THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE OUT OF HIS TIME, AND MARRIED TO HIS
MASTER'S DAUGHTER.
"The virtuous woman is a crown to her husband."--PROVERBS XIII. 4.
[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, PLATE VI.]
The reward of industry is success. Our prudent and attentive youth is
now become partner with his master,[157] and married to his daughter.
To show that plenty reigns in this mansion, a servant distributes
the remains of the table to a poor woman, and the bridegroom pays
one of the drummers, who, according to ancient custom, attend with
their thundering gratulations the day after a wedding. A performer
on the bass viol, and a herd of butchers armed with marrow-bones and
cleavers, form an English concert![158] A cripple, with the ballad of
_Jesse_, or the _Happy Pair_, represents a man known by the name of
Philip in the Tub, who had visited Ireland and the United Provinces,
and in the memory of some persons now living was a general attendant
at weddings. From those votaries of Hymen, who were honoured with
his _epithalamiums_, he received a small reward. To show that
Messieurs West and Goodchild's habitation is near the Monument,[159]
the base of that stately column appears in the background.
A footman and butcher at the opposite corner, compared with the other
figures, are gigantic; they might serve for the Gog and Magog of
Guildhall.
It has been said that the thoughts in this print are trite, and
the actions mean, which must be in part acknowledged; but they are
natural and appropriate to the rank and situation of the parties, and
to the fashions of the time at which it was published.