Works
The Mémoires du comte de Gramont made Hamilton one of the classical writers of France. The tone of the work, however, is now thought equivocal. By highlighting the brilliance of the London Restoration court, it threw into relief the nature of the exiled Stuart court which contrasted so strongly with that of Charles II. It has even been said to share something with the polemic written against the court of James II at St Germain by John Macky.
The work was said to have been written at Gramont's dictation, but Hamilton's share is obvious. Written between 1704 and 1710, the work was first published anonymously in 1713 (apparently without Hamilton's knowledge) under the rubric of Cologne, but it was really printed in the Netherlands. An English translation by Abel Boyer appeared in 1714; over 30 further editions then appeared.
In imitation and satiric parody of the romantic tales which Antoine Galland's translation of The Thousand and One Nights had brought into favour in France, Hamilton wrote, partly for the amusement of Henrietta Bulkley, sister of Anne, Duchess of Berwick, to whom he was much attached, four ironic and extravagant contes, Le Bélier, Fleur d'Epine, Zeneyde and Les quatre Facardins. The saying in Le Belier, "Belier, mon ami, tu me ferais plaisir si tu voulais commencer par le commencement," passed into a proverb. These tales were circulated privately during Hamilton's lifetime, and the first three appeared in Paris in 1730, ten years after the death of the author; a collection of his Œuvres diverses in 1731 contained the unfinished Zeneyde. An 1849 omnibus entitled Fairy Tales and Romances contained English translations of all his fiction.
Hamilton was also the author of some songs, and interchanged amusing verses with the Duke of Berwick. In the name of his niece, the countess of Stafford, Hamilton maintained a witty correspondence with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
Read more about this topic: Antoine Hamilton
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)
“Most young black females learn to be suspicious and critical of feminist thinking long before they have any clear understanding of its theory and politics.... Without rigorously engaging feminist thought, they insist that racial separatism works best. This attitude is dangerous. It not only erases the reality of common female experience as a basis for academic study; it also constructs a framework in which differences cannot be examined comparatively.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?”
—James Thomson (1700–1748)