Page:Disciplina Clericalis (English translation) from the fifteenth century Worcester Cathedral Manuscript F. 172.djvu/14

  Study of the influence which Peter Alphonse's work exerted on mediaeval literature, as shown by quotations of individual tales or by other references to it, can not yet be presented. This point has been treated briefly by Söderhjelm, as quoted above. It is, however, worth noting that numerous collections of exempla and sermons, such as those of, , ,, , , Alphabetum Narrationum, Gesta Romanorum, etc., etc., from the 13-15 centuries, contain adaptations and quotations from Peter Alphonse in profusion. Thirteen tales of the collection are included in the 15th century English version of the 'Alphabet of Tales' and fourteen were printed by William Caxton in his Book of the Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope, which he himself tells us "were translated out of Frensshe into Englysshe at Westmynstre in the yere of oure Lorde MCCCCLXXXIII." This book of Caxton is almost a literal translation of Jules de Machault's Livre des subtilles Hystoires et Fables de Esope, translatees de Latin en François, etc., in the year 1483. Machault in turn made a comparatively free translation of Aesop, and apparently from the Latin compilation arranged by Steinhowel himself, rather than from his German version. Caxton follows Machault in omitting the last two of Steinhöwel's fifteen tales of 'Adelfonso' from his translation. They all three also include one tale—No. xii—which is not in any