FN 57 Memoires originaux sur le regne et la cour de Frederic I, Roi de Prusse, ecrits par Christophe Comte de Dohna. Berlin, 1833. It is strange that this interesting volume should be almost unknown in England. The only copy that I have ever seen of it was kindly given to me by Sir Robert Adair. "Le Roi," Dohna says, "avoit une autre qualite tres estimable, qui est celle de n'aimer point qu'on rendit de mauvais offices a personne par des railleries." The Marquis de La Fork tried to entertain His Majesty at the expense of an English nobleman. "Ce prince," says Dohna "prit son air severe, et, le regardant sans mot dire, lui fit rentrer les paroles dans le ventre. Le Marquis m'en fit ses plaintes quelques heures apres. 'J'ai mal pris ma bisque,' dit-il; 'j'ai cru faire l'agreable sur le chapitre de Milord . . mais j'ai trouva a qui parler, et j'ai attrape un regard du roi qui m'a fait passer l'envie de tire.'" Dohna supposed that William might be less sensitive about the character of a Frenchman, and tried the experiment. But, says he, "j'eus a pert pres le meme sort que M. de la Foret."FN 58 Compare the account of Mary by the Whig Burnet with the mention of her by the Tory Evelyn in his Diary, March 8. 1694/5, and with what is said of her by the Nonjuror who wrote the Letter to Archbishop Tennison on her death in 1695. The impression which the bluntness and reserve of William and the grace and gentleness of Mary had made on the populace may be traced in the remains of the street poetry of that time. The following conjugal dialogue may still be seen on the original broadside.
"Then bespoke Mary, our most royal Queen, 'My gracious king William, where are you going?'
He answered her quickly, 'I count him no man That telleth his secret unto a woman.'
The Queen with a modest behaviour replied, 'I wish that kind Providence may be thy guide, To keep thee from danger, my sovereign Lord, He which will the greatest of comfort afford.'"These lines are in an excellent collection formed by Mr. Richard Heber, and now the property of Mr. Broderip, by whom it was kindly lent to me; in one of the most savage Jacobite pasquinades of 1689, William is described as "A churle to his wife, which she makes but a jest."FN 59 Burnet, ii. 2.; Burnet, MS. Harl. 6484. But Ronquillo's account is much more circumstantial. "Nada se ha visto mas desfigurado; y, quantas veces he estado con el, le he visto toser tanto que se le saltaban las lagrimas, y se ponia moxado y arrancando; y confiesan los medicos que es una asma incurable,"Mar. 8/18 1689. Avaux wrote to the same effect from Ireland. "La sante de l'usurpateur est fort mauvaise. L'on ne croit pas qu'il vive un an." April 8/18.
FN 60 "Hasta decir los mismos Hollandeses que lo desconozcan,"says Ronquillo. "Il est absolument mal propre pour le role qu'il a a jouer a l'heure qu'il est," says Avaux. "Slothful and sickly," says Evelyn. March 29. 1689.
FN 61 See Harris's description of Loo, 1699.
FN 62 Every person who is well acquainted with Pope and Addison will remember their sarcasms on this taste. Lady Mary Wortley Montague took the other side. "Old China," she says, "is below nobody's taste, since it has been the Duke of Argyle's, whose understanding has never been doubted either by his friends or enemies."FN 63 As to the works at Hampton Court, see Evelyn's Diary, July 16. 1689; the Tour through Great Britain, 1724; the British Apelles; Horace Walpole on Modern Gardening; Burnet, ii. 2, 3.
FN When Evelyn was at Hampton Court, in 1662, the cartoons were not to be seen. The Triumphs of Andrea Mantegna were then supposed to be the finest pictures in the palace.
FN 64 Burnet, ii. 2.; Reresby's Memoirs. Ronquillo wrote repeatedly to the same effect. For example, "Bien quisiera que el Rey fuese mas comunicable, y se acomodase un poco mas al humor sociable de los Ingleses, y que estubiera en Londres: pero es cierto que sus achaques no se lo permiten." July 8/18 1689.
Avaux, about the same time, wrote thus to Croissy from Ireland:
"Le Prince d'Orange est toujours a Hampton Court, et jamais a la ville: et le peuple est fort mal satisfait de cette maniere bizarre et retiree."FN 65 Several of his letters to Heinsius are dated from Holland House.
FN 66 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 251689/1690.
FN 67 De Foe makes this excuse for William "We blame the King that he relies too much On strangers, Germans, Huguenots, and Dutch, And seldom does his great affairs of state To English counsellors communicate.
The fact might very well be answered thus, He has too often been betrayed by us.
He must have been a madman to rely On English gentlemen's fidelity.
The foreigners have faithfully obeyed him, And none but Englishmen have e'er betrayed him."The True Born Englishman, Part ii.
FN 68 Ronquillo had the good sense and justice to make allowances which the English did not make. After describing, in a despatch dated March 1/11. 1689, the lamentable state of the military and naval establishments, he says, "De esto no tiene culpa el Principe de Oranges; porque pensar que se han de poder volver en dos meses tres Reynos de abaxo arriba es una extravagancia." Lord President Stair, in a letter written from London about a month later, says that the delays of the English administration had lowered the King's reputation, "though without his fault."FN 69 Burnet, ii. 4.; Reresby.
FN 70 Reresby's Memoirs; Burnet MS. Hart. 6584.
FN 71 Burnet, ii. 3, 4. 15.
FN 72 ibid. ii. 5.
FN 73 "How does he do to distribute his hours, Some to the Court, and some to the City, Some to the State, and some to Love's powers, Some to be vain, and some to be witty?"The Modern Lampooners, a poem of 1690.
FN 74 Burnet ii. 4.
