P. 124. The Dumb Oracle.—Appeared in the University Magazine for June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning’s ballad, “The Boy and the Angel.”
P. 136. Duke Virgil.—The subject of this story is derived from Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Die Sibylle von Mantua,” though there is but little resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as his authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke in the thirteenth century: but the notion seems merely founded upon the interpretation of the insignia accompanying a mediæval statue of the poet.
P. 138. To put the devil into a hole.—“Then sayd Virgilius, ‘Shulde ye well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?’ ‘Yea, I shall well,’ sayd the devyl. ‘I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.’ ‘Well,’ sayd the devyll, ‘thereto I consent.’ And then the devyll wrange himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein. Virgilius kyvered the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte still therein” (“Romance of Virgilius”).
Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?—“Than he thought in his mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great landes belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And the foundacyon of it was of eggs” (“Romance of Virgilius”).
P. 148. The Claw.—Originally published in The English Illustrated Magazine.
P. 151. Peter of Abano.—Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with Dante, whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused of magic. It is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition or stoned by the populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his remains having been secretly removed by his friends. Honours were afterwards paid to his memory; and there seems no doubt that he was a man of great attainments, including a knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished character, if he had not sometimes sold his skill at too high a rate. For his authentic history, see the article in the Biographie Universelle by Ginguené; for the legendary, Tieck’s romantic tale, “Pietro von Abano” (1825), which has been translated into English.
P. 156. Alexander the Rat-catcher.—This story, to whose ground-work History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in vol. xii. of The Yellow Book, January, 1897.
P. 157. Cardinal Barbadico.—This cardinal was actually entrusted by Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an occasion upon which the “sardonic grin” imputed to the Pope by a detractor may be conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico was a remarkable instance of a man “kicked upstairs.” As Archbishop of Corfu he had had a violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent XI., equally unwilling to disown the representative of Papal authority or offend the Republic, recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
P. 177. The Rewards of Industry.—Appeared originally in Atalanta for August, 1888.
P. 194. The Talismans.—First published in Atalanta for September, 1890.