SOURCE: “Elements of Magic in the Romance of William of Palerne,” in Modern Philology, Vol. 1, No. 2, October, 1903, pp. 355-37.

In the following essay, Tibbals briefly discusses the textual history of William of Palerne and analyzes the nature and significance of the story's magical incidents, including animal transformations and prophetic dreams.

About the year 1350, at the command of Sir Humphrey Bohun, the French Roman de Guillaume de Palerne was translated into English by one William, of whom we know nothing but this name. The translator was unusually faithful to his original, omitting nothing essential and making no important addition; though he greatly increased the poetic merit of the whole by adding, here and there, some bit of description or character portrayal, as unusual in the romances of the fourteenth century as the fresh humor which is William's undying charm.

Of the origin of the French Roman we know nothing...