Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume II

Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume II

91. TO GRAY, Jan. 25, 1766.A Constant Round of AmusementsA Gallery of Female PortraitsMadame GeoffrinMadame du DeffandMadame de MirepoixMadame de BoufflersMadame de RochfortThe Marchale de LuxemburgThe Duchesse de ChoiseulAn old French DandyM. de MaurepasPopularity of his Letter to Rousseau 115. TO THE SAME, Feb. 22, 1771.Peace with SpainBanishment of the French ParliamentMrs. Cornelys's EstablishmentThe Queen of Denmark 116. TO THE SAME, April 26, 1771.Quarrel of the House of Commons with the CityDissensions in the French Court and Royal FamilyExtravagance in England My journey to Paris is fixed for some time in February, where I hear I may expect to find Madame de Boufflers, Princess of Conti. Her husband is just dead; and you know the House of Bourbon have an alacrity at marrying their old mistresses. She was here last year, being extremely infected with the Anglomanie, though I believe pretty well cured by her journey. She is past forty, and does not appear ever to have been handsome, but is one of the most agreeable and sensible women I ever saw; yet I must tell you a trait of her that will not prove my assertion. Lady Holland asked her how she liked Strawberry Hill? She owned that she did not approve of it, and that it was not digne de la solidit Angloise. It made me laugh for a quarter of an hour. They allot us a character we have not, and then draw consequences from that idea, which would be absurd, even if the idea were just. One must not build a Gothic house because the nation is solide. Perhaps, as everything now in France must be la Grecque, she would have liked a hovel if it pretended to be built after Epictetus'sbut Heaven forbid that I should be taken for a philosopher! Is it not amazing that the most sensible people in France can never help being domineered by sounds and general ideas? Now everybody must be a gomtre, now a philosophe, and the moment they are either, they are to take up a character and advertise it: as if one could not study geometry for one's amusement or for its utility, but one must be a geometrician at table, or at a visit! So the moment it is settled at Paris that the English are solid, every Englishman must be wise, and, if he has a good understanding, he must not be allowed to play the fool. As I happen to like both sense and nonsense, and the latter better than what generally passes for the former, I shall disclaim, even at Paris, the profondeur, for which they admire us; and I shall nonsense to admire Madame de Boufflers, though her nonsense is not the result of nonsense, but of sense, and consequently not the genuine nonsense that I honour. When she was here, she read a tragedy in prose to me, of her own composition, taken from "The Spectator:" the language is beautiful and so are the sentiments. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 12074
Author: Walpole, Horace
Release Date: Apr 1, 2004
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Yonge, Charles Duke, 1812-1891