One night, when he was young, Virgil was in Naples; he went to visit a
very beautiful woman. And when he left her at midnight he found the
house surrounded by _bravi_ or assassins, who had been placed there to
kill him by a signore who was his rival.
Then the magician ran for his life, followed by all the crew, till he
came to a steep rock like a high wall. And here he paused, and cried
aloud during the minute which he had gained, this incantation:
“Apri spirito della rupe,
Apri il tuo cuore a me.
Spirito gentile, abbi,
Abbi pietà di me,
Se tu vuoi che Iddio
Abbia pietà di te.”
“Mighty spirit of the mountain,
Ope thy rocky heart to me.
Gentle sprite, I pray thee
Have mercy upon me,
As thou truly hopest
That God may pity thee.”
Then the rock opened, and Virgil fled into it and was saved.
Those who sought his life followed. And Virgil went forth, but while
they were in the passage it closed at both ends, and they all perished.
So was Virgil saved.
It came to pass in time that Virgil, seeing it would be of great use,
opened the grotto, and it is there to this day.
There was no place where Virgil did not leave some great work, whence it
came that his name is known to all the world.
* * * * *
There is a curious reflection, and one of great value to folk-lore, to be
drawn from this, and in fact from all of these stories. It is
believed—actually believed, and not merely assumed to make a tale—that
the conjurations given in them have the effect attributed to them when
they are uttered by any wizard or witch or person who is prepared by
magic or faith. Therefore such tales as told by witches are only a
frame, as it were, wherein a lesson-picture is set. This induces a
deeper, hence a more advanced, kind of reflection or moral than is
conveyed by common, popular fairy-tales. The one condition naturally
leads to another. There is very little trace of it in the “Mährchen” of
Grimm, Crane, Pitré, or Bernoni. In the _novelle_ of Boccacio, Sachetti,
Bandello and others, of which literally thousands were produced during
and after the Renaissance, there is very often a commonplace kind of
moral, such as follows all fables, but it is not of the same kind as that
which is involved in witch-stories. Even in this of Virgil the
invocation to the Spirit of the Rock, adjuring it to be merciful as it
hopes for mercy from God, is beyond what is generally found in common
traditions.
All of these conjurations, to have due effect, must be intoned in a
certain manner, which is so peculiar that anyone who is familiar with it
can recognise at a distance, where the words are not to be distinguished,
by the mere sound of the voice, whether an incantation is being sung.
Hence the greatest care and secresy is observed when teaching or chanting
them.
Among the Red Indians of North America this is carried so far that, as
one who took lessons from an Oneida sorcerer informs us, it required
study every day for seven years to learn how to correctly intone one
spell of twelve lines. The same is told of the old Etruscan-Latin spells
in the “_Dizionario Myth. Storico_.”
This legend is specially interesting because the tomb of Virgil is close
by the grotto of Posillippo, and it is conjectured that as it was,
according to tradition, made by magic, Virgil probably made it.
Therefore it may have been the first of these tales. Why the grotto was
specially regarded as mysterious is almost apparent to all who have
studied cave and stone worship. In early times, in the mysteries, the
going through a hole or passage, especially in a rock, signified the new
birth, or illumination, or initiation, hence the cult of holy or holed
stones, great or small, found all over the world. Such writers as Faber
and Bryant have, it is true, somewhat overdone guess-work symbolism, or
fanciful interpretation, but that the passing through the dark tunnel and
coming to light played a part in old rites is unquestionable, and that
this respect for the subject extended to all perforated stones and even
beads.
Incantations or spells are of two kinds—the traditional, and those which
a powerful or gifted magician or witch improvises. This of Virgil is of
the latter kind.