1832.] A Merry Tale with a Merry Moral. 



To leave 't unread is certainly no harm : 

 9ffo jterf* If you will read or hear it, when 'tis ended 

 To make wry faces you have no pretence. 

 This compact clear, my story I commence. 



Before I begin, however, I have a few words to say upon the subject, 

 and upon the origin of it. In consists, as I have mentioned, of two parts, 

 the first being called The Magic Turban, and the second The happy 

 Man's Shirt. Every body knows the property of the drinking-cup in 

 Ariosto, which spilt the liquor upon the breast of every unfaithful 

 knight : this test of matrimonial fidelity, Ariosto had from the romances 

 of Tristan and Perceval, and La Fontaine borrowed it from Ariosto. 

 Spencer's Girdle of Florimel was of the same kind, and a similar virtue 

 was inherent in the worfderful mantle, the story of which is in Percy's 

 Relics of Ancient Poetry, being derived from Le Court Mantel of the old 

 French Fablian. The Magic Turban of Casti is only another variety of 

 the same species, but whether he was indebted for it to any old novel, or 

 romance, I am not aware. It will be seen that he makes quite as good 

 use of it as any of his precursors of their corresponding inventions. 

 That part of his novel which relates to the shirt of a happy man, he 

 seems to have adopted, with a different application, from Giorn. II. 

 Nov. 1, of // Pecorone, attributed to Giovanni Fiorentino, who was one 

 of the earliest authors of Italian Novelle after Boccacio. There, a widow 

 entreats a lady, apparently the happiest in Naples, to make a shirt, the 

 preternatural effect of which would be to cure the widow's only son of a 

 fatal disorder : she, whom the world thought to have no care, shews the 

 widow the skeleton of her lover behind a curtain, before which, night 

 and morning, she renewed her concealed sorrow. It is a proverb in 

 English, that " there is a skeleton in every man's closet/' no doubt 

 derived from some version or variation of this Italian tale, which has 

 escaped my researches. I will now proceed with Casti's novella, insert- 

 ing prose or verse in English or Italian, and abridging and omitting, 

 as I think may best suit my purpose. The moral of the whole, it will 

 be found, is excellent. 



Arsaces, the young Sultan of Ormus, had married a beautiful princess, 

 named Irene, and Casti informs us that 



They liv'd in perfect harmony some time, 



As married people should, but oft do not : 

 Suspicion never hinted at a crime 



That could the fame of either party blot. 

 Arsaces had a soul which soar'd sublime 



Above the wisdom of this earthly spot, 

 And to augment his stock of wondrous knowledge, he 

 Studied the depths of magic and astrology. 



He therefore invited to his court the ablest professors of those sciences, 

 in order that he might be made perfect in prediction. One day a magi- 

 cian offered him a cap or turban, with the miraculous attribute, that 

 whoever put it on was compelled to speak truth, and that too, without 

 being aware that he or she had uttered it. Before he parted with this 

 treasure, the magician required the sultan to take a solemn oath, that 

 with whatever facts the cap might make him acquainted, he would 

 betray no surprise, and inflict no punishment : Casti adds, that Arsaces 

 was remarkable for the sanctity with which he kept all his engagements, 

 which was saying a great deal more 



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