"fore have I made hym to come and foupe with my knyghtes. "And yf ye wyll knowe what he is, demaunde hym; for per"adventure he wyll tell you fooner than me. Methynke that "he is departed from fome good place, and I thinke in my "mynde that fomethynge is befallen hym for which he is forry. This fayd, the noble dameyfell wente unto Appolyn ❝ and faid, 66 Fayre Syr, graunt me a boone. And he graunted " her with goode herte. And she fayd unto hym, albeyt that your vyfage be tryst and hevy, your behavour sheweth noblesse "and facundyte, and therefore I pray you to tell me of your "affayre and estate. Appolyn anfwered, Yf ye demaunde of. my rycheffes, I have loft them in the fea. The damoyfell "fayd, I pray you that you tell me of your adventures." But in the GESTA, the princefs at entering the royal hall kiffes all the knights and lords prefent, except the stranger'. Voffius says, that about the year 1520, one Alamanus Rinucinus a Florentine, translated into Latin this fabulous history; and that the translation was corrected by Beroaldus. Voffius certainly 66 cannot mean, that he translated it from the Greek original '. CHAP. cliv. A ftory from Gervafe of Tilbury, an Englishman, who wrote about the year 1200, concerning a miraculous statue of Christ in the city of Edeffa. CHAP. cly. The adventures of an English knight named Albert in a fubterraneous paffage, within the bishoprick of Ely. This story is faid to have been told in the winter after fupper, in a castle, cum familia divitis ad focum, ut Potentibus moris eft, RECENSENDIS ANTIQUIS GESTIS operam daret, when the family of a rich man, as is the custom with the Great, was fitting round the fire, and telling ANTIENT GESTS. Here is a traite of the private life of our ancestors, who wanted the diverfions and engagements of modern times to relieve a tedious evening. Hence we learn, that when a company was affembled, if a ? CAP. xi. Fol. lxxii. b. col. z. • HIST. LAT. Lib. iii. c. 8. pag. 552. edit. 1627. 4to. jugler jugler or a minstrel were not prefent, it was their custom to entertain themselves by relating or hearing a series of adventures. Thus the general plan of the CANTERBURY TALES, which at first fight seems to be merely an ingenious invention of the poet to serve a particular occafion, is in great measure founded on a fashion of antient life: and Chaucer, in fuppofing each of the pilgrims to tell a tale as they are travelling to Becket's shrine, only makes them adopt a mode of amusement which was common to the conversations of his age. I do not deny, that Chaucer has shewn his addrefs in the use and application of this practice. So habitual was this amufement in the dark ages, that the graver fort thought it unfafe for ecclefiaftics, if the subjects admitted any degree of levity. The following curious injunction was deemed neceffary, in a code of statutes affigned to a college at Oxford in the year 1292. I give it in English. "CH. XX."The fellows' fhall all live honestly, as becomes Clerks. 66 They shall not rehearse, fing, nor willingly hear, BALLADS OF <c TALES of LOVERS, which tend to lafciviousness and idle"nefs." Yet the libraries of our monafteries, as I have before obferved, were filled with romances. In that of Croyland-abbey we find even archbishop Turpin's romance, placed on the same shelf with Robert Tumbeley on the Canticles, Roger Dymock against Wickliffe, and Thomas Waleys on the Pfalter. But their apology must be, that they thought this a true history: at least that an archbishop could write nothing but truth. Not to mention that the general subject of those books were the triumphs of christianity over paganism ". CHAP. clvi. Ovid, in his TROJAN WAR, is cited for the story of Achilles difguifed in female apparel. Gower has this history more at large in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS but he refers to a Cronike, which feems to be the BOKE OF TROIE, mentioned at the end of the chapter ". : CANTILENAS VEL FABULAS DE AMA$118, &c. MS. Registr. Univ. Oxon. D. b. f. 76. See fupr. vol. i. 92. VOL. III. Leland. COLL. iii. p. 30. w Lib. v. fol. 99. b. col. 2. See fol. 101. a. col. 1. 2. i CHAP. CHAP. clvii. The porter of a gate at Rome, who taxes all deformed perfons entering the city. This tale is in Alphonsus. And in the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE *. CHAP. clviii. The discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas, fon of Evander, at Rome, which exceeded in height the walls of the city, was uncorrupted, and accompanied with a burning lamp, two thousand two hundred and forty years after the deftruction of Troy. His wound was fresh, which was four feet and a half in length. It is curious to observe, the romantic exaggerations of the claffical ftory. CHAP. clix. Jofephus, in his book de Caufis rerum naturalium, is quoted, for Noah's discovery of wine. I know not any book of Josephus on this fubject. The first editor of the Latin Jofephus was Ludovicus Cendrata of Verona, who was ignorant that he was publishing a modern translation. In the Dedication he complains, that the manuscript was brought to him from Bononia fo ill-written, that it was often impoffible even to guess at Jofephus's words. And in another place he fays, Jofephus firft wrote the ANTIQUITATES in Hebrew, and that he afterwards tranflated them from Hebrew into Greek, and from Greek into Latin". The substance of this chapter is founded on a Rabbinical tradition, related by Fabricius". When Noah planted the vine, Satan attended, and facrificed a fheep, a lion, an ape, and a fow. These animals were to fymbolife the gradations of ebriety. When a man begins to drink, he is meek and ignorant as the lamb, then becomes bold as the lion, his courage is foon tranfformed into the foolishness of the ape, and at last he wallows in the mire like the fow. Chaucer hence fays in the MANCIPLES PROLOGUE, as the paffage is justly corrected by Mr. Tyrwhitt, * Nov. 50. At Verona. 1480. By Peter Mauffer a Frenchman. It is a most beautiful and coftly book, printed on vellum in folio. Z COD. PSEUDEPIGR, VET. TESTAM. vol. i. p. 275. I trowe I trowe that ye have dronken wine of ape, In the old KALENDRIER DES BERGERS, as Mr. Tyrwhitt has remarked, Vin de finge, vin de mouton, vin de lyon, and vin de porceau, are mentioned, in their respective operations on the four temperaments of the human body. CHAP. clxi. Of a hill in a forest of England, where if a hunter fate after the chace, he was refreshed by a miraculous person of a mild afpect, bearing a capacious horn, adorned with gems and gold, and filled with the most delicious liquor. This perfon instantly disappeared after administering the draught; which was of fo wonderful a nature, as to difpel the most oppreffive laffitude, and to make the body more vigorous than before. At length, a hunter having drank of this horn, ungratefully refused to return it to the friendly apparition; and his mafter, the lord of the foreft, left he should appear to countenance fo atrocious a theft, gave it to king Henry the elder . This ftory, which feems imperfect, I fuppofe, is from Gervafe of Tilbury. CHAP. clxii. The fame author is cited for an account of a hill in Castile, on which was a palace of demons. Whenever our compiler quotes Gervafe of Tilbury, the reference is to his OTIA IMPERIALIA: which is addreffed to the emperor Otho the fourth, and contains his Commentarius de regnis Imperatorum Romanorum, his Mundi Defcriptio, and his Tractatus de Mirabilibus Mundi. All these four have been improperly supposed to be feparate works. CHAP. clxiii. King Alexander's fon Celeftinus. This fable is told in the Greek legend of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT, written by Johannes Damafcenus. And in Caxton's GOLDEN LEGENDE. It is alfo found in the CLERICALIS DISCIPLINA of Alphonfus. CHAP. clxviii. Barlaam is cited for the story of a man, who, flying from a unicorn, and falling into a deep and noisom pit, hung on the boughs of a lofty tree which grew from the bottom. On looking downward, he faw a huge dragon twisted round the trunk, and gaping to devour him. He also observed two mice gnawing at the roots of the tree, which began to totter. Four white vipers impregnated the air of the pit with their poisonous breath. Looking about him, he discovered a stream of hony distilling from one of the branches of the tree, which he began eagerly to devour, without regarding his dangerous fituation. The tree foon fell: he found himself struggling in a loathfome quagmire, and was instantly swallowed by the dragon. This is another of Barlaam's apologues in Damafcenus's romance of BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT: and which has been adopted into the Lives of the Saints by Surius and others'. A MORALISATION is fubjoined, exactly agreeing with that in the GESTA". CHAP. clxix. Trogus Pompeius is cited, for the wife legislation of Ligurius, a noble knight. Our compiler here means Juftin's abridgement of Trogus; which, to the irreparable injury of literature, foon destroyed its original. An early epitome of Livy would have been attended with the fame unhappy confequences. CHAP. clxx. The dice player and faint Bernard. This is from faint Bernard's legend". CHAP. clxxi. The two knights of Egypt and Baldach. This is the story of Boccace's popular novel of TITO AND OPP. ut fupr. p. 22. See alfo Surius, ut fupr. Novembr. 27. pag. 565. • Fol. ccclxxxxii. b. f See Caxton's GOLDEN LEGEND, fol. cccclxxxxiiii. a. See Damafcenus, ut fupr. pag. 31. And METRICAL LIVES OF SAINTS, MSS. BODL. 779. f. 293. b. See Caxton's GOLD. LEG. f. cxxix. b, GISIPPO, |