^{Note 1 in page 3} Published at Paris, 1838, in conjunction with Leroux de Lincy's edition of the Sept Sages de Rome.

^{Note 2 in page 3} Pantchatantra, Leipzig, 1859, I, § 8; also Mélanges Asiat, iii, p. 188 f.

^{Note 3 in page 3} Orient and Occident, iii, p. 177 f.

^{Note 4 in page 3} Mischle Sindbad, Berlin, 1888, pp. 10 f., 62.

^{Note 1 in page 4} Cf. Mischle Sindbad, p. 10.

^{Note 2 in page 4} For further details of this legend, see Burnouf, Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme indien, Paris, 1844, pp. 144 f., 406.

^{Note 3 in page 4} Mischle Sindbad, p. 82 f.

^{Note 1 in page 5} This is the case in all eastern versions save the Seven Vezirs and the version of Nachshebī: in the former some sages tell one, some two stories; in the latter each sage tells only one.

^{Note 2 in page 5} Prof. Rhys Davids in his work on the Jālakas (Buddhist Birth Stories, Boston, 1880, vol. I, pp. xli, xciv) seems to have confounded this romance with the story of Sinbad the Sailor of the Arabian Nights. The two are in no way related.

^{Note 3 in page 5} Pantchatantra, i, § 5 (p. 23).

^{Note 4 in page 5} Il Libro dei Sette Savj, ed. D'Ancona, Pisa, 1864, p. xlvii.

^{Note 5 in page 5} Mischte Sindbad, p. 66.

^{Note 1 in page 6} Ibid., pp. 63, 212.

^{Note 2 in page 6} Ibid., p. 61.

^{Note 3 in page 6} So Comparetti, Nöldeke, Clouston, and others.

^{Note 4 in page 6} Mischle Sindbad, pp. 61, 310.

^{Note 1 in page 7} These are, according to Cassel (p. 219 f.), Sindibād, Hippocrates, Apuleius, Lucian, Aristotle, Pindar, and Homer.

^{Note 2 in page 7} Mischle Sindbad, pp. 222, 310.

^{Note 3 in page 7} The Old Spanish version was made from it in 1253.

^{Note 4 in page 7} In his review of Baethgen's edition of the Sindban in Zeitschrift d. d. Morg. Gesellschaft, xxxiii, p. 518.

^{Note 5 in page 7} All these, with the exception of the text of As-Samarquandī, have been rendered accessible either in the original or in translations, and in most cases in both.

^{Note 6 in page 7} Comparetti, Book of Sindibād, p. 53 f. Citation is made from the English translation by Coote, for the Folk Lore Socy., London, 1882. The original Ricerche appeared at Milan in 1869.

^{Note 7 in page 7} Brockhaus for example.

^{Note 1 in page 8} Clouston, Book of Sindibād [Glasgow], 1884, p. l f.

^{Note 2 in page 8} Comparetti, Book of Sindibād, p. 53 f.

^{Note 3 in page 8} Mischle Sindbad, p. 310.

^{Note 4 in page 8} The Hebrew text has undergone the following editions: Sengelman (with German translation), Halle, 1842; Carmoly (with French translation), Paris, 1849; and Cassel (German translation and copious notes), Berlin, 1888.

^{Note 5 in page 8} For the most complete comparative table, see Landau, Quellen des Dekarneron, 2d ed., Stuttgart, 1884; see also Cassel, p. 362 f., and Comparetti, p. 25.

^{Note 1 in page 9} See the next chapter on “ The Transmission of the Romance to the Occident.”

^{Note 2 in page 9} Baethgen, Sindban, oder die Sieben Weisen Meister, Leipzig, 1879. An English translation by H. Gollancz appeared in Folk Lore, viii, p. 99 f., June, 1897.

^{Note 3 in page 9} Zeilschr. d. d. Morg. Gesellschaft, xxxiii, p. 513 f.

^{Note 4 in page 9} Book of Sindibād, p. 57.

^{Note 5 in page 9} Mischle Sindbad, p. 368.

^{Note 1 in page 10} Eberhard, Fabulae Romanenses Grœce, etc., i (Teubner), Leipzig, 1872.

^{Note 2 in page 10} For the Syntipas in later literature, see Murko, “ Die Geschichte v. d. Sieben Weisen b. d. Slaven,” Wiener Akad. Sitzungsb., Ph. Hist. Cl., cxxii, No. x, p. 4 f.

^{Note 3 in page 10} Book of Sindibād, pp. 73-164.

^{Note 4 in page 10} This text has not yet been edited. An abstract of it was given by Falconer in the Asiatic Journal, xxxv, p. 169 f. and xxxvi, pp. 4 f., 99 f.; a complete translation into English appears in Clouston's Book of Sindibād.

^{Note 5 in page 10} Athenaeum for Sept. 12, 1891, p. 355.

^{Note 1 in page 11} Modi, Dante and Viraf and Gardis and Kaus, Bombay, 1892.

^{Note 2 in page 11} 1001 Nights, Breslau, 1840, xv, pp. 102-172; Scott, Tales, Anecdotes and Letters, Shrewsbury, 1800, p. 38 f.; 1001 Nights, Boulaq, 1863, iii, pp. 75-124.

^{Note 3 in page 11} Brockhaus, Nachshebī's S. W. M., Leipzig, 1845; translated by Teza, D'Ancona ed. of Sette Savj., p. XXXVII f.

^{Note 4 in page 11} Book of Sindibād, p. 37 f.

^{Note 5 in page 11} Zeitschr. d. d. Morg. Gesellschaft, xxxiii, p. 521 f.

^{Note 1 in page 12} Masūdī, Meadows of Gold, translated by Sprenger, London, 1841, p. 175. Masūdī was not well acquainted with the romance, as follows from the fact that he attributes its authorship to Sindibād.

^{Note 1 in page 13} Marcus Landau, Quellen des Dekameron, 2d ed., Stuttgart, 1884.

^{Note 1 in page 14} The Old French versions A, C, D of Paris (Deux Rédactions) have been “starred” throughout in order to avoid confusion with the Middle English (M. E.) versions A, C, D.

^{Note 1 in page 16} All these several bits of argument adduced here and on the following pages, with the exception of those under the story avis, have been advanced by Landau (pp. 47-50); in addition to these, owing to his false hypothesis of the originality of H, Landau has made use of two other features in which H agrees with the Hebrew text versus the remainder of the Eastern group, but which must be cancelled, since they are also peculiar to H. These are (1) the disguised-youth incident of H, which Landau (p. 48 f.) inclines to trace back to the seventeenth story of the Mischle Sindbad, and (2) amatares, the twelfth story of the Historia, which is ultimately the same as the Hebrew story of the Hunchbacks (M. S. 18; see Bédier, Les Fabliaux, Paris, 1893, p. 201 f.). Neither of these appears in any other western version, whence the only legitimate inference that they were not in the lost western original, but are late incorporations on the part of H into the frame of the collection.

^{Note 2 in page 16} This, a characteristic feature of the Western group, appears in all western texts save those (as S) which have been abridged. The names of the sages in the Mischle Sindbad are Sindibād, Hippocrates, Apuleius, Lucian, Aristotle, Pindar, and Homer (Cassel, p. 253); in the Western group, Bancillas, Ancilles, Malquidras, Lentulus, Caton, Jesse, and Meros. For variants of these, see Landau, Quellen des Dekameron, p. 60 n.

^{Note 3 in page 16} In the Hebrew (see Cassel, p. 255 f.) one proposes to instruct him in five years, another in two years, a third in one year,—and finally Sindibād offers to make him wisest of all men in six months. The term of years proposed by the sages in the western versions varies from seven to one.

^{Note 4 in page 16} Carmoly (p. 65) states expressly that these were the king's counsellors, and not the sages, who, he says, were now in hiding to avoid the king's anger; but, as Landau (p. 48) points out, the sage Aristotle is referred to by name at the end of the third story as having saved the prince's life by his stories on the preceding day (Cassel, p. 267); accordingly, although there is a slight confusion, it is evident that Carmoly is in error.

^{Note 1 in page 18} The arguments made by Landau under avis are not valid. That the bird speaks Hebrew as well as Latin, is not true of any of the oldest western versions, but appears to be peculiar to H; while the argument from the killing of the bird in 3 and the Hebrew text is altogether in-

valid, since the same feature is found in all eastern versions save the Syntipas, and would be in any case of little value for the purpose to which Landau would put it, since it is a simple and natural variation.

^{Note 1 in page 20} The most widely known of all versions of our romance; see below.

^{Note 1 in page 21} In the preface to his edition of the Herbert version: Li Romans de Dolopathos, ed. Brunet and Montaiglon, Paris, 1856.

^{Note 2 in page 21} This manuscript was discovered by Oesterley in 1873, and was published by him in the same year: Johannis de Alla Silva Dolopathos . . . ., Strasburg. See reviews by Paris, Romania, ii, p. 481 f.; by Studemund, Z.f. d. A., xvii, p. 415 f. and xviii, p. 221 f.; and by Köhler, Jahrb. f. rom. u. engl. Lit., xiii, p. 328 f. Several manuscripts discovered by Mussafia (Wiener Akad. Sitzungsb., Ph. Hist. Cl., xlviii, p. 246 f., 1864) prior to this, and at first supposed to be original, were soon shown to be fifteenth century copies of the older manuscript.

^{Note 3 in page 21} Published in the Soc. d. Anc. Textes fr. for 1876. For the Historia, see pp. xxviii-xliii.

^{Note 4 in page 21} See Paris in Romania, ii, p. 503. A leaf of a fourteenth century ms. of the Herbert version has been lately acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale —Nouv. Acq. fr. 934, No. 6 (Bulletin de la Soc. d. Anc. Textes fr., for 1896, p. 71 f.). See also Haupt's Altd. Blätter, i, p. 119 f., for a German version of six stories of the Dolopathos.

^{Note 5 in page 21} See Wiener Akad. Sitzungsb., Ph. Hist. Cl., xlviii, p. 246 f.

^{Note 6 in page 21} Also brought to light by Oesterley.

^{Note 7 in page 21} Usually overlooked; see Ward, Catalogue of Romances, London, 1893, ii, p. 228 f.

^{Note 1 in page 22} See Comparetti to the contrary; Vergil in the Middle Ages, translated by Benecke, London, 1895, p. 234 f.

^{Note 1 in page 23} See Todd, La Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne, Introduction, p. iii f., in Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assn. of America, vol. iv, 1889. See also Paris's review in Romania, xix, p. 314 f.

^{Note 2 in page 23} Romania, ii, p. 500.

^{Note 3 in page 23} See the dissertation of Ehret, Der Verfasser des Soman des Sept Sages und Herbez, Heidelberg, 1886.

^{Note 1 in page 24} See Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, p. 232 f.

^{Note 2 in page 24} Ward, Catalogue of Romances, ii, p. 122, makes the slight oversight of asserting that the casket-episode of the Merchant of Venice is also introduced into the Dolopathos.

^{Note 3 in page 24} These stories have had a wide currency, and, in several instances, a most interesting history. For the fullest collections of analogues to them, see the editions of Montaiglon-Brunet and Oesterley, and the appendix to the latter's edition of the Gesta Romanorum.

^{Note 1 in page 25} This is only partly true of D; see Paris, Deux Redactions, p. 1.

^{Note 2 in page 25} There are several exceptions to this: in K he is called Vespasian; in D*, Marcomeris, son of Priam (!); in H, Pontianus,—the name Diocletian being transferred to the prince.

^{Note 3 in page 25} Wiener Akad. Silzungsb., Ph. Hist. Cl., lvii, p. 37 f.

^{Note 1 in page 26} Ward, Catalogue of Romances, ii, p. 200, erroneously states that Paris upholds Goedeke here.

^{Note 2 in page 26} Erlanger Beiträge zur englischen Philologie, v, p. 1. Of these six were first pointed out by Paris, l. c., p. xxxix,—eight by Varnhagen, Eine Ital. Prosaversion d. Sieben Weisen, p. xv.

^{Note 3 in page 26} Erlang. Beitr., v, pp. 7-90. An Innsbruck MS. which dates from 1342.

^{Note 1 in page 27} For the first general discussion of the romance in Germany, see the preface to Keller's Li Romans des Sept Sages, Tübingen, 1837. A more comprehensive discussion of the German versions accompanies his edition of the Hans von Bühel metrical version, Diocletianus Leben (Quedlinburg, 1841).

^{Note 2 in page 27} Keller enumerates versions, either in manuscript or in print, in Dutch, Welsh, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, and Armenian; see the prefaces to his two editions cited above. See, also, Murko, “Die Geschichte v. d. Sieben Weisen b. d. Slaven” in Wiener Akad. Sitzungsb., Ph. Hist. Cl., cxxii, 1890, and “Beitr. zur Textgesch. d. H. S. S.” in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Lit.-gesch., pp. 1-34, 1892.

^{Note 3 in page 27} Biblioph. Français, iv, p. 69 f.

^{Note 4 in page 27} Book of Sindibād, p. 47.

^{Note 5 in page 27} It is hard to see how Landau, Quellen des Dekameron, 2d ed., p. 51 f., and a few others, can still persist in their adherence to the old view.

^{Note 1 in page 28} See Paris, l. c., p. iii n., and Paul Meyer in the Bulletin d. l. Soc. des Anc. Textes français, 1894, p. 40 f. The order of stories here is—tentamina, Roma, avis, sapientes, vidua, Virgilius, inclusa, vaticinium. For the order in K and other versions, see the comparative table, p. 35.

^{Note 2 in page 28} By Murko; see Romania, xx, p. 373.

^{Note 3 in page 28} Ward, Catalogue of Romances, ii, p. 207 f. Hitherto unnoticed in this connection.

^{Note 4 in page 28} Edited by Rajna, Storia di Stefano, Bologna, 1881.

^{Note 1 in page 29} Delia Lucia, Novella antica scritla nel buon sec. d. lingua, Venice, 1832.

^{Note 2 in page 29} Cappelli, Il libro dei sette savi di Roma, Bologna, 1865.

^{Note 3 in page 29} It is interesting to note here that the story thus discarded is senescalcus,—a feature in which the Versio Italica has anticipated one of the English versions—Cambridge Ff, ii, 3S (F).

^{Note 4 in page 29} See, for the most recent opinion, Rajna in Romania, vii, p. 369 f.

^{Note 5 in page 29} These are mentioned under the discussion of the various groups into which they fall.

^{Note 1 in page 30} See Paris, l. c., p. xxiii f.

^{Note 2 in page 30} For these compare P. Paris, Les MSS. français de la Bibl. du Roi, Paris, 1836, i, p. 109 f. More accessible in Leroux de Lincy, l. c., p. x f.

^{Note 3 in page 30} This was first shown by Paris, Deux Rédactions, p. v f.

^{Note 1 in page 31} Leroux de Lincy, Romans des Sept Sages, Paris, 1838, pp. 1-76.

^{Note 2 in page 31} Meyer does not express himself definitely as to the class of but one of these—the Chartres ms., which he groups with L. He implies, however, in his statement that the Bib. Nat. fragment (p. 39, n. 2) belongs to A*, that all the rest belong to L. Nevertheless, his notices leave the impression that some of these manuscripts (possibly all except the two just mentioned) have not been handled, and that a part of them may yet be found to belong to the larger group A*.

^{Note 1 in page 32} Il Libro dei Sette Savj di Roma, Pisa, 1864.

^{Note 2 in page 32} One of these is the manuscript 2137 of the Bib. Nat., published in part by Leroux de Lincy, pp. 79-110.

^{Note 3 in page 32} For these two, cf. Varnhagen, Z. f. rom. Ph., i, p. 555 f. See also for the first, Ward, l. c., ii, p. 199 f.

^{Note 4 in page 32} Romania, xv, p. 348.

^{Note 5 in page 32} Delisle, MSS. lat. et fr. ajoutées aux Fondes, etc., Paris, 1891, I, p. 259.

^{Note 6 in page 32} Eine Ital. Prosaversion der Sieben Weisen, Berlin, 1881.

^{Note 7 in page 32} By this is meant the second Leroux de Lincy redaction. Other versions of this type, as, e. g., ms. 6849 (new No. 189), are not so close to L.

^{Note 1 in page 33} Deux Réductions, p. xviii.

^{Note 2 in page 33} Ibid., p. xix, for a citation of parallel passages from A ₂* and K. Almost as noteworthy agreement will be found in some of the remaining stories.

^{Note 3 in page 33} But can this be final? Is it not possible, however improbable it may seem, that the manuscripts of A* which have survived were ultimately based on a metrical text which preserved the A*-order of stories (or, at least, was nearer the A*-order than the K-, C*- or D*-order), and which was closely related with V? In this case, of course, L (the first eleven stories), would have to be explained as based on A* (rather than the reverse, as with Paris), and A ₂* as representing a prosing of a portion of the metrical A*, to which K has very nearly approached. Against this view would be the strong evidence submitted by Paris. In favor of it, however, are the considerations (1) that this would better account for the popularity of the A*-type during the first half of the thirteenth century; (2) that the Middle English versions both favor a metrical original and were based on a text nearer to K in many details than is the De Lincy print of A*; (3) that to base A* on L, and consequently, as Paris maintains, ultimately on S, is to connect it with a different line of tradition from that which it seems to follow (cf. certain textual agreements with K which A*, L exhibit: p. 16: “ comme il fist au cheualier de son leureier ” = K 1141-2: “ Comme il fist au cheualier, Ki atort occist son.leurier;” p. 39: “Il apela son seneschal ”= K 1509: “ Lors apiela son seneschal; ” p. 40: “ Vos gerrez auec le roi”= K 1531: “Auoeques le roi vous girois;” p. 50: “Qui me ferra, je trerai jà”= K 3938: “Ki me ferra, je trairai ia”); (4) that we may still find in A*, what appear to be reflections of a versified original; thus, p. 15: “ Celz que je mout amoie et en qui je me fioie; ” p. 23: “ Li sangliers vint vers l'alier, si commença à mengier,” and “quant il vit le sanglier, si s'en volt aler;” p. 33: “Quant eles virent lor père trainer, si commencièrent (à brère et) à crier;” p. 50: “Sire, il ot en ceste vile un clerc qui ot non Vergile.” When all this is said, however, the case is by no means strong, and we would not presume to insist on this theory as presenting the probability, by any means, which attaches to the view set forth by Paris; it is merely suggested as an alternate possibility, which has not yet been disposed of.

^{Note 1 in page 34} See also, Paris, Romania, iv, p. 128, for the additional evidence in support of this view drawn from the story Roma.

^{Note 1 in page 35} The order of the fragmentary Old French metrical version C* is as follows:—tentamina, Roma, avis, sapientes, vidua, Virgilius, inclusa, valicinium. In the Varnhagen Italian prose version, puteus has been supplanted by a new story, which V. calls mercator. All the Middle English versions save F (for which see p. 62 of this study) follow the A*-order. The later English versions belong to group H.

^{Note 1 in page 36} Metrical Romances, Edinburgh, 1810, I, p. lv and iii, pp. 1-153.

^{Note 2 in page 36} The Seven Sages, Percy Society Publications, vol. xvi, p. lxviii, London, 1845; also in Warton's History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, London, 1871, i, p. 305 f.

^{Note 3 in page 36} Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, London, 1811, iii, pp. 1-101.

^{Note 4 in page 36} Book of Sindibād [Glasgow], 1884, p. 327 f.

^{Note 5 in page 36} The History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome, published for the Villon Society, London, 1885.

^{Note 1 in page 37} I have handled and made transcripts of all these manuscripts save those which have been printed and the Asloan. Five of them (A, E, C, F, and D) have been studied either in whole or in part by Petras, and the Asloan MS. was also known to him through Laing's very incomplete description of it in the preface to his edition of the Rolland text, p. xii. Of the Arundel and Balliol manuscripts Petras was apparently unaware.

^{Note 2 in page 37} Cf. Morsbach, M. E. Grammatik, Halle, 1896, p. xi, and Brandi in Paul's Grundriss, ii, 1, p. 635.

^{Note 1 in page 38} There are many emendations which lie on the surface and which are sustained by the closely related versions Ar, E, etc. Some of these are: (1) for schild 1016 read schuld(e)—cf. F 1487, Ar, B, E; (2) for swich 1031 read syke or seke—cf. Ar 91, etc.; (3) for tol of 2050 read to lof—cf. E 2082, etc.; (4) for to-delue 2417 read go delue—cf. B 2509, etc.; (5) after He 2657, insert pout—cf. Ar 1782, etc.

^{Note 2 in page 38} A. S. y is regularly represented by the e-sound, though this may not always be graphic. Of the 27 determining rimes, 22, or 81 per cent., have the e-coloring. There is nothing in other developments to contradict this result. The only Northern forms in the rime are a pres. part. in -and, 1977-8, and two instances of the third pers. sing. of the present tense in s, 615-6 and 937-8.

^{Note 3 in page 38} To the development of A. S. y (stable or unstable, long or short) into e, there is only one certain exception: wyne: syne, 691-2. Elsewhere we find only the e-quality; cf. nede: hyde, 383-4; ifet: iknet, 601-2; gardyner: fyr, 863-4, 872-3; also 892-3, 939-40, 979-80, 1433-4, 1515-6, 1535-6, 1541-2, 1583-4, 1761-2, 1847-8, 2059-60. The additional rime-evidence is altogether confirmatory of a Southern scribe: A. S. ā > ō unexceptionally, the pres. part. (except buland: blynd, 1589-90) ends in -ng, the verb is Southern (save cryén; mene, 2556-7, where we have a Midland form), the past part. preserves, as a rule, the prefix, and rejects (in the case of the strong verb) the ending, etc. Within the line, however, there are occasional Northern forms, particularly of the pres, part., as buland, 1588, 1591, 1599, brynand, 1922; but these are by no means the rule, the Southern form being in general preserved as well within the line as in the rime.

^{Note 1 in page 39} For a general description of this manuscript, see Ward's Catalogue, ii, p. 218 f.

^{Note 2 in page 39} See the sixth article: “Gregory Skinner's Chronicle of the Mayors of London, ending in 1469,” ff. 113-122b.

^{Note 3 in page 39} The usual development of A. S. y is e, or the e quality,—see the rimes of ll. 245-6, 577-8, 783-4, 845-6, 1323-4, 1545-6, 1799-1800, 1821-1822; but occasionally y,—cf. kynne: lynne (O.N. linna), 1317-8 and wynne: syne, 1635-6. The evidence is otherwise strongly indicative of a Southern scribe, t.hgh a few Northern forms are borne out by the rime; cf. hondys: stondys (3 sing.), 439-40, also kynge: yonge, 93-4, and yonge: connynge, 3581-2.

^{Note 4 in page 39} The existence of this version of the Seven Sages was first pointed out by Varnhagen, in his Eine Ital. Prosav. d. Sieben Weisen, Berlin, 1881, p. xi; see in the same connection his review of Petras, Eng. Stud., x, p. 279 f.

^{Note 1 in page 40} Cf. Art. 31, “Memoranda of Richard Hill,” and Art. 98, “Names of Mayors (of London).”

^{Note 2 in page 40} Southern forms are sustained by the rime almost without exception. A. S. y is represented by both y and e, in about equal proportion; the rimes in e are probably to be explained, however, as reminiscences of a Kentish original.

^{Note 3 in page 40} Cf. Halliwell, Thornton Romances, Camden Society, vol. xxx, p. xxxvi f., and the Cambridge Univ. Lib. Catalogue of MSS., ii, p. 408.

^{Note 1 in page 41} The Cambridge Catalogue fails to specify the leaves which have been lost. Petras (p. 8) and others go to the other extreme in asserting that the text is very incomplete.

^{Note 2 in page 41} A. S. ā ō, and the forms of the verb, with the exception of the strong past part., where -en is the usual ending, are Southern. The scribe, however, probably belonged rather to the middle or western South than to Kent, or its neighborhood; cf. the rimes in y where the ü-quality prevails: tyme: kynne, 813-4; wytte: pytte, 845-6; hym: kynne, 871-2; 1348-9, 1636-7, etc. The rimes bedd: hydd, “00-1, and kende: sende, 1890-1, are probably to be traced to the Kentish original.

^{Note 3 in page 41} Cf. Ward's Catalogue, ii, p. 213 f., for a general description of this manuscript.

^{Note 4 in page 41} There are very few verses that are too short (among these are 84, 443, 911, 1868, 1901, 1918, 2973), and almost none that are too full (cf. 843). Among the few inexact rimes are sages: message, 355-6; brend: assent, 2321-2; hew; mowe, 2842-3.

^{Note 1 in page 42} An edition of this manuscript by the lamented Dr. Robert Morris was announced by the E. E. T. S. many years ago; and an editor was advertised for for some time after Dr. Morris's death, but in the recent issues of the publications this advertisement no longer appears. It is the purpose of the present writer to prepare a critical edition of this text within the near future.

^{Note 2 in page 42} For a general description of this manuscript, see the Cambridge Catalogue, i, p. 15 f.; Skeat, Publications of E. E. T. S., vol. xxxviii, p. xxiiii f.; and Halliwell, Manuscript Rarities of Cambridge, p. 3.

^{Note 3 in page 42} Morsbach, for some unknown reason, would place it earlier, “1300?”; see his M. E. Grammatik, p. 9.

^{Note 4 in page 42} Lines 337-9 may be explained as a triplet, but it is better to suppose that a verse has been lost. A more probable example of the triplet in M. E. is found in A, 915-7.

^{Note 5 in page 42} See Skeat, E. E. T. S., vol. xxxviii, p. xxv, and Brandi, in Paul's Grundriss, ii, 1, p. 635.

^{Note 1 in page 43} A further description, together with an extract containing the story avis, has recently appeared in Englische Studien (xxv, p. 321 f.), through the kindness of Prof. Varnhagen.

^{Note 2 in page 43} The Seven Sages in Scottish Metre (Rolland), Edinburgh, 1837, p. xii.

^{Note 3 in page 43} Chalmers says of it: “Evidently written by a Scotish versifier in the reign of James IV, as a number of Scotish terms occur, which would not have been introduced by a Scotish transcriber of an English work.”

^{Note 1 in page 44} An illustration of the method by which these figures have been arrived at may be found in the appendix to this study. F, owing to special features which are discussed below, is excluded from this comparison.

^{Note 2 in page 44} Petras, p. 11, finds A and C, the entire texts being compared, to have 1096 similar rimes.

^{Note 1 in page 50} For the origin of this feature, see Paris, Romania, iv, 128.

^{Note 2 in page 50} This phenomenon does not seem to be confined to our text, but appears also in other poems of the Auchinleck ms., as has been already observed by Kölbing; cf. his Arthour and Merlin, iv, p. cliii, and his Bevis of Hamtoun, E. E. T. S., Ex. Ser., lxv, p. xli.

^{Note 1 in page 54} First referred to in his Eine Ital. Prosaversion d. Sieben Weisen, p. xi, and later in his review of Petras, Eng. Stud., x, p. 279.

^{Note 1 in page 57} The only addition in the first 1900 11. is 1871-2:

'When day bygane to sprynge,

And þe foules mery to synge.'

^{Note 1 in page 58} The additions are less numerous. Among those which are parallelled by no more than one other text, or are peculiar to E, are (1) 986-7 (after A 974), (2) 1015-6 (a. A 1012), (3) 1245-6 (a. A 1238), (4) 1621-2 = A 1591-2, (5) 1693-6 (a. A 1664), (6) 1761-2 (a. A 1726), (7) 1809-10 (a. A 1780), (8) 2097-2103 (a. A 2068), (9) 2291-4 (a. A 2246), and (10) 2349-51 (a. A 2298).

^{Note 1 in page 60} In the first 1000 lines of the part selected for a line for-line comparison (= B 933-1951), B has 16 couplets which do not appear in any other manuscript, and which were accordingly, in large part in all probability, its own additions. E, on the contrary, has only 4, or one-fourth as many (1015-6, 1245-6 and 1693-6).

^{Note 1 in page 63} See his dissertation, p. 31. Cf. also Varnhagen, in his review of Petras, Englische Studien, x, p. 281 f.

^{Note 1 in page 67} For the corresponding part, E has 2593 lines, and B, 2658.

^{Note 1 in page 68} See his dissertation, p. 21.

^{Note 1 in page 72} See the preface to his edition of the D-text, Percy Soc., xvi, p. lxviii.

^{Note 1 in page 75} Wright, however, has not adduced any of this evidence.

^{Note 1 in page 76} The Italian prose text published by Varnhagen agrees here with the M. E. versions; see p. 36, tre mesi.

^{Note 1 in page 77} See the section devoted to a study of the source of the M. E. versions.

^{Note 2 in page 77} Where A is fragmentary, E has been selected in preference to Ar, since the latter is also largely fragmentary.

^{Note 1 in page 83} As already stated in my “ Word of Introduction” (p, 2), Lord Talbot de Malahide declined to permit my consulting this manuscript. His reasons for doing so are, I understand, the same as those given by certain other possessors of valuable M. E. manuscripts, for which I beg to refer to Dr. Furnivall, Temporary Pref. to the Six-Text Ed., Chaucer Soc., 1868, Pt. I, p. 6.

^{Note 2 in page 83} In a contribution by Prof. Varnhagen (Englische Studien, xxv, p. 321 f.), who will edit the text for the Scottish Text Society.

^{Note 3 in page 83} See Englische Studien, xxv, p. 322.

^{Note 1 in page 84} Ibid., xxv, p. 322.

^{Note 2 in page 84} F offers even more radical variation from other M. E. versions in some of its stories than does As in avis.

^{Note 1 in page 85} The dialect of D—southeast Midland—also offers support to this view.

^{Note 1 in page 86} Arthur and Merlin, Leipzig, 1890, p. lx f.

^{Note 2 in page 86} Ibid., p. lxxxii.

^{Note 3 in page 86} Ibid., p. civ.

^{Note 1 in page 87} See his dissertation, p. 31 f. Our investigation must differ from his, however, in that we are concerned only with the source of the parent version, x (As being disregarded), while Petras has assumed each of four versions (A, O, F, D) to be independent translations from the French. Since, however, he begins with the assumption that the same O. F. version was the source of all these, his argument is essentially the same as ours.

^{Note 2 in page 87} References to source in the M. E. versions are numerous: A 317, 1245, 2766, 2770; Ar 1900, 1906, 2206, 2261, 2442; E 1253, 2779, 2784, 3445; B 295, 1235; F 928, 1683, 1690, 1973; C 622, 1324; D 1385, 1520, 2690, 2922.

^{Note 1 in page 88} For the Dolopathos, K, C*, and D*, see the chapter on “ The Romance in France and Italy.”

^{Note 2 in page 88} For the order of stories in the various sub-types of the Western group, see our comparative table on page 35.

^{Note 3 in page 88} See p. 33 of his dissertation.

^{Note 1 in page 90} Petras, p. 37 f.

^{Note 2 in page 90} Ibid., p. 44.

^{Note 1 in page 91} The History of the S. W. M. of Rome, London, 1885. A few pages missing from the Wynkyn de Worde text are supplied from a chap-book version printed in 1671.

^{Note 2 in page 91} Graesse enumerates a half-dozen or more prints between 1483 and 1495, any one of which may have served as the basis of this version.

^{Note 1 in page 92} See Buchner, Erlang. Beitr., v, p. 95.

^{Note 2 in page 92} Erlang. Beitr., v, p. 96.

^{Note 3 in page 92} See his dissertation, p. 47 f.

^{Note 4 in page 92} The second text of Paris's Deux Redactions. Its date is 1492.

^{Note 1 in page 93} Ed. Collier, London, 1845, pp. 165, 167. See also the Dramatic Works of Dekker, ed. Shepherd, London, 1873, i, p. xii.

^{Note 2 in page 93} The enumeration of the late English versions should also include reference at least to the Seven Wise Mistresses of Rome, a chap-book modelled after the chap-book version of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome, and a sort of counterpart to it. The English libraries contain several versions of this type, but, though very interesting, they possess little value.

^{Note 1 in page 94} This line is repeated after 1. 12, but is erased.

^{Note 1 in page 100} An identical line is indicated by an asterisk (*), an omission by a dash (—–), an addition by brackets ([]), a corresponding but not similar line by leaders (......), and altered rimes by parentheses ().