LEGENDS AND SATIRES
FROM MEDIÆVAL LITERATURE

PARADISE

From Fra Angelico's "The Last Judgment" (early fifteenth century)

LEGENDS AND SATIRES
FROM MEDIÆVAL LITERATURE

EDITED BY

MARTHA HALE SHACKFORD, Ph.D.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
WELLESLEY COLLEGE

GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY MARTHA HALE SHACKFORD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
813.10

The Athenæum Press

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PREFACE

This volume of translations is prepared especially forthe use of college sophomores who are studying Englishpoetry of the fourteenth century, but it is hoped that otherreaders may be interested in these old legends. Ideally,it would be better for students to read the original texts,but every teacher knows how difficult it is to provide textsin this field. The various Middle English Readers are notfrankly popular in their choice of subject matter, and thepublications of learned societies are far too expensive to beavailable for classroom work. It does not seem, therefore,entirely an offense against scholarship to offer students avolume that will serve humbly as companion to "Piers Plowman,""The Pearl," Chaucer's poems, and various romancesand lyrics which are studied in carefully edited texts.

The modern translations are literal, but a certain freedomhas been used in reshaping sentences and in omitting conventionalphrases when they proved too monotonous intheir repetitions. Quite enough tags and awkward constructionshave been preserved to illustrate fully the style ofmediæval clerks.

Acknowledgment is made for help received from GastonParis's "La littérature française au moyen âge," and fromW. H. Schofield's "English Literature from the NormanConquest to Chaucer." Miss Marion E. Markley has contributedtwo translations from Old French, and has givenmany helpful suggestions regarding details.

M. H. S.

Wellesley, Massachusetts

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CONTENTS