PREFACE xi 



various lines of research together in the some- 

 what elaborate introductory volume which I 

 wrote to accompany my edition- of Caxton's 

 Msofi, published by Mr. Nutt in his 

 Bibltotheque de Car abas. I have placed in 

 front of the present version of the " Fables," 

 by kind permission of Mr. Nutt, the short 

 abstract of my researches in which I there 

 summed up the results of that volume. I must 

 accompany it, here as there, by a warning to 

 the reader, that for a large proportion of the 

 results thus reached I am myself responsible ; 

 but I am happy to say that many of them 

 have been accepted by the experts in America, 

 France, and Germany, who have done me 

 the honour to consider my researches. Here, 

 in England, there does not seem to be much 

 interest in this class of work, and English 

 scholars, for the most part, are content to 

 remain in ignorance of the methods and 

 results of literary history. 



I have attached to the " Fables ' in the 



