Surely, the nineteenth century can have produced few. stranger chi racter than the Countess Markievicz, whose biography has just been written by Mr. Sean O'Faolain, under the title, "Constance Markievicz or the Average Revolutionary" (Cape 10s. 64.) The sub-title seems to suggest that the Countess was composed of no more than the usual stut of which revolutionaries are made. In 2 sense, that was true; but there were certain aspects of her which raised its tone at least a few points above that of the typical, Stormy figure of revolt.
"Madame" Markievicz (as the Dublin crowd was wont to call her) was born into the atmosphere of the strictest propriety and the well restrained" grandeur of Carlton }House' Terrace, London. For her father, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, was Irishman who brought the strictest alliegance to the King of England and was pleased to spend his days in that capital which his daughter learned to regard as the stronghold of her enemies. In this 'she was not remarkable, for it is a notable tact that the stormiest rebels have often come from families of the strictest orthodoxy.
Even as a_ girl, Constance Gore-Booth seems to have been insurgent. Her room at Carlton House Terrace was always topsy-tury and her life was, in the truest sense, disorderly.
This condition followed her. Indeed, after one had paid full tribute to jiier amazing courage, one could not [avoid a feeling that she loved insurgence for its own sake. Her mar-Fage to Count Markieviez, a Polish artist, was not s0_much a' marriage [as a defiant gesture. When she dung Vnerself into the polities of Irish rebellion and was condemned to death for high treason, it all seemed to be rather a fulfilment of her sense of violent drama than a serious poll-Heal act.
The commutation of her sentence to lifelong imprisonment and her release from Aylesbury Jail under a general amnesty did not end her in-Surgence. She went on fighting and she was always where the fight was the thickest andthe hottest. She leant-village to a fashionable seaside resort, One, or, perhaps, both of the two jgirls—Eliza and Beth—living in Sear hampton, provides the title of "Elizabeth" (ifutchinson 7s. 6d.) Although they are friends, Eliza's jealousy of /Beth's continuous good fortune never quite allows a perfect understanding between them. The sun seems Jalways to shine on Beth, the daughter of a famous novelist. The girl is fortunate im her beauty and her power to make others love her. But Eliza's lot is a very different one. To begin with, she is not so lucky. in being the daughter of a literary tailture; nor is she any more fortunate jin her love affairs, was elected to the British House of Commons, but did not take her seat. Westminsier would have been t00 tame, the Clock Tower too small, the Sergeant-at-Arms too gentle. If she were the average revolutionary she must have brought up the average by several degrees. She led Aftynine years of strain and, it may be, of just a little pose. Her life reads Uke an incredible fection.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.