My pains who can express? Alas! they are so strong, My dolour will not suffer strength My life for to prolong! Alone in prison strange, I wail my destiny; Woe worth this cruel hap, that I Should taste this misery! Farewell my pleasures past, Welcome my present pain, I feel my torments so increase That life cannot remain. Sound now the passing bell; Rung is my doleful knell, For its sound my death doth tell: Death doth draw nigh, Sound the knell dolefully, For now I die.” But passing from this queen’s tragic death to Henry VIII.’s last wife, Catherine Parr, it may be remembered that the celebrated devotional work, “The Lamentation of a Sinner,” obtained great popularity, and has been adjudged to be one of the finest specimens of English composition of that era. Within the limits of about 120 miniature pages, it comprises an elegant treatise “On the imperfection of human nature in its unassisted state, and the utter vanity of all earthly grandeur and distinction,” at the same time an uncompromising attitude being taken up against papal supremacy; for, as her Majesty tells us in the volume, she deplored her former attachment to the ceremonials of the Church of Rome. Hence the royal writer does not forget to compliment Henry on having emancipated the kingdom from this domination; and adds, “Our Moses, and most godly wise governor and king hath delivered us out of the captivity and spiritual bondage of Pharaoh: I mean by this Moses, King Henry VIII., my most sovereign favourable lord and husband.” Catherine Parr was no doubt gifted by nature with fine talents, for she both read and wrote Latin with facility, and possessed some knowledge of Greek. It was also through the influence of Catherine Parr that the Princess Mary was induced to undertake the translation of the Latin paraphrase of St. John, by Erasmus. She did not append her name to the translation, but Dr. Udall in his preface thus refers to her labours: “England can never be able to render thanks sufficient; so it never will be able--as her deserts require--enough to praise the most noble, the most virtuous, and the most studious Lady Mary’s grace, for taking such pains and travail in translating this paraphrase of Erasmus on the Gospel of St. John.” And when Mary was doubtful as to whether the work should be published in her name or anonymously, Catherine Parr wrote “that in her opinion she would do a wrong to the work, if she should refuse to send it to posterity with the advantage of her name; because in her accurate translation she had gone through much pains for the public good.” Mary, however, did not append her name to the translation, but granted Dr. Udall permission to mention her labours in the preface.