MYSTIFYING MARRIAGES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2951, 24 November 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

MYSTIFYING MARRIAGES.

Youth and Middle Age.

(Illustrated London Nev.s.)

The King of Servia, the latest to follow in the path of the marriage of youths in the bloom of manhood with charming ladies who have the one disqualification of being as old as the bridegrooms mothers, may be tbe better off in his eomewhat thorny walk in life for the counsel beside him of a woman much older, and therefore presumably more worldlywise than himself. But girls may well think that the several other recent examples of the same sort of match—two of our best-known actresses, a much-admired singer, and a prominent society woman thus marrying in the past year or two is in everybody’s knowledge—are somewhat mystifying.

GEORGE ELIOT, who was . herself to make such a wedding of the May with—well, perhaps not December, but May with September or October, type, explained the matter to- her own satisfaction some time before she was free to enter upon the experiment herself. Rather more than a year before the death of G. H. Lewes, whom she regarded as her first husband, she wrote to Madame Bodichon as follows:—“And Mbs Thackeray is married 10-d;ly to young Ritchie. I feel that the nearly twenty years’ difference between them is bridged hopefully by his solidity and gravity. This is one of the several instances that I have known lately, showing that young men with even brilliant advantages will often choose as their life’s companion a woman whose attractions are chiefly of the spiritual order.” This was her explanation, in advance, as it were, of (lie step that she herself took two years later, in marrying a young man of thirty or so when she was sixty. In that case, obviously, the disparity was real; but there is frequently a tendency to exaggerate the disadvantage of a few years more OX THE woman’s SIDE ; llie King of Servians sixteen years’ junior ship, for instance, would have been considered a mere nothing had the man been the elder. There happen to be some really interesting classical instances of apparent success in marriages of young men to women who were their seniors. George Eliot must not he, called in evidence, for she lived .-o short a time—only eight months —after her second marriage that it was no test. However, her asseverations of her happiness to the end are sufficiently emphatic. More convincing illustrations arc those of DR JOHNSON, Madame de Slued, and Lord Beaconsfield. Johnson’s wife, the widowed Mrs Porter, was much older than lug yet he appears to have.been passionately devoted to her. Not only did ho constantly mourn, 'for her after her death—that is easy ; even the worst of husbands, the selfish grumpy Carlyle, could do that—hut Johnson v.sSs loving to his chosen partner in life ; there is ton account in Boswell, given by one who was a. hoy in Johnson's school, of how the lads used to listen outside the door (f> amuse themselves with their stem master’s fond talk and endearments towards Iris (to the hoys) mwittractive elderly wife. ; so that Mrs Port cl appears to have had, at anyrate, as little rea.-ou as the awerage wife to regret hei matrimonial experimenI. LORD IiEACUNSEJ HU) was seventeen years younger than his wife, to whom he testified an unfailing affection, both during her life and afterwards. Not

the smallest hint of disrespect or Shadow ol nogleot towards her on the part of airy friend was allowed by him to pass unpunished; her slightly peculiar manner and appearance always seemed to be quite right in his eyes, and he compelled everybody to treat her with equal respect and deference. He does not lie in Westminster Abbey only because the Queen, who knew him so well, believed in the sincerity of the injunction of his will, which ran thus: —“I desire that I may be buried in the same vault in the Churchyard of Huglrenden in which the remains of my late dear wife, Mary Arare Disraeli, created in her own right Viscountess Beaconsfield, were placed, and that my funeral may be conducted with the same simplicity as hers was.” Lady Beaconsfield gave much to her famous partner; wealth to clear his life from the choking weeds of debt, personal devotion, and tender care unstinted and untiring ; but she received in return a constant love and attention from her comparatively young husband that many a wife apparently more normally united must envy. MADAME DE STAEL (to come to my last instance) was forty-five when she married young de Rocca, who was twenty-three. He was extremely handsome —Byron and others have left their testimony to the fact—and he was an athlete famed for his daring horse-riding. Madame de Stael became the mother of a son to de Rocca, when she was forty-six; and though she would never allow her marriage to be publicly acknowledged (for fear of ridicule) there is no doubt that it was extremely happy. In her long and painful last illness, her husband watched beside her with unfailing devotion; and he only survived her for seven months, grieving over his loss the while incessantly.