Simple Forms is a study of the oral background to medieval English literature and a study of the 'popular literature' provided by the literate for the entertainment and instruction of the illiterate or the partly literate. This book distils the fruits of a capaciously stocked mind over a lifetime's reading ... the width and depth of his intellectual curiosity is evidently as keen as ever. Gray has produced valuable anthologies of medieval English literature and this book reflects his grasp of the apposite allusion, the illuminating quotation.