Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/359

Rh successor, sickened her heart. She had lost much of her popularity since the death of Essex, and feelingly complained that her people no longer loved her, and why should she wish to live? A deep melancholy took possession of her senses; she almost abstained from food; and, during the fortnight that preceded her dissolution, sat upon the floor with her finger in her mouth, in the last stage of bitter despondence, attending to nothing but the prayers of the archbishop of Canterbury, to whom she listened with the deepest attention, till a few hours before her death. She had named James, king of Scotland, her successor, who honoured her memory with a magnificent monument in Westminster abbey. She lived 70 years, and reigned 44.

Jealous of any encroachments upon her prerogative, Elizabeth appears to have really loved her subjects: affable, frugal, moderate, and skilled when to assert and when to yield what she considered as her rights; she maintained equally the command and affection of the Englishman and the respect of foreign powers. Her personal vanity was the greatest weakness of her character; but, when young, she was considered as handsome. Her complexion was very fair, and her hair of a reddish hue.

her husband, was devoted to science, and shared his literary labours with him. She examined passages and transcribed quotations. The same genius, the