from Dr. Shaw's address to the citizens of London preparatory to the usurpation. After contending that the illegitimacy of Edward IV. and Clarence was obvious. from their likeness to persons with whom their mother had intrigued, he went on: But my Lord Protector, that very noble Prince, the pattern of all heroic deeds, represents the very face and mind of the great Duke his father. His features are the same, and the very express likeness of that noble Duke.' At these words the Protector was to enter as if by chance; and although the point was missed by his non-appearance till a few minutes later, such a coup de théâtre would hardly have been hazarded if Richard either presented no resemblance or a miniature and caricature one of his father. A Scotch prelate, one of the commissioners for concluding the marriage between Prince James of Scotland and the Lady Anne de la Pole, thus alludes to Richard's stature in his address: 'He (the King of Scotland) beholds in your face a princely majesty and authority royal, sparkling with the illustrious beams of all moral and heroical virtue. To you may not unfitly be applied what was said by the poet of a most renowned prince of the Thebans: "Nunquam tantum animum natura minori Corpore, nec tantas visa est includere vires. Major in exiguo regnabat corpore virtus."'1 6 He had a habit of gnawing his under lip and a trick of playing with his dagger, which, although misconstrued into signs of an evil disposition, were probably mere outward manifestationss of restlessness. Polydore Virgil speaks of his horrible vigilance and celerity.' It was the old story of the sword wearing out the scabbard; and the chances are that he would not long have survived Bosworth Field had he come off unscathed and the conqueror. 1 Buck, in Kennet, p. 573. The address was in Latin, and is rather freely rendered by Buck. Facies may mean form or air as well as face. The prelate's quotation from Statius, too, is somewhat garbled. See the Thebaid, L. 1. v. 416, and L. 6. v. 845. QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE. (FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW FOR JULY 1859.) Vie de Marie Antoinette. Par ÉDOUARD et JULES DE Revue et augmentée GONCOURT. Deuxième Édition. de Documents inédits et de Pièces tirées des Archives de l'Empire. Paris, 1859. IN Sir Walter Scott's younger days, as he states in one of his prefaces, the guilt or innocence of Mary Queen of Scots was a constant subject of angry controversy, and a reflection on her character in the hearing of one of her avowed partisans was held to justify a challenge. A similar though less durable conflict of opinion has existed in France touching the reputation of Marie Antoinette; and we remember the time when it would have been exceedingly dangerous to question her conjugal fidelity within the precincts of the Faubourg St. Germain. Both of these illustrious ladies were cradled in royalty: both were beauties and coquettes : both were unequally mated: both were suspected and calumniated; and both perished on the scaffold. the parallel ceases at the most important point. The verdict of history has proved decidedly unfavourable to Mary Stuart, whilst the name and memory of Marie Antoinette come out brighter and brighter from the ordeal of every fresh inquiry. But Partial as Madame Campan may have been to her beloved mistress, there is an air of sincerity in her statements which could not fail to make way with posterity. The most material have been confirmed by the unimpeachable testimony of the Count de la Marck1; whilst the indications discoverable in the memoirs and correspondence of her most respectable contemporaries almost all point in the same direction. The case for the defence has been completed by MM. de Goncourt; who profess to have resorted to every accessible source of information, and now boldly lay claim for their heroine to take rank as the most high-principled, self-sacrificing, and best-conducted, as well as most unfortunate, of queens. The first edition of their book was speedily exhausted; and such is the inherent attraction of the subject, that we are tempted to recapitulate and reexamine the principal events of a life which has all the interest of a novel, although it influenced the destinies of Europe and (no solitary example) was embittered by a throne. We shall confine ourselves almost exclusively to her personal history, on which we hope to throw fresh light from sources which have escaped the search, or not fallen under the observation, of MM. de Goncourt. But, judging from the success of recent contributions to retrospective literature of a more familiar kind, we should not despair of a favourable reception were we to do no more than bring together the scattered and highly interesting traits which are already known to the curious in French memoirs. Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Francis the First, Emperor of Germany, and the famous Maria-Theresa, was born November 2nd, 1755; the day,' says Madame Campan, of the earthquake of Lisbon; and this catastrophe, which seemed to mark with a fatal stamp the epoch of her nativity, without being a motive for superstitious fear, had nevertheless made an impression on the mind of the princess.' This is strange, for the earthquake took place the day before, namely, 1 Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de la Marck. Paris, 1851. November 1st. The Empress, anxious for a son, had made a bet of two ducats with the Duc de Tarozka that she should have a daughter. After the announcement of the event, the loser was discovered in a brown study by Metastasio, who inquired the cause. Imagine my eirbarrassment,' exclaimed the Duke: 'I have a wager of two ducats with the Empress that she would be brought to bed of a prince, and lo, it is a princess.' 'Well then,' replied Metastasio, 'you have lost and must pay.' 'Pay! but how pay two ducats to an empress?' 'Oh, if that is all, your troubles will soon be over.' The poet took out his pencil, and wrote these lines: Ho perduto: l' augusta figlia A pagar m' ha condannato; This epigram may be paraphrased thus: 'A daughter instead of a son! My wager is lost, but I smother Regret the whole world will have won, If the daughter resembles the mother.' 6 'There,' he continued, wrap up your two ducats in this paper, and your debt will be paid without offence.' 1 This disappointment did not deprive the infant archduchess of her fair share of maternal affection, and her father, the Emperor, took a peculiar interest in her. In her sixth year, he had already quitted the palace to start for Inspruck, when he ordered an attendant to go for her, and bring her to the carriage. When she came, he held out his arms to receive her, and exclaimed, after pressing her to his heart, I had an irresistible longing to kiss this child.' He died suddenly during the journey, and never saw her again. 6 In M. de Lamartine's History of the Girondins' it is related that she (Marie Antoinette) began life amidst the storms of the Austrian monarchy. She was one of This story is told rather differently by MM. de Goncourt on the authority of Madame Campan. We have adopted Weber's version. the children that the Empress led by the hand when she appeared as a suppliant to her faithful Hungarians, and these troops exclaimed, "Moriamur pro rege nostro, Maria Theresa." According to more careful annalists, Maria Theresa presented herself to the assembled magnates with her son, afterwards Joseph the Second, in her arms, four years before the birth of Marie Antoinette. MM. de Goncourt state that Maria Theresa personally superintended the education of her daughter, instead of abandoning her to her courtly governesses; and they quote the Empress's own testimony, in the shape of an autograph letter, for the fact. But we learn from other sources, especially from Madame Campan, that the direct contrary was the truth: that the cares of the cabinet left the Empress little time for the nursery or the schoolroom: that, although daily reports were brought to her of the health of her children by her physician, she often suffered several days to elapse without seeing them; and that the attractive pictures of domestic tenderness, described by distinguished travellers invited to a family party at the imperial palace, were tableaux vivants got up for their edification. The archduchesses were drilled to listen with apparent intelligence to Latin harangues of which they did not understand a syllable; and sketches were exhibited in proof of their proficiency in drawing which they had never so much as touched. In after life Marie Antoinette avowed and lamented what she called the charlatanerie of her education, and its deficiencies were too palpable to leave room for doubt as to her good faith. She had a natural taste and extreme fondness for music, yet on her arrival in France she put off receiving her ex-officio singing-master on one pretence or another for three months, whilst she was practising in private with a confidential attendant. The Dauphine,' she remarked, must take care of the reputation of the Archduchess.' She was taught Italian by |