In examining the manner in which she speaks of herself, we shall perceive she does not call herself _Marie de France_, as he has stated, but says _she is from France_. Al finement de cest escrit, Me nomerei par remembrance, Marie ai non si suis de France, &c.[20] If we consider well the latter verse, there will be no difficulty in perceiving that Mary wrote in England. Indeed, it was formerly a very common thing for authors to say that they were of such a city, and even to assume the name of it. Or even, when writing in Latin, state themselves either natives of England, or of France. But when an author writes in France, and in the language of the country, he does not say that _he is of France_. Now this precaution, on the part of Mary, implies that she wrote in a foreign country, the greater part of whose inhabitants spoke her native language; which was the case in England. She stated herself to be a native of France, that her works might be regarded as written in a purer and correcter style. Monsieur le Grand does not believe that Mary really translated from a collection that existed in her time in the English language, under the title of the _Fables of Aesop_; but, if we examine the fables themselves, we shall discover in them internal evidence of their being translated from the English. Mention is made of counties and their judges, of the great assemblies held there for the administration of justice, the king's writs, &c. &c. Now what other kingdom, besides England, was at that time divided into counties? What other country possessed similar establishments? But Mary has done more; in her French translation she has preserved many expressions in the English original; such as _welke_, in the fable of the Eagle, the Crow, and the Tortoise; _witecocs_, in that of the Three Wishes; _grave_, in that of the Sick Lion; _werbes and wibets_, in that of the Battle of the Flies with other Animals; _worsel_, in that of the Mouse and the Frog, &c. The completest MS. of Mary's translation, has but 104 fables; out of which, 31 only are Aesop's. So the English version that she had before her, was not a true and complete translation of that fabulist, but a compilation from different authors, in which some of his fables had been inserted. Nevertheless, Mary has intitled her work, "_Cy Commence li Aesope_;" she repeats, also, that she had turned this fabulist into romance language. Mary, therefore, imagined that she was really translating Aesop; but her original had the same title; and I am the more convinced of this, because, in the Royal MS. before cited, which contains a collection of Aesopian fables, there are but 56. According to the introduction, they had been already translated into Latin prose, and then into English prose; and in this MS. as well as in Mary's, there are many fables and fabliaux ascribed to Aesop, which never could have been composed by him.