Collectanea. 321
and on ever since. The wife, however, is completely cured. Now, whenever he offers her sympathy if she is not well, she warns him to beware of what happened before when he ex- pressed his compassion for her.
I am offering these few notes in the hope that I may obtain fuller information on the subject, and I shall be very glad to hear from others of similar or kindred ideas.
Winifred S. Blackman.
" King Orfeo."
" King Orfeo " is the name of a ballad that relates the story told in the mediaeval romance of Orpheus. That the story of Orpheus could have become popular without the aid of a romance is possible, for it is told in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, which, as is known, was translated by King Alfred. We can thus point to a source for the ballad independent of romance, and it is remarkable that this fact was not referred to by Child when considering the origin of the ballad. Boethius' work was popular before the mediaeval romance properly existed, whilst in later days its circulation was wide. As Guizot remarked : " Ce petit volume de Boece eut un grand role, et se maintint pendant pres de mille ans au premier rang parmi les manuels favoris de 1' Europe barbare et feodale. C'etait en I'an 1 300 un des quatre classiques de la biblioth^que de Paris."
In the American Journal of Philology, vii., 176-202, Professor Kittredge made a study of the romance of Orpheus, particularly in regard to its relation to the Irish tale of the Wooing of Etain. In regard to the ballad there is, with the exception of the substitution of Ferrie for Tartarus in the classical story, but one trait that is perhaps distinctively Celtic. It is found in the following lines :
And first he played da notes o noy.
And dan he played da notes o joy.
An dan he played da god gabber reel,
Dat meicht ha made a sick hert hale.
