Montaigne, Select Essays of.—
"Essays selected from Montaigne, with a Sketch of the Life of the Author. London. For P. Cadell, &c. 1800."
This volume is dedicated to the Rev. William Coxe, rector of Bemerton.
The life of Montaigne is dated the 28th of March, 1800, and signed Honoria. At the end of the book is this advertisement:—
"Lately published by the same Author 'The Female Mentor.' 2d edit., in 2 vols. 12mo."
Who was Honoria? and are these essays a scarce book in England? In France it is entirely unknown to the numerous commentators on Montaigne's works.
O.D.
Custom of wearing the Breast uncovered in Elizabeth's Reign.—Fynes Moryson, in a well-known passage of his Itinerary, (which I suppose I need not transcribe), tells us that unmarried females and young married women wore the breasts uncovered in Queen Elizabeth's reign. This is the custom in many parts of the East. Lamartine mentions it in his pretty description of Mademoiselle Malagambe: he adds, "it is the custom of the Arab females." When did this curious custom commence in England, and when did it go out of fashion?
JARLTZBERG.
Milton's Lycidas.—In a Dublin edition of Milton's Paradise Lost (1765), in a memoir prefixed I find the following explanation of than rather obscure passage in Lycidas:—