HIS FAVOURITE SUBJECT.
Distinguished Amateur soliloquiseth:—
There!!! Egotistic ways are my abhorrence;
But if this masterpiece were only hung
In the Uffizi Gallery at Florence,
Where Leighton, like a god, ambrosial, young,
And Millais, in immortal manhood, stand,
Self-limned, for admiration of posterity,
I fancy that this work of my right hand
Would quite eclipse mere Genius, whose temerity
In challenging comparison with Birth
Is really getting something unendurable.
Aha! It moves me to sardonic mirth!
To dream of my position as securable
By mere Bismarckian brain!!! Now, as the god,
I come out admirably. Form and stature,
The threatening eye, and the earth-shaking nod,
All, all to me are simply second nature.
Globe-trampling foot, and hand that grips the bolt,—
Aye, and the lyre when I would play Apollo—
Are mine! Will low-born Genius dare revolt,
Or where I lead Greatness decline to follow?
Absurd! I hardly know in what great guise
To paint my greatness! I have sung of Ægir,
But he was but a sea-god, and his size
And strength compared with mine were small and meagre.
I am a Joint-stock Deity, as 'twere,
Olympus in a nutshell, Neptune, Mars,
The Cloud-Compeller and the Sungod fair.
Here I'm pure Jove. And yet somehow it jars
Upon my spirit to be so restricted
To one immortal guise, however grand.
Hah! Gods by their own pencils thus depicted
Would make a New Valhalla e'en my hand
Need not disdain to add to. If Narcissus
Had been a painter, now! There is no stream,
Though clear as my own Rhine or the Ilissus,
Could do me justice. I must paint my dream
Of my Supernal Self. A mere reflection
From Nature's mirror would but mar my beauty.
No; I must limn myself for the inspection
Of men and gods; it is a simple duty.
This does not satisfy me. And it is
Too late, I fear, for Grandmamma's R.A.
Besides, those English journalists might quiz
Even Imperial Art. They've their own way
Too much by far in that ill-ordered isle,
Those cheeky critic-fellows. Let me catch
A Teuton quill-driver who'll dare to smile
Upon a masterpiece he cannot match!!!
[Left touching it up.