back to the Roman empire for historic examples.
In this fact we find the reason of the name. The tales betray an entire
ignorance of history. In one, for example, a statue is raised to Julius
Caesar twenty-two years after the founding of Rome; while in another,
Socrates, Alexander, and the Emperor Claudius are living together in
Rome.

It is a pleasant picture which such legends bring before our eyes. The
old parish church of England, which with its yards is a common
meeting-place for the people's fairs and wakes, and even for their
beer-brewing; the simple rustics forming the congregation; the tonsured
head of the priest rising above the pulpit,--a monk from the neighboring
abbey, who earns his brown bread and ale and venison by endeavors to
move the moral sentiments which lie at the root of the Anglo-Saxon
character and beneath the apparent stolidity of each yokel. Many of the
tales are unfit for reproduction in our more mincing times. The
faithlessness of wives--with no reference whatever to the faithlessness
of husbands--is a favorite theme with these ancient cenobites.

It is possible, Herr Oesterley thinks, that the conjecture of Francis
Douce may be true, and the 'Gesta' may after all have been compiled in
Germany. But the bulk of the evidence goes to prove an English origin.
The earliest editions were published at Utrecht and at Cologne. The
English translation, from the text of the Latin of the reign of Richard
II., was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde between 1510 and 1515. In 1577
Richard Robinson published a revised edition of Wynkyn de Worde's. The
work became again popular, and between 1648 and 1703 at least eight
issues were sold. An English translation by Charles Swan from the Latin
text was first published in 1824, and reissued under the editorship of
Thomas Wright in 1872 as a part of Bohn's Library.

THEODOSIUS THE EMPEROURE[A]

Theodosius reigned a wise emperour in the cite of Rome, and mighty he
was of power; the which emperoure had three doughters. So it liked to
this emperour to knowe which of his doughters loved him best; and then
he said to the eldest doughter, "How much lovest thou me?" "Forsoth,"
quoth she, "more than I do myself." "Therefore," quoth he, "thou shalt
be heighly advanced;" and married her to a riche and mighty kyng. Then
he came to the second, and said to her, "Doughter, how muche lovest thou
me?" "As muche forsoth," she said, "as I do myself." So the emperoure
marrie