Tuesday, March 22nd [1814]
Last night,
party
at Lansdowne House.
To-night
,
party
at Lady Charlotte Greville's
—deplorable waste of time, and something of temper. Nothing imparted— nothing acquired—talking without ideas:—if any thing like
thought
in my mind, it was not on the subjects on which we were gabbling. Heigho!—and in this way half London pass what is called life. To-morrow there is Lady Heathcote's—shall I go? yes—to punish myself for not having a pursuit.
Let me see—what did I see? The
only
person who much struck me was Lady S—d's [Stafford's] eldest daughter, Lady C. L.
[Charlotte Leveson]. They say she is
not
pretty. I don't know—every thing is pretty that pleases; but there is an air of
soul
about her—and her colour changes—and there is that shyness of the antelope (which I delight in) in her manner so much, that I observed her more than I did any other woman in the rooms, and only looked at any thing else when I thought she might perceive and feel embarrassed by my scrutiny. After all, there may be something of association in this. She is a friend of Augusta's, and whatever she loves I can't help liking.
Her mother, the Marchioness, talked to me a little; and I was twenty times on the point of asking her to introduce me to
sa fille
, but I stopped short. This comes of that affray with the Carlisles.
Earl
Grey
told me laughingly of a paragraph in the last
Moniteur
, which has stated, among other symptoms of rebellion, some particulars of the
sensation
occasioned in all our government gazettes by the "tear" lines,—
only
amplifying, in its re-statement, an epigram (by the by, no epigram except in the
Greek
acceptation of the word) into a
roman
. I wonder the
Couriers
, etc., etc., have not translated that part of the
Moniteur
, with additional comments
.
The Princess of Wales has requested Fuseli to paint from
The Corsair
—leaving to him the choice of any passage for the subject: so Mr. Locke tells me. Tired, jaded, selfish, and supine—must go to bed.
Roman
, at least
Romance
, means a song sometimes, as in the Spanish. I suppose this is the
Moniteur's
meaning, unless he has confused it with
The Corsair
.
Footnote 1:
Daughter of William Henry Cavendish, third Duke of Portland, married, in 1793, to Charles Greville.
Footnote 2:
Afterwards Countess of Surrey.
Footnote 3:
"Londres le 9 Mars... On vient de publier une caricature insolente et grossiere centre le mariage projeté (de la Princesse de Galles) et centre le Prince d'Orange. En commentant cette gravure, le Town Talk a osé avancer que la Princesse Charlotte détestait son époux futur, et que ses véritables affections étaient sacrifices à des vues politiques. Le Lord Byron a fait de ce bruit populaire le sujet d'une romance."
Moniteur
, 17 Mars, 1814.
