The Romance of Biography (Vol 2 of 2)

LYTTE

as told us in a

ife is dearer

her sake: it is she who has made the shades of Hagley classic ground, and hallowed its precincts by the remembrance of the fair and gentle bein

on this earth

much of a poet; but his love was real; its object was real, beautiful, and good: thus buoyed up, in spite of his own faults and the change of taste, he has survived the rest

in 1718. She was about two-and-twenty when Lord Lyttelton first became attached to her, and he was in his

beauty-and al

...*..

aid, and worth

tire by him sh

vanity in fo

er, but that of

liss, in just

rmth of undis

tant man might

e forbid des

her sex-beauty and tenderness,-she

e in courts

ly wit that be

y bright With i

g shone, no

nds that wisdo

nevolence's

modesty be

lain in person, "of a feeble, ill-compacted figure, and a meagre sallow countenance."[65] But talents, elegance of mind, and devoted affection, had the influence they ought to have, and generally do possess, in the mind of a woman. We are told that our sex's "earliest, latest care,-our heart's supreme ambition," is "to be fair." Even Madame de Stael would have given half her talents for half Madame Recamier's beauty! and why? because the passion of our sex is to please and to be loved; and men have taught us, that in nine cases out of ten we are valued m

, combien el

suis, je su

, and spirit, and tenderness, he had all that is nec

n beauty as a female attribute; it is never indulged but with a reference to another-it is a means, not an end. Personal vanity

f blest-and was so. Five revolving years of happiness seemed pledges of its continuance, and "the wheels of pleasure moved without the aid of hope:"-it was at the conclusion of the fifth year,

his strange i

n tell, who ma

ther happy m

own exper

ife is dearer

.[67] As there are people who strangely unite, as inseparable, the ideas of fiction and rhyme, and doubt the sincerity of her husband's grief, because he wr

his infinite mercy, to restore my dear wife to me, I shall most thankfully acknowledge his goodness; if not, I shall most humbly endure his chastisement, which I have too much deserved. These are the sent

, and Thespian vales; the Clitumnus and the Illissus, and such Pagan and classical embroidery.-What should we have thought of Lord Byron's famous "Fare thee well," if conceived in this style?-but such was the poetical vocabulary of Lord Lyttelton's day: and that he had not sufficient genius and originality to rise above it, is no argument against the sincerity of hi

s! thy woes co

istress in th

never gav

edded love we

or with endearing art Would heal thy wounded h

fond affecti

tch thee, and

n her unwearie

d she crown your mutual flame With pledg

...*..

rld, to me a

, Without my sweet

her love

rd of every v

now can pall'

o which his charming wife had accustomed him, he married again, about two years after her death, and too precipitately. His second choice was Elizabeth Rich, eldest daughter of Sir Robert Rich. Perhaps he expec

ommon picturesque beauty, he turned to a friend, and asked him, with enthusiasm, whether it was possible to behold a more pleasing sight? Yes, answered the other-

dly, it was not in imitation of the Regent he chose his own wife for the principal subject of his ditties. In the same manner, and in the same worthy spirit of imitation of the same worthy person, he tried hard to be a libertine, and laid siege to the virtue of sundry maids of honour; preferring all the time, in his inmost soul, his own wife to the handsomest among her attendants. His flirtation

O

nguid brightnes

th pleasure

heavenly arch

them, to shad

air which plays

o wanton o'

'er thy forehe

ith insidi

...*..

living colo

finest pen

sh-blown rose an

happiest pain

gentle mind, t

answering

hich you look, an

ave set my

ing songs in our language; "My life hath been so wondrous free," and that most beau

r beauty

graces

angel new dropt

gaze, and am a

ly you daz

n witho

thoughts y

uns in blushes t

your eyes, when it

that you're

a passion

ex," she

t I gratify bot

appear to eac

be a woman

, "they were so happy together." Poor Parnell did not, in his bereavement, try Lord Lyttelton's specifics: he did not write an elegy, nor a monody, nor did he marry again;-and, unfortunately for himself, he could not subdue his mind to religious resignation. His grief and his nervous irritability proved too much for his reason

TNO

ee his

's Life of L

s Poems,-the l

s banks a

hed with mat

n

lips, your eyes a

telton, whose supernatural death-bed horrors have been

guished for his Oriental travels when Lord

yttelton's

Dublin, 167