, instead of making the
mayor issue out of the Norman arch, he had painted him moving under the
sign of the 'Checquers,' or the 'Three Brewers,' with mace--yes, with
mace,--the mace appears in the picture issuing out of the Norman arch
behind the mayor,--but likewise with Snap, and with whiffler, quart pot,
and frying-pan, Billy Blind and Owlenglass, Mr. Petulengro and
Pakomovna;--then, had he clapped his own legs upon the mayor, or any one
else in the concourse, what matter? But I repeat that I have no hope of
making heroic pictures out of English mayors, or, indeed, out of English
figures in general. England may be a land of heroic hearts, but it is
not, properly, a land of heroic figures, or heroic posture-making. Italy
. . . what was I going to say about Italy?

CHAPTER XXXIX

No authority whatever--Interference--Wondrous farrago--Brandt and
Struensee--What a life!--The hearse--Mortal relics--Great poet--Fashion
and fame--What a difference--Oh, beautiful--Good for nothing.

And now once more to my pursuits, to my Lives and Trials. However
partial at first I might be to these lives and trials, it was not long
before they became regular trials to me, owing to the whims and caprices
of the publisher. I had not been long connected with him before I
discovered that he was wonderfully fond of interfering with other
people's business--at least with the business of those who were under his
control. What a life did his unfortunate authors lead! He had many in
his employ toiling at all kinds of subjects--I call them authors because
there is something respectable in the term author, though they had little
authorship in, and no authority whatever over, the works on which they
were engaged. It is true the publisher interfered with some colour of
reason, the plan of all and every of the works alluded to having
originated with himself; and, be it observed, many of his plans were
highly clever and promising, for, as I have already had occasion to say,
the publisher in many points was a highly clever and sagacious person;
but he ought to have been contented with planning the works originally,
and have left to other people the task of executing them, instead of
which he marred everything by his rage for interference. If a book of
fairy tales was being compiled, he was sure to introduce some of his
philosophy, explaining the fairy tale by some theory of his own. Was a
book of anecdotes on hand, it was sure to be ha