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Psychosis, dissociation, and trauma: evolving perspectives on severe psychopathology, 2nd Ed 2nd Edition Andrew Moskowitz
“Jonathan Raskin’s Psychopathology and Mental Distress is a one-of-a-kind textbook that fills a major gap in the literature on mental disorders. First, it is the only textbook on the market that successfully covers a wide range of approaches, including biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives, in a fair-minded way which carefully examines the strengths and weakness of each approach. The sections on the psychological approaches also provide a rare survey of a broad range of theories of psychopathology, including psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, and humanistic approaches. In addition, Raskin brings an unparalleled expertise in various nosologies of psychopathology, and he expands the reader’s appreciation of a wide range of diagnostic practices that go beyond the usual focus on the DSM-5. The textbook is written in a lucid style that lends itself to use in undergraduate classes as well as more advanced graduate courses in psychopathology. Raskin’s text is one that I will be using in my doctoral-level course in psychopathology, because it provides the broadest possible scope to the study of mental distress and offers essential conceptual tools to help students think critically about conventional approaches to diagnosis.”
– Dr. Brent Dean Robbins, Point Park University, USA
“What I like best about Raskin’s new text is that it moves beyond the typical DSM-V-TR presentation and discussion. The inclusion of the ICD-10-CM codes and other international ideas is refreshing. The Contrasting perspectives are the strongest aspect of this text.”
– Dr. Dallas M. Stout, Brigham Young University, Idaho, USA
“Dr. Raskin’s book will be the new standard psychopathology text in the education and training of mental health practitioners. This is the best review of the history, theories, diagnostic systems, measures, and case examples of the various mental disorders currently available. No other text covers so much ground in such an interesting and readable manner.”
– Dr. Robert M. Gordon, Ph.D., ABPP
“This textbook uniquely offers diverse perspectives on and understandings of mental distress, allowing the reader to come to their own informed conclusions. I have used it in all of my classes dedicated to the topic, and it is one of my favorite teaching tools.”
– Dr. Sarah Kamens, Clinical Psychologist and Author
“Instructors have numerous choices when selecting a textbook for a course on psychopathology and mental disorders. Fortunately, their choices are considerably narrowed when considering Raskin’s remarkable achievement in this volume. Every key area of psychopathology is covered thoroughly, but that is just the beginning. Rather than being solely tethered to classical classificatory rubrics, Raskin brings in the latest perspectives in the field, such as the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). This new edition of Raskin’s scholarly and progressive textbook is most welcome, and very likely to have a considerable impact on the training of the next generation of students and professionals in diverse mental health disciplines.”
– Dr. Robert F. Krueger, Hathaway Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, University of Minnesota, USA
“Raskin’s writing style is both enjoyable to read and accessible to students, without sacrificing a comprehensive presentation of the current data on psychopathology. His strong appreciation of the socio-historical context, infused throughout the text, is incredibly important for students in the field.”
– Dr. Deborah Pollack, Utica University, USA
“This up-to-date and comprehensive textbook offers multiple perspectives on psychopathology and mental distress, including those of people with lived experience. This textbook does not shy away from some of the trickier contemporary debates and questions about mental distress. A valuable resource for psychology students – or anyone interested in mental health!”
– Dr. Alyson Dodd, Northumbria University, UK
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND MENTAL DISTRESS
CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES
Second
edition
JONATHAN D. RASKIN
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ, USA
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
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BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First edition published in 2019 by Red Globe Press First edition reprinted by Bloomsbury Academic in 2022 This edition published 2024
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5.9
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5.13
5.14
5.15
5.16
5.17
5.20
8.6
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8.8
9. Feeding and Eating Problems
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8.10
8.11
8.12
8.13
8.14
8.16
12.9
12.10
12.11
Cognitive and Behavioral Interventions for Alzheimer’s Disease
Other Interventions: Physical Activity, Pre-Therapy, and Person-Centered Care 467
14.20 Sociocultural Perspectives on Delirium and Dementia 467 Social Factors and Dementia 467
14.21 The Growing Prevalence of Dementia 469
15. Sleep and Elimination Difficulties
15.1
16. Suicide, Ethics, and Law
15.2
Evaluating DSM and ICD Perspectives on Sleep Disturbances
15.3
15.4
15.5 Psychological Perspectives on Sleep Disturbances 478
Theory and Nightmares
15.6
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 Positive Correlation 19
1.2 Negative Correlation 20
1.3 No Correlation 20
2.1 Parts of a Neuron 35
2.2 Neurotransmission across a Synapse 35
2.3 DNA and RNA Structure 37
2.4 Freud’s Iceberg Model of Mind 43
3.1 The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) 84
3.2 An Inkblot like the Ones Used on the Rorschach 93
4.1 The Onset of Psychosis in the Integrated SociodevelopmentalCognitive Model 132
5.1 Percentage of Persons Aged 12 and over Who Took Antidepressant Medication in the Past Month, by Age and Sex: United States, 2011–2014 147
5.2 Antidepressant Use around the Globe 148
5.3 Percentage of U.S. Patients Taking Antidepressants by Age and Gender, 2019 168
6.1 Hierarchical Structure of Social Anxiety Symptoms in HiTOP 182
6.2 Percent of U.S. Patients Taking Benzodiazepines by Age and Gender, 2019 203
7.1 Average Reported Stress Level during the Past Month, on a Scale of 1–10 237
11.1 A Standard Drink in the U.S. 351
11.2 Estimated Number of People Who Used Cocaine in the Past Year, by Subregion, 2020 353
11.3 U.S. Overdose Deaths Involving Any Opioid—Number among All Ages, by Gender, 1999–2021 355
11.4 U.S. Overdose Deaths Involving Prescription Opioids, by Other Opioid Involvement—Number among All Ages, 1999–2021 355
11.5 The Mesolimbic Dopamine (Reward) Pathway 369 11.6 Trends in Primary Drug of Concern in People in Treatment for Drug Use Disorders 375 11.7 The USAUDIT-C 380 13.1 Prevalence of Diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in U.S. Children and Adolescents, 1997–2016 422
13.2 The Story of “Fidgety Philip” from Heinrich Hoffmann’s Struwwelpeter 426
14.1 The Atrophying Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease 465
15.1 The Sleep Cycle during an Eight-Hour Night of Sleep 476
15.2 Percentage of Sleep Spent in Each of the Sleep Stages 477
The Sociodevelopmental-Cognitive Model of Schizophrenia (4) 131
Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for Depression (5) 166
Transdiagnostic Therapy (6) 197
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing versus Psychological First Aid (7) 235
Psychodynamic Therapy for a Case of Conversion (Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder) (8) 266
Social Media and Eating Disorders (9) 304 Removing Homosexuality from DSM (10) 324
Controlled Drinking versus Total Abstinence (11) 374
Psychopathy and Sociopathy (12) 386 If You Have One Developmental Diagnosis, You Just Might Qualify for Another (13) 423
The First Documented Case of Alzheimer’s Disease (14) 463
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sleep (15) 480
Financial Conflicts of Interest in Professional Practice (16) 506
CONTROVERSIAL QUESTION
Is Shortness a Disorder? (1) 8 Is Theoretical Integration a Good Idea? (2) 64
Are DSM and ICD Culture-Bound? (3) 77
Should Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome Be in DSM? (4) 107
Antidepressants as Placebo? (5) 149 Is COVID-19 Anxiety a Mental Disorder? (6) 201
Can Racism Cause Posttraumatic Stress? (7) 236
Can Your Personality Give You a Heart Attack? (8) 262
Should There Be Warning Labels on Unrealistic Images in Fashion Magazines and on Social Media? (9)
Are Rapists Mentally Ill? (10)
We Be Legalizing Marijuana? (11)
How Should We Diagnose Learning Disorders? (14)
THE LIVED EXPERIENCE
Disaster” (1)
Will Happen in My First Therapy
(2)
of Jill’s TAT Stories (3)
with Schizophrenia: Jamie’s
You Don’t Fit the “Eating Disorder” Mold as an African
W’s Story of Recovery (11)
Labeled as “Borderline” (12)
with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Anita’s Story (13)
Stories from People Living with Tourette Syndrome: Mike (14)
“Outgrows”
TOUR OF THE BOOK
Accomplishing the goals outlined above is a difficult task! So, how does this book do so? Key features are outlined below. Each one helps students master the material while offering instructors ways to assist them in the learning process.
• A Perspectives Approach: Chapters are organized by perspectives, allowing students to “try on” each way of looking at problems in the field. The perspectives typically covered in comparable textbooks (e.g., neurochemical, genetic, cognitive-behavioral, and classic psychoanalytic) are given extensive attention, but so are perspectives that often receive less consideration (e.g., immunological, evolutionary, modern psychodynamic, humanistic, social justice, cross-cultural, and systems). Further, rather than presenting traditional mental disorder categories as givens that other perspectives unquestioningly treat, they too are framed as perspectival products— hence the grouping of DSM and ICD as diagnostic perspectives. This subtle shift allows mental disorder categories to be explored more fully and fairly without enshrining them as universally accepted (after all, the other perspectives covered have widely divergent opinions about them). The idea is to place all perspectives side by side, presenting them (as well as critiques lodged against them) in a dispassionate and even-handed manner. In so doing, students should come to understand each perspective’s strengths and weaknesses while also developing their own educated points of view.
• Numbered Sections: Chapters are divided into numbered sections. Instructors can assign these sections in the order provided or in whatever order they deem best. Specific numbered sections can easily be assigned for different class dates (e.g., “Read Chapter 1, Sections 1.1–1.3”). This gives instructors latitude to spend more than one class on a chapter, mix and match material across chapters, or omit material from chapters they don’t have the time or inclination to cover.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Explain why contradictory perspectives are common when studying mental distress.
2. Define psychopathology, mental illness, harmful internal dysfunction, deviance, and social oppression.
3. Summarize common criteria for making judgments about what is “abnormal.”
4. Describe historical perspectives on mental distress from the Stone Age to the present day.
5. Distinguish and explain the many types of quantitative and qualitative research perspectives.
Learning Objectives
Each chapter begins with clearly defined learning objectives. By the time they finish studying each chapter, students should be able to fulfill these objectives.
Case Examples
Sara and Brian
In the marriage counseling of Sara and Brian, Sara insists that her mother-in-law is “out to get her” by putting her down and manipulating Brian to spend more time with her than Sara. Brian sees no evidence of this, arguing that his mother only wants what is best for him and Sara. Whose perceptions of reality are correct? If we could determine this, would it matter? Is the person whose perceptions are less correct more psychologically disturbed? Finally, who is the ultimate authority on reality? Is it Sara, Brian, Brian’s mother, their therapist, or someone else altogether?
Each chapter presents one or more case examples. Typically introduced at the beginning of the chapter, these cases are regularly revisited to provide concrete instances of the theories and interventions discussed.
In Depth
This feature zeros in on interesting topics to provide detailed explorations of areas currently garnering attention. Going in depth on select topics affords students the chance to gain a richer appreciation for the kinds of clinical and research explorations occurring in the field.
In Depth: Ignorance and Psychology
A 2015 New York Times opinion piece by Jamie Holmes advocates acknowledging that we often know less than we claim. In other words, ignorance is a lot more rampant than most of us wish to admit—even in academic subjects where we usually are told otherwise. Holmes describes how, in the 1980s, University of Arizona surgery professor Professor Marlys H. Witte created controversy when she began teaching a class called “Introduction to Medical and Other Ignorance.” She wanted to include ignorance in her class because she believed we often ignore or minimize how little we know about many topics (J. Holmes, 2015b). In Witte’s view, textbooks often contribute to the problem. For example, she pointed out that surgery textbooks usually discuss pancreatic cancer without ever mentioning that our present understanding of it is extremely limited. Her goal? Helping students appreciate that questions are as important as answers (J. Holmes, 2015b).
Some might deem it foolish of me to share Holmes’ opinion piece at the very start of a textbook on psychopathology and mental distress. Yet my experience teaching this course over the years fits nicely with Holmes’ thesis. I once had a student who, several weeks into the class, said she was going back to being a math major. “At least in math, there are clear right answers,” she exclaimed. “In studying psychology, there are so many conflicting viewpoints that it’s hard to know what the right answer is.” Admittedly, despite all the attempts to combine rigorous research into an integrative perspective, all too often most psychology textbooks overstate how much we know. But acknowledging our ignorance up front potentially opens, rather than closes, possibilities. Holmes notes that we often think of ignorance as something to be eliminated, viewing it as simply lack of knowledge. Yet answers don’t put an end to questions. They simply give rise to new questions (J. Holmes, 2015b)! As you read this text, here’s to the many questions you will hopefully begin to ask.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Do you think Witte’s contention that ignorance is more rampant than we usually admit applies to the field of psychology?
2. Does recognizing the limits of our knowledge about psychopathology and mental distress help us? If so, how?
Controversial Question
Posing controversial questions invites students to grapple with issues that have often bedeviled researchers and clinicians. The goal is to expose students to prominent and ongoing debates about pathology and distress.
Controversial Question: Should There Be Warning Labels on Unrealistic Images in Fashion Magazines and on Social Media?
Fashion magazines and social media are filled with unrealistic photos. These snapshots are digitally altered, airbrushed, and tweaked to present an idealized (and often unattainable) image of the perfect body. Because exposure to images that celebrate unrealistically thin bodies is positively correlated with body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, it has been suggested that warning labels be added to them to educate people about their damaging impact. Unfortunately, there is little evidence this works. Research consistently finds that warning labels or disclaimers on unrealistic fashion magazine images are ineffective in reducing body dissatisfaction—and sometimes might even make things worse (Bury et al., 2017; Di Gesto et al., 2022; Fardouly & Holland, 2018; Kwan et al., 2018; Naderer et al., 2022; Tiggemann & Brown, 2018; S. Weber et al., 2022). Studies on warning labels exemplify how research can test whether commonsense ideas hold up to scrutiny. Disclaimers on altered media sound like they should work, but they don’t. For better or worse, most researchers have reluctantly concluded that warning labels are ineffective at countering the negative impact of unrealistic images in magazines and on social media—and that it is time to explore and assess other solutions.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Are you surprised by the results of research on warning labels? Why or why not?
2. Irrespective of the effectiveness of warning labels, is it ethical for advertisers to digitally alter ads? Should they be prevented from doing so?
3. What other interventions might we develop to reduce the negative impact of unrealistic magazine and social media images? How might you go about testing their effectiveness?
The Lived Experience: Grief Ten Years Later
This September, it will be ten years since my mother died of cancer. It seems as if it were a lifetime ago and it seems as if it were yesterday. That is the nature of grief; it has its own rhythm. It is both present and in the past and it appears that it continues to stay that way no matter how much time has gone by.
A few years ago when my friend Meghan O’Rourke and I published a series of articles on grief and loss in Slate magazine, some criticized the findings because some of the respondents had experienced a loss many years before taking the survey. In psychology we call this phenomenon “recall bias,” where people filling out surveys wrongly or incompletely remember experiences from the past.
Memory is certainly pliable, and it is possible that people made errors in recalling what their grief was really like for them. Methodologically and intuitively that makes sense, but as a griever, I am not so sure.
The idea that the more years have passed since a loss, the less likely someone is to recall their grief rests on the assumption that grief is a static event in time that will eventually fade. This view is aligned with what many researchers in the field of psychology and psychiatry believe: that grief has a starting point, a middle point, and an end point. The heated debates in the media and in the field about when grief becomes pathological rest on the assumption that at some point, grief becomes “too much” and needs to be treated with medication or a mental health professional. If grief is a static event in time, then it certainly makes sense that it would be hard for people to remember what their experience was like five or ten years after a loss.
Having spent years studying grief, and being a griever myself now entering her tenth year of loss, I know that grief does not work this way. It is not an event in time. It is not even just an emotional response to a loss. It is a process that changes us permanently but also constantly as we ourselves change and grow. In this sense, grief is just like love. It is not something that happens once and goes away—it is something that evolves, expands and contracts, and changes in shape, depth, and intensity as time goes on.
Grief is a lifelong, ever-changing companion. It is both in the present and in the past. Moments of intense yearning and pain for the deceased can come and go even ten or twenty or thirty years after a person we love has died. It is cliché to say it, but it is also true: Grief is the price we pay for love. Grief is still with me because my mother is still with me. To deny one is inevitably to deny the other.
Interestingly, between mothers and children, there is a biological correlate to “the being with and in each other” called fetal microchimerism. It is an amazing phenomenon where fetal cells from the baby make their way into their mother’s bodies and vice versa, mother’s cells become intertwined into the baby’s body. In other words, my mother is literally part of me biologically and emotionally and my cells were with, and in her when she died.
To be sure, microchimerism is just a metaphor—this being with and part of each other is not just for biological mothers and children. It is for everyone who has loved and lost. When I present my professional work, I often say I am a grief researcher, but actually, grief is just a stand in for what I am really studying— love and attachment. One cannot come without the other. Just like love, grief is an experience that evolves and changes with time; but one thing is for sure, it is not forgettable, because it never goes away.
By Leeat Granek, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission.
Diagnostic Box 6.2 Social Anxiety Disorder
DSM-5-TR and ICD-11
• Disproportionate fear and avoidance of social situation(s) where the person might be scrutinized.
• Overly concerned about behaving anxiously and being evaluated negatively for it.
• Symptom duration:
• DSM-5-TR: At least six months.
• ICD-11: At least several months.
Information from American Psychiatric Association (2022, pp. 229–230) and World Health Organization (2022a).
The Lived Experience
This feature brings topics to life by providing first-hand (and often deeply personal) accounts from clients and clinicians alike of their lived experiences dealing with the presenting problems the book explores.
Diagnostic Boxes
Appearing in most chapters, these succinctly present DSM and ICD definitions of disorders, helping students grasp their similarities and differences.
Chapter Summaries
Brief summaries are provided at the conclusion of each chapter that highlight the main themes covered. These summaries review what students have read and guide them as they begin to study.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Overview
• Feeding problems involve concern over food preferences.
• Eating problems are characterized by disturbed body image.
Diagnostic Perspectives
• DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 identify three eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and bingeeating disorder) and three feeding disorders (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, pica, and rumination disorder).
• PDM-2 links eating disorders to the psychological need for care and affection, HiTOP locates them on its “Somatoform” spectrum, and PTMF reframes them as responses to mistreatment and trauma.
Historical Perspectives
• The term “anorexia” has Greek origins and means “without appetite” and was first used to describe patients in 1873.
• Bulimia was first described in the 1950s but did not gain attention until the 1970s.
New Vocabulary and Glossary
New vocabulary terms are bolded in each chapter and defined in the margins. A comprehensive glossary containing all new vocabulary items is also provided at the end of the book. Lists of these terms are available online too.
NEW VOCABULARY
1. Abnormal psychology
2. Analogue experiment
3. Antipsychiatry
4. Biological perspectives
5. Bodily humors
6. Case study
7. Common criteria of “abnormality”
8. Confounding variable
9. Control group
10. Correlation
11. Correlational research
12. Deinstitutionalization
13. Demonological perspective
14. Dependent variable
15. Deviance
16. Double-blind studies
17. Empirically supported treatments (ESTs)
18. Epidemiological research
19. Experiments
20. External validity
21. Grounded theory methods
22. Harmful internal dysfunction
23. Harmfulness to self or others
24. Hypothesis
25. Hysteria
26. Incidence
27. Independent variable
28. Internal validity
29. Lobotomy
30. Malleus Maleficarum
31. Medicalization
32. Mental disorder
33. Mental distress
34. Medical model
35. Mental illness
36. Mixed methods
37. Moral therapy
38. Phenomenological methods
39. Placebo control group
40. Placebo effect
41. Population
42. Presenting problems
43. Prevalence
44. Psychological perspectives
45. Psychopathology
46. Purposive sampling
47. Qualitative methods
48. Quantitative methods
49. Quasi-experiment
50. Random assignment
51. Random sample
52. Randomized controlled trial (RCT)
53. Sample
54. Single-subject experiments
55. Snowball sampling
56. Social oppression
57. Sociocultural perspectives
58. Trepanation
59. Trustworthiness
60. Variables
61. Violation of social norms and values
62. Wandering womb theory
ONLINE LEARNING AND TEACHING RESOURCES
Accompanying this book is a full suite of supportive resources to help both students and lecturers get the most out of their learning and teaching.
Access the digital resources here: bloomsbury.pub/psychopathology-and-mental-distress-2e
Resources for lecturers include:
• Test Bank: Includes multiple-choice, matching, and essay questions. In devising the test bank, the goal was to create materials that target key ideas in the book. As a long-time instructor aware of how often test banks disappoint, much effort was put into providing test items that effectively discriminate student understanding of key concepts.
• Instructor’s Manual: For each chapter, detailed lecture notes are provided, along with PowerPoint slides to accompany them.
• Lecture Slides: MS PowerPoint slides for instructors to use during class lectures.
Resources for students include:
• Knowledge Checks: Each chapter has an accompanying online “knowledge-check” quiz that students can complete to quickly assess their understanding. Results can easily be sent to instructors.
• Videos: Relevant YouTube videos and video lectures by the author are available on the online companion website.
• “Try It Yourself” Activities: This online feature offers activities that students are invited to complete. The techniques, methods, exercises, and other activities provided let students apply what they are learning in a more personal way.
• Online Study Guide (for students): The online companion site includes a study guide, consisting of questions to help students develop study materials. By sketching answers to study guide questions, students will be able to concisely summarize content from the chapters as they prepare for exams.
PREFACE
THE CHALLENGE OF CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES
When it comes to psychopathology and mental distress, we can probably agree that there isn’t much agreement. On the contrary, there are many contrasting perspectives—different lenses that, when looked through, inevitably shape our definitions of psychopathology and mental distress, the research questions asked about them, and the clinical interventions undertaken to alleviate them. Are pathology and distress mainly attributable to neurochemical imbalances or other brain disorders, genetic inheritance, immune system reactions to stress, evolutionary mismatches between our ancestral environments and modern society, unconscious conflicts, faulty attachment relationships, irrational thinking, conditioned learning, a failure to self-actualize, cultural differences, economic adversity, social oppression, or some combination thereof? To students’ dismay, the number of explanations can be dizzying!
As we shall see, those advancing these contrasting perspectives on psychopathology and mental distress are passionate about their divergent outlooks. This book tries to capture that passion by examining how advocates of contrasting perspectives often strongly and loudly disagree. The idea is to present these disagreements fully and thoroughly—but without being disagreeable! To accomplish this, the book adopts a credulous approach (Kelly, 1955/1991a), in which—rather than immediately judging the contrasting perspectives presented—students are encouraged to understand and appreciate every perspective on its own. To that end, it sympathetically discusses each perspective’s theoretical rationale for viewing various problems in certain ways, and how this gives rise to specific intervention strategies. It also examines research on each perspective to help students make comparisons. However, rather than me—as your humble guide in this endeavor— declaring some perspectives as winners and others as losers, my goal is more modest: to provide the necessary information, pose challenging questions, and encourage you to draw your own conclusions.
Some might question this approach. “Aren’t you the expert? Shouldn’t you be informing students about which perspectives are most correct?” The trouble with offering definitive answers is that, in my experience, different students inevitably draw different conclusions about the material, no matter how hard (or not) I advocate for some perspectives over others. This is so even when exposed to the same theories, research, and practice aspects of these perspectives. In many respects, this isn’t surprising. Deciding what is pathological and determining what to do about it are not simply dry academic endeavors. They touch on people’s core beliefs about what it means to be a person and to live a healthy and productive life. They also tap into students’ ideas about themselves and their own personal problems. In this regard, student disagreements about what counts as mental distress, what should be done about it, and what the research recommends mirror fundamental disagreements in the field. This book proposes a modest and exciting (but challenging) goal: After digesting the relevant information and trying to understand each perspective fairly and openly, students are encouraged to decide which perspectives on psychopathology and mental distress they most agree with and why.
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general ridicule for the failure of her imprecation. Before the merrymeeting, however, was over, the sound of the “deaddrum,” beat by the approaching rioters, fell upon their ears, and Porteous, as if struck all at once with the certainty of death, exclaimed, “D——n the wife! she is right yet!” Some of his friends suggested that it might be the firedrum; but he would not give ear to such consolations, and fairly abandoned all hope of life. Before another hour had passed, he was in eternity.
Nicol Brown, a butcher, executed in 1753 for the murder of his wife, was not the least remarkable tenant of the Tolbooth during the last century. A singular story is told of this wretched man. One evening, long before his death, as he was drinking with some other butchers in a tavern somewhere about the Grassmarket, a dispute arose about how long it might be allowable to keep flesh before it was eaten. From less to more, the argument proceeded to bets; and Brown offered to eat a pound of the oldest and “worst” flesh that could be produced, under the penalty of a guinea. A regular bet was taken, and a deputation of the company went away to fetch the stuff which should put Nicol’s stomach to the test. It so happened that a criminal—generally affirmed to have been the celebrated Nicol Muschat—had been recently hung in chains at the Gallowlee, and it entered into the heads of these monsters that they would apply in that quarter for the required flesh. They accordingly provided themselves with a ladder and other necessary articles, and, though it was now near midnight, had the courage to go down that still and solitary road which led towards the gallows, and violate the terrible remains of the dead, by cutting a large collop from the culprit’s hip. This they brought away, and presented to Brown, who was not a little shocked to find himself so tasked. Nevertheless, getting the dreadful “pound of flesh” roasted after the manner of a beefsteak, and adopting a very strong and drunken resolution, he set himself down to his horrid mess, which, it is said, he actually succeeded in devouring. This story, not being very effectually concealed, was recollected when he afterwards came to the same end with Nicol Muschat. He lived in the Fleshmarket Close, as appears from the evidence on his trial. He made away with his wife by burning her, and said that she had caught fire by accident. But, as the door was found locked by the neighbours who came on hearing her cries, and he was notorious for abusing her, besides the circumstance of his not
appearing to have attempted to extinguish the flames, he was found guilty and executed. He was also hung in chains at the Gallowlee, where Muschat had hung thirty years before. He did not, however, hang long. A few mornings after having been put up, it was found that he had been taken away during the night. This was supposed to have been done by the butchers of the Edinburgh market, who considered that a general disgrace was thrown upon their fraternity by his ignominious exhibition there. They were said to have thrown his body into the Quarry Holes.
C II.
The case of Katherine Nairne, in 1766, excited, in no small degree, the attention of the Scottish public. This lady was allied, both by blood and marriage, to some highly respectable families. Her crime was the double one of poisoning her husband, and having an intrigue with his brother, who was her associate in the murder. She was brought from the north country into Leith harbour in an open boat, and as fame had preceded her, thousands of people flocked to the shore to see her. She has been described to us as standing erect in the boat, dressed in a riding-habit, and having a switch in her hand, with which she amused herself. Her whole bearing betrayed so much levity, or was so different from what had been expected, that the mob raised a general howl of indignation, and were on the point of stoning her to death, when she was with some difficulty rescued from their hands by the public authorities. In this case the Old Tolbooth found itself, as usual, incapable of retaining a culprit of condition. Sentence had been delayed by the judges, on account of her pregnancy. The midwife employed at her accouchement (who, bythe-by, continued to practise in Edinburgh so lately as the year 1805) had the address to achieve a jail-delivery also. For three or four days previous to that concerted for the escape, she pretended to be afflicted with a prodigious toothache; went out and in with her head enveloped in shawls and flannels; and groaned as it she had been about to give up the ghost. At length, when all the janitory officials were become so habituated to her appearance, as not to heed her “exits and her entrances” very much, Katherine Nairne one evening came down in her stead, with her head wrapped all round with the shawls, uttering the usual groans, and holding down her face upon her hands, as with agony, in the precise way customary with the midwife. The inner door-keeper, not quite unconscious, it is supposed, of the trick, gave her a hearty thump upon the back as she passed out, calling her at the same time a howling old Jezebel and wishing she would never come back to annoy his ears, and those of the other inmates, in such an intolerable way. There are two reports of the proceedings of Katherine Nairne after leaving the prison. One
bears that she immediately left the town in a coach, to which she was handed by a friend stationed on purpose. The coachman, it is said, had orders from her relations, in the event of a pursuit, to drive into the sea and drown her—a fate which, however dreadful, was considered preferable to the ignominy of a public execution. The other story runs, that she went up the Lawnmarket to the Castlehill, where lived a respectable advocate, from whom, as he was her cousin, she expected to receive protection. Being ignorant of the town, she mistook the proper house, and, what was certainly remarkable, applied at that of the crown agent, who was assuredly the last man in the world that could have done her any service. As good luck would have it, she was not recognised by the servant, who civilly directed her to her cousin’s house, where it is said she remained concealed many weeks. In addition to these reports, we may mention that we have seen an attic pointed out in St Mary’s Wynd, as the place where Katherine Nairne found concealment between the period of her leaving the jail and that of her going abroad. Her future life, it has been reported, was virtuous and fortunate. She was married to a French gentleman, was the mother of a large and respectable family, and died at a good old age. Meanwhile, Patrick Ogilvie, her associate in the dark crime which threw a shade over her younger years, suffered in the Grassmarket. This gentleman, who had been a lieutenant in the —— regiment, was so much beloved by his fellow-soldiers, who happened to be stationed at that time in Edinburgh Castle, that the public authorities judged it necessary to shut them up in that fortress till the execution was over, lest they might have attempted, what they had been heard to threaten, a rescue.
The Old Tolbooth was the scene of the suicide of Mungo Campbell, while under sentence of death for shooting the Earl of Eglintoune. In the country where this memorable event took place, it is somewhat remarkable that the fate of the murderer was more generally lamented than that of the murdered person. Campbell, as we have heard, though what was called “a graceless man,” and therefore not much esteemed by the Auld Light people, who there abound, was rather popular in his profession of exciseman, on account of his rough, honourable spirit, and his lenity in the matter of smuggling. Lord Eglintoune, on the contrary, was not liked, on account of the inconvenience which he occasioned to many of his tenants by
newfangled improvements, and his introduction into the country of a generally abhorred article, denominated rye-grass, which, for some reason we are not farmer enough to explain, was fully as unpopular a measure as the bringing in of Prelacy had been a century before. Lord Eglintoune was in the habit of taking strange crotchets about his farms—crotchets quite at variance with the old-established prejudices of his tenantry. He sometimes tried to rouse the old stupid farmers of Kyle from their negligence and supineness, by removing them to other farms, or causing two to exchange their possessions, in order, as he jocularly alleged, to prevent their furniture from getting mouldy, by long standing in particular damp corners. Though his lordship’s projects were all undertaken in the spirit of improvement, and though these emigrations were doubtless salutary in a place where the people were then involved in much sloth and nastiness, still they were premature, and carried on with rather a harsh spirit. They therefore excited feelings in the country people not at all favourable to his character. These, joined to the natural eagerness of the common people to exult over the fall of tyranny, and the puritanical spirit of the district, which disposed them to regard his lordship’s peccadilloes as downright libertinism, altogether conspired against him, and tended to throw the glory and the pity of the occasion upon his lordship’s slayer. Even Mungo’s poaching was excused, as a more amiable failing than the excessive love of preserving game, which had always been the unpopular mania of the Eglintoune family. Mungo Campbell was a man respectably connected, the son of a provost of Ayr; had been a dragoon in his youth, was eccentric in his manner, a bachelor, and was considered at Newmills, where he resided, as an austere and unsocial, but honourable, and not immoral man. There can be no doubt that he rose on his elbows and fired at his lordship, who had additionally provoked him by bursting into a laugh at his awkward fall. The Old Tolbooth was supposed by many, at the time, to have had her usual failing in Mungo’s case. The Argyll interest was said to have been employed in his favour, and the body, which was found suspended over the door, instead of being his, was thought to be that of a dead soldier from the castle, substituted in his place. His relations, however, who are very respectable people in Ayrshire, all acknowledge that he died by his own hand; and this was the general idea of the mob of Edinburgh, who, getting the body into their hands,
trailed it down the street to the King’s Park, and inspired by different sentiments from those of the Ayrshire people, were not satisfied till they got it up to the top of Salisbury Crags, from which they precipitated it down the “Cat Nick.” Aged people in Ayrshire still remember the unwonted brilliancy of the aurora borealis on the midnight of Lord Eglintoune’s death. Strange and awful whispers then went through the country, in correspondence, as it were, with the streamers in the sky, which were considered by the superstitious as expressions on the face of heaven of satisfied wrath in the event.
One of the most remarkable criminals ever confined in the Old Tolbooth was the celebrated William Brodie. As may be generally known, this was a man of respectable connexions, and who had moved in good society all his life, unsuspected of any criminal pursuits. It is said that a habit of frequenting cock-pits was the first symptom he exhibited of a defalcation from virtue. His ingenuity as a joiner gave him a fatal facility in the burglarious pursuits to which he afterwards addicted himself. It was then customary for the shopkeepers of Edinburgh to hang their keys upon a nail at the back of their doors, or at least to take no pains in concealing them during the day. Brodie used to take impressions of them in putty or clay, a piece of which he would carry in the palm of his hand. He kept a blacksmith in his pay, of the name of Smith, who forged exact copies of the keys he wanted, and with these it was his custom to open the shops of his fellow-tradesmen during the night. He thus found opportunities of securely stealing whatsoever he wished to possess. He carried on his malpractices for many years. Upon one shop in particular he made many severe exactions. This was the shop of a company of jewellers, in the North Bridge Street, namely, that at the south-east corner, where it joins the High Street. The unfortunate tradesmen from time to time missed many articles, and paid off one or two faithful shopmen, under the impression of their being guilty of the theft. They were at length ruined. Brodie remained unsuspected, till having committed a daring robbery upon the Excise-office in Chessel’s Court, Canongate, some circumstances transpired, which induced him to disappear from Edinburgh. Suspicion then becoming strong, he was pursued to Holland, and taken at Amsterdam, standing upright in a press or cupboard. At his trial, Henry Erskine, his counsel, spoke very eloquently in his behalf, representing in particular, to the jury, how strange and improbable a
circumstance it was, that a man whom they had themselves known from infancy as a person of good repute, should have been guilty of such practices as those with which he was charged. He was, however, found guilty, and sentenced to death, along with his accomplice Smith. At the trial he had appeared in a fine full-dress suit of black clothes, the greater part of which was of silk, and his deportment throughout the whole affair was completely that of a gentleman. He continued during the period which intervened between his sentence and execution to dress himself well and to keep up his spirits. A gentleman of our acquaintance, calling upon him in the condemned room, was astonished to find him singing the song from the Beggar’s Opera, “’Tis woman seduces all mankind.” Having contrived to cut out the figure of a draught-board on the stone floor of his dungeon, he amused himself by playing with any one who would join him, and, in default of such, with his right hand against his left. This diagram remained in the room where it was so strangely out of place, till the destruction of the jail. His dress and deportment at the gallows were equally gay with those which he assumed at his trial. As the Earl of Morton was the first man executed by the “Maiden,” so was Brodie the first who proved the excellence of an improvement he had formerly made on the apparatus of the gibbet. This was the substitution of what was called the “drop,” for the ancient practice of the double ladder. He inspected the thing with a professional air, and seemed to view the result of his ingenuity with a smile of satisfaction. When placed on that terrible and insecure pedestal, and while the rope was adjusted round his neck by the executioner, his courage did not forsake him. On the contrary, even there, he exhibited a sort of joyful levity, which, though not exactly composure, seemed to the spectators as more indicative of indifference; he shuffled about, looked gaily around, and finally went out of the world with his hand stuck carelessly into the open front of his vest.
The Tolbooth, in its old days, as its infirmities increased, showed itself now and then incapable of retaining prisoners of very ordinary rank. Within the recollection of many people yet alive, a youth named Reid, the son of an innkeeper in the Grassmarket, while under sentence of death for some felonious act, had the address to make his escape. Every means was resorted to for recovering him, by search throughout the town, vigilance at all the ports, and the offer of a reward for his apprehension, yet he contrived fairly to cheat the
gallows. The whole story of his escape is exceedingly curious. He took refuge in the great cylindrical mausoleum of Sir George Mackenzie, in the Greyfriars churchyard of Edinburgh. This place, besides its discomfort, was supposed to be haunted by the ghost of the persecutor—a circumstance of which Reid, an Edinburgh boy, must have been well aware. But he braved all these horrors for the sake of his life. He had been brought up in the Hospital of George Heriot, in the immediate neighbourhood of the churchyard, and had many boyish acquaintances still residing in that munificent establishment. Some of these he contrived to inform of his situation, enjoining them to be secret, and beseeching them to assist him in his distress. The Herioters of those days had a very clannish spirit, insomuch, that to have neglected the interests or safety of any individual of the community, however unworthy he might be of their friendship, would have been looked upon by them as a sin of the deepest dye. Reid’s confidants, therefore, considered themselves bound to assist him by all means in their power against that general foe, the public. They kept his secret most faithfully, spared from their own meals as much food as supported him, and ran the risk of severe punishment, as well as of seeing ghosts, by visiting him every night in his horrible abode. They were his only confidants, his very parents, who lived not far off, being ignorant of his place of concealment. About six weeks after his escape from jail, when the hue and cry had in a great measure subsided, he ventured to leave the tomb, and it was afterwards known that he escaped abroad.
The subsequent history of the Old Tolbooth contains little that is very remarkable. It has passed away with many other venerable relics of the olden time, and we now look in vain for the many antique associations which crowded round the spot it once occupied.
THE LOVER’S LAST VISIT.
B P W .
The window of the lonely cottage of Hilltop was beaming far above the highest birchwood, seeming to travellers at a distance in the long valley below, who knew it not, to be a star in the sky. A bright fire was in the kitchen of that small tenement; the floor was washed, swept and sanded, and not a footstep had marked its perfect neatness; a small table was covered, near the ingle, with a snowwhite cloth, on which was placed a frugal evening meal; and in happy but pensive mood sat there all alone the woodcutter’s only daughter, a comely and gentle creature, if not beautiful—such a one as diffuses pleasure round her hay-field, and serenity over the seat in which she sits attentively on the Sabbath, listening to the word of God, or joining with mellow voice in His praise and worship. On this night she expected a visit from her lover, that they might fix their marriage-day; and her parents, satisfied and happy that their child was about to be wedded to a respectable shepherd, had gone to pay a visit to their nearest neighbour in the glen.
A feeble and hesitating knock was at the door, not like the glad and joyful touch of a lover’s hand; and cautiously opening it, Mary Robinson beheld a female figure wrapped up in a cloak, with her face concealed in a black bonnet. The stranger, whoever she might be, seemed wearied and worn out, and her feet bore witness to a long day’s travel across the marshy mountains. Although she could scarcely help considering her an unwelcome visitor at such an hour, yet Mary had too much disposition—too much humanity,—not to request her to step forward into the hut; for it seemed as if the wearied woman had lost her way, and had come towards the shining window to be put right upon her journey to the low country.
The stranger took off her bonnet on reaching the fire; and Mary Robinson beheld the face of one whom, in youth, she had tenderly loved; although for some years past, the distance at which they lived from each other had kept them from meeting, and only a letter or two, written in their simple way, had given them a few notices of each other’s existence. And now Mary had opportunity, in the first speechless gaze of recognition, to mark the altered face of her friend, —and her heart was touched with an ignorant compassion. “For mercy’s sake! sit down Sarah, and tell me what evil has befallen you; for you are as white as a ghost. Fear not to confide anything to my bosom: we have herded sheep together on the lonesome braes;—we have stripped the bark together in the more lonesome woods;—we have played, laughed, sung, danced together;—we have talked merrily and gaily, but innocently enough surely, of sweethearts together; and, Sarah, graver thoughts, too, have we shared, for when your poor brother died away like a frosted flower, I wept as if I had been his sister; nor can I ever be so happy in this world as to forget him. Tell me, my friend, why are you here? and why is your sweet face so ghastly?”
The heart of this unexpected visitor died within her at these kind and affectionate inquiries; for she had come on an errand that was likely to dash the joy from that happy countenance. Her heart upbraided her with the meanness of the purpose for which she had paid this visit; but that was only a passing thought; for was she, innocent and free from sin, to submit, not only to desertion, but to disgrace, and not trust herself and her wrongs, and her hopes of redress, to her whom she loved as a sister, and whose generous nature, she well knew, not even love, the changer of so many things, could change utterly, though, indeed, it might render it colder than of old to the anguish of a female friend?
“Oh! Mary, I must speak—yet must my words make you grieve, far less for me than for yourself. Wretch that I am, I bring evil tidings into the dwelling of my dearest friend! These ribbons, they are worn for his sake—they become well, as he thinks, the auburn of your bonny hair;—that blue gown is worn to-night because he likes it;— but, Mary, will you curse me to my face, when I declare before the God that made us, that that man is pledged unto me by all that is sacred between mortal creatures; and that I have here in my bosom
written promises and oaths of love from him, who, I was this morning told, is in a few days to be thy husband? Turn me out of the hut now, if you choose, and let me, if you choose, die of hunger and fatigue in the woods where we have so often walked together; for such death would be mercy to me, in comparison with your marriage with him who is mine for ever, if there be a God who heeds the oaths of the creatures He has made.”
Mary Robinson had led a happy life, but a life of quiet thoughts, tranquil hopes, and meek desires. Tenderly and truly did she love the man to whom she was now betrothed; but it was because she had thought him gentle, manly, upright, sincere, and one that feared God. His character was unimpeached—to her his behaviour had always been fond, affectionate, and respectful; that he was a finelooking man, and could show himself among the best of the country round at church, and market, and fair-day, she saw and felt with pleasure and with pride. But in the heart of this poor, humble, contented, and pious girl, love was not a violent passion, but an affection sweet and profound. She looked forward to her marriage with a joyful sedateness, knowing that she would have to toil for her family, if blest with children; but happy in the thought of keeping her husband’s house clean, of preparing his frugal meals, and welcoming him when wearied at night to her faithful, and affectionate, and grateful bosom.
At first, perhaps, a slight flush of anger towards Sarah tinged her cheek; then followed in quick succession, or all blended together in one sickening pang, fear, disappointment, the sense of wrong, and the cruel pain of disesteeming and despising one on whom her heart had rested with all its best and purest affections. But though there was a keen struggle between many feelings in her heart, her resolution was formed during that very conflict, and she said within herself, “If it be even so, neither will I be so unjust as to deprive poor Sarah of the man who ought to marry her, nor will I be so mean and low-spirited, poor as I am, and dear as he has been unto me, as to become his wife.”
While these thoughts were calmly passing in the soul of this magnanimous girl, all her former affection for Sarah revived; and, as she sighed for herself, she wept aloud for her friend. “Be quiet, be quiet, Sarah, and sob not so as if your heart were breaking. It need
not be thus with you. Oh, sob not so sair! You surely have not walked in this one day from the heart of the parish of Montrath?”—“I have indeed done so, and I am as weak as the wreathed snaw. God knows, little matter if I should die away; for, after all, I fear he will never think of me for his wife, and you, Mary, will lose a husband with whom you would have been happy, I feel, after all, that I must appear a mean wretch in your eyes.”
There was silence between them; and Mary Robinson, looking at the clock, saw that it wanted only about a quarter of an hour from the time of tryst. “Give me the oaths and promises you mentioned, out of your bosom, Sarah, that I may show them to Gabriel when he comes. And once more I promise, by all the sunny and all the snowy days we have sat together in the same plaid on the hillside, or in the lonesome charcoal plots and nests o’ green in the woods, that if my Gabriel— did I say my Gabriel?—has forsaken you and deceived me thus, never shall his lips touch mine again—never shall he put ring on my finger —never shall this head lie in his bosom—no, never, never; notwithstanding all the happy, too happy, hours and days I have been with him, near or at a distance—on the corn-rig—among the meadow hay, in the singing-school—at harvest-home—in this room, and in God’s own house. So help me God, but I will keep this vow!”
Poor Sarah told, in a few hurried words, the story of her love and desertion—how Gabriel, whose business as a shepherd often took him into Montrath parish, had wooed her, and fixed everything about their marriage, nearly a year ago. But that he had become causelessly jealous of a young man whom she scarcely knew; had accused her of want of virtue, and for many months had never once come to see her. “This morning, for the first time, I heard for a certainty, from one who knew Gabriel well and all his concerns, that the banns had been proclaimed in the church between him and you; and that in a day or two you were to be married. And though I felt drowning, I determined to make a struggle for my life—for oh! Mary, Mary, my heart is not like your heart; it wants your wisdom, your meekness, your piety; and if I am to lose Gabriel, will I destroy my miserable life, and face the wrath of God sitting in judgment upon sinners.”
At this burst of passion Sarah hid her face with her hands, as if sensible that she had committed blasphemy. Mary, seeing her
wearied, hungry, thirsty, and feverish, spoke to her in the most soothing manner, led her into the little parlour called the spence, then removed into it the table, with the oaten cakes, butter, and milk; and telling her to take some refreshment, and then lie down in the bed, but on no account to leave the room till called for, gave her a sisterly kiss, and left her. In a few minutes the outer door opened, and Gabriel entered.
The lover said, “How is my sweet Mary?” with a beaming countenance; and gently drawing her to his bosom, he kissed her cheek. Mary did not—could not—wished not—at once to release herself from his enfolding arms. Gabriel had always treated her as the woman who was to be his wife; and though, at this time, her heart knew its own bitterness, yet she repelled not endearments that were so lately delightful, and suffered him to take her almost in his arms to their accustomed seat. He held her hand in his, and began to speak in his usual kind and affectionate language. Kind and affectionate it was, for though he ought not to have done so, he loved her, as he thought, better than his life. Her heart could not, in one small short hour, forget a whole year of bliss. She could not yet fling away with her own hand what, only a few minutes ago, seemed to her the hope of paradise. Her soul sickened within her, and she wished that she were dead, or never had been born.
“O Gabriel! Gabriel! well indeed have I loved you; nor will I say, after all that has passed between us, that you are not deserving, after all, of a better love than mine. Vain were it to deny my love, either to you or to my own soul. But look me in the face—be not wrathful— think not to hide the truth either from yourself or me, for that now is impossible—but tell me solemnly, as you shall answer to God at the judgment-day, if you know any reason why I must not be your wedded wife.” She kept her mild moist eyes fixed upon him; but he hung down his head and uttered not a word, for he was guilty before her, before his own soul, and before God.
“Gabriel, never could we have been happy; for you often, often told me, that all the secrets of your heart were known unto me, yet never did you tell me this. How could you desert the poor innocent creature that loved you; and how could you use me so, who loved you perhaps as well as she, but whose heart God will teach, not to forget you, for that may I never do, but to think on you with that friendship and
affection which innocently I can bestow upon you, when you are Sarah’s husband. For, Gabriel, I have this night sworn, not in anger or passion—no, no—but in sorrow and pity for another’s wrongs—in sorrow also, deny it will I not, for my own—to look on you from this hour, as on one whose life is to be led apart from my life, and whose love must never more meet with my love. Speak not unto me—look not on me with beseeching eyes. Duty and religion forbid us ever to be man and wife. But you know there is one, besides me, whom you loved before you loved me, and, therefore, it may be better too; and that she loves you, and is faithful, as if God had made you one, I say without fear—I who have known her since she was a child, although, fatally for the peace of us both, we have long lived apart. Sarah is in the house; I will bring her unto you in tears, but not tears of penitence, for she is as innocent of that sin as I am, who now speak.”
Mary went into the little parlour, and led Sarah forward in her hand. Despairing as she had been, yet when she had heard from poor Mary’s voice speaking so fervently, that Gabriel had come, and that her friend was interceding in her behalf, the poor girl had arranged her hair in a small looking-glass—tied it up with a ribbon which Gabriel had given her, and put into the breast of her gown a little gilt brooch, that contained locks of their blended hair. Pale but beautiful —for Sarah Pringle was the fairest girl in all the country—she advanced with a flush on that paleness of reviving hope, injured pride, and love that was ready to forgive all and forget all, so that once again she could be restored to the place in his heart that she had lost. “What have I ever done, Gabriel, that you should fling me from you? May my soul never live by the atonement of my Saviour, if I am not innocent of that sin, yea, of all distant thought of that sin, with which you, even you, have in your hard-heartedness charged me. Look me in the face, Gabriel, and think of all I have been unto you, and if you say that before God, and in your own soul, you believe me guilty, then will I go away out into the dark night, and, long before morning, my troubles will be at an end.”
Truth was not only in her fervent and simple words, but in the tone of her voice, the colour of her face, and the light of her eyes. Gabriel had long shut up his heart against her. At first, he had doubted her virtue, and that doubt gradually weakened his affection. At last he tried to believe her guilty, or to forget her altogether, when his heart
turned to Mary Robinson, and he thought of making her his wife. His injustice—his wickedness—his baseness—which he had so long concealed, in some measure, from himself, by a dim feeling of wrong done him, and afterwards by the pleasure of a new love, now appeared to him as they were, and without disguise. Mary took Sarah’s hand and placed it within that of her contrite lover; for had the tumult of conflicting passions allowed him to know his own soul, such at that moment he surely was, saying with a voice as composed as the eyes with which she looked upon them, “I restore you to each other; and I already feel the comfort of being able to do my duty. I will be bride’s-maid. And I now implore the blessing of God upon your marriage. Gabriel, your betrothed will sleep this night in my bosom. We will think of you, better, perhaps, than you deserve. It is not for me to tell you what you have to repent of. Let us all three pray for each other this night, and evermore, when we are on our knees before our Maker. The old people will soon be at home. Goodnight, Gabriel.” He kissed Sarah; and, giving Mary a look of shame, humility, and reverence, he went home to meditation and repentance.
It was now midsummer; and before the harvest had been gathered in throughout the higher valleys, or the sheep brought from the mountain-fold, Gabriel and Sarah were man and wife. Time passed on, and a blooming family cheered their board and fireside. Nor did Mary Robinson, the Flower of the Forest (for so the woodcutter’s daughter was often called), pass her life in single blessedness. She, too, became a wife and mother; and the two families, who lived at last on adjacent farms, were remarkable for mutual affection throughout all the parish, and more than one intermarriage took place between them, at a time when the worthy parents had almost forgotten the trying incident of their youth.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND CHATELAR; OR, TWILIGHT MUSINGS IN HOLYROOD.
There are no mysteries into which we are so fond of prying as the mysteries of the heart. The hero of the best novel in the world, if he could not condescend to fall in love, might march through his three volumes and excite no more sensation than his grandmother; and a newspaper without a breach of promise of marriage is a thing not to be endured.
It is not my intention to affect any singular exception from this natural propensity, and I am ready to confess that the next best thing to being in love oneself, is to speculate on the hopes, and fears, and fates of others. How truly interesting are the little schemes and subterfuges, the romancing and story-telling of our dove-eyed and gentle-hearted playfellows! I have listened to a lame excuse for a stolen ride in a tilbury, or a duet in the woods, with wonderful sensibility; and have witnessed the ceremony of cross-questioning with as much trepidation as I could have felt had I been the culprit myself. It is not, however, to be maintained that the love adventures of the present age can, in any way, compete with the enchantment of days agone; when tender souls were won by tough exploits, and Cupid’s dart was a twenty-foot lance, ordained only to reach the lady’s heart through the ribs of the rival. This was the golden age of love, albeit I am not one to lament it, thinking, as I do, that it is far more sensible to aid and abet my neighbour in toasting the beauty of his mistress, than to caper about with him in the lists, for contradiction’s sake, to the imminent danger and discomfort of us both. After this came the middle or dark ages of love, when it had ceased to be a glory, but had lost nothing of its fervour as a passion. If there is here less of romance than in the tilting days, there is considerably more of interest, because there is more of mystery. In
the one, the test of true love was to make boast, in the other it was to keep secret. Accordingly, for an immense space of time, we have nothing but such fragments of adventures as could be gathered by eavesdroppers, who leave us to put head and tail to them as best suits our fancy; and the loves of Queen Elizabeth, who lived, as it were, only yesterday, are less known than the loves of queen Genevra, who perhaps never lived at all.
These amatory reflections occurred to me some little time ago, during a twilight reverie in the long, gloomy banqueting-room of Holyrood. It was the very land of love and mystery, for there was scarcely one of the grim visages which glared upon the walls, but had obtained his share of celebrity in lady’s bower, as well as in tented field; and of scarcely one of whom any certain and defined adventures have been handed down. I continued speculating through this line of kings, blessing the mark and confounding the painter, who has given us so little of their history in their faces, till I grew quite warm upon the subject, and found myself uniting and reasoning upon the few facts of which we are in possession, till I fancied I could penetrate through two or three centuries at least, and had a pretty shrewd idea as to who and who had been together.
Scotland has, I think, in spite of its sober, money-making character, always excited a more romantic curiosity than England. This, perhaps, is more owing to its peculiar misfortunes than to any particular difference of disposition. English heroes have been as brave, and no doubt as loving, but they do not walk under such a halo of pity; and whilst we pry with eagerness into the secrets of the gallant Jameses, we suffer those of their English contemporaries to be “interred with their bones.” I have always felt this strongly, and at the time of which I speak, I felt it stronger than ever. I was treading upon the very boards which had bounded to their manly steps, and was surrounded by the very walls which possessed the secret whisperings of their hearts. From that identical window, perhaps, had the first James gazed upon the moon, which I saw rising, and fancied that he almost held commune with the eyes of his English beauty. There, perhaps, had the royal poet entwined her name with the choicest hopes of his bosom, and woven a tale of happiness which concealed but too securely the assassin and the dagger behind it. There, too, might the courteous and courageous victims of Flodden
Field and Solway Moss have planned the loves which characterised their lives, and the wars which concluded them, almost at the same moment. And there might the hapless Mary have first listened to the poisonous passion of a Darnley, or a Bothwell, and afterwards shed the tears of bitterness and self-reproach.
I paced this sad-looking room of rejoicing quite unconscious of the hours that were passing; for I was alone, and in a train of thought which nothing but a hearty shake could have interrupted. Mary, and all her beauty, and talents, and acquirements, continued floating before me. Her world of lovers and admirers, who, for the most part, were sleeping in a bloody bed, seemed rising one by one to my view, and I wandered with them through their hopes, and their fears, and their sorrows, even to the scaffold, as though I had been the ghost of one of them myself, and were possessed of secrets of which there is no living record.
Many of these ill-fated hearts have, by their nobility, or their exploits, or by the caprice of historians, received full meed of applause and pity; many, no doubt, have sunk into oblivion; and some, in addition to their misfortunes, have left their memories to combat with the censure which has been thought due to their presumption;—of these last I have always considered the unfortunate Chatelar to have been the most hardly used, and in the course of my musings I endeavoured to puzzle out something satisfactory to myself upon his dark and distorted history.
The birth of Chatelar, if not noble, was in no common degree honourable, for he was great-nephew to the celebrated Bayard, le Chevalier sans peur et sans tache. It is said that he likewise bore a strong resemblance to him in person, possessing a handsome face and graceful figure; and equally in manly and elegant acquirements, being an expert soldier and an accomplished courtier. In addition to this, says Brantome, who knew him personally, he possessed a most elegant mind, and spoke and wrote, both in prose and poetry, as well as any man in France.
Dangerous indeed are these advantages; and Chatelar’s first meeting with Mary was under circumstances calculated to render them doubly dangerous. Alone, as she conceived herself, cast off from the dearest ties of her heart, the land which she had learnt to consider her native land fading fast from her eyes, and the billows
bearing her to the banishment of one with which, as it contained none that she loved, she could feel no sympathy;—in this scene of wailing and tears, the first tones of the poet were stealing upon her ear with the spirit of kindred feelings and kindred pursuits. We are to consider that Mary at this time had obtained but little experience, and was probably not overstocked with prudence, having scarcely attained the age of nineteen years. Not only, are we told, did she listen with complacency and pleasure to Chatelar’s warm and romantic praises of her beauty, but employed her poetic talent in approving and replying to them; putting herself upon a level with her gifted companion, a course which was morally certain to convert his veneration into feelings more nearly allied to his nature. Had he not been blamed for his presumption, it is probable that he would have been condemned for his stoicism; and his luckless passion is by no means a singular proof that where hearts are cast in kindred moulds, it is difficult to recognise extrinsic disparities. Chatelar saw the woman, and forgot the queen; Mary felt the satisfaction, and was blind to the consequences.
It is much to be lamented by the lovers of truth, that none of the poetical pieces which are said to have passed between Mary and Chatelar have been handed down to us. One song would have been a more valuable document in the elucidation of their history than all the annals we possess, and would have taught us at once the degree of encouragement and intimacy which was permitted. Whatever it was, it was such as to rivet the chains which had been so readily and unadvisedly put on; and from the period of their first meeting, we may consider him the most enthusiastic of her lovers.
How long he continued the admiration and the favourite of Holyrood does not, I believe, appear. It could not, however, be any considerable time ere he was compelled to return with his friend and patron, Damville, to France, with full reason to lament his voyage to Scotland, and with, probably, a firm determination to revisit it whenever opportunity should permit. This opportunity his evil stars were not long in bringing about. The projected war of faith between Damville’s party and the Huguenots afforded him a fair pretext for soliciting a dispensation of his services. Of the first he was a servant, of the last he was a disciple. It was therefore contrary to his honour
and inclinations to fight against either of them, and, accordingly, in about fifteen months, we find him again at Holyrood.
Mary, it may reasonably be inferred, from her extreme love of France, and unwillingness to leave it, was not very speedily to be reconciled to her change of scene and society; a face, therefore, from the adopted land of her affections, and a tongue capable of gratifying them with the minutest accounts of the beloved objects it contained, must, at this time, have been acquisitions of no small interest. Chatelar, too, had already worked a welcome on his own account.
Few of my readers need be reminded how insensibly and certainly the tongue which speaks of that which is dear to our hearts is stored up with it in the same treasury. The tale and the teller of it,—the leaf and the wave it falls upon,—arrive at the same time at the same destination. Histories, for the most part, insinuate that Mary’s carriage towards Chatelar was merely that of kindness and courtesy; but this, I think, is an inference not warranted by the various facts which they have been unable to repress, and not even the silence of the inveterate John Knox upon this head can convince me that Chatelar had not reason to believe himself beloved.
Let us then imagine, if we can, what was likely to be the intoxication produced in the brain as well as the bosom of a man of an enthusiastic temperament by a free and daily intercourse, during three months, with the fascinations of a creature like Mary. What tales could that old misshapen boudoir—famous only, in common estimation, for the murder of Rizzio and the boot of Darnley—tell of smiles and tears over the fortunes of dear and distant companions of childhood, as narrated by the voice of one to whom, perhaps, they were equally dear! What tales could it tell of mingling music, and mingling poetry, and mingling looks, and vain regrets, and fearful anticipations! Here had the day been passed in listening to the praises of each other, from lips in which praise was a talent and a profession; and here had the twilight stolen upon them when none were by, and none could know how deeply the truth of those praises was acknowledged. Let us imagine all this, and, likewise, how Chatelar was likely to be wrought upon by the utter hopelessness of his case.
Had the object of his passion been upon anything like a level with him,—had there been the most remote possibility of a chance of its
