THE ARTS.

No. XIX.

ANECDOTES AND ECCENTRICITIES OF PAINTERS. OTHO MASSEUS. This Artist was celebrated for his paintings of Reptiles, Insects, and Plants. He devoted many hours of every day in search of vipers, adders, snakes, and those peculiar plants under which they sheltered themselves, or on which they were supposed to feed, Houbraken relates that he had a small spot of ground, at a little distance from Amsterdain, well ens closed, where he preserved all his poisonous reptiles, and fed them every day with his own hand: by which management he made them so familiar, that they would at any time readily come abroad into the open air, whenever he wanted to paint them; and lie quietly in any position, just as he thought proper to place them, and as long as he had occasion to observe them.

FELIX MEYER. This painter acquired an extraordinary freedom of hand, and a singular readiness of execution, that equalled the vivacity of his imagination; of which he gave a remarkable proof at the Abbey of St. Florian, in Austria, where he happened to stop in his travels. The Abbot being desirous of having two grand apartments painted in fresco, and having consulted another Artist about it, who seemed very dilatory, applied to Meyer for his advice, in what manner he would have it executed. Meyer, for a few minutes, viewed and considered the place, and then taking a long stick, to which he fastened a piece of charcoal, he immediately began to design, saying, "here I would have a tree;" which he marked out as quick as possible: " at the remote distance, I would represent a forest, thus; here a fall of water, tumbling from great rocks;" and so on. As fast as he spoke, he designed; and deprived the Abbot of the power of expressing his approbation, so much was he lost in astonishment to see a design, with such elegance and taste; executed even without any time allowed for reflection. At the Abbot's request, Meyer undertook to finish the design: the other painter was dismissed, and the whole work was completed in

one summer.

PETER MOLYN. Having spent several years at Rome, he détermined to visit Genoa, where the reputation he

had already acquired obtained for him a most honourable reception, and as much work as he could possibly execute. There he might have lived in an affluent situation, superior even to his hope, if he had not unhappily grown not only dissolute, but unpardonably vicious. He fell deeply in love with a Genoese lady, and left no art untried to seduce her; but finding all his attempts ineffectual, he proposed to marry her; although it was sufficiently known in Genoa that he had been married at Rome for a considerable time before, and that his wife was then alive, residing in that city.

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When that objection was urged by the lady and her friends, he was exceedingly mortified; and resolved to have his wife assassinated to remove that obstruction. person proper for the villainous purpose was soon engaged; and, to conceal the transaction as much as possible from public notice, he wrote an affectionate letter to his wife by that messenger, requesting her to accompany the bearer to Genoa. As she had a real affection for her husband, and wished to be with him, she readily obeyed his commands, and was murdered on her journey.

Yet, notwithstanding the secrecy of that scene of cruelty, the affair became suspected, and Molyn was directly seized, imprisoned, and, after full conviction, sentenced to be hanged. But, by the interest and application of the nobility, who regarded him highly for his extraordinary talents, the severity of the sentence was suspended, and he was retained in prison for a great length of time; nor would he probably have ever been released, had it not been effected by a very critical accicident for, when Lewis XIV. bombarded Genoa, all the prisons were set open, and Molyn laid hold of that opportunity to escape to Placentia, after a confinement of sixteen years. From this affair he was nick-named Pietro Mulier, or de Mulieribus, by which he was ever after known throughout all Italy.

PETER PEUTEMAN. This artist was requested to paint an emblematical picture of Mortality, representing human skulls and bones, surrounded with rich gems and musical instruments, to express the vanity of this world's pleasures, amusements, or possessions; and, that he might imitate nature with the greater exactness, he went into an anatomy-room, where several skeletons hung by wires from the cieling, and bones, skulls, &c. lay scattered about, and immediately prepared to make his designs,

While he was thus employed, either by fatigue, or by intense study, insensibly he fell asleep, but was supdenly roused by a shock of an earthquake, which happened at that instant, on the 18th of September, 1692. The moment he awoke, he observed the skeletons move about as they were shaken in different directions, and the loose skulls roll from one side of the room to the other; and being totally ignorant of the cause, he was struck with such a horror, that he threw himself down stairs, and tumbled into the street, half dead. His friends took all possible pains to efface the impression made on his mind by that unlucky event, and acquainted him with the real cause of the agitations of the skeletons; yet the transaction still affected his spirits in so violent a manner, that it brought on a disorder which in a very short time ended his days.

PUNCH BOUGHT BY A LORD.

THERE is a ridiculous story told of a foolish Lord, who, being entertained at a puppet-show by the humours of Punch, purchased him of the exhibitor; and on finding he lost his wit in his new habitation, sent for his former master to complain of the disappointment.

We all laugh at this as the extreme of folly, and yet we see the same thing before our eyes every day in a thousand instances. How often is a man envied for the possession of a thing, the merit of which arises only from his management of it, and which would be entirely lost in the hands of the envier ! How many Generals, who talk of the advantage of military discipline, would have been defeated by a thousand Persians, if they had commanded the ten thousand of Xenophou! How many men, who envy their friends for having the best-bitted horses, and the meekest wives, would be thrown by the quietest pony, and henpecked by Griselda herself! How many silent senators, who wish for the eloquence and the confidence of a Pitt or a Fox, would only expose their own folly by the acquisition !

-Quid rides? Mutato nomine, de te
Fabula narratur.

WOODWARD, THE COMEDIAN.

HENRY WOODWARD was born in London in 1717, was educated at Merchant-Tailors' school, and at first engaged in the business of a tallow-chandler. He was then bound apprentice to the late Mr. Rich, under whose tuition he became qualified for a Harlequin. His subsequent success as a comic actor is too well known to need commemoration. After he had saved about 60001. from his emoluments on the stages in London, he lost it all again by imprudently commencing manager in Ireland. He then returned to Covent-garden, where he continued till the time of his death, which happened April 17, 1777, occasioned by an accident as he was jumping on a table in the character of Scrub. During his illness, the late Dr. Isaac. Schomberg (his schoolfellow), who attended him, refused the acceptance of a single fee. To have been thus respected by a man of distinguished integrity is no small degree of praise. Mr. Woodward was the author of a farce called "Marplot in Lisbon;" and "The Man's the Master," a comedy, in 1775, 8vo.

M. DE VIELLEVILLE.

FRANCIS the First having appointed this French nobleman Captain of a regiment of which he had been Lieutenant, sent for him to announce his promotion to him. Vielleville humbly thanked his Majesty for the honour he had conferred upon him, but begged to decline it, as he said he had "done nothing as yet worthy of it." His sovereign replied, “Why, Sir, I am very much mistaken then; for I thought, if you had been five hundred miles off, that you would have galloped night and day to ask this rank of me; and now I offer it to you myself, you refuse it. I cannot tell, I am sure, on what other occasion you can expect that I should give it to you.". "Sire," replied Vielleville, " on the day of battle, when I shall have done something to deserve it; but if I accept of the honour your Majesty intends for me at this instant, all my companions will ridicule me for accepting it, and suppose that it was given me in consideration of my being the near relation of the officer who last held it. I assure your Majesty I had rather die than obtain rank through any other medium than that of service."