and blockheads for his penmen, whom he pays in ready guineas
very liberally." One would have thought that beasts and blockheads
could hardly prove very formidable enemies to Swift and Bolingbroke and
Pulteney.

[Sidenote: 1730--Lord Hervey]

One of the incidents in the controversy carried on by the Ministerial
penmen and the _Craftsman_ was a duel between Pulteney and Lord Hervey.
Pulteney and his friends were apparently under the impression that they
had a right to a monopoly of personal abuse, and they resented any
effusion of the kind from the other side as a breach of their
privilege. Hervey had written a tract called "Sedition and Defamation
displayed, in a Letter to the Author of the _Craftsman_;" and this led
to a new outburst of passion on both sides. Pulteney stigmatized
Hervey, on account of his effeminate appearance, as a thing that was
half man, half woman, and a duel took place in which Hervey was
wounded. Hervey was a remarkable man. His physical frame was as
feeble as that of Voltaire. He suffered from epilepsy and a variety of
other ailments. He had to live mainly on a dietary of ass's milk. His
face was so meagre and so pallid, or rather livid, that he used to
paint and make up like an actress or a fine lady. Pope, who might have
been considerate to the weak of frame, was merciless in his ridicule of
Hervey. He ridiculed him as Sporus, who could neither feel satire nor
sense, and as Lord Fanny. Yet Hervey could appreciate satire and
sense; could write satire and sense. He was a man of very rare
capacity. He had already distinguished himself as a debater in the
House of Commons, and was afterwards to distinguish himself as a {307}
debater in the House of Lords. He wrote pretty verses and clever
pamphlets, and he has left to the world a collection of "Memoirs of the
Reign of George the Second," which will always be read for its
vivacity, its pungency, its bitterness, and its keen, penetrating
good-sense. Hervey succeeded in obtaining the hand of one of the most
beautiful women of the day, the charming Mary Lepell, whose name has
been celebrated in more than one poetical panegyric by Pope, and he
captivated the heart of one of the royal princesses. The historical
reader must strike a sort of balance for himself in getting at an
estimate of Hervey's character. No man has been more bitterly
denounced by his enemies or more warmly praised by his friends.
Affectation, insincerity, prodigalit