Italian Popular Tales. By Thomas Frederick Crane, A.M. (Mac- millan.)—The
Italians have lately been giving much attention to the- folk-lore of various portions of their country. The results of this study have appeared in periodicals and small collections. Professor Crane has now brought them together and presented them in an Eng- lish translation. For so doing he deserves the special thanks not only of the student of folk-lore, but of the general reader, who will find in this handsome volume mach to interest and entertain him. The tales given at length—being, as a rule, examples of classes—are 109 in number. Variants are noticed in both text and notes, with references to any characteristic traits or remarkable divergences from the type. This wealth of material is not surprising, for Italy has long been famed as a story-telling country. The examples of the "Blue Beard" and "Puss in Boots" type are among the most in- teresting. In the former (p. 78), the husband is Satan, who, seized with a desire to marry, has taken the form of a handsome young man, and built a fine palace. The forbidden chamber is hell, into. which the two younger sisters are pushed, as a punishment for their curiosity. The third and youngest sister, though equally curious, manages to deceive her husband and to rescue her sisters, whom she sends home in chests on her husband's back, he being led to believe that his wife, who has forbidden him to put down the chests, is watching him. She then escapes in the same way. This part of the story is precisely similar to one in the Norse Tales, except that Satan is not killed, as was the Troll, when, on finding that his wife has fled, he follows her to the house. The tale then lapses into the world-wide satire on matrimony,—for when Satan saw all three sisters on the balcony, " three wives at once terrified the devil so much that he took his flight with all possible speed, and since then has lost his taste for marrying." The variant of " Puss in Boots" is entitled " Don Joseph Pear." The principal character is not a cat, but a fox, and the special interest of the story lies in the fact that, unlike our common version, it contains what was probably the point or moral of the original,—the contrast between the gratitude of the animal and the ingratitude of the man. The notes—inconveniently placed at the end of the volume—give copious references to the versions of the stories. There is also a useful list of works referred to. Campbell's " West Highland Tales" is not among them. There is a good index, and a valuable bibliography of Italian popular tales, from Straparola and Basile down to Dr. Guiseppe Park who has done so much for Italian folk-lore, and to whom the volume is appropriately dedicated.
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