The picture is well imagined,
and finely executed.
I found upon the bulk of a _portable shop_ in _Paris_, a most excellent
engraving from this picture,[I] and which carried me directly to visit
the original; it is indeed stained and dirty, but it is infinitely
superior to a later engraving which now hangs up in all the print shops,
and I suppose is from the first plate, which was done soon after the
picture was finished. Under it are written the following ingenious, tho'
I fear, rather impious lines:
Magdala dam gemmas, baccisque monile coruscum
Projicit, ac formae detrahit arma suae:
Dum vultum lacrymis et lumina turbat; amoris
Mirare insidias! hac capit arte Deum.
[I] In the possession of Mr. GAINSBOROUGH.
Shall I attempt to unfold this writer's meaning? Yes, I will, that my
friend at _Oxford_ may laugh, and do it as it ought to be done.
I.
The pearls and gems, her beauty's arms,
See sad VALLIERE foregoes;
And now assumes far other charms
Superior still to those.
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