THE DUTCH LIBRARY. Vol. I. LANCELOT OF DENMARK Vol. II. ESMOREIT Vol. III. MARY OF NIMMEGEN THE DUTCH LIBRARY III A MARVELOUS HISTORY OF MARY OF NIMMEGEN PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS A MARVELOUS HISTORY OF MARY OF NIMMEGEN WHO FOR MORE THAN SEVEN YEAR LIVED AND HAD ADO WITH THE DEVIL Translated from the Middle Dutch by HARRY MORGAN AYRES Associate Professor in Columbia University With an introduction by ADRIAAN J. BARNOUW Queen Wilhelmina Professor in Columbia University [Illustration] Of this series fifty copies have been printed on real Dutch hand-made paper, in 8vo size _INTRODUCTION_ _The miracle play of Mary of Nimmegen is one of the gems of Dutch mediaeval literature. Its heroine is a reincarnation of Beatrice, the runaway nun from a Brabant convent who, after wandering seven years with her paramour, and living other seven as a public woman, returned, a repentant sinner, to the convent to find that she had never been missed. For all those fourteen years the Mother of God had served, in her person, as sacristan, because Beatrice had never let a day go by without praying an Ave Maria._