Ser Giovanni’s story, Roscoe observes, is “curious as having through the medium of translation suggested the idea of those amusing scenes in which the renowned Falstaff acquaints Master Ford, disguised under the name of Brooke, with his progress in the good graces of Mrs. Ford.  The contrivances likewise by which he eludes the vengeance of the jealous husband are similar to those recounted in the novel, with the addition of throwing the unweildy knight into the river.  Dunlop says that the same story has been translated is a collection entitled ’The Fortunate, Deceived, and Unfortunate Lovers,’ and that Shakspeare may probably also have seen it in ’Tarlton’s Newes out of Purgatorie,’ where the incidents related in the Lovers of Pisa are given according to Straparola’s story.  Moliere made a happy use of it in his ‘Ecole des Femmes,’ where the humour of the piece turns upon a young gentleman confiding his progress in the affections of a lady to the ear of her guardian, who believed he was on the point of espousing her himself.”  Two other French plays were based upon the story, one of which was written by La Fontaine under the title of “La Maitre en Droit.”  Readers of “Gil Blas” will also recollect how Don Raphael confides to Balthazar the progress of his amour with his wife, and expresses his vexation at the husband’s unexpected return.

It is much to be regretted that nothing is known as to the date and place of the composition of the Breslau edition of The Nights, which alone contains this and several other tales found in the collections of the early Italian novelists.

The king who kenned the quintessence of things.—­Vol.  XI. p. 142.

Although we may find, as already stated, the direct source of this tale in the forty-sixth chapter of Al-Mas’udi’s “Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems,” which was written about A.D. 943, yet there exists a much older version—­if not the original form—­in a Sanskrit collection entitled, “Vetalapanchavinsati,” or Twenty-five Tales of a Vampyre.  This ancient work is incorporated with the “Katha Sarit Sagara,” or Ocean of the Streams of Story, composed in Sanskrit verse by Somadeva in the 11th century, after a similar work, now apparently lost, entitled “Vrihat Katha,” or Great Story, written by Gunadhya, in the 6th century.[FN#498] In the opinion of Benfey all the Vampyre Tales are of Buddhist extraction (some are unquestionably so), and they probably date from before our era.  As a separate work they exist, more or less modified, in many of the Indian vernaculars; in Hindi, under the title of “Baital Pachisi”; in Tamil, “Vedala Kadai”; and there are also versions in Telegu, Mahratta, and Canarese.  The following is from Professor C. H. Tawney’s complete translation of the “Katha Sarit Sagara” (it is the 8th recital of the Vetala): 

Indianversion

There is a great tract of land assigned to Brahmans