The author is well aware that whosoever discusses historical mysteries pleases the public best by being quite sure, and offering a definite and certain solution. Unluckily Science forbids, and conscience is on the same side. We verily do not know how the false Pucelle arrived at her success with the family of the true Maid; we do not know, or pretend to know, who killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey; or how Amy Robsart came by her death; or why the Valet was so important a prisoner. It is only possible to restate the cases, and remove, if we may, the errors and confusions which beset6 the problems. Such a tiny point as the year of Amy Robsart’s marriage is stated variously by our historians. To ascertain7 the truth gave the author half a day’s work, and, at last, he would have voted for the wrong year, had he not been aided by the superior acuteness of his friend, Mr. Hay Fleming. He feels morally certain that, in trying to set historians right about Amy Robsart, he must have committed some conspicuous8 blunders; these always attend such enterprises of rectification9.
With regard to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, Mr. A. W. Crawley–Boevey points out to me that in an unpublished letter of Mr. Alexander Herbert Phaire in 1743–44 (Addit. MSS. British Museum 4291, fol. 150) Godfrey is spoken of in connection with his friend Valentine Greatrakes, the ‘miraculous Conformist,’ or ‘Irish Stroker,’ of the Restoration. ‘It is a pity,’ Mr. Phaire remarks, ‘that Sir Edmund’s letters, to the number of 104, are not in somebody’s hands that would oblige the world by publishing them. They contain many remarkable10 things, and the best and truest secret history in King Charles II.‘s reign11.’ Where are these letters now? Mr. Phaire does not say to whom they were addressed, perhaps to Greatrakes, who named his second son after Sir Edmund, or to Colonel Phaire, the Regicide. This Mr. Phaire of 1744 was of Colonel Phaire’s family. It does not seem quite certain whether Le Fevre, or Lee Phaire, was the real name of the so-called Jesuit whom Bedloe accused of the murder of Sir Edmund.
Of the studies here presented, ‘The Valet’s Master,’ ‘The Mystery of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey,’ ‘The False Jeanne d’Arc,’ ‘The Mystery of Amy Robsart,’ and ‘The Mystery of James de la Cloche,’ are now published for the first time. Part of ‘The Voices of Jeanne d’Arc,’ is from a paper by the author in ‘The Proceedings12 of the Society for Psychical13 Research.’ ‘The Valet’s Tragedy’ is mainly from an article in ‘The Monthly Review,’ revised, corrected, and augmented14. ‘The Queen’s Marie’ is a recast of a paper in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’; ‘The Truth about “Fisher’s Ghost,”’ and ‘Junius and Lord Lyttelton’s Ghost’ are reprinted, with little change, from the same periodical. ‘The Mystery of Lord Bateman’ is a recast of an article in ‘The Cornhill Magazine.’ The earlier part of the essay on Shakespeare and Bacon appeared in ‘The Quarterly Review.’ The author is obliged to the courtesy of the proprietors15 and editors of these serials16 for permission to use his essays again, with revision and additions.1
1 Essays by the author on ‘The False Pucelle’ and on ‘Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey’ have appeared in The Nineteenth Century (1895) and in The Cornhill Magazine, but these are not the papers here presented.
The author is deeply indebted to the generous assistance of Father Gerard and Father Pollen17, S.J.; and, for making transcripts18 of unpublished documents, to Miss E. M. Thompson and Miss Violet Simpson.
Since passing the volume for the press the author has received from Mr. Austin West, at Rome, a summary of Armanni’s letter about Giacopo Stuardo. He is led thereby19 to the conclusion that Giacopo was identical with the eldest20 son of Charles II. — James de la Cloche — but conceives that, at the end of his life, James was insane, or at least was a ‘megalomaniac,’ or was not author of his own Will.
点击收听单词发音
1 chronological | |
adj.按年月顺序排列的,年代学的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 intrigues | |
n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 );神秘气氛;引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 );激起…的好奇心 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 peruse | |
v.细读,精读 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 consigned | |
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 captivity | |
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 ascertain | |
vt.发现,确定,查明,弄清 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 rectification | |
n. 改正, 改订, 矫正 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 psychical | |
adj.有关特异功能现象的;有关特异功能官能的;灵魂的;心灵的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 Augmented | |
adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 proprietors | |
n.所有人,业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 serials | |
n.连载小说,电视连续剧( serial的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 pollen | |
n.[植]花粉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 transcripts | |
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 thereby | |
adv.因此,从而 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 eldest | |
adj.最年长的,最年老的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |