Mannyng's poem then ends with illustrations of the twelve Points or Requisites, and the twelve Graces of Thrift. A poem so planned by a man of lively mind must needs be rich in illustration of the manners of its time. It shows the baron and the rich man plundering the poor; the priest in his lust; the trader at his tricks; the beauty with her powdered face; the chatterers in the church; and again and again there rings through it the cry of the poor. The miracles and marvels often sound oddly enough in modern ears; we may take, for example,* a sketch of the substance of the rhymer's lesson against pride, which walks first in the procession of the Deadly Sins :

FIRST, OF PRIDE:

She was the first that walkéd wide,

In every land, to every man,

Through all the world, over all she ran.

She beguiles men by making them disobedient to parents, spiritual fathers, and sovereigns; or too desirous of praise for good deeds; or vain of high birth.

Vnworply art pou made gentyl

3yf þou yn wurdys and dedys be yl.

Be not proud that you are wise, or of your beauty, or of your strength, or of your riches, or your singing, "ful selde ys synger gode yn thew," and beware of men of fair and flowery and laughing words.

Be not proud of thy "bayly" (office, authority); nor of thy learning; nor, if a beneficed clerk, of thy horses, hawks, and hounds; nor of a king's or lord's favour; think not that thy wits or goods came from thyself; use not God's gifts to break His commands; boast not of them, or of those you have not. A vile sin men practise now, none can praise himself without blaming another. Scorn no man, for David and Neomas a prophet say scorners shall be punished from God's mouth. If you like to be praised for your good deeds, and be a hypocrite, then

* It is here quoted with slight abridgment from the full and vigorous abstract of the book given by Dr. Furnivall as Table of Contents.

you are quit of reward from God, who full fell-ly chides those false hypocrites.

The Tale of the Hypocritical Monk of the Abbey Tangabaton.

A monk, reported to be of holy life, summons his brethren to his death-bed, and tells them that when they thought he fasted he used to eat twice privily, and when they thought he had been “holy" he had eaten and drunk full lustily; "and now the devil has tied up my knees with his tail, and stopped my mouth with his head, and I am forlore."

"Hypocrisy, this is the sin,

Fair without, and foul within."

Be not proud of thy hair or thy chaplet, nor adorn thy body too much. For heads dressed with hair and long horns too, women are lost; and rich ladies must not have "corouns out of measure.

The Tale of the Proud Lady, who was burnt to Ashes again and again in Hell by a Burning Wheel.

A lord's beautiful wife, who over all things loved fair dressing of her head, died in her pride, and afterwards took her lord's squire to hell and showed him her torment :-fiends put a burning wheel on her head, which burnt her down to the ground, and then she revived again, and was burnt again perpetually; and this because "she dighted her head right much with pride."

"If God have lent thee hands and feet,
Armés, leggés, fair and sweet,

Be not over proud of this;

They are not thine, but they are His."

Disguise (pierce and slash) not thy clothing too much. A wedded wife may attire herself so that her husband love none but her, but she must not dress for others. Greatly they sin who spend their days in making novelties in dress.

The Tale of the Knight and Clerk who loved New Fashions.

A knight who loved new fashions had a quaintly-pierced coat made; and one day, as he came from his robbery with his prey, his enemies beset and killed him. His friends gave his clothes to the poor, and the "kote of pryde” to a clerk who asked for it; but as soon as the clerk put it on, a burning fire lighted on him, and burnt him down to the ground.

So let no man wear clothes contrary to his condition, or desire to be called "lorde or syre;" or to have great "meyné" (train of ser

Let him

vants), or great halls, rich bedding, horses, armour, &c. for no such things do wrong to holy church or to poor men. The French Tale of how the Devil has Power over Women's Trains.

A woman with a long train passes two monks; one sees a devil sitting on it, and, when she turns her train to the monk, the devil falls into the mud. Therefore know that the devil has power over women's long trains.

Also, women's going from street to street to meet one another, and show their dress, is sin; and borrowing clothes "yn carol to go.'

"That pooré pridé, God it loathes,

That makes them proud of other men's clothes."

Speak not words of pride to prevent other men's praying or fasting, singing in church, or other holy deed; and chide not with priest or clerk.

"Also that clerk is much to blame

That will not shave his crown for shame."

Scorn not God, nor grumble against nor chide Him. If you have said or done wrong, do not be obstinate.

"Of al follyys þat beryn name

bys foly ys moste for to blame."

Flatterers, with words fair as flowers, may not enter heaven. Another kind of pride is chiding servants. And backbiters "God Almighty hatys." He forgives no habitual backbiting or lying.

The Tale of the Backbiting Monk.

A certain monk was a "felun" in backbiting, and after his death a brother monk saw him at night sitting before the steps of the altar, continually spitting out his tongue (which was all burning) and eating it up again-"he gnoghe hyt ynwarde, al to pecys "—and this was to punish him for his sin, for our Lord in the Apocalypse says that liars and backbiters "shal ete here tunges in peynes."

Speak no foul words; menace no one; give not your goods to jongleurs to be praised of them, or make wrestlings that none be held so great as you.

66

Pryde is þe bygynnyng
Of al manere wykkede ping."

Preaching by example, with help of good stories to keep the attention fixed, was at this time customary. The very Gesta Ro- early use of metrical paraphrase of Scripture, manorum." and, by the miracle play, of living representations by the priests, within the church, of facts in sacred history told in the lessons of the day, testified to a sense of the need of liveliness in teachers who desired to drive instruction home. The Franciscans and Dominicans in carrying their doctrine to the poor may have improved the art of illustrating sermons with tale and anecdote and legend. And now, in the "Gesta Romanorum," we have a story-book with its tales arranged, according to their moral or spiritual application, like the hymns in a modern hymnbook, for the use of preachers and enlivenment of congregations. The French Dominican, Vincent of Beauvais, tells in his "Mirror of History" that in his time—the thirteenth century-it was the practice of preachers to rouse languid hearers by quoting fables out of Æsop, and he recommends a sparing and discreet use of profane fancies in discussing sacred subjects. Among the Harleian MSS. is an ancient collection of 215 stories-romantic, allegorical, and legendary-compiled by a preacher for the use of monastic societies. In 1389 there appeared at Paris a system of divinity, translated afterwards by Caxton as "The Court of Sapyence," crowded with historical examples, parables, and fables. Other such ancient collections are to be found; but the favourite compilation of this kind was the Latin story-book known as the "Gesta Romanorum.”

This compilation long retained its popularity; was printed as early as 1473; reprinted at Louvain a few months later; again in 1480; translated into Dutch in 1484; printed again in 1488; and went through six or seven editions in this country during the succeeding century. The earliest printed Latin texts contained 150 or 151 sections. In the next following editions the number quickly rose to 181, and

these 181 tales form the commonly received text. There was a German edition at Augsburg in 1489 containing only 95 tales, of which some are not in the accepted Latin version. In like manner, including tales not in the Latin text, there is an English series of 43 or 44 sections. In an anonymous comedy, called "Sir Giles Goosecap," acted by the children of the chapel in 1606, one of the persons says, "Then for your lordship's quips and quick jests, why 'Gesta Romanorum' were nothing to them;" and in George Chapman's "May Day," a comedy printed in 1611, of a man of high taste according to the time it is said, "One that has read Marcus Aurelius,' 'Gesta Romanorum,' 'The Mirrour of Magistrates,' &c., to be led by the nose like a blind bear that has read nothing."*

When and by whom the collection was made has not been ascertained. Thomas Warton believed the author to be Pierre Bercheur (Petrus Berchorius) of Poitou, who died Prior of the Benedictine convent of St. Eloi in 1362, and the date of whose composition of the "Gesta Romanorum " Warton supposes on fanciful grounds to have been 1340. Warton named Bercheur as author because in the "Philologia Sacra" of Salomon Glassius, written in 1623, he found (in a chapter on the Allegories of Fables) censure of the application of spiritual allegory to profane stories, accompanied with the statement that Peter Berchorius, a Benedictine of Poitou, had in a special book expounded, allegorically and mystically, deeds of the Romans, as well as legends of the Fathers and other old wives' tales. But Bercheur's "Repertorium Morale," in fourteen books, answers quite sufficiently to this description. Francis Douce contended that the compiler of the "Gesta" was a German, because he found in the moral of one story a German proverb, and in another story several German names

* See Warton's "History of English Poetry," which includes a "Dissertation on the 'Gesta Romanorum.'