Denier fait de malade sain,
[47]Denier sorprent le monde a plain,
Tot est en son commandement.
And no doubt he is right in supposing that these variants (together with the Archpriest’s version) come from Dom Argent, a story—not, as Ritson thought, a fableau—given in extract by Le Grand d’Aussy in the third volume of the Fabliaux, Contes, Fables et Romans du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle published in 1829. Once more, take the story of the abstemious hermit who once got drunk, went from bad to worse, and finally fell into the hangman’s hands. As Wolf points out, this episode was introduced earlier in the Libro de Apolonio; but the Archpriest develops it more fully, amalgamating the tale of L’Eremite qui s’enyvra with L’Ermyte que le diable conchia du coc et de la geline. Lastly, the combat between Don Carnal and Doña Quaresma is most brilliantly adapted from the Bataille de Karesme et de Charnage:—
Seignor, ge ne vos quier celer,
Uns fablel vueil renoveler
Qui lonc tens a esté perdus:
Onques mais Rois, ne Quens, ne Dus
N’oïrent de millor estoire,
Par ce l’ai-ge mis en mémoire.