I. "THE paffion for arms; the spirit of enterprize; the honour of knighthood; the rewards of valour; the "splendour of equipages;" in fhort, every thing that raifes our ideas of the prowess, gallantry, and magnificence of these fons of MARS, is naturally and easily explained on this fuppofition. to AMBITION, intereft, glory, all concurred, under fuch circumstances, produce these effects. The feudal principles could terminate in nothing else. And when, by the neceffary operation of that policy, this turn was given to the thoughts and paffions of men, use and fashion would do the reft and carry them to all the exceffes of military fanaticism, which are painted fo ftrongly, but scarcely exaggerated, in the old Ro mances. II. "THEIR II. "THEIR romantic ideas of justice g "their paffion for adventures; their "eagerness to run to the fuccour of the "diftreffed; and the pride they took in "redreffing wrongs, and removing grie "vances;" all these diftinguishing cha racters of genuine Chivalry are explained on the fame principle. For, the feudal ftate being a state of war, or ra ther of almoft perpetual violence, rapine, and plunder, it was unavoidable that, in their conftant fkirmishes, ftra tagems, and furprizes, numbers of the tenants or followers of one Baron fhould be feized upon and carried away by the followers of another: and the intereft, each had to protect his own, would of course introduce the point of honour, in attempting by all means to retaliate on the enemy, and especially to rescue the captive fufferers out of the hands of their oppreffors. IT It would be meritorious, in the higheft degree, to fly to their affiftance, when they knew where they were to be come at; or to feek them out with diligence, when they did not. This laft feudal fervice foon introduced, what may be truly called romantic, the going in quest of adventures; which at first, no doubt, was confined to thofe of their own party, but afterwards, by the habit of acting on this principle, would be extended much further. So that, in procefs of time, we find the Knights errant, as they were now properly styled, wandering the world over in fearch of occafions on which to exercife their generous and difinterested valour, indifferently to friends and ene mies in distress; Ecco quei, che le charte empion di fogni, LANCILOTTO, TRISTANO, e gli altri erranti. III. "The courtesy, affability, and gal"lantry, for which these adventurers 9 ❝ were "were fo famous, are but the natural ef "fects and confequences of their fitu ❝ation. FOR the castles of the Barons were, as I faid, the courts of these little fovereigns, as well as their fortreffes; and the refort of their vaffals thither, in honour of their chiefs, and for their own proper fecurity, would make that civility and politeness, which is feen in courts and infenfibly prevails there, a predominant part in the character of these affemblies. THIS is the poet's own account of The great school-maiftreffe of all Courtesy. B. III. c. vi. s. 1. And again, more largely in B. VI. c. i. S. I. Of Court it seems men Courtefie do call, For that it there moft ufeth to abound; And well befeemeth that in Princes hall That Virtue should be plentifully found, Which Which of all goodly manners is the ground And roote of civil conversation: Right fo in faery court it did refound, Where courteous knights and ladies most did won Of all on earth, and made a matchless paragon. FOR Faery Court means the reign of Chivalry; which, it feems, had undergone a fatal revolution before the age of MILTON, who tells us that Courtesy -is fooner found in lonely fheds With fmoaky rafters, than in tap'ftry halls FURTHER, the free commerce of the ladies, in those knots and circles of the great, would operate fo far on the sturdiest knights, as to give birth to the attentions of gallantry. But this gallantry would take a refined turn, not only from the neceffity there was of maintaining the strict forms of decorum, amidst a promifcuous converfation under the eye of the |