the Fabliaux published by Legrand d'Aussy. Many other tales occur in Petrus Alphonsus, in which there is not merely a resemblance in manner, but in which the particular incidents, as shall be afterwards shown, are the same with those in the Cento Novelle Antiche, and the Decameron of Воссассіо.

Perhaps neither the author of the Cento Novelle Antiche, nor the subsequent Italian novelists, derived stories directly from the Seven Wise Masters, or the tales of Alphonsus; but these works suggested many things to the writers of the French Fabliaux, and a still greater number have been transferred into the

GESTA ROMANORUM,

which is believed to be a principal storehouse of the Italian novelists.

This composition, in the disguise of romantic fiction, presents us with classical stories, Arabian apologues, and monkish legends.

Mr. Douce has shown that there are two works entitled Gesta Romanorum, and which, strictly speaking, should be considered as separate performances. The first and original Gesta was written in Latin, on the continent. It was not translated into English till 1703, but has been repeatedly printed, though no MS. of it has yet been brought to light.

The second work, in its earliest shape, is also in the Latin language, but was written in England, in imitation of the continental Gesta above mentioned. It was never published in its original form, but an English translation was printed by Wynkyn de Worde,' and a subsequent edition appeared in 1595. There are extant, however, a number of MS. copies in Latin, which Mr. Douce says led Warton to imagine that the two Gestas were the same, and to remark, that there is a great variation in the printed and MS. copies of the Gesta Romanorum.' The work 1 Between 1510 and 1515. The unique copy is in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge. This is a faithful version of the MS. Harl.

2

In fact, however, the two Gestas may just as well be considered the

written in England consists of 102 chapters, of which forty are of the same nature with the stories in the continental Gesta,-an inoculation of feudal manners and eastern imagery, on the exploits of classical heroes: but the remainder are somewhat different. The stories in the Anglican Gesta were well known to our early poets, who made much use of them. Among these tales we find the story of Lear, and of the Jew in the Merchant of Venice. Some of them also correspond with the works of the Italian novelists but the original Gesta is the one to which they were indebted, and which therefore at present is alone deserving of our attention.

This work is attributed by Warton to Petrus Berchorius, or Pierre Bercheur, who was prior of a Benedictine convent at Paris, and died in 1362. The composition of the Gesta has been assigned by Warton to this monk, on the authority of Salomon Glassius, a theologist of Saxe Gotha, who points him out as the author in his Philologiae Sacrae, and Warton attempts to fortify his assertion by the similarity of the style and execution of the Gesta, to works unquestionably written by Berchorius. Glassius, whose information is derived from Salmeron, says "hoc in studio excelluit quidam Petrus Berchorius Pictaviensis, ordinis D. Benedicti, qui peculiari libro Gesta Romanorum, nec non legendas Patrum, aliasque aniles Fabulas allegorice et mystice exposuit. Exempla adducit dicto loco Salmero," (viz. T. 1 prolog. 16. car 21). Glassius then quotes from

same work as the different versions of the Wise Masters, or of the Kalilah ve Dimnah. The term, Gesta Romanorum, implies nothing more than a collection of ancient stories, many of which might be the same, but which would naturally vary in various countries, according to the taste of the collector, in the same manner as different stories are introduced in the Greek Syntipas, the Italian Erastus, and English Wise Masters.-Dunlop.

The number of MSS. of the Gesta is surprising, and few of them are to be regarded as simple transcripts. The greater portion display considerable independence, so as to make them seem new compilations, presenting, however, such affinities as enable them to be marshalled in certain groups. Of such groups the most marked is the family of codices written in England, the continental MSS. betraying more divergencies. The English group has been investigated by Sir Frederick Madden, (See Roxburgh Club Transactions, 1838.) See the prolegomena in Oesterley's edition of the "Gesta," Berlin, 1872.

Salmeron, the story of St. Bernard and the Gambler, which corresponds with the 170th chapter of most editions of the Gesta Romanorum; so that we have at least the authority of Salmeron, that Berchorius was the author. Mr. Douce, however, is of opinion, that the Gesta Romanorum is not the production of Berchorius, but of a German, as a number of German names of dogs occur in one of the chapters,1 and many of the stories are extracted from German authors, as Cesarius, Albert of Stade, etc., which Mr. Warton, on the other hand, supposes to have been interpolated by some German editor, or printer."

1 A German proverb is given in the original. See Warton. Ed. Hazlitt. The authorship, however, is really quite unknown. In none of the very numerous MSS. investigated by Oesterley is there any reference direct or indirect to the compiler Berchorius, who, as will be observed from Dunlop's quotation, is merely mentioned as the moralizer. Graesse, indeed, puts forward Helinandus, favourite trouvere of Philippe Augustus, as Barbier (Dict. des Euvres, Anonym.) had done before him in 1824, but on grounds which Madden has shown to be wholly insufficient.

The Gesta Romanorum occupies such an important place in mediæval literature, that it is worth while here to give the views of Oester. ley, one of the most recent investigators, upon the origin and growth of this work. "It would seem, and the oldest titles of the Gesta go to confirm the supposition, that at a time when the most unsuitable and incongruous material was moralized, that is, used to point a spiritual or Christian moral, narratives taken from Roman history, or rather passages out of Roman authors, as they had already long been gathered together for homiletic use, were also collected merely to be moralized, and earlier or later designated as Historia, or Gesta Romanorum Moralizata, or by some such title. Whether the work in its first form consisted exclusively of such excerpts from classic authors, or already included a series of more recent narratives and parables (quaedam alia,) which had already previously found their way into the collection, can now, of course, not be determined. It is, however, certain that at an early date extracts chiefly from the later Roman writers as well as collections of extracts received the name of Historia or Gesta, Romana or Romanorum, and that the mediaval compilation is merely such a collection moralized, its essential feature is the moralization, and it is accordingly characteristically designated as Historia mystice designata, moralizata, or as Moralitates ex Gestis Romanorum.

How from this groundwork the almost infinite variety which the manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries exhibit was developed, may be best learned from examination of the manuscripts themselves. At first parables were intercalated or appended which easily lent themselves to a spiritual exposition; then matter was incorporated as inclination prompted or occasion served, and modified to suit the moralization, and finally stories were invented, often very clumsily, simply to embody

Whoever may have been the author of the Gesta, it is pretty well ascertained to have been written about the year 1340, and thus had time to become a fashionable work before 1358, the year in which Boccaccio is supposed to have completed his Decameron. The earliest edition, though without date, is known to have been prior to 1473. It consists of a hundred and fifty-two chapters, and is thus announced," Incipiunt Historiae Notabiles, collectae ex Gestis Romanorum et quibusdam aliis libris, cum applica

a spiritual meaning. This explains the circumstance that certain wellknown narratives are often merely indicated in the manuscripts by quoting their commencing words, the space being devoted to the Moralization. From this also may be understood the custom, seen in the older MSS., of leaving room blank for the spiritual interpretation to be added. Subsequently it was found more convenient to make a complete exemplar by copying such matter from a second compilation as was wanting in the first, or simply transcribing two recensions together. It is not surprising that monkish tales and legends of saints found their way into such compilations (though without moralization, betraying by this circumstance their extraneous origin), as all such works served merely the purpose of private entertainment, and were usually in every respect composed according to the proclivities of the writer, until such time as the transcription of the work in different fixed compilations began to be carried on as a matter of business. It was only long subsequently that the relations between the moralisations and the stories themselves were reversed, the former becoming secondary as the latter assumed the chief interest, and indeed the moralizations have been wholly omitted in some German and English MSS.; Graesse's assertion (G. R. 2. 203), however, that the MSS. written in England have no moralization is erroneous."

The nationality of the original compiler is as uncertain as his name. The work has been in England attributed to German authorship, and in Germany to English. The evidence in favour of Germany consists in the occurrence of German names of dogs in cap. 142 (of Osterley's edition), and of a German or Dutch proverb in cap. 144. Nothing more, however, is to be inferred from this than that the earliest editions of the work were printed in Holland or Germany. The proverb is not found in the MSS.; in the printed copies it appears in various forms, and may have been merely a marginal note in the copy used for press. Oesterley believes the dogs' names might be shown to be English. The German origin of the work would then only be supported by the wide circulation of the work in Germany, but against this again may be set the incontestable fact that the German transcripts were largely made from English MSS. Oesterley adduces further internal evidence for the English origin of the work, for which we have no further space, but which the reader desirous of pursuing the subject will find in the introduction to his edition of the Gesta, Berlin, 1872.

tionibus eorundem." A subsequent edition, containing a hundred and eighty-one chapters, was published in 1475, and was followed by many translations, and about thirty Latin editions, most of which preserved the number of a hundred and eighty-one chapters. That printed in 1488 is the most approved.

The Gesta, as is well known, presents us with the manners of chivalry, with spiritual legends, and eastern apologues, in the garb of Roman story. It appears to have been compiled in the first place from Arabian fables, found in the tales of Aphonsus; and an old Latin translation of the Kalilah ve Damnah, to which Alphonsus was indebted. Indeed, not less than a third of the tales of Alphonsus have been transferred to the Gesta Romanorum. In the next place, the author seems chiefly to have had recourse to obsolete Latin chronicles, which he embellished with legends of the saints, the apologues in the history of Josaphat and Barlaam, and the romantic inventions of his age. The later classics also, as Valerius Maximus, Macrobius, etc., are frequently quoted as authorities. Sometimes, too, the author cites the Gesta Romanorum, the title of his own work, by which he is not understood to mean any preceding compilation of that name, but the Roman, or rather ancient history in general.

The contents of this collection are not such as might be expected, from its name or the authorities adduced. It comprehends a multitude of stories altogether fictitious, and which are total misrepresentations of Roman history: the incidents are described as happening to Roman knights or under the reign of Roman emperors, who, generally, never existed, and who seldom, even when real characters, had any connection with the circumstances of the narrative. To each tale or chapter, a moral is added, in which some precept is deduced from the incidents, an example which has been followed by Boccaccio, and many of his imitators. The time in which the Gesta appeared was an age of mystery, and everything was supposed to contain a double or secondary meaning. At length the history of former periods, and the fictions of the classics, were attempted to be explained in an allegorical manner. Acteon, torn to pieces by his own hounds, was a symbol of the persecution of our