Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/248

 In later life the two ladies quarrelled, but Mrs. Piozzi (as Mrs. Thrale became in 1782) admitted after Mrs. Montagu's death that she had a great deal of ready wit' (manuscript note in her copy of Life of Seattle, in. 163, in Brit. Mus.) Mrs. Montagu's younger associates included Hannah More and Fanny Burney. Miss Burney, whom she first met at Mrs. Thrale's, found her 'brilliant in diamonds, solid in judgment, and critical in talk ' (, Memoirs, ii. 8), but deemed her a person' to respect rather than to love' (ib. p. 9). Miss More, who first dined with her in Hill Street early in 1775 (along with Mrs. Carter, Dr. Johnson, Solander, Paul Henry Maty, Mrs. Boscawen, Sir Joshua and Miss Reynolds), was dazzled by the magnificence of the entertainment and the youthful sprightliness of the hostess (cf. and, Reynolds, ii. 108-9).

In 1760 Mrs. Montagu gave practical proof of her literary capacity by anonymously contributing three dialogues (Nos. xxvi. xxvii. and xxviii.) to her friend Lyttelton's 1 Dialogues of the Dead.' In No. xxviii., in which Plutarch, Charon, and a modern book-seller were the speakers, she complimented Richardson on his 'Clarissa' (p. 318). She visited Paris after the peace of 1763, 'when she displayed to the astonished literati of that metropolis the extent of her pecuniary as well as of her mental resources', and with her husband in the same year accompanied the Earl and Countess of Bath and Mrs. Carter on a tour through Germany and Holland (cf. European Magazine, 1800, pt. ii. p. 244). In 1766 she visited Scotland, staying some weeks at Blair Drummond, the seat of Henry Home, lord Kames [q. v.], and meeting Dr. John Gregory (1724-1773) [q. v.] and other celebrities at Edinburgh (, Memoirs, ii. 44, iii. 279). Offended by Voltaire's contemptuous references to Shakespeare, she undertook on her return to London to refute him, and in 1769 published anonymously 'An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear compared with the Greek and French Dramatic Poets, with some Remarks upon the Misrepresentations of Mons. de Voltaire,' London, 1769, 8vo. A second edition appeared in 1770, and a third edition in 1772, while it was translated into both French (Paris, 1777) and Italian (Florence. 1828). The chapters deal with 'Dramatic Poetry,' 'Historical Drama,' 'Henry IV, pts. 1 and 2,' 'Preternatural Beings,' 'Macbeth,' Corneille's 'Cinna,' and the 'Death of Julius Caesar.' Sensible and sympathetic, the book fulfilled its purpose. This Johnson admitted according to Seward, but Boswell credits the doctor with the assertion that there was not one sentence of true criticism in the essay, an opinion echoed by Boswell and Mrs. Thrale (cf., ii. 88, iv. 16, v. 245). It had unequivocal admirers in Reynolds, Lyttelton, and Lord Grenville, whose praises made the authoress 'very happy' (Grenville Correspondence, iv. 4, 425). On 27 May 1788 Cowper, a later acquaintance, wrote of the work to Lady Hesketh : 'I no longer wonder that Mrs. Montagu stands at the head of all that is called learned, and that every critic veils his bonnet to her superior judgment. . . . The learning, the good sense, the sound judgment, and the wit displayed in it [i.e. the 'Essay'] fully justify not only my compliment, but all compliments that either have been already paid to her talent or shall be paid hereafter' ({{sc|Hayley}, Life of Cowper, 1824, ii. 340).

On 12 May 1775 Mrs. Montagu's husband died after a tedious illness. He left her 7,000l. a year, all his fortune except 3,000l. (, v. 126 ;, vi. 217). She was fully equal to her increased responsibilities. The large estates, with the collieries at Denton, which were now her property, she frequently visited, and generously entertained her tenants and colliers. According to Boswell and Jenyns, she was generous 'from vanity,' but Johnson argued that, whatever her motive, no one did so much good from benevolence as she, even if her methods were in a few cases mistaken (, i. 154). At the same time her increasing years did not diminish her love of pleasure. In the autumn of 1775 she hired a house for a few months at Montauban (, Seattle, i. 114), In the summer of 1776 she went to Paris and heard 'an invective against Shakespeare' by Voltaire read at the French Academy. On settling again in England, she devoted herself to house-building. At Sandleford she erected in 1781 a noble mansion after plans by Wyatt. In the same year shebegan to build Montagu House, at the north-west corner of Portman Square, by Upper Berkeley Street, now No. 22 Portman Square. Designed by James ('Athenian') Stuart, it was sumptuously decorated, and, although 'grand,' was not 'tawdry' (, viii. 156). The walls of one room 'the room of cupidons' were painted with roses and jessamine intertwined with 'little cupids' (, iv. 508). Another room, 'the feather room,' was ornamented by hangings made by herself from the plumage of almost every kind of bird ; of this feature of the building the poet Cowper wrote in enthusiastic verse. Some paintings by Angelica Kauffmann still remain on the walls. On