Per row—The Last Will and Testament in Literature. 709 
examine later is the use of the metaphor in making bequests. 
This feature may assume one of two forms. It may be (1) the 
willing of tangible property with metaphorical significance 
(either seriously, as when Villon wills his foster father his 
tents and pavilions, or satirically, as when he leaves his night¬ 
caps to the watch), or it may be intangible things such as love, 
hate, diseases, and the like that are bequeathed. Sometimes 
the metaphor is applied to only one or two of the bequests, and 
at other times it is carried throughout the testament so consist¬ 
ently as to approach allegory. 
This metaphorical turn is purely an accident of the Testa¬ 
ment and may take place at any moment. So in the fourth 
century we see the pig leaving his jaws to the wranglers, 1 and as 
early as about 1227 we see Walther von der Vogelweide willing 
his infirmities to his enemies. 2 But as a well-defined fashion 
this metaphorical turn had no great place either in the Will cr 
the Testament until the fourteenth century. 
The use of metaphorical bequests may have arisen largely 
from the suggestions offered by the New Testament, which as 
we have seen, was considered as the Last’Will of Jesus. We 
have seen how he gave certain intangible gifts such as his sal¬ 
vation and his peace. 3 Now as early as 475 A. D. we find that 
the will of Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, contained this bequest, 
“Presbyteris diaconibus, et clericis eeclesiae meae pacem Dom¬ 
ini Jesu Christ! do, lego, amen,” 4 In the Ayeiibite of Inwyt, 
translated from an original of 1279, the bread of life is ex¬ 
plained as a bequest of Christ, “Hit is oure. Vor hit is ous let 
at his yleave nvminge and at his last bequide.” 5 It is not im¬ 
possible that Walther von der Vogelweide may have for bis 
Verm'dchtniss received some sort of suggestion from this eccle¬ 
siastical tradition. 
We come now to what seems to me an excellent starting place 
for the Testament vogue. In 1330 Guillaume de Guillevilie 
1 Cf. page 457. 
2 Cf. page 460. 
s Cf. page 464. 
^Peignot, I, 28. 
5 Ed. Morris E. E. T. S. p. 112. 
