e kings crowned, on great horses, ... and an
exceeding great train. And there was a golden star running through
the air, which went before these three kings, and they came to the
columns of San Lorenzo, where was King Herod in effigy, with the
scribes and wise men. And they were seen to ask King Herod where
Christ was born, and having turned over many books they answered,
that He should be born in the city of David distant five miles from
Jerusalem. And having heard this, those three kings, crowned with
golden crowns, holding in their hands golden cups with gold, incense,
|148| and myrrh, came to the church of Sant' Eustorgio, the star
preceding them through the air, ... and a wonderful train, with
resounding trumpets and horns going before them, with apes, baboons,
and diverse kinds of animals, and a marvellous tumult of people.
There at the side of the high altar was a manger with ox and ass, and
in the manger was the little Christ in the arms of the Virgin Mother.
And those kings offered gifts unto Christ; then they were seen to
sleep, and a winged angel said to them that they should not return by
the region of San Lorenzo but by the Porta Romana; which also was
done. There was so great a concourse of the people and soldiers and
ladies and clerics that scarce anything like it was ever beheld. And
it was ordered that every year this festal show should be
performed."{38}

How suggestive this is of the Magi pictures of the fifteenth century,
with their gorgeous eastern monarchs and retinues of countless servants
and strange animals. No other story in the New Testament gives such
opportunity for pageantry as the Magi scene. All the wonder, richness,
and romance of the East, all the splendour of western Renaissance princes
could lawfully be introduced into the train of the Three Kings. With
Gentile da Fabriano and Benozzo Gozzoli it has become a magnificent
procession; there are trumpeters, pages, jesters, dwarfs, exotic
beasts--all the motley, gorgeous retinue of the monarchs of the time,
while the kings themselves are romantic figures in richest attire,
velvet, brocade, wrought gold, and jewels. It may be that much of this
splendour was suggested to the painters by dramatic spectacles which
actually passed before their eyes.

* * * * *

I have already alluded to the Spanish "Mystery of the Magi Kings," a