Mrs. PlOZZrS 
 
 THRALIANA 
 
 By 
 
 Charles Hughes 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 SMb MT2 
 
MRS. PlOZZrS THRALIANA 
 
MRS. PIOZZI'S 
 
 THRALIANA 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS EXTRACTS 
 HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HUGHES 
 
 J. p. FOR THE CITY OF MANCHESTER 
 
 EDITOR OF 'SHAKESPEARE'S EUROPE, UNPUBLISHED CHAPTERS FROM 
 
 ' FVNES MORVSON,' ' WILLOBIE HIS AVISA ' 
 
 KN\'\ETT'S 'the DEFENCE OF THE REALME, I596' 
 
 Strange that a Woman should write such a book 
 as this ; put down everj- occurrence of her Life, every 
 Emotion of her Heart and call it a ' Thraliana ' for- 
 sooth — but then I mean to destroy it. 
 
 \oth December, 1780. 
 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, 
 HAMILTON, KENT AND CO., LTD. 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
"MRS. PlOZZrS THRALIANA." 
 
 'TT^HERE are two authorities for Dr. Johnson's 
 -*- conversations and especially for his conver- 
 sations at Streatham who have a claim to be considered 
 by the side of Boswell. These are Miss Burney 
 afterwards Madame D'Arblay, and Mrs. Thrale 
 afterwards Mrs. Piozzi. Yet, I suppose, that Boswell 
 has been read by fifty persons for every reader of 
 Madame D'Arblay's Diary, and that Madame D'Arb- 
 lay has been read by at least fifty for every faithful 
 student who has read Mrs. Piozzi's books or the 
 two Volumes published in i86r by Mr. Abraham 
 Hay ward in which Mrs. Piozzi obtains a full hear- 
 ing, and in which were first published extracts from 
 " Thraliana." There were two editions of Mr. 
 Hayward's work published in 1861. In the first a 
 large slice of " Thraliana " is inserted en masse, and 
 not properly incorporated with the work. It had 
 
 
2 THRALIANA 
 
 evidently been received from Mr. Salusbury son of 
 Piozzi's nephew and owner of the precious MS. just 
 before pubHcation. For the second edition a large 
 addition had been received from Mr. Salusbury con- 
 taining most intimate and vivid passages, and all 
 these and the preceding instalment of " Thraliana " 
 are incorporated in the first Volume. Without speak- 
 ing disrespectfully of Hayward's work, which was 
 carried out under great difficulties, it may be said 
 that the contributions of Mr. Salusbury far outweigh 
 in value the rest of the Volumes, as new and autho- 
 ritative matter interesting to the Johnson-Boswell 
 amateur. 
 
 They are absolutely necessary to anyone who 
 wishes to " see Boswell's Johnson steadily and see it 
 whole." Mr. Salusbury told Mr. Hayward that he 
 deemed "Thraliana of too private and delicate a 
 character to be submitted to strangers," and since he 
 supplied those "curious passages" in 1861 no more 
 of it has been published. 
 
 Mr. L. B. Seeley was allowed to use Hayward's 
 materials in his Life of Mrs. Thrale^ and has recog- 
 nised the importance of the Thraliana extracts. 
 
THRALIANA 3 
 
 They have also caused Mrs. Thrale's case with 
 regard to her marriage to be fairly stated by Sir 
 Leslie Stephen in his little book on Johnson in the 
 English Men of Letters Series, and in the Dictionary 
 of National Biography. 
 
 Those who have only read Boswell are quite 
 unable to understand Mrs. Thrale's position, and the 
 inevitable unfairness of Boswell with regard to her. 
 The unfairness was inspired not merely by literary 
 jealousy but by a personal grudge to one who had 
 known Johnson longer and more intimately and loved 
 him better. This is only a proof of the sincerity of 
 Boswell and in no respects affects the greatness of his 
 literary genius, which is the main cause of our per- 
 sonal interest in Johnson. 
 
 Thirty years ago I collected books relating to 
 Boswell's Johnson and have long looked upon 
 " Thraliana " as one of the few possible sources of 
 fresh human interest about the Johnson circle. It 
 was therefore a great pleasure and surprise to me to 
 have the opportunity of perusing " Thraliana " from 
 end to end. These six folio Volumes substantially 
 bound and lettered " Thraliana" each containing from 
 
4 THRALIANA 
 
 250 to 300 pages were commenced on the 15th 
 September 1776 by the following entry : — 
 
 " It is many years since Dr. Samuel Johnson 
 advised me to get a little book, and write in it all 
 the Anecdotes which might come to my knowledge, 
 all the Observations which I might make or hear, all 
 the verses never likely to be published and in fine 
 everything which struck me at the time. Mr. Thrale 
 has now treated me with a Repository, and provided 
 it with the pompous title "Thraliana." I must 
 endeavour to fill it with nonsense, new and old." 
 
 While Thraliana was at my house it was insured 
 against fire for £s^^^^ "^^ could I say when I had 
 perused it that the amount was excessive as things go 
 to-day. It is the intimate record of her Life from 
 1776 to 1809 by the bright and brilliant Lady who 
 was the hostess and caretaker of Johnson for eighteen 
 years, and was the friend of Johnson's friends, Rey- 
 nolds, Garrick, Burke, Baretti, Burney, Boswell — and 
 whose second marriage with Piozzi was the result of 
 an irresistable passion in no way discreditable to her, 
 and based on mutual affection and esteem. She was 
 in a position to record interesting things, and she 
 
THRALIANA s 
 
 does record them most candidly and faithfully, and 
 used to read and re-read Thraliana to the end of her 
 life. Only three leaves had she cut out, which 
 relate to the time when she broke off with Piozzi 
 and sent him to Italy, but she has frequently anno- 
 tated and supplemented the record by side-notes which 
 are sometimes of extreme interest. 
 
 It is all in a plain bold handwriting that can be 
 read with ease, and a great deal of it has to do with 
 forgotten scandals, about her own relatives and other 
 comparatively unimportant people. These help to 
 make it a faithful reflection of eighteenth century 
 life, but are often unsuitable for publication. When 
 such prodigious prices are paid for a Chinese Vase, a 
 Renaissance Bronze, a Houdon Bust and a rock- 
 crystal biberon, it seems to me that it would be 
 among the less insane of the caprices of millionaires 
 if one who loved Boswell were to pay ^5000, 
 ^10,000, or ^15,000 for the MS. of Mrs. Piozzi's 
 Thraliana. For something absolutely unique, there 
 is no such thing as a market value. 
 
 But let " Thraliana " speak for itself, and begin 
 with an entry about Sir Joshua Reynolds and his 
 
6 THRALIANA 
 
 sister. " I have fancied lately there was something 
 of this nature (jealousy) betweea Sir Joshua and 
 Miss Reynolds, he certainly does not love her as one 
 should expect a man to love a sister he has so much 
 reason to be proud of ; perhaps she paints too well, 
 or she has learned too much Latin and is a better 
 Scholar than her Brother, and upon reflections I think 
 it must be so, for if he only did not like her as an 
 Inmate w^hy should he not give her a genteel Annuity 
 and let her live w^here or how^ she likes. The poor 
 lady is alv^ays miserable, alw^ays fretful and she seems 
 resolved, nobly enough, not to keep her post by 
 flattery if she cannot keep it by kindness, this is a 
 flight so far beyond my power that I respect her for 
 it, and do love dearly to hear her criticize Sir 
 Joshua's Painting or indeed his Connoisseurship 
 which I think she always does with Justice and 
 Judgment, mingled now and then with a bitterness 
 that diverts one." 
 
 It was evidently a pleasure to Mrs. Thrale to 
 hear attacks on the genius of Reynolds, whose " in- 
 vulnerability " was probably as tedious to her as the 
 virtue of Aristides to the ostracizing Greeks. North- 
 
THRALIANA 7 
 
 cote says that nothing made Sir Joshua so mad as 
 Miss Reynold's portraits which were an exact imita- 
 tion of all his defects. There are few references to 
 Goldsmith, for Thraliana was not begun till two 
 years after Goldsmith's death, but Mrs. Thrale gives 
 the following anecdote at second-hand. 
 
 " Mrs. Montague says she was vastly struck with 
 Goldsmith the first time they met ; it was at some 
 great Table, I forget what, but Lady Abercorn was 
 there, a Lady of about 76 or 80 years old, and the 
 Company remarking how young she looked were 
 led to mention her age and apply to the Doctor. I 
 am no great Judge says Goldsmith for I never saw 
 an old woman before, except I mean an Applewoman 
 or a Beggarwoman or some such body. Ladies 
 always look young, I think for they are finely 
 dressed up so I can't tell whether this Lady looks 
 well for her age or no, 'tis a new species to 
 me." 
 
 A Caricature drawing of Goldsmith by Bunbury 
 is pasted in the first Volume of Thraliana. 
 
 The following anecdote recorded in March 1777 
 must perhaps not be taken as anything but a good 
 
8 THRALIANA 
 
 tale : an Oxford satire on the slender examination 
 tests of Eighteenth Century parsons. 
 
 " Dr. Parker once told a story of a young Fellow 
 at Oxford who went for Ordination to the famous 
 Martin Benson, and returned rejected and of course 
 looking foolish enough, how is this cried his Tutor, 
 why were you not ordained as we expected ? I 
 don't know replied the other, why he asked me 
 some cramp questions which I did not half under- 
 stand. What questions said the Tutor, why says 
 the Boy he asked me who was the great Mediatour 
 between God and Man ! and what was your reply ? 
 Why says the young fellow after a moments con- 
 sideration I named the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Blockhead ! exclaims the Tutor didn't you know 
 that the Archbishop and Benson have had a Quarrel, 
 if you had named any other Bishop on the Bench, 
 it would have been doneT 
 
 The Martin Benson of this Story was created 
 Bishop of Gloucester in 1752 and is regarded as 
 one of the most learned and pious of Eighteenth 
 Century Bishops. Many of them had learning, but 
 very few were remarkable for piety. 
 
THRALIANA 9 
 
 Readers of Boswell feel very well acquainted with 
 Bennet Langton and his wife the Countess of Rothes, 
 but even the indiscreet Boswell could not write quite 
 so freely for the public as Mrs. Thrale in the privacy 
 of Thraliana. She gives a very amusing description 
 of the wasteful and shiftless ways of Bennet Langton's 
 father and mother which she must have heard from 
 Johnson, and which I omit with some reluctance, 
 and then begins on Langton himself and his wife 
 Lady Rothes. 
 
 "This Mr. Langton however was to have repaired 
 the fortune of the family and married a rich Wife, 
 for he is pious, learned and elegant and well qualified 
 to make his addresses to any Lady. To the grief and 
 astonishment of all his true friends they now behold 
 him tied to a thing without Beauty Birth Money 
 or Talents, widow to an old Scotch Peer who wanted 
 a son in his old age and took a fresh lowland lass for 
 that purpose with more Probability than success. 
 She is a Presbyterian too, to make her more fit for 
 Langton who is a Tory and High Churchman up to 
 the Eyes, but that as he observes is a small Fault for 
 says he I shall take her to Church and she will go of 
 
lo THRALIANA 
 
 course and not find out the difference. She does so, 
 and they seem to live vastly happy as can be, and 
 ask their friends to dine writh them, Lords, Ladies, 
 anybody, upon a piece of boiled Beef and a Loin of 
 Veal only without anything else, all this with an 
 insensibility truly admirable. 
 
 August 13th 1777. Yesterday I dined at Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds, Richmond Hill some agreeable 
 People were raked together and we intended to have 
 a charming day of it, but Mr. Garrick was sick and 
 Lady Rothes was troublesome. She brought the 
 Babies with her both under six years old, which 
 though the prettiest Babies in the World were not 
 wanted there at all, they played and prattled and 
 suffered nobody to be heard but themselves, we 
 ancient Maids, sterile Wives and disappointed parents 
 were peevish to see others happier than ourselves in 
 a little Boy who, naughty as we called him, three 
 people there would have been glad to purchase with 
 ten thousand pounds — Garrick, Thrale and old Deputy 
 Paterson, who married a second wife on purpose but 
 could not obtain his wish." 
 
 It ought to be mentioned to justify Mrs. Thrale*s 
 
THRALIANA n 
 
 description of herself as a disappointed parent, that 
 she had lost both her sons by death, and had only 
 daughters living. 
 
 As these extracts from Thraliana are given in 
 order of time as they were entered by Mrs. Thrale in 
 her Volumes, they must inevitably appear "scrappy," 
 and they jump from one subject to another, but this 
 gives the same effect as does the actual reading of 
 Thraliana, vyrhich is something betw^een a diary and a 
 commonplace book, and is a delightful jumble of 
 family troubles, gossip, scandal, political events, 
 amusing tales, and serious reflections. 
 
 I do not remember having seen elsev^^here a tale 
 told by Johnson about Garrick when first he appeared 
 as King Richard in London. A rich and noble Lady 
 fell in love with him and sent a go-between to pro- 
 pose marriage, but the proposals dropped and it was 
 only after a year or two that Garrick met the inter- 
 mediary and discovered the cause. 
 
 " Well she said the Truth is the best excuse, I 
 will tell you. My friend fell in love with you 
 playing King Richard but seeing you since in 
 the character of the Lying Valet you looked so 
 
12 THRALIANA 
 
 shabby (Pardon me, Sir) that it cured her of her 
 passion." 
 
 Mrs. Thrale records a smart saying of her own 
 when she was in Paris at the time of the outbreak of 
 the American Rebellion. She has used it in one 
 of her published works. 
 
 " A French Gentleman whose Place was near 
 mine at the Opera asked me in a sneering manner 
 how we should do to conquer America adding that 
 he fancied it would be somewhat difficult. Perhaps 
 so, I replied, now 'tis defended by Englishmen. I 
 remember twas easy enough to take it from the 
 French." 
 
 The following description of Mr. Cumberland 
 proves that Sheridan did not overdraw his caricature 
 in Sir Fretful Plagiary in the Critic. 
 
 " Mr. Cumberland's delicacy is very troublesome, 
 his peevishness very teazing and his envy very hateful, 
 he looks to me like a man that had been poisoned so 
 sallow is his Complexion, and so sunk are his Eyes. 
 Yet his person is Genteel and his Manner elegant but 
 he professes to be easily galled and says of himself 
 that he was born without a skin. Effeminacy is 
 
THRALIANA 13 
 
 however an odious quality in the Creature, and when 
 joined with low jealousy actually detestable, he is a 
 man one cannot love." I suppress a rather scandalous 
 note annexed to this passage by Mrs. Piozzi at a later 
 period. 
 
 As an introduction to an account of a conversa- 
 tion on Love with Dr. Johnson in which he expressed 
 his usual commonsense and unromantic views, she 
 remarks " As my peace has never been disturbed by 
 the Soft Passion so it seldom comes into my head to 
 talk of it." 
 
 During this conversation Johnson defended all 
 amusements as combating the taedium vitae. — " Cards, 
 dress, dancing all found their advocates in Johnson. 
 Somebody would say — such a Lady never touches a 
 card, how then does she get rid of her time says 
 Johnson does she drink Drams, Such a Person never 
 suffers Gentlemen to buzz in his daughter's Ears, — 
 who is to buzz in her Ears then ? The Footman ? " 
 
 The following tale may be recommended to the 
 members of the Anti-Vivisection Society, and it 
 would be all the more suitable for them as it bears 
 the marks of exaggeration and imagination. 
 
14 THRALIANA 
 
 *' A Fellow brought his dog to a doctor for 
 dissection, pray friend enquires the Doctor is not that 
 the dog which once saved your life : and have you 
 the cruelty to bring him here to be dissected ? Why 
 really answers the Clown, I do believe the poor beast 
 loves me so, that if he know'd I should get a Crown 
 by it, he would have come voluntary'' 
 
 Mrs. Thrale has written in these volumes several 
 tales unfit to tell in a mixed company but we must 
 remember that this was a private record, and that she 
 had possibly heard some of these " Smoke Room 
 Stories " from Thrale in private : and then, of course, 
 the Eighteenth Century was not precisely mid- 
 Victorian. She had however her own strong feelings 
 of propriety. 
 
 " At a dinner-party at Mr. Deputy Paterson, his 
 wife insisted on reciting some impromptu verses, 
 which her husband had composed at the age of 72 in 
 honour of a reigning beauty — They were repeated 
 with great gravity and in a theatrical tone : — 
 
 When Daphne fled Apollo's Arms 
 And in a Laurel veiled her Charms 
 His Godship longed to bark her 
 
THRALIANA 15 
 
 So do 1 hate the nuzzling Pride 
 Of Lace and Gauze that strive to hide 
 The Charms of Kitty Parker. 
 
 (Mrs. Thrale writes out four more stanzas.) 
 
 Well ! now to be sure these verses are very happy, 
 very Sprightly very clever considering they were run 
 off all impromptu, but they are such verses as I 
 should have thought no Lady would have repeated 
 in mixed Company." 
 
 Nevertheless Mrs. Thrale must have asked Mrs. 
 Paterson for a copy of " those charming verses " for 
 she would hardly have been able to carry them in 
 her memory from a single hearing. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale has written in these pages a long 
 account of her own family, much of which has been 
 published by Hayward, but that gentleman was not 
 entrusted by Mr. Salusbury with the following 
 account of the diarists own father Mr. John Salusbury 
 of Bachygraig, who seems to have been rather like 
 one of the heroes of Fielding's Novels. 
 
 " My father turning out a wild young Fellow 
 with spirit to spend money and earnest desire to give 
 it away wherever it seemed to be wanted, and soon 
 
i6 THRALIANA 
 
 very little to spend or give, and resolved to come to 
 London and try his Fortune as 'tis called, Here he 
 fell in with a very famous Woman Miss Harriott 
 Edwards who having struck out for herself a new 
 Plan of Happiness resolved to act the Man and the 
 Libertine : She was a Young Person of large and 
 independent Fortune who set Reputation at Naught 
 and Scandal at Defiance, resolved to avoid Marriage, 
 yet have a Son on whom to settle her estate.* She 
 took, as I have been told a fancy to my Father whom 
 she supplied with Money as long as her Taste to his 
 Company subsisted, and when they parted he picked 
 up another female Friend, a Mrs. Stradwicke who 
 being divorced from her Husband led a libertine Life 
 till all her pelf was exhausted : when these resources 
 failed my father, he went abroad as Cicerone to his 
 Relation Sir Robert Cotton of Combermere who 
 paid his expences and was pleased with his Company, 
 the more perhaps as he did not suspect the attach- 
 ment his own sister Hester had to him and the 
 regular correspondence they had long continued to 
 maintain. 
 
 * She would be considered quite a forward Feminist even now. 
 
THRALIANA 17 
 
 My Mother became so lovely a creature both in 
 body and mind that her brother Sir Robert grew 
 proud of her and she was always about with him and 
 Lady Betty who introduced her into gay life when 
 she received many advantageous proposals of marriage, 
 she, however, declined accepting any, having secretly 
 set her heart upon her Flashy Cousin John and when 
 her fortune was settled and she became independent, 
 she resolved to bestow it and herself on my Father 
 for whose necessities it was by no means sufficient 
 being only seven Thousand Pounds and an annuity of 
 >ri25 P^^ annum for the Life of her Mother the 
 Lady Cotton who was no longer young ; and having 
 had two more Children by Captain King seemed to 
 be quite worn out. Well ! my Father durst not 
 return with Sir Robert from France lest this attach- 
 ment to his sister should be discovered so he stayed 
 at Lyons six months with a French Marquise who 
 died in his Arms and left him the little he had not 
 spent of hers before. (Note. The Goldheaded cane 
 which I gave Mr. Thrale was a Present from that 
 Lady.) With this little money he came home and 
 married Miss Hester Maria Cotton whose brother 
 
1 8 THRALIANA 
 
 Sir Robert Cotton protested he would never see them 
 more." 
 
 They lived in Carnarvonshire in poverty and dis- 
 sention till the daughter became a link between them. 
 
 " Rakish men seldom make tender fathers but a 
 man must fondle something and Nature pleads her 
 own cause powerfully when a little Art is likewise 
 used to help it forward. I therefore grew a great 
 favourite it seems, in spite of his long continued 
 efforts to dislike me and now they had a Centre of 
 Unity in this Offspring for which they were both 
 equally interested, they began to agree a little better, 
 I believe, and bear with patience their irrevocable 
 Lot : and now nine years of mutual misery had been 
 endured when Sir Robert Cotton, soured by having 
 no children of his own, and disliking to excess the 
 Lady whom his next brother and immediate heir had 
 chosen began to hear of his once favourite Sister, and 
 made overtures of Peace. During these nine years 
 my Mother had never bought but one new Gown, 
 that cost only one Guinea of a Pedlar that come 
 about the Country, she made her own candles, salted 
 her own meat, ironed her own Linen and her 
 
THRALIANA 19 
 
 Husbands and mine, and if he would but have been 
 good-humoured protested she would have been happy." 
 As a fair account of Mrs. Thrale's Life up to 
 the time of her marriage is given in Hayward's and 
 Seeley's books it will be unnecessary to give any 
 more extracts about her relatives or the circumstances, 
 recorded after fifteen years, of her marriage to Mr. 
 Thrale, a mariage de Raison arranged for her by her 
 Mother and Uncle. It was not an unsuitable mar- 
 riage, but Mrs. Thrale is modest enough to think that 
 one of the chief of her attractions in Mr. Thrale's 
 eyes was her willingness to live much of her life in 
 the house in the Borough near the Southwark Brewery. 
 The house at Streatham was for Thrale rather a sub- 
 urban than a country house for he was quite deter- 
 mined not to have a " neighbourhood " there, but to 
 depend for Society on friends from London. His old 
 Bachelor friends Murphy, Bodens, Fitzpatrick, Captain 
 Conway, and others were at first the Amis de la Maison. 
 Mrs. Thrale says " I liked none of them but Murphy, 
 and my mother despised them all," but it was Murphy 
 who introduced Johnson and so made the house fam- 
 ous for ever in English Literary History. 
 
20 THRALIANA 
 
 At the end of the second Volume of Thraliana, 
 we have a description of Mrs. Thrale's own person 
 and mind, of which I quote the latter. 
 
 " The Character of the Mind is however almost 
 wholly Italian [this was written before she was ac- 
 quainted with Piozzi] or rather Welsh perhaps, for 
 her Temper is warm even to irascibility affectionate 
 and tender but claiming such returns to her tenderness 
 and affection as busy people have no time to pay and 
 coarse people have no pleasure in paying. She is a 
 diligent and active friend who spares neither money 
 nor pains to oblige but is soon disgusted if the person 
 obliged does not express the sense of Obligation, by 
 nature a rancorous and revengeful enemy, but having 
 conquered that Quality by God's Grace she is now 
 apt really and bona fide to forget when and how she 
 was offended." 
 
 At the beginning of Vol. III. on 19 May 1778 
 she mentions that the black letter title " Thraliana " is 
 written by Sophy Streatfield, but as very full extracts 
 about that fair lady and her flirtations were furnished 
 by Mr. Salusbury to Hayward and printed by him 
 they shall not be quoted here. It is curious however 
 
THRALIANA 
 
 21 
 
 that she never mentions S. S's strange gift of being 
 able to weep real tears at the word of command as a 
 sort of accomplishment, which furnishes Miss Burney 
 with a life-like descriptive passage. 
 
 Here follows a most remarkable tabular character 
 sketch of the society of Streatham, based on a system 
 of marks for different qualities, 20 being full marks. 
 
 
 § 
 
 be 
 
 
 '.s 
 
 u 
 cd 
 
 1 
 
 V 
 •V 
 
 is 
 
 •0 
 
 c 
 rt 
 c . 
 
 s s 
 
 So 
 
 V 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 (S 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 E 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 ox 
 
 Johnson - - - 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Murphy - - - 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 Dr. Burney - - 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 Garrick - - - 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 Seward - _ - 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 
 Boswell - - - 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 Bodens - - - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 Thrale - - - 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 18 
 
 '1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Burke- - - - 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sir John Lade - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Baretti - - - 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Dr. Beattie - - 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 II 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jas. Harris - - 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Langton - - - 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cator - . - - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
22 THRALIANA 
 
 It contains a great deal in a small space, the celebrity 
 of some of the persons and the fact that the marks 
 were given by a keen witted woman who knew them 
 all intimately, gives it a quite unique interest. Some 
 of the names in Thraliana are not given here, among 
 others Sir Joshua Reynolds. The reason that Sir 
 Joshua's character is not quoted is that in his case the 
 columns of Religion and Morality are left blank. 
 This means that as to the Religion, and Morality of 
 the President of the Royal Academy, Mrs. Thrale 
 had not been able to make up her mind. It is clear 
 that she did not like him very much, so that her 
 agnosticism as to his religion and morality may be 
 taken as want of sympathy. 
 
 " By Good Humour is meant only the Good 
 Humour necessary to conversation." Mrs. Thrale 
 evidently meant that combination of good humour 
 and good temper which enables people to stand argu- 
 ment, contradiction and chaff without irritation or 
 resentment. 
 
 There is another elaborate table which I do not 
 reproduce about the Lady visitors to Streatham, but 
 the headings are different. Mrs, Thrale remarks. 
 
THRALIANA 23 
 
 " They must possess virtue in the contracted sense or 
 one would not keep 'em company." One of these 
 virtuous dames, however, she suspects of having had 
 an illegitimate child. 
 
 She gives several remarkable tales of Dreams and 
 warnings which she had heard from others and one 
 that happened to herself is striking and impressive, 
 though it is impossible to avoid the criticism that it 
 is not entered in Thraliana till more than two years 
 after the event. 
 
 " When I myself was at Lille in Flanders in the 
 year 1775 I walked with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thrale 
 round the great Church there, and in one of the 
 Chapels I observed myself to stumble in an odd 
 manner so as to give me uncommon Pain, and at the 
 same time to excite strange ideas of Terror wholly 
 unaccountable to me, who am neither timorous nor 
 over delicate : I looked at the Altarpiece and saw it 
 was the figure of an Angel protecting a boy about 
 twelve years old, as it should seem and somehow the 
 child struck me with a Resemblance to my own, and 
 alarmed me in an unusual manner. I prayed for the 
 safety of my young ones and as I came out of the 
 
24 THRALIANA 
 
 Chapel I asked an old Man to whom that Chapel was 
 dedicated — he replied — to the Guardian Angel of 
 Children. I resolved to walk round the Church and 
 go into every Chapel in it to see if I should stumble 
 in them, I could not stumble, however, but when I 
 returned with better spirits to the Children's Chapel 
 I stumbled again and even hurt myself. The Im- 
 pression it made alarmed me and as I could not rid 
 myself of the uneasiness it caused, I told Mr. Johnson 
 in the afternoon when Hester was gone to the play 
 with her Papa : he bid me be careful not to 
 encourage such Fancies and talking the thing through 
 cleared my Head of it for a Time, soon after our 
 return from abroad, however, I was dreadfully alarmed 
 by my son's sudden Illness and Death, and though he 
 continued ill but three Hours, this old Superstition 
 haunted me all the while, the more perhaps as I had 
 two days before, going down to dinner with Com- 
 pany, when he was perfectly well at School heard 
 something like a preternatural Voice (that of his 
 Guardian Angel perhaps) call me by my name, but 
 this I never mentioned to anyone, lest I should be 
 suspected of Madness. But Mad I am not. 
 
THRALIANA 25 
 
 " I have the best health In the world, no Indiges- 
 tion, no Headaches, no Vapours : no Change of 
 Weather affects me, nor did even the loss of my only 
 Son lay stronger hold on my Heart than it was utterly 
 impossible to avoid. My mind is an active whirligig 
 mind, which few things can stop to disturb, and if 
 disturbed it soon recovers its Strength and its 
 Activity." 
 
 With this we may compare the following entry : 
 which for the sake of the contrast I have taken a 
 little out of its proper order in Thraliana. 
 
 "24th September 1779. Friday. I have got a 
 strange Fit of the Horrors upon me today, some- 
 thing runs in my head that I shall die or Mr. Thrale 
 die and that we shall not, as we hoped, communicate 
 at God's Table next Sunday. I will say nothing of 
 it, for it may end in nothing but I am not used to be 
 low-spirited and 'tis very odd to be so now, for I ail 
 nothing though I tremble with Terror just as I was 
 before my Son died ! if nothing does happen I will 
 never mind low Spirits again. Monday 4th Oct. 
 1779. Nothing happened, we did communicate 
 together last Sunday se'nnight and tomorrow 
 
26 THRALIANA 
 
 we set out for Tunbridge Wells and Brighthelm- 
 stone." 
 
 I must now quote a very remarkable passage in 
 which Mrs. Thrale records in 1779 an account of 
 some great passion or scandal in Johnson's Life to 
 which she makes no further reference in the length 
 and breadth of Thraliana. 
 
 " It appears to me that no Man can live his Life 
 quite through, without being at some period of it 
 under the dominion of some Woman, Wife, Mistress 
 or Friend, Pope and Swift were softened by the 
 Smiles of Patty Blount and Stella and our stern philo- 
 sopher Johnson trusted me about the Years 1767 or 
 1768, I know not which just now, with a Secret far 
 dearer to him than his Life : such, however, is his 
 nobleness and such his partiality, that I sincerely 
 believe he has never since that Day regretted his 
 Confidence or ever looked with less kind affection on 
 her who had him in her power. 
 
 " Uniformly great in the Mind of that incompar- 
 able Mortal and well does he contradict the Maxims 
 of Rochefoucault that no man is a hero to his Valet 
 de Chambre. Johnson is more a Hero to me than to 
 
THRALIANA 27 
 
 anyone and I have been more to him for intimacy 
 than ever was any Man's Valet de Chambre." 
 
 This furnishes a fine problem for the exercise of a 
 constructive imagination. The fact that this con- 
 fidence of Johnson's, recorded it must be remembered 
 more than ten years after it wras given, placed him 
 " in Mrs. Thrale's powder " proves that it was not a 
 mere flirtation or love affair but something of which 
 the sage had reason to be ashamed. We must 
 remember that more than ten years elapsed between 
 the death of Johnson's wife and his first acquaintance 
 with either Boswell or the Thrales and that during 
 this period he passed much of his time in deplorable 
 and apparently inexcusable laziness while supposed to 
 be employed in preparing his edition of Shakespeare. 
 Shortly after he became friendly with Mr. and Mrs. 
 Thrale they found him in a state of despondency and 
 despair, that was akin to madness. Still we do not 
 know the name of the woman under whose dominion 
 Johnson passed, and it is very much to the credit of 
 Mrs. Piozzi that we do not know it. Boswell could 
 not possibly have kept it back. 
 
 The following passage is interesting as it shews 
 
"^ 
 
 28 • THRALIANA 
 
 what a real respect she had for her husband as a 
 politician while having no illusions whatever as to 
 the general character of the Houses of Parliament. 
 s^5 The House of Commons at that time was certainly 
 not a collection of ideal men anymore than it is 
 today. Let us hope that today there are wives 
 to be found who believe, each of them, that her 
 own husband is the one honest man in a rotten 
 and accursed Assembly. 
 Mrs. Thrale writes : — 
 
 " If we have deserved Help from Heaven we 
 
 shall have it, but let us first enquire whether per- 
 
 adventure ten righteous men may be found in the 
 
 Houses of Parliament, when I say ten righteous 
 
 Men I mean ten Men free from the vice of the 
 
 place, [she make a comparison with Sodom] wholly 
 
 \ clear from Corruption or bias of any kind or ty'd 
 
 by any interest for their own sakes or their Friends 
 
 V ' to any Party whatever. It may for aught I know, 
 
 ^ V be saved for the sake of such Ten, but I only know 
 
 One myself and that is Mr. Thrale. 5 July 1779." 
 
 I will now present, as Mr. Frohman says, a series 
 of extracts which shew Mrs, Thrale's variety of 
 
 ^^ 
 
THRALIANA 29 
 
 subject and variety of tone though all written with 
 equal sincerity (i) concerning Pacchierotti, about 
 whom we hear some scandalous tales in the extracts 
 from Thraliana printed by Hayward. (2) about 
 Mrs. Thrale's efforts in the cause of religion. (3) 
 as to a young admirer at Bath. (4) a comparison 
 between Gray the Poet and Sir Joshua Reynolds the 
 Painter. (5) reflections on a curious MS. of Pope's 
 with moral observations on the amount of artifice 
 in Life. 
 
 " (i) Fanny Burney goes home now to study 
 and live recluse and as I tell her to kiss Pacchierotti, 
 The Castrato Singer, of whom they are all so fond. 
 Pacchierotti said one day to me when I told him my 
 Regard was of little value from my Ignorance of 
 Musick. On the Contrary Madam the hard thing 
 is mine for how shall I reward your Propensity to me 
 if not by my Talent. Partiality said I, — I beg pardon 
 Madam, Propensity — Comical enough and so was a 
 note of his in Answer to an invitation of mine and 
 Miss Burney 's for an Evening Visit. I pity myself, 
 says he, that I cannot pass the whole Night between 
 those two Ladies, but I will give them what I can. 
 
30 THRALIANA 
 
 All this with perfect Innocence of any meaning 
 whatsoever. 
 
 (2) If one can mend anybody's Morals or fix 
 anybody's notions of Religion, how happy does it 
 make one ; sure it is not mere vanity in me to 
 fancy that I have helped forward the Salvation of 
 my Husband, Mrs. Byron, Mrs. Lambert and Sir 
 P. J. Gierke. My Children's souls are in my care, 
 and all I can do for them is indispensible duty. 
 
 Mr. Scrase * is quite unimpressible with any 
 religious notions for I have worked at him^ but I 
 have often observed. Business disqualifies a man for 
 Heaven more than Pleasure does ; The Thorney 
 ground seems to be worse than the Stoney, — and 
 the Faults which a Man applauds in himself he 
 never will be cured of; now the Pleasure-hunter 
 always condemns himself^ the Business-hunter quite 
 otherwise. 
 
 (3) (1780 Bath) I have picked up an agreeable 
 acquaintance here in Lord John Clinton second Son 
 to the Duke of Newcastle ; I thought at first he 
 
 * Mrs. Piozzi's trusted friend and business adviser, whom she always 
 found worthy of every confidence, 
 
THRALIANA 3^ 
 
 was in love with Hester by his close attention to 
 me, but I believe he was only seized with the 
 present rage young Men have of following a woman 
 of sense as they phrase it. — The pretty girls are so 
 empty, no Society pleases me but a Woman of Sense^ 
 A lucky Folly at least, nor should I call it such but 
 that I conclude it Affectation in this Boy ; However 
 it may be genuine perhaps as he thinks it is : — 
 
 (4) Mr. Johnson's criticism of Gray, displeases 
 many people Sir Joshua Reynolds in particular, he 
 professes the Sublime of Painting, I think, with the 
 same Affectation as Gray does in Poetry both of 
 them tame quiet Characters by Nature but forced 
 into Fire by Artifice & Effort ; the time will come 
 when some cool observer will see, or some daring 
 Fellow venture to say, of Sir Joshua's Ugolino all 
 that Johnson has been telling of Gray's Bard. 
 
 (5) 10 Dec. 1780. We have got a sort of 
 literary curiosity amongst us : the foul copy of Pope's 
 Homer with all his old intended verses, sketches, 
 emendations &c. strange that a Man should keep 
 such Things [Stranger still that a Woman should 
 write such a Book as this ; put down every occur- 
 
32 THRALIANA 
 
 rence of her Life, every Emotion of her Heart and 
 call it Thraliana forsooth, but then I mean to destroy 
 it] All Wood and Wire behind the Scenes sure 
 enough ! one sees that Pope laboured as hard 
 
 as if" the Stagyrite o'er looked each line, 
 indeed : and how very little effect those glorious 
 verses at the end of the 8th Book of the Iliad have 
 upon me ; when one sees 'em all in their Cradles 
 and Clouts and Light changed for Bright, and then 
 the whole altered again and the line must end with 
 Night and Oh Dear ! thus 
 
 Tort'ring one poor Word a thousands Ways, 
 
 Johnson says 'tis pleasant to see the progress of such 
 a Mind : true but 'tis a malicious Pleasure such as 
 Men feel when they watch a Woman at her Toilet 
 
 See by Degrees a purer Blush arise 
 Wood and Wire once more : Wood and Wire." 
 
 The following remarks about Edmund Burke 
 the sainted Burke, canonized by Lord Morley, may 
 be read with some surprise and certainly it is rather 
 a shock to hear such startling tales of the comparative 
 sobriety of the gentleman of Wales. Perhaps how- 
 
THRALIANA 33 
 
 ever it is wrong to judge the Welsh Country 
 Gentlemen by Peacock's " Headlong Hall " but we 
 cannot dispute that Mrs. Thrale "stayed in the 
 house" at Beaconsfield, and that Burke was Irish. 
 Mrs. Thrale is composing a description & verses 
 for the Portraits by Sir Joshua in the Library at 
 Streatham and when she comes to Burke writes as 
 follows : — 
 
 " 'Tis now Time to turn over a new Leaf for 
 the great orator Mr. Edmund Burke, who, after I 
 had ran from Gentlemen's House to Gentleman's 
 House all over Wales in the year 1774 was the 
 first man I had ever seen drunk or heard talk 
 obscenely, when I lived with him and his Lady at 
 Beaconsfield among Dirt Cobwebs Pictures and 
 Statues that would not have disgraced the City of 
 Paris itself where Misery and Magnificence reign 
 in all their splendour and in perfect Amity. (Note, 
 Irish Roman Catholics are always like the foreigners 
 somehow, dirty and dressy with all their Clothes 
 hanging as if upon Peg.) That Mrs. Burke drinks 
 as well as her Husband and that their black-a-moor 
 
 carries Tea about with a cut finger wrapped in Rags 
 
 s 
 
34 THRALIANA 
 
 must help to apologise for the severity with which 
 I have treated so very distinguished a Character." 
 
 In Mrs. Thrale's Welsh diary published by Mr. 
 Broadley in 1909 the remarks on Burke are much 
 milder. 
 
 There is much less detail about dress in Thraliana 
 than we should naturally expect to find, but the 
 following passage shews the natural pleasure felt by 
 Mrs. Thrale at the sensation created by a striking 
 costume and it shews that the Lady was before her 
 age in consideration for the Press. 
 
 " My Name has figured finely in the Newspaper 
 on account of my going to Court on the Birthday in 
 the O-Why-Hee Pattern Silk, the Truth is I had a 
 mind partly to please the Burneys, whose Captain 
 brought me some Curiosities from the South Seas 
 and new discovered Regions, particularly a Scrap of 
 Cloth torn from the back of the Indian who killed 
 Capt. Cook with his Club. This stuff I thought so 
 pretty that I got Carr the Mercer to imitate it in 
 Satten ; and trimmed it with Feathered Ornaments to 
 keep up the Taste of the Character, still preserving 
 in View the Fashion of the Times. It was violently 
 
THRALIANA 35 
 
 admired to be sure, and celebrated in all the Papers 
 of the Day, which I have a notion was owing to my 
 own willingness to be looked at by the people who 
 sat in the Guard Room observing Dresses Fashions 
 &c. My being used to electioneering prevents my 
 Indignation from boyling at the sight of a few honest 
 Fellows collected together which the Ton-Folks call 
 a Mob so I turned to them and smiled and 1 heard 
 them say 'tis Mrs. Thrale Oh She's a good natured 
 Lady &c. and so they put me in the News I guess." 
 
 Several of her friends are going abroad and she 
 makes the following entry : — 
 
 " I catch myself thinking that if my Master was 
 to dye and Queeny to marry ; I would take my two 
 next Girls and give them a little Run upon the Con- 
 tinent before the time of Flirtation should arrive, as 
 School Girls are dangerous Animals enough at 14 or 
 15 years old. Ignorant of every earthly thing but 
 their Lessons, they are a natural Prey to all who 
 venture the Attack ; and the Fortune of my Monkies 
 will induce attention like the White Feather in Henri- 
 quatres Hat on the Day of Battle." 
 
 Here follows an extract which shews really affec- 
 
^ 
 
 36 THRALIANA 
 
 tionate feeling though it is possible that Mrs. Thrale 
 took a pleasure in writing it, for it is very well ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 " One page more I see ends the third Volume of 
 Thraliana ! strange Farrago as it is of Sense, Non- 
 sense, publick private Follies but chiefly my own, and 
 / the little Hero ! but who should be the Hero of 
 an "Ana" ? let me vindicate my own Vanity if it be 
 with my last Pen. This Volume will be finished at 
 Streatham and left there. . . . My poor little old 
 Aunt at Bath is dying, and I am Dolt enough to 
 be sincerely sorry, the more as her past kindnesses 
 claim that personal attendance from me which Mr. 
 Thrale will not permit me to pay her, poor little, old, 
 insipid, useless Creature ! May God Almighty in his 
 Mercy, pity, receive and bless her as a most inoffensive 
 Atom of Humanity, for whom His only Son consented 
 to be crucified and among whose Flock she has most 
 innocently fed for sixty or seventy years. 
 
 Here closes the third Volume. Streatham. 
 Monday 29 January 178 1." 
 
 As this is not a life of Mrs. Thrale, readers may 
 be referred to Boswell, Hayward or Mr. Seeley for 
 
THRALIANA 37 
 
 an account of Thrale*s death, the appointment of 
 
 Executors and the sale of the Brewery. The use of 
 
 Streatham House and the income from ^^50,000 
 
 were left to Mrs. Thrale. Most of the important 
 
 passages in " Thraliana " in reference to her gradual 
 
 attachment to Piozzi, her determination to marry 
 
 him, and then her resolution to send him to Italy 
 
 and give him up for the sake of her daughters, were 
 
 communicated to Mr. Hayward by Mr. Salusbury. 
 
 But the love tale is told in full by Mrs. Thrale and 
 
 it is only in Thraliana that it can be read in full. 
 
 Miss Burney was the " confidant " though she was 
 
 opposed to the Piozzi marriage. She did not approve 
 
 of Mrs. Thrale marrying a man who was a foreigner '^ 
 
 and a Roman Catholic but seems to have behaved 
 
 with sympathy and discretion. It is curious that she 
 
 should herself have afterwards married M. D'Arblay 
 
 who was also a foreigner and a Roman Catholic. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale had left Streatham, which was let to 
 
 Lord Shelburne, the Prime Minister, and when she 
 
 gave up Piozzi retired to Bath with her daughters. 
 
 Her constancy to Piozzi remained unimpaired. They 
 
 wrote to each other and she frequently sent him 
 
38 THRALIANA 
 
 verses which do not seem to have cooled his affection. 
 Early in 1784 her daughters took pity on her. She 
 was very ill and was in truth dying of love for 
 Piozzi, so Miss Thrale wrote to Milan to recall 
 the Amante Adorato from his banishment. During 
 this period she is too much agitated to write much 
 on general topics but the following passage in Thra- 
 liana is dated at Bath on March 15th 1784. 
 
 " To neglect or forbear the Education of our 
 Children is surely not the fault of the present Age, 
 every Boy is driven into the Lists of Literature where 
 indeed failure is now scarcely a Disgrace, so many 
 and so impotent are the Claimants for Fame. Every 
 Female is harrassed with Masters she disregards, and 
 heaped with Accomplishments which she ought to 
 disdain when she reflects that her Mother only loads 
 her with Allurements as a Rustic lays Birdlime on 
 Twigs to decoy and catch the unwary Traveller : 
 like that too it is often laid on so unskilfully that 
 Man and Bird flies instinctively away, their intention 
 appears so very palpably : yet is Education at last an 
 admirable Thing." 
 
 The marriage takes place on July 25th 1784, and 
 
THRALIANA 39 
 
 on September 3r(i she enters in Thraliana this heart- 
 felt expression of satisfaction — " I have now been 
 six weeks married and enjoyed greater and longer 
 Felicity than I ever yet experienced, — to crown all 
 my dear daughters Susanna and Sophia have spent 
 the Day with myself and my amiable Husband. We 
 part in Peace and Love and Harmony ; and tomorrow 
 I set off for the finest Country in the World in 
 company with the best Man in it." 
 
 And so for Italy — leaving behind Johnson, who 
 behaved very badly indeed with reference to her 
 marriage and for whose conduct towards his Bene- 
 factress there is no sufficient excuse and hardly any 
 palliation. I give the following extracts from 
 Thraliana about her travels. 
 
 " Paris. 23rd. Sept. 1784. The Count Turconi. 
 
 A Humpbacked Italian Nobleman who lives 
 always here to enjoy that Liberty which great Cities 
 are sure to afford has offered his House near Milan 
 for us to inhabit, while he studies Life all day and 
 Chemistry all Night among the Parisians. I was 
 diverted with the account of the People he lives with 
 and whom he does not Love " but anything " says he 
 
40 THRALIANA 
 
 " is better than Etiquette and Insipidity so I keep clear 
 of Milano at least, and pass my Life in the manner I 
 best like," he seems to esteem me and so indeed do 
 all the Italians, I have yet been introduced to : 
 Goldoni dined here one day and we struck Fire vastly 
 well ; he is such a looking man as the famous James 
 Harris of Salisbury and extremely garrulous ; the 
 Italian talk a great deal but he out talked 'em all. 
 
 She hears on the 25th of January of Johnson's 
 death which had been long expected and writes 
 " Oh poor Dr. Johnson " but she is herself very 
 happy. 27th January. Milan. 1785. Here am 
 I ! with my Husband and his Friends passing my 
 Birthday (after all past Anguish) in the Bosom of 
 Friendship, Love and good humour : with my health 
 recovered as far as it was recoverable and even my 
 looks repaired by growing fat, so as to content my 
 ever partial, my ever kind companion. What Blessings, 
 What Comforts are these ! and how grateful ought 
 I to be for a Change so unhoped for, though always 
 eagerly desired. 
 
 We have a dinner and a Concert ; and I am fed 
 with flattery even to Repletion : but that of course 
 
THRALIANA 41 
 
 which most delights my Heart is the unfeigned 
 Pleasure which I see my Piozzi takes in my 
 Company. God has heard my Prayers and enabled 
 me to make happy the most amiable of his Sex 
 Was I to wish for more, I might provoke Providence 
 to lessen the enjoyments I possess ; let me suppress 
 all inordinate Desire of a Child by the man I so 
 love, that only could add to my happiness. 
 
 So passes the happiest Birthday ever yet ex- 
 perienced by Hester Lynch Piozzi." 
 
 Though she finds the Italians pleasant and amiable, 
 she is much disgusted with their customs & super- 
 stitions and the grossness of their talk. 
 
 " I told Piozzi the other day that I thought 
 Senator Morosini's talk was like nothing I ever 
 heard of but a Midwife's evidence in England upon 
 a Tryal in a Court of Justice. 
 
 I have always been partial to Peter as elder 
 Brother though I acknowledge him neither for 
 Padre nor Monsignor, but I shall now be a follower 
 of dear Martin as much from preference as from 
 being born and educated where his Heaven-dictated 
 Reformation is the established Church. These 
 
42 THRALIANA 
 
 people by treating my notions as Heretical have 
 made me a Protestant in despite of myself, who 
 always used to say that though I dissented from the 
 Roman Church I did not protest against it, but when 
 they profess to worship Man instead of God 'tis Time 
 to protest against such gross Impiety, No. Sir. 
 said I to a Priest the other day you do not pay 
 divine Honours either to Saints or to Angels ; you 
 respect them. On the contrary Madam replied he, 
 we adore them ; and so we do the Pope ; and it 
 is heresy to oppose that Adoration. 
 
 Here I finished and resolved never to speak to 
 them upon that subject more — Could I but separate 
 my Piozzi from these goats ! " 
 
 Having seen Venice Rome and Naples they 
 return to Milan. 
 
 Milan. Casa Fedale. 27 June. 1786. 
 
 "... Such happiness had I once in the Company 
 of dear Dr. Johnson whose knowledge of the World 
 I now find to be nearly intuitive, excepting only 
 f that he could never persuade himself to think man- 
 kind so wicked as I have since found them to be. 
 The Anecdotes of his Life written by me in various 
 
THRALIANA 43 
 
 parts of Italy, begun here in Milan, continued at 
 Florence and finished at Leghorn, met I understand 
 with an extremely favourable Reception in England ; 
 so I ought to be thankful and in good Humour with 
 my own Country now — for every reason. Indeed 
 comparing it with others, one must allow it a gainer 
 tho' vicious enough God knows. . . . Our Beckfords 
 and Bickerstaffs do not keep their Male Mistresses 
 in Triumph like the Roman Priests and Princes. 
 
 This Italy is indeed a sink of Sin and whoever 
 lives long in it must be a little tainted. England 
 certainly does keep the Golden Mean and though 
 wickeder than one would wish it and more defective 
 both in Faith and Works I verily do believe it is 
 the best part of Europe to live in for almost every 
 reason. 
 
 1 6 August 1786. Milan. 
 
 I have seen a stranger Thing however here at 
 Milan than any critical Studies can afford. Nature 
 and her Varieties are better worth Studying after 
 all than all other Sciences could one acquire them. 
 Dr. Johnson once said nobody ever saw a strange 
 thing ; and Challenged two or three Friends (myself 
 
44 THRALIANA 
 
 amongst them) to say I had in my Life been 
 Witness- to any Sight justly called a Strange one. 
 But I had not then seen Avvocato Borghi a Lawyer 
 of this Town and a man well respected who actually 
 chews the cud like an Ox which he did in my presence 
 and at my request. He is eminent for Strength, his 
 Person like that of another Man till stripping, he 
 shews a set of Ribs and a Sternum very surprising 
 indeed and worthy the Inspection of Anatomists. 
 His Body on a slight touch even through his 
 Clothes, throws out Electric Sparks. With all these 
 peculiarities no man has better health, I'm told, and 
 he is eminent for lifting great Weights, holding a 
 Man in the Palm of his Hand and such tricks, he 
 can throw up his Meals at Pleasure and to oblige 
 me did go through all the operations of eating, 
 masticating and vomiting so as to entirely satisfie 
 all curious Enquiries I could make and leave me 
 no doubt of the Fact which I would not have 
 believed from the Relation of any Mortal now living. 
 I could hardly have refused credit to Johnson. 
 
 The Americans have got a Trick of travelling 
 I find, it is very foolish in their Government to 
 
THRALIANA 45 
 
 suffer 'em. They will get spoiled. [The above 
 remark is inserted in Thraliana without preface 
 or comment. Have the Americans been spoiled or 
 improved by Continental travel?] 3rd Sept. 1786. 
 I am exceedingly obliged to the Milanese Nobility 
 for their partial Regard and Tenderness towards me 
 whom they consider as entitled to every Distinction 
 both by my Birth and Acquirements but though 
 they respect my Fidelity to the Man I have married, 
 they scruple not to declare their opinion of its being 
 very ill bestowed : all the Gentlemen loudly proclaim 
 their envy of Mr. Piozzi, and astonishment at his 
 good luck in getting for his wife a Dama di Nascita 
 [he was not Cavaliere]. Every man I have seen almost 
 has made Love to me, but when I found how the 
 land lay, a steadily kept Resolution never to sit with 
 any man alone even for five minutes, settled that Stuff 
 completely. The Italians are sad Liars, I would not 
 trust one of them. These old priests teizing me to 
 change my religion is the worse thing. I am afraid 
 of their making Piozzi hate me, and of their putting 
 a Woman about him to keep him steady in the Good 
 Old Cause. Milan. 15th Sept. 1786. Well! lam 
 
46 THRALIANA 
 
 now about to close my Residence in Italy at the same 
 Moment as I close my 4th Vol. of Thraliana, and 
 must confess that no Days since I began it have been 
 so happily spent by me as those I have passed in this 
 beautiful country ; v^rhere my little Talents have been 
 respected much beyond their Deserts : my Conduct 
 extolled far above its Merit, and my Conversation 
 sought for from the mere Prevalence of true admira- 
 tion and Esteem. I shall not leave People who deserve 
 so much from me without sincere Desire and fervent 
 Prayers for their future welfare. With regard to my 
 \^ Husband, it is difficult to express how kind and how 
 attentive he has been. May that tenderness not 
 lessen from an idea that when I am once in England 
 I shall need it no longer, .... for to that I shall 
 owe my Life which depends entirely on him and 
 which his Company can alone render pleasing in any 
 Nation and beneath any Sky. 
 
 Here then Farewell Fair Italy say I 
 
 Whilst other Modes and other climes we try." 
 
 And so they left Italy where Mrs. Piozzi wrote 
 her little book " Anecdotes of the Late Samuel John- 
 son LL.D. during the last twenty years of his Life," 
 
THRALIANA 47 
 
 She sent the MS. to England for publication by 
 Cadell, and as it was the first book she had published 
 its great success and numerous editions gave her 
 much satisfaction. 
 
 The following entry in Thraliana after their return 
 home is made on April 29th 1787 and will explain 
 Mrs. Piozzi's feelings. 
 
 " Vienna pleased Mr. Piozzi better than me, he 
 found some musical Houses very much to his Taste 
 but I disliked both the City and People exceedingly. 
 Prague was horrible, Dresden won my Heart, was I 
 sixty years old I should like to settle at Dresden, 
 though Bloomsbury Square and Southampton Row 
 are somewhat nearer to be sure, the Manners very 
 similar, the Society just such I think. More Women 
 than Men, and the Men poor creatures, I made 
 some Friends, Female ones, there who appeared to 
 Love me sincerely. Brunswick, Hanover and Osna- 
 burg form a climax of misery. God keep one from 
 ever seeing those places again. Berlin & Potsdam 
 were superbly dull. The Gallery at Dusseldorf is 
 worth running across to look at ; but Aix la Chapelle 
 was a wretched Place and the Spa Baths made one 
 
48 THRALIANA 
 
 sick to look at them. Brussells ! Ay Brussells was 
 something like indeed : never were people so caressed 
 as Mr. Piozzi and I were at Brussells. The Duke 
 and Duchess of Arenburg quite adored us. Lord & 
 Lady Torrington professed themselves jealous of our 
 fondness for them : The Princess Governante invited 
 our further residence in her City and asked me if 
 nothing she could do would induce us to stay ? The 
 Arch Duchesses learned English out of my Book 
 (Johnson's Anecdotes) and Prince Albert would not 
 have Mrs Piozzi out of his sight. We entertained 
 sixty four English Friends with a Concert & Supper 
 at the Hotel dAngleterre, and dined and spent the 
 Evening with the first Company every day, and we 
 left 'em much to my Regret after spending five weeks 
 in Gayety and Good Humour. Why did we leave 
 them .? I never could tell, certainly but the best 
 reason was the Hope of seeing the Mortgage to Miss 
 Thrales fairly discharged and cancelled, that satis- 
 faction I expect next Thursday. As for seeing our 
 Daughters why we never do see them here, any more 
 than when the Sea parted us, or hardly. The eldest 
 has called twice and we have called twice on Susan 
 
THRALIANA 49 
 
 and Sophy who refused dining here at our invitation ; 
 perhaps from an Idea that they are superior to the 
 petty sovereigns of Germany." 
 
 For twenty-five years Mrs. Piozzi Hved in happi- 
 ness and content with her second husband who died at 
 Brynbella* in 1809. They never went abroad again, 
 no doubt because the French Revolution and the 
 constant warfare which resulted from it were inter- 
 ferences with travelling, and especially with visits to 
 Italy to which Englishmen had been so much inclined 
 from the time of Henry VIII, visits for study and 
 pleasure that seemed almost a necessary part of a polite 
 Education. Suffice it to say, that Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi 
 returned for a time to Streatham and afterwards made 
 their headquarters in Wales on Mrs. Thrale's ancestral 
 estate, and that Mr. Piozzi delighted his wife's heart 
 by being received into the Church of England. 
 
 They became very friendly with the Kembles and 
 especially Mrs. Siddons, and I cannot do better than 
 quote a somewhat surprising comparison of Mrs. 
 Siddons and Mrs. Pritchard, especially as Mrs. Piozzi 
 was well aware that Mrs. Pritchard was stupid off 
 
 *The villa built by Piozzi on his wife's land near Denbigh. 
 
 G 
 
so THRALIANA 
 
 the stage and knew nothing of the play of Macbeth 
 except her own part. 
 
 II January. 1789. " Kemble is an agreeable 
 Actor, a very sensible and pleasing Man ; I love him 
 and his charming Sister sincerely, but have more sense 
 than to take them for Garrick and Mrs Pritchard 
 Tis a shame even to have them compared Mrs 
 Pritchard was incomparable, her Merit overbore the 
 want of Figure, her intelligence pervaded every Sense. 
 She was the most refined Coquet of Quality in Gibbers 
 Lady Betty, the most vulgar and cunning Jade that 
 Ben Johnson could invent in Doll Common : the 
 loftiest Roman Matron that Shakespeare could con- 
 ceive in Coriolanus's Mother, the most subtle and 
 artful Millward that Lillo could imagine capable of 
 inducing the young and innocent Prentice Boy, the 
 tenderest the most instinctively tender Parent that 
 Voltaire or his translator Hill could give us in 
 Merope : the softest and most subdued Penitent that 
 Rowe could exhibit in Jane Shore. Dear Siddons 
 represents only a Lover distressed or a Woman of 
 Virtue afflicted, with peculiar Happiness, Elwina, 
 Belvidera, Dianora, Mrs Beverley, Her Powers are 
 
THRALIANA 51 
 
 strong and sweet, vigorous and tasteful ; but limited 
 and confined. I always thought Pritchard superior 
 to Garrick ; he felt her so in one scene in Hamlet, 
 one of Macbeth, and one of the Jealous Wife when all 
 the Spontaneous Applause of the House went to her. 
 1789 8th May; Mrs Siddons acted Juliet last 
 Night, she does it naturally says some one, so arti- 
 ficially rather said I : but she is a great performer, the 
 parting Scene with old Nurse was the cleverest 
 thing I ever saw, so pretty so babyish so charming. 
 Kemble slept over the parting Scene in Romeo. He 
 is like Bottom the Weaver he likes The Tyrants! Vein 
 or Ercles Vein or a Part to tear a Cat in as Bottom says. 
 I never can keep clear of the idea for my part A Lover 
 is too condoling for our friend Kemble, he is a clever 
 man tho' and makes some capital Hits, in many 
 capital characters. 
 
 I wonder if my Executors will burn the Thraliana." 
 Mrs. Siddons is such a very great personage in the 
 world of acting that I will quote some more passages 
 — by no means all — in which Mrs. Piozzi mentions 
 her, for we must remember that they became very 
 intimate. 
 
52 THRALIANA 
 
 " 17 May. 1790. Charming Siddons has spent 
 some weeks with me, I think mighty well of her 
 Virtues and am amazed at the cultivated State in 
 which I have found her mind. She is a fine creature 
 Body and Soul and has a very distinguished superiority 
 over other Mortals. Poor pretty Siddons. A Warm 
 Heart and a Cold Husband are sad things to contend 
 with but she'll get thro'. 
 
 I March 1791. I think Mrs Siddons tho' beauti- 
 ful and endowed with Talents not to support only but 
 enrich her family is a Woman by no means particularly 
 beloved either by Parents, Husband, Brother or Son. 
 They all like to get what they can out of her ; 
 but all the Affection flows from her to them, 
 not from them to her. I guess not the reason 
 but five thousand Women are better liked by their 
 families." 
 
 In 1794 while living at Streatham her youngest 
 daughter Cecilia attracted many admirers, among 
 others Samuel Rogers whose life might have been 
 very different had he married Mrs. Piozzi's daughter. 
 As it was, he became a famous host and literary figure 
 and at one time might be said to be the representative 
 
THRALIANA 53 
 
 of Literature in London as Dr. Johnson was fifty 
 years before him. Mrs. Piozzi's entry is : — 
 
 " Mr. Rogers has proposed to Cecilia, he seeks not 
 her fortune certainly, but he is too ugly to hope 
 acceptance, who but himself could fancy she would 
 think of him ? Altho' Banker & Poet. She wants 
 neither money nor Verses I suppose and like the Girl 
 in the Comedy would rather have a Husband with 
 white teeth." 
 
 It is amusing to find Mrs. Piozzi noting with some 
 annoyance that Rogers gave up visiting them at 
 Streatham after her daughter's marriage, so that it 
 was clear to her that he had only come for the sake of 
 Cecilia and not for the charms of the mother's conver- 
 sation. There is a great deal about the affairs of 
 Cecilia both before and after her marriage in Thraliana, 
 and of some of it I can quite understand Mr. Salus- 
 bury's remark that " it is of too private and delicate 
 character to be submitted to strangers." As for the 
 three elder daughters who lived apart from her from 
 the time of her marriage with Piozzi, there was no 
 real intimacy though the mutual feeling became less 
 unfriendly, as time went on. But Mrs. Piozzi had 
 
t 
 
 54 THRALIANA 
 
 no tolerance or patience for anyone who did not 
 appreciate and respect her dear husband. She was 
 not merely a devoted wife, but found her chief happi- 
 ness in being a devoted wife to the husband who had 
 given her a second existence of exceptional harmony. 
 Murphy who had been the man to introduce Johnson 
 to the Thrale's was the old friend for whom her liking 
 remained unimpaired and with whom she could enjoy 
 a talk about old times. 
 
 One passage in Thraliana enables me to make a 
 correction to previous writers. Johnson once made 
 an improvised paraphrase of some Italian verses by 
 
 Baretti : — 
 
 Long may live my lovely Hetty ! 
 
 Always young and always pretty, 
 Always pretty, always young, 
 
 Live my lovely Hetty long ! 
 Always young and always pretty 
 
 Long may live my lovely Hetty. 
 
 and both Hayward and Seeley have described these 
 verses as a compliment to Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Piozzi 
 writes : — 
 
 "April 3rd. 1794. Who would dream of poor 
 Dr. Johnsons Verses in Praise of my eldest daughter 
 
THRALIANA 55 
 
 when she was ten years old, done to divert Baretti by 
 
 anglicizing his song at the end of the Baby Dialogues 
 
 — coming out now set to Music for the misses to 
 
 sing. 
 
 Long may live my lovely Hetty ! 
 
 Always young and always pretty. &c. &c." * 
 
 In justice to Hayward and Seeley we must say 
 that in the " Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson " from which 
 the verses are quoted Mrs. Piozzi does not say in 
 whose honour they were composed. Now that we 
 know, we can easily see, as probably Hayward and 
 Seeley could have done, that internal evidence should 
 have told us at once that they were not meant for 
 Mrs. Thrale. 
 
 Boswell was constantly carping at Mrs. Piozzi's 
 accuracy and correcting her in trivial things. It is 
 curious to find that in 1794 he had a great controversy 
 with Miss Seward in reference to some early verses of 
 Johnson's about a Sprig of Myrtle. Strange to say 
 Boswell in this controversy was maintaining the 
 accuracy of Mrs. Piozzi's account of the origin 
 
 * Hayward says she made a note for Sir James Fellowes in 1816, "I 
 heard these verses sung at Mrs Thomas's by three voices not three weeks 
 ago." 
 
56 THRALIANA 
 
 of these verses. Yet we find this passage in 
 Thraliana. 
 
 " Mr. Boswell and Miss Seward are good Antago- 
 nists for each other made on purpose one would 
 think, I wonder which will have the last word about 
 poor dear old Johnson's Sprig of Myrtle. Boswell's 
 Cause is best certainly but his opponent out-writes 
 him. Miss Seward has ten times his Power" Boswell 
 had committed the unpardonable sin of writing with 
 want of respect about Piozzi and adopting Johnson's 
 attitude of reprobation about the Piozzi marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Piozzi having lived so many years with an 
 Italian Artist and travelled in Italy in his company 
 knew Italian ways as few Englishwomen did, and yet 
 kept her English point of view. The following 
 passages concern matters about which people in the 
 Eighteenth Century wrote more freely than we do, 
 and both of them have a biographical value. The 
 first relates to " Henry IX." the last of the Stuarts, 
 and the second to a Lady artist the wife of a famous 
 painter. 
 
 " I might have heard similar stories (to the tales in 
 Suetonius about the Roman Emperors) in Italy all 
 
THRALIANA 57 
 
 day, had I not hated lewd Conversations as I do. 
 Old Cardinal de York kept a Catamite publicly at 
 Rome while I was there, tho' a Man of the best 
 character possible for Piety and Charity with which 
 as a Person said to me that Vice has nothing to do. 
 They consider it as mere matter of Taste. 
 
 When Mrs. Cosway ran madding all over Europe 
 after a Castrato leaving her husband and new born 
 baby at Home here ; she was praying at every Altar 
 and fasting vigorously all the time, a hypocritical 
 Hussy say the people. Not at all. Her Faith is not 
 influenced by her Actions I suppose : she was well 
 persuaded of Heavenly Truths altho' a Prey to almost 
 infernal passions or Appetites strangely depraved. 
 Her taking the veil at Genoa after all corroborates 
 my opinion of her Piety. Had I been Abbess tho' 
 & known her Character she should not have set her 
 foot in my Convent. The Nun's Morality would be 
 endangered by such a Companion. [Side-note of 
 Mrs. Piozzi's] She went en Pension She did not take 
 the Veil. 
 
 Mrs. Piozzi's books " Anecdotes of Johnson " 
 % (1786) and "Letters to and from Johnson" (1788) 
 
58 THRALIANA 
 
 were both very successful, for the pubHc or rather 
 *' Society " interest in Johnson lasted for many years 
 after his death. Her account of her Italian Journey 
 (1789) is lively and brightly w^ritten and very much 
 more readable today than most eighteenth century 
 books of Continental Travel. These two Volumes 
 compare very favourably indeed with the four 
 Volumes of Travels by her old enemy Baretti which 
 were so extravagantly over-praised by Johnson and 
 for which Baretti received ^^500 from the Book- 
 sellers. These books were written because Mrs. Piozzi 
 had something to say. She had things to relate 
 which nobody else could know, and she told her 
 story in a headlong lively manner that is a near 
 approach to the familiarity of conversation, and has 
 absolutely no relation to the stiff dignity of Johnson's 
 prose style. 
 
 I am glad to notice that Sir Walter Raleigh in his 
 chapter on "Johnson without Boswell " says of Mrs. 
 Piozzi : — " It is impossible to read the Anecdotes 
 without falling under the spell of her easy irresponsible 
 charm '* and the essential truth of her picture of 
 Johnson is not vitiated by unimportant errors of 
 
THRALIANA 59 
 
 detail brought into an undue prominence by the 
 genius of Boswell. But Mrs. Piozzi's later literary- 
 career is not so fortunate. Her "British Synonimy" 
 produced in 1794 and sold by the mediation of 
 Murphy and the repute of her former books for 
 ^500 was in no way a success though it was not 
 without some amusing passages.* 
 
 As for her last work, she relates in Thraliana that 
 when she came to London in 1801 with the MS. of 
 two folio Volumes " Retrospection, or a Review of 
 the most striking and important Events, Characters, 
 Situations and their Consequences which the last 
 Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to the View 
 of Mankind " she found the publishers quite resolved 
 not to pay for such a book. She was glad to come 
 to terms with Mr. John Stockdale of Piccadilly on 
 the terms that " Stockdale bears me harmless of 
 Expense and then we share the Profits, which will 
 be none." She adds the further remark " My Bar- 
 gain with Stockdale pleased nobody I think " — My 
 interest in Mrs. Piozzi has induced me to buy these 
 
 * I recently picked up a Paris edition, published in 1 804 by Parsons and 
 Galignani — which I have not seen noticed elsewhere. 
 
 H2 
 
6o THRALIANA 
 
 two folio Volumes, and I may say that in the later 
 part of the second Volume her comments on the 
 extraordinary events of her own time have some 
 human and almost historical interest though they 
 are very awkwardly expressed. This is the best I 
 can say of them. 
 
 With regard to Thraliana I should like to adopt 
 the phrase of Prof. Raleigh and to say that in the 
 reading of it I have fallen under the spell of Mrs. 
 Piozzi's easy irresponsible charm. The specimens I 
 have given may or may not bring this home to those 
 who have not had the privilege of dipping into 
 Thraliana for themselves and reading in her own 
 handwriting the sincere and private records of a 
 remarkable woman. Sometimes it is so intimate that 
 one feels as if " profaning the mysteries of the Bona 
 Dea" to use a convenient phrase employed by Lord 
 Beaconsfield. The full flavour can only be obtained 
 by a full perusal. It is a veracious document, the 
 real thing, the genuine article. My endeavour has 
 been to give fair samples, not to expurgate unduly, 
 and to try to convey to others the historical, literary 
 and human charm of " Thraliana." 
 
Dates in the Life of Mrs. Piozzi. 
 
 1 74 1. Hester Lynch Salusbury born — Jany. 27 — 
 daughter of John Salusbury of Bachycraig. 
 
 1762. Death of her father. 
 
 1763. Her marriage to Henry Thrale brewer of 
 
 Southwark and Streatham. 
 
 1764. Birth of her eldest daughter Hester afterwards 
 
 Lady Keith. She bore Thrale twelve child- 
 ren in all. 
 
 1765. First introduction to Johnson. Thrale M.P. 
 
 for Southwark. 
 
 1766. Johnson became domesticated at Streatham, 
 
 and spent henceforth much of his time 
 there, usually the middle of the weeks, 
 returning to his London House on Saturday 
 evenings. 
 
62 THRALIANA 
 
 1769. Boswell's first visit to Streatham. 
 
 1773. Death of Mrs. Thrale's mother. 
 
 1774. Tour in Wales of the Thrales and Dr. John- 
 
 son. On their return they visit Burke at 
 Beaconsfield. 
 
 1775. In September Mr. and Mrs. Thrale v^ith their 
 
 eldest daughter and Johnson and Baretti 
 visit France. Eight weeks abroad. 
 
 1776. Death of the Thrale's eldest son, a boy of ten. 
 
 1778. First visit of Fanny Burney (Madam d'Arblay) 
 to Streatham. 
 
 1780. Gordon riots. Thrale loses his seat for 
 
 Streatham. First acquaintance with Piozzi. 
 
 1 78 1. Death of Thrale. Sale of the brewery. 
 
 1782. Streatham house let to Lord Shelburne. 
 
 1783. Piozzi sent to Italy. Mrs. Thrale retires to 
 
 Bath. 
 
 1784. Marriage to Piozzi. Departure of Mr. and 
 
 Mrs. Piozzi for Italy. Death of Johnson, 
 Dec. 13th, 
 
THRALIANA 63 
 
 1787. Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi return to England. 
 
 1790. The Piozzis go to live at the old house at 
 Streatham. 
 
 1795. They leave Streatham for North Wales to live 
 on Mrs. Piozzi's ancestral estate. 
 
 1809. Death of Piozzi. 
 
 1 82 1. Death of Mrs. Piozzi in May. She left his 
 Welsh property to Piozzi's nephew who 
 took the name of Salusbury. 
 
 GLASGOW : PKINTEU AT THE UNIVKRSITV PRESS BV ROBERT MACLKHOSE AND CO. LTD. 
 
[Out of Print.] London^ 1 903 
 
 Shakespeare's Europe 
 
 UNPUBLISHED CHAPTERS OF 
 
 FYNES MORYSON'S ITINERARY 
 
 Pf^ith an Introduction and an account of Fynes Moryson's Career 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HUGHES 
 
 English Historical Review, Oct., 1903 (by Prof. C. H. Firth). — " Mr. Hughes 
 is to be congratulated on the publication of such an interesting and valuable 
 manuscript as this is. It is curious that it should have lain so long unedited 
 in the library of an Oxford College. He has prefixed to it an account of Fynes 
 Moryson's life, which contains many new details, gives a copy of his will, and 
 fixes for the first time the exact date of his death." 
 
 Saturday Review. — " Mr. Hughes has performed his duties excellently. 
 He has written a clear and succinct preface in which, with no Uttle learning, 
 he has gleaned all the available information as to the author Fynes Moryson, 
 particularly those facts which help the reader to understand the book." 
 
 AthencBum. — " The preface is a model of painstaking. Every fact of 
 Moryson's life is brought out and verified, and Mr. Hughes has been fortunate 
 in obtaining many new ones." 
 
 Shakespeare Jahrbtich, 1904 (by Dr. Aloys Brandl). — " Das Buch ist — 
 nebenbei bemerkt — eine Fundgrube fiir den deutschen Kultur-historiker, 
 handelt iiber die grosse Verehrung Luthers und Melanchtons, stadische und 
 studentische Sitten, Kaiser Rudolf und die Juden in Frag usw." 
 
 The late Rt. Hon. W. E. H. Lecky wrote to Mr. Hughes of what he termed 
 " your valuable and most interesting book." "It is sure to furnish much 
 material to future historians, and seems to me excellently edited. I have 
 already read a good deal in it with keen interest." 
 
Londoriy 1 904 
 
 WiLLOBiE His Avisa 
 
 A Shakespearian Enigma 
 
 WITH AN ESSAY TOWARDS ITS INTERPRETATION BY 
 
 CHARLES HUGHES 
 
 Mr. Swinburne, to whom the book was dedicated, wrote : — " I have read 
 your introduction most carefully, and with the greatest interest. ... I 
 congratulate you on the new light you have thrown on an equally bewildering 
 and interesting subject." 
 
 M. JussERAND wrote : — " As soon as the book was announced I had ordered 
 a copy, read it pen in hand, admired the ingenuity of the writer, and felt 
 grateful to him for the service rendered by him to Literature." 
 
 Saturday Review. — " That the enigma presented by this poem is a tantalising 
 one everyone must admit, and it is not surprising that conjecture sliould have 
 been busy with it. We will say at once that Mr. Hughes' attempt to solve it 
 is one of the most ingenious and masterly examples of constructive criticism 
 that we ever remember to have met with. 
 
 Shakespeare- J ahrbuch (by Dr. Aloys Brandl). — " Er is durchaus 
 kritisch gegen die eigenen Funde. Wenn er sie trotzdem mitteilt, und durch 
 Mancherlei andere Moglichkeiten zu stiitzen trachtet, so tut er es offenbar, 
 um uns fiir das Prinzip einer Realdeutung zu gewinnen." 
 
 Manchester Guardian (by Prof. C. H. Herford). — "Mr. Hughes has 
 spared no cost of time and labour in pursuing to the utmost hmit all the 
 avenues and bypaths of exploration suggested by an acute and fertile brain." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. — " Mr. Charles Hughes, the editor, has tracked down a 
 deal of the allusion in the poem, by touring and research in the West Country, 
 and ingeniously identifies the heroine. His introductory essay is written with 
 precision and minute knowledge, historical sympathy and power of exposition." 
 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1906 
 Tudor and Stuart Series. 5/" "^^ 
 
 The Defence of the Realme 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR HENRY KNYVETT, 1596 
 
 Notu for the first time printed from a MS. in the Chethatn Library, Manchester 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 CHARLES HUGHES 
 
 spectator. — " The book as a whole is exceedingly interesting as well as 
 curious, and Mr. Hughes deserves the gratitude of students not only of history 
 but of military science for his discovery of Sir Henry Knyvett's pamphlet." 
 
 Saturday Review. — " This is a curious and interesting old pamphlet which 
 has never before been printed. . . . The editor gives some notes on the career 
 of Sir Henry Knyvett, about whom the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' 
 has nothing to say." 
 
 Morning Post (by Spenser Wilkinson). — " Knyvett's paper is quite as 
 well worth reading, and quite as instructive as any of the modern Prize Essays. 
 . . . The volume, which will dehght all book-lovers and students of Ehzabethan 
 literature, should be read by all who take an interest in questions of national 
 defence to whatever school of thought they may belong." 
 
 American Historical Review. — " Knyvett was prompted to write this tract 
 by the capture of Calais from the French by the Spaniards on April 17, 1590, 
 and the consequent fear in England of a Spanish invasion. . . . With respect 
 to the danger of invasion England's situation then was essentially the same 
 as now." 
 
 Daily Mail. — " Knyvett's question was : Supposing that a hostile fleet 
 were to effect a landing, was the army sufficient for defence ? His suggestion 
 was that there should be a general organization of the male population for 
 defensive purposes." 
 
 Nation (New York). — " In it Knyvett sets forth, with the authority of his 
 long experience, his views as to the best way to muster, train, equip, and 
 handle an army to beat off the invasion." 
 
 Manchester Courier. — " The reprint of Knyvett's treatise is valuable alike 
 as a literary curiosity of great interest, and still more as embodying the wise 
 forethought of a skilled soldier and good citizen." 
 
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 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
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 OVERDUE. 
 
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