and so intimate was the union of gallantry and valour, that language (the best expounder of the manners of a nation) has from that time expressed both qualities by one of the words. On the amiable portion of the creation, neither valour nor courtesy was wasted; for they repaid the deference which they received by the virtues which it cherished. Fidelity to women was expanded into that universal adherence to engagements, which peculiarly distinguished the knight; and to be deemed false and recreant was the bitterest of disgraces. Moreover, that genuine courtesy, the very soul of chivalry, which did not consist in the mere forms of external ceremony, but in a postponement of self and an habitual respect for others, threw its polished graces over social life; and it was thus that the ferocity of war was mitigated. St. Palaye familiarly speaks of the ransoming of captives, and of the permission granted to them of returning home to procure the stipulated sum; and, in subsequent times, this humanity to prisoners, which arose out of chivalry, was nobly displayed by Edward III. and the Black Prince. It is also to be observed that the ransom was not exorbitant; for Froissart tells us that "they never straitened any knight or squire, so that he should not live well, and keep up his honour." With these habits grew up an enlarged liberality, and a contempt for money: hospitality became a leading virtue: every castle opened its gates to the traveller, whose armour, while it concealed his indigence, announced his dignity; and the pilgrim had an especial claim to succour, to partake of the plenteous repast, and to be cheered by the blazing fire. A strong feeling of justice, likewise, and a high-minded sense of wrong, operated as a salutary antidote to the disorders of the times; when the law of the strongest, and territorial oppression, were carried to their utmost height. The tone of chivalrous feeling was kept up by tournaments, at which the kings of France and England held solemn or plenary courts. This was a strife without enmity, though not without danger, as the conflicts often ended in bloodshed and death; and an image of war, in which the victories gained before beauty and royalty were more glorious than those of foreign fields and national hostility. Moulded by these habits, the character of the knight, when the institutions of chivalry decayed, left behind it one still more valuable, that of the gentleman.

As if to throw a shade over this picture, superstition had now arrived at such a point as almost to justify a question whether it was preferable to the absence of all religious notions. The monks (as they are represented in this work) were jovial, and addicted to intrigue: monasteries, though REV. JAN. 1820.

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they afforded an occasional asylum to those who fled from baronial tyranny, were the receptacle of every vice: ecclesiastical discipline had lost its efficacy: in this and the succeeding reigns, the very nunneries were as impure as brothels; and bigotry, fostered by the clergy, was diffused among the laity. The persecutions inflicted on the Jews, who frequently underwent a general massacre, and were always the objects of popular insult, are often mentioned in Ivanhoe;' and, although Richard is exhibited in the act of a gallant interference in behalf of the Jewess Rebecca, those persecutions were never more severe and unrelenting than in his reign. Having amassed large sums by traffic, these people were constantly liable to pillage and extortion. The monkish historians, as if they had caught the contagion of the vices which they commemorate, mention such acts with the greatest glee; and one of them (Hemingford) is delighted with the captain of a vessel who persuaded some of that sect to walk on the sands at low water, till they were drowned by the rising of the tide.

Penance, sometimes commuted into fines, and pilgrimages to some celebrated shrine, now atoned for every crime. Among other evils incident to those times, was the prevalence of judicial perjury; and it was to obviate this evil that the trial by combat, derived from an earlier period, was perpetuated. The sports of the great, also, were a source of vexation to the public; the laws for the preservation of game were rigorous in the extreme, and rigorously enforced; and, till the charter of John, it was a capital offence to kill a stag or a wild boar. The passion for field-sports produced among the lower orders that strenuous idleness, which disdained the regular pursuits of industry; and hence arose the forest outlaws, who concealed themselves in the recesses of the country, and, being united in armed combinations, set all law and police at defiance. At the head of these free-booters was the half-fabled Robin Hood, a person of great note in the old romances, and one of the characters in Ivanhoe' by no means of secondary importance. Even Richard is represented as being (in disguise) his associate for some days, and afterward as giving Robin Hood not only his pardon but a promise of protection, coupled with a resolution to restrain the tyranny of the forest-laws; a resolution not in very exact conformity to the truth of history, and the known policy of his reign; for it is notorious that he revived against them all the rigorous enactments of his great-grandfather. (Hume, vol. ii. p. 36.)

Such was the condition of society, thus rapidly sketched, that forms the basis of the story of Ivanhoe,' the substance of

which may be now briefly stated. Cedric, the Saxon, of Rotherwood, has under his guardianship the lady Rowena, an heiress of great possessions; and, in order to preserve the Saxon line, the restoration of which was the chief object of his heart, he has destined her to Athelstane, surnamed the Unready, who was descended from the same dynasty. He had disinherited his son Wilfrid, whose love (not unrequited) for Rowena was a great obstacle to his projects; and who, having fought under Richard in the holy war, and rendered that monarch great services, had been invested with the barony of Ivanhoe: which, however, during his absence, was bestowed by Prince John on Front-de-Boeuf, one of his adherents. A tournament is about to be held at Ashby, in Leicestershire, which that prince is to grace with his presence. Aylmer, a Cistercian prior, with Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, a Knight Templar, the latter having heard of the beauty and accomplishments of Rowena, and the former undertaking to introduce him to that lady, arrive about this time at Cedric's mansion, and of course are admitted to its hospitalities. A pilgrim, whom we soon, perhaps too soon for the interest of the story, find out to be Ivanhoe, also appears there; and not long afterward, Isaac of York, a Jew, who comes in for his share of abuse, but is not excluded from a portion of the feast. Some allusion being made to Ivanhoe by the Knight Templar, high words pass between them, which end in the supposed pilgrim's pledge that Ivanhoe will meet the Templar in single combat. The challenge is accepted. Before he retires to rest, Ivanhoe has an interview with Rowena, but still preserves his disguise; and, early in the morning, he renders a service to the Jew (having overheard a plan laid by the Knight Templar to plunder him), by protecting him till he is out of danger, and having found means of egress by the aid of Gurth, the swine-herd of his father, to whom he reveals himself. In requital for this service, the Jew, who had discovered his knighthood, undertakes to procure for him a horse and armour for the ensuing tournament; and they part at Sheffield. That festival is proclaimed by Prince John, who was secretly aspiring to the crown at this period; during which, Coeur-de-Lion is supposed to be still in his Austrian captivity. The tournay is described with all its pomp and circumstance, and is a very interesting passage in the book. Among the spectators, are our friend Isaac, and Rebecca his daughter, of whose charms we have much glowing description. The usual forms being gone through, it is agreed that the conqueror in the lists is to name the queen of Beauty and Love who is to award the prize. Five challengers are to undertake all comers: but any knight may select a special an

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tagonist either to arms of courtesy, the point of the lance deadened by a piece of flat-board, or to the outrance, with the sharp point of that weapon. Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Malvoisin, and Front-de-Boeuf, are the victorious champions in the arms of courtesy, and the vanquished sneak off to hide their disgrace and heal their bruises. A pause ensuing, and but little disposition being shewn to try the more perilous combat, Prince John is about to award the prize to Sir Brian, when a solitary trumpet breathes a note of defiance, and a new champion, whose motto was "The Disinherited," enters the lists, vanquishes with pointed lance Sir Brian, Front-de-Bœuf, and Malvoisin, and names the lady Rowena for the queen. On the next day, he again enters the lists against De Bois-Guilbert and four other knights; with two of whom being engaged singlehanded, he is in danger of falling, but is saved by the intervention of a knight in black armour, who had hitherto taken no part in the combat, and on that account had been called Le Noir Fainéant. This knight prostrates the Templar in a critical period of the combat, and rescues "The Disinherited," in whom it requires no very acute perception to recognize the nominal hero of the tale. Prince John is about to proclaim the black knight to be the victor, when the latter vanishes, and Ivanhoe receives the crown from Rowena: but, during the ceremony, the marshals having taken off his helmet, she recognizes him; and he, having been severely wounded by a lance, which had penetrated his armour, falls almost lifeless at her feet.

Gurth the swine-herd, who had attended Ivanhoe, disguised as his squire, is on the first day dispatched to the Jew with the horse, and the price of the armour; and he receives a sum of money from Rebecca, who clandestinely intercepts him, as he is leaving the house, for the use of his master; the amiable girl being evidently captivated with the gallantry and high bearing of the hero. On his return, he falls into the hands of the out-laws in the forest, the captain of whom, finding that he was the squire of Ivanhoe, dismisses him scot-free. This incident is full of amusement, and is well related. Ivanhoe being persuaded to put himself under the care of the Jew, Rebecca ministers to him, and is luckily. not only a good nurse but something of a physician; and, by their advice, he agrees to accompany them in a litter to York, where Isaac had urgent business.

Cedric, in consequence of the appearance of his son, is more than ever determined on Rowena's match with Athelstane, and they make the best of their way homeward to Rotherwood but the route lies through a district infested with the lawless rovers of the forest. They encounter the Jew;

who,

who, with his daughter, and their sick friend in the litter, (not suspected by Cedric's party to be Ivanhoe,) had lost both their attendants and the horses which drew the litter; and the Jew having besought Cedric to take them under the protection of their retinue, his request is granted at the instance of Rowena. In the mean while, a plot had been formed by De Bracy, (one of Prince John's courtiers,) with the privity and aid of the Knight Templar, to intercept Cedric's party, and to carry off Rowena, by dressing a hired band of ruffians as the forest out-laws. On their seizing the lady, he was to appear in his own shape as a courteous knight coming to her rescue, and then to convey her to Front-de-Bouf's castle, where she would be wholly in his power. This project is executed, and the whole party are taken: but the real captain of the out-laws, (Robin Hood,) under the name of Locksley, having heard of the scheme, and having before met with the black knight (Richard) by means of an intermediate adventure which is highly amusing, all his forces are summoned to the attack of Torquilstone castle, where Cedric, Rowena, the Jew and his daughter, and Ivanhoe, were confined in separate apartments. Rowena and Rebecca resist, like true heroines, the several threats of De Bracy and the Templar; and the old Jew is half-tortured by Front-de-Boeuf, who endeavours to extort money from him. The castle is besieged, taken, and its wounded owner perishes in its flames. Cedric manfully assists in its destruction, having previously escaped by means of Wamba his fool, or jester, who had gained admittance disguised as a priest into the castle, changed clothes with his master, and remained as a prisoner in his place. A fiend-like character, Ulrica, the daughter of the former who had been murdered by the present possessor of the castle, and with which murderer she had lived in the bands of a guilty intercourse, is introduced, tells the dreadful secrets of that prison-house, and conspires with the besiegers; who, partly by her aid, are enabled to make the breach. Front-de-Bœuf is slain by Coeurde-Lion;- Athelstane is to all appearance killed by the Templar, as he is carrying off Rebecca, but afterward revives, and the scene of his resurrection is his own funeral banquet;De Bracy is taken prisoner by the victorious party.

When Prince John finds that "the lion is loose," he deputes his chief friend and counsellor Fitz-urse to seize him by stratagem and force. The enterprize is undertaken, but Fitz-urse falls into his own snare: Richard reveals himself to the out-laws: Ivanhoe, who is now recovered, is married to the lady Rowena; and the whole ends, as stories of this kind usually do, with the happiness of the hero and heroine of the piece: excepting the amiable and truly heroic Rebecca, who

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