him write no more—an epigram in Martial, which he had paraphrased and applied to Lord Burlington's house at Chiswick, and his lordship's performances as an architect, having got about and made Lord and Lady Burlington, and their friend, his Grace of Grafton, extremely angry with him.* The prose dramatic piece that follows was written on the Queen's saying what an alteration in the Palace Lord Hervey's death would make, how many people would mourn, and how many rejoice; to which Lord Hervey replied, he believed he could guess just how it would be; and being pressed to tell, said he would do it in writing. CHAPTER XXV. [The Epistle, notwithstanding some lively and well-turned passages, is as a whole neither so pointed nor so polished, nor in such good taste, as might have been expected from Lord Hervey, and will add little to his poetical reputation. Admit * The Epigram, I presume, was :— "Possess'd of one great hall for state, which is a paraphrase of the two last of the eight lines of the 50th Epigram of Martial's 12th book : "Atria longa patent: sed nec cœnantibus usquam which had been already imitated in a jeu d'esprit on Blenheim, concluding thus: "Thanks, Sir, cried I, 'tis very fine, But where d' ye sleep, and where d' ye dine? I find, by all you have been telling, That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling." Lord Hervey also said of the villa at Chiswick, that "it was too small to live in, and too large to hang to one's watch. Subsequent additions, however, have made Lord Burlington's pavilion a tolerable house-and there died Mr. Fox and Mr. Canning. ting, as it is only fair to do, that it was a hasty effusion, and that much of personal allusion and temporary pleasantry must be lost to us, it still seems a very uncouth though laboured attempt at a style of writing which Pope had lately brought to such perfection; and it seems strange enough that Lord Hervey, smarting, as we should suppose, under Pope's recent lash, should have condescended to borrow (as an attentive reader will perceive that he does) several hints from the very pieces in which he himself had been so cruelly satirized. The Dramatic piece which follows is better in every respect but one, and is no doubt a lively picture of the scene. It is not without hesitation that I copy several coarse expressions in both these pieces; but some passages-even those put into the mouths of royal and noble ladies-are too grossly indelicate for publication, for which, however, Lord Hervey clearly intended them. I at first doubted whether all trace of these passages should not be suppressed; but, considering that they were written by the elegant Lord Hervey for the perusal of the exemplary Queen, and that they certainly exhibit the style of the times, it seems right to indicate their existence as an important item in the estimate of character and the history of manners. The communication of either of these pieces-but particularly the second-to Queen Caroline, would prove that Lord Hervey must have been not merely in great favour, but in a very confidential familiarity; and I am, I confess, not much more surprised at the indelicacies attributed to her Majesty than at the freedom with which some peculiarities of her style, temper, and manners, as well as her imperfect English are exhibited. I have attempted, not always I fear with success, to elucidate some of the temporary and personal allusions; but there are others of which I can offer no explanation. The reader will observe that Lord Hervey has worked up into these pleasantries several facts and characteristic anecdotes which he had already more gravely mentioned.] TO THE QUEEN. 'Tis true, great Queen! I have your dread commands } If, then, like Midas' barber I am curst, No vice to give, no virtue to deny ; * My German friends are not agreed as to the precise import of duchtich, which, however, from its use in vol. i. seems to mean sly. Teufflish is devilish-spiteful? I copy everywhere Lord Hervey's orthography. + Raccommoder here and before, vol. i., means to correct. Betty Cotton was, probably, some subordinate gossip of the Queen family. § Fog's Journal and the Craftsman, opposition journals—the latter written under the pseudonyme of Caleb Danvers. German terms of contempt and abuse-dog's-nose, lazy-bones, yawner, cheat, rogue. ¶ No doubt Susan Burton, one of the Bedchamber Women, wife of the Hon. James Brudenell, Master of the Jewel Office, and afterwards a Lord of Trade and Groom of the King's Bedchamber. ** Charlotte Amelia, daughter of Lord Molesworth, widow of the Hon. W. Titchburne, son of Lord Ferrard of Ireland, appointed Bedchamber Woman to the Princess in 1715. tt Souse, to immerse in pickle-to overwhelm with abuse. When Lady M. W. Montagu was impertinently attacked at a masquerade, she says that she "had the temper not only to be silent herself, but she enjoined silence on one who was with her, and would have been very glad of an occasion of sousing her assailant."-Works, vol. ii. I would no more than Lady Sundon lie; And freely thus, whilst I unpack my breast, Than to my gracious Queen, who, angry, spares, With gifts so rare Thee partial Heav'n has bless'd, Your rank is less uncommon than the rest; With ev'ry good of nature or of art, * So in MS., but I do not understand it; undefined would make a kind of sense. A Queen whom most proclaim, and none disown, If, then, each morning with your converse fir'd, And each-I won't say brute-receiv'd its name ; } Or mischievously wild or dully tame: Should those who made us drunk our transports chide? This idiot pon,* or t' other idiot troll ; Some are so great, to name them is offence; *Troll is German for trollop; but I cannot explain the term pon, nor guess at Mrs. Eighteen-Pence. As Lady Suffolk had left the Court, I hardly think Lord Hervey would have introduced her again. + I suppose Lord Wilmington. |