^o Differtativn on the Life and Writings of

all our ancient writers of romance, and more efpecially of thofe that relate to the Round Table, affirm their works to be tranflations- from the Latin ; but it is a great queftion amongfl the learned whe- ther thefe original Latin compofitions ever exifted ; and as it has never yet been very profoundly agitated, this decision of Monfieur le Grand appears to be a little too afTuming. It is, at the fame time, the more hazardous, as there would be little difficulty in producing many of the originals which have been ufed by the ancient trouveurs, fuch as Geoffrey of Monmouth's Brute, the hiftory of Charlemagne by the falfe Turpin, the fiege of Troy by Dares, &c. But let us quit, as foreign to our fubjecl:, every difcuffion of this kind, and endeavour to prove that the fables of Mary were really tranflated from a collection that exifted in her time in the Englilh language, under the title of The Fables of&fop. I. In examining the manner in which Mary fpeaks of herfelf, we mall perceive that her name was not Marie de France, as Monfieur le Grand has ftated, doubtlefs after la Croix du Maine and du Ver- dier a, who followed Fauchet [&]. She only fays that her name is Mary, and ihatjhe is from France. Al finement de ceft efcrit, Me nomerai por remembrance, Marie ai non, fi fuis de France, &c. [c] If we confider well the latter verfe, there will be no difficulty in perceiving that Mary wrote in England. Indeed, it was formerly a very common thing for authors to fay that they were of fuch a city, and even to afTume the name of it. This we can eafily con- ceive; or even that, when writing in Latin, they fhould ftate themfelves either natives of England or of France. But when an [a] Fabliaux, Vol. IV. p. 339. [] Bibl. Franc. Vol.V. p. 23 ; and GEuvres de Fauchet, p. 579. [c] Conclufion of Mary's Fables. 6 author