The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-03-11

One of the NEST interesting studies to the
literary rirt,toso is that of the original sources
! whence are derived the fables, plots, incidents
aud idsss, which go to make up those works
the world takes pride in. I do not mean thai
savage, sleuth-hound quest of faults and pla
gtarisn, which some men take delight in--fol
instance, poor Poe, as great plagiarist as ever
lssd himself, and therefore so acute at the de
tsttion and 30 savage in the proclamation Of
ptgiari1n in others-but rather that calm,
ptlosophic inquiry into the history of fiction
ar of IDEAS, which traces things to their foun
tarahet 4, and shows what widespread circula
tico Macy legends and forms of thought have
gained in the ages and among the nations. 1t is
probable that, were inquiries of this nature con
dteted on broad scale, and in philosophical
ia, hion, we should gain as much knowledge in
rei'ard 10 similarities of sentiment, the effects
Of climate upon the mind and morals, and ma
tenal resemblances and relationships, as we
ccald possibly acquire from the most erudite
pathological researches. And such Investigations
would ALEC conduct us to much clearer under.
of individual authors, as well as furnish US with
| an exceedingly accurate means of comparing
them aud their turns of mind together, by no.
ticing the different methods in which they may
have treated fable, common to all OF them, and
the different applications made of it by each, just
se, in debate upon common subject, we are
used to estimate the character and bent of the
differen authors who discuss it, by the manner
in whicl they individually help on that discus
sion.
ITO take an instance from a similarity of plot
which | do not remember ever to have seen no
tited; though, as have read very little upon
tb1 subject, shall not claim the discovery as
M own. The identity of incident to which
re- er is that existing between the Episode OF
81 -idee, in Lord Byron's Don Juan, and Madame
tbs Copptess de Lafayette's romonce of Layde
II the ote, Juan is cast ashore, after shipwreck
ard discovered senseless on the sands by Haidee
"iseires of the Eastern Isles," an innocent
losely Princess; is cared for by her; and at
lsst, viii Q teaching each other their languages,
tbsy mt sually fall in love; and then ensues all
TIE cor sequences that are 80 well known to
al'.ready Yrs of poetry, and which may so easily
By infer ed by all readers of Lord Byron. In
n adam, Lafayette's romance, We have, on the
C. ntrary, Gonsalvo, a Spanish grandee, who, dis
& sted 18th court, friend, and mistress, is stay
il with ajealous Navarrese grandee, Alphonzo,
IL, the lids of Catalonia. One day, walking
u ar tn shore, as Hsides did, he sees the wreck
O. a YES, ell and a aooman lying insensible on the
IS I'D. she is taken to Alphonzo's house, and
8: on RECEIVERS. She proves to be Tayde, mote
Il similarity of names even,) Moorish Prin-
G IS, who knows no Spanish. The mutual eye
IL aguae that passes between her and Gonsavo,
il default of a better, and their secluded situa-
u IN, briggs about the usual result. But mark
b wv different the finale, and how much more
b 'norable to Madame de Lafayette, particularly
q she vas contemporary of Scuderi, and be-
fore "a bbe Prevot, the author of Mandn LIE.
S, nut n Tayde, the heroine is converted, mar
r % Geilsalvo, and they live happy ever after.
I ae lee ling incidents, the spirit of the CONVEX
sftions. and the general tone of the two stories,
ale the same! Byron, however, is more artistic
il the arrangement of his material, and inter
fl ses 9, ne of his own hot blooded self into every
C. INTO.
| tBy { mparisons of this kind, especially when
Il wrssrs are more equal in genius, we can
n est e silly point out the differences between
q ,thors and illustrate their respective excel
le,pces md short comings. Compare, for ex-
ahple, Rabelais and La Fontaine. How the
tiles OF the one, which only make us laugh as
We wo Id at rather coarse but genial after
d nner tories, told par parenthese, degenerate
when proved by the other, into the most
ID athst ne ribaldry. So, also, we remark the
differeN ces of national character in the treat
d emit Greek myths by Eschylus and Soph
osles, md by Corneille and Racine, and
again oy the Elizabethan dramatists. Com,
pare, like manner, Shakspeare's Tempesl
with TSyden's modification of the same drama
ia. VIII, Oh Caliban marries somebody, and Mi
r.ada pas brother, brought up like herself
who n ,rries Prince Ferdinand's sister And
how ferently from Dryden does Chauce,
rendel Boccaccio's tales, and how different the
style both from that of Keats in Isabella.
Ont of the favorite plots, with writer's
romansers and drsmatists, from an early period
until 20 time when Shakespeare made it his
own, fas the choice of the caskets in the
"seco0d plot" of the Merchant of Venice, where
the p noes of Morocco and Arragon, and the
Venei;s Bassanio, severally seek the favors o.
fertunS in the matter of "learned Portals
tand.-~ This fable of the caskets is one of the
oldeseknown in the history of fiction, and has
been used to point moral or adorn tale
~ frequently as any other-except, probably
tae universally known story of the Widosc O
Esphes4s, which we first meet with in Petrs
Illus, Though it is evidently one of the los
Nilesian fables, afterwards in the book of thu
tseren Wise Masters, in the French Fabliaur
in the Costa RomanOrun. in the Cento Nouell.
antic5es, in Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying, q!
Gnd il, numerous other works of fiction. Tid,
Dunlop's History Of Fiction, vol. i, cap 81
Shatspeare derived the story Of the casket.
tsom tbe English Costa Romanoruna. "where
farce vessels are exhibited to q lady for he,
ehoice--the first of gold, but filled with dead
tsones; the second of silver, containing earth
snd worms; and the last of lead, but repleni shec
with precious stones"* The English Gesto
probably borrowed it from Covers Confessit
>imaatis, where it is instanced upon the strength
Of " Cronikil;" or from the Speculun His
toria,e, in both of which the story is identica
Nth that of the first tale of Day Tenth in the
Decameron of Boccaccio, in which Alphonso
ling of Spain, convinces Ruggieri de Figio
sanni, Fiorentine knight in his service, who
was Giscontented at the small return his devo
ton met, that it was not the kings neglect, bu
the knights illfortune, that had caused him ts
e Overlooked. He was led into q large hall
says Boccaccio, where the king gave him his
CHOICE OF one Of two Golfers, containing, one
tae imperial crown, sceptre, globe, with all the
Est Jewels have; the other is filled only with
Il eSrth huggieri proves his bad luck b,
eaoosing the one that held the earth where
'ipon the KING gave him the other, with an sd
1onltion. boccaccio had the fable, through
'he Cesto NorelN Antiche, from the Costa Ro
Dunlop, vol. ii, cap vi. Am ed.