " Diana" of George of Montemayor ; the early productions of Cervantes , and even " Don Quixote" itself , making allowance for the satire } the novels of Calprcncde and Scuderi ; the " Aatrca of < l Urle ; the "Arcadia" of Sir Philip Sydney ; the " Argcins of Barclay , & cetner witu tno snorter iiues % * * - «
tog , auc-u u . » n » u m ***** " *^ , — "' . * . ' and Florentine , and the fairy fictions of Madame d'Aulnoys ,- » ill derive their origin in some degree ( though bringing , of course , muchadditional wealth to the stock ) from the fertile source of the " Ethiopics . " We might go larther , and say that , notwithstanding their greater reference to nature and dramatic truth , the works of Lc Sage , Richardson , and Fielding , show some lingering relics of the sty le which , though not originated by the old Phoenician Huhop , was , owing to some superior energy of imagination , some ho lier perception of ideal fitness , or some ' greater gust " of language , projected by him into the literary mind of ISurope , like a subtle elixir , turning Gothic and Celtic lead into classic gold . Tasso , becoming acquainted with " Ihcagenea and Chaviclea" at tho court of Charles IX . of France , where it was the delight of the fine ladies and gentlemen who loved and petted and sighed over a work of imagination as if it were a porcelain vase , — fasso , being smitten with the fortunes of the hero and heroine , and wishing to please the courtiers ,
promised them , according to Ghirardini , " that they should soon see the work attired in the most splendid vestments of Italian poetry , and kept his promise by transferring to the heroine Clorinda ( in the tenth Canto of the ' Gerusalemme ') the circumstances attending the birth and early life of the Ethiopian maiden , Chariclea . " Dunlop adds , that " the proposed sacrifice and subsequent discovery of the birth of Chariclea have likewise been imitated in the ' Pastor Fido , ' Guarini , and , through it , in the ' Astrea , ' of d' Urfe . " Racine projected a drama on the subject of the '; Ethiopies ; " and Dorat produced in Paris , in 1762 , a tragedy , entitled "Theagenes and Chariclea . "
The old English tragi-comedy , called " The Strange Discovery , ' was suggested by the same romance ; and Hardy , the French poet , wrote no less than eight dramas on this one story . In addition to these testimonies to the popularity of Heliodorus , we may mention that Raphael , assisted by Julio Romano , has painted two pictures from the old Greek fiction . Heliodorus was a native of Emesa in Phoenicia , probably coming of a Greek stock , and was created Christian Bishop of Tricca in Thessaly . His episcopal function , according to Nicephorus , was thought to be outraged by Chariclea inasmuch
the writing of such a book as " Theagenes and , " " as many of the youths were drawn into peril of sin by the perusal of these amorous tales / ' The Provincial Synod , therefore , ordered the romance-loving Bishop to burn his story or renounce his see ; an < l , like a true , honest worshipper of God-given Art , he chose the latter alternative . But , unfortunately , this anecdote , so worthy to rank among the heroisms and self-sacrifices of genius , is held to be apocryphal . It is not unlikely , however , that the fellow-bishops of Heliodorus may , in the ultra-Puritanism of their virtue , ot love neaxnenism ior
have regarded with pious horror this romance ana „ the scene is laid in ancient Greece , Egypt , and Ethiopia , and , although there is real religious feeling in the book , the objects of worship are , of course , Apollo , Diana , & c . We have a right , indeed , to assume even the probability of the Synod objecting to the Bishop ' s literary performance , because Jeremy Tavlor—the ornate preacher who robed his religious discourses in the most gorgeous vestments of poetry—says , in a letter to Evelyn , that the composition of the " Ethiopies" was a wide departure from the duty ot the Bishop . Yet , allowing for a certain , openness and sincerity of expression common to the agethe romance is by no means licentious .
, After passing into the literary mind of Europe , " Theagenes and Chariclea would seem to have fallen into a temporary obscurity ; but a manuscript popy is said to have been saved by a soldier at the sack of Buda , in 1526 ( an anecdote which the Rev . Rowland Smith , M . A ., might as well have told his readers in his Preface ) ; and this circumstance appears to have brought it ao-ain into notice , for the first printed edition was issued at Basil , in 1534 . A translation was made by a Polish knight ; and Amyot , the translator of Plutarch , rendered it into French . As a set-off to the story of HelioJorus losing leasant to note h
his bishopric in consequence of his romance , it is p ( thoug our reverend editor seems to consider it below his attention ) that , for translating that romance , Amyot obtained the abbey of Bellasone . l ' our translations , according to Mr . Smith , have been made into English : one by Thomas Underdo wne , London , 1587 ; another by W . Lisle , 1622 ; a third by Nahum Tate and others , in 1 ( 586 ; and a fourth in l /^ J- Mr- bnaitli , on his title-pa-e , speaks of having made the translation now before us himself ; but , in his ^ preface , he says that it is « based " on that of 1 , 1 > 1 . Of the fitness of the latter translation to form this base , Mr- Smith shall himself
speak : — - > " The version upon which the present one is founded ism many places more of a paraphrase than a translation . Several paaaagea . are entirely omitted , while ot others the sense has been mistaken ; it has been the endeavour of tho translator to remedy these defect * , and to give the meaning of his author as literally as ih consistent with , avoiding stiffness and ruggednouB of stylo . We strongly suspect , though the Rev . Mr . Smith does not say so , that the translation-or " version " -of 1791 , is not direct from the Greek , but that it comes through the Trench . The characteristics of Heliodorus will have been deduced in a great measure from the foregoing observations . " Tasso , " says the Kev . Mr Smith , praiaes him for the skill which he displays in keeping the mind of his reader m suspense , and in gradually clearing up what appeared confused and pcrp lexej . His literary vices , however , are numerous . The narrative is olten prohv , artificial , and involved ; the characters have no reference to nature , or to the „ .,. ««•« . « : „„« fl . ' . * . mtions of nassion , but sneak in set , rhetorical phrases , such
, as HeHodorus ( who was a Sophist ) might have learned m the schools ana there is a continual tendency to interrupt the action by untimely exhi itions of the mere author . Yet , the sin of prolixity is not earned to nearly e same extent that it reached in later works ; and we must concede to the " Ethiopies " great variety of situation , great wealth of scenery and accessor ** andgreat ingenuity in the elaboration of the plot . The description of the pirate ' s retreat in tfie First Book-a reedy marsh , »|> readuig drowsily between barren islands which are approached with difficulty from the landthe windingcave in which Chariclea L hidden-the sudden attack made upon to b ccanccrs by other buccaneers-and the firing of the dry reed * and the ent " n tL islands , which burn iuto a light grey ash that the wind Heaticr * -all this has the vividness and picturesque truth of modern i ?™" -. , f other parts again ( especially in the long . iigressions and the epwoj 1 « - w * J » episodes , as well as in a certai n Asiatic splendour and »« n » ptu «» "V ^ 'J t J ™ reminded of the " Arabian NightB - -th . it is to say . of the " ™»^™{ ^ m work from the French-not o ? the passionate , red-bloodc Onei tal yc s . on of Mr . Lane ; and , perhaps , in the very next , m « e . wo « ft C ( (/' ' r Jr As , the primitive intensity , and reference to « i »| ile , ^ S S ' lVon S 3 « fn .. : L .. « . „ : „ * i .: o . i ,. anm » t ;» n nf n vouiur man dosccnuui noiu W '""";
" 11 £ " ; ye we of a d ^; blue , inclining to ^^ CtA f ^ aio ^ animated look to his countenance , like ' *' " « * JJ °£ " * ^ hh a » 1 am 7 into a calm" Or , in the fM ^^ P ^^^ aS ^ hi ^ Jwiih a kind of thysts- " tho former M green as tlj vc « jI co J , a « < J wA f j oily lustre ; tho latter rosewlihnK the ww « ir oi j" V " . ¦ , fo it a purple
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29121855/page/17/
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