1898.1 SMYTH — PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS. 235 



sen ? Gewis alleen hij, die het Nederlandsche Volksboek gelezen 

 had. En Grasse heeft het boek gewis nooit gezien."^ Following 

 Grasse's venturesome conjecture, the Dutch writer, A. Winkler 

 Prins {Geilhistreerde Encyclopcedie, ii, 91), declares the folks-book 

 to have been made after the German model: ''de Nederlandsche 

 overzetting vermoedelijk naar eene Duitsche." 



The adventures of Apollonius were dramatized in Holland and 

 published in 1634, under the title, ^^Twee Tragi-coinedien in prosa, 

 d^ Eene vanAppoIlonius, Prince vaft Tyro, Ende d^ ander van de?i sel- 

 ven, ende va7i Tharsia syn Dochter. Wesende niet alleen lustigh ende 

 vertnakelijck om lesen : maer oock vorderlijch oin weten, hoe men 

 hem in voorspoet ende ieghenspoet behcort te draghen. Nu van nieus 

 oversien ende verbetert door P. B. C. ins ' Graven- hage, Ghedruckt 

 by A erf Meuris, Boeck-verkooper ivoonende inde Papestraet, in 

 den Bijbel, Anno 16J4.'* The first part has eighty-four pages, the 

 second part eighty pages without separate title"^ and with continuous 

 pagination. It is possible that the work was printed before 1634 

 and that the words ''nu van nieus oversien ende verbetert" refer 

 to the prior publication. An imprint of 161 7 (The Hague) is men- 

 tioned in the Biographisch Woordenboek of Huberts, Elberts and 

 van den Branden, p. 48, but I know nothing of the existence of 

 the book. 



The Twee Tragi- comedien was written by Pieter Bor Christiaensz. 

 In the Preface, addressed to his nephew, "the respectable, pious, 

 and intelligent " ["den Eersamen, Vromen, ende verstandighen "] 

 " Pietor Bor Jansz., Secretaris van den Gherechte der Stadt 

 Utrecht," the author tells how he came to write the play; he had 

 read, he says, in " seker oudt versuft Boeck." The book was most 

 likely the Gesta and not the folks-book of 1493. Dr. Penon dis- 

 covered that in the play Apollonius sells his wheat to the people of 

 Tarsus for acht pennifigen a bushel, which corresponds to the 

 Gesta^s acht placken, but not to the folks-book's vier hellinks. 

 Moreover, in the play, as in the Gesta, Lucina gives to Apollonius 

 a present of ten maidens (" tien Meyskens "), of which gift there is 

 no reference in the folks-book. 



1 Penon, Bijdrageu, p. 112, 



2 Penon observes that the Catalogue of the Library of the Society of Nether- 

 land Literature at Leiden (^Catalogus der Bibliotheekvan de Maatschappij der 

 Nederlandsche Letterkunde te Leiden, Derde Gedeelte, Nederlandsch Tooneel 

 [stage]), 1877, ?• xxvii, cites this work under two titles. 



