Оглавление
Henry Austin Dobson. A Paladin of Philanthropy and Other Papers
A Paladin of Philanthropy and Other Papers
Table of Contents
GOLDSMITH'S POEMS AND PLAYS
ANGELO'S 'REMINISCENCES.'
THE LATEST LIFE OF STEELE
THE AUTHOR OF 'MONSIEUR TONSON.'
BOSWELL'S PREDECESSORS AND EDITORS
AN ENGLISH ENGRAVER IN PARIS
OLD WHITEHALL
LUTTRELL'S 'LETTERS TO JULIA.'
CHANGES AT CHARING CROSS
JOHN GAY
THE GRUB STREET OF THE ARTS
MARTEILHE'S 'MEMOIRS.'
APPENDIX
GENERAL INDEX
Отрывок из книги
Henry Austin Dobson
Published by Good Press, 2021
.....
GENERAL INDEX.
There are many references to Oglethorpe in the memoirs of his day, through which he flits fitfully for half a century, vigorous, bright-eyed, and too eager of speech to complete his sentences. He was familiar, of course, with Boswell, to which eminent 'Authour,' after the publication of the 'Tour in Corsica,' he introduced himself in a particularly gratifying manner. 'My name, Sir, is Oglethorpe, and I wish to be acquainted with you.' He bade him not marry till he had first put the Corsicans in a proper situation. 'You may make a fortune in the doing of it,' said he; 'or, if you do not, you will have acquired such a character as will entitle you to make a fortune'--words which, if correctly reported, have a curious odd suggestion of his own experience. He was also known to Johnson, whose 'London' he had been one of the earliest to praise 'in all companies,' and there can be no doubt that such lines as those in that poem which speak of 'peaceful deserts, yet unclaimed by Spain', which might afford an asylum to the oppressed, must have found a responsive echo in Oglethorpe's heart. Both the Doctor and Boswell seem to have proposed to write their friend's life, but neither did; and we are left to explain their neglect either by indolence, or that absence of effective biographical material and predominance of minor detail which have proved such a stumbling block to Oglethorpe's biographers. Another contemporary whom he knew was Goldsmith, to whom he offered Cranham as an asylum from the fumum strepitumque Romæ. He sends him five pounds for a charitable purpose, and adds--'if a farm and a mere country scene will be a little refreshment from the smoke of London, we shall be glad of the happiness of seeing you at Cranham Hall.' Whether Goldsmith went (he was familiar with another Essex house, Lord Clare's at Gosfield), is not related; but it was when Oglethorpe was calling upon him with Topham Beauclerk that he was insulted by Pilkington's historical pound--no, quarter-of-a-pound--of tea; and it was at Oglethorpe's, in April, 1773, that he sang Tony Lumpkin's 'Three Jolly Pigeons' and that other ditty, to the tune of the 'Humours of Balmagairy' ('Ah, me! when shall I marry me!'), which was left out of 'She Stoops' because the 'Miss Hardcastle' of the play was no vocalist. But the last, and perhaps the most picturesque accounts of Oglethorpe are given by Horace Walpole and Hannah More. 'I have got a new admirer,' writes that lively lady from Mrs. Garrick's in 1784. 'We flirt together prodigiously; it is the famous General Oglethorpe, perhaps the most remarkable man of his time ... the finest figure you ever saw. He perfectly realises all my ideas of Nestor. His literature is great [he knew some of Miss More's poetry by heart], his knowledge of the world extensive, and his faculties as bright as ever; he is one of the three persons still living who were mentioned by Pope; Lord Mansfield and Lord Marchmont are the other two ... He is quite a preux chevalier, heroic, romantic, and full of the old gallantry.' Walpole, who was feebler, and frailer, and crippled with rheumatism, is hardly as enthusiastic as 'St. Hannah,' which was his own pet-name for Miss More. But his report is fully confirmatory of Oglethorpe's young old age. 'General Oglethorpe, who sometimes visits me ... has the activity of youth when compared with me. His eyes, ears, articulation, limbs, and memory would suit a boy, if a boy could recollect a century backwards. His teeth are gone; he is a shadow, and a wrinkled one; but his spirits and his spirit are in full bloom; two years and a half ago, he challenged a neighbouring gentleman for trespassing on his manor. "I could carry a cannon as easily as let off a pistol."' And this was written in April, 1785, a month or two before Oglethorpe's death.
.....
