Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/414

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MALONIANA.
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ing upon brought to his bedside to show them to Reynolds, and flattered himself that he should live to finish them.—(From the same.)

He was a very dissolute capricious man, imordinately fond of women, and not very delicate in his sentiments of honour. He was first put forward in the world, I think by a Mr. Fonnereaux, who lent him 300l. Gainsborough having a vote for an election in which his benefactor had some concern, voted against him. His conscience however remonstrating against such conduct, he kept himself in a state of intoxication from the time he set out to vote till his return to town, that he might not relent of his ingratitude.—(From Mr. Windham.)


On mentioning to Sir Joshua Reynolds the conversation that I had had with Baretti, on my return from Mr. Courtenay’s about the Lord’s Prayer, he said, “This turn which B. now gives to the matter was an after-thought; for he once said to me myself, ‘there are various opinions about the writer of that prayer; some give it to St. Augustine, some to St. Chrysostom, &c. What is your opinion?’”


On examining the indexes at the Signet Office yesterday (June 19, 1789) to ascertain when Sir George Buck was made Master of the Revels to King James the First, I happened to turn back to the reign of Elizabeth, and under the year 1590, was surprised to find in the letter S., “Edmund Spenser Peñson.” On examining the minute of the grant, I