SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. VOL. I. THEAGENES AND CHARICLEA (p. 24). There appeared, according to A. Kirpichnikof (p. 148, Grech. Rom.), fourteen editions and translations of Theagenes and Chariclea in the sixteenth, and only four in the eighteenth century, a fact which tends to show the influence of Greek romance upon the kindred kind of fiction then developing-the heroic novel, which replaced the Amadis romances; the Histoire afriquaine de Cléomede et de Sophonisbe, par le Sieur de Gerzan, 1627, is only an epic expansion of the story of Heliodorus. Les chastes et loyales amours de Théagène et Chariclée, by Hardy, in eight dramatic poems, appeared in 1601. On the influence of the Greek romance in French literature of the seventeenth century, see Koerting, Geschichte, etc. chap. 2, and infra (vol. iii.), Mlle. Scudery confesses her model is "l'immortel Héliodore." Note (p. 41). The episode of the bee-stung lip may perhaps have been suggested by Anacreon's ode xl. :— Ἔρως ποτ ̓ ἐν ῥόδοισι, etc. Cf. Theocritus, idyll. xix., also Ronsard's imitation :— Le petit enfant Amour APOLLONIUS OF TYRE (p. 85, n.). Similar to the story of the daughter of Apollonius is that of St. Geneviève de Brabant, which has furnished the theme of numerous plays, poems, and romances. She was the consort of Count Siegfried, who was persuaded by his servant that she was unfaithful. He ordered her to be put to death; the retainers charged with this commission, however, abandoned her alive in a forest where she gave birth to a child, which was nursed by a white doe. In the course of years, her husband, while hunting, came to her dwelling, her innocence was established, the wicked steward was put to death, and she restored to her rights. Cognate also is the Breton legend and miracle-play of King Arthur and Saint Triphime. The Legend of Bertha of the large foot is of the same class with the above. She was the daughter of Charibert, Count of Laon. Her hand was asked by Pepin, and granted, but she was persuaded that his first marital embraces would stifle a maiden, and she was therefore temporarily replaced by her servant Aliste. This substitution was but part of a plot for the ruin of Bertha, who was taken off at night to be murdered in a forest near Mans, where, however, she was spared by those charged to slay her, and abandoned. Here she passed eight years of the homeliest life. But at length her mother, Blancheflore, consort of Flore, King of Hungary, grew anxious about Bertha, and undertook a journey to France to visit her daughter. She met with a very bad reception everywhere on her passage, for Pepin's consort, reputed Bertha, but really Aliste, had brought odium upon the name of the ousted princess. Upon Blancheflore's arrival, Aliste, dreading detection, feigned illness, and retired to a darkened chamber. Blancheflore, however, discovers the fraud, when she finds her supposed daughter has not Bertha's large foot. The impostor avows all and retires to a nunnery. Margiste, the arch-plotter, is burned alive, and long but fruitless search is made for Bertha. This virtuous and contented damsel, like an earlier Griselda, is, however, accidentally discovered by Pepin while out hunting-he espies a maiden kneeling before a cross in the depth of a forest. He is straightway smitten and addresses her with amorous urgency, but she to defend her honour tells him she is the daughter of a king, is Berthe au grand pied. She was brought back in triumph, wedded and had six children by Pepin. The story was celebrated by Adenez le roy in the thirteenth century. See Zur Kritik der Bertasage, by Dr. A. Feist, Marburg, 1885, and Romania, 1884, p. 60. On the name Bertha, see F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 512. Cf. also the Slavonic story, The Miller's Daughter become Queen, in Tales from Twelve Tongues; Lond., 1882. VAMPIRES AND WERWOLVES. Pp. 90, p. 47, 48. Other forms of the word are βουρκόλακοι, βρικόλακες, βουλκόλaka. It is a Slavonic importation, adopted with, however, a change of character, in Greece; and volkodlaki, volkoulaki Dal (Tolkovyi Slovar' zhivavo velikorusskavo yazika, 1880, i., p. 237,) conjectures may be derived from volk, wolf, and koudla, hair or wool = the wolf's shaggy coat. The Slavonic word means a man that has been transformed into a wolf, the werwolf or loup-garou, the object of a widely diffused superstition, respecting which see Afanasief Poeticheskia vozzrenia Slavian na priródou, vol. iii. p. 527, etc. Also Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen und das hellenische Alterthum, 1871; 1 Theil., p. 157, etc. The superstition is visited in the Greek Nomocanon. See Harleian MS. 5548, clause 70., fol. 37 verso, αυτό ἐπιτιμίον ὑποπεσοῦνται καὶ οἱ τοὺς λεγομένους βουρκολάκους κατακαίοντες, και ἐξ ἐκείνων καπνίζονται, ὥστε χρόνους ἕξ μη κοινωνήσουν.” "Tó Witches are believed to have the power of changing themselves and others into werwolves. The metamorphosis is, according to the Slavonic tradition, the simplest thing in the world, and if you are desirous of achieving it, you have merely to repair to the nearest wood where you must find a stump of a tree that has been felled, and which the axe has left with a smooth flat surface. Into this infix a knife, with incantations, and then turn a somersault over it, when forthwith you will find yourself transformed into a wolf. Should you grow tired of your lupine existence, you should approach the opposite side of the stump, and turn a somersault backwards over it, when you will straightway recover your human shape. It is well. however, at the outset to take precautions against the removal of the knife, for if anyone should withdraw it you will end your days a wolf. Compare also Malory's "Morte Arthur," book xix. c. 11, and supra, p. 151, note 2. Lycaon, King of Arcadia, was changed by Jupiter into a wolf in punishment for his cruelties.—Ovid. Pliny says that one of the family of Antæus was chosen annually by lot for the fate of being a wolf for nine years. The Neuri had the faculty of assuming the form of wolves,—Herodot. (iv. 105). Tiridates, King of Armenia, a persecutor of the Christians, was, according to legend, changed into an animal by St. Gregory the Illuminator, the apostle of Armenia, but finally converted and baptized; and there is a story of St. Patrick having changed a Welsh chief Vereticus into a wolf. There is a passage in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury which mentions the common belief in lycanthropy, and associates the transformation with the moon's phases, as is also done in the curious story of the lupis-homem in J. Latouche's "Travels in Portugal," third edition, pp. 25-34. In the lastnamed instance the blood of a new-born infant, if sucked by the werwolf, effects its disenchantment and return to human shape. See a note on the word "Werwolf," by Sir F. Madden, prefixed to the Romance of William of Palerme (otherwise known as William the Werwolf). Edited by W. Skeat for the Early English Text Society; London, 1867.-W. Hertz, Der Werwolf, Stuttgart, 1862. CUPID AND PSYCHE (p. 112). 99 Ritual or ceremonial observances to celebrate the disappearance of the cold and the advent of the warm season, may be traced in various " games or customs still extant in different parts of Europe. An effigy is borne in procession and festally burned or drowned, after which a lord or queen of May is chosen, crowned, and led in triumph. See Grimm (Teutonic Mythology, ii. p. 763, etc.), and Freytag, De initiis scenicae poesis apud Germanos; Berlin, 1838, p. 13. There is an analogous Slavonic custom of celebrating the exit of Winter and entrance of Spring observed in the month of March,—a straw effigy of Morana (Death) is taken to a field and there burned or torn to bits, or dragged into a river and bonfires are lighted in token of triumph. Some analogy may be traced between the story of Apuleius and the Norwegian folk tale, Eastwards from the Sun and Westwards |