ANGIOLINA. I love all noble qualities which merit The best and purest feelings of our nature Such have I found him as my father said. His faults are those that dwell in the high bosoms The uses of patricians, and a life Spent in the storms of state and war; and also From the quick sense of honour, which becomes A duty to a certain sign, a vice When overstrain'd, and this I fear in him. And then he has been rash from his youth upwards; Yet temper'd by redeeming nobleness In such sort, that the wariest of republics Has lavish'd all its chief employs upon him, From his first fight to his last embassy, From which on his return the dukedom met him. MAR. But previous to this marriage, had your heart Ne'er beat for any of the noble youth, Such as in years had been more meet to match ANG. I answer'd your first question when I said MAR. I pray you pardon, if I have offended. ANG. I feel no wrath, but some surprise: I knew not That wedded bosoms could permit themselves To ponder upon what they now might choose, Or aught save their past choice. That far too often makes them deem they would BYRON. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON. London is supposed to have been once an arch- chiefly by the energy of Queen Elizabeth, though on bishopric; but when Augustine arrived, and the ar- a far less grand scale; and even before the conclusion chiepiscopal seat was removed to Canterbury, about of her reign it was in a very ruinous state. ing A.D. 610, Mellitus was appointed bishop of London. James I., with his court, attended divine service at Ethelbert, king of Kent, who had been converted St. Paul's, hearing a sermon at Paul's-cross, by the to Christianity, in no small degree by the influence bishop of London, from a text selected by himself, of his wife Bertha, and who was baptized by Augus- Psalm cii. 13—14. It was agreed, afterwards, that tine, founded the cathedral church of St. Paul, en- a commission under the great seal should be granted dowing it with lands, and obtaining for it various im- for carrying into execution the repairs of the catheportant privileges from the pope. Later improve-dral. In 1633, in the reign of Charles I., important ments were made on the building by Erkenwald, repairs were begun. The sum subscribed for these bishop of the diocese, who died A.D. 681. The fabric exceeded 100,000l., and the superintendence of the was destroyed by fire A.D. 961, but immediately re-work was confined to Inigo Jones. The church had stored. It again fell a victim to the flames, A.D. long been in a most wretched state. Towards the 1083, when bishop Maurice commenced a most ex-close of the sixteenth century, it is stated that the tensive pile in 1086, the materials for which he ob- benches at the door of the chair were commonly used tained from the ruins of the Palatine tower, an old for beggars and drunkards to sleep on; that nuicastle near the river Fleet. This building was many sances of various kinds were suffered to exist. One years erecting. The nave, the most magnificent house, formed partly of the church, was turned into work of the kind in England, was built by Maurice. a theatre, and a baker erected an oven in one of the The transepts were commenced by his successor, buttresses. Richard de Beaumes, in 1120, but completed by Jones immediately began to clear away these nuibishop Richard Fitz-Nele, about 1199. The choir sances, and the work proceeded gradually until 1642, was commenced by bishop William de St. Maria in when the ravages of the parliamentary troops put a 1220, and, together with the chapter-house, was stop to the work, and the cathedral became a scene finished by his successor, bishop Eustace de Fau- of desolation. A portico of great beauty in itself, conberg. The cloisters were erected by bishop Wingham, 1260, and the lady chapel by bishop Baldock in 1310. The stone-work, with the exception of the old material referred to, came from Caen, in Normandy. Edward II., to prevent the numerous murders and robberies which took place there, ordered it to be surrounded with a stone wall. The building was erected upon arches. In 1240, the choir not being regarded as in harmony with the other parts, was pulled down and rebuilt with a spire, presenting, as we are told, a very noble specimen of architecture. The dimensions of this building were as follows: -Length from east to west, 690 feet; breadth, 130 feet; height of the body of the church, 150 feet; the tower measured 260 feet; and the wooden spire, covered with lead, 274 feet; it was of singular beauty, the first built in England, and supposed to be the highest in Europe. though utterly unsuitable to the general character of the building, at the west end, erected by Jones, was thrown down; a great part of the roof fell in; the statues upon the portico were broken in pieces, and shops were built within the portico, in which merchandize of all kinds was sold; tombs were also desecrated. In 1643, the revenues of the cathedral, together with the funds collected for repairing it, and the unused materials, were seized by the parliament. The scaffolding was given to the soldiers of Col. Jephson's regiment for arrears of pay, and pits were dug in the church to saw the timber in. Public worship, however, continued to be celebrated in a part of the choir, separated from the rest by a brick wall, the congregation entering through one of the north windows, converted into a door. After the restoration, the public attention was directed to the repair of St. Paul's by Dr. Barwick, the new dean, formerly dean of Durham, and the works The cathedral was in the form of a Latin cross, the were commenced August 1, 1663. In 1664, Dr. transepts being much shorter than the nave and Wm. Sancroft, who had held the deanery of York choir. The interior was divided by two ranges of for the short space of ten months, was nominated clustered columns throughout the church, each aisle being about the width of the nave. Above the arches was a triforium and a clere-story. The circular arch prevailed in the nave, excepting in the clere-story. The columns in the choir were extremely light; it was approached from the nave by a flight of 12 steps, and separated from it by a richly ornamented screen, and near the high altar was the shrine of St. Erkenwald. The whole space occupied by the cathedral was three acres and a half, one rood and a half, and six perches. dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Barwick having died in that year. "Here," we are told, "he set himself with unwearied diligence to repair that cathedral, and spared no pains to restore it to its former grandeur." Three years afterwards, however, in September 1666, before it had been nearly completed, the cathedral was demolished by the great fire. In the middle of the churchyard, within the northern side of the Close, stood the celebrated pulpit, Paul's cross; at which sermons were weekly delivered, and where the folkmote, or general convenIn 1315 the spire was found to be so much de- tion of citizens, was held. It was rebuilt by bishop cayed, that part of it was taken down and replaced. Kemp, in 1449, but was destroyed by order of parA ball, surmounted by a cross, was now fixed upon liament, in 1643. Dugdale records, on the autho it, in which were deposited, with much prayer and rity of Ingulphus, that its prototype, a cross of ceremony, relics of saints and martyrs. In 1444, stone, was erected there A.D. 870, to induce the Feb. 1, the spire was much damaged by a heavy passers-by to offer prayers for certain monks slain by storm of thunder and lightning; and on June 4, the Danes. St. Paul's cross consisted of some stone 1561, a plumber leaving a pan of coals within the steps, on which was formed a wooden pulpit, covered spire, which he was repairing, and only for the short with lead, from which sermons were preached every time that he went to dinner, the wood-work took Sunday morning. It was not, however, reserved for fire, and the whole building was soon reduced to a this purpose alone, but used as a place for proclamamere skeleton. tions. No sermons were preached here after 1633. In the space of five years it was again rebuilt, |