beare. As might have been expected, many of the leaves were damaged
and mutilated; but (which rendered the matter still more curious) it
happily chanced that _more than one copy_ had been employed by the
aforesaid binder in fashioning the aforesaid pasteboard, and the
consequence was that a much larger fragment than would have been
otherwise saved was formed by means of duplicate leaves. Still several
gaps in the text remained, which it was found impossible to fill up, and
as no other copy has since occurred, no better means exist now than
existed fifty years ago of supplying the deficiencies. Where the hiatus
consisted of a word or two only, and the missing portion could be
furnished by conjecture, Mr. Singer took the liberty of adding what
seemed to be wanting, in italics; his interpolations have been left as
they stood. The old orthography and language, besides the charm of
quaintness, appeared to the editor to possess a certain philological
value, and he has rigidly adhered to it. In respect to the punctuation,
the case was different; there were no reasons of any kind for its
retention; it was very imperfect and capricious; and it has therefore
been modernized throughout.

The _C. Mery Talys_, of which the copy above described has a fair
pretention to the distinction of uniqueness, were first printed by John
Rastell, without date but circa 1525, in folio, 24 leaves. Whether
Rastell printed more than one edition is an open question. The book was
not reprinted, so far as we know at present, till 1558, when John Walley
or Waley paid two shillings to the Stationers' Company for his licence
to produce this and other pieces. Walley reprinted a great number of
books which had originally come from the press of Wynkyn de Worde and
other early masters of the art, but it is not very likely that the _C.
Mery Talys_ made their appearance prior to 1525, and there is room to
doubt whether even then the severe reflections on the scandalous lives
of the Roman Catholic priesthood were not slightly premature. The almost
total destruction of copies may be, after all, due, not to the excessive
popularity of the publication, but to its early suppression by authority
or otherwise. After the triumph of the Reformation, and until the death
of Edward VI. however, although these tales still remained as
unpalatable as ever to a certain party, there was nothing to hinder
their circulation, and that there were intermediate impressions between
th