], were
powerful embodiments, and I question if they
have ever since been so finely portrayed (1785-1850).—J.
Adolphus,
Recollections
.
Constance, daughter of Sir William Fondlove, and courted by Wildrake, a country squire, fond of field sports. "Her beauty rich, richer her grace, her mind yet richer still, though richest all." She was "the mould express of woman, stature, feature, body, limb;" she danced well, sang well, harped well. Wildrake was her childhood's playmate, and became her husband.—S. Knowles, The Love Chase (1837).
Constance, daughter of Bertulphe, provost of Bruges, and bride of Bouchard, a knight of Flanders. She had "beauty to shame young love's most fervent dream, virtue to form a saint, with just enough of earth to keep her woman." By an absurd law of Charles "the Good," earl of Flanders, made in 1127, this young lady, brought up in the lap of luxury, was reduced to serfdom, because her grandfather was a serf; her aristocratic husband was also a serf because he married her (a serf). She went mad at the reverse of fortune, and died.—S. Knowles, The Provost of Bruges (1836).
Constance Varley. American girl traveling in the East with friends, and bearing with her everywhere the memory of a man she has loved for years in secret. She meets him at Damascus and after some days of pleasant companionship, he resolves to offer his hand to her. The words are upon his tongue, when an unfortunate misunderstanding divides them forever. A year later she marries another man who loves her sincerely without appreciating the finest part of her nature.
A woman quotes at sight of Constance's portrait: