It is, therefore, not wonderful that there has, at different
times (rather less of late years, but that is probably an accident),
been a disposition if not to take away from Margaret all the credit of
the book, at any rate to give a share of it to others. In so far as this
share is attempted to be bestowed on ladies and gentlemen of her Court
or family there is very little evidence for it; but in so far as the pen
may be thought to have been sometimes held for her by the distinguished
men of letters just referred to (there is no reason why Master Francis
himself should not have sometimes guided it), and by others only less
distinguished, there is considerable internal reason to favour the idea.
At all times and in all places--in France perhaps more than anywhere
else--kings and queens, lords and ladies, have found no difficulty (we
need not use the harsh Voltairian-Carlylian phrase, and say in getting
their literary work "buckwashed," but) in getting it pointed and
seasoned, trimmed and ornamented by professional men of letters.
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