Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762)Melville, Lewis
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Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762)
Melville, Lewis
Montagu, Mary Wortley, Lady 1689-1762; Montagu, Mary Wortley, Lady 1689-1762 -- Correspondence
"I cannot forbear (dear sister) accusing you of unkindness that you take
so little care of a business of the last consequence to me. R. [Rémond]
writ to me some time ago, to say if I would immediately send him £2,000
sterling, he would send me an acquittance. As this was sending him
several hundreds out of my own pocket, I absolutely refused it; and, in
return, I have just received a threatening letter, to print I know not
what stuff against me. I am too well acquainted with the world (of which
poor Mrs. Murray's affair is a fatal instance), not to know that the
most groundless accusation is always of ill consequence to a woman;
besides the cruel misfortune it may bring upon me in my own family. If
you have any compassion either for me or my innocent children, I am sure
you will try to prevent it. The thing is too serious to be delayed. I
think (to say nothing either of blood or affection), that humanity and
Christianity are interested in my preservation. I am sure I can answer
for my hearty gratitude and everlasting acknowledgment of a service much
more important than that of saving my life."
In Lady Mary's correspondence there is no further reference to this
sorry business, and so it cannot be said how it ended. Nor can it be
decided whether Rémond really believed he had been swindled or whether
he was just a blackmailer.
The intimacy between Lady Mary and Pope is especially interesting
because it culminated in one of the most famous quarrels in the literary
annals of this country, and second only to that between Pope and
Addison.
When Lady Mary went abroad in 1716 Pope, who always wanted to make the
best of both worlds, thought, it has been related by his biographers, of
what dramatic situation describing the separation of lovers would best
suit him to express his feelings, and he found exactly what he wanted on
the supposed authentic letters of Eloisa to Abelard. Pope sent Lady Mary
a volume of his poems, saying: "Among the rest you have all I am worth,
that is, my works. There are few things in them but what you have
already seen, except the 'Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard,' in which you
will find one passage that I cannot tell whether to wish you should
understand or not."
Pope corresponded with Lady Mary during the two years of her stay
abroad. The first letter from Pope begins:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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