II. 180), from an ancient MS. in the Imperial Library (No. 8407, fol. 100), throw considerable light upon the subsequent behaviour of the wife of Sir Amiloun, in driving him from her board and bed, as it seems to have been a matter of dispute, whether the husband or wife of a leper was or was not justified in parting from his or her spouse, because either of them was afflicted with that disease, though the author evidently asserts, that the party has not the right: "Por le lepre ne doit l'en pas femme departir de son mari, et l'en dit ci que le mesel se volt tenir chatement, ele se pot marier, s'ele trove à qui; et se le mesel requiert à cohabiter avec sa femme, elle ne li pot nier. Note.-Que home ne pot sa femme lessier que por fornication, et por lepre non, et mesel se poent marier. L'en dit ci, que cele est forçable à eschever le mariage, se si mari devient mesel, entre tant qu'il fust fiancé."-" Uns esposa une fame, qui par rompure avoit perdu ce qui est necessaire, nonques n'habita avec elle, por ce qu'il est meséaus se velt à autre marier, et l'en dit qu'ele se marit, car le premier ne vaut riens à marier, ne plus que un enfant, quant il ne pot cohabiter. Note. Que non poer de cohabitation fet empechement en mariage come un enfant.”

NOTES.

VOLUME III.

THE PROCES OF THE SEUYN SAGES.

V. 181, Of Donet thre pars,] That is, the three parts of grammar, so called from Ælius Donatus, a Roman grammarian, whose work was very generally used in schools. Donet is again used for a grammar in the romance of Octavian, v. 630. See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, I. 281.

715, Tale of the knight and his grayhound.]— This tale has obtained very universal popularity. The most ancient copy occurs in Pilpay's fables, where it is entitled, "The Santon and the Broken Pitcher." It also occurs in the Gesta Romanorum (see Mr Douce's dissertation on that work, in his Illustrations of Shakespeare, Vol. II. p. 379), in Sansovino, and other collections of novels.

1013, Ypocras was maister here.] In an ancient French fabliau, analysed by Le Grand, and versified by Way (II. 63), the residence of Hippocrates is also transferred to Rome. He is there

stated as having lived in the reign of the Emperor Augustus. The mention of the King of Hungary in our tale is almost as great an anachronism.

1411, Tale of the Husbande shut out.] This very popular story also occurs in the Latin collection of tales, entitled, De Clericali Disciplina, by Petrus Alphonsus, and in the French translation of that work, Le Chatoiement d'un Père a son fils, published separately by Barbazan, and reprinted in the new edition of his Fabliaux by M. Méon, Paris, 1808, Vol. II. where this tale occurs at p. 89. under this title, De celui qui enferma sa feme en une tour. It was adopted in Boccaccio's Decameron, where it forms the fourth novel of the seventh day. Moliere formed the plot of his comedy of George Dandin on this story, probably through the medium of Boccaccio. The tale also occurs in Sansovino and other novellists.

1559, The Kinge and his Steward.] The same story, divested of some of its most disgusting cir. cumstances, is repeated in Gower's Confessio Amantis, book v. p. 143, in the reprint in Chalmers's Poets, Vol. II. A tale somewhat similar occurs in the Novellino of Masuccio. (Ediz. s. d. p. 124. Nov. XV.)

1727, The old wise Man and his Wife.] This is the tale abridged by Le Grand (Vol. III. p. 177.) under the title, De la femme qui voulut eprouver

son mari.

1965, Virgil was whilom a clerk.] The necro mancer Virgil was almost as celebrated in the middle ages as Dr Faustus himself. His history is related in an English black-letter romance preserved in the British Museum, and entitled, "Virgilius. This boke treateth of the lyfe of Virgilius, and of his deth, and many marvayles that he did in his lyfetyme by witchcraft and nigramancy, thorough the

help of the devyls of hell." It was printed at Ant-
werp by John Doesborche, in the year 1510. The
first of the wonders related in the text is but a meagre
tale, when compared with a somewhat similar one-
in the Gesta Romanorum, and abridged from
that work by Warton (Dissert. p. xlii.) The tale
of Cressus, or Crassus, is told by Gower, lib. v.
(ed. 1810, p. 138.) The enchanted mirror, in the
text (v. 2009.) is mentioned by that poet in the fol-
lowing terms:

"When Rome stoode in noble plite,
Virgile which was the parfite,
A mirrour made of his clergie,
And sette it in the townes eie,
Of marbre on a pillar withoute,
That thei be thyrte mile aboute;
By dai, and eke also bi night,
In that mirrour behold might,
Her enemies if any were," &c.

A mirror, endued with the same virtue, is describ. ed by Chaucer. Mr Warton has bestowed much labour in collecting instances of similar tales of enchantment. (Hist. Eng. Poetry, I. 407, et seq.)

2201, The Magpie.] We have here the story of the Husband and the Parrot in the Arabian Nights. Almost the same tale is told by the prime vizier in the story of the King, his Son, Concubine, and Seven Viziers, translated by Mr Jonathan Scott. (Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters from the Arabic and Persian. Shrewsbury, 1800, 8. p. 63.)

2389, On a dai thai com ther Merlin pleid.] The discovery of Merlin, as related here, is so exactly similar to a passage in the romance of "Artour and Merlin," that it was evidently borrowed from thence. Vortigern had imprisoned his wise men till the boy could be found, whose blood, according to their prediction, was to undo the charm, by reason

of which the intended castle on Salisbury-Plain could not be constructed, and had sent three messengers into divers parts to search him out and murder him.

"On a day as ich you telle,
Tho ich thre sechers snelle,
That were y-sent fram the king
To hauen of this child findeing,
Comen al thre, bi cas,

Into the toun ther Merlin was.
Merlin in the strete tho pleyd,
And on of his felawes he trayd
That him seyde loude to :
"Foule schrewe! fram ous go;
Thou art al biyeten amis !
Thou n'ost who thi fader is:
Ac some deuel, as ich wene,
The biyat ous euer to tene."
Merlin seighe this and vnderstode
Tho thre it were that sought his blood

That tho riden ther forbi

That of this child herden cri.

He seighe that ich his hors withdrough.
Merlin schoke his heued and lough.
He was of fiue winter eld,

And he spac wordes swithe beld:
"Yuel the bifalle thou conioun !
Thou hast y-seyd to loude thi roun!
Her cometh the kinges messanger
That hath me sought al this yer,
For to han min hert-blod;
And it may don hem no gode.

Haste thai haue me to slen:

Ac, bi that thai me with eighen sen

Therto worth hem no talent,

And yif thai deden thai weren schent."

Messangers to him gan terne,

And he oyaines hem fast gan erne;
And on hem Merlin lough forsothe,

And seyd to hem, "Welcometh bothe!
Now ye haue y-founden me,
That you was hoten for to sle
Er ye with me spak aught,—
Thus yo was bihoten and taught→→→
Mi blood to haue to that werk
That schuld be so strong sterk.