Siete Partidas, of Mobaschir's sentences under the title of Bocados de oro, or, to give it its full description: El libro llamado Bocados de oro el qual hizo el Bonium Rey de Persia. The Mouthfuls of Gold are an epitome of the wisdom of the East as culled by an imaginary King Bonium, who is represented as journeying to India expressly for this purpose. But far more significant than this thirteenth-century translation is the Conde Lucanor or Libro de Patronio of Don Juan Manuel (1282-1348), nephew of Alfonso the Wise, and uncle of Alfonso XI., whose guardian he was. The princely author led a stormy life, being always at war either with his quondam ward or with the national foe. Although he defeated the Moors at the battle of Guadalhorra, Juan Manuel knew how to profit by their culture. El Conde Lucanor contains other ingredients, but its chief ultimate source was the Pantscha - Tantra, a Sanscrit work written in the remote past by a pundit Wischnou Sarma for the sons of an Indian sovereign, his pupils. A descendant of the PantschaTantra was the Hitopadesa produced in the sixth century of our era and translated by a physician, Barzouyeh, into Pehlvi or Old Persian. Hence, in the eighth century, it was translated by Abdallah-ben-alMokaffa, at the command of the Khalif Mansour, into Arabian, under the title of Calilah and Dimnah -the two jackals whose adventures are related in the work.

It is not improbable that Juan Manuel possessed a first-hand acquaintance with this Arabian version. He certainly understood the language, as the Conde

Lucanor in general, and the story of Al Hakem King
of Cordova in particular, contains many Arabian
quotations. But there is another possibility. In the
eleventh century Rabbi Joel is reputed to have
translated the Calilah and Dimnah from Arabian into
Hebrew; and, in 1261, this Hebrew version was
translated by order, it is believed, of Alfonso
X.-into Castilian. The name Lucanor, which is
suspiciously like Lokman, appears to have been taken
from the prose Tristan, but Lucanor doubtless rep-
resents Juan Manuel himself. The nobleman, who
is no longer very young, and gets his full share of
the troubles of life, has recourse, on every emergency,
to his friend Patronio, who clothes his advice in
parables. These parables, by no means invariably
of Eastern origin, are told charmingly, and probably
from memory.
El Conde Lucanor is in prose, but
here and there are signs of a poetical vein, and the
moral is regularly presented at the close of each
recital in a couplet, e.g. :-

"Si por vicio et por folgura la buena fama perdemos,
La vida muy poco dura; denostados fincaremos."

The work is at the same time what it was intended to be a thesaurus of good sense and practical philosophy.1 A general feature of these Spanish treatises is the absence from them of the cant of chivalry. This was to come in the period now beginning.

1 Count Lucanor: or, The Fifty Pleasant Stories of Patronio, first done into English from the Spanish, by J. York. Westminster : Pickering, 1868.

Piers Plowman.

Many of the traits observed in Italian and Spanish allegories and works of instruction reappear in a notable English poem-the Vision of (i.e., concerning") Piers the Plowman. The writer, probably named William Langland, or Langley, must have been born-tradition says, at CleoburyMortimer in Shropshire-about 1332; and he died about 1400. Piers Plowman belongs to the category of poems occupying a lifetime; and, like Froissart's Chroniques, it exists in three different versions or "editions." The first version seems to have been composed, near the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, in 1362, and to have been inspired by the events of the preceding year, when, for the second time in the reign of Edward III., England had been ravaged by the plague. On the 15th January 1362 a new calamity befell in the shape of a devastating tempest, which filled all hearts with terror, and seemed to usher in the Last Day. The moment therefore was favourable to any one desiring to lift up his voice against prevailing corruptions in Church and State. Although Langland chose for his poem rhymeless alliterative verse, he, like all other educated English

men, knew French, and certain French Sources. compositions exercised a powerful influence over his imagination. It is superfluous to mention the Roman de la Rose, and, besides this, he may probably have read one of its sources the Tournoiement d'Antéchrist of Huon de Méri. He was certainly acquainted with Robert Grosseteste's Castel d'Amour, translated about half a century earlier.

The Castle of Love, which is the bosom of the Holy Virgin, has suggested the "Tour on the Toft," and Grosseteste's four daughters of the Most High King are quoted in the Vision as Mercy, Sothfastnes, Righwysnes, and Pees. Grosseteste was indebted for the idea to a homily of St Bernard, and it is possible that Langland drew from the same source. Anyhow, he was well versed in Holy Scripture and the great Latin Church Fathers.

The Prologus gives the cadre of the poem-a wonderful vision of a castle, and a dungeon, and a field full of people. From this general description Langland proceeds to pass in review the various orders that made up the realm of England-bidders and beggars, pilgrims and palmers, bishops and bachelors of divinity, barons and burgesses, bakers and butchers, tailors and tanners, masons and miners, dykers (ditchers) and delvers, cooks and taverners, and many more.

The meaning.

What is the meaning of this spectacle? A lady with a beautiful face descends on purpose to inform him. The "Tour" or castle (as we should probably say) is the Truth of God; the 'Dungun" (dungeon) is the Castle of Care, the abode of Wrong. The field full of people is, of course, the "world." "Of other heuene than heer holde thei no tale," he says of the busy crowd. But who is the lady herself? "Holi churche Icham," she replies, and at once William is down on his knees, beseeching her to pray for the pardon of his sins, and to teach him to believe on Christ.

After

further discourse, he begs her to instruct him in the art of detecting lies, and is told to look on his left hand. He sees there a woman gorgeously arrayed, who, he learns, is Meede (bribery), and with her are two companions, Fals and Favel. The name Fals speaks for itself; the meaning of Favel is not so obvious. According to some, it is derived from the Old French favele (Lat. fabula), signifying "idle talk," and is here employed figuratively for Flattery. Occleve certainly uses it in this sense

"But favelle taketh all another parte,

In wrong preisynge is all his craft and art."

There is, however, another slightly different explanation. The word is sometimes spelt Fauwel, and this suggests a connection with the French fauve (i.e., 'fallow," as used in "fallow deer"). In the Roman de Fauvel, both parts of which date from the commencement of the fourteenth century, the beast so named personifies the vices rampant in the Church and in society. Although the name is stated to be compounded of fauls and vel, the couleur fauve of the animal is distinctly emphasised. The progeny of Fauvel are Flaterie, Avarice, Vilenie, Varieté, Envie, and Lascheté, the initials of which compose the name Fauvel. I have laid more stress on this point than it would otherwise deserve, because it brings into prominence a French work which may not improbably have influenced Langland, just as Langland in turn must have influenced the English poets of the succeeding century.