52

HISTOKY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

II.

lUSiJ.

Popula-rity ofMary.

during his whole reign, showed himself at the theatre.* The■ poets who wrote Pindaric verses in his praise complained thattheir flights of sublimity were beyond his comprehension.**Those who are acquainted with the panegyrical odes of that agewill perhaps be of opinion that he did not lose much by hisignorance.

It is true that his wife did her best to supply what was want-ing, and that she was excellently qualified to be the head of theCourt. She was English by birth, and English also in hertastes and feelings. Her face was handsome, her port majestic,her temper sweet and lively, her manners affable and graceful.Her understanding, though very imperfectly cultivated, wasquick. There was no want of feminine wit and shrewdness inher conversation; and her letters were so well expressed thatthey deserved to be well spelt. She took much pleasure in thelighter kinds of literature, and did something towards bringingbooks into fashion among ladies of quality. The stainless purityof her private life and the strict attention which she paid to herreligious duties were the more respectable, because she wassingularly free from censoriousness, and discouraged scandalas much as vice. In dislike of backbiting indeed she and herhusband cordially agreed; but they showed their dislike indifferent and in very characteristic ways. William preservedprofound silence, and gave the tale-bearer a look which, aswas said by a person who had once encountered it, and whotook good care never to encounter it again, made your story go-back down your throat.*** Mary had a way of interrupting tattle

* Tutchin's Obscrvator of November 16. 1706.

•* Prior, who was treated by William with much kindness, and whowas very grateful for it, informs us that the King did not understand poe-tical eulogy. The passage is in a highly curious manuscript, the propertyof Lord Lansdowne.

*** Mdmoires originaux sur le rfegne et la cour de Frdddric I., Eoi dePrusse, Merits par Christophe Comte de Dolma. Berlin, 1S33. It is strangethat this interesting volume should be almost unknown in England. The