The three poems associated with the name of George Ashby have been readily available to students of Middle English verse for the past half century in the edition prepared for the Early English Text Society by Mary Bateson. It does not appear, however, that any particular inquiry has been undertaken as to the use Ashby made of possible sources. Indeed, in the case of his first poem (A Prisoner's Reflections) such a study holds little promise of being very rewarding, as the poem is, to a considerable extent, frankly autobiographical. The Active Policy of a Prince, in turn, is a collection of moral commonplaces of a more than commonplace nature—doubtless the number of parallels to other poems of this genre would be most impressive, and perhaps equally tedious. The Latin title of the third poem (Dicta opiniones diversorum philosophorum) suggests its own origin and Miss Bateson has correctly pointed out that this poem is based upon that Latin work which, in its English form, constitutes the first dated work to be printed in England—

The mediæval redactors of the Tristan legend must have been no less puzzled than its modern critics by the inconsistent versions of Kaherdin's humiliating experience as a lover of Isolt's maid. Was her name Brangain or Camille? Did she persist in remaining chaste or did she finally yield to her suitor? What was Isolt's rôle in the affair? And how long did the adventure last? The two sources which preserve this amusing tale for us—Eilhart and Thomas—answer these and other questions in different, even contradictory, ways.