Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/507

Rh before me. Thomas Twine was the continuator of Phaer's Virgil, which was left imperfect in the year 1558."—.

Wandlesbury. There is no account of this place in Camden's Britannia.

From this story we learn, (as Warton observes,) "that when a company was assembled, if a jugler or minstrel were not present, it was the custom of our ancestors to entertain themselves by relating or hearing a series of adventures. Thus the general plan of the, which at first sight seems to be merely an ingenious invention of the poet to serve a particular occasion, is in great measure founded on a fashion of ancient life: and Chaucer, in supposing each of the pilgrims to tell a tale as they are travelling to Becket's shrine, only makes them adopt a mode of amusement which was common to the conversations of his age. I do not deny that Chaucer has shewn his address in the use and application of this practice."