1898.] SMYTH — PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS. 245 



di Santa Maria, 1534. Brunet mentions other editions from the 

 Venetian press in 1553 (Christ, di Zanetti), 1603, 1642 and 1696 

 (see HsLupt, 0/>2^scu/a, iii, 27, and B. Schmidt, Griechische Mdrchen 

 Sagen und Volkslieder^ Leipzig, 1877, p. 7, and Th. Griisse, Lehr- 

 buch ei?ier allgemeineJi Lite?'drgeschicJite, ii (1842), 457-460, and 

 K. Goedecke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschefi Dichiung, I 



(1884), 367)- 



I have studied an edition of 1778 (^A. too iv rupoj, Frj/idda/EveTc- 

 Tjffiv, 1778) and have come to very different conclusions from those 

 arrived at by previous scholars. Wagner says, '^ The language is 

 very difficult and seems to be the bad jargon of the islands " {Af. G. 

 T., p. xviii). It is evident that Wagner knew very little of the 

 Greek dialects, and this bit of superficial criticism is characteristic 

 of the carelessness and ignorance which prevail in both his books, 

 and yet critics and bibliographers seem blindly to have followed 

 Wagner's lead without undertaking to examine for themselves the 

 language of the text. The work (translation or transcription) was 

 done in Crete, a fact which was unknown to most of the scholars 

 who described the poem, although the place and time are explicitly 

 stated in the body of the text. The language is difficult for any 

 one unfamiliar with the dialect. It is not *' bad jargon ;" on the 

 contrary, the poem is well written, in the Cretan dialect, and it 

 should be remembered that at the time the work was done (1500), 

 Crete was more literary and more classical than Greece itself. 

 Greece had passed under the Turkish yoke : Crete was still Vene- 

 tian. Much difference of opinion has been expressed as to the 

 source of the Cretan version. Prof. Konrad Hofmann thinks it 

 was derived from the Italian (" Von zwei griechischen Bearbei- 

 tungen die wir haben, ist die eine des 13. Jahrhunderts aus einem 

 lateinischen, die andere des 16. aus einem italienischen Texte 

 geflossen," Sitzungsberichte der ph. -ph. u. hist. CI. d. kdn.-bayei'. 

 Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Milnchen, 1871, Ht. 4, S. 416). The con- 

 sensus of opinion, however, favors translation from a Latin text. 

 But Edelestand Dumeril asserted its derivation from the German 

 of Johann (^sic) von Neuenstadt ! — *' la redaction en grec moderne 

 a ete faite d'apres la version Allemande " {^Floire et Blanceflot'y 

 Paris, Jannet, 1856, p. cv). What Dumeril's exquisite reason was, 

 I do not know, but there is less resemblance, if anything, between 

 Gabriel Kontianos and Heinrich v. Neustadt than between Gabriel 

 and Shakespeare. 



