380 CRANE— MEDIEVAL SERMON-BOOKS AND STORIES. 



The other work mentioned above, "Jacob's Well," written by an 

 unknown author in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, accord- 

 ing to the editor, belongs to the class of allegorical treatises, although 

 it is really a collection of sermons, which seem to have been de- 

 livered day by day within the short space of " J^is hool tweyne 

 monythys and more," as the author says in the beginning of his 

 last chapter. Mr. Mosher thus describes the work : " A Biblical 

 figure (John iv, 6, Erat autem ibi fons Jacob) is expanded into a 

 truly marvellous allegory of the elaborate penitential scheme. A 

 pit of oozy water and mire, representing man's body beset with sins, 

 is to be made into a wholesome well wherein may flow the clear 

 water of Divine Grace. The dirty water, or Great Curse, must first 

 be removed ; then the mire, i. c, the seven deadly sins. Next the 

 five water gates, the five senses, must be stopped up. After this the 

 digging must continue until the seven pure springs, the gifts of the 

 Holy Ghost, are reached. Then follows the walling process in which 

 stones, sand, mortar, even the windlass, rope and bucket, are, need- 

 less to say, the customary virtues. 



"At regular and frequent intervals 'Jacob's Well' has a pair of 



exempla taken mainly from the ' Vitse Patrum,' ' Jacques de Vitry,' 



' Cassarius,' ' Legenda Aurea,' and legends of the Virgin. The tales 



are therefore hackneyed, but they are frequently forged into a new 



glow by the striking diction of the zealous redactor. . . . Of course 



the stories are uneven ; some vivid, others dull ; some brief, others 



elaborate. Though not so numerous, they are generally slightly 



longer than those in Mirk's ' Festial.' . . . With 'Jacob's Well' 



the exempUim appears to have reached its maximum employment 



in the religious treatise, just as it did in sermon literature with the 



contemporary * Festial ' of Mirk."^ 



3 Of the eighty-two stories in the fifty chapters pubHshed twenty-two are 

 from " Caesarius," four from the " Legenda aurea," five from " fitienne de 

 Bourbon," ten from the " Vitas Patrum," and twelve from " Jacques de Vitry." 

 The statement on p. 138, " Local color then became occasionally noticeable, 

 though distinctive English characteristics were here, as elsewhere among the 

 floating body of universal tales, sparse," would have been modified if the 

 author had been able to consult the collections analyzed in Herbert's " Cata- 

 logue," which will be mentioned in a moment. He would have seen that there 

 are many specifically English stories in the " Speculum Laicorum," etc. A 

 certain number are in the " Liber Exemplorum," edited by Little (see later in 

 this paper), with which Mr. Mosher was acquainted. 



