good Protestant times.

A good number of stories are told of Holbein. Unable to pay his debts in
a tavern, he discharged the bill by decorating the walls with paintings
of flowers. Another time, for a similar purpose, he covered the walls
all over with "the merry dance of peasants;" and in order to deceive one
of his employers, he painted his own legs beneath the high scaffolding,
that the watchful citizen should not suspect his having abandoned his
work to carouse in wine-cellars. Here our biographer gravely says, "a
man of spirit could not be expected to sit quietly painting the whole
day long in the heat of the sun, or in the rain; if he saw a good friend
go to the tavern, he felt disposed to follow him." Holbein did not keep
the best company; but in this he resembled Rembrandt, who said, that
when he wished to amuse himself, he avoided the company of the great,
which put a restraint upon him; "for pleasure," he adds, "consists in
perfect liberty only." Holbein no doubt felt a contempt for the great
people of his time, as they did not understand much about his art, which
he valued above all things.

Holbein's wife, and he married early, was a perfect Xantippe, too shrewd
to be despised, and not handsome enough to be admired. In the library at
Basel is a family picture of Holbein, in which she is introduced, almost
unconscious of the two children about her; but Holbein very shrewdly
forgot to paint himself there. But he took care of the interests of his
family, and obtained them a pension from the magistrates of Basel,
during his stay in England. This pension was paid for past services, and
in order to induce him finally to fix his residence in Switzerland.

The absence of matrimonial felicity was probably an additional motive
for Holbein to seek employment as an itinerant painter. He visited