"The minuet is allowed by dancing-masters themselves to be the
perfection of all dancing. I once heard an eminent dancing-master
say, that the minuet had been the study of his whole life, and that
he had been indefatigable in the pursuit of its beauties, yet at last
could only say with Socrates, _he knew nothing_; adding, that I was
happy in my profession as a painter, in that some bounds might be set
to the study of it."
[22] Mr. Wilkes informs us that this subject was not thought of until
_after_ the publication of Marriage à la Mode. _In_ CHRONOLOGY, _the
Chamberlain is not so accurate as Doctor Trusler!_
[23] Mr. Townley, under the signature of a connoisseur, wrote the
following lines to Mr. Hogarth on his _Analysis of Beauty_:--
"How could you dare, advent'rous man,
To execute so bold a plan,
Or such unheard of truths advance?
At once so rashly to oppose
Those fierce, outrageous, hardy foes,
_Fraud_, _Prejudice_, and _Ignorance_!
"To their despotic, cruel sway,
Fair Science long has been a prey,
All _modern art_ they trampled down;
The rising genius they deprest,
The British taste they turned to jest,
And damn'd at once--because our own.
"The slavish principle _I_ caught,
The southern land of merit sought,
And learn'd to think, to see, to say
Eager I ran through every town,
Penn'd every observation down,
And gather'd judgment by the way.
"On foreign tales and terms of art,
On scraps of French, got well by heart,
And _learned guides_, was my reliance;
With light and shade my head I fill,
The _style_ of schools was all my skill.
_The painter's name_ was all my science.
"Thus deeply tutor'd, I return'd,
And o'er my tasteless country mourn'd;
I pitied first, then laugh'd and sneer'd;
Then curs'd the crude unfinish'd tints,
The statues, busto's, vases, prints,
When lo! th' ANALYSIS appear'd.
"I smil'd and read; grew grave--read on;
Was pleas'd; the truths apparent shone;
Nor could my prejudice resist 'em.
_The Line of Beauty_ I survey'd,
The arguments I fairly weigh'd,
And then acknowledg'd all your system.
"With reverence, and respect, like you,
The ancient works of art I view;
But, like you, see with my own eyes;
Abhor the tricks so grossly play'd,
Lament the science sunk to trade,
And dealers from my soul despise.
"Pursue, unrivall'd yet, that art,
Which bounteous nature did impart
(Ne'er to be so profuse again):
Our sons, in time to come, shall strive
Where the chief honour they shall give,
Or to your pencil or your pen."
Hogarth had previously presented this gentleman with a volume of his
prints, in return for which he received the following very flattering
testimony to his talents:--
"TRINITY LANE, _Feb. 28, 1750_.
"DEAR SIR,--Having been confined to my house by a violent cold,
I have had many hours for contemplation, which at such a time
generally turns on my friends, among whom you have been so good
to let me call you one. Your late kind intention came into my
mind, and gave me an uncommon degree of satisfaction; not on
my own account only, but with respect to my family. Your works
I shall treasure up as a family book, or rather as one of the
classics, from which I shall regularly instruct my children,
just in the same manner as I should out of Homer or Virgil. You
will be read in your course,--and it will be no unusual thing
to find me in a morning in my great chair, with my three bigger
boys about me, construing the sixth chapter of the Harlot's
Progress, or comparing the two characters in the first book of
the 'Prentices.
"You are one of the first great men I ever was acquainted with,
and the first great man I desire to be acquainted with, because
you have neither insolence nor vanity. Your character has been
sketched in different pieces, by different authors, and great
encomiums bestowed on you here and there in English, French,
Latin, and Greek: but I want to see a full portrait of you. I
wish I were as intimate with you, and as well qualified for the
purpose, as your friend Fielding,--I would undertake it. I have
made an humble attempt here towards something, but I am afraid
it has more of a death's head than the face of a man.--You won't
be dispirited because my character of you is in the form of an
epitaph, for you will observe at the bottom that I have given you
a great length of days.
"In the corner, near Shakspeare, in Westminster Abbey, on a
monument, elegant only by neatness and symmetry, the next
generation may see something like the enclosed inscription, the
freedom of which you will excuse, and consider it as coming from
a man confined to his room, but from one who is ever, dear sir,
your constant admirer, and most obliged servant,
"JAMES TOWNLEY.
"_To Mr. Hogarth in Leicester Fields._
"AD GULIELMUM HOGARTH,
DUM TU QUID PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, VOLUMINE DICIS,
NATURÆQUE DOCES QUID SJT, ET ARTIS OPUS,
ATQUE ANIMO CAUSAS, OCULO TABULASQUE DEDISTI,
PICTORIS PRIMI NOMEN UTRINQUE PERES."
[24] The work was translated into German, under the author's
inspection, by Mr. Mylins; and with two large plates and twenty-two
sheets of letterpress, printed in London at five dollars.
A new and correct edition was (July 1st, 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 published at Leghorn, 1761, octavo,
dedicated _Al illustrissime Signora Diana Molineux dama Inglese_.
That Sterne had read the Analysis, appears by the following
_reference recommendatory_, in the first volume of _Tristram
Shandy_:--
" ... Such were the outlines of Doctor Slop's figure, which, if you
have read Hogarth's _Analysis of Beauty_, and if you have not, I wish
you would, you must know may be as certainly caricatured and conveyed
to the mind by three strokes as three hundred." Hogarth's engraving
of the air-balloon figure is said to be intended for Doctor Burton,
the Jacobite physician of York; a microscopic miniature of the plate
(so small that it requires the aid of a glass) is in the engraved
frontispiece to these volumes.
[25] He bought the picture in for Lady Schaub, and she has since sold
it to the present Henry Duke of Newcastle.
[26] The original letter is in the possession of the editor, and
with all the circumstances relating to the transaction, _copied from
Hogarth's handwriting_, published in the third volume of this work.
[27] The correspondence between Sir Richard Grosvenor and Mr. Hogarth
relative to the picture of Sigismunda is in the 3d volume of this
work.
[28] I mean to speak of alterations suggested by his friends: to
the public at large, if we can confide in the following note, which
I found in a volume of the late Doctor Lort's, he paid little
attention:--
"HOGARTH'S SIGISMUNDA.
"He placed that picture, which in spite of all the critics could say
against it, had infinite merits in the view of the public, and at
the same time placed a man in an adjoining room to write down all
objections that each spectator made to it. Of these there were a
thousand at least, but Hogarth told the writer of this[29] that he
attended only to one, and that was made by a madman; and perceiving
the objection was founded, he altered it. The madman, after looking
stedfastly on the picture for some time, suddenly turned away,
exclaiming,--_Hang it_, I hate these white roses. The artist then,
and not till then, observed that the foldings of Sigismunda's
_chemise_ sleeves were too regular, and had more the appearance of
roses than of linen. I know not in whose possession this picture now
is, but I will venture to pronounce, that nowhere can distress be
more forcibly exprest on canvas: it is a distress, not of the minute,
but the day."
[29] The late Philip Thicknesse, Esq.
[30] The attack was commenced in No. 17 of the _North Briton_, which
was published on the 17th of September 1762. On the 16th, Mr. Hogarth
being at Salisbury, called upon the colonel of the Buckinghamshire
militia (who was then quartered in the neighbourhood), with the
good-natured intention of shaking hands: as _his old friend_ was
not at home, they neither met then, nor at any future period. In my
account of the _Times_ there are a few strictures on this political
pasquinade, which was followed by much metrical lampoon from the
reverend Mr. Churchill. Let us hear his coadjutor, Robert Lloyd, who
in a fable entitled _Genius_, _Envy_, and _Time_, gives TIME the
following speech:--
"Yet, Genius, mark what I presage,
Who look through every distant age:
Merit shall bless thee with her charms,
Fame lift thy offspring in her arms,
And stamp eternity of grace
On all thy numerous, various race.
Roubiliac, Wilton, names as high
As Phidias of antiquity,
Shall strength, expression, manner give,
And make e'en marble breathe and live,
While Sigismunda's deep distress,
Which looks the soul of wretchedness;
_When I_, with slow and soft'ning pen,
Have gone o'er all the tints agen,
Shall urge a bold and proper claim
To level half the ancient fame;
While future ages yet unknown,
With critic air shall proudly own,
Thy Hogarth first of every clime,
For humour keen, or strong sublime,
And hail him from his fire and spirit,
The child of Genius and of Merit."
--_Lloyd's Works_, p. 204.
[31] I learn from Mr. Nichols, that he was a dupe to flattery; that
his easiness of disposition should be practised on is natural, but
that any of _his friends_ should boast of such an imposition as the
following, is extraordinary:--
" ... A word in favour of Sigismunda might have commanded a proof
print, or forced an original sketch out of our artist's hand. 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."--_Nichols' Anecdotes_, p. 55.
[32] Having given Mr. Walpole's remarks, it is but fair to insert
that part of the Analysis which gave rise to them:--
"Notwithstanding the deep-rooted notion, even amongst the majority of
painters themselves, that Time is a great improver of good pictures,
I will undertake to show that nothing can be more absurd. Having
mentioned the whole effect of the oil, let us now see in what manner
Time operates on the colours themselves, in order to discover if any
changes in them can give a picture more union and harmony than has
been in the power of a skilful master with all his rules of art to
do. When colours change at all, it must be somewhat in the manner
following; for as they are made, some of metal, some of earth, some
of stone, and others of more perishable materials, Time cannot
operate on them otherwise than as by daily experience we find it
doth, which is, that one changes darker, another lighter, one quite
to a different colour, whilst another, as ultra-marine, will keep its
natural brightness even in the fire. THEREFORE, how is it possible
that such different materials, ever variously changing (visibly,
after a certain time), should accidentally coincide with the artist's
intention, and bring about the greater harmony of the piece, when it
is manifestly contrary to their nature; for do we not see, in most
collections, that much time disunites, untunes, blackens, and by
degrees destroys, even the best preserved pictures?
"But if, for argument's sake, we suppose that the colours were to
fall equally together, let us see what sort of advantage this would
give to any sort of composition: we will begin with a flower-piece.
When a master hath painted a rose, a lily, an african, a gentinnella,
or violet, with his best art and brightest colours, how far short
do they fall of the freshness and rich brilliancy of nature! And
shall we wish to see them fall still lower, more faint, sullied, and
dirtied by the hand of Time, and then admire them as having gained an
additional beauty, and call them mended and heightened, rather than
fouled, and in a manner destroyed? How absurd! instead of mellowed
and softened, therefore, always read yellow and sullied; for this is
doing Time, the destroyer, but common justice. Or shall we desire to
see complexions, which in life are often literally as brilliant as
the flowers above mentioned, served in the like ungrateful manner?
In a landscape, will the water be more transparent, or the sky shine
with a greater lustre, when embrowned and darkened by decay? Surely
no.--These opinions have given rise to another absurdity, viz. that
_the colours now-a-days_ do not stand so well as formerly; whereas
colours well prepared, in which there are but little art or expense,
have, and will always have, the same properties in every age; and
without accidents, damps, bad varnish, and the like (being laid
separate and pure), will stand and keep together for many years in
defiance of Time itself."
[33] "It may be truly observed of Hogarth, that all his powers of
delighting were confined to his pencil. Having rarely been admitted
into polite circles, none of his sharp comers 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. He is said to have beheld
the rising eminence and popularity of Sir Joshua Reynolds with a
degree of envy; and, if I am not misinformed, 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 paymasters; so that, in spite of the emoluments his works had
procured to him, he left but an inconsiderable fortune to his
widow."--_Nichols' Anecdotes_, p. 97.
[34] In furniture, decorations, etc., this place has not been altered
since his death. There is not one of his own prints, but in the
parlour are framed engravings from Sir James Thornhill's paintings in
St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Houbraken heads of Shakspeare, Spencer,
and Dryden. The garden is laid out in a good style: over the door is
a cast of George the Second's mask, in lead, and in one corner a rude
and shapeless stone, placed upright against the wall, and inscribed,
ALAS, POOR DICK!
OB. 1760.
AGED ELEVEN.
Beneath the inscriptions are two cross bones of birds, surmounted
with a heart and death's head. The sculpture was made with a nail,
by the hand of Hogarth, and placed there in memory of a favourite
bullfinch, who is deposited beneath.
[35] This is Doctor Johnson's epitaph, and he wrote only four. He has
broken his own rule, that the name should always be inserted in the
body of the verse.
[36] The verses, as first written by Mr. Garrick, and now in the
possession of Mr. James Townley, are as follows:--
"If thou hast genius, reader, stay;
If thou hast feeling, drop the tear;--
If thou hast neither,--hence, away,
For Hogarth's dear remains lie here.
His matchless works, of fame secure,
Shall live our country's pride and boast,
As long as nature shall endure,
And only in her wreck be lost."
[37] In the _Daily Advertiser_ of January 27, 1783, I find the
following advertisement:--
"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, _January 21, 1873_.
"We, whose names are underwritten, having carefully examined
the copperplates published by the late Mr. Hogarth, are fully
convinced that they have not been retouched since his death.
"FRANCIS BARTOLOZZI.
"WM. WOOLLET.
"WM. WYNNE RYLAND."
[38] Notwithstanding this, Mrs. Lewis told me, that a gentleman who
possessed a collection of Hogarth's works, once requested she would
lend him the plates for the purpose of having a set faintly taken
off, as a contrast to his own. It is scarcely necessary to say this
_modest request_ was refused, and she received much consequent abuse.
[39] He frequently drew sketches of heads upon his nail, and when he
came home, copied them on paper, from whence they were transferred to
his plates.
[40] See two large pictures of the Good Samaritan, and the Pool of
Bethesda, which he presented to St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
[41] G. M. Stainforth, Esq., of Berkeley Square, has in his
possession a portrait of the late Justice Walsh, which, for a wager,
Mr. Hogarth painted in less than an hour, and it is said to be a
strong resemblance.
[42] This observation extends no further than to his conversations
among his intimates.
"Mr. Walpole once invited Gray the poet and Hogarth to dine with
him; but what with the reserve of the one, and a want of colloquial
talents in the other, he never passed a duller time than between
these two representatives of tragedy and comedy, being obliged to
rely entirely on his own efforts to support conversation."--Nichols'
_Anecdotes_, p. 97.
Johnson, though his colloquial powers were gigantic, could not speak
in the Society of Arts: he could not, as he himself expressed it,
_get on_.
[43] In this he resembled a man whose simplicity of manners and
integrity of life give me a pride in avowing myself one of his
descendants.
"He could not bear that any one should in their absence be evil
spoken of; and in such cases frequently recommended the person who
censured to peruse that verse in Leviticus xix. 14, which says, _Thou
shalt not curse the deaf_"; adding, "Those that are _absent_ are
deaf."--_Life of Rev. Philip Henry_, Orton's edition, p. 252.
[44] A merchant named Purse, whom he never saw, left him a legacy of
one hundred pounds, as a trifling acknowledgment for the pleasure
and information the testator had received from his works. By this
solitary testimony to his talents he was highly gratified.
[45] The attendant represents John Gourlay, the Colonel's favourite
and confidant.
[46] To show how fair an object for satire the painter has selected,
and how properly he has hung up such a miscreant as an example for
posterity to avoid, part of it is inserted:--
Here continueth to rot,
the body of FRANCIS CHARTRES;
who, with an INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY, and
INIMITABLE UNIFORMITY of life,
PERSISTED,
in spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES,
in the practice of EVERY HUMAN VICE,
excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY.
His insatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first;
his matchless IMPUDENCE from the second.
Oh, indignant reader!
think not his life useless to mankind;
Providence connived at his execrable designs,
to give to after ages a conspicuous
proof and example
of how small estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH
in the sight of GOD, by His bestowing it on
the most UNWORTHY OF ALL MORTALS.
[47] Mother Needham, who stood in the pillory at Park Place on the
5th of May 1734, and was so roughly treated by the populace that she
died a few days afterwards. The crime for which she suffered was,
_keeping a disorderly house_.
[48] 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, etc."
[49] Among a great number of copies which the success of these prints
tempted obscure artists to make, there was one set printed on two
large sheets of paper for G. King, Brownlow Street, which, being made
with Hogarth's consent, may possibly contain some additions suggested
and inserted by his directions. In this plate, beneath the sign of
the Bell, is inscribed, PARSONS INTIER BUTT BEAR.
[50] The attendant black boy gave the foundation of an ill-natured
remark by Quin, when Garrick once attempted the part of Othello. "He
pretend to play Othello!" said the surly satirist; "he pretend to
play Othello! He wants nothing but the tea-kettle and lamp to qualify
him for Hogarth's Pompey!"
[51] In the copies printed for G. King, this picture has a label,
Jonah, why art thou angry? and under the lower portrait is written,
Mr. Woolston.
[52] This has been said to be a portrait, but of whom I never could
get any information.
[53] In Rembrandt's "Abraham's Offering," in the Houghton collection
now at Petersburgh, the knife dropping from the hand of the patriarch
appears in a falling state.
[54] This paper is a pastoral letter from Gibson Bishop of London,
and intimates that the writings of grave prelates were sometimes to
be found in chandlers' shops, as they are even unto this day.
[55] Following the Doctor's name are the letters S.T.P., _sanctæ
theologiæ professor_. A fellow not knowing the import of these
dignifying capitals, well enough translated them, SAUCY TROUBLESOME
PUPPY.
[56] When Theodore, the unfortunate king of Corsica, was so reduced
as to lodge in a garret in Dean Street, Soho, a number of gentlemen
made a collection for his relief. The chairman of their committee
informed him by letter, that on the following day, at twelve o'clock,
two of the society would wait upon his Majesty with the money. To
give his _Attic_ apartment an appearance of royalty, the poor monarch
placed an arm-chair on his half-testered bed, and seating himself
under the scanty canopy, gave what he thought might serve as the
representation of a throne. When his two visitors entered the room,
he graciously held out his right hand, that they might have the
honour of--kissing it!
[57] Sir John Gonson, a justice of peace, very active in the
suppression of brothels. In a view of the town in 1735, by T. Gilbert
(Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge), are the following lines:--
"Though laws severe to punish crimes were made,
What honest man is of these laws afraid?
All felons against judges will exclaim,
As harlots tremble at a Gonson's name."
Pope has noticed him in his Imitation of Dr. Donne, and Loveling in a
very elegant Latin Ode. Thus, between the poets and the painter, the
name of this harlot-hunting justice is transmitted to posterity. He
died on the 9th of January 1765.
[58] Such well-dressed females are rarely met with in our present
house of correction; but her splendid appearance is sufficiently
warranted by the following paragraph in the _Grub Street Journal_ of
September 14, 1730:--
"One Mary Moffat, 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; 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."
[59] The notorious breaches of trust and cruelties of which
Bainbridge, Cuthbert, and other keepers of prisons were about this
time guilty, attracted the attention of the House of Commons,
who appointed a committee to inquire into the abuses, which were
afterwards in a degree corrected.
[60] There may be some who will object to this word, as too important
for the action. I have the example of a very eminent personage,
dignified with the pompous addition of B.D., to justify its
insertion. This great man, a few years ago, placed against the wall
of his house, in the neighbourhood of Hatton Garden, a board, broad
as a church-door, on which was inscribed, in letters of two feet
long, THE DESTROYER LIVES HERE. On a close inspection of the sign,
it appeared to be sprinkled over with a number of little black dots
intended to represent bugs.
[61] The meagre figure is a portrait of Dr. Misaubin, a foreigner, at
that time in considerable practice.
These disputes, I have been told, sometimes happen at a consultation
of regular physicians, and a patient has been so unpolite as to die
before they could determine on the name of his disorder.
"About the symptoms, how they disagree,
But how unanimous about the fee!"
[62] The enumeration of its various virtues and never-failing
efficacy, at this enlightened and philosophical period, covers one
side of a house in Long Acre.
[63] The woman seated next to the divine was intended for Elizabeth
Adams, who, on the 10th of September 1737, at the age of thirty, was
executed for a robbery which had been attended with circumstances
that aggravated the crime.
[64] When the celebrated Nancy Elliot found that she must pass "that
bourne from whence no traveller returns," she was very solicitous
to see her sister, whose life had not been strictly virtuous, to
deliver her last advice and dying admonition. Her father used his
best endeavours to effect this pious purpose, but was too late; and
reached her house, accompanied by his other daughter, a few moments
before she died.
When her death was announced, he grasped his remaining child by the
hand, and, pointing to her emaciated sister, pathetically exclaimed,
"Look there!"--and sunk down in a swoon, from which he was with
difficulty recovered.
[65] Under a pirated set of the "Harlot's Progress," published by
Boitard, were inscribed six miserable verses; our painter of domestic
story, finding they had some effect, requested his friend Dr. Hoadley
to explain the "Rake's Progress" by poetical illustrations. The
request was complied with, and the verses to each print are added to
this work.
[66] It has been generally said that this is an appraiser and
undertaker; let not these venerable dealers in dust any longer suffer
the disgrace of so unjust an insinuation. That the artist intended to
delineate a lawyer, is clearly intimated by his old, uncurled tie-wig
and the baize bag. We cannot mistake these obtrusive ensigns of the
craft, or mystery, or profession, of which this hoary villain is a
member.
[67] That this gentleman is a Parisian, there can be little doubt.
He has all the violent grace and _outré_ air of his country and
profession.
[68] One Dubois, a Frenchman, memorable for his high opinion of the
science of defence, which he declared superior to all other arts and
sciences united. On the 4th of May 1734, he fought a duel with an
Irishman of his own name--and was killed!
[69] Figg, the famous prize-fighter, who raised himself to the
pinnacle of the temple of fame by conquering a number of hardy
Hibernians, before that time deemed invincible. Under a print of his
head is the following inscription: