PREFACE In the present collection of Specimens, where a choice was possible, preference has for the most part been given to selections having some special interest for the English reader, from their connexion either with the literature or with the history of England. These will be found to comprise nearly one third of the total number. The interesting Contes moralisés of Nicole de Bozon (a hitherto unknown English writer), lately edited by Miss Toulmin Smith and M. Paul Meyer, and the account in Old French verse of Strongbow's invasion of Ireland, edited, under the title of the 'Song of Dermot and the Earl,' by Mr. G. H. Orpen, unfortunately appeared too late for any use to be made of them here. The three recently discovered Ballades of Oton de Granson (printed in Romania by M. Piaget), upon which Chaucer based his so-called 'Compleynt of Venus,' seemed of sufficient importance to warrant their insertion in an Appendix. In other respects the collection has been made as representative as the scope of the work would allow. Pains have been taken to select pieces of intrinsic interest and literary merit, complete in themselves, and at the same time characteristic of the works to which they severally belong. |