P i c t u r e s .
S p e n s e r .
In the houfe are feveral very fine p ic tu r e s I among others
The adoration of the ihepherds; the worlhippmg of the wife
men in the eaft ; and Diogenes remarking the boy Jinking
his hand; three capital pieces, by Paulo Pamm. The figures
commonly fine.
Two monks praying : heads. By Quinhn Met/is. ■
A fine half length of St. Jerom, half naked: a figure of mtenft I
devotion. His eyes lifted up, his mouth opening. By Lamanfe.
A fine head of an old woman, looking over her ihoulder, keen'
.and meagre. By Honthurft. _
Heads of Polembergh, the painter, and his wife.. By Honthurft. ■
The head of Boon, a comic painter, playing on a lute. Bj|
himfelf*. • . . . I
Head of Spenfer, the poetic ornament of the reign of Eltzahibm
the fweet, the melancholy, romantic bard of a romantic queen«
the moral, romantic client of the moral romantic patron, S i|
Philip Sydney, fated to pafs his days in dependence, or in ll.'iigj
gling againft adverfe fortune, in a country infenfible to his merit«
either at court
T o loofe good days, that might be better fpent,
T o wafte long nights in penfive difcontent;
T o fpeed to day, to be put back to-morrow,
T o feed with hope, to pine with fear and forrow;
T o have his prince’ s grace, yet want her peers;
T o have his aiking, yet wait many y e a r s ;
T o fret his foul with erodes and with cares,
T o cut his heart with comfortlefs defpair 5
» For an account o f thefe three painters confultMr. Walpole's Anecdotes,*»«
II, p. 103, 110. vol. III. ?6. l i l
T o fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run 5
T o fpend, to give, to want, to be undone #.
Or in Ireland to be tantalized with the appearance of good fortune
; to be feated amidft fcenery indulgent to his fanciful mufe;
yet, at length, to be expelled by the barbarous 'Tyrone; to have his
houfe burnt, and his innocent infant periih in the flames; to return
jiome; to die in deep poverty; lamenting
T h a t gentler wits ihould breed
Where thfek-ikin chufFes laugh at a fcholler’s need t«
f May it not be imagined, that, in the anguilh of his foul, he com-
Jfeofed his Cave of Defpair J, as fine a defcriptive poem as any in
■our language ? Might not his diftrefies furniih him with too
powerful arguments for fuicide, had not his Una, or his innate
religion, fnatched him from the danger ? 1 Another poet, equally neglefted, but of too merry a turn to
fink under any preflure, is the drole Butler, whofe head, beautifully
painted by Sir Peter Lely, is here alfo. This Poet, inftead of
whining out his complaints to infenfible majefty, rallies his monarch
with the fame pleafantry that he expofed the ridiculous cha-
raiters in his immortal poem :
. This prince, whofe ready wit and parts Nor wou’d he go to church, or fo,
-Conquer’d both men and women’ s hearts, But Hudibras muft with him g o ;
/Was fo o’ercome with knight and Ralpb> Nor yet to vifit concubine,
That he cou’d never claw it oiF j O r at a city feaft to dine,
f ie never eat, nor drank, nor flept, But Hudibras muft ftill be there,
But Hudibras ftill near him k e p t; O r all the fat was in the fire.
* Mother Hubbard?s T a le . f Quoted in the B ritijb Biography.
X Book I. canto IX.
M Now
B u t l e r .