Page:A Study of Fairy Tales.djvu/196

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172
A STUDY OF FAIRY TALES

sian version, in 1494, and one in Paris in 1644, which was the source of La Fontaine.

Thirteenth century. (2) The Story of the Seven Sages of Rome, or The Book of Sindibad. This appeared in Europe as the Latin History of the Seven Sages of Rome, by Dame Jehans, a monk in the Abbey of Haute Selve. There is a Hebrew, an Arabic, and a Persian version. It is believed the Persian version came from Sanskrit but the Sanskrit original has not yet been found.

Tenth century. Reynard the Fox. This was first found as a Latin product of the monks, in a cloister by the banks of the Mosel and Mass. Reynard the Fox shares with Æsop's Fables the distinction of being folk-lore raised into literature. It is a series of short stories of adventure forming a romance. These versions are known:—

1180. German-Reinhart, an epic of twelve adventures by Heinrich Glichesäre.

1230. French-Roman de Renard, with its twenty-seven branches.

1250. Flemish-Reinaert, part of which was composed by Willem, near Ghent.

1148. Ysengrimus, a Latin poem written at Ghent.

Thirteenth century. Of the Vox and of the Wolf, an English poem.

Later date. Rainardo, Italian.

Later date. Greek mediæval version.

Reynard the Fox[1] was first printed in England by Caxton in
  1. Joseph Jacobs, in his Introduction to the Cranford edition, and Ashton, in Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century, furnish most of the facts mentioned here.