" QUEEN ELIZABETH'S MAIDS OF HONOUR." [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—As a humble but devout student of Elizabethan history I note your reviewer's facile acceptance of the time-honoured legend about Queen Elizabeth and the looking-glass which she had not seen for twenty years, and the complete change of
mental attitude brought about by a sight of it. To me, because of its intrinsic fallacy, this story has always seemed a part of the airy gossip which took the place of journalism in the sixteenth century. No woman who believed herself beautiful ever refrained from looking at herself for that reason, unless she wished to flee the vanities of this world; therefore, to believe the story, and yet believe Elizabeth vain, is contradictory. It is possible that Elizabeth refrained from looking at herself any oftener than she could help because she did not believe herself beautiful and the sight gave her no pleasure : it is also possible that she accepted fulsome praise because it was politic to keep courtiers harmlessly employed; but there is plenty of evidence that she did not like it, as, for instance, when she left the masque prepared by Bacon and Essex, saying that if she had known that she was to hear so much about herself she would not have been present! It is a fact that most critics prefer to take a preconceived attitude about Queen Elizabeth. It would be most interesting to trace their reasons, which seem to me to preclude sense of character and event. Miss Wilson's book shows the same defects, notably when she is amused that the Queen should take an active part in preparing the Army to repulse the Spaniard. Kingship was no sinecure in those days, and if Miss Wilson cares to study the words of Elizabeth she will learn some of the terrible anxiety which had weighed on her lest the country should feel at that time the need of a masculine ruler. But perhaps Miss Wilson and the reviewer would think this vanity and something of a joke. Humour has many forms. And Miss Wilson should not accept the malicious defamation of Elizabeth by the celebrated " Bess of Hardwick " as fact. As the great Queen said, " Ignorance may be combated, but
malice should be ignored."—I am, Sir, &c., X. Y.
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