gulations of royalty itself allow of its migration beyond the walls of the public library. There it is kept, there it is opened, and shewn, and extolled beyond any limits, fixed to the admiration of the beholder. It is a rare and bewitching piece of art, I do assure you; and so, raising your expectations to their highest pitch, I will allow you to anticipate whatever is wonderful in FRANCESCO VERONESE, and gorgeous in GIROLMO DEI LIBRI. Perhaps, however, this is not the most happy illustration of the art which it displays.

"The first view of this magical volume is, doubtless, rather disheartening; but the sight of the original silver clasps (luckily still preserved) will operate by way of a comforter. Upon them you observe an ornament, denoting by the letter and the ducal crown that the book belonged to Anne Duchess of Brittany. On the reverse of the second leaf we observe the Dead Christ and the Three Maries. These figures are about six inches in height. They are executed with great delicacy, but in a style somewhat too feeble for their size. One or two of the heads, however, have rather a good expression.

"Opposite to this illumination is the truly invaluable PORTRAIT OF ANNE herself, attended by two females, each crowned with a glory; one is displaying a banner, the other holding a cross in her hand. To the left of these attendants is an old woman, hooded, with her head encircled by a glory. They are alshree sweetly and delicately touched; but there are many evident marks of injury and ill

usage about the surface of the colouring. Yet, as being ideal personages, my eye hastily glided off them to gaze upon the illustrious lady by, whose orders and at whose expense, these figures were executed. It is upon the DUCHESS that I fix my eye, and lavish my commendations.

Look at her, as you here behold her.* Her gown is brown and gold, trimmed with dark brown fur. Her hair is brown. Her necklace is composed of coloured jewels. Her cheek has a fresh tint; and the missal upon which her eyes are bent displays highly ornamented art. The cloth upon the table is dark crim

son.

"The Calendar follows, in which, in one of the winter months, we observe a very puerile imitation of flakes of snow falling over the figures and the landscape below. The Calendar occupies a space of about six inches by four, completely en

closed by a coloured margin. Then begins a series of the most beautiful ornaments of FLOWERS, FRUITS, INSECTS, &c., for which the illuminators of this period were often eminently distinguished. These orna

ments are almost uniformly introduced in the fore-edges, or right side-margins of the leaves, although occasionally, but rarely, they encircle the text. They are from five to six inches in length or height, having the Latin name of the plant at the top, and the French name at the bottom. Probably these titles were introduced by a later hand. It is really impossible to describe many of them in terms of adequate praise. The downy plum is almost bursting with ripeness; the butterfly's wings seem to be in tremulous motion, while they dazzle you by their varied lustre ; the hairy insect puts every muscle and fibre into action, as he insinuates himself within the curling of the crisped leaves; while these leaves are sometimes glittering with dew, or coated with the finest down. The flowers and the vegetables are equally admirable, and equally true to To particularize would be endless. Assuredly these efforts of art have no rival of their kind. Scripture subjects, saints, confessors, &c., succeed in regular order, with accompaniments of fruits and flowers ore or less exquisitely executed

nature.

ne v. hole a collection of peculiar, and, of its kind, UNRIVALLED ART. This extraordinary volume measures twelve inches by seven and a half.”

Take now a different and still more interesting specimen of Mr Dibdin's powers of description as a bibliographer. It is of another illuminated manuscript in the same library. "A BOOK OF TOURNAMENTS, No. 8351, folio.

This volume is in a perfect blaze of splendour. Hither let PROSPERO and PALMERIN resort to choose their casques, their gauntlets, their cuirasses and lances; yea, let more than one half of the Roxburghers make an annual pilgrimage to visit this tome! which developes in thirteen minutes more chivalrous intelligence than is contained even in the mystical leav esof the Fayt of Armes and Chyval ry of our beloved Caxton. Be my pulse calm, and my wits compoesd, as I essay the description of this marvellous volume. Beneath a large illumination, much injured, of Louis XI. sitting upon his throne, are the following verses :-

Pour exemple aulx nobles et gens d'armes,
Qui appetent les faitz d'armes hautes,
Le Sire de Gremthumsé duyt es armes,
Volat au Roy ce livre presenter.'

The subject-matter of this most precious book is thus arranged:-In the first place, there are five large illuminations of the entire size of the page, which are much discoloured. The first four represent the Evangelists, each sitting upon a cushion, not unlike a bolster. The fifth is the figure of our SAVIOUR. The back-ground is purple; the pillow-like seat upon which Christ sits is scarlet, relieved by white and gold. The upper garment of the figure is dark green; the lower purple, bordered in part with gold. The foot

stool is gold; the book, in the left hand, is red and gold; the arabesque ornaments in the border are blue, red, and gold. The hair of our Saviour is intended to be flaxen.

"The text is in double columns, upon a purple ground, within an arabesque border of red, purple, yellow, and bluish green. It is uniformly executed in letters of gold, of which the surface is occasionally rather splendid. It consists of a series of gospel extracts, for the whole year, amounting to about two hundred and forty-two. These extracts terminate with Et ego resuscitabo eum in novissimo die.

Amen.'

"Next comes a Christian Calendar, from the dominical year. DCCLXXV. to DCCXCVII. On casting the eye down these years, and resting it on that of DCCLXXXI.,

you observe in the columns of the opposite

leaf, this very important entry or memorandum, in the undoubted writing of the time: In isto Anno ivit Dominus, REX KAROLUS, ad sem Petrum et baptistatus est filius eius PIPPINUS a Domino Apostolico;' from which, I think, it is evident, (as is observed in the account of this precious volume in the Annales Encyclopediques, vol. iii. p. 378,) that this very book was commanded to be written chiefly to perpetuate a notice of the baptism, by Pope Adrian, of the Emperor's son Pippin.* There is no appearance whatever of fabrication in this memorandum. The whole is coeval, and doubtless of the time when it is professed to have been executed. The last two pages are occupied by Latin verses, written in a lower-case cursive hand; but contemporaneous, and upon a purple ground. From these verses, we learn that the last scribe, or copyist, of the text of this splendid volume, was one Godescale or GODSCHALCUS, a GerThe verses are reprinted in the Decades Philosophiques.

man.

"This MS. was given to the Abbey of St Servin, at Thoulouse, and it was religiously preserved there, in a case of massive silver, richly embossed, till the year 1793; when the silver was stolen and the book carried off, with several precious relics of antiquity, by order of the President of the Administration (Le Sieur S****), and thrown into a magazine, in which were many other vellum MSS. destined To BE BURNED! One's blood curdles at the narrative. There it lay, expecting its melancholy fate, till a Monsieur de Puymanrin, then detained as a prisoner in the magazine, happened to throw his eye upon the precious volume; and, writing a certain letter about it, to a certain quarter, (which letter is preserved in the fly leaves, but of which I was denied the transcription, from motives of delicacy,) an order was issued by government for the conveyance of the MS. to the metropolis. This restoration was effected in May 1811. I think you must admit, that in every point of view, THIS MS. ranks among the most interesting and curious, as well as the most ancient, of those in the several libraries of Paris."

These, then, are among the treasures of past ages, which the spirit of Bibliomania leads us to preserve veneration! Who is there bold and value with an almost idolatrous enough to deny that they are worth preserving, or captious enough to quarrel with the veneration they inspire? No one, we will venture to affirm, who is susceptible of delight from any thing which does not relate to the selfish enjoyment of the immediate present; and as these, fortunately, constitute a large class among the most enlightened of every country, Mr Dibdin may safely consider the whole of them as the competent admirers of his bibliographical labours. We shall only add, in conclusion, that the supplement to the first volume of this edition, contains an account of a curious old English poem on our fifth Henry's siege of haustless treasures of the Bodleian Rouen, recently discovered in the exLibrary, which, we regret, our limits will not permit us to extract.

If the natural object of Tragedy be still-notwithstanding the discredit into which the axiom has fallen since its adoption by the erudite Bayes-to" elevate and surprise," there are few subjects in ancient or modern history more calculated to accomplish both than the character and fortunes of Henry the Lion-a prince at the very sound of whose name, as at the opening trumpet-call of some proud tournament, empe rors, and princes of the empire, crusaders and chivalry, come sweeping before our mind's eye in all the picturesque array of the middle ages. Who shall command our admiration, or challenge our sympathy, if not this noble ancestor of the house of Brunswick, the scourge of Mahomet, and stay of Christendom, at one time invested by his sovereign with the fairest portion of Germany, and yet so much more loftily endowed with the inherent greatness of valour and ability, as to see that sovereign, the renowned Frederick Barbarossa, a kneeling suppliant at his feet for his aid in arms? At another, despoiled by the treachery of his enemies, and the ban of the empire, of all save his petty hereditary dominions of Brunswick; and yet, when thus "left alone with his glory," greater, if possible, than ever, in magnanimity and self-conquest.

Who, also, among the dames of that stirring and chequered period, can more deeply claim, or strongly divide our sympathies, than Clementina, the early bride of the noble Henry, torn from his side by ecclesiastical decrees, yet cherishing, in spite of church and canons, devoted and inextinguishable affection: or our own Matilda, of England, the pious daughter of Henry II., now a mourner for the supposed death of her lord in Palestine, now exulting in his unexpected return, yet even, spite of piety and pride, feeling the hourly jealousy of her unhappy rival's memory, so natural to the human, and especially to the female heart?

With these elements, even a sor

rier playwright than Klingemann might have erected a showy edifice. But this poet, one of the nearestthough still at immeasurable distance-whom Germany has produ ced, to the spirit and power of Schil ler, has had higher and juster views of dramatic character. His personi fication of Henry is neither a gigantic antique Colossus, robbed by time and distance of human lineaments and individuality of expression, nor a hero of modern romance, blending with reckless improbability the rude virtues and doughty deeds of the 13th century with the refinement and liberality of our own. Henry the Lion, to be admired and appre ciated, had only to be fairly drawn ; in some things raised far beyond his age by the omnipotence of talent, in others remaining enchained on a level with all around him. Devout, even to superstition, as he must needs have been, who abandoned his extensive dominions to the mercy of the spoiler to embark in the Crusade, and divorced a beloved bride from ecclesiastical scruples, Henry is all the more dramatically interesting from this contrast of adventitious weaknesses with a character proverbially lofty and unbending, even where interest and prudence would have dictated compliance. Mistaking the appeals of feeling and nature against an unnatural divorce for the unappeased clamours of conscience; capable at times of seeing in the disguised and devoted wife of his youth, hovering around him as a guardian angel, a minister of hell to ensnare him; yet remaining, amid these conflicting elements, still true to the claims of gratitude and justice; failing, through wounded pride, and the elation almost inseparable from a long course of personal greatness, in his duty and fealty to his liege lord the Emperor, yet ready, at the suggestion of his better feelings, and the consideration of the miseries of others, to humble that pride in the dust, the Henry of the poet only differs from the Henry of history in being more of the man, without for