Anthony Hamilton, the celebrated author of the Grammont Memoirs, much
cannot now be with certainty known.
[For uniformity’s sake the writer of this sketch has followed the
Memoirs in the spelling of this name; but he thinks it necessary to
observe that it should be Gramont, not Grammont.]
The accounts prefixed to the different editions of his works, down to
the year 1805, are very imperfect; in that year a new, and, in general,
far better edition than any of the preceding ones, was published in
Paris, to which a sketch of his life was also added; but it contains
rather just criticisms on his works, than any very novel or satisfactory
anecdote concerning himself. It is not pretended here to gratify
literary curiosity as fully as it ought to be, with regard to this
singular and very ingenious man; some effort, however, may be made to
communicate a few more particulars relative to him, than the public has
hitherto, perhaps, been acquainted with.
Anthony Hamilton was of the noble family of that name: Sir George
Hamilton, his father, was a younger son of James, Earl of Abercorn, a
native of Scotland. His mother was daughter of Lord Thurles, and
sister to James, the first Duke of Ormond; his family and connections
therefore, on the maternal side, were entirely Irish. He was, as well as
his brothers and sisters, born in Ireland, it is generally said, about
the year 1646; but there is some reason to imagine that it was three or
four years earlier. The place of his birth, according to the best family
accounts, was Roscrea, in the county of Tipperary, the usual residence
of his father when not engaged by military or public business.
[In September, 1646, Owen O’Neale took Roscrea, and, as Carte says,
“put man, woman, and child to the sword, except Sir George
Hamilton’s lady, sister to the Marquis of Ormond, and some few
gentlewomen whom he kept prisoners.” No family suffered more in
those disastrous times than the house of Ormond. Lady Hamilton died
in August, 1680, as appears from an interesting and affecting letter
of her brother, the Duke of Ormond, dated Carrick, August 25th. He
had lost his noble son, Lord Ossory, not three weeks before.]
It has been always said, that the family migrated to France when Anthony
was an infant; but this is not the fact: “Sir George Hamilton,” says
Carte, “would have accompanied his brother-in-law, the Marquis of
Ormond, to France, in December, 1650: but, as he was receiver-general
in Ireland, he stayed to pass his accounts, which he did to the
satisfaction of all parties, notwithstanding much clamour had been
raised against him.” When that business was settled, he, in the spring
of 1651, took Lady Hamilton and all his family to France, and resided
with Lord and Lady Ormond, near Caen, in Normandy, in great poverty
and distress, till the Marchioness of Ormond, a lady whose mind was as
exalted as her birth, went over to England, and, after much solicitation
obtained two thousand pounds a year from her own and, her husband’s
different estates in Ireland.
[Hence possibly Voltaire’s mistake in stating that Hamilton was born
at Caen, in his Catalogue des Ecrivains du Siecle de Louis XIV.]
This favour was granted her by Cromwell, who always professed the
greatest respect for her. The Marchioness resided in Ireland, with the
younger part of her family, from 1655 till after the Restoration; while
the Marquis of Ormond continued for a considerable part of that
period with his two sisters, Lady Clancarty and Lady Hamilton, at the
Feuillatines, in the Faubourg St. Jacques, in Paris.
It appears from a letter of the Marquis to Sir Robert Southwell, that,
although he himself was educated in the Protestant religion, not only
his father and mother, but all his brothers and sisters, were bred, and
always continued, Roman Catholics. Sir George Hamilton also, according
to Carte, was a Roman Catholic; Anthony, therefore, was bred in the
religion of his family, and conscientiously adhered to it through life.
[That historian states that the king (Charles I.) deprived several
papists of their military commissions, and, among others, Sir George
Hamilton, who, notwithstanding, served him with loyalty and
unvarying fidelity.]
He entered early into the army of Louis XIV., as did his brothers
George, Richard, and John, the former of whom introduced the company of
English gens d’armes into France, in 1667, according to Le Pere Daniel,
author of the History of the French Army, who adds the following short
account of its establishment: Charles II., being restored to his throne,
brought over to England several catholic officers and soldiers, who
had served abroad with him and his brother, the Duke of York, and
incorporated them with his guards; but the parliament having obliged him
to dismiss all officers who were Catholics, the king permitted George
Hamilton to take such as were willing to accompany him to France, where
Louis XIV. formed them into a company of gens d’armes, and being
highly pleased with them, became himself their captain, and made George
Hamilton their captain-lieutenant:--[They were composed of English,
Scotch, and Irish.] Whether Anthony belonged to this corps I know not;
but this is certain, that he distinguished himself particularly in
his profession, and was advanced to considerable posts in the French
service.
Anthony Hamilton’s residence was now almost constantly in France. Some
years previous to this he had been much in England, and, towards
the close of Charles II.’s reign, in Ireland, where so many of his
connections remained. When James II. succeeded to the throne, the door
being then opened to the Roman Catholics, he entered into the Irish
army, where we find him, in 1686, a lieutenant-colonel in Sir Thomas
Newcomen’s regiment. That he did not immediately hold a higher rank
there, may perhaps be attributed to the recent accession of the king,
his general absence from Ireland, the advanced age of his uncle, the
Duke of Ormond, and, more than all, perhaps, to his Grace’s early
disapprobation of James’s conduct in Ireland, which displayed itself
more fully afterwards, especially in the ecclesiastical promotions.
Henry, Earl of Clarendon, son to the lord-chancellor, was at that time
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and appears, notwithstanding his general
distrust and dislike of the Catholics, to have held Anthony Hamilton in
much estimation: he speaks of his knowledge of, and constant attention
to, the duties of his profession; his probity, and the dependance that
was to be placed on him, in preference to others of the same religious
persuasion, and, in October, 1686, wrote to the Earl of Sunderland
respecting him, as follows: “I have only this one thing more to trouble
your lordship with at present, concerning Colonel Anthony Hamilton,
to get him a commission to command as colonel, though he is but
lieutenant-colonel to Sir Thomas Newcomen, in regard of the commands he
has had abroad: and I am told it is often done in France, which makes
me hope it will not be counted an unreasonable request. I would likewise
humbly recommend to make Colonel Anthony Hamilton a privy-councillor
here.” Lord Clarendon’s recommendations were ultimately successful:
Hamilton was made a privy-councillor in Ireland, and had a pension of
L200 a year on the Irish establishment; and was appointed governor
of Limerick, in the room of Sir William King, notwithstanding he had
strongly opposed the new-modelling of the army by the furious Tyrconnel.
In the brief accounts which have been given of his life, it is said that
he had a regiment of infantry; but, though this is very probable,
there is no mention whatever of his commanding a regiment in the lists
published of King James’s army, which are supposed to be very accurate:
he is indeed set down among the general officers. Lord Clarendon, in one
of his letters to the lord-treasurer, states, “That the news of the day
was, that Colonel Russell was to be lieutenant-colonel to the Duke
of Ormond’s regiment, and that Colonel Anthony Hamilton was to have
Russell’s regiment, and that Mr. Luttrell was to be lieutenant-colonel
to Sir Thomas Newcomen, in the place of Anthony Hamilton.” It is not
known whether Anthony was present at the battle of the Boyne, or of
Aughrim: his brother John was killed at the latter; and Richard, who
was a lieutenant-general, led on the cavalry with uncommon gallantry and
spirit at the Boyne it is to be wished that his candour and integrity
had equalled his courage; but, he acted with great duplicity; and King
William’s contemptuous echoing back his word to him, when he declared
something on his honour, is well known: He is frequently mentioned
by Lord Clarendon, but by no means with the same approbation as his
brother. After the total overthrow of James’s affairs in Ireland, the
two brothers finally quitted these kingdoms, and retired to France.
Richard lived much with the Cardinal de Bouillon, who was the great
protector of the Irish in France, and kept (what must have been indeed
highly consolatory to many an emigrant of condition) a magnificent
table, which has been recorded in the most glowing and grateful terms,
by that gay companion, and celebrated lover of good cheer, Philippe de
Coulanges, who occasionally mentions the “amiable Richard Hamilton” as
one of the cardinal’s particular intimates. Anthony, who was regarded
particularly as a man of letters and elegant talents, resided almost
entirely at St. Germain: solitary walks in the forest of that place
occupied his leisure hours in the morning; and poetical pursuits, or
agreeable society, engaged the evening: but much of his time seems to
have rolled heavily along; his sister, Madame de Grammont, living
more at court, or in Paris, than always suited his inclinations or his
convenience. His great resource at St. Germain was the family of the
Duke of Berwick (son of James II.): that nobleman appears to have been
amiable in private life, and his attachment to Hamilton was steady and
sincere. The Duchess of Berwick was also his friend. It is necessary to
mention this lady particularly, as well as her sisters: they were the
daughters of Henry Bulkeley, son to the first viscount of that name:
their father had been master of the household to Charles: their mother
was Lady Sophia Stewart, sister to the beautiful Duchess of Richmond,
so conspicuous in the Grammont Memoirs. The sisters of the Duchess of
Berwick were Charlotte, married to Lord Clare, Henrietta, and Laura.
They all occupy a considerable space in Hamilton’s correspondence, and
the two last are the ladies so often addressed as the Mademoiselles B.;
they are almost the constant subjects of Hamilton’s verses; and it is
recorded that he was a particular admirer of Henrietta Bulkeley; but
their union would have been that of hunger and thirst, for both were
very poor and very illustrious: their junction would, of course, have
militated against every rule of common prudence. To the influence of
this lady, particularly, we are indebted for one or two of Hamilton’s
agreeable novels: she had taste enough to laugh at the extravagant
stories then so much in fashion, “plus arabes qu’en Arabie,” as Hamilton
says; and he, in compliance with her taste, and his own, soon put
the fashionable tales to flight, by the publication of the ‘Quatre
Facardins’, and, more especially, ‘La Fleur d’Epine’.
[They were wretched imitations of some of the Persian and Arabian
tales, in which everything was distorted, and rendered absurd and
preposterous.]
Some of the introductory verses to these productions are written with
peculiar ease and grace; and are highly extolled, and even imitated, by
Voltaire. La Harpe praises the Fleur d’Epine, as the work of an original
genius: I do not think, however, that they are much relished in
England, probably because very ill translated. Another of his literary
productions was the novel called Le Belier, which he wrote on the
following occasion: Louis XIV. had presented to the Countess of Grammont
(whom he highly esteemed) a remarkably elegant small country house in
the park of Versailles: this house became so fashionable a resort, and
brought such constant visitors, that the Count de Grammont said, in his
usual way, he would present the king with a list of all the persons he
was obliged to entertain there, as more suited to his Majesty’s purse
than his own: the countess wished to change the name of the place
from the vulgar appellation of Le Moulineau into that of Pentalie: and
Hamilton, in his novel, wrote a history of a giant, an enchantment, and
a princess, to commemorate her resolution. It has however happened that
the giant Moulineau has had the advantage in the course of time; for
the estate, which is situated near Meudon, upon the Seine, retains its
original and popular designation.
About the year 1704, Hamilton turned his attention to collecting
the memoirs of his brother-in-law, the Count de Grammont, as we may
conjecture, from the epistle beginning “Honneur des rives eloignees”
being written towards the close of the above year: it is dated, or
supposed to be so, from the banks of the Garonne. Among other authors
whom Hamilton at first proposes to Grammont, as capable of writing
his life (though, on reflection, he thinks them not suited to it), is
Boileau, whose genius he professes to admire; but adds that his muse has
somewhat of malignity; and that such a muse might caress with one hand
and satirize him with the other. This letter was sent by Hamilton to
Boileau, who answered him with great politeness; but, at the same time
that he highly extolled the epistle to Grammont, he, very naturally,
seemed anxious to efface any impression which such a representation of
his satiric vein might make on the Count’s mind, and accordingly added
a few complimentary verses to him: this letter is dated, Paris, 8th
February, 1705. About the same time, another letter was written to
Hamilton on the subject of the Epistle to Grammont, by La Chapelle, who
also seemed desirous that his life should be given to the public, but
was much perplexed which of the most celebrated ancients to compare the
count to. Mecaenas first presented himself to his imagination: absurdly
enough, in my opinion; for there was not a trace of similitude between
the two characters. This, however, afforded him some opportunity, as he
thought, of discovering a resemblance between Horace and Hamilton, in
which he equally failed. Petronius is then brought forward, as affording
some comparison to the Count;--a man of pleasure, giving up the day to
sleep, and the night to entertainment; but then, adds La Chapelle, it
will be suggested that, such is the perpetual activity of the Count of
Grammont’s mind, he may be said to sleep neither night nor day; and if
Petronius died, the Count seems determined never to die at all. (He was
at this time about eighty-five years of age.) It may well be supposed
that all this, though now perfectly vapid and uninteresting, was
extremely flattering to Grammont; and the result was, that he very much
wished to have his life, or part of it, at least, given to the public.
Hamilton, who had been so long connected with him, and with whose
agreeable talents he was now so familiarized, was, on every account,
singled out by him as the person who could best introduce him
historically to the public. It is ridiculous to mention Grammont as the
author of his own Memoirs: his excellence, as a man of wit, was entirely
limited to conversation. Bussy Rabutin, who knew him perfectly, states
that he wrote almost worse than any one. If this was said, and very
truly, of him in his early days, it can hardly be imagined that he
would, when between eighty and ninety years of age, commence a regular,
and, in point of style, most finished composition. Besides, independent
of everything else, what man would so outrage all decorum as to call
himself the admiration of the age? for so is Grammont extolled in the
Memoirs, with a variety of other encomiastic expressions; although,
perhaps, such vanity has not been without example. Hamilton, it is
true, says that he acts as Grammont’s secretary, and only holds the pen,
whilst the Count dictates to him such particulars of his life as were
the most singular, and least known. This is said with great modesty,
and, as to part of the work, perhaps with great truth: it requires,
however, some explanation. Grammont was more than twenty years older
than Hamilton; consequently, the earlier part of his life could
only have been known, or was best known, to the latter from repeated
conversations, and the long intimacy which subsisted between them.
Whether Grammont formally dictated the events of his younger days, or
not, is of little consequence from his general character, it is probable
that he did not. However, the whole account of such adventures as he was
engaged in, from his leaving home to his interview with Cardinal Mazarin
(excepting the character of Monsieur de Senantes, and Matta, who was
well known to Hamilton), the relation of the siege of Lerida, the
description of Gregorio Brice, and the inimitable discovery of his own
magnificent suit of clothes on the ridiculous bridegroom at Abbeville;
all such particulars must have been again and again repeated to Hamilton
by Grammont, and may therefore be fairly grounded on the count’s
authority. The characters of the court of Charles II., and its history,
are to be ascribed to Hamilton: from his residence, at various times,
in the court of London, his connection with the Ormond family, not
to mention others, he must have been well acquainted with them. Lady
Chesterfield, who may be regarded almost as the heroine of the work, was
his cousin-german.
[She was born at the castle of Kilkenny, July, 1640, as appears from
Carte’s life of her father, the Duke of Ormond.]
But, although the history altogether was written by Hamilton, it may
not perhaps be known to every reader that Grammont himself sold the
manuscript for fifteen hundred livres; and when it was brought to
Fontenelle, then censor of the press, he refused to license it,
from respect to the character of the Count, which, he thought, was
represented as that of a gambler, and an unprincipled one too. In fact,
Grammont, like many an old gentleman, seems to have recollected the
gaieties of his youth with more complaisance than was necessary, and has
drawn them in pretty strong colours in that part of the work which is
more particularly his own. He laughed at poor Fontenelle’s scruples, and
complained to the chancellor, who forced the censor to acquiesce: the
license was granted, and the Count put the whole of the money, or the
best part of it, in his pocket, though he acknowledged the work to be
Hamilton’s. This is exactly correspondent to his general character: when
money was his object, he had little, or rather no delicacy.
The History of Grammont may be considered as unique there is nothing
like it in any language. For drollery, knowledge of the world, various
satire, general utility, united with great vivacity of composition,
Gil Blas is unrivalled: but, as a merely agreeable book, the Memoirs
of Grammont perhaps deserve that character more than any which was
ever written: it is pleasantry throughout, pleasantry of the best
sort, unforced, graceful, and engaging. Some French critic has justly
observed, that, if any book were to be selected as affording the truest
specimen of perfect French gaiety, the Memoirs of Grammont would be
selected in preference to all others. This has a Frenchman said of the
work of a foreigner: but that foreigner possessed much genius, had lived
from his youth, not only in the best society of France, but with the
most singular and agreeable man that France could produce. Still,
however, though Grammont and Hamilton were of dispositions very
different, the latter must have possessed talents peculiarly brilliant,
and admirably adapted to coincide with, and display those of his
brother-in-law to the utmost advantage. Gibbon extols the “ease and
purity of Hamilton’s inimitable style;” and in this he is supported by
Voltaire, although he adds the censure, that the Grammont Memoirs are,
in point of materials, the most trifling; he might also in truth have
said, the most improper. The manners of the court of Charles II. were,
to the utmost, profligate and abandoned: yet in what colours have they
been drawn by Hamilton? The elegance of his pencil has rendered them
more seductive and dangerous, than if it had more faithfully copied the
originals. From such a mingled mass of grossness of language, and of
conduct, one would have turned away with disgust and abhorrence; but
Hamilton was, to use the words of his admirer, Lord Orford, “superior to
the indelicacy of the court,” whose vices he has so agreeably depicted;
and that superiority has sheltered such vices from more than half the
oblivion which would now have for ever concealed them.
The Count de Grammont died in 1707. Some years after the publication
of his Memoirs, Hamilton was engaged in a very different work: he
translated Pope’s Essay on Criticism into French, and, as it should
seem, so much to that great poet’s satisfaction, that he wrote a
very polite letter of thanks to him, which is inserted in Pope’s
Correspondence. Hamilton’s Essay was, I believe, never printed, though
Pope warmly requested to have that permission: the reign of Louis XIV.
had now ceased; and, for several years before his death, the character
of the old court of that prince had ceased also: profligacy and gaiety
had given way to devotion and austerity. Of Hamilton’s friends and
literary acquaintance few were left: the Duke of Berwick was employed in
the field, or at Versailles: some of the ladies, however, continued at
St. Germain; and in their society, particularly that of his niece,
the Countess of Stafford (in whose name he carried on a lively
correspondence with Lady Mary Wortley Montague), he passed much of his
time. He occasionally indulged in poetical compositions, of a style
suited to his age and character; and when he was past seventy, he
wrote that excellent copy of verses, ‘Sur l’ Usage de la Vie dans
la Vieillesse’; which, for grace of style, justness, and purity of
sentiment, does honour to his memory.
Hamilton died at St. Germain, in April, 1720, aged about seventy-four.
His death was pious and resigned. From his poem, entitled Reflections,
he appears, like some other authors, to have turned his mind, in old
age, entirely to those objects of sacred regard, which, sooner or later,
must engage the attention of every rational mind. To poetry he bids an
eternal adieu, in language which breathes no diminution of genius, at
the moment that he for ever recedes from the poetical character. But he
aspired to a better.
Whatever were Hamilton’s errors, his general character was respectable.
He has been represented as grave, and even dull, in society; the very
reverse, in short, of what he appears in his Memoirs: but this is
probably exaggerated. Unquestionably, he had not the unequalled vivacity
of the Count de Grammont in conversation; as Grammont was, on the other
hand, inferior, in all respects, to Hamilton when the pen was in his
hand; the latter was, however, though reserved in a large society,
particularly agreeable in a more select one. Some of his letters remain,
in which he alludes to his want of that facility at impromptu which
gave such brilliancy to the conversation of some of his brother wits
and contemporaries. But, while we admit the truth of this, let it be
remembered, at the same time, that when he wrote this, he was by no
means young; that he criticised his own defects with severity; that he
was poor, and living in a court which itself subsisted on the alms of
another. Amidst such circumstances, extemporary gaiety cannot always be
found. I can suppose, that the Duchess of Maine, who laid claim to the
character of a patroness of wit, and, like many who assert such claims,
was very troublesome, very self-sufficient, and very ‘exigeante’,
might not always have found that general superiority, or even transient
lustre, which she expected in Hamilton’s society: yet, considering the
great difference of their age and situation, this circumstance will
not greatly impeach his talents for conversation. But the work of real
genius must for ever remain; and of Hamilton’s genius, the Grammont
Memoirs will always continue a beauteous and graceful monument. To
that monument may also be added, the candour, integrity, and unassuming
virtues of the amiable author.