[Pg i]

BIOGRAPHICAL
ANECDOTES OF
WILLIAM HOGARTH;

WITH
A CATALOGUE OF HIS WORKS
CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED;
AND OCCASIONAL REMARKS.

[BY JOHN NICHOLS.]

THE THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED AND CORRECTED.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY AND FOR JOHN NICHOLS,
IN RED-LION-PASSAGE, FLEET-STREET.
M DCC LXXXV.

[Pg ii]

CONTENTS

[Pg iii]

MEMORANDUM.

Respect and gratitude having engaged me to compile a memoir of my deceased Master and Patron Mr. Bowyer, in the same performance I included anecdotes of all the eminent persons any way connected with him. A note of about a page's length was allotted to Hogarth. While it was printing, Mr. Walpole's Fourth Volume on the subject of English Painters came out, and was followed by an immediate rage for collecting every scrap of our Artist's designs. Persevering in my enquiries among my friends, I had now amassed so much intelligence relative to these engravings, that it could no longer be crowded into the situation originally meant for it. I was therefore advised to publish it in the form of a sixpenny pamphlet. This intended publication, however, grew up by degrees into a three-shilling book, and, within a year[Pg iv] and a half afterwards, was swelled into almost its present bulk, at the price of six shillings. Such was the origin and progress of the following sheets, which, with many corrections, &c. have now reached a Third Edition.

J. N.

Nov. 10, 1785.

[Pg v]

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The author of these imperfect sheets cannot present them a second time to the world, before he has expressed his gratitude for the extreme candour with which they have been treated by the Monthly Reviewers. If J. N. has not availed himself of all the corrections designed for his service, it is because the able critic who proposes them has been deluded by intelligence manifestly erroneous. J. N. received each particular he has mentioned, in respect to the assistance bestowed on Hogarth while his Analysis was preparing, from Dr. Morell, a gentleman who on that subject could not easily mistake. Implicit confidence ought rather to be reposed in a literary coadjutor to the deceased, than in any consistory of females that ever "mumbled their wisdom over a gossip's bowl." Authors rarely acquaint domestic women with the progress of their writings, or the proportion of aid they solicit from their friends. If it were needful that Dr. Morell should translate a Greek passage[1] for Hogarth, how chanced it that our artist should want to apply what he did not previously understand? I must add, that the sentiments, published by the[Pg vi] Reviewer concerning these Anecdotes, bear no resemblance to the opinion circulated by the cavillers with whom he appears to have had a remote connection. The parties who furnished every circumstance on which he founds his reiterated charges of error and misinformation, are not unknown. Ever since this little work was edited, the people about Mrs. Hogarth have paid their court to her by decrying it as "low, stupid, or false," without the slightest acknowledgement for the sums of money it has conducted to The Golden Head in Leicester Fields. While the talents of the writer alone were questioned by such inadequate judges of literary merit, a defence on his part was quite unnecessary. He has waited, however, with impatience for an opportunity of making some reply to their groundless reflections on his veracity. This purpose he flatters himself will have been completely executed after he has observed that all credentials relative to his disputed assertion shall be ready (as they are at this moment) for the Reviewer's inspection. J. N. cannot indeed dismiss his present advertisement without observing, that though the amiable partialities of a wife may apologize for any contradiction suggested by Mrs. Hogarth herself, the English language is not strong enough to express the contempt he feels in regard to the accumulated censure both of her male and her female Parasites.

J. N.

Nov. 1, 1782.

[Pg vii]

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.

When this pamphlet was undertaken, the Author had no thought of swelling it to it's present bulk; but communicating his design to his friends, they favoured him with various particulars of information. Some of these accommodated themselves to his original plan, if he can be supposed to have had any, but others were more intractable. Still aware of the value even of disjointed materials, which his profession would not afford him leisure to compact into a regular narrative, and conscious that these sheets, rude and imperfect as they are, may serve to promote a publication less unworthy of its subject, he dismisses his present work without any laboured apology for the errors that may be detected in it; claiming, indeed, some merit on account of intelligence, but not the least on the score of arrangement or composition. He takes the same opportunity to observe, that many curious anecdotes of extraordinary persons have been unfortunately lost, because the possessors of those fugitive particulars had not the power of communicating them in proper form, or polished language, and were unwilling to expose them in such a state as these are offered to the world.

May 9, 1781.

[Pg viii]

The ingenious Mr. Crayen of Leipzig

having translated the First Edition of these Anecdotes, &c. into the German Language, dispatched a copy of his work to J. N. attended by the obliging letter here subjoined:

SIR,

Though I have not the honour of being acquainted with you, I hope your goodness will excuse the liberty I take of sending you a German translation of the Biographical Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth you published. Being convinced of the merits of your production, and its usefulness to such collectors of prints and connoisseurs in our country as don't understand the English language, I undertook this translation, and flatter myself you will be pleased to accept of it as a proof of my real esteem for you.

You will find, that I did not always adhere literally to the original, but made some abridgments, alterations, notes, &c. &c. But I hope you will do me the justice to consider, that I wrote for my countrymen, and therefore left out such passages, poems,[Pg ix] anecdotes, &c. &c. as would have been entirely uninteresting to them, and have swelled the volume to no purpose.

As to the typographical performance, I think you will be tolerably satisfied of it. Though the noble art of printing is of German origin, your nation has improved and brought it to the highest pitch of perfection in point of neatness, elegance, and correctness.

I remain, with all possible esteem,

Sir,

Your most obedient

and most humble servant,

A. CRAYEN.

Leipzig in Saxony,
the 29th Jan. 1783.

---

[Pg x]

The following are Translations, by a Friend,
from the Dedication and Preface to
Mr. Crayen's performance.

---

DEDICATION.

To Mr. Gottfried Winkler, in Leipzig;

Honoured and Worthy Friend,

Pardon my presumption in offering you the slender fruit of a few leisure hours. Receive it with your wonted kindness, and judge of it not by the trifling value of the work, but by the intention of its Author, whose most zealous wish has long been to find an opportunity of publickly offering you, however small, a memorial of his respect and friendship.

If my labour in adding a mite towards the diffusion of the knowledge of the Arts, is honoured with the approbation of so enlightened a Connoisseur, I shall feel myself completely rewarded.

[Pg xi]

Receive at the same time my sincerest thanks for the obliging communication of your Copy of Hogarth's prints, of which, in my translation, I have more than once availed myself.

Live, honoured Sir, many days; happy in the bosom of your worthy family, in the circle of your friends, and in the enjoyment of those treasures of the Arts you have collected with such distinguished taste. Remain also a friend of

Yours, &c.

The Translator.

[Pg xii]

PREFACE.

To the German Reader.

Collectors of the Fine Arts were already possessed of Catalogues and Memoires Raisonnées of the engravings of many great masters, for which their acknowledgements are due to the industry of a Gersaint, a Jombert, a Hecquet, a Vertue, a de Winter, &c. &c.

But a similar illustration of Hogarth's copper-plates was still wanting; though it may be asked what works have a juster claim to a distinguished place in a compleat collection, than those of this instructive moral painter, this creative genius?

On this account, it is presumed that the German Lover of the Arts will deem himself indebted to the Translator, for giving him, in his own tongue, a concise and faithful version of a book that has lately made its appearance in London, under the title of "Biographical Anecdotes of W. Hogarth, and a Catalogue of his Works chronologically arranged."

[Pg xiii]

The Compiler as well as Editor of this work is Mr. John Nichols, a Printer and Bookseller in London, who, by much reading, and an intimate acquaintance with the Arts and Literature of his Country, has honourably distinguished himself among his professional brethren. How modestly he himself judges of this his useful performance, appears from his preface to the work.

It is true, Mr. Horace Walpole, who possesses perhaps the compleatest collection of the prints of this Master, some years ago published a Catalogue of them; but this is only to be found in his work, intituled, "Anecdotes of Painting in England collected by G. Vertue, and published by H. Walpole," a performance consisting of four volumes in 4to, too costly for many collectors, and inconvenient for others. Moreover all that is to be found there relative to Hogarth, is not only included in Mr. Nichols's publication, but is also improved by considerable additions, so that the curious reader has Walpole's Catalogue incorporated with the present work.

The liberty of abridgement, as mentioned in the title, is ventured only in regard to such diffuse illustrations, repetitions, anecdotes, and local stories, as would be alone interesting to an Englishman; in a word, in such parts as do not immediately contribute to the illustration of Hogarth's plates, and would have tired the patience of the German reader. Of the verses affixed to each copper-plate the first and last words only are given, as those afford sufficient indication[Pg xiv] for a collector who wishes to become acquainted with any particular print. How far some remarks of the Translator are useful, or otherwise, is left to the indulgent decision of Judges in the Arts.

He must not however forget it is his duty to acknowledge the goodness of old Mr. Hansen of Leipsig. This gentleman's readiness in permitting him to examine his excellent collection of the engravings of British artists, for the purpose of comparing and illustrating several passages in the original of this work, claims his warmest thanks, and a public acknowledgement.

Leipsig, February 1783.

The Translator.

[Pg xv]

List of Gentlemen, Artists, &c. who furnished incidental intelligence to the Author of this Work.

Mr. Ashby.
Mr. Basire.
Mr. Baynes.
Mr. Belchier—dead.
Mr. Bindley.
Mr. Birch.
Mr. Bowle.
Mr. Braithwaite.
Mr. Browning.
Lord Charlemont.
Mr. Charlton.
Mr. Cole—dead.
Mr. Colman.
Mr. Coxe.
Mr. Dodsley.
Dr. Ducarel—dead.
Mr. Duncombe.
Mr. Edwards.
Mr. Forrest—dead.
Mr. Foster—dead.
Mr Goodison.
Mrs. Gostling.
Mr. Gough.
Mr. Hall.
Sir John Hawkins.
Mr. Henderson.
Mrs. Hogarth.
Dr. Hunter—dead.
Mr. S. Ireland.
Dr. Johnson—dead.
Mr. Keate.
Bishop of Kilala.
Mr. Lane.
Mrs. Lewis.
Mr. Livesay.
Dr. Lort.
Mr. Lyon.
Mr. Major.
Mr. Malone.
Dr. Monkhouse.
Dr. Morell—dead.
Mr. Morrison.
Mr. Pinkerton.
Mr. Rayner.
Mr. Reed.
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Mr. Richards.
Mr. Rogers—dead.
Mr. Rumsey.
Mr. Steevens.
Mr. Thane.
Mr. Thomas.
Mr. Tyers.
Mr. Waldron.
Mr. Walker.
Mr. J. C. Walker.
Mr. Walpole.
Dr. Warton.
Mr. Way.
Mr. Welch—dead.
Mr. Whately.
Mr. B. White.
Mr. H. White.
Mr. Wilkes.
Mr. Williams.
Dr. Wright.

[Pg xvi]

COLLECTORS of HOGARTH.

Mr. Ayton.[1]
Mr. Bedford.
Mr. Bellamy.
Mr. Clare.
Mr. Crickitt.
Dr. Ducarel.[2]
Lord Exeter.
Mr. Foster.[3]
Mr. Goodison.
Mr. Gulston.
Sir John Hawkins, K^t.
Mr. Henderson.[4]
Mr. Ireland.
Dr. Lort.
Mr. Morrison.
Mr. Rogers.[5]
Mr. Steevens.
Mr. Walpole.
Mr. Windham .[6]

[Pg xvii]

Extract from the Daily Advertiser,
January 27, 1783.

"HOGARTH'S ORIGINAL WORKS.

"As an opinion generally prevails, that the genuine impressions of Hogarth's works are very bad, and the plates retouched; Mrs. Hogarth is under the necessity of acquainting the public in general, and the admirers of her deceased husband's works in particular, that it has been owing to a want of proper attention in the conducting this work for some years past, that the impressions in general have not done justice to the condition of the plates; and she has requested some gentlemen most eminent in the art of engraving, to inspect the plates, who have given the following opinion:

"London, Jan. 21, 1783.

"We, whose names are underwritten, having carefully examined the copper-plates published by the late Mr. Hogarth, are fully convinced that they have not been retouched since his death.

"FRANCIS BARTOLOZZI.
WM. WOOLLET.[1]
WM. WYNNE RYLAND.[2]

[Pg xviii]

"N. B. All[3] the original works are now properly and well printed, and to be had of Mrs. Hogarth, at her house at The Golden Head, in Leicester-Fields."

This is one of the most extraordinary testimonials ever laid before the public. Hogarth died in 1764. Since that time his plates have been injudiciously and unmercifully worked, so as to leave no means of ascertaining, through any observation or process of art, the exact period when they were last repaired. Notwithstanding this difficulty, in the year 1783, we find several engravers of eminence declaring their full conviction on the subject. All we can do is, to suppose their confidence was grounded on the veracity of Mrs. Hogarth. I believe the parties as to the fact; and yet it was impossible for Messieurs B. W. and R. to be adequate judges of the truth to which they have set their names as witnesses.

[Pg xix]

Prints published by Mr. Hogarth: Genuine Impressions[1] of which are to be had at Mrs. Hogarth's House in Leicester Fields, 1782.

N. B. Any person purchasing the whole together may have them delivered bound, at the Price of Thirteen Guineas; a sufficient Margin will be left for framing.—The Analysis of Beauty, in Quarto, may also be had, with two explanatory Prints, Price 15 Shillings.

[Pg xx]

Credite Posteri!

In the years 1781, 1782, &c. the following Pieces of Hogarth are known to have been sold at the prices annexed.

[Pg 1]

HOGARTH.

This great and original Genius is said by Dr. Burn to have been the descendant of a family originally from Kirkby Thore,[1] in Westmoreland: and I am assured that his grandfather was a plain yeoman, who possessed a small tenement in the vale of Bampton, a village about 15 miles North of Kendal, in that county. He had three sons. The eldest assisted his father in farming, and succeeded to his little freehold. The second settled in Troutbeck, a village eight miles North West of Kendal, and was remarkable for his talent at provincial poetry.[2] The[Pg 2] third, educated at St. Bee's, who had kept a school in the same county, and appears to have a man of[Pg 3] some learning, went early to London, where he resumed his original occupation of a school-master in[Pg 4] Ship Court in The Old Bailey, and was occasionally employed as a corrector of the press. A Latin letter, from Mr. Richard Hogarth, in 1697 (preserved among the MSS. in The British Museum, N° 4277. 50.) relates to a book which had been printed with great expedition. But the letter shall speak for itself.[3]

[Pg 5]

A Dictionary in Latin and English, which he composed for the use of schools,[4] still exists in MS. He married in London; and our Hero, and his sisters Mary and Anne, are believed to have been the only product of the marriage.

William Hogarth[5] it said (under the article Thornhill in the Biographia Britannica) to have[Pg 6] been born in 1698, in the parish of St. Bartholomew,[6] London, to which parish, it is added, he was afterwards a benefactor. The outset of his life, however, was unpromising. "He was bound," says Mr. Walpole, "to a mean engraver of arms on plate." Hogarth probably chose this occupation, as it required some skill in drawing, to which his genius was particularly turned, and which he contrived assiduously to cultivate. His master, it since appears, was Mr. Ellis Gamble, a silversmith of eminence, who resided in Cranbourn-street, Leicester-fields. In this profession it is not unusual to bind apprentices to the single branch of engraving arms and cyphers on every species of metal; and in that particular department of the business young Hogarth was placed;[7] "but, before his time was expired,[Pg 7] he felt the impulse of genius, and that it directed him to painting."

During his apprenticeship, he set out one Sunday, with two or three companions, on an excursion to Highgate. The weather being hot, they went into a public-house, where they had not been long, before a quarrel arose between some persons in the same room. One of the disputants struck the other on the head with a quart pot, and cut him very much. The blood running down the man's face, together with the agony of the wound, which had distorted his features into a most hideous grin, presented Hogarth, who shewed himself thus early "apprised of the mode Nature had intended he should pursue," with too laughable a subject to be overlooked. He drew out his pencil, and produced on the spot one of the most ludicrous figures that ever was seen. What rendered this piece the more valuable was, that it exhibited an exact likeness of the man, with the portrait of his antagonist, and the figures in caricature of the principal persons gathered round him. This anecdote was furnished by one of his fellow apprentices then present, a person of indisputable character, and who continued his intimacy with Hogarth long after they both grew up into manhood.

"His apprenticeship was no sooner expired," says Mr. Walpole, "than he entered into the academy in St. Martin's Lane, and studied drawing from the life, in which he never attained to great excellence.[Pg 8] It was character, the passions, the soul, that his genius was given him to copy. In colouring he proved no greater a master: his force lay in expression, not in tints and chiaro scuro."

To a man who by indefatigable industry and uncommon strength of genius has been the artificer of his own fame and fortune, it can be no reproach to have it said that at one period he was not rich. It has been asserted, and we believe with good foundation, that the skill and assiduity of Hogarth were, even in his servitude, a singular assistance to his own family, and to that of his master. It happened, however, that when he was first out of his time, he certainly was poor. The ambition of indigence is ever productive of distress. So it fared with Hogarth, who, while he was furnishing himself with materials for subsequent perfection, felt all the contempt which penury could produce. Being one day distressed to raise so trifling a sum as twenty shillings, in order to be revenged of his landlady, who strove to compel him to payment, he drew her as ugly as possible, and in that single portrait gave marks of the dawn of superior genius.[8] This story I had once supposed to be founded on certainty; but since, on other authority, have been assured, that had such an accident ever happened to him, he would not have failed to talk of it afterwards, as he was always[Pg 9] fond of contrasting the necessities of his youth with the affluence of his maturer age. He has been heard to say of himself, "I remember the time when I have gone moping into the city with scarce a shilling in my pocket; but as soon as I had received ten guineas there for a plate, I have returned home, put on my sword, and sallied out again, with all the confidence of a man who had ten thousand pounds in his pocket." Let me add, that my first authority may be to the full as good as my second.

How long he continued in obscurity we cannot exactly learn; but the first piece in which he distinguished himself as a painter, is supposed to have been a representation of Wanstead Assembly.[9] In this are introduced portraits of the first earl Tylney, his lady, their children, tenants, &c. The faces were said to be extremely like, and the colouring is rather better than in some of his late and more highly finished performances.

From the date of the earliest plate that can be ascertained to be the work of Hogarth, it may be presumed[Pg 10] that he began business, on his own account, at least as early as the year 1720.

His first employment seems to have been the engraving of arms and shop-bills. The next step was to design and furnish plates for booksellers; and here we are fortunately supplied with dates.[10] Thirteen folio prints, with his name to each, appeared in "Aubry de la Motraye's Travels," in 1723; seven smaller prints for "Apuleius' Golden Ass" in 1724; fifteen head-pieces to "Beaver's Military Punishments of the Ancients," and five frontispieces for the translation of Cassandra, in five volumes, 12°, 1725; seventeen cuts for a duodecimo edition of Hudibras (with Butler's head) in 1726; two for "Perseus and Andromeda," in 1730; two for Milton [the date uncertain]; and a variety of others between 1726 and 1733.

"No symptom of genius," says Mr. Walpole, "dawned in those plates. His Hudibras was the first of his works that marked him as a man above the common; yet, what made him then noticed, now surprises us, to find so little humour in an undertaking so congenial to his talents."—It is certain that he often lamented to his friends the having parted with his property in the prints of the large Hudibras, without ever having had an opportunity to improve them. They were purchased by Mr. Philip Overton,[11][Pg 11] at the Golden Buck, near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-Street; and still remain in the possession of his successor Mr. Sayer.

Mr. Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornhill was one of his earliest patrons. I had been told that he bought many a plate from Hogarth by the weight of the copper; but am only certain that this occurrence happened in a single instance, when the elder Mr. Bowles of St. Paul's Church-yard offered, over a bottle, half a crown a pound for a plate just then completed. This circumstance was within the knowledge of Dr. Ducarel.—Our artist's next friend in that line was Mr. Philip Overton, who paid him a somewhat better price for his labour and ingenuity.

When Mr. Walpole speaks of Hogarth's early performances, he observes, that they rose not above the labours of the people who are generally employed by booksellers. Lest any reader should inadvertently suppose this candid writer designed the minutest reflection on those artists to whom the decoration of modern volumes is confided, it is necessary to observe, that his account of Hogarth, &c. was printed off above ten years ago, before the names of Cipriani, Angelica, Bartolozzi, Sherwin, and Mortimer were found at the bottom of any plates designed for the ornament of poems, or dramatic pieces.

"On the success, however, of those plates," Mr. Walpole says, "he commenced painter, a painter of[Pg 12] portraits; the most ill-suited employment imaginable to a man whose turn certainly was not flattery, nor his talent adapted to look on vanity without a sneer. Yet his facility in catching a likeness, and the method he chose of painting families and conversations in small, then a novelty, drew him prodigious business for some time. It did not last, either from his applying to the real bent of his disposition, or from his customers apprehending that a satirist was too formidable a confessor for the devotees of self-love." There are still many family pictures by Mr. Hogarth existing, in the style of serious conversation-pieces. He was not however lucky in all his resemblances, and has sometimes failed where a crowd of other artists have succeeded. The whole-length of Mr. Garrick sitting at a table, with his wife behind him taking the pen out of his hand,[12] confers no honour on the painter or the persons represented.[13] He has certainly missed the character of our late Roscius's countenance while undisturbed by passion; but was more lucky in seizing his features when aggravated by terror, as in the tent scene of King Richard III. It is by no means astonishing, that the elegant symmetry of Mrs. Garrick's form should have evaded the efforts[Pg 13] of one to whose ideas la basse nature was more familiar than the grace inseparable from those who have been educated in higher life. His talents, therefore, could do little justice to a pupil of Lady Burlington.

What the prices of his portraits were, I have strove in vain to discover; but suspect they were originally very low, as the people who are best acquainted with them chuse to be silent on that subject.

In the Bee, vol. V. p. 552. and also in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. IV. p. 269. are the following verses to Mr. Hogarth, on Miss F.'s picture, 1734.

"To Chloe's picture you such likeness give,
The animated canvas seems to live;
The tender breasts with wanton heavings move,
And the soft sparkling eyes inspire with love:
While I survey each feature o'er and o'er,
I turn Idolater, and paint adore:
Fondly I here can gaze without a fear,
That, Chloe, to my love you'd grow severe;
That in your Picture, as in Life, you'd turn
Your eyes away, and kill me with your scorn:
No, here at least with transport I can see
Your eyes with softness languishing on me.
While, Chloe, this I boast, with scornful heart
Nor rashly censure Hogarth, or his art,
Who all your Charms in strongest Light has laid,
And kindly thrown your Pride and Scorn in Shade."

At Rivenhall, in Essex, the seat of Mr. Western, is a family picture, by Hogarth of Mr. Western and his mother (who was a daughter of Sir Anthony[Pg 14] Shirley), Chancellor Hoadly, Archdeacon Charles Plumptre, the Rev. Mr. Cole of Milton near Cambridge, and Mr. Henry Taylor the Curate there,[14] 1736.

In the gallery of the late Mr. Cole of Milton, was also a small whole-length picture of Mr. Western,[15] by Hogarth, a striking resemblance. He is drawn sitting in his Fellow-Commoner's habit, and square cap with a gold tassel, in his chamber at Clare Hall, over the arch towards the river; and our artist, as the chimney could not be expressed, has drawn a cat sitting near it, agreeable to his humour, to shew the situation.

"When I sat to him," says Mr. Cole, "near fifty years ago, the custom of giving vails to servants was not discontinued. On my taking leave of our painter at the door, and his servant's opening it or the coach door, I cannot tell which, I offered him a small gratuity; but the man very politely refused it, telling me it would be as much as the loss of his place, if his master knew it. This was so uncommon, and so liberal in a man of Mr. Hogarth's profession at that time of day, that it much struck me, as nothing of the sort had happened to me before."

[Pg 15]

It was likewise Mr. Hogarth's custom to sketch out on the spot any remarkable face which particularly struck him, and of which he wished to preserve the remembrance. A gentleman still living informs me, that being once with our painter at the Bedford Coffee-house, he observed him to draw something with a pencil on his nail. Enquiring what had been his employment, he was shewn the countenance (a whimsical one) of a person who was then at a small distance.

It happened in the early part of Hogarth's life, that a nobleman, who was uncommonly ugly and deformed, came to sit to him for his picture. It was executed with a skill that did honour to the artist's abilities; but the likeness was rigidly observed, without even the necessary attention to compliment or flattery. The peer, disgusted at this counterpart of his dear self, never once thought of paying for a reflector that would only insult him with his deformities. Some time was suffered to elapse before the artist applied for his money; but afterwards many applications were made by him (who had then no need of a banker) for payment, without success. The painter, however, at last hit upon an expedient, which he knew must alarm the nobleman's pride, and by that means answer his purpose. It was couched in the following card:

"Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord ——; finding that he does not mean to have the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of[Pg 16] Mr. H.'s necessity for the money; if, therefore, his lordship does not send for it in three days, it will be disposed of, with the addition of a tail, and some other little appendages, to Mr. Hare, the famous wild-beast man; Mr. H. having given that gentleman a conditional promise of it for an exhibition-picture, on his lordship's refusal."

This intimation had the desired effect. The picture was sent home, and committed to the flames.

To the other anecdotes of this comic Painter may be added the following. Its authenticity must apologize for its want of other merit.

A certain old Nobleman, not remarkably generous, having sent for Hogarth, desired he would represent, in one of the compartments on a staircase, Pharaoh and his Host drowned in the Red Sea; but at the same time gave our artist to understand, that no great price would be given for his performance. Hogarth agreed. Soon after, he waited on his employer for payment, who seeing that the space allotted for the picture had only been daubed over with red, declared he had no idea of paying a painter when he had proceeded no further than to lay his ground. "Ground!" said Hogarth, "there is no ground in the case, my lord. The red you perceive, is the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his Host are drowned as you desired, and cannot be made objects of sight, for the ocean covers them all."

Mr. Walpole has remarked, that if our artist "indulged his spirit of ridicule in personalities, it never proceeded beyond sketches and drawings,"[Pg 17] and wonders "that he never, without intention, delivered the very features of any identical person." But this elegant writer, who may be said to have received his education in a Court, perhaps had few opportunities of acquaintance among the low popular characters with which Hogarth occasionally peopled his scenes.[16] The Friend to whom I owe this remark was assured by an ancient gentleman of unquestionable veracity and acuteness of observation, that almost all the personages who attend the levee of the Rake were undoubted portraits; and that, in Southwark Fair and the Modern Midnight Conversation, as many more were discoverable. In the former plate he pointed out Essex the dancing-master; and in the latter, as well as in the second plate to the Rake's Progress, Figg the prize-fighter.[17] He mentioned several others by name, from his immediate knowledge both of the painter's design and the characters represented; but the rest of the particulars, by which he supported his assertions, have escaped the memory of my informant. I am also assured, that while Hogarth was painting the Rake's Progress, he had a summer residence at Isleworth; and never failed to question the company who came to see these pictures, if they knew for whom one or another figure[Pg 18] was designed. When they guessed wrong, he set them right.

Mr. Walpole has a sketch in oil, given to him by Hogarth, who intended to engrave it. It was done at the time when the House of Commons appointed a committee to inquire into the cruelties exercised on prisoners in the The Fleet, to extort money from them. "The scene," he says, "is the committee; on the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half-starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance, that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn for Iago in the moment of detection. Villainy, fear, and conscience, are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance; his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes. If this was a portrait, it is the most striking that ever was drawn; if it was not, it is still finer." The portrait was that of Bambridge[18] the warden of The[Pg 19] Fleet; and the sketch was taken in the beginning of the year 1729, when Bambridge and Huggins (his predecessor)[19] were under examination. Both were declared "notoriously guilty of great breaches of trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanors;" both were sent to Newgate; and Bambridge was disqualified by act of parliament.[20] The son[21] of Huggins was possessed of a valuable[Pg 20] painting from this sketch, and also of a scene in the Beggar's Opera; both of them full of real portraits. On the dispersion of his effects, the latter was purchased by the Rev. Dr. Monkhouse of Queen's College, Oxford. It is in a gilt frame, with a bust of Gay at the top. It's companion, whose present possessor I have not been able to trace out, had, in like manner, that of Sir Francis Page, one of the judges, remarkable for his severity;[22] with a halter round his neck.

[Pg 21]

The Duke of Leeds has also an original scene in the Beggar's Opera, painted by Hogarth. It is that in[Pg 22] which Lucy and Polly are on their knees, before their respective fathers, to intercede for the life of the hero of the piece. All the figures are either known or supposed to be portraits. If I am not misinformed, the late Sir Thomas Robinson (as well known by the name of Long Sir Thomas) is standing in one of the side-boxes. Macheath, unlike his spruce representative on our present stage, is a slouching bully; and Polly appears happily disencumbered of such a hoop as the daughter of Peachum[Pg 23] within our younger memories has worn. His Grace gave 35 l. for this picture at Mr. Rich's auction. Another copy of the same scene was bought by the late Sir William Saunderson; and is now in the possession of Sir Henry Gough. Mr. Walpole has a painting of a scene in the same piece, where Macheath is going to execution. In this also the likenesses of Walker, and Miss Fenton afterwards Dutchess of Bolton (the original Macheath and Polly), are preserved.

In the year 1726, when the affair of Mary Tofts, the rabbit-breeder of Godalming, engaged the public attention, a few of our principal surgeons subscribed their guinea a-piece to Hogarth, for an engraving from a ludicrous sketch he had made on that very popular subject. This plate, amongst other portraits, contains that of the notorious St. André, the anatomist to the royal household, and in high credit as a surgeon. The additional celebrity of this man arose either from fraud or ignorance, perhaps from a due mixture of both. It was supported, however, afterwards, by the reputation of a dreadful crime. His imaginary wealth, in spite of these disadvantages, to the last insured him a circle of flatterers, even though, at the age of fourscore, his conversation was offensive to modest ears, and his grey hairs were rendered still more irreverend by repeated acts of untimely lewdness.[23] A particular description of[Pg 24] this plate will be given in the future catalogue of Hogarth's works.

In 1727, Hogarth agreed with Morris, an upholsterer, to furnish him with a design on canvas, representing the element of Earth, as a pattern for tapestry. The work not being performed to the satisfaction of Morris, he refused to pay for it; and our artist sued him for the money. This suit (which was tried before Lord Chief Justice Eyre at Westminster, May 28, 1728) was determined in favour of Hogarth. The brief for the defendant in the cause, is preserved below.[24]

[Pg 25]
[Pg 26]

In 1730, Mr. Hogarth married the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill,[25] by whom he had no child.[Pg 27] This union, indeed, was a stolen one, and consequently without the approbation of Sir James, who, considering the youth of his daughter, then barely eighteen, and the slender finances of her husband, as yet an obscure artist,[26] was not easily reconciled to the match. Soon after this period, however, he began his Harlot's Progress (the coffin in the last plate is inscribed September 2, 1731); and was advised by Lady Thornhill to have some of the scenes in it placed in the way of his father-in-law. Accordingly, one morning early, Mrs. Hogarth undertook to convey several of them into his dining-room. When he arose, he enquired from whence they came; and being told by whom they were introduced, he cried out, "Very well; the man who can furnish representations like these, can also maintain a wife without a portion." He designed this remark as an excuse for keeping his purse-strings close; but, soon after, became both reconciled and generous to the young couple.

Our artist's reputation was so far established in 1731, that it drew forth a poetical compliment from Mr. Mitchell, in the epistle already quoted.

An allegorical cieling by Sir James Thornhill is at the house of the late Mr. Huggins, at Headley Park, Hants. The subject of it is the story of Zephyrus and Flora; and the figure of a Satyr and some others were painted by Hogarth.

[Pg 28]

In 1732 (the year in which he was one of the party who made A Tour by land and Water, which will be duly noticed in the Catalogue) he ventured to attack Mr. Pope, in a plate called "The Man of Taste;" containing a view of the Gate of Burlington-house; with Pope whitewashing it, and bespattering the Duke of Chandos's coach.[27] This plate was intended as a satire on the translator of Homer, Mr. Kent the architect, and the Earl of Burlington.[Pg 29] It was fortunate for Hogarth that he escaped the lash of the former. Either Hogarth's obscurity at that time was his protection, or the bard was too prudent to exasperate a painter who had already given such proof of his abilities for satire. What must he have felt who could complain of the "pictured shape" prefixed to Gulliveriana, Pope Alexander's Supremacy and Infallibility examined, &c. by Ducket, and other pieces, had our artist undertaken to express in colours a certain transaction recorded by Cibber?

Soon after his marriage, Hogarth had summer-lodgings at South-Lambeth; and being intimate with Mr. Tyers, contributed to the improvement of The Spring Gardens at Vauxhall, by the hint of embellishing them with paintings, some of which were the suggestions of his own truly comic pencil. Among these were the "Four parts of the Day," copied by Hayman from the designs of our artist. The scenes of "Evening" and "Night" are still there; and portraits of Henry VIII. and Anne Bullen once adorned the old great room on the right hand of the entry into the gardens. For his assistance, Mr. Tyers gratefully presented him with a gold ticket of admission for himself and his friends, inscribed

in perpetuam beneficii memoriam.

This ticket, now in the possession of his widow, is still occasionally made use of.

In 1733 his genius became conspicuously known. The third scene of his "Harlot's Progress" introduced him to the notice of the great. At a board[Pg 30] of Treasury which was held a day or two after the appearance of that print, a copy of it was shewn by one of the lords, as containing, among other excellencies, a striking likeness of Sir John Gonson.[28] It[Pg 31] gave universal satisfaction; from the Treasury each[Pg 32] lord repaired to the print-shop for a copy of it, and Hogarth rose completely into fame. This anecdote was related to Mr. Huggins by Christopher Tilson, esq. one of the four chief clerks in the Treasury, and at that period under-secretary of state. He died August 25, 1742, after having enjoyed the former of these offices fifty-eight years. I should add, however, that Sir John Gonson is not here introduced to be made ridiculous, but is only to be considered as the image of an active magistrate identified.

The familiarity of the subject, and the propriety of it's execution, made the "Harlot's Progress" tasted by all ranks of people. Above twelve hundred[Pg 33] names were entered in our artist's subscription-book. It was made into a pantomime by Theophilus Cibber; and again represented on the stage, under the title of The Jew decoyed, or a Harlot's Progress, in a Ballad Opera. Fan-mounts were likewise engraved, containing miniature representations of all the six plates. These were usually printed off with red ink, three compartments on one side, and three on the other.[29]

The ingenious Abbé Du Bos has often complained, that no history-painter of his time went through a series of actions, and thus, like an historian, painted the successive fortune of an hero, from the cradle to the grave. What Du Bos wished to see done, Hogarth performed. He launches out his young adventurer a simple girl upon the town, and conducts her through all the vicissitudes of wretchedness to a premature death. This was painting to the understanding and to the heart; none had ever before made the pencil subservient to the purposes of morality and instruction; a book like this is fitted to every soil and every observer, and he that runs may read. Nor was the success of Hogarth confined to his persons. One of his excellencies consisted in what may be termed the furniture[30] of his pieces; for[Pg 34] as in sublime and historical representations the fewer trivial circumstances are permitted to divide the spectator's attention from the principal figures, the greater is their force; so in scenes copied from familiar life, a proper variety of little domestic images contributes to throw a degree of verisimilitude on the whole. "The Rake's levee-room," says Mr. Walpole, "the nobleman's dining-room, the apartments of the husband and wife in Marriage Alamode, the Alderman's parlour, the bed-chamber, and many others, are the history of the manners of the age."

It may also be observed, that Hogarth, both in the third and last plate of the Harlot's Progress, has appropriated a name to his heroine which belonged to a well-known wanton then upon the town. The Grub-street Journal for August 6, 1730, giving an account of several prostitutes who were taken up, informs us that "the fourth was Kate Hackabout (whose brother was lately hanged at Tyburn), a woman noted in and about the hundreds of Drury, &c."

In 1735 our artist lost his mother, as appears by the following extract from an old Magazine: "June[Pg 35] 11, 1735. Died Mrs. Hogarth, mother to the celebrated painter, of a fright from the fire which happened on the 9th, in Cecil Court, St. Martin's Lane, and burnt thirteen houses;[31] amongst others, one belonging to John Huggins, esq. late Warden of The Fleet, was greatly damaged."

The "Rake's Progress" (published in the same year, and sold at Hogarth's house, the Golden Head in Leicester Fields), though "perhaps superior, had not," as Mr. Walpole observes, "so much success, from want of novelty; nor is the print of the arrest equal in merit to the others.[32]

"The curtain, however," says he, "was now drawn aside, and his genius stood displayed in its full lustre. From time to time our artist continued to give those works that would be immortal, if the nature of his art will allow it. Even the receipts for his subscriptions had wit in them. Many of his plates he engraved himself, and often expunged faces etched by his assistants, when they had not done justice to his ideas. Not content with shining in a path untrodden before, he was ambitious of distinguishing himself as a painter of[Pg 36] history; and in 1736 presented to the hospital of St. Bartholomew, of which he had been appointed a governor,[33] a painting of the Pool of Bethesda, and another of the Good Samaritan. But the genius that had entered so feelingly into the calamities and crimes of familiar life, deserted him in a walk that called for dignity and grace. The burlesque turn of his mind mixed itself with the most serious subjects. In the Pool of Bethesda, a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man that sought the same celestial remedy; and in his Danae [for which the Duke of Ancaster paid 60 guineas] the old nurse tries a coin of the golden shower with her teeth, to see if it is true gold. Both circumstances are justly thought, but rather too ludicrous. It is a much more capital fault that Danae herself is a mere nymph of Drury. He seems to have conceived no higher degree of beauty." Dr. Parsons also, in his Lectures on Physiognomy, 410. p. 58, says, "Thus yielded Danae to the Golden Shower, and thus was her passion painted by the ingenious Mr. Hogarth."

The novelty and excellence of Hogarth's performances soon tempted the needy artist and print-dealer[Pg 37] to avail themselves of his designs,[34] and rob him of the advantages which he was entitled to derive from them. This was particularly the case with the "Midnight Conversation," the "Harlot's" and "Rake's" Progresses,[35] and the rest of his early works. To put a stop to depredations like these on the property of himself and others, and to secure the emoluments resulting from his own labours, as Mr. Walpole observes, he applied to the legislature, and obtained an act of parliament, 8 George II. chap. 3°, to vest an exclusive right in designers and engravers, and to restrain the multiplying of copies of their works without the consent of the artist.[36][Pg 38]

This statute was drawn by his friend Mr. Huggins,[37] who took for his model the eighth of Queen Anne, in favour of literary property; but it was not so accurately executed as entirely to remedy the evil; for, in a cause founded on it, which came before Lord Hardwicke in Chancery, that excellent Lawyer determined[Pg 39] that no assignee, claiming under an assignment from the original inventor, could take any benefit by it. Hogarth, immediately after the passing the act, published a small print, with emblematical devices, and the following inscription expressing his gratitude to the three branches of the legislature:

"In humble and grateful acknowledgment
Of the grace and goodness of the LEGISLATURE,
Manifested
In the ACT of PARLIAMENT for the Encouragement
Of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, &c.
Obtained
By the Endeavours, and almost at the sole Expence,
Of the Designer of this Print in the Year 1735;
By which
Not only the Professors of those Arts were rescued
From the Tyranny, Frauds, and Piracies
Of Monopolizing Dealers,
And legally entitled to the Fruits of their own Labours;
But Genius and Industry were also prompted
By the most noble and generous Inducements to exert themselves;
Emulation was excited,
Ornamental Compositions were better understood;
And every Manufacture, where Fancy has any concern,
Was gradually raised to a Pitch of Perfection before unknown;
Insomuch, that those of Great-Britain
Are at present the most Elegant
And the most in Esteem of any in Europe."

This plate he afterwards made to serve for a receipt for subscriptions, first to a print of an "Election Entertainment;" and afterwards for three prints[Pg 40] more, representing the "polling for members for parliament, canvassing for votes, and chairing the members." The royal crown at the top of this receipt is darting its rays on mitres, coronets, the Chancellor's great seal, the Speaker's hat, &c. &c. and on a scroll is written, "An Act for the Encouragement of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching, by vesting the Properties thereof in the Inventors and Engravers, during the Time therein mentioned." It was "Designed, etched, and published as the Act directs, by W. Hogarth, March 20, 1754." After Hogarth's death, the legislature, by Stat. 7 Geo. III. chap. 38. granted to his widow a further exclusive term of twenty years in the property of her husband's works.

In 1736 he had the honour of being distinguished in a masterly poem of a congenial Humourist. The Dean of St. Patrick's, in his "Description of the Legion Club," after pourtraying many characters with all the severity of the most pointed satire, exclaims,

"How I want thee, humorous Hogarth!
Thou, I hear, a pleasant rogue art!
Were but you and I acquainted,
Every monster should be painted:
You should try your graving tools
On this odious group of fools;
Draw the beasts as I describe them;
Form their features, while I gibe them;
[Pg 41]Draw them like, for I assure ye,
You will need no caricatura.
Draw them so, that we may trace
All the soul in every face."

An elegant compliment was soon after paid to Hogarth by Somervile, the author of The Chace, who dedicates his Hobbinol to him as to "the greatest master in the burlesque way." Yet Fielding, in the Preface to Joseph Andrews, says, "He who should call the ingenious Hogarth a burlesque painter, would, in my opinion, do him very little honour, for sure it is much easier, much less the subject of admiration, to paint a man with a nose, or any other feature of a preposterous size, or to expose him in some absurd or monstrous attitude, than to express the affections of men on canvas. It hath been thought a vast commendation 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."[38]

[Pg 42]

Vincent Bourne, that classical ornament of Westminster School, addressed the following copy of hendecasyllables

"Ad Gulielmum Hogarth, Παρουνετικόν [Greek: Parounetikon]

"Qui mores hominum improbos, ineptos,
Incidis, nec ineleganter, æri,
Derisor lepidus, sed & severus,
Corrector gravis, at nec invenustus;
Seu pingis meretricios amores,
Et scenas miseræ vicesque vitæ;
Ut tentat pretio rudem puellam
Corruptrix anus, impudens, obesa;
Ut se vix reprimit libidinosus
Scortator, veneri paratus omni:
Seu describere vis, facete censor,
Bacchanalia sera protrahentes
Ad confinia crastinæ diei,
Fractos cum cyathis tubos, matellam
Non plenam modò sed superfluentem,
Et fortem validumque combibonem
Lætantem super amphorâ repletâ;
Jucundissimus omnium ferêris,
Nullique artificum secundus, ætas
Quos præsens dedit, aut dabit futura.
Macte ô, eja age, macte sis amicus
Virtuti: vitiique quod notâris,
Pergas pingere, & exhibere coràm,
Censura utilior tua æquiorque
Omni vel satirarum acerbitate,
Omni vel rigidissimo cachinno."

[Pg 43]

By printed proposals, dated Jan. 25, 1744-5, Hogarth offered to the highest bidder "the six pictures called The Harlot's Progress, the eight pictures called The Rake's Progress, the four pictures representing Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night, and that of A Company of Strolling Actresses dressing in a Barn; all of them his own original paintings, from which no other copies than the prints have ever been taken." The biddings were to remain open from the first to the last day of February, on these conditions: "1. That every bidder shall have an entire leaf numbered in the book of sale, on the top of which will be entered the name and place of abode, the sum paid by him, the time when, and for which picture.—That, on the last day of sale, a clock (striking every five minutes) shall be placed in the room; and when it hath struck five minutes after twelve, the first picture mentioned in the sale-book will be deemed as sold; the second picture when the clock hath struck the next five minutes after twelve; and so on successively till the whole nineteen pictures are sold. 3. That none advance less than gold at each bidding. 4. No person to bid on the last day, except those whose names were before entered in the book.—As Mr. Hogarth's room is but small, he begs the favour that no persons, except those whose names are entered in the book, will come to view his paintings on the last day of sale."

[Pg 44]

The pictures were sold for the following prices:

At the same time the six pictures of Marriage à-la-mode were announced as intended for sale as soon as the plates then taking from them should be completed. This set of Prints may be regarded as the ground-work of a novel called "The Marriage Act," by Dr. Shebbeare, and of "The Clandestine Marriage." In the prologue to that excellent comedy, Mr. Garrick thus handsomely expressed his regard for the memory of his friend:

"Poets and painters, who from nature draw
Their best and richest stores, have made this law:
That each should neighbourly assist his brother,
And steal with decency from one another.
To-night, your matchless Hogarth gives the thought,
Which from his canvas to the stage is brought.
And who so fit to warm the poet's mind,
As he who pictur'd morals and mankind?
[Pg 45]But not the same their characters and scenes;
Both labour for one end, by different means:
Each, as it suits him, takes a separate road,
Their one great object, Marriage à la Mode!
Where titles deign with cits to have and hold,
And change rich blood for more substantial gold!
And honour'd trade from interest turns aside,
To hazard happiness for titled pride.
The painter dead, yet still he charms the eye;
While England lives, his fame can never die:
But he, 'who struts his hour upon the stage,'
Can scarce extend his fame for half an age;
Nor pen nor pencil can the actor save,
The art, and artist, share one common grave."[39]

[Pg 46]

Hogarth had projected a Happy Marriage, by way of counterpart to his Marriage à la Mode. A design for the first of his intended six plates he had sketched out in colours; and the following is as accurate an account of it as could be furnished by a gentleman who, long ago enjoyed only a few minutes' sight of so imperfect a curiosity.

The time supposed was immediately after the return of the parties from church. The scene lay in the hall of an antiquated country mansion. On one side, the married couple were represented sitting. Behind them was a group of their young friends of both sexes, in the act of breaking bride-cake over their heads. In front appeared the father of the young lady, grasping a bumper, and drinking, with a seeming roar of exultation, to the future happiness of her and her husband. By his side was a table covered with refreshments. Jollity rather than politeness was the designation of his character. Under the screen of the hall, several rustic musicians in grotesque attitudes, together with servants, tenants, &c. were arranged. Through the arch by which the room was entered, the eye was led along a passage into the kitchen, which afforded a glimpse of sacerdotal luxury. Before the dripping-pan stood a well-fed divine, in his gown and cassock, with his watch in his hand, giving directions to a cook, drest all in white, who was employed in basting a haunch of venison.

Among the faces of the principal figures, none[Pg 47] but that of the young lady was completely finished. Hogarth had been often reproached for his inability to impart grace and dignity to his heroines. The bride was therefore meant to vindicate his pencil from so degrading an imputation. The effort, however, was unsuccessful. The girl was certainly pretty; but her features, if I may use the term, were uneducated. She might have attracted notice as a chambermaid, but would have failed to extort applause as a woman of fashion. The parson, and his culinary associate, were more laboured than any other parts of the picture. It is natural for us to dwell longest on that division of a subject which is most congenial to our private feelings. The painter sat down with a resolution to delineate beauty improved by art; but seems, as usual, to have deviated into meanness; or could not help neglecting his original purpose, to luxuriate in such ideas as his situation in early life had fitted him to express. He found himself, in short, out of his element in the parlour, and therefore hastened, in quest of ease and amusement, to the kitchen fire. Churchill, with more force than delicacy, once observed of him, that he only painted the backside of nature. It must be allowed, that such an artist, however excellent in his walk, was better qualified to represent the low-born parent, than the royal preserver of a foundling.

The sketch already described (which I believe is in Mrs. Garrick's possession) was made after the appearance of Marriage à la Mode, and many years before[Pg 48] the artist's death. Why he did not persevere in his plan, during such an interval of time, we can only guess. It is probable that his undertaking required a longer succession of images relative to domestic happiness, than had fallen within his notice, or courted his participation. Hogarth had no children; and though the nuptial union may be happy without them, yet such happiness will have nothing picturesque in it; and we may observe of this truly natural and faithful painter, that he rarely ventured to exhibit scenes with which he was not perfectly well acquainted.

Let us, however, more completely obviate an objection that may be raised against the propriety of the foregoing criticism. Some reader may urge, that perhaps, all circumstances considered, a wedding celebrated at an old mansion-house did not require the appearance of consummate beauty, refined by the powers of education. The remark has seeming justice on its side; but Hogarth had previously avowed his intent to exhibit a perfect face, divested of vulgarity; and succeeded so well, at least in his own opinion, that he carried the canvas, of which we are now speaking, in triumph to Mr. Garrick, whose private strictures on it coincided with those of the person who furnishes this additional confirmation of our painter's notorious ignorance in what is styled—the graceful. From the account I have received concerning a design for a previous compartment belonging to the same story, there is little reason to lament[Pg 49] the loss of it. It contained no appeal either to the fancy or to the heart. An artist, who, representing the marriage ceremony in a chapel, renders the clerk, who lays the hassocks, the principal figure in it, may at least be taxed with want of judgement.

Soon after the peace of Aix la Chapelle, he went over to France, and was taken into custody at Calais, while he was drawing the gate of that town, a circumstance which he has recorded in his picture, intituled, "O the Roast Beef of Old England!" published March 26, 1749. He was actually carried before the governor as a spy, and, after a very strict examination, committed a prisoner to Grandsire, his landlord, on his promising that Hogarth should not go out of his house till it was to embark for England. This account, I have good authority for saying, he himself gave to his friend Mr. Gostling at Canterbury, at whose house he lay the night after his arrival.

The same accident, however, has been more circumstantially related by an eminent English engraver, who was abroad when it happened. Hayman, and Cheere the statuary, were of the same party.

While Hogarth was in France, wherever he went, he was sure to be dissatisfied with all he saw. If an elegant circumstance either in furniture, or the ornaments of a room, was pointed out as deserving approbation, his narrow and constant reply was, "What then? but it is French! Their houses are all gilt and b—t." In the streets he was[Pg 50] often clamourously rude. A tatter'd bag, or a pair of silk stockings with holes in them, drew a torrent of imprudent language from him. In vain did my informant (who knew that many Scotch and Irish were often within hearing of these reproaches, and would rejoice at least in an opportunity of getting our painter mobbed) advise him to be more cautious in his public remarks. He laughed at all such admonition, and treated the offerer of it as a pusillanimous wretch, unworthy of a residence in a free country, making him the butt of his ridicule for several evenings afterwards. This unreasonable pleasantry was at length completely extinguished by what happened while he was drawing the Gate at Calais; for though the innocence of his design was rendered perfectly apparent on the testimony of other sketches he had about him, which were by no means such as could serve the purpose of an engineer, he was told by the Commandant, that, had not the peace been actually signed, he should have been obliged to have hung him up immediately on the ramparts. Two guards were then provided to convey him on shipboard; nor did they quit him till he was three miles from the shore. They then spun him round like a top, on the deck; and told him he was at liberty to proceed on his voyage without farther attendance or molestation. With the slightest allusion to the ludicrous particulars of this affair, poor Hogarth was by no means pleased. The leading circumstance in it his own pencil has recorded.

[Pg 51]

Soon after this period he purchased a little house at Chiswick; where he usually passed the greatest part of the summer season, yet not without occasional visits to his dwelling in Leicester Fields.

In 1753, he appeared to the world in the character of art author, and published a quarto volume, intituled, "The Analysis of Beauty, written with a view of fixing the fluctuating Ideas of Taste." In this performance he shews, by a variety of examples, that a curve is the line of beauty, and that round swelling figures are most pleasing to the eye; and the truth of his opinion has been countenanced by subsequent writers on the subject.

Among the letters of Dr. Birch is the following short one, sent with the "Analysis of Beauty," and dated Nov. 25, 1753; "Sir, I beg the favour of you to present to the Royal Society the enclosed work, which will receive great honour by their acceptance of it. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, Wm. Hogarth."

In this book, the leading idea of which was hieroglyphically thrown out in a frontispiece to his works in 1745, he acknowledges himself indebted to his friends for assistance, and particularly to one gentleman for his corrections and amendments of at least a third part of the wording. This friend, I am assured, was Dr. Benjamin Hoadly the physician, who carried on the work to about a third part, Chap. IX. and then, through indisposition, declined the friendly office with regret. Mr. Hogarth applied to his neighbour,[Pg 52] Mr. Ralph; but it was impossible for two such persons to agree, both alike vain and positive. He proceeded no farther than about a sheet, and they then parted friends, and seem to have continued such. In the Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times, vol. I. p. 47, published in 1757 by Dr. Brown, that author pays a compliment to Mr. Hogarth's genius. Mr. Ralph, animadverting on the work, amongst other things, says, "It is happy for Mr. Hogarth, in my humble opinion, that he is brought upon the stage in such company, rather for the sake of fastening some additional abuse upon the public, than of bestowing any special grace upon him. 'Neither the comic pencil, nor the serious pen of our ingenious countrymen (so the Estimator or Appraiser's Patent of Allowance runs) have been able to keep alive the taste of Nature or of Beauty.' For where he has chosen to be a niggard of his acknowledgements, every other man would chuse to be a prodigal: Nature had played the Proteus with us, had invited us to pursue her in every shape, but had never suffered us to overtake her: Beauty all had been smitten with, but nobody had been able to assign us a rule by which it might be defined: This was Mr. Hogarth's task; this is what he has succeeded in; composition is at last become a science; the student knows what he is in search of; the connoisseur what to praise; and fancy or fashion, or prescription, will usurp the hacknied name of taste[Pg 53] no more. So that, whatever may be said in disparagement of the age on other accounts, it has more merit and honour to claim on this, than any which preceded it. And I will venture for once to prophesy, from the improvements already manifested, that we shall have the arts of designing to value ourselves upon, when all our ancient virtues are worn out."

The office of finishing the work, and superintending the publication, was lastly taken up by Dr. Morell, who went through the remainder of the book.[40] The preface was in like manner corrected by the Rev. Mr. Townley. The family of Hogarth rejoiced when the last sheet of the Analysis was printed off; as the frequent disputes he had with his coadjutors, in the progress of the work, did not much harmonize his disposition.

This work was translated into German by Mr. Mylins, when in England, under the author's inspection; and the translation, containing twenty-two sheets in quarto, and two large plates, was printed in London, price five dollars.

Of the same performance a new and correct edition[Pg 54] was (July 1, 1754) proposed for publication at Berlin, by Ch. Fr. Vok, with an explanation of Mr. Hogarth's satirical prints, translated from the French; the whole to subscribers for one dollar, but after six weeks to be raised to two dollars.

An Italian translation was also published at Leghorn in 1761, 8vo, dedicated "All' illustrissime Signora Diana Molineux, Dama Inglese."

"This book," Mr. Walpole observes, "had many sensible hints and observations; but it did not carry the conviction, nor meet the universal acquiescence he expected. As he treated his contemporaries with scorn, they triumphed over this publication,[41] and irritated him to expose him.[Pg 55] Many wretched burlesque prints came out to ridicule his system. There was a better answer to it in one of the two prints that he gave to illustrate his hypothesis. In the ball, had he confined himself to such outlines as compose awkwardness and deformity, he would have proved half his assertion; but he has added two samples of grace in a young lord and lady, that are strikingly stiff and affected. They are a Bath beau and a county Beauty."

Hogarth had one failing in common with most people who attain wealth and eminence without the aid of liberal education. He affected to despise every kind of knowledge which he did not possess. Having established his fame with little or no obligation to literature, he either conceived it to be needless, or decried it because it lay out of his reach. His sentiments, in short, resembled those of Jack Cade, who pronounced sentence on the clerk of[Pg 56] Chatham, because he could write and read. Till, in evil hour, this celebrated artist commenced an author, and was obliged to employ the friends already mentioned to correct his Analysis of Beauty,[42] he did not seem to have discovered that even spelling was a necessary qualification; and yet he had ventured to ridicule[43] the late Mr. Rich's deficiency as to this particular, in a note which lies before the Rake whose play is refused while he remains in confinement for debt. Previous to the time of which we are now speaking, one of our artist's common topicks of declamation was the uselessness of books to a man of his profession. In Beer-street, among other volumes consigned by him to the pastry cook, we find Turnbull on ancient Painting, a treatise which Hogarth should have been able to understand, before he ventured to condemn. Garrick himself, however, was not more ductile to flattery. A word in favour of Sigismunda, might have commanded a proof print, or forced an original sketch out of our artist's hands. The furnisher of this remark owes one of his scarcest performances to the success of a compliment, which might have stuck even in Sir Godfrey Kneller's throat.

[Pg 57]

The following authenticated story of our artist will also serve to shew how much more easy it is to detect ill-placed or hyperbolical adulation respecting others, than when applied to ourselves. Hogarth being at dinner with the great Cheselden, and some other company, was told that Mr. John Freke, surgeon of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, a few evenings before at Dick's Coffee-house, had asserted, that Greene was as eminent in composition as Handel. "That fellow Freke," replied Hogarth, "is always shooting his bolt absurdly one way or another! Handel is a giant in music; Greene only a light Florimel kind of a composer."—"Ay," says our artist's informant, "but at the same time Mr. Freke declared you were as good a portrait-painter as Vandyck."—"There he was in the right," adds Hogarth; "and so by G— I am, give me my time, and let me choose my subject!"

With Dr. Hoadly, the late Chancellor of Winchester, Mr. Hogarth was always on terms of the strictest friendship, and frequently visited him at Winchester, St. Cross, and Alresford. It is well known, that Dr. Hoadly's fondness for theatrical exhibitions was so great, that few visitors were ever long in his house before they were solicited to accept a part in some interlude or other. He himself, with Garrick and Hogarth, once performed a laughable parody on the scene in Julius Cæsar, where the Ghost appears to Brutus. Hogarth personated the spectre; but so unretentive was his memory, that, although his speech[Pg 58] consisted only of two lines, he was unable to get them by heart. At last they hit on the following expedient in his favour. The verses he was to deliver were written in such large letters, on the outside of an illuminated paper-lanthorn, that he could read them when he entered with it in his hand on the stage. Hogarth painted a scene on this occasion, representing a sutling booth, with the Duck of Cumberland's head by way of sign. He also prepared the play-bill, with characteristic ornaments. The original drawing is still preserved, and we could wish it were engraved; as the slightest sketch from the design of so grotesque a painter would be welcome to the numerous collectors of his works.

Hogarth was also the most absent of men. At table he would sometimes turn round his chair as if he had finished eating, and as suddenly would return it, and fall to his meal again. I may add, that he once directed a letter to Dr. Hoadly, thus,—"To the Doctor at Chelsea." This epistle, however, by good luck, did not miscarry; and was preserved by the late Chancellor of Winchester, as a pleasant memorial of his friend's extraordinary inattention.

Another remarkable instance of Hogarth's absence was told me, after the first edition of this work, by one of his intimate friends. Soon after he set up his carriage, he had occasion to pay a visit to the lord-mayor (I believe it was Mr. Beckford). When he went, the weather was fine; but business detained him till a violent shower of rain came on. He was[Pg 59] let out of the Mansion-house by a different door from that at which he entered; and, seeing the rain, began immediately to call for a hackney-coach. Not one was to be met with on any of the neighbouring stands; and our artist sallied forth to brave the storm, and actually reached Leicester-fields without bestowing a thought on his own carriage, till Mrs. Hogarth (surprized to see him so wet and splashed) asked where he had left it.

Mr. Walpole, in the following note, p. 69, is willing to expose the indelicacy of the Flemish painters, by comparing it with the purity of Hogarth. "When they attempt humour," says our author, "it is by making a drunkard vomit; they take evacuations for jokes; and when they make us sick, think they make us laugh. A boor hugging a frightful frow is a frequent incident, even in the works of Teniers." Shall we proceed to examine whether the scenes painted by our countryman are wholly free from the same indelicacies? In one plate of Hudibras, where he encounters a Skimmington, a man is making water against the end of a house, while a taylor's wife is most significantly attending to the dirty process. In another plate to the same work, a boy is pissing into the shoe of Ralpho, while the widow is standing by. Another boy in the Enraged Musician is easing nature by the same mode; and a little miss is looking earnestly on the operation. In the March to Finchley, a diseased soldier has no better employment; and a woman is likewise staring[Pg 60] at him out of a window. This circumstance did not escape the observation of Rouquet the enameller, whose remarks[44] on the plates of our artist I shall have more than once occasion to introduce. "Il y a," says he, "dans quelques endroits de cet excellent tableau, des objets peut être plus propres à peindre qu'à décrire. D'ou vient que les oreilles sont plus chaste que les yeux? Ne seroit ce pas parce qu'on peut regarder certains objets dans un tableau, et feindre de ne pas les voir; et qu'il n'est pas si aisé d'entendre une obscénité, et de feindre de ne l'entendre pas! L'objet, dont je veux parler, est toutefois peu considérable; il s'agit seulement d'un soldat à qui le voyage de Montpelier conviendroit mieux que celui d'Ecosse. L'amour lui a fait une blessure, &c." Was this occurrence delicate or precious enough to deserve such frequency of repetition? In the burlesque Paul before Felix, when the High Priest applies his fingers to his nose, we have reason to imagine that his manœuvre was in consequence of some offensive escape during the terrors of the pro-consul of Judea, who, as he is here represented, conveys no imperfect image of a late Lord Mayor, at the time of the riots in London. In this last instance, indeed, I ought to have observed that Hogarth meant to satirize, not to imitate, the painters of Holland and Flanders. But I forbear to dwell any longer on such disgusting circumstances; begging leave only to ask, whether the canvas of Teniers exhibits nastier[Pg 61] objects than those of the woman cracking a louse between her nails in the fourth plate of the Harlot's Progress; a Scotch bag-piper catching another in his neck while he is performing at the Election feast; Aurora doing the same kind office for a Syren or Nereid, in the Strollers, &c.; the old toothless French beldams, slobbering (Venus forbid we should call it kissing) each other in the comic print entitled Noon; the chamber-pot emptied on the Free Mason's head, in the Rejoicing Night; or the Lilliputians giving a clyster to Gulliver? In some of these instances, however, the humour may compensate for the indelicacy, which is rarely the case with such Dutch pictures as have justly incurred the censure of Mr. Walpole. Let us now try how far some of the compositions of Hogarth have befriended the cause of modesty. In the Harlot's Progress, Plate VI. we meet with a hand by no means busied in manner suitable to the purity of its owner's function. Hogarth indeed, in three different works, has delineated three clergymen; the one as a drunkard; the second as a glutton; and the third as a whoremaster, who (I borrow Rouquet's words) "est plus occupé de sa voisine que de son vin, qu'il repand par une distraction qu'elle lui cause." He who, in the eyes of the vulgar, would degrade our professors of religion, deserves few thanks from society. In the Rake's Progress, Plate the last, how is the hand of the ideal potentate employed, while he is gazing with no very modest aspect on a couple of young women who pass[Pg 62] before his cell numbered 55? and to what particular object are the eyes of the said females supposed to be directed?[45] Nay, in what pursuit is the grenadier engaged who stands with his face toward the wall in Plate 9. of Industry and Idleness? May we address another question to the reader? Is the "smile of Socrates," or the "benevolence of the designer," very distinguishable in the half dozen last instances? It has been observed indeed by physiognomists, that the smile of the real Socrates resembled the grin of a satyr; and perhaps a few of the particulars here alluded to, as well as the prints entitled Before and After, ought to be considered as a benevolence to speculative old maids, or misses not yet enfranchised from a boarding school. Had this truly sensible critic, and elegant writer, been content to observe, that such gross circumstances as form the chief subject of Flemish pictures, are only incidental and subordinate in those of our artist, the remark might have escaped reprehension. But perhaps he who has told us that "St. Paul's hand was once improperly placed before the wife of Felix" should not have suffered more glaring insults on decency to pass without a censure. On this occasion, though I may be found to differ from Mr. Walpole, I am ready to confess how much[Pg 63] regard is due to the opinions of a gentleman whose mind has been long exercised on a subject which is almost new to me; especially when I recollect that my present researches would have had no guide, but for the lights held out in the last volume of the Anecdotes of Painting in England.

Hogarth boasted that he could draw a Serjeant with his pike, going into an alehouse, and his Dog following him, with only three strokes;—which he executed thus:

A. The perspective line of the door.
B. The end of the Serjeant's pike, who is gone in.
C. The end of the Dog's tail, who is following him.
There are similar whims of the Caracci.

A specimen of Hogarth's propensity to merriment, on the most trivial occasions, is observable in one of his cards requesting the company of Dr. Arnold King to dine with him at the Mitre.[46] Within a circle, to[Pg 64] which a knife and fork are the supporters, the written part is contained. In the center is drawn a pye, with a mitre on the top of it; and the invitation of our artist concludes with the following sport on three of the Greek letters—to Eta Beta Pi.[47] The rest of the inscription is not very accurately spelt. A quibble by Hogarth is surely as respectable as a conundrum by Swift.

"Some nicer virtuosi have remarked, that in the serious pieces, into which Hogarth has deviated from the natural biass of his genius, there are some strokes of the ridiculous discernible, which suit not with the dignity of his subject. In his preaching of St. Paul, a dog snarling at a cat;[48] and in his Pharaoh's Daughter, the figure of the infant Moses, who expresses rather archness than timidity; are alledged as instances, that this artist, unrivalled in his own walk, could not resist the impulse of his imagination towards drollery. His picture, however, of Richard III. is pure and unmixed, without any ridiculous circumstances,[Pg 65] and strongly impresses terror and amazement." As these observations are extracted from the first edition of Dr. Warton's "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope," it would be uncandid if we did not accompany them with the following note from a subsequent edition of that valuable performance: "The author gladly lays hold of the opportunity of this third edition of his work to confess a mistake he had committed with respect to two admirable paintings of Mr. Hogarth, his Paul Preaching, and his Infant Moses; which, on a closer examination, are not chargeable with the blemishes imputed to them. Justice obliges him to declare the high opinion he entertains of the abilities of this inimitable artist, who shines in so many different lights, and on such very dissimilar subjects; and whose works have more of what the ancients called the ΗθΟΣ [Greek: Ethos] in them, than the compositions of any other Modern. For the rest, the author begs leave to add, that he is so far from being ashamed of retracting his error, that he had rather appear a Man of Candour, than the best Critic that ever lived."[49]

[Pg 66]

In one of the early exhibitions at Spring Gardens, a very pleasing small picture by Hogarth made its first appearance. It was painted for the earl of Charlemont, in whose collection it remains.[50] It was intituled, Picquet, or Virtue in Danger, and shews us a young lady, who, during a tête-à-tête, had just lost all her money to a handsome officer of her own age. He is represented in the act of returning her a handful of bank bills, with the hope of exchanging them for a softer acquisition, and more delicate plunder. On the chimney piece is a watch-case and a figure of Time over it, with this motto—NUNC. Hogarth has caught his heroine during this moment of hesitation, this struggle with herself, and has marked her feelings with uncommon success. Wavering chastity, as in this instance, he was qualified to display; but the graceful reserve of steady and exalted virtue he would certainly have failed to express. He might have conveyed a perfect idea of such an Iphigenia as is described by Mr. Hayley, in one of the cantoes of his beautiful poem on the Triumphs of Temper; but the dignity of the same female at the Tauric altar would have baffled the most vigorous efforts of his pencil.

[Pg 67]

Hogarth's Picquet, or Virtue in Danger, when exhibited at Spring Gardens, in May, 1761, produced the following explanation:

Ye fair, be warn'd, and shun those arts,
That faithless men do use for hearts:
Weigh o'er and o'er the destin'd man,
And oft this little lesson scan;
If he his character don't fear,
For yours he'll very little care:
With scorn repulse the wretch so bold,
Nor pawn your virtue for his gold!
Of gaming (cards or not) beware,
'Tis very often found a snare;
But, lest my precept still should fail,
Indulge me—whilst I tell a tale:

Dorinda, chearful, young, and gay,
Oft shone at Balls, at Park, and Play;
Blest with a free, engaging air,
In short, throughout quite debonnair;
(Excuse me—shall I tell the truth?)
That bane of misled, heedless youth,
Gaming—had quite possess'd her mind,
To this (no other vice) inclin'd:
She oft would melancholy sit,
No partner near for dear Picquet!
"At last a cruel spoiler came,"
And deeply learn'd in all the game;
A son of Mars, with iron face,
Adorn'd with impudence and lace!
Acquaintance with her soon he gains,
He thinks her virtue worth his pains:
[Pg 68] Cards (after nonsense) came in course,
By sap advances, not by force.
The table set, the cards are laid,
Dorinda dreams not she's betray'd;
The cards run cross, she fumes and frets,
Her brilliant necklace soon she betts,
She fears her watch, but can't resist,
A miniature can scarce be mist!
At last both watch and trinkets go,
A prey to the devouring foe:
Nay more (if fame but tells us true),
She lost her di'mond buckles too!
Her bracelets next became his prize,
And in his hat the treasure lies.
Upon her Virtue next he treats,
And Honour's sacred name repeats:
Tenders the trinkets, swears and lies,
And vows her person is a prize!
Then swears (with hand upon his breast)
That he without her can't be blest!
Then plies her with redoubled pains,
T' exchange her virtue for his gains:
Shame's purple wings o'ershade her face,
He triumphs over her disgrace;
Soon turns to jest her scruples nice,
In short, she falls!—a sacrifice!
Spoil'd of her virtue in her prime,
And, knowing Heaven detests the crime,
Is urg'd, perhaps, to dare his rod,
"And rush unsummon'd to her God!"

[Pg 69] Ye fair, if happiness ye prize,
Regard this rule, Be timely wise.

In the "Miser's Feast," Mr. Hogarth thought proper to pillory Sir Isaac Shard, a gentleman proverbially avaricious. Hearing this, the son of Sir Isaac, the late Isaac Pacatus Shard,[51] esq. a young man of spirit, just returned from his travels, called at the painter's to see the picture; and, among the rest, asking the Cicerone "whether that odd figure was intended for any particular person;" on his replying, "that it was thought to be very like one Sir Isaac Shard;" he immediately drew his sword, and slashed the canvas. Hogarth appeared instantly in great wrath; to whom Mr. Shard calmly justified what he had done, saying, "that this was a very unwarrantable licence; that he was the injured party's son, and that he was ready to defend any suit at law;" which, however, was never instituted.

About 1757, his brother-in-law, Mr. Thornhill, resigned the place of king's serjeant-painter in favour of Mr. Hogarth; who soon after made an experiment in painting, which involved him in some disgrace. The celebrated collection of pictures belonging to Sir Luke Schaub was in 1758 sold by public[Pg 70] auction;[52] and the admired picture of Sigismunda (purchased by Sir Thomas Sebright for 404. l. 5 s.) excited Mr. Hogarth's emulation.

"From a contempt of the ignorant virtuosi of the age," says Mr. Walpole, "and from indignation at the impudent tricks of picture-dealers, whom he saw continually recommending and vending vile copies to bubble collectors, and from having never studied, indeed having seen, few good pictures of the great Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on those glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. He talked this language till he believed it; and having heard it often asserted, as is true, that time gives a mellowness to colours and improves them, he not only denied the proposition, but maintained that pictures only grew black and worse by age, not distinguishing between the degrees in which the proportion might be true or false. He went farther: he determined to rival the ancients—and unfortunately chose one of the finest pictures in England as the object of his competition. This was the celebrated Sigismunda of Sir Luke Schaub, now in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, said to be painted by Correggio, probably by Furino, but no matter by whom. It is impossible to see the picture, or read Dryden's inimitable tale, and not feel that the same[Pg 71] soul animated both. After many essays, Hogarth at last produced HIS Sigismunda—but no more like Sigismunda, than I to Hercules. Not to mention the wretchedness of the colouring, it was the representation of a maudlin strumpet just turned out of keeping, and, with eyes red with rage and usquebaugh, tearing off the ornaments her keeper had given her. To add to the disgust raised by such vulgar expression, her fingers were bloodied by her lover's heart,[53] that lay before her, like[Pg 72] that of a sheep, for her dinner.[54] None of the sober grief, no dignity of suppressed anguish, no involuntary tear, no settled meditation on the fate she meant to meet, no amorous warmth turned holy by despair; in short, all was wanting that should have been there, all was there that such a story would have banished from a mind capable of conceiving such complicated woe; woe so sternly felt, and yet so tenderly. Hogarth's performance was more ridiculous than any thing he had ever ridiculed. He set the price of 400 l. on it, and had it returned on his hands by the person for whom it was painted. He took subscriptions for a plate of it; but had the sense, at last, to suppress it. I make no more apology for this account than for the encomiums I have bestowed on him. Both are dictated by truth, and are the history of a great man's excellencies and errors. Milton, it[Pg 73] is said, preferred his Paradise Regained to his immortal poem."[55]

Hogarth, however, gave directions before his death that the Sigismunda should not be sold under 500 l. and, greatly as he might have been mortified by Churchill's invective, and the coldness with which the picture was received by the rest of the world,[56][Pg 74] he never wholly abandoned his design of having a plate prepared from it. Finding abundant consolation[Pg 75] in the flattery of self-love, he appealed from the public judgement to his own, and had actually talked with the celebrated Mr. Hall about the price of the engraving, which was to have been executed from a smaller painting,[57] copied by himself from the large one. Death alone secured him from the contempt such obstinacy would have riveted on his name. To express a sorrow like that of Tancred's daughter, few modern artists are fully qualified. We must except indeed Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whose pencil Beauty in all her forms, and the passions in all their varieties, are equally familiar.

Since the preceding paragraph was written, the compiler of this volume has seen an unfinished plate of Sigismunda, attempted after the manner of Edelinck, etched by Mr. Basire, but not bit-in, and from which consequently no proof can have been taken. The size of the plate is 18 inches by 16½. The outlines in general, and particularly of the face, were completed under the immediate direction of Mr. Hogarth.[58] It was intended to be published[Pg 76] by subscription.[59] The plate itself is still in the hands of Mr. Basire.

This unfortunate picture, which was the source of so much vexation to Mr. Hogarth, at least made a versifier of him, and furnished vent to his anger in the following lines; which, as I know of no other specimen of his poetry,[60] may serve to gratify the curiosity of the reader. The old adage facit indignatio versum, seems scarcely to have been realised in this splenetic effusion, which is intituled "An Epistle to a Friend," occasioned by Sir Richard Grosvenor (now lord) returning the picture of Sigismunda on our artist's hands:

[Pg 77]

"To your charge, the other day
About my picture and my pay,
In metre I've a mind to try,
One word by way of a reply.

"To risque, you'll own, 'twas most absurd,
Such labour on a rich man's word;
To lose at least an hundred days
Of certain gain, for doubtful praise;
Since living artists ne'er were paid;
But then, you know, it was agreed,
I should be deem'd an artist dead.
Like Raphael, Rubens, Guido Rene,
This promise fairly drew me in;
And having laid my pencil by,[61]
What painter was more dead than I?
But dead as Guido let me be,
Then judge, my friend, 'twixt him and me
If merit crowns alike the piece,
What treason to be like in price;
Because no copied line you trace,
The picture can't be right, you're sure;
But say, my critic connoisseur,
Moves it the heart as much or more
Than picture ever did before?
This is the painter's truest test,
And this Sir Richard's self confess'd.
Nay, 'tis so moving, that the knight
Can't even bear it in his sight;
[Pg 78]Then who would tears so dearly buy,
As give four hundred pounds to cry?
I own, he chose the prudent part,
Rather to break his word than heart;
And yet, methinks, 'tis ticklish dealing,
With one so delicate—in feeling.

"However, let the picture rust,
Perhaps time's price-enhancing dust,
As statues moulder into earth,
When I'm no more, may mark its worth;
And future connoisseurs may rise,
Honest as ours, and full as wise,
To puff the piece and painter too,
And make me then what Guido's now."

"The last memorable event in our artist's life," as Mr. Walpole observes, "was his quarrel with Mr. Wilkes, in which, if Mr. Hogarth did not commence direct hostilities on the latter, he at least obliquely gave the first offence, by an attack on the friends and party of that gentleman. This conduct was the more surprizing, as he had all his life avoided dipping his pencil in political contests, and had early refused a very lucrative offer that was made to engage him in a set of prints against the head of a court-party. Without entering into the merits of the cause, I shall only state the fact. In September 1762, Mr. Hogarth published his print of The Times. It was answered by Mr. Wilkes in a severe North Briton.[62] On this[Pg 79] the painter exhibited the caricatura of the writer. Mr. Churchill, the poet, then engaged in the war, and wrote his epistle to Hogarth, not the brightest of his works,[63] in which the severest strokes fell on a defect that the painter had neither caused nor could amend—his age;[64] and which, however, was neither remarkable nor decrepit; much less had it impaired his talents, as appeared by his having composed but six months before one of his most capital works, the satire on the Methodists. In revenge for this epistle, Hogarth caricatured Churchill, under the form of a canonical bear, with a club and a pot of porter—et vitulá tu dignus & hic—never did two angry men of their abilities throw mud with less dexterity."

The concluding observation of Mr. Walpole is mortifyingly true. It may be amusing to compare the account given of this squabble, which long engrossed the attention of the town, with the narrative of it printed by Mr. Wilkes; who states the circumstances of it in the following manner:

"Mr. Hogarth was one of the first who, in the paper war begun by lord Bute on his accession to the Treasury, sacrificed private friendship at the altar of party madness. In 1762, the Scotch minister[Pg 80] took a variety of hirelings into his pay, some of whom were gratified with pensions, others with places and pensions. Mr. Hogarth was only made serjeant-painter to his majesty, as if it was meant to insinuate to him, that he was not allowed to paint any thing but the wainscot of the royal apartments. The term means no more than house-painter, and the nature of the post confined him to that business. He was not employed in any other way. A circumstance can scarcely be imagined more humiliating to a man of spirit and genius, who really thought that he more particularly excelled in portrait-painting.

"The new minister had been attacked in a variety of political papers. The North Briton in particular, which commenced the week after The Briton, waged open war with him. Some of the numbers had been ascribed to Mr. Wilkes, others to Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Lloyd. Mr. Hogarth had for several years lived on terms of friendship and intimacy with Mr. Churchill and Mr. Wilkes. As the Buckinghamshire militia, which this gentleman had the honour of commanding, had been for some months at Winchester guarding the French prisoners, the Colonel was there on that duty. A friend wrote to him, that Mr. Hogarth intended soon to publish a political print of The Times, in which Mr. Pitt, Lord Temple, Mr. Churchill, and himself, were held out to the public as objects of ridicule. Mr. Wilkes, on this notice, remonstrated by two of[Pg 81] their common friends to Mr. Hogarth, that such a proceeding would not only be unfriendly in the highest degree, but extremely injudicious; for such a pencil ought to be universal and moral, to speak to all ages, and to all nations, not to be dipt in the dirt of the faction of a day, of an insignificant part of the country, when it might command the admiration of the whole. An answer was sent, that neither Mr. Wilkes nor Mr. Churchill were attacked in The Times, though Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt were, and that the print should soon appear. A second message soon after told Mr. Hogarth, that Mr. Wilkes should never believe it worth his while to take notice of any reflections on himself; but if his friends were attacked, he should then think he was wounded in the most sensible part, and would, as well as he was able, revenge their cause; adding, that if he thought the North Briton would insert what he sent, he would make an appeal to the public on the very Saturday following the publication of the print. The Times soon after appeared, and on the Saturday following [Sept. 25, 1762,] N° 17, of the North Briton, which is a direct attack on the king's serjeant-painter.[65] If[Pg 82] Mr. Wilkes did write that paper, he kept his word better with Mr. Hogarth, than the painter had done with him.

[Pg 83]

"It is perhaps worth remarking, that the painter proposed to give a series of political prints, and[Pg 84] that The Times were marked Plate I. No farther progress was however made in that design. The[Pg 85] public beheld the first feeble efforts with execrations, and it is said that the caricaturist was too[Pg 86] much hurt by the general opinion of mankind, to possess himself afterwards sufficiently for the execution of such a work.

[Pg 87]

"When Mr. Wilkes was the second time brought from the Tower to Westminster-hall, Mr. Hogarth skulked behind in a corner of the gallery of the Court of Common Pleas; and while the Chief Justice Pratt,[66] with the eloquence and courage of old[Pg 88] Rome, was enforcing the great principles of Magna Charta, and the English constitution, while every breast from him caught the holy flame of liberty, the painter was wholly employed in caricaturing the person of the man; while all the rest of his fellow citizens were animated in his cause, for they knew it to be their own cause, that of their country, and of its laws. It was declared to be so a few hours after by the unanimous sentence of the judges of that court, and they were all present.

"The print of Mr. Wilkes was soon after published, drawn from the life by William Hogarth. It must be allowed to be an excellent compound caricatura, or a caricatura of what nature had already caricatured. I know but one short apology can be made for this gentleman, or, to speak more properly, for the person of Mr. Wilkes. It is, that he did not make himself, and that he never was solicitous about the case of his soul, as Shakspeare calls it, only so far as to keep it clean and in health. I never heard that he once hung over the glassy stream, like another Narcissus, admiring the image in it, nor that he ever stole an amorous look at his counterfeit in a side mirrour. His form, such as it is, ought to give him no pain, because it is capable of giving pleasure to others. I fancy he finds himself tolerably happy in the clay-cottage, to which he is tenant for life, because he has learnt to keep it in good order. While the share of health and animal spirits, which heaven[Pg 89] has given him, shall hold out, I can scarcely imagine he will be one moment peevish about the outside of so precarious, so temporary a habitation, or will even be brought to own, ingenium Galbæ male habitat. Monsieur est mal logé.

"Mr. Churchill was exasperated at this personal attack on his friend. He soon after published the Epistle to William Hogarth,[67] and took for the motto, ut pictura poesis. Mr. Hogarth's revenge against the poet terminated in vamping up an old print of a pug-dog and a bear, which he published under the title of The Bruiser C. Churchill (once the Revd.!) in the character of a Russian Hercules, &c."

The Editor of the Monthly Review for November, 1769, in an account of Mr. Wilkes's correspondence, remarks, "The writer of this article had in substance the same relation from the mouth of Mr. Hogarth himself, but a very little while before his death;[68] and the leading facts appeared, from his candid representation, in nearly the same light as in this account which our readers have been just perusing."

[Pg 90]

I have been assured by the friend[69] who first carried and read the invective of Churchill to Hogarth, that he seemed quite insensible to the most sarcastical parts of it. He was so thoroughly wounded before by the North Briton, especially with regard to what related to domestic happiness, that he lay no where open to a fresh stroke. Some readers, however, may entertain a doubt on this subject. A man feels most exquisitely when the merit of which he is proudest is denied him; and it might be urged, that Hogarth was more solicitous to maintain the character of a good painter, than of a tender husband.

One quotation, however, from Churchill's Epistle the warmest admirers of our matchless artist must be pleased with:

"In walks of humour, in that cast of style,
Which, probing to the quick, yet makes us smile;
In Comedy, his natural road to fame,
Nor let me call it by a meaner name,
Where a beginning, middle, and an end,
Are aptly join'd; where parts on parts depend,
Each made for each, as bodies for their soul,
So as to form one true and perfect whole,
[Pg 91]Where a plain story to the eye is told,
Which we conceive the moment we behold;[70]
Hogarth unrival'd stands, and shall engage
Unrival'd praise to the most distant age."

Hogarth having been said to be in his dotage when, he produced his print of the Bear, it should seem as if he had been provoked to make the following additions to this print, in order to give a further specimen of his still existing genius.

In the form of a framed picture on the painter's palette, he has represented an Egyptian pyramid, on the side of which is a Cheshire cheese,[71] and round it[Pg 92] 3000 l. per annum; and at the foot a Roman Veteran in a reclining posture, designed as an allusion to Mr. Pitt's resignation. The cheese is meant to allude to a former speech of his, wherein he said that he would rather subsist a week on a Cheshire cheese and a shoulder of mutton, than submit to the implacable enemies of his country.

But to ridicule this character still more, he is, as he lies down, firing a piece of ordnance at the standard of Britain, on which is a dove with an olive-branch, the emblem of peace. On one side of the pyramid is the City of London, represented by the figure of one of the Guildhall giants, going to crown the reclining hero. On the other side is the king of Prussia, in the character of one of the Cæsars, but smoking his pipe. In the center stands Hogarth himself, whipping a Dancing Bear (Churchill) which he holds in a string. At the side of the Bear is a Monkey, designed for Mr. Wilkes. Between the legs of the little animal is a mop-stick, on which he seems to ride, as children do on a hobby-horse: at the top of the mop-stick is the cap of liberty. The Monkey is undergoing the same discipline as the Bear. Behind the Monkey is the figure of a man,[Pg 93] but with no lineaments of face, and playing on a fiddle. This was designed for Earl Temple.

At the time these hostilities were carrying on in a manner so virulent and disgraceful to all the parties, Hogarth was visibly declining in his health. In 1762, he complained of an inward pain, which, continuing, brought on a general decay that proved incurable.[72] This last year of his life he employed in retouching his plates with the assistance of several engravers whom he took with him to Chiswick. On the 25th of October, 1764, he was conveyed from thence to Leicester-fields, in a very weak condition, yet remarkably chearful; and, receiving an agreeable[Pg 94] letter from the American Dr. Franklin, drew up a rough draught of an answer to it; but going to bed, he was seized with a vomiting, upon which he rung his bell with such violence that he broke it, and expired about two hours afterwards in the arms of Mrs. Mary Lewis, who was called up on his being taken suddenly ill. To this lady, for her faithful services, he bequeathed 100 l. After the death of Hogarth's sister, Mrs. Lewis succeeded to the care of his prints; and, without violation of truth, it may be observed, that her good nature and affability recommend these performances which she continues to dispose of at Mrs. Hogarth's house in Leicester-square. Before our artist went to bed, he boasted of having eaten a pound of beef-steaks for his dinner,[73] and was to all appearance heartier than he had been for a long time before. His disorder was an aneurism; and his corpse was interred in the church-yard at Chiswick, where a monument is erected to his memory, with this inscription, under his family arms:

"Here lieth the body
Of William Hogarth, Esq.
Who died October the 26th, 1764;
Aged 67 years."

[Pg 95]

On another side, which is ornamented with a masque, a laurel wreath, a palette, pencils, and a book, inscribed "Analysis of Beauty," are the following verses by his friend Mr. Garrick:

"Farewell, great painter of mankind,
Who reach'd the noblest point of art;
Whose pictur'd morals charm the mind,
And through the eye correct the heart.
If genius fire thee, reader, stay,
If nature touch thee, drop a tear;
If neither move thee, turn away,
For Hogarth's honoured dust lies here."

On a third side is this inscription:

"Here lieth the body
Of Dame Judith Thornhill,
Relict of Sir James Thornhill, knight,
Of Thornhill in the county of Dorset.
She died November the 12th, 1757,
Aged 84 years."

And on the fourth side:

"Here lieth the body
Of Mrs. Anne Hogarth, sister
to William Hogarth, Esq.
She died August the 13th, 1771,
Aged 70 years."

[Pg 96]

Mr. Hayley, in his justly admired Epistle to an Eminent Painter (Mr. Romney), has since expressed himself concerning our artist in terms that confer yet higher honours on his comic excellence:

"Nor, if her favour'd hand may hope to shed
The flowers of glory o'er the skilful dead,
Thy talents, Hogarth! will she leave unsung;
Charm of all eyes, and Theme of every tongue!
A separate province 'twas thy praise to rule;
Self-form'd thy Pencil! yet thy works a School,
Where strongly painted, in gradations nice,
The Pomp of Folly, and the Shame of Vice,
Reach'd thro' the laughing Eye the mended Mind,
And moral Humour sportive Art refin'd.
While fleeting Manners, as minutely shown
As the clear prospect on the mirror thrown;
While Truth of Character, exactly hit,
And drest in all the dyes of comic wit;
While these, in Fielding's page, delights supply,
So long thy Pencil with his Pen shall vie.
Science with grief beheld thy drooping age
Fall the sad victim of a Poet's rage:
But Wit's vindictive spleen, that mocks controul,
Nature's high tax on luxury of soul!
This, both in Bards and Painters, Fame forgives
Their Frailty's buried, but their Genius lives."

Thus far the encomiast, who seeks only for opportunities of bestowing praise. A more impartial narrative will be expected from the biographer.

[Pg 97]

It may be truly observed of Hogarth, that all his powers of delighting were restrained to his pencil.[74] Having rarely been admitted into polite circles, none of his sharp corners had been rubbed off, so that he continued to the last a gross uncultivated man. The slightest contradiction transported him into rage. To be member of a Club consisting of mechanics, or those not many removes above them, seems to have been the utmost of his social ambition; but even in these assemblies he was oftener sent to Coventry for misbehaviour, than any other person who frequented them. To some confidence in himself he was certainly entitled; for, as a comic painter, he could have claimed no honour that would not most readily have been allowed him;[75] but he was at once unprincipled and variable in his political conduct and attachments. He is also said to have beheld the rising eminence and popularity of Sir Joshua Reynolds with a degree of envy; and, if I am not misinformed, frequently spoke with asperity both of him and his performances. Justice, however, obliges me to add, that our artist was liberal, hospitable, and the most punctual of pay-masters; so that, in spite of the emoluments his works had procured to him, he left but an[Pg 98] inconsiderable fortune to his widow. His plates indeed are such resources as may not speedily be exhausted. Some of his domestics had lived many years in his service, a circumstance that always reflects credit on a master. Of most of these he painted strong likenesses on a canvas still in Mrs. Hogarth's possession.

His widow has also a portrait of her husband, and an excellent bust of him by Roubilliac, a strong resemblance; and one of his brother-in-law Mr. Thornhill, much resembling the countenance of Mrs. Hogarth. Several of his portraits also remain in her possession: viz. a finished portrait of Mrs. Mary Lewis; Thomas Coombes of Dorsetshire, aged 108; Lady Thornhill; Mrs. Hogarth herself, &c. &c.

A portrait of Hogarth with his hat on, painted for the late Rev. Mr. Townley by Weltdon, and said to be finished by himself, is in the possession of Mr. James Townley, proctor in Doctors Commons. A mezzotinto print from it will be mentioned under the year 1781 in the Catalogue.

Mr. Edwards, of Beaufort Buildings, has the portrait of Sir George Hay, The Savoyard Girl, The Bench, and Mary Queen of Scots,[76] by Hogarth.

A conversation-piece by him is likewise at Wanstead in Essex, the seat of Earl Tylney.[77] And Mrs. Hoadly has a scene of Ranger and Clarinda in The Suspicious Husband; and the late Chancellor Hoadly[Pg 99] repeating a song to Dr. Greene, for him to compose; both by Hogarth. The first of these is an indifferent picture, and contains very inadequate likenesses of the persons represented.

One of the best portraits Hogarth ever painted, is at Lichfield. It is of a gentleman with whom he was very intimate, and at whose houses at Mortlake and in Ironmongers-Lane he spent much of his time—Mr. Joseph Porter, of London, merchant, who died April 7, 1749. Mrs. Porter the sister of this gentleman (who was daughter of Dr. Johnson's wife by a former husband) is in possession of the picture.—John Steers, esq. (of The Paper Buildings in The Temple) has an auction by Hogarth, in which Dr. Chauncey, Dr. Snagg, and others, are introduced; and the Earl of Exeter has a butcher's shop, with Slack fighting, &c.

Of Hogarth's lesser plates many were destroyed. When he wanted a piece of copper on a sudden, he would take any from which he had already worked off such a number of impressions as he supposed he should sell. He then sent it to be effaced, beat out, or otherwise altered to his present purpose.

The plates which remained in his possession were secured to Mrs. Hogarth by his will, dated August 12, 1764, chargeable with an annuity of 80 l. to his sister Anne,[78] who survived him. When, on the[Pg 100] death of his other sister, she left off the business in which she was engaged (see, in the Catalogue, the first article among the "Prints of uncertain date,") he kindly took her home, and generously supported her, making her, at the same time, useful in the disposal of his prints. Want of tenderness and liberality to his relations was not among the failings of Hogarth.

Of Hogarth's drawings and contributions towards the works of others, perhaps a number, on enquiry, might be found. An acquaintance of his, the late worthy Mr. John Sanderson, architect, who repaired Woburn Abbey, as well as Bedford House in Bloomsbury-square, possessed several of his curiosities. One was a sketch in black-lead of a celebrated young engraver (long since dead) in a salivation. The best that can be said of it is, that it was most disgustingly natural. Even the coarse ornaments on the corners of the blankets which enwrapped him, were characteristically expressed. Our artist seems to have repeated the same idea, though with less force, and fewer adjuncts, in the third of his Election prints, where a figure swaddled up in flannel is conveyed to the hustings. Two other works, viz. a drawing in Indian ink, and a painting in oil colours, exhibited Bedford House in different points of view; the figures only by Hogarth. Another represented the corner of a street, with a man drinking under the spout of a pump, and heartily angry with the water, which, by issuing out too fast, and in too great quantities,[Pg 101] had deluged his face. Our great painter had obliged Mr. Sanderson with several other comic sketches, &c. but most of them had been either begged or stolen, before the communicator of these particulars became acquainted with him.

In the year 1745, Launcelot Burton was appointed naval officer at Deal. Hogarth had seen him by accident; and on a piece of paper, previously impressed by a plain copper-plate, drew his figure with a pen, in imitation of a coarse etching. He was represented on a lean Canterbury hack, with a bottle sticking out of his pocket; and underneath was an inscription, intimating that he was going down to take possession of his place. This was inclosed to him in a letter; and some of his friends, who were in the secret, protested the drawing to be a print which they had seen exposed to sale at the shops in London; a circumstance that put him in a violent passion, during which he wrote an abusive letter to Hogarth, whose name was subscribed to the work. But, after poor Burton's tormentors had kept him in suspence throughout an uneasy three weeks, they proved to him that it was no engraving, but a sketch with a pen and ink. He then became so perfectly reconciled to his resemblance, that he shewed it with exultation to Admiral Vernon, and all the rest of his friends.

In 1753, Hogarth returning with Dr. Morell from a visit to Mr. Rich at Cowley, stopped his chariot, and got out, being struck by a large drawing (with a[Pg 102] coal) on the wall of an alehouse. He immediately made a sketch of it with triumph; it was a St. George and the Dragon, all in strait lines.

Hogarth made one essay in sculpture. He wanted a sign to distinguish his house in Leicester-fields; and thinking none more proper than the Golden Head, he, out of a mass of cork made up of several thicknesses compacted together, carved a bust of Vandyck, which he gilt and placed over his door. It is long since decayed, and was succeeded by a head in plaster, which has also perished; and is supplied by a head of Sir Isaac Newton. Hogarth modelled another resemblance of Vandyck in clay; which is likewise destroyed.

It is very properly observed by Mr. Walpole, that "If ever an author wanted a commentary, that none of his beauties might be lost, it is Hogarth; not from being obscure (for he never was that but in two or three of his first prints, where transient national follies, as Lotteries, Free-masonry, and the South Sea, were his topics) but for the use of foreigners, and from a multiplicity of little incidents, not essential to, but always heightening the principal action. Such is the spider's web extended over the poor's box in a parish church; the blunders in architecture in the nobleman's seat, seen through the window, in the first print of Marriage à la Mode; and a thousand in the Strollers dressing in a barn, which, for wit and imagination, without any other aid, is perhaps the best of all[Pg 103] his works; as, for useful and deep satire, that on the Methodists is the most sublime. Rouquet, the enameller, published a French explanation, though a superficial one, of many of his prints, which, it was said, he had drawn up for the use of Marshal Belleisle, then a prisoner in England."

However great the deficiencies in this work may be, it was certainly suggested by Hogarth, and drawn up at his immediate request. I receive this information from undoubted authority. Some of the circumstances explanatory of the plates, he communicated; the rest he left to be supplied by Rouquet his near neighbour, who lived in the house at which Gardelle the enameller afterwards lodged, and murdered his landlady Mrs. King. Rouquet, who (as I learn from Mr. Walpole) was a Swiss of French extraction, had formerly published a small tract on the state of the Arts in England, and another, intituled "L'Art de peinture en fromage ou en ramequin, 1755;" 12mo. (V. "La France litteraire, ou Dictionaire des Auteurs François vivans, par M. Formey, 1757.") On the present occasion he was liberally paid by Hogarth, for having cloathed his sentiments and illustrations in a foreign dress. This pamphlet was designed, and continues to be employed, as a constant companion to all such sets of his prints as go abroad. Only the letter descriptive of the March to Finchley was particularly meant for the instruction of Marshal Belleisle.[79]

[Pg 104]

It was added after the three former epistles had been printed off, and before the plate was published. The entire performance, however, in my opinion, exhibits very strong marks of the vivacious compiler's taste, country, and prejudices. Indeed many passages must have been inserted without the privity of his employer, who had no skill in the French language. That our clergy always affect to ride on white horses, and other remarks of a similar turn, &c. &c. could never have fallen from the pen of Hogarth, or any other Englishman.

This epistle bears also internal evidence to the suggestions Rouquet received from Hogarth. Are not the self-congratulations and prejudices of our artist sufficiently visible in the following passage?

"Ce Tableau dis-je a le defaut d'etre encore tout brillant de cette ignoble fraîcheur qu'on decouvre dans la nature, et qu'on ne voit jamais dans les cabinets bien célèbres. Le tems ne l'a point encore obscurci de cette decte fumée, de ce usage sacré, qui le cachera quelque jour aux yeux profanes du vulgaire, pour ne laisser voir ses beautés qu'aux initiés."

[Pg 105]

The title of this performance, is, "Lettres de Monsieur * * à un de ses Amis à Paris, pour lui expliquer les Estampes de Monsieur Hogarth.—Imprimé à Londres: et se vend chez R. Dodsley, dans Pall Mall; et chez M. Cooper, dans Paternoster Row, 1746." (Le prix est de douze sols.)

I should here observe, that this pamphlet affords only descriptions of the Harlot's and Rake's Progress, Marriage à la Mode, and the March to Finchley. Nine other plates, viz. the Modern Midnight Conversation, the Distressed Poet, the Enraged Musician, the Fair, Strolling Actresses dressing in a Barn, and the Four Times of the Day, are enumerated without particular explanation.

I am authorized to add, that Hogarth, not long before his death, had determined, in compliance with the repeated solicitations of his customers, to have this work enlarged and rendered into English, with the addition of ample comments on all his performances undescribed by Rouquet.

"Hogarth Moralised"[80] will however in some small degree (a very small one) contribute to preserve the[Pg 106] memory of those temporary circumstances which Mr. Walpole is so justly apprehensive will be lost to posterity. Such an undertaking indeed, requires a more intimate acquaintance with fleeting customs, and past occurrences, than the compiler of this work can pretend to. Yet enough has been done by him to awaken a spirit of enquiry, and point out the means by which it may be farther gratified.

The works of Hogarth, as his elegant biographer has well observed, are his history;[81] and the curious[Pg 107] are highly indebted to Mr. Walpole for a catalogue of prints, drawn up from his own valuable collection,[Pg 108] in 1771. But as neither that catalogue, nor his appendix to it in 1780, have given the whole of Mr.[Pg 109] Hogarth's labours, I hope that I shall not be blamed if, by including Mr. Walpole's catalogue, I have endeavoured from later discoveries of our artist's prints in other collections, to arrange them in chronological order. It may not be unamusing to trace the rise and progress of a Genius so strikingly original.

Hogarth gave first impressions of all his plates to his late friends the Rev. Mr. Townley and Dr. Isaac Schomberg.[82] Both sets were sold since the death of these gentlemen. That which was Dr. Schomberg's[Pg 110] became the property of the late Sir John Chapman, baronet; and passed after his death into the hands of his brother, the late Sir William Chapman. I should add, indeed, that our artist never sorted his impressions, selecting the slight from the strong ones: so that they who wish to possess any equal series of his prints, must pick it out of different sets.

A portrait of Samuel Martin, esq. the antagonist of Mr. Wilkes, which Mr. Hogarth had painted for his own use, he gave as a legacy to Mr. Martin.

Mrs. Baynes, of Kneeton-Hall, near Richmond, Yorkshire, has an original picture by Hogarth, four feet two inches long, by two feet four inches wide. It is a landscape, with several figures; a man driving sheep; a boat upon a piece of water, and a distant view of a town. This picture was bought in London, by her father, many years ago.

At Lord Essex's sale, in January 1777, Mr. Garrick bought a picture by Hogarth, being the examination of the recruits before the justices Shallow and Silence. For this, it was said in the news-papers, he gave 350 guineas. I have since been told, that remove the figure 3, and the true price paid by the purchaser remains. In private he allowed that he never gave the former of these sums, though in the public prints he did not think such a confession necessary. It was in reality an indifferent performance, as those of Hogarth commonly were, when he strove to paint up to the ideas of others.

Mr. Browning, of King's College, Cambridge, has a small picture by Hogarth, representing Clare-Market.[Pg 111] It seems to have been one of our artist's early performances.

There are three large pictures by Hogarth, over the altar in the church of St. Mary Redcliff at Bristol; the sealing of the sacred Sepulchre, the Ascension, and the three Maries, &c. A sum of money was left to defray the expence of these ornaments, and it found its way into Hogarth's pocket. The original sketches in oil for these performances, are now at Mrs. Hogarth's house in Leicester-fields.

In Lord Grosvenor's house, at Milbank, Westminster, is a small painting by our artist on the following subject. A boy's paper-kite in falling become entangled with furze: the boy arrives just as a crow is tearing it in pieces. The expression in his face is worthy of Hogarth.

Hogarth was also supposed to have had some hand in the exhibition of signs,[83] projected above 20 years ago by Bonnel Thornton, of festive memory; but I am informed, that he contributed no otherwise towards this display, than by a few touches of chalk. Among the heads of distinguished personages, finding[Pg 112] those of the King of Prussia and the Empress of Hungary, he changed the cast of their eyes so as to make them leer significantly at each other. This is related on the authority of Mr. Colman.

Mr. Richardson ("now," as Dr. Johnson says, "better known by his books than his pictures," though his colouring is allowed to be masterly) having accounted for some classical quotations in his notes on Milton, unlearned as he was, by his son's assisting him as a telescope does the eye in astronomy; Hogarth shewed him with a telescope looking through his son (in no very decent attitude) at a Virgil aloft on a shelf; but afterwards destroyed the plate, and recalled the prints. Qu. if any remain, and what date?—I much question whether this subject was ever thrown upon copper, or meant for the public eye.

In the "Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, Caen, 1783," our artist is thus characterized: "Ses compositions sont mal dessinées & foiblement colories; mais ce sont des tableaux parlans de diverses scènes comiques ou morales de la vie. Il avoit négligé le méchanisme de son art, c'est à-dire, les traits du pinceau, le rapport des parties entr'elles, l'effèt du clare obscure, l'harmonie du coloris, &c. pour s'élever jusqu'à la perfection de ce méchanisme, c'est à-dire, au poétique & au moral de la peinture. 'Je reconnois,' disoit-il, 'tout le monde pour juge compétent de mes tableaux, excepté les connoisseurs de profession.' Un seul exemple prouvera combien réussit. Il avoit fait graver une[Pg 113] estampe, dans laquelle il avoit exprimé avec énergie les différens tourmens qu'on fait éprouver aux animaux. Un charrier fouettoit un jour ses chevaux avec beaucoup de dureté; un bon homme, touché de pitié, lui dit, 'Miserable! tu n'as donc pas vu l'estampe d'Hogarth?' Il n'étoit pas seulement peintre, il fut écrivain. Il publia en 1750 un traité en Anglois, intitulé, 'Analyse de la Beauté.' L'auteur pretend que les formes arrondies constituent la beauté du corps: principe vrai à certains égards, faux a plusieurs autres. Voy. sur cet artiste, la sécond volume du 'Mercure de France,' Janvier, 1770."

Mr. Peter Dupont, a merchant, had the drawing of Paul before Felix, which he purchased for 20 guineas, and bound up with a set of Hogarth's prints. The whole set was afterwards sold by auction, at Baker's, for 17 l. to Mr. Ballard of Little Britain, in whose catalogue it stood some time marked at 25 l. and was parted with for less than that sum.

The following original drawings, by Hogarth, are now in the collection of the Rev. Dr. Lort:

A coloured sketch of a Family Picture, with ten whole-length figures, most insipidly employed. A Head of a Sleeping Child, in colours, as large as life, &c. &c. &c.

When Hogarth designed the print intituled Morning, his idea of an Old Maid appears to have been adopted from one of that forlorn sisterhood, when emaciated by corroding appetites, or, to borrow Dryden's more[Pg 114] forcible language, by "agony of unaccomplished love." But there is in being, and perhaps in Leicester-fields, a second portrait by our artist, exhibiting the influence of the same misfortune on a more fleshy carcase. The ancient virgin[84] now treated of, is corpulent even to shapelessness. Her neck resembles a collar of brawn; and had her arms been admitted on the canvas, they must have rivalled in magnitude the thighs of the Farnesian god. Her bosom, luckily for the spectator, is covered; as a display of it would have served only to provoke abhorrence. But what words can paint the excess of malice and vulgarity predominant in her visage!—an inflated hide that seems bursting with venom—a brow wrinkled by a Sardonic grin that threatens all the vengeance an affronted Fury would rejoice to execute. Such ideas also of warmth does this mountain of quaggy flesh communicate, that, without hyperbole, one might swear she would parch the earth she trod on, thaw a frozen post-boy, or over-heat a glasshouse. "How dreadful," said a bystander, "would be this creature's hatred!" "How much more formidable," replied his companion, "would be her love!"—Such, however, was the skill of Hogarth, that he could impress similar indications of stale virginity on features directly contrasted, and force us to acknowledge one identical character in the brim-full and exhausted representative of involuntary female celibacy.

[Pg 115]

Mr. S. Ireland has likewise a sketch in chalk, on blue paper, of Falstaff and his companions; two sketches intended for the "Happy Marriage;" a sketch for a picture to shew the pernicious effects of masquerading; sketch of King George II. and the royal family; sketch of his present Majesty, taken hastily on seeing the new coinage of 1764; portrait of Hogarth by himself, with a palette; of Justice Welsh;[85] of Sir James Thornhill; of Sir Edward Walpole;[86] of his friend George Lambert, the landscape-painter; of a boy; of a girl's head, in the character of Diana, finished according to Hogarth's idea of beauty; of a black girl; and of Governor Rogers and his family, a conversation-piece; eleven Sketches from Nature, designed for Mr. Lambert; four drawings of conversations at Button's Coffee-house; Cymon and Iphigenia; two black chalk drawings (landscapes) given to Mr. Kirby in 1762; three heads, slightly drawn with a pen by Hogarth, to exemplify his distinction between Character and Caricature, done at the desire of Mr. Townley, whose son gave them to Dr. Schomberg; a landscape in oil: with several other sketches in oil.

The late Mr. Forrest, of York Buildings, was in possession of a sketch in oil of our Saviour (designed[Pg 116] as a pattern for painted glass), together with the original portrait of Tibson the Laceman,[87] and several drawings descriptive of the incidents that happened during a five days tour by land and water. The parties were Messieurs Hogarth, Thornhill (son of the late Sir James), Scott (the ingenious landscape-painter of that name), Tothall,[88] and Forrest. They set out[Pg 117] at midnight, at a moment's warning, from the Bedford Arms Tavern, with each a shirt in his pocket.[Pg 118] They had particular departments to attend to; Hogarth and Scott made the drawings; Thornhill the map; Tothall faithfully discharged the joint office of treasurer and caterer; and Forrest wrote the journal. They were out five days only; and on the second night after their return, the book was produced, bound, gilt, and lettered, and read at the same tavern to the members of the club then present. Mr. Forrest had also drawings of two of the members (Gabriel Hunt and Ben Read), remarkable fat men, in ludicrous situations. Etchings from all these having been made in 1782, accompanied by the original journal in letter-press, an account of them will appear in the Catalogue under that year.

[Pg 119]

A transcript of the journal was left in the hands of Mr. Gostling,[89] who wrote an imitation of it in Hudibrastic verse; twenty copies only of which having been printed in 1781, as a literary curiosity,[90] I was requested by some of my friends to reprint it at the end of the second edition of this work. It had originally been kept back, in compliment to the writer of the prose journey; but, as that in the mean time had been given to the public by authority, to preserve the Tour in a more agreeable dress cannot, it is presumed, be deemed an impropriety. See the Appendix, N° III.

[Pg 120]

CATALOGUE OF HOGARTH'S PRINTS.[1]

I am now engaged in an undertaking, which from its nature will be imperfect. While Hogarth was yet an apprentice, and worked on his master's account, we may suppose he was not at liberty to affix his name to his own performances. Nay, afterwards, when he appeared as an independent artist, he probably left many of them anonymous, being sometimes obliged to measure out his exertions in proportion to the scanty prices paid for them. For reasons like these, we may be sure that many of his early plates must have eluded search; and, if gradually discovered, will serve only to swell the collections they will not adorn.—The judicious connoisseur, perhaps, would be content to possess the pictures of Raffaelle, without aiming at a complete[Pg 121] assemblage of the Roman Fayence that passes under his name.

In settling the dates of his pieces there is also difficulty. Sometimes, indeed, they have been inferred from circumstances almost infallible; as in respect to the Rabbit-breeder,&c. which would naturally have been published in the year 1726. On other occasions they are determined within a certain compass of time. Thus the Ticket for Milward, then a player at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, must have preceded 1733, when he removed with Rich to Covent Garden; and it is equally sure, that Orator Henley christening an Infant, and A Girl swearing a child to a grave citizen, came out before 1735, in which year we know that J. Y. Schley, one of Picart's coadjutors, had re-engraved them both for the use of the fourth volume of the Religious Ceremonies, published at Amsterdam in 1736. But how are we to guess at the period that produced Sancho at Dinner, or The Discovery?

The merits and demerits of his performances would prove deceitful guides in our researches. As our artist grew older, he did not regularly advance in estimation; for neither the frontispieces to Tristram Shandy, the Times, the Bathos, or the Bear, can be said to equal many of his earliest productions.—Under such difficulties is the following chronological list of our author's pieces attempted.

The reader is likewise entreated to observe, that throughout the annexed catalogue of plates, variations, &c. J. N. has mentioned only such as he has[Pg 122] seen. Alike unwilling to deceive or be deceived, he has suppressed all intelligence he could not authenticate from immediate inspection. He might easily have enlarged his work by admitting particulars of doubtful authority, sometimes imperfectly recollected by their several communicators, and sometimes offered as sportive impositions on an author's credulity. Of this weakness every one possesses some; but perhaps no man more than he who ambitiously seeks opportunities to improve on the labours of another. J. N. is sure, however, that Mr. Walpole, whom none can exceed in taste and judgment, will be little concerned about the merits of a performance that founds its claim to notice only on the humbler pretences of industry and correctness.

1720.

1. W. Hogarth, engraver, with two figures and two Cupids, April 28, 1720.

1721.

1. An emblematic print on the South Sea. W. Hogarth inv. & sc. Sold by Mrs. Chilcot in Westminster-hall, and B. Caldwell, Printseller in Newgate-street. "Persons riding on wooden horses. The Devil cutting Fortune into collops. A man broken on the wheel, &c. A very poor performance." Under it are the following verses:

See here the causes why in London
So many men are made and undone;
[Pg 123]That arts and honest trading drop,
To swarm about the Devil's shop (A),
Who cuts out (B) Fortune's golden haunches,
Trapping their souls with lots and chances,
Sharing 'em from blue garters down
To all blue aprons in the town.
Here all religions flock together,
Like tame and wild fowl of a feather,
Leaving their strife religious bustle,
Kneel down to play at pitch and hustle (C):
Thus when the shepherds are at play;
Their flocks must surely go astray;
The woeful cause that in these times
(E) Honour and Honesty (D) are crimes
That publickly are punish'd by
(G) Self-Interest and (F) Vilany;
So much for mony's magic power,
Guess at the rest, you find out more.
Price One Shilling.[1]

It may be observed, that London always affords a set of itinerant poets, whose office it is to furnish inscriptions for satirical engravings. I lately overheard one of these unfortunate sons of the Muse making a bargain with his employer. "Your print," says he, "is a taking one, and why won't you go to the price of a half-crown Epigram?" From such hireling bards, I suppose, our artist purchased not a few of the wretched rhimes under his early performances, unless he himself be considered as the author of them.

[Pg 124]

Of this print emblematic of the South Sea, there are, however, two impressions. The second, printed for Bowles, has been retouched.

2. The Lottery.[1] W. Hogarth inv. & sculp. Sold by Chilcot and Caldwell. "Emblematic, and not good." This plate is found in four different states. In one there is no publisher's name under the title. Another was sold by Chilcot, &c. A third was printed and sold by S. Sympson, in Maiden-lane, near Covent Garden. A fourth was printed for John Bowles, in whose possession the plate, which he has had retouched, remains. The following explanation accompanies this plate: "1. Upon the pedestal, National Credit leaning on a pillar, supported by Justice. 2. Apollo shewing Britannia a picture representing the Earth receiving enriching Showers drawn from herself (an emblem of state lotteries). 3. Fortune drawing the blanks and prizes. 4. Wantonness drawing the numbers. 5. Before the[Pg 125] pedestal, Suspence turned to and fro by Hope and Fear. 6. On one hand, Good Luck being elevated is seized by Pleasure and Folly, Fame persuading him to raise sinking Virtue, Arts, &c. 7. On the other hand, Misfortune oppressed by Grief, Minerva supporting him points to the sweets of Industry. 8. Sloth hiding his head in the curtain. 9. On the other side, Avarice hugging his money. 10. Fraud tempting Despair with money at a trap-door in the pedestal." Price One Shilling.—Had not Hogarth, on this occasion, condescended to explain his own meaning, it must have remained in several places inexplicable.

1723.

1. Fifteen plates to Aubry de la Motraye's "Travels through Europe, Asia, and Part of Africa." W. Hogarth sculp. on fourteen of them; viz. plates V. IX. X.[1] XI. XV. XVII. b. XVIII. XXVI. XXX.[2] XXXII. XXXIII. 1. XXXIII. 2. XXXV. XXXVIII. One of these (viz. XXX.) contains a portrait of Charles the XIIth of Sweden. Several of the pictures, from which the Seraglio, &c. were engraved, are still in being, and are undoubtedly authentic, being painted in Turkey, and brought home by De la Motraye, at his return from his travels. They were sold about[Pg 126] twenty-five years ago at Hackney, for a mere trifle, together with the plates to the present work. The latter, in all probability, are destroyed. This book was originally published in English at London, 1723; afterwards in French at The Hague, in 1727; and again in English[3] at London, revised by the author; with the addition of two new cuts, in 1730. In the French edition, Plate V. Tom. I. is engraved by R. Smith, instead of Hogarth, so that this intermediate copy contains only fourteen plates by him. It is probable also, that some other anonymous ones, in all the editions, were by the same engraver. His reputation, indeed, will save more than it loses by the want of his signature to establish their authenticity.

2. Five Muscovites. This small print appears at the corner of one of the maps to the second volume of the foregoing work. It has no intelligible reference; but, in the English copy now before me, is the last plate but one, and is marked. C—T. II. In a former edition of the present catalogue, it was enumerated as a separate article, but must now be reckoned as one of the fifteen plates to Motraye's Travels.

To these I might add three plates more. If Hogarth engraved the Muscovites at the corner of the map already mentioned, he likewise furnished the figures in the corner of another, marked T. I.—B. And[Pg 127] Plate T. I.—XVI. and T. I.—XXXVII. I have likewise reason to suppose were the works of our artist; eighteen plates in all; though the three latter being only conjectural, I have not ventured to set them down as indisputed performances. Of the Muscovites there is a modern copy.[1]

I have just been assured by a gentleman of undoubted veracity, that he was once possessed of a set of plates engraved by Hogarth for some treatise on mathematicks; but, considering them of little value, disposed of them at the price of the copper. As our artist could have displayed no marks of genius in representations of cycloids, diagrams, and equilateral triangles, the loss of these plates is not heavily to be lamented.

1724.

1. Seven small prints to "The New Metamorphosis of Lucius Apuleius of Medaura. London, printed for Sam. Briscoe, 1724." 12mo. 2 vol. I. Frontispiece. II. Festivals of Gallantry, which the noblemen of Rome make in the churches for the entertainment of their mistresses. III. The banditti's bringing home a beautiful virgin, called Camilla, from her mother's arms, the night before she was to have been married. Vol. I. p. 113. No name to this plate. IV. Fantasio's arrival at the house of an old witch, who is afterwards changed into a beautiful young lady. V. The provincial of the Jesuits' recovery of his favourite dog from the cooper's wife.[Pg 128] VI. Psyche's admission of her unknown husband in the dark, who always departed before the return of light. VII. Cardinal Ottoboni and his niece's visit to an Hermitage in the holy desart, called Camaldule; the Cardinal's discourse against solitude to the hermit, who had not been out of his cell, nor spoke a word, for forty years together. Plate IV. is the only one that has the least trait of character in it.

2. Masquerades and operas. Burlington-gate. W. Hogarth inv. & sculp. Of the three small figures in the center of this plate, the middle one is Lord Burlington, a man of considerable taste in Painting and Architecture, but who ranked Mr. Kent (an indifferent artist) above his merit. On one side of the peer is Mr. Campbell, the architect; on the other, his lordship's postilion. On a show-cloth in this plate is also supposed to be the portrait of King George II. who gave 1000 l. towards the masquerade; together with that of the Earl of Peterborough, who offers Cuzzoni, the Italian singer, 8000 l. and she spurns at him.[1] Mr. Heidegger, the regulator of the Masquerade, is also exhibited, looking out at a window, with the letter H. under him. The substance of the foregoing remarks is taken from a collection lately belonging to Captain Baillie,[2] where it is said that[Pg 129] they were furnished by an eminent Connoisseur.[3] A board is likewise displayed, with the words—"Long Room. Fawks's dexterity of hand." It appears front the following advertisement in Mist's Weekly Journal for Saturday, December 25, 1725, that this artist was a man of great consequence in his profession. "Whereas the town hath lately been alarmed, that the famous Fawks was robbed and murdered, returning from performing at the Dutchess of Buckingham's house at Chelsea; which report being raised and printed by a person to gain money to himself, and prejudice the above mentioned Mr. Fawks, whose unparalleled performances have gained him so much applause from the greatest of quality, and most curious observers: We think, both in justice to the injured gentleman, and for the satisfaction of his admirers, that we cannot please our readers better than to acquaint them he is alive, and will not only perform his usual surprizing dexterity of hand, posture-master, and musical clock; but for the greater diversion of the quality and gentry, has agreed with the famous Powell of The Bath for the season, who has the largest, richest, and most natural figures, and[Pg 130] finest machines in England, and whose former performances in Covent Garden were so engaging to the town, as to gain the approbation of the best judges, to show his puppet-plays along with him, beginning in the Christmas holidays next, at the old Tennis-court in James-Street, near The Haymarket; where any incredulous persons may be satisfied he has not left this world, if they please to believe their hands, though they can't believe their eyes."—May 25," indeed, "1731, died Mr. Fawkes, famous for his dexterity of hand, by which he had honestly acquired a fortune of above 10,000 l. being no more than he really deserved for his great ingenuity, by which he had surpassed all that ever pretended to that art." Political State, vol. XLI. p. 543.

This satirical performance of Hogarth, however, was thought to be invented and drawn at the mitigation of Sir James Thornhill, out of revenge, because Lord Burlington had preferred Mr. Kent before him to paint for the king at his palace at Kensington. Dr. Faustus was a pantomime performed to crowded houses throughout two seasons, to the utter neglect of plays, for which reason they are cried about in a wheel-barrow.[4] We may add that there are three[Pg 131] prints of this small masquerade, &c. one a copy from the first. The originals have Hogarth's name[Pg 132] within the frame of the plate, and the eight verses are different from those under the other. It is sometimes found without any lines at all; those in the first instance having been engraved on a separate piece of copper, so that they could either be retained, dismissed, or exchanged, at pleasure. In the first copy of this print, instead of Ben Jonson's name on a label, we have Pasquin, N° XI. This was a periodical paper published in 1722-3, and the number specified is particularly severe on operas, &c. The verses to the first impression of this plate, are,

[Pg 133]

Could now dumb Faustus, to reform the age,
Conjure up Shakespear's or Ben Johnson's ghost,
They'd blush for shame, to see the English stage
Debauch'd by fool'ries, at so great a cost.
What would their manes say? Should they behold
Monsters and masquerades, where useful plays
Adorn'd the fruitfull theatre of old,
And rival wits contended for the bays.
Price 1 shilling 1724.

To the second impression of it:

O how refin'd, how elegant we're grown!
What noble Entertainments charm the town!
Whether to hear the Dragon's roar we go,
Or gaze surpriz'd on Fawks's matchless show,
Or to the Operas, or to the Masques,
To eat up ortelans, and t' empty flasques,
And rifle pies from Shakespear's clinging page,
Good gods! how great's the gusto of the age.

In this print our artist has imitated the engraving of Callot.

To the third impression, i. e. the copy:

Long has the stage productive been
Of offsprings it could brag on,
But never till this age was seen
A Windmill and a Dragon.

O Congreve, lay thy pen aside,
Shakespear, thy works disown,
Since monsters grim, and nought beside,
Can please this senseless town.

[Pg 134]

I should have observed, that the idea of the foregoing plate was stolen from an anonymous one on the same subject. It represents Hercules chaining follies and destroying monsters. He is beating Heidegger, till the money he had amassed falls out of his pocket. The situation of the buildings, &c. on the sides, &c. has been followed by our artist. Mercury aloft sustains a scroll, on which is written "The Mascarade destroy'd." The inscription under this print is "Hei Degeror. O! I am undone." Price One Shilling.

1725.

1. Five small prints for the translation of Cassandra, in five volumes duodecimo. W. Hogarth inv. & sculp.

2. Fifteen head pieces for "The Roman Military Punishments, by John Beaver, Esq. London. From the happy Revolution, Anno xxxvii." (i. e. 1725.) Small quarto, pp. 155. From the preface it should seem that the author had been Judge Advocate. The book is divided into seventeen chapters, each of which, except the second, third, seventh, and twelfth, have small head-pieces prefixed, of ancient military punishments, in the manner of Callot's Small Miseries of War. W. Hogarth inv. & sculp. In 1779, were first sold by a printseller ten of these prints, together with two others not in the book, being scenes of modern war; a pair of drums being in one, and a soldier armed with a musket in the other. Thus are there three prints in the book not in this set; viz. Chap. 9. Soldiers sold for slaves. 10. Degradation.[Pg 135] 16. Banishment. There is also in the title-page a little figure of a Roman General sitting; probably done by Hogarth, though his name is not under it.

In the year 1774, these plates were in the possession of a Button-manufacturer at Birmingham. There are only eleven, one of them being engraved on both sides. They were given by him, however, to my informant, who parted with them to S. Harding an engraver, who sold them to Humphry the printseller near Temple-Bar, their present proprietor. How they fell into the hands of the Birmingham manufacturer (who took off a few impressions from them), is unknown.

Query. Does the plate engraved on both sides contain the two modern designs?

In a Catalogue of Books sold by W. Bathoe, was included "Part of the Collection of the late ingenious W. Hogarth, Esq. Serjeant Painter to his Majesty;" in which was Beaver's "Roman Military Punishments," with twelve plates by Hogarth.

The plate to Chap. XVII. viz. "Pay stopt wholly, or in part, by way of punishment"—"Barley given to offenders instead of wheat, &c." differs in many instances from that sold with the set. At the bottom of the former, in the book, we read, "W. Hogarth, Invent. sculpt." The latter has "W. Hogarth, invent. & fec." The former has a range of tents behind the pay-table. These are omitted in the latter; which likewise exhibits an additional soldier attendant on the measuring out of the corn, &c.

[Pg 136]

I do not mean to say that the plate sold with the set is spurious. Had it been a copy, it would naturally have been a servile one. Some reason, now undiscoverable, must have prevailed on our artist to re-engrave it with variations.

N. B. The two "scenes of modern war," mentioned also in p. 134, were designed for a continuation of the same work, which was never printed, as I guess from the conclusion of the Author's preface. "This regularly divided my book into two parts; one treating of the Roman, the other of the Modern Military Punishments. The first I now send into the world, as a man going into the water dips his foot to feel what reception he is like to meet with; by that rule resolving, either to publish the second part, or sit down contented with the private satisfaction of having, by my studies, rendered myself more able worthily to discharge the duties of my office."

I have since been assured, that our Author's heir was a pastry-cook, who used all the copies of this book for waste-paper.

3. A burlesque on Kent's altar piece at St. Clement's, with notes. "It represents angels very ill drawn, playing on various instruments." Speaking of this print, Mr. Walpole in one place calls it a parody; and in another, a burlesque on Kent's Altar-piece. But, if we may believe Hogarth himself, it is neither, but a very fair and honest representation of a despicable performance. The following is our artist's inscription to it, transcribed verbatim & literatim.

[Pg 137]

"This Print is exactly Engraiv'd after y^e celebrated Altar-Piece in St. Clements Church which has been taken down by Order of y^e Lord Bishop of London (as tis thought) to prevent Disputs and Laying of wagers among the Parrshioners about y^e Artists meaning in it. for publick Satisfaction here is a particular Explanation of it humbly Offerd to be writ under the Original, that it may be put up again by which means y^e Parish'es 60 pounds which thay nifely gave for it, may not be Entirely lost.

"1st. Tis not the Pretenders Wife and Children as our weak brethren imagin.

"2dly. Nor St. Cecilia as the Connoisseurs think but a choir of Angells playing in Consort.

This picture produced a tract, intituled, "A Letter from a Parishioner of St. Clement Danes to Edmund[Pg 138] [Gibson] Lord Bishop of London, occasion'd by his lordship's causing the picture over the altar to be taken down: with some observations on the use and abuse of Church-paintings in general, and of that picture in particular, 1725." 8vo. See Appendix II. The proofs of this plate are commonly on blue paper, though I have met with more than one on white. The original, after it was removed from the church, was for some years one of the ornaments of the music-room at The Crown and Anchor in the Strand. As this house has frequently changed its tenants, &c. I am unable to trace the picture in question any further. There is a good copy of this print by Livesay.

4. A scene in Handel's opera of Ptolomeo, performed in 1728, with Farinelli, Cuzzoni, and Senesino, in the characters of Ptolemy, Cleopatra, and Julius Cæsar. Those who are inclined to doubt the authenticity of this performance, will do well to consult the representation on a painted canvas in the small print on masquerades and operas, where the same figures occur in almost the same attitudes. I do not, however, vouch for the genuineness of this plate. In Southwark Fair, our artist has borrowed the subject of his show-cloth from Laguerre; and might, in the present instance, have adopted it from another hand.

The appearance Farinelli makes on this occasion may be justified by the following quotation from a Pamphlet, intituled, Reflections upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy, &c. printed for W. Johnston, &c.[Pg 139] 1755. "I shall therefore, in my further remarks upon this article, go back to the Old Italian Theatre, when Farinelli drew every body to the Haymarket. What a pipe! what modulation! what extasy to the ear! But, heavens! what clumsiness! what stupidity! what offence to the eye! Reader, if of the city, thou mayest probably have seen in the fields of Islington or Mile-end, or if thou art in the environs of St. James's, thou must have observed in the park, with what ease and agility a Cow, heavy with Calf, has rose up at the command of the Milk-woman's foot. Thus from the mossy bank sprung up the Divine Farinelli. Then with long strides advancing a few paces, his left hand settled upon his hip, in a beautiful bend like that of the handle of an old-fashioned caudle-cup, his right remained immoveable across his manly breast, till numbness called its partner to supply its place; when it relieved itself in the position of the other handle to the caudle-cup." p. 63, &c.

Under a copy of the print abovementioned, which must have been made soon after its publication, appear the following inscription, and wretched ungrammatical lines:

The three most Celebrated Singers at the Opera.

Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.

Sigra the great, harmoniously inclin'd,
Who charms the ear and captivates the mind.
[Pg 140]
Cuzzoni.
Thou little slave an emblem is of those
Whose hearts are wholly att y^e worlds dispose.

Great Barrenstadt[1] encomiums great and true
is very short of whats your right and due.

The characters in the print under consideration, might have been new-christen'd by the copier of it.

Either the dignity of Senesino must have been wonderful, or the following passage in Dr. Warburton's "Enquiry into the Cause of Prodigies and Miracles," (printed in 1727) affords a most notorious example of the Bathos. "Observe," says he, p. 60. "Sir Walter Raleigh's great manner of ending the first part of the History of the World. 'By this which we have already set down is seen the beginning and end of the Three first Monarchies of the World; whereof the founders and erectors thought that they could never have ended: that of Rome, which made the fourth, was also at this time almost at the highest. We have left it flourishing in the middle of the field; have rooted up, or cut down, all that kept it from the eyes and admiration of the world; but after some continuance, it shall begin to lose the beauty it had; the storms of ambition shall beat her great boughs and branches one against another; her leaves shall fall off; her limbs wither, and a rabble of barbarous nations enter the field and cut her down.' What strength[Pg 141] of colouring! What grace, what nobleness of expression! With what a majesty does he close his immortal labour! It puts one in mind of the so much admired exit of the late famed Italian Singer."

5. A just View of the British Stage, or three heads better than one, scene Newgate, by M. D. V—to.[1] This print represents the rehearsing a new farce, that will include the two famous entertainments Dr. Faustus and Harlequin Shepherd.[2] To which will be added, Scaramouch Jack Hall the Chimney-sweeper's Escape from Newgate through the Privy, with the comical Humours of Ben Johnson's Ghost, concluding with the Play Dance, performed in the air by the figures A. B. C. [Wilks, Booth, and Cibber] assisted by ropes from the Muses. Note, there are no Conjurors concerned in it, as the Ignorant imagine. The Bricks, Rubbish, &c. will be real; but the Excrements upon Jack Hall will be made of chewed Gingerbread, to prevent Offence. Vivat Rex. Price Sixpence. Such is the inscription on the plate; but I may add, that the ropes already mentioned are no other than halters, suspended over the heads of the three managers;[3] and that labels issuing from their[Pg 142] respective mouths have the following characteristic words. The airy Wilks, who dangles the effigy of Punch, is made to exclaim—"Poor R-ch! faith I pitty him." The laureat Cibber, with Harlequin for his playfellow, invokes the Muses painted on the cieling—"Assist, ye sacred Nine;" while the solemn Booth, letting down the image of Jack Hall into the forica, is most tragically blaspheming—"Ha! this will do, G-d d-m me." On a table before these gentlemen lies a pamphlet, exhibiting a print of Jack Shepherd, in confinement; and over the forica is suspended a parcel of waste paper, consisting of leaves torn from The Way of the World—Hamlet—Macbeth, and Julius Cæsar. Ben Jonson's Ghost, in the mean while, is rising through the stage, and p——g on a pantomimic statue tumbled from its base. A fidler is also represented hanging by a cord in the air, and performing, with a scroll before him, that exhibits—Music for the What—[perhaps the What d' ye call it] entertainment. The countenances of Tragedy and Comedy, on each side of the stage, are hoodwinked by the bills for Harlequin Dr. Faustus and Harlequin Shepherd, &c. &c. There is also a dragon preparing to fly; a dog thrusting his head out of his kennel; a flask put in motion by machinery, &c. Vivetur Ingenio is the motto over the curtain. In Mr. Walpole's catalogue the description of this plate is, "Booth, Wilks, and Cibber, contriving a pantomime. A satire on farces. No name."

[Pg 143]

1726.

1. Frontispiece to Terræ-filius. W. Hogarth fec. This work was printed in two volumes 12°, at Oxford, and is a satire on the Tory principles of that University. It was written by Nicholas Amherst, author of The Craftsman, and was originally published in one volume.

2. Twelve prints for Hudibras; the large set. W. Hogarth inv. pinx. et sculp. Under the head of Butler: "The basso relievo of the pedestal represents the general design of Mr. Butler, in his incomparable poem of Hudibras; viz. Butler's Genious in a Car lashing around Mount Parnassus, in the persons of Hudibras and Ralpho, Rebellion, Hypocrisy, and Ignorance, the reigning vices of his time." This set of prints was published by subscription, by P. Overton and J. Cooper. Mr. S. Ireland has seven of the original drawings; three others are known to be preserved in Holland; and two more were lately existing in this kingdom. The plates, as has been mentioned already in p. 11, are now the property of Mr. Sayer, whose name, as publisher, is subjoined. The Rev. Mr. Bowle, F. A. S. had a set with the list of the subscribers, which he purchased at the Duke of Beaufort's sale in Wiltshire. The printed title to them is, "Twelve excellent and most diverting Prints; taken from the celebrated Poem of Hudibras, wrote by Mr. Samuel Butler. Exposing the Villany and Hypocrisy of the Times. Invented and Engraved on Twelve Copper-plates, by William[Pg 144] Hogarth, and are humbly dedicated to William Ward, Esq. of Great Houghton in Northamptonshire; and Mr. Allan Ramsay, of Edinburgh.

"What excellence can Brass or Marble claim!
These Papers better do secure thy Fame:
Thy Verse all Monuments does far surpass,
No Mausoleum's like thy Hudibras.

"Printed and sold by Philip Overton, Print and Map-seller, at the Golden Buck near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street; and John Cooper, in James-street, Covent Garden, 1726."

Allan Ramsay subscribed for 30 sets. The number of subscribers in all amounts to 192. On the print of Hudibras and the Lawyer is W. Hogart delin. et sculp. a proof that our artist had not yet disused the original mode in which he spelt his name. In the scene of the Committee, one of the members has his gloves on his head. I am told this whimsical custom once prevailed among our sanctified fraternity; but it is in vain, I suppose, to ask the reason why. In plate XI. (earliest impressions) the words "Down with the Rumps" are wanting on the scroll.—Memorandum. At the top of the proposals for this set of Prints, is a small one representing Hudibras and Ralpho, engraved by Pine. The original drawing for it by Hogarth is in the possession of Mr. Betew, Silversmith, in Compton-street, Soho.

3. Seventeen small prints for Hudibras, with Butler's head. There certainly must have been some[Pg 145] mistake concerning this portrait. It never could have been designed for the author of Hudibras; but more strongly resembles John Baptist Monnoyer, the flower-painter. There is a print of him by White, from a picture of Sir Godfrey Kneller. This I suppose to have been the original of Hogarth's small Butler.

The same designs engraved on a larger scale, and with some slight variations, by J. Mynde, for Grey's edition of Hudibras, published in 1744.

Previous, however, to both, appeared another set of plates, eighteen in number, for an edition in eighteens of this celebrated poem. To these it is manifest that Hogarth was indebted for his ideas of several of the scenes and personages both in his larger and smaller performances on the same subject. That the collector may know the book when he meets with it, the following is a transcript of the title-page. "Hudibras. In three Parts. Written in the time of the late Wars. Corrected and amended, with Additions. To which is added, Annotations to the third Part, with an exact Index to the whole; never before printed. Adorned with cuts. London. Printed for R. Chiswel, J. Tonson, T. Horne, and R. Willington, 1710."

Copies from the smaller plates are likewise inserted in Townly's translation of Hudibras into French, with the English on the opposite page. He was, I believe, an officer in the Irish brigade. The following is the title-page to his work. "Hudibras, Poeme ecrit[Pg 146] dans les tems des troubles d'Angleterre; et traduit en vers François, avec des remarques et des figures. 3 tom. 12mo. A Londres, 1757." It seems rather to have been printed at Paris. The plates have no name subscribed to them.

4. Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation.

"They held their talents most adroit
For any mystical exploit." Hudib.

This print was published in the year 1726, i. e. about the same time that Lord Onslow wrote the following letter:

"To the Hon^ble. Sir Hans Sloane. To be left at the Grecian Coffe House, in Devereux Court near Temple Bar London.

"Sir, The report of a woman's breeding of rabbits has almost alarmed England, and in a manner persuaded several people of sound judg^t of that truth. I have been at some pains to discover the affair, and think I have conquerd my poynt, as you will se by the Depotition taken before me, which shall be published in a day or two. I am

"Y^r humble Servant,

"Onslow.

"Clandon, Dec. 4th, 1726."

Soon after, Mr. St. André also addressed this note to Sir Hans Sloane:

"Sir, I have brought the woman from Guilford to y^e Bagnio in Leicester-fields, where you may if[Pg 147] you please have the opportunity of seeing her deliver'd. I am S^r Your Hum Serv^t

"St. André.[1]

"To Sir Hans Sloane in Bloomsbury Square."

In the plate already mentioned, figure A represents St. André. [He has a kitt under his arm, having been at first designed by his family for a fencing and dancing-master, though he afterwards attached himself to music of a higher order than that necessary for one of the professions already mentioned.] B is Sir Richard Manningham, C Mr. Sainthill a celebrated surgeon here in London, D is Howard the surgeon at Guildford, who was supposed to have had a chief hand in the imposture. The rest of the characters explain themselves.

Perhaps my readers may excuse me, if I add a short account of another design for a print on the same subject; especially as some collectors have been willing to receive it as a work of Hogarth.

In Mist's Weekly Journal, Saturday, Jan. 11th, 1726-7, was the following advertisement:

"The Rabbit affair made clear in a full account of the whole matter; with the pictures engraved of the pretended Rabbit-breeder herself, Mary Tofts, and of the Rabbits, and of the persons who attended her during her pretended deliveries, shewing who were and who were not imposed on[Pg 148] by her. 'Tis given gratis no where, but only up one pair of stairs at the sign of the celebrated Anodyne Necklace recommended by Doctor Chamberlen for Children's teeth, &c."

The original drawing from which the plate promised in Mist's Journal was taken, remained in the possession of Mr. James Vertue, and was probably designed by his brother George. It was sold in 1781 in the collection of George Scott, Esq. of Chigwell in Essex, together with eight tracts relative to the same imposture, for three guineas, and is now in the collection of Mr. Gough.

St. André's Miscarriage, a ballad, published in 1727, has the following stanza on this subject:

"He dissected, compar'd, and distinguish'd likewise
The make of these rabbits, their growth and their size.
He preserv'd them in spirits, and—a little too late
Preserv'd (Vertue sculpsit) a neat copper plate."

There is also a copper-plate, consisting of twelve compartments, on the same story. It exhibits every stage throughout this celebrated fraud. St. André appears in the habit of a Merry-Andrew. The general title of it is, "The Doctors in Labour; or a new Whim-wham from Guilford. Being a representation of the frauds by which the Godliman woman carried on her pretended Rabbit breeding; also of the simplicity of our Doctors, by which they assisted to carry on that imposture, discovered[Pg 149] their skill, and contributed to the mirth of his Majesty's liege subjects."

In Mist's Journal for Saturday, Dec. 17, 1726, is also the following paragraph, which shews that the playhouse joined in the general ridicule of St. André. "Last week the entertainment called The Necromancer was performed at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, wherein a new Rabbit-scene was introduced by way of episode; by which the Public may understand as much of that affair, as by the present controversy among the Gentlemen of the faculty, who are flinging their bitter pills at one another, to convince the world that none of them understand any thing of the matter." I am told by one of the spectators still alive, that in this new scene, Harlequin, being converted into a woman, pretended to be in labour, and was first delivered of a large pig, then of a sooterkin, &c. &c.

From the same paper of Saturday, Jan. 21, 1727, we learn, that "The pretended Rabbit-breeder, in order to perpetuate her fame, has had her picture done in a curious mezzotinto print by an able hand." It was painted by Laguerre, and scraped by Faber. She has a rabbit on her lap, and displays a countenance expressive of the utmost vulgarity. In Hogarth's comic representation, the remarkable turn-up of the nose is preserved. This, perhaps, was the only feature in her face that could not be altered by the convulsions of her pretended agony,[Pg 150] or our artist would have given her resemblance with greater exactness.

Mr. Dillingham, an apothecary in Red-Lion-Square, laid a wager of ten guineas with St. André, that in a limited time the cheat would be detected. The money was paid him, and he expended it on a piece of plate, with three rabbits engraved by way of arms.

I learn from The Weekly Miscellany, for April 19, 1740, that a few days before, "The celebrated Rabbit-woman of Godalmin in Surry was committed to Guildford Gaol, for receiving stolen goods."

In The Gazetteer, or Daily London Advertiser, Jan. 21, 1763, was this paragraph, which closes the story of our heroine: "Last week died at Godalming in Surry, Mary Tofts, formerly noted for an imposition of breeding Rabbits."

1727.

1. Music introduced to Apollo by Minerva. Hogarth fecit. "Frontispiece to some book of music, or ticket for a concert." I can venture to affirm, on unquestionable authority, that this print is a mere copy from the frontispiece to a more ancient book of music. The composer's name has escaped my memory.

2. Masquerade Ticket. A. a sacrifice to Priapus. B. a pair of Lecherometers shewing the companys inclinations as they approach em. Invented for the use of ladies and gentlemen, by the ingenious Mr. H——r [Heidegger]. Price One Shilling. "There is much wit[Pg 151] in this print." The attentive observer will find, that Hogarth has transplanted several circumstances from hence into the first plate to the Analysis of Beauty, as well as into his Satire on the Methodists. See the ornaments of an altar composed of a concatenation of different periwigs, and the barometers expressing the different degrees of animal heat. At the corners of the dial on the top of this print is the date of the year (1727), and the face of Heidegger appears under the figure XII. In the earliest impressions, the word Provocatives has, instead of V the open vowel U. This incorrectness in spelling was afterwards amended, though in a bungling manner, the round bottoms of the original letters being still visible.[1]

Concerning John James Heidegger, whose face has been more than once introduced by our artist, the reader may express some curiosity. The following account of him is therefore appended to the foregoing article.

"This extraordinary man, the son of a clergyman, was a native of Zurich in Switzerland, where he married, but left his country in consequence of an intrigue. Having had an opportunity of visiting the principal cities of Europe, he acquired a taste for elegant and refined pleasures, which, united to a strong inclination for voluptuousness, by degrees qualified him for the management of public amusements. In 1708, when he was near 50 years[Pg 152] old, he came to England on a negotiation from the Swiss at Zurich; but, failing in his embassy, he entered as a private soldier in the guards for protection.[2] By his sprightly, engaging conversation, and insinuating address, he soon worked himself into the good graces of our young people of fashion; from whom he obtained the appellation of 'the Swiss Count.'[3] He had the address to procure a subscription, with which in 1709 he was enabled to furnish out the opera of 'Thomyris,'[4] which was written in English, and performed at the Queen's theatre in the Haymarket. The music, however, was Italian; that is to say, airs selected from sundry of the foreign operas by Bononcini, Scarlatti, Stefani, Gasparini, and Albinoni. Most of the songs in 'Thomyris' were excellent, those by Bononcini especially: Valentini, Margarita, and Mrs. Tofts sung in it; and Heidegger by this performance alone was a gainer of 500 guineas.[5] The judicious remarks he made on several defects in the conduct of our operas in general, and the hints he threw out for improving the entertainments of[Pg 153] the royal theatre, soon established his character as a good critic. Appeals were made to his judgement; and some very magnificent and elegant decorations, introduced upon the stage in consequence of his advice, gave such satisfaction to George II. who was fond of operas, that, upon being informed to whose genius he was indebted for these improvements, his majesty was pleased from that time to countenance him, and he soon obtained the chief management of the Opera-house in The Haymarket. He then set about improving another species of diversion, not less agreeable to the king, which was the masquerades, and over these he always presided at the king's theatre. He was likewise appointed master of the revels. The nobility now caressed him so much, and had such an opinion of his taste, that all splendid and elegant entertainments given by them upon particular occasions, and all private assemblies by subscription, were submitted to his direction.[6]

"From the emoluments of these several employments, he gained a regular considerable income, amounting, it is said, in some years, to 5000 l. which he spent with much liberality: particularly in the maintenance of perhaps a somewhat too luxurious[Pg 154] table; so that it may be said, he raised an income, but never a fortune. His foibles, however, if they deserve so harsh a name, were completely 'covered' by his 'charity,' which was boundless.[7]

"That he was a good judge of music, appears from his opera: but this is all that is known of his mental abilities;[8] unless we add, what we[Pg 155] have good authority for saying in honour to his memory, that he walked from Charing-Cross to Temple-bar, and back again; and when he came home, wrote down every sign on each side the Strand.

"As to his person, though he was tall and well made, it was not very pleasing, from an unusual hardness of features.[9] But he was the first to[Pg 156] joke upon his own ugliness; and he once laid a wager with the earl of Chesterfield, that, within a certain given time, his lordship would not be able to produce so hideous a face in all London. After strict search, a woman was found, whose features were at first sight thought stronger than Heidegger's; but, upon clapping her head-dress upon himself, he was universally allowed to have won the wager. Jolly, a well-known taylor, carrying his bill to a noble duke, his grace, for evasion said, 'Damn your ugly face, I never will pay you till you bring me an uglier fellow than yourself!' Jolly bowed and retired, wrote a letter, and sent it by a servant to Heidegger; saying, 'his grace wished to see him the next morning on particular business.' Heidegger attended, and Jolly was there to meet him; and in consequence, as soon as Heidegger's visit was over, Jolly received the cash.

"The late facetious duke of Montagu (the memorable author of the bottle-conjuror at the theatre in The Haymarket) gave an entertainment at The Devil-tavern, Temple-bar, to several of the nobility and gentry, selecting the most convivial, and a few hard-drinkers, who were all in the plot. Heidegger was invited, and in a few hours after[Pg 157] dinner was made so dead drunk that he was carried out of the room, and laid insensible upon a bed. A profound sleep ensued; when the late Mrs. Salmon's daughter was introduced, who took a mould from his face in plaster of Paris. From this a mask was made, and a few days before the next masquerade (at which the king promised to be present, with the countess of Yarmouth), the duke made application to Heidegger's valet de chambre, to know what suit of cloaths he was likely to wear; and then procuring a similar dress, and a person of the same stature, he gave him his instructions. On the evening of the masquerade, as soon as his majesty was seated (who was always known by the conductor of the entertainment and the officers of the court, though concealed by his dress from the company), Heidegger, as usual, ordered the music to play 'God save the King;' but his back was no sooner turned, than the false Heidegger ordered them to strike up 'Charly over the Water.' The whole company were instantly thunderstruck, and all the courtiers, not in the plot, were thrown into a stupid consternation. Heidegger flew to the music-gallery, swore, stamped, and raved, accused the musicians of drunkenness, or of being set on by some secret enemy to ruin him. The king and the countess laughed so immoderately, that they hazarded a discovery. While Heidegger stayed in the gallery, 'God save the King' was the tune; but when,[Pg 158] after setting matters to rights, he retired to one of the dancing-rooms, to observe if decorum was kept by the company, the counterfeit stepping forward, and placing himself upon the floor of the theatre, just in front of the music-gallery, called out in a most audible voice, imitating Heidegger, damned them for blockheads, had he not just told them to play 'Charly over the Water.' A pause ensued; the musicians, who knew his character, in their turn thought him either drunk or mad; but, as he continued his vociferation, 'Charly' was played again. At this repetition of the supposed affront, some of the officers of the guards, who always attended upon these occasions, were for ascending the gallery, and kicking the musicians out; but the late duke of Cumberland, who could hardly contain himself, interposed. The company were thrown into great confusion. 'Shame! Shame!' resounded from all parts, and Heidegger once more flew in a violent rage to that part of the theatre facing the gallery. Here the duke of Montagu, artfully addressing himself to him, told him, 'the king was in a violent passion; that his best way was to go instantly and make an apology, for certainly the music were mad, and afterwards to discharge them.' Almost at the same instant, he ordered the false Heidegger to do the same. The scene now became truly comic in the circle before the king. Heidegger had no sooner made a genteel apology for the insolence of[Pg 159] his musicians, but the false Heidegger advanced, and, in a plaintive tone, cried out, 'Indeed, Sire, it was not my fault, but that devil's in my likeness.' Poor Heidegger turned round, stared, staggered, grew pale, and could not utter a word. The duke then humanely whispered in his ear the sum of his plot, and the counterfeit was ordered to take off his mask. Here ended the frolick; but Heidegger swore he would never attend any public amusement, if that witch the wax-work woman did not break the mould, and melt down the mask before his face.[10]

"Being once at supper with a large company, when a question was debated, which nationalist of Europe, had the greatest ingenuity; to the surprise of all present, he claimed that character for the Swiss, and appealed to himself for the truth of it.[Pg 160] 'I was born a Swiss, said he, 'and came to England without a farthing, where I have found means to gain 5000 l. a year, and to spend it. Now I defy the most able Englishman to go to Switzerland, and either to gain that income, or to spend it there.' He died Sept. 4, 1749, at the advanced age of 96 years, at his house at Richmond in Surrey, where he was buried. He left behind him one natural daughter, Miss Pappet, who was married Sept. 2, 1750, to Captain (afterwards Sir Peter) Denis.[11] Part of this lady's fortune was a house at the north west corner of Queen-square, Ormond-street, which Sir Peter afterwards sold to the late Dr. Campbell, and purchased a seat in Kent, pleasantly situated near Westram, then called Valence, but now (by its present proprietor, the earl of Hillsborough) Hill Park."

3. Frontispiece to a Collection of Songs, with the Music by Mr. Leveridge, in two vols. 8vo. London, engraved and printed for the author, in Tavistock-street, Covent-Garden, 1727. This design consists of a Bacchus and a Venus in the Clouds, and a figure with musical instruments, &c. on the earth, soliciting their attention, &c. The ornaments round the engraved title-page seem likewise to be Hogarth's.

1728.

1. Head of Hesiod, from the bust at Wilton. The frontispiece to Cook's translation of Hesiod, in 2 vols. 4to. printed by N. Blandford for T. Green.

[Pg 161]

2. Rich's Glory, or his Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden. W. H. I. E^t. SULP. Price Sixpence.

The date of the print before us has been conjectured from its reference to the Beggar's Opera, and Perseus and Andromeda,[1] both of which were acted in the year already mentioned.

This plate represents the removal of Rich and his scenery, authors, actors, &c. from Lincoln's-Inn Fields to the New House; and might therefore be as probably referred to the year 1733, when that event happened. The scene is the area of Covent Garden, across which, leading toward the door of the Theatre, is a long procession, consisting of a cart loaded with thunder and lightning; performers, &c. and at the head of them Mr. Rich (invested with the skin of the famous dog in Perseus and Andromeda) riding with his mistress in a chariot driven by Harlequin, and drawn by Satyrs. But let the verses at bottom explain our artist's meaning:

Not with more glory through the streets of Rome,
Return'd great conquerors in triumph home,
Than, proudly drawn with Beauty by his side,
We see gay R—-[2] in gilded chariot ride.
He comes, attended by a num'rous throng,
Who, with loud shouts, huzza the Chief along.
[Pg 162]Behold two bards, obsequious, at his wheels,
Confess the joy each raptur'd bosom feels;
Conscious that wit by him will be receiv'd,
And on his stage true humour be retriev'd.
No sensible and pretty play will fall[3]
Condemn'd by him as not theatrical.
The players follow, as they here are nam'd,
Dress'd in each character for which they're fam'd.
Quin th' Old Bachelour, a Hero Ryan shows,
Who stares and stalks majestick as he goes.
Walker,[4] in his lov'd character we see
A Prince, tho' once a fisherman was he,
And Massanelo nam'd; in this he prides,
Tho' fam'd for many other parts besides.
Then Hall,[5] who tells the bubbled countrymen
That Carolus is Latin for Queen Anne.
[Pg 163]Did ever mortal know so clean a bite?
Who else, like him, can copy Serjeant Kite!
To the Piazza let us turn our eyes,
See Johnny Gay on porters shoulders rise,
Whilst a bright Man of Tast his works despise.[6]
Another author wheels his works with care,
In hopes to get a market at this fair;
For such a day he sees not ev'ry year.

By the Man of Taste, Mr. Pope was apparently designed. He is represented, in his tye-wig, at one corner of the Piazza, wiping his posteriors with the Beggar's Opera. The letter P is over his head. His little sword is significantly placed, and the peculiarity of his figure well preserved.

The reason why our artist has assigned such an employment to him, we can only guess. It seems, indeed, from Dr. Johnson's Life of Gay, that Pope did not think the Beggar's Opera would succeed. Swift, however, was of the same opinion; and yet the former supported the piece on the first night of exhibition, and the latter defended it in his Intelligencer against the attacks of Dr. Herring,[7] then preacher to the Society of Lincoln's-Inn, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. Hogarth might be wanton in his satire; might have founded it on idle report; or[Pg 164] might have sacrificed truth to the prejudices of Sir James Thornhill, whose quarrel, on another occasion, he is supposed to have taken up, when he ridiculed The Translator of Homer in a view of "The Gate of Burlington-house."

There are besides some allusions in the verses already quoted, as well as in the piece they refer to, which I confess my inability to illustrate. Those who are best acquainted with the theatric and poetical history of the years 1728, &c. would prove the most successful commentators on the present occasion; but not many can possibly be now alive who were at that period competent judges of such matters.

This print, however, was not only unpublished, but in several places is unfinished. It was probably suppressed by the influence of some of the characters represented in it. The style of composition, and manner of engraving, &c. &c. would have sufficiently proved it to be the work of Hogarth, if the initials of his name had been wanting at the bottom of the plate.

3. The Beggar's Opera. The title over it is in capitals uncommonly large.

Brittons attend—view this harmonious stage,
And listen to those notes which charm the age.
Thus shall your tastes in sounds and sense be shown,
And Beggar's Op'ras ever be your own.

No painter or engraver's name. The plate seems[Pg 165] at once to represent the exhibition of The Beggar's Opera, and the rehearsal of an Italian one. In the former, all the characters are drawn with the heads of different animals; as Polly, with a Cat's; Lucy, with a Sow's; Macheath, with an Ass's; Lockit, and Mr. and Mrs. Peachum, with those of an Ox, a Dog, and an Owl. In the latter, several noblemen appear conducting the chief female singer forward on the stage, and perhaps are offering her money, or protection from a figure that is rushing towards her with a drawn sword. Harmony, flying in the air, turns her back on the English playhouse, and hastens toward the rival theatre. Musicians stand in front of the former, playing on the Jew's-harp, the salt-box, the bladder and string, bagpipes, &c. On one side are people of distinction, some of whom kneel as if making an offer to Polly, or paying their adorations to her. To these are opposed a butcher, &c. expressing similar applause. Apollo, and one of the Muses, are fast asleep beneath the stage. A man is easing nature under a wall hung with ballads, and shewing his contempt of such compositions, by the use he makes of one of them. A sign of the star, a gibbet, and some other circumstances less intelligible, appear in the back ground.

4. The same. The lines under it are engraved in a different manner from those on the preceding plate. Sold at the Print-Shop in The Strand, near Catherine Street.

[Pg 166]

5. A copy of the same, under the following title, &c.

The Opera House, or the Italian Eunuch's Glory. Humbly inscribed to those Generous Encouragers of Foreigners, and Ruiners of England.

From France, from Rome we come,
To help Old England to to b' undone.

Under the division of the print that represents the Italian Opera, the words—Stage Mutiny—are perhaps improperly added.

On the two sides of this print are scrolls, containing a list of the presents made to Farinelli. The words are copied from the same enumeration in the second plate of the Rake's Progress.[1]

At the bottom are the following lines:

"Brittains attend—view this harmonious stage,
And listen to those notes which charm the age.
How sweet the sound where cats and bears
With brutish noise offend our ears!
Just so the foreign singers move
Rather contempt than gain our love.
Were such discourag'd, we should find
Musick at home to charm the mind!
[Pg 167]Our home-spun authors must forsake the field,
And Shakespear to the Italian Eunuchs yield."[2]

Perhaps the original print was the work of Gravelot, Vandergucht, or some person unknown.[3] The idea of it is borrowed from a French book, called Les Chats, printed at Amsterdam in 1728. In this work, facing p. 117, is represented an opera performed by cats, superbly habited. The design is by Coypel; the engraving by T. Otten. At the end of the treatise, the opera itself is published. It is improbable that Hogarth should have met with this jeu d'esprit; and, if he did, he could not have read the explanation to it.

1729.

1. King Henry the Eighth, and Anna Bullen. "Very indifferent." This plate has very idly been imagined to contain the portraits of Frederick Prince of Wales and Miss Vane;[1] but the stature and faces,[Pg 168] both of the lady and Percy, are totally unlike their supposed originals. Underneath are the following verses by Allan Ramsay:

Here struts old pious Harry, once the great
Reformer of the English church and state:
'Twas thus he stood, when Anna Bullen's charms
Allur'd the amorous monarch to her arms;
With his right hand he leads her as his own,
To place this matchless beauty on his throne;
Whilst Kate and Piercy mourn their wretched fate,
And view the royal pair with equal hate,
Reflecting on the pomp of glittering crowns,
And arbitrary power that knows no bounds.
Whilst Wolsey, leaning on his throne of state,
Through this unhappy change foresees his fate,
Contemplates wisely upon worldly things,
The cheat of grandeur, and the faith of kings.

Mr. Charlton, of Canterbury, has a copy of this print, with the following title and verses: "King Henry VIII. bringing to court Anne Bullen, who was afterwards his royal consort." Hogarth design. &. sculp.

[Pg 169]

See here the great, the daring Harry stands,
Peace, Plenty, Freedom, shining in his face,
With lovely Anna Bullen joining hands,
Her looks bespeaking ev'ry heav'nly grace.

See Wolsey frowning, discontent and sour,
Feeling the superstitious structure shake:
While Henry's driving off the Roman whore,
For Britain's weal, and his Lutherian's sake.

Like Britain's Genius our brave King appears,
Despising Priestcraft, Avarice, and Pride;
Nor the loud roar of Babel's bulls he fears,
The Dagon falls before his beauteous bride.

Like England's Church, all sweetness and resign'd,
The comely queen her lord with calmness eyes;
As if she said, If goodness guard your mind,
You ghostly tricks and trump'ry may despise.

2. The same plate without any verses, but with an inscription added in their room. Ramsay seems to have been particularly attached to Hogarth. He subscribed, as I have already observed, for thirty copies of the large Hudibras.

The original picture was at Vauxhall, in the portico of the old great room on the right-hand of the entry into the garden. See p. 29.

3. Frontispiece to the "Humours of Oxford," a comedy by James Miller; acted at Drury-Lane, and published in 8vo, 1729.[1] W. Hogarth inv. G. Vandergucht sc.[Pg 170] The Vice-chancellor, attended by his beadle, surprizing two Fellows of a College, one of them much intoxicated, at a tavern.

1730.

1. Perseus, and Medusa dead, and Pegasus. Frontispiece to Perseus and Andromeda. W. H. fec.

2. Another print to the same piece, of Perseus descending. Mr. Walpole mentions only one.

3. A half-starved boy. (The same as is represented in the print of Morning.) W. H. pinx. F. Sykes sc. Sykes was a pupil of Thornhill or Hogarth. This print bears the date of 1730; but I suspect the 0 was designed for an 8, and that the upper part of it is wanting, because the aqua fortis failed; or, that the pupil copied the figure from a sketch of his master, which at that time was unappropriated. No one will easily suspect Hogarth of such plagiarism as he might justly be charged with, could he afterwards have adopted this complete design as his own; neither is it probable that any youth could have produced a figure so characteristic as this; or, if he could, that he should have published it without any concomitant circumstances to explain its meaning. The above title, which some collector has bestowed on this etching, is not of a discriminative kind. Who can tell from it whether he is to look for a boy emaciated by hunger, or shivering with cold? It is mentioned here, only that it may be reprobated. If every young practitioner's imitation of a single figure by Hogarth were to be admitted among his works, they would never be complete.

[Pg 171]

4. Gulliver presented to the Queen of Babilary. W. Hogarth inv. Ger. Vandergucht sc. "It is the frontispiece to the Travels of Mr. John Gulliver," son of Capt. Lemuel Gulliver, a translation from the French by Mr. Lockman. There is as much merit in this print as in the work to which it belongs.

1731.

1. Two frontispieces to a translation of two of Moliere's plays, viz. L'Avare[1] and Le Cocû imaginaire. These are part of a select collection of Moliere's Comedies in French and English. They were advertised in The Grub-street Journal, with designs by "Monsieur Coypel, Mr. Hogarth, Mr. Dandridge, Mr. Hamilton," &c. in eight pocket volumes.

2. Frontispiece to "The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb," in three acts;[1] by Henry Fielding. W. Hogarth inv. Ger. Vandergucht sc. "There is some humour in this print."

3. Frontispiece to the Opera of The Highland Fair, or the Union of the Clans, by Joseph Mitchell. W. Hogarth inv. Ger Vandergucht sculp.

"Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit." Virg.

The date of this piece is confirmed by the following paragraph in The Grub-street journal, March 4, 1731: "We hear from the Theatre-Royal in Drury-lane, that there is now in rehearsal, and to be performed on Tuesday, March 16, a new Scots Opera,[Pg 172] called The Highland Fair, or Union of the Clans, &c." The subject being too local for the English stage, it met with little or no success.

1732.

1. Sarah Malcolm,[1] executed March 7, 1732, for[Pg 173] murdering Mrs. Lydia Duncombe her mistress, Elizabeth Harrison, and Anne Price; drawn in Newgate. W. Hogarth (ad vivum) pinxit & sculpsit.[2] Some copies are dated 1733, and have only Hogarth pinx. She was about twenty-five years of age.[3] "This woman put on red to sit to him for her picture two days before her execution."[4] Mr. Walpole paid Hogarth five guineas for the original. Professor Martyn dissected this notorious murderess, and afterwards presented[Pg 174] her skeleton, in a glass case, to the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, where it still remains.

2. An engraved copy of ditto.

3. Ditto, mezzotinto.

4. Ditto, part graven, part mezzotinto.

The knife with which she committed the murder is lying by her.

5. Another copy of this portrait[1] (of which only the first was engraved by Hogarth), with the addition of a clergyman holding a ring in his hand, and a motto, "No recompence but Love."[2]

In The Grub-street Journal of Thursday, March 8, 1732, appeared the following epigram:

"To Malcolm Guthrie[3] cries, confess the murther;
The truth disclose, and trouble me no further.
Think on both worlds; the pain that thou must bear
In that, and what a load of scandal here.
Confess, confess, and you'll avoid it all:
Your body shan't be hack'd at Surgeons Hall:
No Grub-street hack shall dare to use your ghost ill,
Henly shall read upon your post a postile;
Hogarth your charms transmit to future times,
And Curll record your life in prose and rhimes.

"Sarah replies, these arguments might do
From Hogarth, Curll, and Henly, drawn by you,
[Pg 175]Were I condemn'd at Padington to ride:
But now from Fleet-street Pedington's my guide."

The office of this Pedington[4] may be known from the following advertisement in The Weekly Miscellany, N° 37. August 25, 1733. "This day is published, Price Six-pence, (on occasion of the Re-commitment of the two Alexanders; with a very neat effigies of Sarah Malcolm and her Reverend Confessor, both taken from the Life) The Friendly Apparition: Being an account of the most surprising appearance of Sarah Malcolm's Ghost to a great assembly of her acquaintance at a noted Gin-shop; together with the remarkable speech she then made to the whole company."

6. The Man of Taste. The Gate of Burlington-house. Pope white-washing it, and bespattering the Duke of Chandos's coach. "A satire on Pope's Epistle on Taste. No name." It has been already observed that the plate was suppressed; and if this be true, the suppression may be accounted for from the following inscription, lately met with at the back of one of the copies.

"Bo^t this book of Mr. Wayte, at The Fountain Tavern, in The Strand, in the presence of Mr. Draper, who told me he had it of the Printer, Mr. W. Rayner.[1]

"J. Cosins."

[Pg 176]

On this attested memorandum a prosecution seems meant to have been founded. Cosins was an attorney, and Pope was desirous on all occasions to make the law the engine of his revenge.

7. The same, in a smaller size; prefixed to a pamphlet, intituled, "A Miscellany of Taste, by Mr. Pope," &c. containing his Epistles, with Notes and other poems. In the former of these Mr. Pope has a tie-wig on, in the latter a cap.

8. The same, in a size still smaller; very coarsely engraved. Only one of them is noted by Mr. Walpole.

A reader of these Anecdotes observes, "That the total silence of Pope concerning so great an artist, encourages a suspicion that his attacks were felt though not resented. The thunders of the poet were usually pointed at inglorious adversaries; but he might be conscious of a more equal match in our formidable caricaturist. All ranks of people have eyes for pencil'd ridicule, but of written satire we have fewer judges. It may be suspected, that the 'pictured shape' would never have been complained of, had it been produced only by a bungler in his art. But from the powers of Hogarth, Pope seems to have apprehended more lasting inconvenience; and the event has justified his fear. The frontispiece to Smedley's Gulliveriana has been long forgotten; but the Gate of[Pg 177] Burlington house is an object coveted by all who assemble prints of humour.—It may be added, that our painter's reputation was at the height ten years before the death of Pope, who could not therefore have overlooked his merit, though, for some reason or other, he has forborne to introduce the slightest allusion to him or his performances. Yet these, or copies from them, were to be met with in almost every public and private house throughout the kingdom; nor was it easy for the bard of Twickenham to have mixed in the conversation of the times, without being obliged to hear repeated praises of the author of The Harlot's Progress."

The sheet containing this page having been shewn to a friend, produced from him the following remark: "That Pope was silent on the merits of Hogarth (as one of your readers has observed) should excite little astonishment, as our artist's print on the South Sea exhibits the translator of Homer in no very flattering point of view. He is represented with one of his hands in the pocket of a fat personage, who wears a hornbook at his girdle. For whom this figure was designed, is doubtful. Perhaps it was meant for Gay, who was a fat man, and a loser in the same scheme."—"Gay," says Dr. Johnson, "in that disastrous year had a present from young Craggs of some South-sea stock, and once supposed himself to be master of twenty-thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to[Pg 178] sell his share; but he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would purchase an hundred a year for life, which, says Fenton, will make you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day. This counsel was rejected; the profit and principal were lost, and Gay sunk under the calamity so low that his life became in danger.—The Hornbook appended to his girdle, perhaps, refers to the Fables he wrote for the Duke of Cumberland. Some of your ingenious correspondents, or Mr. Walpole, who is instar omnium, may be able to give a further illustration. The conclusion to the inscription under this plate—Guess at the rest, you'll find out more—seems also to imply a consciousness of such personal satire as it was not prudent to explain. I may add, that the print before us exhibits more than one figure copied from Callot. Among the people going along the gallery to raffle for husbands, the curious observer will recognize the Old Maid with lappets flying, &c. afterwards introduced into the scene of Morning. Dr. Johnson, however, bears witness to the propriety of our great poet's introduction into a satire on the 'disastrous year of national infatuation, when more riches than Peru can boast were expected from the South Sea; when the contagion of avarice tainted every mind; and Pope, being seized with the universal passion, ventured some of his money. The stock rose in its[Pg 179] price; and he for a while thought himself The Lord of Thousands. But this dream of happiness did not last long: and he seems to have waked soon enough to get clear with the loss only of what he once thought himself to have won, and perhaps not wholly that.'"

It appears from Pope's correspondence with Atterbury, that the stock he had was at one time valued at between twenty and thirty thousand pounds; and that he was one of the lucky few who had "the good fortune to remain with half of what they imagined they had."—"Had you got all you have lost beyond what you ventured," said the good Bishop in reply, "consider that your superfluous gains would have sprung from the ruin of several families that now want necessaries."[1]

1733.

1. The Laughing Audience. "1733. Rec^d. Dec^br. 18 of the Right Honn^ble. Lord Biron Half a Guinea being the first Payment for nine Prints 8 of which Represent a Rakes Progress and the 9^th a Fair, Which I promise to Deliver at Michaelmass Next on Receiving one Guinea more. Note the Fair will be Deliver'd next Christmass at Sight of this receipt the Prints of the Rake^s. Progress alone will be 2 Guineas each set after the Subscription is over."

The words printed in Italicks are in the hand-writing of Hogarth.

[Pg 180]

2. The Fair[1] [at Southwark]. Invented, painted, and engraved by W. Hogarth.. The show-cloth, representing the Stage Mutiny, is taken from a large etching by John Laguerre (son of Louis Laguerre, the historical painter), who sung at Lincoln's-Inn Fields and Covent-Garden Theatres, painted some of their scenes, and died in 1748. The Stage-Mutineers, or A Playhouse to be let, a tragi-comi farcical-ballad-opera, which was published in 1733, will throw some light on the figures here represented by Hogarth. See also the Supplement to Dodsley's Preface to his Collection of Old Plays, and the "Biographia Dramatica, 1782."

It is remarkable that, in our artist's copy of this etching, he has added a paint-pot and brushes at the feet of the athletic figure with a cudgel in his hand, who appears on the side of Highmore.[2] From[Pg 181] these circumstances it is evident that John Ellis the painter (a pupil of Sir James Thornhill, a great frequenter of Broughton's gymnasium, the stages of other prize-fighters, &c.) was the person designed. Ellis was deputy-manager for Mrs. Wilks, and took up the cudgels also for the new patentee. Mr. Walpole observes that Rysbrack, when he produced that "exquisite summary of his skill, knowledge, and judgment," the Hercules now in Mr. Hoare's Temple at Stourhead, modelled the legs of the God from those of Ellis. This statue was compiled from the various limbs and parts of seven or eight of the strongest and best-made men in London, chiefly the bruisers, &c. of the then famous amphitheatre in Tottenham Court road.

In Banks's Works, vol. I. p. 97. is a Poetical Epistle on this print, which alludes to the 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. Cibber is represented under the character of Pistol;[3][Pg 182] Harper under that of Falstaff. The figure in the corner was designed for Colley Cibber the Laureat, who had just sold his share in the play-house to Mr. Highmore, who is represented holding a scroll, on which is written "it cost £.6000." A monkey is[Pg 183] exhibited sitting astride the iron that supports the sign of The Rose, a well-known tavern. A label issuing from his mouth contains the words: "I am a gentleman."[4] The Siege of Troy, upon another show-cloth, was a celebrated droll, composed by Elkanah Settle, and printed in 1707; it was a great favourite at fairs. A booth was built in Smithfield this year for the use of T. Cibber, Griffin, 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 figure vaulting on the rope was designed for Signor Violante, who signalized himself in the reign of Geo. I.; and the tall man exhibited on a show-cloth, was Maximilian, a giant from Upper Saxony. The man flying from the steeple was one Cadman, who, within the recollection of some persons now living, descended in the manner here described from the steeple of St. Martin's into The Mews. He broke his neck soon after, in an experiment of the like kind, at Shrewsbury, and lies buried there in the churchyard of St. Mary Friars, with the following inscription on a little tablet inserted in the church-wall just over his grave.[5][Pg 184] The lines are contemptible, but yet serve to particularize the accident that occasioned his death.

[Pg 185]

Let this small monument record the name
Of Cadman, and to future times proclaim
How, by an attempt to fly from this high spire
Across the Sabrine stream, he did acquire
His fatal end. 'Twas not for want of skill,
Or courage, to perform the task, he fell:
No, no,—a faulty cord, being drawn too tight,
Hurry'd his soul on high to take her flight,
Which bid the body here beneath, good night.

A prelate being asked permission for a line to be fixed to the steeple of a cathedral church, for this daring adventurer, replied, the man might fix to the church whenever he pleased, but he should never give his consent to any one's flying from it. It seems[Pg 186] that some exhibitor of the same kind met with a similar inhibition here in London. I learn from Mist's Journal for July 8, 1727, that a sixpenny pamphlet, intituled, "The Devil to pay at St. James's, &c."[6] was published on this occasion, Again, in The Weekly Miscellany for April 17, 1736. "Thomas Kidman, the famous Flyer, who has flown from several of the highest precipices in England, and was the person that flew off Bromham steeple in Wiltshire when it fell down, flew, on Monday last, from the highest of the rocks near The Hot-well at Bristol, with fire-works and pistols; after which he went up the rope, and performed several surprising dexterities on it, in sight of thousands of[Pg 187] spectators, both from Somersetshire and Gloucestershire." In this print also is a portrait which has been taken for that of Dr. Rock, but was more probably meant for another Quack, who used to draw a crowd round him by seeming to eat fire, which, having his checks puffed up with tow, he blew out of his mouth.[7] Some other particulars are explained in the notes to the poetical epistle already mentioned.

3. Judith and Holofernes. "Per vulnera servor, morte tuâ vivens." W. Hogarth inv. Ger. Vandergucht sc. A frontispiece to the Oratorio of Judith.—Our heroine, instead of holding the sword by its handle, grasps it by its edge, in such a manner as should seem to have endangered her fingers. (Judith was an Oratorio by William Huggins, Esq. set to musick by William De Fesch[1] late Chapel-master of the cathedral church of Antwerp. This piece was performed with scenes and other decorations, but met with no success. It was published in 8vo, 1733.)—The[Pg 188] original plate of the frontispiece is in the possession of Dr. Monkhouse. This design has little of Hogarth; yet if he furnished other engravers with such slight undetermined sketches as he himself is sometimes known to have worked from, we cannot wonder if on many occasions his usual characteristics should escape our notice. Whoever undertakes to perfect several of his unpublished drawings, will be reduced to the necessity of inventing more than presents itself for imitation.

4. Boys peeping at Nature. "The subscription-ticket to the Harlot's Progress." A copy in aqua-tinta from this receipt was made by R. Livesay in 1781, and is to be had at Mrs. Hogarth's house in Leicester-square.

1733 and 1734.

1.[1] The Harlot's Progress,[2] in six plates. In the first is a portrait of Colonel Chartres. "Cette figure[Pg 189] de viellard (says Rouquet) est d'aprés nature; c'est le portrait d'un officier très riche, fameux dans ce tems-là pour de pareilles expéditions, grand séducteur de campagnardes, et qui avoit toujours à ses gages des femmes de la profession de celle qui cajole ici la nouvelle débarquée." Behind him is John Gourlay a Pimp, whom he always kept about his person. The next figure that attracts our notice, is that of Mother Needham. To prove this woman was sufficiently notorious to have deserved the satire of Hogarth, the following paragraphs in The Grub-street Journal are sufficient.

March 25, 1731. "The noted Mother Needham was yesterday committed to The Gatehouse by Justice Railton."

Ibid. "Yesterday, at the quarter-sessions for the city and liberties of Westminster, the infamous Mother Needham, who has been reported to have been[Pg 190] dead for some time, to screen her from several prosecutions, was brought from The Gatehouse, and pleaded not guilty to an indictment found against her for keeping a lewd and disorderly house; but, for want of sureties, was remanded back to prison."

Ibid. April 29, 1731. "Oh Saturday ended the quarter-sessions for Westminster, &c. The noted Mother Needham, convicted for keeping a disorderly house in Park Place, St. James's, was fined One Shilling, to stand twice in the pillory, and find sureties for her good behaviour for three years."

Ibid. May 6, 1731. "Yesterday the noted Mother Needham stood in the pillory in Park Place, near St. James's-street, and was roughly handled by the populace. She was so very ill that she lay along, notwithstanding which she was so severely &c. that it is thought she will die in a day or two."—Another account says—"she lay along on her face in the pillory, and so evaded the law which requires that her face should be exposed."—"Yesterday morning died Mother Needham. She declared in her last words,[3] that what most affected her was the terror of standing in the pillory to-morrow in New Palace-yard, having been so ungratefully used by the populace on Wednesday."

The memory of this woman is thus perpetuated in The Dunciad, I. 323.

[Pg 191]

"To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode,
But pious Needham dropt the name of God."

The note on this passage says, she was "a matron of great fame, and very religious in her way; whose constant prayer it was, that she might 'get enough by her profession to leave it off in time, and make her peace with God.'[4] But her fate was not so happy; for being convicted, and set in the pillory, she was (to the lasting shame of all her great Friends and Votaries) so ill used by the populace, that it put an end to her days."

Rouquet has a whimsical remark relative to the clergyman just arrived in London. "Cet ecclesiastique monté sur un cheval blanc, comme ils affectent ici de l'être."—The variations in this plate are; shade thrown by one house upon another; London added on the letter the parson is reading; change in one corner of the fore-ground; the face of the Bawd much altered for the worse, and her foot introduced.

Plate II. Quin compared Garrick in Othello to the black boy with the tea-kettle,[5] a circumstance that[Pg 192] by no means encouraged our Roscius to continue acting the part. Indeed, when his face was obscured, his chief power of expression was lost; and then, and not till then, was he reduced to a level with several other performers. In a copy of this set of plates, one of the two small portraits hanging up in the Jew's bedchamber, is superscribed, Clarke; but without authority from Hogarth. Woolston would likewise have been out of his place, as he had written against the Jewish tenets. Of this circumstance, Hogarth was probably told by some friend, and therefore effaced a name he had once ignorantly inserted.

In Plate III.[6] (as already observed) is the portrait of Sir John Gonson. That Sir John Gonson was the person intended in this print, is evident from a circumstance in the next, where, on a door in Bridewell, a figure hanging is drawn in chalk, with an inscription over it, "Sir J. G." as well as from the following explanation by Rouquet: "La figure, qui paroit entrer sans bruit avec une partie de guet, est un commissaire qui se distinguoit extrêmement par son zèle pour la persecution des filles de joye."

[Pg 193]

Respecting another circumstance, however, in the third plate, Rouquet appears to have met with some particular information that has escaped me. "L'auteur a saisi l'occasion d'un morceau de beurre qui fait partie du déjeuné, pour l'enveloper plaisamment dans le titre de la lettre pastorale qu'un grand prelat[7] addressa dans ce tems-là à son diocese, & dont plusieurs exemplaires eurent le malheur d'être renvoyés à l'epicier."—The sleeve of the maid-servant's gown in this plate is enlarged, and the neck of a bottle on the table is lengthened.

For variations in Plate IV. see the roof of the room. Shadow on the principal woman's petticoat, and from the hoop-petticoat hanging up in the back ground. The dog made darker. The woman next the overseer has a high cap, which in the modern impressions is lowered.

In Plate V. Roof of the room. Back of the chair. Table. Dr. Misaubin's waistcoat. Name of Dr. Rock on the paper lying on the close-stool. Dish at the fire.

In a despicable poem published in 1732, under the fictitious name of Joseph Gay, and intituled "The Harlot's Progress, which is a key to the six prints lately published by Mr. Hogarth," the two quacks in attendance on the dying woman are called Tan—r and G—m. It is evident from several circumstances, that this Mr. J. Gay became acquainted with our author's work through the medium of a copy.

[Pg 194]

In Plate VI. the woman seated next the clergyman was designed for Elizabeth Adams, who, at the age of 30, was afterwards executed for a robbery, September 10, 1737. The common print of her will justify this assertion.

If we may trust the wretched metrical performance just quoted, the Bawd in this sixth plate was designed for Mother Bentley.

The portrait hanging up in the Jew's apartment was originally subscribed "Mr. Woolston." There was a scriptural motto to one of the other pictures; and on the cieling of the room in which the girl is dying, a certain obscene word was more visible than it is at present. The former inscription on the paper now inscribed Dr. Rock, was also a gross one. I should in justice add, that before these plates were delivered to the subscribers, the offensive particulars here mentioned were omitted.

The following paragraph in The Grub-street Journal for September 24, 1730, will sufficiently justify the splendid appearance the Harlot makes in Bridewell. See Plate IV. Such well-dressed females are rarely met with in our present houses of correction.

"One Mary Muffet, a woman of great note in the hundreds of Drury, who, about a fortnight ago, was committed to hard labour in Tothill-fields Bridewell, by nine justices, brought his Majesty's writ of Habeas Corpus, and was carried before the right honourable the lord chief justice Raymond, expecting to have been either bailed or discharged;[Pg 195] but her commitment appearing to be legal, his lordship thought fit to remand her back again to her former place of confinement, where she is now beating hemp in a gown very richly laced with silver."

Rouquet concludes his illustration of the fifth plate by observing, that the story might have been concluded here. "L'auteur semble avoir rempli son dessein. Il a suivi son heroine jusques au dernier soupir. Il l'a conduite de l'infamie à la pauvreté, par les voies séduisantes du libertinage. Son intention de tâcher de retenir, ou de corriger celles qui leur foiblesse, ou leur ignorance exposent tous les jours à de semblables infortunes, est suffisament executée; on peut donc dire que la tragedie finit à cette planche, et que la suivante est comme le petite piece. C'est une farce done la defunte est plustôt l'occasion que le sujet."—Such is the criticism of Rouquet; but I cannot absolutely concur in the justness of it. Hogarth found an opportunity to convey admonition, and enforce his moral, even in this last plate. It is true that the exploits of our heroine are concluded, and that she is no longer an agent in her own story. Yet as a wish prevails, even among those who are most humbled by their own indiscretions, that some respect should be paid to their remains, that they should be conducted by decent friends to the grave, and interred by a priest who feels for the dead that hope expressed in our Liturgy, let us ask whether the memory of our Harlot meets with any such marks of social attention, or[Pg 196] pious benevolence. Are not the preparations for her funeral licentious, like the course of her life, as if the contagion of her example had reached all the company in the room? Her sisters in iniquity alone surround her coffin. One of them is engaged in the double trade of seduction and thievery. A second is admiring herself in a mirror. A third gazes with unconcern on the corpse. If any of the number appear mournful, they express at best but a maudlin sorrow, having glasses of strong liquor in their hands. The very minister, forgetful of his office and character, is shamefully employed; nor does a single circumstance occur, throughout the whole scene, that a reflecting female would not wish should be alienated from her own interment.—Such is the plate which our illustrator, with too much levity, has styled a farce appended to a tragic representation.

He might, however, have exercised his critical abilities with more success on Hogarth's neglect of propriety, though it affords him occasion to display his wit. At the burial of a wanton, who expired in a garret, no escutcheons were ever hung up, or rings given away; and I much question if any bawd ever chose to avow that character before a clergyman, or any infant was ever habited as chief mourner to attend a parent to the grave.—I may add, that when these pictures were painted (a time, if news-papers are to be credited, when, having no established police, every act of violence and licentiousness was practised with impunity in our streets, and women[Pg 197] of pleasure were brutally persecuted in every quarter of the town), a funeral attended by such a sisterhood would scarcely have been permitted to reach the place of interment. Much however must be forgiven to the morality of Hogarth's design, and the powers with which it is executed. It may also, on the present occasion, be observed, that in no other scene, out of the many he has painted, has he so widely deviated from vraisemblance.

The following verses, however wretched, being explanatory of the set of plates already spoken of, are here re-printed. They made their appearance under the earliest and best of the pirated copies published by Bowles. Hogarth, finding that such a metrical description had its effect, resolved that his next series of prints should receive the same advantage from an abler hand.

Plate I.
See there, but just arriv'd in town,
The Country Girl in home-spun gown,
Tho' plain her dress appears, how neat!
Her looks how innocent and sweet!
Does not your indignation rise,
When on the bawd you cast your eyes?
Fraught with devices to betray;
She's hither come in quest of prey;
Screens her designs with godly airs,
And talks of homilies and pray'rs,
Till, by her arts, the wretched Maid
To vile Francisco is betray'd.
[Pg 198]And see, the lewd old rogue appears,
How at the fresh young thing thing he leers!
In lines too strong, too well exprest
The lustful satyr stands confest.

On batter'd jade, in thread-bare gown,
The Rural Priest is come to town—
Think what his humble thought engages;
Why—lesser work and greater wages.

Plate II.
Debauch'd, and then kick'd out of doors,
The fate of all Francisco's whores,
Poor Polly's forc'd to walk the streets,
Till with a wealthy Jew she meets.
Quickly the man of circumcision
For her reception makes provision.
You see her now in all her splendour,
A Monkey and a Black t' attend her.
How great a sot's a keeping cully,
Who thinks t' enjoy a woman solely!
Tho' he support her grandeur, Miss
Will by the bye with others kiss.
Thus Polly play'd her part; she had
A Beau admitted to her bed;
But th' Hebrew coming unexpected,
Puts her in fear to be detected.
This to prevent, she at breakfast picks
A quarrel, and insulting kicks
The table down: while by her Maid
The Beau is to the door convey'd.

[Pg 199] Plate III.
Molly discarded once again,
Takes lodgings next in Drury-lane;
Sets up the business on her own
Account, and deals with all the town.
At breakfast here in deshabille,
While Margery does the tea-pot fill,
Miss holds a watch up, which, by slight
Of hand, was made a prize last night.
From chandler's shop a dab of butter,
Brought on his lordship's Pastoral Letter,
A cup, a saucer, knife, and roll,
Are plac'd before her on a stool.
A chair behind her holds a cloak,
A candle in a bottle stuck,
And by't a bason—but indecent
T'would be in me to say what is in't.
At yonder door, see there Sir John's
Just ent'ring with his Myrmidons,
To Bridewell to convey Miss Molly,
And Margery with her to Mill Dolly.[8]

Plate IV.
See Polly now in Bridewell stands,
A galling mallet in her hands,
Hemp beating with a heavy heart,
And not a soul to take her part.
The Keeper, with a look that's sourer
Than Turk or Devil, standing o'er her:
[Pg 200]And if her time she idles, thwack
Comes his rattan across her back.
A dirty, ragged, saucy Jade,
Who sees her here in rich brocade
And Mechlin lace, thumping a punny,
Lolls out her tongue, and winks with one eye.
That other Maux with half a nose,
Who's holding up her tatter'd cloaths,
Laughs too at Madam's working-dress,
And her grim Tyrant's threat'ning face,
A Gamester hard by Poll you see,
In coat be-lac'd and smart toupee.
Kate vermin kills—chalk'd out upon
A window-shutter, hangs Sir John.

Plate V.
Released from Bridewell, Poll again
Drives on her former trade amain;
But who e'er heard of trading wenches
That long escap'd disease that French is?
Our Polly did not—Ills on ills,
Elixirs, boluses and pills,
Catharticks and emeticks dreary,
Had made her of her life quite weary;
At last thrown into salivation
She sinks beneath the operation.
A snuffling whore in waiting by her
Screams out to see the wretch expire.
The Doctors blame each other; Meagre,
With wrath transported, hot and eager,
[Pg 201]Starts up, throws down the chair and stool,
And calls her brother Squab a fool.
Your pills, quoth Squab, with cool disdain,
Not my elixir, prov'd her bane.
While they contend, a muffled Punk
Is rummaging poor Polly's trunk.

Plate VI.
The sisterhood of Drury-lane
Are met to form the funeral train.
Priss turns aside the coffin lid,
To take her farewell of the dead.
Kate drinks dejected; Peggy stands
With dismal look, and wrings her hands.
Beck wipes her eyes; and at the glass
In order Jenny sets her face.
The ruin'd Bawd roars out her grief;
Her bottle scarcely gives relief.
Madge fills the wine; his castle-top
With unconcern the Boy winds up.
The Undertaker rolls his eyes
On Sukey, as her glove he tries:
His leering she observes, and while he
Stands thus, she picks his pocket slily.
The Parson sits with look demure
By Fanny's side, but leaning to her.
His left hand spills the wine; his right—
I blush to add—is out of sight.

Over the figure of the Parson is the letter A, which conducts to the following explanation underneath[Pg 202] the plate. "A. The famous Couple-Beggar in The Fleet, a wretch who there screens himself from the justice due to his villainies, and daily repeats them."

All but the first impressions of this set of plates are marked thus †. None were originally printed off except for the 1200 subscribers. Immediately after they were served, the plates were retouched, and some of the variations introduced.

2. Rehearsal of the Oratorio of Judith. Singing men and boys. Ticket for "A Modern Midnight Conversation." This Oratorio of Judith, which was performed in character, was written by Mr. Huggins, as has been already observed in p. 187; and the line taken from it,

"The world shall bow to the Assyrian throne,"

inscribed on the book, is a satire on its want of success.—The corner figure looking over the notes, was designed for Mr. Tothall.

3. A Midnight Modern Conversation. W. Hogarth inv. pinx. & sculp. Hogarth soon discovered that this engraving was too faintly executed; and therefore, after taking off a few impressions in red as well as black, he retouched and strengthened the plate. Under this print are the following verses:

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.
[Pg 203]So Rabilaes laught, and so Cervantes thought,
So Nature dictated what Art has taught.

Most of the figures, however, are supposed to be real portraits. The Divine and the Lawyer,[1] in particular, are well known to be so.

[Pg 204]

A pamphlet was published about the same time, under the same title as this plate. In Banks's Poems, vol. I. p. 87. the print is copied as a head-piece to an Epistle to Mr. Hogarth, on this performance. In a note, it is said to have appeared after The Harlot's Progress; and that in the original, and all the larger copies, on the papers that hang out of the politician's pocket at the end of the table, was written The Craftsman, and The London Journal.

Of this print a good, but contracted copy, was published (perhaps with Hogarth's permission), and the following copy of verses engraved under it.

The Bacchanalians; or a Midnight Modern Conversation. A Poem addressed to the Ingenious Mr. Hogarth.

Sacred to thee, permit this lay
Thy labour, Hogarth, to display!
Patron and theme in one to be!
'Tis great, but not too great for thee;
[Pg 205]For thee, the Poet's constant friend,
Whose vein of humour knows no end.
This verse which, honest to thy fame,
Has added to thy praise thy name!
Who can be dull when to his eyes
Such various scenes of humour rise?
Now we behold in what unite
The Priest, the Beau, the Cit, the Bite;
Where Law and Physick join the Sword,
And Justice deigns to crown the board:
How Midnight Modern Conversations
Mingle all faculties and stations!

Full to the sight, and next the bowl,
Sits the physician of the soul;
No loftier themes his thought pursues
Than Punch, good Company, and Dues:
Easy and careless what may fall,
He hears, consents, and fills to all;
Proving it plainly by his face
That cassocks are no signs of grace.

Near him a son of Belial see;
(That Heav'n and Satan should agree!)
Warm'd and wound up to proper height
He vows to still maintain the fight,
The brave surviving Priest assails,
And fairly damns the first that fails;
Fills up a bumper to the Best
In Christendom, for that's his taste:
The parson simpers at the jest,
And puts it forward to the rest.
[Pg 206]
What hand but thine so well could draw
A formal Barrister at Law?
Fitzherbert, Littleton, and Coke,
Are all united in his look.
His spacious wig conceals his ears,
Yet the dull plodding beast appears.
His muscles seem exact to fit
Much noise, much pride, and not much wit.

Who then is he with solemn phiz,
Upon his elbows pois'd with ease?
Freely to speak the Muse is loth—
Justice or knave—he may be both—
Justice or knave—'tis much the same:
To boast of crimes, or tell the shame,
Of raking talk or reformation,
'Tis all good Modern Conversation.

What mighty Machiavel art thou,
With patriot cares upon thy brow?
Alas, that punch should have the fate
To drown the pilot of the state!
That while both sides thy pocket holds,
Nor D'Anvers grieves, nor Osborne scolds,
Thou sink'st the business of the nation
In Midnight Modern Conversation!

The Tradesman tells with wat'ry eyes
How Credit sinks, how Taxes rise;
At Parliaments and Great Men pets,
Counts all his losses and his debts.

The puny Fop, mankind's disgrace,
The ladies' jest and looking-glass;
[Pg 207]This he-she thing the mode pursues,
And drinks in order—till he sp—s.

See where the Relict of the Wars,
Deep mark'd with honorary scars,
A mightier foe has caus'd to yield
Than ever Marlbro' met in field!
See prostrate on the earth he lies;
And learn, ye soldiers, to be wise.

Flush'd with the fumes of gen'rous wine
The Doctor's face begins to shine:
With eyes half clos'd, in stamm'ring strain,
He speaks the praise of rich champaign.
'Tis dull in verse, what from thy hand
Might even a Cato's smile command.
Th' expiring snuffs, the bottles broke,
And the full bowl at four o'clock.

March 22, 1742, was acted at Covent-Garden, a new scene, called A Modern Midnight Conversation, taken from Hogarth's celebrated print; in which was introduced, Hippisley's Drunken Man, with a comic tale of what really passed between himself and his old aunt, at her house on Mendip-Hills, in Somersetshire. For Mr. Hippisley's benefit.

1735.

1. The Rake's Progress, in eight plates.

Extract from the London Daily Post, May 14, 1735:

"The nine prints from the paintings of Mr. Hogarth, one representing a Fair, and the others a Rake's Progress, are now printing off, and will be ready to be delivered on the 25th of June next.

[Pg 208]

"Subscriptions will be taken at Mr. Hogarth's, the Golden-Head, in Leicester-fields, till the 23d of June, and no longer, at half a guinea to be paid on subscribing, and half a guinea more on delivery of the prints at the price above-mentioned, after which the price will be two guineas.

"N. B. Mr. Hogarth was, and is, obliged to defer the publication and delivery of the abovesaid prints till the 25th of June next, in order to secure his property, pursuant to an act lately passed both houses of parliament, now waiting for the royal assent, to secure all new invented prints that shall be published after the 24th of June next, from being copied without consent of the proprietor, and thereby preventing a scandalous and unjust custom (hitherto practised with impunity) of making and vending base copies of original prints, to the manifest injury of the author, and the great discouragement of the arts of painting and engraving."

In The Craftsman, soon afterwards, appeared the following advertisement:

"Pursuant to an agreement with the subscribers to the Rake's Progress, not to sell them for less than two guineas each set after publication thereof, the said original prints are to be had at Mr. Hogarth's, the Golden-Head, in Leicester-fields; and at Tho. Bakewell's, print-seller, next Johnson's Court, in Fleet-street, where all other print-sellers may be supplied.

[Pg 209]

"In four days will be published, copies from the said prints, with the consent of Mr. Hogarth, according to the act of parliament, which will be sold at 2 s. 6 d. each set, with the usual allowance to all dealers in town and country; and, that the the publick may not be imposed on, at the bottom of each print will be inserted these words, viz. 'Published with the consent of Mr. William Hogarth, by Tho. Bakewell, according to act of parliament.'

"N. B. Any person that shall sell any other copies, or imitations of the said prints, will incur the penalties in the late act of parliament, and be prosecuted for the same."

This series of plates, however, as Mr. Walpole observes, was pirated by Boitard on one very large sheet of paper, containing the several scenes represented by Hogarth. It came out a fortnight before the genuine set, but was soon forgotten. The principal variations in these prints are the following:

Plate I. The girl's face who holds the ring is erased, and a worse is put in.[1] The mother's head, &c. is lessened. The shoe-sole, cut from the cover of an ancient family Bible, together with a chest, is added; the memorandum-book removed into another place; the woollen-draper's shop bill,[2] appended[Pg 210] to a roll of black cloth, omitted; the contents of the closet thrown more into shade.

In Plate II. are portraits of Figg, the prize-fighter;[3] Bridgeman, a noted gardener; and Dubois,[Pg 211] a master of defence, who was killed in a duel by one of the same name, as the following paragraphs in The Grub-street Journal for May 16, 1734, &c. will testify: "Yesterday (May 11) between two and three in the afternoon, a duel was fought in Mary-le-bone Fields, between Mr. Dubois a Frenchman, and Mr. Dubois an Irishman, both fencing-masters, the former of whom was run through the body, but walked a considerable way from the place, and is now under the hands of an able surgeon, who has great hopes of his recovery."

May 23, 1734, "Yesterday morning died Mr. Dubois, of a wound he received in a duel."

The portrait of Handel has been supposed to be represented in the plate before us; but "this," as Sir John Hawkins observes to me, "is too much to say. Mr. Handel had a higher sense of his own merit than ever to put himself in such a situation; and, if so, the painter would hardly have thought of doing it. The musician must mean in general any composer of operas." On the floor lies a picture representing Farinelli, seated on a pedestal, with an altar before him, on which are several flaming hearts, near which stand a number of people with their arms extended,[Pg 212] offering him presents: at the foot of the altar is one female kneeling, tendering her heart. From her mouth a label issues, inscribed, "One God, one Farinelli;" alluding to a lady of distinction, who, being charmed with a particular passage in one of his songs, uttered aloud from the boxes that impious exclamation. On the figure of the captain, Rouquet has the following remark: "Ce caractere ne paroit plus Italien qu'Anglois." I am not sufficiently versed in Alsatian annals to decide on the question; but believe that the bully by profession (not assassin, as Rouquet seems to interpret the character) was to be found during the youth of our artist. More have heard and been afraid of these vulgar heroes, than ever met with them. This set of prints was engraved by Scotin chiefly; but several of the faces were touched upon by Hogarth. In the second plate the countenance of the man with the quarter-staves was wholly engraved by Hogarth. In some early proofs of the print, there is not a single feature on this man's face; there is no writing either in the musician's book, or on the label; nor is there the horse-race cup, the letter, or the poem that lies at the end of the label, that being entirely blank. I mention these circumstances to shew that our artist would not entrust particular parts of his work to any hand but his own; or perhaps he had neither determined on the countenance or the inscription he meant to introduce, till the plate was far advanced. With unfinished proofs, on any[Pg 213] other account, this catalogue has nothing to do. As the rudiments of plates, they may afford instruction to young engravers; or add a fancied value to the collections of connoisseurs.

In the third plate is Leather-coat,[4] a noted porter belonging to The Rose Tavern, with a large pewter dish in his hand, which for many years served as a sign to the shop of a pewterer on Snow-Hill. In this utensil the posture-woman, who is undressing, used to whirl herself round, and display other feats of indecent activity: "II suffit" (I transcribe from Rouquet, who is more circumstantial) "de vous laisser à deviner la destination de la chandelle. Ce grand plat va servir a cette femme comme à une poularde. Il sera mis au milieu de la table; elle s'y placera sur le dos; et l'ivresse et l'esprit de débauche feront trouver plaisant un jeu, qui de sang-froid ne le paroit guères." Rouquet, in his description of an English tavern, such as that in which our scene lies, mentions the following as extraordinary conveniencies and articles of magnificence: "Du linge toujours blanc[5]—de tables de bois[Pg 214] qu'on appelle ici mahogani—grand feu et gratis." Variations: Pontac's head is added in the room of a mutilated Cæsar. Principal woman has a man's hat on. Rake's head altered. Undrest woman's head altered. Woman who spirts the wine, and she who threatens her with a drawn knife, have lower caps, &c.

So entirely do our manners differ from those of fifty years ago, that I much question if at present, in all the taverns of London, any thing resembling the scene here exhibited by Hogarth could be found. That we are less sensual than our predecessors, I do not affirm; but may with truth observe, we are more delicate in pursuit of our gratifications.—No young man, of our hero's fortune and education, would now think of entertaining half a score of prostitutes at a tavern, after having routed a set of feeble wretches, who are idly called our Guardians of the Night.

Plate IV. Rakewell is going to court on the first of March, which was Queen Caroline's birth-day, as[Pg 215] well as the anniversary of St. David. In the early impressions a shoe-black steals the Rake's cane. In the modern ones, a large group of blackguards[6] [the chimney-sweeper peeping over the poll boy's cards, and discovering that he has two honours, by holding up two fingers, is among the luckiest of Hogarth's traits] are introduced gambling on the pavement; near them a stone inscribed Black's, a contrast to White's gaming-house, against which a flash of lightning is pointed. The curtain in the window of the sedan chair is thrown back. This plate is likewise found in an intermediate state;[7] the sky being made unnaturally obscure, with an attempt to introduce a shower of rain, and lightning very aukwardly represented. It is supposed to be a first proof after the insertion of the group of black-guard gamesters; the window of the chair being only marked for an alteration that was afterwards made in it. Hogarth appears to have so far spoiled the sky, that he was obliged to obliterate it, and cause it to be engraved over again by another hand.[8] Not foreseeing, however, the immense demand for his prints, many of[Pg 216] them were so slightly executed, as very early to stand in need of retouching. The seventh in particular was so much more slightly executed than the rest, that it sooner wanted renovation, and is therefore to be found in three different states. The rest appear only in two.

In Plate V. is his favourite dog Trump. In this, also the head of the maid-servant is greatly altered, and the leg and foot of the bridegroom omitted.

From the antiquated bride, and the young female adjusting the folds of her gown, in this plate, is taken a French print of a wrinkled harridan of fashion at her toilet, attended by a blooming coëffeuse. It was engraved by L. Surugue in 1745, from a picture in crayons by Coypel, and is entitled, La Folie pare la Decrepitude des ajustemens de la Jeunesse. From the Frenchman, however, the Devonshire-square dowager of our artist has received so high a polish, that she might be mistaken for a queen mother of France.

Mr. Gilpin, in his remarks on this plate, appears not to have fully comprehended the extent of the satire designed in it. Speaking of the church, he observes, that "the wooden post, which seems to have no use, divides the picture disagreeably." Hogarth, however, meant to expose the insufficiency of such ecclesiastical repairs as are confided to the superintendance of parish-officers. We learn, from an inscription on the front of a pew, that "This church was beautified in the Year 1725. Tho. Sice, Tho. Horn,[Pg 217] Churchwardens."[9] The print before us came out in 1735 (i. e. only ten years afterwards), and by that time the building might have been found in the condition here exhibited, and have required a prop to prevent part of its roof from falling in.—As a proof that this edifice was really in a ruinous state, it was pulled down and rebuilt in the year 1741.

Fifty years ago, Marybone church was considered at such a distance from London, as to become the usual resort of those who, like our hero, wished to be privately married.

In Plate VI. the fire breaking out, alludes to the same accident which happened at White's, May 3, 1733. I learn from a very indifferent poem descriptive of this set of plates (the title is unfortunately[Pg 218] wanting), that some of the characters in the scene before us were real ones:

"But see the careful plain old man,
M——[10], well-known youth to trepan,
To C———sh[11] lend the dear bought pence,
C———sh quite void of common sense,
Whose face, unto his soul a sign,
Looks stupid, as does that within.
A quarrel from behind ensues,
The sure retreat of those that lose.
An honest 'Squire smells the cheat,
And swears the villain shall be beat:
But G——dd wisely interferes,
And dissipates the wretch's fears."

The original sketch in oil for this scene is at Mrs. Hogarth's house in Leicester-fields. The principal character was then sitting, and not, as he is at present, thrown upon his knees in the act of execration.

The thought of the losing gamester pulling his hat over his brows is adopted from a similar character to be found among the figures of the principal personages in the court of Louis XIV. folio. This work has no engraver's name, but was probably executed about the year 1700.

Plate VII. The celebrated Beccaria, in his "Essay on Public Happiness," vol. II. p. 172, observes,[Pg 219] "I am sensible there are persons whom it will be difficult for me to persuade: I mean those profound contemplators, who, secluding themselves from their fellow-creatures, are assiduously employed in framing laws for them, and who frequently neglect the care of their domestic and private concerns, to prescribe to empires that form of government, to which they imagine that they ought to submit. The celebrated Hogarth hath represented, in one of his moral engravings, a young man who, after having squandered away his fortune, is, by his creditors, lodged in a gaol. There he sits, melancholy and disconcerted, near a table, whilst a scroll lies under his feet, and bears the following title: 'being a new scheme for paying the debt of the nation. By T. L. now a prisoner in The Fleet.'"

The Author of the poem already quoted, intimates that the personage in the night-gown was meant for some real character:

"His wig was full as old as he,
In which one curl you could not see.
His neckcloth loose, his beard full grown,
An old torn night-gown not his own.
L———, great schemist, that can pay,
The nation's debt an easy way."

In Plate VIII. (which appears in three different states) is a half-penny reversed (struck in the year 1763) and fixed against the wall, intimating, that Britannia herself was fit only for a mad-house. This[Pg 220] was a circumstance inserted by our artist (as he advertises) about a year before his death. I may add, that the man drawing lines against the wall just over the half-penny, alludes to Whiston's proposed method of discovering the Longitude by the firing of bombs, as here represented. The idea of the two figures at each corner of the print appears to have been taken from Cibber's statues at Bedlam. The faces of the two females are also changed. That of the woman with a fan, is entirely altered; she has now a cap on, instead of a hood, and is turned, as if speaking to the other.

Mr. Gilpin's opinion concerning this set of prints is too valuable to be omitted, and is therefore transcribed below.[12] The plates were thus admirably illustrated by Dr. John Hoadly.

[Pg 221]

Plate I.
O Vanity of Age, untoward,
Ever spleeny, ever froward!
[Pg 222]Why these Bolts, and massy chains,
Squint suspicions, jealous Pains?
[Pg 223]Why, thy toilsome Journey o'er,
Lay'st thou in an useless store?
[Pg 224]Hope along with Time is flown,
Nor canst thou reap the field thou'st sown.
[Pg 225]
Hast thou a son? in time be wise—.
He views thy toil with other eyes.
[Pg 226]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,
Which youthful minds with freedom mend,
And with the father mix the friend?

Uncircumscrib'd by prudent rules,
Or precepts of expensive schools
Abus'd at home, abroad despis'd,
Unbred, unletter'd, unadvis'd;
The headstrong course of youth begun,
What comfort from this darling son?
[Pg 227]
Plate II.
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;
Load Faith and Love with golden chain,
And sprinkle Lethe o'er the brain!

Pleasure, in her silver throne,
Smiling comes, nor comes alone;
Venus comes with her along,
And smooth Lyæus ever young;
And in their train, to fill the press,
Come apish Dance, and swol'n Excess,
Mechanic Honour, vicious Taste,
And Fashion in her changing vest.

Plate III.
O vanity of youthful blood,
So by misuse to poison good!
Woman, fram'd for social love,
Fairest gift of powers above;
Source of every houshold blessing,
All charms in innocence possessing—
But turn'd to Vice, all plagues above,
Foe to thy Being, foe to Love!
Guest divine to outward viewing,
Ablest Minister of Ruin!
[Pg 228]
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 in wild excess?

Plate IV.
O 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 sees the harpy, Law,
And Poverty, with icy paw,
Ready to seize the poor remains—
That Vice has left of all his gains.
Cold Penitence, lame After-thought,
With fears, despair, and horrors fraught,
Call back his guilty pleasures dead,
Whom he hath wrong'd, and whom betray'd.

Plate V.
New to the School of hard Mishap,
Driven from the ease of Fortune's lap,
What schemes will Nature not embrace
T' avoid less shame of drear distress!
[Pg 229]Gold can the charms of youth bestow,
And mask deformity with show:
Gold can avert the sting of Shame,
In winter's arms create a flame;
Can couple youth with hoary age,
And make antipathies engage.

Plate VI.
Gold, thou bright son of Phœbus, source
Of universal intercourse;
Of weeping Virtue soft redress,
And blessing those who live to bless!
Yet oft behold this sacred truth,
The tool of avaricious Lust:
No longer bond of human kind,
But bane of every virtuous mind.

What chaos such misuse attends!
Friendship stoops to prey on friends;
Health, that gives relish to delight,
Is wasted with the wasting night;
Doubt and mistrust is thrown on Heaven,
And all its power to Chance is given.
Sad purchase of repentant tears,
Of needless quarrels, endless fears,
Of hopes of moments, pangs of years!
Sad purchase of a tortur'd mind
To an imprison'd body join'd!

Plate VII.
Happy the man, whose constant thought
(Though in the school of hardship taught)
[Pg 230]Can send Remembrance back to fetch
Treasures from life's earliest stretch;
Who, self-approving, can review
Scenes of past virtues, which shine through
The gloom of age, and cast a ray
To gild the evening of his day!

Not so the guilty wretch confin'd:
No pleasures meet his conscious mind;
No blessings brought from early youth,
But broken faith and wrested truth,
Talents idle and unus'd,
And every trust of Heaven abus'd.

In seas of sad reflection lost,
From horrors still to horrors toss'd,
Reason the vessel leaves to steer,
And gives the helm to mad despair.

Plate VIII.
Madness! thou chaos of the brain;
What art, that pleasure giv'st and pain?
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 Heaven effac'd by thee!
[Pg 231]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 ruin sold,
And curse Thyself, and curse thy Gold.