X11 REYNARD THE FOX

more significance than the usual barren inquiry
into the derivation of words. They lead us at
once into most of the points of interest or
dispute with which scholarly inquiry has con-
cerned itself about Reynard the Fox. The
relative importance of France and Germany,
of the Celtic and the Teutonic genius, in
originating the Satire, the significance of a
proper name being attached to an animal
species, the distinction between the Fable and
the Beast Satire, the popularity of the latter
among the Folk,and its relation to the Folk-tales
dealing with the same subject—all these topics
are suggested by the mere consideration of
the name of our hero. German and French
scholars have, naturally, much to say upon a
topic in which Germany and France are
equally interested, and there can be no doubt
that at times patriotic zeal has attempted to
supply the place of historic fact. Yet that very
zeal has served its purpose, for when competent
scholars fall out Truth comes by her own.

Let us dismiss out of our way the more
certainly attested facts relating to the early
literary history of Reynard. Like most of
the favourite medieval productions of the
Romantic Period, versions of it occur in the