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fopice. I have feen an edition of them in 1503 by Wynkyn de Worde, in which they are entitled fimply Ejopi Fabula: the fubjects are for the most part plainly taken from Phædrus, but it may be doubted whether the author copied from the orig. work of Phædrus or from fome verfion of it into Latin profe. Several verfions of this kind are still extant in mf.; one of very confiderable antiquity has been published by Nilant, Lugd. Bat. 1709, un➡ der the title of Fabule Antique, together with añother of a later date, which is pretended to have been made from the Greek by an emperour Romulus, for the use of his fon Tiberinus. They all fhew evident marks of being derived from one common origin, like what has been obferved of the feveral Gr. collections of Efopian fables in profe; [Differt. de Babrio, Lond. 1776,] like them too they differ very much one from another in style, order of fables, and many little particulars; and, what is most material, each of them generally contains a few fables, either invented or stolen by its refpective compiler, which are not to be found in the other collections, so that it is often impracticable to verify a quotation from Afop in the writers of Chaucer's time, unless we happen to light upon the identical book of fables which the writer who quotes had before him.

L

micius which compofe this fixth book, as well as the life of Afop, which is profeffedly taken from Rimicius, are to be found in this translation by Rinucius. There is an edition of it printed at Milan about 1480, but it might very poffibly have come into the hands of the German collector in mf. fome years foon, er, as the first translations of Greek authors were eagerly fought after and circulated through Europe at that time, when very few perfons' were capable of reading the originals.

I have printed in the Difcourfe, c. n. 29, a fable of The Cock and the Fox, from the Fr. Efope of Marie, which is not to be found in any other collection that I have feen, and which, I fuppofe, furnifhed Ch. with the subject of his Nonnes Preeftes Tale. In the fame Fr. Afop, and in abat. mf. Bibl. Reg. 15 A. vii. there is a fable which I think might have given the hint for Prior's Ladle. A country fellow one day laid hold of a faery, (un folet, Fr.) who in order to be fet at liberty gave him three wishes. The man goes home and gives two of them to his wife. Soon after, as they are dining upon a chine of mutton, the wife feels a longing for the marrow, and not being able to get at it, the wifhes that her husband had an iron beak (long com li witecoes, Fr. long as the woodcock) to extract this marrow for her: an excrefcence being immediately formed accordingly, the husband angrily wishes it off from his own face upon his wife's.And here the story is unluckily defective in both copies; but it is eafy to fuppofe that the third and last remaining with was employed by the wife for her own re→ lief.- -A fable upon a fimilar idea, in Fr. verfe, may be feen in mf. Bodl. 1687, the fame, as I apprehend, with one in the king's library at Paris, [mf. n. 7989, fol. 189,] which is entitled Les quatre fouhaits Sainz Martin. See Fabliaux, &c. t. iii. p. 311. The vanity of human wishes is there expofed with more pleasantry than in the story just cited, but, as it often happens, with much lefs de

cency.

Y-fowe, part. pa. 5653, sown.

Y-fpreint, part. pa. 2171, fprinkled.

Y-flicked, part. pa. 1567, flicked, thrust. -florven, part. pa. 2016, dead.

Volume XIV,

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Y-take, part. pa. 3353, taken.
Y-teyed, part. pa. 459, tied.

Y-trefpafed, part. pa. M. 284, trespassed.
Y-vanifbed, part. pa. 6578.

Yvel, adj. Sax. bad, unfortunate, 4172, 4182.
Yvel, adv. Sax. ill, 1129, 3715.

Yvoire, n. Fr. ivory, Du. 946.

Y-zimpled, part pa, covered with a wimple, 472. Y-is, adv. Sax. certainly, 3277, 3705.

Y-rake, pa. t. T. v. 1467, wreaked, revenged. Y-wrie, part. pa. 2906, covered.

Z.

Zeuxis, pr. n. 11950, a Grecian painter.

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