HISTORIC BACHELORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16591, 14 January 1916, Page 6

HISTORIC BACHELORS

ARTISTS, POETS, AND STATESMEN, j t It is a moot question whether marriage 1 helps to make or mar a man's career; but, 1 be that as it may, the fact remains that < many men who have writ their names j large on the scroll of the world's history have been bachelors. For one reason or ] another, whether from choice or' force of circumstances, they have never married. What their reasons have been is not , always possible to say. Marriage is such : an intimately personal step that the motive for marrying or not marrying ' varies the individual. In most cases > wo can only glean some idea of the reasons of tome celebrated bachelors for remaining single by diligent perusal of such sentimental passages in their lives as have been made public. For the most part, as we shall see when we come to read about famous bachelors, their celibacy can only be accounted for by the fact that they have been completely absorbed in their life-work. — Absorption in Life-work. — Michael Angelo, when asked why he never married, is said to have replied: " I have espoused my art, and it occasions me sufficient domestic cares, for my works shall be my children." Though there was reason to believe that a certain lady was quite willing to marry Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter would not marry for fear he might be withdrawn from his art. Angelica Kauffman and he used to paint one another's portraits, and this was, of course, made an excuse by society for coupling their names together. Sir Joshua's name was also mentioned in connection with that o.' Fanny Burney. In more recent times the late Lord Leighton, who was also a confirmed bachelor, told the Princess of Wales, who was inspecting the artist's pictures with the Prince, that he had never married because he could not find sufficient leisure to devote to a wife. The classic example of the result of this absorption in other affairs is the story told of Sir Isaac Newton's absent-minded-ness, which was probably due to his being lost in contemplation of abstruse problems. Once upon a time the propound er of the theory of gravity went a-wooing. He lighted his pipe and began to smoke. After a«while he absently attempted to use his sweetheart's finger as a pipestopper. The young lady not unnaturally resented this, and their courtship came to an abrupt termination. The reason Pitt used- to give for remaining single was that he was married to his country, but his critics retorted that his country had made a bad match. It was alleged that he did not care for women, but, according to -Lady Hester Stanhope, this was not the case, for, said she: " Mrs B s, of Devonshire, when she was Miss W , was so pretty that Mr Pitt drank out of her shoe. Nobody understood shape and beauty and dress better than he did." But this trait or faculty of being absorbed in their life-work to the exclusion of almost everything else is not confined to any one age or to any single type of man. Men of action as well as artists and dreamers, soldiers as well as scientists, have found their professional pursuits so absorbing as to leave little time or incl : - nation for dalliance or the pleasures and anxieties of married life. The outstanding figure of this type to-dav is, of coarse, Lord Kitchener. — The Poets. Several of our most famous poets have remained unmarried, but most of them have had one or more love affairs. Pope fell in love with a Miss Withenbtrrgh, and, despite his physical deformities, she returned his affection. Her guardian strongly disapproved of the attachment, and sent her away to the Continent.. The poor girl took her enforced separation so much to heart that she killed herself Pope's well-known friendship for Martha Blount began early , in life. He remained fond of her until his death, despite the fact that she heartlessly neglected him at the last. When she was sent for to see him on his deathbed, she said to the messenger: "What! Is he not dead yet?" -Nevertheless the poet left heT nearly all his property. Pope was also in love at once time •with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, but her satirical references to his personal defects tamed hia love to something like hatred. Cowper loved his first cousin, Theodora Cowper, and she loved him, but her father forbade the marriage on account of the ' relationship. It was said that it was this ' disappointment which first deranged the ■ poet's mind. His cousin's affection re- ■ mained constant, and she cherished with j tender care all the love-poems he -wrote . her under the name of Delia. 1 The house of the poet Cowper has been • called " a perfect seraglio of famous i women." Mrs Unwin, the " Mary" of 3 his poems, devoted her life to waiting on " this man, with his dark moods and fitful temper. Subsequently Lady Austin took 3 her place. She was brilliant and fascij nating, but latterly Cowper found her tiresome. The poet, with his muslin ! nightcap, was in his later years hardly a i romantic i figure; bnt he had the faculty 3 of flittering women, and possibly his very . weakness enlisted the sympathies of his " numerous female friends. Goldsmith's love affairs were, too, a 3 little eccentric. On one occasion he "was with difficulty dissuaded from marrying a 3 sempstress whom he wished to oblige, j The " Jessamy Bride" (Miss Mary Hor- ] neck) was the friend, but not thesweett heart, of the author of "The Vicar of i Wakefield." i When Keats was " schoolboy he thought > a pretty woman was something like a } p-oddess, and far above any mere man. 3 With increasing age and wisdom he found ' reason to modify his ideas, and shunned ' female society until he met Miss Fanny D Brawne. He grew completely fascinated 3 with that young lady, and they became t engaged. He was not, however, a happy i lover. He fretted if her manner was not always the same, and tortured himself i with doubts and fancies. When, owing 5 to his failing health, it was decided that 3 he should winter abroad, the very 3 thought of leaving her was, he said, " bes yond everything, horrible." And when 1 he became worse, and knew that death ? was fast approaching', he wrote: "I can--1 not bear to die and leave her. Oh, God! r •God! God! Everything that I have in s my trunks that reminds me- of her goes f through me like a spear." But alas for 3 the poet's ideals! Miss Brawne was evi--3 dently not worthy of his love, for 10 1 years afterwards she wrote to a friend: } The kindest act would be to let him j rest for ever in the obscurity to which a circumstances have condemned him." i —Bachelor Constancy.— ' By way of contrast, the touching lovoj story of Washington Irving stands out as s a splendid example of constancy. Matilda . Hoffman, the' beautiful girl to whom he t was engaged, died of consumption in her e seventeenth year. "I was by her when s she died," he said, " and was the last •: she ever looked upon." He took her d Bible and Prayer Book away with him, . sleeping with them under his pillow, and " taking them with him in all his travels, t He remained single and true to her 0 memory. Not until 30 years after her e death did anyone venture to speak of her - to him. He was visiting her father, and - one of her nieces brought out a piece of r embroidery. "Washington," said Mr Hoffman, "this 1 was some of Matilda's work." _ ■ ' g The effect was electrical. Irving had t been talking quite gaily, but became quite silent, and sc.on afterwards left the house, s It was Matilda he had in his mind when - he wrote in " Bracebridge Hall": "I - have loved as I never again shall love in ■ the world—l have been loved as I never again shall be loved." In a notebook he ? wrote: "She died in the beauty of her . youth, and in my memory she will ever " be young and beautiful." i — The Cynics.— 8 Compare with this the selfish fickleness j of that prince of snobs, Beau Brummell, who broke off the engagement that seems 3 to have been his most serious love affair. - When asked the reason, " What could I do, my dear fellow," he replied, "but cut the connection? I discovered that Lady Mary actually ate cabbage!" s Buckle, the author of the " History cf Civilisation," himself missed the civilising influence of matrimony. " I expect so much in .my wife," he used to say, "that I cannot look for money." At the same j time his ideas about education and domestic matters were on such a scale that

he considered he would not be justified in marrying on less than £3000 a year No doubt such ideas were responsible for the fact that Buckle never married. Theodore* Hook, the noted wit, was a man about town, and although he never married, considered that he knew enough of women and marriage to wax cym.'.al about both. It was when a friend advised him "to settle and take a wife" that he retorted in his dry, sarcastic manner, "With all my heart; and, pray, whose wife would you advise me to take?" It is told of Hume, the historian, that he once proposed to a lady who refused him. Some time afterwards her friendscontrived to convey to Hume the intelligence that she had changed her mind. "So have I," replied David laconically; "so have I." And he lived and died in single blessedness. — Safety in Numbers.— Horace Walpole never married, but he was always fond of female society, and the most faithful friends and correspondents of his later years were ladies. He was ;on friendly terms with the Countess of Ossory from his early gambling days, when she was known as the " Duchess of Grafton and Loo." To her, and Mary and Agnes Berry, he gossiped on paper for many years, on politics and literature and scandal. Some people said that his affection for the Misses Berry was some thing more than platonic; but in his friendships with women he found, if he did not seek, safety in numbers. As for the Berrys, he was proud of his " partiality for them; it was as much with both as with either." Evidently if the tender passion moved him at all, the calm interest of the dilettante restrained the ardour of the lover. Bachelors of the type of Horace Wal pole are not unknown even to-day. Possibly among the famous men of our time the parallel is closest between Walpole and Mr Balfour. How close the resem blance may be is best known to the eclectic circles of the statesman's personal friends. In his case, as in that of other celebrities now living, it will become known to the general public only when his memoirs come to be written.