Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples; by 1855-1933 Walter Sydney Sichel Page A
Authors: 1855-1933 Walter Sydney Sichel
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not thus be choked with meanings, for which I can find no utterance !"
Neapolitan noblesse, all seemed miracles, broke down the easy barriers of susceptible southerners, and gained her hosts of " sensible admirers." So early as February, 1787, Sir William reported to his nephew: •". . . Our dear Em. goes on now quite as I cou'd .wish, and is universally beloved "—a phrase which Emma herself repeated ten months later to her first mentor, with the proud consciousness of shining at a distance before him. " She is wonderful," added Hamilton, " considering her youth and beauty, and I flatter myself that E. and her Mother are happy to be with me, so that I see my every wish fulfilled." By the August of this year, when she first wrote Italian, she saw " good company," she delighted the whole diplomatic circle; Sir William was indissociable; she used the familiar " we "— " our house at Caserta is fitted up," while Sir William followed suit. The very servants styled her " Eccellenza." Her attached Ambassador " is distractedly in love "; " he deserves it, and indeed I love him dearly." There was not a grain in her of inconstancy. " He is so kind, so good and tender to me," she wrote as Emma Hart, in an unpublished letter, " that I love him so much that I have not a warm look left for the Neapolitans." His evenings, he wrote, were sweet with song and admiring guests, while her own society rendered them a " comfort." Inclination went on steadily ripening, until it settled within three years into deep mutual fondness. He fitted up for her a new boudoir in the Naples house with its round mirrors, as Miss Knight has recorded, covering the entire side of the wall opposite the semicircular window, and reflecting the moonlit bay with its glimmering boats, the glass tanks with their marine treasures of " sea-oranges " and the like. Within a year Hamilton tells Greville that she asks him " Do you love me, aye, but as much as your new apartment ? "—
both here and at Caserta. He did his best to " form " her, and in the course of time she was able to share his botanical studies, which they pursued not as " pedan-tical prigs " to air learning, but with zeal and pleasure in the early mornings and fresh air of the " English " gardens. Her aptitude and adaptiveness worked wonders. Within a year she could take an intelligent interest in the virtuoso's new volume, if we may judge from Sir J. Banks, who some years later again bade his old crony tell her that he hoped she admired Penelope in his work on Urns. She aided his volcanic observations; Sir William laughed, and said she would rival him with the mountain now. Both had already stayed with, and she had enchanted, the Duke and Duchess of St. Maitre at Sorrento, the musical Countess of Mahoney at Ischia; cries of " Una donna rara," " bellissima creatura," were on every mouth. The Duke of Gloucester begged Hamilton to favour him with her acquaintance. The Olympian Goethe himself beheld and marvelled. Her unpretending naivete won her adherents at every step. " All the female nobility, with the queen at their head," were " distantly civil " to her already; none rude to Emma were allowed within the precincts. Meddlers or censors were sent roundly to the right-about, and informed that she was the sweetest, the best, the cleverest creature in the world. When he returned from his periodical royal wild-boar chases, it was Emma again who brewed his punch and petted him. Now and again there peeps out also that half voluptuous tinge in her wifeliness which never wholly deserted her. She had been Greville's devoted slave; Sir \Villiam was already hers. Her monitor had repulsed her free sacrifice and urged it for his own advantage towards his uncle; but her worshipper had now fanned not so much the flame, perhaps, as the incense of her un-
feigned* attachment. The English dined with her while Sir William was away shooting with the king. She trilled Handel and Paisiello, learned French, Italian, music,
Neapolitan noblesse, all seemed miracles, broke down the easy barriers of susceptible southerners, and gained her hosts of " sensible admirers." So early as February, 1787, Sir William reported to his nephew: •". . . Our dear Em. goes on now quite as I cou'd .wish, and is universally beloved "—a phrase which Emma herself repeated ten months later to her first mentor, with the proud consciousness of shining at a distance before him. " She is wonderful," added Hamilton, " considering her youth and beauty, and I flatter myself that E. and her Mother are happy to be with me, so that I see my every wish fulfilled." By the August of this year, when she first wrote Italian, she saw " good company," she delighted the whole diplomatic circle; Sir William was indissociable; she used the familiar " we "— " our house at Caserta is fitted up," while Sir William followed suit. The very servants styled her " Eccellenza." Her attached Ambassador " is distractedly in love "; " he deserves it, and indeed I love him dearly." There was not a grain in her of inconstancy. " He is so kind, so good and tender to me," she wrote as Emma Hart, in an unpublished letter, " that I love him so much that I have not a warm look left for the Neapolitans." His evenings, he wrote, were sweet with song and admiring guests, while her own society rendered them a " comfort." Inclination went on steadily ripening, until it settled within three years into deep mutual fondness. He fitted up for her a new boudoir in the Naples house with its round mirrors, as Miss Knight has recorded, covering the entire side of the wall opposite the semicircular window, and reflecting the moonlit bay with its glimmering boats, the glass tanks with their marine treasures of " sea-oranges " and the like. Within a year Hamilton tells Greville that she asks him " Do you love me, aye, but as much as your new apartment ? "—
both here and at Caserta. He did his best to " form " her, and in the course of time she was able to share his botanical studies, which they pursued not as " pedan-tical prigs " to air learning, but with zeal and pleasure in the early mornings and fresh air of the " English " gardens. Her aptitude and adaptiveness worked wonders. Within a year she could take an intelligent interest in the virtuoso's new volume, if we may judge from Sir J. Banks, who some years later again bade his old crony tell her that he hoped she admired Penelope in his work on Urns. She aided his volcanic observations; Sir William laughed, and said she would rival him with the mountain now. Both had already stayed with, and she had enchanted, the Duke and Duchess of St. Maitre at Sorrento, the musical Countess of Mahoney at Ischia; cries of " Una donna rara," " bellissima creatura," were on every mouth. The Duke of Gloucester begged Hamilton to favour him with her acquaintance. The Olympian Goethe himself beheld and marvelled. Her unpretending naivete won her adherents at every step. " All the female nobility, with the queen at their head," were " distantly civil " to her already; none rude to Emma were allowed within the precincts. Meddlers or censors were sent roundly to the right-about, and informed that she was the sweetest, the best, the cleverest creature in the world. When he returned from his periodical royal wild-boar chases, it was Emma again who brewed his punch and petted him. Now and again there peeps out also that half voluptuous tinge in her wifeliness which never wholly deserted her. She had been Greville's devoted slave; Sir \Villiam was already hers. Her monitor had repulsed her free sacrifice and urged it for his own advantage towards his uncle; but her worshipper had now fanned not so much the flame, perhaps, as the incense of her un-
feigned* attachment. The English dined with her while Sir William was away shooting with the king. She trilled Handel and Paisiello, learned French, Italian, music,
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