Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-17
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookloVev


wars; his public morals did more for
the welfare of France than any King
had done since Charlemagne." This
sentence Is part Of the summing up OF
the character Of Henry Nv by Henry
Dwight Sedgwick In his biography
throne of France not through the direct
Valois line, but as the founder of the
new line of Bourbons, which was to END
at the guillotine in 1893. His parents
were Antoine de Bourbon, direct de-
scendant of St. Louis, and Jeanne
d'Albret, who, on the death OF her
father, became Queen of Navarro:
Henry, because of the early death OF
his mother, became King OF Navarro
before he was King OF France. He was
married, for political reasons, against
the preference of both parties to the
contract, to "Margot," daughter OF
Henri II and Catherine de Medicis and
sister Of Francois II, Charles TX and
Henri III. The fact that the Valois
were declining line and that Henry OF
Navarro was likely to succeed to the
French crown made the matter OF his
religion important. Navarro was .
Protestant kingdom and Jeanne d'A-
bret was fighting Huguenot. Her son
Henry was brought up vigorously in
peasant fashion in the Valley OF the
Gave de Pau and his tutors were HUI
guenots. But nothing could make OF
Henry such a zealot AS his mother.
Religion always appeared to him as an
affair Of politics. Kingcraft meant more
to him than the form of his worship.
So he shifted his allegiance several
times. With levity he once remarked
Of Paris that so fair a city was well
worth q mass. His first conversion to
Catholicism occurred when he was only
9 years old, on the occasion OF visit
at the court of st. German, when he
was removed from his mothers inf1u-
ence, and his father, at that time pro-
Tossing Catholicism, placed him under
a Catholic tutor. Back with his mother
in Bearn, he was again under Hugue-
not tutors and was soon with his uncle,
Condo, and the Huguenot Army, OF
which he became q leader at the death
Of Condo. After the massacre Of st.
Bartholomew day, when Huguenot for
tunes were at a low ebb and the
chances for Henry, living at the French
court, to escape assassination seemed
small, he again abjured Professionalism,
attended mass and wrote q letter OF
submission to the Pope. This was In
1872. In 1875 he became q Protestant
again and remained the leader Of the
Huguenot party until the death Of Henri
III brought him to the French throne,
and he underwent his final conversion
to Catholicism in order to win accept
ance By the French nobility
Henry Dwight Sedgwick's interpre-
tation Of Catherine del Medici, or De
Medicis, as the French call her. Is more
nearly that of the older historical ira
dition than that OF the modern white
washers. He does not consider her
Renaissance liberal at heart, who was
obliged to hold the balance between the
bigoted Catholics and the bigoted Prot
estants, who was more or less ignorant
of the plans for the massacre OF st.
Bartholomew day. In characterlZ1ng
her he INDUCES in an unnecessary slur
on women in general. she was very
feminine, not as woman IN relation
to men, not as a mother. for she was
deficient in these deep elementary in
stincts, but in her guiles and blandish-
ments, in her falsehoods and persua-
sion and in her intuition" He con-
tinues: THE great interest Of her life
was power. and the pursuit of power by
political intrigue. She had scanty I'M
agination and little foresight, but de-
lighted in the petty opportunism that
one associates, perhaps wrongly, with
sacerdotal politics. She flattered. she
cajoled, she fawned, she showed her
pretty, well-molded hands cher only
beauty, and spoke softly: she blew hot
and cold, she bullied, she browbeat. she
promised, she lied. she shifted. twisted.
doubled in her course, and never
doubted but that she was well justified
in all she did. She had no care for
the welfare of the kingdom apart from
her and her sons rights over 1t. nor
was she concerned about the religious
schism, except as 1t upset peace and
quiet. In the attainment OF her ends
she was persistent and tenacious: from
the very first she sought to bind per-
sons to her by favors or hopes Of favors.
and she was tireless; you find these
traits throughout the mass OF letters
that she wrote" She Is further de-
scribed as affable when she so desired,
a good mother when her children were
small, but caring little for any OF them
except Henri III when they were grown:
loving her husband but. after a first
fling Of jealousy. accepting the suprem-
acy of Diane de Poitiers: not a lover
of the arts. though she was one OF the
art-loying and art-patronizlng Medlci.
KK
The "Green Mountain Series" in
praise Of Vermont. includes Vermont
Verse. An Anthology" edited by Walter
John Coates and Frederick Upper;
'Vermonters. A Book Of Biographies"
edited by Walter H. Crockett; Yer
mont Folk-Song and Ballads" edited
by Helen Hartness and George Brown;
"A Miscellany" edited by Arthur Wal
lace Peach and Harold G. Rugg. The
series is issued by the Committee on
Vermont Traditions and Ideals, whose
head is Prof. Arthur Wallace Peach Of
Norwich University. In the first volume
are selections of verse by over a hun
dred native Vermonters, among them
Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford. Two
Revolutionary poets are given places Of
honor, Thomas Rowley, called the
Father of Vermont Song, and Royal
Tyler. better known by his novels than
by his verse.
Grandmother Is sWeet-faced, white
haired, placid old lady. whose memory
is gone, to be sure, but who is apparent
ly still blessed influence in the home.
But George Davis, in his new novel,
The Opening of Door," shows us that
grandmother has always been the FAM
lily tyrant and that she is responsible
for the Transformation of grandfather
from a happy young man into very
odd old one, for the lack Of any manly
qualities in Uncle Lincoln, who was her
baby, for Aunt F1ora's fussy old maid
ishness. for Uncle Daniels bitterness,
Aunt Theodora's discomfort and Aunt
Alexandra's eccentricities. In other
words, grandmother is not and never
has been the kindly, benevolent creature
that she appears.
+
Alfred Neumann. who wrote such a
vivid study of Louis XII of France in
his novel, 1.-THE Devil has recently
had q new novel translated into Eng
lish, 1.-THE Hero" 1t Is as morbid
and horrible for a modern psyche
logical novel as THE Devil" was for q
medieval story. 1t tells Of the murder
of q radical prime minister In a
European capital during the period