'
And then those memorable lines--
'A tyrant to the wife his heart approved,
A rebel to the very king he loved;
He dies, sad outcast of each church and state;
And, harder still! flagitious, yet not great.'
Though it may be doubted if the 'lust of praise' was the cause of his
eccentricities, so much as an utter restlessness and instability of
character, Pope's description is sufficiently correct, and will prepare
us for one of the most disappointing lives we could well have to read.
Philip, Duke of Wharton, was one of those men of whom an Irishman would
say, that they were fortunate before they were born. His ancestors
bequeathed him a name that stood high in England for bravery and
excellence. The first of the house, Sir Thomas Wharton, had won his
peerage from Henry VIII. for routing some 15,000 Scots with 500 men, and
other gallant deeds. From his father the marquis he inherited much of
his talents; but for the heroism of the former, he seems to have
received it only in the extravagant form of foolhardiness. Walpole
remembered, but could not tell where, a ballad he wrote on being
arrested by the guard in St. James's Park, for singing the Jacobite
song, 'The King shall have his own again,' and quotes two lines to show
that he was not ashamed of his own cowardice on the occasion:--
'The duke he drew out half his sword,
---- the guard drew out the rest.
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