The Four Georges by William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)

By William Makepeace Thackeray

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Four Georges’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Thackeray includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Four Georges’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Thackeray’s works
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* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786564665

William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was a multitalented writer and illustrator born in British India. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where some of his earliest writings appeared in university periodicals. As a young adult he encountered various financial issues including the failure of two newspapers. It wasn’t until his marriage in 1836 that he found direction in both his life and career. Thackeray regularly contributed to Fraser's Magazine, where he debuted a serialized version of one of his most popular novels, The Luck of Barry Lyndon. He spent his decades-long career writing novels, satirical sketches and art criticism.

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The Complete Works of

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

VOLUME 58 OF 70

The Four Georges

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2013

Version 4

COPYRIGHT

‘The Four Georges’

William Makepeace Thackeray: Parts Edition (in 70 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 466 5

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

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William Makepeace Thackeray: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 58 of the Delphi Classics edition of William Makepeace Thackeray in 70 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Four Georges from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of William Makepeace Thackeray, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of William Makepeace Thackeray or the Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray in a single eBook.

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WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

IN 70 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Catherine

2, A Shabby Genteel Story

3, The Luck of Barry Lyndon

4, Vanity Fair

5, The History of Pendennis

6, Men’s Wives

7, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.

8, The Newcomes

9, The Virginians

10, Lovel the Widower

11, The Adventures of Philip

12, Denis Duval

The Shorter Fiction

13, Elizabeth Brownrigge

14, Sultan Stork

15, Little Spitz

16, The Professor

17, Miss Löwe

18, The Yellowplush Papers

19, The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan

20, The Fatal Boots

21, Cox’s Diary

22, The Bedford-Row Conspiracy

23, The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond

24, The Fitz-Boodle Papers

25, The Diary of C. Jeames de La Pluche, Esq. with His Letters

26, A Legend of the Rhine

27, A Little Dinner at Timmins’s

28, Rebecca and Rowena

29, Bluebeard’s Ghost

The Christmas Books

30, Mrs. Perkins’s Ball

31, Our Street

32, Doctor Birch and His Young Friends

33, The Kickleburys on the Rhine

34, The Rose and the Ring

The Sketches and Satires

35, Contributions to The Snob

36, Flore Et Zephyr

37, The Irish Sketch Book

38, The Book of Snobs

39, Roundabout Papers

40, Some Roundabout Papers

41, Dickens in France

42, Character Sketches

43, Sketches and Travels in London

44, Mr. Brown’s Letters

45, The Proser

46, Miscellanies

The Play

47, The Wolves and the Lamb

The Poetry

48, The Poetry of William Makepeace Thackeray

The Travel Writing

49, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo

50, The Paris Sketch Book

51, Little Travels and Roadside Sketches

The Non-Fiction

52, Novels by Eminent Hands

53, The History of the Next French Revolution

54, The Second Funeral of Napoleon

55, George Cruikshank

56, John Leech’s Pictures of Life and Character

57, The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century

58, The Four Georges

59, Critical Reviews

60, A Lecture on Charity and Humour

61, Various Essays, Letters, Sketches, Etc.

62, The History of Dionysius Diddler.

63, Contributions to Punch

64, Miss Tickletoby’s Lectures on English History

65, Papers by the Fat Contributor

66, Miscellaneous Contributions to Punch

67, Spec and Proser Papers

68, A Plan for a Prize Novel

The Letters

69, A Collection of Letters 1847-1855

The Biography

70, Thackeray by Anthony Trollope

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The Four Georges

CONTENTS

THE POEMS

SKETCHES OF MANNERS, MORALS, COURT AND TOWN LIFE

GEORGE THE FIRST

GEORGE THE SECOND

GEORGE THE THIRD

GEORGE THE FOURTH

THE POEMS

[Punch, October 11, 1845]

As the statues of these beloved Monarchs are to be put up in the Parliament palace — we have been favoured by a young lady (connected with the Court) with copies of the inscriptions which are to be engraven under the images of those Stars of Brunswick.

GEORGE I — STAR OF BRUNSWICK

He preferred Hanover to England,

He preferred two hideous Mistresses

To a beautiful and innocent Wife.

He hated Arts and despised Literature;

But He liked train-oil in his salads,

And gave an enlightened patronage to bad oysters.

And he had Walpole as a Minister:

Consistent in his Preference for every kind of Corruption.

GEORGE II

In most things I did as my father had done,

I was false to my wife and I hated my son:

My spending was small and my avarice much,

My kingdom was English, my heart was High Dutch:

At Dettingen fight I was known not to blench

I butchered the Scotch, and I bearded the French:

I neither had morals, nor manners, nor wit;

I wasn’t much missed when I died in a fit.

Here set up my statue, and make it complete — With

Pitt on his knees at my dirty old feet.

GEORGE III

Give me a royal niche — it is my due,

The virtuousest king the realm e’er knew.

I, through a decent reputable life,

Was constant to plain food and a plain wife.

Ireland I risked, and lost America;

But dined on legs of mutton every day.

My brain, perhaps, might be a feeble part;

But yet I think I had an English heart.

When all the kings were prostrate, I alone

Stood face to face against Napoleon;

Nor ever could the ruthless Frenchman forge

A fetter for Old England and Old George:

I let loose flaming Nelson on his fleets;

I met his troops with Wellesley’s bayonets.

Triumphant waved my flag on land and sea:

Where was the king in Europe like to me?

Monarchs exiled found shelter on my shores;

My bounty rescued kings and emperors.

But what boots victory by land or sea?

What boots that kings found refuge at my knee?

I was a conqueror, but yet not proud;

And careless, even though Napoleon bow’d.

The rescued kings came kiss my garments’ hem:

The rescued kings I never heeded them.

My guns roar’d triumph, but I never heard:

All England thrilled with joy, I never stirred.

What care had I of pomp, or fame, or power, —

A crazy old blind man in Windsor Tower?

GEORGIUS ULTIMUS

He left an example for age and for youth

To avoid.

He never acted well by Man or Woman,

And was as false to his Mistress as to his Wife.

He deserted his Friends and his Principles.

He was so ignorant that he could scarcely Spell;

But he had some Skill in Cutting out Coats,

And an undeniable Taste for Cookery.

He built the Palaces of Brighton and of Buckingham,

And for these Qualities and Proofs of Genius,

An admiring Aristocracy

Christened him the First Gentleman in Europe.

Friends, respect the King whose Statue is here,

And the generous Aristocracy who admired him.

SKETCHES OF MANNERS, MORALS, COURT AND TOWN LIFE

[Cornhill Magazine, 1860; first edition in book form, 1861]

GEORGE THE FIRST

A very few years since, I knew familiarly a lady, who had been asked in marriage by Horace Walpole, who had been patted on the head by George I. This lady had knocked at Johnson’s door; had been intimate with Fox, the beautiful Georgina of Devonshire, and that brilliant Whig society of the reign of George III; had known the Duchess of Queensberry, the patroness of Gay and Prior, the admired young beauty of the Court of Queen Anne. I often thought as I took my kind old friend’s hand, how with it I held on to the old society of wits and men of the world. I could travel back for sevenscore years of time — have glimpses of Brummell, Selwyn, Chesterfield and the men of pleasure; of Walpole and Conway; of Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith; of North, Chatham, Newcastle; of the fair maids of honour of George II’s Court; of the German retainers of George I’s; where Addison was secretary of state; where Dick Steele held a place; whither the great Marlborough came with his fiery spouse; when Pope, and Swift, and Bolingbroke yet lived and wrote. Of a society so vast, busy, brilliant, it is impossible in four brief chapters to give a complete notion;  but we may peep here and there into that bygone world of the Georges, see what they and their Courts were like; glance at the people round about them; look at past manners, fashions, pleasures, and contrast them with our own. I have to say thus much by way of preface, because the subject of these lectures has been misunderstood, and I have been taken to task for not having given grave historical treatises, which it never was my intention to attempt. Not about battles, about politics, about statesmen and measures of state, did I ever think to lecture you: but to sketch the manners and life of the old world; to amuse for a few hours with talk about the old society; and, with the result of many a day’s and night’s pleasant reading, to try and wile away a few winter evenings for my hearers.

Among the German princes who sat under Luther at Wittenberg, was Duke Ernest of Celle, whose younger son, William of Lüneburg, was the progenitor of the illustrious Hanoverian house at present reigning in Great Britain. Duke William held his Court at Celle, a little town of ten thousand people that lies on the railway line between Hamburg and Hanover, in the midst of great plains of sand, upon the river Aller. When Duke William had it, it was a very humble wood-built place, with a great brick church, which he sedulously frequented, and in which he and others of his house lie buried. He was a very religious lord, and called William the Pious by his small circle of subjects, over whom he ruled till fate deprived him both of sight and reason. Sometimes, in his latter days, the good duke had glimpses of mental light, when he would bid his musicians play the psalm-tunes which he loved. One thinks of a descendant of his, two hundred years afterwards, blind, old, and lost of wits, singing Handel in Windsor Tower.

William the Pious had fifteen children, eight daughters and seven sons, who, as the property left among them was small, drew lots to determine which one of them should marry, and continue the stout race of the Guelphs. The lot fell on Duke George, the sixth brother. The others remained single, or contracted left-handed marriages after the princely fashion of those days. It is a queer picture — that of the old prince dying in his little wood-built capital,  and his seven sons tossing up which should inherit and transmit the crown of Brentford. Duke George, the lucky prizeman, made the tour of Europe, during which he visited the Court of Queen Elizabeth; and in the year 1617, came back and settled at Zell, with a wife out of Darmstadt. His remaining brothers all kept their house at Zell, for economy’s sake. And presently, in due course, they all died — all the honest dukes; Ernest, and Christian, and Augustus, and Magnus, and George, and John — and they are buried in the brick church of Brentford yonder, by the sandy banks of the Aller.

Dr. Vehse gives a pleasant glimpse of the way of life of our dukes in Zell. When the trumpeter on the tower has blown, Duke Christian orders — viz. at nine o’clock in the morning, and four in the evening, every one must be present at meals, and those who are not must go without. None of the servants, unless it be a knave who has been ordered to ride out, shall eat or drink in the kitchen or cellar; or, without special leave, fodder his horses at the prince’s cost. When the meal is served in the Court-room, a page shall go round and bid every one be quiet and orderly, forbidding all cursing, swearing, and rudeness; all throwing about of bread, bones, or roast, or pocketing of the same. Every morning, at seven, the squires shall have their morning soup, along with which, and dinner, they shall be served with their under-drink — every morning, except Friday morning, when there was sermon, and no drink. Every evening they shall have their beer, and at night their sleep-drink. The butler is especially warned not to allow noble or simple to go into the cellar: wine shall only be served at the prince’s or councillor’s table; and every Monday, the honest old Duke Christian ordains the accounts shall be ready, and the expenses in