THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT CONCLUSION 223 



Dresent year of grace would make of the name and 

 ? ame of Michael Scot were clearly a curious and 

 nteresting inquiry. It is one which, on actual 

 ;rial, has yielded two tales differing considerably 

 Tom any hitherto published. 1 As these are certainly 

 :he very latest additions to the legend, they deserve 

 i place here at the close of our collection. Freely 

 rendered into English they run as follows : 



' Mengot was a notable astrologer and magician. 

 Mengot was his true name, 2 but he had many 

 surnames besides ; among which was that of Scotto. 

 Chis name of Scotto was given him by a princess. 

 3ne night the Prince, her husband, happened to 

 oe in a company where the talk turned on the 

 /irtue of women, and the Prince said he would put 

 lis hand in the fire if his wife were not faithful to 

 lim ; so sure was he of her virtue. Then spoke 

 ip another of the company, w r ho made light of the 

 caresses and compliments with which women use 

 :o deceive, and told a tale for the Prince's warning. 

 ' There was once a man," said he, " who thought as 

 rou do, dear Prince ; for he took his wife for a 

 jattern of virtue, and would have pledged, not his 

 land only, but his very life that she was so. It 



1 My readers owe these tales to the kindness of Mr. C. G. Leland, 

 ivho procured them for me from an old Florentine \voman. She is 

 amiliar to Mr. Leland's friends as ' Maddalena,' and is the depository 

 >f that traditional lore on which he has so happily drawn in his Legend* 

 f Florence. Her stories are interesting if only as an example of folk- 

 ore up to date, and of the way in which an Italian mind deals with the 

 egend of Michael Scot, while some points they offer are certainly 

 riginal and highly curious. 



2 This may be a variant of 'Maugis' or Merlin. In the romance of 

 'Waugi* (T Aygremont we find the following passage: 'II n'y avoit 

 iueilleur maistre que lui . . . et l'appelloit-on Maistre Maugis.' On 

 he other hand Mengot is a genuine early Teutonic name. 'Et hie 

 iber finitus est per manus Mengoti Itelbrot, Anno domini mccclxxxv.' 

 s the colophon to a manuscript of the Almagest of Ptolemy in the 

 Vatican, Fondo Palatino, 1365, p. 206ro. 



