Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/395

Mary Stuart actress though she occasionally proved herself to be, nature in all the great emergencies of her life asserted its supremacy. Her heart, in almost every variation of its moods, has been bared to the world; and if the views of both classes of extremists, blinded by religious or political prepossessions, be set aside, there is a pretty general consensus of opinion as to her main aims and characteristics. She cared comparatively little for the mere trappings of state, and her tastes were simple and natural, yet without question her ruling passion was the passion for sovereignty. It had been carefully nurtured in her from childhood, and it was specially whetted by her loss of the French crown, by her rivalry with Elizabeth, and by the contumacy of the Scots. It was all the stronger that it was unassociated with any kind of patriotism. It was undoubtedly stronger than her devotion to catholicism. When the Cardinal of Lorraine and the pope himself sought to limit her ambitions, she declined to be influenced by their entreaties. She also sacrificed her catholicism, not merely by implication but openly, to her passion for Bothwell. The Darnley and Bothwell episodes, though important from their bearing on certain aspects of her character, were rather the occasions than the causes of her misfortunes. Her position in Scotland was really all along so perilous, and, notwithstanding her skilful manoeuvring and subtle tact, she was at once so daring in ambition and so fickle and impulsive, so liable to be blinded by her passionate desires and to be dominated by personal likes and hates, that disaster was sooner or later inevitable.

The only extant specimens of Mary's poetry, in addition to the reputed sonnets to Bothwell, are the verses on the death of her husband Francis II, printed by Brantôme in his 'Memoirs,' reprinted in Laing, ii. 217-219; a sonnet to Elizabeth in Italian and French (Cotton Lib. Calig. D. i. fol. 316), printed in Laing, ii. 220-1; 'Meditation fait par la Reyne d'Escosse Dovarière de France, recuellie d'un Livre des Consolations Divines, composez par l'evesque de Ross,' published in a rare volume — 'Lettres et Traitez Chrestiens,' by David Home at Bergerac in 1613, republished in 'Bannatyne Miscellany,' i. 343-7; and a sonnet written at Fotheringay, in the State Paper Office. Bishop Montague, in his Preface to the 'Works' of King James, 1616, states that 'she wrote a book of verses in French of the "Institution of a Prince," all with her owne hand, and wrought the cover of it with her needle,' and that the volume was then in the possession of the king. In the catalogue of books presented by Drummond of Hawthornden to the university of Edinburgh there appears under the name of Mary 'Tetrasticha ou Quatrains a son fils M. S.' Some verses written by her on her 'Book of Hours' are printed in Labanoff, vii. 346-52. The lines beginning 'Adieu plaisant pays de France,' at one time attributed to her, were written by Meusnier de Querlon, who published them as hers in 1765.

A large number of the reputed portraits of the queen of Scots are fictitious; and various portraits of other royal Marys have been catalogued as portraits of her. For special information reference may be made to the paper by Mr. George Scharf in 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,' 2nd ser. vii. 58-86; Labanoff's 'Notice sur la Collection des Portraits de Marie Stuart,' pp. 246-7; and the Preface to Chalmers's 'Life of Mary Queen of Scots.' The catalogues of the Peterborough Exhibition, 1887, and of the Stuart Exhibition, 1889, may also be consulted for a list of portraits and relics. Mr. Scharf specially mentions as genuine and characteristic a miniature by Janet with Francis II in the royal library at Windsor; a portrait by Janet in a widow's dress ('Le Deuil Blanc'), formerly at Hampton Court and now at Windsor; a portrait painted at Sheffield in 1578 by D. Mytens at Hardwick Hall (the original of the Morton portrait and others); and the memorial pictures, with the execution in the background, at Windsor, Cobham Hall, and Blairs College. [In addition to the various documents and letters in the State Paper Office, which have been nearly all calendared, there are in the British Museum a large number of manuscripts connected with the Marian period of Scottish history, which, although in part utilised by different historians from Robertson downwards, and partly published by them, and in different collections, have never been systematically sifted and examined. The volumes in which selections from them have been published include: Anderson's Collections, 4 vols. 1727-8; the appendices to the histories of Keith, Robertson, Laing, and Tytler; Ellis's Original Letters; Illustrations of the Reign of Mary (Maitland Club); Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times; Hardwicke State Pacers, &c. The important manuscripts at Hatfield have either been published in the Collections of Haynes, 1740, or Murdin, 1759. or summarised in the Calendar of the Hatfield MSS., published by Hist. MSS, Comm. The various Reports of the Hist. MSS. Comm. may also be referred to. The manuscripts in the various foreign archives have nearly all been published or calendared, with the exception of those in the Vatican. Specially important are Teulet's Relations politiques de la France et de l'Espagne avec l'Écosse