PREFACE.
THE object of the Editor in publishing the following fragment being purely philological, all matter relating to the original tale, and its several versions, is purposely avoided, and would, indeed, be superfluous, the subject having already been very amply and ably treated both by Dr. Thomas Warton,[1], and the late Mr. Douce.[2]
The Latin version (of which the Saxon is a translation) forms the 153rd chapter of the Gesta Romanorum; but a more ancient and better text is that given by Welser, from a manuscript in the Library of the Abbey of St. Ulrich and St. Afra at Augsburg.[3]
Compositions in Anglo-Saxon upon profane subjects being so few, it is to be much regretted that a fragment only of the Story of Apollonius of Tyre has been preserved to us in that ancient dialect.
