Hero's Doxy

PATRIOTIC LADY--Marjorie Bowen--Appleton-Century ($3).

To the near-sighted eyes of posterity, historical figures are apt to loom larger and more beautiful than they do under the historian's microscope. To every true-blue Briton, Horatio Nelson was one of England's greatest heroes, and his beauteous Lady Hamilton the fitting Venus to his Mars. But not to the microscopic eye of Biographer Marjorie Bowen* whose tale is enough to turn a true-blue Briton purple or green, set Nelson himself whirling on his Trafalgar column.

Emma, Lady Hamilton did not start as a lady, and according to Biographer Bowen, achieved ladyhood only technically. Her real name was Amy Lyon; her father was a blacksmith. Her profession, which she adopted in her teens, was "pleasing the gentlemen." Sir Harry Featherstonehaugh kicked her out because she was too noisy and expensive; the Hon. Charles Francis Greville got her cheap and did his skillful best to make a Galatea of her. He moderated her voice, calmed her taste in clothes, formed her manners, taught her to strike classical attitudes. When she was presentable he let her be seen. His friends all agreed she was something to look at. Artist Romney went wild over her, painted her in dozens of poses. After a few years, careful Mr. Greville handed her over to his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, who thereupon settled his nephew's debts and made him his heir.

Sir William was Minister to the Court of Naples, and in that garish society Emma sparkled. Though she was years younger than her elderly lover, she transferred her fidelity to him without much trouble. In Naples they could live openly together without causing scandal. When they went home to London on a visit, Sir William surprised everybody by marrying her. Though she was still not received by English society, Lady Hamilton made quite a stir among the Neapolitans, and became great gossips with Bourbon Queen Maria Carolina, Marie Antoinette's sister. Says Biographer Bowen: "The two women gossiped, lamented, condoled together, with freedom and zest, they had many vices and a few virtues in common." When Captain Horatio Nelson, on duty with the British Mediterranean Fleet, called at Naples, he was entertained at Sir William's. Emma made an indelible impression on him.

The future lovers did not meet again until Nelson had lost an eye and an arm and won world-wide fame by demolishing the French fleet in Aboukir Bay. Then the Hero of the Nile led his fleet into the Bay of Naples, and there he stayed, in spite of the welcome (and the patient wife) awaiting him at home, in spite of hints and finally orders from his superior officers. When a French-abetted revolution broke out in Naples, Nelson transported the court and the Hamiltons to Sicily. When the revolution faded out he brought them back again, helped to exact such a treacherous and bloody vengeance that it nearly cost him his hero's popularity in England. Meantime Nelson had become Emma's lover; Sir William either did not see or did not care. Finally the English Government, reluctantly made aware of all these shenanigans, recalled both Nelson and Sir William. They all set off for London together.

Rumors of their relationship preceded them. When they stopped in Dresden, an Englishwoman there wrote: "Lord Nelson thinks of nothing but Lady Hamilton, who is totally occupied by the same object. She is bold, forward, coarse, assuming and vain. Her figure is colossal, but, excepting her feet, which are hideous, well-shaped. Her bones are large and she is exceedingly embonpoint." In England the mob shouted hoarse applause but society whispered. Nelson was heaped with formal honors and financial rewards, but he and Emma were received nowhere. Nelson's wife formally left him. Before old Sir William died, with his wife holding one hand, Nelson the other, Emma had borne her lover a child. Then came Trafalgar and a hero's death.

In his will Nelson left Emma and his daughter as a legacy to his country, but his embarrassed country would have none of them. Though she inherited (from Nelson and Sir William) an income of more than -L-2,000 a year, it soon evaporated. She went to prison for debt, finally fled to France to escape her creditors, and died quietly in Calais in 1815.

Beyond saying that he was "frequently and desperately sea-sick," was apt to disobey orders in action and take credit for the brilliant strokes of subordinates, Biographer Bowen does not attack the naval ability of her hero; but of her hero's character and that of his doxy she leaves few shreds. Nelson was "ignorant of everything save his chosen profession, uneducated save in the school of war, scarcely a gentleman, and vulgar-souled . . ." but "... a brilliant air of being above his fellows, a flash of some genius and heroism." To Nelson, Emma was a goddess: "He would never check her vulgarity, wince at her noisy voice, complain of her garish clothes, for he would never notice these defects. To him she was perfect; they were as easy in each other's company as the seaman after a long voyage was easy with the fat doxy waiting for him in the Wapping ale-house."

*Not to be confused with Elizabeth Bowen (The House in Paris), Marjorie Bowen is a versatile English historian, novelist and playwright, whose best-selling novel, General Crack, was written under the name of "George Preedy."

'*From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

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