Chapter LXXVII: News!

_Source._--Bell's _Speaker_.

_Parallels._--Jacques de Vitry, _Exempla_, ed. Crane, No. ccv., a servant being asked the news by his master returned from a pilgrimage to Compostella, says the dog is lame, and goes on to explain: "While the dog was running near the mule, the mule kicked him and broke his own halter and ran through the house, scattering the fire with his hoofs, and burning down your house with your wife." It occurs even earlier in Alfonsi's _Disciplina Clericalis_, No. xxx., at beginning of the twelfth century, among the _Fabliaux_, and in Bebel, _Werke_, iii., 71, whence probably it was reintroduced into England. See Prof. Crane's note _ad loc._

_Remarks._--Almost all Alfonsi's _exempla_ are from the East. It is characteristic that the German version finishes up with a loss of honour, the English climax being loss of fortune.