[311] George Colman the elder, born 1732, died 1794; dramatist, etc.
His first acknowledged comedy, “The Jealous Wife,” first acted at
Drury Lane on the 12th of February, 1761, and dedicated to the Earl
of Bath as a “lover of the belles lettres.”
[312] Means Lord Coke, in his work upon Lyttelton. In 1757, Colman
had been entered by Lord Bath at Lincoln’s Inn and called to the
bar.
CHAPTER V.
1761--DEATH OF ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN--CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD
BATH--CORONATION OF GEORGE III.--IN LONDON, AT SANDLEFORD, AND AT
TUNBRIDGE WELLS.
[Year: 1761]
Matthew Robinson, Mrs. Montagu’s eldest brother, who had been member
for the borough of Canterbury, did not propose to offer himself for
re-election to the new parliament, but presented the Canterbury
address to the new king at Court. He was clad in such a peculiar and
uncourtierlike garb that his sister writes to her husband at Newcastle--
“I am glad he is gone into the country, but he has made a most
astonishing appearance at court with the Canterbury address. Morris
says he hears of nothing else. I wish the Beefeaters had not let
him pass the door. Lord Harry Beauclerc on the buzz his appearance
occasioned, desired the people to be quiet, for that he had never
seen the gentleman so well dressed before.”
[Page heading: ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN ILL]
Mr. Montagu, having attended the Durham election in favour of Sir
Thomas Clavering, was preparing to go to Huntingdon for his own
re-election. In Mrs. Montagu’s next letter she says--
“I told you in my last that Admiral Boscawen was ill of a fever,
I hope he is out of danger. The noble admiral does not fight so
well with a fever as he does with the French; he will not lye in
bed, where he would soonest subdue it. Poor Mrs. Boscawen is very
anxious and unhappy about the Admiral, and indeed the loss to her
and her children would be as great as possible.”
In this letter she remarks upon having heard from Mrs. William
Robinson, her sister-in-law, from Lisbon dated November 12: “they
are all well, and going on to Madrid.” “They” were the Rev. William
Robinson, his wife, and her brother, Mr. Richardson, who, being in bad
health, was ordered abroad, and was going to Italy. On December 20,
Admiral Boscawen is reported as out of danger, but on the 27th Mrs.
Montagu writes--
“His fever still hangs upon him, his strength is quite subdued; any
sudden attack, any degree more of fever, and my dear Friend loses a
good husband, her children a fond father, their situation in life
will suffer a grievous alteration, and the publick will be deprived
of a man who serves it with zeal and ability and is always more
tender of the honour of his country than of his own person.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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