XIII. An Answer to the Parson. Why of the sheep do you not learn peace? XIV. Epitaph. Here lies John Trot, the friend of all mankind; He has not left one enemy behind. Friends were quite hard to find, old authors say; But now they stand in everybody's way. XV. Grown old in love from seven till seven times seven, I oft have wished for hell, for ease from heaven. XVI. Prayers plough not, praises reap not, XVII. The Sword sang on the barren heath, The Sword he sang a song of death XVIII. O Lapwing, thou fliest across the heath, Nor seest the net that is spread beneath : XIX. The Angel that presided o'er my birth EPIGRAMS AND SATIRICAL PIECES ON ART AND ARTISTS. I I ASKED of my dear friend orator Prig: 'What's the first part of oratory?' He said: 'A great wig.' 'And what is the second?' Then, dancing a jig And bowing profoundly, he said: 'A great wig.' 'And what is the third?' Then he snored like a pig, And, puffing his cheeks out, replied: 'A great wig.' So if to a painter the question you push, 'What's the first part of painting?' he'll say: 'A paint-brush.' 'And what is the second?' with most modest blush, He'll smile like a cherub, and say: A paint-brush.' 'And what is the third?' he'll bow like a rush, With a leer in his eye, and reply: 'A paint-brush.' Perhaps this is all a painter can want: But look yonder,-that house is the house of Rembrandt.. 2 "O dear mother Outline, of wisdom most sage, What's the first part of painting?' She said: 'Patronage.' 3 On the great encouragement given by English Nobility and Gentry to Correggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Catalani, and Dilberry Doodle. Give pensions to the learned pig, As the ignorant savage will sell his own wife For a button, a bauble, a bead, or a knife, So the taught savage Englishman spends his whole fortune On a smear or a squall to destroy picture or tune: And I call upon Colonel Wardle To give these rascals a dose of caudle. All pictures that's painted with sense or with thought For the greater the fool, in the Art the more blest, 4 Seeing a Rembrandt or Correggio, Of crippled Harry I think and slobbering Joe; And then I question thus: Are artists' rules To be drawn from the works of two manifest fools? 5 To English Connoisseurs. You must agree that Rubens was a fool, 6 Sir Joshua praises Michael Angelo; 'Tis Christian meekness thus to praise a foe:- 7 To Flaxman. You call me mad; 'tis folly to do so, To seek to turn a madman to a foe. If you think as you speak, you are an ass; If you do not, you are but what you was. 8 To the same. I mock thee not, though I by thee am mocked; Thou call'st me madman, but I call thee blockhead. 9 Thank God, I never was sent to school To be flogged into following the style of a fool! |