Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/315

 10 S. X. SEPT. 26, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

259

JHisallatunus.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Diary of a Lady in Waiting. By Lady

Charlotte Bury. Being the Diary illustrative of

the Times of George the Fourth, interspersed

with Original Letters from the late Queen

Caroline and from other Distinguished Persons.

Edited with an Introduction by A. Francis

Steuart. With eighteen full-page Portraits, two

in Photogravure. 2 vols. (John Lane.)

THIS somewhat portentous title represents an old

book revised and edited by one of our able younger

scholars, who has filled in many of the blanks left

at a time when it was usual to write very freely,

yet vaguely, concerning highly placed persons about

the Court.

The book is a handsome one, and the present reviewer is of opinion that it was well worth repro- duction in spite of the venomous attacks to which it was subjected on its appearance, by Brougham in the Edinburgh and Croker in the Quarterly. Lady Charlotte Bury, now generally regarded as its author, like other women of talent, had her affectations, and was by no means trustworthy where her private inclinations were concerned. The book had, when it appeared anonymously, a great sale, and what may be called a scandalous success. But it is no whit :worse in this respect than many memoirs of the time, and it is written by one who was in a much better position to judge of Court affairs, or, at worst, to appreciate courtly scandal, than many hangers-on and disappointed politicians.

The lady at her best wielded a lively pen, and had, we think, considerable insight into character. The curious Court of Caroline. Princess of Wales, is pictured for us in unforgettable style, and on the whole the behaviour of the diarist to her mistress showed far more thought arid firmness than a mere sentimentalist would betray. The pen of a writer who is clever naturally overdoes the desagrements of such a position, which make more effective read- ing than the advantages. Lady Charlotte Bury cuts quite as creditable a figure in Court circles as Fanny Burney. A deal of her narrative is tedious, it is true, owing to her almost Oriental gift of platitude and moral reflection ; but she has a real sense of character, and her sentimentality is tem- pered by decidedly sound sense on occasion. Her heart is good, and it is to her credit that she has a " peculiar pleasure in pleasing old people."

Almost all the letters here are worth reading, except the extensive effusions of Princess Charlotte ; and the letters of M. G. Lewis, C. K. Sharpe, and Sir W. Gell are particularly amusing. Some of the letters at the end might surely have been inserted in the text of the diary at their approximate places.

C. K. Sharpe, writing from Oxford, has an amusing account of Shelley : " Talking of books, we have lately had a literary Sun shine forth upon us here, before whom our former luminaries must hide their diminished heads a Mr. Shelley, of University College, who lives upon arsenic, aqua-fortis, halt- an-hour's sleep in the night, and is desperately in love with the memory of Margaret Nicholson. He hath published, what he terms the Posthumous Poems, printed for the benefit of Mr. Peter Finnerty; which, I am grieved to say, though

stuffed full of treason, are extremely dull ; but the Author is a great genius, and, if he be not clapped up in Bedlam or hanged, will certanly prove one of the sweetest swans on the tuneful margin of the Char well."

On the next page (p. 36) there is a reference by Sharpe to Shelley's " monstrous romance in one volume, called 'St. Ircoyne, or the Rosicrucian.'" Here the editor might have noted that ' St. Irvyne r is the correct title. He does not attempt to rectify, or fill up, other dubious things, and we are asked to call upon our contributors for help in this matter in view of a new edition. We are sure that Mr. Bleackley and other accomplished students of the period will be able to add much. Many of the problems set by the blanks are so easy that they can be solved at once. "H ly," for instance, " now Archbishop of Canterbury, is Howley.

The diarist had, besides beauty, considerable accomplishment in art and letters ; indeed, we doubt if the fine ladies of to-day are anything like so well equipped. The wonder is that with such talents as hers she stayed on so long at the Court of her unsatisfactory mistress. She combined a love of scandal with attention to sermons, a fondness for desperate bluestockings like Madame de Stael, and a tendency to religious self-examination. Her " olio," as it would have been called in earlier days, contains much that is valuable as well as silly. Princess Charlotte (i. 186) seems half-seriously to have made a wax figure of the perfidious Regent, stuck it through with pins, and melted it in the fire. Under the date 21 May, 1814, we read : "All

the gentlemen, I hear, looked beautiful in their dress clothes." The last two words have a modern ring, and, looking at the 'N.E.D./ we find the earliest citation for them is from Jane Porter 1831.

There are eighteen full-page portraits, which add much to the attractiveness of the book. They include the handsome author of the Diary, Caroline as Princess of Wales and Queen, Pauline Bonaparte (from a pastel in the possession of Mr. John Lane), Madame de Stael, Lady Hamilton as a Sibyl, and Lady Hertford. If the volumes are reissued, we hope they may be subjected to the eye of a rigorous- proof-reader, who will detect several inaccuracies- of spelling.

The Oxford Thackeray. With Illustrations. Edited by George Saintsbury. Vols. I. -VI. (Oxford,, University Press. )

'THE OXFORD THACKERAY' will be complete in seventeen volumes, and those before us are sufficient to claim ample recognition from all lovers of an English classic. In three ways this edition is pre- eminent. First and foremost, it is wonderfully cheap, though well printed; secondly, it has an array of illustrations which are in some cases new and valuable additions to the text ; and lastly, it has Introductions by Prof. Saintsbury, who is not the ordinary young man prepared to say something striking on a writer he is editing as an odd job, but a critic of acknowledged experience and reputa- tion, dilating on a favourite author.

The first volume, * The Yellowplush Papers and Early Miscellanies,' con tains the Professor's general view of Thackeray's life and works, with which we are on the whole in cordial agreement. He decides on the reproduction of some of Thackeray's writing (mostly anonymous works) not appearing in author- ized book-issues, but shows laudable caution in the