the farmer had cured a flitch of beacon, which he had left hanging in his pantry, and a thief had succeeded in carrying it out of the house, and had buried it in a sack under the surface of the dunghill, intending to fetch it away in the night. The burgher, finding the sack, took out the bacon and carried it home, leaving the body of the corpulent sacristan in its place.

The second fabliau on this subject is entitled, Du Prestre c'on porte;' and, like the one just described, it is printed in the collection of Barbazan. A priest, surprised by the injured husband, is killed, and the guilty wife, with the assistance of her maid-servant, carries the body out during the night, and places it against the door of a house which the priest was in the habit of Meanwhile, the thief was gambling with visiting. The good man of the house opens his companions in a tavern, and they pro- the door, and is thrown down by the fall of posed to sup on a portion of the bacon in the body, which is discovered to be that of question. The thief hastened to the dung- the priest. By the advice of his wife, he hill, found the sack, and bore it in triumph carries the body towards the fields to bury to the tavern ;* but when the maid proceed- it; but finding a peasant asleep, with his ed to empty it of its contents, the first mare feeding beside him, he places the dead object which presented itself was a pair of priest on its back, and returns home. boots, and they then found that their booty The peasant wakes, and supposing that had undergone a singular transformation. some one was stealing his mare, strikes him Unable to account for the change, they de- down with his staff, and then finds that it is termined to make the farmer bear the con- a priest from the neighbouring monastery. sequences, and the clever thief who stole it The rustic then places the corpse upon his carried the monk back, introduced himself mare, with the intention of carrying it to a into the house by stealth, and hung the distance; but in his way he falls in with body up on the same hook which had held three robbers, who save themselves by the bacon. In the morning the farmer flight, leaving behind them a sack conawoke before daylight, hungry, and ill at taining a stolen bacon.' This he carries ease; and while his wife was making a off, after having placed the body in the sack. fire, he went into the dark to cut a slice of The robbers return, find the sack, which the bacon for their breakfast; but, handling appears not to have been touched, and carry it roughly, the beam, being rotten, gave it to a tavern, and the same incidents occur way, and the weighty mass fell upon him. as in the former story, until the priest is A light was now obtained, and they discov- suspended in the larder of the person from ered a monk instead of a flitch, and recog- whom the bacon had been stolen. In the nized him for the sacristan of the neighbour- middle of the night, the chamberlain of a ing abbey. It would appear that his bishop who had come to visit the abbey reputation was none of the best; and in (where he was anything but welcome), order to get rid of him, they mounted the comes to the house to seek a supper, and body on one of the farmer's horses, in an the host discovers the body of the priest. upright position, and fixed an old rusty After the departure of his guest, he carries spear in his hand. The horse being let the body to the abbey, finds the door of the loose, terrified at the shouts of the farmer prior's chamber open, and places it there and his wife, rushes through the court of against the wall. The prior coming to his the abbey, overthrowing the subprior and room, and fearing to be accused of the others in his way; and, finally, rolls ex-priest's death, carries him to the chamber hausted into a neighbouring ditch, from of the bishop, and places him on his bed. which it is raised by the monks, who, find-The latter, waking in the night, and feeling ing their sacristan dead, suppose that he had a heavy body on his bed, supposes it to be become mad, that he had stolen the farmer's a dog, and, seizing a club, beats it until a horse, and that he had been killed by the light is brought; and finding the priest slain, fall. The incidents in this story vary much he buries him with due ceremonies the folfrom that of the Hunchback,' although the lowing day. outline is identical; but it is not improbable that other versions of the same story were once current in the East, and the fabliau my owe less to the imagination of the Western jongleur, than at first glance we are led to suppose.

* Chascun li crie wilecomme. The use of this

In some cases the incidents of the original story have been so strictly preserved in its transmission from the East, that it loses much of its point from its want of accordance with Western feelings. One of the most popular stories of the middle ages, which appears in a great variety of forms, is that of an old procuress, who undertook to

latter word (welcome) proves the fabliau to have persuade a beautiful and chaste wife to conbeen written in England. sent to the desires of a young man. The

old woman has a little dog, to which she administers mustard with its food, and its eyes are filled with tears. She then pays a visit to the matron, who, naturally enough, asks why the dog weeps. The wicked woman tells her that the dog was her daughter, who had refused to listen to the prayers of a lover, and that, as a punishment, she had been changed by sorcery into the animal before her. The lady, believing this story, rather than incur the same fate, agrees to an appointment with her amoureux. This tale was derived through the Arabians from India, where it is found in the large collection of stories entitled ' Vrikat-Katha.' But it is much more intelligible in the Indian story, which depends on the Brahminic doctrine of the transmigration of souls; it was the soul of the woman pretended to have been cruel to her suitor, which had migrated into the body of the dog, an unclean animal, which was therefore looked upon as a grievous punishment.

which in the East went under the title of Sendabad,' was translated into Latin at least early in the thirteenth century, and became very popular in almost every language of Western Europe, under the name of the Romance of the Seven Sages.' The no less celebrated collection, entitled in the East Calila and Dimna,' was also translated into Latin in the thirteenth century. Another collection, under the title of Disciplina Clericalis,' was derived from the Spanish Arabs in the twelfth century, through a converted Jew named Peter Alfonsi. All these translations tended to extend the popularity of the Eastern stories in Western Europe.

This popularity was increased by another circumstance, which has tended, more than anything else, to preserve a class of the medieval stories, which were less popular as fabhaux, down to the present time. In the twelfth century there arose in the Church a school of theologians, who discovered in A similar coincidence is found in another everything a meaning symbolical of the popular medieval story. A simple country-moral duties of man, or of the deeper mysman carried a lamb to market, and six rogues agreed together to cheat him of his merchandize. They took their stations in the six streets of the town through which he had to pass, and each_accosted him in turn with the question, For how much will you sell your dog? At first the rustic asserts resolutely that it is a lamb; but, finding so many persons in succession taking it for a dog, he becomes terrified, begins to believe that the animal is bewitched, and gives it up to the last of the six inquirers, in order to be relieved from his apprehensions. This story, in its original form, is found in the Indian collection entitled 'Pantchatantra ;' and we there understand better why the man abandoned the animal when he was persuaded that it was a dog, because this in the Brahminic creed is an unclean animal. 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 carrying; and, at last, believing that his eyes are fascinated, and fearing to be polluted by the touch of an unclean animal, he abandons it to the thieves, who carry it away. The same story is found in several Arabian collections, and from them, no doubt, it came to the West.

The period at which the transmission of these stories from the East appears to have been going on most actively, was the twelfth century. Besides the mode of transmission indicated above, which was the one that acted most largely, two or three of the more popular Eastern collections passed through a direct translation. The famous collection,

teries of religion. They moralized or symbolized in this manner the habits of the animal creation, the properties of plants, the laws of the planetary movements, the parts of a building, and the different members of the human body, romances and popular stories, and even the narratives of historical events. The stories of which we have been speaking were peculiarly adapted for this purpose, having been, in their Eastern originals, frequently employed to illustrate moral themes; and the medieval divines, in thus adapting them, were only making a wider application of a mode of teaching, which had long been rendered familiar by the European fables.* In fact, this symbolical application began with fables, like those composed by Odo de Cirington in the twelfth century; and the distinction between these and many of the stories or fabliaux being not very strongly defined, it soon extended itself to the rest. In the thirteenth century these stories with moralizations were already used extensively by the monks in their sermons, and each preacher made collections in writing for his own private use. An immense number of manuscripts of this kind, chiefly of the fourteenth century, are still preserved.

*Sir Frederick Madden, in the introduction to

his edition of the English Gesta Romanorum' curious coincidence of a story found in an Arabian (printed for the Roxburghe Club), points out a writer, with a morality nearly identical with the morality of the same story in a Latin collection of stories; but this by no means proves that the rived directly from the East, which, indeed, is not monkish system of moralizing the stories was deprobable.

Many of the stories are evidently bor-text the original 'Gesta,' to distinguish it rowed from one another; others appear to from the edition of the Latin text found in have been taken down from the recitation English manuscripts. It must, we think, of the jongleur or common story-teller, strike every reader, that the printed Latin and fitted at once by the writer with a Gesta' is not an original work, but a mere moralization to serve as occasion might selection of stories from the Gesta,' interrequire. The mass of these stories are of mixed with much extraneous matter taken the kind we have described above, and are from the classical writers and the medieval evidently of Eastern origin; but there are historians; and as no manuscript has yet also some which are mere medieval appli- been discovered which agrees with it, it cations of classic stories and abridged ro- is natural enough to suppose that it was mances, while others are anecdotes taken printed from the selection of an individual, from history, and stories founded on the which was, perhaps, made for the press. It superstitions and manners of the people of appears to us far from improbable that the Western Europe. Not only were these English Latin text is the original one, and, private collections of tales with moraliz- therefore, that the 'Gesta Romanorum' was ations, as we have just observed, very compiled in England. It is quite certain common in the fourteenth century, but that this is the only one now known which several industrious writers undertook to is consistent and complete. While it is compile and publish larger and more care- found in numerous manuscripts in this counfully arranged works for the use of preach- try, and is in all identical, the continental ers, who might not be so capable of making manuscripts of the 'Gesta' are of the greatest selections for themselves. Among these rarity, and we have not met with two which the most remarkable are the Promptua-agree with each other, each having the same rium Exemplorum,' the Summa Prædi- appearance of being the capricious compilacantium' of John Bromyard, the Reper-tion of an individual from some common torium Morale' of Peter Berchorius, and source. The English Latin text is supposed some others. It was at some period of the to have been compiled about the time of fourteenth century that a writer, whose Richard II.; the few manuscripts of the name is unknown, made a collection of these continental 'Gesta' which we have seen are stories, which he put under the names of different supposed emperors of Rome, who are made generally the chief actors in the various plots. This is the work which has been so famous under the title of 'GESTA ROMANORUM.'

all of the fifteenth century. It is worthy of notice, as supporting our view of this question, that some of the manuscripts preserved in the German libraries contain stories which are in the English Latin text, but which are not found in the text of the printed editions. The idea of giving this peculiar form to Professor Keller's edition is a mere reprotheir stories seems to have originated in the duction of the old printed text; and we caprice of the compiler; and classic ears are believe as yet nothing beyond the text has somewhat shocked by such names as those been published, so that we have still to look of the emperors Dorotheus, Asmodeus, and forward with impatience for the opinions Polinius, mixed indiscriminately with those and information upon this curious subject of of Diocletian, and Claudius, and Vespasian. a man so learned in the history of medieval The date of the compilation of the Gesta fiction. Romanorum' appears to be a matter of the The Gesta Romanorum' is evidently the greatest doubt; the arguments adduced by work of a man possessed of a considerable the editor of the Roxburghe Club edition of degree of creative imagination: it is possible the early English text, to prove their anti- that a few of the stories are of his own inquity, only prove that the stories themselves vention, but it is certain that many of them were popular before the compilation of this have undergone ingenious modifications in work, which is an incontrovertible fact. passing through his hands. Some of these We are inclined to agree with Douce in stories are taken directly from the 'Discithinking that there is no reason whatever for plina Clericalis' of Peter Alfonsi; as those supposing Peter Berchorius to be the author. of the Procuress and her Dog,' mentioned But this is a question of very little importance; above (cap. 28), the story of the Three for the 'Gesta Romanorum,' like so many of Fellow-travellers' (cap. 106), and several the popular productions of the middle ages, others. There are several legends of saints, represents the spirit and genius of the time taken generally from the work of Jacobus de much more than those of the individual Voragine; such as the stories of 'Alexius,' writer. (cap. 15), Julian' (cap. 18), ' Pope Gregory' (cap. 81), &c. We have also a few stories taken from romances and popular

We think that Douce acted somewhat inconsiderately in calling the common printed

fabliaux; and some from Grecian fables. | simunda. This damsel, when she arrived at the The manner in which the latter are adapted tenth year of her age, was so skilful in running, to the ideas of the middle ages is singularly that she could always reach the goal before any curious. As an instance we may quote the one could touch her. The king caused to be proclaimed through his whole kingdom, that whoever story of Argus' (cap. 111), in which Mer-would run with his daughter and should arrive at cury is transformed into a medieval jongleur. the goal before her, should have her for his wife and be his heir to the whole kingdom; but that he also “A certain nobleman had a certain white cow, who should make the attempt and fail, should lose which he loved much for two things: first, because his head. When the proclamation was made known, it was white; and secondly, because it gave abunan almost infinite number of people offered themdance of milk. This nobleman ordained, in his selves to run with her, but they all failed and lost great love for it, that the cow should have two their heads. There was at that time a certain poor horns of gold; and he considered within himself man in the city named Abibas, who thought within in whom he could put trust to guard the cow. himself, I am poor and born of base blood; if 1 Now there was at that time a certain man named could by any way overcome this damsel, I should Argus, who was true in all things and had a hun- not only be promoted myself, but also all my kindred eyes. This nobleman sent a messenger to dred.' He provided himself with three devices: Argus, that he should come to him without delay. first with a garland of roses, because it is a thing And when he had come, the nobleman said to him, which damsels wish for; secondly with a girdle I entrust my cow with golden horns to thy keep- of silk, which damsels eagerly desire; and, in the ing, and if thou keepest her well, I will promote third place, with a silken bag, and within the bag thee to great riches; but should her horns be a gilt ball, on which was this inscription: Who stolen, thou shalt die the death.' And Argus took plays with me will never be tired of playing.'— the cow with the horns, and led her with him; These three things he placed in his bosom; and and every day he went with her to the pasture, and went to the palace and knocked. The porter came, kept her diligently, and conducted her home at and asked the cause of his knocking. I am prenight. There was a covetous man named Mercury, pared,' he said, to run with the damsel.' When very skilful in the art of music, who desired won- she heard this, she opened a window, and when derfully to have the cow; and he was always she had seen him, she despised him in her heart, coming to Argus, to try and get the horns from and said, Lo! what a wretch he is with whom him, for love or money. Argus fixed in the earth thou must run!' But she could not contradict him, the shepherd's staff he held in his hands, and ad- so she made herself ready for the race. They both dressing it as though it had been his lord, said :started together, but the damsel soon ran a great Thou art my lord, this night I will come to thy distance before him. When Abibas saw this, he castle. Thou sayest to me, Where is the cow threw the garland of roses before her; and the with the horns? I answer, Behold the cow with- maiden stooped down, and picked it up, and placed out horns: for a certain thief came while I was it on her head. She was so much delighted with asleep and stole the horns away. Thou sayest, the garland, and waited so long, that Abibas ran O wretch, hast thou not a hundred eyes? how before her. When the damsel saw this, she said came it that they all slept, and that the thief stole in her heart, The daughter of my father must nethe horns? this is a falsehood. And so I shall be ver be coupled with such a ribald as this.'

Imme

the child of death. If I say I have sold it, the dan-diately she threw the garland into a deep ditch, ger is the same.' Then he said to Mercury, Go and ran after him and overtook him; and when thy way, for thou wilt gain nothing.' Mercury she overtook him, she struck him a blow, saying, went away, and the next day he came with his Stop, wretch: it is not fit that the son of thy famusic and his instrument; and he began after the ther should have me for his wife.' And immedimanner of a jongleur to tell tales, and ever and anonately she ran before him. When Abibas saw this, to sing before Argus, until two of Argus' eyes be- he threw the girdle of silk before her: and when gan to sleep; and then at his singing, two other she saw it, she stooped and picked it up, and put eyes slept, and so on, until they were all overcome it round her waist, and was so much pleased with with slumber. And when Mercury saw this, he cut off the head of Argus, and stole the cow with the golden horns.”

it, that she loitered there, and Abibas again ran a long distance before her. When the damsel saw this, she wept bitterly, and tore the girdle in three, and ran after him and overtook him. And when This story is evidently abridged and modi- she overtook him, she raised her hand and gave fied from a much longer story, entitled 'De him a blow, saying, O wretch, thou shalt not Mauro Bubulco,' printed from a manuscript have me for thy wife! And immediately she ran of the thirteenth century in the selection of a long way before him. When Abibas saw this. Latin stories, published by the Percy Society, he waited till she was near, and then threw the which perhaps was taken from an older me- silken bag before her. And when she saw it, she dieval romance, founded upon the Grecian stooped and picked it up, and took out the gilt ball, and found the superscription, and read, 'Who plays story. Another curious instance of the with me shall never be tired of playing.' And she transformations which the classic legends began to play so much and so long with the ball, underwent, is furnished by the following that Abibas arrived first at the goal, and so obtained version of the story of Atalanta (cap. 60). her for his wife."

"There was a certain king who had an only daughter, very beautiful and graceful, named Ro

VOL. XXXV.

15

Many of these stories, which otherwise we might be induced to consider as the in

ventions of the compiler of the 'Gesta,' are written apparently at the end of the thirfound in earlier collections. The follow- teenth century, it is told as follows:ing (cap. 109) may be quoted as an instance: it inculcates the doctrine of fatality, which is still prevalent in the East, and which lingered long over the minds of our forefathers.

while the smith from a poor man became suddenly rich. It was, however, soon known how the miser had thrown his money into the sea, and the wife of Godwin, seeing how the case stood, thought that she would give the wretch some help, and she made one day a loaf, and concealed forty shillings in it, and gave it him. The beggar soon after met some fishermen on the shore, and sold the loaf for a penny, and went his way. And the fishermen coming as usual to the house of Godwin, drew out the loaf and gave it to their horses. But Godwin's wife recognizing it, she gave them oats in exchange for it, and recovered the money. And thus the wretched man remained in poverty to the end of his life."

"A man who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Winchelsea collected money in a chest, with which he neither benefited himself nor others. Going one day to look at it, he saw a little black demon seated upon it, who said to him, Begone, this money is not thine, but it belongs to Godwin the "There was a rich smith, who lived in a certain smith.' When he heard this, unwilling that it city near the sea; he was very miserly and wick- should turn to any man's benefit, he hollowed out ed, and he collected much money, and filled the a great trunk of a tree, and placed the money in it, trunk of a tree with it, and placed it beside his fire and closed it up, and threw it into the sea. The in everybody's sight so that none suspected that waves carried the trunk to the door of the aforesaid money was contained in it. It happened once Godwin, a righteous and innocent man, who dwelt when all the inhabitants were hard asleep, that the in the next town, and threw it on the dry shore the sea entered the house so high that the trunk floated, day before Christmas Day. Godwin happening to and when the sea retired it carried it away; and so go out that morning, found the trunk and rejoiced the trunk floated many miles on the sea, until it much to have such a log for the festival, and he carcame to a city in which was a certain man who ried it to his house and put it in the fireplace. On kept a common inn. This man rose in the morning, Christmas Eve they lighted the fire, and the metal and seeing the trunk afloat, drew it to land, thinking within the trunk began to melt and run out. When it was nothing more than a piece of wood thrown the wife of Godwin saw this, she took the log from away or abandoned by somebody. This man was the fire, and hid it. So it happened that the owner very generous and liberal towards poor people and of the money was obliged to beg from door to door, strangers. It happened one day that strangers were entertained in his house, and it was very cold weather. The host began to cut the wood with an axe, and after three or four blows he heard a sound; and when he discovered the money, he rejoiced, and placed it under safe keeping, to restore it to the rightful owner, if he should apply for it. And the smith went from city to city in search of his money, and at last he came to the city and house of the innkeeper who had found the trunk. When the stranger spoke of his lost trunk, his host understood that the money was his, and he thought within himself, Now I will try if it be God's will that I should restore him his money.' The host caused to be made three pasties of dough; the first he filled with earth, the second with dead men's bones, and the third with the money which he found in the Another version of this story, differing but trunk. Having done this, he said to the smith, little from the one last given, is printed in We will eat three good pasties of excellent flesh the selection of Latin stories, published by which I have; you shall have which you choose. the Percy Society, from a manuscript of the And the smith lifted them one after another, and he found that the one filled with earth was the hea- earlier part of the fourteenth century. It is viest, and he chose it, and said to the host, If also found in several other shapes, and in I want more, I will choose that next,' placing his one in the Anglo-Latin text of the Gesta hand on the pasty full of dead men's bones, you Romanorum,' three caskets, each bearing may keep the third pasty yourself. The host an inscription, take the place of the three seeing this, said in his heart, Now I see clearly pasties. This is the original type of the that it is not the will of God that this wretch should incident of the caskets in the Merchant of have the money. He immediately called toge- Venice.' We will give one instance of the ther the poor and the weak, the blind and the lame, and in the presence of the smith opened the pasty manner in which stories from ancient history and said,Behold, wretch, thy money, which I are perverted and moralized (cap. 43). gave thee into thy hands, yet thou hast chosen in preference the pasties of earth and of dead men's In a certain place in the middle of Rome, the bones, and thou hast done well, for it has not pleas-earth once opened and left a gaping gulf. When ed God that thou shouldest have thy money again! the gods were consulted upon this, they gave for And immediately the host divided the money before answer: This gulf will not be closed until some his eyes among the poor: and so the smith departed in confusion."

one will throw himself voluntarily into it.' But when they could persuade nobody to do this, Marcus Aurelius said, If you will allow me to live at This story is found, in different shapes, in my will in Rome for a year, at the end of the year manuscripts written long before the period When the Romans heard this they were joyful, I will joyfully and voluntarily throw myself in." of the compilation of the Gesta Roma- and agreed to it, and denied him nothing. So he orum.' In one, in the British Museum, used their goods and wives at his pleasure for a