Excerpt from Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, Chiefly Written During the Early Part of the Fourteenth Century, Vol. 3 of 3: To Which Is Prefixed an Historical Introduction, Intended to Illustrate the Rise and Progress of Romantic Composition in France and England Pilpay or Bidpai. These, indeed, as far as I know, were never translated in their original state by our English minstrels: but there is a third work, equally Of oriental origin, and Of not less celebrity than either Of the foregoing, which has furnished us with an English metrical romance, named in the Cotton ms. The Proces of the Sevyn Sages, or, to use the more familiar and popular title of the prose transla tion, The Seven Wise Masters and it may be reasonably expected that the analysis of this romance Should be preceded by ahistory Of the different forms under which it has been succes sively exhibited. This, however, is a matter of extreme intri cacy, and which has never been completely in vestigated, excepting by Mr Douce, who, by pursuing the hints thrown out by Mr Tyrwhitt, Mr Warton, &c., has traced a great part Of the materials employed by our early fabulists to their remotest sources, and to whose notes I have been obliged for all the information which I can venture to Offer on this Obscure and ditfi cult subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.