Ernest Bernbaum
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 34
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V The Narrative Technique Of "The Counterfeit Lady" Kirkman's statement that he had gathered " all that hath been written of her," is true as to the more important writings about Mary. He had before him "A Westminster Wedding," John Carleton's " Ultimum Vale," the " Life and Character" (comprising Mary's " Case " and the " Appendix "), and the " Memoires." 1 Having mastered these books, he strove to compose one which should surpass each of them in fullness, coherence, and verisimilitude. To make his readers believe that he was a cautious historian, Kirkman often admits that he is uninformed or uncertain about some details of Mary's life. He cannot explain what led this girl, with her head full of romances, to marry a humble shoemaker; "what ever she conceited I know not," he confesses, "but married she was to one Stedman, a gentleman of the gentle craft." She ran away from Stedman, "but whether it was to Barbadoes or what other place, I cannot learn." Then she married Day, but "what means she used to manage this affair I know not." Whether, on her flight to the continent, " it was France or Holland where she first landed, I know not." Some of the 1 Counterfeit Lady, pp. 67-81. -- Cf. ibid., pp. 15, 27, 74, 76, 93, 95, 107, with Ultimum Vale, pp. 11, 17, 20, 25, 28, 29, 33, 37, 38. --The link with which the author of the Life and Character joined the Appendix to the Case is followed verbatim in The Counterfeit Lady, pp. 66-67. The Case is mentioned on pp. vi and 27, and both it and the Appendix are constantly borrowed from. -- The Memoires are mentioned on p. 180, and followed from there to the end. -- The Memories Kirkman does not seem to have used. thefts she is accused of he doubts, and in one case he reports two accounts of a...