lay before her, like that of a sheep, for her dinner.[54] None of the sober grief, no dignity of suppressed anguish, no involuntary tear, no settled meditation on the fate she meant to meet, no amorous warmth turned holy by despair; in short, all was wanting that should have been there, all was there that such a story would have banished from a mind capable of conceiving such complicated woe; woe so sternly felt, and yet so tenderly. _Hogarth's_ performance was more ridiculous than any thing he had ever ridiculed. He set the price of 400 _l._ on it, and had it returned on his hands by the person for whom it was painted. He took subscriptions for a plate of it; but had the sense, at last, to suppress it. I make no more apology for this account than for the encomiums I have bestowed on him. Both are dictated by truth, and are the history of a great man's excellencies and errors. _Milton_, it is said, preferred his _Paradise Regained_ to his immortal poem."[55] _Hogarth_, however, gave directions before his death that the _Sigismunda_ should not be sold under 500 _l._ and, greatly as he might have been mortified by _Churchill's_ invective, and the coldness with which the picture was received by the rest of the world,[56] he never wholly abandoned his design of having a plate prepared from it. Finding abundant consolation in the flattery of self-love, he appealed from the public judgement to his own, and had actually talked with the celebrated Mr. _Hall_ about the price of the engraving, which was to have been executed from a smaller painting,[57] copied by himself from the large one. Death alone secured him from the contempt such obstinacy would have riveted on his name. To express a sorrow like that of _Tancred's_ daughter, few modern artists are fully qualified. We must except indeed Sir _Joshua Reynolds_, with whose pencil Beauty in all her forms, and the passions in all their varieties, are equally familiar. Since the preceding paragraph was written, the compiler of this volume has seen an unfinished plate of _Sigismunda_, attempted after the manner of _Edelinck_, etched by Mr. _Basire_, but not bit-in, and from which consequently no proof can have been taken. The size of the plate is 18 inches by 16½. The outlines in general, and particularly of the face, were completed under the immediate direction of Mr. _Hogarth_.[58] It was intended to be published by subscription.[59] The plate itself is still in the hands of Mr. _Basire_.