1898.] SMYTH — PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS. 207 



its final shape in Shakespeare, and to indicate its relations to the 

 Vilkina saga, the poem of King Orendel, the chanson of Jourdain de 

 Blaivies, the Solomon-Markolf cycle, and the Antheia and Habro- 

 komes of Xenophon of Ephesus. For ten years I have followed the 

 story through the libraries of Europe, collating MSS. and examin- 

 ing incunabula from Copenhagen to Constantinople. And I have 

 observed with satisfaction in that time a growing sense of the im- 

 portance of this saga in the history of literature. Various literary 

 tasks have interfered with the completion and publication of my 

 study, a delay which has not been without its advantages ; for in 

 consequence of it I have seen certain rare and important texts and 

 codices edited and given to the world by far worthier hands than 

 mine. A few years ago I edited the unique manuscript of the 

 Anglo-Saxon y//^//<?;z///i- in the library of Corpus Christi College, 

 Cambridge, and should have embodied it in this publication, but 

 that my friend, Prof. Julius Zupitza, has happily forestalled me and 

 edited the text ^ with erudition, judgment and skill that leave noth- 

 ing to be desired. 



The full text of the story, according to the version in the Gesta 

 Romanorum, will be found printed in an Appendix to this paper, 

 and to that the reader should refer as to an authoritative source. 

 The story as it is found in Historia Apollonii regis Tyri (Alex. 

 Riese, Lipsiae, 1871 ; iterum recensuit, 1893) may be briefly sum- 

 marized as follows : 



The Story. 



King Antiochus, the founder of Antioch, having one only 

 daughter, fell in unnatural love with her; and that he might 

 keep her for himself he made a law that whoso presumed to desire 

 her in marriage and could not unfold the meaning of certain rid- 

 dles which the king proposed should lose his life, and his head 

 should be placed over the palace door as a warning. Among many 

 other rich and powerful princes and lords who adventured came 

 Apollonius of Tyre, who interpreted the riddle in which the king 

 had artfully concealed, as he thought, his illicit love for his daugh- 

 ter. Terrified at his discovery, Apollonius returned secretly to 

 Tyre, freighted a ship with necessaries, with wheat and with 

 treasure, and in the night departed upon a sea-voyage. Antiochus 



1 Archiv filr das Studiiun der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen, 1896. 

 PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXVII. 158. N. PRINTED DEC. 15, 1898. 



