sibyl.  The explanation of this striking group I found in an old ballad-legend.  Every one who has studied the moral as well as the technical character of the various schools of art, must have remarked how often the Venetians (and Giorgione more especially) painted groups from the popular fictions and ballads of the time; and it has often been regretted that many of these pictures are becoming unintelligible to us from our having lost the key to them, in losing all trace of the fugitive poems or tales which suggested them.

The religious ballad I allude to must have been popular in the sixteenth century; it exists in the Provencal dialect, in German, and in Italian; and, like the wild ballad of St. John Chrysostom, it probably came in some form or other from the East.  The theme is, in all these versions, substantially the same.  The Virgin, on her arrival in Egypt, is encountered by a gypsy (Zingara or Zingarella), who crosses the Child’s palm after the gypsy manner, and foretells all the wonderful and terrible things which, as the Redeemer of mankind, he was destined to perform and endure on earth.

An Italian version which lies before me is entitled, Canzonetta nuova, sopra la Madonna, quando si parto in Egitto col Bambino Gesu e San Giuseppe, “A new Ballad of our Lady, when she fled into Egypt with the Child Jesus and St. Joseph.”

It begins with a conversation between the Virgin, who has just arrived from her long journey, and the gypsy-woman, who thus salutes her:—­

    ZINGARELLA. 
  Dio ti salvi, bella Signora,
  E ti dia buona ventura. 
  Ben venuto, vecchiarello,
  Con questo bambino bello!

    MADONNA. 
  Ben trovata, sorella mia,
  La sua grazia Dio ti dia. 
  Ti perdoni i tuoi peccati
  L’ infinita sua bontade.

    ZINGARELLA. 
  Siete stanchi e meschini,
  Credo, poveri pellegrini
  Che cercate d’ alloggiare. 
  Vuoi, Signora, scavalcare?

    MADONNA. 
  Voi che siete, sorella mia,
  Tutta piena di cortesia,
  Dio vi renda la carita
  Per l’infinita sua bonta. 
  Noi veniam da Nazaretta,
  Siamo senza alcun ricetto,
  Arrivati all’ strania
  Stanchi e lassi dalla via!

    GYPSY. 
  God save thee, fair Lady, and give thee good luck
  Welcome, good old man, with this thy fair Child!

    MARY. 
  Well met, sister mine!  God give thee grace, and of
  his infinite mercy forgive thee thy sins!

    GYPSY. 
  Ye are tired and drooping, poor pilgrims, as I think,
  seeking a night’s lodging.  Lady, wilt thou choose to alight?

    MARY.

O sister mine! full of courtesy, God of his infinite goodness reward thee for thy charity.  We are come from Nazareth, and we are without a place to lay our heads, arrived in a strange land, all tired and weary with the way!

The Zingarella then offers them a resting-place, and straw and fodder for the ass, which being accepted, she asks leave to tell their fortune, but begins by recounting, in about thirty stanzas, all the past history of the Virgin pilgrim; she then asks to see the Child—­