title: Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History
author:  Lytton Strachey 
description: <DIV>Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), among the most famous writers of his time, was a member of the Bloomsbury group and the author of a number of biographies. His Eminent Victorians, published in 1918, inaugurated a new style of biography distinguished by irony, wit, irreverence, and elegance of language. He is also the author of Elizabeth and Essex, Biographical Essays, and Literary Essays.</DIV>
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  ONE:
  
  
  
  
  
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  In which it is established that:
  
    
  
  IN THE CITY of Westminster, in the vicinity of Birdcage Walk, in the year of
  our Lord 1844… There was once a private residence with a view of St. James’
  park. It was generally known, among the London tradesmen, that a respectable
  widow resided there, upon whom it was never necessary to call for overdue
  payment. Beggars knew she could be relied upon for charity, if they weren’t
  too importunate, and they were careful never to be so; for she was one of
  their own, in a manner of speaking, being as she was blind.
  
  Now and again Mrs. Corvey could be observed, with her smoked goggles and
  walking-stick, on the arm of her adolescent son Herbert, taking the pleasant
  air in the park. It was known that she had several daughters also, though the
  precise number was unclear, and that her younger sister was in residence there
  as well. There may