Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/207

 9* s. iv. oCT. 7,-99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 283 world: So rich in commodities, so beautifull in situation, so resplendent in all glorie, that if the most Omnipotent had fashioned the world round like a ring, as he did. like a globe, it might have bene most worthily the only gemme therein," to quote the glowing words of that true- hearted lover of his country, William Camden (" Remaines concerning Britaine, <fcc. Printed at London by Iohn Legatt for Simon Water- son, 1614"), would seem to gather round her all the manly valour, enterprise, and genius of the nation by some subtle magnetic in- fluence which, so far as I know, has not yet been adequately considered by the philosophic historian. It is a subject well worthy of examination by a writer who possesses the necessary learning and leisure, to whom I beg leave to commend it. Though rejoicing at the advent of King George, the poet describes his muse as still bedewed with tears at the death of Queen Anne. Her amiable character, her genuine piety, and her sad domestic bereavements must have made a deep impression on the minds of her subjects. Hers is a most touch- ing story. " Good Queen Anne" was the mother of six children, all of whom died in infancy with the exception of William, Duke of Gloucester, who expired in his twelfth year.* Her husband, Prince George of Den- mark, followed his children, and the widowed and childless queen was left alone, the last of the Stuart family who filled the throne of England. The volume of which I speak is very sad reading. It is almost one continual threnody. Charles II., a monarch much maligned it would seem, is bewailed in sonorous hexameters by the weeping Thames and Isis ("Tamesis et Isis flentes, p. 187. The index gives "fluentes," which, though funny, is more natural, one would think). The late Queen Mary and the celebrated Dr. John Radcliffe are commemorated in several poems; but the bulk of the volume is dedicated to Queen Anne and her family. Her son, the Duke of Gloucester, "born at the Royal Palace at Hampton Court, 24 July, 1689, died at Windsor, 30 July, 1700, the only surviving child of the Prince and Princess of Denmark" (Salmon's ' Chronological Historian'), is la- mented in eight different poems. The same excellent authority informs us, under the date 28 October, 1708, that " His Royal Highness, Prince George of Denmark, her British Majesty's Consort, died at Kensington Anne had " seventeen children," on what authority 1 know not, for none is given. My statement is taken from Salmon's ' Chronological Historian,' second edition, London, 1733, which may be called contemporary authority. of an Asthma: He was born at Copenhagen, April, 1653, and married to her Majesty in July, 1683, and was an illustrious Instance of conjugal Affection among the Great. The Corps of the Prince of Den- mark (11 November) was brought from Kensington to Westminster; and, having lain in State in the Painted Chamber till the 13th, was privately in- terred in Westminster Abbey." Five poets sing the praises of this amiable personage, who was the loyal subject and faithful tiusband of his beloved queen. One of them (" Honorat. D. Johannes Carteret, Baro de Hawnes. ex ^Ede Christi," p. 292) is the author of the following lines, which are not destitute of feeling : — O sponsus Anna: dulcis! amantium 0 par beatum! perpetuas parant Vobis corollas nuptiarum Prases Hymen ft arnica Juno : At O! Deorum quia Britonum invidens Sorti, quis Annam saepe puerperam Orbavit, eheu! quis fidelem Diripuit gremio Maritum? The queen herself, in addition to being complimented on almost every page of this most interesting volume, has as many elegies on her own decease as were composed on the premature death of her son, the Duke of Gloucester, who was at once the hope and darling of the nation. Written as they are in an antique tongue, these various offerings of the Muse show much genuine sorrow; and though many tears are shed by the fellow- bards of our eighteenth - century baronet which, if joined to his own, would almost form a stream of water, scarcely of the quality so much commended by his descendant, there is, at any rate, no such false sentiment to be found as in the lines .on the death of Queen Anne's great predecessor, Elizabeth, which are quoted by Camden in his chapter on ' Epitaphes' ('Remaines,' p. 378). He says :— " Vpon the remoove of her body to the pallace of White-hall by water, were written then these passionate dolefull Lines:— The Queene was brought by water to White-hall, At every stroake the oares teares let fall: More clung about the Barge, fish under water Wept out their eyes of pearle, and swome blinde after. I thinke the Barge-men might with easier thighes Have rowed her thither inber peoples eyes. For how so ere, thus much my thoughts nave scand, Sha'd come by water, had shee come by land." Sir Wilfrid Lawson finishes his ode with a flattering allusion to the mighty Addison ("ingens Addisonus"), who had struck the lyre which the dying Maro had dropped, but now, busied with the weighty affairs of George and the world, had sacrificed poesy on the altar of politics. He thus concludes :— At gesta qui quondam canebat, Ipse gerit pariter canenda.
 * The ' Oracle Encyclopaedia' asserts that Queen