Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/395

Rh drove the poison from the root. The tree, before barren, was now loaded with fruit.

My beloved, the child represents the soul and body of man. The tree is also man; the fruit good works. The serpent, is the devil; and the gardener is God. The branch is the blessed Virgin Mary:—so Isaiah, "A branch shall spring from the root of Jesse." And thus also, in the second of his Bucolics.