England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [49]
Emma spent her days playing at being a modest young lady in settled, pedestrian domesticity. Greville left her at home while he attended dinners and receptions, and he forbade her to go to the pleasure gardens or even to a local concert. Obsessed with order and cleanliness, he hectored her to improve her messy ways. Soon he was able to declare “there is not in the parish a house as tidy as ours.” Otherwise, he encouraged her to occupy herself with improving reading and with practicing singing and the guitar. He wanted to ensure his Magdalen could amuse him in the evening. Women were educated to sing and play because there was no other way of enjoying music at home unless someone in the family— usually the wife—could perform.
The new Magdalen made little headway with Greville's recommended books, so addicted was she to women's magazines, such as the popular Lady's Magazine, a mix of puzzles, stories, songs, embroidery patterns, and a little news. She did, however, enjoy The Triumph of Temper, William Hay-ley's long narrative poem that instructed women to be meek and good by showing the heroine, Serena, retaining a sweet temper and a “wish to please” throughout various obstacles. When Emma was separated from Greville, she wrote that parting with him made her so unhappy that she failed to keep up the stoic temper of Serena; as she put it, “I forget the Book."5 In July 1782, the "Man Milliner" gossip column of the European Magazine, a magazine to which Greville subscribed and sometimes contributed, offered a tantalizing tidbit of information about Emma while joking about the hobbies of fashionable ladies. Most of them cared only for "Admiration," but Greville's mistress ("Mrs. Greville") was apparently solely interested in "Poetry."6
In the evenings, she entertained Greville with little anecdotes about her docile days. They may have sung together or were perhaps joined by a maid, for it seems that Mrs. Cadogan had no gift for music. Pleased by her progress, Greville began to invite some of his friends over to meet her. He knew not to make the same mistake as Sir Harry by leaving his lover alone, bored and desperate for male attention. Emma's new admirers included William Hayley and the playwright Richard Cumberland, as well as the painter Gavin Hamilton (no relation to Greville), and various minor aristocrats. More cultured than the loutish Uppark set, they flirted with her in a friendly, respectable way. Emma flourished under their attention, delighted that her new admirers seemed to be as interested in her opinions as her beauty.
Emma threw herself into the role of the penitent prostitute. Courtesans were fascinated by the Magdalen House, and many pretended to have been inmates in order to enhance their earning power. The "Magdalen" look was in fashion. The European Magazine noted that the essential hat for the stylish lady at the Ranelagh pleasure gardens was "the Religieuse or Nun's cap." A light hat of "Italian gauze, crimped to a point, before coming down at the sides" was hugely popular.7 Emma perhaps was wearing such a cap when she attended Ranelagh with Greville on one of the few occasions she went out in the evening. Excited by the illuminations and the music, she burst into song. Apparently the crowd loved it, but a furious Greville hauled her back to Paddington Green in disgrace. At home, she hurried to change into a plainer dress and knelt, begging him to retain her as his penitent or abandon her out into the street. Mollified, Greville agreed to retain her and continue his course of instruction.
Emma did not seem to resent her lover inspecting her expenses, checking her dress, and searching for evidence of vanity and giddiness. Like any good pupil, she found gratification in excelling at her examinations. She showed him stringent accounts for even the most inconsequential expenses: apples, coal, eggs, stockings, cotton, and needles. In this, she was sharper than Greville, who knew little about the cost of provisions. The prices charged for the commodities are high, particularly for a