fell into such distress, that he had not a bed to rest on, but slept in the streets, and found shelter in an empty cask.* At length, Josias Hufnagel, whom Schopper had not previously known, took pity upon him, out of regard to his talents and reputation, assisted him, gave him a sword and cloak (in lieu of those which had been stolen from him), and procured him the medical assistance of Paul Fabritius, the imperial physician. Having somewhat recovered, he returned in the autumn to Frankfort, where he was most kindly received by M. Johann Cuipius, the son-in-law of Christopher Egenolph, upon whose encouragement he completed his translation, and dedicated it to the Emperor Maximilian II, to whom he complains bitterly of the poverty and hardships which he had endured.* This translation, which has contributed so greatly to spread Reynard's fame among scholars who were unable to read his Aut limen ante regium Jacens in atro pulvere.--p. 301, ed. 1595. These scanty particulars are all that are known of the life of one whose smooth style and rough fortune keep him in memory with scholars. They have been gleaned from his dedicatory verses to Maximilian, and other parts of his work. What was his subsequent fate, or when and where "he laid his wearied back one day, in a most still bed, when the blanket of the night softly enwrapped him and all his woes," are entirely unknown. history in any of the Teutonic versions, was published at Frankfort, in 1567, under the title, " Opus Poeticum de Admirabili Fallacia et Astutia Vulpecula Reinikes Libros quatuor inaudito et plane nove more, nunc primum ex idiomate Germanico ad elegantiam et munditiam Ciceronis latinitate donatos, adjectis insuper elegantissimis iconibus, veras omnium Apologorum animaliumque species ad vivum adumbrantibus illustratos lectuque jucundissimos complectens. Cum brevissimis in margine commentariis, omniumque capitulorum argumentis, nec non rerum ac vocum memorabilium Indice copioso in operis calcem rejecto Auctore Hartmanno Schoppero, Novoforense Norico. There are no less than five other editions of this work published in the years 1574, 1579, 1580, 1584, and 1595 respectively, all bearing the title of Speculum Vita Aulica. De Admirabili Fallacia, &c., and illustrated by the same admirable woodcuts by Virgilius Solis, and Jost Ammon. On the presumption that the reader may be curious to see a specimen of a work, of which the literary history is certainly somewhat remarkable, and of which the merit appeared to Lotichius so great as to justify him in comparing the author with Ovid and Tibullus "Schopperus nitidas dum carmine surgit in auras, Naso, fere par est, sive, Tibulle, tibi !" the seventh chapter of the fourth book has been inserted in the appendix.* This has been selected not merely as a specimen of Schopper's style, but because * Appendix, No. VI. it has been found necessary to omit a few words in the corresponding portion of Caxton's narrative. § xx. Having thus detailed, at what we fear many of our readers may consider far too great a length the particulars of the principal versions of Reynard's story, which exist either in Latin, or in any of the languages of Europe, we must now call their attention to those which are extant in our own mother tongue. And here we would observe that Caxton's translation must not be regarded as the first introduction of the Reynardine Fables into the literature of England, for there is good reason to believe that they had been popular in this country in far earlier times. To say nothing of Chaucer's Nonnes Preeste's Tale, in which we learn, how "Dan Russel the fox stert up at ones, And by the Gargat hente Chauntecleere," which is obviously a genuine Reynard history, we have far earlier and more decisive evidence of that fact. In the volume of M. Chabaille, for instance, to which we have before alluded, there are to be found two extracts from the writings of Anglo-Norman Poets, from MSS. in the British Museum, in which distinct references are made to them. The first, from Chardri's Poem 'La Vie de Set Dormanz,' is as follows:- "Ne voil pas en Fables d'Ovide Ne jà, sachez, ne parlerum Ne de Renard, ne de Hersente Ne voil pas mettre m'entente." The other is from Benoit de Saint-More's 'Estoire e la Généalogie des Dux qui unt esté par ordre en Normendie: "Dunc vout quens Herluins parler; Ausi li prist talant d'usler Cume fist à dan Isengrim. Un chevalier de Costensin The Harleian MS. (No. 219) of the Latin Fables of Odo de Ceriton was assuredly compiled in England, as the introduction of English verses into the moralizations clearly proves, and we there find several of Reynard's Histories related, with the names of the actors, Isingrinus, &c., a fact which serves to show that these stories were as familiar to the inhabitants of this island as to those of the continent.* * Another manuscript in the same library (No 913), which was obviously written in the fourteenth century, contains a political ballad, in which is introduced the following curious allusion to the same cycle of fable. The author is complaining that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, and he illustrates his case by the following 'spelle': "The lyon lete cri, as hit was do, For he hird, lome to telle, That the wolf didde nozte well. * In the Selection of Latin Stories, edited by Mr. Wright for the Percy Society, several of these histories are printed. See more particularly No. LIX, p. 55, De Isengrim monacho, and the no te, p. 229. And the fox, that lither grome, And so men didde that seli asse, That trepasid no3t, no did no gilte, With ham bothe i-wreiid was, And in the ditement was i-pilt. The voxe hird a-mang al menne, And told the wolf with the brode crune, That on him send gees and henne, That other geet and motune. The seli aasse wend was saf, Por he ne eete nozt bote grasse, None ziftes he ne zaf, No wend that no harm nas. Tho hi to har lord com to tune, He told to ham law and skille; Thos wikid bestis luid adune, 'Lord,' hi seiid, 'what is thi wille?' Tho spek the lyon hem to, To the fox anone his wille, 'Tell me, boi, what hast i-do, Men beth aboute the to spille.' Tho spek the fox first anone, Thos men me wreiith of the tune, 'Gees no hen nac ic nozt, Sire, for soth ic the sigge: |