The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume I Part 91

[Footnote 200: "Adele et Theodore, ou Lettres sur l'education" by Madame de Genlis, first published in 1782.--ED.]

[Footnote 201: We shall hear again of 'Mr. and Mrs. Hastings, and of the scandal which was caused by the lady's reception at Court. She was bought by Hastings of her former husband for 10,000 pounds. The story is briefly as follows:--

Among the fellow-pa.s.sengers of Hastings on the ship which conveyed him to India in 1769, were a German portrait-painter, named Imhoff, and his wife, who were going out to Madras in the hope of bettering their circ.u.mstances. During the voyage a strong attachment sprang up between Hastings and the lady, who nursed him through an illness. The husband, it seems, had as little affection for his wife as she had for him, and was easily prevailed upon to enter into an amicable arrangement, by virtue of which Madame Imhoff inst.i.tuted proceedings for divorce against him in the German courts. Pending the result, the Imhoffs continued to live together ostensibly as man and wife to avoid scandal. The proceedings--were long protracted, but a decree of divorce was finally procured in 1772, when Hastings married the lady and paid to the complaisant husband a sum, it is said, exceeding, 10,000 pounds.

The favourable reception accorded by the queen to Mrs. Hastings, when, in 1784, she returned to England as wife of the Governor-general of Bengal, pa.s.sed not without public comment. Her husband, however, was in high esteem at Court from his great services, and she had an additional recommendation to the queen's favour in the friendship of Mrs.

Schwellenberg, the keeper of the robes, whom she had known before her voyage to India.--ED.]

[Footnote 202: f.a.n.n.y's sister Charlotte, who had mairied Clement Francis, Feb.

11, 1786. They were now settled at Aylesham, in Norfolk, where Mr.

Francis was practising as a surgeon.--ED.]

[Footnote 203: Dr. Burney's daughter by his second wife--ED.]

[Footnote 204: Sir Thomas Clarges, whose wife was a dear friend of Susan Burney.

Sir Thomas died in December, 1782. In the "Early Diary" he is mentioned once or twice, as a visitor at Dr. Burney's. f.a.n.n.y writes of him in May, 1775, as "a young baronet, who was formerly so desperately enamoured of Miss Linley, now Mrs. Sheridan, that his friends made a point of his going abroad to recover himself: he is now just returned from italy, and I hope cured. He still retains all the schoolboy English mauvaise honte; scarce speaks but to make an answer, and is as shy as if his last residence had been at Eton instead of Paris."--ED.]

[Footnote 205: 'Tis amazing what nonsense sensible people can write, when their heads are turned by considerations of rank and flummery!--ED.]

[Footnote 206: The wife of Warren Hastings. f.a.n.n.y had made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Hastings from her friend Mr. Cambridge, some months previously. (See note [201], ante, p. 327).--ED.]

[Footnote 207: The name of the poor woman was Margaret Nicholson. She was, of course, insane, and had, a few days previously, presented a pet.i.tion, which had probably been left unread at the time, but which turned out on investigation to be full of incoherent nonsense. On her examination before the Privy Council she declared that "the crown was hers, and that if she had not her rights England would be deluged with blood." She was ultimately consigned to Bedlam.--ED.]

[Footnote 208: f.a.n.n.y's bitter experience of Mrs. Schwellenberg is now commencing.--ED.]

[Footnote 209: The wife and daughter of Dr. William Heberden, an eminent physician, and author of "Medical Commentaries on the History and Cure of Disease." f.a.n.n.y had met these ladies recently at Mrs. Delany's--ED.]

[Footnote 210: "Colonel Fairly" is the name given in the "Diary" to the Hon.

Stephen Digby. His first wife, Lady Lucy Strangwayes Fox, youngest daughter of Lord Ilchester, died in 1787. He married, in 1790, Miss Gunning, "Miss Fuzilier," of the "Diary."---ED.]

[Footnote 211: i.e. the University theatre.--ED.]

[Footnote 212: Colonel Digby, who from this time is always called Mr. Fairly instead of Colonel Fairly, in the "Diary,"--ED.]

[Footnote 213: Dr. Joseph Warton, author of the "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope." He was headmaster of Winchester school--ED.]

[Footnote 214: Jacob Bryant, the distinguished cla.s.sical scholar and author; born 1715; died 1804. His princ.i.p.al work was "A New System or an a.n.a.lysis of Ancient Mythology," published in 1774. During the last part of his life he resided at Cypenham, in Farnham Royal, near Windsor. One of Bryant's friends said of him that "he was a very good scholar, and knew all things up to Noah, but not a single thing in the world beyond the Deluge!"--ED.]

[Footnote 215: Aime Argand, inventor of the argand lamp.--ED.]

[Footnote 216: Madame de Genlis was governess to the children of the Duke D'Orleans (Philippe egalite), and, there is no doubt, his mistress.

The beautiful Pamela, who married Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was generally supposed to be her daughter by the duke, but this appears to be questionable.--ED.]

[Footnote 217: William Herschel, the famous astronomer. He was the son of a German musician, and in early life followed his father's profession, which he afterwards abandoned for the study of astronomy. He received much encouragement from George III., was knighted in 1816, and died at Slough, near Windsor, in 1822. His monster telescope, mentioned in the text, was completed in 1787, and was forty feet in length.--ED.]

[Footnote 218: Maria Sophie de la Roche was a German auth.o.r.ess of sentimental novels, of some distinction in her day, but now chiefly remembered as the friend of Wieland and Goethe. The history of the attachment between her and Wieland is very pretty, very idyllic, and very German. Sophie was born in 1731, and the idyll commenced when she was nineteen, and Wieland only seventeen years old. It lasted some time, too, for a pa.s.sion so very tender and tearful; but the fate, and, more particularly, the parents, were unpropitious, and after about three years it came to an end, the heart-broken Sophie consoling herself by marrying M. de la Roche shortly afterwards. Her friendship with Wieland, however was maintained to the end of her days, he editing the first and last productions of her pen--the "History of Fraulein von Sternheim,"

published 1771, and "Melusinens Sommerabende," 1806. Madame de la Roche died in 1807--ED.]

[Footnote 219: Madame de la Fite had, however, translated her friend's "History of Fraulein von Sternheim" into French, and the translation had been published in 1773.--ED.]

[Footnote 220: "Clelia" and "Ca.s.sandra" were celebrated heroic romances of the seventeenth century, the former (in ten volumes) written by Mdlle Scuderi, the latter by the Sieur de la Calprende. One of the most constant and tiresome characteristics of the heroes and heroines of the romances of this school, is the readiness with which they seize every opportunity of recounting, or causing their confidential attendants to recount, their adventures, usually with the utmost minuteness of detail--ED.]

[Footnote 221: See P. 434.--ED.]

[Footnote 222: Mrs. Schwellenberg found her health better in London, and was prolonging her stay there in consequence.--ED.]

[Footnote 223: The reader will scarcely need to be told that allusion is made here to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV.--ED.]

[Footnote 224: It is hardly worth remembering, except for f.a.n.n.y's sake; however, it has the merit of brevity, and here it is.

"THE GREAT COAT.

"Thrice honour'd Robe! couldst thou espy The form that deigns to show thy worth; Hear the mild voice, view the arch eye, That call thy panegyric forth;

"Wouldst thou not swell with vain delight?

With proud expansion sail along?

And deem thyself more grand and bright Than aught that lives in ancient song,

"Than Venus' cestus, Dian's crest, Minerva's helmet, fierce and bold, Or all of emblem gay that dress'd Capricious G.o.ddesses of old?

"Thee higher honours yet await:-- Haste, then, thy triumphs quick prepare, Thy trophies spread in haughty state, Sweep o'ei the earth, and scoff the air.

"Ah no!--retract!--retreat!--oh stay!

Learn, wiser, whence so well thou'st sped; She whose behest produced this lay By no false colours is misled.

"Suffice it for the buskin'd race Plaudits by pomp and shew to win; Those seek simplicity and grace Whose dignity is from within.

"The cares, or joys, she soars above That to the toilette's duties cleave; Far other cares her bosom move, Far other joys those cares relieve.

"The garb of state she inly scorn'd, Glad from its trappings to be freed, She saw thee humble, unadorn'd, Quick of attire,--a child of speed.

"Still, then, thrice honour'd Robe! retain Thy modest guise, thy decent ease; Nor let thy favour prove thy bane By turning from its fostering breeze.

"She views thee with a mental eye, And from thee draws this moral end:-- Since hours are register'd on high, The friend of Time is Virtue's friend."]

For this precious production f.a.n.n.y received quite as much as it was worth,--the thanks of the queen, who added, "Indeed it is very pretty--only! I don't deserve it."---ED.]

[Footnote 225: Captain James Burney had married, on the 6th of September, 1785, Miss Sally Payne, daughter of Mr. Thomas Payne, bookseller.--ED.]

[Footnote 226: "Mr. Turbulent" is the name given in the "Diary" to the Rev.

Charles de Guiffardiere, a French Protestant minister, who filled the office of French reader to the queen and princesses.--ED.]

[Footnote 227: Mrs. Delany had been for a short time indisposed.--ED.]

[Footnote 228: The queen had spoken of Mrs. Hayes as a "very pretty kind of woman," and desired f.a.n.n.y to invite her to tea.--ED.]

[Footnote 229: Herschel had discovered this planet in 1781, and named it in honour of the king.--ED.