Note 25 — Chapter II

The story of Apollonius, Prince of Tyre, as it is commonly called, and as we have its incidents in this long poem, is the 153d tale of the “Gesta Romanorum” (s. l., 1488, fol.). It is, however, much older than that collection. (Douce, Illustrations of Shakspeare, London, 1807, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 135; and Swan’s translation of the Gesta, London, 1824, 12mo, Vol. II. pp. 164-495.) Two words in the original Spanish of the passage translated in the text should be explained. The author says,—

Romance here evidently means story, and this is the earliest use of the word in this sense that I know of. Maestría, like our old English Maisterie, means art or skill, as in Chaucer, being the word afterwards corrupted into Mystery.