By Lucasta Miller? Yes, I did, and agree it's very interesting. And occasionally darkly hilarious, like the descriptions of the early Hollywood movie where Charlotte ends up in a love triangle with Emily and the Reverend Arthur Nichols...
Especially since the relationship with Algarotti wasn't worth losing an important friendship over for either of them, not even Hervey, who "won".
Indeed. They were among each other's favourite people and loyal through a great number of ordeals (among other things, being attacked by the foremost English poet of their age, Alexander Pope, who first praised Lady Mary to the skies and then turned against her - whether or not it was because he finally did dare a pass and she laughed at him is debated - with a vengeance), and it would have been a shame to lose this over the most fickle of swans. Something remarkable: Lady Mary got attacked not just by Pope but later Horace Walpole wiht every accusation misogyny can inspire, including, of course, sexual licence. And yet neither of them when accusing her of having lovers, including younger lovers, names Algarotti. Her unrequited love for him and Algarotti ending up with Hervey (for a while) would have been a gift to satirists hating both her and Hervey. And Algarotti was such a prominent figure at that point: the story would have been eaten up with relish by a wide audience, especially since it ended up with Lady Mary humiliated. And yet - neither Pope, who accuses Lady Mary of "poxing her lovers" (which is a nasty pun on her inoculation work against small pox, mixing it with the accusation of inflicting STD) nor Walpole, who when she returned near the end of her life to die in England said she shold be quaranteened because she was sure to be so dirty, ever caught wind of the Algarotti situation. Which must mean that both Hervey (who usually loved to gossip) and Algarotti kept absolutely mum.
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Re: Algarotti
Date: 2020-09-07 07:50 am (UTC)By Lucasta Miller? Yes, I did, and agree it's very interesting. And occasionally darkly hilarious, like the descriptions of the early Hollywood movie where Charlotte ends up in a love triangle with Emily and the Reverend Arthur Nichols...
Especially since the relationship with Algarotti wasn't worth losing an important friendship over for either of them, not even Hervey, who "won".
Indeed. They were among each other's favourite people and loyal through a great number of ordeals (among other things, being attacked by the foremost English poet of their age, Alexander Pope, who first praised Lady Mary to the skies and then turned against her - whether or not it was because he finally did dare a pass and she laughed at him is debated - with a vengeance), and it would have been a shame to lose this over the most fickle of swans. Something remarkable: Lady Mary got attacked not just by Pope but later Horace Walpole wiht every accusation misogyny can inspire, including, of course, sexual licence. And yet neither of them when accusing her of having lovers, including younger lovers, names Algarotti. Her unrequited love for him and Algarotti ending up with Hervey (for a while) would have been a gift to satirists hating both her and Hervey. And Algarotti was such a prominent figure at that point: the story would have been eaten up with relish by a wide audience, especially since it ended up with Lady Mary humiliated. And yet - neither Pope, who accuses Lady Mary of "poxing her lovers" (which is a nasty pun on her inoculation work against small pox, mixing it with the accusation of inflicting STD) nor Walpole, who when she returned near the end of her life to die in England said she shold be quaranteened because she was sure to be so dirty, ever caught wind of the Algarotti situation. Which must mean that both Hervey (who usually loved to gossip) and Algarotti kept absolutely mum.