Frances Harris. Transformations of Love: The Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. x + 330 pp. $120.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-925257-2; $19.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-19-927032-3.
Reviewed by Linda A. Pollock (Department of History, Tulane University)
Published on H-Albion (June, 2004)
John Evelyn reluctantly paid a courtesy visit in 1672 to two maids of honor in the Queen's household. One of them, Dorothy Howard, was the daughter of old family friends, but her companion Margaret Blagge, whom he had met several years previously, had a reputation for cutting repartee, and Evelyn disliked being ridiculed by flighty young girls. Instead of a pert miss, however, he encountered a withdrawn young woman who sat with downcast eyes, scarcely uttering a word. From such unlikely beginnings sprang a fervent friendship between the nineteen-year-old maid of honor and the fifty-two-year-old man of letters, which continued after her marriage and lasted until Margaret's death in childbirth at the age of twenty-five. Evelyn was so taken with her that he wrote the Life of Mrs. Godolphin in commemoration.
The friendship fulfilled an important function for both parties. Evelyn was content in his marriage, but yearning for more of a fusion of souls. In Margaret, he found wit, beauty, and piety. Margaret was in need of an advisor and protector. Her mother had recently died, leaving her an orphan; she was not sure if her court position would continue; and, although she was engaged to Sidney Godolphin, he was overseas and ill, leaving her uncertain whether or not the marriage would take place. Moreover, her fiancé was not good with money and did not like to concern himself with these matters. Margaret sought "a faithfull friend, whom I might trust with all I have" and asked if Evelyn would take on this responsibility (p. 150). He, enchanted by her religious commitment, beguiled by her charm, and ravished by her beauty, agreed. She referred to Evelyn as "brother," and asked him to look upon her as "your child"; but he saw her as the "seraphic" friend he had been seeking for some time. As the friendship developed, it deepened into a passionate spiritual bonding.
Running along side the tale of friendship is that of Margaret's long, troubled engagement to Godolphin. The two relationships seemed to work in tandem: the friendship began at a time when Margaret was unsure about her marriage and it strengthened during a period in which she was estranged from Godolphin who was not reforming his life as he had promised and who also declined to live a retiring life after marriage, devoted to religion. Once Margaret was more committed to Godolphin, she became uneasy about the intimacy with Evelyn and asked for her letters back. He, in return, offered to release her from her promise of binding friendship.
Harris recreates the world of late-seventeenth-century England well. The story of the friendship does not actually begin until chapter 6 of a nine-chapter book. Chapters 1 through 5 describe the contours of Evelyn's life in eye-catching detail: his domestic milieu and physical environment, his temperament, his marriage to Mary Brown and their family life, and the world of the court and royal households. She also carefully unravels the interaction between Margaret and Evelyn, persuasively claiming that, notwithstanding the sexual undercurrents, Evelyn was not a sexual predator. And she should be congratulated for focusing on a little studied topic.
Less successful, though, is her attempt to assess the significance of the friendship. Harris views friendship as a non-prescriptive and non-contractual relationship whose essence, unlike that of marriage, was freedom and equality. The relationship Harris describes frequently eludes her interpretative framework. This friendship was contractual, and Evelyn set out the rules in writing. He would be permitted to visit, speak, and write to Margaret regularly, and she could command his help whenever she needed it. In return, she was to write to him and remember him in her prayers. She was also to reprove him for faults, visit him when he was sick, offer support when he was distressed, and never to forsake him so long as he proved a good friend. As Evelyn ponderously informed her: "These madame are the Laws, and they are Reciprocal and Eternal" (p. 154). Nor was it a relationship between equals. He thought Margaret had exceptional spiritual gifts; she knew she lacked his intellectual abilities. The gift he sought and she gave was not a work of erudition or piety composed by her, but a portrait of her bare-shouldered and chemise clad which Evelyn hung in his bedroom, to his wife's dismay.
This bonding was quite different from a modern friendship in which friends meet to relax and have fun together. Evelyn was a dominant and controlling figure. He planned her days, hour by hour, he insisted on weekly meetings at her place of residence, as well as regular correspondence, and he sent frequent, lengthy letters of advice on how to comport herself in company and organize her devotions. At one point, Margaret was undecided whether she wanted to marry or not and wanted time to think things through for herself. Evelyn was reluctant to grant her breathing space and wanted to continue meeting, reminding her of the obligations of friendship, and extolling the delights of a single life. Evelyn was Margaret's counselor, a wise male protector of a young woman, not her confidante. When Margaret and Godolphin finally married in secret in May 1675, not only was Evelyn not a witness nor guest at their wedding, but Margaret hid the fact of marriage from him for a year. And, despite the service he performed for her--taking care of her finances; investing her portion even after her secret wedding; producing, at her request, a detailed work on household management and marital life--Margaret did not thank, nor even mention Evelyn in her will or letters, except to designate him as a trustee and distributor of her charity. What, in fact, do we have here?
Evelyn, worried by Margaret's obsession with faults and her increasing reclusiveness, introduced her to devotional exercises based on emotional and imaginative meditations in the garden. As Margaret began to experience spiritual raptures, Evelyn's companionship became of immense significance to her, and she impatiently awaited his weekly visits so that they could continue their religious conversations. There was certainly a year of intense spiritual bonding between the two, but it was only in relation to religious issues that they ever became close, united by their passionate faith in God.
This was not a secretive friendship and the fact that such a relationship could be openly accepted--even by the spouses, for the most part--should cause us, Harris argues, to rethink the cultural world of late-seventeenth-century England. On this topic, however, Harris is of little help. She correctly points out that intense feelings in this era need not have physical expression; that is, there were different ways of being in love. But intense spiritual relationships between men and women had occurred before the seventeenth century and would take place after it. That Evelyn and Margaret pursued a platonic friendship is not so remarkable, what is more striking is the serious consideration given to a celibate marriage. Margaret was torn between a celibate life devoted to good works and a married one. As an attempted compromise, Godolphin offered her a chaste union, claiming that he thought he was capable of permanent continence. Harris does not dwell on this matter, nor delineate how this friendship reshapes our understanding of the period.
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Citation:
Linda A. Pollock. Review of Harris, Frances, Transformations of Love: The Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin.
H-Albion, H-Net Reviews.
June, 2004.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9490
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