It is not out of place to observe that the town of Seville is frequently mentioned in Cleomades, and we have seen that Cervantes had heard of the story. Perhaps, then, we may suppose that the story, originally Persian, found its way into Arabic, and thence into Spain; it would then soon be written down in Latin, and thence be translated into French, and become generally known. This must have happened, too, at an early period; for the French romance of Cleomades, extending to some 19,000 octosyllabic lines, was written by a poet named Adenet surnamed le Roi, a native of Brabant, between the years 1275 and 1283; see Keightley's Tales, p. 40.
The Magic Mirror is a common fiction, and we may connect it with the magic ivory tube, furnished with glass, which enabled the user of it to see whatever object he might wish to behold. This fancy occurs in the tale of the Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Pari Banou, as told in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments (Nimmo, 1865), p. 501. It is hardly worth while to pursue the subject further, as Warton's comments have already been cited, and Mr. Clouston's essay (mentioned below) can be consulted.
The Magic Ring is to be referred to the story of the seal-ring made partly of brass and partly of iron, by which Solomon obtained power over the evil Jinn; see Lane's Arabian Nights, i. 31[[156]]. The ineffable name of Allah was engraved upon it, and gave it its virtue. The notion of its conferring upon the wearer the power of understanding the language of birds is connected with it, because this was one of the faculties which Solomon possessed; for we read in the Koran, as translated by Sale, that 'Solomon was David's heir; and he said, "O men, we have been taught the speech of birds";' ch. xxvii. A clever Arabic epigram of the thirteenth century, ascribing to King Solomon a knowledge of the language of birds and beasts, is cited in Professor Palmer's History of the Jewish Nation, at p. 93. Even Hudibras understood the language of birds; Hudib. pt. 1. c. 1. l. 547. See further, as to this subject, in the remarks below, upon the Manciples Tale (Group H); § 75.
With regard to the Falcon, Leigh Hunt has well observed, in his Essay on Wit and Humour, that this bird is evidently 'a human being, in a temporary state of metempsychosis, a circumstance very common in tales of the East.' This is probably true, as otherwise the circumstances of the story become poor and meaningless; it is something more than a mere fable like that of the Cock and Fox. If the story had been completed, shewing how the Falcon 'gat her love again,' we should have seen how she was restored to her first shape, by means, as Chaucer hints, of the magic ring. A talking bird appears in the Story of the Sisters who envied their Younger Sister, the last in some editions of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, but it is not transformed. On the other hand, in the story of Beder, Prince of Persia, in the same collection—which, by the way, mentions a magic ring—we find Prince Beder transformed into a white bird, and recovering his shape on being sprinkled with magic water; but he does not speak while so metamorphosed. The story of a boy who understands the language of birds occurs in the Seven Sages, ed. Wright, p. 106; and Mr. Wright shews, in his Introduction, that such oriental tales are of great antiquity, and known in Europe in the thirteenth century. He refers us to an Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, et sur leur Introduction en Europe, by M. Deslongchamps, published in 1838. Cf. Weber, Met. Rom. iii. 137.
The reader should not forget the hint in the Notes to the Minor Poems (vol. i. p. 534), that some expressions in the Squieres Tale are taken from the poem of Queen Anelida.
With respect to the ending of the Squieres Tale, two attempts at least have been made to complete it. Spenser, in his Faerie Queene (bk. iv. c. 2. 30-3. 52), accounts for the fighting for Canacee, but he omits all about Cambinskan and the Falcon. Another ending was written by John Lane[[157]] in 1630, and is contained in MSS. Douce 170 and Ashmole 53, in the Bodleian Library. Warton (Observations on the Fairy Queen, p. 214) justly calls it a weak performance.
Dr. Furnivall has printed the whole of this poem, in twelve tedious parts, for the Chaucer Society; and the result shews that Lane's work is bad almost beyond belief. It is the duty of every man who values his time to decline to read 237 pages of such stuff as this:—
Algarsif at his broother shooke his pike:
Camballo stowtlie did att him the like;
naie, quicklie, with a shock of pikes, chargd home,