IV. Love bathed in Tears, To Love cemented, ever brings And ever bears A chastened spirit, that in Kings, V. Come lasting Love! For Sweetness in a moment dies, That Beauty far too quickly flies VI. Youth is a snare; Like an awakening dream it speeds, Nor cries, Beware! A dream of unaccomplished deeds, A hope of undetermined creeds. VII. Is it Friendship then? The Tyrant of a summer day, The boast of men Who loiter idly on life's way, A band who neither work nor play. which the latter historian does show in this biography. The style thereof is unattractive; but there is a naïve absence of all false modesty in the manner in which Dr Gardiner refers to his own works. Hardly a statement is brought forward which is not supported by a reference to Gardiner's History of England,' which valuable work is also mentioned at the end as almost the only authority to be consulted on the subject. Dr Gardiner is, of course, perfectly right. No doubt his history is about the best authority upon the period it describes, and there is absolutely no reason why a man should not admire his own works, especially when they deserve it: but they don't usually say so. indeed, are to be found as thick as blackberries in this volume. Besides the three we have already mentioned, we have a brief and unpleasant account of Catherine of France, the queen of Henry V., from Mr S. L. Lee; and a lengthy one of Catherine of Braganza, by Professor Tout. More worthy of attention is the life of Queen Caroline of Anspach, by Professor A. W. Ward, who gives a striking narrative of the life of a queen who, in personal political power and ability, was hardly inferior to Queen Elizabeth, and sets clearly before us the queer modus vivendi between a couple who seem to have only been really agreed upon one point their common detestation of their eldest son. The history of the unA more entertaining writer, fortunate Caroline Matilda, Queen and yet one to whose exactitude of Denmark, is also presented to very little exception can be taken, us by the same authority in as is Mr James Gairdner, who is lifelike and interesting a narrative, naturally intrusted with the bio- though the erring queen gets scant graphies which fall in the period grace from her cruelly precise bioof Henry VIII. The chief of grapher. The list of unfortunate these is his account of Catherine queens is completed by Caroline, of Arragon, which, we are sure, Princess of Wales, who is described will be read with great interest with a kind of unconscious irony both by those who know anything as "queen of George IV.," while about it and those who don't. Mr her predecessor and namesake figGairdner writes, not as an indif- ures as "Queen of Great Britain ferent historian to whom all these and Ireland." Her case is fairly matters long by-past are only in- enough stated by Mr John Ashteresting insomuch as they throw ton. It is singular that of all these light on the manners and customs queens, there is not one who seems of the time; but with a vivid per- to have had any but the most sonal interest in the destiny of transient gleams of happiness. that unfortunate princess, which Of the remaining biographies, few affects the reader with a like sym- are more interesting than the pathy. The case of the queen is accounts of William Carstares by simply and plainly stated, and Dr Æneas Mackay; while some conveys in itself such an indict- praise is due to Mr Hunt's Life ment against Henry as the bitter- of Canute.' The latter warmed est partisan historian is rarely able our heart in its beginning by the to bring. We have from the same discovery of the name of Canute hand a sketch of Catherine How- spelt with an a, as it used to be ard and one of Catherine Parr, in our innocent childhood; but both sharers in the fatal dignity in a few lines we discovered our of the English Crown-matrimonial mistake, and found the familiar in these stormy days. Queens, name reduced into an abom inable amalgamation of conso- the abstruse researches of Pronants, alike unpronounceable and fessor Creighton into the history unsightly. To be sure, as a true disciple of the gospel according to Mr Freeman, it was perhaps necessary that the biographer should speak of the Danish hero under the uneuphonious appellation of Cnut. Would this were all After the number of centuries during which St Chad has been held in monosyllabic veneration, is it not hard that he should be obliged to return to the original uncouthness of Ceadda? or is there any man among us who can lay his hand upon his heart and say, with truth, that he can pronounce such extraordinary names as Ceolfrith or Cenwalh? It is really absurd that, after the thorough exposuse to which Mr Frederic Harrison subjected this ridiculous affectation in a contemporary a short time ago, people should go on requiring us to break our jaws over Anglicising of all names, which seem to be adopted really for no other reason than that they were not used before, for the studious Anglicising of all names in Latin languages is another essential principle of the same school. We have spoken of certain biographies in the volume before us as deserving of high praise; and that articles which would be remarkable in any collection are to be found also in the preceding volumes, is no doubt the case. Yet this not enough to render the work a unique one, as was proposed and expected. It contains a greater number of biographies of all kinds of persons than any work yet published? Probably it does. Certainly there are lives of all kinds of persons, of all ages and all classes, and we might almost say all countries. From of St William de Carilef, or the still earlier antiquarian "howkings' which have produced Mr Shuckburgh's article on Caractacus, buwn to the lives of Lord Frederick Cavendish and the fiendish leader of his murderers, James Carey; of Dr Carpenter and Sir Louis Cavagnari, which seem to have been chiefly compiled from the Pall Mall Gazette' and the Illustrated London News,'—the roll of personages to be mentioned is full and complete. Saint or sinner, no one is too high or too low. Ben Caunt occupies as importont a place as St Chad; and proper mention is made of Bampfylde Moore Carew. Even the Dutch scholar Casaubon and the French rebel Cavalier must be mentioned, because they had some connection with England. But with all this it is scarcely a satisfactory work. Considerable information is vouchsafed to us concerning the great unknown of our country. We shudder when the kind hand of the biographer points out to us the atrocious blunder committed by some Heaven-forsaken ignoramus who confused Nicholas Carvell with James Calfhill. But we doubt whether the labours of all these gentlemen will succeed in producing anything more than a very ordinary book of reference, with a good article here and there,—exactly as all previous compilers of such works have done before them. 1 History of India under Queen Victoria. By L. J. Trotter. London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1886. |