some of the great historical collections to be found abroad. France, then, has the collection of the two Duchesnes: 1. Historiæ Francorum scriptores coetanei, from the earliest times to Philip III., in 5 volumes folio. 2. The Recueil des Historiens of the Benedictines, consisting mostly of chronicles and letters in Latin*, and now arrived, under the auspices of the late Dom Brial, in its nineteenth folio volume, to the reign of Lewis VIII., and still going slowly but surely forward. 3. She has the Collection universelle des Mémoires rélatifs à l'Histoire de France, set on foot, we believe, by the unfortunate Roucher, the author of the Mois, and edited by Perrin, and, with its continuation, extending to 72 volumes 8vo. 4. The collection of M. Buchon of the Chroniques nationales, Françaises, écrites en langue vulgaire du 13me au 16me siècle, in 47 volumes 8vo, comprising historical works in French and Provençal, with translations from the Cataloniad, Greek, etc. 5. The collection of MM. Pelitot and Monmerqué of the Mémoires rélatifs à l'Histoire de France, depuis la fondation, extending to 129 volumes 8vo. 6. The collection of M. Guizot of Mémoires rélatifs à l'Histoire de France depuis la fondation de la Monarchie Française jusqu'au 13me siècle, in 29 volumes 8vo, consisting, for the most part, of translations of the more important contents of the great collection of the Benedictines, from Gregory of Tours downwards. 7. The new collection of MM. Michaud and Poujoulat, styled Nouvelle Collection of memoirs in the French tongue, from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, comprehending some that have not appeared in any of the previous collections, and now arrived at its 30th volume 8vo. 8. The Recueil des Historiens de France of Messrs. Daunou and Naudet, arrived at its 20th volume 8vo. 9. The Histoire de France par les écrivains contemporains, comprenant les annales de la Monarchie, depuis les Grandes Chroniques de St. Denis jusqu'aux Mémoires de la Révolution, set on foot by the learned M. Paulin Paris and M. Mennechet, containing the best edition yet known of the St. Denis Chronicles, and promising to extend to a great number of volumes. 10. The Collection des Mémoires sur la Révolution Française, in, we believe, full *The last volume (19th) contains a chronicle of the war of the Albigenses, in classical Provençal, of the greatest interest. 50 volumes 8vo. 11. The Histoire Parlementaire of the same event by Messrs. Buchoz and Roux, consisting, in great part, of collected documents, and now arrived at its 35th volume 8vo. 12. The collection of Messrs. Cimber et Danjou, styled Archives curieuses de l'Histoire de France, depuis Louis XI. jusqu'à Louis XVIII., comprising chronicles, muniments, documents, pamphlets, etc. from the original texts, destined to form a sequel to the previous collections, and which, though begun but two years since, has already reached its 17th volume 8vo, and is proceeding with undiminished spirit. 13. The monthly periodical called the Revue Rétrospective, instituted for the publication of MS. documents, memoirs, papers, etc. in detail, independently of their order of date, consisting chiefly of historical papers, and already arrived at its 20th volume. 14. The collection by MM. Leber, Salgues and Cohen of the Meilleures dissertations rélatives à l'Histoire de France, in 20 volumes 8vo; and 15. lastly, to our own discredit, a Translated Collection of our English memoirs, relating to the Revolutions of 1649 and 1688, from May downwards, made under the auspices of M. Guizot, in 24 volumes 8vo. The whole of these valuable bodies of historical materials would fill not less than 450 octavo volumes, if assembled in that form! If to these collective masses we added the single works of ancient history or literature, in the form of chronicles, romances and lais, which, like the old chronicle at the head of this article, are incessantly being exhumed from the MS. collections and published in detail (and let it be observed, that we make no mention of the vast collections relative to literature), the total number of productions would surprise our readers. The public has been apprised by others of the machinery set in operation by the French government, by which the more modern portion of these admirable labours have been accomplished, such as the Ecole des Chartes, the orders sent to the local authorities to search the local libraries and archives, the despatch of delegates to ensure the efficiency of the investigation, and the like. But since this account was furnished, other and more efficient measures have been adopted. Not satisfied with what had been done already, M. de Salvandy, himself a historical writer of considerable merit, (and, thanks to the good sense of French society, letters are not yet a title to political exclusion, nor is it in France that a member of the legislature would be publicly twitted with being literary, as we have witnessed at St. Stephen's,) M. de Salvandy, when minister of public instruction, instituted a set of standing bodies, under the name of historical committees, composed of some of the most eminent of the literati, and each having its particular field of inquiry. These have already commenced active operations. The church has not been without forecast. Congregations of Benedictines, authorized in due form by the pope, have been lately established, with the consent of the government, for the avowed purpose of continuing the historical and literary labours of the former congregation of St. Maur, and have already produced works of church history. We presume that the task of continuing the collections of that order will be made over to the new bodies. The new branch of the Academy for the furtherance of the historical and moral sciences is active in its exertions. As testimony, we may cite the measures which it has recently adopted for printing the eighty folio volumes of the papers of Cardinal Granville, hitherto lost in the archive-stores of a remote province. And now let us ask, what has our own country, with its affectation of being old England,—as if pre-eminently delighting in an attribute, which, if rational and true, supposes a diligent care of our historical antiquities,-what have we done that will tolerate even an indulgent comparison with those noble exertions of feeble France? Where are our hundreds of collected chronicles? Our assembled multitudes of memoirs? Our Ecole des Chartes, monastico-literary congregations, historical committees and academies? We shall make no apology for calling attention to an account in extenso of the composition before us, although it is invested with a title, which, till of late years, would have ensured its immediate relegation to the shelves of the mere antiquary. The discussions that have taken place between the two schools of history have demonstrated that both are in the right; that if philosophical history or the science is necessary, descriptive history or the art is equally so; for the science cannot be constituted without the art, nor the art understood without the science. Unfortunately, deplorable abuse has been made of both systems. Mr. James Mill, disdaining to paint the manners living,' has written a long history, the beau-ideal of the philosophical school, that leaves the weary reader without a single fact or scene impressed upon the memory; whilst M. Augustin Thierry, resolving to deal exclusively in local colouring, has been led into such incessant recourse to invention, that his late letters on French history, though vividly striking upon the fancy, leave the judgment incredulous of his correctness, and without a key to the general comprehension of his narrative. M. de Barante, whose rash motto so well portrays the error of his system*, is liable to much of the same charge. If we recognise the necessity under which the historian lies of combining the two systems, as critics, we reserve the right of adopting either separately as suits our purpose; and, this time, it is in the character of members of the descriptive school that we shall proceed with our task. We must first furnish some account of the manuscript. On referring to the Bibliothèque Royale, we find that it is contained in 21 folios, in double columns, and forms one of several MSS. bound up together in one volume, under the designation of No. 454, Sorbonne. It is preceded by an old rhyming romance, forming the sequel of the well-known Roman de Cléomadès of the trouvere Adenès, and is followed by a history of Tournay and Saint Lehire, the rhyming romance of Heraclius, and several other compositions, all in the vulgar tongue; but the volume is externally entitled Suite de Cléomadès, in consequence of the accidental situation of that work at the beginning. As the Paris libraries possess but the single MS. in question, it ceases to surprise that it lay hid so long under the crowd of associated compositions and the deceptious title without, and escaped the search of the learned, notwithstanding their suspicion that it had not disappeared. M. Louis Paris, as we see, describes the Paris MS. as unique, but he is in error: another MS. copy has recently been discovered in the British Museum. Although both MSS. contain the same chronicle, there are considerable textual differences. * Scribitur ad narrandum et non ad probandum.—Quintil. The chapters are not divided in the same manner. The Paris MS. contains but thirty-three chapters, whilst the London MS. is divided into fifty-four; nevertheless, it seems that the matter of the last is the shortest, and terminates at the 30th chapter of the first, and, in consequence, breaks off abruptly in the middle of a story, and omits some of the most interesting passages, amongst which is the quotation which we shall make first. There are, moreover, marked differences in the two versions of the tale of the minstrel Blondel, hereafter to be noticed, chiefly of a philological description; one, nevertheless, is the omission, in the London MS., of Blondel's birth-place, which in the Paris copy is described,—a fact of importance in determining the individuality of that personage. The nature of these differences leads to the presumption that the Paris MS. is the older; for they are not miscopyings, but substantial alterations and omissions, made for the purpose of plagiarism; and perhaps for cooking up a separate chronicle. Most of the chapters in the Paris copy have rubric headings; and in these again the two MSS. differ. To such as want them M. Louis Paris has prefixed headings of his own invention in the print. The title is equally wanting. The title of the print has likewise been added by M. Louis Paris. The Paris copy, though the longest, is not complete. It terminates abruptly, leaving almost a whole folio in blank, as for a space for further matter. Moreover it wants the ordinary formula of piety, with which the manuscript prose writings of that age are commonly completed, and the explicit that usually follows their final sentences, according to the practice of the engrossers, as such of our readers as are not in the habit of inspecting the MSS. of the middle ages may observe printed in the Fabliaux of Barbazan and Méon. The Chronicle bears internal evidence of having been written in the thirteenth century, in its style, which is, as near as may be, that of Villehardouin, and in its familiarity with some of the ecclesiastical events of that age*. M. Paulin Paris, whose authority on the point is not to be contested, informs us that the engrossing affords a material proof of the same Page 165. |