M O N T A G U E. 
countefs of Bute, and, after an abfence of twenty-two 
years, returned to England. She enjoyed, however, but 
a fliort time the renewal of domeftic intercourfe ; and 
died of a gradual decay in 1762, aged feventy-two. 
Lady M. W. Montague has obtained a name among the 
literary characters of her country as a poetefs and a letter- 
writer. In the former capacity (he deferves the praife of 
eafe and vivacity, with no inconliderable powers ot de- 
fcription. She is, however, negligent and incorreft, and 
cannot claim a place in the higher departments of poetical 
compofition. The principal of her performances in this 
clafs were fix “ Town Eclogues,” meant as a kind of pa¬ 
rody upon the common palloral eclogues, and a vehicle 
of fome faftiionable fatire. Three of thefe have been at¬ 
tributed to Pope and Gay; but all of them are claimed 
for her in the late edition of her works. Of her fmaller 
pieces, feveral are more free than would generally be 
thought becoming her lex. As an epiftolary writer, this 
lady’s fame (lands much higher; and is not furpafied by 
that of any perfon, of either fex, whofe letters have in this 
country been given to the public. Thofe which (he wrote 
during her hulband’s embafi'y were chiefly addrefl'ed to her 
fifter the countefs of Mar, lady Rich, Mrs. Thiftlethwaite, 
and Pope. After having been (liown about in manufcript, 
they were colleCled and copied by herfelf, and prefented 
in the year 1761 to the Rev. Mr. Sowden, of Rotterdam. 
By fome means or other, a furreptitious copy of them 
was obtained, and printed in 1763, in 3 vols. 121x10. The 
univerfal admiration with which thele were received was 
merited, as well by the curious and entertaining account 
they gave of foreign countries and manners, elpecially in 
the Turkilh dominions, as by the wit and vivacity with 
which they abounded, and the amenity of their language, 
which was confidered as a model of the epiftolary ftyle. 
A fourth volume, afterwards publifhed, was undoubtedly 
(purious. Her other letters are, To Mr. Wortley before 
her marriage, and to Mrs. Wortley his mother; To her 
fifter the countefs of Mar, at Paris, written from London 
and Twickenham, and filled with lively anecdotes of the 
faftiionable ivorld ; To Mr. Wortley, and to her daughter 
the countefs of Bute, during herfecond refidence abroad. 
In thefe, efpecially to her daughter, there is a great deal 
of excellent fenfe and true philofophy, though mixed with 
fomething like fpleen and mifanthropy. All thefe Let¬ 
ters,, from her original manufcripts, together with all her 
poems and other writings, were publiftied in 5 vols. 
i2mo. 1803, with memoirs of her ladyfliip prefixed, by 
the editor, Mr. Callaway; from which the prefent article 
is compiled. 
MON'TAGUE (Edward Wortley), only fon of lady 
Mary and Mr. Wortley Montague, was born at Warn- 
cliffe-lodge, near Sheffield, about 1714. He appears from 
his youth to have difplayed that eccentricity of character 
which rendered him fo remarkable, and is his principal 
title to biographical record. From Weftminfter-lchool, 
where he w'as placed for education, he ran away three 
times. He firft, it is faid, changed clothes with a chim- 
ney-fweeper, whofe occupation he followed for fome time. 
He next aflociated himfelf with a filherman, and cried 
flounders through the ftreets. His third frolic w'as that 
of failing as a cabin-boy in a veflel bound to Spain ; on 
his arrival in which country, he deferted the (hip, and 
hired himfelf to a mule-driver. At length he was difco- 
vered by the Englilh conful, who fent him back to his 
friends. They endeavoured to reclaim him to a life fuit- 
able to his birth and expectations, and put him under the 
care of a private tutor. It is probable, however, that his 
irregular difpofition was a little amended ; fince we next 
hear of his being fent to the Weft Indies, where he re¬ 
mained for fome time. He paflfed through many other 
adventures, the dates of which are not eafily aflignable. 
In a letter to M. Lami of Florence, he fays, “ I have 
converfed with the nobles of Germany, and ferved my 
apprenticefhip in the fcience of horfemanlhip at their 
country-leats. 1 have been a labourer in the fields of 
Switzerland and Holland, and have not difdained the 
Yog XV. No. 107,8. 
717 
humble profeflions of poftilion and ploughman. I afiumed 
at Paris the ridiculous character of a petit-maitre. I was 
an abbe at Rome. I put on at Hamburg the Lutheran 
ruff, and, with a triple chin and a formal countenance, I 
dealt about me the word of God fo as to excite the envy 
of the clergy.” It mull have been during his aCiing a 
decent part in life that he ferved in two fuceeffive parlia¬ 
ments as a member, and belonged to the literary circles 
in London. His expenfive habits, however, again drove 
him from his native country; and he thenceforth was a 
wanderer in the world as long as he lived. He firft ap¬ 
peared as an author in 1759, when he publiftied “ Reflec¬ 
tions on the Rife and Fall of the Ancient Republics,” 
8vo. This work contains an elegant and concife fum- 
mary of the hiftories of Greece, Rome, and Carthage, 
with occafional allufions to the (late of Great Britain. It 
acquired a certain degree of popularity, and gave the au¬ 
thor the reputation of learning and ingenuity. In 1760 
he communicated to the Royal Society, in two letters from 
Turin, “ Obfervations on a fuppofed antique Bull in the 
King of Sardinia’s Collection.” The Philofophical Tran- 
faCtions for 1766 contains a letter from Mr. Montague, 
giving a curious account of his journey from Cairo to the 
Written Mountains in thedefert of Sinai, with his remarks 
on this Angular relic of antiquity, and on the Red Sea. 
In the fublequent year he tranfmitted to the Society fome 
new obfervations on Pompey’s pillar at Alexandria. 
Thefe lad articles point out that abode in the oriental 
countries which was the fource of his moll diftinguilhed 
Angularities. It appears that, after having quitted Pro- 
tellantifm for the church of Rome, he deferted the latter 
for Mahometanifm, to which he feems to have been a fin- 
c6re convert, and together with which he imbibed a de¬ 
cided preference for eaftern manners. Mr. Sharp, who 
publiftied Letters from Italy, mentions having in 1765 
feen Mr. Montague at Venice, foon after his arrival front 
the eaft, where he appeared with a beard reaching down 
to his breaft, and an Armenian liead-drefs: “ His bed 
was the ground, his food rice, his beverage water, his 
luxury a pipe and coffee.” Count de Lamberg, in his- 
Memorial d’un Mondain, gives a more particular account 
of his mode of living at Venice, where he faw him : “ He 
rifes before the fun, fays his prayers, and performs his 
ablutions and lazzis according to the Mahometan ritual. 
An hour after, he wakes his pupil, a filthy emigrant of 
Abylfinia, whom he brought with him from Rofetta. He 
inftrufts this dirty negro with all the care and precifiom 
of a philofopher, both by precept and example: he lays 
before him the llrongeft; proofs of the religion he teaches 
him, and catechifes him in the Arabian language. That 
he may not omit any particular in the moll rigorous ob- 
fervance of the Mahometan rites, he dines at a low table, 
fitting crofs-legged on a fopha, while the Moor, on a 
cufhion Hill lower, fits gaping with avidity for his mailer’s 
leavings. It is this negro who fupports the white mantle 
that makes a part of the Turkilh garb of liis mailer, who 
is always preceded, even at noon-day, by two gondoliers 
with lighted torches. The ordinary place of his refidence 
is at Rofetta, where his wife lives, who is the daughter of. 
an inn-keeper at Leghorn, and whom he has forced to- 
embrace the Mahometan religion. During the moll in- 
tenfe cold he performs his religious ablutions.in.cold wa¬ 
ter, rubbing, at the fame time, his body with fand from, 
the thighs to the feet: his negro alfo pours frelh water- 
on his head, and combs his beard; and he alfo pours 
cold water on the head of the negro. To finilh this re¬ 
ligious ceremony, he refumes his pipe, turns himfelf to¬ 
wards the eaft, mutters fome prayers, walks afterwards 
for half an hour, and drinks his coffee.” With refpe<ft to 
what is here faid of his.wife,-it is to be obfierved, that, 
according to another account, he married early, in a 
frolic, a walherwoman, with whom he never cohabited, 
but to whom he allowed a feparate maintenance. He af¬ 
terwards aflumed all the Mahometan licenle with refpect 
to the fex, and in the feveral countries of his refidence 
had a harem of women of various nations and complexions. 
5 L U Another. 
