[94] Rizzar l’uovo di Pippo sù un píano. “To do a difficult thing, or achieve it by tact and skill.” This hints at the egg of Columbus. But Columbus set the egg upright by breaking its end, which was not a fair game. Any egg can be set on end on a marble table (I have done it), by patient balancing, without breaking.
[96] “Florentine Life during the Renaissance,” by Walter B. Scaife. Baltimore, 1893.
[98] The diavolino of Gian di Bologna is of bronze, but popular tradition makes light of accuracy.
[103] This is supposed to be addressed to another, not to the fairy.
[108] Ucellato, caught like a bird, or, as they say on the Mississippi, “sniped.”
[126] The reader may observe that these popular names of Oratorio and Orto are most likely to have given the prefix Or’.
[150] Ha tanta lingua che spazzarebbe un forno, ò un cesso. Said of virulent gossips.
[152] Mago, which, like magus, implies more dignity than magician or sorcerer.
[153] “The Mugnone, whose course has been shifted to the west, formerly flowed into the Arno, through the heart of the city.”—Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy.
[155] L’anguilla si rizzo in piedi—“The eel rose upon her feet.” This will remind the reader of some of the difficulties experienced by Gothic artists in depicting Eve and the Serpent.