Part 38 (2/2)
Baltimore, 1893.
{98} The diavolino of Gian di Bologna is of bronze, but popular tradition makes light of accuracy.
{103} This is supposed to be addressed to another, not to the fairy.
{108} _Ucellato_, caught like a bird, or, as they say on the Mississippi, ”sniped.”
{126} The reader may observe that these popular names of Oratorio and Orto are most likely to have given the prefix _Or'_.
{150} _Ha tanta lingua che spazzarebbe un forno_, _ un cesso_. Said of virulent gossips.
{152} _Mago_, which, like _magus_, implies more dignity than magician or sorcerer.
{153} ”The Mugnone, whose course has been s.h.i.+fted to the west, formerly flowed into the Arno, through the heart of the city.”-_Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy_.
{155} _L'anguilla si rizzo in piedi_-”The eel rose upon her feet.” This will remind the reader of some of the difficulties experienced by Gothic artists in depicting Eve and the Serpent.
{156} There is much confusion here. It appears that the fairy made the fountain now in the Signoria, and that Biancone saw this in a vision.
{158} This refers to the satyrs who are among the bronze figures below Neptune.
{161a} I here omit a long, detailed, and wearisome account of the research, which, however, indicates the accuracy with which the tradition had been preserved, and the full belief in it of the narrator.
{161b} A kind of cruel pillory.
{162} In allusion to seeing it from behind the squares formed by the grates of iron before prison windows.
{164} Landucci, 233, cited by Scaife.
{171} Una medichessa.
{177} Not a fairy here, but a witch of a certain degree.
{180} Si la Messa de Villani era finito.
{181} E appunto hora comincia quella delle puttane, pero caminate, che farete a tempo con l'altre.
{189} Nella guerra d'amor, che fugge vince.
{196} Viene tutte le mattine Colle sue belle manine.
Though very rude, even to illiteracy in _form_, the train of thought is here very gracefully managed in the original.
{201} So called because criminals pa.s.sed through it on their way to execution.
{202} ”Da qualche bacio Vi chascha il _vero_ bacio d'amor.”
-_Original_.
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