greater complexity and skill in the arrangement of fable and greater probability in the nature and construction of incident; by intermingling more frequent and more interesting traits of the softer passions, and by exciting more powerfully the emotions of pity and compassion, presented to the public a new and poignant source of gratification, and furnished the dramatic poets and the caterers for the then universal appetite for story-telling with innumerable bases for plays, tales, and ballads.[539:A]
It may be asserted, we believe, with a close approach to accuracy, that in the space which elapsed between the middle of the sixteenth century, and the accession of James the First, nearly all the most striking fictions of the Italian novellists had found their way to the English press; either immediately translated from the original Italian, or through the medium of Latin, French, or Spanish versions.
Of these curious collections of prose narrative, real or imaginary, comic or tragic, it will be thought necessary that we should notice a few of the most valuable, and especially those to which our great poet has been most indebted.
One of the earliest of these works and mentioned by Laneham in 1575, as an article in Captain Cox's library, was entitled The Hundred Merry Tales. This series of stories, though existing in English so late as 1659[539:B], is now unfortunately lost; the probability, however, is, that
it was a translation from Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, printed at Paris before the year 1500, and compiled from Italian writers. The English copy, says Warton, was licensed to be printed by John Waly, in 1557, under the title of "A Hundreth mery tales," together with The freere and the boye, stans puer ad mensam, and youthe, charite, and humylite.[540:A] It is again noticed in the register of the Stationers' Company for 1581, by Ames, under the article for James Roberts, and in the following manner in a black-letter pamphlet of 1586:—"Wee want not also pleasant mad headed knaves that bee properly learned and well reade in diverse pleasant bookes and good authors. As Sir Guy of Warwicke, the Foure Sons of Aymon, the Ship of Fooles, the Budget of Demandes, the Hundredth merry Tales, the Booke of Ryddles, and many other excellent writers both witty and pleasaunt."[540:B] It is alluded to by Shakspeare, in his Much Ado about Nothing, written about 1600, where Beatrice complains of Benedict having declared, that she had "her good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tales."[540:C] That this collection was justly entitled to the epithet merry has been proved by Mr. Douce, from a reference to the supposed original, in which only five stories out of the hundred are of a tragic cast, and where the title, in the old editions, gives further propriety to the appellation, by terming these tales Comptes plaisans et recreatiz pour deviser en toutes compaignies, et Moult plaisans á raconter par maniere de joyeuseté.[540:D] It should not be forgotten, however, that the work entitled Cento novelle antiche was in existence at this period, though no translation of it is known to have been made, either before or during Shakspeare's age; nor is it improbable that the term A hundred merry tales, might have become a kind of cant expression for an attack of personal satire; for Nashe, as Mr. Douce has observed, "in his Pappe with an hatchet,
speaks of a book then coming out under the title of A hundred merrie tales, in which Martin Marprelate, i. e. John Penry, and his friends, were to be satirized."[541:A]
Though no complete translation of the Decameron of Boccacio was executed before 1620, the greater part of his novels was given to the public in 1566, by William Paynter, in his once popular collection, entitled "The Pallace of Pleasure." This entertaining work occupies two volumes, 4to.; of which, the first, dedicated to Lord Warwick, appeared in the year above-mentioned, "containing sixty novels out of Boccacio," and the second followed in 1567, including thirty-four novels, principally from Bandello, and dedicated to Sir George Howard. It appears to have been the intention of the compiler to have added a third part; for at the close of the second volume, he tells us, "Bicause sodeynly, contrary to expectation, this volume is risen to greater heape of leaves, I doe omit for this present time Sundry Novels of mery devize, reserving the same to be joyned with the rest of an other part, wherein shall succeede the remnant of Bandello, specially sutch, suffrable, as the learned French man François de Belleforrest hath selected, and the choysest done in the Italian. Some also out of Erizzo, Ser Giouanni Florentino, Parabosco, Cynthio, Straparole, Sansovino, and the best liked out of the Queene of Nauarre, and others;" a passage which is important, as showing, in a small compass, the nature and extent of his resources.
What motive prevented the continuance of the work, is unascertained; it certainly could not be want of encouragement, for a second edition of the first volume, and a third of the second, were published together in 4to. in 1575, and, as the author informs us in his title, "eftsones perused, corrected, and augmented" by him. The conjecture of Warton, that Painter, "in compliance with the prevailing mode of publication, and for the accommodation of universal readers,
was afterward persuaded to print his sundry novels in the perishable form of separate pamphlets," is not improbable.
The Palace of Pleasure is, without doubt, not only one of the earliest, but one of the most valuable selections of tales which appeared during the reign of Elizabeth; and that it formed one of the ornaments of Shakspeare's library, and one to which he was in the habit of referring, the industry of his commentators has sufficiently established.[542:A]