I.p.1. MS. Corp. Chr.
Coll. Cambridge, No. 633. A
brief story, identical with the one given here, is found in the
common printed Gesta Romanorum, cap. cxi.
"Quidam nobilis quandam vacca candidam
hibuit, quam multum
dilexit propter duo: primo, quia candida erat, secundo,
quia in dando lac
abundavit. Nobilis ille prae nimio amore ordinavit quod
vacca duo
cornua aurea haberet, et intra se cogitavit cui posset
vaccam ad custodi-
endum dimittere. Erit enim tune temporis quidam homo
nominee
Argus, qui verux in omnibus erat, at centum oculos habebat.
Nobilis iste
nuncium ad Argum misit, ut sine dilatione ulteriori ad
eumn veniret.
Qui cum venisset, ait ei, 'Vaccam meam cum cornibus aureis
tuae cust-
odiae committo, et si bene custodieris, te ad magnas
divitias promovebo:
sI vero cornua fuerint ablata, morte morieris." Argus
vero vaccam cum
cornibus recepit, et secum duxit; singuiis diebus cum
ea ad pascua per-
rexit at diligeuter custodivit, et de nocte eam ad domun
reduxit. Erat
quidam homo cupidus, nomine Mercurius, subtilis valde
in arte musicali,
qui miro modo vaccam habere cupiebat. Saepe ad Argum
venit, ut
prece vel pretio cornua ab eo obtineret. Argus, tenens
in manibus bacu-
lum pastoralem, eum in terra fixit, et ait baculo in
persona domini sui,
tu es dominus mues; nocte ista ad castrum tuum veniam:
tu dicis
mihl "Ubi est vacca cum cornibus ?" ego respondeo, "
Ecce vacca
sine cornibus, me enim dormiente latro quidam cornua
abstulit:" tu dicis,
"O miser! nonne centum oculos habes? quomodo erat quod
omnes
dormierent, et latro cornua abstulit? hoc est mendacium:"
et sic ero
filius mortis; si dicam, "vendidi," filius mortis ero
domuio meo. De-
inde ait Mercurio, ' Perge viam tuam, quia nihil obtinebis.'
Mercurius
recessit; altera die arte musicai et suo instrumento
venit. Qui
cum venisset, incepit cum Argo more hystrionico fabulas
dicere, et ple-
rumque cantare, quousque duo oculi Argi inceperunt dormire.
Deinde
216 NOTES.
ad. cantum illius duo alii oculi dormitaverunt; et sic
deineps donec
universi somnium caperent. Quod cernens Mercurius,
caput Argi am-
putavit, et vaccam curn cornibus aurcis rapuit."
The Cambridge MS. is, I am old of the thirteenth century,
and therefore the story of Maurus time neatherd, is older than
the compilation of the Gesta Romanorum. The name Maurus
may be itself a corruption of Argus. The Copy from which I
have printed this tale, was given inc by Mr. Halliwell: the
manuscript appears to be full of errors of the original scribe.
II. p. 6. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 1, vo.
MS. Arundel,
No. 500, 51. 4, ro.
III. p. 7. MS.Harl.No.468,fol. 2,ro.
MS. Harl.No.2851,
(not foliated). The subject of this story
is similar to that of
another tale in the present volume, No. lxxviii, p. 71. Fatal
influences to which childrcn were supposed to be subject from
their birth to a certain age, form an incident of no unfrequent
occurrence in the fictions of the middle ages, as well as in the
fairy tales of a later period. The origin of this notion was
probably oriental.
iv. p . 8. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 1, vo.The subject
of
this story has also somewhat of an oriental character. Tales
of princes who went among the lower classes of their subjects
in disguise, are found in the Arabian writers.
v. p . 9. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 3, vo.
VI. p . 9. MS. Hail. No. 463, fol. 7, vo.
MS. Reg. 7
E. iv, fol. 165, vo. (Jo. Bromyard, Suns. Pried. tit. Executores.)
-In the latter MS. the French proverb is given a~ follows,-
"Vete.ic court, que ii no croite
Quo jeo ai giant clmerniu a slier."
VII. p . 10. MS. Harl. No.463, fol. 8. MS.
Addit. No.11,579,
1W. 119, ro. MS. Hail. No. 219, fol. 119, ro.This
beautiful
NOTES.
217
apologue is of frequent occurrence in old MSS., and differs
considerably in different copies. It is found in the Gesta
Romanorum,cap. lxxx. It appears in French verse in Meon's
Nouveau Recueil do Fabilaux et Contes, tom. ii, p. 216, De
1'ermite qui s'acompaigna a lange. The reader will also
recognize it as the subject of Parnell's poem of The Hermit.
VII. p . 12. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 18.This
story appears
among the Facetia of Poggius, tom. i, p. 68 (of the
London Edit. 1798), Pertinacia muliebris, from whence it has
been taken into many modern jest-books. In the notes to
Poggins, tom. ii, p. 50, will be found references to older
Italian writers of the same class, among whom also it was a
favourite.
ix. p . 13. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 18. This
story is found
in French verse among the Fables of Marie do France, Fab.
xcv, and in a fabliau in the collection of Meon, tom. i, p. 289,
Do pré tondu. It occurs in several collections of facetiae
and
jests of the sixteenth century. See, for indications, Legrand
d'Aussy, Fabliaux, x, &c., torn. iii, p. 185.
x. p . 13. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 18, ro. This story
is
also found in Marie de France, Fab. xcvi, as well as in the
Instructions du Chevalier de Ia Tour ~. sos lilies. It was
popular among the Italians, and the later jesters, and forms
one of the Facetiaem of Poggius, tom. i, p. 69, in the note to
which (tom. ii, p. 53-60), will found numerous indications
of other imitations. Lastly, Lafontaine has adopted the story
as one of his fables, lib. iii, fab. 16.
xi. p . 14. 1MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 18, vo.
xii. p . 15. MS. Harl. No. 468, fol. 18, vo. MS. Harl.
No. 2851 (not foliated.) This tale appears
as the 37th novel
218 NOTES.
in the Cent Nouvel]es Nouvelles, under the title of Le bénitier
d'ordure. It is often repeated in the old Italian and
French
story-tellers: see Leroux do Lincy's edit, of the Cent Nouv.
Nouv. tom. ii, p. 364. It is found in the Cantos d'Eutrapel,
chap. xii; and in Lafontaine, Contes, liv. ii, cante 10, On ne
s'avise jamais de tout.
XII. p . 16. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 20,
vo' MS. Harl.
No. 2851. This is one of the tales of Peter Alfonsi, Disciplina
Clericalis, fab. xi, and is found in the Gesta Romanorum,
cap. xxviii. A French fabliau on the same subject is analised
by Legrandd'Aussy, Fabliaux, &c., torn. iv, p. 50. It is of
Indian origin, and is found in the great collection entitled
"Vrikat-Katha." It is found also in the Arabian tales of
Sendabad and of the Seven Vizers, and in the Greek
Suntipaz. In one point the real
meaning of the Indian
story, which depends on the Brahminic doctrine of the
metempsychosis, is lost in the western forms: it is tire soul
of the woman, pretended to have been cruelto her suitor,
which was stated to have migrated after her death into the
body of a dog, and not the woman herself changed into that
animal by sorcery. See Loiseleur Deslongchamps, Essai sur
les Fables Indiennes, pp. 106, 107.
XIV. p . 16. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 20,
vo. A somewhat
similar story occurs among the fables of Marie, fab. xli, and
in the Latin fables of Romulus, ap. Robert, Fables Inédites,
tom. ii, p. 551. See also Lcgrand d'Aussy, tom. IV, p. 35.
XV. p. 17. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 19, vo.Anothter
ver-
sion of this story will be found further on, p. 43.
xiv. p . 18. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 19, vo. MS. Harl.
No. 2316, fol. 58, r0 -This is a curious instance of the satires
upon the love of dress among our fair ancestors at this early
NOTES. 219
period. The outcry against the length of ladies' tails, was
repeated with much warmth in later times.
xvii. p . 18. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 20, ro. MS.
Harl
No. 219, fol. 11 vo.
xviii. p . 20. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 20. MS. Arundel,
No. 506, fol. 44, ro.
xix. p . 21. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 22. MS. Arundel,
No. 506, fol. 44, ro MS. Reg. 7 F. iv, fol. 561, vo.
(Jo
Broinyard, tit. Sortilegiurn.) This
story relates to a singular
article of the popular superstitions of the middle ages. See
Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 594-597, and App. p. xxxix.
The story is taken from Vincent of Beauvais.
xix. p . 22. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 21. MS. Arundel,
No. 506, fol. 44, V0. -A story, somewhat analogous to the
present, occurs in the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, nouv. xxv,
Forcée de gré, which is also found in Malespini,
Ducento
Novelle, part ii, nov. 56, and is repeated in the Moyen de
Parvenir.
xx. p . 22. MS. Addit. No. 11,579, fol. 7, 10. MS. Reg.
7 E. iv (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Filiatio). Serniones Discipiili,
tit. Blasphemia.-The first part of this tale bears some analogy
to one in the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, nouv. ii, Les vrais
peres. The father's will, and the dispute relating to the in-
heritance, resemble in some points the story of the bastard
Falconbridge in Shakespeare's King John.
xxi. p . 24. MS. Addit. No. 11,579, fol. 29, ro. -There
is a story reseml)ling this in the Promptuarium Exemplorum,
but without the English verses.
xxii. p. 24. MS. Harl. No. 2851 (not foliated). This
story is taken from Peter Alfopsi, Disc. Cler. fab. xxii. It is
also found in the printed Gesta Romanorum, cap. cxxxvi.
220
NOTES.
xxiv. p. 26. MS. Harl.. No. 2851 (not foliated). MS. Harl.
No. 4(13, fol. 16, vo. This
story is taken from Peter Alfonsi,
Disc. 01cr. fah. xxv. It appears to have been very popular
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is alluded to in
Lydgate's ballad of Jack flare (Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell,
p. 52). John of Bromyard (MS. Beg. 7 F. iv, fol. 45, vo.)
says, " Taliuin ergo amicitia est sicut
servitium
Maymundi,
qui in mensa et in prosperitate domino sue diligenter serviebat,
sed in hello et in adversitate fugiebat: sic isti se habent ad
arnieos." Legrand d'Aussy (torn. iv, p. 157), has analysed a
metrical tale De Maimon.
The incident of the excuse for not shutting the door,
was
repeated in recent times under a different form an idle ser-
vant pleaded as a reason for not cleaning his master's shoes,
that he should. have to clean them again the next morning,
and was punished with the loss of his dinner, under the pre-
tencethat lie would be just as hungry the day following if he
had it.
xxv. p . 27. MS. Hail. No. 2851 (not fohiated). The
same
story is told a little differently in the Gesta Homanorumn, c. cix.
Another variation is printetl in the Altdeutsche matter, vol. i,
p. 75, which I think sufficiently curious to merit insertion
here:
"Quidain in partibus de Winchelse sibi
aggregavit pecuniam in cista,
do qua nec aliis voluit subvenire. Veniens igitur una
die ut eam
videret, vidit super eam quendam diabolum sedere nigerrimum,
dicentem
sibi, 'Recedere, nec est pecunia tua, sed Godewini fabri.'
Quod ille au-
diens, et nolens eam in alicujus commodum pervenire,
cavavit magnum
truncum, ipsamque imposuit, recusit, et in mare projecit.
Quem quidem
truncum marinae undae ante ostium dicti Godewini, viri
justi et innocen-
tis, manentis in proxima villa, super litus in siccum
projecerunt, circa
vigilium Dominici Natalis. Exiens itaque idem Godwinus
mane, invenit
truncum projectun, multumque gavisus pro habendo foco
in tanto festo,
eum in domum suam traxit, et ad loctum foci gaudens apposuit.
Intrante
itque festi praedicti vigilia, ignis trunco supponitur,
metallum intro latens
NOTES. 22 l
liquescit, et exterius defunditur. Quod videns uxor dicti
Godwini, ignem
subtrahit, truncum movet et abscondit. Sicque ut dominus
praedictae
pecuniae victum quaereret hostiatim, dictusque faber
de paupere fieret
inopinate dives, devulgatur quia in vicinio quod miser
ille pecuniam
suam demersisset, cogitavit ergo uxor dicti Godwini quod
eidem misero
in aliquo cautius subveniret, cogitans dictarn pecuniam
fuisse suam, fecit
uno die panem unum, et in eo xl. solidos abscondens dedit
ei. Quem
infortunatus ille accipiens piscatoribus super litus
obviavit, panem eis
pro uno denario vendidit, et recessit. Venientes
itaque piscatores ad
domum dicti Godwini, prout fuerunt assueti, dictum panem
extrahunt et
suis equis elargiri proponunt. Quem agnoscens domina
domus, avenam
pro eis dedit et eum recepit. Idemque miser finetenus
pauper undique
remansit.”
The allusion to the yule-log, in this version of the story,
is
curious. Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, i. 277, has
pointed out a similarity between the tale, as told in the Gesta
Romanorurn, and some incidents in the Merchant of Venice.
xxiv. p. 28. MS. Reg. 7 E. iv, fol. 45, vo.
(J. Bromyard,
tit. Amicitia).—The verses in English and French at the end
of this story, are taken from MS. Reg. 8 E. xvii, fol. 83 vo.
which is considerably older than the time of John of Bromyard.
In the latter, the English verses are somewhat different, and
are accompanied with a Latin version,--
“ Wit this betel the smieth,
And alle the worle thit wite,
That thevt the ungunde alle this thing,
And goht him selve a beggyng.
“ Quod est interpretatum,
“ Cum isto malleo percutiatur,
Et a toto mundo sciatur,
Qui omnia sua ingrato dat,
Et ipse post mendicat.”
The story and the verses appear to have been popular, and
I am inclined to think they have some connection with (if
they are not the foundation of) a superstition not yet forgotten,
222 NOTES.
which is thus told by Aubrey in his “ Remains of Gentilism”
(Thoms’s Anecdotes and Traditions, p. 84),—
“ The Holy Mawle, which they fancy was hung
behind the church
door, which when the father was seaventie, the sonne
might fetch to
knock his father in the head, as effete and of no more
use.”
In the Ms. Reg. 8 E. xvII , immediately preceding the
lines I have given in the text, are the following, which allude
to the same story,
“Chescun fet grant folye,
Ke se deserite en sa vie,
E ky por enricher soen enfant,
Sei meimes let mendiaunt.
Menz vant que de vus aient mester,
Ke vus do vos enfaunz mendier.”
xxvII. p. 29. MS. Arundel, No. 52,
fol. 113, vo. MS.
Arundel, No.506, fol.46, vo. MS. Reg.7 E.Iv, fol.550, vo.
(Jo.
Bromyard, tit. Servire).— This tale is found, somewhat differ-
ing in form, in some modern collections, as, in the Facètieuses
Nuicts du Seigneur Straparole, nuit I, nouv. 3,
and in the
Facètieux devis et plaisant contes, par le sieur de Moulinet,
reprint by Techener, Paris, 1829, p. 88 It is of Indian
origin ; and in its original form, as it is told in the Pantcha-
tantra, we understand why the man gave away the animal
when he was convinced that it was a dog, an animal considered
unclean among the Brahmins. Three rogues meet a Brahmin
carrying a goat which he has just bought for a sacrifice : one
after another they tell him that it is a dog which he is carry-
ing : and at last believing that his eyes are fascinated, and
fearing to be polluted by touching an unclean animal, he
abandons it to the thieves, who carry it away. The same
story, with some little variation in the details, is found in the
Arabian collection entitled “Calila and Dimna,” and other
similar works ; and in the French collection entitled “Les
NOTES. 223
Mille et un quart-d’heure,” by Gueulette, pretended to be of
Tartar origin, Tale of the young calender.
xxvIII. p. 30. MS. Arundel,
No. 52, fol. 113, vo. —I sup-
pose the Baldwin mentioned here, was Baldwin archbishop of
Canterbury, the preacher of the crusade in which Richard I.
distinguished himself. He was abbot of Ford in Devonshire,
previous to bring bishop of Worcester, from which see he was
promoted to the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1184.
xxIx. p. 31. MS. Arundel, No.
506, fol. 54, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 3216, fol. 6, vo.—This tale is treated in French
verse in M. Jubinal’s Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux, tom. i,
p. 138, Le det dv povre chevalier.
xxx. p. 83. MS. Haul. No. 2316, fol. 2. MS. Arundel,
No. 506, fol. 44, vo. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 21, vo.
John
Bromyard, tit. Confessio.—The belief in persons being pos-
sessed by devils, and being by them made to know secrets and
to tell future events, was widely spread in the middle ages.
xxxI. p. 34. MS. Harl. No. 2316, fol.
3. MS. Harl. No.
3244 (not foliated). MS. Reg. 7 E. IV, fol. 309, vo. (Jo.
Bromyard, tit. Maria).—This story is told in French verse in
a poem in Meon’s Nouv. Rec. de Fabliaux, tom. ii, p. 411,
D’un rnoine qui contrefist P’ymaqe du deable, qui s’en corouça.
It is the subject of Southey’s ballad of The Pious Painter.
xxxII. p. 35. From the Altdeutsche Blätter, vol. ii, p. 76.
xxxIII. p. 85. Altdeutsche Blätter,
vol. ii, p. 78. MS.
Reg. 7 E. IV, fol. 332, ro. (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Mors.)—John
of Bromyard, in the place referred to, gives another story very
similar to this. The same story has been told in English
verse by Mrs. Thrale, under the title of The Three Warninqs.
224 NOTES.
XXXIV. p. 36. Altdeutsche Blätter,
vol. ii, p. 81.—This
story, told there of King William the Conqueror, is introduced
into the Anonymous French metrical continuation of the
Brut, printed in M. Michel’s Chroniques Anglo—Normandes,
tom. i, pp. 80-89.
xxxv. p. 37. Altdeutsche Blätter, vol. ii, p. 76.
xxxvI. p. 37. Altdeutsche Blätter,
vol. ii, p. 76.—Stories
of fairy cups preserved in old families, are not uncommon in
legendary lore. Henry de Sanford was bishop of Rochester
from 1227 to 1236.
xxxvII. p. 38. From a MS. at
Oxford. It is the earliest
known reference to the name of the personage of the popular
creed named Robin Goodfellow, here introduced as the house-
hold goblin, the “lubber fiend.”
xxxVIII. p. 38. MS. Harl, No.
2316, fol. 6.—A French
metrical version of this tale will be found in Meon’s Nouveau
Recueil de Fabliaux, tom. ii, p. 314, De l’abeesse qui fu grosse.
XXXIX. p. 40. MS. Arundel, No. 506, fol. 41, ro.
xL. p. 41. MS. Arundel, No. 506,
fol. 41, vo.—A similar
story of an advocate, turned monk, who was employed to pro-
secute an unjust cause for the monastery to which he belonged,
and lost it because he would not employ the professional tricks
which belonged to his former calling, is given in the same
page of the same MS.
xLI. p. 42. MS. Arundel, No.
506, fol. 2, ro.—It was a
very old and widely spread superstition in Western Europe,
that when a person first heard the cuckoo, if he counted the
number of times it repeated its note, he would know the
number of years he had to live. See Grimm’s Deutsche My-
NOTES. 225
thologie, pp. 389-391. The present story is found in Caesarius
of Heisterbach, v. 17. Another relating to the same subject,
will be found in the present volume, p. 74.
XLII. p. 42. MS. Arundel, No. 506,
fol. 6, vo. MS. Reg. 7
E. IV, fol. 290, vo. (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Locutio).
XLIII. p. 43. MS. Arundel, No. 506,
fol. 47, vo. MS.
Addit. No. 11,579, fol. 89, ro. MS. Reg. 7 E. IV, fol. 258,
vo. (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Judices). Promptuarium Exemplorum,
tit. Judex iniquus.—This story appears to have been extremely
popular. It is found in French verse, Meon, Nouveau Rec.
de Fabliaux, tom. i, p. 183, De la vieille qui oint la palme au
chevalier. It was also popular among the story-tellers of a
later period, and occurs, among others, in the Moyen de
Parvenir, ch. xviii. Other sources are indicated by Legrand
d’Aussy.
XLIV. p. 43. MS. Arundel, No. 52,
fol. 114, ro.—This
story, under a different form, has been given before, p. 17.
XLV. p. 43. MS. Harl. No. 219, fol.
12, ro.—This tale
is a curious illustration of the mode in which people
in the middle ages looked upon the more celebrated of the ancient
Latin poets. The first of the lines here quoted, is found in
Ovid, Epist. xvi, 1. 98,--
“Est virtus placitis abstinuisse bonis.”
The second is altered from Ep. iv, 1. 133,—
"Jupiter esse pium statuit quodeunque juvaret."
XLVI. p. 44. MS. Arundel,
No. 506, fol. 46, vo. MS. Reg.
7 E. Iv, fol. 394, ro. (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Ordo clericalis).—
The proverbial verses here alluded to were,—
“Hii
sunt qui Psalmos corrumpunt nequiter almos:
Jangler cum jasper, lepar, galper quoque, draggar,
Q
226 NOTES.
Momeler, forskypper,
forreynner, sic et overleper;
Fragmina verborum Tutivillus colligit horum.”
For further illustration, see the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol.
i,
pp. 90, 257, and the notes to my edition of Piers Ploughman,
p.547.
XLVII. p.44. MS. Harl. No 463,
fol. 23, ro.--- The French
poet Rutebeuf gave a metrical version of this story about the
middle of the thirteenth century, under the title “Du secres-
tain et de la fame au chevalier;” it is printed in Barbazan,
tom, iv, p.119, and in M. Jubinal’s edition of the works of
Rutebeuf, tom. i, p. 302.
XLVIII. p. 47. MS Harl. No. 463,
fol. 11, ro. MS. Reg.
7 E. IV, fol. 459 (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Paenitentia).---John of
Bromyard gives the French words thus, “tro tard, bea Godard,
i. nimis tarde aperut os.” The imperator Carolus here
alluded to, was, I suppose, Charlemagne, though I am not
aware that this anecdote occurs in any of the historians.
The wmperor was succeded by his son Louis (Louis le
Debonnaire), whose character answers to that of the Lodo-
vicus of the story. He had a son named Lothaire (Loerius),
but none named Gobaud.
XLVIII. p.47 MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 17, vo.
L. p.48. MS. Addit. No.
219, fol. 6, vo. MS. Addit.
11,579, fol. 103, vo.---John of Bromyard, tit. Ascendere,
tells
this story somewhat differently. It also occurs in the printed
Gesta Romanorum, cap. ci.
LI. p. 49. MS. Addit. No. 11,579,
fol. 97, vo. MS.
Arundel, No. 292, fol. 13 ro.---This is one of the fables
or
stories of Odo de Cerinton. It resembles the old Greek story
of a woman who was heard offering prayers in the temple
NOTES. 227
for the long life of Dionysius the tyrant: when asked the
reason, she said that they had had a king who was a great
tyrant, and she had prayed for his death, which soon hap-
pened; then there came another, worse than him, and she had
repeated her prayers; after his death, came Dionysius, much
worse than either of his predecessors, and she prayed he might
live long, for fear he should be succeeded by one still worse,
in which case the people would be entirely undone.
LII. p. 50. Ms. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 97, vo. MS. Arun-
del, No. 292, fol. 22, ro. MS. Harl. No. 219, fol. 1, vo.---This
is one of the fables of Odo.
LIII. p.51. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 97, vo. MS.
Harl. No.219, fol. 2, ro. MS. Arundel, No. 292, fol.
22, vo.---
This also is one of the fables of Odo de Cerinton.
LIV. p.52 MS. Addit. No. 11,579,
fol. 98, vo. MS. Harl.
No. 219, fol. 2, ro.---One of Odo’s fables. The bosarde
(buzzard) was considered a worthless mongrel kind of hawk.
Chaucer, Romance of the Rose, l. 4033, says,---
“This have I herde ofte in saying,
That man ne maie for no daunting
Make a sperhawke of a bosarde.”
In the MS. Addit. No. 11,579, a contemporary hand has
written in the margin of the page containing this fable the
following list of different kinds of birds of prey:---Sietus, i.
hobe; Capus, i. musket; Corrodius, i. gersfauken;
Tertellus,
i. Tertel; Falco peregrinus, i. faukun ramage; Falco
as-
centorius, i. fauken hautein; Tardarius, i. faukon layuer;
Ardearius, i. herouner; Gruarius, i. grucher; Ancipiter,
i.
hostour.
This fable appears to have been grounded upon, or to have
Q 2
228 NOTES
been the origin of, a very old and popular proverb, which is
found in most of the Teutonic languages; in English thus,---
It is a dirty bird that fouleth its own nest.
This proverb occurs in the early English piem of the Owl
and the Nightingale,---
“ Thar-bi men segget a vorbisne,
Dahet habbe that ilke best
That fuleth his owe nest.”
The same proverb is found in German (see Gruter, Prov.
Alem.)---
Es ist ein boser vogel der in sein aigen nest hofiert.
Saxo Grammaticus, at a still earlier period, says, “Ericus
se ad astandum fratri natura pertrahi dixit, probrosum referens
alitem qui proprium polluat nidum.” Stephanus, in his
note
on this passage of the ancient northern historian, observes,
“Proverbium est antiquum, quod etiamnum Islandis est in
usu,---
Sa er fuglenn westur, sem I sialffs suns hreidur drutur.
LV. p. 52. MS. Addit. No. 11,579,
fol. 99, vo. MS. Harl.
No. 219, fol. 3, ro. MS. Arundel, No. 292, fol, 23,
vo.---One
Of the fables of Odo. The bird called in Spanish paxaro S.
Martin, and in French l’oiseau S. Martin, is the falco
cyaneus, or ring-tail, a species of hawk. The hero of
Odo’s
fable has been commonly supposed to be the wren; it can
hardly be the bird just mentioned.
LVI. p. 53. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 100, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 3, ro.---The line with which this fable
concludes, was an old popular proverb, and is found in several
manuscript collections.
LVII. p. 54. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 101, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 5, ro.---This and the fables which follow
NOTES. 229
are curious from their connexion more of less with the Romance
of Reynard, in which Ysengrim is the name of the wolf, Rey-
nard of the fox, Tebert of the cat, Berenger of the bear, &c.;
all which names occur here.
LVIII. p. 54. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 101, vo.---This
fable is told in different words in one of the Latin stories in
the Altdeutsche Blatter, p. 82. The same story, closely
Agreeing with the copy in the Altdeutsche Bl., is found in
One of the branches of the Roman du Renart, printed in
M. Chabaille’s Supplement, p. 107.
LIX. p. 55. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 102, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 5, vo.---This is quoted by Douce as
one of
Odo’s fables. It forms also one of the fables of the poetess
Marie de France, fab. lxxxii, D’un preste et du lox. See
Legrand d’Aussy. In the Harl. MS. The English lines are
given thus,---
“If al that the wolf unto a reest worthe,
And be set unto book psalms to leere,
Yit his eye is evere to the wodeward.”
Douce quotes them from another MS. A little differently,---
“ If alle that the wolf unto the prest worthe,
And be sette on to boke salmes to lere,
eit is ever hys onne eye to the wodeward.”
They are curious as being regular alliterative verse.
I may
Observe, that I always give the English and French lines in
the text from the oldest MS. In which they occur.
LX. p. 56. MS. Addit. No. 11,579,
fol. 105, vo. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 7, ro. Jo. Bromyard, tit. Adulatio.---This
fable is found in Marie de France, fab. lxvi, and in several
Of the old Latin fabulists. See M. Robert’s Fables Inedites,
tom. ii, p. 547. It occurs also in the rhythmical Latin fables
in the appendix to the present volume.
230 NOTES
LXI. p. 56. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 109, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 22 vo.
LXII. p. 57. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 110, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 23, ro. MS. Arundel, No. 292,
fol. 16, vo.
---One of Ode’s fables. It is found in the early collection of
fables in Latin prose, printed by M. Robert, Fables Ined.
tom. Ii, p. 549, and in Marie de France, fab. xcviii. In this
fable, the Harl. MS. No. 219, gives Teberto instead of
Teburgo: the name of the cat is Tebert or Tibert
in the
Roman du Renart.
LXIII. p. 57. MS. Addit. No.
11,597, fol. 111, ro. MS.
Harl. No. 219, fol. 24, ro. MS. Arundel. No. 292, fol. 14,
vo.---
One of the fables of Odo. It is curious on account of its
pointed satire against the monkish orders.
LXIV. p. 58. MS. Addit. No.
11,579, fol. 111, vo. MS.
Arundel, No. 292, fol. 14, vo.---One of the fables of Odo.
LXV. p. 59 MS. Garl. No. 463,
fol. 18, vo. Promptuarium
Exemplorum, tit. Ebrietas.---The point of this story depends
upon the monastic customs. A person, having once taken
the monastic habit, was not permitted to return to a secular
life: if married, his marriage was by that act dissolved.
LXVI. p. 59. I have lost the
reference to the manuscript
containing this story, and have not been able to correct it by
the original. I have somewhere seen the same story in
French verse.
LXVII. p. 61. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 22, ro.
LXVIII. p. 61. MS. Harl. No. 463,
fol. 17, vo.---It is
scarcely necessary to observe that the quotation at the foot of
the page, is from Matth. V, 37.
NOTES 231
LXIX. p.62. MS. Harl. No. 463,
fol. 3, ro.---This appears
to be an unskilful abridgement of a longer tale.
LXX. p. 63. MS. Arundel, No. 506, fol. 48, ro.
LXXXI. p. 64. MS. Harl. No.
219, fol. 9, vo.---A French
metrical version of this story is printed in Barbazan, Fabliaux,
&c.tom. i. P. 347, Uns miracles de Nostre Dame, d’un chevalier
qui amoit une dame. The Psalterium Mariæ Virginis
men-
tioned in this tale, is thus defined in the statues of Eton Col-
lege, cap. lvi, ---
“ Post quæsimiliter dicant ante
tempus altæ Missæ in ecclesia, vel
cimiterio, aut clustro ejusdem, in remissionem eorum
quæ deliquerunt
per abusum quinque sensuum, quinquies orationem prædictam
[ domini
cam], adjungentes post singulas orationes prædictas
denas Salutationes
angelicas, cum uno symbole in fide pro confirmatione
fidei Christianæ:
sic quod in tempre quo dicentur Matuinæ ac aliæ
Horæ, aut omnino
ante altam Missam, dicant completum Psalterium Beatæ
Virginis;
computando semper in hujusmodi psalterio quindecies Orationem
domi-
nicam, et centum quinquaginta Ave Maria, ac insuper unum
Credo.”
LXXII. p. 66. MS. Sloane, No. 2478, fol. 6, ro.
LXXIII. p. 67. MS. Arundel. No. 52,
fol. 113, ro. MS.
Reg. 7 E. IV, fol. 264, vo. (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Judicium).---
John of Bromyard omits the name.
LXXIV. p. 67. MS. Garl. No. 463, fol. 19, vo.
LXXV. p. 68. MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV, fol 46, vo. (Jo. Bromyard,
Tit. Amicitia).
LXXVI. p. 69. MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV, fol. 63, vo. (Jo. Brom-
Yard, tit. Avaritia).
LXXVII. p. 70. From the Promptuarium
Exemplorum.---
This tale is the foundation of Chaucer’s Frere’s Tale.
232 NOTES
LXXVIII. p. 71. Promptuaruim
Exemplorum.---This story
appears in Boccacio, from whom it was adopted by Lafon-
taine, liv. Iii. Conte 1, Les oies de frere Philippe.
LXXIX. p. 71 Promptuarium Exemplorum.
MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV, fol. 458, vo. (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Paenitentia). MS.
Arun-
del, No. 506, fol. 40, vo.---Similar stories will be found in
MS. Arundel. No. 292, fol. 20, ro. (Odo). The same story
is also found at a later priod, in the Facetiæ Belelianæ,
lib.i, De rustico S. Nicolaum invocante.
LXXX. p. 72. Promptuarium Exemplorum.---This
story is
takem from Cæsarius of Heisterbach. It was very popular
at a later period, and is found in Boccacio, Decam. Giorn.
iv, 2; in Masuccio, Novellino, i. 2; in Malespini, Ducento
Novelle, nov. 80; in the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, nouv. xiv,
Le faiseur des Papes; in the Facetiæ Bebelianæ, lib. ii,
Historia de Judea filiam pro Messia pariente (compare with
it another in the same collection, De fratre minore monialem
gravidam reddente); and in Lafontaine, liv. ii, conte 15,
L’hermite.
LXXXI. p. 73. Promptuaruim
Exemplorum.---A similar
Story is found in the English Jack of Dover, edition of the
Percy Society, p. 20.
LXXXII. p. 73. From the Promptuaruim Exemplorum.
LXXXIII. p. 74. Promptuarim
Exemplorum (quoted from
Jacobus de Vitriaco).---This story is the subject of the Lai
d'Aristote, by Henri d’Andeli, printed in Barbazan, tom. iii,
p. 96. It is of Eastern origin: see Loiseleur Deslongchamps,
Essai sur los Fables Indiennes, p. 51.
LXXXIV. p. 74. Promptuarium Exemplorum. MS. Reg.
NOTES 233
7 E. IV (Jo. Bromyard, tit. Sortilegium).---See a fromer story,
p. 42, and the note.
LXXXV. p. 75. Altdeutsche Blatter,
p. 77.---This tale is
chiefly curious as illustrative of the forms and mysteries of
magic at so early a period as the thirteenth century.
LXXXVI. p. 75. Altdeutsche
Blatter, p. 75.---The original
was Wyvelin, instead of Dyvelin, which is evidently a mis-
taken. I have nowhere met with the name of Colewyn as
applied to devil.
LXXXVII. p. 76. Altdeutsche Blatter, p. 78.
LXXXVIII. p. 76. Altdeutsche
Blatter, p. 79.---The Cister-
cian abbey of Fountains, in Yorkshire, is well known for its
picturesque ruins. The belief in spirits that inhabited trees,
was very ancient, and very widely spread. In the stories of
the East, as well as in those of Western Europe, wood-men
are frequently engaged in marvelous adventures, and become
rich by their intercourse with these beings. Instances of
Oriental tales of this kind are given by Loiseleur Deslong-
champs, Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, pp. 54-55. One of
the most remarkable European stories of this class, is the
Fable of Merlin, printed in Meon, and in M. Jubinal’s
Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux, &c. tom. I, p. 128.
LXXXIX. p. 77. MS. Harl.
No. 463, fol. 22, ro.---Another
tale illustrative of the superstition here described is given
further on, p. 110.
XC. p. 77. MS. Harl. No. 463,
fol. 15, ro.---This is a very
curious illustration of the manners of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries.
XCI. p. 78 This story is taken
from the Appendix to the
Latin editions of Æsop’s Fables, printed in the fifteenth
234 NOTES.
century. There can be no doubt of its being a middle-age
story, as it is found in the Fables of Adolfus, printed in the
Appendix to the present volume. It is original of the
Marchantes Tale in Chaucer.
XCII. p. 80. MS. Arundel,
No. 292. MS. Harl. No. 219,
fol. 27, ro. MS. Reg. 7 E IV, fol.403, ro. (Jo.
Bromyard).---
This is one of the fables of Odo de Cerinton; it is cleverly told
in the opening chapter of Piers Ploughman, and has more than
one historical association. It is also found in Latin verse,
and
in a French metrical Ysopet, both of the fourteenth century:
see Robert, Fables Ined. Tom. i, pp. 99, 100. Lafontaine
has given it a modern dress, liv. ii, fab. 2.
XCIII. p. 80. MS. Arundel,
No. 292, fol. 14. ---This is given
among the fables of Odo. It is identically the same as
one
of the tales of the Wise Men of Gotham, the eighth tale in
Mr. Halliwell’s edition:---
“ On a time the men of Gotham had forgotten
to pay their rent to
their landlords. So the one said to the other,
Tomorrow must be pay
day, and what remedy can we take to send our money to
our landlords?
The one said to them, This day I have taken a hare, and
he shall carry
it, for he is very quick-footed. Be it so,
replied the rest; he shall have
a letter and a purse to put our money in; and we can
direct him the
ready way. When the letter was written, and
the money put in a purse,
they immediately ty’d’em about the hare’s neck, saying,
You must first
go to Loughborough, and then to Leicester, and at Newark
is our landlord;
then commend us unto him, and there is his due.
The hare, as soon as
he got out of their hands, run a clean contrary away.
Some said, Thou
must go to Loughborough first. Some made
answer and said, Let the
hare alone, for he can tell a nearer way than the best
of us; let him go.”
In my “Early Mysteries, and other Latin Poems,” 8 vo.
1838, I have printed a rhythmical collection of Gothamite
stories, told of the people of Norfolk. There is a Wilby
in
Norfolk, probably the place here referred to. This coincidence
seems to prove that there was a collection of such stories afloat
NOTES. 235
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and that Norfolk was
the Gotham of our forefathers. There are some other Go-
thamite stories in the present volume.
XCIV. p. 81. MS. Harl.
No. 2316, fol. 54, ro. ---This story
is curious as containing the first words of a popular song.
In MS. Digby No. 86 (Bodleian Library), fol. 114, ro.
is a
French song of the same period, beginning almost in the
same words,
“Jolifte
Me fest aler ad pe,” &c. (? al pre)
XCV. p. 81. MS. Harl.
No. 2316, fol. 55, ro. ---This is
another story of the Gothamie class; and the verses cited in
it would lead us to suppose that the early collection I con-
jecture to have existed in the thirteenth century, was in French
verse; which in other respects is probable enough.
XCVI. p. 82. MS. Harl. No. 2316, fol. 56, vo.
XCVII. p. 83. MS. Harl.
No. 2316, fol. 15, ro. Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Ebrietas. ---The verses are taken from the Harleian
MS.; the tale partly from John of Bromyard. A French
metrical version is given in Meon, Nouveau Recueil, tom. ii,
p. 173, De l’ermite qui s’enyvra, where the story is told more
at length. The hermit, obliged to choose one of the
three
sins, selected drunkenness as the least criminal: he visited a
neighbouring miller, with whom he caroused till late in the
evening: being drunk, the miller’s wife goes with him to show
him the way to his cell, and in a lonely part of the road,
excited by his previous excess, he commits the sin of adultery:
meanwhile the miller, uneasy at the long absence of his wife,
sets out in search of her, with his axe on his shoulder, and
arrives just in time to be a witness of his own disgrace, when
the hermit, in a moment of anger, seizes the axe and kills its
236 NOTES.
owner. He was thus led on, by indulging in one sin, to com-
mit the two which it was his desire to avoid.
XCVIII. p. 84. MS. Arundel, No. 506, fol. 41, vo.
XCIX. p. 84. MS. Arundel,
No. 506, fol. 43, vo. ---This
characteristic story is the subject of a fabliau analized by
Legrand d’Aussy, tom. iii. p. 219, Du vilain asnier. Accord-
ing to Legrand, the same tale occurs in a collection of stories
printed in the sixteenth century, entitled “Histoires facetieuses
et morales,” p. 189.
C. p. 85. MS. Harl. No.
2851 (not foliated). Promp-
tuarium Exemplorum, tit. Matrimonium.---This story was
extremely popular during several centuries. It is given
in an
abridged form among the Latin stories in the Altdeutsche
Blatter, p. 81; and it will be found among the fables of
Adolfus, in the appendix to the present volume. As com-
monly told, the devil agreed to give the old woman a pair of
shoes, and when he brought them, he reached them to her at
the end of a long pole.
CI. p. 89. MS. Harl.
No. 2851.---This story is taken ver-
batim from Peter Alfonsi, Disc. Cler. fab. xii. It is also
found in the Historia Septem Sapientum, and is probably of
Oriental origin. It will be found among the fables
of Adolfus,
and in the Decameron.
CII. p. 91. MS. Harl.
No. 2851.---This also is taken from
Peter Alfonsi, fab. vii. It was popular at a later period.
It
is the same story as nouvelle vi, in the Nouvelles de la Reine
de Navarre, and is imitated in the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles,
nouv. xvi, Le borgne aveugle.
CIII. p. 92. From a MS.
in private hands, fol. 189, ro. ---
This story is doubtlessly of Oriental origin, and is found in
NOTES
237
Barlaam and Josaphat. It also occurs in the Gesta Roma-
norum, cap. cxliii. It is likewise found, a little varied,
in
John of Bromyard, tit. Homo, MS. Reg. 7 E. IV, fol. 226, vo.
CIV. p. 93. From the
same MS. as the last, fol. 185 ro. ---
This story is told a little differently in Gower’s Confessio
Amantis, lib. v, fol. xcvii,---
“ Somedele to this mater like
I fynde a tale, howe Frederlike
Of Rome that tyme emperour
Herde, as he wente, a great clamour
Of two beggers upon the weye.
That one of hem began to seye :
‘Ha lord! well may the man be riche,
Whome that a kynge list to riche!’
That other said no thynge so,
But, ‘He is ryche and well be-go,
&nb
And thus thei maden wordes fele.
Wherof this lord hath hede nome,
And did hem both for to come
To the paleis, where he shall ete,
And bad ordeine for her meate
Two pasteys, whiche he lete do make.
A capon in that one was bake,
And in that other for to wynne
Of floreyns all that maie within
He let do put great riches :
And even as liche as man maie gesse
Outwarde thei were both two.
This begger was commanded tho,
He the whiche held hym to the kynge,
That he fyrste chese upon this thynge.
He sawe hem, but he felt hem nought :
So that upon his owne thought
He chose the capon, and forsoke
That other, which his felawe toke.
But whan he wist howe that it ferde,
He seyth alowde, that men it herde,
238 NOTES.
‘Nowe have I certaynely conceived,
That he maie lightly be deceived,
That tristeth unto mans helpe!
But well is hym that God woll helpe!
For he stante on the siker side,
Whiche elles shulde go beside.
I see my felawe well recover,
And I mote dwell still pover.’
Thus spake the begger his entent,
And poore he came, and poore he went;
Of that he had richesse sought,
His infortune it wolde nought.”
This story bears some resemblance to a tale in the indedited
Latin Gesta Romanorum, which is found in the old English
translations of that work, and, through them, was the origin
of the story of the caskets in Shakespeare’s Merchant of
Venice.
CV. p.94. From the same MS., fol.184, r°.
CVI. p. 95 From the same
MS., fol. 173, r°.—A French
metrical version of this tale is printed in Meon, Nouv. Rec.
tom. ii, p. 154, De la segrataine qui devint foleau monde.
CVII. p. 96. From the same MS. Fol. 171, v°.
CVIII. p. 96. MS. Harl.
No. 463., fol. 10, v°.—A story
similar to this is found in Barlaam and Josaphat.
CIX. p. 97. MS. Sloane,
No. 2478, fol. 3, v°.—A French
metrical version of this story is printed in Meon’s Nouveau
Recueil, tom. ii, p. 443, Du larron qui se commandoit â Nostre
Dame toutes les fois qui’il aloit embler.
CX. p. 98. MS. Harl.
No. 463, fol. 21, v°.—Two French
poems on this subject are preserved; one printed in Meon,
tom. ii, p. 394, Du senaateur de Rome, ou de la borjoise qui fu
239 NOTES
grose de son fil; the other in M. Jubinal’s Nouveau Recueil
de Fabliaux, tom. i, p. 79, Le Dit de la bourjosse de Romme.
CXI. p. 99. MS. Sloane,
No. 2478, fol. 35, v°.—This
story is chiefly curious on account of the allusion to the popular
custom of acting mysteries and miracle-plays.
CX*. p. 104. From the
Promptuarium Exemplorum.—
This story is in the common Gesta Romanorum, cap. CXXV.
It
is also found in the Chevalier de la Tour. Several French
writers of the sixteenth century give it under different forms.
It forms the sixth fable of book viii. Of the Fables of Lafon-
taine, Les femmes et le secret, where eggs are substituted for
crows. It has also appeared in English verse by John Byrom,
under the title of The Three Black Crows. (Byrom’s Poems,
vol. i, p. 31.)
CXI*. p.105. MS. Harl. No. 2316, fol. 3, r°.
CXII. p. 105. MS. Harl.
No. 2316, fol. 2, v°.—This tale
occurs in the common Gesta Romanorum, and perhaps gave S
hakespeare the hint for a beautiful incident in Macbeth.
CXII*. p. 107. MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV (Jo. Bromyard, tit.
Divitiæ).—This is a curious illustration of our old fairy
my-
thology. The English hob-goblins and household-spirits, and
the Scottish brownies, were always driven away by gifts of a
new suit of clothes, &c.
CXIV. p. 108. MS. Reg.
7 E. IV, fol. 151, v°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Elemosina).—This is a very popular joke against
the covetousness of the prists, and their practical applications
of hoy writ. It was current in the shape of a fabliau,
printed in Barbazan, tom. iii, p. 25, De Brunain la vache au
240
NOTES
pester. See also Legrand d’ Aussy, Fabliaux, tom. ii, p. 330,
La vache du cure. It is frequently repeated by the writers
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and forms one of
the tales in Jack of Dover, p. 28.
CXV. p. 108. MS. Reg.
7 E. IV, fol. 163, r°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Exemplum).
CXVI. p. 108. Reg. 7
E. IV, fol. 177, v°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Falsitas).
CXVII. p. 109.
MS. Reg. 7 E. IV, fol. 194, r°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Filatio).
CXVIII. p. 110. MS. Reg
7 E. IV, fol. 560, v°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Sortilegium).—A story relating to the same super-
stition, has been given before, p. 77.
CXIX. p. 110. MS. Reg.
7 E. IV, fol. 561, r°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Sortilegium).—this is the type of a number of
souirs which have crept into hisrour , and been applied to
different persons. One of our kings, it is pretended, was
told that he would not die until he was in Jerusalem, a pro-
phecy which was fulfilled by hie dying in the Jerusalem
chamber.
CXX. p. 111. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol. 21, v°.
CXXI. p. 111. MS. Harl.
No. 463, fol. 22, r°.—This tale
is a curouis illustration of old popular customs.
CXXII. p. 112. MS. Harl.
No. 3244 (not foliated).—This
story probably belongs to the same set of Gothamite stories
alluded to in a former note.
CXXIII. p. 112. MS. Harl. No. 3244.
CXXIV. p. 113. MS. Reg.
7 E. IV, fol. 234, r°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Humilitas).
241 NOTES
CXXV. p. 113. MS. Harl.
No. 463, fol. 17, r°.—This also
is a very remarkable picture of the manners of the olden
time.
CXXVI. p. 114. MS. Harl.
No. 2270, fol. 42, r°. compared
with another copy in MS. Harl. No. 5259.—this is the foun-
dation of an important portion of Shakespeare’s Merchant of
Venice. It is here given from the inedited English edition
of the Latin Gesta Rmanourm, and has not, I believe, been
before printed. I have somewhere seen a separate copy of
this srory in Latin in a MS., which to the best of my recollec-
tion, was older than the compilation of the Gesta, in which
the scene was laid in England and in Denmark, and in which
the forfeit was a pound of flesh; but I have unfortunately
lost all traces of the reference. This story, like so many other
medieval fictions, is of Oriental origin: Mr. Douce, Illustra-
tions of Shakespeare, refers to sources, and he also indicates
a number of books of tales and jests printed in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, in which it appears with some
variations, The incident of the enchanted letter, occurs in
other fictions: in the romance of Bevis of Hampton, Josian
is saved by a similar letter from the violence of her suitor
The allusion to the ‘philosopher’ Virgilius, is also curious.
CXXVII. p. 122. MS. Reg.
7 E. IV, fol. 249, r°. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Invidia).—This story might be traced through several
centuries. I think I have seen it in old French verse. It
will be found in the collection entitled Noveaux Contes â
Rire, Cologne, 1722, tom. ii, p. 39, Le brochet du Florentin.
John of Bromyard, loc. Cit., gives another similar story, in
which one man voluntary loses one of his eyes, in order that
another man should lose both his eyes. This last story is also
found in Gower.
242 NOTES
CXXVIII. p. 122. MS. Reg 7
E. IV fol. 252, rº. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Ipocrisis) --- This also was a common joke at a later
period. It is taken from Macrobius, Saturnal. lib ii cap.2---
"Apud L. Mallium, qui optimus pictor
Romæ habebatur, Servilius
Geminus forte coenabat: cumque filios ejus deformes vidisset,
'Non
similiter', inquit, 'Malli fingis et pingis.' Et Mallius,
'In tenebris enim
fingo', inquit, 'luce pingo'."
CXXIX. p. 122. MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV, fol. 279, vº (tit. Ipo-
crisis). ---A story, somewhat resembling this, occurs in Jack
of
Dover, p. 30.
CXXX. p. 123. MC. Reg 7 E IV,
fol. vo ( Jo Brom-
yard, tit. Justitia). --- This also is one of hte old Gothamite
stories.
CXXXI. p. 123. MS. Reg. 7 E
IV, fol. 284, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Lex). --- In the middle ages, no class of persons
was
so generally injurious to society, and so universally hated as
the unsurers.
CXXXII. p. 123 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV fol.
292, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Locutio).
CXXXIII. p. 124 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV
fol. 297, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Luxuria).
CXXXIV. p. 124 MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV fol. 320, ro. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Ministratio).
CXXXV. p. 125 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV fol.
361, ro. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Mundus).
CXXXVI. p. 125 MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV, fol. 362, vo (Jo.
Bromyard, tit. Munera). --- This story is remarkable, not only
as an illustration of old superstitions, but as bearing some
resemblance to an inceident in the romance of Eustache le
Moine, Il. 41-48.
NOTES 243
CXXXVII. p. 126. MS. Reg. 7
E. IV, fol 392, vo. (Jo.
Bromyard, tit. Ordo clericalis).---- the romances of the cycle
of Charlmagne, and particularly those relating to the ex-
pedition of Roncesvaux and the fate of Roland and the
douze pairs, were among the most popular pieces sung by
the minstrels.
CXXXVIII. p. 126 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV,
fol. 400 ro. (Jo.
Bromyard, tit. Ordo clericalis). ---This tale is a curious me-
morial of the national jealousies of the times of the Anglo-
Normans.
CXXXIX. p. 127 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV,
fol. 493, vo. (Jo.
Bromyard, tit. Prælatio).
CXL. p. 127 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV, fol.
502, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Rapina).
CXLI. p. 128 MS. Reg. 7 E. IV, fol.
546, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Scientia). This tale affords us a very remarkable
instance of the transmission of these ancient stories tradition-
ally to modern times. It is given almost verbatim in the
Contes et Joyeux Devis de Bonaventure des Periers, nouvelle
xxii, De trois freres qui cuidetent etre pendus pour leur Latin.
CXLII. p. 129. MS. Reg. 7 E. IV,
fol. 502, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Trinitas).
CXLIII. p. 12 MS. Reg. 7 E.
IV, fol. 502, vo. (Jo. Brom-
yard, tit. Veritas). --- A story resembling this, if sound in
Jack
of Dover, p. 14.
CXLIV. p. 129 Jo. Bromyard, tit.
Judicium divinum.---
This excellent fable is found the the Green Æsop, but not, as
far as i have discovered, in any Latin collection of fables
until after the revival of learning. It forms the first fable of
R 2
244 NOTES
lib, iii, of Lafontaine, Le Munier, son fils, et l'ane;
and is
the subject of a poem by John Byron, Poems, vol. i, p. 41
The Countryman and his Ass.
CXLV. p. 130. MS. Arundel. No. 506, fol. 8, ro.
CXLVI. p. 132. MS. Harl. No. 463, fol 7, ro.
CXLVII. p. 132 MS. Harl. No.
219, fol. 33, ro.--- I believe
this tale is found in the Gesta Romanorum.
CXLVIII. p. 133. MS. Harl.
No. 2316, fol. 11, vo.--- Hoi-
landia, is Holland in Lincolnshire.
CXLIX. p. 135. MS. Arundel. No. 506,
fol. 48, vo.