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                            LIBRARY OF THE
                       WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
                          ANCIENT AND MODERN


                        CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

                                EDITOR


            HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE    LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE
                         GEORGE HENRY WARNER

                          ASSOCIATE EDITORS


                         Connoisseur Edition

                              VOL. XVI.


                               NEW YORK
                      THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY




                         Connoisseur Edition

            LIMITED TO FIVE HUNDRED COPIES IN HALF RUSSIA

                         _No_.   ..........


                         Copyright, 1896, by
                      R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
                        _All rights reserved_




                         THE ADVISORY COUNCIL


  CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M., LL. D.,
    Professor of Hebrew,        HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass.

  THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL. D., L. H. D.,
    Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of
                                   YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.

  WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH. D., L. H. D.,
    Professor of History and Political Science,
                              PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.

  BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M., LL. B.,
    Professor of Literature,     COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.

  JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D.,
    President of the        UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich.

  WILLARD FISKE, A. M., PH. D.,
    Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages
    and Literatures,               CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N. Y.

  EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A. M., LL. D.,
    Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer,
                            UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.

  ALCEE FORTIER, LIT. D.,
    Professor of the Romance Languages,
                                 TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La.

  WILLIAM P. TRENT, M. A.,
    Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
    English and History,     UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.

  PAUL SHOREY, PH. D.,
    Professor of Greek and Latin Literature,
                                UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.

  WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D.,
    United States Commissioner of Education,
                              BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C.

  MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A. M., LL. D.,
    Professor of Literature in the
                   CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.




                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

                               VOL. XVI


                                                    LIVED       PAGE
  AULUS GELLIUS                         Second Century A.D.     6253
    From 'Attic Nights': Origin, and Plan of the Book;
          The Vestal Virgins; The Secrets of the Senate;
          Plutarch and his Slave; Discussion on One of
          Solon's Laws; The Nature of Sight; Earliest
          Libraries; Realistic Acting; The Athlete's End


  GESTA ROMANORUM                                               6261
    Theodosius the Emperoure
    Moralite
    Ancelmus the Emperour
    Moralite
    How an Anchoress was Tempted by the Devil


  EDWARD GIBBON                                   1737-1794     6271
                           BY W. E. H. LECKY
    Zenobia
    Foundation of Constantinople
    Character of Constantine
    Death of Julian
    Fall of Rome
    Silk
    Mahomet's Death and Character
    The Alexandrian Library
    Final Ruin of Rome
      All from the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'


  WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT                        1836-         6333
    Captain Reece
    The Yarn of the Nancy Bell
    The Bishop of Rum-ti-foo
    Gentle Alice Brown
    The Captain and the Mermaids
      All from the 'Bab Ballads'


  RICHARD WATSON GILDER                           1844-         6347
    Two Songs from 'The New Day'
    "Rose-Dark the Solemn Sunset"
    The Celestial Passion
    Non Sine Dolore
    On the Life Mask of Abraham Lincoln
    From 'The Great Remembrance'


  GIUSEPPE GIUSTI                                 1809-1850     6355
    Lullaby ('Gingillino')
    The Steam Guillotine


  WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE                         1809-         6359
    Macaulay ('Gleanings of Past Years')


  EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN                           1831-         6373
    The Duty of Criticism in a Democracy ('Problems of
          Modern Democracy')


  GOETHE                                          1749-1832     6385
                           BY EDWARD DOWDEN
    From 'Faust,' Shelley's Translation
    Scenes from 'Faust', Bayard Taylor's Translation
    Mignon's Love and Longing ('Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship')
    Wilhelm Meister's Introduction to Shakespeare (same)
    Wilhelm Meister's Analysis of Hamlet (same)
    The Indenture (same)
    The Harper's Songs (same)
    Mignon's Song (same)
    Philina's Song (same)
    Prometheus
    Wanderer's Night Songs
    The Elfin-King
    From 'The Wanderer's Storm Song'
    The Godlike
    Solitude
    Ergo Bibamus!
    Alexis and Dora
    Maxims and Reflections
    Nature


  NIKOLAI VASILIEVITCH GOGOL                      1809-1852     6455
                         BY ISABEL F. HAPGOOD
    From 'The Inspector'
    Old-Fashioned Gentry ('Mirgorod')


  CARLO GOLDONI                                   1707-1793     6475
                      BY WILLIAM CRANSTON LAWTON
    First Love and Parting ('Memoirs of Carlo Goldoni')
    The Origin of Masks in the Italian Comedy (same)
    Purists and Pedantry (same)
    A Poet's Old Age (same)
    The Cafe


  MEIR AARON GOLDSCHMIDT                          1819-1887     6493
    Assar and Mirjam ('Love Stories from Many Countries')


  OLIVER GOLDSMITH                                1728-1774     6501
                        BY CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY
    The Vicar's Family Become Ambitious ('The Vicar of Wakefield')
    New Misfortunes: But Offenses are Easily Pardoned Where
          There is Love at Bottom (same)
    Pictures from 'The Deserted Village'
    Contrasted National Types ('The Traveller')


  IVAN ALEKSANDROVITCH GONCHAROF                  1812-         6533
                        BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
    Oblomof


  THE BROTHERS DE GONCOURT                                      6549
               Edmond                             1822-1896
               Jules                              1830-1870
    Two Famous Men ('Journal of the De Goncourts')
    The Suicide ('Sister Philomene')
    The Awakening ('Renee Mauperin')


  EDMUND GOSSE                                    1849-         6565
    February in Rome
    Desiderium
    Lying in the Grass


  RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL                           1823-         6571
    Heinrich Heine ('Portraits and Studies')


  JOHN GOWER                                      1325?-1408    6579
    Petronella ('Confessio Amantis')


  ULYSSES S. GRANT                                1822-1885     6593
                           BY HAMLIN GARLAND
    Early Life ('Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant')
    Grant's Courtship (same)
    A Texan Experience (same)
    The Surrender of General Lee (same)


  HENRY GRATTAN                                   1746-1820     6615
    On the Character of Chatham
    Of the Injustice of Disqualification of Catholics
          (Speech in Parliament)
    On the Downfall of Bonaparte (Speech in Parliament)


  THOMAS GRAY                                     1716-1771     6623
                       BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP
    Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard
    Ode on the Spring
    On a Distant Prospect of Eton College
    The Bard


  THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY                                           6637
                          BY TALCOTT WILLIAMS
    On the Athenian Dead at Plataea (Simonides); On the
         Lacedaemonian Dead at Plataea (Simonides); On a
         Sleeping Satyr (Plato); A Poet's Epitaph (Simmias
         of Thebes); Worship in Spring (Theaetetus); Spring
         on the Coast (Leonidas of Tarentum); A Young Hero's
         Epitaph (Dioscorides); Love (Posidippus); Sorrow's
         Barren Grave (Heracleitus); To a Coy Maiden
         (Asclepiades); The Emptied Quiver (Mnesalcus);
         The Tale of Troy (Alpheus); Heaven Hath its Stars
         (Marcus Argentarius); Pan of the Sea-Cliff
         (Archias); Anacreon's Grave (Antipater of Sidon);
         Rest at Noon (Meleager); "In the Spring a Young
         Man's Fancy" (Meleager); Meleager's Own Epitaph
         (Meleager); Epilogue (Philodemus); Doctor and
         Divinity (Nicarchus); Love's Immortality (Strato);
         As the Flowers of the Field (Strato); Summer
         Sailing (Antiphilus); The Great Mysteries
         (Crinagoras); To Priapus of the Shore (Maecius); The
         Common Lot (Ammianus); "To-morrow, and To-morrow"
         (Macedonius); The Palace Garden (Arabius); The
         Young Wife (Julianus AEgyptius); A Nameless Grave
         (Paulus Silentiarius); Resignation (Joannes
         Barbucallus); The House of the Righteous
         (Macedonius); Love's Ferriage (Agathias); On a
         Fowler (Isidorus) Anonymous: Youth and Riches; The
         Singing Reed; First Love again Remembered; Slave
         and Philosopher; Good-by to Childhood; Wishing;
         Hope and Experience; The Service of God; The Pure
         in Heart; The Water of Purity; Rose and Thorn;
         A Life's Wandering




                       FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS


                              VOLUME XVI

                                                                PAGE
  The Alexander Romance ( Plate)                 Frontispiece
  Gibbon (Portrait)                                             6271
  Ruined Rome (Photograph)                                      6316
  Gladstone (Portrait)                                          6359
  Goethe (Portrait)                                             6385
  "Faust and Margaret in Prison" (Photogravure)                 6408
  "The Bride's Toilet" (Photogravure)                           6466
  Goldoni (Portrait)                                            6475
  Goldsmith (Portrait)                                          6501
  Grant (Portrait)                                              6593
  Gray (Portrait)                                               6623
  "Stoke Poges Church and Churchyard" (Photogravure)            6626


                          VIGNETTE PORTRAITS

  Gilbert                               Goncharof
  Gilder                                De Goncourt
  Giusti                                Gottschall
  Godkin                                Gower
  Gogol                                 Grattan
  Goldschmidt




AULUS GELLIUS

(SECOND CENTURY A. D.)


Perhaps Gellius's 'Attic Nights' may claim especial mention here, as one
of the earliest extant forerunners of this 'Library.' In the original
preface (given first among the citations), Gellius explains very clearly
the origin and scope of his work. It is not, however, a mere scrap-book.
There is original matter in many chapters. In particular, an ethical or
philosophic excerpt has often been framed in a little scene,--doubtless
imaginary,--and cast in the form of a dialogue. We get, even, pleasant
glimpses of autobiography from time to time. The author is not, however,
a deep or forceful character, on the whole. His heart is mostly set on
trifles.

Yet Gellius has been an assiduous student, both in Greece and Italy; and
his book gives us an agreeable, probably an adequate, view of the fields
which are included in the general culture of his time. Despite its
title, the work is chiefly Roman. In history, biography, antiquities,
grammar, literary criticism, his materials and authors are prevailingly
Latin. He is perhaps most widely known and quoted on early Roman life
and usages. Thus, one of his chapters gives a mass of curious
information as to the choice of the Vestal Virgins. We are also largely
indebted to him for citations from lost authors. We have already quoted
under Ennius the sketch, in eighteen hexameters, of a scholar-soldier,
believed to be a genial self-portraiture. These lines are the finest
specimen we have of the 'Annales.' Similarly, under Cato, we have quoted
the chief fragment of the great Censor's Roman history. For both these
treasures we must thank Gellius. Indeed, throughout the wide fields of
Roman antiquities, history of literature, grammar, etc., we have to
depend chiefly upon various late Latin scrap-books and compilations,
most of which are not even made up at first hand from creative classical
authors. To Gellius, also, the imposing array of writers so constantly
named by him was evidently known chiefly through compendiums and
handbooks. It is suspicious, for instance, that he hardly quotes a poet
within a century of his own time. Repetitions, contradictions, etc., are
numerous.

Despite its twenty "books" and nearly four hundred (short) chapters, the
work is not only light and readable for the most part, but quite modest
in total bulk: five hundred and fifty pages in the small page and
generous type of Hertz's Teubner text. There is an English translation
by Rev. W. Beloe, first printed in 1795, from which we quote below.
Professor Nettleship's (in his 'Essays in Latin Literature') has no
literary quality, but gives a careful analysis of Gellius's subjects and
probable sources. There is a revival of interest in this author in
recent years. We decidedly recommend Hertz's attractive volume to any
Latin student who wishes to browse beyond the narrow classical limits.



FROM 'ATTIC NIGHTS'


ORIGIN AND PLAN OF THE BOOK

More pleasing works than the present may certainly be found: my object
in writing this was to provide my children, as well as myself, with that
kind of amusement in which they might properly relax and indulge
themselves at the intervals from more important business. I have
preserved the same accidental arrangement which I had before used in
making the collection. Whatever book came into my hand, whether it was
Greek or Latin, or whatever I heard that was either worthy of being
recorded or agreeable to my fancy, I wrote down without distinction and
without order. These things I treasured up to aid my memory, as it were
by a store-house of learning; so that when I wanted to refer to any
particular circumstance or word which I had at the moment forgotten, and
the books from which they were taken happened not to be at hand, I could
easily find and apply it. Thus the same irregularity will appear in
these commentaries as existed in the original annotations, which were
concisely written down without any method or arrangement in the course
of what I at different times had heard or read. As these observations at
first constituted my business and my amusement through many long winter
nights which I spent in Attica, I have given them the name of 'Attic
Nights.'... It is an old proverb, "A jay has no concern with music, nor
a hog with perfumes:" but that the ill-humor and invidiousness of
certain ill-taught people may be still more exasperated, I shall borrow
a few verses from a chorus of Aristophanes; and what he, a man of most
exquisite humor, proposed as a law to the spectators of his play, I also
recommend to the readers of this volume, that the vulgar and unhallowed
herd, who are averse to the sports of the Muses, may not touch nor even
approach it. The verses are these:--

  Silent be they, and far from hence remove,
  By scenes like ours not likely to improve,
  Who never paid the honored Muse her rights,
  Who senseless live in wild, impure delights;
  I bid them once, I bid them twice begone,
  I bid them thrice, in still a louder tone:
  Far hence depart, whilst ye with dance and song
  Our solemn feast, our tuneful nights prolong.


THE VESTAL VIRGINS

The writers on the subject of taking a Vestal Virgin, of whom Labeo
Antistius is the most elaborate, have asserted that no one could be
taken who was less than six or more than ten years old. Neither could
she be taken unless both her father and mother were alive, if she had
any defect of voice or hearing, or indeed any personal blemish, or if
she herself or father had been made free; or if under the protection of
her grandfather, her father being alive; if one or both of her parents
were in actual servitude, or employed in mean occupations. She whose
sister was in this character might plead exemption, as might she whose
father was flamen, augur, one of the fifteen who had care of the sacred
books, or one of the seventeen who regulated the sacred feasts, or a
priest of Mars. Exemption was also granted to her who was betrothed to a
pontiff, and to the daughter of the sacred trumpeter. Capito Ateius has
also observed that the daughter of a man was ineligible who had no
establishment in Italy, and that his daughter might be excused who had
three children. But as soon as a Vestal Virgin is taken, conducted to
the vestibule of Vesta, and delivered to the pontiffs, she is from that
moment removed from her father's authority, without any form of
emancipation or loss of rank, and has also the right of making her will.
No more ancient records remain concerning the form and ceremony of
taking a virgin, except that the first virgin was taken by King Numa.
But we find a Papian law which provides that at the will of the supreme
pontiff twenty virgins should be chosen from the people; that these
should draw lots in the public assembly; and that the supreme pontiff
might take her whose lot it was, to become the servant of Vesta. But
this drawing of lots by the Papian law does not now seem necessary; for
if any person of ingenuous birth goes to the pontiff and offers his
daughter for this ministry, if she may be accepted without any violation
of what the ceremonies of religion enjoin, the Senate dispenses with the
Papian law. Moreover, a virgin is said to be taken, because she is taken
by the hand of the high priest from that parent under whose authority
she is, and led away as a captive in war. In the first book of Fabius
Pictor, we have the form of words which the supreme pontiff is to repeat
when he takes a virgin. It is this:--

"I take thee, beloved, as a priestess of Vesta, to perform religious
service, to discharge those duties with respect to the whole body of the
Roman people which the law most wisely requires of a priestess of
Vesta."

It is also said in those commentaries of Labeo which he wrote on the
Twelve Tables:--

"No Vestal Virgin can be heiress to any intestate person of either sex.
Such effects are said to belong to the public. It is inquired by what
right this is done?" When taken she is called _amata_, or beloved, by
the high priest; because Amata is said to have been the name of her who
was first taken.


THE SECRETS OF THE SENATE

It was formerly usual for the senators of Rome to enter the Senate-house
accompanied by their sons who had taken the praetexta. When something of
superior importance was discussed in the Senate, and the further
consideration adjourned to the day following, it was resolved that no
one should divulge the subject of their debates till it should be
formally decreed. The mother of the young Papirius, who had accompanied
his father to the Senate-house, inquired of her son what the senators
had been doing. The youth replied that he had been enjoined silence, and
was not at liberty to say. The woman became more anxious to know; the
secretness of the thing, and the silence of the youth, did but inflame
her curiosity. She therefore urged him with more vehement earnestness.
The young man, on the importunity of his mother, determined on a
humorous and pleasant fallacy: he said it was discussed in the Senate,
which would be most beneficial to the State--for one man to have two
wives, or for one woman to have two husbands. As soon as she heard this
she was much agitated, and leaving her house in great trepidation, went
to tell the other matrons what she had learned. The next day a troop of
matrons went to the Senate-house, and with tears and entreaties implored
that one woman might be suffered to have two husbands, rather than one
man to have two wives. The senators on entering the house were
astonished, and wondered what this intemperate proceeding of the women,
and their petition, could mean. The young Papirius, advancing to the
midst of the Senate, explained the pressing importunity of his mother,
his answer, and the matter as it was. The Senate, delighted with the
honor and ingenuity of the youth, made a decree that from that time no
youth should be suffered to enter the Senate with his father, this
Papirius alone excepted.


PLUTARCH AND HIS SLAVE

Plutarch once ordered a slave, who was an impudent and worthless fellow,
but who had paid some attention to books and philosophical disputations,
to be stripped (I know not for what fault) and whipped. As soon as his
punishment began, he averred that he did not deserve to be beaten; that
he had been guilty of no offense or crime. As they went on whipping him,
he called out louder, not with any cry of suffering or complaint, but
gravely reproaching his master. Such behavior, he said, was unworthy of
Plutarch; that anger disgraced a philosopher; that he had often disputed
on the mischiefs of anger; that he had written a very excellent book
about not giving place to anger; but that whatever he had said in that
book was now contradicted by the furious and ungovernable anger with
which he had now ordered him to be severely beaten. Plutarch then
replied with deliberate calmness:--"But why, rascal, do I now seem to
you to be in anger? Is it from my countenance, my voice, my color, or my
words, that you conceive me to be angry? I cannot think that my eyes
betray any ferocity, nor is my countenance disturbed or my voice
boisterous; neither do I foam at the mouth, nor are my cheeks red; nor
do I say anything indecent or to be repented of; nor do I tremble or
seem greatly agitated. These, though you may not know it, are the usual
signs of anger." Then, turning to the person who was whipping him:
"Whilst this man and I," said he, "are disputing, do you go on with your
employment."


DISCUSSION ON ONE OF SOLON'S LAWS

In those very ancient laws of Solon which were inscribed at Athens on
wooden tables, and which, from veneration to him, the Athenians, to
render eternal, had sanctioned with punishments and religious oaths,
Aristotle relates there was one to this effect: If in any tumultuous
dissension a sedition should ensue, and the people divide themselves
into two parties, and from this irritation of their minds both sides
should take arms and fight; then he who in this unfortunate period of
civil discord should join himself to neither party, but should
individually withdraw himself from the common calamity of the city,
should be deprived of his house, his family and fortunes, and be driven
into exile from his country. When I had read this law of Solon, who was
eminent for his wisdom, I was at first impressed with great
astonishment, wondering for what reason he should think those men
deserving of punishment who withdrew themselves from sedition and a
civil war. Then a person who had profoundly and carefully examined the
use and purport of this law, affirmed that it was calculated not to
increase but terminate sedition; and indeed it really is so, for if all
the more respectable, who were at first unable to check sedition, and
could not overawe the divided and infatuated people, join themselves to
one part or other, it will happen that when they are divided on both
sides, and each party begins to be ruled and moderated by them, as men
of superior influence, harmony will by their means be sooner restored
and confirmed; for whilst they regulate and temper their own parties
respectively, they would rather see their opponents conciliated than
destroyed. Favorinus the philosopher was of opinion that the same thing
ought to be done in the disputes of brothers and of friends: that they
who are benevolently inclined to both sides, but have little influence
in restoring harmony, from being considered as doubtful friends, should
decidedly take one part or other; by which act they will obtain more
effectual power in restoring harmony to both. At present, says he, the
friends of both think they do well by leaving and deserting both, thus
giving them up to malignant or sordid lawyers, who inflame their
resentments and disputes from animosity or from avarice.


THE NATURE OF SIGHT

I have remarked various opinions among philosophers concerning the
causes of sight and the nature of vision. The Stoics affirm the causes
of sight to be an emission of radii from the eyes against those things
which are capable of being seen, with an expansion at the same time of
the air. But Epicurus thinks that there proceed from all bodies certain
images of the bodies themselves, and that these impress themselves upon
the eyes, and that thence arises the sense of sight. Plato is of opinion
that a species of fire and light issues from the eyes, and that this,
being united and continued either with the light of the sun or the light
of some other fire, by its own, added to the external force, enables us
to see whatever it meets and illuminates.

But on these things it is not worth while to trifle further; and I recur
to an opinion of the Neoptolemus of Ennius, whom I have before
mentioned: he thinks that we should taste of philosophy, but not plunge
in it over head and ears.


EARLIEST LIBRARIES

Pisistratus the tyrant is said to have been the first who supplied books
of the liberal sciences at Athens for public use. Afterwards the
Athenians themselves with great care and pains increased their number;
but all this multitude of books, Xerxes, when he obtained possession of
Athens and burned the whole of the city except the citadel, seized and
carried away to Persia. But King Seleucus, who was called Nicanor, many
years afterwards, was careful that all of them should be again carried
back to Athens.

A prodigious number of books were in succeeding times collected by the
Ptolemies in Egypt, to the amount of near seven hundred thousand
volumes. But in the first Alexandrine war the whole library, during the
plunder of the city, was destroyed by fire; not by any concerted design,
but accidentally by the auxiliary soldiers.


REALISTIC ACTING

There was an actor in Greece of great celebrity, superior to the rest in
the grace and harmony of his voice and action. His name, it is said, was
Polus, and he acted in the tragedies of the more eminent poets, with
great knowledge and accuracy. This Polus lost by death his only and
beloved son. When he had sufficiently indulged his natural grief, he
returned to his employment. Being at this time to act the 'Electra' of
Sophocles at Athens, it was his part to carry an urn as containing the
bones of Orestes. The argument of the fable is so imagined that Electra,
who is presumed to carry the relics of her brother, laments and
commiserates his end, who is believed to have died a violent death.
Polus, therefore, clad in the mourning habit of Electra, took from the
tomb the bones and urn of his son, and as if embracing Orestes, filled
the place, not with the image and imitation, but with the sighs and
lamentations of unfeigned sorrow. Therefore, when a fable seemed to be
represented, real grief was displayed.


THE ATHLETE'S END

Milo of Crotona, a celebrated wrestler, who as is recorded was crowned
in the fiftieth Olympiad, met with a lamentable and extraordinary death.
When, now an old man, he had desisted from his athletic art and was
journeying alone in the woody parts of Italy, he saw an oak very near
the roadside, gaping in the middle of the trunk, with its branches
extended: willing, I suppose, to try what strength he had left, he put
his fingers into the fissure of the tree, and attempted to pluck aside
and separate the oak, and did actually tear and divide it in the middle;
but when the oak was thus split in two, and he relaxed his hold as
having accomplished his intention, upon a cessation of the force it
returned to its natural position, and left the man, when it united, with
his hands confined, to be torn by wild beasts.

                                       Translation of Rev. W. Beloe.




GESTA ROMANORUM


What are the 'Gesta Romanorum'? The most curious and interesting of all
collections of popular tales. Negatively, one thing they are not: that
is, they are not _Deeds of the Romans_, the acts of the heirs of the
Caesars. All such allusions are the purest fantasy. The great "citee of
Rome," and some oddly dubbed emperor thereof, indeed the entire
background, are in truth as unhistorical and imaginary as the tale
itself.

Such stories are very old. So far back did they spring that it would be
idle to conjecture their origin. In the centuries long before Caxton,
the centuries before manuscript-writing filled up the leisure hours of
the monks, the 'Gesta,' both in the Orient and in the Occident, were
brought forth. Plain, direct, and unvarnished, they are the form in
which the men of ideas of those rude times approached and entertained,
by accounts of human joy and woe, their brother men of action. Every
race of historic importance, from the eastern Turanians to the western
Celts, has produced such legends. Sometimes they delight the lover of
folk-lore; sometimes they belong to the Dryasdust antiquarian. But our
'Gesta,' with their directness and naivete, with their occasional beauty
of diction and fine touches of sympathy and imagination,--even with
their Northern lack of grace,--are properly a part of literature. In
these 'Deeds' is found the plot or ground-plan of such master works as
'King Lear' and the 'Merchant of Venice,' and the first cast of material
refined by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, Schiller, and other writers.

Among the people in mediaeval times such tales evidently passed from
mouth to mouth. They were the common food of fancy and delight to our
forefathers, as they gathered round the fire in stormy weather. Their
recital enlivened the women's unnumbered hours of spinning, weaving, and
embroidery. As the short days of the year came on, there must have been
calls for 'The Knights of Baldak and Lombardy,' 'The Three Caskets,' or
'The White and Black Daughters,' as nowadays we go to our book-shelves
for the stories that the race still loves, and ungraciously enjoy the
silent telling.

Such folk-stories as those in the 'Gesta' are in the main made of, must
have passed from district to district and even from nation to nation, by
many channels,--chief among them the constant wanderings of monks and
minstrels,--becoming