Lamb is
described by Carlyle as 'the leanest of mankind; tiny black breeches
buttoned to the knee-cap and no further, surmounting spindle legs also in
black, face and head fineish, black, bony, lean, and of a Jew type
rather'; and Talfourd says that the best portrait of him is his own
description of Braham--'a compound of the Jew, the gentleman, and the
angel.' William Godwin was 'short and stout, his clothes loosely and
carelessly put on, and usually old and worn; his hands were generally in
his pockets; he had a remarkably large, bald head, and a weak voice;
seeming generally half asleep when he walked, and even when he talked.'
Lord Charlemont spoke of David Hume as more like a 'turtle-eating
alderman' than 'a refined philosopher.' Mary Russell Mitford was ill-
naturedly described by L.E.L. as 'Sancho Panza in petticoats!'; and as
for poor Rogers, who was somewhat cadaverous, the descriptions given of
him are quite dreadful. Lord Dudley once asked him 'why, now that he
could afford it, he did not set up his hearse,' and it is said that
Sydney Smith gave him mortal offence by recommending him 'when he sat for
his portrait to be drawn saying his prayers, with his face hidden in his
hands,' christened him the 'Death dandy,' and wrote underneath a picture
of him, 'Painted in his lifetime.' We must console ourselves--if not
with Mr. Hardy's statement that 'ideal physical beauty is incompatible
with mental development, and a full recognition of the evil of things'--at
least with the pictures of those who had some comeliness, and grace, and
charm. Dr. Grosart says of a miniature of Edmund Spenser, 'It is an
exquisitely beautiful face. The brow is ample, the lips thin but mobile,
the eyes a grayish-blue, the hair and beard a golden red (as of "red
monie" of the ballads) or goldenly chestnut, the nose with
semi-transparent nostril and keen, the chin firm-poised, the expression
refined and delicate. Altogether just such "presentment" of the Poet of
Beauty par excellence, as one would have imagined.' Antony Wood
describes Sir Richard Lovelace as being, at the age of sixteen, 'the most
amiable and beautiful person that ever eye beheld.' Nor need we wonder
at this when we remember the portrait of Lovelace that hangs at Dulwich
College. Barry Cornwall, described himself by S. C. Hall as 'a decidedly
rather pretty little fellow,' said of Keats: 'His countenance lives in my
mind as one of singular beauty and brightness,--it had an expression as
if he had been looking on some glorious sight.' Chatterton and Byron
were splendidly handsome, and beauty of a high spiritual order may be
claimed both for Milton and Shelley, though an industrious gentleman
lately wrote a book in two volumes apparently for the purpose of proving
that the latter of these two poets had a snub nose. Hazlitt once said
that 'A man's life may be a lie to himself and others, and yet a picture
painted of him by a great artist would probably stamp his character.' Few
of the word-portraits in Miss Wotton's book can be said to have been
drawn by a great artist, but they are all interesting, and Miss Wotton
has certainly shown a wonderful amount of industry in collecting her
references and in grouping them.