第 11 节
作者:敏儿不觉      更新:2021-02-24 22:58      字数:9322
  Knight of the Garter; all in a very few years。             It was in 1607 that he fell
  from his horse; under the King's nose。           In 1613 he was at the height of his
  power in England。
  Return   we   for   a   moment;   however;   to   that   day   in   the   Whitehall   tilt…
  yard。    It is related that one woman whose life and fate were to be bound
  with   Carr's   was   in the ladies'   gallery。   It   is   very  probable that   a   second
  woman;   whose   association   with   the   first   did   much   to   seal   Carr's   doom;
  was   also   a   spectator。  If   Frances   Howard;   as   we   read;   showed   distress
  over the painful mishap to the handsome Scots youth it is almost certain
  that Anne Turner; with the quick eye she had for male comeliness and her
  less need for Court…bred restraint; would exhibit a sympathetic volubility。
  Frances Howard was the daughter of that famous Elizabethan seaman
  Thomas Howard; Earl of Suffolk。              On that day in September she would
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  be just over fifteen years of age。           It is said that she was singularly lovely。
  At   that   early   age   she   was   already   a   wife;   victim   of   a   political   marriage
  which; in the exercise of the ponderous cunning he called kingcraft; King
  James had been at some pains to arrange。                 At the age of thirteen Frances
  had been married to Robert Devereux; third Earl of Essex; then but a year
  older   than   herself。     The   young   couple   had   been   parted   at   the   altar;   the
  groom   being   sent   travelling   to   complete   his   growth   and   education;   and
  Frances being returned to her mother and the semi…seclusion of the Suffolk
  mansion at Audley End。
  Of the two women; so closely linked in fate; the second is perhaps the
  more     interesting     study。    Anne      Turner    was    something      older    than   the
  Countess of Essex。          In the various records of the strange piece of history
  which      is  here   to   be  dealt    with   there   are   many     allusions    to   a  long
  association between the two。            Almost a foster…sister relationship seems to
  be implied; but actual detail is irritatingly absent。              Nor is it clear whether
  Mrs   Turner   at   the   time   of   the   tilt…yard   incident   had   embarked   on   the
  business activities which were to make her a much sought…after person in
  King   James's   Court。       It   is   not   to   be   ascertained   whether   she   was   not
  already   a   widow   at   that   time。     We   can   only   judge   from   circumstantial
  evidence brought forward later。
  In   1610;   at   all   events;   Mrs Turner  was   well   known   about   the   Court;
  and was   quite certainly  a   widow。          Her husband had been   a   well…known
  medical      man;    one    George     Turner;     a  graduate     of   St  John's    College;
  Cambridge。        He   had   been   a   protege   of   Queen   Elizabeth。        Dying;   this
  elderly   husband   of   Mistress   Turner   had   left   her   but   little   in   the   way   of
  worldly goods; but that little the fair young widow had all the wit to turn
  to good account。         There was a house in Paternoster Row and a series of
  notebooks。       Like many another physician of his time; George Turner had
  been   a   dabbler   in    more   arts   than   that   of   medicine;   an   investigator   in
  sciences      other   than   pathology。      His    notebooks      would    appear     to  have
  contained more than remedial prescriptions for agues; fevers; and rheums。
  There was; for example; a recipe for a yellow starch which; says Rafael
  Sabatini; in his fine romance The Minion;'7' ‘‘she dispensed as her own
  invention。       This     had    become      so   widely     fashionable      for   ruffs   and
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  pickadills   that   of   itself   it   had   rendered   her   famous。'' One   may   believe;
  also;   that   most   of   the   recipes   for   those   ‘‘perfumes;   cosmetics;   unguents
  and mysterious powders; liniments and lotions asserted to preserve beauty
  where   it   existed;   and   even   to   summon   it   where   it   was   lacking;''   were
  derived from the same sources。
  '7' Hutchinson; 1930。
  There is a temptation to write of Mistress Turner as forerunner of that
  notorious Mme Rachel of whom; in his volume Bad Companions;'8' Mr
  Roughead       has   said   the  final   and   pawky     word。    Mme       Rachel;    in  the
  middle      of  the   nineteenth     century;   founded     her   fortunes    as   a  beauty
  specialist   (?)   on   a   prescription   for   a   hair…restorer   given   her   by   a   kindly
  doctor。      She     also    ‘invented'    many     a   lotion    and    unguent     for   the
  preservation and creation of beauty。            But at about this point analogy stops。
  Both Rachel and her forerunner; Anne Turner; were scamps; and both got
  into serious troubleAnne into deeper and deadlier hot water than Rachel…
  …but    between      the  two    women      there   is   only   superficial    comparison。
  Rachel was a botcher and a bungler; a very cobbler; beside Anne Turner。
  '8' Edinburgh; W。 Green and Son; Ltd。; 1930。
  Anne;     there   is  every   cause    for  assurance;    was    in  herself   the  best
  advertisement for her wares。            Rachel was a fat old hag。           Anne; prettily
  fair;   little…boned;    and   deliciously   fleshed;    was    neat   and   elegant。    The
  impression one gets of her from all the records; even the most prejudiced
  against her; is that she was a very cuddlesome morsel indeed。                     She was;
  in   addition;   demonstrably   clever。       Such   a   man   of   talent   as   Inigo   Jones
  supported the decoration of many of the masques he set on the stage with
  costumes of Anne's design and confection。               Rachel could neither read nor
  write。
  It   is   highly   probable   that   Anne   Turner   made   coin   out   of   the   notes
  which her late husband; so inquisitive of mind; had left on matters much
  more occult than the manufacture of yellow starch and skin lotions。                       ‘‘It
  was also rumoured;'' says Mr Sabatini; ‘‘that she amassed gold in another
  and   less   licit   manner:   that   she   dabbled   in   fortune…telling   and   the   arts   of
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  divination。''    We   shall   see;   as   the   story   develops;   that   the   rumour   had
  some foundation。        The inquiring mind of the late Dr Turner had led him
  into strange company; and his legacy to Anne included connexions more
  sombre than those in the extravagantly luxurious Court of King James。
  In 1610 the elegant little widow was flourishing enough to be able to
  maintain a lover in good style。        This was Sir Arthur Mainwaring; member
  of a Cheshire family of good repute but of no great wealth。                By him she
  had three children。      Mainwaring was attached in some fashion to the suite
  of the Prince of Wales; Prince Henry。           And while the Prince's court at St
  James's Palace was something more modest; as it was more refined; than
  that of the King at Whitehall; position in it was not to be retained at ease
  without considerable expenditure。           It may be gauged; therefore; at   what
  expense Anne's   attachment   to   Mainwaring   would   keep   her;   and   to   what
  exercise of her talent and ambition her pride in it would drive her。                And
  her pride was absolute。        It would; says a contemporary diarist; ‘‘make her
  fly at any pitch rather than fall into the jaws of want。'''9'
  '9' Antony Weldon; The Court and Character of King James (1651)。
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  In his romance The Minion; Rafael Sabatini makes the first meeting of
  Anne Turner and the Countess of Essex occur in 1610 or 1611。                  With this
  date Judge A。 E。 Parry; in his book The Overbury Mystery;'10' seems to
  agree in part。      There is; however; warrant enough for believing that the
  two women had met long before that time。              Anne Turner herself; pleading
  at her trial for mercy from Sir Edward Coke; the Lord Chief Justice; put
  forward the plea that she had been ‘‘ever brought up with the Countess of
  Essex; and had been a long time her servant。'''11'            She also made the like
  extenuative plea on the scaffold。'12'           Judge Parry seems to follow some
  of the contemporary writers in assuming that Anne was a spy in