This fable is found in the collection assigned to Babrius. It is the eighty-fourth in the excellent edition of these fables by Mr. G. Cornewall Lewis: Oxford, 1846. W. H. G. Winchester. _Collar of SS._ (Vols. iv. _and_ v., _passim_).--In the discussion on the subject of the collar of SS., in the columns of "N. & Q.," I find no mention of an incidental observation of Thomas Fuller, which occurs in the notice of John Gower, the poet, in the Worthies of Yorkshire, and is deserving of some notice: "Another author (Stow) unknighteth him, allowing him only a plain esquire, though in my apprehension the collar of SSS. about his neck speaketh him to be more. Besides (with submission to better judgments) that collar hath rather a civil than a military relation, proper to persons in place of judicature; which makes me guess this Gower some judge in his old age, well consisting with his original education." MR. FOSS, I see, mentions (Vol. iv., p. 147.) the existence of the collar on the poet's monument, and suggests that he might have worn it as a court poet. H. C. K. ---- Rectory, Hereford. _Chaucer's Knowledge of Italian_ (Vol. vii., p. 517.).--To the proofs that Chaucer was well acquainted with Italian literature, brought forward in "N. & Q." by J. M. B., it may seem {585} unnecessary to add any more. Yet, if it were only for the purpose of recalling your readers' attention to the elegant and instructive _Dissertation on the State of English Poetry before the Sixteenth Century_, by the late Dr. Nott, of All Souls' College, will you permit me to adduce that learned writer's authority, in opposition to the opinion of Sir Harris Nicolas, that Chaucer was not versed in Italian literature? Dr. Nott's Dissertation is entombed in the two quarto volumes of his edition of the _Works of Surrey and Wyatt_ (London, 1815); and it is much to be wished that it were reprinted in a separate and more accessible form. J. M. Oxford. _Pic Nic_ (Vol. vii., p. 387.).--The following extract from an Italian newspaper raises a considerable presumption that this word is not now considered in Italy as an Italian one; the date is Sept. 1841. "Se qualche delirante vi ha dato ad intendere che i Bagni di Lucca sono il soggiorno prediletto dell' Italiano, ci vi ha detto una solenne bugia. "I Bagni di Lucca appartengono, come tant' altre cose in Italia, esclusivamente allo straniero." Then follows a description of the numerous English arrivals, while the Italian--