[668] "Chronicon Angliæ," 1328-88, Rolls, ed. Maunde Thompson, 1874, 8vo. Mr. Thompson has proved that, contrary to the prevalent opinion, Walsingham has been copied by this chronicler instead of copying him himself; but the book is an important one on account of the passages referring to John of Gaunt, which are not found elsewhere.
[669] "Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden ... with the English translation of John Trevisa," ed. Babington and Lumby, Rolls, 1865, 8 vols. 8vo.
[670] See above, p. 195.
[671] "The buke of John Maundeuill, being the travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight, 1322-56, a hitherto unpublished English version from the unique copy (Eg. MS. 1982) in the British Museum, edited together with the French text," by G. F. Warner; Westminster, Roxburghe Club, 1889, fol. In the introduction will be found the series of proofs establishing the fact that Mandeville never existed; the chain seems now complete, owing to a succession of discoveries, those especially of Mr. E. B. Nicholson, of the Bodleian, Oxford (Cf. an article of H. Cordier in the Revue Critique of Oct. 26, 1891). A critical edition of the French text is being prepared by the Société des Anciens Textes. The English translation was made after 1377, and twice revised in the beginning of the fifteenth century. On the passages borrowed from "Mandeville" by Christine de Pisan, in her "Chemin de long Estude," see in "Romania," vol. xxi. p. 229, an article by Mr. Toynbee.
[672] The church and its dependencies were sold and demolished in 1798: "Adjugés le 12 nivôse an vi., à la citoyenne épouse, J. J. Fabry, pour 46,000 francs." Warner, ibid., p. xxxiii.
[673] Warner, ibid., p. v.
[674] "Et sachies que je eusse cest livret mis en latin pour plus briefment deviser, mais pour ce que plusieurs entendent miex roumant que latin, j'e l'ay mis en roumant par quoy que chascun l'entende, et que les seigneurs et les chevalers et les autres nobles hommes qui ne scevent point de latin ou pou, qui ont esté oultre mer sachent et entendent se je dis voir ou non at se je erre en devisant pour non souvenance ou autrement que il le puissent adrecier et amender, car choses de lonc temps passées par la veue tournent en oubli et mémoire d'omme ne puet tout mie retenir ne comprendre." MS. fr. 5637 in the National Library, Paris, fol. 4, fourteenth century.
[675] On Odoric and Mandeville, see H. Cordier, "Odoric de Pordenone," Paris, 1891, Introduction.
[676] A part of it was even put into verse: "The Commonyng of Ser John Mandeville and the gret Souden;" in "Remains of the early popular Poetry of England," ed. Hazlitt, London, 1864, 4 vols. 8vo, vol. i. p. 153.
[677] Here is a specimen of this style; it is the melancholy end of the work, in which the weary traveller resigns himself, like Robinson Crusoe, to rest at last: "And I John Maundeville, knyghte aboveseyd (alle thoughe I ben unworthi) that departed from oure contrees and passed the see the year of grace 1322, that have passed many londes and many isles and contrees, and cerched manye fulle straunge places, and have ben in many a fulle gode honourable companye and at many a faire dede of armes (alle beit that I dide none my self, for myn unable insuffisance) now I am comen hom (mawgre my self) to reste; for gowtes artetykes, that me distreynen, tho diffynen the ende of my labour, agenst my wille (God knowethe). And thus takynge solace in my wrecced reste, recordynge the tyme passed, I have fulfilled theise thinges and putte hem wryten in this boke, as it wolde come in to my mynde, the year of grace 1356 in the 34 yeer that I departede from oure contrees. Werfore I preye to alle the rederes and hereres of this boke, yif it plese hem that thei wolde preyen to God for me, and I schalle preye for hem." Ed. Halliwell, London, 1866, 8vo, p. 315.