Why, when mine are so plagued,
Yours from plague should be free
Much more I’ve to say, but respect bids be brief
And so I remain your undutiful Griff.”
And yet Lord Hervey considered himself a poet!
Of course the gentle insinuation intended in his lines was that the Prince hoped that the gout would fly to the Queen’s head or stomach and kill her.
Poor soul! she had a much more fatal malady, which she bore in secret, and which even Lord Hervey, her constant companion, knew nothing of.
It is said that the Queen was greatly entertained by these verses!
Lord Hervey and Pope the Poet were by no means good friends.
Pope very savagely attacked both his verses and his character. The former he refers to in speaking of a supposed charge of weakness against his own verses. He says: