The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.

P. 5. The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,—Hereby we may detect the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with Armenia. "Hellenic letters," says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the fourth century, "were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens" ("University Life in Ancient Athens," p. 73).

P. 28. Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality.—The belief in this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and many emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the groundwork of Leopold Schefer's novel, "Der Unsterblichkeitstrank," which has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of "The Potion of Lao-Tsze."

P. 38. So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously.—In A.D. 683, the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband's death, caused her son to be set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In our day we have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.

P. 50. Ananda the Miracle Worker.—This story was originally published in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in the Revue Britannique for November, 1872. Buddha's prohibition to work miracles rests, so far as the present writer's knowledge extends, on the authority of Professor Max MÜller ("Lectures on the Science of Religion"). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, "the St. John of the Buddhist group," is not recorded to have contravened this or any other of his master's precepts.

P. 66. The City of Philosophers.—This story has been translated into French by M. Sarrazin.

P. 68. There to establish a philosophic commonwealth.—The petition was actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the disordered condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a sinking state, possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an age of peace and culture.

P. 82. The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge.—Gallienus was fond of such practical jocularity. "Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet, surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem emittit, mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici jussit, 'Imposturam fecit et passus est': deinde negotiatorem dimisit" (Trebellius in Gallieno, cap. xii.).

P. 100. Hypati, anthypati, &c.—Hypati and anthypati denote consuls and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court of Constantinople. Silentiarii were properly officers charged with maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed by deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of distinction. The protospatharius was the chief of the Imperial body-guard, of which the spatharocandidati constituted the Élite.

P. 114. The Wisdom of the Indians.—Appeared in 1890 in The Universal Review. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian's travels in Burma.

P. 124. The Dumb Oracle.—Appeared in the University Magazine for June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning's ballad, "The Boy and the Angel."

P. 136. Duke Virgil.—The subject of this story is derived from Leopold Schefer's novel, "Die Sibylle von Mantua," though there is but little resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as his authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke in the thirteenth century: but the notion seems merely founded upon the interpretation of the insignia accompanying a mediÆval statue of the poet.

P. 138. To put the devil into a hole.—"Then sayd Virgilius, 'Shulde ye well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?' 'Yea, I shall well,' sayd the devyl. 'I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.' 'Well,' sayd the devyll, 'thereto I consent.' And then the devyll wrange himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein. Virgilius kyvered the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte still therein" ("Romance of Virgilius").

Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?—"Than he thought in his mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great landes belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And the foundacyon of it was of eggs" ("Romance of Virgilius").

P. 148. The Claw.—Originally published in The English Illustrated Magazine.

P. 151. Peter of Abano.—Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with Dante, whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused of magic. It is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition or stoned by the populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his remains having been secretly removed by his friends. Honours were afterwards paid to his memory; and there seems no doubt that he was a man of great attainments, including a knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished character, if he had not sometimes sold his skill at too high a rate. For his authentic history, see the article in the Biographie Universelle by GinguenÉ; for the legendary, Tieck's romantic tale, "Pietro von Abano" (1825), which has been translated into English.

P. 156. Alexander the Rat-catcher.—This story, to whose ground-work History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in vol. xii. of The Yellow Book, January, 1897.

P. 157. Cardinal Barbadico.—This cardinal was actually entrusted by Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an occasion upon which the "sardonic grin" imputed to the Pope by a detractor may be conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico was a remarkable instance of a man "kicked upstairs." As Archbishop of Corfu he had had a violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent XI., equally unwilling to disown the representative of Papal authority or offend the Republic, recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.

P. 177. The Rewards of Industry.—Appeared originally in Atalanta for August, 1888.

P. 194. The Talismans.—First published in Atalanta for September, 1890.

P. 202. The Elixir of Life.—Published July, 1881, in the third number of a magazine entitled Our Times, which blasted the elixir's character by expiring immediately afterwards.

P. 226. The Purple Head.—Appeared originally in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1877.

P. 228. The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey in comparison. "Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini comparatione fulgoris" (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).

P. 230. All these sovereigns.—"Diligentissime et Aurelianus et Probus et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus requisiverunt tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt" (Vopiscus, loc. cit.).

P. 241. Pan's Wand.—Published originally in a Christmas number of The Illustrated London News.

P. 249. A Page from the Book of Folly.—Appeared in Temple Bar for 1871.

P. 282. The Philosopher and the Butterflies.—One of the contributions by various writers to "The New Amphion," a little book prepared for sale at the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of Edinburgh in 1886.

P. 294. The Three Palaces.—Published originally on a similar occasion to the last story, in "A Volunteer Haversack," an extensive repertory of miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.

P. 300. New Readings in Biography.—Originally published in The Scots Observer in 1889.

P. 315. The Poison Maid.—The author wrote this tale in entire forgetfulness of Hawthorne's "Rapaccini's Daughter," which nevertheless he had certainly read.

[Transcriber's note: a misprint in the book was corrected in this edition, from "He martyrdom" to "His martyrdom".]