[50] In the hope of discovering some account of the _strange monster_ alluded to, I have looked through one of the largest and most curious collections of tracts, relating to the marvellous, perhaps in existence. That bequeathed to the Bodleian, by Robert Burton, the author of the _Anatomy of Melancholy_. Hitherto my researches have been unattended with success, as I have found only two tracts of this description relating to Germany, both of which are in prose, and neither giving any account of a monster. 1. _A most true Relation of a very dreadfull Earthquake, with the lamentable Effectes thereof, which began upon the 8. of December 1612. and yet continueth most fearefull in Munster in Germanie. Reade and Tremble. Translated out of Dutch, by Charles Demetrius, Publike Notarie in London, and printed at Rotterdame, in Holland, at the Signe of the White Gray-hound._ (Date cut off. Twenty-six pages, 4to. with a woodcut.) 2. _Miraculous Newes from the Cittie of Holt, in the Lordship of Munster, in Germany, the twentieth of September last past, 1616. where there were plainly beheld three dead bodyes rise out of their Graues admonishing the people of Iudgements to come. Faithfully translated (&c. &c.) London, Printed for Iohn Barnes, dwelling in Hosie Lane neere Smithfield, 1616._ (4to. twenty pages, wood-cut.) [51] It was customary to work or paint proverbs, moral sentences, or scraps of verse on old tapestry hangings, which were called _painted cloths_. Several allusions to this practice may be found in the works of our early English dramatists. See Reed's _Shakspeare_, viii. 103 XXIX. A PLAUSIBLE MAN