This giant brood being routed and dispersed, Lisuarte is induced, by certain deceitful, flattering, and envious courtiers, to treat the services of Amadis with slight and neglect. Erelong, this coldness comes to an open breach: Amadis, and his friends and followers, formally renounce the service of Lisuarte; and all retire, with their heroic leader, to the Firm Island, the sovereignty of which he had acquired. Galaor alone, bound by repeated obligations to Lisuarte, continues to adhere to him; and thus the author artfully contrives, that the reader shall retain an interest, even in the party opposed to Amadis. Oriana, during the absence of her lover, is secretly delivered of a son, named Esplandian; but as the heroines of the author are all mothers before they are wives, so they are never trusted with the education of their own children. The little Esplandian is carried off by a lioness, from whom he is rescued by a saint and hermit, called Nasciano. He is educated by this holy man and in process of time presented to his grandfather Lisuarte, and received into the train of his own mother. During this long space, Amadis wanders about the world, redressing wrongs, slaying monsters, and turning the tide of battle against the oppressors, wherever he comes. He has even the generosity (in disguise) to assist Lisuarte in a very desperate battle with Aravigo, a powerful monarch, whom the inveterate enchanter Arcalaus had stirred up against the King of Britain. But the Emperor of Rome, El Patin, as the romance calls him, sends to Lisuarte, to demand the hand of his daughter

Oriana; and the King, seduced by ambition, is illadvised enough to force his daughter to this marriage, in spite of the advice of his best counsellors. Amadis repairs, under a new disguise, to Britain; and the knights sent by the Emperor to receive his bride, sustain at his hands a thousand disgraces, unpitied by the English, to whom they were odious for their insolence and presumption. At length the princess is put on board the Roman fleet; but that fleet is intercepted, and after a desperate combat, finally defeated by a squadron fitted out from the Firm Island, to which Oriana is conveyed in triumph. The discretion of Amadis in his love, gave a colour to this exploit, totally foreign from the real cause. Amadis and Oriana, notwithstanding their long separation, meet like a brother and sister; and the knights of the Firm Island send to justify their proceedings to Lisuarte, declaring, that by his forcing her choice, his daughter was placed in the predicament of a distressed damsel, whose wrongs, by their oath of knighthood, they were bound to redress. The apology is ill received by the King of Britain; who, with the Emperor of Rome, and all the allies who adhered to him, prepared to invade the Firm Island. Amadis, supported by his father King Perion, and many princes and queens who owed their crowns and honour to his prowess, assembles an army capable of meeting his enemy. Two desperate battles are fought, in which Lisuarte is finally worsted, but without being dishonoured by a total defeat. The brunt of the day falls upon the Romans, whom the author had

no motive for sparing, and the Emperor is slain on the field. In the mean while, the sainted hermit Nasciano, who had educated Esplandian, and to whom Oriana had in confession revealed the history of her love to Amadis, arrives in the camp of Lisuarte, and by his mediation brings about a truce, both parties agreeing to retreat a day's journey from each other. But Lisuarte, whose army was most weakened, was, by this retrograde movement, exposed to much danger. Arcalaus the enchanter had had influence enough with King Aravigo, to prevail upon him to levy a huge army, with which he lurked in the mountains, waiting until Lisuarte and Amadis should have exhausted their strength in mutual conflict. Being in some measure disappointed in his expectations, Aravigo held it for most expedient to fall upon Lisuarte in his retreat, whom, after a valiant resistance, he reduces to the last extremity: this is the moment which the author has chosen to exhibit the magnanimity of Amadis and to bring about a reconciliation. The instant he hears of Lisuarte's danger, our hero flies to his assistance, and the reader will anticipate with what success: Aravigo is slain, and Arcalaus made prisoner, and cooped up in a cage of iron. The father of Oriana is reconciled to her lover; and the introduction of Esplandian has its effect in hastening so desirable an event. The nuptials of Amadis and Oriana take place; and the other heroines are distributed among the champions of the Firm Island, with great regard to merit. One thing yet remained:-To finish the enchantments of the

Firm Island, it was necessary that the fairest dame in the world should enter the enchanted chamber. Need we add, that dame was Oriana?" Then was the feast spread, and the marriage-bed of Amadis and Oriana made in that chamber which they had won."

Through the whole of this long work, the characters assigned to the different personages are admirably sustained. That of Amadis is the true knight-errant. Of him it might be said in the language of Lobeira's time, that he was true, amorous, sage, secret, bounteous, full of prowess, hardy, adventurous, and chivalrous." Don Galaor, the Ranger of knight-errantry, forms a good contrast to his brother. Lisuarte, even where swayed by the most unreasonable prejudices, shows as it were occasionally, his natural goodness, so as always to prevent the total alienation of our good opinion and interest. The advantage given by the author to the vassals and dependents over the Suzerain, shows plainly a wish to please the numerous petty princes and barons at the expense of the liege lord. This may be remarked in many romances of chivalry, particularly in those of Charlemagne and his Paladins. Even the inferior characters are well, though slightly sketched. The presumption of the Emperor, the open gallantry and dry humour of old Grumedan the king's standard-bearer, the fidelity of Gandalin, squire to Amadis, the professional manners of Master Helisabad the physician, with many others, are all in true style and cos

tume.

The machinery introduced in Amadis does not, as Mr Southey observes, partake much of the marvellous. Arcalaus is more to be redoubted for his courage and cunning, than for his magic. Urganda is a fay similar to those which figure in the lays of Brittany, and, except her character of a prophetess, and some legerdemain tricks of transformation, has not much that is supernatural in her character.

It remains to make some observations on Mr Southey's mode of executing his translation, which appears to us marked with the hand of a master. The abridgements are judiciously made; and although some readers may think too much has still been retained, yet the objection will only occur to such as read merely for the story, without any attention to Mr Southey's more important object of exhibiting a correct example of those romances, by which our forefathers were so much delighted, and from which we may draw such curious inferences respecting their customs, their morals, and their modes of thinking. The popular romance always preserves, to a certain degree, the manners of the age in which it was written. The novels of Fielding and Richardson are even already become valuable, as a record of the English manners of the last generation. How much, then, should we prize the volumes which describe those of the era of the victors of Cressy and Poitiers! The style of Mr Southey is, in general, what he proposed, rather antique, from the form of expression, than from the introduction of obsolete phrases. It has something of the scriptural turn, and much resembles the ad