famous exemplar we have in the _Decameron_, Day
IV, Novella 8, whose rubric runs: 'Girolamo ama la Salvestra: va,
costretto da' prieghi della madre, a Parigi: torna, e truovala maritata:
entrale di nascoso in casa, e muorle allato; e portato in una chiesa,
muore la Salvestra allata a lui.'

Scenes of the amusing underplot of _The Fatal Marriage_ which contain
some excellent comedy, Southerne took directly from _The Night Walker;
or, The Little Thief_ (printed as Fletcher's in 1640 and 'corrected by
Shirley' in 1633 according to Herbert's license). The purgatorial farce
may be traced to the _Decameron_, Day III, 8. 'Ferondo, mangiata certa
polvere, e sotterrato per morto: e dall' abate, chi la moglie di lui si
gode, tratto dalla sepoltura, e messo in prigione e fattogli credere,
che egli e in purgatoro; e poi risuscitato . . .' It is the _Feronde;
ou, le Purgatoire_ of La Fontaine.

_The Fatal Marriage; or, The Innocent Adultery_ long kept the stage.[5]
On 2 December, 1757, Garrick's version, which omitting the comic relief
weakens and considerably shortens the play, was produced at Drury Lane
with himself as Biron and Mrs. Cibber as Isabella. The actual name of
the tragedy, however, was not changed to _Isabella_ till some years
after. Mrs. Barry, the original Isabella, was acknowledged supreme in
this tragedy, and our greatest actresses, Mrs. Porter, Mrs. Crawford,
Miss Young, Mrs. Siddons, Miss O'Neill, have all triumphed in the role.

[Footnote 1: This has nothing to do with Scarron's novel, _L'
Innocent Adultere_ which translated was so popular in the 17th and
18th centuries. Bellmour carried it in his pocket when he went
a-courting Laetitia, to the horror of old Fondlewife who
discovered the tome, (_The Old Batchelor_, 1693), and Lydia
Languish was partial to its perusal in 1775.]

[Footnote 2: Hamelius used the collected edition of 1705.]

[Footnote 3: It is interesting to note that the book originally
belonged to Scott's friend and critic, Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe.]

[Footnote 4: Reproduced by Celio Malespini _Ducento Novelle_, No.
9 (Venice, 4to, 1609, but probably written about thirty years
before).]

[Footnote 5: A French prose translation of Southerne is to be
found in Vol. VIII of _Le Theatre Anglois_, Londres, 1746. It is
entitled _L'Adultere Innocent_; but the comic underplot is very
sketchily analyzed, scene by scene, and the wh