Eve's tempter, thus the rabbins have expressed--
A cherub's face--a reptile all the rest.
Beauty that shocks you, facts that none can trust,
Wit that can creep, and pride that bites the dust.'
'It is impossible,' Mr. Croker thinks, 'not to admire, however we may
condemn, the art by which acknowledged wit, beauty, and gentle
manners--the queen's favour--and even a valetudinary diet, are
travestied into the most odious offences.'
Pope, in two lines, pointed to the intimacy between Lady Mary and Lord
Hervey:--
'Once, and but once, this heedless youth was hit,
And liked that dangerous thing, a female wit.'
Nevertheless, he _afterwards_ pretended that the name _Sappho_ was not
applied to Lady Mary, but to women in general; and acted with a degree
of mean prevarication which greatly added to the amount of his offence.
The quarrel with Pope was not the only attack which Lord Hervey had to
encounter. Among the most zealous of his foes was Pulteney, afterwards
Lord Bath, the rival of Sir Robert Walpole, and the confederate with
Bolingbroke in opposing that minister. The 'Craftsman,' contained an
attack on Pulteney, written, with great ability, by Hervey.
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