for all the kindness and goodness you have showed
me."
Conscious of growing gifts, she had chafed by fits
and starts at the seclusion of her home for home it
was to her, in her own words, " though never so
homely." On one occasion (noted by Pettigrew and
John Romney too substantially to admit of its being
fiction) Greville took her to Ranelagh, and was an-
noyed by her bursting into song before an applauding
crowd. His displeasure so affected her that on her
return she doffed her finery, donned the plainest at-
tire, and, weeping, entreated him to retain her thus
or be quit of her. This episode may well have
been the source of Romney's picture " The Seam-
stress."
The accounts omit any mention of amusements, and
it must have been Greville alone who (rarely) treated
her. She may have seen " Coxe's Museum," and the
" balloonists " Lunardi and Sheldon, the Italian at the Pantheon, the Briton in Foley Gardens. She may
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 41
have been present, too, when in the new " Marylebone Gardens " Signer Torre gave one of his firework displays of Mount Etna in eruption. If so, how odd
must she afterwards have thought it, that her hus-
band was to be the leading authority on Italian and
Sicilian volcanoes ! But what at once amazed Greville
the paragon of nil admirari was the transformation
that she seriously set herself to achieve. " She does not," observed this economist of ease three years later,
" wish for much society, but to retain two or three creditable acquaintances in the neighbourhood she has
avoided every appearance of giddiness, and prides
herself on the neatness of her person and the good
order of her house; these are habits," he comments,
" both comfortable and convenient to me. She has
vanity and likes admiration; but she connects it so
much with her desire of appearing prudent, that she is
more pleas 'd zvith accidental admiration than that of
crowds ^vhich now distress her. In short, this habit,
of three or four years' acquiring, is not a caprice, but is easily to be continued. . . ." " She never has wished for an improper acquaintance," he adds a month later.
" She has dropt everyone she thought I could except against, and those of her own choice have been in a
line of prudence and plainness which, tho' I might have
wished for, I could not have proposed to confine her
[to]."
Their visitors seem to have included his brother and
future executor, Colonel the Honourable Robert Fulke-
Greville, with perhaps, too, his kinsmen the Cathcarts;
afterwards, the sedate Banks, a Mr. Tollemache, the
Honourable Heneage Legge, whom we shall find meet-
ing her just before her marriage, and oftener the artist Gavin Hamilton, Sir William's namesake and kinsman.
He at once put Emma on his " list of favorites," reminding him, as she did, of a Roman beauty that he
42
had once known, but superior to her, he said, in the
lines of her beautiful and uncommon mouth. Her
main recreation, besides her study to educate herself,
were those continual visits to Romney, which indeed
assisted it. His Diaries contain almost three hundred
records of " Mrs. Hart's " sittings during these four years, most of them at an early hour, for Emma, except in 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 Ele-
gance and symmetry of form, of a most beautiful coun-
tenance glowing with health and animation, turned
upon the wide world. ... In all Mr. Romney's inter-
course with her she was treated with the utmost re-
spect, 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 Hayley, 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
43
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 won-
derful 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 al-
ways 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, ego-
tistical eccentric, who successively parted from two
wives with whom he yet continued to correspond in af-
fectionate 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.
44 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
" 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 " Var-nish " :
" 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 greedy earth her buried spoil
Of antique entablature; and from the toil
Of time restoring some fair form, acquire
A fancied jewel, know 'tis but a foil
To this superior gem of richer fire.
In Romney's tints behold the Trojan maid,
See beauty blazing in prophetic ire.
From palaces engulphed could earth retire,
And show thy works, Apelles, undecay'd,
E'en thy Campaspe would not dare to vie
With the wild splendour of Cassandra's eye."
In a late letter to Lady Hamilton the poet assures
her that an unpublished ode was wholly inspired by
her, and there are traces of her influence even in his
poor tragedies. But since " Serena " influenced her often, it may be of interest to single out a few lines
from the Triumphs of Temper (composed some years
before its author first met her) as likelier to have ar-
rested her attention than his triter commonplaces about
" spleen " and " cheerfulness " :
" Free from ambitious pride and envious care,
To love and to be loved was all her prayer."
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 45
" Th' imperishable wealth of sterling love."
" . . . She's everything by starts and nothing long, But in the space of one revolving hour
Flies thro all states of poverty and power,
All forms on whom her veering mind can pitch,
Sultana, Gipsy, Goddess, nymph, and witch.
At length, her soul with Shakespeare's magic fraught,
The wand of Ariel fixed her roving thought."
And
" But mild Serena scorn'd the prudish play
To wound warm love with frivolous delay;
Nature's chaste child, not Affection's slave,
The heart she meant to give, she frankly gave."
The August of 1782 brought about an event decisive
for Emma's future the death of the first Lady Hamilton, the Ambassador's marriage with whom in 1757
had been mainly one of convenience, though it had
proved one also of comfort and esteem. She was a
sweet, tranquil soul of rapt holiness, what the Germans
call " Eine schone Seele," and she worshipped the very earth that her light-hearted husband, far nearer to it
than she was, trod on. He had set out as a young
captain of foot, who, in his own words, had " known the pinch of poverty "; but during the whole twenty-five years of their union she had never once reproached
him, and had dedicated to him all " that long disease "
she called " her life." So far, though intimate with the young Sicilian King and friendly with the Queen,
Hamilton had weighed little in diplomacy. In a
sprightly letter to the Earl of Dartmouth some six
years earlier, he observes : " It is singular but certainly true that I am become more a ministre de farnille at
this court than ever were the ministers of France,
Spain, and Vienna. Whenever there is a good shoot-
ing-party H.S. Majesty is pleased to send for me, and
for some months past I have had the honour of dining
46
with him twice or three times a week, nay sometimes
I have breakfasted, dined, and supped ... in their
private party without any other minister." He next
descants on his exceptional opportunities of helping the English in Naples. He hits off a certain Lady Boyd
among them as " Like Mr. Wilkes, but she has [such]
a way of pushing forward that face of hers and filling
every muscle of it with good humour, that her homeli-
ness is forgot in a moment "; and he concludes with the usual complaint that unlike his predecessor, Sir William Lynch he has not yet been made " Privy Coun-
cillor." So dissatisfied was he that in 1774 he had tried hard on one of his periodical home visits to exchange his ambassadorship at Naples for one at
Madrid ; and hitherto science, music, pictures, archaeology, sport, and gallantry had occupied his constant
leisure indeed he was more of a Consul than of an
Ambassador. General Acton's advent, however, as
Minister of War and Marine in 1779 proved a passing
stimulus to his dormant energy. If a dawdler, he was
never a trifler; and he was uniformly courteous and
kind-hearted. His frank geniality recommended him
as bear-leader to the many English visitors who flocked
annually to Naples, often stumbled lightly into scrapes
that caused him infinite trouble, and prompted his
humorous regret that Magna Charta contained no
clause forbidding Britons to emigrate. It was not till
Emma dawned on his horizon that he woke up in
earnest to the duties of his office. His wife made
every effort, so far as her feeble health admitted, to
grace his hospitalities. She shared his own taste for
music, and sang to the harpsichord before the Court of
Vienna. The sole regret of her unselfish piety was
that he remained a worldling. She studied to spare
him every vexation and intrusion; and while he pur-
sued his long rambles, sporting, artistic, or sentimental, EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 47
she sat at home praying for her elderly Pierrot's
eternal welfare. Her example dispensed with pre-
cepts, and hoped to win- her wanderer back imper-
ceptibly. How little she deserved the caricature of
her as merely " a raw-boned Scotchwoman " may be gleaned from some of the last jottings in her diary and
her last letters to her husband :
" How tedious are the hours I pass in the absence of the beloved of my heart, and how tiresome is every
scene to me. There is the chair in which he used to
sit, I find him not there, and my heart feels a pang,
and my foolish eyes overflow with tears. The num-
ber of years we have been married, instead of dimin-
ishing my love have increased it to that degree and
wound it up with my existence in such a manner that
it cannot alter. How strong are the efforts I have
made to conquer my feelings, but in vain. . . . No
one but those who have felt it can know the miserable
anxiety of an undivided love. When he is present,
every object has a different appearance; when he is
absent, how lonely, how isolated I feel. ... I re-
turn home, and there the very dog stares me in the
face and seems to ask for its beloved master. . . . Oh !
blessed Lord God and Saviour, be Thou mercifully
pleas'd to guard and protect him in all dangers and in
all situations. Have mercy upon us both, oh Lord,
and turn our hearts to Thee."
" A few days, nay a few hours . . . may render
me incapable of writing to you. . . . But how shall I
express my love and tenderness to you, dearest of
earthly blessings. My only attachment to this world
has been my love to you, and you are my only regret in
leaving it. My heart has followed your footsteps
where ever you went, and you have been the source of
all my joys. I would have preferred beggary with
you to kingdoms wit
hout you, but all this must have
4 8
an end forget and forgive my faults and remember
me with kindness. I entreat you not to suffer me to
be shut up after I am dead till it is absolutely necessary.
Remember the promise you have made me that your
bones should lie by mine when God shall please to call
you, and leave directions in your will about it."
That promise was kept, and the man of the world
sleeps by the daughter of heaven, re-united in the Pem-
brokeshire vault. A possibly adopted daughter
Cecilia who is mentioned in the greetings of early
correspondents, had died some seven years before.
Could any Calypso replace such pure devotion ? Yet
Calypsos there had been already among their num-
ber the divorced lady who became Margravine of
Anspach, the " sweet little creature qui a I'honneur de me plaire," and whom he pitied ; a " Madame
Tschudy " ; a " Lady A.," contrasted by Greville in 1785 with Emma; and, perhaps platonically, those
gifted artists Diana Beauclerk, once Lady Bolingbroke,
and Mrs. Darner, who was to sculpture one of the two
busts of Nelson done from the life. In England as
well as Naples flirtation was the order of the day. Yet
about Sir William there must have been a charm of
demeanour, a calm of ease and good nature, and a
certain worldly unselfishness which could fasten such
spiritual love more surely than the love profane. He
was a sincere worshipper of beauty, both in art and
nature; while Goethe himself respected his discrim-
inating taste. He was a Stoic-Epicurean, a " philosopher." His confession of faith and outlook upon ex-
istence are well outlined in a letter to Emma of 1792
which deserves attention. " My study of antiquities has kept me in constant thought of the perpetual fluctu-ation of everything. The whole art is, really, to live
all the days of our life; and not, with anxious care,
disturb the sweetest hour that life affords which is,
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 49
the present. Admire the Creator, and all His works
to us incomprehensible; and do all the good you can
upon earth; and take the chance of eternity without
dismay."
Absent since 1778, he came over at the close of 1782
to bury his wife. It is just possible that even then he
may have caught a flying glimpse of the girl whom he
was to style two years later " the fair tea-maker of Edgware Row." Greville, of course, was punctual in
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