The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.
§ 27. Memoirs of Queen Mary II
Although small in bulk, the Memoirs of Queen Mary II, published in 1886 from the Hanover archives, and extending from nearly the beginning of her reign to the year before that of her death, should not be overlooked. No reasonable doubt as to their genuineness can remain, if they are compared with the autobiographical fragments given to the world by countess Bentinck in 1880, and with the indisputably genuine letters of the good queen. Written in English, while the fragment of 1880 was in French (she possessed both languages, as well as Dutch), they were guarded with great care by the writer, who, in 1691, burnt nearly the whole of the “meditations” which, according to the custom of her day, she also indited. Her record of often trying experiences attests her innate modesty and her sense of duty, upheld by a deep piety, which was at all times ready to translate itself into good works. The story of the anxious years of her reign, which is further illustrated by short series of letters from her hand, is full of interest—partly of a pathetic kind.