And spreynd theron of the herbus: The lady in hir bed lay Abouzt mydnyzt, ar the daya, And crept undur hir covertour, e Mony sithes he hire kust f And fast in his armes prust, And went away, so dragon wyld, * Perhaps in SYR LAUNFAL, the same situation is more elegantly touched. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 95. a. In the pavyloun he fond a bed of prys, For hete her clothes doun sche dede, Sche was as whyt as lylye yn Maye, g He seygh never non so pert, Her here schon as gold wyre, &c. x wrung. y This is described above, f. 55. Of gold he made a table z sprinkled. b she. e times. c fly. a before day. d dream. f kissed her. Fol. 57. The text is here given from Theocritus, Virgil, and Horace, have left instances of incantations conducted by figures in wax. In the beginning o the last century, many witches were executed for attempting the lives of persons, by fabricating representations of them in wax and clay. King James the First, in his DAEMONOLOGIE, speaks 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 metaphysical knowledge. The Arabian magic abounded with these infatuations, which were partly founded on the doctrine of sympathy. But to return to the GESTA ROMANORUM. In this story one of the magicians is styled Magister peritus, and sometimes simply Magister. 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 say. Mystery, antiently used for a particular art', or skill in general, is a specious and easy corruption of Maistery or Mastery, the English of the Latin MAGISTERIUM, or Artificium; in French Maistrise, Mestier, Mestrie, and in Italian Magisterio, with the same sense. In the French romance of CLEOMEDES, a physician is called simply Maitre'. MSS. BODL. ut supr. Compared with And through the crafte of artemage, With al the chere that he maie, Towarde the bedde ther as she laie, Till he came to hir the beddes side And she laie still, and nothyng cride; For he did all hys thynges faire, And was curteis and debonaire. Ibid. col. 2. I could not resist the temptation of transcribing this gallantry of a dragon. Gower's whole description of this interview, as will appear on comparison, seems to be taken from Beau Lie sont de chou qu'il n'y a Peril et que bien garira: Car il li MAISTRE ainsi dit leur ont. curable par nature Maistrise is used And the medical art is styled Mestrie. "Quant il (the surgeon) aperçut que c'estoit maladie non mie et par MESTRIE, et par medicine"," &c. for art or workmanship, in the CHRONICON of Saint Denis, "Entre les autres presens, li envoia une horologe de laton, ouvrez par marveilleuse MAISTRISE"." That the Latin MAGISTERIUM has precisely the same sense appears from an account of the contract for building the conventual church of Casino in Italy, in the year 1349. The architects agree to build the church in the form of the Lateran at Rome. "Et in casu si aliquis [defectus] in eorum MAGISTERIO appareret, promiserunt resarcire"." Chaucer, in the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, uses MAISTRISE for artifice and workmanship. Was made a toure of grete maistrise, A fairer saugh no man with sight, Large, and wide, and of grete might", &c. And, in the same poem, in describing the shoes of MIRTH, And shode he was, with grete maistrie, With shone decopid and with lace. MAYSTRYE Occurs in the description of a lady's saddle, in SYR LAUNFAL'S romance, I paynted with ymagerye; Of ryche golde and nothyng elles In the arsouns before and behynde Gay for the maystrye. The paytrelle" of her palfraye Was worth an erldom, &c. "In the saddle-bow were two jewels of India, very beautiful to be seen, in consequence of the great art with which they were wrought." Chaucer calls his Monke, bridle was worth a thousand Parisian sols, and a richer Saubue never was seen.' The French word, however, is properly written Sambue, and is not uncommon in old French wardrobe rolls, where it appears to be a female saddle-cloth, or housing. So in LE ROMAN DE LA ROSE, Comme royne fust vestue, Et chevauchast à grand SAMBUE. The Latin word, and in the same restrained sense, is sometimes SAMBUA, but most commonly SAMBUCA. Ordericus Vitalis, lib. viii. p. 694. edit. Par. 1619. "Mannos et mulas cum SAMBUcis muliebribus prospexit." Vincent of Beauvais says, that the Tartarian women, when they ride, have CAMBUCAS of painted leather, embroidered with gold, hanging down on either side of the horse. SPECUL. HIST. x. 85. But Vincent's CAMBUCAS was originally written çambucas, or Sambucas. To such an enormity this article of the trappings of female horsemanship had arisen in the middle ages, that Frederick king of Sicily restrained it by a sumptuary law; which enjoined, that no woman, even of the highest rank, should presume to use a Sambuca, or saddle-cloth, in which were gold, silver, or pearls, &c. CONSTITUT. cap. 92. Queen Olympias, in Davie's GEST of Alexander, has a Sambue of silk, fol. 54. [infr. vol. ii. p. 54.] A mule also whyte so mylke, With sadel of golde, sambue of sylke, &c. Of this fashion I have already given many instances. The latest I remember is in the year 1503, at the marriage of the princess Margaret. "In specyall the Erle of Northumberlannd ware on a goodly gowne of tynsill, fourred with hermynes. He was mounted upon a fayre courser, hys harnays of goldsmyth worke, and thorough that sam was sawen small belles, that maid a mellodyous noyse." Leland. COLL. ad calc. tom. iii. p. 276. In the NONNES PREESTES PROLOGUE, Chaucer, from the circumstance of the Monke's bridle being decorated with bells, takes occasion to put an admirable stroke of humour and satire into the mouth of the HOSTE, which at once ridicules that inconsistent piece of affectation, and censures the monk for the dullness of his tale. Ver. 14796. Swiche talking is not worth a boterflie, For therin is ther no disport ne game: Therefore sire monke, dan Piers by your fayre for the Maistrie, An outrider, that lovid venery." Fayre for the Maistrie means, skilled in the Maistrie of the game, La Maistrise du Venerie, or the science of hunting, then so much a favorite, as simply and familiarly to be called the maistrie. From many other instances which I could produce, I will only add, that the search of the Philosopher's Stone is called in the Latin Geber, INVESTIGATIO MAGISTERII. CHAP. ciii. The merchant who sells three wise 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 seized 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 same that drew the thorn from his paw. Then said the king, "I will learn forbearance from the beasts. As the lion has spared 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.” The learned reader must immediately recollect a similar 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 same 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 Plistonices, who flourished under Tiberius. The character of Appion, with which Gellius prefaces this tale, in some measure invalidates his credit; notwithstanding he pretends to have been an eye witness of this extraordinary fact. "Ejus libri," says Gellius, "non incelebres feruntur; quibus, omnium ferme quæ mirifica in Ægypto visuntur audiunturque, historia comprehenditur. Sed in his quæ audivisse et legisse sese Y PROL. v. 165. |