the deathe of his daughter. Wherfore, in the nighte, he wrote other letters prevely unto his wife, declaringe that she shulde not nede to sende the virgine,, her daughter, unto Aulyda; for her mariage shulde be deferred unto another time. Thes letters he delivered afore daye unto an olde man, his servante, that he might carye them into Grece; declaringe unto him what they conteined. But Menelaus waitinge afore daye for the comminge of the virgine, toke the olde man, carienge the letter, and did reprove Agamemnon verye vehementlye for his unconstantesie. In the meane time, one of Clitemnestra's company tolde Agamemnon, Menelaus beinge ther present, that Iphigeneia with her mother Clitemnestra and yonge Orestes, hir brother, was come unto Aulida, and that all the hooste knewe of their comminge. Menelaus then perceivinge that Agamemnon colde not sende his daughter home againe, began fainedlye to perswade him not to sley the virgine for his sake. In the meane time, whilste they are resoninge of this matter, Clitemnestra commethe in withe Iphigenia his daughter, thorowe whos comminge Agamemnon is wonderfully trobled, bycause he purposed to keape secrete the cownsell of his daughters deathe. Wherfore, whilste he goethe about to aske counsell of Calchas, Achilles commethe in the meane time to chide with him: whom Clitemnestra hearinge, she dothe salute him as thoughe he should have been hir sonne in lawe. Achilles being ignorante of this matter, dothe wonder at it. Then Agamemnon's servante, the olde man to whom the letters weare delivered, dothe bewray Aga memnon's counsell, and declarethe to them the hole matter. Then Achilles being angrie that under the cooler of his name they had determined the death of the virgine, he dothe defende hir in the cowncell of the Grecians, that she shulde not be slaine: but he is overcomed with the noice of the common people. Wherfore whan the matter was broughte to suche a troble, that the whole hooste required the virgine, and Achilles onlye was redie to contende againste them all; then Iphigenia herselfe chaunged hir minde, and perswadethe hir mother, that it is better for her to dye a glorious deathe then that for the safegarde only of hir life, either so many noblemen shoulde fall out within them selves, or else suche a noble enterprise beinge taken in hande, shulde shamefullye againe be let slippe. Wherefore, she beinge brought to the aulter of the goddes, was taken up to the countrie of Taurus, and in hir place was sente a white harte. And when the sacrafice was thus finisshed, the Grecians sailed to Troye." For the sake of diversity chiefly, this translated argument is inserted in preference to three dedicatory epistles in Latin, before this learned lady's versions in that language, as pointed out by lord Orford, or rather by his predecessors bishop Tanner and Mr. Ballard. "Oratio Isocratis quem Archidamus inscribitur." (Reg. MS. 15 A. i.) "Evagoras. Oratio quarta Isocratis ad Nicoclem Regem Cypri, versa e Græcis in Latina: per Dominam Lumleyam," (Ib. 15 A. ii.) "Oratio Isocratis secunda ad Nicoclem." "Tertia." (Ib. 15 A. ix.)] ANNE CECIL, COUNTESS OF OXFORD, [ELDEST daughter of the famous lord Burleigh, was married at the age of fifteen to Edward Vere, earl of Oxford and lord high chamberlain of England; by whom she had the misfortune to be deserted, for reasons which reflect discredit only on her lord". As a poetess she was introduced to public observation by the late learned editor of Shakspeare, and recommended to a place in some future edition of lord Orford's very instructive and entertaining work 3; though a modern reader may feel himself little interested by the mythological lamentations of this lady for the loss of her son. Mr. Steevens suggests, with much probability, that the countess of Oxford only * See the article of Edw. Vere, earl of Oxford, postea. See Europ. Mag. for June 1788, p. 390. In the quarto edition of Royal and Noble Authors, p. 329, lord Orford notices the countess of Oxenford's futile attempts in poetry, as introduced into "Soothern's Diana," for the account of which he says the editor of the European Magazine must be responsible. His lordship seems to have been utterly unconscious that the account he refers to, was drawn up by Mr. Steevens, who possessed the unique copy of Soothern's Poems, whence those "futile attempts" were extracted, and which was purchased at Mr. Steevens's sale by the late duke of Roxburgh, whose much-regretted death has deprived the present editor of many kindly proffered communications. aimed perhaps at the character of a poetess, because her mother (the learned daughter of sir Anthony Cooke) had been attached to literature, and because poetry was the favourite amusement of her husband. She died in queen Elizabeth's court at Greenwich, June 6, 1588, and was pompously interred in Westminster-abbey. The Cotton MS. Julius F. X. contains several elegiacal verses in commemoration of her good qualities. They are thus superscribed: "Anna Vera uxor Eduardi Veri, comitis Oxoniæ, filia Guil. Burghlei, summi Angliæ quæstoris, mulier pietate, prudentia, patientia, pudicitia, et in conjugem amore singulari, tres filias superstites reliquit, principi, parentibus, fratribus, et universæ aulæ regiæ admodum chara. Obiit, in aula regia Greenwici." This lady's only remaining poetical attempts are extant among the odes and sonnetteering conceits of one John Southern, alias Soothern (or, as Mr. Steevens surmised, Sudaine, alias Le Sud), a pragmatical poetaster who plagiarised in piebald English some of Ronsard's odellets in French, and published his fantastical collection under the title of "Diana," the name of his supposititious mistress 5. Queen Eliza This serves to establish Mr. Brydges's correction of Arthur Wilson, that lord Oxford had three daughters by Anne Cecil his first wife, not two by Elizabeth Trentham, his second, who only bore him one son, Henry, his successor. See Memoirs of the Peers of England, vol. i. p. 494. 5 Puttenham has aptly characterised Soothern's motley performance by the term "Soraismus, or mingle-mangle." Arte of English Poesie, p.211. beth, as well as lady Oxford, appears as a contributor to this collection, the extreme rareness of which induced Mr. Steevens to think it had been suppressed immediately on its first appearance; either because it exhibited verses which the countess never meant for the public, or through fear that her majesty might have been displeased at the circulation of her poetry. From "Foure Epytaphes made by the countes of Oxenford, after the death of her young sonne 5 the lord Bulbecke, &c." one is here given on account of its singularity; though it so much resembles the style of Soothern, that it may almost be suspected of being tricked out by his incomprehensible pen. «Had with moorning the gods left their willes undon, One byds her leave styll her dollor so extreme, Telling her-it is not her young sonne Papheme! To which she makes aunswer with a voice inflamed (Feeling therewith her venime to be more bitter) "As I was of Cupid, even so of it, mother; And a woman's last chylde is the most beloved."] This seems to disconcert another of Wilson's assertions, that lord Oxford was "hopeless of heirs" by his first wife. Life and Reign of King James, p. 161. |