MART, an Anglo-Norman Poetefs. 63

of the fabulifts of the middle ages. From this collation it appears, I. That Mary tranflated from the Englim 104 fables into French verfe, and that of this number there are 65, the fubjeclis of which had already been treated of by jfEfop, Phsedrus, Romulus, and the anonymous author of the Fabula Antique, publimed by Nilant. 2. That the Englim tranflation was not only compiled from thefe different authors, but from many other fabulifts whofe names are unknown to us, fince out of the 1 04 fables of Mary there are 39 which are neither found in the be fore- mentioned authors, nor in other writers of a fimilar kind. 3. That the Englim verfion contained a more ample aiTemblage of fables than that of Mary, fince out of the 56 in the Royal MS. 15 A. VII. which made a part of the former, we find 7 that me has not introduced into her French tranflation ; and from this it ap- pears that flie made a fele&ion of fubje&s that were pleafmg to her, and rejected thofe me difliked ; and that, therefore, her work is to be confidered as nothing more than an extract from the Englifh collection. 4. That this numerous collection was, in a great meafure, the work of the Anglo-Normans, as we find it in their language dur- ing the 1 2th and I3th centuries. It exifted, likewise, amongft them in Latin, and, what is very fingular, England appears to have had fabulifts during the ages of ignorance, whilft Athens and Rome poflefTed theirs only amidft the moft refined periods of their litera- ture. Among the Harleian MSS. N os z 19 and 463, and among thofe of the Royal Society, N 292, contain very large collections of fables and devout {lories written in Latin during the middle ages. The two firft are anonymous, and the other is afcribed to Odo de Ci- rington [#]. Of thefe pieces many are mil of wit and pleafantry ; [*] Narrationes Magiftri Odonis de Ciringtonia. but