To LADY OSSORY 15 DECEMBER 1786 547 me. In the first place, I did not subscribe for my heirs and executors,1* as it would have been, when the term of completion is twelve years henceJ4—but I am not favourable to sets of prints for authors: I scarce know above one well executed, Coypell's Don Quixote1*—but mercy on us I Our painters to design for Shakespeare! His commenta­ tors have not been more inadequate. Pray, who is to give an idea of Falstaffe, now Quin is dead?—and then Bartolozzi,16 who is only fit to engrave for the Pastor fido/7 will be to give a pretty enamelled fan-mount18 of Macbeth!1* Salvator Rosa might, and Piranesi20 might dash out Duncan's Castle—but Lord help Alderman Boydell21 and the Royal Academy l23 work, Messieurs Boydell also intend to HW's appreciation of Bartolozzi's success publish by subscription a series of large in the pastoral tradition, see MASON i. 386. and capital prints after pictures to be im­ 18. For Bartolozzi's fan mounts, see mediately painted by the following artists A. de Vesme and A. Calabi, Francesco ... Sir Joshua Reynolds [and twelve Bartolozzi, Milan, 1928, pp. 551-6, Nos others named] . . . To be engraved by 2216-26. Mr Bartolozzi [and eight others named]. 19. Bartolozzi engraved only one pic­ As soon as they have all been engraved ture, by William Hamilton, for the large they will be hung up in a gallery, built prints: Plate XXXII, for Twelfth Night, on purpose, and called the Gallery of V. i, published 24 June 1791. Shakespeare.' 20. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78), 13. HW later subscribed to the prints: engraver and architect. 'The sublime he had two incomplete sets (11 numbers, dreams of Piranesi, who seems to have with 55 plates), one a subscriber's set; sub­ conceived visions of Rome beyond what scribers were to receive copies printed in it boasted even in the meridian of its the order in which subscriptions were splendour . . . yet what taste in his bold­ placed (Hazen, Cat. of HW's Lib. 3904; ness! what grandeur in his wildness' Morning Herald 29 Nov.). (Anecdotes of Painting, Works iii. 399). 14. According to Condition VI of the 'Piranesi has a sublime savageness in his proposal, Boydell was to deliver at least engravings like Salvator Rosa. He sees one number annually, but probably two, Rome in its glory and in its decay, with each to consist of at least four prints; at an the same eyes with which Salvator con­ average of six prints a year, seventy-two sidered nature' ('Book of Materials,' 1759, prints (the number mentioned in the p. 148). HW owned Piranesi's Le Antichita advertisement) would require twelve years Romane, Rome, 1756; 4 vols folio (Hazen, (Morning Chronicle 29 Nov.). Actually Cat of HW's Lib. 3543). 100 large prints (plus two frontispieces 21. John Boydell (1719-1804), engraver, and two title-page vignettes) were provided print publisher; alderman for Cheap Ward and 100 illustrations for Steevens's edition. 1782-1804; sheriff (1785) and lord mayor 15. Les Principales aventures de I'admir-(1790-1) of London. He paid well for 170 able Don Quichotte, representees en figureswork s (including three pieces of sculpture), par [Charles-Antoine] Coypel [1694-1752] for his Shakespeare illustrations, which Picart le Romain, et autres, The Hague, were executed by 33 painters and two 1746 (Hazen, Cat. of HW's Lib. 3081). sculptors (Thomas Banks and Mrs Damer). 16. Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), In 1804, forced to dispose of his property engraver, born in Florence; came to Eng­ by lottery, he received enough money to land as engraver to the King, 1764; an pay his debts but died before the drawing. original member of the Royal Academy. 22. HW first wrote 'Family'; see post 22 17. The pastoral drama, 1585, by Gio­ Dec. 1786. vanni Battista Guarini (1537-1612). For