The other guess is but little nearer to certainty. During the years that
Constable was pursuing his shadowy schemes, Arabella Stuart was an
object of admiration and of political jealousy; the house where she
lived was constantly spied upon, her very tutors were suspected, the
wildest schemes were formed upon her royal connections, and it would not
be strange if the heart of our poetical zealot turned toward this star
of his cause. We may be sure that he would not have been averse to a
clandestine meeting, for in writing to that arch-plotter, the Countess
of Shrewsbury, Arabella's doting grandmother, he says: "It is more
convenient to write unto your Ladyship, than to come unto you or to make
any other visits either by day or night till I have further liberty
granted me;" besides this, the Earl of Shrewsbury was distantly related
to Constable's family, and this fact of kinship may have opened the
way; while his sonnet to the Countess intimates that his heart had been
touched by some beauty in her Venus' camp. If not Arabella, who could
this be?
"To you then, you, the fairest of the wise,
And wisest of the fair I do appeal.
A warrior of your camp by force of eyes
Me prisoner took, and will with rigour deal,
Except you pity in your heart will place,
At whose white hands I only seek for grace."
As before, the sonnets addressed to Arabella give no definite
information.
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