Just one more thing from me tonight, as I can't resist. Lady Mary has just left England to live (she thinks) with Algarotti in Italy. Hervey by now has moved past petty jealousy (helped, no doubt, by being the one who actually scored with Algarotti), they're back to being friends, he wishes her well in a letter that also illustrates how these two talked to each other.
Kensington, 3 Aug. 28/17, 1739 I recieved a Letter from you yesterday from Dijon, the third I have to thank you for since I lost one of the most agreable acquaintance I ever made, and England one of the most distinguish'd Inhabitants it ever produced ; and tho I know my Letter can not set out these four Days, yet I feel such an impatience to write to you that I can not resist indulging it. Your sending me a direction at last, makes me feel the same eagerness to write that I fancy People who have been long gag'd feel to talk ; and like those who love talking imeasurably, I fear I shall as little consider the pleasure you are likely to have in reading, as they do what their Audience has in hearing. In the first place I must for the Festivity of your first Letter; it was a sort of Insult to one who you knew was lamenting your Departure, to show you thought you had left nothing behind you worth lamenting ... [ Passage omitted ] As to your proposing to me to follow you, unless you could give me the same motive that you have for jolting in Post- Chaises and lying in dirty Inns, I do not see I should get much by taking your Advice; if I could make myself a Bigot, I would certainly walk bare-foot, let my Beard grow , lye upon Straw by night, and wear a woollen Shirt by day. But to what purpose should I renounce my false Gods, as you call them, unless I could change them for a true one ; and may I not just as well bend my Knee to an Oinion or a Monkey where am , as put on a Turban or make a Pilgrimage to Mecca, unless I could at the same time believe the Alcoran and have Faith in Mahomet? For You, who not only credit his Doctrine but are to enjoy his Paradise upon Earth, You are in the right to take the Pilgrim's Staff in your Hand, and travel with Shells upon your Garment; but I ,who should have nothing but the journey for my Pains, may as well stay at home, not forgetting (according to the Custom of the Country you at present inhabit) to throw upan ejaculation for the Soul of my departed Friend, and that the Purgatory you are to pass through before you enter the Gates of that Heaven your Piety deserves, may not be of long duration.
Algarotti, of course, would be God in this metaphor. Or the houri in Muslim paradise. Or the holy shrine, the goal of the pilgrimage. No pressure, Algarotti. Seriously though, I can see where Halsband got the idea about Hervey's idea of paradise from which concludes his Hervey biography, raeding this letter.
Lord Hervey to Lady Mary
Kensington, 3 Aug. 28/17, 1739
I recieved a Letter from you yesterday from Dijon, the third I have to thank you for since I lost one of the most agreable acquaintance I ever made, and England one of the most distinguish'd Inhabitants it ever produced ; and tho I know my Letter can not set out these four Days, yet I feel such an impatience to write to you that I can not resist indulging it. Your sending me a direction at last, makes me feel the same eagerness to write that I fancy People who have been long gag'd feel to talk ; and like those who love talking imeasurably, I fear I shall as little consider the pleasure you are likely to have in reading, as they do what their Audience has in hearing. In the first place I must for the Festivity of your first Letter; it was a sort of Insult to one who you knew was lamenting your Departure, to show you thought you had left nothing behind you worth lamenting ... [ Passage omitted ]
As to your proposing to me to follow you, unless you could give me the same motive that you have for jolting in Post- Chaises and lying in dirty Inns, I do not see I should get much by taking your Advice; if I could make myself a Bigot, I would certainly walk bare-foot, let my Beard grow , lye upon Straw by night, and wear a woollen Shirt by day. But to what purpose should I renounce my false Gods, as you call them, unless I could change them for a true one ; and may I not just as well bend my Knee to an Oinion or a Monkey where am , as put on a Turban or make a Pilgrimage to Mecca, unless I could at the same time believe the Alcoran and have Faith in Mahomet?
For You, who not only credit his Doctrine but are to enjoy his Paradise upon Earth, You are in the right to take the Pilgrim's Staff in your Hand, and travel with Shells upon your Garment; but I ,who should have nothing but the journey for my Pains, may as well stay at home, not forgetting (according to the Custom of the Country you at present inhabit) to throw upan ejaculation for the Soul of my departed Friend, and that the Purgatory you are to pass through before you enter the Gates of that Heaven your Piety deserves, may not be of long duration.
Algarotti, of course, would be God in this metaphor. Or the houri in Muslim paradise. Or the holy shrine, the goal of the pilgrimage. No pressure, Algarotti. Seriously though, I can see where Halsband got the idea about Hervey's idea of paradise from which concludes his Hervey biography, raeding this letter.