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LIBRARY

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HOGARTH MORALIZED

A COMPLETE EDITION

OF ALL THE MOST CAPITAL AND ADMIRED

WORKS OF WILLIAM HOGARTH,

ACCOMPANIED BY CONCISE AND COMPREHENSIVE

EXPLANATIONS OF THEIR MORAL TENDENCY,

BY THE LATE

REV. DR. TRUSLER.

TO WHICH ARJG ADDED,

AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, AND MANY ORIGINAL AND SELECTED NOTES, BY
JOHN MAJOE.

A NEW EDITION,
REVISED, CORRECTED, AND SOMEWHAT ENLARGED, BY THE SAME.

( His matchless works of fame secure,
Shall live our Country's pride and boast,
As long as Nature shall endure,
And only in her wreck be lost!" David Garrick.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HENRY WASHBOURNE,
SALISBURY SQUARE, FLEET STREET.

MDCCCXLI.

" All who love the dramatic representations of actual life — all who
have hearts to he gladdened hy humour — all who are pleased with
judicious and well-directed satire — all who are charmed with the
ludicrous looks of popular folly — and all who can he moved with the
hos of human suffering — are admirers of Hogarth." Allan Cunningham.

Gilbert & Kivington, 1'nnters, St. John's Square, London.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

1841.

The various anxious duties which the Editor of this work
had imposed upon himself, having been crowned with com
plete success, he has been emboldened (on the occasion of
this re-impression) to affix his own initials to the not incon
siderable number of Original Notes, which he had anony
mously offered to the common stock as written by himself;
whilst those which he had most carefully selected from all
the most justly esteemed commentaries, he had already
ascribed to their respective authors.
As for the very few and short notes given without either
initials, or within brackets, they are by Dr. Trusler himself,
being merely additions to his own text : and, although the
style of commentary soon took a higher aim, both philo
sophical and antiquarian ; yet he, who first set the example
in both respects, should not have been so studiously over
looked or disparaged, as he has been by almost all his
successors.
a 2

PREFACE.

Next to the present Editors gratification in receiving
the highest testimonies to the extreme fidelity and spirit
preserved in these copies of the works themselves, has been
that of perceiving that, as regards the Notes as a whole, the
mild and liberal spirit of modern criticism has conferred the
importance of a Variorum Edition on this, the most compact
and popular form in which the giant of graphic moral
ists has ever been given to the public.
John Major.

13, Camden Terrace West, Camden Town.
March 1st, 1841.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

BY THE EDITOR.

hogabth's house at CHISWICK.

It is now upwards of a century since the first work which
proved the decided superiority of Hogarth's genius, came
forth, to the delight of all the world — but to the peculiar
satisfaction of one particular individual — to wit, Sir James
Thornhill, whose amiable daughter Jane, Hogarth having
privately married, the usual decree of inexorableness was
pronounced by the Knight- — until, a specimen of the " Har
lot's Progress" being placed in his way, he exclaimed, with
an extacy in which no other connoisseur could have par
ticipated- — ¦" The man who can make works like this, can
maintain a wife without a portion." This important fact

vi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
once established— with that perverseness of age, so well
and so often ridiculed— the " old father" became perfectly
reconciled— assisted the young couple, and was proud of
having such a man for his son-in-law.
The author of the ensuing descriptions of this inimitable
artist's after productions was a clergyman of the Church of
England, yet he has thought it necessary to enter upon a
modest vindication of the deliberate opinion upon which he
founded his title, that of Hogarth Moralized :— abundance
of evidence, therefore, both lay and clerical, will be adduced
on the present occasion, to prove— that the materials which
he was the first to conceive the elegant idea of comprising
in a compendious form, suited for general circulation
really contain the means of exciting in young persons, a
just dread of the rocks and quicksands of life ; free from
the dear-bought experience of those who have ignorantly
embarked upon its fearful ocean. It has been objected to
Dr. Trusler, that he has perhaps exhibited " more piety
than taste" in his commentary. Doubtless he had his
professional bias *, which may have proved a recommen-
1 [It was as natural for him to dwell upon the moral and sentimental
heauties, as for the eminent antiquaries, Messrs. Nichols and Steevens, to
feel at home in those " fleeting customs, and past occurrences," that could
throw any new light upon their author. Mr. John Ireland, in like manner,
more feelingly alive to the department of art, gently throws his "hair line,"
a la Walpole, over the Hogarthian stream, and complains of the " Antiqua
rian drag-net" of Mr. Nichols, which he imagines to have brought too much
of heterogeneous matter from the " great deep." Mr. Steevens defends his
coadjutor from this sweeping censure, saying, " Mr. Ireland appears to have
gone and done likewise." It is curious that he did not bring to his aid the
following "confession" from Mr. I.'s Introduction, from which it should seem,
that men are sometimes conscious of riding their hobby " a little too far.''
" Though the notes may not always have an immediate relation to the
engravings, I hope they will seldom be found wholly unconnected with the
subjects !"
Again we have, also, Mr. S. Ireland — he too has a gentle " fling" at his
namesake (no relation) for having founded — which he did — his entertaining
volumes upon the "worn-out plates" of our still triumphant Doctor! To
the curious collector, nevertheless, all these works are indispensable.] J. M

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Vll
dation to parents and guardians, who saw the work mo
destly put forth, as "calculated to improve the minds of
youth, and convey instruction under the mask of entertain
ment ;" at the same time there is much attention paid in
regard to information suited to those of riper years. The
Doctor was a person remarkably fond of minuteness of
inquiry, and in handing forward, from the best possible
source, — that of the artist's amiable widow — so many
important, historical, personal, and local illustrations, he
performed a real and valuable public service ; and it has
been acknowledged, though with too much reluctance, by
his succ.essors. The public, however, have fully vindicated
their own patronage by fixing a high value upon his con
cise, yet comprehensive performance, which would have
been of at least double the bulk, but for the modest type
dictated by the tasteful conception of the whole work. The
moral tendency of Hogarth's works is so striking, that it
has made preachers, and eloquent ones too, of such as were
never suspected of cant or hypocrisy. Every ingenuous
writer upon Hogarth dwells more or less upon it ; Mr.
Nichols, speaking of the excellent series, " Industry and
Idleness," tells us that "a sermon has been preached from
this set of prints."
Even the scenes of humour from Hogarth's pencil often
convey the most salutary ^admonitions, while those. of -guilt-
must have saved many a thoughtless ,being from the" ex-
-ttemesof human wretchedness 1.
" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen."
1 [The following is extracted from the Dedication of a Work to Hogarth,
by the Rev. John Clubbe. " We cannot, perhaps, point to the very men or
women who have been saved from ruin by them ; yet we may fairly conclude
from their general tendency that many have, for such cautionary exhibitions
correct without the harshness of reproof, and are felt and remembered when
rigid dogmatizings are rejected and forgotten." — Nichols's Anecdotes, 4to.
Vol. I. 377-]

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

But we can only agree with this assertion of our great Poet,
except in so far as the monster shall be seen through the
intervention of such a moralist as Hogarth !
There cannot be a doubt but that Hogarth's graphic les
sons were as much intended for the good of his fellow
mortals as the written ones of Addison and Steele; indeed it
seems undeniable that he owed his earliest fame, as a Moral
and Dramatic Painter, to a hint taken from the noblest of
moral works, the Spectator ! a work, the very name of
which is fraught with so many delightful recollections, that
it is quite refreshing to see a revival of its title in a spirited
and manly periodical of the present day. Our author was
precisely the sort of man whom those elegant authors would
have termed, one of the heroes of domestic life ! — he mar
ried earlier than a cold prudence would have permitted, but
when he had thriven upon the industrious exertion of his
own talents, he exhibited that " golden mean" of liberality
so strongly inculcated in his works — works, the efficacy
of which is so much increased by the knowledge that he
was himself a good master, and an affectionate son, brother,
and husband.
To return to the Spectator, whose views as a reformer of
manners, and a penetrating reader of mankind, were exactly
suited to our painter's turn of mind. Can there be a doubt
but that the following passage suggested the Harlot's Pro
gress to the mind of the painter, while the Rake's Progress
followed of course ? The author is pleading the cause of
betrayed innocence with his usual enlightened humanity,
and continues thus : —
" But the compassionate case of very many is, that they
are taken into such hands without any the least suspicion,
previous temptation, or admonition to what place they are
going. The last week I went to an Inn in the city to in
quire for some provisions which were sent by a waggon out
of the country, and as I waited in one of the boxes till the

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IX
chamberlain had looked over his parcels, I heard an old and
a young voice repeating the questions and responses of the
Church Catechism. I though it no breach of good manners
to peep at a crevice, and look in at people so well employed;
but who should I see there, but the most artful procuress in
the town, examining a most beautiful country girl, who had
come up in the same waggon with my things ? ' Whether
she was well-educated, could forbear playing the wanton
with servants and idle fellows, of which this town,' says she,
' is too full :' at the same time, ' whether she knew enough
of breeding, as that, if a squire, or a gentleman, or one that
was her betters, should give her a civil salute, she should
curtsey, and be humble nevertheless ?" Her innocent ' for-
sooths, yes's, and 't please you's, and she would do her
endeavour,' moved the good old lady to take her out of the
care of a country bumkin, her brother, and hire her for her
own maid. I stood till I saw them all marched out to take
coach ; the brother loaded with a great cheese, he prevailed
on her to take for her civilities to his sister !" — Spectator,
No. 266.
From so excellent a prototype it is only to be wondered
at that Hogarth should have at all varied ; as it would
have been more " in keeping," as artists say, for the booby-
brother, rather than the anxious father, to forward the views
of the procuress.
Such, however, is the close coincidence between these
rival classics of the pen and the palette. We will not arro
gate the merit of pointing out, at this time of day, a novel
illustration of Hogarth ! — Surely some one must have
brought it forward, although we have not met with it,
where it was most likely to be found, in the work of Mr.
John Ireland. Stranger still will it be if the "watchful
vigils" of Mr. Steevens, as well as of that gentleman,
should not have supplied all that the Drama could do in
12

X INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
the way of iUustration for the great painter of " Comedies
upon canvass!"— yet his most capital work, " Marriage-a-Ia-
Mode," seems really to have been discussed and commented
upon without a thought of one of Dryden's most successful
plays ; the mere title of which, in Hogarth's fertile mind,
must have given him ample materials to work upon. What,
though the poet " knew of no law that prescribed morality
to a comic writer," — it was not so with Hogarth, who, at
a mere glance upon affected ladies singing, dancing, gadding
— and holding it right for man and wife to meet only in the
drawing-room — a gallant ready to marry a woman he has
never seen, at the bidding of a covetous father — at the same
time determined to enter upon intrigues, in full contempt of
the " little inconveniences of jealousies, duels, death, and so
forth \" — had every thing in his mind for that noble com
position which Mr. Ireland has so excellently described as
follows :
" The drama of Shakspeare 2 has been said to be the
mirror of life, which to-day we see lighted up with gaiety,
and to-morrow clouded with sorrow. Shakspeare had the
power of exciting laughter or grief, not only in one mind,
but in one composition. That Hogarth had the same
power, and exerted it with the same disdain of the little
cavils of little minds, is evinced in this series of prints ;
from the study of which a peasant, who had never strayed
beyond the precincts of his own cottage, may calculate the
consequences of dissipation ; and he who has lived secluded
from society, may form an estimate of the value of riches and
high birth, when abused by prodigality, or degraded by vice."
1 Vide Act I. Scene 1.
2 [Mr. Charles Lamb relates an anecdote which points out the dramatic
talent of our author in the strongest possible light. A gentleman beino- asked
what book in his library he most liked to read, replied, " Shakspeare." And
what the next best 1 " Hogarth 1" The original prints are doubtless read
able things — indeed, there are many who go so far as to say that, " if Hogarth
did not explain himself, they would not give a pin for him !"] J. n.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xi
We cannot forbear also extracting a part of Mr. Christie's
animated description of these six celebrated pictures — on
the occasion of their being sold for one thousand three
hundred and eighty-one pounds in 1797.
" These pictures may be considered as a fine Dramatic
Poem ', where originality of character, variety of incident,
and the most enlivening wit, are continued through a course
of scenes, and worked up into a regular fable, which con
cludes with a most impressive moral. To speak of their
excellence were almost needless. They appeal to every
judgment — they are to be understood by every capacity.
The immortal artist executed them with this intent. He
proposed that every one should be a connoisseur in his works,
because every one was to be improved by them. Suffice it
to say, that these pictures are the chef-d'oeuvres of the
master. They possess all that can be wished in composi
tion, expression, finishing, and perspective."
Yet, with testimonies to his unrivalled talents, like the
foregoing — and a volume might be filled with others — there
have been some who have grudged the great master the
moderate degree of self-complacency with which he surveyed
his own productions. Mr. Steevens, who, as observed by
Mr. Cunningham, was fond of mingling his own gall with
the milk of his coadjutor, Mr. Nichols, accuses him of the
most egregious vanity — yet in the endeavour to substantiate
the charge, is content rather to prove in its stead that our
artist was liberal even to the degree of abstinence from
professional reward. He is indebted for, as he owns, the
possession of one of his rarest proof prints " to the success

1 [All this is quite true, although it is impossible to deny that the first hint
was taken from the source to which we have ascribed it — in order to believe
which, there is no necessity that the plot, incidents, and characters should
coincide so closely as they are pointed out by Mr. Ireland to do, between
" Industry and Idleness " and " Eastward Hoe," a play by Ben Jonson,
Chapman, and Marston, 1605.] J. M.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

of a compliment to [Hogarth] that would have stuck in the
throat of Vandyke." From such an abuser of unsuspecting
liberality one is not surprised that another defamatory accu
sation should have issued — that of Hogarth's having envied
the rising popularity of Sir Joshua Reynolds. " The same,"
observes Mr. Ireland, " was said of Rubens with regard to
Vandyke ! Neither the Englishman nor the Fleming were
capable of so mean a passion. I can conceive that Hogarth
might have been pleased if he could have united the elegance
of Sir Joshua to his own humour, and that the knight
might be proud of adding the powers of Hogarth to his own
taste, without either of them possessing a particle of the
diabolical passion alluded to."
Last of all comes the more specious, but ill, or rather
maliciously, founded charge, that he introduced indelicate
incidents into some of his subjects. There is certainly no
possibility of preventing a prurient imagination withdrawing
its attention from the noble aims of a whole composition to
dwell on that which is unobtrusive and intended to be subor
dinate ; but that Hogarth ever took a wanton advantage of
the good humour he could inspire, to insinuate an incident
not calculated to reprove or reform, we flatly deny.
" The sensible and accurate estimate of Walpole," says
Mr. Cunningham, " displeased Steevens, who sought to dis
sect rather than to criticise. He was obliged to set up sin
in its high place, before he could crown it with infamy. He
shews depravity for the sake of amending it. The Flemings
exhibited indecency for our amusement; and it was Mr.
Steevens' own fault that he could not see the distinction."
Again, with what industry are we informed that our
graphic author was a bad orthographer and a worse gram
marian. The truth is, that he was absorbed in his art ¦ in
like manner as we are told of an eminent linguist, who at
times, was at a loss how to give orders for his dinner in his
native language ! But Hogarth " had a club" all « dragons

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xiii
to drub," and he could " write down an ass," and more
formidable things, with his pencil alone ! witness his off
hand punishments of Wilkes and Churchill, who in a moment
were held up to " grinning infamy !"
It is a mere vulgar error to suppose that those spirited
retorts were the unconsoling efforts of his expiring days;
he was neither " killed" by Wilkes nor Churchill ; but he had
lived on terms of intimacy with them both, and regretted
like an honest man the cancelling of friendships, on his own
part sincere and generous.
" To raise esteem," says Johnson, " we must discover
abilities ; to excite love, we must impart pleasure." Accord
ing to the high degree in which Hogarth must have felt
conscious of doing both, he appears to have enjoyed life as
fully as any man not absolutely bred up in the lap of ease
and affluence.
A word only before presenting the reader with a few ad
ditional testimonies to the high moral and intellectual worth
of our inimitable artist.
May it be said, — and welcome, — that we have lent a mag
nifying glass to the beauties of Hogarth ; and for faults,
if he have them, they lessen themselves in this miniature
edition. " Having despatched the herd of our Painters in oil, I re
served to a class by himself, that great and original genius
Hogarth ; considering him rather as a writer of comedy
with a pencil, than as a painter. He created his art, and used
colours instead of language. Hogarth resembles Butler,
but his subjects are more universal, and amidst all his
pleasantry, he observes the true end of comedy, reforma
tion : there is always a moral to his pictures. Sometimes
he rose to tragedy, not in the catastrophe of kings and
heroes, but in marking how vice conducts insensibly and
incidentally to misery and shame. He warns against en-

xiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
couraging cruelty and idleness in young minds, and discerns
how the different vices of the great and the vulgar lead by
various paths to the same unhappiness.
" It is to Hogarth's favour that in so many scenes of satire
or ridicule, it is obvious that ill-nature did not guide his
pencil. His end is always reformation, and his reproofs
general. " The scenes of Bedlam and the Gaming-house, are inimi
table representations of our serious follies or unavoidable
woes ; and the concern shown by the Lord Mayor, when the
companion of his childhood is brought before him as a
criminal, is a touching picture, and big with humane admo
nition and reflection. It may appear singular, that of an
author whom I call comic, and who is celebrated for his
humour, I should speak in general in so serious a style ; but
it would be suppressing the merits of his heart to consider
him only as a promoter of laughter. Mirth coloured his
pictures, but benevolence designed them."
Horace Walpole.
" Hogarth is the peculiar property of our own country.
The coarse personal satire which was exhibited on various
occasions by Salvator Rosa and Spagnoletti, and the vulgar
representations of scenes and individuals by the Flemish and
Dutch masters, have no analogy either in their intention or
composition with the works of Hogarth, which were des
tined to excite moral reflections, and to correct gross and
popular abuses, or the absurdities of prevailing fashions.
They are admirable moral lessons, and afford a fund of enter
tainment suited to every circumstance, which shows them
to be just copies of nature."
Rev. J. Dallaway.
" This was painting to the understanding and the heart;
none had ever before made the pencil subservient to the

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
purposes of morality and instruction. A book like this is
suited to every soil and to every observer, and he that runs
may read."
John Nichols.
" His_subjects generally conyey .useful -lessons of morality,
and are calculateiLto improve the man- as well as the artist;
and he teache£jvith_ effect, Jaecause-he -delights while he in
structs. His humour never fails to excite mirth, and it is
directed against the fit objects of ridicule or contempt."
R. P. Knight.
^JHogarth_may_be indisputably regarded as the first moral
painter of this or any other country ; for to his honour be it
recorded, .Jthe almost invariable tendency of his dramatic
histories is the promotion of virtue, and the diffusion of such
a spirit as tends to make man industrious, humane, and
happy."
John Ireland.
Mr. Allan Cunningham, the last, but far from the least
of Hogarthian critics, comes forward but to confirm the
opinions of his predecessors : if his zeal be even warmer,
and his praise yet louder, no other discrepancies are visible.
Nay, he has rescued both the character and the works of
Hogarth from many misrepresentations.
" The pjibhij_saw--jadth__wo_nder_ii-^eriesj^productions
combined into one graj^^n^ffaV^nd^saliricrstory ; exhibit-
irigin Tf uthT^a regular drama, neither wholly serious nor
wholly comic, in "WmHTfasEonable'follies and ihoraLcorrup-
trbrTs "h^^their ¥e^rrninf; their middle, and their end.
Painters had been hitherto employed in investing ladies of
loose reputation with the hues of -heaven, and-turning-their
paramours into Adonises ; here was one who dipt both in

XVI introductory essay.
the lake of darkneps^and held them up together to the scorn
and derision of mankind. Here"we had porfrarts of the vicious
and the vile— -not^ the idle occupants of their platrea, btrtv
active in their callingv_s_uecgssful in-their shame, n,nd, jaarch-
ing steadily and wickedly onwards; while not a porter
looked at them in the printseller's windows, without feeling
his burthen lighter as he named them. _Hogarth'sJellow-
arjjists saw with surprise tliosa. monitory aadr-saaaastic.jcrfia-
tions which refuse to owe any of their attractions to the
established graqe&_ of Lthe schools, or to tEe^wofKs^of any
actist^new or old. The mixtare-ef -the Halii-krwrth-4he_soJemn ]
- — the paJhStic with thejudicrous — of simplicity with cunning
-^and virtue with vice, was but an image of London and of
7JhumalTnature7 The actors, some of them at least, might be"
regarded as the evil spirits of the time, which a mighty hand
had come to exorcise and lay.
" The Harlot's Progress is no burlesque production nor
jesting matter ; it exhibits, in the midst of humour and
satire, a moral pathos which saddens the heart.
" If the subjects which painting embodies could be as
clearly described by the pen, there would be less use for the
pencil; nothing short of the examination of these varied
productions can properly satisfy curiosity."
We cite this new authority in favour of our artist with
greater pleasure, in order to refer the reader to the author's
recent Life of Hogarth. It forms a part of his " Lives of
the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Archi
tects ;" a work which bears the stamp of candid accuracy,
though from the author's keen sense of the ludicrous,
one often laughs outright, as over a page of Fielding or
Smollett. Yet mark the contrast betwixt Mr. C.'s reflective
vindication of the heroic Hogarth, and his lives of those
whose eccentricity, being even more conspicuous than their

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XVII
genius, exposes them to the force of that ridicule which is
inseparable from a faithful narration of events. Hogarth's
whole life (like many a brave man's in every other station)
was but a series of battles with those he was destined to
benefit or excel ; and whose constant victories did equal
honour to the artist and the man ! He may be said to
have died sword in hand, but it was through the malice
rather than the power of those inveterate foes, created by
his merit and success.
J. M.

DR. TRUSLER'S PREFACE.

So much having been said, in the course of this work, of
Mr. Hogarth's abilities and excellence, anything more
on that head would be deemed tautology. I shall only say,
(as to usher a book into the world without a preface, would,
in this age, be thought an absurdity) lest I should be con
demned for want of taste, and not entering a little more
into the spirit and execution of our author's performances,
that I never designed to point out that which stands so visible
to the world, or pay the pubhc so ill a compliment, as not
to imagine them as capable of judging of beauties and de
formities, as one that never made them his study 1. My
intentions, in giving the following explanations, were to
bring some minute objects to view, which lay concealed
amid a crowd of larger ones ; to hold the painter forth in a
1 [The first edition of this work offered the means of studying our great
artist at one-fifth of the expense of any former one — the striking novelty of
bringing so singular a collection into a convenient form, and at a price '
within the reach of all classes, proved so very acceptable to the public, that
a fine copy of the perfect work has produced five times its original cost.
The present revival offers all the same facilities, with the advantage of
larger prints of many of the principal subjects. Through this medium it is
hoped the artist will again speak for himself, far and wide. Fielding has
well observed respecting our author, " it hath been thought a vast commen
dation of a painter to say his figures seem to breathe ; but surely it is a
much greater and nobler applause that they appear to think." Smart also
in his poem of the " Hilliad," says,
" While speaking figures from the canvass start,
And Hogarth stands the Garrick of his art !"] J. n.

DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE. XIX
moral light, and convince the age there is more in his design,
than to ridicule and lash the follies of it. For the time our
author lived, no one could apply himself more than he did,
to the service of the public. He stands the foremost in the
list of artists, both with respect to execution and discovery.
It was long the opinion of his profession that the standard
of beauty was a right line ; in consequence of this, In recto
decus1, became an established maxim. Indeed, of late years,
it has rather been considered in a moral view ; yet, still, it
is plain, it took its rise from imagery ; for in the frontis
piece of the Universal History is engraved an upright co
lumn, with the above-mentioned motto beneath; a suffi
cient proof of my assertion. Mr. Hogarth was the first
person that contradicted this erroneous notion ; he published
a treatise 2, in order to show that the line of beauty is ser
pentine ; agreeing in this with the ancients, who worshipped
the goddess of beauty under a conical form, as at Paphos,
in the island of Cyprus. The medals struck, when a Roman
emperor visited the temple, confirming it ; of which Fig. 1.
is a representation.

No. 1.

No. 2.

Simulacrum dew non effigie humana, continuus orbis latiore
initio tenuem in ambitum metce modo exsurgens. Et ratio in

1 Beauty consists in a right line.
2 Analysis of Beauty, 4to. Price 15s.
a2

XX DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE.
obscuro1- Tacitus Hist. lib. 2. So again, Venus a PapMis
colitur, cujus simulacrum nulli rei magis assimile, quam albce
pyramidi*. Maximus Tyrius, ann. 157. Hence, it appears,
that our author has revived what, for many years, laid
buried in oblivion. Now, compare this plate to that beside
it, (Fig. 2.) which is a true copy of the precise line of
beauty, as it stands in the first explanatory print in his
analysis, and you will find them extremely similar. Who,
then, can doubt the judicious discovery, or hesitate a
moment at adopting it ; especially when a view of every
one of our author's publications corroborates the fact, they
being allowed to charm the eye, which they could not do,
were not every group pyramidical, and did not the serpen
tine line flow very conspicuously throughout 3 ? Here, then,
is judgment ; here is masterly care ! sufficient to perpetuate
our author's memory to the end of time ! Thus much for
the painter — now for the man. As he must be a faithless
biographer who trumpets forth the perfections of his hero
and conceals his foibles ; and as the best of us all are liable
to little weaknesses, which we cannot disavow : on these
considerations, I flatter myself, I may be allowed to say,
that Mr. Hogarth could not avoid the infection of the
times, but employed his talents in political matters, a subject
none can take part in, be it on which side it will, without
drawing on his head the malevolence of some. Whether led
by principle or interest, I shall not say ; but, the following
print sufficiently declares, he directed his artillery against
the leaders of faction, and held with the court ; a faithful
servant to that master, in whose employment he was 4.
1 The image of the goddess, not of human form, is an orbit winding from
a broad base, upwards, to a point.
2 Venus is worshipped by the Paphians, under the similitude of some
thing very much resembling a white pyramid.
3 Two right lines, touching the outside of the figures in every group will
be found to meet, above, in a point, forming an angle within.
4 Mr. Hogarth was, at that time, serjeant-painter to the king, which place
he enjoyed to the day of his death.

DR. TIUISLKRS PREFACE.

XXI

This is a fine caricatura, and no small likeness of John
Wilkes, then member for the borough of Aylesbury, in the
county of Buckingham ; a man who stood forth as the
leader of a party formed against the administration. The
views with which he acted are now publicly known, and
he lies under that disgrace he gathered for himself. Liberty
he roared out on all occasions, and was the very bell
wether of his flock. With an eye to this, Mr. Hogarth has
represented him, as having been twirling the cap of liberty
(a fool's-cap) upon the end of a stick ; for a fool's-cap it
proved to him, it having banished him his country, entailed
upon him beggary, and made him the laugh of a jeering
populace. On the table, beside him, are two papers of the
North Briton, of which he acknowledged himself the au
thor1. In defence of this man, rose another2, who called
1 No. 45, and 71, the first of which was burnt by the common hangman.
2 Charles Churchill

DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE.

himself his friend ; one who, indeed, possessed extraordinary
talents as a writer, but who was as remarkable for a
viciousness of character : if he had any discretion, it was
that of joining the popular side ; but that can hardly be
called a discretion, when, had he lived a few years longer, he
would, probably, have experienced an equal fate with his
contemporary, Wilkes. This man — a minister once, I think,
he called himself, though he afterwards wisely laid aside that
sacred office he could only disgrace ; — this man, I say, took
up the pen against Mr. Hogarth, and in an epistle to him,
which he published, charged him with envying every man
that had any degree of excellence, and with his being a
friend to no one : this naturally drew on him Mr. Hogarth's
resentment, and was the occasion of his publishing the
following print.

DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE. XX111
In order to enter into the spirit of this print, the reader
must be told that the person it was designed to represent,
was stout, lusty, and broad-shouldered, equally rough in his
person as his manners, and one who prided himself in being
frank and open ; consequently, among the politer part of
mankind, was considered as bearish. This, added to the
received notion, that robustness proceeds from coarseness
of living, and carries with it a stamp of vulgarity, deter
mined our author to hold him forth in the character of a
bear, or "a Russian Hercules, (yet, no small likeness of
the man) regaling himself" with a pot of porter, "after
having killed the monster Caricatura, that so sorely galled
his virtuous friend, the heaven-born Wilkes ' ;" and has
admirably described by his hugging the pot, and the drops
falling from his mouth, his secret enjoyment of that delicious
drink. He has tied a band about his neck, alluding to his
profession ; described it as torn, to intimate his having been
in some fray ; and put ruffles about his paws, in order to
ridicule his general custom of wearing them. With his left
paw, he holds a knotted club, which, by the letters N B,
above, he would have us understand to be the North-Bri
ton, a weekly publication he and his friend, Mr. Wilkes,
were engaged in : a production, Mr. Hogarth evidently con
sidered as containing little else than falsehood, by writing
on this club, infamous fallacy, and describing its knots, as
so many notorious, injurious lies. By way of enriching the
piece, this picture is raised from the floor, on which lie a
painter's pallet, and a graver's tool, emblems of our author's
joint profession, by two or three books, one of which is
entituled, A New Way to pay Old Debts, a comedy, by Mas-
singer ; on another is written, Great George-street 2, A List
of the Subscribers to the North-Briton ; with a begging-box
1 These words, between inverted commas, are Mr, Hogarth's own words,
engraved at the bottom of the plate.
2 The place where Mr. Wilkes resided.

XXIV DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE.
over it, to intimate their writing that paper merely for sup
port. On one side is Trump, a faithful dog of Mr. Hogarth's,
contemptuously treating the epistle that gave rise to this
print : on the other, a political painting, to the following
purpose : in one place, Mr. Pitt ' is represented sitting at
his ease, with a millstone hanging over his head, on which
is written, 3000?. 2 ; firing a mortar-piece, levelled at a dove,
bearing an olive-branch, (the symbol of peace) perched on
the standard of England. He is attended, on each hand,
by the two giants of Guildhall 3, with pipes in their mouths,
referring to the support he met with from the city of Lon
don, particularly that of a wealthy American 4. One of
these giants is putting a crown on the hero's head, as if
aiming at supreme power ; the other is holding in his hand
a shield, containing the Austrian arms, which Mr. Pitt is
spurning from his feet. On the other side is Mr. Hogarth,
leading Wilkes and Churchill in a string ; the first described
-as a monkey, riding on a hobby horse, with the cap of
liberty on the top of it, and the North-Briton in his hand :
the second, as a muzzled bear, ruffled, with a band about
his neck, and a laced hat upon his head 5, he flogging them,
and making them dance to the scrapings of a fiddler, de
signed to represent a nobleman 6, who patronized them in
the year 1763, when this print was published, who, for his
unmeaning face, has ever been described without a feature.
It would be folly to animadvert on the subject of this paint
ing, the circumstances being well known, (it being a temporal
matter,) and now out of date. Suffice it to say, it, at that
1 Since Earl of Chatham.
2 Alluding to his saying, Hanover was a millstone round the neck of
England, on account of the expenses attending it ; and his afterwards adding
to the public expenses, by accepting a pension of 3000Z. a year.
J Two wooden figures, erected in Guildhall.
1 Alderman Beckford.
6 Mr. Churchill, though a clergyman, generally appeared in ruffles and a
laced hat.
6 Earl Temple.

DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE. XXV
time, answered our author's purpose, and was much admired
by the public '.
Permit me, now, to say, during the publication of this
work in numbers, I have been blamed by some for making
the pages breathe so great an air of piety ; and censured
by others, for here and there an indecent or unbecoming
expression. With respect to both, I endeavoured to avoid
them, as far as was consistent with my original plan. While
I moralized, I studied to explain ; and while I explained, I
studied to moralize. Some there are that can never ap
prove; I address not myself to such, but to the candid
reader, who, in censuring, knows how to make allowance,
and in condemning, has mercy, sometimes, to acquit. How
ever culpable I may have been, with regard to the charge
brought against me, I have taken some pains to do my
author justice, having suffered nothing to escape me of
moment or importance. I have also, with the approbation
of his widow, given the public a complete edition 2 of the
1 At the bottom of the plate, are the following lines :
"  But he had a club, this dragon to drub,
Or he had ne'er don't, I warrant ye."  Dragon of Wantley.
*** For the lines at the bottom of the several plates, Mr. Hogarth was
obliged to Dr. Hoadley, son of the Bishop of Winchester, and some others.
2 [" Complete edition." This expression is almost literally correct, even
to the present day ; although, since the time of Hogarth, a number of his
less interesting works have become more or less familiar to the public, from
the hands of other engravers. Of this secondary class, the history is often
involved in painful controversy, as the originals neither satisfied patx-ons or
critics, when Hogarth departed from his own truly original line.
Even Wilkes and Churchill, with all their irritation and anger, are candid
on this point. " I will do him the justice," says Wilkes, " to say that he
possesses the rare talent of gibbeting in colours, and that in most of his
works, he has been a very good moral satirist. His forte is there, and he
should have kept to it." Churchill alludes as follows to the happier works
of his antagonist :
" Where a plain story to the eye is told,
Which we perceive the moment we behold." The

XXVI DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE.
works of that celebrated artist, and that at a price much
less than any of the copies have been ever sold for. As
a copy, this small edition may claim the preference ; for,
to give the engraver his due, they have great spirit and
delicacy : whereas such other impressions as have been
The selection made by Dr. Trusler was, in fact, very copious, and it may
well be pruned of a few subjects, such as do not assort with the main inten
tion of the author ; as also one particular set of prints ; the re-engraving of
which would only perpetuate many cruelties which, in the present state of
society, are, thanks to Providence, forgotten ; the " Four Stages of Cruelty,"
— the subjects of which are too painful for contemplation. On the other
hand will be added, " Taste in High Life," and the " Politician," as appear
ing to be the only ones of his posthumous works, necessary to complete that
highest class of Hogarth's productions, which is the most interesting, because
the most easily understood.
As this volume, therefore, will be found to contain every thing by which
our great artist is most advantageously known, it may be emphatically styled
the Works of Hogarth.
Upon these, as being the chief favourites even of himself, his original
genius and invention appear to have been completely poured out ; yet such
is the interest attached to his name, that it requires the intervention of critical
acumen to know where to stop either in admiration or pursuit.
The Priced Catalogues of the most eminent sales afford full evidence that
a Collector may expend from one to three hundred guineas in the purchase
of the original prints ; nay, even as many thousands, as some assert — where
the finest possible impressions, with every known " variation/' &c. have
been the object of pursuit ; while such collections have rarely, if ever, been
brought to re-sale without enhancing the wealth of their owners. Those
however, who cannot afford so to luxuriate, may, at the same time, console
themselves with the following discriminative remarks from the Monthly
Review, upon Mr. Samuel Ireland's " Graphic Illustrations of Hogarth ;"
which consist of the mere scraps of Hogarth's portfolio, and copies of the
impressions of his engravings on silver plate in his early days. "We shall
take our leave of Mr. Ireland with thanking him for the amusement with
which he has furnished us. We cannot, however, help observing, that
Hogarth's claim to praise and admiration will rest on those of his produc
tions which are most common, and most easily procured ; and that our
opinion of this incomparable Artist's talents is not heightened by the speci
mens presented to us in this volume." (Vol. xvii. 2d Series )
As for the pretensions of the present work, it seems, in the first place to
offer itself as a strikingly agreeable Travelling Companion ; secondly, as a
pleasing Key to a part of the stores of the wealthy collector ; and lastly as
an economical succedaneum for those who, having but a small library may
have excluded this delightful author on the objection of bulk as well as of
expensiveness.] J. M.

DR. TRUSLER S PREFACE. XXVII
hitherto published are of so poor a nature, as to be a dis
grace to the memory of Mr. Hogarth, a manifest injustice
to his family, and a gross imposition on the public '.
1 [The above remarks of Dr. Truster were perfectly just, considering the
state of the arts at the time when they were made ; yet, probably, a dozen of
the Doctor's plates were executed for the cost of a single one of the larger
subjects which appear in this new undertaking ; on the appearance of which,
the original edition sank immediately to about one sixth of the price it used
to sustain at sales and in bookseller's catalogues.] J. M.

DESCRIPTIVE LIST
OF THE
ENGRAVINGS,
WITH
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE VARIATIONS OF THE ORIGINAL
PRINTS, LOCAL AND PERSONAL VERIFICATION,

COPPER PLATES.

1. Portrait and Signature of Hogarth, to face the Title-page.
Published March 29th, 1758 \
The Harlot's Progress.— Six Plates. 1733-34 2.
2. Page 1. Plate I. The Country Girl's Arrival in London.
3. Page 5. Plate II. The Harlot in Affluence.
4. Page 7. Plate III. The Harlot in Poverty.
5. Page 9. Plate IV. The Harlot in Bridewell.
6. Page 11. Plate V. The Harlot's Death.
7. Page 13. Plate VI. The Harlot's Funeral.
The Rake's Progress. — Eight Plates. June 25th, 1735.
8. Page 19. Plate I. The Rake's Inheritance.
1 There are four variations of this Portrait. The first has the words "The
face," before " Engraved by W. Hogarth," inserted by his own hand, the
second has all those words omitted : the third impression has the face and
mask of Comedy marked with black hues, and the words " Serjeant Painter
to his Majesty," in the title, scratched over by the burin, though they still
remain sufficiently legible ; which was done on the King's disregarding the
March to Finchley : the fourth state has only the artist's name, with 1764,
inscribed beneath it ; but the face is retouched and less like than it appears
in the first and second editions.
2 A pirated set of copies of these plates was published before the originals,
November 25th, 1732, by E. Kirkall. They were executed in chiaro-'scuro,
and printed in a green tint.

DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF THE ENGRAVINGS. Xxix
9. Page 24. Plate II. The Rake's Levee.
10. Page 27. Plate III. The Rake in a Tavern.
11. Page 30. Plate IV. The Rake arrested.
12. Page 32. Plate V. The Rake's Marriage \
13. Page 35. Plate VI. The Rake in a Gaming-house.
14. Page 37. Plate VII. The Rake in Prison.
15. Page 39. Plate VIII. The Rake in Bethlehem2.
The Election. — Four Plates.
16. Page 46. Plate I. An Election Entertainment. February
24th, 1755.
17. Page 51. Plate II. Canvassing for Votes. February 20th,
1757.
18. Page 55. Plate III. Polling at the Hustings. February
20th, 1758.
19. Page 58. Plate IV. Chairing the Members. January 1st,
1758.
The Marriage-a-la-Mode. — Six Plates. April 1st, 1745.
20. Page 63. Plate I. The Peer's Drawing-Room.
21. Page 66. Plate II. The Saloon.
22. Page 68. Plate III. The Empiric's Study.
23. Page 70. Plate IV. The Toilette.
24. Page 73. Plate V. The Bagnio- Chamber3.
25. Page 75. Plate VI. The Alderman's Parlour.
1 In this plate Hogarth has introduced his favourite dog Trump, courting
a, one-eyed animal of his own species, as a happy and ludicrous parody on
the unnatural union taking place in the church. Of Hogarth's dog Roubiliac
made a model the size of life.
2 The coin dated 1763, which the mad projector has drawn upon the wall,
as mentioned on page 42, is, of course, not in the original state of this plate ;
but only the figure of the world, of which he proposes to find out the longi
tude by a bomb-shell shot over it. The direction of the female visitors' looks
is also different in the last state of the engraving, and the shadows are
strengthened and slightly altered. Hogarth in consequence added to the
inscription, " Retouched by the author, 1 763."
3 In this print is a curious instance of Hogarth's ingenious method of in
dicating the presence of an object which could not appear in the picture :
since the strong shadow of a pair of tongs on the right, shows that there is
a fire in the apartment ; the time being winter, the season of masquerades.
The same contrivance is also employed in the engraving of The Cockpit,
where the shadow of a person drawn up to the ceiling in a basket for having
made more bets than he could pay, is reflected on the ground.

XXX DESCRIPTIVE LIST
Industry and Idleness.— Twelve Plates, 30th September,
1747 \
26. Page 81. Plate I. The Apprentices at their Looms.
27. Page 83. Plate II. The Industrious Apprentice at Church.
28. Page 85. Plate III. The Idle Apprentice gaming.
29. Page 86. Plate IV. The Industrious Apprentice in favour.
30. Page 88. Plate V. The Idle Apprentice discarded and sent
to sea.
31. Page 89. Plate VI. The Industrious Apprentice married2.
1 Hogarth's own account of the motives which induced him to design and
publish this excellent series of moral pictures, does him considerable honour,
and strongly expresses the virtuous and disinterested principles upon which
he acted, combined with the most sensible and accurate views of his art.
" Industry and Idleness," says the artist, in a manuscript containing his first
thoughts on the subject, when he exerted his pencil in its execution, — '' ex
emplified in the conduct of Two Fellow- Apprentices : where the one, by
taking good courses, and pursuing those points for which he was put appren
tice, becomes a valuable man, and an ornament to his country : whilst the
other, giving way to idleness, naturally falls into poverty and ends fatally, as
is expressed in the last print. As the prints were intended more for use
than ornament, they were done in a way that might bring them within the
purchase of those whom they might most concern ; and, lest any part should
be mistaken, a description of each is engraved thereon. Yet, notwithstand
ing the inaccuracy of the engraving, what was thought conducive and neces
sary for the purpose for which they were intended, such as action and ex
pression, &c. are as carefully attended to as the most delicate strokes of the
graver would have given, sometimes more : for often expression, the first
quality in pictures, suffers in this point, for fear the beauty of the stroke
should be spoiled ; while the rude and hasty touch, when the fancy is warm,
gives a spirit not to be equalled by high finishing." Hogarth adds, also,
that the twelve prints being " calculated for the instruction of young people,
every thing is addressed to them in words, as well as in figures ,•" and that he
always found them " sell much more rapidly at Christmas than at any other
time." It is stated in Tlie British Critic, vol. xii. p. 354, on the authority of
Dr. James, that a sermon was once preached from this set of engravings.
2 In the original state of this plate the names beneath the sign were
" Goodchild and West ;" which Hogarth transposed on being informed of
the impropriety of placing the junior partner first. The scene of this sub
ject is placed on the eastern side of Fish-street Hill, a few doors south of
the Monument, a part of which is visible ; but there is probably little fidelity
in the view, since, though the houses be distinguished by signs they are all
apparently without shops, which never appears to have been the case in that
part of the city. The maimed beggar with the ballad, on the left of the pic
ture, is a portrait of a notorious mendicant, known by the name of " Philip

OF THE ENGRAVINGS. XXxi
32. Page 91. Plate VII. The Idle Apprentice with a Prostitute.
33. Page 93. Plate VIII. The Industrious Apprentice Sheriff
of London '.
34. Page 94. Plate IX. The Idle Apprentice betrayed and
arrested for murder '-
35. Page 96, Plate X. The Idle Apprentice committed by the
Industrious Apprentice 3.
in the Tub ;" a constant epithalamist at the London weddings, who had tra
velled into Ireland, and even into the United Provinces.
1 The scene of this festival is said to be laid in the late Fishmongers' Hall,
by the old London Bridge, chiefly from the introduction of Sir William
Walworth's statue in the centre of the plate ; though Hogarth's apartment
bears no resemblance to the interior of that building. A wooden figure of
Walworth, however, holding a real dagger, erroneously reported to have
been the identical weapon with which Tyler was slain, stood at the eastern
end of the Hall of the Fishmongers' Company until the edifice was taken
down in 1827, in a recess behind the Prime Warden's chair ; though it
should be observed that the position was perfectly different from that of the
effigy in the present plate. Beneath the statue was the following well-known
inscription : — " Brave Walworth, knight, y Slew
Rebellious Tyler in his Alarmes ;
The King therefore did give in Liew
The Dagger to the Cityes Armes.
" In the ith yeare of Richa- 2 Anno Domini 1381."
The clergyman leaning forward over his soup, on the inner side of the table
on the left, is stated to have been designed for the Rev. Mr. Platell, curate
of Barnet. There is an enlarged copy by Bartolozzi of the head of the
citizen in the tie-wig.
2 Nichols states, that he was assured that the situation of the night-cellar
exhibited in this plate, was in " Blood Bowl Alley, down by the fishmonger's,
near Water Lane, in Fleet Street," where was perpetrated the act which
gave rise to the name ; though on page 95 of this work Dr. Trusler
states it to have stood in Chick Lane. Horrid and disgusting as the name
is, however, it was probably only a satirical corruption of either the intricate
Blue Boar Court in that part of Smithfield ; or of Blue Ball Court, the first
turning beyond the passage to St. Bride's Church in Dorset Street, Fleet
Street ; the turning by Water Lane being called Hanging Sword Alley.
Strype observes of the latter places in his time, which was contemporary
with that of Hogarth, that they were better built than inhabited ; and that
the smaller courts could not be much boasted of.
3 It is perhaps worth noticing in this print, that the Industrious Appren
tice is improperly decorated with a gold chain, not having served the office
of Mayor ; and that though he might wear it as Sheriff, he could not then
officiate as the Sitting Alderman. It is difficult to ascertain the exact scene
12

XXX11 DESCRIPTIVE LIST
36. Page 98. Plate XI. The Idle Apprentice executed at
Tyburn.
37. Page 100. Plate XII. The Industrious Apprentice Lord
Mayor of London1.
intended by Hogarth in this plate. The present Mansion House was not
inhabited until 1753, but it is possible that the artist has here delineated the
entrance to the old Justice-Room ; looking towards the colonnade on the west
side of Guildhall Yard, which was taken down for the erection of the present
buildings in 1789. On the line of fire-buckets suspended in the back-ground
are the initials S. A. of which it is not very easy to guess the import, though,
they may stand for Sheriff Alsop, who served the office in 1742-43 ; thus
perhaps indicating the time when the view was taken.
1 The appearance of Frederick-Louis and Augusta, Prince and Princess
of Wales, in the balcony at the King's Head, at the top of Cheapside, has
been already noticed ; but it may be observed, that they are not seated in
the place specially appointed for the Royal Family to view the civic pageants
and processions. This seat was fixed opposite Bow Church, and probably
originated in that SUdam, or shed, mentioned by Stow, erected by Edward
III. for the accommodation of himself, the Queen, &c. viewing the joustinga
and other stately shows of London ; whence it received the name of " the
Crown Silde." It continued to be used for the same purpose until 1410, when
it was let to certain mercers ; but both foreign and English sovereigns, &c.
commonly resorted thither at civic festivals, and the March of the City
Watch. When the Royal Family was entertained at Guildhall on the first
Lord Mayor's day after a coronation, it was from the gallery of the house
erected on the site of the old building, that they witnessed the procession ;
as it is recorded of the royal visits from 1689 to 1761. The house is now
No. 108, and has been recently rebuilt in a more ornamented style than any
of the adjoining. It will be remembered that on September 10th, 173",
Frederick, Prince of Wales, was ordered to withdraw from St. James's, and
that he held a separate court at Leicester House until his death in 1751,
which probably accounts for himself and the princess not being represented
by Hogarth in the royal gallery opposite Bow Church ; though there had
been a political reconciliation, Feb. 17th, 1742. Besides this balcony, which
was used only occasionally, it was the custom, down to the end of the last
century, for the companies of London to erect their own stands along Cheap-
side on every Lord Mayor's day, hung with tapestry, and distinguished by
their standards, which was also a relique of a very ancient custom. The
present print shows one of these stands on the left with a banner assumed
by the Pin-Makers' Company. Of so great importance, also, was the view
from the houses in Cheapside considered, that in Wood's Body of Conveyanc
ing, vol. ii. p. 180, there is a London lease, one clause of which gives a right
to the landlord and his friends to stand in the balcony, during the time of
the shows or pastimes upon the day called Lord Mayor's Day This is
similar to the provision in the leases of those houses at Westminster which
command any view of the Coronation processions, that they shall revert to

OF THE ENGRAVINGS. XXXni
38. Page 115. The Sleeping Congregation. October 26th, 1736.
39. Page 120. Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism. A
Medley. March 15th, 1762 \
40. Page 127. The Enraged Musician. November 30th, 1741.
41. Page 130. The Distressed Poet. March 3rd, 1736.
42. Page 134. Beer-Street. February 1st, 1751 2.
43. Page 138. Gin-Lane. February 1st, 1751.
The Four Times oe the Day. March 25th, 1738.
44. Page 144. Morning : — Scene, Covent-Garden ; Season,
Winter.
the landlord at the time of the ceremony. Before quitting Hogarth's plate
it may be noticed, that the Stationers' Company is seen behind the State-
Coach returning to the Hall up Pater-Noster Row ; that the Trained Bands,
so humorously exhibited, were finally lost in the London Militia in 1796 ; and
that the Sword-Bearer's Cap of Maintenance appearing at the window of
the State-Coach is still worn on days of ceremony, though Mr. Ireland
states it in his time to have been long laid aside.
1 Hogarth's original intention in this plate was to expose the absurdities
of Popery and Transubstantiation, which he indicated by figures of Christ,
placed in the hands of several of the characters, some of whom were in the
act of eating them. After taking only two impressions of the plate in this
state, he changed the point of his ridicule, and directed it against the most
superstitious and enthusiastic of the Dissenters ; erasing or essentially
altering all the figures but two, and producing the subject as it at present
appears, upon the same piece of copper. A part of his original design was
also to ridicule the delineations of spiritual personages employed by ancient
painters, and he showed on the margin of the plate that he had selected his
examples from Raffaelle, Rubens, Rembrandt, &c. Mr. John Ireland was
in possession of both the impressions of the original print, of which he
engraved a very careful copy as a contrast to the present ; and one of the
former was sold at his sale, March 6th, 1810, to Mr. G. Baker, for 181. 7s. 6d.
The first inscription was "Enthusiasm Delineated. Humbly dedicated to
His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, by his Grace's most obedient
humble Servant, William Hogarth."
2 Hogarth was accustomed to say, with good-natured candour, " I never
was right until I had been wrong," and in the second state of this plate he
made a remarkable alteration illustrative of this maxim. Mr. Walpole
remarks that " the butcher tossing the Frenchman in the air is absolute
hyperbole ; and, what is worse, was an after-thought, not being in the first
edition." In this, however, he was mistaken ; since the supposed butcher
is a blacksmith, and it was really to get rid of this overstrained piece of
humour that he very properly altered the figure, and made it a shoulder of
mutton, as it now appears. b

XXXIV DESCRIPTIVE LIST
45. Page 148. Noon : — Scene, Hog-lane, St. Giles's.
46. Page 150. Evening: — Scene, Sadler's Wells, Islington;
Season, Summer.
47. Page 152. Night : — Scene, Charing-Cross ; Season, Spring.
Four Groups of Heads.
48. Page 156. The Laughing Audience. 1733.
Used as a Receipt for the plates of the Rake's Progress and
Fair.
49. Page 157. The Public Lecture. March 3rd, 1736; January
20th, 1737.
50. Page 158. The Chorus. 1733.
51. Page 159. The Undertakers' Arms : a Consultation of Phy
sicians. March 3rd, 1736.
52. Page 161. The March of the Guards to Finchley in 1746.
December 31st, 17501.
53. Page 172. The Cock-Match. November 5th, 1759 2.
1 In the variations of this print the word " Prusia" being spelled with a
single s does not alone prove the first state of the plate ; the earliest being
dated December 30th, which, in 1750 happening on a Sunday, was altered
to the 31st. In the second state also, a belt was added to the Duke of
Cumberland's portrait. The third state has " retouched and improved by
William Hogarth, June 12th, 1761." Luke Sullivan, however, was the
original engraver of the whole plate, and the very beautiful reduced pencil
outline which he made from the picture, is in the Hogarth Collection in the
Print-Room of the British Museum. This drawing accounts for the figures
appearing the same way in the print as in the painting, contrary to Hogarth's
usual custom. It is related also by Nichols, that all the off-tracts from the
faces in the original picture, executed in fed chalk on oiled paper, are still
preserved. There are said to be several portraits contained in this engrav
ing, namely, Mother Douglas, the stout female at the window on the right ;
a noted French pieman ; the sweep beside him ; and one of the young lifers,
whom the Duke of Cumberland had recently introduced into the army ; the
two latter having been hired by Hogarth as models. The fifer in the picture
was noticed and promoted by the Duke to an ensigncy.
2 The edifice introduced in the present plate was erected in the Bird-Cage
Walk, St. James's Park, near the entrance to Great Queen-Street ; and was
taken down upwards of twenty years since. The following copy of an
advertisement of this place, in 1754, nearly the time of Hogarth's print,
may probably be considered as a curious illustration of it. « At the Cockpit
Royal, the South side of St. James's Park, on Monday next, the 3rd of June,
will be fought » great Match of Cock Fighting, for Four Guineas a Battle,
and Twenty Guineas the Odd Battle, and to continue all the week : between
the Gentlemen of Oxfordshire and the Gentlemen of London. Note. The
12

OF THE ENGRAVINGS. XXXV
54. Page 184. The Company of Strollers. March 25th, 1738.
55. Page 196. A Midnight modern Conversation. 1733.
56. Page 206. The Fair. 1733 K
57. Page 237. Taste in High Life, in the year 1742. May 24th.
Cocks of the London side called Cardinals, lately mentioned in the Daily
Papers. To begin at Five o'Clock. Ben Duxon, John Newill, Feeders."
1 In addition to those spurious copies of this print mentioned on page 235,
there are also some by Bowles, of different degrees of merit. The rarest of
them is a large, coarse, and inferior, etching, a reverse of Hogarth's plate,
" Printed for I. Bowles and Son, at ye Black Horse in Cornhill," having
beneath it the following verses in five columns ; taken from Banckes's poem
descriptive of this print referred to on page 229.
" Who can behold, without a smile,
How, 'midst the Ruins of the Pile,
Great Hallam eyes his falling Queen,
And sees whatever may be seen ?
While on the Pole the Monkey swings,
And for his life poor Pickle clings ;
Mimicks alike of humane Race,
Of equal Service in their Place.
There, Puppet Kings, in Settle's verse,
The Siege and Fall of Troy rehearse ;
Or, in more lofty numbers, tell
How Women stray'd, and Mankind fell.
From Courts, and Camps, and antient Days,
To humbler shows the 'Prentice strays ;
Where Hocus chews the burning Flax,
Or where young Lewis struts in Wax ;
To see the mighty Saxon's shape,
Or in the Box for halfpence peep ;
While doleful Bagpipes grate the ear,
And Booths regale with acid Beer.
Here Yeats and Pinchbeck change the scenes
To Slight of Hand, and Clock-Machines ;
First, numerous Eggs are layd, and then
The pregnant Bag brings forth a Hen !
So much for nothing at the Door,
Within 'tis wonderful — be sure !
See how the Loons, with eager stare,
Own Cupid's Reign, ev'n in a Fair.
Caught with the painted Drummer's Face,
They long to try the leud Embrace :
Ah ! Lads, 'tis poison all within,
To 'scape the Pain, — avoid the Sin.
Here we the boisterous Tipstaff note
Seizing a Monarch by the Throat ;

XXXvi DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF THE ENGRAVINGS.

WOOD CUTS.
1. Introduction. Page v. Hogarth's Villa at Chiswick.
2. Page xix. The Conical-Shell of Venus, and the Line of
Beauty.
3. Page xxi. Caricature Portrait of John Wilkes. May 16th,
1763.
4. Page xxii. The Bruiser — a Caricature Portrait of the Rev.
Charles Churchill. August 1st, 1763 \
5. Page 106. The Invasion, France. 1756.
6. Page 109. England. 1756 2.
7. Page 111. The Gates of Calais ; or, the Roast-Beef of Old
England. March 6th, 1749.
8. Page 169. Columbus breaking the Egg. 1753.
Subscription-Ticket to Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty.
9. Page 178. The Country-Inn Yard. 1747.
10. Page 240. The Politician. October 31st, 1775.
11. Page 254. The Tail- Piece. 1764.
12. Page 256. Hogarth's Tomb at Chiswick.
The Hockley Brave I might rehearse
How scarr'd, how mounted, and how fierce.
See Cheat and Whore the Justice part,
One picks his Pocket, one his Heart :
While Six for One invites to Dice,
Till the gull'd Coxcomb damns the Vice."
1 Hogarth is said to have originally drawn the head of the Bear in this
print from that of a living subject kept in the Tower. A beautiful fac-simile
of his first sketch is engraven in vol. iii. p. 163, of Nichols's Genuine Works
of Hogarth, from a very small memorandum-book formerly iu the collection
of Mr. John Ireland. In a variation of the finished plate, the face of " the
Russian Hercules" is given with a different effect.
2 Mr. Ireland observes that the little Fifer on the left, employed in play
ing the animating and inspiring tune of " God Save the King," is an old
acquaintance ; since he may be recognised as the same introduced in the
March to Finchley. The rustic being measured on the right, who is raising
himself on tiptoe to make himself of the standard height, is reported to have
been drawn from Garrick, who placed himself in this ludicrous and natural
position. This tradition is confirmed partly by some features of the great
actor which are visible through even the assumed rusticity ; and partly by
the spirit with which the character is being performed. Garrick also wrote
the verses attached to the plates of France and England.

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE HARLOTS PROGRESS.1
Plate I.
In this age, when wickedness is in search to entrap the
unwary ; and man, that artful deceiver, racking his inven
tion for wiles to delude the innocent, and rob them of their
virtue ; it is more particularly necessary to warn the rising
generation of the impending danger ; lay before the female
world the perils they are exposed to ; open to their view
a sight of that wretchedness, that will, inevitably, be the
consequence of their misconduct ; and, by a timely admoni
tion, prevent, if possible, the irrevocable misfortunes atten
dant on a life of prostitution, brought on by falling perhaps
in an unguarded moment. This was the design of Hogarth
in the history of the harlot before us, in the prosecution of
which, he has minutely pictured out the most material
scenes of her life, from the time of her fall from virtue to
the hour of her death ; a history full of such interesting
circumstances, as must, certainly, give the unthinking maid
a sense of her danger, and alarm her, lest she also becomes
a prey to man.
1 [Portraits introduced in this series. Doctor Misaubin, Colonel Chartres,
Mother Needham, and Sir John Gonson, a magistrate.] J. I.

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

Our author has here described her as the daughter of a
country curate, in order to show us the amazing frailty of
the sex ; that, notwithstanding she might have been brought
up properly instructed in the paths of virtue, yet is there
such an enchantment in vice as to allure the person on,
who once gives the least ear to her persuasions. In these
plates, as in most others, he has indulged his natural vein
of humour, and, by that means, has intermixed the dulce
with the utile, and made them, at the same time, both enter
taining and instructive. The heroine of this piece, about
sixteen years of age, is supposed to be just alighted from *
the York waggon, on its arrival in the inn-yard, at London,
accompanied by her father, on horseback, in search of better
fortune. This particular county is alluded to, as being far
distant from the metropolis, and, as such, supposed to be
least acquainted with its intrigues. That this also was her
father's view is evident from the letter of recommendation,
whose direction he is reading, addressed to some bishop in
town. The mistaken notion, that prosperity is centered in
London, has led many to their ruin. His extreme necessity,
for such is the misfortune of the clergy, that want seems
attendant on their order, is well decyphered, by the ap
pearance both of him and his horse, a sorry broken-kneed
and foundered animal, who, not like our high-fed beasts, is
eagerly catching at a mouthful of straw in which some
earthen vessels are packed ; and so full is his master of
the business he is upon, as to pay no attention to the
damage it occasions.
At the time when these prints were first published there
existed a notorious libertine, one Ohartres, a man of some
fortune, which he appropriated to the worst of purposes,
that of accomplishing the ruin of virgin innocence, in order
to gratify his lascivious inclinations : to effect this horrid
end, he kept in his pay a number of men and women, who
made it their business to delude the unknowing. This

THE HARLOT S PROGRESS. 3
wretch, a proper subject for the story, is here drawn from
the life, as looking from an ale-house door, (in company with
one of his panders, flattering his reigning vice,) considering
this artless maid, already, as his prey, whom his vile pro
curess is deceiving. She is here supposed offering to take
her as her servant : the raw country girl, amused and daz
zled with the artful tale, readily embraces the offer, and
thus falls a victim to her betrayer. One would naturally
be led to think that her father, from the education he must
necessarily have had, would have seen through the deceit,
or at least would have been more cautious, and have coun
selled her otherwise ; but by his supposed consent to her
acceptance of the proffered place, we are to understand,
that there are none so ignorant of the ways of life, as those
who have wholly applied themselves to the knowledge of
books : this ignorance of men and things led the unthinking
father, pleased with this prospect of good fortune in finding
provision for his daughter, immediately, on his arrival, inno
cently to consent to the ruin of his child. Thus do we,
often, in an unguarded moment, lay the foundation of end
less misery ; and thus commenced that series of disasters,
that makes up the several parts of this story.
We are next to imagine her in the house of this pro
curess, not treated as a servant, but seemingly respected
as a friend ; that being generally the first step these de
signing wretches take, in order to gain favour, and make
the object of their villany in love with their situation ; she
is now dressed in the gayest manner ; the pincushion and
scissors, those implements of housewifery and diligence, that
formerly hung by her side, are changed to the striking
watch and glittering etwee, the sordid pay and badge of
infamy ; her face, by the disgustful ornament of paint and
patches, loses at once its original innocence and simplicity ;
she is now told, that beauty has been the making of thou
sands, that she looks charming as an angel, and was born
b2

4 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
to be a lady ; filled with such idle notions, she is introduced
to this man of fashion, and, though his appearance has
nothing in it engaging, a show of gold, and promises of
marriage, are not easily withstood ; thus, dazzled with ima
ginary greatness, and wanting the pious admonitions of her
father, the poor unthinking maid gives herself up to the
embraces of her betrayer, and plunges herself headlong into
irretrievable wretchedness. From this instant, she finds
herself deceived ; sees through the artifices of her pretended
friend, who now treats her no otherwise than as a depen
dant ; brings her into company with different men ; makes
her acquainted with her future way of life ; and gives her
to understand that she must either do this or starve. The
poor girl, who yet is not entirely abandoned, blushes at the
impiety of her instructress, and shudders at the rueful scene;
but thoughts of present distress soon get the better of her
virtuous resolutions ; and what discretion would forbid, is
now urged by necessity. Gladly would she have returned
to her poor, but honest, parents, or worn her fingers to the
bone in the lowest servitude, had not shame and remorse
of conscience made her despair of a reception at home;
and the want of a friend told her that the other was im
practicable : led then, unthinkingly, into this dreadful situa
tion, and threatened, on refusal, with imprisonment by her
wicked mistress, she, reluctantly, submits to her horrid pro
posal, and falls into that course of life she knew not how
to avoid. Now, then, for the first time, she gives a loose
to prostitution ; and, by an intimacy with others of her
own stamp, becomes at last hardened in infamy.

THE HARLOTS PROGRESS.

Plate II.1

Here, then, we see her launched into high life, in keeping
by a Jew, in the midst of splendour and profusion : having
quitted her innocence, with her modesty of dress, she now
goes on to act as inconsiderately as at the first, and keeps
up the spirit of the character she professes in giving way to
extravagance and inconstancy ; the' first being evident from
the monkey's being suffered to drag about her laced head
dress ; and the latter from the general tenor of the piece.
Our author has particularized the Jew, that people being
generally rich, and commonly duped in matters of love.
He is represented as being come early in the morning to
breakfast with his mistress, before the departure of his
rival ; for, notwithstanding these women are indulged in
every thing, they can wish, they seem determined to gratify
their inclinations at the expence of their future welfare ; as,
when once they bid adieu to virtue, neither honour nor
gratitude can afterwards bind them. By those Scripture-
pieces of painting in her room we are given to learn, that
so seared is the conscience of the sinner, as not to be
awakened by any distant admonition; nay, that some are
such hypocrites, as to gloss over a foul and corrupt life
with the colour of religion 2. His unexpected visit gives a
1 [" 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 ungar-
tered and barefooted retreating gallant, and the 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 to the floor."] J. I.
2 [The following is extracted from the " Morning Chronicle," so lately as
November 6th, 1830. — " London Adjourned Sessions. A man of respectable
and sedate appearance, named Jones, and his wife, were indicted for keep
ing a house of ill-fame in Lombard-court, Whitcfviars. The male defendant

6 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
general alarm, and puts the invention both of her and her
maid to the rack, in order to find out some means of
favouring her spark's escape ; but as an intriguing woman
is seldom at a loss in this respect, she readily brings that
to bear, by taking an opportunity of quarrelling with her
keeper, and, in a pretended passion, of overturning the table;
the clattering noise of which, and the surprise it occasions,
added to the scalding of his leg, so engages the attention of
the Jew, as to give the other an opportunity of escaping
unnoticed. Though this passed for the present, yet by a continual
practice of the same she is at last discovered, either through
her own indiscretion, or the faithlessness of her servants ;
for the wretches they employ are no longer true to their
trust, than while they are partaking of the extravagance of
their mistresses. This fatal discovery of her inconstancy,
we are to learn, brings on a new face of things : she is
instantly discarded by her keeper, and left, as it were, to
begin the world anew : in consequence of this, she now
takes a decent lodging, determining to welcome every
comer. For some short time, matters are imagined to go
on well, that is, she is supposed as yet to know no want,
at least while she is possessed of any thing of value ; the
plunder of her former grandeur ; for when such persons are
discarded, they are, generally, stript of every thing of worth.

occasionally preached, and generally carried a Bible. It was stated that
robberies were not unfrequent in the house, and that the defendants were in
the practice of enticing young creatures into it, and ultimately turning them
into the streets to perish. A young girl attended and stated, that when she
first entered the house she saw Jones, with his spectacles on his nose, read
ing a chapter in the Bible to his wife, and that both were so intently occu
pied in holy consideration, that they did not notice her till the chapter was
finished, and Mr. Jones had turned down the leaf, with a ' blessed be God.'
When the girl received money, they both searched her, and she was never
allowed to have a farthing. The Jury found the defendants guilty, and the
Recorder sentenced the man to six months' imprisonment, and the woman
to three."] J. M.

THE HARLOT S PROGRESS. /
On these she lives, awhile ; making away with them, one
after another, till, at last, she is reduced to the greatest
distress : such being the misfortune of these women, that
they are perfect strangers to economy, spending even the
last shilling extravagantly, though it is very uncertain when
they shall be mistress of another.
Plate III.
View, then, her amazing downfal ; every good thing she
once was mistress of, is now entirely gone ; her silver tea
kettle converted into a tin-pot ; and her splendid toilette,
once decorated with costly boxes, changed into an old leaf-
table, covered with the filthy equipage of her night's de
bauch, and a piece of broken looking-glass ; her magni
ficent apartment in a reputable neighbourhood, is now
dwindled into a beggarly room in the purlieus of Drury ',
as we learn from the inscription on the pewter pots ; and
she that once breakfasted in state, is at last constrained to
make the best shift she can. There was a time when none
but the best and most expensive wines could please her ;
though she is now reduced to cheer her spirits, or banish
reflection, with the miserable regale of gin and beer. Having
nothing valuable of her own, see her acting a dishonest part,
sending out a watch to pawn that her last gallant is supposed
to have left behind him, through forgetfulness : for dis
honesty constitutes part of the prostitute's character, plunder
being, generally, one of their chief supports ; this is further
evident from the wig-box on the tester of the bed, which,
we are told, by the name on the outside, formerly belonged
to one James Dalton, a notorious street-robber, afterwards
hanged ; a sufficient indication with what kind of persons
1 A street in London, called by that name, formerly one of the meanest
receptacles of abandoned women.

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

such people generally herd. As to her laced head-dress, and
tawdry cloak, they may be considered as necessaries of her
profession, being such as serve to decorate a loathsome
body, and attract the eyes of heedless youth ; for we are
oftener caught by appearance, than reality ; and it is not
beggary only that is the portion of these unhappy wretches,
but a complication also of foul disorders, intimated by the
phials, &c. in the window ; such disorders as destroy the
constitution, and whose infection will sometimes spread,
if not timely prevented, through many generations. Wise,
then, was that institution of the Lock1, that provided a
remedy for this growing evil, and overlooked the vices of a
few 2, in order to secure the preservation of the whole !
Mr. Hogarth has here taken an opportunity of showing
us the great degeneracy of the age, in matters of religion,
by laying on the table a piece of butter, wrapped up in the
title-page of a Pastoral Letter, which a great prelate 3, about
that time, addressed to his diocese ; many copies of which
had the misfortune to be sold as waste paper : such being
the general wickedness of mankind, that every thing re
ligious is held in disesteem. If any ludicrous or obscene
publication should issue from the press, it is sure to meet
with an immediate and rapid sale ; every man, who is mas
ter of a shilling, is instantly a purchaser : but, on the con
trary, an edition of any piece tending to correct the vices
or follies of the age lies in the shop, either unnoticed or
disregarded. 1 An hospital in London, called by that name, supported by voluntary
contribution. 2 ["No vice or wickedness which people fall into from indulgence to
desires which are natural to all, ought to place them below the compassion
of the virtuous part of the world ; which, indeed, often makes me a little apt
to suspect the sincerity of their virtue, who are too warmly provoked at
other people's personal sins. -It is very certain that a modest woman cannot
abhor the breach of chastity too much ; but pray let her hate it for herself,
and only pity it in others."— Spectator, No. 266.] J. M.
3 Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London.

THE HARLOT S PROGRESS. 9
There are many other little objects in this plate, met with
in the chamber of the prostitute, that sufficiently explain
themselves to the more knowing part of mankind, which
decency will not permit me to make such of my readers
acquainted with as these pages are calculated to improve :
what is further necessary to be taken notice of is only the
person stealing into her chamber with some attendants :
this is a magistrate ", who at this time greatly distinguished
himself in the punishing of abandoned women, and in the
suppression of infamous houses. He is supposed here en
tering in order to take her to a house of correction.
Imagine her, then, with her worthless servant, in opposi
tion to all her cries and entreaties, dragged from her home,
and hurried through the streets to Bridewell2, amid the
insults of the jeering populace, committed there to hard
labour, for some months, in hopes of reforming them.
Plate IV.
Here, then, we see her lodged, in company with pick
pockets, sharpers, and others of her own stamp, of all ranks
and ages, reduced to the miserable alternative of beating
hemp, or receiving the correction of the keeper, exposed to
the derision of her own servant, who seems well acquainted
with the place, and who, like many other people in the
world, cannot even refrain from insulting her, though, by
her tying up of her stockings, which, together with the
shoes, were a present from her mistress, we are given to
understand she is not without a monitor, to remind her of
the gratitude she owes her. In this horrid receptacle of
filth and vermin are various kinds of punishment inflicted,
according to the greater or less degree of obstinacy in the
1 Sir John Gunston, (Gonson, see note p. 1.) of Covent Garden.
2 A house of correction.

10 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
offenders: some are obliged to drag about a heavy clog
locked to their legs ; some are wholly stapled to the
ground ; others are hung an hour by the wrists ; others,
again, are fastened to a post, and whipped severely ; but
all, in general, are made to work hard, and that with little
intermission, being left to the mercy of a rigid keeper, whose
interest it is to keep them at it, he reaping the profits of
their labour. We are further taught, that it is not his ab
horrence of vice that makes him so, his surliness proceed
ing from dishonest prmciples in himself, giving his blear-
eyed wife, by that means, an opportunity of picking our
heroine's pocket of her handkerchief, casting at the same
time a wishful look upon her lappets.
In this disagreeable situation we are not to imagine her
without some degree of reflection ; what then more natural
than to think of the many anxious moments she has given
her tender and affectionate parents, and to recollect her
former ease and happiness ? — Such like considerations
heighten her distress, and give acuteness to her wretched
ness. — Now she looks inwardly, for the first time, upon
her late course of life ; reflects with horror on the odious
scenes ; in some measure detests her proceedings, and de
termines upon a thorough change. — Full with this pious
resolution, her time of confinement expires, and she is once
more at large ; — at large, 'tis true, but without a friend,
without a penny ! — What step then shall she take, or whi
ther shall she fly ?  Here then we see the great useful
ness and noble design of the Magdalen-house \ an insti
tution that does honour to our country ; where the penitent
prostitute, when entirely destitute, finds a friend ; and the
good man is enabled to exert his Christian disposition in
1 A place of refuge for penitent prostitutes, where they are received for
three years, instructed in virtuous principles, and afterwards returned to
their friends, or recommended to services of credit ; it is supported also, by
voluntary contribution.

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 11
saving, as it were, a soul from death : one of the best and
greatest charities extant ; easing the pricking conscience of
the female sinner, re-instating the happiness of broken
hearted families, and thus restoring many useful members
to society. — Had this blessed institution been then in being,
our heroine would, in all probability, have taken refuge be
neath its friendly roof, and lived comparatively an honour
and a comfort to her parents ; — but in this sad dilemma she
could find no other resource, than that of returning to her
former course ; and, as habit is second nature, she wanted
little or no encouragement. — On then she goes, in her
usual way, without reserve, till, eaten up with want and
disease, she sinks into rottenness, and falls a martyr to
prostitution.

View her, then, in all the extremity of penury, visible
from the general appearance of her chamber, the coals lying
in one corner, the candles in another, dying of the disease
peculiar to her profession.  What must have been her
thoughts, before the power of thinking left her ! — gladly
could she have wished to have passed her life anew, in
order to have made a friend of Ood, at whose great tribunal
she dreaded to appear. At this distressful hour her sins
stood up as her accusers, and she struck speechless with
the horror of her guilt ; unable then to shift off the evi
dence, she could only rely on the infinite mercies of that
Judge, whose friendly admonition she had so long disre
garded ; whose authority she had always despised ; and
whose power she had constantly defied. Incapacitated to
obtain that necessary relief the Lock-Charity now affords,
she is reduced to the application of such medicines, as have
nothing to recommend them but the bold assertions of their
vendors, who palm upon the world their particular nostrums,
12

12 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
without any knowledge of their respective qualities. — Pity
is it that such men should be suffered to prey upon the
constitution of the public !  In support then of their
efficacy, take notice of two quacks, noted at that time for
boasting of their skill in virulent cases, absolutely at high
words whose medicine was the best, over-turning the table;
and this at a time so very improper, without paying the
least attention to their expiring patient — a manifest token
of the self-sufficiency of these wretches, who study more
the enriching of themselves, than the particular disorder
they undertake to cure. That this inattention to any but
ourselves, is general among all ranks of people, is inti
mated by the nurse's rummaging her mistress's trunk for
plunder, ere her breath has well left her, neglecting those
necessary and friendly offices we are bound to do for one
another ; and so occupied are her thoughts on what she is
upon, as to be perfectly absent to what passes in the room.
The only one properly engaged is the child, (the innocent
fruit of her debauchery,) who is busied in turning a piece of
meat, roasting at the fire.
In the midst of this general confusion, expires, in the
greatest agony, the heroine of this piece, at the age of
twenty-three, and thus puts an end to the story ; as she
lived in disgrace, so she died in infamy. Mr. Hogarth
seems here to have finished his plan ; having led us through
the most distressful scenes attendant on a life of prostitution;
and sufficiently executed his design, in giving so odious a re
presentation of it, as to warn others from falling into the like
misfortunes. Thus may we say is the tragedy completed.
With respect to the following plate, it may be considered as
the farce, of which death is oftener the occasion than the
subject. Our author took this opportunity of indulging his
humour, in the general ridicule of a funeral ceremonial ; in
which there is, frequently, more hypocrisy than sincerity.

T Hi HARLOTS PR O G1E S S  PL.

THE HARLOT S PROGRESS. 13

Plate VI.

In order to do this properly, he has been under a neces
sity of destroying, in some measure, the consistency of the
piece; many little things being here observed, which are
seldom, if ever, met with at the funerals of the poor ; such
as the escutcheons, (viz. the arms of her profession, three
spigots and fossets,) the giving of gloves and mourning
rings, &c. One thing, however, this teaches us, namely,
the folly of mankind in making expensive funerals, particu
larly of those who cannot afford it ; but such is the general
pride of the world, as to be always aiming at something
above them ; the poor apeing, as it were, the vanities of the
rich. We dress up the dead for public notice as on a bri
dal-day, and take great pains to adorn our persons with all
the outward formalities of grief, as if our future good for
tune depended on the elegant appearance we made. That
this was the Painter's meaning is evident, from one of
the women viewing the body ; and another tricking herself
out before the glass. The company here assembled are
supposed to be of our heroine's profession ; and as it has
been remarked that none are more saintly than " a whore
at a christening," so it may be here observed, that none
seem more distressed at a funeral. In one corner sits an
old procuress, howling for the dead, with a bottle of Nantz
by her side, Hence are we taught in the first place, that
these wretches have so long made hypocrisy their trade, as
to have tears at will ; for so steeled are their hearts to any
degree of tenderness, that they cannot be presumed to pro
ceed from sorrow ; and in the second, that amidst all their
> seeming concern, they miss no opportunity of drinking,
under a pretence of recruiting their wasting spirits. One
would naturally imagine, that at this silent scene of mortality,
the voice of conscience would be heard ; but on the contrary

14 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
we see the ear obstinately shut to the loudest calls, and a
propension to sin stifling the little spiritual appulses of re
flective thought. — View then the lustful undertaker, unap-
palled at the ghastly corpse, fixing his beastly eye upon the
woman, whose glove he is pulling on, and she, unaffected
at the awful solemnity, artfully robbing him of his hand
kerchief. Near the door are two mourners, in all the pride
of affliction, one of whom is turning up her eyes in hypo
critical ejaculations. Such people accustom themselves to
a certain set of good words, as, It is what pleases God, The
Lord's will be done, We are all mortal, and the like ; which
they run over at particular times, just as a bellman does his
godly rhymes, without thinking what they say, or being the
least affected by it. The same inattention to the solemnity
of the meeting is visible even in the minister, who, though
in years, is so particularly employed with his agreeable
neighbour, (who has in her hand a sprig of rosemary, for
merly distributed on these occasions,) as, through absence
of mind, to spill his wine upon his handkerchief. The boy,
winding up his top, keeps up the spirit of the piece, and
adds not a little to its humour. Thus we see the farce of
life is carried on, even to our latest hours; and we con
tinue our follies, without intermission, to the grave.
From this distressful story, let me warn my female read
ers of the lurking danger that threatens them : as there is
no greater Christian virtue than chastity, none more pleasing
to Cod, or more agreeable to man, it is the interest of every
young woman to be particularly attentive to it : 'tis not that
I imagine them ill inclined in their disposition ; but, 'tis
their natural easiness of temper, and their too favourable
opinion of the world, that exposes them to the perils I have
mentioned. Men, however they may detest the loss of vir- «
tue in the women, are continually laying snares to rob
them of it ; and the women, who are not proof against the
attacks of the men, too often fall their victims : " she who

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. J 5
lends a patient ear," says an ingenious writer, " to the praise
of her wit and beauty, may do it at first, perhaps, to gratify
vanity only ; but the flattery bewitches her in the end, and
she, insensibly, inclines to a kindness for that person, who
values her so much ; she begins with thinking his passion
to be only an esteem ; and, as such, will cherish that out
of vanity, which she afterwards will reward out of love :
she will be apt to put the best constructions on whatever he
says or does : his rudeness will be taken for the violence
of his passion, and easily obtain pardon : she, by degrees,
suffers in him, what she would look on as insolent in ano
ther ; and, fancying in herself, that one who loves her so
much, can never entertain a thought injurious to her, she
forgets that all his compliments are mercenary; all his
passion, lust ; that to hear him, is immodest ; to be pleased
with him, wicked ; and that, if she does not fly in time,
she will catch the flame that is kindled in him, and perish
in it for ever."
Have a care, then, how you presume on the innocence of
your first intentions ; you may as well, upon the confidence
of a sound constitution, enter a pest house, and converse
with the plague, whose infection does not more subtly
insinuate itself than this sort of temptation. And as in
that case a woman would not stay to learn the critical dis
tance to which she might approach with safety, but would
run as far from it as she could ; so in this, it no less con
cerns her to remove herself from the possibility of danger,
and, how unfashionable soever it may be, put on such a
severe modesty, that her very looks may guard her, and
discourage the most impudent attacks. Had our heroine
followed this prudential rule, she would, in all probability,
have avoided those dreadful rocks on which she split : inno
cently listening to the deceitful tongue of her betrayer, she
made a shipwreck of that virtue, that would otherwise have
carried her through life with honour. Make it, then, your

16 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
determined rule, to fly the company of every man who would
insinuate himself into your favour by flattery : depend upon
it, he has some artful designs at bottom : if his intentions
were honest and sincere, he would begin his suit by an appli
cation to your parents or guardians ; when, therefore, he
makes any advances unknown to them, be assured they are
such as you ought by no means to give the least encou
ragement to : she who descends to treat with a lover, what
ever he may tell her of being her captive, his purpose
generally is to make her his. He pretends to be entirely
at her devotion, when all the time he is working her de
struction ; which, when he has once acquired, he will tri
umph over as a victor over his conquest. Need I, after
this, say any more to deter you . from falling into such
a course of life as these pages have described ? If it is
necessary, I should tell you that a woman, by losing her
reputation, loses every friend she has ; exposes herself to
the derision of the world, and becomes the object of con
tempt ; no person of credit will be ever seen in her com
pany ; she does not partake of the comforts of society, nor
does she reap one blessing that is even common to her sex :
while others are enjoying the sweets of happiness, she is
completely miserable ; jeered by the world, and pointed at
by all her acquaintance, she wastes her days in scorn and
reproach, lives a burthen to herself, a disgrace to her sex,
and a nuisance to the neighbourhood : thus, the servitude of
a prostitute is the most slavish in the world ; for, besides
all the interests of another life, which she basely resigns,
she sacrifices all that is valuable in this ; she puts her repu
tation wholly in the power of him who has debauched her ;
and, which is more, her reformation too : should she have
an inclination to return to virtue, she dares not, lest he
should divulge her former errors. She subjects herself not
only to his lust, but to all his humours and fancies ; nay, to
the humours and fancies of all who have been privy to her

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 17
intrigues ; lest what she has done should be revealed. Some
indeed, have hoped to prevent accusation by impudence,
and, by seeming to despise shame, have endeavoured to
avoid it. But what misery are such creatures fallen into !
Need there be a hell to punish them ? They are insulted
by wretches as abandoned and miserable as themselves, and
have no defence against their insults, but that of insensibi
lity. Better, in such cases, would it be for them, could they
return to their original nothing, than be obliged to drag on
a wretched life of shame and contempt, and stand fully ex
posed to the intolerable wrath of the Cod of Purity ; which
the conscience of the hardened sinner, in some measure, an
ticipates at her dying hour, when the poor distracted soul,
pursued by bitter and severe reflexion, raves round its clay
tenement, runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help ; but
shrieks in vain, till hurried on to the precipice of despair,
it headlong falls, and sinks into eternity, there to meet the
vengeance of an angry God, and receive the punishment
allotted for the sinner.  Reflect then on this, ye unthink
ing females ; ¦ shun the horrid gulph, while Heaven has left
it in your power, and draw not temporal misery on your
families, and eternal vengeance on yourselves.
It would be unpardonable were I not here to take some
notice of the Asylum 1, the first of those charities that have
any connection with the foregoing story, instituted as a pre
vention against a life of prostitution ; where, by the inter
posing hand of humanity, such girls as are destitute of any
legal parochial settlement, are preserved from that misery,
they would otherwise be hardly able to avoid. Rescued,
then, by god-like, British charity, which we are happily
remarked for, the most forsaken of the human race, who
were before, perhaps, lurking amid the despairing haunts of
wretchedness, exposed to the inclemencies of the midnight
1 A house of refuge for deserted female orphans, under twelve years of
age, supported by public benefaction. c

18 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
air, sleeping on cinder heaps and dunghills, feeding on husks
and rinds, and prepared thus, as a judicious writer once ob
served, through their extreme want, and a total darkness of
their minds, to plunge into every kind of crime, without
remorse ; and ripening into theft, prostitution, robbery, and
murder ; become truly sensible of the happiness of a virtu
ous course, avoid the rocks and shoals of iniquity, serenely
cut through the seas of life, and steer their way into the
port of endless bliss.
[This set of prints completely established Hogarth's fame. " A subject,"
says Mr. Ireland, " so novel in the idea, so marked with genius in the exe
cution, excited the most eager attention of the public. At a time when
England was coldly inattentive to every thing which related to the arts, so
desirous were all ranks of people of seeing how this little domestic story was
delineated, that there were eight piratical imitations. The whole series were
copied on fan-mounts, representing the six plates, three on one side, and
three on the other." These fans, Mr. Nichols informs us, used to be given
as the most useful of all presents to the female servants in Hogarth's house.]
J. M.

THE RAKES PROGRESS. 19

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS1.
Plate I.
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, in
deed, the colour of that which is commendable, and would
fain be thought to take its rise from laudable motives,
searching indefatigably after true felicity : now, as there
can be no true felicity without content, it is this which
every man is in constant hunt after ; the learned, for in
stance, in his industrious quest after knowledge ; the mer
chant, in his dangerous voyages ; the ambitious, in his pas
sionate pursuit of honour; the conqueror, in his earnest
desires 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 hunt, as when we first set out. Here
1 [Portraits introduced. Figg, a prize fighter, Dubois, a fencing master,
Bridgeman, the king's gardener, and Handel. The originals of this series
are in the possession of J. Soane, Esq.] J. I.
c 2

20 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
then we are inexcusable in not attending to the secret dic
tates of reason, and in stopping our ears at the timely admo
nitions of friendship. Headstrong and ungovernable, we
pursue our course without intermission ; thoughtless and
unwary, we see not the dangers that lie immediately before
us ; but hurry on, even without sight of our object, till we
bury ourselves in that gulph 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 prodi
gality, 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 doleful ca
lamities awaiting the prosecution of his proposed scheme of
life : he has, I say, 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, traced out the life of a
young man, hurried on through a various succession of dif
ferent 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 ruuT~
of children is often owing to the indiscretion of their parentsT"
he has opened the piece with a scene, which, at the"1sam<r~
time that it exposes the folly of the youth, showsua^e^
imprudence of the father, who is supposed to havehurt_the
principles of his son by depriving him of the necessary use
of some of that gold he had, with the greatest covetousniis7"~
been hoarding to no kind of purpose in his coffers. _i 
The history opens, _ then, representing a sceniTcrowded,
with all the monuments of avarice, and laying bernr1
most beautiful contrast,~such as is too general in the world,
to pass unobserved ; nothing being more common than for

THE RAKE S PROGRESS. 21
a son to squander away that substance '', his father, perhaps,
had his whole life been amassing. Here we see the young
heir at the age of nineteen or twenty, raw from the univer
sity of Oxford, just arrived at home, upon the death of his
"lather" Eager to know the possessions he is master of, the
-TfM""wardrobes7where things have been rotting time out" of ~
mind, are instantly wrenched open ; the strong chests are
-imlocEed; the parchments, those securities of treble inte
rest, on which this avaricious monster lent his money, tum
bled out ; and the bags of gold, which had long been
hoarded with griping care, now exposed to the dishonest
hands of those about him. To explain every little mark of
usury_and covetousness, such as the mortgages, bonds, in-
djantures, &c. the piece of candle stuck upon a save-all, on
the mantle-piece ; the rotten furniture of the room ; and
the miserable contents of the dusty wardrobe, would be un
necessary : the more striking things I shall take the liberty
of animadverting on. From— the vast quantity of papers
falls an old written journal, where, among other memoran
dums^ we find the following, viz. " May the 5th 1721, Put
off my bad shilling." Hence are we taught, that so penu
rious is the disposition of the miser, that, notwithstanding
-lie may be possessed of many large bags of gold, the fear of
losing a single shilling is a continual trouble to him. In one
part of the room, we see a man hanging it with black cloth ;
too general a custom on these occasions among people of
fortune, who, through ostentation and a false notion of
grandeur, will often expend as much in one day, as would
maintain a small family for years. On this hanging are
fixed-escut"benns by way of dreary ornament ; these escut
cheons contain the arms of the covetous, viz. three vices,

1 [" Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the poor :
This year a reservoir to keep and spare ;
The next a fountain spouting through his heir."]— Pope.

22 HOGARTH MORALIZED. „ '
hard screwed, with the motto, Beware. _On_the_floorJie^a
pairVf old shoes, which thTs^solrdicL 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-anDld-
Family-Bible : 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 fallihg^from— the-breafc—
ing cornice; the jack and spit, those utensils of original
hospitality, locked up throughfear of being used; the^leanT
and empty chimney, Jn„ffihkh_ra.-&e-4s-4iow— just going to
be made for the first time, and the emaHa^M"^gure~ofihjB_
cat, we are given to understand, 1;hat such^js the natural^
temper of the covetous man, as io suspect"aTTabout BihTto~
be rogues ; he continually fears the evil day is eoming; off"
that account deprives himself of the necessaries t»f-liferand
starves, as it were, in the-JiudstTrf jlenty. — But, seeihe-
mighty change !— View this unfortunate youth (for the
catastrophe undoubtedly proves him so) left to himself,
upon the death of his father, possessed of a goodly inheri
tance. Mark, how his mind is affected ! — determined to
partake of the mighty happiness, he falsely imagines others
oOiiis~Sgfc! antf" fortune enjoy; see him running headlong
into extravagance, withholding not his heart from any joy ;
but implicitly pursuing the dictates of his will. How is he
caught by every splendid show and glittering appearance !
— Diversion's joyful train welcomes his approach, and Va
nity, in the mask of Happiness, embraces him; Beauty
opens all her charms before him, and Mirth shakes him by
the hand. Now his ear dances to Music's soft vibrations ;
his senses are exquisitely charmed, and his spirits are upon
the wing. He is, as Solomon says, in the midst of men-
singers, and women-singers; he becomes for a while the
admiration of the women, and the envy of the men ; and is
seemingly placed in the very centre of felicity. To take

THE RAKE S PROGRESS. 23
this delusive swing of pleasure, his first application is to the
Jailor, whom we see here taking his measure, in order to
trick out his pretty person ; but so bewitching is the sight
of gold, as to draw more this man's attention than even
the business he was sent for. In the interim enters (with
her mother) a poor girl whom this man has debauched under
professions of love, and promises of marriage ; in hopes of
meeting with that notice 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 mo
ther, as an equivalent for the "^on-fulfilling of his promise.
Not the sight of the ring given as a pledge of his fidelity ;
not a view of the-many affectionate letters he at .one .time
wrote to her, of which her mother'siap~is -fiiH ; not the
tears, nor even the-burthened condition of the wretched girl,
could awaken in him one degree of tenderness; but hard
hearted and unfeeling, like the generality of wicked men, he
turns her off to weep away her woes in silent sorrow, and
curse with bitterness her deceitful betrayer. One thing
more I should take notice of, which is, that this unexpected
visit, attended with abuse from the mother, so alarms the
attention of our youth, as to give that old pettifogger be
hind 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 *-
1 In justice to our author, the lines engraven at the bottom of each plate
should not be omitted ; the following, then, are those which are annexed to
this : — " 0 vanity of age, untoward,
Ever spleeny, ever froward !
Why those bolts, and massy chains,
Squint suspicion's jealous pains ?
Why, thy toilsome journey o'er,
Lay'st thou in a useless store ?

24 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

Plate II.1

We are next to consider him as launched in the world.
Having first performed the last office with respect to his
father, that of attending him to the grave ; and in a manner
very different to the appearance he made while living, bury
ing him with the utmost pomp and parade; 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 as
sumes. View him then at his levee, attended by masters of
Hope along with time is flown,
Nor canst thou reap the field thou'st sown.
Hast thou a son ? in time be wise, —
He views thy toil with other eyes, —
Needs must thy kind paternal care,
Lock'd in thy chests, be buried there :
Whence then shall flow that friendly ease,
That social converse, home-felt peace,
Familiar duty, without dread,
Instruction from example bred I
That youthful mind with freedom mend,
And with the Father, mix the Friend."
[" In this print, the drawing and disposition of the figures are tolerably
good, the light is properly distributed, and the perspective accurately repre
sented ; but the whole wants mass. To display the hoard, it was necessary
to open the boxes and doors ; and though an exhibition of the heterogeneous
collection, heaped together by this wretched defrauder of himself, most
forcibly describes the disposition of the man — it hurts the repose of the
picture. Breaking the back ground into so many parts, destroys that
breadth which ought to be considered as a leading excellence."] J. I.
[The countenance of the deserted girl is here preserved as in the first
state of the plate ; as Mr. Ireland observes, it was afterwards " altered for
the worse." Making it, at the same time, to disagree with the face of the
same character as afterwards introduced.]
1 [To the principal figure in this and the preceding plate, Mr. Gilpin
objects, that in the first it is unmeaning and in the second ungraceful ; but
in order to defend Hogarth, Mr. Ireland takes him at his word, considering
that the youth has not been educated, in all respects, to grace the fortune
that awaited him ; and thinks both the conception and the execution of the
author equally praiseworthy.] J. M.

THE RAKE S PROGRESS. 25
various professions, supposed to be here offering their
interested services. He, who stands foremost, 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 2, master
of the quarter-staff; the vivacity of the first, and the cold
contempt visible in the face of the second, beautifully de
scribe the natural disposition of the two nations ; namely,
the boyish levity of the one, and the manly solidity of the
other. On the left of which last stands a layer out of
gardens *, drawn also from the life, offering a plan for that
purpose. A taste for gardening 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. The more improvements we make, the more we
are desirous of making ; nor can we be induced to desist,
till such time as we can support our extravagance no longer.
In the chair sits a professor of music *, at the harpsichord,
running over the keys, waiting to give his lesson ; behind
whose chair hangs a list of the presents, one Farinelli, an
Italian singer, received, the next day after his first perform
ance at the Opera-house ; among which, there is notice
taken of one, which he received from the hero of our piece,
thus ; " a gold snuff-box, chased with the story of Orpheus
charming the brutes, by J. Rakewell, Esq." By these
mementos of extravagance and pride, (for gifts of this kind
proceed oftener from ostentation, than generosity) and by
the engraved frontispiece to a poem, dedicated to our
1 One Dubois, remarkable for his high opinion of the science of defence,
preferring it to all others. He was killed in a duel by one of the same
name. 2 Figg, the noted prize-fighter.
3 Bridgeman, a man at that time in great esteem. * Handel.

26 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
fashionable spendthrift, lying on the floor, which represents
the ladies of Britain sacrificing their hearts to the idol
Farinelli, crying out, with the greatest earnestness, " One
God, one Farinelli," we are given to understand that dis
sipation and luxury hath overspread the politer world ; that
they are desirous of supporting their general character, even
at the expense of their good sense and reason ; that they
rashly run into the greatest inconsistencies ; that they revel,
without pleasure; hear, without ears; see, without eyes;
admire, without taste ; commend, without knowledge ; and
adore, without love : and that they are eager to sacrifice
their fortunes to the fashion of the times. The principal
figure in this plate, is that of him, with one hand on his
breast, the other on his sword, whom- we may without
much difficulty discover to be a bravo in pay ; he is repre
sented, as having brought a letter of recommendation from
one, disposed to do all sorts of service. This character is
rather Italian than English ; but is here introduced to fill
up the list of persons generally engaged in the service of
one, who indulges himself in every species of profusion.
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 given himself up to every fashionable
extravagance, that is to say, that he had imbibed a taste for
cock-fighting, and horse-racing ; two amusements, which
the man of fashion can no ways dispense with; notwith
standing they have been the ruin of thousands. 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
some few celebrated cocks. It is not that there can be any
great pleasure in such sort of diversion ; it only furnishing
opportunities of keeping up the spirit of gaming, in laying
considerable bets on such a cock, or such a horse. The
figures in the back part of this plate represent tailors,

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 27
peruke-makers, milliners, and such other persons as gene
rally fill the ante-chamber of a man of quality, except one,
who is supposed to be a poet, and has written some pane
gyric on the person, whose levee he attends, and who waits
for that approbation he already vainly anticipates. Upon
the whole, the general tenor of this scene is to teach us,
that the man of fashion is too often exposed to the rapacity
of his fellow creatures, and is commonly a dupe to the more
knowing part of the world \
Plate III.2
To confirm this, see him now at such an hour of night,
when sober and considerate people are taking their rest, in
1 The lines engraved at the bottom of this plate are,
Prosperity, with harlot's smiles,
Most pleasing when she most beguiles,
How soon, sweet foe, can all thy train
Of false, gay, frantic, loud, and vain,
Enter the unprovided mind,
And memory in fetters bind ;
Lead faith and love with golden chain,
And sprinkle Lethe o'er the brain !
Pleasure on her silver throne,
Smiling comes, nor comes alone ;
Venus moves with her along ;
And smooth Lyaeus ever young :
And in their train, to fill the press,
Come apish dance, and swoln excess.
Mechanic honour, vicious taste,
And fashion, in her changing vest.
2 [" This design," says Mr. Ireland, " may be a very exact representation
of what were then the amusements of a brothel ; so different are the
manners of 1792 from those of 1734, that I much question whether a
similar exhibition is now to be seen in any tavern of the metropolis." Not
to " paint the devil blacker than he is," must always be owned as a candid
adage, and we trust that even to the present day, if the children of dark
ness continue as numerous, they are less mischievous from being less
gregarious. The end of our great satirist must, at least in part, have been
answered.] J. M.

28 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
order to rub through the day with satisfaction, revelling at
a tavern, supposed to be the Rose, in Drury Lane, (a house
noted, at that time, for the reception of abandoned women,
and such persons as took more delight in lewd and licentious
enjoyment, than in the more rational entertainment of mu
tual conversation :) with a number of those ragged unfor
tunate girls (I say ragged, though some of them are artful
enough to conceal their being so, by keeping on their cloaks)
of which the streets of London in an evening are full. Be
hold him here, after having, in the bucks' phrase, beat the
rounds, overset a constable of the night, and knocked down
a watchman, evident from the staff and broken lanthorn,
which he is supposed to have brought off with him in
triumph, together with his naked sword, which he was not
able to re-sheath ; I say, behold him in consort with the
major part of his company, absolutely drunk, and to that
degree, as not to know his right hand from his left ; inti
mated by the buckling of his sword-belt. In this absence
of reason, and unguarded situation, for such surely it may
be called, when we are either mad or stupid with the fumes
of liquor, he is robbed of his watch, and of every thing of
value, by the girl whose hand is in his bosom. One would
naturally imagine, that a man, the next day, upon the return
of his senses, when his blood is in some respect cooled, and
the fumes of his night's debauch evaporated, would see the
folly of his steps, consider the treatment he met with, detest
such abandoned company, and resolve to avoid it for the
future ; but on the contrary, so rash and inconsiderate is
youth, as not to regard the precipice before it ; so stupid
and insensible, as not to be awakened even bythescourgings
of pain. Had our debauchee indulged himself with a few
minutes' serious reflection, it is presumed he would not have
returned to that vice by which he was then a sufferer : (plain
by the box of mercurial pills lying on the floor, supposed to
have fallen from his pocket :) no ; he acts like the silly moth,
12

the rake's progress. 29
that flutters about the candle ; though it frequently singes
its wings, it will not desist ; but obstinately bent on its own
destruction, continues on its idle round till it approaches too
near the flame ever to escape again, and meets its death
untimely and unthought of. In the early part of the even
ing, the company is supposed, from the beastly covering of
the floor and the destruction of the furniture, viz. the torn
pictures and the broken looking-glass, to have been at high
romps ; tired, however, at last with such wild sort of merri
ment, they are now seated, in order to indulge their lascivious
inclinations, glut their insatiable throats with liquor, and
feast their ears with sounds of seeming harmony ; a little
ragged wench, whose action declares the pitch of her imagi
nation, being called in for that purpose, to bawl out ballads
of obscenity, and two blind street musicians to accompany
her. To increase this uproar, two of the company are at
high words, one of whom is spouting wine in her com
panion's face, the other, in return, threatening her with a
knife ; behind them is another, in excess of anger at being
neglected, wantonly putting a candle to a map of the world,
swearing she will fire the globe and expire in its flames ;
intimating the wicked disposition of these creatures, who
care not what extensive mischief they occasion, so they can
revenge themselves and gratify their licentious humour.
In the front is a woman stripping herself in order to exhibit
some indecent postures1, a filthy talent she was celebrated
for; that large dish, the man2 is bringing in, being de
signed as an apparatus of one of her positions. By such
studied libidinous entertainment, if entertainment it can be
called, the beastly debauchee gives a loose to his desires,
1 A woman who exhibited such postures publicly, for a maintenance.
2 One Leatherhead, a noted porter, who belonged many years to the
Rose Tavern, remarkable for his unrversal knowledge of the women of the
town.

30 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
and indulges his lust at the expense of every thing that is
decent, rational, and manly '.
Plate IV.
By such excesses as these it is no wonder he should at
last be reduced, it being impossible to support extravagance
long ; for wealth profusely spent, wastes as liquor from a
leaking cask : as a proof of this, see him stopt in his career
by the hand of a sheriff's officer ; arrested as he is going to
court, it being the birthday of the late Queen 2, which hap
pened on the first of March, the day sacred to the tutelar
saint of Wales. This sufficiently appears by the significant
strut of the self-sufficient Welshman, proud of the enormous
leek which, in honour of the day, he carries in his hat. By
the shallow importance of his face, we learn the disposition
of that people, who vainly boast of what they have no pre-
1 The poetry engraved on this plate is,
0 vanity of youthful blood,
So by misuse to poison good !
Woman, formed for social love,
Fairest gift of powers above !
Source of every household blessing,
All charms in innocence possessing :
But turn'd to vice, all plagues above,
Foe to thy being, foe to love !
Guest divine to outward viewing,
Abler minister of ruin !
And thou, no less of gift divine,
Sweet poison of misused wine !
With freedom led to every part,
And secret chamber of the heart ;
Dost thou thy friendly host betray,
And show thy riotous gang the way
To enter in with covert treason,
O'erthrow the drowsy guard of reason,
To ransack the abandon'd place,
And revel there withwild excess ?
2 Queen Caroline.

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 31
tensions to, and signalize themselves in empty pride and
senseless particularity ; for no other motive could sure in
duce him to wear his sword on the wrong side. During
this unexpected disaster of our fashionable spendthrift, the
young woman, whom he had formerly debauched, and whom
Providence had made the mistress of a little money, in the
millinery way, very opportunely passes by : and, with a
heart full of tenderness and affection, gives him a convincing
proof of her continued love ; returns his baseness with un
merited kindness ; pays the debt, and sets the man at
liberty. Hence we perceive the virtuous constancy of the
female sex, whose affection, when once rooted, the severest
treatment can hardly alienate ; and on the contrary, the
fickle disposition and killing cruelty of the other, which
prides itself in the ruin of virgin innocence, and glories in
acts of studied barbarity. In this view of St. James's ', we
have at the same time that of White's2, a house, against
which, for its continued iniquity, Heaven seems now to
direct its severest vengeance. By way of contrast, and to
show us that the true spirit of gaming subsists as well in
low life, as in that of high, our author has humorously re
presented an assembly of shoe-blacks, chimney-sweepers,
postilions, and others, gambling with the greatest earnest
ness ; and distinguished it in opposition to that of White's,
by the name of Black's 3. He has brought to our view also,
the various ways of gaming among the lower class of people,
such as the tricking cups and balls, the pricking in the belt,
the throwing of dice, and playing at cards. One is sup
posed to have lost his clothes, and is now proposing to play
1 The Royal Palace.
2 A chocolate-house, in St. James's-street, London, called after the name
of the man who kept it ; formerly the rendezvous of the first gamesters in
the land.
3 [This very admirable underplot was an afterthought of the author. In
the first state of the plate there was a shoe-black stealing a cane in the place
of the present group.]

32 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
for his basket and brushes ; an evident proof of the madness
of such persons, who will often enter so far into the vice in
question as to play away every individual thing they possess,
and strip themselves naked, even of a maintenance. To
carry on and perfect the scene, as a contrast to that of the
Chocolate-house before-mentioned, Mr. Hogarth has given
us a little smutty politician, with a pipe in his mouth, con
ning over, the . Farthing Post1. The. figure of .the lamp
lighter spilling the oil, through inattention -to his .Business,
on our hero's head, "a circumstance too comm0ri-,:th'ough here
conveniently introduced, is calculated only -.to enrich the
piece and support its humour, it being our author's intention
to make his prints as well entertaining as instructive.
This unexpected arrest is the fore-runner only of like
misfortunes, being as it were the beginning of his sorrows ;
unable now to discharge his just debts, the showers of dis
tress are coming heavy on him, nor has he any other means
of sheltering himself from the impending storm, than by an
union with an old rich widow, to whom. he had made his
addresses, under the mask of hypocrisy 2.
Plate V.
Behold him then at the altar, embracing the happy oppor
tunity of recruiting his wasted fortune by a marriage with
1 A newspaper then called by that name, and sold for a farthing.
2 The following are the lines affixed to this plate :
0 vanity of youthful blood,
So by misuse to poison good !
Reason awakes, and views unbarr'd
The sacred gates he watch'd to guard :
Approaching views the harpy Law,
And Poverty with icy paw,
Ready to seize the poor remains
That Vice hath left of all his gains.
Cold Penitence, tame After-thought,
With fears, despair, and horrors fraught,
Call back his guilty pleasures dead,
Whom he hath wrong'd, and whom betray'd.

THE RAKE S PROGRESS. 33
this deformed and superannuated female, ordinary even to a
proverb, and possessed but of one eye. Youth and beauty,
though they were the least of his aim, were the reigning
objects of hers. Amazing folly of the sex, who pay no re
gard either to decency or discretion, so they indulge their
vanity, and satisfy their wanton inclinations ! — With respect
to the men, money is their only idol ; domestic happiness
being least regarded (though we cannot but observe his in
ward inclinations by his amorous leer upon the girl behind,
even in the most solemn part of the matrimonial service,
which his affected bride imagines directed to herself, and
which she returns with a squint of satisfaction). As this
wedding was designed to be a private one, they are supposed
to have retired for that purpose to the church of St. Mary-
le-bone1 ; but as secret as he thought to keep it, it did not
fail to reach the ears of that unfortunate young woman
whom he had formerly seduced, and who is here represented,
entering with her child and mother in order to forbid the
solemnization. They are, however, opposed by the pew-
opener, lest, through an interruption of the ceremony, she
should lose her customary fee, and a battle consequently
ensues ; — a manifest token of the small regard paid to these
sacred places. By the decayed appearance of the walls of
this building, the torn Belief, and cracked Commandments,
our author would humorously and effectually intimate the
great indifference shewn to the decency of churches in coun
try parishes, which are in reality more like hovels than
places of worship ; (this, whatever may be thought of it, is
little less than profane;) and, at the same time, the great de-
1 A small village, formerly in the outskirts of London ; now joined to it,
by the great increase of buildings.
[It is almost superfluous to remark upon the immense enlargement of
this parish since the first appearance of this work, — it being such as to have
demanded several new churches and chapels for the use of the inhabitants,
although the old one is still in existence and service continues to be performed
in it.] J. M. D

34 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
cay of Christian piety, and general disregard to all things
sacred. With respect to the dogs, they are introduced only
as a droll emblem of the subject in hand ; being one of the
pug breed \ paying his court to a one-eyed bitch. On one
of the pews are the following lines :
THESE : PEWES : VNSCRVD : AND : TAN : IN : SVNDER
IN : STONE : THERS : GRAVEN : WHAT : is : VNDER
to : wit : a : valt .- for : bvrial : there : is
which : edward : forset : made : for : him . and : his
By the orthography of which, and its wretched metre, we
are taught the folly and vanity of mankind, in immortalizing
their names at the loss of their good sense and reputation.
The only thing further to be taken notice of, is that of the
poor's box, whose perforation is humorously covered with a
web, where a spider is supposed to have been a long time
settled, not finding so good a resting-place before 2; and it is
probable she might have continued there much longer, had
not the overseer, in private, searched the box with a view of
stealing its contents. Hence are we given to understand,
that dissipation so far prevails as to drive humanity from the
heart ; and that so selfish are we grown, as to have no feel
ing for the distresses of our fellow-creatures; a matter
which, while it disgraces the Christian, even degrades the
man3. 1 Trump, a favourite dog of Mr. Hogarth's, which he has painted in many
of his pieces.
2 [Adverting to this incident, as also to the cracked Commandments, and
the Creed destroyed by the damps of the church, Mr. Ireland observes,
" These three high-wrought strokes of satirical humour, were perhaps never
equalled by an exertion of the pencil ; excelled they cannot be."] J. M.
" The poetry beneath this plate, is :
New to the school of hard Mishap,
Driv'n from the ease of Fortune's lap,
What shames will nature not embrace,
T'avoid less shame of lean Distress ?
Gold can the charms of youth bestow,
And mask Deformity with show ;

the rake's progress. 35
Flushed now with money, and once more master of a for
tune, one would naturally imagine he would endeavour to
avoid those rocks on which he split before, and be careful
not to reduce himself to that distressed situation he was
lately in ; no, on the contrary, he hurries into his usual
extravagance, with this difference only, that whereas before
he never cherished a single thought of gain, he now seems
to make it his chief study ; in hopes, then, of adding to his
wealth, he rashly takes the most effectual step to lessen it.
Strange infatuation, that men should be so blind to their
interest, and see not their error till their ruin is inevitable !
Plate VI.
View him, then, in pursuit of his favourite scheme at a
gaming table, in the middle of the night, in company with
gamesters and highwaymen, and sharpers ; for at these
public tables all sorts of people are admitted that have money
to play with ; see him, after a run of ill-luck, upon his
knees, in a desperate fit of phrenzy, gnashing his teeth, and
imprecating Divine vengeance upon his head. On his right
hand sits a highwayman by the fire-side, (which is covered
with a grate to prevent such accidents as might accrue from
the rage of the company,) vexed to the soul to think he
should have lost, in a short space of time, that which he had
hazarded his life in the obtaining of; and so absorbed is he
in reflection, as not even to observe the boy who is jogging
him, and bawling to him to take his water. Behind him
stands one who has met with the same fate, biting his nails
with self-anger. At the small table sits a usurer, a common
attendant on these occasions, lending money to one of the
Gold can avert the sting of Shame,
In Winter's arms create a flame,
Can couple Youth with hoary Age,
And make antipathies engage.
D 2

36 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
players at an exorbitant interest. Behind him sits another
loser, ready to beat his brains for madness, and cursing his
ill-fortune with bitterness. Behind him further back is ano
ther, in a mood of the greatest rashness, striking with his
naked sword at the person supposed to have won his money,
whose murder he would certainly accomplish, if not pre
vented by the intervention of another. To add to this scene
of horror and general confusion, they are suddenly alarmed
by the watchman with the cry of fire, which is presently
found to issue from the wainscot of the room they are
in. A noble emblem of the place, intimating that the
hope of a gamester is but as a smoke ; and that this perni
cious vice is as destructive as fire itself. From this incident
we also learn, that so perfectly engrossed is the attention of
the persons present, that had it not been for the timely en
trance of this man, they would probably have been all burnt
before the fire was discovered. Upon the whole, the general
tenour of this plate is to create in us an abhorrence of the
vice in question, by representing in its true light, the dread
ful consequences of a passion for gaming. Admitting that
for a while we have an uncommon share of good luck, still
the satisfaction we enjoy on that account, when the tables
turn, will in no measure compensate for the bitterness and
vexation that attends our loss : nay, it often throws us into
a fit of desperate discontent, when even murder shall become
the sequel, and heighten the catastrophe \
1 These are the lines annexed to this plate :
Gold, thou bright son of Phoebus, source
Of universal intercourse :
Of weeping virtue, sweet redress,
And, blessing those, who live to bless ;
Yet, oft, behold this sacred trust,
The fool of avaricious lust,
No longer bond of human-kind,
But bane of every virtuous mind.

the rake's progress. 37

Plate VII.
By a very natural transition, Mr. Hogarth has passed him
from a gaming-house into a prison 1; the inevitable conse
quence of extravagance. He is here represented in a most
distressful 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 we see lying on the table, just
returned, with an answer from the manager of the theatre,
to whom he had offered it for acceptance, that his piece
would by no means do. Struck speechless with this alarm
ing incident, all his hopes vanish, and his most sanguine
expectations are changed into dejection of spirit. To add
to this distress, he is reproached by his wife, and upbraided
for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connec
tions, (with that unhappy girl, who is here present, with her
child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the
sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him further)
What chaos such misuse attends !
Friendship stoops to prey on friends :
Health, that gives relish to delight,
Is wasted with the wasting night :
Doubt and mistrust are thrown on heaven,
And all its pow'r to chance is given.
Sad purchase of repentant tears, -\
Of needless quarrels, endless fears, >
Of hopes of moments, pangs of years ! J
Sad purchase of a tortur'd mind,
To an imprison'd body join'd.
1 Supposed to be that of the Fleet.

38 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
and plunging her into those difficulties, she never shall be able
to surmount. To heighten also the scene, see the under-
turnkey pressing him for his prison-fees, called garnish-
money, and the boy refusing to leave the beer he called for,
without being first paid for it. Among those assisting the
fainting mother, one of whom we observe clapping her
hand, another applying the drops, is a man, crusted over as
it were with the rust of a gaol ; supposed to have started
from his dream, having been disturbed by the noise, at a
time when he was settling some affairs of state ; to have left
his great plan unfinished ; and to have hurried to the assist
ance of distress. We are told, by the papers falling 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
no ways concerns them, and which they in no respect under
stand, though their immediate ruin shall follow it : nay, so
infatuated do we find him, so taken up with his beloved object,
as not to spare a few minutes in the decency of his person.
In the back part of this room is one who owes his ruin to
an indefatigable search after the Philosopher's Stone. Strange
and unaccountable ! — Hence we are taught, as well as by
that pair of human wings on the tester of the bed, that
scheming is the sure and certain road to beggary ; and that
more men owe their misfortunes to wild and romantic no- ,
tions, than to any accident in life whatever.
In this upset of his life, and aggravation of distress, we are
to suppose him almost driven beyond his reason. 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. Now rolls he, in his mind, the
folly and sinfulness of his past life ;¦ — considers within him
self, how idly he has wasted that precious substance, he is,
at present, in the utmost need of; — looks back with shame

the rake's progress. 39
on the iniquity of his actions, and forward with horror, on
the rueful scene of misery that awaits him, till his poor
brain, torn with excruciating thought, loses at once its power
of thinking, and falls a sacrifice to merciless despair \
Plate VIII.2
See him, then, raving in all the dismal horrors of hopeless
insanity, removed from one place of confinement to another,
1 The following are the lines annexed to this plate :
Happy the man, whose constant thought,
(Though in the school of Hardship taught,)
Can send remembrance back to fetch
Treasures from life's earliest stretch :
Who, self-approving, can review,
Scenes of past virtues that shine thro'
The gloom of age, and cast a ray
To gild the ev'ning of his day !
Not so the guilty wretch confin'd,
No pleasures meet his roving mind,
No blessings fetch'd from early youth,
But broken Faith, and wretched Truth,
Talents idle, and unus'd,
And every gift of heaven abus'd ;
In seas' of sad reflection lost,
From horrors still to horrors tost,
Reason the vessel leaves to steer,
And gives the helm to mad Despair.
2 [Respecting this print,. Mr. Ireland relates the following anecdote of
that excellent artist; and amiable man, Mr. Mortimer. "He was once
requested to delineate several of the passions, as they are personified by
Mr. Gray. One of the subjects proposed was,
' Moody Madness laughing wild amid severest woe.'
The instant this line was read to him, he opened a portfolio, took out the
eighth plate of the Rake's Progress, and pointing to the principal figure,
exclaimed, ' Sir, if I had never seen this print, I should say it was not pos
sible to paint these contending passions in the same countenance. Having
seen this, which displays Mr. Gray's idea with the faithfulness of a mirror,
I dare not attempt it. I could only make a correct copy ; for a deviation
from this portrait, in a single line, would be a departure from the charac
ter.'"] J. M.

40 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
namely, the hospital of Bethlehem, the senate of mankind,
where each man may find a representative ; there, we behold
him trampling on the first great law of nature, tearing him
self to pieces with his own hands, and chained by the leg to
prevent any further mischief, he might either do to himself
or others. Madness, sad blemish of our nature ! — Was it not
for this charitable institution, what dreadful consequences
would ensue ! — How would the poor distracted being, when
the restraint of fear and shame was fled, and when stubborn
self-will had lost its guard ; how would it waste in endless
ravings, exist a torment to itself, and a terror to mankind !
But beneath this friendly roof, nursed by the tender inter
posing hand of humanity, we often see the shattered senses
resume their former powers, and useless members restored
once more to society. Still, to this doleful place, we behold
our hero followed by his former mistress, and are hence
taught the wonderful effects of love and friendship, which
will stand firm and unshaken in the storms of distress, and
will not desert us, even amid the soul-distracting tempest of
adversity. Our author, in this scene of horror, has taken
an opportunity of pointing out to us the various causes of
mental blindness, for such surely it may be called when the
intuitive faculties are either destroyed or impaired. In one
of the inner rooms of this gallery, No. 54, 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
telescope ; by these expressive figures, we are given to un
derstand, that such is the misfortune of man, that while,
perhaps, the aspiring soul is pursuing some lofty and elevated

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 41
conception, soaring to an uncommon pitch, and teeming
with some grand discovery, the ferment often proves too
strong for the feeble brain to support ; the intenseness of
thought disconcerts the slender fibres ; the thin partitions
and inclosures, which keep the ideas separate, and ranged in
a beautiful order, are burst asunder by the force of the
labouring imagination ; and the whole magazine of notions
and images lies jumbled together, and mingled in wild confu
sion. It may probably be wondered at, why Mr. Hogarth
should have introduced into this piece, so trifling an object
as a tailor, for such that man is intended to represent, who
is staring at the mad astronomer, with a sort of wild asto
nishment, 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 weak head with
shreds : and makes his measure the constant object of his
attention : I say, it may probably be wondered at, why so
trifling a character should be here introduced, among others
whose insanity is supposed to be owing to passions of a more
exalted nature ; but the wonder will immediately cease, when
it is known that a certain nobleman1, some few years since,
had such an unaccountable passion for cutting out, and mak
ing up of clothes, as to keep several men for that purpose in
his house, with whom, and in which employ, he spent the
major part of his time and fortune. He was of opinion that
a tailor should be born such, that he ought to be master of
the various rules of proportion ; man being a beautiful ani
mal, and his form not designed to be destroyed by the lace
rating hands of a mangling cloth-cutter. Behind this man
stands another playing on the violin, with his book upon his
head, intimating that too great a love for music had been
1 Lord L  r.

42 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
the cause of his distraction. On the stairs sits another,
crazed by love, (evident from the picture of his beloved ob
ject round his neck, and the words, " charming Betty Care
less," upon the banisters, which he is supposed to scratch
upon every wall and every wainscot,) and wrapt up so close
in melancholy pensiveness, as not even to observe the dog
that is flying at him. Our author would insinuate, by the
handkerchief round his neck, that love seldom, if ever, works
this unhappy effect upon the truly brave, the sensible, and
manly ; but preys thus only on the fribble, the ignorant,
and effeminate. Behind him, and in the other inner room,
No. 55, are two persons maddened with ambition, which is
a kind of dropsy : the more we drink the more we covet.
These men, though under the same influence of the same
passion, are actuated by different notions : one is for papal
dignity, the other for regal ; one imagines himself a pope, and
saying mass ; the other fancies himself a king, is encircled
with the true emblem of royalty, sceptres being little less
than straw, and crowns than chaff, and is casting contempt
on his imaginary subjects, by an act of the greatest disdain.
To brighten this distressful scene, and draw a smile from
him, whose rigid reasoning might condemn the bringing into
public view this blemish of humanity, are two women intro
duced, walking in the gallery, (a customary thing at Bedlam,)
as curious spectators of this melancholy sight ; one of whom
is supposed, in a whisper, to bid the other observe the naked
man, which she takes an opportunity of doing, by a leer
through the sticks of her fan. An admirable lesson to the
prude, who is here taught that fallacies of all lands are
odious, more particularly hers, which seldom fails to bring the
laugh upon itself. To complete the whole, is a draught of
the halfpenny reversed, (struck in the year 1763,) against the
wall, representing the Britannia, also crazed, an emblem of
the disposition of the times, which were then so extremely

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 43
unaccountable, as to savour strongly of madness ; nor are
they so much altered since, but that at present the satire is
equally seasonable 1.
Thus, imagining the hero of our piece to expire raving
mad, the story is finished, and little else remains, than 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 often owing to the imprudence of a father.
Had the young man, whose story I 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, possessing him with an abhorrence
of vice ; had he instilled in his mind the duties of a son, a
husband, and a father ; and with the liberal education he
was giving him, shown him the claim society had to his best
services ; I say, had he done this, instead of studying how
to enrich himself at the expense of all that was good and
virtuous, our youth would, in all probability, have taken a
contrary course, lived a credit to his friends, and an honour
1 The lines to this plate are :
Madness, thou chaos of the brain, \
What art, that pleasure giv'st and pain 1 >
Tyranny of Fancy's reign ! /
Mechanic Fancy that can build
Vast labyrinths and mazes wild,
With rule disjointed, shapeless measure,
Fill'd with horror, fill'd with pleasure !
Shapes of horror that would even
Cast doubt of mercy upon heaven ;
Shapes of pleasure that but seen,
Would split the shaking sides of spleen.
O vanity of age ! here, see
The stamp of Heav'n effac'd by thee. —
The headstrong course of youth thus run,
What comfort from this darling son !
His rattling chains with terror hear,
Behold, Death grappling with Despair :
See him by thee to rum sold,
And curse thyself, and curse thy gold.

44 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
to his country ; but, raw and unexperienced in the ways of
life, he idly imagined he was accountable to no one for his
conduct ; that there was no true pleasure but in the gratifi
cation of his passions ; and that his treasures were inex
haustible ; led thus unthinkingly into a track of wickedness
and profusion, he soon made a shipwreck of his virtue, and
fell an early sacrifice to ignorance and error.
Having through the course of these pages made such re
flections on the particular incidents that occurred, as renders
it unnecessary to say more, I shall only beg leave to address
myself, by way of conclusion, to such persons as this history
alludes to, namely, gentlemen, whom fortune has placed in
an exalted station. Let me tell you then, from the mouth
of an experienced moralist, that you cannot, without unpar
donable guilt and reproach, waste and fool away your life
and fortune. You ought to reflect, that you owe more to
God and your country, than others do. To God, to his
providence you owe it, that you are born to those fortunes
which others toil for. Oh ! consider, you are masters of
that time which others are forced to devote to their wants
and necessities, and that you are placed at first in those
advantageous heights, which others climb to by slow and
tedious steps. Your guilt is therefore greater than the
poorer man is capable of; while you invade the honour of
that God, from whom alone you derived yours ; while you
dethrone him who raised you, and employ all your power and
treasure against that Being from whom you received them.
And as you owe to God, so do you to your country, more
than other men. You are those who should be the support
and ornament of it ; you are placed in higher orbs, not that,
like meteors, your ominous blaze should be the gaze and
terror of the multitude ; but that, like stars, you might
lighten and beautify, animate and impregnate the inferior
world. If your virtues do not more distinguish you from
the crowd than your fortunes, you are exposed, not honoured,

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 45
by the eminence of your station ; and you debauch and be
tray your poor country by your sin and folly, which your
example, your wisdom, your courage, and your bounty, with
all those other great virtues which persons of your rank
should shine with, should protect, enrich, and raise to the
highest reputation of virtue and power. Reflect well on
this, and shudder.

46 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE ELECTION.1
Plate I.
If any scenes in life can be truly said to be full of humour,
those of a country election certainly may, being crowded
with such variety of grotesque characters, as cannot but
draw a smile, even from the most grave and rigid philoso
pher ; and though in these before us, our author has been
rather lavish, still I am confident they are no other than
natural, and am persuaded there has been no election for a
century back without exhibiting some such drollery as is
here remarked. It may therefore be no unpleasing thing,
1 ["Of the likenesses of living persons," (observes Mr. Cunningham)
" introduced into these designs, it is scarcely necessary to speak. These are
merits which are temporary and fleeting : faces are forgotten as generations
pass away ; and of all the millions who lived and breathed in 1756, a few
names only remain on the sunny side of oblivion. All who smarted from
the artist's satire are as cold and silent as himself ; and by inserting in my
narrative the names of Thomas Potter, Dr. Shebbeare, the Rev. Dr. Cosse-
rat, and Sir John Parrell — nay, even of Lord Melcombe, and the Duke of
Newcastle, I add but little to the interests of these four pictures. The
merits of original fancy, natural action, ceaseless humour, and amusing and
instructive incident, are matters of another kind ; and these keep, and will
keep, the works of Hogarth as fresh and interesting as they ever were."
For the originals of this series Garrick gave 200Z. In 1823 they became
the property of John Soane, Esq. for the munificent price of 1732?. 10s. It
is well observed by Mr. Dallaway, that " since Hogarth's death, his genius
has been justly estimated ; and it would have been well rewarded had he
received during his lifetime one half of what his works have produced."
At Mr. Baker's sale, the original etchings of these four subjects sold for
39Z. 7s. firf. and a finished proof of the Election Dinner alone, in its first
state, for thirty guineas !] J. M.

THE ELECTION. 47
after the sad relation of two such melancholy stories, as
those of the Progress of the Harlot, and the Rake, to amuse
the reader with something not quite so serious. Let this
part then be considered as a farce, to divert the attention
from a tragic representation, and exhilarate the spirits of an
affected audience. Not that these scenes are without some
lessons of morality, for where bribery, hypocrisy, and ve
nality are in view, there must we observe the tottering
Christian and the falling man; and thence may we draw
this judicious conclusion, that when designing hypocrisy
unbars the gates of bribery, then will the dirty sons of
shameless venality rush like a torrent through the golden
portals, beating down all that is just and honest in their
way. Our author, then, has begun his piece with an entertain
ment at a public-house 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 ; for there is
no one thing an Englishman loves so much as his belly ;
and such is the idle notion of the world, that a man is more
or less a gentleman, the more or less free he spends his
money. To preserve the connection of this piece, we are to
suppose it a general election for knights of the shire, when
two members of the whig party are chosen, in opposition to
two others of the tory. But when the court and country
are put in different scales, the weight of the first, at least in
appearance, makes the second kick the beam, — those in the
tory interest are obliged to wear the faces of the whig, in
order to carry the point in question. Such is the case of
the party present; evident by the slashed picture of the
king, which they are supposed to have demolished through
a pretended aversion to the court, and the flag, on which is
painted, " Give us our eleven days," alluding to the altera
tion of the style, in the year 1752, which gave great displea
sure throughout England ; these things, with some others,
12

48 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
such as the foppish dress of the candidate, the name of the
person next him, (one of his agents,) viz. Sir Commodity
Taxem, known by the address of a letter, just presented him
by that leering cobler, who has him by the hand, and whom
he solicits, thinking he has taken him in for some service,
and by the motto on the butcher's favour (who is pouring
gin on the broken head of another,) namely, "for our
country ;" I say, by these and many other circumstances, it
is past doubt that the party present are tories, under false
colours. To confirm this further, see the opposite party
throwing in bricks and stones at the window, one of which
has knocked down an attorney from his seat, who was em
ployed 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 those two
unpopular acts that passed about the same time. To re
venge this riotous proceeding without, see one man throwing
a stool out in return, and another emptying a vessel of urine
on their heads. For on these occasions, the greater the riot
the more jovial is the merriment ; the wounds and sufferings
of the mob, being considered only as trophies and honours
of the time *. It is very well known, that at these seasons,
all sorts of decency and distinction are laid aside, and that
drunkenness and condescension are the greatest virtues.
Would a gentleman reflect to what meanness he is obliged
to submit, in order to obtain a rank of precedence, he would
not, sure, when he has obtained that rank, look down on
the person to whom he, at one time, humbled, and to whom
he must again do the same, with such disdain and contempt ;
1 [Sherlock writes to a Frenchman at Paris thus : " It is worth your
while to come to England, were it only to see an election and a cock-match.
There is a celestial spirit of anarchy and confusion in these two scenes that
words cannot paint, and of which no countryman of yours can form even an
idea." The obvious truth of this assertion only serves to point out how fully
both subjects were suited to the display of Hogarth's talents.] J. M.

THE ELECTION. 49
but such is the case, of which the circumstance I remark is
a striking instance, that the ingratitude of mankind is risen
to so high a pitch, as too often to despise the very friend
who served them. As a proof of this amazing condescen
sion, see here an assembly of all ranks of people ; view the
candidate paying his respects to a female voter, an old
toothless jade, who, in obedience to the word of command,
viz. " Kiss him, Moll," (from the man above her, who is
shedding the fiery ashes on the member's wig,) is not only
doing that, but taking other indecent liberties with him,
while the girl is endeavouring to rob him of his ring. Be
fore the woman is one Abel Squat, a dealer in ribbons,
gloves, and stockings, bought as presents on the occasion,
for which he has received a promissory note of fifty pounds,
payable in six months, a thing he little relishes, convinced
that a bird in hand is worth two in a bush. At the middle
of this table, on the further side, sits a crooked object
ridiculing one of the fiddlers for his enormous length of chin,
not considering his own deformity, even in that very part ;
a striking instance of the folly of such persons, as condemn
in others what is too conspicuous in themselves. In front
is a boy making of punch x in a mashing tub, intimating the
great quantity of liquor that is swallowed at such meetings,
of some kind of which, one of the corporation, behind the
young woman, near the window, seems to have got his full.
But in order to show that this entertainment does not con
sist in drinking only, but that eating to excess is also part
of it, our author has introduced a parson and an alderman,
(of all classes of men known to be the greatest guttlers,)
feeding their bellies to the destruction of their health.
Though the dishes are removed from table, we see this
1 [The open back of the chair in the middle of the picture denotes the
first state of this plate, as also the lemons lying near the mash-tub of punch.
Hogarth afterwards removed them on being informed that " election punch"
was acidulated only with vitriol and cream of tartar !] J. M.
E

50 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
voracious divine feasting luxuriously on the remains of a
haunch of venison, even when all the rest have done, in
dulging his palate by heating it over a chafing dish of coals,
though he is almost fainting with the heat.
I cannot avoid relating here, what I once heard at a
country election, it being extremely applicable to the occa
sion, showing us what part the pulpit gentry bear at these
times of public rejoicing. An occasional rustic attendant at
a public-house, whose name was Nicodemus, and whose
business it was to serve out the liquors, having stepped
without the door, in the morning of the election day, to
view the entry of the pollers into town, was soon followed
by a brother waiter, who called out with the utmost vocife
ration, " Nicodemus, — Nicode — mus !" and, on being an
swered, " Here, here !" replied, " More rum and tobacco for
the clar — gy."
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 bleed
ing. Behind this man's chair is a puritan with up-lifted
hands, refusing to take a bribe, and his wife abusing him for
so doing. " Curse your squeamish conscience," says she,
" is not your wife and children starving ? Have they clothes
to their backs, or stockings to their feet ? — Take it, — or by
all that's just you rue the consequence." Beneath the win
dow is an old gentleman afflicted with the gravel ; and on
his right hand sits one ' making game of him ; he is exhi
biting that droll performance of winding a handkerchief
round his hand, marking the back of it with charcoal, in
imitation of eyes and nose, his thumb and fore-finger serving
for the mouth, which he moves in conformity to the song he
1 Mr. Parnel (drawn from the life), an Irish gentleman, by profession an
attorney, remarkable for his drollery and uncommon humour. [This was
introduced at his own request — he said he was so well known that it would
promote the sale of the prints.]

i t

THE ELECTION. 51
sings ; namely, that of "An old woman clothed in grey,"
&c. In this position the hand represents the face of an old
woman, which, with the motion of the thumb and the hu
mour of the performer, fails not to draw upon the object of
ridicule the laugh of the company. In this room we are to
imagine a variety of noises, loud and boisterous, which is
increased in order to keep the spirits upon the wing, by the
addition of a few gut-scrapers, and a north-country bag
piper, which last performer seems gently interrupted and
teazed by that itching disorder peculiar to the Scotch. The
only thing in this plate further to be noticed is the elector's
coat of arms against the wainscot ; viz. three guineas proper,
with the motto, " Speak and have ;" whose crest is a bawl
ing mouth : hence are we taught, that in elections honesty
is shut out of doors ; that gold is the most prevailing argu
ment, and that on these occasions, he who can make the
most noise is the best instrument for party, and is sure to
gain the greatest share of money and temporary favour.
Though this scene is exhibiting within doors, there are
others equally interesting without. Here votes are called
together, as birds to a net, by a decoy ; abroad, the fowler
is upon the hunt, canvassing from parish to parish, of which
the reader will have some idea, from the following print.
Plate II.
Take a view now of the opposite party, canvassing in a
country village, strewing as it were money among the inha
bitants ; for at these times no one thing paves the way so
well as gold, which, as a celebrated writer observed, is the
strongest argument, and a most wonderful clearer of the
understanding ; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an
instant ; accommodates itself to the meanest capacities ;
silences the loud and clamorous ; and brings over the most
e 2

52 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
obstinate and flexible. Philip of Macedon refuted by it
all the wisdom of Athens, confounded their statesmen, struck
their orators dumb, and at length argued them out of all
their liberties. No wonder then it should have the same
effect upon a people to whom money is a god, and who
consider the accumulation of wealth (as is the now-prevail
ing opinion of the world) to be the sole object of a Chris
tian's view. Mark, here, an agent for one of the candidates
making interest with the ladies : " Gain but the women,"
has been an old saying, "you are sure of the men;" see
him offering them presents from the box of a travelling
Jew, in which there is such variety, that they know not
what to accept, so wavering and undetermined is the female
choice in general. In order to gain their favour, which is
oftener effected by baubles and sights, than by any degree
of patriotism, he is supposed to entertain the village with a
puppet-show, for admission to which a porter has just
brought from the printer's some quires of tickets, together
with a quantity of bills, usually distributed on these occa
sions, requesting of the electors their vote and interest.
The cloth bearing the insignia of this exhibition is hoisted to
the sign post, and is allusive to the subject we are upon ;
the lower part of which represents Punch profusely throw
ing money to the populace ; the upper part, a view of the
treasury loading a waggon with money, in order to secure a
parliamentary interest. In this piece, Mr. Hogarth has
taken an opportunity of ridiculing the clumsiness and absur
dity of the building of the Horse Guards in the heaviness of
its steeple, which he has made to resemble a butt ; and the
lowness of the gateway, by taking off the coachman's head
as he passed through it, when his majesty went first to the
House of Lords after it was finished ; making the man in
reality, as he is customarily called, the king's body coach
man. In the front of this piece stands a country freeholder,

THE ELECTION. 53
beset on both sides by emissaries of different parties \ pre
senting cards of invitation to dinner, in order to curry
favour ; one of whom, viz. he in the cap, is supposed to be
an attendant to the Crown ; the other, the 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
him most. That woman counting her money, which the
grenadier eyes with so much wishfulness, is mistress of the
inn; and is introduced to shew 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 devour a flower-de-luce (the French
arms) ; emblematical of the natural animosity that con
stantly subsists between the two nations, England and
France. As this scene would be imperfect without some
eating and drinking, which is, as it were, the very life of
parliamenteering, 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 alehouse politi
cians, a barber2 and a cobbler, who, with a total ignorance of
men and measures, are settling the affairs of state, and
planning out of sieges with halfpence and pieces of a tobacco
pipe. During the barber's supposed harangue, which we
1 [Upon this interesting trio, Mr. Ireland remarks, " I am tasteless
enough to prefer this to Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy. From
Hogarth the hint was indisputably taken ; but, exquisite as is the face of
Thalia, and it is perhaps not to be paralleled in any other picture, the
countenance of the actor, from the contention of two passions, has assumed
a kind of idiotic stare, of which our honest farmer has not an iota."]
2 George Alexander Stevens, in his Lecture upon Heads, has given us the
words of this powdered politician ; his Sir Ful-fed-Domine Doublechin being
evidently taken from this political barber of Mr. Hogarth's.

54 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
are to imagine was graced with numerous hesitations,
variety of blunders, and nonsense of seeming moment, see
the one-eyed cobbler, snuffing the snuff of self-consequence,
and whiffing his tobacco with an air of importance. To set
forth the surly pride of one of these menders of shoes, on a
time of election, permit me to relate a little anecdote, that
happened in a borough town not far from London. In the
course of the canvass, the member, who, in order to save
appearances, had kissed the voters' wives, with guineas in
his mouth, applied for a vote to a low-bred surly chap of
the same stamp with this man before us. He began his
application with professions of esteem and inquiries of
health ; and closed it with saying, "he flattered himself that
he had always lived in such repute, as to have the voice of
every one there, and among the rest, that of his ;" and on
being asked, " what he meant by slobbering the women
folk," replied, " 'twas his customary method of expressing
his joy in seeing them." " Why don't you, then," says the
cobbler, " express your joy in seeing me, the same way 2"
This was no sooner complied with, than the rough-hewn
freeman slips the guinea from his mouth to his pocket, and
turns upon his heel with a laugh of derision, telling the
'squire, " that he might now kiss his  , for that he had
promised his vote to t'other man." But to return to my
subject ; as in the first plate the persons present wore only
the cloak of reality, in this, they shew themselves absolutely
in earnest. The people having here assembled to break the
windows, tear down the sign, (which one is sawing through
on the top) and demolish the house, opened by the contrary
party ; and so resolute are they in their determinations, as
even to dare the discharge of a gun ; so headstrong and
ungovernable is an English mob, that the more they are
opposed, the greater ravage they make. We are however
to understand, that their inveteracy here is actuated by a
twofold principle : that of a spirit of opposition, and their

THE ELECTION. 55
abhorrence of excise, (this riot being at the office of excise ')
a law, which though it may be particularly necessary, has
been and still continues to be extremely unpopular.
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 impossible to conceive the noise,
the hurry, the bustle, and joyous confusion of the populace,
each party striving to be loudest, and endeavouring by all
the acts of riot and opposition to suppress the other. Now
all business is superseded by enjoyment, fighting and feast
ing is the employment of the day, all distinction is laid aside,
and the beggar is as great as the lord. Having then made
all the interest possible, and secured every vote in their
power, the next step is to poll them.
Plate III.
Accordingly, see both parties at the hustings, taking every
advantage in their power, and, to swell the number of votes,
polling the maimed, the sick, the halt, and the blind. The
tory interest is distinguished by the orange-coloured flag,
and is that on the right, where they are swearing a pen
sioned officer, who has lost the major part of his person in
the service of his country, and who is, here, supposed under
a necessity of voting for the court, in order to secure
his little pay ; so ungrateful is the state in general, as to
take notice of and reward but a few, except its interest is
immediately concerned. An oath, however light of it may
be made, is one of the most sacred acts of man, being a
solemn appeal to Heaven, for the truth of the cause in ques
tion : whoever therefore is so presumptive as to take a false
one, or so rash as not to consider what they are about, is
1 In country places, the Excise-office is generally held at public-houses.

56 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
sure to draw upon themselves the anger of the Almighty, and
lay themselves open to the vengeance of the God of Truth :
an act of this sort being a public affront, and a barefaced
mockery of his justice. Yet, notwithstanding this, it is com
monly looked upon merely as a ceremonial, which the laws
of this kingdom have enjoined, in judicial matters, and, as
such, does not always answer the wise design. As a proof
how little its solemnity is apt to affect us, take notice, that
on the officer's laying his wooden stump upon the book, the
swearing clerk bursts into a fit of laughter, which he endea
vours to stifle with his hand, and which is not a little increased
by the two counsellors disputing the legality of the oath. By
which last we are given to understand, that these black-robed
gentry of the bar, so hackneyed are they in the ways of quib
bling, will harangue longer and louder in a case of this sort
than when truth is on their side, and integrity before them.
On the other hand see the whigs, distinguished by the blue
flag and favours, polling a man who has lost the use of his
limbs and senses by the palsy, the latter of which is in some
measure assisted by the whispers of one * behind him, who
is directing him whom to vote for. By the shackle on this
man's leg, and the paper in his pocket, whose title is, " The
Sixth Letter to the People of England," we learn, that he
came into disgrace for being the author of that publication.
Behind him is another freeholder, brought almost dying
from his bed. So great is the opposition, and so hard run
are they supposed to be, as to be under a necessity of pro
curing of votes, even at the risk of life. Hence have we a
further proof of the general craving after money, when a
man shall run such great lengths to obtain it, though it is
1 Dr. Shebbeare, a physician, who was pilloried, and imprisoned two years
in the King's Bench, for a libel against his Majesty.
[" The Doctor frequently said in a public coffee-house, that he would
have a pillory or a pension. In each of these points he was gratified : Lord
Mansfield complimented him with the first, and Lord Bute rewarded him
with the second."] J. I.

THE ELECTION. 57
more than probable, the step he takes may occasion his
death ; and though he has the greatest reason to think he
shall not live to enjoy it. On these particular occasions,
each party endeavours to lessen the other in the eyes of the
public ; nor do they stick at any one meanness, in order to
accomplish it. It is something very astonishing that gen
tlemen, men who pride themselves in that appellation, should
descend to such wretched shifts, in order to support their
cause ; things I am confident they would loudly condemn in
others ; but such is the self-partiality of mankind, as to view
their own failings through the diminished sight of the tele
scope, when at the same time they will shuffle to themselves
that end, which shall greatly magnify the failings of others.
In this view of things, we are to suppose all manner of ca
lumnies and invectives thrown out by one party against the
other ; and lest they should not spread sufficiently, which is
seldom if ever known to be the case, they are committed to
press, and distributed up and down among the people. To
this end then are those ballads, bearing the print of a gibbet,
(an emblem of the contents) which the woman is crying, and
which a cluster of men are reading with so much glee. There
are many little strokes of humour in this and the other plates,
which it might be injudicious to remark, as their discovery
must undoubtedly give some pleasure to the person who
searches for them ; but, as perhaps it may be expected
that I should take some notice of those under this shed,
seated above the rest ; let it suffice to say that they are two
magistrates, in opposite interests, attending the poll ; one of
whom seems not to like the account of it, and the other, so
sure within himself of the success he anticipates, as to be
lost in the pleasing reverie. This fully appears by his inat
tention to that person on his right, who is sketching off his
face on paper. Regretting the sad situation of England,
under these scenes of venal corruption, Mr. Hogarth has
introduced Britannia in her chariot, breaking down, and her

58 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
life in danger, through the indiscretion and obstinacy of her
coachman, who is at cards with the footman on the box, and
who, in contempt of all the cries and calls of his mistress,
is determined to play on, let the consequence be what it will.
An admirable stroke on administrations in general ; whose
prevailing principles too often are interest and ambition,
which, though they are productive of the most dreadful
events, they never fail to pursue, notwithstanding their coun
try's safety is at stake ; but, like these worthless servants
before us, are determined to play their game without inter
ruption ; to ennoble and enrich themselves, at the expense
of all that is great and valuable. Would to God that such
men would seriously consider, that by distressing the state, of
which they are the supporters, they, in fact, distress them
selves ; for if the body suffers, the arms, the head, and all its
members must suffer likewise ; if the carriage be overset, of
which these men are the charioteers, they must undoubtedly
fall with it ; and it will as little avail them, that the vehicle
was not their own, as the ridiculous thought of escaping did
the indolent and inconsiderate Hibernian, who, when at sea,
in a violent storm, was called up to assist upon deck, for
that the vessel was sinking, and the whole crew would be
lost, replied, " What care I for the vessel or the crew? 
sink, and be d  d ; — I am only a passenger." Nay, let
them reflect that they are answerable to the public for their
conduct, who have entrusted them, as it were, with their pro
perties and lives ; and that if they make a wrong use of the
power committed to their hands, though they may chance to •
escape an examination in this life, they will most assuredly
meet with a severe one in the next.
Plate IV.
The whig party having, with the greatest difficulty, ob
tained that victory they wished for, see them now chairing
12

THE ELECTION. 59
their members, for though one only is in sight, the shadow
against the court-house declares the other not a great way
off. A tumultuous procession of this kind never fails of
producing a general confusion. They are here supposed to
have just passed a farmer's yard, hurrying pigs, geese, and
every thing before them ; and as one accident seldom comes
alone, behold the sow, having just overset a woman, who is
near being trampled on by the mob. To add to this scene
of uproar, out runs a thresher from the barn, in defence of
his pigs, and rashly strikes with his flail at the first person
in his way, a bold courageous tar, who repays him smartly
in his own coin. The necessity this poor man is reduced
to, of leading about a dancing bear for maintenance, is a
most severe reflection on the ingratitude of the government,
who will suffer an honest seaman, who has undergone the
greatest hardships, nay, lost his limbs in the defence of the
nation, to stroll about the country, begging, as it were, the
charity of his fellow-subjects, and depending on strangers
for that relief he is supposed to be denied by those, who
were very particularly indebted to him. This winnower of
corn, in raising his flail, accidentally strikes one of the
carriers on his temples ; stuns him with the blow, and de
prives him of his strength, which had near proved fatal to
the member, by a sudden overthrow, had it not been pre
vented by the immediate assistance of another. An accident
so unexpected frightens a young lady looking over the
church-yard wall, who seems by her fainting to have a greater
concern in the gentleman's misfortune, than we might at
first be aware of. To increase this confusion, behold the
bear falling foul of the tubs of garbage, the monkey squeal
ing, and his piece taking fire. The action of the chimney
sweeper on the wall, must be allowed a fine stroke of moral
humour. " Avast," says he, " my lads," to the thresher and
the sailor, " avast, death (imitating its ghastly grin) has
put on its spectacles, and watches an opportunity to lay you

60 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
by the heels," intimating, that unless they speedily desist,
the loss of life may be the dreadful consequence. Against
the church is a sun-dial, with the motto, we must ; a pun,
alluding to the name of the time-piece it is on ; viz. " We
must die — all!" Mr. Hogarth has in this taken an oppor
tunity of transmitting to future ages the excessive ignorance
of a certain monied man, of good family, who, thinking it
extremely smart, had it immediately painted upon his clock
in the front of his house. A convincing proof that it is not
always in the power of education to impart sense. To shew
us, that fighting and feasting are the usual attendants of
tumultuous rejoicing, he has thrown into this piece a woman
beating her husband for leaving his business, who, by his
thread round his neck, and the scissors by his side, is sup
posed to be a tailor. Why tailors should be represented
as the most cowardly and henpecked of mortals, unless it
be, that working with a needle unmans them, I am at a loss
to determine ; but such is the general contempt that pro
fession lies under, as in all cases of meanness to be the butt
of ridicule. In one corner of this plate is a soldier, whom
we are to understand, by his being stripped, by his broken
sword, and by his wounds, to have been also fighting, and
who is now comforting himself with a quid of the best
Virginia, which is generally to the lower class of people a
heal for every sore. With respect to feasting, see two men
carrying out a barrel of beer to the populace ; another lick
ing the dregs of an empty cask ; and to complete the whole,
a dinner of many covers, conveying to the best house in the
place, that of the attorney's (known by a clerk writing in an
upper room), for the entertainment of some particular per
sons, to whom feasting at a public house would have been
disagreeable ; among these, a group of whom we see at the
window, is a certain popular nobleman ' (distinguishable by
the ribbon,) who is universally known to busy himself greatly
1 The Duke of Newcastle.

THE ELECTION. 61
at these particular seasons, establishing an interest by making
court to the lowest of the people. One other thing I can
not help taking notice of, which is the introduction of a
French cook, who is looking on the naked soldier with an
eye of contempt. A sufficient declaration of the insincerity
of modern popularity, who while she roars out, " England
for ever !" betrays in her luxurious appetite, a dislike of her
country, in the loathing of its natural food, and a craving
for the unsubstantial dainties of the French. Thus in these,
as in all other scenes of life, hypocrisy is the reigning prin
ciple, and the tongue is a constant traitor to the heart.
Though my intention is only to explain these plates, I
cannot close this subject, without one observation ; which
is, that mankind, from the highest to the lowest, are slaves
to venality : and it is something strangely astonishing, that
men should exclaim against the very thing they are guilty
of themselves. Can we much wonder at being sold, when
we absolutely sell ourselves, or should we be angry at that,
which we are studious to bear a part in ? I cannot endure
to hear men exclaim against placemen and pensioners, when,
had they an opportunity, they would act the very same. If
it is any respect dangerous, that our properties should be in
the disposal of such men, why do we suffer it, when in our
power to prevent it ? A man no sooner accepts a place, than
he vacates his seat in the house of commons ; if, therefore,
it was the determined resolution never to elect a person
who holds any post under the government, the complaint
would immediately cease, and we should hold our properties
in our own hands ; but when the venal constituents abandon
their interest, by selling their votes, it must be acknow
ledged that they are instrumental to their own misfortunes,
and bring their miseries on themselves \
1 [Wonderfully rich in character and incident as are each of these four
subjects, the first plate is considered greatly to surpass the rest for highly-
wrought humour. Mr. Charles Lamb, in his elegant Essay on Hogarth's

62 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
genius and character, observes, that more than thirty distinct classes of
face are here brought together into a room, and so disposed about, and so par
taking of the spirit of the occasion, that nothing but an election could have
assembled them. The same author also justly remarks upon the dumb
rhetoric of the scenery — "for tables, and chairs, and joint stools in Hogarth
are living and significant things." Mr. Ireland has given us Hogarth's
own remarks on two of the characters in this piece — the butcher with "'pro
patria" in his cap, and his wounded companion. The truth is, that he was
his own commentator, as far as delicacy permitted, and that all the essential
information as to the real meaning of his works came directly from himself!
Dr. Trusler having simply access to the same papers afterwards possessed by
Mr. Ireland — but during our author's life, he was chiefly anxious to get his
thoughts transferred to the French language, in order to increase the sale
of his works abroad ; and for this purpose, he employed Roquet the ena-
meller, whose task, however, ends with the March to Finehley. The con
tents of his pamphlet are brought forward by Dr. Trusler : " These two
patriots, says Hogarth, who, let what party will prevail, can be no gainers,
yet spend their time, which is their fortune, for what they suppose right,
and for a glass of gin lose their blood, and sometimes their lives, in support
of the cause, are, as far as I can see, entitled to an equal portion of fame
with many of the emblazoned heroes of ancient Rome : but such is the
effect of prejudice, that though the picture of an antique wrestler is admired
as a grand character, we necessarily annex an idea of vulgarity to the por
trait of a modern boxer. An old blacksmith in his tattered garb is a coarse
and low being ; — strip him naked, tie his leather apron round his loins, —
chisel out his figure in free-stone or marble, precisely as it appears, — he
becomes elevated, and may pass for a philosopher or a deity."
With respect to the amazing variety of countenances presented in the
works of Hogarth, it is quite plain, that whenever he saw a remarkable one,
he knew at once the cause of it, whether it were - freak of nature, a pro
fessional distortion in high or low life, or one of the thousand and one ridicu
lous shapes assumable by that best of all friends to a comic painter — Affec
tation ! Accordingly he introduced into his works, on suitable occasions,
what he never omitted any opportunity of adding to his sketch-book ; or
when that was not at hand, he drew the faces upon his thumb-nail. Mr.
Dallaway extracts the following curious article from Mr. Baker's sale-cata
logue : " Six sheets, containing sixty-four small sketches of heads, very
spiritedly executed with a pen, belonging to many of the prominent cha
racters subsequently introduced into his principal works." It was sold
for 311. 10s.] J. M.

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 63

THE MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE '.
Plate I.
Although there is no one step of greater consequence to
us, or on which the happiness of man so much depends, as
that of marriage ; still so rash and presumptive are we, as
to pay very little regard to it, otherwise than as it suits, or
clashes with our interest ; that imposer on our fate which
leads us on to misery in the dark, smoothing over our mis
fortunes with a show of felicity. On talking upon this sub
ject, most men shall speak as with the tongue of a philoso
pher ; they shall tell you that the joys of wedlock consist
in having a discreet and affectionate wife ; but when they
are about to enter on the state, you shall hear them open
ing in a different language ; nothing then shall satisfy but
money : she that has most, is most amiable ; and she that
has none, is totally deserted. 'Tis this unhappy way of
thinking that introduces into so many families a cold indif
ference between man and wife, which, when it has once
taken root, seldom fails of growing into a settled and con
firmed hatred, the general forerunner of very dreadful con
sequences. In order, then, to create in us an abhorrence of
such lucrative alliances, Mr. Hogarth has, in the following
1 [For the originals of these six noble pictures, Hogarth could obtain but
1151. 10s. in his life-time, (the mode of sale was by a sort of raffle or auc
tion ;) yet they were in frames worth four guineas each ! This took place
in 1750 ; in 1797, (vide Introduction,) Mr. Angerstein gave 1,3812. for them,
and they are now open to public inspection in the National Gallery, Pall
Mall.] J. M.

64 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
scenes, pictured out in the most striking colours, the fatal
end of what he calls a Marriage a-la-mode ; a well-adapted
term, being too general and fashionable a thing among us,
to savour of the least impropriety : and because this folly is
more conspicuous among the great, he has taken his subject
from high life ; and as an impartial person should, has drawn
it with the pencil of veracious observation.
We are then to suppose, that an Alderman of the city of
London, a man immensely rich, whose wealth was acquired
by trade, in order to ennoble his family, (so ambitious are we
in general, and so fond of titulary honour,) had been, some
time, looking out for a matrimonial alliance with some man
of fashion, who might be glad to accept such a proposal,
with a view of recruiting a wasted fortune. We are also to
imagine, that it was not long before he met with the wished-
for opportunity, there being many of the English nobility
with encumbered estates, upon the watch to catch at an
offer of this kind, in order to free them. View, then, the
wealthy cit, all necessary preliminaries being before adjusted,
at the house of a British earl, signing and sealing the mar
riage settlement, and paying his daughter's stipulated for
tune. See him, with all the appearance of a person of
property, accustomed to the tale of money, casting his eyes
on what his clerk, an old faithful servant, has just counted
down. On the other hand, behold the peer, the father of
the bridegroom, full of his titles and nobility, (which he has
just traced on the tree of consanguinity, from William the
Conqueror) in a position which indicates an egotism swelled
with the greatest pride. Methinks I hear him say, " 'Tis I ;
my arms ; my titles ; my castle ; my ancestors." Nay, so
fond is he of his rank, that every thing about him wears the
mark of distinction ; even his crutches, the mortifying mo
nitors of his infirmities, are ornamented with coronets. He
is represented as lain up with the gout, that disorder, in
particular, being the usual consequence of irregular living,

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 65
which men of quality too often give a loose to. Neither is
an irregular debauched life the parent of one disorder only,
but of a complication. This is intimated by the mark of
the evil on the son's neck, covered with a patch, which we
are to suppose inherent in his blood, carried down from
father to son through many generations. Astonishing, that
men should pursue their pleasures to the prejudice of their
health, and that the pain they suffer should not deter them
from such excesses as cause it ! Behind, on a settee, are
the bride and bridegroom, in positions of dislike, he taking
snuff and looking in the glass ; she playing with her ring,
seeming to listen with indifference to the soft things that a
young barrister is saying to her, whose attendance here was
to draw up the marriage articles. The other counsellor, (a
Serjeant) is examining the plan of my lord's new building,
and viewing with admiration (that declares him full of empty
significance and conceit, greatly characteristic of the law-
swoln counsel) the beauty of the edifice, on which he is
supposed to have spent the whole of his fortune, not even
reserving sufficient to complete it. So rash and inconside
rate are monied men in general, as fondly to imagine there
is no end to their wealth ! The number of idle servants that
are seen in the court yard without, serve also to denote the
destructive pride that surrounds this man of quality : swelled
with his exalted situation in life, his eyes are shut to his
follies ; and puffed up with grandeur, he has not leisure to
cast even a thought on consequences, but is totally blind to
impending ruin.
Matters amicably adjusted, and preliminaries settled, we
are to suppose the fatal knot tied, that knot on which de
pends our temporal happiness or misery. Now is this young
couple cast from under the parental wing, launched forth
into the world, and left wholly to themselves ; possessed of
such an annual income as sets them far above the reach of
want ; placing them in the midst of every earthly blessing.

66 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Happy might they now have been could they e'en have
thought so, nay doubly happy if they loved ; but where af
fection is wanting, felicity is banished ; for Heaven has so
framed our natures for this intimate society, that without it
even amid the affluence of fortune, and the flow of uninter
rupted health, there will be an aching void in the solitary
breast that can never know a plenitude of happiness. To
this misfortune is owing the utter destruction of this un
thinking pair, and all those melancholy consequences rising
in the sequel of the story. Plate II.
That indifference which precedes a marriage of this sort,
seldom fails to follow it. When we unite ourselves by con
tract, we would generally live separate by inclination. Tired
of one another, nothing is more common than for the hus
band to grow sick of home, to stay out in an evening as late
as possible, and for the wife to wear away the tedious hours
by entertainments, cards, and other acts of dissipation.
This plate then before us represents a saloon in this
young nobleman's house, not long after the breaking up of
a card assembly. The clock tells us, 'tis noon. We are to
suppose, then, by the candles being still burning, that the
day had been shut out, and converted into night, a circum
stance not a little characteristic of the irregularity and dis
order that reigns within the house ; and that after an hour
or two's sleep, madam is just risen to breakfast ; whose
rising has occasioned that of the family in general. This
is intimated by one of the servants in the back-ground of
this plate, who, we are to understand, though scarce awake,
has hurried on his clothes, in order to set the house in some
measure to rights. By the treatise of Hoyle upon the floor,
we are taught the idle study of people of distinction, to
whom books in general are a disgust, unless they tend to

WJS. WerOioylBn.. ao
MARRIAGE A LA MODE,  PL. 2.

marriage a-la-mode. 67
dissipation, or serve to instruct them in their favourite
amusements. With respect to the attitudes of the two
principal figures, the fineness of the thought, and the par
ticular exactness of the expressions, they must be allowed
to be extremely beautiful. They are at the same time well
introduced, as from the indifference that gives rise to them,
springs the destruction of this unhappy family. On the
one hand we are to suppose her actuated by soft desire,
totally neglected by her husband ; on the other, by way of
contrast, that he is just returned from the apartments of
some woman fatigued and satiated. And as pleasures of
this sort are seldom uninterrupted, we are told by the
female cap in his pocket, and his broken sword, that he
has been engaged in some riot or uproar. An old faithful
steward, who has a regard for the family, seems to have
taken this opportunity, (not being able to find a better,)
to settle his accounts ; but the great disorder of the family,
and the indisposition of his master and mistress, render it
impossible. See him then returning in an action of concern,
dreading the approaching ruin of them both. To show us
the great and general extravagance of nobility1, Mr. Hogarth
has humorously put into this man's hands a number of un
paid bills, and placed upon the file only one receipt ; inti
mating the bad pay of people of quality, who will run them
selves largely in debt, and refuse every timely payment,
even to the ruin of their tradesmen. By the book of rege-
1 [The editor cannot help observing, that upon this head Dr. Trusler, in
many places carries his remarks much farther than his author warrants.
Hogarth never intended these subjects as a general satire upon the upper
classes who are as rational in their amusements, considering their enlarged
means, as the rest of mankind. To be as liberal in the expenditure of their
incomes as they can possibly afford, is but patriotism without the ostentation
of the name. All that Hogarth means to enforce, as Mr. Walpole expresses
it is that " the different vices of the great and the vulgar, lead by various
path's to the same unhappiness." In Hogarth's own descriptions of these
six subjects  referred to hereafter — there is no sort of insinuation as to the
incompatibility of virtue and talent with rank and station.] J. M.
F2

68 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
neration in his pocket, we are given to understand that he
is tainted with enthusiasm ; and though his heart is inclined
to good, that he is an unhappy follower of those men whose
reigning principle is hypocrisy, and who will publickly shud
der for the misfortunes of those, whose downfall they secretly
rejoice at. There is one other thing which I cannot pass over
in silence, and that is an immodest painting in the further
part of the room, with a curtain drawn before it ; calculated
to inflame a wanton imagination, though designedly con
cealed from public view. A manifest token of the depraved
taste of its owner, and a completion of his vitiated cha
racter. Led then from one act of ill-conduct to another, the hero
of this piece meets his destruction in hunting after pleasure.
Little does he imagine what misery awaits him, and what
dreadful consequences will be the event of his proceedings ;
but determined to embrace the trifling happiness in view,
covets, and runs into the company of abandoned women ;
rouses by that means the resentment of his wife, and with
the greatest rashness seals his unhappy fate.
Plate III.
Disease is universally known to be the general attendant
of debauchery. It is on this account our author has intro
duced the hero of this piece at the house of an empiric,
where he would have had no occasion to be, but in conse
quence of his lewd course of life. He is represented as hav
ing brought with him two females with whom he has been
acquainted, that the doctor might determine to which of the
two he might attribute his disorder, both of them being
supposed to have been some time under cure. His being
prejudiced in favour of the girl, we are to imagine, occasions
a quarrel between him and the woman, which proceeds to
the greatest extremities, even to that of fighting. The doc-

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 69
tor, unconcerned at this dispute, and solicitous for little but
himself, increases the noise by thundering to the mute-
struck girl, " Vat I — you vont take your pe — els ?" angry
to think his medicines are so little regarded. The contrast
between this girl and the woman with respect to the age, the
timidity, the softness of the one ; the rage, the fury, and
the harshness of the other, is doubtless exceeding beautiful,
and strongly characteristic of the simplicity that dwells in
those who are unaccustomed to vice, and the natural fero
city inherent in such as are long habituated to it. Though
both the quack, and his apartments are objects rather foreign
to the purpose, yet Mr. Hogarth has taken this opportunity
of ridiculing the folly of such men, as enter upon a profes
sion they are wholly unacquainted with ; and by represent
ing this empiric as a Frenchman, censures the government
of this kingdom for tolerating a foreigner to exercise here,
what would not be permitted in his own country, that of
preying upon the constitution of the public. Although he
was formerly a barber, he is now, if we may judge by the
appearance of his house, not only a surgeon, but a naturalist,
chemist, mechanician, physician and apothecary; and to
complete the character, he is supposed to have invented,
through a great opinion of his own abilities, two machines,
extremely complicate, for the most simple operations : one
to set a dislocated limb, the other — to uncork a bottle. On
the first of the two lies a folio treatise on the nature of these
instruments, in French, whose title-page is, " An Explana
tion of two grand machines, one for re-setting the collar
bone, the other for drawing a cork ; invented by Monsieur
De la- Pillule. Inspected and approved by the Royal Aca
demy at Paris." An admirable rub on the ignorance of the
French, and on the superficial knowledge of mechanic heads
in general, who fondly imagine they have performed won
ders, if they find themselves able to bring about even ordi
nary things by very extraordinary means. In the glass case

70 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
are three figures, viz. a skeleton of a man that had been
executed, intimated by the gallows above, a man in muscles,
and a plaster head, on which hangs the doctor's wig. By
the disposition of these figures, which is that of the bones
supposed to be cautioning the flesh not to be advised by that
head of self-consequence beside him ; lest, in a little time, he
should be reduced to bones only, like himself; we are taught
the folly of applying to quacks for a cure, when we find
ourselves in any respect disordered ; they being of little ser
vice, otherwise than that of removing a life-sick patient
from a tormenting and troublesome world.
The old nobleman is now supposed to be dead, and the
young lord in the entire possession of his estate. In con
sequence of this, he launches out into every piece of folly
and extravagance, has his levees, his routs, &c. and becomes
totally a dupe to the foibles of his wife.
Plate IV.
See then in this fourth plate a group of figures, greatly
amusing by the variety of characters they represent. Let
us begin with the principal, that of madam at her toilette,
under the hands of her valet-de-chambre, sitting to have her
hair dressed. Such being the folly of people of rank, that
as they take their modes from France, they have no opinion
of any other than French dressers. By the china figures on
the floor, which her black boy has brought home, she is
supposed to be just returned from an auction, or sale of
goods, at which places women of quality are generally taken
in. It is pride only, and a determination of rivalling their
acquaintance in expense, that causes them to buy, or they
would not purchase, as they often do at an exorbitant
price, a villanous jar or a wretched pagod, which they have
not the least occasion for, and which have neither beauty nor
value to recommend them. Let any one cast an eye on the

MARRIAGE A LA 1CODE. PL. 4.

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 71
various lots, and observe the precious acquisition our heroine
has made, which, by the catalogue on the floor, seems to
have been once the property of Sir Timothy Baby-house,
and I am persuaded he must think the same. Among these
is a porcelaine figure of Actseon, to whose horns the boy,
with a leer upon his lady, is archly pointing, as emblemati
cal of the ridiculous appearance of his master. It has ever
been foolishly considered among the first rank of people as
a mark of grandeur, to have frequently at their houses one
of those melodious animals, which are fetched from Italy at
a great expense : such a one l is here singing, and is parti
cularly well drawn for one of those unfortunate wretches
that too often fall a victim to the musical madness of the
Italians. His diamond buckles, rings, solitaire, and ear
rings, tell us the many valuable presents the ladies have
made him, who are generally wrapt up in any thing they
think uncommon. As a proof of this, see Lady Charlotte
dying away at the ravishing sounds of this melodious singer,
and the mellow notes of the warbling flute. Not so the
country gentleman on her left2, he having no relish for
1 Farinelli, a celebrated Italian singer. [Walpole and others consider
this to be Carestini.];
2 [It has been gravely insisted upon that this is not a gentleman asleep,
nor a gentleman at all ; but a bailiff in possession ! (Vide letter to Mr.
Nichols. Anecdotes, 4to. vol. iii. p. 87.) Fortunately, however, for the
settlement of this point, Mr. Ireland presents us, at the end of his second
volume, with the explanations of the whole six pictures, which Hogarth gave
to Mr. Lane, at the time of his becoming the purchaser of them. The de
scriptions in question, not only serve to confirm the general accuracy of Dr.
Trusler in matters of fact, but at the same time give us the artist's own
word for it, that he here expressly intended to contrast the devotee of coun
try sports, with a whole knot of affected admirers of the fashionable world,
and with this enraptured lady in particular.
The following are his words : — " The woman there seems charmed almost
to fainting, but the rest of the company do not seem so sensible of it. The
country gentleman, fatigued at a stag or a fox chase, is fallen asleep."
Now in justice to our author, how ought this modest outline to be filled up
 for there is not a finer conceived piece of satire in all his works 1 Even
the closed eyes of the singer denote a drowsy kind of ecstasy, and the black

72 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
these exalted pleasures, and supposed to be fatigued with
riding, is fallen fast asleep. Next him sits one who, by the
fan upon his wrist, we are told is more a woman than a man,
a disciple of Anacreon's, a very heretic in love. This man
pretends to be moved at what he hears, and puts us in mind
of those effeminate creatures, who affect a delicacy they are
perfect strangers to, and draw contempt on themselves in
that very instant in which they would wish to be most ad
mired. On the left of him sits another unaccountable, with
his hair in buckle ; one of those personages that pass their
whole lives in endeavouring to please, without success : a
very petit maitre, who constantly degrades the man to sup
port the coxcomb. On the opposite side of the chamber is
that young barrister, otherwise engaged, (whom we saw in
the first plate talking to the bride,) lying on a sopha ; he
seems, by his picture hanging in this room, to have ingra
tiated himself into the favour of the family, and by his situ
ation here, to have profited by the indifference of the hus
band ; for however strange it may appear, experience shows
us, that in matters of intrigue, the husband is no less a dupe
to the artful designs of his wife, let the indifference that
subsists between them be as great as it may. He is repre
sented as offering his mistress a ticket for a masquerade,
which she, on her part, does not hesitate to accept. The
figures to which he is pointing in the screen, those of a friar
and a nun in secret converse, intimate the purposes of his
heart, tell her in express terms, that if she is as willing as
he, they may then have an opportunity of enjoying each
other under the serviceable mask of innocence, unseen by
footman is leering at him in obvious ridicule of the affected raptures produced
in the die-away lady — while, of the two remaining characters, one adapts a
" foolish face of praise," to compatibility with a comfortable doze, and the
other is faintly endeavouring to think of something else ! — This is Hogarth's
delineation of a supposed musical treat ! The enraptured lady and the
sleeping gentleman, are since known to be portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Fox
Lane, afterwards Lord and Lady Bingley.] J. M.

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 73
the inquisitive eye of censure. All that I shall further re
mark in this plate, is a few complimental message cards
lying scattered on the floor ; the contents of which are as
follow, " Lady Squander's company is desired at Lady
Townley's drum next Monday." " Lady Squander's com
pany is desired at Lady Heatham's drum-major next Sun
day." Sunday, in particular ! amazing wickedness of the
age, that the greatest riot should be fixed on the most
sacred day ! — " Lady Squander's company is desired at
Miss Hairbrain's rout." Among which is one from a fo
reigner, visible from its orthography. " Count Basset begs
to no how lade Squander sleapt last nite." From these
few cards, it is very evident in what an idle manner people
of fashion trifle away their time, and in what acts of dissi
pation they waste those precious hours that ought to be
spent in matters of greater moment. Little do they imagine
they shall, one day or other, answer for this ill-conduct, or
they would not, surely, mill-horse-like, pursue their incessant
round, and take such pains to pay their visits to any lord,
but the Lord of the whole earth.
Plate V.
The fatal consequence of going to the masquerade is here
shown to perfection. The ticket was accepted to favour an
assignation ; the assignation took place, and the catastrophe
is dire. Happy is our heroine to find an opportunity of en
joying the company of her spark ; happy was the barrister
to take an advantage of the supposed weakness of her. hus
band ; but behold the dreadful end of such illicit and unwar
rantable proceedings ! — They are supposed to have retired
from the ball to some bagnio, in order to give a loose to
their enjoyment. But what are we to imagine brought the
husband here ? Suspicion, and eagerness to know the truth.
Her indiscreet behaviour had long given birth to his jea-
12

74 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
lousy, and her going to this place of amusement without him
confirmed it. Determined to see the event of her miscon
duct, he secretly follows her from his house to the mas
querade, from the masquerade to the bagnio ; rashly gives
them an opportunity of undressing, that he might have the
satisfaction of discovering them in bed. Had he shown
himself at their entrance into the house, it might have an
swered his purpose equally, and in all probability this bloody
scene would have been prevented ; but instead of this, he
goes after them to the chamber, and, thirsting for revenge,
unsheaths his sword, bursts open the door, and attacks his
rival, who was also prepared, in case of any interruption ;
a thrust or two passes between them ; and the husband is
wounded mortally. The noise this occasioned brings up the
watch and a servant of the house, who seem thunderstruck
at the ghastly spectacle : alarmed at this accident, the young
counsellor thought proper to secure himself by an escape
from the window in his shirt ; and his mistress, struck at
the same time both by remorse and horror, and actuated in
some measure by concern, falls on her knees to her dying
husband, wringing her hands, with tears in her eyes ; and
in blubbered accents confesses her guilt, imploring his for
giveness. Now, though too late, begins to work that sor
row, which, had it found way into her breast before, might
have prevented this dreadful act, and perhaps have laid the
basis of their future happiness ; but, on the contrary, she
pursued her vicious inclinations, even to the death of her
husband, and was content to seal her misery, so she grati
fied her wanton passion. Nor was his imprudence less than
hers ; for his corrupt course of life roused her resentment ;
his unfaithfulness to the marriage-bed being, as it were, the
prelude to her inconstancy ; and in order to punish it, he
meets his own death in seeking that of his rival's. Thus he
fell an untimely sacrifice to his revenge, and a victim to the
wrath of Heaven.

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 75

Plate VI.

Though the young barrister fled from the window, it was
of little or no availment, much like the fluttering of a bird
ensnared in a net, that tries, even to the last, to escape the
hands of the fowler ; he reaches the ground, 'tis true, but
is presently taken by the watch, and the next day committed
to prison, there to bewail his past imprudences, and settle
his accounts with his Creator. Madam is conducted to her
house, and left to repent her hasty steps at leisure. On the
report of this melancholy story, the tradesmen of her lord,
(who had long forborne carrying matters to extremities,
through the hopes that they should be, one time, paid) rush
on her to seize the remaining effects. She, therefore, being
ill disposed to settle any sort of account, we are to imagine
makes a friend of her father, throws her affairs into his
hands, leaves her home and returns to his house ; supposed
to be somewhere near London bridge, we having a view of
it from the window in its original state when covered with
houses. Let us pass over the many sad hours she is pre
sumed to wear away in hateful meditation, and hasten to the
scene before us ; a scene of aggravated distress and horror.
Left to the dreaded leisure of her thoughts, she becomes
conscious of having been the destruction of her husband,
her lover, (for by the dying speech before her we are told
he has been tried and executed,) her reputation, and her
happiness ; and foolishly thinks she has no other refuge
from the terrors of her mind than to destroy herself. Un
happy situation, to have less reason and resolution when we
stand most in need of them ! Little does she reflect upon
the consequences of so presumptive an act, but hopes only
to ease the anguish of her mind, by depriving herself of the
power of thinking. In this disordered state, she artfully

76 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
sends a servant for a dose of laudanum, swallows it with
the greatest eagerness, and by that means puts an end to her
miserable being. Thus, instead of appeasing the vengeance
of heaven by a hearty contrition ; through a mistaken view
of extenuating her crime by the death of herself, she doubly
enhances her guilt ; and with the design of quieting the
terrors of a tormented conscience, she rashly casts herself
suddenly at the bar of judgment, there, in the utmost agonies
of fear and despair, to wait the dreadful sentence of an
avenging Judge. See her, then, in the last moments of her
life, seized with death, as she and her father were sitting
down to dinner. A physician and apothecary are immedi
ately sent for ; but all assistance is vain, it being now too
late. The first is returning in all the pride of physical con
sequence, and the latter severely reprimanding the servant
for fetching the deadly potion. The starched tight-dressed
figure of the one, and the trembling, relaxed state of the
other, added to the appearance of his coat, which seems to
have been an old one of his master's, afford an agreeable
contrast, and cannot fail drawing a smile, even in this scene
of distress, which is not a little heightened by the old family
servant in tears, bringing the poor little infant, the diseased
and rickety offspring of debauched parents, to take its last
farewell of its expiring mother. The great niggardliness
that prevails in this house is visible from the ancient furni
ture of the room, the beggarly dinner served up upon the
table, the emaciated figure of the fleshless dog, and the
covetous disposition of its master, (who seems more atten
tive to the least acquisition, than the most tragical event
that can happen,) by his drawing the ring from his daughter's
finger. By way of completion, it may not be unnecessary to
take notice of the pictures in this plate, which are on sub
jects far different from what we have seen in the foregoing ;
and are expressive of the want of taste and elegance in such

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 77
persons as pass their whole life in the accumulation of
wealth \ They are also introduced here as a contrast to
those we saw in the possession of the Earl. The magnifi
cence of the one, and the meanness of the other, are equally
as worth notice as the strange subjects they represent.
However, in general, 'tis neither analogy, taste, nor decency,
that is consulted in the choice of pictures, but the broker
of whom we buy them, who on his part recommends those
by which he gets the most, without paying much regard
either to the painter or painting. A strong proof of the
ignorance of nobility : — tell them such or such a painting,
whether it be so or not, is an original, and you secure the
sale of it, let the price be what it will, as 'tis oftener the
rarity of a thing that attracts the buyers, than its peculiar
ornament, its intrinsic value, or a competent knowledge of
its merit. 'Tis just the same with respect to books ; a per
son who prides himself in being curious, shall give more
money for a worm-eaten edition of Elzevir, which he can
not understand, than for the most valuable set of books in
the English language, which shall both improve his mind
and ornament his study ; — for my part, when I hear of such
a man, I cannot help thinking of a particular person of the
last age, that bought a vast quantity of clothes, not because
they had any thing peculiar to recommend them, or that he
wanted them for wear, but only because they were made by
such a particular tailor.
Having now laid before the reader such incidental remarks
as occurred through the course of this history, one would
naturally imagine there should be no occasion to dwell
1 [" The very furniture of his rooms," says Mr. Walpole, " describe the
characters to whom they belong ; a lesson that might be of use to comic
authors. It was reserved to Hogarth to write a scene of furniture. The
Rake's levee room, the Nobleman's dining-room, the apartments of the
husband and wife in Marriage-a-la-mode, the Alderman's parlour, the
Poet's bed-chamber, and many others, are the history of the manners of the
age."]

78 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
longer on the subject, or to tire his ears with a repetition of
that, of which he has had an ocular demonstration ; but
such is the perverseness of mankind, that what they are
told they will scarcely give credit to ; and what they even
see, they will find means to elude the force of. To such 'tis
in vain to apply ; for arguments will still be but arguments ;
they may persuade, but cannot compel ; demonstration it
self not being able to confute a resolved will ; all, then, I
shall further say on this subject is, that I would fain per
suade myself, that those who are not totally deaf to instruc
tion, will profit by the tragic story, and by a timely preven
tion, avoid in their own families what has shocked them in
this. Let me hope, then, ye relentless parents, who pay no
regard to the happiness of your offspring, and who would
sacrifice a child to the lust of riches, I say, let me hope, at
least, that a fear of shame and disgrace will have some sort
of influence, and that what natural affection cannot bring to
bear, will be effected by the dread of calamitous events.
Force not a son or a daughter to a step they may have oc
casion to rue ; but study their true and lasting happiness,
which in matrimony consists not in abundance of wealth,
but in union of mind and conformity of temper ; advise
them as you please ; but cease from compulsion ; and learn
when you exert your authority not to lose sight of your
tenderness; and while you support the man, not to drop
the father.
On the other hand, ye sons and daughters, whom marriage
has launched into life, consider well, ere it be too late, the
destructive consequences of opposite inclinations. That
silly pride of keeping up the prerogative either of a husband
or a wife, has been the cause of many an undoing ; and the
happiness of that couple, that might have lived in the
greatest harmony and affection, has been often upset through
the prevalence of petulance and peevishness. It is your
express duty to study the disposition of each other, to look

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. 79
over the common frailties of each particular sex, and to
avoid all extravagance, irregularity, and other failings that
may occasion disgust. This, if you do with care and ex
actness, marriage will become a blessing, and your home a
paradise. [In conception, character, drawing, penciling, and colouring, it will not
be easy, perhaps not possible, to find six pictures painted by any artist,
in any age or country, in which such variety of superlative merit is united.]
J.I.

80 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS1.
As our future welfare in a great measure depends on our
first setting out in the world, and as we derive our success
in life from our own active endeavours ; it may not appear
inconsistent with reason to say, that our good or ill-fortune
is chiefly owing to our diligence, or sloth, in the early part
of our lives, which, if well followed in the course of our
youth becomes habitual, and is, as it were, moulded with our
natures. This, I think, Mr. Hogarth has made appear in
the following history of the two apprentices, by represent
ing a series of such scenes as follow naturally, in order, a
course of industry or idleness, and which he has decorated
with such texts of scripture, as teach us their analogy with
holy writ. Now, as example is far more convincing and
persuasive than precept, these prints are undoubtedly an ex
cellent lesson to such young men as are brought up to busi
ness, by laying before them the inevitable destruction that
awaits the slothful, and the infallible reward that attends
the diligent. It was this motive that induced the Chamber
lain of London to have them hung up in his public office,
1 The hint for contrasting the very opposite characters of this set of prints
is taken from the old comedy of " Eastward Hoe." Touchstone, a plain and
honest old citizen and goldsmith, has two apprentices, Golding and Quick
silver : the former is a counterpart of Hogarth's Goodchild, and the latter
has many of the dispositions of Mr. Thomas Idle.
In the comedy, as in the prints, young Golding becoming a magistrate,
Quicksilver is brought before him as a criminal. In later days, James Love,
the comedian, re-dramatised this eventful history, and the celebrated Tom
King performed the good apprentice.] J. I.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 81
as the most useful furniture he could think of, and as a
pattern to every person in trade ; hoping they would follow
his example. These sheets, then, may not be unuseful, or
unproductive of good consequences, if put into the hands of
the rising generation.
Plate I.
THE FELLOW 'PRENTICES AT THEIR LOOMS.
Proverbs, chapter xxiii. verse 21.
" The drunkard shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man
with rags."
Proverbs, chapter x. verse 4.
" The hand of the diligent maketh rich."
View then the noble contrast ; see the fellow 'prentices
at their looms in the workshop of a Spitalfields weaver.
Observe in the one a serene and open countenance, the dis
tinguished mark of innocence ; and in the other a hanging
downcast look, the index of a corrupt and vicious heart.
The industrious lad is here diligently employed at his work,
and his thoughts are wholly taken up with the business he
is upon. His book, called the 'Prentice's Guide, supposed to
be given him for instruction, lies fair and open beside him,
as perused with care and attention. The employment of
the day seems his constant study ; and the interest of his
master his continual regard. Even in his leisure hours,
the usual times of recreation, he is not without a thought
on the obligations of his station, but passes his time in
exact conformity to his sense of duty ; and we are given to
understand by those ballads pasted on the wall behind him,
which contain the histories of the London 'Prentice, Whit-
tington, the Mayor, &c. that if his boyish follies ever lead
him to lay out a penny in youthful amusements, it is on

82 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
things that may improve his mind and correct his under
standing. On the contrary, his fellow-'prentice, overpowered
with beer, plain from the half-gallon pot before him, is, with
his arms folded, fallen asleep ; a manifest token of laziness,
brought on by a love of liquor. Such is the misfortune of
many men, that the errors they imbibe in their youth be
come habits in their age ; for we find (so fond are some of
drinking) that when they cannot meet with others who will
run with them into equal excess, rather than not indulge
themselves in their beloved vices, they will even get drunk
alone. From the cat's playing with the shuttle, we learn,
how fast he is locked in sleep ; so inattentive is he to his
own and master's interest, as to suffer that to be done,
during his insensibility, which will give him additional
trouble when he awakes, and verify the old proverb, " Lazy
folks take the most pains." The ballad containing the his
tory of Moll Flanders, fixed up behind him, shows us the
bent of his mind towards that which is bad ; and his book
of instructions lying torn and defaced upon the ground, how
regardless he is of anything tending to his future welfare.
His master stealing in, with an angry countenance, and an
uplifted stick, gives us to understand, that the consequence
of his sloth is a present beating : and the emblematical
figures ' of a pair of fetters, a cat-o'-nine tails, and a halter,
(if he goes on as he has begun) what he may expect in
future; whereas the regalia on the other side, viz. the
golden chain, the sword and mace, are pictured to denote
that preferment and honour are the rewards of diligence and
labour. 1 [The ornaments of the engraved frames of the original prints.]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 83

Plate II.
THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE PERFORMING THE DUTY OF
A CHRISTIAN.
Psalm cxix. verse 97.
" 0 how I love thy law ; it is my meditation all the day."
But as the very best of our services are ineffectual with
respect to the end proposed, unless attended with the bless
ing of Heaven, this plate represents to us the industrious
young man performing the duty of a Christian in the ser
vice of his God ; by which we are taught, that an attention
to our eternal welfare should be a great part of our concern,
and go hand in hand with our temporal, in opposition to the
general practice of mankind, who vainly think, that to eat,
drink, dress, and live, is the sutmmwm bonum, or chief good,
on which our thoughts should be constantly employed. We
see him here attending the public service in a devout and
decent manner ; (joining in that particular part of it, psalm-
singing, which is too often neglected by those who are even
constant attenders of divine worship ;) not in a lazy indolent
posture, sitting, or lounging, as is frequently the custom,
but standing up, as a mark of sacred respect to that God
whose praises he is chaunting out ; and as a proof that this
appearance is not only outward, the calmness and well-
meaning disposition of his countenance sufficiently declare
an inward purity, and that his gestures are the immediate
result of a fervent heart. A bright example of piety, and a
lively contrast to the man asleep beside him, which shows
us how often people are induced to be present, on these
solemn occasions, merely through fashion, and that they
may not pass for heathens, without the least regard to their
g 2

84 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
spiritual interest ; choosing rather to sleep away their salva
tion, than to sit out, as they profanely call it, the dull and
tedious service of the church. Surely such persons as make
a convenience of public worship, as is the case with many,
must imagine the clergy are appointed by the parish to
amuse its inhabitants in an idle hour, which they are not
permitted to employ in their respective occupations, or they
would not pay so little regard to what they hear. His
giving a person near him (who is supposed to be his
master's daughter) a sight of his book, tells us that he
cares not for himself alone, but that while he serves his own
soul, he is not unmindful of his neighbour's. By the has
socks turned without the pew, except one beneath his own
feet, we learn, that whilst others, regardless, sit or loll
through the petitionary part of the service, he performs it
on his knees, intensely adoring the God on whom he rests
his confidence, and as an humble supplicant at the throne of
heaven for mercy. The trussed-up figure of the preposterous
woman behind him, intimates, that after the manner of
many others, she is as much swollen with pride as corpu
lency ; that she thinks herself of the greatest consequence,
which she endeavours to make known, (church being the
usual place of such exhibitions) by rivalling her neighbours
in the number of ribands at her breast, and in the enormous
size of her fan ; things full as expressive as the most costly
jewels, being the greatest ornaments within the reach of her
pocket. The other figure, that of the pew-opener on the
left, denotes the decent behaviour of the devout worshipper ;
though age and infirmities prevent her rising, still she is
intent on the solemn office, and pays her adoration to the
utmost of her power. Upon the whole, we are to learn
from the general tenor of the piece before us, that our well-
being in this life depends upon a conscientious regard to the
duties of a Christian, and on our being particularly careful
with respect to the next.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 85

Plate III.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE AT PLAY IN THE CHURCH-YARD
DURING DIVINE SERVICE.
Proverbs, chapter ix. verse 29.
" Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools."
As a contrast to the last plate, that of the industrious
young man performing of the duties of a Christian, is this,
representing the idle 'prentice at play in the church-yard
during divine service. As an observance of religion is
allowed to be the foundation of virtue, so a neglect of re
ligious duties has long been acknowledged the forerunner of
every kind of wickedness, the confession of malefactors at the
place of execution being a doleful confirmation of this sad
truth. Here we see him, while others are intent on the
holy office, transgressing the laws both of God and man,
gambling on a tomb-stone with the off-scouring of the
people, the meanest of the human species, shoe-blacks,
chimney-sweepers, &c. for none but such ignorant aban
doned wretches would deign to be his companions ; and so
callous is his heart, so wilfully blind is he to every thing
tending to his future interest, that the tombs, those stand
ing monuments of mortality, cannot rouse him, nor even
the new-dug grave, the skulls and bones, those lively moni
tors of our latter end, awake him from his sinful lethargy ,
open his eyes in the midst of danger, or pierce his heart
with the least reflection. Such an instance of hardened
viciousness as is not to be paralleled ! — The hand of the boy
employed upon his head, and that of the shoe-black in his
bosom, are expressive to the utmost of filth and vermin ;
and that he (the apprentice) is within a step of being over-

86 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
spread with the beggarly contagion. His obstinate con
tinuance in his crime, till removed by the blows of the
watchful beadle, gives us to understand that stripes are pre
pared for the back of fools ; that disgrace and infamy are
the natural attendants of the slothful and the scorner ; and
that there are little hopes of any alteration, till he is over
taken in his sin by the avenging hand of Omnipotence, and
feels with horror and amazement, the unexpected and in
evitable stroke of death. Thus, dreadfully, does the obsti
nately incorrigible person shut his ears against all the alarm
ing calls of Providence, and sin away even the possibility of
salvation !
Plate IV.
THE INDUSTRIOUS'PRENTICE A FAVOURITE, AND ENTRUSTED
BY HIS MASTER.
Matthew, chapter xxv. verse 21.
" Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."
The industrious youth, by a discreet and steady conduct,
we are to imagine, attracts the notice of his master, and
becomes a favourite : accordingly we behold him, here,
(exquisitely continued from the first and second prints,) in
the compting-house, (with a distant view of the looms, and
of the quilsters winding quills for the shuttles, from whence
he was removed,) entrusted with the books, receiving and
giving orders, (the general reward of honesty, care, and
diligence,) evident in the delivery of some stuffs by a city-
porter, from Blackwell-Hall. By the keys in one hand, and
the bag in the other, we are taught that he has behaved
himself with so much prudence and discretion, and given
such instances of fidelity, as to become, now, the keeper of
untold gold : the greatest mark of implicit confidence. The
integrity of his heart is visible in his face. The modesty

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 87
and tranquillity of his countenance tell us, that though the
great trust reposed in him is an addition to his happiness,
yet that he discharges his duty with so much becoming dif
fidence and care, as not to betray any of that pride which
usually attends so great a promotion. The familiar position
of his master, leaning on his shoulder, is a further proof of
his esteem, declaring that he dwells, as it were, in his bosom,
and possesses the greatest share of his affection : circum
stances that must sweeten even a state of servitude, and
make a pleasing and indelible impression on the mind. The
head-piece to the London Almanack, representing Industry
taking Time by the fore-lock, is not one of the least beau
ties in this plate, as it intimates the danger of delay, and
advises us to make the best use of time whilst we have it in
our power ; nor will the position of the gloves, on the flap
of the escritoire, be unobserved by a curious examiner,
being expressive of that union that subsists between an
indulgent master and an industrious apprentice.
The strong-beer nose and pimpled face of the porter,
(though it has no connection with the moral of the piece,)
is a fine caricatura, and shows that our author let slip no
opportunity of ridiculing, the vices and follies of the age,
and particularly here, in laying before us the strange infa
tuation of this set of people, who, because a good deal of
labour requires some extraordinary refreshment, will even
drink to the deprivation of their reason and the destruction
of their health. The surly mastiff keeping close to his
master, and quarrelling with the house-cat for admittance,
though introduced to fill up the piece, represents the faith
fulness of these animals in general, and is no mean emblem
of the honesty and- fidelity of the porter, and of that univer
sal harmony that dwells within this house.

88 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Plate V.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE TURNED AWAY AND SENT TO SEA.
Proverbs, chapter x. verse 1.
" A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."
On the other hand, the idle 'prentice having, by his con
tinual bad behaviour, tired out the patience of his master, is
turned away and sent to sea, in hopes that being absent
from the vices of the town, and out of the reach of his
wicked companions, together with the discipline of the sea-
service, might work that reformation his friends had little
reason to expect while he continued on shore. See him,
then, in the ship's boat, off from land, the stage of all his
crimes, making toward the vessel in which he is to embark.
The disposition of the different figures in the boat, and the
expression of their faces, tell us, as particularly as if we
heard them speak, the subject of their discourse, which is
relative to his idleness. His insolent behaviour and impu
dence to every one present, his application of his hand to
his forehead, by way of horns, supposed to have been
dictated to him by the place in the river, which they have
just passed, that of Cuckold's-Point ', and his throwing his
indentures into the water with an air of contempt, prove
that he is not at all affected by his present condition, and
how little he regards the persuasions, nay, the tears, of a
fond mother, whose heart seems ready to burst with grief,
fearing the fate of her darling son. Well might Solomon
say, " A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother ;" it being
natural for a parent to be interested in the well-being of a
child (be that child ever so bad) ; to rejoice in a foresight
of its happiness, and sorrow even in a distant view of its
misery ! — One would naturally imagine, from the common
1 A place by the water-side, (so called,) three miles below London-bridge.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 89
course of things, that reflection would now and then find a
passage to his heart, and be a means of softening, in some
measure, the ruggedness of his disposition ; but, on the con
trary, we observe him, in the vulgar phrase, a dog so har
dened, as to beget, even in the seamen, (who are themselves
almost in a state of incivilization,) an abhorrence of his
behaviour, and draw from them an intimation of what he is
to expect, unless he alters for the better ; namely, first, a
whipping, indicated by the cat-o'-nine-tails hung over his
shoulder, by the boy behind him ; and in the end a gallows,
which the boatswain is pointing at ; too often the dreadful
consequence of sloth, which is, in fact, the parent of every
kind of wickedness '.

Plate VI.
THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE OUT OF HIS TIME, AND
MARRIED TO HIS MASTER'S DAUGHTER.
Proverbs, chapter xii. verse 4.
" The virtuous woman is a crown to her husband."
Here we see the industrious youth increasing in his hap
piness, taken into partnership by his master, (evident from
their joint names upon the sign,) and married to his daugh
ter ; the subject of this plate being finely continued from
the second and fourth. By the young man's appearing in
his cap and gown at breakfast, in company with his amiable
spouse, we are to suppose it morning, and by the congratu
lations of the mob, gathered in such numbers, from his well-
known benevolence and generosity, the morning after mar-
1 [The great physiognomist, Lavater, does Hogarth the honour to illus
trate a part of his system by a copy of this print, accompanied by the follow
ing observations : " Here are the traits of drunkenness with thoughtless
stupidity. Who can look without disgust 2 Would these wretches have
been what they are, had they not by vice erased nature's works ? Can per
version be more apparent than in the middle profile ?"] J. M.

90 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
riage. Even in this hour of dissipation, in this feast and
riot of the senses, he is not inattentive to the distresses of
others, nor deaf to the voice of humanity. The natural
feelings of his heart, and his desire that others should, in
some measure, partake of his felicity, are visible from the
servant's distributing by his order to the necessitous, and
his giving the master-drummer gold, to gladden the hearts
of his comrades. In this groupe of figures, the true spirit
of this nation is exquisitely described, in the earnestness
with which one of the butchers, standing, with his marrow
bone and cleaver, observes the fortunate receiver for the
other drums ; and the anger expressed in the countenance
of his fellow, who is elbowing, out of the first rank, the
ruffled French performer on the base-viol ; demanding that
precedence, the English have been always masters of. That
cripple, on the left of this piece, was intended for a well-
known beggar, called Philip-in-the-tub, (from his being re
duced to the shift we see, in order to supply his unhappy
want of limbs,) who, in the principal towns of Ireland, and
the Seven Provinces, as well as in those of Great Britain,
was a constant attendant at all weddings as an epithalamist.
He is supposed to be here bawling out the old song of Jesse,
or The Happy Pair. But whilst our attention is drawn to
the moral history of the piece, we must not forget the other
design of the painter, that of exhibiting to view the extra
vagance of custom, in the assembling of so great a number
of drummers, fiddlers, butchers, &c. who, because in former
days the weddings of those who were respected in the parish
were usually celebrated with instruments of joy, (the public
congratulations of their poorer neighbours,) do now, on such
particular occasions, gather round the house, not out of any
regard to the persons whose marriage they attend, but
merely through a view of obtaining money; and though,
perhaps, they might in this be, in some respect, justifiable,
yet grown to extortion (the common practice of latter days)

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 91
it is criminal, deserving the watchful care of magistracy,
and the interposition of the law ; for to so great a pitch of
insolence are these wretches arrived, that if their extrava
gant demand is not complied with, from sounds of congra
tulation they proceed to those of insult ; and from being
formerly instruments and marks of respect, they are now
become a general nuisance. Such is the pernicious preva
lence of some customs, supported and encouraged by the
ill-judged liberality of the public !

Plate VII.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE RETURNED FROM SEA, AND IN
A GARRET WITH A COMMON PROSTITUTE.
Leviticus, chapter xxvi. verse 36.
" The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase him."
The idle apprentice, as appears by this print, is advancing
with large strides towards his fate. We are to suppose him
returned from sea, after a long voyage, and to have met
with such correction abroad for his obstinacy, during his
absence from England, that though it was found insufficient
to alter his disposition, yet it determined him to some other
way of life, and what he entered on is here extremely evi
dent, (from the pistols beside the bed, and the trinkets his
companion is examining, in order to strip him of,) to be that
of the highway. He is represented in a garret with a com
mon prostitute, the partaker of his infamy, awaking, after a
night spent in robbery and plunder, from one of those broken
slumbers, which are ever the consequence of a life of theft
and debauchery. Though the designs of Providence are
visible in every thing, yet they are never more conspicuous
than in this ; that whatever these unhappy wretches possess
by wicked and illegal means, they seldom, if ever, comfort
ably enjoy. In this scene, we have one of the finest pictures

92 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
imaginable of the horrors of a guilty conscience. Though
the door is fastened in the strongest manner with a lock
and two bolts, and with the addition of some planks from
the flooring, so as to make his retreat as secure as possible ;
though he has attempted to drive away thought by the
powerful effects of spirituous liquors, plain, from the glass
and bottle upon the floor, still he is not able to fence out
his guilt, or steel his breast against reflection. Behold
him roused by the accidental circumstance of a cat's coining
down the chimney, and the falling of a few bricks, which he
fears to be the noise of his pursuers ! Observe him starting
in his bed ; and all the tortures of his mind imprinted in his
face ! He first stiffens into stone ; then all the nerves and
muscles relax ; a cold sweat seizes him ; his hair stands on
end ; his teeth chatter ; and dismay and horror stalk before
his eyes. How different is the countenance of his wretched
bed-fellow ! wherein unconcern and indifference to every
thing but the plunder, are plainly apparent. She is looking
at an ear-ring, which, with two watches, an etwee, and a
couple of rings, are spread upon the bed as part of last
night's robbery. The phials on the mantel-piece declare
that sickness and disease are common to prostitution ; and
the ragged and beggarly appearance of the room, its wretched
furniture, the hole by way of window, (by whose light she is
examining her valuable acquisition, and against which she
had hung her old hoop-petticoat, in order to keep out the
cold,) and the rat's running across the floor, are just and
sufficient indications that misery and want are the constant
companions of a guilty life.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 93

Plate VIII.
THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE GROWN RICH, AND SHERIFF
OF LONDON.
Proverbs, chapter iv. verses 7, 8.
" With all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall pro
mote thee ; she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her."
The progress of virtue and vice, together with their re
spective rewards and punishments, have hitherto kept pace
with each other ; we have seen the slothful apprentice, the
obstinate, the drunken, the abandoned Idle, in several stages
of his life, running the race of lewdness and infamy ; we
have traced him through various scenes of his folly, and
find him at last so harassed and tormented with the appre
hensions of guilt, that even the sound of a shaken leaf can
terrify him, and render him a burthen to himself; while
his fellow-apprentice, the industrious and honest Goodchild,
has trod the paths of innocence and virtue, is happy in the
possession of an amiable bride, meets with the respect of all
who know him ; loves, and is beloved by every neighbour.
This print is a farther continuation of the happiness that
attends on diligence and goodness. We now find his con
scientious discharge of the duties of a tradesman, his punc
tuality and other necessary qualifications, have recommend
ed him to the notice of the chief magistrate, as a proper
person to serve the honourable office of Sheriff of the opu
lent city of London and county of Middlesex (that being an
introduction to the dignity of Lord Mayor) ; in which ex
alted situation he is now represented as treating the livery
men of his company, with their wives, at the hall.
Mr. Hogarth has here, as in most of his pieces, given us
the strongest proofs of his unequalled humour, by introdu-

94 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
cing a few remarkable characters, (as being the life of a city-
feast,) in their superior excellence of guttling and guzzling ;
in which noble and elevated employ, the whole company
indeed seems to be happily engaged ; representing to us, at
one view, the various ways of what we call laying it in. In
these public entertainments do some men place their chief
delight, studying the indulgence of their palates, and the
gratification of their luxurious appetites, above every other
thing whatever ; eating to the sound of music ; boasting a
refined taste ; and proud of those accomplishments the sen
sible man despises. Pity is it that they should not, now
and then, experience that necessity numbers of people are
driven to through the absolute want of a hearty meal !
Were this to be the case, I am convinced they would not
take such pains to feast and pamper a wanton appetite, at
the expense of all that is manly, rational, and sober. At
the door is a crowd of people, supposed to have brought a
delinquent to justice ; one of these has presented a letter
addressed to the worshipful Francis Goodchild, Esq. She
riff of London, which the beadle takes with the utmost mark
of self-consequence, snuffing up his nose, declaring in the
plainest terms, what vast importance he thinks himself of,
and at the same time giving us to understand, that no out
ward mark of significance is sufficient to express the notions
a man will sometimes entertain of himself.

Plate IX.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE BETRAYED BY A PROSTITUTE, AND
TAKEN IN A NIGHT CELLAR WITH HIS ACCOMPLICES.
Proverbs, chapter vi. verse 26.
" The adulteress will hunt for the precious life."
Let us now turn again from the picture of Diligence, and
take a further view of the progress of Sloth and Infamy, by

kK --IIS

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 95
following the idle 'prentice a step nearer to the approach of
his unhappy end. We must remember to have seen him, in
the third plate, herding with the worst of the human spe
cies, the very dregs of the people ; one of his companions at
that time being a one-eyed wretch, who seemed hackneyed
in the ways of vice. To break this vile connection, he was
sent to sea ; but no sooner did he return, than his wicked
disposition took its natural course, and every month he
lived served only to perfect him in fresh degrees of vil-
lany. He presently discovered his old acquaintance, who,
we are to suppose, rejoiced to find him so ripe for mischief;
with this worthless abandoned fellow he enters into engage
ments of the vilest nature, those of robbery and murder.
Thus blindly will men sometimes run headlong to their own
destruction ! About the time when these plates were first
published, which was in the year 1747, there was a noted
house in Chick-lane, Smithfield, that went by the name of
the Blood-bowl house, so called from the various scenes of
blood that were there, almost daily, carried on ; it being a
receptacle of prostitutes and thieves ; where the greatest in
famy was practised : and where there seldom passed a month
without the commission of some act of murder. To this
subterraneous place of iniquity (it being a cellar) was our
hero soon introduced, where he is now represented in com
pany with this accomplice, and others of the same stamp,
after the perpetration of the most horrid act of barbarity,
(that of killing a passer-by, and conveying him into a place
under ground, contrived for this purpose) dividing the ill-
gotten booty, which consists of two watches, a snuff-box,
and some other trinkets. In the midst of this villanous
enjoynient, if enjoyment it can be called, he is betrayed by
his strumpet (a proof of the treachery of such wretches),
into the hands of the high constable, and his attendants,
who had, with better success than heretofore, traced the in
human murderer to his horrid haunt. The back-ground of
12

96 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
this print serves rather to give us a representation of night-
cellars in general, those infamous places of resort for the
dissolute and abandoned of both sexes, than a further illus
tration of our author's chief design ; however, as it was Mr.
Hogarth's intention in the history before us, to encourage
virtue and expose vice, by placing the one in an amiable
light, and pointing out the other in its most heightened
scenes of wickedness and impiety, in hopes of deterring the
half-spoilt youth of this metropolis from even the possi
bility of the commission of such infernal actions, by frighten
ing them from these wretched places ; as this, I say, was
manifestly his intention, it cannot be thought a deviation
from the subject. By the skirmish behind, the woman with
out a nose, the scattered cards upon the floor, &c. we are
told, that drunkenness and riot, disease, prostitution and
ruin, are the dreadful attendants of sloth, and the general
fore-runners of theft and murder ; and by the halter hang
ing from the ceiling, over the head of the sleeper, we are
taught two things ; the indifference of mankind, even in a
state of danger, and the insecurity of guilt in every situation.

Plate X.
THE INDUSTRIOUS "PRENTICE ALDERMAN OF LONDON ; THE
IDLE ONE BROUGHT BEFORE HIM AND IMPEACHED BY
HIS ACCOMPLICE.
Leviticus, chapter xiv. verse 15.
" Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment."
Psalm ix. verse 16.
" The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands."
Imagine him now handcuffed, and dragged from his in
fernal haunts through the streets to a place of security,
amid the scorns and contempt of a jeering populace ; and

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 97
thence brought before the sitting magistrate, (which to
heighten the scene and support the contrast is supposed to
be his fellow -apprentice, now chosen an alderman) in order
to be dealt with according to law. See him then at last,
having run his course of iniquity, fallen into the hands of
justice, betrayed by his accomplice ; a further declaration
of the perfidy of man, when even partners in vice are un
faithful to each other. This is the only print among the
set, excepting the first, where the two principal characters
are introduced ; in which Mr. Hogarth has discovered his
great abilities, both in description, and a particular attention
to the uniformity and connection of the whole. He is here
at the bar with all the marks of guilt imprinted on his face.
Now, if his fear will suffer him to think, must he reflect on
the happiness of his fellow 'prentice and the misery of him
self ; upon his exalted situation, and the dreadful downfall
of his own ; at one instant he condemns the persuasions of
his wicked companions ; at another, his own idleness and
obstinacy ; however deeply smitten with his crime, he sues
to his judge upon his knees for mercy, and pleads in his
cause, the former acquaintance that subsisted between them,
when they both dwelt beneath the same roof, and served the
same common master : but here was no room for lenity ;
murder was his crime, and death must be his punishment ;
the proofs are incontestable, and his mittimus is ordered,
which the clerk is drawing out. Let us next turn our
thoughts upon the alderman, in whose breast a struggle
between mercy and justice is beautifully displayed. Who
can behold the magistrate here, without praising the man ?
How fine are the painter's thoughts of reclining the head
upon one hand, while the other is extended to express pity
and shame ! pity, for his fellow 'prentice, and shame, to
think human nature should be so depraved. It is not the
gold chain or scarlet robe that constitutes the character,
but the feelings of the man within. To show us that appli-
H

98 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
cation for favour, by the ignorant, is often idly made to the
servants of justice, who take upon themselves on that ac
count a certain state and consequence not inferior to magis
tracy, the mother of our delinquent is represented in the
greatest distress, as making interest with the corpulent,
self-swollen constable, who with an unfeeling concern seems
to say, " Make yourself easy, for he must be hanged :" and
to convince us that bribery will even find its way into courts
of judicature, here is a woman, in some other cause, feeing
the swearing clerk ; who has stuck his pen behind his ear,
that his hands might be both at liberty; and how much
more his attention is engaged to the money he is taking,
than to the administration of the oath, may be readily
known, from the ignorant, treacherous evidence being suf
fered to lay his left hand upon the book ; strongly expressive
of the sacrifice even of sacred things to the inordinate thirst
of gain.
From Newgate, (the prison to which he was committed,
where during his continuance he lay chained in a dark
dismal cell, deprived of the cheerfulness of light ; fed upon
bread and water, and left without a bed to rest on) was he
removed to the bar of judgment, and condemned to die by
the laws of his country ; with the short space of but two or
three days allowed him between that and his time of execu
tion, to make his peace with God.
Plate XI.
THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TVBURN.
Proverbs, Chapter i. Verse 27, 28.
" When fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction cometh as a
whirlwind ; when distress cometh upon them, then they shall cry unto God,
but he will not answer."
Behold him, then, on that dreadful morn, drawn in a cart,
attended by the sheriff's officers, on horseback, with his

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 99
coffin behind him, through the public streets, to Tyburn ',
there to receive the just reward of his many crimes; a
shameful, ignominious death. The ghastly appearance of
his face, and the horror painted on his countenance, plainly
describe the dreadful situation of his mind, which we must
imagine agitated with shame, remorse, confusion, and terror.
The careless position of the Ordinary * at the coach-window,
is intended to show how inattentive those appointed to that
office sometimes are of their duty, giving room for heresy,
which is excellently expressed by the itinerant preacher in
the cart, instructing the despairing malefactor from a book
of Wesley's3. Mr. Hogarth has, in this print, digressing
from the history and moral of the piece, taken an opportu
nity of giving us a humourous representation of an execution,
or a Tyburn fair ; such days being made holidays, produce
scenes of the greatest riot, disorder, and uproar ; being
generally attended with such hardened wretches, as come
not so much to reflect upon their own vices, as to commit
those very crimes which must, 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 *
crying his cakes, (while he is picking his pocket;) and
another waiting to receive the booty ! We have here in
terspersed 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 of gin, the
very picture of hypocrisy ; and a man indecently helping up
a girl into the same cart : in another, a soldier stept up to
1 The then general place of execution, in the outskirts of London, near
Hyde Park wall, having a distant view of two villages, situated on eminences
about a mile from each other, Hampstead and Highgate.
2 The chaplain of Newgate, whose office is to attend malefactors to the
gallows. 3 A leader of a sect called Methodists.
4 Tiddy-doll, a noted man, so called from the burden of a song he always
sung in praise of the cakes he sold ; and who made it his business to attend
at all fairs and other places of low public resort.
h2

100 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
his knees in a ditch of water, to put his hands up the petti
coats of a woman standing before him, at which two boys
are laughing : such is the effect of ill example ! Here we
see one almost squeezed to death among the horses ; there
another trampled on by the mob. In one part is a girl
clawing 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 ; two or
three more, however, I must not omit taking notice of, one
of which is, the letting off a pigeon, bred at the gaol, fly
from the gallery, which hastes directly home, an old custom
to give an early notice to the keeper and others of the
turning off or death of the criminal : another, the skeletons
hanging on the outside of the plate, as emblematical of a
murderer's being hung in chains ' : and the last, that of the
executioner's smoking his pipe upon the top of the gallows ;
whose position of indifference betrays an unconcern that
nothing can reconcile with the shocking spectacle, but that
of use rendering familiar ; and declares a truth, which every
character in this plate seems to confirm, that a sad and
distressful object loses its power of affecting, by being fre
quently seen.
Plate XII.
THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
Proverbs, Chapter iii. Verse 16.
" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left riches and honour."
Having seen the ignominious end of the idle prentice,
nothing remains but to represent the completion of the
1 This was formerly the custom, but the law ordains him now to be
anatomized.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 101
other's happiness, who is now exalted to the highest honour,
that of Lord Mayor of London ; the greatest reward that
ancient and noble city can bestow on diligence and integrity.
Our author has here, as in the last plate, given a loose to
his humour, in representing more of the low part of the
Lord Mayor's show, than the magnificent ; yet the honour
done the city, by the Prince and Princess of Wales, is not
forgot. The variety of comic characters in this print serves
to show what generally passes on such public processions
as these, when the people gather 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 hugging a woman, and another
below, enjoying the opportunity he has given him of feasting
his lascivious eye : near him is a blind man, straggling in
among the crowd, and joining in the general hollow : before
him is a militia-man, so completely drunk, as not to know
what he is about ; a figure of infinite humour. Though
Mr. Hogarth has here marked out two or three particular
things, yet his chief intention was to ridicule the city militia,
which is composed of undisciplined men of all ages, sizes,
and height ; some fat, some lean, some tall, some short,
some crooked, some lame, and all in general so unused to
muskets, that they know not how to carry them. One, we
observe, is firing his piece, and turning his head another
way, (a pretty fellow for a soldier !) at whom the man above
is laughing, and at which the child is frighted. The boy,
on the right, crying " a full and true account of the ghost
of Thomas Idle," supposed to have appeared to the mayor,
preserves the connection of the whole work. With respect
to the cornu-copiee, or horns of plenty, on the outside of the
plate, they are introduced as symbolical of that abundance
that fills the hands of the diligent.

102 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Thus have we seen, by a series of events, the prosperity
of the one, and the downfall of the other ; the riches and
honour that crown the head of industry, and the ignominy
and destruction that await the slothful. After this, it would
be unnecessary to say which is the most eligible path to
tread. Lay the roads but open to the view, and the traveller
will take the right, of course ; give but the boy this history
to peruse, and his future welfare is almost certain \
1 [Thomas Phillips, Esq. R. A. who wrote an excellent Life of Hogarth
for Rees's Cyclopedia, free from the least taint of that professional jealousy
in which Barry and others have indulged, speaks highly of this set of prints,
as having " probably effected much more good by a plain intelligible exhibi
tion of an unvarnished tale, directly pointed to the most common intellects,
than lectures or sermons of the utmost eloquence could produce. The im
pression they made at the time is now almost incredible."
Mr. Phillips's general view of our author's merits is well worth extracting.
" In his own original manner, and in that alone, distinct from every one,
he was super-excellent ; conceiving his subjects with most consummate in
telligence, and executing them with appropriate character and style."
In justice to Mr. Phillips it should be noticed, that he appears to be the
only Painter that is found bestowing unequivocal praise upon Hogarth. As
for Gilpin, (a sort of brother artist,) " surely he went further than he in
tended," when he says, " that his figures on the whole are inspired with so
much life and meaning, that the eye is kept in good humour, in spite of its
inclination to find fault ;" for this is high praise indeed.
However, it was the felicity of Hogarth, " gloriously to offend :" — and
perhaps it might soothe the jealousy of painters yet unborn, to have it settled,
that he " snatched " his graces from " beyond the reach of art." — Perhaps
no one in modern days having shown a similar audacity save the worthy
George Cruikshank.
Certain it is that Reynolds, Northcote, Fuseli, and even the unmercenary
Barry, speak of Hogarth with only negative praise. Poor dear Barry — who
all but starved upon the theory of his art, while Hogarth lived handsomely
upon the practice of it— he sets up, forsooth, a Mr. William Penny, as greatly
his superior in attempting and reaching the heart. But who and what was
this gentleman ? — Mr. C. Lamb, upon inquiring amongst those better ac
quainted than himself with the " illustrious obscure," finds him distinguished
as the painter of the death of Wolfe, which missed the prize the same year
that West gained it ; and also as painter of the " dead alive," to the Royal
Humane Society ! — thus was the illustrious Hogarth to be supplanted by
one who probably reached Barry's heart by telling him to go on starving,
and never mind the capriciousness of public taste.
But in the endeavour made throughout the present volume, to bring for
ward the best authorities in favour of our author, the able and masterly

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 103
essay on his genius and character by Mr. Charles Lamb must be laid under
further contribution — he comes forward, like Mr. Cunningham, as a volun
teer, in the double capacity of eulogist and champion — and vindicates him
nobly against the attacks more particularly of his jealous brethren.
" It is the fashion with those who cry up the great Historical School in
this country, at the head of which Sir Joshua Reynolds is placed, to exclude
Hogarth from that school, as an artist of an inferior and vulgar class. Those
persons seem to me to confound the painting of subjects in common or vulgar
life, with the being a vulgar artist. The quantity of thought which Hogarth
crowds into every picture, would alone unvulgarize every subject which he
might choose. Let us take the lowest of his subjects, the print called Grin
Lane. Here is plenty of poverty and low stuff to disgust upon a superficial
view ; and accordingly, a cold spectator feels himself immediately disgusted
and repelled. I have seen many turn away from it, not being able to bear
it. The same persons would, perhaps, have looked with great compla
cency at Poussin's celebrated picture of the Plague at Atliens. Disease and
death, and bewildering terror in Athenian garments, are endurable, and
come, as the delicate critics express it, ' within the limits of pleasurable
sensation.' But the scenes of their own St. Giles's, delineated by their own
countryman, are too shocking to think of. Yet, if we could abstract our
minds from the fascinating colours of the picture, and forget the coarse
execution (in some respects) of the print, intended as it was, to be a cheap
plate, accessible to the poorer sort of people, for whose instruction it was
done, I think we could have no hesitation in conferring the palm of superior
genius upon Hogarth, comparing this work of his with Poussin's picture.
There is more of imagination in it — that power which draws all things to
one, — which makes things animate and inanimate, beings with their attri
butes, subjects and their accessaries, take one colour, and serve to one effect.
Every thing in the print, to use a vulgar expression, tells. Every part is full
of ' strange images of death.' It is perfectly amazing and astounding to look
at. Not only the two prominent ^figures, the woman and the half-dead man,
which are as terrible as any things which Michael Angelo ever drew, but every
thing else in the print contributes to bewilder and stupify ; — the very houses,
as I heard a friend of mine express it, tumbling all about in various directions,
seem drunk — seem absolutely reeling from the effect of that diabolical spirit
of phrenzy which goes forth over the whole composition. To show the poeti
cal and almost prophetical conception of the artist, one little circumstance
may serve. Not content with the dying and dead figures, which he had
strewed in profusion over the scene of the action, he shows you what (of a
kindred nature) is passing beyond it. Close by the shell, in which, by
the direction of the parish-beadle, a man is depositing his wife, is an old
wall, which, partaking of the universal decay around it, is tumbling to
pieces. Through a gap in this wall are seen three figures, which appear to
make a part in some procession which is passing by on the other side of the
wall, out of the sphere of the composition. This extending of the interest
beyond the bounds of the subject, could only have been conceived by a great
genius.

104 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
" Shakspeare, in his description of the painting of the Trojan war, in his
Tarquin and Lucrece, has introduced a similar device, where the painter
made a part stand for the whole.
' For much imaginary work was there,
Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,
That for Achilles' image stood his spear,
Grip'd in an armed hand ; himself behind
Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind :
A hand1, a foot, a face, a leg, a head,
Stood for the whole to be imagined.'
" This he well calls imaginary work, where the spectator must meet the
artist in his conceptions half way ; and it is peculiar to the confidence of
high genius alone to trust so much to spectators or readers. Lesser artists
show every thing distinct and full, as they require an object to be made out
to themselves before they can comprehend it.
" When I think of the power displayed in this (I will not hesitate to say)
sublime print, it seems to me the extreme narrowness of system alone, and
of that rage for classification, by which, in matters of taste at least, we are
perpetually perplexing, instead of arranging our ideas, that would make us
concede to the work of Poussin above-mentioned, and deny to this of Ho
garth, the name of a grand serious composition.
" We are for ever deceiving ourselves with names and theories. We call
one man a great historical painter, because he has taken for his subjects
kings or great men, or transactions over which time has thrown a grandeur.
We term another the painter of common life, and set him down in our
minds for an artist of an inferior class, without reflecting whether the
quantity of thought shown by the latter may not much more than level the
distinction which their mere choice of subjects may seem to place between
them ; or whether, in fact, from that very common life, a great artist may
not extract as deep an interest as another man from that which we are
pleased to call history.
" I entertain the highest respect for the talents and virtues of Reynolds ;
but I do not like that his reputation should overshadow and stifle the
merits of such a man as Hogarth, nor that to mere names and classifications
we should be content to sacrifice one of the greatest ornaments of Eng
land2." 1 It is singular that Mr. Lamb should have overlooked, on this occasion,
a yet more remarkable exemplification of the subject, occurring in the left
corner of " Calais Gate," where Hogarth has introduced his own portrait
making the sketch — the guard arresting him as a spy, places his hand only
upon his shoulder, while there is nothing else to indicate his presence but the
halberd brought into the picture, above the painter's head.
2 The original of this able disquisition on the merits of Hogarth, appeared
in No. III. of the " Reflector," 181 1. Reprinted in Mr. Nichols's Anecdotes,
4to. vol. iii.

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 105
The further perusal of Mr. Lamb's Essay will show what pains have
been taken to deprive our author of his well-earned laurels.
Hogarth was far from undervaluing the old masters — indeed Mr. Cun
ningham, in his life of Reynolds, claims for him a better comprehension of the
" scope and character'' of their works than belonged to Sir Joshua himself !]
J. M.
[In adverting to the "historical style," or rather to that of the "grand
historical," in the sense that great painters have loved to use it, there is yet
no occasion to admit that Hogarth was not an historical painter ; neither
could he help it, if his dramatic power of representing domestic history in the
way that came home to "men's business and bosoms," gave more vivid
delight than the exploits of kings and heroes ; or than stale religious or
mythological subjects.
Constantly placed upon self-defence, he thus modestly but firmly and
sensibly vindicates that particular application of his abilities which has so
long delighted the world. " I thought the style of painting which I had
adopted, admitting that my powers were not equal to doing it, might one
time or other come into better hands, and be made more entertaining and
more useful than the eternal blazoning and tedious repetition of hackneyed
beaten subjects, either from the Scriptures, or the old ridiculous stories of
Heathen Gods."
" In these compositions, those subjects that will both entertain and
improve the mind bid fair to be of the greatest pubhc utility, and must
therefore be entitled to rank in the highest class."
Yet with persons of a certain class, "to admire Hogarth," says Mr.
Cunningham, " amounts to treason against the great masters," and again,
"It has been observed that Reynolds admired one style and painted another ;"
that with Raphael and Michael Angelo and the " great masters" and the
"grand style" on his lips, he dedicated his own pencil to works of a character
into which little of the lofty, and nothing of the divine could well be intro
duced." So much for " the incessant cry of all Academies about the study
of the " grand style." Hogarth's proudest appellation is that of the
" Painter of the People," who, with the constant disposition to be pleased, will
never thank any one for teaching them to find fault with their own peculiar
favourite.] J. M.

106

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE INVASION.

FRANCE.

The settled enmity between England and France, together
with the dastardly disposition of the one and the brave spirit
of the other, have given occasion for frequent triumph
on our side, and dejection of spirit on theirs. This, added
to the good pay of our soldiery, and the trifling pittance
their government allows, has given rise to many sarcastic
strokes against them, which, whether they deserve or not,
has been attended with this good consequence, that the mean
opinion we thereby entertain of their strength and valour,

THE INVASION. 107
and our natural love of liberty dreading a despotic yoke,
have whetted the courage of Britain to such an edge, that
our enemies now fear to approach us. It was under this
notion of things that Mr. Hogarth designed the following
prints, as a contrast the one to the other, strongly describ
ing the natural disposition of the two nations, the one pre
paring the attack, the other making ready to defend.
Behold, then, a scene in France, representing an embark
ation of the French troops, in order to invade England !
Remark their unwillingness to go, by the necessity the offi
cers are in of goading them on with the point of their spon-
toons ! The fore-ground of this plate exhibits to our view a
forlorn cabaret, or ale-house, whose sign is a wooden shoe,
with a board, on which is written, " Soup-meagre a la sabot
royal," Soup-meagre at the royal wooden shoe. A broth
made of herbs and fat, (far unlike the rich gravy soups of
England) meat being there to the poor as great a rarity as
here a joint of venison ; this is intimated by the neck-bones
of beef, void of flesh hanging within the window ; by the
weak, emaciated figures of the meagre Frenchmen ; and by
the general joy they show at the sight of their colours, on
which is written in large letters, " Vengeance, avec le bon
bier et bon beuf d'Angleterre." Vengeance, with the good
beer and good beef of England ; and to which that officer
is pointing, by way of encouragement, who is roasting a
brace or two of frogs before the fire. It may probably be
wondered at, why a gentleman should be thus meanly em
ployed, when so near a public-house, but when we are told
that frogs are a dainty, which every one knows not how to
dress, the wonder will immediately cease. Though the sol
diers relish not this expedition, the clergy seem greatly to
enjoy it, eager for an opportunity of exercising their studied
persecution. This we are given to understand by a sledge
of instruments preparing to be put on board, which contains
scourges, gibbets, wheels, and other engines of torture, in-
12

108 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
tended for a British Inquisition. Among these are an image
of St. Anthony, and a plan of a monastery, proposed to be
built at Blackfriars. Thus we are taught what dreadful
steps our enemies would take, could they once obtain a
footing on our island ; the merciless disposition of popish
bigotry being well described by the secret satisfaction the
priest enjoys in feeling the sharpness of the persecuting axe.
Happy then are we, under the mild government of a prince,
who labours to protect our religion and laws from the
tyrannical encroachments of black superstition and arbitrary
sway ! One thing more we learn from the plate before us,
which is, that notwithstanding the British subjects are but a
handful in comparison to those of France, yet by our native
prowess and the justness of our cause, we have with con
tinual success reduced their men to so small a number, that
they are glad to make shift with real invalids, and their
women are obliged to manure the land themselves \
1 Beneath this plate are engraved the following lines :
With lanthorn jaws and croaking gut,
See how the half-starved Frenchmen strut,
And call us English dogs !
But soon we'll teach these bragging foes,
That Beef and Beer give heavier blows
Than soup and roasted frogs.
The priests, inflam'd with righteous hopes,
Prepare their axes, wheels, and ropes,
To bend the stiff-necked sinner ;
But should they sink in coming over,
Old Nick may fish 'twixt France and Dover,
And catch a glorious dinner.

THE INVASION.

109

ENGLAND.

As a contrast to the last plate, observe here the jovial
sons of liberty at their general rendezvous ! Take notice of
the stout-hearted peasant enlisting in defence of his country !
Lest the shortness of his stature should exclude him from
the service, he is deceiving the Serjeant by rising on his
toes, ambitious of bearing the honourable name of soldier.
See here before us a well-built ale-house, the scene of joy
and noble living, known by the sign of the late gallant Duke
of Cumberland, who by his warlike genius became a terror
to his foes. Beneath this sign is written — not Soup-meagre
a la sabot royal, but " Roast and boiled every day." Before
the door is a table spread, on which is a buttock of beef and
a half-gallon-pot of Stingo. At this festive board mirth
takes the lead and valour crowns the feast. This we learn
from the song, " Britannia rules the waves," upon the table,
and by the boy lying at his ease and playing " God save the

110 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
King" upon his fife; but more particularly from the col
lected attention of the soldier and sailor to the horrid ugly
figure of the French king, which a grenadier is dawbing on
the wall : his putting into his mouth the words, " You take
a my fine ships, you be de pirate, you be de teef, me send
my grand armies, and hang you all," produces from the tar
a roar of approbation, and a more particular attention from
the soldier, giving their girls an opportunity of indulging a
wicked thought, by measuring the breadth of the painter's
shoulder. The mere cast of the eye upon these plates, one would
imagine, should be sufficient to enliven the heart of a Briton,
and inspire him with that love for his native country, as to
make him heroically stand forth in the cause of liberty, and
despise the least infringement of it \
1 The lines annexed to this plate are,
See John the soldier, Jack the tar,
With sword and pistol arm'd for war,
Should Mounsir dare come here !
The hungry slaves have smelt our food ;
They long to taste our flesh and blood,
Old England's Beef and Beer.
Britons, to arms ! and let 'em come ;
Be you but Britons still, strike home,
And lion-like attack 'em,
No power can stand the deadly stroke,
That's giv'n from hands and hearts of Oak,
With Liberty to back 'em.

THE INVASION.

Ill

CALAIS-GATE.

O THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND, &C.

Though the government of France is more attentive to its
military establishment than any one thing else, yet, what is
very extraordinary, it is wanting in the most essential point
to support it, that of making a sufficient allowance to the
soldiery ; the pay of a common man being no more than
five sols (two pence half-penny English) a day, out of which
two sols, or one penny, is kept back towards the purchasing
of shoes, stockings, &c. On the sum, then, of three half
pence a day, with the further advantage only of bread, fire,

112 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
candle, and lodging, (there being barracks in every town,)
are they obliged to subsist, and pay for washing, mending,
hair-powder, and other things ; Soup-maigre is their chief
provision, though they sometimes regale themselves with
horse-beans boiled in grease ; no wonder then they should
be so poor, both in body and spirits, as to become objects
of pity and ridicule, particularly as military men, to whom
strength and courage is most essentially necessary.
The scene before us is supposed to be taken from the
landing of a sirloin of beef at the gate of Calais, which is
here represented as it now stands. By the direction fixed
to it, namely, " For Madam Grandsire, at Calais," we learn
it is going to the English inn in that city. Though luxury
in France is no stranger, particularly to the upper class of
people, witness the corpulency of the full-fed friar, yet by
the secret pleasure the priest receives at the sight of so large
and noble a joint, we are taught how rare so substantial
a piece of meat is, even among them, they feasting chiefly
on fricasees, hashes, and minced meat. The general con
sternation it causes among the soldiery is very expressive of
their poor living, and the French cook's sinking under the
weight of it, a manifest token of their debilitated condition,
brought on by constantly feeding on soup-maigre. This is
further represented by the scanty messes they were going to
lap, till their attention was summoned to something more
important. On the right of this plate are two men carrying
a kettle, one of whom is communicating his surprise to his
comrade on the stability of English food in general. Behind
this man is an Irishman, (a prisoner of war,) distinguished
by his vulgar face and shortness of stature, but at the same
time that Mr. Hogarth has marked out that country by these
defects, he has taken an opportunity of paying it a compli
ment, with respect to bravery, by painting his hat with a
hole in it, made, as is supposed, by a musket ball in the heat
of action. In the fore-ground is a Scotchman (a prisoner

CALAIS-GATE. 113
also) scarr'd in the service, (this plate being published during
the war between France and England,) sitting on the ground,
with his dinner beside him of bread and onions, deploring
his unhappy situation. On the other side are three old
women, who get their living by selling of herbs about the
streets, got together admiring the face of a scate, it being
so much like their own. As poor as these Frenchmen are
in pocket, they are very attentive to their dress, intimated
by the bags to their hair, and the centinel's paper ruffles,
though his shirt is out at elbows, and he is obliged to keep
up his breeches with a skewer; remarkable instances of
their beggarly pride and vanity : if they have not a coat to
their backs, they will take great pains to adorn their heads;
and if they have but a penny in their pockets, they will lay
it out in powder for their hair ; nay, you may often see a
blacksmith at his forge with his face covered with soot, and
his hair dressed as if going to court ; so great and astonish
ing is the folly of the French ! Through the gateway we
have a distant view of the carrying of the Host 1, and the
people on their knees, adoring it as it passes, another re
markable instance of their ignorance, and that of all Roman
catholic countries in general, who pay more regard to the
outward show of religion than to the vital part of it, and
prostitute the most sacred things to low and idle purposes,
further represented by the emblematical figure of the third
person in the most holy Trinity being made use of as a sign
to a cabaret, or villanous alehouse. When Mr. Hogarth
was at Calais, and sketching out the gate, he was seized on
as a spy, and carried before the commandant ; but when it
was known who he was, he was speedily set at liberty. This
circumstance occasioned his introducing himself here, with
the guard clapping him upon the shoulder2. Upon the
1 A religious ceremony of carrying the consecrated wafer to the houses of
the sick, in hopes of re-establishing health.
2 [As before noticed, the hand and the halberd of the guard brought into
I

114 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
whole, this excellent picture is, with great justice, reckoned
as one of the most capital performances of our inimitable
artist, and declares him well acquainted with the true spirit
of satire.
the picture, denote the presence of the guard — but Hogarth had an opposite
whim of composing a subject by extrusion only. He could tell a story with
only three lines, thus : —

A.

\
B. c. L

a. The perspective line of the door.
B. The end of a Serjeant's pike who is going in.
c. The dog's tail who is following him.

Mr. Dallaway remarks, that " Carracci amused himself with such whims,
which if never seen by Hogarth, the coincidence of fancy is very singular."]
J. M.

THE SLEEPING C ON GEI GA.TION.

THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION. 115

THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION1.
It has been said by some that have undertaken to dive into
the cause, that the decay of Christian piety is, in a great
measure, owing to the indifference and oscitancy of the
clergy, with respect to their pastoral office ; they are
appointed to teach, say they, and watch over the people
committed to their care, with a particular income peculiar to
their employ; but, on the contrary, they pay little regard to
any thing except the pecuniary advantage they receive, valu
ing the flock but for the fleece : this is a heavy and severe
charge against them, such as, in my opinion, they no way
deserve ; indeed there have been ministers of that stamp,
(such as Mr. Hogarth has here thought proper to satirize),
who by unfortunately falling within the pale of the church,
have by their uncommon laziness and stupidity brought the
credit of religion to a very low ebb. But notwithstanding
there have been such men among us, and I fear are at pre
sent some few, yet it is an act of injustice and cruelty to con
demn the innocent with the guilty, and brand a body of men
with that public censure that ought only to fall on indivi
duals. It is the unhappy case of the clergy, (owing I believe
in some to their slender income and state of dependence)
that though their duty enjoins them to cry aloud and spare
not, they are absolutely afraid, fearing to give offence. Were
they to go round among their people, inculcating those duties
their office requires of them, charging them strictly to be
1 [Portrait introduced — Dr. Desaguliers, the preacher.]
I 2

116 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
just in their respective dealings with men, and urging them
earnestly to attend the public service of God, they would be
looked upon as meddling and impertinent ; were they in
their pulpits to exclaim loudly against the particular vices of
the age; were they to ring in the ears of their congregations
the punishment reserved for the sinner ; were they to press
home the solid and severe truths Christianity dictates, and
tell the people of their faults, they would immediately be
stigmatized. Thus is the poor priest condemned for doing
his duty, as his God requires. But what is more remark
able, I have often observed, that those very persons who
censure the active minister, are most ready to condemn the
inactive one : he, I mean, who suffers his parishioners to
wear away their lives in a state of thoughtlessness. Such is
the perverseness of mankind, that I have known a minister's
delivering himself a little freer from the pulpit than is the
general custom, to have been a bar to his future preferment;
when these are the only men that should be advanced, that
they might be able to do more good in their respective gene
rations. Not but that we have reason to complain of some
who have forsaken the church, and wrested the scriptures
to answer particular purposes ; with respect to such men, I
must take the liberty of saying, that I am afraid it has been
more necessity than principle that has determined them
to the steps they have taken, presuming they would not
have left the church could they have selected a congrega
tion under the present establishment, without being reduced
to the necessity of taking refuge under the act of Toleration.
I am sorry to say it, the pastoral office seems now to be
made little better than a convenience ; a rectory, or a vicar
age, being considered only by a parent as a tolerable pro
vision for a child. It is the greatest misfortune of the
church of England, that the patrons of benefices should be
so wilfully blind to the interest of religion ; nothing being
now studied but the serving a friend, with an eye to their

THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION. 117
own advantage. Thus the cause of Christ is made subser
vient to the worldly interests of man, and the whole body
of the clergy suffer for what they are in no wise blameable.
In this sleeping congregation we have the most striking
idea of the great effects of modern oratory, that of lulling a
number of people into a state of insensibility, after the man
ner of Sir William Temple's tale-tellers in Scotland S by a
tolling monotony of what they do not understand. The
scene is here taken from a country church ; the congrega
tion consisting chiefly of the lower class of people, and the
ill-judging minister, supposed to be addressing them in lan
guage they cannot comprehend, which we are to imagine
not his own, his vacant face declaring an empty head, and
the rising pimple, that he spends more of his time over the
bottle than in his study. With great humour is he repre
sented as preaching on Matt. xi. ver. 28. " Come unto me all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;"
he, owing to his exceeding stupidity, having a happy talent
of quieting a restless body by slumber. The first thing we
may learn from the piece before us, is, how inattentive the
generality of mankind are to matters of the greatest impor
tance ; and from the prayer-book's (dropping from the hand
of the dosing woman) being open at the matrimonial ser
vice, we are taught how industrious they are to stop their
ears to improvement, and fence out reflection, by amusing
themselves with what they think the most entertaining.
With great propriety is that text of scripture written against
the pulpit. " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon
you labour in vain!" Galat. iv. ver. 11. The hum-drum
drawling manner of the indolent preacher, is very evident
1 Persons whose employ was to sit by the bedside of any one fatigued or
jaded with too much exercise, and relate some story of a cock and a bull,
a giant or a dwarf, in a uniform tone of voice, in order to lull the person to
sleep : and if he chanced to wake in the course of the night, these tale
tellers proceeded in their hum-drum story till the weary person was again
buried in repose.

118 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
from the visible effect upon his hearers. Instead of being
full of his subject, possessed with the very spirit of it, and
labouring under the weight of those conceptions which it
inspires ; instead of pressing upon the audience with that
torrent of tender and manly eloquence, as to animate the
cold, rouse the stupid, melt the obdurate, and bend the stub
born, we see the purse-proud priest seated in his pulpit,
poring over his discourse, which is supposed to be delivered
in such a yawning manner, that one would almost think he
talked in his sleep : nay, by his handkerchief beside him for
continual use, we are told that coughing, hawking, and spit
ting, the defects of other men's rhetoric, are the flowers, the
figures, and ornaments of his. Methinks when I hear such
preachers, I fancy the chimes going to the tune of a psalm,
so little seem they affected with what they say ! The truth
is, there is too much resemblance between them ; they both
go as they are set, and one almost as mechanically as the
other; only there is this unhappy difference in the case,
that the bells often call people to their devotion, whereas
these thoughtless, lazy, listless preachers, do but make them
sick of it. The common method of hurrying over the ser
mon, lest dinner should wait, and the fear of exceeding
their customary time (expressive to the greatest degree of
the degeneracy of the clergy) is denoted by the hour-glass
beside him as a monitor, lest he should dwell a little longer
than ordinary. By the figure of the clerk, we may observe
the consequence that officer of the church would fain be
thought of; and by the screwing up of his face, we are
given to understand that one chief part of religious deport
ment is supposed, by the ignorant and superstitious, to con
sist in outward appearance and fantastical grimace ; a well-
pointed reflection on the ridiculous custom of those who,
when they talk of religion, do it so precisely, after a cant
ing, whining and sighing manner, with an affected tone, and
ill-contrived look, as if they were conjuring or telling for-

THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION. 119
tunes ; a custom that has of late brought religious matters
into contempt. And as a farther proof that the distortion
of his face is merely affectation, see him amorously leering
on the naked bosom of the female near him ! Upon the
whole, this piece is an excellent satire on the slovenly, inde
cent method of some of our modern clergy, and the spread
ing lukewarmness of religion \
[i " The original picture was in Sir Edward Walpole's collection ; the
present proprietor I do not know."] J. I.

120 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

CREDULITY, SUPERSTITION, AND
FANATICISM,

A MEDLEY.

As there is nothing in this world but what has at one time
or other been abused, so it is the unhappy case of Religion
to share the same fate. Some of its ministers have suffered
the cause of God to grow languid in the minds of men, as
we have seen in the last plate, while others have carried it
even to enthusiasm, as it is evident in this, working up the
passions of weak and credulous people to a degree of des
peration. As I would be extremely tender in passing my
opinion upon these men, I shall not divine any cause for the
measures they take, but hope they proceed from principle ;
then, however misled they may be, they will still deserve the
character of upright. But whatever favourable constructions
may at present be put upon them, it must be allowed that
they have been universally condemned ; the conduct of their
disciples, and the extraordinary effects of their doctrine, such
as lust, melancholy, and madness, having great reason for
censure. The credulity of this country has long been matter
of triumph to our enemies, and astonishment to all Europe,
to think that a nation where literature and learning flou
rish, should so frequently betray such excessive weakness.
To make good this assertion, we need look but a few years
back, and we shall see, from time to time, what strange
impostures have been carried on to serve particular pur
poses ; which were so artfully contrived as to work the

TS. Niche It on. sb.
THE IfEDLEY,

THE MEDLEY. 121
wished-for effect on the ignorant part of mankind, and even
deceive the more knowing. To show the absurdity of these
things, to laugh the notions of them out of countenance, and
expose the amazing credulity, superstition, and fanaticism
of the age, Mr. Hogarth published this plate in the year
1762. Wherein he has collected variety of materials, and
though it was impossible to preserve consistency, has given
us a group of very laughable characters, and entered into
the different subjects with great spirit and humour.
By the thermometer on the right, fixed in the heart of
man, our author would teach us, that lukewarmness in
religion is the foundation of all this excess. He has set it
upright on two books, viz. Wesley's l Sermons, and Glan-
vil 2 on Witches, to show us that superstition and credulity
is the ground-work of fanaticism. The blood in this tube,
in its ascending state, rises from lukewarm to love, which
hp would have understood to be heat of constitution ; from
-ove to lust, which by placing a glory round the word, he
would have considered as the enthusiast's greatest good
below. But as the heat increases, it proceeds from lust to
ecstasy ; from ecstasy to convulsion fits ; from convulsion
fits to madness ; and thence to raving, which is repre
sented in the clouds, attended with two cherubs, sounding
the trump of joy ; as when once the unhappy mortal is got
to that pitch, he is arrived at his ultimate end, and the com
pletion of his teacher's wishes. In its descending state,
when the blood loses its power of acting, it falls from luke
warm to lowness of spirits ; thence to sorrow ; from sorrow
to agony, the utmost stretch of the senses ; from agony to
settled grief ; thence to despair ; from despair to madness ;
and from madness to suicide ; one of these two extremes
being the general consequence of enthusiasm. The upper
part of this thermometer is decorated with a representation
1 A leader of a sect called Methodists.
2 An author, who wrote some years since in favour of witchcraft.

122 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
of the appearance of the Cock-lane ghost \ knocking to the
girl in bed, (one of the many instances of the credulity of
the English,) and the drummer of Tedworth, another well-
known story2. The power of a spell was once universally
believed, and is generally so in country places to this day.
This is excellently set forth by the poor bewitched shoe-black
vomiting up hob-nails, crooked pins, and other things'.
In this woman's hands is put a bottle, in which she is re
presented as having attempted to confine the spirit, which
being of an aerial nature has found its way out by forcing
the cork4. Her basket stands upon a book of demonology,
written by king James the First ; a proof that these idle no
tions existed as well among the great and learned as among
1 At the time this plate was published, the town was greatly amused by a
family in Cock-lane, Smithfield ; a child of which, a girl about twelve years
old, pretended to be continually haunted, while in bed, with the knocking
and scratching of some invisible agent against the wainscot of whatever room
she was in, resembling the noise a living person could make with his fingers.
An imposture so artfully contrived, and carried on for such a length of time
as attracted, among the rest, the notice of several of the clergy, who fondly
imagined it to be something supernatural, and busied themselves a long time
in asking it questions, which they supposed it answered by determinate
knocks, in the affirmative, or negative.
2 This was a, remarkable affair that happened in the year 1661, at Ted-
worth in Wiltshire, at one Mr. Mompesson's. The story was as follows :
an idle fellow of a drummer had been up and down the country, by the
authority of a feigned pass of some neighbouring magistrate, which pass Mr.
Mompesson discovered to be false ; in consequence of this he punished the
fellow, and took away his drum, which he lodged in his own house ; after
this, his house was beset for two or three years with a continual drumming,
and the whole family was tormented ; nay, things grew to such a pitch as to
draw several clergymen, and some people from the king to inquire into it.
The drummer was taken up, tried for a wizard at the assizes at Salisbury,
and transported.
3 Bewitched persons are said to fall frequently into violent fits, and vomit
needles, pins, stones, nails, stubbs, wool, and straw.
* It was a supposed remedy against witchcraft, to put some of the be
witched person's water with a quantity of pins, needles, and nails into a
bottle, cork them up, and set them before the fire, in order to confine
the spirit ; but this sometimes did not prove sufficient, as it would often
force the cork out with a loud noise like that of a pistol, and cast the contents
of the bottle to a considerable height.

THE MEDLEY. 123
the poor and illiterate. Within her basket, we observe one of
Mr. Whitfield's Journals ; by this we are taught that she is
a blind follower of that teacher \ But the most astonish
ing thing of all is, that of the noted rabbit- woman 2, who
some years since made the people believe that she brought
forth rabbits instead of children ; and so far imposed upon
their credulity, as to bring even some of the physical tribe
to espouse her cause. We see her here, lying in the fore
ground of this plate, in all the seeming throes of labour,
with some friendly hand giving her a glass of comfort which
she has broken with her teeth. Mr. Hogarth would give us
to understand, by the general tenor of this print, that the
chief principle of these teachers, whom he here satirizes, is
interest ; this we may learn from the checquered habit of
the preacher, who he supposes to change his outside form as
ready and often as the Proteus * of pantomime. From the
person of the clerk, (who, by his squinting, will be readily
known,) represented as a voracious harpy, with eager wings
and griping talons, and from the descending cherub, which
our author has humorously painted with a post-boy's cap
upon his head, as a messenger express from the other re
gions, bearing in his mouth a letter addressed to Money-
trap, he would teach us that lucre is their only object ; but
if from nothing else, we might gather it from his repre
senting the poor's box as a mousetrap, intimating their col
lecting of money, under the notion of charity, which when
they have once in possession, they take care to secure. In
1 Another Methodistic leader, differing from Mr. Wesley in some tenets,
but holding with him the doctrine of inspiration.
2 One Mary Tofts, of Godalming, in Surrey, who, in the year 1726, pre
tended that she bred rabbits within her, and so far imposed on Mr. John
Howard, surgeon, at Guildford, and Mr. Andre", surgeon to the king, as to
prevail on them to espouse her cause. Nay, to such lengths did she carry
the matter, as to draw the attention of his majesty himself, who sent down
Sir Eichard Manningham, one of his physicians, to inquire into it, when he
presently discovered it to be an imposture.
3 Harlequin.

124 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
order to this (says he, in colours, which are equally as
expressive as words) they preach up excess of love, establish
love-feasts, and recommend holy kisses among the faithful
brethren, hold up the rod of terror, and thunder out damna
tion with the utmost vociferation. The first of these things
he has set forth by an extract of one of Mr. Whitfield's
hymns, from page 130, hanging from the clerk's desk,
which contains these words :
Only love to us be giv'n,
Lord ! we ask no other heav'n.
By painting a glory round the word love, as round that of
lust, in the thermometer, he would have it understood, that
they mean one and the same thing, and that this thing is
the ultimate end of all the enthusiast's desire ; farther con
firmed by the male and female votaries beneath the pulpit.
The second is described by his holding out in one hand the
figure of a witch giving suck to a cat ', flying on a broom
stick, and the devil bearing a gridiron, in the other as em
blematical of the lost sinner broiling on the flames of hell.
The third is represented by the crack in the sounding board,
occasioned by the loudness of his voice, and the scale of
vociferation hanging beside him, the lower note of which
resembles the roaring of a bull, greatly distant from the
natural tone, and is contiguous to the bawling mouth above,
bellowing out, Blood, blood, blood, blood. Considered in
this light, with great propriety is that text of scripture writ
ten upon his book, " I speak as a fool," it being evidently
the height of folly to attempt to convince a weak mind by
terror ! And such must the congregation be, in general, or
they would not hug themselves in their fond conceits ; which
they apparently do, in setting so much value upon those
figures of a ghost, we see up and down among them, and
1 It being said that the familiar with whom a witch converses sucks her
right breast in the shape of a little dun cat, smooth as a mole, which when
it has sucked, the witch is in a kind of trance.

THE MEDLEY. 125
which they are supposed to idolize as much as the Roman
Catholics do the figure of the cross. Nay, that our author
designed to draw a parallel between them is manifest, not
only from this, but also from the head of the minister, which
he describes as shaven into a circle, in imitation of the heads
of some particular orders of priests abroad ; so that by his
wig falling off, he is, as it were, discovered to be a Jesuit in
disguise. To inform us that enthusiasm gains most ground
among the poor and illiterate, whose credulity is greatest,
he has introduced a man (who by the altar and sacrificing
knife before him appears to be a Jew, for sects are generally
formed of a mixture of other persuasions) killing a louse,
strongly characteristic of the state of his congregation ; and
has decorated the pulpit with three figures, alluding to three
known stories of apparitions, (expressive of the people's
weakness) Mrs. Veal, Julius Csesar ', and Sir George Vil-
liers 2. Those on whom threats and terrors will not make
an impression, are often brought over by cant and tears :
this, says our author, has often produced wonderful effects ;
working by sympathy and persuasion ; beside it declares the
sincerity of the preacher. See, then, the clerk with piteous
face, and a crying cherub on either hand, whining out the
hymns in dolorous tone ! We have here exhibited in one
view, the various effects of superstition ; it melting some
into tears, winding others into a settled grief, and driving
others to madness. Behold, then, behind, a poor despairing
wretch, frighted out of his senses by an itinerant lay-preacher
beside him, pointing to the branch above, which is here hu
morously described as a horrid infernal head with horns,
1 The first of these stories may be found in the preface to a book called
" Drelincourt upon Death :" the second in the Roman History.
2 Father to the Duke of Buckingham, who was stabbed by one Felton, at
Portsmouth. It is said Sir George appeared after he was dead to one
who had been his servant, charging him to inform his son of the design laid
to destroy him, which took place as he foretold it, through the duke's obsti
nacy in not avoiding it.

126 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
whose rotundity serves to represent a globe of hell, as newly
drawn by Romaine ' ! The front of this branch is disposed
into a face : round one of the eyes is written Molten-lead
Lake ; round the other, Bottomless Pit ; down the nose,
Pitch and Tar Rivers ; on the line across the face, Horrid
Zone ; on one cheek, Parts Unknown ; on the other Brim
stone Ocean; round the mouth, Eternal Damnation Gulf;
and on the little sphere above, Deserts of New Purgatory.
But to show us, that even amidst all this terror, the hearts
of some are so extremely callous, and so far buried in the
lethargy of sin, as no alarm can awaken, Mr. Hogarth has
represented one of this congregation asleep, and the devil
taking that opportunity to whisper him in the ear ; and to
complete the whole, and inform us that it is such schism in
the church that brings religion into contempt, he has drawn
a Turk looking in at the window, and smiling at their amaz
ing folly. If this be Christianity, says he, great prophet,
I thank thee that I am a Mahommedan 2 !
1 A clergyman of the same way of thinking with Mr. Whitfield.
* Beneath this plate is engraved the following text of Scripture :
" Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God :
because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John iv. 1.
[" For useful and deep satire." Mr. Walpole considers this the " most
sublime" of all Hogarth's works. Mr. Ireland, who views it in the same
light, observes, that " to check this inundation of absurdity, which deemed
carnal reason profane, and was not to be combated by argument, Mr.
Hogarth engraved this print ; it contains what must ever operate as a com
plete refutation of those, who, because they were his opponents in politics,
bave impudently asserted, that he lost his talents in the decline of life ; for
though the delineation was made in his sixty-fourth year, in satire, wit, and
imagination, it is superior to any of his preceding works."]

THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN. 127

THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN.
Amidst all the follies of the age, there never was a greater
than the immoderate passion of the people for music.
Though amusement and recreation are sometimes necessary,
yet when carried to excess they become vicious and shame
ful. Now, so far did the luxury of this kingdom extend at
the time when this plate was first published, which was in
the year 1741, and which seems at present rather to increase
than diminish, that Italians (as being supposed to be the
greater proficients) were brought over at the greatest ex
pense, and the poorest and least skilled among them, who
had not sufficient merit, and who were not able to continue
in their own country, soon discovering our folly, gathered here
in flocks, and took possession of the place. When here
they were encouraged, and their wretched abilities looked
upon as supernatural ; they introduced a new style of music,
which suited well the growing levity of this nation. The
noble and elevated was immediately transformed into the
trifling and insignificant, and the solemn and majestic sounds
of heart-felt British harmony, gave place to the tinkling
frippery airs of Italian sing-song. Such was, and such still
continues to be the depraved state of the English !
To ridicule this degeneracy of the age, Mr. Hogarth pub
lished the print before us ; wherein he has represented an
Italian professor of music at his study, enraged to the great
est degree at the collection of noises beneath his window,
which seem gathered in order to annoy him. He is, by the
inscription on the house over the way, supposed to live in
12

128 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
the neighbourhood of a pewterer, whose constant hammer
ing is no small disturbance. Our author seems here to have
let none of the most material or customary noises of Lon
don streets escape him. In front are some children at their
noisy sports, one of whom is hollowing and beating a drum ;
another dragging a tile upon the stones, and another wind
ing a racket. In one place is a ballad-singer bawling out
" the Lady's fall," with a squalling infant in her arms ; in
another, a man grinding a cleaver, whose machine standing
on the foot of a dog, sets him yelping. Here we see a
girl crying her milk, and there a sow-gelder sounding his
horn ; here, a fellow dissonantly blowing his hautboy, there
another crying of fish; in one place a paviour ramming
down the stones, in another a dustman ringing his bell.
To these are introduced the chattering of a parrot and the
squalling of cats ; and to complete all, from the top of the
chimney is heard the cry of the sweeper, and from the tower
of the church the ringing of bells, it being by the flag sup
posed to be a day of rejoicing. One thing more I must not
omit taking notice of, which is the play-bill against the
house, acquainting us that the Beggar's Opera was per
formed that night for the sixty-second time, Miss Fenton1
playing the part of Polly, Mr. Walker that of Macheath, and
Mr. Hippisly, that of Peachum. This serves to commemo
rate the great success of that dramatic performance, and in
that success the extraordinary taste of the town. Thus by'
filling the plate, by properly disposing the different figures,
and by preserving a beautiful contrast in the various per
sons and faces, Mr. Hogarth has not only pleased the under
standing and accomplished his design, but has also ravished
the eye with a pleasing group of lively characters 2.
1 Afterwards Duchess of Bolton.
[2 Mr. Walpole, who loves to point out the dramatic powers of our author,
very consistently remarks upon this print — " The Enraged Musician tends
to farce." But, says Mr. W., speaking of his lighter subjects, — "When his
topics were harmless, all his touches were marked with pleasantry and fun.

THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN. 129
He never laughed Uke Rabelais at nonsense that he imposed for wit ; but
like Swift, combined incidents that divert one from their unexpected
encounter, and illustrate the tale he means to tell." The remarks of Mr.
W. are well exemplified in this one-act farce. Rich as it is in situations —
as dramatists say — there is no violation of probability in bringing so many
and so various annoyances together at one point of time.
The hero of this print, Mr. Ireland informs us, was a Mr. John Festin,
eminent for his skill in playing upon the German flute and hautboy, and
much employed as a teacher of music. He himself gave Hogarth the story
to work upon. " At nine o'clock in the morning," said he, " I once waited
upon Lord Spencer, but his lordship being out of town, from him I went to
Mr. V  n, now Lord V-  n. It was so early that he was not arisen. I
went into his chamber, and opening a shutter, sat down in the window-seat.
Before the rails was a fellow playing upon the hautboy. A man with »
barrow full of onions, offered the piper an onion if he would play him a tune.
That ended he offered a second for a second tune, the same for a third, and
was going on : but this was too much ; I could not bear it ; it angered my
very soul — " Zounds !" cried I, " stop here ! This fellow is ridiculing my
profession ; he is playing upon the hautboy for onions."
Hogarth would naturally think that these airs of the professor deserved
nothing but ridicule. He ought rather to have admired the relish for music
demonstrated by the humble patron of his humble brother — an onion was as
much to either of the latter, as a guinea to a fashionable amateur. " The
whole," says Mr. I., " of this bravura scene is admirably represented. A
person quaintly enough observed, that it deafens one to look at it. The scene
seems to be taken from the lower end of St. Martin's-lane ; it is certainly
intended to represent the steeple of St. Martin's Church."] J. M.

130 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE DISTRESSED POET.
Notwithstanding it has ever been the universal opinion
that the encouragement of literature would be productive
of the greatest advantages to a nation, yet such is the gene
ral dissipation of mankind, that we cannot be prevailed on
to stand forth in its cause. A man may rack his brains for
years together in search of truth, and when found it shall
be totally disregarded. Business and pleasure so engage the
people, that learning is no other than a drug, and an author
the greatest object of contempt. The uncommon scarcity
indeed of men of sound learning, and the multitude of scrib
blers that at present infest the age, have given sufficient
cause for this general contempt ; but yet it must be acknow
ledged as very extraordinary, that distress should ever attend
a writer, and poverty be as it were entailed upon him. To
represent then on the one hand the low ebb to which lite
rature is arrived, and on the other to expose the vanity and
folly of such men as undertake to write upon subjects they
are wholly unacquainted with, and to give us an insight of
the distress they, by this means, bring upon themselves, was
the design of Mr. Hogarth in the piece before us : how far
or how well he has succeeded, I shall leave the spectator to
determine. This plate then in the first place describes in the strong
est colours the distress of an author, without friends to push
him forward in the world. His living in one room, and that
room a garret, and appropriated to all the common offices
of life, is a convincing argument of his extreme penury.

THE DISTRESSED POET. 131
His being reduced to the necessity of sitting without his
breeches while they are mending ; without a shirt, till that
he wears be dry ; his want of a night-cap, evident by his
covering his head with the only wig he is master of, a tye ;
and above all the empty safe, are confirmations of the fact.
The confusion and litter of the place tells us, that to main
tain a decent appearance without doors, engages the whole
attention of his wife. This is more manifest by his shirt
and shams hanging to dry, which she is supposed to have
washed over night ; and her mending his breeches, paying
no regard to her crying infant. A melancholy proof of the
lordly ascendancy of some husbands, who imagine their
wives' attention should be turned to them only ; and of the
ridiculous fondness of some wives, in studying to adorn the
object of their affections at the expense of the quiet and
reputation of their families ! The other ornaments of his
person, viz. the tye-wig, the sword, and full-trimm'd coat,
plainly denote how anxious a man, who rises above the
generality of his fellow-creatures on account of some liberal
endowment, is of appearing above them with respect to
dress, absurd to the greatest degree ; for among the judi
cious part of mankind, he who attempts to pass upon the
world as greater than he is, will be constantly the butt of
ridicule, and will meet with the derision of all who know
him. The long cloak hung against the wainscot, is to show
us that the wife, often spending her time in working for her
husband, and adjusting the minutiae of her family, is obliged
to neglect her own person, and cover her rags as the philo
sopher did his coals, (when he fetched them himself,) with
his cloak. But on the other hand we are taught, by the
same means, how essential it is that a man of this profession
should keep up appearances : as his success in life in a great
measure depends upon the favours of the great, he can
have no hopes of that favour but from personal attend
ance, and that attendance supported by a gentleman-like
x 2

132 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
appearance. This often puts him to the sad necessity of
laying out the major part of his substance on his back,
while his wife and children are perhaps pinched with cold
and perishing with hunger. The scene here is supposed to
be in the morning : the entrance of the milk-girl, with open
mouth, and her presenting the tally, chalked with long
arrears, heighten the distress : for though they supported
nature in the most sparing manner, yet so low is the author's
pocket, that he is not able to wipe off the old score. But
while we admire the connection of the piece, we must not
omit observing the countenance of the wife (a fine contrast
to that of the girl's), whom we are to imagine struck almost
speechless at the thoughts of so large a debt to pay, and not
a farthing to discharge it. The abusive language of the
wench, and the crying of the child, confuse the father's brain,
who has risen early, in order to finish a poem " on the com
fortable enjoyment of riches," (a subject he can have but
small ideas of) which a hungry belly urges him to get done
by dinner-time. — Though we may gather from this print
what little regard is paid to men of merit, and at how low
an ebb literature is, yet in the second place we may learn,
(which indeed Mr. Hogarth more particularly alluded to) by
the author's face, declaring him on a knotty point; by
Bysshe's Art of Poetry laying open before him, denoting his
capacity but shallow ; by his small collection of books, the
Sketch of the Gold Mines, the Grub-street Journal, and the
beggary that surrounds him, how apt men are to mistake
their talents, to set genius and nature at nought, fancy them
selves master of every subject, and thus through confidence,
conceit, or self-opinion, waste that precious time in fruitless
attempts which, if well employed, would enable them to pass
through life with ease and comfort, and procure them a
decent provision. For, as Swift says, it is an uncontrolled
truth, that no man ever made an ill figure who understood
his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them. The

THE DISTRESSED POET. 133
greatest inattention to material things, (owing to the unex
pected entrance of the girl, which has put all into confusion,)
is seen, by the cat's being suffered to suckle her kittens on
our hero's best and only coat, and the dog to carry away the
provision of the day. — How strangely mistaken are the
notions of some men ! how great and palpable the folly of
the world 1 !
[' It seems to be inherent in our very natures to enjoy the miseries of
the proud and petulant — it is this feeling alone that gives a zest to the con
templation of such subjects as the foregoing. Let us hope, however, that
the very reverse is the case with respect to the woes of the meek and lowly.
Who but would wish to rush into the bard's desolate apartment, to relieve,
at least, the placidly amiable wife, whose countenance exhibits all but con
tentment itself even in so pitiable a condition % " If this was a Portrait," as
Walpole says on a far different occasion — " it is the most speaking that ever
was drawn ; if it was not, it is still finer."] J. M.
The original picture is in the Collection of Lord Grosvenor.

134 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

BEER-STREET AND GIN-LANE.
BEER-STREET.
As all countries have their peculiar manners, customs,
fashions, and the like, so are they no less particular in their
food, especially their liquors. Italy, Spain, and Portugal
excel in wines ; France in wines and brandy ; Holland in
geneva ; the East Indies in arrack ; the West in rum ; and
England in beer. And as most provinces in other kingdoms
boast their peculiar sorts of wines or spirits, so do most
counties here their respective malt liquor. Some brew their
amber, some their brown. Nottingham, Burton, and Dor
chester are as renowned in England, as Bourdeaux, Cham-
paigne and Burgundy in France. But what principally
bears the bell with us is the porter brewed in London : a
wholesome cordial, that, taken in moderation, recruits the
spirits of the working man, and renews that strength which
labour impairs. Pity 'tis, it should be burthened with any
tax : ! Such, however, is the natural depravity of men, that
(fond of new things, not contented with the old,) when
English gin first received birth from the still, in imitation of
1 [The striking moral conveyed by the contrast between this and the
succeeding print, will be more strongly felt than ever in the present day,
when the legislature have so recently passed an important enactment for the
welfare of the people as respects the easy purchase of their most wholesome
beverage. That best " Barley wine," which, as Itsadk Walton dehghtfuUy
says, " Our honest forefathers did use to drink of ; the drink which pre
served THEIR HEALTH AND MADE THEM LIVE SO LONG, AND TO DO SO MANY
GOOD DEEDS !"] J. M.

3EEIL STREET,

BEER-STREET AND GIN-LANE. 135
that of Holland, gin- drinking among the lower class became
the fashion ; that fashion in time grew up into habit, and
introduced into this metropolis wretchedness, disease, and
death. Sensible of the prevailing custom, and shuddering
at the unhappy consequences, Mr. Hogarth designed these
two prints, (and published them in the year 17/51,) as a con
trast, setting forth the fattening, healthy qualities of the
one, and the emaciating, deadly properties of the other.
See, then, in the view before us, a general cessation of
work, and all parties regaling themselves with a refreshing
draught of this cheering liquor. On the left we have a group
of jovial, tap-house politicians, a butcher, a drayman, and a
cooper. The drayman is deceitfully whispering some soft
things to a servant-maid, who is described as all attention to
what she hears ; this we may gather from the appearance of
her eyes and hands ; and by her having the key of the street-
door with her, she is supposed to have stept out of some
neighbouring house, at dinner-time, for a tankard of porter,
which the family is waiting for. : thus, while this figure
serves to fill the piece, her loitering by the way gives us a
lively representation of the generality of servants, who pay
little or no regard to their duty, but neglect their business,
and waste their time. The butcher is splitting his sides with
laughter to see the girl so easily imposed on, and the cooper
behind with a pipe in his mouth, a full pot in one hand and
a shoulder of mutton in the other, enjoying the determina
tion, that where good eating and drinking is, there must
true happiness and jollity reside. On the table before them
is the Daily Advertiser, and his late Majesty's speech on
Tuesday, the 29th of November, 1748 ', which our author
has introduced here by way of commemoration, it being
much admired ; and to heighten our idea of the present
1 In this speech are these words in view, " Let me earnestly recommend
to you the advancement of our commerce, and cultivating the arts of peace,
in which you may depend on my hearty concurrence and encouragement."

136 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
festive enjoyment, it being at a time when the tumults of
war were subsided, and this country, as at present, blessed
with a happy peace. On the right is a city-porter, supposed
to have just set down his load, in order to recruit his spirits
with a heartening draught. This load Mr. Hogarth has
humorously made to consist of a parcel of books, consigned
to Mr. Pastern, the trunkTmaker in St. Paul's church-yard ;
as (on account of their subjects and execrable performances)
being fit for nothing but waste paper. The books in sight
are in folio, as follow : Lauder on Milton, Modern Trage
dies, vol. 12. Hill on Royal Societies, Turnbull on Ancient
Painting and Politics, vol. 9999. In the midst of this plate
are two fish-women loaded with British herrings, which at
the time these prints were published became very plentiful
under the protection of the British fishery. Our author has
here taken an opportunity of paying his ingenious friend
Mr. Lockman, secretary to the society, a compliment, by
putting into one of these women's hands a ballad, written by.
him on the herring fishery, and sung at Vauxhall with great
applause. Behind are some paviours at work ; further back
is a dame of quality in a sedan going to court, it being sup
posed by the flag displayed on the steeple to be a birth-day ;
and so corpulent is she, that was it not for a draught of
porter by the way, her chairmen would not be able to carry
her. In painting this lady, our author has not forgot to
ridicule the enormous size of the hoop in those days, which
when pulled up on each side resembled the wheels of a car
riage. Though Mr. Hogarth has thought proper in this
print to show the advantage almost every individual receives
from the drinking this valuable liquor, which is at so low a
price as to be within the compass of a poor man's pocket,
yet he has given us a painter (painting a sign, viz. the barley-
mow) in all the appearance of want, though happy and
smiling under it. Whether he intended the leanness and
tattered condition of this man as a contrast to the corpulent,

REER-STREET AND GIN-LANE. 137
tight-dressed figures of the men below, or whether meant to
draw a compliment upon himself by lowering his own pro
fession while he raises those of others, is immaterial ; let it
suffice to say it completes the group by making it pyramidi-
cal ' ; thus it pleases the eye, and perfects the piece. But
let us carry our observation still farther, and we may notice
at the top of a house a tailor's workshop, whose men within
seem to partake of the general joy the bricklayers' show, on
the roof of the next house, at the arrival of their expected
beer. This house is an ale-house, the landlord of which is
supposed to be growing rich, by his repairing it, in opposition
to his neighbour, Nicholas Pinch, the pawnbroker, who finds
it difficult to live for want of trade ; see this man's house
quite decayed, ready to fall over his head, intimated by the
sign, props, and rat-trap in the chamber ; and observe him
taking in a half-pint of beer through a hole in the door, not
daring to open it, or show his face abroad ; such professions
thriving only on the miseries of others, and starving when
the public prosper. The general design of this print was, if
possible, to depreciate the pernicious custom of gin-drinking,
whose destructive quality is represented in the next, and to
show mankind, if they must needs have recourse to strong
liquors, that that of beer is by much the most wholesome '.
1 Vide Dr. T.'s Preface to the work.
2 At the bottom of this plate are engraved the following lines :
" Beer (the happy produce of our isle)
Can sinewy strength impart,
And wearied with fatigue and toil,
Can cheer each manly heart.
Labour and art upheld by thee,
Successfully advance :
We quaff thy balmy juice with glee,
And water leave to France.
Genius of health, thy grateful taste
Rivals the cup of Jove,
And warms each English gen'rous breast
With liberty and love."

138 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

GIN-LANE.
As a contrast to the last print, we observe in this the per
nicious effects of British spirits becoming general among
the poor. Behold here the scene of health and gladness
vanished, and that of disease and wretchedness introduced !
How shudders the heart at the ghastly sight ! How turns
the eye from the pallid view ! But as we learn to live by
looking on the dead, 'tis hoped this appearance of horror
will teach us a lesson of temperance. May it create in man
kind an abhorrence of the deadly evil, and make them timely
avoid the destruction that attends it ! — Let us, then, probe
the wound, in order to its cure. As we remarked in Beer-
street the houses to be fair and good-conditioned, excepting
that of the pawnbroker's, which was ready to fall, so we
perceive the houses here in general old and ruinous, except
ing that of master Gripe's. By this we are taught that
poverty is the usual attendant on gin-drinking, and that
where this vice prevails, none are known to thrive but such
as feed upon the property of others. This abominable
liquor is, among the vulgar, very justly called by the name
of Strip-me-naked, it being found to waste the substance of
those poor wretches that accustom themselves to the drink
ing it, by a continual drain, not leaving them at last the
bare necessaries of life ; for this infatuating poison leads
them on, and almost obliges them to repair the gnawings of
one dram by the burning aid of a second. See them, then,
in order to support this endless expense, carrying their

OIW LAW IS.

GIN-LANE. 139
things to pawn, whilst they have ought to pledge ! Take
notice of the broker examining the articles, lest he should
lend too much upon them ! Remark his grinding dispo
sition in his countenance ! Finely is this idea heightened
by the boys below; they are both supposed accustomed
to the fatal drench, as indeed are all the people present.
One is stupified and fast asleep, giving the snail (an em
blem of the pawnbroker,) an opportunity of crawling over
him ; the other, tormented with raging hunger, and having
nothing to eat, gnawing a bare bone, which the greedy
cur, (equally emblematical,) is tearing from him. It may
probably be wondered at, why these beggarly loan- offices
should have been so long distinguished by the sign of
three balls, disposed in so particular a manner ; but a mo
ment's consideration will convince us of the propriety, it
being universally allowed to be two to one, that things once
lodged in these houses are ever got out again. As a proof
that this custom of drinking gin is encouraged among the
poorer people, and prevails among all ages of them, before
the house of Killman, the distiller, is a woman pouring this
deadly potion down her infant's throat; two charity girls
drinking to each other in the same, and one drenching her
mother, who is already so much intoxicated as to be under
the necessity of being wheeled home in a barrow. The
customary use of this liquor is as destructive as a pestilence,
destroying numbers of people yearly, bringing on death by
various ways. Some it fills with diseases, others it throws
into a decline ; some it drives to despair, and others it mad
dens. A picture of the first we have in the drunken beast
upon the steps, whose legs are broken out in ulcers ; she is
taking snuff, careless of her infant, who is falling from her
arms into the area of a gin-cellar, over whose entrance
is humorously written a public invitation, viz. "Drunk
for a penny, dead drunk for two-pence, clean straw for
nothing." Though rather foreign to our purpose, yet led

140 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
to it by the figure before us, I cannot help taking notice of
another bad custom among the poor, that of snuff-taking,
which some will do in great quantities, wasting sixpence or
more a week in that useless pernicious drug, while their
children are crying for bread, and they have none to give ;'
of. the second, we have a representation in the man at the
bottom of the steps, who lived by selling of gin, and is sup
posed to have just expired, worn away by the frequent use
of it ; and in the woman at the back of this plate, whom
two men are putting into a shell, by order of the beadle of
the parish1, whose chief attention seems fixed upon the
care of her child beside it : of the third, is the barber, hang
ing in his chamber above, murdered by his own hands;
and of the fourth, are the cripple fighting, and the madman
behind dancing, with a pair of bellows on his head and a
spit in his hand, on which he has spitted an infant in the
absence of its mother. . These, with the rest, are most me
lancholy instances of the dreadful consequence of the sin of
drunkenness, which, however it may escape the punishment
of human justice, will most assuredly meet with the ven
geance of Divine 2.
If, then, (as I meet with it in the remarks of a very emi
nent inquirer,) after the most accurate calculation it be cer-
1 Viz. St. Giles in the Fields.
2 This plate is enriched with the following stanzas :
"Gin, cursed fiend, with fury fraught,
Makes human race a prey ;
It enters by a deadly draught,
And steals our life away.
Virtue and truth, driv'n to despair,
Its rage compels to fly ;
But cherishes, with hellish care,
Theft, murder, perjury.
Damn'd cup, that on the vitals preys,
That liquid fire contains,
Which madness to the heart conveys,
And rolls it through the veins !"

GIN-LANE. 141
tain, that since the introduction of spirituous liquors, (for it
is not gin only that is destructive,) the number of births,
yearly, has been for some time decreasing, so that it is now
a fourth part less than it was forty years ago ; and the
burials increasing at a dreadful rate, so that the nation, in
London only, has lost near fifteen thousand people every
three years ; the fruit of the womb being blasted before it
has seen the light ; besides, the lives of those who have
come into the world being shortened ; if it be certain, as it
is affirmed by tradesmen in the city, that the bodily strength
of the people is so decayed, within the memory of those
alive, that working men are not able to carry two thirds of
what they could formerly, with ease ; if it be evident that,
by the excessive use of these liquors, the spirit of industry
must be sunk, and the hands which should carry on the
trade and manufactures of the nation enfeebled ; if it be in
the power of every miscreant to inflame his blood, and fit
himself for the execution of the most horrid barbarity for
two-pence ; if villains, by an inflaming draught of gin, de
rive boldness to perpetrate mischief; if, by this means, we
find that neither our lives nor properties are safe ; if the
number or good condition of a people are the strength and
security of a nation, and both these are, by the prevalency
of this poison, daily declining, and of consequence our naval
and military force decaying ; if the number of the poor be,
through the effect of a universal debauchery daily increasing,
and consequently the consumption of the food, clothing,
and household furniture lessening, and our home-trade and
manufactures sinking ; if the infection be every day spread
ing from the capital through the manufacturing towns and
provinces ; if health, life, and soul are all going to destruc
tion, gibbets groaning with the load of increasing malefactors
brought to a dreadful end by the force of this maddening
drench ; if death and hell are ever opening their jaws and
swallowing our wretched fellow-creatures by thousands ; if

142 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
these things are so, is it not time to blow a trumpet and
sound an alarm, an alarm that may reach the ears of those
who have it in their power to remedy this calamitous evil,
and prevent the impending misery * ?
1 [The striking moral tendency of these two prints does immortal honour
to the worthy Hogarth ; he did all that he could do in writing, as it were,
the word Poison upon every " quartern" measure in the kingdom ! — neither
is the wrath of his commentator much overcharged. May "answering" or
rather unanswering " gin-shops" — now that the beer- trade is thrown open,
" Sourer sighs return !"] J. M.

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. 143

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY1.
The just analogy between Painting and Poetry has been
matter of long observation ; each art equally affecting the
passions, though through the channel of different senses :
nay, so great is their similarity, that they in some sort par
take of each other's peculiar properties. In poetry we see
with our ears, and in painting we hear with our eyes. Poets
have been frequently luxurious in their rural descriptions of
the different parts of the day, and by a faithful delineation
of nature, have pleased the imagination and delighted the
understanding. Our author, in the prosecution of his stu
dies in the sister art, has, in his turn, given us a humorous
representation of such scenes as occur, at those particular
times, in the metropolis ; which may serve as a burlesque to
the other, and will give those who have not an opportunity
of being present, some idea of what passes without the circle
of their knowledge.
1 [With respect to these four prints, Mr. Ireland makes it a merit, that
Dr. Trusler had them turned so as to appear to the spectator the same as
the original paintings — but in this instance we entirely differ with him. It
is certainly much to be regretted, that Hogarth did not transfer his identical
self to the copper by using the mirror ; from the neglect of which, his
buildings are turned from east to west, and his figures are left-handed.
Yet in the blaze of his excellence, there are few that even think of the
objection, great as it is ; but as we all fix upon some particular figure in a
subject, as a sort of meridional point from which to survey the whole, it is
equally due to those who have been long used to the originals, as well as to
such as have that pleasure to come, not to introduce a disagreeable perplexity,
under the idea of an improvement. Hogarth having chiefly multiplied his
works by his own hand, the value of paintings have been attached to his
plates. Mr. Ireland suggests that he was not ignorant of the mirror, but
that he thought it of little consequence.] J. M.

144 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

MORNING.
The place from whence this first scene is taken, is Convent,
or Covent-garden ; the time, break of day, or morning ;
the season, winter : evident from the icicles and snow upon
the tops of the houses ; yet as cold as it may appear to be,
we have here an old maid going to seven o'clock * prayers,
(with her half-starved shivering servant behind her carrying
her prayer-book ; a fine contrast to the figure of his mis
tress,) dressed in a single lappet-head and without a hand
kerchief ; a manifest token of her vanity and pride, in adorn
ing her person at the expense of her health. But while we
admire one part of this ridiculous character, we must not
forget the other, it being a well-pointed satire on such per
sons as make themselves singular with respect to public"
worship, merely to attract the notice of their neighbours,
and to pass upon the world as sincere and conscientious
Lest it should be matter of wonder that such a number of
people should be so early assembled, it must be observed,
this market begins in the winter season some hours before
it is light. On one side of this plate are two boys going to
school with their satchels on their backs 2. A little further
back is Dr. Rock 3, exhibiting his medicines for sale, impos-
1 [" The church dial » little before seven, marks of little shoes and pat
tens in the snow, and various productions of the season in the market, are
an additional proof of that minute accuracy with which this artist inspected
and represented objects that painters in general have neglected."] J. I.
2 This thought was probably taken from Swift's morning in town :
" And school- boys lag with satchels in their hands."
3 A quack, who got a fortune by vending his medicines about town like a
mountebank.

M O R N I N '

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. 145
ing upon the credulity of the people. On the other side is
a group of figures of another cast, representing two rakes
(supposed to have been all night at Tom King's Coffee
house ', where we see the people rioting) amorously be
setting two gardener's girls attending the market, an inva
sion on the public peace, with some other things, such as
breaking of windows, knocking down of watchmen, wilful
frays, &c. which gentlemen heated and inflamed with wine,
would have considered only as a frolic, or a piece of inno
cent amusement ; though such sort of merriment has been
often found to be a great nuisance, and sometimes produc
tive of the most fatal consequences. It is much to be re
gretted therefore, that the legislative power has not taken
this matter into consideration, the present punishment for
such offences not being sufficient to put a stop to them.
The only thing further to be noticed in this plate is the
clock in front of the church, which seems to be greatly de
cayed by the figure of Time, above : beneath is written this
motto, Sic transit gloria mundi, " Thus passes the glory of
the world ;" intimating the frailty and instability of life,
which posts away like the fleeting hours, and crumbles into
nothing by length of time 2.

1 At that time a noted night-house, frequented by Irish gamesters and
rakes of the town.
2 [" In the progress of a Harlot, and the Adventures of a Rake, Mr.
Hogarth displayed his powers of painting history. Holding the mirror up
to nature, he shows
' Virtue her own feature, vice her own image,
And the very age and body of the time, its form and pressure.'
Had he exhibited no other specimen of his art, these fourteen prints would
have given him a right to the title of a moral painter, and thus was he
denominated by Mr. Fielding in his Adventures of Joseph Andrews. In
the present series, he treads poetic ground. A description of the day, par
ticularly the morning, has been generally deemed the bard's peculiar pro
vince. Considering Homer as the father of Poesy, the whole family of
L

146 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Apollo have echoed his notes, and run their divisions of fancy upon his
scale. With one of them,
< The morn, wak'd by the circling hours
Unbars the gates of light.'
With another, she ' sows the earth with orient pearl.' Attended by a star
as gentleman usher,
' She draws night's hurried curtains, and proclaims
The new-born day forth dawning from the east.'
Is now the grey Aurora, then the meek eyed morn, arrayed in a dewy robe,
with saffron streamers, placed in a glittering chariot bespangled with dew-
drops, and drawn by ethereal coursers ; where holding the reins with her
red hands, she drives the day.
These heathenish descriptions may be very beautiful in their way ; but hear
our own Shakspeare :
' Night's tapers are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tip-toe on the misty mountain's top.'
Again, ' The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale her ineffectual fire.'
This is picturesque — poetical ! — intelligible to the peasant or the philo
sopher, to the classic admirer of ancient mythology, or the man who
never heard that the gates which Aurora unbars, are made of purest
crystal. The pictures drawn by Homer, and all the long list of et-cseteras who
have debased his splendid images by the mixture of their own dross, have
their scenes laid in the country ; but Hogarth has represented his dramatis
personse in the centre of a great city. Had the learned author of Hudibras
been a painter, I believe he would have done the same. It will not be
easy to select two lines that have more wit than his description of the
morning : ' Now like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn V
This is appropriate to either city or country.
1 [Charles Cotton, whose vein of humour strongly resembles that of
Butler, wrote four sets of " quatrains" expressly on Morning, Noon, Even
ing, and Night. " The morning curtains now are drawn,
And now appears the blushing dawn ;
Aurora has her roses shed,
To show the way Sol's steeds must tread.
The sable cheeks of sullen night
Are streak'd with rosy streams of light,

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. 147
In Mr. Hogarth's Four Times of the Day, there is only one scene laid
out of town ; and that may, I think, be properly enough called a London
pastoral, for it is at the pleasant village of Islington. The three others are
described as in the most pubhc parts of the metropolis, and exhibit a picture
which will give a very correct idea of the dresses and pursuits of London in
1738."] J. I.

Whilst she retires away in fear,
To shade the other hemisphere.
Now doors and windows are unbarr'd,
Each-where are cheerful voices heard,
And round about good-morrows fly,
As if day taught humanity.
The sleek-faced school-boy satchel takes,
And with slow pace small riddance makes ;
For why, the haste we make, you know,
To knowledge and to virtue 's slow.
The world is now a busy swarm,
All doing good, or doing harm,
But let's take heed our acts be true.
For Heaven's eye sees all we do.' '
Morning (20 Stanzas)— Poems 8vo. 1689.] J. M.

148 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

NOON.

In this second plate we have a representation of Noon, with
a view of the French congregation coming out of the chapel
in Hog-lane, St. Giles's, it being supposed to be Sunday ;
which affords us an agreeable contrast between the finery
of some of the people, and the beggarly situation of the
place, not a little heightened by the group of figures on
the other side of the way, and the dead cat lying in the
kennel, supposed to be lately stoned to death by the cruelty
of the neighbouring boys. Mr. Hogarth has here taken
an opportunity of ridiculing the folly of the French fashions
with respect to dress, it being customary in France for peo
ple to go extremely gay themselves, and at the same time
dress up their children like old men and women. Fre
quently shall you see a girl of seven years of age in a sack,
or suit of clothes, and a boy of five in a sword and full-
trimmed coat, with a bag to his hair that shall cover his
back. So strange are their notions ; so ridiculous their
manners ! — On the opposite side are two houses, a cook's
and a distiller's *, (such being shops of the greatest 'busi
ness in that part of the town 2) humorously distinguished
by their contrasted signs ; the one having a head without a
body, called the Baptist's Head ; the other a body without a
head, commonly known by the name of the Good Woman.
As a further contrast to this last sign, see the termagant
quarrelling with her husband, and in heat of passion throw
ing their dinner out of window ! and so great is their noise
1 Vide Gin lane.
2 It being inhabited by the lowest class of people.

x. o o :

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. 149
supposed to be, as to draw in a number of passers-by to
enquire the matter. The group on the left consists of
a boy roaring for the misfortune he has met with, that
of breaking the dish, and throwing down the pudding he
was sent to fetch from the baker's, the remains of which a
girl is collecting from the ground and eating ; and of a ser
vant wench, kissed by a black on her way home with a
smoking pie ; things we every day meet with in London
streets. In that group on the right are two old hypocritical
women saluting each other with a kiss of seeming friend
ship ; though we may learn from their looks, they would
destroy one another in their hearts ; the characteristic of
the French, and a lively picture of the generality of the
great among us ; who being rivals in pride and ambition,
will, to serve their own purposes, caress those they would
willingly tear in pieces ; and embrace those whose throats
they would rejoice to cut \
1 [" 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. A kite blown from an adjacent field (at that time there was a windmill at
the bottom of Rathbone-place) being entangled on the roof of the chapel,
hangs pendant on the wall. One of Hogarth's commentators asserts, that
this is introduced only to break the disagreeable uniformity of a wall. It
certainly has that effect ; but he so rarely presents any object without a
particular and pointed allusion, that I am inclined to think he had some
other meaning. May it not be designed to intimate that the good people
who compose the congregation, after being blown out of their own country
by a religious storm, found a peaceful harbour under this roof, safely shel
tered from the hurricanes of enthusiasm, or the blasts of superstition ?"]
J.I.

150 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

EVENING.
In the description of Evening, we have the return of a
family homewards, after their Sunday afternoon's walk to
some tea-house, or place of entertainment in the out-skirts
of London, there being abundance of such places, the re
sort of the lower and middling class of people, whose pocket
will not admit of any other recreation. The spot from
whence this scene is drawn, is that of the house known by
the sign of Sir Hugh Middleton at the New-river-head, near
Sadler's -Wells, where we see several people smoking, and
sweltering themselves, refreshingly and agreeably, it being
supposed to be in the heat of summer. This house was
formerly in great repute, though dwindled now into little
better than an ale-house. The family we are speaking of
are citizens, and are imagined to be so much jaded by the
heat, and length of way, as to render their evening recre
ation toilsome and laborious : for under a mistaken notion
of pleasure, people will often so fatigue themselves, that
they shall not get the better of it for a month after ; but
such is the case with many men, that their wives must be
obeyed, it being but reasonable, say they, to enjoy one's
self a little of a Sunday afternoon, when one has been slaved
almost to death the whole week before. This appears to
be the circumstance of the family before us, where the
woman is presumed to be master of her husband, his pro
perty, and his honour : the first of which is visible by his
carrying the child; the second, by the money they have
been spending; and the last our author has artfully con-
1

.E VENTTI O.

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. 161
trived to shew, by fixing a cow so judiciously behind, as to
make the horns appear just above his head. The spaniel
before, and the children behind, seeming to partake also of
this agreeable recreation, (for by the servant's loosening the
girl's shoe, we find she is as tired as the boy) convince us,
that satisfaction is oftener sought than found, and that we
commonly weary ourselves in the vain and laborious pursuit
of pleasures \
1 [" It is not easy to imagine fatigue better delineated than in the appear
ance of this amiable pair. The lady's aspect at once explains her character ;
we are certain that she was born to command. The hopes of the family,
with a cockade, riding upon papa's cane, seems much dissatisfied with female
sway. A face with more of the shrew in embryo than that of the girl, it is
scarcely possible to conceive. Upon such a character, the most casual
observer pronounces with the decision of Lavater."] J. I.

152 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

NIGHT.
The last plate in this set is a description of Night, and
that a rejoicing one, viz. the 29th of May ; evident from the
bonfires, the oaken bough upon the barber's pole, and the
oak leaves some have fixed in their hats. The scene is taken
from the narrow part of Charing-Cross, as it formerly stood
before the way was widened, looking from Whitehall ; and
exhibits to view the Rummer tavern on one side, and the
Cardigan's head on the other ; at that time two noted bag
nios. We see here the Salisbury flying-coach, just set out
from the inn, overturning, and its passengers in the utmost
fright, increased by the entrance of a burning serpent into
the coach, thrown by some unlucky boy. Though on these
nights of festivity such things are countenanced, many and
great are the accidents that have attended them, houses set
on fire, people burnt, and limbs broken. It is true, indeed,
the law of this country is particularly careful of the general
good, but in attending to greater evils, it unfortunately over
looks the less, and gives the unbridled populace an oppor
tunity of doing a great deal of mischief, under the idle pre
text of mirth and diversion. On the other side is a free
mason in his apron and ensign of his order, (whom the wai
ter of the public house is leading home from his lodge)
described as overpowered with liquor, and by the cut on his
face, as having been in some fray. Scarce out of one di
lemma but into another, a maid from a window above
empties a chamber-pot into the street, and its contents fall
just upon his head ; another nuisance too often met with in

THE FOUR TIMES OF THE DAY. 153
some parts of London. On the right of this man is the
house of a barber-surgeon, illuminated with candles, whose
sign is — a hand drawing a tooth; the head in exquisite
pain : beneath is written, " Shaving, bleeding, and teeth
drawn with a touch. Ecce signum^ i. e. behold the sign. An
emblem of the operator's abilities. Nay, through the win
dow we discover the joint operation of shaving and bleeding
by a drunken 'prentice. Beneath is a beggar's bagnio, one
of the places where such poor wretches as cannot find any
better lodging are obliged to pig in together, in common.
Though dark, we are able to discern them perfectly by the
light of the boy's link, which he is blowing, in order to set
fire to a squib. Many are the hardships the poor in London
are reduced to, which the opulent have no idea of; for be
side the want of necessary food, they are frequently in dis
tress for a night's lodging, even in the coldest and worst of
weather. Each parish indeed provides, in some measure,
for its own poor, but there are many objects 1 at such dis
tances from their respective parishes, as to be wholly out of
the reach of their assistance ; constrained therefore through
want of this necessary care, they are often obliged to throw
off every sense of virtue and honour, and become little bet
ter than the brutes of the creation ; a circumstance that
calls loudly for the attention of the public, as well in rela
tion to its own safety, as with respect to the care it is
indebted to the necessitous ; want being found to nurse up
vice, till it grows and ripens into villainy. Behind is a
nightman employed in his profession ; and further back a
family carrying off their goods by stealth, fearing that they
should fall a prey to their landlord.
Upon the whole, though there are many other circum-
1 [Within the last ten or fifteen years, various places of shelter for the
" houseless poor" have been provided in different parts of London — they owe
their first institution to the active benevolence of a gentleman of the name
of Hicks, in the city.] J. M.

154 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
stances to be met with in London streets, that might serve
to distinguish the various parts of the day, yet these, which
Mr. Hogarth has noticed, seem to be the most striking, and
are sufficient to declare him a proficient in his art, and well
skilled in the knowledge of the town \
1 [" Mr. Walpole truly observes, that this print is inferior to the three
others ; there is, however, broad humour in some of the figures.
The wounded free-mason, who, in zeal of brotherly love, has drank
bumpers to the craft till unable to find his way home, is under the guidance
of a waiter. This has been generally considered as intended for Sir Thomas
de Veil, and, from an authenticated portrait which I have seen, I am
inclined to think it is so, notwithstanding Sir John Hawkins asserts that ' he
could discover no resemblance.' When the knight saw him in his magiste
rial capacity, he was sober and sedate ; here he is represented a little
disguised. The original pictures of Morning and Noon were sold to the Duke of
Ancaster for fifty-seven guineas ; Evening and Night to Sir William Heath-
cote for sixty-four."] J. I.

FOUR GROUPS OF HEADS. 155

FOUR GROUPS OF HEADS.
Every one that is the least acquainted with Mr. Hogarth's
performances is sensible that his excellence principally con
sisted in describing the character and inward disposition of
mankind in the features of the face ; for it was his opinion,
that by the time a person reaches the age of forty, every
man's disposition is painted on his countenance, unless the
features have been customarily distorted by hypocrisy ; that
is, if an envious or malicious person frequently puts on
pleasant and agreeable looks, or a good-natured cheerful
person often knits his brow, to serve particular purposes,
that then the features which have repeatedly undergone
such unnatural distortions become set, by the above time of
life, and the envious or malicious person looks pleasant and
agreeable, while the good-natured and cheerful person ap
pears morose and ill-natured. In such particular cases the
inward sentiments can never be discovered by outward ap
pearance; but nevertheless, in general the face must be
allowed to be an index of the heart. Our author's inten
tion, in sketching these assemblages of heads, was by way
of humorous receipts for certain subscriptions ; but though
they were principally designed as discharges for money re
ceived, they are no less valuable for the subjects they repre
sent, being each of them a burlesque upon particular scenes
of life. The first is

]56 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE LAUGHING AUDIENCE1.
This is a representation of some part of one of the Royal
Theatres, exhibiting at bottom one end of the orchestra,
behind a corner of the pit, and above part of the side-boxes,
wherein are two fantastic figures, one in amorous parley
with an orange-girl, and the other presenting a lady with a
pinch of snuff in all the affectation of finical politeness ; it
being extremely unfashionable for people of the first rank
to pay any attention to the drama ; their whole occupation
during the performance being ogling, staring, trifling, and
talking, and the last frequently so loud as to disturb other
people. It has been often remarked, that the laughing face
discovers the depth of understanding, and generally corre
sponds with the heart. Thus at one time have we seen the
simper of prudish affectation and the grin of boyish folly ;
at another have we observed the smile of approving favour,
and heard the roar of sapient applause. Here, then, may
we feast our eyes, please our imaginations, and study man
kind in the many droll appearances of delighted fancy. The
next is
1 [" From the first print that Hogarth engraved to the last he published,
I do not think there is one in which character is more displayed than in this
very spirited little etching. It is much superior to the more delicate en
gravings from his designs by other artists, and I prefer it to those that were
still higher finished by his own burin." J. I. Considering the propriety of
the above remark, the editor feels particularly happy that Mr. G. Cruik-
shank has had the kindness to copy the whole of the four groups for this
work.]

THE LAUGHING AUDIENCE-

THE O ItATORIO.

THE 1'UE 7..TC I,E

FOUR GROUPS OF HEADS 157

THE PUBLIC LECTURE1.
Here we have a strange collection of Geniuses, as well
graduates 2 as under graduates 3 of one of the universities,
gathered in order to attend the solution of some philosophi
cal question. They are habited according to their different
ranks or colleges ; some in round caps, some in square ones,
and others in hats, the badge of a master's degree. They
all seem very attentive, but few of them able to compre
hend. They are in general described as a parcel of lubberly
boys, supposed, as it were, to be turned wild from school,
unpolished and unknowing. By the subject the lecturer is
discussing, in which we perceive he admits a vacuum*, a
subject that has puzzled philosophers in all ages of the
world, we are taught how idly and to what little purpose
lads at the university pass the greater portion of their time,
and the folly of that part of academical education, which
consists in teaching what, in fact, is not to be taught, and
unravelling things in their nature incomprehensible. The
third is
1 [The scene is laid at Oxford, and the person reading universally ad
mitted to be a Mr. Fisher of Jesus College, Registrar of the University,
with whose consent this portrait was taken.] J. I.
2 Those who have taken a degree.
3 Those who have been admitted to no degree.
4 Space unoccupied by matter.

158 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE CHORUS.
In this plate is exhibited a number of singers, with their
respective parts before them, joining in that chorus, in the
Oratorio of Judith, composed by Mr. Handel 1, " The world
shall bow to the Assyrian throne ;" in which any one that
has ever been present at a vocal performance may readily
discover, by the distortion of the mouth, the bass from the
tenor, and the tenor from the treble. In no group of faces
is there a greater contrast, a more uncommon variety, or a
more ridiculous appearance to be found, than in that which
is composed of a number of choral singers, whose difficulty
of sounding particular notes obliges some to writhe their
features, and whose insufferable affectation is the cause of
that distortion in others. Nay, 'tis not their faces only,
but their whole bodies are engaged in this laborious task,
dividing the time with their heads, their shoulders, and
their feet. In such universal agitation is the director of
the band, above, in beating the time, that we see he has
been under a necessity of tying on his spectacles with a
string round his head ; and it would have been well had he
fastened on his wig also, having shaken that off at the com
mencement, which he is supposed not to miss, through eager
ness of attention to the business he is upon. The last is
1 [According to Mr. Ireland, not Handel, but De Fesch ; but Mr. I. thus
expresses his accordance with Dr. T.'s remark a little below. " To paint a
sound is impossible ; but as far as art can go towards it, Mr. Hogarth has
gone in this print. The tenor, treble, and bass of these ear-piercing choris
ters are so decisively discriminated, that we all but hear them."]

FOUR GROUPS OF HEADS. 159

THE UNDERTAKER'S ARMS.
This is designed with much humour, according to the
rules of heraldry, and is called The Undertaker's Arms, to
show us the connection between death and a quack doctor,
as are -also those cross-bones on the outside of the escut
cheon. When an undertaker is in want of business, he
cannot better apply than to some of those gentlemen of the
faculty, who are for the most part so charitably disposed as
to supply the necessities of these sable death-hunters, and
keep them from starving in a healthy time. By the tenor
of this piece, Mr. Hogarth would intimate the general igno
rance of such of the medical tribe, and teach us, that the
little knowledge they possess resides in their voluminous
wigs and golden-headed canes. They are represented in
deep consultation, upon the contents of a urinal. Of the
three figures above, that with the divided face was intended
for Dr. Ward1, one of whose cheeks was marked with
claret; the other, on the opposite side, was designed for
the elder Taylor, the noted oculist. The head of this man's
cane being painted with an eye, and one of his as closed,
tells us that both are to be understood as equally concerned
in the consultation2. The middle one is a mountebank's
merry- Andrew, (having in his hand an oaken towel, with a
1 A late celebrated quack.
2 [Intended for Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter, who was vindicated by many,
as Mr. Ireland informs us, from the unkind things said of her by her medical
brethren, for "not more than nineteen out of twenty of her patients died
under her hands."]

160 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
head of the second magnitude,) here placed, to show us the
great judgment of these men in physical debates, whose
knowledge in medicine, we are to suppose, in no respect
greater than that of him who deals out physic on a public
stage, taking advantage of a credulous multitude, to vend
his pernicious drugs under a specious pretence of their being
specific. But as our author's own illustration of this coat
of arms, engraved at the bottom of the plate, may give a
greater insight into the subject, it is added, as follows:
" The company of undertakers beareth, sable, a urinal,
proper, between twelve quack-heads of the second, and
twelve cane-heads, or, consultant. On a Chief1, nebuke2,
ermine, one complete doctor, issuant, checkie, sustaining in
his right hand a baton of the second. On his dexter and
sinister sides two demi-doctors, issuant, of the second, and
two cane-heads issuant, of the third ; the first having one
eye, couchant, towards the dexter side of the escutcheon ;
the second, faced, per pale, proper, and gules, guardant. —
With this motto, — Et plurima mortis imago 3."
1 " A chief betokeneth a senator, or honourable personage, borrowed from
the Greeks, and is a word signifying a Head ; and as the head is the chief
part in a man, so the chief in the escutcheon should be a reward of such,
only, whose high merits have procured them chief place, esteem, or love
amongst men. Guillim."
2 "The bearing of clouds, in arms, (saith Upton,) doth import some
excellencie." 3 The general image of death.

THE MARCH TO FINCHLEV. 161

THE MARCH TO FINCHLEY1.
As there was no extraordinary scene or particular occur
rence that our author was not attentive to, so there was no
instruction or entertainment that could be drawn from such
scenes, that he ever omitted. By this he became the Phoe
nix of his time, and one of the most useful members of
society. He was remarkable for a peculiar sagacity in des
crying a number of little circumstances that escaped the
generality of spectators, which served to compose, enrich,
and diversify his paintings. This uncommon qualification
is very conspicuous in the plate before us ; the general sub
ject of which is the march of the foot-guards to their place
of rendezvous on Finchley-Common, in their way to Scot
land against the rebels, in the year 1745.
The spot this scene represents is Tottenham-court-turn
pike, from whence we have a view of two delightful villages,
situated on eminences, about a mile distant from each other,
viz. Hampstead and Highgate. These serve to fill up the
back part of the plate. The first object that presents itself
below these hills is a body of soldiers marching in tolerable
order, with their baggage-waggon beside them. This regu
larity is indeed less observed in front, but that is occasioned
by the interruption they meet with, owing to the narrowness
of the passage through^'ie gate, and the licence allowed to
the sons of liberty on quitting their home. A young grena-
1 [This far-famed production of Hogarth was presented by him to the
Foundling Hospital, where it still remains, and in excellent preservation.]
M

1 ?

162 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
dier, of good mien, is the principal object of the first group;
he is accompanied, or rather seized on and beset, by two
women of different cast, disposition, and character. We
are to understand they are both with child, and are claiming
him for the father. One attempts to melt him with tears,
the other to alarm him with threats ; nay, so obstreperous
is the last, that the serjeant, behind, finds himself obliged
to interfere. They are engaged also in different parties,
one being a ballad- singer, the other a news-carrier; the
former selling prints in favour of the government, the latter
against it. This we learn from the song of God save the
King, and the picture of the duke of Cumberland, among
other things, in the basket of the first ; the Remembrancer,
the London Evening-Post, and the Jacobite Journal, in
possession of the last; nay, we are further told, by the
cross on the news-carrier's cloak, that as these women differ
in other matters, so do they in religion, one being a Roman-
catholic, the other a protestant. On the left of this group
is a young officer kissing a milk-girl; this gives an arch
wag an opportunity of robbing her of her milk, which he is
pouring into his hat, and of which a chimney-sweeper's boy
appears very desirous to partake. This incident attracts
the attention of a pastry-cook behind, who seems to enjoy
the piece of roguery, which the man beside him is pointing
at, and at the same time is stealing one of the pies from his
head. Thus, in laughing at another, we often draw the
laugh upon ourselves. Behind the pastry-cook is a man
carrying a barrel of strong beer, which one soldier has art
fully pierced with a gimlet, in order to fill his cantine, while
another is keeping guard, lest any should interrupt him.
This last is comfortably drunk. A little further back is a
priggish lieutenant, bringing up the rear of the company
before him, stalking in all the pride of military march,
coveting the notice of the women. On the right of the
principal group is a Frenchman, represented as a man of

THE MARCH TO FINCHLEY. 163
some importance, in order to render him more ridiculous.
He is whispering to a Scotchman, to whom he is commu
nicating the contents of a letter he had just received, which
we are to suppose relative to the event that occasions this
march. Behind this Frenchman is an ale-house, in front of
which is a drummer, who, by beating on his drum, endea
vours to shake off the thoughts of leaving his family, who
in vain attempt to affect him by their tender farewells. On
his right is a fife, adding his noise to that of the drum ; this
lad ', by the sweetness of his figure, is a beautiful contrast
to the ruggedness of those objects about him. There are
in many places of this excellent picture objects perhaps less
proper to describe than to paint. Whence is it that the ear
is more offended with indelicacy than the eye ? Because we
can look on certain objects in a picture, and pretend not to
see them 2 ; but it is not so easy to listen, and pretend not to
1 [This is a portrait of a clever boy whom the Duke of Cumberland
noticed, and afterwards presented to an ensigncy.]
2 [This ingenious apology for any supposed indelicacies that occur in
Hogarth (for supposed only, we still contend they are, whilst reproof and
reformation are ever in the artist's mind,) serves at the same time as an
excellent hint to persons having occasion to view classical collections of
paintings, where there are those frequent examples of " naked and elevated
nature," so much desiderated by Barry — we can only see, and pretend not
to see — and yet if the collection be very classical indeed, there is positively no
resting-place for the eye of the uninitiated.
The situation is precisely that of George Cohnan's "simple servitor of
heaven" — for the first time in the saloon of the rich squire.
" Titian's fam'd goddess in luxurious buff,
Was the first piece the parson thrust his nose on :
This prurient picture surely was enough,
Ozias to confound,
So he turn'd round,
Upon a plump Diana, with no clothes on !"
Out of the frying-pan into the fire ! — How much better, had it suited the pure
taste of the worthy curate, to have found himself amongst " the sprawling
saints of Verrio and Leguerre !"
Certain it is, that none but a painter of the most consummate skill is
endurable in the said elevated department of art, the richest drapery being
M 2

] 64 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
hear. The object I am going to take notice of is, however,
not too gross to be mentioned ; it being that only of a sol
dier, to whom a journey to Montpelier would be much more
beneficial that this to Scotland ; love having given him a
wound more real than that of which the Mirtillas and
Coridons so much complain of in romances. He is repre
sented in excess of pain, reading a bill of Dr. Rock's posted
up against the house. His improper situation obliges the
girl, whom a curiosity of seeing the crowd has drawn to
the window, to cover her eyes with her hand, but whether
she does this effectually, shall be left to the spectator ; he
may imagine what he pleases. In the group, on the right
of this plate, opposite to that of the drummer, is ano
ther soldier exceeding drunk, whom his comrade (who has
snatched up a hen from her brood of chickens, and conveyed
it into his pouch) is in vain endeavouring to give a draught
of water ; a sort of female suttler offering him a glass of gin
with more success, which the infant on her back, who seems
too well accustomed to this pernicious liquor, is trying to
get at ; for so general is the use of it among the lower class
of people become, as to be the comforting cordial of every
age \ Behind the group last mentioned, at some distance,
is a grenadier handling a child that is watching the linen
produced with far less pains than a graceful nudity, which after all is but
" barely decent."
In a very recent instance of pubhc criticism, a good hint is thrown out as
to the most profitable application of the talents of a first-rate modern artist.
— "Shall we tell him why" — says the critic, — " a certain performance re
mains unsold V — " They were naked and not ashamed" — " but others are."
In Hogarth, however, there are none of these startling difficulties — nothing
that one cannot at least evade for a time, although, like good judges, we may
" save the point " for future consideration.
Sir Peter Lely 's ingenious mode of displaying female beauty probably gave
the hint for the following lines by Lady Mary Wortley Montague :
" Your night-gown fastened by a single pin,
Fancy improves the wondrous charms within."] J. M.
1 Vide the print of Gin-lane.

THE MARCH TO F1NCHLEY. 165
very rudely ; her action of defence giving us to understand
that he is carrying matters a little too far. This gives
another before him an opportunity of carrying off a shift
that was hung up to dry, the property of the publican, whose
house is three stories high, and whose windows are full of
women of the town. Their different degrees of rank are
well described by the different manner in which they are
dressed, which humorously agrees with the particular story
in which the painter has placed them. In one window is
an old procuress 1 lifting up her hypocritical eyes, praying
for their safe return ; in a second, an artful jade, pretending
to refuse a letter which an officer below is conveying to her,
with all the seeming protestations of sincerity, on the point
of his spontoon ; in a third, is one handing a glass of spirits
to another ; and in a fourth, one, apparently of better dis
position than the rest, casting a piece of money into the hat
of a poor cripple below. On the other side, behind, are two
fellows stripped, and boxing ; a circumstance we seldom
miss seeing wherever there is a crowd. In this contest,
more seem engaged than the two men who are fighting.
Here we see a woman, supposed to be the wife of one of
them, eager to get in to part them, but kept back ; there a
fellow encouraging him, who appears to flag, through the
loss of an eye. But the principal figure is the cobbler2 above,
near the sign-post, who is finely described, with doubled
fists, ready to fly at him who seems the victor ; or, in the
bruisers' phrase, to take up the conqueror. In short, to
give a particular description of every minute object in this
print, the task would be almost endless. Let it suffice to
say, that herein is a faithful representation of nature, which
speaks for itself, and so largely enriched with the true vis
1 [A portrait of Mother Douglas, also introduced in the eleventh print of
Industry and Idleness.]
2 [This is a portrait of one Jockey James, who had a son that, for the
" time of day," appears to have been quite a " pet of the fancy."]

166 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
comica, or spirit of humour, that the more we examine it,
the greater pleasure we have : and the longer we view it,
the more beauties we find.

[Men of the first abilities, from Hogarth's time down
wards, have exhausted their ingenuity in bearing testimony
to the dramatic effect of this extraordinary picture, no ma
terial point of which is lost sight of by Dr. Trusler, — but
the climax of eulogy rests with Arthur Murphy. "The
era may arrive when, through the instability of the English
language, the style of Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones shall
be obliterated, when the characters shall be unintelligible,
and the humour lose its relish ; but the many personages
which the manner-painting hand of Hogarth has called into
mimic life, will not fade so soon from the canvas, and that
admirable picturesque comedy, the March to Finchley, will
perhaps divert posterity as long as the Foundling Hospital
shall do honour to the British Nation."
Gray's Inn Journal, vol. i. No. 20.
Yet at the same time it is lamentable to know that works
capable of giving delight to millions are ever misrepresented
by the envious or malignant few : so much so, that, had it
not been for Hogarth's " constitutional serenity of mind," he
would not have known whether he had in reality delighted
the public, or committed some new offence, whenever he had
completed one of his best productions. Thus his admirers
will feel greatly obliged to Mr. Cunningham for his able ex
position of circumstances arising from the publication of the
" March to Finchley."
" It was inscribed before publication to George the Se
cond, and a print was sent to the palace for royal examina
tion and approval. The king, himself a keen soldier, had
naturally expected to see a more serious and orderly work
— one more in honour of those favorite guards who had

THE MARCH TO FINCHLEY. 167
marched so readily against the rebels. The first question
was to a nobleman in waiting — " Pray who is this Hogarth ?"
" A painter, my liege." " Painter — I hate painting and
poetry too ! neither the one nor the other ever did any
good. Does the fellow mean to laugh at my guards P' " The
picture, an please your Majesty, must undoubtedly be con
sidered as a burlesque." " What ! a painter burlesque a
soldier ! — he deserves to be picketed for his insolence. Take
his trumpery out of my sight." Such is the story: it is easier
to transcribe than to believe it literally. The painter, how
ever, by all accounts, was mortified by the reception which
his work received from his majesty. He certainly dedicated
it in a pet to the King of Prussia, as an encourager of art,
and received a handsome acknowledgment from Frederick.
Hogarth meant no more by this work than a piece of
humorous and good-natured satire. The freedom which an
Englishman enjoys, allows him to laugh at the failings and
the follies of high and low ;: the ministers of the crown, the
ministers of the church, judges, courtiers, sailors, and sol
diers, are all alike liable to be satirized and lampooned. No
one can walk along our streets without observing in almost
every print-seller's window the most audacious caricatures
and representations of the highest as well as humblest of
the land ; the toleration of such works is only a proof of the
liberty of the people, and the good sense and good nature of
their rulers.
When, however, Wilkes quarrelled with Hogarth, he dis
covered on a sudden the malice of the March of the Guards
to Finchley, and rated the artist soundly. These are the
words of honest conscientious John : " In the year 1746,
when the guards were ordered to march to Finchley, on the
most important service they could be employed in — the
extinguishing a Scotch rebellion, which threatened the
entire ruin of the illustrious family on the throne, and, in
consequence, of our liberties, Mr. Hogarth came out with a

168 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
print to make them ridiculous to their countrymen, and to
all Europe ; or perhaps it was rather to tell the Scots, in
his way, how little the guards were to be feared, and that
they might safely advance. That the ridicule might not
stop here, and that it might be as offensive as possible to
his own sovereign, he dedicated the print to the King of
Prussia, as an encourager of the arts. Is this patriotism ?
In old Rome, or in any of the Grecian states, he would
have been punished as a profligate citizen, totally devoid of
all principle. In England he is rewarded, and made Ser
jeant-painter to that very king's grandson."
How little all this bitterness of Wilkes was called for, or
deserved, a few dates will show. The battle of Culloden,
which extinguished the rebellion and the hopes of the house
of Stuart for ever, was fought and won in 1746, and the
print of which Wilkes complains was published in 1750.
What a hardened hater of his country Hogarth must have
been — and what indomitable rebels those Scotchmen, who,
after rotting four years on the Moor of Drummossie, were
ready to profit by the information of the painter, that the
guards were not to be feared, and that they had nothing to
do but to advance boldly on London ! There is nothing so
blind as anger. The very heads of their chiefs were black
ening in the sun and wind on Temple Bar three years before
this horrid print made its appearance ; and Mr. Wilkes had
published many numbers of the North Briton, and eaten
many a good dinner in company with Mr. Hogarth, before
he discovered that treason had been committed in the March
to Finchley V]
1 [It is worthy of remark, that the print from this picture forms one of
the exceptions to the artist's general custom of engraving without the use of
the mirror — the figures face you as in the original, which is of about double
the size of the print. A finished proof in its earliest state (Prussia spelt
with one S,) has produced thirty-five guineas !] J. M.

COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG.

169

COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG.

Though encouragement of merit is one of the most pohtical
acts of society, yet to the disadvantage and disgrace of this
country, it is here totally disregarded. A number of ingeni
ous men of all professions have spent their days in obscurity,
who, if brought into light, would have been particularly
serviceable to the community, and an honour to this nation.
The patriotic society of arts and sciences has, indeed, been
at some pains and expense to cultivate genius, by giving
pecuniary rewards to men of merit; and the public have
already felt the good effects of that laudable institution;
but still, through the smallness of its fund, it is not able to

170 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
do that good, which would necessarily flow from universal
private encouragement. Such, however, is the envious and
ungrateful disposition of mankind, that we see no merit in
any thing ; so far from encouraging ingenuity, we do not
allow it its just praise ; nay, we study to deprive it of the
little it may chance to meet with. Men of invention were
formerly adored ; whereas now, there is no such thing as
invention in being. Whatever discovery is made, was known
by many before. Sensible of this prevailing folly, and by
the way of disarming the envy of his contemporaries, Mr.
Hogarth humorously engraved the plate under considera
tion, as a head-piece to his receipt for the subscription-
money of his Analysis of Beauty ; a treatise, wherein are
some judicious discoveries in the art of painting, (particu
larly that of the serpentine line being the line of beauty,)
that do honour to his memory, and will serve as a standing
testimony of his superior skill and ingenuity.
This plate, then, as a fable, exposes the folly of such
persons as have been mentioned. Christopher Columbus,
a Genoese, in the year 1499, entered upon a voyage in
search of a new continent, at the expense of Ferdinand
and Isabella, king and queen of Spain ; when he fell in
with the vast continent of America. Upon his return to
Spain, instead of meeting with that praise the great under
taking was entitled to, and the service he had done the
Spaniards demanded ; they ungratefully made light of it,
and considered it as what any one could equally have done.
It was but, said they, sailing in such and such a latitude,
and land stood right before him. To convince them of their
strange way of thinking, and expose them to the reproach
of self-conviction, he is supposed, at a public entertainment,
upon removal of the covers, to have proposed to some of
these envious boasters, (the company present,) their setting
up an egg upon its smaller end. They are here represented
as having been a long time busied in attempting it, but to
1

COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG. 171
no purpose. At last Columbus, to convince them it was
readily to be done, if they knew but how to set about it,
strikes the egg against the table, flattens its end, and sets it
up ; saying at the same time, " Now, gentlemen, you can all
do it." — The effect this produces upon their minds is visible
in their faces, and serves to show the absurdity of people's
crying out, there is no art in doing a simple thing, when, in
reality, simple things frequently require great readiness of
thought, and solidity of judgment. With respect to the
eels 1, they allude to the serpentine line, or line of beauty,
which our author has described in that manner, as most
consonant with eggs, they being both eatables, and by this
means preserved a consistency on the table, and an analogy
between the case of Columbus, and that he expected to meet
with himself.
Learn then, from hence, ye snarling critics, not to expose
yourselves in attempting to ridicule others ; and know that
silence is the greatest test of wisdom !
1 [" Two eels twisted round the eggs upon the dish, are introduced as
specimens of the line of beauty ; which is again displayed on the table-cloth,
and hinted at on the knife-blade. In all these curves there is peculiar pro
priety ; for the etching was given as a receipt-ticket to the analysis, where
the favorite serpentine line forms the basis of his system. In the print of
Columbus, there is evident reference to the criticisms on what he called his
own discovery ; and in truth the connoisseurs' remarks on the painter were
dictated by a similar spirit to those of the critics on the navigator ; they
first asserted there was no such line, and when he had proved that there was,
gave the honour of discovery to Lomazzo, Michael Angelo, &c. &c.
When Hogarth was asked why he did not bestow an answer to some
trumpery prints attempting to ridicule his system, he neatly replied, " be
cause he had not seen one that was likely to live the time it would take to
engrave a plate."] J. I.

172 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE COCK-MATCH.
As there are few scenes in life expressing the folly of man
kind that Mr. Hogarth has not taken an opportunity of
exposing ; this among the rest is also worthy of our notice,
being, like that of horse-racing, one of the fashionable diver
sions calculated to support the spirit of gaming, which this
country is remarked for. Exclusive of this, I am per
suaded it can afford very little entertainment, unless we
delight in cruelty, and find pleasure in giving pain ; for, an
act of cruelty it must, certainly, be allowed, to be instrumen
tal to the sufferings of nature, to behold with satisfaction two
poor animals seeking the death of each other, and to rejoice
at the sight of blood.
Take notice then of this group of gamblers of all ranks,
as well noblemen as butchers, chimney-sweepers, shoe
blacks, post-boys, thieves, and blackguards of all denomi
nations; I say noblemen, for to what meanness will not
men submit to gratify their reigning passion ? Read in their
faces the disposition of their hearts. Look stedfastly on him
in the middle ; see him lost in the enjoyment of his favour
ite amusement ; eager to bet, and full of cash, he is the
dupe of every one present, who are but too ready to take
the advantage of his weakness. In this confused state of
his mind is one villain purloining a bank-note from him ;
behind whom is another actuated by envy, wishing to do the
same, and grudging his neighbour the happy opportunity.
The next but one above the last I noticed is a blind man,

THE COCK-MATCH. 173
who, with that old sporter on the other side, (supposed to
have lost his hearing, and the use of his limbs by age,) is
introduced, by way of intimation, that so bigoted are we to
our particular inclinations, that although we have not powers
to indulge them so much as we could wish, still are we de
sirous to partake of the enjoyment, though it be even but a
taste. Next the pit on the left of this plate, is one man re
gistering the bets; another, with a bag, containing a favour
ite cock for a by-battle ; and near him another, with the
utmost eagerness bawling out, " Ginger against Pye, for
that piece ; who says done ?" Above, without the pit, is a
Frenchman turning up his nose at this insipid entertainment,
dropping his snuff in the eyes of the man below him. In
deed many of our diversions have met, and do still meet,
with the contempt of foreigners, who from such vulgar and
low-bred amusements have too justly looked upon us with
an eye of disdain, and considered us as a rough and unpo
lished people '. That picture hanging against the wall is the
portrait of one Nan Rawlings, a noted woman who lived by
gaming, and who for that purpose made it her business con
stantly to attend horse-racing, cock-fighting, and all sorts of
public diversion. In the middle of the pit is the shadow of
a man drawn up in a basket to the ceiling, (there being no
room to introduce the figure) a punishment inflicted on such
persons as bet more money than they have to pay ; he is
1 [" The people of France," says a recent public journalist, " occasionally
rate us, and with some reason, for our passion for animal combats ; but in
reality, these things take place as frequently, and with more brutality, on
their side of the water. The following is from a bill 'lately circulated,'
inviting to the • amusements' of bull and bear baiting, boar hunting, &c. on
Sunday, March 20, 1831. ' The Sieur Montesque sells and buys all sorts of
dogs. A great and bloody battle every Monday ! Nothing will be neglected
to render the combat obstinate. Heated irons for the use of amateurs, should
the dogs not loose their hold at the word of command. Sporting and hea
venly airs suited to the amusements will be played turn and turn about.
Children and Ladies half price.' From such amusements," says the
narrator, " whether in Paris or London— Good Lord deliver us !"] J. M.

174 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
represented as offering his watch to redeem his liberty. On
this side of the pit are a number of persons at the same
employ, betting, and taking of bets ; among whom is one
overpowered with liquor, looking with concern on his
almost-empty purse, and condemning himself for his folly in
playing it away.
Upon the whole, the moral tenor of this piece is to create
in us a disgust of such vulgar entertainment, and an abhor
rence of such inhuman merriment, where the gentleman is
disgraced, and the man degraded.

["The scene," says Mr. Ireland, "is probably laid at New
market, and in this motley group of peers, pick-pockets,
gentlemen, gamblers of every denomination, Lord Albe
marle Bertie being the principal figure, is entitled to prece
dence. In a former print (the March to Finchley) we saw
him an attendant at a boxing-match ; and here he is presi
dent of a most respectable society assembled at a Cock-pit.
What rendered his lordship's passions 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, deposited in our dignified gambler's
hat, to his own pocket. Of this ungentleman-like attempt
his lordship is apprised by a ragged post-boy, and an honest
butcher ; but is so much engaged in the pronunciation of
those important words, Done ! Done ! Done ! Done ! and
the arrangement 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 noblenian, who is
adorned with a ribbon, a star, and a pair of spectacles. The

THE COCK-MATCH. 175
whole weight of an overgrown carpenter being laid upon
his shoulder, forces our illustrious personage upon a man
beneath; who being thus driven downwards, 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 par
tition, his head is broken, and his wig shook from the seat
of reason, falls into the cock-pit.
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. There are those who
remember the man, and assert that his character is not
heightened in the portrait. A sanctified quaker, and a fel
low 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, is ex
claiming, Sauvages ! Sauvages ! Sauvages ! — Engrossed by
the scene, and opening his snuff-box rather carelessly, the
contents fall into the eyes of a man below, who, sneezing
and swearing alternately, imprecates bitter curses on this
devil's dust, that extorts from his inflamed eyes
" A sea of melting pearls which some call tears."
Near him is an old cripple with a trumpet at his ear, through
which a person in a bag-wig roars in a manner that cannot
much gratify the auricular nerves of the company ; but as
to the object to whom the voice is directed, he seems totally
insensible to sounds, and, if judgment may be formed from

176 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
appearances, might very composedly stand close to the clock
of St. Paul's Cathedral when it was striking twelve.
The figure with a cock peeping out of a bag, is said to be
intended for Jackson, a jockey : the gravity of this expe
rienced veteran, and the cool sedateness of a man registering
the wagers, are well opposed by the grinning woman behind,
and the heated impetuosity of a fellow stripped to his shirt,
throwing his coin on the cock-pit, and offering to back
Ginger against Pye for a guinea.
On the lower side 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. An hiccuping votary of Bacchus displaying a half-
emptied purse, is not likely to possess it long, for an adroit
professor of legerdemain has taken aim with an hooked
stick, and by one slight jerk will convey, it to his own pocket.
The profession of a gentleman in a round wig is determined
by a gibbet chalked upon his coat. An enraged barber who
lifts up his stick in the corner, has probably been refused
payment of a wager by the man at whom he is striking.
A cloud-capt philosopher at the top of the print coolly
smoking his pipe, unmoved by this crash of matter and
wreck of property, must not be overlooked ; neither should
the dog be neglected, for the dog gravely resting his fore-paws
upon the partition, and contemplating the company, seems
more interested in the event of the battle than his master.
Like the tremendous Gog and terrific Magog of Guildhall,
stand the two cock-feeders ; a foot ' of each of these conse
quential purveyors is seen at the two extremities of the pit.
As to the birds, whose attractive powers have drawn this
admiring throng together, they deserved earlier notice :
" Each hero burns to conquer or to die,
What mighty hearts in little bosoms he !"
1 Vide Mr. Lamb's quotation from Shakspeare, p. 104, ante.

THE COCK-MATCH. 177
Having disposed of the substance, let us now attend to the
shadow on the cock-pit ; and this it seems is the reflection
of a man drawn up to the ceiling, and there suspended as a
punishment for having betted more money than he can pay.
Though suspended, he is not reclaimed ; for in this degrad
ing situation he offers to stake his watch against money in
another wager on his favorite champion.
The decorations of this curious theatre, are a portrait of
Nan Rawlins (a famous cock-feeder) and the King's Arms.
In the margin at the bottom of the print, is an oval with
a fighting cock inscribed " Royal Sport," and underneath it
is written " Pit Ticket."
Of the characteristic distinctions in this heterogeneous
assembly, it is not easy to speak with sufficient praise. The
chimney-sweeper's absurd affectation sets the similar airs of
the Frenchman in a most ridiculous point of view. The
old fellow with a trumpet at his ear, has a degree of deaf
ness that I never before saw delineated : he might have
lived in the same apartment with Xantippe, or slept com
fortably in Alexander the coppersmith's first floor. As to
the nobleman in the centre, — in the language of the turf, he
is a mere pigeon ; and the peer with a star and garter, iii
the language of Cambridge, we must class as a mere quiz.
The man sneezing you absolutely hear ; and the fellow steal
ing a bank note, has all the outward and visible marks of a
perfect and accomplished pick-pocket; Mercury himself
could not do business in a more masterly style '."]
1 [Although the works of Hogarth in general are far from requiring a
lengthened commentary, there are few persons who will not survey this par
ticular print with additional interest, after reading Mr. Ireland's excellent
description. In proportion as the various subjects have appeared to demand,
(and it occurs chiefly in the lighter ones,) the editor has every where endea
voured to blend the most valuable parts of this gentleman's labours with the
work of Dr. Trusler. At the same time, it is perhaps only doing justice
to other and more recent aids to say, that the attempt has been to render
this a variorum edition of Hogarth in miniature.] J. M.

178

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE COUNTRY INN- YARD.

In order to give such persons as are unaccustomed to tra
velling in a stage-coach some small idea of the entertaining
scene that occurs on its leaving an inn and proceeding on
its journey ; and to give some description of the manners
and strange appearance of its passengers, Mr. Hogarth de
signed the print before us, which must be allowed to be as
full of incident and humour as the subject will admit of ;
and by way of further enlivening it, he has supposed the
time to be that of electioneering, which is usually attended
with hurry, mirth, and uproar ; a season of festivity, when
business is laid aside and pleasure takes the lead. But not

THE COUNTRY INN-YARD. 179
to trespass any longer on the patience of my reader, I refer
him to the plate itself, that he may enjoy it in its true spirit,
and feast his imagination with the view.
Behold then a well-disposed group of inside and outside
passengers in their travelling dresses : for, whether people
cover themselves on these occasions so whimsically by way
of disguise, or in order to keep themselves warm and pre
serve their better clothes; whether on either, or both,
accounts, I shall not take upon me to determine ; but such
is the prevalence of custom, that stage-coach passengers
affect a meanness in their outward appearance, and dress
themselves in a very awkward and ridiculous manner. As
a proof and illustration of this, see the monied man, on the
right of the steps, of whom the post-boy is in vain soliciting
his customary fee ; I say monied man, for his coming part
of the way in a post-chaise, his sword, and covetous dispo
sition import him such ; see him in all the outward show
of poverty and meanness ! Take notice of the lusty old
gentlewoman getting into the coach, in much such another
dress, with her fellow-traveller behind, handing in her dram
bottle ! a convenience elderly women generally carry with
them, either under a pretence of keeping the dust from the
throat, the cold from the stomach, or supporting their spirits
under a fatiguing journey. The other passengers are the
tall old lady, in a Joseph and a velvet travelling hood ; and
the man in front discharging his bill. This man, (an ori
ginal,) we are told, by the act of parliament in his pocket
and his threatening countenance, is cautioning his landlord
against imposition, idly imagining his carrying with him
the act against extortion, and his significant looks, will save
him a little money on the road ; I say idly, for so accus
tomed are masters of country inns to all dispositions, that
they will carry their point, though they are obliged to swear
to some, and plead conscience to others. Travelling in a
stage-coach with agreeable company of different turns of
n 2

180 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
mind is certainly pleasurable ; for there mirth is tempered
with solidity, and good-humour is supported with pleasantry;
so that the passengers may be considered as a little society,
where harmony presides and good-fellowship's in waiting.
But now, on the other hand, let us imagine six lusty people,
of perverse and opposite tempers, crammed into a narrow,
jolting carriage, on a sultry day, with a squalling child;
some pulling the windows up, others quarrelling to have
them down, and all crowding for room; one wanting to
stop, another ordering the coachman to go on; in short,
conceive them almost smothered with dust and sweltered
with heat, scolding, fretting, stewing, with the child squall
ing, and you will have a just idea of the present company
proceeding on their journey. On the top of this vehicle are
two men, finely contrasted, an English sailor and a French
footman, this inn being supposed on the Dover road ; one
in high spirits, the other in low, alluding to the situation of
the two nations in the year 1747. To add to the scene, we
are to conceive this inn-yard in the greatest noise, from the
roaring of the drunken fellow at the window, the sounding
of the horn, the landlady bawling and ringing the bar-bell
for her maid, whom a fellow is kissing in the passage ; and
the uproar among the people at the back of this plate, who
are chairing a man dressed up like an infant in swaddling
clothes, with a rattle in one hand, and a horn-book in the
other, in ridicule of the age and incapacity of their repre
sentative ; for so venal are we grown, and so degenerate in
our principles, that, let the candidate be what he will, if he
has but money he is sure to succeed.

[" Among the writers of English novels, Henry Fielding
holds the first rank ; he was the novelist of nature, and has
described some groups which bear a strong resemblance to
that which is here delineated. The artist, like the author,

THE COUNTRY INN-YARD. 181
has taken truth for his guide, and given such characters as
are familiar to all our minds. Nothing can be better de
scribed than this scene ; we become of the party — the vul
gar roar of the landlady is no less apparent than the grave,
insinuating, imposing countenance of mine host. Boniface
solemnly protests that a bill he presents to an old gentle
man is extremely moderate. This does not satisfy the pay
master, 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 for such a vehicle ; but to atone for her rotun
dity, an old maid of a spare appearance, and in a most
grotesque habit, is advancing towards the steps.
A portly gentleman, with sword and cane in his hands, is
deaf to the entreaties of a poor little deformed postillion,
who solicits the customary fee. An old woman smoking a
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 world's vanities go their own way. Two pas
sengers upon the roof of the coach, afford a good specimen
of French and English manners. Ben Block, of the Centu
rion, surveys the subject of Le Grand Monarque with
ineffable contempt.
The first floor window is occupied by two pleasant fel
lows: one of them furiously blowing a French-horn, and
the other endeavouring, but without effect, to smoke away
a little sickness, resulting from an extra number of bum
pers to the success of his favourite candidate. Beneath
them a gentleman takes a tender farewell of the chamber
maid, who is not disturbed by the clangor of a great bar
bell, or more thundering sound of her mistress's voice.
The back ground is crowded with a procession of active

182 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
citizens who 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.
Under the sign of an angel, who seems dancing a minuet
upon a cloud, is inscribed, " The Old Angle Inn, Toms.
Bates from London." J. I.
The singularities and inconveniences of early stage-coach
travelling are excellently described and ridiculed by the au
thor of " Tales of an Antiquary," vol. iii. p. 96.
" The Ashborne Dispatch," said the Bill of Invitation,
"is a new Posting Coach, excellently well provided with
relays throughout the whole of the journey ; and being
drawn by three horses, one of which is driven by a Post
boy, is much more speedy and safe than the Derby Mer
cury, which hath but two, and no Postillion ! It is an
entire new coach, with all the last improvements ; and it
starteth from the Talbot Inn, nigh unto the Spittle hill, in
the Town of Ashborne, at 4 of the clock in the morning of
the Monday in every fourth week ; and God being willing,
it getteth in to the Bear and Ragged Staff Inn, at the north
east corner of West- Smithfield, before bed-time on the fol
lowing Monday night, which is three days sooner than
Slowpace's Derby Mercury, and notwithstanding its speed
it is perfectly secure ! The Ashborne Dispatch is set forth
and run by Giles Hooftrotter, who hath been at great
charges to have the same carefully driven, and watched by
an armed guard. The coach carrieth but four passengers ;
and tickets for places may be had by giving timely notice V
1 [Compare this with the worshipful and witty Charles Cotton's relation
of his journey to, instead of from, the same neighbourhood, after a visit to
London — and the description will not seem overcharged.
Regardless of expense, it took the hasty and impetuous angler four days

the country inn-yard. 183
and nights (probably about the year 1685) to get back to his favourite trout
stream. " Know then, with horses twain, one sound, one lame,
On Sunday's eve I to St. Alban's came,
Where, finding by my body's lusty state,
I could not hold out home at that slow rate,
I found a coachman, who my case bemoaning,
With three stout geldings and one able stoning,
For eight good pounds did bravely undertake,
Or for my own, or for my money's sake,
Through thick and thin, fall out what could befall,
To bring me safe and sound to Basford Hall."
Once at home again, he thus continues his epistle to his friend John
Bradshaw, Esq.
" My river still through the same channel glides,
Clear from the tumult, salt, and dirt of tides,
And my poor fishing-house, my seat's best grace,
Stands firm and faithful in the self-same place,
I left it four months since, and ten to one
I go a fishing ere two days are gone."
On taking what he calls a " Voyage" to Ireland, and which he has most
wittily described in verse — the ruling passion of the man is apparent in his
address to his beloved river !
" And now farewell, Dove, where I've caught such brave dishes,
Of over-grown golden, and silver scal'd fishes ;
Thy trout and thy grayling may now feed securely,
I've left none behind me can take 'em so surely ;
Feed on then, and breed on, until the next year,
But if I return I expeet my arrear !" Poems of C. Cotton.
But what would our worthy "Piscator" have said to the Pail-road transits
of the present day ? Surely he would have denounced them as nothing less
than "fishing in troubled waters .'"] J. M.

184 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS.
If variety is any way entertaining, or if the life of a painting
consists in its diversity of figures, the piece before us claims
our particular attention ; none can be more filled with con
trasted subjects, nor can the vis comica be more conspicuous:
every group is crowded with humour, every subject with
matter of laughter. Here we see confusion mixed with
uniformity, and inconsistency united with propriety ; royalty
let down 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 appa
ratus. Mr. Hogarth, therefore, desirous of communicating
that satisfaction he frequently enjoyed himself, and of pro
fiting by the design, published this plate in the year 1738,
when the attention of the public was called to this set of
people, it being just before the act against strolling players
took place. This salutary law, though it put a stop for a
time to things of this sort, yet like some other good laws
presently lost its influence ; when new companies, phcenix-
like, rose with vigour from the dying embers of former
ones, by which means scenes are continually produced,
similar to this before us, and the subject, far from being
antiquated, is rendered daily novel.
The place from whence this scene is taken is supposed to
be a barn belonging to an inn in some country town, inti
mated by the corn and flail aloft, the hen and chickens at
roost, (though here) upon a wave, and the eggs upon the

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS. 185
bed. The time is evening ; the company, from the theatres
at London, dressing, and preparing to perform a farce,
which we are told by the play-bill on the bed is called The
Devil to pay in Heaven ; (a very suitable subject !) with
entertainments of tumbling and rope-dancing. Such we are
to conceive their poverty, that they have but one room for
all purposes ; witness the bed, the gridiron, the urinal, the
food, and all the stage apparatus ; viz. scenes, flags, paint-
pots, pageants, brushes, clouds, waves, ropes, besoms,
drums, trumpets, salt-boxes, and other musical instruments ;
crowns, mitres, helmets, targets, dark-lanthorns, cushions,
periwigs, 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, Juno, Diana, Flora, Night, Syren,
Aurora, Eagle, and Cupid ; with devils, ghosts, and atten
dants. Jupiter, we see, is holding Cupid's bow, directing
the little fellow to reach his stockings, which were hung up
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 poma
tuming her hair with a tallow candle, ready to powder it
with flour from a dredging-box, heedless of her wicker
toilet's taking fire from a neighbouring flame. On the right
of her is Aurora, with her rosy face, ridding the charming
intoxicated Syren of some of her close companions ; while
she is comforting a female hero, wrapt up for the tooth-ache,
with a glass of spirits, who, greatly unlike the generality of
her sex, is weeping at the thoughts of wearing the breeches ;
for the smallness of a strolling company frequently obliges
women to play the parts of men, and men to fill the cha
racters of women ; nay, by the monkey's being habited in
the further corner, we are made acquainted that the farce

186 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
they are going to perform, has such a variety of characters,
that they are under a necessity of making the monkey per
form the part of an attendant. Beneath this woman's feet
is a girl dressed up by way of Eagle, cramming a new-born
infant with scalding pap. Humorously has our author set
the pannikin upon the act of parliament against strolling
players, and that upon a crown, intimating this company's
mortified contempt of that judicious law, and their great ab
horrence of this step of government. At the back of this
plate are two young devils (their horns just budded) con
tending for a draught of beer: we may judge of their
drought by their eyes. Behind them is a female tumbler,
and the ghost employed in extracting blood from the tail of
a cat, in order to assist them in some sanguine representa
tion. The faces of these two women are finely contrasted ;
in one we observe age and pleasantry ; in the other youth
and distress. But the greatest piece of humour in the whole
is the agreeable engagement of two of the company in a
cloud above ; who, though retired from the eyes of all be
low, are unguardedly open to the discovery of a man through
the broken roof. Mr. Hogarth, by giving them the names
of Oedipus and Jocasta ', would intimate, that so lost are
these people to every sense of virtue, that they hold all
things in common, and give a general loose to unbridled
appetite. Well might the legislative power think them
worthy its attention : wisely did it enact a law for their sup
pression ; and pity is it 'tis so little regarded !
1 Oedipus was the son of Jocasta, by Creon, king of Thebes. His father
being told by the oracle, that he should one day be slain by him, gave him
to a shepherd with orders to kill him. This shepherd not having resolution
to slay him with his own hands, left him in the woods, where he thought he
would die with hunger. A herdsman going that way by chance found him,
took him home, and presented him to the queen, who brought him up as her
own son. When he was grown up he went in search of his father, whom he
slew through ignorance in a scuffle that happened between them ; thence
returning to Thebes, he in the same ignorance married his own mother,
Jocasta, and had issue by her.

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS. 187

FROM MR. JOHN IRELAND.
Mr. Horace Walpole thinks that this print, for wit and
imagination, ought to be ranked as the first of Hogarth's
works ; and Roquet, in the only mention he makes of it,
says, " Les comediens de campagne sont repr esentes dans
une grange, au milieu d'un melange ridicule de misere et de
pompe th^atrale, se preparant a jouer une trage'die."
The scene is laid in a barn *, and intended for the state
dressing room of a strolling company. Here, at one hour
the gallant Hotspur laces on his leathern armour, and at
another, the lively Beatrice laces on her stays. The time is
evening, and the actors from London are preparing to per
form a farce, which by the play-bill is declared to be, The
Devil to pay in Heaven. The dramatis personse are princi
pally deities, and deities of the first order. On the bill are
the names of Jupiter, Juno, Diana, Flora, Night, Syren,
Aurora, Eagle, Cupid ; two devils, a ghost, and attendants.
To this divine catalogue is added, rope-dancing, tumbling,
&c.a The inferior performers are two musical kittens, a
pair of fiery dragons, one Roman eagle, and though last
mentioned, not least in consequence, a venerable monkey.
Seated upon an inverted wheelbarrow, which may occa
sionally serve for a triumphal car, a lady, who, by her

1 In the gardens at Herenhausen palace, a complete theatre is cut out of
the green sod in the garden ; there is a green-room of shrubberies for the
retreat of the actors. Near this vernal playhouse is a fine orangerie, a wil
derness of evergreens, a multitude of fountains, and pieces of sculpture that
would fill the warehouses of half the statuaries in London.
" This is true taste ; and whoso likes it not,
Is puppy, coxcomb, blockhead, fool, and sot."
2 These elegant amusements were at that time introduced into our royal
theatres.

188 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
haughty demeanour and imperial crown, we know to be the
ox-eyed Juno, is majestically stretching out her leg, and
pathetically rehearsing her part. Descended from her ebon
car, with sooty face, and star-bespangled robe, sweeping the
ground, the sable goddess Night is mending her majesty's
stocking. The star of evening, which sheds its sober light
above her head, is apparently formed of a brass instrument
used in making pastry. A venerable female, with one eye,
who by the dagger in her mantle we conjecture to be the
Tragic Muse L, is cutting off a cat's tail in order to extract
a sanguine stream, for some murderous representation, or
that " The mailed Mars on his altar sit,
Up to the ears in blood."
But this savage amputation, which seems to excite no emo
tion in the operator, is warmly resented by the feline suf
ferer, who, enraged at the pain, is revenging this barbarous
indignity, by tearing with teeth and talons, the female tum
bler who holds her ; and could she speak, would vehe
mently exclaim in the words of Shakspeare,
" Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence !"
Two little devils, with horns just budded, are eagerly
contesting their right to a flagon of ale, out of which one
is drinking, and seems determined to get to the bottom, if
it were a mile. The flagon has been placed on a Grecian
altar, with a loaf of bread, and pipe of tobacco, which being
1 This gentlewoman has generally been considered as intended for the
ghost : from her employment, I rather think she is the representative of
Tragedy : " Death in her hand, and murder in her eye."
The. sage Melpomene herself could not go through her business with more
philosophic indifference.

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS. 189
still lighted, the smoke ascends in curling eddies ; the
grateful incense is inhaled by all present,
" And heavenly fragrance fills the circuit wide."
The fascinating female stripped to her chemise, her head
decorated with feathers and flowers, is marked by her cres
cent to be the goddess of the silver bow, — the chaste Diana.
A principal figure. near the altar, with one foot resting
upon her hoop, stands,  " Like feathered Mercury,

New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill."
Impressed with the dignity of her character, and inspired
with dramatic fervour, she rehearses her part. At her right
hand the blooming Flora is seated at her toilet ; and the
toilet of Flora is a wicker hamper, to which hangs a label,
inscribed jewels ; from whence we may naturally infer it
contains the glittering regalia of the company. Her robe of
various dyes is carelessly thrown over it as a veil ; and
placed upon it, is somewhat like part of a coffee-mill with a
candle in it, a broken looking glass, broken comb, and an
oyster-shell, containing what Mr. Warren emphatically calls,
love-inspiring rouge, " to dye the white rose to a bloody
red." One hand holds a candle, with which she delicately
pastes up her hair — " sweets to the sweet !"' the other
grasps a dredger, to powder her head.
Jupiter and Cupid are jointly engaged in reaching down
a pair of stockings, that are hung to dry on a cloud. The
little archer —
" Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents" —
the little archer has wings, but they will not exalt him to
the cloudy canopy ; he is obliged to mount a ladder.

190 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
On the ground beneath him, is Aurora, designated by
" The bright morning star, day's harbinger,"
glittering in her hair. Her rosy fingers are employed in
the service of the charming, though intoxicated syren, who
offers the female hero (that is perhaps intended to personate
Ganymede) a glass of spirits. This the cup-bearer of Jupi
ter very gladly accepts, in the hope of relief from an aching
tooth, the raging of which is intimated by his countenance,
and the handkerchief, that once was lost by the chaste Des-
demona, being held up to his face.
" There was never yet philosopher
That could endure the tooth-ache patiently ;
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a pish at toil and sufferance.'7
In one corner, a lady, who personates Jove's eagle, is
feeding a child.  " Within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Is plac'd the saucepan with the infant's food."
The child, terrified with the enormous beak hanging over
its head, refuses the offered nourishment. This crown once
pressed the brow of haughty Bolingbroke ;
" And when young Harry did the crown purloin,
He wept — because it was not current coin."
In the other corner, a monkey, in a long cloak, bag-wig,
and solitaire, is degrading the plumed helmet of Alexander.
Two kittens seem happily engaged; one of them in a
style that shows she has a fine finger, " touches the trem
bling lyre ;" the other rolls an orb imperial. Near them
are a number of balls J, and two cups ; which intimate that
1 By the halter near them, I once conjectured that these balls were
1

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS. 191
this company of comedians practise sleight of hand, and, to
fill their house, will sometimes condescend to play legerde
main tricks. In the same part of the print are three em
blems of the law, — two judges' periwigs, and a halter.
A mitre filled with tragedies and farces, and a dark lan
tern, are placed upon a pulpit-cushion. Whether the artist
intended these for symbols of the church, and designed to
hint at the dark cloud which long enveloped the mysteries
of religion, or had any other meaning, must be determined
by those who have studied polemic divinity, and considered
ecclesiastical history, more than I have.
A trunk, which has occasionally served for the conceal
ment of Iachimo, and been displayed as the coffin of Juliet,
is now placed with the end upwards, and become a reading-
desk for the ox-eyed Juno. Upon it is a tinder-box, and
the thunderbolt of Jove; a salt-box, and a rolling-pin.
The two last articles have much importance in the catalogue
of the properties of their orchestra. Their leading musical
instrument, the sonorous base viol, leans against the altar,
and the sweet-sounding lyre lies on the floor.
Ten small tallow candles stuck in clay, will be fastened
to a hoop, which, suspended by a pack-thread over the
centre of the stage, must form a most magnificent chan
delier. On that bed which has been pressed by gentle Desde-
mona, and softened the sleep of beauteous Imogen, are two
play-bills and four eggs. One of the eggs is broken, the
others may be intended to render the silver-toned syren's
voice more softly musical.

intended to represent bullets, and designed to intimate that some one of
this noble company might, on » leisure evening, in humble imitation of
the heroic Captain Macheath, endeavour to turn his lead to gold ; and,
like that great man, be in consequent danger of making an exit with a rope
round his neck.

192 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Two sets of waves, which gave the tempest-tossed vessel
an appearance of being suspended
" 'Twixt the green sea and cloudy canopy
Of o'er-arching heaven,"
are in a dead calm, resting against the wall. One of them
is become the roosting-place of a hen and chickens.
The frieze, festoon'd column, and arched door, form part
of their grand scene, but they, and the vase with flowers,
are in too elegant a style for their accompaniments.
The spirit-stirring drum, martial trumpet, and enchanted
besom, make an admirable trophy. The two first may serve
to call the shallow Richmond to arms, or rouse Macbeth to
more than mortal deeds ; the latter is unquestionably used
in the incantations of Hecate, and sometimes bestrid by one
of the weird sisters, to
" Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm."
The two dragons will astonish a rustic audience, and the
rattling car, rolled over elastic planks, will make dreadful
thunder * !
The British flag must wave for every nation upon earth2:
' We are told by John Milton that camion were invented by the devil.
We are told by Alexander Pope, that stage-thunder was invented by that
great critic, John Dennis, who was so jealous of his bolt being wielded by
an improper hand, that, being once in the pit at Drury Lane theatre, when
the company were performing Macbeth, and hearing the bowls rattling over
his head, he started from his seat, grasped his oaken stick, and exclaimed,
with an emphasis that drowned the voices of the players, " Eternal curses
light on these scoundrels ! they have stolen my thunder, and don't know
how to roll it !"
2 Our royal theatres have sometimes violated the costume. We have
seen the head of Cato covered with a periwig that emulated Sir Cloudesley
Shovel's ; a prince of Denmark decorated with the order of St. George ;
Othello habited as a captain of the foot guards ; and Kent, the tough old
Kent, as a Chelsea pensioner.

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS. 193
may be borne before Macedonia's madman in his triumphal
entry, or wave upon the battlements of Macbeth's castle.
It is either the ensign of Henry, or the standard of Corio-
lanus. The straw deposited in a corner, may serve for the bed of
Lear, the head of Edgar, or the hands of fair Ophelia.
Canopied by an opaque cloud, inscribed CEdipus and
Jocasta, and evidently intended as a scene in Lee's mad
play 1, we discover the heads of two figures reposing in the
straw, instead of the garden, " as was their custom in the
afternoon." A fellow, clambering to the top of the barn, is profanely
prying into the hallowed mysteries of the green-room. A
little lower is the Roman eagle and standard ; close to them
a paint-pot, palette, and pencils. The very natural appear
ance of two rural scenes, which lean against the wooden
wall, evince that some eminent artist has united two profes
sions, and is both painter and hero to the company. " Hills
and dales are of his dressing." He can delineate the blasted
oak, or nodding turret, the lofty castle, or humble cottage,
with such brilliancy of colouring, and splendour of effect,
that the astonished connoisseur exclaims,
" There is something in this more than nature,
If philosophy could find it out."
A target, close to the altar, is richly embossed with Me
dusa's head. A salt-box before the divine Juno, is chalked
with hieroglyphic marks, that might have been originally
made by this sovereign daughter of the drama, as a check
on an alehouse-score. This economical attention to Cocker's
Arithmetic is very necessary with even a royal revenue ;
for thrift's a blessing, if men steal it not.
1 In the second act of CEdipus is the following stage direction : " The
cloud draws that veiled the heads of the figures in the sky, and shows them
crowned with the names of CEdipus and Jocasta written above, in great
characters of gold." O

194 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
" He who to-night is seated on a throne,
Calls subjects, empires, kingdoms, all his own,
Who wears the diadem and regal robe,
Next morning shall awake as poor as Job."
The chemise, apron, cap, and ruffles, hanging upon a
rope to dry, display marks of laudable industry, and prove
that these dignified personages, maugre their exalted rank,
wash their own linen. The gridiron close to the bed,
intimates that they are not above broiling their own beef
steaks. The expression of the figures in this print is admirable.
Nothing can exceed the mock-heroic dignity of Juno : she
is as haughty as one of her own peacocks. The Tragic
Muse has been so frequently up to the ears in blood, that
she laughs at the tortures of a poor quadruped, whose tail
she is cutting off. The faces of the tumbler, the cat, and
Medusa, in beauty and character, " contend for mastery."
A little devil, who has his fist clenched, and threatens the
other for drinking so deep, is admirably marked : from the
eyes of his twin-brother, with the vessel to his mouth, we
see that he highly relishes, and greedily inhales, the delicious
draught. The group, formed by the five preceding characters, is
well composed, and their various dispositions most forcibly
delineated. In the ranting representative of the pale moon,
— unblushing, unabashed impudence ; in the Syren, mawkish
intoxication ; and in Ganymede, an appearance of that agony
which arises from the tooth-ach.
Notwithstanding the candle, that is near setting fire to
the hamper of jewels, we see through a breach in the thatch,
that this is a day-light picture : in so shattered a tenement,
it is not easy to determine from what source the figures are
illuminated. By an act of parliament, which lies upon the bed, we are
informed that this diabolical drama will be their last per-

THE COMPANY OF STROLLERS. 195
formance ; and when this abstract and brief chronicle of the
times have fretted their hour upon the stage, and made their
exit, the barn will be appropriated to its proper uses :
" Rich harvests bury all their pride has plann'd,
And laughing Ceres re-assume the land."
That time come,  " This glittering show
Of canvass, paint, and plaster, shall lie low ;
These gorgeous palaces, yon cloud-eapt scene —
This barn itself, will be a barn again :
The spirit-stirring drum will cease to roar,
The prompter's whistle will be heard no more ;
But echoing sounds of rustic toil prevail,
The winnowing hiss, and clapping of the flail :
Hither once more may unhous'd vagrants fly,
To shun th' inclement blast, and pelting sky ;
On Lear's own straw may gypsies rest their head,
And trulls lie snug in Desdemona's bed." J. I.1
1 [With a pleasing variety of expression, and, if possible, a warmer
degree of admiration, Mr. Cunningham thus corroborates the general
praises of this inimitable performance.
" There is no limit to the drollery. The wit, the humour, and amusing
absurdities of this performance are without end. Into the darkest nook the
artist has put meaning, and there is instruction or sarcasm in all that he has
introduced. There is such a display of the tinsel wealth and the symbols of
vulgar enjoyment of the strolling community — such a ludicrous intermixture
of heaven with things of the earth, earthy, and such a contrast of situations
and characters, that the eye is never wearied, for the mind is ever employed.
This wondrous picture was sold to Francis Beckford, Esq. for 2% 6s. : he
thought the price too much, and returned it to the painter, who afterwards
disposed of it to Mr. Wood of Littleton for the same price. The genius of
Hogarth was frequently obliged to bow to the parsimony of the rich, and the
presumption of the ignorant." Amongst other aims of satire, Mr. C. thinks
the scene well " calculated to ridicule the ornamental painters in those days,
who filled parlours and halls with mobs of the heathen divinities."] J. M.

02

196 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION.
Among all the vices mankind is guilty of, that of immode
rate drinking is not one of the least. We some how or
other in this run counter to the dictates of nature. So in
fatuated are men, that in order to gratify a friend, or indulge
an insatiate appetite, they will frequently make beasts of
themselves, and give rise to disorders, they shall not some
times get rid of for years to come. Other vices, in the
commission of them, afford some degree of pleasure, but
drunkenness carries its punishment along with it. What is
it but a distemper in the head, a subversion of the senses, a
tempest in the tongue, a storm of the body, the shipwreck
of virtue, a woeful loss of time, and a voluntary madness ?
It is like a sudden land-flood, that brings down from the
higher grounds abundance of filth and nastiness. In short,
'tis a vice of so irrational, so beastly a nature, as to well
deserve the severest censure. Sensible of this, our author
holds forth to view the picture of the drunkard, shows us
the various effects of ebriety, and lashes the offender with a
scourge of his own providing. Mr. Hogarth's reproof, in
this scene, has been rather too personal, he having pointed
out here a particular club, and satirized its members. How
ever, as some of the gentlemen are still alive, I shall make
no other than general remarks, there being many at present
whom each character will fit ; thousands whom each object
in the plate will aptly represent.
Here then we see assembled a set of sociable beings, met,

A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION. 197
if we can believe it, for the sake of conversation, and the
mutual, enjoyment of each other's company; but how far
this rational entertainment took place, the scene before us
will give us to understand. Though we are to suppose they
met at the beginning of the evening, we are told by the
clock and the expiring candles, that the hour now is four in
the morning; notwithstanding which the bowl is just re
plenished. By the number of empty flasks upon the mantel
piece, and other objects upon the floor, we learn what a
quantity of liquor they have swallowed. Excess of drinking
produces various effects on different constitutions ; some
it sickens, others it maddens, and others again it stupifies ;
but still it strikes at the understanding, and deprives the
man of his only guard, his reason. How finely are these
characters here described, and with how great a fund of
humour ! — In front are two so far gone as to lose the use
of their legs : on the right is one not quite so lost, but still
enough to fire his ruffle instead of his pipe. This man, we
learn, by the newspapers in his pocket, is a coffee-house
politician, one of those extraordinary beings who talk of
what they do not understand, and foment sedition, through a
desire of being thought wiser than their neighbours. Better
were it such men were always senseless, than that their
tongues should run to the disgrace of themselves and the
destruction of society ! — On the right of him is one sick to
the heart, reaching to vomit. The next is one of those
jolly parsons, (eager to drink an indecent toast,) who pride
themselves more in the number of bottles they can carry
off, that is swallowed without being intoxicated, than in
any one thing else whatever. Behind is a barrister at law,
brimful of wine, attempting to listen to his drunken client.
The faces and position of these two are highly executed, as
are indeed those of all the rest. On the left of this plate is
one fast asleep, and snoring as loud as one could imagine ;
and near him two veterans at the bottle, back to back,

198 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
seemingly set in for it for hours to come ; two of those
nightly heroes, who, by frequent use, can bravely drink,
while others fall ; and boast sobriety even in the greatest
act of intemperance : a striking instance of the infatuation
of some men, who pride themselves in their folly, and glory
in their very weakness. To give a picture of the drunkard,
has been thought by many sufficient to make the vice de
tested. Agreeable to this, suffer me, as a sequel to the
plate before us, and as a further dissuasive from the evil, to
present you his portrait, drawn in words, by a divine of our
church. How deserving is he, says he, of respect, when we
behold him tottering and staring with his mouth as open as
his eyes, perhaps driveling, and doing other unseemly actions,
fit to make such as see him sicken at the sight of him ? —
If he be not too far gone, as the phrase is, the idiot is very
apt to be mighty fond of every one he meets, will entertain
them with a particular detail, interlarded with a thousand
oaths, of the number of bottles he can carry off; and inform
them how often he has been drunk that week ; and what
jovial souls, that is, what incorrigible sots, he has lately con
versed with ; and when he has stunned your ears with this
long bead-roll of nonsense, and blown his hot, beastly, sour
breath in your face, till you are heartily fatigued with his
impertinence ; then he lays fast hold of you, roars out the
most private affairs of his family ; and though perchance
you should be an utter stranger to him, yet if any one has
been so unguarded as to entrust him with a secret, out it
comes at all adventures, no matter for the consequence :
further, to let you know he is of some consideration, he will
give you the history of all his acquaintance, and if he can
recollect one instance of their ill conduct,' you are sure to
have it with large additions, to let you understand they are
all as bad as himself. He concludes, either by oversetting
some of the company and tumbling with them on the floor,
and by that means giving the rest an opportunity to retire ;

A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION. 199
or, retiring himself, with an invective against sobriety, hum
ming over an old song, to prove himself in the right, and
condemn the behaviour of his soberer company. A very
wise scheme of life this ! — But observe him when his head
begins to settle. How low are his spirits sunk ! What
secret resolutions does he make, and how does he detest
himself ! When the qualm, however, is once gone off, and
he feels his conscience giving him a check, then he repeats
the nauseous draught, and thus his life is one continued
scene of riot and excess. In short, he renders himself a
torment to his family, troublesome to his acquaintance, and
useless to the commonwealth.

" Think not to find one meant resemblance here ;
We lash the vices, but the persons spare,
Prints should be priz'd, as authors should be read,
Who sharply smile prevailing Folly dead.
So Rabelais laugh'd and so Cervantes thought :
So Nature dictated/ what Art has taught."
" Notwithstanding this inscription, which was engraved on
the plate some time after its publication, it is very certain
that most of these figures were intended for individual por
traits ; but Mr. Hogarth, not wishing to be considered as a
personal satirist, and fearful of making enemies among his
contemporaries, would never acknowledge who were the
characters. Some of them the world might perhaps mis
take ; for though the author was faithful in delineating
whatever he intended to pourtray, complete inebriation so
far caricatures the countenance, that, according to the old
trite proverb, "the man is not himself." His portrait,
though given with the utmost fidelity, will scarcely be
known by his most intimate friends, unless they have pre
viously seen him in this degrading disguise. This would
render it difficult to identify men whom the painter did not

200 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
choose to point out at the time ; and nearly sixty years
having elapsed, it becomes impossible. All who composed
the group, with the artist by whom it was delineated,
"Shake hands with dust, and call the worm their kinsman."
Upon the authority of Sir John Hawkins, of anecdotish
memory, we are enabled to pronounce the divine to be
intended for Henley1, the high-priest of Clare-market. The
knight's opinion is corroborated by an original sketch of
Orator Henley christening a child, which is in the posses
sion of Mr. Samuel Ireland, and evidently intended for the
same character. It has that clerical rubicundity of face,
which marks our smoking parson, who in this print is cha
racteristically exhibited with a corkscrew, occasionally used
as a tobacco -stopper, hanging upon his little finger2.
1 Of Henley's absurdities we have heard much ; but they had their source
in an adoption of that manner which he knew would be agreeable to his
auditors, rather than in ignorance. The following circumstance proves he
was a man of some humour.
" I never," says a person who knew little about the doctor, " saw Orator
Henley but once, and that was at the Grecian Coffee-house, where a gentle
man he was acquainted with coming in, and seating himself in the same box,
the following dialogue passed between them."
Henley. " Pray what is become of our old friend, Dick Smith ? I have
not seen him for several years."
Gentleman. " I really don't know. The last time I heard of him, he was
at Ceylon, or some of our settlements in the West Indies."
Henley (with some surprise). " At Ceylon, or some of our settlements in
the West Indies ! My good Sir, in one sentence there are two mistakes.
Ceylon is not one of our settlements, it belongs to the Dutch ; and it is
situated not in the West, but in the East Indies."
Gentleman (with some heat). " That I deny !"
Henley. " More shame for you ! I will engage to bring a boy of eight
years of age who will confute you."
Gentleman (hi a cooler tone of voice). " Well, be it where it will, I thank
God, I know very little about these sort of things."
Henley. " What, you thank God for your ignorance, do you ?"
Gentleman (in a violent rage). " I do, Sir — What then V
Henley. " Sir, you have a great deal to be thankful for."
2 Lord S — h, not very eminent for his reverence of the clerical habit,
being once in a company where there were a number of clergymen, offered

A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION. 201
" No loftier theme his thought pursues,
Than punch, good company, and dues.
Easy, and careless, what may fall,
He hears, assents, and fills to all ;
Proving it plainly by his face,
That cassocks are no signs of grace '."
in a whisper, to lay a considerable wager with the gentleman who sat next
him, that among the ten parsons there was not one prayer-book. The wager
was accepted, and a mock dispute gave him occasion to ask for a prayer-book
to decide it. They had not one. — He soon after privately offered to lay
another wager with the same gentleman, that among the ten parsons there
was half a score corkscrews. This also was accepted ; and the butler, being
previously instructed, coming into the room with a bottle of claret, and a
broken corkscrew, requested any gentleman to lend him one. Every priest
who was present had a corkscrew in his pocket !
1 These lines are from Banckes's poems, page 87, in which a contracted
copy of the print is the head-piece of an epistle to Hogarth. The bard, with
true poetic vanity, pathetically exclaims,
" Alas ! that pictures should decay ;
That words alone can wit * convey :
But words remain — Oh, may this verse
Remain, etc."
Little did this rival of Stephen Duck imagine, that the words " which alone
can wit convey," would not have preserved his two volumes from the trunk-
maker, to whom every verse had been long since consigned, had not this
little print, and another copy from the same artist, sometimes induced a
collector to purchase the volumes.
The concluding lines of his poem are not, however, so contemptible.
" In vain we ransack Rome and Greece,
To match this conversation piece ;
In vain our follies would advance
The names of Italy and France :
Labour and art elsewhere we see,
But native humour strong in thee :
In thee — but parallels are vain,
A great original remain.
Go on to lash our reigning crimes,
And live the censor of the times."

* [Vide note from Arthur Murphy, on the March to Finchley, where a
high compliment is paid to Hogarth from a directly opposite mode of reason
ing. Wit upon canvass has the obvious advantage in speaking a universal
language.] J. M.

202 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
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. He is probably
drinking destruction to fanatics, and success to mother
church, or a mitre to the jolly parson whom he addresses.
The lawyer, who sits near him, is a portrait of one Ket-
tleby, a vociferous bar-orator, who, though an utter bar
rister, chose to distinguish himself by wearing an enormous
full-bottom wig, in which he is here represented. He was
farther remarkable for a diabolical squint, and a Satanic
smile. In the Causidicade are a number of lines dedicated
to the honour of this amiable person. They begin with —
" Up Kettleby starts with a horrible stare."
The poor maudlin who is addressing him, when sober,
must be a fool ; but, in this state, it would puzzle Lavateu
to assign him a proper class. He seems endeavouring to
demonstrate, 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 won, — and all this was owing to his attorney
being an infernal villain ! This may very probably be true ;
for the poor man's tears show that, like the person relieved
by the good Samaritan, he has been among thieves. The
barrister grins horribly at his misfortunes, and tells him he
is properly punished for not employing a gentleman. " If,"
rejoins he, "your cause had been in my hands, good or bad,
it would have received the sanction of the court, and we
should have come off with flying colours."
A gentleman with a black periwig, 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

A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION. 203
him, sits in solemn cogitation ; meditating severe punish
ments on the dissolute peasant, who gets drunk with ale, or
viler liquors, he resolves for the future to act with magiste
rial harshness, and display his zeal for law, and detestation
of crimes. His left elbow, supported by the table, and his
right by a chair, with a pipe in one hand, and a stopper in
the other, he puffs out the bland vapour with the dignity of
an alderman, and fancies himself great as Jupiter, seated
upon the summit of Mount Olympus, enveloped by the
thick cloud which his own breath has created.
With folded arms, and open mouth, another leans back
in his chair. His wig has 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 tum
bled to the floor, by the cockade in his hat, we suppose to
be an officer. His forehead is marked, perhaps with honour
able 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 Crafts
man and London Evening in his pocket, we determine to
be a politician, very unluckily mistakes his ruffle 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 scenes, he has drunk rather more than agrees
with him.
The company consist of eleven1, and on the chimney-
1 Those gentlemen who wish to enjoy
" The feast of reason, and the flow of soul,"
would find some use in adopting the old threadbare adage,
" Not more than the Muses, nor fewer than the Graces."
Poor Mortimer, the painter, whose convivial talents were hardly to be

204 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
piece, floor, and table, are three-and-twenty empty flasks.
These, added to a bottle which the apothecary holds in his
hand, show that this select society have not lost a moment.
The overflowing bowl, full goblets, and charged glasses
prove that they think " 'Tis too early to part,"
though the dial proclaims four in the morning !
" What have we with day to do ?
Sons of Care, sons of Care, 'twas made for you."
Even the clock is like the company, irregular ; for the
minute-finger and hour-hand do not agree. Over the chim
ney-piece is a picture, of which we can discover enough to
guess that it has once been a landscape ; but, like the un
derstandings of the gentlemen present, is so obscured by
smoke and vapour, as to appear a mere chaos, without one
clear and distinct form. The fumes of punch, the smoke of
pipes, and effluvia of candles sunk into the sockets, must
render the air delightfully balmy, and produce ambrosial
fragrance. The different degrees of drunkenness are well discrimi
nated, and its effects admirably described. The poor simple
ton who is weeping out his woes to honest lawyer Kettleby,
it makes mawkish ; the beau it makes sick ; and the poli
tician it stupifies. One is excited to roaring, another lulled
to sleep. It half-closes the eyes of justice, renders the foot
ing of physic unsure ; and lays prostrate the glory of his
country, and the pride of war.
On the 22d of March, 1742, for the benefit of Mr. Hip-
pisley, was acted at Covent Garden Theatre, a new scene,

paralleled, had such a dislike to large companies, that he used to say,
" if he invited the twelve apostles to supper, he would certainly take two
evenings to receive them, six being a sufficient number, be the society ever
so good."

A MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION. 205
called a Modern Midnight Conversation, taken from Ho
garth's print, in which was introduced, Hippisley's Drunken
Man, with a comic tale of what really passed between him
self and his old aunt, at her house on Mendip Hills, in
Somersetshire. Having described the individuals of which this print is
composed, let us for a moment reflect upon the vice it is
intended to satirize ; and, considered in a moral point of
view, it may have as good an effect, as the sight of an in
toxicated slave had upon the young men of Sparta. This
people sometimes made a slave drunk, that their sons, dis
gusted by the sight, might avoid the practice \
1 It has been conjectured, that the character in a night-cap, who, from
his appearance, and the authority of some poems published at the time, I
have pronounced to be a justice of peace, is intended to represent one Chan
dler, a book-binder, who worked for Mr. Hogarth, and in the latter part of
his life kept a public-house, at the sign of the Bible, in Shire Lane, Temple-
bar. The conjecture is founded on the very strong resemblance it bears to
this man, who was remarkably deaf ; and it must be acknowledged that the
character appears so in the print, but the wig and hat hung behind him are
too consequential for a mechanic.
I have been told, that the original picture was some years since found in
an inn in Gloucestershire, and is now in the possession of J. Calverly, Esq.
of Leeds, in Yorkshire. J. I.
[Since, one of 26 originals of Hogarth on sale by private contract, at No.
6, Pall^Mall, 1820. In France and Germany this is considered the best of
all our artist's single prints.]

206 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE FAIR.
The tumultuous scenes of life, to such as have discernment,
are found to be crowded with infinite humour. As a proof
of this, we need only to refer to the Lord Mayor's show, in
this work, the execution scene, the March to Finchley, the
election prints, and this before us ; where every one that is
the least acquainted with them, must allow each group to
be droll, real, and natural. 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 sup
pressed on account of the ill consequences attending such
meetings in very populous trading places.) Fairs were ori
ginally designed as general markets, though now, through
the licentiousness of the times, they are reduced to little
else than seasons of dissipation, riot, and intemperance.
This of the Borough was ever composed of the inhabitants
of town and country, and therefore of all fairs was one that
afforded the greatest variety ; especially, as of late years, it
was devoted to every thing loose and irregular. A view of
the scene, of which the following print is a faithful repre
sentation, will affirm this truth.
The principal group upon the left consists of the fall of
a scaffold, on which was assembled a strolling company,
pointed out by the paper lanthorn hanging in front to be
that belonging to Cibber and Bullock, ready dressed to
exhibit (as Mr. Hogarth has drolly applied it) the fall of
Bajazet. Here we see merry-andrews, monkeys, queens,
and emperors, sinking in one general confusion ; and that

THE FAIR. 207
the crash may appear the greater, the stand beneath is
humorously supposed to consist of earthenware and china.
Notwithstanding the fatal overthrow, few below are seen to
notice it, through a collected attention to other objects :
witness the boys and women gambling at the box and dice,
the upright monkey, and the little bag-piper dancing his
wooden figures. Thus frequently are our thoughts so much
engaged, as to render us often insensible of our danger.
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 (crying out PistoTs alive), Falstaff,
justice Shallow, and many other characters of Shakspeare,
carrying flags in triumph, bearing these inscriptions, Liberty
and Property ; we eat ; &c. ; on the other, the manager
bearing in his hand a paper on which is written, it cost
6000?. ; a scene painter having laid his brushes aside and
taken up a cudgel ; and a woman holding up an ensign,
bearing the words, We 11 starve 'em out. In the corner is
a man quiet and snug, hugging a bag of money, laughing
at the folly of the rest ; and behind, a monkey perched upon
a sign-iron, supposed to be that of the Rose Tavern in Drury-
lane, squeaking out, / am a gentleman. These paintings
are in general designed to show what is exhibited within ;
but this alludes to a dispute that arose (at the time when
this print was published, which was in the year 1733)
between the players and the patentee of Drury Lane theatre,
when young Cibber, the son of the Laureate, was at the
head of the faction. As these places are crowded with exhi
bitions of different kinds, in order to amuse the idle and fill
the pockets of their respective proprietors, we must consi
der the whole as directed to one point of view. Above, on
one side is an equilibrist swinging on a slack rope ; and
on the other, a man flying from the tower to the ground, by
means of a groove fastened to his breast slipping over a
line, strained from one place to the other. I remember on

208 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
this subject, that a prelate being asked permission for a
rope to be fixed to the steeple of a cathedral church for
that purpose, replied, the man might fly to the church
whenever he pleased, but he should never give his consent
to any one's flying from it. 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 atten
tion ; while his merry-andrew behind is distributing his
medicines. Further back is a shift and hat carrying upon
poles, designed as prizes to the best runner and wrestler.
In front is a group of strollers, parading the fair in order
to collect an audience for their next exhibition ; in which is
a female drummer, at that time well known and remarked
for her beauty, which we observe has caught the eye of
two countrymen, one old and the other young. Behind
these men is a buskined hero, beset by a Marshalsea-
court-officer and his follower. These ill-looking fellows are
well-described. To the right is a Savoyard exhibiting her
farthing-show, and behind, a player at back-sword, riding a
blind horse round the fair, triumphantly, in all the boast of
self-important heroism, affecting terror in his countenance,
glorying in his scars, and challenging the world to open
combat, a folly the English are remarked for. To this man
is one directing the attention of a country gentleman, taking
that opportunity to rob him of his handkerchief. Next him
is an artful villain, decoying a couple of country unthinking
girls to their ruin. Further back is a man kissing a wench
in the crowd , and above, a juggler performing some dex
terity of hand. It would be needless and endless to enter
into a dissertation on the various matter of this plate ; let
it suffice to say it presents us many groups of spirited and
laughable characters ; shows us to what degeneracy the

THE FAIR. 209
taste of the people is now arrived ; and it is hoped, while it
pleases the eye, will improve the understanding.

The following illustrations from Mr. Ireland's work will amply repay the
perusal of the curious reader. As before hinted, the worthy doctor was far
less qualified than Mr. Ireland to descant upon the more humorous of our
author's works.

" At a time when martial hardihood was the only accom
plishment likely to confer distinction, when war was thought
to be the most honourable pursuit, and agriculture deemed
the only necessary employment, there was little social inter
course, and so few retail dealers, that men had no very easy
means of procuring those articles which they occasionally
wanted. To remove this inconvenience, it was found neces
sary to establish some general mart, where they might be
supplied. Fairs were therefore instituted, as a convenient
medium between the buyer and seller, and were at first con
sidered as merely places of trade. They were generally held
on the eve of saints' days. Some of them continued open
many weeks, and had peculiar privileges, to encourage the
attendance of those who had goods upon sale. The pedlar
travelled from city to city, or from town to town, with his
moveable warehouse, and furnished his customers with what
served them until his periodical return.
" As men grew more polished, their wants increased, their
intercourse became more general, and the importance of
commerce was better understood. The merchant deposited
his goods in a warehouse, and the trader opened a shop.
Fairs deserted by men of business, gradually changed their
nature, and, instead of being crowded by the active and the
industrious, were the haunts of the idle and dissolute '.
1 " They were at last carried to such a height of licentiousness, as to
demand the interposition of the legislature ; and no reformation being to be
wrought by lenient measures, Southwark Fair, and many others, were sup
pressed.

210 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Such were they at the time of this delineation, which was
made in 1 733, and may be considered as a true picture of
the holiday amusements of that period. At the head of
these we must place what were then called stage-plays ; a
most favourite diversion of your Englishmen ever since the
time, ' When sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child,
Warbled his native wood-notes wild.'
" In these humble representations some of our greatest
actors made their first appearance ; and not a few of them,
even after they had attained high eminence, ranted, strutted,
and bellowed, through all the days it was kept open, to
their own emolument, and the heart-felt pleasure of the
Wapping beaux, and the black-eyed beauties of the Salt
petre Bank.
" The play now enacting appears to be the Fall of Baja-
zet l : and it is performed to the life ; for the unsure scaf
folding, too weak to bear the terror-working stamps of the
1 " A booth was built in Smithfield the year this print was published, for
the use of T. Cibber, Bullock, and H. Hallam, at which the tragedy of
Tamerlane, with the Fall of Bajazet, intermixed with the comedy of the
Miser, was actually represented. The bill of fare, with which these gentle
men tempted their customers, may properly enough be called an olio, and
the royal elephant sheet on which the titles of their plays are printed, throws
the comparatively diminutive bills of a theatre royal into the back-ground.
" In some of the provinces distant from the capital their dramatic exhibi
tions are still given out in the quaint style which marked the productions of
our ancestors. This sometimes excites the laughter of the scholar, but it
whets the curiosity of the rustic ; and whatever helps to fill a theatre, or a
barn, must be the best of all possible methods. From the mode of announc
ing some late productions at the two Royal Theatres, there seems good reason
to expect that the admirers of this writing will soon be gratified by having it
introduced in the London play-bills ; or at least in the London papers ; where
hints of 'the abundant entertainment which is to be expected from the comical
Edwin, whose very look excites a laugh ;' or 'the tragical Holmau, whose
every gesture draws a pitying tear ;' sometimes make their appearance in
the shape of ' a correspondent's opinion.' But leaving the mighty characters
who tread the London boards to their admirers, let us return to humbler
scenes, and give one example out of the many which they annually afford.
" A play-bill, printed some years ago at Ludlow, in Shropshire, was nearly
as large as their principal painted scene, and dignified with letters that were

THE FAIR. 211
furious Turk, tumbles to the ground. The tyrant's turban
is shaken from his head, the truncheon is dropped from his
hand, and with the moralizing Tamerlane he joins the gene
ral crash, and threatens destruction to the china jars and
bowls which are beneath. Not only the heroes and heroine
of the drama, but both band and musical instruments are
involved in the ruin. The band, it is true, consists of — a
solitary fiddler, and the instruments are — a violin and a salt-
box. A monkey and Merry-Andrew seem the only two
animals likely to escape injury in this universal wreck.
Corporeal dexterity, at such a time, is more useful than
mental acquirements.
" The Amazonian, with a hat, a feather, and drum, is a
beauty of Mr. Hogarth's school, belongs to a company of
comedians, and is beating up for an audience. The gaping
astonishment of two rustics, who are looking at her, is ini
mitably described. One of them, awe-struck by her figure,
has pulled off his hat, in reverence of her charms.. The
other, ' wonders with a foolish face of praise.'
" A buskined hero, arrayed perhaps for an Alexander, has
truly capital, for each of those which composed the name of a principal cha
racter were near a foot long. The play was for the benefit of a very eminent
female performer, the bill was said to be written by herself, and thus was
the evening's amusement announced : —
" ' For the benefit of Mrs. *******. By particular desire of B — — G  ,
Esquire, and his most amiable lady, this present evening will be performed
a deep tragedy, containing the doleful history of King Lear and his three
daughters ; with the merry conceits of his majesty's fool, and the valourous
exploits of General Edmund, the Duke of Gloster's bastard. All written by
one William Shakspeare, a mighty great poet, who was born in Warwick
shire, and held horses for gentlemen, at the sign of the Red Bull, in Saint
John's Street, near West Smithfield ; where was just such another playhouse
as that to which we humbly invite you, and hope for the good company of all
friends round the Wrekin.
' All you who would wish to cry or to laugh
You had better spend your money here than in the ale-house, by half,
And if you like more about these things for to know,
Come at six o'clock to the barn, in the High-street, Ludlow :
Where, presented by live actors, the whole may be seen :
So muant Bex, God save the King, not forgetting the Queen.'
P 2

212 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
his career of glory stopped by a sheriff's officer, who pays no
respects ' To Macedonia's madman, or the Swede.'
The monarch seizes his sword, but the bailiff's follower
secures his arm, and aims a bludgeon at his head.
" A younger branch of the family of the Simples, with a'
whip in one hand, and the other hooked on the arm of a
young girl, who may probably be his sister, is so lost in
gaping astonishment at the surrounding objects, that he
neglects his pockets, which an adroit candidate for Tyburn
is clearing of their contents. While one fellow kisses a
girl1, another endeavours to decoy her two companions.
A prize-fighter, furrowed with honourable scars, makes his
triumphal entry on a blind horse, and, calling up a face of
terror, wields his sword, and hurls a proud defiance to all
who dare appear as his competitors.
" A juggler, in a senatorial wig, displays magic wonders
with the cups and balls : above him is represented a fellow
with a pair of artificial legs extended on a board : one of
these legs, a man beneath is either attempting to break, or
using as a lever, to give a summerset to a tumbler, who
kneels upon the other. A hat displayed on the end of a
pole, is the prize of the best wrestler on the green ; and a
Holland chemise will reward the fair racer swiftest of foot.
" A quack doctor, in laced hat, long periwig, and em
broidered coat, mounted upon a stage, and attended by his
Merry-Andrew, dispenses his medicine of infallibility. To
attract the notice of a gaping crowd, he puts lighted tow
into his mouth, and puffs out the flame.
" The ancient joke of Punch's horse picking the pocket of
the chequered fool of the farce, is displayed in the balcony ;
1 " I have heard a person, who was ambitious of being thought able to
detect the plagiarisms of painters, assert that the artist took this hint from
Jupiter and Io. The Southwark Fair nymph does not, however, appear to
be embracing a cloud.

THE FAIR. 213
on one side of which is a bout at cudgels, by puppets all
alive !
" Under a show-cloth, which announces ' The Siege of
Troy1 is here,' are a company rehearsing some part of the
play. By a sun upon the breast of the figure in a mitre, we
know him to be the high-priest of Apollo, the venerable
Chryses. While one arm of this sage of many sorrows is
twined round a pole which supports the wooden horse, the
other is stretched out in moving supplication, and he en
treats the hearers to
' Relieve a wretched parent's pain,
And give Chryseis to his arms again.'
Ohryseis, however, is perfectly satisfied with her situation.
Seated in all the pride of conscious beauty close to the
haughty Atrides, and glorying in his protection, she prefers
the lover to the parent. The inexorable chief nods his
plumed crest, grasps his truncheon, and looks with threat
ening brow on all around.
' No tears subdue him, no entreaties move,
He dares avenging Phoebus, son of Jove.'
"A little fellow, with long hair, playing upon the bag
pipes, is attended by a dancing dog, dressed en militaire,
and with one foot dancing two Fantoccini figures. His
Madame Catharina does not excite the attention she merits ;
the woman with a dice-box has superior attractions, and a
country fellow, in a coat which seems to have been the
Sunday habiliment of his forefathers for many generations,
is trying his fortune, though earnestly dissuaded by his more
prudent son from putting his pence in so perilous a situa
tion. The woman, with that energetic eloquence which
marks the orators of Billingsgate, rates the boy for daring
to doubt her honesty. On the other side, a Savoyard music-
1 " The Siege of Troy was a celebrated droll, in high estimation at fairs ;
printed in 1707. The author, Elkanah Settle,
' For his broad shoulders fam'd, and length of ears.'

214 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
grinder, with her galante show, is attended by a dwarf
drummer, and taxing the little people who prefer a wonder
ful and surprising prospect of every court in Europe, to a
pennyworth of gingerbread: In the distance a set of figures
have been engaged at quarter-staff, then a favourite amuse
ment, and the conqueror, waving his flag of victory, is
hoisted upon the shoulders of another man ; and thus tri
umphantly exalted, the air echoes with loud and reiterated
acclamations in honour of his prowess.
"Having dispatched the herd of characters who people the
scene on earth, I reserved to a class by themselves, those
who are buoyant in the air *. The figure vaulting on a rope
was designed for Signora Violante, who signalized herself
in the reign of George the First ; she was succeeded by
some inferior performers, but the science of rope-dancing
and riding has now arrived at its acme, and is in such esti
mation with the public, that Doctor Johnson's prophecy
may, at a future day, be wholly fulfilled in our royal theatres :
' Perhaps where Lear has rav'd and Hamlet died,
On flying cars new sorcerers may ride ;
Perhaps, (for who can guess th' effects of chance,)
Here Hunt may box, or Mahomet may dance.'
" The man descending from a steeple is intended to repre
sent one Cadman, who, in the memory of some persons now
living, performed the same feat at St. Martin's in the Fields,
from the steeple of which he descended into the Mews. In
an experiment of the like nature at Shrewsbury, the rope
breaking, he was dashed to pieces.
1 " In Mr. Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in the reign of George
II. he prefaces the account of William Hogarth in the following manner.
' Having dispatched the herd of our painters in oil, I reserved to a class by
himself that great and original genius, &c.' I thought the term very
happily applied, and pointedly appropriate to most of the characters it
enumerates ; but I remember a second-rate artist being marvellously
offended at the freedom of the appellation ; and observing, that the names
of Canaletti, George Lambert, Francis Cotes, Frank Hayman, and Samuel
Scott, deserved more respect than to be classed in a Herd.

THE FAIR. 215
"A show-cloth over the Fall of Bajazet is almost a direct
copy from a very coarse etching made by John Laguerre,
son of Louis Laguerre, whom Pope has immortalized for
his sprawling saints. On the upper part of the print is
inscribed, the Stage Mutiny. It alludes to some disputes
between the managers of Drury-lane, and such of the actors
as were spirited up to rebellion by Theophilus Cibber, and
seceded to the Haymarket, in 1733. As this made much
noise in its day, it may not be unentertaining to relate some
of the circumstances which occasioned it.
"The patent of Drury-lane being renewed, Mr. Booth, who
found his health decline, began to think it was time to dis
pose of his share and interest in the theatre. The person
upon whom he fixed for a purchaser was John Highmore,
Esq. a gentleman who had unhappily contracted an attach
ment to the stage, from having one night performed the
part of Lothario for a wager 1. A treaty between them
commenced soon after Wilks's death, and concluded by Mr.
Highmore's agreeing to purchase one half of Booth's share,
with the whole right in the management, for two thousand
five hundred pounds. Mr.'Wilks had previously appointed
Mr. Ellis, his deputy in the conduct of the theatre. The
introduction of two strangers into the management, gave
much offence to Colley Cibber, who to avoid being troubled
with the importance of one of his coadjutors, or the igno-
1 " Mr. Highmore was originally a man of considerable fortune, but White's
gaming-house, and the Drury-lane patent, exhausted his finances . Having
exhibited himself as an unsuccessful actor, and an unfortunate manager, he
in 1743 completed the climax by publishing a poem entitled Dettingen,
which proves him a very indifferent writer. In 1744, he a second time
appeared in the character of Lothario, for the benefit of Mr. Hurton, but
seems to have had no requisites for the stage. He was, however, a man of
strict integrity, and high honour, and frequently suffered heavy losses, rather
than violate any engagement, though it might be only verbal, which he had
once made. Such a person was very unfit for a coadjutor with men who
were so busied in qualifying themselves for personating the characters of
others, that they had no leisure for any attention to their own.
[How strongly this account of Mr. Highmore reminds us of the more
recent history of Romeo Coates.]

216 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
ranee of the other, authorized his son to act for him, in
every thing that concerned his share in the management.
The first season ended with some profit to the new patentees;
but Mr. Highmore, disgusted by the impertinence of young
Cibber, determined to exonerate himself from his interfer
ence, and for the sum of three thousand guineas purchased
the elder Cibber's right in the theatre. Two years had hardly
passed before the principal actors, encouraged by Theophi-
lus Cibber, determined to revolt from the patentee ; and as
the Little Theatre in the Haymarket was then unoccupied,
agreed to rent it from the proprietor, and opened their cam
paign with the comedy of Love for Love, at which they
were attended by an elegant and crowded audience. The
patentees, though weakened by this desertion, began to act
at the usual time. To supply the place of those who had
left their service, they had recourse to such actors as could
be procured from the itinerant companies ; but, with all the
help they could obtain, their performances were inferior to
those exhibited at the Haymarket, and losses came so heavy
upon Mr. Highmore, that he was under the necessity of
giving up the contest, and sold his property to Mr. Charles
Fleetwood. " Upon this dispute is built the print from which the show-
cloth was copied, and probably announces the performance
of a farce entitled ' The Stage Mutineers, a tragi-comic,
farcical ballad-opera, acted at Covent Garden, in 1733;'
which is a burlesque on this contest. Theophilus Cibber,
who was leader of the malcontents, is in this farce charac
terized by the name of Ancient Pistol ; all his speeches
being in that high-flown, mock-heroic style .with which
Shakspeare has marked that boasting coward. The scene is
supposed to be in the playhouse, and the time during a
rehearsal. "In 1740 a pamphlet was published for J. Mechell, at the
King's- Arms, Fleet-street, entitled, 'An Apology for the
life of T  C  -, Comedian; being a proper sequel to

THE FAIR. 217
the Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber ; with an
historical view of the stage to the present year. Supposed
to be written by himself, in the style and manner of the
poet laureat :' but in reality the work of Harry Fielding.
The following passage, relative to this subject, occurs in
page 16, &c. ' In that year, when the stage fell into great
commotions, and the Drury-lane company, asserting the
glorious cause of liberty and property, made a stand against
the oppressions of the patentees ;— in that memorable year,
when the theatric dominions fell in labour of a revolution,
under the conduct of myself; that revolt gave occasion to
several pieces of wit, and satirical flirts, at the conductor of
the enterprize. I was attacked, as my father had been
before me, in the public papers and journals ; and the bur
lesque character of Pistol was attributed to me as a real one.
Out came a print of Jack Laguerre's, representing in most
vile designing, this expedition of ours, under the name of
the Stage Mutiny ; in which, gentle reader, your humble
servant, in the Pistol character, was the principal figure.
This I laughed at, knowing it only a proper embellishment
for one of those necessary structures to which persons out
of necessity repair.'^  Again, p. 88. — 'At the fair of Bar
tholomew we gained some recruits ; but, besides those
advantages over the enemy, I myself went there in person,
and publicly exposed myself. This was done to fling defi
ance in the patentees' teeth ; for, on the booth where I
exhibited, I hung out the Stage Mutiny, with Pistol at the
head of his troop ; our standard bearing the motto, ' We
eat.' ' — Whether this account, which Cibber is made to give
of his own conduct, is entirely jocular, or contains a mix
ture of truth and falsehood, cannot now be ascertained.
Hogarth might have transferred a circumstance from Bar
tholomew to Southwark Fair ; or Fielding, by design,
may have misrepresented it, alluding at the same time to
Hogarth's print.
" To return to the show-cloth. — A figure seated in the

218 HOGARTH MORALTZED.
corner, with his head bound with laurel, was intended for
old Cibber, then poet laureat. With a bag of money upon
his knee, he rejoices in the sum he has realized, and laughs
at those who are enduring the storm. Under his feet is
inscribed, ' Quiet and snug.' — The tall, thin, stooping figure
was meant for Mr. Highmore. He holds in his hand a
scroll, on which is written, " It cost 6000 pounds ;" and
is again characterized by the representation of a monkey
astride the sign-iron of the Rose tavern, with a label, on
which is written, ' I am a gentleman V — The man in his
shirt, with a paint-pot and brushes at his feet, who takes up
the cudgels for the new patentees, is John Ellis, the painter.
He was pupil to Sir James Thornhill, deputy-manager for
Mr. Wilks, and principal scene-painter to the theatre. By
the favour of the Duke of Montagu and Sir Robert Wal-
pole, he was appointed great master of the wardrobe, and
keeper of the lions in the Tower ; but was much happier in '
attending a pugilistic exhibition, at Broughton's academy,
than in the exercise of his profession. His figure appears
muscular, but hardly leads one to suppose, what is yet cer
tainly a fact, that Rysbrack, when he produced what Mr.
Walpole (now Lord Orford) very emphatically calls, that
exquisite summary of his skill, knowledge, and judgment,
the Hercules, in Mr. Hoare's temple, at Stourhead, modelled
the legs of the god from those of Ellis. — The figure in the
back-ground, with a tremendous plume of feathers, and
flowing periwig, grasping his truncheon in a style of defi
ance, may be Mills, in the character of Bajazet. On the flag
which is borne between Mr. Highmore and Ellis, is inscribed,
' We'll starve them out.' On that borne in the rear of the
seceders, on the opposite side, is written, ' We eat.' The
figure near it is probably intended to represent Johnson, in
Sir Hugh Evans; as that with a truncheon in his hand,
who stands next him, may be intended for Bardolph; but
1 " The general observation, at the time, was, ' What business had a
gentleman to make the purchase V

THE FAIR. 219
who the performer was, I am not sufficiently versed in dra
matic history to determine ; it would probably be known at
that time, by the ends of two cudgels, which rise in parallel
lines immediately behind his head, and may intimate, that
this gentleman, like Theophilus Cibber, was under some obli
gations to his wife, for giving him a title he was not born
with. — The Sir John Falstaff was certainly intended for
Harper, who was eminent in that character : as ' Pistol's
alive,' was indisputably meant for the younger Cibber. The
masculine gentlewoman, waving a flag, on which is in
scribed ' Liberty and Property,' is, I think, clearly intended
as a protraiture of the notorious Mistress Doll Tearsheet ;
but who was the actress that personated this fair friend of
the fat knight, I really do not know.
" The show-cloth underneath, with the tall figure, and two
spectators, is a representation of Maximilian, a giant from
Upper Saxony. That with the wooden horse, is explained
by the inscription above it, ' The Siege of Troy is here.'
Mr. Victor, in an eulogium upon Boheme the actor, says
that 'his first appearance was at a booth in Southwark
Fair, which, in those days, lasted two weeks, and was much
frequented by persons of all ranks, and both sexes. He
acted the part of Menelaus, in the best droll I ever saw,
called the Siege of Troy.'
" Adam and Eve upon another show-cloth, may probably
allude to the representation of somewhat compiled from an
old mystery, called the Creation \
" The old puppet-show joke of Punch wheeling his wife
into the jaws of destruction, which is underneath, is well
1 " The licentiousness of the present age is a favourite topic with some of
our popular writers ; yet the drama is considered as the mirror of public
manners ; and the drama is rather more correct, and less indelicate, than it
was in the year 1327, when, in a play of the Olde and Newe Testament,
performed at Chester, the actors who personated Adam and Eve, trying to
represent these two characters to the life, came upon the stage quite naked !
What modern manager could have dressed, or rather undressed, his per
formers with a stricter regard to propriety ?

220 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
known. By the paper lantern, dwarf drummer, and little
figure, at a temporary door, it appears that the royal wax
work, and whole court of France, are at the Royal Oak.
" It is a little remarkable that in this almost endless variety
of holiday amusements there should be no exhibition of wild
beasts, or wonderful quadrupeds. A roaring lion, raging
tiger, and fierce cat-a-mountain, would have had a large
audience, and a learned pig, or an overgrown Lincolnshire
ox, might have made the proprietors' fortunes, at that time,
as they have done at this.
" The amusements of the fair at this period continued
a fortnight 1, and were unquestionably attended with much
loss of time, and productive of some habits of dissipation
among the lower ranks of people who attended them. A
visit to a family in the vicinity would have been a delightful
entertainment, and the pleasure much heightened if the lady
of the mansion happened to be fond of dumb creatures. A
whistle, drum, and trumpet, in the possession of three little
masters, with a barking lap dog, screaming parrot, and
canary bird in full song, must form a concert of such hea
venly harmony, as ' Would bring an angel down !'
" For those who delight in pointing out examples of Ho
garth's bad spelling, this print affords a fine field. The
name of Cibber has only one b. In the Fall of Bajazet, the
z appears to have been originally an s. WeT starve them
out. The e final in wax worke, these syllable dissectors may
perhaps deign to acknowledge was then customary.
"In my enumeration of the actors who appear on the
show-cloth, &c. I may sometimes be wrong: let it be re-
1 " I cannot learn in what year the duration of this fair was shortened, but
suppose, from the following circumstance, very soon afterwards : — This print
was published in 1733, and, on the 24th of June, 1735, the court of aldermen
came to a resolution touching Bartholomew Fair, ' that the same shall not
exceed Bartholomew eve, Bartholomew day, and the day after : and during
that day nothing but stalls and booths shall be erected for the sale of goods
wares, and merchandizes, and no acting be permitted.'

THE FAIR. 221
ceived as conjecture founded on the best intelligence I could
obtain ; and be it remembered, that to procure positive in
formation of circumstances which happened in the year 1 733
is not easy. The memoranda to be found in magazines,
and other perishable prints of the day, are not always to be
depended upon. Even now these authentic documents
sometimes lead those who implicitly believe them into
error*." J. I.]

[* The editor is indebted to a well-known antiquarian friend for the
following entirely new matter relative to this entertaining subject.
" Mr. Walpole, in the fourth volume of his Anecdotes of
Painting, which was first printed in 1771, erroneously says
of the present design of Hogarth, ' his Bartholomeio Fair is
full of humour.' This was revised by Mr. Dallaway, in the
last edition of that work ; but in 1790 and 1791, Pennant
repeated the mistake in the first two editions of his Account
of London, when speaking of West Smithfield, by saying,
' that the humours of this place will never be lost, as long
as the inimitable print of Bartholomew Fair of our Hogarth
shall exist.' A note was afterwards attached to this passage
also, in which the print was called ' rather South wark
Fair ; but the same humours might be found in both.'
From these authorities, and from the resemblance between
the tower of the old Church of St. George, Southwark \
and that of St. Bartholomew the Great in West-Smithfield,
1 Of this church, perhaps the only representations are the view in Ho
garth, and a very slight figure in the plan of the parish of St. George, South
wark, in Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, edit. 1720, vol. ii. page
26 ; which, however, agree together in the form of the tower. The old
building was ordered to be taken down in 1733, by the Act 6th Geo. II. c. 8 ;
and the present was erected on its site as one of Queen Anne's fifty new
churches. The foundation was laid in 1734, and the edifice was completed
in 1736. Bray's Hist. Surrey, iii. p. 637. The best description of the old
St. George's Church will be found in Edward Hatton's New View of London,
1708, vol. i. p. 245.

222 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
arose some doubt and confusion as to the real fair intended
to be represented. Mr. Ireland, though he never supposed
it to be any other than that of Southwark, was at one time
in a mistake as to the very spot which the painter had de
signed ; since he says, in his illustration of the plate, that
' the scene where this crowd of busy people are assembled
is probably an exact representation of what it then was.
Newington Church, with a lozenge-dial, &c. remains nearly
in the same state in which it is here delineated.' This
error, however, he acknowledges in a note in his Anecdotes
of Hogarth, printed after the work itself, ' to save,' as he
says, 'any good-natured critic the trouble of pointing it
out.' The fact is, that the principal part of Southwark
Fair extended only to St. George's Church on the south,
embracing some of the turnings on the west, and several of
the courts and inns on the east side of St. Margaret's-hill ;
from which circumstance it appears, in the seventeenth cen
tury, to have been called St. Margaret's Fair. Its principal
seat, however, was the open fields and bowling-green behind
the prisons of the old King's Bench and Marshalsea, still
called Snows' Field and Bowling-green-lane ; and it will be
found that the actual scene of Hogarth's picture was, most
probably, laid in the latter.
" As the original advertisement of this print and the eight
plates of the Rake's Progress, given by Nichols, appeared in
The Country Journal, or the Craftsman, of Caleb D'Anvers,
for Saturday, December 29th, 1 733 ; and as it states that
the engraving of the Fair is already finished, — it is not un
likely that Hogarth designed it chiefly from the Southwark
Fair immediately preceding, or, possibly, from several pre
vious, adding some touches of humour from each. Their
principal features would not greatly vary, as the advertise
ments of the larger shows prove that their situation was
generally the same. The extent and frequency of these
advertisements, as a matter of expense, will probably excite
1

THE FAIR. 223
less surprise, when the reader is informed that in 1 733 the
price of inserting those of a moderate length was only two
shillings. " The performance at ' Lee and Harper's Great Booth,'
in the centre of the picture, is supposed by Mr. Ireland
to be the Siege of Troy, in accordance with the show-cloth
of the Trojan Horse and its inscription, ' The Siege of Troy
is here,' suspended over the stage ; and also because he
recognises Chryses, the Priest of Apollo, in the figure with
a mitre on his head and a sun on his breast, with his daugh
ter Chrysei's, seated on his right hand. It does not appear,
however, that the Siege of Troy had been performed by
this company at Southwark for many years previous to the
publication of this print ; or that Chryses or Chrysei's were
even characters in the piece. But as if Hogarth's picture
had brought that famous droll again into popularity, in The
Craftsman of September 14, 1734, it is thus announced for
representation :
" ' At Lee's Great Theatrical Booth, on the Bowling-Green behind the
Marshalsea, down Axe and Bottle Yard, during the time of Southwark Fair,
(which begins the 8th of September, and ends the 21st,) will be presented
the most celebrated Entertainment called the Siege of Troy. With its De
corations, Machinery, and Paintings ; far exceeding any thing of the like
kind that was ever seen in the Fairs before. The Scenes and Cloaths being
entirely new. All the Parts to be perform'd to the best Advantage, by Per
sons from the Theatres. The Part of Paris, by Mr. Hulett. King Menelaus,
by Mr. Roberts ; Ulysses, Mr. Aston ; Simon, Mr. Hind ; Captain of the
Guard, Mr. Mackenzie ; Butcher, Mr. Pearce ; Taylor, Mr. Hicks ; Cas
sandra, Mrs. Spiller ; Venus, Mrs. Lacey ; Helen, by Mrs. Purden ; Bristle,
the Cobbler, by Mr. Morgan ; Cobbler's Wife, by Mrs. Morgan. With several
Entertainments of Singing and Dancing by the best Masters. N. B. There
being a Puppet-show in Mermaid-Court, (leading down to the Green,) called
The Siege of Troy ; these are to forewarn the Publick, that they may not be
imposed upon by a Counterfeit, the only celebrated Droll of the kind was
first brought to perfection by the late famous Mrs. Mynns, and can only be
performed by her Daughter Mrs. Lee l, and no other.'
1 " Mrs. Mynns exhibited The Siege of Troy at the Queen's Arms Tavern,
next the Marshalsea Gate, in the Southwark Fair of 1715. Upon the sup
pression of that Fair, a petition was presented to the House of Commons by
Anne Mynns and her daughter, Hannah Lee, stating that they had resided
30 years in the parish, during which they had yearly, by their servants, per-

224 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
" The picture of the Trojan Horse at Lee and Harper's
booth in Hogarth's print, may perhaps be regarded as only
the ordinary custom of showmen exhibiting the name and
scene of a former favourite piece, though it might not be
actually performing at the time. If the advertisement of
this very show for the Fair of 1733 can be accepted as an
illustration, the characters on the stage are those of a Droll
taken from the scripture history of the Jews ; in which pro
bably the dresses of the Pagan story were still used. The
following bill, therefore, of this exhibition from The Daily
Post of Monday, September 10th, 1733, perhaps accurately
describes the performance in Hogarth's engraving :
" ' At Lee and Harper's Great Theatrical Booth, on the Bowling Green
behind the Marshalsea in Southwark, during the time of the Fair, will be
presented a, celebrated Droll called Jephtha's Rash Vow : or The Virgin
Sacrifice. With the Comical Humours of Captain Bluster and his Man
Diddimo. The part of Jephtha by Mr. Hulett ; Elon, Mr. Roberts ;
Jethro, Mr. Hewet ; Zekiel, Mr. Morgan ; Diddimo, Mr. Hicks ; Miriam,
Mrs. Purden ; Nurse, Mrs. Morgan ; Captain Bluster, Mr. Harper. To
which will be added, a New Pantomime-Opera, (which the whole Town has
lately been in Expectation to see perform'd) call'd The Fall of Phaeton.
The whole intermixed with Comic Scenes between Punch, Harlequin, Sca
ramouch, Pierrot, and Columbine. N. B. We shall begin at Ten in the
Morning, and continue Playing till Ten at Night. N. B. The true Book of
the Droll is printed and sold by G. Lee, in Blue-Maid Alley, Southwark ;
and all others (not printed by him) are false.'
" Before quitting Lee and Harper's show, it may be ob
served that the figure blowing a trumpet on the stage on
the left, is probably a performer called ' Charles, the Merry
Trumpeter of Oxford,' the advertisements for whose benefit
used generally to be issued about the end of the Fair.
There appear to be none of his bills for the year 1733, but
in 1729 he announces
" ' At the Desire of several Gentlemen and Ladies. For the Benefit of
Charles the Merry Trumpeter, a Batchelor, who used to Sound with Mr.
Bullock, will be presented a diverting Comedy, call'd A Bold Stroke for a
formed Drolls at the Fair, in two booths, which, with their contents, were
worth 2000?. ; and asserted, as a proof of their public utility, that they first
introduced on their stage those eminent actors Powell and Booth. The peti
tion prayed a compensation, but it was rejected. Bray's Hist. Surrey, iii. 632.

THE FAIR. 225
Wife. To which will be added a Comic Dance between Scaramouch and a
Countryman ; the part of the Countryman by Charles the Trumpeter ; at
Lee's Booth on the Bowling Green, Southwark, To-morrow, being the 14th
of October. The doors will be open at Six, and begin precisely at Seven.'
" In 1 731 he announces the same piece, ' with entertain
ments between the Acts, particularly the Black and White
Joak to be sounded by Charles, and also a Joak of his
own. ' And 'tis well if it takes,
If not the trumpeter breaks.'
" On the right of the principal show Hogarth has repre
sented a smaller one of puppets, at which the scriptural
' Motion' of ' The Old Creation of the World,' is per
formed with ' Punch's Opera ;' the painting in front being
divided between the pictures of Adam and Eve, the Beasts,
the Serpent, and the Tree of Knowledge in Eden ; and of
Punch wheeling his wife into a terrific flaming mouth.
There is no advertisement of this exhibition, but in No. 5931
of the Harleian MSS. is an original bill of the time of Queen
Anne, stating that ' at Crawly's Show, at the Golden Lion,
near St. George's Church, during the time of Southwark
Fair, will be presented, The whole Story of the Old Crea
tion of the World, or Paradice Lost, yet newly Reviv'd, with
the Addition of Noah's Flood ; and the Ball of Little Dogs
from Lovain.' The same scripture puppet-show, succeeded
by different entertainments, and interspersed with other
occasional scenes, appears to have been exhibited by seve
ral showmen ; and in the bill of one named Matthew Heatly,
of about the same period as the preceding, it is entitled,
'A Little Opera called The Old Creation of the World
Newly Revived, with the Addition of the Glorious Battle
obtained over the French and Spaniards by his Grace the
Duke of Marlborough. The Contents are these. 1. The
Creation of Adam and Eve. 2. The Intreagues of Lucifer in
the Garden of Eden. 3. Adam and Eve driven out of Para-
a

226 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
dice, &c. Likewise several rich and large Figures, which
dance Jiggs, Sarabands, Anticks, and Country-Dances, be
tween every Act ; compleated with the merry Humours of
Sir John Spendall and Punchinello, with several other
things never yet exposed.' It is most probable that the
Duke of Marlborough's victory mentioned in this bill, was
that of Malplaquet, September 11th, 1709 \ since the pup
pet-show of the Creation of the World with Noah's Flood
is introduced in the Tatler of May 14th in the same year,
as a fashionable exhibition at Bath ; but the title of Punch's
Opera was not adopted by Robert Powel until perhaps a
year or two after. It does not appear that the puppet-show
m Hogarth's print was connected with that of Lee and
Harper which stands close beside it, but it will be remem
bered that the bill of the larger exhibition announces ' comic
scenes between Punch,' &c. perhaps performed by both
figures and living actors.
" Between the two centre shows rises the tower of the
old church of St. George, Southwark, from the battlements
of which a man is gliding headlong down a rope, who is
believed to represent Robert Cadman, a celebrated steeple-
1 " It is rather remarkable that in Hogarth's print there is not any exhi
bition of a public event, like the above, which might accurately determine
the year when it was designed ; but in the engraving of the very curious
fan-mount picture of Bartholomew Fair, published by Mr. Setehel, of
King Street, Covent-garden, there is a small show of ' the Siege of Gibral
tar,' fixing the time of its execution to the year 1729, instead of 1721, as
supposed by the- publisher. The Spaniards first opened the trenches before
Gibraltar, February 22nd, 1726-27 ; but Lee and Harper's Company did
not act The Siege of Bethulia, containing the Ancient History of Judith and
Holofernes, at Bartholomew Fair, which is performing at their booth in the
same view, until 1729. In that Fair, also, the first picture exhibited at
Fawkes' Temple of Arts, was ' a fine view of the City and Bay of Gibraltar,
with the English Fleet under sail, as if really on the sea : and the Spanish
Forces marching and counter-marching as regularly as troops going into
real action.' It may be farther observed, that the figure in Mr. Setchel's
print, supposed to be Sir Robert Walpole, is decorated with a star and rib
band ; but that minister did not receive the Order of the Bath until 1725,
nor of the Garter until the year following.

THE FAIR. 227
flyer. He broke his neck in January, 1740, in attempting
to descend from the spire of St. Mary, Shrewsbury, a height
of 21 6 feet, over the Severn, whilst it was frozen, upon a
cord which was stretched too tightly, and was buried at that
place, in the church-yard of St. Mary Friars '.
" The right hand of the picture terminates by an end view
of the Royal Oak public-house, at which are two exhi
bitions ; the lower part of the building being occupied by
Fawkes the Juggler, whilst a transparent inscription upon a
lanthorn suspended against the upper, announces the ' Royal
Wax Worke. The whole Court of France is here.' In a
aeries of verses composed upon Hogarth's print, and pub
lished a few years after it in the Poems of Banckes, already
referred to, it is stated that the 'young Louis XV. of
France, his queen, children, prime-minister, &c. were this
year exhibited in Smithfield and the Borough, at very rea
sonable prices, to spectators of all degrees. Our artist,
however, had forgotten himself as to the matter of which
these great personages were made ; the whole town having
been informed by their Master of the Ceremonies, that they
were of a composition far exceeding wax.' The particulars
of this exhibition may be gathered from the ensuing adver
tisement of it which appeared October 6th, 1 733, little more
than a fortnight after Hogarth's Southwark Fair had ter
minated. '"To be Seen, one month longer, in the same Room where the Temple
of Solomon was shewn, at the Royal Exchange, the figures of their Majes
ties of France, the Dauphin, the three Princesses, the Duke De Bourbon,

1 " It has been stated by persons who were present at the time of this
accident, that after the body had touched the earth, it rebounded several
feet upwards. Owen's Account of the Ancient and Present State of Slvrews-
fory 1808 12mo. pp. 264, 265, where will be found Cadman's epitaph ; and
in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1740, vol. x. p. 89, is a poetical piece, « On
the Death of the famous Flyer on the Rope at Shrewsbury." In an account
of his descent from the highest of the rocks at Bristol Hot-Wells, prmted in
The Weekly Miscellany of April 17th, 1736, this person is called Thomas
Kidman. „
a 2

228 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Prince of Conde", Cardinal Fleury, &c. represented to the Life, in a new
composition which far exceeds wax. All of them completely dress'd, and
as big as the Life, and dress'd in Habits given by these great personages,
out of their respective Wardrobes, to the Artist, who was lately employed
by his Most Christian Majesty, and, with his Leave, copied them from the
Life ; which have been seen, and highly applauded, by their Majesties of
Great Britain, the Royal Family, and most of the Nobility. To be seen
from Nine in the Morning till Ten at Night, at 6d. within the bar, and 3d.
without the Bar. N. B. The Proprietor of the said Figures designs to go
in about a Month's Time for Foreign Parts.'
" Before the lower part of the Royal Oak appears the well-
known show-cloth of Fawkes, the Juggler, which is said to
contain the only representation of his portrait, whilst the
artist himself is exhibiting in front of it, producing a living
bird out of a small cup and holding them up to the au
dience beneath. An advertisement issued by him October
20th, 1 724, will show the character of his ordinary perform
ances in legerdemain ; as well as those of his tumbler,
whose feats are also represented upon the same show-cloth.
" ' At the Blue-Boar, next door to the Castle-Tavern in Fleet-street.
The famous Mr. Fawkes performs his most surprising Tricks by Dexterity
of Hand, with his Cards, Eggs, curious Indian Birds, Mice, and Money ;
which curiosities no Person in the Kingdom can pretend to show like him
self : Together with the wonderful Activity of Body performed by his Pos
ture-Master, who far exceeds all that ever shew'd in Europe, who trans
forms his Body into such various Shapes, as surpasses human Faith to be
lieve without seeing : Likewise the Italian Scaramouch Dance, with Two
Heads, Four Legs, and but One Body, to the Admiration of all Spectators.
Note, We have had the honour to perform before his present Majesty,
King George, the Prince, and the Quality of the whole Kingdom with great
Applause. This is the last night of performing here ; and on Monday next
he removes to the Cock and Half-Moon in Chancery-Lane. Beginning every
Evening at 5 o'Clock and again at 7. N. B. Any Gentlemen or Ladies may
have a private Performance any time of the Day giving an Hour's Notice.
— Vivat Rex.'
" An advertisement of the same professor of legerdemain
issued for Bartholomew Fair, in 1728, thus describes some
other of his performances, and particularly those exhibited
in the present print. ' He turns Cards into a Living Bird ;
blows the spots off and on at pleasure ; commands a Card

THE FAIR. 229
out of any person's hands ; conveys a Card into an Egg ;
changes them into various Pictures ; throws the pack up to
the ceihng, where he causes them to stick and come down
one by one ; he changes little Balls into Living Birds and
Beasts, and multiplies One Ball into an Hundred in a mo
ment : He produces a shower of Gold and Silver out of an
Empty Bagg ; and likewise a variety of Eggs, and a curi
ous collection of beautiful Birds from the East and West
Indies.' " Banckes's verses descriptive of this print, however, ob
serve that "'There Yeates and Pinchbeck change the scene,
To Sleight of Hand, and Clock-machine ;
First, numerous eggs are laid, and then
The pregnant bag brings forth a hen.'
Whence Mr. Ireland concludes that Pinchbeck was present
at the same show with his Panopticon. This probably refers
to a large musical instrument with pictures and moving
figures, which he called ' The Grand Theatre of the Muses,1
and exhibited in various parts of London between 1 729 and
1732, and which he advertised at Bartholomew Fair in the
former year. Fawkes himself also appears to have pos
sessed a similar piece of mechanism, made by the same
ingenious artist, as may be seen in his ordinary advertise
ment for this place.
" ' Fawkes, at his Booth over against the Crown Tavern, near St. George's
Church, in Southwark, during the Time of the Fair, will perform the follow
ing Entertainments. — 1. His surprizing and incomparable Dexterity of Hand,
in which he will perform several intirely new Curiosities, that far surpass
any Thing of that Kind ever seen before. — 2. A curious Musical Clock, that
he lately purchased of Mr. Pinchbeck, Clock-Maker in Fleet-street, that
plays several fine Tunes on most Instruments of Musick, and imitates the
melodious Notes of various Kinds of Birds, as real Life : Also Ships sailing,
with a number of curious and humourous Figures, representing divers Mo
tions as tho' alive.— 3. Another fine Clock or Machine, call'd Arts' Master
piece', or the Venetian Lady's Invention, which she employ'd Workmen to
make, that were 17 years contriving ; the like of which was never yet made
or shown in any other Part of the World, for Variety of moving Pictures,
and other Curiosities.— 4. A Famous Tumbler, just arrived from Holland,
whose Performances far exceed any Thing of that Kind in this Kingdom.—

230 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Also his little Posture Master, a Child of about five Years of Age ; that per
forms by Activity such wonderful Turns of Body, that the like was never
done by one of his Age or Bigness before.'
"In 1733, however, the exhibitions of Pinchbeck and
Fawkes were united, and announced in the following bill for
Bartholomew Fair, that for Southwark not appearing :
" ' This is to give Notice. That Mr. Pinchbeck and Fawkes, who have had
the Honour to perform before the Royal Family, and most of the Nobility
and Gentry in the Kingdom with great Applause, during the Time of Bar
tholomew Fair, will divert the Publick with the following surprising Enter
tainments, at their great Theatrical Booth, the lower end of Mrs. Lee's,
facing the King's Head on the Paved Stones. First, The diverting and in
comparable dexterity of Hand performed by Mr. Pinchbeck, who causes a
Tree to grow out of a Flower-Pot on the Table, which blossoms and bears
ripe fruit in a Minute ; also a Man in a Maze, or a Perpetual Motion, where
he makes a little Ball to run continually, which would last was it for seven
years together only by the Word of Command. He has several Tricks en
tirely new, which were never done by any Person but himself. Second, The
famous little Posture-Master of nine years old, who shows several astonishing
Postures by Activity of Body, different from any other Posture-Master in
Europe. Third, The amazing Musical Clock, lately made by the famous
Mr. Pinchbeck, which has two beautiful Moving Pictures, and performs on
several Instruments, a great Variety of fine Pieces of Musick, composed by
Signior Corelli, Albinoni, Bononcini, Mr. Handel, and many other celebrated
Masters ; it plays them either Single or in Concert, and in so just a manner
that scarce any Hand can equal. Fourth, A curious Machine, being the
finest Piece of Workmanship in the World, for Moving Pictures and other
Curiosities. Fifth, the Artificial View of the World. Wherein is naturally
imitated the Firmament, spangled with a Multitude of Stars ; the Moon's
Increase and Decrease ; the Dawn of Day ; the Sun diffusing his light at
his Rising, the beautiful Redness of the Horizon at his Setting as in a fine
Summer's Evening. The Ocean is also represented, with Ships under Sail,
as tho' several Miles distance ; others so near that their shadows are seen
in the Water, and, as they pass by any Fort, Castle, &c. they salute it with
their Guns, the Report and Eccho of which are heard according to their
seeming distance. Every Day during the Time of the Fair will be presented
the following Prospects, viz. 1. The famous City of Constantinople in Turkey.
2. Is a fine Prospect of the King of Sweden's Pleasure-House and Garden.
3. The famous City of Venice.— Beginning every Day at Ten o'Clock in the
Morning, and ending at Ten at Night. — N. B. While the Booth is filling, the
little Posture-Master will divert the Company with several Wonders on the
Slack-Rope.' " The only other public character on the right hand of
this picture is James Figg, the prize-fighter, entering the
Fair on horseback, who has been already noticed. There

THE FAIR. 231
does not appear to be any printed account of his making
such a public challenge, but he frequently issued advertise
ments about the time of Tottenham-Court, Bartholomew,
and Southwark Fairs, of battles to be fought at his Amphi
theatre ; especially in 1730, when he was to engage Holmes,
the principal swordsman of Ireland, on September 16th.
" Immediately beneath Punch's Opera, near the centre of
the print, is a stout figure in a full-dress suit, emitting from
his mouth a cloud of smoke. As he appears to be elevated
on a stage, and is attended by a mountebank holding out a
bottle, this personage has been supposed to be the notorious
empiric, Doctor Richard Rock ; but Mr. Steevens has con
jectured that he might be only an ordinary Fire-Eater, and
perhaps Powell was the most eminent in the time of Ho
garth. " The figure swinging on the slack-rope between the
booths of Lee and Harper and Cibber, is commonly stated
to be Signora Violante ; but in the advertisements of her
feats exhibited at the Haymarket Theatre in 1732, they are
stated to be ' on the" straight rope ;' and it is therefore pos
sible that the performer may be Signer Violante, who was
not less famous.
" To the left of the rope-dancer is a show-cloth repre
senting Maximilian Christopher Miiller, an extraordinary
individual ' near Eight Foot high, his Hand a Foot, and
his Finger Six Inches long, Born at Leipsick in Saxony,
A.D. 1674;' as it is stated beneath a large whole-length
portrait of him, engraven by Boitard, which is apparently
of nearly the same design as the picture in Hogarth : it is
also stated to have been ' drawn from the life at London,
April, 1 733.'
" At some little distance below this is the sign of the Half
Moon, which stands on the east side of the Borough High-
street, an old and celebrated inn. Immediately in front is
the tumbling scaffold of Cibber and Bullock, with the prac-

232 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
tical Fall of Bajazet. Banckes, in his Poems, unaccount
ably calls the piece being played there, the Fall of Fair
Rosamond, which, as there does not appear to be any
advertisement of these performers for the Southwark Fair
of 1733, might possibly be the drama actually presented;
but it has been already observed that they really acted the
piece here attributed to them at the Bartholomew Fair of
the same year, and some particulars of it will be found in
the following announcement from The Daily Post of Tues
day, September 4th. From the names contained in it, it
has been conjectured, that the performer grasping the up
right timber is Hall, and the one in a helmet Hallam. It
may be observed also, that some of the characters in the
show-cloth of the Stage Mutiny 1, appear to have been really
exhibited at this booth; and that Fielding's account of
Cibber's performance at Bartholomew Fair, mentioned on
page 217, is thus shown to be quite accurate.
" ' At Cibber's, Griffin's, Bullock's, and Hallam's Great Theatrical Booth,
near Hosier Lane in Smithfield, during the Time of Bartholomew Fair, will
be presented the Tragedy of Tamerlane the Great, with the Fall of Bajazet,
Emperor of the Turks. Taken from the Works of Nicholas Rowe, Esq. late
Poet-Laureat. The Part of Tamerlane, by Mr. A. Hallam ; Bajazet, Mr.
Hall ; Axalla, Mr. Cross ; Selima, Mrs. Grace ; Omar, Mr. Jones ; Mirvan,
Mr. H. Tench ; Haly, Mrs. Charke. To which will be added, at the parti
cular Desire of several Persons of Distinction, The Comical Humours of Sir
John Falstaff, Justice Shallow, Ancient Pistol, and others, taken from Shak
speare z : As it has been several times perform'd at the Theatre Royal in
1 " The piece which this picture is supposed to refer to was published in
1732, under the title of ' The Stage Mutineers ; or a Playhouse to be Lett,
a Tragi-Comi-Farcical- Ballad-Opera, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal in
Covent Garden ; By a Gentleman, late of Trinity College, Cambridge, Price Is.'
a " This entertainment appears to have been one of those ancient comic
pieces invented by Robert Cox, during the persecution of the Stage in the
Civil Wars, called Humours or Drolleries. They were blended with rope-
dancing, &c. to disguise the acting, and consisted of a combination of the
richest comic scenes of Marston, Shirley, Shakspeare, &c. and the well-known
rare Collection of them appeared in 1662, for the use of performers at
fairs. The title and argument of each piece often indicates the source
whence it was taken ; as ' The Bouncing Knight, or the Robbers robbed,'
from Henry IV. Part I. ; ' The Equal Match,' from ' Rule a Wife and have

THE FAIR. 233
Drury Lane with great applause. Intermix'd with Songs made to Ballad-
Tunes. A Company of Italian Rope-Daneers, Posture-Masters, Tumblers,
&c. are provided to entertain the Audience till the Droll begins.'
" Directly beneath the corner of the falling stage is a short
and stout person playing upon a huge pair of bag-pipes, and
working two figures of dancers with his foot ; beside whom
is an animal dressed up and standing on its hind legs, which
appears to have been part of rather an old exhibition at this
place, since Evelyn, in his Diary, September 13th, 1660, says
— ' I saw, in Southwark, at St. Margaret's Faire, Monkies
and Apes dance, and do other feates of activity on ye high-
rope; they were gallantly clad a la mode, went upright,
saluted the company, bowing and pulling off their hatts ;
they saluted one another with as good a grace as if in
structed by a dauncing-master ; they turn'd heels over head
with a basket having eggs in it, without breaking any ; also
with lighted candles in their hands and on their heads with
out extinguishing them, and with vessells of water without
spilling a drop.'
"It is observed by Mr. Ireland in his remarks on Hogarth's
Fair, that it is rather remarkable it should contain no exhi
bition of wild or extraordinary animals ; which it is, how
ever, known were to be seen in Southwark, though they do
not appear to have been advertised in the papers like the
performances of the other shows. An anecdote is related of
Dr. Johnson, Mallet, and others, going to see a large Rus
sian bear at this Fair ; and Ireland adds that the late Mr.
Pinchbeck, meaning Christopher Pinchbeck, of Cockspur-
street, who died in 1783, the manufacturer of the famous
imitative gold, — frequently spake of one of his brothers who
was a showman, and gave a considerable sum for an ele
phant, for which he took an apartment in Southwark Fair.
a Wife ' &c. These Humours became extraordinary favourites, and so en
tirely filled the capacious Red Bull Theatre that as many persons went away
as entered.

234 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
' But the passage to this room,' added he, ' was so narrow,
that though my poor brother got the beast into it, a' never
could get un out on't ; a' stuck in the middle, and died ! so,
sir, you sees that my poor brother lost all his money. Ah !
he was a most unfortunate dog in every thing he took in
hand ; and so was I, God knows !'— To these notices may
be added, that at the end of the advertisement of Yeate's
Great Theatrical Booth at Southwark Fair in The Daily
Post of Monday, September 10th, 1733, is inserted; 'Note :
At a large Room near this Booth, are to be seen, without
loss of time, Two Large Ostriches, lately arriv'd from the
Desarts of Arabia, being Male and Female.'
" The original grant of a Fair in Southwark was contained
in the Charter given to that borough by Edward IV. in
1463, when it was appointed to be held on the 7th, 8th, and
9th days of September, the Eve, the Feast, and the Mor
row of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin ; whence it was
frequently called ' the Lady-Fair.' This privilege was con
firmed in 1551, by the Charter of Edward VI. and a Court
of Pie-powder was attached to the Fair, with the power of
arresting and carrying away all felons, &c. to Newgate. It
appears, however, to have been of little value as a commercial
meeting, being, as Strype observes, noted ' chiefly for shows;
as drolls, puppet-shows, rope-dancing, music-booths, and
tippling-houses.' The time of its duration was extended by
custom to a fortnight, but on September 8th, 1743, it was
again limited to three days, and public notice given that any
persons offering any interludes, &c. should be taken up as
vagrants. Previous to this it had been usual for many years
for the keepers of booths and shows to make a collection for
the debtors in the Marshalsea, but in consequence of this
regulation they declared themselves unable to contribute;
which was so much resented by the prisoners, that they
threw stones on to the bowling-green over the prison wall,
when several persons were wounded, and a child killed.

THE FAIR. 235
The Fair was then removed to the Mint, and Suffolk-street;
and though on June 17th, 1762, the Common Council of
London came to a resolution that the Lady-Fair in the
Borough should be neither proclaimed nor held for the
future, yet it was not until 1763, that it was entirely sup
pressed. On September 19th in that year, however, the
High-Constable, and upwards of an hundred inferior officers,
by order of the borough magistrates, went to Suffolk-Place,
and caused the persons who had begun to erect booths, &c.
to take them down again ; which proceeding entirely abo
lished the Fair in Southwark.
"At a sale of pictures in 1746, belonging to Mrs. Edwards,
Hogarth's original painting of this Fair, sold for £1 9. 8s. 6d. ;
after which it appears to have been in the mansion called
Valentine's in Essex, the property of Sir Charles Raymond,
and then of Donald Cameron, Esq. It was again sold in
October, 1797, and again at the European Museum in June,
1800. There are two extremely rare, though spurious, en
gravings of this picture, both being of a very considerable
size. The more uncommon print is on wood, and the
other is very coarsely executed on copper, having the sub
ject placed the same way as the painting, and some addi
tions on each side ; as the perfecting of Figg's horse, &c.
An impression from this plate is in the Hogarth Collection
in the Print-Room at the British Museum ; and beneath it
is the following inscription in nine columns.
" Southwark Fair : done from ye Original of Mr. W. Hogarth. Printed
and sold by H. Overton and J. Hoole at ye White Horse without Newgate,
London. " From various Parts, for various Ends, repair
A vast mix'd Multitude to Southwark Fair.
Stage-players now of Smithfield take their leave,
And hither come, more Shillings to receive.
For this their Painted-Cloths, full wide display'd,
Tell ev'ry Branch of the Dramatick Trade.
Whether in Tragedy you take delight ;
Or Comedy your Fancy more invite ;

236 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Or Punch's Opera best entertain ;
Or the Stage-Mutiny's rebellious train ;
Or Monsieur Bag-pipes little dancing Twain.
All, down to lowest Farce and Raree-show,
Are here exhibited, to High and Low.
Harper and Lee their Trojan-horse display,
Troy's burnt and Paris kill'd, nine times a-day ».
Here Maximilian does himself uprear,
To whom like Pigmies all the rest appear.
The Fall of Bajazet, alass ! too true !
Cibber and Bullock here present to view.
Ambitious Pug, advanced, thus chatt'ring cries
' While Great Men fall, see how we monkeys rise !'
The Court of France, all fresh and in it's prime,
May here be seen too, — without loss of time.
On the Parades the Players march along,
Each proper habited, a sliining throng !
Our Merry- Andrews, joking, swell the train,
To tempt the gazers to flock in amain ;
While the Fair Drummer, beating loud alarms
Invites you to her — Show, as well as — Arms.
Lo ! from the steeple Violante flies
Loud shouts and acclamation rend ye skies :
This Dame the Slack-Rope volts with equal ease,
Both which, by diff 'rent ways, surprize and please.
The Prize-fighter, so daring to behold,
And the Fire-eating-man, need not be told.
Some come with more intent to see these shows,
Wenching and drinking many more propose ;
My prim Young Master, almost half afraid,
Cracks a Commandment with his Mother's Maid.
Others, how few ! blest with Love's purest flames,
Come to divert their Children and their Dames.
Sharpers of every Rank, with box and dice
To gull young Heirs and Prentices to vice.
Ev'n Catch-Poles, too, like Tygers seeking prey,
Hither repair, poor Debtors to dismay :
Nor Kings, nor Emperors, these Furies spare,
But as they plague the World, disturb the Fair."
1 [This appears to have been the ordinary number of performances of the
theatrical shows at Fairs. It is stated in the Memoirs of Weston in the
London Magazine for February, 1776, vol. xiv. p. 61, that when he was
engaged at Yates and Shuter's booth at Bartholomew Fair, he walked the
gallery in his stage-dress " and played nine times a day for a guinea." The
outside stage of these shows was technically called the Parade ; see line 24
of the above verses.]

TASTE IN HIGH LIFE. 237

TASTE IN HIGH LIFE
IN THE YEAR 1742.
FROM MR. J. IRELAND.
" 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, called in the artist to recriminate on her
opponents, and paid him sixty guineas for his production.
" It is professedly intended to ridicule the reigning passions
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 companion saucer which he holds in his hand, joins in
admiration of its astonishing beauties !
' Each varied colour of the brightest hue,
The green, the red, the yellow, and the blue,
In every part their dazzled eyes behold,
Here streak'd with silver— there enrich'd with gold.'
This gentleman is said to be intended for Lord Portmore, in
the habit he first appeared at Court on his return from
France. The cane dangling from his wrist, large muff, long

238 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
queue, black stock, feathered chapeau, and shoes, give him
the air of  ' An old and finish'd fop,

All cork at heel, and feather all at top.'
" The old lady's habit, formed of stiff brocade, gives her
the appearance 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 by the partiality and protection of a noble family,
the painter might 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 dinner; cocks
combs, ducks tongues, rabbits ears, fricasey of snails, grande
d'oeuts beurre \
" 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 Dr to John Pip, for cards,— £300.'
" The room is ornamented with several pictures ; the prin
cipal represents the Medicean Venus, on a pedestal, in stays
and high-heeled shoes, and holding before her a hoop petti
coat, somewhat larger than a fig-leaf ; a Cupid paring down
a fat lady to a thin proportion, and another Cupid blowing
up a fire to burn a hoop petticoat, muff, bag, and queue
wig, &c. On the dexter side, is another picture, represent-
1 ' For eating and drinking we know the best rules,
Our fathers and mothers were blockheads and fools ;
'Tis dress, cards, and dancing, alone should engage
This highly enlighten'd and delicate age.'
12

TASTE IN HIGH LIFE. 239
ing Monsieur Desnoyer, operatically habited, dancing in a
grand ballet, and surrounded by butterflies, &c, inscribed
insects, and evidently of the same genus with this deity of
dance. On the sinister, is the drawing denominated exotics,
consisting of queue and bag-wigs, muffs, solitaires, petti
coats, French heeled shoes, and other fantastic fripperies.
"Beneath this is a lady in a pyramidical habit walking the
Park ; and as the companion picture, we have a blind man
walking the streets.
" The fire-screen is adorned with a drawing of a lady in a
sedan chair —

' To conceive how she looks, you must call to your mind
The lady you've seen in a lobster confin'd
Or a pagod in some little corner inshrin'd.'

}

" As Hogarth made this design from the ideas of Miss
Edwards, it has been said that he had no great partiality for
his own performance, and that, as he never would consent
to its being engraved, the drawing from which the print is
copied, was made by the connivance of one of her servants.
Be that as it may, his ridicule on the absurdities of fashion,
— on the folly of collecting old china, — cookery, — card
playing, &c, is pointed, and highly wrought.
" At the sale of Miss Edwards's effects at Kensington, the
original picture was purchased by the father of Mr. Birch,
surgeon, of Essex-street, Strand." J. I.

240

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

THE POLITICIAN.

FROM MR. IRELAND.

iPii

A politician should (as I have read)
Be furnish'd 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 pohtics. For the first, it does not
come under inquiry in this print, — but certain it is, that too

THE POLITICIAN. 241
sedulously studying the second, has frequently involved its
votaries in many most tedious and unprofitable disputes, and
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, lace-
man, 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 Gazetteer 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, —
ascended 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
as now, (1797), 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 For
rest ; it was etched by Sherwin, and published 1775.
J. I.

242 HOGARTH MORALIZED.

FINIS ; OR THE TAIL-PIECE.
As many of Mr. Hogarth's admirers were desirous of having
his works bound up together, considering them as much,
if not more worthy of study than many books that are
extant, he thought it necessary, in order to complete the
whole, and preserve that consistency he had been ever ob
servant of, to add some print by way of tail-piece, in con
trast to the customary frontispiece of the generality of pub
lications. What then should this be ? Something allusive
to The End. In the following plate, then, he gives us a
collection of such things as bear indeed some affinity to the
Latin word Finis, which we meet with in the last leaf of
every book ; but that it may not be totally barren of design
and humour, takes this opportunity of ridiculing the many
glaring absurdities that are often seen in old celebrated pic
tures of serious cast, (owing to the ignorance of their painters,
in introducing low, obscene, and frequently profane matter
into them) by mixing here the mean with the sublime, and
the trifling with that of much importance. Analogous there
fore to Swift's art of sinking in poetry, he calls it the Bathos,
or manner of sinking in sublime paintings, and inscribes the
plate to the dealers in dark pictures.
As there is no great connection among that variety of
objects we observe in this print, excepting of a conformity
with the end, I shall not confine myself to any order, but
mention the various matter as it occurs. On one side, then,
we see a ruinous tower, having in front a decayed clock, or

THE TAIL-PIECE. 243
time-piece ; contiguous to that a grave-stone, and nearer to
us the remains of a column, against which lies the figure of
Time, in the utmost agony, breathing out his last. The em
blems with which he is customarily painted, viz. his scythe
and hour-glass, lie broken beside him. In one of his hands
is a fractured pipe ; in the other a roll of parchment con
taining his will, in which he has bequeathed all and every
atom of this world to blank Chaos, whom he has appointed
his sole executrix. This will is sealed and witnessed by the
three sister Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Beneath
this will lies a shoemaker's last and a cobbler's end. On the
left of these is an empty ragged purse, a commission of
bankruptcy with the seal affixed, supposed to be taken out
against poor Nature, and a play-book opened at the close of
the last act, where exeunt omnes stands forth to view. In
the middle is the remnant of a bow and quiver, a crown
destroyed, and a worn-out scrubbing brush. On the other
side of this plate is a withered tree, a decayed cottage, and
a falling sign of the world's end, described by the terrestrial
globe bursting out in flames. At the foot of this post is our
author's print of the Times *, set on fire by little better than
a snuff of burning candle. Near this lies a cracked bell ; a
broken bottle ; a piece of old rope, or a rope's end ; a besom
worn to the stump ; the stock of a musquet ; a whip lashed
away to the handle ; a capital of the Ionic order, and a frac
tured painter's palette. At some distance is seen a man
hanging in chains, and a ship foundering at sea ; and to
complete the whole, in the firmament above, is the moon 2
darkened by the death of Sol, who, with his lifeless coursers,
lies stretched upon a cloud, his chariot-wheels broken, and
his source of light extinguished.
1 A pohtical print published in September, 1762, in favour of Lord Bute's
party, which, being merely temporary, was not thought of consequence
enough to appear in this collection.
* It is well known that the moon receives her light from the sun.
R2

244 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
Thus, however jumbled together may the objects in this
plate be, with a design of exposing the absurdities of some
ancient paintings ; they serve to put us in mind that life is
little better than a jumble of incidents, that the end of all
things approaches, and that a day will sooner or later come,
when Time itself shall be no more.
Memento Mori1.

FROM MR. J. IRELAND.
" The labours of this great painter to the passions are now
at an end; and this is the last page of his eventful and
instructive histories. — Those which he had formed into a
series, added to the single prints, portraits, &c. had become
so numerous as to form a large volume. A concluding
plate seemed necessary, and we are told, that a few months
before he was seized with that malady which deprived society
of one of its greatest ornaments, he had in contemplation a
LAST ENGRAVING.
" After a dinner with a few social friends, at his own table,
enjoying " ' The feast of reason, and the flow of soul,'
the board crowned with wine, and each glass circulating
convivial cheerfulness, Hogarth was asked, — ' What will be
the subject of your next print V — ' The end of all
things !' was his reply. ' If that should be the case,'
added one of his friends, ' your business will be finished,
for there will be an end of the painter.' With a look that
conveyed a consciousness of approaching dissolution, and a
deep sigh, he answered, ' There will so ; and therefore, the
1 Remember thy latter end.

the tail-piece. 245
sooner my work is done the better.' With this impulse, he
next day began this plate, and seeming to consider it as a
terminus to his fame, never turned to the right or left
until he arrived at the end of his journey. The aim of this
omega to his alphabet was two-fold ; to bring together
every object which denoted the end of time, and throw a
ridicule upon the bathos and profundity of the ancient
masters. " That the bathos is not confined to the poet, but hath at
sundry times, and in divers manners, been of sovereign use
to the painter, I am well convinced. My opinion was ori
ginally formed upon the inspection of many ancient and
modern pictures, innumerable volumes of ancient and modern
prints, and an annual attendance at the royal exhibition:
it was confirmed by the perusal of some papers on the arts,
which came into my possession by one of those fortunate
accidents which happen to few men above once in their
lives. — Walking some years ago, through Harp-Alley, I
observed a porter carrying an old trunk without a cover, in
which was a little picture, in a broad and deep ebony frame,
a few mutilated pamphlets, a parcel of prints, and an old
manuscript volume bound in vellum. He laid down his
load at a broker's shop ; I inspected it, and seeing the book
inscribed mart, scrib. purchased the whole lot, and joyfully
conveyed my prize home. Eagerly inspecting the contents,
I found the picture was Dutch, and turned to a tint sombre
as the frame ; by the help of clear water I brought out the
colours, — and
"' Oh ! Jephtha, judge of Israel, — what a treasure !'
To have painted it must have been the labour of a long life,
Such a green-stall !— such a cabbage !— a cauliflower !— a
string of Spanish onions !— a bunch of carrots !— a lobster !
—a brass kettle !— and a sun-flower !— I never beheld

246 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
before. So clear ! transparent ! vivid ! It was forcible
as Rembrandt ! brilliant as Rubens ! and, for finishing, —
the most accurate work of Denner ! the most delicate pen
cilling of the Chevalier Vanderwerff ! — compared with this
charming tableau, would appear hasty sketches !
" The pamphlets were German, and touched of the trans
mutation of metals ; to discover which, — who can calculate
the loads of charcoal that have been burnt, — the retorts
that have been burst, — or the heads that have been turned !
That this grand arcanum of nature will at some future day
be revealed, I have no doubt ; and there is little reason to
fear but the benefit will be reaped by this island, — because,
Britain is highly favoured by the gods, — and several great
calculators have clearly proved, that without some such
miraculous assistance, — Britain must be undone by her
enormous national debt.
" The prints were Flemish : — but these subjects are foreign
to my manuscript. First craving pardon for the digression,
to that I proceed :
" By time ', it was turned to the colour of old parchment,
— but that it was written by the righte cunnynge hand of
Martinus Scriblerus, there can be little doubt.
"When he sent some literary memoranda to Arbuthnot2,
he recommended to the doctor 'the recovery of others'
which lay ' straggling about the world.'
" Let it be also remembered, that though this prodigy of
science presented to our English Cervantes numerous tracts,
he might not think that the doctor would have a proper
value for those on painting. That Martinus was a compe
tent judge of the arts, is proved by his fifth chapter on
i « < What shall withstand old Time's devouring hand !
Where's Troy ? and where's the maypole in the Strand ?'
2 " I may be told that this is a mistake, and that it was either to Pope or
Swift. It was the fate of Arbuthnot to twine laurel for the brows of his
friends. I know it was a partnership account, but surely the doctor was first
in the firm.

THE TAIL-PIECE. 247
Sinking in Poetry. Now, as the family of the Scribleri, with
all their alliances and collateral relations, have, time imme
morial, been distinguished for the cacoethes scribendi, of
whatever he was a judge, certes, he would write, and that
which he hath written, I have happily preserved. With a
few extracts ' I present the reader.
" It is entitled, ' Martinus Scriblerus
"'LTEPI BA60Y2;
" ' OR, THE ART OF SINKING IN PAINTING ;'
and thus it is introduced :
" ' THE PROLEGOMENA.
" ' Great and manifold have been the benefits (my dear
countrymen) which Poesy hath derived from that innume
rable army of critics and commentators, who fabricated
fences to keep her in bounds, and bore blazing torches to
irradiate her path. Lamentable is it to consider how few
lights have been held out unto her sister art ; who, not:
withstanding an equal or prior claim, hath been suffered to
wander through her dreary night, with no other illumination
than the glow-worm on the bank, or the ignus fatuus in the
ditches. For the use and service of the poet there is an
ocean of commentary ; while the painter hath no other
stream, in which to slake his thirst for instruction, than
that which creeps among the weeds in the meadow, or gur
gles over the pebbles in the valley.
" ' From intense application to the mysterious tablets of
my great ancestors, for ages professors of astrology and
chemistry in the universities of Germany, I am empowered
to see by anticipation.
" ' For me it is decreed to strike the rock of nature with
1 " Should any lord, knight, esquire, artist, or spirited bookseller, choose
to purchase the whole copy, I am ready to treat with him upon proper
terms.

248 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
the rod of science, and liberate the fountain of truth, whose
waters shall fertilize this ungenial isle. Ye whose well
poized pinions enable you to soar above this our terrestrial
globe, and dip your pencils in the rainbow ! — come, and
contemplate the magic mirror of Martinus Scriblerus.
" ' Conscious am I that this our divine muse, who hath
not unaptly been styled journeywoman to Nature, is now in
a profound sleep : but, in the coming century, she shall
awake from her trance, shake the dust from her many-
coloured mantle, and dazzle the surrounding nations. Blest
with the power of penetrating the cloud of time, which is
impervious to vulgar sight, I see, as in a vision, the won
ders of another age ; and should these lucubrations be neg
lected by my contemporaries, happy am I in the confidence
that by their posterity they will be sought for, as were the
Sybil's leaves, regarded as the oracles of Apollo, and consi
dered as the touchstone of true taste. To the age of whom
they are worthy, and who are worthy of them, I dedicate
these my labours.
" ' The few who have written upon art, have endeavoured
to inculcate simplicity of action, anatomical correctness,
symmetry of parts, harmony of colouring, easy folding of
drapery, and due attention to the disposition of figures.
These can only be classed among the idle dreams of vision
ary speculation ; resign yourselves to my guidance, and
attend unto the lessons of truth.
" ' In every animal there is an original instinct, tending
towards that for which it was by nature designed. In
man, there is a natural bias to the bathos ' ; but he must
be instructed, or rather compelled, into any relish or taste
for what is denominated the sublime.
" ' To prove this my position , show a collection of draw
ings or paintings to a child — it will be irresistibly attracted
by glittering colours, — forced expressions, and grotesque,
1 [I have a kind of alacrity in sinking. Falstaff.]

THE TAIL-PIECE. 249
or what are commonly called caricatured countenances. Let
the savage, who is not vitiated by idle rules, and has never
seen painted canvass, be taken into a picture gallery, — his
natural taste will direct him to similar objects. By what
the artist calls a quiet picture he will quietly pass ; — but
let the figures be crowded, the attitudes extravagant, and
the colours gaudy, — his astonishment and admiration are
ensured. " ' These facts being granted, and they cannot be denied,
why should we not take the genuine undebauched disposi
tion of man, in preference to that ideal nature which hath
misled many famed painters and writers ; of whose fantastic
dogmas I cannot too strongly caution you to beware.
Should you in the course of your early studies have con
tracted any of this ancient erugo, — it is corrosive, — con
sider it as the dross of science, and scatter it in the air,
for with my precepts it cannot coalesce. Ideal beauty is a
childish absurdity. Painting is, or ought to be, an imita
tion of nature, and that can never be a good picture which
representeth things that never did or can exist.'
" After many more pages to the same purport, this great
philosopher divideth his subject. The table of contents to
a few of his chapters, which will give a general idea of his
plan, is hereunto annexed.
" ' Chap. I. Of the Story.
" ' The principal character in your piece should be an illus
trious person ; but as great men may sometimes, for their
recreation and diversion, or worse purposes, be taken up in
mean and trivial matters, in such situations, it is proved,
from many right worthy examples, they may, and ought to
be delineated. The Emperor Domitian should be repre
sented killing flies ; Nero playing upon the fiddle ; Julius
Cffisar kicking a foot-ball ; and Commodus at a bull-baiting.

250 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
" 'Chap. II. Relateth unto the Allegory.
'"To raise an historical picture above vulgar expression,
it should be seasoned with allegory, and elevated with meta
phorical allusions and figures.
" ' Chap. III. Of the Time.
" ' In this there should be variety, and if your story have
not a sufficient number of great and famous persons to ren
der it important and interesting, you may embellish it with
such portraitures as suit your purpose. Their not having
lived in the same age or nation, is of little import.
"'Chap. IV. Of the Machinery.
" ' The machinery, id est, the celestial and infernal powers,
must be brought into your picture on every great or difficult
occasion. This will not only give your delineations a clas
sical and learned air, but account for any wonderful action,
which the world might think your hero could not perform
without supernatural assistance.
" ' Chap. V. Treateth of the Episode.
" ' To vary the pleasure of the spectator, an historical
picture should be diversified with an episode ; especial care
being taken that it have no congruity with the main sub
ject ; for the name deriveth from that which is superadded
to the original plan, and ought no more to appear a part of
it, than an insect appeareth as a part of the animal to which
it adhereth.
" ' Chap. VI. Describeth the nature and end of the
Hyperbole, or Impossible.
" ' This image is of eminent use in giving a cast of gran
deur and greatness to what would, without it, appear trivial
and mean. It excites astonishment ; and the majority of

the tail-piece. 251
mankind being most delighted with that which is most mar
vellous, is a good and sufficient cause for your works being
well strewed with wonders.'
"For the contents of eighteen succeeding chapters, treat
ing of the cumbrous, the inflated, the glittering, the infan
tine, the pun-ical, the vulgar, and sundry other styles, I have
not room ; but quitting the bathos of Martinus Scriblerus,
must proceed unto that of William Hogarth.
" It is well worthy of the title, for a more heterogeneous
compound of ludicrous and serious objects was never dis
played in one print. Some of his images the artist has
gleaned from the common field of the poor company of
punsters ; and for others, hath soared into the airy regions
of mythological allegory. He ascends from an inch of candle
setting fire to a print, to the chariot of the sun, which, with
Apollo Paean, and his three fiery coursers, sinks into endless
night : — mounts, from the cobbler's end, twisted round a
wooden last, to the world's end, elegantly exemplified
by a bursting globe on an alehouse sign. He has contrasted
the worn-out brush with the broken crown ; and opposed to
the empty purse, — a commission of bankruptcy, which,
sanctioned with the great seal of a hero upon a white horse,
is issued and awarded against nature, — by Heaven knows
who ! He has joined the huge cracked bell of the cathedral
to the broken bottle of the tavern ! and set in opposition to
the mutilated column and capital of Ionia, the rope's-end of
a man of war. The bow which, drawn by the old English
archer, gave force fraught with death to the barbed arrow,
is unstrung and broken : — the mutilated firelock, divested of
its tube, shall no more thin the ranks of contending armies :
—the tottering tower, funeral yew, death's-head, cross bones,
and hic jacet of a country churchyard, are opposed by the
hard worn-out besom, blighted oaks, falling post, and un
matched cottage. In what the painters call the sky, we

252 HOGARTH MORALIZED.
have not only the son of Latona, but Luna in a veil : in the
distance, a ship is sinking into the bed of the ocean, and a
gibbet is erected on the shore ; to this, in conformity with
the wise institutions of our polished ancestors, and for the
luxury of those strong-beaked birds that feast their young
with blood, — a lord of the creation is suspended '.
" ' Once, — on our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Stole ere we could effect them :'
now, — his scythe, tube, and hour-glass being broken, his
progress is ended ! his sinews are unstrung ! his hour of
dissolution arrived !— and with those five capital letters, that
have concluded the labours of so many learned authors, and
which, conjoined, form the word finis, 
" ' He ends his mortal coil, and breathes his last :'
" By his will, the great globe itself, and all which it inhe
rits, is bequeathed to chaos, — appointed sole executor:
and this his last act is witnessed by the paiicj;.
" His print of the times, which gave rise to so much
abuse of this wonderful painter and excellent man, is in a
blaze. The palette, on which he spread the varying tints of
many -coloured life, — is broken : — the whip of satire — armed
with which he  " ' dared the rage
Of the bad men of this degenerate age,"
and scourged those that were safe from the law, and laughed
at the gospel: — the whip of satire — divested of its lash, —
lies unheeded on the earth.
" The Book of Nature, in which he was so deeply read,
and from whence he drew all his images, is open at the last
1 " The writer of a modern book of travels, relating the particulars of being
cast away, thus concludeth : ' After having walked eleven hours without
tracing the print of a human foot, to my great comfort and delight, I saw a
man hanging upon a gibbet : my pleasure at this cheering prospect was in
expressible, for it convinced me I was in a civilized country."

THE TAIL-PIECE. 253
page. The characters that compose his pictured tragicome
dies have passed in review before us ; and with the words
engraven on the last leaf of that volume which he so well
studied, I will conclude this ;
"EXEUNT OMNES1." J. I.
1 [The philosophic composure with which our truly great artist set about
this finis to his extraordinary labours, was only consistent with the lasting
good tendency which he felt conscious of having infused into all his most
important works ; considering his amazing talents, and the just and happy
application of them. — Hogarth was, perhaps, the last man upon whom any
one should have attempted to fix those charges of ovei'-weening pride and
absurd vanity with which some persons have endeavoured to blacken his
amiable and hearty character : the proofs of his generosity and confiding
disposition, are, on the contrary, evident and satisfactory. " He gave me,"
says Mr. Walpole, " what few sketches had not been forced from him by his
friends. He had kept no suite himself, and had forgotten several in which he
had been concerned !" How inconsistent this with the charges of vanity or
egotism ! nay the very story told of his walking home through the rain, for
getting that his own carriage was waiting for him at the Lord Mayor's door
— proves that he had nothing of the kind about him. Had Hogarth appeared
otherwise than satisfied with works that gave such unbounded delight to
others, he would have been called a dolt and an idiot, whose demeanour
totally belied those proofs of universal intelligence with which his pictures
abound ; but those who allow a common mechanic to exult over his daily
ploddings, will deny the same natural gratification to works of the very
highest intellectual character — worthy of occupying the eye and the mind
for all time ! " Delightful task to rear the tender thought." 
Still more delightful, in minds of a certain construction, to repress the self-
gratulations of honest genius, and to teach, if possible, the greatest artist that
he must " die before he truly lives." His prices are unmercifully run down,
— he must hear the remarks of every real or pretended critic, who, from good
or bad motives, can get within his studio, and the life of a daily labourer is
much to be preferred, if he possess not a truly magnanimous mind.
Yet still, if, with the Poet,
" A favourite has no friend," 
if a " partial evil" is found in the chilling blasts of envy, — the broad sun
shine of admiration proves his "universal good!" If the whisper of
detraction is brought close to his ear, the loud echo of applause resounds
from afar !
Such was eminently the case with William Hogarth ; his extraordinary
talents would have rendered him second to no one in whatever way he had
12

254

HOGARTH MORALIZED.

happened to apply them : but it is enough for the lovers of ai-t and of sound
morality, that they became devoted to Dramatic Painting in its highest per
fection, that the Muses of Comedy and Tragedy by turns, or in conjunction,
claimed and proved him to be their own ! " He used colours instead of lan
guage," and was the Shakspeare of a profession that must ever be proud of
his immortal name.] J. M.

EPITAPHS ON HOGARTH. 255

EPITAPHS ON HOGARTH.
To the Memory of
William Hogarth ;
Who was such an accurate Observer of Mankind,
That no character escaped him ;
And so happy in expressing his conceptions
By the Strength of his Pencil,
That, as his Own Times never produced a Rival,
Posterity will scarce ever see an Equal to him.
His thoughts were so constantly employed
In the Cause of Truth and Virtue,
That he may be justly ranked amongst the best Moral Authors.
Whilst he faithfully followed Nature through all her varieties,
And exposed, with inimitable skill,
The infinite Follies and Vices of the World,
He was himself an Example of many Virtues :
And when, with Universal Admiration and Applause,
He had Reproved, Instructed, and Delighted,
The Age wherein he lived,
He resigned the Uncommon Gifts which he possessed,
And paid the Great Debt he owed to Nature,
Oct. 27th, 1764.
By the Rev. James Townley l, printed in the Public Ledger, Nov. 19th, 1764.
The hand of him here torpid lies,
That drew the essential Form of Grace ;
Here closed in Death the attentive eyes
That saw the Manners in the Face !
By Dr. Johnson, preserved by Mrs. Piozzi.
1 This eminent literary character was the long-concealed author of the
Farce of High Life Below Stairs, produced in 1759 ; in which year, also, he
was elected Head-Master of Merchant Tailors' School. He materially
assisted Hogarth with Dr. Morell in composing Tlie Analysis of Beauty ; and
is also supposed to have aided Garrick in some of his best dramatic pieces.

256

EPITAPHS ON HOGARTH.

Here lieth the Body
Of William Hogarth, Esq.
Who died October the 26th, 1764,
Aged 67 Years.
Farewell ! great Painter of Mankind,
Who reach'd the noblest point of Art ;
Whose pictured Morals charm the Mind
And through the Eye, correct the Heart.
If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay,
If Nature touch thee, drop a tear ;
If neither move thee, turn away,
For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.
By David Garrick, inscribed on the Monument.

Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London.