She
is of low rather than of middling stature, but, although short, she has
not personal defect in her limbs, nor is any part of her body deformed.
She is of spare and delicate frame, quite unlike her father, who was tall
and stout; nor does she resemble her mother, who, if not tall, was nevertheless
bulky. Her face is well formed, as shown by her features and lineaments,
and as seen by her portraits. When younger she was considered, not
merely tolerably handsome, but of beauty exceeding mediocrity. At
present, with the exception of some wrinkles, caused more by anxieties
than by age, which makes her appear some years older, her aspect, for the
rest, is very grave. Her eyes are so piercing that they inspire not
only respect, but fear in those on whom she fixes them, although she is
very shortsighted, being unable to read or do anything else unless she
has her sight quite close to what she wishes to peruse or to see distinctly.
Her voice is rough and loud, almost like a man's, so that when she peaks
she is always heard a long way off. In short, she is a seemly woman,
and never to be loathed for ugliness, even at her present age, without
considering her degree of queen. But whatever may be the amount deducted
from her physical endowments, as much more may with truth, and without
flattery, be added to those of her mind, as, besides the facility and quickness
of her understanding, which comprehends whatever is intelligible to others,
even to those who are not of her own sex (a marvellous gift for a woman),
she is skilled in five languages, not merely understanding, but speaking
four of them fluently - English, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian, in
which last, however, she does not venture to converse, although it is well
known to her; but the replies she gives in Latin, and her very intelligent
remarks made in that tongue surprise everybody....
Besides woman's work, such as embroidery of every sort with the needle,
she also practices music, playing especially on the clavichord and on the
lute so excellently that, when intent on it...she surprised the best performers,
both by the rapidity of her hand and by her style of playing. Such
are her virtues and external accomplishments. Internally, with the
exception of certain trifles, in which, to say the truth, she is like other
women, being sudden and passionate, and close and miserly, rather more
so than would become a bountiful and generous queen, she in other respects
has no notable imperfections; whilst in certain things she is singular
and without an equal, for not only is she brave and valiant, unlike other
timid and spiritless women, but she courageous and resolute that neither
in adversity nor peril did she ever even display or commit any act of cowardice
or pusillanimity, maintaining always, on the contrary, a wonderful grandeur
and dignity, knowing what became the dignity of a sovereign as well as
any of the most consummate statesmen in her service; so that from her way
of proceeding and from the method observed by her (and in which she still
perseveres), it cannot be denied that she shows herself to have been born
of truly royal lineage.
[She is also subject to] a very deep melancholy, much greater than that
to which she is constitutionally liable, from menstrous retention and suffocation
of the matrix to which, for many years, she has been often subject, so
that the remedy of tears and weeping, to which from childhood she has been
accustomed, and still often used by her, is not sufficient; she requires
to be blooded either from the foot or elsewhere, which keeps her always
pale and emaciated.