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ADAMS
M
iL3_
THE
HISTORY
O F
ENGLISH POETRY,
FROM THE
CLOSE of the ELEVENTH
T O T H E
COMMENCEMENT of the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
TO WHICH* ARE PREFIXED
TWO DISSERTATIONS.
I. On the Origin of ROMANTIC FICTION in EUROPE.
to
II. On the Introduction of LEARNING into ENGLAND.
VOL. III.
to this volume is prefixed a third dissertation
ON THE GESTA ROMANORUM.
By THOMAS WARTON, B. D.
Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and of the Society of Antiquaries, and
late Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford.
_
LONDON:
Printed for, and fold by, J. Dodsley, Pall-Mail; J. Walter, Charing-Crofs ; J. Robson,
New Bond-Street ; G. Robinson, and J.Bew, Pater-nofter-Row; and
Meflrs. Fletcher, at Oxford. M. dcclxxxi.
ADAMS
^i
\>A
CONTENTS
OF THE
SECTIONS in the Third VOLUME.
SECTION XIX. p. i.
T) E TR ARC H' s fonnets. Lord Surrey. His education, tra-
vels, mijirefs, life, and poetry. He is thejirji writer of blank-
ver/e. Italian bfank-verfe. Surrey thefirjl Engli/h clajic poet*
SECTION XX. p. 28.
Sir Thomas Wyat. Inferior to Surrey as a writer of fonnets. His
life. His genius charafterifed. Excels in moral poetry.
SECTION XXI. p. 41.
The firfl printed Mifcellany of Engli/Ji poetry. Its contributors.
Sir Francis Bryan, Lord Rochford, and Lord Vaulx. Tbefirfi
true pajloral in Englijh. Sonnet -writing cultivated by the nobi-
lity. Sonnets by king Henry the eighth. Literary character of
that king.
SECTION XXIL p. 60.
The fecond writer of blank v erf e in Englijh. Specimens of early
blank verje.
A 2 SECTION
iv CONTENTS.
SECTION XXIII. p. 70.
Andrew Borde. Bale. An/lay. Chertfey. Fabyll's ghoft a poem.
The Merry Devil of Edmonton. Other minor poets of the
reign of Henry the eighth.
SECTION XXIV. p. .87.
John Heywood the epigrammatift. His works examined. Antient
unpublified burlefque poem of Sir Penny.
SECTION XXV. p. 97.
Sir Thomas Mores Efigli/h poetry. Tournament of Tottenham.
Its age and f cope. Laurence Minot. Alliteration. Digrejjion
illujlrating comparatively the language of the fifteenth century, by
a fpecimen of the metrical Armoric romatice of Ywayn and
Gawayn.
SECTION XXVI. p. 135.
The Notbrowne Mayde. Not older than the Jixteenth century.
Artful contrivance of the ftory. Mifreprefented by Prior. Me-
trical romances, Guy, fyr Bevys, and Kynge Apolyn, printed
in the reign of Henry. The Scole howfe, a fatire. Chriftmas
carols. Religious libels in rhyme. Merlin s prophefes. Lau-
rence Minot. Occqfional difquifition on the late continuance of
the ufe of waxen tablets. Pageantries of Henry s court. Dawn
of tap .
SECTION XXVII. p. 161.
TLjf'eEls of the Reformation on our poetry. Clement Marot's Pfalms.
Why adopted by Calvin. Ver/ion of the Pfalms by Sternhold and
Hopkins. Defecls of this ver/ion, which is patronifed by the
puritans in oppofition to the Choral Service.
SECTION
CONTENTS.
SECTION XXVIII. p. 1 80.
Metrical verjions of fcripture, Archbifiop Parker s Pfalms in
metre* Robert Crowley s puritanical poetry,
SECTION XXIX. p. 190.
Tye's A6ts of the Apoftles in rhyme. His merit as a mujician.
Early piety of king Edward thefxth. Controverfal ballads and
plays. c tranJlation of the Bible, Its effects on our language,
Arthur Keltons Chronicle of the Brutes. Firfl Drinking-
fong. Gammar Gurton's Needle.
SECTION XXX. p. 209.
Reign of queen Mary. Mirrour of Magi fixates. Its inventor,
Sackville lord Buckhurf. His life. Mirrour of Magiftrates
continued by Baldwyn and Ferrers. Its plan andjlories*
SECTION XXXI. p. 220.
Sackville 's Induction to the Mirrour of Magiftrates. Examined.
A prelude to the Fairy Queen. Comparative view of Dante's
Inferno.
SECTION XXXII. p. 25$.
Sackville s Legend of Buckingham in the Mirrour of Magiftrates.
Additions by Higgins. Account of him. View of the early
editions of this Collection. Specimen of Higgins 's Legend of Cor-
delia, which is copied by Spenfer.
SECTION XXXIII. p. 269.
View of Niccols's edition of the Mirrour of Magiftrates. High
ejlimation of this Collection . Hiftorical plays, whence.
SECTION
vi CONTENTS.
SECTION XXXIV. p. 2S3.
Richard Edwards. Principal poet, player, mufician, and buffoon*
to the courts of Mary and Elifabeth. Anecdotes of his life,
Cotemporary tejiimonies of his merit. A contributor to the Pa-
radife of daintie Devifes. His book e/' comic hiftories, fuppofed
to have fuggejled Shakefpeare 's Induction of the Tinker. Oc-
cafonal anecdotes of Antony Munday and Henry Chettle. Ed"
wards sfongs.
SECTION XXXV. p. 298.
buffer, "Remarkable circumjlances of his life. His Huibandrie,
one of our earliejl didaclic poems, examined.
SECTION XXXVI. p. 3 u.
William Forrefis poems. His Queen Catharine, an elegant manu-
fcript, contains anecdotes of Henry s divorce. He collects and
preferves antient mufic. Puritans oppofe the Jludy of the clajjics.
Lucas Shepherd. John Pullayne. Numerous metrical verfons of
Solomon's Song. Cenfured by Hall the fatirijl. Religious
rhymers. Edward More. Bpy-bifhop, and miracle-plays, re-
vived by queen Mary* Minute particulars of an antient mira-
cle-play.
SECTION XXXVII. p. 329.
Englifh language begins to be cultivated. Earliejl book of Criticifn
in Englijh. Examined. Soon followed- by others. Early critical
fyftems of the French and Italians. New and fuperb editions' of
Gower and Lydgate. Chaucer s monument erecled in Wejlminjler-
abbey. Chaucer ejleemed by the reformers.
SECTION
CONTENTS. vii
SECTION xxxvin. p. 355.
Sackvilles Gordobuc. Our firft regular tragedy. Its fable, con*
duB, characters, andftyle. Its defects. Dumb-mow. Sack*
ville not ajjijled by Norton.
SECTION XXXIX. p. 372.
Clajjical drama revived and Jludied. The PhcenifTae of Euripides.
tranflated by Gafcoigne^ Seneca s Tragedies tranjlated. Account
of the translators, and of their refpeflive verfons. Queen Elifa*-
beth tranjlates apart of the Hercules Oetaeus,
SECTION XL. p. 395.
Moft of the clajjlc poets tranfated before the end of the fxteenth
century. P hater s Eneid. Completed by Twyne. Their other-
works. Phalers Ballad of Gad's-hill. Stanihurfis Eneid in
Englijh hexameters. His other works. Flemings Virgil* s Bu-
colics and Georgics. His other works. Webbe and Fraunce
tranjlate fome of the Bucolics. Fraunce 's other works. Spenfers
Culex. The original not genuine. The Ceiris proved to be ge-
nuine. Nicholas Whytes Story of Jafon, fuppofed to be a verfion
if Valerius Flaccus. Goldings Ovid's Metamorphofes. His
other works. Afchams cenfure of rhyme. A tranjlation of the
Fajfti revives and circulates thejlory of Lucrece. Euryalus and
Lucretia. Detached fables of the Metamorphofes tra?ijlated.
Moralifations in fajhion. "Under downe s Ovid's Ibis. Ovid's
Elegies tranjlated by Marlowe. Remedy of Love, by F. L<.
Epiftles by Turberville. Lord EJfex a tranfator of Ovid. His
literary character. Churchyard's Ovid's Triftia. Other detached
verfions from Ovid. Antient meanifig and ufe of the word Ballad.
Drant's Horace. Incidental criticifm on Tullys Oration pro
Archia.
SECTION
viii CONTENTS.
SECTION XLI. p. 432.
Kendal's Martial. Marlowe's verfions of Coluthus and Mufeus.
General character of his tragedies, 7'e/limonies of his cotempo-
raries. Specimens and ejlimate of his poetry. His death. Firjl
Tranflation of the Iliad by Arthur Hall. Chapman s Homer.
His other works. Verfion of Clitophon and Leucippe. Origin
of the Greek erotic romance. Palingenius tranflated by Googe.
Criticifm on the original. Specimen and merits of the tranjlation.
Googe s other works. Incidental Jlriclure on the philofophy of the
Greeks. -^^
SECTION XLII. p. 461.
'tranjlation of Italian novels. Of Boccace. Paynters Palace of
Pleafure. Other yerfions of the fame fort. Early metrical verfons
of Boccace 's Theodore and Honoria, and Cymon and Iphigenia.
Romeus and Juliet. Ba?idello tranflated. Romances from Bre-
tagne. Plot of Shakefpeares Tempeft. Mifcellaneous Collec-
tions of tranflated novels before the year 1600. Pantheon.
Novels arbitrarily licenced or fupprejfed. Reformation of the
Englifh Prefs.
SECTION XLIIL p. 490.
General view and character of the poetry bf queen Elifabeth's age.
A DIS-
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.A
DISSERT A T I O N
ON THE
GESTA ROMANORU
TALES are the learning of a rude age. In the progrefs
of letters, fpeculation and enquiry commence with re-
finement of manners. Literature becomes fentimental and
difcurfive, in proportion as a people is polifhed : and men muft
be inftructed by facts, either real or imaginary, before they
can apprehend the fubtleties of argument, and the force of
reflection.
Vincent of Beauvais, a learned Dominican of France, who flou-
rifh'ed in the thirteenth century, obferves in his Mirror of
History, that it was a practice of the preachers of his age, to
roufe the indifference and. relieve the languor of their hearers,
by quoting the fables of Efop : yet, at the fame time, he re-
commends a fparing and prudent application of thefe profane
fancies in the difcuffion of facred fubjectsV Among the Harleian
a Specul. Hist. Lib. iii. c. viii. fol. 31. b. edit. Ven. 1591.
Vol. III. a manufcripts
ii A DISSERTATION ON THE
manufcripts in the Britifh Mufeum we find a very antient collection
of two hundred and fifteen ftories, romantic, allegorical, religious,
and legendary, which were evidently compiled by a profefled
preacher, for the ufe of monaftic focieties. Some of thefe ap-
pear to have been committed to writing from the recitals of
bards and minftrels : others to have been invented and written
by troubadours and monks b . In the year 1389, a grand
fyftem of divinity appeared at Paris, afterwards tranflated by
Caxton under the title of the Court of Sapyence, which
abounds with a multitude of hiftorical examples, parables, and
apologues ; and which the writer wifely fuppofes, to be much
more likely to intereft the attention and excite the devotion of
the people, than the authority of fcience, and the parade of
theology. In confequence of the expediency of this mode of
of inftruction, the Legends of the Saints were received into the
ritual, and rehearfed in the courfe of public worfhip. For
religious romances were nearly allied to fongs of chivalry j and
the fame grofs ignorance of the people, which in the early
centuries of chriftianity created a neceflity of introducing the
vifible pomp of theatrical ceremonies into the churches, was
taught the duties of devotion, by being amufed with the achieve-
ments of fpiritual knight-errantry, and impreffed with the ex-
amples of pious heroifm. In more cultivated periods, the Deca-
meron of Boccace, and other books of that kind, ought to be
confidered as the remnant of a fpecies of writing which was
founded on the fimplicity of mankind, and was adapted to the
exigencies of the infancy of fociety.
Many obfolete collections of this fort ftill remain, both
printed and manufcript, containing narratives either fictitious or
hiftorical,
Of king and heroes old,
Such as the wife Demodocus once told
In folemn fongs at king Alcinous' feaft c .
» M5S. Harl. 463. membran. fol. c Milton. At a Vacation Exercise, ice.
Among
GESTA ROMANORUM. iii
But among the antient ftory-books of this character, a Latin
compilation entitled Gesta Rom an or um feems to have been
the favorite.
This piece has been before incidentally noticed : but as it
operated powerfully on the general body of our old poetry,
affording a variety of inventions not only to Chaucer, Gower,
and Lydgate, but to their diftant fucceifors, I have judged it of
furlicient importance to be examined at large in a feparate difler-
tation : which has been delignedly referved for this place, for
the purpofe both of recapitulation and illuftration, and of giving
the reader a more commodious opportunity of furveying at
leifure, from this intermediate point of view, and under one
comprehenfive detail, a connected difplay of the materials and
original fubjects of many of our paft and future poets.
Indeed, in the times with which we are now about to be con-
cerned, it feems to have been growing more into efteem. At
the commencement of typography, Wynkyn de Worde pub-
lished this book in Englifh. This tranflation wasre printed, by
one Robinfon, in 1577. And afterwards, of the fame tranfla-
tion there were fix impreffions before the year 1601 d . There is
an edition in black letter fo late as the year 1689. About the
year 1596, an Englifh verfion appeared of «' Epitomes des cent
" Histoires Tragiques, partie extraictes des Actes des
" Romains et autres, &c." From the popularity, or rather
familiarity, of this work in the reign of queen Elifabeth, the
title of Gesta Grayorum was affixed to the hiftory of the
acts of the Chriftmas Prince at Grays-inn, in 1594°. In Sir
Giles Goosecap, an anonymous comedy, prefented by the
Children of the Chapel in the year 1606, we have, " Then
" for your lordfhip's quips and quick jefts, why Gesta Ro-
" manorum were nothing to them f ." And in George Chap-
man's May-day, a comedy, printed at London in 161 1, a
man of the higher!: literary tafte for the pieces in vogue is cha-
* See fupr. vol. ii. p. 18. feq. f Lond. Printed for John Windet. i6c6.
■ Printed, or reprinted, in 1688. 4to. 4to.
a 2 raCteriled,
iv A DISSERTATION ON THE
racterifed, " One that has read Marcus Aurelius, Gesta Ro~
r < manorum, the Mirrour of Magiftrates, &c. — to be led by
" the nofe like a blind beare that has read nothing g !" The
critics and collectors in black-letter, I believe, could produce
many other proofs.
The Gesta Romano rum were firft printed without date,
but as it is fuppofed before or about the year 1473, in folio,
with this title, Incipiunt Historie Notabiles colleBe ex
gestis Romanorum et quibufdam aliis libris cum applicationibus
eorundem*. This edition has one hundred and fifty-two chapters,
or gests, and one hundred and feventeen leaves *. It is in the
Gothic letter, and in two columns. The firft chapter is of
king Pompey, and the laft of prince, or king, Cleonicus. The
initials are written in red and blue ink. This edition, flightly
mutilated, is among bifhop Tanner's printed books in the Bod-
leian library. The reverend and learned doctor Farmer, mafter
of Emanuel college in Cambridge, has the fecond edition, as it
feems, printed at Louvain, in quarto, the fame or the fubfe-
quent year, by John de Weftfalia, under the title, Ex gestis
Romanorum Historie Notabiles de viciis virtutibujque
irac~ia?ites cum applicationibus moralifatis et myjiicis. And with
this colophon, Gesta Romanorum cum quibufdam aliis His-
t or us eifdem annexis ad moralitates dilucide redact a hie
finem habent. §*u<%, diligenter correclis aliorum viciis, imprejjit
Joannes de Weftfalia in alma Vniverjitate Louvanienji. It has one
hundred and eighty-one chapters k . That is, twenty-nine more
than are contained in the former edition : the firft of the addi-
tional chapters being the ftory of Antiochus, or the fubftance of
the romance of Apollonius of Tyre. The initials are in-
2 Aft iii. pag. 39. fauc. Bibl. Manuscr. torn. i. pag. 17.
11 Much the fame title occurs to a ma- Num. 172.
nufcript of this work in the Vatican, » Without initials, paging, fignatures,
" Hiftoriae Notabiles colledbe ex Geftis or catch-words.
" Romanorum et quibufdam aliis libris k The firft is of king Pompey, as be-
" cum explicationibllseorundem. ,, Mont- fore. The laft is entitled De Adul-
TERIO.
ferted
GESTA ROMANORUM. v
ierted in red ink K Another followed foon afterwards, in quarto,
Ex Gestis Romanorum Hifiorie notabiles moralizatce, per Gi-
rardum Lieu, Goudje, 1480. The next edition, with the ufe
of which I have been politely favoured by George Mafon
efquire, of Aldenham-Lodge in Hertfordihire, was printed in
folio, and in the year 1488, with this title, Gesta Rhoma-
Norum cum Applicationibus moralifatis et mijiicis. The colophon
is, Ex Gestis Romanorum cum pluribus applicatis Hijloriis de
virtutibus et viciis myjiice ad intelleBum tranjfumptis RecollecJorii
Jims. Anno nre falutis mcccclxxx viij kalendas vero februarii
xviij. A general, and alphabetical, table, are fubjoined. The
book, which is printed in two columns, and in the Gothic cha-
racter, abounding with abbreviations, contains ninety-three
leaves. The initials are written or flourifhed in red and blue,
and all the capitals in the body of the text are miniated with a
pen. There were many other later editions m . I mufl add,
that the Gesta Romanorum were tranflated into Dutch, fo
early as the year 1484. There is an old French verfion in the
Britiih Mufeum.
This work is compiled from the obfolete Latin chronicles of
the later Roman or rather German ftory, heightened by roman-
tic inventions, from Legends of the Saints, oriental apologues,
and many of the fhorter fictitious narratives which came into
Europe with the Arabian literature, and were familiar in the
ages of ignorance and imagination. The claffics- are fometimes
cited for authorities ; but thefe are of the lower order, fuch as
Valerius Maximus, Macrobius, Aulus Gallius, Seneca, Pliny,
and Boethius. To every tale a Moralisation is fubjoined*
reducing it into a chriftian or moral lerfon.
Moft of the oriental apologues are taken from the Cl erica-
jus Disciplina, or a latin Dialogue between an Arabian Philo-
1 It has fignatures to Kk, * For which fee fupr, vol. ii. p. 15.
fopher
vi A DISSERTATION ON THE
fopher and Edric n his fon, never printed °, written by Peter Al-
phonfus, a baptized Jew, at the beginning of the twelfth cen-
tury, and collected from Arabian fables, apothegms, and ex-
amples p . Some are alfo borrowed from an old Latin tranflation
of the Calilah u Damnah, a celebrated fett of eaftern
fables, to which Alphonfus was indebted.
On the whole, this is the collection in which a curious
enquirer might expect to find the original of Chaucer's Cam-
bufcan :
Or, — if aught elfe great bards befide
In fage and folemn tunes have fung,,
Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forefts and inchantments drear,
Where more is meant than meets the ear q .
Our author frequently cites Gesta Romano rum, the title
of his own work. By which I understand no particular book
of that name, but the Roman Hiftory in general. Thus in
the title of the Saint Albans Chronicle, printed by
Caxton, Titus Livyus de Gestis Romanorum is recited.
In the year 1544, Lucius Florus was printed at Paris under the
fame title V In the Britifh Mufeum we find " Les Fais de
" Romains jufques a la fin de 1' empire Domician, felon
* 4 Orofe, Juftin, Lucan, 6cc." A plain hiftorical deduction *.
The Romuleon, an old manufcript hiftory of Rome from the
foundation of the city to Conftantine the Great, is alfo called
de Gestis Romanorum. This manufcript occurs both in
Latin and French : and a French copy, among the royal ma-
* Edric was the name of Enoch a- " Romaunz de Peres Aunf 'our cement il aprift
mong the Arabians, to whom they attri- " et chajiia fon fils belement." [See fupr.
bute many fabulous compositions. Herbe- vol. ii. Emend, and Add. at pag. 103.]
lot, in V. Lydgate's Chorie and the p See Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. iv.
Bird, mentioned above, is taken from the p. 321;. feq.
Clericalis Disciplina of Alphonfus. q Milton's II Penseroso.
MSS. Harl. 3861. And in many ' Apud Vafcofan. 4to.
other libraries. It occurs in old French s MSS. Reg. 20 C i.
verfe, MSS. Djgb. 86. membran, " Le
nufcripts,
GESTA ROMANORUM. vii
nufcripts, has the title, " Romuleon, ou des fais de Ro-
" mains V Among the manufcript books written by Lapus
de Caftellione, a Florentine civilian, who flourifhed about the
year 1350, there is one, De Origine urbis Rom^; et de Gestis
Romanorum n . Gower, in the Confessio Amantis, often
introduces Roman ftories with the Latin preamble, Hie fecundum
Gesta. Where he certainly means the Roman Hiftory, which
by degrees had acquired limply the appellation of Gesta.
Herman Korner, in his Chronica Novella, written about
the year 1^38, refers for his vouchers to Bede, Orofius, Vale-
rius Maximus, Jofephus, Eufebius, and the Chronicon et Gesta
Romanorum. Mod probably, to fay no more, by the chro-
nicon he means the later writers of the Roman affairs, fuch as
Ifidore and the monkifh compilers ; and by Gesta the antient
Roman hiftory, as related by Livy and the more eftablifhed
Latin hiftorians.
Neither is it poffible that this work could have been brought
as a proof or authority, by any ferious annalifl, for the Roman
ffory.
For though it bears the title of Gesta Romanorum, yet
this title by no means properly correfponds with the contents of
the collection : which, as has been already hinted, comprehends
a multitude of narratives, either not hiftorical ; or, in another
refpect, fuch as are either totally unconnected with the Roman
people, or perhaps the moil prepofterous mifreprefentations of
their hiftory. To cover this deviation from the promifed
plan, which, by introducing a more ample variety of matter,
has contributed to encreafe the reader's entertainment, our col-
lector has taken care to preface almoft every ftory with the name
or reign of a Roman emperor ; who, at the fame time, is often
a monarch that never exifted, and who feldom, whether real or
fuppofitious, has any concern with the circumftances of the
narrative.
1 MS, 19 E. v. d See fupr. vol. ii. p. 19.
But
vlii A DISSERTATION ON THE
But I haften to exhibit a compendious analyfis of the chap-
ters which form this very fingular compilation : intermixing
occafional illuftrations arifmg from the fubject, and ihortening
or lengthening my abridgement of the ftories, in proportion as I
judge they are likely to intereft the reader. Where, for that
reafon, I have been very concife, I have yet faid enough to direct
the critical antiquarian to this collection, in cafe he mould find
a fimilar tale occurring in any of our old poets. I have omitted
the mention of a very few chapters, which were beneath notice.
Sometimes, where common authors are quoted, I have only
mentioned the author's name, without fpecifying the fubftance
of the quotation. For it was neceffary that the reader mould
be made acquainted with our collector's track of reading, and
the books which he ufed. In the mean time, this review will
ferve as a full notification of the edition of 14.88, Which is
more comprehenfive and complete than fome others of later
publication, and to which all the reft, as to a general criterion,
may be now comparatively referred.
Chap. i. Of a daughter of king Pompey, whofe chamber
was guarded by five armed knights and a dog. Being permitted
to be prefent at a public mew, ihe is feduced by a duke, who
is afterwards killed by the champion of her father's court. She
is reconciled to her father, and betrothed to a nobleman : on
which occafion, me receives from her father an embroidered
robe and a crown of gold, from the champion a gold ring, ano-
ther from the wife man who pacified the king's anger, another
from the king's fon, another from her coufin, and from her
fpoufe a feal of gold. All thefe prefents are infcribed with pro-
verbial fentences, fuitable to the circumftances of the princefs.
The latter part of this ftory is evidently oriental. The feudal
manners, in a book which profeifes to record the achievements
of the Roman people, are remarkable in the introductory cir-
cumftances. But of this mixture we mail fee many ftriking
inftances.
Chap. ii. Of a youth taken captive by pirates. The king's
daughter
GESTA ROMANORUM. ix
daughter falls in love with him; aod leaving procured his efcape,
accompanies him to his own country, where they are married.
Chap. vi. An emperor is married to a beautiful young prin-
cefs. In cafe of death, they mutually agree not to furvive one
other. To try the truth of his wife, the emperor going into a
diftant country, orders a report of his death to be circulated.
In remembrance of her vow, and in imitation of the wives of
India, me prepares to throw herfelf headlong from a high pre-
cipice. She is prevented by her father ; who interpofes his pa-
ternal authority, es predominating over a rafh and unlawful
promife.
Chap. vii. Under the reign of Dioclefian, a noble knight
had two fons, the youngeft of which marries a harlot.
This flory, but with a difference of circumftances, ends like
the beautiful apologue of the Prodigal Son.
Chap. viii. The emperor Leo commands three female fla-
tues to be made. One has a gold ring on a ringer pointing for-
ward, another a beard of gold, and the third a golden cloak and
purple tunic. Whoever fteals any of thefe ornaments, is to be
punimed with an ignominious death.
This ftory is copied by Gower, in the Confess 10 Aman-
tis : but he has altered fome of the circumflances. He fup-
pofes a ftatue of Apollo.
Of plate of golde a berde he hadde,
The wiche his breft all ovir fpradde :
Of golde alfo, without fayle,
His mantell was, of large entayle,
Befette with perrey all aboute :
Forth ryght he ftraught his fynger oute.
Upon the whiche he had a rynge,
To feen it was a ryche thynge,
A fyne carbuncle for the nones
Mofte precious of all ftones w .
w Lib. v, fol, 122. b.
Vol. Ill, b In
x A DISSERTATION ON THE
In the fequel, Gower follows the fubftance of our author.
Chap. x. Vefpafian marries a wife in a diftant country, who
refufes to return home with him, and yet declares me will kill
herfelf if he goes. The emperor ordered two rings to be made,
of a wonderous efficacy - } one of which, in the ftone, has the
image of Oblivion, the other the image of Memory : the ring
of Oblivion he gave to the emprefs, and returned home with
the ring of Memory.
Chap. xi. The queen of the fouth fends her daughter to
king Alexander, to be his concubine. She was exceedingly
beautiful, but had been nourifhed with poifon from her birth.
Alexander's mailer, Arirlotle, whofe fagacity nothing could
efcape, knowing this, entreated, that before me was admitted
to the king's bed, a malefactor condemned to death might be
fent for, who mould give her a kifs in the prefence of the king.
The malefactor, on kirTing her, inftantly dropped down dead.
Ariftotle, having explained his reafons for what he had done,
was loaded with honours by the king, and the princefs was
difmirTed to her mother.
This ftory is founded on the twenty-eighth chapter of Arif-
totle's Secretum Secretorum : in which, a queen of India
is faid to have treacheroufly fent to Alexander, among other
coftly prefents, the pretended teftimonies of her friendfhip, a
girl of exquifite beauty, who having been fed with ferpents
from her infancy, partook of their nature y . If I recollect:
right, in Pliny there are accounts of nations whofe natural food
was poifon. Mithridates, king of Pontus, the land of venomous
herbs, and the country of the forcerefs Medea, was fuppofed to
y [See fupr. vol. i. p. 132.] This I
now cite from a Latin tranflation, without
date, but evidently printed" before 1500.
It is dedicated to Guido Vere de Valen-
cia bilhop of Tripoly, by his moll humble
Clerk, Philippus: who fays, that he found
this treatife in Arabic at Antioch, quo
carebant Latini, and that therefore, and
becaufe the Arabic copies were fcarce, he
translated it into Latin.
This printed copy does not exaftly
correfpond with MS. Bodl. 495. membr.
4to. In the laft, Alexander's miraculous
horn is mentioned at fol. 45. b. In the
former, in ch. lxxii. . The dedication is
the fame in both.
eat
• ■
GESTA ROMANORU M. xi
eat poifon. Sir John Maundeville's Travels, I believe, will afford
other inftances.
Chap. xii. A profligate prieft, in the reign of the emperor
Otto, or Otho, walking in the fields, and neglecting to fay
mafs, is reformed by a vifion of a comely old man.
Chap. xiii. An emprefs having loft her hufband, becomes fo
doatingly fond of her only fon, then three years of age, as not
to bear his abfence for a moment. They fleep together every
night, and when he was eighteen years of age, me proves with
child by him. She murthers the infant, and her left hand is
immediately marked with four circles of blood. Her repentance
is related, in confequence of a vifion of the holy virgin.
This ftory is in the Speculum Historiale of Vincent of
Beauvais, who wrote about the year 1250 z .
Chap. xiv. Under the reign of the emperor Dorotheus, a
remarkable example of the filial piety of a young man, who
redeems his father, a knight, from captivity.
Chap. xv. Eufemian, a nobleman in the court of the em-
peror of Rome, is attended by three thoufand fervants girt with
golden belts, and cloathed in filken veftments. His houfe was
crouded with pilgrims, orphans, and widows, for whom three
tables were kept every day. He has a fon, Allexius ; who
quits his father's palace, and lives unknown feventeen years in a
monaftery in Syria. He then returns, and lives feventeen years
undifcovered as a pilgrim in his father's family, where he fuf-
fers many indignities from the fervants.
Allexius, or Alexis, was canonifed. This ftory is taken from
his Legend a . In the metrical Lives of the Saints, his life is
told in a fort of meafure different from that of the reft, and not
very common in the earlier ftages of our poetry, It begins thus.
Lefteneth alle and herkeneth me,
Zonge and olde, bonde and fre,
z Lib. vii. cap. 93, feq, f, 86. b. edit. a See Caxton, Gold. Leg. f. ccclxiii.
Ven. b.
b 2 And
xii A DISSERTATION ON THE
And ich zow telle fone,
How a zought man, gent and fre,
By gan this worldis wele to fle,
Y born he was in Rome.
In Rome was a dozty man
That was y cleped Eufemian,
Man of moche myzte ;
Gold and feluer he hadde ynouz,
Hall and boures, oxfe and plouz,
And fwith wel it dyzte.
When Alexius returns home in difguife, and afks his father
about his fon, the father's feelings are thus defcribed.
So fone fo he fpake of his fone,
The guode man, as was his wone,
Gan to fike fore b ;
His herte fel c fo colde fo fton,
The teres felle to his ton %
On her berd hore.
At his burial, many miracles are wrought on the fick.
With mochel fizt % and mochel fong,
That holy cors, hem alle among,
Bifchoppis to cherche bere.
Amyddes rizt the heze ftrete f ,
So moche folke hym gone mete
That they reften a ilonde,
All the fike g that to him come,
I heled wer fwithe fone
Of fet * and eke of honde :
* SiglW « Felt. t High-ftreet.
* Feet. • Sighs. 9 They fighed. * Feet.
The
GESTA ROMANORUM.
The blinde come to hare ■ fizt,
The croked gonne fone rizt k ,
The lame for to go :
That dombe wer fonge l fpeeche,
Thez herede m god the fothe leche fl ,
And that halwe ° alfo.
The day zede and drouz to nyzt,
No lenger dwelle p they ne m^zt,
To cherche they mofte wende ;
The bellen they gonne to rynge,
The clerkes heze q to fynge,
Everich in his ende r .
xnx
Tho the corfe to cherche com
Glad they wer everichon
That there ycure wer,
The pope and the emperour
By fore an auter of feynt Savour
Ther fette they the bere.
Aboute the bere was moche lizt
With proude palle was bedizt,
I beten al with golde 8 .
The hiftory of Saint Alexius is told entirely in the fame
words in the Gesta Romanorum, and in the Legenda
Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine f , tranflated, thrcagh a French
medium, by Caxton. This work of Jacobus does not confiil
5 Their.
k Strait.
1 Found.
m The true phyfician,
4 Heried. Bleifed.
Hallowed,
» Tarry.
* High.
' At his feat in the choir.
■ MSS. Coll. Trin. 'Jxon, Cod. 57.
fupr. citat.
* Hystor.Ixx; ix. f. clviii. edit. i479«
fol. And in Vincent of Beauvai?, who
quotes Gesta Allexii. Special. Hist.
Lib, xviii, cap. 43. feq. f. 24.1. b.
folely
xiv A DISSERTATION ON THE
folely of the legends of the faints, but is Interfperfed with
multis aliis pulcherrimis et peregrinis biftoriis^ with many other
moft beautiful and arrange hiftories '.
Chap. xvi. A Roman emperor in digging for the foundation
of a new palace, finds a golden farcophagus, or coffin, infcribed
with myfterious words and fen fences. Which being explained,
prove to be fo many moral leflbns of inftru&ion for the em-
peror's future conduct.
Chap. xvii. A poor man named Guido, engages to ferve an
emperor of Rome in fix feveral capacities, or employments.
One of thefe fervices is, to fhew the bed way to the holy land.
Acquitting himfelf in all with fingular addrefs and fidelity,
he is made a knight, and loaded with riches.
Chap, xviii. A knight named Julian is hunting a flag, who
turns and fays, " you will kill your father and mother." On
this he went into a diftant country, where he married a rich
Lady of a caftle. Julian's father and mother travelled into va-
rious lands to find their fon ; and at length accidentally came to
this caftle, in his abfence -, where telling their ftory to the lady,
who had heard it from her hufband, fhe difcovered who they
were, and gave them her own bed to fleep in. Early in the
morning, while fhe was at mafs in the chapel, her hufband Julian
unexpectedly returned; and entering his wife's chamber, perceived
two perfons in the bed, whom he immediately flew with his -
fword, haftily fuppofing them to be his wife and her adulterer.
At leaving the chamber, he met his wife coming from the cha-
pel ; and with great aftonifhment afked her, who the perfons
were fleeping in her bed ? She anfwered, " They are your
" parents, who have been feeking you fo long, and whom I
" have honoured with a place in our own bed." Afterwards
they founded a fumptuous hofpital for the accommodation of
travellers, on the banks of a dangerous river.
This ftory is told in Caxton's Golden Legende \ and in
% In the Colophon. * Fol. 90. edit. 1493.
the
GESTA ROMANORUM. xv
the metrical Lives of the Saints w . Hence Julian, or Saint Julian,
was called kofpitator, or the gode herberpur ; and the Pater
Nofter became famous, which he ufed to fay for the fouls of
his father and mother whom he had thus unfortunately killed \
The peculiar excellencies of this prayer are difplayed by Boc-
cace y . Chaucer fpeaking of the hofpitable difpoiition of his
Frankelein, fays,
Saint Julian he was in his own countre z .
This hiftory is, like the laft, related by our compiler, in the
words of Julian's Legend, as it ftands in Jacobus de Voragine \
Bollandus has inferted Antoninus's account of this faint, which
appears alio to be literally the fame b . It is told, yet not exactly
in the fame words, by Vincent of Beauvais c .
I take this opportunity of obferving, that the Legends of the
the Saints, fo frequently referred to in the Gesta Roma-
norum, often contain high ftrokes of fancy, both in the
itructure and decorations of the fiery. That they mould abound
in extravagant conceptions, may be partly accounted for, from
the fuperftitious and vifionary caft of the writer: but the truth is,
they derive this complexion from the earl. Some were originally
forged by monks of the Greek church, to whom the oriental
fictions and mode of fabling were familiar. The more early of
the Latin lives were carried over to Constantinople, where they
were tranflated into Greek with new embellishments of eaftern
imagination. Thefe being returned into Europe, were tranflated
into Latin, where they naturally fuperfeded the old Latin arche-
types. Others of the Latin lives contracted this tincture, from
being written after the Arabian literature became common
in Europe. The following ideas in the Life of Saint Pelagian
w MSS. Eodl. 1596. f. 4. a Hystor. xxxii. f. lxii. a.
x Ibid. b Act. Sanctor. torn. ii. Januar.
y Decam. D. ii. N. 2. p. 974. Antv. 1643,
* Prol. v, 342. See iupr. vol. i. Sect. c Specul. Hist. Lib. ix. c. 115. f.
xvii. p. 438. 115. Venet. J 591.
evidently
xvi A DISSERTATION ON THE
tc
it
tt
That is, the latter part of the book contains a few Saints not in
the hiftory of the Lombards, which forms the firft. part. I
have neither time nor inclination to examine whether this is
Jacobus's Legenda : but I believe it to be the fame. I think
I have feen an older edition of the work, at Cologne 1470 '•
I have obferved that Caxton's Golden Legende is taken
from Jacobus de Voragine. This perhaps is not precifely true.
Caxton informs us in his firft preface to the firft edition of
1483 m , that he had in his polfefTion a Legend in French, ano-
ther in Latin, and a third in Englifh, which varied from the
other two in many places : and that many histories were
contained in the Englifh collection, which did not occur in the
French and Latin. Therefore, fays he, " I have wryton One
« oute of the fayd three bookes: which I have orderyd other-
'* wyfe than in the fayd EngfysJJje Legende, which was fo to
" fore made." Caxton's Englifh original might have been the
old Metrical Lives of the Saints.
Chap. xxi. A ftory from Juftin, concerning a confpiracy of
the Spartans againft their king.
s Fol. ccclxxxxvii. b. " quse et Lombardica dicitur." Lugd.
h See his Legend. Aur. fol. cccxv, l S°9' ^*
* Ubi fupr. f. lxxvi. » Fol. at Weftminfter. This is one of
k Fol. the Jineft of Caxton's publications.
1
Fol. Sec alfo " Legenda ^anftorum
Chap.
GESTA ROMANORUM. xix
Chap. xxii. How the Egyptians deified Ifis and Ofiris.
From faint Auftin. As is the following chapter.
Chap. xxiv. Gf a magician and his delicious garden, which
he mews only to fools and to his enemies.
Chap. xxv. Of a lady who keeps the flaff and fcrip of a
ftranger, who refcued her from the oppreffions of a tyrant : but
being afterwards courted by three kings, (he deftroys thofe
memorials of her greateft, benefactor.
Chap. xxvi. An emperor, vifiting the holy land, commits
his daughter and his favorite dog, who is very fierce, to the
cuftody of five knights, under the fuperintendance of his fene-
fhall. The fenefhall neglects his charge : the knights are
obliged to quit their pott for want of neceflaries ; and the dog,
being fed with the provifions afiigned to the knights, grows
fiercer, breaks his three chains, and kills the lady who was per-
mitted to wander at large in her father's hall. When the em-
peror returns, the feneihall is thrown into a burning furnace.
Chap, xxviii. The old woman and her little dog.
Chap. xxx. The three honours and three diflionours, decreed
by a certain king to every conqueror returning from war.
Chap. xxxi. The fpeeches of the philofophers on feeing
king Alexander's golden fepulchre.
Chap, xxxiii. A man had three trees in his garden, on
which his three wives fucceffively hanged themfelves. Another
begs an offset from each of the trees, to be planted in the
gardens of his married neighbours. From Valerius Maximus,
who is cited. .
Chap, xxxiv. Ariftotle's feven rules to his pupil Alexander.
This, I think, is from the Secreta Secretorum. Arif-
totle, for two reafons, was a popular character in the dark ages.
He was the father of their philofophy : and had been the pre-
ceptor of Alexander the Great, one of the principal heroes of
romance. Nor was Ariftotle himfelf without his romantic
hiftory 5 in which he falls in love with a queen of Greece, who
quickly confutes his fubtlefl fyllogifms.
c 2 Chap.
xx A DISSERTATION ON THE
Chap. xxxv. The Gesta Romanorum cited, for the cus-
tom among the antient Romans of killing a lamb for pacifying
quarrels.
Chap, xxxvi. Of a king who defires to know the nature of
man. Solinus, de Mirabilibus Mundi, is here quoted.
Chap, xxxvii. Pliny's account of the ftone which the eagle
places in her neft, to avoid the poifon of a ferpent.
Chap, xxxix. Julius Cefar's mediation between two brothers.
From the Gesta Romanorum.
We muft not forget, that there was the Romance of Julius
Cesar. And I believe Antony and Cleopatra were more
known characters in the dark ages, than is commonly fuppofed.
Shakefpeare is thought to have formed his play on this ftory
from North's tranflation of Amyot's unauthentic French Plu-
tarch, publifhed at London in 1579. Montfaucon, among the
manufcripts of monfieur Lancelot, recites an old piece written
about the year 1500, " La vie et fais de Marc Antoinb.
'* le triumvir et de fa mie Cleopatra, tranflate de Y hiftorien
" Plutarque pour tres illuftre haute et puiflante dame Madame
*f Francoife de Fouez Dame de Chateaubriand n ." I know
not whether this piece was ever printed. At leaft it mews, that
the ftory was familiar at a more early period than is imagined ;
and leads us to fufpect, that there might have been other mate-
rials ufed by Shakefpeare on this fubject, than thofe hitherto
pointed out by his commentators.
That Amyot's French verfion of Plutarch mould contain
corruptions and innovations, will ealily be conceived, when it i3
remembered that he probably tranflated from an old Italian
verfion . A new exhibition in Englifti of the French carica-
n Bibl. Manuscr. torn. ii. p. 1669. rewarded with an abbacy for tranflating
jCoI. 2. the Theagenes and Chariclea of He-
See Bibl. Fr. de la Croix, &c. tom.i. liodorus : for writing which, the author
p. 388. Amyot was a great tranflator of was deprived of a bifhoprick. He died
Greek books; but I fear, not always from about 1580.
the Greek. It is remarkable, that he was
ture
GESTA ROMANORUM. xxi
ture of this mod valuable biographer by North, mud have ftill
more widely extended the deviation from the original.
Chap. xl. The infidelity of a wife proved by feeling her
pulfe in converfation. From Macrobius.
Chap. xlii. Valerius Maximus is cited, concerning a column
at Rome infcribed with four letters four times written.
Chap. xliv. Tiberius orders a maker of ductile glafs, which
could not be broken, to be beheaded, left it mould become
more valuable than filver and gold.
This piece of hiftory, which appears alfo in Cornelius
Aggrippa De Vanitate Scientiarum q , is taken from
Pliny, or rather from his tranfcriber Ifidore p . Pliny, in relating
this ftory, fays, that the temperature of glafs, fo as to render it
flexible, was difcovered under the reign of Tiberius.
In the fame chapter Pliny obferves, that glafs is fufceptible
of all colours. " Fit et album, et murrhinum, aut hyacinthos
** fapphirofque imitatum, et omnibus aliis coloribus. Nee eft
" alia nunc materia fequacior, aut etiam picture accommo-
" datior. Maximus tamen honor in candido r ." But the
Romans, as the laft fentence partly proves, probably never ufed
any coloured glafs for windows. The firft notice of windows
of a church made of coloured glafs occurs in chronicles quoted
by Muratori. In the year 802, a pope built a church at Rome,
and, " feneftras ex vitro diverfis coloribus conclufit atque deco-
" ravit V And in 856, he produces " feneftras vero vitreis
" coloribus, &c V This however was a fort of mofaic in glafs.
To exprefs figures in glafs, or what we now call the art of
P Orig. lib. xvi. cap. xv. p. 1224. brie of the laft fecHon, by Le Comie dt ,
Apud Au£t. Ling. Lat. 1602. TankarvWe.
Iiidore's was a favorite Repertory of ^ Sandford's Englilh Translat, cap.
the middle age. He is cited for an ac- 90. p. 159. a. edit. Lond. 1569. 4W.
count of the nature and qualities of the r Nat. Hist. Lib. xxxvi. cap. xvi.
Falcon, in the Prologue to the fecond or p. 725. edit. Lugd. 1615.
metrical part of the old Phebus de deduix s Dissert. Antichjt. Ital. torn, i,
de la chaffe des Beftes fawvages et des oyfeaux c. xxi v. p. 287.
de Proye, printed early at Paris without * Ibid. p. 281.
4ate, and written, as appears by the ru-
painting
xxii A DISSERTATION ON THE
painting in glafs, was a very different work : and, I believe, I
can fhew it was brought from Constantinople to Rome before
the tenth century, with other ornamental arts. Guiccardini,
who wrote about 1560, in his Defer it tione de tutti Paefi BaJJi %
afcribes the invention of baking colours in glafs for church-
windows to the Netherlanders u : but he does not mention the
period, and I think he muft be miftaken. It is certain that
this art owed much to the laborious and mechanical genius of
the Germans ; and, in particular, their deep refearches and ex-
periments in chemiftry, which they cultivated in the dark ages
with the moll: indefatigable amduity, muft have greatly aflifted
its operations. I could give very early anecdotes of this art in
England. But, with the carelefs hafte of a lover, I am antici-
pating what I have to fay of it in my History of Gothic
Architecture in England.
Chap. xlv. A king leaves four fons by his wife, only one
which is lawfully begotten. They have a contefl for the throne.
The difpute is referred to the deceafed king's fecretary, who
orders the body to be taken from the tomb ; and decrees, that
the fon who can moot an arrow deepen: into it mall be king.
The firft wounds the king's right hand : the fecond his mouth :
the third his heart. The lafl wound is fuppofed to be the fuc-
cefsful one. At length the fourth, approaching the body, cried
out with a lamentable voice, " Far be it from me to wound my
" father's body !" In confequence of this fpeech, he is pro-
nounced by the nobles and people prefent to be the true heir,
and placed on the throne.
Chap, xlviii. Dionyfius is quoted for the ftory of Perillus's
brafen bull.
Gower in the Confessio Amantis has this ftory ; which
he prefaces by faying that he found it in a Cronike™. In Caxton's
Golden Legende, Macrobius is called a chronicle. " Macrobius
«' fayth in a cronike *." Chronicles are naturally the firft efforts
u Antw. Plantin. 1580. fol. x Fol. Ixii. b.
T/ Lib. vii. f. 1 6 1. b. col. 1.
of
GESTA ROMANORUM. xxiii
of the literature of a barbarous age. The writers, if any, of thofe
periods are feldom equal to any thing more than a bare narration.
of fads : and fuch fort of matter is fuitable to the tafte and capa-
city of their cotemporary readers. A further proof of the prin-
ciples advanced in the beginning of this Diflertation.
Chap. xlix. The duchefs Rofmilla falls in love with Conan,
king of Hungary, whom (he fees from the walls of the city
of Foro-Juli, which he is befieging. She has four fons and
two daughters. She betrays the city to Conan, on condition
that he will marry her the next day. Conan, a barbarian, exe-
cuted the contract; but on the third day expofed her to his
whole army, faying, " fuch a wife deferves fuch a hufband."
Paulus, that is, Paulus Diaconus, the hijiorian of the Longo-
bards is quoted. He was chancellor of Defiderius, the laft
king of the Lombards -, with whom he was taken captive by
Charlemagne. The hiftory here referred to is entitled Gesta
LONGOBARDORUM y .
Chap. 1. From Valerius Maximus.
Chap. li. From Jofephus.
Chap. lii. From Valerius Maximus.
Chap. liii. From the fame.
Chap. liv. The emperor Frederick's marble portico near
Capua.
I wonder there are not more romances extant on the lives of
the Roman emperors of Germany -, many of whom, to fay no
more, were famous in the crufades. There is a romance in old
German rhyme, called Teuerdank, on Maximilian the firft,
written by Melchior Pfinzing his chaplain. Printed at Nurem-
berg in 1517 z .
y See Lib. iv. cap. xxviii. Apud Mu- circumftances of diitrefs in Paulus's de-
ratorii Scriptor. Ital. i. p. 465. edit. fcription of this fiege.
Mediolan. 1723. Where fhe is called Ro- 2 Fol. on vellum. It is not printed
milda. The king is Cacan, or Cacanus, with moveable types : but every page is
a king of the Huns. There are fome fine graved in wood or brafs. With wooden
cuts. It is a moll beautiful book.
Chap.
xxlv A DISSERTATION ON THE
Chap. lv. Of a king who has one fon exceedingly beautiful,
and four daughters, named Juftice, Truth, Mercy, and Peace.
Chap. lvi. A nobleman invited a merchant to his caftle,
whom he met accordingly upon the road. At entering the
cattle, the merchant was aftonimed at the magnificence of the
chambers, which were overlaid with gold. At fupper, the
nobleman placed the merchant next to his wife, who imme-
diately mewed evident tokens of being much ftruck with her
beauty. The table was covered with the richefr, dainties j but
while all were ferved in golden dimes, a pittance of meat was
placed before the lady in a dim made out of a human fcull.
The merchant was furprifed and terrified at this ftrange fpec-
tacle. At length he was conducted to bed in a fair chamber;
where, when left alone, he obferved a glimmering lamp in a
nook or corner of the room, by which he difcovered two dead
bodies hung up by the arms. He was now filled with the mofl
horrible apprehenfions, and could not fleep all the night. When
he rofe in the morning, he was afked by the nobleman how he
liked his entertainment ? He anfwered, " There is plenty of
« every thing ; but the fcull prevented me from eating at fup-
" per, and the two dead bodies which I faw in my chamber
*■* from fleeping. With your leave therefore I will depart."
The nobleman anfwered, " My friend, you obferved the beauty
" of my wife. The fcull which you faw placed before her at
" fupper, was the head of a duke, whom I detected in her
" embraces, and which I cut off with my own fword. As a
" memorial of her crime, and to teach her modeffc behaviour,
" her adulterer's fcull is made to ferve for her dim. The bodies
*' of the two young men hanging in the chamber are my two
u kinfmen, who were murthered by the fon of the duke. To
" keep up my fenfe of revenge for their blood, I vifit their
" dead bodies every day. Go in peace, and remember to judge
6t nothing without knowing the truth."
Caxton has the hiftory of Albione, a king of the Lombards,
who having conquered another king, " lade awaye wyth hym
" Rofamounde
GESTA ROMANO RUM. xxv
** Rofamounde his wyf in captyvyte, but after he took hyr to
** hys wyf, and he dyde do make a cuppe of the fkulle of that
" kynge and clofed in fyne golde and fylver, and dranke out
" of it V This, by the way, is the ftory of the old Italian
tragedy of MefTer Giovanni Rucellai planned on the model of
the antients, and acted in the Rucellai gardens at Florence, be*
fore Leo the tenth and his court, in the year 1 5 1 6 b . Davenant
has alfo a tragedy on the fame fubjecl:, called Al bovine king
of the Lombards bis 'Tragedy.
A moft fanguinary fcene in Shakefpeare's Titus Adroni-
cus, an incident in Dryden's, or Boccace's, Tancred and
Sigismonda, and the cataftrophe of the beautiful metrical
romance of the Lady of Faguel, are founded on the fame
horrid ideas of inhuman retaliation and favage revenge : but in
the two laft pieces, the circumftances are fo ingenioufly ima-
gined, as to lofe a confiderable degree of their atrocity, and to
be produ&ive of the moft pathetic and interefting fituations.
Chap. lvii. The enchanter Virgil places a magical image in
the middle of Rome % which communicates to the emperor
Titus all the fecret offences committed every day in the city d .
This ftory is in the old black-lettered hiftory of the necro-
mancer Virgil, in Mr. Garrick's collection.
Vincent of Beauvais relates many wonderful things, mirabiliter
aBitata, done by the poet Virgil, whom he reprefents as a ma-
gician. Among others, he fays, that Virgil fabricated thofe
brazen ftatues at Rome, called Sahacio Roma y which were the
gods of the Provinces conquered by the Romans. Every one
of thefe ftatues held in its hand a bell framed by magic ; and
* Golden Leg. f. ccclxxxxvii. a. edit. p. 57. And in Machiavcl's History of
1493. The compilers of the Sanctiloge Florence, in Englifh, Lond. 1680. B. i.
probably took this ftory from Paulus Dia- p. 5. feq. See alfo Lydgate's Bochas,
conus, Gest. Longobard. ut fupr. Lib. B. ix. eh. xxvii.
ii. cap. xxviii. p. 435. feq. It has been b See fupr. vol. ii. p. 411.
adopted, as a romantic tale, into the His- * For the necromancer Virgil, fee fupr.
toires TRAciQUESof Belleforeft,p.«97. vol. ii. p. 229.
edit. 1580. The Englifh reader may find d In the Cento Novellr AnticheJ
itinHeylin'sCosMocRAPHiE, B. i.col.i. Nov. vii.
Vol, III. d when
xxvi A DISSERTATION ON THE
when any province was meditating a revolt, the flatue, or idol,
of that country ftruck his bell e . This fiction is mentioned by
the old anonymous author of the Mirabilia RoM-ffi, written
in the thirteenth century, and printed by Montfaucon f . It
occurs in Lydgate's Bochas. He is fpeaking of the Pantheon,
Whyche was a temple of old foundacion,
Ful of ydols, up fet on hye ftages ;
There throughe the worlde of every nacion
Were of theyr goddes fet up great ymages,
To every kingdom direct were their vifages*
As poetes and Fulgens g by hys live
In bokes olde plainly doth dyfcrive.
Every ymage had in his hande a bell,
As apperteyneth to every nacion,
Which, by craft fome token mould tell
Whan any kingdom fil in rebellion, &c h .
This fiction is not in Boccace, Lydgate's original. It is in the
above-cited Gothic hiftory of Virgil. Gower's Virgil, I think,
belongs to the fame romance.
And eke Virgil of acqueintance
I figh, where he the maiden prayd,
Which was the doughter, as men fayd,
Of the emperour whilom of Rome \
Chap, lviii. King Afmodeus pardons every malefactor con-
demned to death, who can tell three indisputable truths or
maxims.
e Specul. Histor. Lib. iv. cap. 61. Troye. MSS. Cotton. Calig. A. 2. fol. 81.
f. 66. a. £ Fulgentius.
f Diar. Ital. cap. xx. p. 288. edit. h Tragedies of Bochas, B. ix. ch. i.
1702. Many wonders are alfo related of ft. 4. Compare fupr. vol. ii. p. 69.
Rome, in an old metrical romance called ! Confess. Amant. L.viii. f. clxxxix.
The Stacvons of Rome, in which Ro- a. col. 2.
raulus is faid to be born of the ditches of
Chap.
GESTA ROMANORUM. xxvii
Ghap. lix. The emperor Jovinian's hiftory.
On this there is an antient French Moral ite, entitled,
L'Orgueil et prefomption de TEmpereur Jovinian k . This is
alfo the ftory of Robert king of Sicily, an old Englim poem,
or romance, from which I have given copious extracts J.
Chap. lx. A king has a daughter named Rofimund, aged
ten years ; exceedingly beautiful, and fo fwift of foot, that her
father promifes her in marriage to any man who can overcome
her in running. But thofe who fail in the attempt are to lofe
their heads. After many trials, in which me was always victo-
rious, fhe lofes the race with a poor man, who throws in her
way a filken girdle, a garland of rofes, and a filken purfe in-
clofing a golden ball, infcribed, " whofo plays with me will
" never be fatiated with play." She marries the poor man,
who inherits her father's kingdom.
This is evidently a Gothic innovation of the claffical tale of
Atalanta. But it is not impoffible that an oriental apologue
might have given rife to the Grecian fable.
Chap. lxi. The emperor Claudius marries his daughter to
the philofopher Socrates.
Chap. lxii. Florentina's picture.
Chap, lxiii. Vefpafian's daughter's garden. All her lovers
are obliged to enter this garden before they can obtain her love,
but none return alive. The garden is haunted by a lion ; and
has only one entrance, which divides into fo many windings, that
it never can be found again. At length, fhe furnifhes a knight
with a ball or clue of thread, and teaches him how to foil the
lion. Having achieved this adventure, he marries the lady.
Here feems to be an allufion to Medea's hiftory.
Chap. lxiv. A virgin is married to a king, becaufe (he makes
him a fhirt of a piece of cloth three fingers long and broad.
Chap. lxv. A crofs with four infcriptions.
k See Emend, and Add. to vol. i. at l Vol. i. p. 184-.
P- «97-
d z Chap.
xxviii A DISSERTATION ON THE
Chap. Ixvi. A knight offers to recover a lady's inheritance,
which had been feized by a tyrant; on condition, that if he is
ilain, fhe mall always keep his bloody armour hanging in her
chamber. He regains her property, although he dies in the
attempt ; and as often as (lie was afterwards fued for in marriage,
before me gave an anfwer, lhe returned to her chamber, and
contemplating with tears her deliverer's bloody armour, refolutely
rejected every follicitation.
Chap, lxvii. The wife and foolifh knight.
Chap, lxviii. A woman underflands the language of birds.
The three cocks.
Chap. lxix. A mother gives to a man who marries her
daughter a lhirt, which can never be torn, nor will ever need
warning, while they continue faithful to each other.
Chap. lxx. The king's daughter who requires three impofli-
ble things of her lovers.
Chap, lxxii. The king who refigns his crown to his fon.
Chap, lxxiv. The golden apple.
Chap. lxxv. A king's three daughters marry three dukes, who
all die the fame year.
Chap, lxxvi. The two phyficians.
Chap, lxxix. The fable of the familiar afs.
Chap. lxxx. A devout hermit lived in a cave, near which a
/hepherd folded his flock. Many of the fheep being ftolen,
the fhepherd was unjuftly killed by his mailer as being con-
cerned in the theft. The hermit feeing an innocent man put
to death, began to fufpect the existence of a divine Providence ;
and refolved no longer to perplex himfelf with the ufelefs feve-
ties of religion, but to mix in the world. In travelling from
his retirement, he was met by an angel in the figure of a man ;
who faid, " I am an angel, and am fent by God to be your
" companion on the road." They entered a city; and begged
for lodging at the houfe of a knight, who entertained them at
a fplendid fupper. In the night, the angel rofe from his bed,
and llrangled the knight's only child who was afleep in the
cradle.
GESTA ROMANORUM, xxix
cradle. The hermit was aftoniihed at this barbarous return for
£o much hofpitality, but was afraid to make any remonftrance
to his companion. Next morning they went to another city.
Here they were liberally received in the houfe of an opulent
citizen -, but in the night the angel rofe, and ftole a golden cup
of ineftimable value. The hermit now concluded, that his
companion was a Bad Angel. In travelling forward the next
morning, they pafled over a bridge; about the middle of which
they met a poor man, of whom the angel afked the way to the
next city. Having received the defired information, the angel
pufhed the poor man into the water, where he was immediately
drowned. In the evening they arrived at the houfe of a rich
man -, and begging for a lodging, were ordered to fleep in
a med with the cattle. In the morning the angel gave the
rich man the cup which he had ftolen. The hermit, amazed
that the cup which was ftolen from their friend and bene-
factor mould be given to one who refufed them a lodging,
began to be now convinced that his companion was the devil ;
and begged to go on alone. But the angel faid, " Hear me,
" and depart. When you lived in your hermitage a fhepherd
" was killed by his mafter. He was innocent of the fuppofed
'** offence : but had he not been then killed, he would have
" committed crimes in which he would have died impenitent.
" His mafter endeavours to atone for the murther, by dedicating
" the remainder of his days to alms and deeds of charity. I
ftrangled the child of the knight. But know, that the father
was fo intent on heaping up riches for this child, as to ne-
glect thofe ads of public munificence for which he was be-
fore fo diftinguifhed, and to which he has now returned. I
«* ftole the golden cup of the hofpitable citizen. But know,
that from a life of the ftricteft temperance, he became, in
confequence of pofleffing this cup, a perpetual drunkard - 9
and is now the moft abftemious of men. I threw the poor
" man into the water. He was then honeft and religious. But
" know, had he walked one half of a mile further, he would
" have
«<
€t
it
it
it
it
it
xxx A DISSERTATION ON THE
« have murthered a man in a ftate of mortal fin. I gave the
" golden cup to the rich man who refufed to take us within his
" roof. He has therefore received his reward in this world ;
" and in the next, will fuffer the pains of hell for his inhofpi-
(t tality." The hermit fell proftrate at the angel's feet; and re-
quefting forgivenefs, returned to his hermitage, fully convinced
of the wifdom and juflice of God's government.
This is the fable of Parnell's Hermit, which that elegant
yet original writer has heightened with many mafterly touches
of poetical colouring, and a happier arrangement of circum-
ftances. Among other proofs which might be mentioned of
Parnell's genius and addrefs in treating this fubjecl:, by referving
the difcovery of the angel to a critical period at the clofe of the
fable, he has found means to introduce a beautiful defcription,
and an interefting furprife. In this poem, the laft inftance of
the angel's feeming injuftice, is that of pufhing the guide from
the bridge into the river. At this, the hermit is unable to
fupprefs his indignation.
Wild fparkling rage inflames the Father's eyes,
He burfts the bonds of fear, and madly cries,
" Detefled wretch !" — But fcarce his fpeech began,
When the ftrange partner feem'd no longer man :
His youthful face grew more ferenely fweet,
His robe turn'd white, and flow'd upon his feet -,
Fair rounds of radiant points invert his hair $
Celeflial odours fill the purple air :
And wings, whofe colours glitter'd on the day,
Wide at his back their gradual plumes difplay.
The form ethereal burfts upon his fight,
And moves in all the majefly of light.
The fame apologue occurs, with fome flight additions and
variations for the worfe, in Howell's Letters -, who profefles
to have taken it from the fpeculathe fir Philip Herbert's Con-
ceptions
G E S T A ROMANORUM. xxxi
ceptions to his Son, a book which I have never feen n . Thefe
Letters were publifhed about the year 1650. It is alfo found in
the Divine Dialogues of doctor Henry More", who has
illustrated its important moral with the following fine reflections.
«« The affairs of this world are like a curious, but intricately
«* contrived Comedy; and we cannot judge of the tendency of
« what is pafl, or acting at prefent, before the entrance of the
" laft Act, which mall bring in Righteoufnefs in triumph :
" who, though (he hath abided many a brunt, and has been very
" cruelly and defpightfully ufed hitherto in the world, yet at
" laft, according to our defires, we fhall fee the knight over-
" come the giant. For what is the reafon we are fo much
€t pleafed with the reading romances and the fictions of the
«« poets, but that here, as Ariftotle fays, things are fet down as
" they mould be; but in the true hiftory hitherto of the world,
«« things are recorded indeed as they are, but it is but a tefti-
" mony, that they have not been as they mould be ? Where-
" fore, in the upmot of all, when we mall fee that come to pafs,
" that fo mightily pleafes us in the reading the moft ingenious
* f plays and heroick poems, that long afflicted vertue at laft
" comes to the crown, the mouth of all unbelievers muft be
" for ever flopped. And for my own part, I doubt not but
" that it will fo come to pafs in the clofe of the world. But
«' impatiently to call for vengeance upon every enormity before
" that time, is rudely to overturn the ftage before the entrance
'* into the fifth act, out of ignorance of the plot of the comedy 5
*' and to prevent the folemnity of the general judgement by
" more paltry and particular executions °."
Parnell feems to have chiefly followed the ftory as it is told
by this Platonic theologift, who had not lefs imagination than
learning. Pope ufed to fay, that it was originally written in
■* Vol. iv. Let. iv. p. 7. edit. 1655. colle&ion of Latin Apologues, quoted a-
Svo. bove, MSS. Harl. 463. foi. 8. a. The
n Part i. p. 321. Dial.H. edit. Lond. rubric is, De Angelo qui duxit Hertmitam ad
1668. l2mo. I muft not forget that it diverfaHcfpitia.
occurs, as told in our Gksta, among a * Ibid. p. 335.
Spanish.
xxxii A DISSERTATION ON THE
Spanifh. This I do not believe : but from the early connexion
between the Spaniards and Arabians, this affertion tends to con-
firm the fufpicion, that it was an oriental tale.
Chap, lxxxi. A king violates his fifter. The child is ex-
pofed in a cheft in the fea ; is chriftened Gregory by an abbot
who takes him up, and after various adventures he is promoted
to the popedom. In their old age his father and mother go a
pilgrimage to Rome, in order to confefs to this pope, not know-
ing he was their fon, and he being equally ignorant that they are
his parents : when in the courfe of the confeflion, a difcovery is
made on both fides.
Chap, lxxxix. The three rings.
This ftory is' in the Decameron p , and in the Cento
Novelle Antiche q : and perhaps in Swift's Tale of a
Tub.
Chap. xcv. The tyrant Maxentius. From the Gesta Ro-
manorum, which are cited.
I think there is the romance of Maxence, Conftantine's
antagonift.
Chap. xcvi. King Alexander places a burning candle in his
hall ; and makes proclamation, that he will abfolve all thofe
who owe him forfeitures of life and land, if they will appear
before the candle is confumed.
Chap, xcvii. Prodigies before the death of Julius Cefar, who
is placed in the twenty-fecond year of the city. From the
Cronica, as they are called.
Chap. xcix. A knight faves a ferpent who is fighting in a
foreft with a toad r , but is afterwards bit by the toad. The
knight languifhes many days : and when he is at the point of
death, the fame ferpent, which he remembers, enters his cham-
ber, and fucks the poifon from the wound.
i> i. 3. attack begins, and of the ferpent fighting
1 Nov. Ixxi. with and being killed by the fpider, ori*
* The ftories, perhaps fabulous, of the ginate from Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 84.
ferpent fighting with his inveterate ene- xx. 13.
zny the weazel, who eats rue before the
Chap,
GESTA ROMAN ORUM. xxxiii
Chap. ci. Of Ganterus, who for his prowefs in war being
elected a king of a certain country, is on the night of his coro-
nation conducted to a chamber, where at the head of the bed is
a fierce lion, at the feet a dragon, and on either fide a bear,
toads, and ferpents. He immediately quitted his new kingdom ;
and was quickly elected king of another country. Going to
reft the firft night, he was led into a chamber furnifhed with a
bed richly embroidered, but ftuck all over with fharp razors.
This kingdom he alfo relinquifhes. At length he meets a
hermit, who gives him a ftaff, with which he is directed to
knock at the gate of a magnificent palace, feated on a lofty
mountain. Here he gains admittance, and finds every fort of
happinefs unembittered with the laeft degree of pain.
The king means every man advanced to riches and honour,
and who thinks to enjoy thefe advantages without interruption
and alloy. The hermit is religion, the ftaff penitence, and the
palace heaven.
In a more confined fenfe, the firft part of this apologue may
be feparately interpreted to fignify, that a king, when he enters
on his important charge, ought not to fuppofe himfelf to fucceed
to the privilege of an exemption from care, and to be put into
immediate pofieflion of the higheft pleafures, conveniencies, and
felicities of life; but to be fenfible, that from that moment,
he begins to encounter the greateft dangers and difficulties.
Chap. cii. Of the lady of a knight who went to the holy
land. She commits adultery with a clerk (killed in ne-
cromancy. Another magician difcovers her intrigues to the
abfent knight by means of a polifhed mirror, and his image
in wax.
In Adam Davie's Gest or romance of Alexander, Nec-
tabanus, a king and magician, difcovers the machinations of
his enemies by embattelling them in figures of wax. This is
the moft extenfive necromantic operation of the kind that I
remember, and muft have formed a puppet-mew equal to the
moft fplendid pantomime.
Vol. III. e Barounes
xxxiv A DISSERTATION ON THE
Barounes weore whilom wys and gode,
That this ars ■ wel undurftode :
Ac on ther was Neptanamous
Wis l in this ars and malicious :
Whan kyng other eorl u cam on him to weorre w
Quyk he loked in the fteorre x ;
Of wax made him popetts y ,
And made heom fyzhte with battes :
And fo he learned, je vous dy, .\
Ay to aquelle z hys enemye,
With charms and with conjurifons i
Thus he afaied the regiouns,
That him cam for to afaile,
In puyr * manyr of bataile b ;
By cler candel in the nyzt,
He mad uchon c with othir to fyzt ?
Of alle manere nacyouns,
That comen by fchip or dromouns.
At the lafle, of mony londe ;
Kynges therof haden gret onde d ,
Well thritty y gadred beoth %
And by fpekith al his deth f .
Kyng Philipp s of grete thede
Maifter was of that fede h :
He was a mon of myzty hond,
With hem brouzte, of divers lond,
Nyne and twenty ryche kynges,
To make on hym bataylynges :
s Art. Necromancy. * See Mr. Tyrwhitt's Chaucer's Cant,
* Wife. X. ver. 1281.
u Or earl. « Each one.
w War. * Had great jealoufy or anger.
x Stars. e Near thirty were gathered, or confe-
7 Puppets. derated.
z Conquer. f All refolved to deflroy him.
* Very. Real. t Philip of Macedon.
% FeJde t Field. Army.
Neptanamous
GESTA ROMANORUM
XXXV
Neptanamous hyt underftod ;
Ychaunged was al his mod ;
He was aferde fore of harme :
Anon he deede ' cade his charme j
His ymage he madde anon,
And of his barounes everychon,
And afterward of his fone k >
He dude hem to gedere to gon l
In a bafyn al by charme :
He fazh on him m fel theo harme -,
He feyz flye n of his barounes
Of al his lond diftin&iouns,
He lokid, and kneow in the fterre,
Of al this kynges theo grete werre % &c. p
Afterwards he frames an image of the queen Olympias, or
Olympia, while ileeping, whom he violates in the mape of a
dragon.
Theo lady lyzt on q hire bedde,
Yheoled ' wel with filken webbe,
In a chayfel s fmok fcheo lay,
And yn a mantell of doway :
Of theo bryztnes of hire face
Al about fchone the place V
i He did. * Enemies.
' He made them fight,
* He faw the harm fall on, or againlt,
Himfelf.
w Saw fly.
* The great war of all thefe kings.
f MSS. (Bod. Bibl.) Laud. I, 74. f. 54.
* Laid. * Covered.
* Jn the romance of Atis et Porphi-
Hon. Cod. Reg. Far. 7191,
Un chemis de chain"!
De fil, et d'cevre moult foutil.
* Perhaps in Sy* Launfal, the fame
Ituation is more elegantly touched. MSS.
Cotton, Calio. A, 2. fol, 35. a.
In the pavyloun he found a bed of prys,
Y heled with purpure bys
That femyly was of fyzte ;
With inne lay that lady gente,
That after fyr Launfal haide feme,
That lefsom beamed bryzt 5
For hete her clothes doun fhe dede.
Almoft to her gerdylftede ;
Than lay Ihe uncovert :
Sche was as whyt as lylye in Maye,
Or fnowe that fnoweth yn wynterys daye «
He feygh nevir non fo pert,
The rede rofe whan fche is newe
Azens her rode nes nauzt of hewe,
Y dar fay yn fert
Her hare fchon as gold wyre, &c.
e 2 Herbcs
xxxvi A DISSERTATION ON THE
Herbes he tok in an herber,
And ftamped them in a morter,.
And wrong x hit in a box :
After he tok virgyn wox
And made a popet after the quene,
His ars-table y he can unwrene ;
The quenes name in the wax he wrot^,
Whil hit was fumdel hot ;
In a bed he hit dyzt
Al aboute with candel lyzt,
And fpreynd z theron of the herbus t
Thus charmed Neptanabus.
The lady in hir bed lay
Abouzt mydnyzt, ar the day %
Whiles he made conjuryng,
Scheo b fawe fle % in her metyng *»
Hire thought, a dragoun lyzt,
To hire chaumbre he made his flyzt^.
In he cam to her hour
And crept undur hir covertour,
Mony fithes e he hire kufl f
And fail in his armes prufiy
And went away, fo dragon wyld,.
And grete he left hire with child s .
* Wrung.
* This is defcribed above, f. 55.
Of gold he made a table
Al ful of fteorron [ftars].— —
An aftrolabe is intended.
2 Sprinkled.
a Before day.
b She.
Fly.
Dream.
Times.
Killed her.
Fol. 57. The text is here given from
MSS. Bodl. iu fupr. Compared with
MSS. Hospit, Lincoln. 150. See Gow-
c
i
t
f
I
er's Confess. Amant. Lib. vi. foli
cxxxviii. a. col. 1. feq.
And through the crafte of artemage,.
Of waxe he forged an ymage,. &c.
Gower's dragon, in approaching the queen;
is courteis and debonaire.
With al the chere that he male,
Towarde the bedde ther as fhe laie,
Till he came to hir the beddes fide
And me laie ftill, and nothyng cride;
For he did all hys thynges faire,
And was curteis and debonaire.
Ibid. col. 2. I could not refill the temp-
tation of tranfcribing this gallantry of a
dragon.
GESTA ROMANO RUM.
xx x\ it
Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, have left inflances of incan-
tations conducted by figures in wax. In the beginning of the
laft century, many witches were executed for attempting the
lives of perfons, by fabricating reprefentations of them in wax
and clay. King James the firft, in his Daemonologie, fpeaks
of this practice as very common ; the efficacy of which he pe-
remptorily afcribes to the power of the devil h . His majefty's
arguments, intended to prove how the magician's image ope-
rated on the perfon represented, are drawn from the depths of
moral, theological, phyfical, and metaphyseal knowledge. The
Arabian magic abounded with thefe infatuations, which were
partly founded on the doctrine of fympathy.
But to return to the Gesta Romanorum. In this ilory
one of the magicians is ftyled Magifier peritus, and fometimes
fimply Magifier. That is, a cunning- man. The title Magifier
in our univerfities has its origin from the ufe of this word in
the middle ages. With what propriety it is now continued I
will not fay. Myfiery r antiently ufed for a particular art \ or
ikill in general, is a fpecious and eafy corruption of Maifiery
or Mafiery, the Englifh of the Latin Magisterium, or Arti-
Jicium , in French Maifirife, Mefiier, Mefirie, and in Italian Ma-
gi/Ierio, with the fame fenfe k . In the French romance of Cleq-
medes, a phyfician is called fimply Maitre \
Lie font de chou qu'il n'y a
Peril et que bien garira :
Car il li Maistre ainfi dit leur ont»
dragon. Gower's whole defcription of this
interview, as will appear on comparifon,
fcems to be taken from Beauvais, " Nefta-
" banus fe transformat in ilium draconis fe-
" ducliorem traclum, tricliniumque pene-
*' trat reptabunduf, fpecie fpe&abilis, turn
" majeftate totius corporis, turn etiam fi-
" bilorum acumine adeo terribilis, ut pa-
' rietes etiam ac fundamenta domus quati
" viderentur, &c." Hist. Specul. fol.
4»-b. utfupr. SeeAul.Gell.NocT. Att,
vii. i.
h Edit. 1603. 4to. B. ii. ch. iv. p, 44.
feq.
1 For inftance, " the Art and Mjjltry of
" Printing."
k In a ftatute of Henry the eighth, in-
Head of the words in the lall note, we
have " The Science and Craft of Print-
" ing." Ann. reg. 25. A. D. 1533. For-
mally reafons, Myftery anfwering to the
Latin Myjierium, never could have been,
originally applied in thefe cafes.
1 MSS. Cod. Reg. Parif. 7539.
And
xxxviii A DISSERTATION ON THE
And the medical art is ftyled Mejlrie. <( Quant il (the furgeon)
" apercut que c'eftoit maladie non mie curable par nature et par
" Mestrie, et par medicine, 6cc m ." Maljlrifi is ufed for art
or workmanfhip, in the Chronicon of Saint Denis, " Entre
tf les autres prefens, li envoia une horologe de laton, ouvrez par
** marveilleufe Maistrise V That the Latin Magisterium
has precifely the fame fenfe appears from an account of the con~
tract for building the conventual church of Cafino in Italy, in
the year 1349. The architects agree to build the church in the
form of the Lateran at Rome. fs Et in cafu fi aliquis [defe&us]
st in eorum Magisterio appareret, promiferunt refarcireV
Chaucer, in the Romaunt of the Rose, ufes Maistrise
for artifice and workmanlhip.
Was made a toure of grete matftrife,
A fairer faugh no man with fight,
Large, and wide, and of grete might, 6cc \
And, in the fame poem, in defcribing the fhoes of Mirthu
And mode he was, with grete majftrie,
With fhone decopid and with lace s .
Maystrye occurs in the defcription of a lady's faddle, in Syr
Launfax/s romance.
Her fadell was femely fett,
The fambus r were grene felvett,
* Mirac. 8. Ludov, edit, reg, p. 438,
" Tom. v. Colleft. Hiftor. Franc, pag,
254. Thus expreffed in the Latin An-
WAtEs Francis, ibid. p. 56. " HoroJo*
M gium ex aurichalco ant mechanic^ miri*
" nee conipofitum."
Hist, Casin. torn. ii. pag. 545,
col. ii. Chart, ann. 1349.
fR,R. v. 4x72.
' Ibid, v. 842.
' I know iiot what ornament or imple-
ment of the antient horfe-furwture Is here
intended, unlefs it is a faddle-cloth j nor
can I find this word in any gloiTary. But
Santbue occur*, evidently "under the very
fame fignifieation, in the beautiful manu»
fcript French romance of Garjw, written
in the twelfth century,
Li palcfrois fur coi la dame lift
Eftoit plus blanc que nule flor de Us 3
Le loreins vaut mils ibis parifis,
Et la Savbue nul plus nche ne vift.
GESTA ROMANORUM.
XXXIX
I paynted with ymagerye j
The bordure was of belles s
Of ryche golde and nothynge elles
That any man myzt afpie :
In the arfounis * before and behynde-
Were twey ftones of Ynde
Gay for the mayfirye.
The paytrell u of her palfraye
Was worth an earldom, &c.
" In the faddle-bow were two jewels of India, very beautiful
te The palfrey on which the lady fate, was
" whiter than any flower de lis : the bri-
" die was worth a thoufand Parifian fols,
" and a richer Saubue never was feen."
The French word however, is properly
written Sambue, and is not uncommon in
old French wardrobe rolls, where it ap-
pears to be a female faddle-cloth, or hou-
iing. So in Le Roman de la Rose.
Comme royne full veftue,
Et chevauchafl a grand Sambue.
The Latin word, and in the fame reflrain-
ed fenfe, is fometimes Sambua, but moll
commonly Sambuca. Ordericus Vitalis,
Lib. viii. p. 694. edit. Par. 16 19. " Man-
f* nos etmulas cum Sambucis muliebribus
" profpexit." Vincent of Beauvais fays,
that the Tartarian women, when they ride,
have Cambucas of painted leather, em-
broidered with gold, hanging down on
either fide of the horfe. Specul. Hist.
x. 85. But Vincent's Cambucas was
originally written cambucaj, or Sambucas.
To fuch an enormity this article of the
trappings of female horfemanfhip had
arifen in the middle ages, that Frederick
Jung of Sicily reflrained it by a fumptuary
law ; which enjoined, that no woman,
even of the higheft rank, Ihould prefume
to ufe a Sambuca, or faddle-cloth, in which
were gold, filver, or pearls, &c. Consti-
tut. cap. 92. Queen Olympias, in Da-
vie's Gest of Alexander, has a Sambue
of^filk. fol. 54. [Supr. vol. i. 221.]
A mule alfo whyte fo mylke,
With fadel of golde,fambue of fylke, &c.
s Of this faihion I have already given
many inflances. The Iateft I remember is
in the year 1503, at the marriage of the
princefs Margaret. " In fpecyall the Erie
" of Northumberlannd ware on a goodly
" gowne of tynfill, fourred with hermynes.
" He was mounted upon a fayre courfer,
•' hys harnays of goldfmyth vvorke, and
" thorough that fam was fa wen fmali
" belles, that maid a mellodyous noyfe/.
Leland. Coll. ad calc. torn. iii. p. 276.
In the Nonnes Preestes Prologue,
Chaucer from the circumftance of the
Monke's bridle being decorated with bells,
takes occafion to put an admirable flroke
of humour and fatire into the mouth of
the Hoste, which at once ridicules that in-
confiilent piece of affeftation, and cenfures
the monk for the dullnefs of his tale,
Ver. 14796.
Swiche talking is not worth a boterflie,
For therin is ther no difport ne game ;
Therefore fire monke, dan Piers by your
name,
I pray you hertely tell us fomwhat elles,
Forfikerly, n'ere clinking of your belles
That on y cur bridel hange on every fde,
By hcven king that for us alle dide,
I fhoulde or this have fallen down for flepe,
Although the flough had been never fo
depe.
■* Saddle-bow. See fu-pr, vol. i p. 16$,
u Breaft-plate,
" to
xl A DISSERTATION ON THE
«< to be feen, in confequence of the great art with which they
cc were wrought \" Chaucer calls his Monke,
fay re for the Maijlrie,
An outrider, that lovid venery y .
Fay re for the Maijlrie means, fkilled in the Maijlrie of the game,
La Maifirife du Venerie, or the fcience of hunting, then {o
much a favorite, as limply and familiarly to be called the maijlrie.
From many other inftances which I could produce, I will only
add, that the fearch of the Philofopher's Stone is called in
the Latin Geber, Investigatio Magisterii.
Chap. ciii. The merchant who fells three wife maxims to
the wife of Dornitian.
Chap. civ. A knight in hunting meets a lion, from whofe
foot he extracts a thorn. Afterwards he becomes an outlaw ;
and being feized by the king, is condemned to be thrown into a
deep pit to be devoured by a hungry lion. The lion fawns on the
knight, whom he perceives to be the fame that drew the thorn
from his paw. Then faid the king, " I will learn forbearance
** from the beads. As the lion has fpared your life, when it was
" in his power to take it, I therefore grant you a free pardon.
4t Depart, and be admonifhed hence to live virtuoufly."
The learned reader muft immediately recollect a fimilar ftory
of one Androclus, who being expofed to fight with wild beafls
in the Roman amphitheatre, is recognifed and unattacked by a
moft favage lion, whom he had formerly healed exactly in the
fame manner. But I believe the whole is nothing more than an
oriental apologue on gratitude, written much earlier ; and that
it here exifts in its original ftate. Androclus's ftory is related
by Aulus Gellius, on the authority of a Greek writer, one Ap-
pion, called Pliftonices, who flourifhed under Tiberius. The cha-
racter of Appion, with which Gellius prefaces this tale, in fome
meafure invalidates his credit; notwithftanding he pretends to
* MS. fol. 40, a, y Prol. v. 165.
have
GESTA ROMANO RUM. xli
have been an eye witnefs of this extraordinary facr.. " Ejus libri,
*' fays Gellius, non incelebres feruntur; quibus, omnium ferme quae
" mirifica in Mgy^to vifuntur audiunturque, hiftoria comprehen-
*'■ ditur. Sed in his quae audivhTe et legiffe fefe dicit, fortaffe a
** vitio ftudioque oftentationis fit loquacior, 6cc V Had our
compiler of the Gesta taken this ftory from Gellius, it is
probable he would have told it with fome of the fame circum-
stances : efpecially as Gellius is a writer whom he frequently
follows, and even quotes ; and to whom, on this occafion, he
might have been obliged for a few more ftrokes of the marvel*
lous. But the two writers agree only in the general fubject.
Our compiler's narrative has much more fimplicity than that of
Gellius ; and contains marks of eaftern manners and life. Let
me add, that the oriental fabulifts are fond of illustrating and
enforcing the duty of gratitude, by feigning inftanees of the
gratitude of beafts towards men. And of this the prefent
compilation, which is ftrongly tinctured with orientalifm, affords
feveral other proofs.
Chap. cv. Theodofius the blind emperor ordained, that the
caufe of every injured perfon mould be heard, on ringing a bell
placed in a public part of his palace. A ferpent had a neft near
the fpot where the bell- rope fell. In the abfence of the ferpent,
a toad took poneflion of her neft. The ferpent twifting herfelf
round the rope, rang the bell for juftice; and by the emperor's
fpecial command the toad was killed. A few days afterwards,
as the king was repofing on his couch, the ferpent entered the
chamber, bearing a precious ftone in her mouth. The ferpent
creeping up to the emperor's face, laid the precious ftone on his
eyes, and glided out of the apartment. Immediately the em-
peror was reftored to his. fight.
This circumftance of the Bell of Juftice occurs in the real
hiftory of fome eaftern monarch, whofe name I have forgot.
z Noct. Attic. Lib. v. cap. xiv. See was an eye witnefs, ibid. L. vii. cap. via.
another fabulous ilory, of which Appion It is of a boy beloved by a dolphin.
Vol. III. f In
xlii A DISSERTATION ON THE
In the Arabian philofophy, ferpents, either from the bright-
nefs of their eyes, or becaufe they inhabit the cavities of the
earth, were confidered as having a natural, or occult, connection
with precious ftones. In Alphonfus's Clericalis Disci-
plina, a fnake is mentioned, whofe eyes were real jacinths.
In Alexander's romantic hiftory, he is faid to have found fer-
pents in the vale of Jordian, with collars of huge emeralds
growing on their necks*. The toad, under a vulgar indifcri-
minating idea, is ranked with the reptile race : and Shakefpeare
has a beautiful comparifon on the traditionary notion, that the
toad has a rich gem inclofed within its head. Milton gives his
ferpent eyes of carbuncle b .
Chap. cvi. The three fellow-travellers, who have only one
loaf of bread.
This apologue is in Alphonfus.
Chap. cvii. There was an image in the city of Rome, which
ilretched forth its right hand, on the middle finger of which
was written strike here. For a long time none could un-
derstand the meaning of this myfterious infcription. At length
a certain fubtle Clerk, who came to fee this famous image, ob-
ferved, as the fun fhone againft it, the fhadow of the infcribed
finger on the ground at fome diftance. He immediately took a
fpade, and began to dig exactly on that fpot. He came at
length to a flight of fteps which defcended far under ground,
and led him to a ftately palace. Here he entered a hall, where
he faw a king and queen fitting at table, with their nobles and a
multitude of people, all clothed in rich garments. But no per-
fon fpake a word. He looked towards one corner, where he faw
a polifhed carbuncle, which illuminated the whole room c . In
"Vincent Beauvais, Specul, Hist. And whan he come to the foreft on hyt,
Lib. iv. c. 58. fol. 42. a. A pavyloun y teld he fyz :
b Par ad. L. ix. 500. The pavyloun was wrouth forfothe ywys
c See fupr. vol. ii. p. 229. So in the All of werk of Sariynys *,
-romance, or Lay, of syr Launfal. MSS. The pomells 2 of cryftalh ■
Cotton. Calig. A. z. fol. 35. a. Qn the Mp was a bgaftj
2 Saracen- work. % Balls. Pinnacles.
Of
GESTA ROMANORUM.
xliii
the oppofite corner he perceived the figure of a man {landing,
having a bended bow with an arrow in his hand, as prepared to
moot. On his forehead was written, " I am, who am. No-
" thing can efcape my flroke, not even yonder carbuncle which
u mines fo bright. " The Clerk beheld all with amazement ;
and entering a chamber, faw the mofl beautiful ladies working
at the loom in purple d . But all was filence. He then entered
a ilable full of the mod excellent horfes and affes : he touched
fome of them, and they were inftantly turned into ftone. He
next furveyed all the apartments of the palace, which abounded
Of bournedde golde, ryche and good,
Ifloryfched with ryche amall 3 ;
His eyen wer carbonkeles bryzt,
As the mon 4 they fchon anyzt,
That fpreteth out ovir all :
Alyfaundre the conquerour,
Ne kyng Artour yn hys molt hend
Ne hadde non fcwych quell.
He found yn the pavyloun,
The kynges douzter of Olyroun,
Dame Triamour that hyzte,
Her fadyr was kyng of Fayre.
And in the alliterative romance, called
the Sege of' Jerusalem. MSS. Cott.
Calig. A. 2. fol. 122. b.
Tytus tarriedde nozte 5 for that, but to
the tempul rode.
That was rayled in the roofe with rubyes
ryche,
With perles and with perytotes 6 all the
place fette,
That glyftered as coles in the fyre, on the
golde ryche ;
The dores with dyamondes "dryven were
thykke,
And made alfo marveyloufly with margery 7
perles,
That ever lemede the lyzt, and as a lampe
fhewed :
The clerkes had none other lyzte.
The original is, " mulieres pulcberrimas
V in purpura et pallo operantes invenit."
fol. L. a. col. r. This may mean either
the fenfe in the text, or that the ladies
were cloathed in purpura et pallo, a phrafe
which I never faw before in barbarous
latinity : but which tallies with the old
Englifh expreffion purple and pall. This
is fometimes written purpk pall. As in
Syr Launfal, ut fupr. fol. 40. a.
The lady was clad yn purpure palle.
Antiently Pallium, as did Purpura, fignified
in general any rich cloth. Thus there
were faddles, de pallio et ebore ; a bed,
de pallio ; a cope, de pallio, &c &c. See
Dufrefne, Lat. Gloss. V. Pallium. And
Pellum, its corruption. In old French,
to cover a hall with tapeftry was called
poller. So in Syr Launfal, ut fupr,
fol. 40. a.
Thyn halle agyrde,and hele [cover] the
walles
With clodes [clothes], and wyth ryche
palles,
A zens [againft] my Lady Tryamour.
Which alfo illuflrates the former meaning.
In A. Davie's Gest of Alexander we
have,
Her bed was made forfothe
With pallis and with riche clothe,
The chambre was hangid with clothe of
gold. fol. 57.
3 Enamel. A Moon. 5 Nought. 6 On the finger of Becket, when he was killed, was
a jewel called Pentot. Monast. Angl. i. 6. 7 Margarites.
2
with
xliv A DISSERTATION ON THE
with all that his willies could defire. He again vifited the hall,
and now began to reflect how he fTiould return; " but, fays he*
" my report of all thefe wonders will not be believed, unlefs I
" carry fomething back with me." He therefore took from
the principal table a golden cup and a golden knife, and placed
them in his bofom. When, the man who flood in the corner
with the bow, immediately mot at the carbuncle, which he
mattered into a thoufand pieces. At that moment the hall be-
came dark as night. In this darknefs not being able to find his
way, he remained in the fubterraneous palace, and foon died a,
miferable death.
In the Moral is ati on of this flory, the fleps by which the
Clerk defcends into the earth are fuppofed to be the Paflions.
The palace, fo richly ftored, is the world with all its vanities
and temptations. The figure with the bow bent is Death, and
the carbuncle is Human Life. He fuffers for his avarice in
coveting and feizing what was not his own ; and no fooncr has
he taken the golden knife and cup, that is, enriched himfelf
with the goods of this world, than he is delivered up to the
gloom and- horrors of the grave.
Spenfer in the Faerie Queene, feems to have diftantly re-
membered this fable, where a fiend expecting fir Guyon will
be tempted to fnatch fome of the treafures of the fubterraneous
House of Riches se, which are displayed in his view, is
prepared to faften upon him.
Thereat the fiend his gnafhing teeth did grate,
And griev'd fo long to lack his greedie pray -,
For well he weened that fo glorious bayte
Would tempt his gueft to take thereof afTay :
Had he fo doen, he had him fnatcht away
More light than culver in the faucon's fift e .
This flory was originally invented of pope Gerbert, or Syl-
• B. ii. C, vii. ft. 34.
vefter
tt
tt
GESTA ROMANORUM. x\v
vefter the fecond, who died in the year 1003. He was emi-
nently learned in the mathematical fciences, and on that ac-
count was ftyled a magician. William of Malmefbury is, I
believe, the firft writer now extant by whom it is recorded :
and he produces it partly to fhew, that Gerbert was not always
fuccefsful in thofe attempts which he fo frequently practifed to
difcover treafures hid in the earth, by the application of the ne-
cromantic arts. I will tranilate Malmefbury 's narration of this
fable, as it varies in fome of the circumftances, and has fome
heightenings of the fiction. " At Rome there was a brazen
ftatue, extending the forefinger of the right hand -, and on its
forehead was written Strike here. Being fufpected to conceal
" a treafure, it had received many bruifes from the credulous
" and ignorant, in their endeavours to open it. At length Gerbert
«* unriddled the myftery. At noon-day obferving the reflection of
*' the forefinger on the ground* he marked the fpot. At night
" he came to the place, with a page carrying a lamp. There by
*' a magical operation he opened a wide pafiage in the earth >
" through which they both defcended, and came to a vaft
palace. The walls, the beams, and the whole ftructure, were
of gold : they faw golden images of knights playing at chefs,
with a king and queen of gold at a banquet, with numerous
attendants in gold, and cups of immenfe fize and value. In
*' a recefs was a carbuncle, whofe luftre illuminated the whole
" palace : oppofite to which flood a figure with a bended bow.
As they attempted to touch fome of the rich furniture, all
the golden images feemed to rufh upon them, Gerbert was
too wife to attempt this a fecond time : but the page was
bold enough to fnatch from the table a golden knife of ex-
quifite workmanfhip. At that moment, all the golden images
rofe up with a dreadful noife •, the figure with the bow fhot at
the carbuncle -, and a total darknefs enfued. The page then
replaced the knife, otherwife, they both would have furTered
a cruel death." Malmefbury afterwards mentions a brazen
bridge, framed by the enchantments of Gerbert, beyond which .
were.
Fol. ccexxiii. b. See vol. li. p. 190.
tion of Apologues above-cited, MSS. And Metric. Lives S. MSS, Bodl. 779.
Harl. 463. fol. 2. a. f. 164. a.
w Collectan. torn. iu. p. 149. edit. * Calig.' A. 2. fol. 135. b. This is
! 77c\ a tranflation from the French. MSS, Reg.
* Sir Placidas is the name of a knight in Parif. Cod. 303 1 .
the Faerie Queene.
g ^
Chap.
lii A DISSERTATION ON THE
Chap. cxii. The fon of king Gorgonius is beloved by his
ftep- mother. He is therefore fent to feek his fortune in a
foreign country, where he fludies phytic ; and returning, heals
his father of a dangerous difeafe, who recovers at the fight of
him. The flep-mother, hearing of his return, falls fick, and
dies at feeing him.
Chap, cxiii. The tournaments of the rich king Adonias.
A party of knights arrive the firft day, who lay their fhields
aiide, in one place. The fame number arrives the fecond day,
each of whom chufes his antagonift by touching with his fpear
the fhield of one of the firft day's party, not knowing the
owner.
The molt curious anecdote of chivalry, now on record, oc-
curs in the ecclefiaitical hiftory of Spain. Alphonfus the ninth*
about the year 12 14, having expelled the Moors from Toledo,
endeavoured to eftablifh the Roman miiTal in the place of faint
Ifidore's. This alarming innovation was obftinately oppofed by
the people of Toledo ; and the king found that his project
would be attended with almoit infuperable difficulties. The
conteft. at length between the two miiTals grew fo ferious, that
it was mutually refolved to decide the controverfy, not by a
theological difputation, but by iingle combat ; in which the
champion of the Toletan miiTal proved victorious a .
Many entertaining paiTages relating to trials by fingle combat
may be feen in the old Imperial and Lombard laws. In Caxton's
BoKE OF THE FAYTTES OF ARMES AND OF CHIVALRYE,
printed at Weftminfter in the year 1489, and tranflated from
the French of Chriftine of Pifa, many of the chapters towards
the end are compiled from that fingular monument of Gothic
legiilation.
Chap. cxv. An intractable elephant is lulled afleep in a foreft
by the fongs and blandifhments of two naked virgins. One of
them cuts off his head, the other carries a bowl of his blood to
a See the Mozarabes, or MifTal of command of Cardinal Ximenes, A. D»
faint Ifidore, printed at Toledo, by the 1500. fol.
the
GESTA ROMANORUM. liii
the king. Rex vero gavifus eft valde, et ftatim fecit fieri pur-
pur am, et mult a alia, de eodemf anguine.
In this wild tale, there are circumftances enough of general
analogy, if not of peculiar parallelifm, to recall to my memory
the following beautiful defcription, in the manufcript romance
of Syr Launfal, of two damfels, whom the knight unex-
pectedly meets in a defolate foreft.
As he fate in forowe and fore,
He fawe come out of holtes hore
Gentyll maydenes two -,
Thar kertelles were of Inde fandel *
I lafTed e fmalle, jolyf and wel ,*
Thar myzt d noon gayer go.
Thar manteles were of grene felwette r
Ybordured with golde ryzte welle yfette,
I pelured f with gris and gro g ;
Har heddys h wer dyzt well withall,
Everych hadde on a jolyf coronall,
With fixty gemmys and mo *.
Har faces was whyte as fnowe on downe,
Har rode k was red, har eyn were broune,
I fawe never none fwyche ! .
The oon bar of gold a bafyn,
That other a towayle whyt and fyn,
Of fylk that was goode and ryche,
Har kercheves wer well fchyre m
Arayd with ryche gold wyre, &c. ■
Chap. cxvi. The queen of Pepin king of France died in
childbed, leaving a fon. He married a fecond wife, who bore
b Indian filk. Cental. Fr. See Dufrefne,. * Gris is fur. Gris and gray is common
Lat. Gl. V. Cendalum. in the metrical romances*
e Laced. * Their heads.
* There might. * More.
e Velvet. * Ruddinefs;
f Furred. Ptlnra* Pellis, l Such. m Cut.
fj MSS. Cotton. Cauc. A, 2, fol. 3 5- a;
a fon
liv A DISSERTATION ON THE
a fon within a year. Thefe children were fent abroad to be
nurfed. The furviving queen, anxious to fee her child, defired
that both the boys might be brought home. They were fo
exceedingly alike, that the one could not be diftinguifhed from
the other, except by the king. The mother begged the king to
point out her own fon. This he refufed to do, till they were
both grown up ; left fne mould fpoil him by too fond a partia-
lity. Thus they were both properly treated with uniform affec-
tion, and without excefs of indulgence.
A favorite old romance is founded on the indiftinctible like-
nefs of two of Charlemagne's knights, Amys and Amelion ; ori-
ginally celebrated by Turpin, and placed by Vincent of Beauvais
under the reign of Pepin •.
Chap, cxvii. The law of the emperor Frederick, that who-
ever refcued a virgin from a rape might claim her for his wife.
Chap, cxviii. A knight being in Egypt, recovers a thoufand
talents which he had entrufted to a faithlefs friend, by the
artifice of an old woman.
This tale is in Alphonfus. And in the Cento Novelle
Antiche p .
Chap. cxix. A king had an oppreflive Senefhall, who pafling
through a foreft, fell into a deep pit, in which were a lion, an
ape, and a ferpent. A poor man who gathered flicks in the
foreft hearing his cries, drew him up : together with the lion,
the ape, and the ferpent. The Senefhall returned home, pro-
mifing to reward the poor man with great riches. Soon after-
wards the poor man went to the palace to claim the promifed
reward ; but was ordered to be cruelly beaten by the fenefhall.
In the mean time, the lion drove ten afTes laden with gold to
the poor man's cottage: the ferpent brought him a pretious
ftone of three colours : and the ape, when he came to the foreft
on his daily bufinefs, laid him heaps of wood. The poor man,
in confequence of the virtues of the ferpent's pretious ftone,
• Specul. Hist, xxiii. c. 162. f. 329. b. * Nov, lxxiv.
which
GESTA ROMANORUM. lv
which he fold, arrived to the dignity of knighthood, and ac-
quired ample pofTeffions. But afterwards he found the pretious
ftone in his cheft, which he prefented to the king. The king
having heard the whole ftory, ordered the fenefhall to be put to
death for his ingratitude, and preferred the poor man to his
office.
This ftory occurs in Symeon Seth's tranflation of the cele-
brated Arabian fable-book called Calilah u Dumnah 9 . It
is recited by Matthew Paris, under the year 1195, as a parable
which king Richard the firft, after his return from the eaft, was
often accuftomed to repeat, by way of reproving thofe ungrate-
ful princes who refufed to engage in the crufade r . It is verfified
by Gower, who omits the lion, as Matthew Paris does the ape,
in the fifth book of the Confessio Amantis*. He thus
defcribes the fervices of the ape and ferpent to the poor man,
who gained his livelihood by gathering Hicks in a foreft.
He gan his ape anone behold,
Which had gadred al aboute,
Of ftickes here and there a route,
And leyde hem redy to his honde,
Whereof he made his truffe and bond
From daie to daie. ■
Upon a time and as he drough
Towarde the woodde, he figh befide
The great gaftly ferpent glide,
Till that fhe came in his prefence,
And in hir kynde a reverence
She hath hym do, and forthwith all
A flone more bright than a chriftall
Out of hir mouth to fore his waye
She lett down fall.
1 P. 444. This work was tranflated with woodden cuts. 410. But Doni was
into Englifh under the title of " Donies the Italian tranflator.
*' morall philosophie, tranflated from r Hist, Maj. p. 179, Edit. Wats.
'* the Indian tongue, 1570." Black Letter • fol, 110. b.
In
hi A DISSERTATION ON THE
In Gower alfo, as often as the poor man fells the pretious ftone,
on returning home, he finds it again among the money in his
purfe.
The acquifition of riches, and the multiplication of treafure,
by invifible agency, is a frequent and favorite fiction of the
Arabian romance. Thus, among the prefents given to Sir
Launfal by the Lady Triamore, daughter of the king of Faerie*
I will the zeve * an Alver %
I mad of fylver and gold cler,
With fayre ymages thre :
As ofte thou putteft thy honde ther ynne,
A marke of golde thou (halt wynne w ,
In wat place malt thou be \
Chap. xx. King Darius's legacy to his three fons. To the
eldeft he bequeathes all his paternal inheritance : to the fecond,
all that he had acquired by conquer!: : and to the third, a ring
and necklace, both of gold, and a rich cloth. All the three
laft gifts were endued with magical virtues. Whoever wore the
ring on his finger, gained the love or favour of all whom he
defired to pleafe. Whoever hung the necklace over his breaft,
obtained all his heart could defire. Whoever fate down on the
cloth, could be inflantly tranfported to any part of the world
which he chofe.
From this beautiful tale, of which the opening only is here
given, Occleve, commonly called Chaucer's difciple, framed a
poem in the octave fianza, which was printed in the year 1614,
by William Browne, in his fet of Eclogues called the Shep-
heards Pipe. Occleve has literally followed the book before
us, and has even tranflated into Englifh prole the Moralisa-
'HON annexed y . He has given no fort of embellishment to his
* Give thee. y Viz. MSS. Seld. Sup. 53. Where is
n Perhaps d/mer, or Almere, a cabinet a prologue of many ftanzas not printed by
e>r cheft. w Get. Find. Browne. See alfo MSS. Digb. 185. MSS.
x Syr Launfal. MSS. Cott. Calig. JLaud. K. 78. [See fupr. vol. ii. 38.]
A- 2. fol 35. b.
original
GESTA ROMANORUM. Ivii
original, and by no means deferves the praifes which Browne in
the following elegant paftoral lyrics has beftowed on his per-
formance, and which more juftly belong to the genuine Gothic,
or rather Arabian, inventor.
Well I wot, the man that flrft
Sung this lay, did quenche his thirft
Deeply as did ever one
In the Mufes Helicon.
Many times he hath been feene
With the faeries on the greene,
And to them his pipe did found
As they danced in a round ;
Mickle folace would they make him,
And at midnight often wake him,
And convey him from his roome
To a fielde of yellow broome,
Or into the medowes where
Mints perfume the gentle aire,
And where Flora fp reads her treafure
There they would beginn their meafure.
If it chancd night's fable fhrowds
Muffled Cynthia up in clowds,
Safely home they then would fee him,
And from brakes and quagmires free him*
There are few fuch fwaines as he
Now a dayes for harmonie ".
The hiflory of Darius, who gave this legacy to his three fons,
is incorporated with that of Alexander, which has been deco-
rated with innumerable fictions by the Arabian writers. There
is alfo a feparate romance on Darius. And on Philip of
Macedon *.
* Egl, i. » Bibl. Reg. Parif. MSS. Cod. 3031.
Vol, III. h Chap.
lviii A DISSERTATION ON THE
Chap, cxxiv. Of the knights who intercede for their friend
with a king, by coming to his court, ea
