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Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-19 11:03 am (UTC)(Augustus) had left his successor not a penny more than he could help, providing for a bereaved mistress and a natural son out of the unsettled estate, leaving all his father's manuscript pwritings to the latter with the injunction never to publish them during the present King's (George IIIs) lifetime, 'nor ever at any time to lend them to my brother Frederick, the present Bishop of Derry'.
When reading this for the first time I thought, did we wrong Not Yet Victorian Frederick Hervey the son of the Bishop and the censor was actually Augustus' illegitimate son? But then I remembered from Erskin's introduction that little Augustus doesn't reach adulthood, so I'm assuming that's when the scandalous memoirs went back to the general Hervey estate. I can see where the prohibition of publishing within G3' s life time comes from, btw: G3 presumably had fond memories of his father, Fritz of Wales. But I'm intrigued about the prohibition to let Frederick the Bishop get his fingers on them. Presumably Augustus thought Fred would publish, given at this point he and G3 were irrevocably estranged and Fred didn't care anymore?
Anyway: now that Fred is the Earl, his wife Excellent moves to Ickworth, the Hervey estate. Frederick doesn't. In 1782, both his own marriage and that of daughter Bess collapse for good. That the Bishop showed zlich interest in helping his daughter shocked virtually all his female relations. Bess had gone to her sister Mary at first (also temporarly at odds with her husband) and was living in Bath, where she'd meet Georgiana;, here's an outburst from her cousin, Mrs. Dillon:
Never was a story any more proper for a novel than poor Lady Elizabeth Foster's. She is parted from her husband, but would you conceive any father with an income he has should talk of her living alone on such a scanty pittance of 300 pounds a year! And this is the man who is ever talking of his love of hospitality and his desire to have his children about him! Might one not imagine that he would be opposed to a pretty young woman of her age living alone? It is incredile the cruelties of that monster Foster made her undergo with him; her father knows it, owned him a villain, and yet, for fear she should fall on hi shands agian, tried first to persuade her to return to him.
Which Bess won't. The 300 pounds a year, btw, aren't from Dad, they were Georgiana's first suggestion - to hire Bess as a governess of the Duke's illegitimate daughter (by someone else not important to this story).
Horace Walpole: The mission of Lord Bristol's daughter, and her circumstances, are just as you've heard them. You may add, that though the daughter of an EArl lin lawn sleeves, who as an income of four or five and twenty thousand a year, he suffers her from indigence to accept 300 po9unds a year as governess to a natural child.
All the indignation is in vain, as far as Frederick is concerned, Bess is on her own, and Bess, of course, will do better for herself than governess of the Duke's ililegitimate daughter. She's moving in with the Duchess and the Duke instead. While that happens, her parents break up.
The breach came at Ickworth. On the evidence of a servant, we are told that 'the Bishop and his wife went out for a drive together, and in the course of the drive something was said, something passed between them, and they came home and never spoke to each other again. (...) All we learn from Lady Bristol is of a dispute over the letting of a house in St. James Square. 'I am sorry that m y situation has sat so heavy on your mind,' she wrote tp Elizabeth after the Bishop had left her, 'for I can agive you no comfort on that subject except by assuring you that my mind is quite above and out of the reach of the oppression I receive and the insults which accompany it, and that I have pride enough to bear being told that my advice is presumptous; and that I am being so made up of vanity and ostentation as not to be capable of cooperating in so laudable a polan without feeling the least humbled by it; and even my resentment is oftened down into compassion for the frailties of human nature, and for the wreck which warring passions bring upon it; my own happiness has long been an empty sound, and I am now only intent on drawing all the good possible out of this evil in favour of Louise.
(Louise is the youngest, not yet married daughter.)
Our clerical antihero goes back to Ireland sans wife and immediately gets himself a mistress, or atleast loving friend, a second cousin, in fact, Mrs. Mussenden, born Frideswide Bruce, granddaughter of Henry Hervey-Aston (one of the mad uncles from Erskine's introduction of Augustus' journal). (He's 52 by now.) Fothergill doesn't think more than flirting happened as points to the fact the family Bruce remained friends with the bishop, but it did make the papers. He also joins the Irish Volunteers.
G3: Who will rid me of this troublesome prelate?
Frederick: I think I'm off to globetrot some more.
This time, when he shows up in Naples to say hello to bff William, Emma has arrived on the scene. (She arrived in April that year.) Emma and Frederick immediately hit it off famously.
Lady Holland, famous Whig lady, later on: Lord Bristol, whom (Lady Holland) declared to be 'full of wit and plesantry' (though she was also to call him 'a clever, bad man') was 'a great admirer of Lady Hamiton and conjured Sir. W. to allow him to call her EMMA. That he should admire her beauty and her wonderful attitudes is not singular, but that he should like her society certainly is, as it is imipossible to go beyond her in vulgarity and coarseness.
Fothergill: the guy who thought of making his portly clergy sprint certainly wasn't deterred by vulgarity and coarseness.
Goethe: I enjoyed Emma's society as well and wrote about it in the "Italian Journey".
Maria Carolina, daughter of MT, Queen of Naples: So did I. But only once she had actually become Lady Hamilton. No mistresses in my presence!
However, staying on the continent has one distinct disadvantage. (Or not, depending on your pov.) It's French Revolution time! The Bishop, until then firmly on the side of progress, is shocked. He also turns violently anti French. His grand masterplan, which he describes in various letters, including a fateful one, is for a French partition, one part ruled by the Bourbons, one by the Revolutionaries, that would ensure the various parts of evil France are always at war with each other, never to trouble Britain or anyone else again. (Yes, the Polish partition is one of his models there.) Otoh, he likes the German states more and more, despite the bad roads. Other than Bad Pyrmont, Kassel is his favourite for the gorgeous park and the wonderful museum (can confirm both are great) at the Wilhelmshöhe (soon to be renamed into Napoleonshöhe). The Bishop returns one more time to the British Isles, makes an attempt to make up with G3 (in vain), and is in Ireland when buddy William arrives in London to ask permission to marry Emma (which he eventually gets). Writes Fred:
Nobody mentons your decison but with approbation; no wonder provided that they have ever seen and heard Lady Hamilton; and now I flatter myself you have secured your happiness for life.
In 1791, our antihero leaves Ireland for the last time. He also makes a last will which says that Bess and Mary are supposed to regard their dowries as all they'll get from him, and: I give my affectionate and dutiful daughter Lady Louisa Hervey five thousand pounds and to my undutiful and ungrateful son Frederick William Hervey I give one thousand pounds.
Fothergill doesn't know what not yet Victorian Frederick has done to incure his father's ire - sided with Mom? - , but it will be academic, because at this point, Federick the Bishop's oldest son John is still alive and the current Lord Hervey. He'll die soon, though, which makes "ungrateful" Frederick the heir, at which point his father will rediscover his affection and make marriage plans for him.
Travelling through Germany, Frederick the Bishop meets Goethe (in Jena), who writes about him:
About sixty-three years of age,of middle or rather low stature, of slight frame and countenance, lively in carriage and manners, quick in his speech, blunt, sometimes even rude; in more than one respect narrow and one-sided, as a Briton, unbending; as an individual, obstinate; as a divine, stiff; as a scholar, pedantic. Honestly, zeal for the Good, and the unfailiing results thereof, show everywhere through the disagreeable points of the above qualities, and they are b alanced, too, by his extensive knowledge of the world, of men and of books, by the liberality of a noble and by the ease of a rich man. However vehemently he may be speaking (and he spares neither general nor particular circumstances) he yet listens most attentively to everything that is spoken, be it for or against him; he soon yields, if he be contradicted; contradicts if he doesn't like the argument, though made in his favour; now drops one sentence, now takes up another, while arguing througout from a few ideas.
The Bishop begain by attacking Goethe on Werther (that novel had been published in the 1770s, so the Bishop was really out of date), and it was the usual "you glorified suicide" /"Did not" argument.
Then it's back to Italy, hanging out with Sir William and flirting with Emma. ("Oh Emma, who'd be ever wise,/ If madness be loving of thee?") Fothergill doesn't think they ever did more than flirting (which of course he credits the Earl-Bishop for). There is a story from Emma's likely fake memoirs about English singer Elizabeth Billington giving a concert in Naples, and one of G3's sons, Prince Augustus, being present together with the Hamiltons and the Earl-Bishop. Alas Prince Augustus sings loudly along with Elizabeth Billiington. He can't sing, and it's rude, but he's a prince. What to do?
At length the interruptions became so annoying that (the Earl-Bishop) could contain himself no longer and turning to the royal singer, said: "Pray cease, you have the ears of an ass."
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-20 05:31 am (UTC)It is incredile the cruelties of that monster Foster made her undergo with him; her father knows it, owned him a villain, and yet, for fear she should fall on hi shands agian, tried first to persuade her to return to him.
HERVEY
Horace Walpole: The mission of Lord Bristol's daughter, and her circumstances, are just as you've heard them. You may add, that though the daughter of an EArl lin lawn sleeves, who as an income of four or five and twenty thousand a year, he suffers her from indigence to accept 300 po9unds a year as governess to a natural child.
It's at least extremely faintly reassuring that everyone else thought this was awful!
All the indignation is in vain, as far as Frederick is concerned, Bess is on her own, and Bess, of course, will do better for herself than governess of the Duke's ililegitimate daughter. She's moving in with the Duchess and the Duke instead.
Honestly I cannot really blame her one bit if she was a conniving seducer!
The breach came at Ickworth. On the evidence of a servant, we are told that 'the Bishop and his wife went out for a drive together, and in the course of the drive something was said, something passed between them, and they came home and never spoke to each other again.
I wonder if he accused her of giving him syphilisGoethe: I enjoyed Emma's society as well and wrote about it in the "Italian Journey".
Maria Carolina, daughter of MT, Queen of Naples: So did I. But only once she had actually become Lady Hamilton. No mistresses in my presence!
Hee, I always love these little asides!
His grand masterplan, which he describes in various letters, including a fateful one, is for a French partition, one part ruled by the Bourbons, one by the Revolutionaries, that would ensure the various parts of evil France are always at war with each other, never to trouble Britain or anyone else again. (Yes, the Polish partition is one of his models there.)
*blinks again*
He also makes a last will which says that Bess and Mary are supposed to regard their dowries as all they'll get from him, and: I give my affectionate and dutiful daughter Lady Louisa Hervey five thousand pounds and to my undutiful and ungrateful son Frederick William Hervey I give one thousand pounds.
What is WRONG with this guy? If anyone deserved to die in the snow and be called a statue to get his body back, it's this guy.
Travelling through Germany, Frederick the Bishop meets Goethe (in Jena), who writes about him:
I like this description, and seems to fit.
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-20 07:33 am (UTC)Quite. I mean, I know Amanda Foreman speculates that the reason why John Foster took custody of his sons, didn't pay Bess a dime and was sure he wouldn't get any retaliation from her family was that he had proof she cheated on him even while admitting he had had sex with the maid servant. But it might simply be John Foster correctly judged that his father-in-law wouldn't care, and no one else had any influence to do anything about it. (British law at the time certainly wouldn't have helped Bess had she tried to get financial support from him.) But I just managed to find my copy of Foreman's Georgiana biography, and she also agrees with Mrs. Dillon and Horace Walpole that the Bishop not doing anything at all to help his daughter was awful.
Honestly I cannot really blame her one bit if she was a conniving seducer!
I have to say "deeply unpleasant" is the blogger's judgment, the impression from Foreman's biography I got was that she saw Bess as ruthless and manipulative, certainly, but she also saw her as a survivor in an era where the game was rigged if you were a woman. Oh, and dragging out the biography also reminded me that Edward Gibbons, he of "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" fame, thought Bess was the most seductive woman he ever met, absolutely irresistable, and that if she'd wanted to make the Lord Chancellor leave his seat in Parliament and make love to her right then and there in front of everyone he would have. Georgiana's other friends hated her and basically saw her as a gold digger, and couldn't understand why Georgiana didn't ditch her once Bess and the Duke became an item at the very latest. Their comments sound somewhat like those of Melanie Wilkes' friends about Scarlett O'Hara, though Georgiana otherwise doesn't have much resemblance with Melanie. Now maybe Bess did see that the Devonshires were both very lonely in their unhappy marriage and decided she had an opportunity there to make herself indespensible, thereby securing herself a good life. But let's not forget, these were both emotionally demanding people, and if Bess was manipulative, she also - like many a Royal Mistress - had to work non stop to earn her place, so to speak, being there for both of them. It's not like Bess had any security other than the affection of these two people to fall back on - if the Duke at any point had decided to kick her out for good, that would have been that. (If she couldn't sue her husband for support, she could hardly sue her lover.) If otoh Georgiana had decided to dump her as her friend of friends, well, she'd have survived that, so I'm inclined to believe she did care for Georgiana since she never stopped her relationship with her, either, as opposed to letting it slack once she'd secured the Duke. But as I said - having read about royal Mistresses, I know pleasing one demanding person of high position is much work (and not in the sex sense, see Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV), and can't imagine what pleasing two (very different people) for years and years would have been like.
I wonder if he accused her of giving him syphilis
LOL. The parallel did occur to me, but I doubt it. Fothergill would have mentioned if the Bishop had had STDs of any type at some point - he's not the hagiographic type of biographer -, and the impression I had was more that he was verbally cruel beyond the point where poor Excellent was willing to stand it at this point. (Plus she was indignant about his lack of support for their daughter.)
I like this description, and seems to fit.
Same here - Fothergill also likes it and says "with a novelist's eye", though he thinks the Bishop might only have pretended to be against Werther in order to get a reaction out of Goethe. (Who at this point of his life was as heartily sick of people accosting him about Werther, either pro or against, as Arthur Conan Doyle was about Sherlock Holmes.)
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-20 04:40 pm (UTC)OKAY WELL GOOD. :) (And makes me more interested in reading Foreman, whereas before I was a bit put off by the "deeply unpleasant" bit.) Ugh, poor Bess and I'm glad she found something that worked for her, manipulative or not.
One of my DW friends blogged about this book about mistresses, have you heard of this?
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-20 05:17 pm (UTC)When Georgiana died (with Bess at her side), Bess had to navigate a tricky time again because Georgiana's family (starting with her mother) loathed her as an intruder and gold digger, and of course they campaigned to get her out of the house. But Georgiana had foreseen that Bess would be in danger once she was dead and that's why in her will she explicitly made Bess the guardian of all her papers. She couldn't leave her money, being a notorious gambler entirely dependent on her husband to pay her debts, but the papers thing meant that Bess and only Bess had access to all of Georgiana's letters (political and personal), and that in turn meant that the family had to grit their teeth and treat her politely, and so had the Whig VIPs, down to being supportive when the Duke married Bess after the mourning period was over. It was very clever (and strategic) by Georgiana, and leaves no doubt that she loved Bess till the end. (Many years after they first met - this wasn't in the flush of infatuation.
As for Bess, she wrote to her son Augustus Foster (whom she'd gotten back into contact with once he was grown up) about Georgiana, and here I have to translate back from German into English, because my copy of Foreman's Georgiana biography is in German:
She is so present to me, and I am constantly thinking about her, that I feel like she's on a journey, and sometimes I catch myself saying 'Oh, I'll have to tell her about this...(Georgiana) was the constant charm of my life. She doubled every joy, and lessened every grief. Her society had an attraction stronger than any other beings I met. Her love to me truly was 'stronger than the love of women'.
(And yes, that was a biblical David-about-Jonathan quote Bess makes there. The next crisis for her came when the Duke died, because of course the Cavendish/Spencer family still wanted to get rid of her. Bess faced them down demanding her share of the inheritance both for herself and her two daughters by the Duke (who weren't, of course, officially his daughters, so it was seen as incredibly shocking when she basically said that yes, they were). Georgiana's and the Duke's son Hart (nickname) then offered her and his half siblings a very generous but one time big summ if they moved out of Chiswick (seat of the Cavendishs) within a week. Which they did. Bess build a small but neat house for herself in Richmond and divided her time between it and London. After five years of being a respectable widow (and the Duchess of Devonshire, which Georgiana's mother absolutely HATED) , she had enough of English society, took a leaf from Dad's book and moved to Italy - Rome, to be specific. Where she seduced herself a Cardinal (Cardinal Consalvi), financed diggings at the Forum Romanum (she had inherited Frederick's interest in antiquities), and according to visitors had her rooms full of books, being now able to read as much as she liked.
Lady Spencer (Georgiana's mother): "This Witch of Endor the Duchess of Devonshire now wrecks a different kind of havoc than that she's created her whole life, since she now finances diggings at the Forum and claims to do this for the public benefit!"
Bess died on March 30th 1824, exactly on the same day as Georgiana, and at her side were: a medaillon with Georgiana's strawberry blond hair, one of Georgiana's hairbands, and two of Georgiana's kids, because to the rest of the family's horror, Bess had regained the affection of both Georgiana's son Hart and of Georgiana's illegitimate daughter by Charles Grey, Eliza. (Georgiana's kids had started out liking Bess but as teenagers and adults had condemned her for the role she played in their parents' marriage.) Hart had her body brought back to England to be buried with Georgiana and the Duke. I think what maddened a lot of people about Bess till the end, especially now that England was moving into the Victorian age, is that she wasn't punished by fate for her sinful ways, but ended feted as a scholarly English Milady by admiring Italians instead of ruined and broke. Or committing suicide. After having got what she wanted from both Georgiana and the Duke for as long as they lived. Where was the victory of morality there?
ETA: Otoh, as much as he was a deadbeat Dad to her, I do think Frederick Hervey would have approved. :)
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-23 12:33 am (UTC)Where she seduced herself a Cardinal (Cardinal Consalvi), financed diggings at the Forum Romanum (she had inherited Frederick's interest in antiquities), and according to visitors had her rooms full of books, being now able to read as much as she liked.
YEAH
because to the rest of the family's horror, Bess had regained the affection of both Georgiana's son Hart and of Georgiana's illegitimate daughter by Charles Grey, Eliza. (Georgiana's kids had started out liking Bess but as teenagers and adults had condemned her for the role she played in their parents' marriage.)
EXCELLENT
I think what maddened a lot of people about Bess till the end, especially now that England was moving into the Victorian age, is that she wasn't punished by fate for her sinful ways, but ended feted as a scholarly English Milady by admiring Italians instead of ruined and broke. Or committing suicide. After having got what she wanted from both Georgiana and the Duke for as long as they lived. Where was the victory of morality there?
I am totally virtually waving pom-poms for Bess here. YOU GO GIRL.
ETA: Otoh, as much as he was a deadbeat Dad to her, I do think Frederick Hervey would have approved. :)
LOLOLOLOL! I must agree!
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-23 07:12 am (UTC)Yes, and she doesn't say it in public, making a show of her grief. She says it in a private letter to her son.
Now, I can also see where Georgiana's other friends and family were coming from. To them, the situation looked like this: Bess single white femaled her way into Georgiana's life, to the point where she was adding little post scripts to letters to Georgiana's mother (who was INCENSED!), repaid Georgiana's unconditional friendship and support by seducing her husband, and wasn't even faithful to that guy, either, since Bess did have affairs with people neither the Duke nor Georgiana during their years together as well.
When did she have the time? During her solo trips on the continent, mostly. Not during the shared trips with Georgiana, but during her first solo European journey, back when she was still officially the governess of the Duke's illegitimate daughter and travelling across Europe with the girl, she met Axel Fersen (yes, THAT Fersen, Marie Antoinette's Fersen) in Italy and flirted with him . Whether they had sex, we don't know, but there was kissing. Georgiana, hearing about this per letter, must have minded enough that when two years later she encountered Fersen in Paris - this was when Georgiana befriended Marie Antoinette herself - she grumpily remarked she didn't understand what "people" were seeing in Fersen, he had beautiful eyes but that was all, otherwise he wasn't hot, so there. And Georgiana initially did mind about Bess and the Duke, too. At first she was delighted that the Duke seemed to like Bess, because her and the Duke liking same person was a first (otherwise her friends were not his friends and vice versa), and when she began to see it went beyond liking, she wrote a letter to Bess where she gives a strong hint of what she didn't want Bess to do by imagining all of them living together and Bess being "a good sister" to the Duke. Which, well, did not happen.
So if you're looking at all of this from the outside and without the benefit of having read all the letters between Georgiana and Bess and Bess' diary and knowing Bess would keep the medaillon with Georgiana's heir with her to her dying day, in short, that Bess really did love Georgiana, whatever she felt about the Duke, then it's relatively easy to conclude that Bess was just out to milk the Devonshires for what they were worth. In the case of Georgiana's mother, there's also the factor that Bess essentially replaced her as Georgiana's No.1 confidant. Since Georgiana and the Duke didn't have a good marriage, Georgiana's primary attachment during the pre Bess years of her marriage was to her mother, and with Bess, she still loved her mother, of course, but she also as even Amanda Foreman says grew up and no longer told her mother everything or consulted her on everything and made her own decisions.
What I'm baffled by, though, are the people insisting that Bess kept both Georgiana and the Duke enthralled and from seeing through her by the power of manipulation - for years. I mean, they weren't always together, to start with. (Neither the three of them, nor Bess with one of them.) Every time Bess got pregnant by the Duke, it was time for another continental trip, for example. It wasn't as if Bess was able to limit their access to other friends (and lovers - Georgiana had her affair with Charles Grey post Bess, not pre Bess, for example). Whatever emotional power she had, they were the ones with greater social power. And as you noted, there was a time when the Duke was mad at Georgiana and they were in Europe together, instead of Bess deserting Georgiana in favour of cozying up to the Duke on her lonesome.
What I'm getting at: I can buy Bess initially presented herself to Georgiana and the Duke as the fulfillment of the emotional (and sexual) needs they had in their troubled marriage in a conscious way - i.e. that she saw that Georgiana needed someone who was passionate (not just emotionally, also passionate about issues) and determined, while the Duke wanted someone who was calm and submissive, and that she was able to play these very different roles accordingly. But it's not like there's a lack of women willing to be submissive and calm for a rich upper class aristocrat like the Duke, and Georgiana had a wide circle of friends througout her life, a great many of which showed spirit and determination. They both had alternatives, is what I'm saying. The fact that occassional arguments not withstanding, Bess remained the one for them them through two decades therefore seems to me rooted in love rather than Bess having some long term manipulative superpowers. (Sometimes you can really overthink things.) That she still had short term affairs outside of the triangle to me doesn't prove she didn't care for them, especially for Georgiana, but that a) like many a male of the era, she liked sex, and b) she also needed emotional relief. Because as I said earlier, bearing the life of royal mistresses in mind, I bet keeping both Georgiana and the Duke happy was at times hard work, emotionally speaking. By contrast, making out with the likes of Axel Fersen who is emotionally committed elsewhere and thus has no demands must have been just fun.
Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-23 01:01 pm (UTC)Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-04-24 04:05 pm (UTC)Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress
Date: 2023-05-10 04:49 am (UTC)A Hanoverian father-son pair that didn't hate each other? :P
Presumably Augustus thought Fred would publish, given at this point he and G3 were irrevocably estranged and Fred didn't care anymore?
Perhaps he thought Fred was a loose cannon and there was no telling *what* he would do?
He also joins the Irish Volunteers.
G3: Who will rid me of this troublesome prelate?
Frederick: I think I'm off to globetrot some more.
Hahaha, your commentary continues to deliver the entertainment. And speaking of the Volunteers, Wikipedia tells me:
The Volunteers (also known as the Irish Volunteers) were local militias raised by local initiative in Ireland in 1778. Their original purpose was to guard against invasion and to preserve law and order at a time when British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight abroad during the American Revolutionary War and the government failed to organise its own militia. Taking advantage of Britain's preoccupation with its rebelling American colonies, the Volunteers were able to pressure Westminster into conceding legislative independence to the Dublin parliament...According to Bartlett, it was the Volunteers of 1782 which would launch a paramilitary tradition in Irish politics; a tradition, whether nationalist or unionist, that has continued to shape Irish political activity
Sounds like a troublesome prelate indeed.
which he describes in various letters, including a fateful one, is for a French partition
Wooow. I did not know about this! Imagine *that* AU. (That reminds me, one of these days I need to read that Tim Blanning book on the French Revolutionary Wars that I bought a while back but got distracted from (as is my wont)).
At length the interruptions became so annoying that (the Earl-Bishop) could contain himself no longer and turning to the royal singer, said: "Pray cease, you have the ears of an ass."
I.e., the same guy Augustus didn't want getting his hands on the memoirs. Yep, that checks out.