Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/436

416 mot-tive to rise,” was his sole answer. (From Dr. Burney.)

The late Lord Chesterfield’s bons mots were all studied. Dr. Warren, who attended him for some months before his death, told me that he had always one ready for him each visit, but never gave him a second on the same day.

The late Duchess of N was very large and fat, had good sense, but was not very refined or delicate in her expressions, nor much addicted to reading. At one of the great assemblies in N{bar|3}} House, Lady Talbot, a very slight, delicate woman who affected literature, happening to stand near a door where there was a great throng, exclaimed, “Good Lord, this is as difficult a pass as the Straits of Thermopyle!” “I don’t know what street you mean,” replied the duchess, “but I am afraid I shall never get my through it.” The consternation of the learned lady may be easily conceived.—(From Mr. Burke.)

It happens sometimes to celebrated wits by too great an effort to render a day from which much was expected quite abortive. Not long before Garrick’s death, he invited Charles Fox, Mr. Burke, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Sheridan, Sir Joshua Reynolds,, and some others to dine at Hampton. Soon after dinner he began to read a copy of verses, written by himself on some of the most celebrated