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“LANE SHORE,” The Christian’s Scholar’s, and Farmer’s Magazine, vol. 2, no. 6 (February/March 1791), p. 707
David Hume
Character sketches from Hume’s History of England were frequently extracted and reproduced as stand-alone pieces in the eighteenth century and even through to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Few of Hume’s characters lived lives as unfortunate as the ill-fated Jane Shore (1445–1527, or “Lane” Shore as she appeared here — the letters “L” and “J” were often considered interchangeable in the eighteenth century). The Christian’s Scholar’s, and Farmer’s Magazine has been described as an “encyclopedic repository” covering everything from “rhetoric, farming, theology, Greek history, music, [and] painting” to “current events”. It was published out of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, by Shepard Kollock (1750–1839). The excerpt below was published in the magazine’s last volume. On Kollock’s publishing career, see John R. Anders, Shepard Kollock: Editor of Freedom (Chatam, NJ, 1975). See History, vol. 2, p. 502, for this passage and its wider context.
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LANE SHORE.
THIS lady (says Hume) was born of reputable parents in London, was well educated, and married to a substantial citizen; but unhappily, views of interest, more than the maid’s inclinations, had been consulted in this match, and her mind, though framed for virtue, proved unable to resist the allurements of Edward, who solicited her favors. But while seduced from her duty by this gay and amorous monarch, she still made herself respectable by her other virtues; and the ascendant which her charms and vivacity long maintained over him, was all employed in acts of beneficence and humanity. She was still forward to oppose calumny, to protect the oppressed, to relieve the indigent; and her good offices, the genuine result of her heart, never waited the solicitation of presents, or the hopes of reciprocal favors; but she lived not only to feel the bitterness of shame imposed on her by a barbarous tyrant [the duke of Gloucester] but to experience in her old age and poverty the ingratitude of those courtiers who had long solicited her friendship, and been protected by her credit. No one, among the great multitudes whom she had obliged, appeared to bring her consolation or relief. She languished out her life in solitude and indigence, and amidst a court inured to the most atrocious crimes, the frailties of his woman justified all violations of friendship toward her, and all oblivion of former favors.