The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression.
Many originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in
the annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has
rendered it desirable to append, and which further provide an
opportunity of tendering thanks to many friends for their assent to
republication.
P. 5. _The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,_—Hereby we may detect
the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
Armenia. “Hellenic letters,” says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the
fourth century, “were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the
slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens” (“University Life in
Ancient Athens,” p. 73).
P. 28. _Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality._—The belief in
this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and
many emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the
groundwork of Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Der Unsterblichkeitstrank,”
which has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of “The
Potion of Lao-Tsze.”
P. 38. _So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously._—In A.D. 683,
the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband’s death, caused her son
to be set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In
our day we have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
P. 50. _Ananda the Miracle Worker._—This story was originally published
in Fraser’s Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in
the _Revue Britannique_ for November, 1872. Buddha’s prohibition to
work miracles rests, so far as the present writer’s knowledge extends,
on the authority of Professor Max Müller (“Lectures on the Science of
Religion”). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, “the St. John
of the Buddhist group,” is not recorded to have contravened this or any
other of his master’s precepts.
P. 66. _The City of Philosophers._—This story has been translated into
French by M. Sarrazin.
P. 68. _There to establish a philosophic commonwealth._—The petition
was actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the
disordered condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to
save a sinking state, possessed the accomplishments which would have
adorned an age of peace and culture.
P. 82. _The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge._—Gallienus
was fond of such practical jocularity. “Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro
veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet,
surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem
emittit, mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici
jussit, ‘Imposturam fecit et passus est’: deinde negotiatorem dimisit”
(Trebellius in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
P. 100. _Hypati, anthypati, &c._—_Hypati_ and _anthypati_ denote
consuls and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court
of Constantinople. _Silentiarii_ were properly officers charged with
maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed
by deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of
distinction. The _protospatharius_ was the chief of the Imperial
body-guard, of which the _spatharocandidati_ constituted the _élite_.
P. 114. _The Wisdom of the Indians._—Appeared in 1890 in _The Universal
Review_. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian’s travels
in Burma.
P. 124. _The Dumb Oracle._—Appeared in the _University Magazine_ for
June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here
transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning’s
ballad, “The Boy and the Angel.”
P. 136. _Duke Virgil._—The subject of this story is derived from
Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Die Sibylle von Mantua,” though there is but
little resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt
as his authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as
their duke in the thirteenth century: but the notion seems merely
founded upon the interpretation of the insignia accompanying a mediæval
statue of the poet.
P. 138. _To put the devil into a hole_.—“Then sayd Virgilius, ‘Shulde
ye well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?’ ‘Yea, I shall well,’
sayd the devyl. ‘I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not
do it.’ ‘Well,’ sayd the devyll, ‘thereto I consent.’ And then the
devyll wrange himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein.
Virgilius kyvered the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the
devyll begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte
still therein” (“Romance of Virgilius”).
_Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?_—“Than he thought in
his mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great
landes belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it
Napells. And the foundacyon of it was of eggs” (“Romance of
Virgilius”).
P. 148. _The Claw_.—Originally published in _The English Illustrated
Magazine_.
P. 151. _Peter of Abano_.—Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his
birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with
Dante, whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused
of magic. It is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the
Inquisition or stoned by the populace; but after his death he was
burned in effigy, his remains having been secretly removed by his
friends. Honours were afterwards paid to his memory; and there seems no
doubt that he was a man of great attainments, including a knowledge of
Greek, and of unblemished character, if he had not sometimes sold his
skill at too high a rate. For his authentic history, see the article in
the _Biographie Universelle_ by Ginguené; for the legendary, Tieck’s
romantic tale, “Pietro von Abano” (1825), which has been translated
into English.
P. 156. _Alexander the Rat-catcher_.—This story, to whose ground-work
History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in
vol. xii. of _The Yellow Book_, January, 1897.
P. 157. _Cardinal Barbadico_.—This cardinal was actually entrusted by
Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an
occasion upon which the “sardonic grin” imputed to the Pope by a
detractor may be conjectured to have been particularly apparent.
Barbadico was a remarkable instance of a man “kicked upstairs.” As
Archbishop of Corfu he had had a violent dispute with the Venetian
governor, and Innocent XI., equally unwilling to disown the
representative of Papal authority or offend the Republic, recalled him
to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
P. 177. _The Rewards of Industry._—Appeared originally in _Atalanta for
August_, 1888.
P. 194. _The Talismans._—First published in _Atalanta_ for September,
1890.
P. 202. _The Elixir of Life._—Published July, 1881, in the third number
of a magazine entitled _Our Times_, which blasted the elixir’s
character by expiring immediately afterwards.
P. 226. _The Purple Head._—Appeared originally in _Fraser’s Magazine_
for August, 1877.
P. 228. _The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey
in comparison._ “Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
comparatione fulgoris” (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).
P. 230. _All these sovereigns._—“Diligentissime et Aurelianus et Probus
et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus
requisiverunt tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt”
(Vopiscus, _loc. cit._).
P. 241. _Pan’s Wand._—Published originally in a Christmas number of The
_Illustrated London News_.
P. 249. _A Page from the Book of Folly._—Appeared in _Temple Bar_ for
1871.
P. 282. _The Philosopher and the Butterflies._—One of the contributions
by various writers to “The New Amphion,” a little book prepared for
sale at the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of
Edinburgh in 1886.
P. 294. _The Three Palaces._—Published originally on a similar occasion
to the last story, in “A Volunteer Haversack,” an extensive repertory
of miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at
Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.
P. 300. _New Readings in Biography._—Originally published in _The Scots
Observer_ in 1889.
P. 315. _The Poison Maid._—The author wrote this tale in entire
forgetfulness of Hawthorne’s “Rapaccinip’s Daughter,” which
nevertheless he had certainly read.