The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-21

childhood frightened by the devotion
of her mother and at least the love of
her father, was practically sold in mar
rage to her cousin, George Louis of Han
over when she was sixteen and he a
heavy-natured, loutish young man of the
world who already had love affairs more
suitable to his nature than agreeable to
contemplate. 1t was at the court ruled
by the clever, INSCRIPTIONS, and cold
hearted Electress Sophia that she met the
brilliant Swede Count Won Konigsmark,
whom she had known well when he was
a handsome boy of sixteen and she lit
tie girl, his pet and playmate. And it
was among people who had despised and
prosecuted her mother, from whom she
was totally separated. despite the fact
that Celle was only twenty miles away,
that the tragic love affair began which
ended in her lovers death and her own
exile to Ahlden. which lasted for thirty
long years. The story is as tragic and as
dramatic as anything in history.
The author is as frank as any truthful
historian must be. concerning the inner
history of what somebody has called the
comfortable dirty little Hanoverian
Court-a court where there were some
scores of cooks and only two washerwo-
were no more spotless than its linen; GER
tainly there is no odor of sanctity about
either the husband or the son of the
EIectress Sophia. That remarkable wo-
man. one of whose chief friends was
Leibnitz, seems to have had the philoso-
ply to endure calmly what she could not
prevent, and she advised the sensitive
little Sophie Dorothea to do the same.
Devoid of the embarrassing which dec
orous English historians have given to
the private life of the Georges, the sur
roundings of the young bride seem so bad
that it is rather 4 matter of wonder that
she was not utterly corrupt. The insf1lor-
atty Of the Hanoverian Georges was not
picturesque and fascinating. like that of
the Stuarts; it was squalid and unpleas-
ant. No wonder that the Scotch Jacobite,
in entire disgust at the heavy-featured
German sovereign imported to fill the
throne of England, sang in his daredevil
fashion:
VIVA the dell hae we gotten for King,
But a wee wee German lardie!
When we gaed Ger TO bring him hame
He was delvin' in his kali yardie
And he's clappit down 81 our gudeman's chair,
The wee wee German lairde
And he's brought forth his foreign trash
And dibbled them in his yardie.
He's pu'd the rose of English looms,
And broken the harp @ Irish clowns,
But our Scotch thistle will jag his thumbs,
This wee wee German lairdie.
The whole history of George l reeks of
cabbage and ale and muck. The history
of the dainty. winsome, sensitive little
creature whom fate turned over to him
for wife, and whom he never pretended
to love, is one of the saddest tragedies
ever written There was not even indif-
ference on her part; she heartily loathed
and hated him, and from the account of
his behaviors here given it would appear
that any decent woman could hardly fail
to do the same.
As for Konigsmark, the cavalier in the
case. he is a brilliant adventurer. and
remarkable mixture of good and bad
there is nothing Indifferent about him
anywhere, in any sense of the word.
That he was brave there is no question.
That he was chivalrous there is much
proof That he was true 20 Sophie Doro-
thea there seems to be every reason TO
believe; and. on the whole, that is a fairly
good record for a man of his day ana
generation, and dubious surroundings.
There is about him none of the weakness
and lack of manliness which marked poor
Rizzio, and though, like Rizzio. he was as
sassinated almost at the feet of his mis-
tress he died bravely, sword in hand,
and his last breath protested her inno-
cence He never tried TO shield himself;
his thought throughout seems TO have
been of her.
The story of this Inflated love affair
is told not only in the letters but in the
biography; the letters are not extraor-
binary, but very Characteristic of the
writers. The book, as a whole, will be
worth anyone's buying and reading
Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Co. S.0)