Another Note on Dryden's Use of Georges de Scudéry's AlmahideAuthor(s): Jerome W. SchweitzerSource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Apr., 1947), pp. 262-263Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2908844 .

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262 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, APRIL, 1947

trail of blood by which, next day, the man can follow the monster's course; (6) the disappearance of the monster from the haunts of men after that fight.

HLNRY BOSLEY WOOLF Louisiana State University

ANOTHER NOTE ON DRYDEN'S USE OF GEORGES DE SCUDERY'S ALMAIIDE

In an earlier article,1 I pointed out that since Dryden made use of Georges de Scudery's Almahide as the source of Alrnanzor and Almahide, he could have found his inspiration for the episode of Ozmyn and Benzayda in the intercalated story of Abdalla and Fatime, also in Almahide (vi, p. 2581 if.). In that article I did not offer any evidence to refute Mr. Montague Summers' inference that Dryden possibly made use of the episode of Osman and Alibech in Ibrahi .2

It seems apparent that Dryden did not use Ibrcahim for the following reasons:

As cited above, the main details of the episode are to be found in Almahide. Having found the model for a beautiful love story in his principal source, why then should he have found it necessary to seek out another version in a second work?

In Ibrahim., the hero's father is moved to consent to the marriage of his son to Alibech, not as a result of a change of heart but be- cause of the generous dowry offered by the Sultan Soliman. In Dryden's play and in Almahide an obdurate heart is finally moved to compassion by the spirit of self-sacrifice evinced by the two lovers in a combat of generosity, and especially by the vertu of the heroine. Note the similarity between the following lines:

Abenamar. Yes, I am vanquish'd! the fierce conflict's past; And shame it self is now o'recome at last.

Benzayda, 'twas your Vertue vanquish'd me: That, could alone surmount my Cruelty.

(Dryden, Part ui, Act Iv, Sc. 1, p. 132)

"Dryden's Use of Scudery's Almahide," MLN, LW (March, 1939), 190-2. 2 Dryden, the Dramatic Works, III, 12, London, the Nonesuch Press, 1932,

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GEORGES DE SCUDfRRY'S ALMAHIDE 263

Ie suis vaincu, o trop genereuse Fille! s'6cria Palsi: vostre vertu est plus forte que ma cruaute: & je ne luy sgaurois plus resister.

(Almtahide, vi, p. 2860, 11. 6 if.)

Elsewhere I find:

Ozmyn. Alas, 'tis counterfeited rage; he [Selin] strives But to divert the danger from our lives. For, I can witness, Sir, and you might see How in your person he consider'd me. He still declin'd the Combate where you were;

(loc. cit., p. 131)

Considerez done Seigneur, lui [Palsi] dit Isa . . . si vous pouvez sans iniustice, vous resoudre a la perte d'vn homme, qui voyant son Pere Captif, a pourtant eu assez de respect, pour ne vous combattre point, parce que vous estes le mien? (loc. cit., p. 2857, 11. 7 ff.)

All action in Dryden's play, such as the clashes between the two fathers, takes place, as in Alrnahide, on land. In Ibrahinm the principals engage in sea battles. In one incident in Alrnahide the two parents attempt to engage in hand-to-hand fighting; the hero stands between them and parries the one and the other's blows. Likewise, in Dryden, Ozmyn shields the body of Benzayda's father with his own while parrying the blows struck against the latter by his own father. (Act ii, p. 104, Summers ed.)

There are several important differences between-Dryden's episode and the original. In the former, it is Selin, Benzayda's father, who is captive of Abenamar, Ozmyn's father, as the action moves to its conclusion. The situation is reversed in Almahide, for it is Isa's father, Palsi, whose heart must be moved to release her lover's father and consent to their marriage. In Almahide the two parents, members of the principal warring factions in Granada, have been unjustly discredited and in revenge have turned to piracy. In Dryden, piracy is deleted. In Almahide the two lovers invoke the aid of intermediaries to win their fathers over, while in Dryden's play they are victors through their own words and acts.

JEROME W. SCIrWEITZER The University of Alabama

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