SPECIMENS, &c.

EDWARD III.

MANDEVILLE.

THE first prose writer in the English language, which occurs in our literary annals, is the ancient and renowned traveller, sir John Mandeville. He was born at St. Albans about the beginning of 1300. He received a liberal education, and applied himself to the study of medicine, which he probably practised for some time. But being urged by an unconquerable curiosity to see foreign countries, he departed from England in 1332, and continued abroad for four and thirty years; during which time his person and appearance had

so changed, that, on his return, his friends, who had supposed him dead, did not know him. In the course of his travels, he acquired the knowledge of almost all languages, and visited all the chief countries of the known earth; among which may be enumerated Greece, Dalmatia, Armenia the greater and less, Egypt, Arabia, Chaldæa, Syria, Media, Mesopotamia, Persia, Scythia, Cathay or China, &c. The habit of roving, however, was still too powerful to suffer him to remain quietly at home. He quitted his own country a second time, and finally died at Liege in the Low Countries, in

1372.

He wrote an 66 Itinerary," or an account of his travels, in English, French, and Latin. We learn from Vossius, that it existed also in Italian, Belgic, and German. The inscription, too, on his monument at Liege, is preserved by the same author, and is as follows: Hic jacet vir nobilis, dominus Johannes de Mandeville, alias dictus ad Barbam, dominus de Campoli, natus in Anglia, medicinæ professor, devotissimus orator, et bonorum suorum largissimus pauperibus erogator, qui, toto quasi orbe lustrato, Leodii vita sua diem clausit, A. D. 1372, Nov. 17.

His travels abound in miracles and wonderful stories; and accordingly, the title of one of the Latin manuscripts is Itinerarium Johannis Maundeville, de Mirabilibus Mundi. Ambitious of saying whatever had been, as well as whatever could be said of the places he visited, he has taken monsters from Pliny, miracles from legends, and marvellous stories from romances. In this, indeed, he only furnishes an instance of the taste of the age in which he lived; and imitates the example of the early historians of all nations, and among his own countrymen, his predecessors Gildas, Nennius, Geoffrey, of Monmouth, and even the venerable Bede, in blending fabulous narratives with the relations of real history. It should be observed, however, that his book is supposed to have been interpolated by the monks; a supposition that will appear highly probable from the following extracts. Still, when he relates stories of an improbable nature, he commonly prefaces them with

They say," or "men say-but I have not seen it;" though he is to blame in not citing his authorities, when he adopts the accounts of others. He acknowleges only, in general terms, (p. 381-2, edit. 1725) that his book

was made partly from hearsay, and partly from his own observation. It is entitled, "The Voyage and Travels of sir John Mandeville, knight, which treateth of the way to Hierusaleme, and of the marvels of Ind, with other Islands and Countries."

As extracts from this ancient traveller will be read more for amusement than information, my object has been to select the marvellous rather than the true.

The following introductory passage, from his prologue, mentions generally the countries/ he had visited; and gives the reader an idea of what he is to expect from the perusal of his work :

And for as much as it is long time passed, that there was no general passage ne voyage over the sea; and many men desire to hear speak of the Holy Land, and han* thereof great solace and comfort; I John Mandeville, knight, albeit I be not worthy, that was born in England, in the town of St. Albans, passed the sea, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1322, in the day of St. Michael; and hitherto have been long time over the sea, and have seen and gone through many divers lands, and many

provinces and kingdoms and isles, and have passed through Tatary, Persia, Ermonye1 the Little and the Great; through Lybia, Chaldea, and a great part of Ethiopia; through Amazonia, Ind the Less and the More, a great part; and throughout many other isles that ben about Ind; where dwell many divers folks, and of divers manners and laws, and of divers shapes of men. Of which lands and isles I shall speak more plainly hereafter. And I shall devise you some part of things that there ben when time shall ben3, after it may best come to my mind; and specially for them, that will and are in purpose for to visit the holy city of Jerusalem, and the holy places that are thereabout. And I shall tell the way that they should hold thither: for I have oftentimes passed and ridden the way, with good company of many lords, God be thanked.

And ye should understand that I have put this book out of Latin into French, and translated it again out of French into English, that every man of my nation may understand it. But lords and knights and other noble and worthy men, that conne1 Latin but little, and han ben beyond the sea, know and understand, if I err in devising, for forgetting, or else; that they may redress it and amend it. For things passed out of long time from a man's mind, or from his sight, turn one into forgetting: because that mind

Armenia. 2 are.

3 be. 4 know. 5 have been.