are so frequent in the Gesta Romanorum, that they might lead to a supposition quite the reverse of Mr. Douce's idea; but, I rather conceive them the necessary consequence of transcription; and that the manuscript was thought to require verbal flourishes, as well as gilded margins and illuminated initials. In like manner, I account for the Saxon names of dogs [Tale LX11. Vol. 11.] which are quite unnecessary, and seem introduced in the most arbitrary manner. The incidents of one story [Tale LXXV. Vol. 11. page 305,] are said to occur in the bishopric of Ely. "This fact," says the writer of the Gest," related upon the faith of many to whom it was well known, I have myself heard, both from the inhabitants of the place and others." The inference, therefore is, that the narrator was either an Englishman, or one well acquainted with the localities of the place he describes. If the origin of the other stories be deducible from the position laid down by Mr. Douce, then, by parity of reasoning, the writer of the tale in question was the compiler of the series -and most probably an Englishman: at all events, his work might be prepared in England. But this would not be conceded; and it is only by supposing an interpolation of the story, or of part of the story, that the difficulty is to be obviated. At any rate, the circumstance itself cannot justly be adduced in proof either one way or the other. But whoever was the author, or authors, (which is more probable), and wherever they were produced, it is for the most part agreed that these tales were collected as early as the commencement of the fourteenth century-if not long before. Through a period of five hundred years, they have afforded a popular entertainment: the uncultivated minds of the middle ages valued them as a repertory of theological information, and later times as an inexhaustible fund of dramatic incident. Of that which is called by Mr. Douce the ENGLISH GESTA, it now remains to 'speak. "This work was undoubtedly composed in England in imitation of the other; and therefore, it will be necessary for the future to distinguish the two works by the respective appellations of the original, and the English Gesta1" "It is natural to suppose, that a work like the original Gesta would stimulate some person to the compilation of one that should emulate, if not altogether supersede it; and accordingly this design was accomplished at a very early period by some Englishman, in all probability, a monk 2." The feeling on my mind with regard to this 1 DOUCE. Illustr. of Shakspeare, Vol. II. p. 362. Gesta certainly is, that it was intended for the the same work as the original; but that, in the transcription, with the latitude which the “Adam scriveners” of old invariably allowed themselves, many alterations, (miscalled improvements,) were made, together with some additions. The English translations of this last compilation vary frequently from their original. For instance, in the eighteenth chapter of the MS. [“ English"] Gesta, fol. 17. a knight falls in love with Aglaës, daughter of the emperor POLENTIUS; but in the English translation of the story (in 1648, a thin 18mo. containing forty-four stories) this same person is styled PHILOMINUS. It forms "The fourteenth History." Now the fact, that no manuscript of this Gesta, exists of the catalogues of continental libraries, is easily accounted for, on the supposition of its being transcribed in England, and in any consequently confined to this country. For other nations, being in possession of an authenticated original, would have little inducement to seek after a newly fabricated copy. English verses found therein, with English proper names, and English law terms, and modes of speech, (arguments on which Mr. Douce lays much stress,) no more constitute another work than Horace's Art of Poetry, translated by Roscommon; or than Donne's Satires, modernized by Pope. As the annexed tales gave occasion to some of Shakspeare's plays, and moreover are not defective in that kind of interest which is the peculiar merit of such things, I shall transcribe as many as appear in the English translation', following Mr. Douce's arrange 1 I follow a copy printed in 1703, "for R. Chiswell, B. Walford, G. Conyers, at the Ring in Little Britain, and J. W." It is a reprint of the edition of 1648, containing forty-four stories; and |