praising man or woman in book or conversation.  Long supported by the private bounty of friends, he rather delighted to insult than flatter; he at length obtained competence from a public he esteemed not:  and died, refusing that assistance he considered as useless—­leaving no debts (but those of gratitude) undischarged; and expressing neither regret of the past, nor fear of the future, I believe.  Strong in his prejudices, haughty and independent in his spirit, cruel in his anger,—­even when unprovoked; vindictive to excess, if he through misconception supposed himself even slightly injured, pertinacious in his attacks, invincible in his aversions:  the description of Menelaus in ‘Homer’s Iliad,’ as rendered by Pope, exactly suits the character of Baretti: 

  “’So burns the vengeful Hornet, soul all o’er,
  Repuls’d in vain, and thirsty still for gore;
  Bold son of air and heat on angry wings,
  Untamed, untired, he turns, attacks, and stings.’”

In reference to this article, she remarks in “Thraliana”: 

“There seems to be a language now appropriated to the newspapers, and a very wretched and unmeaning language it is.  Yet a certain set of expressions are so necessary to please the diurnal readers, that when Johnson and I drew up an advertisement for charity once, I remember the people altered our expressions and substituted their own, with good effect too.  The other day I sent a Character of Baretti to ’The World,’ and read it two mornings after more altered than improved in my mind:  but no matter:  they will talk of wielding a language, and of barbarous infamy,—­sad stuff, to be sure, but such is the taste of the times.  They altered even my quotation from Pope; but that was too impudent.”

The comparison of Baretti to the hornet was truer than she anticipated:  animamque in vulnere ponit.  Internal evidence leads almost irresistibly to the conclusion that he was the author or prompter of “The Sentimental Mother:  a Comedy in Five Acts.  The Legacy of an Old Friend, and his ‘Last Moral Lesson’ to Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale, now Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi.  London:  Printed for James Ridgeway, York Street, St. James’s Square, 1789.  Price three shillings.”  The principal dramatis personae are Mr. Timothy Tunskull (Thrale), Lady Fantasma Tunskull, two Misses Tunskull, and Signor Squalici.

Lady Fantasma is vain, affected, silly, and amorous to excess.  Not satisfied with Squalici as her established gallant, she makes compromising advances to her daughter’s lover on his way to a tete-a-tete with the young lady, who takes her wonted place on his knee with his arm round her waist.  Squalici is also a domestic spy, and in league with the mother to cheat the daughters of their patrimony.  Mr. Tunskull is a respectable and complacent nonentity.