I.—The Gesta Romanorum—Its Origin—Tale of the Ungrateful Man—Sources of Didactic Fiction—Jovinian the Proud Emperor—Morals of the Tales[1]
II.—Discussion on the Source of Fiction Renewed—The King and the Glutton—Guido, the Perfect Servant—The Middle-Age Allegories—Pliny and Mandeville’s Wonders Allegorized[31]
III.—Progress of Fiction from the East to the West—The Early Christians—The Monks—The Spanish Arabians—The Crusades—The Knight and the King of Hungary—The English Gesta[46]
IV.—Modern Conversions of the Old Tales—The Three Black Crows—King Lear—The Emperor of Rome and his Three Daughters—The Merchant of Venice—The Three Caskets[58]
V.—The Probable Author of the Gesta—Modern Conversions—Parnell and Schiller—The Angel and the Hermit—The Poet’s Improvements—Fulgentius and the Wicked Steward—Irving’s Vision in the Museum—The Claims of the Old Writers on the New[74]
VI.—Curiosities of the Gesta—The Wicked Priest—The Qualities of the Dog—The Emperor’s Daughter—Curious Application—The Emperor Leo and the Three Images—An Enigma[90]
VII.—Curiosities of the Gesta—Byrkes’ Epitaph—The Lay of the Little Bird—Of the Burdens of this Life—Ancient Fairs—Winchester—Modern Continental Fairs—Russia—Nischnei-Novgorod[104]
VIII.—Southey’s Thalaba—The Suggestions of the Evil One—Cotonolapes, the Magician—The Garden of Aloaddin—The Old Man of the Mountain—The Assassins—Their Rise and Fall—Gay’s Conjurer—Sir Guido, the Crusader—Guy, Earl of Warwick[120]
IX.—Illustrations of Early Manners—Sorcery—The Knight and the Necromancer—Waxen Figures—Degeneracy of Witches—The Clerk and the Image—Gerbert and Natural Magic—Elfin Chivalry—The Demon Knight of the Vandal Camp—Scott’s Marmion—Assumption of Human Forms by Spirits—The Seductions of the Evil One—Religious Origin of Charges of Witchcraft[149]
X.—The Three Maxims—The Monk’s Errors in History—The Trials of Eustace—Sources of its Incidents—Colonel Gardiner—St. Herbert—Early English Romance of Sir Isumbras[174]
XI.—Another Chat about Witches and Witchcraft—Late Period of the Existence of Belief in Witches—Queen Semiramis—Elfin Armorers—The Sword of the Scandinavian King—Mystical Meaning of Tales of Magic—Anglo-Saxon Enigmas—Celestinus and the Miller’s Horse—The Emperor Conrad and the Count’s Son—Legend of “The Giant with the Golden Hairs”[203]
XII.—Love and Marriage—The Knight and the Three Questions—Racing for a Wife—Jonathan and the Three Talismans—Tale of the Dwarf and the Three Soldiers—Conclusion[233]

THE GESTA ROMANORUM

CHAPTER I.

The Gesta Romanorum—Its Origin—Tale of the Ungrateful Man—Sources of Didactic Fiction—Jovinian the Proud Emperor—Morals of the Tales.

It was a dull, cold Christmas evening; the snow fell fast and small, and the cutting northeast wind blew its white shower into heaps and ridges in every corner of St. John’s quadrangle, and piled its clear flakes against every projecting part of the old building. No one was moving in college, at least out-of-doors; but the rude laugh from the buttery, and the dull-red gleam through the closely drawn curtains of one of the upper rooms in the outer quadrangle, proved that in two portions of the college Christmas was being kept with plenty and with gayety.

The change from the white cold of the quadrangle to the ruddy blaze of that upper room was inspiriting. The fire burnt bright; the small table, drawn immediately in front of its merry blaze, glittered with after-dinner good cheer; and three young and happy faces sat by that little table, and compared their former Christmases at home, with this one, during which they were determined to remain up in Oxford and read for the ensuing examination.

“Morrison is always in good luck,” said Henry Herbert, the youngest of the party. “Whatever it is, whether drawing lots for a Newham party, or cramming for an examination, he always succeeds; and now he is the last man that got away from Oxford before the roads were blocked up by this snow-drift.”

“Fortunate fellow!” said Lathom. “We are shut up now—fifteen feet of snow at Dorchester, and Stokenchurch bottom quite impassable.”