e been current in his
part of France, when he was a boy. The king was Alfonso xi of Castile.
No. 68 of _A C. Mery Talys_, "Of the Friar that stole the Pudding," is
merely an abridgment of the same story, which occurs in _Tarltons Newes
out of Purgatorie_, where it is told of the "Vickar of Bergamo." Many
of the jests in these two pamphlets are also to be found in _Scoggins
Jests_, licensed in 1565; a few occur in the _Philosopher's Banquet_,
1614; and one--that where the lady ties a string to her toe as a signal
to her lover--is repeated at greater length in the "Cobler of
Canterbury," edit. 1608, where it is called "the old wives' tale." It
would be a curious point to ascertain whether the anecdotes common to
these collections and to "_Scoggin's Jests_," do not refer to the same
person; and whether Scoggin is not in fact the hero of many of the
pranks attributed to the "Scholar of Oxford," the "Youngman," the
"Gentleman," &c. in the following pages, which were in existence many
years before the first publication of _Scoggins Jests_. It will hardly
be contested at the present day, that "books of the people,"[4] like
these now reprinted, with all their occasional coarseness and frequent
dulness, are of extreme and peculiar value, as illustrations of early
manners and habits of thought.

The editor has ventured to make certain emendations of the text, where
they were absolutely necessary to make it intelligible; but these are
always carefully noted at the foot of the page where they occur. A word
or two, here and there, has been introduced between brackets to complete
the sense; and a few notes have been given, since it was thought
desirable to point out where a tale was common to several collections in
various shapes or in the same shape, to indicate the source from which
it was derived, and to elucidate obscure phrases or passages. But he has
refrained from overloading the book with comment, from a feeling that,
in the majority of cases, the class of readers, to which a publication
such as this addresses itself, are fully as competent to clear up any
apparent difficulties which may fall in their way, as himself.

The allusions to the _C. Mery Talys_ and to its companion in old writers
are sufficiently numerous.[5]

Bathe, in his _Introduction to the Art of Musick_, 1584, says: "But for
the worthiness I thought it not to be doubted, seeing here are set forth
a booke of a hundred mery tales, another of the bataile betwe