The Bijou (Volume 2); An Annual of Literature and the Arts

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1829. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE FAMILY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. Thy songs of glory man;! Thine a steady More, Who with a gen'rous tho' mistaken zeal Withstood a brutal tyrant's useful rage; Like Cato firm, like Aristides jast, Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor, A dauntless soul erect, who smi1'd on death. Thomson. It has been said that truth is often stranger than fiction; and it may with equal justice be observed, that truth is generally far more interesting and instructive. A confirmation of this remark is afforded by the history of the celebrated group, with whose persons Holbein renders us familiar; and it is conceived, that a sketch of their lives will be the most acceptable illustration of the engraving of his picture. Fidelity is the chief recommendation of Holbein's pencil, and historical accuracy will be the principal, if not the only, merit of this memoir. The painting represents the family circle of one of the most perfect characters in the whole range of o British history; and as there are very few to whom the life of Sir Thomas More, Chancellor to King Henry the Eighth, and one of the most illustrious and innocent of his victims, is not familiar, no more will be said of him than is necessary to recal to the mind of the reader what must long since have been impressed on it; whilst greater attention will be paid to those persons who are introduced, of whose lives but little is generally known. Sir Thomas More was the only son of Sir John More, a Judge of the King's Bench, and was born in Milk Street, in London, in 1480, being in 1530 when this picture was painted, fifty years old. At a very early period of his life he gave such indications of the talents for which he was afterwards conspicuous, that Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose household he was placed, pro...