The dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: APPENDIX. The general tendency of the remarks which I have had occasion heretofore to make, and of the mode of illustration which I have adopted, has been to ... more »show the tradition and gradual dispersion of any favourite tale during the middle ages, and the natural vicissitudes of its fortunes. In the ensuing pages I propose to carry out this view to a farther extent, by pointing out other compositions similar to that we have been considering, which are in some degree illustrative either of its general history or its details. It is often surprising how much vitality lurks in such details: cut them to pieces how you will, disjoin them as you will from the main stem, yet, polypus-like, every fragment will vindicate a life of its own, and a place in some order or other. I do not think that any reader, who has attentively considered the introduction to the poem of Salomon and Saturn, or the notes to the prose versions of the tale, will be at any loss for the reasons which have determined the selection of the contents of the Appendix. No doubt much more matter of the same description might have been heaped together, and, some years ago, with considerable advantage ; but there has been sufficient activity of late in this useful department of antiquarian inquiry, and there are various collections easily accessible to those who desire farther to pursue the subject. I have therefore confined myself as much as possible to such compositions as had a more immediate bearing upon the different forms of the Salomon and Saturn, or Salomon and Salom. Q Marcolf. For their rudeness or coarseness I cannot hold myself responsible : parody in the middle ages is essentially rude and coarse, and those who will study mediaeval literature must be prepared for much that shocks our more fastidious se...« less