This scheme of visiting Italy was abandoned, and the friends continued living on the usual terms; Mrs. Thrale's time, as we learn from the Diary, being divided between Argyll Street, Brighton, and Bath. In the mean time, Piozzi's suit had been successfully prosecuted, and her growing inclination for him, although she resisted it with might and main, at length got the better of pride and prudence, and in the spring of 1783 she had entered into a formal engagement to become his wife. The repugnance of her daughters to the match was reasonable and intelligible; but to appreciate the tone taken by her friends, we must bear in mind the social position of Italian singers and musical performers at the period. "Amusing vagabonds" are the epithets by which Lord Byron designates Catalani and Naldi, in 1809; and such is the light in which they were undoubtedly regarded in 1783. Mario would have been treated with the same indiscriminating illiberality as Piozzi. The newspapers took up the subject, and rang the changes on the amorous disposition of the widow and the adroit cupidity of the fortune-hunter. So pelting and pitiless was the storm of taunts and reproaches, and so urgent were the remonstrances, that a temporary reaction was effected her promise was withdrawn; her letters were returned; and Piozzi was persuaded to leave the country. But the sustained effort imposed upon her was beyond her strength: her health gave way under the resulting conflict of emotions; and her daughters reluctantly connived at his recall by her physician as a measure on which her life depended. She was married to him on the 25th of July, 1784. "Well may the nobles of our present race And worship Catalani's pantaloons." “Naldi and Catalani require little notice; for the visage of the one and the salary of the other will enable us long to recollect these amusing vagabonds.”English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Artists in general, and men of letters by profession, did not rank much higher in the fine world. (See Miss Berry's "England and France," Vol. II. p. 42.) Iffland, the German dramatist, had a liaison with a Prussian woman of rank. On her husband's death he proposed marriage, and was indignantly refused. The lady was conscious of no degradation from being his mistress, but would have forfeited both caste and self-respect by becoming his wife. Madame D'Arblay has recorded what took place between Mrs. Piozzi and herself on the occasion : — Miss F. Burney to Mrs. Piozzi. "Norbury Park, Aug. 10, 1784. "When my wondering eyes first looked over the letter I received last night, my mind instantly dictated a high-spirited vindication of the consistency, integrity, and faithfulness of the friendship thus abruptly reproached and cast away. But a sleepless night gave me leisure to recollect that you were ever as generous as precipitate, and that your own heart would do justice to mine, in the cooler judgment of future reflection. Committing myself, therefore, to that period, I determined simply to assure you, that if my last letter hurt either you or Mr. Piozzi, I am no less sorry than surprised; and that if it offended you, I sincerely beg your pardon. "Not to that time, however, can I wait to acknowledge the pain an accusation so unexpected has caused me, nor the heartfelt satisfaction with which I shall receive, when you are able to write it, a softer renewal of regard. "May Heaven direct and bless you! "F. B. "N. B. This is the sketch of the answer which F. B. most painfully wrote to the unmerited reproach of not sending cordial congratulations upon a marriage which she had uniformly, openly, and with deep and avowed affliction, thought wrong. "Mrs. Piozzi to Miss Burney. "Wellbeck Street, No. 33 Cavendish Square. "Friday, Aug. 13, 1784. "Give yourself no serious concern, sweetest Burney. All is well, and I am too happy myself to make a friend otherwise; quiet your kind heart immediately, and love my husband if you love his and your "H. L. ProZZI. "N. B. To this kind note, F. B. wrote the warmest and most affectionate and heartfelt reply; but never received another word! And here and thus stopped a correspondence of six years of almost unequalled partiality and fondness on her side, and affection, gratitude, admiration, and sincerity on that of F. B., who could only conjecture the cessation to be caused by the resentment of Piozzi, when informed of her constant opposition to the union." Of the six letters which passed between Johnson and Mrs. Piozzi on the same subject, only two (Nos. 1 and 5) have hitherto been made public; and the incompleteness of the correspondence has caused the most embarrassing confusion in the minds of biographers and editors, too prone to act on the maxim, that, wherever female reputation is concerned, we should hope for the best and believe the worst. Hawkins, apparently ignorant that she had written to Johnson to announce her intention, says, "He was made uneasy by a report" which induced him to write a strong letter of remonstrance, of which what he calls an adumbration was published in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for December, 1784. Mr. Croker, avoiding a similar error, says: "In the lady's own (part) publication of the correspondence, this letter (No. 1) is given as from Mrs. Piozzi, and is signed with the initial of her name: Dr. Johnson's answer is also addressed to Mrs. Piozzi, and both the letters allude to the matter as done; yet it appears, by the periodical publications of the day, that the marriage did not take place until the 25th July. The editor knew not how to account for this but by supposing that Mrs. Piozzi, to avoid Johnson's importunity, had stated that as done which was only settled to be done." The matter is made plain by the circular (No. 2), which states that "Piozzi is coming back from Italy." He arrived on July 2d, after a fifteen months' absence, which proved both his loyalty and the sincerity of the struggle in her own heart and mind. There is no signature to her first autograph letter, and both Dr. Johnson's autograph letters are addressed to Mrs. Thrale. But she has occasioned the mistake into which so many have fallen, by her mode of heading these when she printed the two-volume edition of "Letters" in 1788. By the kindness of Mr. Salus bury I am now enabled to print the whole correspondence, with the exception of her last letter, which she describes. "MY DEAR SIR, -The enclosed is a circular letter which I have sent to all the guardians, but our friendship demands somewhat more; it requires that it should beg your pardon for concealing from you a connection which you must have heard of by many, but I suppose never believed. Indeed, my dear Sir, it was concealed only to save us both needless pain; I could not have borne to reject that counsel it would have killed me to take, and I only tell it you now because all is irrevocably settled and out of your power to prevent. I will say, however, that the dread of your disapprobation has given me some anxious moments, and though perhaps I am become by many privations the most independent woman in the world, I feel as if acting without a parent's consent till you write kindly to “SIR, As one of the executors of Mr. Thrale's will and guardian to his daughters, I think it my duty to acquaint you that the three eldest left Bath last Friday for their own house at Brighthelmstone in company with an amiable friend, Miss Nicholson, who has sometimes resided with us here, and in whose society they may, I think, find some advantages, and certainly no disgrace. I waited on them to Salisbury, Wilton, &c., and offered to attend them to the seaside myself, but they preferred this lady's company to mine, having heard that Mr. Piozzi is coming back from Italy, and judging perhaps by our past friendship and continued correspondence that his return would be succeeded by our marriage. 66 "I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant. Bath, June 30, 1784." No. 3. "MADAM, — If I interpret your letter right, you are ignominiously married: if it is yet undone, let us once more talk* together. If you have abandoned your children and your religion, God forgive your wickedness; if you have forfeited your fame and your country, may your folly do no further mischief. If the last act is yet to do, I who have loved you, esteemed you, reverenced you, and served you,* I who long thought you the first of womankind, entreat that, before your fate is irrevocable, I may once more see you. I was, I once was, Madam, most truly yours, "SAM. JOHNSON. "July 2, 1784. "I will come down if you permit it." No. 4. "July 4, 1784. "SIR, I have this morning received from you so rough a letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and respectfully written, that I am forced to desire the conclusion of a correspondence which I can bear to continue no longer. The birth of my second husband is not meaner than that of my first; his sentiments are not meaner; his profession is not meaner, and his superiority in what he professes acknowledged by all mankind. It is want of fortune, then, that is ignominious; the character of the man I have chosen has no other claim to such an epithet. The religion to which he has been always a zealous adherent will, I hope, teach him to forgive insults he has not deserved; mine will, I hope, enable me to bear them at once with dignity and patience. To hear that I have forfeited my fame is indeed the greatest insult I ever yet received. My fame is as unsullied as snow, or I should think it unworthy of him who must henceforth protect it. "I write by the coach the more speedily and effectually to prevent your coming hither. Perhaps by my fame (and I hope it is so) you mean only that celebrity which is a consideration of *The four words which I have printed in italics are indistinctly written, and cannot be satisfactorily made out. |