Some of the “mervayles” being:  “Howe Virgilius made a lampe that at all tymes brenned”; “howe Virgilius put out all the fyer of Rome”; “howe Virgilius made in Rome a metall serpente.”  In this story of Virgil occurs a curious instance of the appearance of the same incident in very different works of fiction.  The poet being enamoured of a certain Roman lady, persuaded her to lower a basket from her window, in which he should enter and be drawn up to her chamber.  The lady assented, but when the basket had ascended half way, she left her lover to hang there, exposed the next morning to the ridicule of the populace, for which treachery Virgil takes terrible revenge.  This story of the basket became very popular; it was introduced into a well known French fabliau[33]; and Bulwer worked it, with slight changes, into his novel of “Pelham,” where Monsieur Margot experiences the same sad reflections concerning the deceitfulness of woman, which had long before passed through the mind of Virgil.

The devil himself, or more properly, one of the many devils who abounded in the sixteenth century, is the hero of the “Historie of Frier Rush.”

The imagination of the peasantry had peopled the woods and dells with gay and harmless spirits, fairies and imps.  These were sometimes mischievous, but might always be propitiated, and excited in the rural mind curiosity and amusement rather than fear.  But the clergy, who shared in the popular superstitions, and gave as ready a belief as the peasantry to the existence of these supernatural beings, were unable from the nature of their creed to admit the possibility that these spirits were harmless.  To the monks all supernatural creatures were either angels or devils, and under their influence the imps and fairies whom the peasants believed to be dancing and playing pranks about them were turned into demons bent on the destruction of human souls.[34] Friar Rush was probably at one time a good natured imp like Robin Good Fellow, but under the influence, of Christian superstition he became the typical emissary from Satan, who played tricks among men calculated to set them by the ears, and who sought by various devices, always amusing, to fit them for residence in his master’s dominions.

In the history before us, which is probably only one of many which circulated concerning the mischievous friar, he obtains admission into a convent for the purpose of debauching its inmates.  Having received employment as under-cook, he soon finds means to throw his master into a cauldron of boiling water, and pretending that the cook’s death resulted from an accident, he obtains the chief position in the kitchen himself.  He then provides the convent with such delicious food that the monks give themselves up entirely to material enjoyment, and finally reach a condition of degeneracy from which recovery is almost impossible.  Rush, however, is exposed in time to prevent absolute ruin, and sets out to make up for this failure by good service elsewhere.  The story is described on the title-page as “being full of pleasant mirth and delight for young people.”