HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS ELIZABETH. Engraved expressly for Latielle Assemblie & Bells Court & Fectionable = Pub for John tes! Widdy. Mesenger Office Southampton Street Strand Jur COURT AND FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE, For JULY, 1806. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES. The Sixth Number. HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH, third daughter of their present gracious Majesties, was born May 22, 1770. It is a gratification of no ordinary kind to us, that when we are called to the review of the lives of persons of the highest rank and quality, we are cheered with the most flattering prospects, with talents directed to the interests of society, and virtue communicating its influence to all within its sphere. The education of such as are born to a pre-eminence in the state, is a matter of public concern, and of no slight difficulty in the hands of the instructor. The great are the guardians of the morals of the state; it is they who make virtue general and effective by their example, who give a tone to manners, and purify the sources of action; whose business it is to effect that by their conduct and example, which law can only accomplish in an imperfect degree-to hold up to imitation the virtues of domestic life, and exhibit patterns of morality, temperance, chastity, and prudence. by many impediments which do not operate among those of the lower orders.→ No inconsiderable vigour of character is required to counteract the pernicious influence of domestic luxury, and the corrupting softness of domestic indulgence. Severity of study, and closeness of appli|| cation, are seldom to be expected from those who are momentarily called off by some enticement of pleasure, and to whom the task is no further necessary than asconferring some personal ornament, which their flatterers will instruct them they can well do without-that the highest nobility have their equals, their competitors, and even superiors; but those who are born within the sphere of royalty are destitute of such extrinsic means of emulation, and must be wholly indebted for whatever excellence they acquire, to the soundness of their principles, and the rectitude of their habits. We trust that these remarks will not be deemed superfluous, when the subject of our present biographical sketchs is considered; a Princess, whose noble zeal for learning, and those particular branches of "Wretched is the state which has only law for its government," said a great ob-it, the fine arts, has only been equalled server of human life:-unless good morals and decent manners concur to give a vigour to legal institutions, a state may be miserably wicked, however well governed. The education of the great is obstructed No. VI. Vol. I. by the indefatigable assiduity with which she has hitherto applied herself to them, and the admirable proficiency she has made. England has always been renowned for females of royal rank, who have been conspicuous for their intellectual attainments and literary talents. The memorable example of Queen Elizabeth will here present itself. Of the erudition of that princess we have a particular account from Roger Ascham, who, from the known qualities of his character, cannot be suspected of flattery; and who, from his learning, was fully competent to pronounce. He tells us, that when he read over with her the orations of Eschines and Demosthenes in Greek, she not only understood at first sight the full force and propriety of the language, and the meaning of the orators, but that she comprehended the whole scheme of the laws, customs, and manners of the Athenians. She possessed an exact and accurate knowledge of the scriptures, and had committed to memory most of the striking passages in them. She had also learned by heart many of the finest parts of Thucydides and Xenophon, especially those which relate to life and manners. Thus were her early years employed, and with such zeal did she pursue her education, that she was not only esteemed the most learned woman of her age in Europe, but the best and wisest monarch that ever sat on the British throne. ately attached to this noble art from the first years in which she could distinguish its excellencies, she has scarcely omitted a day in which she has not laboured to improve herself in it. It was a maxim of the celebrated Greek painter, nulla dies sine lineá; her Royal Highness seems to have adopted this precept in the full extent of its meaning, and scarcely ever to feel a more perfect pleasure than when the pencil is in her hand. An accomplishment of this kind is sufficiently rare in the female sex, and more particularly among those whose rank will always be accepted as an excuse for idleness, and upon whom flattery is ever ready enough to bestow the praises which are due to merit. The love and encouragement of the arts amongst those of exalted rank and talent may truly be esteemed a national benefit. The arts are naturally dependent for support upon the great; it is their patronage only which can advance them to perfection, and give them popularity. It is more necessary to insist upon this, because there is a species of patronage which has lately sprung up in these kingdoms, which has any thing else in view but the advancement of the art of painting; we mean that mercantile and sordid traffic which has been carried on to such an extent, and which, whilst it only answered the ends of a few commercial speculators, disgraced the arts which it affected to patronize, and exhibited those feeble, slovenly, and disgraceful works to the eyes of Europe, which passed under the name of the British school, whilst in truth they were only the offspring of rashness, of mercantile temptation and fraud-frequently of va In the present æra the attainments of an Elizabeth would be termed pedantic; and it must be confessed that the mode of female education does not require such heavy and useless literature. The more elegant sciences, and fine arts, best become the natural disposition of the sex, and render them more amiable and agree- || able. The illustrious namesake of the above-mentioned sovereign seems to have acted upon this persuasion, and whilst shenity, and too often, perhaps, of want. has wisely disregarded that species of literature in which Elizabeth excelled, she has cultivated another branch of it, more congenial to her sex and the manners of the age, in which neither that celebrated princess, nor any that have succeeded her, could pretend to a similar proficiency.Her Royal Highness has been devoted from her infancy to the study of the fine arts. In music she is said to have a most excellent taste and delicate ear, but the study she has chiefly cultivated, and in which her skill has kept pace with the zeal of her industry, is painting. Passion The late President of the Royal Academy, in an admirable lecture which he delivered to the students upon the subject of patronage, has made a very happy distinction between the different kinds, between that which is spurious and merely commercial, and that which has in view the true dignity of the arts, and the honour of the profession. He laments, and with too much justice, the want of proper encouragement amongst the nobility of this kingdom; he adds, however, that we have a compensation for this in the munificence and truly princely taste of our most gracious Sovereign, whom he ticularly distinguished herself by some exemplifies as the first of the British mo- which were published amongst a few senarchs who gave to the arts the dignity lect friends, under the name of Lady and independence of a national establish- Dashwood, and engraved by a pupil of ment, and bestowed upon the profession Bartolozzi's.-They were called "The those trappings and appendages which were Progress of Cupid," and exhibited allenecessary to distinguish and exalt it in gorical representations of the power of the estimation of his subjects. He then love, which were no less remarkable for more particularly dwells upon the encou- the ingenuity with which they were conragement and love of the arts which pre-ceived, than for the taste and delicay with vails in the present Royal Family, and which they were displayed.—Her Royal especially among the female branch.- Highness has likewise distributed among Scarcely a day (he proceeds) passes, but her most favoured circle another publicathose illustrious females, whose example tion and tribute to the fine arts just finishwe must all wish to see prevalent amongst ed. It is entitled "The Progress of the nobility of the land, are employed Genius," and exhibits, under allegorical in something connected with the opera- images, the different acts of that inteltions of the fine arts, and produce some- lectual power. These designs were wholly thing tributary to its honours. Their invented by her Royal Highness, and, for apartments are not unfrequently orna- their greater privacy, were likewise etchmented with the productions of their fau-ed by herself. They are merely bestowcies; and whilst this most noble and zea-ed as presents and marks of esteem, and lous industry gives rise to works of a therefore only to be met with in a few finished and delicate taste of their own, it invites them, at the same time, to encourage in others that quality in which they themselves excel, and thus to bestow upon the arts a double patronage-to give to the profession, in common, the sanction and influence of fellow-labourers, and to the world at large an example of royal munificence and princely taste." We can almost suppose this illustrious artist to have glanced more peculiarly at the Princess Elizabeth, who may be thought to excel all her royal sisters in the study of painting. The Queen of Wutemburg was no less devoted to this art, and many of her works are still to be seen in the apartments of Windsor Castle; but she did not pursue it with the same industry as her sister, and did not, therefore, perhaps, arrive at the same proficiency. About fourteen years ago, when it was the fashion to cut little designs and patterns in paper, her Royal Highness par select hands. They are dedicated in a most delicate and affectionate manner to the Queen; and her Royal Highness observes, "that of works imperfect and unprofessional, criticism, which is unplcasant to all, must be more particularly so to those in the rank and station of royalty."-Though under no injunction ourselves, we shall abstain from a breach of what is requested; notwithstanding we are ready to confess, that the injunction operates as a restraint, and we lament the necessity of that silence which withholds the just tribute of praise. We shall now conclude with hoping that her Royal Highness will persevere in the cultivation of that art which she is so qualified to adorn, and to hold out to these kingdoms an example of patronage in high rank, which we are persuaded cannot be dissembled for any private purposes, or have any thing else in view but the real honour and dignity of the profession. |