Signes of Synay • and shelles of Galice;
And many a cruche on his cloke • and keyes of Rome,
And ‽e vernicle bifore • for men shulde knowe,
And se bi his signes • whom he souzhte hadde.'
In connexion with this, Prof. Skeat draws attention to the romance of Sir Isumbras and to Chaucer's Prol. l. 13.
l. 467. Loretto, in Ancona, Italy, is the site of a sanctuary of the Virgin, entitled Santa Casa, Holy House, which enjoys the reputation of having been the Virgin's residence in Nazareth, and the scene of the Annunciation, &c.
Stanza XXVIII. l. 483. haggard wild is a twofold adj. in the Elizabethan fashion, like 'bitter sweet,' 'childish foolish,' and other familiar examples.
l. 490. Science appears to support this theory. See various examples in Sir Erasmus Wilson's little work, 'Healthy Skin.' Many of the cases are within the writer's own knowledge, and all the others are historical or otherwise well authenticated. He mentions Sir T. More the night before his execution; two cases reported by Borellus; three by Daniel Turner; one by Dr. Cassan; and in a note he recalls John Libeny, a would-be assassin of the Emperor of Austria, 'whose hair turned snow-white in the forty-eight hours preceding his execution.' See 'Notes and Queries,' 6th S. vols. vi. to ix., and 7th S. ii. Not only fear but sorrow is said to cause the hair to turn white very suddenly. Byron makes his Prisoner of Chillon say that his white hairs have not come to him
As men's have grown from sudden fears.'
Stanza XXIX. l. 506. 'St. Regulus (Scottice, St. Rule), a monk of Patrae, in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A. D. 370, to have sailed westward, until he landed at St. Andrews, in Scotland, where he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing; and, though we may doubt the precise date of its foundation, is certainly one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St. Andrews, bears the name of this religion person. It is difficult of access; and the rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German Ocean. It is nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On one side is a sort of stone altar; on the other an aperture into an inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling, probably slept. At full tide, egress and regress are hardly practicable.
