I have examined La Fontaine, to ascertain whether he were acquainted with the fables of Mary, and had actually borrowed his subjects from the 39 fables which are wanting in all the writers of this kind with whom we are at present acquainted; and have actually discovered, that he is indebted to them for those of the Drowning Woman, the Fox and the Cat, and the Fox and the Pigeon.  From others he has only taken the subject, but changed the actors; and, by retouching the whole in his peculiar manner, has enriched them with a new turn, and given them an appearance of originality.

The third work of Mary consists of a history, or rather a tale, in French verse, of St. Patrick’s Purgatory.  This performance was originally commenced in Latin, at the Abbey of Saltrey, and dedicated to the abbot of that monastery, and is to be found in MS. in many public libraries.  There are two translations of it into French verse.  The first of these is in the Cotton Library, Domit.  A. IV. and the second in the Harleian, No. 273, but they are not from the same pen:  the former consists of near 1000 lines, and the latter of about 700.  M. Le Grand has given an analysis of one of these translations in his fabliaux, vol.  V.; and it is upon the authority of this writer that I have ascribed it to Mary, as he maintains that she was the author of it, but without adducing the necessary proofs for this assertion.  The Cotton MS. however, contains nothing that gives the least support to M. Le Grand’s opinion, or even screens it with probability.  Neither is Mary’s name mentioned in the Harleian MS.; but as the translator, in his preface, entitles the work “a lay,” and professes he had rather engage in it than relate fables, it may afford a conjecture that Mary has sufficiently developed herself in speaking of her labours.  This, however, is merely a conjecture.  It is not impossible that the MS. which M. Le Grand consulted contained more particular details on this subject; but he is certainly mistaken in one respect, and that is, in supposing Mary to have been the original author of this piece, whilst all the MSS. that exist attest that she could have been only the translator:  and if the translation in the Harleian MS. actually be her performance, she there positively declares that she had been desired to translate the work from Latin into Romance.

This poem was, at a very early period, translated into English verse.  It is to be found in the Cotton library, Calig.  A. II. under the title of Owayne Miles, on account, of Sir Owen being the hero of the piece, and whose descent into St. Patrick’s purgatory is related.  Walter de Metz, author of the poem entitled Image du Monde, mentions also the wonders of St. Patrick’s purgatory, the various adventures of those who descended into it, and the condition of those who had the good fortune to return from it; but I am uncertain whether he speaks from the original Latin of the monk of Saltrey, or from Mary’s French translation.  In the latter case it should appear that Mary finished her translation before 1246, the year in which Walter says he composed his work.[32]