Part 21 (1/2)
The Chevalier had a son and a biographer in the person of John Taylor, who, under the t.i.tle of ”John Taylor, Junior,” succeeded to his father's trumpet, and blew it with good effect. The t.i.tle-page of his biography of his father enumerates some half-hundred crowned or royal heads, to whose eyes the ”Chevalier John Taylor, Opthalmiater Pontifical, Imperial, and Royal,” administered.
But this work was feeble and contemptible compared with the Chevalier's autobiographic sketch of himself, in his proposal for publis.h.i.+ng which he speaks of his loves and adventures, in the following modest style:--
”I had the happiness to be also personally known to two of the most amiable ladies this age has produced--namely, Lady Inverness and Lady Mackintosh; both powerful figures, of great abilities, and of the most pleasing address--both the sweetest prattlers, the prettiest reasoners, and the best judges of the charms of high life that I ever saw. When I first beheld these wonders I gazed on their beauties, and my attention was busied in admiring the order and delicacy of their discourse, &c. For were I commanded to seek the world for a lady adorned with every accomplishment that man thinks desirable in the s.e.x, I could only be determined by finding their resemblance....
”I am perfectly acquainted with the history of Persia, as well before as since the death of Thamas Kouli Khan; well informed of the adventures of Prince Heraclius; was personally known to a minister he sent to Moscow in his first attempt to conquer that country; and am instructed in the cruel manner of putting out the eyes of conquered princes, and of cutting away the eyelids of soldiers taken in war, to make them unfit for service.
”I have lived in many convents of friars of different orders, been present at their creation to various degrees, and have a.s.sisted at numberless entertainments upon those occasions.
”I have been in almost every female nunnery in all Europe (_on account of my profession_), and could write many volumes on the adventures of these religious beauties.
”I have been present at the making of nuns of almost every order, and a.s.sisted at the religious feasts given on those occasions.
”I have met with a very great variety of singular religious people called Pilgrims.
”I have been present at many extraordinary diversions designed for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the sovereign, viz. hunting of different sorts of wild beasts, as in Poland; bull-fighting, as in Spain.
”I am well acquainted with all the various punishments for different crimes, as practised in every nation--been present at the putting of criminals to death by various ways, viz. striking off heads, breaking on the wheel, &c.
”I am also well instructed in the different ways of giving the torture to extract confession--and am no stranger to other singular punishments, such as impaling, burying alive with head above ground, &c.
”And lastly, I have a.s.sisted, have seen the manner of embalming dead bodies of great personages, and am well instructed in the manner practised in some nations for preserving them entire for ages, with little alteration of figure from what they were when first deprived of life....
”All must agree that no man ever had a greater variety of matter worthy to be conveyed to posterity. I shall, therefore, give my best care to, so to paint my thoughts, and give such a dress of the story of my life, that tho' I shall talk of the Great, the Least shall not find cause of offence.”
The occasion of this great man issuing so modest a proposal to the public is involved in some mystery. It would seem that he determined to publish his own version of his adventures, in consequence of being dissatisfied with his son's sketch of them. John Taylor, Junior, was then resident in Hatton Garden, living as an eye-doctor, and entered into an arrangement with a publisher, without his father's consent, to write the Chevalier's biography. Affixed to the indecent pamphlet, which was the result of this agreement, are the following epistolary statements:--
”MY SON,--If you should unguardedly have suffered your name at the head of a work which must make us all contemptible, this must be printed in it as the best apology for yourself and father:--
”TO THE PRINTER.
”Oxford, Jan. 10, 1761.
”My dear and only son having respectfully represented to me that he has composed a work, int.i.tled _My Life and Adventures_, and requires my consent for its publication, notwithstanding I am as yet a stranger to the composition, and consequently can be no judge of its merits, I am so well persuaded that my son is in every way incapable of saying aught of his father but what must redound to his honour and reputation, and so perfectly convinced of the goodness of his heart, that it does not seem possible I should err in my judgment, by giving my consent to a publication of the said work. And as I have long been employed in writing my own Life and Adventures, which will with all expedition be published, 'twill hereafter be left with all due attention to the candid reader, whether the Life of the Father written by the son, or the Life of the Father written by himself, best deserves approbation.
”THE CHEVALIER TAYLOR,
”Opthalmiater, Pontifical, Imperial, and Royal.
”* * * The above is a true copy of the letter my Father sent me. All the answer I can make to the bills he sends about the town and country is, that I have maintained my mother these eight years, and do this at the present time; and that, two years since, I was concerned for him, for which I have paid near ?200.
”As witness my hand, ”JOHN TAYLOR, _Oculist_.”
”Hatton Garden.”
It is impossible to say whether these differences were genuine, or only feigned by the two quacks, in order to keep silly people gossiping about them. Certainly the accusations brought against the Chevalier, that he had sponged on his son, and declined to support his wife, are rather grave ones to introduce into a make-believe quarrel.
But, on the other hand, when the Chevalier's autobiography appeared it was prefaced with the following dedicatory letter to his son:--
”MY DEAR SON,--Can I do ill when I address to you the story of your father's life? Whose name can be so proper as your own to be prefixed to a work of this kind? You who was born to represent me living, when I shall cease to be--born to pursue that most excellent and important profession to which I have for so many years labored to be useful--born to defend my cause and support my fame--may I not _presume_, my son, that you will defend your father's cause? May I not _affirm_ that you, my son, will support your father's fame?