and the gude handlyng of hir' that hes not the thirde pairt of the faythfull nor willing obedience unto you that I beir, hes wonne aganis my will that avauntage over me, quhilke the second love of Jason wan. Not that I will compare you to ane sa unhappy as he was, nor yit my selfe to ane sa unpitiful a woman' as sche. Howbeit, ye caus me to be sumquhat like unto hyr in any thing that touchis you, or that may preserve and keip you unto hir, to quhome onely ye appertaine1o: if it be sa that I may appropriate that quhilk is wonne through faythfull yea onely luffing of you, as I do and sall do all the days of my lyfe, for payne or evill that can cume thairof. In recompense of the quhilk, and of all the evils quhilk ye have ben cause of to me, remember you upon the place heir beside". I crave with that ye plaintes." Tytler, ii. 418. To discharge the conscience is an English phrase, but to discharge the heart to another, is altogether French. * The gude handling of hir.] Altered from the gude composing (bon maintien) in the extracts of the Scotch commissioners. Infra. "That hes not the thirde pairt of the faythfull nor willing obedience unto you that I beir.] Qui n'a point la troisième partie de l'obéissance fidelle, ni de la volonté que je vous porte. To bear obedience to one is a French idiom. 9 To ane sa unpitiful a woman.] A une femme si impitoyable. 10 To quhom onely ye appertaine.] A laquelle seule vous appartenez. "In recompense of the quhilk, and of all the evils quhilk ye have ben cause of to me, remember you upon the place heir beside.] En récompense de cela et des tous les maux donc vous m'avez été cause, souvenez-vous de la place ici près ; 13 keepe promise to me the morne2, but that we may meit together 13, and that ye geve na fayth to suspiciouns without the certaintie of thaim. And I crave na other thyng at God, but that ye may know that thyng that is in my hart, quhilke is yours", and that he may preserve you from all evill, at the least sa lang as I have life, quhilk I repute not precious unto me, except in sa farre as it and I baith, are agreeabill unto you. I am going to bed, and will bid you gude night. Advertise me tymely in the mornyng how ye have faren, for I will be in payne unto I get word. Make gude watch's if the burd eschaip out of the caige or without 15 translated literally, heir beside; and she reminds Bothwell again, souvenez-vous, a frequent expression, of the plan announced in the beginning of her letter, to bring Lord Robert in the morning to the king's chamber. 12 I crave with that ye keepe promise to me the morne.] Je demande avec (cela) que vous me teniez promesse demain; as in her letter to Elizabeth, "Souvenez-vous que j'ay tenue promesse." Anderson, iv. 49. 13 But that we may meit together.] Literally from, si ce n'étoit que nous nous trouverions ensemble. "But that" renders the whole sentence, I crave also that you keep your promise to-morrow, if it were only that we should meet together," unintelligible in English. 14 And I craif na uther thyng at God, but that ye may know that thyng that is in my hart, quhilke is yours.] Je ne demande autre chose à Dieu, que vous ne sachiez la chose qui est dans mon cœur, qui est le votre. 15 Make gude watch.] Instead of our vernacular idiom, to keep a good watch. Lord Robert's intimation had made her afraid of her husband's escape, of which she advertises Bothwell, faites bonne guarde, si l'oiseau s'éschappe de la cage, hir mate, as the turtur I shall remayne alone for to lament the absence how schort that soever it be 16. This 16 Or without hir mate, as the turtur I shall remayne alone for to lament the absence how short that soever it be.] Ou sans compagne, comme la tourterelle, je demeurerai seule pour lamenter l'absence, toute courte qu'elle soit. This poetical conceit, which her husband's escape from the cage suggested to Mary, in despite of the sense, is immediately derived from a sonnet of Ronsard's, where we find the very words employed in the letter to Bothwell. Que dis-tu, que fais-tu, pensive tourterelle, Pourquoy lamente-tu ?-T. Pour ma compagne absente, Ronsard's sonnet, of which the original may be found in Johannes Secundus (Sic gemit arenti viduatus ab arbore turtur,) was imitated in a Scottish poem, entitled a Song in Absense, which has been erroneously ascribed to James I. but which belongs to a period even later than the present. Evin as men may the turtil trew persaif, Once having lost hir feir, On the dry brainche ay faithful to the graif, So my desyre, O, God, gif amour be ane paine to beir! Pinkerton's Anc. Scot. Poems, ii. 215. Sibbald's Chron. i. 56. This, however, is also derived from an intermediate imitation of Ronsard, in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592. A turtle sat upon a leaveless tree, Mourning her absent phere letter will do with a gude hart", that thyng quhilk I can not do my selfe, if it be not that I have feare that ye are in sleeping 19. I durst not write this befoire Joseph, Bastian and Joachim, that did but depart evin quhen I began to write 20. And whilst her plumes she rents, And for her love laments, &c. Spenser has a sonnet on the same subject; but how superior to these conceits is Shakspeare's natural and pathetic application of the simile to Paulina, in the Winter's Tale. I, an old turtle, Will wing me to some withered bough, and there Lament till I am lost. Act V. Sc. vii. See Malone's note. And nothing can authenticate the Queen's letters more strongly than the explanation of those passages which are unintelligible in themselves, till we discover their secret allusion to the thoughts and words of her favourite poet. "With a gude hart.] Un bon cœur; willingly, of which the Latin translator perceived, and has preserved the sense of the original idiom. Hæc epistola libenter faciet. 13 That thyng quhilk I can not do myself.] Ce que je ne saurois faire moi-même; instigate lord Robert to commit the murder. 19 If it be not that I have fear that ye are in sleeping.] Si ce n'est que j'aye peur que vous ne soyez endormi, in its figurative sense; d'un homme endormi; slow or negligent. 20 That did but depart even quhen I began to write.] Qui venoient de partir que je commençai à écrire. Copy, State Pa book mark ed "Scotland Lres to Q. E. 1571 to LETTER IV. (In the original French.) French Ire, Anent the depesche of Margrett Carwode, q" wes befoir her mariage. Prufs hir affection. Mon Cueur helas fault il que la follie dune famme per Office, dont vous conoisses asses lingratitude vers moy soit cause de vous donner displesir veu que je neusse sceu y remedier sans le scavoir1 et despuis que men suis apersue je ne vous lay peu dire pour scavoir comment 26, p. 521.je me gouvernerois car en cela ni autre chose je ne veux entreprandre de rien fayre sans en scavoir votre volontay laquelle je vous suplie me fayre entandre 1603." No. 1 2 Supposed to allude to Margaret Carwood's proving with child to Sebastian; at that time a crime the most offensive to the reformers. The queen's apothecary, and one of her maids of honour, had been executed for child-murder in December 1563. A shame-hasted marriage had been patched up for another of her Marys, or maids of honour; and Knox and Buchanan inveigh loudly against the dissolute licentiousness of her court. Knox, 345. Buchanan, 330. These writers durst not have contradicted the public opinion, had Mary's court been as chaste and correct as Elizabeth's, of which no such report was ever uttered among the papists themselves; if we except Mary's malignant letter to Elizabeth on Lady Shrewsbury's supposed information con |