MARY, an Anglo-Norman Poetefs. 65

I have already hinted a fufpicion that La Fontaine was acquaint- ed with the fables of Mary, and had actually borrowed from them many of his fubje&s ; to afcertain this fad: I have examined the French fabulift, in hopes of difcovering fome of the 39 fables which we have already found to be wanting in all the writers of this kind with whom we are at prefent acquainted, and have ac- tually discovered that he is indebted to them for thofe of the drowning woman, the fox and the cat, and the fox and the pigeon. From others he has only taken the fubjecl:, but changed the actors, and, by retouching the whole in his peculiar manner, has enriched thefe pieces with a new turn, and given them an appear- ance of originality. The third work of Mary confifts of a hiftory, or rather a tale, in French verfe, of St. Patrick's Purgatory. This performance was originally compofed in Latin by a monk of the abbey of Saltrey,. who dedicated it to the abbot of that monaftery, and is to be found in manufcript in moft public libraries. There are two tranilations of it into French verfe. The firft of thefe is in the Cotton library, Domit, A. IV. and the fecond in the Harleian, N 273 ; but they are not from the fame pen. The former confifts of near 1800 lines, and the latter of about 700. MonfieurLe Grand has given an analysis of one of thefe tranflations in his fabliaux [a] ; and it is upon the authority of this writer that I have afcribed it to Marv, as he maintains that me is the author of it, but without adducing the neceflary proofs for this aflertion. The Cotton MS. however, contains nothing that gives the leaft fupport to monfieur le Grand's opinion, or even ftamps it with probability; neither is Mary's name mentioned in the Harleian MS. : but as the tranilator in his preface [a] Fabliaux, Vol. V. VOL. XIU. K entitles