[112] Capp. 24 and 26. The followers of Don John, however, have been more indebted to him than he was to his predecessors. Thus, the story of “Don Illan el Negromantico” (Cap. 13) was found by Mr. Douce in two French and four English authors. (Blanco White, Variedades, Lóndres, 1824, Tom. I. p. 310.) The apologue which Gil Blas, when he is starving, relates to the Duke of Lerma, (Liv. VIII. c. 6,) and “which,” he says, “he had read in Pilpay or some other fable writer,” I sought in vain in Bidpai, and stumbled upon it, when not seeking it, in the Conde Lucanor, Cap. 18. It may be added, that the fable of the Swallows and the Flax (Cap. 27) is better given there than it is in La Fontaine. [113] Shakspeare, it is well known, took the materials for his “Taming of the Shrew,” with little ceremony, from a play with the same title, printed in 1594. But the story, in its different parts, seems to have been familiar in the East from the earliest times, and was, I suppose, found there among the traditions of Persia by Sir John Malcolm. (Sketches of Persia, London, 1827, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 54.) In Europe I am not aware that it can be detected earlier than the Conde Lucanor, Cap. 45. The doctrine of unlimited submission on the part of the wife seems, indeed, to have been a favorite one with Don John Manuel; for, in another story, (Cap. 5,) he says, in the very spirit of Petruchio’s jest about the sun and moon, “If a husband says the stream runs up hill, his wife ought to believe him, and say that it is so.” “On one occasion, Count Lucanor came from a foray, much wearied and worn, and poorly off; and before he could refresh or rest himself, there came a sudden message about another matter then newly moved. And the greater part of his people counselled him, that he should refresh himself a little, and then do whatever should be thought most wise. And the Count asked Patronio what he should do in that matter; and Patronio replied, ‘Sire, that you may choose what is best, it would please me that you should know the answer which Count Fernan Gonzalez once gave to his vassals.