The Doctor’s doggrel register of 1778, has these two couplets upon Pacchierotti.
“1778.
“This year Pacchierotti was order’d by Fate
Every vocal expression to teach us to hate,
Save his exquisite tones; which delight and surprise,
And lift us at once from the earth to the skies.”
LADY MARY DUNCAN.
Lady Mary Duncan, the great patroness of Pacchierotti, was one of the most singular females of her day, for parts utterly uncultivated, and mother-wit completely untrammelled by the etiquettes of custom. She singled out Dr. Burney from her passion for his art; and attached herself to his friendship from her esteem for his character; joined to their entire sympathy in taste, feeling, and judgment, upon the merits of Pacchierotti.
This lady displayed in conversation a fund of humour, comic and fantastic in the extreme, and more than bordering upon the burlesque, through the extraordinary grimaces with which she enforced her meaning; and the risible abruptness of a quick transition from the sternest authority to the most facetious good fellowship, with which she frequently altered the expression of her countenance while in debate.