[19] The Duchess of Giovine, though married to a Neapolitan nobleman, was a German by birth. In Goethe’s Italiänische Reise (June 2, 1787), there is an interesting record of an evening spent at Naples with her. He rates her quite as highly as she is rated in the text; and, remarkably enough, he too notes the evident desire which she showed ‘auf die Töchter der höehstens Standes zu wirken.’—Ed.
[20] Füger was born in 1751, and died at Vienna in 1818. German critics in art speak very highly of his genius, especially as manifested in the design and composition of his pictures. His illustrations of Klopstock’s Messiah, spoken of in the text, are always considered his greatest work.—Ed.
[21] I am entirely perplexed who this Vendean heroine is. I can find no mention of her in any histories of the time. Nor is this the only perplexity. Louis the Sixteenth was born in 1754. This lady of about forty could scarcely have claimed him for her father; not to say that the purity of his domestic life would of itself have condemned her boast. Perhaps we should read ‘Fifteenth’ for ‘Sixteenth;’ but even then I cannot explain the entire silence of history about her. She may possibly have been an impostress, trading on the royalist sympathies of Germany.—Ed.
[22] Graff, born in 1736, is said to have left behind him at his death, in 1813, more than eleven hundred portraits. His pictures are still held in high esteem, but more those of men than of women.—Ed.
[23] Dinarbas, a Continuation of Rasselas, 1790.—Ed.
[24] Marcus Flaminius; or, Life of the Romans, 1795.—Ed.
[25] See Miss Cornelia Knight’s Autobiography, vol. i. p. 152, where one of these songs, beginning,
‘Britannia’s leader gives the dread command,’
is given.—Ed.
[26] Miss Cornelia Knight (Autobiography, vol. i. p. 148) gives testimony here to the perfect accuracy with which these little details are set down. ‘Before landing at Leghorn the Queen presented Lord Nelson with a medallion, on one side of which was a fine miniature of the King, and on the other her own cipher, round which ran a wreath of laurel, and two anchors were represented supporting the crown of the Two Sicilies. This device was executed in large diamonds.’—Ed.