entertained, and may be instructed, by the relation of incidents imaginary or real. Hence, in almost every country, tales have been the amusement and learning of its rude and early ages.

Of the variety of tales which are to be found in the works of the Italian novelists, some were undoubtedly deduced from the writings of the Greek romancers and sophists. In the Habrocomas and Anthia of Xenophon Ephesius, we find the rudiments of the celebrated tale of Luigi da Porto, from which Shakespeare took his Romeo and Juliet, and many of the apologues in Josaphat and Barlaam correspond with chapters in the Gesta Romanorum, and through that performance with stories in the Decameron. The epistles of Aristenetus contain several tales very much in the spirit of those of Boccaccio. Thus, a lady, while engaged with a gallant, suddenly hears her husband approaching; she instantly ties the hands of her lover, and delivers him thus bound to her spouse as a thief she had just seized. The husband proposes putting him to death, to which the lady objects, suggesting that it will be better to detain him till daybreak, and then deliver him into the hands of the magistrate, offering at the same time to watch him during night. By this means, while her husband is asleep, she enjoys a little more of the society of her lover, and permits him to escape towards morning. In the Ass of Apuleius, resemblances may be traced still more numerous and complete. But though it be true that these works had an influence on the tales which appeared in Europe at the first dawn of literature, the ultimate origin of this species of composition must unquestionably be referred to a source more ancient and oriental.

The earliest work of this nature that can be mentioned, is the tales or fables attributed to Bidpai, or Pilpay, a composition otherwise known by the name of

KALILAH VE DIMNAH.

This production, which, in its original form, is supposed to be upwards of two thousand years old, was first written in an Indian language, in which the work was called Hitopadesa (wholesome instruction), and the sage who

related the stories, Veshnoo Sarma. It is said to have been long preserved with great care and secrecy by an Indian monarch, among his choicest treasures. At length, however, (as we are informed by Simeon Seth, in the preface to his Greek version of these stories,) Chosroes, a Persian king, who reigned about the end of the sixth century, sent a learned physician into India, on purpose to obtain the Hitopadesa. This emissary accomplished the object of the mission, by bribing an Indian sage with a promise of intoxication, to steal the literary treasure. The physician, on his return to Persia, translated it into the language of his own country, and in the frame in which it was introduced, attributed the relation of the stories to Bidpai. It was soon after translated into Syriac,' and oftener than once into more modern Persic. In the eighth century there appeared an Arabic version, under the title, Kalilah ve Dimnah (the dullard and the cunning one), the appellation by which the work is now generally known, and which is derived from the names assigned to two foxes or jackals, who relate a number of the stories. About the year 1100, Simeon Seth, by desire of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, translated the Arabic version into Greek, under the title, Τὰ κατὰ στεφανίτην, καὶ ιχνηκάτην, of the crowned and the envious. The philosopher who relates the stories is not named in this version. It is divided into fifteen sections, in the two first of which the foxes are the principal interlocutors, but the remaining thirteen refer to other animals. The work of Simeon Seth was printed at Berlin, 1697, with a Latin version. Long before that period, however, the Kalilah ve Dimnah had been translated into Latin by John of Capua, who lived as far back as the thirteenth century. This version was made from one in Hebrew, by Rabbi Joel, and was printed toward the end of the fifteenth

1 The Hitopadesa seems to be often confounded with the Panchatantra ; it is, however, only an extract from the first three books of the latter work. Genealogy of Indian Fiction, p. 9, Landau. Quellen, etc. Wien, 1869.

The later Syriac text, edited by Professor Wright of Cambridge, was published (Oxford and London) in 1884, and a literal English translation from the Syriac, by J. G. N. Keith Falconer, was published at Cambridge in 1885, in the Introduction to which an account of the work and its diffusion will be found. See also Table at end of vol. i.

6

century, under the title, Directorium Humanæ Vitæ, vel Parabole Antiquorum Sapientum. Thence it passed into German, Spanish, and Italian. The Italian translation was the work of the novelist Firenzuola, and was called Discorsi Degli Animali, and published 1548. A version in the same tongue, by Doni, was translated into English, under the name of the Moral Philosophy of Doni, out of Italian, by Sir Thomas North, 4to, 1570 and 1601. From the Latin of John of Capua, there also appeared a French edition in 1698. It was from a Turkish model, however, written in the time of Solyman the Magnificent, that the well-known French work, Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et Lockman, 1724, was commenced by M. Galland, and continued by M. de Cardonne. If we may judge, however, from the title, it was not completed according to the intention of the authors, as there are no fables given which are attributed to Lockman. lated into English 1747, and an J. G. N. Keith Falconer, from the published at Cambridge, 1885.

This work was trans-
English version, by
Syriac text, has been

In all the versions the tales are enclosed in a frame, a mode of composition subsequently adopted in many writings of a similar description. We are told that a powerful king, after being tired one day with the chase, came, accompanied by his vizier, to a place of retreat and refreshment. Here the prince and his minister enter into a discourse on human life and government, a conversation which seems to have been suggested by a swarm of bees, which were at labour in the trunk of a neighbouring oak. During this discussion, the vizier mentions the story of Bidpai, and the Indian king who ruled according to his counsels. This frame is not believed to be more ancient than the Turkish version; but the story of Bidpai, which the king expresses a curiosity to hear, is supposed to be as old as the earliest Persian translation, and is of the following tenor:- Dabchelim, the Indian king, after a feast in which his liberality had been much commended by all his guests, made a great distribution of gold among his friends and the poor. In the course of the following night, an old man appeared to him in a dream, and, as a reward of his generosity, informed him where he would find a treasure.

66

Next morning the king proceeded to the spot to which he had been directed. There he found a cavern inhabited by a hermit, who put him in possession of an immense. treasure he had inherited from his father, but for which he had no farther use. Among other articles, the king received a precious casket, containing a piece of silk, woven with certain characters, which, however, had the inconvenience of being unintelligible. When at length interpreted by a philosopher, it was found to be a legacy from a prophetic predecessor of Dabchelim, and to contain fourteen pieces of instruction for monarchs. Each of these is declared to have reference to a surprising history, but it is announced, that he who is desirous to hear must repair to the isle of Sarandib (Ceylon.) The king being disposed to undertake this journey, and the viziers being against it, a discussion arises, in which all attempt to support their own sentiments, by the relation of fables. His majesty at length, as was to be expected, followed his own opinion, and after a long journey arrived at the island of Sarandib. While traversing a lofty, but delightful mountain, het came to a grotto which was inhabited by the Brahmin Bidpai. This was the sage destined to expound the mysterious precepts which the king now recited to him, and which teach that a monarch is apt to be imposed on by detractors, that he ought to be careful not to lose a faithful friend, &c. These maxims the sage illustrates by fables and apologues, which, it may be remarked, have seldom much relation to the instructions of which Dabchelim required an explanation.-Stories are heaped on stories, and sphered within each other: a dying father, for example, gives some admonitions to his sons, which he enforces by apologues; but his family, seeing matters in a different point of view, support their opinions in the same manner, and introduce the two foxes, who rehearse a long series of fables.

It is unnecessary to give any specimen of the tales of Bidpai, as they have been so much altered in the various transformations they have undergone, that no dependence could be had on their originality. But it must have been

On the subject may be consulted: Wilson's "Analysis of the Pancha Tantra;" Mem. of Royal Asiatic Society, I.; Loiseleur des Longchamp's" Essai sur les Fables Indiennes," 1858; Benfey, Pancha Tantra,

Occurs

But I remember

through the medium of the version of John of Capua, that these oriental fables exercised their influence on European fiction. Some of these stories agree with the Clericalis Disciplina of Petrus Alphonsus, and many of them have been adopted into the Gesta Romanorum, a great storehouse of the Italian novelists. The tale of the thief who breaks his neck by catching at a ray of the moon,' in the Gesta and the French Fabliaux. only one Italian novel, the incidents of which have been derived from this work, and it is but in a very few stories of the Kalilah ve Dimnah, that any resemblance can be traced. They are mostly fables in the style of Æsop, and have but few traces of the ingenious gallantry, savage atrocity, or lively repartee, which are the characteristics of Italian tales. Besides, as the work was not very widely diffused, nor generally known in Europe in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, I cannot believe that it had much effect, either directly or indirectly, on this species of composition. The collection of tales, familiarly known in this country under name of the

SEVEN WISE MASTERS,

is certainly one of those works which may be considered as having had considerable influence on the writings of the Italian novelists, and may perhaps be regarded as the remotest origin of the materials they have employed.

Of this romance the prototype is believed to have been the book of the Seven counsellors, or Parables of Sandabar. This Sandabar is said, by an Arabian writer, to have been an Indian philosopher, who lived about an hundred years before the Christian era; but it has been disputed whether he was the author, or only the chief character, of the work, which was inscribed with his name. He might have been both a character and an author, but it would appear from

2

Bar

No. 23 of Latin Stories from MSS. of Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, ed. by T. Wright for the Percy Society, 1842, Legrand's fabliau "Du voleur qui voulut descendre sur un rayon de lune." bazan, ii. 148. See P. Alfonsi Discip. Cler., ed. F. W. V. Schmidt, p. 156, etc.; Doni, Philosophia Morale, c. i. 1st story.

2 See Loiseleur des Longchamp's "Essai sur les Fables indiennes," p. 80, etc.