Princess Charlotte
The Letters of Princess Charlotte, 1811-1817. Edited by Professor Arthur Aspinall. (Home and Van Thal. 42s.) "Sence and Sencibility I have just finished reading," wrote Princess Charlotte at the age of sixteen to Miss Mercer Elphinstone. " I think Maryanne and me are very like in disposition, that certainly I am not so good, the same imprudence, &c., however, remains very like." In this observation the Princess showed one of her periodic flashes of perspicacity. For, like Marianne Dashwood, she was destined to be a heroine. She possessed all a heroine's capacity for entanglement in hopeless love affairs ; she devoured the works of Lord Byron ; her health was delicate and often gave way ; she was constantly mis- understood and occasionally persecuted ; she had a confidante to whom she could pour out, in long and almost daily letters, the latest developments in her own affections and in her relations' plots (Miss Elphinstone, indeed, was not unlike Elinor : sensible, calm, urging patience and restraint) ; and in the end she made a perfectly suitable marriage to an unexceptionable Prince, who was both devoted to her and highly successful in managing her impossible family. " I can only say this," she wrote of her marriage a week after it had taken place, " that the foundation is very reasonable, and therefore there is less chance of its ever being otherwise than with most others ; indeed, on the contrary, I am more inclined to think it will improve. I do not see how it can fail to go on well, tho' sometimes I believe it is best not to analyse one's feelings too much or probe them too deeply or nearly." So, surely, might Marianne have written a few days after becoming Mrs. Brandon.
The central episode in the drama is Charlotte's engagement to the Prince of Orange end its rupture. In February, 1814, the Princess was anxious for the marriage to take place. On the 16th of June she wrote to the Prince, in a careful and unusually well-spelt letter, " I am still of opinion that the duties and affection that naturally bind us to our respective countries render our marriage incompatible, not only aim motives of policy, but domestick happiness." By the end of July she was exclaiming, " Really, it is very hard they will force down my throat that nasty, ugly, spider-legged little Dutchman." What had happened in the meantime ? Not only difficulties over the question whether the Princess should leave the country after her marriage, but also, as Professor Aspinall now shows, the sudden appearance of Prince Frederick of Prussia, who, arriving in England in the early days of June, made a romantically instantaneous conquest of Charlotte's heart. Here was her Willoughby, dazzling, ardent and faithless. However, the penalties imposed as a result of the rupture—seclusion, change of ladies-in-waiting, opening of letters and so forth—were well calculated to foster a sense of realities. Already in November the Princess could write from her exile in Weymouth that while her " hopes of real happiness in matrimony were for ever blighted," nevertheless "were I disappointed of him [Prince Frederick], the P. of S[axe] C[oburg] decidedly would be accepted by me in preference to any other Prince I have seen." From then on to her marriage, some eighteen months later, the way, though long, was comparatively straight.
Such is the story unfolded in these letters. Almost all are from the Princess herself to Miss Elphinstone, with an occasional note of judicious advice from Lord Grey and one or two pieces of blunder- ing encouragement from the Duke of Sussex. (" The world is a world of trial, and we must have misfortunes first, for to enjoy our- selves afterwards, and besides they assist greatly to form one's character.") Editing, such a collection can have been no easy task. Professor Aspinall has kept his footnotes to a minimum, confining them almost entirely to the identification of the persons named in the text, and has supplied the background in an informative and entertaining introduction. By this means (at the cost, perhaps, of occasional moments of confusion in the mind of the reader who is not expert in dynastic politics) the letters can be read consecutively and without interruption. Admittedly, there are moments of bore- dom with the poor Princess and her affairs ; but this is no fault of the editor. Professor Aspinall has given us a notable collection of hitherto unpublished documents, enlivened by a fine series of con- temporary illustrations ; and in doing so has achieved the remarkable feat of producing a book which would be an equally welcome Christmas present to a professional historian, a connoisseur of Regency manners, or a maiden aunt. LETTICE FOWLER.
Previous page
