ILLUSTRATIVE OF EARLY ENGLISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE, DERIVED FROM MS. SOURCES. EDITED BY WILLIAM J. THOMS, Esq. F.S.A. "They are Mucrones Verborum, pointed speeches. Cicero prettily calls them Salinas, salt BY JOHN BOWYER NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT STREET. M.DCCC.XXXIX. COUNCIL OF THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 1st, 1839. President, THE RIGHT HON. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON, M.P. THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ. F.R.S. Treas. S.A. JOHN BRUCE, ESQ. F.S.A. Treasurer. JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A. CHARLES PURTON COOPER, ESQ. Q.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A. T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. F.S.A., M.R.I.A. THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER, F.S.A. SIR FREDERICK MADDEN, K.H., F.R.S., F.S.A. SIR THOMAS PHILLIPPS, BART., F.R.S., F.S.A. THOMAS STAPLETON, ESQ. F.S.A. EDGAR TAYLOR, ESQ. F.S.A. WILLIAM J. THOMS, ESQ. F.SA. Secretary. THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A. F.S.A. PREFACE. In submitting to the Members of the Camden Society the following Anecdotes and Traditions, the Editor feels called upon, before proceeding to describe the sources from which they are derived, to explain the motives which induced him to suggest to the Council the propriety of the present publication; a suggestion acceded to with a kindness which calls forth his best thanks. In the first place, then, it appeared to the Editor very desirable that the Society should follow the example set them by Chaucer, whose intermixture of lighter matters, amidst the graver portions of his "Canterbury Tales," has been the subject of frequent and well deserved encomium; so that those Members of the Society who think Minerva looks most bewitching when her face is dimpled with a smile, may be allowed an occasional glimpse of their divinity in that mood which they deem her happiest. In the next place, the delight with which the few works of a similar character, existing in English Literature, such |