The Dashing Duchess,--the impulsive, ebullient beauty whose smile
swayed ministers, and for whose favor princes were beggars! A
loveliness of manner, as of feature, such seductive color,--glowing
carnations,--and such golden-brown hair, with a fine figure, made up
an opulent personality, than which no more consummate type of beauty
has been preserved to us by painter or poet.
Georgiana Spencer was the daughter of Lord Spencer, afterwards first
Earl Spencer; but her impulsiveness, her waywardness, and improvidence
were a legacy from her grandfather, "Jack" Spencer, the grandson and
special favorite of the beautiful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Her
"Torismond," she called him. His was a career of profligacy, a course
of error and extravagance. His mother was Lady Sunderland, known in
society as "the little Whig," from her small stature and her
persistent politics. Her party badge was always worn,--the black patch
on the left side of the face, as distinguished from the Tory fashion
of wearing it on the right side. So Georgiana came legitimately by her
beauty, her Whiggish politics, and her versatile vivacity of manner,
as well as her improvidence and indiscretion.
But her mother's strong character was a potent influence. She was the
daughter of the Right Honorable Stephen Poyntz, and was of high repute
for generosity, for sensibility, for charity, and for courteous
dignity of demeanor. We hear of Georgiana being a beautiful child; and
Reynolds as well as Gainsborough, both made painted record of that
childish beauty. Her brightness of mind gave her an interest in art,
in music, and in literature; and, though not proficient in the
practice of either, she had more than the society woman's knowledge of
them. At seventeen, she married William, fifth Duke of Devonshire,
ten years her senior. His was a temperament antipathetic to
hers,--unsympathetic, unimpressionable, and taciturn, yet withal of
the Cavendish characteristic persistency of purpose and honest intent.
The Duchess at once became a queen of society in the Carlton House
Court. Devonshire House was an assembly place for the Whigs; and its
lovely mistress was the hostess of many a statesman exalted by his
wit, as of many a politician with following by virtue of his station.
Like all radical companies, it was a motley mixture that found welcome
there. The Prince of Wales was a devotee. The then shining Sheridan
was a frequenter; but with the name of Fox has that of the Duchess
been more associated than of aught other. Her supremacy among these
companions was not in the manner of the French Salon leaders,--while
wit, knowledge, and tact were hers, she lived not by learning, but by
her liveliness and jollity. She was not the scholar in politics, but
the politician among scholars out of school.
It was a roystering, revelling company; and political as well as
personal penury became the portion of many as the result of these
improvident and profligate days. The episode of the Duchess's career
which is most known, is her purchase, by a kiss, of a vote for Fox
when she was championing his cause in an election, and canvassing for
votes in company with her sister, Lady Duncannon. It was said, "never
before had two such lovely portraits appeared on a canvass." A butcher
bargained for his vote by asking a kiss from the lovely lips of the
seductive Duchess. The price was paid, amid the plaudits of the crowd.
An Irish elector, impressed by the fair appellant's vivacity,
exclaimed: "I could light my pipe at her eyes."
Fox was elected for the Tory borough of Westminster, and great was the
rejoicing at Carlton House. A _fête_ was given on the grounds the day
following, and the ordinarily well-apparelled Prince appeared in a
superb costume of the radical colors, blue and buff. This was the
period of the Duchess's greatest glory, as well as of her most superb
charm of personality; and it was about this period that Gainsborough
painted his perennially delightful presentment of her. She was then
twenty-seven years of age, and had been married ten years. Wraxall
wrote what is probably the best contemporary description of her: "The
personal charms of the Duchess of Devonshire constituted her smallest
pretensions to universal admiration; nor did her beauty consist, like
that of the Gunnings, in regularity of features, and faultless
formation of limbs and shape; it lay in the amenity and graces of her
deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her
society. Her hair was not without a tinge of red; and her face, though
pleasing, yet, had it not been illuminated by her mind, might have
been considered an ordinary countenance."
It is said of Gainsborough that, while painting the Duchess, "he drew
his wet pencil across a mouth all thought exquisitely lovely, saying,
'Her Grace is too hard for me.'"
The lady later knew the cuts of comment, and the keen pain of
justifiable jealousy. The rival in her husband's attentions was Lady
Elizabeth Foster, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, a brunette of
handsome presence, and at the death of Georgiana, in 1806, she became
the second wife of the Duke. There was an apparent friendship between
the ladies, and Lady Elizabeth for a time lived under the same roof as
the Duchess.
Madame d'Arblay, in 1791, visited her at Bath, and made record then of
her introduction to the Duchess, and indicated the premonition of
trouble in this wise. "Presently followed two ladies; Lady Spencer,
with a look and manner warmly announcing pleasure in what she was
doing, then introduced me to the first of them, saying, 'Duchess of
Devonshire, Miss Burney.' She made me a very civil compliment upon
hoping my health was recovering; and Lady Spencer then, slightly, and
as if unavoidably, said, 'Lady Elizabeth Foster.'" Gibbon said of the
latter, that, "No man could withstand her; and that if she chose to
beckon the Lord Chancellor from his woolsack, in full sight of the
world, he could not resist obedience." Reynolds painted a portrait of
her, showing a bright-eyed, smiling lady, with close-curled hair, of
girlish appearance. In Samuel Rogers's "Table Talk" are several
mentions of the famous Georgiana, and especially one which tells of
her love for gambling. "Gaming was the rage during her day; she
indulged in it, and was made miserable by her debts. A faro-table was
kept by Martindale, at which the Duchess and other high fashionables
used to play. Sheridan said that the Duchess and Martindale had agreed
that whatever they two won from each other should be sometimes
_double_, sometimes _treble_, what it was called. And Sheridan assured
me that he had handed the Duchess into her carriage when she was
literally sobbing at her losses, she having lost fifteen hundred
pounds, when it was supposed to be only five hundred pounds." A life
such as she then led surely affected her appearance. In 1783, Walpole
wrote: "The Duchess of Devonshire, the empress of fashion, is no
beauty at all. She was a very fine woman, with all the freshness of
youth and health, but verges fast to a coarseness."
The offspring of the Duchess Georgiana were: Georgiana Dorothy,
afterwards Countess Carlisle, whose letters were lately published, and
exhibit an original observation and a terse style of record; Henrietta
Elizabeth, later Countess Granville; and a son, who succeeded to the
Dukedom. About the latter's birth was some mystery; insinuation was
active. The Duchess had little liking for domestic life, so normal
neglect of child may have been construed into an unnatural dislike.
Her son never married. Through the stress of the home infelicity, her
beauty waned; but her bearing and breeding kept her paramount in her
set. She is known to this later generation only as a superb beauty who
stands with such opulent charm of costume, and of fine hauteur of
manner, amid the noble groves of Chatsworth--as the once potential
original of Gainsborough's greatest portrait. "The bust outlasts the
throne, the coin Tiberius."
A most pathetic tribute to the beauty of the Duchess was paid by
"Peter Pindar" (Dr. Wolcot), who addressed "A Petition to Time in
favor of the Duchess of Devonshire," and implored the Inexorable
thus:--
"Hurt not the form that all admire.
Oh, never with white hairs her temple sprinkle!
Oh, sacred be her cheek, her lip, her bloom!
And do not, in a lovely dimple's room,
Place a hard mortifying wrinkle.
"Know shouldst thou bid the beauteous duchess fade,
Thou, therefore, must thy own delights invade;
And know, 't will be a long, long while
Before thou givest her equal to our isle.
Then do not with this sweet _chef-d'oeuvre_ part,
But keep to show the triumph of thy art."
A dramatic fate has befallen the original canvas. In 1875, it was sold
at auction, and was bought by a firm of dealers for the then highest
price paid for a single picture in England. The publicity gained by
this was taken advantage of by the purchasers to exhibit the picture.
One morning when the gallery was opened, the frame only was there; the
picture had vanished. The canvas is lost.
[Illustration: MARY, THE HONORABLE MRS GRAHAM by GAINSBOROUGH]