"
[Footnote 1: Lady Morgan and Madame de Genlis have been suggested as
each presenting a better subject for a parallel.]
[Footnote 2: "To understand the point of this answer," says Mr.
Mackintosh, "it must be known that an old countess is introduced in
the novel full of cunning, finessing, and trick, who was intended to
represent Talleyrand, and Delphine was intended for herself."--_Life
of Sir James Mackintosh_, vol. ii. p. 453.]
[Footnote 3: This _mot_ is given to Talleyrand in Lady Holland's Life
of Sydney Smith. But it may be traced to one mentioned by Hannah More
in 1787, as then current in Paris. One of the _notables_ fresh from
his province was teased by two _petits maitres_ to tell them who he
was. "Eh bien donc, le voici: je suis ni sot ni fat, mais je suis
entre les deux."--_Memoirs of Hannah More_, vol. ii. p. 57.]
In London she was soon voted a bore by the wits and people of
fashion. She thought of convincing whilst they thought of dining.
Sheridan and Brummell delighted in mystifying her. Byron complained
that she was always talking of himself or herself[1], and concludes
his account of a dinner-party by the remark:--"But we got up too soon
after the women; and Mrs. Corinne always lingers so long after
dinner, that we wish her--in the drawing-room." In another place he
says: "I saw Curran presented to Madame de Stael at Mackintosh's; it
was the grand confluence between the Rhone and the Saone, and they
were both so d--d ugly that I could not help wondering how the best
intellects of France and England could have taken up respectively
such residences.
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