THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHORT-STORY 
 
 IN 
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BY 
 
 EDITH DOANE FLEMING 
 A. B. Southwestern College, 191 7 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the 
 
 Degree of 
 
 MASTER OF ARTS 
 IN ENGLISH 
 
 IN 
 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 1922 
 

 
 7 i. 
 
 ' 
 
/ 3 Ja 2. -3 
 
 ) 922 
 F~ 6 2 . 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 September- 12, ^ 
 
 i — 192 — 
 
 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY 
 SUPERVISION BY ED I TH D O All. FLEEING- 
 
 ENTITLED THE D EVELOPMENT OF THE SHORT STORY IN THE 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 
 
 Recommendation concurred in* 
 
 Committee 
 
 on 
 
 Final Examination* 
 
 ‘Required for doctor's degree but not for master’s 
 
 509411 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/developmentofshoOOflem 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Pst^0 
 
 CHAPTER I HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT, DEFINITIONS, AND PURPOSE OF 
 
 THIS INVESTIGATION 1 
 
 List of Unavailable Stories 10 
 
 CHAPTER II HISTORY OF THE SHORT-STORY FROM 1500 to 1565 11 
 
 Table of the Earliest Fictions of the Century 12 
 
 Table of Fictions from the 4tli Century to 1500 15 
 
 "The Goodli History of Lucres" 25 
 
 CHAPTER III HISTORY OF THE SHORT-STORY FROM 1565-1579 30 
 
 William Painter's Palace of Pleasure 30 
 
 His Short-Stories 43 
 
 Geoffrey Fenton's Tragical Discourses 59 
 
 George Pettie's Petite Palace 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV HISTORY OF THE SHORT- STORY FROM 1580-1599 77 
 
 Barnaby Riche 78 
 
 Robert Greene 87 
 
 "Tarleton's News" 95 
 
 Thomas Lodge 96 
 
 Thoms Deloney 97 
 
 Nicholas Breton 100 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 . 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT, DEFINITIONS, AND PURPOSE OF THIS INVESTIGATION. 
 
 The short prose fictions (narratives of 20,000 words or less) of the 
 
 sixteenth century have received very little attention in histories of fiction. 
 
 Usually historians have treated these narratives primarily in regard to their 
 
 influence on the plot end style of later literature, the drama and the novel 
 
 in particular. Dunlop's History of prose Fiction (1814) does not refer to 
 
 them, but Mr. K. Wilson in his revised edition of Dunlop (1911) makes brief 
 
 mention of the collections of stories by Painter, Whetstone, and Grimstone; 
 
 he relates them to Shakespeare's dramas, and gives a short reference to 
 
 Lodge's Forbonius and Prisceria , and Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra . Mr. 
 
 Wilson, however, treats these two narratives merely with reference to the 
 
 including of verse vdthin the body of prose narratives.^ Charles Herford 
 
 (1886) speaks of the Pleasant Historie of Friar Rush , but only in connection 
 
 2 
 
 with an early drama formed from the Rush legend." Sir Walter Raleigh (1894) 
 enumerates Painter, Whetstone, and Greene; Painter as furnishing material 
 for the playhouses of England; Whetstone and A Groat's Worth of Wit as bear- 
 ing on the biography of Greene.^ Mr. E. A. Baker, in his 1907 edition of Thams' 
 Early English prose Romances , has an introductory chapter in which he traces 
 the sources of Robert the Devil , Vi rp-.il ius , Geo rge-a-Greene , and Robin Hood . 
 
 Mr. Holliday (1912), in treating English Fiction from the Fifth to the 
 Tw entieth Centur y, mentions Painter, Fonton, Robin Hood , Greene's Mirror of 
 Modesty , and Groat's Worth of Wit , and Nicholas Breton’s Mi s e ri e s of M avil 1 i a . 
 
 1 
 
 Dunlop, J.C., History of Prose Fiction (1911 ) ,vol .II , chap. XIV ,p . 553 • 
 
 2 
 
 Herford, Charles, The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the 
 Sixteenth Century (1886), chap.V, part 4, p.311. 
 
 ^Raleigh, Sir Walter, The English Novel (1894), chap. II, pp. 27, 28 ,50,65. 
 

 •* 
 
 '/ / 
 
 
 
' _ 
 
 In each case Mr. Holliday is interested exclusively in the influence of plot 
 on later novels and dramas. Professor Saintsbury (1913) makes this brief 
 statement concerning painter's Palace of Pleasure :- 
 
 "Painter's huge Palace of Pleasure (15&6) is only the largest and best 
 known of many translations, single and collected, of Italian novellieri and the 
 French tale-tellers, contemporary, or of times more or less earlier". ^ 
 
 Elizabethan Translations from the Italian , by Mary Augusta Scott, 
 supplies a valuable tebl6 of Romances in Prose . This list includes fictions 
 of all lengths; and Chapter I gives editions of the various translations of each 
 narrative, stating their sources and their influence cn plots of other fictions.^ 
 But no one, so far as I have been atie to ascertain, has included, in a history 
 of fiction, a study of the short- stories cf the sixteenth century, dealing with 
 their literary structure, or considering them as precursors of the modem short- 
 story. 
 
 Students and critics of the short-stcry of later centuries have been 
 
 \ 
 
 concerned chiefly vith its development since the time of Poe. Those who 
 trace the evolution of the short-stcry usually treat the sources of the plots . 
 
 The shorter prose, previous to Poo, has been considered an unorganized, structure- 
 less narrative, called a "tale". For this reason sixteenth century prose hae 
 been very lightly passed over. Poe, in 1846, explained the structure of a 
 "story". ^ His essay is now credited with being the first outlinirg of the 
 form and purpose of the literary type since defined by Grander Matthews (1885) 
 as a distinct technique applied to narrative. Neither of these v/riters dealt 
 
 1 Saintsbury, George, The English Novel (1913), chap. II, p.33« 
 
 2 
 
 Scott, Mary Augusta, Elizabethan Translations from the Italian (1916), 
 pp.xix-xxi, 3-79 • 
 
 3poe, Edgar Allen, The Philosophy of Composition (1846). 
 
 ^Matthews, Grander, The Philosophy of the Short-stcry (1901). 
 

 
3 . 
 
 with stories of the period under discussion. Mr. Thompson (1890)^ quotes 
 Brander Matthews' definition, and makes a contrast between the short-story and 
 the novel; and Mr. Sherwin Cody, in his preface and introduction to The World* s 
 Greatest Short-stories , lists no stories from this century, professor Canby in 
 The Short- Story (1902) expressed the opinion that there is no manifest dis- 
 tinction between the structure of long and short prose in the sixteenth 
 
 2 y A 
 
 century. Professor Bliss Perry" and Miss E.M. Albright ignore the sixteenth 
 
 5 
 
 century stories. It remained for Professor Canby to notice the place of 
 sixteenth century stories in the evolution of the modern type, when, in 1909, 
 he published The Short-Story in English, --a thorough and scholarly treatment 
 of the historical development of the technique of short-story writing and a 
 new departure. He studies the narratives, however, as collections o f "novella”, 
 rather than individually as specimens of the technique of a new form of prose. ^ 
 Two more works by Mr. Canby appeared in 1912 and 1913* The Book of the 
 
 Thompson, D.G.- The Philosophy o r vjetien in Literature (1890). 
 
 ^Canby, H.S., The Short-Story (1902), p.7. 
 
 3perry, Bliss. ^ A Study of Prose Fiction , (1902). 
 
 4 Albright, Miss E . M . ^ The Short-story (1909)« 
 
 ? Cf. also Dawson, William J. and C.Y f . ? The Great English Short-story 
 Writers ; Esenwein , J.Berg, Writing the Short-story (1909), p.6 ff. 
 
 Gascoigne's Ferdinando and Jeronimi ; The Discourse of Rinaldo and 
 Gelitta , and three of Petties' stories are treated briefly. 
 
- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4 . 
 
 Short-story g ives a chronological list of stories of various nations, including 
 jest books, and a wide range of fiction. This is the first attempt of its kind. 
 In regard to the structure of early narratives, Mr. Canby says: 
 
 "Generally speaking, then, there would seem to be no generic distinction 
 
 1 
 
 in narrative before the nineteenth century, other than short and long". 
 
 A Study of the Short- story refers to Painter's Palace of Pleasure as "the 
 new she rt- story" , and expresses the opinion that the followers of Painter "allow- 
 ed their translations to become, at the expense of an opportunity to become 
 great fiction, almost the Elizabethan of Elizabethan Literature." In the 
 chapter on The Elizabethan Lovell a Mr. Canby seems to indicate that he attri- 
 butes the crystallization of the short-story form to the writers of Elizabethan 
 2 
 
 novelliu The "simple stories" contained within Tarleton's News Out of 
 Purgatory , The Co bier of Canterburie , are mentioned. Painter, Fenton, Lyly, 
 Pettie, and Greene he considers the important agents in the development of the 
 Elizabethan short-story. He is the first writer to become interested in the 
 sixteenth century prose narrative as a germ of the modem short-story tech- 
 nique. 
 
 Mr. E. A. Crose^ does not deal with this century. Mr. S.P. Sherman 
 mentions Painter's Palace of Pleasure , and agrees with Mr. Canby that there 
 have been short-stories in almost every literature at some period of its 
 national existence.^ 
 
 The narratives of the sixteenth century have heretofore been indis- 
 criminately classed together as "novella'.' The term novella has been very 
 
 ^Canby, K.S., The Book of the Short-story (1912) ,pp. 13-20. 
 
 “Canby, H.S., A Study of the Sho rt-story (1913) >P. 154. "Least tangible, but 
 certainly not least important, the good plot, with a climax and conclusion, came 
 into prose fiction with the short-story, and, in this period, for a while at 
 least, superseded the disunity of the romance". 
 
 ^Cross, E.A., The Sho rt-story (1914). 
 
 4 Sherman, S.P.^ A Book of Short Stories (1914). Introduction. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 • ^ 
 
 
5 . 
 
 loosely used to include translations from Italy and France, and the term 
 "romance" has been applied to translations from the Greek. Historians have 
 not made any special distinction between "short" and "long" narratives, or studied 
 carefully the technique of the individual narratives in the collections of 
 "novella". Sixteenth century authors and translators were themselves satisfied 
 to call their stories "novels", although these collections contain fictions of 
 varied structure. For example, Painter's "novels" consist sometimes of stories, 
 of a single incident— "The Miracle at Lyons — sometimes of philosophical 
 
 arguments — "The Orations of the Sythian Ambassadors to Alexander the Great , 
 
 2 
 
 Reprovi ng hi s ambition and desire of Empire . They are sometimes long stories 
 of intricate plot, numerous characters, and many situations, e.g. The Lorde of 
 Nocera ;~ at other times they are merely a chain of loosely connected incidents— 
 e.g. Sultan Solvmen^ , and Guen Anne of Hungary ^ There are some stories also, 
 in Painter's collection, which contain few incidents, few characters, a climax, 
 a discemable "atmosphere", and one compelling situation — e.g. Mit-hradanes 
 and Nathan .^ 
 
 From the foregoing survey it would seem, then, that a close inspection of 
 sixteenth century narratives might lead to a new classification of these 
 stories and thus to a more precise understanding of the history of the short- 
 story. Such a reclassification and history it is my purpose to attempt. 
 
 To begin with, it is essential that I make clear my usage of the term 
 "eho rt-stcry" . The majority of scholars who have interested themselves in 
 this particular field of fiction are agreed that the short- story is the result 
 of a definite, highly- finished literary method, the details of such a method 
 
 Slovel 65 . 
 
 2 Novel 13 . 
 
 -^Novel 33. 
 
 4 Novel 34. 
 
 %lc vel 21. 
 
 Novel 18. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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6. 
 
 being determined by the purpose of the narrator. Edgar Allen Poe has explained* 
 more clearly than anyone else, the necessity of a nucleus around which to build 
 a short-story.* This nucleus, he insists, is not necessarily a plot, a charac- 
 ter, or a distinct geographical or historical setting, but an emotion — a 
 
 mental reaction which is to be the predominant effect of that plot, character, 
 
 2 
 
 or setting. In fact the nucleus may be contained in any one, or it may be in 
 two or in all three of the essentials of narrative organization. But, in any 
 case, the situation, the compelling interest of the story, must be clear-cut 
 and well defined. 
 
 Most of the disagreement and argument in regard to the definition of 
 the short-story has arisen from the disinclination of its critics to relinquish 
 the promiscuous application of the term "tale* to all sorts of brief narrative. 
 
 We arrive nowhere by clinging to the original definition of "a tale" ,and "a story" 
 for these words were made all-inclusive. "The short-story" as a term, has grown 
 out of the need for a distinctive name for a definite literary structure. This 
 sifting has made it necessary to redefine the "tale". One does not need to 
 
 ^Poe, E. A., The Philosophy of Composition (1846). 
 
 o 
 
 See also: Williams, Miss B.C., Handbook on Short-story Writing (1914). 
 
 ^uotestein and Dunn, The Modem Short-Story (1914), p. 12: "The tale is 
 
 the sum of parts unrelated while the short-story is a vital whole." 
 
 Miss Albright states that the modern definition of the tale is that it is 
 "a single incident or episode". Thj s would make the tale narrower in range 
 than the short-story, and parallel with the anecdote or sketch. "The word tale 
 is now applied to a particular form of short-story." — The Short Story (1909), 
 
 p. 11. 
 
 Esenwein defines the tale as "an unplotted chain of incidents." — Short 
 Story Masterpieces . French (1912), Introduction, pp. 5-6. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ■ 
 
7 . 
 
 read far to eee that there are short fictions which lack the artistic com- 
 pression and the keenly perceptible effect of a short-story, but in substance 
 seem to be enlarged short- stories, or short novels; nor that there are, on the 
 other hand, narratives which are not as highly organized as either of these 
 two forms. With rare exceptions, these two methods of telling a story have 
 come to be called, respectively, "novelettes” and "tales”. The term "novelette" 
 is often felt to be an objectionable term, yet there seems to be no available 
 word in the English language, nor in other tongues is there a word which can be 
 conveniently adapted. The Italian term "novella" is awkward for our purpose, 
 since it has been used only in the plural; furthermore it would be confusing to 
 redefine a word which has been so long used to designate "Italianate tales" of 
 
 all manners of construction^ The French term "nouvelle” does not convey 
 
 2 
 
 exactly the meaning of "novelette". Waite and Taylor i n Modem Masterpieces 
 of Short Prose Fiction define stories of a single incident, v.dthout climax as 
 "mere narrative". This term does not seem to me to be definite enough to be 
 serviceable. If we must redefine the "tale" to classify "a separate type of 
 short-story"^ what are v;e to do for a classification for the "mere chain of 
 incidents"? There are enough such narratives cf interest, i,f not of literary 
 value, to merit a definite classification. 
 
 Mr. Canby has given an account of the art of a short-story writer, which, 
 supplemented by a concrete example of the choice of method which the writer 
 of narrative has at his behest, I think will make sufficiently clear my divi- 
 sion of narrative into three types or classifications: - 
 
 "It is with the short-story as with the novel,— its elements 
 are to be found elsewhere, but it is their combination, and their 
 
 1 
 
 Miss Albright (Introduction p.ll) quotes Howells in the North American 
 for Sept. ,1901, "the novella (Short-story) embodies a drama, and develops a 
 type." 
 
 2 Esenwein: Short-story Masterpieces; French , p.8-9. 
 
 3 Alb right ; p.ll 
 
V> 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 t )(* 
 
 => 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 ' . 
 
8 . 
 
 development when so combined which results in a form distinct 
 
 from its antecedents 1 The process is very artificial, but 
 
 very powerful; it is like turning a telescope upon one nebula 
 in the heavens. Thus it is the standpoint of the author that 
 makes the distinction between a short novel, always excepting the 
 impressionistic variety, and the long short-story. In the one 
 the writer digests life histories or portions of them; in the 
 other he looks only for the episode, which like the bubble on 
 the stream, is part of, yet distinguished from the main current. 
 Recognizing the futility in certain cases, and the needleseness 
 in others, of expressing the whole truth, he succeeds much 
 better with the half. He forgoes completeness and gains in 
 force, and this by a change in the standpoint from which he views 
 his world of fact and fancy." 2 
 
 To illustrate:- A murder has been committed in Elm Street. It is a well- 
 to-do residence neighbo rhood. The murdered man was found in the house across 
 the street, just opposite his own home. An account of the incidents following 
 the finding of the dead man, concerning itself especially with the reaction of 
 the dewllers in the house where he was fo und , expressing their horror and 
 shocked surprise, would be a short-story. Another short-story might be told to 
 emphasize the terror of the neighbor who dreaded being found guilty. Still a 
 third might relate the grief of the bereaved family as its point of emphasis. 
 
 A novelette might be written concerning the same plot. It would relate 
 the resultant incidents in all three houses, with reference to all three 
 situations -- horror, terror of guilt, grief. Of necessity this narrative 
 would emphasize more characters, and perhaps would relate the former life of 
 some of them. 
 
 If one of the neighbors should relate to someone the discovery of the 
 murder, digressing frequently to include, in an unpremeditated fashion, similar 
 tragedies which had occurred in the city,-- this conversation would afford 
 material for "a tale", — an unplotted chain of events, the sum of parts remotely 
 rel ated . 
 
 ■^Canby, H.S., The Short-Story (1902), p.20. 
 
 2 Canby, H.S.^ The Short-Story (1902), p.26. 
 
Briefly then, I may state my definitions as follows:- 
 
 A short-story is a short fiction producing a single emotional effect by 
 means of sustained emphasis on a single character, climactic incident, or 
 situation.^ 
 
 A novelette is a short fiction employing many characters, and centering 
 interest in the unravelling of an intricate plot; a condensed novel. 
 
 A tale is a short fiction whose chief interest is in a series of incidents 
 having no sustained or elaborate plot, or singleness of effect. 
 
 For two reasons it has been necessary to determine upon a limit of length 
 for the fictions which a re to be studied. In the first place, it is imperative 
 that the material for my discussion be limited sufficiently to allow of a 
 thorough treatment within the range of a master's thesis. Secondly, the subject 
 matter itself urges a limit of length, approximately 20,000 words, for the 
 narratives which may be classed as sho rt stories; for although there sre 
 comparatively brief stories which more nearly resemble the novel than any other 
 structure, yet for the most part those narratives which exceed 20,000 words are 
 either loosely constructed incidents, or "tales", or else they are found to 
 include so many situations and digressions that the result is a short novel. 
 
 Through this study of the sixteenth century short prose fiction I hope 
 to answer the following questions:- (1) Are there any good examples of the 
 ehort-stcry form, as we now use the term, among these narratives? (2) If there 
 are no short-stories, what approaches to this form may be found? (3) What im- 
 provement or development in literary skill in the structure of narratives has 
 
 2 
 
 been gained in the century? 
 
 ^1 have followed more closely than any other, the definition given by 
 Noteetein and Dumiin The Modern Short-story (1914), p. 1 * 6 . "The short-story is a 
 narrative producing a single emotional impression by means of sustained 
 emphasis on a single climactic incident or situation." 
 
 2 
 
 A large number of fictions are inaccessible to me. I am unable in 
 some instances to know whether the narratives are of long or short types. The 
 

 
 
 *'* 
 
 
 i 
 
 * 
 
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 i 
 
 
 • , ' <• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j i 
 
 
 
 
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 f 
 
 • . ■ ’ ’ ’ 
 
 

 
 10. 
 
 following is a eomprehensi 
 
 ve list of the stories I 
 
 failed to obtain:- 
 
 1511 -"Ponthus of Galyce 
 
 1578 -Henry Wotton' s 
 
 I 59 O -Translation of 
 
 and of Lytell 
 
 "Courtlie Con- 
 
 Bartheleimi Aneau's 
 
 Brytane". 
 
 trovc-rsie" . 
 
 "The Cock". 
 
 1518 -"Fredrick of Jemen" 
 
 1579 -T.Purfoote' s 
 
 1590 -"The Gobi er of 
 
 15l8?-"Mary of Nemmegan." 
 
 "Forest of Fancy" 
 
 . Canterburie" . 
 
 1518 -"Oliver of Castile." 
 
 1579 -Stephen Gosson’s 
 
 1590 -Henry Robert's "Defiance 
 
 1521 -"Christine de Pisa" 
 
 "The Ephemerides 
 
 to Fortune". 
 
 1528 -"The Destruction of 
 
 o f Phialo". 
 
 1590 -"Phillip's Venus" by M. 
 
 Jerusalem by Vespa- 
 
 1579 -Abraham Fleming's 
 
 Jo. 
 
 zias and Tytus." 
 
 translation of 
 
 1592 -Bam. Rich's "Adventures 
 
 154-8 -Diego de San Pedro's 
 
 "Hemetes" . 
 
 of Brusanus". 
 
 "The Castle of Love" 
 
 1580 -Humphrey Gifford' 
 
 sl594 -John Dickenson's "Arisbas 
 
 1556 -"The History of 
 
 "Poeie of C-illc- 
 
 or Cupid's Journey to 
 
 Aurelius and Isa- 
 
 flowers". 
 
 Hell". 
 
 belle.." 
 
 1581 -John Carthenie's 
 
 1595 -Robert Parry's 
 
 1560 -"Eurialus and Lu~ 
 
 "Voyage of the 
 
 "Moderatus History of 
 
 cresia 
 
 Van de ring Knight" 
 
 , the Black Knight". 
 
 1568 -Edmund Tilney's 
 
 translated by 
 
 1596 -"Cent Histories Tra- 
 
 "Flower of Friend- 
 
 William Goodyear. 
 
 giques" . 
 
 ship" . 
 
 1582 -Whetstone ' s "Hep- 
 
 1597 -Thos. Beard's "The 
 
 1571 -Thoe.Fortiscue' s 
 
 tameron of Civil 
 
 Theatre of God's 
 
 "The Forest". 
 
 Discourses" . 
 
 Judgments". 
 
 1573 -James Sanford’s 
 
 1583 -"History of Ger- 
 
 1597 -Jo.Goubourne' s "Affrican 
 
 translation "The 
 
 ilion of England" 
 
 • and Mensola". 
 
 Garden of pleasure" 
 
 1583 -Brian Milbaucke's 
 
 1597 -"Queen of Navarre Tales". 
 
 1574 - M 0lyver Aldwanton' s 
 
 "Philotimus" . 
 
 1598 -"Bellianie, The Honor 
 
 Image of Idleness’.' 
 
 1584 -William Averill's 
 
 of Chivalrie". 
 
 1574 -Esrnaby Rich’s 
 
 "Dyall for Dainty 1598 -John Dickinson's "Greeve 
 
 Dialogue between 
 
 Darlings" . 
 
 in Conciipt: Tragi que 
 
 Mercury and an 
 
 1584 -Second part of 
 
 Historic of faire 
 
 English Soldier". 
 
 Ri ch ' s ’’ Farewe 11 " 
 
 . Valeria of London". 
 
 1575 -Claudius Holy- 
 
 1584 -William Warner' s 
 
 1598 -Henry Robert's "Honor's 
 
 band's "Arualte 
 
 "Pan His Syrinx". 
 
 Conquest". 
 
 and Lucenda". 
 
 1587 -Hodley's trans- 
 
 1599 -Richard Lynche' s "Four- 
 
 1576 -Tho e. Churchyard' s 
 
 lation of "The 
 
 teine of Ancient Fiction". 
 
 "Fo rtunatus" . 
 
 Banishment of 
 
 
 1576 -Whetstone's "Rock 
 
 Cupid". 
 
 
 of Regard". 
 
 1587 -Bart .Young' s 
 
 
 1577 -Robert Smith's 
 
 "Amorous Fiametta 
 
 ft 
 
 • 
 
 "Tragical Hist or- 
 
 1588 -Munday' s "Palme rin 
 
 
 ies". 
 
 d' Olivia" . 
 
 
 1578 -"Tarleton's Tra- 
 
 1590 -William Averill’s 
 
 
 gi cal T re at i se s " . 
 
 "Four Notable 
 Histories". 
 
 

CHAPTER II. 
 
 If. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE SHORT- STORY FROM 1500-1565. 
 
 An understanding of that which has gone before is essential to the 
 critical study of any sort of work in any given historical period. As Mr. 
 
 Canby has said, "Precedent is everything in story-telling, which is the most 
 conservative of the arts"." 1 2 ’ Therefore a rapid survey of the art of narrative- 
 writing which the sixteenth century received as its heritage from previous 
 ages may aid us in making an estimate of the stories which were written in the 
 period of 1500-1565» the first division of our study of sixteenth century 
 short prose. 
 
 There are two points of departure in a study of the heritage of the 
 2 
 
 short story: (1) a tracing of the purpose to write the unreal or imaginative 
 
 as real,— that is, the birth and growth of fiction , is one consideratio n. (2) 
 
 The development of the purpose to find, and use an artistic method which would 
 produce the "finished" short-story (whether this method is used in prose, in 
 poetry, or in drama) is a second consideration. Neither one of these investiga- 
 tions can be completely covered in this discussion; but I vill attempt a brief 
 outline of the chief gains toward the short- story previous to 1500 , and hope 
 that the accompanying table of writings will prove of service to a closer study 
 by other students. Professor Canby in the first five chapters of The Short- 
 story in English has so carefully covered the development of the "story sense" 
 that it is needless to repeat that study here. However, I have made use of 
 Mr. Canby' s text for the completion of my chronological table. 
 
 The earliest fictions were unconsciously fictitious. They were "histories " 
 of saints' lives, which grew from brief, true stories of the lives of godly men, 
 
 1 Canby, H.S.J The Short Story in English (1909), p. 76 . 
 
 2 
 
 Matthews, Branderj The Historical Novel and Other Essays (1914), p. 83 . 
 
12 . 
 
 Chronological Table of the Earliest Prose of the Sixteenth Century:- 
 
 Prose Fictions 
 
 Sources 
 
 1510-15 "Gesta Romanorum" 
 
 1510- "King Appolyn of Thyre" 
 
 Valerius Maximus 
 Macrobius 
 Aulus Gellius 
 Pliny 
 Seneca 
 Boetheus 
 Ovid 
 
 "Bearlam and Josophat" romance 
 "Be Clericali Discipline" 
 
 Fables of Bidpai 
 "Arabian Nights" 
 
 Caxton's "Golden Legend" 
 
 "Aesop's Fables" 
 
 "Turkish Tales" 
 
 "Persian Tales" 
 
 Aristotle’s "Secretura Secretorum" 
 Miracles of Mary » conte devot. 
 
 Various 
 lengths ; 
 all under 
 13 , 000 words , 
 
 Greek Legend 
 "Gesta Romano rum" 
 
 21,000 words 
 
 cl510- "Robert the Devil"; 
 
 Wyrikin de Worde 
 
 01512 "Helyas, Knight of the 
 Swanne" 
 
 Latin of Etienne de Bourbon 
 English prose tale, 1496 
 French prose tale direct source 
 
 19,800 " 
 
 Maitre de Guise: "Chronicle of Over 35,000 
 Tongues" words. 
 
 01518 "Virgilius", translated 
 by John Doesborcke 
 
 "Les Foits mervelleaux de 
 virgille" 
 
 13,000 words 
 
 cl530 "Friar Bacon" 
 
 C1530 "George-a-Green" 
 
 1530-70 "Guy of Warwick" 
 
 cl530 "Robin Hood" (lost) 
 
 Life and work of Roger Bacon 
 a scientist and scholar of 
 the 13th century 
 
 "Robin Hood Tales" and real 
 English characters 
 
 French prose of 1525 
 
 Metrical Romances 
 
 20,800 " 
 
 19, 500 " 
 
 35, 000 " 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • . 
 
 
13 
 
 written by monks who witnessed their saintly characters, into long accounts 
 of wonders, miracles, end sayings of these saintly men wnich were almost 
 entirely imagined. At first this straining of truth and adding of imaginary 
 material was due wholly to a love of miracles, a wonder-worship. Later, 
 religious jealousies and local ambitions caused the writers to attempt to 
 picture their favorites in a superior light, wishing to bring a local church 
 into notice. It came doout quite naturally that the same hero-worship should 
 affect the methods of writings concerning laymen; and then we have "fictitious 
 biography".^ From kings and nobles, the attention of literary men turned to 
 homespun heroes and neighborhood characters, in later centuries. Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth, in 1135 » saw his opportunity to aid himself in church preferment 
 and so sought out Britain’s traditions. Since the ambitions of the Norman 
 kings for a strong, united Empire required a strong tradition, Geoffrey wrote 
 his Historia Regum Britannia , (1139). Much of his materiel is purely in- 
 vention. The same is true of William of Melmsbury’ s C-esta Regum Anglarum, 
 
 (1154), and the Biography of Fulke Fitzwqrine , (1256-64). 
 
 The second half of the fourteenth century was dominated by the 
 
 influence of Chaucer. Since he made great improvement over his predecessors 
 
 in his studies of character, he aided greatly in the development of short- 
 2 
 
 story technique, but because Chaucer's medium was poetry, he retarded the 
 development of prose narrative. 
 
 Although there were short narratives included in almost everything 
 that was written in these early centuries, not until the Gesta Romano rurr 3 (c 1400), 
 and the translation of Aesop (148l?) do we have any comprehensive attempts to 
 
 ^Adamnan's Vita Columba (690-700). 
 
 Asser's Life of Alfred (893). 
 
 2 Cf. Perry, Bliss) A Study of Prose Fiction (1902) ,pp .112 , 135, 303. 
 
 Canby, H. S.$ The Short-Story in English (1909) ,pp. 67 - 68 . 
 
 3 Cf . Early English Text Society Publication s, vol .1 . 
 

 
 
 
 t 
 
 .1 ■ 
 
 7 
 
 
 
14 
 
 collect numbers of stories ?;s stories* Heretofore they have been embedded 
 in other material; yet even now they are written as exemplars and fables , --with 
 a moral applied. 
 
 From 1400-1450 English fiction was dominated by translations from the 
 French metrical romances. Long narratives cf kings and knights were corrposed. 
 During this period Caxton published Malory’s Morte d* Arthur which includes a 
 mixture of French and English matter. 
 
 In the following table of fictions of the period from the fourth 
 century to the sixteenth, I have indicated by an asterisk the works which 
 Mr. Canby has carefully treated in his The Short- story in English . 
 

 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •3 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I . 
 
 
 
 
15 
 
 II. Table of fictions of period 4th century to 1500. 
 
 401-410 A.D. "Vitae Patrum". 
 
 -Latin tr. from Greek of 400 
 -Later West Saxon ms. 
 
 4th, 5th ,6th centuries 
 prose saints' lives. 
 
 "Widsith". 
 
 Prose chronicles, 
 c 650— "Beowulf" * 
 
 7th century Caldmonian poems. 
 690-700 Admnan's "Vita Columb<V. 
 c690-«St. Patrick" 
 
 705 —Bede's "St .Cuthlwrt" . 
 
 709 — Eddin's "St .Wilfred". 
 
 731 —Miracle stories in Bede's 
 "Eccleesticel History". 
 
 749 —Li fe of St.Guthlac" 
 
 893 — Aeser's "Life of Alfred". 
 
 Unlimited number of saints' 
 
 1 i ve 8 . 
 
 --- Anglo Saxon chronicle 
 1000 "Appolonius of Thyre" . 
 
 971 "Blickling Homilies".* 
 
 1135 Geoffrey of Monmouth's 
 "Libellue Millini". 
 
 1139 Geoff, of Monmouth's 
 
 "Historis Regum Britannia". 
 
 1154 William of Malmsbury's "Gesta 
 Regum Anglo rum" . 
 
 1200 Layamon's "Bru^"J 
 cl250"Vox and Wolf"" 
 
 1256-64 "Fulke Fitzwarme" 
 cl258 "Dame Siriz".* 
 
 1280-1350 "South- Engli sh Legendary'.’* 
 "Antfren Reiole"* 
 cl359 "Pennyworth of Witte". 
 
 14th century 
 
 Miracles of Mary 
 
 --- "Handling Sin" by Roberd of Brump 
 from original of Wm.of Washington 
 1383-4 Gower* 8 "Confessio Amantis". 
 
 cl387 Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". 
 
 cl400 "Gesta Romano rum" 
 
 — - Lydgate and Occleve 
 
 1430 DeGuil vilie' s Travels, 
 
 1st part. 
 
 1450 John Raus's "Richard Beau- 
 
 champ Earl of Warwick". 
 C1450-60 prose"MerlinV 
 
 14 75-6--1489 Caxton's translations. 
 
 (All long narratives). 
 
 1475-6 Raoul Lefevres' "Recuyll 
 
 of Historia Traise." 
 
 " Raoul Lefevres' "Jason". 
 
 1481 Wm. of Tyres "Godfrey of Bologne". 
 cl 48l "Aesop's Fables 
 
 148l "Reynard the Fox" (from Flemish) 
 1483 published "The Golden Legend". 
 
 1483 Deguilville* s Second Journey; the 
 "Soul after Death". 
 
 1484 Geoffrey de la Tour's "Book of 
 the Teaching of the Knight of 
 the Tower". 
 
 1485 "Paris and Vienne". 
 
 1485 published Malory' s "Morte d' Arthur", 
 1485 "Life of Charles the Great". 
 
 1489 published"Blanchardyn and 
 Egl ant yn" . 
 
 1489 "The Four Sons of Aymon". 
 

l6 . 
 
 In my study of the stories of the years from 1500 to 15^5 » I shall 
 seek answers to these inquiries:- (1) Has there been any conscious attempt to 
 produce a unified narrative? To compress material? (2) Has there been any 
 attempt to draw, realistically, individual characters? (3) Is there any con- 
 scious purpose to create the •‘atmosphere** which is part of a short-story? n tb 
 choose a situation? 
 
 The first recorded work of fiction of the sixteenth century is called 
 The Gospel of Nicodemus, (1507); it is a long narrative of which there were 
 Anglo Saxon versions in the eighth century, and consists principally of 
 accounts of miracles, resembling the saints' legends. Mr. Dunlop traces the 
 Greater Grail and the Shorter Grail legends to the Gospel of Nicodemusl The 
 incidents of the association of Joseph of Aramathea and Nicodemus in attend- 
 ing the body of Christ, when }/e was taken down from the cross, form the chief 
 
 2 
 
 theme of the narrative. 
 
 An edition of the Gesta Romano rum was published in 1510-15. A descrip- 
 tion of this work, in E. A. Baker's Guide to the Best English Fiction , reads as 
 follows: 
 
 "A coll ec tion of Latin stories conpiled late in the thirteenth 
 or early in the fourteenth centuries; author unknown and country 
 unascertained; intended probably as edifying examples for the 
 use of preachers. English translation printed by Wyijken de Worde, 
 1510-15. A parallel compilation to that of Chevalier de la Tour- 
 Lendrys, all the talcs, whatsoever their nature and origin, being 
 burdened with a Christian moral. Sources various--oriental , class- 
 ical, and mediaeval. A Latin translation of the tables of Bidpai, 
 the Arabian fables of the Spanish Jew; Petrus Alphonsus, ancient 
 chronicles now lost, and the decadent classical authors, were all 
 drawn upon largely; but the various Mss. differ considerably as 
 to their contents. The history is false, the characters are 
 fictitious, and the title - the Acts of the Roman s - purely grat- 
 uitous; it is a miscellaney of oriental romance and apologue, 
 beast fables, classical tales, miracle stories, legends of the 
 virgin, costumed in the external features mediaeval li?e. All 
 the stories are allegorized or otherwise interpreted in a moral- 
 izing way, often v/ith the most absurd results. It is important 
 in literary history as a storehouse whence Italian, French, and 
 
 Dunlop, J.C.; History of Prose Fiction (1911), pp.lo2 ,163-9 ,246 . 
 
 p 
 
 I have not seen a copy of this work. 
 
•it 
 
 
 
 j 
 
 
17 
 
 English writers, poets, novelists, and playwrights obtained many 
 of their plots.” 
 
 Many authors have found inspiration in the Gesta , and there are con- 
 
 9-re s 
 
 stant allusions to it. Theresa few outstanding features of this collection; 
 
 one of which is its large number of stories which are remarkable for brevity . 
 
 There are only six stories which are over two thousand words in length, and 
 
 only one over 10,000 words. Obviously it is impossible, here, to treat 
 
 exhaustively so stupendous a work, but I shall summarize the plots and attempt 
 
 an analysis of the construction of a few of the one hundred and eighty-one 
 
 narratives which the Gesta contains. 
 
 No. XI, Of the Poi son of Sin, is the story of Alexander. It is only 
 220 words in length, excluding the applicatio a or moral applied at the close 
 in a separate paragraph. (These applications are always given, each one 
 beginning " My beloved ",---) The story proper, verbatim, is this:- 
 
 "Alexander was a prince of great power, and a disciple of 
 Aristotle, who instructed him in every branch of polite learning. 
 
 The Queen of the North, having heard of his proficiency, 
 nourished her daughter from the cradle upon a certain kind of 
 deadly poison, and, when she grew up, she was sc beautiful 
 that the sight of her alone affected many with madness. The 
 queen 3©nt her to Alexander to espouse. He had no sooner 
 beheld her than he became violently enamoured, and with much 
 eagerness desired to possess her; but Aristotle observing his 
 weakness, said;* Do not touch her, for if you do you will 
 certainly perish. She has been nurtured upon the most dileter- 
 ious food, which I will prove to you immediately. Here is a 
 malefactor who is already condemned to death. He shall be 
 united to her and you shall soon see the truth of what I 
 advance.' Accordingly the culprit was brought without delay 
 to the girl, and scarcely had he touched her lips, before his 
 whole frame was impregnated with poison, and he expired in 
 the greatest agony. Alexander, glad at his escape from such 
 imminent destruction, bestowed all thanks on his instructor, 
 and returned the girl to her mother,"l 
 
 The application for this story XI is l8o words in length. 
 
 Even within the small compass of 220 words, the writer of the story 
 
 ^For sources of this story see Gesta Romanoru m, ed.E.A.Baker (1905^1 
 p.38l, note 7» 
 
18 . 
 
 has managed to present five characters, - Alexander, the Queen of the North, 
 Aristotle, the daughter of the Queen, and the condemned slave. He has given 
 conversation, as a touch of the spirit of dialogue, in Aristotle's warning. 
 
 There is a climax, and a single situation. These requisites of the short-story 
 art are present in embryo, but the narrative is too limited in conpass to admit 
 of any real characterization, or to suggest a short-story "atmosphere". Perhaps 
 the compression of material is the most remarkable phase of this fiction 
 technique . 
 
 NO. XV, Of the Life of Alexius, son of the Senator Eufemian . is longer — 
 3080 words. It is the legend of the man who is persuaded that he loves a 
 lady, marries her , and on the evening of their wedding day deserts her for a 
 life of poverty and "self-sacrifice". Because of his humility he is wonderfully 
 loved of God and becomes a saint, though he has neglected his wife and parents 
 for seventeen years, and, having returned disguised and ill, remains unknown 
 to them until they read a message which he has prepared to be read when he is 
 gone. 1 
 
 On the whole, Alexius is a fairly unified plot. It is brief enough 
 in the telling, and there is a discernible atmosphere of sad dutifulness . The 
 reader is at once disgusted with the ascetic and pitiful toward his blindness. 
 
 Much could be done with the web of this plot, to delineate character and 
 increase the tenseness of the situation; — here a man who thinks he is 
 sacrificing himself is really turning his back on his real duty for an imagined, 
 fanatic one. 
 
 NO. XLI, Of the conquests and charity of our Lord , is another brief 
 story, — 175 words. The story itself is almost as brief as any summary I can 
 devise, therefore I quote the narrative verbatim: 
 
 Robert L. Stevenson's "Will" in his story of The Parson's Mar .lory came to my 
 mind in connection with the philosophy of Alexius. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •ii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ;■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
19 . 
 
 "Cosdras, king of the Athenians, having declared war 
 against the Dorians, assembled an army, and despatched messengers 
 to the Oracle of Apollo to ascertain the fortune of the engagement. 
 The god answered that the party whose chief fell by the sword of 
 the enemy should win the field. The Dorians, also, understanding 
 the response of the oracle, strictly enjoined their soldiers to 
 spare the life of Cosdras; but the king, disguising himself in 
 the habit of a slave, cut his way into the heart of the hostile 
 army. The enemy, perceiving the extreme audacity of a single 
 man armed only with a sabre yet fighting valiantly and effectively 
 in the very midst of them, turned all their attack upon the 
 warrior, and with some difficulty slew him. Thus by a remarkable 
 effort of patriotism he enabled his country to triumph over its 
 enemies; and at his death, on one side so fatal in its conse- 
 quences, was bewailed not less by the adverse host, than by his 
 own subjects.” 
 
 The title, it will be noticed, has nothing to do with the substance 
 of the story proper; it refers to the "application” as in most instances 
 the titles do.* (Alexius is an exception.) Here we have another web for 
 a short-story plot. The character of king Cosdras could be drawn more fully, 
 as is the character of Nathan in " Mithridanes and Nathan” in Painter’s 
 Palace of Pleasure . 2 This narrative in the (testa Romano rum has unity of 
 plot, unity of effect, just one chief character, one situation and two 
 incidents,— the inquiry at the oracle and the death of the generous king. 
 
 The extreme brevity of the story can only hint at the "effect" or "atmosphere” 
 which might be developed from this plot . 
 
 No. LXIII, Of the Pleasures of this world , may be called an approach 
 to the short-story. Briefly the plot is this: Aglois, the daughter of 
 
 Vespasian, is to marry whoever returns safely to the Emperor to demand her hand 
 in marriage, after he has spent four days in a garden prepared by the Emperor. 
 So far no one has ever succeeded, for no one has thought to seek first the 
 lady’s personal favor before entering the garden. One day a knight asks 
 
 *Cosdras' death is parallelled to that of Christ: "So did Christ put on 
 mortality, and by his death triumphed over our demoniacal foes." — Baker, E.A., 
 Gesta Romano rum (1905), p. 140. « 
 
 ^Novel 13. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
20 . 
 
 her aid. By means of the advice of his "Lady of Comfort" this knight over- 
 comes a lion, winds his way out of a labyrinth by following a thread, and 
 marries Aglois.* 
 
 Here are three principal characters: the Emperor, his daughter, and 
 the knight; — the last makes the greater appeal because he proves himself 
 different from his companions in the rivalry for the hand of the Emperor's 
 daughter. There is one situation, unity of plot, brevity, singleness of 
 effect, but the climax is weakly presented in the Gesta . and the narrative 
 is too brief to allow of a good delineation of character. Much might be 
 done to endear to the reader the personality of the knight who wished to 
 really win the lady's heart for himself, through his personality, rather than 
 by means of a contest or wager. (One is reminded of Portia's lover Bassanio.) 
 Likewise much could be done to acquaint us with the "Lady of Comfort" — for 
 she reminds one of Portia. 
 
 No. LIX, Of too much Pride , consists of one situation portrayed 
 through four closely related incidents, has one chief character and two minor 
 characters, and possesses a tangible effect or atmosphere. Emperor Jovinian 
 of Home impiously boasts of his power and is punished for his pride. A man 
 who resembles him in appearance usurps Jovinian' a power while the Emperor is 
 bathing, leaving him naked, to be mocked by his subjects. The people fail 
 to recognize the real ruler until Jovinian is sufficiently humbled and has 
 confessed his impiety to the priest. There is a prevailing tone of futility 
 and sadness while the Emperor is scoffed at and scorned because he claims to 
 be the ruler; even his body guard fail to know their master. We are sorry 
 for the humbled man. Every one of his subjects thinks the usurper is the 
 
 ^Compare the story of the minotour and the clue furnished by Ariadne to her 
 lover . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , '■ 
 
 
 
 
 
21 . 
 
 rightful ruler, and no one honors the Emperor's claims; he is thought to be 
 an impostor, or an insane person. As a man , without his royal insignia he 
 is absolutely powerless; even the Empress denies her husband; the old man's 
 favorite dog flies at his throat. Of too much pride is a very good attempt 
 in the direction of the proper technique for a short-story. 
 
 No . CXXV, Of Conscience is the story of the Rape of Lucrece . which has 
 been treated by so many writers since the Gesta . Here it is very concisely 
 told, and, strangely enough, eith more delicacy than is found in later versions 
 of this tragedy. All of the elements of a short-story are in this story, but 
 the extreme brevity precludes the development of the short-story atmosphere. 
 
 This criticism is also true of No. CVIII, Of constancy in adhering to promises , 
 which is the plot of Damon and Pithias, of classical fame, transferred to the 
 lives of two thieves. Mr. Baker suggests that from this story may have arisen 
 the proverbial saying of "honor among thieves." 1 
 
 No. CIX, Of the Avaricious pursuit of Riches, which leads to Hell , 
 i 8 the story of a carpenter, who was to determine whether his host should return 
 to him his lost gold, by a test of choosing between three kinds of cakes. 
 
 The carpenter was unaware that he was being "weighed in the balance." Mr. Baker 
 traces the story through the Decameron . Gower's Confessio Amantls . Cento Novelle 
 Antlche . novel LXV, Joannes Damascenus fable of Barlaam and Josophat. back to 
 the Greek of 800. He also suggests that Barlaam* s fable is the original source 
 for the Casket episode in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice . 
 
 There is a little more of character drawing in story number CIX than 
 in the shorter stories. (This one is 510 words in length.) Some conversation 
 Is introduced, yet there is less of unity of effect than in Alexius, XLI, LXIII, 
 or CVIII. 
 
 ^ Gesta Romano rum , ed. E. A. Baker (1905), note 15, p. 424. 
 

 • 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . : 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 
 
 22. 
 
 No. LXIX, Of Chastity , is a theme which we shall meet again; the 
 emperor Callus married his daughter to a carpenter, giving his son-in-law a 
 shirt which was to remain spotless as long as he and hie wife are faithful 
 to each other. Three soldiers, learning of the gift, seek to seduce the wife, 
 but she outwits them, locking them in a chamber with bread and water for food. 
 There is less of character and more of incident stressed in this narrative. 
 Otherwise the same criticisms hold ture as for the previous stories. 
 
 A further detailed treatment of more of the stories from the Gesta 
 is unnecessary, yet there are a few which must be mentioned because of their 
 interest as literary potentialities, or in some cases because of their very 
 curiousness. No. LXXXIX, Of the triple state of the World , introduces the 
 theme of the bequeathing of three rings. 1 No. CIV has for its source Aesop’s 
 fables. It is the story of a knight who removes a thorn from a lion's foot 
 
 and in reward is befriended by the lion. No. CXXXVII, Of Christ's Clemency . 
 
 2 
 
 is a version of the Coriolanua story. No. V, Of Fidelity , expresses the 
 
 2 
 
 sentiment that she who has deceived her father will deceive her husband. 1 ' 
 
 No. VII, Of the envy of bad men toward the Good , is a prodigal son story. No.CX, 
 Of the Recall of Sinners , tells of a knight named Placidus who lived during the 
 reign of Trajan. He was commander- in-chief of the Emperor's armies. He exper- 
 iences humiliations and losses similar to those of Job, and at last his wife and 
 sons are restored to him. The technique is that of the novelette. No. CLIII, 
 
 Of temporal tribulation , is the story of Appolonius of Tyre. This narrative, 
 also,i8 a novelette. 
 
 Compare Decameron , first day, novel 3; Canto Novella Antlche . Novel 71; 
 Swift’s Tale of a Tub : Lessing’s Nathan the Wise . 
 
 2 
 
 See Shakespeare’s play of the year 1610. 
 
 3 
 
 See Shakespeare's Othello . Act I, Sc.iii. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
23 . 
 
 Two of the stories may be classified as narratives approaching the 
 novelette, — XIII and XX. Each contains a large number of incidents and 
 a rather complicated plot. The remainder of the Gesta Romano rum consists of 
 tales and anecdotes. 
 
 Following the 1510-15 Qesta Romano ruin there appeared a series of 
 "life histories" — really fictions — of varied lengths.* Some of these 
 come within the limits we have set for the short-story and for that reason 
 are of interest, although in other points they have little to do with the 
 technique of the short-story. 
 
 1 
 
 In 1510 a long fiction, King Appolyn of Thyre . printed by W^rnken de Worde 
 from the Greek legend, was published. It will be recalled that a Latin version 
 forms the CLUJ story story in the Gesta Romanorum (cf. Dunlop, J. C., History 
 of Prose Fiction, 1911, p. 85, note 1). A more ancient and a better text is 
 in a manuscript in the library of the Abbey of St. Ulrich and St. Afra at 
 Augsburg. Gower tells this story with very little alteration in his Confessio 
 Amanti8 (1383-1384). The English translation is 21,000 words in length; in 
 technique it more nearly resembles the novel. 
 
 Helyae . Knight of the Swanne (cl512), is over 35,000 words and partakes 
 more of the nature of a novel than of any other literary form. (Cf . Thoms, 
 W.J., Early English Prose Romances . 1907, pp. 693-784.) Helyae 
 contains incidents of mag and emphasizes adventurous incident. 
 
 Source: Chronicle of Tongues , by the Maitre de Guise. (It is incorporated 
 in the German romance of Lohengrin.) Cf. Baker, E. A., Guide to the Best 
 Fiction in English (1913), pp. 5-6; also Century Cyclopedia of Names, 
 
 " Knight of the Swan ." 
 
 Friar Bacon (cl53Q), is 20,800 words in length. It is the story of 
 the Franciscan Friar whose clear study of nature gave him fame as a magician 
 in the stories of the people. Like Vi r villus it is a narrative of magic and 
 consists of a chain of unplotted incidents. Cf. Thoms, W. S., pp. 23-27. 
 
 Guy of Warwick (cl530-70) is a translation from the French of 1525. 
 
 The story had appeared in metrical romances in the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries. In the English prose version it is over 35,000 words, and 
 emphasizes the love story. Its bombastic style would indicate that the date 
 should be given as 1570 rather than 1530. (Cf. Thoms, W. J., p. 329 and 
 Jusserand, J.J., A Literary History of the English People . 1909, p. 224, foot- 
 note.) The historical element of the story is founded upon events occurring 
 before the Norman Conquest. 
 

 
 • ■-» 
 
 
 . 
 
 , 
 
24 . 
 
 In 1510 we find the narrative of Robert the Devil (19,800 words), a 
 supposed "history" of Robert, whose mother gave him to the devil in conception. 
 The oldest known version is a Latin one by Etienne de Bourbon, a Dominican 
 Friar who died in the middle of the thirteenth century. The English transla- 
 tion is a "rogue story," full of incidents of cruelty and lust. The point 
 of emphasis is not character, but incident. It is too complicated to be called 
 a tale and yet not sufficiently unified to be called a novelette. In no way 
 does it resemble a short-story. 
 
 Virgilius (cl518), a narrative of 13,200 words, is an Italian story, 
 translated, without date, by John Doesborcke of Antwerp. Esdaile gives the 
 date (1518?). The title runs thus; "This boke treath of the life of Virgilius 
 and of his deth and many merwayles that he dyd in his life tyme by Wythcrafte 
 and nygramcy through the helpe of the devyls of hell. I. Doesborcke; Anworpe."* 
 
 Virgilius is merely a tale. It has no unity of plot. Purporting to 
 be a history of real character, it is doubtless based upon fact, but ideas of 
 magic and a love of citing adventure have distorted any semblance of "history" 
 in the narrative. Virgilius is not a man; he is presented as a magician who 
 always prevails over the great difficulties which he meets. 
 
 Still another fictitious biography is that of George-a-Greene 
 (cl530), which contains 19,500 words. In verity it is a chain of fictitious 
 episodes woven around the life of a homespun hero, George-a-Greene, who 
 meets with Robin Hood and his companions. The story, indeed, has very much 
 
 Cf. Dunlop, J.C., History of Prose Fiction (1911), p. 431. "It has been 
 doubted whether the sorcerer Virgilius was the same with the Roman poet; but 
 it appears from the authors of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, that 
 such at least was the prevailing opinion of the dark ages ." The text I have 
 used is Mr . E. A. Baker's 1907 edition of Thoms, first published in 1858. 
 

 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
25 . 
 
 the spirit of the Robin Hood legends. 
 
 Robin Hood (ol530-70) is "a reduction into prose of ballads from the 
 common garlands, most of which appear in Ritaon's collection. It forms the 
 only prose history of Robin Hood. It is full of anachronisms; the period is 
 supposed to be that of Henry VIII instead of the early Angerin period (cll60- 
 99) . nl 
 
 The Goodll History of Lucres 
 
 2 
 
 In 1560 there appeared an English translation from the Italian 
 
 romance De Duobus Amantlbus by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini. The title of 
 
 this story differs in the several editions; those between 1550-60 seem to have 
 
 been sometimes Eurlalus and Lucres :^ sometimes The Goodll History of Lucres : 
 
 and the 1708 edition, which is the only text available to me, is entitled 
 
 5 
 
 The History of the Amours of Count Schlick . 
 
 The book was published by James Woodward, in London, 1711, but the 
 title page of the story (pages are renumbered for each story, and this one 
 consists of the last sixty-three pages in the book) gives the date of translation 
 
 *Cf. Baker, E. A., Guide to the Best Fiction in English (1913). Also 
 Jusserand, J. J., op. cit., p. 224, footnote. 
 
 o 
 
 Cf. Savage, Howard, The Beginnings of Italian Influence in English Prose 
 Fiction , in Modern Language Association Publications (New Series), March, 1917, 
 
 p. 2. 
 
 3 Ibid, p. 5. 
 
 ^Jusserand, J.J., The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare (1890), 
 p. 85, footnote. 
 
 5 
 
 "The Memoirs of the Court of Scotland, or the History of the Earl of 
 Douglas, with the Secret History of Mackbeth, King of Scotland, by the author 
 of The Ladies Travels into Spain , the Memoirs of the Court of England , and the 
 Memoirs of the Earl of Warwick . To which is added the Art of Love , or the 
 Amours of Count Schlick , Chancellor to the Emperor, with a young court Lady; 
 Written in Latin by Pope Pius the II." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 4i 
 
 
26 . 
 
 as 1708. Since the findings of Mr. Howard Savage, in the Modern Language 
 Association Publication before mentioned, would indicate that the 1560 edition 
 doe9 not differ materially from the story in the edition I have, I believe it 
 is safe to judge somewhat of The Goodli History of Lucres from the later edition. 
 However, I note that the 1708 rendering follows the Latin story's conclusion 
 and does not picture Euralius as pining, mourning until his death. 1 
 
 Mr. Savage has given a very satisfactory synopsis of the plot of 
 The Goodli History , therefore I shall omit a repetition of the substance of the 
 narrative in detail. Suffice it to say that it is a story of the unwise 
 passion of a lady of Sienne for a follower of the Emperor Sigismund, which 
 Picoolomini claimed to have written at the request of a friend. It is an 
 account of the letters and intrigues of these two lovers, their secret love- 
 meetings, their final separation, and the death of Lucres through grief. 
 
 The sympathy of the writer with the lovers reminds one of Painter's 
 Amadour and Florinda . Lucres' husband is only mentioned in the light of an 
 intruder who frustrates the plans of the lovers and is welcomed to his wife's 
 bosom only through fear; he keeps his house a9 a jailer. (On the other hand, 
 the author says: "He only is not deceived whom his wife has not yet endeavored 
 to deceive," indicating that women are wily and men too stupid.) 2 
 
 The plot of The Goodli History is all that is requisite, technically, 
 for the short-story. It is handled in a realistic manner; the climax and con- 
 elusion seem quite possible, even probable, except the account of the close of 
 
 Cf. Jusserand, J. J., The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare , p. 84, 
 and footnote. 
 
 2 I am prone to think the railing against women is one of the conceits of a 
 later date, though I may be mistaken. (Mr. Savage's synopsis does not attempt to 
 characterize the husband, Menelaus.) There are other conceits, some clearly as 
 Euphulstlc as Pettie,in this 1708 version; e.g., p.15 which presents "animal 
 
 8irai J$U .Savage has carefully traced the historical background of this narrative. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
27 . 
 
 Eurialus' life in mourning — there the English author changed the lines of 
 Piccolamini ' s story and chose an ending "in direct contradiction to the 
 realism of the novella." Although Eurialus apparently had some youthful 
 escapades to his discredit, he evidently was greatly attached to Lucres and 
 strove to keep her reputation above her desert. The author has drawn a 
 Launcelot rather than a rogue. Likewise Lucres is drawn with some virtues, 
 though her sin is great; she is not a common courtezan, nor a Countess of 
 Celant.* One could not forgive her infidelity, her tricks, and her false- 
 hoods, but one might wish that she had first known and married Eurialus, 
 instead of Menelaus. Only Menelaus is a type; the other characters, including 
 the servants Sosias and Dromo 2 are individuals. 
 
 If we add, to well organized plot, and realistic character- drawing, 
 a sense of situation, and a careful portrayal of details and episodes to 
 give a unity of impression, it will be evident that The Goodli History is a 
 remarkable short-story for so early a date in the development of fiction: 
 
 "The exactness with which the location of Menelaus' s house 
 is fixed with relation to the court and the lodgings of Eurialus; 
 the Emperor's jest; Sosias' unusual declaration of Lucretia's 
 love; the incident of the and Euralius's first letter; his 
 
 ignorance of Italian; his nervousness and his inability to enjoy 
 his stay when at last left alone with his lady; the ingenuity of 
 Pacorus; the conventional picture of Sienese life in winter,; the 
 saving of Euralius in the stable from the pitch fork of Dromo; 
 the covetousness of Paudalus as a motive for his betrayal of his 
 cousin's honor — these are but a few of the means whereby Aenias 
 strove to gain verisimilitude. Nor is the character of Sigismund 
 forgotten; if he had met Eurialus as a porter, he would have made 
 his servant the most miserable man in Siena." 3 
 
 The story-teller mentions Lucres' bastard brother; the inference is that 
 he is her mother's son. Evidently there were untoward influences in Lucres' 
 heritage. Cf. page 28, Memoirs of Scotland . 1711. 
 
 ^Mr. Savage says of Dromo: "He is essentially an English figure with his 
 racy complaining and his oaths." Cf. page 17, Modern Lang. Assn. Pub., March, 
 1917. 
 
 3 Ibid, p. 12. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
28 . 
 
 The Goodll History of Lucres is undeniably well told; technically it 
 is of vast importance in a study of the novel and the short-story forms; but 
 as one critic has said, "it is rather a warm story to be written by a man who 
 was later to become pope," and one wonders whether it ever should have been 
 written at all. 
 
 Following the story of Eurialus and Lucres the period 1560-1565 
 seems to contain no short narratives except in jest books. There are a few 
 long fictions, some two or more volumes in length.* 
 
 A summary of the progress of narrative writing during the sixteenth 
 century, and a review of the development of that narrative toward the short- 
 story brings us these results: 
 
 (1) There were many anonymous writings and translations. 
 
 (2) Fictions became longer and were crude in construction, exhibiting a 
 tendency to include all sorts of material within the compass of a single 
 
 The following table indicates the prose of this period; 
 
 1531- Sir Thos. Elyot's "Titus and Guissipus" (The Boke of the 
 Governour) 
 
 cl534- Lord Berner's transl. "History of Arthur of Little Britaine" 
 cl534- Lord Berner's transl. "Hecon of Bordeaux" 
 
 1551- Sir Thos. More's "Utopia" (written 1516) 
 
 1556- "Aurelis and Isabella" 
 
 1557- Sir Thos. North's transl. Guerara's "Dial of Princes" 
 
 1563- Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" 
 
 1565- Golding's "Caesar's Commentaries" 
 
 Jest Books 
 
 1535- "A Merry Tale, Witty Questions and Quick Answers" 
 
 1557- "Sackful of News" 
 
 1559-63 "Howleglas" 
 
 1561- Owdley's "Fraternitie of Vagabondes" 
 
 1565-6 "The Jests of Scoggin" 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
29 . 
 
 narrative. They were coarse in substance. The "amorous" story was increasing 
 in popularity. There was no pretense of moral purpose in the writing of fiction. 
 
 (3) George-a-Greene and Robin Hood were the only native English stories; 
 these were less inclined toward coarseness than the borrowed plots, and 
 attained some effect of realistic character-drawing. 
 
 (4) The only approaches to the short-story were found in the Gesta 
 Romano rum , which, though printed in 1510-15, really belongs to the fifteenth 
 century (1400). Except in the Gesta and The Goodli History of Lucres there was 
 no attempt to produce a unified narrative. Fictions became longer and longer, 
 having no recognition for the requirements of plot . Whatever of unity was 
 attained was secured because one chief character was treated in each narrative. 
 The unplotted incidents usually followed chronological order. The success which 
 was gained in the Gesta appears to have been unconsciously reached and to be the 
 result of the didactic purpose of the author. Nevertheless there was a sporadic 
 appearance of unity of impression, effective climax, and simplicity of plot , 
 which from the use which later writers made of it, seems finally to have had 
 
 its results in the development of narrative. Among the best of these narratives 
 the chief hindrance to perfect technique is their extreme brevity. Brevity, when 
 properly employed, is one of the most requisite qualities of the short-story 
 type. The stories in the Gesta resemble, figuratively, topical outlines, which 
 though nearly perfect as such, are in need of amplification in order to become 
 pleasing literary works. 
 
 (5) The best narrative technique attained within this portion of the six- 
 teenth century, from 1500 to 1565, is found in the translation of Piccolomini 's 
 De Duobus Amantlbua . entitled in English, in 1560, The Goodli History of Lucres 
 This is a really good piece of workmanship on the part of Piccolomini*, the 
 characterization gained under the pen of the translator, but the English 
 story's changed conclusion was unfortunate. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . - - t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
30 . 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OE THE SHORT-STORY IN 1566-79. 
 
 At this point in our study of sixteenth century narrative, a 
 division of the mass of material to he considered is most convenient, since 
 in the year 1566, with the publication of William Painter’s huge Palace of 
 Pleasure we meet a decided change in English narrative . In the year 1580 
 lyly’s Eupheus brings another marked influence. Therefore my third chapter 
 will best be concerned only with narratives written between 1566 and 1579. 
 
 Since Painter told in several of his stories that another 
 narrative concerning some of his characters would further enlighten his 
 readers with regard to the incidents he related and evidently Painter did 
 not conceive his stories in the order in which they are published,* their 
 order in the volumes reveals little about his development in narrative writing. 
 Consequently, studying the stories in the exact order of their presentation 
 would be of little value, except to convey to ray readers the impression of 
 heterogeneousness which one feels in turning from one of Painter’s novels to 
 the next and there encountering such a great diversity in narrative form. 
 
 In the previous chapter we left English short prose fiction in a 
 decadent condition; both structural art and nobility of substance had been 
 neglected. There had been a promising note in the Gesta Romano rum , a flourish 
 of popular tales, and finally a turning to the writing of jest books, long, 
 poorly organized fictions borrowed from the French metrical romances, and long 
 
 *It is interesting that in Tome I Painter placed all of his selections, 
 from each source in one group, while in Tome II he arranged them rather 
 according to theme. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
31 . 
 
 prose works. It was evident that the English "brief narrative was in need of 
 
 new material and a new spirit in technique . 
 
 Let us see what William Painter attempted. His title page says that 
 his work is a "Palace of Pleasure Beautified, adorned and well furnished with 
 pleasaunt Histories and excellent Nouvelles, selected out of divers good and 
 commendable Authors ... By William Painter Clarke of the Ordinaunce and 
 Armarie ." 
 
 Painter followed this with a lengthy dedication, 1800 words, to "the 
 General of the Queenes Maiesties Ordinaunce" in which he protested that he 
 wished above all things not to be considered guilty of ingratitude toward this 
 general who had favored him, and therefore, to express his appreciation, he 
 would translate "that excellent Historiographer Titus Livius" and . . . 
 thereunto join "many other, gathered out of Boccatio, Bandello, Sir Giovanni, 
 Straparole, and other Italian and French Authours." 
 
 There are other remarks in this preface which throw considerable light 
 upon Painter* 8 miscellaneous collection of subjects for his stories. 
 
 "In these histories (which by another terme I call nouvelles) 
 be described the lives, ge3tes, conquests, and highe enterprises 
 of great Princes, wherein also be not forgotten the cruel act and 
 tiranny of some. In these be set forth the great valiance of 
 noble Gentlemen, the terrible combate3 of courageous personages, 
 the vertuous mindes of noble Dames, the chaste hartes of constant 
 Ladyes, the wonderful patience of puissant Princes, the mild 
 sufferance of well-disposed gentlewomen, and in divers, the 
 quiet bearing of adverse Fortune. In these Histories be 
 depainted in livelye colours, the ugly shapes of insolencye 
 and pride, the deforme figures of incontinencie and rape, 
 the cruel aspectes of spoyle, breach of order, treason, ill 
 luck and overthrow of states and other persons. Wherein also 
 be Intermixed, pleasaunte discourses, merle talke, sportinge 
 practices, deceitful devices, and nipping tauntes, to exhilarate 
 your honor's minde. And although by the first face and view, 
 some of these may seem to entreat of unlawful Love, and the foule 
 practices of the same, yet being thoroughly reade and well con- 
 sidered, both old and yonge may learne how to avoyde the ruine, 
 overthrowe, inconvenience and displeasure that lascivious desire 
 
. 
 
 ■- . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
32 . 
 
 and wanton evil doth bring to their staters and pursuers." 1 
 
 Through many sentences in his dedicatory preface Painter informed his 
 hearers that he intended to write of people of "nobilitie." 
 
 Both because of his statement that his novelle9 are histories , 
 and his reference to his work as "a Theatre of the world, and stage of human 
 misery," realism might be expected of Painter's Palace . 
 
 The moral advice in the prefaces of Painter's work, which stated that 
 he expected his readers to receive through "good examples of what to avoids," 
 causes one to wonder whether Painter followed his predecessors, U3ing the 
 exempla form, or whether he trusted to the strength of his narrative to 
 produce the desired influence. 
 
 Turning the page, we find another preface "To the Reader." Herein 
 
 Painter recommended his book for all classes of readers, pointing out what 
 
 would assist each to overcome his sins, griefs, or while away his lonely hours. 
 
 Almost it reads like a patent medicine circular. The Palace was to cure every 
 
 one of any thing . It is equally as long a preface as the first one to the 
 
 2 
 
 General of the Ordinance. 
 
 ^Painter, William, Palace of Pleasure (1566), p. 5. 
 
 o 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the weight of influence of an author's pur- 
 poses upon his writing. This influence is felt in any type of literature, 
 but especially in the short-story, in which so much must be accomplished within 
 a short space. Authorities upon the modern short-story form are insistent in 
 emphasizing the strength of purpose in technique. Notestein and Dunn, 
 
 The Modern Short-story , pp. 74-75; Bliss Perry, A Study of Prose Fiction , 
 pp. 303-4; Jessup and Canby, The Book of the Short-story , pp. 8-10; Clayton 
 Hamilton, A Manual of the Art of Fiction , pp. 189-190; Evelyn May Albright, 
 
 The Short Story , p. 28. Beyond that, in studying the work of a century like 
 the sixteenth, in which prefaces and statements of purpose by the authors, — 
 and sometimes virtual apologies for authorship, — are met with everywhere, 
 we are under necessity of inquiring into an author's literary intentions and 
 pretentions. 
 

 
 
 Wf- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • ,* 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
33 . 
 
 We will turn now to the stories themselves, observing (l) whether 
 Painter's expressed purposes in writing the Palace were sincerely carried out, 
 (2) whether he was influenced by additional, unexpressed purposes, and (3) 
 whether he was successful in writing short prose fiction that may be 
 classified as short-stories, or approaches to the short-story form. As a 
 result we shall also learn (4) what types of narrative Painter developed 
 within his one hundred and one novel s . 
 
 From the prefaces we see that Painter stated three purposes: (l) to 
 
 entertain, ( 2 ) to teach and reform, (3) to picture life — give a "theatre 
 of the world." What did he do?^ 
 
 The Desire to Entertain. 
 
 There is no disputing that Painter did seek to entertain, — 
 
 especially by means of the strange, coincidence, and by a splendid pageant 
 
 of royal personages. He said much of rank and title, of high houses, and 
 2 
 
 high degree. Divine power he granted to some characters, — they were 
 
 3 
 
 sainted, having virtues beyond human development. In many of the stories 
 he showed a desire to bring out in detail gruesome and revolting scenes, e.g. 
 
 A C S 
 
 A Strange Punishment of Adultery . Tancredl . Irene, the Fair Greek . 
 
 *In the Preface to the Reader, at the opening of Tome II and at the 
 close of Tome II Painter presented no new material either in the way of any 
 new -purpose or any new plan for presentation of his themes. His earlier 
 work had been appreciated, therefore he intended to continue in the same 
 view, "by God's assistance." 
 
 2 Cf. Of a Gentleman that died of Love , novel 60 
 Of Rolandlne the Chaste , novel 62. 
 
 *%ovel 60, conclusion. 
 
 4 Novel 57. 
 
 ^ovel 39. 
 
 ®Novel 40. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
34 . 
 
 Painter advertised his literary wares quite as boldly as does the motion 
 picture house of today — his brief summaries take the place of the brightly 
 colored bill-board, exhibiting the most sensational incidents of the story. 
 Undoubtedly Painter sought to entertain.* 
 
 Painter's anxiety to entertain his readers with the wonderful, the 
 miraculous, the famous men of old, led him to incorporate in his translations 
 the exaggerated descriptions of beauty, size, and strength. At times he 
 added more exaggerations. His diction likewise was stuffed with alliterative 
 adjectives, to heighten the effect of importance of these details. In describ- 
 ing his heroes, he was very fond of saying that ’’nature seemed to have dispoyled 
 herself of riches to enhance his beauty,” and the heroine was "so beautiful 
 that there was no one in the entire kingdom, comparable unto her." This 
 description he applied indiscriminately to lords, ladies, peasants, or ser- 
 vants. (While Painter much preferred to write of the "nobilitie," he fre- 
 quently told of a duchess or a lady of high standing who became enamored of 
 her man servant, or a lord who became fascinated by a slave girl, etc. His 
 characters, however, were usually the English nobility and their servants, or 
 else the Italian nobility and their servants.) Some of the characters Painter 
 drew from Greek or Roman history. But always he used the superlative : 
 they were the greatest, bravest, most cruel, most wicked, or most miserable of 
 human creatures.^ 
 
 The desire to entertain produced in the stories which Painter chose for 
 his Palace not only unreal character-description and descriptive setting, (in 
 
 *The following "novels" are not supplied with the usual preface or synopsis: 
 The History of Papyrius Pratextatus : Of Sutorius , a noble Romaine 
 
 Captalne : A Prettie Tale Drawn out of the larke of Aesop : 
 
 Of the Books of the Sybilla . 
 
 p 
 
 One needs to read no farther than the opening lines or the synopsis to ob- 
 tain this spirit. The sources which Painter used are in most cases largely re- 
 sponslble for this type of characterization, especially Boccaccio. j 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
35 . 
 
 which the meagre portrayal of place is almost entirely an exaggeration of 
 measurement, wealth, or historic fame, rather than word-pictures of 
 buildings, cities, and landscapes), but it also produced unreal and extremely 
 verbose soliloquy, monologue, and oration instead of brief, natural conversa- 
 tion, e.g. novel seven . 
 
 Another quite natural result of the wish to entertain is that of over- 
 emphasis upon incident, because of which Painter produced in some of the narra- 
 tives a good plot structure at the expense of all other elements of narrative, 
 but especially short-story technique. In other instances he permitted incident 
 to become entirely too complicated, and there resulted a jumble of examples, 
 comparisons, and digressions. (The fortunes of Painter*s contemporary 
 characters reminded him of those of the great heroes of history and he needs 
 must stop to insert a brief historical sketch.) Sometimes Painter reminded 
 his readers, in the midst of his narrative, that, in another novel which he 
 was writing or had written, they would find an equally interesting circum- 
 stance. He even foretold, on occasion, the latter events of a story very 
 early in his narrative, giving away the manner in which his story was to 
 conclude.* All of these habits, of course, very largely destroyed unity, 
 and even coherence; but especially, such practices defeated the effect of 
 climax. Very frequently emphasis upon a single character, incident, or 
 
 situation was entirely lost, and with it any opportunity for short-story 
 
 2 
 
 technique. The result, one may easily discern, was that Painter produced 
 a large number of ’’tales," — "the sum of parts unrelated"; a fewer number 
 of novelettes, when he used a firmer plot structure, reached a climax, and 
 
 1 
 
 For exanple; novel 62. 
 
 2 Clayton Hamilton, A Manual of the Art of Fiction (1918), p. 177. 
 

 
 
 
 • • 
 
 ttni 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
36 . 
 
 attained some -unity or sustained dramatic power, but included too much 
 incident for a short-story plot. 
 
 Now and then Painter used the opposite method; instead of com- 
 plicating his incidents, he published one brief event, as a jest or a fable, 
 giving it place as a separate novel 
 
 2 
 
 Although Professor Canby finds that Painter made "few digressions” 
 
 I find many instances wherein he punctuated his return to the plot with "we 
 again turn to our history," and that many of his prose fictions fail in 
 narrative strength because of his great anxiety to include everything. 
 
 We have noted the effect of Painter's efforts to entertain in their 
 relation to unity and general construction of narrative. If we turn again to 
 the stories to see wherein he failed or succeeded in realism , we shall find 
 this sarsie desire to entertain had its effect there. 
 
 Although everywhere Painter strove for credence, insisting upon the 
 establishment of eminent and indisputable authority, as a foundation for belief 
 in his stories, he attempted to make his readers believe things highly impossible 
 when he translated for them stories in which he found character highly over- 
 
 3 
 
 drawn — especially vicious character. 
 
 Novel 27, The Lord of Ylrle > recounts that "a fayre younge wydow 
 called Zilia, for his promise made, the better to attaine her love, was con- 
 tented to remayne dumbe the space of three yeares . and by what meanes he was 
 revenged, and obtayned his suite." Another instance of the effect of the 
 desire to entertain by the marvelous, upon realism, is shown in Painter's selecticr 
 
 ^-See table at the close of this chapter, — column entitled "miscellaneous" 
 narratives . 
 
 ^ A Study of the Short- Story (1913), pp. 15, 16. 
 
 3 
 
 Cf . Dldaco and Violenta : the murder of Didaco . 
 

 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
37 . 
 
 of narratives which introduce a necromancer, who accomplishes all kinds of 
 wonders and feats of magic. These magicians were omnipotent, omniscient, and 
 omnipresent, — men, yet possessed of the efficient attributes of God; and at 
 the same time, aided the designs of evil as well as good men and seemed 
 equally willing to assist the devil, or to play the Divine.* 
 
 When we take into consideration the fact that the audience which 
 Painter addressed did not believe deeds of necromancy to be entirely impossible, 
 nor even highly improbable, and that Painter chose only a few stories of 
 necromancy, his idea of realism cannot on that score be greatly discredited, 
 although today we find him difficult to believe. 
 
 The stories of wicked characters, although they contain the 
 exaggerations of his sources, are largely founded upon fact. Bandello is con- 
 ceded to be a realist, accurately picturing the Italy of his day. 
 
 M A strange and marvelous use" is explained in Painter's translation 
 of A Gentlewoman of Hidrusa . "where it was lawful, with the license of a 
 magistrate ordayned for that purpose, for every man and woman that list, to 
 kill them selves." 
 
 *The necromancer in The Lady of Bo erne assists a jealous husband to be sure 
 of his wife's fidelity in his absence. This is accomplished by means of an 
 image of a woman, placed in a little box, which like a barometer registers the 
 state of the wife's affections, by the color of the image. 
 
 Painter selected another story of necromancy in Mistress Dianora. This 
 magician was hired by a licentious lover "to make a garden so faire in January 
 as in the month of May." 
 
 A third instance occurs in Master Thorello and Saladlne . in which Painter 
 presented this story: "Saladine in the habite of a marchaunt, ms honorably 
 
 receyved into the house of Master Thorello, who went over the Sea, in company of 
 the Christians, and assigned a term of his wife when she should marry agayne; 
 he was taken and carried to the souldan to be his Paulconer, who knowing him, 
 and stiff ering himself to be knowen, did him great honour. Master Thorello fell 
 sicke, and by magique art was caried in a night to Pavle where he found his 
 wyfe about to marry agayne, who knowinge him returned home with him to his own 
 house/' (Novel 20; tome ii) 
 

 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
38 . 
 
 Painter is certainly incredible when he tells of a daughter of 
 fane re dl . who when presented with the "dead harte" of her slain lover, "many 
 times kissed the dead harte," and indulged in wise speeches concerning her 
 lover's good life. An Amazon maid would have broken down and fainted under 
 such torture. But Painter was desirous of telling about a very brave woman, 
 and found such a narrative in Boccaccio, fitted to his purpose, and perhaps 
 his contemporaries believed him. An even more terrible and much longer drawn 
 out suffering was endured patiently by the Lady in A Strange Punishment of 
 Adultery . She drank from the skull of her paramour at every meal, and was com- 
 pelled by her husband to live in a room where she daily beheld the skeleton of 
 this man. Being a wonderfully patient and obedient wife, she endured all cf 
 that and remained mentally sound and physically healthy, even while eating out 
 her heart in grief because of her severe punishment. (No matter how ill unto 
 death the love-lorn heroes and heroines, which Painter chose to tell about, 
 might become physically, they never are mentally unbalanced, although a few 
 of his evil characters — villains and vampires — become mad with hatred . \ 
 
 Even among Painter's better successes in narrative, he was unable 
 
 2 
 
 to get away from the superlative treatment of his characters. He did, how- 
 ever, now and again choose a character which is more realistic — a man sin- 
 cerely giving sage advice to his king, and finding himself unable to practise 
 3 
 
 his own preaching, or a Lady Panthea, with the suggestions of a shrewd Portia, 
 
 *Cf. The Countess of Celant . novel 24, Tome ii; The Duchess of Malfl . 
 novel 23, Tome ii (note the inserted incident of the cruelty of the Erie of 
 Monferatto, p. 38); Mahomet and Irene , novel 40. 
 
 p 
 
 ^Professor Jacobs remarks in his "Introduction" to the Palace . that the 
 Shakespearian dramatists borrowed plot from abroad, but that they were compelled 
 to draw character from the men and women around them. If Painter could have done 
 this, the "short-story" might have been much different. 
 
 3 
 
 King Cyrus and the Lady Panthea . novel 11. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
39 . 
 
 and a simple Ruth. It is frequently true that Painter's characters did not 
 receive this rational treatment to the end of the story. Panthea is given over 
 to the heroics of his other virtuous wives at the very close of the narrative. 
 
 Moral Purpose. 
 
 Was Painter sincere in his professed attempt to reform and teach his 
 readers the proper conduct of life? What effect has his moral purpose upon 
 his choice of characters? 
 
 Painter's Palace of Pleasure opened a new era in the history of short 
 
 prose. It will be remembered that heretofore the Italian influence in English 
 
 prose had only been occasional. With Painter's collection of one hundred and 
 
 one short fictions or novels as he calls them, translated from Latin, Italian, 
 
 and French writers (principally Boccaccio, Bandello, Marguerite of Navarre, 
 
 Giovanni, and Straparola)* a new zest entered the technique of English prose. 
 
 No such lively narrative had been ahsorbed before the Palace of Pleasure . Many 
 
 of the "novels" of Painter's collection merit detailed study. 
 
 It is a matter of common knowledge that the stories of the Italian 
 
 Renaissance are as a whole rather questionable in their moral influence. 
 
 Professor Jacobs, in the introductory chapter of his Palace of Pleasure makes 
 
 an able defense of Painter's selections from the material offered to him in the 
 
 2 
 
 works of Boccaccio, Bandello, and Marguerite of Navarre: 
 
 ^Jacobs, Joseph, Palace of Pleasure (1890), Introduction, p. 27. 
 
 p 
 
 Jacobs, Joseph, Palace of Pleasure (1890), pp. xiv-xviii. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 'c 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
40 . 
 
 "The whole literature of the novella ha3 the attraction 
 of graceful naughtiness in which vice, as Burke put it, loses 
 half its evil by losing all its grossness. At all times, and 
 for all ages, probably, similar tales, more broad than long, 
 will form favorite talk or reading for adolescent males. . . 
 
 However, we are not much concerned with the tales of this 
 class on the present occasion. Very few of the novel le 
 selected by Painter for translation depend for their attraction 
 on mere naughtiness. In matters of sex the sublime and the 
 ridiculous are more than usually close neighbors. It is the 
 tragic side of such relations that attracted Painter, and it 
 was this fact that gave his book importance for the history 
 of English literature, both in its connection with Italian 
 letters and in its own internal development." 1 
 
 It does seem strange that if Painter was searching for material for 
 
 stories which would edify the youth of England, he should decide to translate 
 
 narratives from the Decameron. Neither Boccaccio, nor Ser Giovanni, another 
 
 source of Painter's, in their prefaces make any pretence of greater or more 
 
 serious purpose than "to let fall some sparkling ray of refreshing light and 
 
 consolation upon him who may be in that mood, which in time gone by has 
 
 weighed on me” — Giovanni's stories were to consist of the tales told by 
 
 two lovers — "the amorous conversation which they held with one another 
 
 in order to mitigate the burning flams of love which consumed them." However, 
 
 it is to be noted that Painter did not choose the coarsest stories of 
 
 Boccaccio nor yet those which the Italian writer said called forth the laughter 
 
 of the group of his story-tellers. (There is, nevertheless, as Professor 
 
 Baldwin says^ "a spirit of the Decameron in Painter.") The Palace does not 
 
 o 
 
 include some of the most sensual stories of Bandello and Ser Giovanni.'' 
 
 William Painter was either insincere, or extremely naive in hoping 
 to bring so much good out of the recital of narratives which would serve 
 
 1 Ibid, p. xviii. 
 
 G. Waters, in his Terminal Essay , p. viii in the Proem of his transla- 
 tion of Sfcr Giovanni defends Giovanni in comparison with Boccaccio . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 . 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
41 
 
 to stimulate the curiosity and cultivate the imagination of the youth of any 
 century. 1 
 
 Fortunately few of Painter’s novels attempt to appeal through mere 
 vulgarity. The rogue story type of narrative with its attendant coarseness, 
 finds a place in only a few instances. Sensuality is a much more common 
 
 3 
 
 appeal . 
 
 His stories of the decadent Homan Empire tell of the erection of monuments, 
 and the establishment of temple worship, to honor the memory or the most 
 vicious women. ( Three Amorous Dames, novel 13, Tome ii) 
 
 Men of high estate are pictured as "the easiest prey to vice," and there- 
 fore great men like Alexander, Cyrus, Demosthenes, etc. are "wonderfully to be 
 admired" if they are furnished with moral character, or any degree of self- 
 control. Vice is the common thing, the expected thing. ( Three Amorous Dames , 
 novel 13, Tome ii; Of Lois and Demosthenes , novel 15, Tome i; Alexander the 
 Great, novel 2, Tome ii) 
 
 The king and queen in The Lady of Boem e allow two brothers, noblemen of 
 their court, to go to a third gentleman's home for the purpose of proving 
 their boast that they can seduce his wife. Throughout this story there is 
 a low moral tone, a winking at vice, in spite of Painter's avowed purpose to 
 exalt the chastity of the Lady of Boeme. 
 
 An honest and continually faithful love Painter called marvelous, and of 
 the sixty-one "amorous" plots which are contained in the Palace . the large 
 majority concern adultery, rape, and illicit love. Painter hastened to remind 
 his readers that they must not tire of discourses of love, since God compared 
 the idol worshippers of the Bible to unfaithful wives. Did he feel that 
 censure was merited? 
 
 Love, almost without exception, is engendered by the wonderful beauty of 
 the woman or the man. It is increased, in some instances, by the friendship 
 which proves the object of the lover's fancy to be worthy, but beauty is 
 always the first cause. Love is a cruel mistress who drives her victims nearly 
 frantic, frequently bringing them to illness and near to death, or it is a 
 "blind and naked god" — Cupid, who is rather spiteful in the use of his arrows, 
 and much sympathy is expressed for every man who "suffered the pags of love" 
 
 though he loved a married woman and attempted to seduce her. (On the other 
 hand, a woman's dishonest love is strongly condemned.) 
 
 2 
 
 Andruacclo . novel 36. 
 
 3 
 
 Of a Gentlewoman of Pampelunae . novel 56; Of a Gentleman that died of love , 
 novel 60; Mistress Katherine of Bologna , novel 19; Andruecclo . novel 36; 
 
 The Love of Antiochus with Faire Stratonica . novel 27; A Plurality of Husbands . 
 Hovel 29; Marriage of Widow and Widower , novel 29; The King of Naples , novel 51; 
 The King of England's Daughter, novel 34; A Gentlewoman of Pampelunae. novel 56. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 . 
 
 • r 
 
 ■&L ' 
 
 , * : * v 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
42 . 
 
 At times Painter seemed to contradict himself in his own expressed 
 purposes. He called several of his stories "moral discourses," 1 yet within the 
 same story he "described minutely the lives of good and evil persons, of both 
 sexes," in order that "everyone might delight their well-disposed minds." 2 
 Another instance of seeming inconsistency occurs in his praising deeds which 
 should have been condemned; even according to his own code as expressed in other 
 narratives, they could not be approved. 3 
 
 Whether or not Painter hoped to reform or instruct his readers, he 
 certainly preached. Sometimes he placed the sermon first and the story 
 followed as a mere illustration; sometimes he gave the story briefly in synopsis, 
 with the lesson baldly stated, then wrote his story in detail, at the close 
 commenting upon the virtuous characters. We are surprised to find that although 
 Painter pointed to his heroes and heroines as worthy of imitation, and warned 
 against the evil examples he present^, still there is an influence of the Greek 
 Romances in many of the narratives, and although the characters make prayer 
 ■unto one God, and Catholic services are mentioned, yet "Dame Fortune turns her 
 wheel," and luck and fate seem rather to control. Men and women are not able to 
 influence their destiny or to resist temptation — the spite of unseen powers 
 casts them into despair. 
 
 These contradictions are necessarily the cause of a lack of unity of 
 tone in many of the short prose fictions in the Palace of Pleasure . 
 
 1 Novel 13, opening sentence. 
 
 p 
 
 The Countess of Celant, novel 24, tome ii. 
 
 ^He praises the stoutness of heart of Tlmoclla of Thebes for her cruel re- 
 venge upon her betrayer: she tricked him into a cave, where she stoned him to 
 death . 
 
 The falsehood of an army officer is praised because "it worked." Painter 
 admired this strategy of lying in Sertorlus . He does not treat Sertorius in a 
 jesting manner, which would better fit it than a moralizing one. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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43 . 
 
 The Short Stories. 
 
 Are there any good examples of the short-story in Painter's Palace 
 of Pleasure? 
 
 In spite of many failures and half-successes, there are a few 
 narratives among Painter's one hundred and one short fictions which are rather 
 good short-stories. Professor Canby, in his Book of the Short- Story , summarizes 
 the importance of the translated novella thus: 
 
 "A love intrigue supplies the plot of most of these 
 stories. They are simply written, with few digressions, few 
 flourishes, and little or no originality on the part of the 
 translator. Personality finds little place in them, for it 
 was the plot, and not the characters which interested their 
 writers, and yet they savor of real life, especially the 
 tales from France and Italy, and are full of potentiality. 
 
 In England these foreign tales were the first successful 
 short stories in prose : they were the first successful 
 transcript into literature of the men and women of the 
 new epoch." 1 
 
 The examples of good short-story methods which I find in Painter are 
 four in number: (l) The Love of Antiochus with Faire Stratonica . (2) King 
 
 Cyrus and the Lady Panthea , (3) Amadour and Florinda . (4) Mithrldanes and 
 Nathan. 2 
 
 X Pp. 15-16. 
 
 2 
 
 Some authorities upon the short-story are more exacting than others, in 
 regard to the demands which they make upon the short- story form. The majority, 
 however, are agreed that while a great amount of freedom is to be allowed, 
 there are a few very essential attributes which go to make up a successful short- 
 story. [Poe, The Philosophy of Composition : Essay on Hawthorne's Tales : 
 
 Brander Matthews, The Philosophy of the Short- story : Notestein and Dunn, The 
 Modern Short-Story (1914), pp. 12-13; Albright, The Short Story ( , p.84; 
 
 Baldwin, American Short-Stories (1912), pp. 16 ff.; Bliss Perry, A Study of 
 Prose Fiction (1902), pp. 304, 322 ; Canby , A S tudy of the Short-story (1 913 ) , 
 p. It, Jessup, The Book of the Short- stories (l903), pp . 23-26, Introduction; and 
 Hamilton (1918), PP* 178-180, unite in ajbelief that unity of impression is the 
 chief essential of short-story technique 7] 
 
 Unity of plot, characterization, and descriptive setting may be managed at 
 the pleasure of the writer, if as a result he produces a story which contains 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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44 . 
 
 Antiochus 
 
 and 
 
 Stratonlca 
 
 A strange story indeed is The Love of Antiochus with F&ire Stratonica 
 in which Painter related how Seluccus, a king of Asia, learning through his 
 physician that his son was dying for love of the queen, his mother- in- lav/, sur- 
 rendered his wife and his kingdom to his son. 
 
 There are four principal characters, — the queen, king, 
 son, and physician. The last three named are more carefully 
 drawn than many persons in other stories by Painter. The 
 queen in comparison with the male characters is a mere figurehead; she has no 
 individuality but is just a beautiful woman who is easily persuaded to take the 
 younger man for her husband, in place of a less attractive mate. 
 
 The plot of this story is unified, with a well presented climax: 
 
 The physician feigns at first that it is his own wife with whom Antiochus is so 
 infatuated; then when the king pleads that the doctor give his wife to his son, 
 he is confronted with the truth. 
 
 unity of tone, a distinct emotional impression, and sustained emphasis. 
 
 "Sustained emphasis upon a single character, climactic incident, or situation" 
 (as set forth in the definition for the short-story, in chapter one, page nine, of 
 this discussion) makes compression of narrative necessary. The word limit of 
 20,000 is of course only adopted for convenience, because the majority of narra- 
 tives which extend beyond that limit are apt to be more complicated in plot than 
 the short-story. ^JBliss ? err y» A Study of Prose Fiction (1S02), p. 302; Clayton 
 Hamilton, A Manual of the Art of Fiction (1918), p. 181, "Stories That Are Not 
 Brief"; Evelyn May Albright, The Short-Story (1509), p. 57] 
 
 If the emphasis is to be placed upon character, unique characters are 
 necessary. Only in the case of the story in which descriptive setting is stressed 
 in producing the tone of the narrative is the matter of choice of characters un- 
 important. (Clayton Hamilton, p. 183; Albright, p. 5; Notestein and Dum, p. 136) 
 Neither Painter, nor any other writer of the sixteenth century attempted to do a 
 great deal with descriptive setting, in short prose. If climactic incident is to 
 be emphasized that incident mast be carefully prepared for : if situation , that 
 situation must not be ordinary. 
 
 *Novel 27. Source = Plutarch’s Demetrius , probably in Anyot’s translation. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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45 . 
 
 The plot itself is highly unreal, yet it is vividly narrated with 
 much of the intensity of the short-story method. It was a vivid bit of clever- 
 ness which caused Bandello to present the climax step by step, preparatory to 
 the king’s enlightenment . From that point on the story becomes weak, anti- 
 climactic. 1 
 
 In Antiochus Painter chose a good short-story, in which the author 
 forgot to close at the right place or else was unable to uphold the tone of 
 his narrative. Some of the incidents Painter might have lengthened to good 
 advantage; he might have more carefully developed the queen's personality, 
 and made the conversations less stiff. 
 
 2 
 
 King Cyrus and the Lady Panthea is a story of devotion and friendship. 
 The plot of the story contains these incidents; (1) King Cyrus refuses to be 
 persuaded by his friend Araspas, to visit the Lady Panthea, 
 
 King Cyrus 
 
 , taken prisoner by the armies of Cyrus. (2) Araspas is put 
 
 and 
 
 Panthea in charge of the fair prisoner and falls in love with her. 
 
 The lady is under necessity of notifying the king concerning 
 his friend's suit. (3) Cyrus, after giving him a chance to win Panthea's 
 love honestly, sends him to be a spy upon an arny, with permission to return 
 only when he has learned the enemy's secrets. (4) Cyrus consents to allow 
 the fair prisoner to send for her husband to take Arospas' place in the camp . 
 
 (5) When the husband is slain in battle, Lady Panthea takes her own life. 
 
 ^ould a modern author conclude this story with the father's enlightenment 
 as Stockton closes his The Lady or the Tiger ? Didactic purpose shows strongly 
 here. 
 
 2 
 
 „ Novel 11. Source; Probably Bandello lii-9; though Painter cites 
 Xenophon . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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46 . 
 
 The three leading characters are more strongly delineated than is 
 often the case in sixteenth century narrative; each one is individual. Cyrus 
 is kind, honest-hearted, and possesses strong moral character, and will power. 
 Lady Panthea is shrewd and self-reliant and pure. Aras)>as is a man of strong 
 statements and weak will; when persuading Cyrus to visit the faire Lady 
 Panthea, he maintained stoutly that the will was supreme over passion, and 
 then forthwith himself fell in love. 
 
 On the whole King Cyrus is a very good type of short- story to he 
 attained at so early a date; it has all of the requisites of the modern short- 
 story in a fair degree. The tone of the narrative develops through the sin- 
 cerity of the character of Cyrus, although it is evident from reading 
 Painter's preface and concluding lines^that he intended to emphasize the 
 character and beauty of Panthea. 
 
 A modern writer would succeed in obtaining a better focus upon one 
 scene in the narrative, probably emphasizing the willingness of Cyrus to allow 
 Araspas to win Lady Panthea if he could do so by fair means. This scene seams 
 best adapted to depict the unselfishness and tolerance of King Cyrus, through 
 his loyalty to his friend."' Painter makes the suicide of Panthea the climax 
 of the action. Since the whole situation concerns the protection of Panthea 
 in the camp of a foreign king, and his protection ms the result of his own 
 moral creed, rather than reverence for her husband (note that Cyrus permitted 
 his lieutenant to plead his love), Panthea's suicide at her husband's death 
 does not seem to be a logical climax. 
 
 *”Cyru8 erected a monument to the perpetual praise of chastitie and honest 
 love.” P. 68, vol. I. 
 
 ^Compare Bandello, whose narrative does not contain this incident. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ... ■». 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Painter used conversation to good advantage in this narrative . 
 Modem methods of paragraphing would greatly increase its resemblance to 
 modem short-stories. 
 
 There are sixteen lines of introduction with which Painter did not 
 in any way enhance the value of the story. The actual beginning of the 
 narrative is very artistically worked out by conversation between two of 
 the characters, preparing the reader for the introduction of the leading 
 lady — Panthea. 
 
 Novel 53, entitled Amadour and Florinda , tells the story of the 
 
 devotion of a sweet young woman, Florinda, to a reckless courtier, Amadour, 
 
 whom she found to be unworthy. Amadour married a woman he 
 
 did not love in order to be near Florinda, who married in 
 
 obedience to her parents and because there was no hope of 
 
 marrying the man she loved. Florinda sought happiness in 
 
 worshipping Amadour as a god of virtue, honestly devoted in friendship to her. 
 
 When she was disillusioned concerning the love of Amadour, after the death of 
 
 her husband, she went into a nunnery.*' 
 
 The evil character of Amadour is strongly contrasted with that of 
 
 the pure-minded girl, who portrays such even-tempered devotion and simplicity 
 
 in her attachment that one is apt to forget for the moment that Florinda is 
 
 married and so also is the man she loves. The old "courtly love” with its 
 eminent dangers is so foreign to modem ideals of love, and of marriage, that 
 
 only when we forget the duty of husband or wife to their vows, do we find our- 
 ^Source : The Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre. 10 . 
 
 Amadour 
 
 and 
 
 Florinda 
 

 ffci'.fj’aar n**jb 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ■.. i WBM | 
 
48 . 
 
 selves entirely In sympathy with the lovers. Painter has vividly presented 
 the devotion of this simple girl, unhappily mated, won to admiration by a 
 lover, who though unworthy had wooed her in a gallant fashion. He has also 
 achieved remarkable consistency and realism in the characters of Amadour and 
 Florinda. Perhaps Painter over-reached the mark in causing Florinda to dis- 
 figure her face in order that her beauty might not continue to appeal to 
 Amadour. 1 The frustrated love of these two determines the unity of impression 
 in this rather lengthy story of 14,345 words. 
 
 Mithrldanes and Nathan is the best of Painter's short-stories . It is 
 nearly perfect in structure. There are three incidents, and two outstanding 
 characters, — Nathan is undeniably the chief. There is unity of theme: best 
 
 expressed in the lines of the poet, "the mind a kingdom is." 
 
 Mithrldanes 
 
 The tone or emotional impression is fascinatingly wrought out 
 
 and 
 
 Nathan through the calm fortitude and generous heart of Nathan. This 
 
 2 
 
 tone begins to be felt in the opening sentences: "Strange 
 
 may seeme thys following Bystory, and rare among those, in whom vertue of 
 liberality never flourished: many we read of that have kept noble and bountiful 
 houses, entertayninge Guests, both Forrayne and free borne, plentifully 
 Feastinge them with the variety of cheere, but to entertayne a guest that 
 aspyreth the death of his hoost, and to cherish him after hee knew of it, or 
 literally to offer his life, seldorae or never we reade or by experience knowe, 
 but what moved the conspirator to frowne at the state and life of Nathan? even 
 
 The Hep tamer on is not available to me, therefore I do not know whether 
 Painter or the "Queen of Navarre" is responsible for this scene. 
 
 %ere Painter achieved a better tone in introduction than did Boccaccio; 
 though Painter is less straightforward, he creates a better background. 
 

 > 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 i «> 
 
 
 
 
 
 ft , 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
i 
 
 that froward pestilent passion Envy, the consumer and deadly monster of all 
 humanity: who iraitatinge the like cost, and port of his devout hoast Nathan, 
 and seeking after equal glory and fame, was through envie's force for not 
 attaininge the like, driven to imagine how to kill a good and innocent man: 
 for envy commonly wayteth upon the vertuous, even as the shadow doeth the body.” 
 Nathan, a rich gentleman in Calaya having a noble and liberal heart, 
 desirous by experience to have the same to be knowen," remodelled his Palace 
 on the highway where travellers from the East and West passed, and became 
 famous for his hospitality. "With a great trayne of servante3 he welcomed 
 and accepted such as journeyed to and fro ..." It chanced that his fame 
 flew to the ears of a young gentleman called Mithridanes, who lived in an 
 adjacent country. Mithridana® becaaie envious, so that to hear any one praise 
 Nathan made him very angry; an old beggar woman irritated him greatly by so 
 doing. When Mithridanes spoke to her concerning her frequent visits for alms, 
 she said, "0 how marvellous is the liberality of Nathan, whose palace hath 
 twenty-four entries by severall gates, so great as this, and daily begging 
 almes there, never made semblance as though he knew me, and yet the same was not 
 denied me: and being come thither but thirteen times I have been remarked and 
 reproved," and "saying so she went her way and never came thither agayne." 
 
 Finally Mithridanes determined to visit Nathan and by treachery to 
 slay him. He did not recognize Nathan, who met him at the gate. Nathan was 
 very humbly apparelled. While they were presumably waiting for admittance to 
 the presence of Nathan, the jealous visitor revealed his evil plan to his host 
 and gained from him advice as to where he would find the best opportunity to 
 kill Nathan. 
 
 Upon reaching the designated grove in the morning, Mithridanes found 
 Nathan himself had given him the information which he knew his visitor meant to 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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50 . 
 
 use to procure his death. 
 
 "Catching him by the band upon his head," Mithridanes cried, 
 
 "Old churle, thou art dead." Whereupon, Nathan made none other answer, 
 but said, "I have deserved it." When he heard his voice and looked upon his 
 face, he knew by and by that it was "he which had curtiously received him, 
 familiarly kept him company, and faithfully had given him counsel." Thereupon 
 Mithradanes, overcome with shame apologized for his attempt, making excuses for 
 himself. Nathan assisted him in his self-defense and so further shamed him. 
 
 "Marvel not, Mithridanes, of mine intent and purpose, for sithens 
 I was at age disposed to mine owne free will, and determined to do that 
 which thou hast gone about to do, never any came to me, but I have contented 
 them (so far as I was able) of that which they did demand. Thou art come 
 hither with desire to have my life, wherefore seeing that thou didst crave, 
 
 I forthwith did mean to give it, that thou alone mightest not be the man that 
 should depart from hence without atchieving thy request; and to bring to pass 
 that thou myghtest have the same, I gave thee the best counsel I could, as well 
 for bereaving of my life, as for enjoyinge of thine own: and therefore I say 
 
 to thee agayne, and pray thee for to take it, thereby to content thyself if 
 thou have any pleasure therein: for I do not know which way better to employ it. 
 I have already kept it four-score years, and have consumed the same in 
 pleasures and delights, and do know by course of nature in other men, and 
 generally in all things, that long it cannot rest in breathing days: wherefore 
 
 I think good that better it is to give as I have dayly done and deport with ray 
 treasures, than to keep it till nature carry it away in spite of my very teeth 
 
 and maugre that I have. It is a little gift to give; one hundred years, how 
 muche lease is it than to give six or eight of those I have to live? Take it 
 then if it please thee, I will beseech thee; for never yet found I man that did 
 

 
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 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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51 . 
 
 desire the same, nor yet do know when I shall find sutch one, and if that 
 thyself didst desire it, do not take it: and if it do chance that I do find 
 someone, I know full well that so much the longer that I do keep the same the 
 less esteemed it shall "be, and therefore before the same he vile, of little 
 price, take it, I beseech thee." 
 
 Then Nathan suggested that he and Mithridanes change places, but 
 
 Mithridanes, fearing "to diminish the renoun" of Nathan, refused. 
 
 The "liberal hoast" honored him many days in his palace; "after that 
 
 he had let him well to know, that he was not able to surpass him in liberality," 
 
 Nathan gave leave to return home with his company. 
 
 Painter’s style in this narrative is calm and smooth-flowing. 
 
 There is the combined effect of intense interest and quiet revelation — a 
 
 "once upon a time" atmosphere. This style is valuable as an additional factor 
 
 in producing the impression of calmness and kindness, which is the keynote of 
 
 Nathan's character, and the striking effect of the plot.* If we add to this a 
 
 modern system of paragraphing and somewhat more of descriptive setting, then 
 
 2 
 
 little more could be done to achieve a "perfect" short- story. 
 
 In Mithridanes and Nathan Painter presented a unique character in 
 Nathan, and placed his emphasis upon him. This story was well chosen also for 
 unique situation and careful preparation for climax: a phase of technique 
 
 3 
 
 noticeably absent from many of the stories from which he chose. Although 
 the narrative is very brief (2500 words), it does not seem to be too brief or 
 compressed for conveying the plot. Painter did not mar Boccaccio's story in 
 retelling it, but rather improved upon it in developing hie style. Hie narrative 
 
 1 Clayton Hamilton, A Manual of the Art of Fiction (1918), p. 208. "The Two- 
 fold Appeal of Language." 
 
 2 
 
 Ibid, p. 104. "Emotional Harmony of Setting." 
 
 3 Cf. Clayton Hamilton, op.cit., pp. 153-154, "Enphasis by Suspense." 
 

 , 
 
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52 . 
 
 is about 500 words longer than Boccaccio's* and has the effect of being less 
 
 hurried in the telling, a characteristic which adds to the successful tone 
 
 2 
 
 of this particular story. 
 
 ^Decameron , third novel for the tenth day . 
 
 2 A Brief Analysis of " Mithridanes and Na t han ." 
 
 A. Introduction ; lines 1-25. 
 
 I Painter gives a summary of his narrative, giving away the 
 "points" of his story unadvisedly, yet initiating the tone 
 of the story through his style and content here . 
 
 B. Actual Opening of the Story ; lines 26-44. 
 
 I Introduction of Chief Character . 
 
 Painter introduces his chief character, Nathan, at the same time 
 telling the first incident — the building of Nathan's wonderful 
 palace for the purpose of increased hospitality and liberality. 
 
 II Beginning of Complication ; lines 45-52 
 
 Mithridanes hears of Nathan's fame, and decides to obscure 
 it by rival hospitality, but his entertainments are disorderly. 
 Mithridanes' character thus slyly introduced with disapproval. 
 
 Ill Suspense Produced in line 53 
 
 Mithridanes "in a little time purchased great fame." Mithridanes 
 seems to be succeeding in overshadowing Nathan's praise. 
 
 IV Second Step in Complication ; lines 54-72 
 
 A beggar woman asking alms repeatedly at Mithridanes' palace 
 is reproved; she tells him of Nathan's greater generosity. 
 Mithridanes' envy is stirred again. 
 
 V First Preparation for Climax ; lines 73-75 
 
 "Verily I labour all in vaine, if I myself do not seek meanes 
 to rid him of his life, sith croked age is not disposed to dis- 
 patch him, I must therefore do the same with my own hands." 
 
 VI Second Incident in Preparation for Climax ; lines 76-82 
 
 Mithridanes rides with a retinue to Nathan's residence, lodging 
 his men secretly in the town to wait for him. 
 
 VII Third Incident in Preparation for Climax ; lines 83-93 
 
 The meeting of Mithridanes and Nathan; Nathan is not recognized. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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53 
 
 In addition to the four full-fledged short- stories which Painter 
 wrote, there are a few other narratives, seventeen in number, which approach 
 
 VIII Further Delineation of Nathan’s Character ; lines 94-103 
 
 IX Fourth Incident in Preparation for Climax ; lines 164-110 
 
 Nathan purposely deceives Mithridanes concerning hie identity, 
 giving Mithridanes an opportunity to criticize Nathan's 
 reputation if he so desires* 
 
 X Fifth Incident in Preparation for Climax ; lines 111-119 
 Mithridanes reveals his hatred of Nathan. 
 
 XI Sixth Incident Preparing for Climax : lines 120-130 
 
 Nathan conceals any emotion and commends the plan of Mithridanes, 
 offering his personal assistance. 
 
 XII Seventh Preparation for Climax : lines 131-139 
 
 Nathan lays a plot to endanger his own life . 
 
 XIII Eighth Preparation for Climax ; lines 140-142 
 
 Mithridanes sends word to his men to meet him at the place Nathan 
 suggested the object of his hatred could be apprehended. 
 
 XIV Ninth Incident Preparing for Climax : lines 143-145 
 
 Nathan carries out his part of the plan. He goes alone to the 
 appointed place. 
 
 C. Climax ; lines 146-156 
 
 I Mithridanes attempts Nathan's life. He recognizes him just in time 
 
 D. Beginning of Resolution ; lines 157-171 
 
 I Mithridanes is overcome with shame. He offers Nathan his own 
 life as a forfeit. 
 
 II Second Incident in Besolutlon ; lines 172-189 
 
 Nathan forgives Mithridanes liberally. There is further 
 character delineation here. 
 
 Ill Further Delineation of Nathan's Character ; lines 190-223 
 
 Nathan explains, at Mithridanes' request, his lack of fear of death 
 
 IV Conclusion ; lines 224-248 
 
 Nathan will not let Mithridanes return to his own country until 
 he has completely cured him of envy and caused him to acknowledge 
 Nathan's liberality to be perfect. (A last touch to Nathan’s 
 character — here is an honest pride added to his calm, generosity, 
 and bravery.) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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54 . 
 
 the short-story. The majority of these possess fairly .veil constructed 
 
 plots, but fail toattain unity of impression, originality of character, or 
 
 l 
 
 sustained emphasis — perhaps fail in all except simplicity of plot. 
 
 Many of Painter's narratives fail chiefly because of their extreme 
 brevity. For example Painter's novel 30, The Three Rings or Melchisedech 
 the Jew , is so brief (740 words) that it more nearly resembles an anecdote 
 than a short-story; it is rapidly told with a pleasing directness, and contains 
 plot enough for a short-story. Painter should have concentrated emphasis much 
 more upon character in order to improve the effect of Boccaccio's story, but 
 extreme brevity precludes its opportunity. As we read it now, it is simply 
 the skeleton outline of a good short-story. (Lessing's Nathan Per Welse 
 showed what could be done with characterization for this plot.) 
 
 *Since Painter followed Boccaccio's Decameron so closely as almost to have 
 given an exact translation of his story in the second tale of the second day, 
 Professor Baldwin would probably classify Rinaldo of Este as a short-story. 
 (Charles Sears Baldwin, American Short- Stories . 1912, Introduction, pp.27, 28.) 
 
 I have classed it as a tale, for it seems to me that the events of this story 
 are loosely flowing adventure, rather than a "self-consistent whole.” There are 
 some differences between Boccaccio's and Painter's stories: Painter's is 150 
 words shorter, and in several instances lacks the "small familiar touch making 
 one see"; the "little miracles of observation.” Painter chose to condense the 
 climax — if Rinaldo of Este contains a climax — the incident in which the 
 traveller's journey turns from the perils of robbery to the snares of an evil 
 woman. Boccaccio says Rinaldo was "a connoisseur in love-matters”; Painter 
 makes him the victim of a designing widow. Boccaccio says that "the” mayde knew 
 well how to please her mistress,” Painter makes no attempt to characterize her. 
 
 If, as in Painter’s Rinaldo of Este . we "suppose the eventB shaped the de- 
 stiny of the character, but were not themselves directed by him, the hero would 
 then be little more than the passive victim of circumstances, and the story 
 would take on the loose vesture of flowing adventure." (Notestein and Dunn, 
 
 The Modern Short- story . 1914, p. 12.) 
 
 Because in Painter's Rinaldo the action lacks the vitality such as would be 
 provided by the portrayal of a unique character strugglin g with a strange situa- 
 tion, and the entire narrative seems not to possess great firmness and strength 
 of texture, I do not consider it a short- story. 
 
 2 Saladine , the of Babylon, desiring to borrow from Melchisedech an 
 
 amount which the Jew was unable to lend, determined to so implicate his subject 
 in a controversy concerning religious laws that he should be glad to lend the 
 money in order to escape punishment. The Jew avoids the snare by telling a 
 story of three rings to express his religious views . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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55. 
 
 Novel 59, Of a Jealous gentleman , though "brief — 925 words — 
 contains a short-story outline or plot? A gentleman of Perche becomes jealous 
 of his most intimate friend and by revealing his distrust of the friendship 
 between his wife and his friend, he incites the man to evil. Painter handled 
 the substance of the story crudely, causing the story to appear ridiculous. 
 
 He employed some of the structural elements of the short-story, but the tone — 
 the spirit — of the short-story is absent. The abrupt close of the story 
 resembles the anecdote as does also the brevity of the entire narrative . 
 
 A similar criticism applies to novel 62, A Gentleman of the Courts . 
 
 which is a story of the revenge of a woman upon an admirer who followed her 
 
 until she returned his admiration, and then became fickle, spending his time 
 
 1 
 
 with many of the court ladies. The brevity — it is only 2,220 words, 
 crowds the narrative. 
 
 Paris and Theoxena . novel 8, tells of the fortitude of Theoxena, a 
 woman of Thessaly, who, being widowed, married her sister’s husband, Paris, in 
 order to carefully rear her nephews. King Philip through his cruelty caused 
 her to plot the death of her entire family in order that they might escape 
 his cruelty. 
 
 Painter’s story is very brief (1480 words), but there is here a 
 short-story outline and an opportunity for a more persuasive portrayal of the 
 fortitude of Theoxena. 
 
 A Gentlewoman of Hidrusa . The Pollcie of a Good Wife . A Doctor of 
 the Lawes . Sophoni sba . A Lady of Thurin . A President of Grenoble . The Marchioness 
 of Monficatto . Dianora . The King of Morocco . The Duke of Florence . Mistress 
 Helena of Florence . Two Maidens of Carthage. Master Thorello and Saladlne all 
 
 1 
 
 Source: The Hep tame rone , novel 9. 
 
■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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56 . 
 
 might form th« plot of a short-story, hut as Painter presented them they only 
 ann roach successful technique . 
 
 The Lord of Virle . novel 27, is, as far as mechanics of plot are 
 concerned, one of the best of Painter's approaches to modern methods. There 
 are five brief incidents in the story, all closely related in one situation. 
 Although the action of the story stretches over three years, the greater part 
 of the time is passed over successfully with a brief explanation, and the 
 action i9 not impeded by the lapse of time between these incidents.* 
 
 The characterization is consistent, but Painter did not improve upon 
 the light tone of the narrative in spite of moralizing interpolations. Like 
 many of the stories translated from the Italian, its tone is neither comic, 
 nor tragid, nor even serious to any great degree. The lack of any definite 
 purpose shows very clearly here its effect upon narrative tone. 
 
 ApdIus Claudius and Verglnla . novel 7, approaches the short-story 
 type. The summary given by Painter preceding the story proper is a good 
 outline of the plot: 
 
 "Appius Claudius, one of the Decerauiri of Home, goeth 
 about to ravish Virginia a yonge mayden, which endevour of Appius, 
 when her father Virglnius understode being then in the warres, 
 he repaired home to rescue his daughter. One that was betrouthed 
 ■unto her, claimed her, whereupon rose great contention. In the 
 end her own father, to save the shame of his stock, killed her 
 with a Bocher's knife, and went into the forum, crying vengeance 
 upon Appius. Then after much contention and rebellion, the 
 Decemuiri were deposed." 2 
 
 Cf. Note3tein and Dunn, The Modern Short-Story , p. 18. "So long as unity of 
 impression and sustained emphasis on climactic situation are not violated, it 
 makes little difference whether the action requires five minutes or fifty years." 
 
 ^rom the above outline it is manifest that there are four incidents here, 
 concerning four characters. The incidents are all closely connected to portray a 
 single situation — the defense of chastity. The interest is in the plot rather 
 than in any one character's development, and the narrative is briefly and direct- 
 ly told,- in 3700 words. There is a spirit of tragedy in the story, but there is 
 no especial attempt to create a penetrating tone; there is no particular success 
 in creating a strong emotional effect. Painter, it seems to me, did not tell this 
 story as well as it was told by Giovanni, who used direct discourse in presenting 
 the plea of Appius Claudius, and in the refutation of that plea by the uncle of 
 
 to put an oration Into the mouth of 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ l- \i ■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
57 . 
 
 Other Forms of Narrative in The Palace of Pleasure 
 
 Tales Word Length 
 
 "Queen Anne of Hungary" 26,048 
 
 "Sultan Solymon" 7,400 
 
 "Of the 3ooks of the Sybella" 300 
 
 "Ermino Grimaldi" 875 
 
 "Master Alberto of Bologna" 740 
 
 "Rinaldo of Este" 1,850 
 
 "Sertorius" 740 
 
 "The Amazons" 2,220 
 
 "The Love of Chariton and Menalippus" 370 
 
 "Of Ahdolominus, King of Sythia" 380 
 
 "C. Fahritus" 670 
 
 "Of the Beastly Nature of Timon of Athens" 505 
 
 "Furius Camillus" 925 
 
 "The Historic of Papyrius Praxtexetatus" 370 
 
 "A Miracle at Lyons" 370 
 
 "The King of England’s Daughter" 2,960 
 
 "Landolpholo Ruffolo" 1,850 
 
 "Galzano Madonna" 925 
 
 "A Combat Between the Romanes and Albanes" 2,220 
 
 "The Pope of Lucrece" 1,480 
 
 "Mutius Scaenola" 925 
 
 " Mar t ius Care o lanus " 2 , 035 
 
 "Phacon and Cartomes" 370 
 
 "Artaxerxes" 550 
 
 "Of Chaste Death; the Muleteer's Wife" 1,110 
 
 "The King of Naples" 1,900 
 
 "The Princess of Flaunders" 2,260 
 
 "Of a Gentleman That Died of Love" 2,220 
 
 "Zenobia, Queen of Palmyres" 3,130 
 
 "Faustina, the Empress" 1,110 
 
 "Three Amorous Dames" 3,130 
 
 "Aristotemus the Tyrant" 4,255 
 
 "Two Roman Queens" 5,650 
 
 "Alexander the Great and Sisigarabls" 1,110 
 
 "Ariobarzanes" 23,210 
 
 "A Strange Punishment of Adultery" 1,305 
 
 "Androdus" 720 
 
 Novelettes 
 
 "Of Rolandine the Chaste" 7,500 
 
 "Euphemia of Corinth" 6,090 
 
 "The Countess of Celant" 14,295 
 
 "The Lady of Boeme" 24,060 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 . . 
 
 . *; • 
 
 !••; 
 
 . . 
 
 .... . 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 . ' : v: ' 1 
 
 • • 
 
 
 
 .... - 
 
 . 
 
 
 
58 . 
 
 Novelettes Word Length 
 
 "The Lords of Nocera". 12,61? 
 
 "The Erie of Anglers" 5,650 
 
 "Giletta of Narhonne" 3,145 
 
 "Taucredi" 3,700 
 
 "Mohomet and the Faire Greek" 2,960 
 
 "A Lady Falsely Accused" 6,830 
 
 "Don Diego and Gineura" 9,990 
 
 "Didaco and Violenta" 7,750 
 
 "Alcrane and Adelasia" 24,060 
 
 "The Countess of Salisbury" 22,940 
 
 "The Duchess of Savoi" 17,020 
 
 "The Duchess of Malfi" 16,650 
 
 "Hhomeo and Julietta" 26,048 
 
 "Two Gentlev?omen of Venice" 16,650 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 "Aesop's Lark" 500 ..fable 
 
 "Of Lois and Demosthenes" 300 ..anecdote 
 
 "Andreccio" 4,810 ..rogue story 
 
 "The Duke of Venice and Riccardo" 3,700 . .rogue story 
 
 "Phileno Sisterno" 4, 090 
 
 "Alexander and the Sythian Ambassador" 1,110 
 
 "Metellus on Marriage" 740 not narrative 
 
 "Plutarch's Anger" 280 ..anecdote 
 
 "Hannibal and Antiochus" 150 
 
 " Favor inus" 1,110 
 
 "Master and Scholar" 810 . .argument 
 
 "Marriate of Widow and Widower" 500 ..anecdote 
 
 "Letters of the Emperor Trojan" 7,700 not narrative 
 
 "A Gentlewoman of the Courte" 1,080 ..anecdote 
 
 "Cardolus and Gyges" 1,050 ..anecdote 
 
 "Francis, the French King" 1,080 . .anecdote 
 
 The work of William Painter consisted mostly of translating and select- 
 ing narratives from a fresh source — the Italian novella * It is significant 
 that he chose, on the whole, the best of that newly available material, that in 
 only one or two of his approaches to the short- story he did not succeed as well 
 as the Italian author, and that in four instances he chose a narrative which is 
 a real short-story, and did not mar it in the telling. The magnitude of his work 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . . . . . 
 
 ■ 
 
 • . ' r 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ... ■ i 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 . i 
 
 . . . 
 
 
 
 ■ • - .< . 
 
 .... 
 
 ■ 
 
 . . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 
59 . 
 
 waa an innovation in English literature, and its quality might have inspired 
 writers of short prose fiction had the time been ripe for that inspiration, 
 but as we shall tee the drama instead profited thereby. 
 
 Fenton’s Tragical Discourses (1567) 
 
 The first Englishman to take advantage of the example which William 
 Painter had set was Geoffraie Fenton, a student of the French and Italian 
 literatures at the University of Paris, who while there became sufficiently 
 interested in Belief orest 's Histories Tragiques that he translated them into 
 an English version entitled "Certain Tragicall Discourses written oute of 
 French and Latin by Geffraie Fenton, no less profitable than pleasant and of 
 like necessitye to all degrees that take pleasure in antiquities or forreine 
 reapportes 
 
 Although the Tudor Translations gives this work the title of Fenton* s 
 Banda llo , Fenton did not rest satisfied to translate directly from the Italian 
 novelist, — he took Belleforest 's much expanded version and then, in his own 
 narratives, still further "expanded? 1 it, adding long pedantic embellishments of 
 moral reflection and application, interrupting his narrative in much the same 
 manner as did Belleforest, and that more frequently. 
 
 The Tragical Discourses have a moralizing, didactic tone, and Fenton 
 used a copious vocabulary gathered from all kinds of sources (some of his 
 words were never Anglicized^ and an elaborate style. 
 
 Mr. R. L. Douglas, in his introduction to the Tudor Translation , 
 edited by Mr. W. E. Henley, says that all of the characteristics of Euphuism 
 are apparent in Fenton's Ba ndello : 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 \ V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
60 . 
 
 "In Fenton's book are to be found all the characteristics 
 Euphuism — elaborate antithesis, alternate alliteration, 
 the frequent employment of rhetorical questions, and an 
 extravagant use of metaphors largely borrowed from natural 
 history. . though he is much more moderate in the use of 
 such affectations than was Lyly or even Gascoigne, he must 
 be regarded as one of the founders of Euphuism — a Euphuist 
 before Euphues." 1 
 
 It is true that when Fenton once got into the spirit of his narrative 
 
 he "frequently forgot all such mannerisms and wrote with great simplicity and 
 
 directness," but he was frequently indirect in opening hi6 story. Discourse I 
 
 has nine pages of preliminaries which must be read before the narrative is 
 
 really under way. Fenton did not often apologize for his digressions as did 
 
 Painter. Both translated some of the same stories from Bandello; it will be 
 
 interesting to compare the ability of the two in these stories. 
 
 Professor Canby says that Belleforest inflated Bandello's rather 
 
 straightforward novella, and Fenton further inflated Belleforest. Because of 
 
 this practice of inflation, there are no narratives in Fenton's work which are 
 
 short-stories, except in plot. The extreme brevity which at times discounted 
 
 Painter's work is turned about — Fenton's thirteen stories are of greater 
 
 length; the shortest is told in 7,800 words, and four reach beyond 20,000. 
 
 In his Tragical Disc purees . Fenton committed all of the faults of 
 
 Painter — exaggeration, particularly; he was coarser in picturing horrible 
 2 
 
 incidents; he chose fewer "good" exanp>les than Painter, using rather examples 
 of evil to be avoided. There is no attempt at wit or anecdote in his writing; 
 he chose only the tragic, for instance: Fenton attributed the fate of his 
 
 P- 
 
 ^Fenton, Geffrayo, Tragioal Discourses (1898), 
 liv. 
 
 ed. W.E. Henley, 
 
 Introduction, 
 
 ^Discourse III, A Young Lady of My lan ; the murder of the unborn child. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
61 . 
 
 characters, very frequently, to some unseen evil influence, as in Discourse XII, 
 of Perillo and Carmos.vna . The close of this narrative becomes absurd.* 
 
 On the other hand Fenton seized opportunities to fill in more care- 
 fully the descriptive setting for his stories; e.g. the description of the 
 village near Thurin in which dwelt Zilia (Discourse XI). Fenton began in the 
 manner of Painter, and of his sources, with a paragraph of general description 
 which was to appeal to the reason as a background for a marvelous story, — 
 vague and colorless. But he was not satisfied with that, and continued, 
 picturing for his readers "the fragrant air of the fertil feldes," ’’the drowsie 
 tenant of the valley." (Fenton did not know how to fit setting to the emotional! 
 tone of his narrative, as the abrupt transition from calmness of scene to a 
 
 description of Zilia’s tempestuous disposition proves. ) Yet this interest in 
 
 2 
 
 setting is flickering, for in all but three of his tragedies Fenton was 
 content to launch his narrative at once, omitting any preparation of time or 
 place, merely introducing his chief character as a lady or a gentleman of a 
 given city. 
 
 Fenton made other changes in his "translations"; he "realized each 
 
 story for himself and told it in his own way, ... he imparted some of the 
 
 3 
 
 fire and freshness of an original work." Fenton is much more difficult to 
 read than Painter, because his vocabulary is more difficult, his digressions 
 
 *Carruosyna and Perillo enshrined in one tomb, "with a certain epitaphs 
 in Latten, which I have hero composed in our vulgary verse; which it may 
 please your ladyshipp to ymagine to heare pronounced by the mouth of the dead 
 Perillo, appearynge halfe out of his grave, in his sheete, trussed at eyther 
 ends wyth a fatall knott, speakings with a voice of terror accordinge to his 
 ghastelye regards." 
 
 ^Cf. Discourse IX, p. 96; Discourse VI, p. 250. 
 
 ^The style used by Fenton is very carefully discussed by Mr. R. L. Douglas, 
 in his Introduction to the Tudor Translation of Bandello, p. liv ff. 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
62 . 
 
 more frequent; yet in creative skill, he surpassed Painter who was for the 
 great part satisfied to translate only. Fenton was able to recreate characters 
 for his plots by observing the life about him, as did the great dramatists who 
 used some of these same or very similar plots. 
 
 One example of Fenton's ability in character delineation is that of 
 his abbot. Painter's abbots were abbots, and his monks were monks, but Fenton 
 tells more carefully of the individuality of his man in The Villany of the 
 Abbot . This churchman is a man "whose younge discresion, equal to the green 
 of hi 8 years s, made him no less insufficient to govern the state of his vocation 
 than unable everye way to discharge the office wherein he was invested by 
 oathe and habit t of religion. For having also consents of noble race (whereof 
 he was discended), to favor the wilful appetites of wilful youth©, he took more 
 delite to assyste the exercises of nobilitie than to sit in the chapter house 
 uppon reformations of his monkes, or to employe any part of his tyme in the 
 studye of the sacred volumes of the churche." 
 
 Long letters, soliloquies, and "rhetorical debates" with conscience 
 are more frequent in Fenton's Tragical Discourses than heretofore. 
 
 A brief treatment of a few of the thirteen narratives will serve to 
 make clear what Fenton accomplished. 
 
 A gentleman of Sienna, called Anselmo Salimbena, carrying out his 
 kingdom's laws, determined to fine each alien resident to a certain sum of money. 
 
 Montannine could not pay. For default he was to lose his head. 
 A man who coveted Montannine's farm offered him the required 
 sum for his land. (Montannine recites his mishaps in poetry.) 
 Anselmo Salimbeno returned to the country; at first he was 
 
 discourse I, Source: novel 55, part 1, Bandello. Painter: novel 30. 
 
 Salimbeno 
 
 and 
 
 Angel iqua 
 

 
 
 
 
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 l ft ■ f r j 
 
 
63. 
 
 tempted to take advantage of Montannine’s misfortune to possess Angelica, 
 the sister, hut later he realized that if he truly loved Angelica the gallant 
 thing would he to love whom she loved; therefore he ransomed her brother. 
 
 In gratitude, Montannine felt that he should surrender himself and his sister 
 to the service of his benefactor. (Painter’s Angelica here indulges in a 
 long outburst of grief. Fenton's heroine makes her own surrender, for the 
 sake of her brother.) The ruler refused the proffered service, married 
 Angelica, and gave her great honor. 
 
 In both translations, Salimbene is the character who most interests 
 us. Painter’s heroine is melodramatic, but Fenton dignified her, making her 
 somehow victorious, even while she believed that she had surrendered. 
 
 This plot is somewhat less usual. Luchyn wooed Janiquetta with 
 dishonest love, but was unsuccessful. Janiquetta married a mariner. 
 
 Luchyn, persuaded by his friends, married, but was unhappy. 
 
 Luchyn and 
 
 . The mariner was imprisoned, and Janiquetta attempted to sell 
 
 the Maiden 
 
 her honor to gain food for her starving children, hut Luchyn 
 protected her and maintained her in honest livelihood. 
 
 The development of the character of Luchyn is similar to that of 
 
 Salimbene . 
 
 1 
 
 Discourse X. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 jfifl o- b**qm$ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
64 . 
 
 The plot is the same at that of Painter's story entitled 
 1 
 
 The Lord of Vlrle . According to Bandello, the widow Zilia was induced to 
 
 The Crueltie 
 of a Wydow 
 
 admit Fi liber to to an interview by a tricky clown who 
 pretended to be a peddler of laces and veils. He first 
 
 appealed to Zilia* s vanity with his display of trinkets 
 and finery, and later flattered her by telling of the devotion of her suitor, 
 who offered her all his wares as a present. When, according to Bandello, 
 Zilia had obtained the oath of Filiberto — to fulfill his request "she put 
 her arms about his neck and kissed him on the mouth," then demanded his 
 three years' silence. 
 
 Painter's Zilia was persuaded by the continued visits of a lady 
 friend of the Lord of Virle, to grant the interview. This friend vouched for 
 Filiberto's honesty. When Zilia had gained the oath, according to Painter, 
 "she embraced and kissed him very lovingly. The poore Gentleman, not knowings 
 how dearly he had bought that disfavorable courtesy and bitter sweetness, 
 held her awhile between his armes, doubling kiss upon kiss, that his soul 
 thought to fly up to heaven," etc. 
 
 Fenton gave a yet different description of this scene: 
 
 "The malicious lady, notinge the fonde desyer of the knighte, 
 and wyth what small costs she might nowe rydd her of an importunate 
 suter — but for a price of great pennance to him that soughte to 
 buy it — tolde hym that, as well to satisfye his present request 
 as also to make further proof fe of his faith, she wolde performs 
 the full of hys lasts demande yf he wolde give her assurance, by 
 the fayth of a gentleman, to one things wherein she required hym. 
 Which the simple Vyrley did not onely promisee by all protesta- 
 
 ^■Discourse xi. Fenton's narrative is about 7,000 words longer than 
 Painter's, is "lighter" in tone and has less preliminaries than usually. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
65 . 
 
 tions of religion or oath, but pawned also the majestie of the 
 Highest for for perfortoyng every such commandment as it 
 pleased her to enjoyne hym. Wherewith she seamed 
 satisfyed touchyng th' assurance of his consent, and 
 thereupon entered into the of her oune promisse, 
 
 embracinge and kissynge hym as if it had been the fir3te 
 nighte of theyr raariage," etc. 
 
 Perillo wasted his fortune in gambling and was reproved by his 
 friends. He courted Carmoyna successfully. She was unable to obtain her 
 
 father’s approval of her lover, therefore he took ship to re- 
 establish his fortunes, was shipwrecked, captured, and ransomed. 
 
 Perillo 
 
 and 
 
 Carmoyna 1 He escaped all sorts of perils, was joyfaully wedded to 
 
 Carmoyna, but both were killed, by a "thunder bolt" during 
 a storm, on their wedding night. 
 
 This narrative is very brief — 7,800 words, yet Fenton compressed 
 action to make room for interpolation and comment. The climax rests entirely 
 upon accident, or "fate," the unkindness of which Fenton mourns at length. 
 
 The Petite Palace of Pettle His Pleasure ( 1596) 
 
 George Pettie, a graduate of Christ's Church Oxford, when he had 
 gained some military experience and had returned to England, gave his attention 
 
 to literature. In this he was encouraged by his chum, William Gager, who no 
 doubt shared his admiration for William Painter's Palace of Pleasure , and 
 
 ^Discourse xii. There is a great similarity between this story and 
 Greene's Carde of Fancy . 
 

 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 ..tl ,, v \ ' 
 
 
 
 >1 r Jic^r: itaji vrt aac©? ia« oj w 
 
 
 
 
 
 
66 . 
 
 1 
 
 stimulated his attest to produce a similar work which he called A Petite 
 Palace of Pettie His Pleasure .^ 
 
 This little palace contains twelve narratives, whose plots Pettie 
 gleaned from Greek and Roman history and mythology. In spite of his borrowed 
 plots, Pettie is, as Professor Canby says, "more noteworthy for his invention 
 than for his borrowings," and was "perfectly free to tell them as he pleased." 
 
 Like Painter, he succeeded in the eyes of his contemporaries. "The 
 Petite Palace went through at least six editions by 1613, and although in a 
 later generation its author's grand-nephew Wood called it reading for school 
 boys, or rustic amorata , yet in 1581 Pettie declared that it had won him such 
 fame as had 'Ll* which fired the Temple of Diane. 
 
 Pettie attempted in each of his narratives, on a much more elaborate 
 scale than Painter or Fenton, to argue the questions of chief interest in his 
 day. "The favorite topics of love and lust ivere discoursed through whole plots 
 with such ingenuity that almost every story ends in an appeal for decision or 
 
 3 
 
 ratification from his audience." 
 
 While Pettie* s chief interest in narration was apparently "in ideas 
 and in every kind of argument for which his story could give an excuse," yet 
 
 *In spite of the fact that the printer added a note concerning the title of 
 Pettie* s Petite Palace stating that he knew nothing of the author, or the 
 author's friend who offered him the manuscript, and the fact that Pettie, in 
 his preface, declared that he wrote principally for gentlewomen, and did not 
 wish his work to be compared with Painter's, his title is "a barefaced plagarisnf 
 of that of Painter's volumes. It reads: 
 
 "A Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure, contayning many pretie his|ories 
 by him, set forth in comely colours, and most delightfully discoursed." 
 
 ^Canby, Henry Seidel, The Short-Story in English (1909), p. 133. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 4 
 
 The King's Classics under the general editorship of Professor I. Gollaucz, 
 Litt.D. (1908), preface. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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67 . 
 
 the reader is often in doubt as to just what text Pettie was really preaching 
 from, as for instance, in Alexius : at the close of this story, after Pettie 
 had condemned "fleshly folly" and conE&ended the sober second thought of the 
 young man who turned ascetic, he said: "But I could preach better to you in 
 
 a more pleasant matter. I will leave this text to Master Parson, who -while 
 he is unmarried, I warrant will dissuade you so earnestly from such idolatrous 
 doting on your husbands, that he will not stick to tell you besides that you 
 ought to have no respect of persons but to love another man or himself so 
 well as your husband." 
 
 There is a vein of humor here and there in The Petite Palace , slyly 
 slipped into the long (and to us tiresom) analogies of Pettie. Throughout 
 his stories he lost no opportunity to rail against the weaknesses and follies 
 of womankind, yet in Pygmalion's Friend this sentence occurs: "For he was so 
 
 far off from being able to keep himself from being in love with women, that 
 he fell in love with a senseless thing, a stone, an image — a just punishment 
 for his rash railing against the flourishing feminine sex!" and again; 
 
 "and so it may be that this Pygmalion thought himself some stone, and knowing 
 that like agree best with their like he thought he could make no better a 
 match than to match himself to a stone." 
 
 Of course, since Pettie used a very inflated — "dropsical" 
 
 Euphuistic style — which Professor Canby refers to as "one of the most curious 
 diseases with which a literature was ever afflicted" "his stories are not com- 
 pressed and lack unity of tone. As they stand, the two little volumes more 
 nearly resemble arguments stuffed with illustrative narrative than the short- 
 story, which has "swiftness of development" as its essential quality in plot. 
 Pettie' s classical subject matter is thought to have caused him to strain after 
 dignity of language to suit his material. He had "no mercy for the narrative 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o i cl SB' nxrt Meg 1c Joeqaai oc *rr.d ol J -..wc 
 
 
 
 
 
 “ 'vatrrf la n ,x » r <• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
68 . 
 
 which waited. . . it is scarcely necessary to point out that everything 
 
 notable In the narratives of these Euphuists, except the keen and ardent 
 
 personalities of the writers working freely through their plots, is headed 
 
 1 
 
 directly away from good story-telling." 
 
 In each story which Pettie chose to retell he, as well as Fenton, 
 knew when he had enough Incident and sufficient climactic action for a good 
 plot. There is none of the "over- inclusiveness" of incident to he detected 
 in so many of the "synopses" of Painter. In regard to plot, then, Pettie 
 approached the short- story. 
 
 In order that we may see somewhat more clearly what was Pettie's 
 
 success, in so far as he approached the short-story, let us turn to a brief 
 
 2 
 
 analysis of eight of his narratives. 
 
 Synorix gave a banquet in order to get an opportunity to plead his 
 love for Camma, the wife of Simatus. She ignored his suit, and the letter 
 which he wrote to her. Then he sent an evil woman, whom at 
 
 Synorix 
 
 . first she scorned, but finally she allowed her resolution to 
 
 and 
 
 Camma be shaken. Camma* s husband was murdered at the instigation 
 of Synorix, and his widow forced by her friends to consent to 
 marry her wooer. She took her own life and that of her pursuer by providing 
 poisoned drink for the marriage at the temple. 
 
 The theme of the story is the praise of chastity. The situation is a 
 contest of wills between the chief characters. Emphasis is upon plot, and 
 
 llbid, pp. 133, 139. 
 
 o 
 
 The four remaining narratives are Minos and Pasiphae . a tale; Pereus and 
 Prqgne, a novelette emphasizing plot; Axnphlarus and Eriphlle . a tale (without 
 climax); and Admetus and Alee at. a novelette in which the Creek gods appear as 
 characters in the story, bringing a wife back to life because of her husband's 
 grief at her death. 
 
■ 
 
 , l 
 
 * 
 
 ' <■' xaO t • 
 
 ' 
 
 ’ 
 
 • • 
 
 
 
a good climax is reached, but the characters are merely lay figures, moved 
 about by the plot. Pettie opened the story with a praise of the friendship 
 enjoyed by married couples as the only perfect friendship, and reminded his 
 
 69 . 
 
 readers that this story was one "wherein you shall see a marvelous mirror of 
 blessed matrimony, and a terrible type of beastly tyranny."* Carama is a 
 "blazing beauty," an "angel," etc. After Camma has taken the poison, she 
 "crawled home," and learned of Synorix'3 death: 
 
 "'Alas, 1 she says to her children, 'who shall now defend 
 you from your foes, who shall redress your wrongs? Your father 
 is gone, your mother is going, and your poor souls must bide 
 behind to abide the brunt and bitter blasts of this wretched 
 world. But, alas, it was reason that I should prefer him 
 before you, who was the author of you, and who blessed me with 
 you. Well, I see now ny time is come, my tongue begins to 
 fail. Come, dear children, and take your last conge of your 
 lost mother. God shield you from shame, God preserve you from 
 peril, God send you more prosperity than your poor parents had. 
 And thus farewell my fruit, farewell my flesh, farewell sweet 
 babes; and 0 welcome my Simatus, whom I see in the skies 
 ready to receive me I' And so in sorrow and in joy she gave 
 up the ghost. 
 
 A weaker narrative, but one which has possibility in its plot is 
 that of Gsrmanicu8 and Agrippina . 
 
 Germanicus woos Agrippina but her father objects. Finally 
 the father is won and the lovers are married. Germanicus 
 seeks to attain high estate, and is warned against it by 
 his wife. The emperor's throne appears possible for 
 Germanicus. Tiberius also ambitious, becomes envious of Germanicus, and murders 
 
 Germanicus 
 
 and 
 
 Agrippina 
 
 ^Pettie, George, Petite Palace of Pleasure (1576), vol. 1, p. 13. 
 2 Ibid, pp. 46, 47. 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
70 . 
 
 him by poisoning. In grief the wife starves herself to death. * 
 
 Pettie's Icilius and Virginia relates how Icilius, refused marriage 
 with Virginia, by her friends, is secretly betrothed to her 
 
 Icilius 
 
 ani and departs to the wars. Appius Claudius, a dec Izmir 
 
 Virginia attempts to enslave Virginia through claiming her to be born 
 
 a bondservant to a wealthy citizen or his kingdom, Marcus 
 
 Clodius. Her father slays her in order to save her honor. Appius is justly 
 
 2 
 
 punished by Acilius . 
 
 Painter's Appius and Virginia more nearly follows Livy than 
 Giovanni; Painter adds a sermon at the close. Pettie placed his emphasis 
 upon the love of Icilius and Virginia, while Painter stressed the political 
 corruptness and moral laxity of Appius. Less attention is given by Pettie 
 to Virginia's father. 
 
 Scilla rejected a suitable offer of marriage, became enamoured of 
 King Minos, her country's energy, and betrayed her father to him. Minos 
 
 rejected her love. When he sailed away, Scilla tried to swim 
 after him, and was drowned in the sea. 
 
 Pettie attained unity, brevity (5,000 words), and climax, 
 but here, as elsewhere, he compressed action and preparation for 
 climax by Indulging in a long debate with Scilla' s conscience, after the manner 
 
 ^Unity of plot, climax, and a small group of characters are apparent. 
 
 Plot is the thing emphasized, yet it is secondary to long discourses on the 
 value of married life. The atmosphere is that of fatality; the lovers seem to 
 know that they are walking into grief, but proceed. 
 
 2 Here we find unity of plot, few characters,- five, climax, and one situa- 
 tion,- the frustration of the love of Icilius and Virginia. The moral is point 
 blankly stated. Yet we feel in this narrative a strength of character and a 
 sympathy for character, rare in literature of the short prose writings we have 
 read since studying Painter. 
 
 Scilla 
 
 and 
 
 Minos 
 
; - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
71 . 
 
 of the Euphuists, and we feel that Scilla was made to fall in love with Minos 
 in order that the plot might move on, so abruptly did Pettie treat that 
 part of the narrative. 
 
 A Roman maiden, Horatia, wept for the death of her lover, who died 
 fighting with the enemy. Her brother slew her for what he termed her 
 "traitor" love. 
 
 Horatia 
 
 Here indeed is rare sin?>licity of plot, and Pettie told 
 Curiatius the story as barely as the briefest tale — in 5,000 words. 
 
 Painter used this plot, changing his source, — Livy, 
 but little. He took a few privileges in changing indirect to direct discourse, 
 and vice versa, but otherwise his version is an accurate translation. Pettie, 
 however, made out of whole cloth the lover’s pleadings and the exchange of 
 letters between these two for whom the story was named. He made an Ital ian 
 lover of Curiatius, and Horatia he transformed into an Italian maiden, although 
 he located his narrative in old Roman days, when the "Italianate" influence was 
 not known. 
 
 Both Livy and Painter made the warrior's victory and Stoic philosophy 
 the center of the story, while Pettie chose to draw hie lesson from the 
 pretended disdain of Horatia; 
 
 "Surely. I think Horatia chiefly at fault for holding 
 off so long before she would accept and acknowledge the love 
 of her beloved. For if she would by any reasonable suit have 
 been won, they had been married long time before the war began. 
 
 They had dwelt quietly together in Albania and Curiatius being 
 a married man should not have been pressed to the war." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
72 
 
 — 
 
 In writing this story, Pettie chose an Italian theme and source: 
 
 "Cephalus, a lusty young gallant, and Procris, a beautiful girl, 
 
 Cephalus 
 
 . both of the Duke of Venice's court, become each amorous of 
 
 and * 
 
 Procris other, and not withstanding delays procured, at length are 
 
 matched in marriage. Cephalus pretending a far journey, and 
 long absence, retumeth before appointed time to try his wife's trustiness. 
 Procris falling into the folly of extreme jealousy over her husband, pursueth 
 him privily into the woods ahunting, to see his behaviour: whom Cephalus hearing 
 to rustle in a bush wherein she was shrouded, and thinking it had been some 
 game, slayeth her unawares, and perceiving the deed, consumeth himself to death 
 for sorrow." 
 
 Pettie, having written the above synopsis, wrote a page and a half of 
 discourse on marriage and the effect of jealousy upon wedded life, proceeded 
 
 A 
 
 to his story. The "modest" Procris begins the courtship of Cephalus, by slyly 
 showing him her favor; she succeeded in her wooing and after her father had per- 
 ceived her plans, he sent Cephalus away to another arn^r post. 
 
 Procris, in Italianate fashion, almost died because of the separation, 
 therefore Cephalus returned and the marriage was celebrated. Cephalus tired of 
 his too easily won wife, and determined upon the long journey which was spoken 
 of in the author's synopsis. 
 
 Pettie stopped after each incident to deliver his philosophy con- 
 cerning the deeds of the characters, and kept the narrative halting. He 
 spoiled his climax by anticipating it too frequently. 
 

 
 
 
 » Jter-er*? 
 
 . 
 
 
 * i }» tC>0 
 
 
 
 
73 
 
 The plot of the narrative is that of the old Greek myth, except that 
 Pettie caused Pygmalion to be rejected by a woman he dearly loved — after 
 which experience he made "a new religion” for himself and turned all his 
 
 thought to sculpture. Still he worshipped womankind in 
 
 Pygmalion's 
 
 spite of himself and created a beautiful figure of a woman, 
 
 Image 
 
 in marble . Soon he fell in love with the image and 
 cherished it as if it were real. When he became too unhappy to bear her 
 "marble” heart any longer, Pygmalion prayed to Venus that she would forgive 
 hi© earlier defiance of her and make his marble woman human. It was done, 
 for one day as Pygmalion caressed the statue, she came to life at his touch, 
 and so he made her his wife. 
 
 Pettie made capital of his opportunity to rail at the haughtiness 
 of beautiful women, and used sly irony in making a marble woman more tender. 
 
 He also produced within his story the usual Italianate atmosphere. Penthea 
 was the wife of Pygmalion's best friend. Pygmalion's love for Penthea was 
 purely platonic — or nearly so: "And if at any time, as the flesh is frail, 
 the vehemency of his affection forced him to persuade her to folly, he did it 
 sofhintly that it might plainly be perceived that he was not willing to over- 
 come," Pettie said. But Pygmalion could not endure an equal in her 
 "affections"; when she showed a fair countenance to another man, during her 
 husband's absence, Pygmalion "being in their presence, drunk up hie sorrow in 
 silence, but having withdrawn himself out of their company, he entered with 
 himself into this raging railing: 
 
 •0 feigned fawning, 0 counterfeit courtesy, 0 deep 
 dissembling, 0 honey mixed with gall, 0 heaven turned 
 to hell!*" etc. 
 
 Indeed we shall have to agree that Pygmalion's love was pure ly "platonic" ! ! 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ■ Me •• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
74 . 
 
 However, Pettie was bent upon using him as a foil for a cruel woman and 
 plot overcame consistent character delineation. 
 
 Alexius is the old story of renunciation told in the Gesta 
 Romano rum . * put into Italian dress. Professor Canby has summed it up 
 rather accurately: 
 
 "The saintly Alexius becomes an austere student, arguing 
 
 Alexius 
 
 with his father over love versus learning. He is beaten in 
 the first heat, loves, marries, enjoys; but satiety follows, 
 and his concluding speech is a condemnation of fleshly folly. Thus the bold 
 Pettie has used all these classic stories so that, with some assurance of a 
 
 listener, he might first discourse, and next orate, and lastly abuse the 
 
 2 
 
 gentlewomen to whom they were addressed." 
 
 The only remaining short prose of this period is found in jest books. 
 
 3 
 
 For reference I list the other prose of the period: 
 
 ^Number xv in Rev. Swan's edition. 
 
 ^ The Short -Story in English ( 1909 ) , p . 134 . 
 
 ®In 1575, Hemetes the Hermyte .a tale of 2,880 words by George Gascoigne 
 was written in an English style, antedated to that of 1500-15. (Gascoigne, 
 George; The Glass of Government and Other Work s, ed. John W. Cunliffe (1910), 
 p. 479.) 
 
 In 1576 there follows an unacknowledged work in short prose, also by 
 Gascoigne; it is merely the description of the cruelty following the siege 
 of Antwerp, an historical tale of 6,360 words. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
75 . 
 
 1566 
 
 Adlington's Apulius 
 
 1570- 
 
 Asham's Scholemaster 
 
 1566-7 
 
 Harmon 1 s 
 
 1571 
 
 X 
 
 Fortescue'B Forest of Historie 
 
 
 Common Cursators 
 
 1572 
 
 Gascoigne's Ferdinando Jeronomi 
 
 1566-7 
 
 Skilton's Merrie Tales 
 
 1577 
 
 Holingshed's Chronicle 
 
 1567-8 
 
 Payne 1 1 1 s t rans la t i on 
 (in part) of Amadis 
 
 1578 
 
 Queen Margaret of Navarre's 
 translation of Ortienez's 
 
 1568-9 
 
 Rowland's (?) translation 
 
 
 Mirror of Princely Deeds (in 
 
 
 of Lazarillo de Tortaes 
 
 
 8 vols.) 
 
 1569 
 
 Underdonne's translation 
 of Heliodorus 
 
 1579 
 
 Sir Thomas North's Plutarch 
 
 
 If we look back upon the short 
 
 prose 
 
 fiction of these thirteen years, 
 
 it will appear that a new story sense, particularly manifest in preparation 
 for climax, consistent characterization, and ability to maintain a unified 
 tone was gained in the writings of Painter, who produced one particularly good 
 short-story, and three other very fair ones. Besides these in seventeen other 
 narratives Painter met the plot requirements of the short-story. He brought 
 in zest and sprightliness through his Italian translations, but also introduced 
 with it ignoble subject matter. 
 
 Fenton had greater ability, if we take his work and Painter's in the 
 aggregate, in the minute delineation of character and setting, but he was less 
 able in maintaining unity of spirit in narration because of his Euphuistic 
 style, and his fondness for the interpolation of didactic paragraphs. His 
 choice of theme was less admirable than Painter's if we consider the total 
 work of each. 
 
 1 Said to contain a miscellany of short tales, but none are available to me. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 o - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
76 
 
 Pettie returned sometimes to the brevity of Painter, 1 but followed 
 
 the trend of Fenton in themes and in style, leaning even more toward 
 
 Euphuism, and thus destroyed the compression and concentration belonging to 
 
 the short- story. Pettie made action subordinate to didactic interpolations, 
 
 and allowed conversation to become long debate, in this sinning perhaps more 
 
 than Fenton. "Stiff 1 letters, with pleas and threats of lovers Fenton and 
 
 2 
 
 Pettie increased in number and length. Healism, concentration upon 
 emotional tone, and rapid development of plot were entirely lost in 
 Pettie’s Palace . 
 
 The longest story by Pettie is 6,600 words. 
 
 I 
 
 Only a very few times was poetry introduced. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
77. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE HISTORY OP THE SHORT- STORY FROM 1580 to 1600. 
 
 English prose fiction within the period of 1560-1579, it will be 
 recalled, developed a great number of short narratives, intended to be com- 
 plete in themselves. Authors were chiefly concerned with characters from 
 the ranks of the English and Italian nobility, and a very ornate style, 
 thought to be in keeping with the noble characters, reached a noticeable 
 ascendency in the work of George Pettie. Didactic purposes were professed 
 by the writers of all types of stories, even of jest books. 
 
 If we refer again to the table of prose fiction of the period (1566- 
 
 1579) it will remind us that in 1568-9 there was published a 13,940 word 
 
 prose story entitled Friar Rush * This narrative resembled, in structure, 
 
 the "fictitious biographies” of our first period (1500-1565). Again, in 
 
 1569, Thomas Underdowne published a translation (in 109,000 words) of Longus' 
 
 2 
 
 Greek romance of Heliodorus: a second edition appeared in 1577. Add to these 
 
 facts the interest in Greek subjects which Pettie showed in a number of his 
 stories, and it will not be surprising if we find an increasing reference to 
 Greek themes, and an incorporation of Greek romance in the period which we are 
 now to consider. Nor shall we be ■unprepared for a ” longer prose" structur e 
 for narratives, depending upon a single character for unity. 
 
 *Cf. Thoms, W. J., Early English Prose Romances (ed. E. A. Baker, London, 
 1907), p. 411. 
 
 p 
 
 Cf . " An Aethioplan History written in Greek by Heliodorus, Englished by 
 Thomas Underdawne, anno 1587, with an Introduction by Charles Whibley," in 
 the Tudor Translation, ed. W. E. Henley, London, 1895. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 TV 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
78 . 
 
 There would be, apparently, a struggle between the school of the 
 collection of short stories and the school of the longer romance ; likewise 
 there would be a struggle between the inventive or creative writer and the 
 translator. Let us see what results from the contest before the close of 
 the sixteenth century. 
 
 There appeared, at the opening of our period, a long prose fiction 
 by John Lyly, entitled Euphues The Anatomy of Wyt , 1 33,900 words in length. 
 Lyly's Euphues was to become the admiration and therefore the pattern of all 
 the succeeding writers of the fiction of the sixteenth century. The ornate 
 style so highly developed in Pettie, reached its climax in Lyly, and hence this 
 elaborateness of writing bears the name of Euphuism . Didactic purpose was so 
 prominent in Euphues that its influence, also, was felt until the close of the 
 period. Of course the Euphuistic style and the Euphuistic didacticism would 
 tend to lengthen narratives. The chief characters of Euphues are nobles and 
 members of the elite of the society of their day. Did Lyly's choice of 
 characters also dominate the century’s stories? Were there no short stories 
 after Euphues ? Was realism lost in the stress of instruction? 
 
 Barnaby Riche His Farewell to Military Profession (1581). 
 
 In the year immediately following the publication of Lyly's Euphues . a 
 soldier with literary tastes published a work entitled Riche His Farewell to 
 Military Profession . 2 Barnaby Riche (1540?-1617) evidently intended his work 
 
 ^Cf . Bond, R. W., Complete Works of John Lyly . Oxford, 1902; vol. I. 
 
 2 
 
 Shakespeare Society Publications (1846), vol. 16, p. 108. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 y r« 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
79 
 
 as a valediction to his military career, hut he returned to the army soon 
 after, going to Ireland. Although he spent his youth in warfare, and among 
 men who were unlettered, he read French and Italian, knew the classics through 
 translations, and was encouraged in his literary efforts hy Thomas Churchyard, 
 Thomas Lodge, and others of their acquaintance. He spent his leisure during 
 a period of fifty years in attempting to write romances and though many of his 
 works — he boasted that he had written thirty- six books — are evident 
 imitations of Lyly's Euphues . the work which we shall now consider, His Farewell 
 to Military Profession , is more nearly an imitation of Painter or Pettie, since 
 it contains eight separate narratives only one of which is above 20,000 words. 
 Barnaby Riche stated his purpose in writing, on his title page, thus; 
 
 " Riche, His Farewell to Military Profession containing 
 verie pleasaunt discourses, fit for a peacable tyme. 
 
 Gathered together for the only delight of the courteous 
 gentlewomen bo the of England and Ireland, For whose only 
 pleasure they were collected together, and unto whom they are 
 directed and dedicated by Barnaby Riche, Gentleman." 
 
 Following the title page there is a jesting comparison of the pleasure 
 gained in serving Venus as contrasted with that in serving Mars ; and then — 
 
 "Gentlewomen, — I am sure there are many (but especially suche as beste 
 knowe me) that wil not a little wonder to see suche alteration in me, that 
 havying spent my yonger dales in the warres amongest men, and vowed my selfe 
 only unto Mars, should now, in my riper yeares, desire to live in peace amongest 
 women, and to consecrate myself wholy unto Venus. But yet the wiser sorte can 
 verie well consider, that the older we wax the riper our witte, and the longer 
 we live, the better we can conceive of thynges appertaynyng to our owne profites, 
 though harebrained youth overhaled me for a tyme, that knewe not bale from 
 blisse. Yet wisdome now hath warned me, that I well knowe cheese from ch&lke: 
 
 I see now it is less painfull to follows a fiddle in a gentlewoman's chamber 
 than to march© after a drumtne in the field; and more sounde sleepyng under a 
 silken canopie, cloase by a freend, than under a bushe in the open field, within 
 a mile of our foe," etc. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
80 . 
 
 since he cannot play or sing — Riche adds: 
 
 "Why, yet, if I could discourse pleasauntly to drive away 
 the tyme with amorous devices" — his efforts were worth accepting. 
 "And here gentlewomen, the better to manifest the farther regard 
 of my duetie I have presented you with a fevre rough heawen 
 histories; yet, I dare undertake, so warely polished, that there 
 is nothing let slipp that might breede offence to your modest 
 myndes 
 
 He expressed no intent to write for the purpose of teaching or edifying 
 his readers. In a discourse of introduction addressed to "the noble Souldiers 
 bothe of Englande and Irelande," he says: 
 
 "Then seeyng the abuse of this present age is suche, that 
 follies are better esteemed than matters of greater waight, 
 
 I have stept on to the stage amongst the rest, contented to 
 plaie a part, and have gathered together this small volume of 
 histories all treatyng (sir, reverence of you) of love." 
 
 Again, Riche wrote a preface "to the Readers in Generali," asserting his 
 stories to be written for pleasure only, and that the "indecent words or 
 tearaes" which slip in he wished to be regarded as jests that "displease me in 
 puttyng them forthe." 
 
 On the other hand, when Riche undertook to tell his stories, he inter- 
 spersed them with personal comment, flattering the ladies; and prefaced them 
 with didactic paragraphs, much as did Painter, Fenton, and Pettie. Such inter- 
 
 1 
 
 "I remember that in ray last booke, entituled 'The Allarum to Englande' 
 
 I promised to take in hande some other thyng, but believe me it wa3 not this 
 that I ment ; for I pretended then to have followed on, and when I ended withe 
 the Decaie of marciall discipline, so I ment to have begun againe with the 
 disciplines of warre, and with all to have set forthe the orders of sondrie 
 
 bat tallies but I see the tyme serves not for any suche thyng to be accoumptec 
 
 of, and therefore to fitte the tyme the better, I have putte forthe these lovyng 
 histories, the which I did write in Irelande at vacant tyme, before the con^yng 
 over of Jarae3 Fitz Morice: and it pleased me the better to doe it, only to keep 
 rnysalf from idlenesse, and yet thel sale it were better to be idle than ill 
 occupied," etc. 
 

 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
81 . 
 
 polations as the following are frequent: 
 
 "But see, I praie you, how farre my witte3 heginne to square: 
 
 I pretended but to penne certaine pleasaunte discourses for the 
 onely pleasure of gentlewomen, and even at the very first entrie 
 I am falne from a reasonable tale to a railyng rage, as it may seeme. 
 But I praie you, gentlewomen, beare with my weakenesse; and as the 
 preacher in the pulpit, when he is out of his texte, will sale for 
 excuse, Good people, though this bee somethyng digressyng from my 
 matter, yet it raaie very well serve at this present. Take this, I 
 praie you, for ray excuse in like case. 
 
 And now to ray purpose, where I left of before." 1 
 
 Barnaby Riche was quite as ironical as Pettie and much more subtly 
 so. One is continually catching himself up with the inquiry "Just what lies 
 behind this sentence?" For one thing, Riche chose, at least in so far as 
 direct statements my be trusted, to ridicule his own sex — especially for their 
 effeminate tendencies, but we can never be quite sure that he is not shaking 
 
 p 
 
 with laughter, while he phrases an elaborate compliment to the "gentlewomen," 
 and mayhap that he is scoffing at the very style which he uses because "it is 
 better suited to the tirae." w 
 
 Of the eight stories, Riche appears to claim as of his own invention 
 the first , Sappho. Duke of Mantua : the second, Apolonlus and Scilla ; the fifth, 
 Two Brethern and their Wives ; the seventh, Aramanthus. borne a leper : and the 
 eighth, Phylotus and Emilia . Riche’s third story, Nlcander and Luc ilia ; his 
 
 X Ibid, p. 22. 
 
 2 
 
 Gentlewomen, accordyng to ray promise, I will here, for brevities sake, 
 omit to make repetition of the long and dolorous discourse recorded by Silla 
 for his sodaine departure of her Apolonius, knowyng you to bee as tenderly 
 hearted as Silla herself, whereby you male the better conjecture the furie of 
 her fever. 
 
 3 
 
 Riche is no more extreme in his use of the Euphuistic conceits than was 
 Pettie. Soliloquy, rhetorical question, and long learned conversation are the 
 rule in Riche His Farewell , but he made little use of the extravagant metaphors 
 and 8imilie3 that are characteristic of Euphuism. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
82 . 
 
 fourth, Fileo and Fiarama ; and his sixth, Gonsales and his vertuous '.vife Agatha , 
 are drawn, he says, from the Italian of Master L. B., possibly an inaccurate 
 reference to Bandello. In a concluding section Riche tilts against the 
 extravagance of English women’s dress, and incidentally tells a story of the 
 King of Scotland somewhat resembling Machiavelli 's Belphegor . 
 
 Riche, then, was even more inventive, more of a creator of narrative 
 than Pet tie, and not a translator as were Painter and Fenton. He did not 
 strive for the credence of his readers — he frankly stated that his tales 
 were " forged only for delight, neither credible to be believed."'*' 
 
 A close examination of Riche's nine narratives reveals their diversity 
 of narrative form. The first, Sappho. Duke of Mantona . (15,900 words) contains 
 this complicated plot: 
 
 "Sappho Duke of Mantona havyng long tyme served Claudius, the 
 Eraperour, by whose magnanimitie and raartiall prowest sundrie victories 
 
 were achieved against the Turke, was by false imposition 
 
 Sappho Duke 
 of Mantona 
 
 banished, hymself , Messilina his wife, Aurelaniu3 his 
 
 sonne, with Phylene his daughter, in whiche banishment thei 
 sustained sundrie conflictes of Fortune, but in the ende restored againe to 
 their former estate and dignitie." 
 
 The characters are lay figures; their soliloquies and long pleas are 
 
 very similar to those of Painter's Palace : some sentences and even paragraphs 
 
 2 
 
 are nearly identical. 
 
 Ibid, p. 16. 
 
 2 
 
 Cf. Painter's Duchess of Malfi . in vol. iii, p. 13; Compare Riche, pp . 35- 
 36. Likewise compare Painter, vol. iii, pp. 14-15 with Riche, pp . 42-43. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
83 . 
 
 The plot of Apolonius and SI 11a . Riche's "second historie” is also 
 too complicated for the short story. * The soldier-author opened his narrative 
 with one and a half pages of discourse upon the real foundation 
 of true love — "deserte," and the perverseness of people in 
 loving those who are undeserving and do not requite their 
 passions. The sea captain and Silla are not poorly characterized 
 Riche also succeeded in reaching a very satisfactory method of presenting 
 climax, in both threads of his plot, even if both situations are rather 
 burlesque . 
 
 Apolonius 
 
 and 
 
 Silla 
 
 Nlcander and Luc 11 la is the story of triumph of virtue in the heart 
 of an evil Prince who attempted to seduce a betrothed maiden, and did succeed 
 in bribing her bother with promises of a splendid dowery for 
 her daughter. The plot is simple. Riche opened his narrative 
 with directness, refraining from moralizing remarks until the 
 close of his story. 
 
 He was not so successful in characterization. Lucilla's shame is more 
 spoken about by the author than apparent in her calm, and her lengthy oration 
 to Don Hercules; neither is Don Hercules real. There is no experience related 
 of the Prince's earlier life to give a reason for his sudden remorse for himself 
 
 1 
 
 P. 67: "Apolonius, Duke, havyng spent yeres of service in the warres 
 
 against the Turks, returning homeward with his companie by sea, was driven by 
 force of weather to the lie of Cyprus, where he was well received of Pontus, 
 gouvenor of the same lie, with whom Silla, daughter of Pontus, fell so 
 strongly in love, that after Apolonius was departed to Constantinople, Silla 
 with one man, followed, and coramyng to Constantinople, she served Apolonius 
 in the habite of a manne, and after many prety accidentes falling out, she 
 was knowne to Apolonius, who, in requital of her love, married her." 
 
 Meander 
 
 and 
 
 Luc ilia 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 .. b ■ v. ; , ] | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
84 . 
 
 and respect for Lucilla. Riche would have had more foundation for Don Hercules' 
 surrender if he had made him a debtor to Lucilla’ s lover, Nicander, or a dear 
 friend of his. 
 
 The moral purpose which Riche expressed in the story's conclusion is 
 more believable than in some of the narratives, for there is no lightness of 
 tone here, yet the sensual scene which serves for the climax is scarcely in 
 keeping with it . 
 
 The theme of Fineo and Fiamma is almost identical with that of 
 Nicander and Lucilla : the "virtuous villain" in this story, however, is the 
 
 Mohammedan King of Tunis, who has a great number of wives and 
 concubines, and yet is overcome by "the teares of Fiamma and the 
 onely name of love," and is converted to pity and compassion by 
 the misfortunes of Fiamma and her lover, Fineo . 
 
 Riche opened this narrative with directness and refrained from moral 
 comment until the concluding sentence in which he stated that though Fortune 
 may for long abuse us, God will finally overcome her purpose. (Here Fortune 
 would seem to be the personification of a feminine Lucifer.) 
 
 So far as mechanics are concerned, Barnaby Riche developed a short- 
 story plot in this fourth history, but his plot is unreal. Fineo, Fiamma ’ s 
 lover, was given charge of the "cube" or harem wherein the cruel king kept his 
 wives and concubines, but, according to all accounts of the harems of the 
 Moharame dans , :i only eunuchs were preferred to such offices. Riche's resolution 
 is too easily effected; it is not real. 
 
 Of Two Brethern and their Wives is a tale, without climax. "Two 
 
 Finio 
 
 and 
 
 Fiamma 
 
 brothers making choyse of their wives, the one chouse for beauty, the other for 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 . : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
85 . 
 
 riches: it happened "unto them, after thei were married, the one of their 
 
 wives proved to he of light disposition, the other a 
 
 Of Two Brethern 
 
 common scold: in what manner they lived with their 
 
 and their 
 
 hushandes and how in the ende the first came to live 
 
 Wives 
 
 orderly and well, hut the other could he brought hy no 
 device to any reason or good manner." The tone throughout this narrative is 
 very light and some of the incidents are portrayed with the coarseness of the 
 rogue story. Riche occupied two pages with introduction, twenty-five in telling 
 the story of the beautiful wife, and two pages in telling of the rich wife; the 
 two narrative threads are unwoven, — unplotted. 
 
 The argument of Riche's sixth history, Of Gonsales and his virtuous 
 
 wife Agatha , is founded most likely, upon Boccaccio's story, in novel four for 
 
 the tenth day (which Painter translated in his novel XIX, tome ii). Riche's 
 
 Gonsales "hero" however, is a less estimable character than the Gentil 
 
 an< * Carisendi of Boccaccio, who left the city in which his passion 
 
 Agatha 
 
 would give him no peace because the wife of his friend resided 
 there, and who later rescued this woman from the grave for kind- 
 ness' sake, and restored her and her new-born babe to her husband. In Riche's 
 story Alonso is a scholar who assisted his friend in making away with his wife^ 
 by a sleeping potion^and rescued her for his own sake, — hoping to have her 
 
 love when she was persuaded that her husband was false; Alonso renewed his dis- 
 honest suit in the tomb; failing ? he put the wife in charge of a housekeeper who, 
 
 he was sure, could persuade Agatha to love him. 
 
 Barnaby Riche omitted the incident of the birth of a child, and thereby 
 made his story more credible; he produced a short-etory with emphasis upon plot. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . *=■- 
 
86 . 
 
 Aramanthus Of Aramanthus borne a leper cannot t>e called a 
 
 borne 
 
 short-story; it lacks unity of plot, and contains too much 
 
 a leper 
 
 incident. This is likewise true of Fhylotua and Emilia, 
 which partakes of the rogue story type of humor. In Fh ylntna , however, the 
 brief speeches of the chief characters are more realistic 
 
 Phylotus 
 
 an a than much of the conversation in the narratives of the 
 
 Emilia century. 
 
 Within his conclusion Barnaby Riche told a story, seven 
 pages in length, which, except for its great brevity, would be a short-story. 
 
 It possesses unity, climax, and singleness of impression. As it stands it is 
 more like the anecdote.* 
 
 Barnaby Riche approached the short-story method in three of his nine 
 narratives:- Meander and Luc 11 la . Elneo and Fiamma . Baltzasar . He wrote one 
 
 short-story with emphasis -upon plot, in his narrative of Gonsales and Agatha . 
 
 As a v/hole, his work consisted of longer and more intricate plots than those 
 of his predecessors who attempted shorter narrative. These narratives by Riche 
 served as excellent material for the dramatists, but did not contribute greatly 
 to the development of short-stories. We shall see whether his creative ability 
 inspired his successors to go beyond mere translation. 
 
 1 
 
 Synopsis: The devil, Baltzasar, came to earth and fell in love with 
 
 Mistress Mildred. Her parents consented to the marriage. After the wedding, 
 the devil gave his wife a chance to make one request, the fulfilling of which 
 was to satisfy her for life. She, with the counsel of her mother, required a 
 conplete suit of clothing in the latest fashion. But she soon wanted more 
 clothing in order to keep up with the styles, and so plagued her husband fre- 
 quently. He finally fled to Scotland. Learning that his wife had followed 
 him, he preferred to return to hell. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
87. 
 
 Robert Greene 1 ( 1558- 1592) 
 
 Professor Jordan has so admirably treated the life and the works of 
 Robert Greene in his volume published in 1915 in the Columbia University Studies 
 in English and Comparative Literature , that any introduction to the man, or 
 lengthy discussion of his writings, except with direct reference to Greene's 
 part in the development of the short-story form, is unnecessary here. Suffice 
 it to say that Greene continued in the vein of his predecessors in the matter 
 of writing long prefaces to explain the purposes of his books — to cause his 
 readers to "read, laugh, and learn," and that he was one of the most prolific 
 writers of his time, writing to please the audience which accepted his previous 
 works, and falling in line with each new literary fashion, but presented a new 
 element in the composition of narrative in that he preferred even in hie 
 earliest books, to write his long stories in sections, or parts , each part 
 being in itself more or less a complete narrative. 
 
 Mamillia, complete, is over 35,000 words long, and so would fall 
 outside my thesis, but although the First Part is not a short-story (for the 
 short-story is not the same thing as an episode taken from 
 Mamillia a i on g e r story), yet there are elements in the first attempt 
 
 of Greene's which should be noticed in passing. The story was 
 written in obvious imitation of John Lyly's Euphues . but Greene was — if I 
 may be allowed a paradoxical expression — original in his imitation . He 
 
 ^Although the first part of Greene's Mamillia was published in 1580, since 
 the entire work was not complete until 1583, and since Barnaby Riche's Farewell 
 (1581) was not greatly influenced by Euphues (1580) I chose to discuss 
 Barnaby Riche first . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
88 . 
 
 profited by the definiteness of plan which he found in Euphues . but he 
 created his own characters and reversed Lyly's plot, — and at the same time 
 produced a treatise very similar to that of his master. To quote Professor 
 Jordan: 
 
 •'The First Part of Mamillia is the only one of his novels.... 
 
 of which the form was cast in the mold set by Lyly. But though 
 Greene only once chose Euphues as the model for his own work, 
 there is no doubt that he wrote Mamillia with Lyly's novel, 
 and Lyly's success, in mind. Mamillia has come from the court 
 of Venice to be at her father's house in Padua. She receives 
 a letter from a friend at court as to matters of conduct. At 
 her father's house, one Pharicles sees her, falls in love with 
 her, and wins her affection. Shortly afterward Pharicles sees 
 Publia, woos, and wins her. Thus treacherously engaged to both 
 ladies at once, and fearing the outcome of such faithlessness, 
 he decides to leave the country. He does so, leaving behind 
 two faithful women, both of whom, in spite of his fickleness, 
 remain constant in their affection. Publia in the Second 
 Part enters a convent; Mamillia — a radical departure from 
 Euphues — marries Pharicles. 
 
 Robert Greene, then, did not rest content to translate stories, nor 
 to imitate slavishly. He carried further the inventiveness of Pettie and 
 Barnaby Riche. He was not, however, wholly Independent, for 
 
 "Not in form only, but also in purpose, was Greene's first 
 novel witten in very obvious emulation of Lyly. Although 
 he did not follow the exact type again, Greene began to write 
 in accordance with the prominent tradition of the time; and 
 this tradition involved not only the form of Euphues . but 
 
 its aim as well. Lyly's purpose was primarily didactic 
 
 Greene, although he omits Lyly's element of satire, also was 
 aiming at edification. He was carrying on in Mamillia the 
 tradition of the treatise." 2 
 
 If we grant that Greene copied Lyly's method of narration in accepting 
 his plot, and at the same time note that Greene rather cleverly turned Lyly's 
 
 ^Jordan, John Clark, Robert Greene (1915), pp. 15-16. 
 
 2 Ibid, pp. 16-17. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
89. 
 
 plot about, making his treacherous lover a man, we must also speak of 
 Greene's freedom in his delineation of these characters who take the places, 
 in reverse, of Lyly's people: 
 
 "We are not," Professor Jordan reminds us, "to be 
 blind to the importance of Greene's work, nor to discount it 
 
 too much from the fact that it is directly a copy 
 
 Publia, Mamillia, and Pharicles are more than just the 
 
 inverse portraits of Philantus, Euphues, and Lucilla 
 
 Pharicles meets Publia immediately upon his acceptance by 
 Mamillia. The whole situation indeed is more cleverly con- 
 ceived than in Lyly. Philantus takes Euphues to Lucilla for 
 the purpose of introducing him to her. The introduction is, 
 obviously, to make opportunity to reveal Luc ilia's fickleness; 
 in Greene, on the other hand, the introduction is manifestly 
 accidental. Pharicles is 'walking with Mamillia for the sake 
 of urging his suit. It happens that she is going to Publia's 
 house. Pharicles goes along. Inasmuch as Mamillia has just 
 granted her love by the time they arrive, we are dumbfounded 
 at Pharicles' sudden passion for Publia. The events that 
 follow, too, occur in quick succession; almost before we know 
 it, Pharicles is betrothed to both, and off and away to 
 Sicily. The apparent fortuitousness of Pharicles* meeting 
 with Publia illustrates what I think is Greene's advance over 
 Lyly. It shows, on Greene's part, a realization of what 
 narrative, as distinct from treatise demands. Euphues is 
 a treatise which came near being a story; Mamillia is a story 
 which retains much of the treatise. Although he was striving 
 to imitate Lyly, Greene's nature led him to a slightly differ- 
 ent result. 1 He put into a minor relation the very things for 
 the sake of which, perhaps, he wrote the book, and elevated 
 those which his fundamental interest in events inevitably 
 made prominent. Even in his first production, when his pur- 
 pose was to preach, he developed the ability, which he was 
 later to develop more consciously, of producing work with 
 real narrative art . Qmne tulit punctum qui mis cult utile 
 dulci . Lyly, it may be said, had stressed the utile . 
 
 Greene found the value of the dulci . Such a discovery in 
 those days was no small thing for a lad of twenty. 
 
 Mamillia bears considerable resemblance, in point of plot, to Painter's 
 Amadour and Florinda , and Heptameron x . 
 
 2 
 
 Ibid, pp. 18-19. 
 

 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
90. 
 
 In 1584 Greene's Mirror of Modesty appeared.^ His address, therein, 
 "to the gentle readers” combines an excuse for publishing "trash” (written be- 
 cause of a lady's request) with an "epistle dedicatory *s" assurance that 
 
 Greene hopes to influence all women to be chaste and modest. 
 
 Mirror 
 
 ^ The address to the readers asks that they "wink if they spie 
 
 Modesty a s P ot >" since he is attempting to please a lady. 
 
 The plot , which fulfills the requirements for the short- 
 story, brings the climax at the very close of the story — it is the old 
 modest Susanna theme — and prepares one for the climax without anticipating 
 the manner of the solution of that climaxj Daniel is not introduced lintil the 
 last. Greene handled his theme seriously, in spite of the tone of the 
 prefaces, but fails in characterizing Susanna who makes a long, bold reply to 
 the wicked elders. The garden setting is better done than most of the 
 descriptions of the century. 
 
 Planet oraachia (1585) introduced Greene's "framework" method for 
 narration . From its very nature, being dependent upon singleness of emotional 
 
 impression for its effect, the short-story like the 
 
 The Framework 
 
 sonnet, is not advisedly written in a "series," and 
 
 Narratives 
 
 consequently the framework method defeats short- story 
 technique. Besides this, the frame is a method born of didacticism, and 
 
 Greene's Morando or the Tritameron of Love (1584-7) is not classified 
 as narrative, since by far the greatest part of the work is exposition or 
 discourse. The frame is negligible. Hi3 Arabasto. the Anatomle of Fortune 
 (21,000 words) is a long drawnout Euphuistic romance, and his Card of Fancy 
 (1584-7) is a similar romance (in style), the plot resembling the Duke of 
 Mantua story in Riche's Farewell . 
 
 For similar reasons I have not given room to a discussion of Lodge's 
 Forbonius and Pri3ceria (1584). Though it is Euphuistic in style, Eorbonius 
 seems to have gained nothing from Lyly in regard to narrative method. 
 
 2 
 
 Cf. footnote on Tritameron of Love , p. £j q of this chapter. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
91 . 
 
 therefore ill-suited to good narrative.^ - 
 
 Although Robert Greene's narratives written from 1587 to 1598 are all 
 
 built upon this framework plan, which ms not fortunate for either long or 
 
 short prose, yet there are a few of the included tales in which Greene 
 
 approached the short-story knack. Both Professor Jordan and Doctor Wolff 
 
 have culled these narratives and have chosen Tompkin's Tale in Greene's 
 
 Vision and The Tale of the Farmer Bridegroom in the Groat sworth of Wit as 
 2 
 
 his best . w 
 
 Other "tales" of Greene might, it seems to me, be added to Professor 
 Jordan's Tabulation of the Framework Tales , for they are as much individual 
 stories incorporated in a longer narrative thread as are the ones which he 
 has listed. There is this difference, — they are usually more brief, and 
 the connecting sentences often form a part of the conclusion of one story, 
 
 3 
 
 or the introduction of the next. One of these, The Conversion of an English 
 
 ^Note that Professor Jordan ( Robert Greene . 1915, p. 27) thinks the frame- 
 work and its didacticism was more heeded and therefore more of an impediment 
 to narrative writing in Greene's day. We pay little attention to it, the tales 
 stand out so much. Thus it was true that the frame method was an unfortunate 
 bequest to Greene's successors. 
 
 Cf. C. W. and W. J. Dawson, The Great English Short-story Writers (1910), 
 p. 12: "The ethical method of handling fiction falls between two stools; it not 
 
 only fails in portraying that which is true for the individual, but it incurs 
 the greater error of ceasing to be true of the face, i.e., typical." Also 
 Notestein and Dunn, The Modern Short- story (1914), p. 26: "People generally 
 
 prefer their sermons straight. In a story, they do not wish the lesson to be 
 too obvious. They wish to feel that whatever lesson there is lurking underneath 
 a story has been found by their own superior interpretative powers." Again, 
 Albright, The Short- story (1909), p. 47: "The point to be remembered is, that a 
 story cannot take high rank unless it has an inspiring motive of some sort to 
 furnish it a reason for existence." 
 
 ^Jordan, John Clark, Robert Greene (1915), pp. 28 ff. Cf. also English 
 Studies, vol. 37, pp. 348-9. These tales may be read in Grosart's edition of 
 Greene in The Auth Library , vol. xii, p. 224 and p. 121, respectively. So far no 
 source has been found for these stories. Apparently they are original. 
 
 3 I refer to the conny- catching pamphlets, including the Disputation between 
 a Hee Conny- Catcher and a Shee Conny- catcher (1592). 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . . 
 
 
92 . 
 
 Court izan (second part of Disputation) comes as near "being a good short-story 
 as do the two chosen by Professor Jordan and Dr. Wolff. True, it lacks the 
 directness of these two stories, for in the story of the Courtizan, Greene, 
 putting the story into the mouth of the chief character, and thus making the 
 narrative a confession , digresses frequently for purposes of didacticism. 
 However, there is (if we ignore the sentences of deeper reflection and remorse 
 which are not a consistent part of the courtizan's character but are really 
 Greene poking his head on the stage for an "aside”) something strangely and 
 pathetically real about this fallen woman who admired an honest man, after 
 years of disrespect for manhood, and was saved from a life of shame by his 
 pity and affection. This courtizan is a shallow-brained woman, childishly 
 vain of her beauty and pitifully lacking in moral sense; she was a spoiled 
 child, who never had acquired self-restraint or self-respect. The clothier 
 who converted her seems rauch less real, — his method of bringing the courtizan 
 to see the error of her way does not seem consistent with his higher sensi- 
 bilities, nor does his marriage with the courtizan appeal to us as probable. 
 
 On the other hand such a woman as Greene describes would hardly change her 
 life without the promise of ease, admiration and affection; she would hardly 
 work out her salvation. 
 
 Greene's converted courtizan is not like Nan, a type,' 1 ' she is unique, 
 in spite of Greene's attempt to make her a mouth-piece for "a watch-word to 
 wanton maidens," etc. He described her impartially even while he made her 
 describe her own character. The plot may be unsteady, stretching our belief, 
 
 ^"Whoever Nan and Lawrence may be — creations of Greene's own imagination — 
 they are a man and woman in any time and in any place. Be the woman a 
 catcher, she is Nan; be she an Egyptian queen, she is Cleopatra; be she a 
 sorceress, she is Circe." — Jordan, J. C., Robert Greene , p. 119. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
93 . 
 
 but the emotional impression of the story is a sure and lasting one; in that 
 
 respect Greene succeeded in approaching the short-story. 1 (It may be of 
 
 interest to recall here that when Greene began writing cony-catching 
 
 pamphlets, he asserted that he was adding to his purpose of edifying the 
 
 general public, the hope of converting the class of people he exposed.) 
 
 It is within these "included" tales of the picaresque order that 
 
 Greene did his best work toward developing the short-3tory. Sometimes he 
 
 rested satisfied with having thrust his preachment into the framework, and 
 
 allowed the included stories leeway for free and direct narration. Likewise 
 
 3 
 
 in point of realism, this class of stories is Greene's best. In Alcida. 
 in Menophon . in Pandosto, in Philomla . Robert Greene "cut loose from any 
 probable contemporary world, and either embarks for an impossible Bohemia, 
 or, inspired by the bold Portuguese, sails under Antarctic skies to Taprobane 
 
 7 
 
 (our Ceylon)" ... "but Greene's so-called cony-catching pamphlets were 
 really valuable studies of the lives of the sharpers, and made a genuine 
 
 contribution to the material for a new novel of realism , which was to come only 
 
 4 
 
 with a later generation." 
 
 Professor Canby sums up very accurately the influence of Greene's 
 
 5 
 
 work considered as a whole; 
 
 "Romantic vagueness is in nearly all of Greene's stories, 
 and is joined to an excessive Euphuism, and a surfeit of dis- 
 coursing. It is, therefore, not surprising that, in spite of 
 the amount he 'wrote and the reputation it gained for him, he 
 can be credited with no really good short stories The 
 
 *"The reformation of the court izan, however, appears real. I mean not that 
 the story of it — the manner in which it is brought about -- is affecting, but 
 the emotion which the account of it arouses is real. Here, for one of the rare 
 times in Greene, one may let oneself go and not feel that one is mawkish, too 
 easily moved, unpercept ive ." Ibid, p. 121. 
 
 2 
 
 Cf. Jordan, J. C., Robert Greene , pp. 96-9?. 
 
 ^Cf. Canby, H. S.._Th e Short Story in English , pp. 141-142. 
 
 4lbid, p. 141. 5 T Md. up. 142 ff. 
 

 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
94 . 
 
 plots show a certain originality. Some are borrowed entire; 
 the majority are either compounded of simple and familiar 
 themes, or made up of original incident pieced out by 
 episodes borrowed from well-known stories. It is an attempt, which 
 seems to have been successful, to remodel foreign material for 
 the taste of readers a little tired of the Italian novella , yet 
 ready to read new versions, in which Italian plots were dis- 
 guised to resemble the old and secretly loved romance. But, 
 in spite of their gorgeous diction, there is a lack of flavor 
 in these stories. There i3 too much fine writing, too much 
 imitation, too little personality, though plenty of the 
 personal. The suspicion of hack work is always upon them."" 
 
 Yet, in justice to Greene, I wish to emphasize the fact that he did 
 
 contribute to narrative development by means of his sporadic success in 
 
 character drawing, his cleverness in adapting borrowed episodes to his purposes, 
 
 and in his occasional originality in plot. Greene’s treatment of the common 
 
 people within his stories; his better appreciation for comedy; and his ability 
 
 to forget Euphuistic conceits when he is thoroughly carried away by his theme — 
 
 these developments are not to be neglected. I have already pointed out how 
 
 Greene improved upon Lyly, in his Mamillia . and his Conversion of an English 
 
 2 
 
 Courtizan . with regard to character drawing, and noted his sense of unity of 
 action in Tompkin's Tale and The Farmer Bridegroom . 
 
 The influence of the Greek learning brought through the Renaissance and 
 the revival of interest in Platonic philosophy is marked in many of the lengthy 
 arguments and debates of Greene's men and women. Like Pet tie he had "no mercy 
 for the narrative" at times, and herein, in his introduction of debates he is 
 following the Italian influence also. The pastoral romance is in its very 
 nature opposed to brevity, hence there are no short narratives from Greene's 
 pen which are pastoral, like the Greek romances, but two long prose works , 
 Pandosto and Menephon .are pastoral and doubtless were influenced by Angell Day's 
 1587 translation of Daphnis and Chloe . (Cf. Jordan, J. C., Robert Greene . 
 pp. 39-47, and footnotes.) 
 
 2 
 
 Prof. Jordan has already called attention to these points. 
 
 3 Cf . Crane , T . F . , Italian Social Customs of the Sixteenth Century , 
 
 Cornell Studies in English, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1920. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
95 . 
 
 Tarleton's News Out of Purgatory . 
 
 In 1590 there was published a series of eight stories, varying in 
 length from 770 to 3850 words, included in a frame- work, quite similar to 
 the method of Greened Vision . In his Vision , Robert Greene told of meeting 
 Gower and Chaucer under an oak tree, in a dream, and there hearing these men 
 discuss the sin of writing lascivious literature. Each man told a story. 
 Tarleton's News out of Pergatory tells that the author met the ghost of 
 Tarleton, the famous Elizabethan comedian and court jester, under ”a faire 
 tree that had a cool shade” and there listened to his account of purgatory. 
 
 The News has been attributed to Nash, but there is no certainty about its 
 authorship. I find more similarity between this work and that of Nash and 
 Greene than any other writers (Greene would hardly have failed to own the 
 book, and Deloney would have been unable to refrain from versing). 1 
 
 These narratives are not original , they are taken from the old Gesta 
 Romano rum , old romances, Persian tales done into the French, Grange's Garden 
 (1577), Boccaccio ? Straporola, etc. They are straightforward narratives, free 
 from Euphuism, but their themes are coarse, and frequently their wit is unsavory. 
 However, the least we can say to their credit is that they continued the attempt 
 to write short prose fiction, and were not lost in the surge of the waves of 
 
 3 
 
 Euphuistic burdening of narrative. 
 
 This book called forth a reply (less clever, yet in similar vein) in the 
 same year 1590, The Cobbler of Canterbury : the authorship of which is a matter 
 of conjecture. 
 
 2 
 
 Cf. Shakespeare Society Publications , vol. xv, pp. 53 ff. 
 
 ^Cf. Canby, H. S., The Short- story in English , pp. 148-S. 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
96. 
 
 Thomas Lod ge. 
 
 The Life and Death of William Lonpheard (1593) la the only narrative 
 hy Thomaa Lodge which is less than 24,000 words long, yet from the title it is 
 at once evident that William Longbeard is not a short-story theme, it relates 
 the entire life of William; hut it is true that Lodge treats his life in more 
 or less disjointed episodes; each episode is a tale of roguery or vice, and 
 consequently the narrative does not rise above the rogue story type, though it 
 is related with more seriousness than the jest-hook stories of Tarleton, and 
 Chettle's Kind Hearts 1 Dream . * Verses are inserted to praise William's mis- 
 tress, Maudeline. In 15S4 Nash's Unfortunate Traveller appeared, dedicated 
 to the Earle of Southhampton and Baron of Tichfield. In his dedication he says: 
 
 "All that in this phantasticall Treatise I can promise, is 
 
 some reasonable conveyance of historie, and varletie of mirth 
 
 it being a cleane different vaine from other my former 
 courses of writing." 
 
 There follows a jesting "induction to the dapper monsieur Page of the court." 
 This book is to be so reverenced as to cause men to take off their hats as they 
 pass the stationers, etc. This induction is "only let this suffice for a 
 taste to the text and a bit to pull on a good wit with, as a rasher on the 
 coales is to pull on a cup of wine Heigh pass, come aloft: every man of you 
 take your places, and heare Jacke Wilton tell his own tale." It is a queer 
 mixture of rogue stories, jests, lascivious tales, and stories of cruelty and 
 
 ^Henry Chettle's Kind Hearts' Dream (1594) can scarcely be called 
 narrative. The author under the name of Kind Heart, after a drinking party, 
 fell asleep and five papers were handed to him, in his vision or dream, by 
 Greene, Tarleton, etc. They were invectives against some of the abuses of 
 the time; (l) writing and singing ribald poems; (2) quack doctoring; (3) close 
 juggling; (4) necromancers; (5) envious criticism of contemporary writers. 
 
 Cf. Percy Society , vol. 5, pp. 9 ff. 
 

 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ' 
 
97 . 
 
 murder. Told in the first person, closing with a half-serious reformation , 
 and declaring if his book has pleased any one he will try again. 
 
 In the preface Nash said if he failed to please he would never more 
 write outlandish narratives. 
 
 The Bible, philosophers, ancient wiseacres are frequently quoted. 
 
 Doctor Faustus (1592); Thomas of Reading (1599-1600), by Deloney; 
 
 Tom a Lincoln (1599) by Richard Johnson (?)^etc. are similar longer prose 
 narratives, told in episodes, and dealing with rogues; in each case the story 
 is named for the chief character, by which it lays claim to some sort of unity. 
 
 Francesco Colono's Strife of Love in a Dream (1592) is built upon a 
 similar narrative structure but is pastoral in setting and less brutal in jest. 
 It is over 35,000 words. 
 
 It is to be regretted that Thomas Lodge did not write some short prose 
 of equal interest and ability with his longer romance Rosalynde (over 35,000 
 words). When once he had left his frame of "the golden legacy" and had 
 launched into the narrative proper, Rosalynde goes forward with gratifying speed 
 and contains some brief and convincing conversation. Lodge's critic in the 
 Dictionary of National Biography objects that "his graces are of a languid 
 order, and the modem reader finds it tedious still when compared with the 
 extreme effects of Euphuism and the great brevity of the un-Euphuistic rogue 
 stories Lodge was accomplishing much when he sought the mean highway of 
 " langui d grac e s . " 
 
 Thomas Deloney 
 
 The Pleasant History of the Gentle Craft „by Thomas Deloney was pub- 
 lished in 1598. The entire work exceeds 60,000 words, but it is divided into 
 two parts: the first "to all courteous readers," and "to the gentle craft," 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
98 . 
 
 and the second hearing a similar salutation, if more brief. This work is 
 subdivided into chapters, the first contains fifteen chapters, and the second 
 eleven. Occasionally a story is continued through several chapters, sometimes 
 it is finished in one chapter, making the Gentle Craft not unlike a jest-book 
 collection of tales. Professor Canby pays this tribute to The Gentle Craft : 
 
 '•It was a man out of the masses who first made respectable 
 literature from the unadorned stories of the vulgar. Thomas 
 Deloney was a silk-weaver who had made a reputation by ballad- 
 writing before turning to fiction. He tried several ventures, 
 but only one in any way purports to carry on the tradition 
 of the short- story. This was The Gentle Craft (1597), a story 
 collection celebrating the guild of shoemakers, written for 
 the uncritical and giving them, in a familiar style, everything 
 old or new in fiction that might hit their fancy. One tale is 
 a saint’s legend, with a dash of Euphuism; another is a bourgeois 
 version of a Greenesque romance; still another a miniature jest- 
 book; while in Simon Eyre , and Richard Caateler we get pictures 
 of London life and London manners, the best in fiction since 
 Chaucer and to be equalled only in the underplots of the 
 contemporary comedy . 
 
 "Comedy, indeed, was beginning to pay back its debt to 
 fiotion. So one may judge from the thoroughly natural 
 dialogue, and the lively scenes from English life in these 
 stories. But their structure comes rather from the old 
 prose romance, the narrative ballad, or such native and popular 
 material. Fora in narrative, arduously imported from the 
 Latins some thirty years earlier, had been consistently abused 
 by the wits, and i3 no serious consideration with the silk- 
 weaver. His leanings are towards the novel, which he could 
 not attain, and, gifted with great powers of realistic narrative, 
 he is blind to the advantage of compression, arrangement, and 
 careful unity, which the Italian short stories, provided by 
 the translators, alone could have taught him. His virtues 
 lie elsewhere. 'Expect not herein,' he says, 'to find any 
 matter of light value, curiously pen'd with pickt words or 
 choise phrases, but a quaint and plaine discourse best fitting 
 matters of merriment, seeing wee have herein no cause to talke 
 of courtiers or scholers.' Now a'plaine' narrative was what 
 story-telling needed at just this time, and the 'pickt' word 
 the disease it was sick of. Honor to Deloney, therefore, who 
 tried to bring back unadorned story-telling even if our boasted 
 'sense of form' would have been a 'pickt' word for him. Honor 
 came to him and The Gentle Craft in a remarkable succession of 
 editions, but the romance was too much for the cause of plain 
 

 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
99 . 
 
 narrative, which had to wait some hundred years for a 
 fashionable success. "1 
 
 n 
 
 The first narrative in The Gentle Craft — The pleasant History of 
 S. Hugh: and first of all, his most constant love to the faire Virgin Winifred 
 is a curious mixture of narrative structure. In length it is about 7,500 
 words, covering four of Deloney’s chapters . To begin with the hero is Sir Hugh, 
 desperately in love with Winifred, who promises to give him a reply to his 
 plea after a space of three months. In Chapter II Winifred lives the life of 
 a religious recluse, while Sir Hugh bides his time in sorrow. But she scorns 
 him when he comes for his answer, and declares herself to have set her entire 
 love upon heaven. Disgusted, Sir Hugh seeks a place where women do not come, 
 but in vain. He roams from city to city, always meeting with beauties that 
 remind him of his unkind Winifred. Taking a boat for "the western isles" 
 he is shipwrecked; if he was a spineless, doting lover before, now he is the 
 most maudlin of Euphuistic swains: "0 how happy I would count oyself 
 
 if those fishes which shall live on my bodies food might be meat for my love! 
 
 It grieveth me much to think that my poor bleeding heart, wherein thy picture 
 is engraven, should be rent in pieces in such greedie sort; but thrice 
 accursed be that fish that first setteth his nimble teeth thereon, except he 
 swim therewith to my love, and so deliver it as a present token from me." 
 
 Deloney rescued his hero on a strange shore, where dwelled "monstrous 
 men that had but one eye apiece, and that in the middle of their foreheads." 
 Rescued from these, he was in danger from a dragon, but a kindly elephant led 
 him safely through a wilderness, after which Sir Hugh took ship for England. 
 
 * The Short-Story in English , pp . 146-148 . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
100 . 
 
 In Chapter III we are toll how Winifred "was imprisoned and condemned 
 to die for her religion: and how Sir Hugh became a shoomaker, and afterwards 
 cane to suffer death with his Love; showing also how the Shoomakers tools 
 came to be called Saint Hughs bones, and the trade of Shoo-making, The Gentle 
 Craft . 11 Winifred chose death by bleeding, and Hugh was grateful when he was 
 
 condemned to die by drinking her blood into which they put poison. 
 
 Chapter IV tells of the roguery of the Gentle Craft in profiteering 
 with Hugh's bones. 
 
 There is certainly more Euphuism, and ^est-book spirit than saint's 
 legend in this narrative. 
 
 In Simon Eyre and Richard Casteler we do get good "pictures of London 
 life and London manners," but the characters are only emerging from the lay 
 figure stage into which Euphuism had thrust them. Margaret and Gillian of the 
 George are sometimes individuals, sometimes mere Punch and Judy figures; 
 
 Robin and Richard , also, but certainly they are more nearly alive than Sir Hugh 
 or Winifred. 1 London itself is very vaguely pictured; descriptive setting as 
 usual within this century was considered of minor importance. 
 
 Nicholas Breton 
 
 One more writing, 1,560 words in extent, should be mentioned in our 
 
 survey of the century — The Miseries of Mamillia by Nicholas Breton, published 
 
 — - — ^ 
 
 Winifred became as maudlin as Hugh: "At what time the Lady turned herself 
 
 to Sir Hugh and spake to this effect : f Now do I find thee a perfect lover indeed, 
 that having settled thy affections above the skies, art readie to yield thy life 
 for thy love, who, in requitall thereof, will give thee thy life forever*," and 
 so she grants him "one chaste and loving kisse from my dying lips^." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 v> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
101 . 
 
 in 1596 (?).* Although the narrative is brief and secures a certain amount 
 
 of unity through the character Mamillia who recites her woes, it does not 
 
 2 
 
 represent a short-story theme. The action is almost an unplotted series of 
 circumstances . It is not rich in incident, but tries to develop sentiment 
 in regard to its incidents. Breton's style is important, since it is not elabo- 
 rate, but is valued by historians of prose narrative for its simplicity. On 
 the other hand, the emotional portrayal of incident is Euphuistic, and the seek- 
 ing for gruesome detail (Mamillia 1 s loathsome lover's kisses, and the scene 
 wherein her nose is bittesn off, for example) is like Painted or Fenton's 
 most revolting scenes. The conclusion is similar to if more direct than 
 Fenton, — Mamillia' s husband dies of passion after killing her enemy, and she 
 dies crying out, "I hope to go to God; I bid you all farewell." 
 
 A resume of the progress of narrative in the sixteenth century reveals 
 a lack of a conscious attempt to produce a short prose fiction which should be 
 the result of one vivid emotional impression conveyed effectively to the reader. 
 The leading motives of sixteenth century authors were didacticism, imitation, 
 and a propensity to relate coarse jests and lascivious tales. The story sense 
 appeared now and then in the sporadic success of an author, who, however, did 
 not realize wherein his real ability lay. Creative genius was rare. There 
 were only occasionally sincere attempts at realism. The best stories of the 
 period of 1500-1565 were translations -- The Gesta Romanorum . and The Goodli 
 History of Lucres . William Painter, the best writer of short-stories within 
 
 1 
 
 Earliest edition extant is 1599. 
 
 ^There are five separate "miseries" of Mamillia; the action includes 
 Mamiliia's entire life, it does not crystallize around one "situation." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
102 . 
 
 the second division of the century (1566-1579), translated four good short 
 prose fictions; The Love of Antiochus with Faire Stratonica , King Cyrus and 
 the Lady Panthea , Arnadour and Florinda , and Mithridanes and Nathan . Geoffrey 
 Fenton developed a hetter technique in delineation of setting and character, 
 hut lacked the directness of Painter, and George Pettie wandered still further 
 from an appropriate style for a short-story; neither wrote original narrative. 
 
 Barnaby Riche (1581) made a noteworthy departure when he invented 
 five of the nine narratives in his Farewell to Military Profession , though he 
 did not lift English prose to a nobler tone. Robert Greene wrote three 
 original short-stories, Tompkins Tale in Greene* s Vision . The Farmer Bridegroom 
 in A Groatsworth of Wit , and The Conversion of an English Court lzan . In these 
 he was fairly successful in plot and character delineation. In the work of 
 Thomas Lodge there was a breaking away from the trappings of Euphuism, and a 
 new taste for English characters and English scenes, rather than Italian ones. 
 Deloney, in his Gentle Craft , introduced a better comedy, more English scenes, 
 and had some success in the realistic portrayal of English life in the vicinity 
 of London, among the lower classes of people. 
 
 All of the elements of good narrative technique were recognized by 
 someone at some time within the century, — Painter’s translation of Mithridanes 
 and Nathan being the best success in reaching unity of impression. 
 
 English short prose fiction received its impetus through the 
 Italian novelle; consequently it suffered from its vices at the same time that 
 it profited by its virtues: the English stories gained from the novelle zest, 
 
 simplicity of action and rapid development of plot; it also imitated the Italian 
 themes of lust and trickery. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
103 . 
 
 The great English genius of the sixteenth century, William 
 Shakespeare, began his work too late to influence its prose through his drams j 
 instead he himself profited by the Pest a Romano rum . Doctor Faustus . The Palace 
 of Pleasure . Tarleton's News . Lodge's Bosalynde . and Barnaby Riche's narratives. 
 The successes of these men in prose fiction were destined to be used in 
 the immediate enrichment of the English drama, while the short-story waited 
 for a more convenient time. 
 

 • . 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
104 . 
 
 1510-15 
 
 1510-30 
 
 1550-60 
 
 1566- 
 
 1567- 
 
 1568- 9 
 1569 
 
 1572 
 
 1576 
 
 1581 
 
 1580-S2 
 
 1584 
 
 1587 
 
 C1589 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 The More Important Texts 
 
 Gesta Romano rum , edited by Early English Text Society, Extra 
 series, No. XXXIII, London, 1879. 
 
 Robert the Devil , Helyas, Knight of the Swanne , Vlrgilius . Friar 
 Bacon . George-a-Greene . Guy of Warwick . Robin Hood . W. J. Thoms, 
 Early English Prose Romances , re-edited by E. A. Baker, London, 
 1907. 
 
 The Goodli History of the Lady Lucres of Scene in Tuskane and of 
 her lover Eurislus , translation from Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini , 
 ed. H. H. Gibbs, Roxburgh Club, London, 1873. 
 
 Painter, William, The Palace of Pleasure . 3 vol., ed. Joseph Jacobs, 
 London, 1890. 
 
 Fenton, Geoffrey, Tragical Discourses . The Tudor Translations, ed. 
 
 W. E. Henley, London, 1898. 
 
 Friar Rush . W.J. Thomas, re-edited by E. A. Baker, London, 1907. 
 
 Hellodorus . translation by Thomas Underdowne , Tudor Translations, 
 ed. W. E. Henley, London, 1895. 
 
 Gascoigne, George, The Adventures of Master Ferdlnando Jeronimi and 
 Leonora de Valasco , translated from Bartello, edited by John W. 
 Cunliffe , in The Posies , p. 435, Cambridge, 1907. 
 
 Pet tie, George, The Petite Palace of Pettle His Pleasure . The 
 King's Classics under the general editorship of Professor I. 
 Gollancz, in 2 vols., London, 1908. 
 
 Riche, Bamaby, Riche, his Farewell to Military Profession : 
 Shakespeare Society Publication, vol. XVI, London, 1842. 
 
 Greene, Robert, complete works in the Kuth Library . 15 vols. 
 edited by Alexander B. Grosart, London, 1881-86. 
 
 Lodge, Thomas, Forbonlus and Prisceria . printed for the Hunterian 
 Club, Complete Works , vol. 3, Glascow, 1883. 
 
 Daye, Angell, Daphnls and Chloe . f rora Amyot ' s translation of Longus, 
 edited by Joseph Jacobs, London, 1890. 
 
 History of Hamlet . W. J. Thoms, Early English Prose Romances , edited 
 by E. A. Baker, London, 1907. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
105 . 
 
 1590 Tarleton's News out of Purgatory . Shakespeare Society Publication . 
 
 vol. 15, London, 1842. 
 
 Lodge, Thomas, Roaalynde Euphues Golden Legacy , vol. 4 in 
 Complete Works . 
 
 1591 Lodge, Thoms, History of Robert Duke of Normndy . vol. 4 in 
 
 Complete Works . 
 
 1592 Doctor Faustus . W. J. Thoms, Early English Prose Romances , edited 
 
 "by E. A. Baker, London, 1907. 
 
 Chet tie, Henry, Kind Heart's Dream . Percy Society, vol. 5, London, 
 1841. 
 
 1593 Lodge, Thomas, Life and Death of William Longbeard . vol. 4 in 
 
 Complete Works . 
 
 1594 Nash, Thomas, The Unfortunate Traveller , complete works in the 
 
 Huth Library, vol. 5, London, 1883-84. 
 
 1596 Lodge, Thomas, A Marguerite of America , vol. in Complete Works. 
 
 1597-1600 Deloney, Thomas, Thomas of Reading . W. J. Thoms, Early English 
 Prose Romances , edited by E. A. Baker, London, 1907. 
 
 1598 Deloney, Thomas, The Gentle Craft , The Pleasant History of Thomas 
 
 of Reading : The Works of Thomas Deloney . edited by Francis Oscar 
 Mann, Oxford, 1912. 
 
 1599 Breton, Nicholas, The Miseries of Mavillia , Chert sey Worthie 's 
 
 Library, edited by A. B. Grosart, Edinburgh, 1879. 
 
 Tom a Lincoln , W. J. Thoms, Early English Prose Romances , ed. 
 
 E. A. Baker, London, 1907. 
 
 The Theory and Definition of the Short- Story 
 
 1846 Poe, Edgar A., Graham *8 Magazine , April, 1846; Complete Works , ed. 
 James A. Harrison, New York, 1902; vol. 14, p. 193 ff.: The 
 Philosophy of Composition . 
 
 1885 Matthews, Brander, Lipplncott^ Magazine for October 1885; The 
 Philosophy of the Short- story . New York, 1901. 
 
 1890 Thompson, Daniel Greenleaf, The Philosophy of Fiction in Literature . 
 London, 1890; chap. 14, p. 206 ff. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 • . 
 
 • • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
106 . 
 
 1896 Ivlatthewa, Brandar, Aspects of Fiction . New York, 1896; chap. 6, 
 
 p. 226. 
 
 1902 Canby, Henry Seidel, The Short Story . Yale Studies in English, 
 
 New York, 1902. 
 
 Cody, Sherwin, The World's Greatest Short-stories . New York, 1902; 
 Preface; pp. 11-15; Introd.; pp. 17-32. 
 
 Perry, Bliss, A Study of Prose Fiction . New York, 1902; chap. 12: 
 The Short-Story . 
 
 1905 Patten, William, American Short-story Classics . New York, 1905; 
 
 Introduction, p. xiii, The Spirit of the Short Story . 
 
 Whitcomb, Selaon L., The Study of the Nove l. Boston, 1905; 
 chap. XII, pp. 221, 179. 
 
 1908 Hamilton, Clayton, Materials and Methods of Fiction . New York, 
 
 1908, Chap. X, XI, and Introduction. 
 
 1909 Albright, Evelyn M. , The Short-Story . New York, 1909; Introduction 
 
 and bibliography. 
 
 Canby, Henry S., The Short- Story in English . New York, 1909; Intro- 
 duction, p. 104, and Chap. VII. 
 
 Esenwein, J. Berg, Writing the Short-Story, New York, 1909; 
 Introduction and Part I. 
 
 1910 Great English Short-story Writers . The Header’s Library . New York, 
 
 1910; Chapter on "The Evolution of the Short-Story." 
 
 1911 Pansier, Harriott Ely, Types of Prose Narratives . Chicago, 1911; 
 
 Preface, Introduction, Chap. 6. 
 
 Waite and Taylor, Modem Masterpieces of Short Prose Fiction . 
 Chicago, 1911, Introduction. 
 
 1912 Baldwin, Charles Sears, American Short-Stories . New York, 1912, 
 
 Introduction; Preface. 
 
 1913 Canby, Henry S., A Study of the Short-story . New York, 1913. 
 
 1914 Ashum, Margaret, Modern Short Stories . New York, 1914, Preface and 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Cross, Eathan Allen, The Short- Story . Chicago, 1914; Chap. I, VIII. 
 Grabo, Carl H., The Art of the Short Story . New York, 1914. 
 

 
 
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 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
107 . 
 
 1914 Notestein, Lucy L., and Waldo H. Dunn, The Modern Short Story . 
 
 New York, 1914. 
 
 Sherman, Stuart P., A Book of Short Stories . New York, 1914, 
 Introduction. 
 
 Winchester, C. T., Principles of Literary Criticism . New York, 1914; 
 Chap . 8 . 
 
 Williams, Blance Cotlon, Handbook on Short- story Writing . New York, 
 1914. 
 
 1915 Hale and Dawson, Elements of the Short-Story . New York, 1915, 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 1916 Drury, F. K. W. , A List of Short- Stories and Tales . White Plains, 
 
 N. Y., 1916. 
 
 1917 Pitkin, Walter B., The Art and the Business of Short-story Writing . 
 
 New York, 1917; pp. : 141-187; 193-216; 1-48; 74-77; 92-120. 
 
 1918 Hamilton, Clayton, A Manual of the Art of Fiction . Garden City, N. Y. , 
 
 1918; Introd. by Brander Matthews. 
 
 Neal, Robert Wilson, Today's Short-Stories Analyzed . New York, 1918. 
 
 The History of the Short -Story in the Sixteenth Century 
 
 1886 Herford, Charles II., Literary Relations of England and Germany in the 
 
 Sixteenth Century . Cambridge, 1886; Introd., Chap. IV and V., pp.165- 
 241, 293-322. 
 
 1890 Jusserand, J. J., The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare . 
 
 translated by Eliz. Lee, London, 1890; pp. 81-84. 
 
 1891 Tuckerman, Bayard, A History of English Prose Fiction . The Knicker- 
 
 bocker Press, New York, 1891; Chap. III. 
 
 1894 Raleigh, Walter, The English Novel . New York, 1894; Chap. I, II. 
 
 Slmonds, William E., An Introduction to the Study of English Fiction . 
 1894; Chap. II, p. 36: table of romances. 
 
 1902 Bond, R. Warwick, The Complete Works of John Lyly , Oxford, 1902, 
 
 vol. I, pp. 119, 138. 
 
 1906-7 Wolff, Dr. S. L. , Robert Greene and the Italian Renaiss ance. English 
 Studies , vol. 37, pp. 357 ff. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 • • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 - • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
108. 
 
 1907 Thoms, W. J., Early English Prose Romances , ed. E. A. Baker, 
 
 New York, 1907; Introduction. 
 
 Einstein, Lewis, The Italian Renaissance in England . New York, 1907; 
 Chap. 3, 3, 4; Appendix B. 
 
 1908 Warren, F. M. , History of the Novel Previous to the Seventeenth 
 
 Century, New York, 1908, p. 336. 
 
 1909 Jusserand, J. J., A Literary History of the English People , New York, 
 
 1909. 
 
 1911 Cross, Wilbur L. , Development of the English Novel . New York, 
 
 1911; Appendix. 
 
 Dunlop, John Colin, History of Fiction , ed. Henry Wilson, London, 1911, 
 vol . II. 
 
 Williams, Harold, Two Centuries of the English Novel , London, 1911 , 
 Chap . I . 
 
 1913 Esdaile, Arundell, English Tales and Romances . London, 1912; Part I. 
 
 Holliday, Carl, English Fiction from the Fifth to the Twentieth 
 Century . New York, 1912, Chap. V. 
 
 Tieje, Arthur Jerrold, The Expressed Aims of Long Prose Fiction 
 from 1579-1740 . Journal of English and Germanic Philology . 1912, 
 vol. 11. 
 
 1913 Tieje, Arthur Jerrold, A Peculiar Phase of the Theory of Realism in 
 
 Pre-Richardsonian Fiction . Mod. Lang. Assn. Pub., for 1913, vol. 28, 
 pp. 213-252. 
 
 Tieje, Arthur Jerrold, The Critical Heritage of Fiction in 1579 . 
 Englische Studien, 1913, vol. 47. 
 
 1915 Hopkins and Hughes, The English Novel Before the Nineteenth Century . 
 
 Boston, 1915. 
 
 Jordan, John Clarke, Robert Greene . New York, 1915. 
 
 1916 Scott, Mary Augusta, Elizabethan Translations from the Italian . 
 
 Cambridge, 1916. 
 
 1917 Pat tee, Fred Lewis, The Short Story . Cambridge History of American 
 
 Literature, New York, 1917, vol. 2, Chap. VI, pp. 367-395. 
 
 Savage , Howard J . , The Beginning of the Italian Influence in English 
 Prose Fiction . Mod. Lang. Assn. Pub. (new series) for March, 1917, 
 
 >pp. 1-21: The G-oodll History of Lucres .