Jos Sedley

“ Meantime Selina proceeded towards Somerset House. It was a delightful day; and the rapid motion of the carriage, the gaiety of the streets, and even a faint hope that she might, perhaps, meet Mordaunt in her drive, all contributed to raise her spirits. At last, as the carriage experienced a momentary stop in Bond-street, Selina heard her own name pronounced by a voice not unfamiliar to her ear, and hastily turning to the speaker, she recognized Mr. Sedley. ”

“ Graves, however, encouraged him, by kindly adding, “When you have mastered the first steps, you will mount upward with alacrity. The beginning of every attempt is difficult; but be of good courage; persevere, 208and you will find it afterwards pleasant, easy, and agreeable.”
During the foregoing conversation, Jeffery Squander had called to invite William to dine with him, and afterwards to return to school in his father’s coach; and Mrs. Sedley now introduced the young gentleman up stairs. ”

“ Sedley was much more equivocal, and almost baffled the penetration of the Viscountess. It always happened his engagements and theirs were the same, and wherever they went he became one of their immediate party; but his manner was so perfectly careless, that the rencontre seemed purely accidental. He admired Selina's beauty avowedly, but with apparently equal nonchalance, sometimes complimented Lady Eltondale on the elegance of Miss Seymour's dress, and much oftener finding fault with Selina herself, if any particular ornament or colour in it happened not to suit his fancy. ”

“ When a parasite told him that the fire of the play had blown up the poet, house and all, Sedley replied, 'No; the play was so heavy that it broke down the house, and buried the poet in his own rubbish.' Latterly he sobered down, entered parliament, attended closely to public business, and became a determined opponent of the arbitrary measures of James II. To this he was stimulated by a personal reason. James had seduced Sedley's daughter, and made her Countess of Dorchester. ”

“ But sure we all mistake this pious man, Who mortifies his person all he can What we uncharitably take for sin, Are only rules of this odd capuchin; For never hermit, under grave pretence, Has lived more contrary to common sense.” These verses, however, have been applied to Sir Charles Sedley, whose name was originally spelt Sidley. ”

“ A light flashed in the eyes of Robert Sadler which Lady De Aldithely affected not to see. The opportunity he had been seeking was before him. He would go out alone, but he would not return alone. When the drawbridge should be lowered to admit him on his return the king's messengers with a troop of horse would be at hand. They would make a rush while he held parley with the old warder. They would gain entrance to the castle; Josceline would be taken, and the reward for his own treachery would be gained. He had plenty of time to think of all this, for the men were slow to offer. ”

“ However I trust, thanks to you, my dear friend, we shall soon meet; and if her heart is still mine, what happiness!—Gracious Heaven! Miss Seymour!"—and the recollection of his situation regarding Selina glanced through his mind, turning all the past to pain—"I must not, dare not, think of her now." "And why not?" replied Sedley, with an agitation little inferior to his own, "You are not irrevocably engaged to Miss Seymour, Eltondale?" "I am as much as a man of honour can be, who has not received the lady's own consent from her own mouth. ”

“ Mrs. Sedley, wife of Mr. Sedley. A homely, kind-hearted motherly woman in her prosperous days, but soured by adversity, and quick to take offence.
Amelia Sedley, daughter of the stock-broker, educated at Miss Pinkerton’s academy, Chiswick Mall, and engaged to Captain George Osborne, son of a rich London merchant. After the ruin of old Sedley, George married Amelia, and was disinherited by his father. He was adored by his young wife, but fell on the field of Waterloo. ”

“ If a wise and good father could choose between having his son a hopeless drunkard or villain, and laying his cold form in the dark grave, never more to see him on earth, he would no doubt choose the latter. Almost all parents say so; and their words are so earnest, their tears so eloquent, that we cannot but believe it. Such was the father of Frank Sedley, and it was such a father that made so good a son.
Charles Hardy was the son of one of the factory agents, who was Captain Sedley's nearest neighbor ”

“ Lord Sedley was daily before her eyes in the interesting characters of suffering magnanimity or ardent attachment. When his unclosed wounds throbbed with extreme anguish, could she refuse to minister to his relief? When returning ease allowed him to direct the grateful acknowledgments of a devoted heart, to the protecting angel who had rescued him from death, could she deny the confessed affection surprise had drawn from her, and resolve to hate or even forget him on account of a supposed hereditary feud? ”

“ Lines addressed to Pope
INDEX SPECIMENS, WITH MEMOIRS, OF THE LESS-KNOWN BRITISH POETS. * * * * *
THIRD PERIOD. FROM DRYDEN TO COWPER. * * * * *
SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. Sedley was one of those characters who exert a personal fascination over their own age without leaving any works behind them to perpetuate the charm to posterity. He was the son of Sir John Sedley of Aylesford, in Kent, and was born in 1639. When the Restoration took place he repaired to London, and plunged into all the licence of the time, shedding, however, over the putrid pool the sheen of his wit, manners, and genius. ”

“ Sedley had received the first of the following letters, and seven months after its arrival the two latter, though of different dates, reached him on the same day: of course they did not meet the eye of the viscountess, so that she remained ignorant of their contents; but even had she known them entirely, no consideration for Frederick's happiness would for an instant have caused her to waver in her plan for promoting his prosperity, as on the fulfilment of her long meditated scheme for this purpose depended the possibility of her future continuance in the London world. ”

“ There would be no great difficulty for Sedley to lift the trap without noise and, when it was lifted, to swing himself through to the ground, to creep until he came to the thick tangle upon the creek banks, then to swim across and escape into the shelter of the woods beyond. That would be simple enough, and Mammy, full of hopeful thoughts, was walking briskly forward, when suddenly a turn in the path brought [Pg 147] into view a small body of Federals, all mounted, and evidently coming from the direction of the mill. ”

“ I can never forget her, but she refused me." "Refused you!" exclaimed Sedley, in a tone of unfeigned surprise; "well, no doubt your pride has cured your love; but upon my soul I almost pity you; for when a man is once fascinated by a pretty woman, it is devilish hard to get out of her toils." "So far from my pride being my cure, her refusal raised my love to a pitch that made my former attachment seem cold in comparison. You may smile, Sedley, but if you have a heart to be moved, it must be touched when I tell you of her noble conduct on that occasion. ”

“ I, humbler witness, can only say, after studying their works and their lives, that Etherege was a more accomplished comedy-writer than Sedley, but that Sedley was a greater beast than Etherege.
These two handsome fellows, made in God's image, marred their manly beauty by their licentiousness, and soon looked more like two battered, wine-soaked demons, than the sons of Christian mothers. Etherege, however, fierce and vindictive as he could be under passion, was never so utterly brutalised in mind as Sedley, nor so cruel in his humours at any time. ”

“ Supper was at length announced, and Sedley, who with his partner had been standing near Selina, offered her his arm, alleging, that Mr. Webberly was too busy just then to attend to her: "Yes, (replied Selina laughingly, passing her arm through his) my Achilles seems only vulnerable in the heel to-night." But Cecilia not choosing to lose any share of Sedley's attention, roared out, "Why, brother! brother John, what are you capering there for, like a great jack-ass, as you are, and leaving Miss Seymour to take care of herself?" ”

“ Here Sedley made a short pause. He felt that all was at stake: the effects of a few minutes' conversation might decide his fate for life. He hastily revolved in his mind Lord Eltondale's Sicilian letters, which he had lately read for the base purpose of divulging their contents to the Viscountess, and calling to mind the points on which Frederick's admiration had been founded, endeavoured to paint Miss Wildenheim's charms in those terms which he judged most likely to raise his friend's love and regrets to their acmé, and thus for ever defeat Lady Eltondale's schemes for uniting him to Selina. ”

“ The Grumbler, a Comedy of three acts, scene Paris.
The Tyrant King of Crete, a Tragedy.
Sedley's poems, however amorously tender and delicate, yet have not much strength; nor do they afford great marks of genius. The softness of his verses is denominated by the Duke of Buckingham, Sedley's Witchcraft. It was an art too successful in those days to propagate the immoralities of the times, but it must be owned that in point of chastity he excels Dorset, and Rochester ”

“ Wicked people will laugh at you for being better than themselves; but will by no means like to share in the miseries which your follies may incur.”
41As he concluded these words, they arrived within sight of Mr. Sedley’s house, and were soon discovered by two children who were kneeling in the parlour window; but immediately upon seeing Mr. Graves, they jumped down, and came running to meet him. The eldest was a girl about a year older than William; and the other, little Bob, had the day before left off his petticoats, and honoured his birth-day with a suit of new boy’s cloaths. ”

“ Webberly cast a glance on his lovely partner, in which real exultation was ridiculously blended with affected contempt; and shrugging his shoulders, replied, "She is half wild now, we must give her a little fashion when she comes amongst us." Sedley turned on his heel, and joined a groupe of young men, who were loudly expatiating on the charms he affected to despise. Sedley also joined in her praise; for as yet, though his warm admiration was excited, his heart was not sufficiently interested to create a wariness in the expression of its feelings ”

“ It is extraordinary to me,” continued Sir Sedley, benevolently going on, that I might have full time to recover myself, “how contagious that disease called ‘business’ is in our foggy England! Not only Trevanion, you see, has the complaint in its very worst and most complicated form, but that poor dear cousin of mine who is so young [here Sir Sedley sighed] , and might enjoy himself so much, is worse than you were when Trevanion was fagging you to death. ”

“ Even the vigilance of Lady Eltondale was for once baffled. Mr. Sedley's situation in life was exactly in that mean, which least attracted her notice: his paternal estate was sufficient, as she believed, to render even Selina's fortune of no vital importance to him; and judging of Selina by herself, she believed it almost impossible, that a girl so universally admired, as she undoubtedly was, would be content to remain a commoner all her life. ”

“ Webberly's own design, or his ridiculous suspicions of Mr. Sedley's, amused Lady Eltondale or him most: however they both agreed, that it was quite impossible I should ever marry a commoner. I wish you knew Mr. Sedley well, as I am sure you would like him, and be convinced that your prejudice last autumn, and your idea that he was unprincipled, would soon vanish. He is uncommonly good natured, and always tells me all my faults, and I am not the least afraid of him as I am of Lady Eltondale; indeed he is the only person in town I have real pleasure in conversing with. ”

“ When I talk to any body else, I am always afraid of their misconstruing either my vivacity or my gravity. But Mr. Sedley's conversation is always adapted to the turn of the moment. If I am gay, he does not accuse me of levity; and if I am inclined to talk rationally, he does not call it pedantry. Would you believe it, the other night, when I know Mr. Webberly thought he was making love to me, we were literally talking of Montesquieu's Esprit des Loix, which you may remember was one of the last books we read together—I mean with Mr. Temple. Lady Eltondale is to give a great ball next week ”

“ But Josceline was hard to convince. "Here is the castle," he said, "than which none is stronger, and here be good men and true to defend it. Moreover, Robert Sadler is now outside the walls. Thou canst, if thou wilt, keep him out, and we have naught to fear. Why should we go wandering with our all on the backs of sumpter mules, and with only a few men-at-arms and serving-men to bear us company?"
"My son," said Lady De Aldithely, rising from her seat, "thy father gave thee into my keeping. And thou didst promise him upon thine honor to obey me. Thou mayest not break thy pledged word." ”

“ Jos showed his narrow teeth. “A yellow sovereign all but a crown,” he answered. “If I die, go she and speak to Peter Shop Watches in Castellybryn.”
“Little Jos Gernos,” said Nansi, “there’s wasteful he is. Why he now go to Betti the widow of Shim, and say to her: ‘Betti fach, lend you me your old ring for to wed Leisa the daughter of Silas Penlon. In want you are, Betti, and I will reward you with buttermilk.’”
Jos shifted a foot, and placed it near the milk that had escaped and had formed into a small pool in a hollow in the earthen floor. ”