FREDERICK PRINCE OF WALES, [FATHER to his present majesty, was a man of very elegant manners, says Mr. Seward, and a great reader of French memoirs. He had written those of his own times under the name of "Prince Titi." They were found amongst Ralph the historian's papers: his executor, the late Dr. Rosc of Chiswick, with a spirit of honour and of disinterestedness of which the world has seen few examples, put the manuscripts without any terms into the hands of a nobleman then in great favour at Carlton-house. Of this generous behaviour that nobleman never took the least notice, nor ever made the least remuneration, either pecuniary or in any other manner whatsoever 2 !! This prince is allowed to have composed some French songs, and, as lord Orford conceives, in imitation of the regent Philip duke of Orleans 3. Mr. Reed has obligingly directed me to one of these in the Gent. Mag. for 1780, p. 196. It is followed by a translation which reflects little reputation on the original. Supp. to Anecd. of distinguished Persons, p. 113. On naming these circumstances to Samuel Rose, esq. the son of Dr. Rose, he confirmed their general tenor, but believed the manuscript to be the composition of Mr. Ralph, who was secretary to the prince of Wales. That manuscript, he farther informed me, had been presented by the late lord Bute to his sovereign. 3 See Works, vol. i. p. 278. "CHANSON. Par F. P. de G. [Frederic Prince de Galles.] "Venez, mes cheres deesses, "Quand le chagrin me devore, Qu'a chez lui toujours un roi! "Que m'importe que l'Europe Ait un ou plusieurs tyrans? Prions seulement Calliope, Qu'elle inspire nos vers, nos chants. Que Bacchus nous donne a boire ; "Passons ainsi notre vie, Sans rêver à ce qui suit ; Avec ma chere Sylvie Le temps trop vite me fuit. This and a few other words have been emended by Mr. G. Ellis, on the supposition that they were typographical faults. Mais si, par un malheur extrême, Je perdois cet objet charmant ; Ne me tiendroit un moment. "Me livrant à ma tristesse, Pour mettre Bathurst en train. Qu'elle vive, et qu'elle voye Avec nous toujours des heureux!" 1745. Warton, that true poet, has an elegy on the death of Frederick, which confers higher honour on the memory of this prince, than could possibly be conferred by his own productions. It extols him for his mild graces and cultivated mind, his aversion to flattery and freedom from pride, his exemplary conjugal affection, his taste for the simply elegant in poesy, and his benevolent patronage of the muses' living train; For to the few, with sparks ethereal stor'd, He never barr'd his castle's genial gate, But bade sweet Thomson share the friendly board, And deck'd the royal maske, and tried the tragic strain.] * Earl Bathurst, the associate of the poetical bons vivants, who held their festive assemblies with their princely president at Carlton-house. CHARLES DUKE OF ORLEANS AND MILAN [HAS been engrafted by lord Orford on the English stock of royal authors as "a little eccentric addition;" as a poetic prince whom he felt it "a sort of duty to enrol in the college of arms on our mount Parnassus 2." He was the nephew of Charles the sixth of France, and father to Lewis the twelfth; was born in 1391, and taken prisoner at the famous battle of Agincourt, on the 25th of October 1415, where he was found under a heap of dead bodies almost lifeless, and detained as a state prisoner in England for the space of twenty-five years. He was confined in a moated mansion at Groombridge, Sussex; "Where captur'd banners wav'd beneath the roof, To taunt the royal Troubadour of Gaul "." During this period he endeavoured to soften the rigours of corporal restraint by devoting much of his time to the composition of amatory verses in English and French. His long imprisonment is said to have been occasioned by the mandate of Henry the fifth, who on his death-bed had ordered that this duke should not be released till a peace with France was concluded. By a • See lord Orford's Works, vol. i. p. 562. |