Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/24

Frederick Madden believed that this Anglo-Latin text was compiled in England, in the reign of Richard II. It was from this text that the first English translation was made, which was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde, about 1510 or 1515. The first French translation, after being long known in manuscript, was printed in Paris in 1521. It is unnecessary to add that many editions followed in both countries, and that the book was translated also into German and into other languages. It was no doubt very popular in England, and it exercised a great influence on our English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; at which we need not be surprised, for there is poetry both in the tales themselves, and in the manner in which they are told. In our own country the Gesta Romanorum continued long to be reprinted both in the original Latin and in the English translation, which was a popular