28 MARCH 1857, Page 15

BOOKS.

MRS. FREER'S ELIZABETH DE VALOIS..

IN this life of the favourite Queen of Philip the Second, Mrs. Freer has made a oonsiderable advance upon her former biographies of royal ladies. The style is stronger and more sustained ; the tone less that of a newspaper-reporter; the matter more real and solid. The facts are mostly of a personal sometimes indeed a trivial nature, embracing the tiffs of women, questions of precedence, and matters of costume ; but the first two are often characteristic of French and Spanish nationalities in themselves ; they give a glimpse of that hungry poverty and greediness of gain which certainly for a long time distinguished the Gaul in popular estimation ; and they are appropriate to the life of a queen whose comfort was in a measure influenced by such matters. Neither were the disputes, though trifling, altogether devoid of consequence in the object. It was Philip's policy to have his wife appear as Spanish as possible, in costume, in manner, and attendants ; the last point being of the greatest importance to the Dons and Donnas, inasmuch as salaries were at issue. An air of freshness, too, appears in these and various other details, probably by their being drawn direct from original sources. In addition to the published works of contemporary authors, Mrs. Freer has Rursued her researches among the manuscript repositories of France, Italy, and Spain ; having obtained access, as we understand her, to the celebrated Spanish fortress of Simancas. In fact, original authorities appear to form the basis of the book. The biographer says that "the narrative with few exceptions has been entirely written from manuscript and unpublished sources." Rlizabeth of Valois has hitherto been chiefly known by the romantic stories of an attachment between her and Don Carlos, for whom some time before the death of Mary Tudor she was talked of as a bride. Late researches have scattered to the winds this theme of romancists and poets, and shownDon Carlos for what he was—an ill-conditioned, violent, wild, and unprincipled character, whose best excuse was the insanity of many of his family, and whose early death, whether by poison administered by his father's command, or, as seems most probable, by natural causes, was a great gain to his future subjects and no loss to the empire. The exposition of the real truth reduces the biographical features of Elizabeth's life to a narrow compass, little animated by any remarkable circumstances. She was born in April 1546, the eldest daughter of Henry the Second of France and Catherine de' Medici. She was married by proxy at Paris in 1359, and to Philip in person at Guadalajara on the 2nd of February 1560; being, according to the historian Cabrera, in her eighteenth year. Our author with the dates before her corrects the historian by saying she had just entered her sixteenthyear : if the figures are correct, she was not quite fourteen—unless 1560 means 1561. She died in October 1568, having borne Philip several daughters. Her death was owing to a premature labour, which her health was too delicate to sustain ; a delicacy apparently induced by frequent miscarriages or accouchements, and tho treatment of her Spanish physicians, which was about on a par with that of their countryman the celebrated Dr. Sangrado.

The Queen's troubles do not appear to have been of a grievous kind. One trouble exhibited at full length, on the occasion of her marriage with Philip, was a winter journey across the Pyrenees, with its bad roads, snow-storms, and scanty accommodations for such weather. This, however, she brought upon herself by her delay in proceeding on her journey. A pretty constant source of annoyance for some time was the quarrels of French and Spanish attendants, and the manner in which her mother strove to make Elizabeth's position a means of forwarding her own political intrigues. As the Queen of Spain's girlhood passed away, and she aoquired more experience and a fuller sense of her own dignity, these annoyances passed likewise. She acquiesced in Philip's determination to send back the greater portion of the Frenchwomen, if she did not encourage it. Learning to appreciate the indecorum and selfishness of her mother, especially when her own position as Queen of Spain is considered, she found means to receive the propositions civilly, and submit them when needful to her husband without connecting herself with them. Altogether, she seems to have been a personage of sense and discretion, whose character had she lived would have developed itself into firmness and boldness.

Although the subject of the book is well adhered to, other persons are continually introduced. Elizabeth was educated with Mary Queen of Scots ; and, child as she was, for Mary was five years older, she seems to have formed an indifferent opinion of that too famous lady. Don Carlos is BO fully handled that we have almost a life of him as well as of his mother-in-law • and although a good deal has been written about him lately, Mrs. Freer's inquiries have exhumed some new information from inedited papers. Such, too, is the case with Mary—a woman who has been the object of more investigation than any other individual of her sex.

"A curious and interesting record of the school days of these two princesses exists in the Bibliotheque Imperiale ; which, strange to say, has been overlooked by the recent biographers of Mary Stuart, though of' moment to the early history of that princess. The manuscript consists of a • Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain, and the Court of Philip II. From numerous Unpublished Sources in the Archives of France, Italy. and Spain. By Martha Walker Freer, Author of the Life of Marguerite D'Angouleme, and the Life of Jeanne D'1Ibret, Queens of Nmarre. In two volumes. Published by Ilurst and Blacken. collection of eighty-six short essays composed by Mary, and afterwards translated by herself into the Latin tongue, the French and the Latin versions standing side by side. The themes are almost all written in the form of familiar epistles or admonitions, addressed to her friend and companion Elizabeth. Sometimes, Mary gives a summary of her morning's reading with her master; at others, she dilates on some royal virtue; and not onfrequently her little essays assume the shape of a reprimand to her sister Elizabeth for indolence or impatience while occupied with her studies. Mary's Latin versions display ability, and sustain the repute which she afterwards acquired for her classical attainments. Elizabeth having one day omitted to show sufficient diligence in her studies, at the lemon of the, following morning, Mary addressed her thus— "'Mares Seotorenn Regina, Elizabthe Sorori, S. P. D. " Ce n'est pas assez au commencement do tea etudes, ma scour hienaimee, de demander l'aide de Dieu ; male veult quo de touter) tea forces th travailles. Car ma mie, lea lindens out dit quo lee dieux no donnent lours . biens aux oiaifs, maim lea vendent par lea labeure. Adieu, et m'aime autant quo je t'aime.

"Mary's Latin translation of her letter is as follows— A. Itneams.'

" Non est saris in principio therm studiorum a Boo petero auxilium. Sod ipso vult ut totis viribus laboree. Nam, arnica summa niea et sorer, antiqui dixerunt does non dare bona sua amide sod ea renders luboribus. Bone vale, at nie, ut °mite, ama.' • • "Had Mary remembered., when seated on the throne the many wise and tolerant maxims contained in these her school essays,. her reign might have been one unsurpassed in prosperity. The quotations from the various authors, both ancient and modern, to which Mary casually alludes in this collection of themes, shows the erudite nature of the education received by the princesses. "'You were astonished yesterday, my sister,' writes Mary Stuart in an, other epistle, 'that being Sunday I quitted the presence-chamber of the , Q110011 to retire into my study. Tho reason was, that during the last two days I have been reading a colloquy, written by Erasmus, and entitled "Dialogue," which is so fine, so witty, and so praatioali that never can it be surpassed. Ali! how he rates those who pass much tune in sleep, or who think nothing of wasting time, which after all is the most precious of all

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things. Moreover, the Latin is easy, and so elegant that it s impossible to read anything more polished. a. I will construe some of it to you today if I have leisure. Adieu!'

"Mary occasionally addresses her betrothed husband the Dauphin ; she also writes to Madame Claude, and to her uncle the Cardinal do -Lorraine ; always taking as the subject of her theme some incident of her daily life at St. Germain and elsewhere, or selecting a passage or precept from her studies to descant upon."

In noticing Mr. Prescott's life of Philip the Second, we observed that his researches had left a more favourable impression of that monarch than was generally entertained, though no proof of it appeared in his volumes. Mrs. Freer has arrived at a similar conclusion, but in her case we have proofs. Philip's affection for his consort was displayed oven in public, and showed itself in private, not ostentatiously, but kindly and. quietly. Here he appears quite as a family man : the picture is from an inedited despatch of the French Ambassador.

"The ambassador Fourquevaulx, on the day following the Queen's accouchement, proceeded to El Bosque to congratulate Philip. During the afternoon of the same day, he was conducted to the door of Elizabeth's chamber, by Don Diego do Cordova, that he might be able, on the evidence of his own senses, to transmit a good account of the condition of the Queen. of Spain to his sovereigns. The Queen was reposing on a bed placed under a pavilion of crimson damask, magnificently fringed with gold, and °nutmerited with heraldic devices. The walls of the apartment were draped with scarlet velvet, striped with a broad embroidery of gold thread. It so happened that the King sat at the head of the bed, reclining in a velvet ehiur, and when the ambassador paid his visit he was conversing with the Queen. Philip courteously acknowledged the presence of the ambassador, and signed for him to approach. His majesty then said, that he was sure her Christian majesty would rejoice to hear of her daughter's happy delivery, as she had been go greatly afflicted by care on her account. Ho hoped that very shortly her majesty would be convaleseent, so that joy might reign without alloy in both courts. The Queen then asked me, with her accustomed sweet smile„ whether my courier would soon reach your majesty with the tidings ? ' I replied, that on Monday or Tuesday next, (August 18th,) your majesty would without fail be in possession of the news. I then exhorted her majesty to hasten her recovery ; and expatiated on the joy which would be felt by you, madame and the whole of France, when they heard of her safety, and of the birth of !fair princess.' Elizabeth replied, that it had always been indifferent to her whether she became the mother of a prince or of a princess ; 'but now, monseigtieur, I rejoice greatly that it is the latter, as the King my lord and husband declares himself to be better satisfied with a daughter.' Eli

zabeth was then requested by Philip not to converse longer; she, therefore ,re

merely prayed the ambassador to report her good condition which he had seen with his own eyes, to the Queen her mother ; and not fail topey u visit to madame l'infante, before he quitted the palace. accordingly obeyed her majesty,' writes the Fourquevaulx, and found her royal highness very magnificently lodged, about five or six chambers' distance from her mother's. She was fast asleep, lying under a canopy of crimson velvet fringed with gold. Without flattery, madame, I may report that the infanta is a very pretty child, having an ample forehead, rather a large nose like that of her father, whom she likewise resembles in the feature of her mouth, and she is considered a great child for her age. In short, madame, the infanta's features and complexion promise great beauty ,and brilliancy ; and the skin of her face is smooth and free from blemishes. "

RAEFORD'S LIFE OF MICIIA.EL •IiGELO.* IT has often been observed that certain times produce as it were a crop of genius. The age of Pericles in arts and literature, of Elizabeth in literature and adventure, of the Commonwealth in politics and statesmanship, of the French Revolution in military and naval affairs, are all ready instances. The century that embraced a large part of the fifteenth and the earlier portion of the sixteenth was in Italy equally distinguished for the number of men illustrious in the fine arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as for military engineering, and the application of mechanics to the useful arts. The fertility of genius in such times is often as remarkable as the genius itself'. What abundant works were poured forth by the Elizabethan poets and by the • The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarrotti with Translations of many of his Poems and Letters. Also Memoirs of Savonarola, Raphael, and Vittoria Colonna. By John B. Harford, Esq., D.C.L., I.R.S., Member of the Academy of Painting of St. Luke, Sze. In two volumes. Published by Longman and Co.

Italian artists in the period alluded to! Nor is the variety of the genius less remarkable than its extent. Some of the Elizabethan worthies were men of action as well as writers. If theatrical management of yore involved the cares which it does now, Shakspere, it might be thought, would have had little time to write plays. During the pahny age of Italian art, many artists were at once painters, sculptors, and architects, and some embraced military engineering in addition. The greatest of all perhaps, Leonardo Da Vinci, added to this wide range of art the science of hydraulics in its application to irrigation, and he seems to have intuitively reached in natural philosophy some of those discoveries which after ages had to work out by slow ancl, elabo rate processes. •

Among these great and varied geniuses, Michael Angelo was one of the greatest ; yielding to Leonardo himself only in the variety and philosophical character of some of Da Vinci's pursuits. AS a sculptor, we imagine he stands at the head of modern artists : if he yields to the ancients, it is in their ideal or abstract elevation and finish, against which are to be placed the strong individuality and naturalness of his figures, and an energetic life which is wanting in the cold abstract beauty of classicality. His eminence as an architect is sufficiently shown by his completion of Bramante's unfinished design for .St. Peter's. His preeminence in the mediteval system of military engineering is vouched by the fact that Vauban carefully examined Michael Angelo's works for the defence of Florence, and even made accurate drawings of them. As a painter, his greatness will not be denied : his precise position in pictorial art is a subject of greater question, from the variety of the qualities painting admits and indeed requires. He had not the elegance and flexibility in design, the common humanity in his figures, the skill or charm in his accessories, the excellence of colouring, that distinguished Leonardo and Raphael, or the grace and chiaroscuro of Correggio. In sublimity of conception, breadth and grandeur of design, force of expression, thorough knowledge of anatomy, and, according to Bell, august conception of the human form," he stands alone. In fact, his style both in painting and sculpture is solitary. Like Dante and Milton in poetry, he may want variety and excellence in the lesser graces, but he stands alone ; even attempts at imitation become ludicrous.

Nor was Michael Angelo merely a great artist. He might not in strictness be a learned man, but he was well read in the Italian productions then existing, and sufficiently acquainted, through whatever channels, with classical and sacred literature to inform, extend, and elevate his mind. Nor was he wholly absorbed in art or study. He was a follower and admirer of the great Florentine Reformer Savonarola' and a patriot of sufficient zeal to risk his prospects and indeed his life by undertaking the defensive fortification of Florence when Charles the Fifth at the instigation of Clement the Seventh undertook to put down the Republic and restore the Medici. He was a critic, as appears by some of his writings, and by the opinions in Vasari's Lives, many of which the biographer says he got from Michael Angelo. Like several of his contemporaries, he wrote verses, and with better claims to the character of poetry, from the gravity of his sentiments, the force of his thoughts, and the biographical spirit which pervades many of the pieces : though whether he could have become a great poet may perhaps be doubted. Hero are the opinions of Wordsworth on Michael Angelo's poetical style, an account of his poems by his biographer, and a translation by Southey of one of his most characteristic madrigals.

"

'I mentioned Michael Angelo's poetry' (says Mr. Wordsworth, in one of his letters) 'to you sonic time ago : it is the most difficult to construe I ever met with, but just what you would expect from such a man, showing abundantly how conversant his soul was with great things. There is a mistake in the world concerning the Italian language : the poetry of Dante and Michael Angelo proves, that if there be little majesty and strength in Italian verse, the fault is in the authors and not in the tongue. I can translate, and have translated, two books of Ariosto at the rate nearly of a hundred lines a day ; but so much meaning has been put by Michael Angelo into so little room, and that meaning sometimes so exexcellent in itself, that I found the difficulty of translating him insurmountable. I attempted at least fifteen of the sonnets, but could not anywhere succeed. I have sent you the only one I was able to finish : it is far from being the best or most characteristic, but the others were too much for me.'

"The collection includes sixty-two small poems, under the name of madrigals, and sixty-four sonnets, besides a few pieces of somewhat greater compass ; the most interesting among which is an elegy, in which he deplores the death of a brother, and describes, in a touching strain of devotion and tenderness, how much this stroke had revived his feelings of grief for the loss of his father.

"The madrigals are in general light, elegant effusions, in a lyrical form, or in more measure'd numbers, the favourite topic being the charms of some nameless fair whose favour it is his object to propitiate. Others of the same class are imbued with a lofty strain of philosophical or religious sentiment.

"The sonnets comprehend the most beautiAil and finished of his poems ; those which are most read mid oftenest recurred to, and upon which his reputation as a votary of the Muses chiefly depends. "Of these some are interesting from the noble or profound sentiments which pervade them, or from their felicitous illustrations of or allusions to artistic principles, or from keen observations on life and manners; but the distinctive feature of no small portion of them is their Platonic sentiment and tendency.

Ill hath he chosen his part who seeks to please

The worthless world,—ill hath he chosen his part, For often must he wear the look of ease When grief is in his heart ; And often in his hours of happier feeling With sorrow must hi* countenance be hung, And over his own better thoughts concealing, Must he in stupid Grandeur's praise be loud, And to the errors of the ignorant crowd Assent with lying tongue.

Thus much would I conceal, that none should blow

What secret cause I have for silent wo ; And, taught by many a melancholy proof That those whom Fortune favoursit pollutes, I, from the blind and faithless world aloof, Nor fear its envy, nor desire its praise, But choose my path through solitary ways."

Michael Angelo Buonaarotti lived nearly to the age of ninety ; having been born in 1474, and dying in 1563. He retained the clearness of his mind and, the use of his hand to the last ; but for some fifteen years before his death be was not capable of tasks that required application or bodily activity. Indeed, he did not undertake any work of much character or originality for at least a quarter of a century before that time. The nature of art, which requires in the painter or sculptor power of eye and steadiness or vigour of hand, and in the architect activity, would suffice to account for this stopping short at a time when some men engaged in purely intellectual pursuits have almost struck out new paths—as Dryden and Johnson. The active labours of Michael Angelo, however, filled the full period allotted to the busiest life ; for at fifteen he was known as an artist of promise, and he culminated at five-and-twenty. The age he attained coupled with his incessant diligence is proof enough of the vigour of his constitution ; but that vigour was even greater than those circumstances would imply. He was always temperate and regular; which of course was favourable to health ; but his abstinence at one time would have destroyed any constitution of less extraordinary strength : in early life he lived chiefly upon bread and a little wine. His death excited great sensation in Italy ; and his body, transported from Rome to Florence, was buried with more than regal honours.

Besides what may be gathered from his own writings and other incidental contemporary sources, Vasari and Condivi, who knew him personally, have given accounts of the great artist's life. These original materials, and the commentaries and researches of later writers, have been laid, under contribution by Dr. Harford ; who has also given pretty full descriptions of Michael Angelo's principal works, whether in painting, sculpture, or architecture, adding besides a chapter on his poetry. So far as relates to facts or information, these volumes contain a sufficient life of the great painter and sculptor ; but the unity is rather marred by the too full introduction of other subjects, such as Savonarola, the Reformation in Italy, a sketch of the history of Florence in connexion with the Medici family. The notices of the predecessors and contemporaries of Michael Angelo are appropriate if not necessary; but they run too much into independent biographies, instead of being confined to an estimate of the influence of these artists upon art and consequently upon Michael Angelo, or -of Michael Angelo upon them. Neither is the tone of the whole exactly that which is desired in a work of this kind. The manner has too much of the pseudo classicality of the last age about it, and is consequently deficient both in individuality and force.