some.

the most excellent actresses: she was very handHer beauty and her fine voice united, enabled her to charm both the eyes and the ears of all who saw and heard her. Under her picture the following inscription is written: "Hoc histricæ eloquentiæ caput lector admiraris, quod si auditor scies?"—" If you admire, reader, this glory of the theatre, when you only see her, what would you do if you heard her?"

Cardinal Cinthio Aldobrandini, nephew to Clement VIII., had a great esteem for her, as appears by several of her poems. When she went to France, she was kindly received by their Majesties, and by all the highest quality at Court. She wrote several sonnets in their praise, which are to be seen in the second part of her poems.

She died at Lyons, the 10th of June, 1604, in the forty-second year of her age. Her husband had her interred in the same city, and honoured her with the following epitaph:

"Isabella Andreini, Patavina, mulier magna virtute predita, honestatis ornamentum, maritalisque pudicitiæ decus, ore facunda, mente fæcunda, religiosa, pia, musis amica, et artis scenicæ caput, hîc resurrectionem expectat.

"Ob abortum obiit 4 Id. Junii, MDCIV. annum

agens 42.

"Franciscus Andreinus mæstissimus posuit."

Translation.

"Isabella Andreini, of Padua, a woman of great virtue and honour, the ornament of conjugal chastity, of an eloquent tongue, and an elegant mind, religious, pious, beloved by the Muses, and the glory of the stage, here lies in expectation of the resurrection. She died of

a miscarriage, the 11th of June, 1604, in the forty-second year of her age. Francis Andreini, her sorrowful husband, erected this monument to her memory."

The death of this actress and poetess being matter of general concern and lamentation, there were many Latin and Italian elegies printed to her memory. Several of these pieces were printed before her poems in the edition of Milan, in 1609. Besides her sonnets, madrigals, songs, and eclogues, there is a pastoral of hers, entitled, "Mirtilla," printed at Venice, in 1610. She sung with great taste, and played on several instruments in a masterly manner. She was, also, acquainted with philosophy, and understood the French and Spanish languages.

LADY CHUDLEIGH,

a very philosophical and poetic lady, was born in the year 1656. She was the daughter of Richard Lee, of Winsloder, in the county of Devon, Esq.; and married to Sir George Chudleigh, Bart. by whom she had several children; among the rest, Eliza Maria, who dying in the bloom of life, caused her mother to pour out her grief in a poem, entitled, "A Dialogue between Lucinda and Marissa." She wrote another poem, called, "The Ladies' Defence," occasioned by an angry sermon preached against the fair sex. These, with many others, were collected into a volume, and printed a third time in the year 1722. She published, also, a volume of essays, upon various subjects, in verse and prose, in 1710, which have been much admired for delicacy of style.

This lady, it is said, wrote several Tragedies, Operas, Masques, &c. which, though not printed, are preserved in her family.

She died in 1710, in the 55th

year

of her age.

ARIOSTO.

THE Duke of Ferrara delighted so much in

Ariosto's comedies, of which he wrote five, that he

built a stage on purpose to have them played in his Court, and enabled our poet to build himself a house in Ferrara, with a pleasant garden, where he used to compose his poems, which were highly esteemed by all the princes in Italy, who sent him many presents; but he said, "he would not sell his liberty for the best cardinal's cap in Rome." It was but a small, though convenient, house. Being asked, why he had not built a more magnificent mansion, since he had given such noble descriptions of sumptuous palaces, beautiful porticos, and cooling fountains, in his " Orlando Furioso?" he replied, "That words were cheaper laid together than stones." Upon the door he caused to be placed the following inscription :

"Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non Sordida, parta meo, sed tamen, ære, domus."

IN ENGLISH.

"This house is small, but fit for me,

And hurtful 'tis to none;

It is not sluttish, as you see,

Yet paid for with mine own."

It is also related of him, that, one day passing

by a potter's shop, he heard him singing a stanza out of his Orlando, with so bad a grace, that, out of patience, he broke with his stick several of his pots. The potter, in a pitiful tone, asked what he meant by wronging a poor man that had never injured him? "You rascal," he re

plied, "I have not done thee half the wrong you have done me; for I have broken but two or three pots of thine, not worth so many halfpence; whereas, thou hast broken and mangled a stanza of mine worth a mark of gold."

Ariosto was tall, of a melancholy complexion, and appeared always absorbed in study and meditation. His picture was drawn by Titian in a masterly manner. He was honoured with the laurel from the hands of the Emperor Charles V. He was so fearful of water, that, whenever he went out in a ship, he would see others go out before him; and on land, he would alight from his horse on the slightest danger. bore his last sickness with great resolution and serenity, and died at Ferrara, 8th of July, 1553, aged 59.

He

He was interred in the church of the Benedictine Monks, who, contrary to their usual custom, attended his funeral. He had a statue