It is a singular fact, that, notwithstanding the enormous popularity
enjoyed by Hogarth in the minds of English people, no perfectly
popular edition has been hitherto brought before the public. Were
a foreigner to ask an ordinary Briton who was the most thoroughly
national painter in the roll of English artists, the answer would be
undoubtedly William Hogarth; but the chances are that our countryman
would not have at command a tangible proof that his statement was
correct. Such editions as have hitherto appeared have been either
expensive or unsatisfactory,--even the handsome and costly volume by
Nichols is far from complete. To supply the want, the present issue
has been projected. The illustrative text of Ireland--undoubtedly the
best in existence--has been given in full, and is supplemented by
addenda from the works of Nichols. The three volumes form certainly
the most complete gallery of Hogarth's drawings yet given to the
public. The rapid progress of science has provided means by which
the pictures have been reduced from their original size to the
compact form of this page; while, at the same time, the most perfect
truthfulness has been preserved.
Hogarth is essentially English--brave, straight-forward, manly;
never pandering to fashion or fancy. When he had to deal with sin
and misery, he met them full in the face, bating no whit of their
repulsiveness; and in all his works, wherever a moral is to be
drawn, it is a noble and a healthy one. In his merry moods he is
irresistibly comic; when he stands forward as a censor of morals,
he is terrible in his truth; when he creates a character, it is
always human and complete,--a true reflex of the age in which he
lived. Times may change, and costumes, but humanity remains much the
same. Take any series of the splendid list, and the people who crowd
the canvas live and move amongst us with different names and other
attire. Such suggestive cognomens as Mary Hackabout are not in use;
nor do procuresses haunt such localities as Wood Street in pursuit of
their vile calling. The course of fashion, as of empire, has taken
its way westward; but the whole story of the Harlot's Progress is
as fresh and as applicable to a season in 1873 as it was a hundred
and forty years before. Have we not Tom Rakewells in scores among
us; and had Hogarth been living now, would he not have interpolated
another picture of the degradation attained by the spendthrift when
he enters the employment of the moneylender as a decoy to poor flies
such as he was himself at the beginning of the chapter? The function
of the satirist is still needed, and there is no danger of the works
of William Hogarth proving to be out of date. Probably no artist
ever told stories so well; certainly no one ever acquired such a
reputation, and there is no reason why his splendid monuments should
be found only in the libraries of the wealthy. Every one should
know something of him besides his moral lessons, since, of all the
moral lessons he ever taught, his life formed the most pointed.
Fearlessness and honesty were his watchwords from his early career of
art, after being released from the silversmith's apprenticeship in
1720 until the day of his death in 1764, when he retired from mundane
existence full of years and honours. As Ireland declares him to have
asserted, his drawings were meant for the crowd rather than for the
critics; and with that intention his book was commenced, the original
design being to comprise in one volume "a moral and analytical
description of seventy-eight prints;" but as the work advanced, such
an amount of anecdote and illustrative comment suggested itself,
that he was compelled to adopt the three-volume form which is here
followed, with the further addition to which we have alluded, of such
a full description and reproduction as the original compiler, from
accident or design, omitted. These will be found in the third volume,
and include many of the most important and meritorious works of the
great artist. It has been found advisable to change the ornamental
and sometimes indistinct lettering of the original plates, and to
adopt a consistent and uniform style of titles. At the same time
the elaborate catalogue compiled by Ireland is preserved, since it
is still highly valuable as a chronological list of every effort of
Hogarth's hand, although it would be folly to attempt a reproduction
of every variation it contains. The system pursued by Ireland and
Nichols is followed, and the Publishers venture to congratulate
themselves on submitting to the notice of the artistic and literary
world, as well as to the public generally, the best and cheapest
edition of Hogarth's complete works ever brought forward.
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