Reliques of ancient English poetry: consisting of old heroic ballads ...

iv ANCIENT SONGS
the feeds of Chivalry before it became a folemn inftitution^.
"Chivalry, as a diftintt military order, con-
" ferred in the way of inveftiture, and accompanied with
" the folemnity of an oath, and other ceremonies," was
of later date, and fprung out of the feudal conititution,
as an elegant writer has lately fhown (h). But the ideas
of Chivalry prevailed long before in all the Gothic na-
tions, and may be discovered as in embrio in the cuftoms,
manners, and opinions, of every branch of that
people (i). That fondnefs of going in quell of adventures,
that fpirit of challenging to fingle combat,
and that refpe&ful complaifance fhewn to the fair fex,
(fo different from the manners of the Greeks and Romans),
all are of Gothic origin, and may be traced up
to the earlieft times among all the northern nations (k.)
Thefe exifted long before the feudal ages, tho' they
were called forth and ftrengthened in a peculiar manner
under that conftitution, and at length arrived to
their full maturity in the times of the Crufades, fa
replete with romantic adventures (I).
Even the common arbitrary fiftions of Romance
were (as is hinted above) moll of them familiar to the
ancient
(g) Mallet, vid. Defcript of the Manners, &c. of the Danes, vol.
I. p. 318, &C V0l.2. p. 234- &C'
(b) Letters concerning Chivalry. 8vo. 1763.
(1) Mallet, paffim.
(k) Mallet, paffim.
(!) They could not owe their rife either to the feudal fyftem or to
the Crulades, becaufe they exifted long before either. Neither were
the Romances of Chivalry tranfmitted to other nations from the
Spaniards ; who have been fuppofed to borrow them from the Moors,
and thefe to have brought them from the eaft. Had this been the
cafe, the firft Frer.ch Romances in verfe would have been upon the
fame fub';e£b of thofe of the Spaniards : whereas the moft ancient
metrical Romances in Spanifh have nothing in common with thofe of
the 1'rench, Englifh, &c. being altogether on Moorifli fuhje&s • and
the S'pariifr Romances on the fubje&s of Charlemagne, Arthur, &c.
are chiefly in urofe and of later date, being evidently borrowed frcm the
French.