DRAGONS.

The Dragon is perhaps the most celebrated animal in ancient or modern fable. It has been represented by poets, painters, and romancers, as a gigantic and anomalous creature, bearing some resemblance to a serpent, with the addition of wings and feet. Most probably the idea originated in the East; for we find that the Chinese, Persians, and other oriental races, believed in the existence of certain monsters, which, as far as can be ascertained, did not in any way differ from the dragons of European fiction. From the East the fable may have found its way to Greece, in the mythology of which country it frequently appears; and thence, possibly, it was disseminated over the rest of Europe. But whatever spot may have been its cradle, or whatever the path by which it has travelled, certain it is that few countries in the civilized portions of the globe are without some traces of its presence. In the poetry and fairy legends of modern Europe, however, it has made the greatest figure. A dragon was the most terrific and dangerous enemy that the knight-errant of medieval romance could possibly encounter; and numerous are the narrations that have come down to us of battles between these mortal foes. The dragon appears, for the most part, as a lonely animal, living in obscure caverns among the clefts of mountains, or in morasses, and occasionally issuing forth to ravage the neighbouring cities. His size is generally represented as gigantic, and his strength prodigious; his breath is poisonous, turning the country, for many miles round his abode, into a desert; his nature is remorseless and bloodthirsty; and, as if to render any attack upon him the more hopeless, he is completely cased in a species of armour, consisting of a succession of shining scales, of such adamantine hardness as to defy the sharpest weapon and the strongest arm. But he has one vulnerable point, which, like the heel of Achilles, eventually causes his destruction.

The finest and most elaborate i scription of a dragon in Eng poetry is to be found in Speser Faery Queene: see book i. cant: -where the Red-cross knight e tends for more than two dāva v: one of these monsters. Drac encounters, however, had been r dered famous before Spenser's by the metrical romance of à Bevis of Hampton, which wash in great estimation as early a days of Chaucer. In this poz

if such it may be called-the sage describing the dragon ki by Sir Bevis would seem to br furnished Spenser with some hi Thus writes the old versifier :

Whan the Dragon, that foule is, Had a syght of Syr Bevis, He cast up a loude cry As it had thondred in the sky: He turn'd his bely towarde the sun; It was greater than any tonne : His scales were bryghter than the ga And harder they were than any bras: Betweene his shulder and his tayle Was forty fote, withouten fayle.

In another old metrical romant chronicling the achievements of Sr Guy of Warwick, we have a drage thus described :

He is as blacke as any cole,
Rugged as a rough foal:

His bodye, from the navel upward,
No man can pierce, it is soe harde.
Pawes he hath as a lion;

All that he toucheth he slayeth dead

downe:

Great wings he hath to flighte;
There is no man that beare him mighte
There may no man fighte him againe,
But that he slayeth him certaine ;
For a fouler beaste than is he,
I wisse of none never herd ye.

The vulnerable part in the dragon was underneath the wings, the flesh there not being protected with scales; and by piercing this place, the heroes of the old romances gene rally obtained the victory. But the dragon in the Faery Queene is killed in a different manner. On the morn ing of the third day of the combat, the knight rushes at his foe, sword in hand; and the monster advancing to meet him with his mouth. gaping

We frequently find the dragon, both in ancient and modern fable, in f the capacity of a guard to enchanted castles, subterranean abodes of magicians, hidden treasure, &c. Thus,

rites the

Bersin the Grecian mythology, the Spear Golden Apples of the Hesperides are watched by a dragon that sleeps neither night nor day; so, also, is the Drage a the Golden Fleece, which occasioned the Argonautic expedition. In one of the stories told by the Countess D'Anois, in her collection of fairy tales, the entrance to a dark and fearful cavern, through which runs a fountain of inestimable virtue, is guarded by two dragons darting fire from their mouths and eyes; and in the romance of Tom a-Lincolne is a similar adventure to that of the Hesperian apples-a dragon being employed as sentinel over a Tree of Gold that bears golden fruit, and a knight being sent to slay him.

r there his shira fote, with

her old

the sche

arwick, we
bed:-

ke as ant
rough fial
om the ta
pierce, it

has a bon Coucheth be

German early in the seventeenth century.) On another occasion, Faustus is carried through a part of Hell by two great dragons fastened unto a wagon." (Chapter xx.)

Dragons have also been employed by the poets to draw the chariot of the Moon, or of Night. Milton alludes to this fiction in Il Pense

roso:

While Cynthia checks her dragon-yoke Gently o'er the accustom'd oak. And Shakspeare, in Cymbeline (Act ii. scene 2):

Haste, haste, ye dragons of the Night! that dawning

May bare the raven's eye. Steevens, in commenting on this passage, says: "The task of drawing the chariot of Night was assigned to dragons, on account of their supposed watchfulness.' The chariot of Ceres, likewise, was drawn by dragons.

In the early ages of Christianity, the dragon was introduced into religion as a type of Satan-a symbol which, in all probability, was suggested by the similarity existing between the dragon of fiction and the serpent, in which shape, as we are told, the Evil One first appeared upon earth. Phineas Fletcher, in his Purple Island (canto 7), when allegorizing the Vices, describes their king as a dragon; and Dante calls one of his devils Draghigazzo· a venomous dragon. The saints, both male and female, are often represented in old pictures treading upon the necks of these monsters, or quelling their fierceness by sprinkling them with holy water. According to a Provençal legend, which has frequently been painted, Martha, the sister of Mary Magdalene, was preaching to the people of Aix at a time when a fearful dragon, called the Terasque, which during the day lay concealed in the river Rhone, was ravaging the whole country. Martha speedily vanquished this monster by the virtue of a few drops of holy water; and, having secured him with her girdle or garter, which seems to have been as strong as an adamantine chain, led him in triumph to the good citizens, by whom he was

Dragons are often used in drawing the chariots of magicians and enchantresses through the air. This, like many other features of the dragon fable, may be discovered in the Grecian mythology, where we find that Medea was transported from place to place in the manner alluded to. But the same notion has been frequently used by more modern fabulists. Doctor Faustus accomplishes his aerial journeys by these means:- And behold, there stood a wagon, with two dragons before it to draw the same; and all the wagon was of a light burning fire; and for that the moon shone, I was the willinger at that time to depart. Hereupon I got me into the wagon, so that the dragons carried me up right into the air.' (See chapter xxi. of the old romance of Doctor Faustus, translated from the

presently despatched. St. Michael, the Archangel, is mentioned in Scripture by St. John, as fighting against the Dragon' and his host, which expression is, of course, to be received as typical of Satan and his temptations; and Guido has painted a picture, in which Michael is represented treading on the prostrate Fiend, who has a tail and wings resembling those of a dragon. Hence Milton, in his Ode on the Nativity (st. 18), writes:

The old Dragon under ground,

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurped sway; And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

Many other saints of the Romancatholic calendar have been celebrated for overcoming dragons. Near the pillar on which St. Simeon Stylites is said to have dwelt from year to year, was the cave of a dragon, who was so exceedingly venomous, that he poisoned everything within a certain distance round his abode. This beast (according to the authority of the Golden Legend) having had his eye transfixed by a stake, came in his blindness-being now rendered meek and humble by pain -to the saint's pillar, placed his eye against it, and so remained for the space of three days in all gentleness and devotion, and never did harm to any living creature: insomuch that Simeon, seeing the hand of God in this matter, ordered earth and water to be brought and placed on the dragon's eye; which being done, behold! forth came the stake, a full cubit in length; and the people, seeing this miracle, glorified God; and the dragon arose and adored for two hours, and so departed to his cave.

The renowned hero of the Seven Champions of Christendom, is not merely a creation of romance, but was worshipped by our papistical ancestors as a veritable saint; and his contest with the dragon has been looked upon as nothing more than a type of his spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness.

But saints and other holy men were not the only quellers of dragons. According to a tradition, full of eastern wildness and beauty, and related by John Florio in his singular old Dictionary of Italian

and English, the panther this virtue. She is saidd,' authority, to be a friend to a wild beasts, except to the e whose nature is, that, as sxe a hath well fed, she betakes here. her cave or den, and ther asleep, and sleeps three whe and then wakens; and, yor opens her mouth very wide, 2 ing forth so sweet a breath u the neighbouring beasts do Y and, following the scent of T all unto her, and gazingiv s about her; except the droge. for fear hideth himself sur ground!'

In the romance of Dr. Far before quoted, dragons are freq mentioned among the terrors of .. the devils-Mephistophiles among the number-often festing themselves in that si We are informed, in the se chapter of this history, how Fa went into a wood to practis devilish art;' and how, after re ing there for some time withou satisfactory result, he began an to conjure the spirit Mephistoph in the name of the Prince of D to appear in his likeness; where suddenly, over his head, hung he ing in the air a mighty drags In chapter xix. of the same wit Faustus calls for Mephistophe perform some office for him; wh upon came a fierce dragon, fra and spitting fire round about house.'

The dragon fable appears to ha been very current among the ancie Britons-the figure of a drag indeed, was adopted by them 2 | their national symbol. Uther king of Britain, and father of the great Arthur, was surnamed Pe dragon, from the circumstance € his wearing an image of a drago upon his helmet-Pen being the British word for head; and Spenser has placed the same ornament the helmet of Arthur himself. (Sk Faery Queene, book i., canto 7. st. 31.)

The Britons may, perhaps, have been induced to assume the dragon as their national symbol from a tradition which is thus narrated by Selden in his Notes to Drayton's Polyolbion (Song 10)-'In the first declining state of the British empire, Vortigern, by the advice of his

1

gicians, after divers unfortunate cesses in war, resolved to erect a ong fort in Snowdon Hills, (not from Conway's Head in the edge Merioneth,) which might be as last and surest refuge against e increasing power of the English. asons were appointed, and the ork begun; but what they built the day was always swallowed in the earth next night. The ng asks counsel of his magicians uching this prodigy; they advise at he must find out a child which Ead no father, and with his blood prinkle the stones and mortar, and hat then the castle would stand as vol. n a firm foundation. Search was the Faade, and in Caer-Merdhin was Merlin Ambrose found:' [Merlin's ather was a fiend; consequently, dev-peaking in an earthly sense, he the had no father:]he being hither gth brought to the king, slighted that are pretended skill of those magicians tercitas palliated ignorance; and, with

into shart:

ere frs

confidence of a more knowing spirit, undertakes to show the true cause of that amazing ruin of the stonework; tells them, that in the earth was a great water, which could endure continuance of no heavy superstructure. The workmen digged to discover the truth, and found it so. He then beseeches the king to cause them to make farther inquisition, and affirms that in the bottom of it were two sleeping dragons; which proved so likewise-the one white, the other red; the white he interpreted for the Saxons, the red for the Britons. In the old poem of Merlin, this story is told with some difference: the reader, however, who is desirous of comparing the two, must betake himself to the original romance, or to the admirable prose abstract of it, (interspersed with numerous specimens,) which may be found in Ellis's Early English Metrical Romances. The contest between the antagonistic dragons, as described by the nameless old poet (for a poet he assuredly was), is not surpassed, in the quick and vivid succession of word-pictures, by anything in Chaucer himself-to whom, indeed, it bears some resemblance.

-the figure t

as adopted!

ional STEM
ritain.

om the

elmet-P d for head;

the same

f Arther ne, book!!

s mar, pe to assume

Fonal symb his the

Notes:

10

of the B

In their subsequent contests with the Saxons, our British ancestors always had a red dragon painted upon their standards; while the

colourless banner of their opponents bore the figure of a white dragon. It is a fact worthy of record, as showing the long enduring influence of popular superstitions upon imaginative races, that when the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII., (who, it will be remembered, was of British descent) landed on the Welsh coast in his insurrection against Richard III., he displayed to the people a flag emblazoned with a red dragon; upon which large numbers immediately rallied round him, thinking they were about to vanquish their old enemy, and regain their lost dominions. Henry's design, however, was totally different; but, on succeeding to the throne, he still further flattered the vanity of the Welsh, by placing the Cambrian dragon in his arms, and by creating a new poursuivant-at-arms, entitled Rouge-Dragon.

Several of the ancient nations, likewise-such as the Assyrians, Persians, Parthians, Scythians, Romans, &c.-bore dragons on their standards; as did the aboriginal Mexicans, among more modern races. The Roman dragon, like that of the Britons, was red-which renders it probable that the Britons may have simply copied the Romans in their adoption of this symbol.

That so many different nations should have borne the same figure upon their standards, is singular; but it may, perhaps, be accounted for by the existence among the ancients of a superstition to which Plutarch alludes in his Life of Agis and Cleomenes. Cleomenes having been crucified after death by Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt, in whose dominions he was staying, those that were appointed to keep his body, that hung upon the crosse, spied a great serpent wreathed about his head, that covered all his face, insomuch as no ravening fowle durst come neare him to eate of it: whereupon the king fell into a superstitious feare, being afraid that he had offended the gods. Hereupon the ladies in his court began to make many sacrifices of purification for the clearing of this sinne: perswading themselves that they had put a man to death beloved of the gods, and that he had something more in him than a man. The Alexandrians thereupon went to the place of exe

cution, and made their prayers unto Cleomenes as unto a demy-god, calling him the sonne of the gods: untill that the learned men brought them from that errour, declaring unto them, that like as of oxen being Idead and rotten there breed bees, and of horses also come wasps, and of asses likewise bettels; even so men's bodies, when the marrow melteth and gathereth together, do bring foorth serpents. The which coming to the knowledge of the ancients in old time, of all other beasts they did consecrate the dragon to kings and princes, as proper unto man.' (Old Translation, by Sir Thomas North, 1579.)

One of the most remarkable features of the dragon fable is its universality. In the romances of the oriental nations-in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans-in the traditions of the Gothic and Celtic races-and in the fairy tales of the nursery,―a creature having in all cases the same general characteristics, may be discovered. Difference of climate, of religion, of national origin, or of national peculiarities, seems not to affect this omnipresent phantom of the imagination. We find it among pagans, Christians, and Mahometans: in the north, among the modern descendants of the Goths and Celts; in the south, among the Persians and Indians; in the east, among the Chinese; and in the west, among the aboriginal Americans. In every quarter of the globe, and over almost every race, has this terrible chimera spread the shadow of its fancied presence; though whether it has been propagated from people to people, or whether in each case it was a spontaneous birth of the imagination, it would be impossible now to determine. It must, however, be admitted that the first is the more probable supposition.

The Chinese believe in the existence of a monstrous dragon who is in hot pursuit of the sun, with intent to devour that luminary; and whenever an eclipse of the great orb occurs, the people assemble in vast numbers, beating large gongs, and making the most discordant sounds, in hope of frightening the ravenous beast from his prey. A green dragon is one of the characters introduced into a Chinese street-exhibition, similar to

our Punch; and we may dep in the ancient traditions of the nation, a fable of a great di which spread terror between barn and earth, and which was desrby one of the five celestial q who were supposed to goven world under the Supreme Be which fable, by the way, is prote another version of the insurre of Satan and the rebel angels L ancient Persians, likewise, belie in winged dragons; and the Ind as appears in the Life of sp nius of Tyana, hunted dragons awful size by the help of manspecies of amusement in Apollonius himself participated a according to his biographer, it a chase at once manly and dive The eyes and scales of these creste shone like fire; and the former i a talismanic effect on all who were inducted into the mysteries of m 'All India,' says Philostratus, Life of Apollonius, ‘is girt in dragons of a prodigious bulk. 28: were with zones. Not only marshes and the fens, but the m tains and the hills, abound with the The dragons dwelling in marsh having no crests on their heads not many scales on their bodies, semble female dragons: their co is generally black, and in the nature they are sluggish, like the places in which they have their abode Shakespeare makes Coriolanus alhad to these animals (Act IV. Scenei..— I go alone Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Makes fear'd,—and talk'd of more than

Been.

The dragons of the mountains are large, fierce, and magnificent in ther appearance. They have a crest which is small when they are your but increases with their growth t it becomes of considerable size. Of of this species of dragons, some are a fiery red, having backs like a saw, and beards: they raise their neck higher than the others, and their scales shine like silver. The pupils ! of their eyes are like stones of fire, and possess a virtue which is allpowerful in the discovery of secrets.

1

Whenever the dragons of the plains ( attack the elephant, they always become the prey of the hunter, for the destruction of both generally terminates the contest.' Others of the mountain dragons have scales