Page:Notable Irishwomen.djvu/61

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NOTABLE IRISHWOMEN.
41

Byron), while Moore and his singing were well known at her little dinners. He tells that one morning, at a rehearsal of a reading of Comus, when he had given a bad cold as an excuse for not taking part in it, she assailed him with a pitch-plaster, and proceeded to unbutton his waistcoat, with the intention of putting it on. He took flight, and she pursued him, with the plaster in her hand.

He notes in his journal that he called one morning on Lady Cork, who snubbed him for using the word "nice," and said that Dr. Johnson would never let her use it.

Mrs. Opie relates going to an assembly at Lady Cork's in 1814, at which Blucher, the Prussian General, was expected. The company, which included Lord Limerick, Lord and Lady Carysfort, James Smith of the "Rejected Addresses," Monk Lewis, &c., waited and waited, but no Blucher appeared. To keep up Lady Cork's spirits, Lady Caroline Lamb proposed acting a proverb, but it ended by acting the French word orage (a storm). She, Lady Cork, and Miss White went out of the room, and came back digging with the poker and tongs. They dug for gold (or) and they acted a passion for rage, and then acted a storm for the whole word orage. Still the old General did not come, and Lady Caroline disappeared; but previously Mrs. Wellesley Pole and her daughter arrived, bringing a beautiful Prince with them,