Kölbing in his work on the Ipomédon of Hue de Rotelande finds in this charming romance of the latter half of the twelfth century the “tendenz, characterzeichnung und handlung,” that class it unmistakably with the romances of the Round Table, and recognizes most particularly upon it the influence of the Charette and the Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes.

The relations between the English romance, Sir Perceval, and its counterparts in French, German, and Welsh have been frequently and extensively investigated. Efforts have been made also to show connections between the story of Perceval (especially the boyhood portion) and various other stories—the “Fair Unknown” (Libeaus Desconus) group, the romance of Fergus, the lai of Tyolet, and the Irish tales of Cuchullin.

Another Irish story which has not, it seems to me, received the attention it merits in this connection is The Boyish Exploits of Finn. The resemblances between it and the English romance were first pointed out by Alfred Nutt in 1881. He believed The Boyish Exploits to he a fifteenth-century composition; and he repeated this belief in 1888, 1891, and 1910. This late date was supported in long arguments by Zimmer in 1890 and 1891; and it has been generally accepted by students of the story, including d'Arbois de Jubainville, Newell, Miss Paton, Miss Weston, and Professors Schofield and Griffith.

The discovery by Mr. Arundell Esdaile of the fragmentary morality Love Fayned and Unfayned has contributed to the history of English drama a document of peculiar interest. The play can, I believe, lay claim to unique significance as reflecting a phase of religious controversy otherwise unrepresented in the drama. Although the fragmentary character of the material renders analysis difficult, the 243 extant lines contain evidence on the basis of which the play may be characterized as an allegorical defense of the sect of Anabaptists. It seems further to reflect, in one aspect, the influence of a group with which the Anabaptists had certain affinities,—the Family of Love.

Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium, which is preserved in a unique manuscript of the latter part of the fourteenth century, has been twice edited; in 1850 by Thomas Wright, and in 1914 most admirably by Dr. Montague Rhodes James. It is apparent, even to the casual reader, that the work was not written continuously from beginning to end, but was redacted from fragments composed at various times and at various degrees of leisure; both editors, however, assume that Map himself arranged the fragments and published the book substantially as it now stands, though Dr. James fully appreciates the formlessness of the work, and admits that “the plan … . is to seek.”

In determining whether the Lincoln mystery plays were processional like those of York and Chester or were acted on a fixed stage, it is important to know whether the St. Anne's Day Sights, about which there is a considerable amount of information, were merely floats or real plays. They are regarded as plays by Mr. Chambers and by Mr. A. F. Leach. A recently discovered account book of the Lincoln Cordwainers' Company, preserved in the Free Public Library, indicates what part the Cordwainers took in the St. Anne's day celebration and what the nature of the spectacle was. The Cordwainers were to maintain and send forth annually in the procession of St. Anne's day a pageant, called the Pageant of Bethlehem. This was not a play, and there is no evidence to show that they were responsible for a play at any season of the year. Their entries of expenses indicate a very different form of dramatic activity from that of the Weavers of Coventry and other companies in that city where the companies maintained plays.

Theories offering interpretations of Chaucer's Parlement of Foules based upon the orthodox belief that the central incident of the poem is in some way connected with a royal marriage have at least refused to do loyal service at one prominent point. No theory of historical allegory has yet explained in a wholly satisfactory manner the outstanding fact that the Parlement of Foules is artistically a well rounded poem, and yet contains an unfinished story. Why does not the formel eagle choose her mate after our interest has been aroused in the pleadings of her lovers?

Scholars have always recognized that there is a large degree of appropriateness in the assignment of the various Canterbury Tales to their respective tellers, and in a few cases an appropriateness also to the situation. Recently there have been determined efforts to extend the application of these principles as far as possible. Conspicuous among these is the position asserted with great emphasis and confidence by Professor Kittredge, who would have us believe that Groups D, E, and F of the Canterbury Tales constitute a “complete and highly finished” “act” in Chaucer's “Human Comedy;” that the Wife's Prologue is a fling at the Clerk; that this gentleman finds it “gall and wormwood” and in his Tale and Envoy makes a deliberate and a studied reply; that during the Merchant's Tale the Wife is “still in the foreground,” and even “holds the centre of the stage”; and that the Franklin, by a process that is “manifestly deliberate,” carries the debate to “a triumphant conclusion by solving the problem.”

Many, if not most, of the writers on early pageantry state that the first pageantic “royal-entry” at London took place in 1236, when Queen Eleanor of Provence arrived at her new capital. It is the purpose of this paper to show that there had been elaborate “royal-entries” before that date, and that the first pageantic “royal-entry” did not occur until sixty-two years after this ceremony. The best way to do this, is to make a survey of the “royal-entries” of the thirteenth century.

It was in connection with this method of honoring their rulers that the English people developed pageantry most notably between the early years of the thirteenth century and the reign of Queen Elizabeth; therefore the beginnings of pageantry in connection with the “royal-entry” are not only interesting in themselves, but historically important. The splendor which surrounded all ceremonies involving the king was great, long before 1200; Wendover's account of the coronation of Richard I in 1189 is a clear picture of the kind of thing that took place.

The proposal of Dr. P. W. Long to connect Lady Carey with the Amoretti of Spenser, interesting as it is, has perhaps not met with universal acceptance. It seems to rest on too slender a thread of evidence for overthrow of the traditional and more natural explanation of the sonnets as belonging to Spenser's own courtship. Without debating that question, however, so far as Dr. Long's suggestion rests upon a public promise of Spenser to “display” “in ampler wise” his “good will” to Lady Carey, I propose another explanation of how that promise was fulfilled. In addition I shall attempt a somewhat fuller examination than has hitherto been made of Spenser's volume called Complaints.

In a recently published volume I have referred to the curious relationship that subsists between the legend of St. Wulfhad and St. Ruffin, which is known to us through the Cottonian ms. Nero C. XII, and a set of verses dealing with the founders and benefactors of Stone Priory in Staffordshire, which has been preserved by Dugdale in the Monasticon. In my Saints' Legends I had not the space to present in detail the evidence by which these two documents are connected, nor to discuss freely the interesting problems that they suggest. The evidence is of such a character, and the problems involved are so novel, that a further consideration of the matter seems desirable.