swallowed her up alive, but immediately burst; and she emerged unhurt another form of the familiar allegory, the power of sin overcome by the power of the cross. He returned in the form of a man to tempt her further; but she overcame him, and, placing her foot on his head, forced him to confess his foul wickedness, and to answer to her questions. She was again brought before the tyrant, and, again refusing to abjure her faith, she was further tortured; but the sight of so much constancy in one so young and beautiful only increased the number of converts, so that in one day five thousand were baptized, and declared themselves ready to die with her. Therefore the governor took counsel how this might be prevented, and it was advised that she should be beheaded forthwith. And as they led her forth to death, she thanked and glorified God that her travail was ended; and she prayed that those who invoked her in the pains of childbirth should find help through the merit of her sufferings, and in memory of her deliverance from the womb of the great dragon. A voice from heaven assured her that her prayer was granted; so she went and received joyfully the crown of martyrdom, being beheaded by the sword.

In devotional pictures, the attribute of St. Margaret is the dragon. She is usually trampling him under her feet, holding up the cross in her hand. Sometimes the dragon is bound with a cord; or his jaws are distended as if to swallow her; or he is seen rent and burst, and St. Margaret stands upon him unharmed, in the old metrical legend in the Auchinleck MSS.:

"Maiden Margrete tho [then]

Loked her beside,

And sees a loathly dragon'

Out of an hirn [corner] glide:

His eyen were ful griesly,

His mouth opened wide,

And Margrete might no where flee,

There she must abide.

as

"Maiden Margrete

Stood still as any stone,

And that loathly worm,

To her-ward gan gone,
Took her in his foul mouth,

And swallowed her flesh and bone.

Anon he brast

Damage hath she none !

Maiden Margrete

Upon the dragon stood;

Blyth was her harte,

And joyful was her mood."

This is literally the picture which, in several instances, the artists have placed before us.

As martyr she bears, of right, the palm and the crown; and these, in general, serve to distinguish St. Margaret from St. Martha, who has also the attributes of the dragon and the cross. Here, however, setting the usual attributes aside, the character ought to be so distinctly marked, that there should be no possibility of confounding the beautiful and deified heroine of a spiritual warfare, with the majestic maturity and staid simplicity of Martha.

In some pictures St. Margaret has a garland of pearls round her head, in allusion to her name; and I have seen one picture, and only one, in which she wears a garland of daisies, and carries daisies in her lap and in her hand.*

I shall now give some examples of St. Margaret treated devotionally.

1. The famous St. Margaret of Raphael (in the Louvre) was painted for Francis I., in compliment to his sister, Margaret of Navarre. It represents the saint in the moment of victory, just stepping forward with a buoyant and triumphant air, in which there is also something exquisitely sweet and girlish; one foot on the wing of the dragon, which crouches open-mouthed

* Siena Acad.

beneath her right hand holds the palm, her left sustains her robe. The face is youthful, mild, and beautiful; the hair without ornament; the simplicity and elegance of the whole figure quite worthy of Raphael, whose aim has evidently been to place before us an allegory, and not an action: it is innocence triumphant over the power of sin. The St. Margaret in the Vienna Gallery, which has been styled by Passayant and others a duplicate of this famous picture, is no duplicate, but altogether a different composition. The face is in profile, the attitude rather forced, and she holds the crucifix, instead of the palm. It is no doubt by Giulio Romano, and one of the many instances in which he took an idea from Raphael and treated it in his own manner. 2. Parmigiano. The altar-piece, painted for the Giusti Chapel in the Convent of St. Margaret at Bologna; it represents her kneeling, and caressing the Infant Christ, who is seated in the lap of his mother; behind the Virgin sits St. Augustine, and on the other side is St. Jerome; at the feet of St. Margaret is seen the dragon, open-mouthed as usual.

3. Lucas v. Leyden. She is in a rich dress, stiff with embroidery, and reading a book; while seen, as crouching under the skirt of her robe, is the head of the dragon, which the painter has endeavored, and not in vain, to render as hideous, as terrible, and as real as possible in consequence, the effect is disagreeable : but the picture is wonderfully painted. In another example by the same painter, she has issued from the back of the dragon, holding the cross, through which she has conquered, in her hand: a part of her robe in the jaws of the dragon, signifies that he had just swallowed her up.*

4. Luca Penni. She is trampling on the demon in human shape, which is unusual. Her martyrdom is seen in the background.†

5. Annibal Caracci. She is leaning on a pedestal,

*Munich Gal.

† Copenhagen.

in a meditative attitude, holding the Gospel; the dragon at her feet. A majestic figure life-size.*

6. Nicolò Poussin. She is kneeling on the vanquished dragon, with extended arms, while two angels crown her.t

Historical pictures of St. Margaret are uncommon. In the Christian Museum in the Vatican there is a St. Margaret, standing, in green drapery, richly embroidered with gold flowers, and bearing the cross: the dragon, here extremely small, is beneath her feet. Around are nine small compartments in the upper one, Christ in the sepulchre, with the Virgin and St. John; and on each side, four historical subjects. 1. St. Margaret, keeping sheep, is seen by the governor of Antioch. 2. She is brought before him, and declares her faith. 3. She is in prison, and visited by the Holy Spirit (or peace) in form of a dove.

4. She

is tortured cruelly, being suspended on a gallows, while executioners tear her with prongs.

5.

She is swal

lowed up by the dragon in her dungeon.

6. She is in

a caldron of boiling pitch. 7. She is decapitated. 8. Miracles are performed at her shrine.

We find the same selection of subjects in the ancient stained glass.

Vida has celebrated St. Margaret in two Latin hymns.

In the four illustrious virgin-saints I have just described, there is an individuality, which is strongly marked in their respective legends, and which ought to have been attended to in works of art, though we seldom find it so. The distinctive character should be, in St. Catherine, dignity and intellect; in St. Barbara, fortitude and a resolute but reflecting air-she, too, was a savante; in St. Ursula, a devout enthusiasm, tempered with benignity; in St. Margaret, meekness and innocence,

"Si douce est la Marguerite."

* Sutherland Gal.

Turin Gal.

THE EARLY MARTYRS.

"THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS PRAISE THEE!

HEN, in the daily service of our Church, we repeat these words of the sublime hymn, I wonder sometimes whether it be with a full appreciation of their meaning? whether we do really reflect on all that this noble army of martyrs hath conquered for us? Did they indeed glorify God through their courage, and seal their faith in their Redeemer with their blood? And if it be so, how is it that we Christians have learned to look coldly upon the effigies of those who sowed the seed of the harvest which we have reaped? - Sanguis martyrum semen Christianorum! We may admit that the reverence paid to them in former days was unreasonable and excessive; that credulity and ignorance have in many instances falsified the actions imputed to them; that enthusiasm has magnified their numbers beyond all belief; that when the communion with martyrs was associated with the presence of their material remains, the passion for relics led to a thousand abuses, and the belief in their intercession to a thousand superstitions. But why, in uprooting the false, uproot also the beautiful and the true? Surely it is a thing not to be set aside or forgotten, that generous men and meek women, strong in