Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges Part 62

11 Our grandfather's hatred of the Duke of Marlborough appears all through his account of these campaigns. He always persisted that the duke was the greatest traitor and soldier history ever told of: and declared that he took bribes on all hands during the war. My lord marquis (for so we may call him here, though he never went by any other name than Colonel Esmond) was in the habit of telling many stories which he did not set down in his memoirs, and which he had from his friend the Jesuit, who was not always correctly informed, and who persisted that Marlborough was looking for a bribe of two millions of crowns before the campaign of Ramillies.

And our grandmother used to tell us children, that on his first presentation to my lord duke, the duke turned his back upon my grandfather; and said to the d.u.c.h.ess, who told my lady dowager at Chelsea, who afterwards told Colonel Esmond-"Tom Esmond's b.a.s.t.a.r.d has been to my levee: he has the hang-dog look of his rogue of a father"-an expression which my grandfather never forgave. He was as constant in his dislikes as in his attachments; and exceedingly partial to Webb, whose side he took against the more celebrated general. We have General Webb's portrait now at Castlewood, Va.

12 'Tis not thus _woman loves_: Col. E. hath owned to this folly for a _score of women_ besides.-R.

13 And, indeed, so was his to them, a thousand, thousand times more charming, for where was his equal?-R.

14 See Appendix, p. 464.

15 What indeed? Ps. xci. 2. 3, 7.-R. E.

16 The managers were the bishop, who cannot be hurt by having his name mentioned, a very active and loyal Nonconformist divine, a lady in the highest favour at Court, with whom Beatrix Esmond had communication, and two n.o.blemen of the greatest rank, and a Member of the House of Commons, who was implicated in more transactions than one in behalf of the Stuart family.

17 There can be very little doubt that the doctor, mentioned by my dear father, was the famous Dr. Arbuthnot.-R. E. W.

18 My dear father saith quite truly, that his manner towards our s.e.x was uniformly courteous. From my infancy upwards, he treated me with an extreme gentleness, as though I was a little lady. I can scarce remember (though I tried him often) ever hearing a rough word from him, nor was he less grave and kind in his manner to the humblest negresses on his estate. He was familiar with no one except my mother, and it was delightful to witness up to the very last days the confidence between them. He was obeyed eagerly by all under him; and my mother and all her household lived in a constant emulation to please him, and quite a terror lest in any way they should offend him. He was the humblest man, with all this; the least exacting, the most easily contented; and Mr. Benson, our minister at Castlewood, who attended him at the last, ever said-"I know not what Colonel Esmond's doctrine was, but his life and death were those of a devout Christian."-R. E. W.

19 This remark shows how unjustly and contemptuously even the best of men will sometimes judge of our s.e.x. Lady Esmond had no intention of triumphing over her daughter; but from a sense of duty alone pointed out her deplorable wrong.-R. E.

20 In London we addressed the prince as royal highness invariably; though the women persisted in giving him the t.i.tle of king.

21 The anecdote is frequently told of our performer, Rich.

22 He was from a younger branch of the Swifts of Yorks.h.i.+re. His grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Swift, Vicar of Goodrich, in Herefords.h.i.+re, suffered for his loyalty in Charles I's time. That gentleman married Elizabeth Dryden, a member of the family of the poet. Sir Walter Scott gives, with his characteristic minuteness in such points, the exact relations.h.i.+p between these famous men. Swift was "the son of Dryden's second cousin". Swift, too, was the enemy of Dryden's reputation. Witness the _Battle of the Books_:-"The difference was greatest among the horse" says he of the moderns, "where every private trooper pretended to the command, from Ta.s.so and Milton to Dryden and Withers." And in _Poetry, a Rhapsody_, he advises the poetaster to-

Read all the Prefaces of Dryden, For these our critics much confide in, Though merely writ, at first, for filling, To raise the volume's price a s.h.i.+lling.

"Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet," was the phrase of Dryden to his kinsman, which remained alive in a memory tenacious of such matters.

23 "Miss Hetty" she was called in the family-where her face, and her dress, and Sir William's treatment of her, all made the real fact about her birth plain enough. Sir William left her a thousand pounds.

24 Sometimes, during his mental affliction, he continued walking about the house for many consecutive hours; sometimes he remained in a kind of torpor. At times, he would seem to struggle to bring into distinct consciousness, and shape into expression, the intellect that lay smothering under gloomy obstruction in him. A pier-gla.s.s falling by accident, nearly fell on him. He said, he wished it had!

He once repeated, slowly, several times, "I am what I am." The last thing he wrote was an epigram on the building of a magazine for arms and stores, which was pointed out to him as he went abroad during his mental disease:-

Behold a proof of Irish sense: Here Irish wit is seen; When nothing's left that's worth defence, They build a magazine!

25 Besides these famous books of Scott's and Johnson's, there is a copious _Life_ by Thomas Sheridan (Dr. Johnson's "Sherry"), father of Richard Brinsley, and son of that good-natured, clever, Irish Doctor, Thomas Sheridan, Swift's intimate, who lost his chaplaincy by so unluckily choosing for a text on the king's birthday, "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof!" Not to mention less important works, there is also the _Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift_, by that polite and dignified writer, the Earl of Orrery. His lords.h.i.+p is said to have striven for literary renown, chiefly that he might make up for the slight pa.s.sed on him by his father, who left his library away from him. It is to be feared that the ink he used to wash out that stain only made it look bigger. He had, however, known Swift, and corresponded with people who knew him. His work (which appeared in 1751) provoked a good deal of controversy, calling out, among other brochures, the interesting _Observations on Lord Orrery's Remarks_, &c., of Dr. Delany.

26 Dr. Wilde's book was written on the occasion of the remains of Swift and Stella being brought to the light of day-a thing which happened in 1835, when certain works going on in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, afforded an opportunity of their being examined. One hears with surprise of these skulls "going the rounds" of houses, and being made the objects of _dilettante_ curiosity. The larynx of Swift was actually carried off! Phrenologists had a low opinion of his intellect, from the observations they took.

Dr. Wilde traces the symptoms of ill-health in Swift, as detailed in his writings from time to time. He observes, likewise, that the skull gave evidence of "diseased action" of the brain during life-such as would be produced by an increasing tendency to "cerebral congestion".

27 "He [Dr. Johnson] seemed to me to have an unaccountable prejudice against Swift; for I once took the liberty to ask him if Swift had personally offended him, and he told me he had not."-BOSWELL'S _Tour to the Hebrides_.

28 Few men, to be sure, dared this experiment, but yet their success was encouraging. One gentleman made a point of asking the Dean, whether his uncle G.o.dwin had not given him his education. Swift, who hated _that_ subject cordially, and, indeed, cared little for his kindred, said, sternly, "Yes; he gave me the education of a dog."

"Then, sir," cried the other, striking his fist on the table, "you have not the grat.i.tude of a dog!"

Other occasions there were when a bold face gave the Dean pause, even after his Irish almost-royal position was established. But he brought himself into greater danger on a certain occasion, and the amusing circ.u.mstances may be once more repeated here. He had unsparingly lashed the notable Dublin lawyer, Mr. Serjeant Bettesworth-

So, at the bar, the b.o.o.by Bettesworth, Though half a crown out-pays his sweat's worth, Who knows in law nor text nor margent, Calls Singleton his brother-serjeant!

The Serjeant, it is said, swore to have his life. He presented himself at the deanery. The Dean asked his name. "Sir, I am Serjeant Bett-es-worth."

"_In what regiment, pray?_" asked Swift.

A guard of volunteers formed themselves to defend the Dean at this time.

29 "But, my Hamilton, I will never hide the freedom of my sentiments from you. I am much inclined to believe that the temper of my friend Swift might occasion his English friends to wish him happily and properly promoted at a distance. His spirit, for I would give it the proper name, was ever untractable. The motions of his genius were often irregular. He a.s.sumed more the air of a patron than of a friend. He affected rather to dictate than advise."-ORRERY.

30 "An anecdote which, though only told by Mrs. Pilkington, is well attested, bears, that the last time he was in London he went to dine with the Earl of Burlington, who was but newly married. The earl, it is supposed, being willing to have a little diversion, did not introduce him to his lady nor mention his name. After dinner said the Dean, 'Lady Burlington, I hear you can sing; sing me a song.'

The lady looked on this unceremonious manner of asking a favour with distaste, and positively refused. He said, 'She should sing, or he would make her. Why, madam, I suppose you take me for one of your poor English hedge-parsons; sing when I bid you.' As the earl did nothing but laugh at this freedom, the lady was so vexed that she burst into tears and retired. His first compliment to her when he saw her again was, 'Pray, madam, are you as proud and ill-natured now as when I saw you last?' To which she answered with great good humour, 'No, Mr. Dean; I'll sing for you if you please.' From which time he conceived a great esteem for her."-SCOTT'S _Life_. "He had not the least tincture of vanity in his conversation. He was, perhaps, as he said himself, too proud to be vain. When he was polite, it was in a manner entirely his own. In his friends.h.i.+ps he was constant and undisguised. He was the same in his enmities."-ORRERY.

31 "I make no figure but at Court, where I affect to turn from a lord to the meanest of my acquaintances."-_Journal to Stella._

"I am plagued with bad authors, verse and prose, who send me their books and poems, the vilest I ever saw; but I have given their names to my man, never to let them see me."-_Journal to Stella._

The following curious paragraph ill.u.s.trates the life of a courtier:-

"Did I ever tell you that the lord treasurer hears ill with the left ear just as I do?... I dare not tell him that I am so, sir; _for fear he should think that I counterfeited to make my court!_"-_Journal to Stella._

32 The war of pamphlets was carried on fiercely on one side and the other; and the Whig attacks made the ministry Swift served very sore. Bolingbroke laid hold of several of the Opposition pamphleteers, and bewails their "fact.i.tiousness" in the following letter:-

"BOLINGBROKE TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

"Whitehall, July 23rd, 1712.

"It is a melancholy consideration that the laws of our country are too weak to punish effectually those fact.i.tious scribblers, who presume to blacken the brightest characters, and to give even scurrilous language to those who are in the first degrees of honour.

This, my lord, among others, is a symptom of the decayed condition of our Government, and serves to show how fatally we mistake licentiousness for liberty. All I could do was to take up Hart, the printer, to send him to Newgate, and to bind him over upon bail to be prosecuted; this I have done; and if I can arrive at legal proof against the author Ridpath, he shall have the same treatment."

Swift was not behind his ill.u.s.trious friend in this virtuous indignation. In the history of the four last years of the queen, the Dean speaks in the most edifying manner of the licentiousness of the press and the abusive language of the other party:

"It must be acknowledged that the bad practices of printers have been such as to deserve the severest animadversion from the public.... The adverse party, full of rage and leisure since their fall, and unanimous in their cause, employ a set of writers by subscription, who are well versed in all the topics of defamation, and have a style and genius levelled to the generality of their readers.... However, the mischiefs of the press were too exorbitant to be cured by such a remedy as a tax upon small papers, and a bill for a much more effectual regulation of it was brought into the House of Commons, but so late in the session that there was no time to pa.s.s it, for there always appeared an unwillingness to cramp overmuch the liberty of the press."

But to a clause in the proposed bill, that the names of authors should be set to every printed book, pamphlet, or paper, his reverence objects altogether, for, says he, "beside the objection to this clause from the practice of pious men, who, in publis.h.i.+ng excellent writings for the service of religion, have chosen, _out of an humble Christian spirit, to conceal their names_, it is certain that all persons of true genius or knowledge have an invincible modesty and suspicion of themselves upon first sending their thoughts into the world."

This "invincible modesty" was no doubt the sole reason which induced the Dean to keep the secret of the _Drapier's Letters_ and a hundred humble Christian works of which he was the author. As for the Opposition, the Doctor was for dealing severely with them: he writes to Stella:-

Journal. Letter XIX

"London, March 25th, 1710-11.

"... We have let Guiscard be buried at last, after showing him pickled in a trough this fortnight for twopence a piece; and the fellow that showed would point to his body and say, 'See, gentlemen, this is the wound that was given him by his grace the Duke of Ormond;' and, 'This is the wound,' &c.; and then the show was over, and another set of rabble came in. 'Tis hard that our laws would not suffer us to hang his body in chains, because he was not tried; and in the eye of the law every man is innocent till then."

Journal. Letter XXVII

"London, July 25th, 1711.

"I was this afternoon with Mr. Secretary at his office, and helped to hinder a man of his pardon, who is condemned for a rape. The under-secretary was willing to save him; but I told the secretary he could not pardon him without a favourable report from the judge; besides he was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue, and deserved hanging for something else, and so he shall swing."