Current Literature
The restoration of the Stuarts proceeds apace. Miss Carols Oman's excellent biography of Henrietta Maria (Hodder and Stoughton, 18s.) brings to life the charming, tragic figure of Charles I's queen—once "the happiest woman in the world." The sixth child of Henry IV of France, she was married to Charles when she was fifteen, and after the first four years of their marriage (during which Charles was under the influence of Buckingham, who disliked her), they were a model of faithfulness and propriety to a court which under James had enjoyed considerable license. She was not a clever woman, and her few interferences in serious affairs—such as her writing to the Pope for help—were unfortunate. Like Charles, she never appreciated the temper of the country. Her Catholicism, her taste and sensibility, made no appeal to the Puritan mind, but for ten years she was blissfully ignorant of the forces which were to shatter her happiness, and Carols Oman's description of those years will make the most hardened democrat regret that it was found necessary to terminate them so ruthlessly. Simple and ingenuous, she had perfect taste in the matter of dress and decoration. The stiff, jewel-encrusted tapestries which had encased the ladies of the previous age were replaced by black silks and fine lace. Following the Royal example, furniture was more elegant, manners were less gross. In literature her taste was not so good ; she commissioned only one masque from Ben Jonson, preferring to perform—acting was her favourite occupation—the more sugary works of a Mr. Montague. Carole Oman has drawn a brilliant portrait of a fascinating woman, and her book should be popular.
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