Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/370

 NOTKS AND QUKUIKS.

S. 11. N,,\. ;,,

in UWl, fourteen years after 'The Taming of the Shrew' "was printed in quarto," It. Kurton gives a translation from the Latin of the original story

"It is reported of I'hilippus Bonus, that good Duke of Kmgundy (by Lodovicus Yives in ' ICpist.,' and 1'ont. lleuter in 'his 'HUtory'X that tlio said duke, at tho marriage of Kloonora, sister to the king of Portugal, at OTUgei in Glanders, which was solomni/.ed in tlu- deep of winter, \\lu-u, as by reason of attMMOMbte weather, he could neither hawk nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, A i'., and such other domestic sports, or to siv ladies dance, with some of liis courtiers, ho would in (he cNcning walk cUt^uiMtd nil about tho town. It so fortuned, as ho was walking late ono night, ho found a count rv follow dead drunk, snorting on a bulk ; ho caused his followers to bring him to his palace, and thoro stripping him of his old clothes, and attiring him aft or tho court fashion, when ho awakod, ho and they were all roady to attend upon his excellency, persuading him ho was some groat duke. Tho poor follow, admiring how ho came thoro, was served in state all tho day long ; aftor supper ho saw them dance, hoard musio, and tho rest of those oourt-liko pleasures: but lato at night, when ho was woll tippled, and again fast asleep, they put on his old robes, and HO convoyed him to M place whoro they first found him. Now tho fellow had not made them HO good sport tho day before as ho did whon ho returned to himself; all the iest was, to MOO how ho looked upon it. In con- clusion, after somo little admiration, tho poor man told his friends ho had soon a vision, constantly behoved it, would not otherwise be persuaded, anil so the jest ended." I 'art 11. see. ii. mem. 4.

There is evidently a moral to the story, to judge from an extract given in a note trom an epistle of Lodovicus Vives, but Kurton suppresses it in the text. Tho drift of it is :

"What ditVorcnco is there between that IMXU- man's day, and our few years? Short though tho one may tw, and long tho other, yet they are both dreams, fitful, quickly passing, evanescent ; a flash iu a dark night, a glimmer by day from a cloud- covored sky, and all is over."

In Don Juan Kugenio llart/enbuseh's edition of ' La Vida es Sueno' (Madrid, 187f>) a note is given containing an extract from a once very jx>pular book by Agustin de Kojas, entitled : \ iaje KntretenidoY Kntertaining or Amusing Journey '), printtnl for the first time in U>03, from which the accv>mplislnHl editor tltinks that C'alderon may have taken the title and fundamental idea of his most beautiful comedy. 1 give a translation for tlie purpose of comparison :

"A few days ago 1 mul in a book by a man of \ery fair ability a story of what happened to I'hilip tho (!ood, Ihiko of lUngundy. This most Christian prince, Ixung now advanced in years, was very often wont to declare his opinion of the world, and how little one should trust to it. (ioing one e\ en- ing on his rounds with somo of his servants, he found in a street a man lying stretched out, covered

with mud, his faco all dirty and besmeared, and so \orcomo with sleep that it was impossible to brin^ liini to his senses. Tho Duko ordered him to I.e 'iii'd t*> the palace, for by moans of this man ho hed to show thorn what the world was. The servants did as (hey wore bidden. Then ho told them to strip him, clotho him in a very good shirt, and place him in his own bod, and, when morning came, to dress and attend him as on his >wn person. And so it was done. Next day, when the drunkenness had passed otl', tlio gentlemen of the bedchamber entered and asked iiim in what colour he desired to be clothed, and he, anm/.ed at tUKUQg himself in so gorgeous a room and sur- rounded by persons of such high Duality, and seeing that they all stood uncovered before him, know not what to say, but kept staring at them nil. No doubt ho thought it was only a couple of hours since he was drinking in tho tavern and plying his bellows in his shop, for, us it was aftor wards loarnod, ho was a blacksmith and lived near tho palace. A very good suit of clothes was then given him, and wa'tor was ottered him for washing, which he refused to touch because as yet he did not know how to sot alnmt it. To every question put to him ho made no reply ; but ono can fancy that, on seeing his cot from the window, he wa- forced to exclaim, ' \Yhv, Uod bless me! isn't that myownlittlo house? Isn't that lad playing with his top my son BturtolUlo? Isn't that woman spinning at the door my wife Toribia ? Who, then, can have put mo in the midst of such grandeur?' In such wise ho must indeed have spoken. Aa soon as tho table was spread he sat down to dinner, the DolM Unng present the whole time. When tho repast was over and night come, they gave him \\ hie enough to put him into the samo condition in which ho had been found. In his drunken sloop ho was stript, clothed in his own dress, ami, by tho 1 hike's orders, conveyed to tho place where he had boon lying. This done, the Duko with a largo company arrived and luido him IH> awakened. He was asked who he was. The poor fellow, altogether bewildered, answered that, from what he had gone through in the space of two hours, he could not really toll who ho was Whon they asked the cause, he replied, 'Sir, I am a blacksmith, and my name is known hereabouts. 1 left my house mavbo an hour ago, or a little more; 1 drank a little wine; a drowsiness came over me and I fell asleep hero, and in that time 1 droamod 1 was a king and that many tine gentlemen attended on me ; 1 wore grand elothes, slept in a brocaded bed, ate and drank right well, and was so glad to see myself so \\ell served and treated that for very joy 1 was nearly out of my mind ; and truly 1 must have In-en so, since it was all a dream.' Then said the Duke, ' You see here, my friends, what tho world is ; 'tis all a dream (Lo quo es el mundo : todo es un sucuo), for, as you have yourselves seen, this man in very sooth nath gone through this exporietre, and yet he thinks he hath but dreamed it.' "

Such is the story in its modern phase, which must have been known to both Shakespeare and C'alderon. Hut what a ditl'erence there is in the treatment of it ' Would that our own incomparable poet had taken the subject as the groundwork of a play ! Then, indeed, we should have had no fear of instituting a comparison. But