Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookn, but more probably invented by themselves, and built on the Saracen fables in which they were so conversant. They pretended that some years before the Spaniards entered Mexico, the inhabitants caught a monstrous fowl, of unusual magnitude and shape, on the lake of Mexico. In the crown of the head of this wonderful bird there was a mirror or plate of glass, in which the Mexicans saw their future invaders the Spaniards, and all the disasters which afterwards happened to their kingdom. These superstitions remained, even in the doctrines of philosophers, long after the darker ages. Cornelius Agrippa, a learned physician of Cologne about the year 1520, and author of a famous book on the Vanity of the Sciences, mentions a species of mirror which exhibited the form of persons absent, at command. In one of these he is said to have shown to the poetical Earl of Surrey the image of his mistress, the beautiful Geraldine, sick and reposing on a couch. Nearly allied to this was the infatuation of seeing things in a beryl, which was very popular in the reign of James I, and is alluded to by Shakespeare.... 'The Naked Sword, another of the gifts presented by the strange knight to Cambuscan, endued with medical virtues, and so hard as to pierce the most solid armour, is likewise an Arabian idea. It was suggested by their skill in medicine, by which they affected to communicate healing qualities to various substances, and by their knowledge of tempering iron and hardening all kinds of metal. It is the classical spear of Peleus, perhaps originally fabricated in the same regions of fancy; see ll. 236-246. 'The sword which Berni, in the Orlando Innamorato, gives to the hero Ruggiero, is tempered by much the same sort of magic:-- "Il brando con tal arte fabbricato, Che taglia incanto, ed ogni fatagione[147]"; Orl. Innamor. ii. 17, st. 5. So also his continuator Ariosto:-- "Non vale incanto, ov'ella mette il taglio[148]"; Orl. Fur. xli. 83. And the notion that this weapon could resist all incantations is like the fiction above mentioned of the buckler of the Arabian giant Ben Gian, which baffled the force of charms and enchantments made by giants or demons. Spenser has a sword endued with the same efficacy, the metal of which the magician Merlin mixed with the juice of meadow-wort, that it might be proof against enchantment; and afterwards, having forged the blade in the flames of Etna, he gave it hidden virtue by dipping it seven times in the bitter waters of Styx; F. Q. ii. 8. 20. From the same origin is also the golden lance of Berni, which Galafron, King of Cathaia, father of the beautiful Angelica and the invincible champion Argalia, procured for his son by the help of a magician. This lance was of such irresistible power, that it unhorsed a knight the instant he was touched with its point; Orl. Innamor. i. 1. 43. Britomart in Spenser is armed with the same enchanted spear, which was made by Bladud, an ancient British king skilled in magic; F. Q. iii. 3. 60; iv. 6. 6; iii. 1. 10. 'The Ring, a gift to the king's daughter Canace, which taught the language of birds, is also quite in the style of some others of the occult sciences of these inventive philosophers; and it is the fashion of the Oriental fabulists to give language to brutes in general. But to understand the language of birds was peculiarly one of the boasted sciences of the Arabians, who pretend that many of their countrymen have been skilled in the knowledge of the language of birds ever since the time of King Solomon. Their writers relate that Balkis, the Queen of Sheba or Saba, had a bird called _Hudhud_, that is, a lapwing, which she dispatched to King Solomon on various occasions, and that this trusty bird was the messenger of their amours. We are told that Solomon having been secretly informed by this winged confidant that Balkis intended to honour him with a grand embassy, enclosed a spacious square with a wall of gold and silver bricks, in which he ranged his numerous troops and attendants in order to receive the ambassadors, who were astonished at the suddenness of these splendid and unexpected preparations. Herbelot tells a curious story of an Arab feeding his camels in a solitary wilderness, who was accosted for a draught of water by Alhejaj, a famous Arabian commander, who had been separated from his retinue in hunting. While they were talking together, a bird flew over their heads, making at the same time an unusual sort of noise, which the camel-feeder hearing, looked steadfastly on Alhejaj, and demanded who he was. Alhejaj, not choosing to return him a direct answer, desired to know the meaning of that question. "Because," replied the camel-feeder, "this bird assures me that a company of people is coming this way, and that you are the chief of them." While he was speaking, Alhejaj's attendants arrived. 'This wonderful Ring also imparted to the wearer a knowledge of the qualities of plants, which formed an important part of the Arabian philosophy; see ll. 146-155. 'Every reader of taste and imagination must regret that, instead of our author's tedious detail of the quaint effects of Canace's ring, in which a falcon relates her amours, and talks familiarly of Troilus, Paris, and Jason, the notable achievements we may suppose to have been performed by the assistance of the horse of brass are either lost, or that this part of the story, by far the most interesting, was never written. After the strange knight has explained to Cambuscan the management of this magical courser, he vanishes on a sudden, and we hear no more of him; ll. 302-343. 'By such inventions we are willing to be deceived. These are triumphs of deception over truth:-- "Magnanima mensogna, hor quando è il vero Si bello, che si possa à te preporre?[149]"' This learned and curious discourse is well worth perusal; but the reader will probably be led to remark, that Warton does not after all tell us whence Chaucer drew his materials, but only proves that he drew them from some Arabian source. That source may be indicated a little more distinctly; for, as will be shewn more fully below, nearly all the magical particulars are to be found in the collection now known as the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. For the rest, we may trace most of the descriptions to the travels of Marco Polo, with which Chaucer must have been acquainted to some extent, either immediately or through some channel not easily now pointed out. This suggestion occurred to me on reading a note by Colonel Yule on the name of Cambuscan; but in this I have been long anticipated by Mr. Keightley, as noted above (p. 463, note 2). The passage in Colonel Yule's edition of Marco Polo to which I refer, is as follows:-- 'Before parting with Chingis [or Gengis Khan] let me point out what has not to my knowledge been suggested before, that the name of "_Cambuscan_ bold" in Chaucer's tale is only a corruption of the name of Chinghiz. The name of the conqueror appears in Friar R |