means as a primitive one. It has often been reprinted as a chapbook or broadside. The library of Harvard University possesses copies of no less than eight different editions (see W. C. Lane, Catalogue of English and American Chap-Books and Broadside Ballads in Harvard College Library, 1905, nos. 809-815, 2420). An examination of these shows that they differ from each other in no essential point, though they vary considerably in statements of time. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books lists seven editions, all different from those at Harvard, with one possible exception. The popularity of the story, at one time at least, is thus strikingly illustrated. Another variant, reported from oral tradition, has been found in North Carolina. See the paper read by J. B, Henneman before the Modern Language Association of America on Dec. 29, 1906.
Old Wives' Tale.
George Peele, The Old Wives' Tale (1590), published in 1595, Ed. by Dyce, 1828 and 1861, by Bullen, 1888, and by Gummere in Gayley's Representative English Comedies, 1903, pp. 349-382. See H. Dutz for an elaborate discussion of the connection of the play with our theme.
Fatal Dowry.
Philip Massinger (and Nathaniel Field), The Fatal Dowry. First printed in 1632. Ed. A. Symons, Mermaid Series, 1889, ii. 87-182.
Fair Penitent.
Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent, The Dramatick Works of Nicholas Rowe Esq., 1720, vol. i.
