Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples; by 1855-1933 Walter Sydney Sichel Read Free Book Online

illness, was never a late riser. One portrait of her, unmentioned in our previous list, represents her reading the Gazette with a startled expression. I have been informed (though at first I thought otherwise) that this is really a likeness of her in the character of Serena reading scandal about herself in the pages of a journal. " While," remarks the sententious John Romney, " she lived under Greville's protection, her conduct was in every way correct, except only in the unfortunate situation in which she happened to be placed by the concurrence of peculiar circumstances such as might perhaps in a certain degree be admitted as an extenuation. . . . Here is a young female of an artless and playful character, of extraordinary Elegance and symmetry of form, of a most beautiful countenance glowing with health and animation, turned upon the wide world. ... In all Mr. Romney's intercourse with her she was treated with the utmost respect, and her demeanour fully entitled her to it." He adds that she " sat" for the " face " merely and " a slight sketch of the attitude," and that in the " Bacchante " he painted her countenance alone; while Hay-ley, in his Life of the painter, speaks of " the high and constant admiration" with which Romney contemplated not only the " personal " but the " mental endowments of this lady, and the gratitude he felt for many proofs of her friendship," as expressed in his letters. " The talents," he continues, " which nature bestowed on the fair Emma, led her to delight in the

    two kindred arts of music and painting; in the first she acquired great practical ability; for the second she had exquisite taste, and such expressive powers as could furnish to an historical painter an inspiring model for the various characters either delicate or sublime. . . . Her features, like the language of Shakespeare, could exhibit all the gradations of every passion with a most fascinating truth and felicity of expression. Romney delighted in observing the wonderful command she possessed over her eloquent features." He called her his " inspirer." To Romney, as we have already seen, she " first opened her heart." At Romney's she met those literary and artistic lights that urged her native intelligence into imitation. A sketch by Romney of his studio displays her seated as his model for the " Spinstress " by her spinning-wheel. A figure entering and smiling is Greville; of two others seated at a table, the one appealing to her would seem to be Hayley, to whom she always gratefully confessed her obligations.
    William Hayley, the "Hermit" of Eartham, the close ally both of Romney and Cowper, must have been far more interesting in his conversation than his books, though his Triumphs of Temper created a sensation now difficult to understand. He was a clever, egotistical eccentric, who successively parted from two wives with whom he yet continued to correspond in affectionate friendship. Curiously enough, Hayley's rhymed satirical comedies x are much the best of his otherwise stilted verses. He must have remembered Hamilton and Greville when, in one of them, he makes " Mr. Beril " account for his ownership of a lovely Greek statue:
    1 The Happy Prescription (1784) and The Two Connoisseurs are brilliant vers de societe. For Horace Walpole's poor opinion of his authorship, cf. Letters, vol. viii. pp. 235, 236, 251.

    " I owe it to chance, to acknowledge the truth, And a princely and brave Neapolitan youth, Whom I luckily saved in a villainous strife From the dagger of jealousy aimed at his life:"
    and when his " Bijou " ironically observes to " Varnish ":
    " I protest your remark is ingenious and new, You have gusto in morals as well as virtu:"
    His unfamiliar sonnet on Romney's " Cassandra" may be here cited, since it may have suggested to Greville his estimate of Emma—" piece of modern virtu ":
    "Ye fond idolaters of ancient art,
    Who near Parthenope with curious toil, Forcing the rude sulphureous rocks to part,
    Draw from the