Nelson's Lady Hamilton

by Meynell, Esther

  But at this time his own professional zeal and fire burned somewhat low: his conduct was not approved by the Admiralty at home, and in May Lord Spencer wrote Nelson a letter that must have been painful reading to the admiral's sore and impatient spirit.

  " Having observed that you have been under the necessity of quitting your station off Malta," he says, " on account of your health, which I am persuaded you could not have thought of doing without such necessity, it appeared to me much more advisible for you to come home at once, than to be obliged to remain inactive at Palermo, while active service was going on in other parts of the station. ... I am joined in the opinion by all your friends here, that you will be more likely to recover your health and strength in England than in an inactive situation at a Foreign Court, however pleasing the respect and gratitude shown to you for your services may be, and no

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  testimonies of respect and gratitude from that Court to you can be, I am convinced, too great for the very essential services you have rendered it."

  Such was official opinion in England; while about this time Lord Minto wrote—

  " I have letters from Nelson and Lady Hamilton. It does not seem clear whether he will go home. I hope he will not for his own sake, and he will at least, I hope, take Malta first. He does not seem at all conscious of the sort of discredit he has fallen into, or the cause of it, for he still writes, not wisely, about Lady H., and all that. But it is hard to condemn and use ill a hero, as he is in his own element, for being foolish about a woman who has art enough to make fools of many wiser than an admiral."

  Had Nelson shown sufficient moral strength to put himself out of reach of the temptation which was clouding his clear honour, all might still have been well. But his craving heart was too much for him ; not all the solemn voices of duty and right, of faith and upright dealing, could prevent him returning to Lady Hamilton to ask and to obtain from her that tender flattery and adoring kindness which were so soothing to his sore spirit. However he may hitherto have disguised his passion to himself and called it by the name of friendship, there is little doubt that in the summer of 1800 it completely overpowered

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  his resistance and his sense of honour and passed into the stage when he fearlessly and frantically avowed that Emma Hamilton was his " wife in the sight of Heaven/' Thus do men, driven by their own desires, persuade themselves that their wishes make fresh laws ; and it is not the least noble natures which feel themselves compelled to twist the universe upside down that they may put a face of right upon their own unhappy actions. It is, indeed, the perverted sense of right drives them to such extremes, for they would not believe with Hamlet that a man may " smile and smile and be a villain."

  There was nothing in his surroundings to help Nelson resist his passion—the atmosphere he lived in was soft, luxurious, enamouring, soothing scruples to sleep. Emma Hamilton herself was not hard to win ; indeed, from the first she had wooed and flattered him, not with any deliberate intention of leading him astray, but simply from easy yielding to her own impulses and to her enthusiastic love for glory. There could not have been a more dangerous combination than these two ardent natures ; once they were brought together, in constant sight and presence of each other, the outcome was almost inevitable. Lord Malmesbury said of Nelson, " He added to genius, valour, and energy, the singular power of electrifying all within his atmosphere." And with those dazzling and

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  persuasive qualities the sheer lovableness of the man must be remembered. In spite of the great mistake of his life, the great blot upon his fair fame, glory and honour were to Nelson one and inseparable. But to Emma honour had been so early lost that she had never learned to regard it as an indispensable foundation of existence. And so when Nelson's own resistance broke down he found no second barrier in the virtue of the woman he loved. It was probably the very thought of their approaching separation which showed them all too plainly how much they had become to each other, and what a sorry farce was all talk of platonic friendship.

  The time was drawing near for them to leave Italy—Italy which had been the scene of their meeting, of their joint exertions, and of their growing passion. They were learning the meaning of the simple words in " Cuchulain of Muirthemne"—"all things are good in comparison with a parting." The prospect filled Emma with depression; she did not want to leave the sunny land that suited her so completely, and where she had played such a brilliant part, to return to the air of England, which she may well have felt would be cold and critical; where she could no longer be the British Ambassadress, no longer the friend of a Queen, and the principal ornament of a Court; above all, where she would have to yield her place by Nelson's side to his rightful

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  wife. It was not a happy vision to the pleasure-loving woman who had so completely lost her earlier simplicity and who now hated dulness and obscurity above all things. Sir William was growing old and unenterprising; he sighed for quietness and repose, and Emma had no longer any feeling for him save a sort of daughterly affection. The very considerable difference in their years had grown more marked as Sir William stepped, stumbling, upon the boundaries of old age. Nelson was her all; he represented not only love, but glory, the centre of the stage, the focus of the world's eye—and these were things that Emma could not contentedly relinquish.

  But the end of the Italian drama was nearly come. On the 22nd of April, Sir William Hamilton presented his letters of recall, and the day following Nelson took him and his wife for a pleasure voyage in the Foudroyant to Syracuse and Malta —a farewell to the Mediterranean. At Syracuse Nelson had victualled and watered his ships, owing to Emma's exertions on his behalf, before the Battle of the Nile, and had assured her, " surely watering at the Fountain of Arethusa we must have victory." He would not forget that past occasion when visiting the famous fountain with the woman who had aided him to triumph, for in Nelson's passion for Emma Hamilton love and patriotism were inextricably mingled. They

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  also went to Malta, and, according to the somewhat inaccurate narrative of Lieutenant Parsons, the Foudroyant y by accident, got within range of the shot from the island, and Emma's precious life was exposed to danger, much to Nelson's anger and distress. But any form of excitement, even cannon-balls, appealed to Emma, and she is represented as arguing with Nelson on the Foudroyan£s quarter-deck, and declaring that she would not go below. This incident may or may not be authentic, but it is at any rate characteristic! Nelson was to say to her, some years later, that their child Horatia " is like her mother; will have her own way, or kick up a devil of a dust."

  They returned to Palermo for the last time. If the Hamiltons were to go home, Nelson had made up his mind that he would go too. " I go with our dear friends Sir William and Lady Hamilton/' he wrote to Minto, " but whether by water or land depends on the will of Lord Keith." He hoped that he might be allowed to go home in his flagship, in which case he would have taken his " dear friends " with him. The Queen of Naples at this time decided for diplomatic as well as family reasons to visit Vienna, and she was to travel with Nelson and the Hamiltons. So, without referring to his commander-in-chief, Nelson withdrew the Foudroyant and Alexander from the blockade of Malta to convey himself, his royal

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  guest, and the Hamiltons to Leghorn. Keith was naturally amazed by this act, which was not only injurious to the discipline but also to the actual needs of the navy. On the 24th of June he went himself to Leghorn, where he expected, as he wrote scornfully, "to be bored by Lord Nelson for permission to take the Queen to Palermo, and princes and princesses to all parts of the globe." Lady Minto heard some gossip about the Nelson party from Mr. Wyndham, British Minister to Tuscany, who had just arrived in Vienna.

  " He left the Queen of Naples, Sir William
and Lady Hamilton, and Nelson, at Leghorn," she wrote to her sister on the 6th of July. " The Queen has given up all thoughts of coming here. She asked Lord Keith in her own proper person for the Foudroyant to take her back. He refused positively giving her such a ship. The Queen wept, concluding that royal tears were irresistible ; but he remained unmoved, and would grant nothing but a frigate to convoy her own frigates to Trieste. He told her Lady Hamilton had had command of the fleet long enough. The Queen is very ill with a sort of convulsive fit, and Nelson is staying there to nurse her ; he does not intend going home till he has escorted her back to Palermo. His zeal for the public service seems entirely lost in his love and vanity, and they all sit and flatter each other all day long."

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  The Queen finally decided to go on to Vienna instead of back to Palermo; but her hesitations kept the party hanging on for a month at Leghorn. The idea of going by sea was abandoned, owing to Keith's refusal of ships. So Nelson struck his flag, said farewell to the Foudroyant — whose Barge's crew wrote him a very touching little letter, saying, "It is with extreme grief that we find that you are about to leave us," and begging him to " pardon the rude style of seamen, who are but little acquainted with writing,"—and set out through Europe with the Queen of Naples and the Hamiltons. It was not a way of returning to his native land calculated to conciliate English public opinion, which was already somewhat disturbed over his behaviour. During the journey that assumed something of the nature of a triumphal progress, Emma conducted herself in a manner which left every one of breeding and good feeling gazing after her with raised hands and eyebrows. It was as though she would flaunt before the eyes of Europe the way in which she had led Nelson captive, and the admiral, who, as Minto said, was "in many points a really great man, in others a baby," lent himself passively to her extravagant exhibition of bad taste. At no time of her life does Emma appear so little attractive as during this journey homewards to the England she had not seen for fourteen years. It is impossible not to resent

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  the way she trailed Nelson about, and there is something quite distressing in Lady Minto's picture of him when they all reached Vienna.

  " I don't think him altered in the least," she said, and she had known him during his early operations in Corsica. " He has the same shock head and the same honest simple manners; but he is devoted to Emma, he thinks her quite an angel, and talks of her as such to her face and behind her back, and she leads him about like a keeper with a bear. She must sit by him at dinner to cut his meat, and he carries her pocket-handkerchief. He is a gig from ribands, orders and stars, but he is just the same with us as ever he was."

  Nelson and the Hamiltons stopped a month at Vienna, and there Emma parted from the Queen she had really loved and served so well. Maria Carolina felt the parting sincerely, and in a farewell letter addressed her as "My dear Lady and tender friend," telling her, " I repeat what I have already said, that at all times and places, and under all circumstances, Emma, dear Emma, shall be my friend and sister, and this sentiment will remain unchanged. Receive my thanks once more for all you have done, and for the sincere friendship you have shown me."

  From Vienna they went to Prague, Dresden, and Hamburg. At Dresden they met Mrs. St. George, afterwards Mrs. Trench, whose

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  comments on the whole party, as written in her Journal, are so unflattering and—perhaps by reason of their sharpness—so well known. The day after they arrived, she wrote—

  " Dined at Mr. Elliot's, with only the Nelson party. It is plain that Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but Lady Hamilton, who is totally occupied by the same object. She is bold, forward, coarse, assuming and vain. Her figure is colossal, but, excepting her feet, which are hideous, well shaped. Her bones are large, and she is exceedingly embonpoint. She resembles the bust of Ariadne ; the shape of all her features is fine, as is the form of her head, and particularly her ears; her teeth are a little irregular, but tolerably white; her eyes light blue, with a brown spot in one, which, though a defect, takes nothing away from her beauty and expression; her eyebrows and hair are dark and her complexion coarse; her expression is strongly marked, variable, and interesting ; her movements in common life, ungraceful; her voice loud, yet not disagreeable. Lord Nelson is a little man, without any dignity; who, I suppose, must resemble what Suwarrow was in his youth, as he is like all the pictures I have seen of that general. Lady Hamilton takes possession of him, and he is a willing captive, the most submissive and devoted I have seen. Sir William is old, infirm, all admiration of his wife, and never spoke to-day

  but to applaud her. Miss Cornelia Knight [who was travelling with them] seems the decided flatterer of the two, and never opens her mouth but to show forth their praise ; and Mrs. Cadogan, Lady Hamilton's mother, is what one might expect. After dinner we had several songs in honour of Lord Nelson, written by Miss Knight, and sung by Lady Hamilton. She puffs the incense full in his face; but he receives it with pleasure, and snuffs it up very cordially."

  That would hardly be recognized as a picture of Romney's " divine lady." But, though tinged with malice and conscious superiority, and redeemed by no grace of kindly restraint, it is to be feared that Mrs. St. George gives a fairly true account of what Emma Hamilton had become.

  A day or two later she wrote a description of the famous " Attitudes "—

  " Breakfasted with Lady Hamilton, and saw her represent in succession the best statues and paintings extant. She assumes their attitude, expression, and drapery with great facility, swiftness, and accuracy. Several Indian shawls, a chair, some antique vases, a wreath of roses, a tambourine, and a few children are her whole apparatus. She stands at one end of the room, with a strong light to her left, and every other window closed. Her hair is short, dressed like an antique, and her gown a simple calico chemise,

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  very easy, with loose sleeves to the wrist. She disposes the shawls so as to form Grecian, Turkish, and other drapery, as well as a variety of turbans. Her arrangement of the turbans is absolute sleight-of-hand ; she does it so quickly, so easily, and so well. It is a beautiful performance, amusing to the most ignorant, and highly interesting to the lovers of art. The chief of her imitations are from the antique. Each representation lasts about ten minutes. It is remarkable that, though coarse and ungraceful in common life, she becomes highly graceful, and even beautiful, during this performance. It is also singular that, in spite of the accuracy of her imitation of the finest ancient draperies, her usual dress is tasteless, vulgar, loaded, and unbecoming. She has borrowed several of my gowns, and much admires my dress, which cannot flatter, as her own is so frightful. Her waist is absolutely between her shoulders. After showing her attitudes, she sung, and I accompanied. Her voice is good, and very strong, but she is frequently out of tune ; her expression strongly marked and variable; and she has no shake, no flexibility, and no sweetness. She acts her songs, which I think the last degree of bad taste. All imperfect imitations are disagreeable, and to represent passion with the eyes fixed on a book and the person confined to a spot, must always be a poor piece of acting manqut* She continues her

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  demonstrations of friendship, and said many fine things about my accompanying her at sight. Still she does not gain upon me. I think her bold, daring, vain even to folly, and stamped with the manners of her first situation much more strongly than one would suppose, after having represented Majesty, and lived in good company fifteen years. Her ruling passions seem to me vanity, avarice, and love for the pleasures of the table. She shows a great avidity for presents, and has actually obtained some at Dresden by the common artifice of admiring and longing. Mr. Elliot says, * She will captivate the Prince of Wales, whose mind is as vulgar as her own, and play a great part in England.'"

  It is evident that Lady Hamilton set Mrs. St. George's nerves on edge, but she seemed unable to keep away from the Nelson party, and ha
s a good deal more to say in her Journal of their doings at Dresden. It appears that though, like most people, she admired the " Attitudes," yet Lady Hamilton " acted Nina intolerably ill." It will be remembered that the representation of this Nina had moved Romney almost to tears many years before, and Nelson at any rate admired it whole-heartedly, for while Emma acted, the dear uncritical admiral kept crying out with enthusiasm, " Mrs. Siddons be hanged!"

  Even the last entry about Nelson and the Hamiltons in Mrs. St. George's Journal contains

  a sting; she does not leave them a shred of dignity or restraint at parting.

  " The moment they were on board/' she says she was told by Mr. Elliot, who saw them off, " there was an end of the fine arts, of the attitudes, of the acting, the dancing, and the singing. Lady Hamilton's maid began to scold in French about some provisions which had been forgot, . . . Lady Hamilton began bawling for an Irish stew, and her old mother set about washing the potatoes, which she did as cleverly as possible. They were exactly like Hogarth's actresses dressing in the barn. In the evening I went to congratulate the Elliots on their deliverance, and found them very sensible of it."

  It is not entirely certain that the immaculate Mr. Elliot and Mrs. St. George come out best in this encounter. Manners are much, but they are not everything. Perhaps Mrs. Cadogan peeling her potatoes was no more vulgar than Mrs. St. George in thinking her an object of scorn. Emma was certainly capable of " bawling,' 1 but then she was also capable of acting in a time of danger with true heroic grit. Had Mrs. St. George chosen to censure the moral wrong of which Nelson and Lady Hamilton were guilty, the outrage to the feelings of the silent wife waiting in England while they paraded the Continent, there could have been nothing but agreement with her condemnation. But it was