The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Court and Society, from Elizabeth to Anne. Edited
from the papers at Kimbolton, by the Duke of
Manchester. Two Vols. Hurst and Blackett.
It has been of late years not uncommon to bring
before the public some of those quaint and ancient
records which lie buried i❑ the recesses of our old
ancestral houses; to throw the light cast by some
forgotten document, some secret or undeciphered
epistle, upon the smooth prolessions of diplomacy,
or the counter intrigues of rival plotters. Such
papers are not only interesting in themselves, but
they are highly valuable as supplements to the his-
tory of the time, and commentaries on its leading
events and characters. The family documents at
Kimbolton extend over a wide range, and
include some of the most stirring and
remarkable epochs of our national life. Commen-
cing with the closing years of the reign of
Henry the Seventh, they pass to the busy days of
Elizabeth, and thence the various lives which they
illustrate bring us in quick succession to the Court
of Charles the First, to the Cabinet of Cromwell, to
William 111., to Versailles and St. Germaine in the
days of the Grand Monarque, and to that group of
statesmen, warriors, and men of letters, who distin-
guished the reign of the insignificant Queen Anne.
The greater part of the first volume is occupied by
an account of the life and misfortunes of Catharine
of Arragon, respecting whom many curious and
original documents have been discovered. Kimbol-
ton was the last dwelling-place of this noble and un-
fortunate lady, and many traces of her life and death
yet linger about its walls. " The room in which she
' passed away still bears her name. The boudoir
which she occupied, on the walls of which she hung
her pictures and tapestries, adjoins it. A travelling
chest, in which she kept her clothes and jewels, and
which has her cypher on the lid, remains at the foot
of the grand staircase. A secret passage leading from
the White drawing-room into the Chapel is said to
have been the meaxs by which she escaped from
the presence and eluded the observation of her
husband's spies." The wing which Catherine
occupied is still substantially the same, although
many subsequent improvers and decorators have
defaced the ancient pile. The family seat of the
Montagus was originally built by the Mandevilles
in a broad hollow at the crossing of two great roads
under the grey shadow of Stonely Priory. It is a
retired and primitive place, where even now the
Castle is eight miles from a post town, nine from
a railway line, while Peterborough, 30 miles off, is
the nearest station at which an express train stops.
"New comers in to such a place are rare, The son
succeeds to his father's farm, rides after the pack
which his father followed, sends his corn to be
ground at the old mill, votes on the same side at a
shire election, sits in the same pew at church in
which his father and grandfather sat before him.
In such a spot, among such a people, a poeti-
cal legend like that of Queen Catherine's
ghost holds a very long lease of life." The
spirit of the lonely and discrowned queen is
said still to haunt the chapel and passages
of her last habitation, but such a tradition is more
consonant with the royal lady whom Shakspere
has shown to us than with the queen, as she is de-
scribed in the volumes before us. Of the reign
of her daughter Mary, nothing is told us ; but the
old story of Elizabeth's lovers is recited at length.
A curious fact is mentioned respecting the first
State pageant in which that royal lady took a part.
We all know the gorgeous ceremonial which closes
Shakspere's play of Henry VIII., but few are per-
haps aware that most of the high personages who
assisted at the christening of the little princess
came to as violent an end as the baby's mother.
Essex and Exeter, Dorset, Rochford, Hussey, all
trod the scaffold in turn. Cranmer, the godfather,
died at the stake; the Earl of Wiltshire was
destined to see his son perish by the executioner's
axe ; while the Earl of Derby, whom our chronicler
styles the luckiest man in this awfully splendid
group, "came off with no worse fortune than having
a daughter married to the Lord Stourton, who was
hanged!" Corning to later days we have many
such interesting particulars the volumes be-
longing, indeed, rather to the curiosities of
history than to its graver and more solid parts, The
career of Henry Montagu, first Earl of Manchester,
is one of the most readable parts of the book. Dur-
ing his studies for that profession, of which he was
afterwards a distinguished member, Henry Mon-
tagu was entered at the Middle Temple. " There
are few Inns of Court," says the writer, " the regis-
ters of which are inscribed by greater names than
those to be found on the books of the Middle Temple.
The name of Plowden was perhaps the most cele-
brated of the predecessors of Montagu, for it be-
longed to the renowned jarist who is one of the
Temple glories. Overbury, against whose mur-
derers he was to conduct the case which sent some
to death, and shrouded others with infamy, and
Raleigh, to whose sentence of death he was to award
execution, were also members of the Middle Temple,
whence the latter dated his poem to Gascoigne."
In the great hall the feasts were sometimes en-
livened by the acting of plays, and on one of these
occasions we find mention made of an early per-
formance of " a play called Twelfth Night.' " The
work is evidently the result of a good deal of dili-
gent labour, although it is almost overcrowded with
names and persona not directly connected with the
subject in hand. The editor expresses his literary
obligations to Mr. Hepworth Dixon and Dr. Doran,
and it is easy to trace the smart and occasionally
flippant style of the latter in many places. The
volumes are illustrated with two or three handsome
portraits, and will form a most useful addition to the
shelves of the historical student.

Plays. By Frances Anne Kemble. One Vol.,
pp. 582. Longman and Co.

In this volume are contained three five act
dramas, from the hand of the gifted actress Fanny
Kemble. The first is an original work, simply
entitled "An English Tragedy," the second is a
-translation of Schiller's " Mary Stuart," while the
third "Mademoiselle de Belle Isle," is translated
from the French of Alexandre Dumas. In the dedi-
cation of the original drama to the Rev. William
Harness, the authoress speaks of it as written be-
tween twenty and thirty years ago, and says "it
then challenged the indulgence of my friends, in
spite of its many defects, as the possible promise of
better things when I should have attained matnrer
powers. I, too," she simply adds, " hoped what
my friends were kind enough to expect something
better ; but, alas! this is the only piece of work I
have ever finished since the first essays of my
school-girl days ; and, therefore, most imperfect as
it is, 1 have nothing better to offer you." We do not
wonder that the friends of the young authoress of
"the English Tragedy"entertained high expectations
of her future abilities as a dramatic writer, for in
the conception of the characters, and in the pour-
trayal of the various emotions called forth by the
diversified incidents of the drama, there is manifested
a very considerable degree of power. There is
a subdued tenderness of feeling in the character of
the old Judge, and a charming purity and simpli-
city in his gentle sister Mary, that contrast vividly
with the other characters, some of them the most
weak and despicable personages of the drama. The
theme of the plot is singularly revolting, especially
when detailed by a lady's pen. The principal scene
in the third act, which the authoress tell uss is
founded on fact, giving her, in effect, the first idea of
the whole story, is most repulsive. When we say
that the scene in question takes place between the
guilty wife of the good Judge and her paramour,
Lord Alford, in which the latter counsels his victim
to yet further guilt to purchase the good offices of a
wealthy rival, we have said enough to show that
whatever dramatic power there may in " The
English Tragedy," it is wholly unattractive in its
theme and revolting in its incidents.

Autobiography of an English Detective. By
"Waters." Two Vols. Maxwell and Co.
The title of this wcrk is a sufficient evidence of

its interesting charac+ur. It recounts the experiences
of another Mr. Bucket. 'We cannot say that the
incidents recorded are quite on a par with the ad -
ventures of that prince of detectives, but they are
sufficiently varied, and, until the right clue be re-
vealed at the right moment, sufficiently bewilder-
the first volume one of the most tantalising