of St. Mark and St. Luke arranged similarly to the symbols at the head. This tomb has been covered with polychrome. The slab which covers it is surmounted by a smaller slab, on which is the recumbent effigy of the Lady Montacute. This effigy (of which there are two plates in Hollis's Monumental Effigies) is represented with the neck bare, and the hair disposed and confined on each side of the face within a jewelled caul of network; over the forehead is worn a veil, and on the head is a rich plaited cap with nebule folds, with a tippet attached to it and falling down behind. The body-dress consists of a sleeveless gown of a crimson colour, flowered with yellow and green, buttoned in front from the neck downwards to below the waist. At each side of the waist, under the armpits, is an opening in the gown, within which is disclosed the inner vest or corset, worn beneath the open supertunic, the close-fitting sleeves of the corset extending to the wrist. The corset is painted of a different colour, and is of a different pattern to the gown. The gown is flounced at the skirts by a broad white border, and round the side openings and along the edge of the top of the gown is a rich border of leaves. The hands are bare and conjoined on the breast, as in prayer; over the gown or supertunic is worn the mantle fastened together in front of the breast, not in the usual mode by a cordon, but by a large and rich lozenge-shaped morse, raised in high relief. The mantle is of a buff colour, and covered all over with rondeaux or roundels, connected together by small bands, whilst in the intermediate spaces are fleursde-lis, all of raised work, probably in some kind of cement. The statuettes on each side of this tomb are most interesting from the varieties of coeval costume they tend to illustrate. A male figure is attired in the courtpye, or short cloak jagged at the border, with a white tunic beneath, and bawdrick round the body at the hips. Two represent abbesses in long white gowns, black mantles, and tippets, and plaited wimples. These differ in some particulars, and one only has the pastoral staff. Two of the daughters of the Lady Montacute were in succession abbesses of Barking in Essex, and were doubtless intended to be represented by these statuettes. The fourth, that of a female, is dressed in a green high-bodied gown or robe, with small pocket-holes in front, and short sleeves reaching only to the elbows. The fifth, also that of a female, is in a white gown, with close-fitting sleeves, belted round the waist by a narrow girdle, and over it is worn a black mantle. The sixth, of which the mere torso only remains, is that of a male in a doublet jagged at the skirts and buttoned down in front from the neck, with close sleeves, the manica botonatæ buttoned from the elbows to the wrists, with a bawdrick round the hips buckled on the right side. From the left side of the bawdrick the gipciere is suspended. This much mutilated effigy presents a good specimen of the early doublet. The seventh is the effigy of a male in a long coat, the toga talaris, with a cloak over, buttoned in front downwards from the neck to the third button, from whence it lies open to the skirts. This habit, in the phrase of the fourteenth century, would be described as cota et cloca. In the right hand is held a purse. The eighth is the figure of a bishop in the usual episcopal vestments as arrayed for the eucharistic sacrifice, and was intended to represent Simon Bishop of Ely, one of the sons of the Lady Montacute. The ninth is the figure of a female in a gown or supertunic, buttoned in front from the breast to the waist, and with short sleeves reaching only to the elbows, from whence depend long white liripipes or false hanging sleeves. From beneath this gown or supertunic, for it would have been anciently described as supertunica, the loose skirts of the under-robe, of which also the close-fitting sleeves were visible, appear. Behind this figure are the remains of a mantle. The tenth figure is also that of a female in a gown or close-fitting supertunic, buttoned in front to the waist. The heads of all these statuettes have been destroyed, and they are otherwise more or less mutilated; but, from the diversity of costume of one and the same period they present, they contribute to render this one of the most interesting monuments of the fourteenth century. They have been carefully represented in Hollis's Monumental Effigies. The third monument is a high tomb, the south side of which is divided into compartments by quatrefoiled circles, each containing a shield charged with armorial bearings: a similar compartment occupies the west end of the tomb, the east end and north sides being unexposed. On this tomb lies the recumbent effigy of a knight in body armour, with an emblazoned jupon over, and rich bawdrick, of apparently the reign of Henry the Fourth, but presenting no very peculiar points of interest. This tomb and effigy have been wrongly ascribed to a judge who lived in the middle of the thirteenth century. Its age is, however, nearly two centuries later, and the effigy does not exhibit a single feature in costume applicable to that of a judge. From the armorial bearings on the sides of the tomb the person of whom this monument was in commemoration might with some little research be ascertained. The feet rest against a dog, collared, and the tiltinghelm beneath the head is surmounted by a bull's head as a crest. In the north transept is a plain high tomb with shields on the sides charged with an inkhorn and penner, as if indicative of the last resting-place of a notary. This appears to be of the latter part of the fifteenth century. These are the principal ancient monuments in the cathedral of Oxford; and, with the exception of a slab beneath the wooden watch-chamber erroneously called the shrine of St. Frideswide, raised on a table tomb, and from which brasses of a man and his wife have been removed, are the only monuments in the cathedral of a period anterior to the Reformation. MICHAEL DRAYTON AND HIS "IDEA'S MIRROR." THERE are several curious points connected with the biography and the works of Drayton which yet remain to be illustrated, and which might be easily illustrated by his own productions and those of others, his contemporaries. Such, however, is not my object at present; but, as regards what authors of his own time have told us respecting him, I may mention a circumstance that has hitherto escaped notice, viz. that Drayton was one of the writers of that day who lamented in verse the death of Sir Philip Sidney. This fact shews him to have been a poet some years before his earliest known work made its appearance. His 66 Harmony of the Church" came out in 1591, but his Elegy upon Sidney was most likely printed very soon after the catastrophe it celebrates, which occurred, as every body is aware, in 1586. The Rev. Mr. Dyce, in introducing his reprint of "The Harmony of the Church," calls it Drayton's "earliest publication," and Chalmers and others knew nothing of him as a poet before the year 1593. On what evidence, then, do I say that Drayton, who is stated to have been born in 1563, was a writer of verse about 1587? On the distinct and positive testimony of a contemporary, who tells us so in as many words. In 1606 was printed "Sir Philip Sydneys Ourania, written by N. B." a work that has hitherto been attributed, from the initials, to Nicholas Breton, but which was in truth the authorship of Nicholas Baxter, whose own copy, signed with his own name, and corrected in many places, is in my possession. Those who have imputed it to Breton can never have read a line of the performance, which is entirely, dedication and all, in verse, and from which we learn that Baxter (or Backster) had been one of the tutors of the illustrious person he celebrates. This circumstance is, I apprehend, of itself a novelty in relation to the early education of Sidney, who, under his self-adopted appellation of Astrophil, is thus made to address Baxter, who poetically translates his own name as Tergaster: Art thou (quoth he) my tutor Tergaster? He answer'd, Yea, such was my happy chaunce. Of course, his "dearest sister" was the Countess of Pembroke, to whom Baxter dedicates his poem, and whom he designates as Cynthia. In the progress of the performance the author mentions various poets by name, and at the close of the ensuing stanza he But when my Cynthia knew 'twas Astrophill, It will be owned that this is pretty conclusive; but, in order to put an end to the possibility of doubt, Baxter places these words in the margin, opposite the concluding couplet -"Drayton upon the death of S. P. S." Here then, (besides "Endymion and Phoebe,") we have information of another and a still earlier production of Drayton's pen, which has not come down to us, but of the existence of which, towards the close of the reign of Elizabeth, there can be no dispute. Drayton himself never alludes to it, and, like a unique work of which I am now about to introduce a few specimens, he never reprinted it. The only known copy was sold among the books of the late Mr. Heber, and, as he kindly lent it to me before his death, I was enabled to make extracts from it, and to preserve it from entire oblivion. The original has disappeared from sight, and we fear, in consequence of the non-purchase of it for any of our national libraries, that it is now many thousand miles from the country to which it properly belongs, and where it ought to have been preserved. The exact title of it is as follows:-" Ideas Mirrovr. Amovrs in Qvatorzains. The year 1594 was that in which Drayton put forth his "Endymion and Phoebe;" and it is a curious question, to which, probably, no answer can be given, What made him suppress these two works while he reprinted without reserve his "Matilda, the faire and chaste daughter of Lord Robert Fitzwater," of the same year? He dedicated his "Ideas Mirrour" to Sir Anthony Cooke, as he had dedicated his "Endymion and Phoebe" to the Countess of Bedford, and he republished both the sonnets, in which he addressed them, in the first edition of his collected poems in 1605. I did not advert to this fact (in truth it was not in my memory) when I wrote the article on Drayton's "Endymion and Phoebe" in your number for July last. In the sonnet to Sir Anthony Cooke, Drayton, who puts in his undoubted claim to originality, speaks of Sir Philip Sidney, whose loss he had mourned seven years before : Divine Sir Philip, I avouch thy writ: The impression of Drayton's collected poems of 1605, 8vo. contains The Barons' Wars, England's Heroical Epistles, Idea, The Legend of Robert Duke of Normandy, The Legend of Matilda, and the Legend of Pierce Gaveston; but the "Idea" there enumerated is not the pastorals printed under that title in 1593, but an assemblage of sixty-two sonnets, all addressed to one lady, who, the poet himself informs us, was born in Coventry, and which, nine years, a circumstance upon for whom he entertained so strong an 'Tis nine yeares now since first I lost my wit: When this was written we cannot ascertain, because the dates to be gathered from the sonnets extend from about 1590 till after the accession of James I.; and they include some of those which had appeared in 1593 under the title of "Ideas Mirrour." Therefore, although it is true that Drayton never reprinted his "Ideas Mirrour" in its entireness, it is true also that he chose from it certain sonnets, which he inserted, with others of the same class, in his collected poems of 1605. It is with those which he did not think fit to reprint that we have now to do; and, as it seems certain that they were not rejected merely because they were of inferior merit, we may the more freely indulge in conjectures why in 1605 the author suppressed what he had printed in 1594. The following shews that his affection for "the nymph of Ankor," whom he celebrates under the name of Idea, was a very youthful passion. If chaste and pure devotion of my youth, A thousand vows, a thousand sighs and tears; Or if a world of faithful service done, Words, thoughts, and deeds devoted to her honour, Or eyes that have beheld her as their sun, With admiration ever looking on her; A life that never joy'd but in her love, A soul that ever hath ador'd her name, A faith that time nor fortune could remove, A muse that unto heaven hath rais'd her fame : It will be observed that Drayton calls these "Quatorzains," and they certainly are not sonnets in the strict and proper sense of the word; but it is remarkable that some of his " quatorzains" consist in fact of sixteen lines, and that in more than one instance the writer varies his measure by adopting twelve-syllable instead of ten-syllable lines: sometimes he even has a ten-syllable line intermixed with others of twelve-syllables, a peculiarity (not to call it a defect) which belongs, as far as I recollect, to the productions of no other poet. Another of what Drayton calls "Amours" runs thus: My fair, had I not erst adorn'd my lute With those sweet strings stolen from thy golden hair, Nor had I learnt to descant on my fair. Had not mine eye seen thy celestial eye, Nor my heart known the power of thy name, My soul had ne'er felt thy divinity, Nor my muse been the trumpet of thy fame. And in my verse thyself art deified. I have not thought it necessary in these quotations from "Ideas Mirrour to observe the old irregular spelling, as in my opinion the lines will run more agreeably to a modern ear without this additional quaintness, although I generally prefer it for the sake of identity. These quator "All their heads seemed turned about something or nothing which they call Animal Magnetism. . . A gentleman at yesterday's dinner-party mentioned that he took pupils, and was happy to assure us, he said, that, though he had not yet attained the desirable power of putting a person into a catalepsy at pleasure, he could throw a woman into a deep swoon, from which no arts but his own could recover her. How difficult is it to restrain one's contempt and indignation for a buffoonery so mean, and a practice so diabolical! The folly may possibly find its way into England: I should be very sorry." "We have all heard much of Italian Cicisbeism. I had a mind to know how matters really stood, and took the nearest way to information, by asking a mighty beautiful and apparently artless young creature, not noble, how that affair was_managed, for there is no harm done, I am sure, said I. 'Why no,' replied she, 'no great harm, to be sure, except we ensure attentions from a man one cares little about. For my own part,' continued she, ‘I detest the custom, and I happen to love my husband excessively, and desire nobody's company in the world but his. We are not people of fashion, you know, nor at all rich; so how should we set fashions for our betters? They would only say, How jealous he is! if Mr. Such-a-one sat much with GENT, MAG. VOL. XXXIV. me at home, or went with me to the Corso, and I must go with some gentleman, you know; and the men are such ungenerous creatures, and have such ways with them. I want money often, and his cavalier servente signs the bills, and so the connection draws closer,-that's all!'-' And your husband?' said I.-Oh! why he likes to see me well dressed. He is very good-natured, and very charming, and I love him in my heart. And your confessor?' cried I.-Oh! why he is used to it; in the Milanese dialect,— E assue fàa." "The most dreaded of all roads carried us next morning to Mantua, where we had letters for an agreeable friend, who neglected nothing that could entertain or instruct us. He showed me the field where it is supposed the house stood in which Virgil was born, and told me what he knew of the evidence that he was born there. Certain it is that much care is taken to keep the place sacred, from an idea of its being the identical spot; and I hope it is so.' "When Smeathman told us about twelve years ago that an immense body of African ants, which appeared as they moved forward like the whole earth in agitation, covered and suddenly arrested a solemn elephant as he grazed unsuspiciously on the plain, he told us too that in eight hours time no trace was left either of the devas2 M |