vollbracht war und das Latein in den Karolingischen Schulen ungetrübt durch romanische Formen gelehrt ward, war zu so ganz trivialen Bemerkungen wie sie jenes Verzeichniss enthält ebensowenig ein Anlass als sich gleichartige Beispiele finden" (Haupt, Opuscula, p. 13). The reference in the "De dubiis" reads "Gymnasium generis neutri sicut balneum in Apollonio 'gymnasium patet.' The quotation is from the scene in Pentapolis, when the boys cry aloud, "Audite, cives, audite, peregrini, ingenui et servi, gymnasium patet" (see Rh. Museum für Philologie, neue Folge xxvi, S. 638-9, xxvii, 103-114). In chapter 34, forty aurii are considered more than a half libra auri, yet not a whole one; that is, one pound of gold is coined into fifty pieces, which coincides with the practice of the time after Caracalla.1 After Constantine it became customary to compute by solidi. The oldest Latin version therefore would appear to have been composed in the time between Caracalla and Constantine (see W. Christ, Sitzungsberichte d. Akad. d. Wissenchaft zu München Cl., 1872, p. 4, and Marquardt Röm. Altertum, iii, 2, 18, 24). As the translation was certainly made before the verses of Venantius and the treatise "De dubiis," it was as certainly made after Symposius, whose riddles are inserted. The collection of riddles is contained in many MSS. The oldest is the Codex Salmasianus, belonging to the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century. The riddles themselves are of earlier date. Teuffel says: "Etwa aus dem vierten bis fünften Jahrhundert stammen wohl die hundert Räthselgedichte des Symphosius. Sie bestehen je aus drei Hexametern nebst einem ungeschickten Prolog. Sprache und Versbau sind in reinem Geschmacke und zeigen den Verfasser als einen Nachahmer des Ausonius," (Teuffel, p. 1061, 3d ed.; see also Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, 1807, ii, 135; and Riese, Zeitschrift für Oestreich. Gymn., xix, 1868, 483-500). From these arguments we may infer, as Velser, Fabricius and Douce have done, that the original Latin text was compiled some time in the fifth century. Teuffel says, "in the course of the sixth century," which agrees also with the general character of the Latin 1 Haec dicens protulit XL Aureos et dedit in Manu virginis et dicit, etc. . cui juvenis ait "si salva sis, indica mihi, quantum dedit at te juvenis," etc. Puella ait "quater denos mihi Aureos dedit." Juvenis ait " Ma'um illi sit! quid magnum illi fuisset, homini tam diviti, si libram auri tibi daret integram? Ut ergo scías, me esse meliorem, tolle libram auri integram." (Riese, 1893, p. 71). 2 Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graca, Hamburg, 1721, l. 5, c. 6. = and especially with the peculiar use of dos in a sense opposite to the Latin meaning, but peculiar to the German period pretium puellæ, Muntschatz. (Teuffel, 481.) THE PERSISTENCE OF THE STORY. The Apollonius Saga is remarkable for its persistence and its stability, that is for its duration and vitality, and for its retention of its original character and form. We will consider first its persist ence. The remarkable number of MSS. attests the wide popularity of the story before the introduction of printing. William, Bishop of Tyre, in the twelfth century, in referring to his bishopric, testifies to the fame of the romance-"ex hac etiam et Hiram Salomonis cooperator ad aedificium templi domini rex fuit et Apollonius gesta cujus celebrem et late vulgatam habent historiam." About 1186 Godfrey of Viterbo related the story as authentic history in his Pantheon, or Universal Chronicle (Pertz, Archiv v, 166; vii, 559), a sort of rhymed record of events from Adam to Godfrey. The author was chaplain to Conrad III, Frederick I and Henry VI. The principal MSS. of the work are Vienna 3406, and Paris 5003. It has been printed in Germanicorum Scriptorum Tomus alter, ex bibliotheca Joannis Pistorii Nidani D. editio tertia curante B. G. Struvio, Ratisbona, Sumptibus J. C. Peezii, 1726, pp. 175–181. Godfrey's Pantheon is an important monument and deserves more particular attention. My study is based upon a copy in my own possession. It is a ponderous folio with the title: Pantheon sive Universitatis Libri qui Chronici appellantur, xx, omnes omnium seculorum et gentium, tam sacras quam prophanas Historias complectentes: per V. C. Basiliæ ex officina Jacobi Parci (1559). It is dedicated to Pope Urban III (1185-1187). After a description of Rome and Carthage, of Asdrubal and Hannibal, we arrive at the subject of our story, in column 282— "His temporibus Apollonius rex Tyri et Sidonis ab Antiocho juniore Seleuco rege à regno Tyri et Sidonis fugatur: qui navigio fugiens, mira pericula patitur." Gower explicitly says that he derived the story as narrated in Confessio Amantis from these chapters of the Pantheon. "Of a cronique in daiës gon PROC. AMER. PHILOS. Soc. XXXVII. 158. o. PRINTED DEC. 15, 1898. The titles of Godfrey's chapters will be sufficient to indicate the course of his narrative and its close parallel to the oldest Latin MSS. 1. De Apollonio rege Tyri et Sidonis, et de ejus infortunis atque fortunis. 2. De eodem Apollonio fugiente a facie Antiochi. 3. Item de eodem Apollonio naufragium passo. 4. Item de Apollonio, ubi suscepit eum rex Archistrates et dat ei filiam suam. 5. Item de Apol., ubi mortuo Antiocho ipse eligitur in imperium Antiochiæ. 6. Apol. tendit Antiochiam, sed uxor ejus in partu mortua projicitur in mare. 7. Apol. relicta filia in urbe Tharsia, pergit Antiochiam. 8. Tharsia, filia Apollonii capitur a piratis et venditur lenoni in civitate Militena. 9. Tharsia venditur a piratis in urbe Militena ubi regnat Athenagoras, qui saluat eam a Stupro. 10. Apol. pergit ab Antiochia in Tharsiam urbem requirere Tharsiam filiam suam. 11. Apol. recognoscit et recipit filiam suam in urbe Militena, per regem Athenagoram. 12. Tharsia recognoscitur a patre suo Apollonio. 13. Apol. recipit filiam ignotam et fit lætitia magna in urbe Militena. Apoolonius [sic] visitat socerum Archistratem. Godfrey's stanza consists of two rhyming hexameters and a pentameter verse. For further editions of Godfrey, cf. Grässe, Tresor de livres rares et précieux, iii, 100. It is said in the bibliographies of Apollonius that the story is contained in Vincentius Bellovac, Speculum hystoriale, printed at Augsburg in 1474, but after struggling patiently through the three immense folios in the British Museum I must confess that I have been unable to find the slightest trace of the romance. There are three main sources of the endless stories of Apollonius in the Middle Ages. They are either founded upon the Latin Historia, or they proceed from Godfrey, or the Gesta Romanorum.1 1 Editions by Oesterley, 1872, and Keller, 1842. The Colmar MS. (fourteenth century) is the only old MS. which contains the Apollonius, Cf. Wichert, Zeitsch. f. deut. Geschichtsforschung, vi. From Godfrey the story entered England (Gower and Shakespeare) and North and South Germany; from the Gesta Romanorum arose the popular versions among the romance peoples, and in Holland, Hungary, Sweden and Russia. In my review of the various national versions of the story I shall indicate whenever possible the genesis and dependence of the texts. GERMAN VERSIONS. Alexanderlied of the early twelfth century closes its account of the plundering of Tyre with the lines "Zerstoeret lac do Tyrus die stifte sint der Künec Apollonius von dem di buoch sagent noch den der Künec Antioch über mer jagete wande er ime sagete ein retische mit vorhten daz was mit bedahten [bedecketen] worten daz er sin selbes tohter beslief." Lamprecht who wrote these lines lived during the first half of the twelfth century, and his source of information was an old romantic poem of Alexander by Alberic de Besançon,' of which the beginning only survives. Weismann, who edited Lamprecht in 1850, was led by the line "Geshriben in einem brief," to believe that L. knew the story inaccurately. Now in a Stuttgart MS. of the Latin Apollonius certain German verses in the form of a narrative are appended to the riddles, whence Massmann concluded, in connection with Lamprecht's own words, that there must have been a German version of the story before Lamprecht. But Weismann and Penon after him have regarded these verses as a first attempt and not as verses copied from a previously existing versification of the story (see Massmann, Denkmäler, 1828, Vorrede, p. 10, and Lamprecht's Alexander, v, 1054). The explanation of the "brief" or "letter" as found in the Alexander poem is not difficult. In Shakespeare Antioch hands to Pericles a writing which contains the riddle, saying: 1 Cf. Koberstein Grundriss der Geschichte der deutschen Nationalliteratur, i, 161; Bartsch, Chrestomathie de l'ancien français, 2me edition, 17-20. "Read the conclusion, then; Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed, As these before thee, thou thyself shalt bleed" (i, 11) . In Godfrey of Viterbo, too, "Antiochi regis scelerum problemata legit," but there the riddles are read over the gate of the city where they are inscribed. The Lapaume edition has it that the riddle had been inscribed upon the gate of the city (quia questio conditionis in porta civitatis scripta erat). In the Cretan version the riddle is written upon the wall. Other versions, the Italian, Spanish, Bohemian, Copland, etc., repeat the same method of conveying the riddle to Apollonius. Shakespeare is the only one who speaks of the riddle as written upon paper; all the others have it written over the gate or on the wall. Lamprecht's reference indicates that in some lost version the narrator had anticipated Shakespeare in this invention. Lamprecht's lines quoted above may be translated "King Apollonius of whom the books still tell, whom King Antioch pursued over seas because he told him a gruesome riddle, which was written with covered words, in a letter." They stand thus in the Strassburg MS. of the.Alexander. The Vorau version omits the reference to the "covered words" (bedecketen worten) and reads, "he solved a riddle in a letter" (missive). The original meaning no doubt was, as in the lines above quoted, that the riddle was communicated in a letter, but was misinterpreted by Kinzel, who supposed the solution to be conveyed in a letter, i. e. in a missive. The Basle edition also interprets after this fashion and states explicitly "dar umb, daz er im sagtte und im des sante brieff, daz er sin dochter beslieff" (because he told him, and sent him a letter to that effect, that he, etc.).2 The first poet in Germany to work independently upon the Saga was Heinrich von Neustadt, who finished his Apollonius von Tyrland (a poem of 20,893 verses) at the beginning of the fourteenth century.3 Heinrich was a physician in Vienna, and naturally was interested in the story of the resuscitation of Lucina, the wife of Apollonius. In his poem he shows an interest in natural history, and introduces 1 In Gower and Twine the riddle is spoken, as in the Latin, not read. 2 Cf. Singer, p. 37. Heinrich von Neustadt, Apollonius, von Gotes Zuokunft, herausgegeben von Joseph Strobl, Wien, 1875. Pudmenzky, Shakespeare's Pericles und der Apol lonius des Heinrich von Neustadt, Detmold, 1884. |