Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/370

 her crime, she said, had not been ambition, but a want of firmness in resisting the instances of those whom she had been accustomed to revere and obey. She concluded her remarks with a solemn profession of her faith, and devoutly repeated a psalm in English.

The executioner knelt to implore her forgiveness, which she granted readily, adding, "I pray you despatch me quickly." Then kneeling, and saying, "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit," she meekly submitted to her fate. She was hardly seventeen at the time of her death.

GREY, MRS., a popular English authoress, in whose writings we find nothing very new or exciting, neither do we discover anything injurious or distasteful to the most fastidious. Her books, with respect to the moral tone, may be safely allowed to "the fair and innocent." The characters are such as, in our experience, we have had the opportunity to see portrayed many hundreds of times. Mrs. Grey dresses them up, however, very cleverly, and presents them to the public suitably. "The Gambler's Wife," one of her early works, has enjoyed a wonderful popularity. In her later works there is much improvement in the style, which is now generally correct. "Aleine" is decidedly the best of her productions, where there is a very successful imitation of Mrs. Marsh; in spirit and feeling some portions of it might fairly challenge competition with "The Two Old Men's Tales." The other works of Mrs. Grey are "The Duke and the Cousin," "The Belle of the Family," "The Little Wife, a Record of Matrimonial Life," "The Manoeuvering Mother," "Sybil Lennard," "The Young Prima Donna," "The Baronet's Daughters," "Hyacinthe, or the Contrast," "Lena Cameron," "The Old Dower House,"Alice Seymour," and "Harry Monk."

GRIERSON, CONSTANTIA, born in the county of Kilkenny, in Ireland She was considered an excellent scholar, not only in Greek and Roman literature, but in history, divinity, philosophy, and mathematics. She gave a proof of her knowledge of Latin by her dedication of the Dublin edition of Tacitus to Lord Carteret, and that of Terence to his son, to whom she also wrote a Greek epigram. She also composed several fine poems, in English; and was a woman of exemplary piety and virtue. What made these extraordinary talents yet more surprising, was, that her parents were poor, illiterate, country people, and she had no instruction but the little the minister of the parish gave her, when she found time from her needle-work, to which she was closely kept by her mother.

When Lord Carteret was Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he obtained a patent for Mr. Grierson, her husband, to be the king's printer; and, to distinguish and reward her uncommon merit, had her life inserted in it. Whether owing to her own desire, or the envy of those around her, very few of her various and beautiful writings were ever published. She died in 1733, at the early age of twenty-seven.

GRIFFITH, ELIZABETH, and dramatic writer of some eminence, first distinguished herself by the "Letters of Henry and Frances," which