with him, and found himself on the very edge of one of the precipices of Cwm Pwcca, down which another step would have carried him. The Pwcca, for it was he, sprang over the glen, turned round, held the light above his head, and then with a loud laugh put it out and vanished. BRITTANY. Mut unt este noble Barun MARIE DE FRANCE. Thise oldè gentil Bretons in hir dayes CHAUCER. BRITTANY, the ancient Armorica, retains perhaps as unmixed a population as any part of Western Europe. Its language has been, however, like the Welsh and the Celtic dialects, greatly affected by the Latin and Teutonic. The ancient intercourse kept up with Wales and Cornwall by the Bretons, who were in a great measure colonists from these parts of Britain, caused the traditions and poetry of the latter to be current and familiar in Little Britain, as that country was then called. To poetry and music, indeed, the whole Celto-Cymric race seem to have been strongly addicted; and, independently of the materials which Brittany may have supplied for the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, many other true or romantic adventures were narrated by the Breton poets in their Lais. Several of these Lais were translated into French verse in the thirteenth century by a poetess named Marie de France, resident at the court of the English monarchs of the house of Plantagenet, to one of whom, probably Henry the Third, her Lais are dedicated.* This circumstance may account • Poésies de Marie de France, par De Roquefort. Paris, 1820. If any one should suspect that these are not genuine translations from the Breton, his doubts will be dispelled by reading the original of the Lai du Laustic in the Barzan-Breiz (i. 24) presently to be noticed. EE 2 for the Lais being better known in England than in France. The only manuscript containing any number of them is in the Harleian Library; for those of France contain but five Lais. The Lai du Fresne was translated into English; and from the Lai de Lanval and Lai de Graelent-which last by the way is not in the Harleian Collection-Chestre made his Launfal Miles, or Sir Launfal. Chaucer perhaps took the concluding circumstance of his Dream from the Lai de Eliduc. In some of these Lais we meet with what may be regarded as Fairy machinery. The word Fée, indeed, occurs only once ; *but in the Lais de Gugemer, de Lanval, d'Ywenec, and de Graelent, personages are to be met with differing in nothing from the Fays of Romance, and who, like them, appear to be human beings endowed with superior powers. The origin of the Breton Korrigan, as they are called, has been sought, and not improbably, in the Gallicenæ + or ancient Gaul, of whom Pomponius Mela thus writes:"Sena, in the British sea, opposite the Ofismician coast, is remarkable for an oracle of the Gallic God. Its priestesses, holy in perpetual virginity, are said to be nine in number. They are called Gallicenæ, and are thought to be endowed with singular powers, so as to raise by their charms the winds and seas, to turn themselves into what animals they will, to cure wounds and diseases incurable by others, to know and predict the future; but this they do only to navigators who go thither purposely to consult them."§ We have here certainly all the attributes of the Damoiselles of the Lais of Marie de France. The doe whom Gugemer wounds speaks with a human voice. The lady who loved Lanval took him away into an island, and Graelent and his mistress crossed a deep and broad river to arrive at her country, which perhaps was also an island in the original Breton Lai. The part most difficult of explanation is the secret manner in which these dames used to visit their *See above, p. 21. The Bas-Breton Korrigan or Korrigwen differs, as we may see, but little from Gallican. Strabo (i. p.304) says that Demeter and Kora were worshipped in an island in these parts. Sena is supposed to be L'Isle des Saints, nearly opposite Brest. § Pomp. Mela, iii. 6. lovers; but perhaps the key is to be found in the Lai d'Ywenec, of which, chiefly on that account,, we give an analysis. The hero of that Lai differs not in point of power from these ladies, and as he is a real man, with the power of assuming at will the shape of a bird, so it is likely they were real women, and that it was in the bird-shape they entered the chambers of their lovers. Graelent's mistress says to him,* When you would speak to me of ought- I will be presently with you, All your commands ready to do; Or hear the words that come from me. She also had previously imposed on the knight the obligation of secresy. As a further proof of the identity of the Korrigan and the Gallicenæ, it may be remarked, that in the evidently very ancient Breton poem, Ar-Rannou, or The Series, we Yet * It might seem hardly necessary to inform the reader that these verses and those that follow, are our own translations, from Marie de France. some have taken them for old English verses. meet the following passage:- "There are nine Korrigen, who dance, with flowers in their hair, and robes of white wool, around the fountain, by the light of the full moon.” * Lai B'ywenec. I HAVE in thought and purpose too, Of whom he born was, his sire's fame, cour There formerly lived in Britain a man who was rich and old. He was Avoez or governor of Caerwent on the Doglas, and lord of the surrounding country. Desirous of having an heir to his estates, he espoused a maiden teous and sage, and passing fair." She was given to him because he was rich, and loved by him for her beauty. Why should I say more, but that her match was not to be found between Lincoln and Ireland? "Great sin did they who gave her him," adds the poet. On account of her rare beauty, the jealous husband now turned all his thoughts to keeping her safe. To this end he shut her up in his tower, in a large room, to which no one had access but himself and his sister, an old widow, without whose permission the young wife was forbidden to speak to any even of her female attendants. In this tower the suspicious husband immured his lovely bride for seven years, during which time they had no children, nor did she ever leave her confinement on any account. She had neither chamberlain nor huissier to light the tapers in her chamber when she would retire, and the poor lady passed her time * E korole nao c'horrigan, Bleunvek ho bleo, gwisket gloan, The c'h expresses the guttural. VILLEMARQUÉ, Barzan-Breiz, i. 8. weeping, sighing, and lamenting; and from grief and neglect of herself losing all her beauty. The month of April was entering, And to the wood he takes his way. Before he set out he called up the old dame to fasten the door after him. This done, she took her psalter and retired to another room to chant it. The imprisoned lady awoke in tears, seeing the brightness of the sun, and thus began her moan: Alas! said she, why born was I? I ne'er shall leave it till I'm dead. She marvels at the unreasonable jealousy of her old husband, curses her parents, and all concerned in giving her to a man not only so unamiable, but who was of so tough a constitution that the chance of his dying seemed infinitely remote. When baptised he was to be, In hell's rivere deep dipt was he; Handsome, and brave, and generous; So that they never blamed were, For save themselves none saw them e'er.* If this may be, or ever was, Or any it befallen has, May God, who hath all might and power, My wish perform for me this hour. Scarcely had she uttered this pious wish, when she per This manifestly alludes to Lanval or Graelent, or similar stories. |