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III.

PLAUTILLA.

NICOPOLIS IN EPIRUS.

Obverse. HAAYTIAAA. CEBACTH. Plautilla Augusta. Bust of the Empress Plautilla to the right.

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Reverse. IEPAС. NEIKOПолЕ C (money) of Nicopolis the Sacred. A seated female figure; a patera in her right hand, and a cornucopia in her left. [In the writer's cabinet.] The city of Nicopolis in Epirus was built by Augustus to commemorate his victory in the celebrated naval battle of Actium. He conferred upon

it the important title of IEPA (sacred), and instituted games (Quinquennalia) to be held there every fifth year. Many of the coins of the Roman Emperors struck by the people of Nicopolis bear this title, and a large brass of Plautilla quoted by Mionnet,' has the additional one of Inviolable. According to Polybius, the inhabitants of the cities designated 'Iepá, were, amongst other privileges, exempted from military service.

IV.

GORDIANUS AND TRANQUILLINA.

MESEMBRIA IN THRACIA.

Obverse. AYT. K. M. ANT. TOPAIANOC. A. CEB. TPANKYAAIN Αὐτοκράτωρ Καίσαρ Μάρκος Αντωνίνος Γορδιανὸς Αὐγουστός. Σεβαστή ΤρανAleiva. The Emperor Cæsar Marcus Antoninus Gordianus Augustus (and) Augusta Tranquillina. The heads of Gordianus and Tranquillina face to face, the first laureated.

Reverse. MECAMBPIANON (money) of the people of Mesembria. Two figures in short tunics, standing, each holding aloft a shield on his left arm, and a short sword in his right hand. [In the cabinet of Mr. Thomas.]

The figures represented on the reverse of this interesting coin are two Corybantes, priests of Cybele. Some authors have supposed the Corybantes to be the young men who by loud noises drowned the cries of the infant Jupiter, and saved him from the jaws of Saturn. The frantic ceremonies of these priests provoked the raillery of the old poets. Plautus speaks of “the drumming priests of Cybele," and Juvenal compares their antics to those of drunken men. The Corybantes are generally described as bearing cymbals; but the two figures on this coin have shields and swords. Rasche h refers to a coin of Caracalla struck at Magnesia in Ionia, on which they appear with the same weapons, dancing before a divinity placed on an altar. Another coin quoted by Mionnet represents two of these priests performing their strange ceremony, with the infant Jupiter seated between them. A bas-relief in Visconti's Museo Pioclementino also exhibits the dance of the Corybantes.

V.

SEVERUS ALEXANDER.

SELEUCIA IN PISIDIA.

Obverse ...Μ . Αγ . CE . ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ.... Μάρκος Αυρήλιος Σεονῆρος 'Aléέavopos....Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander. Laureated bust of Severus Alexander, to the right.

Reverse. KAAYAIOCEAEYKEÓN (money) of the people of Claudiopolis and Seleucia (in alliance.) A naked male figure to the right, with a kind of tiara, and the paludamentum floating over his shoulders, bending a bow. E. 9. [Cabinet of Dr. J. Lee.] This coin records the alliance between the cities of Claudiopolis and

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Seleucia. The former was founded by the Emperor Claudius; the other by Seleucus King of Syria.k

VI.

Obverse. A similar head and legend.

Reverse. KAAYA................AEYKEON. Hercules to the right; his right hand raising aloft his club, his left grasping the hydra by one of its necks. Æ. 9. [In the British Museum.] The earliest coins of this city, quoted by Mionnet from Vaillant, are of Gordianus the Third. They are all of great rarity. J. Y. AKERMAN.

Yours, &c.

ON NORMAN FRENCH POETRY.*

M. FRANCISQUE MICHEL, Who is already so well known by his elegant and judicious editions of the old Norman French romances and other poetry, and who is at present pursuing his researches amongst our English libraries, by direction of the French Government, has just given to the world two most valuable additions to the results of his former labours.

The first of the books to which we allude, the beautiful romance of La Violette, written in about 1225 by Gibert de Montreuil, is interesting to Englishmen, as being the grand representative of that series of romances and tales which contained the story that afterwards entered into the plot of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Once there was in France, as the roman tells us, a good king called Louis

"Il ot en Franche j. roi jadis
Qui molt fu bials, preus et hardis,
Jouenes hom fu et entendans,
Hardis as armes et aidans;
Molt honora les chevaliers ;
Des sages fist ses consilliers,
Consel créi, consel ama,
Ainc consel ne mesaesma;
Bien estoit ensaigniés et sages,
Et molt estoit boins ses usages.
Dames, pucieles tenoit chières,
Souvent lor fesoit bieles chières.
Molt fu preus et de grant renon:
Loéys of li rois à non." (v. 67.)

"There was formerly a king in France,
Who was handsome, worthy, and bold,
He was a young man, and intelligent,
Bold in arms, and willing to assist others;
He honoured much knights;

He made wise men his councellors,

He trusted counsel, he esteemed counsel;
He never dispised counsel;

He was well-instructed and wise,
And his usages were very good.

He esteemed ladies and maidens,

Often he held for them splendid festivals.
He was a worthy man, and of great renown;
Louis was this king's name."

This was Louis the Eighth, the father of St. Louis: to one of his festivals we are introduced at the beginning of the poem, and the amusements of the court are described at some length. Among the most distinguished of the courtiers who were present at this entertainment, was Gérard of Nevers, the hero of the story, who boasted that his love, the fair Euriaus, was the most beautiful and most faithful lady between Metz and Pontoise. Now there chanced to be there

k Vaillant's Num. Græca, p. 228.

* Roman de la Violette, ou de Gérard de Nevers, en vers du xiije siècle, par Gibert de Montreuil, publié pour la première fois, d'après deux manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale, par Francisque Michel. A Paris, chez Silvestre. 1834.

Roman d'Eustache le Moine, pirate fameux du xiiie siècle, publié pour la première fois d'après un manuscrit de la Bibliothèque Royale, par Francisque Michel. Paris, chez Silvestre. Londres, Pickering. 1834.

Des Vilains. III.-La Riote du Monde. Le Roi d'Angleterre et le Jongleur d'Ely. (xiiie siècle). Publié d'après deux manuscrits, l'un de la Bibliothèque Royale, l'autre du Musée Britannique. A Paris, chez Silvestre. 1834.

Hugues de Lincoln: Recueil de Ballades Anglo-Normande et Ecossoises relatives au meurtre de cet enfant, commis par les Juifs en 1255. Publié avec une introduction et des notes, par Francisque Michel. Paris, chez Silvestre. Londres, chez Pickering. 1834.

a courtier named Lisiart, who was count and lord of Forez, a small province near Lyons, a bad and malicious man, who, envious of the happiness of Gérard, declared publicly before the King in his court that the lady Euriaus was not such as she had been represented, and offered to wager all his estates against those of the count of Nevers, that within eight days he would bring sufficient proofs of having gained her favours. The wager was accepted; Lisiart immediately went to Nevers, taking with him an escort of ten knights, and was hospitably received by the lady. The Count of Forez found all his endeavours to overthrow the constancy of Euriaus vain, and was on the point of losing his wager, when an old woman, ugly and malevolent, who was the mistress or "dueña of Euriaus, observed him as he sat pensively at the table, and ever seeking opportunities of exercising her malicious disposition, inquired the cause of his sadness, and immediately offered her service in accomplishing the object of his visit.

"

The lady Euriaus, it appears, had on her right breast the figure of a violet, a mark only known to herself and her lover Gérard, and which she had promised to keep secret from every one else. This mark Gondrée, the mistress of Euriaus, discovered while the lady was in her bath, and immediately she brought Lisiart privately to the door of the room where she was bathing, and showed him, through a hole which she had previously made for this purpose, the lady and the mark on her breast. The count, having taken leave of Gondrée, to whom he promised great honour and reward, left Nevers with his company, and rode after the court, which he found at Melun. He immediately appeared before the King, and declared that he had gained his wager, stating before Gérard and Euriaus, who had been brought to court, in proof of his success, that, when with the lady, he had seen the violet on her left breast, and that he had learnt from her that Gérard had said, if any one but himself ever knew of this mark, he should consider it a proof of her infidelity.

Gérard, convinced of the unfaithfulness of his mistress, carried her to a distant forest, where they dismounted, and he, placing her upon her knees on the ground, was on the point of cutting off her head with his sword, when she saw at no great distance a terrible serpent approaching, breathing flames from its mouth and nostrils. She exclaimed, in terror," Sir, mercy! fly hence for the love of God, for I see a fiend approaching, and, unless you take care, you will certainly be killed."

"Euriaus dist: Sire, merchi !

Pour Diu, fuiés-vous-ent de chi,
Que je voi venir .j. dyable;
Vérités est, n'est mie fable.

Mors estes, se ne vos gardés.'" (v. 1038.)

Gérard attacked, and, after a severe conflict, slew the serpent; but, softened down by this proof of the affection of his mistress, who had shown so much anxiety for his safety even when death was before her eyes, he no longer persisted in his design of killing her, but left her alone in the forest, where she in her grief tore her face and her garments with her hands, and he rode away scarcely knowing where he would go. While she lay more dead than alive, not far from the body of the serpent, it happened that the Duc de Miès (Metz) passed by, with about twenty of his knights. The duke became enamoured of the lady, and carried her to his castle, intending to make her his wife, in spite of all her intreaties to the contrary.

Meanwhile, Gérard resolved to go to Nevers, to witness the change which had taken place in his affairs, and, in the disguise of a jogelour, with his viol hung about his neck, he introduced himself into the hall where Lisiart was seated at table with the treacherous Gondrée, and he began to sing before them a stanza of the roman of Guillaume le Marchis au cort nés.* While Gérard was here, he overheard a conversation between Lisiart and Gondrée, which discovered to him at once the stratagem that had been employed against him

* A poem which is still preserved.

and convinced him of the innocence of his mistress. Gérard immediately left the hall, threw off his disguise, mounted his horse, and rode in search of the lovely and injured Euriaus.

A large portion of the poem is, as in most of the old romances, devoted to a detailed account of the adventures of the Count Gérard, and his deeds of chivalry, during his long search after his mistress.

In the mean time Euriaus remained at Miès. The duke had been prevailed upon to relinquish his intention of marrying her, and she was in her chamber thinking of Gérard and her country, when a varlet brought her a lark which he had caught, and which it now became her amusement to feed. One day the lark took in its beak a valuable ring which had been given her by her lover, which by some accident passed over its head and round its neck, and flew away never to return. Whilst Euriaus lay in her chamber, almost dead with grief for the loss of her ring, there entered a bad and uncourteous knight, called Meliatir, who attempted to offer violence to her, but she struggled, and escaped into the hall, where she met Ysmaine, the sister of the duke, with whom she was accustomed to sleep. In the night, the traitor who had attempted her honour, entered the chamber where the two ladies were sleeping, struck his dagger to the heart of Ysmaine, and then placed it in the hand of Euriaus. In the morning Euriaus was accused of the murder, and judgment was only delayed until the duke's uncle, the duke of Bar-le-Duc, a wise and eloquent man, should arrive to give his counsel on the occasion.

Gérard, at Cologne, had fallen in love with Aiglente, the daughter of the Duke Milo, and ceased to think of Euriaus. One day, as he was hawking, his hawk pounced upon a lark, which proved to be the same bird that had carried away the ring. Gérard knew the ring, thought of his former mistress, and, though the parting was difficult, left his new love to go in search of her. And he wandered about, sometimes singing songs of faithful love, at others rescuing ladies from danger, and performing many chivalrous feats, till at last he came near to Miès. Here he fell into company with some knights, who told him they were going to see the execution of a beautiful lady, who had been found in a wood, and who had since been guilty of a cruel murder. The count immediately conjectured that this fair lady must be no other than his Euriaus, whom he had so long sought in vain. When he arrived at Miès, he found her on her knees in prayer, beside the fire in which she was immediately to be burnt, and he demanded that the judgment should be reconsidered. The cause of Euriaus was, accordingly, pleaded again, and it was finally submitted to a trial in single combat between Gérard and the false but courageous Meliatir, who was overcome, and compelled to confess his own guilt. We will not attempt to describe the joy of Gérard de Nevers, when he had thus found and recovered his love, and it is almost needless to add, that he immediately accused Lisiart before the king, that he challenged and overcame him in combat, that the latter confessed his evil deeds, and that Gérard recovered his lands, that Gondrée was boiled in a chaldron, and that Gérard and Euriaus were immediately married.

"Li rois et li baron plus haut
Furent as nueches, ki durèrent
.Viij. jors que onques ne finèrent;
Plus plénières ne vit mais nus.
Ains menestreus n'i fu venus
A pié, c'à cheval n'en alast,
Et reube vaire n'enmalast
En sac ou en boge ou en male.
Nus n'i oï parolle male,
Mais joie et solas et déduit
Et sons et notes et conduit
I furent canté maintes fois ;
N'i furent pas mis en défois
Les caroles, les espringales.
Onques li rois Artus en Gales
A Pentecouste n'a Noël

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"The king and the chief barons
Were at the nuptials, which lasted
Eight days without interruption;
No one ever saw any better attended.
There was not a minstrel who came there
On foot, but departed on horse,
Or who did not carry with him a variegated
In sack, or in budget, or in box.
No one heard there ill speech,
But joy and gladness and pleasure
And songs and notes and chants
Were there sung many times;
Nor were forbidden there
Carols and espringales.

Never did King Arthur in Wales
At Pentecost or at Christmas

Ne tint onques si riche ostel." (v. 6576.) Hold so rich a house."

We cannot give too much praise to M. Michel for the care and skill with which he has edited this elegant romance from the two remaining manuscripts. In the introductory notice he has given a detailed account of all the forms under which the story has appeared; and his notes, equally learned, are invaluable to all those who would be acquainted with the language of the Norman minstrels. The volume, of which only two hundred copies have been printed,* is a beautiful specimen of typography, and is splendidly adorned with seven admirable fac-similes of the illuminations of the prose Roman de la Violette, besides coloured fac-similes of the two MSS. of the poem.

The other of the two books to which we have alluded, which is still more valuable and interesting to Englishmen, is the roman of Eustace the Monk. In our chronicles, Eustace figures only as a partisan of the English barons against John, as having brought a powerful fleet to their aid, and as having been defeated and slain on the sea, in his attempt at a descent upon England, but from the manner in which he is mentioned, it is evident that his name and story must have been well known at the time. Our roman, a name, by the way, which does not in the least preclude the supposition of the history being true, gives us the whole life of this extraordinary man, and it is full of humorous adventures and daring acts. In a long and very interesting introductory notice, M. Michel has collected together every thing that is known of Eustace, and he has also printed several documents concerning him and his English possessions, which have been discovered among the close letters and the patent rolls in the Tower of London.

The roman of Eustache le Moine consists of 2306 lines. It tells us that, before he became a black monk, he had studied magic at Toledo in Spain, at that period the chief school of this art, and that his instructor was the evil one himself.

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When he left Toledo for his native land, the devil told him the outline of his

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His first exploit was, to take a most ludicrous vengeance, by means of his magic art, upon the people of Montferrant. On the road from this place another opportunity occurred for the exercise of Eustace's art, on the person of a

* The French publications of the old Norman literature are generally confined to small numbers, and have not been advertised, so that it has been impossible to obtain copies of them through the London booksellers. We are, therefore, rejoiced to learn that Pickering has lately made arrangements with those of the French booksellers who publish them, and that in future there will be no difficulty in procuring all of them through him.

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