Biographical Stories: (From: "True Stories of History and Biography")Hawthorne, Nathaniel
General
Biographical Stories: (From: "True Stories of History and Biography")
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Biography -- Juvenile literature
it is neither pleasant nor profitable to think of many things that she did
after she grew to be a woman.
</p>
<p>
When she had worn the crown a few years, she began to consider it beneath
her dignity to be called a queen, because the name implied that she
belonged to the weaker sex. She therefore caused herself to be proclaimed
KING; thus declaring to the world that she despised her own sex and was
desirous of being ranked among men. But in the twenty-eighth year of her
age Christina grew tired of royalty, and resolved to be neither a king nor
a queen any longer. She took the crown from her head with her own hands,
and ceased to be the ruler of Sweden. The people did not greatly regret
her abdication; for she had governed them ill, and had taken much of their
property to supply her extravagance.
</p>
<p>
Having thus given up her hereditary crown, Christina left Sweden and
travelled over many of the countries of Europe. Everywhere she was
received with great ceremony, because she was the daughter of the renowned
Gustavus, and had herself been a powerful queen. Perhaps you would like to
know something about her personal appearance in the latter part of time
life. She is described as wearing a man’s vest, a short gray petticoat,
embroidered with gold and silver, and a black wig, which was thrust awry
upon her head. She wore no gloves, and so seldom washed her hands that
nobody could fell what had been their original color. In this strange
dress, and, I suppose, without washing her hands or face, she visited the
magnificent court of Louis XIV.
</p>
<p>
She died in 1689. None loved her while she lived, nor regretted her death,
nor planted a single flower upon her grave. Happy are the little girls of
America, who are brought up quietly and tenderly at the domestic hearth,
and thus become gentle and delicate women! May none of them ever lose the
loveliness of their sex by receiving such an education as that of Queen
Christina!
</p>
<p>
Emily, timid, quiet, and sensitive, was the very reverse of little
Christina. She seemed shocked at the idea of such a bold and masculine
character as has been described in the foregoing story.
</p>
<p>
“I never could have loved her,” whispered she to Mrs. Temple; and then she
added, with that love of personal neatness which generally accompanies
purity of heart, “It troubles me to think of her unclean hands!”
</p>
<p>
“Christina was a sad specimen of womankind indeed,” said Mrs. Temple. “But
it is very possible for a woman to have a strong mind, and to be fitted
for the active business of life, without losing any of her natural
delicacy. Perhaps some time or other Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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