the first nobleman who sat to
him; and his example was followed by the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of
Leinster, the Marquis of Exeter, and others. The ladies flocked less
readily around him; for Lawrence had then, as he continued to have, the
entire artist monopoly of the beauty of Great Britain.

Much to the surprise of his friends, and to the infinite wonder of some
of his brethren in the Academy, Mr. Shee made his appearance as a poet by
the publication, in 1805, of his "Rhymes on Art, or the Remonstrance of a
Painter; in two parts, with Notes and a Preface, including Strictures on
the State of the Arts, Criticism, Patronage, and Public Taste": and the
wonder had not ceased with Nollekins and Northcote, when, in 1809, he
published a second poem, in six cantos, entitled "Elements of Art." It is
to these poems that Byron alludes in his "English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers":

"And here let Shee and Genius find a place,
Whose pen and pencil yield an equal grace;
To guide whose hand the sister-arts combine,
And trace the poet's or painter's line;
Whose magic touch can bid the canvas glow,
Or pour the easy rhyme's harmonious flow;
While honors, doubly merited, attend
The poet's rival, but the painter's friend."

The _Quarterly_ was complimentary, but less kind to the painter than the
noble lord.

Mr. Shee appears to have always evinced taste for the theater; and when
his gravity of years and his position as a popular portrait-painter
forbade his any longer entertaining a wish to appear there, he began to
woo the dramatic Muse, and commenced a tragedy called "Alasco," of which
the scene was laid in Poland. The play was accepted at Covent Garden, but
excluded, it was said, from the stage by Colman, who was then licenser.
This is not strictly true. Colman objected to about eighty-five lines,
which Shee refused to alter. Colman was equally obstinate; and Shee in
1824 printed his play, and appealed to the public against the licenser in
a lengthy and angry preface. "Alasco," notwithstanding, is still on the
list of the unacted drama.

On the death of Lawrence in 1830, Shee was elected President of the Royal
Academy, and immediately knighted. His election was by a large majority,
though Wilkie was a candidate; the members being governed in their votes
rather, it is said, by the necessities of their annual dinner than by
their sense of the merits of Shee as a painter. He excelled in short,
well-timed and wel