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156 CAROLINE PICBXER.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ojste Of Tlie Most Popular Novelists, An...
even had her private apartments hung permanently "witli grey silk . "Whether it was thatthrough the sacrifice of the hair offered to the
, manes of her deceased husband , she felt that her maid had become less indispensable to her , or that sorrow had made her more
sympathising , she soon after yielded her consent to the marriage of her orphan chargemaking her rich presents on the occasion , and even
, lending her some of the crown jewels to complete the bridal attire . " She was herself present at the wedding , and this circumstance made
a curious variation in the ordinary marriage ceremony ; for when the bride was asked , " Wilt thou have this man , " & c , etiquette
required that she should turn to the Mistress of the Robes and eurfcsey a mute appeal for permission ; the latter in like manner had
to turn to the Empress , who , Jove-like , bowed her august head in token of consent : the lady repeated the motionthe bride curtsied
, her thanks , and not till then might the important " Yes" be uttered .
Freed from what after all had been but a splendid slavery , the Reader , now become Madame Greiner , retired gladly from
the Court to her husband ' s house , in "Vienna , where , in 1769 , her only daughter Caroline first saw the light . With robust frame
and lively spirits , she was one of those girls on whom the remark is so often passed , that they ought to have been boys . " Though
so quick of apprehension that nothing was too difficult for her to learnshe could not long pay undivided attention to anything ,
, and generally had a toy in one hand and a lesson-book in the other . The first verses she ever wrote were an address to the
clock , bidding it hasten on to the welcome hour when her tasks would be over ; the only instruction she received with willingness
being that imparted by Bishop Gall , ( a near relation of the phrenologist , ) who had undertaken to teach her religion and natural
history . Her natural ability , however , was so evident , that when a tutor was engaged for her sole surviving brother , three years
her junior , her parents were urged by many of their literary friends to let her share his studies , and she thus acquired the classic
tongues as well as French and Italian . At the desire of her father , an enthusiastic admirer of the arts , she devoted much
attention to music and some to drawing , her mother , equally devoted to sciencetaking care that the latter was studied
funda-, mentally . As a check to the imaginative tendencies , a course of mathematics was prescribedwhichthough far from agreeable
proved highly efficacious , and the , volatile , child under this regimen , became at last much more thoughtful and orderly . But regular
lessons from hired instructors formed but the least part of the education of the little Caroline . Her parents' society was
generally courted , and earlyintroduced into the drawing-room , she breathed a literary atmosphere from her childhoodthe most
, distinguished men of the day finding pleasure in directing her
studies and forming her taste . There was one attendant dis-
156 Caroline Picbxer.
156 CAROLINE PICBXER .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1862, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111862/page/12/
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