SEVEN WISE MASTERS is the title of a mediaeval collection of novels, important both from its contents and its widespread popularity. The idea of the work is as fol lows: A certain prince's son, instructed in all kinds of wisdom by seven sages, finds, from an examination of the stars, on his return to his father's court, that he is in danger of losing his life, if he speaks a word within seven days. His stepmother, whose allurements be had repelled, endeavored in revenge to persuade his father to put him to death, and each day related an artfully constructed story, with the view of furthering her wicked purpose, but its effect was daily neutralized by a rival narrative told by each of the sages. At last, on the expiry of the seven days, the prince himself was enabled to disclose the base designs of his stepmother.—The work is undoubtedly of ,oriental origin, yet neither the period when it was composed, nor how far it spread through the east, can be ascertained with sufficient accuracy. According to Masudi, it existed in Arable as a translation from Indian sources before the 10th c., but none of the extant Arabic versions go back so far. Nearest to the original form appears to stand the Eight :sights of Nakhschebi, a Persian adaptation of the Indian Tu-tiname (Brod:hails, Ldp. 1845). It passed into the literature of western Europe in the.11th or
12th e., through the medium of two redactions, a Hebrew and a Greek, the latter by Andreopulos, under the title of Syntipas (see Des Buck von den sieben sceisen .31eistern, translated from the Hebrew and Greek by H. Sengelmann, Halle, 1842; Syntipas being republished by Boissonade, Paris, 1828). The work was disseminated through Chris tendom; sometimes in a complete form; sometimes only particular novels were repro- • duced, under all sorts of names, and with all sorts of modifications; somethlies in verse, sometimes in prose. Latin versions began to appear about the beginning of the 13th c., and Keller has published a French metrical one, from a MS. of 12S4 (Li Romans des Sept Sages, Tab. 1836), and Henry Weber an English metrical one (third vol. of the Metrical Romances, Edin. 1810). There are several German versions, dating from the 14th century. In the 15th c. a popular German chapbook, Von den sleben yzeisen Ateis tern, was frequently reprinted (the first edition is dated Augsb. 1473), and is included by Simrock in his collection of German Volksbiieher.