| Citation |
IL.781.002
1 Jan 1781:31 (3/135)
London, . . . October 11. . . When the King was informed of
the capture of the East and West-India fleets, by Don Louis
de Cordova, he was immediately seized with horrid paroxysms,
indicating the most violent symptoms of that species of
madness, which attends persons in the east, when bit by a
tarantula. Lord North, the chief physician in politics,
sent directly for the band of state fidlers, who having, as
on such occasions is usual, played over several delectable
tunes to humour his Majesty's disorder; they at last fiddled
him into his senses, but he unfortunately relapsed again.
Lord North caught the disorder, and in a moment, with
epidemic swiftness, the whole court, by its baneful
influence, were in a state of lunacy---Her Majesty the Queen
leaped out of her bed naked as Venus; and the Prince of
Wales appeared as bare as Apollo of Delphi----The maids of
honor forgot their modesty; the lords in waiting forgot
their breeches. A general tumult ensued. The guards--the
menial domestics---and the lords of the council, with their
secretaries, mingled together in the great anti-chamber, tag
rag and bobtail, where they danced and capered to and fro,
belly to belly, back to back, right and left, hands across,
&c. The doctors are disputing on the nature of the
distemper--the doctors of divinity are preparing to exercise
the spirit of madness which possessed the court--the doctors
of law are taking down notes of the case--the doctors of
physic are prepairing clysters and emetics, to drive the
disorder up and down, and the undertakers of the Kingdom are
snuffing for the funerals of such as might become defunct.
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