"Engraved by Hogarth and Le Cave, published 20th February 1758," and

inscribed to the Hon. Sir Ed. Walpole.

In an etching (touched in the shadows by Hogarth) which I have of

this plate, the blind voter going up the steps has not any bandage

over his eyes. The cockade of the sick figure just before him is

not of sufficient length for the words "true blue" now inserted,

and probably an afterthought. The fellow before him with a pipe in

his mouth, in the print is without a nose, but in the etching has a

very large one; while the man to whom this old smoker is presenting

tobacco, and who in the print has so speculative and carbuncled a

proboscis, has, in the etching, scarcely any nose at all. The book

in the pocket of Dr. Shebeare is so much intersected as not to admit

of the inscription, afterwards added, of ("the 6th letter to the"),

without the strokes being burnished out.

_Second impression_--"Milicia Bill," awkwardly inscribed on the

maimed voter's skirt, intended to appear as a paper hanging out of

his pocket.

Plate 4. Chairing the Members.

"Engraved by W. Hogarth and F. Aviline; published 1st January 1758,"

and inscribed to the Hon. George Hay, one of the Lords Commissioners

of the Admiralty.

_Second impression_--The word INDINTUR (indenture) written on the

scroll hanging out of the attorney's window.

1756.

1. France and England, in two plates, "designed and etched by

Hogarth," and published March 8, 1756.

In the very early impressions of these prints, the titles France and

England are not inserted.

1758.

The Bench, "designed and engraved by W. Hogarth," and published 4th

September 1758.

This plate, in its _first state_, exhibits the inside of the Court

of Common Pleas, the king's arms at top. Portraits of the following

judges are beneath it:--Hon. William Noel; Sir John Willes, Lord

Chief Justice; Hon. Mr. Justice, afterwards Earl Bathurst; Sir Edward

Clive.

Over the print is written "Character;" under it, "Of the different

meanings of the words Character, Caricatura, and _Outré_, in painting

and drawing." This is followed by a long explanatory inscription

engraved on another piece of copper. The original picture, which

is somewhat different from the print, was once the property of Sir

George Hay, and is now in the possession of Mr. Edwards.

_Present state_ of the plate--The word Character is effaced, and the

king's arms discarded, and its place supplied by eight caricatured

heads, on which the artist worked the day before he died. Below the

inscription is inserted--

"The unfinished group of heads in the upper part of this print was

added by the author in October 1764, and was intended as a further

illustration of what is here said concerning character, caricatura,

and _outré_. He worked upon it the day before his death, which

happened the 26th of that month."

The mistakes which Hogarth's friends frequently made in the meaning

of the words character, caricatura, etc., seem to have dwelt much on

his mind. In one of his MSS. he has given the following thoughts on

the subject:--

"I have ever considered the knowledge of character, either high or

low, to be the most sublime part of the art of painting or sculpture,

and caricatura as the lowest--indeed, as much so as the wild attempts

of children when they first try to draw: yet so it is, that the two

words, from being similar in sound, are often confounded. When I

was once at the house of a foreign face-painter, and looking over

a legion of his portraits, Monsieur, with a low bow, told me that

he infinitely admired my caricatures! I returned his _congé_, and

assured him that I equally admired his.

"I have often thought that much of this confusion might be done away,

by recurring to the three branches of the drama, and considering the

difference between comedy, tragedy, and farce. Dramatic dialogue,

which represents nature as it really is, though neither in the most

elevated nor yet the most familiar style, may fairly be denominated

comedy: for every incident introduced might have thus happened; every

syllable have been thus spoken, and so acted in common life. Tragedy

is made up of more extraordinary events. The language is in a degree

inflated, and the action and emphasis heightened. The performer

swells his voice, and assumes a consequence in his gait; even his

habit is full and ample, to keep it on a par with his deportment.

Every feature of his character is so much above common nature, that

were people off the stage to act, speak, and dress in a similar

style, they would be thought fit for Bedlam. Yet with all this, if

the player does not o'erstep the proper bounds, and, by attempting

too much, become swoln, it is not caricatura, but elevated character.

I will go further, and admit, that with the drama of Shakspeare, and

action of Garrick, it may be a nobler species of entertainment than

comedy.

"As to farce, where it is exaggerated, and _outré_, I have no

objection to its being called caricature, for such is the proper

title."

1759.

1. The Cockpit. "Designed and engraved by Wm. Hogarth," and published

November 5, 1759.

2. Frontispiece to _Tristram Shandy_, vol. 2; engraved by S. Ravenet.

3. Another copy, by the same engraver, in which a hat and cloak are

introduced, and the faces of his father and uncle Toby much inferior

to the former plate. A print for the 4th volume, representing the

christening, was published in 1761. "F. Ravanet, _sculp._"--for thus

is the name here written. A print of the same size was engraved

from the same design by J. Ryland. The original drawings are in the

possession of Mrs. Nicol.

1760.

1. Frontispiece to Brook Taylor's _Perspective of Architecture_. "W.

Hogarth, 1760; W. Woollet, _sculp._" _Vide_ p. 132.

2. Mr. Huggins, a small circular plate. Hogarth, _pinx._; Major,

_sculp._ Engraved for a translation of _Dante_, of which a specimen

only was published.

1761.

1. Frontispiece to the catalogue of pictures exhibited at Spring

Gardens; engraved by Grignion. _Vide_ p. 77.

2. Another print from this design, by the same engraver.

3. Tail-piece to the catalogue. The word _obiit_ spelt _obit_. _Vide_

p. 79. In a second plate this error is corrected.

4. Hogarth's Gate of Calais; and Relapse, or Virtue in Danger, and

three portraits, were in this exhibition.

5. Time Smoking a Picture. Subscription-ticket to Sigismunda. I have

seen an impression of this print without the name "Crates" in the

inscription.

6. "The Five Orders of Periwigs, as they were worn at the late

coronation, measured architectonically."

_Second impression_--The spelling in the word "advertisement"

corrected, by an _e_ inserted on the neck of the Duchess of

Northumberland. This is a pointed ridicule on Stewart's _Antiquities

of Athens_, in which the measurements of all the members of the Greek

architecture are given with minute accuracy. Hogarth's opinion of his

labours may be gathered from the following fragment, which he wrote

concerning this print:--

"There is no great difficulty in measuring the length, breadth, or

height of any figures, where the parts are made up of plain lines. It

requires no more skill to take the dimensions of a pillar or cornice,

than to measure a square box; and yet the man who does the latter

is neglected, and he who accomplishes the former is considered as

a miracle of genius; but I suppose he receives his honours for the

distance he has travelled to do his business."

7. Frontispiece to the _Farmer's Return from London_; engraved by J.

Basire. Of this plate there is an admirable copy with the same name,

and a vile imitation without any name.

Enthusiasm Delineated.

A reduced copy and description of this very singular print, which was

the first thought for the Medley, is in p. 169. A copy of the same

size was published by the editor of this volume in 1796.

1762.

1. Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism: A Medley. "Designed and

engraved by Wm. Hogarth," and published March 15, 1762. _Vide_ p. 175.

2. The Times, Plate 1; "designed and engraved by W. Hogarth," and

published Sept. 7, 1762. In the _first impression_--A figure of

Henry VIII. is exalted on stilts, and blowing up the flames; in

the _second_--The monarch is erased, and Mr. Pitt, afterwards Lord

Chatham, introduced in his place.

The Times, Plate 2, was engraved soon after, but withheld from the

public until Mrs. Hogarth's death, when the plate was purchased by

Messrs. Boydell, and published May 29, 1790. Part of the sky is left

unfinished.

3. T. Morell, S. T. P. S. S. A.; "W. Hogarth, _delin._;" "James

Basire, _sculp._" Some impressions are without either the inscription

of "Thesaurus" or "_Ætat. 60._"

A correct copy has the same painter and engraver's name.

4. Henry Fielding, _Ætatis 48_; "W. Hogarth, _delin._;" "James

Basire, _sculp._" A few impressions were taken off before the frame

and ornaments were inserted. The copy in p. 206 is taken from one of

them in my possession.

1763.

1. "John Wilkes, Esq., drawn from the life, and etched in aquafortis

by William Hogarth. Price 1s."

4. The Weighing House. Frontispiece to Clubbe's _Physiognomy_; W.

Hogarth, _del._; Luke Sullivan, _sculp._

Another copy, without either painter or engraver's name, which the

late W. Ryland told me was engraved by him, and the heads afterwards

touched upon by Hogarth. Prefixed to Clubbe's works, in two vols.

A small copy was engraved for an octavo edition of the same pamphlet.

1764.

The Bathos. "Designed and engraved by Wm. Hogarth," and published

March 3, 1764.

1767.

Satan, Sin, and Death: Milton's _Paradise Lost_, B. 2. Engraved by

C. Townley, and intended to have been published April 15, 1767; but

when a few impressions were taken off, the plate was destroyed. One

of the copies of this strange and incomprehensible print is in the

possession of Mr. Bellamy, Charlotte Row.

A print of a smaller size, with some variations, has been since

engraved by Ogbourne, and I have seen one of a larger size, of a

similar description, without any name.

The Good Samaritan. Engraved by Ravenet and Delatre, and published

Feb. 24, 1772, by J. Boydell. Hogarth's first sketch is in the

possession of Mr. Bellamy.

The Pool of Bethesda. Engraved by Ravenet and Picot as a companion

to the preceding print. These engravings were copied from the

pictures in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. A small copy of the latter

was, in 1748, engraved by Ravenet for S. Austen, as a frontispiece to

Stackhouse's _Bible_.

1775.

The Politician; etched by J. K. Sherwin, and published by Jane

Hogarth, 1774, Oct. 31. _Vide_ p. 197. In the early impressions the

figure "5" and 31st October, are usually inserted with a pen.

1781.

1. A small and slight etching, conjectured to be Solsull, a maker of

punches for engravers. "S. J. _fecu._, 1781."

2. Four Heads from the Cartoons at Hampton Court; an early etching by

Hogarth, published by Mrs. Hogarth, May 14, 1781.

The Matchmaker. _Vide_ p. 199.

1782.

1. The Staymaker.

2. Debates in Palmistry.

3. Portrait of Henry Fox, Lord Holland.

4. Portrait of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont.

The four last articles are slightly etched by Joseph Haynes, from

very bald and unfinished sketches by Hogarth. The plates are in the

possession of Mr. Jeffrey, Pall Mall.

5. The Shrimp Girl. Engraved in the dotted style by Bartolozzi.

Had this unrivalled artist etched this print in the manner he did

Guercino's drawings, he would have transferred the true spirit of the

original. As it is, we have Hogarth translated into Italian.

It was published by Mrs. Hogarth in 1782, by subscription, with the

five following prints engraved by Livesay.

6 and 7. Portraits of Gabriel Hunt and Benjamin Read.

8, 9, and 10. Three plates from sketches by Hogarth, designed for the

monument and epitaph of George Taylor.

11. Nine prints for Hogarth's _Tour_, from drawings by Scott, etc.,

engraved by Livesay, accompanied with nine pages of letterpress.

12. Hogarth's Crest. A spiral shell painted on his carriage, and

since his death copied by Livesay.

13. Eta Beta Py. Prefixed to the title of the second edition of Mr.

Nichols' _Anecdotes_.

14. An Old Parson's Head, most admirably marked; engraved in the

dotted style.

1785.

The four which follow were etched by S. Ireland.

1. Orator Henley Christening a Child. From an unfinished sketch by

Hogarth.

2. A Small Landscape.

3. Head of a Female Moor.

4. Head of Diana.

The Portrait of a Young Girl, from a picture in the possession of

Mrs. Hogarth, was about this time very delicately engraved by Martha

Knight, Brompton.

1790.

1. The Beggars' Opera. Engraved by Blake, and published by Messrs.

Boydell, from a picture in the collection of the Duke of Leeds.

2. Sealing the Sepulchre: from the Altar-piece in St. Mary

Redcliffe's, Bristol; engraved in a large mezzotinto by J. Jenner.

3. The Sepulchre; engraved from the same altar-piece as a companion,

with the title of The Resurrection. _Vide_ p. 195.

1792.

1. The Indian Emperor, or Conquest of Mexico; from the original

picture in the collection of Lord Holland; engraved by R. Dodd, and

published by Messrs. Boydell.

2. Sigismunda. Engraved by Benj. Smith, and published by Messrs.

Boydell, who possess the original picture, from which there was an

etching by Basire in Hogarth's lifetime; and from the sketch a print

in mezzotinto was a few years since engraved by Dunkarton.

PRINTS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.

Some of the following prints are insignificant enough, others are

curious, but all derive their principal value from being the work of

Hogarth. I have noted the prices at which a few of them sold, and

think it probable that No. 30 produced more money at Mr. Gulston's

sale than the artist received for engraving the twenty-nine preceding

prints:--

_Coats of Arms._

1. A Gryffon with a Flag. A crest.

2. Lord Aylmer's Coat of Arms. A copy sold for £7, 10s. in Mr.

Gulston's sale.

3. Lord Radnor's Coat of Arms.

4. A large Coat of Arms, with Terms of the Four Seasons.

5. A Coat of Arms, with two Slaves as trophies.

6. Another with two Boys as Terms.

7. Foreign Coat of Arms; supporters, a Savage and Angel.

8. The Duchess of Kendal's Arms. _Vide_ p. 28. A copy sold in Mr.

Gulston's sale for £4.

9. Another, for a silver tea-table, larger, but not so neatly

engraved. Sold in the same sale for £6.

10. Another.

11. With a male shield, probably a mistake of the engraver's.

12. A Coat of Arms, engraved on a silver tea-table.

13. The same ornaments left, and Sir Gregory Page's arms inserted in

their place. At Sir Gregory's sale, the table was purchased by Mr.

Morrison, who, after taking off twenty-five impressions, melted the

plate.

14. The Chudleigh Arms. Motto: _Aut vincam, aut peribo_.

15. Arms of Gore, engraved on a silver waiter.

16. Arms of John Holland, herald painter; a book plate. In the second

impressions the lion is of a smaller size, and eight _fleur-de-lis_

instead of the seven originally inserted.

17. Arms of George Lambart. Said to have been a book-plate for

Lambert the painter. If it was so, it is passing strange that the

name should be thus spelt.

_Shop-bills._

18. A large Angel, holding a palm in his left hand: a shop-bill

for Ellis Gamble, at the Golden Angel, Cranbourn Street, Leicester

Fields, has sold for £7, 7s.

19. A contracted copy of the above.

20. Another, somewhat different, in the collection of Mr. Walpole.

21. A Turk's Head: a shop-bill for John Barker, goldsmith, Lombard

Street.

Of the head there is a modern copy.

22. A shop-bill for Mrs. Holt, at the Italian Warehouse in the

Strand; with the Duke of Tuscany's and the Florence arms; and views

of Naples, Venice, Genoa, and Leghorn at the four corners. A copy

sold in Mr. Gulston's sale for £6, 6s.

23. Shop-bill, for his sisters, Mary and Ann Hogarth, at the King's

Arms, joining to the Little Britain gate. People in a shop, etc., has

sold for £8, 8s.

_Tickets, etc._

24. A Ticket for the benefit of Spiller the player.

25. A Ticket for the benefit of Millward.

26. Ticket for a burial. Sold in Gulston's sale for £5, 7s. 6d.

27. A Ticket for the school at Tiverton, Devonshire.

28. The Great Seal of England.

29. Impression from a tankard belonging to a club of artists, who,

as I have been told, met at the sign of a Shepherd and his Flock,

Clare Market. This design is in a good taste. On the dexter side,

as a supporter, a man making a drawing; and on the sinister, a man

modelling a figure. In the centre is a Shepherd and his Flock, etc. A

copy sold in Mr. Gulston's sale for £10.

_Miscellaneous._

30. A small oval print of the Rape of the Lock, engraved on a

snuff-box. _Vide_ p. 25. Sold, Feb. 7, 1786, at Mr. Gulston's sale

for £33.

31. An Emblematic Print, representing Agriculture, etc.

32. A Hieroglyphic Print, representing Royalty, Episcopacy, and Law,

composed of emblematic attributes, etc., abounds in wit and satire.

Of this there is a good copy by Samuel Ireland.

33. Two small prints for books 1st and 3d of Milton's _Paradise

Lost_. W. Hogarth, _inv. et sculp._ These two prints were in Mr.

Gulston's sale sold for sixteen guineas; but the original plate

of that for book 3d has been lately discovered, and is now in the

possession of Mr. Vincent.

34. A Woman swearing a Child to a grave Citizen. W. Hogarth, _pinx._;

J. Sympson, jun., _fecit_. _Vide_ p. 188. Another copy is in Picart's

_Religious Ceremonies_.

35. Orator Henley Christening a Child. John Sympson, jun., _fecit_.

The impressions are usually taken off in green. A copy of this also

is in Picart's _Religious Ceremonies_.

36. The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by the Gormagons.

Hogarth, _inv. et sculp._

The second impression published for Sayer.

37. The Political Glyster, "Nahtanoi Tfiws" (Swift's name spelt

backwards), engraved on one corner, and on the other, Dr. O'Garth,

_sculp._ It was originally inscribed, "the punishment inflicted on

Samuel Gulliver," etc.; but when the plate came into the hands of Mr.

Sayer, he added the present retrograde and ridiculous inscription.

38. Six small prints, engraved for an early edition of King's

_Pantheon_.

NINE PRINTS FOR "DON QUIXOTE."

39. Plate 1.--Is inserted without either painter or engraver's name,

is in Jarvis' quarto translation. _Vide_ p. 220.

40. Plate 2.--Was probably engraved for Lord Carteret's _Don

Quixote_, but not introduced; one figure only being finished, and the

plate cut. _Vide_ p. 221.

41. Plate 3.--Engraved for the same work, but never inserted. _Vide_

p. 222.

42. Plate 4.--Had the same fate. _Vide_ p. 222.

43. Plate 5.--Was equally unfortunate. _Vide_ p. 224.

44. Plate 6.--Not approved. _Vide_ p. 224.

45. Plate 7.--Not inserted. _Vide_ p. 225.

46. Plate 8.--Not introduced; but with the other five came into

the hands of Mr. Dodsley, who sold a few of the first impressions,

and afterwards inserted references corresponding with Jarvis'

translation. _Vide_ p. 226.

47. Plate 9.--Sancho's Feast. _Vide_ p. 227.

48. The Master of the Vineyard, engraved for Horneck's _Happy

Ascetic_.

49. Gustavus, Lord Viscount Boyne, etc. Whole-length mezzotinto,

engraved in Ireland. W. Hogarth, _pinx._; Ford, _fecit_. The original

picture is in the possession of Mr. Bellamy. A copy of the print sold

in Gulston's sale for £2, 13s.

50. Mr. Pine (the mezzotinto engraver), in the manner of Rembrandt,

both his hands resting upon a cane. Printed for George Pulley, etc.

51. Another head of Mr. Pine; mezzotinto by M'Ardell. I am much

inclined to think that this is an alteration of the Plate No. 50. Be

that as it may, it is in every respect superior. Repaired copies,

with the inscription erased, are sometimes sold as Proofs.

52. Daniel Lock, Esq., F.S.A., mezzotinto. W. Hogarth, _pinx._; J.

M'Ardell, _fecit_. Price 1s. 6d.

53. Ticket for the London Hospital, with Richmond Arms.

54. The same, larger, without the Arms, by Grignion.

55. Another, with a view of the London Hospital.

56. The London Infirmary for charitably relieving sick and diseased

manufacturers, seamen, etc. A blank certificate for pupils in surgery

and anatomy.

57. A Witch on a Broomstick. Frontispiece to a pamphlet written by

Dr. Gregory Sharpe, but never published, inscribed Front-is-piss.

58. The Discovery, or a Black Woman in Bed.

A copy from Hogarth's Piquet, or Virtue in Danger, has been engraved

by Cheesman, and will be shortly published. The portraits of five

gentlemen who met to drink a hogshead of claret, which they finished

before they separated; of a nobleman and gentleman fighting with a

watchman; and an etching, copied from a small picture on the back of

a copperplate, have been some years advertised.

A portrait of Sir Alexander Schomberg, engraved by Townley from a

portrait by Hogarth.

A work, consisting of copies, the same size as the original prints,

and modestly entitled "_Hogarth Restored_," is now publishing in

numbers. The twelve originals of Industry and Idleness, Hogarth

published at twelve shillings. In this Restoration, the twelve copies

amount to thirty!

_An Illustration of Hogarth_, in the German language, by J. C.

Lichtenberg, with reduced copies from the prints, by J. Ripenhausen,

has been published at Gottingen, in numbers at 15s. each. The same

plates are used for a work, also publishing at Gottingen, on a

similar plan, with the illustrations in French.

Many of the following articles, and others not worth enumeration,

imputed trash and libel not his own, have been foisted into

auctioneers' catalogues, sold for large sums, warranted originals, and

ASCRIBED TO HOGARTH.

1. Coat of Arms, from a large silver tea-table. Under the Arms are a

Shepherd and his Flock.

2. Shop-bill for Peter de la Fontaine.

3. The Oratory. Orator Henley on a scaffold.

4. A Ticket for H. Fielding. Scene Pasquin.

5. A Ticket for H. Fielding. Scene the Mock Doctor.

6. A Ticket for James Figg the prize-fighter.

7. A Ticket for the benefit of Joe Miller.

8. The Gin-drinkers.

9. Jack in Office; a Ticket-porter, etc.

10. The complicated Richardson. Nauseous!

11. Pug the Painter. Sometimes ascribed to Hogarth.

12. St. Mary's Chapel, 12 at Night. Probably Vandergucht's. Sold as

Hogarth's in Gulston's sale for £3, 4s.

13. Farinelli, Cuzzoni, and Heidegger: said to be designed by the

Countess of Burlington, and etched by Goupy.

14. Frontispiece to eight views in Richmond gardens.

15. Frontispiece to Love in a Hollow Tree.

16. Ten prints to Butler's posthumous works; published in 1730. The

same designs were published in 2 vols. twelves, in 1717. Some of them

are much like Hogarth.

17. Samuel Butler, author of _Hudibras_. Coarsely engraved in an oval.

18. Thomas Pellet, M.D., President of the College of Physicians. W.

Hogarth, _pinx._; C. Hall, _sculp._

19. William Bullock, the comedian. W. Hogarth, _pinx._; C. Hall,

_sculp._

20. A scene of a pantomime entertainment lately exhibited, designed

by a Knight of Malta. Satire on the royal incorporated artists.

An etched outline of a larger size, with some additions, was

afterwards published, and inscribed No. 2.

21. The Calves' Head Club. I think, designed and engraved by

Vandergucht.

22. Rape of the Smock. A palpable imposition.

23. Lovat's Ghost on Pilgrimage. A mezzotinto copy was published May

1, 1788.

24. Four small prints of Lord Lovat's Trial, etc.

25. A dotted print of Jenny Cameron.

26. Two figures, designed for Lord Melcombe and Lord Winchelsea.

Hogarth, _inv._; F. B. (F. Bartolozzi), _sculp._; designed by Lord

Townshend.

27. North and South of Great Britain. W. Hogarth, _del._; F. B.

(Bartolozzi), _sculp._ Really designed by Sandby.

28. Inside of an Opera House, scene a prison, sold as Hogarth's at

Gulston's sale, March 1, 1786, for £2, 4s.

29. The Scotch Congregation.

30. The Search Night. J. Fielding, _sculp._ Two cards were afterwards

engraved from the same design.

31. Hogarth's cypher, with his name under it. A plate for books.

32. A living Dog is better than a dead Lion; or, the Vanity of Human

Glory: a design for the monument of General Wolfe, 1760.

33. The Five Muscovites. Copied from De la Mottraye's _Travels_.

A full-length print of a Savoyard Girl has been lately engraved from

a picture painted by Hogarth.

PRINTS PUBLISHED TO RIDICULE THE "ANALYSIS," "TIMES," ETC.

1. "A New _Dunciad_; done with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas

of taste," etc.

2. A Mountebank demonstrating to his admiring audience that

crookedness is most beautiful.

3. The Author run mad.

4. An Author sinking under the weight of his _Analysis_.

5. "The Analyst," etc. etc. "in his own Taste." A vile, nauseous, and

vulgar print.

6. Pugg's Graces, etched from his original daubing.

7. The Temple of Ephesus in Flames, etc.; inscribed "A self-conceited

Dauber," etc., and extremely well etched.

8. "Burlesque sur le Burlesque," with a French inscription: a large

print.

9. "The second edition," with an English inscription, and some slight

variations.

10. Burlesque of the Burlesque Paul; magic lantern, etc.

11. The Painter's March from Finchley. "Dedicated to the King of the

Gypsies, as an encourager of Art, etc."

12. The Butifyer, a touch upon the Times, Plate 1.

13. The Times, Plate 2.

14. The Times, Plate 1, 1762. Hogarth's head, with the body of an

ass, at the top of a ballad.

15. The Raree Show, a political contrast to the Times.

16. The Boot and the Blockhead.

17. The Vision, or M----n--st--l Monster.

18. John Bull's House in Flames.

19. The Bruiser Triumphant, with a curtain inscribed, "A Harlot

blubbering over a Bullock's Heart."

20. Tit for Tat.

21. The Bear and Pugg: a small print.

22. The Snarling Cur chastised.

23. The Hungry Tribe of Scribblers and Etchers.

24. The Grand Triumvirate, or Champions of Liberty; with three

foolish acrostics of Wilkes, Bute, and Hogarth.

I had nearly forgotten two curiosities, which, though received in all

the catalogues, and unquestionably genuine, can hardly be classed as

prints. One is entitled Hogarth's Cottage, engraved for Mr. Camfield,

a surgeon, on a breeches button the size of a half-crown, from

Hogarth's design, of which an etched copy by S. Ireland was published

March 1, 1786. The other, being impressions taken from nine quadrille

fish, was published in 1792, with the title of--

Pisces, one of the signs of the Zodiac.

To enter into the spirit of the last article, the reader must be

informed that Hogarth never played at cards; and that while his wife

and a party of friends were so employed, he occasionally took the

quadrille fish, and cut upon them scales, fins, heads, etc., so as

to give them some degree of character. Three of these little aquatic

curiosities which remained in the possession of Mrs. Lewis, she

presented to me, and I have ventured to insert them as

A TAIL-PIECE.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Dedication, of which I have prefixed a fac-simile, was

written for that work.

[2] I am authorized to say that during her life Mrs. Hogarth never

parted with any of his papers, except a loose leaf or some such

trifle, which in one or two instances she gave to such as wished to

possess a little specimen of Hogarth's handwriting.

[3] The printed sheets were occasionally corrected by his friend

Townley, etc. The Editor will have great pleasure in showing the MSS.

to any gentleman who will do him the honour of inspecting them.

[4] Rouquet's book was written in French, and describes the

"Harlot's" and "Rake's Progress," "Marriage à la Mode," and "March to

Finchley."

[5] When I wrote the two former volumes of _Hogarth Illustrated_,

I had not seen the MSS. which I now lay before the reader, nor

did I know that there were any such papers. His own declaration

corroborates the following conjecture relative to his early bias

to the arts:--"Young Hogarth had an early predilection for the

arts, and his future acquirements give us a right to suppose he

must have studied the curious sculptures which adorned his father's

spelling-books, though he neglected the letterpress; and when he

ought to have been storing his memory with the eight parts of

speech, was examining the allegorical apple-tree which decorates the

grammar."--_Hogarth Illustrated_, vol. i. p. 27.

[6] The dictionary here alluded to, Mrs. Lewis of Chiswick presented

to the Editor of this volume. It is a thick quarto, containing an

early edition of Littleton's _Dictionary_, and also Robertson's

_Phrases_, with numerous corrections to each, and about 400 pages

of manuscript close written. On the marginal leaf is inscripted in

Hogarth's handwriting, "The manuscript part of this dictionary was

the work of Mr. Richard Hogarth." Another volume of this work is in

the possession of J. Bindley, Esq., of the Stamp Office.

[7] Hogarth's father came to the metropolis in company with Dr.

Gibson, the late Bishop of London's brother, and was employed as

corrector of the press, which in those days was not considered as a

mean employment.

[8] By Sir James Thornhill, afterwards his father-in-law.

[9] Though averse, as he himself expresses it, to coldly copying on

the spot any objects that struck him, it was usual with him when

he saw a singular character, either in the street or elsewhere, to

pencil the leading features and prominent markings upon his nail,

and when he came home, to copy the sketch on paper, and afterwards

introduce it in a print. Several of these sketches I have seen, and

in them may be traced the first thoughts for many of the characters

which he afterwards introduced in his works.

[10] As this was the doctrine I preached as well as practised, an

arch brother of the pencil once gave it this turn, that the only way

to draw well, was not to draw at all; and, on the same principle, he

supposed that if I wrote an essay on the art of swimming, I should

prohibit my pupil from going into the water until he had learnt.

[11] If Hogarth calls himself idle, who shall dare to denominate

himself industrious?

[12] _Hudibras_ was published in 1726, so that his father probably

died about the year 1721, leaving two daughters, Mary and Anne,

besides his son William, who, on the leaf of an old memorandum book

in my possession, after mentioning the time of his own birth and

baptism, thus continues:

"Mary Hogarth was born November 10th, 1699.

Ann Hogarth, two years after in the same month.

Taken from the Register at Great St. Bartholomew's."

[13] The leader of the figures hurrying to a masquerade, crowned

with a cap and bells, and a garter round his right leg, has been

supposed to be intended for George II., who was very partial to these

nocturnal amusements, and is said to have bestowed a thousand pounds

towards their support. The purse with the label £1000, which the

satyr holds immediately before him, gives some probability to the

supposition. The kneeling figure on the show-cloth, pouring gold at

the feet of Cuzzoni, the Italian singer (with the label, "Pray accept

£8000"), has been said to be designed for Lord Peterborough.

[14] As this print, to heighten the burlesque, was almost invariably

impressed on blue paper, I have stamped the annexed copy on the same

colour.

[15] It has been truly observed that comedy exhibits the character of

a species,--farce of an individual. Of the class in which Hogarth has

a right to be placed, there can be little doubt: he wrote comedies

with a pencil.

[16] For these pictures he was elected a governor of the hospital.

On the top of the staircase, beneath the cornice, is the following

inscription: "The historical paintings of this staircase were painted

and given by Mr. William Hogarth, and the ornamental paintings at his

expense, A.D. 1736."

[17] The Reformed religion is, in almost all its branches, rather a

drawback than an assistance to art. Thus are its effects described by

Mr. Barry: "Where religion is affirmative and extended, it gives a

loose and enthusiasm to the fancy, which throws a spirit into the air

and manners, and stamps a diversity, life, quickness, sensibility,

and expressive significance over everything they do. In another place

it is more negative and contracted: being formed in direct opposition

to the first, its measures were regulated accordingly; much pains

were taken to root out and to remove everything that might give

wing to imagination, and so to regulate the outward man by a torpid

inanimate composure, gravity, and indifference, that it may attend

to nothing but mere acts of necessity, everything else being reputed

idle and vain. They have had as few words as buttons, the tongue

spoke almost without moving the lips, and the circumstances of a

murder were related with as little emotion as an ordinary mercantile

transaction."--_Barry on the Arts_, p. 214.

[18] Hogarth may possibly allude to Ranelagh Barret, who, I learn

from Mr. Walpole, was thus employed; and, being countenanced by

Sir Robert Walpole, copied several of his collection, and others for

the Duke of Devonshire and Dr. Mead. He was indefatigable,--executed

a vast number of works,--succeeded greatly in copying Rubens, and

died in 1768. His pictures were sold by auction in the December of

that year.

[19] In part of this violent philippic Hogarth may possibly glance

at the late President of the Royal Academy, whom, it has been said,

but I think unjustly, he envied. In Sir Joshua's very early pictures

there is not much to envy; they gave little promise of the taste and

talents which blaze in his later works.

[20] Vanloo came to England with his son in the year 1737.--Walpole's

_Anecdotes_.

[21] I am not sufficiently versed in the palette biography of the

day to know who are the painters that these stars, etc. etc. etc.

allude to. Abbé le Blanc, in his letter to the Abbé du Bos on the

state of painting and sculpture in England, notices the whole body

in the following _very flattering_ terms: "The portrait painters are

at this day more numerous and worse in London than ever they have

been. Since Mr. Vanloo came hither, they strive in vain to run him

down; for nobody is painted but by him. I have been to see the most

noted of them; at some distance one might easily mistake a dozen of

their portraits for twelve copies of the same original. Some have the

head turned to the left, others to the right; and this is the most

sensible difference to be observed between them. Moreover, excepting

the face, you find in all the same neck, the same arms, the same

flesh, the same attitude; and to say all, you observe no more life

than design in those pretended portraits. Properly speaking, they are

not painters; they know how to lay colours on the canvas, but they

know not how to animate it. Nature exists in vain for them; they see

her not, or if they see her, they have not the art of expressing her."

[22] Sir Francis Bacon somewhere remarks, that in the flight of Fame

she will make but slow progress without some feathers of ostentation.

[23] The rival portraits here alluded to are: George the Second,

patron of the foundation, by Shackleton; Lord Dartmouth, one of the

vice-presidents, by Mr. Reynolds (afterwards Sir Joshua); Taylor

White, treasurer of the Hospital, in crayons, by Coates; Mr. Milner

and Mr. Jackson, by Hudson; Dr. Mead, by Ramsay; Mr. Emmerson, by

Highmore; and Francis Fauquier, Esq., by Wilson.

To say that it is superior to these is but slight praise; independent

of this relative superiority, it will not be easy to point out a

better painted portrait. The head, which is marked with uncommon

benevolence, was in 1739 engraved in mezzotinto by M'Ardell.

[24] Thus does Hogarth pun upon the name of Mr. Ramsay, who he seems

to think peered too closely into his prints, though he acknowledges

that, in a book entitled _The Investigator_, Ramsay has treated him

with more candour than any of his other opponents.

[25] Upon the death of Coram this pension was continued to poor old

Leveridge, for whose volume of songs Hogarth had, in 1727, engraved

a title-page and frontispiece, and who at the age of ninety had

scarcely any other prospect than that of a parish subsistence.

[26] How very inferior was this to the portrait of Coram! But the

genuine benevolence and simplicity which beams in the countenance

of the friend and protector of helpless infancy is not calculated

to strike the million so forcibly as the dramatic perturbation of a

guilty tyrant. In this, as in some other cases, the purchaser seems

to have paid for the player rather than the picture. It was painted

for the late Mr. Duncombe, of Duncombe Park, Yorkshire.

[27] By both the artists and connoisseurs of his own day he was

accused of having stolen the ideas contained in his "Essay" from

Lomazzo. Several prints which were published in support of this

opinion will be noticed.

[28] The fable here alluded to is entitled, _A Painter who pleased

everybody and nobody_:

"So very like a painter drew,

That every eye the picture knew.--

His honest pencil touch'd with truth,

And mark'd the date of age and youth;"

But see the consequence:

"In dusty piles his pictures lay,

For no one sent the second pay."

Finding the result of truth so unpropitious to his fame and fortune,

he changed his practice:

"Two bustos fraught with every grace,

A Venus, and Apollo's, face

He placed in view;--resolved to please,

Whoever sat, he drew from these."

This succeeded to a tittle:

"Through all the town his art they prais'd,

His custom grew, his price was rais'd."

[29] The "Distressed Poet," "Enraged Musician," and a companion print

on painting which, though advertised, was never published, are the

three here alluded to.

[30] In his description of the Legion Club, after portraying many of

the characters with most pointed severity, Swift thus 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;

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."

[31] The designer of a print which was published in 1753, and

intended to burlesque some of the figures in the _Analysis of

Beauty_, seems to have believed that Hogarth intended to have

published his objections to the establishment of the academy. The

print is entitled "Pugg's Graces," and the artist is represented with

the legs of a satyr, and painting "Moses before Pharaoh's Daughter."

One of his hoofs rests on three books, the lowest of which is

labelled _Analysis of Beauty_. A little lower in the print is an open

volume, on one page of which is written, _Reasons against a Public

Academy_, 1753; and on the other, _No Salary_.

[32] Louis XIV. founded an academy for the French at Rome; but

Poussin and Le Sueur, painters who have done the most credit to

France, were prior to the establishment.

[33] The late Sir Robert Strange seems to have entertained an opinion

somewhat similar:--"Academies, under proper regulations, are no doubt

the best nurseries of the fine arts. But when the establishment of

the Royal Academy at London is impartially examined, it will not, I

am afraid, reflect that credit we wish upon the annals of its royal

founder."--Strange's _Inquiry_, p. 61.

[34] "Of the estimation in which they were held, and the taste with

which they were contemplated by the Romans, we may form some judgment

by a general assuring a soldier, to whom he gave in charge a statue

which was the work of Praxiteles, that if he broke it, he should get

another as good made in its place."

[35] Transmigrations of heathen deities into apostles, etc., have

been too frequent to need particular enumeration.

[36] Sir Godfrey Kneller knew this, and made the most of his labours.

He used to say, in his own vindication, that historical painting only

revived the memory of the dead, who could give no testimony of their

gratitude; but when he painted the living, he gained what enabled him

to live from their bounty.

[37] The president Montesquieu, the Abbés Winckelmann, Du Bos, and Le

Blanc, have gravely asserted, that from the coldness of our climate,

and other causes equally curious, we can never succeed in anything

that requires genius.

[38] "Their mode of judging subjects them to continual imposition;

for what is called manner is easily copied by the lowest performer:

he only fails in beauty, delicacy, and spirit!"

[39] One specimen of Mr. Kent's talents in painting is in page 39.

Mr. Walpole's description of some of his other pictures, and the

history of his patronage, amply illustrate Hogarth's opinion of the

artist's abilities in that branch.

[40] How far the present situation of the Royal Academy and the arts

has fulfilled or contradicted this opinion, I will not presume to

determine.

[41] Mr. Strange, in his _Inquiry into the Rise and Establishment

of the Royal Academy of Arts of London_, places the causes of this

disagreement in a point of view somewhat different from Mr. Hogarth's

narrative; but in their account of the consequences the narrators

precisely agree:--

"A society, composed of a number of the most respectable persons in

this country, commonly known by the name of the 'Dilettanti,' made

the first step towards an establishment of this nature. That society

having accumulated a considerable fund, and being really promoters

of the fine arts, generously offered to appropriate it to support a

public academy.

"General Gray, a gentleman distinguished by his public spirit and

fine taste, was deputed by that society to treat with the artists.

I was present at their meeting. On the part of our intended

benefactors, I observed that generosity and benevolence which are

peculiar to true greatness; but on the part of the majority of the

leading artists, I was sorry to remark motives, apparently limited

to their own views and ambition to govern, diametrically opposite to

the liberality with which we were treated. After various conferences,

the 'Dilettanti' finding that they were to be allowed no share in the

government of the academy, or in the appropriating their own fund,

the negotiation ended."--Strange's _Inquiry_, p. 62.

[42] This society was first projected by Mr. William Shipley, who

was very active in his endeavours to establish it. Their original

proposal was, to "give premiums for the revival and advancement of

those arts and sciences which are at a low ebb amongst us; as poetry,

painting, tapestry, architecture, etc." The plan, in the latter end

of the year 1753, was laid before Dr. Hales and Mr. Baker, by whom

it was introduced to Lord Romney and Lord Folkestone, who warmly

patronized the institution.

In March 1754, they met at Rathmell's Coffeehouse, Henrietta Street,

Covent Garden. Their first premium for the best drawing by boys and

girls under fourteen years of age was £15; but as the subscribers

were then too few in number to raise the proposed sum, the two

above-named noblemen made good a considerable deficiency. They next

met at the Circulating Library, in Crane Court, Fleet Street, and

on the 10th of January 1755 at Peele's Coffeehouse, where the first

premium of £5 for the best drawing by boys under the age of fourteen

was adjudged to Mr. Richard Cosway.

[43] "Swift's Laputa tailor made all his clothes by mathematical

rules, and there was no objection to them,--except that they never

fitted those for whom they were made."

[44] Little did Hogarth imagine that a man lived in his own time,

who, by a great commercial enterprise, should awaken the spirit of

the nation to historical and poetical paintings from the drama of

Shakspeare. This drama has been a school for the representation

of all the passions, and opened to the artist a new mine of rich

materials for displaying the mirror of life in the colours of nature.

The Shakspeare Gallery has been followed by undertakings of a similar

description, and, all united, have afforded a patronage to the arts

which had been vainly sought for among the nobility, and given to

such painters as had the power, a fair opportunity of confuting the

visionary assertion, that it was not possible for an Englishman to

paint a good historical picture.

[45] How far Hogarth's prediction has been fulfilled, by the

repentance of some painters who may have been thus dragged into the

temple of taste, those painters only can determine.

[46] The hope of the arts is in the patronage of the sovereign.

[47] A great personage once remarked that sculpture was too cold and

chilling for this climate.

[48] What shall we say of these, if fame is denied to the living?

[49] On Mr. Lane's death they became the property of his nephew,

Colonel Cawthorn; and on the 5th of February 1797, were sold by

auction at Christie's room, and purchased by Mr. Angerstein for one

thousand guineas.

It has frequently been the fate of painters, as well as poets, to

have their works disregarded until the authors were out of the

hearing of praise or censure. Young, in his _Love of Fame_, speaking

of the value which a writer's death gave to his productions, neatly

enough concludes with an allusion to Tonson the bookseller:

"This truth sagacious Tonson knew full well,

And starv'd his authors that their works might sell."

[50] Such is the date both in his MS. and the preface to the

_Analysis_, though under the print he has engraven, "_Se ipse pinxit

et sculpsit_, 1749." It is probable that in the first instance he

meant to speak of the painting it was taken from, which is now in the

possession of Mr. Angerstein.

[51] To this he evidently alludes in giving the well-known story of

Columbus breaking the egg as a subscription-receipt to his _Analysis

of Beauty_.

[52] Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose lectures are, generally speaking,

the best rules conveyed in the best language, in his discourse, read

December 11th, 1769, acknowledges "that old pictures celebrated for

their colouring are often so changed by dirt and varnish, that we

ought not to wonder if they do not appear equal to their reputation

in the eyes of unexperienced painters or young students." But he

asserts "that an artist whose judgment is matured by long observation

considers rather what the picture once was than what it is at

present. He has acquired a power by habit of seeing the brilliancy of

tints through the cloud by which it is obscured."

Don Quixote, through the cloud of dirt and deformity which obscured

a vulgar country wench, discovered the brilliant beauties of that

peerless princess, the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso! Such is the power of

enchantment.

[53] I do not know what Hogarth here alludes to; perhaps to some

figure that he had threatened to paint as an exemplification of his

system.

[54] In this notice of the writers by whom he was attacked, he

particularly alludes to the _North Briton_, No. 17. As to the crooked

compliments paid him by his brethren in art, they were numerous

indeed.

Among his papers I found a tolerably spirited drawing in pen

and ink, entitled "A Christmas Gambol from Leicester Square to

Westminster Hall," representing the artist with ass's ears,

stripped, and tied to a cart's tail, and an old fellow with a long

wig and cat-o'-nine-tails in his hand, lashing his naked back, and

exclaiming, "You'll write books, will ye!" A barber's block, fixed

on a straight pole, is stuck at the head of the cart, and labelled,

"Perpendicular and beautiful blockhead." The horse is led by a vulgar

drayman, whose locks being so dishevelled as to form a kind of glory,

are inscribed, "Lines of beauty." Over the head of the painter is

this motto: "'Twere better a millstone had been tied about thy neck,

and (THOU) cast into the sea."

The following specimen of polite satire and curious orthography

crowns the whole:--

"_N.B._--Speedily will be published, an apology, in quarto, called

_Beauty's Defiance to Charicature_; with a very extraordinary

frontispiece, a just portraiture (printed on fool's-cap paper), and

descriptive of the punishment that ought to be inflicted on him that

dare give false and unnatural descriptions of beauty, or charicature

great personages; it being an illegal as well as a mean practice;

at the same time flying in the face of all regular bred gentlemen

painters, sculptures, architects--in fine--arts and sciences."

Numerous prints were published in ridicule of his system and himself.

In a set of engravings, entitled "The New Dunciad, done with a view

of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste, dedicated to his friend

Beauty's Analyzer," I find several prints with mottoes, which, in

most vile and vulgar phrase, ridiculed both author and book. Some of

them are not destitute of humour; but all would ere now have been

consigned to oblivion, had not they been occasionally collected as

relatives to Hogarth. One of them is entitled "Pugg's Graces, etched

from his ORIGINAL daubing."

In this the artist is represented at his easel, with _Lomazzo_ in

his pocket, and with a satyr's feet (one of which rests on some

copies of his _Analysis_), and painting the picture of "Pharaoh's

Daughter." He is accompanied by a fat and a lean connoisseur; the

former shows evident marks of admiration, but the latter holds the

_Analysis_ in his left hand, and appears rather puzzled. A figure

in the background, who, to show that he is a judge, is arrayed in

a gown, a band, and ample periwig, shows evident marks of disgust.

Three naked and most filthy female figures, one of them fat as was

Bright of Malden, and another tall and thin as a splinter of the

Monument, are intended to represent "Pugg's graceless Graces." One of

these _beauties_ rests her foot on a box inscribed, "For the March

presented to the Foundling Hospital, with a gilded frame for the

admiration of the public." The other is seated on a chest of drawers,

on which are written under the word FOLLY, "Bid for by Pugg's

friends, £50, £100, £120." This most pointed piece of wit evidently

alludes to the auction of "Marriage à la Mode," which has been

already noticed. On the upper part of the print is a head, entitled

"A modern cherubin," with a bag-wig on, and a stick bent into a

waving line in his mouth, a satyr holding a medallion, on which is a

head with a cap and bells, and many other curious allusions to the

serpentine line. On the floor are a pair of stays, a pair of boots,

a pair of candlesticks, etc. etc., allusive to the prints to the

_Analysis_. Beneath is a grotesque figure of a devil, with a little

incubus, masks, etc., holding in his hand a piece of paper, which

seems a leaf of the book, and is inscribed, "To be continued."

A. C. _Invt. et Sculp._--Published according to Act of Parliament,

1753-4.

On the back of this delicate satire is printed the following

address:--

"TO THE PUBLIC.

"I propose to publish by subscription an _Analysis of the Sun_,

in which I will show the constituent parts of which it is

composed, and of which it ought to have been composed.

"I will compute exactly its magnitude and quantity of matter,

both as it is, and as it ought to have been constructed.

"As to the supposed motion of the sun or earth, I shall prove

that Ptolemy and Copernicus were neither of them right in any

part of their conjectures; and that consequently Kepler, Des

Cartes, Cassini, Leibnitz, and Sir Isaac Newton are absolutely

wrong.

"I will likewise refute that vulgar error, that the sun, with

respect to our earth, is the cause of light and heat; and I will

show how they are caused.

"I will prove that the figure of our earth is an inverted ∽. And

lastly, I will demonstrate that their systems show nothing of my

line of beauty.

"This work will be printed on a new invented fool's-cap paper, at

half a guinea to subscribers; but to those who do not subscribe,

it will be fifteen shillings.

"Subscriptions will be taken in by the etcher of this plate, and

at my house, at the sign of the Harlot's Head in Leicester Fields.

"_N.B._--It will be in vain for astronomers, foreign or domestic,

to crowd my house for information in their art; I grant them

leave to subscribe, which is all the favour they are to expect

from me.

"W. H."

In a well-etched print which, on a monumental stone placed in the

corner, the engraver has chosen to denominate "A self-conceited

arrogant dauber, grovelling in vain to undermine the ever-sacred

temple of the best painters, sculptors, architects, etc., in

imitation of the impious Herostratus, who with sacrilegious flame

destroyed the temple of Diana to perpetuate his name to posterity."

We have here a very rich and well-imagined column, the base

ornamented with historical bas-relief; and between a serpent,

which is spirally twisted round a circular pillar, are portraits

of painters, sculptors, etc. At the bottom of this, on his knees,

and still with satyr's legs and feet, and a pen stuck in his hat,

the artist has represented Hogarth; who, attended by a well-dressed

connoisseur in the character of his torch-bearer, accompanied by

his favourite dog, and armed with his palette knife, is grubbing up

whatever he can find under it. No. 3, the inscription informs us, is

"A satyr ready to lash the scribbler away;" and by the same authority

we learn that No. 4 are "Geese," which being placed close to this

emulator of the fame of Erostratus, "greedily swallows whatever he

can rake up with his palette knife," etc. etc. etc. The print is

enriched with cypress trees, capitals, well-formed vases, and superb

edifices; the whole (for it is a night scene) is lighted up by the

temple of Diana in flames. Beneath it is the waving line in a small

triangle, and the following verses:--

"The vile Ephesian, to obtain

A name--a temple fires;

Observe, friend H--g--th, 'twas in vain,

He had not his desires.

You might with reason, sure, expect

Your fate would be the same;

Men first thy labours will neglect,

Next quite forget thy name."

One nauseous delineation is entitled, "The Artist in his own Taste;"

and another, "The Author run mad." In one he is represented as "A

mountebank, demonstrating to his admiring audience that crookedness

is most beautiful;" and in another of a larger size, entitled "The

Burlesquer Burlesqued," depicted with satyr's legs, painting what the

designer calls "A history piece, suitable to the painter's capacity,

from a Dutch manuscript." This history piece is a copy of the Dutch

delineation of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, by pointing a blunderbuss

at his head, with an angel hovering over the figures, etc. The lives

of Rembrandt, Rubens, Vandyke, and other eminent painters, are

ingeniously imagined to be torn in pieces to make a window-blind for

the author of the _Analysis of Beauty_; which book, with allusions to

it, are displayed in different parts of the print, and in a storied

border at the bottom it appears to be selling for waste paper.

Of this engraving, the satire of which is principally levelled at the

burlesque "Paul before Felix," there are two editions; the first, for

the more extensive circulation of Hogarth's fame, and the benefit of

such foreigners as do not understand English, has an explanation in

French.

[55] The Doctor's orthography is adhered to.

[56] Mr. Emlyn, of Windsor, who in 1782 published _A Proposition

for a New Order in Architecture_, thus divides them: "The Doric was

composed on the system of manly figure and strength, of robust and

Herculean proportions; the Ionic, on the model of the easy, delicate,

and simple graces of female beauty, to which the Corinthian on a

similar design adapted a system of more artificial and complicated

elegance."

[57] Among Hogarth's papers I found the following notice, in which he

evidently glances at Athenian Stuart:--

"Now in hand, and will be published in about two months' time, a

short addenda or supplement to the _Analysis of Beauty_, wherein, by

the doctrine of varying lines, it will plainly be shown that a man

who had never seen or heard of Roman architecture might, by adhering

to these lines, produce new and original forms.

"The number of pompous and expensive books of architecture which have

been lately published, consist of little more than examples of the

variations that were made among the ancients; and nice and useless

disputes about which were the most elegant, without assigning any

other reason for their choice than the authority of the columns they

have measured, which gives them no other merit than that of mere

pattern drawers."

[58] This quotation is from p. 130, and refers to two heads in the

second plate, Nos. 108 and 9, one of which has a slight tendency to a

smile, and the other has a broad grin. The head here copied, in point

of character, comes between them.

[59] This is copied from the MS. of the _Analysis_, where he had made

the drawings of the "Round and Square Heads," which he evidently

intended to have introduced in his plate.

[60] "_Cleop._ Bear'st thou her face in mind?

Is't long or round?

"_Mess._ Round even to faultiness.

"_Cleop._ For the most part, they are foolish that are so."

[61] This truth is amply verified in the epistle above quoted:

"Oh, lasting as thy colours may they shine,

Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line!

New graces yearly like thy works display,

Soft without weakness, without glaring gay;

Led by some rule that guides but not constrains,

And finish'd more through happiness than pains."

In what light can we consider the character painted by the bard when

we compare it with the pictures painted by the artist? It has been

truly said, that "the poet has enshrined the feeble talents of the

painter in the lucid amber of his glowing lines."

The conclusion of his epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller affords another

notable example:--

"Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie

Her works; and dying, fears herself may die."

[62] Were the head of the "Satyr of the Wood" (No. 3) close shaved,

and dignified with a clerical periwig, it would bear a strong

resemblance to Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of the author of

_Tristram Shandy_.

[63] Which he is said to have caricatured in this plate.

[64] "Sing--we will drink nothing but Lipari wine."--_Rehearsal._

[65] The last paragraph in his preface, p. 10, begins as follows:--

"That perspective is an essential requisite to a good painter, is

attested by all our most eminent artists, and confirmed by almost

every author who has wrote upon painting. Nay, the very term

'painting' implies perspective; for to draw a good picture is to

draw the representation of nature as it appears to the eye; and to

draw the perspective representation of any object, is to draw the

representation of that object as it appears to the eye. Therefore the

terms 'painting' and 'perspective' seem to be synonymous, though I

know there is a critical difference between the words. I would not

be understood to mean that a person is always to follow the rigid

rules of perspective, for there are some cases in which it may be

necessary to deviate from them; but then he must do it with modesty,

and for some good reason, as we have shown in the course of this

work. Nor would I be thought to desire the artist to make use of

scale or compasses upon all occasions, and to draw out every line

and point to a mathematical exactness, as the design of this work is

quite the reverse: it is to teach the general rules of perspective,

and to enforce the practice of it by easy and almost self-evident

principles; to assist the judgment and to direct the hand, and not to

perplex either by unnecessary lines or dry theorems."

The publication of this drew forth Mr. Highmore, who, in the preface

of a pamphlet with the following title, now become very scarce, gave

his decided opposition to the system:--

"A Critical Examination of those two Paintings on the ceiling of

Whitehall, in which Architecture is introduced, so far as relates to

the Perspective, together with the discussion of a question which has

been the subject of debate among painters. Written many years since,

but now first published, by J. Highmore. Printed for Nourse, 1754."

The question Mr. Highmore professes to discuss is by himself stated

as follows, viz.:--

"Whether a range of columns, standing on a line parallel to the

picture, ought to be painted according to the strict rules of

perspective; that is, whether those columns, in proportion as they

recede from the centre of the picture, should be drawn broader than

that directly opposite to the eye, as the rules require; or whether

(because they really in nature appear less, in proportion as they are

more distant) they ought not to be made less, or at most, equal to

each other in the picture?...

"Mr. Kirby says, p. 70 of his first part: 'Since the fallacies of

vision are so many and great, etc., it seems reasonable not to comply

with the strict rules of mathematical perspective, in some particular

cases (as in this before us), but to draw the representations of

objects as they appear to the eye,' etc. But I would ask, How? By

guess, or by some rule? And if by any, by what rule are they to

be drawn contrary to, or different from, the strict mathematical

perspective rules?"

In reply to these and many other strictures contained in the preface,

Hogarth wrote some remarks to Mr. Kirby, in which he asks, "Whether

an oval or egg can be the true representation of a sphere or ball?

or whether buildings should be drawn by any such rule as would make

them appear tumbling down, and be allowed to be truly represented,

because the designer of them is able to show how a spectator may, in

half an hour's time, be placed at such a point as would make them all

appear upright? as by a like trick or contrivance the oval may be

foreshortened so as to appear a circle."

He further asks, "Would a carpenter allow fourteen inches to be the

true representation of a foot-rule, since in no situation whatever

can the eye possibly see it so?"

Again: "Did ever any history-painter widen or distort his figures as

they are removed from the centre of his picture? Or would he draw a

file of musqueteers in that manner, when the last man in the rank

would be broader than high? Why would he then serve a poor column or

pedestal thus, when, poor dumb things, they cannot help themselves?

And are all objects exempt from the rules of perspective except

buildings? Did Highmore ever so much as dream of an intervening plane

when he had been drawing a family piece with four or five people

in a row, so as to distort the bodies and forms of those who had

the misfortune to be placed nearest to the side of the frame? And

what satisfaction would it be to his customers to tell them they

were only disposed by the true rules of perspective, and might be

seen in their proper shape again if they would give themselves the

trouble of looking through a pin hole at a certain distance, which,

by learning perspective, they might be able to find in half an

hour's time; or, to save themselves that trouble, they might get a

painter to lug them about till their eye was brought to the proper

point. He then observes, that he would not have the intervening plane

wholly rejected, but that it should be laid aside when it begins

to do mischief, or is of no use; for it is no doubt as necessary

to painters of architecture as scaffolding is to builders; but,

like the latter, is always to be taken away when the work comes

to be finished; and every defect that either may have occasioned

must be corrected by the eye, which is capable to judge of the most

complicated objects, perspectively true, where the dry mathematics

of the art are left far behind as incapable of lending the least

assistance.

"These things our mathematicians are strangers to,--therefore, in my

opinion, have rated them too high. Dr. Swift thought mere Philos a

ridiculous sort of people, as appears by a song of his on two very

remarkable ones--Whiston and Ditton. I forget it particularly, but it

was about the longitude being mist on by Whiston, and not better hit

on by Ditton: sing Whiston, etc. etc. Ditton has wrote a good book on

speculative perspective."

Hogarth then alludes to Highmore's critique on Rubens' ceiling at

Whitehall, and asks, "What is it but what almost every child knows,

even without the knowledge of perspective? viz. that parallel lines

always meet in a point, and that he has with penetration discovered.

Oh, wonderful discovery! that Rubens, unskilfully, has kept them

parallel in his column, to embellish which he has tacked two fibs:

one, that the error was owing to the drawing them as they would

appear to the eye; the other, that the historical figures are truly

in perspective; whereas King James, the principal, has a head widened

or distorted, though it goes off from the eye almost as much as he

would have the side columns, which are the subjects of controversy."

[66] Though Mr. Malton's description is built on fancy as much as Mr.

Hogarth's design, it must be acknowledged that some of his criticism

is just. With respect to the column, nothing either elevated or

grand has yet been produced by violently deviating from the first

models. Mr. Emlyn, in the year 1782, published a proposition for a

sixth order, which in some points resembles Hogarth's. The plan of

_his_ column is to represent the particular character of our English

chivalry in its most illustrious order--the order of the Garter: it

is to be composed of the single trunks of trees; his capitals are

to be copied from the plumage of the knights' caps, with the Ionic

volutes interwoven and bound together in the front, with the star

of the order between them. The fluting of the trunk is cabled, and

the cables hollow and filled with the English arrow, the feathered

end rising out of each of them. The ornament of the frieze over the

columns is a plume of three ostrich feathers, etc. etc. etc.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his discourse delivered December 10, 1776,

gives the following strong reasons against any new order succeeding:--

"Though it is from the prejudice we have in favour of the ancients,

who have taught us architecture, that we had adopted likewise their

ornaments; and though we are satisfied that neither nature nor reason

are the foundation of those beauties which we imagine we see in that

art; yet if any one, persuaded of this truth, should therefore invent

new orders of equal beauty, which we will suppose to be possible,

yet they would not please; nor ought he to complain, since the old

has that great advantage of having custom and prejudice on its side.

In this case we leave what has every prejudice in its favour, to

take that which will have no advantage over what we have left, but

novelty, which soon destroys itself, and at any rate is but a weak

antagonist against custom."

[67] "On our own stage we have seen dances in which the ingenious

composer thought he represented the four seasons, the four elements,

and the five senses. These jigs conveyed about as much meaning as

dancing odes or dancing sermons."

[68] Mr. Rouquet, enamel painter to the King of France, in his

book on _The Present State of the Arts in England_, printed for

Nourse in 1755, after enumerating chasing, engraving, painting,

sculpture, architecture, etc., as arts that are practised in England,

concludes with a chapter on the Art of Cookery, which he thus gravely

introduces:--

"There is an art, the only one that can justly pretend to unite

pleasure with absolute utility; but this art, born in servitude, to

which it is still condemned, notwithstanding its extreme importance,

is reckoned ignoble, for which reason some perhaps will be surprised

at seeing me give it a place in this work; I mean the art of

preparing aliments."

[69] This is a palpable hit at Handel. In a caricatured portrait,

entitled "The Charming Brute," this great composer is delineated

sitting on a hogshead with the profile of a boar, a bill of fare, and

other emblems of voluptuousness scattered round him. Published March

21, 1754. Motto on a scroll, "I am myself alone," and under the print

these lines:--

"The figure's odd, yet who would think,

Within this tomb of meat and drink

There dwells the soul of soft desires,

And all that harmony inspires?

Can contrast such as this be found

Upon the globe's extensive round?

There can! yon hogshead is his seat,

His sole diversion is to eat."

When Handel had once a large party to dinner, the cloth being

removed, he introduced plain port. Having drank four or five glasses

with his guests, he suddenly started up--exclaimed--"I have a

thought!" and stalked out of the room, to which after a short absence

he returned. Having drank a few more glasses he uttered the same

sentence--again retreated, and again returned. It was naturally

supposed that he wished to commit to paper some idea that struck him

at the moment, and passed over; but, when in less than an hour he a

third time started--growled out--"I have a thought!" and a third time

left the company, one of the gentlemen privately followed, and traced

him into another apartment, where, on looking through the keyhole, he

saw this great master of music kneel down to a hamper of champagne,

that he might more conveniently reach out a flask, which having

nearly finished, he returned to his friends!

[70] In Hogarth's time the forms of nature were tortured and

disguised by stiff stays: the ladies of the present day are not

guilty of _this_ error. As to _the bloom of Circassia_, the less that

is said about it the better.

[71] However unimportant Hogarth thought the cut of a coat, certain

adepts in the art, about two years since, published a half-guinea

book, on the scientific acquisitions necessary to make a perfect

tailor!

"This day is published, price 10s. 6d., _The Tailor's Complete

Guide, or a Comprehensive Analysis of Beauty and Elegance of Dress_;

containing rules for cutting out garments of every kind, and fitting

any person with the greatest accuracy and precision. Also plain

directions how to avoid the errors of the trade in misfitting, and

pointing out the method of rectifying what may be done amiss; to

which is added a description to cut out and make the patent plastic

habits and clothes without the usual seams, now in the highest

estimation with the nobility and gentry, according to the patent

granted by his Majesty; the whole concerted and devised by a society

of adepts in the profession.

*** "This work was undertaken solely for the benefit of the trade,

to instruct the rising generation, and perfectly to complete them in

the art and science of cutting out clothes. The copperplates consist

of each separated part, which will on the first view convince the

uninformed mind that with a little attention he may be a complete

tailor."

[72] Hogarth might conceive that, by rendering the habits of his

early figures more conformable to the fashion of the times, when they

were altered he improved them. Collectors are of a different opinion,

though it must be acknowledged that, in Plate IV. of "The Rake's

Progress," the humour is much heightened by introducing a group of

vulgar minor gamblers in the place of the shoeblack.

[73] The picture was exhibited at Spring Gardens in the year 1761,

with the title of "Piquet, or Virtue in Danger," and is still in the

collection of the nobleman for whom it was painted.

It may fairly be considered as a moral lesson against gaming. The

clock denotes five in the morning. The lady has lost her money,

jewels, a miniature of her husband, and the half of a £500 bank note,

which, by a letter lying on the floor, she appears to have recently

received from him. In fine, all is lost except her honour; and in

this dangerous moment she is represented perplexed, agitated, and

irresolute. A print of it has lately been finely engraved by Mr.

Cheesman.

[74] In the little memorandum book from which I extracted this,

Hogarth has inserted the following note (without the translation)

from _Horace_. I do not produce it as a proof that he was a Latin

scholar, but suppose that the lines were pointed out by some literary

friend, and he thus applied them:--

"Segnius irritant animos dimissa per aures,

Quam quæ sunt oculis commissa fidelibus."

"What we hear,

With weaker passion will affect the ear,

Than when the faithful eye beholds the part."

--FRANCIS.

[75] The artist requested his widow would not sell it during her

lifetime for less than £500. She abided by his injunction. Since her

death it was put up to auction at Greenwood's rooms, and purchased by

Messrs. Boydell: it is in their possession now.

I some years since saw a picture of "Lucretia," by Domenichino, in

the collection of Mr. Welbore Ellis Agar, which in air, attitude, and

expression, bore a strong resemblance to Hogarth's "Sigismunda."

[76] "The Altar-piece to St. Mary Redcliffe's, Bristol," for which he

received five hundred pounds, and the "Paul before Felix," painted

for Lincoln's-Inn Hall.

[77] That this picture was much abused is certain, but it is

equally certain that the painter had occasionally some consolatory

compliments. Robert Lloyd, in one of his fables, asserts that

"Sigismunda"

"Shall urge a bold and proper claim

To level half the ancient fame."

A writer in the _Public Advertiser_, March 7, 1761, honours it with

the following stanzas:--

"_Upon seeing the picture of 'Sigismunda,' painted by Hogarth._

"Antiquity, be dumb! no longer boast

Arts yet unrivall'd or invention lost:

From Greece, whose taste was fashion'd into law,

From far-fam'd Greece, one instance let us draw.

Atrides' grief Timanthes strove to paint,

But found his art was foil'd, his colours faint:

A veil conceal'd the inexpressive face,

And what was want of power was call'd 'a grace.'

In Sigismund the mind no want supplies,

The painter trusts his genius to your eyes;

Passion's warm tints beneath his pencil glow,

And from the canvas starts the living woe.

At length be just--throw prejudice aside;

The modern shows--what the Greek could but hide.

Then from the ancient take the palm away,

And crown the greatest Artist of his day."

--HOWARD.

[78] _N.B._--At Sir Luke Schaub's sale, Sir Richard Grosvenor bid

four hundred pounds for a less picture, said to be a "Correggio," but

really painted by an obscure French artist.

[79] It appears by the subscription-book that it closed March 26.

During this time there were fifty subscribers at half a guinea each;

the receipts were given on the print of "Time Smoking a Picture." The

first name is that of Dr. Garnier, for two prints; the last, who also

subscribes for two prints, is Mr. Thomas Hollis. This gentleman would

not receive back the guinea he had paid, and it was given to a public

charity. Among the names are the late Philip Thicknesse, Dr. Hunter,

Samuel Curteis of Wapping, and David Garrick; against each of the

subscriptions is marked, "Money returned."

Under the direction of Hogarth, Mr. Basire made an etching from

"Sigismunda," but it was never finished. A drawing in oil was made

from it by Mr. Edwards, and it was a few years since engraved in

mezzotinto by Dunkerton. Mr. Ridley engraved it for Messrs. Boydell,

and a reduced copy is in the first volume of _Hogarth Illustrated_.

[80] The chosen band who then directed the storm, having dragged poor

"Sigismunda" into their political vortex, the cannibal caricaturists

of the day tore her in pieces as a carcase for the hounds, and rioted

over her mangled remains.

One of these political slaughtermen, in a print entitled "The Bruiser

Triumphant," describes Sigismunda in the character of a harlot

blubbering over a bullock's heart. In another, elegantly inscribed

"Tit for Tat," Hogarth is represented painting Wilkes' portrait, and

a bloated and filthy figure displayed in the background baptized

Sigismunda. Many other wretched and contemptible squibs were hurled

about on the same occasion. Besides this public abuse, some of the

anonymous versifiers of the day, who were not yet important enough

to figure in a newspaper or flutter in a magazine, condescended to

notice his political errors, and for the gratification of the artist

transmitted their effusions to Leicester Fields.

The following stanzas I found among his other papers, addressed

"_To the Author of the Times._

"Why, Billy, in the vale of life,

Show so much rancour, spleen, and strife?

Why, Billy, at a statesman's whistle,

Drag dirty loads and feed on thistle?

Did any of the long-ear'd tribe

E'er swallow half so mean a bribe?

Pray have you no sinister end,

Thus to abuse the nation's friend?

His country's and his monarch's glory,

Who prais'd no man as Whig or Tory.

His country is his dearest mother,

And every honest man his brother.

Not so your patron can appear,

He buys up scrip, and stops the arrear;

His practice still, in every station,

To serve himself and starve the nation.

Then, Billy, in the vale of life,

Desist from all this noise and strife;

For though the hint perhaps is bold,

I tell thee thou art growing old.

Read coolly, o'er thy evening glass,

Toledo's bishop in _Gil Blas_."

Christening the author of the _North Briton_ "his country's and his

monarch's glory," leads us to suspect that the ingenious gentleman

who fabricated the above rhymes had some little portion of party

prejudice. The Quaker who wrote the annexed letter and epigram,

which, as well as the verses that follow, were amongst Hogarth's

manuscripts, was moved by a very different spirit:--

"_Of the eighth month, the 20th day, 1763._

"FRIEND HOGARTH,--I am one of those people, by a sort of

disrespectful appellation, called Quakers; for we strive to

abound in the milk of human kindness, and prefer the dove to

the serpent. I know thee not but by thy works and fame as an

ingenious artist in thine own way. I have seen thy compositions

and handy works, and think them not only ingenious, but moral,

and even more than dramatic, perfectly epic; so that I think thou

deservest the character of _the Epic painter_, which I hereby

bestow upon thee, and by which thou shalt be distinguished in

future generations; for if I do not much mistake the matter,

thy name will be had in honour when thine adversaries shall

have perished,--I would have said, and shall stink,--but _that_

they do already. I have hereby sent thee an epigram, such as my

spirit dictated to me. I fear it hath too much in it of the gall

of bitterness. But I will tell thee, friend Hogarth, I am a man

of some small property and authority, having cattle under me;

and when the brutes are poisoned, I cure them with wormwood. Let

not thy noble spirit that is in thee be diverted from its true

and masterly turn of exposing licentiousness, vice, hypocrisy,

faction, and apostasy.--Thine in all brotherly and good wishes,

"EPHRAIM KNOX."

AN EPIGRAM.

_To the Rev. Charles Churchill, Esquire, etc._

"Thou boast'st, vain Churchill, with thy gray goose quill,

Thou'st kill'd, or surely wilt poor Hogarth kill.

Alas! he (with the world) will only smile

At self-importance in a frippery style.

'Churchill, stand forth!'--I call thee not my friend;--

The sober dictates of my lines attend.

"Wast thou, like Hogarth, _in thine own way good_,

Thou in the reading-desk might'st yet have stood;

Though poor,--perhaps a reputable curate,--

Sad! that thy stubborn heart is yet obdurate.

Without fair hope of pension or of place,

To make a shipwreck of _divinest grace_!"

--EPHRAIM KNOX.

_To Mr. Hogarth._

"BRIGHTHELMSTONE, _July 9, 1763_.

"SIR,--You see the effects of the salt waters here; they incline

us to scribble by way of amusement. I have sent you the following

stanzas, which you may print or do what you please with:--

_To the Rev. C. Churchill._

"Non ut pictura poesis."

"Dear Churchill, what ill-fated hour

Has put thee into Hogarth's power?

This railing shows how much you're hurt,

While Hogarth nothing meant but sport;

Transmitting unto future times

What might not live in Churchill's rhymes,--

The perfect hero, poet, sage!

The pride, the wonder of the age!

That form,--which eating Peers admired,--

Which heaven-born liberty inspir'd!

Which keeps our ministers in awe,

And is from justice screen'd by law!

"The sad resource to which you're driven,

Appears by your appeal to heaven:

A place ne'er thought on once before,--

Withdraw th' appeal and give it o'er.

You must proceed by different ways;

_Your_ only court's the Common Pleas.

"Horace was wrong when once he said,

Hogarth and he were of a trade.

No varying verse, howe'er divine,

Can match with Raphael's stronger line.

The pencil, like contracted light,

Strikes with superior force the sight.

"Churchill, be wise: in time retire,

While Hogarth yet suspends his fire;

There's something in thee like a spell,

Though we can't love,--we wish thee well.

You ne'er can wish to purchase shame,

By driving on a losing game:

His feeble hand, though you despise it,

Will make you tremble, should he rise it:

Already has his fancy hit on

A frontispiece for the _North Briton_;

Where in full view the virtuous pair

Shall thus their various merits share.

"Thy rose and Bible thrown aside,

And the long cassock's tatter'd pride;

His liberal hand shall in their stead

Place nettles circling round thy head,

Entwin'd with thistles fully blown,

To wear these honours _all thy own_!

"Next, round thy friend, and all in taste,

See every social _virtue_ plac'd;

Fair Truth and modest Candour joined,--

Those softer emblems of the mind;

Faction expiring by his pen,

And Loyalty restor'd again;

Whilst he regards not this or that,

Secure of T---- and of P----.

"The piece thus finish'd for our view,

The lines correct, the likeness true,

Hogarth, ensur'd of future fame,

Shall consecrate to Churchill's name."

[81] I think the reader will agree with me, that such assertions as

the following demanded an apology:--

"His (Hogarth's) works are his history. As a painter he had but

slender merit; in colouring he proved no greater a master: his force

lay in expression, not in tints and chiaroscuro."--_Anecdotes of

Painting_, vol. iv. p. 160.

How was it possible for Mr. Walpole to have written the foregoing

lines after having seen the pictures of "Marriage à la Mode"?

[82] The last volume was not published till October 9, 1780, though

printed in 1771.--_Advertisement_ to vol. iv.

[83] The reader is referred to Vol. II. Plate 70, where the picture

is given in its perfected state.

[84] Archbishop Tillotson remarks in one of his sermons, that _Hocus

Pocus_ is derived from _Hoc est Corpus_.

[85] "This new dispensation (Methodism) is a composition of

enthusiasm, superstition, and imposture. When the blood and spirits

run high, inflaming the brain and imagination, it is most properly

enthusiasm, which is religion run mad. When low and dejected, causing

groundless terrors, or the placing the great duty of man in little

observances, it is superstition, which is religion scared out of its

senses. When any fraudulent dealings are made use of, and any wrong

projects carried on under the mask of piety, it is imposture, and may

be termed religion turned hypocrite."--Lavington's _Enthusiasm of

Methodists and Papists Compared_, vol. i. p. 79.

[86] Mahomet being once asked, What is this Alla, whom thou declarest

unto the people? with much more exalted and sublime ideas, replied,

"It is he who derives being from himself; from whom all others derive

their being; and to whom there is no likeness in the whole extent of

space."

[87] Bishop Lavington, after quoting many of the legends of St.

Catherine and St. Teresa, and the journals of modern Methodists,

which in a very similar style describe their divine love, concludes

as follows:--

"'Tis true indeed, as the legendaries own, that St. Catherine was

slandered as a fond and light woman, and St. Teresa kept such bad

company, that most persons concluded celestial visions were not

compatible with her kind of life; but all this may be reconciled;

for these excesses of the spiritual and carnal affections are nearer

allied than is generally thought, arising from the same irregular

emotions of the blood and animal spirits; and the patient is hurried

on either way, according to the nature of the object; and I am much

mistaken, and so is history too, if some of the warmest and most

enthusiastic pretenders to the love of God have not entertained

the same violence of passion (not quite so spiritual) for their

neighbours."--Lavington's _Enthusiasm of Papists and Methodists

Compared_, vol. i. p. 57.

[88] Let it not be supposed that because the female mendicant and her

handcuffed neighbour are half naked, they are in any degree ashamed.

"Among the Papists there are religious orders who profess to prefer

food, bed, and raiment of the vilest sort for their greater spiritual

proficiency; and St. Philip Nerius was such a lover of poverty, that

he frequently besought Almighty God to bring him to such a state as

to stand in need of a penny, and find nobody that would give him

one."--Lavington's _Enthusiasm_, etc.

[89] What renders this still more curious is, that the word signifies

"oxen."

[90] When this circumstance was once mentioned to Dr. Rundle, as a

striking instance of Abraham's obedience, the Doctor in reply said,

that however it might be generally understood,--if he had been

a Justice of Peace in Abraham's parish, he would have committed

him till he found sufficient bail for his good behaviour. Some

good-natured friend repeated this speech to Queen Caroline, and it

retarded Rundle's promotion for many years.

[91] Of the plate in its first state there are only two impressions,

both of them in the possession of the Editor, who has published a

correct copy of the same size, which may be had from him or from

Messrs. Boydell.

On the margin of these two prints Hogarth has inserted slight

pen-and-ink sketches of "A Monk as a Windmill," "the Hopper of a

Mill," etc. These are copied in the annexed plate of reference, and

in a degree elucidated by the following passage in Burnet's _Travels

through Switzerland_, etc., p. 232:--

"Over a popish altar at Worms is a picture one would think invented

to ridicule transubstantiation. There is a windmill, and the Virgin

throws Christ into the hopper, and he comes out at the eye of the

mill all in wafers, which some priest takes up to give to the people.

This is so coarse an emblem, that one would think it was too gross

even for Laplanders; but a man that can swallow transubstantiation

will digest this likewise."

Of painters presuming to explain the Trinity by a triangle, Hogarth

and Swift thought alike:

"If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the

Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not

be able to understand them unless He would bestow on us some new

faculties of the mind."--SWIFT.

[92]

"For eating and drinking _we_ know the best rules,

Our fathers and mothers were blockheads and fools;

'Tis dress, cards, and dancing, alone should engage

This highly enlighten'd and delicate age."

[93] Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, a

print of a larger size has been copied from the picture by Mr. T.

Philips.

[94] These raptures were expensive. The lavish profusion which our

people of rank then displayed in their presents to this band of

quavering exotics is scarcely credible. The _Daily Advertiser_ gives

a list of some of the contributors, and states Farinelli's share

at more than £2000 a year; to which if we add his salary £1500 and

casual presents, his annual income must have been more than four

thousand pounds!

[95] See Shakspeare's _Julius Cæsar_ and _Antony and Cleopatra_.

[96] Of this gentleman there is a tolerably good mezzotinto print,

engraved by Kirkall from a picture by Goupy, with the following

curious inscription from the Italian:--

"Renown'd Sienna gave him birth and name,

Kind Heaven his voice, and harmony his fame.

While here the great and fair their tribute bring,

The deaf may wonder whence his merits spring,

But all think Fortune just that hear him sing."

There is a portrait of Carlo Broschi Detto Farinelli, Amiconi pinxit.

C. Grignion sculp. small circle.

[97] _Art of Spelling, The Complete Justice, etc._ This austere

magistrate has been said to be intended for Sir Thomas De Veil, who

raised himself from the rank of a common soldier to a station in

which he made a considerable figure; but De Veil wrote French and

English, and was both intelligent and active.

[98] _Religious Ceremonies of all Nations_, published at Amsterdam in

1735. He entitles this print, "_Le Serment de la Fille qui se trouve

enceinte_." On the same page he has introduced a copy from Sympson's

print of orator Henley christening a child, and calls it "_Le Baptême

Domestique_."

[99] The gates of this charity were for several years open to the

orphans of those who fell in the battles of their country. A great

number of the children who became orphans by the battle of Minden

were admitted into this Hospital.

[100] When Schalcken once painted a portrait of King William, he

requested his Majesty to hold the candle; this the monarch did till

the tallow ran down upon his fingers. To justify this piece of

ill-breeding, the painter drew his own portrait in the same situation.

[101] The conductors of this office have printed proposals, stating

their terms, etc.; but the business is sometimes transacted by

individuals, through the medium of the public prints. The following

advertisements are copied from the daily papers:--

MATRIMONY.

"A gentleman of honour and property having in his disposal at

present a young lady of good family, with a fortune of sixty

thousand pounds on her marrying with his approbation, would be

very happy to treat with a man of fortune and family, who may

think it worth his while to give the advertiser a gratuity of

five thousand pounds. Direct, etc."

MATRIMONY.

"A gentleman who hath filled two succeeding seats in Parliament,

is near sixty years of age, lives in great splendour and

hospitality, and from whom a considerable estate must pass if he

dies without issue, hath no objection to marry any single lady,

provided the party be of genteel birth, polite manners, and five,

six, seven, or eight months advanced in her pregnancy. Address to

---- Brecknock, Esq., etc."--_Pub. Adv., April 16, 1776._

[102] The apology here alluded to was made in a letter to the author

of the _Beggars' Opera_, dated December 16, 1731, and ushered into

the world as written by a Mr. Cleland, who had a few years before

sent a letter to the publisher of the _Dunciad_, explaining the

author's motives for writing the poem, and subjoining a list of the

books in which he had been abused, etc. This Pope printed; and this,

as well as the letter to Mr. Gay, it was universally believed was

written by Pope. In a note to the letter to Gay, printed in the same

volume with the _Dunciad_, the poet, after giving Mr. Cleland a very

high character for diligence, punctuality, etc., concludes: "and yet

for all this, the public will not allow him to be the author of this

letter."

[103] Hogarth has introduced these three figures in rather a better

style, in his print of "The Small Masquerade Ticket, or Burlington

Gate."

[104] Mr. Pope has honoured this dignified divine with a slight

stroke in the Epistle to Lord Burlington, and note on the lines--

"To rest, the cushion and soft Dean invite,

Who never mentions hell to ears polite."[105]

[105] "A reverend Dean, preaching at Court, threatened the sinner

with punishment in a place he thought it not decent to name in so

polite an assembly."--P.

[106] To this architectural ornament he has an unquestionable right.

His Lordship (besides other buildings) designed the Dormitory at

Westminster School, the Assembly Room at York, Lord Harrington's at

Petersham, and General Wade's in Cork Street. The latter, though

ill-contrived and inconvenient, had so beautiful a front, that Lord

Chesterfield said, "As the General could not live in it at his ease,

he had better take a house over against it, and look at it."

[107]

"Yet shall (my Lord) your just, your noble rules,

Fill half the land with imitating fools,

Who random drawings from your sheets shall take,

And of one beauty many blunders make."

His Lordship was then publishing copies from the designs of Palladio

and Inigo Jones.

The elegant but ill-natured stanzas which allude to the Duke of

Chandos, beginning, "At Timon's villa let us pass a day," everybody

knows. The delicately turned compliments to Lord Burlington display

the poet's art; his precepts on ornamental gardening prove his taste

and judgment. I cannot resist the temptation of recalling six or

eight lines to the reader's recollection, were it only to subjoin Dr.

Warburton's curious note, which admirably illustrates the remark that

"A perfect judge will read each work of wit

With the same spirit that its author writ:"--

"Consult the Genius of the place in all;[108]

That tells the waters or to rise or fall;

Or helps the ambitious hill the heavens to scale,

Or scoops in circling theatre the vale;

Calls in the country, catches opening glades,

Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades.

Now breaks or now directs th' intending lines,

Paints as you plant, and as you work designs."

[108] THE NOTE!

"First, the Genius of the place 'tells the waters,' or only simply

gives directions: then he 'helps the ambitious hill,' or is a

fellow-labourer: then again, he 'scoops the circling theatre,' or

works alone, or in chief. Afterwards, rising fast in our idea of

dignity, he 'calls in the country,' alluding to the orders of princes

in their progress, when accustomed to display all their state and

magnificence. His character then grows sacred, 'he joins willing

woods,' a metaphor taken from one of the offices of the priesthood,

till at length he becomes a divinity, and creates, and presides over

the whole."--Warburton's edit. of _Pope_, 1752, vol. iii. p. 285.

Would the reader wish a better specimen of the Bishop's taste!

[109] An artist in the year 1762 stole Hogarth's thunder, and aimed

the bolt at the head of him who had forged it. In a print entitled

"The Butifyer, or a Touch upon the Times," he is represented in

the character of a shoeblack, blackening a great jack-boot, and

bespattering the surrounding crowd.

Beneath is inscribed, "With what judgment ye judge, shall ye be

judged."--Matt. chap. vii. ver. 2; and,

"In justice to Mr. Hogarth, the engraver of this plate declares

to the public he took the hint of 'The Butifyer' from a print of

Mr. Pope whitewashing Lord Burlington's gate, and at the same time

bespattering the rest of the nobility."

[110] Fielding and Hogarth had in some respects similar powers and

similar want of success in things for which they seemed peculiarly

gifted. Admirable as was the dialogue of the comic characters in

Fielding's novels, he was unable to give them stage effect; and

though Hogarth saw nature in all her varieties, and gave to every

face the index of their mind, he rarely succeeded in historical

pictures.

[111] This etching is so nearly a fac-simile of the original, that

when it was brought home Hogarth mistook it for his own drawing,

which, considering of no value, he threw into the fire, whence it was

snatched by Mrs. Lewis, though not before the paper was scorched.

Hogarth made a very whimsical design for Fielding's tragedy of

tragedies, _Tom Thumb the Great_. It was engraved by Vandergucht, and

is prefixed to the play published by Lowndes, etc.

[112] Mr. King, in his _Observations on Ancient Castles_, observes

that "Lord Lovat was one of the last chieftains that preserved the

rude manners and barbarous authority of the early feudal ages. He

resided in a house which would be esteemed but an indifferent one for

a very private plain country gentleman in England, as it had properly

only four rooms on a floor, and those not large. Here, however, he

kept a sort of court, and several public tables, and a numerous body

of retainers always attending. His own constant residence, and the

place where he always received company, even at dinner, was the very

same room where he lodged; and his lady's sole apartment was her

bedroom; and the only provision for the lodging of the servants and

retainers was a quantity of straw, which they spread every night on

the floors of the lower rooms, where the whole inferior part of the

family, consisting of a very great number of persons, took up their

abode!"--_Archæologia_, vol. iv.

[113] By a book on the table, inscribed _Memoirs_, Hogarth seems to

allude to the manuscript.

[114] In the name by which the old peer supposed the Maiden was to be

distinguished in a future age, he was mistaken. The Guillotine is an

improvement of the Maiden; so that, though France has been the first

to bring it into universal practice, Scotland is entitled to the

whole honour of the invention.

[115] The mad peer in Pope's imitation of Horace was not very

grateful to the d--d doctor:

"Who, from a patriot of distinguished note,

Blister'd and bled him to a single vote."

[116] A complete set of reduced copies from his prints are now

publishing at Gottingen, with illustrations in the German and French

languages.

[117] Jarvis and Smollett have strangely translated it

"spindle-shanked," which by no means accords with the rest of his

figure.

[118] Jarvis oddly enough translates it seven feet.

[119] Let it not be said in objection that many of the attendants are

idle lookers on, and most of them laughing at their governor; for I

am told a similar practice has sometimes prevailed in more regular

governments.

[120] The original and scarce print from which this was copied, I owe

to the kindness of Sir James Lake, Bart., who did me the honour of

presenting it to me.

[121] Noble's _Contin. to Grang._, B. iii. p. 418.

[122] In this circumstance the artist must have been misinformed. At

the fire he mentions, five of the Harlot's Progress were burnt; the

sixth is now in the possession of Lord Charlemont. The eight of the

Rake's Progress were not destroyed.

[123] Francis Beckford, Esq., to whom I find, by one of Hogarth's

memorandums, they were sold for £88, 4s.

[124] The R must have been a mistake of the writing-engraver.

Ravenet's christened names were Simon Francis.

[125] The mottoes were selected by the Reverend Arnold King.

[126] The twelve prints were originally published at 12s.

[127] So does he express himself in the MS., though the Roast Beef

was published March 6, 1749, and the March, December 31, 1750.

[128] It has been said that Hogarth never went farther into France

than Calais; this proves he had reached Paris.

[129] This was afterwards copied for a watch-paper.

[130] About eight years after the publication of these prints, when

there was an Act in contemplation relative to the distilleries,

Hogarth received the following anonymous letter:--

"_December 12, 1759._

"SIR,--When genius is made subservient to public good, it does

honour to the possessor, as it is expressive of gratitude to

his Creator, by exerting itself to further the happiness of His

creatures. The poignancy and delicacy of your ridicule has been

productive of more reformation than more elaborate pieces would

have effected. On the apprehension of opening the distillery,

methinks I hear all good men cry, Fire!--it is therefore the

duty of every citizen to try to extinguish it. Rub up, then, Gin

Lane and Beer Street, that you may have the honour and advantage

of bringing the two first engines to the fire; and work them

manfully at each corner of the building; and instead of the

paltry reward of thirty shillings allowed by Act of Parliament,

receive the glorious satisfaction of having extinguished those

fierce flames which threaten a general conflagration to human

nature, by pouring liquid fire into the veins of the now

brave Britons, whose robust fabrics will soon fall in when

these dreadful flames have consumed the inside timbers and

supporters.--I am, Sir, yours, etc.,

"AN ENGLISHMAN."

[131] Humanity and tenderness of mind were the leading

characteristics of my most valued and most regretted friend Mortimer:

he would not have trod on a worm; yet in painting subjects from which

the common eye would revolt, he had the greatest delight.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

A superscript is denoted by ^; for example M^R, y^e.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been

corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within

the text and consultation of external sources.

Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book text. Some Footnotes

are very long.

One occurrence of the 3-star asterism symbol is denoted by ***.

One occurrence of the old long-form s is denoted by ſ.

Footnotes [105] and [108] are referenced from the prior Footnotes

[104] and [107], and not from the text itself.

Footnote [55] is referenced by two anchors in the same paragraph.

For consistency and to follow the intent of the publisher, the Plate

illustrations have been moved to the beginning of the section

describing them. In most cases this was only one or two paragraphs

earlier than the original book layout.

Quotations of Hogarth himself, and all letters, have been indented

in the main text (but not the Addenda, Notes, or Footnotes). All

other quotations have not. The original text was not completely

consistent in its use of vertical whitespace to end letters and

Hogarth quotations.

Three illustrations listed in the 'List of Plates' have no description

in the text, and have been placed after 'The Farmer's Return' section.

The three are:

'Inhabitants of the Moon'

'Receipt for Print of March to Finchley'

'Gravity'.

The item numbering in the 'Chronological List' at the end of the book

is sometimes inconsistent or incorrect. This has been left unchanged.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,

and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. For example,

face-painter, face painter; Boleyne, Bulleyn; dissatisfactory;

confuting; unascertained; personate.

Pg vii, 'MARTIN FOULKES, ESQ.' replaced by 'MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ.'.

Pg 38 Footnote [18], 'countenanced by by Sir' replaced by 'countenanced

by Sir'.

Pg 102, 'acquintance with men' replaced by 'acquaintance with men'.

Pg 107, 'A Monsieur Monsieur Reiffsten' replaced by 'A Monsieur

Reiffsten'.

Pg 170 Footnote [85], 'Enthasiasm of Methodists' replaced by 'Enthusiasm

of Methodists'.

Pg 233, 'jellies, sweatmeats' replaced by 'jellies, sweetmeats'.

Pg 289, 'Grostesque, and good' replaced by 'Grotesque, and good'.

Pg 292, 'June y_{e} ' [subscript] replaced by 'June y^e ' [superscript].

Pg 302, 'Churchil (once' replaced by 'Churchill (once'.

Pg 314, '_Vide_ 175' replaced by '_Vide_ p. 175'.

Pg 316, '_Vide_ 199' replaced by '_Vide_ p. 199'.

Pg 320, 'mezzottinto by' replaced by 'mezzotinto by'.