I now come to the consideration of the «Sowdan of Babylone», which the simple analysis given by Ellis,[45] shows to be an essentially different work from the Ashmolean «Ferumbras». Indeed, whilst the «Syr Ferumbras» represents only a portion (viz. the second part) of the original «Fierabras» [or «Balan», as Gaston Paris has styled it],[46] the «Sowdan» approaches the original more nearly in that it contains the long ‘introductory account’.[47] For this first part of the «Sowdan» (as far as l. 970), although it cannot be considered as identical with the first portion of the old «Balan» romance, contains several facts, which, however abridged and modified, show a great resemblance with those which must have been the subject of the lost portion of the old original. Whereas the Ashmolean «Ferumbras» is, on the whole, a mere translation of a French original, the «Sowdan» must be looked upon as a free reproduction of the English redactor, who, though following his original as far as regards the course of events, modelled the matter given there according to his own genius, and thus came to compose an independent work of his own. This point being fully treated in my «Dissertation»,[48] I need not again enter into discussion of it here. I only mention that the composer of the «Sowdan» has much shortened his original, omitting all episodes and secondary circumstances not necessarily connected with the principal action, so that this poem does not contain half the number of lines which his original had,[49] and that the proportion of the diffuse Ashmolean «Ferumbras» and the «Sowdan» is over five to one.[50] [p-xxiii] The subject of the ‘introductory account,’ or the first part of the «Sowdan», is nearly the same as that of the «Destruction de Rome», differing from this poem only in the omission of a few insignificant incidents or minor episodes, and in greater conciseness, which latter circumstances, however, enters into the general plan of the author. Indeed, the author of the «Sowdan» seems to have known the «Destruction», as we see from a comparison of the two poems. Thus the following instances show a great resemblance of expression of the two versions: «Sowdan.» «Destruction.»