ed, save she and I, but afterward what befell of her I wot not.

"Then cried the empress with a loud voice, and said: Soothly dear friends, ye do now truly confess and declare the truth, wherefore I will now apply my medicine, and anon they received their healths.

"When the lady the empress had thus done, she uncovered her face to the emperor, and he forthwith knew her, and ran to her, and embraced her in his arms, and kissed her oftentimes, and for joy he wept bitterly saying, Blessed be God, now I have found that I desired. And when he had thus said, he led her home to the palace with great joy; and after, when it pleased Almighty God, they ended both their lives in peace and rest."

"Occleve has related this story in verse, from the present work, (MS. Reg. 17 D. vi.) and it is also to be found in the Patrañas of Timonida. (Patr. 21.) The outline has been borrowed from one of the Contes devots, or miracles of the Virgin Mary'. The incident of the bloody knife occurs likewise in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, and in a story related by Gower, Confessio Amantis, fol. 32."-DOUCE.

1 See Vincent of Beauvais. Spec. Theol. Let. viii. cap. 90.91

A few additional remarks upon the stories to follow, for which indulgence is bespoke, shall close, what I fear the reader may be disposed to consider, as toilsome a march as the doughty knights of old experienced, in gaining access to some enchanted castle. But let me whisper in his ear, that the distressed damsels whom his intrepidity shall relieve, are most of them passing fair, and gentle. He cannot display resolution in a better cause; and if (de gustibus non est disputandum!) their beauty sometimes disappoint his expectations, let him remember, that adoration has been offered them by past ages of heroic spirits: that bards, whose names are familiar in our mouths, as household words, have condescended to adopt them; and therefore, that they possess an undoubted claim to public consideration, if not on the ground of their own intrinsic excellence.

Much of the merit of these fables, consists in the curious and interesting light which they throw upon a period, necessarily involved in great obscurity. The fictions are strongly and vividly delineated; and the reader feels himself hurried back into the romantic scenes of chivalrous emprize; and busily mingling in the commotions of camp and court. The fantastic regulations of many of the tales, accord with historical notices of chivalry; in which the most ridiculous commands were imposed and executed. The sports of the field, united with the pursuit of wild adventure: love, and war, and devotion; absurd penances for unimaginable crimes, and carelessness for the commission of enormous ones, form no small part of the present compilation. Every natural phenomenon is a miracle; and construed as best may serve the interests, or accord with the prejudices of the party. The

first object is to espouse some ineffably fair daughter; whose affections are disposed of, not according to the common excellent system of policy, or power, or wealth; but by the simple and singularly efficacious method of resolving certain mysteries; in expounding riddles, or in compliance with some inexplicable vow. If this should be considered no very favourable account of what the reader may look for, it should be remembered, that the tales in question, are faithful representations of other days; and that the character with which the period is impressed, tolerates and justifies many absurdities. Yet are we not to suppose every thing absurd which now appears so. The progress of civilization has introduced a vast number of unnecessary refinements, at which our ancestors would laugh; perhaps more boisterously, but with as much regard to justice, as their politer de

scendants exhibit at the inartifical character of earlier times.

Ignorance is always credulous; and therefore, in considering the probability or improbability of the fable, we must consider how it was calculated to impress those for whom it was invented, or to whom it was told. If the narrator suited his contrivance to the understanding, and communicated pleasure to the imagination of his readers or auditors, he possessed the requisite ingenuity; and his merit was proportionably great. We ought not to make our own, the standard of others' judgments; much less, ought we to impose our own age and nation, as the criterion of past times and foreign countries. Comparatively secluded as the monks at all times were, their views of life must necessarily have been confined also; and their simplicity would easily be duped by those who were interested in de