On a Certain Lady at Court

Catharine Howard, one of Queen Caroline’s waiting-women; afterward Countess of Suffolk and mistress to George II. Her identification as the Chloe of Moral Essays, II., makes it easier to believe Walpole’s statement that this lady once reprieved a condemned criminal that ‘an experiment might be made on his ears for her benefit.’

I KNOW the thing that ’s most uncommon;

(Envy, be silent, and attend!)

I know a reasonable Woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a friend:

Not warp’d by Passion, awed by Rumour,

Not grave thro’ Pride, nor gay thro’ Folly,

An equal mixture of Good-humour,

And sensible soft Melancholy.

‘Has she no faults then (Envy says), sir?’

Yes, she has one, I must aver:

When all the world conspires to praise her,

The woman’s deaf and does not hear.

Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD