Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/455

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435
MALONIANA.
435

On the Tuesday after his death our club happened to meet; and I was much pleased that the members present unanimously concurred in a motion which I made, that a marble bust or portrait of our much-lamented founder should be procured at the expense of the body and placed in our club-room.

His will was made on the 5th November, 1791, and begins with this melancholy paragraph:—“As it is probable that I shall soon be totally deprived of sight, and may not have an opportunity of making a formal will, I desire that the following memorandums may be considered as my last will and testament.”—Feb. 28, 1792.



MALONIANA.

Part II.

[The following is his introduction to the second part of these Memoranda, for the shortness of which he thus accounts. But, added to its brevity, he never resumed the work with the same spirit as at first.]

The former part concluded with an account of the death of my poor friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was for a long time left imperfect. The loss of that most valuable and amiable man I have felt almost every day since; and being unwilling again to recur to the subject, I for three years wholly discontinued

    ‘‘P. Veronese delighted much in representing his figures as they appear in the open air or under the slight shade of an open portico without any forced effect of light and shade, such as (for example) Rembrandt sometimes used. I write this in great haste, almost too late for dinner.

    “Ever yours,

    “Sunday.St. Beaumont.