Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-17
THE LOVES OF ELIzABETH

The sex OF Elizabeth OF England was
physiological blunder. Many OF her most
serious defects arose from her not having
been a man, as Nature must originally
have designed. With masculine will, 9
masculine character, and a masculine am
bition, she had all the feminine weak
nesses without any of the feminine
graces or charms. her vanity was in ex-
cess of her pride, and, in spite of her I'M
questionable greatness, rendered her ridicu-
lous through life. She was ever anxious
to be loved, and had the exceeding mis-
fortune to be least lovable when she loved
most. There was no great need OF
affection in her stubborn spirit,
no yearning for sympathy in
her selfsuficient nature, no inappeasable
craving for what the romanticists would
call an intercourse of soul. She wanted
lovers more than love, because lovers fat
tered her inordinate vanity, and told her, as
lovers usually do, that which she secretly
thought of herself. She never tired OF
hearing she was the Virgin Queen, and
never acted as if she relished the arrogated
honor. Coqueiry she would have carried
to perilous degree, if there had been any,
thing perilous in such homely Amazon.
Not one Of all the men she had desperate
and protracted flirtstions with-not even
Raleigh, nor Leicester, nor Essex-cared a
maraVedi for her in the way she wiShe d
from motives Of policy they pretended to
adore her.
Crafty courtiers as they were, it must
have been difficult for them to refrain from
laughing in Elizabeth's face when they
called her beautiful, or when they compared
her voice to the tones CT the Lutte. They
had passed through many hardships, but
nothing harder than to address Euryale in
the language becoming Aglaia. Raleigh
showed bis keenGess Of insight when he
spread his rich mantle beneath her uOgsinly
feet, and Leicester his unders anding Of
character when he wrote to her that her
lovely image banished sleep from his pill W.
OF her numerous suitors none would have
given a flip for her heart, but much for
her crcTn-the sole aim of their gallant
masqueradiug.
The secret loves Of Elizabeth and Sey-
mour, and Raleigh, and Leicester, and Es-
sex, and others, have often been written,
and not, it is to be presumed, without a
basis of truth. But love is fine baptism
for relations springiHg from vanity on one
side and from considerations of diplomacy
on the other. The Princess in her earlier
years appeared to be fond of Seymour, and
it is charitable to think she was. Pretty
stories have been told of the Countess OF
Nottingham's Withholding the ring sent to
the Queen by Essex before bis execution,
and of the consuming sorrow from which
Elizabeth suffered after his death. The sto-
ries are dramatic and interesting; their chief
defect being that they are entirely untrue.
The woman whose reputation had been 81
most lrreparabiy injured by her connection
with man of whom she could calmly say
| after his execution, "His loss is not much;
for though he bad large wit, he had little
Judgment" would not likely be troubled
by remorse for deliberately sending her
nearest friend to the scafold.
Elizabeth could not forgive il any OF her
sisters the possession Of gifts and graces
| which she must have been privately con-
| ecious vere lacking in herself. Mary
| Stuart's unpardoDable offence was her beau
| ty and seductive charm, and her rival was
| never able TO regard with kindness the men
| who, willing to forget the woman in the
sovereign, had sought her hand, and after
ward welded where inclination led. There
! is a species Of dismal compensation in al
| conditions of life. If Elizabeth failed to
awaken il any masculine breast the fame
with which she hoped to kindie the torcf
of her vanity, and if her vestal assump
tons were not always credited, she had the
good fortune, so surrounded was she BY
distinguished soldiers, statesmen and scho
lars, to shine with the light reflected from
them, and bear in history glory not hel
own" Historic LOUers," by Jllius Henri
BrOgne, an December GALAXY.