ould it answer to say how Perdita was
pursued, won, deserted, and by whom succeeded? What good in knowing that
he did actually marry Mrs. FitzHerbert according to the rites of the Roman
Catholic Church; that her marriage settlements have been seen in London;
that the names of the witnesses to her marriage are known. This sort of
vice that we are now come to presents no new or fleeting trait of manners.
Debauchees, dissolute, heartless, fickle, cowardly, have been ever since
the world began. This one had more temptations than most, and so much may
be said in extenuation for him.

It was an unlucky thing for this doomed one, and tending to lead him yet
farther on the road to the deuce, that, besides being lovely, so that
women were fascinated by him; and heir apparent, so that all the world
flattered him; he should have a beautiful voice, which led him directly in
the way of drink: and thus all the pleasant devils were coaxing on poor
Florizel; desire, and idleness, and vanity, and drunkenness, all clashing
their merry cymbals and bidding him come on.

We first hear of his warbling sentimental ditties under the walls of Kew
Palace by the moonlight banks of Thames, with Lord Viscount Leporello
keeping watch lest the music should be disturbed.

Singing after dinner and supper was the universal fashion of the day. You
may fancy all England sounding with choruses, some ribald, some harmless,
but all occasioning the consumption of a prodigious deal of fermented
liquor.

The jolly Muse her wings to try no frolic flights need take,
But round the bowl would dip and fly, like swallows round a lake,

sang Morris in one of his gallant Anacreontics, to which the prince many a
time joined in chorus, and of which the burden is,--

And that I think's a reason fair to drink and fill again.

This delightful boon companion of the prince's found "a reason fair" to
forgo filling and drinking, saw the error of his ways, gave up the bowl
and chorus, and died retired and religious. The prince's table no doubt
was a very tempting one. The wits came and did their utmost to amuse him.
It is wonderful how the spirits rise, the wit brightens, the wine has an
aroma, when a great man is at the head of the table. Scott, the loyal
cavalier, the king's true liegeman, the very best _raconteur_ of his time,
poured out with an endless generosity his store of old-world learning,
kindness, and humour. Grattan contributed to it his wo