In the course of his famous definition or description of wit, Barrow
says: "Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in
seasonable application of a trivial saying: sometimes it playeth in
words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense
or the affinity of their sound." If this be so, she possessed it in
abundance. In a letter, dated Bath, 26th April, 1818,--about the time
when Talleyrand said of Lady F.S.'s robe: "_Elle commence trop tard
et finit trop tot_,"--she writes:
"A genteel young clergyman, in our Upper Crescent, told his mamma
about ten days ago, that he had lost his heart to pretty Miss
Prideaux, and that he must absolutely marry her or die. _La chere
mere_ of course replied gravely: 'My dear, you have not been
acquainted with the lady above a fortnight: let me recommend you to
see more of her.' 'More of her!' exclaimed the lad, 'why I have seen
down to the fifth rib on each side already.' This story will serve to
convince Captain T. Fellowes and yourself, that as you have always
acknowledged the British Belles to _exceed_ those of every other
nation, you may now say with truth, that they _outstrip_ them."
On the 1st July, 1818:
"The heat has certainly exhausted my faculties, and I have but just
life enough left to laugh at the fourteen tailors who, united under a
flag with '_Liberty and Independence_' on it, went to vote for some
of these gay fellows, I forget which, but the motto is ill chosen,
said I, they should have written up, '_Measures not Men_'"
Her verses are advantageously distinguished amongst those of her
blue-stocking contemporaries by happy turns of thought and
expression, natural playfulness, and an abundant flow of idiomatic
language.
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368