M, E. WATERHO USE. THE WORKS OF WILLIAM HOGARTH Frontispiece.'] THE WORKS OF WILLIAM HOGARTH WITH DESCRIPTIONS AND EXPLANATIONS BY Rev. JOHN TRUSLER AUTHOR OF "The Historians Fade Mecum," &c. JOHN NICHOLS AUTHOR OF " Biographical Anecdotes of Hogarth" etc. AND JOHN IRELAND AUTHOR OF " The Life of Hogarth,'' dec. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL. HAMILTON, KENT & CO GLASGOW : THOMAS D. MORISON PREFACE. Although numerous editions of Hogarth's Works have been issued, these have been almost entirely in such a large and expensive form as to be wholly out of reach of the gene/al public. For the first time a thoroughly popular edition of his full works is now brought before the people. William Hogarth may be regarded in the strongest sense as indeed the national painter; in character he is essentially English, never pandering to foreign taste and style, however fashion- able these features may be. In individual character likewise he was thoroughly English. Manly and straightforward, plain and open in all his actions and productions. When he had to deal with misery and shame among his own nation- ality, he did so in a bold and emphatic manner; and wher- ever a moral was applicable, he was ready and anxious to avail himself of it for the guidance of the young. His characters likewise are all thoroughly natural and intensely human. Times and tastes change, but humanity remains much the same; and the scenes of life and the lessons that Hogarth portrayed one hundred and fifty years ago, are just as applicable at the present day. At the same time, however, if they had been conceived at the present time, many of them no doubt might have been different in detail. As a satirist, also, Hogarth is irresistibly comic. Satirists were required in those days as they are now; and the works of Hogarth never can be out of date. Probably no artist ever told picture-stories so well. Certainly no one ever acquired such a reputation. And there is no reason why PREFACE. such splendid and true-to-life monuments should be confined to the houses and families of the wealthy. Everyone should own and study his true pictures of moral life and character, and take home to himself the pointed lessons contained therein. Hogarth also was emphatically a people's painter. He himself frequently asserted that no one was so badly quali- fied to form a true judgment of pictures as the professed connoisseur; inasmuch as the taste of such was originally formed upon imitations and confined to the styles of masters who had seldom any reference to true nature. Under this conviction Hogarth acted on the reverse of the general prin- ciple, and selected his subjects from nature, and for the crowd rather than for the critic. They were explained in that universal language common to the world, rather than in the technicalities of the arts, which is peculiar to the scientific. In person Hogarth is described as, though hardly to be classed as a little man, rather below the middle size. His eye was peculiarly bright and piercing, and he had an air of great spirit and vivacity. From an accident in his youth, he had a deep scar on his forehead, and he frequently wore his hat so as to show it. In conversation he was lively and cheerful, mixed at times with a quickness of retort that did not add to the number of his friends. Severe in his satire of those who were present, but of the absent he was usually the advocate. He has been known to boast that he never uttered a sentence concerning any man living, that he would not repeat to his face. In the relations of husband, brother, friend, and master, he was kind, generous, sincere, and indulgent. In diet he was abstemious, but liberal in hos- pitality, though devoid of ostentation. He also was not parsimonious, but at the same time was frugal. But so small were the rewards paid to artists in PREFACE. 9 those days, that after the labours of a long life he was able to leave only a comparatively small sum to his widow, with whom he must have received a considerable portion of what was bequeathed to her. Were Hogarth's talents as an artist considered by a con- noisseur, he would probably assert that this man could not be a painter, for he had never travelled to Rome; could not be a judge of art, for he spoke irreverently of the ancients. But to traverse continents in search of antique paintings, explore caverns for mutilated sculpture, and to measure works of art with mathematical precision, was not his aim. The Temple of Nature was his academy, and his topography the map of the human mind. Disdaining to copy, he avoided the superior class of beings that appear on the canvases of such as Poussin and Michael Angelo and others. Instead of thus following the hackneyed routine of most artists, he selected his subjects from his own country, and portrayed them with a truth, energy, and variety of character that was true to life and invariably original. To these he resorted, and rarely attempted to heighten nature. It may be interesting to repeat the admirable utterance of his most sympathetic critic, Charles Lamb. " Hogarth's graphic representations," .says he, "are indeed books; they have the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words. Other prints we look at, his prints we read." We shall also give Hazlitt's criticism: "Everything in Hogarth's pictures has life and motion in it. Not only does the business of the scene never stand still, but every feature and muscle is put into full play. The exact feeling of the moment is brought out, and carried to its utmost height, and then instantly seized and stamped on the canvas for ever. Besides the excellence of each individual face, the reflection of the expression from face to face, the contrast and struggle of particular motives and feelings in the different actors in 2 1.0 PREFAC E. the scene, as of anger, contempt, laughter, compassion, are conveyed in the happiest and most lively manner. He gives the extremes of character and expression, but he gives them with perfect truth and accuracy." " Amidst all his pleasantry," says Walpole, " he observes the true end of comedy — namely, reformation ; there is always a moral to his pictures." It is possible that the moral was sometimes written in rather large letters, but there can be no doubt that it was always sincere. CONTENTS. FRONTISPIECE, PREFACE, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, .... THE RAKE'S PROGRESS-- Introduction, ..... Plate i — The Young Heir Takes Possession, Plate 2 — Surrounded by Artists and Professors, Plate 3 — The Tavern Scene, ... Plate 4 — Arrested for Debt as Going to Court, - Plate 5 — Marries an Old Maid for Money, Plate 6 — The Gaming House Scene, Plate 7 — The Prison Scene, - Plate 8 — The Scene in a Madhouse (Bedlam), - THE DISTRESSED POET, .... THE BENCH— The Difference between Character, Caracatura, and Outre, 46 THE LAUGHING AUDIENCE. 4^ THE GATE OF CALAIS, 50 THE POLITICIAN, 5 2 IMPRESSION FROM A TANKARD, .... 54 TASTE IN HIGH LIFE, ...... 56 THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS— Plate 1 — Ensnared by a Procuress, .... 58 Plate 2— Quarrels with Her Jew Protector, ... 60 Tlate 3— Apprehended by a Magistrate, - - - 62 Plate 4— A Scene in Bridewell, - - - 64 Plate 5— Expires while the Doctors are Disputing, - - 66 Plate 6— The Funeral, 68 7 17 25 28 3° 32 34 36 3* 40 42 12 CONTENTS. PAGET THE LECTURE AT OXFORD, 70 THE CHORUS— Rehearsal of the Oratorio of Judith, - - 72 COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG, 7+ A MIDNIGHT MODERN CONVERSATION, ... 76. CONSULTATION OF PHYSICIANS— THE UNDERTAKERS' ARMS, 78 DANIEL LOCK, Esq., F.A.S., Architect, .... 80 THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN, 82 MASQUERADES AND OPERAS— BURLINGTON GATE, - - 84 TIMES OF THE DAY— Plate 1 — Morning, ------- 86> Plate 2— Noon, 88- Plate 3 — Evening, ------- go- Plate 4— Night, 92 SIGISMONDA, WITH THE HEART OF HER HUSBAND, - 94 MARTIN FOLKES, Esq., ANTIQUARY, ... - 9 6 THE COCKPIT, 98 CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM, FOUNDER OF THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, 100 COUNTRY INN YARD, - - - - • 102 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS— Plate 1 — The Fellow 'Prentices at their Looms, - - 104 Plate 2 — The Industrious 'Prentice Performing the Duty of a Christian, - - - - - 106. Plate 3— The Idle 'Prentice at Play in the Churchyard during Divine Service, ----- 108 Plate 4— The Industrious 'Prentice a Favourite and Entrusted by His Master, - - - * ix* Plate 5 — The Idle 'Prentice Turned Away and Sent to Sea, - 112 Plate 6 — The Industrious 'Prentice Out of His Time and Married to His Master's Daughter. - - ti.i Plate 7— The Idle 'Prentice Returned from Sea, and in a Garret with a Prostitute, - - - - nG- 0 CONTENTS. INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS— Plate 8 — The Industrious 'Prentice Grown Rich, and Sheriff of London, - Plate 9 — The Idle 'Prentice Betrayed by a Prostitute, - Plate 10 — The Industrious 'Prentice Alderman of London, the Idle One Impeached before Him by His Accom- plice, ...... Plate ii — The Idle 'Prentice Executed at Tyburn, Plate 12 — The Industrious 'Prentice Lord Mayor of London, SOUTHWARK FAIR, OARRICK IN THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD THE THIRD - THE INVASION— Plate i — France, ..... Plate 2 — England, - THE ELECTION— Plate i — Humours of an Election Entertainment, Plate 2 — Canvassing for Votes, - Plate 3— The Polling, .... Flate 4 — Chairing the Member, - STROLLING PLAYERS— Dressing in a Barn, THE BOY MOSES AND PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER, THE FOUNDLINGS, THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION, - BEER STREET AND GIN LANE— Plate i— Beer Street, .... Plate 2 — Gin Lane, .... PAUL BEFORE FELIX, BAMBRIDGE ON TRIAL FOR MURDER BEFORE A COM MITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, THE BRUISER, CHARLES CHURCHILL (once the reverend), HYMEN AND CUPID, HUDIBRAS — Plate i— Rebellion. Hypocrisy, and Ignorance, CONTENTS. PACE" HUDIBRAS — Plate 2— The Manner How He Sallies Forth, 166 Plate 3— The First Adventure, ----- 168 Plate 4 — The Masquerade Adventure, - - - - 170 Plate 5— The Knight Submits to Trulla, - - - 172 Plate 6 — Sir Hudibras and Ralpho in the Stocks, - - 174 Plate 7 — Sir Hudibras with the Lawyer, - - - 176-. Plate 8 — Sir Hudibras Beats Sidrophel and His Man Whachum, 178 Plate 9— The Committee, ..... 1S0 Plate 10 — Sir Hudibras Leading Crowdero in Triumph, - 182 Plate 11 — The Burning of the Rumps at Temple Bar, - - 184 Plate 12 — Sir Hudibras Encounters the Skimmington, - - 186 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN SIR ROBERT WALPOLE'S ADMINISTRATION, - ' - - - - 18& EMBLEMATICAL PRINT ON THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE - 190 CHARACTER versus CARICATURE, 192 THE FIVE ORDERS OF PERIWIGS, 194 THE MARCH TO FINCHLEY, 196- BISHOP HOADLY, 198 SIMON LORD LOVAT. TAKEN A FEW HOURS BEFORE HIS EXECUTION FOR HIGH TREASON, - - - 200 THE FOUR STAGES OF CRUELTY— Plate 1— The First Stage, - Plate 2 — The Second Stage, Plate 3 — Cruelty in Perfection, Plate 4 — The Reward of Cruelty, - 202- 204 206 20& MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE— Plate 1— The Contract, - 210 Plate 2 — The Breakfast Scene, - - - - - 212 Plate 3— The Scene with the Quack, - - - - 214 Plate 4— The Toilet Scene, - - - - - 216 Plate 5— The Death of the Earl, - - - - 218 Plate 6— The Death of the Countess, - - - - 220 REV. DR. T. MORELL, S.T.P., S.S.A., .... 222- ARMS OF THE DUCHESS OF KENDAL, - - - - 224 CONTENTS. 15 PAGE KING HENRY THE EIGHTH AND ANNA BOLEYNE, - . - 226 FOUR HEADS FROM THE CARTOONS AT HAMPTON COURT, 22S TICKET FOR THE LONDON HOSPITAL, - - - 230 CREDULITY, SUPERSTITION, AND FANATICISM. - • 232 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY - Plate 1 — Analysis of Beauty, - 234 Plate 2 — Analysis of Beauty, ..... 236 THE BATTLE OF THE PICTURES, 23$ A WOMAN SWEARING HER CHILD TO A RICH CITIZEN, - 240 THE INHABITANTS OF THE MOON ; OR ROYALTY, EPISCO- PACY, AND LAW, 242 JOHN WILKES, Esq., POLITICIAN, 244 THE MAN OF TASTE, 246 THE TIMES— » Plate 1 — The Globe on Fire, ..... 248 Plate a— A Political Print, ..... 250 THE FARMER'S RETURN, 252 THE ALTAR PIECE OF ST. CLEMENTS DANES CHURCH, - 254 TIME SMOKING A PICTURE, 256 FRONTISPIECE AND TAIL PIECE TO THE ARTISTS' CATA- LOGUE— Plate 1 — Frontispiece to Artists' Catalogue, 1761, - - 25S Plate 2 — The Tail-Piece to Artists' Catalogue, 1761, • 260 FRONTISPIECE TO TRISTRAM SHANDY— Plate 1 — Corporal Trim Reading a Sermon to Tristram's Father 262 Plate 2 — The Christening, ...... 204 THE WEIGHING HOUSE, 266 THE GOOD SAMARITAN, ... • - - 268 THE POOL OF BETHESDA, ... • . 270 SARAH MALCOLM — MURDERESS, - • 27* FALSE PERSPECTIVE, - 274 1G CONTENTS. f AGE ILLUSTRATIONS TO DON QUIXOTE— Tlate i — The Funeral of Chrystom, and Marcella Vindicating Herself, ...... 276 Plate 2 — The Innkeeper's Wife and Daughter, - - - 278 Plate 3 — Don Quixote Releases the Galley Slaves, - - 280 Plate 4 — The Unfortunate Knight of the Rock Meeting Don Quixote, ...... 282 Plate 5 — Don Quixote Seizes the Barber's Basin for Mambrino's Helmet, - - - - - ^284 Plate 6 — Sancho Starved by His Physician, - - - 286 Plate 7 — The Curate and Barber Disguising themselves to Convey Don Quixote Home, - - - 288 SPILLER'S TICKET, 290 BOYS PEEPING AT NATURE, ... 292 THE ROYAL MASQUERADE AT SOMERSET HOUSE, - - 294 FOUR THEATRE TICKETS— Plate 1 — The Mock Doctor, ..... 296 Plate 2— The Old Batchelor, ... 298 Plate 3 — The Beggars' Opera, ..... 300 Plate 4 — Pasquin, ....... 302 THE SHRIMP GIRL, 304 THE MILK MAID, 306 THE PIE MAN, - - * 308 THE MASQUERADE TICKET, 310 THE BEGGARS' OPERA BURLESQUED, - - - - 312 HOGARTH PAINTING THE COMIC MUSE, ... 314 CROWNS, MITRES, MACES, &c, &c, .... 316 THE RECEIPT PLATE FOR " THE MARCH TO FINCHLEY," - 318 THE LOTTERY, .320 THE MATCH-MAKER, 322 THE BATHOS, 3 2 4 17 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM 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 fif- teen miles north of Kendal, in that county; and had three sons. v 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 Lon- don, where he resumed his original occupation of a school- master, in Ship-court in the Old Bailey, and was occasionally employed as a corrector of the press. He married in Lon- don; and our artist, and his sisters, Mary and Anne, are believed to have been the only product of the marriage. William Hogarth was born November 10, and baptised November 28, 1697, in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, in London; to which parish, it is said, in the Bio- graphia Britannica, he was afterwards a benefactor. The school of Hogarth's father, in 1 7 1 2, was in the parish of St. Martin, Ludgate. In the register of that parish, there- fore, the date of his death, it was natural to suppose, might foe 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. As a lad Hogarth was bound apprentice to a silversmith (whose name was Gamble) of some eminence; by whom he was confined to that branch of the trade which consists in engraving arms and cyphers upon the plate. While thus employed, he gradually acquired some knowledge of draw- ing; and before his apprenticeship expired he exhibited talent for caricature. " He felt the impulse of genius, and it di- rected 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. 18 BIOGRAPHICAL S ICE TCH. 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 been long, before a quarrel arose between some per- sons 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 per- sons 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, and 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 decorating books, and' furnished sets of plates for several publications of the time. An edition of " Hudibras " 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 seizing a like- ness, he acquired considerable employment as a portrait- painter. Shortly after his marriage, he informs us that he com- menced 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 distinguished him as a painter, is sup- posed to have been a representation of Wanstead Assembly. The figures in it were drawn from the life, and without bur- lesque. The 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 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 19 early part of his practice 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 sin- gularly rigid fidelity. The peer, disgusted at this counter- part of his dear self, was not disposed very readily to pay for a reflector that would only insult him with his deformities. 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 in- formed 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- beast man; Mr. H. having given that gentleman a conditional promise 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 themselves; and various public occasions produced displays of his ludicrous powers. In the year 1730, he clandestinely married the only daugh- ter 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 Pro- gress." Some of these were, at Lady Thornhill's sugges- tion, designedly placed by Mrs. Hogarth in her father's way, in order to reconcile him to her marriage. Being informed by whom they 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 relented, and became generous to the young couple, with whom he lived in great harmony until his death, which took place in l n I 733 his genius became conspicuously known. The thiid scene of M The Harlot's Progress " introduced him to the notice of the great. At a Board of Treasury (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 excellences, a striking likeness of Sir John Gonson, a celebrated magistrate of that day, well known for his rigour towards women of the town. From the Treasury each lord .20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 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 per- formance, 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 created 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 follies of an age living as they rise — if general satire on vices, — and ridicule familiarised by strokes of na- ture, and heightened by wit, — and the whole animated by proper and just expressions of the passions, — be comedy, Hogarth composed comedies as much as Moliere. Soon after his marriage, Hogarth resided at South Lam- beth ; and being intimate with Mr. Tyers, the then spirited proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, he contributed 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 paint- ings were " The Four Parts of the Day," either by Hogarth or after his designs. Two years after the publication of his " Harlot's Pro- * gress," appeared the "Rake's Progress," which, Lord Or- ford remarks, (though perhaps superior,) " had not so much success, for want of notoriety." 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 Idle- ness," "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 Conversa- tion," "The Sleeping Congregation," "The Gates of Ca- lais," " Gin Lane and Beer Street," " Strolling Players in a Barn," lt The Lecture," "The Laughing Audience," "The Enraged Musician," etc., etc.; 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 characterise. All the works of this original genius are, in fact, lectures BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 21 on morality. They are satires of particular vices and follies, expressed with such strength of character, and such an ac- cumulation of minute and appropriate circumstances, that they have all the truth of nature heightened by 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, how- ever, 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. No productions of the kind can vie with Hogarth's prints, as a fund of inexhaustible amusement, vet 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, good pictures of the great Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on those glorious works were no- thing 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 proposition, but maintained that pictures only grew black and worse by age — not distinguish- ing 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 Sigismonda of Sir Luke Schaub, said to be painted by Correggio, though probably by Furino. It is impossible to see the picture, or read Dryden's inimitable tale, and not feel that the same soul animated both. After many attempts, 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 art. His " Analysis 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 wav- ing line, and that round swelling figures are most pleasing 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 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, re- signed his office of king's serjeant-painter in favour of Ho- garth, who received this appointment on the 6th of June, and entered on his functions on the 16th of July, both in the same year. This place was re-granted to him by a warrant of George the Third, which bears date the 30th October, 1 761, with a salary of ten pounds per annum, payable quarterly. This connection 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 ta- lents : 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 this weakness produced a general decay of the system that proved incurable. On the 25th of October, 1764 (having been previously conveyed in a very weak and languid state from Chiswick to Leicester Fields), he died suddenly, 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 reached 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 honoured dust lies here." THE WORKS OF WILLIAM HOGARTH The Works OF William Hogarth. THE RAKES PROGRESS. INTRODUCTION. 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 appearance 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 constant pursuit of ; the learned, for instance, in his industrious quest after knowledge ; the merchant, in his uncertain enterprises; 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 track, 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 3 26 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH 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 career, 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 indiscretion of their parents, he has opened the piece with a scene which at the same time exposes the folly of the youth and shows us the imprudence of the father, who is supposed to have hurt the principles of his son in depriving him of the necessary use of some portion of that gold he had, with penurious covetousness, been hoarding up for the sole purpose of lodging in his coffers. T 11 E WORKS OF HOGARTH. 29 THE RAKE'S PROGRESS PLATE 1. — THE YOUNG HEIR TAKING POSSESSION. 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 prodigally 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- To explain every little mark of usury and covetousness, such as the mortgages, bonds, indentures, &c, the piece of candle stuck on a save-all on the mantle-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 25th, 1721. Put off my bad shilling." On the floor lie a pair of old shoes, which this sordid wretch is supposed 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 Hible ; an excellent piece of satire, intimating that such men would sacrifice even their God to the lust of 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 affected ! — 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 ill 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 promises 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. 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. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 31 TEE BAKES PB OGB ESS PLATE 2.— SURROUNDED BY ARTISTS AND PROFESSORS 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 teaching- 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 gardenings 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 the harpsichord, running over the keys, waiting to give his pupil a lesson. 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 recom- mendation, 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 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-fighting and horse racing, twi> 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- ridiculously 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 anti- chamber of a man of quality. 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 more knowing part of the world. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 33 THE RAKES PROGRESS. PLATE 3. -THE TAVERN SCENE. THIS Plate exhibits our licentious prodigal engaged in one of his midnight festivities : forgetful of the past, and negligent of the future, he riots in the present. He may be supposed, in the phrase of the day, to have beat the rounds, overset 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 ivorld on fire, though she perish in the conflagration I A fourth is undressing. The fellow bringing in a pewter dish, as part of the apparatus of this elegant and Attic 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 in 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 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, shews that this has been a night of riot without enjoyment, mischief without wit. and waste without gratification. 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. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 35> THE BAKES PBOGRESS. PLATE 4 — AKRESTED FOR DEBT. 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 perhaps forwarding a former application for a p^ce 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 offers 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 encrmous 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. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 3r THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE 5. — MARRTES AN OLD MAID FOR MONEY. 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 profession of vice, we here see this depraved, lost character, hypocritically violating* every natural feeling of the soul to recruit his exhausted finances, and marrying an old and withered Sybil, 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 be this creature's hatred ?" would naturally reply, How hateful must be her love I " 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 brother 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, aud he has not neglected it. A dog (Trump, Hogarth's favourite), paying his addresses to a one- eyed quadruped 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 necessary. 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 I These three hrgh-wrought strokes of satirical humour were perhaps never equalled by any exertion of the pencil ; excelled they cannot be. 38 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. £9 THE BAKES PBOGBESS. PLATE 6.— SCENE IN A GAMING HOUSE. 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 votaries. 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 vengeance upon his own head. 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. Another of the party is marked for one of those well-dressed conti- tinental adventurers, who, being unable to live in their own country, annually pour into this, and with no other requisites than a quick e\ e, an adroit hand, and an undaunted forehead, are admitted into what is absurdly enough called good company. At the table a person in mourning grasps his hat, 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 sweeping oft his winnings. THE WORKS OP HOGARTH. 41 THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE 7. — THE PRISON SCENE. BY a very natural transition Mr Hogarth has passed his hero from a gaming- house into a prison— the" inevitable consequence of extravagance, lie is here represented 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 attendant 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 wii'e. and bitterly upbraided for his perlidy in concealing from her his former connexions with that unhappy girl, who is here present with her child. To add to his misery, we see the under-turnkey pressing him for his prison fees, or garnish-money, and the boy refusing to leave the beer he ordered without being first paid for it. Among those assisting the fainting mother is a man. crusted over, as it were, with the rust of a gaol ; we are told by the papers falhnsr from his lap. one of which contains a scheme for paying the national debt, that his confinement is owing to that itch of politics some persons are troubled with, who will neglect their own affairs in order to busy themselves in that which noways concerns them. In the back of the room is one who owes his ruin to an indefatigable search after the philosopher's stone. Strange and unaccountable ! Hence we are taught by these characters, as well as by tbe 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 sinfulness 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 miser y that awaits him, until his brain, torn with excruciating thought, loses at once its power of thinking, and falls a sacrifice to merciless^despair. 4 TILE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 43 TEE RAKE'S PROGRESS. PLATE 8. — SCENE IN A MADHOUSE (BEDLAM). SEE our hero, then, in the scene before us, raving- in all the dismal norrors of hopeless insanity ; 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 bailiff. She is present at his marriage. And in the hope of relieving his distress, she follows him to a prison. 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. This melancholy 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 afford ; 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 ob ject of his attentions. 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. 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 different notions; one is for the papal dignity, the other for regal ; one imagines himself 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. 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. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 45 THE DISTRESSED POET. This Plate describes in the strongest colours the distress of an author without friends to patronise him. Seated upon the side of his bed, without a shirt, but wrapped in an old nightgown, 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 subject, 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 substitnte 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 PROFOUND, and will envelope 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 1 1 is 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, complacency, and mortification. As an addition to the distresses of this poer fa nily, 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 go 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 saucepii, decorate the 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 1 740. a necessary appendage to every thing which called itself "gentleman." TILE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 47 THE BENCH. CHARACTER, CAR1CATURA 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, caricatwa 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 outre, in which humorous 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. To prevent these distinctions being looked upon as dry and unenter- taining, 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 disposition, 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 Clive; and on his left, Mr Justice Bathurst and the Hon. William Noel. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 49 THE LAUGHING AUDIENCE. " Fkom the first print that Hogarth engraved to the last that he published, I do not think," says Mr Ireland, " there is one in which character is more displayed than in this very spirited little etching. It is much superior to the more delicate engravings from his designs by other artists, and I prefer it to those that were still higher finished by his- own burin. The prim coxcomb with an enormous bag, whose favours, like those of Hercules between Virtue and Vice, are contended for by two rival orange girls, gives an admirable idea of the dress of the day ; w T hen, if we may judge from this print, our grave forefathers, defying Nature and despising convenience, had a much higher rank in the temple of Folly than was then attained by their ladies. Our beau has a cuff that, for a modern fop, would furnish fronts for a waistcoat, and a family fire-screen might be made of his enormous bag. His bare and shrivelled neck has a close resemblance to that of a half-starved greyhound ; and his face, figure, and air form a fine contrast to the easy and degagee assurance of the Grisette whom he addresses. The opposite figure, nearly as grotesque, though not quite so formal as its companion, presses its left hand upon its breast, in the style of protestation ; and, eagerly contemplating the superabundant charms of a beauty of Rubens's school, presents her with a pinch of comfort. Every muscle, every line of his countenance, is acted upon by affecta- tion and grimace, and his queue bears some resemblance to an ear- trumpet. The total inattention of these three polite persons to the business of t ie stage, which at this moment almost convulses the children of Nature who are seated in the pit, is highly descriptive of that refined apathy which characterises our people of fashion and raises them above those mean passions that agitate the groundlings. One gentleman, indeed, is as affectedly unaffected as a man of the first world. By his saturnine cast of face and contracted brow he is evidently a profound critic, and mucn too wise to laugh. This it is to be so excellent a judge ; this it is which gives a critic that exalted gratification which can never be attained by the illiterate — the supreme power of pointing out faults where others discern nothing but beauties, and preserving a rigid inflexibility of muscle while the sides of the vulgar herd are shaking with laughter. The three sedate musicians in the orchestra, totally engrossed by minims and crochets, are an admirable contrast to the company in the pit." THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 51 THE GATE OF CALAIS. The thought on which this whimsical and highly-characteristic print is founded originated in Calais, to which place Mr Hogarth, accompanied by some of his friends, made an excursion in the vear 1747. Extreme partiality for his native country was the leading trait of his character. He seems to have begun his three hours' voyage with a firm determination to be displeased with everything he saw out of Old England. For a meagre, powdered figure, hung with tatters, a-la-mode de Paris, to affect the airs of ^ coxcomb and the importance of a sovereign is ridiculous enough 7 but if it makes a man happy, why should he be laughed at ? It must blunt the edge of ridicule to see natural hilarity defy depression, and a whole nation laugh, sing, and dance under burthens that would nearly break the firm-knit sinews of a Briton. Such was the picture of France at that period, but it was a picture which our English satirist could not contemplate with common patience. The swarms of grotesque figures who paraded the streets excited his indignation, and drew forth a torrent of coarse abusive ridicule, not much to the honour of his liberality. He compared them to Callot's beggars — Lazarus on the painted cloth— the prodigal son — or any other object descriptive of extreme contempt. Against giving way to these effusions of national spleen in the open street he was frequently cautioned, but advice had no effect ; he treated admonition with scorn, and considered his monitor unworthy the name of Englishman. These satirical ebullitions were at length checked. Ignorant of the customs of France, and considering the gate of Calais merely as a piece of ancient architecture, he began to make a sketch. This was soon observed ; he was seized as a spy, who intended to draw a plan of the fortification, and escorted by a file of musqueteers to M. la Commandant. His sketch-book was examined, leaf by leaf, and found to contain drawings that had not the most distant relation to tactics. Notwith- standing this favourable circumstance, the governor, with great politeness, assured him that had not a treaty between the nations been actually signed, he should have been under the disagreeable necessity of hanging him upon the ramparts. Two sentinels were then ordered to escort him to his hotel, from whence they conducted him to the vessel, nor did they quit their prisoner until he was a league from shore, when, seizing him by the shoulders, and spinning him round upon the deck, they said he was now at liberty to pursue his voyage without further molestation. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE POLITICIAN. THE WORKS OP HOGARTH. 5S THE POLITICIAN. " A politician should (as I have read) Be furnished in the first place with a head. ' One of our old writers gives it as his opinion that " there are onlie two subjects which are worthie the studie of a wise man," i.e., religion and politics. For the first, it does not come under inquiry in this print — but certain it is, that too sedulously studying the second has frequently involved its votaries in many most tedious and unprofitable disputes, aud been the source of much evil to many well-meaning and honest men. Under this class comes the Quidnunc here pourtrayed ; it is said to be intended for a Mr Tibson, laceman, in the Strand, who paid more attention to the affairs of Europe than to those of his own shop. He is represented in a style somewhat similar to that in which Schalcken painted William the Third — holding a candle in his right hand and eagerly inspecting the Gazeteer of the day. Deeply interested in the intelligence it contains concerning the flames that rage on the Continent, he is totally insensible of domestic danger, and regardless of a flame which, ascending to his hat, " Threatens destruction to his three-tail'd wig." From the tie-wig, stockings, high quartered shoes, and sword, I should suppose it was painted about the year 1730, when street robberies were so frequent in the metropolis that it was customary for men in trade to wear swords, not to preserve their religion and liberty from foreign invasion, but to defend their own pockets from " domestic collectors." The original sketch Hogarth presented to his friend Forrest ; it was- etched by Sherwin, and published in 1775. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 55 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. THE WORKS OP HOGARTH. 57 TASTE IN HIGH LIFE, IN THE YEAR 1742. The picture from which this print was copied Hogarth painted by the order of Miss Edwards, a woman of large fortune, who, having been laughed at for some singularities in her manners, requested the artist to recriminate on her opponents, and paid him sixty guineas for his production. It is professedly intended to ridicule the reigning fashions of high life in the year 1742. To do this the painter has brought into one group an old beau and an old lady of the Chesterfield school, a fashionable young lady, a little black boy, and a full-dressed monkey. The old lady, with a most affected air, poises between her finger and thumb a small tea-cup, with the beauties of which she appears to be highly enamoured. The gentleman, gazing with vacant wonder at that and the com- panion saucer which he holds in his hand, joins in admiration of its astonishing beauties ! This gentleman is said to be intended for Lord Portmore in the habit he first appeared at Court on his return from France. The old lady's habit, formed of stiff brocade, gives her the appear- ance of a squat pyramid, with a grotesque head at the top of it. The young one is fondling a little black boy, who, on his part, is playing with a petite pagoda. This miniature Othello has been said to be intended for the late Ignatius Sancho, whose talents and virtues were an honour to his colour. At the time the picture was painted he would have been rather older than the figure, but as he was then honoured with the partiality and protection of a noble family the painter might possibly mean to delineate what his figure had been a few years before. The little monkey, with a magnifying glass, bag-wig, solitaire, laced hat, and ruffles, is eagerly inspecting a bill of fare, with the following articles pour diner : cocks' combs, ducks' tongues, rabbits' ears, fricasee of snails, grande d\euts butrre. In the centre of the room is a capacious china jar ; in one corner a tremendous pyramid composed of packs of cards ; and on the floor, close to them, a bill inscribed, " Lady Basto, D r to John Pip, for cards— £300." 5 53 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH TJl m O ^ Eh O M pa A* THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 59 THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. PLATE l.—E NSNARED BY A PROCURESS. THIS series of prints gives the history of a Prostitute. The story commences with her arrival in London, where, initiated in the school of profligacy, she experiences the miseries consequent to her situation, and dies in the morning of life. Her variety of wretchedness forms such a picture of the way in which vice rewards her votaries as ought to warn the young and inexperienced from entering this path of infamy The first scene of this domestic tragedy is laid at the Bell Inn in Wood Street, and the heroine may possibly be daughter to the poor old clergyman who is reading the direction of a letter close to the York- waggon, from which vehicle she has just alighted. In attire— neat, plain, unadorned; in demeanour— artless, modest, diffident: in the bloom of youth, and more distinguished by native innocence than elegant symmetry ; her conscious blush and downcast eyes attract the attention of a female fiend, who panders to the vices of the opulent and libidinous. Coming out of the door of the inn we discover two men, one of whom is eagerly gloating on the devoted victim. The old procuress, immediately after the girl s alighting from the waggon, addresses her with the familiarity of a friend, rather than the reserve of one who is to be her mistress. Had her father been versed in even the first rudiments of physiognomy he would have prevented her engaging with one of so decided an aspect. From the inn she is taken to the house of the procuress, divested of her home-spun garb, dressed in the gayest style of the day, and the tender native hue of her complexion incrusted with paint and disguised by patches. She is then introduced to Colonel Chartres, and by artful flattery and liberal promises becomes intoxicated with the dreams of imaginary greatness. A short time convinces her of how light a breath these promises were composed. Deserted by her keeper, and terrified by threats of an immediate arrest for the pompous paraphernalia of prostitution, after being a short time protected by one of the tribe of Levi, she is reduced to the hard necessity of wandering the streets for that precarious subsistence which flows from the drunken rake or profligate debauchee. Here her situation is truly pitiable ! Chilled by nipping frost and midnight dew, the repentant tear trickling on her heaving bosom, she endeavours to drown reflection in draughts of destructive poison. This, added to the contagious company of women of her own description, vitiates her mind, eradicates the native seeds of virtue, destroys that elegant and fascinating simplicity which gives additional charms to beauty, and leaves in its place art, affectation, and impudence. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 61 THE HARLOTS PROGRESS. PLATE 2.— QUARRELS WITH HER JEW PROTECTOR. ENTERED into the path of infamy, the next scene exhibits our young- heroine the mistress of a rich Jew, attended by a black boy, and surrounded with the pompous parade of tasteless profusion. Her mind being now as depraved as her person is decorated, she keeps up the spirit of her character by extravagance and inconstancy. An •example of the first is exhibited in the monkey being suffered to drag- her rich head-dress round the room and of the second in the retiring gallant. The Hebrew is represented at breakfast with his mistress ; but, having come earlier than was expected, the favourite has not ■departed. To secure his retreat is an exercise for the invention of both mistress and maid. This is accomplished by the lady finding a pretence for quarrelling with the Jew, kicking down the tea-table, and scalding his legs, which, added to the noise of the china, so far engrosses his attention that the paramour, assisted by the servant, escapes discovery. On the toilet table we discover a mask, which well enough intimates where she has passed part of the preceding night, and that masquerades, then a very fashionable amusement, were much frequented by women of this description ; a sufficient reason for their being avoided by those of an opposite character. Under the protection of this disciple of Moses she could not remain long. Riches were his only attraction, and though profusely lavished on this unworthy object, her attachment wa« not to be obtained nor could her constancy be secured ; repeated acts of infidelity are punished by dismission ; and her next situation shows that, like most of the sisterhood, she had lived without apprehension of the sunshine of life being darkened by the passing cloud, and made no provision for the hour of adversity. In this print the characters are marked with a master's hand. The insolent air of the harlot, the astonishment of the Jew, eagerly grasping- at the falling table, the start of the black boy, the cautious trip of the ungartered and barefooted retreating gallant, and sudden spring of the scalded monkey are admirably expressed. To represent an object in its descent has been said to be impossible ; the attempt has seldom succeeded, but in this print the tea equipage really appears falling tc the floor ; and in Rembrandt's Abraham's Offering, in the Houghton collection, now at Petersburg, the knife dropping from the hand of the patriarch appears in a falling state. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 63 THE HABLOTS PROGRESS. PLATE 3.— APPREHENDED BY A MAGISTRATE. We here see this child of misfortune fallen from her high estate. Her magnificent apartment is quitted fur a dreary lodging- in the purlieus of Drury Lane ; she is at breakfast, and every object exhibits marks of the most wretched penury ; her silver tea-kettle is changed for a tin pot, and her highly decorated toilet gives place to an old leaf table, strewed with the relics of the last night's revel, and ornamented with a broken looking-glass. Around the room are scattered tobacco- pipes, gin measures, and pewter pots, emblems of the habits of life into which she is initiated, and the company which she now keeps ; this is farther intimated by the wig-box of James Dalton, a notorious street- robber, who was afterwards executed. In her hand she displays a watch, which might be either presented to her or stolen from her last night's gallant. By the nostrums which ornament the broken window we see that poverty is not her only evil. The dreary and comfortless appearance of every object in this wretched receptacle, the bit of butter on a piece of paper, the candle in a bottle, the basin upon a chair, the punch-bowl and comb upon the table, and the tobacco-pipes, &c, strewed upon the unswept floor give an admirable picture of the st} r le in which this pride of Drury Lane ate her matin meal. When Theodore, the unfortunate King of Corsica, was so reduced as to lodge in a garret in Dean Street, Soho, a number of gentlemen made a collection for his relief. The chairman of their committee informed him, by letter, that on the following day at twelve o'clock two of the society would wait upon his Majesty with the money. To give his attic apartment an appearance of royalty the poor Monarch placed an arm-chair on his half-testered bed, and seating himself under the scanty canopy gave what he thought might serve as the representation of a throne. When his two visitors entered the room he graciously held out his right hand that they might have the honour of — kissing it ! A magistrate, cautiously entering the room with his attendant constables, commits her to a house of correction, where our legislators wisely suppose that, being confined to the improving conversation of her associates in vice, must have a powerful tendency towards the reformation of her manners. Sir John Uonson, a justice of peace, very active in the suppression of brothels, is the person represented. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 65 THE HARLOTS PROGRESS PLATE 4.— A SCENE IN BRIDEWELL. THE situation in which the last plate exhibited our wretched female was sufficiently degrading, but in this her misery is greatly aggravated. We now see her suffering the chastisement due to her follies ; reduced to the wretched alternative of beating hemp or receiving the correction of a savage taskmaster. Exposed to the derision of all around, even her own servant, who is well acquainted with the rules of the place, appears little disposed to show any return of gratitude for recent obligations, though even her bhoes, which she displays while tying up her garter, seem by their gaudy outside to have been a present from her mistress. The civil discipline of the stern keeper has all the severity of the old school. With the true spirit of tyranny, he sentences those who will not labour to the whipping-post, to a kind of picketing suspension by the wricts, or having a heavy log fastened to their leg. With the last of these punishments he at this moment threatens the heroine of our story, nor is it likely that his obduracy can be softened except by a well applied fee. How dreadful, how mortifying the situation ! These accumulated evils might perhaps produce a momentary remorse, but a return to the path of virtue is not so easy as a departure from it. To show that neither the dread nor endurance of the severest punishment will deter from the perpetration of crimes, a one-eyed female close to the keeper is picking a pocket. The torn card may probably be dropped by the well-dressed gamester, who has exchanged the dice-box for the mallet, and whose laced hat is hung up sis a companion trophy to the hoop petticoat. The figure chalked as dangling upon the wall, with a pipe in his mouth, is intended as a caricatured portrait of Sir John Gonson, and probably the production of some would-be artist whom the magistrate had committed to Bridewell as a proper academy for the pursuit of his studies. The inscription upon the pillory, "Better to work than stand thus," and that on the whipping-post near the laced gambler, " The reward of idleness/' are judiciously introduced. In this print the composition is good; the figures in the back-ground, though properly subordinate, are sufficiently marked, the lassitude of the principal character well contrasted by the austerity of the rigid overseer. There is a fine climax of female debasement from the gaudy heroine of our drama to her maid, and from thence to the still object, who is represented as destroying one of the plagues of Egypt. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 67 TEE HARLOTS PROGRESS. PLATE 5. - EXPIRES WHILE THE DOCTORS ARE DISPUTING. Released from Bridewell, we now see thi3 victim to her own indiscretion breathe her last sad sigh, and expire in all the extremity of penury and wretchedness. The two quacks, whose injudicious treatment has probably accelerated her death, are vociferously support- ing- the infallibility cf their respective medicines, and each charging the other with having poisoned her. The meagre figure is a portrait of Dr. Misaubin, a foreigner, at that time in considerable practice. While the maid servant is entreating them to cease quarrelling and assist her dying mistress, the nurse plunders her trunk of the few poor remains of former grandeur. Her little boy, turning a scanty remnant of meat hung to roast by a string; the linen hanging 1 to dry; the coals deposited in a corner ; the candles, bellows, and gridiron hung upoD nails ; the furniture of the room ; and, indeed, every accompani- ment, exhibit a dreary display of poverty and wretchedness. A picture of general, and at this awful moment, indecent confusion is admirably represented. The noise of two enraged quacks disputing in bad English ; the harsh, vulgar scream of the maid servant ; the table falling, and the pot boiling over must produce a combination of sounds dreadful and dissonant to the ear. In this pitiable situation, without a friend to close her dying eyes or soften her sufferings by a tributary tear ; forlorn, destitute, and deserted, the heroine of this eventful history expires ! her premature death brought on by a licentious life, seven years of which had been devoted to debauchery and dissipation, and attended by consequent infamy, misery, and disease. The whole story affords a valuable lesson to the young and inexperinced, and proves this great, this important truth, that A DEVIATION FROM VIRTUE IS A DEPARTURE FROM HAPPINESS. The emaciated appearance of the dying- Sgure, the boy's thoughtless inattention, and the rapaciovo, unfeeling eagerness of the old nurse are naturally and forcibly delineated. TIIE WORKS OF HOGARTB THE HARLOTS PROGRESS. PLATE 6. — THE FUNERAL. The adventures of our heroine are now concluded. She is no longer an actor in her own tragedy, and there are those who have considered this print as a farce at the end of it ; but surely such was not the- author's intention. A wish usually prevails, even among those who are most humbled by their own indiscretion, that some respect should be paid to their remains. The memory of this votary of prostitution meets with no such marks of social attention or pious respect. The preparations for her funeral are as licentious as the progress of her life, and the contagion of her example seems to reach all who surround her coffin. One of them is engaged in the double trade of seduction and thievery. A second is contemplating her own face in a mirror. The depraved priest does not seem likely to feel for the dead that hope expressed in our liturgy. The appearance and employment of almost every one present at this mockery of woe is such as must raise only disgust. In this plate there are some local customs which mark the manners of the times when it was engraved, but are now generally disused except in some of the provinces very distant from the capital. Sprigs of rosemary were then given to each of the mourners ; to appear at a funeral without one was as great an indecorum as to be without a white handkerchief. The figures have much characteristic discrimina- tion ; the woman looking into the coffin has more beauty than we generally see in the works of this artist. The undertaker's gloating stare, his companion's leer, the internal satisfaction of the parson and his next neighbour, are contrasted by the Irish howl of the woman at the opposite side, and evince Mr Hogarth's thorough knowledge of the operation of the passions upon the features. The composition forms a good shape, has a proper depth, and the light is well managed. Sir James Thornhill's opinion of this series may be inferred from the following circumstance. Mr Hogarth had, without consent, married his daughter ; Sir James, considering him as an obscure artist, was much displeased with the connexion. To give him a better opinion of his son-in-law, a common friend one morning privately conveyed the six pictures of the Harlot's Progress into his drawing-room. The- veteran painter eagerly inquired who was the artist, and being told, cried out, " Very well ! Very well, indeed ! The man who can paint such pictures as these can maintain a wife without a portion." This was the remark of the moment; but he afterwards considered the union of his daughter with a man of such abilities an honour to his* family, was reconciled, and generous. 70 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE LECTUBE AT OXFORD T 11 E WORKS OF HOGARTH. 71 THE LECTURE AT OXFORD, DATUR VACUUM. It seems probable that when the artist engraved this print he had only a general reference to an university lecture; the words datur vacuum were an after-thought. Some prints are without the inscrip- tion, and in some of the early impressions it is written with a pen. The scene is laid at Oxford, and the person reading, universally admitted to be a Mr Fisher, of Jesus College, regidrat of the University, with whose consent this portrait was taken, and who lived until the 18th of March, 1761. That he should wish to have such a face handed down to posterity, in such company, is rather extraordinary, for all the band, except one man, have been steeped in the stream of stupidity. This gentleman has the profile of penetra- tion — a projecting forehead, a Roman nose, thin lips, and a long pointed chin. His eye is bent on vacancy : it is evidently directed to the moon-faced idiot that crowns the pyramid, at whose round head, contrasted by a cornered cap, he with difficulty suppresses a laugh. Three fellows on the right hand of this fat, contented " first-born transmitter of a foolish face," have most degraded characters, and are much fitter for the stable than the college. If they ever read, it must be in Bracken's Farriery, or the Country Gentleman's Recreation. Two square-capped students a little beneath the top, one of whom is holding converse with an adjoining profile, and the other lifting up his eyebrows, and staring without sight, have the same misfortune that attended our first James — their tongues are rather too large. A figure in the left-hand corner has shut his eyes to think ; and having, in his attempt to separate a syllogism, placed the forefinger of his right hand upon his forehead, has fallen asleep. The professor, a little above the book, endeavours by a projection of his under lip to assume importance ; such characters are not uncommon : they are more solicitous to look wise than to be so. Of Mr Fisher it is not necessary to say mucl : he sat for his portrait for the express purpose of having it inserted in me Lecture ! — We want no other testimony of his talents. THE CHOKUS. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 73 THE CHORUS. REHEARSAL OF THE ORATORIO OF JUDITH. THE Oratorio of Judith, Mr Ireland observes, was written by Esquire William Hug-gins, honoured by the music of William de Fesch, aided by new painted scenery and magnifique decoration, and in the year 1733 brought upon the stage. As De Fesch was a German and a genius, we may fairly presume it was well set ; and there was at that time, as at this, a sort of musical mania, that paid much greater atten- tion to sounds than to sense; notwithstanding all these points in her favour, when the Jewish heroine had made her theatrical ddbut, the audience compelled her to make her exit. To set aside this partial and unjust decree, Mr Huggins appealed to the public, and printed his oratorio. Though it was adorned by a frontispiece designed by Hogarth, and engraved by Vander^ucht, the world could not be com- pelled to read, and the unhappy writer had no other resource than the consolatory reflection, that his work was superlatively excellent, but unluckily printed in a tasteless a^e; a comfortable and solacing self- consciousness, which hath, I verily believe, prevented many a great genius from becoming his own executioner. To paint a sound is impossible; but as far as art can go towards it, Hogarth has gone in this print. The tenor, treble, and bass of these ear-piercing choristors are so decisively discriminated, that we all but hear them. The principal figure, whose head, hands, and feet are in equal agita- tion, has very properly tied on his spectacles; it would have been prudent to have tied on his periwig also, for by the energy of his action he has shaken it from his head, and, absorbed in an eager atten- tion to true time, is totally unconscious of his loss. A gentleman— pardon me, I meant a singer — in a bag wig, imme- diately beneath his uplifted hand, I suspect to be of foreign growth. It has the engaging air of an importation from Italy. The little figure in the sinister corner, is, it seems, intended for a Mr Tothall, a woollen-draper, who lived in Tavistock Court, and was Hogarth's intimate friend. The name of the performer on his right hand, " Whose growling bass Would drown the clarion of the braying ass," I cannot learn, nor do I think that this group were meant for particular portraits, but a general representation of the violent distortions into which these crotchet- mongers draw their features on such so'emn occasions. THE WORKS OF HOG AKTH 7.3 COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG By the success of Columbus's first voyage, doubt had been changed into admiration ; from the honours with which he was rewarded, admiration degenerated into envy. To deny that his discovery carried in its train consequences infinitely more important than had resulted from any made since the creation, was impossible. His enemies had recourse to another expedient, and boldly asserted that there was neither wisdom in the plan, nor hazard in the enterprise. When he was once at a Spanish supper, the company took this ground, and being by his narrative furnished with the reflections which had induced him to undertake his voyage, and the course that he had pursued in its completion, sagaciously observed, that "it was impossible for any man, a degree above an idiot, to have failed of success. The whole process was so obvious, it must have been seen by a man who was half blind ! Nothing could be so easy ! " " It is not difficult now I have pointed out the way," was the answer of Columbus : " but easy as it will appear, when you are possessed of my method, I do not believe that, without such instruction, any person present could place one of these eggs upright on the table." The cloth, knives, and forks were thrown aside, and two of the party, placing their eggs as required, kept them steady with their fingers. One of them swore there could be no other way. "We will try," said the navigator; and giving an egg, which he held in his hand, a smart stroke upon the table, it remained upright. The emotions which this excited in the company are expressed in their countenances. In the beruffed booby at his left hand it raises astonish- ment ; he is a DEAR ME ! man, of the same family with Sterne's Simple Traveller, and came from Amiens only yesterday. The fellow behind him, beating his head, curses his own stupidity ; and the whiskered ruffian, with his forefinger on the egg, is in his heart cursing Columbus. As to the two veterans on the other side, they have lived too long to be agitated with trifles : he who wears a cap exclaims, " Is this all ! " and the other, with a bald head, "By St. Jago, I did not think of that ! " In the face of Columbus there is not that violent and excessive triumph w r hich is exhibited by little characters on little occasions ; he is too elevated to be overbearing ; and, pointing to the conical solution of his problematical conundrum, displays a calm superiority, and silent internal contempt. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 77 A MIDNIGHT MODERN CONVERSATION. It is very certain that most of these figures were intended for indi- vidual portraits ; but Mr Hogarth, not wishing to be considered as a personal satirist, and fearful of making enemies among his contem- poraries, would never acknowledge who were the characters. Mrs Piozzi was of opinion that the divine with a cork-screw, occa- sionally used as a tobacco-stopper, hanging upon his little finger, was the portrait of Parson Ford, Dr Johnson's uncle. The roaring bacchanalian who stands next him, waving his glass in the air, has pulled off his wig, and, in the zeal of his friendship, crowns the divine's head. The lawyer, who sits near him, is a portrait of one Kettleby, a vociferous bar-orator, who, though an utter barrister, chose to dis- tinguish himself by wearing an enormous full -bottom wig, in which he is here represented. A poor maudlin miserable, who is addressing him, when sober, must • be a fool ; but, in this state, it would puzzle Lavater to assign him a proper class. He seems endeavouring to demonstrate to the lawyer, that, in a poi — poi — point of law, he has been most cruelly cheated, and lost a cau— cau — cause, that he ought to have got, — and all this was owing to his attorney being an infernal villain. Next to him sits a gentleman in a black periwig. He politely turns his back to the company, that he may have the pleasure of smoking a sociable pipe. The justice, " in fair round belly, with good capon lin'd," — the justice, having hung up his hat, wig, and cloak, puts on his nightcap, and, with a goblet of superior capacity before him, sits in solemn cogitation. With folded arms and open mouth, another leans back in his chair. His wig is dropped from his head, and he is asleep; but though speechless, he is sonorous ; for you clearly perceive that, where nasal sounds are the music, he is qualified to be leader of the band. The fallen hero, who with his chair and goblet has tumbled to the floor, by the cockade in his hat, we suppose to be an officer. His forehead is marked, perhaps with honourable scars. To wash his wounds, and cool his head, the staggering apothecary bathes it with brandy. A gentleman in the corner, who, from having the " Craftsman" and *' London Evening" in his pocket, we determine to be a politician, very unluckily mistakes his r utile for the bowl of his pipe, and sets fire to it. The person in a bag-wig and solitaire, with his hand upon his head, would not now pass for a fine gentleman, but in the year 1735 was a complete beau. Unaccustomed to such joyous company, he appears to have drank rather more than agrees with him. 78 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. CONSULTATION OF PHYSICIANS. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 79 CONSULTATION OF PHYSICIANS — THE UNDERTAKERS ARMS. This plate is designed, with much humour, according to the rules of heraldry, and is called The Undertakers' Arms, to show us the con- nexion between death and the quack doctor, as are also those cross- bones on the outside of the escutcheon. It has been said of the ancients, that they began by attempting to make physic a science, and failed ; of the moderns, that they began by attempting to make it a trade, and succeeded. This company are moderns to a man, and, if we may judge of their capacity by their countenances, are indeed a most sapient society. Their practice is very extensive, and they go about taking guineas. Many of them are unquestionably portraits, but as these sage and grave descendants of Galen are long since gone to that place where they before sent their patients, we are unable to ascertain any of them, except the three who are, for distinction, placed in the chief, or most honourable part of the escutcheon. Those who, from their exalted situation, we may naturally conclude the most distinguished and sagacious leeches of their day, have marks too obtrusive to be mistaken. He towards the dexter side of the escutcheon, is determined by an eye in the head of his cane to be the all-accomplished Chevalier Taylor, in whose marvellous and surprising history, written by his own hand, and published in 1701, is recorded such events relative to himself and others, as have excited more astonishment than that incomparable romance, Don Belianis of Greece, the Arabian Nights, or Sir John Mandeville's Travels. The centre figure, arrayed in a harlequin jacket, with a bone, or what the painter denominates a baton, in the right hand, is generally consideied designed for Mrs Mapp, a masculine woman, daughter to one Wallin, a bone setter at Hindon, in Wiltshire. This female Thalestris, incompatible as it may seem with her sex, adopted her father's profession. On the sinister side is Dr Ward, generally called Spot Ward, from his left cheek being marked with a claret colour. This gentleman was of a respectable family, and though not highly educated, had talents very superior to either of his coadjutors. In the time of Lucian, a philosopher, was distinguished by three things, — his avarice, his impudence, and his beard. In the time of Hogarth, medicine was a mystery, and there were three things which dis tingruished the physician, —his gravity, his cane-head, and his periwig. With these leading requisites, this venerable party are most amply gifted. To specify every character is not necessary; but the upper figure on the dexter side, with a wig like a weeping willow, should not be overlooked. His lemon- like aspect must curdle the blood of all his patients. In the countenances of his brethren there is no want of acids. 80 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. DANIEL LOCK, Esq., Architect. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 81 DANIEL LOCK, ESQ. F.A.S., ARCHITECT, DANIEL LOCK was an architect of some eminence. He retired from business with an ample fortune, lived in .Surrey Street, and was buried in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. This portrait was originally engraved by J. M'Ardell, from a painting by Hogarth, and is classed among the productions of our artist that are of uncertain date. \ THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 83 THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN. We have seen displayed the distress of a poet in a previous plate ; in this the artist has exhibited the rage of a musician. Our poor bard bore his misfortunes with patience, and, rich in his Muse, did not much repine at his poverty. Not so this master of harmony, of heavenly harmony! Waiting- in the chamber of a man of fashion, whom he in- structs in the divine science of music, having first tuned his instrument, he opens his crochet-book, shoulders his violin, flourishes his fiddle- stick, but, confounded with the din, and enraged by the interruption our modern Terpander starts from his seat, and opens the window. This operates as air to a kindling fire; and such a combination of noises burst upon the auricular nerve, that he is compelled to stop his ears, — but to stop the torrent is impossible ! In this situation he is delineated; and those who for a moment con- template the figures before him, cannot wonder at his rage. Of the dramatis personce who perform the vocal parts, the first is a fellow, in a tone that would rend hell's concave, bawling, " Dust, ho! dust, ho! dust!" Next to him, an amphibious animal, who nightly pillows his head on the sedgy bosom of old Thames, in a voice that emulates the rush of many waters, or the roaring of a cataract, is bellowing " Flounda,a,a,ars !" A daughter of May-day, who dispenses what in London is called milk, and is consequently a milk maid, in a note pitched at the very top of her voice, is crying "Be-louw!' While a ballad-singer dolefully drawls out " The Ladie's Fall," an infant in her arms joins its treble pipe in chorus with the screaming parrot, which is on a lamp-iron over her head. On the roof of an opposite house are two cats, performing what an amateur of music might perhaps call a bravura duet ; near them appears a little Frenoh drummer, singing to his rub-a-dub, and the agreeable yell of a dog complete the vocal performers. Of the instrumental, a fellow blowing a horn, with a violence that would have almost shaken down the walls of Jericho, claims the first notice; next to him the dustman rattles his bell with ceaseless clangour, until the air reverberates the sound. The intervals are filled up by a paviour, who, to every stroke of his rammer, adds a loud, distinct, and echoing, Haugh ! The pedestrian cutler is grinding a butcher's cleaver with such earnestness and force r that it elicits sparks of fire. This, added to the agonizing howls of his unfortunate dog, must afford a perfect specimen of the ancient chromatic. The poor animal, between a man and a monkey, piping harsh discords upon a hautboy, the girl whirling her crepitaculum, or rattle, and the boy beating his drum, conclude the catalogue of this harmonious band. 84 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 85 MASQUERADES AND OPERAS. BURLINGTON GATE. This print appeared in 1723. Of the three small figures in the centre the middle is Lord Burlington, a man of considerable taste in painting and architecture, but who ranked Mr Kent, an indifferent artist, above his merit. On one side of the peer is Mr Campbell, the architect; on the other, his lordship's postilion. On a show-cloth in this plate is also supposed to be the portrait of King George II., who gave £1000 towards the Masquerade; together with that of the Earl of Peterborough, who offers Cuzzoni, the Italian singer, .£8000 and she spurns at him. Mr Heidegger, the regulator of the Masquerade, is also exhibited, looking out of a window, with the letter TI under him. This satirical performance of Hogarth, however, was thought to be invented and drawn at the instigation of Sir James Thornhill. Dr Faustus was a pantomime performed to crowded houses throughout two seasons, to the utter neglect of plays, for which reason they are- cried about in a wheel-barrow. 86 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 87 TIMES OF THE DAY. PLATE 1.— MORNING. THIS withered representative of Miss Bridget A 1 worthy, with a shivering foot boy carrying her prayer-book, never fails in her attend- ance at morning service. She looks with scowling eye, and all the conscious pride of severe stubborn virginity, on the poor girls who are suffering from the embraces of two drunken beaux that are just staggered out of Tom King's Coffee-house. One of them, from the basket on her arm, I conjecture to be an orange girl : she shows no displeasure at the boisterous salute of her Hibernian lover. That the hero in a laced hat is from the banks of the Shannon, is apparent in his countenance. The female whose face is partly concealed, and whose neck has a more easy turn than we always see in the works of this artist, is not formed of the most inflexible materials. An old woman, seated upon a basket ; the girl, warming her hands by a few withered sticks that are blazing on the ground, and a wretched mendicant, wrapped in a tattered and parti-coloured blanket, entreating charity from the rosy-fingered vestal who is going to church, complete the group. Behind them, at the door of Tom King's Coffee-house, are a party engaged in a fray, likely to create business for both surgeon and magistrate : we discover swords and cudgels in the combatants' hands. On the opposite side of the print are two little schoolboys. That they have shining morning faces we cannot positively assert, but each has a satchel at his back, and according with the description given by the poet of nature, is Creeping, like snail, unwillingly to school. The lantern appended to the woman who has a basket on her head, proves that these dispensers of the riches of Pomona rise before the sun, and do part of their business by an artificial light. Near her, that immediate descendant of Paracelsus, Dr Rock, is expatiating to an admir- ing audience, on the never-failing virtues of his wonder-working medi- cines. One hand holds a bottle of his remarkable panacea, and the other supports a board, on which is the king's arms, to indicate that his practice is sanctioned by royal letters patent. Two porringers and a ypoon, placed on the bottom of an inverted basket, intimate that the woman seated near them is a vendor of rice-milk, which was at that time brought into the market every morning. A fatigued porter leans on a rail ; and a blind beggar is going to- wards the church : but whether he will become one of the congregation, or take his stand at the door, in the hope that religion may have warmed the hearts of its votaries to " Pity the sorrows of a poor blind man," is uncertain. 88 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. TIMES OF THE DAY, PLATE 2.— NOON. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 80 TIMES OF TEE DAY PLATE 2.-NOON. Among the figures who are coming out of church, an affected, flighty Frenchwoman, with her fluttering fop of a husband, and a boy, habited d-la-mode de Paris, claim our first attention. In dress, air, and manner, they have a national character The whole congregation, whether male or female, old or yourg, carry the air of their country in countenance, dress, and deportment. Like the three principal figures, they are all marked with some affected peculiarity. The old fellow, in a black periwig, has a most vinegar-like aspect, and looks with great contempt at the frippery gentlewoman immediately before him. The woman, with a demure countenance, seems very piously considering hew she can contrive to pick the embroidered beau's pocket. Two old sybils joining their withered lips in a chaste salute, is nauseous enough, but, being a national custom, must be for- given. The divine seems to have resided in this kingdom long enough to acquire a roast-beef countenance. Under a sign of the Baptist's Head is written, Uood Eating; and on each side of the inscription is a mutton chop. In opposition to this head without a body, unaccountably displayed as a sign at an eating- house, there is a body without a head hanging out as the sign of a distiller's. This, by common consent, has been quaintly denominated the good woman. At a window above, one of the softer sex proves her indisputable right to the title by her temperate conduct to her husband, with whom having had a little disagreement, she throws their Sunday's dinner into the street. A girl, bringing a pie from the bakehouse, is stopped in her career by the rude embraces of a blackamoor, who eagerly rubs his sable visage against her blooming cheek. Good eating is carried on to the lower part of the picture. A boy, placing a baked pudding upon a post, with rather too violent an action, the dish breaks, the fragments fall to the ground, and while he is loudly lamenting his misfortune, and with tears anticipating his punish- ment, the smoking remnants are eagerly snatched up by a poor girl. Not educated according to the system of Jean Jacques Rousseau, she feels no qualms of conscience about the original proprietor, and, desti- tute of that fastidious delicacy which destroys the relish of many a fine lady, eagerly swallows the hot and delicious morsels, with all the concomitants. The scene is laid at the door of a French chapel in Hog Lane ; a part of the town at that time almost wholly peopled by French refugees, or their descendants. 7 90 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. TIMES OF THE DAY. PLATE 3. EVENING. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 9* TIMES OF THE DAY. PLATE 3,— EVENING It is not easy to imagine fatigue better delineated than in the •appearance of this amiable pair. In a few of the earliest impressions, Mr Hogarth printed the hands of the man in blue, to show that he was a dyer, and the face and neck of the woman in red, to intimate her ex- treme heat. The lady's aspect lets us at once into her character; we are certain that she was born to command. As to her husband, God / made him, and he must pass for a man : what his wife has made him is indicated by the cow's horns ; which are so placed as to become his own. The hopes of the family, with a cockade in his hat, and riding upon papa's cane, seems much disgusted with female sway. A face with more of the shrew in embryo than that of the girl, it is scarce possible to conceive. Upon such a character the most casual observer pro- nounces with the decision of a Lavater. Nothing can be better imagined than the group in the alehouse. They have taken a refreshing walk into the country, and, being deter- mined to have a cooling pipe, seat themselves in a chair-lumbered closet, with a low ceiling ; where every man, pulling off his wig, and throwing a pocket-handkerchief over his head, inhales the fumes of hot punch, the smoke of half a dozen pipes, and the dust from the road. If this is not rural felicity, what is ? The old gentleman in a black bag- wig, and the two women near him, sensibly enough, take their seats in the open air. From a woman milking a cow, we conjecture the hour to be about five in the afternoon: and, from the circumstance, I am inclined to think this agreeable party are going to their pastoral bower, rather than returning from it. The cow and dog appear as much inconvenienced by heat as any of the party : the former is whisking off the flies ; and the latter creeps unwillingly along, and casts a longing look at the crystal river, in which he sees his own shadow. A remarkably hot summer is in- timated by the luxuriant state of a vine, creeping over an alehouse window. On the side of the New River, where the scene is laid, lies one of the wooden pipes employed in the water-works. 92 TI1E WORKS OF HOGARTE. TIMES OF THE DAY. PLATE 4.— NIGtT. TILE WORKS OF HOGARTH. S3 TIMES OF THE DAY. PLATE 4. -NIGHT. The wounded free-mason, who, in zeal of brotherly love, has drank liis bumpers to the ciaft till he is unable to tind his way home, is under the guidance of a waiter. This has been generally considered as in- tended for Sir Thomas de Veil. The waiter who supports his worship, seems, from the patch upon his forehead, to have been in a recent affiay ; but what use he can have for a lantern, it is not easy to divine, unless he is conducting his charge to some place where there is neither moonlight nor illumination. The Salisbury flying coach oversetting and broken, by passing through the bonfire, is said to be an intended burlesque upon a right honourable peer, who was accustomed to drive his own carriage over hedges, ditches, and rivers; and has been sometimes known to drive three or four of his maid servants into a deep water, and there leave them in the coach to shift for themselves. The butcher, and little fellow, who are assisting the terrified passen- gers, are possibly free and accepted masons. One of them seems to have a mop in his hand ; — the pail is out of sight. To crown the joys of the populace, a man with a pipe in his mouth is filling a capacious hogshead with British Burgundy. The poor wretches under the barber's bench display a prospect of penury and wretchedness, which it is to be hoped is not so common now as it was then. In the distance is a cart laden with furniture, which some unfortunate tenant is removing out of the reach of his landlord's execution. There is humour in the barber's sign and inscription: " Shaving, bleeding, and teeth drawn with a touch. Ecce SIGNUM !" By the oaken boughs on the sign, and the oak leaves in the free- masons' hats, it seems that this rejoicing night is the twenty-ninth of May, the anniversary of our Second Charles's restoration; that happy day when, according to our old ballad. '* The king enjoyed his own again This might be out* reason for ihe artist choosing a scene con- tiguous to the beautiful equestrian statue of Charles the First. In the distance we see a house on fire, an accident very likely to .happen on such a night as this. 04 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 4. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 95 SIGISMONDA, WITH THE HEART OF HER HUSBAND. A COMPETITION with either Guido, or Furino, would to any modern painter be an enterprise of danger : to Hogarth it was more peculiarly so, from the public justly conceiving that the representation of elevated distress was not his forte. The bard has consecrated the character, and his heroine glitters with a brightness that cannot be transferred to the canvas, and Hogarth's attempt to delineate it has been a good deal criticised. When, however, a favourite child is chastised by his preceptor, a partial mother redoubles her caresses. So Hogarth, estimating this picture by the labour he had bestowed upon it, was certain that the public were prejudiced, and requested, if his wife survived him, she would not sell it for less than five hundred pounds. Mrs Hogarth acted in conformity to his wishes, but after her death the painting was purchased by Messrs Boydell, and exhibited in the Shakespeare Gallery. The colouring, though not brilliant, is harmonious and natural : the attitude, drawing, etc., may be generally conceived by the print. I am much inclined to think, that if some of those who have been most severe in their censures, had consulted their own feelings, instead of depending upon connoisseurs, poor Sigismonda would have been in higher estimation. It has been said that the first sketch was made from Mrs Hogarth, at the time she was weeping over the corse of her mother. MARTIN FOLKES, Esq., Antiquary. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 07 MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ., MATHEMATICIAN AND ANTIQUARY. MAETIN FOLKES was a mathematician and antiquary of much celebrity in the philosophical annals of this country. He was at the early age of twenty-four admitted a member of the Royal Society, where he was greatly distinguished. Two years afterwards he was chosen one of the council, and was named by Sir Isaac Newton himself as vice-president: he was afterwards elected president, and held this high office till a short time before his death when he resigned it on account of ill- health. In the Philosophical Transactions are numerous memoirs of this learned man: his knowledge in coins, ancient and modern, was very extensive : and the last work he produced was concerning the English Silver Coin from the Conquest to his own time. He was president of Ihe Society of Antiquaries at the time of his death, which happened on ihe 28th of June, 1754, at the age of sixty-four. A few days before his death he was struck with a fit of the palsy, and never .^>oke alter this attack. THE WORKS OP HOGARTH. THE COCKPIT. THE scene is probably laid at Newmarket, and in this motley group of peers, — pick-pockets, — butchers, — jockeys, — rat-catchers, — gentle- men, — gamblers of every denomination, Lord Albemarle Bertie, being the principal figure, is entitled to precedence. What rendered his- lordship's passion for amusements of this nature very singular, was his being totally blind. In this place he is beset by seven steady friends, five of whom at the same instant offer to bet with him on the event of the battle. One of them, a lineal descendant of Filch, taking advantage of his blindness and negligence, endeavours to convey a bank note, de- posited in our dignified gambler's hat, to his own pocket. Of this ungentleman-like attempt his lordship is apprised by a ragged post-boy r and an honest butcher : but he is so much engaged in the pronunciation of those important words, Done! Done! Done ! Done ! and the arrange- ment of his bets, that he cannot attend to their hints ; and it seems more than probable that the stock will be transferred, and the note negotiated in a few seconds. A. very curious group surround the old nobleman, who is adorned with a riband, a star, and a pair of spectacles. The whole weight of an overgrown carpenter being laid upon his shoulder, forces our illus- trious personage upon a man beneath ; who, being thus driven down- ward, falls upon a fourth, and the fourth, by the accumulated pressure of this ponderous trio, composed of the upper and lower house, loses his balance, and tumbling against the edge of the partition, his head is broke, and his wig, shook from the seat of reason, falls into the cockpit. A man adjoining enters into the spirit of the battle, — his whole soul is engaged. From his distorted countenance, and clasped hands, we see that he feels every stroke given to his favourite bird in his heart's core, — ay, in his heart of hearts! A person at the old peer's left hand is likely to be a loser. Ill-humour, vexation, and disappointment are painted in his countenance. The chimney sweeper above is the very quintessence of affectation. He has all the airs and graces of a boarding-school miss. The sanctified quaker ad joining, and the fellow beneath, who, by the way, is a very similar figure to Captain Stab, in the Rake's Progress, are finely contrasted. A French marquis on the other side, astonished at this being called amusement, is exclaiming " Sauvages ! Sauvages ! Sauvages!" On the lower side, where there is only one tier of figures, a sort of an apothecary and a jockey are stretching out their arms, and striking together the handles of their whips, in token of a bet. 100 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM. FOUNDER OF THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 101 CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM, FOUNDER OF THE FOUNDLING- HOSPITAL, Captain Coram was born in the year 1668, bred to the sea, and passed the first part of his life as master of a vessel trading- to the colonies. While he resided in the vicinity of Rotherhithe, his avoca- tions obliging him to go early into the city and return late, he frequently saw deserted infants exposed to the inclemencies of the seasons, and through the indigence or cruelty of their parents left to casual relief or untimely death. This naturally excited his compassion, and led him to project the establishment of an hospital for the recep- tion of exposed and deserted young children, in which humane design he laboured more than seventeen years, and at last, by his unwearied application, obtained the royal charter, bearing date the 17th of October, 1739, for its incorporation. Another charitable plan which he lived to make some progress in, though not to complete, was a scheme for uniting the Indians in North America more closely with the British Government, by an establish- ment for the education of Indian girls. Indeed, he spent a great part of his life in serving the public, and with so total a disregard to his private interest that in his old age he was himself supported by a pen- sion of somewhat more than a hundred pounds a year. On application being made to this venerable and good old man, to know whether a subscription being opened for his benefit would not offend him, he gave this noble answer : " I have not wasted the little wealth of which I was formerly possessed in self-indulgence or vain expenses, and am not ashamed to confess that, in this my old age, I am poor." This singularly humane, persevering, and memorable man died at his lodgings, near Leicester Square, March 29, 1751, and was interred, pursuant to his own desire, in the vault under the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, where an historic epitaph records his virtues, as Hogarth's portrait has preserved his honest countenance. "The portrait which I painted with most pleasure," says Hogarth, " and in which I particularly wished to excel, was that of Captain Coram for the Foundling Hospital ; and if I am so wretched an artist as my enemies assert, it is somewhat strange that this, which was one of the first I painted the size of life, should stand the test of twenty years' competition, and be generally thought the best portrait in the place, notwithstanding the first painters in the kingdom exerted all their talents to vie with it." Til E WORKS OF UOGARTII. 103 THE COUNTRY INN YARD; OR, THE STAGE COACH. THE scene is a country inn yard at the time passengers are getting into a stage-coach, and an election procession passing in the back- ground. Nothing can be better described ; we become of the party. The vulgar roar of our landlady is no less apparent than the grave, in- sinuating, imposing countenance of mine host. Boniface solemnly protests that a bill he is presenting to an old gentleman in a laced hat is extremely moderate. This does not satisfy the paymaster, whose countenance shows that he considers it as a palpable fraud, though the act against bribery, which he carries in his pocket, designates him to be of a profession not very liable to suffer imposition. They are in general less sinned against than sinning. An ancient lady, getting into the coach, is from her breadth a very inconvenient companion in such' a vehicle. A portly gentleman, with a sword and cane in one hand, is deaf to the entreaties of a poor little deformed postilion, who solicits his customary fee. The old woman smoking her short pipe in the basket, pays very little attention to what is passing around her : cheered by the fumes of her tube, she lets the vanities of the world go their own way. Two passengers on the roof of the coach afford a good specimen of French and English manners. Ben Block, of the Centurion, surveys the subject of La Grande Monarque with ineffable contempt. In the window are a very curious pair ; one of them blowing a French horn, and the other endeavouring, but without effect, to smoke away a little sickness, which he feels from the fumes of his last night's punch. Beneath them is a traveller taking a tender farewell of the chambermaid, who is not to be moved by the clangour of the great bar bell, or the more thundering sound of her mistress's voice. The background is crowded with a procession of active citizens ; they have chaired a figure with a horn-book, a bib, and a rattle, intended to represent Child, Lord Castlemain, afterwards Lord Tylney, who, in a violent contest for the county of Essex, opposed Sir Robert Abdy and Mr Bramston. The horn-book, bib, and rattle are evidently displayed •as punningly allusive to his name. X % O o 03 H H nd 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, instructing from a book of Wesley's. Hogarth has in this print, digressing from the histoiy and moral of the piece, taken an opportunity of giving us a humorous representa- tion of an execution, or a Tyburn Fair : such days being made holidays, produce 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 amst in time 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 hypocrisy ; 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 imagined. Here we see one almost squeezed to death among the horses j there, another trampled on by the mob. In one part is a girl tearing the face of a boy for oversetting 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 execution ; and many other things too minute to be pointed out. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 127 1NDUSTBY AND IDLENESS. PLATE 12.— THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON. " The Length of days is in her rk'ht hand, and in her Jeft hand riches and honour." Proverbs, chap. iii. verse 16. HAVING seen the ignominious end of the idle apprentice, nothing- remains but to represent the completion of the other's happiness ; who •s 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. 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 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 unused 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, 41 A 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. Thus we have 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 siothful. 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. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 129 SOUTHWARK FAIR. THE subject of the plate under consideration is that of the Borough Fair ; 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 aftirm this truth. The principal view upon the left represents the fall of a scaffold, on which was assembled a strolling company. 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. Notwithstanding 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 follow ; — On one side is Pistol (strutting and crying out, " Pistol's alive "), Falstaff, Justice, Shallow, and many other characters of Shakespeare. On the other, the manager, bearing in his hand a paper, on which is written, " It cost £6000 " 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." Above, on one side, is an equilibrist s winning on a slack rope; and or* the other, a man flying from the tower to the giound, 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, where, by the picture of the wooden horse, we are told, is represented " The Siege 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. To the right is a Savoyard exhibiting her farthing show ; and behind, a player at back sword riding a blind horse round the fair trium- phantly. Indeed it would be endless 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. 120 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 131 GARRICK IN THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD III. Give me another horse,— bind up my wounds, — Have mercy, Jesu !— soft ; I did but dream. — O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me — The lights burn blue !— 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 handc and the armour lying on the ground, are judicious and appropriate accompaniments. Those who are acquainted with the 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 otherwise 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 phantom 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 circum- ference; as distant water is put in motion by circles, spreading from the place of its disturbance. And indeed we cannot wonder, when we reflect on the many murders he was guilty of, deserving 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 workings 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 Hogarth to his friend Garrick. 132 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 133 THE INVASION. 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. PLATE 1. — FRANCE. 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 caricature. To see this miserable woe-begone refuse of the army, who look like a group detached from the main body and put on the sick "list, embark- ing 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, "Soup maigre au Sabot Royal," and the spider-like officer roasting four frogs which he has impaled upon his sword. 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 background are a troop of soldiers so averse to this English expedition, that their sergeant is obliged to goad them forward with his halberd. To intimate that agriculture suffers by the invasion having engaged the masculine inhabitants, two women, ploughing a sterile promontory in the distance, complete this catalogue of wretchedness, misery, and famine. 134 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. TILE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 135 THE IN V AS ION. PLATE 2.— ENGLAND. From the unpropitious regions of France our scene changes to the fertile fields of England. 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 plebian 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. The artifice, to which he is impelled by towering ambition, the serjeant seems disposed to connive at— and the serjeant is a hero, and a great man in his way ; "your hero always must be tall, you know." An amateur artist is making a caricature of le grand monarque, with a label from his mouth worthy the speaker and worthy observation " You take a my 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. 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 background is a serjeant, teaching a company of young recruits their manual exercise. Underneath is inscribed " Roast and Boiled every day," which, with the beef and beverage upon the table, forms a fine contrast to the soup 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 irresistible 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, THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 137 THE ELECTION. PLATE 1. — HUMOURS OF 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. 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 "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. At the middle of the 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 consist 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 chaffing 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 con- science," says she, u 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." 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. 10 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTII. 139 THE ELECTION. PLATE 2.— 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, dissipating every doubt and scruple in an instant. 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 are offering bribes, but one a much larger than the other ; and the determination of the farmer is sufficiently known by the cast of his eye, 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 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;) emblematical 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 tearing 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 halfpence 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. 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 formal procession, the bells ringing, music playing, streamers flying, and people shouting. It is almost im- possible to conceive the noise, the hurry, the bustle, and joyous confusion of the populace, each party striving to be the loudest, and endeavouring by all the acts of opposition to suppress the other. 140 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. T 11 E WORKS OP HOGARTH. 141 THE ELECTION. PLATE 3.— 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 different 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 on the score that he cannot hold up his right hand on taking the oath. Next let us attend to the son of Solomon, who is fastened in his ohair, 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. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 143 THE ELECTION. PLATE 4. — 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 constitution, 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. Terrified at his impending danger, a nervous lady, who with her attendants is in the churchyard, falls back in a swoon. Regardless of her distress, two little chimney-sweepers upon the gate-post are placing a pair of gingerbread spectacles on a death's head. 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. Two 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 triumphant electors hail the other successful candidate, whose shadow appears on the wall of the court-house. 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 pencil 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 line satires on times gone by, when the people of Great Britain were so far irom being influenced by a reverence for public virtue, that they began to suspect it had no existence. 144 THE WORKS OP HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 145 THE STROLLING PLAYERS, DRESSING IN A BARN. IN this picture we see confusion mixed with uniformity, and inconsistency united with propriety ; royalty let down by the ensigns of beggary, and beggary set off by the regalia of royalty. Most people are, indeed, acquainted with stage exhibitions, but few have any idea of their apparatus. The place from whence this scene is taken is supposed to be a barn, belonging to an inn in some country town. The time is evening, the company from the theatres at Lond<>n dressing and preparing to perform a farce, which, we are told by the play-bill on the bed, is called 11 The Devil to pay in Heaven," 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 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, perriwigs, feathers, hampers 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, June, 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. At the back of this plate are two young devils (their horns just budded) contending for a draught of beer. Rehind 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. 146 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 147 THE BOY MOSES AND PHARAOHS DAUGHTER. And 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 encouragement to vice, and the rigid moralist declaim against giving sanction to profligacy, it is still a useful and benevolent foundation. To protect the helpless, give refuge to the innocent, and render that unoffending 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. To this asylum for deserted infancy Hogarth was one of the earliest benefactors ; and to their 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 1 the bulrushes, 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, who 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 affinity to their mistress than she chooses to acknowledge. 148 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 14» THE FOUNDLINGS. Mr Ireland observes that in the print before us we have a scene- which may properly be designated as illustrative of religious work ; for, surely, rescuing deserted, unoffending, and helpless innocence- from destruction, providing an asylum for childhood, initiating youth in habits of industry, and rendering those whose parents were unable to protect them useful members of society, is a religious as well as a benevolent institution. Hogarth, by presenting some of his works to the Foundling Hospital, was, in fact, an early benefactor to the charity ; he made the annexed design for the use of this institution. It was engraved by F. Morellon la Cave, as the head-piece to a power of attorney from the trustees of the charity to those gentlemen who were appointed to receive subscriptions towards the building, &c. The artist has made his old friend, Captain Coram, a principal figure, and as this excellent and venerable man was, in fact, the founder of the charity, it is with great propriety he is introduced. Before him the beadle of the hospital carries an infant, whose mother, having dropped a dagger, with which she might have been momentarily tempted to destroy her child, kneels at his feet, while he, with that benevolence with which his countenance was so eminently marked, bids her be comforted, for her babe will be nursed and protected. 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 bosom, 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 trousers; those on their right hand, one of whom has a rake, are in the uniform of the school. The attributes of the three little girls in the fore-ground, a spinning- wheel, sampler, and broom, indicate female industry and ingenuity. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 151 THE SLEEPING CONGEEGATION. WERE we to form our opinion of the preacher from his countenance and attitude, 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 ? As an opiate more powerful than poppies. It is as composing- as are the very descriptive lines that conclude the second book of Pope's Dunciad ; which are so perfectly 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 contemplating 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, however, are awake. 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. 152 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. BE EE, STREET AND GIN LANE PLATE 1. — BEER STREET. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 153 BEER STREET AND GIN LANE. In designing- the two following prints, Hogarth did so to illustrate his conviction that beer is the liquor natural to an English constitution • and at the same time to show that villainous 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. PLATE 1. — BEER STREET. 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 politics, and settling the state of the nation. The blacksmith, having just purchased a shoulder of mutton, is triumphantly waving it in the air. Next to him a drayman is whispering soft 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 liagon 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. Un ihe iront 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 seem 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. 11 154 THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. BEEE STBEET AND GIN LANE. » PLATE 2. — GIN LANK. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 155 BEER STB EE T AND GIN LANE. PLATE 2. — GIN LANE. 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 mendicant*, 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. 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 amended himself by a rope in his own ruinous garret : the other, 3 beautiful woman, who, by the direction of the parish beadle, two m&h are depositing in a shell. On the side of her coffin is a child lamenting the loss of its parent. 'I he 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 observation ; it exhibits the state of our. metropolis at that period. THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 157 PAUL BEFORE FELIX. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled." Acts xxiv. 23. The subject of this plate is that of the preaching- of St. Paul before Felix, the Governor of Judea. This Felix was a favourite, a creature of Claudius Caesar, then Emperor of Rome. He was sensual and avaricious, and exercised 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 judgment. He treated of righteousness (that is, justice), temperance, and of judgment to come. The Christian religion being favourable to all men, St. Paul might have discoursed upon one of the points that would have flattered his ennobled hearer. 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 ; 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. He preaches of temperance ; here he set forth the disorders of luxury, and its inconsistency with Christianity. In short, he 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. 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 surprising 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 remark 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 disappointed amazement. With respect to Ananias the High Priest, his eyes and position 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 WORKS OF HOGARTH. 159 BAMBRIDGE ON TRIAL FOR MURDER BEFORE A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. This occurrence is thus described in Smollett's History : Mr Oglethorpe, having been informed of shocking cruelties and oppressions exercised by gaolers upon their prisoners, moved for an examination into these practices, and was chosen chairman of a committee appointed to inquire into the state of the gaols of the kingdom. They began with the Fleet prison, which they visited in a body : there they found Sir William Rich, Bart, loaded with irons, by order of Bambridge the warden, to whom he had given some slight cause of offence. They made a discovery of many inhuman barbarities, which had been committed by that ruffian, and detected the most iniquitous scenes of fraud, villany, and extortion. AVhen the Report was made by the committee, the House unanimously resolved, that Thomas Bambridge, acting warden of the Fleet, had wilfully permitted several debtors to escape ; had been guilty of the most notorious breaches of trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanours in the execution of his office ; that he had arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, under his charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws of the kingdom. John Huggins. who had been warden of the Fleet prison, was subjected to a resolution of the same nature. The House presented an Address to the King, desiring he would direct his Attorney- General forthwith to prosecute these persons and their accomplices, who were committed to Newgate. A bill was brought in, disabling Bambridge to execute the office of warden; another for the better regulating the prison of the Fleet : and for more effectually prevent- ing and punishing arbitrary and illegal practices of the warden of the said prison." THE BRUISER, CHAELES CHURCHILL (ONCE THE REVEREND). THE WORKS OF HOGARTH. 1C1 THE BRUISER, CHARLES CHURCHILL (ONCE THE REVEREND), IN THE CHARACTER OF A RUSSIAN HERCULES, REGALING HIMSELF AFTER HAVING KILLED THE MONSTER CARICATURA, THAT SO SORELY GALLED HIS VIRTUOUS FRIEND, THE HEAVEN-BORN WILKES. ENRAGED by the publication of Mr Wilkes's portrait, Mr Charles Churchill wrote 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. 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 tattered band and torn rui'lles — "No Lord's anointed, but a Russian bear." In this we must acknowledge there was more ill-nature than wit. For this rough retort he might, however, plead the poet's precedent. His opponent had brandished a tomahawk, 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. 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 Unrivall'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 further 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