Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/540

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And was usually sung to the harp at Christmas dinners and brideales, as we learn from Puttenham's Art of Poetry, 4to. 1589."

But the Gesta Romanorum, is most probably the origin of the tales in question, since the date is unquestionably earlier than those fixed upon by Bishop Percy.

"Among the revenues accruing to the crown of England, from the fair of Saint Botolph, at Boston, in Lincolnshire, within the, mention is made of the royal pavilion, or booth, which stood in the fair, about the year 1280. This fair was regularly frequented by merchants from the most capital trading towns of Normandy, Germany, Flanders, and other countries."—.

"About the year 1470, a collection of Latin