In the same year with the second volume of Painter's Palace, appeared "Certaine Tragicall Discourses" by Geffray Fenton, in one volume 4to. bl. letter. This passing pleasant booke, as Turberville terms it, consists of stories principally from Italian writers, and, in the dedication to Lady Mary Sydney, the author expresses his high opinion of their merit, by declaring, "neyther do I thinke that oure Englishe recordes are hable to yelde at this daye a Romant more delicat and chaste, treatynge of the veraye theame and effectes of love, than theis Hystories;" an estimate of the value of his collection in which he is borne out by his friend Turberville, who, in one of the recommendatory poems prefixed to the book, says—
"The learned stories erste, and sugred tales that laye
Removde from simple common sence, this writer doth displaye:
Nowe men of meanest skill, what Bandel wrought may vew,
And tell the tale in Englishe well, that erst they never knewe:
Discourse of sundrye strange, and tragicall affaires,
Of lovynge ladyes hepless haps, theyr deathes, and deadly cares."
Mr. Warton is of opinion that Fenton's compilation "in point of selection and size" is "perhaps the most capital miscellany of this kind."[542:B] In size, however, it is certainly inferior to Painter's work, and from a survey of its contents with which we have been indulged, exhibits, in our conception, no superiority to its predecessor even with regard to selection; it merits, however, the same honour which is now paying to its rival, that of a re-print.
In 1571 a series of tales, somewhat similar to Fenton's, was published under the title of "The Forest or collection of Historyes no lesse profitable, than pleasant and necessary, doone out of Frenche into English by Thomas Fortescue." This production, which forms a quarto in black letter, and underwent a second, and a third edition, in 1576 and 1596, includes many stories manifestly of Italian birth and structure, though the work is said to have been originally written in the Spanish language.
On the authority of Bishop Tanner, as reported by Warton[543:A], we have to ascribe to the year 1580, a prose version of the Novelle of Bandello, next to Boccacio the most celebrated, at that period, among the Italian novellists; and more chaste perhaps than any of them in his sentiments, and more easy and natural in the construction of his incidents. The translation is said to be by W. W. initials which Mr. Warton is inclined to appropriate, either to William Warner or William Webbe.