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The Eclipse of the Yorkes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
In one of his greatest novels Balzac describes the sudden accession to fortune of César Birotteau, the hairdresser, and his lamentable fall, due to overweening confidence and neglect of the business to which he owed his elevation. It is the tragedy of the man who rests too long upon his laurels, and has failed to learn life's lesson, that a breathing space to prepare for further effort is the only rest possible for one who would not slip back in the struggle. Such tragedies are common, though it requires a Balzac, a Shakespeare, or an Æschylus to make them manifest. Sometimes, however, they may be dimly perceived in the utterances of the victims, themselves barely conscious of the significance of the facts which they relate.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1908
References
1 Add. MS. 35428.
1 ‘The preparing reports for which the King's lawyers are called upon by various references was entirely left to him by Sir Charles Pratt.’
1 The President (Dr. Hunt) reminded the meeting at which this paper was read of the detailed version of this transaction contained in Geo. Grenville, 's Diary (Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 525–532)Google Scholar. Charles Yorke's indecision, his anxiety to be begged to accept what he had himself asked for, and the arrogance of his pretensions are there brought out with ironical simplicity. From Grenville's account it is equally obvious that Charles drew back at the last moment not from any conscientious scruples in joining the Government, but from fear of standing ill with the old Whigs, such as the Duke of Newcastle, with whom he was connected.
1 ‘Lord Temple told me in the summer of 1770—you gave very good counsel for himself but very bad for us.’
1 I shall take the liberty of altering Mrs. Yorke's dates where they are obviously wrong. The only real mistake she makes is to antedate the offer of the Great Seal to her husband by four days.
1 I do not here discuss the vexed question whether Charles Yorke actually committed suicide or died a natural death. The matter can never probably be decided with certainty. I am inclined to think, especially after reading Mrs. Yorke's narrative, that the anxiety and indecision of these days preying upon a constitution already impaired by over-indulgence are quite sufficient to account for his death without resorting to the explanation of violent means.