[Footnote 80: If "dosed with," etc. be censured as low, I beg leave to
refer to the original for something still lower; and if any reader will
translate "Minxerit in patrios cineres," etc. into a decent couplet, I
will insert said couplet in lieu of the present.]
[Footnote i:
ATHENS, 'March 2nd, 1811'.
['MS. L.' (a).]
ATHENS, 'March 12th, 1811'.
['MS. L. (i), MS. M.']]
[Footnote ii:
'If [A] West or Lawrence, (take whichever 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).] ]
[Sub-Footnote A: 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]]
[Footnote iii: After line 6, the following lines (erased) were inserted:--
'Or patch a Mammoth up with wings and limbs,
And fins of aught that flies or walks or swims'.
['MS. M'.]