Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Hooper.djvu/57

Rh strong castle, and over one of the gates, in a conspicuous place, caused the following verses to be written: 'In my distress, religious aid I sought: But my distress relieved, I held it nought. The wolf was sick, a lamb he seemed to be; But health restored, a wolf again we see.' Interrogated as to the meaning of these enigmatical lines, the knight at once explained them, by relating his own story, and added, that in eight days' time the thirty years would expire. He invited all his friends to a feast at that period, and when the day was arrived, the guests placed at table, and the minstrels attuning their instruments of music, a beautiful bird flew in at the window, and began to sing with uncommon sweetness. The knight listened attentively, and said, I fear this bird prognosticates misfortune. He then took his bow, and shot an arrow into it, in presence of all the company. Instantly the castle divided into two parts, and, with the knight, his wife, and all who were in it, was precipitated to the lowest depth of the infernal regions. The story adds, that on the spot where the castle stood, there is now a spacious lake, on which no substance whatever floats, but is immediately plunged to the bottom."

"The dog and the lamp, in this story, are introduced in chap. i. of the other Gesta, but the tales have nothing else in common." —. But the pure virgin is in Tale CXV., and the thorn extracted from the lion's foot, in Tale CIV. The protection afforded by the animal resembles that in Tale CIX.—The youth's subterranean residence seems copied from the story of the third calendar in the Arabian Nights.

"The substance of this story," says Mr. Douce, "is incorporated with the old ballad of 'A warning Piece to England, or the Fall of Queen Eleanor.' "—''Coll. of old Ballads''. vol. i. No. xiii.

"There dwelt some time in Rome a mighty emperor and a merciful, named Menelay, who ordained such a law, that what innocent person was taken and put in prison, if he might escape and come to the emperor's palace, he should be there safe from all manner of accusations against him in his life time. It was not long after, but it befel, that a knight was accused, wherefore he was taken and pat in a strong and dark prison, where he lay a long time, and had no light but a little window, whereat scant light shone in, that lighted him to eat such simple meat as the keeper brought him: wherefore he mourned greatly, and made sorrow that he was thus fast shut up from the sight of men. Nevertheless, when the keeper was gone, there came daily a nightingale in at the window, and sung full sweetly, by whose song this woful knight was oftentimes fed with joy, and when the bird left off singing, then would she flye into the knight's bosome, and there this knight fed