ise Masters_, _Gesta Romanorum_, and _Barlaam and
Josophat_. These tales became diffused through the _Exempla_
of the monks, used in their sermons, through the _Novelle_
of Italy, the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio, the _Tales of
Chaucer_, Painter's _Palace of Pleasure_, and the
_Elizabethan Drama_ of England. One half of La Fontaine's
_Fables_ are of Indian sources.

1326. The _Gesta Romanorum_, written in Latin. This was a
compilation, by the monks, of stories with a moral appended
to each. It was the most popular story-book before the
invention of printing. In England it was printed by Wynkyn
de Worde, of which edition the only known copy is at St.
John's College, Cambridge. The earliest manuscript of the
collection is dated 1326. Between 1600 and 1703 fifteen
editions of the book prove its popularity. One English
version is by Sir Frederick Madden, who lived 1801-73. The
author of the _Gesta Romanorum_ is unknown, but was likely a
German. The stories included are miscellaneous and vary in
different editions. Among its stories are Oriental tales,
tales of the deeds of Roman Emperors, an early form of _Guy
of Warwick_, the casket episode of _The Merchant of Venice_,
a story of the Jew's bond, a tale of the Emperor Theodosius,
being a version of _King Lear_, the story of the Hermit, and
a tale of Aglas, the daughter of the Roman Emperor Pompey,
being a version of _Atalanta and her Race_.

1000 A.D. (about). _Shah-Nameh_, or _King-book of Persia_,
by Ferdousee, born about 940 A.D. This book is the pride and
glory of Persian literature. It was written by the Persian
poet at the command of the king, who wished to have
preserved the old traditions and heroic glories of Persians
before the Arabian conquest. Ferdousee declared that he
invented none of his material, but took it from the
_Bostan-Nameh_ or _Old-Book_.

The _King-Book_ is very ancient, it is the Persian Homer. It
was the labor of thirty years. It consisted of 56,000
distichs or couplets, for every thousand of which the Sultan
had promised the poet one thousand pieces of gold. Instead
of the elephant-load of gold promised, the Sultan sent in
payment 60,000 small silver coins. This so enraged the poet
that he gave away one third to the man who brought them, one
third