網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Our souls unite in toil, and flow
Toward the further joy or woe,

In sorrow or in sin:

Strange lights are mirror'd in our dream ;
And often, trembling o'er the stream,
Love's outcast, plunging in,

Floats on in blackness with the waves

That, breaking, splinter light on graves.

Toward the distant ocean rolls
This busy stream of human souls.
Sweet sympathies that are

A moment's glory make us wise;
Love, shining on us from his skies,
Is trebled like a star;

When stars are hid, the soul supplies
The pause with its own melodies.

Dark River, keep thy sights divine;
Our souls have visions rich as thine,
As terrible, as fair:

The law, the impulse, and the thought,
Whose restless shadows, star-inwrought,
Disturb our lives with prayer,—
The meteor-meanings from the sky,
Which flash a moment's space and die!

B.

Daughters of Eve.

III.

LADY FANSHAWE.

In the famous third chapter of Lord Macaulay's History of England, a most disparaging estimate is given of the state of education and manners among the women of the Restoration. The literary stores of the lady of the manor at that time, says this historian, consisted of a prayer-book and a receipt-book; and at no other time since the revival of learning were women, even in a high position, so ill-educated. As a proof that not only learning, but even grammar and spelling, were at a discount among ladies even in the highest places, an inscription in the handwriting of Queen Mary is quoted, which is to be seen on the title-page of a bible now in the library at the Hague, and is in the following words: "This book was given the king and I, at our crownation. Marie R." The explanation for this state of things is the extreme licentiousness which had succeeded, by way of reaction, an extreme austerity. Women were only admired for their beauty or sauciness; and the quality which fits them to be companions, advisers, confidential friends, rather told against them in the eyes of the libertines of Whitehall. Lady Jane Grey or Lucy Hutchinson would not have stood a chance in the competition for a rich or noble husband against a maid of honour "who dressed in such a manner as to do full justice to a white bosom, who ogled significantly, who danced voluptuously, who excelled in pert repartee, who was not ashamed to romp with lords of the bedchamber and captains of the guards, to sing sly verses with sly expression, and to put on a page's dress for a frolic."

This picture of the frivolity and ignorance of women under Charles II.'s reign is perhaps a little one-sided and overdrawn; but I have reproduced it that my present subject, a lady of good birth and conspicuous place, who lived through that very time, and whose husband was a faithful servant of the merry monarch, as he had been of his father, may stand out in more complete contrast with the generality of her sex in the region in which she moved. As a learned lady, she has indeed no pretensions; but that she was a thoroughly well-educated woman, of sound sense and noble and refined sentiments, the memoir which she has left strikingly proves. This memoir was written in 1676, for the instruction of her only surviving son, Sir Richard Fanshawe, who was then a youth, and to him it is personally addressed, the reflections with which the narrative is interspersed breathing the spirit of maternal tenderness and solicitude. Although it had constantly been mentioned in many popular works, and the name of Lady Fanshawe had ever been included among the most notable female characters of England, this remarkable autobiography was never printed till the year 1829. Of its perfect genuineness

there has never been a doubt, and indeed it is referred to in the will of Lady Fanshawe; and it is the more surprising that the publication of this manuscript was so long postponed, as it not only reflects the mind of a most noble, devoted, and accomplished woman, in a life-story scarcely inferior in interest to the most thrilling romance, but the references it contains to events which form part of the history of the country have been found to throw a light on some doubtful points of fact, and clear up some commonly received misrepresentations. To these valuable items of historical testimony attention will be directed in their due place in the course of the narrative I am about to condense from Lady Fanshawe's own account of her life,—a life than which I can hope to find none to contribute to this series setting a fairer example of womanly excellence, and combining more proudly the softer qualities and tenderer graces peculiarly the appanage of her sex, with the heroic fortitude and endurance which constitute the crowning glory of a perfectly noble woman.

In the year 1625, on the 25th of March, Sir John Harrison of Balls, in the county of Hertford, knight, was presented by his lady, Margaret, daughter of Robert Fanshawe of Fanshawe Gate, esquire, at his town. residence in Hart Street, St. Olave's, with a first-born daughter, thereafter christened Ann, and destined to bestow a lasting renown on the name of her mother's ancestry. This Sir John Harrison is a good example of the means which some of the civil servants of the Crown found in those fine old days of improving their private fortunes. He was of a Lancashire family, and, by his own account, came to London with but twenty marks of his father's for a portion. He was placed with Lord Treasurer Salisbury, then Secretary of State, who sent him into Sir John Wolstenholme's family, and gave him a small place in the Custom House, that he might fit himself for his future employment. With this moderate start, "he being of good parts and capacity," says his daughter, "in some time raised himself by God's help to get a very great estate." That he must indeed have amassed an enormous fortune is clear enough; for although during the civil war he lost above a hundred and fifty thousand pounds, he managed to leave sixteen hundred a year in land to his son, and to give to his daughter more than twenty thousand pounds. Palmy days these for the civil service; and of the servants of the Crown it might be said, that if service was no inheritance, it was a very good substitute. But I must return to the new-born infant of this fortunate parent. Her godfather was no less a personage than Mr. Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, but she does not, as the sequel will show, seem to have derived much advantage from having so illustrious a sponsor. One of those strange stories of a supernatural character, which family records so frequently contain, is told by Lady Fanshawe, of a vision which her mother had about three months after the birth just recorded. She had been seized with a fever, which was supposed to have ended fatally; for she lay to all appearance dead for two days and a night, when a Dr. Winston, having come in to comfort the husband, went into the room of death,

VOL. III.

and after gazing earnestly at the lady exclaimed that her beauty was so perfect he could not believe she was dead, and suddenly taking out a lancet cut the sole of her foot, which bled. Upon this restorative means were applied, and she came to life. On opening her eyes, she saw two of her kinswomen standing by her, Lady Knollys and Lady Russell, attired in the fashion of the day, with great wide sleeves. Addressing herself to them, she said, "Did not you promise me fifteen years, and are you come again?" This mysterious speech was considered to be the effect of some remnant of delirium; but a few hours after she desired that her husband and Dr. Howlsworth, a divine, might be left alone with her, and to these she made the following statement: "I will acquaint you, that during the time of my trance I was in great quiet, but in a place I could neither distinguish nor describe; but the sense of leaving my girl, who is dearer to me than all my children, remained a trouble upon my spirits. Suddenly I saw two by me, cloaked in long white garments, and methought I fell down with my face in the dust, and they asked why I was troubled in so great happiness. I replied, 'Oh, let me have the same grant given to Hezekiah, that I may live fifteen years, to see my daughter a woman;' to which they answered, 'It is done;' and then at that instant I awoke out of my trance." The angelic covenant was observed to the letter and to the hour. That day fifteen years Lady Fanshawe's mother died. As part of the funeral honours paid to her, a sermon was preached by the same Dr. Howlsworth mentioned above, who, on that solemn occasion, told this story, and vouched for its accuracy in the presence of many hundreds of hearers. By and by I shall have another wonderful tale to tell of an unearthly apparition, though a less blest one, on equally good authority; and indeed considering how numerous are such well-authenticated accounts of spiritual visitations, it is strange that all tidings from another world should meet in this age with so much obstinate incredulity. Is not the spirit-rapping mania a reaction against this excessive scepticism?

Let us now see how the fifteen years of grace granted to Lady Fanshawe's mother for the education of her daughter profited the latter. Her course of study does not seem to have been very extended, notwithstanding it had, we are told, all the advantages that the period afforded. It was more, however, than was the lot of the next generation of girls, according to Macaulay. The "usual branches" of an English education for young ladies in the first half of the seventeenth century appear to have been with all "extras,"-" working all sorts of fine work with the needle, and learning French, singing, lute, the virginals, and dancing." Lady Fanshawe confesses, that though she learned as much as most did from this curriculum, her inclination was not towards study. She was, in fact, rather addicted to bodily than to mental exercises; loved riding, in the first place, running, and all active pastimes, and was, according to her own account, what was then called a hoyting girl, which we have corrupted into a hoyden. But with all her wildness and preference of

gymnastic sports over lessons and needlework, she asserts, and we well may believe it, that the bounds of maidenly modesty were never outstepped in word or action. The loss of her mother worked, as was natural in a character of such real depth and earnestness, a complete revolution in her outward demeanour. Although but fifteen, childishness was flung away,an offering, as she gracefully expresses it, to the memory of her mother,and staid and sober reflection succeeded to the unrestrained outbursts of a wild spirit, as became a daughter about to assume the cares of her father's household. The management of such a homestead could have been no light task; for Sir John lived in great plenty and hospitality, saw much company, especially clergymen, of whom he was a great lover and honourer; and we know that well-chosen fare must follow as a necessary consequence this social predilection. But Ann, amidst all her skipping, had keenly watched and taken note of the maternal system of economy, and when the sceptre came into her hands she practised it with exemplary success. The glad prosperity and calm order, however, of this good old English household were not destined to endure. The civil war broke out; and in 1642 Sir John Harrison, being, as in duty bound, a stanch royalist, was taken prisoner at his house in Bishopsgate Street; but under a pretence of fetching some papers relating to the public revenues, which were demanded of him, he contrived to make his escape, and in 1643 joined the king at Oxford. The Long Parliament, of which he was a member for the town of Lancaster, thereupon plundered him of what property they had before spared, and sequestered his entire estate. To Oxford Ann and a younger sister were summoned by their father, and sad was the change from the plenty and orderly comfort over which she had presided to the misery and privations which they had to endure with the rest of the king's followers. A wretched bed in a garret over a baker's shop, instead of the roomy, well-furnished, and cosily-appointed apartments of a wealthy English mansion; one dish of meat, and that "not the best ordered," instead of the varied courses, succulent and substantial, to which reverend gentlemen had been bidden with well-grounded confidence; and instead of the decorous and edifying or mildly and gracefully jocose converse of the aforesaid reverend company, a perpetual jargon of war,-what towns had fallen, what prisoners been captured. Add to this no money, and scarce any clothes. Here was a trial of fortitude for one hitherto nursed and dandled on Fortune's lap. These early hardships, however, were bravely endured, and exercised betimes the steady nerve and persevering patience which had to carry Lady Fanshawe through many a future struggle with danger and difficulty. All, indeed, who accompanied the king had similar and worse sufferings to endure; for the huddling of so vast an assembly in a small town was followed by plague and typhus. The greatest sufferings find some alleviation by being thus shared in common, and the death of a dear brother fell less heavily on Ann when she saw so many around her equally and even more grievously afflicted. Besides this, there sprang up to her a solace of supreme effi

« 上一頁繼續 »