Sarah's temper was probably the main cause of their
bickering; but there is never a feud between parent and child in which
both are not more or less blameable.
The Duchess Henrietta conceived a violent fancy for the wit and poet,
and whatever her husband, Lord Godolphin, may have thought of it, the
connection ripened into a most intimate friendship, so much so that
Congreve made the duchess not only his executrix, but the sole residuary
legatee of all his property.[18] His will gives us some insight into the
toadying character of the man. Only four near relations are mentioned as
legatees, and only L540 is divided among them; whereas, after leaving
L200 to Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress; L100, 'and all my apparel and
linnen of all sorts' to a Mrs. Rooke, he divides the rest between his
friends of the nobility, Lords Cobham and Shannon, the Duchess of
Newcastle, Lady Mary Godolphin, Colonel Churchill (who receives 'twenty
pounds, together with my gold-headed cane'), and, lastly, 'to the poor
of the parish,' the magnificent sum of _ten pounds_. 'Blessed are those
who give to the rich;' these words must surely have expressed the
sentiment of the worldly Congreve.
However, Congreve got something in return from the Duchess Henrietta,
which he might not have received from 'the poor of the parish,' to wit,
a monument, and an inscription on it written by her own hand.
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