The Wits and Beaux of Society | Page 2

St. James's.--Frederick, Prince of Wales.--Amelia Sophia Walmoden.--Poor Queen Caroline!--Nocturnal Diversions of Maids of Honour.--Neighbour George's Orange Chest.--Mary Lepel, Lady Hervey.--Rivalry.--Hervey's Intimacy with Lady Mary.--Relaxations of the Royal Household.--Bacon's Opinion of Twickenham.--A Visit to Pope's Villa.--The Little Nightingale.--The Essence of Small Talk.--Hervey's Affectation and Effeminacy.--Pope's Quarrel with Hervey and Lady Mary.--Hervey's Duel with Pulteney.--'The Death of Lord Hervey: a Drama.'--Queen Caroline's last Drawing-room.--Her Illness and Agony.--A Painful Scene.--The Truth discovered.--The Queen's Dying Bequests.--The King's Temper.--Archbishop Potter is sent for.--The Duty of Reconciliation.--The Death of Queen Caroline.--A Change in Hervey's Life.--Lord Hervey's Death.--Want of Christianity.--Memoirs of his Own Time. p. 170
PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, FOURTH EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.
The King of Table Wits.--Early Years.--Hervey's Description of his Person.--Resolutions and Pursuits.--Study of Oratory.--The Duties of an Ambassador.--King George II.'s Opinion of his Chroniclers.--Life in the Country.--Melusina, Countess of Walsingham.--George II. and his Father's Will.--Dissolving Views.--Madame du Bouchet.--The Broad-Bottomed Administration.--Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in Time of Peril.--Reformation of the Calendar.--Chesterfield House.--Exclusiveness.--Recommending 'Johnson's Dictionary.'--'Old Samuel,' to Chesterfield.--Defensive Pride.--The Glass of Fashion.--Lord Scarborough's Friendship for Chesterfield.--The Death of Chesterfield's Son.--His Interest in his Grandsons.--'I must go and Rehearse my Funeral.'--Chesterfield's Will.--What is a Friend?--Les Manières Nobles.--Letters to his Son. p. 210
THE ABBE SCARRON.
An Eastern Allegory.--Who comes Here?--A Mad Freak and its Consequences.--Making an Abbé of him.--The May-Fair of Paris.--Scarron's Lament to Pellisson.--The Office of the Queen's Patient.--'Give me a Simple Benefice.'--Scarron's Description of Himself.--Improvidence and Servility.--The Society at Scarron's.--The Witty Conversation.--Francoise D'Aubigné's Début.--The Sad Story of La Belle Indienne.--Matrimonial Considerations.--'Scarron's Wife will live for ever.'--Petits Soupers.--Scarron's last Moments.--A Lesson for Gay and Grave. p. 235
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT AND THE DUC DE SAINT-SIMON.
Rank and Good Breeding.--The H?tel de Rochefoucault.--Racine and his Plays.--La Rochefoucault's Wit and Sensibility.--Saint-Simon's Youth.--Looking out for a Wife.--Saint-Simon's Court Life.--The History of Louise de la Vallière.--A mean Act of Louis Quatorze.--All has passed away.--Saint-Simon's Memoirs of His Own Time. p. 253

SUBJECTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I.
PAGE
WHARTON'S ROGUISH PRESENT (Frontispiece)
VILLIERS IN DISGUISE--THE MEETING WITH HIS SISTER 14
DE GRAMMONT'S MEETING WITH LA BELLE HAMILTON 74
BEAU FIELDING AND THE SHAM WIDOW 85
A SCENE BEFORE KENSINGTON PALACE--GEORGE II. AND QUEEN CAROLINE 172
POPE AT HIS VILLA--DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 194
A ROYAL ROBBER 217
DR. JOHNSON AT LORD CHESTERFIELD'S 226
SCARRON AND THE WITS--FIRST APPEARANCE OF LA BELLE INDIENNE 247

PREFACE.
When Grace and Philip Wharton found that they had pleased the world with their "Queens of Society," they very sensibly resolved to follow up their success with a companion work. Their first book had been all about women; the second book should be all about men. Accordingly they set to work selecting certain types that pleased them; they wrote a fresh collection of pleasant essays and presented the reading public with "Wits and Beaux of Society". The one book is as good as the other; there is not a pin to choose between them. There is the same bright easy, gossiping style, the same pleasing rapidity. There is nothing tedious, nothing dull anywhere. They do not profess to have anything to do with the graver processes of history--these entertaining volumes; they seek rather to amuse than to instruct, and they fulfil their purpose excellently. There is instruction in them, but it comes in by the way; one is conscious of being entertained, and it is only after the entertainment is over that one finds that a fair amount of information has been thrown in to boot. The Whartons have but old tales to tell, but they tell them very well, and that is the first part of their business.
Looking over these articles is like looking over the list of a good club. Men are companionable creatures; they love to get together and gossip. It is maintained, and with reason, that they are fonder of their own society than women are. Men delight to breakfast together, to take luncheon together, to dine together, to sup together. They rejoice in clubs devoted exclusively to their service, as much taboo to women as a trappist monastery. Women are not quite so clannish. There are not very many women's clubs in the world; it is not certain that those which do exist are very brilliant or very entertaining. Women seldom give supper parties, "all by themselves they" after the fashion of that "grande dame de par le monde" of whom we have spoken elsewhere. A woman's dinner-party may succeed now and then by way of a joke, but it is a joke that is not often repeated. Have we not lately seen how an institution with a graceful English name, started in London for women and women only, has just so far relaxed its rigid rule as to allow men upon its premises between certain hours, and this relaxation we are told has been conceded in consequence of the demand of numerous ladies. Well, well, if men can on the whole get on better without the society of women than women