And much renowned, because it chasteness loves,
And will, when worn by the neglected wife,
Shew when her absent lord disloyal proves
By faintness and a pale decay of life.
I may remark that there is a certain resemblance in this story to that of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which is founded on the 9th Story of the 2nd day in the Decamerone, and to the 7th Story in Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Märchen.
See also “The king of Spain and his queen” in Thorpe’s Yule-tide Stories, pp. 452–455. Thorpe remarks that the tale agrees in substance with the ballad of the “Graf Von Rom” in Uhland, II, 784; and with the Flemish story of “Ritter Alexander aus Metz und Seine Frau Florentina.” In the 21st of Bandello’s novels the test is a mirror (Liebrecht’s Dunlop, p. 287). See also pp. 85 and 86 of Liebrecht’s Dunlop, with the notes at the end of the volume.
[6] A man of low caste now called Ḍom. They officiate as executioners.
[7] Compare the way in which the widow’s son, the shifty lad, treats Black Rogue in Campbell’s Tales of the Western Highlands (Tale XVII d. Orient und Occident, Vol. II, p. 303.)
[8] Datura is still employed, I believe, to stupefy people whom it is thought desirable to rob.
[9] I read iva for the eva of Dr. Brockhaus’s text.