"I wol you tell a Tale which that I Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk As preved by his wordes and his werk: He is now ded and nailed in his cheste, I pray to God to yeve his soule reste. Fraunceis Petrark, the Laureate poete, Hight this clerk whos retherike swete Enlumined all Itaille of poetrie"— so says Chaucer in the prologue to the "Clerkes Tale," but Petrarch was not the author of this ever favourite story. It seems to have been the undoubted offspring of Boccaccio's fancy, even Mr. Baring Gould failing to trace an Indian source for it, as he has done in so many tales of the "Decameron."* In fact, Petrarch, although intimately acquainted with Boccaccio, never saw the tale until 1374, just before his death at ArquÀ. He at once fell in love with it, and translated it into Latin, with alterations. This translation was never printed, but there is a copy in the library at Paris, and another at Magdalen College, Oxford. It was dramatized in France in 1393, under the title of "Le Mystere de Griseildis Marquis de Salucas;" again in England, "The Pleasant Comedie of Patient Grissill. As it hath been sundrie times lately plaid by the right honorable the Erle of Nottingham (Lord high Admirall) his seruants. London: Imprinted for Henry Rocket, and are to be solde at the long Shop vnder S. Mildreds Church in the Poultry. 1603."† There was also a comedy by Ralph Radcliffe, called "Patient Griseld," but this was never printed; and in modern times it has been dramatized by Mr. Edwin Arnold.
|
  |
