to  his  intunacy  with  a  man  whom  it  was  a  great  honour  to  a
youngster  then  to  know,  but  ^o  would  probably  be  scouted
even  from  a  London  club  in  the  present  day — the  Prince  of
Wales.  The  part  of  a  courtier  is  always  d^;rading  enough  to
play ;  but  to  be  courtier  to  a  prince  whose^favour  was  to  be
won  by  proficiency  in  vice,  and  audacity  in  follies,  tp  truckle  to
his  tastes,  to  win  his  smiles'  by  the  mvention  of  a  new  pleasure
and  his  approbation  by  the  plotting  of  a  new  villany,  what  an
office  for  the  author  of  ^  The  School  for  Scandal,'  and  the  orator
renowned  for  denouncing  the  wickednesses  of  Warren  Hastings !
What  a  life  for  the  young  poet  who  had  wooed  and  won  the
Maid  of  Bath — for  the  man  of  strong  domestic  affections,  who
wept  over  his  father's  sternness,  and  loved  his  son  only  too  well !
It  was  bad  enough  for  such  mere  worldlings  as  Captain  Hanger
or  Beau  Brummell,  but  for  a  man  of  higher  and  purer  feelings,
like  Sheridan,  who,  with  all  his  faults,  had  some  poetry  in  his
soul,  such  a  career  was  doubly  disgraceful

It  was  at  the  house  of  the  beautiful,  lively,  and  adventurous
Duchess  of  Devonshire,  the  partizan  of  Charles  James  Fox,
who  loved  him  or  his  cause — ^for  Fox  and  Liberalism  were  often
one  in  ladies'  eyes — so  well,  that  she  could  give  Steele,  the
butcher,  a  kiss  for  his  vote,  that  Sheridan  first  met  the  prince —
then  a  boy  in  years,  but  already  more  than  an  adult  in  vice.
