a much lower kind. I care for that only as it may give pleasure to my husband and his friends. "Farewell, dear Sir, and accept my best wishes. You have always commanded my esteem, and long enjoyed the fruits of a friendship never infringed by one harsh expression on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never did I oppose your will, or control your wish; nor can your unmerited severity itself lessen my regard; but till you have changed your opinion of Mr. Piozzi, let us converse no more. God bless you." No. 5. To Mrs. Piozzi. "London, July 8, 1784. "DEAR MADAM, What you have done, however I may lament it, I have no pretence to resent, as it has not been injurious to me: I therefore breathe out one sigh more of tenderness, perhaps useless, but at least sincere. "I wish that God may grant you every blessing, that you may be happy in this world for its short. continuance, and eternally happy in a better state; and whatever I can contribute to your happiness I am very ready to repay, for that kindness which soothed twenty years of a life radically wretched. "Do not think slightly of the advice which I now presume to offer. Prevail upon Mr. Piozzi to settle in England: you may live here with more dignity than in Italy, and with more security; your rank will be higher, and your fortune more under your own eye. I desire not to detail all my reasons, but every argument of prudence and interest is for England, and only some phantoms of imagination seduce you to Italy. "I am afraid, however, that my counsel is vain, yet I have eased my heart by giving it. "When Queen Mary took the resolution of sheltering herself in England, the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, attempting to dissuade her, attended on her journey; and when they came to the irremeable stream* that separated the two kingdoms, walked by * Queen Mary left the Scottish for the English coast, on the Firth of Solway, her side into the water, in the middle of which he seized her bridle, and with earnestness proportioned to her danger and his own affection pressed her to return. The Queen went forward. If the parallel reaches thus far, may it go no further. — The tears stand in my eyes. "I am going into Derbyshire, and hope to be followed by your good wishes, for I am, with great affection, "Your, &c. "Any letters that come for me hither will be sent me.” In a memorandum on this letter, she says: "I wrote him a very kind and affectionate farewell." Miss Hawkins says: "It was I who discovered the letter (No. 4). I carried it to my father, he enclosed it and sent it to her, there never having been intercourse between them.” * Hawkins states that a letter from Johnson to himself contained these words: — any, "Poor Thrale! I thought that either her virtue or her vice (meaning her love of her children or her pride) would have restrained her from such a marriage. She is now become a subject for her enemies to exult over, and for her friends, if she has any left, to forget or pity." Harsh language, and exhibiting little of that allowance for human frailty which might have been expected from the author of "Rasselas" and the "Rambler." Did he or the rest of her acquaintance who joined in censuring or repudiating her, ever attempt to enter into her feelings, and weigh her conduct with reference to its tendency to promote her own happiness? Could they have done so, had they tried? Can any one so identify himself or herself with another as to be sure of the soundness of the counsel, or the justice of the reproof? She was neither imin a fishing-boat. The incident to which Johnson alludes is introduced in "The Abbot; " where the scene is laid on the seashore. The unusual though expressive term "irremeable," is defined in his dictionary, "admitting no return." His authority is Dryden's Virgil: "The keeper dreamed, the chief without delay The word is a Latin one anglicized: "Evaditque celer ripam irremeabilis undæ." * Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 66, note. poverishing her children (who had all independent fortunes) nor abandoning them. She was setting public opinion at defiance, which is commonly a foolish thing to do; but what is public opinion to a woman whose heart is breaking, and who finds, after a desperate effort, that she is unequal to the sacrifice demanded of her? She accepted Piozzi deliberately, with full knowledge of his character; and she never repented of her choice. The Lady Cathcart, whose romantic story is mentioned in "Castle Rackrent," was wont to say: "I have been married three times; the first for money, the second for rank, the third for love; and the third was worst of all." Mrs. Piozzi's experience would have led to an opposite conclusion. Her love match was an eminently happy one; and the consciousness that she had transgressed conventional observances or prejudices, not moral rules, enabled her to outlive and bear down calumny.* Madame D'Arblay says that her father was not disinclined to admit Mrs. Piozzi's right to consult her own notions of happiness in the choice of a second husband, had not the paramount duty of watching over her unmarried daughters interfered. On this topic, Mrs. Piozzi says, "that her eldest daughter (then near twenty†) having refused to join the wedding party on their tour, she left a lady whom they appeared to like exceedingly, with them." This lady disappointed expectation, and left them, or, according to another version, was summarily dismissed by Miss Thrale (afterwards Lady Keith), who fortunately was endowed *The pros and cons of the main question at issue are well stated in Corinne : 666 Ah, pour heureux,' interrompit le Comte d'Erfeuil, ‘je n'en crois rien: on n'est heureux que par ce qui est convenable. La société a, quoi qu'on fasse, beaucoup d'empire sur le bonheur; et ce qu'elle n'approuve pas, il ne faut jamais le faire.' 'On vivrait donc toujours pour ce que la société dira de nous,' reprit Oswald; 'et ce qu'on pense et ce qu'on sent ne servirait jamais de guide.' 'C'est très bien dit,' reprit le comte, trés-philosophiquement pensé: mais avec ces maximes là, l'on se perd; et quand l'amour est passé, le blâme de l'opinion reste. Moi qui vous paraîs léger, je ne ferai jamais rien qui puisse m'attirer la désapprobation du monde. On peut se permettre de petites libertés, d'aimables plaisanteries, qui annoncent de l'indépendance dans la manière d'agir; car, quand cela touche au sérieux.' — ' Mais le sérieux,' repondit Lord Nelvil, 'c'est l'amour et le bonheur.'" — Corinne, liv. ix. ch. 1. ↑ In a note on the visit to Chatsworth with Johnson in July, 1774, Mrs. Piozzi says, "I remember Lady Keith, then ten years old, was the most amused of any of the party." She was born in September, 1764. with the precise description of qualities required by the emergency clearness of judgment, high principle, firmness, and energy. She could not take up her abode with either of her guardians, one a bachelor under forty, the other the prototype of Briggs, the old miser in "Cæcilla." She could not accept John son's hospitality in Bolt Court, still tenanted by the survivors of his menagerie; where, a few months later, she sat by his deathbed and received his blessing. She therefore called to her aid an old nurse-maid, named Tib, who had been much trusted by her father, and with this homely but respectable duenna, she shut herself up in the house at Brighton, limited her expenses to her allowance of £ 200 a year, and resolutely set about the course of study which seemed best adapted to absorb attention and prevent her thoughts from wandering. Hebrew, Mathematics, Fortification, and Perspective have been named to me by one of her trusted friends as specimens of her acquirements and pursuits. "There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, In that solitary abode at Brighton, and in the companionship of Tib, may have been laid the foundation of a character than which few, through the changeful scenes of a long and prosperous life, have exercised more beneficial influence or inspired more genuine esteem. On coming of age, and being put into possession of her fortune, she hired a house in London, and took her two eldest sisters to live with her. They had been at school whilst she was living at Brighton. The fourth and youngest, afterwards Mrs. Mostyn, had accompanied the mother. On the return of Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi, Miss Thrale made a point of paying them every becoming attention, and Piozzi was frequently dining with her. Latterly, she used to speak of him as a very worthy sort of man, who was not to blame for marrying a rich and distinguished woman who took a fancy to him. The other sisters seem to have adopted the same tone; and, so far as I can learn, no one of them is open to the imputation of filial unkindness, or has suffered from maternal neglect in a manner to bear out Dr. Burney's forebodings by the result. Occasional expressions of querulousness are matters of course in family differences, and are seldom totally suppressed by the utmost exertion of good feeling and good sense. On the 19th October, 1784, she writes to Mr. Lysons from Turin: "We are going to Alexandria, Genoa, and Pavia, and then to Milan for the winter, as Mr. Piozzi finds friends everywhere to delay us, and I hate hurry and fatigue; it takes away all one's attention. Lyons was a delightful place to me, and we were so feasted there by my husband's old acquaintances. The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland too paid us a thousand caressing civilities where we met with them, and we had no means of musical parties neither. The Prince of Sisterna came yesterday to visit Mr. Piozzi, and present me with the key of his box at the opera for the time we stay at Turin. Here's honor and glory for you! When Miss Thrale hears of it, she will write perhaps; the other two are very kind and affectionate." Milan, Dec. 7. "I correspond constantly and copiously with such of my daughters as are willing to answer my letters, and I have at last received one cold scrap from the eldest, which I instantly and tenderly replied to. Mrs. Lewis too, and Miss Nicholson, have had accounts of my health, for I found them disinterested and attached to me: those who led the stream, or watched which way it ran, that they might follow it, were not, I suppose, desirous of my correspondence, and till they are so, shall not be troubled with it.” Miss Nicholson was the lady left with the daughters, and Mrs. Piozzi could have heard no harm of her from them or others when she wrote thus. The same inference must be drawn from the allusions to this lady at subsequent periods. "Once more," she continues, "keep me out of the newspapers if you possibly can; they have given me many a miserable hour, and my enemies many a merry one; but I have not deserved public persecution, and am very happy to live in a place where one is free from unmerited insolence, such as London abounds with. "Illic credulitas, illic temerarius error.' God bless you, and may you conquer the many-headed monster which I could never charm to silence." |