But as ic ham dere bozt,

And bere ham up myn owen rigge.'

'Godis grame most hi have,

That in the curte the so pilt: Whah hit is so, ic vouche save, Ic for-zive the this gilte.'

The fals wolf stode be-hind,

He was doggid and ek felle, 'Ic am i-com ef grete kind,

Pes thou graunt me, that ou nizt full welle.'

• What hast ido, bel ami,

That thou me so axest pes?'

'Sire,' he seid, I nel nozt lie

If thou we woldest huer a res.

For ic hinted up the doune,
To loke, Sire, mi bizete,
Ther ic slow a motune.
3e, Sir, and few gete.

'Ic am i-wreiid, Sire, to the,
For that ilk gilt:

Sire, I chul sker me,

If ne zef ham dint no pilt.'

'For soth I sigge the, bel ami,
Hi nad no gode munde,
Thai that wreiid the to mei,

Thou ne diddist nozt bot thi kund.

'Sei, thou me, asse, what hast i-do? Me thinchith thou cannist no gode :

Whi nadistou as other mo,

Thou come of lether stode.'

'Sertis, Sire, not ic nozt,
Ic ete sage alnil gras,
More harm ne did ic nozt,
Ther for i-wreiid ic was.'

'Bel ami, that was mis-do,
That was aze thi kund,
For to ete such gras so,—
Hastiliche зе him bind :

'Al his bonis ze to-draw,
Lok that ze nozte lete,
And that ic zive al for lawe,

That his fleis be al i-frette." "

But the most decided proof that this cycle of Romance was popular in England at a very early period, is furnished by an English metrical version of that branch of the French Roman du Renart, entitled Si comme Renart fist avaler Ysengrim dedenz le puis,* which was communicated to the Reliquiæ Antiquæ by Sir Frederick Madden, by whom it was discovered in the Bodleian Library, in a Manuscript (Digby, No. 86, fol. 138), written not later than the reign of Edward I. As this poem, which is entitled "Of the Vox and of the Wolf," has already been printed by Mr. Wright, at the close of the introduction to his Selection of Latin Stories, it is obviously unnecessary to reproduce it upon this occasion.

§ XXI. But though it is evident, from these references and allusions, that many of the principal inci

* See Méon, tom. i. p. 240-80.

dents in the fox's story had long been well known, and popular in this country;-there is no donbt, that after the sixth of June 1481, when William Caxton finished his translation of it, "into his rude and simple English in the Abbey of Westminster," and thereby placed before the lovers of romance a complete and connected history of Reynard's adventures, that its popularity was greatly increased and extended.*

Reynard's history was afterwards printed by Pynson. Of this edition, which, like Caxton's, is in folio, but one copy is known to exist. This, which is unfortunately imperfect, was formerly in the possession of Herbert, but is now in the Bodleian, to which it was bequeathed with the rest of his valuable library by

* Of this interesting production of Caxton's press no less than five copies are known to be in existence. Of these, the King's Library in the British Museum, Lord Spencer, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, and Maurice Johnson, Esq. of Spalding, each possess one. The fifth is in private hands. The first three copies before named (and probably the others also) have between sheets h and j a leaf inserted, containing apparently one page of matter which had been omitted in the making up and working off of the sheets. This page is so divided as to occupy the upper part of each side of the inserted leaf, and contains the passage which in the present reprint begins at line 16, p. 128, with the words " your chyldren," and ends at line 19 of the following page with the words "For I."

Dibdin states in his Typographical Antiquities, i. 364, 66 a copy of Caxton's edition is said to be in the Pepysian Collection at Cambridge, and another in the library at Lincoln Cathedral."

the late Mr. Douce* who had purchased it at the sale of Herbert's books.

Pynson's edition was followed, in 1550, by one in 12mo. the title of which runs as follows, “Here beginneth the booke of Raynarde the Foxe, conteining divers goodlye hystoryes and parables, with others dyvers pointes necessarye for al men to be murked, by the which pointes, men maye lerne to come unto the subtyll knowledge of suche things, as daily ben used and had, in y counseyles of lordes and prelates, both ghostely and worldely, and also among marchauntes, and comen people. Imprinted in London in Saint Martens by Thomas Gaultier 1550. This volume, which is of the greatest rarity, (the only known copy, I believe, being that in the British Museum), corresponds exactly with Caxton's translation, except in a few cases, where some words, which the editor probably regarded as obsolete, or at all events obscure, have been omitted, and their place supplied by more modern terms. This is an advantage, in as far as these changes serve to point out more clearly the precise signification of the older words and phrases.

The next edition is said to have been printed in

* My old friend once assured me that he read Reynard the Fox regularly every Christmas to Mrs. Douce; and upon my venturing to inquire whether he did not find it necessary to make certain omissions, he replied, in the words of the jovial clerk of Copmanhurst, "Oh, of course, exceptis excipiendis." It is obvious, from what has been stated in the text, that he did not use Pynson's edition upon these occasions.

1638, but I am not aware of the existence of a copy bearing that date; for which reason, and for others which it is unnecessary to detail, I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the statement.

In 1650 appeared an edition in small quarto, illustrated with woodcuts of a very rude character,—the blocks of which appear to have been much worn. The title-page is as follows. The most detectable his

tory of Reynard the Fox, newly corrected and purged from all grossenesse in phrase and matter. As also augmented and inlarged with sundry excellent morals and expositions upon every severall chapter. London; Printed by J. Bell 1650. In this edition the work is divided into twenty-five chapters only-the language has undergone further modernization-and the editor, whoever he was, concluded by promising "to salute the world with a second part."

This modest promise does not appear, to have been fulfilled until the year 1681—although another edition of the former part appeared in 1667. In the latter year however, appeared a new edition of the old story of Reynard, which was accompanied by a supplement thus entitled:-The most pleasant and delightful history of Reynard the fox. The second part, containing much

* "If any be clear, let him hold on his path and avoid stumbling; and if any take distaste or offence, let him not blame me but the Fox, for it is only his language. But, if all things suit to my wisht imaginations, I shall then be encouraged to salute the world with a second part, clad in some neater English, deeper matter, and if not more, yet every whit as pleasant Morals."