>. 
WValpoliana, No. Il. 
XLIV. PORTRAITS. 
X prefer portraits, really interefting, 
not only to land{cape-painting, but to 
hiftory. A landfcape is, we will fay, an 
exquifite diftribution of wood, and water, 
and buildings. It is excellent—we pafs | 
on, and it leaves not one trace in the me-. 
In hiftorical painting there may 
mory. 
be Jublime deception—but it not only al- 
ways falls fhort of the idea, but is always 
felfe; that is, has the greateft blemifh 
incidental to hiftory. It is commonly 
falfe in the coffume; generally in the por- 
traits; always in the grouping and atti- 
tudes, which the painter, if not prefent, 
cannot poflibly delineate as they really 
were. Call it fabulous-painting, and I 
have no objection.—But areal portrait we 
know is truth itfelf: and it calls up fo 
many collateral ideas, as to fill an intel- 
ligent mind more than any other fpecies. 
XLV. AUTHORS IN FLOWER—MYSTE- 
RIOUS MOTHER. 
At Strawberry Hill, 19th Sept. 1784, 
Mr. Walpole remarked that, at a certain 
time of their lives, men of genius feemed 
to be iz flower. Gray was in flower 
three years, when he wrote his odes, &c. 
This ftarting the idea of the American 
aloe, fome kinds of which are faid to 
~ flower only once in a century, he ob- 
ferved, laughing, that had Gray lived a 
hundred years longer, perhaps he would 
have been in flower again. Sir Charles 
Hanbury Williams bore only one bloffom; 
he was in flower only for one ode. 
Next evening, about eleven o’clock, 
Mr. Walpole gave me the Myiterious 
Mother to read, while he went to Mrs. 
Clive’s for an hour-or two.. The date was 
remarkable, as the play hinges on an 
anniverfary twentieth of September, 

but often as returns 
The twentieth of September, -&c. 
This odd circumftance conf{pired with the 
complete {olitude of the Gothic apart- 
ments, to lend an additional imprefien to 
the fuperftitious parts of that tragedy. In 
point of lanouage, and the true expreffion 
of paffion and feeling, the new and juft 
delineation of monattic fraud, tyranny, and 
cruelty; it deferves the greateft praife. 
But it is furprifing that a man of his tafte 
and judgment fhould have added to the. 
improbability of the tale, inftead of mel- 
lowing it with fofterfhades. This might 
be cured by altering one page of the 
countefs’s confeffion in the lait ac&t.— 
The ftory, as told in Luther’s Table 
‘Talk, feems more ancient than that in 
the Tales of the Queen of Navarre. 
to be advertifed. 
ftolen impreffions were of courfe drepped, 
357 
On Mr. Walpole’s return, he faid he. , 
had printed a few copies of this tragedy 
at Strawberry Hill, to give to his friends. 
Some of them falling into improper hands, 
two furreptitious editions: were advertifed. 
Mr. W. in corfequence defired Dodfley to 
print an edition 1781, and even caufed it 
But finding that the 
he ordered his not to be iffued, and noas 
were ever fold. 
XLVI. GRAY’S POLITICS. - 
I never rightly underftood Mr. Gray’s 
political opinions. Sometimes he feemed 
to incline to the fide of authority; fome- 
times to that of the people. 
This is indeed natural to an ingenuous | 
and candid mind. When a portion of the 
people thews grofs vices, or idle feditien, 
arifing from mere ignorance or prejudice ; 
one wifhes it checked by authority. 
When the governors purfue wicked plans, 
or weak meafures, one wifhes a {pirited 
oppofition by the people at large. 
XLVII. DR. ROBERTSONe 
Dr. Robertfon called on me t’other 
day. We talked of fome political af- 
fairs ; and he concluded his opinion with, 
<< for you muft know, fir, that I look 
upon myfelf as a moderate whig.”” My 
anfwer was, ‘ yes, doctor, I look on you 
asa very moderate whig.” 
XLVIII. BRITISH EMPIRE. 
We now talk of the Britith empire, and 
of Titus and Trajan, who were abfolure 
emperors. In my time it was the Britifh 
monarchy, Whatis this mighty empire 
over ten or twelve millions of people, and 
a few trading colonies? People fhut up in 
an ifland have always pride enough—but 
this is too ridiculous even for flattery to 
invent, and the abfolute power of a 
Roman emperor to fwallow, along with 
an apotheofs. 
XLIX. DON QUIXOTTE. 
Don Quixotte is no favourite of mine. 
When a man is once fo mad, as to mii- 
take a wind-mill for a giant, what more is 
to be faid, but an infipid repetition of 
miftakes, or an uncharacteriftic deviation 
from them 2 oe 
[ This judgment was furely too harfh. It is 
the minute defeription of life and character, as 
they occur in Spain, that interefts us 1m read- 
ing Don Quixotte, and make us pardon the ex- 
travagance of the chief character, and the in- 
fipidity of the paftoral fcenes. ‘The epifodes are 
bud; except the tale of the Spanith captive 
and his Moorifh. miftreis,, which 1s, wrought 
up with great truth and nature.] 
L. vo L- 
