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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
RUSTICIEN DE PISE 6l
spur and goad. Now that never can be said of King Meliadus !
For what deeds he did, he did them not by dint of Love, but
by dint of his strong right arm. Purely out of his own good-
ness he did good, and not by constraint of Love." " It will be
seen," remarks on this Paulin Paris, " that we are here a long
way removed from the ordinary principles of Round Table
Romances. And one thing besides will be manifest, viz., that
Rusticien de Pise was no Frenchman ! "*
The same discretion is shown even more prominently in a
passage of one of his compilations, which contains the romances
of Arthur, Gyron, and Meliadus (No. 6975 see last note but
one) :—
" No doubt," Rustician says, " other books tell the story of
the Queen Ginevra and Lancelot differently from this ; and
there were certain passages between them of which the Master,
in his concern for the honour of both those personages, will say
not a word." Alas, says the French Bibliographer, that the copy
of Lancelot, which fell into the hands of poor Francesca of
Rimini, was not one of those expurgated by our worthy friend
Rustician
4l. A question may still occur to an attentive reader as to
the identity of this Romance-compiler Rusticien de Pise with
the Messire Rustacians de Pise, of a solitary MS. of Identity of
Polo's work (though the oldest and most authentic), the Romance
Compiler
a name which appears in other copies as Rasta Pisan, fellow-olo's
Rasta Pysan, Rusticlzelus Civis Pisanus, Rustico, Restazio prisoner.
da Pisa, Stazio da Pisa, and who is stated in the preamble to
have acted as the Traveller's scribe at Genoa.
M. Pauthier indeed + asserts that the French of the MS.
Romances of Rusticien de Pise is of the same barbarous character
as that of the early French MS. of Polo's Book to which we have
just alluded, and which we shall show to be the nearest present-
ation of the work as originally dictated by the Traveller. The
language of the latter MS. is so peculiar that this would be
almost perfect evidence of the identity of the writers, if it were
really the fact. A cursory inspection which I have made of two
of those MSS. in Paris, and the extracts which I have given
* MSS. Fran-ois, iii. 6o-61. t Ibid. 56-59.
$ Introd. pp. lxxxvi. -vii. note.
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