Chapter V (3)

I have been the more particular in describing this plate, as it appears to have been the first which Hogarth published on his own account, and respecting which he pathetically says: "I had to encounter a monopoly of printsellers, equally mean and destructive to the ingenious; for the first plate I published, called 'The Taste of the Town,' in which the reigning follies were lashed, had no sooner begun to take a run, than I found copies of it in the print-shops vending at half price, while the original prints were returned to me again; and I was thus obliged to sell the plate for whatever these pirates pleased to give me, as there was no place of sale but their shops. Owing to this and other circumstances, by engraving, until I was near thirty, I could do little more than maintain myself; but even then I was a punctual paymaster."

BEGGARS' OPERA BURLESQUED.

This plate seems at once to represent the exhibition of _The Beggars' Opera_, and the rehearsal of an Italian one. In the former, all the characters are drawn with the heads of different animals: as Polly with a cat's; Lucy with a sow's; Macheath with that of an ass; Lockit, and Mr. and Mrs. Peachum, with those of an ox, a dog, and an owl. In the latter, several noblemen appear conducting the chief female singer forward on the stage; and perhaps are offering her money, or protection from a figure that is rushing towards her with a drawn sword.

Harmony, flying in the air, turns her back on the English playhouse, and hastens towards the rival theatre. Musicians stand in front of the former, playing on the Jew's harp, the salt-box, the bladder and string, bagpipes, etc. On one side are people of distinction, some of whom kneel, as if making an offer to Polly, or paying their adorations to her. To these are opposed a butcher, etc., expressing similar applause. Apollo and one of the muses are fast asleep beneath the stage. A man is indelicately seated under a wall hung with ballads, and showing his contempt of such compositions by the use he makes of them. A sign of the star, a gibbet, and some other circumstances less intelligible, appear in the background.

TWELVE PRINTS OF HUDIBRAS.

This well-imagined series of plates was designed by Hogarth, and engraved by himself, for the matchless poem of Butler. Each plate is illustrated by an appropriate quotation from the facetious satirist; and as our ingenious artist formed his designs from an attentive perusal of the poem, his engravings, and the extracts selected under each of them, reciprocally explain each other. "His 'Hudibras,'" says Mr. Walpole, "was the first of his works that marked him as a man above the common; yet," adds the critic, somewhat too fastidiously, "what made him then noticed now surprises us, to find so little humour in an undertaking so congenial to his talents."

The original title ran thus: "Twelve excellent and most diverting Prints, taken from the celebrated Poem of Hudibras, wrote by Samuel Butler; exposing the villany and hypocrisy of the times. Invented and engraved on twelve copperplates by William Hogarth; and are humbly dedicated to William Ware, Esq., of Great Houghton, in Northamptonshire, and Mr. Allan Ramsay, of Edinburgh."

"What excellence can brass or marble claim?
These papers better do secure thy fame;
Thy verse all monuments does far surpass,
No mausoleum's like thy 'Hudibras.'"

Allan Ramsay subscribed for thirty sets, and the number of subscribers amounted to one hundred and ninety-two. The original plates were afterwards purchased by Mr. Philip Overton. They subsequently passed into the hands of the late Mr. Robert Sayer; and it is certain that Hogarth often lamented the having parted with his property in them without ever having had an opportunity to improve them.

In the first of these plates is a portrait inscribed, "Mr. Samuel Butler, born 1612, Author of Hudibras, died 1680." The basso-relievo of the pedestal represents Butler's Genius in a car, lashing round Mount Parnassus, in the persons of Hudibras and Ralpho, Rebellion, Hypocrisy, and Ignorance, the reigning vices and follies of the time. In the scene of the Committee (Plate IX.), one of the members has his gloves on his head. "I am told," says Mr. Steevens, "this whimsical custom once prevailed among our sanctified fraternity; but it is in vain, I suppose, to ask the reason why." This doubt, however, has since produced from a respectable divine an intimation that he has frequently heard his father, who died some years ago at an advanced age, notice the custom of placing the gloves on the head at church as not uncommon in cold weather.

In the earliest impressions of Plate XI., the words "Down with the Rumps" are not inserted on the scroll.

JUST VIEW OF THE BRITISH STAGE.

Mr. Walpole, in his _Catalogue_, thus describes this plate: "Booth, Wilkes, and Cibber, contriving a Pantomime; a Satire on Farces."

Though the inscription engraved under it is sufficiently explanatory, it may be added that Mr. Devoto was scene-painter either to Drury Lane or Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and also to Goodman's Fields Theatre; that the ropes mentioned in the inscription are no other than halters, suspended over the heads of the three managers; and that the labels issuing from their respective mouths convey the following characteristic words. The airy Wilkes, who dangles the effigies of Punch, exclaims, "Poor R--ch! faith, I _pitty_ him." The Laureate Cibber, who is amusing himself with playing with harlequin, invokes the muse painted on the ceiling: "Assist, ye sacred Nine!" And the solemn Booth, letting down the figure of Jack Hall into the _forica_, is most tragically exclaiming, with an oath, "Ha! this will do." At the same instant Ben Jonson's ghost is rising through the stage, and insulting a pantomime statue fallen from its base. Over the figure of Hall is suspended a parcel of waste paper, consisting of leaves torn from _The Way of the World_, _Hamlet_, _Macbeth_, and _Julius Cæsar_. A fiddler is seen hanging by a cord in the air, and performing, with a scroll before him, which proclaims, "Music for the What" [meaning perhaps the "What d'ye call it"] entertainment. A pamphlet on the table exhibits a print of Jack Sheppard in confinement. A dragon is also preparing to fly; a dog thrusts his head out of the kennel; a flask acquires motion by machinery, etc. The countenances of Tragedy and Comedy, on each side of the stage, are concealed by the bills for _Harlequin Dr. Faustus_, _Harlequin Shepherd_, _etc._

_Vivetur ingenio_ is the motto over the curtain.

EXAMINATION OF BAMBRIDGE.

This very fine picture, Hogarth himself tells us, was painted in 1729 for Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk, Bart., at that time Knight of the Shire for Aberdeen, and one of the Committee represented in the painting,--many of whom attended daily, and some of them twice a day.

That every other figure in this print is a genuine portrait, there cannot be the least doubt, though at this distant period it is not possible to identify the particular persons; they are all, however, to be found in the following list of the names of the Committee:--

James Oglethorpe, Esq., Chairman.

{ Finch.
The Right Hon. { Morpeth.
the Lords { Inchequin.
{ Percival.
{ Limerick.

Sir Robert Sutton.
Sir Robert Clifton.
Sir Abraham Elton.
Sir Edward Knatchbull.
Sir Humphrey Herries.
Hon. James Bertie.
Sir Gregory Page.
Sir Archibald Grant.
Sir James Thomhill.
Gyles Earle, Esq.
General Wade.
Humphrey Parsons, Esq.
Hon. Robert Byng.
Edward Houghton, Esq.
(Judge-Advocate.)
Captain Vernon.
Charles Selwyn, Esq.
Velters Cornwall, Esq.
Thomas Scawen, Esq.
Francis Child, Esq.
William Hucks, Esq.
Stampe Brooksbank, Esq.
Charles Withers, Esq.
John La Roche, Esq.
Mr. Thomas Martin.

"The scene," says Mr. Walpole, "is the Committee. On the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half-starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance, that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn for Iago in the moment of detection. Villany, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance; his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes. If this was a portrait, it is the most striking that ever was drawn; if it was not, it is still finer."

This Committee was first appointed, Feb. 25, 1728-9, to examine into the state of the gaols within the kingdom; and the persons here represented under examination were--Thomas Bambridge, then Warden of the Fleet Prison, and John Huggins, his predecessor in that office. Both were declared "notoriously guilty of great breaches of trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanours." It was the unanimous resolution of the Committee, "That Thomas Bambridge, the acting Warden of the Prison of the Fleet, hath wilfully permitted several debtors to the Crown in great sums of money, as well as debtors to divers of his Majesty's subjects, to escape; hath been guilty of the most notorious breaches of his trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanours in the execution of his said office; and hath arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed, prisoners for debt under his charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws of this kingdom." Bambridge was in consequence disqualified by Act of Parliament; and he cut his throat twenty years after.

It was also resolved, "That John Huggins, Esq., late Warden of the Prison of the Fleet, did, during the time of his wardenship, wilfully permit several considerable debtors in his custody to escape; and was notoriously guilty of great breaches of his trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanours, in the execution of the said office;" and he was for some time committed to Newgate, but afterwards lived in credit to the age of ninety.

KING HENRY VIII. AND ANNA BULLEYN.

This plate, copied from a painting in the portico of the old great room in Vauxhall Gardens, has very idly been imagined to contain the portraits of Frederick Prince of Wales, and the beautiful but unfortunate Lady Vane; but the stature and faces both of the lady and Henry are totally unlike their supposed originals.

CROWNS, MITRES, MACES, ETC.

This plate forms so important a feature in the annals of Hogarth, that it requires his own elucidation:--

"After having had my plates pirated in almost all sizes, I
applied to Parliament for redress, and obtained it in so liberal
a manner, as hath not only answered my own purpose, but made
prints a considerable article in the commerce of this country,
there being now more business of that kind done here than at
Paris, or anywhere else, and as well."

The statute, which took place June 24, 1735, was drawn up by our artist's friend Mr. Huggins, who took for his model the eighth of Queen Anne in favour of literary property. But it was not so accurately executed as entirely to remedy the evil; for, in a cause founded on it, which came before Lord Hardwicke in Chancery, that excellent lawyer determined that no assignee, claiming under an assignment from the original inventor, could take any benefit by it.

Hogarth, immediately after the passing of the Act, published this print with the following inscription:--

"In humble and grateful acknowledgment
of the grace and goodness of the LEGISLATURE,
manifested in the ACT OF PARLIAMENT for the Encouragement
of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, etc.,
obtained by the Endeavours, and almost at the sole Expense,
of the Designer of this Print in the Year 1735;
by which,
not only the Professors of those Arts were rescued
from the Tyranny, Frauds, and Piracies
of Monopolizing Dealers,
and legally entitled to the Fruits of their own Labours;
but Genius and Industry were also prompted
by the most noble and generous Inducements to exert themselves.
Emulation was excited;
Ornamental Compositions were better understood;
and every Manufacture, where Fancy has any concern,
was gradually raised to a pitch of Perfection before unknown;
insomuch, that those of GREAT BRITAIN
are at present the most elegant
and the most in Esteem of any in EUROPE."

The royal Crown at the top is darting its rays on mitres, coronets, the Chancellor's great seal, the Speaker's hat, etc. etc.; and on a scroll is written, "An Act for the Encouragement of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching, by vesting the properties thereof in the inventors and engravers, during the time therein mentioned."

The plate was afterwards used as a receipt for the subscriptions to his four prints of "The Election."

In 1767, three years after Hogarth's death, his widow stated, in a petition to the House of Commons, "that she was informed that a Bill was depending in the House to amend an Act made in the eighth year of the reign of his late Majesty, for the encouragement of the arts of designing, engraving, and etching: that her late husband was the inventor, engraver, and publisher of various designs--moral, humorous, and historical; the sole property whereof was vested in him by the said Act for the term of fourteen years; that her chief support arose from the sale of her late husband's works; that, since his decease, many persons had copied, printed, and published several of those works, and still continued to do so; and that the sale of those spurious copies, both at home and for exportation, had already been a great prejudice to the petitioner, and, unless timely prevented, would deprive her of her chief support and dependence; and praying that provision might be made for vesting in her the property of her said husband's works." The petition was thought reasonable; and a clause was added to the Bill for "vesting in, and securing to, Jane Hogarth, widow, the property in certain prints."

THE ROYAL MASQUERADE.

This very interesting scene, which may be dated early in 1755, is thus anticipated by Mr. Walpole, in a letter to Mr. Richard Bentley, Dec. 24, 1754:--"The Russian ambassador is to give a masquerade for the birth of the little great prince (the Czar, Paul I.). The King lends him Somerset House: he wanted to borrow the palace over against me, and sent to ask it of the cardinal-nephew (Henry Earl of Lincoln, nephew to the Duke of Newcastle, to whose title he succeeded), who replied, 'Not for half Russia!'"

The print abounds with real portraits of personages of the first distinction, of whom several may be identified by the following extract from the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xxv. p. 89:--"_Feb. 6._--The Russian ambassador gave a most magnificent ball at Somerset House. His Majesty came a little after eight, dressed in a black domino, tie-wig, and gold-laced hat. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was in a blue and silver robe, and her head greatly ornamented with jewels. The Prince of Wales was in a pink and silver dress. Prince Edward in a pink satin waistcoat, with a belt adorned with diamonds. Princess Augusta in a rich gold stuff. The Duke (of Cumberland) was in a Turkish dress, with a large bunch of diamonds in his turban. A noble lady shone in the habit of a nymph, embroidered over with stars studded with brilliants to the amount of £100,000. In short, the dresses of the whole assembly were the richest that could possibly be devised upon such an occasion; and the whole entertainment, particularly the desert, was the most elegant that expense could furnish. Few exhibitions of this kind have equalled it,--none excelled it. The number of persons were above a thousand."

The original painting formed part of the fine collection of the late Roger Palmer, Esq., on whose death it devolved, with the rest of a very ample property, to his only sister, Elizabeth, wife of the brave and benevolent Captain Joseph Budworth, who assumed the name and arms of Palmer.

RICH'S TRIUMPHANT ENTRY.

This plate represents the removal of Rich, and his scenery, authors, actors, etc., from Lincoln's-Inn Fields to the new house. The scene is the area of Covent Garden, across which, leading toward the door of the theatre, is a long procession, consisting of a cart loaded with thunder and lightning, performers, etc.; and at the head of them Mr. Rich (invested with the skin of the famous dog in _Perseus and Andromeda_) riding with his mistress in a chariot driven by harlequin, and drawn by satyrs.

Some indifferent verses, which accompanied the original publication, allude to Walker and Hall, the original Macheath and Lockit, and conclude thus:

"To the Piazza let us turn our eyes,
See Johnny Gay on Porter's shoulders rise,
Whilst a bright Man of Taste his works despise."

"Another author wheels his work with care,
In hopes to get a market at this fair,
For such a day he sees not every year."

By the "Man of Taste," Mr. Pope was apparently designed. He is represented in his tie-wig, at a dark corner of the Piazza, amusing himself (not very delicately) with the _Beggars' Opera_. The letter P is over his head; his little sword is significantly placed, and the peculiarity of his figure is well preserved. The reason why our artist has assigned such an employment to him, we can only guess. It seems, indeed, from Dr. Johnson's _Life of Gay_, that Pope did not think the _Beggars' Opera_ would succeed. Swift, however, was of the same opinion; and yet the former supported the piece on the first night of exhibition, and the latter defended it in his _Intelligencer_ against the attacks of Dr. Herring, then Preacher to the Society of Lincoln's-Inn, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Hogarth might be wanton in his satire, might have founded it on an idle report, or might have sacrificed truth to the prejudice of Sir James Thornhill, whose quarrel on another occasion he is supposed to have taken up, when he ridiculed the translator of _Homer_, in a view of "The Gate of Burlington House."

THE POOL OF BETHESDA, AND THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

These magnificent prints are placed among the early productions of Hogarth, as the paintings from which they are copied were completed in 1737; and in 1748 a small copy of the "Pool of Bethesda" was engraved by Ravenet, as a frontispiece to Stackhouse's Family Bible.

Mr. Walpole observes, that "the burlesque turn of our artist's mind mixed itself with his most serious compositions; and that, in the 'Pool of Bethesda,' a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man (perhaps woman) who sought the same celestial remedy." To this I may add, that the figure of the priest, in the "Good Samaritan," is supremely comic, and rather resembles some purse-proud burgomaster, than the character it was designed to represent.

In the "Pool of Bethesda" is introduced, as I was assured by Dr. Ducarel, a faithful portrait of Nell Robinson, a celebrated courtezan, at whose shrine both Hogarth and the Doctor had in early life occasionally paid their _devoirs_.

On the subject of these two very fine prints, it will not only be candid, but amusing and instructive, to transcribe Hogarth's own unvarnished remarks:--

"As I could not bring myself to act like some of my brethren,
and make the painting of small conversation pieces a sort of
manufactory to be carried on by the help of background and
drapery painters, it was not sufficiently profitable to pay the
expenses my family required. I therefore turned my thoughts to
a still more novel trade, the painting and engraving modern
moral subjects, a field not broken up in any country or any age.
The reasons which induced me to adopt this mode of designing
were, that I thought both writers and painters had, in the
historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate species of
subjects, which may be placed between the sublime and grotesque.
I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas, similar to
representations on the stage; and further hope that they will be
tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion.
Let it be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes
where the human species are actors; and these, I think, have
not often been delineated in a way of which they are worthy and
capable. In these compositions, those subjects that will both
entertain and improve the mind bid fair to be of the greatest
public utility, and must therefore be entitled to rank in the
highest class. If the execution is difficult (though that is but
a secondary merit), the author has a claim to a higher degree
of praise. If this be admitted, comedy, in painting as well as
writing, ought to be allotted the first place, as most capable
of all these perfections, though the sublime, as it is called,
has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more
conviction to the mind of a sensible man than all he would find
in a thousand volumes; and this has been attempted in the prints
I have composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced
eye; let the figures in either pictures or prints be considered
as players, dressed either for the sublime--for genteel comedy,
or farce--for high or low life. I have endeavoured to treat
my subjects as a dramatic writer; my picture is my stage, and
men and women my players, who, by means of certain actions and
gestures, are to exhibit a dumb show.

"Before I had done anything of much consequence in this walk,
I entertained some hopes of succeeding in what the puffers in
books call the great style of history-painting; so that, without
having had a stroke of this grand business before, I quitted
small portraits and familiar conversations, and, with a smile
at my own temerity, commenced history-painter; and on a great
staircase at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, painted two Scripture
stories, 'The Pool of Bethesda' and 'The Good Samaritan,' with
figures seven feet high. These I presented to the charity; and
thought they might serve as a specimen, to show that, were there
an inclination in England for encouraging historical pictures,
such a first essay might prove the painting them more easily
attainable than is generally imagined. But as religion, the
great promoter of this style in other countries, rejected it in
England, I was unwilling to sink into a portrait-manufacturer;
and, still ambitious of being singular, dropped all expectations
of advantage from that source, and returned to the pursuit of
my former dealings with the public at large. This I found was
most likely to answer my purpose, provided I could strike the
passions, and, by small sums from many, by the sale of prints
which I could engrave from my own pictures, thus secure my
property to myself."

While these pictures were in progress, it was announced that "among the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was lately chosen Mr. William Hogarth, the celebrated painter, who, we are told, designs to paint the staircase of the said hospital, and thereby become a benefactor to it by giving his labours gratis." And a newspaper of July 14, 1737, says, "Yesterday the scaffolding was taken down from before the picture of 'The Good Samaritan,' which is esteemed a very curious piece."

Hogarth paid his friend Lambert for painting the landscape in this picture; and to the imaginary merits of his coadjutor, the _Analysis_, p. 26, thus bears testimony: "The sky always gradates one way or other, and the rising or setting sun exhibits it in great perfection; the imitating of which was Claude de Lorraine's peculiar excellence, and it is now Mr. Lambert's."

Both pictures, which appear of an oblong square in the engravings, in the originals are surrounded with scroll-work which cuts off the corners of them, etc. All these ornaments, together with compartments carved at the bottom, were the work of Mr. Richards. These the late Mr. Alderman Boydell caused to be engraved on separate plates, and appended to those above them, on which sufficient space had not been left. Hogarth requested that these paintings might never be varnished. They appear, therefore, to disadvantage, the decorations about them having, within these few years past, been highly glazed.

"The Pool of Bethesda" has suffered much from the sun; and "The Good Samaritan," when cleaned about the year 1780, was pressed so hard against the straining frame, that several creases were made in the canvas.

MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ.

This elegant scholar was a mathematician and antiquary of much celebrity in the philosophical annals of literature. In 1713, at the early age of 24, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1741 was elected President. Mr. Folkes was also an early Member of the Society of Antiquaries, having been elected in 1719-20; and his communications to both societies were numerous and valuable. His knowledge in ancient and modern coins was very extensive; and the most important work he produced, was _The History of the English Gold and Silver Coin, from the Conquest to his own time_.

Algernon, the famous Duke of Somerset, who had been many years President of the Society of Antiquaries, dying February 9, 1749-50, Mr. Folkes, who was then one of the Vice-Presidents, was immediately chosen to succeed his Grace; and was continued President by the Charter of Incorporation of that Society, November 2, 1751. But he was soon disabled from presiding in person either in that or the Royal Society, being seized, on the 26th of September the same year, with a palsy, which deprived him of the use of his left side. On the 30th of November 1753, he resigned the Presidentship of the Royal Society; but continued President of the Society of Antiquaries till his death. After having languished nearly three years, a second attack of his disorder, on the 25th of June 1754, put an end to his life on the 28th of that month.

The original portrait is preserved in the meeting-room of the Royal Society.

BISHOP HOADLEY.

This portrait is in grand style, though rather in the French manner. The painting, and the plate engraved from it by Baron, were carefully preserved in the Bishop's family.

Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, a prelate of considerable eminence, was born November 4, 1676; educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge; elected Lecturer of St. Mildred, Poultry, 1701; Rector of St. Peter-le-Poor in 1704, and of Streatham in 1710; King's Chaplain, February 16, 1715-16; Bishop of Bangor, March 18 following; translated to Hereford in 1721, to Salisbury in 1723, and in 1734 to Winchester, which he held nearly twenty-seven years, till on April 17, 1761, at his house at Chelsea, in the same calm he had enjoyed amidst all the storms that blew around him, he died, full of years and honours, beloved and regretted by all good men, in the 85th year of his age. Few writers of eminence have been so frequently or so illiberally traduced; yet fewer still have had the felicity of living till a nation became their converts, and of knowing "that sons have blushed their fathers were their foes." His useful labours, which will ever be esteemed by all lovers of the natural, civil, and religious rights of Englishmen, were collected in 1773, in three folio volumes.

The Bishop had two sons: Benjamin Hoadley, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Frederick Prince of Wales, and to George the Second; of high rank in his profession; and well known by many valuable writings, more especially by his comedy of _The Suspicious Husband_. He died, in his father's lifetime, in 1757. The other son, the Rev. Dr. John Hoadley, Chancellor of Winchester, was also a most amiable man, and an elegant poet. He was the editor of his father's collected works, introduced by a well-digested biographical memoir. He died March 10, 1776; and with him the name of Hoadley became extinct. His relict, who long survived him, possessed several original paintings by Hogarth, which were afterwards the property of the late Mr. Archdeacon D'Oyley.

MR. RANBY'S HOUSE AT CHISWICK.

This view, etched by Hogarth in 1748 without any inscription, was first published by his widow in 1781.

HYMEN AND CUPID.

This neat plate was engraved as a ticket for the masque of _Alfred_, performed in 1748, at Cliveden House, before the Prince and Princess of Wales, on the Princess Augusta's birthday. It was afterwards intended as a receipt for "Sigismunda."

FALSE PERSPECTIVE.

Early in 1753, Hogarth presented to his friend Mr. Joshua Kirby this whimsical satirical design; which arose from the mistakes of Sir Edward Walpole, who was learning to draw without being taught perspective: an anecdote recorded by Mr. Steevens, on Sir Edward's own authority.

To point out in a strong light the errors which would be likely to happen from the want of acquaintance with those principles, Hogarth's design was produced.

A traveller is represented on an eminence, lighting his pipe from a candle presented to him by a woman from a chamber-window at the distance of at least a mile. We are also astonished at the representation near it, of a crow seated on the spray of a tree, without incommoding by its weight the tender sprouts issuing from its branches; and our astonishment increases when we recollect that this tree, if weighed in the balance with the bird, would hardly be found to preponderate. The tree on which the feathered animal is so securely stationed is, however, of a much greater height and magnitude than those which are nearer, and which gradually diminish as they approach the foreground. The sheep, taking example from the trees, are very large at a distance, but regularly become minute by their proximity, the nearest being almost invisible. Both ends of the church, the top, and the whole extent of one side of it, are clearly seen. To take the view which Hogarth has represented, we must, at the same time, be above, at each end, and in front of that parochial erection; but he has not been so complaisant as to favour us with the sight of the road on the bridge, which the vessel seems determined to sail over, while the waggon and horses appear floating on the other side. A fellow in a boat, nearly under the bridge, is attempting to shoot a swan on the other side of it; though, as he is situated, he cannot possibly have a view of the object whose destruction he pretends to be aiming at. The waggon and horses, which are supposed to be on the bridge, are more distant than the tree which grows on the further side.

Many other absurdities are visible in this curious perspective view, which are too obvious to escape observation: such as the signpost extending to a house at the distance of half a mile, and the remote row of trees concealing part of the nearer sign of the half-moon; the angler's line interfering with another belonging to his patient brother, though at a considerable distance from each other; and the tops and bottoms of the barrels being equally visible.

The favour of this communication was gratefully acknowledged by Kirby, who in 1754 prefixed it to Dr. Brook Taylor's _Method of Perspective made easy both in Theory and Practice_, with a dedication to Hogarth, who subsequently furnished him with a serious design for the plate which is described at page 132.

THE FARMER'S RETURN.

The little drama by Mr. Garrick, in which this exquisite frontispiece first appeared, was thus prefaced: "The following interlude was prepared for the stage, merely with a view of assisting Mrs. Pritchard at her benefit; and the desire of serving so good an actress is a better excuse for its defects than the few days in which it was written and represented. Notwithstanding the favourable reception it has met with, the author would not have printed it, had not his friend Mr. Hogarth flattered him most agreeably, by thinking the farmer and his family not unworthy of a sketch of his pencil. To him, therefore, this trifle, which he has so much honoured, is inscribed, as a faint testimony of the sincere esteem which the writer bears him, both as a man and an artist."

The original drawing was given to Mr. Garrick, and was in the possession of his widow during her life.

The receipt for "The March to Finchley," which accompanies this plate, has been already described.

_Rec'd._ _of_ _7^s 6^d being the whole_
_Payment for a Print Representing a March to Finchly in the Year 1746
which I promise to deliver when finished on sight hereof._

_N.B. Each Print will be half a Guinea after the Subscription is
over._]

TRISTRAM SHANDY.

For this popular work of his friend Lawrence Sterne, Hogarth furnished two frontispieces; one in 1759, for the second volume; the other in 1761, for the fourth.

The first of these is taken from the chapter in which Corporal Trim is represented reading a sermon to Tristram's father, Uncle Toby, and Dr. Slop, the latter of whom is fallen asleep, and who was intended for Dr. John Burton, a physician of great eminence at York, well known as an able and industrious antiquary, and also as a sturdy Jacobite.

The second frontispiece represents the christening, so humorously described in the fourteenth chapter of the fourth volume of _Tristram Shandy_.

FOUR HEADS FROM THE CARTOONS.

These heads were copied from the cartoons at Hampton Court; and Mr. Walpole, speaking of Sir James Thornhill's attention to these celebrated pictures, has the following remark: "He made copious studies of the heads, hands, and feet, and intended to publish an exact account of the whole for the use of students; but his work never appeared."

As this plate was found among others engraved by Hogarth, it might probably have been one of his early performances. His widow, in 1781, directed a few impressions to be taken from it; which were sold in Leicester Square.

THE SHRIMP-GIRL.

In this portrait from the life, first published in 1782, from the original sketch in oil, are united the talents of Hogarth and Bartolozzi; but the plate, which is executed in the dotted manner then so much in fashion, should have been etched, or engraved, like those excellent performances by Bartolozzi after the drawings of Guercino; as spirit, rather than delicacy, is the characteristic of our artist's shrimp-girl.

LORD HOLLAND.

This is a serious portrait, from a drawing by Hogarth in 1757, of that celebrated nobleman, whom he afterwards introduced in the second plate of "The Times," as the powerful antagonist of Lord Bute.

The public life of this great statesman is too well known to need recital here. Let it suffice to say, that in 1756 he resigned the office of Secretary at War to Mr. Pitt; and in the following year was appointed Paymaster of the Forces, which he retained until the commencement of the reign of King George III. May 6, 1762, his lady was created Baroness Holland; and April 16, 1763, he himself was advanced to a peerage, by the title of Baron Holland of Foxley, Wilts. In the latter part of his life he amused himself by building, at a vast expense, a fantastic villa at Kingsgate, and died July 1, 1774, in his 69th year.

EARL OF CHARLEMONT.

James Caulfield, son of James Viscount Charlemont, was born August 18, 1728; succeeded to his hereditary honours, April 21, 1734; and in December 1782, was raised to an earldom. He was F.R.S., F.S.A., and LL.D.; and died August 4, 1799, aged 70.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

This fine print exhibits an inside view of the House of Commons, from an original painting taken in 1726 or 1727, and now in the possession of the Earl of Onslow.

The prominent portraits are those of the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, the then Speaker; Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister; Sidney Godolphin, Esq., Father of the House; Colonel Onslow; Sir James Thornhill; Sir Joseph Jekyll; Edward Stables, Esq., Clerk of the House; Mr. Askew, Clerk-Assistant, and several others in the background.

DEBATES ON PALMISTRY.

The figures employed in the study of palmistry seem to have been designed for physicians and surgeons of an hospital, who are debating on the most commodious method of receiving a fee, inattentive to the complaints of a lame female who solicits assistance. A spectre, resembling the royal Dane, comes out behind, perhaps to intimate that physic and poison will occasionally produce similar effects. A glass-case containing skeletons is open; a crocodile hangs overhead; and an owl, emblematic of this sapient consistory, is perched on a high stand.

Mr. Steevens conjectured that this might have been a repented effort of hasty spleen against the officers of St. Bartholomew's, who might not have treated some recommendation of a patient from our artist with all the respect and attention to which he thought it was entitled: but this is mere supposition.

THE STAYMAKER.

The humour in this print is not very striking. The male staymaker seems to be taking professional liberties with a female in the very room where her husband sits, who is playing with one of his children presented to him by a nurse, perhaps with a view to call off his attention from what is going forward. The hag shows her pretended love for the infant by the mode in which she is kissing him. A maidservant holds a looking-glass for the lady, and peeps significantly at the operator from behind it. A boy with a cockade on, and a little sword by his side, appears to observe the familiarities already mentioned, and is strutting up fiercely towards the staymaker, while a girl is spilling some liquor in his hat.

CHARITY IN THE CELLAR.

The original picture from which this print was engraved, was painted for the late Lord Boyne. It represents a convivial party assembled in a cellar over a hogshead of claret, who, it is said, resolved not to separate till they had drunk all the wine it contained. Whether such a circumstance really gave rise to the picture or not, it is unnecessary to inquire. It is too well known that the habit of drinking to excess, among all classes of society, existed at the time of Hogarth to such a degree as to draw the particular attention of this distinguished painter to it; and it is not perhaps too much to say, that the most distinguished preachers, or most able moral writers, have not done more to drive this odious and degrading vice from society than has been effected by the valuable pencil of Hogarth. The individuals here represented were members of a society well known by the name of the "Hell-fire Club." In the centre is the portrait of Sir Philip Hoby, seated on the cask. Behind him, with his hand held up, is that of Mr. De Grey, and below him is the portrait of Lord J. Cavendish, who has drawn a spigot from the cask to let the wine flow into a bowl. Opposite to him Lord Sandwich is represented kneeling down to draw in the intoxicating draught; and behind him (extended on a form) is also Lord Galway. The grouping of the four centre figures is an ingenious imitation of a statue of Charity which is seen in the cellar. The position of the bottles brings the comparison still nearer, and is one of those little incidents for which Hogarth was so particularly distinguished from all other painters, in omitting nothing that might carry out his intention and make himself understood.

The devotedness of this group to the object for which they are assembled is extremely well portrayed. The positions of the figures are easy, and the principle of observing the pyramidal form (so often insisted upon as necessary to beauty in the grouping of figures) is here strikingly exemplified. It is impossible to show a more unconquerable love for the intoxicating draught than is expressed in the portrait of Lord Galway. Unable to stand, he has placed himself on his back in such a manner that the liquor from the cask above him is flowing into his mouth; and he has perhaps been represented by Hogarth as thus persevering in the fatal habit, in order to show the excess to which it was then carried, and is a forcible point in the painter's composition.

The picture is now in the possession of the present Lord Boyne, and the print from it, which we have added to our present edition, is not to be found in any other of the collected works of Hogarth.

SIX TICKETS.

The several designs collected in this plate require no particular description. They are given as specimens of the facility with which Hogarth descended to minor subjects, at the same time embellishing them with strokes of his peculiar vein of pleasantry and humour; and each of them sufficiently evinces the purpose it was intended to recommend.

1. For the Mock Doctor. 2. For Pasquin. 3. For the Beggars' Opera. 4. For Joe Miller. 5. Thomas Figg, the noted prize-fighter. 6. The Ram Inn at Cirencester.

NOTES.

The following hints are offered principally with a view to assist in identifying such characters in Hogarth's prints as are unnoticed, or but slightly described, in the preceding volumes. A key to the whole (for many of the figures not yet recognised were undoubtedly meant by the artist as portraits) would, to the other merits of these inimitable compositions, add the important one of making them an assemblage of the similitudes of the leading remarkables of his day.

SOUTHWARK FAIR.

VOL. I. P. 162.

Although Hogarth, from a fear of creating himself enemies, disclaimed individual portrait in his compositions, particularly of characters in the higher walks of life, he was evidently not so scrupulous in indulging his satire when representing more familiar scenes; and accordingly his "Harlot's Progress," "Four Times of the Day," "Industry and Idleness," "March to Finchley," etc., are found to be less peopled with ideal personages than the "Marriage à la Mode," and some others. "Southwark Fair" was an annual assemblage of remarkables, whose follies and peculiarities he could hold up to the derision of the public without the danger of retaliation; and he has availed himself of the opportunity by bringing together a number of persons then well known on the town, and placing them in the most ludicrous situations.

This Fair, the humours of which an ingenious author truly observes, "will never be forgotten while Hogarth's inimitable print of it exists," was anciently called "Our Lady Fair," and lasted fourteen days. Like most others in the kingdom, it was originally established for the purposes of trade; but having become in process of time a mere scene of low riot and debauchery, its duration was shortened to three days; and it was at length totally abolished as a nuisance to the neighbourhood, and an encouragement to vice and dissipation. It was held at the top of Blackman Street, on the open space opposite the walls of the King's Bench prison, and began yearly a fortnight after Bartholomew Tide.

The following characters in this print have been identified, in addition to others before noticed: Middle group.--The person whom the bailiffs are arresting, and who is supposed to have been playing (not Alexander the Great, but the part of Paris) in the _Siege of Troy_ (announced for representation on one of the neighbouring show-cloths), was intended for Walker, afterwards the famous Macheath in the _Beggars' Opera_, whose portrait it exactly resembles. It is introduced in this place with strict propriety, as we learn that Walker kept a great theatrical booth in Southwark Fair, as did Penkethman. "He also acted," says one of his biographers, "in the same way at Bartholomew Fair, where Booth saw him playing the part of Paris in the _Siege of Troy_."[121] The painter probably placed him in the ridiculous situation we see him, on account of his known extravagancy and consequent embarrassments, which often procured him a visit from the bailiffs.

Figg, the prize-fighter, who in another part of the print is making his triumphal entry on a blind horse, and brandishing his sword in defiance, was a native of Thame in Oxfordshire, and attained so high a celebrity as a master of the "noble science of defence," that we find him praised in the _Tatler_, _Guardian_, _Craftsman_, and almost all the periodical works of the time. The mezzotinto portrait of him by Faber represents him exactly as here--with a bald head and open collar. His own school was in Oxford Road, but he was probably accustomed to exhibit his skill at fairs, or he may be introduced here merely as a well-known character. The Bear Garden, a famous place for prize-fighting, anciently stood in this neighbourhood, and had then been but recently demolished. The manner of the combatants at this place, parading the streets previous to their encounters, as described by a French traveller in 1672, and the way in which Figg is represented, strictly agree. "Commonly," says he, "when any fencing-masters belonging to the Bear Garden are desirous of showing their courage and their great skill, they issue mutual challenges; and before they engage, parade the town on horseback, with drums and trumpets sounding, to inform the public there is a challenge between two brave masters of the science of defence, and that the battle will be fought on such a day." Figg's public challenges were the very acme of bombast. This extraordinary character died in the year 1734.

Miller, the tall man, whose effigies are exhibited on a show-cloth, was a native of Saxony, and probably came into England in the reign of George I. This gigantic personage was eight feet high, the stature, within a few inches, of the late O'Brien. He died in 1734, aged 60. Boitard engraved a portrait of him the year before his death.

The two jugglers in senatorial wigs, who are displaying their magic wonders with cups and balls, etc., seem to have been intended likewise for two real characters (Fawkes and Neve), the Breslaw and Katterfelto of their day. Fawkes is most certainly introduced in the print of "Burlington Gate," where, on a board, the "Long Room" is announced, and "Fawkes' dexterity of hand." Portraits of these worthies still exist, and bear a sufficient resemblance to identify them with their representatives in the plate. Neve in a wood print prefixed to his "_Merry Companion_, teaching tricks in legerdemain;" and Fawkes in a large sheet print by Sutton Nichols, where he stands in the midst of his performances. Fawkes was no indifferent wit. When Breslaw, a more modern performer of the same kind, was at Canterbury, the former requested permission to display his cunning a little longer, promising Mr. Mayor that if he was indulged with permission, he would give such a night (naming a particular one) for the benefit of the poor. The benevolent magistrate acceded to the proposition, and he had a crowded house. Hearing nothing about the money collected on the specified evening, the Mayor waited on the man of trick, and in a delicate way expressed his surprise. "Mr. Mayor, I have distributed the money myself." Still more surprised, "Pray, Sir, to whom?" "To my own company; none can be poorer." "This is a trick." "We live, Sir, by tricks."

MARRIAGE A LA MODE.

VOL. II. P. 28.

PLATE III.--The Procuress at the Quack's in this print is said to be designed for the once celebrated Betty Careless, and the remark is countenanced by the initials "B. C." on her bosom. This woman, by a very natural transition, from being one of the most fashionable of the Cyprian corps, became lady abbess of a brothel; and, after frequent arrests and imprisonments, was buried from the poorhouse of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, April 22, 1752. Fielding, in his _Amelia_, says: "It is impossible to conceive a greater appearance of modesty, innocence, and simplicity, than what nature had displayed in the countenance of that girl,"--meaning her whom he in another place calls "the inimitable Betsy Careless."

_Ib._ Plate IV.--A card on the floor in this print is inscribed:

"Count Basset desire to no how Lade Squander sleep last nite?"

A fashionable foreign adventurer, of the name of Count Basset, occurs as one of the characters in the _Provoked Husband, or a Journey to London_, which might have suggested the hint for this name. But, query, whether a real person? or the artist might have meant to satirize the game of Basset.

_N.B._--The set of prints of "Marriage à la Mode" is said to have furnished the idea for the comedy of the _Clandestine Marriage_.

HARLOT'S PROGRESS.

VOL. I. Pp. 102-114.

PLATE II.--The commentators on Hogarth do not seem to have assigned a satisfactory reason for the particular subjects of the two paintings which ornament the Harlot's apartment in this plate, viz. "David dancing before the Ark," and "Jonah sitting under a Gourd." One supposes them merely intended to convey a ridicule on the old masters, or placed here to satirize the impropriety of adorning rooms with inappropriate subjects. Another, as stories selected at random, but having a reference to the nation of the Harlot's Jew keeper. But as Hogarth's incidents have all a meaning, a better reason must be sought for. They undoubtedly conceal a moral applicable to the two principal figures in the print. David's known breach of chastity in the affair of Uriah's wife, and "uncovering himself" when dancing before the ark, "in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself," which his wife charges him with on that occasion, evidently typify the backsliding Jew; while Jonah sitting under the shelter of his gourd, which sprang up in the night, and which the worm destroyed in the morning, as ingeniously points out the girl's upstart grandeur, and the frail nature of her protection, which even now a worm (her infidelity to her keeper) is rapidly undermining.

Plate V.--Dr. Misaubin, or Mizenbank as Trusler calls him (the lean doctor in this print), was a notorious foreign quack of the day, whose ignorant consequence Fielding thus laughably exposes in one of his introductory chapters in _Tom Jones_:--"The learned Dr. Misaubin used to say, that the proper direction to him was, 'To Dr. Misaubin, in the world,' intimating that there were few people in it to whom his great reputation was not known. And, perhaps, upon a nice examination into the matter, we shall find that this circumstance bears no inconsiderable part among the many blessings of human grandeur."

Watteau painted the portrait of this Esculapius, from which a print was engraved by Pond. The likeness strikingly resembles Hogarth's representation, and is inscribed "Prenez des pillules." The similitude of his opponent Dr. Rock, though not authenticated in the same manner, is, from the testimony of those who recollect him, equally correct.

This "great man" is said to have been originally a porter; for which his strong, squat figure excellently adapted him. An anecdote, in some degree confirmed, is told of him, that passing one day by the end of Fleet Market, with his gold-laced hat and cane, a brother porter, who knew his origin, and was resting his load near the spot, said, "Dr. Rock, you once carried a knot as well as myself." "Yes; and had I been as great a dunce as you," replied the pill merchant, "I should have carried a knot still."

RAKE'S PROGRESS.

VOL. I. Pp. 132-154.

PLATE III.--_Tavern Scene._--In the second state of this plate, Pontac's head is introduced in the place of a mutilated Cæsar. Pontac was a celebrated purveyor at this time. In the "Hind and Panther" transversed, Pontac's eating-house is mentioned with epicurean honours:

"When at Pontac's he may regale himself."

It was chiefly frequented as a chop-house, but every other luxury might be had there.

Plate VIII.--The maniac chained to the floor of his cell in this print is noticed by Mr. Ireland as being a copy from one of Cibber's figures over the gate of Bedlam. He might have added, that the person of the Rake himself, whose expression of madness Mr. Mortimer so much admired, is, as to features, a copy of the companion figure over the same gate. This plagiarism, if it may be so called, was to the credit of Hogarth's taste; for with all his own amazing powers of expression, he could scarcely have hoped to equal such inimitable representations. Time, and an injudicious attempt, some years since, at restoration, have wofully injured these masterpieces of Cibber's chisel.