he
states he had no knowledge of Bandello or the _Heptameron_, but he gives
the following account of the origin of his theme. 'I had heard when very
young, that a gentlewoman, under uncommon agonies of mind, had waited on
Archbishop Tillotson and besought his counsel. A damsel that served her
had, many years before, acquainted her that she was importuned by the
gentlewoman's son to grant him a private meeting. The mother ordered the
maiden to make the assignation, when she said she would discover herself
and reprimand him for his criminal passion; but, being hurried away by a
much more criminal passion herself, she kept the assignation without
discovering herself. The fruit of this horrid artifice was a daughter,
whom the gentlewoman caused to be educated very privately in the
country; but proving very lovely and being accidentally met by her
father-brother, who never had the slightest suspicion of the truth, he
had fallen in love with and actually married her. The wretched guilty
mother learning what had happened, and distracted with the consequence
of her crime, had now resorted to the Archbishop to know in what manner
she should act. The prelate charged her never to let her son and
daughter know what had passed, as they were innocent of any criminal
intention. For herself, he bad her almost despair.'

The same story occurs in the writings of the famous Calvinistic divine,
William Perkins (1558-1602), sometime Rector of St. Andrew's, Cambridge.
Thence it was extracted for _The Spectator_.

In Mat Lewis' ghoulish romance, _The Monk_ (1796) it will be remembered
that Ambrosio, after having enjoyed Antonia, to whose bedchamber he has
gained admittance by demoniacal aid, discovers that she is his sister,
and heaping crime upon crime to sorcery and rape he has added incest.

There is a tragic little novel, '_The Illegal Lovers; a True Secret
History._ Being an Amour Between A Person of Condition and his Sister.
Written by One who did reside in the Family.' (8vo, 1728.) After the
death of his wife, Bellario falls in love with his sister Lindamira.
Various sentimental letters pass between the two, and eventually
Bellario in despair pistols himself. The lady lives to wed another
admirer. The tale was obviously suggested by the _Love Letters between a
Nobleman and his Sister_.

[Footnote 1: There are three MSS. _Vernon MS._, Oxford, edited by
Horstmann; _MS. Cott_, _Cleop. D. ix_, British Museum; _Auchinleck
M