William Kent

“ Both Walpole and Mason speak of William Kent, the architect and landscape painter, as influential in introducing a purer taste in the gardener's art. Kent was a friend of Pope and a protégé of Lord Burlington to whom Pope inscribed his "Epistle on the Use of Riches," already quoted (see ante p. 121) , and who gave Kent a home at his country house. Kent is said to have acknowledged that he caught his taste in gardening from the descriptive passages in Spenser, whose poems he illustrated. ”

“ Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not; his wits are gone. Glou. Good friend, I prithee take him in thy arms. I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him. There is a litter ready; lay him in't And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master. If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, With thine, and all that offer to defend him, Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up! And follow me, that will to some provision Give thee quick conduct. Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps. ”

“ Almost the first burst of that noble tide of passion, which runs through the play, is in the remonstrance of Kent to his royal master on the injustice of his sentence against his youngest daughter—‘Be Kent unmannerly, when Lear is mad!’ This manly plainness, which draws down on him the displeasure of the unadvised king, is worthy of the fidelity with which he adheres to his fallen fortunes. ”

“ William Mason, in the ‘English Garden,’ praises Kent's landscape gardening at the expense of his painting; and even Horace Walpole, who regarded him as a genius in other branches of art, tells us that Kent's portraits ‘bore little resemblance to the persons who sat for them, and the colouring was worse,’ and that ‘in his ceilings Kent's drawing was as defective as the colouring of his portraits, and as void of every merit.’ He adds that Sir Robert Walpole would not permit him to work in colours at Houghton, but restrained him to chiaroscuro. ”

“ Kent. But who is with him? Gent. None but the fool, who labours to outjest His heart-struck injuries. Kent. Sir, I do know you, And dare upon the warrant of my note Commend a dear thing to you. There is division (Although as yet the face of it be cover'd With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; Who have (as who have not, that their great stars Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no less, Which are to France the spies and speculations Intelligent of our state. ”

“ Kent. Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege. Corn. Why art thou angry? Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword, Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion That in the natures of their lords rebel, Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods; Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks With every gale and vary of their masters, Knowing naught (like dogs) but following. A plague upon your epileptic visage! Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool? ”

“ Kent. Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' th' town; Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers What we are come about, and by no means Will yield to see his daughter. Gent. Why, good sir? Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him; his own unkindness, That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights To his dog-hearted daughters- these things sting His mind so venomously that burning shame Detains him from Cordelia. Gent. Alack, poor gentleman! Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not? Gent. 'Tis so; they are afoot. Kent. ”

“ Nevertheless Kent easily made his way in high society by his winning manners and the authority with which he spoke on questions of art, and he soon became the fashionable oracle in all matters of taste. His skill in design was so prized that, according to Horace Walpole, ‘he was not only consulted for furniture, as frames of pictures, glasses, tables, chairs, &c., but for plate, for a barge, for a cradle. ”

“ Kent. No, my lord.
Fool. Ha, ha! look! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by
the
head, dogs and bears by th' neck, monkeys by th' loins, and
men
by th' legs. When a man's over-lusty at legs, then he wears
wooden nether-stocks.
Lear. What's he that hath so much thy place mistook
To set thee here?
Kent. It is both he and she-
Your son and daughter. ”

“ In our tramp the question of "Kentish man," or "man of Kent," often cropped up, and we had an opportunity [403] of having the difference explained to us. A "Kentish man" is one born on the east side of the river Medway, and a "man of Kent" is one born on the west side.
The position of the residence "Overblow" is delightful. It stands on a little hill, the front having a fine view of the Thames valley and the marshes, the side looking on to the pretty hollow, in the centre of which stands Shorne Church, and the back being flanked in the distance by the beautiful Cobham Woods. ”

“ Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool.
Kent. Here is the place, my lord. Good my lord, enter. The tyranny of the open night 's too rough For nature to endure. Lear. Let me alone. Kent. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Wilt break my heart? Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin. So 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear; But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea, Thou'dst meet the bear i' th' mouth. When the mind's free, The body's delicate. ”

“ KENT.
Good my liege,—
LEAR.
Peace, Kent!
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I lov’d her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery. [To Cordelia.] Hence and avoid my sight!
So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father’s heart from her! Call France. Who stirs?
Call Burgundy! Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. ”

“ In 1853 he sold the mill to B. H. Campbell, of Galena. Mr. Kent engaged in steamboating for many years and was a popular commander. He built the Nellie Kent, the Helen Mar and Maggie Reany. Of late years he has been engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was married to Nellie Kidder in 1855. They have no children. Mr. Kent is an influential member of the masonic order, and has filled many positions of public trust.
James Kent was born in Frederickton, New Brunswick, in 1826; came to Wisconsin in 1850; and was married to Mary Jane Wilson at Osceola in 1858. ”

“ KENNETT, BASIL (1674–1715) , miscellaneous writer, born at Postling, Kent, on 21 Oct. 1674, was younger brother of White Kennett [q. v.] , bishop of Peterborough, He was educated under the care of his brother at Bicester grammar school and in the family of Sir William Glynne at Ambrosden, Oxfordshire. In 1689 he entered St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, under the tuition of his brother, who was then vice-principal. In 1690 he was elected scholar of Corpus Christi College as a native of Kent, and graduated B.A. in 1693, M.A. in 1696. ”

“ And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.
Do you see this? Look on her! look! her lips!
Look there, look there! He dies.
Edg. He faints! My lord, my lord!
Kent. Break, heart; I prithee break!
Edg. Look up, my lord.
Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
Edg. He is gone indeed.
Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long. ”

“ When the old king was dying, he could not be made to understand how Caius and Kent could be the same person.—Shakespeare, King Lear (1605) .
Kent (The Fair Maid of) , Joan, only daughter of Edmund Plantaganet, earl of Kent. She married thrice: (1) William de Montacute, earl of Salisbury, from whom she was divorced; (2) Sir Thomas Holland; and (3) her second cousin, Edward, the Black Prince, by whom she became the mother of Richard II.
Kent (Margaret) , a handsome, proud woman, whose husband deserts her and lives in South America with a mistress, leaving her to support herself and child. ”

“ The said Lieutenant Kent, on the several occasions mentioned in this and the preceding article, acting not only without the order of the said William Bligh, but in concert with, and under the order of, the persons who had with the knowledge of the said Lieutenant Kent, illegally and by force dispossessed the said William Bligh of the government of New South Wales, whereto he had been appointed by His Majesty, and usurped the government of the colony, and who then kept the person of the said William Bligh in a state of illegal confinement at Port Jackson. ”

“ Scene VI. A farmhouse near Gloucester's Castle. Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar.
Glou. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I
will
piece out the comfort with what addition I can. I will not
be
long from you.
Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his
impatience.
The gods reward your kindness! ”

“ Kent. With the Earl, sir, here within. Lear. Follow me not; Stay here. Exit. Gent. Made you no more offence but what you speak of? Kent. None. How chance the King comes with so small a number? Fool. An thou hadst been set i' th' stocks for that question, thou'dst well deserv'd it. Kent. Why, fool? Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' th' winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking. ”

“ It is only as an architect that Kent's artistic reputation now survives. If, as has been asserted, he had any hand in designing the beautiful colonnade of Burlington House (now lying neglected on the embankment at Battersea) , this reputation might stand higher, but there appears to be no sufficient reason for depriving the Earl of Burlington of the full merit of this work. ”

“ He returns with his train from hunting, and his usual impatience breaks out in his first words, 'Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go, get it ready.' He then encounters the faithful Kent in disguise, and retains him in his service; and the first trial of his honest duty is to trip up the heels of the officious Steward who makes so prominent and despicable a figure through the piece. ”

“ The messengers from our sister and the King Corn. What is your difference? Speak. Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord. Kent. No marvel, you have so bestirr'd your valour. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee. Corn. Thou art a strange fellow. A tailor make a man? Kent. Ay, a tailor, sir. A stonecutter or a painter could not have made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade. Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? Osw. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spar'd At suit of his grey beard- Kent. ”

“ He'le strike and quickly too, he's dead and rotten.
Kent.
No my good Lord, I am the very man.
Lear.
Ile see that straight.
Kent.
That from your first of difference and decay,
Haue follow'd your sad steps.
Lear.
You are welcome hither.
Kent.
Nor no man else:
All's cheerlesse, darke, and deadly,
Your eldest Daughters haue fore‐done themselues,
And desperately are dead
Lear. ”

“ Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault vndone, the issue of it, being so proper
Glou. But I haue a Sonne, Sir, by order of Law, some yeere elder then this; who, yet is no deerer in my account, though this Knaue came somthing sawcily to the world before he was sent for: yet was his Mother fayre, there was good sport at his making, and the horson must be acknowledged. Doe you know this Noble Gentleman, Edmond? Edm. No, my Lord
Glou. My Lord of Kent:
Remember him heereafter, as my Honourable Friend
Edm. ”

“ His surviving brothers, William George Carlile and Henry, are commanders in the royal navy [1] ; another, John, late first lieutenant of the Thais frigate, died at Stonehouse, after a lingering illness of fourteen months, occasioned by over-exertion in his professional duties, Jan. 27th, 1816 [2] . One of his cousins, Bartholomew Kent, first lieutenant of the Goliath 74, Captain (afterwards Sir Charles) Brisbane, was killed in a boat affair, under the batteries of Sable d’Ollone, in 1803; and another, Lieutenant Mark Kent, R.N., died at sea in 1828. ”

“ Kent. Authority
Lear. What seruices canst thou do? Kent. I can keepe honest counsaile, ride, run, marre a curious tale in telling it, and deliuer a plaine message bluntly: that which ordinary men are fit for, I am quallified in, and the best of me, is Dilligence
Lear. How old art thou?
Kent. Not so young Sir to loue a woman for singing,
nor so old to dote on her for any thing. I haue yeares on
my backe forty eight
Lear. ”

“ Some hisses were heard from the populace at the time her Majesty was ascending the steps at the Mansion House. When the cortége drove off after the visit to the Lord Mayor, it was done with so much rapidity as to be soon out of sight, and almost elude the observation of the populace."
There was also considerable friction, in the royal (p. 155) circle itself. The King did not like the Duchess of Kent, and did not scruple to show his dislike openly in somewhat petty ways. ”