leventh and Charles
the First, a king in hiding, a king in exile, a king in disguise; so
long as he is a king, he is a safe investment for the romantic writer.
But the weakness of those who succumb to this temptation is to be
measured by their failure to make kings live in literature. Those few
who survive beyond the brief term of ephemeral popularity survive more
by reason of their office than of themselves and Jan de Witt makes
little show beside Louis the Sixteenth; their robes are of so much
greater account than their persons that the feeblest German prince cuts
a more imposing figure than the strongest president of the Swiss
Confederation.

Those who stand out in despite of their romantic setting, the human,
perplexed Hamlets and vacillating, remorseful Richards, are inevitably
few; and few they are likely to remain so long as the frame outshines
the picture and the prince is labelled and left a celestial being apart,
or labelled and dragged into passing sentimental contrast with men less
exalted; it would seem that to regard a king first as a man and
afterwards as an hereditary office-holder was to waste his romantic
possibilities. This, nevertheless, is what Couperus has set himself to
do in _Majesty_; he presents his family of kings as a branch of the
human family; their dignity ceases to be stupefying when all are equally
high-born; they wear their uniforms and robes as other men wear the
conventional clothes of their trade; and, stripping them of their titles
and decorations, he paints his group of men and women who have been born
to rule, as others are born to till the soil; to marry for love or
reasons of state, as others marry for love or reasons of convenience; to
experience such emotions as are common to all men and to face the
special duties and dangers apportioned to their caste by the
organization of society:

_"... The Gothlandic family,"_ says Couperus, _"... lived [at
Altseeborgen] for four months, without palace-etiquette, in the greatest
simplicity. They formed a numerous family and there were always many
visitors. The king attended to state affairs in homely fashion at the
castle. His grandchildren would run into his room while he was
discussing important business with the prime minister.... He just patted
their flaxen curls and sent them away to play, with a caress.... From
all the courts of Europe, which were as one great family, different
members came from time to time to stay, bringing with