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city, was born about 1526. Her fame, however, does not depend solely on her poetical remains; for she is celebrated as having been profoundly skilled in Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian, possessing a delightful voice, and playing on the lute with much talent and animation. But this is not all endowed with no inconsiderable share of beauty, she evinced great dexterity in martial and manly exercises, insomuch that, at the age of sixteen, we find her assuming the habit of a warrior, at the siege of Perpignan, where she appears to have rendered herself the counterpart of our own Mary Ambree, the prototype of English Amazons, of whom the old ballad sings:

"When captains courageous, whom Death could not daunt,

Did march to the siege of the city of Ghent,

They muster'd their soldiers by two and by three,

But the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree.

*

She led up her soldiers, in battle array,

'Gainst three times their number, by break of the day;

Seven hours in skirmish continued she :

Was not this a brave bonny lass, Mary Ambree?

She filled the skies with the smoke of her shot,

And her enemies' bodies with bullets so hot

For one of her own men a score killed she:-
Was not this a brave bonny lass, Mary Ambree ?

Whether the French heroine ever had any such proposition made to her as the following; or whether, if she had, she replied to it with the spirit and dignity of the English Amazon, we are not informed.

"The Prince of great Parma heard of her renown,
Who long had advanced for England's fair crown;
He wooed her and sued her his mistress to be,
And offer'd rich presents to Mary Ambree.

But this virtuous maiden despised them all ;
'I'll ne'er sell my honour for purple nor pall;
A maiden of England, Sir, never will be

The w of a monarch,' quoth Mary Ambree."

To judge from the stories which are related of her gallantry and intrigues, we much doubt, whether the Chevalier Louis, as she was called, would have thus acted. Be this as it may; on her return to Lyons, she was married to a man who had made a large fortune by rope-making, and was afterwards known by the name of La belle Cordière.

A contemporary townswoman, of the name of

PERNETTE DU GUILLET,

rivalled her in her talents, as well poetical as

musical; but appears to have far excelled her in purity of morals, and decency of conduct. She wrote a variety of short pieces, some of which are in Italian, principally on the subject of love and friendship, and deeply tinged with that affectation of philosophy, which, half a century later, completely spoiled some of the finest poetical imaginations that our own country has ever produced.

POETRY OF EMINENT LAWYERS.

It would be consuming the reader's time, and his patience too, were we to enter into the tedious and uninteresting detail of every petty rhymester, who has been, like Ovid of old,

"Chid by his angry father for neglecting
The study of the Laws for Poetry;"

we shall, therefore, restrict the present article to such lawyers as, having reached the height of eminence in their profession, have condescended, occasionally, to recreate themselves in the delightful gardens of the Muses.

Of these, the earliest whom we have to notice, for we, also, confine ourselves to our countrymen, is one, who, as Warton remarks,

"is reverenced by posterity, as the scholar who taught that erudition which civilized his country, and as the philosopher who met the horrors of the block with that fortitude which was equally free from ostentation and enthusiasm ;-as the man whose genius overthrew the fabric of false learning, and whose amiable tranquillity of temper triumphed over the malice and injustice of tyranny"-the great SIR THOMAS MORE. Among his works are found several poetical pieces, written in his youth, which do not, it is true, add much to his fame; but, were it only on account of the high character of their author, demand some notice at our hands. One of these pieces is entitled, "A merry Jest, how a Serjeant would learn to play the Friar ;" it is too dull and too long to be given entire, but two or three of the prefatory stanzas will, probably, suffice.

"He that hath left the hosier's craft,

And falleth to making shoon;
The smith that shall to painting fall,

His thrift is well nigh done.
A black draper, with white paper,
To go to writing school;

An old butler become a cutler,

I ween will prove a fool.

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Nothing but kiss the cup,

With her physick will keep one sick,
Till she have soused him up.
A man of law, that never saw
The ways to buy and sell,
Weening to rise by merchandise,
I pray God speed him well!
A merchant eke, that will go seek,
By all the means he may,
To fall in suit, till he dispute
His money clean away;

Pleading the law for every straw,
Shall prove a thrifty man,

With bate and strife; but, by my life,

I cannot tell you when.
When an hatter will go smatter

In philosophy;

Or a pedlar wax a medler

In theology," &c.

In these lines, which are intended to illustrate, by familiar examples, the absurdity of a sergeant-at-law assuming the business of a friar, perhaps the reader perceives but little of that festivity which is supposed to have marked the character and conversation of Sir Thomas More. The following, however, which Warton thinks there is some reason to attribute to his pen,

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