THE LITERATURE OF SOCIETY.

BY

GRACE WHARTON,

ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF "THE QUEENS OF SOCIETY," AND THE WITS
AND BEAUX OF SOCIETY."

With an Introductory Chapter on the Origin of Fiction.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18 CATHERINE STREET,

STRAND.

1862.

[The right of Translation is reserved.]

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Dryden's best Patron, Sir Robert Howard.-Risks incurred by the Poet-Anecdote of

Wilmot, Earl of Rochester.-Dryden's Marriage.-Mrs. Reeves.-State of the

Stage.-Love of Charles II, for it.-Prosperity of Dryden interrupted by the Fire

of London.-Origin and Progress of the Fire.-Presence of Mind of Charles II.—

State of the City and of the Court.-Change in Dryden's Style of Writing p.

CHAPTER II.

Dryden's Circumstances.-Is made Poet Laureate.-His Prologue-making.-His

Enemies.-Southerne; his Singular Fate.-His Love of Music.-Settle; his

Tragedy of The Empress of Morocco.'-Dryden's Criticism on him.-George

Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham; his Play of 'The Rehearsal.'-Dryden's

Revenge on Villiers.-The Earl of Rochester's Outrage on the Poet.-Lord

Mulgrave, the real Author of the Essay on Satire.'-The Lines on 'Saunt'ring

Charles.' Absalom and Achitophel;' extracts from that Poem.-Dryden's

Conversion to Romanism.-Retirement from Public Life.-Dies in Indigence.-

The Story of his Burial.-His Character

CHAPTER III.

p. 21

Resorts of the Wits.-Knowle House.-Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset.-

His Life and Character.-Knowle House and its Coterie.-Edmund Waller.-His

Career.-Anecdotes of Cromwell.-Waller's Minor Poems.-His love for Lady

Dorothy Sydney.-Lines on his Disappointment.-Anecdote of Lady Sutherland

and Waller.An Account of Waller's Plot.-After his Trial Waller goes to Paris.

-The Reigning Belle at the Court of France.-Returns to England.-The Poet's

Panegyric on Cromwell.-Sir Philip Warwick's Description of Cromwell's Court.

-Death of the Protector.-Waller's Verses On His Majesty's Happy Return.'-

Charles's Remark thereon. His Interview with King James.-Waller's Death.-

Extracts from his Poems

38 X 946

p. 51

Matthew Prior.-His Career and Poems.-Mouse Montague.-His Proposal for the

National Debt Projects the Bank of England, and a new East India Company.-

His Success in Life.-His Abjuration of Poetry.-Montague's Passion for Mrs.

Barton, the Niece of Sir Isaac Newton.-Bequeaths Five Thousand Pounds to her

at his Death.—Anthony Hamilton.-His Life.-His Memoirs of Count de

Grammont.'-Decline of Lord Dorset.-His relative Anne, Countess of Dorset.-

His Death. The Clique around him broken up.-Beginning of the Augustan

Age.

p. 81

CHAPTER V.

Periodical Literature.-Queen Anne's reign.-The Increase of Public Journals.-The

Inferior Education of Women alluded to by Addison.-One Design of the Tatler

and Spectator to improve this.-The Tatler; its Origin.-The Spectator.-

Steele and Addison.-The London Gazette.-Character of Sir Roger de Coverley.

-Steele's Famous Expedition to Scotland.-Anecdote by Sir Walter Scott.-

Steele's Character.-Cibber's Description of Steele.-His Wife's Conduct to his

Natural Daughter.-Her Death.-His Remorse.-Anecdotes of his Extravagance.

-Specimens of Steele's Style of Writing.-His latter Days.-Death

P. 108

CHAPTER VI.

Addison; Bilton his residence.-Description of it.-Addison's Daughter, Charlotte;

her deficiencies.-Addison's Life and its Errors.-The Facility with which he

penned his Essays.-His Strictures on Women.-Afra Behn; her Immorality,

her Plays, and her Letters.-Addison's Answer to a Lady's advances.-His

Merits as a Writer.-His refined Taste and Love of Nature.-Dr. Johnson's

Opinion of Addison.

p. 135

CHAPTER VII.

Daniel Defoe.-Anecdote of Harley's Patronage.-Defoe in Prison.-He visits Scot-

land. History of the Great Plague.'-Dies in Cripplegate in 1731.-Jonathan

Swift; his Birth, Parentage, and Education.-Becomes Amanuensis to Sir

William Temple.-Swift's Personal Appearance.-His Acquaintance with Stella.

-Makes a capital Country Clergyman.-Gets introduced to Addison's Little

Senate.'' Tale of a Tub.'-Dr. South's Ballad of the Sailor and the Soldier.-

Esther Vanhomrigh; Swift's treatment of her.-His Private Marriage with

Stella. Her melancholy End

P. 151

Swift's Works and Private Life.-His first Works supposed to lay the foundation of

his subsequent Fortunes. His Pindaric Odes.'—Anecdote of Dryden.—His

Political Works.-Anecdote of Lord Carteret.-Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels.'-

His Death.-Gay; his Origin.—His connection with the South Sea Scheme.—

His Fables. His Beggar's Opera.'-His Friendship for Pope.-Pope's 'Rape of

the Lock.'-Extracts

6

CHAPTER IX.

P. 195

The Letter-writers of Society: Lord Chesterfield; his Letters.-Those of Lady Mary

Wortley Montagu; of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu; of Horace Walpole.-Samuel

Richardson; makes Letters the Vehicle of Fiction; his Tea Table; his Pamela,

Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison.-Richardson's Death.-Fielding, Smollett,

and Sterne.-Their Characters and Works

CHAPTER X.

-

-

p. 227

Literary Society.-Taking the Form of Cliques. Johnson. Goldsmith. - Miss

Burney; her Evelina' and 'Camilla.'-Mrs. Piozzi.-Miss Seward and the

Edgeworths.-Darwin; his Poems.-Day; his 'Sandford and Merton.'-Mr.

Edgeworth. Savile.-Miss Seward's Works and Letters.-Sir Walter Scott's

Tribute to her Memory.-False Taste in her Poems and in those of Darwin, p. 255

CHAPTER XI

Ansley's New Bath Guide;' Extracts from it.-Bath in Olden Times.-Colman and

his Broad Grins.'-George the Fourth and Colman.-The Duke of Welling-

ton.-George Colman's Censorship.-Laurence Sterne; his Life.-His Grand-

father the Archbishop.-Sterne's Carelessness of his Duties.-His 'Tristram

Shandy.'-Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.' - Sterne's Plagiarisms. - His

Passion for Eliza.-Her Picture.-Mrs. Radcliffe.-Mrs. Inchbald.-Charlotte

Smith.-Miss Austin

CHAPTER XII.

P. 279

Origin of the Edinburgh and Quarterly 'Reviews.-Their respective Characters and

Principles. Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Brougham, Horner, Murray, &c.—The Effect

produced by the appearance of the Edinburgh Review.'-Edinburgh Society sixty

years ago.—Lord Cockburn; his Life of Jeffrey.—Jeffrey and Southey.—Mrs.

Grant of Laggan; her 'Letters from the Mountains.'—Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton;

her 'Cottagers of Glenburnie.'-William Gifford; his Birth and Early Struggles

-The Quarterly Review.'-Increase of Newspapers.-Conclusion

p. 299