y Italians, not literary men, who are in possession
of an ample library of these old novelists.

If we pass over the moral irregularities of these romances, we may
discover a rich vein of invention, which only requires to be released
from that rubbish which disfigures it, to become of an invaluable price.
The _Decamerones_, the _Hecatommiti_, and the _Novellas_ of these
writers, translated into English, made no inconsiderable figure in the
little library of our Shakspeare.[119] Chaucer had been a notorious
imitator and lover of them. His "Knight's Tale" is little more than a
paraphrase of "Boccaccio's Teseoide." Fontaine has caught all their
charms with all their licentiousness. From such works these great poets,
and many of their contemporaries, frequently borrowed their plots; not
uncommonly kindled at their flame the ardour of their genius; but
bending too submissively to the taste of their age, in extracting the
ore they have not purified it of the alloy. The origin of these tales
must be traced to the inventions of the Troveurs, who doubtless often
adopted them from various nations. Of these tales, Le Grand has printed
a curious collection; and of the writers Mr. Ellis observes, in his
preface to "Way's Fabliaux," that the authors of the "Cento Novelle
Antiche," Boccaccio, Bandello, Chaucer, Gower,--in short, the writers of
all Europe have probably made use of the inventions of the elder
fablers. They have borrowed their general outlines, which they have
filled up with colours of their own, and have exercised their ingenuity
in varying the drapery, in combining the groups, and in forming them
into more regular and animated pictures.

We now turn to the French romances of the last century, called heroic,
from the circumstance of their authors adopting the name of some hero.
The manners are the modern antique; and the characters are a sort of
beings made out of the old epical, the Arcadian pastoral, and the
Parisian sentimentality and affectation of the days of Voiture.[120] The
Astrea of D'Urfe greatly contributed to their perfection. As this work
is founded on several curious circumstances, it shall be the subject of
the following article; for it may be considered as a literary curiosity.
The Astrea was followed by the illustrious Bassa, Artamene, or the Great
Cyrus, Clelia, &c., which, though not adapted to the present age, once
gave celebrity to their authors; and the Great Cyrus, in ten volumes,
passed through