HINTS FROM HORACE.
Athens: Capuchin Convent, March 12, 1811.[1]
- ↑ Athens, March 2nd, 1811.—[MS. L. (a).]
Athens, March 12th, 1811.—[MS. L. (b), MS. M.] - ↑ [Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) succeeded West as P.R.A. in 1820. Benjamin West (1738-1820) had been elected P.R.A. in 1792, on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds.]
- ↑
If[i] West or Lawrence, (take whiche'er you will)
Sons of the Brush, supreme in graphic skill,
Should clap a human head-piece on a mare,
How would our Exhibition's loungers stare!
Or should some dashing limner set to sale
My Lady's likeness with a Mermaid's tail.—[MS. L. (a).]
The features finished, should superbly deck
My Lady's likeness with a Filly's neck;
Or should some limner mad or maudlin group
A Mermaid's tail and Maid of Honour's Hoop.—[MS. L. (b).]
↑ i. I have been obliged to dive into the "Bathos" for the simile, as I could not find a description of these Painters' merits above ground.
"Si liceat parvis
Componere magna"—"Like London's column pointing to the skies
Like a tall Bully, lifts its head and lies"—I was in hopes might bear me out, if the monument be like a Bully. West's glory may be reduced by the scale of comparison. If not, let me have recourse to Tom Thumb the Great [Fielding's farce, first played 1730] to keep my simile in countenance.—[MS. L. (b) erased.]
