Siuif/'s Hoax. 229 



only two voices. Finally Partridge appeals for redress against 

 having ])een thus murdered by prophecy. 



Then came the last skit, Bickerstaff's answer to Partridge's ex- 

 postulations. This was intended to show how flimsy all of Par- 

 tridges arguments were to prove that he was still alive, and closes 

 with the assertion, that he (Bickerstaffj would have been very in- 

 discreet to begin his predictions with a falsehood. Moreover, he 

 insists that Partridge died, not within four hours, but in half an 

 hour's time of the predicted moment ; and it appears that the astrol- 

 oo-er admitted in the end that he was dead. 



The fundamental idea of such a jest, in which a whole community 

 seems to join in order to convince its victim that he has died, may 

 be found, as has been said, in a large number of stories. The 

 dupe is quite invariabl}- some man, and the deceiver, with or 

 without the connivance of kind neighbors, is generally his wife ; 

 in accord with the universally accepted truth of the well-known 

 adage, tnulicr est hoininis confusio. But these tales, in so far as 

 their chief motif is deception, are part of a large series of similar 

 stories which are sometimes found separately, having been handed 

 down by oral transmission among many peoples, sometimes recorded 

 together as part of a framework into which are fitted tales closely 

 allied in their main features, namely the deception of some one for 

 the amusement of those who design the trick. Before touching 

 again on the nature and relation of these tales, it will be worth 

 while to give the story which, of the whole number, most clearly 

 resembles Swift's joke on Partridge. 



This is the first of three hoaxes to be found in a Spanish novel, 

 los tres maridos biirlados, ' the three duped husbands, ' by Gabriel 

 Tellez, the noted playwright, better known as Tirso de Molina 

 (1571-1648). 1 



It runs in part as follows : Three women who are quarreling over 

 the possession of a ring refer their dispute to a fourth person ; the 

 latter decides that she is to have it, who plays the best joke on 

 her husband. Only the first hoax concerns us here. 



^ Cf . Los Cigarrales de Toledo., Madrid, 1624, containuig a collection of tales, 

 comcdias and sliort h'ric poems. Tirso de Molina patterned this book after 

 the Decameronc ; and, like otlier literary miscellanies Avhicli appeared at 

 that time, it was widely read. 



