Be she meeker, kinder, than If she be not so to me, What care I how kind she be? Shall a woman's virtues move Me to perish for her love? What care I how good she be? 'Cause her fortune seems too high, Shall I play the fool and die? Those that bear a noble mind, Where they want of riches find, Think what with them they would do, That without them dare to woo. And unless that mind I see, What care I though great she be? Great, or good, or kind, or fair, If she love me, this believe, For, if she be not for me, SIR HENRY WOTTON. 1568-1639. THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. ELIZABETH, Queen of Bohemia, the heroine of Wotton's beautiful poem, was the daughter of James the First. She was born in Scotland, on the 19th of August, 1596, and on the 14th of February, 1613, was married to Frederic the Fifth, the Elector Palatine, in the great banqueting-house at Whitehall. The happy pair remained in England until the 10th of April, when they proceeded in great pomp to Heidelburgh, the capital of the Palatinate, where they reigned for some years in peace and prosperity. In 1619, the crown of Bohemia was offered to the Elector. King James endeavoured to persuade him to refuse it, forewarning him that he was to expect no assistance from England, in case his claims should be disputed; but the entreaties of his wife prevailed, and he accepted it, and was crowned at Prague on the 4th of November. The Emperor of Austria declared him a traitor, and a rebel against the Empire; deprived him of his Electoral dignity, and prepared to invade Bohemia and the Palatinate. A year later a decisive battle was fought under the walls of Prague, and the new-made monarch was discomfited, and obliged to fly by night with his Queen, who was great with child. Their first resting-place was Breslau, one hundred and twenty miles from the field of battle. Driven from Breslau, they wandered awhile in Silesia and Brandenburgh, and at length settled in Holland, where they were supported by the House of Nassau, and by occasional contributions from persons of rank in England. King James refused to help them, but consented to negotiate in their behalf, and did so on various occasions, but without success. Of Sir Henry Wotton, who was his ambassador on one of these fruitless missions, in 1621, the following anedote is related by his biographer, Walton. "There were at that time," says honest Izaak, "two opposite armies in the field; and as they were treating, there was a battle fought, in the managery whereof there was so many miserable errors on the one side, (so Sir Henry Wotton expresses it in a dispatch to the King,) and so advantageous events to the Emperor, as put an end to all present hopes of a successful treaty; so that Sir Henry, seeing the face of peace altered by that victory, prepared for a removal from that court; and at his departure from the Emperor, was so bold as to remember him, 'That the events of every battle move on the unseen wheels of fortune, which are this moment up, and down the next; and therefore humbly advised him to use his victory so soberly, as still to put on thoughts of peace.' Which advice, though it seemed to be spoken with some passion, (his dear mistress, the Queen of Bohemia, being concerned in it,) was yet taken in good part by the Emperor, who replied, ‘That he would consider his advice. And though he looked on the King, his master, as an abettor of his enemy, the paulsgrave; yet for Sir Henry himself, his behaviour had been such during the manage of the treaty, that he took him to be a person of much honour and merit; and did therefore desire him to accept of that jewel, as a testimony of his good opinion of him;' which was a jewel of diamonds of more value than a thousand pounds. "This jewel was received with all outward circumstances and terms of honour by Sir Henry Wotton. But the next morning, at his departing from Vienna, he at his taking leave of the Countess of Sabrina, (an Italian lady, in whose house the Emperor had appointed him to be lodged and honourably entertained,) acknowledged her merits, and besought her to accept of that jewel, as a testimony of his gratitude for her civilities;' presenting her with the same that was given him by the Emperor: which being suddenly discovered, and told to the Emperor, was by him taken for a high affront, and Sir Henry Wotton told so by a messenger. To which he replied, That though he received with thankfulness, yet he found in himself an indisposition to be the better for any gift that came from an enemy to his royal mistress, the Queen of Bohemia;' for so she was pleased he should always call her." It was manly in Wotton to uphold the cause of his fallen mistress, but others were not so loyal. She was an object of ridicule with many, and figured in the caricatures of the time, “ as a poor Irish mantler, with her hair hanging about her ears, and her child at her back, and the King, her father, carrying the cradle after her." Charles the First, on his accession to the throne, declared to his Parliament that the recovery of the Palatinate should be a primary object of his political consideration, but little was done till 1632, when Gustavus of Sweden proffered his aid to that end. His conditions, however, were so unsatisfactory to Charles, with whom he was then at war, that the latter broke up the treaty which had been proposed, and withdrew his ambassador from Stockholm. The Elector then negotiated with Gustavus on his own account, but the death of the Swedish king, who was killed at the battle of Lutzen, on the 6th of November, 1632, frustrated his hopes, and perhaps hastened his death, which took place at Mentz on the 29th of the same month. Elizabeth remained at the Hague, and lived for many years in the utmost privacy, passing her time in educating her children, and in writing letters to eminent men. Her affairs were managed by Lord Craven, who had entered the military service of Holland, in order to be near her, and to whom she is supposed to have been secretly married. The Lower Palatinate was restored to her son, Charles Lewis, in 1648, but she profited but little by it. She lingered in want and exile until the Restoration of Charles the Second, when she was invited to England. She arrived in London on the 17th of May, 1661, and died on the 13th of February of the following year. The date of Wotton's poem has never been settled, but it must have been written between the 7th of November, 1619, the day of her coronation as Queen of Bohemia, and some time in 1624, when it was printed in "THE SIXT SET OF BOOKES," a musical publication by Michaell Est. I place it in 1620, before the fatal battle of Prague. ON HIS MISTRESS, THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes, You curious chanters of the wood, That warble forth dame Nature's lays, By your weak accents, what's your praise You violets that first appear, By your pure purple mantles known, As if the spring were all your own, So when my mistress shall be seen, In form, and beauty of her mind, THOMAS RANDOLPH. 1605-1634. ["Poems, with the Muses' Looking Glass." 1638.] TO ONE ADMIRING HERSELF IN A LOOKING GLASS. Fair lady, when you see the grace The thing that men most doat upon. |