It is also the 6th of the Queen of Navarre, where, as in Orologi, the husband is a domestic of Charles, duke of Alençon. See likewise 23d of 1st part of Bandello. All these tales are from the 8th of Petrus Alphonsus, or c. 121 of the Gesta Romano rum. In the Cent Nouvelles there is a story of a young woman, who, being pursued and overtaken in a wood by an amorous knight, and seeing no hope of escape, offers to remain if he will allow her to pull off his boots; this being agreed to, she draws one of them partly off, and thus effects her escape. This is part of the subject of an old English ballad, entitled the Baffled Knight, or Lady's Policy, published in Percy's Reliques. Le Mari Confesseur is from Boccaccio. For the various transmigrations of this story, see above, p. 263, &c. Fontaine has imitated a great number of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles; his Paté d'Anguille, originally written by Malespini, probably came to him through the French medium. L'Encens au diable, which, in the Cent Nouvelles, is put into the mouth of the dauphin, is well known through Rabelais and Fontaine, by the name of L'Anneau de Hans Carvel. La Peche de L'Anneau is Fontaine's Le Faiseur d'Oreilles et le Raccommodeur de Moules, Le Veau is his Villageois qui cherche son veau, Le Faiseur de Papes ou L'Homme de Dieu is his L'Hermite. The Cent Nouvelles were translated into English, under title of a Hundreth Mery Tayles, 1557. This version is now lost, but was a fashionable work in its day. In Much Ado about Nothing, Beatrice suspects she will be told she had her good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales. The tales of the Queen of Navarre, written in îmitation of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, were first published under the title of Histoire des Amans Fortunés, in 1558, which was nine years after the death of the author. These stories are the best known and most popular in the French language, a celebrity for which they were probably as much indebted to the rank and distinguished character of the author, as to their intrinsic merit.. The manner in which they are introduced, is sufficiently ingenious, and bears a considerable resemblance to the frame of the Canterbury Tales. In the month of September, the season in which the baths of the Pyrenees begin to have some efficacy, a number of French ladies and gentlemen assembled at the springs of Caulderets. At the time when it was customary to return, there came rains so uncommon and excessive, that a party who made an attempt to arrive at Therbes, in Gascony, finding the streams impassable, and all the bridges broken down, were obliged to seek shelter in the monastery De Notre Dame de Serrance, in the Pyrenees. Here they were forced to remain till a bridge should be thrown over an impassable stream. As they were assured that this work would occupy ten days, they resolved to amuse themselves meanwhile with relating stories every day, from noon till vespers, in a beautiful meadow near the banks of the river Gave. The number of the company amounted to ten, and there were ten stories related each day; the amusement was intended also to have lasted ten days, in order to complete the hundred novels, whence the book has been sometimes called Les Cent Nouvelles de la Reine de Navarre; but, in fact, it stops at the 73d tale, near the commencement of the 8th day. The conversations on the characters and incidents of the last related tale, and which generally introduce the subject of the new one, are much longer than in the Italian novels, and, indeed, occupy nearly the half of the work. Some of the remarks are quaint and comi. cal, others are remarkable for their naiveté, while a few breathe the conceits of the Italian sonnetteers : Thus, " it is said that jealousy is love, but I deny it, for though jealousy be produced by love, as ashes are by fire, yet jealousy extinguishes love, as ashes smother the flame.", Of the tales themselves, few are original; for, except about half a dozen which are historically true, and are mentioned as having fallen within the knowledge and observation of the queen of Navarre, they may all be traced to the Fabliaux, the Italian novels, and the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. Few are either of a serious or atrocious description-they consist for the most part in contrivances for assignations-amorous assaults ingeniously repelled-intrigues ingeniously accomplished or ludicrously detected. Through the whole work, the monks, especially the Cordeliers, are treated with much severity, and are represented as committing, and sometimes with impunity, even when discovered, the most cruel, deceitful, and immoral actions. When we have already seen ecclesiastical characters treated with much contumely by private writers, in the age, and near the seat of papal supremacy, it will not excite surprise that they should be so represented by a queen, who was a favourer of the new opinions, and an enemy to the Romish superstition. But while so many of the tales of the queen of Navarre have been borrowed from earlier productions, they appear in their turn to have suggested many things to subsequent writers. Thus, the 8th tale, which is from the fabliau of Le Meunier de Aleus, and also occurs in the 96th of the 2d of Malespini, and in Sacchetti, (see above, p. 206,) forms the plot of Shirley's comedy of The Gamester, (afterwards printed under the title of The Gamesters,) where Mrs Wilding substitutes herself for Penelope, with whom her husband had an assignation, and he, to discharge a game debt, gives up the adventure to his friend Hazard. The 36th story of the President of Grenoble, which is taken from the 3d novel of the 6th decade of Cinthio, has suggested to the same dramatist that part of his Love's Cruelty, which turns on the concealment of Hippolito's intrigue with Clariana, by the contrivance of her husband. The 30th coincides with the 35th of the 2d part of Bandello, and the plot of Walpole's Mysterious Mother, see above, p. 387. 38. Is the story of a lady whose husband went frequently to a farm he had in the country. His wife suspecting the cause of his absence, sends provisions and every comfort to the mistress for whose sake he went to the farm, in order to provide for the next visit. This story is in the MS. copy of the Varii Successi of Orologi, mentioned by Bar |