Many of the Cento Novelle are merely classical fictions. 43. Is the Story of Narcissus. We have also the story of Diogenes, who asks Alexander to stand from betwixt him and the sun; and of the friends of Seneca, who lament that he should die innocent, and are asked by the philosopher if they would have him die guilty; an anecdote usually related of Socrates. 50. Is from 157 of the Gesta Romanorum. A porter at a gate of Rome taxes all deformed persons entering the city. The 5th of Alphonsus is a story of this nature, where a porter, as a reward, has liberty to demand a penny from every person one-eyed, humpbacked, or otherwise deformed. A blind man refusing to pay, is found on farther examination to be humpbacked, and beginning to defend himself, displays two crooked arms; he next tries to escape by flight; his hat falls off, and he is discovered to be leprous. When overtaken and knocked down, he appears moreover to be afflicted with hernia, and is amerced in five-pence. 51. Saladin's Installation to the Order of Knighthood. An abridgement of a Fabliau, called L'Ordre de Chevalerie, (Le Grand, 1. 140). 56. The Story of the Widow of Ephesus. 68. An envious knight is jealous of the favour a young man enjoys with the king. As a friend, he bids the youth hold back his head while serving his majesty, who, he says, was disgusted with his bad breath, and then acquaints his master that the did so, page because he was offended with his majesty's breath. The irascible monarch forthwith orders his kiln-man to throw the first messenhe sends to him into the furnace, and the young ger man is accordingly despatched on some pretended errand, but happily passing near a monastery on his way, tarries for some time to hear mass. Meanwhile, the contriver of the fraud, impatient to learn the success of his stratagem, sets out for the house of the kiln-man, and arrives before his intended victim. On enquiring if the commands of his majesty have been fulfilled, he is answered that they will be immediately executed, and, as the first messenger on the part of the sovereign, is forthwith thrown into the furnace. This tale is copied from one of the Contes Devots, intended to exemplify the happy effects that result from hearing mass, and entitled, D'un Roi qui voulut faire bruler le fils de son Seneschal. A few tales seem to have had their origin in ro mances of chivalry; the 81. Is the Story of the Lady of Scalot, whe died for love of Lancelot du Lac; and another is the Story of King Meliadus and the Knight without Fear. 82. Outline of the Pardonere's Tale in Chaucer. A few of the Cento Novelle are fables. Thus in 91. The mule pretends his name is written on the hoof of his hind-foot. The wolf attempts to read it, on which the mule gives him a kick on the forehead, which kills him on the spot. On this the fox, who was present, observes, "Ogni huomo che sa lettera non é savio." The last of the original number of the Cento Novelle, is from the 124th chapter of the Gesta Romanorum, of the knights who intercede for their friend with a king, by each coming to court in a singular attitude. It has already been mentioned, that four tales were added to complete the number of a hundred. One of these is the story of Grasso Legnajuolo, which has been frequently imitated; in this tale Grasso is persuaded to doubt of his own identity. Relays of persons are posted on the street to accost him as he passes, by the name of another; he at length allows himself to be taken to prison for that person's debts, and the mental con fusion in which he is involved during his confinement is well described. Domenico Manni asserts, that this was a real incident, and he tells where and when it happened. Fillippo di Sir Brunellesco, he says, contrived the trick, and the sculptor Donatello had a hand in its execution. A great proportion of the tales of the Cento Novelle are altogether uninteresting, but in their moral tendency they are much less exceptionable than the Fabliaux, by which they were preceded, or the Italian Novelettes, by which they were followed. In general, it may be remarked, that those stories are the best which claim an eastern origin, or are derived from the Gesta Romanorum and the Fabliaux. This, from the examples given, the reader will have difficulty in believing; but those tales which are founded on real incident, or are taken from the annalists of the country, are totally uninteresting. The repartees are invariably flat, and the jests insipid. This remark is, I think, also applicable to the DECAMERON OF BOCCACCIO; those tales derived from the Fabliaux being invariably the most ingenious and graceful. This celebrated work succeeds, in chronological order, to the Cento Novelle, and is by far the most renowned production in this species of composition. It is styled the Decameron, from ten days having been occupied in the relation of the tales, and is also entitled Principe Galeotto,-an appellation which the deputies appointed for the correction of the Decameron consider as derived from the 5th canto of the Inferno, Galeotto being the name of the seductive book which was read by Paulo and Francesca: "Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse," &c. The Decameron is supposed to have been commenced about the year 1348, when Florence was visited by the plague, and finished about 1358. Thus only a period of half a century had intervened from the appearance of the Cento Novelle and the infinite superiority of the Decameron over its predecessor, marks in the strongest manner the |