The date of the Martyrdom of Hugh is attributed by Matthew Paris to 1225.
Chaucer puts a version in the mouth of his Prioress. No doubt the story
must have been a mere excuse for Jew-baiting. In America the Jew becomes
“The Duke” in a version picked up by Mr. Newells, from the recitation of
a street boy in New York. The daughter of a Jew is not more likely than
the daughter of a duke to have been concerned in the cruel and
blasphemous imitation of the horrors attributed by Horace to the witch
Canidia. But some such survivals of pagan sorcery did exist in the
Middle Ages, under the influence of “Satanism.”