On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Or, the Feast of the Violets. 51

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Cantoiii.—The Supper

    _Navarre ' s fair Boccaccio ; _' the Rope-maker too _;** Deshoulieres , kind and pensive ; De Launay the true _j Sevigne , loving mother , a little too fussy ; But how , when she _' s gay , she beats Walpole and Bussy ! Old selfish Da Deffand , more knowing than wise ; And Genlis didactic , and D'Houdetot's eyes ; Arid De Stael _, mighty mistress , par Napoleoni _c

    ( For so he would make her ) , and dear Riccoboni ; Then Newcastle ' s Duchess , fantastic but rare _j And Behn and Centlivre , that plain-spoken pair ; And Wortley , who , had she been bred in a harem , Had tuniM it , infallibly , all haram-scarum ; And sweet Brooke aforesaid , all cover'd with May , And Lady Ann , lovely for _"Auld Robin Gray ; ' '

    And dearest dear Winchelsea , whom I prefer , After all , she so jumps with me , even to her : ( For although Lady Ann lov'd maternity , she _Lov'd love and the trees so , she might have _lov'd me : ) But I see high-born Devonshire , who with such pith Wrote of Tell and his platform ; and poor Charlotte Smith , Whose Muse might have bless'd so her nooks and old houses , Had lawyers not plagued her , and debts of her spouse ' s :

    ( 33 ) Margaret of Valois , Queen of Navarre , a sister of Francis the First , and grandmother of Henry the Fourth—authoress of the set of tales called * The Heptameron _. ' ( 34 ) Louise Charly , generally called Louisa Labe , or La Belle Cordiere _, wife of a rope-maker at Lyons , celebrated for her numerous accomplishments ; which included Greek and Latin , as well as wit and the guitar . ( 35 ) Madame de Stahl , an attendant on the Duchess du Maine in the time of the Regency , here called by her maiden name of de Launay ( which she bore almost all her life ) to distinguish her from Madame de Stael . Her autobiography is perhaps unique for candour and self-knowledge .

    ( 36 ) Which charmed Rousseau with their expression , in spite of the small-pox , and their own not very great beauty in other respects . But every one's nature , such as it is , looks out through the eyes , —those windows of the habitation of the soul ; a nd Rousseau thought he discovered , in her ' s , the natural , affectionate woman , in the midst of a selfish and artificial generation . Madame d'Houdetot wrote , in the decline of life , some exquisite verses on love , beginning " Jeune _j'aimai . " ( 37 ) Wife of an Italian actor in Paris , and authoress of numerous popular novels , remarkable for their good-hearted liberality of sentiment . She was a friend and correspondent of Garrick . She is said to have died in a state approaching to

    . ( 38 ) Margaret , Duchess of Newcastle in the time of Cromwell and Charles the Second . With an ill-regulated judgment , and fantastic notions of hor dignity , personal and conventional , she posse & ed real genius and knowledge , and great consideration for others . She was one of those people , who seem to have had a fool for one parent and a sage for another .

    ( 39 ) Georgian a , Duchess of Devonshire , sister of the late Earl Spencer , and mother of the present Duke ;—a woman who would have been an ornament to literature , had she not unfortunately been so devoted a one to fashion . See , in Mr Dyce's collection above noticed , her ' Ode on the Passage of Mount Saint Gothard , ' which excited the enthusiasm of Coleridge' * O lady , _nurs'd in pomp and pleasure , Where gat you that heroic _measure ?*

    Or, The Feast Of The Violets. 51

    Or , the Feast of the Violets . 51

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 51, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/49/