2»d S. VI. 145., Oct. 9. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



281 



LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBEn.^.im. 



SANCHONIATHON AND SHAKSPEAEE. 



The prelude of Christopher Sly which Shak- 

 speare has placed as an "Induction" to his comedy 

 of the Taming of the Shrew, is, as well as the 

 comedy itself, founded on an older play, under 

 nearly the same title ; and the unknown author of 

 the latter is believed to have derived the episode of 

 the " Drunken Tinker " from an Eastern story. 

 The tale of Abu-1- Hasan, or the " Sleeper Awak- 

 ened," in the Arabian Night's Entertainment, at 

 once suworests itself as the orisinal ; but Lane, in 

 his learned annotations, traces the latter legend to 

 an historical anecdote related by El-Is-hakee, who 

 wrote early in the seventeenth century, a.d. 1623. 

 Malone quotes from Goulart's Histoires Admirables 

 de no.itre Temps an anecdote taken from Heuter'a 

 Res BurgundiccE, Paris, 1607, in which Philip the 

 Good is described as causing a drunken mechanic, 

 whom he found asleep in the streets of Brussels, to 

 be carried to bed in the palace, and attended on 

 his awaking by tlie pages and grooms of the cham- 

 ber. He was afterwards saluted by the courtiers, 

 apparelled, accompanied to mass and to the 

 chase, thence conducted to a repast, and, finally, 

 after supper he was placed again in bed. Whilst 

 asleep, he was reclad in his own rags, and depo- 

 sited in the street where he had been found the 

 night before ; so that the whole was impressed on 

 his memory as a dr^am. 



Beyond this incident of the fifteenth century, 

 the commentators are unable to trace any more 

 reinote authority for the pleasant episode of Chris- 

 topher Sly ; but in a volume which I have been 

 lately reading there occurs a story of the same 

 kind, of an antiquity far surpassing the narra- 

 tives of Heuter or El-Is-hakee. Sanchoniathon 

 is supposed to have written his Phcenician History 

 in eight or nine books before the Trojan war, or 

 even in the time of Semiramis, some two thousand 

 years before the birth of Christ. The original has 

 perished, but of the Greek translation of Philo of 

 Byblus, who wrote in the latter half of the first 

 century (and who is more than suspected to have 

 invented the books of Sanchoniathon which he 

 professed to translate), large portions have been 

 preserved to us in tlie works of Porphyrius and 

 Eusebius. Some years ago AVagenfeld published 

 at Bremen an edition of the entire nine books 

 of Sanchoniathon, in the Greek text of Philo 

 Byblius, with a Latin version by the editor. And 

 in the seventh book, chap. 9., Sanchoniathon, on 

 the authority of Barmirchabas (who professes to 

 bave written from personal knowledge) records 

 that Lydyk, the successor of Joramus, King of 

 Tyre, who appears to have been identical with 

 Hiram the contemporary of Solomon, caused the 



schools for the sons of priests to be removed from 

 Sidon to Tyre, on the grounds of the laxity of 

 discipline at the former place, and the consequent 

 demoralisation of the scholars. In illustration of 

 this complaint many incidents are given of tlie 

 nightly resort of the students to taverns, and theii: 

 association with seamen and slaves in scenes of 

 drunkenness and debauchery ; and Sanchonia- 

 thon, amongst other stories, relates that on one 

 occasion the youths finding Barciphas, one of their 

 companions, in a state of insensibility from intox- 

 ication, placed him in the bed of Gnaphus, their 

 host ; and, on the return of his senses, insisted on 

 treating him in this character, till at length they 

 induced a conviction on his mind that he was in 

 reality the individual whom he personated. The 

 story is best told in the words of the original ; but, 

 instead of extracting the Greek of Philo, it may be 

 more convenient to insert the following translation 

 of the episode : — 



" ^Vhen the King (Joramus) died, Lydyk reigned 

 forty-two years. And he ordered the boys placed for 

 education in the school established by Belarus to be re- 

 moved to Tyre because they were made effeminate at 



Sidon They generally entered the city by night 



that they might not be recognised, and Barmirchabas 

 tells the following story in his book : — 



" Barciphas, being the worse for wine, said, pointing 

 with his finger to one near him, ' Look at that fellow 

 sick,' and immediately himself distorted his face, ahd 

 retched so that all began to laugh. And as Barciphas im- 

 mediately fell asleep, one of the party said, ' Let us amuse 

 ourselves with this drunken insensible fellow. Let us dress 

 him in the clothes of Gnaphus, and put him into his bed ; 

 and let us get about him as he awakes from his debauch, 

 and, treating him in all points as Gnaphus, let us make 

 him suppose that he is in reality the vintner ; for he will 

 be too stupid to perceive the trutli.' All agreed, aiid 

 the real Gnaphus concealed himself in a convenient place 

 whence he could see and hear all that was going forward 

 in the house. 



" ' And as everything was done with a serious counte- 

 nance, Barciphas in a short time was not conscious of the 

 transmutation, and did everything as if he had been the 

 real Gnaphus; and as the conversation turned on last 

 night's drinking bout, he asked where was that drunken 

 fellow Barciphas ? Then indeed we had difficulty to 

 keep our countenance. But when we applauded him for 

 chastising his wife, he said that she was anything but 

 handsome, and that he had a pretty maid-servant whom 

 he intended to marry. When Gnaphus heard these 

 things in his nook, he set about preventing Barciphas from 

 doing what he intended ; for, sending secretly to a usurer 

 from whom he had borrowed much monej', he informed 

 him that his creditor, Gnaphus, would fail to pay him, as 

 he was squandering his property on feasts and debauchery, 

 in proof of which this very night he at a great expense 

 was entertaining a number of vagrants, and to-morrow 

 would waste what remained on a foolish marriage. The 

 usurer hurried forthwith to the tavern, and not knowing his 

 debtor even by siglit, he inquired ' which was Gnaphus? ' 

 and when Barciphas answered ' I am he,' he hauled him 

 off to the court, where the judge assigned him as a slave 

 to the creditor until he should extinguish the debt. Then, 

 for the first time, as ho afterwards confessed, he began 

 to suspect that he was not Gnaphus, but Barciphas; but 

 the judges, instead of believing him, turned him into ridi- 



