236
ENGLISH HUMOURISTS.
see him before you, and can fancy what he was—a jovial, honest, London citizen, stout and sturdy; a hearty, plain-spoken man,[1] loving his laugh, his friends, his glass, his roast-beef of Old England, and having a proper bourgeois scorn for French frogs, for mounseers, and wooden shoes in general, for foreign fiddlers, foreign singers, and, above all, for foreign painters, whom he held in the most amusing contempt.
It must have been great fun to hear him rage against Correggio and the Carracci; to watch him thump the table and snap his fingers and say, "Historical painters be hanged; here's the man that will paint against any
- ↑ "It happened in the early part of Hogarth's life, that a nobleman who was uncommonly ugly and deformed came to sit to him for his picture. It was executed with a skill that did honour to the artist's abilities; but the likeness was rigidly observed, without even the necessary attention to compliment or flattery. The peer, disgusted at this counterpart of himself, never once thought of paying for a reflection that would only disgust him with his deformities. Some time was suffered to elapse before the artist applied for his money; but afterwards many applications were made by him (who had then no need of a banker) for payment, without success. The painter, however, at last hit upon an expedient. . . . It was couched m the following card:—
"'Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord ———. Finding that he does not mean to have the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of Mr. Hogarth's necessity for the money. If, therefore, his Lordship does not send for it, in three days, it will be disposed of, with the addition of a tail, and some other little appendages, to Mr. Hare, the famous wild beast man; Mr. Hogarth having given that gentleman a conditional promise of it, for an exhibition-picture, on his Lordship's refusal.'
"This intimation had the desired effect."—Works by Nichols and Steevens, vol. i. p. 25.
