Geraldine, descendant of the Dukes of Tuscany, maid of honor to Queen Katharine.

A portrait of this lady, who was the object of Surrey's passionate devotion, is still extant, and is said to be sufficiently beautiful to authorize the poetical raptures of her lover, which, however absurd they may appear, accorded with the fashionable system of Platonic gallantry, introduced from Italy, and "approved at that time by the most virtuous and illustrious."

Surrey is said to have made the tour of Europe in the true spirit of chivalry.

The first city which he proposed to visit in Italy was Florence. Passing a few days at the Emperor's court, on his way thither, he became acquainted with Cornelius Agrippa, a celebrated adept in natural magic, who, as the story goes, showed him in a mirror a living image of the fair Geraldine. This incident is beautifully related by Sir Walter Scott, in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel."

""T was All-Souls' eve; and Surrey's heart beat high.

He heard the midnight bell with anxious start
Which told the mystic hour, approaching nigh,
When wise Cornelius promised, by his art,
To show to him the ladye of his heart,

Albeit betwixt them roared the ocean grim;

Yet so the sage had hight to play his part,

That he should see her form in life and limb,

And mark if still she loved, and still she thought of him.

"Fair all the pageant, but how passing fair

The slender form which lay on couch of Ind!
O'er her white bosom strayed her hazel hair;
Pale her dear cheek, as if for love she pined.
All in her night-robe loose she lay reclined,

And, pensive, read from tablet eburnine
Some strain that seemed her inmost soul to find.
That favored strain was Surrey's raptured line,
That fair and lovely form, the Lady Geraldine.”

His imagination inflamed anew, this enthusiastic and romantic lover hastened to Florence, and on his arrival immediately published a defiance against any person who could handle a lance, and was in love," whether Christian, Jew, Turk, Saracen, or cannibal, who should presume to dispute that his Ladye-Love was superior to all that Italy could vaunt of beauty, that she was fair beyond the fairest." As the lady was pretended to be of Tuscan origin, the pride of the Florentines was flattered; and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, says the historian, permitted a general ingress into his dominions of the combatants of all countries, till this important trial should be decided. The challenge was accepted and the earl victorious.

The shield which Surrey presented to the duke before the tournament began, was, it is said, in the possession of the late Duke of Norfolk. Geraldine, we are sorry to add, with all her beauty and grace, was not worth tilting for. She was vain, frivolous, and coquettish, and is only interesting from having given the impulse to her lover's genius, exciting him to try his powers in a style of composition no models of which yet existed in his native language.

"Only she that hath as great a share in Virtue as in Beauty, deserves a noble love to serve her, and a true poesie to speak her."

Surrey's poetry is remarkable for its flowing melody, correctness of style, and purity of expression. The highest qualities in his verse are the facility and general mechanical perfection of his versification, and his delicacy and tenderness. He was the first to introduce the sonnet and blank verse into English poetry. Surrey's wit, learning, and military ability, excited the jealousy of Henry VIII. His actions were misconstrued, and he was even accused of designs upon the crown.

The addition of the escutcheon of Edward the Confessor to his own, though justified by the authority of the heralds, was a sufficient foundation for an impeachment for high treason, and he at length fell a sacrifice to the peevish injustice of this merciless and ungrateful monarch; notwithstanding his eloquent defence, he was condemned by a servile jury, and beheaded at Tower Hill in the year 1547, at the early age of twenty-seven, having, it is said, carried away from all his competitors the laurels of knighthood and of song. This sonnet to a lover who presumed to compare his "Ladye-Love" to Geraldine is a specimen. of Surrey's style. It is ingenious and elegant; and the leading compliment has been copied by later poets.

A PRAISE OF HIS LOUE: WHERIN HE REPROUETHE THEM THAT COMPARE THEIR LADIES WITH HIS.

GEUE place, ye louers, here before

That spent your bostes and bragges in vaine.

My Ladies beawtie passeth more

The best of yours, I dare well sayen,
Than doth the sonne, the candle light,
Or brightest day, the darkest night.
And thereto hath a trothe as iust,
As had Penelope the fayre.
For what she saith, ye may it trust,
As it by writing sealed were;
And vertues hath she many moe
Than I with pen haue skill to showe.
I could rehearse, if that I wolde,

The whole effect of nature's plaint,
When she had lost the perfit mold,

The like to whom she could not paint.
With wringyng handes howe she dyd cry,
And what she said, I know it, I.

I knowe she swore with ragyng mynd:

Her kingdom onely set apart,

There was no losse by loue of kind

That could haue gone so nere her hart.
And this was chiefly all her payne:
She coulde not make the lyke agayne.
Sith Nature thus gaue her the prayse,

To be the chiefest worke she wrought:
In faith, methinke, some better waies

On your behalfe might well be sought
Than to compare (as ye haue done),

To matche the candle with the sonne.

Sir Thomas Wyatt's poetry, neither so flowery in form nor so gentle in spirit as Surrey's, has perhaps more depth of sentiment as well as more force.

Wyatt's skill in arms, fidelity in the execution of public business, and his learning and lively conversational powers, won the favor of Henry VIII., though he is said to have nearly lost his popularity and his head together by his intimacy with Anne Boleyn, to whom these passionate lines of his are supposed to be addressed.

"Forget not yet the tried intent

Of such a truth as I have meant;
My great travail so gladly spent
Forget not yet!

"Forget not yet when first began

The weary life, ye know since whan;
The suit, the service, none tell can,
Forget not yet!

"Forget not yet the great assays,
The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,
The painful patience in delays,
Forget not yet!

"Forget not! oh, forget not this!

How long ago hath been, and is,
The mind that never meant amiss,
Forget not yet!

"Forget not then thine own approved,
The which so long hath thee so loved,
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved :
Forget not this!"

The prudence and integrity of the poet justified his innocence, and restored him to the royal favor. Wyatt died at last of a fever caused by riding too fast on a hot day while engaged on a mission for the king.

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Surrey's royal murderer wrote a book of sonnets, manuscript edition of which is said to be still extant, and was in the possession of the late Lord Eglinton. An old madrigal of his set to music is supposed to have been addressed to Anne Boleyn when he first fell in love with her. It begins thus,

"The eagle's force subdues each bird that flies.
What metal can resist the flaming fire?

Doth not the sun dazzle the clearest eyes,

And melt the ice and make the frost retire?"

The sonnets that commemorate the loves of this regal butcher bring to mind that famous couplet in Watts' Catechism: :

"The cat doth play

And after slay."

Warton sagely informs us that "if Henry had never murdered his wives, his politeness to the fair sex would have remained unimpeached." Murder, we must all agree, is indeed a breach of etiquette.

In 1471 the first book in the English language ever put to the press was printed at Ghent by William Caxton, who, while acting as agent for English merchants in Holland, made himself master of the art, then recently introduced on the Continent. He afterward established a printingoffice at Westminster, and produced the "Game of Chess," which was the first book printed in Britain.