HENRY HOWARD,

EARL OF SURREY.

1516-1547.

GERALDINE.

THE story of Surrey's love for the fair Geraldine, as related by all his early biographers, is as marvellous in its way, as any of the old knightly romances. According to Anthony à Wood, Surrey made a tour in Italy, where he proclaimed the surpassing beauty of his lady, at her express command, and maintained the same at Florence, in a tournament, after the manner of the knights errant of old, coming off victorious, of course, to his and her great glory. He also visited the palace of her ancestors, the Geraldi, and was admitted into the very chamber in which she was born, where he broke forth into magnificats in her praise! This story, which Anthony relates as a veritable bit of biography, has been traced back to Michael Drayton, from whom he professed to derive it, and to Thomas Nash, from whom he really did derive it, though he carefully avoids mentioning Nash's name. The work of Drayton, which he quotes as his authority, was published in 1598, under the name of “ENGLAND'S HEROICAL EPISTLES." It consists of a series of rhymed letters, many of them of great beauty, supposed to be written by sundry royal and noble personages, male and female. Among these are two by our hero and heroine. The epistle of Surrey purports to be written from Florence, and in addition to the incidents of the chamber and the tournament, contains an account of a visit which he paid to Rotterdam, where he saw Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, and of a visit to the famous wizard, Cornelius Agrippa, who showed him a wonderful magic mirror, wherein he saw the counterfeit presentment of the fair Geraldine, lying sick in her own chamber in England, and reading one of his poems! All this, and more of the same sort, may be found in the " ATHENE OXONIENSES," where it is laid at the door of Drayton, who obtained it from Nash, as nobody knew better than Wood, who, in many parts of his narration, adopts the very language of Nash himself! The work of Nash is in prose. It was published in 1594, four years before the appearance of Drayton's "HEROICAL EPISTLES," and was entitled "THE UNFORTUNATE TRAVELLER; or, THE LIFE OF JACK WILTON." Jack Wilton, the imaginary hero (for the whole thing bears on its face every