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apologue, which feems to be of eastern invention, has lately fo much employed the fearches of the commentators on Shakespeare, and that the circumstances of the story, as it is told by Gower, may be compared with those with which it appears in other books.

The poet is speaking of a king whofe officers and courtiers complained, that after a long attendance, they had not received adequate rewards, and preferments due to their fervices. The king, who was no stranger to their complaints, artfully contrives a scheme to prove whether this defect proceded from his own want of generofity, or their want of difcernment.

Anone he lette two cofres' make,
Of one femblance, of one make,
So lyche, that no life thilke throwe
That one maie fro that other knowe:
Thei were into his chambre brought,
But no man wote why they be brought,
And netheles the kynge hath bede,
That thei be fette in privie stede,
As he that was of wisdome fligh,
Whan he therto his tyme figh",
All privilyche', that none it wiste,
His own hondes that one chift*
Of fine golde and of fine perie',
The which oute of his trefurie

Was take) anone hè filde full;

That other cofre of ftrawe and mulle ",

With ftones mened, he filde alfo:

Thus be thei full both tho.

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The king assembles his courtiers, and fhewing them the two chefts, acquaints them, that one of these is filled with gold and jewels; that they should chufe which of the two they liked best, and that the contents should instantly be distributed among them all. A knight by common confent is appointed to chuse for them, who fixes upon the chest filled with straw and stones.

This kynge then in the fame ftedė ",
Anone that other cofre undede,
Whereas thei fawen grete richeffe
Wile more than thei couthen geffe.
"Lo, faith the kynge, now maie ye
"That there is no default in mee:
Forthy, myself I will acquite,
"And beareth your own wite

fee

"Of that fortune hath you refused "."

It must be confeffed, that there is a much greater and a more beautiful variety of incidents in this ftory as it is related in the GESTA ROMANORUM, which Shakespeare has followed, than in Gower: and was it not demonftrable, that this compilation preceded our author's age by fome centuries, one would be tempted to conclude, that Gower's ftory was the original fable in its fimple unimproved state. Whatever was the case, it is almost certain that one story produced the other.

A tranflation into English of the GESTA Romanorum was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, without date. In the year 1577, one Richard Robinson published A Record of ancient Hystoryes, in Latin GESTA ROMANORUM, perused, corrected, and

* Place.

• Therefore.

Lib. v. f. 86. a. col. 1. feq. The fory which follows is fomewhat fimilar,

in which the emperor Frederick places before two beggars two pafties, one filled with capons, the other with florins. ibid. b. col. 2.

bettered

bettered, by R. Robinson, London, 1577. Of this translation there were fix impreffions before the year 1601'. The later editions, both Latin and English, differ confiderably from a manuscript belonging to the British Museum', which contains not only the ftory of the CASKETTS in Shakespeare's MERCHANT of VENICE, but that of the Jew's BOND in the fame play. I cannot exactly ascertain the age of this piece, which has many fictitious and fabulous facts intermixed with true history; nor have I been able to discover the name of its compiler.

It appears to me to have been formed on the model of Valerius Maximus, the favourite claffic of the monks. It is quoted and commended as a true history, among many hifto

In twelves. See among the Royal Manufcripts, Brit. Muf. "Richard Robin"fon's Eupolemia, Archippus and Pano

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plia: being an account of his Patrons "and Benefactions, &c. 1603." See fol. 5. MSS. Reg. 18 A. lxvi. This R. Robinfon, I believe, published Part of the harmony of king David's harp. A translation of the first twenty one pfalms, for J. Wolfe, 1582. 4-to. A tranflation of Leland's ASSERTIO ARTHURI, for the fame, 1582. 4to. The auncient order focietie, &c. of prince Arthure, and his knightly armory of the round table, in verfe, for the fame, 1583, 4to.

There is an edition, in black letter, fo late as 1689.

• MSS. Harl. 2270. 1. See ibid. cap. xcix. for this ftory. Tit. "Liber Afceticus cui titulus Gefta Romanorum, cum Reductionibus five Moralitatibus eorundem." There is an English tranflation, ibid. MSS. Harl. 7333

This has the Jew's bond and the Cafketts. In the fame library there is a large collection of legendary tales in diffe

ent hands, written on parchment, 8-vo. MSS. Harl. 23 16. One of these is, "De vera amicitia, et de Paffione Christi : Narratio a Petro Alphonfo." 18. fol. 8. b. The history of the two friends here related, is told more at large in the GESTA

ROMANORUM, where the friends are two
knights. Peter Alphonfus lived about 1110.
This tale, I think, is Lydgate's fabula duo-
rum mercatorum, MSS. Harl. 2251. 33. fol.
56. "In Egipt whilom, &c." See alfo
2255. 17. fol. 72. Manufcripts of these
GESTA Occur thrice in the Bodleian library.
MSS. Bodl. B. 3. 10. Ibid. fuper O. 1.
Art. 17. And Hyper. Bodl. (Cod. Grav.)
B. 55. 3. viz. Narrationes breves e GESTIS
ROMANORUM et aliorum But this laft
feems rather a defloration. In Hereford
cathedral, 73. In Worcester cathedral, 80.
In (late) Burfcough's (rector of Totnefs)
MSS. Cod. 82. 1. In (late) Sir Symonds
D'Ewes's MSS. Cod. 150. 2. In Trinity
college Dublin, G. 326. At Oxford, Saint
John's college twice, C. 31. 2. G. 41.
Magdalen college, twice, Cod. Lat. 13.
60. Lincoln college Libr. Theol. 60. See
what is faid of Gefts, fupr. vol. i. p. 74.
Among the manufcript books written by
Lapus de Caftellione, a Florentine civilian,
and a great tranflator from Greek into
Latin, about the year 1350, Balufius men-
tions De Origine Urbis Roma, et de Geftis
Romanorum. What this piece is I cannot
afcertain. Apud Fabric. Bibl. Med. Inf.
Latinitat. iv. 722. Compare de Geftis Im-
peratorum Liber, MSS. Harl. 5259. i.
• Ch. xlviii.

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rians of credit, fuch as Jofephus, Orofius, Bede, and Eufebius, by Herman Korner, a dominican friar of Lubec, who wrote a CHRONICA NOVELLA, or hiftory of the world, in the year 1435.

In fpeaking of our author's fources, I must not omit a book translated by the unfortunate Antony Widville, first earl of Rivers, chiefly with a view of proving its early popularity. It is the Dictes or Sayings of Philofophres, which lord Rivers tranflated from the French of William de Thignonville, provost of the city of Paris about the year 1408, entitled Les dites moraux des philofophes, les dictes des fages et les Secrets d' Ariftote". The English translation was printed by Caxton, in the year 1477. Gower refers to this tract, which firft existed in Latin, more than once; and it is most probable, that he confulted the Latin original ".

It is pleasant to obferve the ftrange mistakes which Gower, a man of great man of great learning, and the most general scholar of his age, has committed in this poem, concerning books which he never faw, his violent anachronisms, and mifrepresentations of the most common facts and characters. He mentions the Greek poet Menander, as one of the first historians, or "first enditours of the olde cronike," together with Efdras, Solinus, Jofephus, Claudius Salpicius, Termegis, Pandulfe, Frigidilles, Ephiloquorus, and Pandas. It is extraordinary that Moses should not here be mentioned, in preference to Efdras. Solinus is ranked so high, because he recorded nothing but wonders; and Jofephus, on account of his fubject, had long been placed almost on a level with the bible.

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He is feated on the firft pillar in Chaucer's HOUSE OF FAME. His Jewish history, tranflated into Latin by Rufinus in the fourth century, had given rife to many old poems and romances and his MACCABAICS, or hiftory of the feven Maccabees martyred with their father Eleazar under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a separate work, translated alfo by Rufinus, produced the JUDAS MACCABEE of Belleperche in the year 1240, and at length enrolled the Maccabees among the most illuftrious heroes of romance". On this account too, perhaps Efdras is here fo refpectably remembered. I fuppofe Sulpicius is Sulpicius Severus, a petty. annalist of the fifth century. Termegis is probably Trismegiftus, the mystic philofopher, certainly not an historian, at least not an antient one. Pandulf seems to be Pandulph of Pifa, who wrote lives of the popes, and died in the year 1198. Frigidilles is perhaps Fregedaire, a Burgundian, who flourished about the year 641, and wrote a chronicon from Adam to his own times; often printed, and containing the beft account of the Franks after Gregory of Tours. Our author, who has partly fuffered from ignorant transcribers and printers, by Ephiloquorus undoubtedly intended Eutropius. In the next paragraph indeed, he mentions Herodotus:

y See fupr. vol. 1. p. 217. 311. There is JOSEPHUS de la BATTAILLE JUDAIQUE tranflaté de Latin en François, printed by Verard at Paris, 1480. fol. I think it is a poem. All Jofephus's works were printed in the old Latin tranflation, at Verona 1480. fol. And frequently foon afterwards. They were translated into French, German, Spanish, and Italian, and printed, between the years 1492 and 1554. See the COLLANA GRECA, in Haym's Bibliothec. p. 6. 7. A French translation was made in 1460, or 1463. Cod. Reg. Parif. 7015.

2 See fupr. vol. i. p. 417. In the British Museum there is "Maccabeorum et Josephi Hiftoriarum Epitome, metrice." 10 A. viii. 5. MSS. Reg. See MSS. Harl. 5713. See the ftory, in our author, of pope

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