chard Norton and
Anthony Henly, esqs. to the lords justices, to be laid before his
majestie.' He aimed at being a patron of the fine arts, and under his
superintendence Dryden's _The Spanish Friar_ was performed in the frater
of Southwick Priory,[1] the buildings of which had not been entirely
destroyed at the suppression. Colley Cibber addresses the Dedicatory
Epistle (January, 1695) of his first play, _Love's Last Shift_ (4to,
1696), to Norton in a highly eulogistic strain. The plate of Southwick
Church (S. James), consisting of a communion cup, a standing paten, two
flagons, an alms-dish, and a rat-tail spoon, is silver-gilt, and was
presented by Richard Norton in 1691. He died 10 December, 1732.

[Footnote 1: The house was one of Black (Austin) Canons.]

* * * * *
* * * *

THE DUMB VIRGIN; OR, THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION.

INTRODUCTION.

Consanguinity and love which are treated in this novel so romantically
and with such tragic catastrophe had already been dealt with in happier
mood by Mrs. Behn in _The Dutch Lover_. _Vide_ Note on the Source of
that play, Vol. I, p. 218.

In classic lore the OEdipus Saga enthralled the imagination of antiquity
and inspired dramas amongst the world's masterpieces. Later forms of the
tale may be found in Suidas and Cedrenus.

The Legend of St. Gregory, based on a similar theme, the hero of which,
however, is innocent throughout, was widely diffused through mediaeval
Europe. It forms No. 81 of the _Gesta Romanorum_. There is an old
English poem[1] on the subject, and it also received lyric treatment at
the hands of the German meistersinger, Hartmann von Aue. An Italian
story, _Il Figliuolo di germani_, the chronicle of St. Albinus, and the
Servian romaunt of the Holy Foundling Simeon embody similar
circumstances.

Matteo Bandello, Part II, has a famous[2] novel (35) with rubric, 'un
gentiluomo navarrese sposa una, che era sua sorella e figliuola, non lo
sapendo,' which is almost exactly the same as the thirtieth story of the
_Heptameron_. As the good Bishop declares that it was related to him by
a lady living in the district, it is probable that some current
tradition furnished both him and the Queen of Navarre with these
horrible incidents and that neither copied from the other.[3]

Bandello was imitated in Spanish by J. Perez de Montalvan, _Sucesos y
Prodigios de Amor--La Mayor confusion_; in Latin b