331 



VERTOT, RENfi AUBERT DE. 



VERTUE, GEORGE. 



The Abbe Colbert was at this time general of the Premonstratensian 

 order. Hearing a favourable account of tbe talents and acquirements 

 of young Vertot, be appointed him his secretary. Soon after he pre- 

 sented him with the priory of Joyeueral. By the canon law, any regu- 

 lar priest who had obtained a licence to quit one order and join another 

 was declared incapable of holding any charge or dignity in his new 

 fraternity. The order opposed the promotion of Vertot on this ground. 

 The appointment was confirmed by a papal bull : still the monks were 

 refractory. A royal injunction was obtained to corroborate the decree 

 of the pope, but at this stage of the business Vertot withdrew his claim. 

 Probably he anticipated little comfort in an abbey where the inmates 

 had so stoutly opposed his admission. He applied for the cure of 

 Croissy-la-Carenne, near Marly, the presentation to which belonged to 

 the order ; and retiring to it, devoted himself to the discharge of his 

 spiritual duties and literary pursuits. 



Hitherto Vertot's name had been unknown beyond the circle of his 

 private friends and his ecclesiastical brethren. At the instigation, it 

 is said, of Fontenelle, St. Pierre, and other friends, he undertook his- 

 torical compositions. His first publication was his ' Histoire de la 

 Conjuration de Portugal,' which was published in 1689. The recent 

 revolution in England rendered the title attractive ; the work became 

 fashionable ; and judges, such as Madame de Sevigne" and P6re Bou- 

 hours, expressed highly favourable opinions of the work. Vertot 

 might have become a lion in the circles of Paris ; but although in the 

 immediate vicinity of the city, he stood aloof. His chief desire was to 

 return to his native province. With this view he asked and obtained 

 a cure in the Pays de Caux. Not long after he was transferred to a 

 richer living near Rouen, which, not being dependent on his order, in 

 a great measure released him from their control. 



Increase of wealth seemed but to increase his industry. Seven years 

 after the publication of his first work he gave to the world his ' Histoire 

 des Revolutions de Suede.' This work has more of personal adventure 

 and interest than the former, and its success was proportiouably 

 greater. Five editions followed each other in rapid succession. The 

 work was translated into several languages. The Swedish envoy at 

 the court of France was instructed to engage Vertot to compose a 

 general history of Sweden an overture which led to nothing. 



In 1701 the king re-organised the Academy of Inscriptions and 

 Belles-Lettres. Vertot was nominated Acade'micien Associe". The 

 appointment was embarrassing. He could not afford to relinquish his 

 cure and reside in Paris, and by the new regulations the Academicians 

 were required to be resident. The strict rule was relaxed in his favour, 

 and he did not take his seat in the Academy till 1703, when he had 

 been long enough a resident clergyman to entitle him to a retiring 

 pension. His arrival in Paris was the close of a retired life, which 

 however had been marked by stormy passages. The wits among his 

 acquaintances said, " Here ends the revolutions of the Abbe" de Vertot." 



In 1705 he was appointed Acade'micien Pensionnaire. From this 

 date his contributions to the ' Annals' and ' Memoirs' of the Academy 

 are frequent. They turn chiefly upon historical topics. A discussion 

 in which he was engaged in the Academy led to his next publication. 

 The assertion of the ancient independence of their province by the 

 Bretons appeared to Vertot, as salaried Academician, in the light of a 

 rebellion against the royal authority. He undertook to disprove their 

 claims. The arguments swelled to such a bulk that in 1710 he pub- 

 lished them in a separate volume entitled ' Traitd de la Mouvance de 

 Bretagne.' The continuance of the controversy ultimately extended 

 this essay into his ' Histoire complete de 1'Etablissement des Bretons 

 dans les Qaules.' 



These occupations did not divert Vertot from his favourite topic 

 the revolutions of the Roman republic. This work is no result of a 

 philosophical and critical examination of the Roman authorities. Its 

 merit is simply artistical the elegant and agreeable narrative of state- 

 ments taken for granted at the hands of the classical authors. It was 

 Vertot's favourite work : he was accustomed to read fragments of it 

 as he advanced, at the meetings of the Academy, and was known to 

 burst into tears at his own pathos. This history, which appeared in 

 1719, waa still more favourably received than its predecessors. 



The reputation of Vertot induced the Order of Malta to invite him 

 to become its historian. He complied with the request, and published 

 in 1726 his ' Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jeru- 

 salem, appelds depuis les Chevaliers de Rhodes, et aujourd'hui les 

 Chevaliers de Malte.' Vertot was advanced in years when he under- 

 took this work, and he did not sympathise with the heroes and exploits 

 of the middle ages as with those of the classic ages of Rome. The 

 ' History of Malta ' is inferior in point of finish and picturesque energy 

 to his earlier writings, but infinitely more valuable on account of its 

 originality. His access to authentic information rendered it valuable, 

 and might have done so to a greater extent had he possessed more the 

 spirit of an historian and less that of a mere narrator. 



Besides the works already mentioned and his contributions to the 

 ' Memoirs ' of the Academy, two works by Vertot have been published : 

 the first, an account of the negociations of the brothers De Noailles in 

 1755-57, in England, compiled from documents placed in his hand by 

 the family. The author of the notice of Vertot in the ' Biographic 

 Universelle ' speaks of this work as unpublished: this is a strange 

 oversight in an otherwise able article ; the book was deposited in the 

 archives of the Noailles family, and published, after the author's death, 



in four volumes 12mo, at Leyden, in 1763. Two tracts, one on the 

 ' Origin of the Papal Sovereignty,' the other on the ' Election of Bishops 

 and Abbots," were published twenty years after his death. Their 

 authenticity has never been questioned. They appear to have been 

 compiled at the request of a minister, on the occasion of some quarrel 

 with the court of Rome. 



Vertot died in the Palais Royal on the 15th of June, 1735. His 

 works are more valued for their style for a certain power of dramatic 

 portraiture than for any other recommendation, with the exception 

 of the ' History of Malta ' and the ' Account of the Negociations of the 

 two De Noailles,' which contain materials for history not to be found 

 elsewhere. The excessive enthusiasm of his youth appeal's to have 

 sobered down into a tempered habitual piety. He was a zealous 

 royalist. The controversy respecting the ancient history of Bretagne 

 was carried on by him less as an antiquarian than a political discussion. 

 He went so far in his zeal as to denounce Freret to the government 

 for some opinions expressed in that author's ' Origine des Frangais.' 

 In his private conduct Vertot was irreproachable ; the only trace of 

 passion in his life was the ardent platonic attachment he conceived for 

 Mademoiselle de Launay (better known as Madame de Stacl) in his 

 sixtieth year. There was a vein of effeminacy both in the intellect and 

 character of Vertot ; yet it is impossible not to respect him. 



VERTUE, GEORGE. This celebrated English engraver and anti- 

 quary was born iu London in 1684, of parents more honest than 

 opulent ; yet, " if vanity had entered into his composition," says 

 Walpole, " he might have boasted the antiquity of his race. Two of 

 his name were employed by Henry VIII. in the Board of Works ; but 

 I forget a family is not ancient if none of the blood were above the 

 rank of ingenious men two hundred years ago." At about the age of 

 thirteen Vertue was placed with a Frenchman, who was the principal 

 engraver of arms in London at that time ; but being of extravagant 

 habits he " broke," and returned to his own country three or four 

 years after Vertue was bound to him. Vertue, in his memoir, has 

 concealed his name ; Walpole questions whether Scaliger would have 

 been so tender. After this he spent two years at home, which he 

 devoted to the study of drawing ; he then engaged himself for three 

 years with the engraver Michael Vandergucht, which term he pro- 

 tracted to seven ; and in 1709 he set up for himself. He was intro- 

 duced to Sir Godfrey Kueller ; an acquaintance which proved of great 

 service to him shortly afterwards, upon the death of his father, when 

 the support of his mother and brothers and sisters devolved entirely 

 upon him. The patronage of Sir Godfrey procured him much 

 employment, and in a very short time his own merit procured him 

 much more. Lord Somers commissioned him to engrave a portrait of 

 Archbishop Tillotson, and this print, for which he was richly rewarded, 

 was the foundation of his future fortune. Walpole says nothing like 

 this print had appeared for some years, and Vertue stood without a 

 competitor in any country. Edelinck of France, White of England, 

 and Van Gunst of Holland, were dead. 



In his leisure hours Vertue practised drawing and music, and 

 studied French and Italian, and later he acquired also Dutch. In 

 1711 an Academy of Painting was instituted in London, of which Sir 

 Godfrey Kneller was placed at the head, and Vertue was one of its 

 first members : he drew a little in water-colours, and painted a few 

 portraits; but his productions in this style consisted chiefly of copies 

 of old or interesting works which he intended to engrave. 



During the reign of Anne, Vertue was chiefly employed over 

 portraits after Kneller, Dahl, Richardson, Jervase, Gibson, and others ; 

 and at the accession of George I. he engraved a large head of the king 

 after Kneller, of which several thousands were sold, and which brought 

 him a great increase of business, though by no means a very excellent 

 performance. He commenced early in this reign to make his researches 

 for his ' History of the Arts in England." In this undertaking he 

 found two valuable patrons in Robert Harley, second earl of Oxford, 

 and Heneage Finch, earl of Winchelsea : the latter, who was president 

 of the Society of Antiquaries in 1717, appointed Vertue, who was a 

 member, to be its engraver; and he executed nearly all the prints 

 which were published by that society during the remainder of his 

 life. Lord Coleraine was also one of his patrons ; and Vertue made 

 many journeys in various parts of England in furtherance of his 

 researches in company with these noblemen, by whom his expenses 

 were paid. Many other noblemen also encouraged him iu a less 

 degree. In 1728 he was invited by the Duke of Dorset to Knowle, 

 where he copied several portraits of the poets, of which he published 

 a set of twelve in 1730, namely, Gower, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere, 

 Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Milton, Butler, Cowley, Waller, and 

 Dryden. It is one of his best works, and was the first collection of 

 illustrious heads published in England. His next work of this class 

 was ten plates of the heads of Charles I. and the loyal sufferers in his 

 cause, with their characters subjoined from Clarendon. These were 

 followed by his portraits of the kings of England, &c., for the trans- 

 lation of Rapin'a ' History of England,' published in numbers, in 

 folio, of which, says Vertue, thousands were sold every week (pro- 

 bably without the prints). Over these works he was occupied three 

 years. In 1734 he renewed his journeys about England : he made a 

 tour with Roger Gale the antiquary; one in 1737 with Lord Oxford ; 

 another with the same nobleman in 1738 ; and in 1739 one in the east 

 of England with Lord Coleraine. 



