Tra. I should think with Duke Humphry[1] was more in your way.
Ink. It might be of yore; but we authors now look
To the Knight, as a landlord, much more than the Duke.
The truth is, each writer now quite at his ease is,
And (except with his publisher) dines where he pleases.
But 'tis now nearly five, and I must to the Park.150
Tra. And I'll take a turn with you there till 'tis dark.
And you, Scamp—
Scamp.Excuse me! I must to my notes,
For my lecture next week.
Ink.He must mind whom he quotes
Out of "Elegant Extracts."
Lady Blueb.Well, now we break up;
But remember Miss Diddle[2] invites us to sup.
Ink. Then at two hours past midnight we all meet again,
For the sciences, sandwiches, hock, and champagne!
Tra. And the sweet lobster salad![3]
Both.I honour that meal;
- ↑ [Compare "We have been for many rears at a great distance from each other; we are now separated. Yon have combined arsenic with your gold, Sir Humphry! You are brittle, and I will rather dine with Duke Humphry than with you."—Anima Poetæ, by S. T. Coleridge, 1895, p. 218.]
- ↑ ["Lydia White," writes Lady Morgan (Memoirs 1862, ii. 236), "was a personage of much social celebrity in her day. She was an Irish lady of large fortune and considerable talent, noted for her hospitality and dinners in all the capitals of Europe." She is mentioned by Moore (Memoirs, 1853, iii. 21), Miss Berry (Journal, 1866, ii. 484), Ticknor (Life, Letters, and Journal, 1876, i. 176), etc., etc.
Byron saw her for the last time in Venice, when she borrowed a copy of Lalla Rookk (Letter to Moore, June 1, 1818, Letters, 1900, iv. 237). Sir Walter Scott, who knew her well, records her death: "January 28, [1827]. Heard of Miss White's death—she was a woman of wit, and had a feeling and kind heart. Poor Lydia! I saw the Duke of York and her in London, when Death, it seems, was brandishing his dart over them.
'The view o't gave them little fright.'"
(Memoirs of the Life, etc., 1838, iv. 110.)]
- ↑ [Moore, following the example of Pope, who thought his "delicious lobster-nights" worth commemorating, gives details of a supper at Watier's. May 19, 1814, at which Kean was present, when Byron "confined himself to lobsters, and of these finished two or three, to his own share," etc.—an Ambrosian night, indeed!—Life, p. 254.]
