Chapter I: Preface

TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION (PUBLISHED BY WILEY & PUTNAM IN 1845).

You have here, my good friends, sundry moral and entertaining stories, invented by the monks of old, and used by them for amusement, as well as for instruction; from which the most celebrated poets, of our own and other lands, have condescended to draw their plots.

The improvements and refinements of this age will naturally lead you to condemn as absurdities, many of the incidents with which these tales abound. Considering the knowledge of the present day, you are justified in so doing. But I pray you to bear in mind that few qualities are more dependent on time, than probability and improbability. When you read these tales, you must, for the time, retrace your steps to the age in which they were written; and though the tale may seem absurd to us of this day, yet if it was calculated to impress the minds of those for whom it was invented, and to whom it was told, its merit was great, and therefore deserving of due praise. A giant or a magician was as probable to the people of the middle ages, as electricity to us. I pray you bear this in mind whilst you judge of these tales.

Romantic fiction pleases all minds, both old and young: the reason is this, says an old Platonist, “that here things are set down as they should be; but in the true history of the world, things are recorded indeed as they are, but it is but a testimony that they have not been as they should be. Wherefore, in the upshot of all, when we shall see that come to pass, that so mightily pleases us in the reading the most ingenious plays and heroic poems, that long afflicted Virtue at last comes to the crown, the mouth of all unbelievers must be stopped.”

To the work of the ingenious Mr. Swan, the only translator of these stories that I know of in this country, I am indebted for my first introduction to these old tales; and I cannot conclude these few words without thanking him for having often lightened my labors by his close and admirable versions.

G. B.

_December, 1844._

CONTENTS.

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