His lordship observes that “there was a strange affectation of an
incapacity of being sick, that ran through the whole royal family. I
have known the King to get out of his bed, choking with a sore throat,
and in a high fever, only to dress and have a levee, and, in five
minutes after it, undress and return to his bed, till the same
ridiculous farce of health was to be presented the next day at the same
hour. He used to make the Queen, in like circumstances, commit the same
extravagances; but never with more danger than at this time. In the
morning drawing-room, she found herself so near swooning, that she was
forced to send Lord Grantham to the King, to beg he would retire, for
that she was unable to stand any longer; notwithstanding which, at
night, he brought her into a still greater crowd at the ball, and there
kept her till eleven o’clock.”
The recollections of those times constantly bring the name of Lady
Suffolk before the eye. We have no wish to advert to the grossnesses
connected with the name; but the waning of her power gave a singular
pungency to opinion in the palace. The Princesses were peculiarly candid
upon the occasion. The Princess Emily “wished Lady Suffolk’s disgrace,
because she wished misfortune to most people. The Princess Caroline,
because she thought it would please her mother. The Princess Royal was
for having her crushed; and, when Lord Hervey made some remonstrance,
she replied, that Lady Suffolk’s conduct, with regard to politics, had
been so impertinent, that she cannot be too ill used.” It must seem
strange to us that such topics should have been in the lips of any
women, especially women of such rank—but they seem to have been
discussed with the most perfect familiarity; and a name and conduct
which ought to have been suppressed through mere delicacy, appear to
have furnished the principal conversation of the court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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