Included in the body of the book is the entire history of Windsor Castle, from the mythical times when King Arthur is said to have erected a magic castle there with the help of Merlin, down to the days of Queen Victoria.
Published in Everyman’s Library, where, by the way, you can often find books that are not possible to get elsewhere, are Anne Manning's two quaint and charming narratives. One, “The Household of Sir Thomas More,” is supposed to be the journal of Sir Thomas’s daughter, and gives a wonderful impression of actual knowledge and experience of the things narrated. The scene of the second book is laid in the latter days of Edward VI and the time of Queen Mary, and it tells, too, the brief, pathetic story of lady Jane Grey. Its title is “The Colloquies of Edward Osborne.” Do not miss these two books.
One year (1539) of Henry’s reign is told in dazzling style by Ford Madox Hueffer in “The Fifth Queen.” It is almost more a picture than a story, so vivid are the scenes. And another story most of you know belongs to this king’s reign, Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper.” The story tells a strange adventure of the young Edward, and gives, in addition, some notion of the roughness and brutality of those far-away days, making one glad of the world's progress during four hundred years. It is a little classic, a touching and beautiful story that you will not read without a few tears.
King Edward was but a child when his magnificent father died, and his reign was chiefly managed by Hereford and others of the great lords. The poor young king died at sixteen. He seems to have been good and gentle, fine of mind and spirit. He was a Protestant, as was his half-sister Elizabeth, but the successor to the throne was [[Q82674|]], who was Catholic. So the Protestant faction got the king to will his throne to the Lady Jane Grey. This cost the poor young girl her life. A story that tells her sad adventures is Edith C. Kenyon’s “A Queen of Nine Days.”
A delightful account of some exciting occurrences in the reign of Queen Mary is told by Max Pemberton, in “I Crown Thee King.” The scene is Sherwood Forest, and the hero is a Northman, Roy, Count of Brieves. There is a romance with Mary, and much of interest.
There is also a romantic tale of Elizabeth’s young girlhood, a romance cut short by the execution of her lover by command of King Edward. This is also by Ainsworth, and is called “The Constable of the Tower.” All of Ainsworth’s books are splendid reading, and you can usually get them with a little trouble.
A story by Frank Mathew, “The Royal Sisters,” gives an impression that is true and good of the stress and ill-concealed dislike between Mary and Elizabeth. It is written almost entirely in dialogue, which always makes easy reading, and the characterization is often very amusing.
The last years of Mary's reign form the background for one of Stanley J. Weyman’s best books, “The Story of Francis Chudde” (Longmans, $1.25). Life in England at that time was a hazardous affair, more so than it had been during the rest of the century, and there is n’t much that goes on that Francis misses. The story is well written, and Mr. Weyman took much pains to have the historic setting accurate, especially as to manners and customs. His people are thoroughly alive, his plot is exciting, and all of you will feel sorry when it is finished.
Mary died a sad and embittered woman, as these various stories will show you. Under her, England was torn with dissensions, and not a day but saw its executions, until the wretched queen came to be known as “Bloody Mary.”
But a new time was coming for England, Her great days were at hand—“the spacious times of great Elizabeth,” when the island was to extend its dominions to the New World, was to humble proud Spain, till then thought invincible, and was to breed a mighty race of heroes, men great in all the walks of life. The greatest playwright of the world was growing up to young manhood during the first half of the great queen's reign. Lord Bacon, deep and varied thinker, was to make his imperishable additions to literature. Raleigh, the gallant, and the splendid leader of men, was but one among a host of mighty captains and sailors and fine lords, as Spenser was the first of a noble host of poets. There seemed to be no end to what England could do or be in the latter half of the sixteenth century.
Naturally, there are many romances of this time. More than this, there are the writings of the day itself, for English has now become our own tongue, with differences too slight to trouble us of the present moment—if we should be carried back to the reign of Elizabeth, we could easily converse with the men and women we met. And so the great writers of the age place their era before us with words and thoughts of our own, so that it is no longer difficult for us to reconstruct the exact daily existence of prince and poor man, high-born lady and peasant maid.
There has never been a more picturesque time on earth than this of Elizabeth. Next month, I shall talk with you of some of the books telling her story, and England’s story during her life. They are among the best of their kind.
