Quotables (Insults Edition)

'You little, insignificant, good-for-nothing, upstart, pert, chattering puppy!'

-The Duchess of Gordon to Jack Payne

Quotables

'Ly. Eliz. [Bess] came, the first time I have seen her since her marriage with [the] Duke of Devonshire; I could not utter a congratulation upon the occasion.'

-Elizabeth Lady Holland

Quotables

"Lady Palmerston, you know, has always called you Sir Bashful Constant, as being in love with your own wife, and I assure you I feel very proud of this particularity."

-Lady Elliot in a letter to her husband, Sir George Elliot, April 1789

On the Duchess of Gordon

'She looks as fierce as a dragon and contents herself with spending her breath upon politics, and ringing a daily peal in the ears of her poor husband, with whom, Lord William says, she squabbles more than ever.'

-Lady Louisa Stuart

Quotables

"I've received your letter, my Dear Lady Strafford, & am sorry for your vexations; I feel for them; dogs are faithful; I wish I cou'd say as much for the human species."

-Lady Mary Coke

On Lady Sarah Bunbury

 "Lady Sarah never did sacrifice to the Graces. Her beauty was in her face, which had few equals; but she was a cricket player, and ate beefsteaks..."

-Hester Thrale

On the Duchess of Rutland

"The life she leads is enough to kill her..."

-Lady Clermont to Lady Spencer, 1784

Quotables

We are all going to Heaven, and Vandyke is of the company.

-Thomas Gainsborough

Quotables

"In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful not the most gentle of their sex."

-Mary Wollstonecraft

Quotables

"As her Grace, when requisite, expressed sentiments very frankly that she knew to be right, although not perfectly agreeable to some hearers, she was at that time not sparing in her animadversions.  She accosted, with very great and just severity, a well-known peripatetic (we do not mean a peripatetic philospher,) and exposed his conduct in so humourous and strong satire, that is said she almost recalled to his recollection that there is such a feeling as shame in the human mind."

-Public characters of 1799-1800. To be continued annually.

Hannah More on Marie Antoinette's Charges

When news reached England of Marie Antoinette's trial, British citizens, despite their quarrels with the French, were absolutely disgusted.  The opinionated Hannah More, like most women, was especially disgusted when charges were brought against the queen for incest,

"It is so diabolical, that if they had studied an invention on purpose to whitewash her from every charge, they could not have done it more effectively."

Quotables

"Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength."

-Edmund Burke

On Georgiana

"Her Grace of Devonshire is a most enchanting, Exquisite beautiful Young Creature.  Were I five and twenty I could go mad about her, as I am past five and fifty I would only suffer martyrdom for her."

-David Garrick to Henry Bate

Quotables

After someone commented on how dirty her hand was after shaking it,

"What would you say if you saw my feet?"

-Mary Wortley Montague

Quotables

For my part, I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about and finding out one's acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. One merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive.

-Fanny Burney on attending plays

Quotables

"The D[uke] will tell you of Burke and Sheridan's reconciliation, which was perfectly Irish, for they now are upon worse terms than ever."

-Lady Jersey to Georgiana

Quotables

"We know the very minds of People by their Dress."

 -William Hogarth

Lady Mary Coke on Two Women of the Aristocracy

"The Duchess of Gordon resembles my Lady Bristol, is like her in person, manner, contrivances, and like her, scruples nothing to gain her end, such a person must always be dangerous."

-Lady Mary Coke

Quotables

"The joy would be so great, I mean to keep you in bed for a week at least when we marry."

-Princess Amelia to her lover Sir Charles FitzRoy, 21 years her senior

Quotables

"Gaming and liquor have debauched more women than all the solicitations of the whole race of man."

-Colonel George Hanger