Full text of Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples;

by Yelena Kopylova

  " kindly intended," but owing to Emma's " former line of life " impossible to accept. These proprieties confirmed Sir William's determination, and aroused

  Emma's ire. The one was accustomed to observe that

  the " reformed rake " proverb applied fully as much to a woman as a man. The other felt herself morti-fied and insulted just when her virtues rang on every

  lip. If the frail Lady Craven, for instance, were good

  enough to touch the hem of Mrs. Legge's garments,

  why not Emma, who had rashly hastened to be kind?

  Legge must tell the rest himself: " Her influence over him exceeds all belief. . . . The language of both

  parties, who always spoke in the plural number we,

  us, and ours stagger'd me at first, but soon made me

  determined to speak openly to him on the subject,

  when he assur'd me, what I confess I was most happy

  to hear, that he was not married; but flung out some

  hints of doing justice to her good behaviour, if his

  public situation did not forbid him to consider himself

  an independent man. . . . She gives everybody to un-

  derstand that he is now going to England to solicit

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 119

  the K.'s consent to marry her. ... I am confident

  she will gain her point, against which it is the duty

  of every friend to strengthen his mind as much as

  possible; and she will be satisfied with no argument

  but the King's absolute refusal of his approbation.

  Her talents and powers of amusing are very wonder-

  full. Her voice is very fine, but she does not sing

  with great taste, and Aprili [sic] says she has not a

  good ear; her Attitudes are beyond description beau-

  tifull and striking, and I think you will find her figure much improved since you last saw her. They say they

  shall be in London by the latter end of May, that

  their stay in England will be as short as possible,

  and that, having settled his affairs, he is determined

  never to return. She is much visited here by ladies

  of the highest rank, and many of the corps diploma-

  tique; does the honours of his house with great atten-

  tion and desire to please, but wants a little refinement of manners in which ... I wonder she has not made

  greater progress. I have all along told her that she

  could never change her situation, and that she was a

  happier woman as Mrs. H. than she wou'd be as

  Lady H., when more reserved behaviour being

  necessary, she wou'd be depriv'd of half her amuse-

  ments."

  Sound sense enough, but most unlikely to convince

  Emma's self-confidence. Mrs. Legge, too, and after-

  wards Queen Charlotte, were justified in excom-

  municating Emma before her marriage ; such decencies

  are concerns of precedent, the etiquette of morality.

  But it is surely a cruel and un-Christian precedent, to

  set up without exception that a girl who had raised

  and trained herself as Emma had done should be de-

  barred from the possibility of legitimate retrieval.

  Such standards savour far more of the world than of

  1 Morrison MS. 190 ; Legge to Greville, Naples, March 8, 1791.

  120 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  Heaven. And, at all events, it must be conceded

  that at this period Emma, who had been beloved not

  only by the Duchesses of Argyll and Devonshire, but

  by such young ladies as Miss Carr, could not possibly

  have hurt or soiled the British matron. There may

  well have been quite as much unamiable envy as in-

  jured innocence in the blank refusal to let her show

  that she was a kind and helpful woman, even though

  she had not always been irreproachable.

  London was reached at last, and the King's re-

  luctant sanction obtained. They were feted and en-

  tertained by the Marquis of Abercorn, by Beckford at

  Fonthill, and by the Duke of Queensberry, who gave

  a brilliant concert at Richmond in their honour, where

  Emma herself performed. But her chief delight was

  her reunion with those art coteries where she had ever

  felt herself freest and most at home. One of her first

  visits was to Cavendish Square. On a June morning

  she surprised Romney an apparition in " Turkish

  dress " while he was ailing and melancholy. Neither his trip in the previous year, nor the warm friendship

  of Hayley, who had now fitted up a studio for him

  at Eartham, could exorcise the demon of dejection

  which brooded over him. The wonderful girl whose

  career he had watched afar, cheered him back to his

  former source of inspiration. His letters to Hayley

  of this date are full of her. She was eager that her

  old friend should recognise that she was " still the same Emma." She sat for him constantly, and besides his many other studies and portraits of her, he at once made her the model of his Joan of Arc, the idea

  of which his recent journey across the Channel had

  suggested. Both this and a " Magdalen " were commissioned by the Prince of Wales, who seems to have

  met her at the Duke of Queensberry's. He painted

  her as " Cassandra," he designed to paint her as " Con-EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 121

  stance," he commenced a fresh " Bacchante." He dined with her and Sir William, and they both dined

  thrice with him, first in July and afterwards in August.

  He broke his rule of solitude in order that " several people of fashion " might behold the performances of one whom he declared " superior to all womankind."

  She in her turn begged him to let Hayley set about

  writing his life. All that she did or said fascinated

  him; and the fondest father, remarks his biographer,

  could not have taken a keener pleasure in the marriage

  of a favourite daughter than did Romney in her im-

  minent wedding. Her acting and singing so trans-

  ported him, that he was on the point of posting off

  near midnight to fetch Hayley from Eartham. " She

  performed both in the serious and comic to admira-

  tion : but her ' Nina ' " a part two years later the especial delight of Maria Carolina " surpasses everything I ever saw, and I believe, as a piece of acting,

  nothing ever surpassed it. The whole company were

  in an agony of sorrow. Her acting is simple, grand,

  terrible, and pathetic." It was this power of moving others that, according to a tradition often repeated

  by the late Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, once so worked

  on Nelson ten years afterwards, that he walked up

  and down the crowded room muttering, " D

  Mrs. Siddons ! " with whom somebody had contrasted

  her. On the occasion just mentioned Gallini, the im-

  presario, offered her 2000 a year and two benefits " if she would engage with him " ; but, in Romney 's words,

  " Sir William said pleasantly that he had engaged

  her for life."

  For a few weeks Romney fancied her attitude

  towards him altered ; the mere suspicion disquieted his

  nerves, but the cloud was soon dispelled. Meanwhile

  Hayley, who was to compose a fresh poem on her just

  before her wedding, indited the following:

  122 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

  "Gracious Cassandra! whose benign esteem

  To my weak talent every aid supplied,

  Thy smile to me was
inspiration's beam,

  Thy charms my model, and thy taste my guide.

  But say ! what cruel clouds have darkly chilled

  Thy favour, that to me was vital fire?

  O let it shine again ! or worse than killed,

  Thy soul-sunk artist feels his art expire."

  On her very wedding day Emma sat for the last

  time to the great artist for that noble portrait of her

  as the " Ambassadress," and she and her husband

  " took a tender leave " of one inseverable from her for ever.

  Hamilton and she were the talk of the town. When

  they drove out or went to parties, or entered the box

  at Drury Lane, every eye was upon them, and it was

  at Drury Lane that the acting of Jane Powell brought

  together the two former mates in servitude as the ad-

  mired of all beholders.

  All this must have nettled Greville, of whose feel-

  ings at this time there is no record. But his opposi-

  tion does not seem to have been serious, for Sir Will-

  iam and Emma passed their time in a round of visits to

  the whole circle of his relations, who were mostly

  her keen partisans. Lord Abercorn, indeed, went so

  far as to protest that her personality had " made it impossible " for him " to see or hear without making comparisons " ; and from this time forward Lord William Douglas also became Emma's lifelong upholder.

  The summer of 1791 was unusually hot, and from the

  latter part of July to mid- August they stayed with

  relatives in the country, including Beckford, when

  Emma for the first time beheld the Oriental and the

  Gothic glories, the mounting spire, the magic ter-

  races, the fairy gardens, and all the bizarre splendours, including its owner, of Fonthill Abbey.

  On the whole, this delicate experiment had sue-

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 123

  ceeded, although Queen Charlotte's ban doubtless

  rankled in Emma's breast. 1 The King himself was

  more pained than offended, and had confirmed Ham-

  ilton in the security of his appointment.

  Nor was it only grand folks or old friends that

  Emma had frequented. It is clear from allusions in

  shortly subsequent letters that both she and her mother

  visited that " poor little Emma " who had re-awakened the longings of motherhood in the old but unfor'gotten days of Parkgate.

  On September 6th Sir William and " Emy," or

  " Emily," Lyon were duly wedded at Marylebone

  Church, long associated with the Hamilton family.

  The marriage was solemnised by the Rev. Doctor Ed-

  ward Barry, rector of Elsdon, Northumberland. The

  witnesses were Lord Abercorn and L. Dutens, sec-

  retary to the English Minister at Turin, with whom

  Emma long maintained a faithful friendship. Her

  heart was overflowing. She felt, as she told Rom-

  ney, so grateful to her husband, so glad in restored

  innocence and happiness, that she would " never be

  able to make " him " amends for his goodness." They started homeward by way of Paris, where they were

  to see for the first and last time that tortured Queen

  who was fast completing the tragedy of her doom.

  Henceforward the name of " Hart " is heard no

  more. Henceforward Emma is no longer obscure,

  but, as Lady Hamilton, passes into history.

  'The Queen would never receive Lady Hamilton even after

  the return of the Hamiltons to England, and Nelson will be found angry that Sir William would go to court alone; cf. post, chap. xii.

  CHAPTER V

  TILL THE FIRST MEETING

  I79I-I793

  EDY HAMILTON returned to bask in social

  favour. It was not only the Neapolitan noblesse

  and the English wives that courted and caressed

  her. Their young- daughters also vied with each other

  in attentions, and vowed that never was any one so

  amiable and accomplished as this eighth wonder.

  Among these was a Miss Carr, who not long after-

  wards married General Cheney, an Aide-de-Camp to

  the Duke of York, during the next few years more

  than once a visitor at Naples. The writer possesses

  a miniature in water-colour, drawn by this young lady,

  of the friend to whom she long remained attached.

  Emma sits, clad all in white, with an air of sweetness

  and repose. At the back of this memento she has

  herself recorded: "Emma Hamilton, Naples, Feb. n,

  1792. I had the happiness of my dear Miss Carr's

  company all day ; but, alas, the day was too short."

  There is nothing in this likeness to betoken the pur-

  pose and ambition which she was shortly to display

  in the side-scenes of history. Horace Walpole had

  written, " So Sir William has married his gallery of statues." Emma soon ceases to be a statue, and becomes prominent in the labyrinth of Neapolitan in-

  trigue; her role as patriot begins to be foreshadowed.

  Throughout these three critical years of stress and

  shock momentous issues were brewing, destined to

  124

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 125

  bring into sharp relief and typical collision the two

  giants of France and England, Napoleon and Nelson;

  while all the time, under fate's invisible hand, Nelson

  was as surely tending towards Naples and Emma, as

  Emma was being drawn towards Nelson. From the

  moment of her return in the late autumn of 1791 she

  began, at first under Hamilton's tuition, to study and

  understand the political landscape.

  Nowhere outside France did the Revolution bode

  omens more sinister than at the Neapolitan court. The

  Queen clearly discerned that her French sister and

  brother-in-law trembled on the brink of destruction.

  She knew that the epidemic of anarchy must endanger

  Naples among the first, and might involve the possible

  extinction of its dynasty. She was not deceived by

  the many false prophets crying peace where no peace

  was; still less by the wild schemes for hairbreadth

  escapes which sent visionary deliverers scouring

  through Europe. Her one hope soon rudely shat-

  tered lay in Austria's power to effect a coalition of

  great powers and strong armies. She had just quit-

  ted the family council in Vienna, following on the

  death of her brother Joseph the Second, and the short-

  lived accession to the throne of her other brother

  Leopold, the pedantic philanthropist. Its object had

  been, in Horace Walpole's phrase, to " Austriacise "

  the position of the Italian Bourbons, by family inter-

  marriages and a betrothal. Her efforts were bent on

  a league against France, and it was for this that on

  her way home she had contrived a surprise meeting

  with the weak Pope Pius VI., penetrated the Vatican,

  abjured her anti-papal policy, and humiliated herself

  in the dust. And yet Louis XVI. besought her to sus-

  pend efforts which might rescue him, and shrank from

  embittering his false friends. Austria, too, was for

  seven years to prove a broken reed. Spain was never a

  whole-hearted enemy of France,, and within three years

  was to become her ally. The Queen awoke to a fury

  of indignation and hopelessness. Her
foes were

  those of her own household her nobles, her husband,

  his Spanish brother and sister, and herself. Hith-

  erto she had been reckoned an enlightened patroness,

  compassing the equality and fraternity of subjects who

  had never required political liberty. She had stub-

  bornly resisted the Spanish Machiavellianism which

  had manoeuvred to undermine those very f reemasonries

  which Maria Carolina had founded and forwarded.

  Spain was, in truth, the key of the present position.

  Spain was befooling Ferdinand and spiting his wife

  at every turn. The Spanish queen coveted Naples for

  her own offspring, and the two queens abominated each

  other. She was quite aware that the pro-Spanish

  party, abetted by her blockhead of a husband, covertly

  designed the transference of the Crown of the Two

  Sicilies to the Duke of Parma, while many of the

  Neapolitan nobles, affronted at the abolition of their

  feudal rights, were in secret confederation with it.

  She sprang from a house glorying in its despotic

  monopoly of popular principles, yet it was to such

  fatalities that these very principles were leading.

  Stability and authority had been her aims, yet the

  ground was fast slipping from beneath her feet. She

  was a true scion of the casuist Hapsburgs, who had

  always considered pride cs a sacred duty, and who, if

  their system were imperilled, would be ready to de-

  fend it by conscientious crimes. In the refrain of her

  own subsequent letters, "II faut faire son devoir

  fusqu'au fombeau"

  And added to all this was the shifting mood of her

  consort, whose infidelities she (like the queen of our

  own George the Second) only condoned in order that

  his good humour might enable her to rule. He had

  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 127

  always twitted her with being an " Illuminata," he now derided her as the " Austrian hen." His advisers would prompt him to rely more than ever on his Spanish kindred, to slight the Hapsburgs and herself.

  When Emma long afterwards claimed to have " De-

  Bourbonised " the Neapolitan court, it was to these conditions that she referred.

  Gallo, the foreign minister, leaned towards and upon

  Spain. Even Acton hitherto had been content to pro-

  pitiate the King by taking his cue from Madrid. The

  King himself had regarded England merely as a mar-