[2]. Part ii. 1875, p. 174.
“Such a figure has comparatively few charms for us of these latter days. But it pleased the world once—even down to Shakespeare’s time, who himself portrayed it in one of his earliest plays: Catherine in the Taming of the Shrew is a phase of Griselda. Perhaps in ages when much most ignorant abuse of women prevailed in literature—abuse springing mainly out of the vile prejudices and superstitions of the mediæval Church—some such figure might have been expected to arise. It is the figure of a reaction. The hearts of men refused to accept the dishonouring pictures so often drawn of their fellow mortals. They rose in a loyal insurrection against lying fables of essential wantonness and of shameful obstinacy. To such chivalrous rebels the pale, sad, constant face of Griselda showed itself as the image of far other experiences and histories; and they gazed on it as on the face of their saint. With an infinite reverence they saw her still calm and quiet in the midst of anguishes, with heart breaking but lips uttering no ill word, with eyes that through the tears with which kindly nature of herself would relieve the terrible drought of sorrow still looked nothing but inalienable tenderness and love.”
The French have claimed for their country the origination of the story of Griselda; but their claim cannot be allowed. The Abbé de Sade in his Life of Petrarch asserts that the story is to be found in a manuscript called Le Parement des Dames; but it appears that this manuscript was the work of Olivier de la Marche, who was not born until long after the death of Boccaccio. Boccaccio’s novel was translated into French and published at Paris about the year 1510 as La Patience de Grisilidis; it was published also at Troyes about 1562. Apparently, however, the French were the first to bring Griselda upon the stage; for, according to Warton, the Comedians of Paris represented a mystery in French verse entitled Le Mystere de Griseildis, Marquis de Saluces, mis en rime françoise et par personnaiges in 1393. This was not printed until about 1550, when Jehan Bonfons published it at Paris. His edition was reprinted in 1832.
Ralph Radcliffe, a somewhat voluminous play-writer, who flourished towards the close of the reign of Henry VIII., is said by John Bale to have written an English comedy entitled “Patient Griselde,” and Hans Sachs in Germany converted the story into a drama as early as 1550; but in Italy, the land of its birth, it was not dramatised until 1620.
It was not possible for a story which had early taken such a strong hold upon the popular imagination to remain long without becoming the property of the ballad-writer, but we cannot tell if he forestalled the writer of popular histories. In the Stationers’ Registers we find three entries of Griselda as early as the year 1565–6; the following two relate to the ballad:—
Rd. of Owyn Rogers, for his lycense for pryntinge of a ballett intituled the sounge of pacyente Gressell unto hyr make [mate]
iiij d.
Rd. of Wylliam greffeth, for his lycense for pryntinge of ij ballettes to the tune of pacyente gressell
iiij d.
Now the second of these entries seems to point to an earlier ballad, as it must have taken some time for the tune of Patient Grissell to become so popular; and therefore there is great probability in Mr. Chappell’s conjecture that the original ballad was published before 1557, in which year the Registers commence.
All the ballads of Griselda now in existence are essentially the same as that printed in The Garland of Goodwill by Thomas Deloney; and, as the same ballad, divided into chapters with prose chapters at the beginning and end, is printed in The Pleasant and Sweet History of Patient Grissell (reprinted by Mr. Collier for the Percy Society), it has been suggested that this tract was also written by Deloney. This famous ballad-monger is supposed to have commenced writing about the year 1586, so that it is probable that the ballad of 1565–6, and the even earlier one suggested above, have ceased to exist. The following is a list of the different titles of Deloney’s ballad:—
A most pleasant Ballad of patient Grissell, to the tune of “The Bride’s Good-morrow.”
The earliest known edition, printed in Collection of Seventy-nine Black-Letter Ballads and Broadsides, 1870. P. 17. (Roxburghe Ballads, ed. W. Chappell, vol. ii. p. 268.)