Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox, and of His Son Reynardine

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The History of Reynard the Fox is one of the most remarkable books of the middle ages: Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland, have contended for its authorship, and the conflicting claims appear to be hardly yet decided. Within these twenty years, libraries have been ransacked for old copies, and very large sums have been expended in the purchase of manuscripts discovered in private collections; a considerable number of editions of ancient versions have been printed, and all this research has been accompanied by much controversy and criticism, in which some of the greatest writers in Germany and Holland have taken part. We do not propose to enter into this discussion, but only to state the uncertainty that exists, and to set down our own opinions.<br><br>The balance of evidence upon the whole, inclines us to think that the work, as we now have it, was written by a Fleming or a Dutchman. It is not easy to distinguish between the Flemish and Dutch languages, even now; they differ to our ears little more than the dialects of Somerset and Yorkshire, and the similarity appears to increase as we recede in time.<br><br>The oldest manuscript of the romance of Reynard known is in rhyme; it was written soon after the year 1300, and is now in the public library of Stuttgard. It is in this Flemish or Dutch language, and was printed at Delft, in Holland, in the year 1485. Several editions of it have since appeared, though it seems never to have had so much popularity on the continent as the Low German version; probably because the language was not so generally understood.