Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/59

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AME.
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that makes its way to the general public with a peculiar force.

It is a curious circumstance that her first drama, which was offered under the name of Amelia Heiter, was refused by the managers of the court theatre, and only appeared there after its confirmed success on the stage at Berlin.

The Princess Amelia has gained by her plays a popularity deservedly exceeding any of her predecessors or contemporaries in the kind she has undertaken; for it must be remembered she is, though a woman of genius, no poet; her mind is elevated, truth-loving, and eager to convey useful lessons; she possesses a delicate discrimination of character, and infinity of gentle humours; her style is refined, and, at all times, as elegant as the attention to proprieties of the dramatis personæ will permit She attacks selfishness and deception with an unflinching hostility, and her instructions are conveyed by such amusing and natural delineations that they cannot fail to excite a detestation of these vices; and even when such emotions are transient, they are a refreshing dewto the hard soil they cannot penetrate.

Before leaving the account of this illustrious lady, it may be remarked that her family are distinguished by something more than "leather and prunella" from the merely "monarch crowned." The present king, Amelia's brother, has published a work on botany and mineralogy, and Prince John the Younger has translated Dante into German Poetry. She had a grandmother too, another Princess Amelia, or Amalie, whose biography is to be found in a preceding part of this work, who composed operas.

AMELIA,

Queen of Greece, is the eldest daughter of the reigning duke of Oldenburgh, by his first wife. She was born December 21st., 1818, and married to king Otho, in November 1836. She is universally beloved by her subjects, possessing all those virtues and accomplishments which are the brightest jewels of a crowned head.

AMELIA,

Youngest child of George the Third and Queen Charlotte. She was an amiable and accomplished princess, whose taste for the fine arts was only equalled by her fervent piety and pure benevolence. She was born in 1783, and died in 1810; and so much was she beloved by her royal father, that her early death is said to have had a serious effect upon his mind.

AMELIE MARIA, EX-QUEEN OF THE FRENCH,

Daughter of Ferdinand the First, king of the two Sicilies, was married to Louis Philippe, then the exiled duke d'Orleans, November, 1809. It was, apparently, a marriage of affection with the duke, but on her side of that absorbing love which seemed to seek nothing beyond the content of her husband—except his salvation—to complete her felicity. In all the changes of his life, she was with him as his wife; sensible to the smiles or frowns of fortune only as these affected her husband.

In 1814, after the fall of Napoleon, the duke of Orleans with his family removed to Paris; and the immense estates of his father were restored to him. At Neuilly he resided in a superb palace.