The Meaning of Romance.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 12

The Meaning of Romance.

|| By Rt. Hon. G. VVyndham, ||

The Chancellor of Edinburgh University (Mr. Balfour) presided in the 51'Ewan:, Hall when the ford Rector (Mr. Wynd-; ham) delivered his Kectorial addressto' the students the other day. . Mr. AYyndham, who took ><s the titlo of his address;"TJie"Spring's ofßomance ~ i: in the Literature of Europe/' advancedwhac ho admitted ivas the disputable *]iroposition that the writings preserved from 1 Greece and Rome wore not romantic. It was 1 -' ' not until tlie second half of the Elevctffh-*"— Century that romance arrived in European liierature; and it was probably Great' Britain that saw its advent. " .The ",V. first piece of obvious romance :'in literal , turo that remained was "The Song of Ro-T". land. This song won a way for romanc# in the literature of Europe, because Norman Trench, by becoming the Royal lan-. '.', guago of Logland, attained a .jjpsitioa".which Latin, for lack of -general corapre- ' heusion,. could no longer 'hold/i Thence-..'-, •forward"it reverberated through lUe'rar-" " ' aire, expanding into the stupendous cyclo ' Carlovingian. romances', and. "tlitjir•" de- " j rivatives. Literature was' transfigured s:1 into romance by the twilight of : West, the. mirage of ■ the East, and uncouth strength of the.North in 'direct" proportion-to the commingling of AVe^t, East, and North in the politics ,o£. th® lAevonlh and 'L'widftli. Centuries. Mr, =;:• '- Wyndham having sketched the features of the romantic development, then camo ' ' to the question, What is- romance? 'Here was a power, he said, which ' produced ■ great changes-in Europe from 1100 to 1550, and reproduced them from 1800 un- : 'A' til nou. ■ Ihrough all ' those centuries; '■* tliers musl have been something in the mind of Europe .which needed .romance t3: • and sustained it.' -Clearly, romance was not a tangle of absurdities to bo'dismissed as "rot" by the Cardinal of. Esfe. or despised as /'Gothic" by'the.'imitators'oi classic moods. But romance was a : •tissue. In tlie^' Twelfth -Century, when it took .hold of. the Middle Ages, romanc* .displayed a deliberate/weaving "together •' ot many-coloured strands.. Celtic glamour, the uncouth strength 1 of' the North," ani marvels from th<v fabulous East; 'werw interlaced m one woof which, unfolded-7' a continuous story of from the ~ Argonauts" quest of the 'Golden FleeceV by ' • ?> wayof -the: fall of Troy and the foundi " " uon of Home, to the conquest of Jerusa-" lem by Crusaders. An examination d? tliese strands, revealed that the--,earliest and most, alien , were ; largely umholff. gical. ihey consisted of . rnahv attempts, made by many races, in different'ages and distant countries, to express in sjihbols' their guesses a,t the origin and-destiny, ' tne hopes and fears,' of' man'. ■ Might they, then, infer that romance'. was comparative mythology?' In alsehso' that was true. Its elements were largely mythological. But that view would not yield a definition of romance. If it' did. all. mythologies would ]>u obviously ro- ' ■ mantle.' But were they? Mythologies lin'gan to "be romantic when they becam« strange by reason'of "their antiquity'or alien character. Breton and Welsh'Te", ends were not romantic to the' Celts- 1 when they conceived them. 'Nor' were • tile sagas romaHtic to tho-Icelanders- Oa'-' the contrary, their ro&ed'.strength'repw : induced a rugged reality. Nor. was.-imigib - ; ' romantic in the East; >-iir was fainfliar ' there. These strands : iri'-'the fabiio of romance became - romantic- when' : ''.th'e'f struck moro modern, 'and. whollyalien;Z ' modes -of - thought .by - their strangeness. ? Even this impact of the strange in mytfe. v ology would not. wholly account for. tho : nature,of romance.- If it did, Latin lit- V erature would have been romantic. Our : ' search for- the nature of romance:- must , be difecftd not only -to the' straugre-'ia ■ .. mythology but, wore Closely, to ihe*tfrt>a& actldfif produced -jfepftteoftjiirdg' -that xn.« I startled by that strangeness. Classic .■ . periods repudiated. Strange'-■: mythologies and romantic ■ periods welcomed- them.-. ■ Both, aimed: at::unity in their- order'of.. ; .thought, and, so far as ■ the Homans ,wer© concerned, in their order of -the world's " r government. But the classic world aimed at unity by exclusion, and the -Middle ~ ■ Ages_at unity by comprehension, ' Guided by this profound distinction-they^might,,' perhaps, say that romaucii rcsuits .'from Ivelcoming'tlie strange, and;specially ; from.. - welcoming the symbols',, perforce fantas.;,--tic, in which foreign lands and far-away i" ages have.sought, to express their- "in--timations of immortality", and doubtfill. wonder, .at -'-'that perpetual - revolution -. which we .sco to bo in' all -things, tbafc ; never, remain the same." tßomance,-jthenj^- ; - . was not simply .the strange," but a . of welcoming tho ; strange; instead of . ej;..,-; " ; eluding it.. Take a hackneyed illustration —mountain scenery. Mountain- scenery ; was not romantic, or even strange, to.tho-r---mountaineer -who wrested -"a hard-won- ■ livelihood, from-its , heather.-.-': . It was strange, tut not roiiiantie, to"'tho cultured sybarite', of-, the Eighteenth- Cen..-,' ~ | tury;who described it iii his journal as a''-.' | "horrid alp." It was romantic .to tho -- / "heart citj'-pent" of ,the age in'which : wfl'...Jive,.and only.because its strangeness was welcome. Mr. Wynuham -took as further . tests.of his definition, allegory andfabljw ..... , If they excepted the animals of .Acson, : !•' the d«g'.of .Odysseus, the charger of'Alex- - : 1 ander, and Lesbia's sparrow, lie'.said,-• . there were not many animals ..in the ■ classics... Man dominated the .scene. -On - ! tlio other hand, .there was an irruption of animals-into the first, period of .. '~ romance. They knew tho names of the .horses of nearly, all., tho .heroes of ..V' mance:' the thirteenth-century, with- ~ , out any aid.from - Keyhard,...the I'ox, Bruin .tho Beari Chantccleer '.tlie-! Cock,. "caDie to stay,", till . the, classical - interregnum. After .the revival, of -.-rb- .Vr : manco they returned'; so that, now,.iri the 'jungle, of lvipling and the farmyard of..*'.. ' fiostaad, they, occupied the'whole of' the'. ; stage.' i

. It fesis tho:.notc of romance to welcome in literature much,else.beside with . .delight when that was possible, and: when .it was not .with courage. .In romance-, nian disputed his place, with, other living , beings and elemental forces without lifo.. . He received the impression of . scenery,. and guessed .at dim "dominations and : powers" that baffled his mundane progross' and clouded his longing for eternity. All these romance accepted for.their. strangeness; and lie .would add for. .their truth.... When .their . strangeness was . ex- . orbita'nt, romance, in order to make their :. truth-intelligible, resorted to allegory and fable, and even to fantastic symbols, that seemed ludicrous. . ; . They. laughed' with Cervantes .at the giants and dragons.' and warlocks of romance. It was. our .', human privilege. Man was divided by:' laughter, .from . all that surrounded him." - When , they had done laughing they de-. : : tooted'.. in" these symbols ait'., attempt— frantic if they pleased—to explain Teali-i '. ties that w-ero coeval with,man;' that in- : deed preceded his origin and .'might outlast his existence.'. Eveii .to-dav,, enlightened as"wo 'were by. popular .science, we might recall, without contcmpt the. wild" allegories'.by' which other meu' in o.ther:' ages tried to explain the and grisly and inscrutable; we might re- ; member with liuman.kindness, that those,,' who invented tho, symbols of. horror, in- '/ vented also a .'vague belief that horror,; can-be conquered, by. a charm in the hand; of the little child. . Tho. reaction of the; ntindi when, confronted'with, the strange,' was in some sort a recognition of ignored : realities, Romance was an act of recog- .' nition. ' A sense of universal .'affinity came '. into literature when men. were no longer content'with the. mythologies, or philoso- ' phies, of. their own time and people. Then they turned .with' a kindly' curiosity ' to : other nations' and other .ages. ' Tho old' ; Northern mythology, with its twilight of ' the gods and ceaseless battle against a " doom of eternal, cold, was not so .absurd in tho twentieth'.century as amid'the'cer.. taintics of two'hundred.years ago; They J were taught to expect that catastrbphe'bj, popular science, the mythology of our'" day. But our day was also the age-of the romantic revival, and in it we ihiitrited unconsciously the attitude adopted towards tho strange by our forefathers' in tho first romantic epoch. We turned, aa"-' they did, to all mankind's imaginings;-:, not'for comfort, but for human fellow- \ ship,-, in'the great romance of man's .tid- ' venture through the universe.' We'tCKjt our part in that quest, with a bravo astonishment. In romantic literaturo wa listened to tho camp songs of our com-" 'fades' and "greet the 'unseen with ,tj ' cheer."- ' -