Mary Stuart.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 39, 8 April 1875, Page 7

Mary Stuart.

A tr ; ue magnet, with a? remarkable/variation was Mary Stuart, about whose character historians have been wrangling for nearly three. hundred years*. The Marian controversy ~is not more - nearly settled at. this Jiour than whea the head of Scotland's queen fell at Fotheringay Castle. The trouble seems to be that nobody takes her magnetism? sufficiently to account,, She was neither an angel, as her ' defenders wish to prove, nor a devil, as her traducers declare, but a mixtu^e : of both (this is the : human composition— veritably femin- : ine ; far from a woman- who was perfect, and yet a perfect , woman. The disposition is to judge her as _a subject — the subject of her ardent temperament and' wandering desires. -Unlike most of her sex, ., she . understood herself better, than ,she was. understood. . : Bke 'frequently ' said sha *wa ; s i; too iidudh a Woman to., be a queen j :but her blundering adherents ,were resolved she should be tormented with a crown. No princess has- been." more- unfortunate ;, and her misfortunes sprang from setting her in a frame, of. history, instead of a' frame to display^' her as XbeVutiful i and brilliant woman." IH-starred in her parentage,.. the place' and time o$ her nativity, whenv ;she.; ; had; «. once quitted misty, and dreary Scotland for France, where her soul was born, she never should have been seduced from, ;.ther land,,of. vines. HerjfqrebodjngSi. after hei\.widowhood, ,pn returning to Scotland, 1 were- not less prophetic than gloomy. No marvel she longed for the luxurious court, elegantly "divided between love and letters. "\^hat pity,, for her, that Catharine di Medicis wasI the serpent in that . Parisianf 'Eden ! Her sad sweet son^ of Jewell shows that she left in /France' the^oy 'of herheart and the'lundjiess of her destiny. Jn Scotland her troubles- began, immediately;-- She "a^sincere-I&manist in the midst of a Protestantism, as narrow and intolerant, as ,the. creed it opposed. She was a 'La tin,, not a.Pic.t; a Guise, not a -Stuart. Her' vivacity, 'freedpm, ' and : love of pleasure -^ojMded r shocked the ..Scotch who earnestly believed- that flowers of. : enjoyment could only skirt, the, <gulE- of iof perdition. . Everybody but herself seated husbands for 1 lier. She was privi'eged to marry any man excspt him' she preferred. DarnleX.wasJnnallyaccepted, partly to avoid further bad^"* gering, but mainly because she was opposed. (A woman, with a warm' bias forrApollov would! wedA Vulcan; if any, persistent. r effort, were made to prevent it. The myth that he was Aphrodite'-s-^husband— is- mirrored in tellural truth. Below Olympus, the goddesses ofeloy6lian.d w be\uty are continually joined with animalism and. deformity.) Mary soon wearied » l of D.arnley,, .whose ; handsome ifaeeacqujd not " cover his* want ; t>| brain" and character. She transferred ner active and plastic- affectionate Rizzio, :an<J Jier lord, disapproving^her dislo.va).ty, formed a 'conspiracy against the' Italian, who was -murdered. A,; woman, never ibrgives her husband for killing her lover,, however lenient she may ,be when the- Vicdm ;: ili "mafiMli - Tire incensed., queen quickly, :drledjrilie tears the assassination had .evoke r d, in_qrdjtir to meditate' : revenge« "A^are'ntly "reconciled to Darnley,.the house in which he lay ill was blown u}> (conniioial blowihgs'-up are "geiierftliy "ii^uratfve)., while has .spou f se« -wa's-' attending- a masquerade.'. .He was not. mis.sed .j 4 for Bbth'wfill for' sonie time supplied'H'is place, and Bolhwell was the 1 precursor of others. .a . „, „ . % , , _ . \< ? f " It was Mary's fortune to "be loved;' it. was:.Jier f misfbTtuneAto: love;-'- iHawlry any man except John Enox- : (a -bronza imagine is quite as susceptible as he , was ■in his ; highest efnotionaT '- &kt\§) ' iever apm'oached,hei^wit|i.ovi.t;a',flush of i erotic Fever. Shewas^entirelymagnetip;. she gave out sparks like an " electric imachinej and^iev.ery ■Rßgatik rt kiadI i e4^ a flame. She herself had. jvonderiub arm6r6us Versatilltyf- Slil'- co-uld""ex-.change* .a, ; dead::h.usbandr«for, *"<■ living lover with perfect f equanimity,. ,.., .She could vfdrgfit Rohsafd "' Hvitn; Frafrdis, and^Ffan cis> -with?, .„ ;-; j4fe-pejlli>r-mentatsHuttlecqck ? sn^/ebounded from ,one ' mWscuiiiie ' battle(i6r ; e ; "t'6 /another^., eachitimp^rtha new spting^mtingind, as she passed; from concussion^ jbo ca-r---ress ' •.••■•■

•:; " She wa# atfliSble 'io^Mdrndtiori 1 sis she was .ciertai^ toiasfjifljaj»; ,., Her magy netism, with, her capacity, ta^be^niagnje:tised, unprSjpitfbus 1 • jykiet!'- '* I^' she had nobbeen. ? loVable;shsß'wodld not; have been hated. _-It was the peril of her eyes that bore her t tp;;,thejlbb.cki Had Elizabetli v^ee]Q^eau.tiif^l,'jand she homely, she' would' 1 havk-De&n* Safe from, the axe.;o Bji^tsieiapbarming woman, in the jiew of the regnant Tudor, was a' capita! offence. Poor Mary went righ t Bobly to bier - 'deaths ! ' Was she comforted and sustained in her final hour by the hope of meeting in heaven a fair prop^tion-'df^thS/mSny/mea she had loved on earth — * Galaxy.