The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-08 00:00:00

JULY 8, 1854•

Ifittraturr.

77w Life of Marguerite D'Angoulime, Queen of
Navarre. By Martha Walker Freer. Lou-
don: Hurst and Blackett.
Tax age described in these very readable
volumes is certainly one of the most interest-
ing in modern history. It presents a variety
of features which rivet the attention. Its re-
ligious contests have enduring attractions for
the supporters of Protestantism and the vo-
taries of Papal Rome, while its political
struggles, influencing the balance of power,
must be studied by all desirous of compre-
hending the gradual formation of our modern
European system. The period is sufficiently
removed from our own times to give us
sensations of variety as we study its transac •
tions and survey its remains of ar•t, while the
modern tone of its manners, and blending of
the aristocratic and popular influences, enable
us to sympathise with its life more thoroughly
than in the case of remoter eras equally im-
portant but far less interesting. Another
source of its attractiveness is to be found in
the number of historical characters which
rivet our attention.
There is no pleasanter way of familiarising
ourselves with the striking social changes of
that time than by perusing such a work as has
been here presented to us by Miss Freer. She
has filled two volumes with a quantity of cu-
rious matter judiciously selected, not merely
from the old French writers, but from a num-
ber of documents and letters hitherto unpub-
lished. The collection of remarkable papers
published under the auspices of the Society
of the History of France, and edited by M.
Genin, have also been drawn upon by the
authoress, and she has spared no pains in the
collection of copiously-illustrative matter for
her work. In literary execution it bears a
strong resemblance to the works of Miss Agnes
Strickland. Its narrative is tesselated with a
quaint variety of suggestive passages from the
writers of the time, and to the general English
reader its greatest merit is that of completely
transporting him into the period described.
Amongst the female celebrities of modern
Europe, Margaret of Angouleme is in the first
rank. Her personal fascinations, her literary
accomplishments, her generous protection of
some of the sufferers from religious frenzy,
and the strength of her affections, commend
her to the regard of all who like to observe
the humane and the generous entering into the
composition of exalted personages. She was
not, indeed, one of those dominating women
who, like our Elizabeth or Mary Queen of
Scots, affected the events of history and car-
ried in their persons the fates of nations and
the hopes of rival churches. Ardent affection
for her brother, Francis 1., was possibly her
strongest feeling, and the love subsisting be-
tween them, extinguished only by death, is the
most romantic element of her career. Sir James
Stephen has truly observed that Francis I.
was rather a great actor than a great agent
in the political drama of his times. The same
remark applies also to his sister, the Queen of
Navarre. She had not that fixity of resolve
which sways others as by some overmastering
principle. Her attention was too often divided,
and the very extent of her accomplishments
may possibly have impeded the concentrative-
nese so absolutely necessary to form ruling
natures. But, surveyed from a strictly per-
sonal point of view, what Margaret of Angou-
leme loses in importance she more than gains
by the strong personal interest her character
excites. We see that she had a warm human
heart beating under her robes of state. A joy
ous, gracious air reigns over her life. Neither
the slave of etiquette, nor the unwise despiser
of social forms, her demeanour was at once
dignified and affable. Endowed with the tem-
perament rather than the inspiration of genius,
her literary performances display the resources
of a fertile mind and a most exuberant fancy.
There is a characteristic verve in her lan-
guage and that peculiar freshness of utterance
which results from the union of a genial tem-
per and a wide range of mental powers. The
learned men of Europe, when she died, cele
orated her praises. As Queen Elizabeth had