mpared, even at a distance, in the following century, with the
narratives of Froissart, who, it is true, applied to history his genius
for pure romance; nothing like the anecdotes so well told by the Knight
of La Tour Landry for the instruction of his daughters; nothing that at
all approaches "Petit Jehan de Saintre" or the "Cent nouvelles" in the
fifteenth century. To find English prose tales of the Middle Ages we
should be forced to look through the religious manuscripts where they
figure under the guise of examples for the reader's edification. A very
troublesome search it is, but not always a vain one; some of these
stories deserve to be included among the most memorable legends of the
Middle Ages. To give an idea of them I will quote the story of a scholar
of Paris, after Caesarius, but told in far better style by the holy
hermit Rolle de Hampole, in the fourteenth century. It is short and
little known:

"A scolere at Pares had done many full synnys the whylke he had schame
to schryfe hym of. At the last gret sorowe of herte ouercome his schame,
& when he was redy to schryfe till (to) the priore of the abbay of
Saynte Victor, swa mekill contricione was in his herte, syghynge in his
breste, sobbynge in his throtte, that he moghte noghte brynge a worde
furthe. Thane the prioure said till hym: Gaa & wrytte thy synnes. He dyd
swa, & come a-gayne to the prioure and gafe hym that he hade wretyn,
ffor yitt he myghte noghte schryfe hym with mouthe. The prioure saghe
the synnys swa grette that thurghe leve of the scolere he schewede
theyme to the abbotte to hafe conceyle. The abbotte tuke that byll that
ware wrettyn in & lukede thare one. He fande na thynge wretyn & sayd to
the priour: What may here be redde thare noghte es wretyne? That saghe
the priour & wondyrd gretly & saide: Wyet ye that his synns here warre
wretyn & I redde thaym, bot now I see that God has sene hys contrycyone
& forgyfes hym all his synnes. This the abbot & the prioure tolde the
scolere, & he, with gret joy thanked God."[14]

But instances of this kind of story lack those features of gaiety and
satirical observation of which French stories are full, and which are an
important element of the novel. Some are mystical; others, in which the
devil figures on whom the saints play rude tricks, are intended to raise
a loud laugh; in both cases real life is equally distant. A keen faculty
of observation however existed in the nation; foibles of human nature