SOURCE: Matulka, Barbara. “The Main Source of Scudéry's Le Prince Déguisé: The Primaleon.” The Romanic Review XXV (January-March 1934): 1-14.

In following essay, Matulka explores in detail the possible sources that inspired Scudéry's Le Prince déguisé and analyzes the themes of the play.

The sources of Scudéry's popular Prince déguisé offer an intriguing problem for the genesis of the romanesque tragi-comedy at the time of Corneille's Cid.¹ In a previous publication,² I have pointed out that for his “belle intrigue” he had amalgamated motives from many sources: from Juan de Flores he took the law condemning the more guilty of two lovers, from the Orlando Furioso he adopted the final duel, from Sorel's Francion he borrowed comic scenes, and he did not disdain the commonplace literary motives disseminated in the literature of his day. Furthermore I showed,—and this is perhaps more important...