I could point out other ftories, befide thofe I have mentioned, for which Gower, Lydgate, Occleve, and the author of the DɛCAMERON, and of the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE, have been indebted to this admired repofitory'. Chaucer, as I have before remarked, has taken one of his Canterbury tales from this collection; and it has been fuppofed that he alludes to it in the following couplet,

And ROMAIN GESTIS makin remembrance
Of many a veray trewe wife alfo'.

.

The plot also of the knight against Constance, who having killed Hermegild, puts the bloody knife into the hand of Conftance while afleep, and her adventure with the steward, in the MAN OF LAWES TALE, are alfo taken from that manufcript chapter of this work, which I have just mentioned to have been verfified by Occleve. The former of these incidents is thus treated by Occleve.

She with this zonge childe in the chambre lay
Every nizt where lay the earle and the counteffe',
Bitween whose beddis brente a lampe alway.

ibid. K. 78. See alfo MSS. DIGB. 185. Where, in the first line of the poem, we have," In the Roman jeftys writen is this." It is in other manufcripts of Occleve. This ftory is in the GESTA ROMANORUM, MSS. HARL. 2270. chap. 101. fol. 80. a. Where Gerelaus is Menelaus.

Bonifacio Vannozzi, in Delle LETTERE MISCELLANEE alle Academia Veneta, fays, that Boccace borrowed [Nov. i. D. iii.] the Novel of Mafeto da Lamporecchio, with many other parts of the DECAMERON, from an older Collection of Novels. "In uno libro de Novelle, "et di Parlare Gentile, ANTERIORE al "Boccacio, &c." In Venetia, 1606. 4to. pag. 580. feq. I believe, however, that many of the tales are of Boccace's own

***

invention. He tells us himself, in the GENEALOGIA DEORUM, that when he was a little boy, he was fond of making FICTIUNCULE. Lib. xv. cap. x. P. 579. edit. Bafil. 1532. fol.

! MARCHANT'S TALE, ver. 10158. edit. Tyrw. This may ftill be doubted, as from what has been faid above, the ROMAN GESTS were the Roman hiftory in general.

Here we fee the antient practice, even in great families, of one and the fame bed-chamber ferving for many perfons. Much of the humour in Chaucer's TROMPINGTON MILLER arifes from this circumstance. See the Romance of SYR TRYAMORE. And Gower, CONF. AM. it. f. 39. a.

And

And he efpied, by the lampes lizt,
The bedde where that lay this emprice
With erlis douztur', and as blyve rizt,
This feendly man his purpose and malice
Thouzte" for to fulfille and accomplice;
And fo he dide, a longe knife out he drouze ",
And ther with alle the maiden childe he flouze *.

Hir throte with the knyfe on two he kutte
And as this emprice lay fleeping;

Into her honde this bloody knyfe he putte,
Ffor men fhoulde have noon othir deemyng'
But she had gilty ben of this murdring:

And whanne that he had wrouzte this curfidneffe,
Anoone oute of the chambre he gan hem dreffe.

The countess after hir flepe awakid

a

And to the empereffe bedde gan caste hir look
And fy the bloody knyfe in hir hande nakid,
And, for the feare fhe tremblid and quook.

She awakens the earl, who awakens the emprefs.

*

And hir awook, and thus to hir he cried,
"Woman, what is that, that in thin hand I fee?
"What haft thou doon, woman, for him that diede,
"What wickid spirit hath travaylid the ?"

And as fone as that adawed was fhe,

The knyfe fel oute of hir hand in the bedde,
And she bihilde the cloothis al forbledde,

• Earl's daughter.

"Thought.

▾ Drew.

* Slew.

▾ Opinion.

z He haftened, &c.

• Saw.

And

And the childe dead, "Allas, fhe cried, allas,
"How may this be, god woot alle I note howe,
"I am not privy to hir hevy caas,

"

"The gilte is not myne, I the childe not flowe "."
To which spake the counteffe, "What faift thou?
"Excufe the not, thou maift not faie nay,

"The knyfe all bloody in thin hand I say ".'

This story, but with fome variation of circumstances, is told in the HISTORICAL MIRROUR of Vincent of Beauvais ".

But I haften to point out the writer of the GESTA ROMANORUM, who has hitherto remained unknown to the most diligent enquirers in Gothic literature. He is Petrus Berchorius, or Pierre Bercheur, a native of Poitou, and who died Prior of the Benedictine convent of faint Eloi at Paris, in the year 1362. For the knowledge of this very curious circumstance, I am obliged to Salomon Glaffius, a celebrated theologist of SaxeGotha, in his PHILOLOGIA SACRA, written about the year 1623. In his chapter DE ALLEGORIIS FABULARUM, he cenfures those writers who affect to interpret allegorically, not only texts of scripture, but also poetical fables and profane histories, which they arbitrarily apply to the explication or confirmation of the mysteries of chriftianity. He adds, "Hoc in " ftudio excelluit quidam Petrus Berchorius, Pictavienfis, ordinis "divi Benedicti : qui, peculiari libro, GESTA ROMANORUM, "necnon Legendas Patrum, aliafque aniles fabulas, allegorice ac "myftice expofuit." That is, "In this art excelled one "Peter Berchorius, a Benedictine; who, in a certain peculiar

b Slew.

< Saw.

Ut fupr. viz, MS. SELD. SUp. 45. Qu. iiii.

SPECUL. HISTOR. Lib. vii. c. 90. fol. 86. a.

f PHILOLOGIE SACRA, qua totius facrofan&tæ veteris et novi teftamenti fcripturæ tum ftylus et literatura, tum fenfus et genuinæ interpretationis ratio expendi

tur, Libri quinque, &c. edit. tert. Francof. et Hamb. 1653.

From the date of the Dedication. For his other works, which are very numerous, fee the DIARIUM BIOGRAPHICUM of H. Witte, fub Ann. 1665. Gedani, 1688. 4to.

h LIB. ii. Part. i. TRACTAT. ii. Sect. iii. Artic. viii. pag 312.

"book,

"book, has expounded, myftically and allegorically, the Roman GESTS, legends of faints, and other idle tales." He then quotes for an example, the whole one hundred and feventieth chapter of the GESTA ROMANORUM, containing the ftory of faint Bernard and the Dice-player, together with its moralisation.

Berchorius was one of the most learned divines of his country, and a voluminous writer. His three grand printed works are, I. REDUCTORIUM MORALE Super totam Bibliam, in twentyfour books. II. REPERTORIUM [or Reductorium] MORALE, in fourteen books. III. DICTIONARIUM MORALE. Whoever shall have the patience or the curiofity to turn over a few pages of this immenfe treasure of multifarious erudition, will foon fee this affertion of Glaffius abundantly verified; and will be convinced beyond a doubt, from a general coincidence of plan, manner, method, and execution, that the author of these volumes, and of the GESTA ROMANORUM, must be one and the fame. The REDUCTORIUM SUPER BIBLIAM1 contains all the stories and incidents in the Bible, reduced into allegories. The REPERTORIUM MORALE is a dictionary of things, perfons, and places; all which are fupposed to be mystical, and which are therefore explained in their moral or practical fenfe.. The DICTIONARIUM MORALE is in two parts, and seems principally defigned to be a moral repertory for ftudents in theology.

↑ Salmeron, a profound fchool-divine, who flourished about 1560, cenfures the unwarrantable liberty of the GESTA ROMANORUM, in accommodating histories and fables to Chrift and the church. COMM. in EVANGEL. HIST. i. pag. 356. PROL. XIX. CAN. xxi.-Colon. Agrippin. 1602. fol.

k I ufe a folio edition of all these three works, in three volumes, printed at Venice in 1583. Thefe pieces were all printed very early.

This was first printed, Argentorat. 1473. fol. There was a very curious book in lord Oxford's library, I am not fure whether the fame, entitled MORALI

ZATIONES BIBLIE, Ulmæ 1474. fol. With this colophon in the last page. Infinita dei clementia. Finitus eft liber Moralizationum Bibliarum in ejufdem laudem et gloriam compilatus. Ac per induftrium Joannem Zeiner de Reutlingen Artis imprefforiæ magiftrum non penna fed fcagneis characteribus in oppido Ulmenfi artificialiter effigiatus. Anno Incarnationis Domini millefimo quadringentefimo feptuagefimo quarto Aprilis nono. This book is not mentioned by Maittaire.

To this work Alanus de Lynne, a. Carmelite of Lynne in Norfolk, wrote an Index or Tabula, about the year 1240. It is in MSS. REG. 3 D. 3. 1.

The

The moralifation, or moral explanation, which is added to every article, is commonly prefaced, as in the GESTA, with the introductory addrefs of CARISSIMI. In the colophon, the GESTA is called Ex geftis Romanorum RECOLLECTORIUM: a word much of a piece with his other titles of REPERTORIUM and REDUCTORIUM. Four of the ftories occurring in the GESTA, The Discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas", The fubterraneous golden palace, The adventures of the English knight in the bishoprick of Ely, and The miraculous born, are related in the fourteenth book of the REPERTORIUM MORALE. For the two last of these he quotes Gervafe of Tilbury, as in his GESTA'. As a further proof of his allegorifing genius I muft add, that he moralised all the stories in Ovid's Metamorphofis, in a work entitled, Commentarius MORALIS, five ALLEGORIA in Libros quindecim Ovidii Metamorphofeon', and now remaining in manuscript in the library of the monaftery of faint Germains. He seems to have been strongly impressed with whatever related to the Roman affairs, and to have thought their history more interesting than that of any other people. This appears from the following paffage, which I tranflate from the article ROMA, in his DICTIONARIUM MORALE, and which will alfo contribute to throw fome other lights on this fubject. "How many

“remarkable facts might be here collected concerning the vir"tues and vices of the Romans, did my defign permit me to "drop Moralities, and to enter upon an hiftorical detail! For

n CAP. xlix. f. 643. He quotes CHRONICA, and fays, that this happened in the reign of the emperor Henry the fecond. [See GEST. ROM. c. clviii.]

CAP. lxxii. f. 689. col. 1. 2. He quotes for this ftory [GEST. ROM. C. Cvii.] William of Malmesbury, but tells it in the words of Beauvais, ut fupr.

P Fol. 610. col. 2. [GEST. ROм. c. clv.] Here alfo his author is Gervafe of Tilbury from whom, I think in the fame chapter, he quotes part of king Arthur's Romance. See OTIA IMPERIAL. Dec. ii.

C. 12.