LADY JANE GREY.

Extract of a Letter from ROGER ASCHAM, Tutor to QUEEN ELIZABETH.

I

CAME to Broadgate in Leicestershire, to take leave of that noble lady, Jane Grey. Her parents, the duke and duchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. I found her in her chamber, reading Phædon Platonis in Greek, and that with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Boccace. After salutation, with some other talk, I asked her why she should lose so much pastime in the park? Smiling, she answered me; "I wis all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato : Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant."

THE

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

HE same Mr. Ascham, in a letter to Sir John Cheke, speaking of the Princess Elizabeth, says: "It can scarce be credited to what degree of skill in the Latin and Greek she might arrive, if she shall proceed in that course of study wherein she hath begun." In another letter to his friend Sturmius, he tells him:

"that he enjoyed at court as agreeable a freedom for his studies, as he had ever done in the university; and that he was then reading over with the Princess Elizabeth the orations of Eschines and Demosthenes in Greek; and that she understood at first sight, not only the force and propriety of the language, and the meaning of the orator, but the whole scheme of the cause, and the laws, customs, and manners of the Athenians."

SIR PHILIP SYDNEY.

The spirit of a youth,

SHAKSPEARE.

That means to be of note, begins betimes.

FU

ULKE Greville, Lord Brook, says of Sir Philip Sydney, "Though I lived with him, and knew him from a child, yet I never knew him other than a man with such staidness of mind, lovely and familiar gravity, as carried grace and reverence above greater years. His talk ever of knowledge, and his very play tending to enrich his mind: so as even his teachers found something in him to observe and learn, above that which they had usually read or taught."

THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.

OF the many examples of precocious and versatile

talent that are recorded in history, that of James Crichton, commonly called The Admirable Crichton, is the most extraordinary. His father was lord advocate of Scotland, his mother was of the royal family of Stewart, and he is said to have received lessons from the celebrated George Buchanan, preceptor of James the First. By the time he reached his twentieth year, he was master of ten languages, and had gone through the whole circle of the sciences, nor was his fame confined to mere literary accomplishments. He was distinguished by his uncommon strength, and agility in athletic exercises: in fencing, he could spring at one bound the length of twenty feet on his antagonist, and could use the sword in either hand with equal skill. He possessed also a very fine voice, and played well on several musical instruments: to these various accomplishments were added the advantages of a handsome person, and elegant address.

Thus highly cultivated and accomplished, Crichton set out upon his travels, and on his arrival at Paris, publicly set up, as was the custom in those days, a challenge on the college gate, in which he invited all the learned men of the university to dispute with him

B B

on a certain day, giving his opponents the choice of ten languages, and of all the sciences.

On the day appointed, he appeared in presence of three thousand persons, whom curiosity had drawn to the college to witness this singular phenomenon; and there, after a disputation of nine hours against fiftyfour of the most learned men of the university, he silenced his antagonists, and was presented with a diamond, and a purse of gold, amidst the loudest acclamations. The next day, he attended a tilting match, where, in the presence of the court of France, he bore away the prize on his lance, fifteen times successively.

At Rome, at Venice, at Padua, at Mantua, the same success attended him: he foiled always the most celebrated professors, whether in arms, or in science, or in literature: but at length he fell a victim to the envy which his great powers excited, being assassinated at Mantua, in the twenty-third year of his age.

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, GRANDSON OF LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH.

WHE

HEN the Duke of Burgundy was committed to the tuition of the celebrated Fénélon, he had hitherto displayed all the symptoms of a perverse nature invincible obstinacy, a revolting pride, and the