and dryness of the style, spite of the strange birth and chimerical adventures of its hero. Dr Johnson, I suppose, is the only person in this land who has been guilty of reading the whole of Felixmarte of Hyrcania. Bishop Percy informed Boswell, "That the doctor, when a boy, was immoderately fond of romances of chivalry, and he retained his fondness for them through life; so that, spending part of a summer at my parsonagehouse in the country, he chose for his regular reading the old Spanish romance of Felixmarte of Hyrcania, in folio, which he read quite through." -Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. I. p. 25, 8vo.,

The more celebrated romance of Don Belianis of Greece, is frequently alluded to in Avellaneda's continuation of Don Quixote, and is also mentioned by Cervantes more favourably than most others of the same description, in the scrutiny of the library. "This which I have in my hands, said the barber, is the famous Belianis. Truly, cried the curate, he with his second, third, and fourth parts, had need of a dose to purge his ex

'Libro primero del valoroso e invencible prencipe Don Belianis de Grecia, hijo del Emperador Don Belanio de Grecia, sacada de lengua Griega en la qual le escrivio el sabio Fristan por un hijo del vertuoso varon Toribio Fernandez. Printed 1564 and 1579.

cessive choler: Besides, his castle of Fame should be demolished, and a heap of other rubbish removed, in order to which I give my vote to grant them the benefit of a reprieve, and as they shew signs of amendment, so shall mercy or justice be used towards them: In the mean time take them into custody, and keep them safe at home; but let none be permitted to converse with them."

It would be needless to detain and tire the reader with any account of the history of the Invencible Cavallero Don Polindo, son of the king of Numidia, and his love with the Princess Belisia; of the Valeroso Cavallero Don Cirongilio of Thrace, son of the king of Macedonia, written by Bernardo de Vargas, or of the Esforzado Cavallero Don Clarian de Landanis, by Geronimo Lopez.

There still remain, however, two romances of considerable beauty and interest, which first appeared in the dialect of Catalonia.

When the Romans were expelled from Spain by the northern invaders, the language they bequeathed was adopted, but soon disfigured by the conquerors. During the ninth century it was still farther corrupted by the inroads of the Moors, and had at length so far degenerated, that the Arabic became the chief vehicle of literary composition.

In the eleventh century the French Romans lan

guage was introduced into the peninsula by prince Henry of Lorraine, who married a daughter of Alphonso VI. of Castile, and was diffused by the intercourse which subsisted between the French and Spanish nations, in their mutual resistance of the Saracens. A great change in consequence took place in the language of Spain, and five or six different dialects were spoken in the peninsula. Of these, the earliest, the most widely extended, and the one which bore the strongest resemblance to the southern French Romans, was that adopted in Catalonia. It was spoken in that province, in Roussillon and Valentia; and, till the period of the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, (when the Castilian tongue became prevalent,) it was the language which afforded the best specimens, both of prose and poetical composition. Petrarch is said to have been largely indebted to the amatory verses of the Troubadours of this region, and two of the earliest and most interesting romances that have been produced in Spain, appeared in the dialect of Catalonia, previous to their translation into the Castilian.

Of these the earliest, and perhaps the most curious, is

TIRANTE THE WHITE,'

the first part of which was written in the Catalo nian dialect by Johan Martorell, a knight of Valencia, but being left unfinished by him, it was compleated by Juan de Galba. The first of these authors informs us he translated it from the English, by which Mr Warton conjectures he meant the Breton language, in which it may have been originally written. It is difficult to say whether this assertion of the author be true, or whether he has framed the story, to give some appearance of authenticity to his romance, which relates the exploits of a Breton knight. That part of it which contains the history of the earl of Warwick, is, I think, most probably translated, as it closely corresponds with the old English romance, Guy of Warwick, which was versified from the original French in the beginning of the 14th century;a period long preceding the composition of Tirante the White in Spain.

'Los cinco libros del efforçado y invencibile Cavallero Tirante el Blanco di Roca Salada Cavellero de la Garrotera, el qual por su alta Cavalleria alcanço a ser principe y Cesar del imperio de Grecia.

At what time this romance was written or translated by Martorell, is not precisely ascertained. It was first printed, however, at Valencia, in 1490; and there is mentioned in it a work on chivalry, entitled, L'Arbre des Batailles, which was written in 1390; so that it must have been composed between these two periods. But the date may, I think, be still farther limited. The Canary islands were discovered in 1326, and began to be well known in Europe about 1405. Now, from the false notions expressed concerning them in Tirante, and the extravagant idea which seems to be entertained of their power and magnitude, it is probable this romance was written before their precise situation and extent were ascertained in the peninsula. On the whole, therefore, the era of its composition may be pretty safely fixed about the year 1400.

Tirante, as has been mentioned, was first published in the Catalonian dialect at Valencia, in 1490. It was thence transferred into the Castilian language, and published at Valladolid in 1511, one volume folio. There has been no subsequent Spanish edition, but the Italian translation by Lelio Manfredi has passed through three impressions, of which the first appeared in 1538. The Count de Caylus more lately brought it forward in a