When, in June, 1727, George II. passed from Leicester House to the throne of England, another Prince of Wales succeeded him,--though not immediately,--and maintained the traditions of an opposition Court. This was Frederick, Prince of Wales. Bubb Dodington, afterwards Lord Melcombe, was the Chesterfield of this new _régime_, and Miss Chudleigh and Lady Middlesex, its Bellenden and Lepel. Political intrigue alternated with gambling and theatricals. One of the _habitués_ was the dancing master Desnoyers, whom Hogarth ridiculed; and French comedians made holiday. 'The town,' says a historian of the Square, 'was at this time full of gaiety--masquerades, ridottos, Ranelagh in full swing, and the Prince a prominent figure at all, for he loved all sorts of diversion, from the gipsies at Norwood, the conjurors and fortune-tellers in the bye-streets about Leicester Fields, and the bull-baits at Hockley-in-the-Hole, to Amorevoli at the Opera, and the Faussans in the ballet. When the news came of the Duke of Cumberland having lost the battle of Fontenoy in May, 1745, the Prince was deep in preparation for a performance at Leicester House of Congreve's masque of "The Judgment of Paris," in which he played Paris. He himself wrote a French song for the part, addressed to the three rival goddesses, acted by Lady Catherine Hanmer, Lady Fauconberg, and Lady Middlesex, the _dame régnante_ of the time. It is in the high Regency vein:--= ```'Venez, mes chères Déesses, ````Venez, calmez mon chagrin; ```Aidez, mes belles Princesses, ````A le noyer dans le vin. ```Poussons cette douce ivresse ````Jusqu'an milieu de la nuit, ```Et n'écoutons que la tendresse ````D'un charmant vis-à-vis."'= 'What signifies if Europe has a tyrant more or less, So we but pray Calliope Our verse and song to bless'---proceeds this Anacreontic performance; and Walpole copies out its entire five stanzas to send to Mann at Florence. They miscarry, he says, 'in nothing but the language, the thoughts and the poetry,'--a judgment which is needlessly severe.