228 
IJiji0U' 
Grotcffque 
and 
zf C zzricature 
CHAPTER 
XIV. 
BROTHER 
_STORIES 
POPULAR LITERATURE AND ITS HEROES; 
SPIEGEL, THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM: 
SKELTON, SCOGIN, TARLTON, PEELE. 
RUSH, TYLL EULEN- 
AND JEST-BOOKS._- 
THE people in the middle ages, as well as its fuperiors, had its comic 
literature and legend. Legend was the literature efpecially of the 
peafant, and in it the fpirit of burlelque and fatire manifeited itfelf in 
inany ways. Simplicity, combined with vulgar cunning, and the 
circumilances arifing out of the exercife of thefe qualities, preiented the 
greatefl ftimnlants to popular mirth. They produced their popular 
heroes, who, at firlt, were much more than half legendary, fuch as the 
familiar fpirit, Robin Goodfellow, whofe pranks were a fource of con- 
tinual amufernent rather than of terror to the fimple minds which 
liftened to thofe who told them. Thefe [tories excited with ilill greater 
intereit as their fpiritual heroes became incarnate, and the auditors were 
perfuaded that the perpetrators of fo many artful acts of cunning and of 
fo many mifchievous praclical jokes, were but ordinary men like them- 
felves. It was but a (ign or fymbol of the change from the mythic age 
to that of practical life. One of the earlieit of thefe Ilories of mythic 
comedy transformed into, or at leaft prefented under the guife of, 
humanity, is that of Brother Ruth. Although the earlieft verfion of this 
Itory with which we are acquainted dates only from the beginning of the 
iixteenth century," there is no reafon for doubt that the {tory itfelf was 
in exiltence at a much more remote period. 
Rulh 
4' This earliest known version is in German verse, and was printed in 1515. 
An English version, in prose, was printed in 1620, and is reprinted in Thoms's 
" Collection of Early Prose Romances."