Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

HERVEY AND POPE 217
wrote Gay; and indeed, onApril 21, as Lord Bristol's
diary records, they had been privately married. On
October 28 the marriage was announced. Three years
later, on the death of his elder brother, the husband
became Lord Hervey. At the beginning of George
II.'s reign he attached himself to Walpole and his
Administration. From that time, if not before, until
her death, he was essential to Queen Caroline. He
came at length to be with her for many hours each
day, save for his Saturday and Sunday holiday, of
which he writes so slyly; her adviser,gossip, buffoon —
in sickness or in health alike indispensable. In the
same year Pope dates his own quarrel with him; and
he left off his familiarity with Chesterfield and Hervey
for the same reason, he says, " merely because they
both had too much wit for him." It was soon a
pretty squabble, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
did not pour oil on the waters. " Verses to the
Imitator of Horace " and " A Letter from a Nobleman
at Hampton Court to a Doctor of Divinity "
were Hervey's contributions to the fray;and Pope's
culminated in the bitter character of Sporus, " that
mere white curd of asses' milk." The sharpest personal
taunts are joined to political references, stinging
alike to the Queen and the favourite.
' Eve's tempter thus the rabbinshave express'd: —
A cherub's face — a reptile all the rest!
Beauty that shocks you, parts than none can trust,
Wit that can creep, and pridethat licks the dust."