The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 12, August, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 12, August, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Mary, the sister of Elizabeth, the bigoted Catholic, is a melancholy
instance of the influence of even unrequited love, upon the politics
of a female sovereign. While married to Philip of Spain, England was
very little more than a Spanish province. Perhaps it was the example
of Mary which in a great measure deterred Elizabeth from ever
marrying, although repeatedly pressed to it by the Parliament. The
caricature gotten up during the reign of Queen Mary is an admirable
burlesque of the errors and weaknesses of female rule. It represented
her Majesty "naked, meager, withered and wrinkled, with every
aggravated circumstance of deformity which could disgrace a female
figure, seated in a regal chair; a crown on her head, surrounded with
the letters M. R. A. accompanied with Maria Regina Angliæ in smaller
letters! A number of Spaniards were sucking her to the skin and bone,
and a specification was added of the money, rings, jewels, and other
presents with which she had secretly gratified her husband Philip."
To see what woman may be capable of doing under the influence of the
passion of love accompanied by jealousy, let us at once recur to a
state of semi-barbarism, where but little restraint is imposed on the
feelings and passions, and where nature consequently manifests itself
in all its most horrid deformities without wearing the mask which
civilized manners and an enlightened and moral public opinion, aided
by the printing press have imposed even upon the most hardy and most
wicked in the polished countries of Europe. Among the Memoirs of
Celebrated Women by Madame Junot, we find that of Zingha, a great
African princess who ruled in her dominions with absolute sway. In the
contemplation of her character we are fully disposed to acquiesce in
the truth of Shakspeare's assertion, that "proper deformity shows not
in the fiend so horrid as in woman." This princess was a perfect
tigress when for a moment her argus-eyed jealousy conceived the least
interruption to her amours, from the beauty, or the affections, or the
accomplishments of another. We are told that "a young girl who waited
on her had the misfortune to be attached to a man upon whom the queen
had herself cast an eye of affection. Having discovered that the
feeling was mutual between the youthful lovers, Zingha had them
brought before her; and giving her poniard to the young man, ordered
him to plunge it into the bosom of his mistress, to open her bosom and
eat her heart! The moment he had obeyed this cruel order she turned to
the wretched man, who perhaps expected his pardon, and looked at him
as if to confirm this expectation. But she ordered his head to be
severed from his body, and it fell upon the mutilated corpse of his
mistress." On another occasion she had spared a particular female from
among those doomed to destruction, when perceiving a paramour looking
with tenderness upon her, she immediately recalled her executioner,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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