The Portland daily press., 1878-05-04
Recent Publications.

The second volume of Green's History of
the English People New York: Harper &
Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short & Harmony
demonstrates the wisdom of the author in un-
dertaking this work, for it shows rare qualifi-
cations for the task. The first volume was of
excellent promise, this one proof that great
and valuable addition is made to historical lit.
erature. For many years to come the work
must be, If we can judge of Hercules from
his feet, the standard English history. 1t is
difficult to avoid superlatives in speaking of
the history, for it evinces an industry, a love of
truth, freedom from partisanship, keen in
sight into motives and men, a ripe and we'll
balanced judgment, power of vivid compre-
hension and lucid statement that have not be-
fore been combined in any English historian.
The style is as brilliant as that of Maca aulay.
The time covered by the second volume ex-
tends from 1461 to 1908. from the accession of
Edward ~ to the death of Elizabeth, two of
the most momentous centuries in English an
nails, embracing the settlement of the long dis
pute OF the succession by the acceptance of the
House of Tudor, the revival of learning under
Henry VII, the Reformation, and the struggle
with Rome by Henry VIII and his heroic
daughter. These two Henry and Elizabeth,
are described in dction moro splendid, and
with discrimination far finer than that of
Froude, who has made their period his special
study. The description of Elizabeth is worth
quoting as an illustration of Mr.. Green's liter
ary style and historical treatment:
She was at once the daughter of Henry and
of Anne Boleyn. From her father she in
h0ritad her frank and bar
OF popularity and her free intercourse with
the people, her dauntless courage and her
amazing self-confdence. Her harsh, manIike
voice, her 1mpetuous will, her pride, her furi-
Tudor blood. She rated great mobiles as if they
were schoolboys; she met the insolence Of
Lord Essex with box on the ear; she broke
now and then into the gravest deliberations to
swear at her ministers like fishwife. Strangely
IN contrast with these Outbursts of temper
stood the sensuous, self indulgent nature she
drew from Anne Beleyn. Splendor aud pleas
ure were, with Elizabeth, the very air she
breathed. Her delight was to move in perpet-
nal progresses from castle to castle through
series of gorgeous pageants, fanciful and ex-
travagant as a caliph's dream. She loved gai-
ETY., and laughter and wit A happy retort or
9 finished compliment never failed to win her
favor. She boarded Jewels. Her dresses were
innumerable. Her vanity remained, even to
old age, the vanity of a coquette in her teens.
No adnlation was too fulsome for her, no fiat
terry OF her beauty too gross. She would play
with her rings that her courtiers might note the
delicacy of her hands, or dance covanto that
an ambassador, hidden dextrously behind cur
tain, might report her sprightliness to his mas
ter. Her levity, her frivolous laughter, her
unwomanly jests, gave color to thousand
scandals Her character. in fact, like her por-
traits, was utterly without shade-of womanly
reserve or self lfrestraint she knew nothing, No
instinct Of delcacy veiled the volupt1ous tenn
per which broke out in the romps of her girl
hood and showed itself almost ostentatously
through her later life. Personal beauty in a
man was sure passport to her liking. She
patted handsome young squires on the neck
when they knelt to kiss her hand, and fondled
her Sweet Robin" Lord Leicester in the face
OF the court. 1t was no wonder that the states
man which she outwitted held Elizabeth to be
little more than a frivolous woman, or that
Philip Of Spain wondered how "a wanton"
could hold in check the policy of the Escurial.
But the Elizabeth whom they saw was far
from being all of Elizabeth. Willfulness and
tr1viality played over the surface of a nature
hard as steel, temper purely intellectual. the
very type of reason untouched by imagination
or passion. Luxurious and pleasure-loving as
she seemed, the young Queen lived simply and
frugally, and she worked hard. Her vanity
and caprice had no weight with her in state
affairs.
The coquette of the presencs.chamber he.
came the coolest and hardest of politicians at
the council board. Fresh from the f1attery of
her courtiers, she would tolerate no tiattery in
the closet; she was herself plain and down.
right OF speech with her counsellors, and she
looked for corresponding plainness of speech
IN return. The very choice of her advisers in.
deed showed Elizabeth's ability. She had a
quick eye for merit of any sort, and wonder
ful power Of enlisting its whole energy in her
service. The sagacity which chose Cecil and
Wasingham was just as unerring in its choice
OF the meanest OF her agents. Her success
indeed in securing, from the beginning of her
reign to its end, with the single exception of
Leicester, precisely the right men for the work
she set them to do, sprang in great measure
from the noblest characteristic of her intellect.
If in loftiness of aim the queens temper fell
below many of the tempers of her time, in
the breadth of its range. in all the univeraality
Of its sympathy. it stood far above them ali.
Elizabeth could talk poetry with Spenser and
philosophy with Bruno; she could discuss eu-
phuism with Lilly, and enjoy the chivalry of
Essex; she could turn from talk of the last
fashions to pore with Cecil over dispatches and
treasury books; she could pass from tracking
traitors with Wals1ngham TO settle points of
doctrine with Parker, or to calculate with
Frobisher the chances Of the mol thwest PASSAGE
to the Indies The versatility and maoysided-
ness OF her mind enabled her to underst and
every phase OF the intellectual movement about
her, and to hx BY sort of instinct on its higher
representatives. 1t was only on its intellectual
side, Indeed, that Elizabeth touched the Eng
land or her day. All its moral aspects Were
simply dead to her. 1t was time when men
were being lifted into nobleness by the new
moral energy which seemed suddenly to pulse
through the whole people when honor and
enthusiasm took colors of poetic beauty and re-
hglon became chivalry. But the finer senti-
ments of the men about her touched Elizabeth
simply as the fair tints of picture would have