Blondel and Richard Lion-Heart

[Source: BLONDEL, AND RICHARD LIONHEART. XY, The Virginia Literary Museum and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences &c... Aug. 26, 1829; 1, 11; APS Online, pg. 170.]

His even too romantic intrepidity and love of adventure, had joined him the surname of "Lionheart," and made him the hero of one of the most celebrated chivalric works of the thirteenth century: ( Warton's 'History of English Poetry,' Vol. 1.) His name was so formidable amongst the Saracens and Turks, that mothers, to quiet their children, were accustomed to threaten them with King Richard. Joinville, who relates this circumstance, in his life of Louis the pious, adds another and similar anecdote. When the Arabians were riding and their horses became startled at any unusual object, they were in the habit of exclaiming, on giving them the spur ; what meanest thou? dost thou see King Richard? a stronger or move characteristic evidence of his prowess could scarcely be imagined. The romance writers of those times found something so wonderful in the chivalrous deeds of this Prince, that they considered he must have been in possession of the celebrated "magical sword, Kaliburn or Eskalibor referred to in the fabulous history of King Arthur, although the Romance of King Arthur asserts that his esquire at the command of his lord, had, after his death, thrown it into the sea. (1)

Richard remained alone: and the fruit of all his heroic deeds besides the conquest of Ascalon was a truce, whereby the possession of the little they had gained at so much expense and the liberty of visiting the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem without molestation was secured to the Christians for three months, three weeks, three days and three hours.

In order to elude the snares of the Governor of Istria, he took a circuitons route by Vienna: and here, he betrayed himself, by an expensiveness and liberality, which, attracted considerable attention, in a pilgrim and especially as he had too much the air of a hero, to bo considered that, which his mean clothing announced. In a short time Richard was discovered, taken up, and confined at Linz, in a narrow prison totally unworthy of his royal dignity. In this place the adventure is said to have taken place, which affords materials for the present story.

Richard had resided, during his youth, chiefly in his hereditary Frankish provinces, and a considerable part of the same had been spent in Provence, where the art of song, about this time, was in its highest bloom, and formed not only one of the most common enjoyments of the great at their banquets and festivities, but was even cultivated by many amongst themselves with considerable reputation, as it was, also, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Germany. Here Richard imbibed his singular fondness for the art of the trubadurs, troubadours or minstrels, which never forsook him during his whole life. Love that has ever formed so many singers, made him also a Provençal poet; for the Provençal speech was, at that time, considered more agreeable and melodious than the French, and the proper language of the tender passions. In the sequel his court, like that of the Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia, was the rendezvous of the most celebrated minstrels of his time, amongst whom Fouquet of Marseilles, Anslem Faydit and Blondel de Nesle were esteemed his favorites.

The lost had, in the above mentioned crusade (in which, according to the expression of Massieu, whole legions of poets followed the French nobles), devoted himself, particularly, to King Richard, and was an eye witness, and doubtless also a singer of his eminent deeds. It is probable that even at this time, the estimation of the poets had somewhat fallen from that which the hards and scalds had enjoyed in older times. For formerly the bards were considered men inspired by the gods and their office a sacred and public one. It was their duty to accompany the warriors on their expeditions, to sing to them the battle song, to be witnesses and judges of their heroic deeds, and, after the fight was ended, to recompense the valiant by songs of victory and, on the contrary, to stigmatize the cowardly by contempt and derision. This was in immediate relation with the constitution of the old Kelts, Germans and northern nations; rude hordes, by no means populous, subsisting by the chase, spoliation and war, in whom the sentiment of freedom, combined with the pressure, of necessity, induced this public spirit, of being as one man, whereby the great political nations might have no notion of their civil and military constitution : where every one attended to all and all to every one : where the personal virtues of a man were regarded as the common property of his caste or tribe, and contempt of life, if the common good demanded it, was the first of all virtues : and it must necessarily be so, for such small nations to continue their existence.

But all this in the times of chivalry and the crusades, no longer existed, owing to the great alteration of circumstances, amongst the descendants of these nations. The feudal system, by consequences entirely natural, had almost wholly annihilated this public spirit.

The vassals were more or less powerful and the most so amongst them became, almost entirely, independent lords. Each one troubled himself only with his own affairs, thought only of his own preservation and prosperity and kept his own court. The accidental connexions, which necessity or self-interest effected for the moment, were again disolved in a moment; personal friendships amongst the knights and (what was probably extremely rare) personal fidelity towards the feudal lord, were the only bonds which were still strong enough to stand proof and to continue for the whole of life. In such circumstances the musical art could no longer perform the wonders it had previously effected. The minstrels were no longer indispensable springs of action, the exciters and nourishes of public spirit, and the poets and singers were no longer servants of the state. Like the constitution, and manners of the states, poetry and song became gradually changed and sank to mere arts of enjoyment, constituting a part of the luxury of the time. The Irubadurs and minstrels were a kind of court servants, who were kept for pomp and amusement; they were still loved and even honoured ; but less on account of their actual merit, than because they knew how to make themselves indispensable to the entertainment of the great ; because their lays and Fabliaux were liked and because poetry, music, and the pantomimic art, which became subsequently separated, constituted at that time, but one profession and were carried on by one and the same master. The great might still indeed and naturally, desire to be celebrated by their poets ; but the praise they obtained, was less the merited price of their virtues, than a gratification of their vanity, and could, at last, only amount to this, that he was the most praised, who entertained and rewarded the most liberally. This however is a digression, which if prosecuted, would lead us too far from our subject.

Blondel, now began to sing as follows:

His expectation was not disappointed. A hollow voice but, as he distinctly heard, one accustomed to the song proceeded from the interior of the tower and completed the stanza with the following chorus.

Blondel continued:

The same voice answered :

Blondel concluded with the last stanza of the song.

The voice responded again: —

And immediately, the voice answered, also in an extempore manner: —

The faithful Blondel was now satisfied he had attained his object : but to afford his sovereign immediate assistance was impossible. Richard had, however, recognized the voice of his beloved minstrel and whether he believed it to be Blondel, or his spirit, it must have afforded him consolation and fortitude, after so long a death like silence and neglect from all that were dear to him, to hear the voice of a friend, which promised him freedom.

Blondel hastened back to England, made the place, where their King was kept prisoner, known to the barons of the kingdom, and thereby procured his freedom, which took place some months afterwards; but probably under much inconvenience and ceremony, but little honorable to the Emperor Henry the 6th and the Duke Leopold.