THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT CONCLUSION 



>f the English king, and so on with the r' en 



o ^j * I 



Facopo della Lana repeats the same story, but ^ - 1 ? ' ^ 

 sertain variations. 1 According to this comni- 

 ;ator. Michael Scot always kept the best comp: c 

 iving in all respects as a gentleman and cavai* 3 

 [n his tricks of the table he did not spare even r^vj 

 >wn master, but, while choosing his boiled D 

 rom Paris, and his roasts from London, wcS 

 dways procure his entrees from the King of Sic; 

 provision. The anonymous Florentine adds ano T 

 ;ale to the same purpose, saying that his gu- 

 mce asked Scot to show them a new marvel. ..* 

 nonth was January, yet, in spite of the season 1 , " 

 :aused vines with fresh shoots and ripe cluster?, 

 grapes to appear on the table. The company v 1 

 ridden each of them to choose a bunch, but t;' , 

 lost warned them not to put forth their hands l '. ', 

 lie should give the sign. At the word ' cut, f . , 

 ,he grapes disappeared, and the guests found th;*, , 

 elves each with a knife in one hand, and in<\ 

 ther his neighbour's sleeve. Francesco da J, ". , 

 dds the significant note, ' all this was nothing i . 



cheat; for they only seemed to feast, and ei ^ , . 

 id not really do so, or else took the dishes , 

 omething quite other than they really were/ '.{' , 

 enough to show that the sense we have gii . 



Dante's words is one which found favour* " 



i j.- 1 5 he 



arly times. V 



Boccaccio, commencmg his lectures on DantI 



ace 

 he Church of San Stefano at Florence in Octcj " . ' 



373, proceeded in them no further, unfortunai- 



han the seventeenth canto of the Inferno, so [ 



first 



1 Inferno di Dante col Comento di Jacopo ddla Lana, Bol 

 866, vol. i. p. 351. ,t 



