"Amidst right the high street,
So much folic him gone meet,
That they rest a stonde,[1]
All they sighed that to him come,
And healed were very soon,
Of feet, and eke of honde.
"The history of Saint Alexius is told entirely in the same words in the Gesta Romanorum, and in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voraigne,[2] translated through a French medium, by Caxton. This work of Jacobus does not consist solely of the legends of the saints, but is interspersed multis aliis pulcherrimis et peregrinis historiis, with many other most beautiful and strange histories."[3]—Warton.
As it may be amusing to the reader to compare the translation in the text with that executed by the venerable patriarch of the press, William Caxton, in the fifteenth century, I am tempted to transcribe it. There are many little additional touches of manners which the antiquary will value; and while the general reader smiles at the primitive simplicity with which the story is narrated, he will, it is presumed, derive some pleasure from the strong contrast afforded by the past and the present era—from the elevated situation on which he may seem to stand: a being, as it were, of another sphere; asserting the pre-eminence of civilization over uncultivated life—the polite refinement of modern manners over the rude character of remote and barbarous times.
Here foloweth the lyfe of saynt Alexis.
And fyrst of his name.
Alexis is as moche as to saye as goynge out of the lawe of maryage for to keep virginite for goddes sake, and to renounce all the pomp and rychesses of the worlde for to lyue in pouerte.
In the tyme that Archadius and Honorius were emperours of Rome, there was in Rome a ryght noble lord named Eufemyen, which was chefe and aboue all other lordes aboute the emperours, and had under his power a thousande knyghtes. He was a moche iust man to all men, and also he was pyteous and mercyfull unto ye poore. For he had dayly thre tables set and couered for to fede ye orphans, poor wydowes, and pylgryms. And he ete at the houre of none with good and religyous persones. His wyfe yt was named Aglaes ledde a religyous lyfe. But bycause they had no childe, they prayed to god to send them a sone yt myght be theyr heyre after them, of theyr honour and goodes. It was so that god herde theyre prayers, and beheld theyre bounte and good lyvynge, and gave unto them a sone
- ↑ A moment.
- ↑ "Hystor. lxxxix. fol. clviii. edit 1479, fol., and in Vincent of Beanvais, who quotes Gesta Alexii Specul. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 43, seq. f. 241–6."—Warton.
- ↑ Warton seems to be in error respecting this work, which he confounds with The Lives of the Fathers, translated out of Frensshe into Englisshe by William Caxton of Westminster, late deed, and fynisshed it at the last day of hys lyff." The Golden Legend (properly so called) consists wholly of the legends of the Saints; but the Lives of the Fathers is interspersed with stories of the character given above.
