Excerpt from Twelfth-Night at the Century Club, January 6, 1858Narrative not only conferred the regal dignityon thefe Eafiern sages, but alfo defignated their number, their names, the nature of their several gifts, and even their personal appearance. They were but three in num ber One was an aged venerable long - bearded man, who was named Melchior, and who of fered a gift of gold. The second crowned head was that of a beardlefs very young man, to whom tradition afligned the name of Jaf per, and who made an offering of frankin cenfe. The third was a {lately swarthy Moor, named Balthazar, whofe offering was of myrrh. The Church fefiival, in addition to its more solemn religious obfervances, soon paffed into a popular and domef'tic holiday, and as such became general both in Europe and the East, as early as the seventh century, perhaps {till earlier. The tradition of the Three Kings accompanied and flamped itfelf upon the obfervance of the feaf't.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.