Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples;

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INTRODUCTION

"AMONG the lovely faces that haunt history none, surely, is lovelier than that of Emily Lyon, who abides undying as Emma, Lady Hamilton. Yet it was never the mere radiance of rare beauty that entitled her to such an empire over the hearts and wills of several remarkable men and of one unique genius, or which empowered a girl humbly bred and basely situated to assist in moulding events that changed the current of affairs. She owned grace and charm as well as triumphant beauty; while to these she added a masculine mind, a native force and sparkle; a singular faculty, moreover, of rendering and revealing the thoughts and feelings of others, that lent an especial glamour to both beauty and charm."

Walter Sichel thus strikes the keynote to the remarkable life-story here presented—a story which transcends the bounds of romance and fascinates and baffles the reader by turns. Indeed, no two critics of this famous beauty and confidante of Lord Nelson have ever agreed as to her place in history. To one she is an adventuress, luring Nelson on by the sheer power of her physical charm; to another, she is his guiding star, his inspiration; while others see in her merely an astute politician, eager for power. To quote Mr. Sichel again:

"It will be found that Lady Hamilton, by turns ful-somely flattered and ungenerously condemned, was a picturesque power and a real influence. She owned

a fine side to her puzzling character. She was never mercenary, often self-abandoning, and at times actually noble. Her courage, warm-heartedness and gift of staunch friendship, her strength in conquering, her speed in assimilating circumstances, the firmness mixed with her frailty, were conspicuous; and it was the blend of these that, together with her genuine grit, appealed so irresistibly to Nelson. She must be largely judged by her capabilities. Her faults were greatly those of her antecedents and environment. She rose suddenly to situations and fulfilled them, while these again led her both to climax and catastrophe. She worked long and hard, and with success; she took a strong line and pursued it. She became a serious politician in correspondence with most of the leaders in the European death-grapple with Jacobinism. So far, as has been represented, from having proved the mere tool of an ambitious queen, it will appear that more than once she swayed that beset and ill-starred woman into decision. So far from having craftily angled for Nelson's love, it will be shown that the magnet of her enthusiasm first attracted his. She was indeed singularly capable of feeling enthusiasm, and of communicating and enkindling it. It is as an enthusiast that she must rank."

"The story of her wonderfully checkered career from her cradle to her grave," writes W. H. Long in an earlier edition of her Memoirs, "and her connection with the greatest naval commander the world has ever seen, is as attractive and thrilling as a romance, and will serve for all time 'to point a moral or adorn a tale.' " We find in these pages the life history of a girl of obscure but honest parentage beginning her career as a household servant, then practically cast adrift in the streets seeking a precarious living in

doubtful ways; thence rising from the very edge of circumstance by successive stages to become the inspiration of artists and Bohemians, the protegee of ministers, the wife of an ambassador, the trusted confidante of a queen., and the all-absorbing passion of a nation's hero. Rapid as this ascent to power was, the descent was no less swift, and the poverty which accompanied her early years again greets her at the end of the journey. The bare outline of such a career exhibits its remarkable contrasts of light and shadow. We can only explain it in part by a study of the woman herself—the same woman who, as an untutored girl of nineteen, sighed: "If I only had a good education, what a woman I might have been!"

Lady Hamilton rose to power not merely through beauty of face—many other women have been thus endowed—but through a combination of rare qualities which astounded such critics as Goethe, Sir Horace Walpole, the artists Romney and Madame Le Brun, and men and women in every walk of life. These qualities were a naturally fine mind, a magnetic personality, an overflowing sympathy and generosity, and a boundless enthusiasm. One may also characterize her as naturally theatrical. She did not pose, she was the living personification of the emotions she typified; and this natural adaptiveness became intensified by the scenes into which the untutored girl was so suddenly cast.

And what a theatre it was! England, just recovering from the American War of Independence, was facing a conflict with France. The latter country had emerged from the throes of Revolution only to plunge into a Titanic struggle with every other European nation. Napoleon marched through Italy, overran Egypt and swept the Mediterranean with his ships, preparatory to wider conquests. The Mediterranean

thus became a seething caldron, and in its very centre the kingdom of the Two Sicilies struggled for existence. It was at Naples, the capital of this kingdom, that Emma, Lady Hamilton, as wife of the English Ambassador spent the momentous years of her life, and here her peculiar genius found full scope. She stirred her sluggish ambassador husband to action. She became the real power behind the Sicilian throne, through the friendship of Maria Carolina the Queen (sister of the ill-fated Marie Antoinette of France). And when the fleet of Nelson drew near in pursuit of the French, she it was who procured water and provision for it, enabling Nelson to fight and win his famous Battle of the Nile. Upon the return of the victor began his remarkable intimacy with both the Hamil-tons, which was to endure through the lifetime of each and all. And of the three, the chivalrous attitude of the elderly Sir William is alone meritorious. His regard for his wife and his friend never wavered; while they, carried mutually onward by a wave of irresistible love, forgot the one his wife, the other her husband in the liaison so widely known to history.

That Lady Hamilton's influence upon Nelson was permanent and paramount is never disputed. He idealized her and strove to live up to the fond ideal which he cherished. His letters constantly attest his devotion, and his dying message confided her and her child to the care of his country—a charge which ungrateful England wholly neglected. Nelson, indeed, always hoped to have been able to legalise this union of hearts. Emma was his "wife before God," his "pride and delight." While to her, Nelson was "the dearest husband of her heart," her "hero of heroes," her "idol." They lived for each other, and died in the hope that they should meet again. "Nelson's unselfishness transfigured her to herselfj she became capable of great

moments. And she was born for friendship. 'I would not be a lukewarm friend for the world,' she wrote to him at the outset; 'I cannot make friendships with all, but the few friends I have I would die for them.' She was always warm-hearted to a fault, as will amply appear as her character grows up in these pages. So far from numbing Nelson, she nerved him; nor. did she debase any within the range of her influence." The earliest ''Memoirs of Lady Hamilton" appeared shortly after her death, in 1815, from the pen of an anonymous author, and were published by H. Colburn, London. They were widely read, a second enlarged edition appearing a few months later. Frequent printings were made, and finally W. H. Long brought out a revised edition in 1891. But other and more authentic memoir material meanwhile became available—all of which has been utilised by the present editor. The first of these sources is a volume of "Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton," published by Thomas Lovewell & Co., London, 1814. The reader of the present book will note how these cherished letters were stolen from Lady Hamilton, while she was ill and in trouble, and how she stoutly denied any responsibility for their publication. Nevertheless, they are undoubtedly genuine, many of the originals having been preserved, and they furnish an important basis for these Memoirs. They include letters by Lady Hamilton, her husband, Greville, Bristol, but chiefly a long series of private letters from Nelson himself. The editor has also drawn upon various recent manuscript collections in the British Museum, such as the correspondence of Lady Hamilton with Nelson in the autumn of the year 1798, after the Nile Victory, and letters between Lady Hamilton and Mrs. William Nelson, during 1801, relative to the Prince of Wales episode which created such a scandal

in officialdom. The latter collection was not obtained by the Museum until 1896, and has therefore not been available to preceding biographers. Besides the above there are other important sources, such as the Nelson family papers, the Acton-Hamilton correspondence, the manuscript letters of Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, in the British Museum, and numerous state documents and private papers. Mr. Sichel has left no bit of evidence unturned, basing his story closely upon contemporary evidence, with the result that he has here given the first complete and accurate pen portrait of Lady Hamilton which has yet appeared.

"It is a career of widespread interest and unusual fascination," he finds, "a human document of many problems that well repay the decipherer and the discoverer. My aim throughout has been to quicken research into life, and to furnish a new study of her striking temperament and the temperaments which became so curiously interwoven both with each other and with history. I venture also to hope," he adds, "that Nelson's own character and achievements stand more fully revealed by the fresh lights and side-lights which serve to bring his extraordinary individuality into relief, to explain his policy, and to clear up some vexed passages both in his private and his public actions."

Whatever sentence the reader may pronounce on the evidence to be submitted, he cannot fail to mark the psychological problems of her being. In any case, with all her blots and failings, Lady Hamilton presents one of the most fascinating studies in the eternal duel of sex. To her may well be applied the line which her husband quoted in his book of 1772: — "The heroine of a thousand things."

LETTER FROM LORD NELSON TO LADY HAMILTON [See next page, also pp. 197-199]

NOTE ON NELSON'S LETTER (Reproduced on foregoing page)

The circumstances calling for this remarkable letter are given in full in Chapter VII. "Nelson was in chase of Buonaparte's fleet," it begins. The English admiral's instructions were to water and provide his fleet in any Mediterranean port, except in Sardinia, if necessary by arms. The success of his expedition absolutely depended upon it. The various ports, however, were so dominated by Napoleon, then at the height of his power, that they dared not welcome the English, even if willing.

At this critical juncture, the woman's hand succeeded where the mailed fist might have failed. Lady Hamilton's husband was Ambassador to Naples, and she herself exerted a vital influence in affairs of that little kingdom, not so much through her husband's position, as her own close friendship with Queen Carolina of Naples. She obtained secret permission from the Queen to obtain supplies for the fleet, in a personal note so jealously guarded that when it is forwarded to Nelson, Lady Hamilton entreats him to "kiss it, and send it back by Bowen, as I am bound not to give any of her letters."

_ The overjoyed Admiral hastened to kiss the precious missive; his ships were quickly supplied; and not long thereafter the news that the French fleet had been destroyed in the Battle of the Nile thrilled the world.

EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

CHAPTER I

THE CURTAIN RISES—1765-1782

ON the morning of January 10, 1782, the punctilious and elegant Honourable Charles Francis Greville, gloomy still over the loss of his Warwick election, but consoled by a snug, if unsafe, post in the Board of Admiralty, much exercised, too, in his careful way, about minerals, animals, science, the fine arts, and the flickering out of the American war, was even more exercised by a missive from a poor young girl who had already crossed his path. Fronting him in the dainty chamber of his mansion in the new and fashionable Portman Square, hung the loaned " Venus" attributed to Correggio, and slightly retouched with applied water-colour. This over-prized picture had been for years the cherished idol of his uncle and alter ego, Sir William Hamilton, K.B., Fellow of the Antiquarian and the Royal Societies, member of the Dilettanti, the Tuesday, and other clubs, foster-brother of the now George III., and sometime both his and his brother's equerry; the busy man of pleasure, the renowned naturalist and virtuoso of Portland vase celebrity, and already for about eighteen years His Britannic Majesty's amiably-grumbling Ambassador at the Court of the King of the two Sicilies. Greville's natural sangfroid was not easily ruffled, but this letter almost excited him. It was franked by

himself on a wrapper in his own neat handwriting, bore the Chester postmark, and contrasted strongly with the tasteful tone of the room and its superfine owner.

It ran as follows: " Yesterday did I receve your kind letter. It put me in some spirits for, believe me, I am allmost distracktid. I have never hard from Sir H., 1 and he is not at Lechster now, I am sure. I have wrote 7 letters, and no anser. What shall I dow? Good God what shall I dow. ... I can't come to toun for want of mony. I have not a farthing to bless my self with, and I think my friends looks cooly on me. I think so. O. G. what shall I dow? What shall I dow ? O how your letter affected me when you wished me happiness. O. G. that I was in your posesion or in Sir H. what a happy girl would I have been! Girl indeed! What else am I but a girl in distres—in reall distres? For God's sake, G. write the minet you get this, and only tell me what I am to dow. Direct same whay. I am allmos mad. O for God's sake tell me what is to become on me. O dear Grevell, write to me. Write to me. G. adue, and believe [me] yours for ever Emly Hart.