[369] French text: "De pleine Bourse de Sens," by Jean le Galois, in Montaiglon and Raynaud, "Recueil Général," vol. iii. p. 88. English text: "How a Merchande dyd his wyfe betray," in Hazlitt's "Remains" (ut supra), vol. i. p. 196. Of the same sort are "Sir Cleges" (Weber, "Metrical Romances," 1810, vol. i.), the "Tale of the Basyn" (in Hartshorne, "Ancient Metrical Tales," London, 1829, p. 202), a fabliau, probably derived from a French original, etc.
[370] English text: "The Land of Cokaygne" (end of the fourteenth century, seems to have been originally composed in the thirteenth), in Goldbeck and Matzner, "Altengische Sprachproben," Berlin, 1867, part i., p. 147; also in Furnivall, "Early English Poems," Berlin, 1862, p. 156. French text in Barbazan and Méon, "Fabliaux," vol. iii. p. 175: "C'est li Fabliaus de Coquaigne."
[371] "Aucassin and Nicolete," Andrew Lang's translation, London, 1887, p. 12. The French original in verse and prose, a cante-fable, belongs to the twelfth century. Text in Moland and d'Héricault, "Nouvelles françoises en prose, du treizième siècle" (the editors wrongly referred "Aucassin" to that century), Paris, 1856, 16mo.
[372] Knights are represented in many MSS. of English make, fighting against butterflies or snails, and undergoing the most ridiculous experiences; for example, in MS. 10 E iv. and 2 B vii. in the British Museum, early fourteenth century; the caricaturists derive their ideas from French tales written in derision of knighthood. Poems with the same object were composed in English; one of a later date has been preserved: "The Turnament of Totenham" (Hazlitt's "Remains," iii. p. 82); the champions of the tourney are English artisans:
Ther hoppyd Hawkyn,
Ther dawnsid Dawkyn,
Ther trumpyd Tymkyn,
And all were true drynkers.
He putteth in hys pawtener
A kerchyf and a comb,
A shewer and a coyf
To bynd with his loks,
And ratyl on the rowbyble
And in non other boks
Ne mo;
Mawgrey have the bysshop
That lat hyt so goo.
"A Poem on the times of Edward II.," ed. Hardwick, Percy Society, 1849, p. 8.
[374] "The Vox and Wolf," time of Edward I., in Matzner, "Altenglische Sprachproben," Berlin, 1867, part i. p. 130; also in Th. Wright, "Latin Stories," 1842, p. xvi. This story of the adventure in the well forms Branch IV. of the French text. Martin's "Roman de Renart," Strasbourg, 1882, vol. i. p. 146.
[375] Tartufe, i. 6.