78 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 143.- 



PORTRAITS OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 



O^ol. vi., p. 36.) 



I would meet Mariconda's first Query by 

 another. What reason is there for attributing 

 " fascinating beauty " of face to Mary ? No doubt 

 she was a handsome woman ; and so all tlie por- 

 traits which I have seen represent her. Is there 

 any description of her face made by, or derived 

 directly from, any one ivho had seen her, which 

 would lead us to expect anything more ? Those 

 which I have happened to meet with do not speak 

 so much of personal beauty, as of charms of another 

 kind, far more potent than personal beauty ever 

 carried with it. 



In May, 1568, when she was in her twenty-sixth 

 year. Lord Scrope and Sir F. JCnoUys reported 

 their first interview with her to Elizabeth : — 



" We found the Quene of Skottes in her chamber of 

 presence, ready to receive us; where, after salutations 

 made, and our declaration also of your Highness' sor- 

 rowfulness, &c. &c., we found her in her answers to 

 have an eloquent tonge and a discrete head; and it 

 seemeth hy her doinj^es that she hath stout courage and 

 liberall harte adjoined thereunto." — Wright's Elizabeth, 

 vol. i. p. 277. 



On the 11th of June, Sir F. Knollys writes to 

 Cecil, — 



" And yet this lady and prynccss is a notahle woman. 

 She seemeth to regard no ceremonious honor besyde the ac- 

 knowledging of her estate regal/e. She sheweth a dis- 

 position to speake much, to be bold, to be pleasant, and to 

 be very famylyar. She sheweth a great desyre to be 

 avenged of her enemyes ; she sheweth a readines to 

 expose herselfe to all perylls in hope of vietorie ; she 

 delyteth much to hear of liardines and valiancye, com- 

 mending by name all approved hardy men of her 

 cuntrye, altho they be her enemyes; and she com- 

 mendeth no cowardnes even in her frendes. The thyng 

 she most thirsteth after is victory," &c. — Id. p. 281. 



On the 28th of February, 1568-9, Nicholas 

 White reports to Cecil his impressions upon a first 

 interview with her at Tutbury : — 



" But if I, which in the sight of God beare the 

 Queen's majestie a naturall love besyde my bounden 

 dutie, might give advise, there should he very few 

 subjects in this land have accesse to or conference with 

 this lady. For beside that she is a goodly personage, and 

 yet in truth not comparable to our Soverain, she hath 

 withall an alluring grace, a prety Scotishe accente, and a 

 searching wit, clouded with myldness. Fame might move 

 some to relieve her, and glory joyned to gayn might 

 stir others to adventure much for lier sake. Then joy 

 [qy. the ey] is a lively infective sense, and carieth 

 many persuasions to the heart, which ruleih all the 

 reste. Myne owne affection, by seeing the Quene's 

 majestie our Soverain. is doubled, and thereby I guess 

 what sight might worke in others. Her hair of itself 

 is hlack ; and yet Mr. Knollys told me that she wears 

 hair of sundry colors." — Id. p. 311. 



Here we have quite enough to account for her 

 extraordinary powers of fascination, without sup- 

 posmg any extraordinary personal beauty. 



With regard to that, I should like to see a com- 

 plete collection of the testimonies of eye-witnesses, 

 especially such as were recorded before her death ; 

 for I suspect that, by a comparison of them, the 

 question concerning her portraits would be much 

 simplified. Among the portraits under which her 

 name is written, I seem to recognise two distinct 

 types of face, each handsome in its kind, but of 

 opposite kinds. Most of those which I have seen 

 represent a long face, with a high nose inclining 

 to the lloman. The others represent a short 

 round face, with a nose elegantly shaped, but 

 rather short than long ; rather depressed than 

 rising in the middle ; and rather swelling than, 

 falling towards the end. Now, the only particulpr 

 description of her face which I remember to have 

 seen (I speak of descriptions made from the life) 

 agrees with the last, and Is not compatible with 

 the first. It relates, indeed, to her appearance the 

 day of her execution, when she was turned forty- 

 five; but It describes such a face as the other 

 never could have grown into. 



" The 8 th of February baing come, at the time and 

 place appointed for the execution, the said Queen of 

 Scots, being of stature tall, of body corpulent, round- 

 shouldered, her face fat and broad, douhle-chinned, with 

 hazle eyes, her borrowed hair [(jy. her hair borrowed?], 

 her attire on her head, was in this manner," &c. — 

 Strype's Annals, vol. v. p- 55^. 



An account in the Cotton MSS. (Calig. B. V. 

 175. b.) of her appearance a few months before, 

 at her trial, describes her as "a very tall and bigge 

 woman, being lame, and supported by one arme by 

 one of her gentlemen named Melwin, and by her 

 other her physlcou." So these two agree well 

 enough with each other. Is there any other^ 

 equally authentic, which contradicts them? 



One portrait I have seen which represents pre- 

 cisely such a face as this might have been when in 

 the prime of womanhood. It Is an engraving 

 " from an original portrait In the possession of 

 the Hon. William Maule of Panmure," made in 

 February, 1809, for Sir W. Scott's edition of the 

 Sadler Papers. But If this be her true likeness, 

 whence come the others, which represent evidently 

 a different woman ? I do not know whether the' 

 question has been considered by more competent 

 judges ; but my conjecture Is, that all the long-' 

 faced Maries are In fact portraits, or copies of 

 portraits, of her mother, who, being Mary the wife 

 of the King of Scots, might easily be confounded 

 with Mary Queen of Scots. This solution of the* 

 pi-oblem occurred to me only the other day, on 

 going up to examine what I took to be an old 

 painting of Mary Stuart, and being told tliat It 

 was Mary of Guise. The truth of It could be 



