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People are persuaded that it availeth much against the sting of venomous spiders and scorpions: which propertie I could very well believe to be in the Sicilian agaths, for that so soone as scorpions come within the aire, and breath of the said province of Sicilie, as venomous as they bee otherwise, they die thereupon." "In Persia, they are persuaded, that a perfume of agathes turneth away tempests and all extraordinarie impressions of the aire, as also staieth the violent streame and rage of rivers. But to know which be proper for this purpose, they use to east them into a cauldron of seething water: for if they coole the same, it is an argument that they bee right."-Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 10.

NOTE 37. Page 146.

"The emperor Julius.”

"We must not forget that there was the romance of JULIUS CÆSAR. And I believe Antony and Cleopatra were more known characters in the dark ages, than is commonly supposed. Shakspeare is thought to have formed his play on this story from North's translation of Amyot's unauthentic French Plutarch, published at London in 1579."

From such sources, in all probability, the monks

derived the little they knew of the GESTA ROMAN-

ORUM.

NOTE 38. Page 148.

Macrobius, I believe, furnishes no relation re-
sembling the present: nor is it likely, perhaps.

NOTE 39. Page 150.

"Cosdras."

By Cosdras, is meant CODRUS, the last king of
Athens. See Justin ii. ch. 6 and 7.

NOTE 40. Page 152.

There is no foundation in Valerius Maximus for
this story.

NOTE 41. Page 154.

"Marcus Aurelius."

MARCUS CURTIUS was the name of the youth who
devoted himself, according to Roman History. The
condition upon which the sacrifice was to be per-
formed, is purely monastic.

NOTE 42. Page 156.

“Obtained the surname of BACCHUS."

The orgies of Tiberius might qualify him for this title; but it does not appear that it was ever conferred. Seneca said pleasantly of this emperor, that " he never was drunk but once; and that once was all his life."

NOTE 43. Page 157.

"This piece of history, which appears also in Cornelius Agrippa DE VANITATE SCIENTIARUM, is taken from Pliny, or rather from his transcriber Isidore'. Pliny, in relating this story, says, that the temperature of glass, so as to render it flexible, was discovered under the reign of Tiberius.

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"In the same chapter Pliny observes, that glass is susceptible of all colours. Fit et album, et murrhenum, aut hyacinthos sapphirosque imitatum, et omnibus aliis coloribus. Nec est alia nunc materia sequacior, aut etiam picture accommodatior. Maximus tamen honor in candido ".' But the Romans, as the last sentence partly proves, probably never

1 Isidore was a favourite repertory of the middle ages. 2 Pliny Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 26.

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used any coloured glass for windows. The first notice of windows of a church made of coloured glass, occurs in Chronicles quoted by Muratori. In the year 802, a pope built a church at Rome, and 'fenestras ex vitro diversis coloribus conclusit atque decoravit.' And in 856 he produces fenestra vero vitreis coloribus,' &c. This, however, was a sort of Mosaic in glass. To express figures in glass, or what we now call the art of painting in glass, was a very different work: and, I believe, I can shew it was brought from Constantinople to Rome before the tenth century, with other ornamental arts. Guiccardini, who wrote about 1560, in his Descrittione de tutti Paesi Bassi, ascribes the invention of baking colours in glass for church-windows to the Netherlanders; but he does not mention the period, and I think he must be mistaken. It is certain that this art owed much to the laborious and mechanical genius of the Germans; and, in particular, their deep researches and experiments in che mistry, which they cultivated in the dark ages with the most indefatigable assiduity, must have greatly assisted its operations. I could give very early anecdotes of this art in England."-WARTON.

NOTE 44. Page 159.

This tale, containing an appeal to natural affection, in all probability takes its rise from the judg ment of Solomon. But whether or not, the analogy is sufficiently striking to betray its eastern derivation.

NOTE 45. Page 162.

We have here a curious instance of the anomalous introduction of saints. The three Magi one would have thought not exactly fitted for the Christian Calendar.

NOTE 46. Page 163.

"Pyx."

Pyx, is properly a box. " πυξις, από τα πυξος quod nomen buxum significat, unde et pyxidem buxulum Itali vocant."-FAB. THES. The Roman Catholics put the Host into this kind of box.

NOTE 47. Page 164.

"And as the dew moistens the herbage, and promotes

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