The material for the present study was collected during a residence of several months in Mexico City, and the facts stated are the result of personal observation of the idiom spoken by the lower classes. In some cases use is made of words and expressions found in printed material, but all such forms have been subjected to a careful comparison with the spoken language, before being accepted as trustworthy.

In the summer of 1895 I had occasion to examine a number of German mss. in the library at Maihingen, belonging to Prince Karl of Oettingen-Wallerstein.

Th. Murner, the great opponent of Luther and one of the most interesting characters of the Reformation period, is unduly overshadowed by his great antagonist, Martin Luther, just as Wallenstein is by Gustavus Adolphus; and what. Schiller wrote about Wallenstein: “Von der Parteien Hass und Gunst verwirrt schwankt sein Charakterbild in der Geschichte,” is equally true of Murner.

When the third volume of Professor Skeat's new edition of Chaucer appeared, it was a disappointment to find that he had not revised the opinion of Chaucer's indebtedness to Marco Polo expressed by him several years ago. It is true that his view had been generally accepted, but the cautious manner in which a few prominent scholars had expressed themselves might have suggested a re-examination of the question. The following are fairly representative of the various attitudes of scholars:—

Brandl says: “Ueber das gebiet des märchenhaften hinaus und auf einigermassen realen boden kommen wir bereits, wenn wir nach der herkunft der tartarischen namen und sitten fragen. Herzberg, Canterbury-geschichten s. 631 ff., suchte sie in der reisebeschreibung von Maundeville. Vollständiger decken sich die angaben Chaucer's mit der von Marco Polo…. Aus Marco Polo stammen mit geringen Veränderungen die namen Cambyuskan, … Camballus oder Camballo … und Sarai; die personalschilderung des Khan, seines geburtstagsfestes und hofstaates; die bemerkung, dass die Tartaren manches essen, ‘that in this lond men recch of it but smal;’ das erscheinen eines gesandten von einem anderen könig mit geschenken; endlich der baumgarten mit allerlei falken in der nähe des palastes.” Engl. Stud., XII, 163.