“Harley Street, 14th January, 1782.—­The first seduction comes from Pepys.  I had a letter to-day desiring me to dine in Wimpole Street, to meet Mrs. Montagu and a whole army of blues, to whom I trust my refusal will afford very pretty speculation ... and they may settle my character and future conduct at their leisure.  Pepys is a worthless fellow at last; he and his brother run about the town, spying and enquiring what Mrs. Thrale is to do this winter, what friends she is to see, what men are in her confidence, how soon she will be married, &c.; the brother Dr.—­the Medico, as we call him—­lays wagers about me, I find; God forgive me, but they’ll make me hate them both, and they are no better than two fools for their pains, for I was willing to have taken them to my heart.”

“They say Pacchierotti, the famous soprano singer, is ill, and they say Lady Mary Duncan, his frightful old protectress, has made him so by her caresses denaturees.  A little envy of the new woman, Allegrante, has probably not much mended his health, for Pacchierotti, dear creature, is envious enough.  I was, however, turning over Horace yesterday, to look for the expression tenui fronte[1], in vindication of my assertion to Johnson that low foreheads were classical, when the 8th Ode of the First Book of Horace struck me so, I could not help imitating it while the scandal was warm in my mind: 

1.

  “’He’s sick indeed! and very sick,
  For if it is not all a trick
      You’d better look about ye. 
  Dear Lady Mary, prythee tell
  Why thus by loving him too well
      You kill your Pacchierotti?

2.

  Nor sun nor dust can he abide,
  Nor careless in a snaffle ride,
      The steed we saw him mount ill.
  You stript him of his manly force,
  When tumbling headlong from his horse
      He pressed the plains of Fonthill.[2]

3.

  Why the full opera should he shun? 
  Where crowds of critics smiling run,
      To applaud their Allegrante. 
  Why is it worse than viper’s sting,
  To see them clap, or hear her sing? 
      Surely he’s envious, ain’t he?

4.

  Forbear his house, nor haunt his bed
  With that strange wig and fearful head,
      Then, though he now so ill is,
  We o’er his voice again may doze,
  When, cover’d warm with women’s clothes,
      He acts a young Achilles.’”

[Footnote 1:  Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida Cyri torret amor—­

But tenuis is small or narrow rather than low.  One of Fielding’s beauties, Sophia Western, has a low forehead:  another, Fanny, a high one.]

[Footnote 2:  Note by Mrs. T.: “Fonthill, the seat of young Beckford.  They set him o’ horseback, and he tumbled off.”]

“1st February, 1782.—­Here is Mr. Johnson ill, very ill indeed, and—­I do not see what ails him; ’tis repelled gout, I fear, fallen on the lungs and breath of course.  What shall we do for him?  If I lose him, I am more than undone; friend, father, guardian, confident!—­God give me health and patience.  What shall I do?”