being indigenous to Europe might be adduced from those poets who tell us that Sigfrid was wont to hunt lions in the Burgundian forests-both which circumstances might be considered sufficiently explanatory of the motives which induced the writers of these fables to invest the lion with sovereignity over all the other animals who figure in these narratives; another and more satisfactory explanation is afforded by the fact, that there is good reason for believing, that the lion has, in comparatively modern times, usurped the crown which the bear originally possessed, both de jure and de facto. The bear is, indeed, the strongest and the largest of all our indigenous animals-the true king of our European forests; and Grimm, after showing that, in the old German language, the roaring of the lion and the growling of the bear were both expressed by one and the same word, viz. bremin,and further (which is very remarkable with regard to this point) that in the old Norse tongue, the highest authority was expressed by bersa leyfi (licentia ursi), adduces satisfactory evidence, the particulars of which we shall not attempt to follow, that in Germany, in the tenth century, and earlier, the kingly authority over the beasts of the forests was considered to belong, not to the lion, but to the bear; who, in the works now handed down to us is still exhibited as second only to the lion in power and influence; and the bear is, in fact, next to the fox and the wolf, the most important personage in these oft-told tales. § IX. But it is time that we proceed from these introductory and general observations to a more parti cular examination of some of the most important of those numerous literary productions, to which the popularity of Reynard's history has given rise. The first of these in point of date, though not of literary merit, is a poem, of which two MSS. were discovered in the royal library at Brussels, by Dr. Jacob Grimm, soon after the publication of that great work upon the subject of Reynard, to which such frequent allusion is necessarily made in the course of the present volume. It was published by Grimm in the year 1838, in a curious and valuable collection of Latin poems of the tenth and eleventh century, which he edited in that year in conjunction with Andreas Schmeller.* This poem is entitled Ecbasis cujusdam captivi per Tropologiam, and consists of 1229 leonine verses, the principal part being occupied with the story of the lion's illness, told by the wolf, as explanatory of the feud between the fox and himself, and the anger of the king of beasts against the fox, who alone neglected to attend and bring medicines for his recovery—a fact which the wolf takes care to bring under the lion's notice. "The fox alone, when lion is sick, Absents at once himself and physic, * Lateinische Gedichte des X und XI Jh. Herausgegeben von Jac. Grimm und And. Schmeller. Gottingen, 8vo. 1838. t "Absunt a reliquis cautæ medicamina vulpis, An angry decree is fulminated against the fox, who in this, as in other versions of the same story, unexpectedly appears at court, and, by his ingenuity, triumphs over all his opponents, more especially his great enemy the wolf, at once punishing him, and curing his sovereign by the extraordinary remedy which he prescribes for the ailing monarch, namely that he should be enveloped in the wolf's hide. The value of this poem, which Grimm has subsequently pronounced not to have been written at a later period than the middle of the tenth century,* is considerably lessened by its not designating the animals by the characteristic names assigned to them in later works. Yet, that the poem in question is immediately connected with, and founded upon the popular stories of Reynard, is clear, from the fact that its main incident, the sickness of the lion,-occurs in all, or nearly all, the Reynardine romances. The same objection, viz. the absence of the Reynardine names, may be made to a little Latin poem, which was communicated to us many years since by Mr. Wright, and which will be found appended to this introduction.† *See Sendschrieben an Lachmann, s. 4. † See Appendix I. This little poem, entitled 'Sacerdos et Lupus,' which corresponds with the twelfth branch of the French Renart, is contained in a MS. in the Public Library at Cambridge (Gg v. p. 35) supposed to have been written in Germany, about the middle of the eleventh century, by an Anglo-Saxon. It is printed by Grimm (Lateinische Gedichte, s. 340), to whom it was communicated by § x. The next in point of time and the first in which the animals are designated by their distinctive names, is a Latin poem, now printed for the first time by Grimm, from a manuscript of the fourteenth century, preserved at Berlin. "Isengrimus," as this poem is designated, contains 688 verses, and, though considerably shorter than the Latin poem "Reinardus Vulpes," published by Mone, it is not only obviously of greater antiquity, but surpasses it in the power of description which it displays. It comprises, however, only two stories-the first is, "The Sickness of the Lion;" and the second, which is very skilfully combined with it, relates "The Pilgrimage of the Goat." It commences as follows: "It whilom chanced so sick the lion lay, He could not feed by night, nor sleep by day; For Phoebus then through fiery Cancer drove."* He had been removed, for the sake of coolness, to the shady coverts of the wood, and ordered a general court, proclaimed a solemn peace, and summoned before Mr. Kemble; and also by Edelstand du Meril, p. 302 of his Poesies Populaires Latines. Contigit arreptum forti languore leonem, Cum traheret Cancri Phebus in arce rotam." -v. 1-6. him all the beasts of the forest, that he might secure their allegiance to his wife and children, and during his lifetime nominate his successor. Reynard is the only one who absents himself: he waits for a special summons. Isengrim, the wolf, his inveterate enemy, who is greatly rejoiced at this, thrusts himself ostentatiously forward, and, having attracted the attention of the lion, slanders the fox, and tells the royal invalid that it would much conduce to his recovery to eat the livers of the ram and of the goat, and, when convalescent, their flesh. But the manner in which this is told deserves an extract; "The royal lion smiled, as thus he said, (While his harsh voice filled every beast with dread) I think thou wouldst relate what would me cure. If so, out with it!' Straight the wolf obeys, But to proceed: Joseph, the ram, and Berfridus, the goat, who had listened with great indignation to the suggestions of the wolf, give him such hints with * 66 'Ipse parum ridet leo, sicque profatur: eratque Credo, referre paras quod michi prestet opem. 'Pone metum, rex, pone. Vales, virtute reversa: Redde suam fidei perfidieque vicem.'"-v. 49-56. |