THE PONDERER. No. 30. Amour trouva premier haulx instruments, Joustes, essaiz, behours et tournoyements. Poesies d'Alain Chartier. Chevaliers sont de moult grand pris; Ils ont de tous gens le pris, Et de los et la seignorie. Roman de Floire et de Blancheflor. Of the various consequences which attended the irruption of the northern barbarians into the Roman empire, and the subversion of that widely extended and overgrown power, there is none which bears such strong marks of originality, and which produced such a powerful effect upon the future customs, and dispositions of Europe, as the introduction of chivalry. That this spirit of martial enterprise, tinctured as it was with an enthusiastic, and almost devotional admiration of the softer sex, originated amidst the chill, and inhospitable wilds of the native soil, whence these overwhelming ravagers issued, has hitherto never been disputed; but whether previously to that period it maintained the systematic form exhibited in succeeding centuries, when the conquest of their politer neighbours had communicated a portion of refinement, and the milder arts of domestic life, is a question upon which a vast fund of ingenuity has been displayed, yet which must ever remain enveloped in uncertainty and doubt. For the historians of those barbaric times, engaged in the detail of sanguinary wars, and the revolutions of empires, have not descended to notice the minutiæ of political organization; and whilst narrating the devastations of a merciless conqueror, the depopulation of a flourishing province, or the pillage of an opulent city, the less distintinguished, though not less interesting, accounts of internal regulation have been dismissed with silence and neglect. A prominent feature of this surprising system, a system not less politic than singular, was that species of military exercise called Jousts and Tournaments; which, under the fascinating title of pleasure and amusement, kept in active exertion, a love of warlike distinction, and fanned the flames of emulation and prowess. As to the era when these dangerous pastimes assumed the aspect of a settled constitution, by the institution of the solemn ceremonies of installation, the adoption of splendid badges and devices, and by assigning to the hands of female beauty, the distribu tion of the palm of victory, a diversity of opinion has arisen, which, like every enquiry connected with earlier days, admits of much speculation and conjecture. The venerable Dr. Hurd, to whom we are indebted for a slight memorial "On Chivalry and Romance," has been unable to trace their occurrence in France (where he asserts they unquestionably made their first appearance") to a remoter date than the year 1066. M. de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, whose meritorious labours and indefatigable researches, united with an extreme felicity of conception and an elegance of diction, have shed a degree of classical lustre upon the subject, is of opinion that, attended with the paraphernalia of oaths and investitures, it would be difficult to carry them higher than the eleventh century, or nearly the same period attributed to them by the Bishop of Worcester. But Mr. Ritson, whose unexceptionable accuracy and industry are, perhaps, the only talents for which he deserves praise, and, perhaps, those only for which he himself desired it, has cited their establishment in Germany by Henry the First, surnamed the Fowler, full a century preceding, or in the year 930. His authority for this assertion* might by a * Henry's "Leges Hasti-ludiales sive de Torniamentis, &c."-Han. 1609. their politer neighbours had communicated a portion of refinement, and the milder arts of domestic life, is a question upon which a vast fund of ingenuity has been displayed, yet which must ever remain enveloped in uncertainty and doubt. For the historians of those barbaric times, engaged in the detail of sanguinary wars, and the revolutions of empires, have not descended to notice the minutiae of political organization; and whilst narrating the devastations of a merciless conqueror, the depopulation of a flourishing province, or the pillage of an opulent city, the less distintinguished, though not less interesting, accounts of internal regulation have been dismissed with silence and neglect. A prominent feature of this surprising system, a system not less politic than singular, was that species of military exercise called Jousts and Tournaments; which, under the fascinating title of pleasure and amusement, kept in active exertion, a love of warlike distinction, and fanned the flames of emulation and prowess. As to the era when these dangerous pastimes assumed the aspect of a settled constitution, by the institution of the solemn ceremonies of installation, the adoption of splendid badges and devices, and by assigning to the hands of female beauty, the distribu tion of the palm of victory, a diversity of opinion has arisen, which, like every enquiry connected with earlier days, admits of much speculation and conjecture. The venerable Dr. Hurd, to whom we are indebted for a slight memorial "On Chivalry and Romance," has been unable to trace their occurrence in France (where he asserts "they unquestionably made their first appearance") to a remoter date than the year 1066. M. de la Curne de Sainte Palaye, whose meritorious labours and indefatigable researches, united with an extreme felicity of conception and an elegance of diction, have shed a degree of classical lustre upon the subject, is of opinion that, attended with the paraphernalia of oaths and investitures, it would be difficult to carry them higher than the eleventh century, or nearly the same period attributed to them by the Bishop of Worcester. But Mr. Ritson, whose unexceptionable accuracy and industry are, perhaps, the only talents for which he deserves praise, and, perhaps, those only for which he himself desired it, has cited their establishment in Germany by Henry the First, surnamed the Fowler, full a century preceding, or in the year 930. His authority for this assertion* might by a *Henry's "Leges Hasti-ludiales sive de Torniamentis, &c."-Han. 1609. |