His life,
therefore, presents no very remarkable feature, and he is henceforth
known more on account of his friends than for aught he may himself have
done. The best of these friends was Walter Moyle, the scholar, who
translated parts of Lucian and Xenophon, and was pretty well known as a
classic. He was a Cornish man of independent means, and it was to him
that Congreve addressed the letters in which he attempted to defend
himself from the attacks of Collier.
It was not to be expected that a wit and a poet should go through life
without a platonic, and accordingly we find our man not only attached,
but devoted to a lady of great distinction. This was no other than
Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, the daughter of 'Malbrook' himself,
and of the famous 'Queen Sarah.' Henrietta was the eldest daughter, and
there was no son to inherit the prowess of Churchill and the parsimony
of his wife. The nation--to which, by the way, the Marlboroughs were
never grateful--would not allow the title of their pet warrior to become
extinct, and a special Act of Parliament gave to the eldest daughter the
honours of the duchy.[17] The two Duchesses of Marlborough hated each
other cordially.
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