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54 THE FROLICKSOME DUKE ; OR
From whome the Lord deliver me,
And every Christian too, And send to them like sentence eke n
That meaneth so to do. |
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THE FKOLICKSOME DUKE; OK THE TINKER'S GOOD FORTUNE.
Percy's Beliquu, i. 255.
The story of this ballad, like that of the preceding, was probably derived from the east. It is the same as the tale of The Sleeper Awakened in the Arabian Nights, and a like incident is found also in the tale of XaUoun in the Continuation of the Arabian Nights. Interpolations from European sources are said to have been made by the translators both of the Arabian Nights and of the Continuation, and it has been suggested that The Sleeper Awakened is one of these. (Gent. Mag. 64, I. 527.) It is even true that this story does not occur in the manuscript used by Gal-land. It is found, however, in one manuscript, and is accordingly admitted into the recent version.—Marco Polo relates that Ala-eddin, " the Old Man of the Mountain," was accustomed to employ a device resembling that of the ballad, to persuade his youthful votaries of his power to transport them to Paradise. (Chap. xxi. of Marsden's translation.) A similar anecdote is told as historically true by the Arabic writer El-Is-hakee, who printed his work in the early |
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