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* Wrung.

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y This is described above, f. 55.

Of gold he made a table
Al ful of steorron [ftars].-

An aftrolabe is intended.
z Sprinkled.

Before day.
She.

c Fly.
d Dream.

e Times.

f Kiffed her.

Fol. 57. The text is here given from MSS. BODL. ut fupr. Compared with MSS. HOSPIT, LINCOLN. 150. See Gow

er's CONFESS. AMANT. Lib. vi. fo
cxxxviii. a. col. 1. feq.

And through the crafte of artemage,
Of waxe he forged an ymage, &c.
Gower's dragon, in approaching the queen,
is courteis and debonaire.

With al the chere that he maie,
Towarde the bedde ther as fhe laie,
Till he came to hir the beddes fide
And the laie ftill, and nothyng cride;
For he did all hys thynges faire,
And was curteis and debonaire.
Ibid. col. 2. I could not refift the temp-
tation of transcribing this gallantry of a

dragon.

Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, have left inftances of incantations conducted by figures in wax. In the beginning of the laft century, many witches were executed for attempting the lives of perfons, by fabricating representations of them in wax and clay. King James the first, in his DAEMONOLOGIE, fpeaks of this practice as very common; the efficacy of which he peremptorily ascribes to the power of the devil". His majesty's arguments, intended to prove how the magician's image operated on the person represented, are drawn from the depths of moral, theological, physical, and metaphyfical knowledge. The Arabian magic abounded with these infatuations, which were partly founded on the doctrine of fympathy.

But to return to the GESTA ROMANORUM. In this ftory one of the magicians is styled Magifter peritus, and sometimes fimply Magifter. That is, a cunning-man. The title Magister in our universities has its origin from the use of this word in the middle ages. With what propriety it is now continued I will not fay. Myftery, antiently used for a particular art', or skill in general, is a fpecious and eafy corruption of Maiftery or Maftery, the English of the Latin MAGISTERIUM, or Artificium; in French Maiftrife, Meftier, Meftrie, and in Italian Magifterio, with the same sense *. In the French romance of CLEOMEDES, a phyfician is called fimply Maitre'.

Lie font de chou qu'il n'y a

Peril et que bien garira :

Car il li MAISTRE ainfi dit leur ont.

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Leq.

h Edit. 1603. 4to. B. ii. ch. iv. p. 44.

For instance," the Art and Mystery of "Printing."

In a ftatute of Henry the eighth, inftead of the words in the laft note, we have "The Science and Craft of Print"ing." Ann. reg. 25. A. D. 1533. For many reafons, Mystery answering to the Latin Myfterium, never could have been originally applied in these cafes.

MSS. Cod. Reg. Parif. 7539.

And

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And the medical art is ftyled Meftrie. «Quant il (the furgeon) " aperçut que c'eftoit maladie non mie curable par nature et par "MESTRIE, et par medicine, &c "." Maiftrife is used for art or workmanship, in the CHRONICON of Saint Denis, "Entre

les autres prefens, li envoia une horologe de laton, ouvrez par "marveilleufe MAISTRISE"." That the Latin MAGISTERIUM has precisely the same sense appears from an account of the contract for building the conventual church of Cafino in Italy, in the year 1349. The architects The architects agree to build the church in the form of the Lateran at Rome. "Et in cafu fi aliquis [defectus] "in eorum MAGISTERIO appareret, promiferunt refarcire "." Chaucer, in the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, ufes MAISTRISE for artifice and workmanship.

Was made a toure of grete maistrise,

A fairer faugh no man with fight,

Large, and wide, and of grete might, &c.

And, in the fame poem, in defcribing the fhoes of MIRTH. And shode he was, with grete maistrie,

With fhone decopid and with lace 1.

MAYSTRYE OCCUrs in the defcription of a lady's faddle, in SYR
LAUNFAL'S romance.

Her fadell was femely fett,
The fambus' were grene felvett,

MIRAC. S. Ludov. edit. reg. p. 438. Tom. v. Collect. Hiftor. Franc. pag. 254. Thus expreffed in the Latin ANNALES FRANCIE, ibid. p. 56. "Horolo "gium ex aurichalco arte mechanica miri"fice compofitum."

• HIST. CASIN. tom. ii. pag. 545. col. ii. Chart. ann. 1349.

P R. R. v. 4172.

• Ibid. v. 842.

1 I know not what ornament or imple

ment of the antient horfe-furniture is here
intended, unless it is a faddle-cloth; nor
can I find this word in any gloffary. But
Sambue occurs, evidently under the very
fame fignification, in the beautiful manu
fcript French romance of GARIN, written
in the twelfth century.

Li palefrois fur coi la dame fift
Eftoit plus blanc que nule flor de lis 3
Le loreins vaut mils fols parifis,
Et la SAUBUE nul plus riche ne vift.

"The

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"In the faddle-bow were two jewels of India, very beautiful

"The palfrey on which the lady fate, was "whiter than any flower de lis: the bri"dle was worth a thousand Parifian fols, "and a richer Saubue never was feen." The French word however, is properly written Sambue, and is not uncommon in old French wardrobe rolls, where it appears to be a female faddle-cloth, or houfing. So in Le ROMAN DE LA Rose,

Comme royne fuft veftue,

Et chevauchaft à grand SAMBUE.

The Latin word, and in the same restrained fenfe, is fometimes SAMBUA, but most commonly SAMBUCA. Ordericus Vitalis, Lib. viii. p. 694. edit. Par. 1619. "Man

nos et mulas cum SAMBUCIS muliebribus "profpexit." Vincent of Beauvais fays, that the Tartarian women, when they ride, have CAMBUCAS of painted leather, embroidered with gold, hanging down on either fide of the horse. SPECUL. HIST. x. 85. But Vincent's CAMBUCAS was originally written çambucas, or Sambucas. To fuch an enormity this article of the trappings of female horfemanfhip had arifen in the middle ages, that Frederick king of Sicily restrained it by a fumptuary law; which enjoined, that no woman, even of the highest rank, fhould prefume to ufe a Sambuca, or faddle-cloth, in which were gold, filver, or pearls, &c. CONSTITUT. cap. 92. Queen Olympias, in Davie's GEST of Alexander, has a Sambue of filk. fol. 54. [Supr. vol. i. 221.]

A mule alfo whyte fo mylke,

With fadel of golde, Sambue of fylke, &c.

s of this fashion I have already given many inftances. The latest I remember is in the year 1503, at the marriage of the princess Margaret. "In fpecyall the Erle "of Northumberlannd ware on a goodly "gowne of tynfill, fourred with hermynes. "He was mounted upon a fayre courfer, hys harnays of goldfmyth worke, and thorough that fam was fawen fmall "belles, that maid a mellodyous noyfe." Leland. COLL. ad calc. tom. iii. p. 276.

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In the NONNES PREESTES PROLOGUE, Chaucer from the circumftance of the Monke's bridle being decorated with bells, takes occafion to put an admirable stroke of humour and fatire into the mouth of the HOSTE, which at once ridicules that inconfiftent piece of affectation, and cenfures the monk for the dullness of his tale. Ver. 14796.

Swiche talking is not worth a boterflie, For therin is ther no difport ne game: Therefore fire monke, dan Piers by your

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"to be seen, in confequence of the great art with which they "were wrought." Chaucer calls his Monke,

fayre for the Maiftrie,

An outrider, that lovid venery".

Fayre for the Maistrie means, skilled in the Maistrie of the game, La Maiftrife du Venerie, or the fcience of hunting, then fo much a favorite, as fimply and familiarly to be called the maistrie. From many other inftances which I could produce, I will only add, that the search of the Philofopher's Stone is called in. the Latin Geber, INVESTIGATIO MAGISTERII.

CHAP. ciii. The merchant who fells three wife maxims to the wife of Domitian.

CHAP. Civ. A knight in hunting meets a lion, from whose foot he extracts a thorn. Afterwards he becomes an outlaw ; and being feized by the king, is condemned to be thrown into a deep pit to be devoured by a hungry lion. The lion fawns on the knight, whom he perceives to be the fame that drew the thorn from his paw. Then faid the king, "I will learn forbearance "from the beafts. As the lion has fpared your life, when it was "in his power to take it, I therefore grant you a free pardon. Depart, and be admonished hence to live virtuously."

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The learned reader muft immediately recollect a fimilar story of one Androclus, who being exposed to fight with wild beasts in the Roman amphitheatre, is recognised and unattacked by a most savage lion, whom he had formerly healed exactly in the fame manner. But I believe the whole is nothing more than an oriental apologue on gratitude, written much earlier; and that it here exists in its original state. Androclus's story is related by Aulus Gellius, on the authority of a Greek writer, one Appion, called Pliftonices, who flourished under Tiberius. The character of Appion, with which Gellius prefaces this tale, in fome measure invalidates his credit; notwithstanding he pretends to Y PROL. V. 165.

MS. fol. 40, a.

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