mtmk LIMITED CIRCUUTION ./">^ ■rvv :^e^ .ilUTd^:! HiSwefflBEss^" ta>k ^ i gt |i ' jj ii i 'i i i i i i [i « ; I 'fi ii ij ii im tj iiiii nw III! \ '"fSSSSHf aumits--^ I H I |III.<< I W.» ' M^ Bi^yy" CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM F. E. GURLEY BOOK FUND Cornell University Library ND 497.H71A4 1865 Complete works, in a series of one hundre 3 1924 008 683 108 ,„»,. w. V, Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924008683108 4*' ¥ m 4i 'TTJ # ^! r ^ifilijCk n ] n. lA *r ^i ■%&^ "VOI. I origi: n^al ed ition. THE COMPLETE WOEKS OF WILLIAM HOGARTH, IN A SERIES OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN ENGRAVINGS, FROM THE OEIGINAL PICTURES, INCLUDING NOT IN ANY OTHER EDITION, WITH DESCRIPTIONS AND COMMENTS ON THEIR MORAL TENDENCY. BY THE KEY. JOHN TEUSLEE. ACCOMPANIED WITH THE COMPLETE LIFE AND NUMEROUS ANECDOTES OF THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. BY J. HOGARTH, lEELAND AND 0THEE8. IN TWO VOLUMES.-VOL. I. " The anchor which held Hogarth fastest to the public favor, was the sincere and deliberate belief, prevalent among the more serious of the substantial orders, that his works were in the highest degree moral, and that they contributed to the inculcation of Virtue and Piety The Philosopher who ever preached the sturdy English virtues that have made us what we are." — Cobnhill Magazine. LONDON: H. FOWKES, Strand. PHILADELPHIA; INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., 121 So. Seventh St. CONTENTS. (Directions to Binder for placing the Plates.) TOLTJME I. No. No. 1. — Frontispiece. Pobtrait of Hogaeth and his Dog. No. 2. — Vignette. The Ballad Singer. EASE'S PROGRESS. 3 Plate I. Heir Taking Possession. Page .. 13 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 — II. Surrounded by Artists 15 — in. Tavern Scene 17 — IV. Arrested for Debt 19 — V. Marries an Old Maid 21 — VI. Gaming House 23 — VII. Prison Scene 25 — VIII. Mad-House 27 MISCELLANEOUS. 11 Distressed Poet 29 12 The Bench 31 13 The Laughing Audience 33 14 The Gate of Calais 35 15 The Politician 37 THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 16 Plate I. Ensnared by a Procuress 17 18 19 20 39 21 n. Quarrels with her Protector 41 III. Apprehended by a Magistrate 43 IV. Scene in Bridewell 45 V. Expires while the Doctors are Dis- puting 47 VL The Funeral 49 MISCELLANEOUS. 22 The Lecture 51 23 The Chorus— Oratorio of Judith 53 No. Paos 24 Columbus Breaking the Egg 65 25 The Modern Midnight Conversation 57 26 Consultation of Physicians 59 27 Portrait of Daniel Lock, Esq 61 28 The Enraged Musician 63 29 Masquerades and Operas — Burlington Gate 65 TIMES OF THE DAY. 30 Morning 67 31 Noon 69 32 Evening 71 33 Night 73 MISCELLANEOUS. 34 Sigismonda 75 35 Portrait of Martin Folkes, Esq 77 36 The Cockpit 78 37 Captain Thomas Coram 81 38 Country Inn Yard 83 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 39 Plate I. Fellow Apprentices at their Looms... 85 40 — II. The Industrious Apprentice Perform- ing the Duties of a Christian 87 — III. The Idle Apprentice at Play in the Church-yard during Divine Serv- ice 89 — IV. The Industrious Apprentice a Favour- ite, and Intrusted by his Master... 91 41 42 OON No. Page 43 Plate V. The Idle Apprentice turned away and sent to Sea 93 44 — VI. The Industrious Apprentice out of his Time, and Marries his Mas- ter's Daughter 95 45 • - VII. The Idle Apprentice returned from Sea, and in a Garret with a Com- mon Prostitute 97 46 — VIII. The Industrious Apprentice grown rich, and Sheriff of London 99 47 — IX. The Idle Apprentice betrayed by a Prostitute, and taken in a Night- cellar with his Accomplice 101 48 — X. The Industrious Apprentice Alder- man of London ; the Idle one brought before him, and Im- peached by his Accomplice 103 49 — XI. The Idle Apprentice Executed at Tyburn 105 50 — XII. The Industrious Apprentice Lord Mayor of London 107 MISCELLANEOUS. 51 Southwark Fair 109 52 Garrick as Richard III Ill FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 53 Plate I. France 113 54 — II. England 115 TENTS. THE ELECTION. No. Page 55 Plate I. The Entertainment 117 56 — II. Canvassing for Votes 119 57 — in. ThePolUng 121 58 — IV. Chairing the Members 123 MISCELLANEOUS. 59 The Strolling Players 125 60 Moses before Pharaoh's Daughter 127 61 Arms of the Foundling Hospital 129 62 Several Children of the Foundling Hospital 129 63 The Sleeping Congregation 131 BEER STREET AND GIN LANE. 64 Beer Street 133 65 Gin Lane 135 MISCELLANEOUS. 66 Paul before Felix. 137 67 The Bruiser, Charles Churchill 139 68 Hymen and Cupid 141 69 Impression from a Tankard 143 70 House of Commons 145 71 March to Finch] ey 147 72 Portrait of Bishop Hoadly 149 FOUR STAGES OF CRUELTY. 73 First Stage 151 74 Second Stage 153 75 Cruelty in Perfection 155 76 Reward of Cruelty 157 THE LIFE OF HOGARTH, William Hogarth is said to have been the descendant of a family originally from Kirby Thore, in Westmoreland. His grandfather was a plain yeoman, who possessed a small tenement in the vale of Bampton, a village about fifteen miles north of Kendal, in that county ; and had three sons. The eldest assisted his father in farming, and succeeded to his little freehold. The second settled in Troutbeck, a village eight miles north-west of Kendal, and was remarkable for his talent at provincial poetry. Richard Hogarth, the third son, who was educated at St. Bees, and had kept a school in the same county, appears to have been a man of some learning. He came early to London, where he resumed his original occupation of a schoolmaster, in Ship Court in the Old Bailey, and was occasionally employed as a corrector of the press. Mr. Richard Hogarth married in London ; and our artist, and his sisters, Mary and Anne, are believed to have been the only products of the marriage. William Hogarth was born November 10, and baptized Nov. 28, 1697, in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, in London ; to which parish, it is said, in the Biographia Britannica, he was afterwards a benefactor. The school of Hogarth's father, in 1712, was in the parish of St. Martin, Lud- gate. In the register of that parish, therefore, the date of his death, it was natural to suppose, might be found ; but the register has been searched to no purpose. Hogarth seems to have received no other education than that of a mechanic, and his outset in life was unpropitious. Young Hogarth was bound apprentice to a silversmith (whose name was Gamble) of some eminence ; by whom he was con- (5) LIFE OF HOGARTH. fined to that branch of the trade which consists in engraving arms and ciphers upon the plate. While thus employed, he gradually acquired some knowledge of drawing; and before his apprenticeship expired, he exhibited talent for cari- cature. "He felt the impulse of genius, and that it directed him to painting, though little apprised at that time of the mode nature had intended he should pursue." The following circumstance gave the first indication of the talents with which Hogarth afterwards proved himself to be so liberally endowed. During his apprenticeship, he set out one Sunday, with two or three companions, on an excursion to Highgate. The weather being hot, they went into a public- house ; where they had not long been, before a quarrel arose between some persons in the same room ; from words they soon got to blows, and the quart pots being the only missiles at hand, were sent flying about the room in glorious confusion. This was a scene too laughable for Hogarth to resist. He drew out his pencil, and produced on the spot one of the most ludicrous pieces that ever was seen ; which exhibited likenesses not only of the combatants engaged in the affray, but also of the persons gathered round them, placed in grotesque attitudes, and heightened with character and points of humour. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he entered into the academy in St. Martin's Lane, and studied drawing from the life : but in this his proficiency was inconsiderable ; nor would he ever have surpassed mediocrity as a painter, if he had not penetrated through external form to character and manners. " It was character, passions, the soul, that his genius was given him to copy." The engraving of arms and shop-bills seems to have been his first employment by which to obtain a decent livelihood. He was, however, soon engaged in deco- rating books, and furnished sets of plates for several publications of the time. An edition of Hvdihras afforded him the first subject suited to his genius : yet he felt so much the shackles of other men's ideas, that he was less successful in this task than might have been expected. In the meantime, he had acquired the use of the brush, as well as of the pen and graver; and possessing a singular facility in seiz- ing a likeness, he acquired considerable employment as a portrait painter. Shortly after his marriage, he informs us that he commenced painter of small conversation pieces, from twelve to fifteen inches in height ; the novelty of which caused them to succeed for a few years. One of the earliest productions of this kind, which dis- tinguished him as a painter, is supposed to have been a representation of Wanstead Assembly ; the figures in it were drawn from the life, and without burlesque. The (6) LIFE OF HOGARTH. faces were said to bear great likenesses to the persons so drawn, and to be rather better coloured than some of his more finished performances. Grace, however, was no attribute of his pencil ; and he was more disposed to aggravate, than to soften the harsh touches of nature. A curious anecdote is recorded of our artist during the early part of his prac- tice as a portrait painter. A nobleman who was uncommonly ugly and deformed, sat for his picture, which was executed in his happiest manner, and with singularly rigid fidelity. The peer, disgusted at this counterpart of his dear self, was not dis- posed very readily to pay for a reflector that would only insult him with his deform- ities. After some time had elapsed, and numerous unsuccessful applications had been made for payment, the painter resorted to an expedient, which he knew must alarm the nobleman's pride. He sent him the following card : — " Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord ; finding that he does not mean to have the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of Mr. Hogarth's pressing necessities for the money. If, therefore, his lordship does not send for it in three days, it will be disposed of, with the addition of a tail and some other appendages, to Mr. Hare, the famous wild heast man; Mr. H. having given that gentleman a conditional pro- mise on his lordship's refusal." This intimation had its desired effect ; the picture was paid for, and committed to the flames. Hogarth's talents, however, for original comic design, gradually unfolded them- selves, and various public occasions produced displays of his ludicrous powers. In the year 1730, he clandestinely married the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill, the painter, who was not easily reconciled to her union with an obscure artist, as Hogarth then comparatively was. Shortly after, he commenced his first great series of moral paintings, " The Harlot's Progress :" some of these were, at Lady Thornhill's suggestion, designedly placed by Mrs. Hogarth in her father's way, in order to reconcile him to her marriage. Being informed by whom tkey were executed. Sir James observed, " The man who can produce such representations as these, can also maintain a wife without a portion." He soon after, however, relented, «,nd became generous to the young couple, with whom he lived in great haimony until his death, which took place in 1733. In 1733 Hogarth's genius became conspicuously known. The third scene of " The Harlot's Progress" introduced him to the notice of the great : at a board of trea- sury (which was held a day or two after the appearance of that print), a copy of it was shown by one of the lords, as containing among other excellencies, a strik- ing likeness of Sir John Gonson, a celebrated magistrate of that day, well known (7) LIFE OF HOGARTH. for his rigour towards women of the town. From the treasury each lord repaired to the print>-shop for a copy of it, and Hogarth rose completely into fame. Upwards of twelve hundred subscribers entered their names for the plates, which were copied and imitated on fan mounts, and in a variety of other forms ; and a pantomime taken from them was represented at the theatre. This perform- ance, together with several subsequent ones of a similar kind, have placed Hogarth in the rare class of original geniuses and inventors. He may be said to have cre- ated an entirely new species of painting, which may be termed the moral comic; and may be considered rather as a writer of comedy with a pencil, than as a painter. If catching the manners and foUies of an age, living as they rise, — if general satire on vices, — and ridicule familiarized by strokes of nature, and heightened by wit, — and the whole animated by proper and just expressions of the passions, — be comedy, Hogarth composed comedies as much as Moli^re. Soon after his marriage, Hogarth resided at South Lambeth ; and being inti- mate with Mr. Tyers, the then spirited proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, he contri- buted much to the improvement of those gardens ; and first suggested the hint of embellishing them with paintings, some of which were the productions of his own comic pencil. Among the paintings were " The Four Parts of the Day," either by Hogarth or after his designs. Two years after the publication of his " Harlot's Progress," appeared the " Kake's Progress," which Lord Oxford remarks, (though perhaps superior,) '' had not so much success, for want of notoriety : nor is the print of the Arrest equal in merit to the others." The curtain, however, was now drawn aside, and his genius stood displayed in its full lustre. The Rake's Progress was followed by several works in series, viz. " Marriage a la Mode, Industry and Idleness, the Stages of Cruelty, and Election Prints." To these may be added a great number of single comic pieces, all of which present a rich source of amusement : — such as, " The March to Finchley, Modern Midnight Conversation, the Sleeping Congregation, the Gates of Calais, Gin Lane, Beer Street, Strolling Players in a Barn, the Lecture, Laughing Audience, Enraged Musician," &c. &c., which, being introduced and described in the subsequent part of this work it would far exceed the limits necessarily assigned to these brief memoirs here minutely to characterize. All the works of this original genius are, in fact, lectures of morality. They are satires of particular vices and follies, expressed wdth such strength of character and such an accumulation of minute and appropriate circumstances, that they have (8) LIFE OF HOGARTH. all the truth of nature heightened with the attractions of wit and fancy. Nothing is without a meaning, but all either conspires to the great end, or forms an addition to the lively drama of human manners. His single pieces, however, are rather to be considered as studies, not perhaps for the professional artist, but for the searcher into life and manners, and for the votaries of true humour and ridicule. l!^ofwni- ture of the kind can vie with Hogarth's prints, as a fund of inexhaustible amuse- ment, yet conveying at the same time lessons of morality. Not contented, however, with the just reputation which he had acquired in his proper department, Hogarth attempted to shine in the highest branch of the art, — serious history painting. " From a contempt," says Lord Orford, " of the ignorant virtuosi of the age, and from indignation at the impudent tricks of picture dealers, whom he saw continually recommending and vending vile copies to bubble collectors, and from having never studied, or indeed having seen, few good pictures of the great Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on those glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. He talked this language till he believed it ; and having heard it often asserted (as is true) that time gives a mellowness to colours, and improves them, he not only denied the pro- position, but maintained that pictures only grew black and worse by age, not dis- tinguishing between the degrees in which the proposition might be true or false. He went farther : he determined to rival the ancients, and unfortunately chose one of the finest pictures in England as the object of his competition. This was the celebrated Sigisraonda of Sir Luke Schaub, now in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, said to be painted by Correggio, probably by Furino." — " It is impossi- ble to see the picture" (continues his lordship), "or read Dryden's inimitable tale, and not feel that the same soul animated both. After many essays, Hogarth at last produced his Sigismonda, — but no more like Sigismonda than I to Hercules." Notwithstanding Hogarth professed to decry literature, he felt an inclination to communicate to the public his ideas on a topic connected with his afE His"'* Ana- lysis of Beauty" made its appearance in one volume quarto, in the year 1753. Its leading principle is, that beauty fundamentally consists in that union of uniformity which is found in the curve or waving line ; and that round swelling figures are most pleasing to the eye. This principle he illustrates by many ingenious remarks and examples, and also by some plates characteristic of his genius. in the year 1757, his brother-in-law, Mr. Thornhill, resigned his office of king's serjeant-painter in favour of Hogarth, who received his appointment on the 6th of June, and entered on his functions on the 16th of July, both in the same year. VOL. I.— 2 (9) LIFE OF HOGARTH. This place was re-granted to him by a warrant of George the Third, which bears date the 30th October, 1761, with a salary of ten pounds per annum, payable quarterly. This connexion with the court probably induced Hogarth to deviate from the strict line of party neutrality which he had hitherto observed, and to engage against Mr. Wilkes and his friends, in a print published in September, 1762, entitled The Times. This publication provoked some severe strictures from Wilkes's pen in a North Briton (No. 17). Hogarth replied by a caricature of the writer: a rejoinder was put in by Churchill, in an angry epistle to Hogarth (not the brightest of his works) : and in which the severest strokes fell on a defect the painter had not caused, and could not amend — his age ; which, however, was neither remarkable nor decrepit; much less had it impaired his talents : for, only six months before, he had produced one of his most capital works. In revenge for this epistle, Hogarth caricatured Churchill, under the form of a canonical bear, with a club and a pot of porter. During this period of warfare (so virulent and disgraceful to all the parties), Hogarth's health visibly declined. In 1762, he complained of an internal pain, the continuance of which produced a general decay of the system, that proved incurable; and, on the 25th of October, 1764 (having been previously conveyed in a very weak and languid state from Chiswick to Leicester Fields), he died sud- denly, of an aneurism in his chest, in the sixty-seventh or sixty-eighth year of his age. His remains were interred at Chiswick, beneath a plain but neat mausoleum, with the following elegant inscription by his friend Garrick : — " Farewell, great painter of mankind, Who reaoh'd the noblest point of art ; Whose pictured morals charm the mind, And through the eye correct the heart. If Genius fire thee, reader, stay ; If Nature touch thee, drop a tear : If neither move thee, turn away, For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here." (10) HOGARTH'S WORKS. THE RAKE'S PEOaRESS. Of all the follies in human life, there is none greater than that of extravagance, or profuseness ; it being constant labour, without the least ease or relaxation. It bears, indeed, the colour of that which is commendable, and would fain be thought to take its rise from laudable motives, searching indefatigably after true felicity ; now as there can be no true felicity without content, it is this which every man is in cons'tant pursuit of; the learned, for instance, in his industrious quest after know- ledge; the merchant, in his dangerous voyages; the ambitious, in his passionate pursuit of honour ; the conqueror, in his earnest desire of victory ; the politician, in his deep-laid designs ; the wanton, in his pleasing charms of beauty ; the covetous, in his unwearied heaping-up of treasure; and the prodigal, in his general and extravagant indulgence. — Thus far it may be well ; — but, so mistaken are we in our road, as to run on in the very opposite tract, which leads directly to our ruin. Whatever else we indulge ourselves in, is attended with some small degree of relish, and has some trifling satisfaction in the enjoyment, but, in this, the farther we go, the more we are lost ; and when arrived at the mark proposed, we are as far from the object we pursue, as when we first set out. Here then, are we inexcusable, in not attending to the secret dictates of reason, and in stopping our ears at the timely admonitions of friendship. Headstrong and ungovernable, we pursue our course without intermission; thoughtless and unwary, we see not the dangers that lie immediately before us ; but hurry on even without sight of our object, till we bury ourselves in that gulf of woe, where perishes at once, health, wealth, and virtue, and whose dreadful labyrinths admit of no return. Struck with the foresight of that misery attendant on a life of debauchery, which is, in fact, the offspring of prodigality, our author has, in the scenes before us. attempted the reformation of the worldling, by stopping him, as it were, in his (11) HOGARTH'S WORKS. o.areer, and opening to his view the many sad calamities awaiting the prosecution of his proposed scheme of life ; he has, in hopes of .reforming the prodigal, and at the same time deterring the rising generation, whom Providence may have blessed with earthly wealth, from entering into so iniquitous a course, exhibited the life of a young man, hurried on through a succession of profligate pursuits, for the few years nature was able to support itself; and this from the instant he might be said to enter into the world, till the time of his leaving it. But, as the vice of avarice is equal to that of prodigality, and the ruin of children is often owing to the indis- cretion of their parents, he has opened the piece with a scene which, at the same time that it exposes the folly of the youth, shows us the imprudence of the father, who is supposed to have hurt the principles of his son, in depriving him of the neces- sary use of some portion of that gold he had with penurious covetousness been hoarding up, for the sole purpose of lodging in his coffers. (12) THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE I. THE YOUNG HEIR TAKING POSSESSION. Oh, vanity of age untoward ! Ever spleeny, ever froward ! Why these bolts and massy chains, Squint suspicions, jealous pains ? Why, thy toilsome journey o'er, Lay'st thou up an useless store ? Mope, along with Time is flown ; Nor canst thou reap the field thou 'st sown. Hast thou a son ? In time be wise ; He views thy toil with other eyes. Needs must thy kind paternal care, Lock'd in thy chests, be buried there ? Whence, then, shall flow that friendly ease, That social converse, heartfelt peace, Familiar duty without dread, Instruction from example bred. Which youthful minds with freedom mend. And with th& father mix the friend? Uncircumsoribed by prudent rules. Or precepts of expensive schools ; Abused at home, abroad despised. Unbred, unletter'd, unadvised ; The headstrong course of life begun. What comfort from thy darling son ? Hoadlt. The history opens, representing a scene crowded with all the monuments of avarice, and laying before us a most beautiful contrast, such as is too general in the world to pass unobserved ; nothing being more common than for a son to prodi- gally squander away that substance his father had, with anxious solicitude, his whole life been amassing. — Here, we see the young heir, at the age of nineteen or twenty, raw from the university, just arrived at home, upon the death of his father. Eager to know the possessions he is master of, the old wardrobes, where things have been rotting time out of mind, are instantly wrenched open ; the strong chests are unlocked ; the parchments, those securities of treble interest, on which this avari- cious monster lent his money, tumbled out ; and the bags of gold, which had long been hoarded, with griping care, now exposed to the pilfering hands of those about him. To explain every little mark of usury and covetousness, such as the mort- gages, bonds, indentures, &c., the piece of candle stuck on a save-all, on the mantel- piece ; the rotten furniture of the room, and the miserable contents of the dusty wardrobe, would be unnecessary : we shall only notice the more striking articles. From the vast quantity of papers, falls an old written journal, where, among other memorandums, we find the following, viz., ''May the 5th, 1721. Put oflf my bad shilling." Hence we learn the store this penurious miser set on this trifle : that so penurious is the disposition of the miser, that notwithstanding he may be pos- sessed of many large bags of gold, the fear of losing a single shilling is a continual trouble to him. In one part of the room, a man is hanging it with black cloth, on which are placed escutcheons, by way of dreary ornament; these escutcheons con- tain the arms of the covetous, viz., three vices, hard screwed, with the motto "Beware !" On the floor lie a pair of old shoes, which this sordid wretch is sup- posed to have long preserved for the weight of iron in the nails, and has been soling with leather cut from the covers of an old family Bible; an excellent piece of satire, intimating, that such men would sacrifice even their God to the lust of (13) HOGARTH'S WORKS. money. From these and some other objects too striking to pass unnoticed, such as the gold falling from the breaking cornice ; the jack and spit, those utensils of original hospitality, locked up, through fear of being used ; the clean and empty chimney in which a fire is just now going to be made for the first time; and the emaciated figure of the cat, strongly mark the natural- temper of the late miserly inhabitant, who could starve in the midst of plenty. — But see the mighty change ! View the hero of our piece left to himself, upon the death of his father, possessed of a goodly inheritance. Mark how his mind is afiected ! — determined to partake of the mighty happiness he falsely imagines others of his age and fortune enjoy ; see him running headlong into extravagance, withholding not his heart from any joy ; but implicitly pursuing the dictates of his will. To commence this delusive swing of pleasure, his first application is to the tailor, whom we see here taking his measure, in order to trick out his pretty person. In the interim enters a poor girl (with her mother), whom our hero has seduced, under professions of love and pro- mises of marriage ; in hopes of meeting with that kind welcome she had the greatest reason to expect ; but he, corrupted with the wealth of which he is now the master, forgets every engagement he once made, finds himself too rich to keep his word ; and, as if gold would atone for a breach of honour, is offering money to her mother, as an equivalent for the non-fulfilling of his promise. Not the sight of the ring, given as a pledge of his fidelity; not a view of the many affectionate letters he at one time wrote to her, of which her mother's lap is full ; not the tears, nor even the pregnant condition of the wretched girl, could awaken in him one spark of tenderness ; but, hard-hearted and unfeeling, like the generality of wicked men, he suffers her to weep away her woes in silent sorrow, and curse with bitterness her deceitful betrayer. One thing more we shall take notice of, which is, that this unexpected visit, attended with abuse from the mother, so engages the attention of our youth, as to give the old pettifogger behind him an opportunity of robbing him. Hence, we see that one ill consequence is generally attended with another ; and that misfortunes, according to the old proverb, seldom come alone. Mr. Ireland remarks of this plate — " He here presents to us the picture of a young man, thought- less, extravagant, and licentious ; and in colours equally impressive, paints the destructive consequences of his conduct. The first print most forcibly contrasts two opposite passions : the unthinking negligence af youth, and the sordid, avaricious rapacity of age. It brings into one point of view what Mr. Pope so exquisitely describes in his Epistle to Lord Bathurst — ' Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store, Sees but a backward steward for the poor ; This year a reservoir to keep and spare ; The next a fountain, spouting through his heir.' Dhe introduction to this history is well delineated, and the principal figure marked with that easy unmeaning vacancy of face, which speaks him formed by nature for a dtjpe. Ignorant of the value of money, and negligent in his nature, he leaves his bag of untold gold in the reach of an old and greedy pettifogging attorney, who is making an inventory of bonds, mortgages, indentures, &c. This man, with the rapacity so natural to those who disgrace the profession, seizes the first opportunity of plundering his employer. Hogarth had, a few years before, been engaged in a lawsuit, which gave him some experi- tmce of the practice of those pests of society. (14) THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE II. SURROUNDED BY ARTISTS AND PROFESSORS. Prosperity, (with harlot smiles, Most pleasing when she most beguiles,) How soon, great foe, can all thy train Of false, gay, frantic, loud and vain. Enter the unprovided mind. And memory in fetters bind ? Load faith and love with golden chain, And sprinkle Lethe o'er the brain ! Pleasure, on her silver throne. Smiling comes, nor comes alone ; Venus comes with her along. And smooth Lymus, ever young ; And in their train, to fill the press, Come apish, Dance and swoln Excess, Mechanic Honour, vicious Taste, And Fashion in her changing vest. We are next to consider our hero as launched into the world, and having equipped himself with all the necessaries to constitute him a man of taste, he plunges at once into all the fashionable excesses, and enters with spirit into the character he assumes. The avarice of the penurious father then, in this print, is contrasted by the giddy profusion of his prodigal son. We view him now at his levee, attended by masters of various professions, supposed to be here offering their interested services. The foremost figure is readily known to be a dancing-master ; behind him are two men, who at the time when these prints were first published, were noted for teach- ing the arts of defence by different weapons, and who are here drawn from the life ; one of whom is a Frenchman, teacher of the small-sword, making a thrust with his foil ; the other, an Englishman, master of the quarter-staff; the vivacity of the first, and the cold contempt visible in the face of the second, beautifully describe the natural disposition of the two nations. On the left of the latter stands an improver of gardens, drawn also from the life, offering a plan for that purpose. A taste for gardening, carried to excess, must be acknowledged to have been the ruin of numbers, it being a passion that is seldom, if ever, satisfied, and attended with the greatest expense. In the chair sits a professor of music, at tlie harpsichord, running over the keys, 'waiting to give his pupil a lesson ; behind whose chair hangs a list of the presents one Farinelli, an Italian singer, received the next day after his performance at the opera house ; amongst which there is notice taken of one, which he received from the hero of our piece, thus : " A gold- snuff-box, chased, with the story of Orpheus charming the brutes, by J. Rakewell, Esq." By these mementos of extravagance and pride (for gifts of this kind proceed oftener from ostentation than generosity), and by the engraved frontispiece to a poem dedicated (15) HOGARTH'S WORKS. to our fashionable spendthrift, lying on the floor, which represents the ladies of Britain sacrificing their hearts to the idol Farinelli, crying out with the greatest earnestness, "One G-d, one Farinelli," we are given to understand the prevailing dissipation and luxury of the times. Near the principal figure in this plate is that of him, with one hand on his breast, the other on his sword, whom we may easily discover to be a bravo ; he is represented as having brought a letter of recommenda- tion, as one disposed to undertake all sorts of service. This character is rather Italian than English ; but is here introduced to fill up the list of persons at that time too often engaged in the service of the votaries of extravagance and fashion. Our author would have it imagined in the interval between the first scene and this, that the young man whose history he is painting, had now given himself up to every fashionable extravagance; and among others, he had imbibed a taste for .cock-fight- ing and horse-racing; two amusements which, at that time, the man of fashion could not dispense with. This is evident, from his rider bringing in a silver punch- bowl, which one of his horses is supposed to have won, and his saloon being ridicu- lously ornamented with the portraits of celebrated cocks. The figures in the back part of this plate represent tailors, peruke-makers, milliners, and such other persons as generally fill the antechamber of a man of quality, except one, who is supposed to be a poet, and has written some panegyric on the person whose levee he attends, and who waits for that approbation he already vainly anticipates. Upon the whole, the general tenor of this scene is to teach us, that the man of fashion is too often exposed to the rapacity of his fellow-creatures, and is commonly a dupe to the mor< knowing part of the world. "How exactly," says Mr. Ireland, "does Bramston describe the character in his Man of Taste: — ' Without Italian and without an ear, To Bononcini's music I adhere. — To boon companions I my time would give, With players, pimps, and parasites I'd live ; I would with jockeys from Newmarket dine. And to rough riders ^ive my choicest wine. My evenings all I would with sharpers spend. And make the thief-taker my bosom friend ; In Figg, the prize-fighter, by day delight. And sup with CoUey Gibber every night.' " Of the expression in this print, we cannot speak more highly than it deserves. Every character is marked with its proper and discriminative stamp. It has been said by a very judicious critic (the Rev. Mr. Gilpin), from whom it is not easy to dififer without being wrong, that tjie hero of this history, in the first plate of the series, is unmeaning, and in the second, ungraceful. The fact is admitted ; but for so delineating him, the author is entitled to our praise, rather than our censure. Eakewell's whole con- duct proves he was a fool, and at that time he had not learned how to perform an artificial character • he therefore looks as he is, unmeaning and uninformed. But in the second plate he is ungraceful. Granted The ill-educated son of so avaricious a father could not have been introduced into very good company ■ and though, by the different teachers who surround him, it evidently appears that he wishes to assume the character of a gentleman, his internal feelings tell him he has not attained it. Under that conscious- ness, he is properly and naturally represented as ungraceful, and embarrassed in his new situation (16) iiS ^^SSi .1 THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE III. THE TAVERN SCENE. " vanity of youthful blood, So by misuse to poison good ! Woman, framed for social love, Fairest gift of powers above, Source of every household blessing ; All charms in innocence possessing : But, turn'd to vice, all plagues above ; Foe to thy being, foe to love ! Guest divine, to outward viewing ; Ablest minister of ruin ! And thou, no less of gift divine, Sweet poison of misused wine ! With freedom led to every part, And secret chamber of the heart. Dost thou thy friendly host betray. And show thy riotous gang the way To enter in with covert treason, O'erthrow the drowsy guard of reason. To ransack the abandoned place, And revel there with wild excess ?" Me. Ireland having, in his description of this plate, incorporated whatever is of value in Dr. Trusler's text, with much judicious observation and criticism of his own, the editor has taken the former verbatim. This plate exhibits our licentious prodigal engaged in one of his midnight festi- vities : forgetful of the past, and negligent of the future, he riots in the present. Having poured his libation to Bacchus, he concludes the evening orgies in a sacri- j&ce at the Cyprian shrine; and surrounded by the votaries of Venus, joins in the unhallowed mysteries of the place. The companions of his revelry are marked with that easy, unblushing effrontery which belongs to the servants of all work in the isle of Paphos ; — for the maids of honour, they are not sufficiently elevated. " He may be supposed, in the phrase of the day, to have beat the rounds, over- set a constable, and conquered a watchman, whose staff and lantern he has brought into the room, as trophies of his prowess. In this situation he is robbed of his watch by the girl whose hand is in his bosom ; and with that adroitness peculiar to an old practitioner, she conveys her acquisition to an accomplice, who stands behind the chair. " Two of the ladies are quarrelling ; and one of them delicately spouts wine in the face of her opponent, who is preparing to revenge the affront with a knife which, in a posture of threatening defiance, she grasps in her hand. A third, enraged at being neglected, holds a lighted candle to a map of the globe, determined to set the vmrld on fire, though she perish in the confiagration ! A fourth is undressing. The fellow bringing in a pewter dish, as part of the apparatus of this elegant and Attic VOL. I.— 3 (17) HOGARTH'S WORKS. entertainment, a blind harper, a trumpeter, and a ragged ballad-singer, roaring out an obscene song, complete this motley group. This design may be a very exact representation of what were then the nocturnal amusements of a brothel ; — so different are the manners of former and present times, that I much question whether a similar exhibition is now to be seen in any tavern of the metropolis. That we are less licentious than our predecessors, I dare not affirm ; but we are certainly more delicate in the pursuit of our pleasures. " The room is furnished with a set of Roman emperors, — they are not placed in their proper order ; for, in the mad revelry of the evening, this family of frenzy have decollated all of them, except Nero ; and his manners had too great a simi- larity to their own to admit of his suffering so degrading an insult ; their reverence for virtue induced them to spare his head. In the frame of a Goesar they have placed the portrait of Pontac, an eminent cook, whose great talents being turned to heightening sensual, rather than mental enjoyments, he has a much better chance of a votive offering from this company, than would either Vespasian or Trajan. "The shattered mirror, broken wine-glasses, fractured chair and cane; the mangled fowl, with a fork stuck in its breast, thrown into a corner, and indeed every accompaniment, shows, that this has been a night of riot without enjoyment, mischief without wit, and waste without gratification. " With respect to the drawing of the figures in this curious female coterie, Hogarth evidently intended several of them for beauties ; and of vulgar, unedu- cated, prostituted beauty, he had a good idea. The hero of our tale displays all that careless jollity which copious draughts of maddening wine are calculated to inspire ; he laughs the world away, and bids it pass. The poor dupe without his periwig, in the background, forms a good contrast of character : he is maudlin drunk, and sadly sick. To keep up the spirit of unity throughout the society, and not leave the poor African girl entirely neglected, she is making signs to her friend the porter, who perceives, and slightly returns, her love-inspiring glance. Thif print is rather crowded, — the subject demanded it should be so ; some of the figure? thrown into shade, might have helped the general effect, but would have injured the characteristic expression." (18) THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE ly. ARRESTED FOR DEBT. "0 vanity of youthful blood, So by misuse to poison good I Keason awakes, and views unbarr'd The sacred gates he wisfa'd to guard ; Approaching see the harpy Law, And Poverty, with icy paw, Keady to seize the poor remains That vice has left of all his gains. CoM penitence, lame afier-thouffht, With fear, despair, and horror fraught. Call back his guilty pleasures dead. Whom he hath wrong'd, and whom betray'd.' The career of dissipation is here stopped. Dressed in the first style of the ton, and getting out of a sedan-chair, with the hope of shining in the circle, and per- haps forwarding a former application for a place or a pension, he is arrested ! To intimate that being plundered is the certain consequence of such an event, and to show how closely one misfortune treads upon the heels of another, a boy is at the same moment stealing his cane. The unfortunate girl whom he basely deserted, is now a milliner, and naturally enough attends in the crowd, to mark the fashions of the day. Seeing his distress with all the eager tenderness of unabated love, she flies to his relief. Possessed of a small sum of money, the hard earnings of unremitted industry, she generously oflFers her purse for the liberation of her worthless favourite. This releases the captive beau, and displays a strong instance of female affection ; which, being once planted in the bosom, is rarely eradicated by the coldest neglect, or harshest cruelty. The high-born, haughty Welshman, with an enormous leek, and a countenance keen and lofty as his native mountains, establishes the chronology, and fixes the day to be the first of March ; which, being sacred to the titular saint of Wales, was observed at court. Mr. Nichols remarks of this plate : — " In the early impressions, a shoe-black steals the rake's cane. In the modem ones, a large group of sweeps, and black-shoe boys, are introduced gambling on the pave- ment; near them a stone inscribed Black's, a contrast to White's gaming house, against which a flash of lightning is pointed. The curtain in the window of the sedan-chair is thrown back. This plate is like- wise found in an intermediate state ; the sky being made unnaturally obscure, with an attempt to intro- duce a shower of rain, and lightning very awkwardly represented. It is supposed to be a first proof after (19) HOGARTH'S WORKS. the insertion of the group of blackguard gamesters ; the window of the chair being only marked for an alteration that was afterwards made in it. Hogarth appears to have so far spoiled the sky that he was obliged to obliterate it, and cause it to be engraved over again by another hand." Mr. Gilpin observes : — " Very disagreeable accidents often befall gentlemen of pleasure. An event of this kind is recorded in the fourth print, which is now before us. Our hero going, in full dress, to pay his compliments at court on St. David's day, was accosted in the rude manner which is here represented. The composition is good. The form of the group, made up of the figures in action, the chair and the lamp-lighter, is pleasing. Only, here we have an opportunity of remarking, that a group is disgusting- when the extremities of it are heavy. A group in some respects should resemble a tree. The heavier part of the foliage (the cup, as the landscape painter calls it) is always near the middle ; the otitside branches, which are relieved by the sky, are light and airy. An inattention to this rule has given a heaviness to the group before us. The two bailiflFs, the woman, and the chairman, are all huddled toge- ther in that part of the group which should have been the lightest ; while the middle part, where the hand holds the door, wants strength and consistence. It may be added, too, that the four heads, in the form of a diamond, make an unpleasing shape. All regular figures should be studiously avoided. — The light had been well distributed, if the bailiff holding the arrest, and the chairman had been a little lighter, and the woman darker. The glare of the white apron is disagreeable. — We have, in this print, some beautiful instances of expression. The surprise and terror of the poor gentleman is apparent in every limb, as far as is consistent with the fear of discomposing his dress. The insolence of power in one of the bailifiFs, and the unfeeling heart which can jest with misery, in the other, are strongly marked. The self-importance, too, of the honest Cambrian is not ill-portrayed ; who is chiefly introduced to settle the chronology of the story. — In point of grace we have nothing striking. Hogarth might have introduced a degree of it in the female figure : at least he might have contrived to vary the heavy and unpleasing form of her drapery. — ^The perspective is good, and makes an agreeable shape " (20^ w THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE V. MARRIES AN OLD MAID. " New to the school of hard mishap, Driven from the ease of fortune's lap, What schemes will nature not embrace T' avoid less shame of drear distress ? Gold can the charms of youth bestow, And mask deformity with show : Gold can avert the sting of shame, In Winter's arms create a flame : Can couple youth with hoary age. And make antipathies engage." To be thus degraded by the rude enforcement of the law, and relieved from an exigence by one whom he had injured, would have wounded, humbled, I had almost said reclaimed, any man who had either feeling or elevation of mind ; but, to mark the progression of vice, we here see this depraved, lost character, hypocri- tically violating every natural feeling of the soul, to recruit his exhausted finances, and marrying an old and withered Sibyl, at the sight of whom nature must recoil. The ceremony passes in the old church, Mary-le-bone, which was then considered at such a distance from London, as to become the usual resort of those who wished to be privately married ; that such was the view of this prostituted young man may be fairly inferred from a glance at the object of his choice. Her charms are heightened by the affectation of an amorous leer, which she directs to her youthful husband, in grateful return for a similar compliment which she supposes paid to herself. This gives her face much meaning, but meaning of such a sort, that an observer being asked, " How dreadful must he this creature's hatred ?" would naturally reply, " How hateful must he her lave !" In his demeanour we discover an attempt to appear at the altar with becoming decorum : but internal perturbation darts through assumed tranquillity, for though he is plighting his troth to the old woman, his eyes are fixed on the young girl who kneels behind her. The parson and clerk seem made for each other ; a sleepy, stupid solemnity marks every muscle of the divine, and the nasal droning of the lay hrother is most happily expressed. Accompanied by her child and mother, the unfortunate victim of his seduction is here again introduced, endeavouring to enter the church, and forbid the banns. The opposition made by an old pew-opener, with her bunch of keys, gave the artist a good opportunity for indulging his taste in the burlesque, and he has not neglected it. (21) HOGARTH'S WORKS. A dog (Trump, Hogarth's favourite), paying his addresses to a one-eyed quad- ruped of his own species, is a happy parody of the unnatural union going on in the church. The commandments are broken : a crack runs near the tenth, which says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife ; a prohibition in the present case hardly neces- sary. The creed is destroyed by the damps of the church ; and so little attention has been paid to the poor's box, that it is covered with a cobweb ! These three high-wrought strokes of satirical humour were perhaps never equalled by any exertion of the pencil ; excelled they cannot be. On one of the pew doors is the following curious specimen of church-yard poetry, anrd mortuary orthography. These : pewes : vnscrud : and : tane : in : svnder In : STONE : THERS : GRAUEN : WHAT : IS : UNDER to : wit : a valt : for : burial : there : is Which : Edward : Porset : made : for : him : and : his. This is a correct copy of the inscription. Part of these lines, in raised letters, now form a pannel in the wainscot at the end of the right-hand gallery, as the church is entered from the street. The mural monument of the Taylors, composed of lead, gilt over, is still preserved : it is seen in Hogarth's print, just under the window. A glory over the bride's head is whimsical. The bay and holly, which decorate the pews, give a date to the period, and determine this preposterous union of January with June, to have taken place about the time of Christmas ; " When winter linger'd in her icy veins." Addison would have classed her among the evergreens of the sex. It has been observed, that " the church is too small, and the wooden post, which seems to have no use, divides the picture very disagreeably." This cannot be denied : but it appears to be meant as an accurate representation of the place, and the artist delineated what he saw. The grouping is good, and the principal figure has the air of a gentleman. The light is well distributed, and the scene most characteristically represented. The commandments being represented as broken, might probably give the hint to a lady's reply, on being told that thieves had the preceding night broken into the church, and stolen the communion-plate and the ten commandments. " I sup- pose," added the informant, " that they may melt and sell the plate ; but can you divine for what possible purpose they could steal the commandments ?" — " To break them, to be sure," replied she ; — " to break them." (22) THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE VI. SCENE IN A GAMING HOUSE. " Gold, thou bright son of Phoebus, source Of universal intercourse ; Of weeping Virtue soft redress : And blessing those who live to bless : Yet oft behold the sacred trust, The tool of avaricious lust ; No longer bond of human kind. But bane of every virtuous mind. What chaos such misuse attends. Friendship stoops to prey on friends ; Health that gives relish to delight. Is wasted with the wasting night ; Doubt and mistrust is thrown on Heaven, And all its power to chance is given. Sad purchase of repentant tears, Of needless quarrels, endless fears, Of hopes of moments, pangs of years ! Sad purchase of a tortured mind. To an imprison'd body join'd." Though now, from the infatuated folly of his antiquated wife, in possession of a fortune, he is still the slave of that baneful vice which, while it enslaves the mind, poisons the enjoyments, and sweeps away the possessions of its deluded vota- ries. Destructive as the earthquake which convulses nature, it overwhelms the pride- of the forest, and engulfs the labours of the architect. Newmarket and the cockpit were the scenes of his early amusements; to crown the whole, he is now exhibited at a gaming-table, where all is lost ! His countenance distorted with agony, and his soul agitated almost to madness, he imprecates ven- geance upon his own head. " In heartfelt bitter anguish he appears, And from the blood-shot ball gush purpled tears ! He beats his brow, with rage and horror fraught ; His brow half bursts with agony of thought !" That he should be deprived of all he possessed in such a society as surround him, is not to be wondered at. One of the most conspicuous characters appears, by the pistol in his pocket, to be a highwayman : from the profound stupor of his countenance, we are certain he also is a losing gamester ; and so absorbed in reflec- tion, that neither the boy who brings him a glass of water, nor the watchman's cry of " Fire !" can arouse him from his reverie. Another of the party is marked for one of those well-dressed continental adventurers who, being unable to live in their own country, annually pour into this, and with no other requisites than a quick eye, an adroit hand, and an undaunted forehead, are admitted into what is absurdly enough called good company. (23) HOGARTH'S WORKS, At the table a person in mourning grasps his ha^, and hides his face, in the agony of repentance, not having, as we infer from his weepers, received that legacy of which he is now plundered more than a " little month." On the opposite side is another, on whom fortune has severely frowned, biting his nails in the anguish of his soul. The fifth completes the climax ; he is frantic ; and with a drawn sword endeavours to destroy a pauvre miserable whom he supposes to have cheated him, but is prevented by the interposition of one of those staggering votaries of Bacchus who are to be found in every company where there is good wine ; and gaming, like the rod of Moses, so far swallows up every other passion, that the actors, engrossed by greater objects, willingly leave their wine to the audience. In the. back-ground are two collusive associates, eagerly dividing the profits of the evening. A nobleman in the corner is giving his note to a usurer. The lean and hungry appearance of this cent, per cent, worshipper of the golden calf, is well contrasted by the sleek, contented vacancy of so well-employed a legislator of this great empire. Seated at the table a portly gentleman, of whom we see very little, is coolly sweep- ing ofi" his winnings. So engrossed is every one present by his own situation, that the flames which surround them are disregarded, and the vehement cries of a watchman entering the room, are necessary to rouse their attention to what is generally deemed the first law of nature, self-preservation. Mr. Grilpin observes : — The fortune, which our adventurer has just received, enables him to make one push more at the gaming-table. He is exhibited, in the sixth print, venting curses on his folly for having lost his last stake. — This is, upon the whole, perhaps, the best print of the set. The horrid scene it describes, was never more inimitably drawn. The composition is artful, and natural. If the shape of the whole be not quite pleasing, the figures are so well grouped, and with so much ease and variety, that you cannot take offence. " The expression, in almost every figure, is admirable ; and the whole is a strong representation of the human mind in a storm. Three stages of that species of madness which attends gaming, are here described. On the first shock, all is inward dismay. The ruined gamester is represented leaning against a wall, with his arms across, lost in an agony of horror. Perhaps never passion was described with so much force. In a short time this horrible gloom bursts into a storm of fury : he tears in pieces what comes next him ; and, kneeling down, invokes curses upon himself. He next attacks others ; every one in his turn whom he imagines to have been instrumental in his ruin. — The eager joy of the winning gamesters, the attention of the usurer, the vehemence of the watchman, and the profound reverie of the highwayman, are all admirably marked. There is great coolness, too, expressed in the little we see of the fat gentleman at the end of the table." (24) 11 ta #•1' W !» THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE YII. PRISON SCENE. " Happy the man whose constant thought (Though in the school of hardship taught), Can send remembrance back to fetch Treasures from life's earliest stretch ; Who self-approving,can review Scenes of past virtues which shine through The gloom of age, and cast a ray To gild the evening of his day ! Not so the guilty wretch confined : No pleasures meet his conscious mind : No blessings brought from early youth, But broken faith and wrested truth : Talents idle and unused, And every trust of Heaven abused. In seas of sad reflection lost, From horrors still to horrors toss'd. Reason the vessel leaves to steer. And gives the helm to mad Despair." By a very natural transition Mr. Hogarth has passed his hero from a gaming house into a prison — the inevitable consequence of extravagance. He is here repre- sented in a most distressing situation, without a coat to his back, without money, without a friend to help him. Beggared by a course of ill-luck, the common attend- ant on the gamester, having first made away with every valuable he was master of, and having now no other resource left to retrieve his wretched circumstances, he at last, vainly promising himself success, commences author, and attempts, though inadequate to the task, to write a play, which is lying on the table, just returned with an answer from the manager of the theatre, to whom he had offered it, that his piece would by no means do. Struck speechless with this disastrous occurrence, all his hopes vanish, and his most sanguine expectations are changed into dejection of spirit. To heighten his distress, he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexion (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount. To add to his misery, we see the under turnkey pressing him for his prison fees, or garnish- monej^ and the boy refusing to leave the beer he ordered, without being first paid for it. Among those assisting the fainting mother, one of whom we observe clap- ping her hand, another applying the drops, is a man crusted over, as it were, with the rust of a jail, supposed to have started from his dream, having been disturbed by the noise at a time when he was settling some affairs of state ; to have left his great plan unfinished, and to have hurried to the assistance of distress. We are told by the papers falling from his lap, one of which contains a scheme for paying VOL. I.— 4 (25) HOGARTH'S WORKS. the national debt, that his confinement is owing to that itch of poUtics some persons are troubled with, who will neglect their own affairs, in order to busy themselves in that which no way concerns them, and which they in no respect understand, though their immediate ruin shall follow it : nay, so infatuated do we find him, so taken up with his beloved object, as not to bestow a few minutes on the decency of his person. In the back of the room is one who owes his ruin to an indefatiga- ble search after the philosopher's stone. Strange and unaccountable ! — Hence We are taught by these characters, as well as by the pair of human wings on the tester of the bed, that scheming is the sure and certain road to beggary : and that more owe their misfortunes to wild and romantic notions, than to any accident they meet with in life. In this upset of his life, and aggravation of distress, we are to suppose our prodigal almost driven to desperation. Now, for the first time, he feels the severe effects of pinching cold and griping hunger. At this melancholy season, reflection finds a passage to his heart, and he now revolves in his mind the folly and sinful- ness of his past life ; — considers within himself how idly he has wasted the substance he is at present in the utmost need of; — looks back with shame on the iniquity of his actions, and forward with horror on the rueful scene of misery that awaits him; until his brain, torn with excruciating thought, loses at once its power of thinking, and falls a sacrifice to merciless despair. Mr. Ireland remarks on the plate before us : — " Our improvident spendthrift is now lodged in that dreary receptacle of human misery, — a prison. His countenance exhibits a picture of despair; the for- lorn state of his mind is displayed in every limb, and his exhausted finances, by the turnkey's demand of prison fees not being answered, and the boy refusing to leave a tankard of porter, unless he is paid for it. " We see by the enraged countenance of his wife, that she is evidently reproaching him for having deceived and ruined her. To crown this catalogue of human tortures, the poor girl whom he deserted, is come with her child — perhaps to comfort him, — to alleviate his sorrows, to soothe his sufferings : — but the agonizing view is too much for her agitated frame ; shocked at the prospect of that misery which she cannot remove, every object swims before her eyes, — a film covers the sight, — the blood forsakes hei cheeks, — ^her lips assume a pallid hue, — and she sinks to the floor of the prison in temporary death What a heart-rending prospect for him by whom this is occasioned ! " The wretched, squalid inmate, who is assisting the fainting female, bears every mark of being naturalized to the place ; out of his pocket hangs a scroll, on which is inscribed, ' A scheme to pay the National Debt, by J. L., now a prisoner in the Fleet.' So attentive was this poor gentleman to the debts of the nation, that he totally forgot his own. The cries of the child, and the good-natured attentions of the women, heighten the interest, and realize the scene. Over the group are a large pair of wings, with which some emulator of Dedalus intended to escape from his confinement; but finding them inadequate to the execution of his project, has placed them upon the tester of his bed. They could not exalt him to the regions of air, but they o'ercanopy him on earth, A chemist in the back-ground, happy in his views, watching the moment of projection, is not to be disturbed from his dream by any thing less than the fall of the roof, or the bursting of his retort; and if his dream affords him felicity, why should he be awakened ? The bed and gridiron, those poor remnants of our miserable spendthrift's wretched pro- perty, are brought here as necessary in his degraded situation ; on one he must try to repose his wearied frame ; on the other, he is to dress his scanty meal." (26) >*■ '*^,H* ' Vera!....- ^.oi. - . _ ,^'A as ,i 'r% THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE VIII. SCENE IN A MADHOUSE. '* Madness ! thou chaos of the hrain, What art, that pleasure giv'st and pain? Tyranny of fancy's reign ! Mechanic yancy.' that can build Vast labyrinths and mazes wild, With rude, disjointed, shapeless measure, Fill'd with horror, flU'd with pleasure ! Shapes of horror, that would even Cast doubt of mercy upon heaven ; Shapes of pleasure, that but seen. Would split the shaking sides of Spleen. "0 vanity of age! here see The stamp of Heaven effaced by thee I The headstrong course of youth thus run. What comfort from this darling son ? His rattling chains with terror hear, Behold death grappling with despair I See him by thee to ruin sold. And curse thyself, and curse thy gold!" See our hero, then, in the scene before us, raving in all the dismal horrors of hopeless insanity, in the hospital of Bethlehem, the senate of mankind, where each man may find a representative ; there we behold him trampling on the first great law of nature, tearing himself to pieces with his own hands, and chained by the leg to prevent any further mischief he might either do to himself or others. But in this scene, dreary and horrid as are its accompaniments, he is attended by the faithful and kind-hearted female whom he so basely betrayed. In the first plate we see him refuse her his promised hand. In the fourth she releases him from the harpy fangs of a bailiflf; she is present at his marriage ; and in the hope of reliev- ing his distress she follows him to a prison. Our artist, in this scene of horror, has taken an opportunity of pointing out to us the various causes of mental blindness ; for such surely it may be called, when the intuitive faculties are either destroyed or impaired. In one of the inner rooms of this gallery is a despairing wretch, imploring Heaven for mercy, whose brain is crazed with lip-labouring superstition, the most dreadful enemy of human kind ; which, attended with ignorance, error, penance, and indulgence, too often deprives its unhappy votaries of their senses. The next in view is one man drawing lines upon a wall in order, if possible, to find out the longitude ; and another, before him, looking through a paper by way of a telescope. By these expressive figures we are given to understand that such is the misfortune of man that while, perhaps, the aspiring soul is pursuing some lofty and elevated conception, soaring to an uncommon pitch, and teeming with some grand discovery, the ferment often proves too strong for the feeble brain to support, and (27) HOGARTH'S WORKS. lays the whole magazine of notions and images in wild confusion. This melan- choly group is completed by the crazy tailor, who is staring at the mad astronomer with a sort of wild astonishment, wondering, through excess of ignorance, what discoveries the heavens can possibly aflford ; proud of his profession, he has fixed a variety of patterns in his hat by way of ornament ; has covered his poor head with shreds, and makes his measure the constant object of his attention. Behind this man stands another, playing on the violin, with his book upon his head, intimating that too great a love for music has been the cause of his distraction. On the stairs sits another, crazed by love (evident from the picture of his beloved object round his neck, and the words, " charming Betty Careless" upon the banisters, which he is supposed to scratch upon every wall and every wainscot), and wrapt up so close in melancholy pensiveness, as not even to observe the dog that is flying at him, Behind him, and in the inner room, are two persons maddened with ambition These men, though under the influence of the same passion, are actuated by differ- ent notions ; one is for the papal dignity, the other for regal ; one imagines him- self the pope, and saying mass ; the other fancies himself a king, is encircled with the emblem of royalty, and is casting contempt on his imaginary subjects by an act of the greatest disdain. To brighten this distressful scene, and draw a smile from him whose rigid reasoning might condemn the bringing into public view this blemish of humanity, are two women introduced, walking in the gallery, as curious spectfu tors of this melancholy sight ; one of whom is supposed, in a whisper, to bid the other observe the naked man, which she takes an opportunity of doing by a leer through the sticks of her fan. Thus, imagining the hero of our piece to expire raving mad, the story is finished, and little else remains but to close it with a proper application. Reflect then, ye parents, on this tragic tale ; consider with yourselves, that the ruin of a child is too often owing to the imprudence of a father. Had the young man, whose story we have related, been taught the proper use of money, had his parent given him some insight into life, and graven, as it were, upon his heart the precepts of religion, with an abhorrence of vice, our youth would, in all probability, have taken a contrary course, lived a credit to his friends, and an honour to his country. (28) H a TT' THE DISTRESSED POET. This plate describes, in the strongest colour, the distress of an author without friends to patronize him. Seated upon the side of his bed, without a shirt, but wrapped in an old night-gown, he is now spinning a poem upon " Riches :" of their use he probably knoweth little ; and of their abuse, — if judgment can be formed from externals, — certes, he knoweth less. Enchanted, impressed, inspired with his subgect, he is disturbed by a nymph of the lactarium. Her shrill-sounding voice awakes one of the little loves, whose chorus disturbs his meditations. A link of the golden chain is broken ! — a thought is lost ! — -to recover it, his hand becomes a substitute for the barber's comb : — enraged at the noise he tortures his head for the fleeting idea ; but, ah ! no thought is there ! Proudly conscious that the lines already written are sterling, he possesses by anticipation the mines of Peru, a view of which hangs over his head. Upon the table we see " Byshe's Art of Poetry ;" for, like the pack-horse, who cannot travel without his bells, he cannot climb the hill of Parnassus without his jingling-book. On the floor lies the " Grub Street Journal," to which valuable repository of genius and taste he is probably a contributor. To show that he is a master of the peofound, and will envelop his subject in a cloud, his pipe and tobacco-box, those friends to cogitation deep, are close to him. His wife mending that part of his dress, in the pockets of which the affluent keep their gold, is worthy of a better fate. Her figure is peculiarly interesting. Her face, softened by adversity, and marked with domestic care, is at this moment agitated by the appearance of a boisterous woman, insolently demanding payment of the milk-tally. In the excuse she returns, there is a mixture of concern, com- placency, and mortification. As an addition to the distresses of this poor family, a dog is stealing the remnant of mutton incautiously left upon a chair. The sloping roof and projecting chimney, prove the throne of this inspired bard to be high above the crowd ; — it is a garret. The chimney is ornamented with a dare for larks, and a book ; a loaf, the tea equipage, and a saucepan, decorate the (29) HOGARTH'S WORKS. shelf. Before the fire hangs half a shirt, and a pair of ruffled sleeves. His sword lies on the floor ; for though our professor of poetry waged no war, except with words, a sword was, in the year 1740, a necessary appendage to everything which called itself " gentleman." At the feet of his domestic seamstress, the full dress coat is become the resting place of a cat and two kittens : in the same situation is one stocking, the other half is- immersed in the washing-pan. The broom, bellows, and mop, are scattered round the room. The open door shows us that their cup- board is unfurnished, and tenanted by a hungry and solitary mouse. In the corner hangs a long cloak, well calculated to conceal the threadbare wardrobe of its fair owner. Mr. Hogarth's strict attention to propriety of scenery, is evinced by the cracked plastering of the walls, broken window, and uneven floor, in the miserable habita- tion of this poor weaver of madrigals. When this was first published, the follow- ing quotation from Pope's " Dunciad" was inscribed under the print : " Studious he sate, with all his books around, Sinking from thougiit to thought, a vast profound : Plunged for his sense, but found no bottom there ; Then wrote and floundered on in mere despair." All his hooks amounting to only four, was, I suppose, the artist's reason for erasing the lines. 'o 30) 7i-^ '•' >-A_-'' THE BENCH, CHARACTER, CARICATURA, AND OUTRE. It having been universally acknowledged that Mr. Hogarth was one of the most ingenious painters of his age, and a man possessed of a vast store of humour, which he has sufficiently shown and displayed in his numerous productions ; the general approbation his works receive, is not to be wondered at. But as, owing to the false notions of the public, not thoroughly acquainted with the true art of painting, he has been often called a caricaturer ; when, in reality, caricatura was no part of his profession, he being a true copier of nature ; to set this matter right, and give the world a just definition of the words character, caricatura, and outrS, in which humo- rous painting principally consists, and to show their difference of meaning, he, in the year 1758, published this print ; but, as it did not quite answer his purpose, giving an illustration of the word character only, he added, in the year 1764, the group of heads above, which he never lived to finish, though he worked upon it the day before his death. The lines between inverted commas are our author's own words, and are engraved at the bottom of the plate. " There are hardly any two things more essentially different than character and caricatura; nevertheless, they are usually confounded, and mistaken for each other; on which account this explanation is attempted. " It has ever been allowed, that when a character is strongly marked in the living face, it may be considered as an index of the mind, to express which, with any degree of justness, in painting, requires the utmost efforts of a great master. Now that, which has of late years got the name of caricatura, is, or ought to be, totally divested of every stroke that hath a tendency to good drawing ; it may be said to be a species of lines that are produced, rather by the hand of chance, than of skill ; for the early scrawlings of a child, which do but rarely hint the idea of a human face, will always be found to be like some person or other, and will often form such a comical resemblance, as, in all probability, the most eminent caricaturers of these times will not be able to equal, with design ; because their ideas of objects (31) HOGARTH'S WORKS. are so much more perfect than children's, that they will, unavoidably, introduce some kind of drawing ; for all the humorous eflfects of the fashionable manner of caricaturing, chiefly depend on the surprise we are under, at finding ourselves caught with any sort of similitude in objects absolutely remote in their kind. Let it be observed, the more remote in their nature, the greater is the excellence of these pieces. As a proof of this, I remember a famous caricatura of a certain Italian singer, that struck at first sight, which consisted only of a straight perpendi- cular stroke, with a dot over. As to the French word outrS, it is different from the rest, and signifies nothing more than the exaggerated outlines of a figure, all the parts of which may be, in other respects, a perfect and true picture of nature. A giant or a dwarf may be called, a common man, outre. So any part, as a nose, or a leg, made bigger, or less than it ought to be, is that part, outrS, which is all that is to be understood by this word, injudiciously used to the prejudice of cJmrao- ter." — Analysis of Beauty, chap. vi. To prevent these distinctions being looked upon as dry and unentertaining, our author has, in this group of faces, ridiculed the want of capacity among some of our judges, or dispensers of the law, whose shallow discernment, natural disposi- tion, or wilful inattention, is here perfectly described in their faces. One is amusing himself, in the course of trial, with other business; another, in all the pride of self-importance, is examining a former deposition, wholly inattentive to that before him ; the next is busied in thoughts quite foreign to the subject ; and the senses of the last are locked fast in sleep. The four sages on the bench, are intended for Lord Chief Justice Sir John Willes, the principal figure; on his right hand, Sir Edward Olive; and on his. left, Mr. Justice Bathurst, and the Hon. William Noel. (32) ftibluhtd by Lot^mm..Biirrt£j«j,& Orme,y!'!i,i'\:iiiiwWfiii« i|i|J!'lilllJI 4 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE II. THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE PERFORMING THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN. " how I love thy law ; it is my meditation all the day." — Psalm cxix., verse 97. This plate displays our industrious young man attending divine service in the same pew with his master's daughter, where he shows every mark of decent and devout attention. Mr. Hogarth's strong bias to burlesque was not to be checked by time or place. It is not easy to imagine anything more whimsically grotesque than the female Falstaff. A fellow near her, emulating the deep-toned organ, and the man beneath, who, though asleep, joins his sonorous tones in melodious chorus with the admirers of those two pre-eminent poets, Hopkins and Sternhold. The pew-opener is a very prominent and principal figure ; two old women adjoining Miss West's seat are so ■tiuch in shadow, that we are apt to overlook them : they are, however, all three naking the dome ring with their exertions. Ah ! had it been king David's fate To hear them sing The preacher, reader, and clerk, with many of the small figures in the gallery and beneath, are truly ludicrous, and we regret their being on so reduced a scale, that they are scarce perceptible to the naked eye. It was necessary that the artist should exhibit a crowded congregation; but it must be acknowledged he has neglected the rules of perspective. The print wants depth. In the countenance of Miss West and her lover there is a resemblance. Their faces have not much expression ; but this is atoned for by a natural and pleasing simplicity. Character was not necessary. (87) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE III. THE IDLE 'PRENTICE AT PLAY IN THE CHURCH-YARD DURING DIVINE SERVICE. " Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.' Proverbs, chap, xix., verse 29. As a contrast to the preceding plate, of the industrious young man performing the duties of a Christian, is this, representing the idle 'prentice at play in the church-yard during divine service. As an observance of religion is allowed to be the foundation of virtue, so a neglect of religious duties has ever been acknowledged the forerunner of every wickedness ; the confession of malefactors at the place of execution being a melancholy confirmation of this truth. Here we see him, while others are intent on the holy service, transgressing the laws both of God and man, gambling on a tomb-stone with the offscouring of the people, the meanest of the human species, shoe-blacks, chimney-sweepers, &c., for none but such would deign to be his companions. Their amusement seems to be the favourite old English game of hustle-cap, and our idle and unprincipled youth is endeavouring to cheat, by concealing some of the half-pence under the broad brim of his hat. This is per- ceived by the shoe-black, and warmly resented by the fellow with the black patch over his eye, who loudly insists on the hat's being fairly removed. The eager anxiety which marks these mean gamblers is equal to that of two peers playing for an estate. The latter could not have more solicitude for the turn of a die which was to determine who was the proprietor of ten thousand acres, than is dis- played in the countenance of young Idle. Indeed, so callous is his heart, so wilfully blind is he to everything tending to his future welfare, that the tombs, those stand- ing monuments of mortality, cannot move him : even the new-dug grave, the skulls and bones, those lively and awakening monitors, cannot rouse him from his sinfiil lethargy, open his eyes, or pierce his heart with the least reflection ; so hardened is he with vice, and so intent on the pursuit of his evil course. The hand of the boy, employed upon his head, and that of the shoe-black, in his bosom, are expres- sive of filth and vermin ; and show that our hero is within a step of being over- voL. I.— 12 (89) HOGARTH'S WORKS. spread with the beggarly contagion. His obstinate continuance in his course, until awakened by the blows of the watchful beadle, point out to us that " stripes are prepared for the back of fools ;" that disgrace and infamy are the natural attend- ants of the slothful and the scorner; and that there are but little hopes of his alteration, until he is overtaken in his iniquity, by the avenging hand of Omnipo- tence, and feels, with horror and amazement, the unexpected and inevitable approach of death. Thus do the obstinate and incorrigible shut their ears against the alarming calls of Providence, and sin away even the possibility of salvation. The figures in this print are admirably grouped, and the countenance of the gamblers and beadle strikingly characteristic. (90) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE lY. THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE A FAVOURITE AND INTRUSTED BY HIS MASTER. " Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things." — Matthew, chap, xxv., verse 21. The industrious apprentice, by a discreet and steady conduct, attracts the notice of his master, and becomes a favourite : accordingly, we behold him here (exquisitely continued from the first and second prints) in the counting-house (with a distant view of the looms, and of the quilsters, winding quills for the shuttles, from whence he was removed), intrusted with the books, receiving and giving orders (the general reward of honesty, care, and diligence), as appears from the delivery of some stuffs by a city porter, from Blackwell-hall. By the keys in one hand and the bag in the other, we are shown that he has behaved himself with so much prudence and discretion, and given such proofs of fidelity, as to become the keeper of untold gold : the greatest mark of confidence he could be favoured with. The integrity of his heart is visible in his face. The modesty and tran- quillity of his countenance tell us, that though the great trust reposed in him is an addition to his happiness, yet, that he discharges his duty with such becoming diffidence and care, as not to betray any of that pride which attends so great a promotion. The familiar position of his master, leaning on his shoulder, is a farther proof of his esteem, declaring that he dwells, as it were, in his bosom, and possesses the utmost share of his affection ; circumstances that must sweeten even a state of servitude, and make a pleasant and lasting impression on the mind. The head- piece to the London Almanac, representing Industry taking Time by the forelock, is not the least of the beauties in this plate, as it intimates the danger of delay, and advises us to make the best use of time, whilst we have it in our power ; nor will the position of the gloves, on the flap of the escritoire, be unobserved by a curious examiner, being expressive of that union that subsists between an indul- gent master and an industrious apprentice. (91) HOGARTH'S WORKS. The strong beer nose and pimpled face of the porter, though they have no connexion, with the moral of the piece, are a fine caricatura, and show that our author let slip no opportunity of ridiculing the vices and follies of the age, and particularly here, in laying before us the strange infatuation of this class of people, who, because a good deal of labour requires some extraordinary refreshment, will even drink to the deprivation of their reason, and the destruction of their health. The surly mastiff, keeping close to his master, and quarrelling with the house cat for admittance, though introduced to fill up the piece, represents the faithfulness of these animals in general, and is no mean emblem of the honesty and fidelity of the porter. In this print, neither the cat, dog, nor the porter are well drawn, nor is much regard paid to perspective ; but the general design is carried on by such easy and natural gradations, and the consequent success of an attentive conduct displayed in colours so plain and perspicuous, that these little errors in execution will readily be overlooked. (92) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE V. THE IDLE 'PRENTICE TURNED AWAY AND SENT TO SEA. " A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." — Proverbs, chap, x., verse 1. Corrupted by sloth and contaminated by evil company, the idle apprentice, having tired the patience of his master, is sent to sea, in the hope that the being removed from the vices of the town and the influence of his wicked companions, joined with the hardships and perils of a seafaring life, might effect that reforma- tion of which his friends despaired while he continued on shore. See him then in the ship's boat, accompanied by his afflicted mother, making towards the vessel in which he is to embark. The disposition of the different figures in the boat, and the expression of their countenances, tell us plainly, that his evil pursuits and in- corrigible wickedness are the subjects of their discourse. The waterman signifi- cantly directs his attention to a figure on a gibbet, as emblematical of his future fate, should he not turn from the evil of his ways ; and the boy shows him a cat>- o'-nine-tails, expressive of the discipline that awaits him on board of ship ; these admonitions, however, he notices only by the application of his fingers to his fore- head, in the form of horns, jestingly telling them to look at Cuckold's Point, which they have just passed; he then throws his indentures into the water with an air of contempt, that proves how little he is affected by his present condition, and how little he regards the persuasions and tears of a fond mother, whose heart seems ready to burst with grief at the fate of her darling son, and perhaps her only stay ; for her dress seems to intimate that she is a widow. Well then might Solomon say, that "a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother;" for we here behold her who had often rejoiced in the prospect of her child being a prop to her in the decline of life, lamenting his depravity, and anticipating with horror the termina- tion of his evil course. One would naturally imagine, from the common course of (93) HOGARTH'S WORKS. things, that this scene would have awakened his reflection, and been the means of softening the ruggedness of his disposition, — that some tender ideas would have crossed his mind and melted the obduracy of his heart ; but he continues hardened and callous to every admonition. The group of figures composing this print has been copied by the ingenious Lavater; with whose appropriate remarks we conclude our present description. " Observe," says this great analyst of the human countenance, " in the annexed group, that unnatural wretch, with the infernal visage, insulting his supplicating mother ; the predominant character on the three other villain-faces, though all dis- figured by effrontery, is cunning and ironical malignity. Every face is a seal with this truth engraved on it : ' Nothing makes a man so ugly as vice ; nothing renders the countenance so hideous as villany.' " (94) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE VI. THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE OUT OF HIS TIME, AND MARRIED TO HIS MASTER'S DAUGHTER. " The virtuous woman is a crown to her husband." — Proverbs, chap, xiii., verse 4. The reward of industry is success. Our prudent and attentive youth is now become partner with his master, and married to his daughter. The sign, by which this circumstance is intimated, was at first inscribed Goodchild and West. Some of Mr. Hogarth's city friends informing him that it was usual for the senior partner's name to precede, it was altered. To show that plenty reigns in this mansion, a servant distributes the remains of the table to a poor woman, and the bridegroom pays one of the drummers, who, according to ancient custom, attend with their thundering gratulations the day after a wedding. A performer on the bass viol, and a herd of butchers armed with marrow-bones and cleavers, form an English concert. (Madame Pompadour, in her remarks on the English taste for music, says, they are invariably fond of every- thing that is full in the mouth.) A cripple with the ballad of Jesse, or the Happy Pair, represents a man known by the name of Philip in the Tub, who had visited Ireland and the United Provinces ; and, in the memory of some persons now living, was a general attendant at weddings. From those votaries of Hymen who were honoured with his epithalaraiums, he received a small reward. To show that Messrs. West and Goodchild's habitation is near the monument, the base of that stately column appears in the back-ground. The inscription which until lately graced this structure, used to remind every reader of Pope's lines. Where London's column pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully, rears its head, and lies, &c. The Duke of Buckingham's epigram on this magnificent pillar is not so gene- rally known : (95) HOGARTH'S WORKS. ' Here stand I, The Lord knows why ; But if I fall- Have at ye all. A footman and butcher, at the opposite corner, compared with the other figures, are gigantic ; they might serve for the Gog and Magog of Guildhall. It has been said that the thoughts in this print are trite, and the actions mean, which must be in part acknowledged, but they are natural, and appropriate to the rank and situation of the parties, and to the fashions of the time at which it was published. (96) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE VII. THE IDLE 'PRENTICE RETURNED FROM SEA, AND IN A GARRET WITH A COMMON PROSTITUTE. " The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase him." — Leviticus, chap, xxvi., verse 6. The idle apprentice, as appears by this print, is advancing with rapid strides towards his fate. We are to suppose him returned from sea after a long voyage ; and to have met with such correction abroad for his obstinacy, during his absence from England, that though it was found insufficient to alter his disposition, yet it determined him to pursue some other way of life ; and what he entered on is here but too evident (from the pistols by the bed-side, and the trinkets his companion is examining, in order to strip him of) to be that of the highway. He is represented in a garret, with a common prostitute, the partaker of his infamy, awaking, after a night spent in robbery and plunder, from one of those broken slumbers which are ever the consequence of a life of dishonesty and debauchery. Though the designs of Providence are visible in everything, yet they are never more con- spicuous than in this, — that whatever these unhappy wretches possess by wicked and illegal means, they seldom comfortably enjoy. In this scene we have one of the finest pictures imaginable of the horrors of a guilty conscience. Though the door is fastened in the strongest manner, with a lock and two bolts, and with the addition of some planks from the flooring, so as to make his retreat as secure as possible; though he has attempted to drive away thought by the powerful effects of spirituous liquors, plain from the glass and bottle upon the floor, still he is not able to brave out his guilt, or steel his breast against reflection. Behold him roused by the accidental circumstance of a cat's coming down the chimney, and the falling of a few bricks, which he believes to.be the noise of his pursuers! Observe his starting up in bed, and all the tortures of his mind imprinted in his face ! He first stiffens into stone, then all his nerves and muscles relax, a cold sweat seizes him. VOL. I.— 12 (97) HOGARTH'S WORKS. his hair stands on end, his teeth chatter, and dismay and horror stalk before his eyes. How different is the countenance of his wretched bed-fellow ! in whom unconcern and indifference to everything but the plunder are plainly apparent. She is looking at an ear-ring, which, with two watches, an etwee, and a couple of rings, are spread upon the bed, as part of last night's plunder. The phials on the mantel-piece show that sickness and disease are ever attendant on prostitution ; and the beggarly appearance of the room, its wretched furniture, the hole by way of window (by the light of which she is examining her valuable acquisition, and against which she had hung her old hoop-petticoat in order to keep out the cold), and the rat's running across the floor, are just and sufficient indications that jnisery and want are the constant companions of a guilty life. (98) NDUSTRY AND IDLENESS PLATE VIII. THE INDUSTRIOUS APPRENTICE GROWN RICH, AND SHERIFF OF LONDON. " With all thy gettings get understanding. Exalt her, and she ehall promote thee ; she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her." — Proverbs, chap, iv., verses 7, 8. From industry become opulent, from integrity and punctuality respectable, our young merchant is now sheriflF of London, and dining with the different companies in Guildhall. A group on the left side are admirably characteristic ; their whole souls seem absorbed in the pleasures of the table. A divine, true to his cloth, swallows his soup with the highest gout. Not less gratified is the gentleman palating a glass of wine. The man in a black wig is a positive representative of famine ; and the portly and oily citizen, with a napkin tucked in his button-hole, has evidently burnt his mouth by extreme eagerness. The backs of those in the distance, behung with bags, major perukes, pinners, &c., are most laughably ludicrous. Every person present is so attentive to business, that one may fairly conclude they live to eat, rather than eat to live. But though this must be admitted to be the case with this party, the following instance of city temperance proves that there are some exceptions. When the lord mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, chamberlain, &c., of the city of London were once seated around the table at a public and splendid dinner at Guildhall, Mr. Cham- berlain Wilkes lisped out, " Mr. Alderman B , shall I help you to a plate of turtle, or a slice of the haunch, — 1 am within reach of botji, sir?" " Neither one nor t'other, I thank you, sir," replied the alderman, "I think I shall dine on the beans and bacon which are at this end of the table." " Mr. Alderman A ," continued the Chamberlain, "which would you choose, sir?" "Sir, I will not trouble you for either, for I believe I shall follow the example of my brother B , and dine on beans and bacon," was the reply. On this second refusal the old Chamberlain rose from his seat, and, with every mark of astonishment in his (99) HOGARTH'S WORKS. countenance, curled up the corners of his mouth, cast his eyes round the table, and in a voice as loud and articulate as he was able, called " Silence !" which being obtained, he thus addressed the pretorian magistrate, who sat in the chair : " My Lord Mayor, the wicked have accused us of intemperance, and branded us with the imputation of gluttony ; that they may be put to open shame, and their pro- fane tongues be fi'om this day utterly silenced, I humbly move, that your lordship command the proper officer to record in our annals, that two aldermen of the city of London prefer beans and bacon to either turtle soup or venison." Notwithstanding all this, there are men, who, looking at the dark side, and perhaps rendered splenetic, and soured by not being invited to these sumptuous entertainments, have affected to fear, that their frequent repetition would have a tendency to produce a famine, or at least to check the increase, if not extirpate the species, of those birds, beasts, and fish, with which the tables of the rich are now so plentifully supplied. But these half reasoners do not take into their cal- culation the number of gentlemen so laudably associated for encouraging cattle being fed so fat that there is no lean left ; or that more ancient association, sanc- tioned and supported by severe acts of parliament, for the preservation of the game. From the exertions of these and similar societies, we may reasonably hope there is no occasion to dread any such calamity taking place ; though the Guild- hall tables often groaning under such hecatombs as are recorded in the following account, may make a man of weak nerves and strong digestion shake his head and shudder a little. "On the 29th October, 1727, when George II. and Queen Caro- line honoured the city with their presence at Guildhall, there were nineteen tables, covered with 1075 dishes. The whole expense of this entertainment to the city was £4889 4s." To return to the print ; — a self-sufficient and consequential beadle, reading the direction of a letter to Francis Goodchild, Esq., Sheriff of London, has all the insolence of office. The important and overbearing air of this dignified personage is well contrasted by the humble simplicity of the straight-haired messenger behind the bar. The gallery is well furnished with musicians busily employed in4heir vocation. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, And therefore proper at a sheriff's feast. Besides the portrait of William the Third, and a judge, the hall is ornamented with a full length of that illustrious hero Sir William Walworth, in commemora- tion of whose valour the weapon with which he slew Wat Tyler was introduced into the city arms. (100) k 'n ^ V*. c i INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS PLATE IX. THE IDLE 'PRENTICE BETRAYED BY A PROSTITUTE, AND TAKEN IN A NIGHT CELLAR WITH HIS ACCOMPLICE. "The adulteress will hunt for the precious life." — Proverbs, chap, vi., verse 26. From the picture of the reward of diligence, we return to take a further view of the progress of sloth and infamy ; by following the idle 'prentice a step nearer to the approach of his unhappy end. We see him in the third plate herding with the worst of the human sp«.fiies, the very dregs of the people ; one of his compa- nions, at that time, being a one-eyed wretch, who seemed hackneyed in the ways of vice. To break this vile connexion he was sent to sea ; but, no sooner did he return, than his wicked disposition took its natural course, and every day he lived served only to habituate him to acts of greater criminality. He presently disco- vered his old acquaintance, who, no doubt, rejoiced to find him so ripe for mischief : with this worthless, abandoned fellow, he enters into engagements of the worst kind, even those of robbery and murder. Thus blindly will men sometimes run headlong to their own destruction. About the time when these plates were first published, which was in the year 1747, there was a noted house in Chick Lane, Smithfield, that went by the name of the Blood Bowl House, so called from the numerous scenes of blood that were almost daily carried on there ; it being a receptacle for prostitutes and thieves ; where every species of delinquency was practised ; and where, indeed, there seldom passed a month without the commission of some act of murder. To this subterrar neous abode of iniquity (it being a cellar) was our hero soon introduced; where he is now represented in company with his accomplice, and others of the same stamp, having just committed a most horrid act of barbarity (that of killing a passer-by, and conveying him into a place under ground, contrived for this purpose), dividing among them the ill-gotten booty, which consists of two watches, a snuflf-box, and some other trinkets. In the midst of this wickedness, he is betrayed by his (101) HOGARTH'S WORKS. strumpet (a proof of the treachery of such wretches) into the hands of the high constable and his attendants, who had, with better success than heretofore, traced him to this wretched haunt. The back ground of this print serves rather as a representation of night-cellars in general, those infamous receptacles for the disso- lute and abandoned of both sexes, than a further illustration of our artist's chief design ; however, as it was Mr. Hogarth's intention, in the history before us, to encourage virtue and expose vice, by placing the one in an amiable light, and exhibiting the other in its most heightened scenes of wickedness and impiety, in hopes of deterring the half-depraved youth of this metropolis from even the possi- bility of the commission of such actions, by frightening them from these abodes of wretchedness ; as this was manifestly his intention, it cannot be deemed a deviation from the subject. By the skirmish behind, the woman without a nose, the scat- tered cards upon the floor, &c., we are shown that drunkenness and riot, disease, prostitution, and ruin are the dreadful attendants of sloth, and the general fore- runners of crimes of the deepest dye ; and by the halter sus.pended from the ceiling, over the head of the sleeper, we are to learn two things — the indifference of mankind, even in a state of danger, and the insecurity of guilt in every situation. (102) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE X. THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE ALDERMAN OF LONDON; THE IDLE ONE BROUGHT BEFORE HIM, AND IMPEACHED BY HIS ACCOMPLICE. "Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment." — Leviticus, chap, xix., verse 15. " The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands." — Psalm ix., verse 161 Imagine now this depraved and atrocious youth handcuffed, and dragged trom his wicked haunt, through the streets to a place of security, amidst the scorn and contempt of a jeering populace ; and thence brought before the sitting magistrate (who, to heighten the scene and support the contrast, is supposed to be his fellow- 'prentice, now chosen an alderman), in order to be dealt with according to law. See him then at last, having run his course of iniquity, fallen into the hands of justice, being betrayed by his accomplice ; a further proof of the perfidy of man, when even partners in vice are unfaithful to each other. This is the only print among the set, excepting the first, where the two principal characters are introduced ; in which Mr. Hogarth has shown his great abilities, as well in description, as in a particular attention to the uniformity and connexion of the whole. He is now at the bar, with all the marks of guilt imprinted on his face. How, if his fear will permit him to reflect, must he think on the happiness and exaltation of his fellow- 'prentice on the one hand, and of his own misery and degradation on the other ! At one instant, he condemns the persuasions of his wicked companions; at another, his own idleness and obstinacy : however, deeply smitten with his crime, he sues the magistrate, upon his knees, for mercy, and pleads in his cause the former acquaintance that subsisted between them, when they both dwelt beneath the same roof, and served the same common master : but here was no room for lenity, murder was his crime, and death must be his punishment; the proofs are incon- testable, and his mittimus is ordered, which the clerk is drawing out. Let us next turn our thoughts upon the alderman, in whose breast a struggle between mercy and justice is beautifully displayed. Who can behold the magistrate, here, without praising the man ? How fine is the painter's thought of reclining the head on one hand while the other is extended to express the pity and shame he feels that (103) HOGARTH'S WORKS. human nature should be so depraved ! It is not the golden chain or scarlet robe that constitutes the character, but the feelings of the heart. To show us that application for favour, by the ignorant, is often idly made to the servants of justice, who take upon themselves on that account a certain state and consequence, not inferior to magistracy, the mother of our delinquent is represented in the greatest distress, as making interest with the corpulent self-swoln constable, who with an unfeeling concern seems to say, " Make yourself easy, for he must be hanged ;" and to convince us that bribery will even find its way into courts of judicature, here is a woman feeing the swearing clerk, who has stuck his pen behind his ear that his hands might be both at liberty ; and how much more his attention is engaged to the money he is taking, than to the administration of the oath, may be known from the ignorant, treacherous witness being suffered to lay his left hand upon the book ; strongly expressive of the sacrifice, even of sacred things, to the inordinate thirst of gain. From Newgate (the prison to which he was committed ; where, during his con- tinuance, he lay chained in a dismal cell, deprived of the cheerfulness of light, fed upon bread and water, and left without a bed to rest on) the prisoner was removed to the bar of judgment, and condemned to die by the laws of his country. (104^ INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE XI. THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN. " When fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress oometh upon them, .then shall they call upon God, but he will not answer." — Proverbs, chap, i., verses 7, 8. Thus, after a life of sloth, wretchedness, and vice, does our delinquent termi- nate his career. Behold him, on the dreadful morn of execution, drawn in a cart (attended by the sheriff's officers on horseback, with his coffin behind him), through the public streets to Tyburn, there to receive the just reward of his crimes, — a shameful, ignominious death. The ghastly appearance of his face, and the horror painted on his countenance, plainly show the dreadful situation of his mind ; which we must imagine to be agitated with shame, remorse, confusion, and terror. The careless position of the Ordinary at the coach window, is intended to show how inattentive those appointed to that office are of their duty, leaving it to others, which is excellently expressed by the itinerant preacher in the cart, instruct- ing from a book of Wesley's. Mr. Hogarth has in this print, digressing from the history and moral of the piece, taken an oportunity of giving us a humorous repre- sentation of an execution, or a Tyburn fair : such days being made holidays, pro- duce scenes of the greatest riot, disorder, and uproar ; being generally attended by hardened wretches, who go there, not so much to reflect upon their own vices, as to commit those crimes which must in tinie inevitably bring them to the same shameful end. In confirmation of this, see how earnestly one boy watches the motions of the man selling his cakes, while he is picking his pocket ; and another waiting to receive the booty ! We have here interspersed before us a deal of low humour, but such as is common on occasions like this. In one place we observe an old bawd turning up her eyes and drinking a glass of gin, the very picture of hypo- crisy ; and a man indecently helping up a girl into the same cart ; in another, a soldier sunk up to his knees in a bog, and two boys laughing at him, are well ima- VOL. I.— 14 (105) HOGARTH'S WORKS. gined._ Here we see one almost squeezed to death among the horses ; there another trampled on by the mob. In one part is a girl tearing the face of a boy for over- setting her barrow ; in another, a woman beating a fellow for throwing down her child. Here, we see a man flinging a dog among the crowd by the tail; there, a woman crying the dying speech of Thomas Idle, printed the day before his execu- tion ; and many other things too minute to be pointed out : two, however, we must not omit taking notice of, one of which is the letting off a pigeon, bred at the jail, fly from the gallery, which hastes directly home ; an old custom, to give an early notice to the keeper and others, of the turning off or death of the criminal ; and that of the executioner smoking his pipe at the top of the gallows, whose position of indiflference betrays an unconcern that nothing can reconcile with the shocking spectacle, but that of use having rendered his wretched office familiar to him ; whilst it declares a truth, which every character in this plate seems to confirm, that a sad and distressful object loses its power of aflfecting by being frequently seen. (106) INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. PLATE XII. THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON. " Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour." — Proverbs, oh. iii., ver. lU. Having seen the ignominious end of the idle apprentice, nothing remains but to represent the completion of the other's happiness ; who is now exalted to the highest honour, that of lord mayor of London ; the greatest reward that ancient and noble city can bestow on diligence and integrity. Our artist has here, as in the last plate, given a loose to his humour, in representing more of the low part of the lord mayor's show than the magnificent ; yet the honour done the city by the presence of the prince and princess of Wales is not forgotten. The variety of comic characters in this print serves to show what generally passes on such public processions as these, when the people collect to gratify their childish curiosity, and indulge their wanton disposition, or natural love of riot. The front of this plate exhibits the oversetting of a board, on which some girls had stood, and represents them sprawling upon the ground ; on the left, at the back of the scaffold, is a fellow saluting a fair nymph, and another enjoying the joke : near him is a blind man straggled in among the crowd, and joining in the general halloo : before him is a militia man, so completely intoxicated as not to know what he is doing ; a figure of infinite humour. Though Mr. Hogarth has here marked out two or three particular things, yet his chief intention was to ridicule the city militia, which was at this period composed of undisciplined men, of all ages, sizes, and height ; some fat, some lean, some tall, some short, some crooked, some lame, and in general so anused to muskets, that they knew not how to carry them. One, we observe, is firing his piece and turning his head another way, at whom the man above is laughing, and at which the child is frightened. The boy on the right, crying, " A (107) HOGARTH'S WORKS. full and true account of the ghost of Thomas Idle," which is supposed to have appeared to the mayor, preserves the connexion of the whole work. The most obtrusive figure in his lordship's coach is Mr. Swordbearer, in a cap like a reversed saucepan, which this great officer wears on these grand occasions. The company of journeymen butchers, with their marrow-bones and cleavers, appear to be the most active, and are by far the most noisy of any who grace this solemnity. Num- berless spectators, upon every house, and at every window, dart their desiring eyes on the procession ; so great indeed was the interest taken by the good citizens of London in these civic processions that, formerly, it was usual in a London lease to insert a clause, giving a right to the landlord and his friends to stand in the bal- cony, during the time of " the shows or pastimes, upon the day commonly called the lord mayor's day." Thus have we seen, by a series of events, the prosperity of the one and the downfall of the other; the riches and honour that crown the head of industry, and the ignominy and destruction that await the slothful. After this it would be unnecessary to say which is the most eligible path to tread. Lay the roads but open to the view, and the traveller will take the right of course; give but the boy this history to peruse, and his future welfare is almost certain. (108) SOUTHWARK FAIR. The subject of the plate under consideration is that of the Borough Pair ; a fair held some time since in the Borough of Southwark, though now suppressed. This fair was attended, generally, by the inhabitants of town and country, and, therefore, was one that afforded great variety ; especially as, before its suppression, it was devoted to everything loose and irregular. A view of the scene, of which the following print is a faithful representation, will affirm this truth. The principal view upon the left represents the fall of a scaffold, on which was assembled a strolling company, pointed out, by the paper lantern hanging in front, to be that belonging to Gibber and Bullock, ready dressed to exhibit " The Fall of Bajazet." Here we see merry-andrews, monkeys, queens, and emperors, sinking in one general confusion ; and, that the crash may appear the greater, the stand beneath is humorously supposed to consist of earthenware and china. Notwith- standing this fatal overthrow, few below are seen to notice it ; witness the boys and woman gambling at the box and dice, the upright monkey, and the little bag- piper dancing his wooden figures. Above this scaffold hangs a painting, the subject of which is the stage mutiny ; whose figures are as follows : — On one side is Pistol, (strutting and crying out, " Pistol's alive,") Falstaff, Justice Shallow, and many other characters of Shakspeare. On the other, the manager bearing in his hand a paper, on which is written, " it cost 6000Z.," a scene-painter, who has laid his brushes aside, and taken up a cudgel ; and a woman holding an ensign, bearing the words, " We'll starve 'em out." In the comer is a man, quiet and snug, hug- ging a bag of money, laughing at the folly of the rest ; and behind, a monkey, perched upon a sign-iron, supposed to be that of the Kose Tavern in Drury Lane, squeaking out, " I am a gentleman." These paintings are in general designed to show what is exhibited within ; but this alludes to a dispute that arose at the time when this print was published, which was in the year 1733, between the players and the patentee of Drury Lane, ^hen young Gibber, the son of the Laureate, was at the head of the faction. Above, on one side, is an equilibrist swinging on a slack rope; and on the other, a man flying from the tower to the ground, by means of a groove fastened to his breast, slipping over a line strained from one place to the other. At the back of this plate is Lee and Harper's great booth, (109) HOGARTH'S WORKS. where, by the picture of the wooden horse, we are told, is represented " The feiege of Troy." The next paintings consist of the fall of Adam and Eve, and a scene in Punch's opera. Beneath is a mountebank, exalted on a stage, eating fire to attract the public attention; while his merry-andrew behind is distributing his medicines. Further back is a shift and hat, carried upon poles, designed as prizes for the best runner or wrestler. In front is a group of strollers parading the fair, in order to collect an audience for their next exhibition ; in which is a female drummer, at that time well known, and remarked for her beauty, which we observe has caught the eye of two countrymen, the one old, the other young. Behind these men is a buskined hero, beset by a Marshalsea Court officer and his follower. To the right is a Savoyard exhibiting her farthing show ; and behind, a player at back-sword riding a blind horse round the fair triumphantly, in all the boast of self-important heroism, affecting terror in his countenance, glorying in his scars, and challenging the world to open combat : a folly for which the English were remarkable. To this man a fellow is directing the attention of a country gentle- man, while he robs him of his handkerchief. Next him is an artful villain decoying a couple of unthinking country girls to their ruin. Further back is a man kissing a wench in the crowd ; and above, a juggler performing some dexterity of hand. Indeed it would be tedious to enter into an enumeration of the various matter of this plate ; it is sufficient to remark that it presents us with an endless collection of spirited and laughable characters, in which is strikingly portrayed the character of the times. (110) iJ^^i^ GARRICK IN THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD III Give me another horse, — bind up my wounds, — Have mercy, Jesu ! — Soft ; I did but dream. — coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me ! — The lights burn blue I — Is it not dead midnight ? Cold, fearful drops hang on my trembling flesh. — Such is the exclamation of Richard, and such is the disposition of his mind at the moment of this delineation. The lamp, diffusing a dim religious light through the tent, the crucifix placed at his head, the crown, and unsheathed sword at his hand, and the armour lying on the ground, are judicious and appropriate accompa- niments. Those who are acquainted with this prince's history, need not be told that he was naturally bold, courageous, and enterprising ; that when business called him to the field, he shook off" every degree of indulgence, and applied his mind to the management of his affairs. This may account for his being stripped no other- wise than of his armour, having retired to his tent in order to repose himself upon his bed, and lessen the fatigues of the preceding day. See him then hastily rising, at dead of night, in the utmost horror from his own thoughts, being terrified in his sleep by the dreadful phantoms of an affrighted imagination, seizing on his sword, by way of defence against the foe his disordered fancy presents to him. So great is his agitation, that every nerve and muscle is in action, and even the ring is forced from his finger. When the heart is affected, how great is its influence on the human frame ! — it communicates its sensibility to the extreme parts of the body, from the centre to the circumference, as distant water is put in motion by circles, spreading from the place of its disturbance. The paper on the floor containing these words, — Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold. For Dickon thy master is bought and is sold, brought him by the Duke of Norfolk, saying he found it in his tent, and lying here unattended to, as a mark of contempt, plainly informs us that however a man may attempt to steel himself against the arrows of conscience, still they will find a way to his breast, and shake the sinner even in his greatest security. And indeed we cannot wonder, when we reflect on the many murders he was guilty of, deserving (111) HOGARTH'S WORKS. the severest punishment ; for Providence has wisely ordained that sin should be its own tormentor, otherwise, in many cases, the offender would, in this life, escape unpunished, and the design of Heaven be frustrated. But Richard, though he reached a throne, and by that means was exempt from the sufferings of the subject, yet could not divest himself of his nature, but was forced to give way to the work- ings of the heart, and bear the tortures of a distracted mind. The expression in his face is a master-piece of execution, and was a great compliment paid by Mr. Hogarth to his friend Garrick ; yet not unmerited, as all that have seen him in the part must acknowledge the greatness of the actor. The figures in the distance, two of whom, Like Sacrifices by their fires of watch, With patience sit, and inly ruminate The morning's danger, are properly introduced, and highly descriptive. The tents of Richmond are so near That the fix'd sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other's watch. Considered as a whole, the composition is simple, striking, and original, and the figures well drawn. The whole moral tenour of the piece informs us that con- science is armed with a thousand stings, from which royalty itself is not secure ; that of all tormentors, reflection is the worst ; that crowns and sceptres are baubles, compared with self-approbation ; and that nought is productive of solid happiness, but inward peace, and serenity of mind. (112) THE INVASION: OR FRANCE AND ENGLAND. In the two following designs, Mr. Hogarth has displayed that partiality for his own country and contempt for France, which formed a strong trait in his character. He neither forgot nor forgave the insults he suffered at Calais, though he did not recollect that this treatment originated in his own ill-humour, which threw a sombre shade over every object that presented itself Having early imbibed the vulgar prejudice that one Englishman was a match for four French- men, he thought it would be doing his country a service to prove the position. How far it is either useful or politic to depreciate the power, or degrade the character of that people with whom we are to contend, is a question which does not come within the plan of this work. In some cases it may create confidence, but in others lead to the indulgence of that negligent security by which armies have been slaughtered, provinces depopulated, and kingdoms changed their rulers. PLATE I. FRANCE With lantern jaws, and croaking gut, See how the half-starv'd Frenchmen strut, And call us English dogs : But soon we'll teach these bragging foes That beef and beer give heavier blows Than soup and roasted frogs. The priests, inflam'd with righteous hopes, Prepare their axes, wheels, and ropes, , To bend the stiff-neck'd sinner ; But should they sink in coming over. Old Nick may fish 'twixt France and Dover, And catch a glorious dinner. The scenes of all Mr. Hogarth's prints, except The Gate of Calais, and that now under consideration, are laid in England. In this, having quitted his own country, he seems to think himself out of the reach of the critics, and in delineating a Frenchman, at liberty to depart from nature, and sport in the fairy regions of VOL. I.— 15 (113) HOGARTH'S WORKS. caricature. Were these Gallic soldiers naked, each of them would appear like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved ^pon it with a knife : so forlorn ! that to any thick sight he would be invisible. To see this miserable wo-begone refuse of the army, who look hke a group detached from the main body and put on the sick list, embarking to conquer a neighbouring kingdom, is ridiculous enough, and at the time of publication must have had great effect. The artist seemed sensible that it was necessary to account for the unsubstantial appearance of these shadows of men, and has hinted at their want of solid food, in the bare bones of beef hung up in the window, the inscription on the alehouse sign, Soupe maigre au Sabot Royal" and the spider-like officer roasting four frogs which he has impaled upon his sword. Such light and airy diet is whimsically opposed by the motto on the standard, which two of the most valorous of this ghastly troop are hailing with grim delight and loud exultation. It is, indeed, an attractive motto, and well calculated to inspire this famishing company with courage, — " Vengeance, avec la bonne Bidre, et bon boeuf d' Angleterre." However meagre the military, the church militant is in no danger of starving. The portly friar is neither emaciated by fasting nor weakened by penance. Anticipating the glory of extirpating heresy, he is feeling the sharp edge of an axe to be employed in the decollation of the enemies to the true faith. A sledge is laden with whips, wheels, ropes, chains, gibbets, and other inquisitorial engines of torture, which are admirably calculated for the propagation of a religion that was established in meekness and mercy, and inculcates universal charity and forbearance. On the same sledge is an image of St. Anthony, accompanied by his pig, and the plan of a monastery to be built at Black Friars. In the back-ground are a troop of soldiers so adverse to this English expedition, that their sergeant is obhged to goad them forward with his halberd. To intimate that agriculture suffers by the invasion having engaged the masculine inhabitants, two woman, ploughing a sterile promontory in the distance, complete this catalogue of wretchedness, misery, and famine. (114^ THE INVASION. PLATE II. ENGLAND. See John, the soldier, Jack, the Tar, With sword and pistol arm'd for war. Should Mounseer dare come here ; The hungry slaves have smelt our food, They long to taste our flesh and blood, Old England's beef and beer. Britons, to arms ! and let 'em come. Be yon but Britons still, strike home, And, lion-like, attack 'em. No power can stand the deadly stroke That's given from hands and hearts of oak, With liberty to back 'em. From the unpropitious regions of France our scene changes to the fertile fields of England. " England ! bound in with the triumphant sea. Whose rocky shores beat back the envious siege Of wat'ry Neptune. Instead of the forlorn and famished party who were represented in the last plate, we here see a company of well-fed and high-spirited Britons, marked with all the hardihood of ancient times, and eager to defend their country. In the first group a young peasant, who aspires to a niche in the temple of fame, preferring the service of Mars to that of Ceres, and the dignified appellation of soldier to the plebeian name of farmer, offers to enlist. Standing with his back against the halberd to ascertain his height, and, finding he is rather under the mark, he endeavours to reach it by rising on tiptoe. This artifice, to which he is impelled by towering ambition, the sergeant seems disposed to connive at — and the sergeant is a hero, and a great man in his way ; " your hero always must be tall you know." To evince that the polite arts were then in a flourishing state, and cultivated by more than the immediate professors, a gentleman artist, who to common eyes must pass for a grenadier, is making a caricature of le grand monarqiie, with a label from his mouth worthy the speaker and worthy observation, " You take a my (116) V HOGARTH'S WORKS. fine ships ; you be de pirate ; you be de teef : me send my grand armies, and hang you all." The action is suited to the word, for with his left hand this most Christian potentate grasps his sword, and in his right poises a gibbet. The figure and motto united produce a roar of approbation from the soldier and sailor, who are criticising the work. It is so natural that the Helen and Briseis of the camp contemplate the performance with apparent delight, and, while one of them with her apron measures the breadth of this herculean painter's shoulders, the other, to show that the performance has some point, places her forefinger against the prongs of a fork. The little fifer, playing that animated and inspiring tune, " God save the king," is an old acquaintance ; we recollect him in the March to Finchley. In the back- ground is a sergeant, teaching a company of young recruits their manual exercise. This military meeting is held at the sign of the Gallant Duke of Cumberland, who is mounted upon a prancing charger, As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, To turn and wield a fiery Pegasus, And witch the world with noble horsemanship. Underneath is inscribed " Roast and boiled every day," which, with the beef and beverage upon the table, forms a fine contrast to the sowpe maigre, bare bones, and roasted frogs, in the last print. The bottle painted on the wall, foaming with liquor, which, impatient of imprisonment, has burst its cerements, must be an irre- sistible invitation to a thirsty traveller. The soldier's sword laid upon the round of beef, and the sailor's pistol on the vessel containing the ale, intimate that these great bulwarks of our island are as tenacious of their beef and beer, as of their religion and liberty. These two plates were published in 1756; but in the London Chronicle for October 20, 1759, is the following advertisement : " This day are republished. Two prints designed and etched by William Hogarth, one representing the preparations on the French coast for an intended invasion ; the other, a view of the preparations making in England to oppose the wicked designs of our enemies ; proper to be stuck up in public places, both in town and country, at this juncture." The verses which were inserted under each print, and subjoined to this account, are, it must be acknowledged, coarse enough. They were, however, written by David Garrick. (116) 'I THE ELECTION. PLATE I. AN ELECTION ENTERTAINMENT. Few scenes in life are more full of humour than those of a county election of the olden times. The variety of characters to be met with there frequently draw a smile from the most grave and rigid. Our artist commences this humorous series with an entertainment at an inn in the county town, opened by one of the candidates for the reception of his friends, some time before the poll, in order to secure his interest ; without which he would have had little chance of success. To preserve the connexion of this piece, we are to suppose it a general election for knights of the shire, when two members of the Whig party are chosen in opposition to two of the Tory. But as, when the court and country are put in different scales, the weight of the second, at least in appear- ance, makes the first kick the beam ; those in the Tory interest are obliged to wear the faces of the Whig in order to carry the point in question. Such is the case of the party present, evident by the slashed picture of the king, which they are sup- posed to have demolished, through a pretended aversion to the court ; and the flag, on which is painted " Give us our eleven days," alluding to the alteration of the style in the year 1752, which gave great displeasure in England ; these things, with some others, such as the foppish dress of the candidate, the name of the person next him (one of his agents), viz.. Sir Commodity Taxem, known .by the address of a letter just presented him by the leering cobbler, who has him by the hand, and whom he solicits, thinking he has taken him in for some service, and by the motto on the butcher's favour (who is pouring gin on the broken head of another), namely, " For our country." By these and other circumstances it is past doubt that the party present are Tories under false colours. To confirm this further, we see the opposite party throwing bricks and stones at the window, one of which has knocked down an attorney from his seat, who was employed in casting up the votes. Without is a flag carried by the mob, bearing these words, " Marry and multiply in 'spite of the devil and the court," and the effigy of a Jew, on whose breast is written (117) HOGARTH'S WORKS. '• No Jews," alluding to two unpopular acts that passed about the same time. To revenge this riotous proceeding without, observe a man throwing a stool out in return, and another emptying a vessel of urine on their heads; at these seasons decency and distinction are laid aside. As a proof of this, see here an assembly of all ranks of people ; view the condescending candidate paying his respects to a female voter, an old toothless jade, who, in obedience to the word of command, viz. " Kiss him, Moll" (from the man above her, who is shedding the fiery ashes on the member's wig), is not only doing that, but taking other indecent liberties with him, while the girl is endeavouring to rob him of his ring. Before this woman is one Abel Squat, a dealer in ribands, gloves, and stockings, brought as presents on the occasion, for which he has received a promissory note of 50L payable in six months, which he does not seem to relish. At the middle of this table, on the further side, sits a crooked object, ridiculing one of the fiddlers for his enormous length of chin, not considering his own deformity, even in that very part. In front is a boy making punch in a mashing tub, of which one of the corporation behind the young woman near the window, seems to have got his fill. But this entertainment does not con- sist in drinking only, eating to excess is also part of it, as is shown by a parson and an alderman, voraciously cramming themselves, to the destruction of their health. Though the dishes are removed from the table, we see this guttling divine feasting luxuriously on the remains of a haunch of venison, even when all the rest have done, indulging his palate by heating it in a chafing dish of coals, though he is almost fainting with the task. With respect to the alderman, behold him after dinner, gorged with oysters, dying with one upon his fork, and a barber-surgeon vainly attempting to recover him by bleeding. Behind this man's chair is a puritan tailor with uplifted hands, refusing to take a bribe, and his wife abusing him for so doing; "Curse your squeamish conscience," says she, "are not your wife and children starving? have they clothes to their backs, or stockings to their feet? take it, or, by all that's just, you rue the consequence." Beneath the window is an old gentleman afilicted with the gravel. On his right hand is a droll genius making game of him, twisting his handkerchief into the representation of a face, and moving it with infinite humour while he chants the song of " An old woman clothed in gray." In this room we may imagine a variety of noises, loud and boisterous, which is increased by the addition of a few catgut-scrapers, and a north country bag-piper. The only thing in this plate further to be noticed is the elector's coat of arms against the wainscot, viz., three guineas proper, with the motto, " Speak and have ;" whose crest is a bawling mouth : hence we are taught that, in elections, honesty is shut out of doors, and gold the only prevailing argument. (118) THE ELECTION. PLATE II. CANVASSING FOR VOTES. In this print we are introduced to the opposite party, in an active canvass in a country village, prodigally scattering money among the inhabitants ; for at these times nothing paves the way like gold, which, as a celebrated writer observed, is the strongest argument, and a most wonderful clearer of the understanding, dissi- pating every doubt and scruple in an instant. Mark then an agent for one of the candidates making interest with the ladies, by offering them presents from the box of a travelling Jew, in order to gain their favour, which is oftener effected by baubles and sights than by any degree of patriotism; he is supposed to entertain the vil- lage with a puppet-show, for admission to which a porter has just brought from the printer's same quires of tickets, together with a quantity of bills, usually distribu- ted on these occasions, requesting of the electors their vote and interest. The cloth, bearing the insignia of this exhibition, is allusive to the subject ; the lower part represents Punch profusely throwing money to the populace, while the upper part offers a view of the Treasury loading a wagon with money, in order to secure a parliamentary interest. In this piece Mr. Hogarth has taken an opportunity of ridiculing the clumsiness and absurdity of the building of the Horse Guards, in the heaviness of its steeple, which he has made to resemble a butt ; and the lowness of the gateway taking off the coachman's head, as he passed through it, when his Majesty went first to the House of Lords, after it :was finished. In the front of this piece stands a country freeholder, beset on both' sides by emissaries of different parties, presenting cards of invitation to dinner, in order to curry favour ; one of whom, viz., he in the cap, is supposed to be an attendant at the Crown, the other master of the Royal Oak ; both aire offering bribes, but one a much larger than the other ; and the determination of the farmer is sufiiciently known by the cast of his eve, which expressly declares that, though his necessity obliges him to take a fee from both, his conscience bids him vote for him that gives the most. The woman counting her money, which the grenadier eyes with so much wishfulness, is the (119) HOGARTH'S WORKS. mistress of the inn ; and is introduced to show us that the general attention of all ranks of people is fixed upon that saint-seducing object, money ; she sits upon the head of an old ship, fixed at the door, as is commonly seen at public-houses, which represents a lion ready to swallow a flower-de-luce (the French arms) ; emblema- tical of the animosity subsisting between England and France. As this scene would be imperfect without some eating and drinking, which is the very life of electioneering, our author has given us two men hard at it, in the larder ; one tear- ing a fowl to pieces with his teeth, and the other playing away upon a buttock of beef. On the opposite side of this plate are two ale-house politicians, a barber and a cobbler, who, with a total ignorance of men and measures, are settling the affairs of state, and planning sieges with half-pence and pieces of tobacco-pipe. As in the first plate the persons present wore only the cloak of reality, in this they show themselves absolutely in earnest. The people having here assembled to break the windows, tear down the sign (which one is sawing through on the top), and demolish the house, opened by the contrary party, are so bent on their object that the discharge of a gun is disregarded ; so headstrong and ungovernable is the mob. In this state of tumult and dissipation the time is spent till the day of election, when every agent is supposed to head his party, and march into town with a for- mal procession, the bells ringing, music playing, streamers flying, and people shout- ing. It is almost impossible to conceive the noise, the hurry, the bustle, and joy- ous confusion of the populace, each party striving to be the loudest, and endeavour- ing by all the acts of opposition to suppress the other. Now all business is super- seded by enjoyment, fighting and feasting is the employment of the day, all distinc- tion is laid aside, and the beggar is as great as the lord. Having then made all the interest possible, and secured every vote in their power, the next step is to poll them. (120) THE ELECTION. PLATE III. THE POLLING. With the glorious ambition of serving their country, added to an eagerness of displaying their own importance, the maimed, the lame, the blind, the deaf, and the sick, hasten to the hustings to give their independent votes. The contending candidates, seated at the back of the booth, anticipate the event. . One of them, coolly resting upon his cane in a state of stupid satisfaction, appears to be as happy as his nature will admit, in the certainty of success. Very diflferent are the feelings of his opponent, who, rubbing his head with every mark of apprehensive agitation, contemplates the state of the poll, and shudders at the heavy expense of a contest, in which he is likely to be the loser. Such are the cares of a candidate. The first person that tenders his oath to the swearing clerk is an old soldier, and probably a brave one, for he has lost a leg, an arm, and a hand, in the service of his country. They were severed by the sword of an enemy, but the trunk and heart remain entire, and are entitled to more respect than is paid them by the brawling advocate, who, with that loud and overbearing loquacity for which Billingsgate and the bar are so deservedly eminent, puts in a protest against his vote. The objection is not founded upon this heroic remnant of war having forfeited his franchise by any improper conduct, but upon the letter, the black letter of the law, " which," says our quibbling counsellor, " ordains, that the person who makes an affidavit, shall lay his right hand upon the book; now this man, having had his right hand severed from his arm, and, as he informs us, left it in Flanders, cannot comply with the letter of the law, and, therefore, is not com- petent to make an aflSdavit; that being once admitted, which I do contend must be admitted, he cannot be deemed competent to vote." "That," replies another gentleman of the black robe, " I most pointedly deny ; for, though this valiant veteran, who is a half-pay officer, has lost much of his blood, and three of his limbs in the service of his king and defence of his fellow-subjects, yet the sword, which VOL.1.— 16 (121) HOGARTH'S WORKS. deprived him of his hand, has not deprived him of his birthright. God forbid it should ! It might as well be argued and asserted, that this gentleman is excluded from the rites of matrimony, because he cannot pledge his hand. Thanks to our religion and our constitution, neither law nor gospel hold such language, and it is beneath me to waste any more words in the confutation of it. I will only add, and I do insist upon my opinion being confirmed by every statute upon the case, that the law must and will consider this substitute for a hand to be as g;ood as the hand itself; and his laying that upon the book is all which the law ought to require, — all the law can require, — all the law does require." Leaving these two bright luminaries of their profession to throw dust, and render that obscure which, without their explanation, would have been perfectly clear, let us attend to the son of Solomon, who is fastened in his chair, and brought to give his voice for a fit person to represent him in parliament. This is evidently a deaf idiot, but he is attended by a man in fetters, very capable of prompting him, who is at this moment roaring in his ear the name of the gentleman for whom he is to vote. Behind him are two fellows, carrying a man wrapped in a blanket, apparently in so languid a state that he cannot be supposed to feel much interest in the concerns of a world he is on the point of leaving. The catalogue of this motley group of electors is concluded by a blind man and a cripple, who are slowly and cautiously ascending the steps that lead to the hustings. In the group an artist is drawing a profile of one of the candidates, and, in both air and character, this Sayers of his day has given a very striking resemblance of his original. The constable, fatigued by double duty, is at peace with all mankind, — a deep sleep is upon him. Many of the crowd are attentively listening to the soft sounds of a female syren, warbling forth a brown paper libel on one of the candidates, in that universal language which those that cannot read may yet understand, — the hero of this satire being delineated as suspended to a gibbet on the top of the ballad. In the sinister corner is a view of Britannia's chariot oversetting, while the coachman and footman are playing at cards on the box. Here is one of the few instances where Hogarth has mounted into the cloudy heights of allegory; and here, as Mr. Walpole justly observes, he is not happy : it is a dark and dangerous region, in which almost every aeronaut of the art has lost himself, and confused his earth-born admirers. On a bridge in the back-ground is a carriage with colours flying, and a cavalcade composed of worthy and independent freeholders, advancing to give their suffrages with all possible 6clat. The village in the distance has a pretty effect. Of the church we may fairly say, as Charles II. did of that at Harrow on the Hill, It is the visible church. (122) THE ELECTION. PLATE IV. CHAIRING THE MEMBER. The polling being concluded, the books cast up, and the returning officer having declared our candidate duly elected, he is now exhibited in triumph. Seated in an arm-chair, and exalted upon the shoulders of four tried supporters of the constitu- tion, he is borne through the principal streets, which are promiscuously crowded with enemies as well as friends. In this aerostatic voyage there seems to be some danger of a wreck, for a thresher, having received an insult from a sailor, in the act of revenging it, flourishes his flail in as extensive an orbit as if he were in his own barn. The end of this destructive instrument coming in contact with the skull of a bearer of our new-made member, the fellow's head rings with the blow, his eyes swim, his limbs refuse their office, and, at this inauspicious moment, the effects of the stroke, like an electric shock, extend to the exalted senator. He trembles in every joint, the hat flies from his head, and, without the intervention of Juno or Minerva, he must fall from the seat of honour to the bed of stone. Terrified at his impending danger, a nervous lady, who with her attendants is in the church-yard, falls back in a swoon. Kegardless of her distress, two little chim- ney sweepers upon the gate-post are placing a pair of gingerbread spectacles on a death's head. Their sportive tricks are likely to be interrupted by a monkey beneath, who, arrayed en militaire, is mounted upon a bear's back. The firelock slung over this little animal's shoulder, in a fray between the bear and a biped, is accidentally discharged, in a direction that, if loaded, must carry leaden death to one of the gibing soot-merchants above. At an opposite corner, a naked soldier is taking a few refreshing grains of best Virginia, and preparing to dress himself after the performance of a pugilistic duet. On the other side of the rails, a half-starved French cook, a half-bred English cook, and a half-roasted woman-cook, are carrying three covers for the lawyer's table. Near them is a cooper inspecting a vessel that had been reported leaky, and must speedily be filled with home-brewed ale for the gratification of the populace. Twc (123) HOGARTH'S WORKS. fellows are forcing their way through the crowd in the back-ground with a barrel of the same liquor. Coming out of a street behind them, a procession of triumph- ant electors hail the other successful candidate, whose shadow appears on the wall of the court-house. In Mr. Attorney's first floor are a group of the defeated party glorying in their security, and highly delighted with the confusion below. One of these, distinguished by a riband, is said to be intended for the Duke of Newcastle, who was eminently active on these occasions. A poor old lady is unfortunately thrown down by a litter of pigs, which, followed by their mamma, rush through the crowd with as much impetuosity as if the whole herd were possessed. One of this agreeable party has leaped, not into the ocean, but the brook, and the whole family are on the point of following its example. In Le Brun's Battle of the Granicus, an eagle is represented as hovering over the plumed helmet of Alexander ; this thought is very happily parodied in a goose, flying immediately over the tie-wig of our exalted candidate. An inscription on the sun-dial, when joined to the mortuary representation on the church gate-post has been supposed to imply a pun, hardly worthy of Hogarth, but which yet I am inclined to suspect he intended. "'We must,' on the sun-dial," say some of his illustrators, "means, 'We must die all,' [dial.)" All the incidents in this very whimsical plate are naturally, and yet skilfully combined : the whole is in the highest degree laughable, and everj' figure stamped with its proper character. The apprehensive terror of the unwieldy member, the Herculean strength of the exasperated thresher, and the energetic attitude of the maimed sailor, deserve peculiar praise. Previous to the publication of this series, Mr. Hogarth's satire was generally aimed at the follies and vices of individuals. He has here ventured to dip his pen- cil in the ocean of politics, and delineated the corrupt and venal conduct of our electors in the choice of their representatives. That these four plates display a picture in any degree applicable to the present times cannot be expected, but they are fine satires on times gone by, when the people of Great Britain were so far from being influenced by a reverence for public virtue, that they began to suspect it had no existence. STROLLING PLAYERS. Hard is the fortune of a, strolling player, Necessity's rough burden doom'd to bear ; And scanty is the pittance he can earn, Wandering from town to town, from barn to bam. Where are my forty knights ? cries frantic Lear, A page replies — ^your majesty, they're here. When, lo ! — two bailifiFs and a writ appear." If variety is any ways entertaining, or if the life of a painting consists in its diversity of figures, the piece before us claims our particular attention ; none abound more with contrasted subjects, nor can their vis comica be more conspicuous : every group is crowded with humour, every subject with matter of laughter. Here we see confusion mixed with uniformity, and inconsistency united with propriety ; royalty let down to the ensigns of beggary, and beggary set oiF by the regalia of royalty. Most people are, indeed, acquainted with stage exhibitions, but few have any idea of their apparatus. Mr. Hogarth, therefore, desirous of communicating that pleasure he frequently enjoyed himsef, and of profiting by the design, pub- lished this plate in the year 173B, when the attention of the public was called to this class of people, it being just before the act against strolling players took place. The place from whence this scene is taken is supposed to be a barn, belonging to an inn in some country town, intimated by the corn and flail aloft, the hen and chickens at roost (though here) upon a wave, and the eggs upon a bed. The time is evening, the company from the theatres at London dressing and preparing to perform a farce, which, we are told by the play-bill on the bed, is called " The Devil to pay in Heaven," (a very suitable subject), with entertainments of tumbling and rope dancing. Such, we are to conceive, is their poverty, that they have but one room for all purposes ; witness the bed, the gridiron, the urinal, the food, and all the stage apparatus ; viz. scenes, flags, paint-pots, pageants, brushes, clouds, waves, ropes, besoms, drums, trumpets, salt-boxes, and other musical instruments, crowns, mitres, helmets, targets, dark-lanterns, cushions, periwigs, feathers, ham- (125) HOGARTH'S WORKS. pers of jewels, and contrivances for conjuring, thunder, lightning, dragons, daggers, poison, candles, and clay. The characters they are dressing for in this farce, are Jupiter, Juno, Diana, Flora, Night, Syren, Aurora, Eagle, and Cupid; with devils, ghosts, and attendants. Jupiter, we see, is holding Cupid's bow, directing the little fellow to reach his stockings, which were hung to dry upon the clouds. Queen Juno is rehearsing her part, while the sable goddess Night, represented by a negro girl in a starry robe, is mending a hole in her majesty's hose. Diana, though stripped, is raving in all the high swoln rant of tragedy; while Flora, at her feet, is attentively pomatuming her hair with a tallow candle, ready to powder it with flour from a dredging box, heedless of her wicker toilet's taking fire from a neighbouring flame. On the right of her is Aurora with her rosy face, ridding the charming intoxicated syren of some of her close companions, while she is comforting a female hero, wrapt up with the toothach, with a glass of spirits, who, greatly unlike the generality of her sex, is weeping at the thoughts of wearing the breeches, — for the smallness of a strolling company frequently obliges women to play the parts of men, and men to fill the characters of women ; nay, by the monkey's being habited in the farther corner, it is intimated that the farce they are going to perform has such a variety of characters, that they are under the necessity of making the monkey perform the part of an attendant. Beneath this woman's feet is a girl, dressed up by way of Eagle, cramming a new born infant with scalding pap. Humorously has our author set the pannikin upon the act of parliament against strolling players, and that upon a crown. This crown once pressed the brow of haughty Bolingbroke. And when young Harry did the crown purloin, He wept — because it was not current coin. At the back of this plate are two young devils (their horns just budded), contending for a draught of beer. Behind them is a female tumbler and the ghost, employed in extracting blood from the tail of a cat, in order to assist them in some sanguinary representation. The faces of these two women are finely con- trasted ; in one, we observe age and pleasantry, in the other, youth and distress. But the greatest piece of humour in the whole, is the agreeable engagement of two of the company in a cloud above, who, though retired from the eyes of all below, are unguardedly open to the discovery of a man through the broken roof (126) tad as ^ «> "w ** « ^ MOSES BEFORE PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER, A.iid the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses." — Exodus, chap, ii., ver. 10. Among the many benevolent institutions which do honour to this nation, the hospital for maintaining exposed and deserted infants may be ranked as one of the most humane and political. Let the austere enthusiast censure it as an encourage- ment to vice, and the rigid moralist declaim against giving sanction to profligacy, it is still an useful and a benevolent foundation. To protect the helpless, give refuge to the innocent, and render that unoflfending being a useful member of society, whose parents may be too indigent to give it proper sustenance, or wicked enough to destroy it, is fulfilling one great precept of religion, and must afford a pure and exalted gratification to every philanthropic mind. That it is found necessary to restrict the plan, and confine the charity in such narrow limits, is much to be lamented. Compassion and policy demand that the doors should be open to every proper object. With each infant was then sent some little memorial by which it might be known at a future day. The following lines were written by an unfortunate widow, and pinned to the breast of a child who was received into the hospital : Go, gentle babe, thy future life be spent In virtuous purity and calm content ; Life's sunshine bless thee, and no anxious care Sit on thy brow, and draw the falling tear ; Thy country's grateful servant may'st thou prove, And all thy life be happiness and love. Some fifteen or sixteen years ago, a person of respectable appearance went to the hospital, and requested to see the chapel, great room, &c. He then desired to speak with the treasurer, to whom he presented a ten pound bank-note, expressing a wish that it might be recorded as a small but grateful memorial from the first orphan who was apprenticed by the charity : he added, " I was that orphan, and, in consequence of the education I here received, have had the power of acquiring an iudependence with 4ntegrity and honour." (127) HOGARTH'S WORKS. To this asylum for deserted infancy Mr. Hogarth was one of the earliest bene- factors; and to this institution presented the picture from which this print is engraved ; there is not, perhaps, in holy writ another story so exactly suitable to the avowed purpose of the foundation. The history of Moses being deserted by his mother, exposed among the bul- rushes, and discovered and protected by the daughter of Pharaoh, is known to every one who has read the Bible : those who have not, may find it there recorded, with many other things well worthy their attention. At the point of time here taken, the child's mother, whom the princess considers as merely its nurse, has brought him to his patroness, and is receiving from the treasurer the wages of her services. The little foundling naturally clings to his nurse, though invited to leave her by the daughter of a monarch. The eyes of an attendant, and a whispering Ethiopian, convey an oblique suspicion that the child has a nearer aflBnity to their mistress than she chooses to acknowledge. Considered as a whole, this picture has a more historic air than we often find in the works of Hogarth. The royal Egyptian is graceful, and in some degree ele- vated. The treasurer is marked with austere dignity, and the Jewess and child with nature. The scene is superb, and the distant prospect of pyramids, &c., highly picturesque and appropriate to the country. To exhibit this scene, the artist has placed the groups at such a distance as crowd the corners, and leave the centre unoccupied. As the Greeks are said to have received the rudiments of art from Egypt, the line of beauty on the base of a pillar is properly introduced. A crocodile creeping from under the stately chair may be intended to mark the neigh- bourhood of the Nile, but is a poor and forced conceit. (128) ASMS OF THE FOUJVBLING HOSPITAL.^ SEVERAL CHILDBElSr OF THE P OITJ^TBL KTG liOSFITAI,. li^Xshedby £0iUfirian.Sirst.Sees,k. Ornte.Jufyi.^^op. HOGARTH'S WORKS. On the dexter side of the print is a new-born infant, left close to a stream of water, which runs under the arch of a bridge. Near a gate, on a little eminence in the pathway above, a woman leaves another child to the casual care of the next person who passes by. In the distance is a village with a church. In the other corner are three boys, coming out of a door, with the king's arms over it : as emblems of their future employments, one of them poises a plummet, a second holds a trowel, and a third, whose mother is fondly pressing him to her bosojna, has in his hand a card for combing wool. The next group, headed by a lad elevating a mathematical instrument, are in sailors' jackets and trowsers; those on the right hand, one of whom has a rake, are in the uniform of the school. The attributes of the little girls in the fore-ground, a spinning-wheel, sampler, and broom, indicate female industry and ingenuity. It must be admitted that the scene here represented is a painter's anticipation, for the charter was not granted until October, 1739, and this design was made only three years afterwards ; but the manner in which the charity has been since conducted has realized the scene. (130) THE SLEEPING COIS-GKEGATIOW, T.dvk 4caJpt AH>&k2 hf'£onpmajt,Barst.Mar*.S:i^BU,.iaA^280ff. THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION, Were we to form our opinion of the preacher from his countenance and atti- tude, we are convinced that he would lull to soft repose the most lively assembly that ever congregated in the capital. How, then, must his manner operate here V As an opiate more powerful than poppies. It is as composing as are the very de- scriptive lines that conclude the second book of Pope's Dunciad ; which are so per- fectly an echo to the sense, that they ought to be inscribed on the front of the first temple which is dedicated to Somnus. He In one lazy tone, Through the long, heavy, painful page, drawls on. Soft creeping words on words the sense compose ; At every line they stretch, they yawn, they doze. As to soft gales top-heavy pines bow low Their heads, and lift them as they cease to blow, Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline. As breathe or pause by fits the airs divine ; And now to this side, now to that they nod, &c. The clerk, infinitely more important than the divine, is kept awake by contem- plating the charms of a voluptuously blooming damsel, who, in studying the service of matrimony, has sighed her soul to rest. The eyes of this pronouncer of amen are visibly directed to her. In the pew opposite are five swains of the village ; Each mouth distended, and each head reclin'd. They soundly sleep. To render this rural scene more pastoral, they are accompanied by two women, who have once been shepherdesses, and perhaps celebrated by some neighbouring Theocritus as the Chloe and Daphne of their day. Being now in the wane of their charms, poetical justice will not allow us to give them any other appellation than old women. They are awake. Whether the artist intended by this to show that they are actuated by the spirit of contradiction, for the preacher entreats them to (131) HOGARTH'S WORKS. go to rest, or meant it as a compliment to the softer sex, let those who have studied their characters determine. In the gallery are two men joining in chorus with the band below. One of them has the decency to hide his face ; but the other is evidently in full song. The heavy architecture and grotesque decorations lead us to conjecture that this now venerable edifice was once the cottage of Baucis and Philemon, so exquisitely described by Swift. Grown to a church by just degrees — The ballads pasted on the wall. Of Joan of France, and English Moll, Fair Rosamond, and Kobin Hood, The Little Children in the Wood, Now seem to look abundance better, Improv'd in picture, size, and letter, And, high in order plac'd, describe The heraldry of every tribe. The children in the wood are now exalted above the Gothic windows. One of them we see transformed to an angel ; which, to prove its being of a more exalted species, and no longer a mere mortal, has four thighs. The pretty Robin-redbreasts which Did cover them with leaves have undergone a transmigration much to their advantage. It has somewhat sullied their plumage, but they have assumed a more important appearance, and the loss of beauty is compensated by an abundant increase in bulk and dignity. Exalted to the upper part of a fluted pillar, and seated in heraldic state, they seem to mortal eyes the emblems of wisdom, the symbols of Minerva. A lion and companion unicorn, concealed by the pillar, was originally a head- piece to that excellent old ballad, beginning with The fierce lion of faire Englonde Didde swallowe the lillie of France. With jaws extended wide enough to swallow a bed of lilies, he is one of the sup- porters to the king's arms. The pews carry evident marks of having been once a Gothic bedstead; the cumbrous load of oak with which it was canopied, still supported by large square posts. The windows are intended for companions, but there is an evident diflfer- ence in their proportions, and the rest of the building is in equal good keeping. On the whole we may conjecture that its contriver had neither studied Vitruvius, lor considered uniformity as requisite in architecture. (132) Beeh Street. fbUMad ty j;,,^mtt.awve, Anf. ip tfryiu. Jfqf J ^tSoj. BEER STREET AND GIN LANE, The nature and use of aliments maketh men either chaste or incontinent ; either courageous or cowardly ; •itber meek or quarrelsome : let those ■who deny these truths come to me ; let them follow my counsel in eating and drinking, and I promise them they will find great helps thereupon towards moral philosophy. They will acquire more prudence, more diligence, more memory. — Galen. Fully impressed with the truth of this axiom, Mr. Hogarth engraved the two following prints, in which he has considered porter as the liquor natural to an English constitution, and that villanous distillation, gin, as pernicious and poisonous. While that noble beverage, properly termed British Burgundy, refreshes the weary, exhilarates the faint, and cheers the depressed, an infernal compound of juniper and fiery spirits debases the mind, destroys the constitution, and brings its thirsty votaries to an untimely grave. BEER STREET, Beer, happy product of our isle. Can sinewy strength impart : And, wearied with fatigue and toil, Can cheer each manly heart. Labour and art, upheld by thee, Successfully advance ; We quaff the balmy juice with glee, And water leave to France. Genius of health, thy grateful taste Rivals the cup of Jove ; And warms each English, generous breast, With liberty and love. This admirable delineation is a picture of John Bull in his most happy moments. In the left corner, a butcher and a blacksmith are each of them grasping a foaming tankard of porter. By the king's speech and the Daily Advertiser upon the table before them, they appear to have been studying pohtics, and settling the state of the nation. The blacksmith, having just purchased a shoulder of mutton, is tn- umphantly waving it in the air. Next to him a drayman is whispering soft (133) HOGARTH'S WORKS. sentences of love to a servant-maid, round whose neck is one of his arms ; in the other hand, a pot of porter. Two fishwomen, furnished with a flagon of the same liquor, are chanting a song of Mr. Lockman's on the British Herring Fishery. A. porter, having put a load of waste paper on the ground, is eagerly quaffing this best of barley wine. On the front of a house in ruins is inscribed Pinch, Pawnbroker, and, through a hole in the door, a boy delivers a full half-pint. In the back-ground are two chairmen. They have joined for three-pennyworth to recruit their spirits, and repair the fatigue they have undergone in trotting between two poles, with a ponderous load of female frailty. Two paviours are washing away their cares with a heart-cheering cup. In a garret window, a trio of tailors are employed in the same way ; and on a house-top are four bricklayers equally joyous. Each of these groups seems hale, happy, and well clothed ; but the artist who is painting a glass bottle, from an original which hangs before him, is in a truly deplorable plight ; at the same time that he carries in his countenance a perfect consciousness of his talents in this creative art. (134) GIN LAK-E. T.OffibMi^f SMMal fy Zaigmat,Sjrvt,&er,&OnM,yer Tz ^ jSoy, GIN LANE, Gin, cursed fiend ! with fury fraught, Makes human race a prey ; It enters by a deadly draught, And steals our life away. Virtue and Truth, driv'n to despair, Its rage compels to fly. But cherishes, with hellish care. Theft, murder, perjury. Damn'd cup ! that on the vitals preys. That liquid fire contains ; Which madness to the heart conveys. And rolls it through the veins. From contemplating the health, happiness, and mirth flowing from a moderate use of a wholesome and natural beverage, we turn to this nauseous contrast, which displays human nature in its most degraded and disgusting state. The retailer of gin and ballads, who sits upon the steps, with a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other, is horribly fine. Having bartered away his waistcoat, shirt, and stockings, and drank until he is in a state of total insensibility ; pale, wan, and emaciated, he is a perfect skeleton. A few steps higher is a debased counterpart of Lazarus, taking snuff; thoroughly intoxicated, and negligent of the infant at her breast, it falls over the rail into an area, and dies, an innocent victim to the baneful vice of its depraved parent. Another of the fair sex has drank herself to sleep. As an emblem of her disposition being slothful, a snail is crawling from the wall to her arm. Close to her we discover one of the lords of the creation gnawing a bare bone, which a bull-dog, equally ravenous, endeavours to snatch from his mouth. A working carpenter is depositing his coat and saw with a pawnbroker. A tattered female offers her culinary utensils at the same shrine : among them we discover a tea-kettle, pawned to procure money to purchase gin. An old woman, having drank until she is unable to walk, is put into a wheel-barrow, and in that situation a lad solaces her with another glass. With the same poisonous and destructive compound, a mother in the corner drenches her child. Near her are two charity-girls of St. Giles's, pledging each other in the same corroding compound. The scene is completed by a quarrel between two drunken mendicants, both of whom appear in the character of cripples. While one of them uses his crutch as a quarter-staff, the other with great good will aims a stool, on which he usually sat, at the head of his adversary. This, with a crowd waiting for their drams at a distiller's door, completes the catalogue of the quick. Of the dead there are two ; besides an unfortunate child, whom a drunken madman has impaled upon a spit. One, a barber, who having probably drank gin until he has lost his reason, has suspended himself by a rope in his own ruinous garret: the other, a beautiful woman, whom, by the direction of the parish beadle, two men are depositing in a. shell From her wasted and emaciated appearance, we may fairly infer, she alpo (13.')) HOGARTH'S WORK.S. fell a martyr to this destructive and poisonous liquid. On the side of her coffin i? a child lamenting the loss of its parent. The large pewter measure hung over a cellar, on which is engraved " Gin Royal," was once a common sign ; the inscription on this cave of despair, " Drunk for a .penny, dead drunk for two-pence, clean straw for nothing," is worthy obser- vation ; it exhibits the state of our metropolis at that period. The scene of this horrible devastation is laid in a place which was, some years since, properly enough called the Ruins of St. Giles's. Except the pawnbroker's, distiller's, and undertaker's, the houses are literally ruins. These doorkeepers to Famine, Disease and Death, living by the calamities of others, are in a flourishing state. To the perspective little attention is paid, but the characters are admirably discriminated. The emaciated retailer of gin is well drawn. The woman with a snuff-box has all the mawkish marks of debasement and drunkenness. The man gnawing a bone, a dog tearing it from him, and the pawnbroker, have countenances in an equal degree hungry and rapacious. Our modern Gin Temples form a striking contrast to those of Hogarth's time, and are aptly described in the London daily press. " The expense incurred in fitting up gin-shop bars in London is almost incre- dible, every one vying with his neighbour in convenient arrangements, general display, rich carving, brass work, finely-veined mahogany, gilding, and ornamental- painting. The carving of one ornament alone in the Grapes gin-shop. Old-street Road, cost 100?. ; the workmanship was by one of the first carvers in wood in London. Three gin-shops have been lately fitted up in Red Lion-street, at an expense for the bar alone, of upwards of 2000Z. Time was when gin was only to be found in by-lanes and blind alleys — in dirty obscure holes, 'yclep'd dramshops ; but now gin is become a giant demi-god, a mighty spirit, dwelling in gaudy gold- beplastered temples, erected to his honour in every street, and worshipped by countless thousands, who daily sacrifice at his shrine their health, their strength, 'their money, their minds, their bodies, wives, children, sacred home, and liberty. Juggernaut is but a fool to him, for the devotees of Juggernaut, though they put themselves into the way of being crushed to death beneath his chariot wheels, are put out of their misery at once ; but the devotees of the great spirit Gin devote themselves to lingering misery ; for his sake they are contented to drag on a degraded, nasty existence — to see their children pine, dwindle, and famish, to steep themselves in poverty to the very lips, and die at last poor, sneaking, beadle- kicked, gruel-swoln paupers. In these temples of the great spirit Gin may be seen maudlin, unwashed multitudes, the ancient and the infant of a span long, old men and maidens, grandsires and grandams, fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, and children, crowding, jostling, and sucking in the portions of the spirit which the flaunting priestesses dole out to them in return for their copper offerings." (136) PAUL BEFORE FELIX, And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. — Acts, xxiv. 25. The subject of this plate is that of the preaching of St. Paul, when brought as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and summoned to appear before Felix, the governor of Judea, as we find it recorded in holy writ, to answer many misdemea- nours maliciously alleged against him. This Felix was a favourite, a creature of Claudius Caesar, then emperor of Rome. He was sensual and avaricious, and exer- cised in Judea, where he was appointed governor, a royal power with a mercenary soul. When this is considered, the subjects on which the apostle spoke appear to be chosen with great art and propriety, and calculated to rouse the person to wiiom they were addressed from the state of insensibility into which he had been so long plunged. He treated of righteousness (that is, justice), temperance, and of judg- ment to come. The Christian religion being favourable to all men, St. Paul might have discoursed upon one of those points that would have flattered his noble hearer ; he might have spoken of the greatness of sovereigns, and its relation to that of the Supreme Being; he might have said, "the magistrate carries not the sword in vain ;" that God himself has told them " they are gods, and children of the Most High." But all this art was unknown to our apostle; he pierces the stubborn heart of Felix, penetrates the centre of his passions, finds a, way to that conscience that had long been buried, and shakes the sinner in his greatest security. He preaches of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. He preaches of righteousness ; here he supported the rights of the widow and the orphan : made it appear that kings and magistrates are established to uphold the interests of the people, and not to follow their own caprices ; that the end of sovereign power is, that all may be happy under the vigilance of one, and not that one should prey upon the substance of all ; that abuse of power betrays a baseness of soul, and that it is an act of cruelty to oppress the wretched, who have nothing but their cries and tears to defend them. He preaches of temperance ; here he set forth the disorders of luxury, and its inconsistency with Christianity. In short, he VOL. I.— 18 (137) HOGARTH'S WORKS. preaches of judgment to come ; and it was this that gave weight to his ministry .- he proved the truth of it, described its preparation, displayed its dreadful pomp, and made its awful sounds resound in the ears of Felix, who at that time knew no other god than an incestuous Jupiter, or a voluptuous Venus. He sets before him the great and the small ; Felix, the favourite of Cassar, and Paul before Felix ; he sets them before him all summoned with, " Rise, ye dead, from your graves, and come to judgment." At this his mind is alarmed, his heart quakes, the roll drops from his trembling hand, his teeth chatter, his knees beat one against another, and his whole frame shudders. What a eurprising sight is here ! — The governor trembles, while the prisoner speaks with firmness ! The prisoner, though in chains, makes his judge tremble ! Behold the miraculous force of conscience ! Take notice of the united attention of the whole court ; and mark the effect in their faces ! One is enraptured at his doctrine; a second receives the dreadful truths with salutary fear ; a third is inwardly convicted ; a fourth attends with eagerness to catch the heavenly accents from his tongue; and Tertullus ceases his accusation with dis- appointed amazement. With respect to Ananias the high-priest, his eyes and posi- tion manifestly declare his abhorrence of the man, give us to understand that the apostle's words rankle in his heart, and that, though he secretly feels the power of conviction, still he cannot smother his professed hatred of the Christians. The original painting, which has occasioned much difference of opinion as to its merits, having by some been as greatly overpraised as by others underrated, is in Lincoln's Inn Hall, a place to which the subject is admirably adapted. (138) C . CHUMCHILI. TubUdTud, hy£attffman,Mirit.Reef.S: Omte.A'i>v''i'Si8oj . THE BRUISER, CHARLES CHURCHILL, (once the eeveseno,) IN THE CHARACTER OF A RUSSIAN HERCULES. IISOALINO HIMSELF AFTEB HATING KILLED THE MONSTEK CABICATURA, THAT SO SOKELY GALLED HIS VIRTUOUS FRIEND, THE UEATEN-BORN WILEES. But he had a club This dragon to drub, Or he had ne'er don't, I warrant ye. Dragon of Waniley. Enraged bj the publication of Mr. Wilkes's portrait, Mr. Charles Churchill wiote a most virulent and vindictive satire, which he entitled. An Epistle to William Hogarth. The painter was not blest with that meek forbearance which induces those who are smote on one cheek to turn the other also. He was an old man, but did not wish to be considered as that feeble, superannuated, helpless animal, which the poet had described. He scarcely wished to live After his flame lack'd oil, to be the snuff Of younger spirits. Apprehensive that the public might construe his delaying a reply to proceed from inability, he did not wait the tedious process of a new plate, but took a piece of copper on which he had, in the year 1749, engraven a portrait of himself and dog, erased his own head, and in the place of it introduced the divine, with a tat- tered band and torn ruflles. — " No Lord's anointed, but a Kussian bear." In this we must acknowledge there was more ill-nature than wit. It is rather caricature than' character, and more like the coarse mangling of Tom Browne, than the delicate yet wounding satire of Alexander Pope. For this rough retort he might, however, plead the poet's precedent. His opponent had brandished a toma- hawk, and Hogarth, old as he was, wielded a battle-axe in his own defence. A more aggravated provocation cannot well be conceived. The attack was unmerciful, unmanly, unjust. Let the following extract speak for itself: (139) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Whilst the weak artist, to thy whims a slave, Would bury all those powers which nature gave, Would suffer blank concealment to obscure Those rays that jealousy could not endure ; To feed thy vanity would rust unknown. And, to secure thy credit, blast his own : In Hogarth he was sure to find a friend ; He could not fear, and therefore might commend ; But when his spirit, rous'd by honest shame. Shook off that lethargy, and soar'd to fame : When with the pride of man resolv'd and strong, He scorn'd those fears which did his honour wrong ; And on himself determin'd to rely, Brought forth his labours to the public eye, No friend in thee could such a rebel know. He had desert, and Hogarth was his foe. He must be a very weak artist, indeed, ■who would bury the talents which nature gave, to gratify the whims of another man ; but, admitting a painter had been found who suffered blank concealment to obscure those rays which jealousy could not endure, we cannot comprehend how it concerned Hogarth. His walk was all his own : even now he need not dread a rival there. Mr. Churchill acknowledges that in walks of humour Hogarth unrivall'd stands, and shall engage UnrivalI'd praise to the most distant age. Being unrivalled, we do not see why he should dread a rival, nor can we conceive he could be jealous of talents which he must be conscious were inferior to his own. To enumerate farther examples would be painful as well as tedious : the graven image must be attended to. It represents Mr. Churchill in the character of a bear, hugging a foaming tankard of porter, the poet's favourite beverage, and, like another Hercules, armed with a knotted club, to attack hydras, destroy dragons, and discomfit giants ! From the two letters inscribed on the club, it appears that the painter con- sidered Churchill as a writer in the North Briton ; and, from the words " fallacy, lie the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, &c.," on each of the knots, that he also considered him as a poet who did not pay the strictest regard to truth. To designate more positively the object of his ridicule, and render this rude rep- resentative still more ludicrous, it is decorated with a band and a pair of ruffles ; and with these characteristic ornaments, though it remains a good bear, it becomes a sort of overcharged portrait of the reverend satirist, and is said to resemble him. (140) HYMEN AND CUPID. This plate, representing Hymen and Cupid, with a view of a magnificent villa at a distance, was intended as a ticket for Sigismonda, which Hogarth proposed to be raffled for. It is often marked with ink 21. 2s. The number of each ticket was to have been inserted on the scroll hanging down from the knee of the princi- pal figure. Perhaps none of them were ever disposed of This plate, however, must have been engraved about 1762 or 1763. Mr. Nichols observed of this plate, that had he not seen many copies marked by the hand of Hogarth, he should have supposed it to be only a ticket for a concert or music meeting. (141) IMPRESSION FROM A TANKARD, This print represents an impression from a tankard belonging to a club of artists, who met weekly at the Bull's Head in Clare Market. Of this society- Hogarth was a member. A shepherd and his flock are here represented. Mr. Ireland, in speaking of this print, observes, "A few impressions from this tankard have been fortunately preserved : I say fortunately, for I esteem the whole of this production as worthy the refined taste of the present day ; nor do we find in it any trace of the vulgarisms so often imputed to Hogarth. The allegorical figures of Painting and Sculpture are well drawn, and as happily disposed. The landscape in the oval I judge to be the story of Laban and his sheep. It went also by the name of Jacob's Well ; and is said to have been in allusion to the sign of the house where the club Was held ; but to this we give no credit, as it was certainly known by the sign of the Spiller's Head. The ornaments that are introduced are selected with taste ; nor is it too much encumbered : and there is a simplicity and elegance in the ensemble, that does great credit to the taste and talents of our artist. " From this specimen we have fair ground to infer that he was not deficient in those refinements in the art, which so justly captivate and engage the nicer eye of the connoisseur. However alluring this style of design and execution may have been, he seems to have produced few works in this manner. These could not enchain the talent of Hogarth ; he had a nobler pursuit, the study of human nature ; and the hydra-headed monster of follies and vices that is too frequently attendant on her train. These became the just objects of the talent he so happily possessed ; and in that pursuit he stands unrivalled, and will, in all probability, hold his deserved pre-eminence. Study and observation may create a host of laborious and high-finishing artists; yet it is nature alone that can produce the mind of a Hogarth." (143) THE HOUSE OF COMM OIK'S Fmat £iJ)Uahe3. m zA>jj iQf MTE.Sardn^i&oofmeL by Tds penrtUMm,, Bu^«hed> fy£0^ffmaB.,Me>st,B0es.&OrmB.,Ri^i^iSefi. HOUSE OF COMMONS, This print of the House of Commons in Sir Robert Walpole's time, and which was recently destroyed by fire, is from an original picture painted by Hogarth and Sir James Thornhill, in the collection of Earl Onslow, and contains, besides many figures in the back-ground, the following prominent portraits : 1. Sir Robert Walpole. 2. The Right Hon. Arthur Onslow. 3. Sidney Godolphin, Father of the House. 4. Sir Joseph Jekyl. 5. Colonel Onslow. 6. Edward Stables, Esq., Clerk of the House of Commons. 7. Sir James Thornhill. 8. Mr. Aske, Clerk Assistant H. (146) VOL. 1.— 19 THE MARCH TO FINCHLEY, The spot this scene represents is Tottenham Court Turnpike, from whence we have a view of Hampstead and Highgate in the distance. The first object that presents itself below these hills is a body of soldiers, marching in tolerable order, with their baggage-wagon beside them. This regularity is indeed less observed in front, occasioned in part by the interruption they meet with, owing to the narrow- ness of the passage through the gate, and the license allowed to the sons of liberty on quitting their homes. A young grenadier, of good mien, is the principal object of the first group ; he is accompanied, or rather seized on and beset by two woman, of difierent cast, disposition, and character. We are to understand they are both enceinte, and are claiming him for the father. One attempts to melt him with tears, the other to alarm him with threats : and so obstreperous is the latter, that the sergeant behind finds himself obliged to interfere. They are engaged also in difierent pursuits, one being a ballad singer, the other a news carrier ; the former selling prints in favour of government, the latter against it. This we learn from the song of " God save the King," and the picture of the Duke of Cumberland, among other things, in the basket of the former ; the Kemembrancer, the London Evening Post, and the Jacobite Journal, in possession of the other. On the left of this group is a young oflBcer kissing a milk girl ; which gives an arch wag an opportunity of robbing her of her milk, which he is pouring into his hat, and of which a chimney-sweeper's boy appears very desirous to partake. This incident attracts the attention of a pastry-cook behind, who seems to enjoy the piece of roguery, at which the man beside him points, at the same time that he is stealing one of the pies from his head. Behind the pastry-cook is a man carrying a barrel of strong beer, which a soldier has pierced with a gimlet, in order to fill his canteen, while another is keeping guard lest any should interrupt him. This last is comfortably drunk. A little further back is a priggish lieutenant, bringing up the rear of the company before him, stalking in all the pride of militairy march, coveting the notice of the women. On the right of the principal group is a Frenchman, represented as a man of some importance, in order to render him more ridiculous. EJe is w''^pering to a Scotchman, to whom he is communicating the contents of a (147) HOGARTH'S WORKS. letter he has just received, which we are to suppose relate to the event that occasions this march. Behind this Frenchman is an ale-house, in front of which is a drummer, who, by beating on his drum, endeavours to shake off the thoughts of leaving his family, who in vain attempt to affect him by their tender farewell. On his right is a fifer, adding his noise to that of the drum ; this lad, by the sweetness of his figure, is a beautiful contrast to the squalidness of the objects about him. Iri the group on the right of this plate, opposite to that of the drummer, is another soldier, exceedingly drunk, to whom his comrade (who has snatched up a hen from her brood of chickens and conveyed it into his pouch) is in vain endeavouring to give a draught of water ; a sort of female sutler offers him a glass of gin with more success, which the infant on her back, who seems too well accustomed to this liquor, is trying to get at ; for so general is the use of it, among the lower class of people, become, as to be the comforting cordial of every age. On the other side, behind, are two fellows stripped, and boxing ; a circumstance we seldom miss seeing wherever there is a crowd. In this contest more seem engaged than the two men who are fighting. Here we see a woman, supposed to be the wife of one of them, eager to get in, to part them, but kept back ; there, a fellow encouraging the other, who appears to flag through the loss of an eye. But the principal figure is the cobbler above, near the sign-post, who is finely described with doubled fists, ready to fly at him who seems the victor ; or, in the bruiser's phrase, to take up the conqueror. In short, to give a particular description of every minute object in this print would be an almost endless task, and to throw out any reflection on the various matter would be needless. Let it suffice to say, that we have here a faithful representation of nature, which speaks for itself, and so largely enriched with the true vis comica, or spirit of humour, that the more we examine it, thfi greater pleasure we have ; and the longer we view it, the more beauties we find. (148) A. D. 1743. FoMished fy Loiujnuiii.Burst.Ilei.s- \'- Omw .Jan^^i'^jSofl . BISHOP H AD LY. This portrait of Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Winchester, was first engraved by Baron, from a portrait in a grand style, by Hogarth. Few writers of eminence have been so frequently or so illiberally traduced as Dr. Hoadly ; yet fewer still have had the felicity of " living till a nation became his converts," and knowing "that sons have blushed that their fathers had heen their foes." This great divine was born November 4, 1676; educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge; was elected lecturer of St. Mildred, Poultry, 1701; was 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 to Winchester in 1734, which he held nearly twenty-seven years; till, on April 17, 1761, at his house at Chelsea, in the same calm that 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 eighty-fifth year of his age. His useful labours, which will ever be esteemed by all lovers of the natural, civil, and religious rights of Englishmen, were collected into three large volumes in folio, 1773, by his son, Dr. John Hoadly (then Chancellor of Winchester, and the only surviving male of a numerous and respectable family) , who prefixed to them a short account of the bishop's life. Concerning this portrait of Bishop Hoadley, Dr. John Hoadly wrote the following whimsical epistle to the artist. " To William Hogarth. "Dear Billy, " You were so kind as to say you would touch up the Doctor, if I would send him to town. Lo ! it is here. — I am at Alresford for a day or two, to shear my flock and to feed 'em : (money, you know, is the sinews of war ;) and having this morning taken down all my pictures, in order to have my room painted, I thought I might as well pack up Dr. Benjamin, and send him packing to London. My (149) HOGARTH'S WORKS. love to him, and desire him, when his wife says he looks charmingly, to drive immediately to Leicester Fields (Square, I mean, I beg your pardon), and sit an" hour or two, or three, in your painting room. Do not set it by, and forget it now, — don't you. My humble service waits upon Mrs. Hogarth, and all good wishes upon your honour, and I am, dear Sir, Your obliged and affectionate J. HOADLT." (150) A&&jhed hy £i^mivi,S'^^,Seefk0rme,1&^3. THE FOUR STAGES OF CRUELTY, " The poorest beetle that we tread upon, In corporal sufEerance, feels a pang as great As when a giant dies." This pathetic lesson of humanity is given by the poet of nature. Aiming at the same end by different means, our benevolent artist here steps forth as the instructor of youth, the friend to mercy, and advocate of the brute creation. In the prints before us, an obdurate boy begins his career of cruelty by tor- menting animals ; repeated acts of barbarity sear his heart, he commits a deliberate murder, and concludes in an ignominious death. These gradations are natural, I ■aad almost said inevitable ; and that parent who discovers the germ of barbarity in the mind of a child, and does not use every effort to exterminate the noxious weed, is an accessory to the evils which spring from its baneful growth. To check these malign propensities, becomes more necessary from the general tendency of our amusements. Most of our rural and even infantine sports are savage and fero- cious. They arise from the terror, misery, or death of helpless animals. A child in the nursery is taught to impale butterflies and cockchafers. The schoolboy's proud delight is clambering a tree " To rob the poor bird of its young." Grown a gentle angler, he snares the scaly fry, and scatters leaden death among the feathered tenants of the air : ripened to man, he becomes a mighty hunter, is enamoured of the chase, and crimsons his spurs in the sides of a generous courser, whose wind he breaks in the pursuit of an inoffensive deer, or timid hare. Let us suppose a disciple of Pythagoras to contemplate this print, how would it affect him ? He would imagine it to represent a group of young barbarians, qualifying themselves for executioners; would raise his voice to heaven, and thank the God of merey that he is not an inhabitant of such a country. The delineation of such scenes must shock every feeling heart, and their enumeration disgust every humane mind. Let us hope, for the honour of our nature and our nation, that they are not so aequently practised as when these prints were published. (151) HOGARTH'S WORKS. The hero of this tragic tale is Tom Nero : by a badge upon his arm we kiiow him to be one of the boys of St. Giles's charity school. The horrible business in which he is engaged, let us hope, was never realized in this or any other country. The thought is taken from Callot's Temptation of St. Anthony. A youth of supe- rior rank, shocked at such cruelty, offers his tart to redeem the dog from torture. This Hogarth intended for the portrait of an illustrious personage, then about thirteen years of age ; the compliment was rather coarse, but well intended. A lad chalking on a wall the suspended figure inscribed Tom Nero, prepares us for the future fate of this young tyrant, and shows by anticipation the reward of cruelty. Throwing at cocks might possibly have its origin in what some of our sagacious politicians call a natural enmity to France ; which is thus humanely exercised against the allegorical symbol of that nation. A boy tying a bone to the tail of his dog, while the kind-hearted animal licks his hand, must have a most diabolical disposition. Two little imps are burning out the eyes of a bird with a knitting needle. A group of embryotic Domitians, who have tied two cats to the extremi- ties of a rope, and hung it over a lamp-iron, to see how delightfully they will tear each other, are marked with grim delight. The link-boy is absolutely a Lilliputian fiend. The fellow encouraging a dog to worry a cat, and two animals of the same species thrown out of a garret window, with bladders fastened to them, complete this mortifying prospect of youthful depravity. (152) THE SECO]?fI> STAGE OF CKUEI.TY. .h^l^^d'fy Zot^man„Winst,£Mt,h&r'me, H&b^A, a^tSoj. SECOND STAGE OF CRUELTY. Tom Nero is now a hackney coachman, and displaying his disposition in his conduct to a horse. Worn out by ill usage, and exhausted by fatigue, the poor animal has fallen down, overset the carriage, and broken his leg. The scene is laid at Thavies-Inn Gate : four brethren of the brawling bar, who have joined to pay three-pence each for a ride to Westminster-hall, are in consequence of the accident overturned, and exhibited at the moment of creeping out of the carriage. These illustrious periwig-pated personages were probably intended as portraits of advo- cates eminent in their day ; their names we are not able to record. A man taking the number of the coach is marked with traits of benevolence, which separates him from the savage ferocity of Nero, or the terror of these aflfrighted lawyers. As a further exemplification of extreme barbarity, a drover is beating an expir- ing lamb with a large club. The wheels of a dray pass over an unfortunate boy, while the drayman, regardless of consequences, sleeps on the shafts. In the back-ground is a poor overladen ass : the master, presuming on the strength of this patient and ill-treated animal, has mounted upon his back and taken a loaded porter behind him. An over-driven bull, followed by a crowd of heroic spirits, has tossed a boy. Two bills pasted on the wall advertise cock-fighting and Broughton's amphitheatre for boxing, as further specimens of national civilization. Parts of this print, says Mr. Ireland, may at first sight appear rather over- charged, but some recent examples convince us that they are not so. In the year 1790, a fellow was convicted of lacerating and tearing out the tongue of a horse; but there being no evidence of his bearing any malice towards the proprietor, or doing it with a view of injuring him, this diabolical wretch, not having violated any then existing statute, was discharged without punishment. ' (153) VOL. I. — 20 Cruelty ik pertectioit. PtMjA^d by Icnffmm.Burrt.IU^.gf Orme.^t^^^'^iSo^, CRUELTY IN PERFECTION, An early indulged habit of wanton cruelty strengthens by time, chokes every good disposition, corrupts the mind, and sears the heart. We cannot say to the malevolent passions " Thus far shall ye go, and no further." The hero of this print began by torturing a helpless dog, he then beat out the eye of an unoffending horse, and now, under the influence of that malignant, ran- corous spirit, which by indulgence is become natural, he commits murder — most foul and aggravated murder ! — for this poor deluded girl is pregnant by the wretch who deprives her of life. He tempts her to quit a happy situation, to plunder an indulgent mistress, and meet him with the produce of her robbery. Blinded by affection, she keeps the fatal appointment, and comes loaded with plate. This remorseless villain, having previously determined to destroy her, and by that means cancel his promise of marriage, free himself from an expected encumbrance, and silence one whom compunction might at a future day induce to confess the crime, and lead to his detection, puts her to death ! This atrocious act must have been perpetrated with most savage barbarity, for the head is nearly severed, and the wrist cut almost through. Her cries are heard by the servants of a neighbouring house, who run to her assistance. — 'Tis too late ^the horrid deed is done ! the ethereal spirit is forced from its earthly mansion, " Unhousell'd, unappointed, unaneal'dl" but the murderer, appalled by conscious guilt, and rendered motionless by terror, cannot fly. He is seized without resistance, and consigned to that punishment which so aggravated a violation of the laws of nature and his country demand. The glimpses of the moon, the screech-owl and bat hovering in the air, the mangled corse, and above all, the murderer's ghastly and guilty countenance, give terrific horror to this awful scene. (155) HOGARTH'S WORKS. By the pistol in his pocket, and watches on the ground, we have reason to infer that this callous wretch has been committing other depredations in the earlier part of the evening. The time is what has been emphatically called the witching hour! — the iron tongue of midnight has told one. The letter found in his pocket gives a history of the transaction ; it appears to be dictated by the warmest affection, and written by the woman he has just mur- dered, previous to her elopement. " Dear Tommy, " My mistress has been the best of women to me, and my conscience flies in my face as often as I think of wronging her ; yet I am resolved to venture body and soul to do as you would have me, so do not fail to meet me as you said you would, for I shall bring along with me all the things I can lay my hands on. So no more at present : but I remain yours till death. "Ann Gill." (166) THE HEWARD OF CRUEL TT. ^tdfli^Jud fy Zffri^JianiMawt.££AF, £fOnne,2ftn'!^'f^2So7 . THE REWARD OF CRUELTY, The savage and diabolical progress of cruelty is now ended, and the thread of life severed by the sword of justice. From the place of execution the mur- derer is brought to Surgeons' Hall, and now represented under the knife of a dis- sector. This venerable person, as well as his coadjutor, who scoops out the cri- minal's eye, and a young student scarifying the leg, seem to have just as much feeling as the subject now under their inspection. A frequent contemplation of sanguinary scenes hardens the heart, deadens sensibility, and destroys every tender sensation. Hogarth was most peculiarly accurate in those little markings which identify. The gunpowder initials T. N. on the arm, denote this to be the body of Thomas Nero. The face being impressed with horror has been objected to. It must be acknowledged that this is rather o'erstepping the modesty of nature; but he so rarely deviates from her laws, that a little poetical license may be forgiven, where it produces humour or heightens character. The skeletons, on each side of the print, are inscribed James Field (an eminent pugilist) and Maclean (a notorious robber.) Both of these worthies died by a rope. They are pointing to the physician's crest which is carved on the upper part of the president's chair, viz., a hand feelings pulse; taking a guinea would have, been more appropriate to the practice. The heads of these two heroes of the halter are turned so as to seem ridiculing the president, " scoffing at his state, and grinning at his pomp." Every countenance in this grisly band is marked with that medical importance which dignifies the professors. Some of them we discover to be " from Caledonia's bleak and barren clime." A fellow depositing the intestines in a pail, and a dog licking the murderer's heart, are disgusting and nauseous objects. The vessel where the skulls and bones bubble-bubble gives some idea of the infernal caldron of Hecate. (157) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Of this print and that preceding it there are wooden blocks engraved upon a large scale, invented and published by William Hogarth, Jan. 1st, 1750, J. Bell, sculpt. They were executed by order of Mr. Hogarth, who wished to circulate the salutary examples they contain, by making the price low enough for a poor man's purse; but finding engraving on wood much more expensive than he had calcula- ted, he altered his plan, and engraved them on copper. (158) KND OF VOL. I. CREDUliITir, SFPEKSTITIOIV, &: FA:N'ATICISM Rihiixhed by Lmgmmi.Bio-st.Bee.v.i: Orme.Jeu^z'^iSog. ORIGINAL EDITION. THE COMPLETE WOEKS OF WILLIAM HOGARTH, IN A SERIES OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN ENGRAVINGS, FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURES, INCLUDING Mg 0f ih %nihn Mimv Witm, NOT IN ANY OTHER EDITION, WITH DESCRIPTIONS AND .COMMENTS ON THEIR MORAL TENDENCY. BY THE KEV. JOHN TEUSLER. ACCOMPANIED WITH THE COMPLETE LIFE AND NUMEROUS ANECDOTES OF THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. BY J. HOGARTH, IRELAND AND OTHERS. IN TWO VOLUMES.-VOL. II. " The anchor which held Hogarth fastest to the public favor, was the sincere and deliberate belief, prevalent among the more serious of the substantial orders, that his works were in the highest degree moral, and that they contributed to the inculcation of Virtue and Piety The Philosopher who ever preached the sturdy English virtues that have made us what we are." — Cobnhill Magazine. LONDON: H. FOWKES, Strand. Phtiadelphia; INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO.. 121 So. Seventh St. CONTENTS. {Directions to Binder to place the Plates.) YOLUME II. No. Page , 167 No. 77. — FroiUispiece. CREorMTY, No. 18.— Vignette. HUDIBEAS. 79 Plate I. Frontispiece 80 — II. Sallies Forth 169 81 — in. First Adventure 171 82 — IV. Masquerade 173 83 — V. Submits to TruUa 175 84 — VI. In the Stocks 177 85 — Vn. The Lawyer 179 86 —VIII. Beats Sidrophel 181 87 — IX. The Committee 183 88 — X. Leading Crowdero 185 89 — XL Burning the Kumps 187 90 — XII. Encounters the Skimmington 189 MAERIAGE A-LA-MODE. 91 Plate I. The Contract 191 92 — 11. Breakfast Scene 193 93 — III. Scene with the Quack 195 94 — IV. Toilet Scene 197 95 — V. Death of the Earl 199 96 — VL Death of the Countess 201 MISCELLANEOUS. 97 Funeral Ticket 203 98 Bich's Triumphal Entry 205 99 Paul before Felix (burlesque) 207 100 The Painter's Room 209 101 Just View of the British Stage 211 Superstition and Fanaticism. The Fiddler. PEESEUS AND ANDEOMEDA. No. Page 102 Frontispiece 213 103 Perseus Descending 213 MISCELLANEOUS. 104 View of Chiswick 215 105 The Good Samaritan 217 106 The Garden Scene at Mr. Eich'sVilla at Cowley. 219 107 Portrait of MisB Fenton 221 108 Bust of Hogarth by Eoubelliac 223 109 Analysis of Beauty 225 110 Inhabitants of the Moon 227 111 Portrait of John Wilkes 229 112 The Man of Taste 231 THE TIMES. 113 Plate 1 233 114 — II 235 MISCELLANEOUS. 115 Farmer's Eeturn 237 116 Frontispiece to the Artists' Catalogue 239 117 Tail-piece to the Artists' Catalogue 241 TEISTEAM SHANDY. 118 Frontispiece 243 119 A Second Frontispiece 243 MISCELLANEOUS. 120 Time Smoking a Picture 245 121 The Pool of Bethesda 247 CONT No. P*0K 122 Portrait of Sarah Malcolm 249 123 False Perspective, Frontispiece to Kirby -. 251 124 Ticket for the Benefit of Spiller 253 125 Eoyal Masquerade at Somerset House 255 126 Masquerade Ticket 257 127 The Weighing House 259 128 Portrait of Joseph Porter 261 129 A Musical Study 263 130 Portrait of Henry Fielding 265 131 Music Introduced to Apollo by Minerva 267 132 Portrait of Viscount Boyne 269 133 Gulliver Presented to the Queen of Babilary.. 271 SHOP BILLS, ETC. 134 Card for William Hardy 273 135 " " Ellis Gamble 273 136 Shop Bill for William Hogarth 273 137 " " Mary and Ann Hogarth 275 138 " " Ellis Gamble (the Large Angel). 277 139 Humours of Oxford 279 BLACKWELL'S MILITARY FIGUEES. 140 Plate I. 141 — 11. 281 281 ENTS. BEAVER'S MILITARY PUNISHMENTS. No. P*"= 142 Plate 1 283 143 - II 283 144 - III 283 145 - IV 283 146 - V 283 ■ MISCELLANEOUS. 147 Frontispiece to Terrse Filius 285 148 The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by theGormagons 287 149 Frontispiece to the Happy Ascetic 289 150 " Leveridge's Songs, 1727 289 151 Night Scene, from an Original Sketch com- municated by Messrs. Boydell 291 PLATES FOR MILTON. 152 Plate 1 293 153 — II 293 MISCELLANEOUS. 154 The Lottery 295 155 Portrait of Mr. Pine 297 156 The Beggar's Opera 299 157 Bathos 301 FRONTISPIECE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. CRUELTY, SUPERSTITION. AND FANATICISM, Lord Bacon somewhere remarks that .superstition is worse than infidelity. It takes from religion every attraction, every comfort ; and the place of humble hope, and patient resignation, is supplied by melancholy, despair, and madness ! To check the inundation of absurdity which deemed carnal reason profane, and was not to be combated by argument, Mr. Hogarth designed this print : and though the delineation was made in his sixty-fourth year, in satire, wit, and imagination, it is superior to any of his preceding works. The text, " I speak as a fool," is a type of a preacher, whose strength of lungs is a convenient substitute for strength of argument : he is literally a Boanerges ; his tones rend the region, and the thunder of his eloquence has cracked the sounding board. Considering action as the first requisite of an orator, our eccle- siastical juggler throws his whole frame into convulsions. By these violent agita- tions his gown flies open, and discovers that this Proteus of the pulpit is arrayed in a harlequin's jacket; and his wig falling off displays the shaven crown of a Jesuit. But the loss of a periwig is not attended to ; his denunciations are redoubled, his fulminations hurled indiscriminately around, he scatters about firebrands. Wrought up to the highest pitch of seraphic fervour, fevered by the heat of his own ecstasies, the whole man is inspired, and, mounted upon the clouds of mystery, he soars through the dark regions of superstition, settles in the third heaven, and breathes empyreal air. Between two duck-winged cherubs, who are studying the laughing and crying gamut, is a harpy clerk. This crook-mouthed echo of absurdity has the true physiognomy of a Tartuffe ; every figure is charged with hypocrisy. Among the crowd we discover a youthful convert under the guidance of his spiritual confessor, who, pointing to Brimstone Ocean, unfolds a tale which terrifies his disciple to a degree that " Must harrow up his soul : freeze his young blood," &o. The sanguinary Jew, while he leans upon an altar, on which lies a knife inscribed bloody, sacrifices to his revenge an unfortunate insect, which he caught carelessly wandering on the environs of his head. (165) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Beneath is Mrs. Tofts of Godalming, well known in the annals of credulity ; in the violence of her paroxysm she breaks a dram glass with her teeth. Next to Mrs. Tofts is a possessed shoeblack, coolly clearing his stomach of a quantity of hob-nails and iron staples. The book on which our sable professor of necromancy has deposited his basket, is King James on Demonology. The ridicule is wound up by a Turk, whom we see through a window smoking his tube of Trinidado ; lifting up his eyes with astonishment at the scene, he breathes a grateful ejaculation, and thanks his Maker that he was early initiated in the divine truths of the Koran, is out of the pale of this church, and has his name engraven on the tablets of Mahomet. Beneath is a figure of the Tedworth drummer, who so wickedly disturbed the family of Mr. Mompesson, and in the frame below a representation of Fanny, the phantom of Cock-lane, with her hammer in her right hand. These two notable, memorials of credulity are placed as a kind of head-piece to a mental thermometer, which ascertains the different degrees of heat in the blood of an enthusiast. When the liquid ascends, it rises from lukewarm and terminates in raving, which is properly obscured by clouds, and above the ken of human comprehension. In its falling state, the progress of religious depression is most accurately marked': from low spirits it sinks to suicide. The whole rests on Glanville on Witches. On the preacher's left hand, suspended to a ring inserted in a human nostril, hangs the scale of vociferation. A natural tone is at the bottom, but the speaker's tone is described by the distended mouth above the scale, inscribed Bull Roar. To the hook of the chandelier hangs a small sphere, on which is engraven, Desarts of New Purgatory. On the globe is written, A globe of hell ; it is so formed as to give the caricature of a human face, and baptized Horrid Zone. The poor's box is a mouse-trap, which intimates that whatever money is deposited will be secured for the faithful collectors. (166) H H U D I B R A S. PLATE I. FRONTISPIECE. The basso-relievo on the pedestal represents the general design of Mr. Butler in his incomparable poem of Hudibras, viz., Butler's Genius, in a car lashing around Mount Parnassus, in the persons of Hudibras and Kalpho, Rebellion, Hypocrisy, and Ignorance, the reigning vices of his time. (167) H U D I B R A S. PLATE II. THE MANNER HOW HE SALLIES FORTH. When civil dudgeon first grew high, And men fell out they knew not why ; When gospel-trumpeter, surrounded With longToar'd rout, to battle sounded ; And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, Was beat with fist instead of a stick ; Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling. And out he rode a colonelling. A wight he was, whose, very sight would Entitle him mirror of knighthood, That never bow'd his stubborn knee To anything but chivalry. Nor put up blow, but that which laid Knight worshipful on shoulder blade ; Chief of domestic knights and errant. Either for chartel or for warrant ; Great on the bench, great in the saddle, That could as well bind o'er as swaddle ; Mighty he was at both of these. And styl'd of war, as well as peace ; (So some rats, of amphibious nature. Are either for the land or water;) But here our authors make a doubt Whether he were more wise or stout : Some hold the one, and some the other, But, howsoe'er they make' a pother, The diff'rence was so small, his brain Outweigh'd his rage but half a grain ; Which made some take him for a tool That knaves do work with, ca.ll'd a fool. VOL. II.— 22 (169) HOGARTH'S WORKS. A squire he had, whose name was Ralph, That in th' adventure went his half, An equal stock of wit and valour He had laid in, by birth a tailor. His knowledge was not far behind The knight's, but of another kind, And he another way came by't: Some call it gifts, and some new light; A lib'ral art, that costs no pains Of study, industry, or brains. His wit was sent him for a token. But in the carriage crack'd and broken. He could deep mysteries unriddle, As easily as thread a needle. Thus was th' accomplish'd squire endu'd With gifts and knowledge per'lous shrewd : Never did trusty squire with knight. Or knight with squire, e'er jump more right! Their arms and equipage did fit, As well as virtues, parts, and wit : Their valours, too, were of a rate : And out they sally'd at the gate- (170) H U D I B R A S PLATE III. HUblBRAS'S FIRST ADVENTURE. Meanwhile he stopp'd his willing steed, To fit himself for martial deed : Both kinds of metal he prepar'd, Either to give blows or to ward ; Courage and steel, both of great force, Prepar'd for better or for worse. His death-charg'd pistols he did fit well, Drawn out from life-preserving vittle ; These being prim'd, with force he labour' d To free 's sword from retentive scabbard ; And, after many a painful pluck, From rusty durance he bail'd tuck : Then shook himself, to see that prowess In scabbard of his arms sat loose ; And, rais'd upon his desp'rate foot. On stirrup-side he gaz'd about, Portending blood, like blazing star, The beacon of approaching war. I' th' head of all this warlike rabble, Crowdero march'd, expert and able. Instead, of trumpet and of drum, That makes the warrior's stomach come ; A squeaking engine he applied Unto his neck, on north-east side. His grisly beard was long and thick, With which he strung his fiddle-stick, For he to horse-tail scorn'd to owe For what on his own chin did grow. He, bravely vent'ring at a crown, By chance of war was beaten down, And wounded sore : his leg, then broke, Had got a deputy of oak. (171) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Next march'd brave Orsin, famous for Wise conduct, and success in war ; A skilful leader, stout, severe, Now marshal to the champion bear. The gallant Bruin march'd next him, With visage formidably grim. And rugged as a Saracen, Or Turk of Mahomet's own kin. Talgol was of courage stout. And vanquish'd oft'ner than he fought; Inur'd to labour, sweat and toil. And, like a champion, shone with oil. Next these the brave Magnano came, Magnano, great in martial fame. He Trulla lov'd, Trulla, more bright Than burnish'd armour of her knight; A bold virago, stout and tall As Joan of France, or English Mall ; Through perils both of wind and limb, Through thick and thin she follow' d him. The upright Cerdon next advanc'd, Of all his race the valiant'st. Last Colon came, bold man of war, Destin'd to blows by fatal star ; These worthies were the chief that led The combatants, each in the head Of his command', with arms and rage Ready and longing to engage. The num'rous rabble was drawn out Of sev'ral counties round about. From villages remote, and shires. Of east and western hemispheres. And now. the field of death, the lists, Were enter'd by antagonists. And blood was ready to be broach'd, When Hudibras in haste approach'd, With squire and weapons to attack 'em ; But first he from his horse bespake 'em. (172) H U D I B R A S. ' PLATE IV. THE MASQUERADE ADVENTURE. Soon as tbey had Him at their mercy, They put him to the cudgel fiercely, As if they 'ad scorn'd to trade or barter, By giving or by taking quarter : They stoutly on his quarters laid, Until his scouts came in t' his aid ; For when a man is past his sense. There's no way to reduce him, thence. But twinging him by th' ears or nose, Or laying on of heavy blows. And if that will not do the deed,: To burning with hot irons proceed. No sooner was he come t' himself. But on his neck a sturdy elf Clapp'd, in a trice, his cloven hoof. And thus attack'd him with reproof: " Mortal, thou art betray'd to us B' our friend, thy evil genius. Who, for thy horrid perjuries. Thy breach of faith, and turning lies, The Brethren's privilege (against The wicked) on themselves, the Saints, Have here thy wretched carcass sent, For just revenge and punishment, Which thou hast now no way to lessen, But by an open free confession : For if we catch thee failing once, 'Twill fall the heavier on thy bones." The queen of night, whose large command Eules all the sea, and half the land, And over moist and crazy brains. In high spring tides, at midnight reigns, (ITS) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Was now declining to the west, To go to bed and take her rest ; When Hudibras, whose stubborn blows Deny'd his bones that soft repose, Lay still expecting worse and more, Stretch'd out at length upon the floor ; And though he shut his eyes as fast As if he 'ad been to sleep his last, Saw all the shapes that fear or wizards, To make the devil wear for vizards, And pricking up his ears, to hark If he could hear, too, in the dark. Was first invaded with a groan. And after, in a feeble tone. These trembling words : " Unhappy wretch, What hast thou gotten by this fetch. Or by thy tricks, in this new trade. Thy holy brotherhood o' th' blade ? By saunt'ring still on some adventure, And groTving to thy horse a centaur ? To stufi" thy skin with swelling knobs Of cruel and hard-wooded drubs ? For still thou 'ast had the worst on't yet. As well in conquest as defeat. Night is the Sabbath of mankind. To rest the body and the mind. Which now thou art deny'd to keep, And cure thy labour'd corpse with sleep." (174) H U D I B R A S. PLATE V. THE KNIGHT SUBMITS TO TRULLA This said, the knight did straight submit, And laid his weapons at her feet. Next he disrob'd his gabardine, And with it did himself resign. She took it, and forthwith divesting The mantle that she wore, said, jesting,. " Take that, and wear it for my sake ;" Then threw it o'er his sturdy back. And as the French, we conquer'd once, Now give us laws for pantaloons. The length of breeches, and the gathers, Port-cannons, periwigs and feathers ; Just so the proud, insulting lass Array'd and dighted Hudibras. Meanwhile the other champions, yerst In hurry of the fight dispers'd, Arriv'd when Trulla won the day, To share i' the honour and the prey, And out of Hudibras his hide With vengeance to be satisfy' d ; Which now they were about to pour Upon him in a wooden shower. But Trulla thrust herself between. And striding o'er his back agen, She brandish'd o'er her head his sword. And vow'd they should not break her word ; She 'ad given him quarter, and her blood Gr theirs, should make that quarter good: For she was bound, by law of arms. To see him safe from further harms. (175) HOGARTH'S WORKS. In dungeon deep, Crowdero, cast By Hudibras, as yet lay fast, Where, to the hard and ruthless stones, His great heart made perpetual moans ; Him she resolv'd that Hudibras Should ransom, and supply his place. Thus stopp'd their fury, and the basting Which towards Hudibras was hasting. They thought it was but just and right That what she had achiev'd in fight She should dispose of how she pleas'd ; Crowdero ought to be releas'd : Nor could that any way be done So well as this she piteh'd upon : For who a better could imagine ? This, therefore, they resolv'd t' engage in. (176) H U D I B R A S PLATE VI. SIR HUDIBRAS AND RALPHO IN THE STOCKS, This tattling gossip knew too well What mischief Hudibras befell, And straight the spiteful tidings bears Of all, to the unkind widow's ears. Democritus ne'er laugh'd so loud, To see bawds carted through the crowd, Or funerals, with stately pomp, March slowly or in solemn dump, As she laugh'd out, until her back, As well as sides, was like to crack. She vow'd she would go see the sight. And visit the distressed knight ; To do the office of a neighbour. And be a gossip at his labour ; And from his wooden jail, the stocks. To set at large his fetter-locks ; And by exchange, parole, or ransom, To free him from th' enchanted mansion. This b'ing resolv'd, she call'd for hood And usher, implements abroad Which ladies wear, beside a slender Young waiting damsel to attend her, All which appearing, on she went To find the knight, in limbo pent : And 'twas not long before she found Him and his stout 'squire in the pound ; Both coupled in enchanted tether. By further leg behind together. For as he sat upon his rump. His head, like one in doleful dump, VOL. II.— 23 (177) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Between his knees, his hands apply'd Unto his ears on either side, And by him, in another hole, Afflicted Ralpho, cheek by jole, She came upon him in his wooden Magiciau's circle on the sudden, As spirits do t' a conjurer, When in their dreadful shapes th' appear. No sooner did the knight perceive her. But straight he fell into a fever, Inflam'd all over with disgrace. To be seen by her in such a place ; Which made him hang his head, and scowl ; And wink, and goggle, like an owl ; He felt his brains begin to swim. When the dame accosted him. (1T8) H U D I B R A S, PLATE VII. HUDIBRAS AND THE LAWYER. To this brave man the knight repairs For counsel in his law affairs, And found him, mounted in his pew, With books and money plac'd for show, Like nest-eggs to make clients lay, And for his false opinion pay ; To whom the knight, with comely grace, Put off his hat, to put his case ; Which he as proudly entertain'd As th' other courteously strain' d ; And to assure him 't was not that He look'd for, bid him put on 's hat. Quoth he, " There is one Sidrophel Whom I have cudgell'd," — "Very well," " And now he brags to 've beaten me," _ " Better, and better still," quoth he ; " And vows to stick me to a wall, Where'er he meets me;" — "Best of all." " 'Tis true the knave has taken 's oath That I robb'd him."— Well done in troth." " When he 's confess'd he stole my cloak, And pick'd my fob, and what he took ; Which was the cause that made me bang him, And take my goods again;" — "Marry, hang him. " Now, whether I should beforehand, Swear he robb'd me," — " I understand ;" " Or bring my action of conversion And trover for my goods ?" — " Ah, whoreson !" " Or if 'tis better to indite. And bring him to his trial?" — "Right." (179) HOGARTH'S WORKS. " Prevent w.liat lie designs to do, And swear for th' state against him?" — " True." " Or whether he that is defendant, In this case, has the better end on't ; Who, putting in a new cross-bill. May traverse the action?' — "Better still." " Then there "s a lady too,"- — "Ay, marry." " That 's easily proved accessary ; A widow, who, by solemn vows. Contracted to me, for my spouse, Combin'd with him to break her word ; And has abetted all ;"— " Good Lord !" " Suborn'd th' aforesaid Sidrophel To tamper with the dev'l of hell. Who put m' into a horrid fear. Fear of my life," — " Make that appear," " Made an assault with fiends and men Upon my body," — " Good agen," " And kept me in a deadly fright. And false imprisonment all night. Meanwhile they robb'd me and my horse. And stole my saddle," — "Worse and worse!' " And made me mount upon the bare ridge, T' avoid a wretcheder miscarriage." " Sir," quoth the lawyer, " not to flatter ye, Y-ou have as good and fair a battery As heart can wish, and need not shame The proudest man alive to claim : For if they've us'd you as you say. Marry, quoth I,. God give you joy ; I would it were my case, I'd give More than I'll say or you'll believe, I would so trounce her and her purse, I'd make her kneel for better or worse, For matrimony and hanging here Both go by destiny so clear." (180) H U D I B R A S. PLATE VIII. HUDIBRAS BEATS SIDROPHEL AND HIS MAN WHACHUM Quoth he, " Thia scheme of th' heavens set, Discovers how in fight you met. At Kingston, with a May-pole idol. And that y' were hang'd both back and side well, And, though you overcame the bear. The dogs beat you at Brentford fair ; Where sturdy butchers broke your noddle, And handled you like a fop doodle." Quoth Hudibras, " I now perceive You are no conj'rer, by your leave ; That paltry story is untrue, And forg'd to cheat such gulls as you." " Not true I" quoth he, " howe'er you vapour, I can what I affirm make appear ; Whachum shall justify it t' your face. And prove he was upon the place ; He play'd the saltinbancho's part, Transform'd t' a Frenchman by my art ; He stole your cloak, and pick'd your pocket, Chous'd and caldes'd ye like a blockhead. And what you lost I can produce, If you deny it, here i' th' house." Quoth Hudibras, " I do believe That argument's demonstrative ; Ralpho, bear witness, and go fetch us A constable to seize the wretches ; For though they're both false knaves and cheats, Impostors, jugglers, counterfeits, I'll make them serve for perpendic'lars. As true as e'er were us'd by bricklayers. (181) HOGARTH'S WORKS. They're guilty by their own confessions, Of felony, and at the Sessions, Upon the bench, I will so handle 'em, That the vibration of this pendulum Shall make all tailors' yards of one Unanimous opinion; A thing he long has vapour'd of, But now shall make it out by proof." Quoth Sidrophel, " I do not doubt To find friends that will bear me out ; Nor have I hazarded my art And neck so long on the State's part, To be expos'd, i' th' end, to suffer By such a braggadocio huffier." " Huffer !" quoth Hudibras, "this sword Shall down thy false throat cram that word. Ralpho, make haste and call an officer. To apprehend this Stygian sophister ; Meanwhile I'll hold 'em at a bay, Lest he and Whachum run jiway." (182) H U D I B R A S PLATE IX. THE COMMITTEE. " The quacks of government (who sate At th' unregarded helm of state, And understood this wild confusion Of fatal madness and delusion, Must, sooner than a prodigy Portend destruction to be nigh) Consider'd timely how t' withdraw And save their windpipes from the law ; For one rencounter at the bar Was worse than all they 'ad 'scap'd in war ; And therefore met in consultation To cant and quack upon the nation ; Not for the sickly patient's sake. Not what to give but what to take ; To feel the purses of their fees, More wise than fumbling arteries ; Prolong the snuff of life in pain. And from the grave recover — gain. 'Mong these there was a politician With more heads than a beast in vision, And more intrigues in ev'ry one Than all the whores of Babylon ; So politic, as if one eye Upon the other were a spy. That to trepan the one to think The other blind, both strove to blink ; And, in his dark pragmatic way. As busy as a child at play. To match this saint there .was another, As busy and perverse a brother, (183) HOGARTH'S WORKS. An haberdasher of small wares In politics and state affairs. Thus far the statesman — when a shout Heard at a distance, put him out ; And straight another, all aghast, Rush'd in with equal fear and haste, Who sta/'i about, as pale as death, And for a while, as out of breath. Till, having gather'd up his wits. He thus began his tale by fits. (184) H U D I B R A S. PLATE X. HUDIBRAS LEADING CROWDERO IN TRIUMPH. This said, the high outrageous mettle Of knight began to cool and settle. He lik'd the squire's advice, and soon Resolv'd to see the bus'ness done ; And therefore charg'd him first to bind Crowdero's hands on rump behind, And to its former place and use The wooden member to reduce, But force it take an oath before. Ne'er to bear arms against him more. Ralpho dispatch'd with speedy haste, And having ty'd Crowdero fast. He gave Sir Knight the end of cord, To lead the captive of his sword In triumph, whilst the steeds he caught, And them to further service brought. The squire in state rode on before. And on his nut-brown whinyard bore The trophy fiddle and the case, Leaning on shoulder like a mace. The knight himself did after ride, Leading Crowdero by his side ; And tow'd him if he lagg'd behind, Like boat, against the tide and wind. Thus grave and solemn they march'd on, Until quite through the town they'd gone. At furthest end of which there stands An ancient castle that commands Th' adjacent parts ; in all the fabric You shall not see one stone nor a brick, VOL, 11.-24 (185) HOGARTH'S WORKS. But all of wood, by pow'rful spell Of magic made impregnable : There 's neither iron bar nor gate, Portcullis, chain, nor bolt, nor grate, And yet men durance there abide. In dungeon scarce three inches wide ; With loof so low, that under it They never stand, but lie or sit ; And yet so foul, that whoso is in. Is to the middle-leg in prison ; In circle magical confin'd. With wall of subtile air and wind. Which none are able to break thorough. Until they 're freed by head of borough. Thither arriv'd, th' advent'rous knight And bold squire from their steeds alight At th' outward wall, near which there stands A Bastile, built t' imprison hands ; By strange enchantment made to fetter The lesser parts, and free the greater : For though the body may creep through, The hands in grate are fast enough: And when a circle 'bout the wrist Is made by beadle exorcist, The body feels the spur and switch And if 't were ridden post by witch, At twenty miles an hour pace, And yet ne'er stirs out of the place. On top of this there is a spire, On which Sir Knight first bids the squire The fiddle and its spoils, the case. in manner of a trophy place. That done, they ope the trap-door gate, And let Crowdero down thereat. (186) H U D I B R A S. PLATE XL THE BURNING OF THE RUMPS AT TEMPLE BAR. That beastly rabble — that came down From all the garrets — in the town, And stalls, and shopboards — in vast swarms, With new-chalk'd bills, and rusty arms, To cry the Cause — up, heretofore, And bawl the bishops — out of door. And new-drawn up — in greater shoals, To roast — and broil us on the coals. And all the grandees — of our members Are carbonading on the embers; Knights, citizens, and burgesses — Hold forth by rumps — of pigs and geese. That serve for characters — and badges, To represent their personages ; Each bonfire is a funeral pile. In which they roast, and scorch, and broil, And ev'ry representative Have vow'd to roast — and broil alive. And 'tis a miracle we are not Already sacrific'd incarnate ; For while we wrangle here, and jar. We 're grilly'd all at Temple-bar ; Some, on the sign-post of an alehouse, Hang in eflSgy, on the gallows. Made up of rags to personate Respective oflScers of state ; That henceforth they may stand reputed Proscrib'd in law, and executed, And, while the work is carrying on. Be ready listed under Dun. (187) HOGARTH'S WORKS. That worthy patriot, once the bellows And tinder-box of all his fellows ; The activ'st member of the five, As well as the most primitive ; Who, for his faithful service then. Is chosen for a fifth agen : (For since the state has made a quint . Of generals, he's listed in't :) This worthy, as the world will say, Is paid in specie his own way : For, moulded to the life, in clouts Th' have pick'd from dunghills hereabouts, He's mounted on a hazel bavin A cropp'd malignant baker gave 'em ; And to the largest bonfire riding. They 've roasted Cook already, and Pride in ; On whom, in equipage and state. His scarecrow fellow-members wait, And march in order, two and two, As at thanksgiving th' us'.d to do, Each in a tatter'd talisman. Like vermin in eflSgy slain. (188) H U D I 6 R A S. PLATE XII. HUDIBRAS ENCOUNTERS THE SKIMMINGTON. This said, they both advanc'd, and rode A dog-trot through the bawling crowd, T' attack the leader, and still prest, Till they approacb'd him breast to breast : Then Hudibras with face and hand Made signs for silence ; which obtain'd. What means (quoth he) this devils' procession With men of Orthodox profession ? Are things of superstitious function Fit to be us'd in gospel sunshine ? It is an Antiohristian Opera, Much us'd in midnight times of popery : Of running after self-inventions Of wicked and profane intentions ; To scandalize that sex for scolding, To whom the saints are so beholden. Women, that left no stone unturn'd. In which the cause might be concern'd, Brought in their children's spoons and whistles, To purchase swords, carbines, and pistols ; Drew sev'ral gifted brethren in. That for the bishops would have been, Eubb'd down the teachers tir'd and spent, With holding forth for Parl'ament ; Pamper'd and edify'd their zeal With marrow puddings, many a meal ; And cramm'd 'em till their guts did ake. With caudle, custard, and plumcake, What have they done, or what left undone. That might advance the cause at London ? (189) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Hay they ? — At that an egg let fly — Hit him directly o'er the eye, And running down his cheek, besmear'd With orange-tawny slime his beard ; And straight another with his flambeaux Gave Ralpho o'er the eyes a d d blow. (190) MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. FIRST PICTURE.-THE CONTRACT. There is always a something wanting to make men happy. The great think themselves not sufficiently rich, and the rich believe themselves not enough dis- tinguished. This is the case of the alderman of London, and the motive which makes him covet for his daughter the alliance of a great lord ; who, on his part, does not consent thereto but on condition of enriching his son : and this is what the painter calls Marriage Srla^Mode. The portly nobleman, with the conscious dignity of high birth, displays his genealogical tree, the root of which is William, duke of Normandy, and conqueror of England. The valour of his great progenitor, and the various merits of the col- lateral branches which dignify his pedigree, he considers as united in his own person, and therefore looks upon an alliance with his son as the acme of honour, the apex of exaltation. While he is thus glorying in the dust of which his ances- tors were once compounded, the prudent citizen, who, in return for it, has parted with dust of a much more weighty and useful description, paying no regard to this heraldic blazonry, devotes all his attention to the marriage settlement. The haughty and supercilious peer is absorbed in the contemplation of his illustrious ancestry, while the worshipful alderman, regardless of the past, and considering the present as merely preparatory for the future, calculates what provision there will be for a young family. Engrossed by their favourite reflections, neither of these sagacious personages regards the want of attachment in those who are to be united as worthy a moment's consideration. To do the viscount justice, he seems equally indifferent ; for, though evidently in love, — it is with himself Gazing in the mirror with delight, and, in an affected style, displaying his gold snuff-box and glittering ring, he is quite a husband &rla-mode. The lady, very well disposed to retaliate, plays with her wedding-ring, and repays this chilling coldness with sullen contempt ; her heart is not worth the viscount's attention, and she determines to bestow it on the first suitor. An insidious lawyer, like an evil spirit, ever ready to move or second a temptation, appears beside her. That he is an eloquent pleader (191) HOGARTH'S WORKS. is intimated by his name, Counsellor Silvertongue : that he can make the worse appear the better cause, is only saying, in other words, that he is great in the pro- fession. To predict that, with such an advocate, her virtue is in danger, would not be sufBcently expressive. His captivating tones, and insinuating manners, would have ensnared Lucretia. Two dogs in a corner, coupled against their inclinations, are good emblems of the ceremony which is to pass. The ceiling of this magnificent apartment is decorated with the story of Pha- raoh and his host drowned in the Red Sea. The ocean, on a ceiling, proves a pro- jector's taste ; the sublimity of a painter is exemplified in the hero delineated with one of the attributes of Jove. This fluttering figure is probably intended for one of the peer's high-born ancestors, and is invested with the golden fleece, and some other foreign orders. To give him still greater dignity, he is in the cha- racter of Jupiter ; while one hand holds up an ample robe, the other grasps a thunderbolt. A comet is taking its rapid course over his head ; and in one corner of the picture, two of the family of Boreas are judiciously blowing contrary ways. All this is ridiculous enough, but not an iota more absurd than many of the French portraits, which Hogarth evidently intended to burlesque by this parody. (192) 'J- ■''■' i'M -9 ^ ' "i !■ *"' '^"...;«i fch Vif^ ■ **■ - " _A MARRIAGE A-LA-MOD E, SECOND PICTURE-BREAKFAST SCENE. This scene represents a saloon in the young nobleman's house, not long after the breaking up of a party. The clock shows us it is noon. We are to suppose, then, by the candles being still burning, that the day had been shut out, and con- verted into night ; a circumstance not a little characteristic of the irregularity and disorder that reigns within the house; and that, after an hour or two's sleep, madam is just nsen to breakfast ; whose rising has occasioned that of the family in general. This is intimated by one of the servants in the background of this plate, who, we are to understand, though scarce awake, has hurried on his clothes, in order to set the house in some measure to rights. By the treatise of Hoyle upon the floor, we are taught the idle study of people of distinction, to whom books in general are disgusting, unless they tend to dissipation, or serve to instruct them in their favourite amusements. With respect to the attitudes of the two principal figures, the fineness of the thought, and the particular exactness of the expressions, they must be allowed to be extremely beautiful. They are at the same time well introduced, as from the indifference that gives rise to them springs the destruction of this unhappy family. On the one hand, we are to suppose the lady totally neglect- ed by her husband ; on the other, by way of contrast, that the husband is just returned from the apartments of some woman, fatigued, exhausted, and satiated. And as pleasures of this sort are seldom without interruption, we are shown, by the female cap in his pocket, and his broken sword, that he has been engaged in some riot or uproar. An old faithful steward, who has a regard for the family, seems to have taken this opportunity (not being able to find a better) to settle his accounts ; but the general disorder of the family, and the indisposition of his master and mistress, render it impossible. See him, then, returning in an attitude of concern, dreading the approaching ruin of them both. As a satire on the extravagance of the nobility, Mr. Hogarth has humorously put into this man's hands a number of unpaid bills, and placed upon the file only one receipt; intimating the general bad pay of people of quality. VOL. ir.— 25 (193) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Led, then, from one act of dissipation to another, the hero of this piece meets his destruction in hunting after pleasure. Little does he imagine what misery awaits him, and what dreadful consequences will be the result of his proceedings; but, determined to embrace the trifling happiness in view, he runs heedlessly on in his dissipated career, until he seals his unhappy fate. It has been justly remarked, that "the figure of the young libertine, who on his return home from his debaucheries, after day-break, has thrown himself into a chair, is so admirable' for its attitude, expression, drawing and colouring, as alone utterly to refute the assertion of Lord Orford, that Hogarth, however great as an author or inventor, possessed as a painter but slender merit." (194) ^.M:i««i "' i* » . -wWlWfcgj**, """fy^irgSlk,, y MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. THIRD PICTURE— SCENE WITH THE QUACK. In the two preceding prints, the hero and heroine of this tragedy show a fashionable indifference towards each other. On the part of the viscount, we see no indication of any wish to conciliate the affections of his lady. Careless of her conduct, and negligent of her fame, he leaves her to superintend the musical dissipations of his house, and lays the scene of his own licentious amusements abroad. The female heart is naturally susceptible, and much influenced by first impressions. Formed for love, and gratefully attached by delicate attentions ; but chilled by neglect, and frozen by coldness, — by contempt it is estranged, and, by habitual and long-continued inconstancy, sometimes lost. To show that our unfortunate victim to parental ambition has suffered this mortifying climax of provocation, the artist has made a digression, and exhibited her profligate husband attending a quack doctor. In the last plate he appears to have dissipated his fortune ; in this, he has injured his health. From the hour of marriage, he has neglected the woman to whom he plighted his troth. Can we wonder at her conduct ? By the viscount she was despised ; by the counsellor — adored. This insidious, insinuating villain we may naturally suppose acquainted with every part of the nobleman's conduct, and artful enough to make a proper advantage of his knowledge. From such an agent, the countess would probably learn how her lord was connected : from his subtle suggestions, being aided by resentment, she is temptied to think that these accumulated insults have dissolved the marriage vow, and given her a right to retaliate. Thus impelled, thus irritated, and attended by such an advocate, can we wonder that this fair unfortunate deserted from the standard of honour, and sought refuge in the camp of infamy ? To her husband many of her errors must be attributed. She saw he despised her, — and therefore hated him ; found that he had bestowed his affections on another, — and followed his example. To show the consequence of his unrestrained wanderings, the author, in this plate, exhibits his hero in the house of one of those needy empirics who play upon public credulity, and vend poisons under the name (195) HOGARTH'S WORKS. of drugs. This quack being family surgeon to the old procuress, who stands at his right hand, formerly attended the young girl, and received his fee, as having recovered his patient. That he was paid for what he did not perform, appears by the countenance of the enraged nobleman, who lifts up his cane in a threatening style, accompanying the action with a promise to bastinado both surgeon and pro- curess for having deceived him by a false bill of health. These menaces our natural sou of jEsculapius treats with that careless nonchalance which shows that his ears are accustomed to such sounds ; but the haggard high priestess of the temple of Venus, tenacious of her good name, and tremblingly alive to any asper sion which may tend to injure her professional reputation, unclasps her knife, determined to wash out this foul stain upon her honour with the blood of her accuser. A horn of the sea unicorn is so placed as to give the idea of a barber's pole ; this, with the pewter basin and broken comb, clearly indicates the former profession of our mock doctor. The high-crowned hat and antique spur, which might once have been the property of Butler's redoubted knight, the valiant Hudibras, with the model of the gallows, and sundry nondescript rarities, show us that this great man, if not already a member of the Antiquarian Society, is qualifying himself to be a candidate. The dried body in the glass case, placed between a skeleton and the sage's wig-block, form a trio that might serve as the symbol of a consultation of physicians. A figure above the mummies seems, at first sight, to be decorated with a flowing periwig ; but, on a close inspection, will be found intended for one of Sir John Mandeville's Anthropophagi, a sort of men " whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." Even the skulls have character; and the principal mummy has so majestic an aspect, that one is almost tempted to believe it the mighty Cheops, King of Egypt, whose body was certainly to be known, being the only one intombed in the large pyramid. (196) MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE, FOURTH PICTURE.—TOILET SCENE. By the old peer's death our fair heroine has attained the summit of her wishes, and become a countess. Intoxicated by this elevation, and vain of her new dignity, she ranges through the whole circle of frivolous amusements, and treads every maze of fashionable dissipation. Her excesses are rendered still more criminal, by the consequent neglect of domestic duties ; for, by the coral on the back of her chair, we are led to suppose that she is a mother. Her morning levee is crowded with persons of rank, and attended by her paramour, and that contemptible shadow of man, an Italian singer, with whose dulcet notes two of our right honourable group seem in the highest degree enraptured. That our extravagant countess purchased the pipe of this expensive exotic in mere compliance to the fashion of the day, without any real taste for his mellifluous warblings, is intimated by the absorbed attention which she pays to the advocate, who, with the luxuriant, indolent grace of an eastern effendi, is lolling on a sofa beside her. By his pointing to the folding screen, on which is delineated a mas- querade revel, at the same time that he shows his infatuated inamorato a ticket of admission, we see that they are making an assignation for the evening. The fatal consequences of their unfortunate meeting are displayed in the two succeeding plates. A Swiss servant, who is dressing her hair, has all the grimace of his country ; he is the complete Canton of the Clandestine Marriage. The contemp- tuous leer of a black footman, serving chocolate, is evidently directed to the singer, and forms an admirable contrast to the die-away lady seated before him, who, lost to every sense but that of hearing, is exalted to the third heaven by the enchanting song of this pampered Italian. On the country gentleman, with a whip in his hand, it has quite a different effect ; with the echoing tally ho ! he would be exhila- rated ; by the soft sounds of Italia, his soul is lulled to rest. The fine feeling creature with a fan suspended from its wrist is marked with that foolish face of praise, which understands nothing, but admires everything — that it is the ton to admire ! The taper supporters of monsieur, en papillote, are admirably opposed to (197) HOGARTH'S WORKS. the lumbering pedestals of our mummy of music. The figure behind him blows a flute with every muscle of his face. A little black boy, in the opposite corner, examining a collection of grotesque china ornaments, which have been purchased at the sale of Esquire Timothy Babyhouse, pays great attention to a figure of Acteon, and with a very significant leer, points to his horns. Under a delineation of Jupiter and Leda, on a china- dish, is written Julio Romano ! The fantastic group of hydras, gorgons, and chimeras dire, which lie near it, are an admirable specimen of the absurd and shapeless monsters which disgraced our drawing-rooms, until the introduction of Etrurian ornaments. The pictures in this dressing room are well suited to the profligate proprietor, and may be further intended as a burlesque on the strange and grossly indelicate subjects so frequently painted by ancient masters. Lot and his Daughters ; Gany- mede and the Eagle ; Jupiter and lo ;' and a portrait of the young lawyer, who is the favourite, the cicisbeo, or more properly, the seducer of the countess. (198; MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE, FIFTH PICTURE. -DEATH OF THE EARL. Our exasperated peer, suspecting his wife's infidelity, follows her in disguise to the masquerade, and from thence traces these two votaries of vice to a bagnio ; finding they are retired to a bed-room, he bursts open the door, and attacks the spoiler of his honour with a drawn sword. Too much irritated to be prudent, and too violent to be cautious, he thinks only of revenge; and, making a furious thrust at the counsellor, neglects his own guard, and is mortally wounded. The miscre- ant who had basely destroyed his peace, and deprived him of life, is not bold enough to meet the consequences. Destitute of that courage which is the com- panion of virtue, possessing no spark of that honour which ought to distinguish the gentleman, and dreading the avenging hand of offended justice, he makes a mean and precipitate retreat. Leaving him to the fate which awaits him, let us return to the deluded countess. Feeling some pangs from a recollection of her former conduct, some touches of shame at her detection, and a degree of horror at the fate of her husband, she kneels at his feet, and entreats forgiveness. " Some contrite tears she shed." There is reason to fear that they flow from regret at the detection, rather than remorse for the crime ; a woman vitiated in the vortex of dissipation is not likely to feel that ingenuous shame which accompanies a good mind torn by the conscious- ness of having deviated from the path of virtue. Alarmed at the noise occasioned by this fatal rencontre, the inmates of the brothel call a watchman ; accompanied by a constable, this nocturnal guardian is ushered into the room by the master of the house, whose meagre and trembling figure is well opposed to the consequential magistrate of the night. The watch- man's lantern we see over their heads, but the bearer knows his duty is to follow his superiors, conscious that, though the front may be a post of honour, yet, in a service of danger, the rear is a station of safety. Immediately over the door is a picture of St. Luke : this venerable apostle, (199) HOGARTH'S WORKS. being a paiiitor, is so delineated that he seems looking at the scene now passing, and either making a sketch or a record of the transaction. On the hangings is a lively representation of Solomon's judgment. The countenance of the sapient monarch is not sagacious, but his attitude is in an eminent degree dignified, and his air commanding and regal. We cannot say that the Hebrew women who attend for judgment are either comely or fair to look upon. Were not the scene laid in Jerusalem, they might pass for two of the silver-toned naiades of our own Billings- gate. The grisly guards have a most rueful and tremendous appearance. The attractive portrait of a Drury Lane Diana, with a butcher's steel in one hand and a squirrel perched on the other, is hung in such a situation that the Herculean pedestals of a Jewish soldier may be supposed to be a delineation of her legs con- tinued below the frame. Our counsellor's mask lies on the floor, and grins horribly, as if conscious of the fatal catastrophe. Dominoes, shoes, &c., scattered around the room, show the negligence of the ill-fated countess, unattended by her femme de chambre. From a fagot, and the shadow of a pair of tongs, we may infer that there is a fire in the room. A bill near them implies that this elegant apartment is at the Turk's Head bagnio. The dying agony of the earl, the eager entreaty of the countess, the terror of mine host, and the vulgar inflected dignity of Mr. Constable, are admirably dis- criminated. (200^ MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. SIXTH PICTURE-DEATH OF THE COUNTESS. The last sad scene of our unfortunate heroine's life is in the house of her father, to which she had returned after her husband's death. The law could not consider her as the primary cause of his murder ; but consciousness of her own guilt was more severe punishment than that could have inflicted. This, added to her father's reproaches, and the taunts of those who were once her friends, renders society hateful and solitude insupportable. Wounded in every feeling, tortured in every nerve, and seeing no prospect of a period to her misery, she takes the horrid resolution of ending all her calamities by poison. Dreadful as is this resolve, she puts it in execution by bribing the servant of her father to procure her a dose of laudanum. Close to the vial, which lies on the floor, Hogarth has judiciously placed Counsellor Silvertongue's last dying speech, thus intimating that he also has sufiered the punishment he justly merited. The records of their fate being thus situated, seem to imply that, as they were united in vice, they are companions in the consequences. These two terrific and monitory testimonies are a kind of propitiatory sacrifice to the manes of her injured and murdered lord. Her avaricious father, seeing his daughter at the point of death, and knowing the value of her diamond ring, determined to secure this glittering gem from the depredations of the old nurse, coolly draws it from her finger. This little circum- stance shows a prominent feature of his mind. Every sense of feeling absorbed in extreme avarice, he seems at this moment calculating how many carats the brilliants weigh. A rickety child, heir to the complaints of its father, shows some tenderness for its expiring mother ; and the grievous whine of an old nurse is most admirably described. These are the only two of the party who exhibit any marks of sorrow for the death of our wretched countess. The smug apothecary, indeed, displays some symptoms of vexation at his patient dying before she has taken his julep, the VOL. II.— 26 (201) HOGARTH'S WORKS. label of which hangs out of his pocket. Her constitution, though impaired by grief, promised to have lasted long enough for him to have marked many additional dittos in his day-book. Pointing to the dying speech, he threatens the terrified footboy with a punishment similar to that of the counsellor for having bought the laudanum. The fellow protests his innocence, and promises never more to be guilty of a like offence. The effects of fear on an ignorant rustic cannot be better delineated, nor is it easy to conceive a more ludicrous figure than this awkward retainer, dressed in an old full-trimmed coat, which, in its better days, had been the property of his master. By the physician retreating, we are led to conceive that, finding his patient had dared to quit the world in an irregular way, neither abiding by his prescriptions nor waiting for his permission, he cast an indignant frown on all present, and exclaimed in style heroic, — " ' Fellow, our hat ! ' — no more he deign'd to say, But, stern as Ajax' spectre, stalk'd away." The leathern buckets immediately over the doctor's head were, previous to the introduction of fire-engines, considered as proper furniture for a merchant's hall. Every ornament in his parlour is highly and exactly appropriate to the man. The style of his pictures, his clock, a cobweb over the window, repaired chair, nay, the very form of his hat, are characteristic. Thus has our moral dramatist concluded his tragedy, and brought his heroine from dissipation and vice to misery and shame, terminating her existence by suicide ! From the whole we may form a just estimate of the value of riches and high birth, when abused by prodigality or degraded by vice. (202) < V ^ ^ I .tf -t I °^ I D I I FUNERAL TICKET, It is in works of Humour that our Artist's talents, at a more advanced period, Kiand pre-eminent. Yet in this early production, which in its nature does not admit of much humorous exertion, we find some small traits of it, particularly in the face and attitude of the clerk who precedes the procession, and in whom we cannot help noticing a species of grimace which rather oversteps the modesty of nature, while the clergyman, who takes the lead among the supporters of the pall, is, if we may judge by his round and smirking set of features, perfectly pleased with his situation, and more desirous of captivating the living with his own sweet person, than properly or even decently discharging his duty as a companion of the dead. It is a kind of face that woul^ not, at any rate or under any conduct, accord- ing to Sable's opinion in Steele's Grief A-la-mode, have been thought worthy of so conspicuous a situation, at least he would not have been paid for it. By the mournful gestures of those who follow, they are all well sorted, and have enough of the mortal face to get «, living in any of the families of death. (203) RICH'S TRIUMPHAL ENTRY. This plate represents the removal of Rich and his scenery, actors, authors, &c., from Lincoln's Inn Fields to the New House. The scene is the area of Convent Garden, across which, leading to the door of the theatre, is a long procession, con- sisting of a cart loaded with thunder and lightning, performers, &c., 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. The style of composition and manner of engraving, &c., &c., would have sufficiently proved it to be the work of Hogarth, if the initials of his name had been wanting at the bottom of the plate (205) PAUL BEFORE FELIX, BURLESQUED, Paul before Felix, designed and scratched in true Dutch taste, by W. Hogarth. This plate contains, in the character of a sergeant tearing his brief, a portrait of Hume Campbell, who was not over delicate in the language he used at the bar to his adversaries and antagonists : — this, however, is said by others to be the por- trait of William King, LL. D., Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford. (207) 1 THE PAINTER'S ROOM. Hogarth's painting room, with portraits of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir James Thomhill, Hogarth, Rysbrack, and Eoubillac,— from ' the original in the posses- sion of Mr. Nicholls. (209) VOL, II. — 27 A JUST VIEW OF THE BRITISH STAGE, Scene, Newgate. This plate represents, A new Farce, thate will include ye two famous Entertainments, Dr. Faustus and Harlequin Shepherd, to which will be added. Scaramouch Jack Hall, the Chimney Sweeper's escape from Newgate, through the privy, with ye Comical Humours of Ben Johnson's Ghost, concluding with the Hay Dance performed in ye Air, by ye figures A, B, C, (Wilkes, Booth, and Gibber), assisted by Ropes from ye Muses. Note, there are no conjurers con- cerned in it, as ye ignorant imagine. The bricks, rubbish, &c., will be real, but the excrements upon Jack Hall will be made of chewed gingerbread, to prevent offence. Vivat Rex. Price, swcpence. Such is the inscription on the plate; but I may add, that the ropes already mentioned are no other than halters, suspended over the heads of the three managers, and that labels issuing from their respective mouths have the following characteristic words. The airy Wilkes, who dangles the effigy of Punch, is made to exclaim, — " Poor R — ch, faith, I pity him !" The Laureate, Cibber, with Harle- quin for his playfellow, invokes the Muses, painted on the ceiling, — " Assist, ye saored Nine" — while the solemn Booth, letting down the image of Jack Hall into the forica, is most tragically blaspheming, — " Ah ! this will do, me !" On a table before these gentlemen lies a pamphlet exhibiting a print of Jack Shepherd, in confinement, and over the forica is suspended a parcel of waste paper, consisting of leaves torn from the " Way of the World," " Hamlet," " Macbeth," and "Julius Caesar." Ben Johnson's ghost, in the meanwhile, is rising through the stage, p — g on a pantomime statue tumbled from its base. A fiddler is represented hanging by a cord in the air, and performing with a scroll before him, that exhibits music for the — what ! [perhaps what d'ye call it,] entertainment. The countenances of Tragedy and Comedy, on each of the side stage, are hoodwinked by the bills for " Harlequin," " Dr. Faustus," and " Harle- quin Shepherd," &c., &c. ^here is also a dragon preparing to fly ; a dog thrusting his head out of his kennel ; a flask put in motion by machinery, &c., &c. Vivetur Ingenio is the motto over the curtain. (211) PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA. No. 1. Perseus and Medusa, dead; and Pegasus. Frontispiece to Perseus and ^dromeda. — W. H. Fedt. No. 2. Another print to the same piece of Perseus descending. Mr. Walpole mentions only one — both are copied in this edition. (213) VIEW OF CHISWICK. A. VIEW of Mr. Ranby's house at Chiswick.-^-EtcTied by Hogarth. This view, I am informed, was taken in 1750. It was not at first designed for sale, bat was regularly publishfed by Mrs. Hogarth, in 1791. (215) THE GOOD SAMARITAN, In relation to this print, Mr. Walpole justly observes, that "the burlesque turn of our Artist's mind mixed itself with his most serious compositions. " To this remark 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 he is designed to represent. VOL. ir.— 28 (217) GARDEN SCENE AT MR. RICH'S VILLA AT COWLEY. A SCENE representing a favourite spot in the garden of the late Thomas Rich, Esq., at his villa at Cowley, near Uxbridge. Mr. Rich is represented sitting in an easy and natural attitude, in the front of the picture, and the lady whose hand is placed on the table is a portrait of his wife. The figure to the right in a tie-wig, who has his hand likewise on the table, and is viewing the picture held by the servant, represents Mr. Cock. The lady on the left of Mr. Rich, holding up a glass to contemplate the picture, is Mrs. Cock, wife to the before-mentioned gentleman. Hogarth has also introduced his own portrait as pointing to and explaining the subject of his pictures, which his friend is admiring. (219) MISS FElfTOT?. Pathf/ud § Ti'OifmMn.. Thu\it,Ree.t k'Crmj;hfay I'f^iSsj. MISS F E N TO N. Portrait of Lavinia Fenton — the original Polly Peachum, afterwards Duchess of Bolton. One of Hogarth's early performances. (221) HOGAB.TH I'liNlfJud, J)v^o-:iffnMUvSur^tJi^t'i:Or7tte,^oya~iSa^, BUST OF HOGARTH. BY ROUBELLIAC. The annexed engraving is taken from a very valuable bust in terra cotta, which the unrivalled skill of his friend Roubelliac had modelled from the life. They who are conversant with the specimens of this art, will immediately recognise the excel- lence of this effort of Roubelliac's hand : there is an expression in the countenance, which conveys a most infallible intimation of its prominent and distinguishing character, and in which it is impossible not to trace almost every feature in the mind whom it represents. It requires but little penetration to discover a sort of satirical conformation in the whole of the face : it exhibits a more than ordinary portion of sagacity, and a species of sharp and quick-sighted penetration, as it were, in th^ very act of exploring those vices, and hunting out those follies, which, in so many fanciful combinations, were the perpetual objects of his researches. This great effort of genius, however, met with a very slender compensation — the whole amount of the recompense, received by the artist, being no more than fifteen guineas. It is a fact very well known that Hogarth has frequently exhibited his portrait in his works. One of the prints, into which he has introduced both himself and his dog, is a very remarkable one, and at this time is become very scarce, most probably from the circumstance of his having erased his own head for the purpose of inserting that of the canonical bear, during the celebrated contro- versy between our Artist and Churchill. (223) THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY. " Though rosy youth embloom the sprightly fair, And beauty mould her with a lover's care, If motion to the form denies a grace, Vain is the beauty that adorns the face." This design was made about the j'ear 1728, and is said to be a grotesque repre- sentation of the Wanstead Assembly, and contains portraits of the first Earl Til- ney, his Countess, &c. In the tall young lady he has evidently aimed at Milton's description of motion — smooth, sliding without step ; but her air is affected. Her noble partner was intended for a portrait of George III., then Prince of Wales. It might be a just representation of the Wanstead belles and beaux, but since that period we have had so many ship-loads of grace imported from the continent, and such numbers of well-educated gentlemen, who have exerted their talents in per- fecting the divine art of dancing, that this picture would not do for the present day. The fatigued figures that labour through this dance, Mr. Hogarth thus explains : — OF ATTITUDE. " Such dispositions of the body and limbs as appear most graceful when seen at rest, depend upon gentle, winding contrasts, mostly governed by the precise ser- pentine line, which, in attitudes of authority, are more extended and spreading than ordinary, but reduced somewhat below the medium of grace in those of negligence and ease ; and as much exaggerated in insolent and proud carriage, or in distor- tions of pain, as lessened and contracted into plain and parallel lines, to express meanness, awkwardness, and submission. " The general idea of an action, as well as of an attitude, may be given with a pencil in very few lines. It is easy to conceive that the attitude of a person upon the cross may be fully signified by the true straight lines of the cross ; so the extended manner of St. Andrew's crucifixion is wholly understood by the X-like cross. " Thus, as two or three lines at first are sufiicient to show the intention ot an attitude, I will take this opportunity of presenting my reader with the sketch of a country dance, in the manner I began to set out the design. In order to show how few lines are necessary to express the first thoughts, as to different attitudes, see VOL. II.— 29 (225) HOGARTH S WORKS. No. 71 (top of the plate), which describes in some measure the several figures and actions, mostly of the ridiculous kind, that are represented in the chief part of it. " The most amiable person may deform his general appearance by throwing his body and limbs into plain lines; but such lines appear still in a more disagreeable light in people of a particular make. I have therefore chosen such figures as 1 thought would agree best with my first score of lines, No. 71. " The two parts of curves next to 71 served for the figures of the old woman and her partner at the farther end of the room. The curve and two straight lines at right angles gave the hint for the fat man's sprawling posture. I next resolved to keep a figure within the bounds of a circle, which produced the upper part of the fat woman between the fat man and the awkward one in the bag-wig, for whom 1 had made a sort of an X. The prim lady, his partner, in the riding-habit, by pecking back her elbows, as they call it, from the waist upwards makes a tolerable' D, with a straight line under it to signify the scanty stifiness of her petticoat ; and the Z stood for the angular position the body makes with the legs and thighs of the affected fellow in the tie-wig ; the upper part of his plump partner was confined to an 0, and this, changed iilto a P, served as a hint for the straight lines behind. The uniform diamond of a card was filled up by the flying dress, &c., of the little capering figure in the Spenser wig, whilst a double L marlced the parallel position of his poking partner's hands and arms : and lastly, the two waving lines were drawn for the more genteel turns of the two figures at the hither end." Such is the author's alphabetical analysis of his serpentine system, which some of our readers may possibly think borders on the visionary : certain it is, that how- ever he may have failed in his two specimens of grace, those of awkwardness are carried as far as they could have been in a Russian dance, when Peter the Great ordained that no lady of any age should presume to get intoxicated before nine o'clock (226) ^ome- t- cf incJ^^r&nc^al fJynAau^Ctayn^ ^ ^ r/wOn^^ a^ mei ^ THE INHABITANTS OF THE MOON; OR ROYALTY, EPISCOPACY, AND LAW. Some of the principal Inhabitants of ye Moon, as they were perfectly diacover'd by a telescope brought to ye greatest perfection since ye last eclipse, exactly engraved from the objects, whereby ye curious may guess at their religion, manners, &c. About the year 1750 (if we may judge by the wigs and style of dress) appeared tho'original of this severe satire on royalty, episcopacy, and law. The scene is supposed to be in the clouds, where, on a platform, the principal characters are seated. The head of the monarch is either a crown-piece or a guinea. The collar of Esses is ludicrously changed to a string of bubbles ; his breast is decorated with a pointed star ; and on the top of the globe and sceptre is a crescent, alluding to his lunar situation. Beneath his throne is a circle, perhaps intended as an emblem of perpetuity. The satire on Episcopacy is still more strongly pointed. The face of the bishop is formed of a Jew's harp, which may probably allude to his religious tenets having arisen out of the doctrines of Judaism. He is pulling a bell-rope that is fastened to the Bible, which serves as a lever to act upon a machine. The lower part is a mill but the upper part a steeple, having a vane at the top of it, and a bell, plainly seen in the act of ringing or working — intimating, that by this instrument he works out of the church these good things, without which he would set little value upon his spiritualities : this treasure falls into a coffer, sarcastically marked as his own by the armorial bearings, a knife and a fork, with the mitre added as a crest. Beneath the episcopal robe peeps a cloven foot; and, if we may judge by the weathercock, the motion of the pump is in some degree acted upon by the king, in whose quarter the wind seems to set. The head of law appears to be made of a large mallet or wedge. To this metaphor we can give no explanation ; nor is the enormous size of the sword, (227) HOGARTH'S WORKS. which seems to betray more than common justice, an allusion so clearly understood as some other parts of the design. The composition of the courtiers who attend monarchy, &c., is well conceived, and marks the contempt our artist entertained for the danglers in that situation. By the letters that appear marked in several parts of this print, it may be presumed that a full explanation of it was intended to have been given. The sagacity of the present day will, however, we conceive, render any farther elucidation of this point unnecessary, as the artist's meaning is pretty clearly explained without those references. (228) J OWN WILKE S J: S Q? TalilUhed b\- Z' f. ^i .S2^ i _i -^^"^l SI. -mm , ,tTT" ■■/ u ^mijiL- ^>i pH n :f^?'f| :iT?i THE TIMES. PLATE I. Previously to publication of this print, Mr. Wilkes, who was then at Ayles- bury, was informed that it was political, and that Lord Temple, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Churchill, and himself were the leading characters held up to ridicule. Uuder the impression which this intelligence conveyed, he sent Mr. Hogarth a remonstrance, stating the ungenerous tendency of such a proceeding, which would be more glaringly unfriendly, as the two last-mentioned gentlemen and the artist had always lived upon terms of strict intimacy. This produced a reply, in which Mr. Hogarth asserted that neither Mr. Wilkes nor Mr. Churchill were introduced, but Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt were ; and that the print should be published in a few days. To this, it was answered, that Mr. Wilkes would hardly deem it worth while to notice any reflections on himself; but if his friends were attacked, it would wound him in the most sensible part, and, as well as he was able, he would revenge their cause. This was a direct declaration of war — the black flag was hoisted on both sides. The print, however, was soon afterwards published, and on the Satur- day following, in No. 17 of the North Briton, a most unmerciful attack was com- menced on our artist. But to detail the particulars of this attack is not now our province, we shall therefore proceed to the print before us. In this print the globe, which must here be considered as the world, though it appears to be no more than a tavern sign, is represented on fire, and Mr. Pitt exalted on stilts, which are held by the surrounding multitude, blowing up the flames with a large pair of bellows ; his attendants are composed of butchers, with marrow bones and cleavers, a hallooing mob armed with clubs, and a trio of London aldermen in the act of adoration. From the neck of this idol of the populace is suspended a Cheshire cheese with £3000 on it. This alludes to what he said in parliament, that he would sooner live on a Cheshire cheese and a shoulder of mut- ton than submit to the enemies of Great Britain. Lord Bute, attended by English VOL. II.— 30 (233) HOGARTH'S WORKS. soldiers, sailors, and Highlanders, manages an engine for extinguishing the flames, but is impeded by the Duke of Newcastle, with a wheelbarrow full of Monitors and North Britons, for the purpose of feeding the blaze. The respectable body under Mr. Pitt are the aldermen of London, worshipping the idol they had set up, whilst the musical king of Prussia, who alone is sure to gain by the war, is amusing him- self with a violin amongst his miserable countrywomen. The picture of the Indian alludes to the advocates for retaining our West Indian conquests, which it was said would only increase excess and debauchery. The breaking down of the Newcastle arms, and the drawing up the patriotic ones, refer to the resignation of that noble duke, and the appointment of his successor. The Dutchman smoking his pipe, and a fox peeping out behind him and awaiting the issue; the wagon with the treasures of the Hermioue ; the unnecessary march of the militia, signified by the Norfolk jig; the dove with the olive branch, and the miseries of war — are sufficiently intelligible, and need no expliination. The first impressions of the original of this print may be known by the follow- ing distinction : — The smoke just over the dove is left white; and the whole of the composition has a brilliancy and clearness not to be found in the copies worked oflf after the plate was retouched. (234) THE TIMES PLATE II. By his first print of The Times, our artist, observes Mr. Ireland, roused two very formidable adversaries ; and they treated him with as much ceremony as two deputies from the Bow Street magistrates would an incendiary or an assassin. They did not consider him as a man whose conduct it was needful to investigate, or whose opinions it was necessary to confute, but as a criminal, whose aggravated crimes had outraged every law of society, and whom they would therefore drag to the place of execution. To defend himself from these furious assailants, he had no shield but a copperplate — no weapons but a pencil and a burin. The use he made of them may be seen in the last two prints ; but, though this print was engraved during the time of the contest, it was not published while he lived Whether a sudden change in politics — a supposed ambiguity in part of his design — or the advice of judicious or timid friends, induced him to suppress his work, cannot now be ascertaified ; but whatever were the reasons, his widow's respect for his memory induced her to adopt the same conduct. She retained a reverence for even the dust of her husband, and dreaded its being raked from the sepulchre where he had been quietly immured, mixed with the poisonous aconite of party, and by sacrilegious hands cast into the agitated caldron of politics. If we add to this the specimen of political candour which she had experienced in her own person, can we wonder that she cautiously avoided whatever could be tortured into a provoca- tion to the renewal of hostilities ? From these considerations, she never suffered more than one impression to be taken, and that was struck off at the earnest request of Lord Exeter. In withholding this plate from the public she acted prudently ; in attempting to describe it we should be thought to act otherwise. To enter into a discrimina- tion of characters who now live, or step upon ashes which are not yet cold, is liable to invidious construbtion. (235) HOGARTH'S WORKS. The judicious Mr. Ireland also observes of this plate, " That though several of the figures are marked in a style so obtrusive that they cannot be mistaken, there are others where I can only guess at the originals. From those who were engaged in the politics of that day, I have sought information, but their communications have been neither important nor consistent with each other ; they generally ended in an acknowledgment, ' that in thirty years they had forgotten much that they once knew, and which, if now recollected, would materially elucidate.' To this was added, what I am compelled to admit, that parts of the print are obscure." The exact time when this print was engraved is not positively ascertained, but it is conjectured to have been some time in the year 1762. A small part of the sky was left unfinished, and in that state still remains. (236) T.Ceolc ■saOp^ THE EAaMEms Retur:^^. .hiAltfhed by Zon^man.SJurjt.ReAf ic 0rme.2Iiwciv x'fjSoj . THE FARMER'S RETURN. The interlude of the " Farmer's Return" was written by Garrick, in which piece he is here represented in the character of the Farmer. This interlude made its appearance soon after the coronation, and in it the author displayed his accus- tomed theatrical management and knowledge of the town ; the fashions and follies of the times are caught in the happiest manner, and the bauble of a coronation, with the imposture of the Cock Lane Ghost, are inimitably described by our Eoscius, in the character in which he is here delineated. The piece was addressed to Mr. Hogarth, and the preface speaks the high opinion which the author enter- tained of the artist's merits and friendship. The original of this sketch was in black chalk, and was evidently drawn from nature. (237) TBOKTISFIECE TO THE TISTS CATALOGUE 1761. tUblir/itd &f £<»^/jian..//unft.£eBf,Sbiivie,JEircfi sfiSoj. FRONTISPIECE TO THE ARTISTS' CATALOGUE, 1761. These two Prints were designed by Hogarth, and engraved by Mr. Charles Grignion, for the Artists' Catalogue of Pictures, exhibited at Spring Gardens, 1761 ; and so great was the demand for the catalogues with these illustrations, that the two plates were soon worn down, and Mr. Grignion was employed to engrave others from the same drawings, of which the Prints here represented are faithful copies. FRONTISPIECE. Erected in the cleft of a rock, we have here a building, intended for a reservoir of water ; and by the bust of his late Majesty being placed in a niche of an arch, which is lined with a shell and surmounted by a crown, we must suppose it a royal reservoir. The mouth of a mask of the British lion is made the waterspout for conveying a stream into a garden-pot, which a figure of Britannia holds in her right hand, and with her spear in the left, is employed in watering three young trees, the trunks of which are entwined together, and inscribed Painting — Sculpture — Architecture. These promising saplings are planted upon a gentle declivity ; Painting is on the highest ground, and Sculpture on the lowest. It is worthy of remark, that the fructifying stream which issues ^om the watering-pot, falls short of the surface on which is planted the tree inscribed Painting, and goes beyond the root of that termed Sculpture ; so that Architecture, which is much the loftiest and most healthy tree, will have the principal benefit of the water. If the tree Painting is attentively inspected, it will be found stunted in its growth, withered at the top, and blest with only one flourishing branch; which, if viewed with an eye to what the artist has previously written, seems intended for portrait painting. The tree, which is the symbol for Sculpture, appears to bend, and withdraw itself from the reservoir: one branch from the centre of the trunk is probably funeral, and intended to intimate sepulchral monuments. The top being out of sight, is left to the imagination. (239) TAILPIECE TO THE ARTISTS' CATALOGUE, 1761, A TRAVELLING monkey, in full dress, is in this industriously watering three withered and sapless stems of what might once have been flowering shrubs, and are inscribed Exotics. These wretched remnants of things which were, are care- fully placed in labelled flower-pots: on the first is written, obiit 1502; on the second, obiit 1600 ; and on the third,, obiit 1606. Still adhering to the hieroglyphics in his frontispiece, Hogarth introduces these three dwarfish importations of decayed nature, to indicate the state of those old damaged pictures which are venerated merely for their antiquity, and exalted above all modern publications, from the name of a great master, rather than any intrinsic merit. To heighten the ridicule, he has given his monkey a magnifying glass, that will draw forth hidden beauties, which to common optics are invisible. (241) ro) 1.-31 TFFfrg^ I I il^^i III. I I I I Ml! I| ' 'rt' ■■■! '' i ' I'lih^i^li Sh^arih pifia: ? . Anon PabUshcd hy Zo7yman.Siirse.£,ees.£- e?rme, JGrreA-i-^iSao. TIME SMOKING A PICTURE. This animated print was Hogarth's subscription ticket for Sigismonda, and is a satire on connoisseurs. It represents Time seated on a mutilated statue, and smoking a landscape, through which he has driven a scythe, to manifest its antiquity, not only by sombee, cloudy tints, but also by a decayed canvass. " From a contempt," says Mr. Walpole, " of the ignorant virtuosi of the age, and from indignation at the impudent tricks of picture-dealers, whom he saw continually recommending and vending vile copies to bubble collectors, and from never having studied, indeed having seen few good pictures of the great Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on those glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. He talked his language until he believed it; and, after having asserted as true, that time gives a mellowness to colours, and improves them, he not only denied the proposition, but maintained that pictures only grew black and worse by age, not distinguishing between the degrees in which the pro- position might be true or false." It must, however, be generally admitted, that Hogarth has admirably illustrated his own doctrine, and given a greater point to his burlesque, by introducing the fragments of a statue, under which is written — " As statues moulder into worth." — P. W. The large jar labelled " Varnish," is characteristic. (245) THE POOL OF BETHESDA, This print was engraved by Ravenet and Picot, in the same year with the " Good Samaritan." There was likewise a small print from this painting, executed by Ravenet, in 1748. Mr. Walpole justly observes, that "the burlesque turn of our artist's mind mixed itself with his most serious compositions ; and that on the ' Pool of Bethesda,' a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man (per- haps woman), who sought the same celestial remedy." On the top of the staircase of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and just under the cornice, is the following inscription, " The Historical Paintings of this staircase were painted and given by William Hogarth, and the ornamental paintings at his expense, A. D. 1736." Both pictures, which appear of an oblong square in the engravings in the originals, are surrounded by scroll w^ork, which cuts off the corners of them, &c. All these ornaments, together with compartments carved at the bottom, were the work of Mr. Richards. The late Alderman Boydell had the latter engraved on separate plates appended to those above them, on which suffi- cient space had not been left. 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 labour gratis." Hogarth requested that these pictures might never be varnished — 'they there- fore appear to great disadvantage. The decoration 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 canvass. (247) Sahah Mai-colm. Ti^&hed. lo'Zonfflnan.Wffvt.&er te&rnu,^iarcAi-^iSo^. SARAH MALCOLM. This woman was executed on Wednesday, the 7th of March, 1733, for the murder of Mrs. Lydia Buncombe, Elizabeth Harrison, and Ann Price. The por- trait of this murderess was painted by Hogarth, to whom she sat for her picture two days before her execution, having previously dressed herself in red for that purpose. The circumstances attending the conviction and execution of this woman are briefly these : — " On Sunday, February 4th, 1733, Mrs. Lydia Duncombe (aged 60), and Elizabeth Harri- son, her companion, were found strangled, and Ann Price (her maid, aged 17), with her throat cut, at Mrs. Buncombe's apartments, in Tanfield Court in the Inner Temple. Sarah Malcolm (who was a charwoman) was, on the same evening, apprehended on the information of Mr. Kerrel, who had chambers on the same staircase, and who had found some bloody linen under his bed, and a silver tankard in a close stool, which she had concealed there. " On her examination before Sir Richard Brocas, she confessed to sharing in the produce of the robbery, but declared herself innocent of the murders; asserting, upon oath, that Thomas and James Alexander, and Mary Tracy, were the principal parties in the whole trans- action. Notwithstanding this, the coroner's jury brought in their verdict of wilful murder against Sarah Malcolm only, it not then appearing that any other person was concerned. Her confession they considered as a mere subterfuge, no one knowing such people as she pretended were her accomplices. " A few days after, a boy about seventeen years of age was hired as a servant, by a person who kept the Red Lion ale-house, at Bridgewell Bridge ; and hearing it said, in his master's house, that Sarah Malcolm had given information against one Thomas Alexander, his brother James, and Mary Tracy, said to his master : — ' My name is James Alexander, and I have a brother named Thomas, and my mother nursed a woman where Sarah Malcolm lived.' Upon this acknowledgment, the master sent to Alstone, turnkey of Newgate ; and the boy being confronted with Malcolm, she immediately charged him with being concealed under Mrs. Dun- combe's bed, previously to letting in Tracy and his brother, by whom and himself the murders were committed. On this evidence he was detained ; and frankly telling where his brother and Tracy were to be found, they also were taken into custody, and brought before Sir Richard Brocas. Here Malcolm persisted in her former asseverations ; but the magistrate thought her unworthy of credit, and would have discharged them ; but, being advised by some persons present to act with more caution, committed them all to Newgate. Their distress was some- VOL. II.— 32 (249) HOGARTH'S WORKS. what alleviated by the gentlemen of the Temple Society, who, fully convinced of their inno- cence, allowed each of them one shilling per diem during the time of their confinement. " Though Malcolm's presence of mind seemed to have forsaken her at the time when she lurked about the Temple, without making any attempt to escape, leaving the produce of her theft in situations that rendered discovery inevitable ; she, by the time of trial, recovered her recollec- tion, made a most acute and ingenious defence, and cross-examined the witnesses like one bred to the bar. The circumstances were, however, so clear, as to leave no doubt in the minds of the court, and the jury brought in their verdict — guilty. " On Wednesday, the 7th of March, about ten in the morning, she was taken in a cart from Newgate to the place of execution, facing Mitre Court, Fleet Street, and there suffered death on a gibbet erected for the occasion. She was neatly dressed in a crape mourning gown, white apron, sarcenet hood, and black gloves ; carried her head aside with an air of affectation, and was said to be painted. She was attended by Dr. Middleton, of St. Bride's, her friend, Mr. Peddington, and Guthrie, the Ordinary of Newgate. She appeared devout and penitent, and earnestly requested Peddington would print a paper she had given him* the night before, which contained, not a confession of the murder, but protestations of her innocence, and a recapitulation of what she had before said relative to the Alexanders, &c. This wretched woman, though only twenty-five years of age, was so lost to all sense of her situation, as to rush into eternity with a lie upon her lips. She much wished to see Mr. Kerrel, and acquitted him of every imputation thrown out at her trial. " After she had conversed some time with the ministers, and the executioner began to do his duty, she fainted away ; but recovering, was in a short space afterwards executed. Her corpse was carried to an undertaker's on Snow Hill, where multitudes of people resorted, and gave money to see it ; among the rest a gentleman in deep mourning kissed her, and gave the attendants half a crown. " Professor Martin dissected this notorious murderess, and afterwards presented her skele- ton, in a glass case, to the Botanic Gardens at Cambridge, where it still remains." Besides the present portrait, Hogarth executed a full length one of this atro- cious offender : from which it should seem probable that the artist painted her twice. There is also a figure of her cut on wood in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1733, slightly differing from our engraving. * This paper he sold for twenty pounds ! and the substance of it was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1733, p. 137. (250) Sj^arlh.piniDf T-ChalabSoitM. RMJud. ^ J^cknpoumBitt.SMnk Orme,yav'i.^iM - FALSE PERSPECTIVE. Early in the year 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 anec- dote 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 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 window at least half a mile off. We are also astonished at the representation, near it, of a crow seated on the bough 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 an example from the tree, are very large at a distance, and regularly become less by their proximity, the nearest being almost invisible. Both ends of the church, as well as the top and the whole of one side, are clearly seen. To take the view which Hogarth has drawn, we must, at the same time, be above, at each end, and in front of the church ; but he does not favour us with a sight of the road on the bridge, which the vessel seems determined to sail over, while the wagon 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 placed, he cannot possibly have a view of it. The wagon and horses which are supposed on the bridge, are more distant than the trees which grow on the farther side. Many other absurdities are visible in this curious perspective view, which cannot escape observation, — such as the sign-post extending to a house at the distance of half a mile, and the remote row of trees concealing part of the nearer sign of thy (251) HOGARTH'S WORKS half-moon; the angler's line interfering with another belonging t( his patient brother, though at a considerable distance from each other — 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 w^ith a serious design for it. (262^ SPILLER'S TICKET. Here we find the talent of Hogarth called forth in the service of humanity, and to the aid of this son of mirth, who, about the year 1728, appears to have been reduced to pen.ury and great distress. The annexed copy of an unique print was engraved for the benefit of poor Spiller, the Shuter of his day. On this small print the artist has bestowed great attention : the workings of the face of this comedian, although so very diminutive, are yet so nicely discriminated as to become a real portrait. Nor has he failed in displaying that wit and humour in which his greater works so much abound. The anxiety in Spiller to get rid of h\s tickets, and dread of the impending danger from the urgency of his creditors, is forcibly represented in every turn of his counte- nance. The conceit of the money scale not preponderating against tradesmen's bills, and leaving the poor comedian no alternative but to linger in a jail, or to be shot at as a soldier, is happily executed, and worthy the pencil of its author. The style of engraving in the original print may be ranked as one of the best of Hogarth's works. As the biography of a player seldom outlives the remembrance of his contemporaries, some information relative to this singular character may not prove unacceptable to the reader. This theatrical hero was the son of a Gloucestershire carrier, and was born in 1699. The father having acquired some property, apprenticed this his only son to a Mr. Ross, a landscape painter. In his profession he is said to have made some progress ; but, as no specimens of his talents have been handed down, to our knowledge, we cannot speak concerning his merits in that line. Before the expi- ration of his apprenticeship, he engaged in a strolling company, where comedy being his forte, he sometimes burlesqued Alexander the Great, and other characters of that sort. In London his comic talents were better understood and more amply encouraged. We find him in many of his humorous parts rivalling Pinkethman, of facetious memory, and of whom Sir Richard Steele observes, " that Pinkey made a living of his face." Spiller was not only the rival of Pinkethman, but we are told he once picked his pocket, when asleep, at the Gun Tavern, Billingsgate, of his part, the character of the Cobbler, written for him by Johnson, and which he was then studying. (253) HOGARTH'S WORKS. With this treasure, Spiller hastened to his friend Bullock, the comedian, and manager of Lincoln's-Inn Fields Theatre, who was likewise an author. Bullock received it graciously, and without scruple applied the theft to his own use, by pre- paring a piece on the same subject, called " The Cobbler of Preston," and this he was enabled to produce a fortnight before the other house could prepare their drama for the stage. In such repute was Spiller held as a comedian when he was only twenty-three years of age, that we are told plays were written expressly for him. He was famed for a species of low wit, perhaps more in taste of those than of the present times. The following coarse jest is imputed to him, and may serve as a specimen. Being one day upbraided for his poverty, when his salary was superior to most of his fellow-comedians, particularly by a certain Italian female, who made a considerable figure on a small theatrical stipend, he observed, that " what made her rich, kept him perpetually in want." The wit of Spiller seems not to have been the effect of wine only ; for in his sober moments, and even in pain, the effusions of it would sometimes break forth; and we are told that one day, behind the scenes, in a raging fit of the toothache, on the barber of the theatre offering to relieve him, he replied, " I cannot spare one tooth now, friend; but after the 10th June (the time of the house shutting) you may have them all; I shall then have no further occasion for them, as I shall have nothing to eat." (254) THE ROYAL MASQUERADE AT SOMERSET HOUSE, This very interesting scene, which occurred in 1755, is thus anticipated by Mr. Walpole, December 24, 1754. "The Kussian 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 New- castle, to whose title he succeeded), who replied, "Not for half Kussia." The print abounds with portraits of personages of the first distinction ; of whom several may be identified by the following extract from the Qentleman's Magazine, Vol. 25, page 89 : — " The Russian ambassador gave a most magnificent ball at Somerset House. His Majesty came a little after eight o'clock, 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 highly 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 stuif. 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 dessert, was the most elegant that expense could furnish. Few exhibitions of this kind have equalled it — none have excelled it. The number of persons present was upwards of one thousand." (255) fit. '\-» j^' I'U // V Mis ' I *f ^M tM A -•- 1 f-ii. iKiF'SBr>Ki '~:»i^ rr ,'J .J '4« ---^ "■— K ^ y '' "55 ■5 ^ < LARGE MASQUERADE TICKET. As the Print called the Masquerade Ticket represents a large company eagerly pressing to the door of a masquerade, we have here the interior of the room, crowded with a countless number of grotesque characters. The titular divinity of the gardens being considered as the god of their idolatry, his Term is entitled to the first notice. The arched niche in which it is placed is terminated by a goat's head, ornamented with a pair of branching antlers, and decorated with festooned curtains. Beneath is an altar, the base of which is relieved with ram's heads and flowers ; and three pairs of stags' horns are fixed to the top. As a companion to it, the united statues of a Venus and Cupid, both of them masked, are placed on the opposite side of the print. Cupid, who is a very well drawn figure, has bent his bow to shoot at random ; and Venus seems con- templating the rise and fall of the mercury in one of those instruments, which the reference informs us is to show the inclinations of all that approach it. The niche in which the Divinities are placed, is not only decorated with curtains, but crowned with cooing doves. An altar beneath has on it three or four bleeding hearts, which, being close to the blaze, are in the way of being broiled. On the base are queue wigs, bag wigs, &c. The motley crew, who make up the crowd, it is not easy to describe, for every one present assumes a false character. Here we have priests of all persuasions — brahmins, friars, drones, monks, and monkeys not a few. The figure of Time, with his scythe, eagerly pressing towards the altar with ram's heads, is arrested in his course by a sort of slaughterman, with a mask, shaven crown, and short apron, who violently grasps his wing with one hand, and with the other lifts up a hatchet, which, with fatal force, he aims at his head. For sanctuary, this feeble figure lays hold of one of the horns of the altar ; but is frustrated in his attempt to reach the steps by a Bishop, who, with a sacrificing knife, coolly stabs him to the heart ; while a monkey, in the habit of a chorister, holds a basin to catch the blood, the fumes of which he snuffs up with ineffable delight. This Mr. Ireland supposed to be a metaphorical view of a Prelate killing time at a masquerade. Next to this group is a Mother Shipton, hooking on the arms of a Clown ; and near them a VOL. II.— 33 (257) HOGARTH'S WORKS. Harlequin, endeavouring to draw the attention of a graceful Columbine from a turbaned Turk, who attempts to seduce her from her party-coloured gallant. A female, with the mask of a monkey's head, salutes a man in a black veil; and, while an old Capuchin, with the face of an ape, whispers soft things to a young girl, a fellow, something like the famed Siddy Doll, draws up her head-dress to a point like a fool's cap. A man in the right-hand corner, solicitous to give a glass of wine to one of the sisterhood, lifts up her veil for the purpose of her drinking it (258) THE WEIGHIN6-H0USE. This print was designed by Hogarth, and engraved by Sullivan, to illustrate a humorous pamphlet, which was published early in 1763, by the Rev. Mr. Clubbe, Rector of Whatfield, and Vicar of Debenhara, under the title of " Physiognomy : being a sketch of a larger work upon the same plan ; wherein the different tempers, passions, and manners of men, will be particularly considered." In return for the compliment paid to the author by this design, the pamphlet was thus very hand- somely inscribed : — "To WILLIAM HOGARTH, Esq. " Sir, " The author begs leave, with the greatest respect, to put the following per- formance into your hands, some parts of which, he flatters himself, may amuse you, and the dullest, he hopes, will at least lull you to rest ; a favourable circumstance that attends few pamphlets — for how many have we in the compass of a year, that, like the clickings of a spider behind the wainscot, neither keep us quite awake, nor let us sleep sound ! " His pretensions, which must also be his apology for taking the liberty, he derives from the nature of his subject ; for (though at an immense distance in the execution) he fancies he bears some kind of a relation to you in his design, which is, to ridicule those characters that more serious admonitions cannot amend. " How happy you are in your portraits of folly, all, but the subjects of them, confess ; and your more moral pieces, none but the abandoned disapprove. We cannot, perhaps, point to the very man or woman who have been saved from ruin by them, yet we may fairly conclude, from their general tendency, many have ; for such cautionary exhibitions correct without the harshness of reproof, and are felt and remembered when rigid dogmatizings are rejected and forgotten, Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus." " Yc ar Harlot's and Rake's Progress strike the mind with horror and detestation ! Every scene, but the first of Innocence, is an alarming representation of the fatal consequences of immorality and profuseness ! You very justly give them not a moment of rational and true enjoyment. And herein you excel the very ingenious author of the Beggar's Opera, who (259) HOGARTH'S WORKS. suffers his profligate crew to be happy too long, and takes them off at last without leaving sufficient abhorrence behind among the spectators. " Your yet more serious pieces are elevated and sublimed into a beauty of holiness, fit for the sacred places of their destination. " Your pieces of mere amusement are so natural and striking, that a man cannot look at them without fancying himself one of the company : he forgets they are pictures, and rushes into their diversions as in real life. " In truth, Sir, you have found out the philosopher's wished-for key to every man's breast, or you have, by some means or other, found a way to break open the lock. Zopydus could hit off (if it was his own sagacity) a failing or two in a modest philosopher, who was ready to confess before he was accused ; but you have brought to public view the lurking wickedness of man's, heart intrenched in hardiness and obstinacy, and enveloped in the sanctimonious veil of studied and deep-covered hypocrisy. " While you. Sir, live, which the author hopes will be many years, he thinks to postpone the commencement of his scheme of weighing men's understandings, passions, &c. ; for no man would slowly trace by a mechanical apparatus, what you can instantaneously discover by intuition. " The author begs to be considered as one among your many, many thousand admirers ; and to subscribe himself. Sir, your devoted and most obedient humble servant, "N.N." (260) Joseph POBTEB esq? of Moktlake, Iroaii a Btawing takien ftom die Ori^mal Jietare in 1807. Rth1uhedhyZon^man,3ijrst,S£es,ScOrrne,5/arofhi^iSoa. JOSEPH PORTER. Portrait of Joseph Porter, Esq., of Mortlake, a Hamburgh merchant. (261) AMITSICAL STUDT. /roman oriffmal flamiin^ in. ffie po^se^^ionofMTNMolF. Hthiuhed lyLtmffTtum.. EuiVt.Meet er>i.futiO, ->■:, <^ nri ,^ ...a „ „ „ .. nM n r, r. ^^ ^^ ^W ^^3 9@^ jii^^s^^ ^^tT^^^ 3a -^3 -" '^iii^^'y. M tf OT ^^Wm ^ Hff^4j>. ^^L^A-Jgj SHOP BILL. " W. Hogarth, Engraver, at ye Golden Ball, ye corner of Cranbourne Alley, Little Newport Street. April ye 29, 1720."* "William Haedt, Goldsmith and Jeweller, on Ratcliflf Highway, near Sun Tavern Fields, sells all sorts of Gold and Silver Plate." CAR D, FOR ELLIS GAMBLE, Is one of Hogarth's earliest productions. When the nature of the profession in which he was destined to drudge is considered, this early attempt at an exertion of taste must be admitted as a strong mark of genius in his uncultivated mind. The introducing of the head of Mercury above the shield is happily applied to the nature of a busy trade in which his employer was closely engaged ; and is an idea rather above the capacity of young artists in general at so early a period, especially when placed in this humble branch of the profession. The ornaments introduced have a superior degree of invention, and even elegance, particularly in the disposi- tion of the festoons of husks and leaves that are suspended round the shield. * " This small card has an abundant share of merit in its execution; nor has it less in the taste of its decoration. The female figure is looking up towards a boy, who is probably meant allegorically to express design or invention, and the figure of the old man writing, on the opposite side, possibly that of history. " These allusions presage, in no small degree, that dawn of thinking and quickness of imagination which, at a later period in life, we find ripened into so vigorous a mind as to display its effusions at least in one line of his profession, without competition. " An impression of it has been sold for the enormous sum of £25." VOL. II.— 35 (273) 2' Qv^^:4''^ Mary & Ann Hocgartli fimn tAe cul^ro{)L\jAo/y t/ie comer oftAa to yYsXW^s A}cv[\sJoit/nma toi/jldtLt x^ritam.- gal& near :^7n^-0^Ui Ji&Utf t/ Oe^h~m,c^/b5tiAAL- LiAm/^e 5^iMi£mj,^7Lck£ru,(^o/lam£ld,nrkcie, J^b*tpt^tJriiU:utf.w^h^k^Ki^^ Jptkce; byWholeraleorRetale, atReafonable Rates. /■:■;'■/; :■-.: ■.zfL',7fa7yd/Uaj ^ 0^" -^ Jati' .-^ SHOP BILLi MARY AND ANN HOGARTH. A Shop Bill for his two sisters, who for many years kept a linen draper's, or rather, what is called a slop shop. (275) 'J^^uri/if Ainx> „ SHOP BILL, FOR ELLIS GAMBLE, (the large AlfOEL.) A Shop Bill for Ellis Gamble, a large angel,* holding a palm in his left hand * Being intended for more general use than the small card, the strokes of the graver are much more bold and firm : either by accident or design, the right hand of the angel has a finger too manj. (277) 1 0>ah soilpT HUMOFK.S ©l" OXFOmP, 1720. fublLthrd by Longman. Sirst.lieejS:Orm£.Nayri'.*i!iL'-i HUMOURS OF OXFORD. " Frontispiece to the Humours of Oxford," a Comedy, by James Millar. The Vice Chancellor, attended by his beadle, surprising two Fellows of a college, one of them much intoxicated, at a tavern. (279) BLACKWELL'S MILITARY FIGURES. PLATES 1 & 2. Twenty-six figures on two sheets, engraved for a compendium of military dis- cipline, as it is practised by the Honourable the Artillery Company of the City of London, for the initiating and instructing oflBcers of the trained bands of the said City, &c. " Most humbly dedicated to his Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales, Captain General of the Honourable the Artillery Company, by John Black- well, Adjutant and Clerk to the said Company." (281) VOL. 11. — 36 MILITARY PUNISHMENTS, In the year 1725, Hogarth engraved a number of plates for a work entitled " The Roman Military Punishments, by John Beaver, Esq., of London," from the Happy Revolution. Anno 37, (i. e. 1725.) The work was finished ; but from the preface we have reason to believe the whole of it was never published. He says the first (viz. The Roman) I now send into the world — as a man going to the water, dips his foot to feel what reception he is likely to meet with, by that rule resolving either to publish the second part, or sit down contented, with the private satisfaction of having, by my studies, rendered myself more able worthily to discharge the duties of my office. PLATE II. Describes the Roman soldiers portioning out each man's allowance of corn and other provisions, and at a table adjoining, counting out money for the pay of the troops. PLATE III. Represents Roman soldiers going from sale into a state of slavery. PLATE IV. Illustrates the Roman method of encamping without the entrenchments ; the manner of degraded soldiers marching, with the baggage, among the captives ; and the mode of breaking or taking away their spears. PLATE V. Describes a scene of banishment — a punishment frequently inflicted amongst the Romans among those who had transgressed the laws. (283) FKOKTISPIECi; TO THE TEKK^ FIXIXTS- PuMuhed, byZ#>ii"Miii|iiif^^ ilBW