MARIE ANTOINETTE.*
No young girl ever stepped into a more difficult position than Marie Antoinette of Austria, when at fifteen she became the wife of Louis, Dauphin of France. Few young girls of her disposition and bringing up could have behaved better. It was not likely that the daughter of Maria Theresa would be distinguished for meekness, or in her childish days for wisdom and discretion. She came of a Royal race, in days when a certain haughty magnificence, frankness, indepen- dence of public opinion, courage, and self-will bad not quite ceased to be attributes of Royalty. The wisdom of statecraft, which Maria Theresa had besides all these things, was not transmitted to her daughter; and indeed would hardly have developed itself at the age of fifteen. But it was the fashion to expect a great deal from Princesses, especially in the way of self-repression. The happiest Queens-Consort, perhaps, were those who could content themselves with being beauti- ful figure-heads, unmoved by the noise and intrigue raging beneath them, unconscious, at least publicly, of the scandals that touched their private lives. It seems as if Maria Theresa and Mercy would have wished their Princess to be something of this kind in the corrupt Court of Louis XV. She was not the girl to satisfy them. Too proud, too high- spirited, untouched in moral purity, hardly even for the strongest political reasons would she consent to treat Madame du Barry as on a level with the great ladies of France. To us her attitude all through that difficult controversy inspires much more admiration than if she had invariably done as she was told, attended to her reading and spelling, been contented to ride a donkey, and generally repressed all the wishes and instincts of her girlhood.
The difficulty of the position was increased beyond what is usually realised, by the whole character of the time. The eighteenth century was a time of transition everywhere, and most especially in France. There the old order crumbled much more visibly than in England, and society went slipping down a precipice with a roaring torrent of anarchy at the foot of it. It is extraordinary to see how pleasantly, with what prophecies of a golden age, with what theories of universal happiness and benevolence, France played upon those green slopes. Marie Antoinette came into a Court full of old etiquettes and new theories; of the former she was impatient, being in many respects a child of ber own time ; the latter she was not French enough, too Royal in an old-fashioned sense, though truly good and human-hearted, quite to under- stand. She has been blamed for her mistakes as Queen ; but the wisest and most prudent Princess in the world, which nobody ever pretended that she was, could not have stopped the Revolution. Some frivolities and extravagances of her own, much exaggerated, were small faults indeed compared with the doings of French Royalties before her. The jewel- merchants of older days expected quite rightly to sell their wares to Kings and Queens—who else had so much use for them P—but that old princely magnificence had passed out of date ; it was not wonderful if the Queen of France did not realise how completely.
It would seem that we have now the very fullest informa- tion on the life of Marie Antoinette, both aa Dauphiness and Queen. M. de Nolhac's beautiful and interesting book, so excellently translated into English that one reads the trans- lation—a rare experience—with almost as much pleasure as the original, gives the best possible account of the earlier period. Madame du Barry has a larger part in it than seems quite necessary, but we have to remember that her existence was the great difficulty of those four years ; and she is after all one of the chief figures in the foreground at Versailles for the time. She would have ruled France, and almost did so, except for the strong contrary influence of Mesdames and the respectable side of the Court, to which the Dauphine added her own. The success of this book is the wonderfully vivid picture it gives, aided by portraits of the greatest interest, and other illustrations, all beautifully reproduced, of the French Court and its ways during the last years of Louis XV. M. de Nolhac has studied his subject with every advantage, assisted by the unpublished correspondence between Mercy and Joseph IL and Prince Kannitz, and treats it with the fairness of the best French literary spirit. The Abbe de
• (I.) Marie Antoinette, the Dauphins. From the French of Pierre do Nolhae. Paris: Gonpil and Co. London: dimpkin, Marshall, and Co. [631. net.] (2.) The Stoop of Marie Antoinette. By Anna L Bicknell. London : T. Fisher Unwin. [128.]
Vermond, who has been unfairly treated by other writers, here meets with justice as "an honest man," with "profound attachment and devotion to his charge," truly a difficult one, that of carrying on the education of a Princess who did not love books and had already taken her high place in the world. The stately yet frivolous monotony of the Court is drawn from life, and in reading its chronicle our wonder is that any goodness, wideness, nobleness of mind could exist at Versailles at all. It is easy to understand that Madame Louise was happier with her Carmelites ; it is harder to understand how the young Marie Antoinette kept herself above this atmosphere of small and great corruptions. Her Royal nature explains what seems like a miracle.
Miss Bicknell's Story of Marie Antoinette covers much more ground than M. de Nolhac's book, and is, therefore, a good deal condensed, and sometimes in a rather mistaken way. For instance, we can find no mention of the terrible accident at the Paris illuminations, which stopped the Dauphine's first entrance into Paris, and threw a real shadow over her early married life. Such an event as this, which touched the young Princess's mind and heart in a way never to be forgotten, was more worth describing than some of the miserable intrigues at Versailles which made her daily life troublesome. On the other hand, a good and clear account is given of the Diamond Necklace affair ; and this is useful; for persons still exist who believe that Marie Antoinette, while France was starving, ordered diamonds from Boehmer to the value of nearly two millions of francs. All the tragic history of the Revolution and the Queen's last days is told by Miss Bicknell with spirit and feeling. Its painful interest is always fresh. There may be nothing new to say, but a public will always be found who can read these records over again. One or two rather curious mistakes are probably due to carelessness ; the march to Ver- sailles is put in October, 1792; and Turgot, who had been dead for years, is mentioned as one of those courageous men who visited Louis XVI. in his prison, and were ready to undertake his defence. This book also is full of interesting portraits, which add greatly to its value.
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