An evening with Molly Aston
And so says Johnson I guess Miss Burney’s Book concludes by leaving her heroine Cecilia in measureless delight. I wonder when any body ever experiences measureless delight: I never did I’m sure except the first Evening I spent Teste a Teste with Molly Aston—so when we parted I made a Distich; for Molly was a Whig, & talked all about Liberty: here’s my Distich, you may write it down if you will.
Liber ut esse velim suasisti pulchra Maria,
Ut maneam liber pulchra Maria vale !
which I translated, immediately all’ Improviso into these Lines.
Written by Hester Lynch Thrale.Persuasions to Freedom fall oddly from you,
If Freedom we seek, fair Maria Adieu !De par le Roy—Defense a Dieu
De faire Miracles en ce lieu.
First published in the Gent Magazine viii. 211.
Thraliana entry dated 5 July 1782. Molly Aston was one of the nine children of Baronet Sir Thomas Aston. One his sisters married Jonhson’s friend Hon. Henry Hervey, and another married his patron, Gilbert Walmsley. Mrs. Gastrell of Stow-hill in Lichfield, and Mrs Aston (whom Johnson always visited when in Lichfield), were also her sisters. Molly Aston married Captain David Brodie of the Navy and died presumably in 1765. Hester Thrale's spelling, grammar and capitalisation, some of which may not conform to today's standards, are reproduced faithfully throughout.
