EVELYN'S LIFE OF MRS. GODOLPHIN.
Tan wife of Sidney Godolphin, the subsequently celebrated statesman of Queen Anne, was a youthful friend and favourite of the amiable Evelyn, and, according to his perhaps partial estimate of her, a perfect paragon of women. Margaret Godolphin was a saint without austerity, a has bleu without affectation, a wit without tartness or malice ; a pattern of maiden purity in the Court of Charles the Second, yet neither dull nor morose; an actress prefiminent among the royal and noble lady amateurs of the Court, yet ever shrinking from display, and performing in those courtly entertainments only in obedience to the commands of majesty ; in her charities and godly works she was a counterpart of the Gospel hero- ines; and in abort a model for all, both in maiden and married life.
To commemorate so much excellence, and at the request and with the assistance of one of Mrs. Godolphin's most intimate friends, Evelyn undertook to write her life; but died without giving it the final cor- rections. In course of time the family papers passed into the possession of Evelyn's descendant, the present Archbishop of York ; who placed the biography in the hands of the Bishop of Oxford for publication. It now appears with his revision, (to the extent of the spelling and the occasional Introduction between brackets of omitted words,) together with a series of
• Unlimited at least in respect to free male citizens. Even in the most liberal of ancient free conetitutions, the "sovereign people" was but a fraction of the whole body of inhabitants. It excluded women, resident aliens, and slaves.
valuable illustrative notes, genealogical, topographical, and relating to courtly and literary matters, from the pen of Mr. Holmes of the British Museum.
The Life of Mrs. Godolphin is in itself rather a curious than a strik-
ing work. The style is of another age altogether; book adds nothing
to our historical knowledge ; and, beyond the moral which it points of the
possibility of preserving respectability and purity in the most corrupt society, it teaches little; for the character of Margaret Godolphin was
evidently singular' and, we suspect, to some extent exaggerated by her biographer. The book, however, is a pleasant and useful addition to our biographical literature. It exhibits an individual life, with many indica- tions of the manners of the age in which the subject lived, and the parti- cular class among whom she lived. It is also a literary production very opposite to our modern biographies. The Life deals more with character, conduct, behaviour, and the individual's daily habits, than with mere events. It is in fact a real biography, where Margaret Godolphin is the principal, almost the only figure. Panegyric may cause some undue expan- sion ; and feelings of reverence and affection towards " the early loved, the early lost " may prompt a very minute exhibition of mind as unfolded in private memoranda or correspondence ; but no attempt is made to swell the life of the heroine by hooking on to it events with which she was con- nected or happened to be contemporary. Perhaps the amiable old author may appear a little too often and a little too prominently himself; but the accouut of his first opinion of Margaret Blagge, of the manner in which their platonic friendship was formed, and several other passages where John Evelyn figures as the worthy middle-aged beau and man of business of Charles the Second's day, are essential to the biography, especially up- on the author's plan.
The leading events in the life of Margaret Godolphin are few. She was born in 1652, of an old and respectable Suffolk family. Her father, Co- lonel Thomas Blagge, was a Loyalist, much trusted by Charles the First, in whose cause he distinguished himself. Her mother is said to have been a woman of great piety, worth, wit, and beauty. The family did not es- cape the troubles of the times ; and Margaret when quite a child was sent to France with the old Dutchess of Richmond. The Popish partisan of Queen Henrietta, Lady Guildford, wished the little girl to go to mass ; but she had been so well taught that she not only refused but was able to answer her tempter; "which brought upon her some rudeness and menace; so as," says Evelyn, "she was become a confessor and almost a martyr before she was seven years old." When about eleven, she was confirmed by Gunning ; who "was so surprised at those early graces he discovered in her, that he thought fit she should be admitted to the holy sacrament." At the request of Anne Hyde Dutchess of York, Miss Blagge was ap- pointed one of her Maids of Honour when only in her thirteenth year; and on the death of the Dutchess, in 1671, she was transferred to the Queen's hoiteehold. According to Evelyn, "there were some [serious] addresses made to her by the greatest persons" ; but she had early be- come attached to Sidney Godolphin, and she resolved, if circumstances did not permit their union, never to marry. Indeed, during the long time they had to wait, she several times proposed to withdraw herself from the world and become a sort of Protestant nun ; and Evelyn, to whom she constantly addressed herself, wrote a learned and eloquent dissuasive. In 1674, she was privately married, at the Temple Church; her maid and Lady Berkeley only being present. Evelyn had been pro- mised the office of father; and he attributes the concealment to Godol- phin's desire : but there seems to have been some little disingenuity in the business, scarcely to have been expected from such a paragon. The marriage was not avowed for nearly a twelvemonth, and till its avowal the married pair lived apart. Mrs. Godolphin even went to France with Lady Berkeley, when Lord Berkeley was appointed Ambasaador • and at parting with Evelyn acted a fib about her marriage—Evelyn himself is obliged to call it a prevarication. She died in 1678, in her first con- finement, apparently of puerperal fever; to which we should infer she was predisposed from some morbid temperament. We suspect, indeed, that she had the mystic constitution ; and, had circumstances and the times favoured the development, she might have gone mad in Methodism or as a Romanist been canonized. In the seventeenth century, that re- ligious temperament, which under the first three Brunswicks ran wild with Whitefield and Wesley, and now passes through Tractarianism into Popery, was guided, and while seemingly encouraged was really restrained, by the simple and genial spirit of the Anglican divines.
The interest of this book is in its quiet, elegant, old-fashioned style, its portraiture of character, its anecdotes, and its picture of the times ; for there are a good many incidental glimpses of them in Evelyn's nar- rative, but more in the quotations from Mrs. Godolphin's letters, jour- nal, and papers,—as she wrote herself, though she did not publish. The hours, the amusements, the occupations the pastimes of respectable women of rank, are pretty clearly delineated ; and the public life of the more dubious ladies of the Court is indicated.
It is not often that we can have very full accounts of courtships. People are too full and sensitive during their continuance to talk about them, and afterwards they rather joke upon the matter. The exception is generally with religious persons, who have a habit of confession, and of colouring every topic with one hue. Margaret Blagge was of this charac- ter, and gave the following account of her engagement to her biographer.
"I will relate to your Ladyship," writes Evelyn to the friend at whose desire be undertook the Life, "what I have learned from her selfe, when sometymes she was pleased to trust rue with diverse passages of her Life. For it was not pos- sible I could hear of see long an Amour, soe honorable a love and constant pas- sion, and which I easily perceived concerned her, as lookeing vpon herselfe vu- settled, and one who had long since resolved nott to make the Court her rest, butt I must be touched with some Care for her. I would now and then kindly chide her, why she saffer'd those languiahments when I knew not on whome to lay the blame. }or tho' she would industriously conceale her disquiett, and divert it vnder the nation of the Spleene, she could not but acknowledge to me where the dart was fix'd; nor was any thing more ingenious then what ehenow wrat me vpon this Subject, by which your Ladyshipp will perceive, as with what peculiar confidence she was pinged to honour me, see, with what early prudence and great pietye she mlinag'd the passion, which, of all other, young people are commonly the most precipitate in and vnadvis'd.
"‘ I came,' sayes she, 'ace young, as I tell you into the world (that is, about 14 yeares of Age,) where no sooner was I entred butt various opinions were de- livered of me and the person whome (you know) was more favourable then the rest were to me, and did, after some Vine, declare it to me. The first thing which tempts young weomen is vanity; and I made that my great designs. Butt Love aoone taught me another Leeson, and I found the trouble of being tyed to the hear- ing of any save him; which made me resolve that either he or none should have the possession of your Friend. Being thus soone sencible of Love my selfe, I was easily perswaded to keepe my selfe from giveing him any cause of Jealousye, and in soe long a tyme never has there been the least,
"' This, vnder God's providence, has been the means of preserveing me from many of those misfortunes young Creatures meet with in the world, and ma Court especially. Att first we thought of nothing but liveing allwayes togeattier, and that we should be happy. Butt att last he was sent abroad by his Majestye and fell sick, which gave me great trouble; and I allowed more tyme for Prayer and the performance of holy dutyes than before I had ever done, and I thank God, found infinite pleasure m it, farr beyond any other, and I thought less of foolish things that vsed to take vp my tyme. Being thus changed my selfe, and likeing it soe well, I earnestly begg'd of God that he would impart the same satisfaction to him I loved: 'tis done, (my friend) 'tis done; and from my scale I am thankfull; and tho' I beleive he loves me passion- ately, yett I am not where I was: my place is fill'd vpp with HIM who is all in all. I and in him none of that tormenting passion to which I need sacrefice my selfe; butt still were wee dissengag'd from the world, wee should marry ruder such restraints as were fitt, and by the agreeableness of our humour make each other happy. Butt att present there are obstructions; be must be perpetually engaged in buissness, and follow the Court, and live allwayes in the world, and see have less tyme for the service of God, which is a senscible affliction to him; wherefore wee are not determined to precipitate that matter, butt to expect a while, and see how things will goe; haveing a great mind to be togeather, which cannot with decency be done without marrying, nor, to either of our satisfactions, without being free from the world. In short, serving of God is our end; and if wee cannott do that quietly together, wee will asunder. You know our Saviour sayes, that all could not receive that doctrine, but to those who could, he gave floe contradiction; and if wee can butt pass our younger yeares, 'Lis not likel'y wee should be concem'd for marrying when old. If wee could marry now, I dont see butt those ineonveniencys may happen by sickness, or absence, or death. In a word, if we marry, it will be to serve God and to encourage one another dayly ; if wee doe not, 'tis for that end too; and wee know God will direct those who sincerely desire his love above all other Considerations; now should we both re- solve to continue as we are, be assur'd I should be as little Idle as if I were a wife.' "
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