INTRODUCTION Xxix

retically the Hero ought to represent our best
self; if Reynard in some ways represented
the worst, the medieval conditions of life were
mainly to blame.

There is another source of interest to which
Reynard appealed, and still appeals. Mr.
Vincent Crummles knew the human heart when
he placed upon the Portsmouth stage a hero
of five feet nothing combating successfully
with three antagonists, all of larger inches.
‘Go it, little un’ is the natural cry in an
unequal battle of this description, and Reynard,
in his multifarious intrigues against Noble,
Isengrim, and Bruin, enlists our sympathy
much as David or Jack the Giant-killer has us
on his side in the conflict with the Giant.

Reynard had another source of attraction
in the Middle Ages and at the time of the
Reformation. At times he manages to gain
his ends by donning a monk’s cowl. He
confesses his sins, and is scarcely absolved
before he longs to repeat them. He thus
became a type of the hypocrisy of the monkish
nature. A good deal of his popularity in
Germany has been due to his Protestant
proclivities. Earlier investigators were in-
clined to lay overmuch stress on this side of