Was Rafael, think you, when he painted his pictures of the
Virgin and Child in all their inconceivable truth and beauty of
expression, thinking most of his subject or of himself? Do you
suppose that Titian, when he painted a landscape, was pluming
himself on being thought the finest colorist in the world, or
making himself so by looking at nature? Do you imagine that
Shakespeare, when he wrote “Lear” or “Othello,” was thinking of
anything but “Lear” and “Othello”? Or that Mr. Kean, when he
plays these characters, is thinking of the audience? No; he who
would be great in the eyes of others, must first learn to be
nothing in his own. (Text.)--WILLIAM HAZLITT.
(2868)