Excerpt from Six Short Plays: Mr. Fraser's Friends, in Toscana Tavern, Toscana the Bargain, Figs and Thistles, the Wise Man of Nineveh I have read somewhere that there are but seven original stories in the world, and that all others are derived, directly or indirectly, from these seven. It has always been a matter of interest to me to know the origin Of a drama, or how the idea prompting it arose. I am, there fore, addressing this foreword specially to such readers as share my interest in the matter Of beginnings. The germ Of In Toscana Tavern is found in an Italian story of the eighteenth century, in which a typical Italian desperado and his son are involved. There are various versions Of this Old story in several tongues. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.