Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/82

lvi ages valued them as a repertory of theological information, and later times as an inexhaustible fund of dramatic incident.

Of that which is called by Mr. Douce the, it now remains to speak. "This work was undoubtedly composed in England in imitation of the other; and therefore, it will be necessary for the future to distinguish the two works by the respective appellations of the original, and the English Gesta. " "It is natural to suppose, that a work like the original Gesta would stimulate some person to the compilation of one that should emulate, if not altogether supersede it; and accordingly this design was accomplished at a very early period by some Englishman, in all probability, a monk ." The feeling on my mind with regard to this