chess. The biblical references to Evilmerodach are few; they throw no
light on the reason of his selection by the mediæval scribe for a bad
pre-eminence of parricide. The epithet of _joli_ applied to the king has
an odd effect, followed as it is by the narrative of his most unfilial
conduct. Dr. Van der Linde shows how widely the legend spread. Lydgate
evidently hesitates between the divided authority of Guido--that is,
Colonna, the author of the Troy book--and Cessoles, whom he quotes
through Jacobus de Vitriaco.[23]

Amongst the authors not identified are "Crete" (p. 133), and Diomedes
(p. 10). The account of the origin of chess attributed to the last is
amplified a little further on. The legend that Palamedes invented a game
of this kind at the siege of Troy is emphatically rejected by our
author, who pins his fame on Xerxes, a Greek philosopher! This became
the received opinion, as may be gathered from the unhesitating language
of Polydore Vergil in a passage which is thus rendered by John
Langley:--"The chesse were invented the year of the world 3635, by a
certain Wise man called Xerxes, to declare to a Tyrant, that Majesty or
Authority without strength, assistance & help of his subjects, was
casual feeble & subject to many calamities of fortune; his intent was to
break the fierce cruelty of his heart, by fear of such dangers as might
come to passe in the life of man." [24]

The curious treatise which contains the supposed conversations of King
Bocchus and the philosopher Sidrac (p. 171) was a favourite science book
of the middle ages. It is probably of oriental origin, but there are
editions in Latin, French, German, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, and English.
By way of question and answer very decided statements are made on a wide
variety of topics of which the author was profoundly ignorant. The
particular part referred to by Cessoles is chap, cclxxxi: "Pourquoy