The English Spy: An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous.: Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The LifeWestmacott, C. M. (Charles Molloy)
General
The English Spy: An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous.: Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The Life
Westmacott, C. M. (Charles Molloy)
England -- Social life and customs; Satire, English; University of Oxford -- Anecdotes
extends through every gradation of the juvenile band. His particular
attachments are not numerous; but those who have experienced the
sincerity of his private friendship must always remain his debtor--from
deficiency of expression; among the most obliged of whom is--the author.
Bob Transit. Bob has no fixed situation; therefore it would be in vain
to attempt to say where he may be found: sometimes he is placed next to
Bernard, and between him and Heartly, with whom he generally associates;
at other times he takes his situation at the side table, or fills up a
spare corner opposite to Dick Gradus, or the exquisite, either of whom
he annoys, during dinner, by sketching their portraits in caricature
upon the cover of his Latin Grammar, with their mouths crammed full of
victuals, or in the act of swallowing hot pudding: nor does the dame
sometimes escape him; the whole table have frequently been convulsed
with laughter at Bob's comic representation of Miss --------'s devout
phiz, as exhibited during the preparatory ceremony of a dinner grace:
the soul of whim, and source of fun and frolic, Bob is no mean auxiliary
to a merry party, or the exhilarating pleasure of a broad grin.
~40~~
Bob's _admiral_ is an R.A. of very high repute; who, having surmounted
all the difficulties of obscure origin and limited education, by the
brilliancy of his talents, has determined to give his son the advantage
of early instruction and liberal information, as a prelude to his
advancement in the arts. Talent is not often hereditary (or at least in
succession); but the facility of Transit's pencil is astonishing: with
the rapidity of a Fuseli he sketches the human figure in all its various
attitudes, and produces in his hasty drawings so much force of effect
and truth of character, that the subject can never be mistaken. His
humour is irresistible, and is strongly characterized by all the
eccentricity and wit of a Gilhay, turning the most trifling incidents
into laughable burlesque. Between him and Horace Eglantine there exists
a sort of copartnership in the sister arts of poetry and painting:
Horace rhymes, and Bob illustrates; and very few in the school of any
note have at one time or other escaped this combination of epigram
and caricature. Bob has an eye to real life, and is formed for all the
bustle of the varied scene. Facetious, witty, and quaint, with all
the singularity of genius in his composition, these juvenile _jeux
d'esprits_ of his pencil may be regarded as the rays of promise, which
streak with golden tints the blushing horizon of the morn of youth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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