'And that is right that I so be:

"

Lord, on thy fool have thou pitè!

'That error hath made me to smart

• That I had in my heart;

'Lord, I 'leved not on thee:

'Lord, on thy fool have thou pitè.

Holy writ I had in despite;
Therefore 'reaved is my right;

'Therefore is right a fool that I be:

'Lord, on thy fool have thou pitè,' &c.

"The sincerity of his contrition is evinced, in the original, by a long series of such stanzas, with little variation of thought or expression; but the foregoing specimen will, perhaps, suffice for the satisfaction of the reader.

"After five weeks spent in Rome, the emperor, and the supposed king of Sicily, returned to their respective dominions, Robert being still accoutred in his fox-tails, and accompanied by his ape, whom he now ceased to consider as his inferior. When returned to the palace, the angel, before the whole court, repeated his usual question; but the penitent, far from persevering in his former insolence, humbly replied, that he was indeed a fool, or worse than a fool; but that he had at least acquired

a perfect indifference for all worldly dignities.' The attendants were now ordered to retire: and the angel, being left alone with Robert, informed him that his sins were forgiven; gave him a few salutary admonitions, and added,

I am an angel of renown
Sent to keep thy regioun.
More joy me shall fall

In heaven, among mine feren all,
In an hour of a day,

Than here, I thee say,

In an hundred thousand year;
Though all the world, far and near,

• Were mine at my liking:

I am an angel; thou art king!'

"With these words he disappeared; and Robert, returning to the hall, received, not without some surprise and confusion, the usual salutations of the courtiers.

"From this period he continued, during three years, to reign with so much justice and wisdom that his subjects had no cause to regret the change of their sovereign; after which, being warned by the angel of his approaching dissolution, he dictated to his secretaries a full account of his former perverseness, and of its strange punishment; and,

having sealed it with the royal signet, ordered it to be sent, for the edification of his brothers, to Rome and Vienna. Both received, with due respect, the important lesson: the emperor often recollected with tenderness and compassion the degraded situation of the valiant Robert; and the pope, besides availing himself of the story in a number of sermons addressed to the faithful, caused it to be carefully preserved in the archives of the Vatican, as a constant warning against pride, and an incitement to the performance of our religious duties."

The story of "The King of Thibet and the Princess of the Naimans," in the Persian and Turkish Tales, presents an incident somewhat similar. But the assumption of another's likeness, is a common eastern figment.

NOTE 59. Page 212.

"This is evidently a Gothic innovation of the classical tale of Atalanta. But it is not impossible, that an oriental apologue might have given rise to the Grecian fable."-Warton.

The story of Atalanta, I consider the origin of many subsequent fables. Amongst these, the "Hare and the Tortoise" may be noticed.

NOTE 60. Page 214.

The introduction of Alexander the Great, Socrates, and a Roman emperor, is a strange jumble of times and persons.

NOTE 61. Page 223.

"Beware that you lose not the THREAD.”

A fine moral, which might be oftener remembered with advantage. The Gospel is to the Christian, what the ball of thread was to the knight: pity that it should so frequently be lost!

NOTE 62. Page 224.

"Here seems to be an allusion to MEDEA's history."-WARTON. It is surely more analogous to the story of the Minotaur, and the clue furnished by Ariadne to her lover. Warton should have explained the resemblance he has fancied.

NOTE 63. Page 234.

"My friend, let us go through the world as other knights are wont to do."

"Sicut cæteri milites." Here we discover those features of chivalry, so admirably ridiculed by Cer

vantes. But, in times of oppression, when every

one followed

"the simple plan,

That he may take who has the power,

And he may keep who can,"

the wandering hero, ever ready to risk his life in defence of the injured, was governed by a noble and useful institution.

"Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit." This gives us the origin, probably, of the proverb, " All's well that ends well." "Finis coronat opus," is of a

similar character.

NOTE 65. Page 239.

The interpretation of the language of birds, is clearly an oriental fiction; several instances of which are furnished by the Arabian Tales. It has since been made the vehicle of many instructive fables. See Spectator, Vol. VII. No. 512. which is copied from the "Story of the two Owls," in the Turkish Tales.

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