Note 174 — Chapter IV · , PART II. THE LATER AQUEDUCTS.
Reading edition
We have seen before that Eadmer mentions the malaria in Rome as early as the twelfth century. (Historiæ Novor., lib. ii. ad calcem S. Anselmi operum, p. 51, D. Lut. Par. 1675, fol.) In the following century, the author of “Sir Bevis of Southampton” gives a strange account of the fevers arising from the Pontine Marshes into the Campagna di Roma. There were, says he, two dragons there; one having fled to Toscan [Tusculum?],—
“That other dragoun ’is flight nome (took) To Seinte Peter ’is brige of Rome: Thar he schel leggen ai (lay for ever) Til hit come domesdai; And everi seve yer ones, Whan the dragoun moweth (moves) ’is bones, Thanne cometh a roke (reke, smoke) & a stink Out of the water, under the brink, Than men therof taketh the fevere, That never after mai he kever (recover); And who that n’el nought leve (believe) me, Wite (know, inquire) al pilgrimes that ther hath be; For thai can tell yow, I wis, Of that dragoun how it is.” (Weber, “Metrical Romances,” &c., vol. iii. p. 315. Edinburgh, 1810, 12mo.)