And her applause to me is more than fame;
And still with truth accords her taste refined.
At lucre or renown let others aim,
I only wish to please the gentle mind
Whom Nature’s charms inspire and love of human kind.
The sweetness of this languidly conventional note must have been somewhat spoiled for Mrs. Montagu by the fact that the lines were written before Beattie knew her, and were, if we may trust the poet’s biographer, originally intended for another.[378] But there can be no doubt of Beattie’s gratitude. He honoured his patroness by naming a son Montagu, and continued to visit her in London or in Sandelford and to submit his works to her for her approval,[379] that form of flattery which she coveted most of all. They honoured each other for many years with a reasonable regularity of correspondence which, however, does more credit to their earnestness than to their wit.
The relations of Beattie and Mrs. Montagu continued serene throughout their lives. Each was grateful to the other and never failed to make a public display of that gratitude. Mrs. Montagu bestowed her favours without offence, and Beattie received them without any pretence of hesitation. Each was happier for having known the other. And if the relation of author and patron must needs exist, theirs is a specimen of what the relation may be at its best.
The relations of Robert Potter, the translator of Æschylus, with Mrs. Montagu are of the same general nature as those of Beattie. It was with trembling gratitude that he accepted and incredible flattery that he repaid the favours which the lady bestowed upon him. Her attention had, it would appear, been caught by the publication of the Greek tragedian in English,—the publication of translations being always a welcome event for bluestockings—and she at once suggested to the translator the propriety of adding explanatory notes. He adopted the suggestion, and, when publishing his Notes in the following year (1778), improved the opportunity to dedicate not only these but the original volume to his new-found patron. In a prefatory letter to her he outdid Beattie in the use of superlatives. The notes are written, he proclaims, only because Mrs. Montagu has asked for them, and with him a hint from that lady is a command; though he is incapable of understanding why so accomplished a person should ask for notes, since she needs them ‘as little as any person alive.’ The approbation of Mrs. Montagu, he concludes, is ‘the highest honour any writer can receive.’
Loyalty was one of Mrs. Montagu’s qualities. None of her protégés ever had occasion to complain that she lost interest or declined support. Her career as a patron of the arts is sullied by no quarrels; she was the subject of no anonymous libels from the offended recipients of her charity. She continued her favours to Potter, urging him to proceed with his translation of Euripides,[380] and appearing prominently among the subscribers to that volume. She received him at her assemblies, and, according to a somewhat doubtful anecdote, presented him to Dr. Johnson.[381] Johnson, who considered Potter’s work ‘verbiage’ (doubtless because it was in blank verse), snubbed the scholar and mumbled to the bluestocking, ‘Well, well!’ and ‘Well, Madam, and what then?’