The quarrel with this formidable satirist produced disagreeable results for Lady Montagu. It no doubt contributed to spread those black reports about her character and conduct, to which the many victims of her sarcastic pleasantry were at all times willing listners.
She still lived at court with the great and gay, sharing or directing their amusements, admired for the pungen cy of her wit, and the sprightliness of her occasional verses, but her life seems not to have been happy. To other sources of solicitude, ill health was at last added ; and in 1739, with Mr. Wortley's consent, she resolved to fix her abode in Italy. Passing through Venice, where much respect was shown to her, she visited Rome and Naples, and after having spent several months at Chamberry and Avignon, she finally settled at Brescia. Front this city, she afterwards removed to Lover, on the northern shore of the Lake lseo, for the benefit of its mineral waters; where, having purchased and refitted an elegant house, she divided her attention between reading and managing the concerns of her vineyard. 'With a small and select society, she seems to have en joyed more contentment in this retired situation than her former habits would have led us to expect. About the year 1758, however, she exchanged her solitude for the amusements of Venice, in which city she remained till 1761, the period of Mr. Wortley's death. She then yielded to the solicitations of her daughter, the Countess of Bute, and after an absence of twenty-two years, she returned to England in the month of October. But her health had suffered much, and a gradual decline termi nated in death, on the 21st of August, 1762.
Overawed by Pope and his associates, Lady Mary had ventured to publish nothing during her lifetime. The Town Eclogues, above alluded to, were printed under Pope's name, and though his editors have con tinued to assign the " Basset Table," with the " Draw ing Room," to him, and the " Toilet" to Gay, she seems, in fact, to have been the author of them all. Se veral of her other poems had appeared in different col lections, but it was without her permission. If we may judge, however, from an expression employed in writ ing to her sister, the Countess of Mar, it would seem that Lady Mary contemplated the posthumous publica tion of her letters ; and, towards the conclusion of her residence in Italy, she had actually transcribed that part of them which relates to Mr. Wortley's embassy. The manuscript, entrusted to Mr. Lowden, a clergy man at Rotterdam, was surreptitiously printed by Beck ett in 1763; and the curiosity which it had long excited in the world, was finally gratified by the publication of all her poems and letters in 1803. The edition, under
taken at the request of her grandson, the Earl of Bute, was superintended by Mr. Dallaway, who prefixed to it a life of the author.
Concerning the merits of Lady Montagu's poems, it is not necessary to say much. Suggested chiefly by ephemeral topics, they seem to have been written with out great cart. They are not polished, but across their frequent harshness and infelicity of expression, we can easily discern considerable vivacity of conception, ac companied with some acuteness in discriminating cha racter and delineating manners. It is to be regretted that they are not always free from indelicacy.
But Lady Diary's principal merit is to be sought for in her letters. Those IN ritten during the embassy were loudly applauded at first, and they have since maintain ed a conspicuous place in this still scanty department of English literature. The official character of Mr. Wort ley procured her admittance to whatever was splendid or attractive in every country which they visited. She seems to have been contented with herself, and therefore willing to be pleased with others ; and her cheerful, sprightly imagination, the elegance, the ease, and airi ness of her style, are deservedly admired. Succeeding and more minute observers have confirmed the accuracy of her graphic deset iptions. Her other letters are of a similar stamp. The continual gaiety, the pungent wit, with which she details the passing follies of a court, but too successfully imitating that of Louis XV., render her letters extremely amusing. In those written from her retirement at Lover, we discern the same shrewdness of observation, with a little more carelessness of expres sion. The pensive, calm regret which they breathe, and, above all, the tender affection for her daughter, Inc Countess of Bute, to whom they are generally addressed, perhaps more than compensate for the absence of that flow of spirits and exuberance of incident, which distin guished the correspondence of her youth. In a literary point of view, Lady Mary's writings certainly do not be long to a very elevated class, but they occupy the fli:t rank in their class. Considering the times and the cir cumstances of the writer, they may safely be called ex traordinary. And, though the general diffusion of know ledge within the last century has rendered it common for females to write with elegance and skill upon far higher subjects, Lady Mary deserves to be remembered as the first English woman, who combined the know ledge of classical and modern literature with a pene trating judgment and correct taste. (T. c.)