be wanted the Italians for the accomplishment of his own ambitious designs. It has been again in the power of the Congress,. but private interest has silenced every other sentiment, at a time when the day-star of liberty had begun to dawn on Italy. They are now under the sway of masters whom they can never love or respect. If the Saxons had reason to complain, how much. more reason have the Italians to lament their bitter lot. The Saxon inhabits a country resembling Prussia, he speaks the same language, possesses the same taste. He is a German in all situations, whether under the King of Dresden, or the King of Berlin. But the Italian is neither an Hungarian, a German, or a Pole. He is born under another sky; he has been brought up with different ideas; he speaks a different language, has different manners and customs. These were the people that called for the interest of Europe and that of the Congress. But, in thus sacrificing the Italians, has France saved Saxony. Let us listen to M. de Pradt: "Prussia has become a preponderating power in Europe, necessary to balance Austria, more necessary still to restrain Russia. Her possessions are cut asunder by those of a foreigner. This foreigner, placed in the heart of Prussia, naturally inclines towards the enemies of Prussia. It belongs to them more than to her; but, if attacked, who is to defend it but Prussia? If in the actually approaching state of Russia towards the centre of Europe, what should Prussia, the advanced guard of Europe, do, if she were attacked by Russia? Does not the interposition of a state not belonging to her, weaken the means she ought to possess, in order to protect the post assigned her for the general benefit? If she should happen to be attacked on the side of Saxony, what use would Europe derive from having taken so much trouble to preserve that which thus would contribute to her destruction? Prussia was perfectly correct, both for herself and for Europe, in demanding the incerporation of Saxony. She asked for an existence being given in public law to that which had already an existence in fact; she asked Europe not to weaken its protectress: above all, she asked France not to promote the interests of a state, whose existence did not concern her, in preference to those of her ancient ally;—a state that she could no more be defended by than defend: she asked her to look at Europe, and not at one member of the family; she asked her not to compel her to come and settle in her neighbourhood, which would necessarily cool the friendship so mutually necessary to preserve. Instead of this, what has taken place? The interests of Europe have been out of the question: they have given the preference to the establishment of what is called the legitimacy of an order of succession, rather than that of a political order: they have talked of sensibility: above all, and it is singular enough, they mentioned the rights of nations. To hear all that took place for three three months, a casual observer would have thought that the Congress was specially assembled to save Saxony, and the King of Saxony. For three months we uniformly read in the public papers, and under the same head, The King of Saxony is saved; but he has ceded the two Lusatias, the circle of, the Lordship of, the Duchy of ;' that is to say, the King of Saxony is saved, but Saxony is lost. And how have they saved him? By taking from him almost as much as his whole kingdom. Is not the King of Saxony in fact separated from his best provinces? What is to become of the King of Saxony, if the King of Prussia almost touches the suburbs of Dresden? How bitterly will this sovereign lament, in the midst of the cutting regrets that they have prepared for him, his remaining attached to the mutilated body of his states! Will not his heart be more afflicted with the cries of that part of his family that they have taken from him, than consoled by the affections of those still left to him? And the Saxons, separated from Saxony, will they be more happy? Will they be more affectionate subjects, after all that has been said about the rights of the people? Will they be less connected with Saxony remaining such, and less preserved by them in their primitive attachment to Saxony and its sovereign, than those which are opposed to their new duties?" P. 145. In analysing the errors committed by the Congress, M. de Pradt is never deficient in pointing out a new arrangement of things, which, he thinks, would have better insured the safety and tranquillity of Europe. With many of his ideas, we perfectly agree; but we have the misfortune of not seeing the advantage that would arise from others. Our narrow limits hinder us from analysing them; and indeed if we were called upon to give our opinion of the real idea which animated M. de Pradt in writing the Congress of Vienna, we should, without the least hesitation, assert it to have been that of letting the Rhine form the boundaries of France. To promote this view, he enlarges so much on the necessity of rendering Prussia a very great power, of giving an arrondissement to its dominion, of preventing its being too near a neighbour of France, that they may not become hostile to each other. But as the analysis of this opinion would lead us much beyond our limits, we must refer our readers to the work itself. But we must repeat it again, he must not be startled by the apparent contradictions, by the praises so often lavished on persons in power, by the air of meekness which are to be met with at every page of the Congress of Vienna: they are merely to be considered as ingredients to the dust, with which M. de Pradt intends to blind the eyes of his higher political readers. ART. ART. VI. Fabliaux, or Tales, abridged from French MSS. of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, by M. Le Grand; selected and translated into English Verse, by the late G. L. Way, Esq. With a Preface, Notes, and Appendix, by the late G. Ellis, Esq. A new Edition, corrected. 3 vols. 8vo. J. Rodwell. 1815. ACCUSTOMED, as the people of this island were, from the earliest ages, to poetical recitation, celebrated as were their bards, and afterwards their gleemen or jogelers, it must certainly appear extraordinary that our language should be less rich in productions of this nature, than that of our continental neighbour. We believe however it will be found, that in the twelfth century, the poets of Britain were neither less common nor less excellent; but that circumstances unfortunately united, not only to strip them of their just fame, but to transfer their very honours to their adversaries. Dr. Percy has observed, that, "in the first ages after the conquest, no other songs would be listened to by the great nobility, but such as were composed in their own Norman French." And other writers have conjectured, that, in cousequence, the best English poets of the age constantly wrote in that language; and that the majority of the romances, translated a century afterwards into English, were originally written by Englishmen. When it shall be remembered, that the French language, which had been previously introduced here, was the only one known to the monarch, and the chief barons that surrounded him, that the country was literally studded with castles garrisoned by foreigners, that the sees of the church were almost wholly in their possession, that all law proceedings were in that language, that the law itself was so promulgated; in brief, that in the classes capable of patronising this species of entertainment, that language must be admitted as equally in common to both countries; and further, that in almost one half of this, and all similar collections, we find celebrated the deeds of Arthur, and his renowned countrymen. This opinion will be admitted as something more than problematical, and at least these Tales received as equally connected with the literary history of both countries. Having said thus much in defence of our countrymen, we venture, without entering, with M. Le Grand, into a criticism as to the prior antiquity of the Trouveurs or the Troubadours, indeed without distinguishing between them, to assert, that to these men, the earlier poets of all Europe were in a degree indebted. Of our own, Gower, and Lydgate, and Chaucer, it is indisputable. In the Canterbury Tales of the last, and by far the the best of these writers, "The Frankelunes," for example, he himself avows to have been originally" rimeyed" in the " Breton tonge;" and it should be recollected, when we trace the tale to Boccace, or some other writer, that it is not improbable that what they have in common, they had from some common original: as is supposed to have been the case in "The Tale of the Shipman," and "The Reves Tale;" the latter of which was believed to have been taken from the Decameron, d9, n6; till Tyrwhit shewed it to be more probable, that they both had it from an old Fabliau, called "De Gombert et des deux Clers:" or that Chaucer's authority had been indebted to these men, as in "The Man of Lawe's Tale," which he had from Gower, but the original of which is perhaps to be sought for much higher; as the same authority mentions, that a very similar old English rhyme is still existing among the Cotton MSS. which itself concludes, "Thys ys on of Brytayne layes, That was used by olde dayes." It must be quite needless to remind the reader, if at all acquainted with the literature of that age, that the worst, and, unfortunately, the most conspicuous feature of its poetry, is its tedious and wire-worn prolixity, or that it is redeemed by occasional passages of great sweetness and simplicity. The translation before us, although highly creditable to Mr. Way, and perhaps not the less so on this account, has, in a great degree, both the beauties and defects of the original. From an anxiety to preserve their native simplicity, this gentleman informs us, that he has been induced "to try an experiment, of the success of which he can only judge by the suffrages of his readers. Every one has observed," he continues, "that certain expressions become, by habit, appropriate to the modes of particular periods." He has endeavoured therefore, "to adapt the colouring and costume of language, to the manners he describes: to give an exact copy in miniature of the works of antiquated masters; not to rival or eclipse them by the superior brilliancy of his tints, or by the nicer artifice of his composition." This explanation of his intention, was every way due to the translator. The tale of Aucassis and Nicoletté, is not only the first in order in the collection, but the principal in length, in interest, and in diversity of incident; and has particular claims on our attention, as abounding most in that species of poetical beauty, to which alone the works of a Trouveur can be permitted to aspire. The description of Nicolette, for example, is full of that lovely simplicity, which we seek in vain among the writings of more polished ages. "Fair "Fair flaxen locks sweet Nicolette did grace, Neither is the incident of this girl's escape from the soldiers on their nightly round, when conversing with her lover, as Peter Quince would say, through the chink of a wall," by the generous intimation of a centinel, inelegantly told; and we believe it will not fail to bring strongly to the reader's recollection a similar one in Mr. Scott's Lady of the Lake. "Fain would he tell the maid, but then he fears, Of tresses fair, of laughing eye, "Heaven's peace your sire's and mother's soul betide The opening of "The Gentle Bachelor," would sufficiently awaken the reader's attention. "What gentle bachelor is he Whose infant food a helm did yield? |