threatened an unworthy fervant of his father's with death in a hafty billet, merely to intimidate and deter him from the future commiffion of an infamous breach of truft, in opening his letters. NOTE LV. VERSE 468. Th' heroic Daughter of the virtuous More.] Margaret, eldest daughter of the celebrated Sir Thomas More. The fcene which I have propofed for the subject of a picture, is taken from the following paffage in Ballard : "After Sir Thomas More was beheaded, fhe took care for the burial of his body in the chapel of St. Peter's ad Vincula, within the precincts of the Tower; and afterwards the procured his corpfe to be removed, and buried in the chancel of the church at Chelsea, as Sir Thomas More, in his life-time, had appointed. His head having remained about fourteen days upon London Bridge, and being to be caft into the Thames to make room for others, fhe bought it. For this fhe was fummoned before the council, as the fame author relates, and behaved with the greatest firmness, justifying her conduct upon principles of humanity and filial piety. She was, however, imprisoned, but foon released; and dying nine years after her father, at the age of thirty-fix, was buried at St. Dunstan's, in Canterbury. The head of her father, which the had preserved, with religious veneration, in a box of lead, was, at her particular request, committed with her to the grave. It was feen standing on her coffin in the year 1715, when the vault of the Roper (her husband's family) was opened." See Ballard's Memoirs of Learned Ladies, p. 36. The character of this amiable woman is happily drawn both by Addifon and Walpole.-She married, at the age of twenty, William Roper, Esquire, of Kent, to the infinite fatisfaction of her father; for she seems to have been the dearest object of his parental affection, which is very strongly marked in his letters addreffed to her. She was indeed moft eminently diftinguished by her learning, in an age when the graces of the mind were regarded as an effential article in female education: but the beauty and force of her filial piety reflects a still fuperior luftre on this accomplished woman.-There is more than one paffage in her life, which would furnish an admirable fubject for the pencil. Her interviw with her father, on his return to the Tower, is mentioned as fuch by Mr. Walpole. NOTE LVI. VERSE 523. But, oh! how poor the proftrate Satan lies.] It is remarkable, that the greateft painters have failed in this particular. Raphael, Guido, and Weft, are all deficient in the figure of Satan. Richardfon obferves, in his defcription of the pictures of Italy, "Je n'ai jamais vu d'aucun Maître une reprefentation fentation du Diable, prince des Diables, qui me fatisfit." Page 500. In recommending this fubject to the pencil, it may be proper to observe, that it is not only extremely difficult, but even attended with danger, if we credit the following curious anecdote, in a medical writer of great reputation :-" Spinello, fameux Peintre Tofcan, ayant peint la chute des anges rebelles, donna des traits fi terribles à Lucifer, qu'il en fut lui-meme faifi d'horreur, & tout le refte de fa vie il crut voir continuellement ce Demon lui reprocher de l'avoir reprefenté fous une figure fi hidieufe. Tiffot de la Santé des Gens de Lettres." As this story is fo fingular, it may amuse some readers to fee it in the words of Vafari, from whom Tiflot feems to have taken it.-The Italian Biographer fays, in defcribing a picture by Spinello Aretino, who flourished in the close of the 14th century, "Si vede un Lucifero gia mutato in beftia bruttiffima. E fi compiacque tanto Spinello di farlo orribile, e contraffatto, che fi dice (tanto puo alcuna fiata l'immaginazione) che la detta figura da lui · dipinta gl'apparue in fogno domandandolo, doue egli l'hauveffe veduta fi brutta e per che fattole tale fcorno con i fuoi pennelli: E che egli svegliatofi dal fonno, per la paura, non potendo gridare, con tremito grandiffimo fi fcoffe di maniera che la moglie deftatafi lo foccorfe: ma niente di manco fu per cio a rischio, ftringendogli il cuore, di morirfi per cotale accidente, fubitamente. Ben che ad ogni |