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THE MARRIAGE LESSON.


[We are indebted to the last Number (4) of the _Foreign Quarterly
Review_ for the following lively nouvelette, from the _Conde Lucanor_ of
the Infante Don Juan Manuel, written in the beginning of the fourteenth
century. It has much of the _naïvete_ and light humour peculiar to the
Spanish novelists, and, to quote the ingenious reviewer, "besides its
own merit, possesses that of some striking resemblances to Shakspeare's
_Taming of the Shrew_."]

In a certain town there lived a noble Moor, who had one son, the best
young man ever known perhaps in the world. He was not, however, wealthy
enough to enable him to accomplish half the many laudable objects which
his heart prompted him to undertake; and for this reason he was in great
perplexity, having the will and not the power. Now in that same town
dwelt another Moor, far more honoured and rich than the youth's father,
and he too had an only daughter, who offered a strange contrast to this
excellent young man, her manners being as violent and bad as his were
good and pleasing, insomuch that no man liked to think of an union with
such an infuriate shrew.

Now that good youth one day came to his father, and said, "Father,
I am well assured that you are not rich enough to support me according
to what I conceive becoming and honourable. It will, therefore, be
incumbent upon me to lead a mean and indolent life, or to quit the