Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) — John Shaqi
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 begin to be tired of my humility: I have carried my complaisances to
you farther than I ought. You make new scruples; you have a great deal
of fancy; and your distrusts being all of your own making, are more
immovable than if there was some real ground for them. Our aunts and
grandmothers always tell us that men are a sort of animals, that, if
they are constant, 'tis only where they are ill used. 'Twas a kind of
paradox I could never believe: experience has taught me the truth of it.
You are the first I ever had a correspondence with, and I thank God I
have done with it for all my life. You needed not to have told me you
are not what you have been: one must be stupid not to find a difference
in your letters. You seem, in one part of your last, to excuse yourself
from having done me any injury in point of fortune. Do I accuse you of
any?
"I have not spirits to dispute any longer with you. You say you are not
yet determined: let me determine for you, and save you the trouble of
writing again. Adieu for ever! make no answer. I wish, among the variety
of acquaintance, you may find some one to please you; and can't help the
vanity of thinking, should you try them all, you won't find one that
will be so sincere in their treatment, though a thousand more deserving,
and every one happier. 'Tis a piece of vanity and injustice I never
forgive in a woman, to delight to give pain; what must I think of a man
that takes pleasure in making me uneasy? After the folly of letting you
know it is in your power, I ought in prudence to let this go no farther,
except I thought you had good nature enough never to make use of that
power. I have no reason to think so: however, I am willing, you see, to
do you the highest obligation 'tis possible for me to do; that is, to
give you a fair occasion of being rid of me."
There is now another break in the (preserved) correspondence until the
end of February, 1711, and then Lady Mary, writing with more than a
tinge of bitterness, broke off all relations with him--or, at least,
affected to do so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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