Florentine Ingratitude

XIX

SIR JOSHUA sent his own portrait to

The birthplace of Michael Angelo,

And in the hand of the simpering fool

He put a dirty paper scroll,

And on the paper, to be polite,

Did ‘Sketches by Michael Angelo’ write.

The Florentines said ‘’Tis a Dutch-English bore,

Michael Angelo’s name writ on Rembrandt’s door.’

The Florentines call it an English fetch,

For Michael Angelo never did sketch;

Every line of his has meaning,

And needs neither suckling nor weaning.

’Tis the trading English-Venetian cant

To speak Michael Angelo, and act Rembrandt:

It will set his Dutch friends all in a roar

To write ‘Mich. Ang.’ on Rembrandt’s door;

But you must not bring in your hand a lie

If you mean that the Florentines should buy.

Giotto’s circle or Apelles’ line

Were not the work of sketchers drunk with wine;

Nor of the city clock’s running … fashion;

Nor of Sir Isaac Newton’s calculation.