The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-14 00:00:00

And some pages later we are told :

The deportment of Don Carlos, during this interval,
seems to have been exemplary; for although he was an•
inmate of El Bosque, his name is never mentioned dis
paragingly in the despatches of de Fonrquevaulz, who had
been sent by Catherine de Medici to Segovia, to retail to
her the events and gossip of the Court.
When the Queen was confined—
Don Carlos showed much pleasure when he learned
Elizabeth's safety, and joined tervently in the thanksgiving
service : he, however, added, " that he was glad the
Queen's offspring was not a son."

As soon as Elizabeth was well enough to
receive visitors—

The Prince seemed enthusiastie in praise of his tiny
sister, so rejoiced was he to behold the Queen.
We may notice in passing a curious instance of
Philip's amiable desire to advance his daugh-
ter's interests :

For tho advancement and pracperity of the infants.
Philip undertook some of his most famous enterprises.
lie promoted the civil wart of the League in France

THE PRESS.

against Henri IV., chiefly with the view of placing the
diadem of her mother's ancestors on the brow of Isabel !

The revolt in the Netherlands helped to
widen the breach between the father and son.
The views of Carlos seem to have been more
sagacious as well as more humane than those
of Philip. In the following passage, again, we
catch glimpses of the Prince's devotion to the
young Queen :
Don Carlos frequently conversed with Elizabeth on
Flemish affairs; and the French ambassador relates that
in many subsequent conversations with her Majesty on
polities, and on the alliance with Austria, the Prince
formed a third party in the debate. One day, at this
period, Don Carlos accompanied Elizabeth during a rural
excursion for air and exercise. Remarking that the Prince
sat immersed in deep thought, the Queen asked him the
subject of his meditation. "Madame," replied Don
Carlos, "my thoughts were roving two hundred miles far
away, in avery distant country." "What country, Monseig-
near?" asked the Queen. " I was thinking of my cousin,
madame," rejoined Don Carlos, with a sigh, and loosing
fixedly at the Queen as he spoke. Elizabeth never seems
to have encouraged these matrimonial designs and allu-
sions ; she doubtless comprehended the depth of the
aversion felt by the King towards his son, whose disregard
of the decencies and amenities of life disgusted and
incensed a monarch so careful of appearances. The
Prince, however, always retired from the Queen's presence
comforted and soothed ; the tenderness of her womanly
pity was grateful to him, whom all feared and betrayed.
" Often the Prince was heard vehemently to declare with
marks of great emotion after quitting the apartments of
Queen Elizabeth his step• mother, that the King his father had
done a bad and a cruel thing to have robbed him of her,"
writes de Thou. " He deemed her gentle, lovely, and wise,"
says BrantOine, and in truth she was one of the brightest
and most peerless princesses in the world."

The Prince had some poetic talent. A
few of his verses are given here. The lines
he addressed to a favourite parrot of the
Queen are harshly termed " doggrel " :

Si vous pnuviez 6 heureuz Perroquet
Ma volonte et mon affection
Bien declarer par votre bon cacquet.
Si vous pouviez dire ma passion
Etant au lieu de ma devotion,
L'on preteroit plus volontiers I'oreille
A vous disant ma douleur non pareille
Que si moi-meme en disoit verite.
Perroquet douc, je vous prie et conseillo
,

Parlez-pour moi, puisque este ecoute!
The sentiment of the lines may be —loosely
rendered thus :-
0 happy parrot ! Could thy prattling voice
Shape sounds whereby my wind might be exprest—
Could it declare my passion and MT choice,
And speak the trdent love that fills my breast—

Then, as thou nestlest at my heart's dear shrine,
Might my affliction, great beyond compare,
Find kindlier entrance to an ear divine
Than should my venturous lips the truth declare.
Oh parrot, then, I pray thee speak my pain,
Since that thy voice is audience sure to gain.
The father's hatred of his snn became at last
too plain for concealment. The French Am-
bassador wrote to Catherine :
The father hates the son, and the son returns the like,
and in not less degree. In short, if God interposes not,
all must one day end in great calamity. In the same
measure, nevertheless, that the hate of the said son aug-
ments towards his father. does his affection increase for
the Queen his step-mother; for in her does the prince
SO his only solace.

Those who surrounded the King were eager to
second or even anticipate the worst sugges-
tions of his hatred. Don Juan of Austria was
employed to gain his confidence that he might
betray it. The Prince was eager to pour his
wrongs into a sympathising bosom:—

Know you not," passionately responded Don Carlos,
" that I am the most miserable and unfortunate of
princes ? lam treated like a slave, and deprived of the
smallest participation in State affairs. I have no autho-
lity, or office confided to me, to serve for employment, or
to render me hereafter capable of governing this my future
realm !"

4 witty sally of the Prince precipitated his
ruin :

The Abbe de St. Real thus recounts an incident, for
the veracity of which he has &anionic, for a voucher :
" One day," says St. Real, " after many personages—who
had assembled in the apartments of the Queen. and who
had there discoursed upon the alleged journey of the King
into Flanders—had taken leave of her Majesty, there
remained behind only Don Carlos, l)on Juan of Austria,
and the Princess of Eboli. After ridiculing together the
folly of courtiers in giving themselves the trouble to
discuss the result of events which might never take place,
Don Carlos began to deride the journey itself, and the
pains which the King took to counterfeit illness in order
to elude it. He said his father appeared to be of opinion
that the Emperor Charles Quint had taken journeys
enough for himself, and for his son ; so that the King had
determined to take both repose for himself, and ter the
Emperor also. Tile Queen did not hear this remark, she
being engaged in discoursing privately with several in.
diviluals whn had sought audience. 1)ou Juan, anti the
Princess of Eboli, however, conversed together in a low

SATURDAY,

voice. Don Carlos then began to make a little book
with some sheets of paper, which he took from a else on
the table, upon which he wrote in large letters on the
first page, ' The Great and Admirable Journeys of the
King, Don Philip ll.' Upon each of the blank pages of
the book, he proceeded to enter one of the following
titles: The journey from Madrid to El Escorial: the
journey from El Escorial to Toledo : the journey from
Toledo to Madrid: from Madrid to Aranjuez: from Aran-
juez t 9 El Pardo : from El Pardo to El Escorial; ' and
in such fashion he filled the book with the journeys of the
King to and from his palaces, and the principal towns
of the realm. The Queen, when the book was shown to
her by the Prince, could not help laughing at this con-
ceit, dangerous as its indulgence appeared to her Ma-
jesty."

This paper was secreted by the Princess of
Eboli and taken to Philip. The King never
forgave the incident, and not long after the
Prince paid for his indiscretion with his life.
He was not unaware of the danger which me-
naced him, and seriously contemplated flight
to the Netherlands. In December, 1567, it is
said :

Often he sought refuge from the anxiety, and perhaps
from the misgivings which oppressed him, in the society
of the young Queen, for says de Fourquevaulx, " le Prince
l'aime merveilleusement." Elizabeth mingled her tears
with those of the unhappy Prince ; and exhorted him very
earnestly to lay aside auy dangerous design which might
then occupy his mind.

On the Nth of January, 1568, the Prince was
arrested as he slept :
Don Carlos, after many violent struggles, succeeded in
escaping from the grasp of his captor, and throwing him-
self at his father's feet, with sobs of anguish, he demanded
in what respect he had offended his Majesty ? The King,
with his " accustomed forbearance," replied, by desiring
his son to be composed, and to return quietly to his bed.
Kill me, Majesty, kill me, rather than make me your
prisoner, which will be a notable scandal !" exclaimed the
unhappy Prince. "If you will not kill me, I will take my
own life !" " No," responded Philip, " you will not : that,
indeed, would be the act of a madman !" "I am not
mad; but your Majesty drives me to despair by your
severity," replied the Prince. 4. In future, I treat you as
a King your sovereign, and not as a father !" rejoined
the stern monarch. The Prince then threw himself on
his bed, and his words became so drowned in tears and
sighs as to be no longer audible.

The Queen was deeply afflicted when she
learned this event, the next day :

The astonishment and affliction of Elizabeth were over
powering; and it is recorded that she wept almost without
ceasing for two whole days, until commanded by the King
to dry her tears.
The French Ambassador wrote :

The Queen, your daughter, madame, is deeply affected
at this event ; she weeps bitterly for the love which she
bears towards the father and the son.

At the command of Philip, Elizabeth wrote to
Charles IX., to inform him of the arrest of
Carlos. The letter is brief and formal, but the
Queen could not conceal her grief :

As for myself, I am able to tell you nothing, except that
I cannot console myself under so great a misfortune,
which I esteem my own, more than that of any other
person, from the friendship which I bear the Prince, and
the many obligations I feel to owe him. As I may not
say more, I pray it may now please you, that I kiss your
hands.

The Prince lived in imprisonment for just
six months. We read that he was seized with
sickness and vomitings in consequence of the
quantity of fruit and iced-water that ho par-
took of; but who supplied his table ? He was
placed under guard of his mortal enemy the
Prince of Eboli. When Miss Freer says that
the testimony of all the foreign Ministers was
that Carlos died a natural death, she over-
looks circumstances she has herself stated,
which show the worthlessness of such testi-
mony. Thus, the French Ambassador ex-
pressly states, that after the arrest of the
Prince it was forbidden on peril of death to
report anything concerning him. All access
to him was denied. The Queen's request to
seo him was sternly refused. The officers
who guarded the Prince under Eboli were
sworn to obedience and secrecy. From the
day of his arrest to his death, it does not
appear that Philip ever visited him. When
dying, the Prince requested an interview with
his father. It was refused ; but after his
death, Philip came to look upon the corpse,
and we are told, extending his arms over the
clay, forgave it its trespasses.
The Queen never recovered the shock of
the Prince's arrest. We read that immediately
afterwards she began to siekeu. The Prince
died on the 24th of July, 1568; the Queen
survived only till the 3rd of October following.
Miss Freer is right in saying that no evi,lcnce
exists to warrant the supposition that she

FEBRUARY 14, 1857.

was unfairly treated. But the heart of this
beautiful and amiable Princess must have
withered as the tragedies perpetrated by the
remorseless Philip thickened about her. She
could hardly have been ignorant of the means
taken to put an end to the life of Carlos. From
the first hour of his incarceration, the cata-
strophe must have been apparent to every one.
The grandees who supported the arrest, must
have known that they were not safe as long
us the Prince remained alive.
Miss Freer's character of Philip is that of a
respectable business-like king. She has not
mind to grasp his real nature. He was of all
characters the most detestable ; a formal bigot,
without sympathies, sagacity, conscience, or
heart. Schiller has invested him with a
gloomy grandeur he does not deserve. Of all
men that ever held sovereign power, he was,
in our judgment, the worst. As is not un-
commonly the case with men of narrow in-
tellect, implacable will, and stony heart, he
bad a firm belief in his own infallibility. He
could smile and murder while he smiled, from
a conviction that he was acting a meritorious
part. This seems to us the very height and
perfection of atrocity humanity is capable of
attaining, when the extreme of wickedness is
combined with the extreme of self•compla-
cency. While one spark of remorse exists in
the mind, while even it is shaken by a doubt,
nature is not wholly depraved. It is only
when all thoughts that can suggest error or
plead for pity are hushed to rest, that man
becomes an incarnate fiend ; and this result
is seldom attained, except when the grossest
bigotry is grafted upon a character grossly
brutal by nature.
The period of history embraced in these
volumes is extremely important, and the more
fascinating to the mind as we feel that the
true history of Don Carlos, and his connection
with his sweet and lovely step-mother, has yet
to be disclosed.

The Works of the Rev. Thomas ..11.Crie, D.D.
Edited by his Son. Parts 111., IV., V.,
VI., and VII. London : Blackwoods.

AUTHORS who deserve to be remembered
belong to various classes. Some are remark-
able by their style ; others by their deep
thought, or decided originality ; and not a
few merit preservation by their valuable matter
and the judicious application of common
faculties uncommonly cultivated. Amongst
these latter we think that the late Dr. M•Crie
deserves an honourable place. His " Life of
Knox" was a highly creditable performance ;
and we think that it will be difficult for any
succeeding author to displace Dr. 111'Crie
from the rank of being the biographer of the
famous Scotch Reformer. Other writings from
the same learned pen have in a lesser degree
many of his best characteristics. M'Crie was
a thorough Protestant. He was also a Scotch
" nationalist," in a sense different from the
meaning of Sir Walter Scott. He had little
imagination ; his style is not affected by the
influence of poetry; he had the force and
acuteness of the Scotch mind, though his
capacity for generalisation was not equally
developed. To a certain extent his intellect
was book-ridden; we meet with no passages of
originality in his writings He could not be
the head of a school of thinkers, nor could he
powerfully modify the opinions of those
around him. Examined with reference to the
eminent literary men of his own couLtry, it
must be conceded that his style wants the
continuous ft< w of Robertson. the cold, high
finish of Blair, and the genial verve and
expansive force of Chalmers. But APCrie
had great merits of his own, which must
always give his works an honourable place in
a Scottish library, and make some of his
writings sought for by English scholars. His
attainments were solid ; his researches were
painstaking ; and his style, if neither ambi-
tious nor brilliant, is forcible and natural,
though deficient in flexibility. His notes bear
testimony to his wide acquaintance with his
subject, and on Scottish ecclesiastical subjects
his name will often be cited, and always with
respect.
We arc not, therefore, surprised at his
writings being collected for republication.
The two first parts of the edition before us'

THE PRESS.

contain his well-known " Life of Knox.'
The third and fourth are occupied with the
" Life of Andrew Melville," which is of
little interest except to explorers in Scotch
history; the fifth and sixth parts treat of the
" Reformation in Italy and Spain and the
seventh is occupied with the once•famous
" Review of "Tales of My LAndlord.'" The
last part merits the attention of the reader
who is curious in watching the unreality of
masters in the art. of historical fiction. This
review occupies nearly half of the seventh
part, running to ono hundred anti thirty
pages, making about as much matter as is in
two hundred pages of an ordinary '• Quarterly."
The price of the part is two shillings and
sixpence, and it deserves being placed on
the shelf where the Waverley Novels repose.
We shall notice this remarkable piece of
writing.

The review is thus introduced with the
following notice from the editor:—
The following review first appeared in the pages of the
Christian Instructor, a religious periodical, under the
editorship of the late celebrated Dr. Andrew Thomson of
Edinbur.A. It extended over the numbers of that
periodical for January, February, and March, 1'417. From
the Life of Dr. M'Crie, it appears that he was induced to
undertake the task of reviewing the " Tales of My Land
lord '' by his ardent and energetic friend, the editor, who
urged him not to spare the author; to praise his Scotch,
but reprobate his principles with all his might.
Our reviewer entered on his task con amore, and pro-
duced a critique which excited at the same time the live-
liest sensation. In the tale of " Ohl Mortality " " The
Great Unknown " had intruded into ground still hell
sacred in Scotland, and represented the heroes of the
Covenant as little better than madmen, fanatics, and cut-
throats. He had besides employed all the charms of his
pen to throw an air of attractive romance around the cha-
racter of Claverhouse, the bitter persecutor of the Cove-
nanters, who, from the deep share he took in the
sanguinary proceedings of that unhappy period, was long
held in abhorrence throughout Scotland, under the
designation of " Bloody Claverse." In the judgment of
the Scottish public, the review was held to be a complete
refutation of the historical misstatements of the novelist,
and a successful vindication of the vilified Covenanters.
But it has been remarked, " it was something more than
this in the eyes of Scott and his admirers, for it attacked
him with a strength of wit and power of sarcasm that
threatened to turn the laugh against himself, and foil him
at his own chosen weapon." As the authorship of the
Tales was then more than suspected, so that of the Review
did not long remain unknown ; and it was held to be no
ordinary contest when the type of ancient feudalism was
seen pitted against the representative of its old adversary,
the Whiggism of the Covenant.

That the majority of "the Scottish public " at
large may have taken the estimate alluded to
here, may be true enough ; but there were
two sides to the question in the opinion of a
not incompetent or unlearned minority. Of
the effect produced by these " invectives," as
Lockhart calls them, we have that accom-
plished critic's own admission in the life of
his famous father-in-law :—" Though Scott,
" when he first heard of these invectives, ex-
" pressed his resolution never even to read
" them, he found the impression they were
" producing so strong that he soon changed
" his purpose, and finally devoted a very large
" part of his article for the Quarterly Reriew to
" an elaborate defence of his own picture of
" the Covenanters." The nineteenth volume
of Scott's " Miscellaneous Prose Works " con-
tains the " article " referred to by Lockhart,
taken from the Quarterly Reriew (January,
Pin). The present editor reiterates his
father's opinion, and reminds us of Scott
having branded Dundee's victims as " the
" beastly Covenanters," and Scott's own ad-
mission that he "had many Cavalier prejudices
" instilled into him :" and he adds, " it is now
" generally allowed by those who have read
" the following vindication of the Covenanters,
" that the prince of novelists was guilty of
" taking the most inexcusable liberties with
" the facts of history." This conclusion, ex-
pressed with so much strength, may be demur-
red to by sonic.
It is many years since we read this able
dissertation on th.' substratum of historical
fact in " Old Mortality." We have now pe-
rused it again, and our feelings are not quite
in unison with the able essayist. From first
to last he never makes sufficient allowance for
the exigeneie.s of a fiction, and he treats his
author as if he were criticising a Hume, or
Robertson, or professed narrator of positive
facts. That there is prejudice in Scott's pic-
ture of the Covenanters, is true ; and we
suspect that it would be difficult to find any

161

literary Scotchman who could write of those
tunes with perfect impartiality. Scutt's serene
temper, and his dislike of exaggerated reli-
gion, recoiled from the stern, though often
sublime, fanaticism of the Covenanters. We
acquit hint of all design of caricaturing them,
or holding them up to reprobation, though we
admit that his picture of them is unfavourable.
" An historical fiction " is still a novel after
all, made to amuse, written without the deep
responsibility of an historian, and addressed
to the lightest and gayest portion of society
It is the inherent vice of that class of work
that it is hybrid, and that either the actual or
the amusing must be sacrificed. A writer
with frigid impartiality could scarcely have
the warm sympathies, and vigorous play of
human feeling, necessary for a great novelist.
Scott put a modest value on the labours of a
writer of fietion. He observes, in his " Life of
Mrs. Radcliffe," "If those who rail at this species
" of composition were to consider the actual
" quantity of pleasure which it produces, and
" the much greater proportion of real sorrow
" and distress which it alleviates, their philan-
" thropy ought to moderate their critical
" uride or religious intolerance."—( Lives of the
Novelists.)
The essayist remarks with something more
that "critical pride" on the accomplishments
necessary for an historical novelist :
Resides fidelity, impartiality, and judgment, it requires
an extensive, and minute, and accurate acquaintance with
the history of the period selected, including the history of
opinions and habits, as well as of events. And we do not
hesitate to say that this is a species of intelligence which
is not likely to he possessed by the person who holds in
sovereign contempt the opinions which were then deemed
of the utmost moment, and turns with disgust from the
very exterior manners of the men whose inmost haiits he
affects to disclose. Nor will the multifarious reading of
the dabbler in everything, from the highest affairs of
Church and State down to the economy of the kitchen and
the management of the stable, keep him from blundering
here at every step.
We think that the critic before us takes
an exaggerated view of Sir Walter Scott's
partisanship, even if such must be admitted.
For example, Scott wrote :

The rigour of the strict Calvinists (says he) increased
in proportion to the wishes of the Government that it
should be relaxed. A supercilious oondeunation of all
manly pastimes and harmless recreations distinguished
those who professed a more than ordinary share of
sanctity.
After a page of mordant ridicule the reviewer
tvinds up a vehement passage with what he
considers a crushing reply to the foregoing
assertion :
The fact is, that from the Reformation down to the
period in which the scene of this tale is laid, such exer-
cises and pastimes were quite common throughout Scot•
land ; children were carefully traine I to them when at
school; professors in universities attended and joined in
them, as well as their students ; and the IWsbytenan
ministers, having practised them at school and at college,
instead of condemning them as unlawful, did not scruple
to countenance them with their presence. There were
some of these precise preachers for whom, we suspect, our
author (with all his intimate knowledge of such sports)
might not have been quite a match in shooting at the
popinjay; and in playing with them at the rapier or small-
sword, or in wrestling a Gill, we are afraid he might have
come off as badly as Sergeant Bothwell did from the brawny
arms of John Balfour of Burley.
Now, Scott's assertion was pointed only at
those who professed a more than ordinary
" share of sanctity." The sneer about the
author not being likely to be a match for
" some of them at the rapier or small-sword,"
&c., is singularly inappropriate. Mr. Carlyle
well observes, in his striking though severe
paper on Scott, " that Sir Walter would have
played his part well amongst the William of
" Deloraiues, or the Marmions, of whom he
" wrote." He was more than commonly
endowed with both moral and physical
courage.

Many other sneers, which had their point as
long as the author of the Waverley Novels was
undiscovered, now are blunted. Here, for
exa►nple, is a passage which, like many similar
ones, had allusion, force, and pungency at the
time :

Hat we must conclude that part of our review which
relates to the partiality shown by the author to the op•
pressors of the Pre,,h3terians ; and we cannot do this
better than by quoting a passage from a beautiful little
poem which has appeared in the Pothc Mirror, and which
we should have liked to hive seen in a separate form. It
is said to be written by Walter Scott. It certainly would
have done no discredit to the talents of that celebrated
poet ; but some of its most prominent sentiments—not to
speak of the sty le—bear so very little resemblance to his,

I