Rogers used to call him a 'Sentimental Harlequin;' but
Rogers backbites everybody, and Curran, who used to quiz his great
friend Godwin to his very face, would hardly respect a fair mark of
mimicry in another. To be sure, Curran _was_ admirable! to hear his
description of the examination of an Irish witness was next to hearing
his own speeches; the latter I never heard, but I have the former."
Elsewhere ('ibid'.) he returns to the subject:
"Curran! Curran's the man who struck me most--such imagination! There
never was anything like it, that ever I saw or heard of. His
_published_ life--his published speeches--give you no idea of the man;
none at all. He was a _Machine_ of imagination, as some one said that
Piron was an 'Epigrammatic Machine.' I did not see a great deal of
Curran,--only in 1813; but I met him at home (for he used to call on
me), and in society, at Mackintosh's, Holland House, etc., etc. And he
was wonderful, even to me, who had seen many remarkable men of the
time."
The following notes on this passage are in the handwriting of Walter
Scott:
"When Mathews first began to imitate Curran in Dublin--in society, I
mean,--Curran sent for him and said, the moment he entered the room,
'Mr. Mathews, you are a first-rate artist, and, since you are to do my
picture, pray allow me to give you a sitting.' Everyone knows how
admirably Mathews succeeded in furnishing at last the portraiture
begun under these circumstances.
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