The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-20
VICTORIA AND ELIZABETH
HISTORIC COMPARISON THAT MUST
INEVITABLY BE DRAWN.
The Sovereign of the Present Does
Not Suffer by Contrast with Her
Brilliant Predecessor.

We speak of the age of Pericles, the age
of Augustus, the age of Elizabeth, the age
of Louis XIV Somehow, we do not yet
say the age of Victoria, but the Victorian
era Posterity may use the more accus-
toned phrase. Whatever the phrase be,
we mean that in the time of these eminent
persons some great things happened. Some
times as with Pericles, the intellectual en-
inence of the man himself is what gives
most splendor to his age. Sometimes, as
with Louis XIV, it is the genius of men
of letters, and men of war, and men of
state who were about him on which the
greater part Of his fame depends. Some
times sovereign and subjects are both en-
inent. That was true of Elizabeth. 1t is
true though in a different way of Vic
toria.
But are we to strike a balance between
the great names of the two eras, the great
writer's the great statesmen, the great SOL
diers? 1t is certain that history will put
the Victorian era very high for what in
one way another it has actually accom-
plshed. But has Victoria any writer to
match with Elizabeths Shakespeare? Has
she any band of soldiers and sailors whose
names are respondent like those of Raj
eigh and Drake and Howard, and Sidney?
may seem to poise more evenly. Yet states
manship is a word of such high import and
so necessarily to be judged by results that
it is perhaps a little early to be sure that
Mr. Gladstone will seem to posterity a
wiser counselor of state than Burleigh., If
I had to choose, I should prefer to think
the Cecil of to-day, whom we know as
Lord Salisbury, a filter cou1peer for his an
cestor, the Cecil of Elizabeth
1t is, in each of the cases we must con-
sider-letters, war, great policy of state
the heroic note which is wanting in these
latter days. But there is one exception The
reproach of materialism, or of low views
or of selfish aims, if it be just one other
wise is redeemed by one life, inspired by
| the finest heroism, by romance, by true re-
ligious enthusiasm and religious de-
votion. No Elizabethan star shines
| brighter than Gordon's nor was any
more gallant soul ever sent more pitilessy
to his doom more basely abandoned to a
needless martyrdom than Gordon, not in
| deed by the Queen-no stain falls on her
but by him who was then the Queens
| prime minister, on whose name Gordon's
fate has left, as Gordon himself said, an in
| delible brand.
COMPARISON INEVITABLE.
A comparison between Elizabeth and Vic
| toria is inevitable. 1t must come into every
| Cne's mind 1t must pass into history They
| are the two women foremost in English his
| tory; the two who reigned longest, the two
| whose reigns have been most illustrious.
| More than that; they are the impersona-
lions Of two great periods, when the great
| ness of England in two widely different
ways reached it's height. Theirs are the
reigns which great deeds and great ideas
! illuminated. Both are great rulers, both ex-
| traordinary women, and to both it hap
| pened that their careers conceded with
| great struggles foreign or domestic, which
| profoundly altered the course of English
| history and the position of England with
| reference to the rest of the world Eliza
beth broke the power of Spain. She broke
the power of the Pope She was the cham
! pion of the reformation. 1t the
power of England, to use a phrase which
! Captain Mahan has added to English liter
allure, which gave triumph to the Protes-
| tant cause. Elizabeth's relations TO the
| great commanders who wrested the scepter
! of the sea from Spain, first in the new
world and then by the defeat of the Ar
mada, were not of a kind which one loves
| to dwell on. She was mean TO Drake and
| the rest. She starved her navy She evaded
responsibilities. She hindered preparations.
| She let others pay the bills after victory
| had been won. She was irresolute, proeras-
| tinating, sometimes peFfidious. But she
| knew we'll whittier the general course of
| her sea policy was leading her, and the
triumph is hers; at least as much as, and,
in fact far more than, the glory of the
| literature which are all content to re-
| gard as part of the glory of the Elizabeth
| an reign.
AS for literature, neither Elizabeth nor
| Victoria ever very directly encouraged men
| of letters or perhaps set any high value on
! the work which lent luster to the reign of
each Elizabeth had more learning than
| Victoria, but hardly more literature. She
! had Greek and Latin, French and Italian;
| translated from these languages and wrote
| a sonnet in her own She liked to be called
| Gloriana by Spenser and 1.-The fair vestal
! throned in Nhe west by Shakespeare. But
| the history of all the encouragement she
| gave to either to the great band or
| dramatists and other writer's Of her time,
| could be very briefly told. The tradition
| that Shakespeare wrote THE Merry wives
| of Windsor" because Elizabeth wished to
see Falstaff in love is pleasing one, and
NAV be true-nobody knows. She issued in
! 1874 a royal license to the Blackfriars play
ers among whom was William Shakespeare
his name stands twelfth on the list. BY
| the end of her reign, so wide a hold had
play acting taken of the public, that some
| TWO hundred such licenses were in exist
ence. So far, and on that practical side,
she fostered literature in one form. The
| rest was as she herself was, an expression
of the spirit of the time as spontaneous as
it was rrepressible.
/ VICTORIA AND LITERATURE.
Queen Victoria is known in literature as
the author of the journal Of Our Life IN
the Highlands" She was a large contrib
utor to Sir Theodore Martins Life OF
Prince Albert" She made first Words
worth lin 1S4S) then Tennyson QS5O), and
| finally dS96) Mr. Alfred Austin poets laure-
ate She created Tennyson peer. He was
not only great poet, but court poet. IL
is probable that the one book by which her
! reign will be longest remembered is OAR
wins Origin of Species" book OF sci
| ence, not of literature. yet still book. she
/ never recognized Darwins existence, and
when he was buried in Westminster Abbey
neither she nor any member of her family,
nor anybody representing royalty in any
degree was present. She met Carlyle at a
tea party given by Lady Augusta Stanley,
/ in Westminster Abbey. and DisraeH must