of the bargain-you have agreed to rid me of the dead body, have you not? There, however, it is still;' saying this, she showed him the other coffer in which the second humpbacked minstrel had expired. At this sight the clown is perfectly confounded-how the devil! come back! a sorcerer! -he then stuffed the body into the sack, and threw it like the other over the bridge, taking care to put the head down, and to observe that it sunk.

Meanwhile the lady had again changed the position of the coffers, so that the third was now in the place which had been successively occupied by the two others. When the peasant returned, she showed him the remaining dead body- you are right, friend,' said she, he must be a magician, for there he is again.' The rustic gnashed his teeth with rage-' what the devil! am I to do nothing but carry about this accursed humpback?' He then lifted him up with dreadful imprecations, and, having tied a stone round the neck, threw him into the middle of the current, threatening, if he came out a third time, to despatch him with a cudgel.

The first object that presented itself to the clown, on his way back for the reward, was the

hunchbacked master of the castle, returning from his evening walk, and making towards the gate. At this sight the peasant could no longer restrain his fury- Dog of a humpback, are you there again!' So saying, he sprung on the Chatelain, stuffed him into the sack, and threw him headlong into the river after the minstrels.

'I'll venture a wager you have not seen him this last time,' said the peasant, entering the room where the lady was seated. She answered that she had not: 6 yet you were not far from it,' replied he; the sorcerer was already at the gate, but I have taken care of him-be at your ease he will not come back now.'

The lady instantly comprehended what had occurred, and recompensed the peasant with much satisfaction.

'I conclude from this adventure,' says the Trouveur, that money can do every thing.—It is in vain that a woman is fair-God would in vain exhaust all his power in forming her—if you have money she may be yours-witness the humpbacked chatelain in this fabliau.' The Trouveur concludes with imprecations on the precious metals, and those who first used them, which was probably meant as an indirect hint to his audience.

This story is in the Nights of Straparola, and the Tartar Tales, by Gueulette, under the title, Les Trois Bossus de Damas.'

Thus, even by attending to the general spirit of the Fabliaux, independent of examples of direct plagiarism, there can, I think, be no doubt that they were the principal models of the Italian tales. In writing, as in conversation, a story seldom passes from one to another, without receiving some embellishment or alteration: The imitators may have filled up the general outline with colours of their own; they may have exercised their ingenuity in varying the drapery, in combining the groups, and forming them into more regular and animated pictures; but there is scarcely an Italian delineation, unless it represent some real incident, of which a sketch more or less perfect may not be seen in the Fabliaux. Instances, in which the Trouveurs have been absolutely copied, or closely followed, will be adduced, when we come to specify the works of their imitators.

It is not easy to point out precisely in what way

The story of the little Hunchback, in the Arabian Nights, is probably the first origin of this tale; but the im mediate original is one which occurs in some versions of the Seven Wise Masters.

VOL. II.

the Fabliaux passed into Italy, or at what period they were first known beyond the Alps.

Since the progress of romantic fiction, however, has in many instances been clearly traced from the north to the south of Europe, from Asia to the western extremity of Christendom, and from the classical times of Greece, through the long course of the dark ages to the present period, it will not appear extraordinary that the Italians should have imbibed the fables of their neighbours and contemporaries. During the civil dissensions which were so long protracted in Italy, many of its inhabitants sought refuge in France. A great number of the usurers established in that country were of the Lombard nation. Part of the interior commerce of France was carried on by Italians, and they occupied a whole street in Paris, which was called that of the Lombards. The court of Rome, too, employed in France a number of Italian agents, to support the rights and collect the revenues of the church. Brunetto Latini wrote at Paris his Tesoro, and many Venetians went to study law in that capital. On the other hand, during the same period, the French, as is well known, frequently resorted to the different states of Italy, in the course of war or political intrigue. The French minstrels also frequently wandered be

yond the Alps, bearing with them their Lais and their Fabliaux. Muratori (Dissert. Antichit. Ital. tom. ii. c. 29.) reports an ordinance of the municipal officers of Bologna, issued in 1288, prohi biting the French minstrels from blocking up the streets by exercising their art in public.-" Ut Cantatores Francigenorum in plateis communibus ad cantandum morari non possunt."

There are many imitations of the tales of the Trouveurs in the

CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE,

commonly called in Italy Il Novellino, the first regular work of the class with which we are now engaged that appeared in Europe; its composition being unquestionably prior to that of the Decameron of Boccaccio.

It is evident, from the title of the Cento Novelle Antiche, that it was not a new and original production, but a compilation of stories already current in the world. The collection was made towards the end of the 13th century, and was formed from episodes in romances of chivalry; the Fabliaux of the French Trouveurs; the ancient chronicles of Italy; recent incidents; or jests and