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Princeps, Illustrissimaque Princeps, had letters of congratulation written to her in the most superb Latin, from philosophers of every European nation, declaring her the most wonderful woman that had ever breathed. The Rector Magnificus of the University of Leyden, addressing her, said, "Princeps ingenii, Princeps terrarum, Princeps fæminini sexus merito diceris." The Vice-Chancellor and Senate of Cambridge made this speech :-"Nondum (quod scimus) annalibus excidere, neque certe per nos unquam excident erudita nomina, Aspasia Pereclis, Odenati Zenobia, Polla Lucani, Boethii Rusticiana; quæ tamen, si reviviscerent hodie, adeo tecum (Inclyta Dux) de eruditionis palma non contendere:t, at famæ tuæ potius ancillantes, solam Margaretam, consummatissimam Principem et agnoscerent, et posito genu certatim adorarent." If this be not glory, what is ?

Faugh! thank God, servility is not so rife in these days! Oxford and Cambridge did not use such language to the Countess of Blessington!

While all this adulation was going on in the lady's presence, there were sneers and laughter enough where sho was absent. Sir Walter Scott, in one of the best scenes in "Peveril of the Peak," makes Charles the Second say to an attendant, when the Duchess of Newcastle is supposed to be waiting admittance in an ante-chamber-"In the name of madness, then, let us admit her. Her Grace is an entire rareeshow in her person, a universal masquerade; indeed, a sort of private Bedlam hospital; her whole ideas being like so many patients crazed upon the subjects of love and literature, who act nothing in their vagaries, save Minerva, Venus and the Nine Muses." It was a good touch that of Sir Walter's, and better, we are inclined to think, than he meant it to be, in making Charles jest coarsely at the expense of a lady whose family and whoso husband's family, had spilt their treasures and blood in his service, when his fortunes were most desolate.

Besides nineteen plays, innumerable philosophical essays, letters, orations, and poems, the Duchess of Newcastle produced some "tales in prose," which are amongst our earliest novels of English manufacture.

As a specimen, we transcribe

"THE CONVERTS IN MARRIAGE.

"There were four young gentlewomen whose fathers were near neighbours to each other, whereupon there grew up an acquaintance, and so a society.

"The first was reserved and coy.
"The second was bold and ranting.
"The third was merry and gay.

"The fourth was peevish and spightful.

"She that was reserved and coy, was generous and ambitious.

"She that was bold and ranting, was covetous and wanton. "She that was merry and gay, was vain and phantastical. "She that was peevish and spightful, was cross and unconstant.

"It chanced the four fathers were offered four husbands for their four daughters all at one time, and, by reason they had good estates, they caused their daughters to marry.

"The husband that was to marry the first lady was covetous, miserable, and timerous, as all miserable, covetous, persons, for the most part are, fearfull; but being very rich, the father to this lady forced her to marry him.

"And he that was to marry the second lady was temperate, prudent, and chaste.

"And he that was to marry the third lady was melancholy, solitary, and studious.

"And he that was to marry the fourth lady was cholerick and impatient.

"And after they had been marryed some time, the covetous and timerous man became hospitable, bountifull, valiant, and aspiring, doing high and noble deeds.

"And she that was bold and wanton became chaste, sober, and obedient.

"And he that was melancholy became sociable, conversible, and pleasant, and she thrifty and staid.

"But he that was cholerick and impatient, who married her that was peevish and spightful, did live like dogs and cats, spit, scrawl, scratch, and bite, insomuch that they were forced to part; for, being both faulty, they could not live happily, because they could never agree: for errours and faults multiply being joined together, &c."

The foregoing is the entire story. The reader might think from the concluding &c., that there was more in the original, but there is not; the introduction, plot, denouement, moral conclusion, and the &c., have been copied as the authoress had them printed.

The Duchess of Newcastle died in the year 1673, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument, erected to her memory, has this inscription.

"Here lies the Lord Duke of Newcastle, and his Duchess, his second wife, by whom he had no issue; Her name was Margaret Lucas, youngest sister to the Lord Lucas of Colchester, a noble family; for all the brothers were valiant, and all the sisters virtuous. This Duchess was a wise, witty, and learned lady, which her many books do well testifie: she was a most virtuous and loving, and careful wife, and was with her Lord all the time of his banishment and miseries; and when she came home, never parted with him in his solitary retirements."

CHAPTER III.

MRS. BEHN.

FEW English women, who have devoted themselves to literature as a vocation, have achieved a greater success than did Mrs. Behn in her day. Sho gained a liberal share of the applause of the wits of her age, and a yet larger share of their attention; she wrote poems that were allowed to be good: she was the authoress of plays which the town flocked to see acted; Charles the Second was fascinated by her powers of conversation and her beauty; Dryden complimented her on her powers of versification; and she wrote novels which every one read, and continued to read for generations after her death; and one (at least) of which was translated into the French language, and published at Amsterdam, when she had been in the grave more than half a century. And yet, we doubt not, many of our

readers have never heard her name till now.

Aphra, Aphara, Apharra, or Afra (for the name is to bo found spelt in all four ways) Behn was a daughter of a gentleman of good family. Her maiden name was Johnson; and Canterbury has the honour of being her birth-placebut the year of her birth is unknown. The various biogra phers, who have briefly sketched her life, concur in placing her birth at the close of the reign of Charles the First; it certainly was not earlier.

Her father was a friend of Francis, fourth Lord Willoughby, of Parham, in the county of Suffolk, to which nobleman, in conjunction with Laurence Hyde, second son of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, Charles the Second gave (with the

liberality that characterized European monarchs of those days) the colony of Surinam. The interest of Lord Willoughby secured the post of Lieutenant-General of Surinam and thirty-six West Indian isles for his friend Johnson, who immediately quitted England for the New World, taking with him his wife and children. Aphara was then quite a child-too young, her female biographer and friend assures us, to have known the passion of love. But her rare beauty had, even in those tender years, gained her many passionate admirers, and her quickness of intellect was the wonder and amusement of all her acquaintance.

The lieutenant-general was fated not to reap any of the advantages of his newly-acquired appointment. He died on board ship, during his passage to America. His patron, also, was doomed to find his death at sea, but in a more calamitous manner. Francis, Lord Willoughby, was lost in a violent hurricane, which destroyed eleven ships, in the year 1666. Pepys mentions this catastrophe, in a letter to Lord Broncker, with official brevity and coolness. "But perhaps our ill, but confirmed, tidings from the Barbadoes may not have reached you yet, it coming but yesterday; viz., that about eleven ships, whereof two of the king's, the Hope and Coventry, going thence with men to attack St. Christopher's, were seized by a violent hurricane and all sunk-two only of the thirteen escaping, and those with the loss of masts, &c. My Lord Willoughby himself is involved in the disaster, and I think two ships thrown upon an island of the French, and so all the men, to 500, became their prisoners."

When Aphora, with her widowed mother, and her brothers and sisters, gained the terra firma of Surinam, they took possession of a house that appears to have stood somewhere on the Parham estate, and which was placed at their disposal. The scene was novel, and had plenty to interest them. "As soon as I came into the country the

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