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the enchantment which clouds the memory of Dushmanta. She is therefore driven out of doors, but is led by her mother, the nymph Menaca, to the Palace of Aditi. The ring, which a fish had swallowed, is brought by a fisherman to Dushmanta, who at the sight of it remembers Sacontala and his vow. Here, therefore, the ring has the same signification as in the story; it is, indeed, a decisive ring, (it is called the fatal ring, in the English translation) but no enchanted ring, though it destroys an enchantment. The King has given it to Sacontala, as a pledge that he will not forget her; and this purpose it fully answers. Still it appears magical in its effects; and it does not, therefore, stand in the way of those who would consider a connexion between this and the novella, that in Boccaccio the ring of Beltram, according to his representation, possesses magical properties. It is worth while here to compare the story in Grimm, i. 365, and what is hereafter said of it. In Kalidas, Dushmanta finds Sacontala, after a long and vain search, in Aditi's palace, having before met with that son, as a young hero whom he had begotten of her immediately after their marriage. Thus the child does not appear, in Kalidas, in the same form as in our novella, and, as we have seen, in the Mahabharat; he does not cause the father to recognise his mother, but only makes known to him the discovery of the desired lost one. If, however, we might connect the two forms of the Sacontala, or assume, as is very probable, that, in its original form, the ring appeared in the same signification as in Kalidas, and the child in that of the Mahabharat, it would be impossible to doubt the identity of this story with that of Gilette.

X. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

Mrs. Lennox, in her "Shakspeare Illustrated," has translated an episode in the fifth book of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso,1 as the probable source of this piece; but Farmer and Steevens have already remarked that the novella of Bandello is more similar to Shakespeare's story. In Ariosto is found only the first part of Hero's history, her false accusation: her apparent death, and final resuscitation, in which she is introduced to her former bridegroom as a relation of his first bride, and is

1 This tale was translated into English as early as 1565, by Peter Beverley: "Historie of Ariodanto and Jeneura, Daughter to the King of Scottes, in English verse," 16mo. Printed by Thomas East, n.d. The date of 1565 is taken from the Stationers' Registers. See Collier's Extracts, i., 140. It commences as follows:

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It is of extreme rarity, and a copy was sold, at the sale of the Gordonstoun collection, for £31 10s. Mr. Collier mentions that a "History of Ariodante and Geneuora" was played before Queen Elizabeth, by Mulcaster's children, in 1582-3. This is an extremely curious fact, and gives ground for a conjecture that the incidents of Shakespeare's play had been thus early employed in the English drama. According to Skottowe, the principal incident may be traced to a period as early as the date of the Spanish romance, "Tirant the White," composed in the dialect of Catalonia, about the year 1400.-ED.

married to him, are the invention of Bandello. Shakespeare, nevertheless, may have known Ariosto's representation of this first part of the story, since, in his piece, as in Ariosto, the chambermaid plays the part of her mistress at the window, a circumstance which does not occur in Bandello. This variation he might, however, have invented himself, or borrowed from an imitation of Ariosto's story, in Spenser's "Fairy Queen" (book ii., ch. 4). If Shakespeare could not read Ariosto in the original, it was accessible to him in the translation by Harrington, published as early as 1591; or, indeed, he might have become acquainted with this very episode from a separate poetical translation by George Turbervile,' which appeared a few years earlier.

As Dunlop conjectures (ii., 456), Ariosto, whom Bandello has perhaps copied, may himself have borrowed from the chivalric romance of "Tyran le Blanc," where the substance of the first part of our novel occurs for the first time. It is not requisite to give an extract from the splendid episode of Ariosto, since Eschenberg has already done so, and the Orlando Furioso is in every body's hands, by the translation of Gries and Streckfuss. The ninth novella in the introduction to Cinthio's Hecatommithi also represents a similar deceit as is here practised upon Fenicie; but there it is contrived by a servant-maid, who has fallen in love with her master, against her mistress.

According to the assumption of English critics, the novella of Bandello was known to Shakespeare by the translation in Belleforest's "Tragic Stories" (Lyons, 1594, 12mo., vol. iii.) It is one of the best productions of this novelist; and Shakespeare has kept very close to it, in the first part of his play: the comic portion, the loves of Benedict and Beatrice, appears to be entirely his own invention.

The content of this novella, as a popular story, is very

This translation does not appear to be extant. The information is given on the authority of Harington.-ED.

little; but, if we assume an epic substratum, it belongs, according to the idea, to the cycle of which we have spoken at large in our ninth chapter.

The story has also been made use of by our countryman Ayrer, a contemporary of Shakespeare, for one of his best pieces, his drama of the "Beautiful Phoenicia," which keeps very close to the story. Tieck ("German Theatre,” i., 22) conjectures that Jacob Ayrer made use of an older English play, which was also Shakespeare's model.

XI. THE WINTER'S TALE.

"The Pleasant History of Dorastus and Fawnia," by Robert Greene, was published in 1588. This date, which Dr. Farmer has found upon an impression of this story, decides against the long current assumption, that it had its origin in the play. A comparison with the latter shows that Shakespeare has altered all the names, with the exception of the scene, Bohemia; and this of itself leads to the suspicion that he did not retain it without a cause. The pedantry of certain English critics is ridiculous, who value themselves far too much on their geographical knowledge, according to which Bohemia does not on any side reach the sea;2 and who are so seriously alarmed by this preservation of the name. Had Shakespeare taken Bohemia for a country on the coast, this error would certainly have been canvassed at the representation of the piece; for there were doubtless people even then

1 This edition is entitled, "Pandosto, the Triumph of Time," and is reprinted in Mr. Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. i. The later editions appear under the title, "The Pleasant Historie of Dorastus and Faunia." It has sustained its popularity as a chap-book to the present century.-ED.

2 The well-known error of geography here alluded to is, of course, to be ascribed to the original novel. M. Simrock bandies words with English critics, but some of the latter would smile at the idea of Shakespeare voluntarily falling into a geographical error with the object here ascribed to him. Greene was the author of the blunder; and without any insult to the extent of knowledge on such matters possessed by the poet, we may assume the possibility of his presuming that some of the dependencies or provinces of Bohemia reached to the coast.-ED.

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