New graces yearly like thy works display,
Soft without weakness, without glaring gay;
Led by some rule that guides but not constrains,
And finish'd more through happiness than pains."
In what light can we consider the character painted by the bard when we compare it with the pictures painted by the artist? It has been truly said, that "the poet has enshrined the feeble talents of the painter in the lucid amber of his glowing lines."
The conclusion of his epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller affords another notable example:—
"Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herself may die."
[62] Were the head of the "Satyr of the Wood" (No. 3) close shaved, and dignified with a clerical periwig, it would bear a strong resemblance to Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of the author of Tristram Shandy.
[63] Which he is said to have caricatured in this plate.