Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

“Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Exhibition at The Graves Art Gallery Sheffield, 10 March until 3 June 2007.”

“Lord Byron, in response to Lady Mary Montague's line 'And we meet, with champagne and a chicken at last' (from "The Lover: A Ballad"), reported in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of his Life, ed. Thomas Moore (Paris: A. and W. Gaglinani, 1830), p. 391”

“What say you to such a supper with such a woman? ... Is not her 'champagne and chicken' worth a forest or two? Is it not poetry?”

“Civility costs nothing and buys everything.”

“Though I never get possession,  ’Tis a pleasure to adore;Hope, the wretch’s only blessing,  May, in time, procure me more.{{pb}}Constant courtship may obtain her,  Where both wealth and merit fail;And the lucky minute gain her—  Fate and fancy must prevail.{{pb}}At Diana’s shrine, aloud,  By the bow and by the quiver,Thrice she bowed, and thrice she vowed,  Once to love—and that forever.”

“Cease, fond shepherd! Cease desiring  What you never must enjoy;She derides your vain aspiring,  She, to all your sex is coy.{{pb}}Cunning Damon once pursued her,  Yet she never would incline;Strephon too, as vainly wooed her,  Though his flocks are more than thine.{{pb}}At Diana’s shrine, aloud,  By the zone around her waist,Thrice she bowed, and thrice she vowed,  Like the Goddess, to be chaste.”

“Thou silver deity of secret night,  Direct my footsteps through the woodland shade;Thou conscious witness of unknown delight,  The Lover’s guardian, and the Muse’s aid!{{pb}}By thy pale beams I solitary rove,  To thee my tender grief confide;Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove,  My friend, my goddess, and my guide.{{pb}}E’en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height,  The charms of young Endymion drew;Veil’d with the mantle of concealing night;  With all thy greatness and thy coldness too.”

“Good madam, when ladies are willing,  A man must needs look like a fool;For me I would not give a shilling  For one who would love out of rule.{{pb}}You should leave us to guess by your blushing,  And not speak the matter so plain;’Tis our’s to write and be pushing,  ’Tis yours to affect disdain.{{pb}}That you’re in a terrible taking,  By all these sweet oglings I see,But the fruit that can fall without shaking,  Indeed is too mellow for me.”