Thomas Thynne

“ Born on the 13th of September 1734, Thomas Thynne succeeded, his father as 3rd Viscount Weymouth in January 1751, and was lord-lieutenant of Ireland for a short time during 1765, although he never visited that country. ”

“ Is ́sachar, in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Thomas Thynne, of Longleate Hall, a friend to the duke of Monmouth. There seems to be a very slight analogy between Thomas Thynne and Issachar, son of Jacob. If the tribe (compared to an ass overburdened) is alluded to, the poet could hardly have called the rich commoner “wise Issachar.”
Mr. Thynne and Count Koningsmark both wished to marry the widow of Henry Cavendish, earl of Ogle. Her friends contracted her to the rich commoner, but before the marriage was celebrated, he was murdered. ”

“ Thomas Thynne and Kônigsmark were attached to the same lady—a young widow lady with a great deal of money—and she liked Mr. Thomas Thynne best, which was more than Mr. Kônigsmark could bear. So Mr. Königsmark first swore properly that he would do it, and then did it—all in Pall Mall, when Mr. Thomas was in the very act of driving home from paying a visit to the widow. It was a most affecting story, as Peter Corke told it, especially in the presence of the memorial with a white marble Cupid pointing to it, erected by Mr. ”

“ SHE was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Portland by Lady Margaret Harley. In 1754 she married Thomas Thynne, first Marquis of Bath, by whom she had a very large family. She survived her husband many years. ”

“ Probably some audacious wit did once collect a London crowd by declaring that its tail wagged—but certainly it was not Sheridan.
Tom Thynne, or, as he was called, “Tom of Ten Thousand,” was shot at the east end of Pall Mall, opposite the Opera Arcade, by Borosky, a Polish soldier urged on by Count Königsmark, a Swedish adventurer, son of one of Gustavus’s old generals, and who was enraged with Thynne for having just married the youthful widow of the Earl of Ogle, Lady Elizabeth Percy. Thynne was a favourite of the Duke of Monmouth. ”

“ And that yt was, by Lupanus, to assigne to Ribaldes lodginge out of the courte, (for so modestye willeth vs to vnderstande, because they shoulde not offende and infecte the courte with their sighte and manners,) so ys yt our Marshalls office, to banyshe those harlottes the courte, and bestowe them in some other place, where they might be lesse annoyance. Master Thynne being a herold liketh not that false semblance should be thought one. ”

“ So they came to be Hanged, on the Tenth of March, in Pall Mall on the Spot where Esquire Thynne had been Murdered; and Vratz was Buried but the other two Hung in Chains, and the Great Frame of the Polander hung near Camden Town long after his crime had been Forgotten by the General.
There was a Fine Marble put up in the Abbey Church of Westminster to the Memory of Mr. Thynne, and next year his Widow, the Lady Ogle, married the Duke of Somerset, who was the Proudest Man in England. ”

“ One of her unsuccessful suitors, a Swedish nobleman, Count John Philip Königsmark, sent two challenges to Thynne by a certain Captain Vratz, one of his followers. According to Echard, Königsmark and the captain were residing in France, and Thynne replied by sending six men to France to murder both of them. In January 1682 Königsmark and Vratz returned to England, and Vratz again tried to bring about a duel, this time between Thynne and himself. On the evening of Sunday, 12 Feb., when Thynne was riding in his coach down Pall Mall, Vratz rode up with two men and stopped the horses ”

“ I have cited in the Notes a few passages of the original text which help to explain the translation.
§ 47. The text in Thynne is a good one, and it seemed convenient to make it the basis of the edition; but it has been carefully controlled by collation with MS. Ff. 1. 6, which is, in some respects, the best MS. I am not sure that Thynne always followed his MS.; he may have collated some other one, as he professes in some cases to have done. MS. Ff. 1. 6, the Trinity MS., and Thynne's principal MS. form one group, which we may call A ”

“ He had been an intimate friend of the Duke of York, afterwards James II., but, having quarrelled with that prince, he turned Whig, and courted the Duke of Monmouth, who frequently visited him at his sumptuous mansion of Longleat, and to whom he made a present of a team of Oldenburg carriage—horses of remarkable beauty. Thynne was soon the accepted suitor of Lady Elizabeth Percy, and they were married in 1681, but separated immediately after the ceremony on account of the youth of the bride, who went abroad for a tour on the Continent. ”

“ Wherefor, touching that parte, you shall heare somewhat of the Marshalls office sett downe and founde in the Customes, whiche Thomas of Brothertonne (sonne to kinge Edwarde the fyrste) challenged to his office of Marshalcye; where, emongst 73 other thinges, are these woordes: eorum (whiche was of the marshalls deputyes executinge that he shoulde ells do hym selfe) interest virgatam à meretricibus prohibere, et deliberare, et habet, ex consuetudine mariscallus ex quâlibet meretrice com [m] uni infra metas hospitii inventa iiijd. primo die. ”

“ As he returned, with greater love for the sole partner of his life, she herself met him with his mother, to deliver him in private the bridal-nightgown and bridal-shirt, as is the ancient usage. Many a countenance grows pale in violent emotions, even of joy: Thiennette's wax-face was bleaching still whiter under the sunbeams of Happiness. ”

“ In compliance with the importunate request of the Honourable Mrs. Thynne, she passed some months with her in London, after the death of her daughter, the Lady Brooke; and, on the melancholy occasion of the decease of Mrs. Thynne herself, she could not dispute the commands of the countess of Hertford, who earnestly desired her to reside some time with her at Marlborough, to soften, by her conversation and friendship, the severe affliction of the loss of so excellent a mother: and I think, once or twice, the power this last lady had over Mrs. ”

“ Amen!"—And when Thiennette perceived that it was the old mistress who had cooked and served up all this herself, she fell upon her neck, as if it had been not her husband's mother, but her own.
Emotion conquers the appetite. But Fixlein's stomach was as strong as his heart; and with him no species of movement could subdue the peristaltic. Drink is the friction-oil of the tongue, as eating is its drag. ”

“ Tynn chatted in his turn, never losing his respect of words and manner: a servant worth anything never does. Thus they progressed towards the village, utterly unconscious that a pair of eager eyes were following and an evil tongue was casting anathemas towards them.
The owner of the eyes and tongue was wanting to hold a few words of private colloquy with Tynn. Could Tynn have seen right round the corner of the pillar of the outer gate when he went out, he would have detected the man waiting there in ambush. It was Giles Roy. ”

“ Tyne is responsible for its cleanliness—or rather, that particular portion of Tyne which she bares above her elbows. Nobody ever saw such a pair of sledge-hammer arms as Tyne's on any girl outside of Holland. She is eighteen; short, square-built, solid as a Dutch cheese, fresh and rosy as an English milkmaid; moon-faced, mild-eyed as an Alderney heifer, and as strong as a three-year-old. Her back and sides are as straight as a plank; the front side is straight too. The main joint in her body is at the hips. ”

“ I hold this ground to be the strongest in the whole Petition. In the eyes of Herr von Aufhammer, Thiennette's genealogical tree was long since stubbed, disleaved, worm-eaten and full of millepedes: she was his Œconoma, his Castle-Stewardess and Legatess a Latere for his domestics; and with her pretensions for an alms-coffer, was threatening in the end to become a burden to him. His indignant wish that she had been provided for with Fixlein's legacy might now be fulfilled. In a word, if Fixlein become Parson, he will have the third ground to thank for it ”

“ Can there be aught finer than to look at these ash-buried, deep-sunk Herculanean ruins of childhood, now dug up and in the open air?
Thiennette sent twice to ask me whether he was come. He and she, precisely because they do not give their love the weakening expression of phrases, but the strengthening one of actions, have a boundless feeling of it towards one another. Some wedded pairs eat each other's lips and hearts and love away by kisses,—as in Rome, the statues of Christ (by Angelo) have lost their feet by the same process of kissing, and got leaden ones instead ”

“ Angela Thynne is leaning against the Chesterfield, and Lady Gastwyck is leaning against the Adams' fireplace. Lord Gumthorpe is a tall, gaunt man, slightly resembling the portrait of Philip IV. of Spain, by Velasquez. He turns towards Lady Gastwyck and waves his long arms with a gesture of indecision. He then turns back and looks out on to the lawn. Angela Thynne, is a large, ill-proportioned woman, with curiously limpid blue eyes, and a shrill hard voice like a fog-siren, that does not seem to belong to her personality. One is always haunted with the idea that she might be Scotch. ”

“ His friend Monmouth was the idol of the mob, the Duke of York had gone to Scotland to avoid the storm raised by the absurd popish plot, and by the murder of Sir Emondbury Godfrey; Shaftesbury had been released from the Tower, amidst acclamations and illuminations: party-spirit, in short, ran so high, and Thynne was so prominent a figure at the moment, that the crime to which he presently fell a victim has been thought by many to have been instigated by political enemies, at least as much as by a disappointed rival for the hand of the heiress of the Percys. ”

“ Thiennette, who of old had always trembled for his thirty-second year, had encountered this superstition with a nobler one: she had purposely stood farther back at the marriage-altar, and in the bridal-night fallen sooner asleep than he; thereby—as is the popular belief—so to order it that she might also die sooner. Nay, she has determined if he die, to lay with his corpse a piece of her apparel, that so she may descend the sooner to keep him company in his narrow house. Thou good, thou faithful wife, but thou unhappy one!—
CHAPTER LAST.
I have left Hukelum, and my gossip his bed ”

“ Thiennette's mirthfulness soon unfolded his crumpled soul into straight form, and into the proper tone. He delivered her a long neat Thanksgiving and Harvest sermon for the scaly cake; which appeared to her at once kind and tedious. Young women without the polish of high life reckon tedious pedantry, merely like snuffing, one of the necessary ingredients of a man: they reverence us infinitely ”

“ Once after midnight, the dying lady pointed with her finger to her own lips. Thiennette understood her not; but rose and bent over her face. The Enfeebled tried to lift her head, but could not,—and only rounded her lips. At last, a thought glanced through Thiennette, that the Departing, whose dead arms could now press no beloved heart to her own, wished that she herself should embrace her. O then, that instant, keen and tearful, she pressed her warm lips on the colder,—and she was silent like her that was to speak no more,—and she embraced alone and was not embraced. ”

“ On the 19th of the same month he wrote again to Burghley, stating that he was famished for want of sustenance and destitute of apparel and means of maintenance.
His countryman William Brooke, lord Cobham, went as ambassador to Flanders in February 1577-8. Thynne was then living with his cousin, Sir John Thynne [q. v.] , at Longleat, Wiltshire, and did not hear of the embassy until two days after Cobham's departure, so that he could not accompany him, as very many of his kindred and friends did. On Cobham's return he presented him with a discourse respecting ambassadors. ”

“ The Moon was gleaming from the evening dew, and the Pontac from their eyes, and the bean-stalks were casting a shorter grating of shadow.—The quicksilver-drops of stars were hanging more and more continuous in the sable of night.—The warm vapour of the wine set our two friends (like steam-engines) again in motion.
Nothing makes the heart fuller and bolder than walking to and fro in the night. Fixlein now led the Fräulein in his arm without scruple. By reason of her lancet-wound, Thiennette could only put her hand, in a clasping position, in his arm ”

“ But towards night his ideas again began rushing in a torch-dance, like fire-pillars round his soul: every artery became a burning-rod, and the heart drove flaming naphtha-brooks into the brain. All within his soul grew bloody: the blood of his drowned brother united itself with the blood which had once flowed from Thiennette's arm, into a bloody rain;—he still thought he was in the garden in the night of betrothment, he still kept calling for bandages to stanch blood, and was for hiding his head in the ball of the steeple. ”

“ When any great calamity falls suddenly upon us, or the dread of any great calamity, our first natural thought is, how it may be mitigated or averted. It was the thought that occurred to Tynn. The first shock over, digested, as may be said, Tynn began to deliberate whether he could do anything to help his master in the strait; and he went along, turning all sorts of suggestions over in his mind. Much as Sibylla was disliked by the old servants—and she had contrived to make herself very much disliked by them all—Tynn could not help feeling warmly the blow that was about to burst upon her head. ”