The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume IV.Cibber, Theophilus
General
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume IV.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
----'However, notwithstanding what I have suffered, and what my
brother 'madman' has done to undo himself, and every body who was so
unlucky as to have the least concern with him, I could not help being
sensibly moved on so extraordinary a vicissitude of fortune, to see a
great man fallen from that shining light, in which I have beheld him
in the house of lords, to such a degree of obscurity, that I have
beheld the meanest commoner here decline his company; and the Jew he
would sometimes fasten on, grow tired of it, for you know he is a
bad orator in his cups, and of late he has been seldom sober. A week
before he left Paris, he was so reduced, that he had not one single
crown at command, and was forced to thrust in with any acquaintance
for a lodging: Walsh and I have had him by turns, all to avoid a crowd
of duns, which he had of all sizes, from 1400 livres to 4, who hunted
him so close, that he was forced to retire to some of the neighbouring
villages for safety. I, sick as I was, hurried about Paris to get him
money, and to St. Germains to get him linen. I bought him one shirt
and a cravat, which, with 500 livres, his whole stock, he and his
duchess, attended by one servant, set out for Spain. All the news
I have heard of him since, is, that a day or two after he sent for
captain Brierly, and two or three of his domestics to follow him; but
none but the captain obeyed the summons. Where they are now I cannot
tell, but I fear they must be in great distress by this time, if he
has had no other supplies; and so ends my melancholy story.'
In this deplorable situation did the duke leave Paris, an instance
indeed of the strange reverse of fortune, but for which he could not
blame the severity of providence, or the persecution of enemies, but
his own unbounded profusion, a slave to which he seems to have been
born. As a long journey did not very well suit with his grace's
finances, so he went for Orleans, thence fell down the river Loire
to Nantz in Britany, and there he stopt some time 'till he got
a remittance from Paris, which was squandered almost as soon as
received. At Nantz some of his ragged servants rejoined him, and
from thence he took shipping with them from Bilboa, as if he had been
carrying recruits to the Spanish regiment. From Bilboa he wrote a
humorous letter to a friend at Paris, such as his fancy, not his
circumstances, dictated, giving a whimsical account of his voyage, and
his manner of passing away his time. But at the end, as if he had
been a little affected with his late misconduct, he concludes thus,
'notwithstanding what the world may say of me,
'Be kind to my remains, and O! defend,
Against your judgment, your departed friend[A].'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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