John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character

By Thackeray, William Makepeace

Book Id: WPLBN0000676863
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.1 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character
Author:	Thackeray, William Makepeace
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Literature, Literature & drama
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, Penn State University's Electronic Classics Series Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Penn State University's Electronic Classics


Citation APA MLA Chicago Makepeace Thackeray, B. W. (n.d.). John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Excerpt
Excerpt: We, who can recall the consulship of Plancus, and quite respectable, old-fogyfied times, re member amongst other amusements which we had as children the pictures at which we were permitted to look. There was Boydell?s Shakespeare, black and ghastly gallery of murky Opies, glum Northcotes, straddling Fuselis! there were Lear, Oberon, Hamlet, with starting muscles, rolling eyeballs, and long pointing quivering fingers; there was little Prince Arthur (Northcote) crying, in white satin, and bidding good Hubert not put out his eyes; there was Hubert crying; there was little Rutland being run through the poor little body by bloody Clifford; there was Cardinal Beaufort (Reynolds) gnashing his teeth, and grinning and howling demoniacally on his death-bed (a picture frightful to the present day); there was Lady Hamilton (Romney) waving a torch, and dancing before a black background,--a melancholy museum indeed. Smirke?s delightful ?Seven Ages? only fitfully relieved its general gloom. We did not like to inspect it unless the elders were present, and plenty of lights and company were in the room.