National Republican., 1883-03-02
A MEDIEVAL MUNcnAUsEN.
Sir John MnndevilIe's Famous Book or
Travel In the Farther Orient.

J0hn ManuoVll'c, whose famous volume OF
travels said by Hallam to be the oldest
book in English prose, processes to bo true
history of its authors experiencein the far
Orient, but is worthy only Of being classed
with the writings of Munchausen, or Of his
lincal ancestor, that last Attic of the Greeks,
charming Ducian. The latter's story Of the
preposterous leviathan in whose interior there
were flourishing cities Of men, and Of the
exit Of the imprisoned voyagcrs through u
| hole burned through the said animal by q
| forest fire, will be recalled by any one who
| has been curious enough to read deeply in the
! last books Of the classic cycle. Vaudeville
| tells his tale with such childlike simplicity
| and directness, that we cannot in spite of its
| uselessness rs an authentic source Of knowl-
edge, accuse him of moro than extreme guilt
bility, even for gentleman of the fourteenth
century. The difference between him and
| the mendaCiOus baron may, indeed, be stated
on simply this ground, that the Englishman
believed what he wrote, while the attor used
to the fullest his vested right of inventions
Sir john, TO borrow his own language, ION
the day Of st. Michael, in the year ofour Lord
1922, passed the sea and went the way TO Hi
erusalCm and to behold the the mervayles of
Indc." He was unequpped, save with his
steed and sword and the learning ofa physician
and the honest resolve to record not only the
u mAfNelS nc nlBnJ see, DuI Sucn, also, III WOulu
| seem, as should occur to an active medieval
Imagination. He had not gone farther than
Crete when he wrote u description Of the
| island of Lango with the veracious history of
an unfortunate iayre ladye who there had
dong lived in the shape ofa terrible dragoness,
because the hero had not arrived, who, by
| kiss, was TO disenchant and, of course, marry
her. Distressed damsels rescuing knights,
fell paynims, necromances, devils, the entire
| didmdtis perS0H@ of dark age romance, abound
| in his pages. IN one place he gives an account
ofthc fairy lady who gaurds the sparrow hawk.
Whoever was so chivalrous as to assist her in
| the thrcc days and nights of her vigil was
rewarded by receiving whatever he asked
A certain king audaciousy demanded tho
hand of the lady herself, and in spite of
warming would have nothing else. For his
obstnacy the curse of perpetual war was pro-
nounced upon his race. In the "Valley
| Pcrilous" he beheld no less parsonage, he
declares, than Sathanas himself, his head,
with blazing eyes, being thrust up through
| the top Of mountain, amid vast heaps of sill
yer and gold, which horror stricken Mande-
willie dared not touch, and innumerable
mounds of dead bodies, as If a battle had been
| fought there. 81 was more devout than ever
| ] was before or after" he says, "and all for
| the dread of fends that saw in divers fig
ures" The spectacle was accompanied by q
frightful storm of thunder and lightning An
ingenious apologist for Vaudeville has sought
| to explain these seeming Misrepresentation
! by advancing the theory of q volcanic erup-
tion reported through tho medium Of our
travellers mortified imagination.
So Jealous purveyor of prodigies did not
pass over the huge bird, typihed in Vedder's
| painting of the "Roc's Egg" who could fly
away with an elephant in its claws; nor fail
| to offer to many anxious inquirers an au-
thentic description of paradise, locating it
" on the highest part of the earth nigh to the
| circle of the mOon," and letting us into the
delicate fact that its walls are made of moss
| He assures us that Jerusalem is situated at
the exact middle of the earth, because his
staff when stuck in the holy ground of the
| "Holy Cityo," cast no shadow and elsewhere
INDUCES in fling at the Copernican theory,
asking why, if indeed the earth be sphere,
the alleged antipodes do not fall into the firma-
nent Another glimpse of his cosmogony
Is afforded in an observation that I" the
trees of the sun and moon are we'll
known to have spoken to King Ais
aundre [Alexanderl, and warned him Of his
DEATH" In spot, whose name he has not
recorded he wandered through an oriental
palace Of overwhelming magnificence. In
one of the divans he beheld "a vine made of
gold, that goeth all about the hall, with
many punches Of grapes, some white, and the
red made Of rubies;" stating, furthermore,
that "the emperor hath in his chamber a
pillar of gold in which is ruby and a car
buncle foot long, which lightcth oil his
chamber by night" The necromancy Of the
court of Tartary completely mystifed this
Northman, rude in the art of legerdemain, as
is attested by his report of magical exhibi-
tion before the khan in which sword swal-
lowing and other ordinary tricks Of Indian
jugglery are spoken of in terms that clearly
indicate belief in demoniac agency.
Having written the last word of his book,
Vaudeville hastened to Italy to submit the
| int 10 ha nd Ufhnga laarna1
men of all nations who dwell at the court" of
Rome. After a critical examination his holi-
ness approved the work as confirming the
narratives of Marco Polo, and Rubriquis the
missionary, Sir John, it will be inferred, was
an observing Christian, and he surely was a
knight Of spotless honor. He fought for two
years under the ensign of the sultan of Egypt,
and had 80 won favor that province and the
monaTch's daughter were offered to him If he
would accept the Mohammedan religion He
sturdily refused, however, to stain his virgin
crest with the sinister bar of u renegade.
The probity of his stories has often been inn
peached; but the complaints have rarely
been founded on just estimate of the
man in his time In the fourteenth century
all men were fanciful and tho brief inventory
of fact, as if written in the page Of Mcrlin's
magical book, was lost in wide margin
wherein the thought of the epoch had thickly
inscribed the cabala Of superstition and
said that in leading us into an unusually
tough story, he uses the deliciously depreca-
tory style of Herodotus in similar cases
throwing Off moral responsibility with "men
seyn," or "wise men seyn," doubtless mean
ing by the latter those entertaining fabulists
the rabbins and the Arabian romancers and
also, his trusty friends Elian, Pliny, and
Ctesias, in whom the classical scholar will
recognize pitch of facile and audacious in
ventiOn to which Munchausen himself never
attained.
All the strange things that Vaudeville saw
were less strange, however, than the Z" mer'
vayle" ho discovered when, after thirty years
of wandering, he set foot again on English
ground, and found himself utterly forgotten
by his friends. Sick at heart he again started
to travel, but death overlook him at Liege
In that ancient city his bones now rest, and
Westminster can hardly show a stone in
memory of the predecessor of her Raleighi
and Livingstones, For some time previous
to his death he had been prey to gout
which he sorrowfully declares had defined
the end of my labor against my will, Goo
hnoweth," by putting his life long passion
beyond further frution, He composed hi;
book, like the discarded favorite Of Queer
Elizabeth, for solace in his wTetched rest,
and at the close piOusly entreats "all the
readers and the hearers of my book TO say fo
me Pater Noster, with an Ave Maria.
-S
Carroll Institute.
mass meeting of this society was called