The following description of Mr. Hogarth's design in these twelve
plates is copied from his own handwriting:--
"Industry and Idleness exemplified in the conduct of two
fellow-'prentices; where the one by taking good courses, and pursuing
points for which he was put apprentice, becomes a valuable man, and
an ornament to his country; the other, by giving way to idleness,
naturally falls into poverty, and ends fatally, as is expressed
in the last print. As the prints were intended more for use than
ornament, they were done in a way that might bring them within the
purchase of those whom they might most concern; and lest any print
should be mistaken, the description of each print is engraved at top."
Such is the professed intention of the artist, and such his apology
for the manner in which these plates are engraved; for, as Mr.
Walpole justly remarks, they have more merit in their intention than
execution.
As a contrast to an idle and vicious character, who is brought to
consequent misery and shame, his fellow-'prentice is depicted moral,
attentive, and industrious; and, by regular and natural gradations,
attains the highest dignities of the greatest city in Europe. This
is making the pencil an instrument in the cause of virtue, holding
up the mirror of morality and truth, and showing the fair reward of
industry and integrity to be happiness, honour, and independence;
and the inevitable consequences of idleness and vice to be poverty,
misery, and shame.
The hint for contrasting these two very opposite characters is taken
from the old play of _Eastward Hoe_, written by Ben Jonson, George
Chapman, and John Marston, printed for William Aspley, 1605, and
reprinted in Dodsley's collection. In this comedy, Touchstone, a
plain and honest old citizen and goldsmith, has two apprentices,
Golding and Quicksilver: the former is a counterpart of Hogarth's
Goodchild, and the latter has many of the dispositions of Mr. Thomas
Idle. Touchstone, in a proverbial and formal style, advises all who
wish to become respectable, and acquire independence, to conduct
themselves on the same principles that he had done, and by adherence
to which he had gained his fortune:
"I hired me a little shop, bought low, took small profits, kept no
debt book; garnished my shop (instead of plate) with good, wholesome,
thrifty sentences: such as, 'Touchstone, keep thy shop, and thy shop
will keep thee;' 'Light gains make a heavy purse;' 'It is good to be
merry and wise,' etc. etc.
'Seek not to go beyond your tether,
But cut your thong unto your leather;
So shall you thrive by little and little,
'Scape Tyburn, Counter, and the Spittal.'"
The prologue concludes with what may serve as an explanatory apology
for the prints as well as the play:
"Bear with our willing pains,--or dull or witty,
We only dedicate it to the City."
Golding marries Touchstone's favourite daughter; and the old citizen,
in the quaint style of that day, wishes he may live to see him "one
of the monuments of the city, and reckoned among her worthies; to be
remembered the same day with Lady Ramsey and grave Gresham, when the
famous fable of Whittington and his puss shall be forgotten, and thou
and thy acts become the posies for hospitals; when thy name shall
be written upon conduits, and thy deeds played i' thy lifetime by
the best company of actors, and be called their 'Get-penny;' this I
divine and prophesy."
In the comedy, as in the prints, one of the scenes is laid at
Cuckold's Haven; young Golding becoming a magistrate, Quicksilver is
brought before him as a criminal, etc. etc.