"Behold, the villain's dire disgrace,
Not death itself can end;
He finds no peaceful burial-place,
His breathless corpse--no friend.
"Torn from the root that wicked tongue,
Which daily swore and curst;
Those eye-balls from their sockets wrung,
That glow'd with lawless lust.
"His heart exposed to prying eyes,
To pity has no claim;
But dreadful! from his bones shall rise
His monument of shame."
[Illustration: THE REWARD OF CRUELTY.]
The savage and diabolical progress of cruelty is now ended, and the
thread of life severed by the sword of justice. From the place
of execution the murderer is brought to Surgeons' Hall, and now
represented under the knife of a dissector. This venerable person, as
well as his coadjutor, who scoops out the criminal's eye, and a young
student scarifying the leg, seem to have just as much feeling as the
subject now under their inspection.[35] A frequent contemplation
of sanguinary scenes hardens the heart, deadens sensibility, and
destroys every tender sensation.
Our legislators, considering how unfit such men are to determine in
cases of life and death, have judiciously excluded both surgeons and
butchers from serving upon juries.
Hogarth was most peculiarly accurate in those little markings which
identify. The gunpowder initials T. N. on the arm, denote this to
be the body of Thomas Nero. The face being impressed with horror
has been objected to. It must be acknowledged that this is rather
"o'er-stepping the modesty of nature;" but he so rarely deviates from
her laws, that a little poetical licence may be forgiven where it
produces humour or heightens character.
The skeletons on each side of the print are inscribed "James
Field" (an eminent pugilist), and "Maclean" (a notorious robber).
Both of these worthies died by a rope. They are pointing to
the physician's crest which is carved on the upper part of the
president's[36] chair, viz. a hand feeling a pulse; taking a guinea
would have been more appropriate to the practice. The heads of
these two heroes of the halter are turned so as to seem ridiculing
the president, "Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp."
Every countenance in this grisly band is marked with that medical
importance which dignifies the professors. Some of them we discover
to be "from Caledonia's bleak and barren clime."
A fellow depositing the intestines in a pail, and a dog licking the
murderer's heart, are disgusting and nauseous objects. The vessel
where the skulls and bones bubble-bubble, gives some idea of the
infernal caldron of Hecate.
Of this print, and that preceding it, there are wooden blocks
engraved upon a large scale, invented and published by "William
Hogarth, Jan. 1, 1750; J. Bell, sculpt." They were executed by order
of Mr. Hogarth, who wished to circulate the salutary examples they
contain, by making the price low enough for a poor man's purse; but
finding engraving on wood much more expensive than he had calculated,
he altered his plan, and engraved them on copper.
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