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f A 1 HE ftory of January and May nowbeforeui is of the comic kind;and the cbara&er of a fond old dotard betrayed into difgracc by anunfuitable match is fupjlorted in a lively manner. Pop* has «ndea-vrrured fuitably to familiarize the ftatelinefs of our heroic meafurein this ludicrous narrative; but, after all his pains, this meafure isnot adapted to fuch fubje^s fo well as the lines of four feet, or theFrench numbers of Fontaine. Fontaine is, in truth, the capital andunrivalled writer of comic tales. He generally took bis fubje&sfrom Boccace , Poggius, and Ariofto; butadorned tbemwithfo manynatural ftrokes, with fuch quaintntfs in his refleSions, and fuch adrynefs and archnefs of humour, as cannot fail to excite laughter.

Our Prior bas happily caught his manner in many of his lightertales, particularly in Hans Carvel; the invention of which, if itsgenealogy b« worth tracing, is firfl due to Poggius. It is found inthe hundred and thirty-third of his Facetize, where it is entitled, VifioFrancifci Fhilclpbi ; from b«nce Rabelais inferted it under anothertitle,in his third bookand twenty-eighth chapter. It was afterwardsrelated in a book called the Hundred Novels. v Ariofto ,fi nifties thefifth ofbis incomparable fatires with it. Malefpini alfo made ufeof it. Fontaine, who imagined Rabelais to be the inventor of it,was th« fixth author who delivered it, as our Prior was the laft, andperhaps not the. leaft fpirited. Mr. Tyrwhitt gives the followingaccount of this tale : 44 The feeue of the Merchant’s Tale is laid inItaly ; but none ©f the names, except Damian and Juftia, feem tobe Italian , but rather made at pleafure ; fo that I doubt whether theflory be really of Italian growth. The adventure of the pear-tree ffind in a fmall colleftion of Latin fables written by one Adolphus, 5aelegiac verfes of his fafhion, in the year t3i 5. The fable bas neverbeen printed but once, and in a book not commonly to be met with.

tl Whatever was the real original of this tale, the machinery ofthe Fairies , which Chaucer bas ufed fo happily, was probably addedby himfelf; and indeed J canoot help thinking that his Pluto andProferpine were the true progenitors of Oberon and Titar.ia, orrather that they tliemTelves have, once at leaft, dcfjgoed to Tevifitour poetical fyftem under the latter names. 41 In the Kiftorv ofEnglifb Poetry, vol. i. p. 421. this is faid to be an old Lombardftory.” But many paftages in it arc evidently taken from the i‘oly-craticon of John efSaltfhury. De molcfiiis et onetibns conjugiorurafecundum Hicronymuin ct alios philofophos. Et de pernicic iibidiuts.

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