The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Chapter LXVIII

292 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle each other in the representation of a curtain and a bunch of grapes;17 for he had exhibited the image of a certain object so like to nature, that the bare sight of it set a whole hog-sty in an uproar. When he had examined and applauded all the productions of this minute artist, they returned to the great church, and were entertained with the view of that celebrated master-piece of Rubens, in which he has introduced the portraits of himself and his whole family.18 The doors that conceal this capital performance were no sooner unfolded , than our enthusiast, debarred the use of speech, by a previous covenant with his friend Pickle, lifted up his hands and eyes, and putting himself in the attitude of Hamlet , when his father’s ghost appears,19 adored in silent extasy and awe. He even made a merit of necessity; and when they had withdrawn from the place, protested that his whole faculties were swallowed up in love and admiration. He now professed himself more than ever enamoured of the Flemish school, raved in extravagant encomiums, and proposed, that the whole company should pay homage to the memory of the divine Rubens, by repairing forthwith to the house in which he lived,20 and prostrating themselves on the floor of his painting room. As there was nothing remarkable in the tenement, which had been rebuilt more than once since the death of that great man, Peregrine excused himself from complying with the proposal, on pretence of being fatigued with the circuit they had already performed. Jolter declined it for the same reason; and the question being put to the doctor, he refused his company with an air of disdain. Pallet, piqued at his contemptuous manner, asked if he would not go and see the habitation of Pindoor, provided he was in the city where that poet lived? And when the physician observed, that there was an infinite difference between the men; “That I’ll allow, (replied the painter) for the devil a poet ever lived in Greece or Troy, that was worthy to clean the pencils of our beloved Rubens.” The physician could not with any degree of temper and forbearance hear this outrageous blasphemy, for which, he said, Pallet’s eyes ought to be picked out by owls: and the dispute rose, as usual, to such scurrilities of language and indecency of behaviour, that passengers began to take notice of their animosity; and Peregrine was obliged to interpose, for his own credit. chapter lxviii. Peregrine artfully foments a quarrel between Pallet and the physician, who fight a duel on the ramparts. The painter betook himself to the house of the Flemish Raphael, and the rest of the company went back to their lodgings; where the young gentleman, taking the advantage of being alone with the physician, recapitulated all the affronts he had sustained from the painter’s petulance, aggravating every circumstance of the disgrace, and advising him, in the capacity of a friend, to take care of his honour, which could Volume Two, Chapter LXVIII 293 not fail to suffer in the opinion of the world, if he allowed himself to be insulted with impunity, by one so much his inferior in every degree of consideration. The physician assured him, that Pallet had hitherto escaped chastisement, by being deemed an object unworthy his resentment, and in consideration of the wretch’s family , for which his compassion was interested; but, that repeated injuries would inflame the most benevolent disposition: and although he could find no precedent of duelling among the Greeks and Romans, whom he considered as the patterns of demeanour, Pallet should no longer avail himself of his veneration for the ancients, but be punished for the very next offence he should commit. Having thus spirited up the doctor to a resolution from which he could not decently swerve, our adventurer acted the incendiary with the other party also; giving him to understand, that the physician treated his character with such contempt, and behaved to him with such insolence, as no gentleman ought to bear: that for his own part, he was every day put out of countenance by their mutual animosity, which appeared in nothing but vulgar expressions, more becoming shoe-boys and oyster-women than men of honour and education; and therefore he should be obliged, contrary to his inclination , to break off all correspondence with them both, if they...