[Ads-l] Recursively nested story: Antonio, tell us one of your famous stories

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

While researching "shaggy dog story" I encountered a reference to
another type of story. Here is a March 1900 citation for a recursively
nested story featuring Antonio speaking to a band of brigands.

[ref] 1900 March 19, The Buffalo Times, Hazel Machine Is Knocking It:
Source of the Opposition to the Mayor's Harbor Commission, Quote Page
4, Column 1, Buffalo, New York. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
'Twas a dark and fearsome night. Brigands great and brigands small
were gathered around the camp fire. "Come, Antonio," they called to
the terrible chief, "tell us one of your famous stories." And Antonio
arose and said:

"'Twas a dark and fearsome night. Brigands great and brigands small
were gathered around the camp fire. 'Come, Antonio,' they called to
the terrible chief, 'Tell us one of your famous stories.' And Antonio
arose and said:

"'Twas a dark and fearsome," etc., etc., indefinitely.
[End excerpt]


Here is a tangential citation in January 1900 indicating that the tale
was circulating at that time.

[ref] 1900 January 8, Buffalo Evening News, The Lion's Part, Quote
Page 2, Column 3, Buffalo, New York. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
And then, possibly Gen. White, like Antonio, may be seated round the
fire with brigands great and brigands small, and may tell us of one of
his fa-a-a-mous victories.
[End excerpt]

Perhaps a list member can find earlier evidence of this metafictional
device employed by Antonio (or someone else) with aleph zero nested
recurrence (or greater depth).

Edgar Allan Poe published "A Dream Within a Dream" in 1849, but the
dream state apparently was not recursive.

There is a religious eschatology in which the universe is depicted as
a deeply nested dream of an embedded sequence of god-like beings. This
would be a conceptual precursor, but I am not sure when this notion
was propounded.

Garson

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