MISS TYTLER ON THE QUEEN.*
IN some matters an error of date is a fatal error, and probably the chief fault of the book that we have now to notice is that it has been written twenty years too soon. To tell the life of the Queen at all is not an easy task ; to tell it truly while that Queen lives is an impossible one. From one side or another, the record is bound to be vitiated by prejudice ; the point of view is too close to be anything but partial. Besides this, there are but two possible ways in which the life of a Queen can be written so that it is well worth the writing. The one would be an account of the manner in which her life and character influenced the time in which she lived and the land which she governed ; the other, an inquiry into her personal life, not as a Queen so much as a human being, whose royalty had changed and directed, but not altogether obscured, her humanity. In neither of these ways has Miss Tytler endeavoured to tell the Queen's story—perhaps we may say that it was incompetent to her to adopt either course. We fail to see, indeed, what is the exact object at which the authoress has aimed, if it be not that which we are loath to consider her desirous of attaining,—the simple commonplace object of" making a book." These two large handsome blue.and.gold volumes, with the shiniest of paper and the clearest of type, have probably had their origin in the fact that the firm which publishes them possesses a number of steel-plates, representing various statues and busts of the Queen, views of her residences, her horses, and her children. As we shall have no occasion to refer to these plates, let us say at once that they are bad enough to spoil a better book than Miss Tytler has given us. There is something about an engraving of a statue which is always unattractive, and of these engravings of the busts and statuettes of the Queen, and Prince Albert, and her children, it is sufficient to say that they are as uninteresting as the statues themselves. England is not a country where the sculptor's art has hitherto flourished, and forty years ago this art was probably at its lowest ebb. There is no conceivable reason, as far as we can judge, for perpetuating statues of a fat-legged Prince of Wales in a perfectly impossible idyllic costume, in which a Roman toga, a Bowler hat, and a shepherd's crook, figure prominently. Nor is the interest and significance of such a statue increased by being described as an allegorical rendering of "Winter."
Let us return to the letterpress, which should be interesting, for Miss Tytler has usually a sympathetic as well as a clever pen, and has given us many novels of far more than average ability. In the present instance, however, she has either had nothing to say, or has been prevented by feelings of reverence or discretion from saying anything. This Life is little more than a Court calendar written in connected phrases. One undiluted stream of panegyric meanders smoothly along, twisting in and out of the commonplace inci- dents of childhood, the joys of wifehood and maternity, the sorrows of bereavement, and the long patience of widowhood. As we read, Thackeray's words about Lord Castlewood occur to us as being peculiarly applicable here, "for our gracious Sovereign is only a mortal, like the rest of us ;" and even her many virtues hardly lend themselves to indiscriminate eulogy. A good woman, with a strong natural sense of her own claims, greatly increased by the authority of her position ; a Sovereign whose hold upon her people is founded mainly upon her domestic virtues ; a widow who has lived as much for a memory as for her subjects—these are the simple facts of the Queen's character and conduct. A future generation will criticise more freely, and may possibly add something on the side of praise. It may be that the virtues of a Queen should be in some way different to those of a private individual ; it may be that one who has a great nation entrusted to her care, who has many children, and con- sequently many calls to private as well as public duty, should have put more force upon herself to live in public, even when to live in public was to her most oppressive. It may be that the duties of a Queen are not such as can be delegated even to the most popular of Princes ; it may be that English society would have been different if it had had an active Queen at the head of
its Court. All this, however, is for the chronicler of the future to say. Certainly we gather no hint of it from Miss Tytler's work, of which the following description forms a fair average specimen :— "Crowds almost as great as on the day of the Coronation, six years before, occupied the line of route, swarming in St. James's Park and St. Paul's Churchyard and at Charing Cross, while the
* Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. Lonlon : Virtue and Go.
Poultry—deriving its name from the circumstance that it was once filled with poulterers' shops—was reserved for the Livery of the City Companies. Every window which could command the passing of the pageant was filled with spectators. The Queen, in her state coach, drawn by her cream-coloured horses, drove through the marble arch at Buckingham Palace at eleven o'clock. She was accompanied by Prince Albert, and attended by Lady Canning, in the absence of the. Duchess of Buccleugh, Mistress of the Robes, and by the Earl of Jersey, Master of the Horse. The great officers of her household in long procession preceded her, and she was followed by an escort of Life Guards. At this time the Queen's popularity was a very active principle, though not more heartfelt and abiding than it is to-day.. As she appeared, it is said the words, God bless you!' uttered by some loyal subject, were caught up and passed from lip to lip, run- ning through the vast concourse. The simply-clad lady of the High- lands was magnificently dressed to-day, to do honour to her City or London, in white satin and silver tissue sparkling with jewels. On her left side she wore the Star of the Order of the Garter, and round her left arm the Garter itself, with the motto set in diamonds. She had at the back of her head a miniature crown, entirely composed of brilliants, while above her forehead she wore a diamond tiara, Prince Albert was in the uniform of a colonel of artillery."
Of this sort of thing there are five hundred pages more or less,. and all the main incidents of the Queen's life are told, fluently interspersed with anecdotes of little importance, and extracts from the Queen's letters and journal of the following kind :—
"'Such bustle and excitement,' wrote the Queen ; and then she describes an evening party, with a very gay and pretty dance,' on the 18th, when Ernest, Duke of Coburg, said it seemed like a dream to him to see Vicky dance like a bride, just as I did eighteen years ago, and I am still' (so he said) looking very young.' In 1840, poor dear papa (late Duke of Coburg) danced with me as Ernest danced with Vicky. In truth, neither the father nor the mother of the bride of seventeen had reached the age of forty."
Perhaps we are criticising the Life of the Queen from rather too serious a point of view ; but when an authoress like Miss Tytler undertakes to treat such a subject, she must not complain if we require from her some work which is of higher quality than is to be found in every page of the Court .Tournal, and in this book we seek for such work in vain. The highest word that can be said in its praise is, that it is as perfectly blameless as the life of the woman to which it is devoted.
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