Piozzi_? Here then I rest, and
will torment my mind no longer, but commit myself, as he advises, to
the hand of Providence, and all will end _all' ottima perfezzione_.
"Written at Streatham, 1st October, 1782."
[Footnote 1: _Note by Mrs. Piozzi_: "He was half a year _older_ when
our registers were both examined."]
"_October, 1782._--There is no mercy for me in this island. I am more
and more disposed to try the continent. One day the paper rings with
my marriage to Johnson, one day to Crutchley, one day to Seward. I
give no reason for such impertinence, but cannot deliver myself from
it. Whitbred, the rich brewer, is in love with me too; oh, I would
rather, as Ann Page says, be set breast deep in the earth[1] and
bowled to death with turnips.
"Mr. Crutchley bid me make a curtsey to my daughters for keeping me
out of a goal (_sic_), and the newspapers insolent as he! How shall I
get through? How shall I get through? I have not deserved it of any
of them, as God knows.
"Philip Thicknesse put it about Bath that I was a poor girl, a mantua
maker, when Mr. Thrale married me. It is an odd thing, but Miss
Thrales like, I see, to have it believed."
[Footnote 1: Anne Page says, "quick in the earth."]
The general result down to this point is that, whatever the
disturbance in Mrs. Thrale's heart and mind, Johnson had no ground of
complaint, nor ever thought he had, which is the essential point in
controversy. In other words, he was not driven, hinted, or manoeuvred
out of Streatham.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182