Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/452

440

"This story occurs in Symeon Seth's translation of the celebrated Arabian fable-book, called Calilah u Dumnah . It is recited by Matthew Paris, under the year 1195, as a parable which king Richard the First, after his return from the East, was often accustomed to repeat, by way of reproving those ungrateful princes who refused to engage in the crusade. It is versified by Gower, who omits the Lion, as Matthew Paris does the ape, in the fifth book of the ."—.

There is some little difference in Gower.

The stone he proffereth to the sale. * ***** Thus when this stone was bought and sold, Homeward with joy many-fold; This Bardus goeth, and when he came Home to his house, and that he name