[122] MS. Harl. 5396.
[123] There may perhaps be one exception in the Vatican MS. mentioned before in p. [531].
[124] MS. Harl. 2270, chap. 53.
[125] MS. Harl. 5259, chap. 28; but in most of the MSS. they are omitted.
[126] See Mr. Ellis's Metrical romances, vol. iii. pp. 155, 157.
[127] P. 253, folio edit.
[128] Vol. iii. p. 647. Mr. Gough speaks of it as separately printed. Brit. Topogr. ii. 27. It is also copied in Burton's Unparallelled varieties, p. 159, edit. 1699, 12mo, and The gentleman's magazine, vol. 1. p. 310. It has been twice versified: 1. anonymously, under the title of A hue and cry after the priest, or the convent, a tale, 1749, 8vo; and 2. by Mr. Jodrell under that of The knight and friars, 1785, 4to.
[129] The curious reader may also consult the following authorities, where he will find the above story in some shape or other. Fauchet, Anciens poetes Francois, chap. lxxxix. Barbasan, Fabliaux et contes, ii. 125. The first novel of Masuccio. Straparole, Piacevole notte, N. v. fab. 3. Patrañas di Timoneda, patr. 3. Comptes du monde adventureux, 1595, 18mo, compte xxiii. Guellette Contes Tartares, in the story of Les 3 bossus de Damas. Histoire des larrons, tom. i. pp. 2, 239. Biblioth. amus. et instructive, tom. ii. p. 14. Bibl. de Du Verdier et La croix du Maine, par Juvigny, tom. iv. p. 376. Pasquil's Jests, or Mother Bunch's merriments, p. 51; and Marlow's Jew of Malta, in Reed's Old plays, vol. viii. p. 366.
[130] This fable is only to be found in Mons. de Cardonne's translation, book V.; Galland's and the English edition having no more than the first 4 books. It occurs also in that exceedingly rare and curious work, the Directorium vitæ humanæ, printed in Germany, without date, place, or name of printer, at the end of the fifteenth century; and in its imitation, the Moral. philosophia of Doni, part ii. p. 68, in the English translation of which, printed by Denham, 1570, 4to, it has been omitted. It is also in Starkij Specimen sapientiæ Indorum, 1697, 12mo, p. 339. The two last works are in fact the fables of Pilpay under different forms, or rather the Heetopades of Veeshnu Sarma, the Hindoo fabulist, who appears to be the parent of all.
The same story occurs likewise in the following works. Le Grand, Fabliaux et contes, tom. iii. p. 168. Sansovino, Cento novelle, giorn. 9, nov. 1. Les facetieuses journées, p. 287. Lestrange's Æsop, vol. i. fab. 464, 8vo edition. Asiatic miscellany, 12mo, 1787, p. 73, from the Ayar Danish of Abulfazel, which seems to have been extracted from, or at least much resembles, the oriental work that forms the seventh chapter in the Directorium humanæ vitæ.