Onques ne pot tenir Medée
Jason por nul enchantement;
N'onc Circe ne tint ensement
Ulixes qu'il ne s'enfoïst,' &c.
(Charroie is the dance of witches on their sabbath.) Hermes Ballenus is really a compound name, the true significance of which was pointed out to me by Prof. Cowell, and explained in my letter to The Academy, Apr. 27, 1889, p. 287. Ballenus is 'the sage Belinous,' who discovered, beneath a statue of Hermes, a book containing all the secrets of the universe. Hence Hermes' Ballenus (where Hermes is an epithet) means 'Belinous, who adopted the philosophy of Hermes.' For an explanation of the whole matter, see the fourth volume of the Notices et Mémoires des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi, p. 107. In this there is an article by De Sacy, describing MS. Arabe de la Bibl. du Roi, no. 959, the title of which is 'Le Livre du Secret de la Creature, par le sage Belinous.' Belinous possessed the art of talismans, which he professed to have learnt from Hermes. There is some reason for identifying him with Apollonius of Tyana.
[1274]. Lymote, according to Warton, is Limotheus; but he omits to tell us where he found such a name; and the suggestion seems no better than his mistake of supposing Calipsa (l. 1272) to mean the muse Calliope! Considering that he is mentioned in company with Simon Magus, or Simon the magician (Acts viii. 9), the suggestion of Prof. Hales seems probable, viz. that Lymote or Lymete (as in F.) means Elymas the sorcerer (Acts xiii. 8).
[1275]. 'I saw, and knew by name, those that,' &c.
[1277]. Colle tregetour, Colle the juggler; see l. 1260. Colle is here a proper name, and distinct from the prefix col- in col-fox, Non. Pr. Tale, B 4405. Colle is the name of a dog; Non. Pr. Tale, B 4573. Colyn and Colle are names of grooms; Polit. Songs, p. 237. Tyrwhitt quotes a passage from The Testament of Love, bk. ii:—'Buserus [Busiris] slew his gestes, and he was slayne of Hercules his gest. Hugest betraished many menne, and of Collo was he betraied'; ed. 1561, fol. 301, col. 2. With regard to tregetour, see the account of the performances of Eastern jugglers in Yule's edition of Marco Polo; vol. i. p. 342, and note 9 to Bk. i. c. 61. Col. Yule cites the O.F. forms tregiteor and entregetour; also Ital. tragettatore, a juggler, and Prov. trasjitar, trajitar, to juggle. Bartsch, in his Chrestomathie Française, has examples of trasgeter, to mould, form, tresgeteïs, a work of mechanical art; and, in his Chrestomathie Provençale, col. 82, has the lines—
'Non saps balar ni tras-gitar
a guiza de juglar guascon';