{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62335/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62335","id":"gutenberg_62335","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62335","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore -- Italy","Legends -- Rome","Poets -- Legends","Virgil -- Legends"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1899 Elliot Stock edition by David Price, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n [Picture: Book cover]\n\n\n\n\n\n THE\n UNPUBLISHED LEGENDS\n OF\n VIRGIL.\n\n\n COLLECTED BY\n CHARLES GODFREY LELAND.\n\n * * * * *\n\n LONDON:\n ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.\n 1899.\n\n TO THE\n SENATOR AND PROFESSOR\n DOMENICO COMPARETTI,\n\n AUTHOR OF\n \u201cVIRGIL IN THE MIDDLE AGES,\u201d\n\n THIS WORK IS DEDICATED\n BY\n CHARLES GODFREY LELAND\n\nFLORENCE, _September_, 1899.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nAll classic scholars are familiar with the Legends of Virgil in the\nMiddle Ages, in which the poet appears as a magician, the last and best\ncollection of these being that which forms the second volume of \u201cVirgilio\nnel Medio Aevo,\u201d by Senator Professor Domenico Comparetti. But having\nconjectured that Dante must have made Virgil familiar to the people, and\nthat many legends or traditions still remained to be collected, I applied\nmyself to this task, with the result that in due time I gathered, or had\ngathered for me, about one hundred tales, of which only three or four had\na plot in common with the old Neapolitan Virgilian stories, and even\nthese contained original and very curious additional lore. One half of\nthese traditions will be found in this work.\n\nAs these were nearly all taken down by a fortune-teller or witch among\nher kind\u2014she being singularly well qualified by years of practice in\nfinding and recording such recondite lore\u2014they very naturally contain\nmuch more that is occult, strange and heathen, than can be found in the\nother tales. Thus, wherever there is opportunity, magical ceremonies are\ndescribed and incantations given; in fact, the story is often only a mere\nframe, as it were, in which the picture or true subject is a lesson in\nsorcery.\n\nBut what is most remarkable and interesting in these traditions, as I\nhave often had occasion to remark, is the fact that they embody a vast\namount of old Etrusco-Roman minor mythology of the kind chronicled by\nOvid, and incidentally touched on or quoted here and there by gossiping\nLatin writers, yet of which no record was ever made. I am sincerely\npersuaded that there was an immense repertory of this fairy, goblin, or\nwitch religion believed in by the Roman people which was never written\ndown, but of which a great deal was preserved by sorcerers, who are\nmostly at the same time story-tellers among themselves, and of this much\nmay be found in this work. And I think no critic, however inclined to\ndoubt he may be, will deny that there is in the old mythologists\ncollateral evidence to prove what I have asserted.\n\nIt may be observed that in these Northern legends, Virgil is in most\ncases spoken of as a poet as well as magician, but that he is before all,\nbenevolent and genial, a great sage invariably doing good, while always\ninspired with humour. Mr. Robinson Ellis has shrewdly observed that, in\nreading the Neapolitan tales of Virgil, \u201cwe are painfully struck with the\nabsence, for the most part, of any imaginative element in them.\u201d I\nwould, however, suggest, that in these which I have gathered with no\nsmall pains\u2014having devoted a great part of my time for several years to\nthe task\u2014there is no want of imagination, romance or humour.\n\nSuch are, in brief, the contents of this book. Sincerely trusting that\nthe press and public may treat it as kindly as they did the\n\u201cEtrusco-Roman Remains,\u201d and \u201cThe Legends of Florence,\u201d I await the\nverdict, which will probably determine whether I shall publish other\nItalian traditions, of which I have still a very large collection.\n\n CHARLES GODFREY LELAND.\n\nFLORENCE,\n 1899.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n PAGE\nPREFACE vii\nINTRODUCTION xi\nTHE STORY OF ROMOLO AND REMOLO 1\nHOW VIRGIL WAS BORN 4\nVIRGIL, THE EMPEROR, AND THE TWO DOVES 11\nVIRGIL AND THE ROCK OF POSILIPPO 14\nVIRGIL, THE EMPEROR, AND THE TRUFFLES 17\nBALS\u00c0BO 21\nVIRGIL, MINUZZOLO, AND THE SIREN 33\nLAVERNA 38\nVIRGIL AND THE UGLY GIRL 43\nVIRGIL AND THE GEM 44\nII. THE FLIES IN ROME 45\nTHE COLUMNS OF VIRGIL AND HIS THREE WONDERFUL STATUES 49\nVIRGIL AND ADELONE 54\nVIRGIL AND DORIONE, OR THE MAGIC VASE 58\nVIRGIL AND THE LADY OF ICE AND WATER 63\nVIRGIL THE MAGICIAN, OR THE FOUR VENUSES 66\nVIRGIL, THE LADY, AND THE CHAIR 71\nVIRGIL AND THE GODDESS OF THE CHASE 75\nVIRGIL AND THE SPIRIT OF MIRTH 80\nNERO AND SENECA 88\nVIRGIL AND CICERO 92\nVIRGIL AND THE GODDESS VESTA 97\nTHE STONE FISH, AND HOW VIRGIL MADE IT EATABLE 103\nVIRGIL AND THE BRONZE HORSE 106\nVIRGIL AND THE BALL-PLAYER 108\nVIRGIL AND THE GENTLEMAN WHO BRAYED 111\nVIRGIL AND THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN LOCKS 113\nVIRGIL AND THE PEASANT OF AREZZO 117\nTHE GIRL AND THE FLAGEOLET 123\nLA BEGHINA DI AREZZO, OR VIRGIL AND THE SORCERESS 128\nTHE SPIRIT OF THE SNOW OF COLLE ALTO 134\nTHE LEGEND OF LA MADONNA DELLA NEVE 139\nTHE MAGICIAN VIRGIL: A LEGEND FROM THE SABINE 140\nVIRGIL, THE WICKED PRINCESS, AND THE IRON MAN 152\nGIOVANNI DI BOLOGNA AND THE GOD MERCURY 155\nTHE DOUBLE-FACED STATUE, OR HOW VIRGIL CONJURED JANUS 161\nVIRGIL AND HIS COURTIERS 163\nVIRGIL AND THE THREE SHEPHERDS 164\nTHE GOLDEN PINE-CONE 167\nVIRGIL\u2019S MAGIC LOOM 172\nVIRGIL AND THE PRIEST 180\nIL GIGLIO DI FIRENZE, OR THE STORY OF VIRGIL AND THE LILIES 182\nII. VIRGIL AND THE BEAUTIFUL LADY OF THE LILY 185\nVIRGIL AND THE DAUGHTER OF THE EMPEROR OF ROME 185\nPROVERB STORIES OF VIRGIL\nI. VIRGIL AND POLLIONE 190\nII. VIRGIL AND MATTEO 194\nVIRGIL AND THE FATHER OF TWELVE CHILDREN 197\nVIRGIL AS A PHYSICIAN, OR VIRGIL AND THE MOUSE 199\nTHE ONION OF CETTARDO 203\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\n \u201cC\u2019est bien raison que je vous compte des histoires de Virgille de\n Romme lequel en son temps, fis moult de merveilles.\u201d\u2014_Les Faictz\n Merveilleux de Virgille_. _XVIth Century_.\n\nThe reader is probably aware that during the Middle Ages, Virgil, who had\nalways retained great fame as a poet, and who was kindly regarded as\nalmost a Christian from a conjectured pious prophecy in his works,\nunderwent the process of being made romantic and converted into a\nmagician. How it all came to pass is admirably set forth by Professor\nDomenico Comparetti in his truly great work on \u201cVirgil in the Middle\nAges.\u201d {0a}\n\nDuring the twelfth century, and for some time after, many learned\npilgrims or tourists from different parts of Europe, while in Italy,\nhearing from the people these tales, which had a great charm in an age\nwhen the marvellous formed the basis of nearly all literature, gave them\nto the world in different forms. And as the fame of Virgil as a poet was\nalmost the first fact learned by those who studied Latin, legends\nrelating to him spread far and wide. The Mantuan bard had been well-nigh\ndeified by the Romans. \u201cSilius Italicus used to celebrate his birthday\nevery year, visiting his tomb as if it were a temple, and as a temple the\nNeapolitan Statius used to regard it.\u201d {0b} And this reverence was\npreserved by the Christians, who even added to it a peculiar lore.\n\n\u201cThese tales,\u201d says Comparetti, \u201coriginated in Naples, and thence spread\ninto European literature, in the first instance, however, outside Italy.\nTheir origin in Italy was entirely the work of the lower classes, and had\nnothing to do with poetry or literature; it was a popular superstition\nfounded on local records connected with Virgil\u2019s long residence in\nNaples, and the celebrity of his tomb in that city.\u201d\n\nThis latter is a shrewd observation, for as the tomb is close by the\nmysterious grotto of Posilippo, which was always supposed to have been\nmade by magic, it was natural that Virgil, who was famed for wisdom,\nshould have been supposed to have wrought the miracle, and it may well be\nthat this was really the very first, or the beginning of all the legends\nin question. These were \u201cconnected with certain localities, statues and\nmonuments in the neighbourhood of Naples itself, to which Virgil was\nsupposed to have given a magic power.\u201d . . . Foreigners who visited\nNaples thus learned these legends, and they passed \u201ceven into Latin works\nof a learned nature.\u201d So it resulted that from the twelfth century\nonward the fame of Virgil as a magician spread all over Europe. Among\nthose who thus made of him a wonder-worker were Conrad von Querfurt,\nGervase of Tilbury, Alexander Neckham, and John of Salisbury.\n\nThat these marvellous tales were localized in Naples, and there first\napplied to Virgil, may be freely admitted, but that they really\noriginated or were first invented there will be claimed by no one\nfamiliar with older or Oriental legends. This has not escaped Senator\nComparetti, who observes that wonders attributed long before to\nApollonius of Tyana and others \u201care practically identical with those\nattributed in Naples to Virgil.\u201d The idea of setting up the image of a\nfly to drive away flies, as Virgil did in one legend, is Babylonian, for\nin Lenormand\u2019s Chald\u00e6an Magic we are told that demons are driven away by\ntheir own images, and Baalzebub, as chief of flies, was probably the\nfirst honoured in this respect.\n\nThat is to say, that little by little and year by year the tales which\nhad been told of other men in earlier times\u2014magicians, sorcerers, and\nwizards wild\u2014were remade and attributed to Virgil. The very first\nspecimen of an ancient Italian _novella_, given by Roscoe, is a Virgilian\nlegend, though the translator makes no mention of it. So in the\n\u201cPentamerone\u201d of Giambattista Basile of Naples we find that most of the\ntales come from the East, and had been of old attributed to Buddha, or\nsome other great man.\n\nThe Neapolitan stories of Virgil were spread far and wide, into almost\nevery language in Europe; but they had their day, and now rank with\nblack-letter literature, being republished still, but for scholars only.\nI had read most of them in my youth, and when the work of Senator\nComparetti appeared, I was struck by the singular fact that there is next\nto nothing in all the vast amount of Virgilian\u00e6 which he quotes, which\nappears to have been gathered of late among the people at large. A great\nnumber of classic and medi\u00e6val names and characters are very familiar to\nthe most ignorant Italians. How came it to pass that nothing is known of\nVirgil, who appears in the \u201cDivina Commedia\u201d as the guide, philosopher,\nand friend of Dante, whose works are read by all.\n\nInspired with this idea, I went to work and soon found that, as I had\nconjectured, there were still extant among the people a really great\nnumber of what may be called post-Virgilian legends, which possibly owe\ntheir existence, or popularity, to the Virgil of Dante. A very few of\nthem are like certain of the old Neapolitan tales, but even these have\nbeen greatly changed in details. As might have been expected of Northern\nItalian narratives, they partake more of the nature of the _novella_ or\nshort romance, than of the nursery-tale or the mere anecdote, as given by\nthe earlier writers. That is to say, there was, after Dante, among the\npeople a kind of renaissance in the fame of Virgil as a magician. It is\nby a curious coincidence that, as Senator Comparetti admits, all the\nearlier legends of the bard were gathered and published by foreigners; so\nhave these of later time been collected by one not to the country born.\n\nOne good reason why I obtained so many of these tales so readily is that\nthey were gathered, like my \u201cFlorentine Legends\u201d and \u201cEtrusco-Roman\nRemains,\u201d chiefly among witches or fortune-tellers, who, above all other\npeople, preserve with very natural interest all that smacks of sorcery.\nIt is the case in every country\u2014among Red Indians, Hindus or\nItalians\u2014that wherever there are families in which witchcraft is handed\ndown from generation to generation there will be traditional tales in\nabundance, and those not of the common fairy-tale kind, but of a\nmysterious, marvellous nature. Now, that the narratives in this book\ncontain\u2014quite apart from any connection with Virgil\u2014in almost every\ninstance some curious traces of very ancient tradition, is perhaps to be\nadmitted by all. Such is the description of Agamene, the Spirit of the\nDiamond, which is one of the oldest of Gr\u00e6co-Roman myths, and P\u00e6onia, who\nkills or revives human beings by means of flowers, wherein she is the\nvery counterpart of Minerva-P\u00e6onia, who taught Esculapius, as mythology\nexpressly states, \u201cthe power of flowers and herbs,\u201d even as the statue\nP\u00e6onia teaches Virgil. These are only two out of scores of instances,\nand they are to me, as they will be to every scholar, by far the most\nvaluable part of my book.\n\nThese incidents, which I in many cases did not know, until after\nsubsequent search in mythologies, were ancient, certainly could not have\nbeen invented by the very ignorant old women from whom they were\ngathered. And this brings me to the important consideration as to\nwhether these stories are really _authentic_. A learned Italian\nprofessor very lately asked me how I could be sure that the common people\ndid not palm off on me their own inventions as legends of Virgil. To\nwhich I replied that I would not be responsible for the antiquity or\norigin of a single tale. For, in the first place, any story of any\nsorcerer is often attributed to Virgil, so that in two or three instances\nwhich I have specially noted \u201ca Virgil\u201d means any magician. And very\noften I have myself told some story as a hint or suggestion, in order to\ngive some idea as to what I wanted, or to revive the memory. But in all\ncases they have come back to me so changed, and with such strange\nfragments of classic lore of the most recondite kind added, that I had no\nscruple in giving them just for what they were worth, leaving it for\ncritics to sift out the ancient from the modern, even as the eagles\ndescribed by Sinbad the Sailor, brought back the legs of mutton with\ndiamonds sticking to them. \u201cYou would not,\u201d I said to the professor of\nclassical lore, \u201creject newly-mined gold because it is encumbered with\ndross; and that there may be much dross in all which I have gathered I am\nsure; but there is gold in it all.\u201d\n\nThe nursery peasant tales collected by Grimm and Crane, and many more,\nrepresent surface-diggings. Those who were first in the field had an\neasy time in gathering what thousands knew. But these finds are becoming\nexhausted, and the collector of the future must mine out of the rock, and\nseek for deeper traditions which have been sedulously concealed or kept\nsecret. There are still many peasants who know this lore, though their\nnumber is very rapidly diminishing, and they are, as a rule, without\nexception, extremely averse to communicating it to anyone whom they know\nor think is not what I may call a fellow-heathen, or in true sympathy\nwith them. I may give in illustration of this an incident which occurred\nrecently as I write: Miss Roma Lister, who had an old Italian\nwitch-nurse, still living in Rome (and who has contributed several of\nthese tales of Virgil), who taught her something of the art \u201cwhich none\nmay name,\u201d while walking with a priest near Calmaldoli, met with a man\nwhom she knew had the reputation of being a _stregone_, or wizard. She\nasked him, _sotto voce_, if he knew the name of _Tinia_, one of the\nEtruscan gods, still remembered by a few, and who is described in the\n\u201cEtrusco-Roman Remains.\u201d He hastily replied in a whisper: \u201cYes, yes; and\nI know the incantation to him also\u2014but don\u2019t let the priest hear us.\u201d At\na subsequent meeting they interchanged confidences freely. Maddalena,\nwhom I have chiefly employed to make collections among witches and\nothers, has often told me how unwilling those who knew any witch-lore are\nto confess it, especially to ladies or gentlemen. One must literally\nconjure it out of them.\n\nThese tales of Virgil were collected in Florence, Volterra,\nRocca-Casciano, Arezzo, Siena, and several places near it, and Rome. I\nhave several not to be published, because they are so trifling, or so\nutterly confused and badly written, or \u201cshocking,\u201d that I could make\nnothing of them. In all, however, which I have collected, with one\nexception\u2014which is manifestly a mere common fairy-tale arbitrarily\nattributed to the subject as a _magus_\u2014Virgil appears as a great and very\nbenevolent man. He aids the poor and suffering, has great sympathy for\nthe weak and lowly, and is ever ready to reprove arrogance and defeat the\nplans of evil sorcerers. But while great and wise and dignified, he is\nvery fond of a joke. Sometimes he boldly punishes and reproves the\nEmperor of Rome\u2014anon he contrives some merry jest to amuse him. The\ngeneral agreement of so many stories drawn from different sources as to\nthis character is indeed remarkable.\n\nAs regards the general \u201cvalue\u201d of these Virgilian tales, and a vast\nnumber of others which I have collected, all of them turning on magic or\noccult motives, it is well worth mentioning that from one to three\ncenturies ago a great number of tales very much resembling them were\npublished by Grosius, Pr\u00e6torius, and others, as at a later date the\n\u201cHistoire des Fant\u00f4mes et des Demons,\u201d Paris, 1819, which work\nunquestionably supplied Washington Irving with the story of the Spectre\nBridegroom, and another tale. {0c} In Italy, the writers of _novella_,\nsuch as Boccaccio, Bandello, Cinthio, and in fact nearly all of them,\nshook off and ridiculed all that was associated with barbarous\nsuperstitions and incantations, and yet in the \u201cMetamorphosi\u201d of Lorenzo\nSelva, Florence, 1591, and here and there in similar obscure works by\nwriters not so painfully afflicted by \u201cculture\u201d and style as the leaders,\nthere are witch and fairy-tales which might have come from very old\nwomen, and would be certainly recognised by them as familiar traditions.\nThat these mysterious stories contained an immense amount of valuable old\nLatin classic lore and minor mythology, or that they were not altogether\nsilly and useless, does not seem to have entered the head of any one\nItalian from Dante downward. Men like Straparola and Basile made, it is\ntrue, collections of merry tales to amuse, but that there was anything in\nthem of solid traditional value never occurred to them. I mention the\nfew and far-between witch-tales which are found in certain writers,\nbecause they are marvellously like those which I have given. Some of\nthese, especially the later, are so elaborate or dramatic, or inspired\nwith what seems to be literary culture, that many who are only familiar\nwith simple fairy-tales might doubt whether the former are really\ntraditional folklore of the people, or even of fortune-tellers. There is\na curious fact, unnoted now, which will be deeply dwelt on in a future\nage when folklore and phases of culture will be far more broadly and\ndeeply or genially considered than they are at present. This is, that\namong the masses in Italy there exists an extraordinary amount of a\ncertain kind of culture allied to gross ignorance, as is amusingly\nillustrated in the commonest language, in which, even among the lowest\npeasants, one hears in every sentence some transformed or melted Latin\nword of three or four syllables, suggesting excess of culture\u2014like unto\nwhich is the universal use of the sonnet and _terzarime_ among the most\nignorant.\n\nIf there are any readers who find it strange that in these legends and\ntraditions there are not only extraordinary but apparently incredible\nremains of culture, fragments of mythology and incantations, which pierce\ninto the most mysterious depths of arch\u00e6ology, they would do well to\nremember that the same apparent paradox struck \u201cVernon Lee,\u201d who treated\nit very fully in her \u201cEuphorion,\u201d in the chapters on the Outdoor Poetry\nof Italy. And among other things she thus remarks:\n\n \u201cNothing can be too artificial or highflown for the Italian\n peasantry; its tales are all of kings, princesses, fairies, knights,\n winged horses, marvellous jewels . . . its songs, almost without\n exception, about love, constancy, moon, stars, flowers. Such things\n have not been degraded by familiarity and parody, as in the town;\n they retain for the country-folk the vague charm, like that of music,\n automatic and independent of thorough comprehension, of belonging to\n a sphere of the marvellous\u2014hence they are repeated with almost\n religious servility.\u201d\n\nBut it must be remembered that with elaborate poetic forms and fancies,\nwhich would be foreign or unintelligible, and certainly unsympathetic,\neven to the fairly well-educated citizen of England or America, there has\nbeen preserved to the very letter, especially in Tuscany, a mass of\nliterature which, while resembling the romances of chivalry which Chaucer\nridiculed, is far ruder; it even surpasses the Norse prose sagas in\nbarbarism. The principal work of this kind is the \u201cReali di Francia,\u201d\nwhich is reprinted every year, and which is at least a thousand years\nold. This work, and several like it, are the greatest literary\ncuriosities or anomalies of the age. In them we are hurried from battle\nto battle, from carnage to carnage, with rude interludes of love and\nmagic, as if even the Middle Age had never existed. The \u201cNibelungen\nLied\u201d and \u201cHeldenbuch\u201d are by comparison to them refined and modern.\n\nCan the reader imagine this as existing in combination with the literary\nrelics of the Renaissance and many strangely-refined forms of speech?\nJust so among the youngest children in Florence one sees gestures and\nglances and hears phrases which would seem to have been peculiar to\ngrown-up people in some bygone stage of society. It is really necessary\nto bear all this in mind when reading the legends which I have collected,\nfor they present the contradictions of barbarism and culture, of old\nLatin traditions and crass ignorance, as I have never seen them even\nimagined by students of culture.\n\nAnd here I would remark, as allied to this subject, that folklore is as\nyet far from being understood in all its fulness. In France, for\nexample, no scholar seems to have got beyond the idea that it consists\nentirely of _traditions populaires_, necessarily ancient. In England we\nhave advanced further, but we are still far from realizing that with\nevery day there springs up and grows among the masses that which in days\nto come will be deeply interesting, as expressing the spirit of the age.\nThis accretive folklore is just as valuable as any\u2014or will be so\u2014and it\nshould be gathered and studied, no matter what its origin may be. So of\nthis book of mine, I express the conviction that it contains many tales\nwhich have, since the days of Dante, and many perhaps very recently, been\nattached to the name of Virgil, yet do not consider them less interesting\nthan those collected in the twelfth century by Gervais of Tilbury,\nNeckham, and others. In fact, these here given actually contain far more\nancient and curious traditional matter, because they have not been\nabridged or filed down by literary medi\u00e6val Latinists into mere plots or\nanecdotes as contracted as the \u201cvariants\u201d of a modern folklorist. The\nolder writers, and many of the modern, regarded as ugly excrescence all\nthat did not belong, firstly, to scholarship or \u201cstyle\u201d; secondly, to the\nfact or subject in hand. Thus, Lorenzo Selva gives a witch story with\nsix incantations, which are far more interesting than all the washy\npoetry in his book, but is so ashamed of having done so, that he states\nin a marginal note that he has only preserved them to give an idea of\n\u201cthe silliness of all such iniquitous trash\u201d\u2014the \u201ciniquitous trash\u201d in\nquestion being evidently of Etrusco-Roman origin, to judge from form and\nsimilarity to other ancient spells. In these later Virgilian tales there\nhas been no scruple, either as regards literary elegance or piety, to\nprevent the chronicler from giving them just as they were told, the\n\u201csinful and silly\u201d incantations, when they occurred, being faithfully\nretained, with all that can give an idea of the true spirit of the whole.\nThe mean fear of appearing to be vulgar, or credulous, or not literally\n\u201cgenteel,\u201d has caused thousands of such writers to suppress traditions\nworth far more than all they ever penned.\n\nI write this in the belief that all my critics will admit that in these,\nas in my \u201cFlorentine Legends\u201d and \u201cEtrusco-Roman Remains,\u201d I have really\nrecovered and recorded a great deal of valuable ancient tradition. Also\nthat what was preserved to us of ancient Etruscan or Gr\u00e6co-Latin lore\nregarding the minor gods and sylvan deities, goblins, etc., by classic\nwriters is very trifling indeed compared to the _immense_ quantity which\nexisted, and that a great deal of it may still be found among the\npeasantry, especially among wizards and witches, is unquestionable. That\nI have secured some of this in my books is, I trust, true; future critics\nwill winnow it all out, and separate the wheat from the chaff.\n\nI have entitled this work \u201cThe Unpublished Legends of Virgil,\u201d which may\nbe called a contradiction in terms, since it is now given in type. But\nit is the only succinct title of which I can think which expresses its\nreal nature, and separates it from the earlier collections of such tales,\nthe latest of which was issued by Mr. D. Nutt.\n\nAnd, finally, I would remark with some hesitation in advancing so strange\nan idea, that in all the legends which I have gathered, I find\npersistence in a very rude and earlier faith, which the Gr\u00e6co-Roman\nreligion and Christianity itself, instead of destroying, seem to have\nsimply strengthened. Indeed, there are remote villages in Italy in which\nCatholicism in sober truth has come down to sorcery, or gradually\nconformed to it, not only in form, but in spirit; from which I conclude\nthat, till science _pur et simple_ shall be all-prevalent, the oldest and\nlowest cults will exist among those whose minds are adapted to them. And\nas Edward Clodd, the President of the Folklore Society, has clearly\nshown, {0d} there are thousands, even among the highly-educated in\nEurope, who really belong to these old believers.\n\nThere will come a day, and that not very far off, when the last traces of\nthese strange semi-spiritual-romantic or classic traditions will have\nvanished from the _people_, and then what has been recorded will be\nsought for and studied with keenest interest, and conclusions drawn from\nit of which we have no conception. To some of us they are even now only\nas\n\n \u201cDeparting sunbeams, loth to stop,\n Still smiling on the mountain-top.\u201d\n\nTo the vast majority even of the somewhat educated world, collecting such\nlore is like sending frigates to watch eclipses and North Pole\nexplorations, and the digging up old skulls in Neanderthals\u2014that is, a\nmere fond waste of money and study to no really useful purpose. There is\na law of evolution which is so strictly and persistently carried out,\nthat it would seem as if the mocking devil, who, according to the\nBuddhists, is the real head of the Universe, had it in his mind to jeer\nmankind thereby\u2014and it is that the work of man in the past shall perish\nrapidly, and those who seek _vestigia rerum_ shall have as little\nmaterial as possible, even as dreams flit. So the strife goes ever on,\nchiefly aided by the ignorant, who \u201ctake no interest\u201d in the past; and so\nit will be for some time to come. I have often observed that in Italy,\nas in all countries, children and peasants take pleasure in destroying\nold vases and the like, even when they could sell them at a profit; and\nthere is something of the same spirit among all people regarding things\nwhich they do not understand. Blessed are they who do something in their\ngeneration to teach to the many the true value of all which conduces to\nculture or science! Blessed be they who save up anything for the future,\n\u201cand they shall be blest\u201d by wiser men to come! The primeval savages who\nheaped up vast _koken middens_, or thousands of tons of oyster-shells and\nbones, did not know that they were writing history; but they did it.\nPerhaps the wisest of us will be as savages to those who are to come, as\nthey in turn will be to later men.\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF ROMOLO AND REMOLO.\n\n\n \u201cIn quei buon tempi, ne i primi principii del Mondo, dicon li Poeti\n che gli uomini e le Bestie facevano tutti una medesima vita. . . . E\n che sia il vero ch\u2019 eglino s\u2019 impastassino del feroce, como loro, e\n s\u2019 incorporassino, leggete di Romolo e Remulo i quali si pascevon di\n latte di lupa. Ecco gi\u00e0 che divennero in opera lupi ingordissimi, e\n voraci.\u201d\u2014_La Zucca del Doni Fiorentino_, 1607.\n\nThere was of old a King who had a beautiful wife, and also two children,\ntwins, who were exactly alike. This King was named Romo and his wife\nRoma, and the children were called Romolo and Remolo.\n\nNow, it came to pass that the Queen and her twins, both as yet sucklings\n(_ancora poppanti_), were besieged in a castle when the King was far\naway. The enemy had sworn to kill the whole royal family and to\nextirpate the kingly race.\n\nNow, when the Queen was in sore distress, seeing death close upon her,\nthere came to her a wizard, who said:\n\n\u201cThere is only one way by which you can save your life and that of your\nbabes. I can change you all three into _lupi manari_, or were-wolves,\nand thus in the form of wolves you may escape.\u201d\n\nThen the Queen had the power to become a she-wolf or a human being at her\nwill, and it was the same with the children. So they fled away, and\nlived in the woods for seven years; and the boys grew up like young\ngiants, as strong as six common children. And the Queen became more\nbeautiful than ever, for she lived under a spell.\n\nOne day the King was hunting in the forest, when he found himself alone,\nand surrounded by such a flock of raging wolves that his life was in\ngreat danger, when all at once there came a very beautiful woman, who\nseemed to have great power over the beasts, as if she were their queen,\nfor they obeyed her and retreated. Then the King recognised in her his\nlost wife. So they returned with the twins to their castle, but the King\ndid not know that his wife and children were themselves were-wolves.\n\nOne day the same enemy who had sought to kill the Queen seven years\nbefore, of which the King knew nothing, came to the castle pretending to\nbe a friend, and was kindly treated. But when the Queen and her two sons\nbeheld him, they flew at him as if they were mad, and tore him to pieces\nbefore all the Court, and began to devour him like raging wolves. Yet\nstill the King did not know the whole truth.\n\nThen a brother of the King who was thus slain gathered an army and\nbesieged Romo, who found himself in great danger. One evening he said:\n\n \u201cThere is danger within the walls,\n The sound of enemies without,\n The sun set in blood,\n To-morrow it may rise to death.\n Would that I had more warriors to fight!\n Two hundred fierce and bold;\n Two hundred would save us all,\n Three hundred would give us full victory.\u201d\n\nThe Queen said nothing, but that night she stole secretly out of the\ncastle with her sons, and when alone they began to howl, and soon all the\nwere-wolves in the country assembled. So the Queen returned with three\nhundred men, so fierce and wild that they looked like devils.\n\nThey were strange in every way, and talked or howled among themselves in\na horrible language, which, however, the Queen and her sons seemed to\nunderstand. And in the first battle Romo gained a great victory. And it\nwas observed that the three hundred men ate the dead. However, the King\nwas well pleased to conquer.\n\nWhen Romolo and Remolo were grown up to be men they learned that in a\nland not far away were two Princesses named Sabina and Sabinella, who\nwere the two most beautiful, and also the strongest, maidens in the\nworld. And it was also made known that he who would win either must come\nand conquer her in fight and carry her away by main strength.\n\nSo Romolo and Remolo went to their city, and on an appointed day the two\nPrincesses appeared in the public place, ready for the combat. But\nRomolo advanced with his brother riding on his shoulders, pick-back,\n_sulle spalle_, as boys do, and, catching up Sabina with one hand and\nSabinella with the other, he ran away like the wind\u2014so rapidly that he\nsoon distanced all pursuers. And when Romolo was tired, Remolo took his\nplace, carrying the sisters and bearing his brother. And Romolo made a\nsong on it:\n\n \u201cUp and down the mountain,\n Over the fields and through the rivulets,\n Over gray rocks and green grass,\n I saw a strange beast run;\n It had three bodies and three heads,\n Six arms and six legs,\n Yet did it never run on more than two.\n Read the riddle rightly, if you can.\u201d\n\nThe two brothers wished to build a new and great city of their own. They\nwent to a certain goddess, who told them:\n\n \u201cThe city which ye hope to build will be\n The greatest ever seen in Italy;\n Above all others it will tower sublime,\n And rule the world in a far future time;\n But know that at the first, ere it can rise,\n It calls for blood and human sacrifice.\n I know not where the choice or fate doth lie,\n But of ye two the one must surely die.\u201d\n\nNow, men were greatly wanting for this city, because in those days there\nwere but few in the land. Then the brothers assembled many wolves,\nbears, foxes, and all wild beasts, and by their power changed them into\nmen. And they did it thus: A sorcerer took an ox and enchanted it, and\nslew it, and sang over it a magic song, and left it in an enchanted\nplace. Then the wolves and other wild beasts came by night to the great\nstone of the sacrifice, by a running stream. A god beheld it. They ate\nthe meat\u2014they became men. These were the first Romans.\n\nLast of all came a serpent with a gold crown\u2014the Queen of the Serpents.\nShe ate of the meat and became the most beautiful woman in the world.\nShe was a great magician. Thus she became the goddess of the city, and\ndwelt in the tower of the temple. And her name was Venus. She was like\na star.\n\nThen Romolo and Remolo wished to know which of them was to die to save\nthe city. And both desired it. Then they resolved to take an immense\nstone and cast it one at the other. So Remolo picked it up and cast it\nat his brother, and all who beheld it thought he must be slain. But\nRomolo caught it in his hands and threw it back; yet Remolo caught it\neasily. But in that instant his foot slipped, and he fell backward over\nthe Tarpeian Rock, and so he perished. This is an old story.\n\nAnd thus it was that Rome was built.\n\n[Now, it was in this city, or near by, that in after-time Virgil was\nborn, who in his day did such wonders. But the first wonder of all was\nthe manner of his birth. For Virgil was the glory of Rome, and the\ngreatest poet and sorcerer ever known therein.]\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt did not occur to me to include this tale among the Virgilian legends,\nbut finding that the compiler of \u201cVirgilius the Sorcerer\u201d (1893) has\nbegun with a legend of Romulus and Remus, I have done the same, having\none by me. As the giant said to the storytelling ram, \u201cThere is nothing\nlike beginning at the commencement.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nHOW VIRGIL WAS BORN.\n\n\n \u201cAnd truly this _aurum potabile_, or drinkable gold, is a marvellous\n thing, for it worketh wonders to sustain human life, removing all\n disorders, and \u2019tis said that it will revive the dead.\u201d\u2014PHIL.\n ULSTADT: _C\u00e6lum Philosophorum_, _seu Liber de Secretis_.\n\n \u201cAnd there be magic mirrors in which we may see the forms of our\n enemies, and the like, battalions for battle, and sieges, and all\n such things.\u201d\u2014PETER GOLDSCHMID: _The Witch and Wizard\u2019s Advocate\n overthrown_ (1705).\n\nThere was once in an old temple in Rome a great man, a very learned\nSignore. His name was Virgilio, or Virgil. He was a magician, but very\ngood in all things to all men; he had a kind heart, and was ever a friend\nto the poor.\n\nVirgil was as brave and fearless as he was good. And he was a famous\npoet\u2014his songs were sung all over Italy. Some say that he was the son of\na fairy (_fata_), and that his father was a King of the magicians; others\ndeclared that his mother was the most beautiful woman in the whole world,\nand that her name was _Elena_ (Helen), and his father was a spirit. And\nhow it came about was thus:\n\nWhen all the great lords and princes were in love with the beautiful\nElena, she replied that she would marry no one, having a great dread of\nbearing children. She would not become a mother. And to avoid further\nwooing and pursuing she shut herself up in a tower, and believed herself\nto be in safety, because it was far without the walls of Rome. And the\ndoor to it was walled up, so that no one could enter it. But the god\nJove (_Giove_) entered; he did so by changing himself into many small\npieces of gilded paper (gold-leaf), which came down into the tower like a\nshower.\n\nThe beautiful Helen held in her hand a cup of wine, and many of the bits\nof gold-leaf fell into it.\n\n\u201cHow pretty it looks!\u201d said Helen. \u201cIt would be a pity to throw it away.\nThe gold does not change the wine. If I drink the gold I shall enjoy\ngood health and ever preserve my beauty.\u201d\n\nBut hardly had Helen drunk the wine, before she felt a strange thrill in\nall her body, a marvellous rapture, a change of her whole being, followed\nby complete exhaustion. And in time she found herself with child, and\ncursed the moment when she drank the wine. And to her in this way was\nborn Virgil, who had in his forehead a most beautiful star of gold.\nThree fairies aided at his birth; the Queen of the Fairies cradled him in\na cradle made of roses. She made a fire of twigs of laurel; it crackled\nloudly. To the crackling of twigs of laurel he was born. His mother\nfelt no pain. The three each gave him a blessing; the wind as it blew\ninto the window wished him good fortune; the light of the stars, and the\nlamp and the fire, who are all spirits, gave him glory and song. He was\nborn fair and strong and beautiful; all who saw him wondered.\n\nThen it happened, when Virgil was fourteen years old, that one day in\nsummer he went to an old solitary temple, all ruined and deserted, and\ntherein he laid down to sleep. But ere he had closed his eyes he heard a\nsound as of a voice lamenting, and it said:\n\n \u201cAlas! I am a prisoner!\n Will no one set me free?\n If any man can do it,\n Full happy shall he be.\u201d\n\nThen Virgil said:\n\n\u201cTell me who thou art and where thou art.\u201d\n\nAnd the voice answered:\n\n \u201cI am a spirit,\n Imprisoned in a vase\n Under the stone\n Which is beneath thy head.\u201d\n\nThen Virgil lifted the stone and found a vase, which was closed; and he\nopened it, and there came forth a beautiful spirit, who told him that\nthere was also in the vase a book of magic and necromancy (_magia e\ngramanzia_).\n\n \u201cTherein wilt thou find all secrets\n Which thou desirest to obtain,\n To make what thou wilt into gold,\n To make the dead speak,\n To make them come before thee,\n To go invisibly where thou wilt,\n To become a great poet.\n Thou wilt learn the lost secret\n How to become great and beautiful;\n Thou wilt rediscover the mystery\n Of predicting what is to take place;\n Yea, to win fortune in every game.\u201d\n\nBy the vase was a magic wand, the most powerful ever known. And from\nthat day Virgil, who had been as small as a dwarf, became a tall,\nstately, very handsome man.\n\nThis was his first great work: he made a mirror wherein one could see all\nthat was going on in any country in the world, in any city, as well into\nany house as anywhere. Keeping the mirror hidden (beneath his cloak), he\nwent to the Emperor. And because he was a very handsome man, well\ndressed, and also by the aid of the mirror, he was permitted to go into\nthe hall where the Emperor sat. And, conversing with him, the Emperor\nwas so pleased that he spoke more familiarly and confidentially than he\nwas wont to do with his best friends; at which the courtiers who were\npresent were angry with jealousy.\n\nTurning to Virgil, the Emperor said:\n\n\u201cI would give a thousand gold crowns to know just what the Turks are\ndoing now, and if they mean to make war on me.\u201d\n\nVirgil replied:\n\n\u201cIf your Highness will go into another room, I can show in secret what\nthe Turks are now doing.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut how you can make me see what the Turks are doing is more than I can\nunderstand,\u201d replied the Emperor. \u201cHowever, let us go, if it be only to\nsee what fancy thou hast in thy head.\u201d\n\nThen the Emperor rose, and giving his arm to Virgil, went to a room\napart, where the magician showed and explained to him (_per filo e per\nsegna_) all that the Turks were about. And the Emperor was amazed at\nseeing clearly what Virgil had promised to show. Then he gave to Virgil\nthe thousand crowns with his own hand, and was ever from that day his\nfriend. And so Virgil rose in the world.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn this tale there is as quaint and na\u00efve a mixture of traditions and\nideas as one could desire. The fair Helen, in her tower of Troy, becomes\nDanae visited by Jupiter, and as the narrator had certainly seen Dantzic\nGolden Water, or some other cordial with gold-leaf in it, the story of\nthe shower is changed into aureated wine. It is evident that the one who\nrecast the legend endeavoured to make this incident intelligible. All\nthe rest is medi\u00e6val. \u201cGold,\u201d says Helen, \u201cwill preserve my beauty.\u201d\nThus the _aurum potabile_ of the alchemists was supposed to do the same\nas Paracelsus declared.\n\nWe all recognise a great idea when put into elaborate form by a skilled\nartist, but to perceive it as a diamond in the rough and recognise its\nvalue is apparently given to few. It is true that those few may\nthemselves be neither poets nor geniuses\u2014just as the Hottentot who can\nfind or discern diamonds may be no lapidary or jeweller. What I would\nsay is, that such ideas or motives abound in this Italian witch-lore to a\nstrange extent.\n\nThus, the making Virgil a son of Jupiter by a Helen-Danae is a flight of\nmythologic invention, far surpassing in boldness anything given in the\nNeapolitan legends of the poet. Thomas Carlyle and Vernon Lee have\nexpressed with great skill great admiration of the idea that Faust begat\nwith the fair Helen the Renaissance. It was indeed a magnificent\nconception, but in very truth this fathering of Virgil, the grand type of\npoetry and magic, and of all earthly wisdom, by Jupiter on Helen-Danae is\nfar superior to it in every way. For Virgil to the legend-maker\nrepresented the Gothic or Middle Ages in all their beauty and exuberance,\ntheir varied learning and splendid adventure, far more perfectly than did\nthe mere vulgar juggler and thaumaturgist Faust, as the latter appears in\nevery legend until Goethe transfigured him. And, strangely enough, the\nVirgilian cyclus, as I have given it, is as much of the Renaissance as it\nis classic or medi\u00e6val. The Medicis are in it to the life. In very\ntruth it was Virgil, and not Faust, who was the typical magician _par\n\u00e9minence_ after Apollonius, some of whose legends he, in fact, inherited.\nAnd Virgil has come to us with a traditional character as marked and\npeculiar as any in Shakespeare\u2014which Faust did not. He has passed\nthrough the ages not only as a magus and poet, but as a personality, and\na very remarkable one.\n\nThere is another very curious, and, indeed, great idea lurking in these\nwitch-Virgilian legends, especially set forth in this of the birth and\ncontinued in all. It is that there is in them a cryptic, latent\nheathenism, a sincere, lingering love of the old gods, and especially of\nthe _dii minores_, of _fate_ or fays, and fauns and fairies, of spirits\nof the air and of rivers and fountains, an adoration of Diana as the\nmoon-queen of the witches, and a far greater familiarity with\nincantations than prayers, or more love of sorceries than sacraments.\nWhenever it can be done, even as a post-scriptum, we have a conjuration\nor spell, as if the tale had awakened in the mind of the narrator a\nfeeling of piety towards \u201cthe old religion.\u201d The romances of Mercury,\nand Janus, and Vesta, and Apollo, and Diana all inspire the narrator to\npray to them in all sincerity, just as a Catholic, after telling a legend\nof a saint, naturally repeats a prayer to him or a novena. It is the\nlast remains of classic faith.\n\nOr we may say, as things fell out, that the\nGoethean-Helen-Faust-Renaissance poem represents things as they were, or\nas they came to pass, as if it were the acme, while the Virgilian\ntradition which I here impart indicates things as they might have\nhappened, had the stream of evolution been allowed to run on in its\nnatural course, just as Julian the apostate (or rather apostle of the\ngospel of letting things be) held that progress or culture and science\nmight have advanced just as surely and rapidly on the old heathen lines\nas any other. According to Heine, this would have saved us all an\nimmense amount of trouble in our school-studies, in learning Latin and\nmythology, had we kept on as we were.\n\nI mean by this that these traditions of Virgil indicate, as no other book\ndoes, the condition of a na\u00efvely heathen mind, \u201csuckled in a creed\nout-worn,\u201d believing in the classic mythology half turned to fairies,\nmuch more sincerely, I fear, than many of my readers do in the Bible, and\nfrom this we may gather very curious reflection as to whether men may not\nhave ideas of culture, honesty, and mercy in common, whatever their\nreligion may be.\n\nThe marvels of the birth of Virgil of old, as told by Donatus, probably\nafter the lost work of Suetonius, are that his mother Maia dreamed, _se\nenixam laureum ramum_, that she gave birth to a branch of laurel; that he\ndid not cry when born, and that the pine-tree planted according to\nancient custom on that occasion attained in a very short time to a great\nheight, which thing often happens when plants grow near hot springs, as\nis the case on the Margariten Island, by Budapesth, where everything\nattains to full-size in one-third of the usual time. The custom of\nplanting a pine-tree on the birth of a child, in the belief that its\ncondition will always indicate its subject\u2019s health and prosperity, is\nstill common among the Passamaquoddy, and other Red Indians in America, I\nhaving had such a tree pointed out to me by an old grandfather.\n\nIn the Aryan or Hindu mythology Buddha, who subsequently becomes a great\n_magus_ and healer of all ills, like Christ, \u201cwas born of the mother-tree\nMaya,\u201d according to J. F. Hewitt (\u201cL\u2019Histoire et les Migrations de la\nCroix et du Su-astika,\u201d Bruxelles, 1898). He was the son of Kapila\nVastu, who was born holding in his hands a medicament, whence he became\n\u201cthe Child of Medicine,\u201d or of healing. Buddha appears to be confused\nwith his father.\n\nNow Virgil is clearly stated to be born of Maya or Maia, who is a\nmythical tree; his life is involved in that of a mysterious tree, and in\nmore than one legend he is unquestionably identical with Esculapius, the\ngod of medicine.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL, THE EMPEROR, AND THE TWO DOVES.\n\n\n \u201cQualis spelunca subito commota Columba,\n Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi,\n Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis\n Dat tecto ingentem; mox \u00e6re lapsa quieto\n Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas.\u201d\n\n VIRGILIUS: _Aen._, V. 213.\n\nThis is another story, telling how Virgil first met the Emperor.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt happened on a time that the Emperor of Rome invited many of his\nfriends to a hunt, and on the appointed day all assembled with fine\nhorses and hounds, gay attendants, and sounding horns\u2014_tutti allegri e\ncontenti_, \u201call as gay as larks.\u201d\n\nAnd when they came to the place, they left their horses and went into the\nforest, where it befell, as usual, that some got game, while others\nreturned lame; but on the whole they came to camp with full bags and many\nbrags of their adventures and prowess, and supped merrily.\n\n\u201cIt is ever so,\u201d said the Emperor to a courtier, \u201cone stumbles, and\nanother grumbles; then the next minute something joyful comes, and he\nsmiles.\n\n \u201c\u2018Thus it is true in every land\n Good luck and bad go hand in hand.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen men speak in that tone,\u201d replied the courtier, \u201cthey often\nprophesy. Now, there is near by an ancient grotto, long forgot by men,\nwherein if you will sleep you may have significant dreams, even as people\nhad in the olden time.\u201d\n\nSo when night came on some of the courtiers went to a contadino house to\nlodge, while others camped out _alla stella_, or in the _albergo al\nfresco_, while the Emperor was guided by the courtier to an old ruin,\nwhere in a solid rock there was a door of stone, which Virgil opened by a\nspell. (_Sic_ in MS.)\n\nThe Emperor was then led through a long passage into a cave, which was\ndry and comfortable enough, and where the attendants made a bed, whereon\nHis Highness lay down, and, being very weary, was soon asleep.\n\nBut he had not slumbered long ere, as it seemed to him, he was awakened\nby the loud barking of a dog, and saw before him to his amazement a\nmarvellously beautiful lady clad in white, with a resplendent star\n(crescent) on her forehead. In her right hand she bore a white dove, and\nin her left another, which was black.\n\nWhen the lady, or goddess, saw that the Emperor was awake, she let both\nthe doves fly. The white one, after circling several times round his\nhead, alighted on his shoulder. The black one also flew about him, and\nthen winged its course far away.\n\nThen the lady disappeared, and the white dove followed her, and sat on\nher shoulder as she fled.\n\nThe Emperor was so much amazed, or deeply moved, by this strange sight\nthat he slept no more, but remained all night meditating on it, nor did\nhe on the morrow give any heed to the chase, but ever reflected on the\nlady and her doves.\n\nThe courtier asked him what had occurred. And the Emperor replied:\n\n\u201cI have had a wonderful vision, and I cannot tell the meaning thereof.\u201d\n\nThe gentleman replied:\n\n\u201cThere is in Rome a young man, a poet and sage, of whom I have heard\nstrange things, and I believe that he excels in unfolding signs and\nmysteries.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is well,\u201d replied the Emperor. So when they returned to Rome he sent\nfor the magician, who came, yet he knew beforehand why he was summoned to\nCourt. And it is said that this was the first time when the Emperor knew\nVirgil. {12}\n\nNow, Virgil was as yet a young man. And when the Emperor set forth what\nhe had beheld, he replied:\n\n\u201cIt is a marvellously favourable sign for you, oh my Emperor, for in that\nlady you have seen your star. There is a planet allotted to every man,\nand thine is of the greatest. Thou hast one\u2014call to her, invoke her ever\nwhen in need of help, and she will never abandon thee. Thou hast seen\nthy star. Her greeting to thee (_saluto_) means that a year hence a\ndanger will threaten thee. The black dove signifies that one year hence\nthou wilt have an enemy who will make war on thee. When the dove fled\nafar, it was not the dove but the enemy, who will be put to flight. And\nthe white dove was not a dove, but your victory announced to you in that\nform, and your star has announced it because in one year you will have,\nas the proverb says, \u2018the enemy at your heels.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd all this came to pass as he had foretold.\n\nThen the poet and magician became his friend, and from that time the\nEmperor never moved a leaf (_i.e._ did nothing) without taking the advice\nof Virgil.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe goddess, or planet, described in this tale is very evidently Diana,\nappropriately introduced as the deity of the chase, but more\nsignificantly as the queen of the witches, and mistress of mysteries and\ndivination. In both forms the dog has a peculiar adaptation, because a\nblack dog was the common attendant of a sorcerer, as exampled by that of\nHenry C. Agrippa.\n\nThe dove is so widely spread in this world, and is everywhere so\nnaturally recognised as a pretty, innocent creature, that it is no wonder\nthat very different and distant races should have formed much the same\nideas and traditions regarding it. It is a curious anomaly that while\ndoves, especially in Roman Catholic symbolism, are the special symbols of\nlove and peace, there are in reality no animals or birds which fight and\npeck so assiduously among themselves, as I have verified by much\nobservation. However, herein the pious mythologists \u201cbuilded better than\nthey knew,\u201d for the _odium theologicum_, either with heretics or among\nrivals in the Church, has been the cause of more quarrelling than any\nother in the world\u2014woman perhaps excepted.\n\nIn the Egyptian symbolism, a widow who, out of love for her husband, will\nnot wed again was typified by a black dove. {13} The dove who brought\nthe olive-leaf to Noah was generally recognised as symbolizing the new\nbirth of the world, or its regeneration after a divine bath or\nlustration, and the same meaning is attached to its appearance at the\nbaptism of Christ. A German writer named Wernsdorf has written two books\non the dove as a symbol, viz., \u201cDe simulacro columb\u00e6 in locis sacris\nantiquitas recepto,\u201d Viterbo, 1773; and \u201cDe Columba auricul\u00e6 Gregorii\nadh\u00e6rente,\u201d Witteberg, 1780.\n\nAs Diana always bears the crescent, here confounded or identified very\nnaturally with a star\u2014both being heavenly bodies\u2014the representing her as\nthe peculiar planet of the Emperor is very ingenious. In seeing her he\nbeholds his star, and, in the mute language of emblems, hears her voice.\nTruly there is unto all of us a star, but it is within and not without,\nand its name is the Will, which, when revealed or understood, can work\nmiracles.\n\n\u201cSo mote it be!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGILIO AND THE ROCK.\n\n\nOne night, when he was young, Virgil was in Naples; he went to visit a\nvery beautiful woman. And when he left her at midnight he found the\nhouse surrounded by _bravi_ or assassins, who had been placed there to\nkill him by a signore who was his rival.\n\nThen the magician ran for his life, followed by all the crew, till he\ncame to a steep rock like a high wall. And here he paused, and cried\naloud during the minute which he had gained, this incantation:\n\n \u201cApri spirito della rupe,\n Apri il tuo cuore a me.\n Spirito gentile, abbi,\n Abbi piet\u00e0 di me,\n Se tu vuoi che Iddio\n Abbia piet\u00e0 di te.\u201d\n\n \u201cMighty spirit of the mountain,\n Ope thy rocky heart to me.\n Gentle sprite, I pray thee\n Have mercy upon me,\n As thou truly hopest\n That God may pity thee.\u201d\n\nThen the rock opened, and Virgil fled into it and was saved.\n\nThose who sought his life followed. And Virgil went forth, but while\nthey were in the passage it closed at both ends, and they all perished.\nSo was Virgil saved.\n\nIt came to pass in time that Virgil, seeing it would be of great use,\nopened the grotto, and it is there to this day.\n\nThere was no place where Virgil did not leave some great work, whence it\ncame that his name is known to all the world.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThere is a curious reflection, and one of great value to folk-lore, to be\ndrawn from this, and in fact from all of these stories. It is\nbelieved\u2014actually believed, and not merely assumed to make a tale\u2014that\nthe conjurations given in them have the effect attributed to them when\nthey are uttered by any wizard or witch or person who is prepared by\nmagic or faith. Therefore such tales as told by witches are only a\nframe, as it were, wherein a lesson-picture is set. This induces a\ndeeper, hence a more advanced, kind of reflection or moral than is\nconveyed by common, popular fairy-tales. The one condition naturally\nleads to another. There is very little trace of it in the \u201cM\u00e4hrchen\u201d of\nGrimm, Crane, Pitr\u00e9, or Bernoni. In the _novelle_ of Boccacio, Sachetti,\nBandello and others, of which literally thousands were produced during\nand after the Renaissance, there is very often a commonplace kind of\nmoral, such as follows all fables, but it is not of the same kind as that\nwhich is involved in witch-stories. Even in this of Virgil the\ninvocation to the Spirit of the Rock, adjuring it to be merciful as it\nhopes for mercy from God, is beyond what is generally found in common\ntraditions.\n\nAll of these conjurations, to have due effect, must be intoned in a\ncertain manner, which is so peculiar that anyone who is familiar with it\ncan recognise at a distance, where the words are not to be distinguished,\nby the mere sound of the voice, whether an incantation is being sung.\nHence the greatest care and secresy is observed when teaching or chanting\nthem.\n\nAmong the Red Indians of North America this is carried so far that, as\none who took lessons from an Oneida sorcerer informs us, it required\nstudy every day for seven years to learn how to correctly intone one\nspell of twelve lines. The same is told of the old Etruscan-Latin spells\nin the \u201c_Dizionario Myth. Storico_.\u201d\n\nThis legend is specially interesting because the tomb of Virgil is close\nby the grotto of Posillippo, and it is conjectured that as it was,\naccording to tradition, made by magic, Virgil probably made it.\nTherefore it may have been the first of these tales. Why the grotto was\nspecially regarded as mysterious is almost apparent to all who have\nstudied cave and stone worship. In early times, in the mysteries, the\ngoing through a hole or passage, especially in a rock, signified the new\nbirth, or illumination, or initiation, hence the cult of holy or holed\nstones, great or small, found all over the world. Such writers as Faber\nand Bryant have, it is true, somewhat overdone guess-work symbolism, or\nfanciful interpretation, but that the passing through the dark tunnel and\ncoming to light played a part in old rites is unquestionable, and that\nthis respect for the subject extended to all perforated stones and even\nbeads.\n\nIncantations or spells are of two kinds\u2014the traditional, and those which\na powerful or gifted magician or witch improvises. This of Virgil is of\nthe latter kind.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL, THE EMPEROR, AND THE TRUFFLES.\n\n\n \u201cQuo ducit gula?\u201d\u2014_Latin Saying_.\n\n \u201cI am passionately fond of truffles, though I never tasted\n them.\u201d\u2014XAVIER DE MONTEPIN.\n\nOne day Virgil was at table with the Emperor, and the latter complained\nthat his cook was a dolt, because he could never find anything new to\ntempt his appetite, and that he had to eat the same kind of dishes over\nand over again.\n\n\u201cWhat I would like,\u201d he said, \u201cwould be some kind of new taste or\nflavour. There must be many a one as yet unknown to the kitchen.\u201d\n\nThen Virgil, reflecting, said:\n\n\u201cI will see to-morrow if I cannot find something of the kind which will\nplease your Highness.\u201d Whereupon all who were present expressed delight,\nfor no one doubted that he could do whatever he attempted.\n\nSo the next day Virgil went into the forests, where there were many pigs,\nand considered attentively what the roots might be which they dug up with\nsuch great care; for he had remarked that whatever men eat pigs also\nlike, above all other animals. And having obtained some of the roots,\nwhich were like dark-brown or black lumps, he took them to the Emperor\u2019s\ncook, and said:\n\n\u201cWash these well and cut them fine, and I will see to the cooking.\u201d\n\nThat day the Emperor had invited several friends to see what new dish\nVirgil would produce; and when they were assembled at table, Virgilio\ntook the roots, cut fine, put them into a pan with oil and beaten eggs,\nand served them up with his own hands. And the smell thereof was so\nappetizing that all cried, \u201c_Evviva Virgilio_!\u201d even before they had\ntasted the dish. But when they had eaten of it, they were delighted\nindeed, and one and all wished to know what the roots were which gave\nsuch a delicate flavour; to which Virgil, rising, replied:\n\n\u201cTruffles!\u201d {18}\n\nAnd ever since that time, even at the table of the Pope, or any other\nrich man, no one has ever discovered any better flavour for food than\nthis which was first found out by Virgil.\n\nOne day not long after this took place Virgil was in his study, when,\nlooking at the stone in a ring which he wore, he exclaimed: \u201cThe Emperor\nwishes to see me!\u201d And sure enough, a few minutes later a messenger\nentered, saying that his imperial master desired to speak to the sage.\nAnd, having obeyed the call, he found the Emperor ill and suffering from\nan indigestion.\n\n\u201c_Caro Virgilio_,\u201d exclaimed the Emperor, \u201cI have made thee come because\nI am suffering from disorder; and as that pig of a cook who caused it can\ngive me nothing to eat to relieve it, I have recourse to science, for I\nknow that thou art a great doctor.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d replied Virgil. \u201cVery simple doctoring is needed here. Just\ntell the cook to boil wheat-bran in water, mix it with the yolk of an\negg, and drink it in the morning before you rise.\u201d\n\n\u201cBran boiled in water!\u201d repeated the Emperor slowly. \u201cJust what they\ngive to pigs! Truly, it seems that you have brought me down to a pig\u2019s\nlevel, since you give me \u2018hogs\u2019 broth,\u2019 as they call it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI wonder,\u201d exclaimed Virgil, \u201csince your Highness is so humble, that you\ndo not put yourself below the pigs, because you have abused like a pig,\nand many a time, that poor devil of a cook for not pleasing your palate.\nIt is not long since I delighted you, and had applause from all, for\nserving truffles at your imperial table. Had _he_ done so, you would\nhave curiously inquired what the roots were and whence they came; and\nhaving learned that they were _cibo di maiali_, or pigs\u2019 food, you would\nhave cast him forth, and the truffles after him. For such is the wisdom\nof this world, and so is man deluded! But as for the bran boiled in\nwater, whether it be pigs\u2019 broth or not, \u2019tis the specific for your\nillness.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh well, my dear Virgilio,\u201d replied the Emperor, \u201cin future serve me up\nas many pigs\u2019 dainties and give me as much pigs\u2019-doctor stuff as you\nplease, provided that all be as good as truffles, or the medicine bran\nbroth. It is foolish to be led by mere fancies: a pig or a peasant may\nknow as well as a prince what is pleasant for the palate or good as a\ncure. _Evviva Virgilio_!\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn this merry tale I have followed to the letter an undoubted original,\nwhich was in every detail new to me; and this is the more remarkable\nsince there is in it decidedly the stamp and expression of a kind of\nhumour and philosophy which seems to be peculiar to individual or\nliterary genius. The joke of pigs\u2019 dainties, pigs\u2019 remedies, the calling\nthe cook a pig, and the final reduction of the Emperor to a degree below\nthat animal, is carried out with great ingenuity, yet as marked\nsimplicity.\n\nThe best truffles in Italy are sold as coming from _Norcia_, and Nortia,\nwho was an old Etruscan goddess, known to the original Virgil, is in\npopular tradition in Tuscany the Spirit of Truffles, to whom those who\nseek them address a _scongiurazione_, or evocation, which may be found in\nmy \u201cEtrusco-Roman Remains.\u201d In Christian symbolism the truffle is\nassociated with St. Antony and his pig. When the saint had resolved to\ndie by hunger, the pig dug up and brought to him a number of truffles,\nthe saint seeing in this an intimation by a miracle that he should eat\nand live, which thing would seem to be poetically commemorated in the\n_saucisses aux truffes_, or Gotha sausages, in which pork and truffles\nare beautifully combined.\n\nThe most remarkable variety of the truffle is one found in the United\nStates, south of Pennsylvania. It is called _tuckahoe_, or Indian bread,\nand, with most things American, is remarkable for bigness at least, since\nit weighs sometimes fifteen pounds and hides at a depth of fifteen feet\nunderground. Like California fruit, it is far more remarkable for size\nor weight than excellence. An incredible quantity of so-called truffles,\nwhich appear thinly sliced or in small bits in dishes even in first-class\nhotels or restaurants all over Europe, are nothing but burned potatoes,\nor similar vegetable carbon, flavoured sometimes with extract of\nmushrooms, but much oftener are simply tasteless soft coal. Very good\ntruffles, equal to the French, for which they are sold, are found in the\nSouth of England. The truffle is, like raw meat, caviare, and oysters,\nstrongly stimulating food, and as a _pur\u00e9e_ or paste is beneficial for\nan\u00e6mic invalids.\n\n\n\n\nBALS\u00c0BO.\n\n\nThere once lived in Florence in the days of King Long-Ago or Queen\nFormerly a signore who went beyond all the men who ever sinned, in making\nevil out of good and turning light into darkness. For, under cover of\nbeing very devout and serving the saints, he well-nigh outdid many a\ndevil in making all about him unhappy. He had six children, three boys\nand three girls, all as fine young folk as there were in Tuscany. For he\nwas severe in punishing and slow in rewarding, always reviling, never\ngiving a kind word. Once when his eldest son saved him from drowning at\nthe risk of his own life, he abused and struck the youth for tearing his\ngarment in so doing. And in his family there was ever the wolf at the\ntable with such a hunger that one could see it, {21a} while all save\nhimself went so sorrily clad that it was a shame to behold, and if anyone\nmade a jest or so much as smiled there came abuse and blows. And to\noffend and grieve and insult was so deeply in him that it became a\ndisease.\n\nHowever, evil weeds must fade as well as flowers; everything dies except\nDeath, and the longer time he takes to sharpen his scythe, the more\nkeenly will it cut. So it came to pass that one day this good man, but\nvery bad parent, came suddenly to his death-bed, while his children stood\nround with eyes as dry as the Arno in August, which, though it may shine\nhere and there, never runs over. {21b}\n\nNow, by chance there stood by the dying man the great magician Virgilio,\nwho indeed had much love and pity for these young people. And at the\nsame minute, but seen only by him, there came floating in, like a bit of\ngold-leaf on a light feather, borne on the current of air, a certain\n_folletto_, or devil, who had been drifting about in the world for a\nthousand years, and in all that time had only learned more and more that\neverything is naught, or nothing of much consequence, and that good or\nevil stand for one another, according to circumstances. And as the dying\nman was one who, above all people living, made the meanest trifle a thing\nof vast importance, so this devil, whose name was Bals\u00e0bo, went beyond\nall his own kind of _diavoli pococuranti_ in being unlike the great\nSignore di Tribaldo (as the dead man was called), he being a _diavolo a\ndirittura_, a devil in a straight line, or directly forward. And this\ndemon being invisible to all save Virgil, the master said to him\nsecretly:\n\n\u201cArt thou willing to enter this man\u2019s body and act as his soul, and\nbecome father of a family?\u201d\n\n\u201cAs ready for that as for anything. No doubt I will find fun in it,\u201d\nanswered Bals\u00e0bo.\n\nThen Virgil said:\n\n \u201cSpirito di Bels\u00e0bo,\n Io ti scongiur\u00f2\n Che per comando mio\n Tu lasci una vita sfrenata\n Come \u2019ai tenuto per il passato\n E dentro il corpo di Tribaldo\n Tu possa entrare e divenire\n Un capo di famiglia\n Fino a ordine mio.\n E tutti quei\n Fanciulli educherai (_sic_).\u201d\n\n \u201cSpirit of Bels\u00e0bo,\n I now conjure thee\n That by my command\n Thou shalt leave the lewd life\n Which thou did\u2019st lead of old,\n And enter into this body\n Of Di Tribaldo, and become\n Head of a family,\n And educate his children.\u201d\n\nSo into the body he went, as the spirit of Di Tribaldo went out, like the\ntoy which shows the weather in which one puppet pops forth as the other\ngoes in. So there he lay for a minute, all the children around in silent\namazement that he had departed without cursing them. When all at once up\nleaped Bals\u00e0bo, as gay as a lark, crying like a _Scaramuccio_:\n\n\u201cWhoop, pigs! here we are again!\u201d\n\nHearing which, the dear children, understanding that he had come to life\nagain, did indeed weep bitterly, so that Di Tribaldo, had he stopped a\nlittle longer, might have been amazed. But he had no sooner gone out of\nhis body than a great grim devil, a kind of detective demon, who was on\nthe look-out for souls, whipped him up, gave him a couple of cuffs to\nkeep him quiet, and, putting him into a game-bag, drawing the cords\ntight, and then rolling them round and tying them, flew off to give the\nprey up to the proper authorities, and what disposition they made of this\nprecious piece of property I know not, nor truly do I much care. All\nthat can be said is that \u2019twas a good riddance of bad rubbish, and that\nwe may all rejoice that he comes no more into this story.\n\nBut what was the amazement of the well-nigh bereaved children when their\nsolemn parent made a leap half-way to the ceiling, and then, while\nimitating with his mouth a _zufolo_, or shepherd\u2019s pipe, to perfection,\nbegan to dance with grace a wild _coranto_, and anon sang:\n\n \u201cChi ben vive, ben muore,\n Io lo credo in mio cuore;\n Oggi vivo, in figura,\n E doman in sepoltura,\n Ho scappato ben il orco,\n Morto io, morto il porco!\u201d {23}\n\n \u201cHe who lives well may well depart,\n As I believe with all my heart.\n To-day alive, and all in bloom,\n To-morrow buried in the tomb;\n But I\u2019ve escaped, and don\u2019t care why!\n If I were dead the pig might die!\n The pig might die, the world be burned!\n And everything to ashes turned!\u201d\n\nWhich pious song being ended, he asked them why they were all staring at\nhim like a party of stuck pigs, and bade them scamper and send out for a\ngood supper, with flowers and wine; and on their asking what he would\nhave, he replied, still singing:\n\n \u201cEverything to please the palate,\n Venison, woodcocks, larks, and sallet,\n Partridges both wild and tame,\n And every other kind of game,\n Buttered eggs and macaroni,\n Salmagundi, rice and honey,\n Mince-pies and oyster too,\n Lobster patties, veal rago\u00fbt,\n Beef, with mushrooms round the dish,\n And everything that heart could wish.\u201d\n\nWhereupon, being told by his eldest daughter, who was of opinion that he\nhad gone mad, that such a supper would cost twenty crowns, he replied\nthat it could not be done for the money, and that he should always expect\nsuch a meal every day, and a much better one when guests should come.\nWherein he kept his word, and amazed them all by urging them to stuff and\ncram to their hearts\u2019 desire, but especially by pressing them to drink;\nand whereas it had been of yore that they had been scolded like beasts if\nthey so much as begged for a second glass of sour, half-watered wine,\nthey were now jeered and jibed as duffers and sticks for not swigging off\ntheir bumpers of the best and strongest like men.\n\nAnd they also noted a great change in this, that while the late Signore\nTribaldo had ever been as severe in manner and conversation as any saint,\nand grim as an old owl, the Signore Bals\u00e0bo during the meal cracked one\njoke after the other, some of them none too seemly, and roared with\nlaughter at their frightened looks. But as \u2019tis easy to teach young cats\nthe way to the dairy, they began to slowly put out one paw after the\nother, and be of the opinion that on the whole their dear papa had been\nmuch improved by his death and revival. And some word having been said\nof games, he suddenly whipped out a pack of cards and proposed play. At\nwhich his eldest son replying that it would be but a thin game with them\nwho had hardly a _quattrino_ apiece, Bals\u00e0bo sent for his strong-box,\nwhich was indeed well-lined, and gave them each a hundred crowns in gold,\nswearing it was a shame that such a magnificent family as his should go\nabout like poor beggars, because handsome youth and beautiful girls\nneeded fine clothes, and that in future they were all to spend what they\nliked\u2014and bless the expense at that!\u2014for as long as there was twopence in\nthe locker, half of it should be theirs.\n\nThen they sat down to play, and Gianni, the eldest son, and Bianca, the\neldest daughter, who had aforetime learned to play a little on the sly,\nthought they would surely win. But Bals\u00e0bo in the end beat them all, and\nwhen they marvelled at his luck roared with laughter, and said \u2019twas no\nwonder, for he had cheated at every turn; and then, sitting down again,\nshowed them how \u2019twas done, but bade them keep it all a family secret.\n\u201cFor thus,\u201d said he, \u201cwe can among us cheat all the gamesters in\nFlorence, and ever be as rich as so many Cardinals.\u201d\n\nAnd then he said to them, as in apology: \u201cYe have no doubt, my dear\nchildren, marvelled that I have this evening been somewhat strict and\naustere with you, which is not to be blamed, considering that I have been\ndead and am only just now alive again; but I trust that in future I shall\nbe far more kind and indulgent, and lend you a helping hand in all your\nlittle games, whatever they be; for the only thing which can grieve me is\nthat there shall be any fun or devilry going on, and I not have a hand in\nit. And as it is becoming that children should obey their parents, and\nhave no secrets from them, I enjoin it strictly on you that whatever you\nmay be up to, from swindling at pitch-and-toss, up to manslaughter or\nduels, ye do nothing without first taking counsel with me, because I,\nbeing more experienced in the ways of this wicked world, can best guard\nyou against its deceptions. And so, my beloved infants, go in peace,\nwhich means go it while you are young, and as peacefully as you can, and\nmerrily if you must!\u201d\n\nNow, the eldest son, Gianni, had longed well nigh to being ill, and even\nto tears, to wear fine clothes (in which Bianca and the others were well\nup with him), and have a gallant horse, like the other youths of his rank\nin Florence. But kind as Bals\u00e0bo had been to him, he hardly dared to\nbroach the subject, when all at once his father introduced it by asking\nhim why he went footing about like a pitiful beggar, instead of riding\nlike a cavalier; and learning that it was because he had no steed,\nBals\u00e0bo gave a long whistle and said:\n\n\u201cWell, you are a fool of forty-five degrees! Why the devil, if you\nthought I would not approve it, did you not buy a horse on post-obit\ncredit, and ride him on the sly? However, \u2019tis never too late to mend.\nBut such a goose as you would be certainly cheated in the buying. Come\nwith me.\u201d\n\nAnd Gianni soon found that his saint of a father was well up to all the\ntricks of the horse trade, the end being that he had the best steed in\nFlorence for half of what it would have cost him. And from this\naccomplished parent he also learned to ride and fence, and in the latter\nhe taught his son so many sly passes and subtle tricks, crafty glissades\nand _botte_, that he had not his master in all the land.\n\nAnd now a strange thing came to pass: that as all these young people,\nthough willing enough to be gay and well attired, were good at heart and\nhonest, as they day by day found that their father, though really bad in\nnothing, had, on the other hand, no more conscience or virtue than an old\nshoe or a rag scarecrow, so it was they who began to sermonize him, even\nas the late Signore Tribaldo had lectured them, the tables being quite\nturned. But what was most marvellous was that Signore Bals\u00e0bo, far from\ntaking any offence, seemed to find in this being scolded for his want of\nheart, morals, and other crimes, a deep and wondrous joy, a sweet\ndelight, as of one who has discovered a new pleasure or great treasure.\nThis was especially the case when he was brought to book, or hauled over\nthe coals, by his daughter Bianca, who was gifted with the severe\neloquence of her other father, which she now poured forth in floods on\nhis successor.\n\nNow, you may well imagine that an old devil-goblin who had been kicked\nand footed about the world for a thousand years between the back-kitchen\nof hell unto the inner courts of the Vatican, including all kinds of\nlife, but especially the bad, thus having a family to support and beloved\ndaughters and sons to blow him up, and, in fact, the mere having any\ndecent Christian care enough for him to call him a soulless old\nblackguard, was like undreamed-of bliss. He had been in his time\nexorcised by priests in Latin through all that grammar and vocabulary\ncould supply, and cursed in Etruscan, Greek, Lombard, and everything\nelse; but the Italian of his daughter had in it the exquisite and novel\ncharm that there was real _love_ mingled with it and gratitude for his\nprofuse kindness and indulgence, so that \u2019twas to him like the pecking of\nan angry and dear canary bird, the which thing acted on him so strangely\nthat he at times was fain to look about him for some stray sin to commit,\nin order to get a good sound scolding. For he had fallen so much into\ndecent life and ways by living with his dear children that it often\nhappened that he did nothing wrong for as much as three or four days\ntogether.\n\nAnd truly it was a brave sight to see him, when reprimanded, cast down\nhis eyes and sigh: \u201cYes, yes! \u2019tis too true: _mea culpa_! _mea maxima\nculpa_! It was indeed wicked!\u201d when all the while he hardly knew where\nthe sin was or wherein he had done wrong or right or anything else. Now,\nit may seem a strange thing that so old a sinner should ever come to\ngrace; but as ye know that in old tombs raspberry or other seeds, hard\nand dry, a thousand years old, have been found which, however, grew when\nplanted, so Bals\u00e0bo began to think and change, and try, even for\ncuriosity\u2019s sake, what being good meant.\n\nMeanwhile it was a marvel to see how well\u2014notwithstanding all the\nexpenditure, to which there was no limit, save the consciences of the\nchildren\u2014Bals\u00e0bo kept the treasury supplied. And this was to him a joke,\nas all life was, save, indeed, the children, in whom he began to take\ninterest, or for whom he felt love; for, what with knowing where many an\nold treasure lay hidden, or the true value of many a cheap estate, and a\nhundred other devices and tricks, he ever gained so much that in time he\ngave great dowers to his daughters, and castles and lands, with titles,\nto his sons.\n\nNow, it came to pass\u2014and it was the greatest marvel of all\u2014that Bianca,\nby her reproving and reforming Bals\u00e0bo, had her own heart turned to\ngoodness, and gave herself up to good works and study and prayer; and\nunto her studies Bals\u00e0bo, curiously interested, gave great aid. Then she\nlearned marvellously deep secrets of magic and spirits, but nothing evil;\nand it came to pass that in her books she found that there were beings\nborn of the elements, creatures appointed to live a thousand years or\nmore, and then pass away into air or fire, and exist no longer.\nFurthermore, she discovered that such wandering spirits sometimes took up\ntheir abode in human bodies, and that, being neither good nor bad, they\nwere always wild and strange, given up of all things to quaint tricks and\nstrange devices, as ready unto one thing as another.\n\nAnd it came to her mind, as she noted how Bals\u00e0bo knew all languages, and\nspoke of things which took place ages before as if he had lived in them,\nand of men long dead as if he had known them, that he who was her father\naforetime was ignorant of all this as he was of gentleness or kindness or\ngood nature, all which Bals\u00e0bo carried to a fault, not caring to take the\npains to injure his worst enemy or to do a good turn to his best friend,\nunless it amused him, in which case he would kill the one with as little\nsorrow as if he were a fly, and give the other a castle or a thousand\ncrowns, and think no more of it than if he had fed a hawk or a hound.\nAnd all such good deeds he played off in some droll fashion, like tricks,\nas if thinking that sport, and nothing else, was the end and aim of all\nbenevolence. However, as regarded Bianca and her brothers and sisters,\nhe seemed to have other ideas, and to her he appeared to be as another\nbeing, in love and awe obeying her as a child and striving to understand\nher lessons.\n\nSo this went on for years, till at last one day Bianca, full of strange\nsuspicions, which had become well nigh certainties, went to Virgilio and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cTell me in truth who is this being whom thou didst send us as my father,\nfor that he is not the Di Tribaldo of earlier days, I am sure. Good and\nkind he hath been, but too strange to be human; wild hart is he, not to\nbe measured as a man.\u201d\n\nVirgil replied:\n\n\u201cThou hast guessed the riddle, and yet not all; for he is a spirit of the\nelements, and his appointed time is drawing near to an end, and, being\nneither good nor evil, he would have passed away in peace into the\nnothing which is the end of all his kind. But thou hast awakened in him\na knowledge of love and duty, so that he will die in sorrow, for he has\nlearned from thee what he has lost.\u201d\n\nThen Bianca asked:\n\n\u201cCan he not be saved?\u201d\n\nAnd Virgil replied:\n\n\u201cIf anyone would give his or her life, then by virtue of that sacrifice,\nwhen the thousand years of his existence shall be at an end, the two\nlives shall be as one in the world where all are one in love for ever.\u201d\n\nBianca replied:\n\n\u201cThat which I have begun I will finish. Having opened the bud, I will\nnot leave the flower; having the flower, I will bring it to fruit and\nseed; the egg which I found and saved, I will hatch. She who hath said\n\u2018A\u2019 must also say \u2018B,\u2019 till all the letters are learned.\n\n \u201c\u2018Who such a course hath once begun,\n To the very end must run.\u2019\n\nAnd so will I give my life to give a soul to this poor spirit, even as\nthe Lord gave His to save mankind.\u201d\n\nThen Bianca departed, and many days passed. On a time Virgilio saw\nBals\u00e0bo, who greeted him with a sad smile.\n\n\u201cMy sand is well-nigh run out, oh master,\u201d said the spirit. \u201cYet another\nday, and the sun which is to rise no more will go down behind the\nmountain-range of life. _Il sole tramonta_.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd art thou pleased to have been for a time a man?\u201d asked Virgil.\n\n\u201cIt was not an ill thing to be loved by the children,\u201d replied Bals\u00e0bo.\n\u201cThere I had great joy and learned much\u2014yea, far too much for my own\nhappiness, for I found that I was lost. When I was ignorant, and only a\npoor child of air and earth, fire and water, I knew nothing of good or\nevil, or of a soul or a better life in eternity; now I have learned all\nthat by love, and also that it is not for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWait and see,\u201d replied Virgilio. \u201cHe who has learned to love has made\nthe first step to immortality.\u201d\n\nAnd after a few days, news was brought to Virgilio that Bals\u00e0bo, whom men\ncalled Di Tribaldo, was dying, and that Bianca also could not live long;\nand that night the master, looking from his tower beyond the Arno on the\nhill, that which is now called the San Gallo, or the Torre di Galileo,\nsaw afar in the night a strange vision, the forms of a man and of a young\nwoman, divinely beautiful, sweetly spiritual, in a golden, rosy light,\never rising higher and higher, while afar there was a sound as of harps\nand voices singing:\n\n \u201cThey walked in the world as in a dream,\n For nothing they saw as it now doth seem;\n And all they knew of care and woe\n Is now but a tale of the long ago;\n And they will walk in the land on high\n Where flowers are blooming ever and aye,\n And every flower in its breath and bloom\n Sings in the spirit with song perfume,\n And the song which it sings in the land above,\n In a thousand forms, is eternal love.\u201d\n\nAnd as they rose Virgilio saw falling from them, as it were, a rain of\nrose-leaves and lilies, and every leaf as it fell faded, yet became a\nspirit which entered some newborn babe, and the spirit was its life.\n\n\u201cSweetly hast thou sung, oh Spirit of God,\u201d said Virgilio, as the last\nnote was heard and the sight vanished. \u201cThe poorest devil may be saved\nby Love.\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe idea that a soul or spirit, human or other, can enter into a dead\nbody and revive it is to be found in the legends of all lands, from those\nof ancient Egypt, as appears in that of \u201cAnpu and Bata,\u201d which has been\nnine times translated into English, down to several of these Italian\ntales. It is a fancy which need not be traditional or borrowed; it would\noccur to man as soon as the Shaman pretended to go out of his body while\nin a trance.\n\nAfter the foregoing was written out, including the allusion to seeds\nfound in tombs a thousand years old which grew again, and which were, of\ncourse, Roman or Etruscan, as the only kind known in Italy\u2014I never having\nread of any such thing save as regards corn found in Egypt\u2014I met with the\nfollowing passage in \u201cThe Sagacity and Morality of Plants,\u201d by Dr. J. E.\nTaylor:\n\n \u201cSeeds have been found in Celtic tumuli . . . which, after an\n interval of perhaps two thousand years, have germinated into plants,\n and similar successful experiments have been made with seeds found in\n ancient Roman tombs.\u201d\n\nAs regards the original of this story, it was so imperfect, brief, and\ntrifling that I have, as it were, well-nigh reconstructed it, and might\nas well claim to be its author as not, as I should have done were I an\nearlier Italian novelist, who without scruple appropriated popular\nstories with as little conscience as Robert Burns did old ballads.\nBishop Percy amended them, and owned it, and all that he got thereby was\nmuch abuse and ridicule. But it is of little consequence when the legend\nis not offered as a mere tradition, and this is only a scrap of tradition\n_r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_.\n\nThe character of Bals\u00e0bo belongs closely to the class which includes\nFalstaff, Panurge, Punch, Belphegor, and many other types who are\n\u201cwithout conscience or cognition\u201d of right or wrong, neither adapted to\nbe banned or blessed, genially selfish, extravagantly generous, good\nfellows and bad Christians, yet who have ever been pre-eminently popular.\nBut I am not aware that it ever entered into a mortal head to dream of\ntheir being reformed, any more than their cousins Manfred and Don\nGiovanni, for which reason I consider this tale of Bals\u00e0bo as decidedly\noriginal. Sinners we have had repentant by thousands, but this is really\nthe only history of the conversion of Nothingarian.\n\nParacelsus was the first writer, following the Neo-Platonists and popular\ntraditions, to make a mythology of elementary spirits and define their\nnature.\n\n\u201cThere dwell,\u201d he says, \u201cunder the earth semi-homines, or half-human\nbeings, who have all temporal things which can be enjoyed and desired.\nThey are called \u2018gnomes,\u2019 though properly the name should be sylphs or\npygmies. They are not spirits, yet may be compared to them . . . between\nthem and the devil is a great difference, because he does not die and\nthey do, albeit they are very long-lived. And they are not _spirits_,\nbecause a spirit is immortal.\u201d\n\nThis gave birth in later days to the \u201cEntertainments\u201d of the Comte de\nGabalis, and the exquisite \u201cUndine\u201d of La Motte Fouqu\u00e9. Of late years\nexact science, by its investigations into zoology and botany, has\napproached Paracelsus by discovering incredible developments in\n_instinctive_ intelligence, as distinguished from self-conscious reason,\nin all that exists.\n\n * * * * *\n\nSince the foregoing tale, with the comment on it, was written, even to\nthe last word, I met with and read a novel entitled \u201cEntombed in the\nFlesh,\u201d by Michael Henry Dziewicki, {32} which, both as regards plot and\nmany details, bears such an extraordinary, and yet absolutely accidental,\nresemblance to the story of \u201cBals\u00e0bo\u201d that, unless I enter a protest to\nthe contrary, I can hardly escape the accusation of having borrowed\nlargely from it. In it a demon, neither angel nor devil, enters into the\nbody of a man just dead, and has many marvellous and amusing adventures,\nbeing, of course, involved in the fate of a girl whom Lucifer wishes to\ndestroy. The end is, however, very different, because in the novel\nPhantasto, the spirit, is set free, and the maiden rescued by the latter\ngoing into a Salvation Army meeting and being moved by hearing the name\nand teaching of Jesus. In \u201cBals\u00e0bo\u201d the demon has immortality conferred\non him by Bianca\u2019s giving her own _life_ to effect it. This is, I think,\nmore ingenious than any other sacrifice could be, because in the tale,\nthough it be rudely expressed, there is the exquisite conception that an\nimmortal existence can take in, include with it, and identify a minor\nintelligence or raise it to a higher sphere.\n\nThat I have somewhat enlarged the original tale or written it up will be\nevident to everyone, but I have omitted very little which is in the text,\nsave an incantation at the end which Virgil addresses to the unborn souls\nwho are to enter into the bodies of the children born of the rose-leaves.\nBut I have inadvertently missed one point, to the effect that, after\nhaving been kicked out of hell, Bals\u00e0bo got down so low in morality as to\nbe finally expelled from the Vatican. The literal translation of the\npassage is as follows:\n\n\u201cBut poor Bals\u00e0bo, who had been kicked out of the kitchen of hell, . . .\nand even from the Vatican (felt honoured) . . . when Bianca scolded him\nlike a child, and said: \u2018_Vergogna_!\u2019\u2014\u2018For shame!\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL, MINUZZOLO, AND THE SIREN.\n\n\n \u201cCaperat hic cantus _Minyas_ mulcere, nec ullus\n Pr\u00e6teriturus erat Sirenum tristia fata\n Iam manibus remi exciderant stetit uncta carina.\u201d\n\n ORPHEUS: _Argonauticis_.\n\n[Virgil had a pupil named Minuzzolo, who was very small indeed, but a\nvery beautiful youth, and the great master was very fond of his\ndisciple.]\n\nThey undertook a long journey round the world, since Virgil wished that\nhis little Minuzzolo should learn all the wonders which are hidden in the\nearth.\n\nSo he said to him one day:\n\n\u201cKnow, Minuzzolo, that we are going on a long journey which may last for\nyears, and thou must be right brave, my boy, for many are the perils\nthrough which we must pass, and dire are the monsters which we shall\nmeet.\u201d\n\nSo they went forth into the world, far and wide, and little Minuzzolo\nshowed himself as brave as the biggest, and as eager to learn as a whole\nschool with a holiday before it when it shall have got its lesson.\n\nAll things he learned: how to resist all sorceries and evil spells; he\ncould call the eagle down from the sky, and the fish from the sea; but\none thing he did not learn from his master.\n\nOne day Virgil gave him a book wherein was the charm against the Song of\nthe Siren, the words which protect him who knows them against the music\nof the Voice. But two leaves stuck together like one, so that Minuzzolo\nskipped two pages, and never knew it.\n\nVirgil had gone forth, and Minuzzolo, seated in a hut in the forest where\nthey lived, began to sing. Then he heard in the wood a girl\u2019s voice,\nwhich seemed to come from a torrent, singing in answer; and it was so\nsweet that all his soul and senses were captured, he forgot all duty and\ndesire, his master and everything, all in a mad yearning to follow the\nsound. So he went on and on, led by the song; day and night were\nunnoticed by him. The Voice went with the torrent, he followed it to a\nriver, and the river to the sea, where the waves rolled high in foam and\nfog; he followed the song, it went deep into the sea, but he gave no\nheed, but went ever on.\n\nThen he found himself in a very beautiful but extremely strange old\ncity\u2014a city like a dream of an ancient age. And as eve came on, the\nyouth asked of this and that person where he could pass the night, and\nall said that they knew of no place, for into that city no strangers ever\ncame. However, at last one said to him: \u201cI know where there dwells a\nwitch, and she often hath strange guests; perhaps she will give thee\nshelter.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will go to her,\u201d replied Minuzzolo.\n\n\u201cBetter not,\u201d was the reply. \u201cI did but jest, and I would be sorry if so\nfair a youth should be devoured by some monster.\u201d {34}\n\n\u201cLittle fear of that have I,\u201d replied the young magician. \u201cHe who has\nharmed no one need fear none, and in the name of my Master I am safe.\u201d\n\nSo he went to the house and knocked, and there came to his call an old\nwoman of such unearthly ugliness, that Minuzzolo saw at once that she was\na sorceress. So when she asked what he wanted, he replied:\n\n \u201cIn the name of him whom all\n Like thee obey, and heed his call,\n And tremble at his lightest word,\n VIRGIL, my master and thy lord,\n I bid thee give me food and rest,\n Whate\u2019er thou canst and of the best!\u201d\n\nAnd she answered:\n\n \u201cWhate\u2019er is asked in that dread name,\n I\u2019m sworn to answer to the same.\u201d\n\nSo the youth stayed there and was well served. And in the morning he\nthanked the old woman, and asked her where he could find Virgil. She\nreplied:\n\n\u201cDo not seek him in the forest where thou didst leave him. Since then\nthou hast passed over half the world, for she who called thee was a\nSiren, whom none can resist unless they learn the spell which thy master,\nforeseeing that thou wert in danger, gave thee, and which thou didst not\nlearn. However, I will give thee a ring which will be of use, but do not\nseek its help until thou shalt be in dire need. And then thou shalt say\nto it:\n\n \u201c\u2018In nome del gran Mago,\n In nome di Virgilio,\n A chi sara buono!\n Questo anello sara mia sposa!\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cIn the name of the great magician!\n In the name of Virgil!\n To whom be all good,\n This ring shall be my spouse!\u201d\n\n\u201cWell shall I remember it,\u201d replied Minuzzolo. So he went on to the land\nand by the strand ever on, till he came to a great and fine ship, and\npausing as he looked at it, he thought he would like to be a sailor.\nTherefore he asked the captain if a boy was wanted. And the captain,\nbeing much pleased, took him and treated him very kindly, and for three\nyears Minuzzolo was a mariner.\n\nBut one night there was a great storm, and there came in an instant such\na tremendous wave and gale of wind that Minuzzolo was blown afar into the\nsea and wafted away a mile ere he was missed. However, he gained a beach\nand scrambled ashore, where he lay for a long time as if asleep. Yet it\nseemed to him, while thinking of the captain and his mates, that he were\nbeing borne away and ever on, as if in a dream, and indeed, when he\nawoke, he found himself in what he knew must be another country, in\nanother clime.\n\nAnd being very hungry, and seeing a fine garden wherein delicious fruit\nwas growing, he approached a tree to pluck a pear; when all at once there\nsprang out a man of terrible form, with eyes like a dragon, who\nthreatened him with death.\n\nBut Minuzzolo drew the ring from his pocket and repeated the charm, and\nas he did this the sorcerer fell dead. And then he heard the voice of\nthe Siren singing afar, and it drew nearer and nearer, till a beautiful\ngirl appeared. And when she saw the hideous sorcerer lying dead, she\nexclaimed with joy: \u201cAt last I am free! This the great Master Virgilio\nhas done; over land and sea and afar off he has put forth his power.\nBlessed be his name!\u201d\n\nThen she explained to the youth that she and others had been enslaved and\nenchanted, and compelled to become a Siren and bewitch men. But\nVirgilio, knowing that she was lurking near to charm his pupil, had given\nhim the book to read, but that her master by his power had closed the\nleaves, so that Minuzzolo had yielded to her song. But Virgilio had put\nforth a greater power, and brought it to pass that the Siren was herself\nenchanted with love, and in the end the sorcerer was defeated.\n\nThen Virgilio appeared and blessed the young couple, who were wedded and\nlived ever after happily. Such things did Virgilio.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis strange story, in which classic traditions are blended with the\ncommon form of a fairy-tale, was sent to me from Siena, where it had been\ntaken down from some authority to me unknown. It begins very abruptly,\nfor which reason I have supplied the introductory passage in parenthesis.\n\nMinuzzolo, led strangely afar over the sea, drawn by the voice of the\nSiren, suggests that the Argonauts were called _Minii_, because they were\ndescended, like Jason, from the daughters of _Minia_. There may be here\nsome confusion with Minos, of whom Virgil says that \u201che holds in his hand\nan urn and shakes the destiny of all human beings, citing them to appear\nbefore his tribunal,\u201d \u201cQu\u00e6sitor Minos urnam movet.\u201d In the Italian\nlegend Minuzzolo, or Minos, has a ring which compels all who hear his\ncharm to obey.\n\nMinuzzolo wins his Siren by means of a ring, and it is remarkable that\nHesychius derives the name _Siren_ from _\u03c3\u03b5\u1f30\u03c1\u03b7_, _seire_, a small ring.\nMoreover, the sirens in the old Greek mythology did not of their own\naccord or will entice sailors to death. \u201cThe oracle,\u201d says Pozzoli\n(Dizionario Mit.) \u201chad predicted that they should perish whenever a\nsingle mortal who had heard their enchanting voices should escape them.\u201d\nTherefore they were compelled by a superior power to act as they did.\n\nConfused and garbled as it all is, it seems almost certain that in this\ntale there are relics of old Gr\u00e6co-Latin mythology.\n\nThe names of the three Sirens were Aglaope, Pisinoe, Thexiopia; according\nto Cherilus, Thelxiope, Molpe and Aglaophonos. _Clearchus_, however,\ngives one as Leucosia, another as Ligea, the third as Parthenope.\n\u201cAglaope was sweetest to behold, Aglaophone had the most enchanting\nvoice.\u201d Therefore we may infer that Aglaope, or Aglaophone, was the\nheroine of this tale. It is remarkable that _Aglaia_, a daughter of\nJupiter, was the fairest and first of the three Muses, as Aglaope was of\nthe Sirens.\n\nIt would seem evident that Edgar A. Poe had the Siren Ligea in mind when\nhe wrote:\n\n \u201cLigeia, Ligeia,\n My beautiful one,\n Whose harshest idea\n Will to melody run . . .\n Ligeia! wherever\n Thy image may be,\n No magic shall sever\n Thy music from thee;\n Thou hast bound many eyes\n In a dreamy sleep,\n But the strains still arise\n Which thy vigilance keep.\u201d\n\nMost remarkable of all is the fact that the Sirens, who were regarded as\nevil witches or enchantresses of old, are in this story, which was\nwritten by a witch, indicated as women compelled by fate to delude\nmariners, which has escaped all commentators, and yet was plainly enough\ndeclared by the Oracle.\n\n\n\n\nLAVERNA.\n\n\n One day a fox entered a sculptor\u2019s shop,\n And found a marble head, when thus he spoke:\n \u2018O Head! there is such feeling shown in thee\n By art\u2014and yet thou canst not feel at all!\u2019\n\n _\u00c6sop\u2019s Fables_.\n\nIt happened on a time that Virgil, who knew all things hidden or magical,\nhe being a magician and poet, having heard an oration, was asked what he\nthought of it.\n\nAnd he replied:\n\n\u201cIt seems impossible for me to tell whether it is all introduction or\nconclusion. It is like certain fish, of whom one is in doubt whether\nthey are all head or all tail, or the goddess Laverna, of whom no one\never knew whether she was all head or all body, or both.\u201d\n\nThen the Emperor asked him who this deity might be, for he had never\nheard of her.\n\nAnd Virgil answered:\n\n\u201cAmong the gods or spirits who were of the ancient times there was one\nfemale, who was the craftiest and most knavish of all. She was called\nLaverna; she was a thief, and very little known to the other deities, who\nwere honest and dignified, while Laverna was rarely in heaven or in the\ncountry of the fairies. She was almost always on earth among thieves,\npickpockets, and panders; (she lived) in darkness. Once it happened that\nshe went to a great priest, in the form of a very beautiful, stately\npriestess, and said to him:\n\n\u201c\u2018Sell me your estate. I wish to raise on it a temple to (our) god. I\nswear to you on my body that I will pay thee within a year.\u2019 {39}\n\n\u201cTherefore the priest gave her the estate. And very soon Laverna had\nsold off all the crops, grain, cattle, and poultry. There was not left\nthe value of four farthings. But on the day fixed for payment there was\nno Laverna to be seen. The fair goddess was far away, and had left her\ncreditor in the lurch\u2014_in asso_.\n\n\u201cAt the same time Laverna went to a great lord, and bought of him a\ncastle, well-furnished, with much land. But this time she swore _on her\nhead_ to pay in full in six months. And she did as she had done by the\npriest; she stole and sold everything\u2014furniture, cattle, crops; there was\nnot left wherewith to feed a fly.\n\n\u201cThen the priest and the lord appealed to the gods, complaining that they\nhad been robbed by a goddess. And it was soon found that the thief was\nLaverna. Therefore she was called to judgment before all the gods. And\nshe was asked what she had done with the property of the priest, unto\nwhom she had sworn by her body to make payment at the time appointed.\nAnd she replied by a strange deed, which amazed them all, for she made\nher body disappear, so that only her head remained, and it cried:\n\n\u201c\u2018Behold me! I swore by my body, but body have I none.\u2019\n\n\u201cThen all the gods laughed.\n\n\u201cAfter the priest came the lord, who had also been tricked, and to whom\nshe had sworn by her head. And in reply to him Laverna showed to all\npresent her whole body, and it was one of the greatest beauty, but\nwithout a head, and from the neck there came a voice which said:\n\n \u201c\u2018Behold me, for I am Laverna, who\n Have come to answer to that lord\u2019s complaint\n Who swears that I contracted debt with him,\n And have not paid, although the time is o\u2019er,\n And that I am a thief because I swore\n Upon my head; but, as you all can see,\n I have no head at all, and therefore I\n Assuredly ne\u2019er swore by such an oath!\u2019\n\n\u201cThen there was indeed a storm of laughter among the gods, who made the\nmatter right by ordering the head to join the body, and bidding Laverna\npay up her dues, which she did.\n\n\u201cThen Jove spoke and said:\n\n\u201c\u2018Here is a roguish deity without a duty, while there are in Rome\ninnumerable thieves, sharpers, cheats, and rascals\u2014_ladri_, _bindolini_,\n_truffatori e scrocconi_\u2014who live by deceit. These good folk have\nneither a church nor a god, and it is a great pity, for even the very\ndevils have their master Satan. Therefore I command that in future\nLaverna shall be the goddess of all the knaves or dishonest tradesmen,\nand all the rubbish and refuse of the human race, who have been hitherto\nwithout a god or devil, inasmuch as they have been too despicable for the\none or the other.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd so Laverna became the goddess of all dishonest people. Whenever\nanyone planned or intended any knavery or aught wicked, he entered her\ntemple and invoked Laverna, who appeared to him as a woman\u2019s head. But\nif he did his work badly and maladroitly, when he again invoked her he\nsaw only the body. But if he was clever, then he beheld the whole\ngoddess, head and body.\n\n\u201cLaverna was not more chaste than she was honest, and had many lovers and\nmany children. It is said that, not being bad at heart, she often\nrepented her life and sins; but do what she might she could not reform,\nbecause her passions were so inveterate. And if a man had got any woman\nwith child, or any maid found herself _incinta_, and would hide it from\nthe world and escape scandal, they would go every day to invoke Laverna.\n{40} Then, when the time came for the suppliant to be delivered, Laverna\nwould bear her in sleep during the night to her temple, and after the\nbirth cast her into slumber again, and carry her back to her bed. And\nwhen she awoke in the morning she was ever in vigorous health and felt no\nweariness, and all seemed to her as a dream.\n\n\u201cBut to those who desired in time to reclaim their children Laverna was\nindulgent, if they led such lives as pleased her and faithfully\nworshipped her. And this is the manner of the ceremony and the\nincantation to be offered to Laverna every night:\n\n\u201cThere must be a set place devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a\ncellar, or a grove, ever a solitary place. Then take a small table of\nthe size of forty playing-cards set close together, and this must be hid\nin the same place, and going there at night. . . .\n\n\u201cTake the forty cards and spread them on the table, making of them, as it\nwere, a close carpet on it. Take of the herbs _paura_ {41a} and\n_concordia_ and boil the two together, repeating meanwhile:\n\n \u201c\u2018Fo bollire la mano della concordia,\n Per tenere a me concorde.\n La Laverna, che possa portare a me\n Il mio figlio e che possa\n Guardarmelo da qual un pericolo!\n\n \u201c\u2018Bollo questa erba ma non bollo l\u2019erba.\n Bollo la _paura_ {41b} che possa tenere lontano\n Qualunque persona, e se le viene,\n L\u2019idea a qualchuno di avvicinarsi,\n Possa essere preso da paura,\n E fuggire lontano!\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cI boil the cluster of _concordia_\n To keep in concord and at peace with me\n Laverna, that she may restore to me\n My child, and that she, by her favouring care,\n May guard me well from danger all my life!\n\n \u201cI boil this herb, yet \u2019tis not it which boils;\n I boil the _fear_ that it may keep afar\n Any intruder, and if such should come\n [To spy upon my rite], may he be struck\n With fear, and in his terror haste away!\u201d\n\n\u201cHaving said this, put the boiled herbs in a bottle, and spread the cards\non the table, one by one, saying:\n\n \u201c\u2018Batezzo queste quarante carte\n Ma non batezzo le quarante carte.\n Batezzo quaranta dei superiori\n Alla dea Laverna che le sue\n Persone divengono un vulcano\n Fino che la Laverna non sara\n Venuta da me colla mia creatura.\n E questi dei dal naso dalla bocca,\n E dall\u2019 orecchie possino buttare\n Fiammi di fuoco e cenere,\n E lasciare pace e bene alia dea\n Laverna, che possa anche essa\n Abbracciare i suoi figli,\n A sua volunta!\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cI spread before me now the forty cards,\n Yet \u2019tis not forty cards which here I spread,\n But forty of the gods superior\n To the deity Laverna, that their forms\n May each and all become volcanoes hot,\n Until Laverna comes and brings my child.\n And till \u2019tis done, may they all cast\n Hot flames of fire and coals from their lungs,\n And leave her in all peace and happiness,\n And still embrace her children at her will.\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe character of Virgil is here clearly enough only an introduction by\nthe narrator, in order to make a Virgilian tale or narrative. But the\nincantation, which I believe to be _bon\u00e2 fide_ and ancient, is very\ncurious and full of tradition. The daring to conjure the forty gods that\nthey may suffer till they compel Laverna to yield is a very bold and\noriginal conception, but something like it is found very often in Italian\nwitchcraft. It is of classic origin. In the witchcraft manufactured by\nthe Church, which only dates from the last decade of the fifteenth\ncentury, it never occurs. The witches of Sprenger and Co. never lay any\nof the Trinity under a ban of torture till a desire is accomplished, nor\nare they ever even invoked.\n\n_La femme comme il faut_, or \u201cthe only good woman,\u201d is a very ungallant\nmisogamic corner tavern sign once common in France. It represents a\nheadless woman. Perhaps she was derived from some story like this of\nLaverna. It recalls the inhuman saying: \u201cThe only good (Red) Indian is a\ndead Indian.\u201d\n\nLaverna is in this tale another form of Diana. There are also traces of\nLucina in the character.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE UGLY GIRL.\n\n\n \u201cThough her ugliness may scare,\n Money maketh all things fair.\u201d\n\n _Proverb_.\n\n \u201c_Gelt\u2014wie lieb\u2019ich Dich_.\u201d\u2014How truly I love thee! or, \u201cMoney\u2014how I\n love thee!\u201d\u2014_German Jest_.\n\nThere was once in Rome an ugly young lady; yes, the ugliest on earth!\nAnd, as if this were not enough, she was ill-tempered and spiteful, and\nin his whole course the sun did not shine on a more treacherous being.\nShe was a true devilkin, being as small as a dwarf. However, devil or\nnot, she was worth millions, and had the luck to be betrothed to the\nhandsomest young man in Rome, who was, indeed, poor.\n\nOne day a certain Countess said to Virgil:\n\n\u201cI cannot understand how it comes to pass that such a splendid fellow is\nallied to such a horrid little fright\u2014_un tal spauracchio_!\u201d\n\nVirgil said nothing, but he went home and took two scorpions, and by his\nmagic art turned them into gold, and of these he made two ear-rings and\nsent them to the Countess, who was delighted with them, and when Virgil\nasked her if she liked them, answered: \u201c_Tanta_, _tanta_, _sono molto\nbelli_\u201d\u2014\u201cVery much, they are so beautiful!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou said to me a little while ago,\u201d replied Virgil, \u201cthat you did not\nsee what the handsomest man in Rome finds to admire in the ugliest girl.\nIt is gold, Signora Contessa, which does it all\u2014gold which makes\nscorpions so charming that you wear them in your ears, and call them\nbeautiful!\u201d\n\nThe Countess laughed, and said: \u201cThou speakest truth\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Gold like the sun turns darkness to night,\n And fear or hatred to love and delight.\n Gold makes raptures out of alarms,\n Gold turns horror to beautiful charms,\n And gives the beauty of youth to the old.\n On earth there\u2019s no magic like that of gold.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE GEM.\n\n\n SHOWING HOW VIRGIL BY HIS ART DROVE ALL THE FLIES OUT OF ROME.\n\n \u201cCil une mouche d\u2019arain fist,\n Que toutes mouches qui estoient.\n Celle approchier ne povoient.\u201d\n\n RENARS CONTREFAIS, A.D. 1318.\n\n \u201cEt fist une mousche d\u2019arain,\n De quoi encor le pris et ain.\n A Naples cele mousche mist\n Et de tel maniere la fist,\n Que tant com la mousche fu la\n Mousche dedenz Naples n\u2019entra,\n Mais je ne sai que puis devint,\n La mousche, ne qu\u2019il en avint.\u201d\n\n ADEN\u00c8S LI ROIS: _Roman de Cleomad\u00e8s_. _XIIIth Century_.\n\n \u201cThere were at that time near the city many swamps, in consequence of\n which were swarms of _flies_, which caused death. And VIRGIL . . .\n made a fly of gold, as large as a frog, by virtue of which all the\n flies left the city.\u201d\u2014_La Cronaca di Partenope_, 1350.\n\n \u201cTrovasi chi egli fece una moscha di rame, che dove la posa niuna\n moscha apariva mai presso a due saettate che incontanente non\n morissi.\u201d\n\n ANTONIO PUCCI, _XIVth Century_.\n\nOnce there came to the Emperor a merchant with many gems and jewels, and\nbegged him to purchase some.\n\nThe Emperor asked of Virgil, who was present:\n\n\u201cWhich is the very best of all these stones?\u201d\n\nVirgil replied:\n\n\u201cLet them all remain for a time in the light of the sun, and I will tell\nyou which is the gem of them all.\u201d\n\nThis was done, and after a time a fly alighted on one.\n\n\u201cThis is the gem of greatest value,\u201d said Virgil.\n\n\u201cBut it is really hardly worth a crown,\u201d replied the merchant.\n\n\u201cAnd yet it is worth all the rest put together,\u201d answered Virgil; \u201cfor it\nincreases marvellously the intellect or understanding, and thereby one\ncan win with it the love of whom he will.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well,\u201d said the Emperor, \u201cI will buy it, and find by experience\nwhether it can increase wit whereby we gain hearts.\u201d\n\nHe did so, and finding that the stone had the virtue which Virgil\nascribed to it, said to the sage one day:\n\n\u201cHow was it that thou didst find out and understand the value of that\ngem?\u201d\n\n\u201cI knew it, because I saw that there was in the stone a very small fly\n(_moschettina_\u2014gnat), and I knew that flies are very quick and gay, and\nhave great cleverness, as anyone can see if he tries to catch them, and\nthey make love all the time.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly thou art a devil, oh Virgil,\u201d replied the Emperor; \u201cand for reward\nI hereby make thee Emperor or Pope over all the flies. There are, by the\nway, far too many of them, and a perfect plague\u2014they spoil all the meat\nin the shops. I would that thou couldst banish all thy subjects from\nRome.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will do it,\u201d answered Virgil.\n\nThen, by his magic, he summoned the Great Fly\u2014Il Moscone, the King of all\nthe Flies\u2014and said to him:\n\n\u201cThy subjects are far too many, and a sore plague to all mankind. I\ndesire that thou wilt drive them all out of Rome.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will do it,\u201d replied the Moscone, \u201cif thou wilt make a fly of gold as\nlarge as a great frog, and put it in my honour in the Church of Saint\nPeter. After which, there will no more flies be seen in Rome.\u201d\n\nThen Virgil went to the Emperor and told him what Il Moscone had said,\nand the Emperor commanded that the fly should be made of many pounds of\ngold, and it was placed in the Church of Saint Peter, and so long as it\nremained there no fly was ever seen within the walls of Rome.\n\n * * * * *\n\nI have another version of what is partially the same story, but with a\ncurious addition, which is of greater antiquity and most unconsciously\nreally Virgilian, or the old tale of the bull\u2019s hide.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FLIES IN ROME.\n\n\nIt happened one summer in Rome that people were sadly afflicted with\nflies. Nothing like it had ever been seen; they swarmed by millions\neverywhere, they blackened the walls, the meat on the butchers\u2019 stands\nwas hidden under masses of them. And the poor suffered in their\nchildren, many of whom died, while all kinds of food was poisoned and\ncorrupted everywhere. Then the Emperor said to Virgil:\n\n\u201cTruly, if thou hast indeed the art of conjuring, now is the time to show\nit, by conjuring away this curse, for I verily believe that all the flies\nof Egypt are come here to Rome.\u201d\n\nVirgil replied:\n\n\u201cIf thou wilt give me so much land as I can enclose in an ox\u2019s hide, I\nwill drive all the flies away from Rome.\u201d\n\nThe Emperor was well pleased to get so much for so small a price, as it\nseemed to him, and promised that he should truly have as much land as\ncould be enclosed or covered {46} in the skin of an ox.\n\nVirgil summoned Il Moscone, the King of the Flies, and said to him:\n\n\u201cI wish that all flies in Rome leave the city this very day!\u201d\n\nIl Moscone, the King of the Flies, replied:\n\n\u201cCause me to become by magic a great fly of gold, and then put me in the\nChurch of Saint Peter, and after that there will be no more insects in\nthe city.\u201d\n\nThen Virgil conjured him into the form of a fly of gold, and it was\nplaced in the church, and at that instant all the flies left Rome. At\nwhich the Emperor was well pleased.\n\nThen the Emperor asked Virgil where the land lay which was to be taken in\nthe ox-hide.\n\n\u201cCome to-morrow and you shall see,\u201d answered the sage.\n\nSo the Emperor came with all his Court, and found Virgil mounted on\nhorseback, bearing a great bundle of leather cord, like shoe-strings, and\nthis had been made from the skin of the ox. And beginning at one gate\nand letting fall the cord, he rode around the city until all Rome was\nsurrounded.\n\n\u201cYour Highness will observe,\u201d said Virgil, \u201cthat I have taken exactly as\nmuch land as could be enclosed in an ox\u2019s hide, and as Rome stands on the\nground, therefore all Rome is mine.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what wilt thou take for this bit of earth\u2014houses, people and all?\u201d\ninquired the Emperor.\n\n\u201cI ask what to me is its full value, oh my Emperor, for I have long loved\nyour beautiful niece! Give her to me with one hundred thousand crowns in\ngold, and I will restore to you your city.\u201d\n\nThe Emperor was well pleased to grant this, and so it came to pass that\nall Rome was bought and sold in one day for a purse and a princess, or\nfor a woman and one hundred thousand crowns.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt will be observed by many readers that in the first tale here narrated\nthere are combined two of the older Virgilian legends, one being that of\nthe Gem which has within it a mysterious power, and which is thus told in\n\u201cThe Wonderful History of Virgil the Sorcerer.\u201d {47}\n\n \u201cSoon after, the Emperor having his crown-jewels laid out before him,\n sent for Virgilius, and said: \u2018Master, you know many things, and few\n are hid from your ken. Tell me now, if you be indeed a judge of\n gems, which think you is the best of these?\u2019 The Emperor having\n pointed out one gem of peculiar brilliancy, Virgilius laid it, first\n in the palm of his hand, then to his ear, and said: \u2018Sire, in this\n stone there is a worm.\u2019 Forthwith the Emperor caused the stone to be\n sawn asunder, and lo, in the centre was found a worm concealed!\n Amazed at the sagacity of Virgilius, the Emperor, at the charge of\n the country, raised his allowance to a whole loaf per diem.\u201d\n\nThe story of the fly is told in almost all the collections. The reader\nwill bear in mind the following frank and full admission, of which all\ncritics are invited to make the worst, that in many cases I had already\nnarrated these Virgilian tales to my collector, as I did here\u2014a course\nwhich it is simply impossible to avoid where one is collecting in a\nspeciality. If you want fairy-tales, take whatever the gods may send,\nbut if you require nothing but legends of Red Cap, you must specify, and\nshow samples of the wares demanded. But it may here be observed, that\nafter I had communicated these tales, they all returned to me with\nimportant changes. In the older legends the fly made by Virgil is\nmanifestly\u2014like the leech which he also fabricated\u2014simply an _amulet_ or\ntalisman formed under the influence of the planets, or by astrology. In\nthe version which I give there is an altogether different, far more\nancient and mysterious motive power described. This is the direct aid of\n_Moscone_, the King of the Flies, suggestive of _Baal tse Bul_, or\nBeelzebub himself. The reader may find a chapter on this mystical being,\nwho is also the god of news, in the \u201cLegends of Florence,\u201d Part II.\nAccording to my story, the Golden Fly is not a _talisman_ made by\nplanetary influences, but a tribute of respect to a demon, which he\ndemands shall be set up in Saint Peter\u2019s. Here the _witch_, ever\ninimical to orthodox faith, appears in black and white\u2014so true is it, as\nI have before remarked, that even where my assistant has been asked to\nre-tell a tale, it always returned with darker and stranger colouring,\nwhich gave it an interest far greater than existed in the simple\nnarrative. The tale of the fly, as a mere amulet, is of almost no\nimportance whatever, beyond its being an insignificant variant; but as a\nlegend of the chief of the flies, or Beelzebub, claiming honour and a\nplace in the great Christian Church, it is of extraordinary novelty.\n\nAmber, in which insects are often found, especially small flies or\nmidges, was anciently regarded as a gem, and is classed as one in the\n_Tesoro delle Goie_. _Trattato curioso_, Venice, 1676.\n\nIt may be observed that something like this story of the gem with an\ninsect in it occurs not only in the early legends of Virgil, but also in\nthe oldest _novelle_, as may be seen in Roscoe\u2019s \u201cItalian Novelists.\u201d In\nfact, there is probably not one of the old Neapolitan Virgilian stories\nwhich is not, like this, of Oriental origin.\n\n\n\n\nTHE COLUMNS OF VIRGIL AND HIS THREE WONDERFUL STATUES.\n\n\n \u201cEn sic meum opus ago,\n Ut Rom\u00e6 fecit imago\n Quam sculpsit Virgilius,\n Qu\u00e6 manifestare suevit\n Fures, sed c\u00e6sa quievit\n Et os clausit digito.\u201d\n\n DE CORRUPTO ECCLESI\u00c6 STATU: _XVIth Century_. _Virgilius the\n Sorcerer_ (1892).\n\nThe reader who is familiar with \u201cThe Legends of Florence\u201d will remember\nthat, in the second series of that work, {49} there are several tales\nreferring to the Red Pillars of the Baptistery, of which, as Murray\u2019s\n\u201cGuide Book\u201d states, \u201cat each side of the eastern entrance of the\nBattisterio di San Giovanni there is a shaft of red porphyry, presented\nby the Pisans in 1117.\u201d To which I added:\n\n \u201cOther accounts state that the Florentines attached immense value to\n these columns, and that once when there was to be a grand division of\n plunder between Florence and Pisa, the people of the former city\n preferred to take them, instead of a large sum of money, or something\n which was apparently far more valuable. And the Pisans parted from\n them most unwillingly, and to deprive them of value passed them\n through a fire. Which is all unintelligible nonsense, but which\n becomes clear when we read further.\n\n \u201cI had spoken of this to Mr. W. de Morgan, the distinguished scholar,\n artist, and discoverer in ceramics, when he informed me that he had\n found, in the \u2018Cronaca Pisana\u2019 of Gardo, a passage which clearly\n explains the whole. It is as follows:\n\n \u201cIn the year 1016, the Pisans brought the gates of wood which are in\n the Duomo, and a small column, which is in the fa\u00e7ade, or above the\n gate of the Duomo. There are also at the chief entrance two columns,\n about two fathoms each in length, of a reddish colour, and it is said\n that whoever sees them is sure in that day not to be betrayed. And\n these two columns which were so beautiful had been so enchanted by\n the Saracens, {50a} that when a theft had been committed the face of\n the thief could be seen reflected in them. And when they had\n scorched them they sent them to Florence, after which time the\n pillars lost their power; whence came the saying, _Fiorentini\n ciechi_, or \u2018blind Florentines.\u2019 {50b}\n\n \u201cUnto which was added, _Pisani traditori_, or \u2018treacherous Pisans.\u2019\n Those pillars were, in fact, magic mirrors which had acquired their\n power by certain ceremonies performed when they were first polished,\n and which were lost.\u201d\n\nA German writer on witchcraft, Peter Goldschmidt, states that there was\nonce in olden time in Constantinople a certain Peter Corsa, who, by\nlooking in two polished stones or magic mirrors, beheld in them proof\nthat his wife, then far away, was unfaithful to him. It is possible, or\nprobable, that this refers to the same pillars, before they had been\nbrought to Pisa, even as the column of the Medicis in the Piazza\nAnnunciata was sent from the East to Florence.\n\nWhat renders this the more probable is the following passage by\nComparetti, given in his \u201cVirgilio nel Medio Evo\u201d:\n\n \u201cIn a History of the Pisans, written in French in the fifteenth\n century and existing in manuscript in Berne, there is mention of two\n columns made by Virgil, and which were then in the cathedral of Pisa,\n on the tops of which one could see the likeness of anyone who had\n stolen or fornicated.\u201d See De Sinner, \u201cCatal. Codicum MSS. Bibl.\n Bernensis,\u201d II., p. 129; Du Meril, \u201cM\u00e9langes,\u201d p. 472.\n\nIt is most unlikely that the Pisans had _two_ pairs of columns, in each\nof which appeared the forms or phantoms or _simulacra_, of criminals, for\nwhich reason we may conclude that those in the Battisterio of Florence\nare quite the same as those which were said to have been made by Virgil.\nAnd it is also probable that the belief that they were made by Virgil\nwent far to give them the great value which was attached to them. They\nshould be called the columns of Virgil.\n\nIt may be observed that the Berne manuscript cited mentions that it was\non the _top_ of the pillars that the visions were seen, and that the tops\nof the columns of the Battisterio have been knocked away, possibly by the\nPisans, in order to deprive them of their peculiar value.\n\nVirgil is also accredited with having made a statue which, like Mahomet\u2019s\ncoffin, hung free in mid-air, and was visible from every part of Rome, or\nin fact from every door and window. And it had the property that no\nwoman who had once beheld it had, after that, any desire to behave\nimproperly, which thing, according to the plainly-speaking author of \u201cLes\nFaicts Merveilleux de Virgille,\u201d was a sad affliction to the Roman dames,\n_qui aymoyent par amour_, since they could not put foot out of doors\nwithout seeing \u201cthat nasty-image\u201d which prevented them from having\n_soulas de leurs amours_. So they all complained bitterly to Virgil\u2019s\nwife, who promised to aid them. Therefore, one day when her husband was\nabsent, she went up the bridge or ladder which led to the statue and\nthrew down the latter. \u201cSo, from that time forth, the _dames de Rome\nfirent \u00e0 leur volont\u00e9 et a leur plaisance_, _et furent bien ayses de\nlymage qui fut abbatu_.\u201d Truly the Ibsenite and other novelists of the\npresent day, but especially the lady realists of our time, have great\ncause to be thankful that no such statues are stuck up in the public\nplaces of our cities, for if such were the case their occupation would be\ngone for ever\u2014or until they had overturned them.\n\nVirgil would appear, however, to have been somewhat inconsistent in this\nmatter of statues, or else desirous of demonstrating to the world that he\ncould go to opposite extremes, since he made another, which is thus\ndelicately hinted at in a footnote by Comparetti: {52}\n\n \u201cIn contradizione con questo racconto in cui Virgilio apparisce come\n protettore del buon costume, trovasi un altro racconto, secondo il\n quale . . . egli avrebbe fatto una donna pubblica artificiale. Cosi\n Enenkel nel suo \u2018Weltbuch\u2019; vede V. J. Hagen, \u2018Gesammtten Abenteuer,\u2019\n II., 515; Massmonn, \u2018Kaiser Chronik,\u2019 III., 451. Una leggenda\n rabbinica parla anch\u2019 essa di una statua destinata a quell\u2019 uso ed\n esistente in Rom\u00e6. Vede Praetorius, \u2018Anthropodemus Plutonicus,\u2019 I.,\n 150, e Liebrecht nella \u2018Germania di Pfeiffer,\u2019 X., 414.\u201d\n\nThe passage in Enenkel referred to is given with the rest of the\n\u201cWeltbuch\u201d by Comparetti, and is as follows:\n\n \u201cVirgilius der selbe man,\n Begunde nu ze R\u00f4me g\u00e2n,\n Und versuocht \u2019sain maisterschaft,\n Ob es w\u00e6r\u2019 w\u00e2r der teuvel kraft,\n Er macht\u2019 ze R\u00f4m\u2019 ain stainein Weib\n Von K\u00fcnste den het ainen Leib\n Swann\u2019 ain Schalk, ain boeser Man\n Wolte ze ainem Weibe g\u00e2n,\n Daz er gie zu dem Staine,\n Der boese, der unraine,\n Das im was bei des Staines Leib\n Recht als ob er w\u00e6r im Weib,\n Nicht v\u00fcr baz ich en sagen sol\n Main mainung \u2019witzt ihr alle wol.\u201d\n\nBonifacius, in his \u201cLudicra,\u201d Ravisius Textor (\u201cOfficina\u201d), and Kornmann\n(\u201cCuriosa\u201d) have brought together all the instances in special chapters\nof men who have fallen in love with statues. I observe that in a late\npopular novel this device of the _donna artificiale_ is described in a\nmanner which leaves actually nothing to be desired to the lovers of\nindecency, vileness, blasphemy, or \u201crealism\u201d\u2014_c\u2019est tout un_.\n\nIt may be observed that in another tale collected by me, Virgil has for\nhis Egeria a statue called P\u00e6onia, which comes to life when he would\nconfer with her, and which I regard, on what is at least startling\ncoincidence if not full proof, a tradition of Minerva-P\u00e6onia and\nEsculapius.\n\nThe tale in question declares that the magician Virgil, who had a marked\nfancy for making statues love, or turning women into stone\u2014ever petting\nor petrifying among the petticoats\u2014had a third favourite, a P\u00e6onia, who\nwas marble when not specially required for other purposes than ornament.\nThese three ladies suggest the Graces:\n\n \u201cAglaia, Euphrosyne que Thaliaque splendida\n Clara letiti\u00e6 matres!\u201d\n\nIt is probably by mere coincidence or chance that in Keats\u2019 \u201cEndymion\u201d\nthe habitual friend and comforter of the hero is:\n\n \u201c_Peona_, his sweet sister; of all those\n His friends, the dearest, . . .\n Whose eloquence did breathe away the curse.\n She led him like some midnight spirit-nurse.\u201d\n\nBut that Peona, through all the poem, plays the part which P\u00e6onia has\nwith Virgil is unquestionable. It would seem as if there is, if not a\nspiritual, at least an \u00e6sthetic influence in names. _Nomen est omen_.\n\u201cAll Bobs are bobbish,\u201d said a farmer, \u201cand all Dicks dickies.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND ADELONE.\n\n\n \u201cWho would have ever said that amid the horrors of prison I would\n find a true friend to console me?\u201d\u2014BOETHIUS _to_ PATRICIUS.\n\n \u201cAll by prayer and penitence\n May be at length forgiven.\u201d\n\n _Ballad of Sir Tannh\u00e4user_.\n\nThere once lived in Florence a young man who was not really bad at heart,\nbut utterly selfish, especially to his relations, and was without heed or\nfeeling as to the sufferings of others. And, it being in his power, he\nwasted all the income of the family on sport, letting his brothers and\nsisters endure great privations; nor would he have cared much had they\nstarved. He was like all such people\u2014frivolous and capricious. If he\nmet a poor child in the street, he would give it a gold crown, and then\nlet all at home hunger for days.\n\nOne day his suffering mother went to Virgilio, and, telling him all about\nher son, begged the master, if it were possible, to reform him.\n\nVirgilio said to her: \u201cI will indeed do something which will bring thy\nson to his senses.\u201d\n\nThe young man was named Adelone, and Virgilio, meeting him the next day,\nsaid:\n\n\u201cIf thou wouldst fain see a strange thing indeed\u2014such as thou hast\nerewhile prayed me to show thee by my art\u2014then be to-night at twelve in\nthe cloister of Santa Maria Novella, where thou wilt see and learn that\nwhich it is most needful for thee to know. But to behold and bear the\nsight thou muse be bold, for a faint heart will fail before it.\u201d\n\nThen Adelone, who, to do him justice, was no coward, did not fail to be\nin the cloister of Santa Maria Novella at the appointed hour. And as the\nlast stroke of twelve was heard, Adelone saw before him the spirit of a\nyoung man named Geronio, who had died one year before, and who had been,\nas one like him in all respects, his most intimate friend. They were\nalways together, and what one did the other joined in; both were reckless\nwasters of money, and selfishly indifferent to their families. And as\nAdelone looked at Geronio he saw in the face of the latter such an\nexpression of awful suffering, that it was a torture to behold him. And\nGeronio, seeing this, said:\n\n\u201cDepart now, for it is time; but this night I will come to thee and\nremain with thee till morning.\u201d {55}\n\nAnd Adelone was glad to have seen Geronio once more, but greatly grieved\nat finding him in such suffering.\n\nThat night he was in his room, which was on the ground, and at the\nappointed hour the spirit came. And, looking with awe at his friend,\nAdelone said:\n\n\u201cI see that thou art in pain beyond all belief.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d replied Geronio; \u201cI suffer the greatest agony, such as no mortal\ncould endure. But I pray you come with me.\u201d\n\nThen the two sunk softly down into the earth, ever deeper and deeper in\nsilent darkness, until Adelone saw that they were in an immense cavern,\nall of gray ice, dimly lighted, with dripping icicles hanging from the\nroof, and all the floor was covered with dirty, half-freezing water,\nunder which was a bed of stinking mud, and over all was an air of sadness\nand wretchedness beyond description.\n\n\u201cThis is my home,\u201d said Geronio; \u201cbut it is as nothing compared to what I\nsuffer in my soul\u2014which is a thousand times more terrible than anything\nwhich mortals can imagine, for they have no idea of what spiritual\ntorture is like, because they always think of pain as bodily. But know\nthat I had rather be beaten or burned in fire for a year than suffer for\nan instant the remorse which I endure.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan anything be done to help you?\u201d asked Adelone.\n\n\u201cYes, all can be done; and you can save me and not only give me peace,\nbut do as much for thyself, and thereby escape what I have suffered. If\nthou wilt lead a good and loving life\u2014good and kind to all, especially to\nthy family and friends, no longer wasting money and life on selfish\nfollies, no longer neglecting duty and acting as an egoist\u2014thus thou\ncanst give me peace, and rescue me from this inferno. But woe unto thee,\nshouldst thou promise this and fail to keep thy word. For when thy time\ncometh, as come it will, thou wilt suffer as I do\u2014yea, with redoubled\nremorse.\u201d\n\nThen Adelone, looking about him, saw many sad shades of men and women\nwandering or wading through the icy water; all people who had lived for\nthemselves alone, all waiting till someone as yet alive should, by good\nconduct, save them. And none spoke, for they were doomed to silence. So\nthey looked at one another, and passed on, and such looks were the only\nthing like comfort allowed them.\n\nThen Adelone fell, as it seemed to him, asleep, and when he awoke he was\nin his own room, but he well knew that it was no dream which he had\nbeheld. And from that hour he was another man, becoming as good as he\nhad been bad, living to make all others happy, and devoted in every way\nto his family. And thereby he became for the first time truly contented.\n\n * * * * *\n\nSix months passed, and one night at twelve o\u2019clock, on awaking, he saw\nbefore him Geronio, who no longer seemed to suffer as before, though\nthere was still in his eyes something terrible.\n\n\u201cHow is it with thee?\u201d asked Adelone.\n\n\u201cFar better. Come with me.\u201d\n\nThen Adelone found himself in a great castle, which seemed like a free\nprison, which was grim and without comfort. Many souls were in it, but\nthey were walking about together, or resting and conversing, apparently\nin no suffering. It was a joyless place, but not one of torture, nor was\nit filthy. {57}\n\n\u201cWe do not suffer so much here,\u201d said Geronio. \u201cWe have still much\nremorse, but at least we have the consolation of being able to converse\none with another, and enjoy sympathy in sorrow.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you talk about?\u201d asked Adelone.\n\n\u201cChiefly about the people whom we hope will set us free. I talk of thee,\nbecause all my hope is in thee. I think of nothing else by day or\nnight.\u201d\n\nThen Adelone returned to his home. After six months he beheld Geronio\nagain. Again he found himself in a castle, but the spirits were\nconversing happily, many were singing hymns, they had guitars and\nmandolins, and here and there were vases of flowers which gave forth\ndelightful perfume.\n\nGeronio said to him:\n\n\u201cHere we are happier still, and, believe me, friend, if thou canst in\nthis life make others as good as thou art, to love their relations and\nfriends, and cease to be selfish, thereby everyone can save another soul,\nand win great reward for himself.\u201d\n\nAdelone replied:\n\n\u201cI truly will do all I can to content thee.\u201d\n\nFrom that day he did all that he could, not only to do good himself, but\nto cause others to act like him. Six months after this Geronio came to\nhim and said:\n\n\u201cNow that I know that thou art truly good, learn that I am at peace. And\nas thou hast been the means of giving it to others, know that in future\nall good spirits will aid thee!\u201d\n\nIt is not enough not to be a sinner. He who does not take care and pains\nand labour earnestly to make others happy will be punished as an\nevil-doer. He who does not love (us) is an enemy.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt is to be remarked in this, as in all the other tales from the same\nsources, when a moral end or plot is to be worked out, it is done without\nbenefit of clergy or aid of priest, or the Church. For these are legends\nof the witches and wizards, who have ever been the foes, and consequently\nthe hated and afflicted, of the orthodox. It is a curious reflection\nthat as it has been said that the last savage in America will die with\nthe last Indian, so the _strega_, or witch, will remain to the end a\nheathen. And I find curious emotion in the thought that what I have\ngathered, or am gathering, with such care, is the last remainder of\nantique heathenism in Europe. Superstitions there are everywhere, but in\nthis kind Italy is alone.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND DORIONE, or THE MAGIC VASE.\n\n\n I have a vase in which I daily throw\n All scraps and useless rubbish\u2014oh that I\n Had one wherein to cast away all thoughts,\n Imaginations, dreams and memories\n Which haunt and vex the soul, to disappear\n For ever, lost in fast forgetfulness!\n That were a vase indeed, and worth far more\n Than that which forms the subject of this tale.\n\nMany centuries ago there was in Naples a young man named Dorione, who\nstudied magic, and his master was a great sorcerer named Virgil. One\nevening Dorione found himself in company with friends, and there was\npresent another wizard named Belsevo. {58} Now, there was not bread\nenough in the house for supper for all.\n\n\u201cNever mind,\u201d remarked Belsevo. \u201cHe who hath art will find his bread in\nany part. Observe me.\u201d\n\nTaking a large vase, he turned it upside down and said:\n\n \u201cViene pane!\n Abbiamo fame;\n Dimmi o Cerere del pane!\n Se questa grazia mi farai,\n Sempre fedele a te sarai.\u201d\n\n \u201cCome, bread, to me,\n For hungry are we!\n Oh, Ceres, give us bread!\n Grant me this grace benign,\n And I will be ever thine!\u201d\n\nThen he removed the vase, and there were on the table eight small loaves.\n\nThen Belsevo said to Dorione:\n\n\u201cCanst thou not give us wine for the bread, O scholar of the grand master\nVirgil?\u201d\n\nBut Dorione, being only a beginner in magic, could not effect such a\nmiracle, and was much ashamed because all laughed at him.\n\nThe next morning Dorione told what had happened to Virgil.\n\n\u201cWell didst thou deserve,\u201d replied the master, \u201cto be thus scoffed at and\njeered, for a young magician should never play tricks at a table like a\njuggler to amuse fools. But thou hast been sufficiently punished, and to\nplease thee I will give thee a fine present. And if thou canst not make\nbread come, thou shalt at least have the power to make it and other\nthings disappear. I will give thee this vase of bronze. It is but\nsmall, as thou seest, but tell any object, however large, to disappear in\nit, then the vase will swallow it. Thou shalt keep for thyself in secret\na house somewhere, and whatever the vase may swallow thou wilt find it in\nthe house, however distant thou mayst be from it. Only say, \u2018Go into the\nvase!\u2019 and by the vase it will be swallowed up. But thou shalt never use\nit to steal, or for any dishonest purpose. So long as thou art honest it\nwill serve, and none shall rob thee of it. And if that should come to\npass, call to it and it will return to thee.\u201d\n\nThen Dorione took the vase, and thanked the grand master Virgil. After a\ntime the scholar went on a long journey. Dorione possessed a small\ncastle in a remote place in the mountains of Tuscany, and in it was a\nsecret vault. \u201cThere,\u201d he said, \u201cI will send all that the vase may\nswallow. Many a thing may be come by honestly, if one knew how to send\nit away and where to put it.\n\n \u201c\u2018He who hath a cage, I\u2019ve heard,\n In time will surely get a bird.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt came to pass that he became the secretary of a certain lord, who, like\nmany of the brave gentry of his time, was ever at war with somebody,\nplundering or being plundered, every one in his turn, as fortune\nfavoured.\n\n \u201cUp on the top of the hill to-day,\n Down in the dale to-morrow;\n Oft in the morning happy and gay,\n After a night of sorrow;\n For some must fall that others may rise,\n And the swallow goes chirping as she flies.\u201d\n\nOne evening his master heard a trumpet afar, and, looking forth, seemed\nsuddenly startled, like a man in great alarm. Pointing to a splendid\nsuit of armour, he said:\n\n\u201cSeest thou that armour, Dorione? It is worth ten thousand crowns, and I\nwould give ten thousand it were this instant in hell. I took it in a\nraid from the Grand Duke, and he will be here in ten minutes with all his\nmen. If he finds the armour I shall lose my head. And there, too, is an\niron chest full of gold and jewels\u2014all plunder, and all in evidence\nagainst me.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you will give it to me,\u201d answered Dorione, \u201cI will make it all vanish\nin an instant.\u201d\n\n\u201cYea, I give it with all my heart; but be quick about it, for the Grand\nDuke and his soldiers are at the gate, and I feel the rope round my\nneck!\u201d\n\nThen Dorione brought his vase in a minute, and uttered the conjuration:\n\n \u201cVattene via! Vattene via!\n Roba bella, cosa mia!\n Vai nell\u2019 istante al mio castello!\n Apri la bocca, vaso bello!\u201d\n\n \u201cHasten away! Begone! begone!\n All ye fine things which are now mine own,\n Fly to my castle\u2014never pause;\n Beautiful vase, now open thy jaws.\u201d\n\nAnd in an instant the armour and chest went flying into the vase and\ndisappeared.\n\nJust as they vanished the Duke and his men entered, but though they\nsought in every cranny they found nothing; and so, having come for a\nbargain of wool, went away shorn, {60} as the proverb says.\n\n\u201cThou hast saved my life,\u201d said the Signore. \u201cGod only knows how you ran\naway with the things, but you are welcome to them. Truly I was glad to\nget them, but a thousand times better pleased to see them go.\u201d\n\nOne day the Signore and Dorione found themselves in a battle together,\nsore beset and separated from all their troop. They were in extremest\ndanger of being killed. {61} When all at once there came an idea to\nDorione, who had his vase slung to his side like a canteen. He\npronounced the spell, ordering all the arms in the hands of the enemy to\nfly through the vase to his castle. In an instant swords and spears,\ndaggers and battle-axes, had left their owners, who stood unarmed and\namazed. So the two were saved.\n\nThe Signore took a great deal of booty, and rewarded Dorione very\nliberally, the more so because he was greatly delighted to see the gifts\ndisappear in the vase\u2014no matter what, all was fish to that net, and all\nthe sheep black\u2014and Dorione liked to please his kind master, especially\nin this way. Yes, to amuse him he would often wish away a gold-hilted\nand jewelled sword or helm from an enemy, and was pleased to hear the\nbrave old knight laugh to see the things fly.\n\nThe generosity of the lord stopped, however, at a certain point. He had\na beautiful daughter whom Dorione loved, _alla follia_, to distraction,\nbut the father would not consent to bestow her on him. But it came to\npass that one day the castle was besieged by a vast force, which spared\nneither man, woman nor child, and it seemed plain that the besieged must\nyield. The lord bade Dorione to cause the arms of the enemy to vanish.\n\n\u201cThis time,\u201d replied his secretary, \u201cI cannot do it. The fame of my vase\nor of my power has spread far and wide, and the enemy have had their arms\nenchanted by a mighty sorcerer, so that I cannot take them.\u201d\n\nThey fought on until of all the garrison only Dorione, with the lord and\nhis daughter, were left alive. They were in extremity.\n\n\u201cAnd now,\u201d thought Dorione, \u201csomething must be done, for there is many a\nwolf at the door. Let me see whether I cannot make the young lady go\ninto my vase, and then her father.\u201d So, bringing them together, he said:\n\n \u201cSignora bella, signora mia!\n La pi\u00f9 bella che su questa terra sia!\n Ti prego\u2014subito, subito,\n Di qua vattene via!\n Vai nell istante al mio castello,\n Vi troverai un vaso bello,\n Che la sua bocca aprira,\n E li dentro ti salvera!\u201d\n\n \u201cLovely lady, lady mine own,\n The fairest whom earth has ever known;\n Fly in a hurry, oh, fly away!\n Leave the castle\u2014flit while you may,\n And off to my distant shelter flee!\n The beautiful vase is ready for thee,\n Who will open her mouth to take you in.\n Safe you will be when once within!\u201d\n\nIn a second, ere the eye could follow, the young lady was whirled away\nmysteriously, and, the conjuration being repeated, then her father.\nAfter which Dorione prayed to the spirit of the vase, who was no other\nthan Saint Virgil himself, {62a} to save him also. And in an instant he\nfelt himself swallowed up like a bean in the mouth of a horse. And as\nsoon he found himself in the vault of the castle with the lady and her\nfather. And they were amazed, in looking about, to see what wealth was\nthere gathered up, for Dorione had been very industrious in many a battle\nin sending arms and booty to his home.\n\nThen all three, joining hands, danced and sang for joy to find themselves\nsafe, Dorione and the lady doing the most rejoicing, because the lord had\npromptly said:\n\n\u201cAfter this you may get married.\u201d And they had the wedding that night.\n\nThe good lord, as a proof of affection and esteem for Dorione, pronounced\nan oration of regret as a penance on himself for not having sooner\nconsented to the nuptials, ending with these words: \u201cAnd now let everyone\nhere present drink a cask of wine, and get as drunk as a tile, or four\nfiddlers.\u201d {62b}\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE LADY OF ICE AND WATER. {63}\n\n\n \u201cAnd truly at that time it came to pass\n That Virgil, by the power of sorcery,\n Made a fair lady, who did shine like glass\n Or diamonds with wondrous brilliancy,\n Whom to the Emperor he did present,\n And who therewith, I trow, was well content.\u201d\n\n VIRGILO IL MAGO (MS.).\n\nIt happened on a time that the Emperor, coming from Rome to Florence, was\nguest in the Duke\u2019s palace, and treated so magnificently and in a manner\nso much after his own heart, that he was indeed well content.\n\nNow, in those days there was in Florence no Signore who, when he gave an\nentertainment, did not invite Virgil, not only because he was the\ngreatest poet in Italy, but because he always played some admirable trick\nor jest, which made men merry and was always new.\n\nSo at the first great feast the Emperor was greatly delighted at the\nendless jokes, as well as by the genius of the distinguished guest.\n\nTherefore, when the Emperor, before his departure, gave in turn a great\nentertainment to all the nobles of Florence, as well as of Rome, who were\nin the city, he sent the first invitation to Virgil, requesting him at\nthe same time to invent for the occasion a jest of the first magnitude.\n\nSo unto this for such occasion the magician gave all his mind. And that\nthe Emperor should really \u201c_catch_ the fly,\u201d he resolved that the jest\nshould be one at the Imperial expense\u2014_e lo scherzo voleva farlo a lui\nmedesimo_.\n\nAfter long meditation he exclaimed, \u201c_Ecco_, _l\u2019 ho trovato_! I\u2019ve got\nit! I will give him a girl made of water!\u201d\n\nForthwith he wrote to the Emperor that he would not fail to be at the\nfestival, but also begged permission to bring with him a beautiful young\nlady\u2014his cousin.\n\nThe Emperor, who was very devoted to the fair sex, inferred from this\ndirectly that the jest was to be of a kind which would please all free\ngallants\u2014that is to say, the being introduced to some easy and beautiful\nconquest\u2014either wedded or a maid. And, delighted at the thought that the\ntrick would take this turn, he replied to Virgil that he had _carta\nbiancha_, or full permission to bring with him whomever he pleased.\n\nThen the magician made a woman of ice and light and water, clear as the\nlight of day he made her, and touched her thrice with his wand, and lo!\nshe became beautiful\u2014but such a beauty, indeed, that you would not find\nthe like in going round the world; the sun or moon ne\u2019er shone upon her\nlike, for she was made of star-rays and ice and dewdrops, so that she\nlooked like all the stars swimming in a burnished golden sky, and shining\nlike the sun, so resplendent in her beauty that she dazzled the eyes.\n\nWhen Virgilio arrived at the palace, all the guests were there before\nhim, and they were so overwhelmed with blank amazement at the sight of\nthe sorcerer with such a beauty, that they, in silence and awed, drew\napart on either side, leaving open space through which Virgilio passed to\nthe Emperor. And the latter was himself for a minute stupefied at the\nsight of such brilliancy and beauty, when, recovering himself, he gave\nhis arm to the fair cousin, and asked her name. To which she replied:\n\u201c_La Donna di Diaccio_\u201d (ice).\n\n\u201c_Donna di Fuoco_! (Our Lady of Fire), {64} rather,\u201d cried the Emperor,\n\u201csince all hearts are inflamed at thy beauty. Truly, I had no idea that\nthe great poet had such a lovely cousin!\u201d\n\nThe dance began, and the Emperor would have no other partner than this\nlady, who outshone the rest as the moon the stars, and yet surpassed them\neven more by her exquisite grace in every movement, and by her skill as a\ndancer, so that one seemed to see a thousand exquisite statues or studied\nforms of grace succeeding to one another as she moved. Nor was she less\nfascinating in her language than in her beauty, and no wonder, for\nVirgilio had called into the form one of the wittiest and most gifted of\nall the fairies to aid the jest.\n\nSo the dance swept on, and the Emperor, utterly enchanted, forgot\nVirgilio and his promised jest, and the time, and the court, and all\nthings save the beauty beside him. Finally he withdrew with her to a\nside-room, where, sending for refreshment, he sat pouring forth wine into\nhimself and love into the ears of the lady by turns.\n\nVirgil, indeed, wishing the Emperor to have a fine time of it for awhile,\ndid nothing to disturb the splendid pair. But as daybreak would soon\nappear, he spoke to one and another, saying that he had promised the\nEmperor a merry jest to make them all laugh. Whereupon there was a\ngeneral cry for the diversion, and by one consent the gay company invaded\nthe room where the fond couple sat.\n\nThen Virgil, with the greatest politeness and a laughing air, said:\n\n\u201cExcuse me, your Highness, but it seems that my fair cousin here has so\nengrossed you that you have forgotten that you laid an absolute command\non me that I should prepare and play some rare jest, the like of which\nyou had never seen, and I fear, should I forget it, you may ne\u2019er forgive\nme.\u201d\n\nThen the Emperor, good-natured and grateful to the poet for his fair\ncousin\u2019s sake, excused the intrusion, and begged for the jest, expressing\na hope that it would be a thoroughly good one.\n\nThen Virgil said to the Emperor:\n\n\u201cTake my cousin upon thy lap, and let her arms be round thy neck!\u201d\n\n\u201c_Per Bacco_!\u201d cried the Emperor, \u201cthe jest begins well!\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd now embrace her firmly!\u201d exclaimed Virgil.\n\n\u201cBetter and better!\u201d quoth the Emperor.\n\nThen Virgil spoke solemnly to the lady, and said:\n\n\u201cWhat is thy name?\u201d\n\n\u201cDonna di Diaccia,\u201d was her reply.\n\n\u201cThen, Lady of Ice,\u201d replied the wondrous man, \u201cin the name of my magic\npower, I summon you to return to the ice from which you sprung, and to\nthe water from which you were born!\u201d\n\nThen little by little, as she sat in the Emperor\u2019s lap, the beautiful\ngirl became a brilliant block of ice, and truly the great man, as his\nfingers and all his person began to freeze, was fain to place the image\non the sofa, where they saw it presently thaw\u2014features and feet and all\ndispersing, and running away in a stream, till every trace had flown, and\nthe Emperor and the company understood that they had been admiring a\nWoman of Water.\n\nThere was a pause of utter bewilderment, as of awe, at this strange\nending, and then a roar of laughter, in which the Emperor himself finally\njoined, crying: \u201c_Viva Virgilio_! Long may he flourish with his magic\nart!\u201d And so the feast ended with the clattering of cups, laughter, and\nmerry cheers.\n\n[So the Donna di Diaccio was a spirit? Certainly\u2014the Spirit of\nIce-water. If there is spirit in vermouth, why should there not be one\nin the iced water which you mix with it?]\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis story may remind the reader of \u201cOur Lady of the Snow,\u201d or Byron\u2019s\n\u201cWitch of the Alps,\u201d or Shelley\u2019s \u201cThey all seem to be Sisters,\u201d or else\nsuggest \u201cFrozen Champagne,\u201d and \u201cPhiladelphia Frozen Oysters.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL THE MAGICIAN, OR THE FOUR VENUSES.\n\n\n \u201cMaint autres grand clercs ont est\u00e8\n Au monde de grand poesi\u00e9\n Qui aprisrent tote lor vie,\n Des sept ars et le astronomie,\n Dont aucuns i ot qui a leur tens,\n Firent merveille par lor sens;\n Mais cil qui plus s\u2019en entremist,\n Fu Virgile qui mainte enfist.\n Pour ce si vous en conterons\n Aucune dont oi avons.\u201d\n\n _L\u2019Image du Monde_ (1245).\n\nVirgilio was as great a magician as he was a distinguished post. And of\nthe great works which he did when alive many are yet remembered here in\nFlorence, and among other things his skill was such that by means of it\nhe made statues sing and dance.\n\n_Ecco come avenne_\u2014behold how it came to pass! It chanced one day that\nwhen walking alone in the environs of Florence, he found himself in a\nplace where there were four very beautiful Venuses. {67} And looking at\nthem with great admiration, and observing their forms, he said:\n\n\u201cTruly they all please me well; and if they could converse I hardly know\nwhich I would choose for a companion. _Ebbene_! I will make them all\ntalk and walk, live and move, and can then see if anyone of them will\nshow any gratitude for the gift of life.\u201d\n\nThen he took human fat, and anointed with it all the statues, and then of\nthe blood of a wild boar, and rubbed it very thoroughly over them, and\nwhen this was done he waved his magic wand, and said:\n\n\u201cIn the name of my magic art and power I order you to speak and move and\nlive!\u201d\n\nAnd with this they all awoke, as it were, from a long dream, and stepping\ndown from their pedestals, they walked about, seeming far more beautiful\nthan before. And they gathered round Virgil, for truly they were\nenchanted with him as well as by him, in more ways than one, and embraced\nand kissed him with a thousand caresses and endearments, and each and all\nwished him to select her as his mate.\n\nThen Virgilio, laughing, said:\n\n \u201cI know not which to choose among the four;\n I cannot make all four into a wife;\n But to determine who shall be the first,\n Do ye go forth and seek each one a gift,\n And come to-morrow evening to my house,\n And she who brings the gift which I prefer\n Shall be the fair one first preferred by me.\u201d\n\nAnd on the following eve the first who came was the Venus Agamene; thus\nwas she called who brought the first gift, and this was a splendid\ndiamond. Virgilio received it with admiration, but said that he must\nwait to see what the others would bring before he could decide.\n\nThen the second was announced, whose name was Enrichetta, and she\npresented a marvellous garment, richly embroidered and adorned. And this\ntoo was admired; but to her also Virgilio said he would await what was to\ncome.\n\nThe third, whose name was Veronica, brought such a wonderful bouquet of\nflowers that the magician was more pleased with it than he had been by\nthe diamond or the robe.\n\nThen there came the fourth, called Diomira, and she brought a splendid\ncrown of \u2014. {68} And Virgil preferred this to all, and gave the prize to\nDiomira. So he bade them all come the next evening to a grand festival.\nAnd when they came, it was indeed a wonderful assembly, for there were\npresent, and in life, all the statues from all the palaces. They came\ndown from their pedestals and danced in the house of Virgilio\u2014nor did\nthey return until the early dawn; and so it came to pass that on that\nnight all the statues spoke and danced.\n\n \u201cThey danced so merrily all the night,\n Till the sun came in with a rosy light,\n And touched the statues fair,\n When in an instant every one\n Was changed again to marble stone.\n Per Bacco! I was there!\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt is not remarkable that there should be so many tales in Italy of\nstatues speaking or coming to life. They abounded among the Romans, and\nare to be found in later literature. Bonifacius, in his \u201cLudicra,\u201d as I\nhave said, collects instances of men who have loved statues, and Zaghi,\nwhom I shall quote again directly, does the same. But the idea of images\nspeaking is so natural that we need not have recourse to tradition to\naccount for its existence.\n\nAmong the archaic and very curious traditions in this tale we are told\nthat Virgil rubbed the statues with human fat and the blood of a wild\nboar. Both of these occur not only in witchcraft, but also in the wild\nscience of the earlier time, as potent to give or take life. For the\nblood of a boar that of a bull is equivalent. In the recipes for\npreparing the celebrated poison of the Borgias one or the other is\npresented. That of the boar still exists in the poisoning common in\nGermany caused by eating _Blutwurst_. In the \u201cSelva di Curiosit\u00e0,\u201d by\nGabriel Zaghi, 1674, there is a chapter (xx.) devoted to showing that\nbull\u2019s blood\u2014_sangue di toro_\u2014is a deadly poison; to prove this he cites\nPlutarch, Pliny, Dioscorides, and others, from which it appears that the\nidea is ancient. That it gives life to statues in the tale is quite in\nkeeping with the strange and rude hom\u0153opathy which is found in\nParacelsus, and all the writers on mystical medicine of his time, from\nwhich Hahnemann drew his system, _i.e._, that what will kill can also\ncure, or revive.\n\nIt is very remarkable that in this tale Agamene brings a diamond.\nAccording to Hyginius (\u201cAstronom.,\u201d II., 13, _vide_ Friedrich, \u201cSymbolich\nder Natur.,\u201d p. 658), Aega (or Aegamene) nursed the youthful Jupiter. In\nanother legend (No. 1) Virgil is the son of Jove. \u201cAega was a daughter\nof the Sun, and of such brilliancy that the Titans, dazzled by her\nsplendour, begged their mother _G\u00e4a_, or Gea, to hide her in the earth.\u201d\nThis clearly indicates a diamond. Jupiter transformed her into a star.\n\nIt is simply possible, and only a conjecture of mine, that in Diomira we\nfind the name of Diomedea, the _Diomedea necessitas_ of Plato (\u201cDe\nRepub,\u201d lib. 6), who carried all before her. Diomira conquers all her\nrivals in this legend. She is the _Venus Victrix_.\n\nI cannot help believing when we find such curious instances of tradition\nas that of Aega, or Agamene, surviving in these tales, that there is a\npossibility that the whole story may, more or less, be of classic or very\nancient origin. We are not as yet able to _prove_ it, and so there are\nnone who attach much value to these fragments. But a day will come when\nscholars will think more of them. That there still survives a great deal\nof Gr\u00e6co-Latin lore which was not recorded by classic writers has become\nto us a certainty. Therefore it is possible, though not now to be\nproved, that these statues of Virgil had a common origin with the image\nof Selostre, or _Testimonium luminis_, described by Pausanius, which\nspoke when the sun rose or at the Aurora.\n\nIf it be possible, and it certainly is conjectural, that Diomira is the\nsame with Diadumena, we have beyond question a very remarkable\nillustration of old tradition surviving in a popular tale; for Diadumena,\nor \u201cShe who binds her forehead with a fillet,\u201d or band, was the name of\none of the most beautiful statues of Polycletus. According to Winkelmann\n(\u201cIst. dell Acte,\u201d lib. 6, cap. 2), this statue was very frequently\ncopied and familiarly known. A statue in the Villa Farnese is believed\nto be an imitation of it. Were this conjecture true, the gift brought by\nDiomira would be the fillet which Virgil wears by tradition, as typical\nof a poet. An ornament, fillet, or tiara is, effectively, a crown.\nTherefore, the meaning of the myth is that a true poet is such by\nnecessity; he cannot help it\u2014_poeta nascitur_, _non fit_.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL, THE LADY, AND THE CHAIR.\n\n\n \u201cNow the golden chair wherein Juno was compelled to sit, by the\n artifice of Vulcan, means that the earth is the mother of riches, and\n with it that part of the air which cannot leave the earth, Juno being\n air.\u201d\u2014NATALIS COMITIS: _Mythologia_, lib. ii., 79 (1616).\n\n \u201cThou wolt algates wete how we be shape!\n Thou shalt hereafterward, my brother dere,\n Come wher thee needeth not of me to lere,\n For thou shalt by thine own experience\n Conne in a chaiere rede of this sentence\n Better than Virgile while he was on live\n Or Dante also.\u201d\n\n CHAUCER: _The Frere\u2019s Tale_.\n\nThere once lived in Rome a very great, rich, and beautiful Princess, but\nshe was as bad at heart as could be, and her life was of the wickedest.\nHowever, she kept up a good appearance, and was really at last in love\nwith a fine young man, who returned her affections.\n\nBut Virgil, knowing all, and pitying the youth, said to him that the\nwoman would certainly be the cause of his ruin, as she had been of many\nothers, and told him so many terrible things of her, that he ceased to\nvisit the Princess.\n\nAnd she, first suspecting and then learning what Virgil had done, fell\ninto bitter hatred, and swore that she would be revenged on him.\n\nSo one evening she invited the Emperor and many nobles, among them\nVirgil, to a splendid supper.\n\nAnd being petty and spiteful by nature, the Princess had devised a mean\ntrick to annoy Virgil. For she had prepared with great craft a chair,\nthe seat of which was of paper, but which seemed to be of solid wood. It\nappeared to be a handsome seat of great honour.\n\nBut when the great man sat on it, there was a great crash, and he went\ndown, indeed, but with his legs high in the air. So there was a peal of\nlaughter, in which he joined so heartily and said so many droll things\nover it, that one would have thought he had contrived the jest himself,\nat which the lady was more angry than ever, since she had hoped to see\nhim angry and ashamed. And Virgil, taking all the blame of the accident\non himself, promised to send her in return a chair to pay for it. And he\nrequested leave to take the proper measure for it, so that she might be\nfitly taken in.\n\nWhich she was. For, having returned to his home, Virgil went to work and\nhad a splendid chair made\u2014_con molto artifizio_. With great art he made\nit, with much gold inlaid with pearls, studded with gems. It was all\nartificial. {72}\n\nAnd having finished it, Virgil begged the Emperor to send it to the\nPrincess as a gift.\n\nThe Emperor did so at the proper time, but there was in it a more cunning\ntrick than in the one which she had devised. For there were concealed\ntherein several fine nets, or snares, so that whoever sat in it could not\nrise.\n\nThen the Princess, overjoyed at this magnificent gift, at once sent an\ninvitation to her friends to come to a supper where she could display it;\nnor did she suspect any trick, having no idea that she had any enemy.\n\nAnd all came to pass as Virgil planned. For the lady, having seated\nherself in great state, found herself caught, and could not rise.\n\nThen there was great laughter, and it was proposed that everyone present\nshould kiss her. And as one beginning leads to strange ending, the end\nthereof was that they treated her _senza vergogna_, saying that when a\nbird is once caught in a snare, everybody who pleases may pluck a\nfeather.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe classical scholar will find in this tale a probable reminiscence of\nthe chair made by Vulcan wherein to entrap Juno, in which he succeeded,\nso that she was made to appear ridiculous to all the gods. It is worth\nnoting in this connection that such chairs are made even to the present\nday, and that without invisible nets or any magic. One is mentioned in a\nbook entitled \u201cThe Life of Dr. Jennings the Poisoner\u201d (Philadelphia, T.\nB. Peterson, Bros.). If any person sat in it, he or she fell back, and\ncertain clasps closed over the victim, holding him or her down perfectly\nhelpless, rendering robbery or violence easy. Since writing the\nforegoing, I have in a recent French novel read a description of such a\nchair, with the additional information that such seats were originally\ninvented for and used by physicians to confine lunatic patients. A\nfriend of mine told me that he had seen one in a house of ill-fame in New\nYork.\n\nThe legend of the Lady and the Chair suggests a very curious subject of\ninvestigation. It is very probably known to the reader that, to make a\nmesmerized or hypnotized subject remain seated, whether he or she will or\nnot, is one of the common experiments of the modern magicians. It is\nthus described by M. Debay in his work \u201cLes Myst\u00e8res du Sommeil et\nMagnetisme.\u201d\n\n The operator asks the subject, \u201cAre you asleep?\u201d\n\n \u201cNo.\u201d\n\n \u201cRise from your chair.\u201d (_He rises_.) \u201cTell all present that you\n are not asleep.\u201d\n\n \u201cNo. I am wide awake.\u201d\n\n The operator takes the subject by the hand, leads him to different\n persons present with whom he is acquainted, and asks him if he knows\n them. He replies:\n\n \u201cCertainly I know them.\u201d\n\n \u201cName them.\u201d\n\n He does so.\n\n \u201cAll right. Now sit down.\u201d (_The subject obeys_.) \u201cAnd now I\n forbid you to rise. It is for you impossible\u2014you cannot move!\u201d\n\n The subject makes ineffectual efforts to rise, but remains attached\n to the chair as if held fast by an invisible power.\n\n The operator then says:\n\n \u201cNow you may rise. I permit you to do so. Rise\u2014I order it!\u201d\n\n The subject rises from the chair without an effort.\n\nI have frequently had occasion to observe that, in all of these legends\nwhich I have received from witches, the story, unlike the common fairy\ntale or _novella_ of any kind, is only, as it were, a painted casket in\nwhich is enclosed the jewel of some secret in sorcery, generally with an\nincantation. Was not this the case with many of the old myths? Do they\nnot all, in fact, really set forth, so far as their makers understood\nthem, the mysteries of Nature, and possibly in some cases those of the\nwonder-works or miracles of the priests and magicians? There was a\nGerman\u2014I forget his name\u2014who wrote a book to prove that Jupiter, Juno,\nand all the rest, were the elements as known to us now, and all the\nwonders told of all the gods, with the \u201cMetamorphoses\u201d of Ovid, only a\nmarvellous poetic allegory of chemical combinations and changes. That\nhypnotism was known to Egyptians of old is perfectly established\u2014at least\nto his own satisfaction\u2014by Louis Figuier in his \u201cHistoire du Merveilleux\ndans les Temps Modernes,\u201d Paris, 1861; and it is extremely possible.\nTherefore it may be that Juno in the chair is but the prototype of a\nMademoiselle Ad\u00e8le, or Angelique Cottin, or Marie Raynard, or some other\nof the \u201clittle Foxes,\u201d who, by the way, are alluded to in the Old\nTestament.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE GODDESS OF THE CHASE.\n\n\n \u201c_Images_, though made by men, are the bodies of gods, rendered\n perceptible to the sight and touch. In the images are certain\n spirits brought by invitation, after which they have the power of\n doing whatever they please; either to hurt, or to a certain extent to\n fulfil the desires of those persons by whom divine honours and\n duteous worship are rendered unto them. . . . Do you not see, O\n Asclepias, that _statues_ are animated by sense, and actually capable\n of doing such actions?\u201d\u2014HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, AP. AUGUSTINE, C. D.,\n viii. 23.\n\n \u201cAnd there withall Diana gan appere\n With bowe in hand, right as an hunteresse,\n And sayd\u00e9, \u2018Daughter\u2014stint thin heavinesse. . . .\u2019\n And forth she went and made a vanishing.\u201d\n\n CHAUCER: _The Knighte\u2019s Tale_.\n\nThere was in the oldest times in Florence a noble family, but one so\nimpoverished that their _giorni di festa_, or feast-days, were few and\nfar between. However, they dwelt in their old palace, which was in the\nstreet now called the Via Citadella, which was a fine old building, and\nso they lived in style before the world, when many a day they hardly had\nanything to eat.\n\nRound this palace was a large garden in which stood an ancient marble\nstatue of a beautiful woman, running very rapidly, with a dog by her\nside. She held in her hand a bow, and on her forehead was a small moon;\nit seemed as if, instead of being in a garden, she was in a forest\nhunting wild game. And it was said that by night, when all was still and\nno one present, and the moon shone, the statue became like life, and very\nbeautiful, and then she fled away and did not return till the moon set,\nor the sun rose.\n\nThe father of the family had two children, a boy and a girl, of nine or\nten years of age, and they were as good as they were intelligent, and\nlike most clever children, very fond of curious stories.\n\nOne day they came home with a large bunch of flowers which had been given\nto them. And while playing in the garden the little girl said:\n\n\u201cThe beautiful lady with the bow ought to have her share of the flowers.\u201d\n\n\u201cCertainly,\u201d answered her brother, \u201cbecause I believe that she is as good\nas she is beautiful.\u201d\n\nSaying this, they laid flowers before the statue, and made a wreath,\nwhich the boy placed on her head.\n\nJust then the great poet and magician Virgil, who knew everything about\nthe gods and _folletti_, whom people used to worship, entered the garden,\nand said, smiling:\n\n\u201cYou have made the offering of flowers to the goddess quite correctly, as\nthey did in old times; all that remains is to make the prayer properly,\nand it is this. Listen, and learn it.\u201d So he sang:\n\n \u201cBella dea dell arco!\n Bella dea delle freccie!\n Delia caccia e dei cani!\n Tu vegli colle stelle\n Quando il sole va dormir,\n Tu colla Luna in fronte,\n Cacci la notte meglio del di\n Colle tue Ninfe al suono\n Di trombe\u2014sei la regina\n Dei cacciatori,\n Regina della notte!\n Tu che siei la cacciatrice\n Pi\u00f9 potente di ogni\n Cacciator\u2014ti prego\n Pensa un poco a noi!\u201d\n\n \u201cLovely Goddess of the bow!\n Lovely Goddess of the arrows!\n Of all hounds and of all hunting;\n Thou who wakest in starry heaven\n When the sun has gone to sleep;\n Thou with moon upon thy forehead\n Who the chase by night preferrest\n Unto hunting by the day,\n With thy nymphs unto the sound\n Of the horn\u2014thou Queen of Hunters!\n Queen of night, thyself the huntress,\n And most powerful, I pray thee,\n Think, although but for an instant,\n Upon us who pray unto thee!\u201d\n\nThen Virgil taught them the _Scongiurazione_, or spell to the goddess\nDiana:\n\n \u201cBella dea dell\u2019 arco del cielo,\n Delle stelle e della Luna.\n La regina pi\u00f9 potente\n Dei cacciatori e della notte;\n A te riccoriamo,\n E chiedamo il tuo aiuto\n Che tu possa darci\n Sempre la buona fortuna!\u201d\n\n \u201cFair goddess of the rainbow!\n Of the stars and of the moon!\n The queen all-powerful\n Of hunters and the night,\n We beg of thee thy aid\n To give good fortune to us!\u201d\n\nThen he added the conclusion:\n\n \u201cSe la nostra scongiurazione,\n Ascolterai,\n E buona fortuna ci darei,\n Un segnale a noi lo darei!\u201d\n\n \u201cIf thou heedest our evocation,\n And wilt give good fortune to us,\n Then give us in proof a token.\u201d\n\nAnd having taught them this, Virgilio departed.\n\nThen the children ran to tell their parents all that had happened, and\nthe latter impressed it on them to keep it all a secret, nor breathe a\nword or hint of it to anyone. But what was their amazement, when they\nfound early the next morning before the statue a deer freshly killed,\nwhich gave them good dinners for many a day\u2014nor did they want thereafter\nat any time game of all kinds.\n\nThere was a neighbour of theirs, a priest, who held in hate all the\nidolatry of the olden time, and all which did not belong to his religion,\n{77} and he, passing the garden one day, beheld the statue crowned with\nroses and (other) flowers. And in a rage, seeing in the street a\ndecaying cabbage, he rolled it in the mud, and threw it, all dripping, at\nthe face of the statue, saying:\n\n\u201cEcco male bestia d\u2019idolo, questo e l\u2019omaggio che io ti do, gia che il\ndiavolo ti aiuta!\u201d\u2014(Behold, thou vile beast of an idol, this is the\nhomage which I render thee, and may the devil help thee!)\n\nThen the priest heard a voice in the gloom where the trees were thick,\nwhich said:\n\n \u201cBene bene\u2014tu mi hai fatto\n L\u2019 offrande\u2014tu avrai\n La tua porzione\n Di caccia. Aspetta!\u201d\n\n \u201cIt is well\u2014since thou hast made\n Thy offering, thou\u2019lt get thy portion\n Of the game\u2014but wait till morning!\u201d\n\nAll that night the priest suffered from horrible fancies and fears, and\nwhen at last, just before three, he fell asleep, he soon awoke from a\nnightmare, in which it seemed as if something heavy rested on his chest.\nAnd something indeed fell from him and rolled on the ground. And when he\nrose and picked it up, and looked at it by the light of the moon, he saw\nthat it was a human head, half decayed. {78a}\n\nAnother priest who, hearing the cry which he had uttered, entered his\nroom, said:\n\n\u201cI know that head. It is of a man whom I confessed, and who was beheaded\nthree months ago at Siena.\u201d\n\nAnd three days after this the priest who had insulted the goddess died.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn a single incident this tale recalls that of Falkenstein, one of the\nsynonyms of the wild huntsman in Germany, of whom it is said that as he\npassed by, a reckless fellow wished him luck, whereupon he heard the\nwords, \u201cThou hast wished me luck; thou shalt share the game;\u201d whereat\nthere was thrown to him a great piece of carrion. And soon after he\ndied. {78b} But the true plot of this narrative is the conduct of the\ngoddess Diana, who rewards the children for their worship and punishes\nthe priest for his sacrilege.\n\nAnd, noting the sincere spirit of heathenism which inspires many of these\nlegends, the belief in _folletti_ and _fate_, and curiously changed forms\nof the gods of Gr\u00e6co-Roman mythology, still existing among the peasants,\nit is worth inquiring whether, as the very practical Emperor Julian\nbelieved, a sincerely religious and moral spirit, under any form, could\nnot be adapted to the progress of humanity? The truth is that as the\nheathen gods are one and all, to us, as something theatrical and unreal,\nwe think they must have been the same to their worshippers. Through all\nthe Renaissance to the present day the pretended appreciation and worship\nof classic deities, and with them of classic art and mythology, reminds\none of the French billiard-player Berger, who, when desirous of making a\nvery brilliant exhibition of his skill, declared that he would invoke the\ngod of billiards! They may seem beautiful, but they are dead relics, and\nthe worst is that no one realizes now that they ever really lived, moved,\nand had a being in the human heart. And yet the Italian witch still has\na spark of the old fire.\n\nDiana Artemis is known to poets and scholars in certain varied characters\nthus summed up by Browning:\n\n \u201cI am a Goddess of the ambrosial courts,\n And save by Here, Queen of Pride, surpassed\n By none whose temples whiten this the world.\n Through Heaven I roll my lucid moon along;\n I shed in Hell o\u2019er my pale people peace;\n On Earth, I, caring for the creatures, guard\n Each pregnant yellow wolf and fox-bitch sleep,\n And every feathered mother\u2019s callow brood,\n And all that love green haunts and loneliness\n Of men; the chaste adore me.\u201d\n\nBut to her only believers and worshippers now left on earth\u2014such as\nMaddalena\u2014Diana is far more than this, for she is the queen of all\nwitchcraft, magic, sorcery, the mistress of all the mysteries, of all\ndeep knowledge, and therefore the greatest of the goddesses\u2014all the rest,\nin fact, except Venus and Bacchus, who only exist in oaths, being now\nwell-nigh forgotten and unknown to them.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE SPIRIT OF MIRTH.\n\n\n \u201c\u2019Tis an ancient tale that a boy for laughing at Ceres was turned\n into a stone. For truly too much merriment hardens us all.\u201d\u2014_Comment\n on L. M. Brusonii_ \u2018_Faceti\u00e6_.\u2019\n\nIn ancient times there lived in Florence a young lord who was very\nbeautiful, and ever merry\u2014and no wonder, because he was _Il Dio della\nAllegria_\u2014the God of Mirth\u2014himself.\n\nHe was greatly beloved, not only by his friends, but by all the people,\nbecause he was always so joyous, kind-hearted, and very charitable.\n\nEvery evening this spirit-lord went with his friends to the theatre, or\nto his parties (_al circolo_), and the name by which he was known was\nEustachio. All awaited with impatience his arrival, for with it the\nmerriment began, and when he came there was a joyous shout of \u201cEvviva il\nDio dell\u2019 Allegria!\u201d\n\nIt came to pass that in a theatre Eustachio met with a girl, a singer, of\nsuch marvellous beauty and wit, that he fell, like one lost, in love with\nher; which love being reciprocated, he took her to himself, and kept her\nin a magnificent home, with many fine attendants, and all that heart\ncould desire. In those days every signore in Florence thus had an\n_amante_, and there was great rivalry among them as to who should keep\nhis favourite in the best style\u2014_con pi\u00f9 di lusso_. And this lady so\nbeloved by Eustachio, was not only the most beautiful, but the most\nmagnificently entertained of any or all in the city.\n\nNow, one evening there was a grand festival in a _palazzo_, where there\nwas dancing and gay conversation, Eustachio being as usual present, for\nall his love for his lady did not keep him from the world, or making\nmirth for all. And as they diverted themselves or sung to music, there\nentered a group of young lords, among whom was Virgilio, the great poet.\n{80}\n\nThen Eustachio rose and began to clap his hands and cry, \u201c_Evviva_! Long\nlive the great poet!\u201d and those who were at table ceased to eat, and\nthose who were dancing left the dance with their partners, and all in\nwelcome cried, \u201c_Evviva il gran poeta_!\u201d\n\nThen Eustachio begged Virgilio to sing, and the poet did so, for there\nwas no one who would have refused anything to Eustachio, so winning were\nhis ways.\n\nSo Virgil made him the subject of his song, telling in pleasing verse how\nfree he was from care, ever laughing like sunshine, ever keeping himself\nfree from thought, which kills joy and brings sorrow.\n\nAnd Eustachio, singing and laughing, said that it was because he was ever\namong friends who banished thought, and so kept away melancholy.\n\nThen Virgil, still softly singing, asked him whether, if he should lose\nhis lady-love, he would not be melancholy for a time, despite the\nconsolations of friends and relations.\n\nEustachio replied that he would indeed regret the loss, and it would make\nhim sad for a time, but not as a settled grief or incurable sorrow, for\nthat all things pass away, every night hath its morning, after every\ndeath new life, when the sea has sunk to its lowest ebb then it rises,\nand that he who knows this can never know trouble.\n\nVirgil ended the dialogue of song by saying that he who believes he can\nnever be sad knows not what sorrow and trials are, that grief must come\nsome time or other to all, even to the God of Mirth himself, and offered\nto make a wager of a banquet for all present, if he could not within two\nweeks\u2019 time cause Eustachio to know what grief, and a melancholy which\nshould seem incurable, was like.\n\nEustachio assented, and said he would add a thousand gold crowns to the\nbet.\n\nThere was a statue named Peonia to whom Virgil had given life; and going\nto her, who was now as other women, he said:\n\n\u201cI can give life to a statue, but how to change a human being to marble\nis beyond my power; I pray thee, tell me how I may turn into an image,\nsuch as thou wert, this beautiful girl whom Eustachio adores.\u201d\n\nAnd Peonia, smiling, replied: \u201cBefore thou didst come hither I knew thy\nthought and thy purpose. Lo! here I have prepared a bouquet of flowers\nof such intense magic perfume that it will make Eustachio love to\nmadness, as he never did before; but when his mistress inhales the\nperfume she will become a statue.\u201d\n\nAnd as she bid he did, and placed the bouquet in the lady\u2019s chamber, and\nwhen she smelt at it she became a statue, and sat holding the flowers.\nAnd Eustachio seeing her sitting there in the dim twilight, knew not the\ntruth, but also smelt of the perfume, and became more in love than man\ncan dream, but when he found that the lady was petrified he was well-nigh\nmad with grief, nor could anyone console him. And this passed into an\niron-like melancholy, nor would he leave the room where the statue sat.\n\nNow, the friends of all, though they well knew that Virgilio had done\nthis, still remembered that he had mighty and mysterious power, and then,\nthinking over the wager, concluded that he had been in some manner in the\naffair. So they went to him, praying that he would do something to keep\nEustachio from madness or death.\n\nThen Virgilio, the great master, went to the room where Eustachio sat in\nprofound grief by the statue, and said, with a smile, \u201c_Caro giovane_ (My\ndear youth), I have won my wager, and expect to see thee this evening in\nthe hall at the banquet and dance, bringing the thousand crowns.\u201d\n\n\u201cDear Virgilio,\u201d answered Eustachio, \u201cgo to my parents or friends, and\nreceive thy gold, and assemble them all to banquet or to dance; but do\nnot expect me, for from this room I never more will stir.\u201d\n\nThen Virgilio, gently removing the magic bouquet from the hand of the\nstatue, stepped to the window and threw it down into the street\u2014when lo!\nthe lady flushed into life, and with a laugh asked them what they were\nall doing there? And then Eustachio burst out laughing for joy, and they\ndanced in a circle round Virgilio. Eustachio paid down the thousand\ncrowns, which Virgil gave as a wedding present to the bride\u2014for of course\nthere was a wedding, and a grander banquet than ever. But though he was\nthe God of Mirth himself, Eustachio never declared after this that he\nwould or could never mourn or think of grief.\n\n * * * * *\n\nWhat is remarkable in this tale is the confusion between the conception\nof the hero as a spirit, or the God of Mirth, and his social condition as\na young Italian gentleman about town. It is this transition from the god\nto the popular hero, a mere mortal, which forms the subject of Heine\u2019s\n\u201cGods in Exile.\u201d\n\nThere is another Florentine legend, in which this god appears by the more\nappropriate name _Momo_, evidently _Momus_, in which a young lord who had\nnever laughed in his life is made merry for ever by having presented to\nhim the image of a laughing goblin, which one of his peasants had dug up\nin a ruin. Whenever he looks at it, he bursts into a roar of laughter,\nwhich has the effect of changing his character very much for the better.\n\nWhat is perhaps most significant in this tale is the name _Peonia_.\nP\u00e6onia in classic mythology was Minerva, as a healing goddess. As such,\nalone, she bears the serpent. Esculapius is termed by Claudian the\n_P\u00e6onio_\u2014dragon or snake. In reference to which I find the following in\nthe \u201cDizionario Mitologico\u201d:\n\n \u201c_Peonia_, an additional name of Minerva, worshipped . . . as\n guardian of health. Therefore she has for a tribute the serpent, as\n emblem of the art of healing. _Peonico_ was a surname of Apollo.\u201d\n\nWhen medicine was synonymous with magic, Peonia-Minerva would naturally\nappear as one familiar with occult arts. The changing to a statue and\nbeing revived from a statue to life is a very evident symbol of raising\nfrom death to life. \u00c6sculapius, who was the male equivalent of Peonia,\nrevived corpses. As Minerva and other deities were familiar to the\npeople as statues, in which there was believed to be a peculiar spirit or\nlife, we can readily understand how any image of a goddess was supposed\nto be at times revived.\n\nPeonia in our story works her miracle by means of flowers. This, if we\nare really dealing with an archaically old Italian tradition, is\nmarvellously significant. The _p\u0153onia_, or peony, or _rose de N\u00f4tre\nDame_, was believed in earliest Roman times to be _primus inter magnos_,\nthe very first and strongest of all floral amulets, or to possess the\ngreatest power in magic. This was due to its extreme redness, this\ncolour alone having great force to resist the evil eye and sorcery. The\nmost dreaded of all deities among the earliest Etrusco-Latin races was\nPicus, who appeared as a woodpecker, to which bird he had been changed by\nCirce. \u201cNam Picus, etiam rex, ab eadem Circe virga tactus, in volucrem\npicum evolavit,\u201d as Tritonius declares. When people dug for treasure\nwhich was guarded by this dreaded bird, he slew them unless they bore as\na protecting amulet the root of the peony. But there is a mass of\ntestimony to prove that the _p\u00e6onia_, or peony, was magical. Many\nclassic writers, cited by Wolf in his work on amulets, 1692, declare its\nroot drives away phantasms and demons. It was held, according to the\nsame writer, that the same root protected ships from storms and houses\nfrom lightning. It is true that this writer evidently confuses the peony\nwith the poppy, but the former was from earliest times strong in all\nsorcery.\n\nIt is also curious that, in old tradition, Pygmalion the sculptor is\nrepresented as indifferent to women. Venus punishes him by making him\nfall in love with a statue. Eustachio, the Spirit of Mirth, declares\nthat the death of his love would not cause him deep grief and for this\nP\u00e6onia and Virgil change the lady into a marble image. It is the very\nsame story, but with the plot reversed.\n\nPeonia, or peony, regarded as the poppy, since the two very similar\nplants were beyond question often confused, had a deep significance as\nlulling to sleep\u2014a synonym for death, a reviving force\u2014and it was also an\nemblem of love and fertility (Pausanias, II., 10). Peonia lulls the lady\nto sleep with flowers, that is, into a statue.\n\nI do not regard it as more than _probable_, but I think it possible that\nin this story we have one of the innumerable _novelle_ or minor myths of\nthe lesser gods, which circulated like fairy-tales among the Latin\npeople, of which only a small portion were ever written down. That there\nwere many of these not recorded by Ovid, and other mythologists, is very\ncertain, for it is proved by the scraps of such lore which come to light\nin many authors and casual inscriptions. It requires no specially keen\nimagination, or active faculty of association, to observe that in this,\nand many other legends which I have collected and recorded, there are\nbeyond question very remarkable relics of old faith and ancient\ntradition, drawn from a source which has been strangely neglected, which\nneglect will be to future and more enlightened antiquaries or historians\na source of wonder and regret.\n\nA certain Giovanni Maria Turrini, in a collection of odds and ends\nentitled \u201cSelva di Curiosit\u00e1,\u201d Bologna, 1674, declares that \u201cthe peony,\nif patients be touched with it, cures them of epilepsy, which results\nfrom the influence of the sun, to which this plant is subject, the same\neffect resulting from coral.\u201d Here we also have the restoring to life or\nreason, as if from death; that is to say, from a fit or swoon. Truly,\nthe ancients did not know botany as we do, but there was for them far\nmore poetry and wonder in flowers.\n\nSome time after all the foregoing was written I found\u2014truly to my great\nastonishment\u2014that in a novel by Xavier Montepin there is a student named\nVirgil, who has a mistress named Pivoine\u2014the title of the book\u2014which word\nis in Latin _P\u00e6onia_. This, according to the kind of criticism which is\nnow extensively current, would settle the whole business, and determine\n\u201cthe undoubted original.\u201d I believe it to be a mere chance coincidence\nof names\u2014strange, indeed, but nothing more. For, in the first place, I\nam sure that my collector or her informants are about as likely to have\nread the _Sohar_, or \u201cBook of Light,\u201d or Hegel\u2019s \u201cCyclop\u00e6dia,\u201d as any\nnovel whatever. But the great part of what is curious in my narrative is\nnot that Virgil loves P\u00e6onia, but that P\u00e6onia-Minerva depresses people\nto, or _raises them from_, _death by means of flowers_. Very clearly in\nthe Italian tale, as in others, Virgil is a physician, and P\u00e6onia is his\ncounterpart, of all which there is no hint in the French novel.\n\nSo it once befell that in a very strange Italian tale of Galatea, the\nSpirit of the White Pebble, there was a narrative agreeing in _names_\nwith one in a romance by Eugene Sue. But on carefully examining the\naccount of the Virgins of Sen, given by Pomponius Mela (Edition 1526, p.\n34, for which purpose I expressly purchased the book), I found that the\nlegend, as known to Maddalena, and also to an old woman whom she did not\nknow, contained the main element as given by Mela, which is _not_ to be\nfound in the French story, namely, the transmigration of the soul or\nmetamorphosis into different forms. The Latin writer states that such\nenchantresses are called Gallicenas. Now, there was at one time a great\ninfusion of Celtic blood into Northern Italy, and if it was in\ncorrespondence with the Gauls, it _may_ possibly be that the story of Sen\nand Galatea of the White Stone passed all round.\n\nIt may be observed, however, that there may linger among French peasants\nsome legend of Virgil and Pivoine, or P\u00e6onia, which Montepin had picked\nup, and should this be so, doubtless there is some folklorist who can\nconfirm it. This is far more likely than that my authority took the\nnames from a French novel.\n\nThe Spirit of Mirth in this story has really nothing in common with\nMomus, who was, in fact, the God of Sneering, or captious, petty\ncriticism of the kind which objects to great and grand or beautiful\nsubjects, because of small defects. The Virgilian spirit is that of the\nminor rural gods, or the daughters of the dawn, who were all smiling\nsub-forms of the laughing Venus. These play the principal part in the\nmythology of the Tuscan peasantry. This spirit differs from that of\nMomus as an angel from a devil.\n\nPsellus held that there was a soul in all statues.\n\nThat the God of Mirth, or Laughter, is in this tale also a gay young\ncavalier in Florentine society is paralleled or outdone by Chaucer in the\n\u201cManciple\u2019s Tale,\u201d in which Apollo is described as follows:\n\n \u201cWhan Phebus dwelled here in erth adoun,\n As old\u00e9 bookes maken mentioun,\n He was the most\u00e9 lusty bacheler\n Of all this world, and eke the best archer. . . .\n Thereto he was the semelieste man\n That is or was sithen the world began.\u201d\n\nThat is, this \u201cflour of bachelerie as well in fredom as in chivalrie\u201d was\nsimply human while here below, having \u201ca wif which that he loved more\nthan his lif.\u201d Chaucer wrote this evidently with conscious humour of the\nna\u00efve paradox by which those of his age could thus confuse gods and\ncommon mortals, even as a Red Indian vaguely confuses the great beaver or\nwolf with a human being. It is a curious reflection that, at the present\nday in Italy, there are believers in the old gods who regard the latter\nin the same way, as half divine and half like other folk.\n\n\n\n\nNERO AND SENECA.\n\n\n \u201cThis Seneka, of which that I devise,\n Because Nero had of him swich\u00e9 drede,\n For he fro vices wold him ay chastise\n Discretely, as by word, and not by dede.\n \u2018Sire,\u2019 he wold say, \u2018an Emperor mote nede\n Be vertuous, and haten tyrannie.\u2019\n For which he made him in a bathe to blede\n On both his arm\u00e8s till he must\u00e8 die.\u201d\n\n CHAUCER: _The Monke\u2019s Tale_: _Nero_.\n\n \u201cGi\u00e0 tra le infamie delle regie sale\n Due uomini vedevansi soltanto\n A cui volera orribilmente male,\n Questo amatore delle stragi, e pianto,\n Uno di questi \u00e8 Seneca, ch\u2019 eguale\n In Roma non aver per nobil vanto\n Nelle dottrine di filosofia,\n E nel fare una bella poesia. . . .\n Nerone che non vuol d\u2019ogni folli\u00e1,\n Avere appreso un rigido censore,\n Fece morir, con modi scellerati,\n Tanto costui, che Seneca, svenati!\u201d\n\n _Storia di Nerone_: _A Florentine Halfpenny Ballad_.\n\n \u201cAlteri vivere oportet si vis tibi vivere.\u201d\n\n \u201cThou must live for others if thou wouldst live for thyself.\u201d\u2014\n\n SENECA: _Epistol\u00e6_.\n\nThere was once in Rome a young Emperor named Nerone. As a boy, he was by\nno means badly inclined, and it seemed for a long time as if he would\ngrow up into a great and good man.\n\nHe had a tutor or teacher named Seneco, {88} who was benevolent and wise\nbeyond all the men of his time, and he had such influence on the young\nNerone, that for two years the youth behaved well and did no harm to\nanyone.\n\nBut little by little he was led astray by courtiers who flattered and\ncorrupted him, and who of course did all they could to injure Seneco in\nhis esteem, saying that the sage was really an old knave, and that he was\nengaged in plots with the design of becoming Emperor himself. And the\nend of it all was that Nerone believed them.\n\nSo he sent a letter to Seneco, in which he declared that the time had\ncome for the old man to die; but that he might choose his own manner of\ndeath by suicide.\n\nSeneco, having read it, said: \u201cWhat an evil youth is this, of what a\ncorrupted heart! Well, infamous as the command is, I will die! But I\nwill leave him a legacy which shall be his ruin.\u201d\n\nThus he wrote to Nerone:\n\n\u201cI will die this very day, but I leave you a gift which is more than a\nfortune. It is a book of magic and necromancy. If you wish for\nanything, be it the love of a woman or the death of a man, or his\ndisaster, or to destroy all Rome, you will find in the book spells by\nwhich it may be done.\u201d\n\nAnd when he knew that Nerone had the book, he went at once into a hot\nbath, and said to his surgeon:\n\n\u201cOpen my veins, so that I may bleed to death. I will die, but I know\nthat the Emperor will soon follow me.\u201d\n\nSo he died, and all Rome wept. {89a}\n\nThen Nerone read the book, and it seemed as if it were poisoned, for\nwhile reading it he perceived as it were an exhalation {89b} from hell.\n\nHe read in the book how to commit all crimes and sins, how to seize on\nfortunes, or rob whom he would, and learned from it all the secrets of\nlicentiousness\u2014_tutte cose voluttiose_\u2014and having finished it, he became\na veritable devil.\n\nHe collected many lions and tigers, and all kinds of terrible wild\nbeasts, and then drove among them all the Christians and saints in Rome,\nand they were devoured by the beasts. Then he took the fortunes of all\nthe rich men, {89c} and decreed that all the women in the city were his\nwives. After which he every day debauched them in the open streets\nbefore their husbands, and likewise ordained that all men and women\nshould do the same openly. And he committed even more infamous deeds in\npublic places, with an orchestra, saying it was best to make love to the\nsound or accompaniment of music.\n\nAnd one day, to make a scene in an opera, he (set fire to and) burned all\nRome.\n\nThen the people made a revolution, and drove him out of his palace. It\nis said that this palace was all gilded. (_Era tutto dorato_.)\n\nIn a public square was a statue of Seneco, and it was of marble. So the\npeople in a rage drove Nerone before them until, utterly weary and\nexhausted, he fell down at the foot of the statue of Seneco. And\nbeholding the image of his tutor, Nerone cried:\n\n\u201c_Tu mi vincesti_, _tu mi inperasti_\u2014Thou hast conquered, O Seneco; thou\nhast prevailed over me, and had thy revenge! And accursed be the day in\nwhich thou didst send me the book which gave me the power to have all\nwhich I desired!\u201d\n\nAnd all who were present were astonished when they heard the statue\nreply:\n\n\u201cI am avenged, and thou art punished.\u201d\n\nThen a butcher struck him heavily; he gave him a death-wound with an axe,\nand Nerone, dying, said:\n\n\u201cIf thou hast no shame for having killed an Emperor, thou shouldst at\nleast blush at having put to death the best actor in Rome!\u201d\n\nThen the ground opened, and there came forth the flame and thunder of\nhell, with many devils who howled. . . .\n\nAnd so did Nero die, who was the most infamous king {90} who ever lived\nin this world since it was a world.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThough there are so many authentic traits of the Emperor Nero in this\ntradition, the reader is not to infer from them that she who wrote it has\nhad access to a copy of Suetonius. There is a \u201chalfpenny dreadful,\u201d or\n_sou_ shocker, entitled the \u201cLife of Nero\u201d\u2014_Vita di Nerone_\u2014published by\nAdriano Salani, the Catnach of Florence, Via Militare, No. 24 (No. 107 on\nhis catalogue), to say nothing of other halfpenny classical works, such\nas the \u201cStory of the Proud Emperor,\u201d \u201cThe Empress Flavia,\u201d and the \u201cTale\nof Pyramus and Thisbe,\u201d which, as they are to be found on many open-air\nstands, may account for a great deal of such learning in the popular\nmind. One may meet daily in Italy with marvellous proof in many forms of\nwhat a strange, curious, confused mass of old Latin lore still lingers\namong the people, and the marvellous contrast which it presents to what\nthe common folk read and reflect over in other lands. But Nero would be\nmost likely to be remembered, because he is frequently mentioned or\ndescribed in popular Lives of the Saints as a great maker of martyrs, and\ncaster of them unto lions.\n\nThis does not belong to the cycle of Virgilian tales, but it was sent to\nme as one from Siena. To my collector it was all one, so that it\nreferred to a magician, and had the idea occurred to the writer, the name\nof Virgilio would have been substituted for that of Seneca. Doubtless in\ntheir time, since they began life in India, or Egypt, or Arabia, these\nlegends have borne many names, and been as garments to the memory of many\nsages\u2014even as Buddha in his Jatakas was the first of a line which has\nended in the heroes of European nurseries.\n\nThe halfpenny, or _soldo_, or _sou_ ballad of Nero, to which I have\nreferred, is too curious as illustrating the remarkable knowledge of\nclassical antiquity still current among the Italian people, to be lightly\npassed by. Its title-page is as follows:\n\n \u201cStoria di Nerone, dove si narrano, le Stragi, i Delitti, le\n Persecuzioni e gli Incendi commessi da questo infame Tiranno in\n Roma\u201d\u2014\u201cHistory of Nero; in which is told the Murders and Crimes\n committed by this Infamous Tyrant in Rome.\u201d\n\nThis poem and others of the same stamp are quite as barbarously\nclassic-medi\u00e6val or Romanesque as anything in any of these stories of\nVirgilio, and if I cite it, it is to give a clear idea of the remarkable\ndegree to which strange traditions, and very ancient legends or\n\u201clearning,\u201d have lingered among the people. I really cannot understand\nwhy this marvellous survival of old Latin romance, and this spirit of the\nDark Ages among the people, attracts so little attention among literary\npeople, and especially Italians. For it certainly indicates to any\nthinking mind the survival of a great deal of classic tradition which has\nnever been recorded.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND CICERO.\n\n\n \u201cMagic is genius most mysterious,\n And poetry is genius passed to form,\n And these allied give birth to Eloquence;\n For never yet was there an orator\n Who did not owe his best to Poetry.\u201d\u2014C. G. L.\n\nThere was once a young man named Cicero, who was a student with Virgil,\nand who, being poor, served the great magician in all things.\n\nWhen Christmas came, with the New Year, Virgil, being well pleased with\nhis fidelity, resolved to make a handsome gift to Cicero, and so said:\n\n\u201c_Che vuoi_? What wilt thou have?\u201d\n\n\u201cI would like,\u201d replied young Cicero, \u201cto be master of the art of\nspeech\u201d\u2014_Il dono di parlar bene_.\n\n\u201cWould you not prefer wealth?\u201d asked Virgil.\n\n\u201cHe who hath a ready tongue can have his will mid old or young,\u201d answered\nCicero; \u201cand as the proverb says:\n\n \u201cChi ha eloquenza,\n Ad ogni cosa ha pretenza.\u201d\n\n \u201cHe who hath but eloquence\n Hath unto everything pretence.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut do not forget,\u201d remarked Virgil, \u201cthat amiable speech is courteous\nand refined. And remember to always speak well of women\u2014everywhere.\u201d\n\n \u201cIf it be false, or if it be true,\n Speak gently of women, whatever you do.\u201d\n\nAfter a while Cicero, wanting change of life or to try his fortune, left\nVirgil and Rome, going first to Florence and then to Ravenna, where his\nparents dwelt.\n\nSo ever travelling on afoot, he came one night to a solitary place among\nrocks in a forest, where he saw at some distance a ruined castle. And\nentering, hoping to find a place to sleep, he was astonished to perceive\na light, and going further, came into a spacious hall, where, seated at a\ntable, were six gentlemen and a lady, all of them far more beautiful and\nmagnificent in every respect than ordinary mortals, especially the lady,\nwho, as Cicero thought, surpassed all women whom he had ever seen, as the\nmoon outshines the stars.\n\n\u201c_Salve Domine_!\u201d exclaimed the scholar; \u201cand excuse my intrusion, since\nI did not expect to find company here, though I would have indeed come\nmany a day\u2019s journey, had I known of it, to behold such handsome and\nbrilliant cavaliers, and such a marvel of beauty as yon lady, as all the\nworld would do.\u201d\n\n\u201cThou hast a smooth tongue and a sweet gift of speech,\u201d replied the lady,\nwith a smile; \u201cand I not only thank thee for the whole company, but\ninvite thee to sup with us, and lodge here, and be most welcome.\u201d\n\nSo they supped gaily; and Cicero, who from the company of Virgil and his\nfriends and the court was familiar with the world, was amazed, and\nwondered who these marvellous people could be. At last he chanced to\nask:\n\n\u201cWhat day of the week is this?\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly you can here take your choice,\u201d replied the lady, with a laugh.\n\u201cBut of all the days of the week, which do you prefer?\u201d\n\n\u201cFriday,\u201d replied Cicero; \u201cbecause it is the only one which bears a\nwoman\u2019s name or that of Venus. _Evviva Venere_, _evviva le donne_!\n\n \u201cHurrah for Venus, whate\u2019er befall!\n Long life unto love, and to ladies all!\u201d\n\n\u201cThis youth has a tongue of gold and honey,\u201d said the lady. \u201cAnd what do\nyou think of the other days of the week?\u201d\n\n\u201cOther people do not think much about them in any way,\u201d replied Cicero.\n\u201cBut that is not the case with me. To me they are all saints and gods.\n_Domenica_ is a holy name, which praises the Lord. _Giovedi_ (Tuesday)\nis the day of Jove, and that is a glorious name. _Evviva Giove_! So it\nis with them all; and were I rich enough, I would build a temple to the\ndays of the week wherein to worship them.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat money shall not be wanting, O thou happy man!\u201d replied the lady.\n\u201cKnowest thou who we are? We are the Seven Days of the Week; and for\nwhat thou hast said of me, every Friday thou shalt find a hundred gold\ncrowns under thy pillow. And when thou needest any special favour, then\npray to us all.\u201d\n\nAnd as he heard the last word Cicero fell asleep. When he awoke he was\nalone in the ruin, but by him was a purse with one hundred crowns in\ngold.\n\nThen in time Cicero built the temple, as he had promised, to Venus, and\nin it he placed all the images of the seven gods. Then whoever wanted a\nfavour invoked those deities, as indeed did Cicero when he needed aught;\nand those gods were the seven youths, and those youths whom he had found\nin the hall were the days of the week.\n\nThen for a time Cicero lived in happiness. But something came to disturb\nit, for one morning he saw at a window near by a young lady of such\nmarvellous beauty that he was as if enchanted, nor was she less pleased\nwith him.\n\n\u201cTell me, thou splendid star,\u201d said Cicero, \u201cthe very truth now passing\nin thy mind. Dost thou love me?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn very truth,\u201d she replied, \u201cI do love thee. O Cicero, but thou lovest\nonly to lose, for this day I am to leave Rome never to return, unless\nthou canst by some miracle so manage it as to prevent the journey, and\nkeep me here!\u201d\n\nThen Cicero went to the Temple of the Days and conjured them thus:\n\n \u201cLunedi e Marte! (Martedi.)\n Fai che la stella mia non parta!\n Mercurio e Giove!\n Fai che la stella non mova!\u201d\n\n \u201cMonday and Tuesday,\n I pray you cause my love to remain!\n Wednesday and Thursday,\n Let her not move!\n Venus, thou who art the fairest day,\n The one whom I most adore!\n Thou who hast put me in the way of wealth,\n And unto whom I truly built a temple,\n As I did promise in the bygone time,\n And as thou thyself didst promise,\n That if I needed aught, and came to thee,\n My wishes should be granted, now I pray\n To Venus and to Saturn\u2014Saturday,\n That as I have no peace, and none can know,\n Till I have won the maid, give her to me!\n And thou, O Sunday, when the wedding comes,\n I pray thee give her to me with thy hand!\u201d\n\nThen a voice from the depth of the temple replied:\n\n \u201cBecause thou hast spoken so well,\n What thou hast asked is granted;\n She whom thou lovest\n Is not of the race of men;\n She is an enchantress,\n Born of Venus, who loves her,\n Venus, who bent her to love thee;\n The grace is granted:\n Wed and be happy!\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis pretty and fanciful, or strange, tale recalls that in the\n\u201cPentamerone\u201d of Gianbattista Basile, the Neapolitan, in which a young\nman meets the Twelve Months in human form, and pleases March by speaking\nwell of him. In this story the hero is a famed orator, who not only\npossesses the _gaber_\u2014or \u201cgift of the gab\u201d\u2014but of whom we are told how he\ncame by it, namely, from Virgil, whose verse has indeed for ages wakened\neloquence in many hearts.\n\nThe days of the week in English are derived as follows:\n\nSunday Sun day.\nMonday Moon day.\nTuesday Tuisco\u2019s day.\nWednesday Woden or Odin\u2019s day.\nThursday Thor\u2019s day.\nFriday Frey\u2019s day.\nSaturday Seater\u2019s day.\n\nAccording to this, Friday is the luckiest day, because Frey was the god\nwho gave good fortune, and Freya, his female counterpart, was the\nNorthern Venus. The Italian names with their gods correspond to ours, as\nthe deities of the North resembled those of the Latin pantheon. As this\nis an interesting subject, I take from the Italian\nHistorical-Mythological Dictionary the following:\n\n \u201c_Settimana_ is a time composed of seven days. Dion Cassius asserts\n that the Egyptians were the first to divide time into periods of\n seven days, and that it was suggested by the seven planets. However,\n the ancients in this did not follow the rule, since in that case we\n should have had Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and\n the Moon. Saturday, Sabato, is derived from Saturn, who ruled the\n first hour.\u201d\n\nIt was, in fact, from the disposition of the _hours_ that the days of the\nweek received their names; hence the transposition of names, as is very\ningeniously worked out by the author.\n\nIt is almost amusing to observe that in this, as in all tales coming from\na witch source, the incantations, though not at all necessary to the\nstory, are given with scrupulous care.\n\nTo the reader who would seriously study Cicero, yet in a deeply\ninteresting form, I commend \u201cCicero and his Friends,\u201d by Gaston Bussier\n(London: A. D. Innes and Co., 1897). According to this genial and\nvigorous French writer, there is a great deal of mystery as to the manner\nin which the noble orator acquired the money to purchase estates and\nvillas, when he was notoriously devoid of income. It is true that a\ngreat deal of public money was passing through his hands just then, but\nas he was as incorruptible and pure as an average American senator, of\ncourse _this_ cannot account for his acquisitions. Here the legend comes\nto our aid and meets the difficulty. Having the Seven Days to draw upon,\nwhich probably means infinite extension of time and renewal of his notes,\nthe great Roman, borrowing, like his friend C\u00e6sar, by millions, got along\nvery comfortably. In fact, they borrowed so much that all Rome was\ninterested in their prosperity, and helped to make them rich that they\nmight pay.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE GODDESS VESTA.\n\n\n \u201cPut out the light, and then\u2014put out the light!\u201d\n\n \u201cUt inquit Hecateus in Genealogiis: Enim vero c\u00f9m _du\u00e6_ essent Vest\u00e6,\n per antiquiorem Saturni matrem; terram; at per juniorem ignem purum\n \u00e6theris significarunt.\u201d\u2014_Mythologia Natalis Comitis_, A.D. 1616.\n\nMany centuries have passed since there was (worshipped) in Florence a\ngoddess who was the great spirit of virtue and chastity, (yet) when a\nmaid had gone astray she always devoted herself to worship the beautiful\nAvesta, as this deity was called, and the latter never failed in such\ncase to get her devotee out of the difficulty. Her temple was that\nbuilding which is now called the Baptistery of Saint John, and she was\nthe goddess of light, as of candles, torches, and all that illuminates.\nAnd Avesta was, as I have said, known as the deity of virtue, albeit many\nof the people shrugged their shoulders when they heard this, being\nevidently strongly inclined to doubt, but they said nothing for fear of\npunishment.\n\nFor it was rumoured that Avesta had many lovers, and that in the rites of\nher religion there were secrets too dark to discover, and that as\neverything in her worship was involved in mystery and carried on\noccultly, it followed, of course, that it involved something wrong. And\nit was observed that once a month many women who worshipped her met in\nher temple by night, and that they were accompanied by their lovers, who\nwith them adored the goddess in the form of a large lighted lamp. But\nthat when this rite was at an end and the multitude had departed, there\nremained unnoted a number, by whom the doors were closed and the light\nextinguished, when a general orgy ensued, no one knowing who the others\nmight be. {98a} And it was from this came the saying which is always\nheard when two lovers are seated together by a light and it goes out,\nthat Avesta did it. {98b}\n\nThere was in Florence a young lord who loved a lady of great beauty. But\nshe had a bitter rival, who to cross their love had recourse to sorcery\nor witchcraft, and so \u201cbound\u201d or cast on him a spell which weakened his\nvery life, and made him impotent and wretched, that his very heart seemed\nto be turned to water.\n\nAnd this spell the witch worked by taking a padlock and locking it,\nsaying:\n\n \u201cChiudo la catena,\n Ma non chiudo la catena,\n Chiudo il corpo e l\u2019anima\n Di questo bel signor ingrato,\n Chi non ha voluto,\n Corrispondermi in amore, {98c}\n Ha preferito un\u2019 altra a me,\n E questa io l\u2019odio\n Come odio la signorina,\n Pure catena che incateni\n Tanti diavoli tieni!\n Tengo incatenata questo signor\n Fino a mio comando\n Che nessuno la possa disciogliere\n E incatenato possa stare,\n Fino che non si decidera\n Di sposarmi. . . .\u201d\n\n \u201cNow here I close the lock,\n Yet \u2019tis not a lock which I close;\n I shut the body and soul\n Of this ungrateful lord,\n Who would not meet my love,\n But loves another instead,\n Another whom I hate,\n Whom I here lock and chain\n With devil\u2019s power again.\n I hold this man fast bound\n That none shall set him free\n Until I so command,\n And bound he shall remain\n Till he will marry me.\u201d\n\nOne day Virgil was passing the Piazza del Duomo, when he met with the\nyoung man who had thus been bound or bewitched, and the victim was so\npale and evidently in terrible suffering, that the great poet and\nmagician, who was ever pitying and kind, was moved to the heart, and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cFair youth, what trouble have you, that you seem to be in such\nsuffering?\u201d\n\nThe young man replied that he, being in love unto life and death, had\nbeen bewitched by some malignant sorcery.\n\n\u201cThat I can well see,\u201d replied the sage, \u201cand I am glad that it will be\nan easy thing for me to cure you. Go thou into a field which is just\nbeyond Fiesole, in a place among the rocks. There thou wilt find a flat\nstone bearing a mark. Lift it, and beneath thou wilt find a padlock and\nchain. Take this golden key: it is enchanted, for with it thou canst\nopen any lock in the world of door or chain. {99} Keep the lock, open\nit, and then go to the Temple of Vesta and return thanks with prayer, and\nwait for what will come.\u201d\n\nSo the young man did as Virgil had told him, and among the rocks found\nthe stone and the padlock, and went to the Temple of Avesta, where he\nopened the lock and made the prayer to the goddess, which having done, he\nfell asleep, and no one beheld him.\n\nAnd while he was there the young lady entered the Baptistery to worship\nAvesta, to offer her devotions, which being ended, she sat down and also\nfell into a deep sleep, and no one observed her.\n\nBut later in the night, when the doors were closed and the light\nextinguished, and the worshippers who remained were calling \u201cAvesta!\u201d the\ntwo sleepers who were side by side were awakened by a rustling of silk,\nand this was caused by the dress of the goddess, who roused them. And\nthe young man found himself restored to vigorous health and unwonted\npassion, and quickly noting that a lady was by him, and carried away by\nfeelings beyond his control, embraced and kissed her\u2014nor did she indeed\nresist, for the will of Avesta was on them both. But noting that the\nlady had a silk handkerchief {100} partly out of her pocket, he adroitly\nstole it, putting in its place his own, and so with a kiss he left her,\nneither knowing who the other was. But on awaking, as if it were from a\ndream or a delirium, the lady was overcome with shame and grief, and\ncould only think that madness or magic had overcome her reason, to cause\nher to yield as she had done. For this morning she felt more\npassionately in love with her betrothed than she had ever done before,\nand this was because the spell which had bound her was broken with the\nopening of the padlock.\n\nBut what was the astonishment of the lover, who was also restored to all\nhis health and strength, when in the morning he looked at the\nhandkerchief which he had carried away and found embroidered on it the\narms and name of his love! So he went to visit her, and his greeting\nwas:\n\n\u201cSignorina, have you lost a handkerchief?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot that I know of,\u201d replied the lady, amazed.\n\n\u201cLook at the one in your pocket, and then at _this_,\u201d was his laughing\nreply.\n\nShe did so, and understanding all in an instant, cried out in shame and\nhorror, while she became at first like blood and then milk. Then the\ngentleman said:\n\n\u201cIt seems to me, Signorina, that we must by mistake have exchanged\nhandkerchiefs last night in the dark, and no wonder, considering the\nfervency of our devotions. And since we have begun to worship and pray\nso devoutly, and have entered on such a good path, it were a pity for us\nto turn back, and therefore it were well for us to continue to travel on\nit hand in hand together. But I propose that instead of changing\npocket-handkerchiefs, we exchange rings before the altar and get\nmarried.\u201d\n\nThe lady laughed and replied:\n\n\u201cI accept with great pleasure, Signore, the handkerchief; just as the\nwomen in Turkey do when it is thrown to them. And you know the proverb:\n\n \u201c\u2018La donna chi prende\n Tosto si rende\n E poi si vende.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cShe who will take will give herself away,\n And she who gives will sell herself, they say.\u201d\n\n\u201cEven so will I sell mine for thine; but you must take the bargain on the\nnail, and the ball on the bound in the game of love.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d replied the young man; \u201cI do so with all my heart. But as for our\nhandkerchiefs, I now see that it is true that the peasant does not always\nknow what it is that he carries home in his bag from the mill. Thanks be\nto Avesta that we found such good flour in our sacks!\u201d\n\n\u201cTo Vesta and to Virgil be all praise!\u201d replied the lady. \u201cBut I think\nthat while we continue our daily worship in the temple, we will go there\nno longer by night. _Vi sono troppo donne devote nel buio_\u201d\u2014There are\ntoo many lady devotees there in the darkness.\n\n * * * * *\n\nAs a mere story this legend were as well left out, but it is one of a\nhundred as regards curious relics of mythologic and other lore. Firstly,\nbe it observed that a secret doctrine, or esoteric as opposed to exoteric\nteaching, was taught in all the mysteries of the gods. Diana, who is\nidentical with Vesta, Avesta, or Hestia, as a goddess of light by night\nand also of chastity, had her lovers in secret. What further identifies\nthe two is that in this tale girls who have got into trouble through\nlove, pray to Vesta, even as Roman maids did under similar circumstances\nspecially to Diana.\n\nThere is no historical proof whatever that the Baptistery was ever a\ntemple of Vesta, but there is very remarkable circumstantial evidence to\nthat effect which I have indicated in detail in an article in the\n_Architectural Review_. Both Vesta and Saint John were each in her or\nhis religion the special deities or incarnations of Light or Fire, and\nPurity or Chastity. The temples of Vesta were like those of Mars, and\nMars alone, either round, hexagonal, or square, to indicate the form\nattributed with variations to the world. The early tradition of all\nwriters on Florence speaks of the Baptistery of Saint John as having been\na temple of Mars, which legend the priests naturally endeavoured to deny,\nthinking it more devout and \u201cgenteel\u201d to attribute its erection to a\nChristian Empress.\n\nThe binding and rendering impotent by means of a padlock, and forty other\ndevices, to render married folk miserable, or lovers languid, was so\ncommon two centuries ago, that there is almost a literature, occult,\ntheological, and legal, on the subject. The Rabbis say it was invented\nby Ham, the son of Noah. The superstition was generally spread in Greece\nand Rome. It is still very commonly believed in and practised by witches\nall over Europe, and especially by gipsies and the Italian _strege_.\n\nWhat is above all to be remarked in this tale is that it recognises a\ndouble nature in Vesta\u2014one as a chaste goddess of fire, the other of a\nvoluptuous or generative deity, signified by extinguishing the lights.\nAnd this is precisely what the oldest writers declared, though it was\nquite forgotten in later times. As Natalis Comes declares, \u201cThere were\n_two_ Vestas, one by the first wife of Saturn, another by the younger\none, meaning the earth, the other fire,\u201d as Ovid witnesses, \u201cFastorum,\u201d\nlib. 6. In fact, there was a double or second to every one of the Greek\nor Etruscan gods. And this belief which was forgotten by the higher\nclasses remained among the people. And it may be specially noted that\nthe second Vesta was called the mother of the gods, as Strabo declares,\nand she was in fact the Venus of the primitive or Saturnian mythology.\n\n\n\n\nTHE STONE FISH, AND HOW VIRGIL MADE IT EATABLE.\n\n\n \u201cVirgille plus fu sap\u00efens\n Plus clerc, plus sage et plus sc\u00efens.\n Que nul a son temps vesquist,\n Et plus de grans merveilles fist\n Pour voir il fist de grans merveilles;\n Homs naturels ne fist pareilles.\u201d\n\n RENARS CONTREFAIS, A.D. 1319.\n\nIn the old times, when things were so different from what they are\nnow\u2014the blue bluer, the red redder, when the grains of maize were as big\nas grapes, and grapes as big as pomegranates, and pomegranates as big as\nmelons, and the Arno was always full of water, and the water so full of\nfine large fish that everybody had as many as he wanted for nothing, and\nthe sun and moon gave twice as much light\u2014there was, not far from Via\nReggio, a castle, and the signore who owned it was a great bandit, who\nrobbed all the country round, as all the gentlemen did in those times\nwhen they could, for it is true that with all the blessings of those days\nthey had some curses!\n\nOne day there passed by a poor fisherman with an ass, and on it was a\nvery large, wonderfully fine fish, a tunny, which was a load for the\nbeast, and which was intended for the good monks of an abbey hard by, to\nwhom the man hoped to sell it, partly for money and partly for blessings.\nWhen lo! he was met by Il Bandito, as the signore was called, and, as you\nmay suppose, the gentleman was not slow to seize the prey, which fell as\nit were like a roasted lark from heaven into his mouth. And to mock the\npoor fellow, the signore gave him a small bottle of wine to repay him.\n\nThen the fisherman in his despair cursed the Bandito to his face, saying:\n\n\u201cMay God forget and the devil remember thee, and as thou hast mocked my\npoverty, mayest thou pass centuries in worse suffering than ever was\nknown to the poorest man on earth.\n\n\u201cThou shalt live in groans and lamentations, thou accursed of God and\ndespised by the devil; thou shalt never have peace by day or night!\n\n\u201cThou shalt be in utter wretchedness till thou shalt see someone eat this\nfish.\n\n \u201c\u2018In pietra cambiato\n E in pietra sarai confinata.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cThyself a stone, as thou shalt find,\n And in a stone thou\u2019lt be confined,\n And the fish likewise a stone shall be\n Till someone shall eat it and set thee free!\u201d\n\nAnd as the poor man prophesied, it came to pass: the fish was changed\ninto a stone, and the signore into a statue. And the latter stood in a\ncorner of the dining-hall, and every day the fish was placed at dinner on\nthe table, but no one could eat it.\n\nSo three hundred years passed away, and the lord who had inherited the\ncastle had a beautiful daughter, who was beloved by a young signore named\nLuigi, who was in every way deserving of her, but whom the father\ndisliked on account of his family. So when he asked the father for her\nhand, the latter replied that he might have it when he should have eaten\nthe stone fish, and not till then. So the young man went away in grief.\n\nOne day, when this young gentleman was returning from the chase bearing\ntwo fine hares, he met Virgilio, who asked him to sell him one.\nWhereupon the young man replied: \u201cOh, take your pick of them, and\nwelcome; but say nothing about payment. Perhaps some day you may do as\nmuch for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d replied Virgilio, \u201cthat day may be nearer than you think. I\nnever make my creditors wait, nor let my debts run into arrears. What is\nthere on earth which you most desire?\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly it is something, signore, which I trow that neither you nor any\nman can render possible, for it is to eat the stone fish in the castle up\nthere.\u201d\n\n\u201cI think that it can be managed,\u201d replied Virgil, with a smile. \u201cTake\nthis silver box full of salt, and when the fish is before you, sprinkle\nthe salt on it, and it will grow tender and taste well, and you can eat\nit. But first say unto it:\n\n \u201c\u2018Se tu pesce sei fatto\n Da un uomo, pel suo atto,\n Rimane sempre come sei,\n Ma se tu sei scongiurato,\n O vere scongiurato,\n Non restare pietra\u2014ritorna come eri.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cFish, if once a man thou wert,\n Then remain e\u2019en as thou art!\n But if a fish, I here ordain\n That thou become a fish again.\u201d\n\nThen Luigi went to the castle, and was with much laughter placed before\nthe fish, and the signore asked him if he would have a hammer to carve it\nwith.\n\n\u201cNay, I will eat it after my own fashion,\u201d he replied. \u201cI do but beg\npermission to use my own salt, and say my own grace.\u201d\n\nThen he sprinkled the salt and murmured the incantation, when the fish\nbecame soft and savoury, as if well cooked, and Luigi ate of it, till the\nsignore of the castle was satisfied, and admitted that he had fulfilled\nthe conditions\u2014when lo! the fish became whole as before, and a stone\nagain.\n\nThen an old statue which was in the hall, in a corner of the wall, spoke\nand said:\n\n\u201cNow I am at peace, since the fish has been eaten.\n\n \u201c\u2018Dacche il pesce ha stato mangiato,\n Io non sono pi\u00f9 confinato.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd saying this, there went forth from the image a spirit-form, which\nvanished.\n\nThen Luigi wedded the young lady of the castle, and Virgilio, who was\npresent, promised the pair a happy life. And he said:\n\n\u201cThou wilt be, O Luigi, the beginner of a family or race which, like the\nHoly Church, will have been founded on a stone, and while the Church\nlasts thy name shall endure.\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe concluding paragraph refers to _pietra_, a stone, and to the text,\nwell known to the most ignorant Catholic, \u201cPetrus es et super hanc petram\nedificabo ecclesiam meam,\u201d whence it has been said that the Roman Church\nwas founded on a pun, to which the reply might be, \u201cAnd what if it was?\u201d\nsince there was no suspicion in early times that the pun, as a poetical\nform, might not be seriously employed in illustration. Dr. Johnson made\nthe silly assertion that a pun upon a proper name is the lowest kind of\nwit, in which saying there is\u2014as in many of his axioms\u2014more sound than\nsense; nor is it altogether reverent or respectful, when we reflect that\nboth Christ and Cicero used the despised figure of speech. In one of the\ntales in this collection the Emperor of Rome speaks of a wheat-bran\n(_tisane_) which had been ordered as \u201cpigs\u2019 broth,\u201d which was exactly the\nterm by which Cicero alluded to the Verrine law, which also bears that\nmeaning. As his adversary was a Jew, and the query was, \u201cWhat has a\nHebrew to do with pig-broth, or pork-soup?\u201d\u2014_i.e._, the law of Verres\u2014the\njoke, with all due deference to the law-giver Samuel, may be fairly\ncalled a very good one. {106}\n\n\n\n\nVIRGILIO AND THE BRONZE HORSE.\n\n\n \u201cThe horse of brass.\u201d\u2014MILTON.\n\n \u201cBut evermore their moste wonder was\n About this hors\u00e9, since it was of brass.\n It was of faerie as the peple seemed,\n Divers\u00e8 folk diversely han deemed.\u201d\n\n CHAUCER: _The Squiere\u2019s Tale_.\n\nOne day Virgilio went to visit the Emperor, and not finding him in his\nusual good temper, asked what was the matter, adding that he hoped it\nwould be in his power to do something to relieve him.\n\nThen the Emperor complained that what troubled him was that all his\nhorses seemed to be ill or bewitched, behaving like wild beasts, or as if\nevil spirits were in them, and that which grieved him most was that his\nfavourite white horse was most afflicted of all.\n\n\u201cDo not vex yourself for such a thing,\u201d replied Virgil. \u201cI will cure\nyour horses and all the others in the city.\u201d\n\nThen he caused to be made a beautiful horse of bronze, and it was so well\nmade that no one, unless by the will of Virgil (_senza il volere di\nVirgilio_), could have made the like. And whenever a horse which\nsuffered in any way beheld it, the animal was at once cured.\n\nAll the smiths and horse-doctors in Rome were greatly angered at this,\nbecause after Virgil made the bronze horse they had nothing to do. So\nthey planned to revenge themselves on him. And they all assembled in a\nvile place frequented by thieves and assassins, and there agreed to kill\nVirgil. Going to his house by night, they sought for him, but he\nescaped; so they, finding the bronze horse, broke it to pieces, and then\nfled.\n\nWhen Virgil returned and found the horse in fragments he was greatly\ngrieved, and said:\n\n\u201cThe smiths have done this. However, I will yet do some good with the\nmetal, for I will make from it a bell; and when the smiths hear it ring,\nI will give them a peal to remember me by.\u201d\n\nSo the bell was made and given to the Church of San Martino. And the\nfirst time it was tolled it sang:\n\n \u201cIo ero un cavallo di bronzo.\n Dai nemici son\u2019 stato spezzato.\n Ma un amico che mi ama,\n In campana, mi ha cambiato\n E la prima volta che faro\n _Dindo_, _dindo_! dichiarero\n Chi e becco a caprone.\u201d\n\n \u201cI was a horse of bronze, and tall.\n My enemies broke me to pieces small.\n But a friend who loves me well\n Had me made into a bell.\n Now here on high I proudly ring,\n And as I _dindo_! _dindo_ sing,\n I tell aloud, as I toll and wave,\n Who is a _wittol_ and a knave.\u201d\n\nAnd all the smiths who had broken the horse when they heard the bell\nbecame as deaf as posts. Then great remorse came over them and shame,\nand they threw themselves down on the ground before Virgil and begged his\npardon.\n\nVirgil replied:\n\n\u201cI pardon you; but for a penance you must have six other bells made to\nadd to this, to make a peal, and put them all in the same church.\u201d\n\nThis they did, and then regained their hearing.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis same story is told of Virgil in Comparetti\u2019s collection; but the\npresent tale in the original has about it a smack or tone of the people\nwhich is wanting in the older version. Thus, the song of the bell is a\npeculiarly quaint conception, and probably an adaptation of some popular\njest to the effect that bells proclaim the name and shame of certain\npersons. I have found that, with rare exception, the legends which I\nhave given, as preserved by a class to whom tradition has a special\nvalue, are more complete in every respect than the variants drawn from\nother sources.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGILIO AND THE BALL-PLAYER.\n\n\n \u201cIma subit, resilit. Ventosi pr\u00e6lia vento,\n Exagitant juvenes: pellunt dextra atque repellunt,\n Corruit ille iter\u00f9m; levisque aere truditur aer;\n Ictibus impatiens obmurmurat; altaque rursus\n Nubila metitur cursu; si forte globosa\n Excipiant miserata globum patiturque repulsam.\u201d\n\n P. CAR. DE LUCA, 1. 19, EX. J. B. GANDUTIO: _Harpastum Florentinum_;\n _or_, _On the Florentine Game of Ball_ (1603).\n\n \u201cJamque calent lusorum animi; color ardet in ore\n In vultu sanguis rubet, omnesque occupat artus;\n Pr\u00e6cipites hinc, inde ruunt, cursuque sequaci\n Atque oculis sph\u00e6r\u00e6 volucri vigilantibus justant.\u201d\n\n PIL\u00c6 LUDUS: _The Game of Ball_. _Auctor Incertus_. _XVIth Century_.\n\n \u201cNow the playing at _ball_ is allowed to Christians, because, like\n chess, draughts, billiards, bowls, _trucca_, and the like, it is a\n game of skill and not of chance, which latter makes illicit the most\n innocent play.\u201d\u2014_Trattato di Giochi_, etc., _Rome_, 1708.\n\nThere was once upon a time a grand signore in Florence who had a clever\nservant, a young man, who, whether he had a fairy god-mother or a witch\ngrandmother is not told; but it is certain that he had such luck at\nplaying ball as to always win and never lose. And his master so arranged\nit with him as to bet and win immense sums.\n\nOne day Virgilio, being present at a match in which this young man\nplayed, observed that there sat upon his ball a tiny invisible goblin,\nwho directed its course as he pleased.\n\n\u201cBeautiful indeed is thy play,\u201d said Virgilio to the youth, \u201cand thy\nball\u2014_ha tutta la finezza dell\u2019 arte_\u2014hath all the refinement of its art;\nbut \u2019tis a pity that it is not an honest ball.\u201d\n\n\u201cThou art mistaken,\u201d replied the young man; but he reddened as he spoke.\n\n\u201cAh, well,\u201d answered Virgil, \u201cI will show thee anon whether I have made a\nmistake or told the truth. _A carne di lupo dente di cane_\u2014A dog\u2019s teeth\nto a wolf\u2019s hide. My young friend and his old master need a bite or two\nto cure them of their evil ways.\u201d\n\nThere was in Florence the next day a great fair, or _festa_, and Virgil,\npassing where young people were diverting themselves, saw a very\nbeautiful, bold-faced girl, who looked like a gipsy, or as if she\nbelonged to some show, playing ball. Then Virgil, calling a goblin not\nbigger than a babe\u2019s finger, {109} bade it go and sit on the girl\u2019s ball,\nand inhabit and inspire it to win. It did so, and the girl won every\ntime. Then Virgilio said to her:\n\n\u201cCome with me, and I will show you how to win one hundred crowns. There\nis a young man who carries all before him at playing; thou must drive him\nbefore thee; _e render la pariglia_\u2014pay him back in his own money. Then\nshalt thou have one hundred crowns.\u201d\n\nSo they went together to the castle, and Virgilio said to the old\nsignore:\n\n\u201cI have found a young girl who plays ball so well, that I am anxious to\ntry her game against that of your young man.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat will you bet on her?\u201d asked the old signore.\n\n\u201cA thousand crowns,\u201d replied Virgilio.\n\n\u201cDone!\u201d was the response.\n\nBut when they met on the ground the youth and the girl fell in love at\nfirst sight to the last degree, and not being much troubled with modesty,\ntold one another so\u2014_schiettamente e senza preamboli_\u2014plainly, without\nprelude, preamble, or preface, as is the way and wont of professionals or\nshow-people, wherein they showed their common sense of the value of time,\nwhich is to them as money.\n\nThen they began to play, and it was in the old fashion, with two balls at\nonce, each player tossing one to the other with the drum. {110a} And it\ncame to pass that in the instant that the two goblins beheld one another\nfrom afar they also fell in love. And as fairies and _folletti_ do\neverything, when they will, a thousand times more rapidly than human\nbeings, and as neither could or would conquer in the game, they both\ncried:\n\n\u201cLet us be for ever united in love.\u201d\n\nSo the two balls met with a bump half-way in their course and fell to the\nground as one, while the fays embraced; and at the same instant the youth\nand the girl, unable to suppress their feelings, rushed into one\nanother\u2019s arms and began to kiss, and Virgilio and the old signore roared\nwith laughter, the latter having a second attack of merriment when\nVirgilio explained to him the entire trick and plot.\n\nThen, as it was a drawn game, the thousand crowns were by common consent\nbestowed on the young couple, who were married to their hearts\u2019 content,\nhaving one _festa_ after another, at which all the guests went from\nbottle to bottle, even as the ass of a dealer in pottery goeth from door\nto door, or as the pig of Saint Antonio went from house to house. Amen!\n\n * * * * *\n\nSingularly enough, though this story comes from a witch source, there is\nin it no incantation addressed to a ball to make it always win for its\nowner; and, oddly enough, I recall one for that purpose, taken from an\nAmerican burlesque of \u201cDer Freysch\u00fctz,\u201d {110b} in which the demon-hunter\ncalls on Zamiel the fiend to give him a magic ninepin or skittle-ball.\n\n \u201cSammy-hell, a boon I beg!\n By thy well and wooden leg!\n We ask for that \u2019ere bowling ball\n Wot\u2019ll knock down one and all.\n Give us all the queer ingredients,\n And we\u2019ll remain your most obedients!\u201d\n\nThe idea of enchanted dice which always throw sixes and the like, forms\nthe subject of stories possibly wherever dice are thrown or cards played,\ninasmuch as all gamblers who live or lose by chance are naturally led to\nbelieve that fortune can be invoked or propitiated. Hence the majority\nof them carry charms, fetishes, or amulets.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE GENTLEMAN WHO BRAYED.\n\n\n \u201cBraire comme des Asnes en plain march\u00e9.\u201d\n\n _Cf._ LEROUX DE LUICY: _Facetieux R\u00e9veille-matin_, pp. 103, 171.\n _XVII. Si\u00e8cle_.\n\n \u201cHa, Sire Ane, oh\u00e9!\n Belle bouche, rechignez!\n Vous aurez du foin assez\n Et de l\u2019avoine \u00e0-plantez!\u201d\n\n _Chanson_, _XII. Si\u00e8cle_.\n\nThere were once assembled at the table of the Emperor many friends of\nVirgilio, who praised him highly. But there was also one who abused him\nbitterly, and called him an ass; and the word went forth to all the city,\nand much was said of it, and there was a great scandal over it.\n\nWhen Virgil heard of it he smiled, and said that he thought he would ere\nlong be even with the gentleman who had jackassed him; and those who knew\nhim were of the same opinion, for certainly the means of retaliation were\nnot wanting to him.\n\nNow, the Emperor had given to Virgilio an ass to ride, and the poet said\nto his patron that, if he would order that the animal might go or come\nwherever he pleased, he would show him some time a merry jest. To which\nthe Emperor right willingly assented.\n\nSo one day there were many lords seated at the imperial table, and among\nthem were Virgilio and his enemy. But what was the amazement of all save\nthe magician when the servants, flying in, said that the ass of the\nSignore Virgilio had entered the door, and insisted on coming into the\nbanqueting-hall.\n\n\u201cAdmit him instantly,\u201d said the Emperor.\n\nThe ass came in as politely as an ass could. He bowed down before the\nEmperor and kissed his hand.\n\n\u201cHe has come to visit his dear brother,\u201d remarked the enemy of Virgil.\n\n\u201c_That is true_,\u201d replied the ass; and walking up to the gentleman, he\nstared him in the face, and said: \u201cGood brother, good-day!\u201d\n\nThe signore, bursting into a rage, tried to utter something, but only\nbrayed\u2014and such a bray, the King of the Asses himself could not have\nequalled it. There was a roar of laughter long and loud, revived again\nwith each succeeding roar. At last, when there was silence, Virgil said:\n\n\u201cBut tell me, Ciuchino, donkey mine, which of us three is the _real_ ass?\nFor thy brother there says that I am one, and thou callest him brother,\nand yet from thy appearance I should say that thou art truly \u2018the one.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd the ass replied:\n\n\u201cTrust not to looks in this world, for in outward seeming there is great\ndeceit. By their _voice_ shall ye know them; by their song, which is the\nsame in all lands. For many are the languages of mankind, but there is\nonly one among asses, for we all bray and pray in the same tongue.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d replied Virgilio, \u201cthou almost deservest to become a Christian,\nand I will help thee to it.\u201d Saying this, he touched the donkey\u2019s nose\nwith his wand, and his face became as the face of the gentleman, on whom\nthere now appeared a donkey\u2019s head.\n\n\u201cNow we are indeed beginning to look more like ourselves,\u201d quoth the ass.\n\n\u201c_Aun-ky\u2014aunky\u2014aunky\u2014ooooh_!\u201d brayed the gentleman.\n\n\u201cThat, my lords,\u201d explained the donkey, \u201cwhen translated into _volgare_\nfrom our holy tongue, is my brother\u2019s confession of faith, wherein he\ndeclares that he is the very Ass of Asses\u2014the _summa summarum_, and the\n_somaro dei somari_.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat will do,\u201d exclaimed Virgilio; and touching the ass and the signore,\nhe restored to each his natural form and language. And the signore\nrushed out in a blind rage, but the ass went with proper dignity, first\nsaluting the company, and then bowing low before the Emperor ere he\ndeparted.\n\n\u201c_Per Bacco_!\u201d exclaimed the Emperor; \u201cthe ass, it seems to me, hath\nbetter manners and a finer intellect than his brother.\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2019Tis sometimes the case in this world, your Imperial Highness, that\nasses appear to advantage\u2014even at court.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN LOCKS.\n\n\n \u201cAnd they had fixed the wedding day,\n The morning that must wed them both,\n For Stephen to another maid\n Had sworn another oath;\n And with this other maid to church\n Unthinking Stephen went\u2014\n Poor Martha, on that woeful day,\n A pang of pitiless dismay\n Into her soul was sent.\u201d\n\n WORDSWORTH: _Poems of the Imagination_: _The Thorn_.\n\nThere was once in Florence a wealthy widow lady of noble family, who had\na son who was all that a parent could have wished, had he not been\nsomewhat reckless and dissipated, and selfish withal, which he showed by\nwinning the love of girls and then leaving them; which thing became such\na scandal that it caused great grief to the mother, who was a truly good\nwoman. And so the youth, who was really a devoted son, seeing this,\nreformed his ways for a long time.\n\nBut as the proverb says, he who has once drunk at this fountain will ever\nremember the taste, and probably drink again. So it came to pass that in\ntime the young gentleman fell again into temptation, and then began to\ntempt, albeit with greater care and caution\u2014\u2019tis so that all timid\nsinners go, resolving the next step shall be the last\u2014till finally, under\nsolemn promise of marriage, he led astray into the very forest of despair\na very poor and friendless maid, who was, however, of exquisite beauty,\nand known as \u201cthe girl of golden locks,\u201d from her hair. It might be that\nthe young man might have kept his word, but at an evil time he was\ntempted by the charms of a young lady of great wealth and greater family,\nwho met him more than half-way, giving him to understand that her hand\nwas to be had for asking; whereupon he, who never lost a chance or left a\nfruit unplucked, asked at once and was accepted, the wedding-day being at\nonce determined on.\n\nThen the girl with the golden hair, finding herself abandoned, became\nwell-nigh desperate. Ere long, too, she gave birth to a child, which was\na boy. And it was some months after this, indeed, ere the wedding of the\nyouth to the heiress was to take place, when one day, as the young\nunmarried mother was passing along the Arno, she met the great poet and\nsorcerer Virgil, who saw in her face the signs of such deep suffering,\nand of such a refined and noble nature, that he paused and asked her if\nshe had any cause of affliction. So with little trouble he induced her\nto confide in him, saying that she had no hope, because her betrayer\nwould soon be wedded to another.\n\n\u201cPerhaps not,\u201d replied Virgil. \u201cMany a tree destined to be felled has\nescaped the axe and lived till God blew it down. On the day appointed we\nthree will all go to the wedding.\u201d\n\nAnd truly when the time came all Florence was much amazed to see the\ngreat Virgil going into the Church of Santa Maria with the beautiful girl\nwith the golden hair and bearing her babe in his arms. So the building\nwas speedily filled with people waiting eagerly to witness some strange\nsight.\n\nAnd they were not disappointed. For when the bride in all her beauty and\nthe bridegroom in all his glory came to the altar and paused, ere the\npriest spoke Virgil stepped forward, and presenting the girl with golden\nlocks, said:\n\n\u201cThis is she whom thou art to wed, having sworn to make her thy wife, and\nthis is thy child.\u201d\n\nThen the infant, who had never before in his life uttered a word,\nexclaimed, in loud, sweet tones:\n\n \u201cThou\u2019rt my father, I\u2019m thy son;\n Other father I have none.\u201d\n\nThen there was a great scene, the bride being as one mad, and all the\npeople crying, \u201c_Evviva_, Virgilio! If the Signore Cosino {114} does not\nwed the girl with golden hair, he shall not escape us!\u201d Which he did\nindeed, and that not so unwillingly, for the sight of the girl and the\nauthority of Virgil, the cries of the people, his own conscience, and the\nmarvellous occurrence of the babe\u2019s speaking, all reconciled him to it.\n\nSo the wedding was carried out forthwith, and every soul in Florence who\ncould make music went with his instrument that night and serenaded the\nnewly-married pair.\n\nAnd the mother was not a little astonished when she saw her son, who had\ngone forth with one bride, return with another. However, she was soon\npersuaded by Virgil that it was all for the best, and found in time that\nshe had a perfect daughter-in-law.\n\n * * * * *\n\nI had rejected this story as not worth translating, since it presents so\nfew traditional features, when it occurred to me that it indeed very\nclearly and rather curiously sets forth Virgil as a benevolent man and a\nsympathizer with suffering without regard to rank or class. This\nChristian kindness was associated with his name all through the Middle\nAges in literature, and it is wonderful how the form of it has been\npreserved unto these our times among the people.\n\nThere is a tale told by one Surius, \u201cIn Vita S. Anselmi,\u201d cited by\nKornmann in his work \u201cDe Miraculis Vivorum\u201d in 1614, which bears on this\nwhich I have told. A certain dame in Rome not only had a child, _ex\nincestu_, but magnified her sin by swearing the child on the Pope,\nSergius. The question being referred to Saint Anselm, he asked the babe,\nwhich had never spoken, whether his papa was the Pope. To which the\ninfant answered, \u201cCertainly not,\u201d adding that Sergius \u201c_nihil cum Venere\ncommercium habere_\u201d\u2014Anselmus, as is evident, being resolved to make a\nclean sweep of the whole affair and whitewash the Holy Father to the\nutmost while he was about it. Salvert\u00e9 would, like a sinner, have said\nthat Anselm was perhaps a ventriloquist\u2014_es kann sein_!\n\nBut let us not discuss it, and pass on, just mentioning that since I\nwrote the above I found another legend of an Abbot Daniel, of whom\nGregory of Tours and Sophronius relate that he, having prayed that a\ncertain lady might become a mother, and the request being complied with,\nsome of Daniel\u2019s enemies suggested that other means as well as prayer,\nand much more efficacious, had been resorted to by the saint to obtain\nthe desired result. But Daniel, inquiring of the babe when it was\ntwenty-five days of age, was, _coram omnibus_, fully acquitted, the\n_bambino_ pointing to his true father, and saying, with a nod, \u201c_Verbis\net mitibus_\u201d\u2014_That\u2019s_ the man! And the same happened to a Bishop\nBritius. But Saint Augustine beats the record by declaring that, \u201cIt\nhath sometimes happened that infants as yet unborn have cried out _ex\nutero matris_\u2014which is indeed a marvellous thing!\u201d (\u201cDe Civitate Dei,\u201d\nIII., c. 31).\n\nAnd yet it seems to me that Justinus, Procopius, and several others, have\ndone as well, if not better; for it is related by them that a number of\northodox believers who had their tongues cut out by Socinians, or\nUnitarians (whom the zealous Dean Hole declares are all so many little\nungodly antichrists, or words to that effect), went on praying and\npreaching more volubly than ever. The same is told by Evagrius of some\npious women, but I do not offer this as a miracle, there being in it\nnothing improbable or remarkable.\n\nThat the Arians, or Unitarians, or Socinians have set tongues to\nwagging\u2014especially the tongues of flame which play round the pyres of\nmartyrdom\u2014is matter of history\u2014and breviary. But that they have been the\ncause of making dead and tongueless Trinitarians talk, seems doubtful.\nHowever, as the Canadian said of the ox: \u201cThere is no knowing what the\nsubtlest form of Antichrist _may_ do.\u201d _Passons_!\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE PEASANT OF AREZZO.\n\n\n \u201cOptuma torn\u00e6\n Forma bovis, cui turpe caput, cui plurima cervix,\n Et crurum tenus a mento palearia pendent;\n Tum longo nullus lateri modus; omnia magna,\n Pes etiam, et camuris hirt\u00e6 sub cornibus aures.\n Nec mihi displiceat maculis insignis, et albo,\n Aut juga detrectans, interdumque aspera cornu,\n Et faciem taurs propior, qu\u00e6que ardua tota,\n Et gradiens ima verrit vestigia cauda.\u201d\n\n VIRGILIUS: _Georgics_, lib. iii.\n\n \u201cAnnescis, pinguem carnibus esse bovem?\u201d\n\n _Epigrams by_ FRIED. HOFMANN (1633).\n\n \u201c_Pallium non facit philosophum nec_\n _Cucullus monachum_\u2014\u201d\n\n \u201cDress if you will\n A knave in silk, he will be shabby still.\u201d\n\nThis legend, with several others, was gathered in or near Arezzo.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn the old times people suffered in many things far more than they now\ndo, firstly from the signori, who treated them worse than brutes, and as\nif this were not enough, they were tormented by witches and wizards and\nwicked people who went to the devil or his angels to revenge them on\ntheir enemies. However, there were good and wise men who had the power\nto conquer these evil ones, and who did all they could to untie their\nknots and turn back their spells and curses on themselves, and the\ngreatest of these was named Virgilio, who passed all his life in doing\ngood.\n\nNow, it is an old custom in Arezzo that when men take cattle to a fair,\nbe it oxen or cows or calves, the animals are tricked out or ornamented\nas much as possible, and there is great competition as to this among the\npeasants, for it is a great triumph for a contadino when all the people\nsay that his beasts made the finest show of any in the place; so that it\nis said a man of Arezzo will spend more to bedeck his cattle for a fair\nthan he will to dress his daughters for a dance.\n\nNow, there was a very worthy, honest man named Gianni, who was the head\nor manager under the proprietor of a very fine estate near Arezzo, and\none day he went to the fair to buy a yoke of oxen. And what he cared for\nwas to get the best, for his master was rich and generous, and did not\nmuch heed the price so that he really got his money\u2019s worth.\n\nBut good as Gianni was, he had to suffer the affliction which none can\nescape of being envied and hated. For wicked and spiteful souls find\nsomething to hate in people who have not done them any wrong, and whom\nthey have not the least motive to harm\u2014_nessunissimo motive_.\n\nSo the good Gianni found at the fair a pair of oxen which, so far as\nornament was concerned, were a sight to behold. For they were covered\nwith nets, and adorned with many bands of red woollen stuff all\nembroidered with gold, and bearing in gold the name of their owner,\nhaving many cords and tassels and scarfs of all colours on their heads.\nAnd these cords were elaborately braided, while there hung a mirror on\nthe forehead of each animal, so that the elegance of their decoration was\nthe admiration of all who were at the fair.\n\nThen Gianni, seeing the oxen, drew near, but before making an offer,\ncomplimented the owner on their beautiful appearance. And this done, he\nsaid:\n\n\u201cAll very fine, but in doing business for my patron I set aside all\npersonal friendship. Your cattle are finely dressed up, but how are the\nbeasts themselves? That is all that I care to know, and I don\u2019t wish to\nhave them turn out as it happened to a man who married a wife because he\nadmired her clothes, and found, when she was undressed, that she was a\nmere scrap, and looked like a dried cod-fish.\u201d\n\nSo they talked till the dealer took off the coverings, when Gianni found,\nin fact, that the oxen had many faults.\n\n\u201cI am sorry to say, my friend,\u201d quoth Gianni, \u201cthat I cannot buy them. I\nhave done you more than one good turn before now, as you well know, but\nbusiness is business, and I am buying for my master, so good-day.\u201d\n\nThen the owner was in a great rage, and grated his teeth, and swore\nrevenge, for there were many round about who laughed at him, and he\nresolved to do evil to Gianni, who, however, thought no more of it, but\nwent about the fair till he found a pair of excellent oxen which were the\nbest for sale, and drove them home.\n\nBut as soon as they were in the stable they fell on the ground (dead).\nGianni was in despair, but the master, who had seen the cattle and found\nthem fine and in good condition when they arrived, did not blame him.\n\nSo the next day Gianni went to another fair, and bought another yoke of\noxen. But when in the evening they were in the stable, they fell dead at\nonce, as the others had done. Still the master had such faith in him,\nthat although he was greatly vexed at the loss, he bade the man go once\nmore to a fair and try his luck. So he went, and indeed returned with a\nmagnificent pair, which were carefully examined; but there was the same\nresult, for they also fell dead as soon as they were stabled.\n\nThen the master resolved to go and buy cattle for himself, and did so.\nBut there was the same result: these fell dead like the others. And the\nmaster, in despair and rage, said to Gianni:\n\n\u201cHere I give thee some money, and now begone, for I believe that thou\nbringest evil to me. I have lost four yoke of oxen, and will lose no\nmore.\u201d\n\nSo Gianni went forth with his wife and children, in great suffering. And\nthe master took in his place Dorione. This was the very man who had\nowned the oxen which Gianni would not buy, and he was one who was versed\nin all the sorcery of cattle, as such people in the mountains always are,\nand by his witchcraft he had brought all this to pass.\n\nBut under his care all the cattle flourished wonderfully, and the master\nwas much pleased with him. But Gianni was in extreme misery, and could\nsee nothing but beggary before him, because it was reported everywhere\nthat he brought bad luck, and he could get no employment.\n\nOne day, when matters were at their worst with him and there was not even\na piece of bread in his poor home, he met on the road a troop of\ncavaliers, at the head of whom were two magnificently clad gentlemen, and\nthese were the Emperor and Virgil.\n\nThe poor peasant had stepped aside to admire the procession as it passed,\nwhen all at once Virgil looked with a piercing glance at Gianni, and\ncried:\n\n\u201cMan, what aileth thee that thou seemest so wretched? For I read in thy\nface that thou sufferest unjustly, well-nigh to death.\u201d\n\nThen Gianni told his story, and Virgil answered:\n\n\u201cFor all of this there is a remedy. Now, come with me to the house of\nthy late master, where there is work to be done.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut they will drive me out headlong,\u201d replied Gianni; \u201cI dare not go.\nAnd if I do not return to my family, who are all ill or starving to\ndeath, they will think that some disaster has befallen me.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor that too there is also a remedy,\u201d said Virgil, with a smile. \u201cHave\nno care. Now to thy master!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy didst thou send away this honest man?\u201d asked Virgil of the\n_padrone_.\n\nTo which the master replied by telling all about the oxen. \u201cTherefore,\nbecause he brought ruin into my house did I dismiss him.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d replied Virgil, \u201cthis time thou didst get rid of an honest man\nand keep the knave. Now let us go and see to thy dead oxen.\u201d\n\nSo they went apace to the spot where the dead oxen had all been thrown,\nwhere the whole eight lay unchanged, for decay had not come upon them,\nthey were as sound as ever.\n\nThen Virgil exclaimed, as he waved his wand:\n\n \u201cIf ye are charmed, retake your breath!\n If you\u2019re bewitched, then wake from death!\n Speak with a voice, and tell us why,\n And who it was that made ye die!\u201d\n\nThen all the oxen came to life, and sang in chorus with human voices:\n\n \u201cDorione slew us for revenge,\n Because Gianni would not buy his oxen,\n Truly they were greatly ornamented,\n Yet withal were wretched, sorry cattle.\n So he swore to be revenged upon him,\n So he was revenged by witching us.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have heard the whole truth,\u201d said Virgil to the Emperor. \u201cIt is for\nyou to condemn the culprit.\u201d\n\n\u201cI condemn him to be at once put to death,\u201d replied the Emperor. \u201cHast\nthou anything to add?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d said Virgil; \u201cI condemn him to immediately become a goat after\ndeath.\u201d\n\nThen Dorione was burnt alive for an evil wizard, and he leapt from the\nflame in the form of a black goat and vanished.\n\nGianni returned in favour to his master, and all went well with him\nevermore.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe very singular or unusual name of Dorione intimates a classical\norigin, and it is true that one of the Danaides, the bride of Cerceste,\nwas called thus; but on this hook hangs no analogy. Dordione was the\nRoman god of blackguardism _pur et simple_, unto whom people made obscene\nofferings\u2014which, according to sundry reviewers, might suggest the Dorian\nof a certain novel of the ultra Greek-\u00e6sthetic school, which had many\nadmirers in certain circles, both in America and England. But it is very\nremarkable that wherever it occurs, be it in pagan antiquity or modern\ntimes, the name has always had a certain evil smell about it, a something\nfish-like and ancient, but not venerable. It is true that I have already\ngiven a legend of another Dorione, who was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Virgil; but even\nthis latter example was sadly given to \u201crapacious appropriation.\u201d The\nDorians were all a bad lot from a moral point of view, according to\nhistory.\n\nIt is remarkable that Dorione, who is a mountain shepherd or herdsman, is\nnoted as a sorcerer. Owing to their solitary lives and knowledge of\nsecrets in the medical treatment and management of cattle, this class in\nmany countries (but especially in France and Italy) is regarded as\nconsisting entirely of sorcerers. This is specially the case with\nsmiths, farriers, and all who exercise the veterinary art.\n\nIt may also strike the reader as singular that Dorione in the tale should\nbe moved to such deadly vengeance, simply because Gianni would not buy\nhis cattle, and preferred others. This is a very common and marked\ncharacteristic of Italians. If you examine a man\u2019s wares, talk about,\nand especially if you touch them, you will often be expected to buy as a\nmatter of course. I have been seriously cautioned in a fair, by one who\nwas to the manner born, against examining anything unless I bought it, or\nsomething. A few years ago, in Florence, a flower-girl asked an\nEnglishman to buy of her ware, which he declined to do, and then changing\nhis mind, bought a bouquet from another girl close by. Whereupon the\nfirst _floriste_ stabbed and slew the second\u2014to the great astonishment of\nthe tourist!\n\nThere is an unconscious fitness and propriety in making the author of the\n\u201cGeorgics\u201d so familiar with cattle that he is able to raise them from the\ndead. The chorus of oxen, accusing the evil-doer, is an idea or motive\nwhich also occurs in the story of Cain, as given in my \u201cLegends of\nFlorence.\u201d\n\nThe black goat is, and ever was in Italy, specially accursed as a type of\nevil. Witches are rarely described as riding brooms\u2014their steed is the\ngoat. Evil spirits, or souls of men accursed, haunt bridges in this\nform. The perverse and mischievous spirit of the animal, as well as his\nappearance, is sufficient to explain this.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIRL AND THE FLAGEOLET.\n\n\n \u201cThus playing sweetly on the flageolet,\n He charmed them all; and playing yet again,\n Led them away, won by the magic sound.\u201d\n\n _De Pueris Hamle\u00ebnsibus_, 1400.\n\nThere is in the Toscana Romagna a place known as La Valle della Fame, or\nValley of Hunger, in which dwelt a family of peasants, or three brothers\nand two sisters. The elder brother had married a wife who was good and\nbeautiful, and she had given birth to a daughter, but died when the babe\nwas only one year old. Then, according to the advice of the sisters and\nbrothers, he married again, that he might have someone to take care of\nhis child. The second wife was a pretty young woman, but after she had\nbeen wedded a year she gave birth to a daughter, who was very ugly indeed\nand evil; but the mother seemed to love her all the more for this, and\nbegan to hate the elder, who was as good and beautiful as an angel. And\nas her hatred grew she beat and abused the poor little girl all day long.\n\nOne morning the latter went into the woods to hide herself from her\nstepmother till it should be evening, when she could return home and be\nsafe with her father and aunts. And while sitting all alone beneath a\ntree, she heard a bird above her singing so sweetly that she felt\nenchanted. It was a marvellous sound, at times like the music of a flute\nplayed by a fairy, then like a human voice carolling in soft tones, and\nthen like a horn echoing far away. The little girl said:\n\n\u201cOh dear, sweet bird, I wish I could pipe and play like you!\u201d\n\nAs she said this the bird fell from the tree, and when she picked it up\nshe found that it was a _zufolo_, or shepherd\u2019s flageolet, in the form of\na bird. And when she blew on it, it gave forth such sweet sounds\u2014_suone\nbelle da rimanere incantati_\u2014as would charm all who heard them. And as\nshe practised, she found the art to play it seemed to come of itself, and\nevery now and then she could hear a fairy voice in the sound speaking to\nher.\n\nNow, this was a miracle which had been wrought by Virgil the magician,\nwho did so many wonderful things in the olden time.\n\nIn the evening she returned home and played on the bird-pipe, and all\nwere charmed except the stepmother, who alone heard in the music a voice\nwhich said:\n\n \u201cThough sweet thy smile, and smooth thy brow,\n Evil and cold at heart art thou;\n I never yet did harm to thee,\n Yet thou hast beat me cruelly,\n And given me curses fierce and wild\n Because I\u2019m fairer than thy child.\n Unless thou lettest me alone\n Henceforth, all ill shall be thine own,\n With all the suffering I have known.\u201d\n\nBut to the girl the pipe sang:\n\n \u201cSing to thy father, gently say\n That thou the morrow goest away,\n And tell him thou hast borne too long\n Great cruelty and cruel wrong;\n For truly he was much to blame\n That he so long allowed the same;\n But now the evil spell is broken,\n The time has come, the word is spoken!\u201d\n\nThen her father would fain have kept her, but the spell was on her, and\nshe went out into the wide world playing on her pipe. And when she was\nin the woods, the birds and wild beasts came and listened to her and did\nas she bade; and when she was in towns, the people gathered round and\nwere charmed to hear her play, and gave her money and often jewels, and\nno one dared to say an evil word to her, for a spell was on her, and a\ncharm which kept away evil.\n\nSo years passed by, and she was blooming into maidenhood, when one day a\nyoung lord, passing with his mother, who was a woman as noble of soul and\ngood as her son, paused to hear the girl play on her pipe and sing, for\nthey thought the marvellous song of the _zufolo_ was her voice.\n\nThen the lady asked the girl if she would enter a monastery, where she\nwould be educated and brought up to live in a noble family in return for\nher music. The girl replied that she had already a great deal of money\nand many jewels, but that she would be very glad to be better educated\nand advanced in life. So she entered the convent, where she was very\nhappy, and the end thereof was that she became betrothed to the young\nsignore, and great preparations were made for the wedding.\n\nNow, the stepmother had but one idea in life, which was that her own\ndaughter should make some great match, and for this purpose she was glad\nwhen the second went away, as she hoped, to become a mere vagabond,\nplaying the flute for a living. But when she heard that the girl was\nvery prosperous in a convent in Florence, and had not only been educated\nlike a princess in the best society, but would ere long marry a nobleman,\nshe became mad with rage; and going to a witch, she paid her a great sum\nto prepare a powder which, if strewed in the path of the bride, would\ncause her prompt and agonizing pain, and after a time death in the most\ndreadful suffering. And this was to be laid in the way of the wedding\nprocession. But on that morning the pipe sang:\n\n \u201cWhere\u2019er on earth the wind doth blow,\n All leaves and dust before it go.\n Evil or good, they fly away\n Before its breath, as if in play;\n And so shall it for thee this day,\n Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,\n And death to the witch, for so it must\n Ever happen as \u2019twas decreed,\n For death is the pay for an evil deed!\u201d\n\nNow, the bridegroom and all friends had begged the bride to play the\nflute as she walked in the wedding procession, and she did so, and it\nseemed to her that it had never played so sweetly. The stepmother was\nlooking on anxiously in the crowd, and when the bride was just coming to\nthe powder in the way, the wicked woman cried:\n\n\u201cPlay louder\u2014_louder_!\u201d\n\nThe bride, to oblige everyone, blew hard, and a wind came from the pipe\nwhich blew all the powder into the stepmother\u2019s eyes and open mouth, and\nin an instant she gave a cry of agony, and then rolled on the ground,\nscreaming:\n\n\u201c_Il polvore_! I have swallowed the powder!\u201d\n\nAnd the flute played:\n\n \u201cBy thy mother I was slain;\n A fairy gave me life again.\n I was killed for jealousy,\n And all as false as false could be.\n Now thou art dead and I am free.\u201d\n\nAnd from that time the pipe played no more. But the young lady married\nthe signore, and all went well with them.\n\nAnd this was done by Virgil, who was ever benevolent.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe pipe, flute, or whistle, which fascinates all who hear it, is to be\nfound in the traditions of all races, from the story of Orpheus onward;\nit even forms the plot of what is one of the prettiest tales of the\nAlgonkin Indians, {126} and one which is probably original with them.\nWhat is also common to many is the conception of the one unjustly put to\ndeath turned into a musical instrument, which by a song betrays the\nmurderer. But what is peculiar to this story is the power of the pipe to\nblow away enchantment and dissipate the witch-dust laid in the path.\nThis is a very ingenious addition to the conception of the music and\nvoice.\n\nIt is to be observed that sometimes rustic performers on the pipe, who\nhave chiefly learned their music in the woods from birds and Nature,\nsometimes attain to a very fascinating and singular execution, quite\nunlike that which is heard from the most cultivated and artistic\nmusicians. The celebrated Dr. Justinus Kerner, whom I have heard play,\ncould produce on the Jew\u2019s-harp such results as would be deemed\nincredible. It struck me as an extraordinary expression of will and\ncharacter beyond all teaching or imitation.\n\nThere are also many learned writers on music who are not aware that the\nhuman throat or voice is capable of producing sounds which are not, so to\nspeak, _vocal_, but like those of the musical-box and several\nwind-instruments. This accomplishment is common among the blacks of the\nSouthern States, and the performances, as I can bear witness, are most\nextraordinary and amazing. I once mistook the playing of two coloured\nboys in Nashville for the sound of a somewhat distant hand-organ. Even\nthe twang of the banjo is thus rendered with startling accuracy. It is\nalso true that reed-pipes can be made which, by combining the voice and\nblowing (as with the _mirliton_), give results which are very little\nknown, but which probably suggested this and other tales in which the\nflute or pipe speaks. There are not many people who know the bull-roarer\nsave as a boy\u2019s toy\u2014that is to say, a mere flat bit of wood whirled round\nat the end of a cord\u2014but by modification and combination, this or several\nof them produce sounds like those of an organ; and when heard by night at\na distance, the effect is such as to fairly awe those who are ignorant of\nits cause. Finally, there is the application by a tube of air to the\n\u00c6olian harp, etc., so as to produce tunes, which is very remarkable, and\nas little known as the rest\u2014albeit, a traveller, who found something of\nthe kind among the heathen, avowed his belief that something might be\nmade of it. If people would only find out what resources they all have\nwithin themselves, or in very cheap and easily-made instruments, there\nmight be far more music or art in the world than there now is. On which\nsubject the reader may consult a book, written by me, and entitled \u201cThe\nCheapest Musical Instruments,\u201d etc., now being published by Whittaker and\nCo., 2, White Hart Street, London.\n\n\n\n\nLA BEGHINA DI AREZZO, OR VIRGIL AND THE SORCERESS.\n\n\n Beauty, when blent with wickedness,\n Ne\u2019er yet did faile to bring distresse,\n A lovely thing that is an evil\n Is the own daughter of the devil;\n And what was wicked from the first\n Unto the ende will be accurst,\n And sow, I trow, full sinfull seede,\n As ye may in this story reade!\n\nOnce upon a time there was in Arezzo a young woman of rare beauty, though\nof base condition. This girl showed from her earliest years a very\nstrong character, great and varied talents or gifts, and the outward\nappearance, at least, of great piety and morality, so that she was always\nin church or absorbed in thought, which passed for pious meditation,\nwhile she never missed early Mass on a single morning.\n\nIt came to pass that a young gentleman who was rich, handsome, clever,\nand of good family, fell in love with her and offered marriage, but this\nshe refused, to the amazement of all, especially her parents. But the\ngirl declared that her disposition to religion made marriage\nobjectionable to her; and indeed at this time she so devoted herself to\ndevotion that she hardly found time to eat. Yet as she did not become a\nnun, the Aretini, or people of Arezzo, called her the Beghina (Beguine),\nor Sister of Charity. Yet in doing all this she had ideas of her own, or\nmore fish in her net than the world was aware of, for the peasants for\nher services and prayers, regarding her as a saint who could work\nmiracles, because she indeed effected many strange things which seemed to\nthem to be Divine, brought her many gifts, including money, all of which\nshe declared would be devoted in future to the Madonna, regarding all\nwhich she had a great work in view.\n\nAt last her reputation for sanctity spread over all the country, and it\nwas greatly increased when it was reported that so poor a girl had\nrefused to marry a rich young gentleman, so that she was visited by the\nnobility, among whom she acquired great influence. And as she declared\nthat it was her ambition to build a small church, and with it a home for\nherself, they, hoping that this would bring many pilgrims and greatly\nbenefit the town, at last offered her thirty thousand crowns wherewith to\ncarry out her pious purposes, which she with thanks and tears gratefully\naccepted.\n\nThe first thing which she did, however, was to build for herself a house,\nfor which there was (secretly) constructed a long subterranean passage\nwhich led out to the river. Then she left her parents, saying that for\nthe present she must lead a life of devotion in absolute seclusion. Then\nit was observed that from time to time young gentlemen were missing, and\nmore than once their bodies were found floating in the river below the\nhouse of La Beghina, yet so great was her reputation for sanctity that no\none connected their loss with her name.\n\nSo years passed by. But there was one who put no faith in her piety, and\nthis was the signore whom she had refused, and with whom love for her had\nbeen succeeded by a bitter love of revenge, and by constant observation\nand inquiry he found out several things which greatly confirmed his\nsuspicions. The first of these was the discovery of the bodies in the\nriver; and being resolved to find out all the secrets of her house, he\nvisited the mason who had built it, saying that he wished to erect a\nmansion for himself, and as he greatly admired that of La Beghina, would\nlike to have one exactly like it. To which the old man replied that he\nwas willing, but as every person who built a house kept certain details a\nsecret to secure the safety of persons or property in certain\nemergencies, he must be excused if he withheld certain particulars. But\nthe young signore replied that he had set his heart on having just such a\nhouse in every respect; that he himself wished to conceal all secrets,\nand, finally, that he would pay a round sum extra to have his desire\nfulfilled. This was an argument which the mason could not resist, and so\nexplained to his patron every detail of the building, which made more\nthan one mystery clear to him. And having learned the secret of the\nunderground passage which led to the river, he began to watch it by night\nwith great care; and found that the exit by the river was by a stone\ndoor, which was so artfully concealed in a rock by bushes that it was\nhardly perceptible.\n\nOne night, when it was very dark, the Signore Primo, for such was his\nname, being on the watch, heard a noise and saw the door open. Then\nthere appeared the Beghina, bearing or dragging a long package or\nbundle\u2014_un involto_\u2014which she let fall into the flood. And at this sight\nthe signore could not restrain a cry of rage, understanding it all,\nwhereat La Beghina fled in terror into the passage, leaving the door\nunfastened behind her. But the young man, unheeding her, cast himself\nheadlong into the river after the bundle, which he succeeded in bringing\nto land, and on opening it found the body of a young gentleman of his\nacquaintance, who was not, however, quite dead, as he had been merely\nheavily drugged, and who with care was restored to life. And truly he\nhad a strange tale to tell, how he had been inveigled mysteriously and\nblindfolded, and introduced to some unknown house where there was a\nhandsome woman, who, after he had made love with her, drugged and robbed\nhim, after which he became unconscious.\n\nThe Signore Primo conveyed his friend to his own home, and after caring\nfor his comfort and earnestly recommending him to keep the whole matter a\nsecret, went back to the stone door, and finding it open, and having\nalready learned how the house was built, he entered, and concealed\nhimself where he could watch the mistress.\n\nEarly in the morning there came an elderly lady, who with many tears and\nin great emotion told the Beghina that she had a son gone to the war, and\nwas in great fear lest he should be slain, and that she had prayed to the\nVirgin that he might return safe and sound; and that if the Beghina by\nher piety would bring this to pass, she would at once give her fifty gold\ncrowns, and a very much larger sum in case her son should come to her\nagain soon and well. To which La Beghina replied that she could go home\nwith a happy heart, for in a few days she should have her son with her.\nSo the lady departed.\n\nThen the Beghina went into a secret room [but the Signore Primo continued\nto follow and observe her] and taking a pack of cards and a chain, she\nthrew them against the wall and beat on the ground, saying:\n\n \u201cDiavoli tutti che siete nell\u2019 inferno!\n Scatenatevi, e damme portatevi,\n Un comando\n Vi voglio dare\n Fino alla citt\u00e1\n Dov\u2019\u00e9 la guerra dovete andare,\n E salvare\n Il figlio della signora;\n Che pochanzi damme e venuta\n E portatelo subito a casa sua,\n In carne anima ed ossa,\n Se questa grazia mi farete\n L\u2019anima di quel giovane l\u2019avrete!\u201d\n\n \u201cAll ye devils who are in hell,\n Loosen your chains, and come at once to me!\n I give you a command\u2014\n Go to the city where the war is waged,\n And save the life of the son\n Of the lady who came to me of late,\n And bear him quickly to her in her home!\n Bear him in flesh, soul and bones!\n If ye do me this favour,\n Ye shall have the soul of that youth!\u201d\n\nAnd when this was sung many devils appeared and saluted her as a queen.\n\nThe Signore Primo was indeed amazed and terrified, for now he realized\nthat the Beghina was worse than he had supposed, or a witch of the most\nmalignant kind. But he left the place, and going to the lady, told her\nall he had witnessed. Then she in great terror fainted, and when\nrestored to life declared that, if anyone could save the soul of her son,\nhe should have all her fortune.\n\nThen the Signore Primo told her that if anyone could defeat the evil\nwitch it was a great magician who by lucky chance was in Arezzo, and that\nshe should seek him forthwith. This great magician was no other than\nVirgil. And as soon as the lady appeared, Virgil said:\n\n\u201cI know why thou art come.\u201d\n\nThen he led her to the form of an angel clad in a rose-coloured garb,\nand, kneeling before it, said:\n\n \u201cO tu angelo del paradiso!\n Ma benche puro e innocente sei stato\n In questa terra confinata\n Per salvare tua madre de suoi peccati,\n Ma anche nel altro mondo\n Ne fa sempre di peggio,\n E per questo sarai liberato te\n E confinata nel tuo posto,\n La compagna e complice\n Di tua madre la Beghina\n La Beghina di Arezzo.\n Vai tu angelo beato!\n Da l\u2019angelo custode!\n E dilli che invochi\n Lo spirito che di la ha piu comando,\n E potenza di volere salvare\n L\u2019anima di quel giovane,\n Che la Beghina le ha venduta\n E cosi tu tu sarai in pace!\u201d\n\n \u201cOh, thou angel of Paradise!\n Yet who, though pure and ever innocent,\n Hast been enchanted on this earth\n (Confined in the form which thou wearest),\n To save thy mother for her sins;\n Yet even in another world\n She will ever be worse.\n Therefore thou shalt now be freed,\n And thy mother and her accomplice\n Be enchanted in thy place.\n The Beghina of Arezzo,\n Go, thou blessed angel,\n To the angel who guards thee!\n Bid him invoke the spirit who has most power\n To save the soul of that youth\n Whom the Beghina has sold;\n Thus shalt thou be in peace.\u201d\n\nAt that instant there was heard a clap of thunder, the sound of a roaring\nstorm, and there fell down before them two human beings like two corpses,\nyet not dead, and these were La Beghina and her companion witch.\n\nThen there entered a grand sun-ray, which flashed in light upon the angel\nwhom Virgil had summoned. And it said:\n\n\u201cThe youth is saved, and whoever doeth good shall find good even in\nanother world. Farewell; I too am saved!\u201d\n\nThen the Beghina and her companion began to spit fire and flame, and they\nwere condemned to wander for ever, without resting, from one town to\nanother, ever possessed with a mad desire to do evil, but without the\nability, for Virgil had taken the power from them.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis story seemed to me in the original, after more than one reading, so\nconfused and high-flown, that I was on the point of rejecting it, when a\nfriend who had also perused it persuaded me that, under all its dialectic\nmis-spellings, barbarous divisions of words, and manifest omissions (as,\nfor instance, what became of the Sieur Buridan of the Italian Tour de\nNesle, who was so nearly drowned), there was a legend which was\nmanifestly the mangled version of a far better original. Therefore I\nhave translated it very faithfully, and would specify that there was from\nme no suggestion or hint of any kind, but that it is entirely of the\npeople.\n\nFirstly, it may be observed that the long-continued,\ndeliberately-contrived hypocrisy of the Beghina, as well as the Red\nIndian-like vindictiveness of the hero, is perfectly Italian or natural.\nThe construction of secret passages and hiding-places in buildings is\nalmost common even to-day. The idea of a holy spirit who undergoes a\npenance, _confinata_, or enchanted and imprisoned in a statue to redeem\nher mother, is also finely conceived, as is the final statement that the\nBeghina and her mysterious accomplice, who is so abruptly introduced, are\ncondemned to wander for ever, tormented with a desire to do evil which\nthey are unable to satisfy.\n\nThe Beghina is an incarnation of hypocrisy, deceit, lust and treachery.\nThe four symbols for these were the serpent, wren, chameleon, and\ngoose\u2014the latter because a certain Athenian named Lampon was wont to\nswear \u201cby the goose!\u201d and then break his oath. Possibly the origin of\nthe saying \u201cHe is sound upon the goose\u201d is derived from this.\n\nBut I sometimes think that to decide between tradition or borrowing and\nindependent creation is beyond the folklore of the present day.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF THE SNOW OF COLLE ALTO. {134}\n\n\n \u201cAnd hence, O virgin mother mild,\n Though plenteous flowers around thee blow,\n Not only from the dreary strife\n Of winter, but the storms of life,\n Thee have thy votaries aptly styled\n Our Lady of the Snow.\u201d\n\n WORDSWORTH: _Tour on the Continent_.\n\nOnce in the olden time, in Colle Alto, the snow fell in one night many\nyards in depth, and the people were astonished and frightened when they\nawoke in the morning at beholding it spreading far and wide. Many tried\nto shovel it away, but were discouraged, because, as they removed it, as\nmuch came in its place, so that at last they all remained at home, for no\none could pass through the snow, and they were afraid of being buried in\nit.\n\nBut the poor, who had but scant provision in their homes, suffered from\nhunger. And among these was a good man to whom his five children\npitifully cried:\n\n\u201c_Babbo-il pane_!\u201d\u2014Papa, give us bread!\n\nAnd he replied:\n\n\u201cMy children weep, and I must risk my life to save them.\u201d And looking\nout, he cried unthinkingly:\n\n \u201cAnd yet the snow is very beautiful!\n O Spirit of the Snow\u2014no mortal knows\n How beautiful thou art. Be kind to us!\u201d\n\nAs he said this there appeared before the window, and then among them, a\nlady of marvellous beauty and dazzling brightness, all clad in white, who\nsaid:\n\n\u201cWhat wilt thou have, since thou hast invoked me?\u201d\n\n\u201cLady,\u201d replied the astonished peasant, \u201cI know not who thou art, nor did\nI call thee!\u201d\n\n\u201cYes; in thy speech thou didst pronounce my name in invocation, and to\nthose who do that, and deserve it, I give my aid. Follow me!\u201d\n\nThe poor man was surprised and bewildered, but he followed, while\ntrembling, the lady.\n\nAnd she spoke in a voice which was heard in every house far and near in\nColle Alto:\n\n\u201cLet him who will come forth without fear, for this good man hath opened\nunto you the way. But it is only the poor who can do this, because,\nwhile they have suffered and starved in their homes, not one of the rich\nwho dwell here have made any effort to relieve the suffering, therefore\nnone of them shall come forth till the snow is gone.\u201d\n\nThen all the poor folk found that they could walk upon the snow, {135}\nwhich was a pleasure, but the gentlefolk could not stir a step out of\ndoors till it melted. And it vexed them sorely to stand at their windows\nand see women and children running merrily over the snow, so that some of\nthem cursed their wealth, and wished that they were of the poor and free.\n\nFor fifteen days not a flake of snow disappeared, and then all at once it\nwent away, and the poor, on opening their windows in the morning, found\nthe sun shining, and a warm breeze blowing, which was scented as with\nroses, and the streets and roofs all as clean as if new. Then all the\npoor gathered every man a stone, and meeting in one place, they there\nbuilt a little church (_chiesina_), and called it the Chapel of the\nGoddess of the Snow, and adored her as if she had been the Madonna or a\nsaint.\n\nThen for some time, as usually happens, there was great enthusiasm\u2014_vie\nun gran fanatismo_\u2014and then again all was gradually forgotten. So with\nthe Goddess of the Snow: as years went by people talked about her less\nand less, and she was even ridiculed by those who were of evil hearts and\nsouls, such as abuse and ill-treat their benefactors\u2014as was shown by a\ncertain waggoner, who found himself one day many miles afar from any\nhouse, when snow began to fall. And with it he began to curse, so as to\nshock even a sinner; whereupon it drifted round him so deeply that he\nwith his waggon could get no further. And so he kept on blaspheming.\nHis poor starved horses looked at him with meaning, as if calling his\nattention, and then cast their glances to the wall or a shrine, whereon\nwas depicted an image of the Goddess of the Snow, as if begging him to\nnotice or to appeal to it. And the wretch beholding it, swore worse than\never, saying that she was an accursed (witch).\n\nHe had not time to pronounce the word ere he sank down (into the snow),\nso that only his head remained uncovered. And his horses also were in\nthe same place, but a warm wind began to blow. And so the man remained\nfast, freezing and starving, for three days, but it did not make him\nrepent, and he swore more than ever.\n\nThen, on the third day, Virgil, the great magician, passed by, and was\namazed at seeing the horses quietly feeding on grass in the warm\nsunshine, while a pleasant breeze was blowing, and close by them a man\nburied to his neck in the snow. And being questioned, the waggoner\nreplied that he was thus buried for blaspheming the Goddess of the Snow.\n\nVirgil asked him if he repented it.\n\n\u201cI will repent,\u201d replied the waggoner, \u201cwhen I see it proved by a\nmiracle\u2014but in miracles I put no faith.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d said Virgil, \u201cpray to the goddess to pardon you. Pray with me\nthus:\n\n \u201c\u2018Dea della neve che sei candida,\n E pura la sera a lume di Luna,\n Un bel lenzuola candida sembra\n Distesa sulla terra e sui tetti:\n Col sol sei splendida e rilucente:\n E vero ti sprezzai, ma non fu io\n Fu il diavolo che mia ha tentato.\n E spero da oggi non mi tentera pi\u00f9,\n Perche amo essere in grazia tua e come,\n Stella tu sei bella, sei bianca,\n Sei candida e pura e sei l\u2019unica\n Che fra le Dee non faccia altro\n Che bene, e mai male, bella dea!\n O dea della Neve tu che sei\n L\u2019unico mio pensiero, unica speme,\n Unica mia speranza\u2014da ora avanti,\n Tutti e tutti miei pensieri\n Saranna a te rivolti\u2014neppur da casa\n Mi partero prima di fare a te\n Una preghiera che possa spiegar\n Il mio pensier al dar farsi\n Partir o restar a te domandero,\n A te domandero che devo far.\n Tutto questo a te rivago\n E sempre rivolgero se tu mi perdonerai\n E questa grazia mi farai\n Che son pentito assai\n Di farmi sortir di qui\n Che tanto sofro\u2014farmi sortir\u2014\n Sano e salvo che io posso tornar\n In braccio alla mia famiglia!\n Che da tre sere mi chiamami desidera!\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cO Goddess of the Snow, who art so white\n And pure that in the evening, in the light\n Of the full moon, thou seem\u2019st to be\n A fair bright sheet spread over earth and roofs\n (That all may sleep beneath it and in peace),\n But who art splendid with a ruddy glow\n In the using sunlight\u2014it is very true\n That I did scorn thee, yet it was not I.\n For \u2019twas the devil in truth who tempted me,\n And who, I hope, will never tempt me more,\n Because I fain would be in thy good grace!\n O Star, thou art most beautiful and white,\n Candid and pure, because thou truly art\n Among the goddesses the only one\n Who only doest good, and by no chance\n Art sullied with aught evil\u2014O most fair!\n O Goddess of the Snow, who art indeed\n My only thought, my only hope in life,\n My only trust from now till ever on!\n My all and every thought shall turn to thee\n Nor will I ever from my house depart\n Till I have offered thee a fervent prayer,\n In which I\u2019ll lay before thee all my soul,\n And ask of thee what \u2019tis that I must do,\n And if I must remain or mend my way!\n All this do I repeat to thee again,\n And ever will repeat if thou wilt but\n Pardon my sin and grant to me the grace,\n Having repented from my very heart,\n To draw me from this place of suffering,\n That safe and sound I may return again\n Unto the embraces of my family,\n Who for three nights have called to me in vain!\u201d\n\nHe had hardly ended this invocation before a voice replied:\n\n \u201cAlzati e cammina e porta con te\n Anche i tuoi animali ma non bestemmiare\n Mai pi\u00f9, perche questaltra voltra\n Sprafonderesti nell\u2019 abisso dove\n Gnenti (niente) pi\u00f9 bastarrebbe per levarti\n Dall\u2019 inferno.\u201d . . .\n\n \u201cRise and depart, and take away with thee\n Thy beasts in peace, but never more blaspheme,\n Because another time thou\u2019lt sink so deep\n To the abyss that nothing will avail\n To draw thee out, for thou wilt fall to hell!\u201d\n\nThen the waggoner took his horses and rode home at double-quick speed.\nHe related to all what had happened, and the chapel was again restored\nwith the image of the goddess. But even among the experienced\n(_conoscenti_) none could tell him [for a long time] who was the one who\nhad taught him what to do. But it was at last made known to them that it\nwas the great magician and the great poet Virgil, because the Goddess of\nthe Snow and Virgil are good spirits. {138}\n\nSo this waggoner, from being evil became so good that one could not find\nhis equal.\n\n * * * * *\n\nOur Lady of the Snow, or Maria vom Schnee, is one of the more familiar\navatars of the Madonna all over Middle and Northern Italy and Germany,\nincluding Austria and Switzerland. One of the commonest halfpenny or\n_soldo_ pamphlets sold at corners in Florence is devoted to her. A very\nfamous Madonna of the Snow is that of Laveno, to whom there is a special\nfestival. Wordsworth has devoted a poem to her.\n\nIn the legend which I have given the general resemblance of the whole to\nthe Madonna tales, as in the building a chapel, the threat of hell, and\nthe punishment for profanity, suggest that it is borrowed from a Catholic\nsource. This I doubt, for several reasons. It is of the witch witchy,\nand heathen, as shown by calling the lady a goddess, and especially by\nthe long _scongiurazione_ or evocations in which the sorcerer takes such\ndelight that for him they form the solid portion of the whole, possibly\nbecause they are, if not actually prohibited, at least secret things,\ncryptic or of esoteric lore. Now, be it noted that wherever, as regards\nother legends, as in that of the Madonna del Fuoco, given in my\n\u201cEtrusco-Roman Legends,\u201d the witch claims that her tradition has been\nborrowed by the priests, she is probably in the right. But what gives\ncolour to the opinion that this Madonna is of heathen origin is the fact\nthat in the Old German mythology, as Friedrich declares, there is a deity\nknown as Lady Holde, Holle, or Hilda (who may be again found in the\nChristian Maria), who is a kind and friendly being. She was the Goddess\nof the Snow, hence it is commonly said when it snows that Lady Holde is\nmaking her bed and shaking out the feathers. As there is no German\nsupernatural character, especially in the fairy mythology, which does not\nexist in Northern Italy, it would be very remarkable indeed if such a\nwidely known and popular spirit as the Lady of the Snow had not been\nknown there long before the Christian Madonna. I would add that this is\npurely and literally a legend of the people, not asked for by me, and not\nthe result of any inquiry or suggestion.\n\nThe Madonna della Neve is especially honoured at Laveno, where there is\nan annual procession in her honour. I am indebted to the kindness of the\nRev. Arthur Mangles, who knew that I was interested in the subject, for\nthe following, translated by him from some small local book there\npublished:\n\n\n\n\nTHE LEGEND OF LA MADONNA DELLA NEVE.\n\n\nIn the fourth century there lived in Rome two devout people, husband and\nwife, who, having no children, prayed to the Virgin that she would\nindicate to them the best way in which to leave their money.\n\nOn the night of the fifth of August, A.D. 352, the Virgin appeared to\nthem and told them to build a church upon the summit of the Esquiline\nHill, in Rome, exactly upon the area then covered with snow.\n\nThe Pope had the same vision of the Virgin, with the same communication\nas that of the husband and wife. Therefore he sent to the place\nindicated a messenger, accompanied by many priests, who found the snow.\n\nThe husband and wife forthwith built a handsome church upon the spot.\n\nThe church, which is now on the same hill, and on the foundation of the\nearly edifice, is that of Santa Maria Maggiore.\n\n * * * * *\n\nSnow in August is rather a thin miracle whereon to found a legend, or a\nchurch, but it may pass. The one which I have translated seems to me to\nhave a greater air of antiquity, with its retribution and beautiful\nLatin-like invocation to the Spirit of the Snow.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAGICIAN VIRGIL; A LEGEND FROM THE SABINE.\n\n\nThe following tale was obtained by Miss Roma Lister from the vicinity of\nRome, and from an old woman who is learned in sorcery and incantations.\nIt begins with the note that, on February 8, 1897, it was taken down as\ngiven, literally word for word, and I translate it accordingly verbatim.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThere were a husband, a wizard, and his wife (who was a witch), who had a\nbeautiful daughter, and a house with a fine garden which was full of\nbroccoli\u2014oh, the finest broccoli in the world!\n\nAnd opposite to this, or overlooking the garden, dwelt two women, and one\nof these was _incinta_, or with child, and she said to the other woman:\n\n\u201c_Comare_, {140} how I would like to have two broccoli from the\nmagician\u2019s garden. They\u2019re so nice!\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, _comare_, but how to get them? It would be dangerous!\u201d\n\n\u201c_La cosa si far\u00e0_\u2014it can be done, at midnight when the sorcerer is\nasleep, by stealing a little.\u201d\n\nAnd so they did, for at midnight both went with a sack, climbed over the\niron gate, and, having filled their bag, went away. {141a}\n\nIn the morning the magician Virgilio went to his garden and found that\nmany broccoli were gone. In a rage he ran to his wife, and said: \u201cWhat\u2019s\nto be done?\u201d\n\nShe replied: \u201cThis night we\u2019ll set the cat on guard upon the gate.\u201d\n\nWhich was done. That evening, _fra il lusco e il brusco_, {141b} the one\nsaid:\n\n\u201cAh, gossip, this night it can\u2019t be done.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd why not, my dear?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy! Because they\u2019ve set a guard.\u201d\n\n\u201cGuard! An old cat, you mean. Are you afraid of her?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, because she mews when she sees something.\u201d\n\n\u201cI say, I\u2019ll tell you what to do. Take a bit of meat, and when she opens\nher mouth to mew, pitch it in. That\u2019ll keep her jaws quiet while we pick\nthe broccoli.\u201d\n\nAnd so it was done, and they got away with another bagful of broccoli.\n\nIn the morning the _mago_ Virgil found that he had been robbed again. He\ncomplained again to his wife, who said:\n\n\u201cWell, to-night we will put the dog on.\u201d\n\nSaid and done. But the dame at the window was on the watch. And seeing\nall, she said:\n\n\u201cNo broccoli to-night, gossip. This time they\u2019ve put the dog to look\nout.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, bother the dog! When he opens _his_ jaws to bark, I\u2019ll pitch in a\ngood bit of hard cheese. That\u2019ll keep him quiet.\u201d\n\nSaid and done again. The next morning the magician found a still greater\ndisappearance of broccoli from his garden.\n\n\u201cThe thing is becoming serious,\u201d he said. \u201cTo-night I will watch\nmyself.\u201d\n\nWith that he went to his gate and remained there, looking closely at all\nthose who passed by. So he said to the first:\n\n\u201cWhat is your trade?\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m a carpenter.\u201d\n\n\u201cPass on,\u201d replied the magician. \u201cYou\u2019re not the man I want.\u201d\n\nThere came another.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s your calling?\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m a tailor.\u201d\n\n\u201cPass on\u2014_non fate per me_\u201d (you won\u2019t do).\n\nThere came a baker. He was not wanted. But the next was a digger of\nditches and of graves\u2014a _fossaruolo_\u2014and the wizard cried:\n\n\u201cBravo! You\u2019re my man! Come with me; I want you to dig a pit in my\ngarden.\u201d\n\nSo the poor man went, for he was as much frightened at the terrible face\nand stature of the wizard as he was in hope of being paid. And being\ndirected, he dug a hole nearly as deep as the magician was tall.\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d said the master, \u201cget some light sticks and cover over the pit\nwhile I stand in it, and then strew some twigs and leaves over it, with a\nfew leaves to hide the top of my head.\u201d\n\nIt was done, and there he stood covered. The ditcher, or sexton, hurried\naway, glad that he had dug this strange grave for another, and not for\nhimself.\n\nEvening came, and the gossip looked out.\n\n\u201cGood! There is not even a dog on guard. Come, let us hurry! This time\nwe will take all that remains of the broccoli.\u201d\n\nSaid and done. And when they had gathered the last plant, the gossip\ncried:\n\n\u201cSee what beautiful mushrooms! Let us pick them.\u201d\n\nShe had seen the two ears of the sorcerer, which peeped out uncovered.\nSo she took hold of one and pulled.\n\n\u201cIt will not come out!\u201d she cried. \u201cDo thou pull at one, while I draw at\nthis.\u201d\n\nEach pulled, when the magician raised his awful face and glared at them.\n_E sorte fuori la terribile testa del mago_!\n\n\u201cNow you shall die for robbing me!\u201d he exclaimed.\n\nThey were in a fine fright. At last Virgil said:\n\n\u201cI will spare thy life, if thou wilt give me all thou bearest\u2014all within\nthee.\u201d\n\nShe consented, and they departed. After a time she became a mother, and\nthe magician came and demanded the child. And as she had promised it,\nshe consented to give it to him, but begged that it might be left to her\nfor a time.\n\n\u201cI will give it to thee for seven years,\u201d he replied. Saying this, he\nleft her in peace for a long time. So the child, which was a boy, was\nborn, and as he grew older was sent every day to school.\n\nOne morning the magician met him, and said: \u201cTell thy mother to remember\nher promise.\u201d Then he gave the child some sweets, and left him. When at\nhome the boy said:\n\n\u201cMamma, a gentleman met me to-day at the door of the school, and said to\nme that I should tell you to remember your promise. Then he gave me some\ncomfits.\u201d\n\nThe poor mother was in a great fright.\n\n\u201cTell him, when you next meet him,\u201d she answered, \u201cthat you forgot to\ngive his message to me.\u201d\n\nThe next day the boy met the magician, and said to him that he had\nforgotten all about it, and told his mother nothing.\n\n\u201cVery well, tell her this evening, and be sure to remember.\u201d\n\nThe mother heard this, and bade him tell the sorcerer the same thing\nagain.\n\nWhen he met the magician Virgil again and told the same story, the latter\nsmiled, and said:\n\n\u201cIt seems that thou hast a bad memory. This time I will give thee\nsomething by which to remember me. Give me thy hand.\u201d\n\nThe boy gave his hand; the magician bit into one finger, and as the child\nscreamed, he said: \u201cThis time thou wilt remember.\u201d The boy ran yelling\nhome.\n\n\u201cSee what has happened to me, _brutta mammacia_\u2014you naughty mamma\u2014because\nI did what you bade, and told the gentleman that I forgot.\u201d\n\nThe poor woman, hearing herself called _brutta mammacia_, {143} was\novercome with grief and shame, and said, \u201c_Vai bene_\u2014I will tell him\nmyself.\u201d So the next day she took the child and gave him to the\nmagician, who led him to his home.\n\nBut when his wife, the witch, beheld the boy, she cried:\n\n\u201cKill that child at once, for I read it in his face that he will be the\nruin of our daughter Marietta!\u201d\n\nBut the magician declared that nothing would induce him to harm the boy,\nso the little fellow remained, and was treated by the master like a son.\nIn due time he became a tall and handsome young man, and he was called\nAntonuccio. But the witch always said:\n\n\u201cWe should kill and eat him, for he will be the ruin of our Marietta.\u201d\n\nAt last the magician, weary of her complaints, said:\n\n\u201c_Bene_! I will set him a task, and if he cannot accomplish it, that\nsame night shall he be slain.\u201d\n\nNow, Antonuccio, as he slept in the next room, had overheard all this.\n\nThe next morning the magician took the youth to a stable which was very\nlarge and horribly filthy, such as no one had ever seen, and said:\n\n\u201cNow, Antonuccio, you must clean this stable out and out\u2014_bene e\nbene_\u2014repave it on the ground, and whitewash all above it; and moreover,\nwhen I speak, an echo shall answer me.\u201d {144}\n\nThe poor youth went to work, but soon found that he could do next to\nnothing. So he sat down in despair.\n\nAt noon came Marietta, to bring him his lunch, and found him in tears.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s the matter, Antonuccio?\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you knew that I am to be killed this evening\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat for?\u201d\n\n\u201cYour father has said that unless I clean out the stable, and pave and\nwhitewash it to the echo\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cIs that all? _Sta allegro_\u2014be of good cheer\u2014I\u2019ll attend to that.\u201d\n\nMarietta went home, and stealing in on tip-toe while the sorcerer slept,\nsoftly carried away his magic wand, and with a few words cleaned out the\nstable to the echo, and Antonuccio was delighted.\n\nIn the evening the magician came, and finding the stable clean as a new\npin, was much pleased, and kissed him and took him home. The witch-wife\nwas furious at learning that the stable had been cleaned, and declared\nthat Marietta had done it, and ended by screaming for his life. At last\nthe wizard said:\n\n\u201cTo-morrow I will set him another task, and should he fail in that, he\nshall surely die.\u201d\n\nThe next morning he led the youth into a dense forest of mighty trees,\nand said:\n\n\u201cThou seest this wood? In one day it must be all cut down and cleared\naway to a clean field, in which must be growing all kinds of plants which\nare to be found in the world.\u201d\n\nAnd Antonuccio began to hew with an axe, and worked well, but soon gave\nup the task in despair.\n\nAt noon came Marietta with her basket.\n\n\u201cWhat, crying again! What is the trouble to-day?\u201d\n\n\u201cOnly to clear away all this forest, make a clean field, and plant it\nwith all the herbs in the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, well, eat your lunch, and I will see about it. It is lucky that it\nis not something difficult!\u201d\n\nShe ran home, got a magic wand, and went to work. Down the trees came\ncrashing\u2014away they flew! \u2019Twas a fine sight, upon my word! And then up\nsprouted all kinds of herbs and flowers, till there was the finest garden\nin the world.\n\nIn the evening came the magician, and was well pleased at finding how\nwell Antonuccio had done the work. But when his wife heard all, she\nraged more than ever, declaring that it had all been done by Marietta,\nwho was destined to be ruined by the boy.\n\n\u201cWell, well!\u201d exclaimed the wizard. \u201cIf you will give me no peace, I\nmust put an end to this trouble. I will give the boy nothing to do\nto-morrow\u2014he may remain idle\u2014and in the evening I will chop off his head\nwith this axe.\u201d\n\nAntonuccio heard this speech as he had done the others, and this time was\nin despair. In the morning Marietta found him weeping.\n\n\u201cWhat is the matter, Antonuccio?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am to do no work to-day, but this evening I am to have my head chopped\noff.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs that all? Be of good cheer\u2014_sta allegro_\u2014I will see what can be\ndone.\u201d\n\nShe put the pot on the fire to boil, and began to make the macaroni.\nWhen she had cooked a great deal, they fed all the furniture, pots and\npans, chairs and tables, to please them, and induce them to be silent\u2014all\nexcept the hearth-brush, whom by oversight they forgot.\n\n\u201cAnd now,\u201d said Marietta, \u201cwe must be off and away; it is time for us to\ngo!\u201d\n\nSo away they ran. After a while the wizard and his wife returned and\nknocked at the door. No answer. They rapped and called, but got no\nreply. At last the hearth-brush cried:\n\n\u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d\n\n\u201cMarietta, open the door\u2014it is I.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not Marietta. She has run away with Antonuccio. First they fed\neverybody with ever so much macaroni, but gave me none.\u201d\n\nThen the witch cried to the wizard:\n\n\u201cHurry\u2014hasten\u2014catch them if you can!\u201d\n\nThe good man did as he was bid, and began to travel\u2014travel far and fast.\n\nAll at once, while the lovers were on their way, Antonuccio turned his\nhead and saw afar their pursuer on a mountain-road, and cried:\n\n\u201cMarietta, I see your father coming.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen, my dear, I will become a fair church and thou shalt be the fine\nsexton (_sacristano_). And he will ask thee if thou hast seen a girl and\nyouth pass, and thou shalt reply that he must first repeat the\nPaternoster and not the Ave Maria. And if he asks again, tell him to say\nthe Ave Maria and not the Paternoster. And then, out of patience, he\nwill depart.\u201d\n\nSo it came to pass, and the wizard was deceived. When he had returned,\nhis wife asked him what he had seen.\n\n\u201cNothing but a church and a sacristan.\u201d\n\n\u201cStupid that you are! The church was Marietta\u2014fly, fly and catch them!\u201d\n\nSo he set forth again, and again he was seen from afar by Antonuccio.\n\n\u201cMarietta, I see your father coming.\u201d\n\n\u201cGood. Now I will become a beautiful garden, and thou the gardener. And\nwhen my father comes and asks if thou hast seen a couple pass, reply that\nthou weedest lettuces, not broccoli. And when he asks again, answer that\nthou weedest broccoli, not lettuces.\u201d\n\nSo it all came to pass, and the wizard, out of patience, returned home.\n\n\u201cWell, and what did you see?\u201d inquired his wife.\n\n\u201cOnly a garden and a gardener.\u201d\n\n\u201c_Ahi\u2014stupido_! Those were the two. Start! This time I will go with\nyou!\u201d\n\nAfter a while Antonuccio saw the two following, and gaining on them\nrapidly.\n\n\u201cMarietta, here come your father and mother. Now we are in a nice mess.\u201d\n{147}\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid. Now I will become a fountain fair and broad, like a\nsmall lake, and thou a pretty pigeon, to whom they will call; but for\nmercy\u2019s sake don\u2019t let yourself be taken, for then all will be over with\nus.\u201d\n\nThe wizard and his wife came to the fountain and saw the dove, and tried\nto inveigle and catch it with grain. But it would not be caught, neither\ncould the witch quench her thirst with the water. So, finding that both\nwere beyond her power, she cried in a rage:\n\n \u201cWhen Antonuccio kisses his mother,\n He\u2019ll forget Marietta and every other.\u201d\n\nSo, when the parents were gone, the pair set forth again, till they came\nto a place not far from where the mother of Antonuccio lived.\n\n\u201cI will go and see my mother,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cDo not go, for she will kiss thee, and thou wilt forget me,\u201d replied\nMarietta.\n\n\u201cBut I will take good care that she does not kiss me,\u201d answered\nAntonuccio. \u201cOnly wait a day.\u201d\n\nHe went and saw his mother, and both were in great joy at meeting again,\nbut he implored her not to kiss him. And being weary, he went to sleep,\nand his mother, unheeding his request, kissed him while he slept. And\nwhen he awoke, Marietta was completely forgotten.\n\nSo the curse of the witch came to pass. And he lived with his mother,\nand in time fell in love with another girl. Then they appointed a day\nfor their wedding.\n\nMeanwhile, Marietta lived where she had been left, and made a fairy\nfriend who knew all that was going on far and near. One day she told\nMarietta that Antonuccio was to be married.\n\nMarietta begged her to go and steal some dough (from the house of the\nbride). The friend did so, and Marietta made of the dough two cakes in\nthe form of puppets, or children, and one she called Antonuccio and the\nother Marietta.\n\nThen, on the day of the feast, the first day of the wedding, she begged\nher friend to go and put the two puppets on the bridal table.\n\nShe did so, and when all were assembled, the puppet Marietta began to\nspeak:\n\n \u201cDost thou remember, Antonuccio,\n How, when my father brought thee to his house,\n My mother wished to take away thy life?\n And how he bade thee sweep the stable clean?\u201d\n\nAnd the other replied:\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I remember the day.\u201d {148}\n\nThen Marietta sang:\n\n \u201cDost thou remember, Antonuccio,\n How \u2019twas I aided thee to clear the field?\u201d\n\nHe replied:\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I remember the day.\u201d\n\nShe sang again:\n\n \u201cDost thou remember how thou hadst no work\n Upon the day when they would murder thee,\n And how we fled together to escape?\u201d\n\nHe replied:\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I remember the day.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile the true Antonuccio, who was present, began to remember what\nhad taken place. Then the puppet Marietta sang again:\n\n \u201cDost thou remember how I was the church,\n And thou of it becam\u2019st the sacristan?\u201d\n\nHe answered:\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I remember the day.\u201d\n\n \u201cDost thou remember how I was a garden,\n And how thou didst become its gardener?\u201d\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I now remember the day.\u201d\n\n \u201cDost thou remember how I was a fountain,\n And thou a pigeon flying over it?\u201d\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I now remember the day.\u201d\n\n \u201cDost thou remember, Antonuccio,\n How \u2019twas my mother laid a curse on me,\n And how she said before she went away\u2014\n When Antonuccio kisses his mother\n He\u2019ll forget Marietta and every other?\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cPassing away, passing away,\n Well do I now remember the day.\u201d\n\nThen Antonuccio himself remembered it all, and rising from the table, ran\nfrom the house to where Marietta dwelt\u2014and married her.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis story, adds Miss Lister, is somewhat abbreviated, since in the\noriginal the puppet Marietta, for the edification of all assembled,\nrepeats the whole story.\n\nIt will be at once observed that there is in all this no special\nreference to Virgil as a character, as he appears in other legends, the\nreason being that the old woman who narrated it simply understood by the\nword Virgilio _any_ magician of any kind. So in another tale a youth\nexclaims, \u201cArt thou what is called _a_ Virgil?\u201d This is curious as\nindicating that the word has become generic in Italian folk-lore. But\nVirgil is even here, as elsewhere on the whole, a man of kind heart. He\nhas had his garden robbed and his daughter stolen, but he displays at all\ntimes a kindly feeling to Antonuccio. It is his wife, the witch, who\nshows all the spite.\n\nNor is this, like the rest, a witch-story which belongs entirely to\nesoteric, unholy, or secret lore, specially embodying instruction and an\nincantation. It is a mere nursery legend, the commonest of Italian\nfairy-tales, to be found in all collections in whole or in part. It is\nspread all over Europe, and has found its way through Canadian-French to\nthe Red Indians of North America\u2014apropos of which I would remind a\ncertain very clever reviewer and learned folk-lorist that because many\nFrench tales are found among the Algonkin tribes, it does not follow, as\nhe really intimates, that the said Redskins have no other traditions.\n\nBut even in this version there are classic traces. The cleaning out of\nthe Augean stables by Hercules is one, and the spell of oblivion another.\n\nI do not know what the origin may be of the head of the sorcerer rising\nfrom the surface of the earth with ears like mushrooms, implying that\nthey were very large; but I find in an edition of the \u201cMeditations of\nSaint Augustin,\u201d Venice, A.D. 1588, illustrated with rude, quaint\npictures, one in which the holy father is kneeling before a crucifix,\nwhile there rises from the ground before him a great and terrible head\nwith one very long ear. By it lies the usual skull, one-fifth its size.\nWere two women substituted for the saint, it would be a perfect\nillustration of the strange scene described in the story. It is, to say\nthe least, a singular coincidence.\n\nThis story is therefore of some value as indicating that the general term\nof sorcerer, magician or wizard, is used as a synonym for Virgil, or\n_vice vers\u00e2_. As Lucan writes in his \u201cPharsalia\u201d: \u201cNec sua Virgilio\npermisit nomina soli.\u201d {150}\n\nIt is worth noting that there is in the Museum of Florence an Etruscan\nmirror on which Mercury and Minerva are represented as looking at a human\nhead apparently coming from the ground. It may be that of Orpheus lying\nupon it; in any case, it is strangely suggestive of these tales. I am\nindebted for a tracing of this mirror to the Rev. J. Wood Brown, author\nof the \u201cLife of Michael Scott, the Magician and Philosopher,\u201d wherein the\nlatter hath a dual affinity to Virgil, and it is very remarkable, as I\nhave elsewhere noted, that the splitting a hill into three is near Rome\nascribed to the Roman poet.\n\nA curious book could be written on heads, decapitated, which have spoken.\nThere is, I believe, a legend to the effect that the caput of John the\nBaptist thus conversed, and it may be that the New Testament only gives a\nfragment of the original history. The belief that Herodias was a\nsorceress, and a counterpart of Diana as queen of the witches, was\ngenerally established so early as the second century, but is far older,\nthe original Herodias having been a form of Lilith. {151}\n\nIt is specially to be noted in connection with this tale that one of the\nolder legends given in \u201cVirgilius the Sorcerer of Rome\u201d expressly\ndeclares that\n\n \u201cVirgilius made an iron head which could not only speak, but also\n foretell the future; and, as some say, it was by misinterpreting the\n oracle that Virgilius met his death in this wise. Being about to\n undertake a journey, he asked the head if it would come to a good\n end. The reply was: \u2018Yes, if he took care of _his head_.\u2019 Taking\n this to mean the oracle itself, Virgilius took every measure to\n secure it, and with light heart went his way, but while journeying,\n exposed to sunshine, he was seized with a fever in the head, of which\n he died.\u201d\n\nThis is again like the death of Michael Scott.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL, THE WICKED PRINCESS, AND THE IRON MAN.\n\n\n \u201cAn iron man who did on her attend,\n His name was Talus, made of yron mould,\n Immoveable, resistlesse\u2014without end.\u201d\n\n SPENSER: _Faerie Queene_, v. c. i.\n\nThere once lived a Princess who was beautiful beyond words, but wicked\nbeyond belief; her whole soul was given to murder and licentiousness; yet\nshe was so crafty as to escape all suspicion, and this pleased her best\nof all, for deceit was to her as dear as life itself. And this she\nmanaged, as many another did in those days, by inveigling through her\nagents handsome young men into her palace by night, where they were\ninvited to a banquet and then to a bed, and all went gaily till the next\nmorning at breakfast, when the Princess gave her victim in wine or food a\nterrible and rapid poison, after which the corpse was carried away\nsecretly by her servants to be thrown into the river, or hidden in some\nsecret vault; and thus it was the lady sinned in secret while she kept up\na white name before the world.\n\nNow it came to pass that a young man, who was a great friend of Virgil,\nwas taken in the snare by this Princess, and put to death and no more\nheard of, when the great poet by his magic art learned the whole truth.\nThen for revenge or punishment he made a man of iron with golden locks,\nvery beautiful to behold as a man, with sympathetic, pleasing air, one\nwho conversed fluently and in a winning voice; and yet he was all of\niron, and the spirit who was conjured into him was one without pity or\nmercy.\n\nThen Virgil bade the Iron Man walk to and fro past the palace of the\nPrincess, and she, seeing him, was more pleased than she had ever been\nbefore, and at once sent out a messenger, who invited him to enter by a\nsecret gate, which he did, and was warmly received, and treated with a\ngreat display of love. And in the morning at breakfast, as the Princess\nhesitated to give him the deadly drink, for she had at last fallen madly\nin love, he said:\n\n\u201cWell, where is the poison? Don\u2019t keep me waiting! Quick, that I may\ndrink!\u201d\n\nAnd when she heard that she was indeed terrified, thinking, \u201cThis man\nknows all my secret.\u201d But as she hesitated, he took the deadly cup and\ndrained it to the last drop. \u201cAnd now,\u201d she thought, \u201cI am saved.\u201d But\nthe Iron Man said with scorn:\n\n\u201cDo you call _that_ stuff poison? Why, it would hardly kill a mouse.\nGive me stronger, I say\u2014stronger! I live on poison, and the stronger it\nis the better I like it.\u201d\n\nHearing this, the Princess felt from head to foot as if her blood were\nall turned to ice, for now she knew that she was lost, and her punishment\nat hand.\n\n\u201cAnd now,\u201d said the Iron Man, \u201csince all the poisoning and treachery and\nputting away of young gentlemen is at an end, you must come with me;\u201d and\nwith this he took her under his left arm and went forth.\n\nAt her screams all her retainers came armed, and after them twenty\nsoldiers, but all were of no avail against such an enemy, whom they could\nneither pierce with steel nor restrain by strength; and escaping with\nher, he mounted a black steed, which a Moor was holding outside, and with\nhis victim flew over the land till they came to a dark and savage place\nin the mountains. And here he bore her into a vast cavern, where many\nmen were seated round a table, and as she looked she saw that they were\nall the lovers whom she had put to death. Then they all cried:\n\n\u201c_Ecco la nostra moglie_! Behold our wife! Behold our Drusiana!\u201d\n\nAnd another said:\n\n\u201cLet us give her to drink, and let us drink to her!\u201d\n\nAnd they gave her a full goblet, which she could not help swallowing, and\nthe wine was like fire, the fire of hell itself in all her veins. The\nmen assembled round burst into laughter at seeing her suffering, and one\nshouted:\n\n \u201cDrink, Princess, drink!\n Thou feelest the same fire,\n Only in greater measure,\n Hotter, wilder and fiercer,\n Which thou didst feel before,\n When thy blood boiled with passion,\n And with love of secret murder;\n Then thou didst feel it a little,\n Now thou shalt feel it greatly;\n Once it ran drop by drop,\n Now in full goblets and frequent.\u201d\n\nThen another gave her a glass of wine which she could not help\nswallowing, and it was cold, and her blood again grew cold as ice, and\nshe shivered in an agony of freezing. And so it went on, everyone giving\nher first the scalding hot wine and then the cold, while all sang in\nchorus:\n\n \u201cWe give thee again in thy heart\n What thou didst give to us:\n The heat of love which burned in us,\n Burned in us and in thee,\n And the cold of desire when satisfied.\n Thou hadst no mercy on us:\n We have as little for thee.\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe connection of Virgil with the classic Talus, or Iron Man, and so many\nother ancient legends, as shown in these which I have gathered, renders\nthe more striking the assertion that \u201cafter the sixteenth century the\nVergilian legends disappear, and become known only to scholars,\u201d as\nworded by E. F. M. Beneche in his translation of Comparetti\u2019s work. The\ntruth is, that as the age of credulity and mere marvels passed away among\nthe higher classes, the learned ceased to collect or take an interest in\nheaping up \u201cwonders upon wonders.\u201d But the people went on telling and\nmaking tales about Virgil, just as they had always done. And the full\nproof that there was not a soul who for centuries took the least interest\nin folklore or popular tradition in Central and Northern Italy is to be\nfound in the fact that, while such material _abounds_ in the English,\nFrench, and especially German literature of later ages, there is hardly a\ntrace of it in a single Roman or Tuscan writer till of late years. Even\nat the present day there is small search or seeking in Northern Italy for\nthe rich treasures of old Roman tradition which still exist among the\npeople.\n\n\n\n\nGIOVANNI DI BOLOGNA AND THE GOD MERCURY.\n\n\n\u201cMercurium omnium Deorum antiquorum vigilantissimum ac maxime negotiis\nimplicatum, scribit Hesiodus in Theogoni\u00e0.\u201d\u2014NATALIS COMITIS:\n_Mythologia_, lib. v., 1616.\n\nIn the old times in Florence the Tuscans worshipped the idols of Jupiter,\nand Bacchus, and Venus, and Mercury in their temples. And sometimes\nthose gods when conjured {155a} came down to earth.\n\nIn those times there was in Florence {155b} a sculptor of Bologna named\nGiovanni, the same who made the Diavolino in the Mercato Vecchio. He was\ntormented by the desire to make a statue of such beauty that there should\nnot be its like in all the world; and he, moreover, desired that this\nstatue should be as if living, one not stiff and fixed, but one like\nMercury, all activity, and he was so full of this thought that he had no\nrest even by night, for a certain gentleman had said to him:\n\n\u201cAll in vain dost thou intoxicate thyself by studying statues, saying,\n\u2018This one is beautiful, that still more so; this sculptor\u2014_\u00e9 bravo_\u2014has\ntalent, that even cleverer;\u2019 but, after all, the best of their work is\nmotionless, and produces on me the effect of a corpse. I should call him\na clever sculptor who could make a statue inspired with motion like a\nliving man\u2014_che caminasse o magari saltasse_\u2014who runs and hops, but not a\npiece of marble merely carved.\u201d\n\nAnd this moved Giovanni to make a statue which should not have its equal\nin the world. And thinking of Mercury, the liveliest and quickest of all\nthe gods, who is ever flying like a falcon, he said:\n\n \u201cIf I could behold him,\n Though \u2019twere but for once,\n I should have the model\n Of a wondrous statue\n Inspired unto life!\u201d\n\nOne evening Giovanni found himself in the Temple of Mercury, that which\nis to-day called the Baptistery of Saint John [and there he found\nVirgilio], to whom he said that he so greatly longed to see Mercury\nliving and in flight.\n\nVirgilio replied:\n\n\u201cGo at midnight to the hill of Vallombrosa when the moon is full, and\ncall the fairy Bellaria, who will aid thee.\u201d\n\nGiovanni went to the hill and called to Bellaria, but she made no reply.\nSo he returned to Virgilio, who said:\n\n\u201cIt is not enough to simply call to her, she must be _scongiurata_\u2014called\nby an incantation.\u201d\n\nThen Giovanni, having learned this, thus conjured her:\n\n \u201cStella lucente,\n Ed aria splendente,\n Col tuo splendor,\n Bell\u2019 Aria infiamma\n Mercurio, e fa lo scendere\n In terra che io posso\n Levarne il modello!\n Tu che siei bella,\n Bella quanto buona,\n Fa mi questa grazia;\n Perche io sono molto,\n Molto infelice,\n Se non faro una statua\n Come il desiderio mio,\n Vedi Bellaria.\n Finquase\u00f9 in questo monte,\n Son venuto per potermi\n A te raccomandare;\n T\u00f9 prego non indugiare\n A far mi questa grazia,\n Perche sono infelice.\u201d\n\n \u201cShining star!\n Resplendent glowing air, {156}\n With thy burning splendour,\n Bell\u2019 Aria, inflame,\n Inspire great Mercury,\n Make him descend to earth\n That he may copied be.\n Thou who art beautiful,\n As beautiful as good,\n Grant me, I pray, this grace,\n For I am lost in grief\n Because I cannot make\n A statue as I wish.\n Behold, Bellaria!\n I\u2019ve come unto this hill\n To beg this thing of thee!\n I pray thee grant my prayer,\n For I am suffering.\u201d\n\nThen Bellaria thus evoked Mercury:\n\n \u201cMercurio mio, bel Mercurio,\n Per quell\u2019 acqua corrente,\n E cel (cielo) splendente,\n E tu risplendi, risplendi amor\n Di bellezza, e come il vento,\n Come il fulmine lesto siei,\n Io sono stata\n Scongiurata,\n Scongiurata pel mio splendor,\n Per infiammarti\n Del mio calor\n Che tu scenda in terra\n Che vi\u00e9 Giovanni\n Gian di Bologna,\n Primo scultore, vuol prendere da te\n Il modello,\n Ti prego di scendere\n Come un baleno\n Perche fino che non sarai sesato,\n Ne pure a me tornerebbe\n La mia pace perche\n Mi hanno scongiurata per te;\n Se questa grazia mi farai\n Non per me, ma per Giovanni,\n Tre segni mi darai\u2014\n Lampo, tuono e fulmine\n Se questa grazi mi farai,\n I tre seguali mi darai!\u201d\n\n \u201cMercury, beauteous God!\n By the rushing water!\n By the glowing heaven!\n As thou shinest, reflecting again\n Their beauty, and as the wind\n Or the lightning thou art fleet.\n Even so am I\n Conjured and compelled\n Even by mine own splendour\n To inspire, inflame\n Thee by mine own heat!\n That thou descend to earth,\n That Giovanni, born\n In Bologna, may\n As sculptor copy thee!\n I pray thee to descend,\n Even like lightning\u2019s flash,\n Since till thou art measured,\n I shall not be in peace,\n Being myself invoked.\n If thou wilt grant this grace,\n Yet not for me but _Gian_,\n Accord to me three signs:\n The flash, the crash and bolt;\n Even as lightning comes,\n I pray thee grant me this!\u201d\n\nAnd in an instant there came all together in one the flash and roar and\nthunderbolt, and Giovanni di Bologna beheld Mercury flying in the heaven,\nand said:\n\n \u201cE troppo leggiadro, troppo bello!\n Non posso dipingere una Stella\n Ne il vento, ne un bal\u00e9n,\n E finito la mia speranza. Amen!\u201d\n\n \u201cThou art too little and light, by far!\n I cannot paint a shining star,\n Nor the wild wind or lightning\u2014then\n All hope is lost, ah me! Amen!\u201d\n\nThen the beautiful Bellaria said:\n\n\u201cIf thou canst not depict Mercury flying through the air, it may be that\nthou canst make him passing over the waves, for then his speed is not so\ngreat.\u201d [So she invoked Mercury again, and he was seen flitting over the\nocean.] {158}\n\nBut when Giovanni di Bologna beheld Mercury leaping from wave to wave\nlike a dolphin, he cried:\n\n \u201cBel Mercurio, sempre _vale_!\n Io non sono che un mortale,\n Io non posso tanto fare,\n Ne le tue grazzie combinare.\u201d\n\n \u201cFarewell, fair Mercury, all is o\u2019er,\n I\u2019m but a mortal and no more,\n I cannot give again thy face,\n And least of all thy wondrous grace.\u201d\n\nBellaria said to him:\n\n\u201cThou hast asked too much; it is not possible for thee to make fire and\nwater to the life. Yet be at ease, for what may not be done in water or\nin air may come to pass with ease upon the earth.\u201d\n\nBellaria again invoked Mercury, who descended like the wind in a leap,\neven as a man leaps down and alights on earth.\n\nThen Giovanni cried:\n\n \u201cGrazia \u00e0 Dio!\n Io ho l\u2019 ide\u00e0!\u201d\n\n \u201cThanks to God divine!\n The _idea_ is mine!\u201d\n\nAnd so Giovanni made the beautiful statue of Mercury in bronze; and so\nlong as the Tuscans worshipped their idols it was wont to dance, but\nafter they ceased this worship, it danced no more. [At present, the\nbeautiful statue of Mercury in bronze is in the Bargello.]\n\nIt is said that Bellaria is the sister of Mercury, and that both fly in\nthe air. When the _Fate_ or fairies, or good witches die, Bellaria\ndescends, and then bears their souls to heaven.\n\nMercury is the god of all people who are in haste, who have occasion to\ngo rapidly\u2014as, for instance, those who wish to send a letter quickly and\nreceive a speedy reply. To do this, you must have an image of Mercury\ncast in bronze, and it must be made to shine like silver, with a bright\ncolour like a looking-glass; {159} and this should be worshipped before\ngoing to bed, and on rising in the morning adore it again. And to invoke\nMercury, this is the manner: You must have a basin full of water, taken\nfrom a stream when agitated (_i.e._, running water), and in the evening,\nas in the morning, take that basin and make a cross on the earth where\nyou kneel down, and then say:\n\n \u201cAcqua corrente\n E vento furente,\n Avanti la statua di Mercurio\n Mi inghinnocchio, perche Mercurio,\n E il mio idole, Mercurio!\n E il mio dio;\n Acqua corrente\n E vento furente,\n Infuriate Mercurio\n A farmi questa grazia!\u201d\n\n \u201cRunning water, raging wind!\n Before the form of Mercury I kneel,\n For Mercury is my idol and my god!\n Running water, raging wind,\n Inspire great Mercury\n To do what I desire!\u201d\n\nThen you shall pause and sing again:\n\n \u201cMercurio, Mercurio!\n Tu che siei il mio Dio!\n Fammi questa grazia\n Che io ti chiedo,\n Se questa grazia a me concedi\n Tre cose fammi vedere;\n Tuono, lampo e vento infuriato!\u201d\n\n \u201cMercury, Mercury divine!\n Who ever art a god of mine!\n Grant me that which I do need,\n And if\u2019t be given me indeed,\n Cause me then three things to see\u2014\n The lightning\u2019s flash,\n The thunder crash,\n And the wind roaring furiously!\u201d\n\nAnd where the water from the running stream has been poured it must be\ncarefully covered over, so that no one can tread thereon, or else from\nthat time the favour of Mercury will cease.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt would seem as if this story were originally intended to imply that the\nsculptor, unable to give a higher conception of vivacity or motion,\nrepresented the mobile god as in the moment of descending on earth, still\npreserving the attitude of flight. This conception was probably too\nsubtle for the narrator, who describes the image as having been a kind of\nmarionette, or dancing Jack. \u201cWhate\u2019er it be, it is a curious tale.\u201d\n\nThe connection of Mercury with moving water is also remarkable. He bears\nserpents on his _caduceus_ or wand; and among other ancient myth-fancies,\na rushing river, from its shape or windings and its apparent life, was a\nsymbol of a serpent.\n\nIt is hardly worth while to note that Giovanni di Bologna was really a\nFrenchman\u2014Jean de Boulogne. The bronze Mercury by him described in this\nstory, and now in the Bargello Museum, is supposed to have suggested the\nallusion to the god as\n\n \u201cjust alighted\n On a heaven-kissing hill,\u201d\n\nand the probability is indeed of the strongest. Many judges good and\ntrue are of the opinion that, as regards motive or conception, this is\nthe best statue ever made by any save a Greek, as there is assuredly none\nin which the lightness of motion is so perfectly expressed in matter. I\nbelieve, however, that Giovanni di Bologna was indebted for this figure\nto some earlier type or motive. There is something not unlike it among\nthe old Etruscan small bronze _figurini_.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DOUBLE-FACED STATUE, OR HOW VIRGILIO CONJURED JANUS.\n\n\n \u201cNow by two-headed Janus!\n Nature hath formed strange fellows in her time!\u201d\n\n SHAKESPEARE.\n\n \u201cThere were in Rome many temples of Janus, some unto him as\n _bifrons_, or double-faced. Caylus has published pictures of Greek\n vases on which are seen two heads thus united, the one of an elderly\n man, the other of a young woman.\u201d\u2014_Dizionario Mitologico_.\n\nThere was once in Florence, in the Tower della Zeccha, a statue of great\nantiquity, and it had only one body, or bust, but two heads; and one of\nthese was of a man and the other of a woman, a thing marvellous to\nbehold.\n\nAnd Virgil, seeing this when it was first found in digging amid old\nruins, had it placed upright and said:\n\n\u201cBehold two beings who form but a single person! I will conjure the\nimage; it shall be a charm to do good; it shall teach a lesson to all.\u201d\n\nThus he conjured:\n\n \u201cStatua da due faccie\n Due, e un corpo solo,\n Due faccie ed avete\n Un sol cervello. Siete\n Due esseri l\u2019 uno per altro,\n Dovete essere marito e moglie,\n Dovete peccare con un sol pensiero.\n\n \u201cAvete bene quattro occhi\n Ma una sol vista,\n Come tutti i mariti,\n E moglie dorebbere essere,\n E dovete fare la buona fortuna\n Di tutti gli inamorati.\u201d\n\n \u201cStatue gifted with two faces,\n Two and yet a single body!\n Two and but one brain\u2014then art thou\n Two intended for each other\u2014\n Two who should be wife and husband,\n Acting by the same reflection.\n\n \u201cUnto you four eyes are given,\n And but a single sight\u2014ye are then\n What indeed all wives and husbands\n Ought to be if they\u2019d be happy;\n Therefore shalt thou bring good fortune\n Unto all devoted lovers!\u201d\n\nThen Virgil touched the statue with his rod, and it replied:\n\n \u201cTutti quelli che mi pregherano.\n Di cuore sincera, amanti o sposi,\n Tutti quelli saranno felice!\u201d\n\n \u201cAll of those who\u2019ll come here to adore me,\n Be they lovers, be they married couples,\n I will ever make them truly happy.\u201d\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe conception of a head with two faces, one male and the other female,\nis still very common in Italy. In the cloister of Santa Maria Novella in\nFlorence the portraits of a husband and wife are thus united on a marble\nmonumental tablet. And in Baveno, among the many _graffiti_ or sketches\nand scrawls made by children on the walls on or near the church, there is\none which is evidently traditional, representing Janus. This\ndouble-headed deity was continued in the Baphomet of the Knights\nTemplars.\n\nIn the older legends are two tales declaring that Virgil made and\nenchanted two statues. This appears to be a variation of the story of\nJanus.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND HIS COURTIERS.\n\n\n \u201cVirgilius also made a belfry.\u201d\u2014_The Wonderful History of Virgilius\n the Sorcerer of Rome_.\n\n \u201cTo be a crow and seem a swan,\n To look all truth, possessing none,\n To appear a saint by every act,\n And be a devil meanwhile at heart,\n To prove that black is white, in sooth,\n And cover up the false with truth;\n And be a living lie, in short\u2014\n Such are the lives men lead at court.\u201d\n\n _Old Italian saying cited by_ FRANCESCO PANICO _in his_ \u201c_Poetiche\n Dicerie_\u201d (1643); article, Courtiers.\n\n \u201cAbove all lying is the lie as practised by evil _courtiers_, it\n being falsehood _par excellence_. For they are the arch architects,\n the cleverest of artists at forming lies, pre-eminent in cooking,\n seasoning, serving them with the honey of flattery or the vinegar of\n reproof.\u201d\u2014FRANCESCO PANICO (1643).\n\nOn a time Virgilio remained for many weeks alone at home, and never went\nto court. And during this retirement he made seven bells of gold, and on\nevery one there was engraved a name or word.\n\nOn the first there was \u201cBugiardo\u201d (or lying), on the second \u201cChiacchiera\u201d\n(or tattling gossip), on the third \u201cMalignit\u00e0\u201d (or evil spite), on the\nfourth \u201cChalugna\u201d (or calumny), on the fifth \u201cMaldicenza\u201d (or\nvituperation), on the sixth \u201cInvidia\u201d (or envy), and on the seventh\n\u201cBassezza\u201d (or vileness).\n\nAnd these he hung up in a draught of air, so that as they swung in the\nbreeze they rang and tinkled, first one alone, and then all.\n\nOne day the Emperor sent a messenger to Virgilio, asking him why he never\ncame to court as of old. And Virgilio wrote in reply:\n\n \u201cMY DEAR EMPEROR,\n\n \u201cIt is no longer necessary that I should come to court to learn all\n that is said there. For where I am at home I hear all day long the\n voices of Falsehood, Tattling, Evil Spite, Calumny, Vituperation,\n Envy, and Vileness.\u201d\n\nAnd then he showed the bells to the messenger. The Emperor, when he had\nread the letter and heard all, laughed heartily, and said:\n\n\u201cSo Virgilio keeps a court of his own! Yes, and a finer one than mine,\nfor all his courtiers are clad in gold.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE THREE SHEPHERDS.\nA LEGEND OF THE MONTE SYBILLA, NEAR ROME.\n\n\n \u201cAnd, warrior, I could tell to thee\n The words which split Eildon Hill in three,\n And bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone;\n But to speak them were a deadly sin,\n And for having but thought them my heart within\n A treble penance must be done.\u201d\u2014SCOTT.\n\nMiss Roma Lister, when residing in Florence, having written to her old\nnurse Maria, in Rome, asking her if she knew, or could find, any tales of\nVirgil, received after a while the following letter, written out by her\nson, who has evidently been well educated, to judge by his style and\nadmirable handwriting:\n\n \u201cROME, _January_ 28, 1897.\n\n \u201cMIA BUONA SIGNORINA,\n\n \u201cI have been seeking for some old person, a native of the Castelli\n Romani, who knew something relative to the magician Virgil, and I\n found in a street of the new quarters of Rome an old acquaintance, a\n man who is more than eighty years of age; and on asking him for what\n I wanted, he, after some reflection, recalled the following story:\n\n \u201c\u2018I was a small boy when my parents told me that in the Montagna\n della Sibilla there was once an old man who was indeed so very old\n that the most ancient people had ever known him as appearing of the\n same age, and he was called the magician Virgilio.\n\n \u201c\u2018One day three shepherds were in a cabin at the foot of the\n mountain, when the magician entered, and they were at first afraid of\n him, knowing his reputation. But he calmed them by saying that he\n never did harm to anyone, and that he had come down from the mountain\n to beg a favour from them.\n\n \u201c\u2018\u201cThere is,\u201d he continued, \u201chalf-way up the mountain, a grotto, in\n which there is a great serpent which keeps me from entering.\n Therefore I beg you do me the kindness to capture it.\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018The shepherds replied that they would do so, thinking that he\n wanted them to kill the snake, but he explained to them that he\n wished to have it taken in a very large bottle (_grandissimo\n boccione_) {165} by means of certain herbs which he had provided.\n\n \u201c\u2018And the next day he came with the bottle and certain herbs which\n were strange to them, and certainly not grown in the country. And he\n said:\n\n \u201c\u2018\u201cGo to the grotto, and lay the bottle down with its mouth towards\n the cavern, and when the serpent shall smell the herbs he will enter\n the bottle. Then do ye close it quickly and bring it to me. And all\n of this must be done without a word being spoken, else ye will meet\n with disaster.\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018So the three shepherds went their way, and after a time came to the\n grotto, which they entered, and did as the magician had ordered.\n Then, after a quarter of an hour, the serpent, smelling the herbs,\n came forth and entered the bottle. No sooner was he in it than one\n of the shepherds adroitly closed it, and cried unthinkingly:\n\n \u201c\u2018\u201cNow you\u2019re caught!\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018When all at once they felt the whole mountain shake, and heard an\n awful roar, and crashing timber round on every side, so that they\n fell on the ground half dead with fear. When they came to their\n senses each one found himself on the summit of a mountain, and the\n three peaks were far apart. It took them several days to return to\n their cabin, and all of them died a few days after.\n\n \u201c\u2018From that time the magician Virgil was no more seen in the land.\u2019\n\n \u201cThis is all which I could learn; should I hear more I will write at\n once to you.\u201d\n\nThis is beyond question an imperfectly-told tale. What the sorcerer\nintended and effected was to divide a mountain into three peaks, as did\nMichael Scott, of whom legends are still left in Italy, as the reader may\nfind by consulting the interesting work by the Rev. J. Wood Brown. {166}\nIn the Italian tale the three shepherds who were together find themselves\nsuddenly apart on the tops of three peaks, which clearly indicates the\nreal aim of the narrative.\n\nAn old Indian woman, widow of an Indian governor, told me, as a thing\nunknown, that the three hills of Boston had been thus split by Glusg\u00e1be\nor Glooscap, the great Algonkin god. As this deity introduced culture to\nNorth America, it will be at once perceived that there was something\ntruly _weirdly_, or strangely prophetic, in this act. As Glooscap was\nthe first to lay out Boston\u2014_\u00e0 la Trinit\u00e9_\u2014he certainly ought to be\nregarded as the patron saint of that cultured city, and have at least a\nlibrary, a lyceum, or a hotel named after him in the American Athens.\nThe coincidence is very singular\u2014Rome and Boston!\n\nEildon Hill, by which, as I have heard, Andrew Lang was born, is one of\nthe picturesque places which attract legends and masters in folk-lore.\nOf it I have a strange souvenir. While in its vicinity I for three\nnights saw in a dream the Fairy Queen, and the \u201cvision\u201d was remarkably\nvivid, or so much so as to leave a strong or haunting impression on my\nwaking hours. It was like a glimpse into elf-land. Of course it was\nsimply the result of my recalling and thinking deeply on the legend of\n\u201cTrue Thomas,\u201d but the dream was very pleasant and sympathetic.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOLDEN PINE-CONE.\n\n\n \u201cQuid sibi vult, illa _Pinus_, qu\u00e0m semper statis diebus in deum\n matris intromittis sanctuarium?\u201d\u2014ARNOBIUS, i. 5.\n\nThere was once a young man named Constanzo, who was blessed, as they say,\nin form and fortune, he being both fair in face and rich. Now, whether\nit was that what he had seen and learned of ladies at court had\ndispleased him, is not recorded or remembered, but one thing is certain,\nthat he had made up his mind to marry a poor girl, and so began to look\nabout among humble folk at the maids, which indeed pleased many of them\nbeyond belief, though it was taken ill by their parents, who had but\nsmall faith in such attentions.\n\nBut the one whom it displeased most of all was the mother of Constanzo,\nwho, when he said that he would marry a poor girl, declared in a rage\nthat he should do nothing of the kind, because she would allow no such\nperson to come in the house. To which he replied that as he was of age,\nand the master, he would do as he pleased. Then there were ill words,\nfor the mother had a bad temper and worse will, and had gone the worst\nway to work, because of all things her son could least endure being\ngoverned. And she was the more enraged because her son had hitherto\nalways been docile and quiet, but she now found that she had driven him\nup to a height which he had not before dreamed of occupying and where he\nwould now remain. But she vowed vengeance in her heart, saying: \u201cMarry\nor not\u2014this shall cost thee dear. _Te lo far\u00f2 pagare_!\u201d\n\nMany months passed, and no more was said, when one day the young\ngentleman went to the chase with his friends, and impelled by some\nstrange influence, took a road and went afar into a part of the country\nwhich was unknown to him. At noon they dismounted to rest, when, being\nvery thirsty, Constanzo expressed a desire for water.\n\nAnd just as he said it there came by a _contadina_, carrying two jars of\nwater, cold and dripping, fresh from a fountain. And the young signor\nhaving drunk, observed that the girl was of enchanting or dazzling\nbeauty, with a charming expression of innocence, which went to his heart.\n\n\u201cWhat is thy name?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cConstanza,\u201d the girl replied.\n\n\u201cAnd I am Constanzo,\u201d he cried; \u201cand as our names so our hearts shall\nbe\u2014one made for the other!\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you are a rich lord, and I am a poor girl,\u201d she slowly answered, \u201cso\nit can never be.\u201d\n\nBut as both had loved at sight, and sincerely, it was soon arranged, and\nthe end was that the pair were married, and Constanza became a signora\nand went to live in the castle with her lord. His mother, who was more\nhis enemy than ever, and ten times that of his wife, made no sign of\nanger, but professed love and devotion, expressing delight every day and\noftener that her son had chosen so fair a wife, and one so worthy of him.\n\nIt came to pass that Constanza was about to become a mother, and at this\ntime her husband was called to the wars, and that so far away that many\ndays must pass before he could send a letter to his home. But his mother\nshowed herself so kind, though she had death and revenge at her heart,\nthat Constanzo was greatly relieved, and departed almost light of heart,\nfor he was a brave man, as well as good, and such people borrow no\ntrouble ere it is due.\n\nBut the old signora looked after him with bitterness, saying, \u201cThou shalt\npay me, and the hour is not far off.\u201d And when she saw his wife she\nmurmured:\n\n \u201cNow revenge shall take its shape;\n Truly thou canst not escape;\n Be it death or be it dole,\n I will sting thee to the soul.\u201d\n\nThen when the hour came that the countess was to be confined, the old\nwoman told her that she herself alone would serve and attend to all\u2014_e\nche avrebbe fatto tutto da se_. But going forth, she found a pine-tree\nand took from it a cone, which she in secret set to boil in water,\nsinging to it:\n\n \u201cBolli, bolli!\n Senza posa.\n Che nel letto\n Vi \u00e9 la sposa,\n Un fanciullo\n Alla luce mi dara,\n E una pina diventera!\n\n \u201cBolli, bolli!\n Mio decotto\n Bolli, bolli!\n Senza posa!\n Il profumo\n Che tu spandi,\n Si spanda\n In corpo alla\n Alla sposa e il figlio,\n Il figlio che fara\n Pina d\u2019 oro diventera!\u201d\n\n \u201cBoil and boil,\n Rest defying!\n In the bed\n The wife is lying;\n Soon her babe\n The light will see,\n But a pine-cone\n It shall be!\n\n \u201cBoil and boil,\n And well digest!\n Boil and boil,\n And never rest!\n May the perfume\n Which you spread\n Thrill the body\n To the head,\n And the child\n Which we shall see,\n A golden pine-cone\n Let it be!\u201d\n\nAnd soon the countess gave birth to a beautiful daughter with golden\nhair, but the old woman promptly took the little one and bathed it in the\nwater in which she had boiled the pine-cone, whereupon it became a golden\npine-cone, and the poor mother was made to believe that this was her\nfirst-born; and the same was written to the father, who replied to his\nwife that, whatever might happen, he would ever remain as he had been.\n\nThe mother-in-law took the pine-cone and placed it on a mantelpiece, as\nsuch curious or odd things are generally disposed of. And when her son\nreturned she contrived in so many ways and with craft to calumniate his\nwife that the poor lady was ere long imprisoned in a tower.\n\nBut a strange thing now happened, for every night the pine-cone, unseen\nby all, left like a living thing its place on the chimney-piece and\nwandered over the castle, returning at five o\u2019clock to its place, but\never going just below the lady\u2019s window, where it sang:\n\n \u201cO cara madre mia!\n Luce degli occhi miei!\n Cessa quel pianto,\n E non farmi pi\u00f9 soffrir!\u201d\n\n \u201cO mother, darling mother,\n Light of my eyes, I pray\n That thou wilt cease thy weeping,\n So mine may pass away.\u201d\n\nYet, after he had shut his wife up in the tower, Constanzo had not an\ninstant\u2019s peace of mind. Therefore, to be assured, he one day went to\nconsult the great magician Virgil. And having told all that had\nhappened, the wise man said:\n\n\u201cThou hast imprisoned thy wife, she who is pure and true, in a tower, and\nall on the lying words and slanders of that vile witch your mother. And\nthou hast suffered bitterly, and well deserved it, as all do who are weak\nenough to believe evil reports of a single witness; for who is there who\nmay not lie, especially among women, when they are jealous and full of\nrevenge? Now do thou set free thy wife (and bid her come to me and I\nwill teach her what to do).\u201d\n\nSo the count obeyed.\n\nThen the mother took the pine-cone and threw it up three times into the\nair, singing:\n\n \u201cPina, mia bella pina!\n Dei pini tu sei regina!\n Dei pini sei prottetrice,\n D\u2019 un pino pianta la radice!\n E torna una fanciulla bella\n Come un occhio\n Di sole in braccio\n A tuo padre\n Ed a tua madre!\n\n \u201cPine, the fairest ever seen,\n Of all cones thou art the queen!\n Guarding them in sun or shade,\n And \u2019tis granted that, when planted,\n Thou shalt be a charming maid,\n Ever sweet and ever true\n To thy sire and mother too.\u201d\n\nAnd this was done, and the cone forthwith grew up a fair maid, who was\nthe joy of her parents\u2019 life. But the people in a rage seized on the old\nwitch, who was covered with a coat of pitch and burned alive in the\npublic square.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis legend was gathered in and sent to me from Siena. As a narrative it\nis a fairy-tale of the most commonplace description, its incidents being\nfound in many others. But so far as the pine-cone is concerned it is of\ngreat originality, and retains remarkable relics of old Latin lore. The\npine-tree was a favourite of Cybele, and it was consecrated to Silvanus,\nwho is still known and has a cult in the mountains of the Romagna\nToscana. This rural deity often bore a pine-cone in his hand.\nPropertius also assigns the pine to Pan. The cone was pre-eminently a\nphallic emblem, therefore specially holy; in this sense it was placed on\nthe staff borne by the specially initiated to Bacchus. It was incredibly\npopular as an amulet, on account of its supposed magical virtues,\ntherefore no one object is more frequently produced in ancient art. A\nmodern writer, observing this, and not being able to account for it, very\nfeebly attributes it to the fact that the object is so common that it is\nnaturally used for a model. \u201cArtists,\u201d he says, \u201cin fact prefer to use\nwhat comes ready to hand, and to copy such plants as are ever under their\neye.\u201d So writes the great dilettante Caylus, forgetting that a thousand\nobjects quite as suitable to decoration as the pine-cone, and quite as\ncommon, were not used at all.\n\nThe pine typified a new birth, according to Friedrich; this was because\nit was evergreen, and therefore sacred as immortal to Cybele. Thus Ovid\n(\u201cMetamorphoses,\u201d x. 103) writes, \u201c_Pinus grata deum matri_.\u201d The French\nLayard, in the new \u201cAnnales de l\u2019Institut Arch\u00e6ologique,\u201d vol. xix., has\nemphatically indicated the connection of the pine-cone with the cult of\nVenus, and as a reproductive symbol. It is in this sense clearly set\nforth in the Italian or Sienese legend, where the pine-cone planted in\nthe earth grows up as the girl with golden locks. This is very probably\nindeed the relic of an old Roman mythical tale or poem.\n\nThe golden pine-cone appears in other tales. Wolf (\u201cZeitschrift f\u00fcr\ndeutsche Mythologie,\u201d vol. i., p. 297) says that in Franconia there were\nonce three travelling _Handwerksburschen_, or craftsmen, who met with a\nbeautiful lady, who when asked for alms gave to each a pine-cone from a\ntree. Two of them threw the gifts away, but the third found his changed\nto solid gold. In order to make an amulet which is kept in the house,\npine-cones are often gilded in Italy. I have seen them here in Florence,\nand very pretty ornaments they make.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL\u2019S MAGIC LOOM.\n\n\n \u201cI heard a loom at work, and thus it spoke,\n As though its clatter like a metre woke,\n And echoed in my mind like an old song,\n Rising while growing dimmer e\u2019en like smoke.\n\n \u201cAnd thus it spoke, \u2018God is a loom like me,\n His chiefest weaving is Humanity,\n And man and woman are the warp and woof,\n Which make a mingling light of mystery.\u2019\u201d\n\n _The Loom_: C. G. L.\n\nGega was a girl of fifteen years of age, and without parents or friends,\nwith nothing in the world but eyes to weep and arms to work. Yet she had\nthis luck, that an old woman who was a fellow-lodger in the place where\nshe lived, {172} moved by compassion, took the girl to live with her,\nthough all she had was a very small room, in which was a poor bed and a\nlittle loom, so crazy-looking and old that it seemed impossible to work\nwith it.\n\nNunzia, {173} for such was the old woman\u2019s name, took Gega indeed as a\ndaughter, and taught her to weave, which was a good trade in those days,\nand in that place where few practised it. So it came to pass that they\nmade money, which was laid by. [This was no great wonder, for the old\nloom had a strange enchantment in it, by which marvellous work could be\nproduced.]\n\nThe old woman very often bade Gega take great care of the loom, and the\ngirl could not understand why Nunzia thought so much of it, since it\nseemed to her to be like any other. [For it never appeared strange to\nher that when she wove the cloth seemed to almost come of itself\u2014a great\ndeal for a little thread\u2014and that its quality or kind improved as she\napplied herself to work, for in her ignorance she believed that this was\nthe way with all weaving.]\n\nAt last the old Mamma Nunzia died, and Gega, left alone, began to make\nacquaintances and friends with other girls who came to visit her. Among\nthese was one named Ermelinda, who was at heart as treacherous and\nrapacious as she was shrewd, yet one withal who, what with her beauty and\ndeceitful airs, knew how to flatter and persuade to perfection, so that\nshe could make a simple girl like Gega believe that the moon was a pewter\nplate, or a black fly white.\n\nNow, the first time that she and several others, who were all weavers,\nsaw Gega at work, they were greatly amazed, for the cloth seemed to come\nof itself from a wretched old loom which appeared to be incapable of\nmaking anything, and it was so fine and even, and had such a gloss that\nit looked like silk.\n\n\u201cHow wonderful! One would say it was silk!\u201d cried a girl.\n\n\u201cOh, I can make silk when I try,\u201d answered Gega; and applying her will to\nit, she presently spun from cotton-thread a yard of what was certainly\nreal silk stuff.\n\nAnd seeing this, all present declared that Gega must be a witch.\n\n\u201cNonsense,\u201d she replied; \u201cyou could all do it if you tried as I do. As\nfor being a witch, it is Ermelinda and not I who should be so, for she\nfirst said it was like silk, and made it so.\u201d\n\nThen Ermelinda saw that there was magic in the loom, of which Gega knew\nnothing, so she resolved to do all in her power to obtain it. And this\nshe effected firstly by flattery, and giving the innocent girl\nextravagant ideas of her beauty, assuring her that she had an\nattractiveness which could not fail to win her a noble husband, and that,\nhaving laid by a large sum of money, she should live on it in style till\nmarried, and that in any case she could go back to her weaving. But that\non which she laid most stress was that Gega should leave her old lodging\nand get rid of her dirty old furniture, and especially of that horrible,\ncrazy old loom, persuading her that, if she ever should have occasion to\nweave again, she, with her talent, could do far better with a new loom,\nand probably gain thrice as much, all of which the simple girl believed,\nand so let her false friend dispose of everything, in doing which\nErmelinda did not fail to keep the loom herself, declaring that nobody\nwould buy it.\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d said the latter, \u201cI am content. Thou art very beautiful; all that\nthou needest is to be elegantly dressed, and have fine things about thee,\nto soon catch a fine husband.\u201d\n\nGega assented to this, but was loth to part with her old loom, which she\nhad promised Nunzia should never be neglected; but Ermelinda promised so\nfaithfully to keep it carefully for her, that she was persuaded to let\nher have it. Then the young girl took a fine apartment, well furnished,\nand bought herself beautiful clothes, and, guided by her false friend,\nbegan to go to entertainments and make fashionable friends, and live as\nif she were rich.\n\nThen Ermelinda, having obtained the old loom, went to work with it, in\nfull hope that she too could spin silk out of cotton, but found out to\nher amazement and rage that she could do nothing of the kind\u2014nay, she\ncould not so much as weave common cloth from it; all that she got after\nhours of fruitless effort was a headache, and the conviction that she had\nthrown away all her time and trouble, which made her hate Gega all the\nmore.\n\nMeanwhile the latter for a time enjoyed life as she had never done\nbefore; but though she looked anxiously to the right and the left for a\nhusband, found none, the well-to-do young men being quite as anxious to\nwed wealth as she was, and all of them soon discovered on inquiry that\nshe had little or nothing, despite her style of living, and her money\nrapidly melted away, till at last she found that to live she must\nwork\u2014there was no help for it. With what remained she bought a fine loom\nand thread, and sat down to weave; but though she succeeded in making\ncommon stuff like others, it was not silk, nor anything like it, nor was\nthere anyone who would buy what she made. In despair she remembered what\nMamma Nunzia had solemnly said to her, that she must never part from the\nold loom, so she went to Ermelinda to reclaim it. But her false friend,\nalthough she could do nothing with the loom herself, was not willing that\nGega, whom she hated with all her heart, should in any way profit, and\ndeclared that her mother had broken up and burned the rubbishy old thing,\nand to this story she adhered, and when Gega insisted on proof of it,\ndrove her in a rage out of the house.\n\nWhile Mamma Nunzia was living she, being a very wise woman, had taught\nGega with care the properties and nature of plants, roots, herbs, and\nflowers, saying that some day it might be of value to her, as it is to\neveryone. So whenever they had a holiday they had gone into the fields\nand woods, where the girl became so expert that she could have taught\nmany a doctor very strange secrets; and withal, the Mamma also made her\nlearn the charms and incantations which increase the power of the plants.\nSo now, having come to her last coin, and finding there was some profit\nin it, she began to gather herbs for medicine, which she sold to chemists\nand others in the towns. And finding a deserted old tower in a wild and\nrocky place, she was allowed to make it her home; and indeed, after all\nshe had gone through, and her disappointment both as to friends and\nlovers, she found herself far happier when alone than when in a town,\nwhere she was ashamed to meet people who had known her when she lived in\nstyle.\n\nOne evening as she was returning home she heard a groaning in the woods\nas of someone in great suffering, and, guided by the sound, found a poor\nold woman seated on a stone, who told her that she had hurt her leg by\nslipping from a rock. And Gega, who was as strong as she was kind and\ncompassionate, carried the poor soul in her arms to the tower, where she\nbound an application of healing herbs to the wound, and bade her remain\nand welcome.\n\n\u201cI have nothing to give you for it all,\u201d said the old woman on the\nfollowing day.\n\n\u201cNor did I do it in the hope of aught,\u201d replied Gega.\n\n\u201cAnd yet,\u201d said the sufferer, \u201cI might be of use to you. If, for\nexample, you have lost anything, I can tell you how to recover it or\nwhere it is.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh!\u201d cried Gega, \u201cif thou canst do that, thou wilt be a friend indeed,\nfor I have lost my fortune\u2014it was a loom which was left to me by Mamma\nNunzia. I did not regard her advice never to part with it, and I have\nbitterly repented my folly. I trusted it to a friend, who betrayed me,\nfor she burned it.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, my dear, she did nothing of the kind,\u201d replied the old woman; \u201cshe\nhas it yet, and I will make it return to thee.\u201d\n\nThen she repeated this invocation:\n\n \u201cTelaio! Telaio! Telaio!\n Che per opera e virt\u00fa\n Del gran mago Virgilio\n Fosti fabricato,\n E di tante virt\u00f9 adornato\n Ti prego per opera e virtu\n Del gran mago Virgilio\n Tu possa di una tela\n Di oro di argento\n Essere ordito.\n E come il vento,\n Dalla casa di Ermelinda,\n Tu possa sortire,\n Sortire e tornare\n Nella vecchia sofitta\n Della figlia mia\n Per opera e virt\u00fa\n Dal gran mago Virgilio!\u201d\n\n \u201cLoom! Loom! O loom!\n Who by the labour and skill\n Of the great magician Virgil\n Wert made so long ago,\n And gifted with such power!\n I pray thee by that skill\n And labour given by\n Virgil, the great magician,\n As thou canst spin a web\n Of silver or of gold,\n Fly like the wind away\n From Ermelinda\u2019s house\n Into the small old room\n Where once my daughter dwelt,\n All by the skill and power\n Of great Virgilius!\u201d\n\nWhen in an instant they were borne away on a mighty wind and found\nthemselves in the old room, and there also they found the loom, from\nwhich Gega could now weave at will cloth of gold or silver as well as\nsilk.\n\nThen the old woman looked steadily at Gega, and the girl saw the features\nof the former change to those of Nunzia, and as she embraced her, the old\nwoman said:\n\n\u201cYes, I am Mamma Nunzia, and I came from afar to restore to thee thy\nloom; but guard it well now, for if lost thou canst never recover it\nagain. But if thou shouldst ever need aught, then invoke the grand\nmagician Virgil, because he has always been my god.\u201d {177}\n\nHaving said this, she departed, and Gega knew now that Nunzia was a white\nwitch or a fairy. So, becoming rich, she was a lady, and ever after took\ngood care of her loom and distrusted flattering friends.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis legend exists as a fairy-tale in many forms, and may be found in\nmany countries; perhaps its beginning was in that of the princess who\ncould spin straw into gold. To have some object which produces food or\nmoney _ad libitum_ when called on, to be cheated out of it, and finally\nbe revenged on the cheater, is known to all.\n\nVirgil is in one of these tales na\u00efvely called a saint, and in this he is\nseriously addressed as a god, by which we, of course, understand a\nclassical heathen deity, or any spirit powerful enough to answer prayer\nwith personal favours. But Virgil as the maker of a magic loom which\nyields gold and silk, and as a _god_ at the same time, indicates a very\npossible derivation from a very grand ancient myth. The reader is\nprobably familiar with the address of the Time Spirit in Goethe\u2019s\n\u201cFaust\u201d:\n\n \u201cIn Being\u2019s flood, in action\u2019s storm,\n I work and weave, above, beneath\u2014\n Work and weave in endless motion\n Birth and Death\u2014an infinite ocean,\n A-seizing and giving\n The fire of the Living.\n \u2019Tis thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply,\n And weave for God the garment thou see\u2019st Him by.\u201d\n\nThomas Carlyle informs us, in \u201cSartor Resartus,\u201d that of the thousands\nwho have spouted this really very intelligible formula of pantheism, none\nhave understood it\u2014implying thereby that to him it was no mystery. But\nCarlyle apparently did not know, else he would surely have told the\nreader, that the idea was derived from the Sanskrit myth that Maya\n(delusion or appearance), \u201cthe feminine half of the divine primitive\ncreator (Urwesen), was represented as weaving the palpable universe from\nherself, for which reason she was typified as a spider.\u201d {178} Hence\nMaia of the Greeks; and it is a curious coincidence that Maia in the\nNeapolitan legends is the mother of Virgil, all of which is confused, and\nmay be accidental, but there may also be in it the remains of some\ncurious and very ancient tradition. The spider was, however, certainly\nthe emblem of domestic, stay-at-home, steady industry, as Friedrich\nillustrates, therefore of prosperity, hence it is believed to bring luck\nto those on whom it crawls, as set forth in the novel of \u201cThe Red\nSpider.\u201d And it is evident that the moral of this tale of Virgil\u2019s loom\nis to the effect that the heroine gained her good fortune by hard work at\nhome, and came to grief by gadding abroad and playing the belle.\n\nThat Maia, or Illusion or Glamour, should, according to our tradition, be\nthe mother of the greatest thaumaturgist, wonder-worker, poet, and\nsorcerer of yore is curious. That the original Maya of India should be\nthe living loom from which the universe is spun, and that in another tale\nthe _same_ magician, her son, is a god who makes a magic loom which spins\ngold, silver, and silk, may be all mere chance coincidence, but, if so,\nit is strange enough to rank as a miracle _per se_.\n\nThe name Gega, with _g_ the second soft, is very nearly _Gaia_, the\nGoddess of the Earth, who was one with Maia, as a type of the Universe.\n\nAs I regard this as a tradition of some importance, I would state that it\nowes nothing whatever to any inquiry, hint, or suggestion from me; that\nit was gathered from witch authority by Maddalena, near Prato; and,\nfinally, that it is very faithfully translated, with the exception of the\npassages indicated by brackets, which were inserted by me to make the\ntext clearer\u2014a very necessary thing in most of these tales, where much is\noften palpably omitted. I have seldom had a story so badly written as\nthis was; it appears to have been taken down without correction from some\nilliterate old woman, who hardly understood what she was narrating.\n\nIt is to be observed that in a number of these tales the proper names are\nstrangely antique and significant. They are not such as are in use among\nthe people, they would not even be known to most who are tolerably well\nread. I have only found several after special search in mythologies,\netc.; and yet they are, I sincerely believe, in all cases appropriate to\nthe tradition as in this case.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE PRIEST.\n\n\n \u201cBeware, beware of the Black Friar,\n Who sitteth by Norman stone.\u201d\u2014BYRON.\n\n \u201cSeven times shall he be accursed who returns evil for good, and\n seven times seven he who lives for himself alone, but seventy times\n seven the one who wrongs the orphan, the weak, the helpless, the\n widow or the young!\u201d\u2014_The Ladder of Sin_.\n\nThere is in Arezzo a lonely old lane or silent street where few people\ncare to go after dark, nor do they love it much even by daylight, the\nreason being that it is haunted, for many have seen walking up and down\nin it after midnight the form of a ghostly friar, who is ever muttering\nto himself. So he wanders, speaking to none, but now and then he seems\nto be in great distress, and screams as if in agony, when light dim\nflames fly from his mouth and nostrils, and then he suddenly vanishes.\n\nIt is said that long, long ago there lived in or near Arezzo a poor young\norphan girl who had no relations, and had been taken in charity as a\nservant in a farmer\u2019s family, where she was not unkindly treated, but\nwhere everything was in harsh contrast to the life which she had led at\nhome, for her parents, though poor, were gentle folk, and had brought her\nup tenderly.\n\nSo it happened that when at Easter she was ordered to kill for the usual\nfeast a pet lamb, because all the rest were too busy to attend to it, she\ncould not bring herself to do it, and wept bitterly when the lamb looked\nat her, which the master and mistress could not understand, and thought\nher very silly. And being deeply grieved at all this, she could eat\nnothing, and so went along weeping, wishing that her life were at an end.\nAnd while walking she met a priest, who was indeed a black sheep of the\nflock, or rather a wolf, for he was a hardened villain at heart, and\nready for any knavery; and he, seeing that the girl, whose name was\nOrtenzia, was in distress, drew from her all her sad story, and was very\nmuch interested at learning that she had some small store of money and a\nfew jewels and clothes, which her mother had charged her not to part\nwith, but to keep till she should be married or for dire need.\n\nThen the priest, pretending great sympathy and pity, said that the farm\nwas no place for her, and that he himself was in great need of a\nmaid-servant, and if she would come and live with him she should be to\nhim as a daughter, and treated like a lady, with much more honeyed talk\nof the kind, till at last she assented to his request, at which he\ngreatly rejoiced, and bade her be careful to bring with her all her\nproperty; whereupon he lost no time in inducing her to sign a paper\ntransferring it all to him, which she in her ignorance very willingly\ndid.\n\nThe poor child found very soon indeed that she had only changed the\nfrying-pan for the fire, for the same night the priest made proposals to\nher, which she rejected in anger, when he attempted force, which she\nresisted, being strong and resolute, and declared that she would leave\nhis house at once. But when she asked for her money and small property\nhe jeered at her, saying that she had _given_ it to him, and all the law\nin the land could not take it away. And more than this, he declared she\nwas possessed by a devil, and would certainly be damned for resisting\nhim, and that he would excommunicate and curse her. Hearing all this,\nthe girl became mad in fact, and rushed forth. For a long time she went\nroaming about the roads, in woods, and living on what people gave her in\npity; but no one knew what it was that had turned her brain, and the\npriest, of course, said all that was ill and false of her.\n\nOne day, as the poor lunatic sat in a lonely place singing and making\nbouquets of wild-flowers, the priest passed, and he, seeing her still\nyoung and beautiful, was again inspired by passion, and threw his arms\nabout her. She, seized with horror, again resisted, when all at once a\nvoice was heard, and there stood before them a tall and dignified man,\nwho said to the priest:\n\n\u201cLeave untouched that poor girl, who is all purity and goodness, thou who\nart all that is vile and foul!\u201d\n\nThen the priest, in great terror and white as death, replied:\n\n\u201cPardon me, Signore Virgilio!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat thou hast deserved, thou must endure,\u201d replied Virgil, \u201cand long\nand bitter must thy penance be; but first of all restore to this poor\ncreature all that of which thou hast robbed her, and make a public avowal\nof her innocence and of all thy crimes.\u201d\n\nAnd this he did; when Virgil said:\n\n\u201cNow from this hour thy spirit shall haunt the street where thou hast\nlived, and thou shalt never leave it, but wander up and down, thinking of\nall the evil thou hast wrought. And when thou wouldst curse or rage, it\nshall come forth from thy mouth in flames, and therewith thou shalt have\nsome short relief.\u201d\n\nAs for the girl, she was restored to health, and Virgil made for her a\nhappy life, and she married well, and after a long and prosperous life\npassed away, having founded a great family in the land.\n\nBut the goblin friar still haunts the street in Arezzo, for he has not\nyet fully and truly repented, and a life as evil as his leaves its stain\nlong after death.\n\n\n\n\nIL GIGLIO DI FIRENZE, OR THE STORY OF VIRGIL AND THE LILIES.\n\n\n \u201cThe lily is the symbol of beauty and love. By the Greeks it was\n called \u03a7\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1 \u0391\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03b4\u03b9\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2, the joy of Venus, and according to Alciatus,\n Venus Urania was represented with a lily in her hand.\u201d\u2014J. B.\n FRIEDRICH: _Die Symbolik der Natur_.\n\nThis story is of the lily, or the _stemma_, or crest of Florence. One\nday Virgilio went forth to walk when he met with a Florentine, who\nsaluted him, saying:\n\n\u201cThou truly shouldst be a Florentine, since thou art by name a _vero\ngiglio_\u201d\u2014a true lily (_Ver_\u2019-_giglio_).\n\nThen the poet replied:\n\n\u201cTruly I am entitled to the name, since our first ancestors were as the\nlilies of the field, who toiled not, neither did they spin, hence it came\nthat they left me nothing.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut thou wilt leave a lordly heritage,\u201d replied the nobleman, smiling;\n\u201cthe glory of a great name which shall honour all thy fellow-citizens,\nand which will ever remain in the shield as the flower of Florence.\u201d\n{182}\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis is a pretty tale, though it turns on a pun, and has nothing more\nthan that in it. Much has been written to prove that the lilies in the\nshields of France and Florence and on the ends of sceptres are not\nlilies, but there can be no reasonable doubt of its Latin symbolical\norigin. Among the Romans the lily was the emblem of public hope, of\npatriotic expectation, hence we see Roman coins with lilies bearing the\nmottoes: _Spes Publica_, _Spes Augusta_, _Spes Populi Romani_, and Virgil\nhimself, in referring to Marcellus, the presumed heir to the throne of\nAugustus, makes Anchises cry: \u201cBring handfuls of lilies!\u201d\n\nThis did not occur to me till after translating the foregoing little\ntradition, and it is appropriate enough to suggest that it may have had\nsome connection with the tale. The idea of its being attached to power,\nprobably in reference to the community governed, was ancient and widely\nspread. Not only was the garment of the Olympian Jupiter adorned with\nlilies, {183a} but the old German Thor held in one hand the lightning and\nin the other a lily sceptre {183b} indicating peace and purity, or the\nwelfare of the people. The lily was also the type of purity from its\nwhiteness, the origin of which came from Susanna the Chaste, who during\nthe Babylonian captivity remained the only virgin. Susan is in Hebrew\n_Shusam_, which means a lily. \u201cThis was transferred to the Virgin Mary.\u201d\nHence the legend that Saint \u00c6gidius, when the immaculateness of the\nVirgin was questioned, wrote in sand the query as to whether she was a\nmaid before, during, and after the Conception, whereupon a lily at once\ngrew forth out of the sand, as is set forth in a poem by the German\nSmetz\u2014of which lily-legends of many kinds there are enough to make a book\nas large as this of mine.\n\nThe cult of the lily in a poetical sense was carried to a great extent at\none time. The Dominican P. Tommaso Caraffa, in his \u201cPoetiche Dicerie,\u201d\nor avowed efforts at fine writing, devotes a page of affected and\ncertainly florid Italian to the \u201cGiglio,\u201d and there are Latin poems or\npassages on it by Bisselius, P. Laurent le Brun, P. Alb. Ines, given by\nGandutius (\u201cDescriptiones Poetic\u00e6\u201d), Leo Sanctius and A. Chanutius.\nThere is also a passage in Martial eulogizing the flower in comparing to\nit the white tunic given to him by Parthenio:\n\n \u201cLilia tu vincis, nec adhuc dilapsa ligustra,\n Et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur.\n Spartanus tibi cedit color, Paphi\u00e6que columna\n Cedit Erithr\u00e6is eruta gemma vadis.\u201d\n\nI saw once upon a time in Venice a magnificent snow-white carpet covered\nwith lilies\u2014a present from the Sultan to the well-known English diplomat\nand scholar, Layard\u2014to which it seems to me that those lines of the Latin\npoet would be far more applicable than they could have been to what was\nin reality about the same as an ordinary clean shirt or blouse\u2014for such\nwas in fact the Roman tunic. It must, however, be candidly admitted that\nhe does good service to humanity who in any way renders romantic, poetic,\nor popular, clean linen or personal purity of any kind.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE BEAUTIFUL LADY OF THE LILY.\n\n\n \u201cEcce tibi viridi se _Lilia_ candice tollunt,\n Atque humiles alto despactant vertice flores\n Virginea ridente coma.\u201d\n\n P. LAURENCE LE BRUN, _El._ 50, 1. 7.\n\nOnce the Emperor went hunting, when he heard a marvellously sweet voice\nas of a lady singing, and all his dogs, as if called, ran into the\nforest.\n\nThe Emperor followed and was amazed at seeing a lady, beautiful beyond\nany he had ever beheld, holding in one hand a lily and wearing a broad\ngirdle as of steel and gold, which shone like diamonds. The dogs fawned\nround her when the Emperor addressed her, but as he spoke she sank into\nthe ground, and left no trace.\n\nThe Emperor came the second day also, alone, and beheld her again, when\nshe disappeared as before.\n\nThe third day he told the whole to Virgil, and took the sage with him.\nAnd when the lady appeared Virgil touched her with his wand, and she\nstood still as a statue.\n\nThen Virgil said:\n\n\u201cOh, my lord, consider well this Lady of the Lily, and especially her\ngirdle; for in the time when that lady shall lose that girdle Florence\nwill gain more in one year than it now increases in ten.\u201d\n\nAnd with this the lady vanished as before, and they returned home.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND THE DAUGHTER OF THE EMPEROR OF ROME.\n\n\n \u201cAs the lily dies away\n In the garden, in the plain,\n Then as beautiful and gay\n In the summer comes again;\n So may life, when love is o\u2019er,\n In a child appear once more.\u201d\n\nThe following strange legend, which was taken down by Maddalena from some\nauthority to me unknown, near Arezzo, is so imperfectly told in the\noriginal, and is, moreover, so evidently repieced and botched by an\nignorant narrator, that I at first rejected it altogether; but finding on\nconsideration that it had some curious relations with other tales, I\ndetermined to give it for what it may be worth.\n\n * * * * *\n\nOnce the Emperor of Rome was in his palace very melancholy, nor could he\nrally (_ralegrarla_), do what he might. Then he went forth into the\ngroves to hear the birds sing, for this generally cheered him, but now it\nwas of no avail.\n\nThen he sent a courier to Florence, and bade him call Virgil with all\nhaste.\n\nVirgil followed the messenger at full speed.\n\n\u201cWhat wilt thou of me?\u201d asked the sorcerer of the Emperor.\n\n\u201cI wish to be relieved from the melancholy which oppresses me. I want\njoy.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo like me, and thou wilt always have a peaceful mind:\n\n \u201c\u2018I work no evil to any man;\n I ever do what good I can.\n He who acts thus has ever the power\n To turn to peace the darkest hour!\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cNor do I recall that I ever did anything to regret,\u201d replied the\nEmperor.\n\n\u201cWell, then, come with me, for I think that a little journey will be the\nbest means of distracting your mind and relieving you from melancholy.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well,\u201d replied the Emperor. \u201cLead where you will; anything for a\nchange.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe will take a look at all the small districts of Tuscany,\u201d answered\nVirgil.\n\n \u201cGoing from the Florentino,\n Through Valdarno to Casentino;\n Where\u2019er we see the olives bloom,\n And smell the lily\u2019s rich perfume,\n And mountains rise and rivulets flow,\n Thither, my lord, we two will go.\u201d\n\nTo which the Emperor replied:\n\n \u201cWhere\u2019er you will, all things to see,\n High or low\u2014\u2019tis all one to me,\n If I can only happy be.\u201d\n\nSo they travelled on through many places, but the Emperor was ever dull\nand sad; but when in Cortona he said that he felt a little better, and\nwent forth with Virgil to look about the town.\n\n[And it was unto this place and to a certain end that Virgil led his\nlord.]\n\nPassing along a street, they saw at a window a girl of extraordinary\nbeauty, who was knitting. . . . {187a}\n\nThe girl instead of being angered, laughed, showing two rows of beautiful\nteeth, and said:\n\n\u201cThou mayst become gold, and the skein a twist of gold.\u201d\n\nThe girl was utterly surprised and confused at this, and knew not whether\nto accept or refuse (the gift offered).\n\nThe Emperor said to Virgil:\n\n\u201cJust see how beautiful she is. I would like to win her love, and make\nher mine.\u201d\n\n\u201cAlways the same song,\u201d replied Virgil. \u201cYou never so much as say, \u2018I\nwish she were my daughter.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cShe can never be my daughter,\u201d answered the Emperor; \u201cbut as she is as\npoor as she is beautiful, she may very easily become my love. Honour is\nof no value to a poor person.\u201d\n\n\u201cNay,\u201d replied Virgil, \u201cwhen the poor know its value, it is worth as much\nto them as gold to you who are wealthy. {187b} And it is from your\nneglecting this that you have so long suffered, you knew not why [but an\nevil deed will burn, though you see no light and know not what it is].\nFor thus didst thou once betray a poor maid, and then cast her away\nwithout a further thought, not even bestowing aught upon her. And thou\nhadst a daughter, and her mother now lies ill and is well nigh to death.\nAnd it is this which afflicted thee [for every deed sends its light or\nshadow at some time unto the doer]. And now, if thou dost not repair\nthis wrong, thou wilt never more know peace, and shalt ever sit in the\nchair of penitence.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd where is my daughter and her mother?\u201d asked the Emperor.\n\n\u201cThat girl is the daughter, and if you would see her mother, follow me,\u201d\nreplied Virgil.\n\nWhen they entered the room where the dying woman lay, the Emperor\nrecognised in her one whom he had loved.\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d he said, \u201cshe was the most beautiful to me of all.\u201d\n\nAnd he embraced and kissed her; she was of marvellous beauty; she asked\nhim if he recognised their daughter.\n\n\u201cI recognise and acknowledge her,\u201d he replied. \u201cWilt thou live?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d she replied; \u201cfor I have lived to the end, and return to life. [I\nam a fairy (_fata_) who came to earth to teach thee that fortune and\npower are given to the great not to oppress the weak and poor, but to\nbenefit.\u201d]\n\nSaying this she died, and there remained a great bouquet of flowers.\n\nThe Emperor took his daughter to the palace, where she passed for his\nniece, and with her the flowers in which he ever beheld his old fairy\nlove, and thus he lived happy and contented.\n\n * * * * *\n\nTo supply a very important omission in this legend, I would add that the\nbouquet was certainly of lilies, as occurs in other legends, and the real\nmeaning of the whole is a very significant illustration of the history\nand meaning of the flower. Old writers and mythic symbolism, as\nFriedrich and many more have shown, believed that Nature taught, not\nvaguely and metaphorically, but directly, many moral lessons, and that of\nthe lily was purity and truth. By comparing this with the other stories\nrelating to this flower which I have given, it will hardly be denied that\nmy conjectural emendations formed part of the original, which the\nnarrator had not remembered or understood.\n\nThere is something beautifully poetical in the fancy that spirits,\n_fata_, assume human form, that they by their influence on great men,\nprinces or kaisars, may change their lives, and teach them lessons by\nmeans of love or flowers. This makes of the tale an allegory. It was in\nthis light that Dante saw all the poems of Virgil, as appears by passages\nin the \u201cConvito,\u201d in which curious book (p. 36, ed. 1490) there is a\npassage declaring that the world is round and hath a North and South\nPole, in the former of which there is a city named Maria, and on the\nother one called Lucia, and that Rome is 2,600 miles from the one, \u201cmore\nor less,\u201d and 7,500 miles from the other.\n\n \u201cAnd thus do men, each in his different way,\n From fancies unto wilder fancies stray.\u201d\n\nOr as the same great poet expresses it in the same curious book: \u201cMan is\nlike unto a weary pilgrim upon a road which he hath never before\ntravelled, who every time that he sees from afar a house, deems that it\nis the lodging which he seeks, and finding his mistake, believes it is\nthe next, and so he erreth on from place to place until he finds the\ntavern which he seeks. And \u2019tis the same, be it with boys seeking apples\nor birds, or their elders taking fancies to garments, or a horse, or a\nwoman, or wealth, ever wanting something else or more and so ever on.\u201d\n\nThe lily in Italian tales is the flower of happy, saintly deaths; it\nfills the beds of the departing, it sprouts from the graves of the holy\nand the good. In one legend it is the white flower of the departing soul\nwhich changes into a white bird. But in this story it has a doubly\nsignificant meaning, as the crest of Florence and as conveying a\nsignificant meaning to its ruler.\n\nThe \u201cConvito\u201d of Dante is not nearly so well known as the \u201cCommedia,\u201d but\nit deserves study. The only copy which I have ever read is the editio\nprinceps of 1490, which I bought of an itinerant street-vendor for 4\nsoldi, or twopence.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND POLLIONE, OR THE SPIRIT OF THE PROVERB.\n\n\n \u201cA Proverb is a relic or remain of ancient philosophy, preserved\n among many ruins by its brevity and fitness.\u201d\u2014ARISTOTLE AP. SYNESIUS.\n\n \u201cI Proverbi e la sapienza dell uomo\n El Proverbio no fale.\u201d\n\n _Proverbi Veneti_, _da_ PASQUALIGO.\n\n \u201cHe who leaves money leaves what may be lost,\n But he who leaves a _Proverb_ keen and true\n Leaves that wherein his soul will never die.\u201d\n\n C. G. LELAND.\n\n \u201cTremendo leone, destriero animoso\n Che in lungo riposo giaceste al suo pi\u00e9.\n Mostrate agli audaci cui grato e l\u2019 errore\n Che \u2019l vostro vigore scemato non \u00e8.\u201d\n\n GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1832).\n\nThere was once a young man of genius, and honest; he was a true gentleman\n(_vero galantuomo_), with a good heart.\n\nAt that time there was also in Rome a great magician who was called the\nPoet, but his real name was Virgilio. And the honest youth, whose name\nwas Pollione, was a student with Virgilio, and also his servant.\n\nEverybody may have heard who Virgilio was, and how he was a sorcerer\nabove all others. He had a custom of giving to his friends sayings and\nproverbs, or sentences {190a} wherein there was always wisdom or a moral.\nHis friends did not know it, but with every one of these sayings there\nwent a spirit, and if they gave heed to the saying {190b} the spirit took\ncare that from it some good resulted to them.\n\nOne day when Virgil gave sayings to his friends, he said to Pollione:\n\n\u201cWhen a man speaks to you, hear to the end all that he has to say before\nanswering.\u201d\n\nAfter a while Pollione left Rome, and went to Florence. While wandering,\nhe found himself not far from Lucca, in a solitary forest. And while\nresting he observed a stone, almost hidden under the grass, on which\nstone were letters, and, clearing it away, he read the word \u201cLift.\u201d So\nhe raised the stone, and found under it a small ancient vase, in which\nwas a gold ring. Then he took the ring, and went his way.\n\nAnd after weary wandering he found a small house, empty, into which he\nentered. It was one of the cabins in which peasants store chestnuts or\ngrain or their implements for work. Therein was a partition of boards,\nand the youth lay down behind it and went to sleep.\n\nAfter a little time there entered two friars, who never suspected there\nwas anybody behind the screen, so they began to talk freely. And\nPollione, awaking, listened to them.\n\nOne friar said to the other:\n\n\u201cIt is now a year since old Father Girolamo died, who on his deathbed\nleft to us both, to wear by turns, the gold ring which is hid somewhere\nin this wood in a vase under a stone on which is the word \u2018Lift.\u2019 Pity\nthat he died before he could tell us just where it is. So we have sought\nand sought in vain, and so we must seek on, seek ever.\u201d\n\nWhen Pollione heard that, in the honesty of his heart, he was about to\nshow himself and cry out, \u201cHere is your ring!\u201d when all at once he\nrecalled the proverb of Virgilio to always hear all that a man has to say\nbefore answering. So he kept quiet, while the other friar said:\n\n\u201cThou knowest that with that ring one can turn any man or woman into any\nkind of an animal. What wouldst thou do with it if it were thine?\u201d\n\n\u201cI,\u201d replied the other, \u201cwould at once change our Abbot into an ass, and\nbeat him half to death ten times a day, because he put me _in penitenza_\nand in prison because I got drunk.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I,\u201d answered the second friar, \u201cwould change the proud, beautiful\ndaughter of the count who lives in the castle yonder into a female dog,\nand keep her in that form till she should consent to be my mistress.\nTruly, I would give her a good lesson, and make her repent having scorned\nme.\u201d\n\nWhen Pollione heard such talk as this he reflected:\n\n\u201cI think I would do well to keep the ring myself.\u201d\n\nThen he took a piece of paper and wrote on it:\n\n \u201cL\u2019 anello non avrai,\n Ma asinello tu sarai,\n Tu asinello diventerai\n E non l\u2019Abate,\n Cosi dicono le Fate.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe ring of gold is not for thee,\n For thou thyself an ass shalt be;\n Not the Abbot, but thou in truth,\n This the Fairies say in sooth.\u201d\n\nThis poem he placed on the stone which had covered the ring. And when\nthe two friars found and read it, and discovered that the ring was gone,\nthey verily believed that the fairies had overheard them and taken away\nthe ring, and so, full of sorrow, returned to their convent.\n\nThen Pollione, ever travelling on, one day met in Verona a clever,\nbold-looking young man, who was playing marvellous juggler\u2019s tricks in a\npublic place. And, looking closely at one another, each recognised in\nhis observer the wizard who knew hidden things.\n\n\u201cLet us go together,\u201d said Pollione. \u201cWe shall do better by mutual aid.\u201d\n\nSo they went into partnership.\n\nOne evening they found themselves in a castle, where the signore treated\nthem very kindly; and this lord had a beautiful daughter, who looked at\nPollione with long glances, nor were his at her one whit shorter.\n\nBut the father seemed to be dying with some great sorrow; and at last he\nsaid to Pollione:\n\n\u201cThou art a gentleman, and a man who is learned in books and wise. It\nmay be that thou canst give me good advice and save me. If thou canst,\nthere is nothing of mine which I will not give thee. And this is the\nstory:\n\n\u201cA year ago I was sent on State affairs to Constantinople, where the\nSultan promised me that within a certain time he would send me a lion as\na gift for our Grand Duke.\n\n\u201cAnd after I had returned to Italy I told the Duke of this, at which he\nwas greatly pleased. But when the time had come to an end the lion did\nnot arrive. Then several of the courtiers who were my envious enemies\nmade the Duke believe that the tale of the lion was all a lie, and a mere\nboast of mine.\n\n\u201cThen the Duke said to me that if the lion did not arrive within six\nmonths I should lose my head, and the allotted time is nearly past.\u201d\n\n\u201cI believe that I can save you,\u201d replied Pollione. \u201cI will do it, if\nonly to please your daughter.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo it, and she shall be thine,\u201d answered the father.\n\nAnd the daughter smiled.\n\nSo the signore wrote to the Grand Duke that on a certain day the lion\nwould be his, and invited him with all the court to his castle to see it.\n\nThen there was at the time appointed a grand pavilion, in which was the\nGrand Duke, with all the courtiers and music.\n\nThe sorcerer Jannes, who was the companion of Pollione, had formed a deep\nattachment to the signore, as the latter had to him. Then the magician\nasked the lord to point out carefully to him all those who were his\nenemies.\n\nAnd then from a tent there came forth a great lion. It was the magician,\nwho had been touched by the ring.\n\nThe music sounded, and the people cried, \u201c_Evviva il lione_!\u201d Hurrah for\nthe lion!\n\nBut when the lion, running round the course, came to the courtiers, he\nroared and became like a raging devil. He leaped over the barrier, and,\nattacking the courtiers, tore them limb from limb, and did terrible\nthings. Nor could the Duke say anything, for it was his own fault.\n\nThen the lion bounded away and was seen no more.\n\nSo the signore was saved, and Pollione wedded his daughter, and became\nvery wealthy and a great lord.\n\nAnd it is a true thing that there are wizards\u2019 sayings or proverbs which\ncause good luck\u2014_buona fortuna_; and if such a proverb remains always in\nthe memory the spirit of the proverb will aid him who knows it. And to\nsecure his aid one should repeat this spell:\n\n \u201cSpirito del proverbio!\n Ti prego di stampare\n Questo proverbio corretamente\n Per sempre nella mia mente,\n Ti prego di aiutarlo,\n Sempre cosi la detta sara\n Cagione della felicit\u00e0.\u201d\n\n \u201cSpirit of the proverb,\n I pray thee to impress\n This proverb exactly\n And for ever in my mind,\n So that it may ever be\n A blessing and a joy to me.\u201d\n\nAnd this done, the proverb or poem will become a living spirit, which\nwill aid you to become learned and wise. {194}\n\n * * * * *\n\nAs the _Jatakas_ of Buddha, which perhaps give the origin of the fable,\nwere all intended to set forth the great doctrine of the immortality of\nthe soul in transmigrations, so most stories like the preceding have for\nan aim or object the teaching of a spell. That which is here explained\nis very singular, yet the idea is one which would naturally occur to a\nstudent of magic. It is that in a deep meaning or moral there is a\n_charm_, and every charm implies a spirit. Hence a spirit may go with a\nproverb, which in its form is like a spell. It is simply a perception of\nthe similarity of a saying or proverb to a charm. As the Pythagoreans\nand Neo-Platonists believed there were spirits in numbers and ideas, so a\nbeliever might even more rationally conceive of a soul in a wise saying.\n\n\n\n\nVIRGIL AND MATTEO, OR ANOTHER PROVERB OF VIRGILIO.\n\n\n \u201cProverbi, noti spontaneamente, e quasi inconsciamente sulle labbre\n del popolo, oltre contenere una profonda sapienza . . . manifestano\n la prontezza, il brio.\u201d\u2014DA AUGUSTO ALFANI: _Proverbi e Modi\n Proverbiali_ (1882).\n\nThe following story is translated from the Romognola, or mountain\ndialect, also called Bolognesa, which is a rude, strange patois, believed\nto be very ancient. It was written by a native of Rocca Casciano, near\nForli. The beginning of it in the original is as follows:\n\n\u201c_Un Eter proverbi di Virgilio_.\u2014Ho iera una volta un om co des a\nVerzeglie che un su usen lera un ledre e vieva rube quaicosa, e \u00e9 bon om\ned nom Matei, e pregheva Verzeglie ed ulei de un det, ho proverbi,\nincontre a e le der.\u201d\n\nThere was once a man who said to Virgil that one of his neighbours was a\nthief, who had stolen something from him, and the man, whose name was\nMatteo, begged Virgil to give him a saying or a proverb against the\nthief.\n\nVirgil replied: \u201cTruly thou hast been robbed; but be of good cheer, and\nthou mayst regain thine own again if thou wilt remember this saying:\n\n \u201cSe un dievele ti disprezza,\n Tu guent un dievele e mezza,\n E quan e lup la e tu agnel,\n L\u2019 e temp et tol\u00e1 su pel.\u201d\n\n \u201cIf a devil should injure thee,\n Doubly a devil thou shouldst be;\n And if a wolf thy lamb should win,\n \u2019Tis time for thee to take his skin.\u201d\n\nMatteo had learned that the thief, whose name was Bandelone, was in the\nhabit of sitting by a pool or pond, and whenever any traveller came by he\nwould cry that he had let fall a bag of gold into the water, and, being\nvery lame and ill, could not dive for it. So he would promise a great\nreward to him who would recover it.\n\nThen the traveller, deluded by the tale, would strip himself and dive\ninto the pool, which was very deep, with steep banks. And while he was\nunder water the crafty thief would seize on his clothes, arms, and money,\nmount his horse, and ride away.\n\nMatteo reflected on this. Then he got a small bag and filled it with\nnails, so that it seemed to be heavy, as if with money. So he went to\nthe pool, where Bandelone was waiting like a spider for flies, and seeing\nMatteo, whom he did not recognise, because the latter was disguised, he\nbegan to cry:\n\n\u201cOh, kind sir, have pity on a poor man who has lost his whole fortune!\u201d\nAnd so he went on to tell how he had dropped his bag full of gold in the\nwater, and was too weak to dive for it, with all the rest of the tale.\n\nThen Matteo consented to dive for the purse; but first of all put his\nhorse, with all his arms and clothes, on the opposite bank, where they\nwould be in safety.\n\nBandelone was angry enough at this, and cried:\n\n\u201cWhy do you do that? Do you think I am a thief?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, friend,\u201d answered Matteo. \u201cBut if a thief should come to take my\nthings thou wouldst be too weak to defend them, and he might do thee\nharm. It is all for thy good that I take such care.\u201d\n\nBandelone wished all this kind care to the devil, but he had to submit.\nThen Matteo dived twice or thrice, and then came out of the water as if\noverjoyed, crying, as he held his bag of nails {196} on high:\n\n\u201cEch! Ho alo trov\u00e8 e sac d\u2019 oro! Com le grand!\u201d\u2014Behold, I have found\nthe bag of gold! How large it is!\n\nBandelone was indeed surprised at this; but, believing that Matteo had by\nchance really found a treasure, he cried:\n\n\u201cYes, that is mine! Give it to me!\u201d\n\n\u201c_Zentiment_! Fair and softly, friend,\u201d replied Matteo. \u201cGive me half,\nor I will keep it all.\u201d\n\nBandelone would by no means consent to this. At last Matteo said:\n\n\u201cWell, as I do not know what is in the bag, I will take a risk. Give me\nyour horse and sword and cloak for the bag. That is my last word, and if\nyou utter another I will ride away with the bag and keep all.\u201d\n\nSo Bandelone gave him his horse and cloak and a fine sword. And Matteo,\nwhen mounted, pitched him the bag, and rode away singing merrily:\n\n \u201cIf a devil should injure thee,\n Doubly a devil thou must be;\n And if a wolf thy lamb should win,\n \u2019Tis time for thee to take his skin.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGILIO AND THE FATHER OF TWELVE CHILDREN.\nA LEGEND FROM COLLE DI VAL D\u2019ELSA, TUSCANY.\n\n\n \u201cIn the earliest form of the legend, Virgil appears not only as doing\n no harm, but also as a great benefactor.\u201d\u2014COMPARETTI: _Virgil in the\n Middle Ages_.\n\nOnce when Virgil was in Colle di Val d\u2019Elsa, he found that the utmost\npoverty and wretchedness prevailed among the people. Everywhere were men\nand women wailing and weeping because they could not get food for their\nchildren.\n\nVirgil began by giving alms right and left, but was obliged to cease,\nfinding that all his means would be but a trifle towards relieving such\nsuffering. Therefore he resolved to go to the Emperor and beg him to use\nhis authority in the matter. But while in the first furlong of his\njourney he met a man wailing bitterly, and on asking the cause, the one\nwho wept replied:\n\n\u201c_Caro Signore_, I weep in despair not for myself, but for my twelve\nchildren, who, starving, lie on the bare ground. And this day we are to\nbe turned out of the house because I owe for the rent. And I have gone\nhither and thither to seek work and found none, and now thou knowest\nall.\u201d\n\nThen Virgil, who was kind of heart, replied:\n\n\u201cBe not afraid of the future. Holy Providence which takes care of the\nbirds of the air will also provide for you.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy dear lord,\u201d replied the poor man, \u201cI trust it is true what you tell\nme, but I have waited a long time now for Holy Providence without seeing\nit.\u201d\n\n\u201cHope yet a little longer,\u201d answered Virgil. \u201cJust now I will go with\nyou to your house and see how I can aid you.\u201d\n\n\u201cThank you, my lord,\u201d replied the poor man, whose doubts in a Holy\nProvidence began to weaken. So they went together, and truly found\ntwelve children with their mother, well-nigh dying from cold, hunger, and\nexposure.\n\nThen Virgil, having relieved them, thought deeply what could be done to\nhelp all this wretchedness, and invoked a certain spirit in whom he\ntrusted\u2014_un spirito di sua fiducia_\u2014asking how he could aid the suffering\n_Colligiani_.\n\nAnd the spirit replied:\n\n \u201cSorti da quella casa,\n E passa disotto a una torre,\n E nel passare\n Si senti a chiamare\n A nome, alze il capo,\n Ma non videte nessuno,\n Soltanto senti una voce,\n Una voce che le disse\n \u2018Sali su questa torre!\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cLeave this house, in going,\n Thou\u2019lt pass beneath a tower,\n And hear a voice which calls thee,\n Yet looking, thou\u2019lt see nothing,\n Yet still will hear it crying,\n \u2018Virgil, ascend the tower!\u2019\u201d\n\nVirgil did this, and heard the Voice call him, when he ascended the tower\nand there beheld a small red goblin, who was visible to him alone,\nbecause Virgil had invoked him. And the Spirit said to him:\n\n\u201cBehold this little dog. Return with it to the house whence thou hast\ncome, and go forth with the poor man, and take the dog with you. And\nwhere the dog stops there dig!\u201d\n\nAnd they did so. And they went away, and at last the dog stopped at a\nplace, and the poor man began to dig. And lo! ere long the earth became\nred, and he came to iron ore. And from this discovery resulted the iron\nfactory of Colle, and by it that of glass; wherever the dog led they\nfound minerals. So from that time there was no more suffering because\nthere was work for all.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThis legend is a full confirmation of what I have elsewhere remarked,\nthat these \u201cwitch-stories\u201d have almost invariably a deeper meaning or\nmoral than is to be found in the \u201cpopular tales\u201d generally prevalent\namong peasants and children. Thus, while we find in this the magician\nVirgil, his invocation to a familiar spirit, the apparition of the Red\nGoblin of the Tower and the mystical dog of the Kobold, or goblins of the\nmines, there is with it a noble reflection that the best way to relieve\nsuffering is to provide work. In an ordinary fairy-tale the magician\nwould have simply conjured up a treasure and have given it to the poor.\n\nApropos of the word _goblin_, which is generally supposed to be from the\nGerman _Kobold_, I would observe that the Greek \u03ba\u03bf\u03b2\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9 or _cobali_ are\ndefined in a curious old French work as _lutins_, \u201chousehold spirits, or\ndomestic fairies.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVIRGILIO AS A PHYSICIAN, OR VIRGIL AND THE MOUSE.\n\n\n \u201cNow to signify destruction and death they paint a _mouse_. For it\n gnaweth all things, and works ruin.\u201d\u2014HORI APOLLI: _Hieroglyphica_;\n _Rome_, 1606.\n\nThere once lived in Florence a young gentleman\u2014_un gran signore_\u2014who\nwedded a beautiful young lady to whom he was passionately attached, as\nshe indeed was for a time to him. But \u201cfickle and fair is nothing rare,\u201d\nand it came to pass that before long she gave her love again to an\nintimate friend of her husband. And the latter did not indeed perceive\nthe cause, but he was much grieved at the indifference to him which his\nwife began to show.\n\nThen the wife began to tell her lover how her husband had scolded her for\nher neglect, and how much afraid she was lest their intrigue would be\ndiscovered, and that she was so uneasy that she was ready to poison her\nspouse \u201cif she could only get rid of him!\u201d\n\nThe lover replied that there were many ways to get rid of a man without\nreally killing him, for that a violent death would lead to suspicion,\ninquiry, scandal, and perhaps legal punishment. And then he hinted that\na better method would be to consult a witch.\n\nThe lady lost no time in running to one, to whom she told her whole\nstory, and what she wanted, and as she began by paying a large fee, the\nsorceress promised she should have her wish.\n\nThen the witch prepared with magic skill a flask of water, and a powder.\nThe water she gave to the wife, and bade her sprinkle it over her\nhusband\u2019s clothes. But she changed herself into a mouse, and having been\ncarried to the bedroom which the married couple occupied, she gnawed a\nhole in the mattress, and crawling in, dragged after her the bag, and so\nremained hidden.\n\nWhen the husband went to bed, there came over him an utter weakness and\nsickness, so that he lay in pain as if dead, and this grew worse day by\nday. His parents in vain called in the first physicians, and every\nremedy was resorted to without result.\n\nThen Virgilio, who knew much and suspected all the rest of this affair,\nwas angry that so vile a woman and her gallant should inflict such\ntorture on an excellent and innocent man, and resolved to have a hand in\nthe affair.\n\nTherewith he dressed himself as a _medico_, or doctor, from some distant\nland, saying that he had heard of this extraordinary case of illness, and\nwould like to see the sufferer. To which the parents replied that he was\nwelcome to do so, since all the professors of medicine in Florence could\nmake nothing of it.\n\nThe doctor looked steadily for some time at the patient, who appeared to\nbe in such utter prostration and misery as might have moved the hardest\nheart. By him sat his wife, pretending to weep, but counting to herself\nwith pleasure the time which would pass before her husband should\ndie\u2014giving now and then a suspicious glance at the new-comer.\n\nThen Virgilio said to the wife:\n\n\u201cSignora, I beg you to leave the room for a while. I must be alone with\nthis man!\u201d\n\nWhereupon she, with a great show of tears and passion, declared she would\nnot leave the room, because her husband might die at any minute, and she\ncould never forgive herself were she to be absent, and so on. To which\nVirgilio angrily replied, that she might depart in peace, with the\nassurance that her husband would be cured. So she went out, cursing him\nin her heart, if there was a chance that he could do as he declared.\n\nThen Virgilio took a mirror which he had brought with him, and placing it\nbefore the eyes of the invalid, bade him look at it as steadily and as\nlong as he could. The young man did so, and then said, as if in despair:\n\n\u201cFor me there is no remedy, O doctor, for what you show me is worse than\nmy disorder, as I supposed it to be. Truly I see death, and not myself.\u201d\n\n\u201cCourage!\u201d replied Virgilio. \u201cYou shall be cured.\u201d\n\n\u201cCure me,\u201d he answered, \u201cand you shall have all that I possess.\u201d\n\n\u201cNay, I will cure you first,\u201d said Virgilio, \u201cand then settle on easier\nterms.\u201d\n\nThe patient looked steadily at the mirror. Virgilio rapped thrice with a\nwand, when there suddenly leaped from the bed a mouse, which uttered\nthree horrible, piercing screams. The doctor bade the invalid continue\nto look steadily at himself in the mirror, and for his life not to cease\ndoing so. Without turning round, the doctor ordered the mouse to enter\nthe bed and lick up and bring away with her on her tongue all the water\nwhich the wife had sprinkled on the clothes. And this done, he bade her\nbring again out of the bed all the powder which she had placed there.\nWhich being effected, he ordered the mouse to make of it a pellet, and\ndevour it; but here she resisted, for to do that meant death to her and a\ncure to the invalid.\n\nBut the doctor was inflexible, and she had to obey. Nor had she begun to\neat it before he bade the husband rise, which he did, feeling perfectly\nrecovered, though much confused at such a sudden change.\n\nThen Virgilio ordered the mouse to mount the bed, and lo! she changed to\na woman, for she was, of course, the witch who had done all this devil\u2019s\nwork. And the sorceress bade them call parents and wife and all. And\nwhen they came the witch said:\n\n\u201cEvil my life has been, and evil will be the death which in a few minutes\nwill come to me; yet am I not so evil as this woman, who would have\nkilled by the worst suffering the husband who loved her. For hell hath\nmany who are bad, but the worst are they who return evil for good. And\nhe who hath ended this thing by his power is the great Virgilio, who is\nthe lord of magic in all this land.\u201d\n\nThen she told, step by step, how the wife had turned her heart from her\nhusband, almost as soon as she was married, and wished to kill him, and\nhad paid her to bewitch him. Then Virgilio opened the window and the\nwitch indeed died, or it was the last seen of her, for with a horrible\nhowl she vanished in the night, flying away.\n\nThe husband recovered, and would have given Virgilio all his wealth, but\nhe would accept nothing but the young man\u2019s friendship. And the guilty\nwife was imprisoned for life in a castle, far away in the mountains and\nalone.\n\n * * * * *\n\nVirgil appears as a _physician_ so distinctly in this and other tales as\nto induce the question whether he had not, quite apart from his\nreputation as poet and magician, some fame as professor of the healing\nart. And in fact, as I have shown in the legend of Virgil and the Spirit\nof Mirth, he on one occasion at least is, by P\u00e6onia, identified with\nEsculapius. The latter is described as having \u201ca countenance bright with\njoy and serenity,\u201d and being very benevolent and genial\u2014wherein he agrees\nwith the poet. The God of Medicine, it is expressly stated, used \u201csweet\nincantations,\u201d or poetical spells, which is also significant. He was\nalso associated with Apollo and the Muses, as in the temple of Messina.\nThe author of the great \u201cDizionario Storico Mitologico\u201d (1824) plainly\ndeclares that \u201cEsculapius is another form of Apollo, in whom poetry and\nmedicine were combined. In the temple devoted to him in Sycione,\nEsculapius is associated with Diana. In a Roman bas-relief he appears\nwith the Three Graces; in one of these legends Virgil is associated with\nfour Venuses.\u201d Making every allowance, it must be admitted that,\ncomparing all that is known of the God of Medicine with what appears in\nthese legends of the Mantuan bard, there is a remarkable general likeness\nbetween the two. Virgil is also, here and there, curiously identified\nwith the serpent and the staff, which were the symbols of Esculapius;\nand, as I have before noted, Buddha, who had so much in common with\nVirgil, was in his first incarnation a physician.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ONION OF CETTARDO.\n\n\n \u201cOn, Stanley, on!\u201d\u2014MARMION.\n\n \u201cWere I in noble Stanley\u2019s place,\n When Marmion urged him to the chase,\n The word which you would then descry\n Might bring a tear to every eye.\u201d\u2014ANONYMOUS.\n\nVirgil is introduced, I may say, almost incidentally in the following\ntale, not by any means as _coryph\u00e6us_ or hero, as is indeed the case in\nseveral other stories, which fact, on due reflection, is of importance,\nbecause it indicates unmistakably that he is so well known in popular\ntradition as to be recognisable even in a minor r\u00f4le. It is as when one\nswears by a saint, or Bacchus\u2014in Florence one hears the latter invoked\nforty times where a Christian deity is apostrophized once\u2014\u2019tis not to\nform a portion of the sentence, but to give it force, as Chinese\nartillerymen, when they fire a ball at an enemy, sometimes grease the\nmouth of a gun, to increase the loudness of the report and thereby\nfrighten the foe. Which figure of a saint is not that of Saint\nMalapropos, because, as the reader may note in another tale, Virgil is\nvery seriously described as a santo.\n\nNow to the narrative. _Sancte Virgile_, _ora pro nobis_!\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn very ancient times there were few families in Cettardo, and these were\nall perfectly equal, there being among them neither rich nor poor. They\nall worked hard in fields or forests for a living, and were like a\ncompany of friends or brothers.\n\nAnd of evenings, when they were not too weary, they met many together in\nsome house, all in love and harmony, to talk about the crops, and their\nchildren, or repeat the _rosario_, {203} or discuss their clothing, or\ncattle, or whatever interested them.\n\nThese people were all as one, and had no head or chief. {204a} But one\nevening a very little girl came out with a thing (_sorti con una cosa_)\nwhich astonished all who were present, because the child had received no\ninstruction, and did not know what a school meant. And what she said was\nthis:\n\n\u201c_Babbo_\u2014papa\u2014I wish to tell thee something in presence of all who are\nhere assembled, with all due respect to them, since there are certainly\nso many here who could with greater propriety set it forth. {204b}\nTherefore, I trust you will pardon and bear with me, because I am but an\ninfant.\u201d\n\nThen all exclaimed in chorus: \u201cSpeak, and we will listen to thee!\u201d\n\nAnd then the infant, in this fashion, spoke:\n\n\u201cKnow that this night I have spoken with a spirit, the _bel Folettino col\nberetta rossa_\u2014the beautiful fairy with the red cap\u2014and it told me that\nfor this our land we have no name or coat of arms. But the time has come\nto have that which shall represent the country, and therefore we should\nchoose a chief who will open commerce for us, and found a school so that\nour young people shall escape from ignorance.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly, thou hast spoken well!\u201d cried all present. \u201c_Evviva il\ncapo_\u2014hurrah for a chief!\u2014and that chief shall be thy father, dear\nchild!\u201d\n\n\u201cMoreover,\u201d added the good girl, \u201cI will, to show my gratitude, give you\nthe design for the armorial bearings, and in due time tell you all that\nis needful to be done. All of that will I find out, and also a name for\nthe country.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo so, and deserve our gratitude.\u201d\n\n\u201cI thank you again,\u201d said the girl, \u201cand I will pay attention to the\nsubject, since you show such sympathy.\u201d\n\nThe next day she went to herd a flock of sheep, as was her custom; and\nthen, lying down on the ground as wild boars are wont to do, {204c} said:\n\n \u201cSpirito, capo di tutti i spiriti!\n Re dei r\u00e9 dei Maghi!\n Portami qui presenti un hoggetto\n Che possa servirmi per rappresentare\n Un arme.\u201d\n\n\u201cUna voce le rispose:\n\n \u201cChiama e chiama pi\u00f9 forte.\n E chiama ancora per tre volte\n E chiama il tuo prottetore,\n Chi \u00e9 con te a tutte le ore\n E mai non ti lascera se sempre\n Lui invochera.\u201d\n\n \u201cSpirit, who art the chief of all the spirits!\n Who art the king of all the sorcerers!\n Bring unto me some object which may serve\n To represent our land, and be its crest.\u201d\n\n\u201cTo which a voice replied:\n\n \u201cCall out aloud, then more forcibly,\n And yet again three times, and unto him\n Who is thy guardian and ever with thee,\n And who will never leave thee\u2014call to him!\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd who art thou who speakest to me?\u201d asked the girl.\n\n\u201cI am the Spirit of the Red Cap.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd who is my protector?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe magician Virgil,\u201d replied the Voice.\n\nThen she invoked Virgil, who appeared in person, and asked what she would\nhave.\n\nShe replied that she had been charged to find a name and object to\nrepresent the land.\n\n\u201cIt is well,\u201d answered Virgil. \u201cI have already written the name on a\nleaf; now take this thing in thy hand\u201d\u2014here he gave her an onion\u2014\u201cand\ncast it into yonder cavern, from which there is an underground way.\u201d\n\nThe girl obeyed; the onion spun round and rolled away; she followed it\nafar, till at last it stopped at a leaf on which was written \u201cCettardo.\u201d\nAnd it was in this spot where the onion stopped that the town in after\ntime was built, and where the girl found the leaf is now the municipal\npalace. And so, one by one, great buildings rose. Thus came the name\nand arms of Cettardo.\n\nIn due time the maid had a lover, and it was said that these two were the\nonly ones who could go through the subterranean passage.\n\nAnd it hath been, and may be still, proved that any person attempting\nthis passage will after a few steps be suffocated, and can go no further.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIf we compare this legend with other traditions, there can be little\ndoubt that it is at least of Roman origin. The great veneration for the\nonion among the Egyptians\u2014\u201cHappy people,\u201d wrote Juvenal, \u201cto have gods\ngrowing in their gardens!\u201d\u2014which passed to the Romans, probably, in later\ndays through the priests of Serapis and Isis, {206} and the many\nmysteries connected with it, fully account for its being chosen as the\nsymbol of a city. Its traditions were greatly mingled and confused with\nthose of the garlic and the leek, but it was above all other plants a\nprotector against sorcery; that is, against _all_ evil influence. Where\nonions could not help, nothing availed, or as it was expressed, _bulbus\nnihil profuerit_. It would appear from the conjectures of Nork\n(_Andeutung eines Systemes der Mythologie_, p. 125) that the onion was\nthe sign or crest of the pyramid of Cheops, as it is of Cettardo.\n\nIt is, however, in the mention of a subterranean passage full of mephitic\nvapour, which seems to have no connection with the tale whatever, that\nthe clue to the whole tradition may be found. The people wanting a name\nand a site for a city, receive them from a pythoness or sibyl, the two\nbeing identified in many legends. The grotto of the Sybil near Naples is\napproached by a long subterranean road, over which I have myself\npassed\u2014being carried on the back of a strong peasant-guide. Just in the\nmiddle of the wet, winding cavern, I said: \u201cYou are a good horse.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am particularly good at eating macaroni,\u201d he replied, and stopped.\nThis was equivalent to begging.\n\n\u201cHorses who talk need the spur,\u201d I replied, giving him a gentle reminder\nwith my heel. He laughed, and trotted on. However, he got his\n\u201cmacaroni.\u201d\n\nThat the pythoness, or female oracle, was first intoxicated with the\nvapour of carbonic acid gas in a cavern, and that her utterances were\nrecorded on leaves which blew about loosely and were then gathered and\nput together, is well known, and it is this, apparently, which is meant\nin this tale by the flying leaf bearing the name of Cettardo. Plutarch,\nin his \u201cTreatise on Abandoned Oracles,\u201d declares that \u201cthe terrestrial\neffluvium was the conductor of the god into the body of the Pythia.\u201d As\nthe vapours disappeared, the oracle became dumb, or, as Cicero expresses\nit:\n\n \u201cThey ceased because this terrestrial virtue, which moved the soul of\n the Pythia by divine inspiration, disappeared in time, as we have\n seen rivers dried up or turned away into other beds.\u201d\n\nThe onion was a symbol of fertility and increase of population, therefore\nit was well adapted to serve as a fetish for a new city. It was also\namong the Egyptians _par eminence_ typical of the resurrection, so that\nno woman was buried without one. {207}\n\nIt may be observed that in this legend Virgil appears as a guardian\nspirit or god, certainly not as a mortal.\n\nIt would almost seem as if there were an undercurrent of genial satire or\nmockery in the part where the young Pythia graciously assures the simple\npeasants that, out of sheer gratitude and to oblige them, she will\nconsult with\u2014of all the gods\u2014the Robin Good-fellow, or goblin of the\nred-cap! who in all tales, Italian as well as English, is ever a tricksy\nsprite, more given to teasing and kissing servant-girls, and playing with\nchildren and cats, than aught more dignified. When we remember that the\nobject of this gracious benevolence is to make her father chief or king,\nit verily appears as if the whole were a \u201cput-up job\u201d between parent and\nchild.\n\n * * * * *\n\n THE END.\n\n * * * * *\n\n _Elliot Stock_, 62, _Paternoster Row_, _London_.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n\n{0a} Of which there is an English translation by E. F. M. Benecke\nentitled \u201cVirgil in the Middle Ages.\u201d London, Swan Sonnenschein and Co.\n\n{0b} Comparetti.\n\n{0c} Alexandra Dumas also used this book very freely for his \u201cMille et\nUne Fant\u00f4mes\u201d\u2014in fact, the latter work may be said to be based on it.\nThe \u201cHistoire des Fant\u00f4mes\u201d was the first and principal source from which\nFrench lovers of the supernatural derived the interest in were-wolves and\nvampires which manifested itself during the time of Napoleon and more\nrecently.\n\n{0d} \u201cPioneers of Evolution.\u201d\n\n{12} Possibly meaning that it was the first time when he recognised his\npower as a sage or sorcerer.\n\n{13} Horus Apollo, \u201cHieroglyph.,\u201d II. 32.\n\n{18} Simply an _omelette aux truffes_, the common fashion of eating\ntruffles among the peasants. It is possibly an old Roman dish, and may\nbe in Apicius.\n\n{21a} \u201cEgli ha la lupa\u201d (_i.e._, fame); also \u201cHo una fame ch\u2019io la\nveggio.\u201d\u2014\u201cProverbi Italiani da Orlando,\u201d Pescetti, 1618.\n\n{21b} In the Italian MS.: \u201cI figlii erano al letto del padre che\nsapevano alla fine, ma non una lacrima sortiva dal loro ciglio.\u201d\n\n{23} \u201cMorto io, morto il porco.\u201d Latin: \u201cMe mortuo terra misceatur\nincendio\u201d (Suetonius in \u201cVit\u00e2 Neronis\u201d)\u2014\u201cWhen I shall be dead, the devil\nmay take everything!\u201d\n\n{32} Published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, 1897.\n\n{34} _Male a far ti mangiare da qualche orco_\u2014_Orco_ is from _Orcus_,\nthe Spirit of Hell.\n\n{39} Swearing by the body or any part thereof implied the destruction or\nforfeiture of it, _i.e._, death or slavery in case the oath should be\nbroken.\n\n{40} The same was believed of Diana. I have omitted here much needless\nverbiage and repetition, and abbreviated what follows.\n\n{41a} I conjecture that this is wild poppy.\n\n{41b} A play on _paura_ (fear) and the name of the plant.\n\n{46} Quaintly spelled _quo prire_ in the original MS.\n\n{47} London, D. Nutt, 1844, price 1s., Medi\u00e6val Legends, No. II.\n\n{49} \u201cLegends of Florence,\u201d collected from the people, etc., by Charles\nGodfrey Leland. London, David Nutt, 1896.\n\n{50a} This is certain proof that the columns had been brought from the\nEast.\n\n{50b} This is mentioned by many writers. I read it last in a very\ncurious old manuscript History of Florence, written apparently about\n1650, which\u2014though it was in good condition, and well bound in\nparchment\u2014I purchased for four _soldi_, or twopence, from an itinerant\ndealer. Finding by a note that the work belonged to the library of the\nLiceo Dante, I restored it to that institution. I also found in this\nmanuscript an account of the miracle of the blooming of the elm-tree of\nSan Zenobio.\n\n{52} It is worth noting _en passant_ that, according to Max Nordau, one\nof the Ibsenites, modern Illuminati or Naturalists\u2014I forget to which\ndivision of the great body of reformers he belongs\u2014has seriously proposed\nthis creation of _donne artificiale_. _Vide_ Nordau, \u201cDegeneration.\u201d\n\n{55} This is finely conceived to give an idea of the great effect of the\nagony expressed in the face of the spectre. Adelone would naturally be\nso deeply impressed by it as to be unable to maintain the interview.\n\n{57} E ne un luogo sporco.\n\n{58} Evidently the Bels\u00e0bo of a preceding tale.\n\n{60} In the MS.: \u201c\u2018Many are deluded, or get a thumb at the nose,\u2019 says\nthe proverb.\u201d \u201cMaxima sero delusi, ho sia con un palma di\u2019 naso cosi,\ndice il proverbio.\u201d This expressive sign of the thumb is represented in\nan Irish Gospel of St. Mark of the sixth century.\n\n{61} This superlative is rendered in the original manuscript by the very\noriginal expression: \u201cThey were so near being killed, that they were\nalmost at the point of death.\u201d\n\n{62a} \u201cLo spirito del vaso che era quel santo Virgilio.\u201d Here Virgil is\nfor once fairly sainted or canonized.\n\n{62b} \u201cBevve un barile pieno di vino, e divenne ubbriaco come un tegolo\no quattro suonatori di violini.\u201d This recalls \u201ctight as a brick\u201d\n(Manuscript).\n\n{63} \u201cVirgiglio e la Donna di Diaccio\u201d (Title in MS.).\n\n{64} In allusion, probably, to the \u201cMadonna del Fuoco,\u201d whose festival\nis annually celebrated at Forli, in the Toscana Romagna. The writer of\nthis story was from the neighbourhood of Forli. \u201cThe Madonna del Fuoco\nis probably Vesta\u201d (_vide_ \u201cEtrusco-Roman Legends,\u201d by C. G. Leland).\n\n{67} Four antique marble statues of women. Any ancient female statue is\ncommonly called a _Venus_ by the people at large in Italy.\n\n{68} Here there is a hiatus, or blank in the manuscript. By crown is\nhere meant a fillet or tiara, as will be shown anon.\n\n{72} \u201cTutto era artificiale,\u201d meaning very artistic or \u00e6sthetic.\n\n{77} \u201cAlla _sua_ religione.\u201d\n\n{78a} \u201cLa testa d\u2019un uomo piena di vermi e puzzolente,\u201d a parody of the\ndecayed cabbage.\n\n{78b} I may here note that the ruined castle of the dreaded Falkenstein\nis in sight of the rooms where I am now writing in Homburg-les-Bains.\n\n{80} Singer or minstrel, one who sings his poems, and not merely a\nwriter of poems, is understood by _poeta_ in all these legends.\n\n{88} So given in the text for Seneca.\n\n{89a} \u201cCosi moriva e tutta Roma piangeva.\u201d\n\n{89b} _Vampa_.\n\n{89c} _Capitalisti_, bankers.\n\n{90} \u201cIl pi\u00f9 grande birbone.\u201d\n\n{98a} \u201cE cosi tutti facevano l\u2019amore nel buio, senza sapere chi era\nquello che facevano. . . .\u201d\n\n{98b} _Vide_ \u201cEtrusco-Roman Remains.\u201d\n\n{98c} By inadvertence or a blunder in the original manuscript, the\nwizard or witch is made male and female, and the victim alternately the\nyoung lady and the lover. It would make no difference as regards the\nplot.\n\n{99} \u201cSerratura o luchetta.\u201d\n\n{100} Florentine _folar_, or _follo_, from _foglio_, a leaf. I\nconjecture that this is the original of the English slang _vogel_, a silk\nhanderchief, and not the German _vogel_, a bird.\n\n{106} It may be noted that any clever modern juggler could perform the\nmiracle of the fish as here described.\n\n{109} The original reduces this to a minimum\u2014\u201cNon pi\u00f9 grande del dito\nmignole di un\u2019 bimbo di nascita.\u201d\n\n{110a} This is exactly like a small tambourine, but more strongly made.\n\n{110b} _The Boston Comic Annual_, 1828.\n\n{114} Signore Cosino, or Cosimo. This name appears here for the first\ntime in the story.\n\n{126} _Vide_ \u201cAlgonkin Tales of New England,\u201d by Charles G. Leland.\n\n{134} In the original \u201cLa Dea della Neve.\u201d In Italy the word \u201cgoddess\u201d\nis more familiarly and frequently used than it is by peasants in England,\nbut rather with application to great and good spirits of any kind than to\ndeities.\n\n{135} This was probably due to the very rapid formation of a frozen\ncrust. _Vide_ Nansen\u2019s work.\n\n{138} Anime.\n\n{140} _Comare_, godmother, gossip, a familiar form of address. In\nFrench _comm\u00e8re_; Scotch, _cummer_.\n\n{141a} \u201cAndiede bene\u201d\u2014Cut their lucky.\n\n{141b} \u201cI find this is a peasant\u2019s expression for the \u2018gloaming.\u2019\n_Verso sera_ was the explanation\u201d (Roma Lister). Literally \u201cbetween the\ndim and the dark.\u201d \u201cEntre chien et loup\u201d\u2014the owl\u2019s light.\n\n{143} Literally \u201cugly mammy.\u201d\n\n{144} This conveys the idea of complete cleanliness, as well-scoured\nbare walls and floors are most easily vibrated by currents of air, and\nconsequently most echoing.\n\n{147} \u201cOra siamo belli fritti.\u201d\n\n{148} \u201cPassegiando, passegiando,\nMe ne vengo, ricordando,\u201d\n\nor \u201cwalking away.\u201d\n\n{150} M. Ann\u00e6i Lucani, \u201cDe Bello Civili, vel Pharsali\u00e6,\u201d Liber X., 225.\n\n{151} The reader will find this Herodias-Lilith fully described in a\nlittle work entitled \u201cAradia; or, The Gospel of the Witches,\u201d by Charles\nGodfrey Leland. London: D. Nutt.\n\n{155a} \u201cScongiurati\u201d\u2014evoked.\n\n{155b} The sentence is twice repeated in the original.\n\n{156} \u201cEd aria resplendente,\u201d a play on the name Bell\u2019 Aria.\n\n{158} This I have supplied to fill a blank.\n\n{159} Evidently with quicksilver or mercury\u2014_similia similibus_.\n\n{165} Bottles for wine are sometimes made to contain several gallons.\n\n{166} \u201cAn Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scott,\u201d by the\nRev. J. Wood Brown, M.A. Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1897.\n\n{172} \u201cPigionale come si dei ebbe volgarmente\u201d (original text).\n\n{173} Annunziata.\n\n{177} \u201cPerche e stato sempre il mio dio.\u201d\n\n{178} Vollmer, \u201cW\u00f6rterbuch der gesammten Mythologie,\u201d p. 1162.\n\n{182} \u201cAnche dopo morte rimarrai la stemma di Firenze, ovunque si\ntrovera il Giglio.\u201d\n\n{183a} Pausanias, v. ii.\n\n{183b} \u201cChristliche Kunstsymbolik,\u201d p. 28; Frankfort, 1839, _apud_\nFriedrich.\n\n{187a} Here there is a manifest omission. It would appear that the\nEmperor made love to the girl, and that the first speech which follows\nwas by him and not by her.\n\n{187b} Here the remark and answer are run together in absurd confusion,\nbut I believe that I have correctly restored the original.\n\n{190a} \u201cSentenze,\u201d as defined by D\u2019Ambra, \u201cApothegms.\u201d\n\n{190b} Avviso, \u201cQuando l\u2019 amico guardara (o), ricordava bene l\u2019 avviso,\ncosi lo spirito lo guardava, e cosi quella persona diveniva buona.\u201d\n\n{194} \u201cIl proverbio o poema divena\nUno spirito vivente,\nChe ti aiutera\nA divenire savio e sapiente.\u201d\n\n{196} The Bag of Nails was once a tavern sign in England. It was\nconjectured to be a corruption of _Bacchanals_\u2014a very unlikely\nderivation.\n\n{203} This means here the recitation of five prayers, after which\nstories are told or traditions imparted and discussed. An immense amount\nof folklore can be gathered on such occasions.\n\n{204a} \u201cNe avevano un capo e ne gnente\u201d\u2014No head and no nothing\u2014in the\noriginal.\n\n{204b} The speech as given by the precocious maiden in the original text\nis an amusing effort at fine talk or elevated language by an illiterate\nperson, its object being to strengthen the marvel of the child\u2019s\ninspiration.\n\n{204c} That is, on her face. To do this in a pig-sty was a special\nmeans of invoking dreams or inspirations, as described in Norse sagas.\nIt is fully illustrated in my \u201cEtrusco-Roman Remains.\u201d\n\n{206} Their temples were the last which were abandoned in Rome, as\nWilkie Collins has minutely described in a novel.\n\n{207} \u201cWegen ihrer erregenden Eigenschaft wurde die Zwiebel ein\nerotisches Symbol; deshalb _salaces_ genannt; daher in die Schamtheile\nweiblicher Mumien als Sinnbilder der Auferstehung gelegt\nwurden.\u201d\u2014Friedrich, \u201cSymbolik.\u201d","title":"The Unpublished Legends of Virgil","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":75396}