Part 32 (2/2)

”Ai lavori d'Aracne, all'ago, ai fusi Inchinar non degn la man superba.”

The practice of devoting some hours to embroidery seems to have continued in the French court. When the young Queen of Scots was there, the French princesses a.s.sembled every afternoon in the queen's (Catherine of Medici's) private apartment, where ”she usually spent two or three hours in embroidery with her female attendants.”

It is also said, that Katharine of Arragon was in the habit of employing the ladies of her court in needlework, in which she was herself extremely a.s.siduous, working with them and encouraging them by her example. Burnet records, that when two legates requested once to speak with her, she came out to them with a skein of silk about her neck, and told them she had been within at work with her women. An anecdote, as far as regards the skein of silk, somewhat more housewifely than queenly.

In this she differed much from her successor, Queen Catherine Parr, for having had her nativity cast when a child, and being told, from the disposition of the stars and planets in her house, that she was born to sit in the highest seat of imperial majesty; child as she was, she was so impressed by the prediction, that when her mother required her to work she would say, ”My hands are ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, not needles and spindles.”

When the orphaned daughter of this lady, by the lord admiral, was consigned to the care of the d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk, the furniture of ”her former nursery” was to be sent with her. The list is rather curious, and we subjoin it.

”Two pots, three goblets, one salt parcel gilt, a maser with a band of silver and parcel gilt, and eleven spoons; a quilt for the cradle, three pillows, three feather-beds, three quilts, a testor of scarlet embroidered with a counterpoint of silk say belonging to the same, and curtains of crimson taffeta; two counterpoints of imagery for the nurse's bed, six pair of sheets, six fair pieces of hangings within the inner chamber; four carpets for windows, ten pieces of hangings of the twelve months within the outer chamber, two quis.h.i.+ons of cloth of gold, one chair of cloth of gold, two wrought stools, a bedstead gilt, with a testor and counterpoint, with curtains belonging to the same.”

Return we to Katharine of Arragon: her needlework labours have been celebrated both in Latin and English verse. The following sonnet refers to specimens in the Tower, which now indeed are swept away, having left not ”a wreck behind.”

”I read that in the seventh King Henrie's reigne, Fair Katharine, daughter to the Castile king, Came into England with a pompous traine Of Spanish ladies which shee thence did bring.

She to the eighth King Henry married was, And afterwards divorc'd, where virtuously (Although a Queene), yet she her days did pa.s.s In working with the _needle_ curiously, As in the Tower, and places more beside, Her excellent memorials may be seen; Whereby the _needle's_ prayse is dignifide By her faire ladies, and herselfe, a Queene.

Thus far her paines, here her reward is just, Her works proclaim her prayse, though she be dust.”

The same pen also celebrated her daughter's skill in this feminine occupation.

Mary was skilled in all sorts of embroidery; and when her mother's divorce consigned her to a private life, she beguiled the intervals of those severer studies in which she peaceably and laudably occupied her time in various branches of needlework. It is not unlikely the Psalter we have alluded to elsewhere was embroidered by herself; and a reference to the fas.h.i.+onable occupations of the day will bring to our minds various trifling articles, the embroidery of which beguiled her time, though they have long since pa.s.sed away.

”Her daughter Mary here the sceptre swaid, And though she were a Queene of mighty power, Her memory will never be decaid, Which by her works are likewise in the Tower, In Windsor Castle, and in Hampton Court, In that most pompous roome called Paradise; Who ever pleaseth thither to resort, May see some workes of hers, of wondrous price.

Her greatness held it no disreputation To take the needle in her royal hand; Which was a good example to our nation To banish idleness from out her land: And thus this Queene, in wisdom thought it fit, The needle's worke pleas'd her, and she grac'd it.”

We extract the following notice of the gentle and excellent Lady Jane Grey, from the 'Court Magazine.'

”Ten days' royalty! Alas, how deeply fraught with tragic interest is the historic page recording the events of that brief period! and how immeasurable the results proceeding therefrom. Love, beauty, religious constancy, genius, and learning, were seen in early womanhood intermingling their glorious halo with the dark shadowings of despotism, imprisonment, and violent death upon the scaffold!

”In the most sequestered part of Leicesters.h.i.+re, backed by rude eminences, and skirted by lowly and romantic valleys, stands Bradgate, the birth-place and abode of Lady Jane Grey. The approach to Bradgate from the village of Cropston is striking. On the left stands a group of venerable trees, at the extremity of which rise the remains of the once magnificent mansion of the Greys of Groby. On the right is a hill, known by the name of 'The Coppice,' covered with slate, but so intermixed with fern and forest-flowers as to form a beautiful contrast to the deep shades of the surrounding woods. To add to the loveliness of the scene, a winding trout-stream finds its way from rock to rock, was.h.i.+ng the walls of Bradgate until it reaches the fertile meadows of Swithland.

”In the distance, situate upon a hill, is a tower, called by the country-people Old John, commanding a magnificent view of the adjoining country, including the distant castles of Nottingham and Belvoir. With the exception of the chapel and kitchen, the princely mansion has now become a ruin; but a tower still stands, which tradition points out as her birth-place. Traces of the tilt-yard are visible, with the garden-walls, and a n.o.ble terrace whereon Jane often walked and sported in her childhood; and the rose and lily still spring in favourable nooks of that wilderness, once the pleasance, or pleasure-garden of Bradgate. Near the brook is a beautiful group of old chestnut-trees.

”'This was thy home then, gentle Jane, This thy green solitude; and here At evening from the gleaming pane, Thine eye oft watched the dappled deer (While the soft sun was in its wane) Browsing beside the brooklet clear; The brook runs still, the sun sets now, The deer yet browseth--where art thou?'

”Instead of skill in drawing she cultivated the art of painting with the needle, and at Zurich is still to be seen, together with the original MS. of her Latin letters to the reformer Bullinger, a toilet beautifully ornamented by her own hands, which had been presented by her to her learned correspondent.”

In the court of Catherine de Medicis Mary Queen of Scots was habituated to the daily practice of needlework, and thus fostered her natural taste for the art which she had acquired in the convent--supposed to have been St. Germaine-en-Laye, where she was placed during the early part of her residence in France. She left this convent with the utmost regret, revisited it whenever she was permitted, and gladly employed her needle in embroidering an altarpiece for its church.

This predilection for needlework never forsook her, but proved a beguilement and a solace during the weary years of her subsequent imprisonment, especially after she was separated from the female friends who at first accompanied her. During a part of her confinement, while she was still on comparatively friendly terms with Elizabeth, she transmitted several elegant pieces of her own needlework to this princess. She wrought a canopy, which was placed in the presence-chamber at Whitehall, consisting of an empalement of the arms of France and Scotland, embroidered under an imperial crown.

It does not appear at what period of her life she worked it. During the early part of her confinement she was asked how, in unfavourable weather, she pa.s.sed the time within. She said that all that day she wrought with her needle, and that the diversity of the colours made the work seem less tedious; and she continued so long at it till very pain made her to give over.

”Upon this occasion she entered into a pretty disputable comparison between carving, painting, and working with the needle; affirming painting, in her own opinion, for the most commendable quality. No doubt it was during her confinement in England that she worked the bed still preserved at Chatsworth.”

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