ALTRON.
Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor (Vol. iv., pp. 208. 262.).
—My copy of Don Quixote has the following note on the passage referred to by Mr. C. H. COOPER:—
"Two old men appeared before Sancho, etc.—I believe this story is told, for the first time, in some of the Talmudic writings; but Cervantes, in all probability, took it from the Legenda Aurea Jacobi de Voragine, in which monkish collection it occurs in these words:
"'Vir quidam ab uno Judæo quamdam summam pecuniæ mutuo accepit, jurans super altare Sancti Nicolai quod quam citius posset sibi redderet. Tenente autem illo diu pecuniam Judæus expostulavit: sed eam sibi reddidisse affirmat. Trahit ergo eum ad judicem et juramentum indicitur debitori: Ille baculum cavatum quem auro minuto impleverat secum detulerat, ac si ejus adminiculo indigeret: Volens igitur facere juramentum Judæo baculum tradidit servandum. Juravit quod plus sibi reddiderat etiam quam debet; et facto juramento baculum repetiit. Et Judæus ignorans astutiæ eum sibi reddidit. Rediens autem qui fraudem fecerat in quodam bivio oppressus corruit somno: Currusque eum, cum impetu veniens, necuit, et baculum plenum auro fregit, et aurum effudit.'
"The conclusion of the story is, that the Jew having received his money, was earnestly entreated to acknowledge his sense of the Divine interposition in his favour, by receiving baptism. He said he would do so if Saint Nicholas would, at his prayer, restore the dead man to life. The saint was, without much difficulty, induced to do this, and the Jew became an edifying specimen of conversion. See the chapter de Sancto Nicolao."—The History of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha; translated from the Spanish by Motteux. A new Edition, with copious Notes, &c. Edinburgh, 1822, vol. v. p. 334.
May not Jeremy Taylor, in the passage cited from the Ductor Dubitantium ("NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. iv., p. 208.), have been quoting from memory, and confused the Talmudic(?) legend with a well-known passage in Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 199-207.? Compare—
"The Greek that denied the depositum of his friend, and offered to swear at the altar,"
with
"Spartano cuidam respondit Pythia vates;