009 



THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



It will be observed that Satchells hesitates here 

 between the title of knighthood which had been 

 bestowed on Scot for a century past on the authority 

 of Hector Boece, and the more authentic dignity of 

 Master which was really his. He also antedates 

 the philosopher's lifetime by more than a hundred 

 years ; so that plainly what we have in these verses 

 is legend and tradition rather than history. 



This is probably the latest appearance in 

 literature of the old stories concerning Michael Scot 

 told in the old way. Naude^ and Schmutzer^ 

 presently came on the scene, in the late seventeenth 

 and early eighteenth century, with their critical 

 defences of Scot, all too imperfectly informed re- 

 garding his real reputation. In our own age the 

 poems of Sir Walter Scott and Rossetti, while 

 serving to show that so great a name has not been 

 forgotten, breathe, it is plain, an entirely different 

 spirit. They are but the romantic and sentimental 

 revival of tales that the poets and their world had 

 already ceased to believe. 



Changed habits of thought, reaching and affect- 

 ing every class of society, make it useless now to 

 seek in Scotland for any new developments of the 

 legend of Michael Scot. This is not so certainly 

 true, however, of the South of Europe ; of Italy, 

 Sicily, and Spain, where he was once a familiar 

 figure. There the slow progress of education has 

 left the common people still in possession of much 

 legendary lore, and even of the living faculty by 

 which in past ages such tales have been formed. 

 To ascertain what an Italian story-teller in the 



^ Apologie des Graiids Hommes accusez de Magic, Paris, 1669. 

 2 De Michaele Scoto, Veneficii injuste damnato, 1 739. 



