9 people between 1589 and 1598 would fully account for the distinction thus conferred upon him. Of all the leaders on Navarre's side, he was best known to Englishmen. Almost invariably the English contingent served under him, and every one of those nine years added something to England's knowledge of his character. Some Frenchmen grew jealous of the Englishmen's prowess in the field, but Biron was always faithful to them. The opinion that was formed of him was consequently on the whole a high one. "In this army," wrote one of the English leaders disappointed by the cold reception many Frenchmen accorded him, "we have not one friend but only Marshal Biron, whom we find very respective to Her Majesty and loving to her people. If it would please Her Majesty to take knowledge of as much, and to let him know how well she took his kindness, it were not amiss in my poor opinion." 10 Another writer speaks of "his open soldierlike breast." 11 After the close of the century Biron paid a visit to England, and Englishmen seem to have regarded the act of the French King in sending so distinguished an envoy as a mark of special honour. 12 "Elizabeth reçut Biron," says a French historian, "avec beaucoup de faveur; c'étoit à ses yeux l'homme qui par sa génie militaire avait le plus contribué aux succès de Henri IV." 13 But some blemishes in his character were at the same time not overlooked. Like all French courtiers, he was reputed to be specially susceptible to the charms of women, and fond of indulgence in luxurious living. He held himself in very high estimation. "Toujours applaudi ou excusé," writes one whose opinion of him is probably reliable, "il étoit opiniâtre et présomptueux." He was occasionally extravagant in his language. Navarre said of him, "Il ne faut pas toujours prendre au pied de la lettre ses rhodomontades, jactances et vanités.” 14 The points of resemblance between this historical supporter of Navarre's and Shakespeare's Biron are numerous. The bravery, the common sense-the necessary complement of good generalshipand the love of recreation of the dramatist's hero at once suggest the popular Frenchman. His protest against the "barren task" his companions impose on themselves-"not to see ladies, study, fast," -his "salve for perjury" after all the oath-takers are forsworn, where State Papers, 1591-94, p. 335. 10 Birch's Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1754), ii. 323. "Letters written by John Chamberlain (Camden Society, 1861), p. 139. 12 Ibid. p. 95. 13 Sismondi's Histoire (Paris, 1839), xxii. 65. he contends "to see no woman " is "flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth," readily recall the leading features of his living namesake's court life. The last description given of him in Love's Labour's Lost seems a veritable echo of Navarre's own words. "The world's large tongue," says Rosaline to "my Lord Biron," Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks ; Which you in all estates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit. (V. ii. 832-36.) A further coincidence at the end of the play is, perhaps, worthy of note. Biron is commonly reported to have said of himself early in his career, "Je ne sais si je mourrai sur un échafaud, mais je sais bien que je ne mourrai qu'à l'hôpital."15 The relegation of Shakespeare's Biron to a hospital closes the comedy. Admirable from an artistic point of view as is" the sweet and tempered gravity "with which Love's Labour's Lost concludes, its striking difference from the termination of Shakespeare's other comedies makes it not improbable that it had some more concrete origin than its author's notion of dramatic fitness. The point may, therefore, be said to deserve some attention. To show that we have not over-estimated Biron's importance in the eyes of Shakespeare's dramatic contemporaries, we need merely mention that Love's Labour's Lost is not the only play of the time of which he is the hero. George Chapman has devoted no less than two plays to his career. It would be beyond our scope to institute a careful comparison between Shakespeare's and Chapman's works. They differ so materially that, had we the intention, we doubt if it would afford us any profitable result. Chapman's plays deal with the close of Biron's career, and are historical in the smallest detail. They are in the dramatist's heaviest style, and many scenes read like extracts from State papers. We feel convinced it can only have been the intense interest taken in their subject that could have secured them a favourable hearing on the stage. The points of similarity to Love's Labour's Lost lie in the tendency of some of the courtiers to employ "spruce affectation and figures pedantical." The King rebukes one of the chief among them with The hero is described as a man "of matchless valour," and "ever 15 Biographie Universelle, vol. iv. s. v. 1 Chapman's Conspiracie of Duke Biron (8vo. reprint), p. 208. happy in all encounters." 17 Lovely, modest, magnanimous, and constant are among the epithets bestowed upon him. But he is suspected by his enemies of being an atheist. 18 In the later of the two plays he is charged with speaking treason against Navarre, and finally falls on the scaffold a victim to his "intemperate speech." 19 The leading event of the comedy--the meeting of the King of Navarre with the Princess of France-lends itself as readily to a comparison with an actual occurrence of contemporary French history as do the heroes of the play to a comparison with those who played chief part in it. At the end of the year 1586 a very decided attempt had been made to settle the disputes between Navarre and the reigning King. The mediator was a Princess of France-Catherine de Medici-who had virtually ruled France for nearly thirty years, and who now acted in behalf of her son, decrepit in mind and body, in much the same way as the Princess in Love's Labour's Lost represents her "decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father." The historical meeting was a very brilliant one. The most beautiful ladies of the court accompanied their mistress. "La reine," we are told, "qui connoissoit les dispositions de Henri à la galanterie, avoit compté sur elles pour le séduire, et elle avoit fait choix pour la suivre à Saint Bris (where the conference was held) des plus belles personnes de sa cour." 20 This bevy of ladies was known as "l'escadron volant," and Davila asserts that Henry was desirous of marrying one of them.21 Navarre, however, parted with Catherine and her sirens without bringing their negotiations to a satisfactory decision; but the interview was doubtless one of the causes that brought about the political alliance between Navarre's party and the royal house which took place just before the French King's death in 1589. The memory of the original attempt was naturally then revived. There is thus much probability that the meeting of Navarre and the Princess on the Elizabethan stage was suggested by the well-known interview at Saint Bris. That Shakespeare attempted to depict in the Princess the lineaments of Catherine, we do not for a moment assert. The Princess in the play seems mainly distinguished for her "Chapman's Conspiracie of Duke Biron (8vo. reprint), ibid. p. 189. 18 Ibid. p. 258. "Chapman's Tragedie of Biron, p. 313. It is interesting to notice that many writers of the time compared Biron to Essex. Chapman several times introduces the comparison. In one place Biron is made to speak of "The matchless Earl of Essex, whom some make a parallel with me in life and fortune." 20 Sismondi, xx. 237. a Davila's Memoirs of Civil Wars in France, translated (London, 1758), + 521-24, where an original account of the interview is given, feminine tact, and although a hasty glance at French politics might have induced an observer to number that quality among Catherine's characteristics, it is clearly very insufficient ground on which to base any relationship. This is the last portion of evidence on which we rely for establishing a connection between the plot of Love's Labour's Lost and contemporary French politics; but before concluding our remarks we wish to set in an historical light another scene in the play. The Russian incident has been a matter of difficulty to many generations of commentators. The ruse by which Navarre and his attendants introduce themselves to the Princess and the ladies, disguised as Russians, seems, on the grounds hitherto stated, to be somewhat ridiculous, and calculated to defeat rather than advance the King's object of recommending himself and his followers as suitors for the ladies' hands. Nor does the quotation made by Ritson from Hall's Chronicle, and usually set down as a note on this incident, more satisfactorily account for its introduction. "In the first of Henry the Eighth," writes Hall, "at a banquet made by the foreign ambassadors, came the Lord Henry, Earl of Wiltshire, and Lord Fitzwalter, in two long gowns of yellow satin traversed with white satin, and in every bend of white was a bend of crimson satin after the fashion of Russia or Russland." From the Princess's description of the Frenchman's dress as "shapeless gear," we are inclined to doubt if Shakespeare followed Hall at all, nor do we think that Shakespeare's audience would have very keenly appreciated this needless reminiscence of a comparatively unimportant event more than eighty years old. We believe that the introduction of the Russians was due to more recent occurrences. It should be remembered that England first opened negotiations worthy of the name with Russia in Elizabeth's reign, and that an important trading connection was soon after her accession established, in which she in common with her people took a lively interest. She obtained many valuable privileges from the Czar in favour of the English traders. At first the Russian Emperor was flattered by the intercourse, and in 1570 he sent a Russian representative to carry out a desire he had expressed that "England and Russland might be in all matters as one." Whether the envoy resented the Englishman's habit of persistently staring distinguished foreigners out of countenance, or because the magnificence of his reception fell below his expectations, he complained on arriving home that he had been badly treated in this country, and from his return dates a change in Russia's attitude towards the English traders. They were subjected to every kind of petty annoyance. They could obtain no redress for wrong done them by Russians. Their lives were often jeopardised, and yet the Czar refused them adequate protection. The Queen patiently protested for many years, but with very doubtful success. But in 1589 the disputes reached a crisis. A special envoy charged with important negotiations with the Czar returned to England and declared that he had been subjected to the most inhuman treatment. He had not only been abased but greatly abused. He had been shut up in a very unhandsome and unwholesome house, more like a prisoner than an ambassador. He had with difficulty obtained requisite food to support existence. The Queen's temper was roused, and she wrote a fiery letter in her own hand to the Czar. Speaking of her envoy's treatment and the Emperor's previous conduct to her traders, she said: "The like were never offered of no prince towards us; no, not of our greatest enemies, and they are hardly to be digested of any princely nature." The bearer of this message with these and more practical protests did not leave England till the following year, but the public excitement had scarcely then cooled. 23 These occurrences directing public attention to England's connection with Russia doubtless revived the memory of a scene that had taken place a few years before, and which will, we believe, be of service to us in our study of Love's Labour's Lost. About 1582 a second Russian ambassador--Theodore Andreievitch Pissemsky by name-accompanied by a large suite, arrived in London. He was magnificently received and treated with much honour, but his instructions contained a clause that sent a thrill of horror through the breast of every lady at Elizabeth's Court. The Czar had threatened some time previously that no peace could be permanent between the two countries unless it were sealed by an union between the royal houses. The ambassador had therefore received orders not to return to Russia without a kinswoman of the Queen to be his master's wife. Pissemsky would listen to no refusal, and the Queen's protests were quite unavailing. At length she selected a bride. She named Lady Mary Hastings, daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, who was nearly related to her, and thereby satisfied the Czar's condition. In May 1583 an interview was ordered to take place between her and the Russian envoy and his suite. In order to flatter the Russian's notion of the importance of the occasion, an elaborate ceremonial was arranged. In the gardens of York House, then the residence of the Lord Chan " A very admirable account of England's relations with Russia in Elizabeth's reign is to be found in Mr. E. A. Bond's Preface to Giles Fletcher's Of the Russe Commonwealth and Horsey's Travels, reprinted in a single volume by the Hakluyt Society in 1856. |