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King Robert of Sicily

(English romance of the fourteenth century, author unknown). It has never been printed. It tells how King Robert of Sicily was beguiled by pride into sneering at a priest who read mass. To punish him, an angel was sent down by God, and he, assuming Robert's shape, transformed the King into the likeness of his own fool: he is sent out to lie with the dogs. He was at length allowed to resume his proper shape after a long and ignominious penance. See poem on the subject by Longfellow.