643 p. 230). See also the prose "Dialogue of Salomon and
Saturnus" (Kemble, AElfric Society, 1848, 8vo), an adaptation of a work
of eastern origin, popular on the Continent, and the fame of which
lasted all through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; it was well
known to Rabelais: "Qui ne s'adventure n'a cheval ni mule, ce dict
Salomon.--Qui trop s'adventure perd cheval et mule respondit Malcon."
"Vie de Gargantua." Saturnus plays the part of the Malcon or Marcol of
the French version; the Anglo-Saxon text is a didactic treatise, cut
into questions and answers: "Tell me the substance of which Adam the
first man was made.--I tell thee of eight pounds by weight.--Tell me
what they are called.--I tell thee the first was a pound of earth," &c.
(p. 181).

[96] MS. Lat. 8824 in the Paris National Library, Latin and Anglo-Saxon,
some pen-and-ink drawings: "Ce livre est au duc de Berry--Jehan." It has
been published by Thorpe: "Libri Psalmorum, cum paraphrasi
Anglo-Saxonica," London, 1835, 8vo. See also "Eadwine's Canterbury
psalter" (Latin and Anglo-Saxon), ed. F. Harsley, E.E.T.S., 1889 ff.,
8vo.

[97] In "Codex Exoniensis." Series of writings of this kind enjoyed at
an early date a wide popularity; they were called "Physiologi"; there
are some in nearly all the languages of Europe, also in Syriac, Arabic,
Ethiopian, &c. The original seems to have been composed in Greek, at
Alexandria, in the second century of our era (F. Lauchert, "Geschichte
des Physiologus," Strasbourg, 1889, 8vo). To the "Physiologi" succeeded
in the Middle Ages "Bestiaries," works of the same sort, which were also
very numerous and very popular. A number of commonplace sayings or
beliefs, which have survived up to our day (the faithfulness of the
dove, the fatherly love of the pelican), are derived from "Bestiaries."

[98] "Codex Exoniensis," pp. 197 ff. This poem is a paraphrase of a
"Carmen de Phoenice" attributed to Lactantius, filled with conceits in
the worst taste:

Mors illi venus est; sola est in morte voluptas;
Ut possit nasci haec appetit ante mori.
Ipsa sibi proles, suus est pater et suus haeres.
Nutrix ipsa sui, semper alumna sibi;
Ipsa quidem, sed non eadem, quae est ipsa nec ipsa est....

"Incerti auctoris Phoenix, Lactantio tributus," in Migne's
"Patrologia," vol. vii. col. 277.

[99] The most important of which is the famous Strasbourg pledge,
February 19, 842, preserved by the contemporary historian Nitha