fact, declines to be dramatic. Liberties must be taken. In his
plays of the Mary Stuart cycle, Mr Swinburne telescopes the affair of
Darnley into that of Chastelard, which was much earlier. He makes
Mary Beaton (in love with Chastelard) a kind of avenging fate, who
will never leave the Queen till her head falls at Fotheringay;
though, in fact, after a flirtation with Randolph, Mary Beaton
married Ogilvy of Boyne (really in love with Lady Bothwell), and not
one of the four Maries was at Fotheringay. An artist ought to be
allowed to follow legend, of its essence dramatic, or to manipulate
history as he pleases. Our modern scrupulosity is pedantic. But
Tennyson read a long list of books for his Queen Mary, though it does
not appear that he made original researches in MSS. These labours
occupied 1874 and 1875. Yet it would be foolish to criticise his
Queen Mary as if we were criticising "exact history." "The play's
the thing."

The poet thought that "Bloody Mary" "had been harshly judged by the
verdict of popular tradition." So have most characters to whom
popular dislike affixes the popular epithet--"Bloody Claverse,"
"Bloody Mackenzie," "Bloody Balfour." Mary had the courage of the
Tudors. She "edified all around her by her cheerfulness, her piety,
and her resignation to the will of Providence," in her last days
(Lingard). Camden calls her "a queen never praised enough for the
purity of her morals, her charity to the poor" (she practised as a
district visitor), "and her liberality to the nobles and the clergy."
She was "pious, merciful, pure, and ever to be praised, if we
overlook her erroneous opinions in religion," says Godwin. She had
been grievously wronged from her youth upwards. In Elizabeth she had
a sister and a rival, a constant intriguer against her, and a
kinswoman far from amiable. Despite "the kindness and attention of