possessing a certain value, but this collection of stories was for a long time the best and richest that had been formed by any nation. Not only were the traditions at that time more complete in themselves, but the author had a special talent for collecting them, and besides that an intimate knowledge of the dialect. The stories are told almost without any break, and the manner of speaking, at least that of the Neapolitans, is perfectly caught, and this last constitutes one superiority over Straparola, who only strove for the customary educated method of narration, and did not understand how to strike a new chord. We may therefore look on this collection of fifty stories (including the introduction and conclusion with their valuable material) as the basis of many others; for although it was not so in actual fact, and was indeed not known beyond the country in which it appeared, and was never translated into French, it still has all the importance of a basis, owing to the coherence of its traditions. Two-thirds of them are, so far as their principal incidents are concerned, to be found in Germany, and are current there at this very day. Basile has not allowed himself to make any alteration, scarcely even any addition of importance, and that gives his work a special value. He has made no use of what was done by his predecessor, Straparola, probably was not even aware of it. The two writers have only four pieces in common, Nos. 3, 14, 41, 45 in Basile, and 3, 1. 10, 1. 5, 2. 7, 5 in Straparola), and from a comparison of these it is evident that Basile wrote independently. In this respect the story of The Doll is curious 5, 1. (in Straparola, 5, 2). Basile tells it of a goose which is less appropriate, otherwise the stories somewhat resemble each other. It is manifest that Straparola gives it more correctly, besides having two more incidents. The strange variation is, however, explained by the resemblance between the sound of the words papara (goose), and pipata (doll), which have been confused by oral tradition.[1]
Basile has told his stories altogether in the spirit of a lively, witty, and facetious people, with continual allusions to manners and customs, and even to old stories and mythology, a knowledge of which is usually tolerably diffused among the Italians. This is
- ↑ On the other hand, Liebrecht observes, 2, 260, and in his translation of Dunlop, 517, "I do not maintain that Basile has intentionally altered pipata into papara; it is much more probable that this was done, as before said, in the transmission of the story by word of mouth. A rag-doll could much more easily be used to clean anything than a great goose, and the restoration of the goose to life after its neck had been wrung, is to say the least, improbable. Rabelais also demands un oison dumeté; and it is related that Taubmann used a little goose, still covered with down, for this purpose. The doll was a kobold-like being, resembling the well-know ducat-mannikin, and Straparola's version appears to me the most original.
