It is stated by Lord Hailes that Lord Hervey having suffered some attacks of epilepsy dieted himself—or rather starved himself—after in the following extraordinary manner; his daily food consisted of a small quantity of asses’ milk and a flour biscuit. This stayed the progress of the terrible disease, but it gave him a very ghastly complexion. He is also stated to have used emetics daily, which, under the circumstances, appeared hardly necessary. Once a week he took the indulgence of an apple.
To hide his cadaverous appearance, he painted his face as it has been already stated.
None of these weaknesses seem to have been overlooked by Pope in his reply to Hervey whom he satirized as “Sporus”:
“Let Sporus tremble! what! that thing of silk!
Sporus that mere white curd of asses’ milk!
Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel?
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel
Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings
This painted child of dirt that stinks and stings
Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys