He was overcome, and became page to Sir Bevis.  Ascapard is very useful, as he is able to take Bevis, Josyan, and even the horse Arundel under his arm.  An attempt at humour is introduced here, which is said to have amused the people of Cologne.  The bishop prepared to christen the giant,

  “For Ascapard was made a tun,
   And when he should therein be done,
   He lept out upon the brench (brink)
   And said, ’Churl! wilt thou me drench? 
   The devil of hell mote fetche thee! 
   I am too much (big) christened to be!’”

We will finish this sketch of the romancing tendencies of our early literature by a description of a dragon from “Sir Degore:” 

  “There was a dragon great and grymme,
   Full of fyre, and also venymme,
   Wyth a wyde throte, and tuskes grete,
   Uppon that knygte fast gan he bete,
   And as a lyon then was hys feete,
   Hys tayle was long, and full unmeete;
   Between hys head and hys tayle
   Was xxii fote withouten fayle;
   His body was lyke a wyne tonne,
   He shone ful bryght agaynst the sunne;
   Hys eyen were bryght as any glasse,
   Hys scales were hard as any brasse: 
   And thereto he was necked lyke a horse,
   He bore hys hed up wyth grete force;
   The breth of hys mouth that did not blow
   As yt had been a fyre on lowe. 
   He was to loke on, as I you telle
   As yt had been a fiende of helle.”

These romances were often called “Gestes,” from the great “Gesta” or exploits they recorded.

The author of “Cursor Mundi,” a book of religious legends, says,

  “Men lykyn jestis for to here
   And romans rede in divers manere
   Of Alexandre the conquerour,
   Of Julius Caesar the Emperour, &c.”

It may be doubted whether such tales as the above were ever regarded as true, but it was not until thought became more active that the falsity of them was fully appreciated, and “jests” gradually acquired their present signification.  The word romance has also come to be used not only for a pleasant poetical narrative, but especially for something utterly devoid of truth.  “Story” is used in the same sense, but not “novel,” for in our present works of fiction there is seldom so much improbability as to be offensive in our day, though it may be so to our successors.

In the above extracts it may have been observed that there is a prominence and importance given to the lower animals which we should not find in writings of the present day.  As civilization fell back into barbarism, fables re-appeared, and some indifferent literature of this kind was produced in the fourth century by Aphthonius in Greek, and afterwards by Flavius Avianus in Latin.  In the Saxon ode on the victory of Athelstan, a very particular account is given of the beasts of prey present at the carnage.