Have no delight to pass away the time;
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity;
And, therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair, well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain.
I hear a devil and see a devil, in a shape which only the devil should wear.
XXIV.
Such is the use which the poet makes of ugliness of form. How can the painter legitimately employ it?
Painting as imitative skill can express ugliness; painting as a fine art will not express it. In the former capacity its sphere extends over all visible objects; in the latter it confines itself to those which produce agreeable impressions.