The above table of contents is in the handwriting of Dr. Matthew Young,
late Bishop of Clonfert, a man possessing the highest talents and
learning, and who had been acquainted with the Irish language from his
infancy. J.B.
* * * * *
No. IV.
"_A Former Empress_."--P. 451.
The Church of Santa Maria del Carmine contains relics dear alike to the
romance of democracy and empire. It was from this church that Masaniello
harangued the fickle populace in vain; it was here that he was
despatched by three bandits in the pay of the Duke of Maddaloni; and
here he found an honourable interment during a rapid reflux of popular
favour. In this church, too, lies Conradin the last prince of the great
house of Suabia, with his companion in arms and in death, Frederic, son
of the Margrave of Baden, with pretensions, through his mother, to the
Dukedom of Austria. The features of the mediæval building have long
since been obliterated by reconstructions of the 17th and 18th
centuries, while round the tomb of Conradin a tissue of fictions has
been woven by the piety and fondness of after times. The sceptics of
modern research do not, however, forbid us to believe that there may be
an element of truth in the beautiful legend of the visit and
benefactions of Elizabeth Margaret of Bavaria, the widowed mother of
Conradin, erroneously dignified with the title of Empress, to the
resting-place of her son. Her statue in the convent, with a purse in her
hand, seems to attest the tale, which was no doubt related to the
Scottish Poet, and may well have stirred his fancy. What the epitaph was
which he copied we cannot now determine. It is not pretended that the
unhappy lady was buried here, but two inscriptions commemorate the
ferocity of Charles of Anjou, and the vicissitudes of fortune which
befell his victims. One, believed to be of great antiquity, is attached
to a cross or pillar erected at the place of execution. It breathes the
insolence of the conqueror mingled with a barbarous humour embodied in a
play on words--for "Asturis" has a double reference to the kite and to
the place "Astura," at which the fugitive Princes were captured:
"Asturis ungue Leo Pullum rapiens Aquilinum
Hic deplumavit, acephalumque dedit."
The other lines, in the Church, of more modern date, are conceived in a
humaner spirit, and may possibly be those which touched the heart of the
old worshipper of chivalry.
Ossibvs et memoriæ Conradini de Stovffen, vltimi ex sva progenie
Sveviæ dveis, Conradi Rom. Regis F. et Friderici II, imp. nepotis,
qui cvm Siciliæ et Apvliæ regna exercitv valido, vti hereditaria
vindicare proposvisset, a Carolo Andegavio I. hvivs nominis rege
Franco cæperani in agro Palento victvs et debellatvs extitit,
deniqve captvs cvm Frederico de Asbvrgh vltimo ex linea Avstriæ
dvce, itineris, ac eivsdem fortvnæ sotio, hic cvm aliis (proh
scelvs) a victore rege secvri percvssvs est.
Pivm Neap. coriariorvm collegivm, hvmanarvm miseriarvm memor, loco
in ædicvlam redacto, illorvm memoriam ab interitv conservavit.
(For the details of the death of Conradin and the stories connected with
his memory see Summonte, _Storia di Napoli_, vol. ii. Celano, _Notizie
di Napoli Giornata Quarta_, and St. Priest, _Histoire de la Conquête de
Naples_, vol. iii.)
* * * * *
No. V.
"Mother Goose's Tales," p. 459. _The following note by a distinguished
authority on Nursery Tales, will be read with interest._
"It is unfortunate that Sir Walter Scott did not record in his Diary the
dates of the Neapolitan collection of 'Mother Goose's Tales,' and of the
early French editions with which he was acquainted. He may possibly have
meant Basile's _Lo Cunto de li cunti_ (Naples, 1637-44 and 1645), which
contains some stories analogous to those which Scott mentions. There can
be no doubt, however, that France, not Italy, can claim the shapes of
_Blue Beard_, _The Sleeping Beauty_, _Puss in Boots_, and the other
'Tales of Mother Goose,' which are known best in England. Other forms of
these nursery traditions exist, indeed, not only in Italian, but in most
European and some Asiatic and African languages. But their classical
shape in literature is that which Charles Perrault gave them, in his
_Contes de ma Mère l'Oie_, of 1697. Among the 'early French editions'
which Sir Walter knew, probably none were older than Dr. Douce's copy of
1707, now in the Bodleian. The British Museum has no early copy. There
was an example of the First Edition sold in the Hamilton sale: another,
or the same, in blue morocco, belonged to Charles Nodier, and is
described in his _Mélanges_. The only specimen in the Public Libraries
of Paris is in the Bibliothèque Victor Cousin. It is probable that the
'dumpy duodecimo' in the Neapolitan dialect, seen by Scott, was a
translation of Perrault's famous little work. The stories in it, which
are not in the early French editions, may be _L'Adroite Princesse_, by a
lady friend of Perrault's, and _Peau d'Ane_ in prose, a tale which
Perrault told only in verse. These found their way into French and
Flemish editions after 1707. Our earliest English translation seems to
be that of 1729, and the name of 'Mother Goose' does not appear to occur
in English literature before that date. It is probably a translation of
'Ma Mère l'Oie,' who gave her name to such old wives' fables in France
long before Perrault's time, as the spider, Ananzi, gives his name to
the 'Nancy Stories' of the negroes in the West Indies. Among Scott's
Century of Inventions, unfulfilled projects for literary work, few are
more to be regretted than his intended study of the origin of Popular
Tales, a topic no longer thought 'obnoxious to ridicule.'"--A.L.
No. VI.