Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Hooper.djvu/52

xliv at meat, he was served with a plaice, and he which was an hungry and had an appetite to his meat, after he had eaten the white side, he turned the black side, and began to eat thereof: wherefore, straightway he was accused to the emperor, because he had offended against the law. Then said the emperor, Let him dye according to the law without any delay.

"When the earl's son heard that his father should die, immediately he fell down on both his knees before the emperor, and said, O my reverend lord, I most humbly intreat you, that I may dye for my father. Then said the emperor, It pleaseth me well so that one dye for the offence. Then said the earl's son, Sith it is so that I must dye, I ask the benefit of the law, that is, that I may have three petitions granted ere I dye. The emperor answered and said, Ask what thou wilt, there shall no man say thee nay.

"Then said this young knight. My lord, you have but one daughter, the which I desire of your highness . The emperor granted for fulfilling of the laws, though it were against his will.

"The second petition is this, I ask all thy treasure; and immediately the emperor granted, because he would not be called a breaker of the law. And when the earl's son had received the emperor's treasure, he imparted it both to poor and to rich, by means whereof he obtained their good wills.

"My third petition is this, I ask, my lord, that all their eyes may be put out incontinent that saw my father eat the black side of the plaice. And they that saw him turn the plaice, bethought them, and said within themselves: If we acknowledge that we saw mm do this trespass, then shall our eyes be put out: and therefore it is better that we hold us still; And so there was none found that would accuse him.

"When the earl's son heard this, he said to the emperor, My lord (quoth he) ye see there is no man accuseth my father, therefore give me rightful juogment. Then said the emperor, Forasmuch as no man will acknowledge that they saw him turn uie plaice, therefore I will not that thy father shall die. So thus the son saved his father's life, and after the decease of the emperor married his daughter."

This chapter, but with less incident, is the twenty-fifth history of the old English translation, which tolerably well exemplifies the usual arbitrary method of departing from the original text. As there is little interest in the story, I pass it.

"Selestinus reigned, a wise emperor, in Rome, and he had a fair daughter." [It is needless to transcribe this tale (which is the origin of the bond story in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" because it is to be found prefixed to all the editions of the drama itself, from the Peoorone of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, an Italian novelist, who wrote in 1378. It occurs also in an old English MS. preserved in the Harl. Collection, No. 7333, evidently translated from the Gesta Romanorum [. Hen. VI.], which Mr. Douce has given in the 1st volume of his very entertaining Illustrations of Shakespeare, p. 281. But as the Tale of the Three Caskets has not been made so public, I insert it in this place, although it forms Chapter CIX. of the MS. Gesta. See also Note 11.]