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FORTUNATUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 727 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FORTUNATUS , the legendary See also:

hero of a popular See also:European See also:chap-See also:book. He was a native, says the See also:story, of See also:Famagusta in See also:Cyprus, and See also:meeting the goddess of See also:Fortune in a See also:forest received from her a See also:purse which was continually replenished as often as he See also:drew from it. With this he wandered through many lands, and at See also:Cairo was the See also:guest of the See also:sultan. Among the treasures which the sultan showed him was an old napless See also:hat which had the See also:power of transporting its wearer to any See also:place he desired. Of this hat he feloniously possessed himself, and returned to Cyprus, where he led a luxurious See also:life. On his See also:death he See also:left the purse and the hat to his sons Ampedo and Andelosia; but they were jealous of each other, and by their recklessness and folly soon See also:fell on evil days. The moral of the story is obvious: men should See also:desire See also:reason and See also:wisdom before all the treasures of the See also:world. In its full See also:form the See also:history of Fortunatus occupies in Karl See also:Simrock's See also:Die deutschen Volksbucher, vol. iii., upwards of 158 pages. The See also:scene is continually shifted—from Cyprus to See also:Flanders, from Flanders to See also:London, from London to See also:France; and a large number of secondary characters appear. The See also:style and allusions indicate a comparatively See also:modern date for the authorship; but the See also:nucleus of the See also:legend can be traced back to a much earlier See also:period. The stories of Jonathas and the three jewels in the Gesta Romanorum, of the See also:emperor See also:Frederick and the three See also:precious stones in the See also:Cento Novelle antiche, of the Mazin of Khorassan in the Thousand and one Nights, and the flying See also:scaffold in the Bahar Danush, have all a certain similarity. The earliest known edition of the See also:German See also:text of Fortunatus appeared at See also:Augsburg in 1509, and the modern German investigators are disposed to regard this as the See also:original form.

Innumerable versions occur in See also:

French, See also:Italian, Dutch and See also:English. The story was dramatized by Hans See also:Sachs in 1553, and by See also:Thomas See also:Dekker in 1600; and the latter's See also:comedy appeared in a German See also:translation in Englische Komodien and Tragodien, 162o. See also:Ludwig See also:Tieck has utilized the legend in his Phantasus, and Adelbert von See also:Chamisso in his See also:Peter Schlemihl; and Ludwig See also:Uhland left an unfinished narrative poem entitled "Fortunatus and his Sons." See Dr Fr. W. V. See also:Schmidt's Fortunatus and See also:seine Sohne, eine Zauber-Tragodie, von Thomas See also:Decker, mit einem Anhang, &c. (See also:Berlin, 1819) ; See also:Joseph Johann See also:Gorres, Die deutschen Volksbucher (1807).

End of Article: FORTUNATUS

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