The Wits and Beaux of Society | Page 7

about Scarron, but their best merit to my mind is that
they at once prompt a desire to go to that corner of the bookshelf where
the eleven volumes of the adventures of the immortal musketeers
repose, and taking down the first volume of "Vingt Ans Après" seek for
the twenty-third chapter, where Scarron receives society in his
residence in the Rue des Tournelles. There Scudery twirls his
moustaches and trails his enormous rapier and the Coadjutor exhibits
his silken "Fronde". There the velvet eyes of Mademoiselle d'Aubigné
smile and the beauty of Madame de Chevreuse delights, and all the
company make fun of Mazarin and recite the verses of Voiture.
There are others of these wits and beaux with whom we might like to
linger; but our space is running short; it is time to say good-bye.
Congreve the dramatist and gentleman, Rochefoucault the wit,
Saint-Simon the king of memoir-writers, Rochester and St. Evremond
and de Grammont, Selwyn and Sydney Smith and Sheridan each in turn
appeals to us to tarry a little longer. But it is time to say good-bye to
these shadows of the past with whom we have spent some pleasant
hours. It is their duty now to offer some pleasant hours to others.

JUSTIN HUNTLY M'CARTHY.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In revising this Publication, it has scarcely been found necessary to
recall a single opinion relative to the subject of the Work. The general
impressions of characters adopted by the Authors have received little
modification from any remarks elicited by the appearance of 'The Wits
and Beaux of Society.'
It is scarcely to be expected that even our descendants will know much
more of the Wits and Beaux of former days than we now do. The chests
at Strawberry Hill are cleared of their contents; Horace Walpole's latest
letters are before us; Pepys and Evelyn have thoroughly dramatized the
days of Charles II.; Lord Hervey's Memoirs have laid bare the darkest
secrets of the Court in which he figures; voluminous memoirs of the
less historic characters among the Wits and Beaux have been published;
still it is possible that some long-disregarded treasury of old letters, like
that in the Gallery at Wotton, may come to light. From that precious
deposit a housemaid--blotted for ever be her name from memory's
page--was purloining sheets of yellow paper, with antiquated writing
on them, to light her fires with, when the late William Upcott came to
the rescue, and saved Evelyn's 'Diary' for a grateful world. It is just
possible that such a discovery may again be made, and that the doings
of George Villiers, or the exile life of Wharton, or the inmost thoughts
of other Wits and Beaux may be made to appear in clearer lights than
heretofore; but it is much more likely that the popular opinions about
these witty, worthless men are substantially true.
All that has been collected, therefore, to form this work--and, as in the
'Queens of Society,' every known source has been consulted--assumes a
sterling value as being collected; and, should hereafter fresh materials
be disinterred from any old library closet in the homes of some one
descendant of our heroes, advantage will be gladly taken to improve,
correct, and complete the lives.

One thing must, in justice, be said: if they have been written freely,
fearlessly, they have been written without passion or prejudice. The
writers, though not quite of the stamp of persons who would never have
'dared to address' any of the subjects of their biography, 'save with
courtesy and obeisance,' have no wish to 'trample on the graves' of such
very amusing personages as the 'Wits and Beaux of Society.' They have
even been lenient to their memory, hailing every good trait gladly, and
pointing out with no unsparing hand redeeming virtues; and it cannot
certainly be said, in this instance, that the good has been 'interred with
the bones' of the personages herein described, although the evil men do,
'will live after them.'
But whilst a biographer is bound to give the fair as well as the dark side
of his subject, he has still to remember that biography is a trust, and
that it should not be an eulogium. It is his duty to reflect that in many
instances it must be regarded even as a warning.
The moral conclusions of these lives of 'Wits and Beaux' are, it is
admitted, just: vice is censured; folly rebuked; ungentlemanly conduct,
even in a beau of the highest polish, exposed; irreligion finds no
toleration under gentle names--heartlessness no palliation from its
being the way of the world. There is here no separate code allowed for
men who live in the world, and for those who live out of it. The task of
pourtraying such characters as the 'Wits