The most that can be said for the Latin origin of the _Gesta Romanorum_ is that the nucleus is made up of extracts, frequently of glaring inaccuracy, from Roman writers and historians. The Cologne edition comprises one hundred and eighty-one chapters, each consisting of a tale or anecdote followed by a moral application, commencing formally with the words, "My beloved, the prince is intended to represent any good Christian," or, "My beloved, the emperor is Christ; the soldier is any sinner." They are not so much short-stories as illustrated homilies. In the literary armory of the lazy parish priest of the fourteenth century, the _Gesta Romanorum_ must have held the place which volumes of sermon-outlines occupy upon the book-shelves of certain of his brethren to-day.
"The method of instructing by fables is a practice of remote antiquity; and has always been attended with very considerable benefit. Its great popularity encouraged the monks to adopt this medium, not only for the sake of illustrating their discourses, but of making a more durable impression upon the minds of their illiterate auditors. An abstract argument, or logical deduction (had they been capable of supplying it), would operate but faintly upon intellects rendered even more obtuse by the rude nature of their customary employments; while, on the other hand, an apposite story would arouse attention and stimulate that blind and unenquiring devotion which is so remarkably characteristic of the Middle Ages."[4]
[Footnote 4: Introduction to _Gesta Romanorum_, translated by the Rev. Charles Swan, revised and corrected by Wynnard Hooper, B.A.]
The influence of the _Gesta Romanorum_ is most conspicuously to be traced in the work of Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate; but it has served as a source of inspiration to the flagging ingenuity of each succeeding generation. It would be tedious to enter on an enumeration of the various indebtednesses of English literature to these early tales. A few instances will serve as illustration.
It seems a far cry from the _The Ingoldsby Legends_ to _The Deeds of the Romans_, nevertheless _The Leech of Folk-stone_ was directly taken from the hundred and second tale, _Of the Transgressions and Wounds of the Soul_. Shakespeare himself was a frequent borrower, and planned his entire play of _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_, upon the hundred and fifty-third tale, _Of Temporal Tribulation_. In some cases the language is almost identical, as for instance in the fifth tale, where the king warns his son, saying, "Son, I tell thee that thou canst not confide in her, and consequently ought not to espouse her. _She deceived her own father when she liberated thee from prison_; for this did her father lose the price of thy ransom." Compare with this: