Her actions were even more infamous than her writings. One Mary Thompson had been kept by a person named Pheasant, and at his death, in 1705, she endeavoured to pass herself off for his wife, that she might have a right of dower out of his estate. According to Mr. Nichols, in a note to Steele's Letters, Mrs. Manley was bribed by the promise of 100l. a-year for life, to aid Mrs. Thompson in getting a forged entry of the marriage inserted in a register. The case was heard in Doctors' Commons, and Mrs. Manley's guilt was proved. But neither her profligacy nor her frauds could deprive her of the countenance of political partisans like Swift and Prior, or of good-natured men of pleasure like Steele.
[450] Ladies in those days sometimes received visits in their bed-chambers, when the bed was covered with a richer counterpane, and "graced" by a small pillow with a worked case and lace edging. Of the female fashions which Pope pleasantly assumes will be as lasting as the swimming of fishes or the flight of birds, the greater part have passed away.—Croker.
[451] Ogilby, Virg. Ecl. v.:
So long thy honoured name and praise shall last.
Dryden, Æn. i. 857:
Your honour, name, and praise shall never die!— Wakefield.
[452] So Juvenal exactly, x. 146:
Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris.—WAKEFIELD.
[453] Addison of Troy in his poem to the king:
And laid the labour of the gods in dust.—Wakefield.