SOURCE: Maurer, Oscar. “William Morris and Gesta Romanorum.” In Studies in Language, Literature, and Culture of the Middle Ages and Later, edited by E. Bagby Atwood and Archibald A. Hill, pp. 367-81. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969.

In the following essay, Maurer examines how William Morris used tales from the Gesta Romanorum in his The Earthly Paradise.

“When you are using an old story,” Morris once observed, “read it through, then shut the book and write it in your own way.” This was his practice, especially to be seen in the composition of the medieval tales in The Earthly Paradise. What happens after he has “shut the book”? He seizes upon certain features of the story, often from several versions of a traditional tale, and proceeds in his craftsman's style to shape it to his liking. He omits an episode or a character, shifts the emphasis by small...