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language of Picardy, entitled Les Evangiles des Quenouilles, and which is different from the printed edition of that production.

In chronological order, the next comic romance, subsequent to the work of Rabelais, is the

VITA DI BERTOLDO,

written in Italian towards the end of the 16th century by Julio Cesare Croce, surnamed Della Lyra, because he dignified with this appellation the violin on which he scraped in the streets of Bologna.

I know of scarcely any celebrated novel or romance which exhibits the rise of the principal character from a low rank to a distinguished fortune by the force of talents. The Life of Bertoldo, however, describes the elevation of a peasant to the highest situation in his country, by a species of grotesque humour, and a singular ingenuity in extricating himself from the difficulties into which he is thrown by the malice of his enemies.

This romance is borrowed from the eastern story of Solomon and Marcolphus, which is one of the many oriental traditions concerning the Jew

ish monarch. It appeared in a metrical form in the French language in the 13th century; in Latin in the year 1488; and in English under the title of Sayings and Proverbs of Solomon, with the answers of Marcolphus. The Life of Bertoldo, however, which is the Italian form of this fiction, is the most popular shape it has assumed. Indeed, in the country in which it appeared, it enjoyed, for more than two centuries, reputation equal to that of Robinson Crusoe, or the Pilgrim's Progress, in this island: the children had it by heart, and the nurses related it to those who had not yet learned to read. Innumerable sayings or proverbs derived from it are still in the mouths of the few who have never perused or forgotten it, as la pace di Marcolfa, the wife of the hero, who habitually quarrelled with her husband for the sake of the reconciliation.

We are told, near the beginning of this work, that in the sixth century King Alboino reigned over Lombardy in his capital of Verona. At the same time there lived, in a small village in the neighbourhood, a peasant called Bertoldo, of a strange and ludicrous aspect. His large head was round as a foot-ball, and garnished with short red hair; he had two little blear eyes, fringed with scarlet; a flat broad nose; a mouth from ear to

ear, and a person corresponding to the charms of his countenance.

But the deformity of Bertoldo's appearance was compensated by the acuteness and solidity of his understanding. His neighbours preferred his moral instructions to those of their pastor; he adjusted their differences more to their satisfaction, than the lord of the territory or the judge, and he made them laugh more heartily than the mountebanks, who occasionally passed through the village.

One day Bertoldo took a longing to see the court and capital. On entering Verona, he observed two women disputing on the street, about the property of a mirror, and followed them to the hall of audience, whither they were summoned to receive the judgment of the king, who had overheard their quarrel. The singularity of Bertoldo's figure, and his presumption in chusing a seat reserved for the chief courtiers, attracted the monarch's attention, whose curiosity was farther excited by the singular answers he returned to the first questions concerning his situation in life, his age, and residence. His majesty, in consequence, persisted in a series of interrogatories; he asked which is the best wine? "That which we drink at the expence of another." "Who caresses us

most?" "He who has already deceived us, or intends to do so,"—an idea that has been expressed by Ariosto:

Chi mi fa piu carezze che non suole,

O m' ingannato o ingannar mi vuole.

Bertoldo now listened to the pleadings in the cause concerning the mirror. The king ordered it to be broken in two, and divided between the disputants. She of the parties who opposed this arrangement, and prayed that it might be given entire to her adversary, had the whole bestowed on her. The courtiers applauded this happy application of the judgment of Solomon; but Bertoldo pointed out those specialties of the case, from which he conceived that that decision ought not to be held as a precedent, and concluded with some satirical reflections on the fair sex, to which the king replied in astudied eulogy. These sarcasms, and a device by no means ingenious, to which he had recourse, in order to convince the king that his majesty entertained too favourable an opinion, induced the queen to avenge the injury offered to those of her sex. On pretence of rewarding Bertoldo, she sent for him to her apartments. "What a ridiculous figure you are,” remarked her majesty: "Such as it is," replied Bertoldo, "I

have it from nature-I neither mend my shape nor counterfeit a complexion." Perceiving that the queen, and the ladies who attended her, were provided with switches, and thence suspecting their hostile intentions, he informed them, that, being somewhat of a sorcerer, he was not only aware of their designs, but foresaw that she would give the first blow, who had least regard to her own and her husband's honour. Bertoldo escaped unhurt by this device, which is similar to that in the 39th of the Cento Novelle Antiche, (see above, vol. II. p. 217.)

The drollery of Bertoldo excited the jealousy of Fagotti, who had been long the unrivalled buffoon of the court. The author relates a number of absurd questions, which Fagotti put with the view of exposing his enemy, and the triumphant answers of our hero." How would you carry water in a sieve?" "I would wait till it was frozen." "When could you catch a hare without running?" "When it is on the spit." These, and many other repartees of Bertoldo, correspond with stories told of Bahalul, surnamed Al Megnun, the court fool of Haroun Alraschid. (D'Herbelot, Bib. Orient. Bahalul.)

About this time Bertoldo's old foes, the court ladies, insisted on admission into the councils of

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