Gower's immediate author, if not Boccace[1], was perhaps Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about the year 1290, and who has incorporated Damascenus's history of Barlaam and Josaphat, who were canonised, into his Speculum Historiale. As Barlaam's fable is probably the remote, but original source, of Shakspeare's Caskets, in the Merchant of Venice[2], I will give the reader a translation of the passage in which it occurs, from the Greek original, never yet printed.
"'The king commanded four chests to be made: two of which were covered with gold, and secured by golden locks, but filled with rotten bones of human carcasses. The other two were overlaid with pitch, and bound with rough cords; but replenished with the most precious stones and exquisite gems, and with ointments of the richest odour. He called his nobles together, and placing these chests before them, asked which they thought the most valuable. They pronounced those with the golden coverings to be the most precious, supposing they were made to contain the crowns and girdles of the king. The two chests covered with pitch
