FORTUNATUS, the hero of a popular European chap-book. He was a native, says the story, of Famagusta in Cyprus, and meeting the goddess of Fortune received a purse which was replenished as often as he drew from it. He wandered through many lands, and at Cairo was the guest of the sultan. Among the treasures which the sultan showed him was a hat which had the power of transporting its wearer to any place he desired. Of this he feloniously possessed himself, and returned to Cyprus, where he led a luxurious life. On his death he left the purse and the hat to his sons Ampedo and Andelosia ; but they, by their recklessness and folly fell on evil days. The moral of the story is obvious: men should desire reason and wisdom before all the treasures of the world. In its full form the history of Fortunatus occupies in Karl Simrock's Die deutschen V olksbucher, vol. iii., upwards of 158 pages. The style and allusions indicate a comparatively modern date for the authorship; but the nucleus of the legend can be traced back to a much earlier period. The earliest known edition of the German text of Fortunatus appeared at Augsburg in 1509. Innumerable versions occur in French, Italian, Dutch and English. The story was dramatized by Hans Sachs in and by Thomas Dekker in 160o. Tieck has used the legend in his Phantasus, and Chamisso in Peter Schlemihl; and Ludwig Uhland left an unfinished narrative poem entitled "Fortunatus and his Sons." See Fr. W. V. Schmidt, Fortunatus and seine Sohne, eine Zauber Tragodie, von Thomas Decker, mit einem Anhang, etc. (18Ig) ; J. J. Gorres, Die deutschen V olksbucher (1807).