The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 2, February 1810Arnold, Samuel James
History
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 2, February 1810
Arnold, Samuel James
Drama -- Periodicals; Theater -- Periodicals
While she was proceeding in this career of success her felicity met with
the most cruel interruption by the sudden death of her husband, which
happened at Baltimore in the latter end of the year 1798. Mr. Merry had
not laboured under any specific physical complaint from which his death
could in the smallest degree be apprehended. On the day before christmas
he was apparently well, had walked out into the garden, and was soon
after followed by some friends who found him lying senseless on the
ground. Medical aid was immediately called in--several attempts were
made to draw blood from him but without the least success; the
physicians pronounced it an apoplectic case, and from every circumstance
the conclusion was that his death was instantaneous and without pain.
Mr. Merry was large and of a plethoric habit; and to that his death may,
in some sort, and was then entirely ascribed. But circumstances appeared
after his death which led to a conclusion that concealed sorrow, might
have had some share in it. From refined motives of tenderness for a
beloved wife's feelings, and that loftiness of spirit which clings to
the perfect gentleman, he concealed the state of his affairs in England,
which had for some time been in a rapid decline, and of the complete
ruin of which he had a short time before been fully informed. His
patrimonial estate had been foreclosed and sold under a mortgage, and he
remained debtor for a considerable sum after the sale. To this effect a
letter was found after his death. As soon as this was discovered, every
one who knew his exquisite sensibility, reflected with astonishment upon
the delicacy which dictated and the fortitude with which he managed his
concealment, and felt deep and sympathetic sorrow for the anguish he
must have been privately enduring while he endeavoured to dress his face
with tranquillity and to converse with his accustomed cheerfulness and
ease. Smothered grief is one of the most deadly inmates; and it is
reasonable to believe that a paroxysm of violent emotion in a moment
when solitude gave an opportunity for giving a loose to reflection,
operating upon a plethoric habit, occasioned his sudden dissolution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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