The Three Princes of Serendip course, there is a happy ending. The fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip" is based upon the life of Persian King Bahram V, who ruled the Sassanid Empire (420–440). Stories of his rule are told in epic poetry of the region (Firdausi's "Shahnameh" of 1010, Nizami's "Haft Paykar" of 1197, Khusrau's Hasht Bihisht of 1302), parts of which are based upon historical facts with embellishments derived from folklore going back hundreds of years to oral traditions in India and "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights". With the exception of the well-known camel story, English translations are very
Three Witches Thomas Middleton's play "The Witch". David Garrick kept these added scenes in his eighteenth-century version. Horace Walpole created a parody of "Macbeth" in 1742 entitled "The Dear Witches" in response to political problems of his time. The witches in his play are played by three everyday women who manipulate political events in England through marriage and patronage, and manipulate elections to have Macbeth made Treasurer and Earl of Bath. In the final scene, the witches gather around a cauldron and chant "Double, double, Toil and Trouble / parties burn and Nonsense bubble." Into their concoction they throw such things as