Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/17

 had been resolved to make a fool of himself by holding the wig stiff in his left hand—or by making some nonsensical angle or other at his elbow joint, or armpit)—his whole attitude had been easy—natural—unforced: Reynolds himself, as great and gracefully as he paints, might have painted him as he sat.

Now, as my father managed this matter,—consider what a devil of a figure my father made of himself.

—In the latter end of Queen Anne's reign, and in the beginning of the reign of King George the first,—"Coat pockets were cut very low down in the skirt."—I need say no more—the father of mischief, had he had been hammering at it a month, could not have contrived a worse fashion for one in my father's situation.