MONTHLY 11EVILVV OF LITERATURE. 509 



of Canino. He belongs to that trimming school termed the Doctrinaires, and 

 throughout the volume his efforts to uphold such views are strongly manifested. 



Library of Anecdote. Book of Table -Talk. 2 Vols. fcp. 8vo. Knight. 



IN lately reviewing a novel, from which we gave copious extracts, occasion 

 was taken to insist on the general utility of anecdotes, as furnishing us with 

 passages of life calculated to convey valuable information. The Percy Anec- 

 dotes compiled as they were, not with any great attention to truth were, 

 there is little doubt, useful in conveying lessons respecting practical conduct. 

 These volumes, though less systematically drawn up than the Percy Anecdotes, 

 and therefore less conducive to moral improvement, will, we have little doubt, 

 exercise a beneficial influence on society. At any rate, they will not fail to 

 amuse many fire-side evenings of those families that can derive pleasure from 

 the perusal of literary anecdotes. 



We have read both volumes with some attention ; we know not by whom 

 they have been drawn up although they look like Leigh Hunt's ; but cer- 

 tainly the second is not got up in the same beautiful easy style as the first. 

 In fact it smells too much of the lamp, which in a book of this nature spoils 

 the whole. 



Still there is very much of highly amusing matter, which it would be un- 

 grateful not to mention. In the jocose style we may name more particularly 

 " Take care of your Heads/' " Sir Walter Scott's Astronomy." "Anecdotes 

 of Brunelleschi." " A Great Man in Disguise." " A Desultory Chapter on 

 Eating." There are some good illustrations of history in these volumes, from 

 which we shall venture to make some short extracts. 



SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH, AND QUEEN ANNE. 



" The following letter was written after her own and her husband's fall at 

 court and in the cabinet. Sarah, though an acute woman, does not appear 

 to have discovered all the weaknesses of royalty, and the miseries of being a 

 queen's favourite, until she had ceased to be one. It was then ' sour grapes ' 

 with her. The copy of the letter in the Coxe papers is imperfect, and we have 

 omitted a few lines that have no particular interest. 



" ' I have most of the copies of the letters that passed through mythands of 

 any consequence; the letters I mention to the queen, upon the 12th of June 

 1710, were only copies of letters from Lord Rochester, Mr. Harley, and all 

 parties, to show the great sense they had of Lord Marlborough's services to 

 the queen and to England, all which I hoped might contribute to move her : 

 but I fear you will have some contempt for me when you come to my last ex- 

 pression in my letter of the 1 2th of June, after so much inhuman usage, and 

 I do assure you that I could not have done it for any thing in the world that 

 related only to myself; and, after what has passed, I do solemnly protest 

 that if it were in my power I would not again be a favourite, which few will 

 believe ; and since I shall never be able to give any demonstration of that truth, 

 I had as good say no more of it. But, as fond as people are of power, I 

 fancy any body that had been shut up so many tedious hours as I have been, 

 with a person that had no conversation, and yet must be treated with respect, 

 would feel something of what I did; and be very glad, when their circum- 

 stances did not want it, to be freed from such a slavery, which (must be un- 

 easy at all times, though I do protest that upon the account of her loving me 

 and trusting me so entirely as she did, I had a concern for her, which was more 

 than you will easily believe. And I would have served her with the hazard 

 of my life upon any occasion ; but after she put me at liberty, by using me ill, 

 I was very easy, and liked better that any body should have her favour than 

 myself at the price of flattery, without which, I believe, nobody can be well 

 with a king or queen, unless the world should come to be less corrupt, or thep 

 wiser than any I have seen since I was born ; and I was so far from having 



