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Lady Margaret Cavendish Holles Harley & her father Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford by Zinke 1727, at about age 12, from the Harley Gallery here
A Letter to Lady Margaret Cavendish Holles-Harley, when a Child~ by Matthew Prior
MY noble, lovely, little Peggy,Let this my First Epistle beg ye,
At dawn of morn, and close of even,
To lift your heart and hands to Heaven.
In double duty say your prayer:
Our Father first, then Notre Pere.
And, dearest child, along the day,
In every thing you do and say,
Obey and please my lord and lady,
So God shall love and angels aid ye.
If to these precepts you attend,
No second letter need I send,
And so I rest your constant friend.
Today it must be a hospital suite-a rap song- a movie role-a runway -a magazine cover.
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I bet college was quite a bit less in 1727; not sure about the dowry. Have a great Sunday. Mary
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely beautiful and memorable. I began this Sunday morning (it's snowy and icy here for the first time this year) on a lower note than this, reading an encomium from one relentless internet self-promoter to another, extolling self-promotion as the obvious highest value. It was kind of fascinating, but also very depressing. Therefore, reading and seeing this is restorative and I'll be sharing it with Jane and Caroline later. Jane's still doing fine, but when I see her friends' values reflected in their Facebook postings, it's just awful. I expect that by the time they get to college, they'll be able to major in Facebook. Curtis
ReplyDeleteNo second letter need I send... oh, what they can get away with!!!
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