Heidelberg

( Mrs. ), the widow of a wealthy Dutch merchant, who kept her brother’s house (Mr. Sterling, a city merchant). She was very vulgar, and “knowing the strength of her purse, domineered on the credit of it.” Mrs. Heidelberg had most exalted notions “of the quality,” and a “perfect contempt for everything that did not smack of high life.” Her English was certainly faulty, as the following specimens will show:— farden , wolgar , spurrit , pertest , Swish , kivers , pur litene , etc. She spoke of a pictur by Raphael-Angelo , a po-shay , dish-abille , parfect naturals [idiots], most genteelest , and so on. When thwarted in her overbearing ways, she threatened to leave the house and go to Holland to live with her husband’s cousin, Mr. Vanderspracken.—Colman and Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766).