CHAP. lv. Of a king who has one fon exceedingly beautiful, and four daughters, named Juftice, Truth, Mercy, and Peace. CHAP. lvi. A nobleman invited a merchant to his castle, whom he met accordingly upon the road. At entering the castle, the merchant was aftonished at the magnificence of the chambers, which were overlaid with gold. At fupper, the nobleman placed the merchant next to his wife, who immediately fhewed evident tokens of being much struck with her beauty. The table was covered with the richest dainties; but while all were served in golden dishes, a pittance of meat was placed before the lady in a dish made out of a human scull. The merchant was surprised and terrified at this strange spectacle. At length he was conducted to bed in a fair chamber; where, when left alone, he observed a glimmering lamp in a nook or corner of the room, by which he discovered two dead bodies hung up by the arms. He was now filled with the most horrible apprehenfions, and could not sleep all the night. When he rose in the morning, he was afked by the nobleman how he liked his entertainment? He answered, "There is plenty of every thing; but the fcull prevented me from eating at fup"per, and the two dead bodies which I faw in my chamber "from fleeping. With your leave therefore I will depart." The nobleman answered, """ My friend, you obferved the beauty of my wife. The fcull which you saw placed before her at "fupper, was the head of a duke, whom I detected in her "embraces, and which I cut off with my own fword. As a "memorial of her crime, and to teach her modest behaviour, "her adulterer's fcull is made to ferve for her difh. The bodies "of the two young men hanging in the chamber are my two "kinfmen, who were murthered by the fon of the duke. To keep up my sense of revenge for their blood, I vifit their "dead bodies every day. Go in peace, and remember to judge nothing without knowing the truth." 66 Caxton has the history of Albione, a king of the Lombards, who having conquered another king, "lade awaye wyth hym "Rofamounde 66 "Rofamounde his wyf in captyvyte, but after he took hyr to hys wyf, and he dyde do make a cuppe of the skulle of that kynge and closed in fyne golde and sylver, and dranke out "of it." This, by the way, is the ftory of the old Italian tragedy of Meffer Giovanni Rucellai planned on the model of the antients, and acted in the Rucellai gardens at Florence, before Leo the tenth and his court, in the year 1516. Davenant has alfo a tragedy on the fame fubject, called ALBOVINE king of the Lombards his Tragedy. A most fanguinary fcene in Shakespeare's TITUS ADRONIcus, an incident in Dryden's, or Boccace's, TANCRED and SIGISMONDA, and the catastrophe of the beautiful metrical romance of the LADY of FAGUEL, are founded on the fame horrid ideas of inhuman retaliation and favage revenge: but in the two laft pieces, the circumstances are fo ingeniously imagined, as to lose a confiderable degree of their atrocity, and to be productive of the most pathetic and interesting situations. CHAP. lvii. The enchanter Virgil places a magical image in the middle of Rome, which communicates to the emperor Titus all the fecret offences committed every day in the city ‘. This ftory is in the old black-lettered history of the necromancer Virgil, in Mr. Garrick's collection. Vincent of Beauvais relates many wonderful things, mirabiliter actitata, done by the poet Virgil, whom he represents as a magician. Among others, he fays, that Virgil fabricated thofe brazen statues at Rome, called Salvacio Roma, which were the gods of the Provinces conquered by the Romans. Every one of these statues held in its hand a bell framed by magic; and GOLDEN LEG. f. ccclxxxxvii. a. edit. 1493. The compilers of the SANCTILOGE probably took this ftory from Paulus Diaconus, GEST. LONGOBARD. ut fupr. Lib. ii. cap. xxviii. p. 435. feq. It has been adopted, as a romantic tale, into the HisTOIRES TRAGIQUES of Belleforest, p. 297. edit. 1580. The English reader may find it in Heylin's COSMOGRAPHIE, B. i. col.i. VOL. III. P. 57. And in Machiavel's HISTORY OF See fupr. vol. ii. p. 411. For the necromancer Virgil, see fupr. vol. ii. p. 229. In the CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE. Nov. vii. d when when any province was meditating a revolt, the ftatue, or idol, of that country ftruck his bell. This fiction is mentioned by the old anonymous author of the MIRABILIA ROMÆ, written in the thirteenth century, and printed by Montfaucon '. It occurs in Lydgate's BOCHAS. He is fpeaking of the Pantheon. Whyche was a temple of old foundacion, g In bokes olde plainly doth dyfcrive. Every ymage had in his hande a bell, This fiction is not in Boccace, Lydgate's original. It is in the above-cited Gothic history of Virgil. Gower's Virgil, I think, belongs to the fame romance. And eke Virgil of acqueintance I figh, where he the maiden prayd, CHAP. Iviii. King Afmodeus pardons every malefactor condemned to death, who can tell three indifputable truths or maxims. • SPECUL. HISTOR. Lib. iv. cap. 61. f. 66. a. f DIAR. ITAL. cap. xx. p. 288. edit. 1702. Many wonders are alfo related of Rome, in an old metrical romance called THE STACYONS OF ROME, in which Romulus is faid to be born of the duches of Troye. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. A. 2. fol. 81. * Fulgentius. Tragedies of BOCHAS, B. ix. ch. i. ft. 4. Compare fupr. vol. ii. p. 69. i CONFESS. AMANT. L. viii. f. clxxxix. a. col. 2. СНАР. CHAP. lix. The emperor Jovinian's history. On this there is an antient French MORALITE, entitled, L'Orgueil et prefomption de l'Empereur JOVINIAN *. This is alfo the ftory of ROBERT king of Sicily, an old English poem, or romance, from which I have given copious extracts'. CHAP. Ix. A king has a daughter named Rofimund, aged ten years; exceedingly beautiful, and so swift of foot, that her father promises her in marriage to any man who can overcome her in running. But those who fail in the attempt are to lose their heads. After many trials, in which fhe was always victorious, she loses the race with a poor man, who throws in her way a filken girdle, a garland of roses, and a filken purse inclosing a golden ball, infcribed, "whofo plays with me will "never be fatiated with play." She marries the poor man, who inherits her father's kingdom. This is evidently a Gothic innovation of the claffical tale of Atalanta. But it is not impoffible that an oriental apologue might have given rife to the Grecian fable. CHAP. Ixi. The emperor Claudius marries his daughter to the philofopher Socrates. CHAP. lxii. Florentina's picture. CHAP. Ixiii. Vefpafian's daughter's garden. All her lovers are obliged to enter this garden before they can obtain her love, but none return alive. The garden is haunted by a lion; and has only one entrance, which divides into so many windings, that it never can be found again. At length, the furnishes a knight with a ball or clue of thread, and teaches him how to foil the lion. Having achieved this adventure, he marries the lady. Here seems to be an allufion to Medea's hiftory. CHAP. Ixiv. A virgin is married to a king, because she makes him a shirt of a piece of cloth three fingers long and broad. CHAP. lxv. A cross with four infcriptions. * See EMEND. and ADD. to vol. i. at p. 197. 1 Vol. i. p. 184. d 2 CHAP. CHAP. lxvi. A knight offers to recover a lady's inheritance, which had been feized by a tyrant; on condition, that if he is flain, she shall always keep his bloody armour hanging in her chamber. He regains her property, although he dies in the attempt; and as often as he was afterwards fued for in marriage, before she gave an answer, fhe returned to her chamber, and contemplating with tears her deliverer's bloody armour, resolutely rejected every follicitation. CHAP. lxvii. The wife and foolish knight. CHAP. lxviii. A woman understands the language of birds. The three cocks. CHAP. Ixix. A mother gives to a man who marries her daughter a shirt, which can never be torn, nor will ever need washing, while they continue faithful to each other. CHAP. lxx. The king's daughter who requires three impoffible things of her lovers. CHAP. lxxii. The king who refigns his crown to his son. CHAP. lxxv. A king's three daughters marry three dukes, who all die the fame year. CHAP. lxxvi. The two phyficians. CHAP. lxxix. The fable of the familiar afs. CHAP. lxxx. A devout hermit lived in a cave, near which a shepherd folded his flock. Many of the sheep being stolen, the shepherd was unjustly killed by his master as being concerned in the theft. The hermit feeing an innocent man put to death, began to fufpect the existence of a divine Providence ; and resolved no longer to perplex himself with the useless seveties of religion, but to mix in the world. In travelling from his retirement, he was met by an angel in the figure of a man ; who faid, "I am an angel, and am fent by God to be your companion on the road." They entered a city; and begged for lodging at the house of a knight, who entertained them at a fplendid fupper. In the night, the angel rofe from his bed, and ftrangled the knight's only child who was asleep in the cradle. |