t 780 livres. It is described to be "a
manuscript on vellum, composed of twenty-nine flowers painted by one
Robert, under which are inserted madrigals by various authors." But the
Abbe Rive, the superintendent of the Valliere library, published in 1779
an inflammatory notice of this garland; and as he and the duke had the
art of appreciating, and it has been said _making_ spurious literary
curiosities, this notice was no doubt the occasion of the maniacal
price.

In the great French Revolution, this literary curiosity found its
passage into this country. A bookseller offered it for sale at the
enormous price of 500_l._ sterling! No curious collector has been
discovered to have purchased this unique; which is most remarkable for
the extreme folly of the purchaser who gave the 14,510 livres for poetry
and painting not always exquisite. The history of the Garland of Julia
is a child's lesson for certain rash and inexperienced collectors, who
may here

Learn to do well by others harm.

TRAGIC ACTORS.

Montfleury, a French player, was one of the greatest actors of his time
for characters highly tragic. He died of the violent efforts he made in
representing Orestes in the Andromache of Racine. The author of the
"Parnasse Reforme" makes him thus express himself in the shades. There
is something extremely droll in his lamentations, with a severe
raillery on the inconveniences to which tragic actors are liable.

"Ah! how sincerely do I wish that tragedies had never been invented! I
might then have been yet in a state capable of appearing on the stage;
and if I should not have attained the glory of sustaining sublime
characters, I should at least have trifled agreeably, and have worked
off my spleen in laughing! I have wasted my lungs in the violent
emotions of jealousy, love, and ambition. A thousand times have I been
obliged to force myself to represent more passions than Le Brun ever
painted or conceived. I saw myself frequently obliged to dart terrible
glances; to roll my eyes furiously in my head, like a man insane; to
frighten others by extravagant grimaces; to imprint on my countenance
the redness of indignation and hatred; to make the paleness of fear and
surprise succeed each other by turns; to express the transports of rage
and despair; to cry out like a demoniac: and consequently to strain all
the parts of my body to render my gestures fitter to accompany these
different impressions. The man then who