THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 203 



phetic truth. In the Scottish legend, which makes 

 Michael Scot have much to do in forming these 

 hills to their present shape, we seem to see him 

 occupying his natural place in the myth as that 

 Merlin whose art composed and maintained the 

 magic kingdom of Avalon, where Arthur sleeps 

 with Morgana till the hour of his return. 



The fertile fancy of these ages ran to the forma- 

 tion of other points of likeness. Merlin had his 

 Vivien, who betrayed him to his loss of life and 

 power by a spell of his own composing. So Michael 

 was said to have loved a beautiful woman, who, 

 Delilah-like, left him no peace till he told her the 

 poison which alone had power over his charmed 

 life : the broth of a breme sow, of which accordingly 

 he died, taking it confidently from his false leman's 

 hand. 1 Michael too, like Merlin, had his Book of 

 Might ; for the same fancy which materialised 

 Frederick's heretical tendencies, and made them 

 objective in the supposed work De Tribus Impos- 

 toribus, soon did the like by those diabolical arts 

 in which Scot was said to have excelled. It is 

 possible that some reference to this may have been 

 intended in the book which is held by the magician 

 in the S. Maria Novella fresco. The plan of these 

 paintings in the Spanish chapel at Florence was 

 drawn out with great care by Fra Jacopo Passa- 

 vanti, a learned monk of that convent. He has 

 left a series of Lenten sermons, collected and en- 

 larged by himself, and published under the title of 

 Lo Specchio di vera Penitenza. 2 The last two 

 chapters of this work are devoted to the reproof of 



1 Lay of the Last Minstrel, Note Y. 



2 I quote from the edition of Florence, 1580. 



