Indeed. The sheer level of body shaming combined with misogyny in the 18th century is enormous. (And continues into the 19th, of course; most of the caricatures aimed at Emma Hamilton even before Nelson dies present her as enormously fat. (She did gain weight even before Nelson died, but she also was pregnant twice (the second time she lost the child).) As to Miss Anne Vane, no one, including Halsband, bothers to explain why if she had no inner or outer qualities, and wasn't rich or titled, men kept being attracted to her. More soap opera:
Once Miss Vane's position as the Prince of Wales's mistress was conspicuously secure, Hervey's emotions shifted from jealousy (for having been betrayed) to resentment, far more intense, that she had induced the Prince to discard him as intimate adviser in favour of Dodington. He determined in April 1732 to revive the Prince's friendship for him , and went about it in a foolhardy fashion . Since Miss Vane had ruined that friendship , he reasoned, then she could restore it.He composed a letter and asked his brother-in -law Bussy Mansel to take it to her, telling him that it merely recommended a midwife. Actually it castigated her for the ill service she had done him with the Prince , and threatened that if she did not repair the breach he would divulge what he knew ofher, and use her as she deserved .Upon reading this scathing letter she fell into hysterics ; and Mansel, when he read it, swore he would kill Hervey for deceiving him by making him the messenger of such an affront. To prevent murder Miss Vane then told the Prince of the letter, and he somehow placated Mansel but bitterly resented Hervey's ill treatment of his mistress. The King, Queen , and Walpole, when they heard of it, were also incensed with Hervey for his interference in a Royal pastime. Aware too late of his iinprudence, Hervey tried to make amends. The King and Queen (and of course Walpole ) were satisfied by his penitence but not the Prince, who ( in Hervey's opinion ) ‘never forgot an injury or remembered an obligation ”. Their friendship was never restored .
As opposed to the relationship between Hervey and Miss Vane. Now you'd think after that letter, he'd have been the last man she'd ever want to see again, but lo and behold, some years later:
When he had heard of his mother's gift of the gold snuff -box (Fritz of Wales) announced that it was less to favour Hervey than to insult and outrage him , and that it was shocking for his mother to favour a man who the whole world knew had been impertinent to him and had threatened his mistress. For that reason, he told his sisters, he seldom visited the Queen. They replied that it was strange he should think of choosing his mother's companions as a condition of his paying his respects. Hervey's favour with the Queen thus widened the breach between himself and the Prince as well as between the Prince and his mother. But Hervey's relationship with Miss Vane had undergone a radical change in the opposite direction . Following their quarrel, when they had met among company and he had tried to speak to her she refused --- with the haughtiness of an injured princess — to bestow a glance or a word on him , though he addressed her in the most suppliant manner. After meeting in public places , however , they discovered that they wanted (in Hervey's words) ' to forget their past enmity, and renew their past endearments , till from ogling they came to messages, from messages to letters, from letters to appointments, and from appointments to all the familiarities in which they had formerly lived , both of them swearing that there never had been any interruption in the affection they bore to each other, though the effects of jealousy and rage had often made them act more like enemies than lovers'. This revival of their love affair had come about by the summer of 1734 . At first they met in an out of the way coffee-house , and then , after Miss Vane took a house at Wimbledon (for her son's health ), she came to town secretly once a week and they met at her house there, often passing the whole night together. Although they realized it was very indiscreet their 'mutual inclination to meet forced them to this dangerous course
Their renewed friendship and liaison arose from other reasons as well. Through Miss Vane, Hervey discovered that Bubb Dodington , the Prince's chief adviser, was being displaced by others , particularly Lord Chesterfield — a clear sign that the Prince was drawing closer to the political Opposition . She would thus be able to transmit useful information to him . Her renewed taste for him could have been stimulated by the Prince's gradual distaste for herself ; a year earlier, London gossip claimed that he had fathered a child on her chambermaid , for whom he then bought a house, and that he had tried unsuccessfully to gain the favours of an Italian opera singer. The renewed alliance of Miss Vane and Hervey, then, was based on love, jealousy, and politics intriguingly mixed .
It's worth bearing in mind, though, that Halsband's sole source for these subsequent shenanigans (i.e. all that happened after the initial fallout between Hervey and the Prince over Miss Vane, for which he quotes letters and satiric poems by all the other London wits) is Hervey himself in his trashy tell all memoirs. Which, mildred_of_midgard, yes, I'd like to have in the library. I mean, sadly due to grandson censorship they're missing the vital years of 1730 to 1732, and thus can't tell us among other things how Uncle George first reacted when he heard what went down in Prussia with FW and Fritz, but maybe there are other useful quotes in them, and they do sound very entertaining.
(Given all I've heard so far, I'm tempted to think G2's instinctive reaction was: "Look, I get the temptation to kill one's son and crown prince. I want to do that all the time. But if I don't get to do it, bloody FW certainly doesn't!")
If Wilhelmine had married Fritz of Wales and had thus become involved in this soap, complete with accusations of her first baby being either someone else's or her faking the pregnancy:
Oh, boy. Yeah, I can see Wilhelmine and SD taking that one lying down. Even Fritz!
My thinking precisely. The explosion would have been something to behold.
As to Miss Anne Vane, no one, including Halsband, bothers to explain why if she had no inner or outer qualities, and wasn't rich or titled, men kept being attracted to her.
This was my reaction! "Um, they must have seen something in her..."
He composed a letter and asked his brother-in -law Bussy Mansel to take it to her, telling him that it merely recommended a midwife. Actually it castigated her for the ill service she had done him with the Prince
I must admit I laughed. Hervey, here I thought Voltaire acted like an emo teenager... omg, that whole thing is just hilariously soap opera emo. (though in a way that sounds utterly horrible for Vane herself, of course)
Although they realized it was very indiscreet their 'mutual inclination to meet forced them to this dangerous course
Me: Wow! I guess... they must have been really attracted to each other -- Selena: It's worth bearing in mind, though, that Halsband's sole source for these subsequent shenanigans (i.e. all that happened after the initial fallout between Hervey and the Prince over Miss Vane, for which he quotes letters and satiric poems by all the other London wits) is Hervey himself in his trashy tell all memoirs.
Voltaire: It's not like there's anything wrong with fabricating stories about your ex when you've had a bad breakup!
:) I mean, I could be wrong. But when I checked and saw Halsband doesn't provide any other source than Hervey himself for the whole "Miss Vane wanted me so badly that she relaunched our affair in secret and even spied for me on Fritz of Wales, even though outwardsly we still pretended to be mortal enemies, so no one ever knew!" tale, my inner sceptic struck.
Incidentally, now that I've learned how Hervey behaved in his other love triangle, I must say the cattiness in writing Algarotti that Lady Mary's looks don't match her mind looks downright mild in comparison, and again, that he kept absolutely mum about all of it and the Lady Mary haters like Pope and Horace Walpole never found out says a lot.
Incidentally, now that I've learned how Hervey behaved in his other love triangle, I must say the cattiness in writing Algarotti that Lady Mary's looks don't match her mind looks downright mild in comparison, and again, that he kept absolutely mum about all of it and the Lady Mary haters like Pope and Horace Walpole never found out says a lot.
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Re: Lord Hervey (cont)
Indeed. The sheer level of body shaming combined with misogyny in the 18th century is enormous. (And continues into the 19th, of course; most of the caricatures aimed at Emma Hamilton even before Nelson dies present her as enormously fat. (She did gain weight even before Nelson died, but she also was pregnant twice (the second time she lost the child).) As to Miss Anne Vane, no one, including Halsband, bothers to explain why if she had no inner or outer qualities, and wasn't rich or titled, men kept being attracted to her. More soap opera:
Once Miss Vane's position as the Prince of Wales's mistress was conspicuously secure, Hervey's emotions shifted from jealousy (for having been betrayed) to resentment, far more intense, that she had induced the Prince to discard him as intimate adviser in favour of Dodington. He determined in April 1732 to revive the Prince's friendship for him , and went about it in a foolhardy fashion . Since Miss Vane had ruined that friendship , he reasoned, then she could restore it.He composed a letter and asked his brother-in -law Bussy Mansel to take it to her, telling him that it merely recommended a midwife. Actually it castigated her for the ill service she had done him with the Prince , and threatened that if she did not repair the breach he would divulge what he knew ofher, and use her as she deserved .Upon reading this scathing letter she fell into hysterics ; and Mansel, when he read it, swore he would kill Hervey for deceiving him by making him the messenger of such an affront. To prevent murder Miss Vane then told the Prince of the letter, and he somehow placated Mansel but bitterly resented Hervey's ill treatment of his mistress. The King, Queen , and Walpole, when they heard of it, were also incensed with Hervey for his interference in a Royal pastime.
Aware too late of his iinprudence, Hervey tried to make amends. The King and Queen (and of course Walpole ) were satisfied by his penitence but not the Prince, who ( in Hervey's opinion ) ‘never forgot an injury or remembered an obligation ”. Their friendship was never restored .
As opposed to the relationship between Hervey and Miss Vane. Now you'd think after that letter, he'd have been the last man she'd ever want to see again, but lo and behold, some years later:
When he had heard of his mother's gift of the gold snuff -box (Fritz of Wales) announced that it was less to favour Hervey than to insult and outrage him , and that it was shocking for his mother to favour a man who the whole world knew had been impertinent to him and had threatened his mistress.
For that reason, he told his sisters, he seldom visited the Queen. They replied that it was strange he should think of choosing his mother's companions as a condition of his paying his respects. Hervey's favour with the Queen thus widened the breach between himself and the Prince as well as between the Prince and his mother.
But Hervey's relationship with Miss Vane had undergone a radical change in the opposite direction . Following their quarrel, when they had met among company and he had tried to speak to her she refused --- with the haughtiness of an injured princess — to bestow a glance or a word on him , though he addressed her in the most suppliant manner. After meeting in public places , however , they discovered that they wanted (in Hervey's words) ' to forget their past enmity, and renew their past endearments , till from ogling they came to messages, from messages to letters, from letters to appointments, and from appointments to all the familiarities in which they had formerly lived , both of them swearing that there never had been any interruption in the affection they bore to each other, though the effects of jealousy and rage had often made them act more like enemies than lovers'. This revival of their love affair had come about by the summer of 1734 .
At first they met in an out of the way coffee-house , and then , after Miss Vane took a house at Wimbledon (for her son's health ), she came to town secretly once a week and they met at her house there, often passing the whole night together. Although they realized it was very indiscreet their 'mutual inclination to meet forced them to this dangerous course
Their renewed friendship and liaison arose from other reasons as well. Through Miss Vane, Hervey discovered that Bubb Dodington , the Prince's chief adviser, was being displaced by others , particularly Lord Chesterfield — a clear sign that the Prince was drawing closer to the political Opposition . She would thus be able to transmit useful information to him . Her renewed taste for him could have been stimulated by the Prince's gradual distaste for herself ; a year earlier, London gossip claimed that he had fathered a child on her chambermaid , for whom he then bought a house, and that he had tried unsuccessfully to gain the favours of an Italian opera singer. The renewed alliance of Miss Vane and Hervey, then, was based on love, jealousy, and politics intriguingly mixed .
It's worth bearing in mind, though, that Halsband's sole source for these subsequent shenanigans (i.e. all that happened after the initial fallout between Hervey and the Prince over Miss Vane, for which he quotes letters and satiric poems by all the other London wits) is Hervey himself in his trashy tell all memoirs. Which,
(Given all I've heard so far, I'm tempted to think G2's instinctive reaction was: "Look, I get the temptation to kill one's son and crown prince. I want to do that all the time. But if I don't get to do it, bloody FW certainly doesn't!")
If Wilhelmine had married Fritz of Wales and had thus become involved in this soap, complete with accusations of her first baby being either someone else's or her faking the pregnancy:
Oh, boy. Yeah, I can see Wilhelmine and SD taking that one lying down. Even Fritz!
My thinking precisely. The explosion would have been something to behold.
Re: Lord Hervey (cont)
This was my reaction! "Um, they must have seen something in her..."
He composed a letter and asked his brother-in -law Bussy Mansel to take it to her, telling him that it merely recommended a midwife. Actually it castigated her for the ill service she had done him with the Prince
I must admit I laughed. Hervey, here I thought Voltaire acted like an emo teenager... omg, that whole thing is just hilariously soap opera emo. (though in a way that sounds utterly horrible for Vane herself, of course)
Although they realized it was very indiscreet their 'mutual inclination to meet forced them to this dangerous course
Me: Wow! I guess... they must have been really attracted to each other --
Selena: It's worth bearing in mind, though, that Halsband's sole source for these subsequent shenanigans (i.e. all that happened after the initial fallout between Hervey and the Prince over Miss Vane, for which he quotes letters and satiric poems by all the other London wits) is Hervey himself in his trashy tell all memoirs.
Voltaire: It's not like there's anything wrong with fabricating stories about your ex when you've had a bad breakup!
Re: Lord Hervey (cont)
Incidentally, now that I've learned how Hervey behaved in his other love triangle, I must say the cattiness in writing Algarotti that Lady Mary's looks don't match her mind looks downright mild in comparison, and again, that he kept absolutely mum about all of it and the Lady Mary haters like Pope and Horace Walpole never found out says a lot.
Re: Lord Hervey (cont)
*nods* That's a good point. Go Hervey :)