Perhaps, then, Jeremy was not far wrong, when he attacked these specimens of the drama with an unrelenting Nemesis; but he was before his age. It was less the obvious coa.r.s.eness of these productions with which he found fault than their demoralizing tendency in a direction which we should now, perhaps, consider innocuous. Certainly the Jeremiad overdid it, and like a swift, but not straight bowler at cricket, he sent b.a.l.l.s which no wicket-keeper could stop, and which, therefore, were harmless to the batter. He did not want boldness. He attacked Dryden, now close upon his grave: Congreve, a young man; Vanbrugh, Cibber, Farquhar, and the rest, all alive, all in the zenith of their fame, and all as popular as writers could be. It was as much as if a man should stand up to-day and denounce d.i.c.kens and Thackeray, with the exception that well-meaning people went along with Jeremy, whereas very few would do more than smile at the zeal of any one who tilted against our modern pets. Jeremy, no doubt, was bold, but he wanted tact, and so gave his enemy occasion to blaspheme. He made out cases where there were none, and let alone what we moderns should denounce. So Congreve took up the cudgels against him with much wit and much coa.r.s.eness, and the two fought out the battle in many a pamphlet and many a letter. But Jeremy was not to be beaten. His "Short View" was followed by "A Defence of the Short View," a "Second Defence of the Short View," "A Farther Short View," and, in short, a number of "Short Views," which had been better merged into one "Long Sight." Jeremy grew coa.r.s.e and bitter; Congreve coa.r.s.er and bitterer; and the whole controversy made a pretty chapter for the "Quarrels of Authors." But the Jeremiad triumphed in the long run, because, if its method was bad, its cause was good, and a succeeding generation voted Congreve immoral. Enough of Jeremy. We owe him a tribute for his pluck, and though no one reads him in the present day, we may be thankful to him for having led the way to a better state of things.[15]
Congreve defended himself in eight letters addressed to Mr. Moyle, and we can only say of them, that, if anything, they are yet coa.r.s.er than the plays he would excuse.
The works of the young Templar, and his connection with Betterton, introduced him to all the writers and wits of his day. He and Vanbrugh, though rivals, were fellow-workers, and our glorious Haymarket Theatre, which has gone on at times when Drury and Covent Garden have been in despair, owes its origin to their confederacy. But Vanbrugh"s theatre was on the site of the present Opera House, and _the_ Haymarket was set up as a rival concern. Vanbrugh"s was built in 1705, and met the usual fate of theatres, being burnt down some eighty-four years after. It is curious enough that this house, destined for the "legitimate drama"--often a very illegitimate performance--was opened by an opera set to _Italian_ music, so that "Her Majesty"s" has not much departed from the original cast of the place.
Perhaps Congreve"s best friend was Dryden. This man"s life and death are pretty well known, and even his funeral has been described time and again. But Corinna--as she was styled--gave of the latter an account which has been called romantic, and much discredited. There is a deal of characteristic humour in her story of the funeral, and as it has long been lost sight of, it may not be unpalatable here: Dryden died on May-day, 1701, and Lord Halifax[16] undertook to give his body a _private_ funeral in Westminster Abbey.
"On the Sat.u.r.day following," writes Corinna, "the Company came. The Corps was put into a Velvet Hea.r.s.e, and eighteen Mourning Coaches filled with Company attending. When, just before they began to move, Lord Jeffreys, with some of his rakish Companions, coming by, in Wine, ask"d whose Funeral? And being told; "What!" cries he, "shall Dryden, the greatest Honour and Ornament of the Nation, be buried after this private Manner? No, Gentlemen! let all that lov"d Mr. Dryden, and honour his Memory, alight, and join with me in gaining my Lady"s Consent, to let me have the Honour of his Interment, which shall be after another manner than this, and I will bestow 1000 on a Monument in the Abbey for him."
The Gentlemen in the Coaches, not knowing of the Bishop of Rochester"s Favour, nor of Lord Halifax"s generous Design (these two n.o.ble Spirits having, out of Respect to the Family, enjoin"d Lady Elsabeth and her Son to keep their Favour concealed to the World, and let it pa.s.s for her own Expense), readily came out of the Coaches, and attended Lord Jeffreys up to the Lady"s Bedside, who was then sick. He repeated the purport of what he had before said, but she absolutely refusing, he fell on his knees, vowing never to rise till his request was granted. The rest of the Company, by his Desire, kneeled also; she being naturally of a timorous Disposition, and then under a sudden surprise, fainted away. As soon as she recover"d her Speech, she cry"d, "No, no!" "Enough gentlemen," reply"d he (rising briskly), "My Lady is very good, she says, Go, go!" She repeated her former Words with all her Strength, but alas in vain! her feeble voice was lost in their Acclamations of Joy!
and Lord Jeffreys order"d the Hea.r.s.eman to carry the Corps to Russell"s, an undertaker in Cheapside, and leave it there, till he sent orders for the Embalment, which, he added, should be after the Royal Manner. His Directions were obey"d, the Company dispersed, and Lady Elsabeth and Mr.
Charles remained Inconsolable. Next Morning Mr. Charles waited on Lord Halifax, &c., to excuse his Mother and self, by relating the real Truth.
But neither his Lordship nor the Bishop would admit of any Plea; especially the latter, who had the Abbey lighted, the ground open"d, the Choir attending, an Anthem ready set, and himself waiting for some Hours, without any Corps to bury. Russell, after three days" Expectance of Orders for Embalment, without receiving any, waits on Lord Jeffreys, who, pretending Ignorance of the Matter, turn"d it off with an ill-natured Jest, saying, "Those who observed the orders of a drunken Frolick, deserved no better; that he remembered nothing at all of it, and he might do what he pleased with the Corps." On this Mr. Russell waits on Lady Elsabeth and Mr. Dryden; but alas, it was not in their power to answer. The season was very hot, the Deceas"d had liv"d high and fast; and being corpulent, and abounding with gross Humours, grew very offensive. The Undertaker, in short, threaten"d to bring home the Corps, and set it before the Door. It cannot be easily imagin"d what grief, shame, and confusion seized this unhappy Family. They begged a Day"s Respite, which was granted. Mr. Charles wrote a very handsome Letter to Lord Jeffreys, who returned it with this cool Answer, "He knew nothing of the Matter, and would be troubled no more about it." He then addressed the Lord Halifax and Bishop of Rochester, who were both too justly tho" unhappily incensed, to do anything in it. In this extream Distress, Dr. Garth, a man who entirely lov"d Mr. Dryden, and was withal a Man of Generosity and great Humanity, sends for the Corps to the College of Physicians in Warwick Lane, and proposed a Funeral by Subscription, to which himself set a most n.o.ble example. Mr. Wycherley, and several others, among whom must not be forgotten Henry Cromwell, Esq., Captain Gibbons, and Mr. Christopher Metcalfe, Mr. Dryden"s Apothecary and intimate Friend (since a Collegiate Physician), who with many others contributed most largely to the Subscription; and at last a Day, about three weeks after his Decease, was appointed for the Interment at the Abbey. Dr. Garth p.r.o.nounced a fine Latin Oration over the Corps at the College; but the Audience being numerous, and the Room large, it was requisite the Orator should be elevated, that he might be heard. But as it unluckily happen"d there was nothing at hand but an old Beer-Barrel, which the Doctor with much good-nature mounted; and in the midst of his Oration, beating Time to the Accent with his Foot, the Head broke in, and his Feet sunk to the Bottom, which occasioned the malicious Report of his Enemies, "That he was turned a Tub-Preacher."
However, he finished the Oration with a superior grace and genius, to the loud Acclamations of Mirth, which inspir"d the mix"d or rather Mob-Auditors. The Procession began to move, a numerous Train of Coaches attended the Hea.r.s.e: But, good G.o.d! in what Disorder can only be express"d by a Sixpenny Pamphlet, soon after published, ent.i.tled "Dryden"s Funeral." At last the Corps arrived at the Abbey, which was all unlighted. No Organ played, no Anthem sung; only two of the Singing boys preceded the Corps, who sung an Ode of Horace, with each a small candle in their Hand. The Butchers and other Mob broke in like a Deluge, so that only about eight or ten Gentlemen could gain Admission, and those forced to cut the Way with their drawn Swords. The Coffin in this Disorder was let down into Chaucer"s Grave, with as much confusion, and as little Ceremony, as was possible; every one glad to save themselves from the Gentlemen"s Swords, or the Clubs of the Mob. When the Funeral was over, Mr. Charles sent a Challenge to Lord Jeffreys, who refusing to answer it, he sent several others, and went often himself, but could neither get a Letter deliver"d, nor Admittance to speak to him, that he resolved, since his Lordship refused to answer him like a Gentleman, he would watch an Opportunity to meet him, and fight off hand, tho" with all the Rules of Honour; which his Lordship hearing, left the Town, and Mr. Charles could never have the satisfaction to meet him, tho" he sought it till his death with the utmost Application."
Dryden was, perhaps, the last man of learning that believed in astrology; though an eminent English author, now living, and celebrated for the variety of his acquirements, has been known to procure the casting of horoscopes, and to consult a noted "astrologer," who gives opinions for a small sum. The coincidences of prophecy are not more remarkable than those of star-telling; and Dryden and the author I have referred to were probably both captivated into belief by some fatuitous realization of their horoscopic predictions. Nor can we altogether blame their credulity, when we see biology, table-turning, rapping, and all the family of imposture, taken up seriously in our own time.
On the birth of his son Charles, Dryden immediately cast his horoscope.
The following account of Dryden"s paternal solicitude for his son, and its result, may be taken as embellished, if not apocryphal. Evil hour, indeed--Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun were all "under the earth;" Mars and Saturn were in square: eight, or a multiple of it, would be fatal to the child--the square foretold it. In his eighth, his twenty-fourth, or his thirty-second year, he was certain to die, though he might possibly linger on to the age of thirty-four. The stars did all they could to keep up their reputation. When the boy was eight years old he nearly lost his life by being buried under a heap of stones out of an old wall, knocked down by a stag and hounds in a hunt. But the stars were not to be beaten, and though the child recovered, went in for the game a second time in his twenty-third year, when he fell, in a fit of giddiness, from a tower, and, to use Lady Elsabeth"s words, was "mash"d to a mummy."
Still the battle was not over, and the mummy returned in due course to its human form, though considerably disfigured. Mars and Saturn were naturally disgusted at his recovery, and resolved to finish the disobedient youth. As we have seen, he in vain sought his fate at the hand of Jeffreys; but we must conclude that the offended constellations took Neptune in partnership, for in due course the youth met with a watery grave.
After abandoning the drama, Congreve appears to have come out in the light of an independent gentleman. He was already sufficiently introduced into literary society; Pope, Steele, Swift, and Addison were not only his friends but his admirers, and we can well believe that their admiration was considerable, when we find the one dedicating his "Miscellany," the other his translation of the "Iliad," to a man who was qualified neither by rank nor fortune to play Maecenas.
At what time he was admitted to the Kit-kat I am not in a position to state, but it must have been after 1715, and by that time he was a middle-aged man, his fame was long since achieved; and whatever might be thought of his works and his controversy with Collier, he was recognised as one of the literary stars at a period when the great courted the clever, and wit was a pa.s.sport to any society. Congreve had plenty of that, and probably at the Kit-kat was the life of the party when Vanbrugh was away or Addison in a graver mood. Untroubled by conscience, he could launch out on any subject whatever; and his early life, spent in that species of so-called gaiety which was then the routine of every young man of the world, gave him ample experience to draw upon. But Congreve"s ambition was greater than his talents. No man so little knew his real value, or so grossly a.s.serted one which he had not. Gay, handsome, and in good circ.u.mstances, he aspired to be, not Congreve the poet, not Congreve the wit, not Congreve the man of mind, but simply Congreve the fine gentleman. Such humility would be charming if it were not absurd. It is a vice of scribes to seek a character for which they have little claim. Moore loved to be thought a diner-out rather than a poet; even Byron affected the fast man when he might have been content with the name of "genius;" but Congreve went farther, and was ashamed of being poet, dramatist, genius, or what you will. An anecdote of him, told by Voltaire, who may have been an "awfu" liar," but had no temptation to invent in such a case as this, is so consistent with what we gather of the man"s character, that one cannot but think it is true.
The philosopher of Ferney was anxious to see and converse with a brother dramatist of such celebrity as the author of "The Way of the World." He expected to find a man of a keen satirical mind, who would join him in a laugh against humanity. He visited Congreve, and naturally began to talk of his works. The fine gentleman spoke of them as trifles utterly beneath his notice, and told him, with an affectation which perhaps was sincere, that he wished to be visited as a gentleman, not as an author. One can imagine the disgust of his brother dramatist.
Voltaire replied, that had Mr. Congreve been nothing more than a gentleman, he should not have taken the trouble to call on him, and therewith retired with an expression of merited contempt.
It is only in the present day that authorship is looked upon as a profession, though it has long been one. It is amusing to listen to the sneers of men who never wrote a book, or who, having written, have gained thereby some more valuable advantage than the publisher"s cheque.
The men who talk with horror of writing for money, are glad enough if their works introduce them to the notice of the influential, and aid them in procuring a place. In the same way, Congreve was not at all ashamed of fulsome dedications, which brought him the favour of the great. Yet we may ask, if, the labourer being worthy of his hire, and the labour of the brain being the highest, finest, and most exhausting that can be, the man who straight-forwardly and without affectation takes guineas from his publisher, is not honester than he who counts upon an indirect reward for his toil? Fortunately, the question is almost settled by the example of the first writers of the present day; but there are still people who think that one should sit down to a year"s--ay, ten years"--hard mental work, and expect no return but fame.
Whether such objectors have always private means to return to, or whether they have never known what it is to write a book, we do not care to examine, but they are to be found in large numbers among the educated; and indeed, to this present day, it is held by some among the upper cla.s.ses to be utterly derogatory to write for money.
Whether this was the feeling in Congreve"s day or not is not now the question. Those were glorious days for an author, who did not mind playing the sycophant a little. Instead of having to trudge from door to door in Paternoster Row, humbly requesting an interview, which is not always granted--instead of sending that heavy parcel of MS., which costs you a fortune for postage, to publisher after publisher, till it is so often "returned with thanks" that you hate the very sight of it, the young author of those days had a much easier and more comfortable part to play. An introduction to an influential man in town, who again would introduce you to a patron, was all that was necessary. The profession of Maecenas was then as recognized and established as that of doctor or lawyer. A man of money could always buy brains; and most n.o.blemen considered an author to be as necessary a part of his establishment as the footmen who ushered them into my lord"s presence. A fulsome dedication in the largest type was all that he asked: and if a writer were sufficiently profuse in his adulation, he might dine at Maecenas"s table, drink his sack and canary without stint, and apply to him for cash whenever he found his pockets empty. Nor was this all: if a writer were sufficiently successful in his works to reflect honour on his patron, he was eagerly courted by others of the n.o.ble profession. He was offered, if not hard cash, as good an equivalent, in the shape of a comfortable government sinecure; and if this was not to be had, he was sometimes even lodged and boarded by his obliged dedicatee. In this way he was introduced into the highest society; and if he had wit enough to support the character, he soon found himself _facile princeps_ in a circle of the highest n.o.bility in the land. Thus it is that in the clubs of the day we find t.i.tle and wealth mingling with wit and genius; and the writer who had begun life by a cringing dedication, was now rewarded by the devotion and a.s.siduity of the men he had once flattered. When Steele, Swift, Addison, Pope, and Congreve were the kings of their sets, it was time for authors to look and talk big. Eheu! those happy days are gone!
Our dramatist, therefore, soon discovered that a good play was the key to a good place, and the Whigs took care that he should have it. Oddly enough, when the Tories came in they did not turn him out. Perhaps they wanted to gain him over to themselves; perhaps, like the Vicar of Bray, he did not mind turning his coat once or twice in a life-time. However this may be, he managed to keep his appointment without offending his own party; and when the latter returned to power, he even induced them to give him a comfortable little sinecure, which went by the name of Secretary to the Island of Jamaica, and raised the income from his appointments to 1200 a year.
From this period he was little before the public. He could afford now to indulge his natural indolence and selfishness. His private life was perhaps not worse than that of the majority of his contemporaries. He had his intrigues, his mistresses, the same love of wine, and the same addiction to gluttony. He had the reputation of a wit, and with wits he pa.s.sed his time, sufficiently easy in his circ.u.mstances to feel no damping to his spirits in the cares of this life. The Island of Jamaica probably gave him no further trouble than that of signing a few papers from time to time, and giving a receipt for his salary. His life, therefore, presents no very remarkable feature, and he is henceforth known more on account of his friends than for aught he may himself have done. The best of these friends was Walter Moyle, the scholar, who translated parts of Lucian and Xenophon, and was pretty well known as a cla.s.sic. He was a Cornish man of independent means, and it was to him that Congreve addressed the letters in which he attempted to defend himself from the attacks of Collier.
It was not to be expected that a wit and a poet should go through life without a platonic, and accordingly we find our man not only attached, but devoted to a lady of great distinction. This was no other than Henrietta, d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, the daughter of "Malbrook" himself, and of the famous "Queen Sarah." Henrietta was the eldest daughter, and there was no son to inherit the prowess of Churchill and the parsimony of his wife. The nation--to which, by the way, the Marlboroughs were never grateful--would not allow the t.i.tle of their pet warrior to become extinct, and a special Act of Parliament gave to the eldest daughter the honours of the duchy.[17] The two d.u.c.h.esses of Marlborough hated each other cordially. Sarah"s temper was probably the main cause of their bickering; but there is never a feud between parent and child in which both are not more or less blameable.
The d.u.c.h.ess Henrietta conceived a violent fancy for the wit and poet, and whatever her husband, Lord G.o.dolphin, may have thought of it, the connection ripened into a most intimate friendship, so much so that Congreve made the d.u.c.h.ess not only his executrix, but the sole residuary legatee of all his property.[18] His will gives us some insight into the toadying character of the man. Only four near relations are mentioned as legatees, and only 540 is divided among them; whereas, after leaving 200 to Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress; 100, "and all my apparel and linnen of all sorts" to a Mrs. Rooke, he divides the rest between his friends of the n.o.bility, Lords Cobham and Shannon, the d.u.c.h.ess of Newcastle, Lady Mary G.o.dolphin, Colonel Churchill (who receives "twenty pounds, together with my gold-headed cane"), and, lastly, "to the poor of the parish," the magnificent sum of _ten pounds_. "Blessed are those who give to the rich;" these words must surely have expressed the sentiment of the worldly Congreve.
However, Congreve got something in return from the d.u.c.h.ess Henrietta, which he might not have received from "the poor of the parish," to wit, a monument, and an inscription on it written by her own hand. I have already said what "Queen Sarah" thought of the latter, and, for the rest, those who care to read the nonsense on the walls of Westminster Abbey can decide for themselves as to the honour the poet received from his t.i.tled friend.
The latter days of William Congreve were pa.s.sed in wit and gout: the wine, which warmed the one, probably brought on the latter. After a course of a.s.s"s milk, which does not seem to have done him much good, the ex-dramatist retired to Bath, a very fashionable place for departing life in, under easy and elegant circ.u.mstances. But he not only drank of the springs beloved of King Bladud, of apocryphal memory, but even went so far as to imbibe the snail-water, which was then the last species of quack cure in vogue. This, probably, despatched him. But it is only just to that disagreeable little reptile that infests our gardens, and whose slime was supposed to possess peculiarly strengthening properties, to state that his death was materially hastened by being overturned when driving in his chariot. He was close upon sixty, had long been blind from cataracts in his eyes, and as he was no longer either useful or ornamental to the world in general, he could perhaps be spared. He died soon after this accident in January, 1729. He had the sense to die at a time when Westminster Abbey, being regarded as a mausoleum, was open to receive the corpse of any one who had a little distinguished himself, and even of some who had no distinction whatever. He was buried there with great pomp, and his dear d.u.c.h.ess set up his monument. So much for his body. What became of the soul of a dissolute, vain, witty, and unprincipled man, is no concern of ours. _Requiescat in pace_, if there is any peace for those who are buried in Westminster Abbey.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 15: Dryden, in the Preface to his Fables, acknowledged that Collier "had, in many points, taxed him justly."]
[Footnote 16: Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax. Lord Halifax was born in 1661, and died in 1715. He was called "Mouse Montagu."]
[Footnote 17: See Burke"s "Peerage."]
[Footnote 18: The d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough received 10,000 by Mr.
Congreve"s will.]
BEAU NASH.
The King of Bath.--Nash at Oxford.--"My Boy d.i.c.k."--Offers of Knighthood.--Doing Penance at York.--Days of Folly.--A very Romantic Story.--Sickness and Civilization.--Nash descends upon Bath.--Nash"s Chef-d"oeuvre.--The Ball.--Improvements in the Pump-room, &c.--A Public Benefactor.--Life at Bath in Nash"s time.--A Compact with the Duke of Beaufort.--Gaming at Bath.--Anecdotes of Nash.--"Miss Sylvia."--A Generous Act.--Nash"s Sun setting.--A Panegyric.--Nash"s Funeral.--His Characteristics.
There is nothing new under the sun, said Walpole, by way of a very original remark. "No," whispered George Selwyn, "nor under the grandson, either."
Mankind, as a body, has proved its silliness in a thousand ways, but in none, perhaps, so ludicrously as in its respect for a man"s coat. He is not always a fool that knows the value of dress; and some of the wisest and greatest of men have been dandies of the first water. King Solomon was one, and Alexander the Great was another; but there never was a more despotic monarch, nor one more humbly obeyed by his subjects, than the King of Bath, and he won his dominions by the cut of his coat. But as Hercules was killed by a dress-shirt, so the beaux of the modern world have generally ruined themselves by their wardrobes, and brought remorse to their hearts, or contempt from the very people who once worshipped them. The husband of Mrs. Damer, who appeared in a new suit twice a-day, and whose wardrobe sold for 15,000, blew his brains out at a coffee-house. Beau Fielding, Beau Nash, and Beau Brummell all expiated their contemptible vanity in obscure old age of want and misery. As the world is full of folly, the history of a fool is as good a mirror to hold up to it as another; but in the case of Beau Nash the only question is, whether he or his subjects were the greater fools. So now for a picture of as much folly as could well be crammed into that hot basin in the Somersetshire hills, of which more anon.
It is a hard thing for a man not to have had a father--harder still, like poor Savage, to have one whom he cannot get hold of; but perhaps it is hardest of all, when you have a father, and that parent a very respectable man, to be told that you never had one. This was Nash"s case, and his father was so little known, and so seldom mentioned, that the splendid Beau was thought almost to have dropped from the clouds, ready dressed and powdered. He dropped in reality from anything but a heavenly place--the shipping town of Swansea: so that Wales can claim the honour of having produced the finest beau of his age.
Old Nash was, perhaps, a better gentleman than his son; but with far less pretension. He was a partner in a gla.s.s-manufactory. The Beau, in after-years, often got rallied on the inferiority of his origin, and the least obnoxious answer he ever made was to Sarah of Marlborough, as rude a creature as himself, who told him he was ashamed of his parentage.
"No, madam," replied the King of Bath, "I seldom mention my father, in company, not because I have any reason to be ashamed of him, but because he has some reason to be ashamed of me." Nash, though a fop and a fool, was not a bad-hearted man, as we shall see. And if there were no other redeeming point in his character, it is a great deal to say for him, that in an age of toadyism, he treated rank in the same manner as he did the want of it, and did his best to remove the odious distinctions which pride would have kept up in his dominions. In fact, King Nash may be thanked for having, by his energy in this respect, introduced into society the first elements of that middle cla.s.s which is found alone in England.
Old Nash--whose wife, by the way, was niece to that Colonel Poyer who defended Pembroke Castle in the days of the first Revolution--was one of those silly men who want to make gentlemen of their sons, rather than good men. He had his wish. His son Richard was a very fine gentleman, no doubt; but, unfortunately, the same circ.u.mstances that raised him to that much coveted position, also made him a gambler and a profligate.
Oh! foolish papas, when will you learn that a Christian sn.o.b is worth ten thousand irreligious gentlemen? When will you be content to bring up your boys for heaven rather than for the brilliant world? Nash, senior, sent his son first to school and then to Oxford, to be made a gentleman of. Richard was entered at Jesus College, the haunt of the Welsh. In my day, this quiet little place was celebrated for little more than the humble poverty of its members, one-third of whom rejoiced in the cognomen of Jones. They were not renowned for cleanliness, and it was a standing joke with us silly boys, to ask at the door for "that Mr. Jones who had a tooth-brush." If the college had the same character then, Nash must have astonished its dons, and we are not surprised that in his first year they thought it better to get rid of him.
His father could ill afford to keep him at Oxford, and fondly hoped he would distinguish himself. "My boy d.i.c.k" did so at the very outset, by an offer of marriage to one of those charming sylphs of that academical city, who are always on the look-out for credulous undergraduates. The affair was discovered, and Master Richard, who was not seventeen, was removed from the University.[19] Whether he ever, in after-life, made another offer, I know not, but there is no doubt that he _ought_ to have been married, and that the connections he formed in later years were far more disreputable than his first love affairs.
The worthy gla.s.s manufacturer, having failed to make his son a gentleman in one way, took the best step to make him a blackguard, and, in spite of the wild inclinations he had already evinced, bought him a commission in the army. In this new position the incipient Beau did everything but his duty; dressed superbly, but would not be in time for parade, spent more money than he had, but did not obey orders; and finally, though not expelled from the army, he found it convenient to sell his commission, and return home, after spending the proceeds.
Papa was now disgusted, and sent the young Hopeless to shift for himself. What could a well-disposed, handsome youth do to keep body and, not soul, but clothes together? He had but one talent, and that was for dress. Alas, for our degenerate days! When we are pitched upon our own bottoms, we must work; and that is a highly ungentlemanly thing to do.
But in the beginning of the last century, such a degrading resource was quite unnecessary. There were always at hand plenty of establishments where a youth could obtain the necessary funds to pay his tailor, if fortune favoured him; and if not, he could follow the fashion of the day, and take to what the j.a.panese call "the happy Despatch." Nash probably suspected that he had no brains to blow out, and he determined the more resolutely to make fortune his mistress. He went to the gaming-table, and turned his one guinea into ten, and his ten into a hundred, and was soon blazing about in gold lace, and a new sword, the very delight of dandies.
He had entered his name, by way of excuse, at the Temple, and we can quite believe that he ate all the requisite dinners, though it is not so certain that he paid for them. He soon found that a fine coat is not so very far beneath a good brain in worldly estimation, and when, on the accession of William the Third, the Templars, according to the old custom, gave his Majesty a banquet, Nash, as a promising Beau, was selected to manage the establishment. It was his first experience of the duties of an M.C., and he conducted himself so ably on this occasion that the king even offered to make a knight of him. Probably Master Richard thought of his empty purse, for he replied with some of that a.s.surance which afterwards stood him in such good stead, "Please your majesty, if you intend to make me a knight, I wish I may be one of your poor knights of Windsor, and then I shall have a fortune, at least able to support my t.i.tle." William did not see the force of this argument, and Mr. Nash remained Mr. Nash till the day of his death. He had another chance of the t.i.tle, however, in days when he could have better maintained it, but again he refused. Queen Anne once asked him why he declined knighthood. He replied: "There is Sir William Read, the mountebank, who has just been knighted, and I should have to call him "brother."" The honour was, in fact, rather a cheap one in those days, and who knows whether a man who had done such signal service to his country did not look forward to a peerage? Worse men than even Beau Nash have had it.
Well, Nash could afford to defy royalty, for he was to be himself a monarch of all he surveyed, and a good deal more; but before we follow him to Bath, let us give the devil his due--which, by the way, he generally gets--and tell a pair of tales in the Beau"s favour.
Imprimis, his accounts at the Temple were 10 deficient. Now I don"t mean that Nash was not as great a liar as most of his craft, but the truth of this tale rests on the authority of the "Spectator," though Nash took delight in repeating it.
"Come hither, young man," said the Benchers, coolly: "Whereunto this deficit?"
"Pri"thee, good masters," quoth Nash, "that 10 was spent on making a man happy."
"A man happy, young sir, pri"thee explain."
"Odds donners," quoth Nash, "the fellow said in my hearing that his wife and bairns were starving, and 10 would make him the happiest man _sub sole_, and on such an occasion as His Majesty"s accession, could I refuse it him?"
Nash was, proverbially more generous than just. He would not pay a debt if he could help it, but would give the very amount to the first friend that begged it. There was much ostentation in this, but then my friend Nash _was_ ostentatious. One friend bothered him day and night for 20 that was owing to him, and he could not get it. Knowing his debtor"s character, he hit, at last, on a happy expedient, and sent a friend to _borrow_ the money, "to relieve his urgent necessities." Out came the bank note, before the story of distress was finished. The friend carried it to the creditor, and when the latter again met Nash, he ought to have made him a pretty compliment on his honesty.