Old French Romances | Page 6

there is little doubt that their subject is
equally congenial. I cannot claim to be in his confidence on the point,
but it is not difficult, I fancy, to guess what has attracted him to them.
Nearly all of them, we have seen, are on the borderland between
folk-tale and romance. It is tales such as these that Mr. Morris wishes
to see told in tapestry on the walls of the Moot-Hall of the
Hammersmith of Nowhere. It was by tales such as these that he first
won a hearing from all lovers of English literature. The story of Jason
is but a Greek setting of a folk-tale known among the Gaels as the
Battle of the Birds, and in Norse as the Master Maid. Many of the tales
which the travellers told one another in the Earthly Paradise, such as
The Man Born to be King (itself derived from the first of our stories),
The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and The Ring given
to Venus, are, on the face of them, folk-tales. Need I give any stronger
recommendation of this book to English readers than to ask them to
regard it as a sort of outhouse to that goodly fabric so appropriately
known to us all as The Earthly Paradise?
JOSEPH JACOBS.

THE TALE OF KING COUSTANS THE EMPEROR

This tale telleth us that there was erewhile an Emperor of Byzance,
which as now is called Constantinople; but anciently it was called
Byzance. There was in the said city an Emperor; pagan he was, and was
held for wise as of his law. He knew well enough of a science that is
called Astronomy, and he knew withal of the course of the stars, and
the planets, and the moon: and he saw well in the stars many marvels,
and he knew much of other things wherein the paynims much study,
and in the lots they trow, and the answers of the Evil One, that is to say,
the Enemy. This Emperor had to name Musselin; he knew much of lore
and of sorceries, as many a pagan doth even yet.
Now it befell on a time that the Emperor Musselin went his ways a
night-tide, he and a knight of his alone together, amidst of the city

which is now called Constantinople, and the moon shone full clear.
And so far they went, till they heard a Christian woman who travailed
in child-bed in a certain house whereby they went. There was the
husband of the said woman aloft in a high solar, and was praying to
God one while that she might be delivered, and then again another
while that she might not be delivered.
When the Emperor had hearkened this a great while, he said to the
knight: "Hast thou heard it of yonder churl how he prayeth that his wife
may be delivered of her child, and another while prayeth that she may
not be delivered? Certes, he is worser than a thief. For every man ought
to have pity of women, more especially of them that be sick of childing.
And now, so help me Mahoume and Termagaunt! if I do not hang him,
if he betake him not to telling me reason wherefore he doeth it! Come
we now unto him."
They went within, and said the Emperor: "Now churl, tell me of a sooth
wherefore thou prayedst thy God thus for thy wife, one while that she
might be delivered, and another while that she might be delivered not.
This have I will to wot."
"Sir," said he, "I will tell thee well. Sooth it is that I be a clerk, and
know mickle of a science which men call Astronomy. Withal I wot of
the course of the stars and of the planets; therefore saw I well that if my
wife were delivered at the point and the hour whereas I prayed God that
she might not be delivered, that if she were delivered at that hour, the
child would go the way of perdition, and that needs must he be burned,
or hanged, or drowned. But whenas I saw that it was good hour and
good point, then prayed I to God that she might be delivered. And so
sore have I prayed God, that he hath hearkened my prayer of his mercy,
and that she is delivered in good point. God be heried and thanked!"
"Well me now," said the Emperor, "in what good point is the child
born?"
"Sir," said he, "of a good will; know sir, for sooth, that this child, which
here is born, shall have to wife the daughter of the emperor of this city,

who was born but scarce eight days ago; and he shall be emperor withal,