[Illustration: WILLIAM HOGARTH. ]

THEWORKSOFWILLIAM HOGARTH;

IN ASERIES OF ENGRAVINGS:WITHDESCRIPTIONS, ANDA COMMENT ON THEIR MORAL TENDENCY, BY THEREV. JOHN TRUSLER. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, ANECDOTES OF THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS, BY J. HOGARTH AND J. NICHOLS. 

London:PUBLISHED BY JONES AND CO. TEMPLE OF THE MUSES, (LATE LACKINGTON'S, ) FINSBURY SQUARE. 

1833. 

C. BAYNES, PRINTER, 13 DUKE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 

THE LIFE OF HOGARTH. 

William Hogarth is said to have been the descendant of a familyoriginally from Kirby Thore, in Westmorland. 

His grandfather was a plain yeoman, who possessed a small tenement inthe vale of Bampton, a village about fifteen miles north of Kendal, inthat county; and had three sons. 

The eldest assisted his father in farming, and succeeded to his littlefreehold. 

The second settled in Troutbeck, a village eight miles north west ofKendal, and was remarkable for his talent at provincial poetry. 

Richard Hogarth, the third son, who was educated at St. Bees, and hadkept a school in the same county, appears to have been a man of somelearning. He came early to London, where he resumed his originaloccupation of a schoolmaster, in Ship-court in the Old Bailey, and wasoccasionally employed as a corrector of the press. 

Mr. Richard Hogarth married in London; and our artist, and his sisters, Mary and Anne, are believed to have been the only product of themarriage. 

William Hogarth was born November 10, and baptised Nov. 28, 1697, in theparish of St. Bartholomew the Great, in London; to which parish, it issaid, in the Biographia Britannica, he was afterwards a benefactor. 

The school of Hogarth's father, in 1712, was in the parish of St. Martin, Ludgate. In the register of that parish, therefore, the date ofhis death, it was natural to suppose, might be found; but the registerhas been searched to no purpose. 

Hogarth seems to have received no other education than that of amechanic, and his outset in life was unpropitious. Young Hogarth wasbound apprentice to a silversmith (whose name was Gamble) of someeminence; by whom he was confined to that branch of the trade, whichconsists in engraving arms and cyphers upon the plate. While thusemployed, he gradually acquired some knowledge of drawing; and, beforehis apprenticeship expired, he exhibited talent for caricature. "He feltthe impulse of genius, and that it directed him to painting, thoughlittle apprised at that time of the mode Nature had intended he shouldpursue. "

The following circumstance gave the first indication of the talents withwhich Hogarth afterwards proved himself to be so liberally endowed. 

During his apprenticeship, he set out one Sunday, with two or threecompanions, on an excursion to Highgate. The weather being hot, theywent into a public-house; where they had not long been, before a quarrelarose between some persons in the same room; from words they soon got toblows, and the quart pots being the only missiles at hand, were sentflying about the room in glorious confusion. This was a scene toolaughable for Hogarth to resist. He drew out his pencil, and produced onthe spot one of the most ludicrous pieces that ever was seen; whichexhibited likenesses not only of the combatants engaged in the affray, but also of the persons gathered round them, placed in grotesqueattitudes, and heightened with character and points of humour. 

On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he entered into the academy inSt. Martin's Lane, and studied drawing from the life: but in this hisproficiency was inconsiderable; nor would he ever have surpassed_mediocrity_ as a painter, if he had not penetrated through externalform to character and manners. "It was character, passions, the soul, that his genius was given him to copy. "

The engraving of arms and shop-bills seems to have been his firstemployment by which to obtain a decent livelihood. He was, however, soonengaged in decorating books, and furnished sets of plates for severalpublications of the time. An edition of _Hudibras_ afforded him thefirst subject suited to his genius: yet he felt so much the shackles ofother men's ideas, that he was less successful in this task than mighthave been expected. In the mean time, he had acquired the use of thebrush, as well as of the pen and graver; and, possessing a singularfacility in seizing a likeness, he acquired considerable employment as aportrait-painter. Shortly after his marriage, he informs us that hecommenced painter of small conversation pieces, from twelve to fifteeninches in height; the novelty of which caused them to succeed for a fewyears. One of the earliest productions of this kind, which distinguishedhim as a painter, is supposed to have been a representation of WansteadAssembly; the figures in it were drawn from the life, and withoutburlesque. The faces were said to bear great likenesses to the personsso drawn, and to be rather better coloured than some of his morefinished performances. Grace, however, was no attribute of his pencil;and he was more disposed to aggravate, than to soften the harsh touchesof Nature. 

A curious anecdote is recorded of our artist during the early part ofhis practice as a portrait painter. A nobleman, who was uncommonly uglyand deformed, sat for his picture, which was executed in his happiestmanner, and with singularly rigid fidelity. The peer, disgusted at thiscounterpart of his dear self, was not disposed very readily to pay for areflector that would only insult him with his deformities. After sometime had elapsed, and numerous unsuccessful applications had been madefor payment, the painter resorted to an expedient, which he knew mustalarm the nobleman's pride. He sent him the following card:--"Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord----; finding that he does not mean tohave the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of Mr. Hogarth's pressing necessities for the money. If, therefore, hislordship does not send for it in three days, it will be disposed of, with the addition of a tail and some other appendages, to _Mr. Hare, thefamous wild beast man_; Mr. H. Having given that gentleman a conditionalpromise on his lordship's refusal. " This intimation had its desiredeffect; the picture was paid for, and committed to the flames. 

Hogarth's talents, however, for original comic design, graduallyunfolded themselves, and various public occasions produced displays ofhis ludicrous powers. 

In the year 1730, he clandestinely married the only daughter of SirJames Thornhill, the painter, who was not easily reconciled to her unionwith an obscure artist, as Hogarth then comparatively was. Shortlyafter, he commenced his first great series of moral paintings, "TheHarlot's Progress:" some of these were, at Lady Thornhill's suggestion, designedly placed by Mrs. Hogarth in her father's way, in order toreconcile him to her marriage. Being informed by whom they wereexecuted, Sir James observed, "The man who can produce suchrepresentations as these, can also maintain a wife without a portion. "He soon after, however, relented, and became generous to the youngcouple, with whom he lived in great harmony until his death, which tookplace in 1733. 

In 1733 his genius became conspicuously known. The third scene of "TheHarlot's Progress" introduced him to the notice of the great: at a Boardof Treasury, (which was held a day or two after the appearance of thatprint), a copy of it was shown by one of the lords, as containing, amongother excellences, a striking likeness of Sir John Gonson, a celebratedmagistrate of that day, well known for his rigour towards women of thetown. From the Treasury each lord repaired to the print-shop for a copyof it, and Hogarth rose completely into fame. 

Upwards of twelve hundred subscribers entered their names for theplates, which were copied and imitated on fan mounts, and in a varietyof other forms; and a pantomime taken from them was represented at thetheatre. This performance, together with several subsequent ones of asimilar kind, have placed Hogarth in the rare class of original geniusesand inventors. He may be said to have created an entirely new species ofpainting, which may be termed the _moral comic_; and may be consideredrather as a writer of comedy with a pencil, than as a painter. Ifcatching the manners and follies of an age, _living as they rise_--ifgeneral satire on vices, --and ridicule familiarised by strokes ofNature, and heightened by wit, --and the whole animated by proper andjust expressions of the passions, --be comedy, Hogarth composed comediesas much as Moliere. 

Soon after his marriage, Hogarth resided at South Lambeth; and beingintimate with Mr. Tyers, the then spirited proprietor of VauxhallGardens, he contributed much to the improvement of those gardens; andfirst suggested the hint of embellishing them with paintings, some ofwhich were the productions of his own comic pencil. Among the paintingswere "The Four Parts of the Day, " either by Hogarth, or after hisdesigns. 

Two years after the publication of his "Harlot's Progress, " appeared the"Rake's Progress, " which, Lord Orford remarks, (though perhapssuperior, ) "had not so much success, for want of notoriety: nor is theprint of the Arrest equal in merit to the others. " The curtain, however, was now drawn aside, and his genius stood displayed in its full lustre. 

The Rake's Progress was followed by several works in series, viz. "Marriage a-la-Mode, Industry and Idleness, the Stages of Cruelty, andElection Prints. " To these may be added, a great number of single comicpieces, all of which present a rich source of amusement:--such as, "TheMarch to Finchley, Modern Midnight Conversation, the SleepingCongregation, the Gates of Calais, Gin Lane, Beer Street, StrollingPlayers in a Barn, the Lecture, Laughing Audience, Enraged Musician, "&c. &c. Which, being introduced and described in the subsequent part ofthis work, it would far exceed the limits, necessarily assigned to thesebrief memoirs, _here_ minutely to characterise. 

All the works of this original genius are, in fact, lectures ofmorality. They are satires of particular vices and follies, expressedwith such strength of character, and such an accumulation of minute andappropriate circumstances, that they have all the truth of Natureheightened by the attractions of wit and fancy. Nothing is without ameaning, but all either conspires to the great end, or forms an additionto the lively drama of human manners. His single pieces, however, arerather to be considered as studies, not perhaps for the professionalartist, but for the searcher into life and manners, and for the votariesof true humour and ridicule. No _furniture_ of the kind can vie withHogarth's prints, as a fund of inexhaustible amusement, yet conveying atthe same time lessons of morality. 

Not contented, however, with the just reputation which he had acquiredin his proper department, Hogarth attempted to shine in the highestbranch of the art, --serious history-painting. "From a contempt, " saysLord Orford, "of the ignorant virtuosi of the age, and from indignationat the impudent tricks of picture dealers, whom he saw continuallyrecommending and vending vile copies to bubble collectors, and fromhaving never studied, or indeed having seen, few good pictures of thegreat Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed onthose glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. Hetalked this language till he believed it; and having heard it oftenasserted (as is true) that time gives a mellowness to colours, andimproves them, he not only denied the proposition, but maintained thatpictures only grew black and worse by age, not distinguishing betweenthe degrees in which the proposition might be true or false. He wentfarther: he determined to rival the ancients, and unfortunately choseone of the finest pictures in England as the object of his competition. This was the celebrated Sigismonda of Sir Luke Schaub, now in thepossession of the Duke of Newcastle, said to be painted by Correggio, probably by Furino. "--"It is impossible to see the picture, " (continueshis lordship, ) "or read Dryden's inimitable tale, and not feel that thesame soul animated both. After many essays, Hogarth at last produced_his_ Sigismonda, --but no more like Sigismonda than I to Hercules. "

Notwithstanding Hogarth professed to decry literature, he felt aninclination to communicate to the public his ideas on a topic connectedwith his art. His "Analysis of Beauty" made its appearance in one volumequarto, in the year 1753. Its leading principle is, that beautyfundamentally consists in that union of uniformity which is found in thecurve or waving line; and that round swelling figures are most pleasingto the eye. This principle he illustrates by many ingenious remarks andexamples, and also by some plates characteristic of his genius. 

In the year 1757, his brother-in-law, Mr. Thornhill, resigned his officeof king's serjeant-painter in favour of Hogarth, who received hisappointment on the 6th of June, and entered on his functions on the 16thof July, both in the same year. This place was re-granted to him by awarrant of George the Third, which bears date the 30th October, 1761, with a salary of ten pounds per annum, payable quarterly. 

This connexion with the court probably induced Hogarth to deviate fromthe strict line of party neutrality which he had hitherto observed, andto engage against Mr. Wilkes and his friends, in a print published inSeptember, 1762, entitled _The Times_. This publication provoked somesevere strictures from Wilkes's pen, in a North Briton (No. 17. ) Hogarthreplied by a caricature of the writer: a rejoinder was put in byChurchill, in an angry epistle to Hogarth (not the brightest of hisworks); and in which the severest strokes fell on a defect the painterhad not caused, and could not amend--his age; which, however, wasneither remarkable nor decrepit; much less had it impaired his talents:for, only six months before, he had produced one of his most capitalworks. In revenge for this epistle, Hogarth caricatured Churchill, underthe form of a canonical bear, with a club and a pot of porter. 

During this period of warfare (so virulent and disgraceful to all theparties), Hogarth's health visibly declined. In 1762, he complained ofan internal pain, the continuance of which produced a general decay ofthe system, that proved incurable; and, on the 25th of October, 1764, (having been previously conveyed in a very weak and languid state fromChiswick to Leicester Fields, ) he died suddenly, of an aneurism in hischest, in the sixty-seventh or sixty-eighth year of his age. His remainswere interred at Chiswick, beneath a plain but neat mausoleum, with thefollowing elegant inscription by his friend Garrick:--

 "Farewell, great painter of mankind, Who reach'd the noblest point of art; Whose pictured morals charm the mind, And through the eye correct the heart. If Genius fire thee, reader, stay; If Nature touch thee, drop a tear: If neither move thee, turn away, For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here. "

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 

VOL. I. 

RAKE'S PROGRESS. Page

PLATE 1 Heir taking Possession 11" 2 Surrounded by Artists 13" 3 Tavern Scene 15" 4 Arrested for Debt 17" 5 Marries an Old Maid 19" 6 Gaming House 21" 7 Prison Scene 23" 8 Mad House 25

The Distressed Poet 27The Bench 29The Laughing Audience 31Gate of Calais 33The Politician 35Taste in High Life 37

HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 1 39" 2 41" 3 43" 4 45" 5 47" 6 49

The Lecture 51The Chorus 53Columbus breaking the Egg 55Modern Midnight Conversation 57Consultation of Physicians 59Portrait of Daniel Lock, Esq. 61The Enraged Musician 63Masquerades and Operas 65

TIMES OF THE DAY. 

Morning 67Noon 69Evening 71Night 73

Sigismonda 75Portrait of Martin Fowkes, Esq. 77The Cockpit 78Captain Thomas Coram 81Country Inn Yard 83

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 1 85" 2 87" 3 89" 4 91" 5 93" 6 95" 7 97" 8 99" 9 101" 10 103" 11 105" 12 107

Southwark Fair. 109Garrick as Richard III. 111

FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 

PLATE 1 France 113" 2 England 115

HOGARTH'S WORKS. 

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

Of all the follies in human life, there is none greater than that ofextravagance, or profuseness; it being constant labour, without theleast ease or relaxation. It bears, indeed, the colour of that which iscommendable, and would fain be thought to take its rise from laudablemotives, searching indefatigably after true felicity; now as there canbe no true felicity without content, it is this which every man is inconstant pursuit of; the learned, for instance, in his industrious questafter knowledge; the merchant, in his dangerous voyages; the ambitious, in his passionate pursuit of honour; the conqueror, in his earnestdesire of victory; the politician, in his deep-laid designs; the wanton, in his pleasing charms of beauty; the covetous, in his unweariedheaping-up of treasure; and the prodigal, in his general and extravagantindulgence. --Thus far it may be well;--but, so mistaken are we in ourroad, as to run on in the very opposite tract, which leads directly toour ruin. Whatever else we indulge ourselves in, is attended with somesmall degree of relish, and has some trifling satisfaction in theenjoyment, but, in this, the farther we go, the more we are lost; andwhen arrived at the mark proposed, we are as far from the object wepursue, as when we first set out. Here then, are we inexcusable, in notattending to the secret dictates of reason, and in stopping our ears atthe timely admonitions of friendship. Headstrong and ungovernable, wepursue our course without intermission; thoughtless and unwary, we seenot the dangers that lie immediately before us; but hurry on, evenwithout sight of our object, till we bury ourselves in that gulf ofwoe, where perishes at once, health, wealth and virtue, and whosedreadful labyrinths admit of no return. 

Struck with the foresight of that misery, attendant on a life ofdebauchery, which is, in fact, the offspring of prodigality, our authorhas, in the scenes before us, attempted the reformation of theworldling, by stopping him as it were in his career, and opening to hisview the many sad calamities awaiting the prosecution of his proposedscheme of life; he has, in hopes of reforming the prodigal, and at thesame time deterring the rising generation, whom Providence may haveblessed with earthly wealth, from entering into so iniquitous a course, exhibited the life of a young man, hurried on through a succession ofprofligate pursuits, for the few years Nature was able to supportitself; and this from the instant he might be said to enter into theworld, till the time of his leaving it. But, as the vice of avarice isequal to that of prodigality, and the ruin of children is often owing tothe indiscretion of their parents, he has opened the piece with a scene, which, at the same time that it exposes the folly of the youth, shews usthe imprudence of the father, who is supposed to have hurt theprinciples of his son, in depriving him of the necessary use of someportion of that gold, he had with penurious covetousness been hoardingup, for the sole purpose of lodging in his coffers. 

PLATE I. 

THE YOUNG HEIR TAKING POSSESSION. 

 Oh, vanity of age untoward! Ever spleeny, ever froward! Why these bolts and massy chains, Squint suspicions, jealous pains? Why, thy toilsome journey o'er, Lay'st thou up an useless store? _Hope_, along with _Time_ is flown; Nor canst thou reap the field thou'st sown. Hast thou a son? In time be wise; He views thy toil with other eyes. Needs must thy kind paternal care, Lock'd in thy chests, be buried there? Whence, then, shall flow that friendly ease, That social converse, heartfelt peace, Familiar duty without dread, Instruction from example bred, Which youthful minds with freedom mend, And with the _father_ mix the _friend_? Uncircumscribed by prudent rules, Or precepts of expensive schools; Abused at home, abroad despised, Unbred, unletter'd, unadvised; The headstrong course of life begun, What comfort from thy darling son?

 HOADLEY. 

The history opens, representing a scene crowded with all the monumentsof avarice, and laying before us a most beautiful contrast, such as istoo general in the world, to pass unobserved; nothing being more commonthan for a son to prodigally squander away that substance his fatherhad, with anxious solicitude, his whole life been amassing. --Here, wesee the young heir, at the age of nineteen or twenty, raw from theUniversity, just arrived at home, upon the death of his father. Eager toknow the possessions he is master of, the old wardrobes, where thingshave been rotting time out of mind, are instantly wrenched open; thestrong chests are unlocked; the parchments, those securities of trebleinterest, on which this avaricious monster lent his money, tumbled out;and the bags of gold, which had long been hoarded, with griping care, now exposed to the pilfering hands of those about him. To explain everylittle mark of usury and covetousness, such as the mortgages, bonds, indentures, &c. The piece of candle stuck on a save-all, on themantle-piece; the rotten furniture of the room, and the miserablecontents of the dusty wardrobe, would be unnecessary: we shall onlynotice the more striking articles. From the vast quantity of papers, falls an old written journal, where, among other memorandums, we findthe following, viz. "May the 5th, 1721. Put off my bad shilling. " Hence, we learn, the store this penurious miser set on this trifle: that sopenurious is the disposition of the miser, that notwithstanding he maybe possessed of many large bags of gold, the fear of losing a singleshilling is a continual trouble to him. In one part of the room, a manis hanging it with black cloth, on which are placed escutcheons, by wayof dreary ornament; these escutcheons contain the arms of the covetous, _viz. _ three vices, hard screwed, with the motto, "BEWARE!" On thefloor, lie a pair of old shoes, which this sordid wretch is supposed tohave long preserved for the weight of iron in the nails, and has beensoling with leather cut from the covers of an old Family Bible; anexcellent piece of satire, intimating, that such men would sacrificeeven their God to the lust of money. From these and some other objectstoo striking to pass unnoticed, such as the gold falling from thebreaking cornice; the jack and spit, those utensils of originalhospitality, locked up, through fear of being used; the clean and emptychimney, in which a fire is just now going to be made for the firsttime; and the emaciated figure of the cat, strongly mark the naturaltemper of the late miserly inhabitant, who could starve in the midst ofplenty. --But see the mighty change! View the hero of our piece, left tohimself, upon the death of his father, possessed of a goodlyinheritance. Mark how his mind is affected!--determined to partake ofthe mighty happiness he falsely imagines others of his age and fortuneenjoy; see him running headlong into extravagance, withholding not hisheart from any joy; but implicitly pursuing the dictates of his will. Tocommence this delusive swing of pleasure, his first application is tothe tailor, whom we see here taking his measure, in order to trick outhis pretty person. In the interim, enters a poor girl (with her mother), whom our hero has seduced, under professions of love and promises ofmarriage; in hopes of meeting with that kind welcome she had thegreatest reason to expect; but he, corrupted with the wealth of which heis now the master, forgets every engagement he once made, finds himselftoo rich to keep his word; and, as if gold would atone for a breach ofhonour, is offering money to her mother, as an equivalent for thenon-fulfilling of his promise. Not the sight of the ring, given as apledge of his fidelity; not a view of the many affectionate letters heat one time wrote to her, of which her mother's lap is full; not thetears, nor even the pregnant condition of the wretched girl, couldawaken in him one spark of tenderness; but, hard hearted and unfeeling, like the generality of wicked men, he suffers her to weep away her woesin silent sorrow, and curse with bitterness her deceitful betrayer. Onething more we shall take notice of, which is, that this unexpectedvisit, attended with abuse from the mother, so engages the attention ofour youth, as to give the old pettifogger behind him an opportunity ofrobbing him. Hence we see that one ill consequence is generally attendedwith another; and that misfortunes, according to the old proverb, seldomcome alone. 

 Mr. Ireland remarks of this plate--"He here presents to us the picture of a young man, thoughtless, extravagant, and licentious; and, in colours equally impressive, paints the destructive consequences of his conduct. The first print most forcibly contrasts two opposite passions; the unthinking negligence of _youth_, and the sordid avaricious rapacity of age. It brings into one point of view what Mr. Pope so exquisitely describes in his Epistle to Lord Bathurst--

 'Who sees pale _Mammon_ pine amidst his store, Sees but a backward steward for the poor; This year a reservoir, to keep and spare; The next a fountain, spouting through his heir. '

 The introduction to this history is well delineated, and the principal figure marked with that easy, unmeaning vacancy of face, which speaks him formed by nature for a DUPE. Ignorant of the value of money, and negligent in his nature, he leaves his bag of untold gold in the reach of an old and greedy pettifogging attorney, who is making an inventory of bonds, mortgages, indentures, &c. This man, with the rapacity so natural to those who disgrace the profession, seizes the first opportunity of plundering his employer. Hogarth had, a few years before, been engaged in a law suit, which gave him some experience of the PRACTICE of those pests of society. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 1. 

THE YOUNG HERO TAKES POSSESSION OF THE MISER'S EFFECTS. ]

PLATE II. 

SURROUNDED BY ARTISTS AND PROFESSORS. 

 _Prosperity_ (with harlot's smiles, Most pleasing when she most beguiles), How soon, great foe, can all thy train Of false, gay, frantic, loud, and vain, Enter the unprovided mind, And memory in fetters bind? Load faith and love with golden chain, And sprinkle _Lethe_ o'er the brain! _Pleasure_, on her silver throne, Smiling comes, nor comes alone; _Venus_ comes with her along, And smooth _Lyæus_, ever young; And in their train, to fill the press, Come _apish Dance_ and _swoln Excess_, Mechanic _Honour_, vicious _Taste_, And _Fashion_ in her changing vest. 

 HOADLEY. 

We are next to consider our hero as launched into the world, and havingequipped himself with all the necessaries to constitute him a man oftaste, he plunges at once into all the fashionable excesses, and enterswith spirit into the character he assumes. 

The avarice of the penurious father then, in this print, is contrastedby the giddy profusion of his prodigal son. We view him now at hislevee, attended by masters of various professions, supposed to be hereoffering their interested services. The foremost figure is readily knownto be a dancing-master; behind him are two men, who at the time whenthese prints were first published, were noted for teaching the arts ofdefence by different weapons, and who are here drawn from the life; oneof whom is a Frenchman, teacher of the small-sword, making a thrust withhis foil; the other an Englishman, master of the quarter-staff; thevivacity of the first, and the cold contempt visible in the face of thesecond, beautifully describe the natural disposition of the two nations. On the left of the latter stands an improver of gardens, drawn also fromthe life, offering a plan for that purpose. A taste for gardening, carried to excess, must be acknowledged to have been the ruin ofnumbers, it being a passion that is seldom, if ever, satisfied, andattended with the greatest expense. In the chair sits a professor ofmusic, at the harpsichord, running over the keys, waiting to give hispupil a lesson; behind whose chair hangs a list of the presents, oneFarinelli, an Italian singer, received the next day after his firstperformance at the Opera House; amongst which, there is notice taken ofone, which he received from the hero of our piece, thus: "A goldsnuff-box, chased, with the story of Orpheus charming the brutes, by J. Rakewell, esq. " By these mementos of extravagance and pride, (for giftsof this kind proceed oftener from ostentation than generosity, ) and bythe engraved frontispiece to a poem, dedicated to our fashionablespendthrift, lying on the floor, which represents the ladies of Britainsacrificing their hearts to the idol Farinelli, crying out, with thegreatest earnestness, "one G--d, one Farinelli, " we are given tounderstand the prevailing dissipation and luxury of the times. Near theprincipal figure in this plate is that of him, with one hand on hisbreast, the other on his sword, whom we may easily discover to be abravo; he is represented as having brought a letter of recommendation, as one disposed to undertake all sorts of service. This character israther Italian than English; but is here introduced to fill up the listof persons at that time too often engaged in the service of the votariesof extravagance and fashion. Our author would have it imagined in theinterval between the first scene and this, that the young man whosehistory he is painting, had now given himself up to every fashionableextravagance; and among others, he had imbibed a taste for cock-fightingand horse-racing; two amusements, which, at that time, the man offashion could not dispense with. This is evident, from his riderbringing in a silver punch-bowl, which one of his horses is supposed tohave won, and his saloon being ridiculously ornamented with theportraits of celebrated cocks. The figures in the back part of thisplate represent tailors, peruke-makers, milliners, and such otherpersons as generally fill the antichamber of a man of quality, exceptone, who is supposed to be a poet, and has written some panegyric on theperson whose levee he attends, and who waits for that approbation healready vainly anticipates. Upon the whole, the general tenor of thisscene is to teach us, that the man of fashion is too often exposed tothe rapacity of his fellow creatures, and is commonly a dupe to the moreknowing part of the world. 

 "How exactly, " says Mr. Ireland, "does Bramston describe the character in his _Man of Taste_:--

 'Without Italian, and without an ear, To Bononcini's music I adhere. ---- To boon companions I my time would give, With players, pimps, and parasites I'd live; I would with jockeys from Newmarket dine, And to rough riders give my choicest wine. My evenings all I would with sharpers spend, And make the thief-taker my bosom friend; In Figg, the prize-fighter, by day delight, And sup with Colley Cibber every night. '

 "Of the expression in this print, we cannot speak more highly than it deserves. Every character is marked with its proper and discriminative stamp. It has been said by a very judicious critic (the Rev. Mr. Gilpin) from whom it is not easy to differ without being wrong, that the hero of this history, in the first plate of the series, is _unmeaning_, and in the second _ungraceful_. The fact is admitted; but, for so delineating him, the author is entitled to our praise, rather than our censure. Rakewell's whole conduct proves he was a fool, and at that time he had not learned how to perform an artificial character; he therefore looks as he is, unmeaning, and uninformed. But in the second plate he is _ungraceful_. --Granted. The ill-educated son of so avaricious a father could not have been introduced into very good company; and though, by the different teachers who surround him, it evidently appears that he wishes to _assume_ the character of a gentleman, his internal feelings tell him he has not attained it. Under that consciousness, he is properly and naturally represented as ungraceful, and embarrassed in his new situation. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 2. 

SURROUNDED BY ARTISTS & PROFESSORS. ]

PLATE III. 

THE TAVERN SCENE. 

 "O vanity of youthful blood, So by misuse to poison good! Woman, framed for social love, Fairest gift of powers above, Source of every household blessing; All charms in innocence possessing: But, turn'd to vice, all plagues above; Foe to thy being, foe to love! Guest divine, to outward viewing; Ablest minister of ruin? And thou, no less of gift divine, Sweet poison of misused wine! With freedom led to every part, And secret chamber of the heart, Dost thou thy friendly host betray, And shew thy riotous gang the way To enter in, with covert treason, O'erthrow the drowsy guard of reason, To ransack the abandon'd place, And revel there with wild excess?"

Mr. Ireland having, in his description of this Plate, incorporatedwhatever is of value in Dr. Trusler's text, with much judiciousobservation and criticism of his own, the Editor has taken the former_verbatim_. 

"This Plate exhibits our licentious prodigal engaged in one of hismidnight festivities: forgetful of the past, and negligent of thefuture, he riots in the present. Having poured his libation to Bacchus, he concludes the evening orgies in a sacrifice at the Cyprian shrine;and, surrounded by the votaries of Venus, joins in the unhallowedmysteries of the place. The companions of his revelry are marked withthat easy, unblushing effrontery, which belongs to the servants of allwork in the isle of Paphos;--for the maids of honour they are notsufficiently elevated. 

"He may be supposed, in the phrase of the day, to have beat the rounds, overset a constable, and conquered a watchman, whose staff and lanternhe has brought into the room, as trophies of his prowess. In thissituation he is robbed of his watch by the girl whose hand is in hisbosom; and, with that adroitness peculiar to an old practitioner, sheconveys her acquisition to an accomplice, who stands behind the chair. 

"Two of the ladies are quarrelling; and one of them _delicately_ spoutswine in the face of her opponent, who is preparing to revenge theaffront with a knife, which, in a posture of threatening defiance, shegrasps in her hand. A third, enraged at being neglected, holds a lightedcandle to a map of the globe, determined to _set the world on fire, though she perish in the conflagration_! A fourth is undressing. Thefellow bringing in a pewter dish, as part of the apparatus of thiselegant and Attic entertainment, a blind harper, a trumpeter, and aragged ballad-singer, roaring out an obscene song, complete this motleygroup. 

"This design may be a very exact representation of what were then thenocturnal amusements of a brothel;--so different are the manners offormer and present times, that I much question whether a similarexhibition is now to be seen in any tavern of the metropolis. That weare less licentious than our predecessors, I dare not affirm; but we arecertainly more delicate in the pursuit of our pleasures. 

"The room is furnished with a set of Roman emperors, --they are notplaced in their proper order; for in the mad revelry of the evening, this family of frenzy have decollated all of them, except Nero; and hismanners had too great a similarity to their own, to admit of hissuffering so degrading an insult; their reverence for _virtue_ inducedthem to spare his head. In the frame of a _Cæsar_ they have placed aportrait of _Pontac_, an eminent cook, whose great talents being turnedto heightening sensual, rather than mental enjoyments, he has a muchbetter chance of a votive offering from this company, than would eitherVespasian or Trajan. 

"The shattered mirror, broken wine-glasses, fractured chair and cane;the mangled fowl, with a fork stuck in its breast, thrown into a corner, and indeed every accompaniment, shews, that this has been a night ofriot without enjoyment, mischief without wit, and waste withoutgratification. 

"With respect to the drawing of the figures in this curious femalecoterie, Hogarth evidently intended several of them for beauties; and ofvulgar, uneducated, prostituted beauty, he had a good idea. The hero ofour tale displays all that careless jollity, which copious draughts ofmaddening wine are calculated to inspire; he laughs the world away, andbids it pass. The poor dupe, without his periwig, in the back-ground, forms a good contrast of character: he is maudlin drunk, and sadly sick. To keep up the spirit of unity throughout the society, and not leave thepoor African girl entirely neglected, she is making signs to her friendthe porter, who perceives, and slightly returns, her love-inspiringglance. This print is rather crowded, --the subject demanded it should beso; some of the figures, thrown into shade, might have helped thegeneral effect, but would have injured the characteristic expression. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 3. 

TAVERN SCENE. ]

PLATE IV. 

ARRESTED FOR DEBT. 

 "O, vanity of youthful blood, So by misuse to poison good! Reason awakes, and views unbarr'd The sacred gates he wish'd to guard; Approaching, see the harpy _Law_, And _Poverty_, with icy paw, Ready to seize the poor remains That vice has left of all his gains. Cold _penitence_, lame _after-thought_, With fear, despair, and horror fraught, Call back his guilty pleasures dead, Whom he hath wrong'd, and whom betray'd. "

The career of dissipation is here stopped. Dressed in the first style ofthe ton, and getting out of a sedan-chair, with the hope of shining inthe circle, and perhaps forwarding a former application for a place or apension, he is arrested! To intimate that being plundered is the certainconsequence of such an event, and to shew how closely one misfortunetreads upon the heels of another, a boy is at the same moment stealinghis cane. 

The unfortunate girl whom he basely deserted, is now a milliner, andnaturally enough attends in the crowd, to mark the fashions of the day. Seeing his distress, with all the eager tenderness of unabated love, sheflies to his relief. Possessed of a small sum of money, the hardearnings of unremitted industry, she generously offers her purse for theliberation of her worthless favourite. This releases the captive beau, and displays a strong instance of female affection; which, being onceplanted in the bosom, is rarely eradicated by the coldest neglect, orharshest cruelty. 

The high-born, haughty Welshman, with an enormous leek, and acountenance keen and lofty as his native mountains, establishes thechronology, and fixes the day to be the first of March; which beingsacred to the titular saint of Wales, was observed at court. 

 Mr. Nichols remarks of this plate:--"In the early impressions, a shoe-black steals the Rake's cane. In the modern ones, a large group of sweeps, and black-shoe boys, are introduced gambling on the pavement; near them a stone inscribed _Black's_, a contrast to _White's_ gaming-house, against which a flash of lightning is pointed. The curtain in the window of the sedan-chair is thrown back. This plate is likewise found in an intermediate state; the sky being made unnaturally obscure, with an attempt to introduce a shower of rain, and lightning very aukwardly represented. It is supposed to be a first proof after the insertion of the group of blackguard gamesters; the window of the chair being only marked for an alteration that was afterwards made in it. Hogarth appears to have so far spoiled the sky, that he was obliged to obliterate it, and cause it to be engraved over again by another hand. "

 Mr. Gilpin observes:--"Very disagreeable accidents often befal gentlemen of pleasure. An event of this kind is recorded in the fourth print, which is now before us. Our hero going, in full dress, to pay his compliments at court on St. David's day, was accosted in the rude manner which is here represented. --The composition is good. The form of the group, made up of the figures in action, the chair, and the lamplighter, is pleasing. Only, here we have an opportunity of remarking, that a group is disgusting when the extremities of it are heavy. A group in some respects should resemble a tree. The heavier part of the foliage (the cup, as the landscape-painter calls it) is always near the middle; the outside branches, which are relieved by the sky, are light and airy. An inattention to this rule has given a heaviness to the group before us. The two bailiffs, the woman, and the chairman, are all huddled together in that part of the group which should have been the lightest; while the middle part, where the hand holds the door, wants strength and consistence. It may be added too, that the four heads, in the form of a diamond, make an unpleasing shape. All regular figures should be studiously avoided. --The light had been well distributed, if the bailiff holding the arrest, and the chairman, had been a little lighter, and the woman darker. The glare of the white apron is disagreeable. --We have, in this print, some beautiful instances of expression. The surprise and terror of the poor gentleman is apparent in every limb, as far as is consistent with the fear of discomposing his dress. The insolence of power in one of the bailiffs, and the unfeeling heart, which can jest with misery, in the other, are strongly marked. The self-importance, too, of the honest Cambrian is not ill portrayed; who is chiefly introduced to settle the chronology of the story. --In pose of grace, we have nothing striking. Hogarth might have introduced a degree of it in the female figure: at least he might have contrived to vary the heavy and unpleasing form of her drapery. --The perspective is good, and makes an agreeable shape. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 4. 

ARRESTED FOR DEBT AS GOING TO COURT. ]

PLATE V. 

MARRIES AN OLD MAID. 

 "New to the school of hard _mishap_, Driven from the ease of fortune's lap. What schemes will nature not embrace T' avoid less shame of drear distress? _Gold_ can the charms of youth bestow, And mask deformity with shew: Gold can avert the sting of shame, In Winter's arms create a flame: Can couple youth with hoary age, And make antipathies engage. "

To be thus degraded by the rude enforcement of the law, and relievedfrom an exigence by one whom he had injured, would have wounded, humbled, I had almost said reclaimed, any man who had either feeling orelevation of mind; but, to mark the progression of vice, we here seethis depraved, lost character, hypocritically violating every naturalfeeling of the soul, to recruit his exhausted finances, and marrying anold and withered Sybil, at the sight of whom nature must recoil. 

The ceremony passes in the old church, Mary-le-bone, which was thenconsidered at such a distance from London, as to become the usual resortof those who wished to be privately married; that such was the view ofthis prostituted young man, may be fairly inferred from a glance at theobject of his choice. Her charms are heightened by the affectation of anamorous leer, which she directs to her youthful husband, in gratefulreturn for a similar compliment which she supposes paid to herself. Thisgives her face much meaning, but meaning of such a sort, that anobserver being ask, "_How dreadful must be this creature's hatred?_"would naturally reply, "_How hateful must be her love!_"

In his demeanor we discover an attempt to appear at the altar withbecoming decorum: but internal perturbation darts through assumedtranquillity, for though he is _plighting his troth_ to the old woman, his eyes are fixed on the young girl who kneels behind her. 

The parson and clerk seem made for each other; a sleepy, stupidsolemnity marks every muscle of the divine, and the nasal droning of the_lay brother_ is most happily expressed. Accompanied by her child andmother, the unfortunate victim of his seduction is here againintroduced, endeavouring to enter the church, and forbid the banns. Theopposition made by an old pew-opener, with her bunch of keys, gave theartist a good opportunity for indulging his taste in the burlesque, andhe has not neglected it. 

A dog (Trump, Hogarth's favorite), paying his addresses to a one-eyedquadruped of his own species, is a happy parody of the unnatural uniongoing on in the church. 

The commandments are broken: a crack runs near the tenth, which says, _Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife;_ a prohibition in thepresent case hardly necessary. The creed is destroyed by the damps ofthe church; and so little attention has been paid to the poor's box, that it is covered with a _cobweb_! These three high-wrought strokes ofsatirical humour were perhaps never equalled by any exertion of thepencil; excelled they cannot be. 

On one of the pew doors is the following curious specimen of church-yardpoetry, and mortuary orthography. 

 THESE : PEWES : VNSCRUD : AND TANE : IN : SVNDER IN : STONE : THERS : GRAUEN : WHAT : IS : VNDER TO : WIT : A VALT : FOR : BURIAL : THERE : IS WHICH : EDWARD : FORSET : MADE : FOR : HIM : AND : HIS. 

This is a correct copy of the inscription. Part of these lines, inraised letters, now form a pannel in the wainscot at the end of theright-hand gallery, as the church is entered from the street. The muralmonument of the Taylor's, composed of lead, gilt over, is stillpreserved: it is seen in Hogarth's print, just under the window. 

A glory over the bride's head is whimsical. 

The bay and holly, which decorate the pews, give a date to the period, and determine this preposterous union of January with June, to havetaken place about the time of Christmas;

 "When Winter linger'd in her icy veins. "

Addison would have classed her among the evergreens of the sex. 

It has been observed, that "the church is too small, and the woodenpost, which seems to have no use, divides the picture verydisagreeably. " This cannot be denied: but it appears to be meant as anaccurate representation of the place, and the artist delineated what hesaw. 

The grouping is good, and the principal figure has the air of agentleman. The light is well distributed, and the scene mostcharacteristically represented. 

The commandments being represented as broken, might probably give thehint to a lady's reply, on being told that thieves had the precedingnight broken into the church, and stolen the communion-plate, and theten commandments. "I suppose, " added the informant, "that they may meltand sell the plate; but can you divine for what possible purpose theycould steal the commandments?"--"To _break_ them, to be sure, " repliedshe;--"to _break_ them. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 5. 

MARRIES AN OLD MAID. ]

PLATE VI. 

SCENE IN A GAMING HOUSE. 

 "_Gold_, thou bright son of Phoebus, source Of universal intercourse; Of weeping Virtue soft redress: And blessing those who live to bless: Yet oft behold this sacred trust, The tool of avaricious lust; No longer bond of human kind, But bane of every virtuous mind. What chaos such misuse attends, Friendship stoops to prey on friends; Health, that gives relish to delight, Is wasted with the wasting night; Doubt and mistrust is thrown on _Heaven_, And all its power to chance is given. Sad purchase of repentant tears, } Of needless quarrels, endless fears, } Of hopes of moments, pangs of years! } Sad purchase of a tortured mind, To an imprison'd body join'd. "

Though now, from the infatuated folly of his antiquated wife, inpossession of a fortune, he is still the slave of that baneful vice, which, while it enslaves the mind, poisons the enjoyments, and sweepsaway the possessions of its deluded votaries. Destructive as theearthquake which convulses nature, it overwhelms the pride of theforest, and engulfs the labours of the architect. 

Newmarket and the cockpit were the scenes of his early amusements; tocrown the whole, he is now exhibited at a gaming-table, where all islost! His countenance distorted with agony, and his soul agitated almostto madness, he imprecates vengeance upon his own head. 

 "In heartfelt bitter anguish he appears, And from the blood-shot ball gush purpled tears! He beats his brow, with rage and horror fraught; His brow half bursts with agony of thought!"

That he should be deprived of all he possessed in such a society assurround him, is not to be wondered at. One of the most conspicuouscharacters appears, by the pistol in his pocket, to be a highwayman:from the profound stupor of his countenance, we are certain he also is alosing gamester; and so absorbed in reflection, that neither the boy whobrings him a glass of water, nor the watchman's cry of "Fire!" canarouse him from his reverie. Another of the party is marked for one ofthose well-dressed continental adventurers, who, being unable to live intheir own country, annually pour into this, and with no other requisitesthan a quick eye, an adroit hand, and an undaunted forehead, areadmitted into what is absurdly enough called _good_ company. 

At the table a person in mourning grasps his hat, and hides his face, inthe agony of repentance, not having, as we infer from his weepers, received that legacy of which he is now plundered more than "a littlemonth. " On the opposite side is another, on whom fortune has severelyfrowned, biting his nails in the anguish of his soul. The fifthcompletes the climax; he is frantic; and with a drawn sword endeavoursto destroy a _pauvre miserable_ whom he supposes to have cheated him, but is prevented by the interposition of one of those staggeringvotaries of Bacchus who are to be found in every company where there isgood wine; and gaming, like the rod of Moses, so far swallows up everyother passion, that the actors, engrossed by greater objects, willinglyleave their wine to the audience. 

In the back-ground are two collusive associates, eagerly dividing theprofits of the evening. 

A nobleman in the corner is giving his note to an usurer. The lean andhungry appearance of this cent. Per cent. Worshipper of the golden calf, is well contrasted by the sleek, contented vacancy of so well-employed alegislator of this great empire. Seated at the table, a portlygentleman, of whom we see very little, is coolly sweeping off hiswinnings. 

So engrossed is every one present by his own situation, that the flameswhich surround them are disregarded, and the vehement cries of awatchman entering the room, are necessary to rouse their attention towhat is generally deemed the first law of nature, self-preservation. 

 Mr. Gilpin observes:--"The fortune, which our adventurer has just received, enables him to make one push more at the gaming-table. He is exhibited, in the sixth print, venting curses on his folly for having lost his last stake. --This is, upon the whole, perhaps, the best print of the set. The horrid scene it describes, was never more inimitably drawn. The composition is artful, and natural. If the shape of the whole be not quite pleasing, the figures are so well grouped, and with so much ease and variety, that you cannot take offence. 

 "The expression, in almost every figure, is admirable; and the whole is a strong representation of the human mind in a storm. Three stages of that species of madness which attends gaming, are here described. On the first shock, all is inward dismay. The ruined gamester is represented leaning against a wall, with his arms across, lost in an agony of horror. Perhaps never passion was described with so much force. In a short time this horrible gloom bursts into a storm of fury: he tears in pieces what comes next him; and, kneeling down, invokes curses upon himself. He next attacks others; every one in his turn whom he imagines to have been instrumental in his ruin. --The eager joy of the winning gamesters, the attention of the usurer, the vehemence of the watchman, and the profound reverie of the highwayman, are all admirably marked. There is great coolness, too, expressed in the little we see of the fat gentleman at the end of the table. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 6. 

GAMING HOUSE SCENE. ]

PLATE VII. 

PRISON SCENE. 

 "Happy the man whose constant thought, (Though in the school of hardship taught, ) Can send remembrance back to fetch Treasures from life's earliest stretch; Who, self-approving, can review Scenes of past virtues, which shine through The gloom of age, and cast a ray To gild the evening of his day! Not so the guilty wretch confined: No pleasures meet his conscious mind; No blessings brought from early youth, But broken faith, and wrested truth; Talents idle and unused, And every trust of Heaven abused. In seas of sad reflection lost, From horrors still to horrors toss'd, _Reason_ the vessel leaves to steer, And gives the helm to mad _Despair_. "

By a very natural transition Mr. Hogarth has passed his hero from agaming house into a prison--the inevitable consequence of extravagance. He is here represented in a most distressing situation, without a coatto his back, without money, without a friend to help him. Beggared by acourse of ill-luck, the common attendant on the gamester, having firstmade away with every valuable he was master of, and having now no otherresource left to retrieve his wretched circumstances, he at last, vainlypromising himself success, commences author, and attempts, thoughinadequate to the task, to write a play, which is lying on the table, just returned with an answer from the manager of the theatre, to whom hehad offered it, that his piece would by no means do. Struck speechlesswith this disastrous occurrence, all his hopes vanish, and his mostsanguine expectations are changed into dejection of spirit. To heightenhis distress, he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided forhis perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with thatunhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspringof her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable torelieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she nevershall be able to surmount. To add to his misery, we see theunder-turnkey pressing him for his prison fees, or garnish-money, andthe boy refusing to leave the beer he ordered, without being first paidfor it. Among those assisting the fainting mother, one of whom weobserve clapping her hand, another applying the drops, is a man crustedover, as it were, with the rust of a gaol, supposed to have started fromhis dream, having been disturbed by the noise at a time when he wassettling some affairs of state; to have left his great plan unfinished, and to have hurried to the assistance of distress. We are told, by thepapers falling from his lap, one of which contains a scheme for payingthe national debt, that his confinement is owing to that itch ofpolitics some persons are troubled with, who will neglect their ownaffairs, in order to busy themselves in that which noways concernsthem, and which they in no respect understand, though their immediateruin shall follow it: nay, so infatuated do we find him, so taken upwith his beloved object, as not to bestow a few minutes on the decencyof his person. In the back of the room is one who owes his ruin to anindefatigable search after the philosopher's stone. Strange andunaccountable!--Hence we are taught by these characters, as well as bythe pair of human wings on the tester of the bed, that scheming is thesure and certain road to beggary: and that more owe their misfortunes towild and romantic notions, than to any accident they meet with in life. 

In this upset of his life, and aggravation of distress, we are tosuppose our prodigal almost driven to desperation. Now, for the firsttime, he feels the severe effects of pinching cold and griping hunger. At this melancholy season, reflection finds a passage to his heart, andhe now revolves in his mind the folly and sinfulness of his pastlife;--considers within himself how idly he has wasted the substance heis at present in the utmost need of;--looks back with shame on theiniquity of his actions, and forward with horror on the rueful scene ofmisery that awaits him; until his brain, torn with excruciating thought, loses at once its power of thinking, and falls a sacrifice to mercilessdespair. 

 Mr. Ireland remarks, on the plate before us:--"Our improvident spendthrift is now lodged in that dreary receptacle of human misery, --a prison. His countenance exhibits a picture of despair; the forlorn state of his mind is displayed in every limb, and his exhausted finances, by the turnkey's demand of prison fees, not being answered, and the boy refusing to leave a tankard of porter, unless he is paid for it. 

 "We see by the enraged countenance of his wife, that she is violently reproaching him for having deceived and ruined her. To crown this catalogue of human tortures, the poor girl whom he deserted, is come with her child--perhaps to comfort him, --to alleviate his sorrows, to soothe his sufferings:--but the agonising view is too much for her agitated frame; shocked at the prospect of that misery which she cannot remove, every object swims before her eyes, --a film covers the sight, --the blood forsakes her cheeks--her lips assume a pallid hue, --and she sinks to the floor of the prison in temporary death. What a heart-rending prospect for him by whom this is occasioned!

 "The wretched, squalid inmate, who is assisting the fainting female, bears every mark of being naturalised to the place; out of his pocket hangs a scroll, on which is inscribed, 'A scheme to pay the National Debt, by J. L. Now a prisoner in the Fleet. ' So attentive was this poor gentleman to the debts of the nation, that he totally forgot his own. The cries of the child, and the good-natured attentions of the women, heighten the interest, and realise the scene. Over the group are a large pair of wings, with which some emulator of _Dedalus_ intended to escape from his confinement; but finding them inadequate to the execution of his project, has placed them upon the tester of his bed. They would not exalt him to the regions of air, but they o'ercanopy him on earth. A chemist in the back-ground, happy in his views, watching the moment of projection, is not to be disturbed from his dream by any thing less than the fall of the roof, or the bursting of his retort;--and if his dream affords him felicity, why should he be awakened? The bed and gridiron, those poor remnants of our miserable spendthrift's wretched property, are brought here as necessary in his degraded situation; on one he must try to repose his wearied frame, on the other, he is to dress his scanty meal. "

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 7. 

PRISON SCENE. ]

PLATE VIII. 

SCENE IN A MADHOUSE. 

 "_Madness!_ thou chaos of the brain, } What art, that pleasure giv'st and pain? } Tyranny of fancy's reign! Mechanic _fancy!_ that can build Vast labyrinths and mazes wild, With rude, disjointed, shapeless measure, Fill'd with _horror_, fill'd with _pleasure_! Shapes of _horror_, that would even Cast doubt of mercy upon Heaven; Shapes of _pleasure_, that but seen, Would split the shaking sides of _Spleen_. 

 "O vanity of age! here see The stamp of Heaven effaced by thee! The headstrong course of youth thus run, What comfort from this darling son? His rattling chains with terror hear, Behold death grappling with despair! See him by thee to ruin sold, And curse _thyself_, and curse thy _gold_!"

See our hero then, in the scene before us, raving in all the dismalhorrors of hopeless insanity, in the hospital of Bethlehem, the senateof mankind, where each man may find a representative; there we beholdhim trampling on the first great law of nature, tearing himself topieces with his own hands, and chained by the leg to prevent any furthermischief he might either do to himself or others. But in this scene, dreary and horrid as are its accompaniments, he is attended by thefaithful and kind-hearted female whom he so basely betrayed. In thefirst plate we see him refuse her his promised hand. In the fourth, shereleases him from the harpy fangs of a bailiff; she is present at hismarriage; and in the hope of relieving his distress, she follows him toa prison. Our artist, in this scene of horror, has taken an opportunityof pointing out to us the various causes of mental blindness; for such, surely, it may be called, when the intuitive faculties are eitherdestroyed or impaired. In one of the inner rooms of this gallery is adespairing wretch, imploring Heaven for mercy, whose brain is crazedwith lip-labouring superstition, the most dreadful enemy of human kind;which, attended with ignorance, error, penance and indulgence, too oftendeprives its unhappy votaries of their senses. The next in view is oneman drawing lines upon a wall, in order, if possible, to find out thelongitude; and another, before him, looking through a paper, by way of atelescope. By these expressive figures we are given to understand thatsuch is the misfortune of man, that while, perhaps, the aspiring soul ispursuing some lofty and elevated conception, soaring to an uncommonpitch, and teeming with some grand discovery, the ferment often provestoo strong for the feeble brain to support, and lays the whole magazineof notions and images in wild confusion. This melancholy group iscompleted by the crazy tailor, who is staring at the mad astronomer witha sort of wild astonishment, wondering, through excess of ignorance, what discoveries the heavens can possibly afford; proud of hisprofession, he has fixed a variety of patterns in his hat, by way ofornament; has covered his poor head with shreds, and makes his measurethe constant object of his attention. Behind this man stands another, playing on the violin, with his book upon his head, intimating that toogreat a love for music has been the cause of his distraction. On thestairs sits another, crazed by love, (evident from the picture of hisbeloved object round his neck, and the words "charming Betty Careless"upon the bannisters, which he is supposed to scratch upon every wall andevery wainscot, ) and wrapt up so close in melancholy pensiveness, as noteven to observe the dog that is flying at him. Behind him, and in theinner room, are two persons maddened with ambition. These men, thoughunder the influence of the same passion, are actuated by differentnotions; one is for the papal dignity, the other for regal; one imagineshimself the Pope, and saying mass; the other fancies himself a King, isencircled with the emblem of royalty, and is casting contempt on hisimaginary subjects by an act of the greatest disdain. To brighten thisdistressful scene, and draw a smile from him whose rigid reasoning mightcondemn the bringing into public view this blemish of humanity, are twowomen introduced, walking in the gallery, as curious spectators of thismelancholy sight; one of whom is supposed, in a whisper, to bid theother observe the naked man, which she takes an opportunity of doing bya leer through the sticks of her fan. 

Thus, imagining the hero of our piece to expire raving mad, the story isfinished, and little else remains but to close it with a properapplication. Reflect then, ye parents, on this tragic tale; considerwith yourselves, that the ruin of a child is too often owing to theimprudence of a father. Had the young man, whose story we have related, been taught the proper use of money, had his parent given him someinsight into life, and graven, as it were, upon his heart, the preceptsof religion, with an abhorrence of vice, our youth would, in allprobability, have taken a contrary course, lived a credit to hisfriends, and an honour to his country. 

[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 8. 

SCENE IN BEDLAM. ]

THE DISTRESSED POET. 

This Plate describes, in the strongest colours, the distress of anauthor without friends to patronise him. Seated upon the side of hisbed, without a shirt, but wrapped in an old night-gown, he is nowspinning a poem upon "Riches:" of their _use_ he probably knowethlittle; and of their _abuse_, --if judgment can be formed fromexternals, --_certes_, he knoweth less. Enchanted, impressed, inspiredwith his subject, he is disturbed by a nymph of the _lactarium_. Hershrill-sounding voice awakes one of the _little loves_, whose _chorus_disturbs his meditations. A link of the golden chain is broken!--athought is lost!--to recover it, his hand becomes a substitute for thebarber's comb:--enraged at the noise, he tortures his head for thefleeting idea; but, ah! no thought is there!

Proudly conscious that the lines already written are sterling, hepossesses by anticipation the mines of Peru, a view of which hangs overhis head. Upon the table we see "Byshe's Art of Poetry;" for, like thepack-horse, who cannot travel without his _bells_, he cannot climb thehill of Parnassus without his _jingling-book_. On the floor lies the"Grub-street Journal, " to which valuable repository of genius and tastehe is probably a contributor. To show that he is a master of thePROFOUND, and will envelope his subject in a cloud, his pipe andtobacco-box, those friends to cogitation deep, are close to him. 

His wife, mending that part of his dress, in the pockets of which theaffluent keep their gold, is worthy of a better fate. Her figure ispeculiarly interesting. Her face, softened by adversity, and marked withdomestic care, is at this moment agitated by the appearance of aboisterous woman, insolently demanding payment of the milk-tally. In theexcuse she returns, there is a mixture of concern, complacency, andmortification. As an addition to the distresses of this poor family, adog is stealing the remnant of mutton incautiously left upon a chair. 

The sloping roof, and projecting chimney, prove the throne of thisinspired bard to be high above the crowd;--it is a garret. The chimneyis ornamented with a _dare for larks_, and a book; a loaf, thetea-equipage, and a saucepan, decorate the shelf. Before the fire hangshalf a shirt, and a pair of ruffled sleeves. His sword lies on thefloor; for though our professor of poetry waged no war, except withwords, a sword was, in the year 1740, a necessary appendage to everything which called itself "gentleman. " At the feet of his domesticseamstress, the full-dress coat is become the resting-place of a cat andtwo kittens: in the same situation is one stocking, the other is halfimmersed in the washing-pan. The broom, bellows, and mop, are scatteredround the room. The open door shows us that their cupboard isunfurnished, and tenanted by a hungry and solitary mouse. In the cornerhangs a long cloak, well calculated to conceal the threadbare wardrobeof its fair owner. 

Mr. Hogarth's strict attention to propriety of scenery, is evinced bythe cracked plaistering of the walls, broken window, and uneven floor, in the miserable habitation of this poor weaver of madrigals. When thiswas first published, the following quotation from Pope's "Dunciad" wasinscribed under the print:

 "Studious he sate, _with all his books_ around, Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound: Plunged for his sense, but found no bottom there; Then wrote and flounder'd on, in mere despair. "

_All his books_, amounting to _only four_, was, I suppose, the artist'sreason for erasing the lines. 

[Illustration: THE DISTRESSED POET. ]

THE BENCH. 

CHARACTER, CARICATURA, AND OUTRE. 

It having been universally acknowledged that Mr. Hogarth was one of themost ingenious painters of his age, and a man possessed of a vast storeof humour, which he has sufficiently shown and displayed in his numerousproductions; the general approbation his works receive, is not to bewondered at. But, as owing to the false notions of the public, notthoroughly acquainted with the true art of painting, he has been oftencalled a _caricaturer_; when, in reality, _caricatura_ was no part ofhis profession, he being a true copier of Nature; to set this matterright, and give the world a just definition of the words, _character_, _caricatura_, and _outré_, in which humorous painting principallyconsists, and to show their difference of meaning, he, in the year 1758, published this print; but, as it did not quite answer his purpose, giving an illustration of the word _character_ only, he added, in theyear 1764, the group of heads above, which he never lived to finish, though he worked upon it the day before his death. The lines betweeninverted commas are our author's own words, and are engraved at thebottom of the plate. 

"There are hardly any two things more essentially different than_character_ and _caricatura_; nevertheless, they are usually confounded, and mistaken for each other; on which account this explanation isattempted. 

"It has ever been allowed, that when a _character_ is strongly marked inthe living face, it may be considered as an index of the mind, toexpress which, with any degree of justness, in painting, requires theutmost efforts of a great master. Now that, which has of late years gotthe name of _caricatura_, is, or ought to be, totally divested of everystroke that hath a tendency to good drawing; it may be said to be aspecies of lines that are produced, rather by the hand of chance, thanof skill; for the early scrawlings of a child, which do but barely hintthe idea of a human face, will always be found to be like some person orother, and will often form such a comical resemblance, as, in allprobability, the most eminent _caricaturers_ of these times will not beable to equal, with design; because their ideas of objects are so muchmore perfect than children's, that they will, unavoidably, introducesome kind of drawing; for all the humorous effects of the fashionablemanner of _caricaturing_, chiefly depend on the surprise we are under, at finding ourselves caught with any sort of similitude in objectsabsolutely remote in their kind. Let it be observed, the more remote intheir nature, the greater is the excellence of these pieces. As a proofof this, I remember a famous _caricatura_ of a certain Italian singer, that struck at first sight, which consisted only of a straightperpendicular stroke, with a dot over. As to the French word _outré_, itis different from the rest, and signifies nothing more than theexaggerated outlines of a figure, all the parts of which may be, inother respects, a perfect and true picture of nature. A giant or a dwarfmay be called a common man, _outré_. So any part, as a nose, or a leg, made bigger, or less than it ought to be, is that part _outré_, which isall that is to be understood by this word, injudiciously used to theprejudice of _character_. "--ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY, chap. Vi. 

To prevent these distinctions being looked upon as dry andunentertaining, our author has, in this group of faces, ridiculed thewant of capacity among some of our judges, or dispensers of the law, whose shallow discernment, natural disposition, or wilful inattention, is here perfectly described in their faces. One is amusing himself inthe course of trial, with other business; another, in all the pride ofself-importance, is examining a former deposition, wholly inattentive tothat before him; the next is busied in thoughts quite foreign to thesubject; and the senses of the last are locked fast in sleep. 

The four sages on the Bench, are intended for Lord Chief Justice SirJohn Willes, the principal figure; on his right hand, Sir Edward Clive;and on his left, Mr. Justice Bathurst, and the Hon. William Noel. 

[Illustration: THE BENCH. ]

THE LAUGHING AUDIENCE. 

 "Let him laugh now, who never laugh'd before; And he who always laugh'd, laugh now the more. "

"From the first print that Hogarth engraved, to the last that hepublished, I do not think, " says Mr. Ireland, "there is one, in whichcharacter is more displayed than in this very spirited little etching. It is much superior to the more delicate engravings from his designs byother artists, and I prefer it to those that were still higher finishedby his own burin. 

"The prim coxcomb with an enormous bag, whose favours, like those ofHercules between Virtue and Vice, are contended for by two rival orangegirls, gives an admirable idea of the dress of the day; when, if we mayjudge from this print, our grave forefathers, defying Nature, anddespising convenience, had a much higher rank in the temple of Follythan was then attained by their ladies. It must be acknowledged that, since that period, the softer sex have asserted their natural rights;and, snatching the wreath of fashion from the brow of presuming man, have tortured it into such forms that, were it possible, which _certes_it is not, to disguise a beauteous face----But to the high behest ofFashion all must bow. 

"Governed by this idol, our beau has a cuff that, for a modern fop, would furnish fronts for a waistcoat, and a family fire-screen might bemade of his enormous bag. His bare and shrivelled neck has a closeresemblance to that of a half-starved greyhound; and his face, figure, and air, form a fine contrast to the easy and degagée assurance of theGrisette whom he addresses. 

"The opposite figure, nearly as grotesque, though not quite so formal asits companion, presses its left hand upon its breast, in the style ofprotestation; and, eagerly contemplating the superabundant charms of abeauty of Rubens's school, presents her with a pinch of comfort. Everymuscle, every line of his countenance, is acted upon by affectation andgrimace, and his queue bears some resemblance to an ear-trumpet. 

"The total inattention of these three polite persons to the business ofthe stage, which at this moment almost convulses the children of Naturewho are seated in the pit, is highly descriptive of that refined apathywhich characterises our people of fashion, and raises them above thosemean passions that agitate the groundlings. 

"One gentleman, indeed, is as affectedly unaffected as a man of thefirst world. By his saturnine cast of face, and contracted brow, he isevidently a profound critic, and much too wise to laugh. He mustindisputably be a very great critic; for, like _Voltaire'sPoccocurante_, nothing can please him; and, while those around openevery avenue of their minds to mirth, and are willing to be delighted, though they do not well know why, he analyses the drama by the laws ofAristotle, and finding those laws are violated, determines that theauthor ought to be hissed, instead of being applauded. This it is to beso excellent a judge; this it is which gives a critic that exaltedgratification which can never be attained by the illiterate, --thesupreme power of pointing out faults, where others discern nothing butbeauties, and preserving a rigid inflexibility of muscle, while thesides of the vulgar herd are shaking with laughter. These merry mortals, thinking with Plato that it is no proof of a good stomach to nauseateevery aliment presented them, do not inquire too nicely into causes, but, giving full scope to their risibility, display a set of featuresmore highly ludicrous than I ever saw in any other print. It is to beregretted that the artist has not given us some clue by which we mighthave known what was the play which so much delighted his audience: Ishould conjecture that it was either one of Shakespear's comedies, or amodern tragedy. Sentimental comedy was not the fashion of that day. 

"The three sedate musicians in the orchestra, totally engrossed byminims and crotchets, are an admirable contrast to the company in thepit. "

[Illustration: THE LAUGHING AUDIENCE. ]

GATE OF CALAIS. 

O, THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND!

 "'Twas at the gate of Calais, Hogarth tells, Where sad despair and famine always dwells; A meagre Frenchman, Madame Grandsire's cook, As home he steer'd, his carcase that way took, Bending beneath the weight of famed sirloin, On whom he often wish'd in vain to dine; Good Father Dominick by chance came by, With rosy gills, round paunch, and greedy eye; And, when he first beheld the greasy load, His benediction on it he bestow'd; And while the solid fat his fingers press'd, He lick'd his chops, and thus the knight address'd:

 'O rare roast beef, lov'd by all mankind, Was I but doom'd to have thee, Well dress'd, and garnish'd to my mind, And swimming in thy gravy; Not all thy country's force combined, Should from my fury save thee!

 'Renown'd sirloin! oft times decreed The theme of English ballad, E'en kings on thee have deign'd to feed, Unknown to Frenchman's palate; Then how much must thy taste exceed Soup-meagre, frogs, and salad!'"

The thought on which this whimsical and highly-characteristic print isfounded, originated in Calais, to which place Mr. Hogarth, accompaniedby some of his friends, made an excursion, in the year 1747. 

Extreme partiality for his native country was the leading trait of hischaracter; he seems to have begun his three hours' voyage with a firmdetermination to be displeased at every thing he saw out of Old England. For a meagre, powdered figure, hung with tatters, _a-la-mode de Paris_, to affect the airs of a coxcomb, and the importance of a sovereign, isridiculous enough; but if it makes a man happy, why should he belaughed at? It must blunt the edge of ridicule, to see natural hilaritydefy depression; and a whole nation laugh, sing, and dance, underburthens that would nearly break the firm-knit sinews of a Briton. Suchwas the picture of France at that period, but it was a picture which ourEnglish satirist could not contemplate with common patience. The swarmsof grotesque figures who paraded the streets excited his indignation, and drew forth a torrent of coarse abusive ridicule, not much to thehonour of his liberality. He compared them to Callot's beggars--Lazaruson the painted cloth--the prodigal son--or any other object descriptiveof extreme contempt. Against giving way to these effusions of nationalspleen in the open street, he was frequently cautioned, but advice hadno effect; he treated admonition with scorn, and considered his monitorunworthy the name of Englishman. These satirical ebullitions were atlength checked. Ignorant of the customs of France, and considering thegate of Calais merely as a piece of ancient architecture, he began tomake a sketch. This was soon observed; he was seized as a spy, whointended to draw a plan of the fortification, and escorted by a file ofmusqueteers to M. La Commandant. His sketch-book was examined, leaf byleaf, and found to contain drawings that had not the most distantrelation to tactics. Notwithstanding this favourable circumstance, thegovernor, with great politeness, assured him, that had not a treatybetween the nations been actually signed, he should have been under thedisagreeable necessity of hanging him upon the ramparts: as it was, hemust be permitted the privilege of providing him a few militaryattendants, who should do themselves the honour of waiting upon him, while he resided in the dominions of "the grande monarque. " Twosentinels were then ordered to escort him to his hotel, from whence theyconducted him to the vessel; nor did they quit their prisoner, until hewas a league from shore; when, seizing him by the shoulders, andspinning him round upon the deck, they said he was now at liberty topursue his voyage without further molestation. 

So mortifying an adventure he did not like to hear recited, but has inthis print recorded the circumstance which led to it. In one corner hehas given a portrait of himself, making the drawing; and to shew themoment of arrest, the hand of a serjeant is upon his shoulder. 

The French sentinel is so situated, as to give some idea of a figurehanging in chains: his ragged shirt is trimmed with a pair of paperruffles. The old woman, and a fish which she is pointing at, have astriking resemblance. The abundance of parsnips, and other vegetables, indicate what are the leading articles in a Lenten feast. 

Mr. Pine, the painter, sat for the friar, and from thence acquired thetitle of Father Pine. This distinction did not flatter him, and hefrequently requested that the countenance might be altered, but theartist peremptorily refused. 

[Illustration: GATE OF CALAIS. 

"O THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND. "]

THE POLITICIAN. 

 "A politician should (as I have read) Be furnish'd in the first place with a head. "

One of our old writers gives it as his opinion, that "there are onlietwo subjects which are worthie the studie of a wise man, " i. E. Religionand politics. For the first, it does not come under inquiry in thisprint, --but certain it is, that too sedulously studying the second, hasfrequently involved its votaries in many most tedious and unprofitabledisputes, and been the source of much evil to many well-meaning andhonest men. Under this class comes the Quidnunc here pourtrayed; it issaid to be intended for a Mr. Tibson, laceman, in the Strand, who paidmore attention to the affairs of Europe, than to those of his own shop. He is represented in a style somewhat similar to that in which Schalckenpainted William the third, --holding a candle in his right hand, andeagerly inspecting the Gazetteer of the day. Deeply interested in theintelligence it contains, concerning the flames that rage on theContinent, he is totally insensible of domestic danger, and regardlessof a flame, which, ascending to his hat, --

 "Threatens destruction to his three-tail'd wig. "

From the tie-wig, stockings, high-quartered shoes, and sword, I shouldsuppose it was painted about the year 1730, when street robberies wereso frequent in the metropolis, that it was customary for men in trade towear swords, not to preserve their religion and liberty from foreigninvasion, but to defend their own pockets from "domestic collectors. "

The original sketch Hogarth presented to his friend Forrest; it wasetched by Sherwin, and published in 1775. 

[Illustration: THE POLITICIAN. ]

TASTE IN HIGH LIFE, IN THE YEAR 1742. 

The picture from which this print was copied, Hogarth painted by theorder of Miss Edwards, a woman of large fortune, who having been laughedat for some singularities in her manners, requested the artist torecriminate on her opponents, and paid him sixty guineas for hisproduction. 

It is professedly intended to ridicule the reigning fashions of highlife, in the year 1742: to do this, the painter has brought into onegroup, an old beau and an old lady of the Chesterfield school, afashionable young lady, a little black boy, and a full-dressed monkey. The old lady, with a most affected air, poises, between her finger andthumb, a small tea-cup, with the beauties of which she appears to behighly enamoured. 

The gentleman, gazing with vacant wonder at that and the companionsaucer which he holds in his hand, joins in admiration of itsastonishing beauties!

 "Each varied colour of the brightest hue, The green, the red, the yellow, and the blue, In every part their dazzled eyes behold, Here streak'd with silver--there enrich'd with gold. "

This gentleman is said to be intended for Lord Portmore, in the habit hefirst appeared at Court, on his return from France. The cane danglingfrom his wrist, large muff, long queue, black stock, feathered chapeau, and shoes, give him the air of

 "An old and finish'd fop, All cork at heel, and feather all at top. "

The old lady's habit, formed of stiff brocade, gives her the appearanceof a squat pyramid, with a grotesque head at the top of it. The youngone is fondling a little black boy, who on his part is playing with apetite pagoda. This miniature Othello has been said to be intended forthe late Ignatius Sancho, whose talents and virtues were an honour tohis colour. At the time the picture was painted, he would have beenrather older than the figure, but as he was then honoured by thepartiality and protection of a noble family, the painter might possiblymean to delineate what his figure had been a few years before. 

The little monkey, with a magnifying glass, bag-wig, solitaire, lacedhat, and ruffles, is eagerly inspecting a bill of fare, with thefollowing articles _pour diner_; cocks' combs, ducks' tongues, rabbits'ears, fricasee of snails, _grande d'oeufs buerre_. 

In the centre of the room is a capacious china jar; in one corner atremendous pyramid, composed of packs of cards, and on the floor closeto them, a bill, inscribed "Lady Basto, D^{r} to John Pip, forcards, --£300. "

The room is ornamented with several pictures; the principal representsthe Medicean Venus, on a pedestal, in stays and high-heeled shoes, andholding before her a hoop petticoat, somewhat larger than a fig-leaf; aCupid paring down a fat lady to a thin proportion, and another Cupidblowing up a fire to burn a hoop petticoat, muff, bag, queue wig, &c. Onthe dexter side is another picture, representing Monsieur Desnoyer, operatically habited, dancing in a grand ballet, and surrounded bybutterflies, insects evidently of the same genus with this deity ofdance. On the sinister, is a drawing of exotics, consisting of queue andbag-wigs, muffs, solitaires, petticoats, French heeled shoes, and otherfantastic fripperies. 

Beneath this is a lady in a pyramidical habit walking the Park; and asthe companion picture, we have a blind man walking the streets. 

The fire-screen is adorned with a drawing of a lady in a sedan-chair--

 "To conceive how she looks, you must call to your mind The lady you've seen in a lobster confined, Or a pagod in some little corner enshrined. "

As Hogarth made this design from the ideas of Miss Edwards, it has beensaid that he had no great partiality for his own performance, and that, as he never would consent to its being engraved, the drawing from whichthe first print was copied, was made by the connivance of one of herservants. Be that as it may, his ridicule on the absurdities offashion, --on the folly of collecting old china, --cookery, --card playing, &c. Is pointed, and highly wrought. 

At the sale of Miss Edwards's effects at Kensington, the originalpicture was purchased by the father of Mr. Birch, surgeon, ofEssex-street, Strand. 

[Illustration: TASTE IN HIGH LIFE. ]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE I. 

 "The snares are set, the plot is laid, Ruin awaits thee, --hapless maid! Seduction sly assails thine ear, And _gloating, foul desire_ is near; Baneful and blighting are their smiles, Destruction waits upon their wiles; Alas! thy guardian angel sleeps, Vice clasps her hands, and virtue weeps. "

The general aim of historical painters, says Mr. Ireland, has been toemblazon some signal exploit of an exalted and distinguished character. To go through a series of actions, and conduct their hero from thecradle to the grave, to give a history upon canvass, and tell a storywith the pencil, few of them attempted. Mr. Hogarth saw, with theintuitive eye of genius, that one path to the Temple of Fame was yetuntrodden: he took Nature for his guide, and gained the summit. He wasthe painter of Nature; for he gave, not merely the ground-plan of thecountenance, but marked the features with every impulse of the mind. Hemay be denominated the biographical dramatist of domestic life. Leavingthose heroic monarchs who have blazed through their day, with thedestructive brilliancy of a comet, to their adulatory historians, he, like Lillo, has taken his scenes from humble life, and rendered them asource of entertainment, instruction, and morality. 

This series of prints gives the history of a Prostitute. The storycommences with her arrival in London, where, initiated in the school ofprofligacy, she experiences the miseries consequent to her situation, and dies in the morning of life. Her variety of wretchedness, forms sucha picture of the way in which vice rewards her votaries, as ought towarn the young and inexperienced from entering this path of infamy. 

The first scene of this domestic tragedy is laid at the Bell Inn, inWood-street, and the heroine may possibly be daughter to the poor oldclergyman who is reading the direction of a letter close to the Yorkwaggon, from which vehicle she has just alighted. In attire--neat, plain, unadorned; in demeanor--artless, modest, diffident: in the bloomof youth, and more distinguished by native innocence than elegantsymmetry; her conscious blush, and downcast eyes, attract the attentionof a female fiend, who panders to the vices of the opulent andlibidinous. Coming out of the door of the inn, we discover two men, oneof whom is eagerly gloating on the devoted victim. This is a portrait, and said to be a strong resemblance of Colonel Francis Chartres. 

The old procuress, immediately after the girl's alighting from thewaggon, addresses her with the familiarity of a friend, rather than thereserve of one who is to be her mistress. 

Had her father been versed in even the first rudiments of physiognomy, he would have prevented her engaging with one of so decided an aspect:for this also is the portrait of a woman infamous in her day: but he, good, easy man, unsuspicious as Fielding's parson Adams, is whollyengrossed in the contemplation of a superscription to a letter, addressed to the bishop of the diocese. So important an object preventshis attending to his daughter, or regarding the devastation occasionedby his gaunt and hungry Rozinante having snatched at the straw thatpacks up some earthenware, and produced

 "The wreck of flower-pots, and the crash of pans!"

From the inn she is taken to the house of the procuress, divested of herhome-spun garb, dressed in the gayest style of the day; and the tendernative hue of her complexion incrusted with paint, and disguised bypatches. She is then introduced to Colonel Chartres, and by artfulflattery and liberal promises, becomes intoxicated with the dreams ofimaginary greatness. A short time convinces her of how light a breaththese promises were composed. Deserted by her keeper, and terrified bythreats of an immediate arrest for the pompous paraphernalia ofprostitution, after being a short time protected by one of the tribe ofLevi, she is reduced to the hard necessity of wandering the streets, forthat precarious subsistence which flows from the drunken rake, orprofligate debauchee. Here her situation is truly pitiable! Chilled bynipping frost and midnight dew, the repentant tear trickling on herheaving bosom, she endeavours to drown reflection in draughts ofdestructive poison. This, added to the contagious company of women ofher own description, vitiates her mind, eradicates the native seeds ofvirtue, destroys that elegant and fascinating simplicity, which givesadditional charms to beauty, and leaves, in its place, art, affectation, and impudence. 

Neither the painter of a sublime picture, nor the writer of an heroicpoem, should introduce any trivial circumstances that are likely to drawthe attention from the principal figures. Such compositions should formone great whole: minute detail will inevitably weaken their effect. Butin little stories, which record the domestic incidents of familiar life, these accessary accompaniments, though trifling in themselves, acquire aconsequence from their situation; they add to the interest, and realisethe scene. In this, as in almost all that were delineated by Mr. Hogarth, we see a close regard paid to things as they then were; bywhich means his prints become a sort of historical record of the mannersof the age. 

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 1. 

ENSNARED BY A PROCURESS. ]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE II. 

 "Ah! why so vain, though blooming in thy spring, Thou shining, frail, adorn'd, but wretched thing Old age will come; disease may come before, And twenty prove as fatal as threescore!"

Entered into the path of infamy, the next scene exhibits our youngheroine the mistress of a rich Jew, attended by a black boy, [1] andsurrounded with the pompous parade of tasteless profusion. Her mindbeing now as depraved, as her person is decorated, she keeps up thespirit of her character by extravagance and inconstancy. An example ofthe first is exhibited in the monkey being suffered to drag her richhead-dress round the room, and of the second in the retiring gallant. The Hebrew is represented at breakfast with his mistress; but, havingcome earlier than was expected, the favourite has not departed. Tosecure his retreat is an exercise for the invention of both mistress andmaid. This is accomplished by the lady finding a pretence forquarrelling with the Jew, kicking down the tea-table, and scalding hislegs, which, added to the noise of the china, so far engrosses hisattention, that the paramour, assisted by the servant, escapesdiscovery. 

The subjects of two pictures, with which the room is decorated, areDavid dancing before the ark, and Jonah seated under a gourd. They areplaced there, not merely as circumstances which belong to Jewish story, but as a piece of covert ridicule on the old masters, who generallypainted from the ideas of others, and repeated the same tale _adinfinitum_. On the toilet-table we discover a mask, which well enoughintimates where she had passed part of the preceding night, and thatmasquerades, then a very fashionable amusement, were much frequented bywomen of this description; a sufficient reason for their being avoidedby those of an opposite character. 

Under the protection of this disciple of Moses she could not remainlong. Riches were his only attraction, and though profusely lavished onthis unworthy object, her attachment was not to be obtained, nor couldher constancy be secured; repeated acts of infidelity are punished bydismission; and her next situation shows, that like most of thesisterhood, she had lived without apprehension of the sunshine of lifebeing darkened by the passing cloud, and made no provision for the hourof adversity. 

In this print the characters are marked with a master's hand. Theinsolent air of the harlot, the astonishment of the Jew, eagerlygrasping at the falling table, the start of the black boy, the cautioustrip of the ungartered and barefooted retreating gallant, and the suddenspring of the scalded monkey, are admirably expressed. To represent anobject in its descent, has been said to be impossible; the attempt hasseldom succeeded; but, in this print, the tea equipage really appearsfalling to the floor; and, in Rembrandt's Abraham's Offering, in theHoughton collection, now at Petersburg, the knife dropping from the handof the patriarch, appears in a falling state. 

Quin compared Garrick in Othello to the black boy with the tea-kettle, acircumstance that by no means encouraged our Roscius to continue actingthe part. Indeed, when his face was obscured, his chief power ofexpression was lost; and then, and not till then, was he reduced to alevel with several other performers. It has been remarked, however, thatGarrick said of himself, that when he appeared in Othello, Quin, hesupposed, would say, "Here's Pompey! where's the tea-kettle?"

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The attendant black boy gave the foundation of an ill-natured remarkby Quin, when Garrick once attempted the part of Othello. "He pretend toplay Othello!" said the surly satirist; "He pretend to play Othello! Hewants nothing but the tea-kettle and lamp, to qualify him for Hogarth'sPompey!"

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 2. 

QUARRELS WITH HER JEW PROTECTOR. ]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE III. 

 "Reproach, scorn, infamy, and hate, On all thy future steps shall wait; Thy furor be loath'd by every eye, And every foot thy presence fly. "

We here see this child of misfortune fallen from her high estate! Hermagnificent apartment is quitted for a dreary lodging in the purlieus ofDrury-lane; she is at breakfast, and every object exhibits marks of themost wretched penury: her silver tea-kettle is changed for a tin pot, and her highly decorated toilet gives place to an old leaf table, strewed with the relics of the last night's revel, and ornamented with abroken looking-glass. Around the room are scattered tobacco-pipes, ginmeasures, and pewter pots; emblems of the habits of life into which sheis initiated, and the company which she now keeps: this is fartherintimated by the wig-box of James Dalton, a notorious street-robber, whowas afterwards executed. In her hand she displays a watch, which mightbe either presented to her, or stolen from her last night's gallant. Bythe nostrums which ornament the broken window, we see that poverty isnot her only evil. 

The dreary and comfortless appearance of every object in this wretchedreceptacle, the bit of butter on a piece of paper, the candle in abottle, the basin upon a chair, the punch-bowl and comb upon the table, and the tobacco-pipes, &c. Strewed upon the unswept floor, give anadmirable picture of the style in which this pride of Drury-lane ate hermatin meal. The pictures which ornament the room are, Abraham offeringup Isaac, and a portrait of the Virgin Mary; Dr. Sacheverell andMacheath the highwayman, are companion prints. There is somewhimsicality in placing the two ladies under a canopy, formed by theunnailed valance of the bed, and characteristically crowned by thewig-box of a highwayman. 

When Theodore, the unfortunate king of Corsica, was so reduced as tolodge in a garret in Dean-street, Soho, a number of gentlemen made acollection for his relief. The chairman of their committee informed him, by letter, that on the following day, at twelve o'clock, two of thesociety would wait upon his majesty with the money. To give his atticapartment an appearance of royalty, the poor monarch placed anarm-chair on his half-testered bed, and seating himself under thescanty canopy, gave what he thought might serve as the representation ofa throne. When his two visitors entered the room, he graciously held outhis right hand, that they might have the honour of--kissing it!

A magistrate, cautiously entering the room, with his attendantconstables, commits her to a house of correction, where our legislatorswisely suppose, that being confined to the improving conversation of herassociates in vice, must have a powerful tendency towards thereformation of her manners. Sir John Gonson, a justice of peace, veryactive in the suppression of brothels, is the person represented. In _aView of the Town in 1735_, by T. Gilbert, fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, are the following lines:

 "Though laws severe to punish crimes were made, What honest man is of these laws afraid? All felons against judges will exclaim, As harlots tremble at a Gonson's name. "

Pope has noticed him in his Imitation of Dr. Donne, and Loveling, in avery elegant Latin ode. Thus, between the poets and the painter, thename of this harlot-hunting justice, is transmitted to posterity. Hedied on the 9th of January, 1765. 

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 3. 

APPREHENDED BY A MAGISTRATE. ]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE IV. 

 With pallid cheek and haggard eye, And loud laments, and heartfelt sigh, Unpitied, hopeless of relief, She drinks the bitter cup of grief. 

 In vain the sigh, in vain the tear, Compassion never enters here; But justice clanks her iron chain, And calls forth shame, remorse, and pain. 

The situation, in which the last plate exhibited our wretched female, was sufficiently degrading, but in this, her misery is greatlyaggravated. We now see her suffering the chastisement due to herfollies; reduced to the wretched alternative of beating hemp, orreceiving the correction of a savage task-master. Exposed to thederision of all around, even her own servant, who is well acquaintedwith the rules of the place, appears little disposed to show any returnof gratitude for recent obligations, though even her shoes, which shedisplays while tying up her garter, seem by their gaudy outside to havebeen a present from her mistress. The civil discipline of the sternkeeper has all the severity of the old school. With the true spirit oftyranny, he sentences those who will not labour to the whipping-post, toa kind of picketing suspension by the wrists, or having a heavy logfastened to their leg. With the last of these punishments he at thismoment threatens the heroine of our story, nor is it likely that hisobduracy can be softened except by a well applied fee. How dreadful, howmortifying the situation! These accumulated evils might perhaps producea momentary remorse, but a return to the path of virtue is not so easyas a departure from it. 

To show that neither the dread, nor endurance, of the severestpunishment, will deter from the perpetration of crimes, a one-eyedfemale, close to the keeper, is picking a pocket. The torn card mayprobably be dropped by the well-dressed gamester, who has exchanged thedice-box for the mallet, and whose laced hat is hung up as a companiontrophy to the hoop-petticoat. 

One of the girls appears scarcely in her teens. To the disgrace of ourpolice, these unfortunate little wanderers are still suffered to taketheir nocturnal rambles in the most public streets of the metropolis. What heart, so void of sensibility, as not to heave a pitying sigh attheir deplorable situation? Vice is not confined to colour, for a blackwoman is ludicrously exhibited, as suffering the penalty of thosefrailties, which are imagined peculiar to the fair. 

The figure chalked as dangling upon the wall, with a pipe in his mouth, is intended as a caricatured portrait of Sir John Gonson, and probablythe production of some would-be artist, whom the magistrate hadcommitted to Bridewell, as a proper academy for the pursuit of hisstudies. The inscription upon the pillory, "Better to work than standthus;" and that on the whipping-post near the laced gambler, "The rewardof idleness, " are judiciously introduced. 

In this print the composition is good: the figures in the back-ground, though properly subordinate, are sufficiently marked; the lassitude ofthe principal character, well contrasted by the austerity of the rigidoverseer. There is a fine climax of female debasement, from the gaudyheroine of our drama, to her maid, and from thence to the still object, who is represented as destroying one of the plagues of Egypt. 

Such well dressed females, as our heroine, are rarely met with in ourpresent houses of correction; but her splendid appearance issufficiently warranted by the following paragraph in the Grub-streetJournal of September 14th, 1730. 

"One Mary Moffat, a woman of great note in the hundreds of Drury, who, about a fortnight ago, was committed to hard labour in Tothill-fieldsBridewell, by nine justices, brought his majesty's writ of _habeascorpus_, and was carried before the right honourable the Lord ChiefJustice Raymond, expecting to have been either bailed or discharged; buther commitment appearing to be legal, his lordship thought fit to remandher back again to her former place of confinement, where she is nowbeating hemp in a gown very richly laced with silver. "

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 4. 

SCENE IN BRIDEWELL. ]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE V. 

 With keen remorse, deep sighs, and trembling fears Repentant groans, and unavailing tears, This child of misery resigns her breath, And sinks, despondent, in the arms of death. 

Released from Bridewell, we now see this victim to her own indiscretionbreathe her last sad sigh, and expire in all the extremity of penury andwretchedness. The two quacks, whose injudicious treatment, has probablyaccelerated her death, are vociferously supporting the infallibility oftheir respective medicines, and each charging the other with havingpoisoned her. The meagre figure is a portrait of Dr. Misaubin, aforeigner, at that time in considerable practice. 

These disputes, it has been affirmed, sometimes happen at a consultationof regular physicians, and a patient has been so unpolite as to diebefore they could determine on the name of his disorder. 

 "About the symptoms how they disagree, But how unanimous about the fee!"

While the maid servant is entreating them to cease quarrelling, andassist her dying mistress, the nurse plunders her trunk of the few poorremains of former grandeur. Her little boy, turning a scanty remnant ofmeat hung to roast by a string; the linen hanging to dry; the coalsdeposited in a corner; the candles, bellows, and gridiron hung uponnails; the furniture of the room; and indeed every accompaniment;exhibit a dreary display of poverty and wretchedness. Over the candleshangs a cake of Jew's Bread, once perhaps the property of her Leviticallover, and now used as a fly-trap. The initials of her name, M. H. Aresmoked upon the ceiling as a kind of _memento mori_ to the nextinhabitant. On the floor lies a paper inscribed "anodyne necklace, " atthat time deemed a sort of charm against the disorders incident tochildren; and near the fire, a tobacco-pipe, and paper of pills. 

A picture of general, and at this awful moment, indecent confusion, isadmirably represented. The noise of two enraged quacks disputing in badEnglish; the harsh, vulgar scream of the maid servant; the tablefalling, and the pot boiling over, must produce a combination of soundsdreadful and dissonant to the ear. In this pitiable situation, without afriend to close her dying eyes, or soften her sufferings by a tributarytear; forlorn, destitute, and deserted, the heroine of this eventfulhistory expires! her premature death, brought on by a licentious life, seven years of which had been devoted to debauchery and dissipation, andattended by consequent infamy, misery, and disease. The whole storyaffords a valuable lesson to the young and inexperienced, and provesthis great, this important truth, that A DEVIATION FROM VIRTUE IS ADEPARTURE FROM HAPPINESS. 

The emaciated appearance of the dying figure, the boy's thoughtlessinattention, and the rapacious, unfeeling eagerness of the old nurse, are naturally and forcibly delineated. 

The figures are well grouped; the curtain gives depth, and forms a goodback-ground to the doctor's head; the light is judiciously distributed, and each accompaniment highly appropriate. 

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 5. 

EXPIRES WHILE THE DOCTORS ARE DISPUTING. ]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE VI. 

 "No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear, Pleas'd thy pale ghost, or grac'd thy mournful bier: By harlots' hands thy dying eyes were clos'd; By harlots' hands thy decent limbs compos'd; By harlots' hands thy humble grave adorn'd; By harlots honour'd, and by harlots mourn'd. "

The adventures of our heroine are now concluded. She is no longer anactor in her own tragedy; and there are those who have considered thisprint as a farce at the end of it: but surely such was not the author'sintention. 

The ingenious writer of Tristram Shandy begins the life of his herobefore he is born; the picturesque biographer of Mary Hackabout hasfound an opportunity to convey admonition, and enforce his moral, afterher death. A wish usually prevails, even among those who are mosthumbled by their own indiscretion, that some respect should be paid totheir remains; that their eyes should be closed by the tender hand of asurviving friend, and the tear of sympathy and regret shed upon the sodwhich covers their grave; that those who loved them living, shouldattend their last sad obsequies; and a sacred character read over themthe awful service which our religion ordains, with the solemnity itdemands. The memory of this votary of prostitution meets with no suchmarks of social attention, or pious respect. The preparations for herfuneral are as licentious as the progress of her life, and the contagionof her example seems to reach all who surround her coffin. One of themis engaged in the double trade of seduction and thievery; a second iscontemplating her own face in a mirror. The female who is gazing at thecorpse, displays some marks of concern, and feels a momentarycompunction at viewing the melancholy scene before her: but if any otherpart of the company are in a degree affected, it is a mere maudlinsorrow, kept up by glasses of strong liquor. The depraved priest doesnot seem likely to feel for the dead that hope expressed in our liturgy. The appearance and employment of almost every one present at thismockery of woe, is such as must raise disgust in the breast of anyfemale who has the least tincture of delicacy, and excite a wish thatsuch an exhibition may not be displayed at her own funeral. 

In this plate there are some local customs which mark the manners of thetimes when it was engraved, but are now generally disused, except insome of the provinces very distant from the capital; sprigs of rosemarywere then given to each of the mourners: to appear at a funeral withoutone, was as great an indecorum as to be without a white handkerchief. This custom might probably originate at a time when the plaguedepopulated the metropolis, and rosemary was deemed an antidote againstcontagion. It must be acknowledged that there are also in this printsome things which, though they gave the artist an opportunity ofdisplaying his humour, are violations of propriety and customs: such isher child, but a few removes from infancy, being habited as chiefmourner, to attend his parent to the grave; rings presented, and anescutcheon hung up, in a garret, at the funeral of a needy prostitute. The whole may be intended as a burlesque upon ostentatious and expensivefunerals, which were then more customary than they are now. Mr. Pope haswell ridiculed the same folly;

 "When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend The wretch who, living, sav'd a candle's end. "

The figures have much characteristic discrimination; the woman lookinginto the coffin has more beauty than we generally see in the works ofthis artist. The undertaker's gloating stare, his companion's leer, theinternal satisfaction of the parson and his next neighbour, arecontrasted by the Irish howl of the woman at the opposite side, andevince Mr. Hogarth's thorough knowledge of the operation of the passionsupon the features. The composition forms a good shape, has a properdepth, and the light is well managed. 

Sir James Thornhill's opinion of this series may be inferred from thefollowing circumstance. Mr. Hogarth had without consent married hisdaughter: Sir James, considering him as an obscure artist, was muchdispleased with the connexion. To give him a better opinion of hisson-in-law, a common friend, one morning, privately conveyed the sixpictures of the Harlot's Progress into his drawing-room. The veteranpainter eagerly inquired who was the artist; and being told, cried out, "Very well! Very well indeed! The man who can paint such pictures asthese, can maintain a wife without a portion. " This was the remark ofthe moment; but he afterwards considered the union of his daughter witha man of such abilities an honour to his family, was reconciled, andgenerous. 

When the publication was advertised, such was the expectation of thetown, that above twelve hundred names were entered in the subscriptionbook. When the prints appeared, they were beheld with astonishment. Asubject so novel in the idea, so marked with genius in the execution, excited the most eager attention of the public. At a time when Englandwas coldly inattentive to every thing which related to the arts, sodesirous were all ranks of people of seeing how this little domesticstory was delineated, that there were eight piratical imitations, besides two copies in a smaller size than the original, published, bypermission of the author, for Thomas Bakewell. The whole series werecopied on fan-mounts, representing the six plates, three on one side, and three on the other. It was transferred from the copper to the stage, in the form of a pantomime, by Theophilus Cibber; and again representedin a ballad opera, entitled, the Jew Decoyed; or, the Harlot'sProgress. 

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. 

PLATE 6. 

THE FUNERAL. ]

THE LECTURE. 

DATUR VACUUM. 

 "No wonder that science, and learning profound, In Oxford and Cambridge so greatly abound, When so many take thither a little each day, And we see very few who bring any away. "

I was once told by a fellow of a college, says Mr. Ireland, that hedisliked Hogarth, because he had in this print ridiculed one of theUniversities. I endeavoured to defend the artist, by suggesting thatthis was not intended as a picture of what Oxford is now, but of what itwas in days long past: that it was that kind of general satire withwhich no one should be offended, &c. &c. His reply was too memorable tobe forgotten. "Sir, the Theatre, the Bench, the College of Physicians, and the Foot Guards, are fair objects of satire; but those venerablecharacters who have devoted their whole lives to feeding the lamp oflearning with hallowed oil, are too sacred to be the sport of anuneducated painter. Their unremitting industry embraced the whole circleof the sciences, and in their logical disputations they displayed anacuteness that their followers must contemplate with astonishment. Thepresent state of Oxford it is not necessary for me to analyze, as youcontend that the satire is not directed against that. "

In answer to this observation, which was uttered with becoming gravity, a gentleman present remarked, as follows. "For some of the ancientcustoms of this seminary of learning, I have much respect, but as totheir dry treatises on logic, immaterial dissertations on materiality, and abstruse investigations of useless subjects, they are mere literarylegerdemain. Their disputations being usually built on an undefinablechimera, are solved by a paradox. Instead of exercising their power ofreason they exert their powers of sophistry, and divide and subdivideevery subject with such casuistical minuteness, that those who are notconvinced, are almost invariably confounded. This custom, it must begranted, is not quite so prevalent as it once was: a general spirit ofreform is rapidly diffusing itself; and though I have heard cold-bloodeddeclaimers assert, that these shades of science are become the retreatsof ignorance, and the haunts of dissipation, I consider them as thegreat schools of urbanity, and favourite seats of the _belles lettres_. By the _belles lettres_, I mean history, biography, and poetry; that allthese are universally cultivated, I can exemplify by the manner in whicha highly accomplished young man, who is considered as a model by hisfellow-collegians, divides his hours. 

"At breakfast I found him studying the marvellous and eventful historyof Baron Munchausen; a work whose periods are equally free from thelong-winded obscurity of Tacitus, and the asthmatic terseness ofSallust. While his hair was dressing, he enlarged his imagination andimproved his morals by studying Doctor what's his name's abridgement ofChesterfield's Principles of Politeness. To furnish himself withbiographical information, and add to his stock of useful anecdote, hestudied the Lives of the Highwaymen; in which he found manyopportunities of exercising his genius and judgment in drawing parallelsbetween the virtues and exploits of these modern worthies, and thosedignified, and almost deified ancient heroes whose deeds are recorded inPlutarch and Nepos. 

"With poetical studies, he is furnished by the English operas, which, added to the prologues, epilogues, and odes of the day, afford himhigher entertainment than he could find in Homer or Virgil: he has notstored his memory with many epigrams, but of puns has a plentiful stock, and in _conundra_ is a wholesale dealer. At the same college I know amost striking contrast, whose reading"--But as his opponent would hearno more, my advocate dropped the subject; and I will follow his example. 

It seems probable, that when the artist engraved this print, he had onlya general reference to an university lecture; the words _datur vacuum_were an after-thought. Some prints are without the inscription, and insome of the early impressions it is written with a pen. 

The scene is laid at Oxford, and the person reading, universallyadmitted to be a Mr. Fisher, of Jesus College, _registrat_ of theuniversity, with whose consent this portrait was taken, and who liveduntil the 18th of March, 1761. That he should wish to have such a facehanded down to posterity, in such company, is rather extraordinary, forall the band, except one man, have been steeped in the stream ofstupidity. This gentleman has the profile of penetration; a projectingforehead, a Roman nose, thin lips, and a long pointed chin. His eye isbent on vacancy: it is evidently directed to the moon-faced idiot thatcrowns the pyramid, at whose round head, contrasted by a cornered cap, he with difficulty suppresses a laugh. Three fellows on the right handof this fat, contented "first-born transmitter of a foolish face, " havemost degraded characters, and are much fitter for the stable than thecollege. If they ever read, it must be in Bracken's Farriery, or theCountry Gentleman's Recreation. Two square-capped students a littlebeneath the top, one of whom is holding converse with an adjoiningprofile, and the other lifting up his eyebrows, and staring withoutsight, have the same misfortune that attended our first James--theirtongues are rather too large. A figure in the left-hand corner has shuthis eyes to think; and having, in his attempt to separate a syllogism, placed the forefinger of his right hand upon his forehead, has fallenasleep. The professor, a little above the book, endeavours by aprojection of his under lip to assume importance; such characters arenot uncommon: they are more solicitous to look wise, than to be so. OfMr. Fisher it is not necessary to say much: he sat for his portrait, forthe express purpose of having it inserted in the Lecture!--We want noother testimony of his talents. 

[Illustration: THE LECTURE. ]

THE CHORUS. 

REHEARSAL OF THE ORATORIO OF JUDITH. 

 "O _cara, cara!_ silence all that train, Joy to great _chaos!_ let division reign. "

The Oratorio of Judith, Mr. Ireland observes, was written by EsquireWilliam Huggins, honoured by the music of William de Fesch, aided by newpainted scenery and _magnifique_ decoration, and in the year 1733brought upon the stage. As De Fesch[2] was a German and a genius, we mayfairly presume it was well set; and there was at that time, as at this, a sort of musical mania, that paid much greater attention to sounds thanto sense; notwithstanding all these points in her favour, when theJewish heroine had made her theatrical _début_, and so effectually smoteHolofernes, ----"As to sever His head from his great trunk for ever and for ever. "

the audience compelled her to make her exit. To set aside this partialand unjust decree, Mr. Huggins appealed to the public, and printed hisoratorio. Though it was adorned with a frontispiece designed by Hogarth, and engraved by Vandergucht, the world could not be compelled to read, and the unhappy writer had no other resource than the consolatoryreflection, that his work was superlatively excellent, but unluckilyprinted in a tasteless age; a comfortable and solacing self-consciousness, which hath, I verily believe, prevented many a great genius from becominghis own executioner. 

To paint a sound is impossible; but as far as art can go towards it, Hogarth has gone in this print. The tenor, treble, and bass of theseear-piercing choristers are so decisively discriminated, that we all buthear them. 

The principal figure, whose head, hands, and feet are in equalagitation, has very properly tied on his spectacles; it would have beenprudent to have tied on his periwig also, for by the energy of hisaction he has shaken it from his head, and, absorbed in an eagerattention to true time, is totally unconscious of his loss. 

A gentleman--pardon me, I meant a singer--in a bag wig, immediatelybeneath his uplifted hand, I suspect to be of foreign growth. It has theengaging air of an importation from Italy. 

The little figure in the sinister corner, is, it seems, intended for aMr. Tothall, a woollen-draper, who lived in Tavistock-court, and wasHogarth's intimate friend. 

The name of the performer on his right hand, ----"Whose growling bass Would drown the clarion of the braying ass, "

I cannot learn, nor do I think that this group were meant for particularportraits, but a general representation of the violent distortions intowhich these crotchet-mongers draw their features on such solemnoccasions. 

Even the head of the bass-viol has air and character: by the band underthe chin, it gives some idea of a professor, or what is, I think, calleda Mus. D. 

The words now singing, "The world shall bow to the Assyrian throne, " areextracted from Mr. Huggins' oratorio; the etching is in a most masterlystyle, and was originally given as a subscription ticket to the ModernMidnight Conversation. 

I have seen a small political print on Sir Robert Walpole'sadministration, entitled, "Excise, a new Ballad Opera, " of which thiswas unquestionably the basis. Beneath it is the following learned andpoetical motto:

 "_Experto crede Roberto. _"

 "Mind how each hireling songster tunes his throat, And the vile knight beats time to every note: So Nero sung while Rome was all in flames, But time shall brand with infamy their names. "

FOOTNOTE:

[2] He was a respectable performer on the violin, some yearschapel-master at Antwerp, and several seasons leader of the band atMarybone Gardens. He published a collection of musical compositions, towhich was annexed a portrait of himself, characterised by three linesfrom Milton:

 "Thou honour'dst verse, and verse must lend her wing To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, That tun'st her happiest lines in hymn or song. "

He died in 1750, aged seventy years, and gives one additional name to acatalogue I have somewhere seen of very old professors of music, who, saith my author, "generally live unto a greater age than persons in anyother way of life, from their souls being so attuned unto harmony, thatthey enjoy a perpetual peace of mind. " It has been observed, and Ibelieve justly, that thinking is a great enemy to longevity, and that, consequently, they who think least will be likely to live longest. Thequantity of thought necessary to make an adept in this divine science, must be determined by those who have studied it. --It would seem by thisremark, that Mr. Ireland was not aware that to acquire proficiency inthe divine science to which he so pleasantly alludes, requires greatapplication and study. 

[Illustration: THE CHORUS. ]

COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG. 

By the success of Columbus's first voyage, doubt had been changed intoadmiration; from the honours with which he was rewarded, admirationdegenerated into envy. To deny that his discovery carried in its trainconsequences infinitely more important than had resulted from any madesince the creation, was impossible. His enemies had recourse to anotherexpedient, and boldly asserted that there was neither wisdom in theplan, nor hazard in the enterprise. 

When he was once at a Spanish supper, the company took this ground, andbeing by his narrative furnished with the reflections which had inducedhim to undertake his voyage, and the course that he had pursued in itscompletion, sagaciously observed, that "it was impossible for any man, adegree above an idiot, to have failed of success. The whole process wasso obvious, it must have been seen by a man who was half blind! Nothingcould be so easy!"

"It is not difficult now I have pointed out the way, " was the answer ofColumbus: "but easy as it will appear, when you are possessed of mymethod, I do not believe that, without such instruction, any personpresent could place one of these eggs upright on the table. " The cloth, knives, and forks were thrown aside, and two of the party, placing theireggs as required, kept them steady with their fingers. One of them sworethere could be no other way. "We will try, " said the navigator; andgiving an egg, which he held in his hand, a smart stroke upon the table, it remained upright. The emotions which this excited in the company areexpressed in their countenances. In the be-ruffed booby at his left handit raises astonishment; he is a DEAR ME! man, of the same family withSterne's Simple Traveller, and came from Amiens only yesterday. Thefellow behind him, beating his head, curses his own stupidity; and thewhiskered ruffian, with his fore-finger on the egg, is in his heartcursing Columbus. As to the two veterans on the other side, they havelived too long to be agitated with trifles: he who wears a cap, exclaims, "Is this all!" and the other, with a bald head, "By St. Jago, I did not think of that!" In the face of Columbus there is not thatviolent and excessive triumph which is exhibited by little characters onlittle occasions; he is too elevated to be overbearing; and, pointing tothe conical solution of his problematical conundrum, displays a calmsuperiority, and silent internal contempt. 

Two eels, twisted round the eggs upon the dish, are introduced asspecimens of the line of beauty; which is again displayed on thetable-cloth, and hinted at on the knife-blade. In all these curves thereis peculiar propriety; for the etching was given as a receipt-ticket tothe Analysis, where this favourite undulating line forms the basis ofhis system. 

In the print of Columbus, there is evident reference to the criticismson what Hogarth called his own discovery; and in truth the connoisseurs'remarks on the painter were dictated by a similar spirit to those of thecritics on the navigator: they first asserted there was no such line, and when he had proved that there was, gave the honour of discovery toLomazzo, Michael Angelo, &c. &c. 

[Illustration: COLUMBUS BREAKING THE EGG. ]

A MIDNIGHT MODERN CONVERSATION. 

 "Think not to find one meant resemblance there; We lash the vices, but the persons spare. Prints should be priz'd, as authors should be read, Who sharply smile prevailing folly dead. So Rabelais laugh'd, and so Cervantes thought; So nature dictated what art has taught. "

Notwithstanding this inscription, which was engraved on the plate sometime after its publication, it is very certain that most of thesefigures were intended for individual portraits; but Mr. Hogarth, notwishing to be considered as a personal satirist, and fearful of makingenemies among his contemporaries, would never acknowledge who were thecharacters. Some of them the world might perhaps mistake; for though theauthor was faithful in delineating whatever he intended to portray, complete intoxication so far caricatures the countenance, that, according to the old, though trite proverb, "the man is not himself. "His portrait, though given with the utmost fidelity, will scarcely beknown by his most intimate friends, unless they have previously seen himin this degrading disguise. Hence, it becomes difficult to identify menwhom the painter did not choose to point out at the time; and a centuryhaving elapsed, it becomes impossible, for all who composed the group, with the artist by whom it was delineated, Shake hands with dust, and call the worm their kinsman. 

Mrs. Piozzi was of opinion that the divine with a cork-screw, occasionally used as a tobacco-stopper, hanging upon his little finger, was the portrait of parson Ford, Dr. Johnson's uncle; though, upon theauthority of Sir John Hawkins, of anecdotish memory, it has beengenerally supposed to be intended for Orator Henley. As both theseworthies were distinguished by that rubicundity of face with which it ismarked, the reader may decree the honour of a sitting to which hepleases. 

The roaring bacchanalian who stands next him, waving his glass in theair, has pulled off his wig, and, in the zeal of his friendship, crownsthe divine's head. He is evidently drinking destruction to fanatics, andsuccess to mother church, or a mitre to the jolly parson whom headdresses. 

The lawyer, who sits near him, is a portrait of one Kettleby, avociferous bar-orator, who, though an utter barrister, chose todistinguish himself by wearing an enormous full-bottom wig, in which heis here represented. He was farther remarkable for a diabolical squint, and a satanic smile. 

A poor maudlin miserable, who is addressing him, when sober, must be afool; but, in this state, it would puzzle Lavater to assign him a properclass. He seems endeavouring to demonstrate to the lawyer, that, in apoi--poi--point of law, he has been most cruelly cheated, and lost acau--cau--cause, that he ought to have got, --and all this was owing tohis attorney being an infernal villain. This may very probably be true;for the poor man's tears show that, like the person relieved by the goodSamaritan, he has been among thieves. The barrister grins horribly athis misfortunes, and tells him he is properly punished for not employinga gentleman. 

Next to him sits a gentleman in a black periwig. He politely turns hisback to the company, that he may have the pleasure of smoking a sociablepipe. 

The justice, "in fair round belly, with good capon lin'd, "--the justice, having hung up his hat, wig, and cloak, puts on his nightcap, and, witha goblet of superior capacity before him, sits in solemn cogitation. Hisleft elbow, supported by the table, and his right by a chair, with apipe in one hand, and a stopper in the other, he puffs out the blandvapour with the dignity of an alderman, and fancies himself as great asJupiter, seated upon the summit of Mount Olympus, enveloped by the thickcloud which his own breath has created. 

With folded arms and open mouth, another leans back in his chair. Hiswig is dropped from his head, and he is asleep; but though speechless, he is sonorous; for you clearly perceive that, where nasal sounds arethe music, he is qualified to be leader of the band. 

The fallen hero, who with his chair and goblet has tumbled to the floor, by the cockade in his hat, we suppose to be an officer. His forehead ismarked, perhaps with honourable scars. To wash his wounds, and cool hishead, the staggering apothecary bathes it with brandy. 

A gentleman in the corner, who, from having the Craftsman and LondonEvening in his pocket, we determine to be a politician, very unluckilymistakes his ruffle for the bowl of his pipe, and sets fire to it. 

The person in a bag-wig and solitaire, with his hand upon his head, would not now pass for a fine gentleman, but in the year 1735 was acomplete beau. Unaccustomed to such joyous company, he appears to havedrank rather more than agrees with him. 

The company consists of eleven, and on the chimney-piece, floor, andtable, are three and twenty empty flasks. These, added to a bottle whichthe apothecary holds in his hand, prove that this select society havenot lost a moment. The overflowing bowl, full goblets, and chargedglasses, prove that they think, "'Tis too early to part, " though thedial points to four in the morning. 

The different degrees of drunkenness are well discriminated, and itseffects admirably described. The poor simpleton, who is weeping out hiswoes to honest lawyer Kettleby, it makes mawkish; the beau it makessick; and the politician it stupifies. One is excited to roaring, andanother lulled to sleep. It half closes the eyes of justice, renders thefooting of physic unsure, and lays prostrate the glory of his country, and the pride of war. 

[Illustration: A MIDNIGHT MODERN CONVERSATION. ]

CONSULTATION OF PHYSICIANS--THE UNDERTAKERS' ARMS. 

This plate is designed, with much humour, according to the rules ofheraldry, and is called The Undertakers' Arms, to show us the connexionbetween death and the quack doctor, as are also those cross-bones on theoutside of the escutcheon. When an undertaker is in want of business, hecannot better apply than to some of those gentlemen of the faculty, whoare, for the most part, so charitably disposed, as to supply thenecessities of these sable death-hunters, and keep them from starving ina healthy time. By the tenour of this piece, Mr. Hogarth would intimatethe general ignorance of such of the medical tribe, and teach us thatthey possess little more knowledge than their voluminous wigs andgolden-headed canes. They are represented in deep consultation upon thecontents of an urinal. Our artist's own illustration of this coat ofarms, as he calls it, is as follows: "The company of undertakersbeareth, sable, an urinal, proper between twelve quack heads of thesecond, and twelve cane heads, or, consultant. On a chief, _Nebulæ_, ermine, one complete doctor, issuant, checkie, sustaining in his righthand a baton of the second. On the dexter and sinister sides, twodemi-doctors, issuant of the second, and two cane heads, issuant of thethird; the first having one eye, couchant, towards the dexter side ofthe escutcheon; the second faced, per pale, proper, and gules guardant. With this motto, _Et plurima mortis imago_. The general image of death. "

It has been said of the ancients, that they began by attempting to makephysic a science, and failed; of the moderns, that they began byattempting to make it a trade, and succeeded. This company are modernsto a man, and, if we may judge of their capacities by theircountenances, are indeed a most sapient society. Their practice is veryextensive, and they go about, taking guineas, Far as the weekly bills can reach around, From Kent-street end, to fam'd St. Giles's pound. 

Many of them are unquestionably portraits, but as these grave and sagedescendants of Galen are long since gone to that place where they beforesent their patients, we are unable to ascertain any of them, except thethree who are, for distinction, placed in the chief, or most honourablepart of the escutcheon. Those who, from their exalted situation, we maynaturally conclude the most distinguished and sagacious leeches oftheir day, have marks too obtrusive to be mistaken. He towards thedexter side of the escutcheon, is determined by an eye in the head ofhis cane to be the all-accomplished Chevalier Taylor, in whosemarvellous and surprising history, written by his own hand, andpublished in 1761, is recorded such events relative to himself andothers, as have excited more astonishment than that incomparableromance, Don Belianis of Greece, the Arabian Nights, or Sir JohnMandeville's Travels. 

The centre figure, arrayed in a harlequin jacket, with a bone, or whatthe painter denominates a baton, in the right hand, is generallyconsidered designed for Mrs. Mapp, a masculine woman, daughter to oneWallin, a bone-setter at Hindon, in Wiltshire. This female Thalestris, incompatible as it may seem with her sex, adopted her father'sprofession, travelled about the country, calling herself Crazy Sally;and, like another Hercules, did wonders by strength of arm. 

On the sinister side is Dr. Ward, generally called Spot Ward, from hisleft cheek being marked with a claret colour. This gentleman was of arespectable family, and though not highly educated, had talents verysuperior to either of his coadjutors. 

For the chief, this must suffice; as for the twelve quack heads, andtwelve cane heads, or, consultant, united with the cross bones at thecorners, they have a most mortuary appearance, and do indeed convey ageneral image of death. 

In the time of Lucian, a philosopher was distinguished by threethings, --his avarice, his impudence, and his beard. In the time ofHogarth, medicine was a mystery, and there were three things whichdistinguished the physician, --his gravity, his cane-head, and hisperiwig. With these leading requisites, this venerable party are mostamply gifted. To specify every character is not necessary; but the upperfigure on the dexter side, with a wig like a weeping willow, should notbe overlooked. His lemon-like aspect must curdle the blood of all hispatients. In the countenances of his brethren there is no want of acids;but, however sour, each individual was in his day, ----------------a doctor of renown, To none but such as rust in health unknown; And, save or slay, this privilege they claim, Or death, or life, the bright reward's the same. 

[Illustration: CONSULTATION OF PHYSICIANS. ]

DANIEL LOCK, ESQ. F. A. S. 

Daniel Lock was an architect of some eminence. He retired from businesswith an ample fortune, lived in Surrey-street, and was buried in thechapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. This portrait was originallyengraved by J. M'Ardell from a painting by Hogarth, and is classed amongthe productions of our artist that are of uncertain date. 

[Illustration: DANIEL LOCK, ESQ. F. A. S. ]

THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN. 

 "With thundering noise the azure vault they tear, And rend, with savage roar, the echoing air: The sounds terrific he with horror hears; His fiddle throws aside, --and stops his ears. "

We have seen displayed the distress of a poet; in this the artist hasexhibited the rage of a musician. Our poor bard bore his misfortuneswith patience, and, rich in his Muse, did not much repine at hispoverty. Not so this master of harmony, of heavenly harmony! To theevils of poverty he is now a stranger; his _adagios_ and _cantabiles_have procured him the protection of nobles; and, contrary to the poorshirtless mendicant of the Muses that we left in a garret, he is arrayedin a coat decorated with frogs, a bag-wig, solitaire, and ruffled shirt. Waiting in the chamber of a man of fashion, whom he instructs in thedivine science of music, having first tuned his instrument, he opens hiscrotchet-book, shoulders his violin, flourishes his fiddle-stick, and, Softly sweet, in Lydian measure, Soon he soothes his soul to pleasure. 

Rapt in Elysium at the divine symphony, he is awakened from his beatificvision, by noises that distract him. 

 ----------An universal hubbub wild, Of stunning sounds, and voices all confus'd, Assails his ears with loudest vehemence. 

Confounded with the din, and enraged by the interruption, our modernTerpander starts from his seat, and opens the window. This operates asair to a kindling fire; and such a combination of noises burst upon theauricular nerve, that he is compelled to stop his ears, --but to stop thetorrent is impossible!

 A louder yet, and yet a louder strain, Break his bands of thought asunder! And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder; At the horrible sound He has rais'd up his head, As awak'd from the dead, And amazed he stares all around. 

In this situation he is delineated; and those who for a momentcontemplate the figures before him, cannot wonder at his rage. 

 A crew of hell-hounds never ceasing bark, With wide Cerberean mouth, full loud, and ring A hideous peal. 

Of the _dramatis personæ_ who perform the vocal parts, the first is afellow, in a tone that would rend hell's concave, bawling, "Dust, ho!dust, ho! dust!" Next to him, an amphibious animal, who nightly pillowshis head on the sedgy bosom of old Thames, in a voice that emulates therush of many waters, or the roaring of a cataract, is bellowing"Flounda, a, a, ars!" A daughter of May-day, who dispenses what in Londonis called milk, and is consequently a milk-maid, in a note pitched atthe very top of her voice, is crying, "Be-louw!" While a ballad-singerdolefully drawls out The Ladie's Fall, an infant in her arms joins itstreble pipe in chorus with the screaming parrot, which is on a lamp-ironover her head. On the roof of an opposite house are two cats, performingwhat an amateur of music might perhaps call a bravura duet; near themappears

 A sweep, shrill twittering on the chimney-top. 

A little French drummer, singing to his rub-a-dub, and the agreeableyell of a dog, complete the vocal performers. 

Of the instrumental, a fellow blowing a horn, with a violence that wouldhave almost shaken down the walls of Jericho, claims the first notice;next to him, the dustman rattles his bell with ceaseless clangour, untilthe air reverberates the sound. 

The intervals are filled up by a paviour, who, to every stroke of hisrammer, adds a loud, distinct, and echoing, Haugh! The pedestrian cutleris grinding a butcher's cleaver with such earnestness and force, that itelicits sparks of fire. This, added to the agonizing howls of hisunfortunate dog, must afford a perfect specimen of the ancientchromatic. The poor animal, between a man and a monkey, piping harshdiscords upon a hautboy, the girl whirling her _crepitaculum_, orrattle, and the boy beating his drum, conclude the catalogue of thisharmonious band. 

This delineation originated in a story which was told to Hogarth by thelate Mr. John Festin, who is the hero of the print. He was eminent forhis skill in playing upon the German flute and hautboy, and muchemployed as a teacher of music. To each of his scholars he devoted onehour each day. "At nine o'clock in the morning, " said he, "I once waitedupon my lord Spencer, but his lordship being out of town, from him Iwent to Mr. V----n. It was so early that he was not arisen. I went intohis chamber, and, opening a shutter, sat down in the window-seat. Beforethe rails was a fellow playing upon the hautboy. A man with a barrowfull of onions offered the piper an onion if he would play him a tune. That ended, he offered a second onion for a second tune; the same for athird, and was going on: but this was too much; I could not bear it; itangered my very soul--'Zounds!' said I, 'stop here! This fellow isridiculing my profession; he is playing on the hautboy for onions!'"

The whole of this bravura scene is admirably represented. A personquaintly enough observed, that it deafens one to look at it. 

[Illustration: THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN. ]

MASQUERADES AND OPERAS. 

BURLINGTON GATE. 

This print appeared in 1723. Of the three small figures in the centrethe middle one is Lord Burlington, a man of considerable taste inpainting and architecture, but who ranked Mr. Kent, an indifferentartist, above his merit. On one side of the peer is Mr. Campbell, thearchitect; on the other, his lordship's postilion. On a show-cloth inthis plate is also supposed to be the portrait of king George II. Whogave 1000_l. _ towards the Masquerade; together with that of the earl ofPeterborough, who offers Cuzzoni, the Italian singer, 8000_l. _ and shespurns at him. Mr. Heidegger, the regulator of the Masquerade, is alsoexhibited, looking out of a window, with the letter H under him. 

The substance of the foregoing remarks is taken from a collection latelybelonging to Captain Baillie, where it is said that they were furnishedby an eminent connoisseur. 

A board is likewise displayed, with the words, "Long Room. Fawks'sdexterity of hand. " It appears from the following advertisement thatthis was a man of great consequence in his profession: "Whereas the townhath been lately alarmed, that the famous Fawks was robbed and murdered, returning from performing at the duchess of Buckingham's house atChelsea; which report being raised and printed by a person to gain moneyto himself, and prejudice the above-mentioned Mr. Fawks, whoseunparalleled performance has gained him so much applause from thegreatest of quality, and most curious observers: We think, both injustice to the injured gentleman, and for the satisfaction of hisadmirers, that we cannot please our readers better than to acquaint themhe is alive, and will not only perform his usual surprising dexterity ofhand, posture-master, and musical clock: but, for the greater diversionof the quality and gentry, has agreed with the famous Powell of the Bathfor the season, who has the largest, richest, and most natural figures, and finest machines in England, and whose former performances in CoventGarden were so engaging to the town, as to gain the approbation of thebest judges, to show his puppet-plays along with him, beginning in theChristmas holidays next, at the Old Tennis-court, in James's-street, near the Haymarket; where any incredulous persons may be satisfied he isnot left this world, if they please to believe their hands, though theycan't believe their eyes. "--"May 25, " indeed, "1731, died Mr. Fawks, famous for his dexterity of hand, by which he had honestly acquired afortune of 10, 000_l. _ being no more than he really deserved for hisgreat ingenuity, by which he had surpassed all that ever pretended tothat art. "

This satirical performance of Hogarth, however, was thought to beinvented and drawn at the instigation of Sir James Thornhill, out ofrevenge, because Lord Burlington had preferred Mr. Kent before him topaint for the king at his palace at Kensington. Dr. Faustus was apantomime performed to crowded houses throughout two seasons, to theutter neglect of plays, for which reason they are cried about in awheel-barrow. 

[Illustration: MASQUERADES AND OPERAS, BURLINGTON GATE. ]

MORNING. 

 Keen blows the blast, and eager is the air; With flakes of feather'd snow the ground is spread; To step, with mincing pace, to early prayer, Our clay-cold vestal leaves her downy bed. 

 And here the reeling sons of riot see, After a night of senseless revelry. 

 Poor, trembling, old, her suit the beggar plies; But frozen chastity the little boon denies. 

This withered representative of Miss Bridget Alworthy, with a shiveringfoot-boy carrying her prayer-book, never fails in her attendance atmorning service. She is a symbol of the season. --

 -------------Chaste as the icicle That's curdled by the frost from purest snow, And hangs on Dian's temple

she looks with scowling eye, and all the conscious pride of severe andstubborn virginity, on the poor girls who are suffering the embraces oftwo drunken beaux that are just staggered out of Tom King'sCoffee-house. One of them, from the basket on her arm, I conjecture tobe an orange girl: she shows no displeasure at the boisterous salute ofher Hibernian lover. That the hero in a laced hat is from the banks ofthe Shannon, is apparent in his countenance. The female whose face ispartly concealed, and whose neck has a more easy turn than we always seein the works of this artist, is not formed of the most inflexiblematerials. 

An old woman, seated upon a basket; the girl, warming her hands by a fewwithered sticks that are blazing on the ground, and a wretchedmendicant, [3] wrapped in a tattered and parti-coloured blanket, entreating charity from the rosy-fingered vestal who is going to church, complete the group. Behind them, at the door of Tom King's Coffee-house, are a party engaged in a fray, likely to create business for bothsurgeon and magistrate: we discover swords and cudgels in thecombatants' hands. 

On the opposite side of the print are two little schoolboys. That theyhave shining morning faces we cannot positively assert, but each has asatchel at his back, and according with the description given by thepoet of nature, is

 Creeping, like snail, unwillingly to school. 

The lantern appended to the woman who has a basket on her head, provesthat these dispensers of the riches of Pomona rise before the sun, anddo part of their business by an artificial light. Near her, thatimmediate descendant of Paracelsus, Dr. Rock, is expatiating to anadmiring audience, on the never-failing virtues of his wonder-workingmedicines. One hand holds a bottle of his miraculous panacea, and theother supports a board, on which is the king's arms, to indicate thathis practice is sanctioned by royal letters patent. Two porringers and aspoon, placed on the bottom of an inverted basket, intimate that thewoman seated near them, is a vender of rice-milk, which was at that timebrought into the market every morning. 

A fatigued porter leans on a rail; and a blind beggar is going towardsthe church: but whether he will become one of the congregation, or takehis stand at the door, in the hope that religion may have warmed thehearts of its votaries to "Pity the sorrows of a poor blind man, " isuncertain. 

Snow on the ground, and icicles hanging from the penthouse, exhibit avery chilling prospect; but, to dissipate the cold, there is happily ashop where spirituous liquors are sold _pro bono publico_, at a verylittle distance. A large pewter measure is placed upon a post before thedoor, and three of a smaller size hang over the window of the house. 

The character of the principal figure is admirably delineated. She ismarked with that prim and awkward formality which generally accompaniesher order, and is an exact type of a hard winter; for every part of herdress, except the flying lappets and apron, ruffled by the wind, is asrigidly precise as if it were frozen. It has been said that thisincomparable figure was designed as the representative of either aparticular friend, or a relation. Individual satire may be verygratifying to the public, but is frequently fatal to the satirist. Churchill, by the lines, ----------------Fam'd Vine-street, Where Heaven, the kindest wish of man to grant, Gave me an old house, and an older aunt, lost a considerable legacy; and it is related that Hogarth, by theintroduction of this withered votary of Diana into this print, inducedher to alter a will which had been made considerably in his favour: shewas at first well enough satisfied with her resemblance, but somedesigning people taught her to be angry. 

Extreme cold is very well expressed in the slip-shod footboy, and thegirl who is warming her hands. The group of which she is a part, is wellformed, but not sufficiently balanced on the opposite side. 

The church dial, a few minutes before seven; marks of little shoes andpattens in the snow, and various productions of the season in themarket, are an additional proof of that minute accuracy with which thisartist inspected and represented objects, which painters in general haveneglected. 

Govent Garden is the scene, but in the print every building is reversed. This was a common error with Hogarth; not from his being ignorant of theuse of the mirror, but from his considering it as a matter of littleconsequence. 

FOOTNOTE:

[3] "What signifies, " says some one to Dr. Johnson, "giving halfpence tocommon beggars? they only lay them out in gin or tobacco. " "And why, "replied the doctor, "should they be denied such sweeteners of theirexistence? It is surely very savage to shut out from them every possibleavenue to those pleasures reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can swallow without gilding, yet for thepoor we delight in stripping it still more bare, and are not ashamed toshow even visible marks of displeasure, if even the bitter taste istaken from their mouths. "

[Illustration: MORNING. ]

NOON. 

 Hail, Gallia's daughters! easy, brisk, and free; Good humour'd, _débonnaire_, and _dégagée_: Though still fantastic, frivolous, and vain, Let not their airs and graces give us pain: Or fair, or brown, at toilet, prayer, or play, Their motto speaks their manners--TOUJOURS GAI. 

 But for that powder'd compound of grimace, That capering he-she thing of fringe and lace; With sword and cane, with bag and solitaire, Vain of the full-dress'd dwarf, his hopeful heir, How does our spleen and indignation rise, When such a tinsell'd coxcomb meets our eyes, Among the figures who are coming out of church, an affected, flightyFrenchwoman, with her fluttering fop of a husband, and a boy, habited_à-la-mode de Paris_, claim our first attention. In dress, air, andmanner, they have a national character. The whole congregation, whethermale or female, old or young, carry the air of their country incountenance, dress, and deportment. Like the three principal figures, they are all marked with some affected peculiarity. Affectation, in awoman, is supportable upon no other ground than that general indulgencewe pay to the omnipotence of beauty, which in a degree sanctifieswhatever it adopts. In a boy, when we consider that the poor fellow isattempting to copy what he has been taught to believe praiseworthy, welaugh at it; the largest portion of ridicule falls upon his tutors; butin a man, it is contemptible!

The old fellow, in a black periwig, has a most vinegar-like aspect, andlooks with great contempt at the frippery gentlewoman immediately beforehim. The woman, with a demure countenance, seems very piouslyconsidering how she can contrive to pick the embroidered beau's pocket. Two old sybils joining their withered lips in a chaste salute, isnauseous enough, but, being a national custom, must be forgiven. Thedivine seems to have resided in this kingdom long enough to acquire aroast-beef countenance. A little boy, whose woollen nightcap is pressedover a most venerable flowing periwig, and the decrepit old man, leaningupon a crutch-stick, who is walking before him, "I once considered, "says Mr. Ireland, "as two vile caricatures, out of nature, and unworthythe artist. Since I have seen the peasantry of Flanders, and theplebeian youth of France, I have in some degree changed my opinion, butstill think them rather _outré_. "

Under a sign of the Baptist's Head is written, Good Eating; and on eachside of the inscription is a mutton chop. In opposition to this headwithout a body, unaccountably displayed as a sign at an eating-house, there is a body without a head, hanging out as the sign of adistiller's. This, by common consent, has been quaintly denominated thegood woman. At a window above, one of the softer sex proves herindisputable right to the title by her temperate conduct to her husband, with whom having had a little disagreement, she throws their Sunday'sdinner into the street. 

A girl, bringing a pie from the bakehouse, is stopped in her career bythe rude embraces of a blackamoor, who eagerly rubs his sable visageagainst her blooming cheek. 

Good eating is carried on to the lower part of the picture. A boy, placing a baked pudding upon a post, with rather too violent an action, the dish breaks, the fragments fall to the ground, and while he isloudly lamenting his misfortune, and with tears anticipating hispunishment, the smoking remnants are eagerly snatched up by a poor girl. Not educated according to the system of Jean Jacques Rousseau, she feelsno qualms of conscience about the original proprietor, and, destitute ofthat fastidious delicacy which destroys the relish of many a fine lady, eagerly swallows the hot and delicious morsels, with all theconcomitants. 

The scene is laid at the door of a French chapel in Hog-lane; a part ofthe town at that time almost wholly peopled by French refugees, or theirdescendants. 

By the dial of St. Giles's church, in the distance, we see that it isonly half past eleven. At this early hour, in those good times, therewas as much good eating as there is now at six o'clock in the evening. From twenty pewter measures, which are hung up before the houses ofdifferent distillers, it seems that good drinking was considered asequally worthy of their serious attention. 

The dead cat, and choked kennels, mark the little attention shown to thestreets by the scavengers of St. Giles's. At that time noxious effluviawas not peculiar to this parish. The neighbourhood of Fleet-ditch, andmany other parts of the city, were equally polluted. 

Even at this refined period, there would be some use in a more strictattention to the medical police of a city so crowded with inhabitants. We ridicule the people of Paris and Edinburgh for neglecting soessential and salutary a branch of delicacy, while the kennels of astreet in the vicinity of St. Paul's church are floated with the bloodof slaughtered animals every market-day. Moses would have managed thesethings better: but in those days there was no physician in Israel!

[Illustration: NOON. ]

EVENING. 

 One sultry Sunday, when no cooling breeze Was borne on zephyr's wing, to fan the trees; One sultry Sunday, when the torrid ray O'er nature beam'd intolerable day; When raging Sirius warn'd us not to roam, And Galen's sons prescrib'd cool draughts at home; One sultry Sunday, near those fields of fame Where weavers dwell, and Spital is their name, A sober wight, of reputation high For tints that emulate the Tyrian dye, Wishing to take his afternoon's repose, In easy chair had just began to doze, When, in a voice that sleep's soft slumbers broke, His oily helpmate thus her wishes spoke: "Why, spouse, for shame! my stars, what's this about? You's ever sleeping; come, we'll all go out; At that there garden, pr'ythee, do not stare! We'll take a mouthful of the country air; In the yew bower an hour or two we'll kill; There you may smoke, and drink what punch you will. Sophy and Billy each shall walk with me, And you must carry little Emily. Veny is sick, and pants, and loathes her food; The grass will do the pretty creature good. Hot rolls are ready as the clock strikes five-- And now 'tis after four, as I'm alive!" The mandate issued, see the tour begun, And all the flock set out for Islington. Now the broad sun, refulgent lamp of day, To rest with Thetis, slopes his western way; O'er every tree embrowning dust is spread, And tipt with gold is Hampstead's lofty head. The passive husband, in his nature mild, To wife consigns his hat, and takes the child; But she a day like this hath never felt, "Oh! that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew. " Such monstrous heat! dear me! she never knew. Adown her innocent and beauteous face, The big, round, pearly drops each other chase; Thence trickling to those hills, erst white as snow, That now like Ætna's mighty mountains glow, They hang like dewdrops on the full blown rose, And to the ambient air their sweets disclose. Fever'd with pleasure, thus she drags along; Nor dares her antler'd husband say 'tis wrong. The blooming offspring of this blissful pair, In all their parents' attic pleasures share. Sophy the soft, the mother's earliest joy, Demands her froward brother's tinsell'd toy; But he, enrag'd, denies the glittering prize, And rends the air with loud and piteous cries. Thus far we see the party on their way-- What dire disasters mark'd the close of day, 'Twere tedious, tiresome, endless to obtrude; Imagination must the scene conclude. 

It is not easy to imagine fatigue better delineated than in theappearance of this amiable pair. In a few of the earliest impressions, Mr. Hogarth printed the hands of the man in blue, to show that he was adyer, and the face and neck of the woman in red, to intimate her extremeheat. The lady's aspect lets us at once into her character; we arecertain that she was born to command. As to her husband, God made him, and he must pass for a man: what his wife has made him, is indicated bythe cow's horns; which are so placed as to become his own. The hopes ofthe family, with a cockade in his hat, and riding upon papa's cane, seems much dissatisfied with female sway. A face with more of the shrewin embryo than that of the girl, it is scarcely possible to conceive. Upon such a character the most casual observer pronounces with thedecision of a Lavater. 

Nothing can be better imagined than the group in the alehouse. They havetaken a refreshing walk into the country, and, being determined to havea cooling pipe, seat themselves in a chair-lumbered closet, with a lowceiling; where every man, pulling off his wig, and throwing apocket-handkerchief over his head, inhales the fumes of hot punch, thesmoke of half a dozen pipes, and the dust from the road. If this is notrural felicity, what is? The old gentleman in a black bag-wig, and thetwo women near him, sensibly enough, take their seats in the open air. 

From a woman milking a cow, we conjecture the hour to be about five inthe afternoon: and, from the same circumstance, I am inclined to thinkthis agreeable party is going to their pastoral bower, rather thanreturning from it. 

The cow and dog appear as much inconvenienced by heat as any of theparty: the former is whisking off the flies; and the latter creepsunwillingly along, and casts a longing look at the crystal river, inwhich he sees his own shadow. A remarkably hot summer is intimated bythe luxuriant state of a vine, creeping over an alehouse window. On theside of the New River, where the scene is laid, lies one of the woodenpipes employed in the water-works. Opposite Sadler's Wells there stillremains the sign of Sir Hugh Middleton's head, which is hererepresented; but how changed the scene from what is here represented!

[Illustration: EVENING. ]

NIGHT. 

 Now burst the blazing bonfires on the sight, Through the wide air their corruscations play; The windows beam with artificial light, And all the region emulates the day. 

 The moping mason, from yon tavern led, In mystic words doth to the moon complain That unsound port distracts his aching head, And o'er the waiter waves his clouded cane. 

Mr. Walpole very truly observes, that this print is inferior to thethree others; there is, however, broad humour in some of the figures. 

The wounded free-mason, who, in zeal of brotherly love, has drank hisbumpers to the craft till he is unable to find his way home, is underthe guidance of a waiter. This has been generally considered as intendedfor Sir Thomas de Veil, and, from an authenticated portrait which I haveseen, I am, says Mr. Ireland, inclined to think it is, notwithstandingSir John Hawkins asserts, that "he could discover no resemblance. " Whenthe knight saw him in his magisterial capacity, he was probably soberand sedate; here he is represented a little disguised. The BritishXantippe showering her favours from the window upon his head, may haveits source in that respect which the inmates of such houses as theRummer Tavern had for a justice of peace. On the resignation of Mr. Horace Walpole, in February, 1738, De Veil was appointedinspector-general of the imports and exports, and was so severe againstthe retailers of spirituous liquors, that one Allen headed a gang ofrioters for the purpose of pulling down his house, and bringing to asummary punishment two informers who were there concealed. Allen wastried for this offence, and acquitted, upon the jury's verdict declaringhim lunatic. 

The waiter who supports his worship, seems, from the patch upon hisforehead, to have been in a recent affray; but what use he can have fora lantern, it is not easy to divine, unless he is conducting his chargeto some place where there is neither moonlight nor illumination. 

The Salisbury flying coach oversetting and broken, by passing throughthe bonfire, is said to be an intended burlesque upon a right honourablepeer, who was accustomed to drive his own carriage over hedges, ditches, and rivers; and has been sometimes known to drive three or four of hismaid servants into a deep water, and there leave them in the coach toshift for themselves. 

The butcher, and little fellow, who are assisting the terrifiedpassengers, are possibly free and accepted masons. One of them seems tohave a mop in his hand;--the pail is out of sight. 

To crown the joys of the populace, a man with a pipe in his mouth isfilling a capacious hogshead with British Burgundy. 

The joint operation of shaving and bleeding, performed by a drunken'prentice on a greasy oilman, does not seen a very natural exhibition ona rejoicing night. 

The poor wretches under the barber's bench display a prospect of penuryand wretchedness, which it is to be hoped is not so common now, as itwas then. 

In the distance is a cart laden with furniture, which some unfortunatetenant is removing out of the reach of his landlord's execution. 

There is humour in the barber's sign and inscription; "Shaving, bleeding, and teeth drawn with a touch. ECCE SIGNUM!"

By the oaken boughs on the sign, and the oak leaves in the free-masons'hats, it seems that this rejoicing night is the twenty-ninth of May, theanniversary of our second Charles's restoration; that happy day when, according to our old ballad, "The king enjoyed his own again. " Thismight be one reason for the artist choosing a scene contiguous to thebeautiful equestrian statue of Charles the First. 

In the distance we see a house on fire; an accident very likely tohappen on such a night as this. 

On this spot once stood the cross erected by Edward the First, as amemorial of affection for his beloved queen Eleanor, whose remains werehere rested on their way to the place of sepulture. It was formed from adesign by Cavalini, and destroyed by the religious fury of theReformers. In its place, in the year 1678, was erected the animatedequestrian statue which now remains. It was cast in brass, in the year1633, by Le Soeur; I think by order of that munificent encourager ofthe arts, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. The parliament ordered it tobe sold, and broken to pieces; but John River, the brazier who purchasedit, having more taste than his employers, seeing, with the prophetic eyeof good sense, that the powers which were would not remain rulers verylong, dug a hole in his garden in Holborn, and buried it unmutilated. Toprove his obedience to their order, he produced to his masters severalpieces of brass, which he told them were parts of the statue. M. DeArchenholtz adds further, that the brazier, with the true spirit oftrade, cast a great number of handles for knives and forks, and offeredthem for sale, as composed of the brass which had formed the statue. They were eagerly sought for, and purchased, --by the loyalists fromaffection to their murdered monarch, --by the other party, as trophies oftriumph. 

The original pictures of Morning and Noon were sold to the Duke ofAncaster for fifty-seven guineas; Evening and Night to Sir WilliamHeathcote, for sixty-four guineas. 

[Illustration: NIGHT. ]

SIGISMONDA

 ----------------Let the picture rust, Perhaps Time's price-enhancing dust, -- As statues moulder into earth, When I'm no more, may mark its worth; And future connoisseurs may rise, Honest as ours, and full as wise, To puff the piece, and painter too, And make me then what Guido's now. 

 HOGARTH'S EPISTLE. 

A competition with either Guido, or Furino, would to any modern painterbe an enterprise of danger: to Hogarth it was more peculiarly so, fromthe public justly conceiving that the representation of elevateddistress was not his _forte_, and his being surrounded by an host offoes, who either dreaded satire, or envied genius. The connoisseurs, considering the challenge as too insolent to be forgiven, before hispicture appeared, determined to decry it. The painters rejoiced in hisattempting what was likely to end in disgrace; and to satisfy those whohad formed their ideas of Sigismonda upon the inspired page of Dryden, was no easy task. 

The bard has consecrated the character, and his heroine glitters with abrightness that cannot be transferred to the canvass. Mr. Walpole'sdescription, though equally radiant, is too various, for the utmostpowers of the pencil. 

Hogarth's Sigismonda, as this gentleman poetically expresses it, "hasnone of the sober grief, no dignity of suppressed anguish, noinvoluntary tear, no settled meditation on the fate she meant to meet, no amorous warmth turned holy by despair; in short, all is wanting thatshould have been there, all is there that such a story would havebanished from a mind capable of conceiving such complicated woe; woe sosternly felt, and yet so tenderly. " This glowing picture presents to themind a being whose contending passions may be felt, but were notdelineated even by Corregio. Had his tints been aided by the grace andgreatness of Raphael, they must have failed. 

The author of the Mysterious Mother sought for sublimity, where theartist strictly copied nature, which was invariably his archetype, butwhich the painter, who soars into fancy's fairy regions, must in adegree desert. Considered with this reference, though the picture hasfaults, Mr. Walpole's satire is surely too severe. It is built upon acomparison with works painted in a language of which Hogarth knew notthe idiom, --trying him before a tribunal, whose authority he did notacknowledge, and from the picture having been in many respects alteredafter the critic saw it, some of the remarks become unfair. To thefrequency of these alterations we may attribute many of the errors: theman who has not confidence in his own knowledge of the leadingprinciples on which his work ought to be built, will not render itperfect by following the advice of his friends. Though Messrs. Wilkesand Churchill dragged his heroine to the altar of politics, and mangledher with a barbarity that can hardly be paralleled, except in thehistory of her husband, --the artist retained his partiality; which seemsto have increased in exact proportion to their abuse. The picture beingthus contemplated through the medium of party prejudice, we cannotwonder that all its imperfections were exaggerated. The painted harlotof Babylon had not more opprobrious epithets from the first race ofreformers than the painted Sigismonda of Hogarth from the last race ofpatriots. 

When a favourite child is chastised by his preceptor, a partial motherredoubles her caresses. Hogarth, estimating this picture by the labourhe had bestowed upon it, was certain that the public were prejudiced, and requested, if his wife survived him, she would not sell it for lessthan five hundred pounds. Mrs. Hogarth acted in conformity to hiswishes, but after her death the painting was purchased by Messrs. Boydell, and exhibited in the Shakspeare Gallery. The colouring, thoughnot brilliant, is harmonious and natural: the attitude, drawing, etc. May be generally conceived by the print. I am much inclined to think, that if some of those who have been most severe in their censures, hadconsulted their own feelings, instead of depending upon connoisseurs, poor Sigismonda would have been in higher estimation. It has been saidthat the first sketch was made from Mrs. Hogarth, at the time she wasweeping over the corse of her mother. 

Hogarth once intended to have appealed from the critics' fiat to theworld's opinion, and employed Mr. Basire to make an engraving, which wasbegun, but set aside for some other work, and never completed. 

[Illustration: SIGISMONDA, WITH THE HEART OF HER HUSBAND. ]

MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ. 

Martin Folkes was a mathematician and antiquary of much celebrity in thephilosophical annals of this country. He was at the early age oftwenty-four admitted a member of the Royal Society, where he was greatlydistinguished. Two years afterwards he was chosen one of the council, and was named by Sir Isaac Newton himself as vice president: he wasafterwards elected president, and held this high office till a shorttime before his death, when he resigned it on account of ill-health. Inthe Philosophical Transactions are numerous memoirs of this learned man:his knowledge in coins, ancient and modern, was very extensive: and thelast work he produced was concerning the English Silver Coin from theConquest to his own time. He was president of the Society of Antiquariesat the time of his death, which happened on the 28th of June, 1754, atthe age of sixty-four. A few days before his death he was struck with afit of the palsy, and never spoke after this attack. 

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ. ]

THE COCKPIT. 

The scene is probably laid at Newmarket, and in this motley group ofpeers, --pick-pockets, --butchers, --jockies, --rat-catchers, --gentlemen, --gamblers of every denomination, Lord Albemarle Bertie, being theprincipal figure, is entitled to precedence. In the March to Finchley, we see him an attendant at a boxing match; and here he is president of amost respectable society assembled at a cockpit. What rendered hislordship's passion for amusements of this nature very singular, was hisbeing totally blind. In this place he is beset by seven steady friends, five of whom at the same instant offer to bet with him on the event ofthe battle. One of them, a lineal descendant of Filch, taking advantageof his blindness and negligence, endeavours to convey a bank note, deposited in our dignified gambler's hat, to his own pocket. Of thisungentlemanlike attempt his lordship is apprised by a ragged post-boy, and an honest butcher: but he is so much engaged in the pronunciation ofthose important words, Done! Done! Done! Done! and the arrangement ofhis bets, that he cannot attend to their hints; and it seems more thanprobable that the stock will be transferred, and the note negociated ina few seconds. 

A very curious group surround the old nobleman, who is adorned with ariband, a star, and a pair of spectacles. The whole weight of anovergrown carpenter being laid upon his shoulder, forces our illustriouspersonage upon a man beneath; who being thus driven downward, falls upona fourth, and the fourth, by the accumulated pressure of this ponderoustrio, composed of the upper and lower house, loses his balance, andtumbling against the edge of the partition, his head is broke, and hiswig, shook from the seat of reason, falls into the cockpit. 

A man adjoining enters into the spirit of the battle, --his whole soul isengaged. From his distorted countenance, and clasped hands, we see thathe feels every stroke given to his favourite bird in his heart'score, --ay, in his heart of hearts! A person at the old peer's left handis likely to be a loser. Ill-humour, vexation, and disappointment arepainted in his countenance. The chimney-sweeper above, is the veryquintessence of affectation. He has all the airs and graces of aboarding-school miss. The sanctified quaker adjoining, and the fellowbeneath, who, by the way, is a very similar figure to Captain Stab, inthe Rake's Progress, are finely contrasted. 

A French marquis on the other side, astonished at this being calledamusement, is exclaiming Sauvages! Sauvages! Sauvages!--Engrossed by thescene, and opening his snuff-box rather carelessly, its contents fallinto the eyes of a man below, who, sneezing and swearing alternately, imprecates bitter curses on this devil's dust, that extorts from hisinflamed eyes, "A sea of melting pearls, which some call tears. "

Adjoining is an old cripple, with a trumpet at his ear, and in thistrumpet a person in a bag-wig roars in a manner that cannot much gratifythe auricular nerves of his companions; but as for the object to whomthe voice is directed, he seems totally insensible to sounds, and ifjudgment can be formed from appearances, might very composedly standclose to the clock of St. Paul's Cathedral, when it was striking twelve. 

The figure with a cock peeping out of a bag, is said to be intended forJackson, a jockey; the gravity of this experienced veteran, and the coolsedateness of a man registering the wagers, are well opposed by thegrinning woman behind, and the heated impetuosity of a fellow, strippedto his shirt, throwing his coin upon the cockpit, and offering to backGinger against Pye for a guinea. 

On the lower side, where there is only one tier of figures, a sort of anapothecary, and a jockey, are stretching out their arms, and strikingtogether the handles of their whips, in token of a bet. An hiccupingvotary of Bacchus, displaying a half-emptied purse, is not likely topossess it long, for an adroit professor of legerdemain has taken aimwith a hooked stick, and by one slight jerk, will convey it to his ownpocket. The profession of a gentleman in a round wig is determined by agibbet chalked upon his coat. An enraged barber, who lifts up his stickin the corner, has probably been refused payment of a wager, by the manat whom he is striking. 

A cloud-capt philosopher at the top of the print, coolly smoking hispipe, unmoved by this crash of matter, and wreck of property, must notbe overlooked: neither should his dog be neglected; for the dog, gravelyresting his fore paws upon the partition, and contemplating the company, seems more interested in the event of the battle than his master. 

Like the tremendous Gog, and terrific Magog, of Guildhall, stand the twocock-feeders; a foot of each of these consequential purveyors is seen atthe two extremities of the pit. 

As to the birds, whose attractive powers have drawn this admiring throngtogether, they deserved earlier notice:

 Each hero burns to conquer or to die, What mighty hearts in little bosoms lie!

Having disposed of the substances, let us now attend to the shadow onthe cockpit, and this it seems is the reflection of a man drawn up tothe ceiling in a basket, and there suspended, as a punishment for havingbetted more money than he can pay. Though suspended, he is notreclaimed; though exposed, not abashed; for in this degrading situationhe offers to stake his watch against money, in another wager on hisfavourite champion. 

The decorations of this curious theatre are, a portrait of Nan Rawlins, and the King's arms. 

In the margin at the bottom of the print is an oval, with a fightingcock, inscribed ROYAL SPORT. 

Of the characteristic distinctions in this heterogeneous assembly, it isnot easy to speak with sufficient praise. The chimney-sweeper's absurdaffectation sets the similar airs of the Frenchman in a most ridiculouspoint of view. The old fellow with a trumpet at his ear, has a degree ofdeafness that I never before saw delineated; he might have lived in thesame apartment with Xantippe, or slept comfortably in Alexander thecopper-smith's first floor. As to the nobleman in the centre, in thelanguage of the turf, he is a mere pigeon; and the peer, with a star andgarter, in the language of Cambridge, we must class as--a mere quiz. Theman sneezing, --you absolutely hear; and the fellow stealing a banknote, --has all the outward and visible marks of a perfect andaccomplished pick-pocket; Mercury himself could not do that business ina more masterly style. 

Tyers tells us that "Pope, while living with his father at Chiswick, before he went to Binfield, took great delight in cock-fighting, andlaid out all his school-boy money, and little perhaps it was, in buyingfighting cocks. " Lord Orrery observes, "If we may judge of Mr. Pope fromhis works, his chief aim was to be esteemed a man of virtue. " Whenactions can be clearly ascertained, it is not necessary to seek themind's construction in the writings: and we must regret being compelledto believe that some of Mr. Pope's actions, at the same time that theyprove him to be querulous and petulant, lead us to suspect that he wasalso envious, malignant, and cruel. How far this will tend to confirmthe assertion, that when a boy, he was an amateur of this royal sport, Ido, says Mr. Ireland, not pretend to decide: but were a child, in whom Ihad any interest, cursed with such a propensity, my first object wouldbe to correct it: if that were impracticable, and he retained a fondnessfor the cockpit, and the still more detestable amusement of ShroveTuesday, I should hardly dare to flatter myself that he could become amerciful man. --The subject has carried me farther than I intended: Iwill, however, take the freedom of proposing one query to theconsideration of the clergy, --Might it not have a tendency to check thatbarbarous spirit, which has more frequently its source in an earlyacquired habit, arising from the prevalence of example, than in naturaldepravity, if every divine in Great Britain were to preach at least onesermon every twelve months, on our universal insensibility to thesufferings of the brute creation?

 Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods, Draw near them then in being merciful; Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. 

[Illustration: THE COCK PIT. ]

CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM. 

Captain Coram was born in the year 1668, bred to the sea, and passed thefirst part of his life as master of a vessel trading to the colonies. While he resided in the vicinity of Rotherhithe, his avocations obliginghim to go early into the city and return late, he frequently sawdeserted infants exposed to the inclemencies of the seasons, and throughthe indigence or cruelty of their parents left to casual relief, oruntimely death. This naturally excited his compassion, and led him toproject the establishment of an hospital for the reception of exposedand deserted young children; in which humane design he laboured morethan seventeen years, and at last, by his unwearied application, obtained the royal charter, bearing date the 17th of October, 1739, forits incorporation. 

He was highly instrumental in promoting another good design, viz. Theprocuring a bounty upon naval stores imported from the colonies toGeorgia and Nova Scotia. But the charitable plan which he lived to makesome progress in, though not to complete, was a scheme for uniting theIndians in North America more closely with the British Government, by anestablishment for the education of Indian girls. Indeed he spent a greatpart of his life in serving the public, and with so total a disregard tohis private interest, that in his old age he was himself supported by apension of somewhat more than a hundred pounds a year, raised for him atthe solicitation of Sir Sampson Gideon and Dr. Brocklesby, by thevoluntary subscriptions of public-spirited persons, at the head of whomwas the Prince of Wales. On application being made to this venerable andgood old man, to know whether a subscription being opened for hisbenefit would not offend him, he gave this noble answer: "I have notwasted the little wealth of which I was formerly possessed inself-indulgence or vain expenses, and am not ashamed to confess, that inthis my old age I am poor. "

This singularly humane, persevering, and memorable man died at hislodgings near Leicester-square, March 29, 1751, and was interred, pursuant to his own desire, in the vault under the chapel of theFoundling Hospital, where an historic epitaph records his virtues, asHogarth's portrait has preserved his honest countenance. 

"The portrait which I painted with most pleasure, " says Hogarth, "and inwhich I particularly wished to excel, was that of Captain Coram for theFoundling Hospital; and if I am so wretched an artist as my enemiesassert, it is somewhat strange that this, which was one of the first Ipainted the size of life, should stand the test of twenty years'competition, and be generally thought the best portrait in the place, notwithstanding the first painters in the kingdom exerted all theirtalents to vie with it. 

"For the portrait of Mr. Garrick in Richard III. I was paid two hundredpounds, (which was more than any English artist ever received for asingle portrait, ) and that too by the sanction of several painters whohad been previously consulted about the price, which was not givenwithout mature consideration. 

"Notwithstanding all this, the current remark was, that portraits werenot my province; and I was tempted to abandon the only lucrative branchof my art, for the practice brought the whole nest of phyzmongers on myback, where they buzzed like so many hornets. All these people havetheir friends, whom they incessantly teach to call my women harlots, myEssay on Beauty borrowed, and my composition and engraving contemptible. 

"This so much disgusted me, that I sometimes declared I would neverpaint another portrait, and frequently refused when applied to; for Ifound by mortifying experience, that whoever would succeed in thisbranch, must adopt the mode recommended in one of Gay's fables, and makedivinities of all who sit to him. Whether or not this childishaffectation will ever be done away is a doubtful question; none of thosewho have attempted to reform it have yet succeeded; nor, unless portraitpainters in general become more honest, and their customers less vain, is there much reason to expect they ever will. "

Though thus in a state of warfare with his brother artists, he wasoccasionally gratified by the praise of men whose judgment wasuniversally acknowledged, and whose sanction became a higher honour, from its being neither lightly nor indiscriminately given. 

[Illustration: CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM. ]

THE COUNTRY INN YARD; OR, THE STAGE COACH. 

 The poet's adage, ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE, Has stood the test of each revolving age; Another simile perhaps will bear, 'Tis a STAGE COACH, where all must pay the fare; Where each his entrance and his exit makes, And o'er life's rugged road his journey takes. Some unprotected must their tour perform, And bide the pelting of the pitiless storm; While others, free from elemental jars, By fortune favour'd and propitious stars, Secure from storms, enjoy their little hour, Despise the whirlwind, and defy the shower. Such is our life--in sunshine or in shade, From evil shelter'd, or by woe assay'd: Whether we sit, like Niobe, all tears, Or calmly sink into the vale of years; With houseless, naked Edgar sleep on straw, Or keep, like Cæsar, subject worlds in awe-- To the same port our devious journeys tend, Where airy hopes and sickening sorrows end; Sunk every eye, and languid every breast, Each wearied pilgrim sighs and sinks to rest. 

 E. 

Among the writers of English novels, Henry Fielding holds the firstrank; he was the novelist of nature, and has described some scenes whichbear a strong resemblance to that which is here delineated. The artist, like the author, has taken truth for his guide, and given suchcharacters as are familiar to all our minds. The scene is a country innyard, at the time passengers are getting into a stage-coach, and anelection procession passing in the back-ground. Nothing can be betterdescribed; we become of the party. The vulgar roar of our landlady is noless apparent than the grave, insinuating, imposing countenance of minehost. Boniface solemnly protests that a bill he is presenting to an oldgentleman in a laced hat is extremely moderate. This does not satisfythe paymaster, whose countenance shows that he considers it as apalpable fraud, though the act against bribery, which he carries in hispocket, designates him to be of a profession not very liable to sufferimposition. They are in general less sinned against than sinning. Anancient lady, getting into the coach, is from her breadth a veryinconvenient companion in such a vehicle; but to atone for herrotundity, an old maid of a spare appearance, and in a most grotesquehabit, is advancing towards the steps. 

A portly gentleman, with a sword and cane in one hand, is deaf to theentreaties of a poor little deformed postilion, who solicits hiscustomary fee. The old woman smoking her short pipe in the basket, paysvery little attention to what is passing around her: cheered by thefumes of her tube, she lets the vanities of the world go their own way. Two passengers on the roof of the coach afford a good specimen of Frenchand English manners. Ben Block, of the Centurion, surveys the subject ofLa Grande Monarque with ineffable contempt. 

In the window are a very curious pair; one of them blowing aFrench-horn, and the other endeavouring, but without effect, to smokeaway a little sickness, which he feels from the fumes of his lastnight's punch. Beneath them is a traveller taking a tender farewell ofthe chambermaid, who is not to be moved by the clangour of the great barbell, or the more thundering sound of her mistress's voice. 

The back-ground is crowded with a procession of active citizens; theyhave chaired a figure with a horn-book, a bib, and a rattle, intended torepresent Child, Lord Castlemain, afterwards Lord Tylney, who, in aviolent contest for the county of Essex, opposed Sir Robert Abdy and Mr. Bramston. The horn-book, bib, and rattle are evidently displayed aspunningly allusive to his name. [4]

Some pains have been taken to discover in what part of Essex this sceneis laid; but from the many alterations made by rebuilding, removal, &c. It has not been positively ascertained, though it is probablyChelmsford. 

[Illustration: COUNTRY INN YARD. ]

FOOTNOTE:

[4] At this election a man was placed on a bulk, with a figurerepresenting a child in his arms: as he whipped it he exclaimed, "What, you little child, must you be a member?" This election being disputed, it appeared from the register-book of the parish where Lord Castlemainwas born, that he was but twenty years of age when he offered himself acandidate. 

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

As our future welfare depends, in a great measure, on our own conduct inthe outset of life, and as we derive our best expectations of successfrom our own attention and exertion, it may, with propriety, beasserted, that the good or ill-fortune of mankind is chieflyattributable to their own early diligence or sloth; either of whichbecomes, through habit in the early part of life, both familiar andnatural. This Mr. Hogarth has made appear in the following history ofthe two Apprentices, by representing a series of such scenes asnaturally result from a course of Industry or Idleness, and which he hasillustrated with such texts of scripture as teach us their analogy withholy writ. Now, as example is far more convincing and persuasive thanprecept, these prints are, undoubtedly, an excellent lesson to suchyoung men as are brought up to business, by laying before them theinevitable destruction that awaits the slothful, and the reward thatgenerally attends the diligent, both appropriately exemplified in theconduct of these two fellow-'prentices; where the one, by taking goodcourses, and pursuing those purposes for which he was put apprentice, becomes a valuable man, and an ornament to his country; the other, bygiving way to idleness, naturally falls into poverty, and ends fatally, as shown in the last of these instructive prints. 

In the chamber of the city of London, where apprentices are bound andenrolled, the twelve prints of this series are introduced, and, withgreat propriety, ornament the room. 

PLATE I. 

THE FELLOW-'PRENTICES AT THEIR LOOMS. 

 "The drunkard shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. "

 Proverbs, chap. Xxiii. Verse 21. 

 "The hand of the diligent maketh rich. "--Proverbs, chap. X. Verse 4. 

The first print presents us with a noble and striking contrast in twoapprentices at the looms of their master, a silk-weaver of Spitalfields:in the one we observe a serene and open countenance, the distinguishingmark of innocence; and in the other a sullen, down-cast look, the indexof a corrupt mind and vicious heart. The industrious youth is diligentlyemployed at his work, and his thoughts taken up with the business he isupon. His book, called the "'Prentice's Guide, " supposed to be given himfor instruction, lies open beside him, as if perused with care andattention. The employment of the day seems his constant study; and theinterest of his master his continual regard. We are given to understand, also, by the ballads of the London 'Prentice, Whittingham the Mayor, &c. That hang behind him, that he lays out his pence on things that mayimprove his mind, and enlighten his understanding. On the contrary, hisfellow-'prentice, with worn-out coat and uncombed hair, overpowered withbeer, indicated by the half-gallon pot before him, is fallen asleep; andfrom the shuttle becoming the plaything of the wanton kitten, we learnhow he slumbers on, inattentive alike to his own and his master'sinterest. The ballad of Moll Flanders, on the wall behind him, showsthat the bent of his mind is towards that which is bad; and his book ofinstructions lying torn and defaced upon the ground, manifests howregardless he is of any thing tending to his future welfare. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 1. 

THE FELLOW 'PRENTICES AT THEIR LOOMS. ]

PLATE II. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE PERFORMING THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN. 

 "O how I love thy law; it is my meditation all the day. "--Psalm cxix. Verse 97. 

This plate displays our industrious young man attending divine servicein the same pew with his master's daughter, where he shows every mark ofdecent and devout attention. 

Mr. Hogarth's strong bias to burlesque was not to be checked by time orplace. It is not easy to imagine any thing more whimsically grotesquethan the female Falstaff. A fellow near her, emulating the deep-tonedorgan, and the man beneath, who, though asleep, joins his sonorous tonesin melodious chorus with the admirers of those two pre-eminent poets, Hopkins and Sternhold. The pew-opener is a very prominent and principalfigure; two old women adjoining Miss West's seat are so much in shadow, that we are apt to overlook them: they are, however, all three makingthe dome ring with their exertions. 

 Ah! had it been king David's fate To hear them sing----

The preacher, reader, and clerk, with many of the small figures in thegallery and beneath, are truly ludicrous, and we regret their being onso reduced a scale, that they are scarce perceptible to the naked eye. It was necessary that the artist should exhibit a crowded congregation;but it must be acknowledged he has neglected the rules of perspective. The print wants depth. In the countenance of Miss West and her loverthere is a resemblance. Their faces have not much expression; but thisis atoned for by a natural and pleasing simplicity. Character was notnecessary. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 2. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE PERFORMING THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE III. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE AT PLAY IN THE CHURCH-YARD DURING DIVINE SERVICE. 

 "Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools. "

 Proverbs, chap. Xix. Verse 29. 

As a contrast to the preceding plate, of the industrious young manperforming the duties of a Christian, is this, representing the idle'prentice at play in the church-yard during divine service. As anobservance of religion is allowed to be the foundation of virtue, so aneglect of religious duties has ever been acknowledged the forerunner ofevery wickedness; the confession of malefactors at the place ofexecution being a melancholy confirmation of this truth. Here we seehim, while others are intent on the holy service, transgressing the lawsboth of God and man, gambling on a tomb-stone with the off-scouring ofthe people, the meanest of the human species, shoe-blacks, chimney-sweepers, &c. For none but such would deign to be hiscompanions. Their amusement seems to be the favourite old English gameof hustle-cap, and our idle and unprincipled youth is endeavouring tocheat, by concealing some of the half-pence under the broad brim of hishat. This is perceived by the shoe-black, and warmly resented by thefellow with the black patch over his eye, who loudly insists on thehat's being fairly removed. The eager anxiety which marks these meangamblers, is equal to that of two peers playing for an estate. Thelatter could not have more solicitude for the turn of a die which was todetermine who was the proprietor of ten thousand acres, than isdisplayed in the countenance of young Idle. Indeed, so callous is hisheart, so wilfully blind is he to every thing tending to his futurewelfare, that the tombs, those standing monuments of mortality, cannotmove him: even the new-dug grave, the sculls and bones, those lively andawakening monitors, cannot rouse him from his sinful lethargy, open hiseyes, or pierce his heart with the least reflection; so hardened is hewith vice, and so intent on the pursuit of his evil course. The hand ofthe boy, employed upon his head, and that of the shoe-black, in hisbosom, are expressive of filth and vermin; and show that our hero iswithin a step of being overspread with the beggarly contagion. Hisobstinate continuance in his course, until awakened by the blows of thewatchful beadle, point out to us, that "stripes are prepared for thebacks of fools;" that disgrace and infamy are the natural attendants ofthe slothful and the scorner; and that there are but little hopes of hisalteration, until he is overtaken in his iniquity, by the avenging handof Omnipotence, and feels with horror and amazement, the unexpected andinevitable approach of death. Thus do the obstinate and incorrigibleshut their ears against the alarming calls of Providence, and sin awayeven the possibility of salvation. 

The figures in this print are admirably grouped, and the countenances ofthe gamblers and beadle strikingly characteristic. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 3. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE AT PLAY IN THE CHURCH YARD. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE IV. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE A FAVOURITE AND INTRUSTED BY HIS MASTER. 

 "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. " Matthew, chap. Xxv. Verse 21. 

The industrious apprentice, by a discreet and steady conduct, attractsthe notice of his master, and becomes a favourite: accordingly, webehold him here (exquisitely continued from the first and second prints)in the counting-house (with a distant view of the looms, and of thequilsters, winding quills for the shuttles, from whence he was removed)entrusted with the books, receiving and giving orders, (the generalreward of honesty, care, and diligence, ) as appears from the delivery ofsome stuffs by a city porter, from Blackwell-hall. By the keys in onehand and the bag in the other, we are shown that he has behaved himselfwith so much prudence and discretion, and given such proofs of fidelity, as to become the keeper of untold gold: the greatest mark of confidencehe could be favoured with. The integrity of his heart is visible in hisface. The modesty and tranquillity of his countenance tell us, thatthough the great trust reposed in him is an addition to his happiness, yet, that he discharges his duty with such becoming diffidence and care, as not to betray any of that pride which attends so great a promotion. The familiar position of his master, leaning on his shoulder, is afurther proof of his esteem, declaring that he dwells, as it were, inhis bosom, and possesses the utmost share of his affection;circumstances that must sweeten even a state of servitude, and make apleasant and lasting impression on the mind. The head-piece to theLondon Almanack, representing Industry taking Time by the fore-lock, isnot the least of the beauties in this plate, as it intimates the dangerof delay, and advises us to make the best use of time, whilst we have itin our power; nor will the position of the gloves, on the flap of theescritoire, be unobserved by a curious examiner, being expressive ofthat union that subsists between an indulgent master and an industriousapprentice. 

The strong-beer nose and pimpled face of the porter, though they have noconnexion with the moral of the piece, are a fine caricatura, and showthat our author let slip no opportunity of ridiculing the vices andfollies of the age, and particularly here, in laying before us thestrange infatuation of this class of people, who, because a good deal oflabour requires some extraordinary refreshment, will even drink to thedeprivation of their reason, and the destruction of their health. Thesurly mastiff, keeping close to his master, and quarrelling with thehouse-cat for admittance, though introduced to fill up the piece, represents the faithfulness of these animals in general, and is no meanemblem of the honesty and fidelity of the porter. 

In this print, neither the cat, dog, nor the porter are well drawn, noris much regard paid to perspective; but the general design is carried onby such easy and natural gradations, and the consequent success of anattentive conduct displayed in colours so plain and perspicuous, thatthese little errors in execution will readily be overlooked. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 4. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE A FAVOURITE, AND ENTRUSTED BY HIS MASTER. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE V. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE TURNED AWAY AND SENT TO SEA. 

 "A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. " Proverbs, chap. X. Verse 1. 

Corrupted by sloth and contaminated by evil company, the idleapprentice, having tired the patience of his master, is sent to sea, inthe hope that the being removed from the vices of the town, and theinfluence of his wicked companions, joined with the hardships and perilsof a seafaring life, might effect that reformation of which his friendsdespaired while he continued on shore. See him then in the ship's boat, accompanied by his afflicted mother, making towards the vessel in whichhe is to embark. The disposition of the different figures in the boat, and the expression of their countenances, tell us plainly, that his evilpursuits and incorrigible wickedness are the subjects of theirdiscourse. The waterman significantly directs his attention to a figureon a gibbet, as emblematical of his future fate, should he not turn fromthe evil of his ways; and the boy shows him a cat-o'-nine-tails, expressive of the discipline that awaits him on board of ship; theseadmonitions, however, he notices only by the application of his fingersto his forehead, in the form of horns, jestingly telling them to look atCuckold's Point, which they have just passed; he then throws hisindentures into the water with an air of contempt, that proves howlittle he is affected by his present condition, and how little heregards the persuasions and tears of a fond mother, whose heart seemsready to burst with grief at the fate of her darling son, and perhapsher only stay; for her dress seems to intimate that she is a widow. Wellthen might Solomon say, that "a foolish son is the heaviness of hismother;" for we here behold her who had often rejoiced in the prospectof her child being a prop to her in the decline of life, lamenting hisdepravity, and anticipating with horror the termination of his evilcourse. One would naturally imagine, from the common course of things, that this scene would have awakened his reflection, and been the meansof softening the ruggedness of his disposition, --that some tender ideaswould have crossed his mind and melted the obduracy of his heart; but hecontinues hardened and callous to every admonition. 

The group of figures composing this print has been copied by theingenious Lavater; with whose appropriate remarks we conclude ourpresent description. "Observe, " says this great analyst of the humancountenance, "in the annexed group, that unnatural wretch, with theinfernal visage, insulting his supplicating mother; the predominantcharacter on the three other villain-faces, though all disfigured byeffrontery, is cunning and ironical malignity. Every face is a seal withthis truth engraved on it: 'Nothing makes a man so ugly as vice; nothingrenders the countenance so hideous as villainy. '"

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 5. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE TURNED AWAY AND SENT TO SEA. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE VI. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE OUT OF HIS TIME, AND MARRIED TO HIS MASTER'SDAUGHTER. 

 "The virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. " Proverbs, chap. Xiii. Verse 4. 

The reward of industry is success. Our prudent and attentive youth isnow become partner with his master, and married to his daughter. Thesign, by which this circumstance is intimated, was at first inscribedGOODCHILD and WEST. Some of Mr. Hogarth's city friends informing himthat it was usual for the senior partner's name to precede, it wasaltered. 

To show that plenty reigns in this mansion, a servant distributes theremains of the table to a poor woman, and the bridegroom pays one of thedrummers, who, according to ancient custom, attend with their thunderinggratulations the day after a wedding. A performer on the bass viol, anda herd of butchers armed with marrow-bones and cleavers, form an Englishconcert. (Madame Pompadour, in her remarks on the English taste formusic, says, they are invariably fond of every thing that is full in themouth. ) A cripple with the ballad of Jesse, or the Happy Pair, represents a man known by the name of Philip in the Tub, who had visitedIreland and the United Provinces; and, in the memory of some persons nowliving, was a general attendant at weddings. From those votaries ofHymen who were honoured with his epithalamiums, he received a smallreward. To show that Messrs. West and Goodchild's habitation is near themonument, the base of that stately column appears in the back-ground. The inscription which until lately graced this structure, used to remindevery reader of Pope's lines, Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully, rears its head, and lies, &c. 

The duke of Buckingham's epigram on this magnificent pillar is not sogenerally known:

 Here stand I, The Lord knows why; But if I fall-- Have at ye all!

A footman and butcher, at the opposite corner, compared with the otherfigures, are gigantic; they might serve for the Gog and Magog ofGuildhall. 

It has been said that the thoughts in this print are trite, and theactions mean, which must be in part acknowledged, but they are natural, and appropriate to the rank and situation of the parties, and to thefashions of the time at which it was published. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 6. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE OUT OF HIS TIME & MARRIED TO HIS MASTER'SDAUGHTER. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE VII. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE RETURNED FROM SEA, AND IN A GARRET WITH A COMMONPROSTITUTE. 

 "The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase him. " Leviticus, chap. Xxvi. Verse 26. 

The idle apprentice, as appears by this print, is advancing with rapidstrides towards his fate. We are to suppose him returned from sea aftera long voyage; and to have met with such correction abroad for hisobstinacy, during his absence from England, that though it was foundinsufficient to alter his disposition, yet it determined him to pursuesome other way of life; and what he entered on is here but too evident(from the pistols by the bed-side, and the trinkets his companion isexamining, in order to strip him of) to be that of the highway. He isrepresented in a garret, with a common prostitute, the partaker of hisinfamy, awaking, after a night spent in robbery and plunder, from one ofthose broken slumbers which are ever the consequences of a life ofdishonesty and debauchery. Though the designs of Providence are visiblein every thing, yet they are never more conspicuous than in this, --thatwhatever these unhappy wretches possess by wicked and illegal means, they seldom comfortably enjoy. In this scene we have one of the finestpictures imaginable of the horrors of a guilty conscience. Though thedoor is fastened in the strongest manner with a lock and two bolts, andwith the addition of some planks from the flooring, so as to make hisretreat as secure as possible; though he has attempted to drive awaythought by the powerful effects of spirituous liquors, plain from theglass and bottle upon the floor, still he is not able to brave out hisguilt, or steel his breast against reflection. Behold him roused by theaccidental circumstance of a cat's coming down the chimney, and thefalling of a few bricks, which he believes to be the noise of hispursuers! Observe his starting up in bed, and all the tortures of hismind imprinted in his face! He first stiffens into stone, then all hisnerves and muscles relax, a cold sweat seizes him, his hair stands onend, his teeth chatter, and dismay and horror stalk before his eyes. Howdifferent is the countenance of his wretched bed-fellow! in whomunconcern and indifference to every thing but the plunder are plainlyapparent. She is looking at an ear-ring, which, with two watches, anetwee, and a couple of rings, are spread upon the bed, as part of lastnight's plunder. The phials on the mantel-piece show that sickness anddisease are ever attendant on prostitution; and the beggarly appearanceof the room, its wretched furniture, the hole by way of window, (by thelight of which she is examining her valuable acquisition, and againstwhich she had hung her old hoop-petticoat in order to keep out thecold, ) and the rat's running across the floor, are just and sufficientindications that misery and want are the constant companions of a guiltylife. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 7. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE RETURNED FROM SEA, AND IN THE A GARRET WITH APROSTITUTE. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE VIII. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE GROWN RICH, AND SHERIFF OF LONDON. 

 'With all thy gettings get understanding. Exalt her and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. ' Proverbs, chap. Iv. Verse 7, 8. 

From industry become opulent, from integrity and punctualityrespectable, our young merchant is now sheriff of London, and diningwith the different companies in Guildhall. A group on the left side areadmirably characteristic; their whole souls seem absorbed in thepleasures of the table. A divine, true to his cloth, swallows his soupwith the highest _goût_. Not less gratified is the gentleman palating aglass of wine. The man in a black wig is a positive representative offamine; and the portly and oily citizen, with a napkin tucked in hisbutton-hole, has evidently burnt his mouth by extreme eagerness. 

The backs of those in the distance, behung with bags, major perukes, pinners, &c. Are most laughably ludicrous. Every person present is soattentive to business, that one may fairly conclude they live to eat, rather than eat to live. 

But though this must be admitted to be the case with this party, thefollowing instance of city temperance proves that there are someexceptions. When the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen, Chamberlain, &c. Ofthe city of London were once seated round the table at a public andsplendid dinner at Guildhall, Mr. Chamberlain Wilkes lisped out, "Mr. Alderman B----, shall I help you to a plate of turtle, or a slice of thehaunch, --I am within reach of both, sir?" "Neither one nor t'other, Ithank you, Sir, " replied the Alderman, "I think I shall dine on thebeans and bacon which are at this end of the table. " "Mr. AldermanA----, " continued the Chamberlain, "which would you choose, sir?" "Sir, I will not trouble you for either, for I believe I shall follow theexample of my brother B----, and dine on beans and bacon, " was thereply. On this second refusal the old Chamberlain rose from his seat, and, with every mark of astonishment in his countenance, curled up thecorners of his mouth, cast his eyes round the table, and in a voice asloud and articulate as he was able, called "Silence!" which beingobtained, he thus addressed the pretorian magistrate, who sat in theChair: "My Lord Mayor, the wicked have accused us of intemperance, andbranded us with the imputation of gluttony; that they may be put to openshame, and their profane tongues be from this day utterly silenced, Ihumbly move, that your Lordship command the proper officer to record inour annals, that two Aldermen of the city of London prefer beans andbacon to either turtle soup or venison. "

Notwithstanding all this, there are men, who, looking on the dark side, and perhaps rendered splenetic, and soured by not being invited to thesesumptuous entertainments, have affected to fear, that their frequentrepetition would have a tendency to produce a famine, or at least tocheck the increase, if not extirpate the species, of those birds, beasts, and fish, with which the tables of the rich are now soplentifully supplied. But these half reasoners do not take into theircalculation the number of gentlemen so laudably associated forencouraging cattle being fed so fat that there is no lean left; or thatmore ancient association, sanctioned and supported by severe acts ofparliament, for the preservation of the game. From the exertions ofthese and similar societies, we may reasonably hope there is no occasionto dread any such calamity taking place; though the Guildhall tablesoften groaning under such hecatombs as are recorded in the followingaccount, may make a man of weak nerves and strong digestion, shake hishead, and shudder a little. "On the 29th October, 1727, when George II. And Queen Caroline honoured the city with their presence at Guildhall, there were 19 tables, covered with 1075 dishes. The whole expense ofthis entertainment to the city was 4889_l. _ 4_s. _"

To return to the print;--a self-sufficient and consequential beadle, reading the direction of a letter to Francis Goodchild, Esq. Sheriff ofLondon, has all the insolence of office. The important and overbearingair of this dignified personage is well contrasted by the humblesimplicity of the straight-haired messenger behind the bar. The galleryis well furnished with musicians busily employed in their vocation. 

 Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast, And therefore proper at a sheriff's feast. 

Besides a portrait of William the Third, and a judge, the hall isornamented with a full length of that illustrious hero Sir WilliamWalworth, in commemoration of whose valour the weapon with which he slewWat Tyler was introduced into the city arms. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 8. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE GROWN RICH, AND SHERIFF OF LONDON. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE IX. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE BETRAYED BY A PROSTITUTE, AND TAKEN IN A NIGHT CELLARWITH HIS ACCOMPLICE. 

 "The adulteress will hunt for precious life. " Proverbs, chap. Vi. Verse 26. 

From the picture of the reward of diligence, we return to take a furtherview of the progress of sloth and infamy; by following the idle'prentice a step nearer to the approach of his unhappy end. We see himin the third plate herding with the worst of the human species, the verydregs of the people; one of his companions, at that time, being aone-eyed wretch, who seemed hackneyed in the ways of vice. To break thisvile connexion he was sent to sea; but, no sooner did he return, thanhis wicked disposition took its natural course, and every day he livedserved only to habituate him to acts of greater criminality. Hepresently discovered his old acquaintance, who, no doubt, rejoiced tofind him so ripe for mischief: with this worthless, abandoned fellow, heenters into engagements of the worst kind, even those of robbery andmurder. Thus blindly will men sometimes run headlong to their owndestruction. 

About the time when these plates were first published, which was in theyear 1747, there was a noted house in Chick Lane, Smithfield, that wentby the name of the Blood-Bowl House, so called from the numerous scenesof blood that were almost daily carried on there; it being a receptaclefor prostitutes and thieves; where every species of delinquency waspractised; and where, indeed, there seldom passed a month without thecommission of some act of murder. To this subterraneous abode ofiniquity (it being a cellar) was our hero soon introduced; where he isnow represented in company with his accomplice, and others of the samestamp, having just committed a most horrid act of barbarity, (that ofkilling a passer-by, and conveying him into a place under ground, contrived for this purpose, ) dividing among them the ill-gotten booty, which consists of two watches, a snuff-box, and some other trinkets. Inthe midst of this wickedness, he is betrayed by his strumpet (a proof ofthe treachery of such wretches) into the hands of the high constable andhis attendants, who had, with better success than heretofore, traced himto this wretched haunt. The back-ground of this print serves rather as arepresentation of night-cellars in general, those infamous receptaclesfor the dissolute and abandoned of both sexes, than a furtherillustration of our artist's chief design; however, as it was Mr. Hogarth's intention, in the history before us, to encourage virtue andexpose vice, by placing the one in an amiable light, and exhibiting theother in its most heightened scenes of wickedness and impiety, in hopesof deterring the half-depraved youth of this metropolis, from even thepossibility of the commission of such actions, by frightening them fromthese abodes of wretchedness; as this was manifestly his intention, itcannot be deemed a deviation from the subject. By the skirmish behind, the woman without a nose, the scattered cards upon the floor, &c. We areshown that drunkenness and riot, disease, prostitution, and ruin are thedreadful attendants of sloth, and the general fore-runners of crimes ofthe deepest die; and by the halter suspended from the ceiling, over thehead of the sleeper, we are to learn two things--the indifference ofmankind, even in a state of danger, and the insecurity of guilt in everysituation. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 9. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE BETRAYED BY A PROSTITUTE. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE X. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE ALDERMAN OF LONDON; THE IDLE ONE BROUGHTBEFORE HIM, AND IMPEACHED BY HIS ACCOMPLICE. 

 "Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment. " Leviticus, chap. Xix. Verse 15. 

 "The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. " Psalms, chap. Ix. Verse 16. 

Imagine now this depraved and atrocious youth hand-cuffed, and draggedfrom his wicked haunt, through the streets to a place of security, amidst the scorn and contempt of a jeering populace; and thence broughtbefore the sitting magistrate, (who, to heighten the scene and supportthe contrast, is supposed to be his fellow-'prentice, now chosen analderman, ) in order to be dealt with according to law. See him then atlast having run his course of iniquity, fallen into the hands ofjustice, being betrayed by his accomplice; a further proof of theperfidy of man, when even partners in vice are unfaithful to each other. This is the only print among the set, excepting the first, where the twoprincipal characters are introduced; in which Mr. Hogarth has shown hisgreat abilities, as well in description, as in a particular attention tothe uniformity and connexion of the whole. He is now at the bar, withall the marks of guilt imprinted on his face. How, if his fear willpermit him to reflect, must he think on the happiness and exaltation ofhis fellow-'prentice on the one hand, and of his own misery anddegradation on the other! at one instant, he condemns the persuasions ofhis wicked companions; at another, his own idleness and obstinacy:however, deeply smitten with his crime, he sues the magistrate, upon hisknees, for mercy, and pleads in his cause the former acquaintance thatsubsisted between them, when they both dwelt beneath the same roof, andserved the same common master: but here was no room for lenity, murderwas his crime, and death must be his punishment; the proofs areincontestable, and his mittimus is ordered, which the clerk is drawingout. Let us next turn our thoughts upon the alderman, in whose breast astruggle between mercy and justice is beautifully displayed. Who canbehold the magistrate, here, without praising the man? How fine is thepainter's thoughts of reclining the head on one hand, while the other isextended to express the pity and shame he feels that human nature shouldbe so depraved! It is not the golden chain or scarlet robe thatconstitutes the character, but the feelings of the heart. To show usthat application for favour, by the ignorant, is often idly made to theservants of justice, who take upon themselves on that account a certainstate and consequence, not inferior to magistracy, the mother of ourdelinquent is represented in the greatest distress, as making interestwith the corpulent self-swoln constable, who with an unfeeling concernseems to say, "Make yourself easy, for he must be hanged;" and toconvince us that bribery will even find its way into courts ofjudicature, here is a woman feeing the swearing clerk, who has stuck hispen behind his ear that his hands might be both at liberty; and how muchmore his attention is engaged to the money he is taking, than to theadministration of the oath, may be known from the ignorant, treacherouswitness being suffered to lay his left hand upon the book; stronglyexpressive of the sacrifice, even of sacred things, to the inordinatethirst of gain. 

From Newgate (the prison to which he was committed; where, during hiscontinuance he lay chained in a dismal cell, deprived of thecheerfulness of light, fed upon bread and water, and left without a bedto rest on) the prisoner was removed to the bar of judgment, andcondemned to die by the laws of his country. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 10. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE ALDERMAN OF LONDON. THE IDLE ONE IMPEACHEDBEFORE HIM BY HIS ACCOMPLICE. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE XI. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN. 

 "When fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress cometh upon them, then shall they call upon God, but he will not answer. " Proverbs, chapter i. Verse 7, 8. 

Thus, after a life of sloth, wretchedness, and vice, does our delinquentterminate his career. Behold him, on the dreadful morn of execution, drawn in a cart (attended by the sheriff's officers on horseback, withhis coffin behind him) through the public streets to Tyburn, there toreceive the just reward of his crimes, --a shameful ignominious death. The ghastly appearance of his face, and the horror painted on hiscountenance, plainly show the dreadful situation of his mind; which wemust imagine to be agitated with shame, remorse, confusion, and terror. The careless position of the Ordinary at the coach window is intended toshow how inattentive those appointed to that office are of their duty, leaving it to others, which is excellently expressed by the itinerantpreacher in the cart, instructing from a book of Wesley's. Mr. Hogarthhas in this print, digressing from the history and moral of the piece, taken an opportunity of giving us a humorous representation of anexecution, or a Tyburn Fair: such days being made holidays, producescenes of the greatest riot, disorder, and uproar; being generallyattended by hardened wretches, who go there, not so much to reflect upontheir own vices, as to commit those crimes which must in time inevitablybring them to the same shameful end. In confirmation of this, see howearnestly one boy watches the motions of the man selling his cakes, while he is picking his pocket; and another waiting to receive thebooty! We have here interspersed before us a deal of low humour, butsuch as is common on occasions like this. In one place we observe an oldbawd turning up her eyes and drinking a glass of gin, the very pictureof hypocrisy; and a man indecently helping up a girl into the same cart;in another, a soldier sunk up to his knees in a bog, and two boyslaughing at him, are well imagined. Here we see one almost squeezed todeath among the horses; there, another trampled on by the mob. In onepart is a girl tearing the face of a boy for oversetting her barrow; inanother, a woman beating a fellow for throwing down her child. Here wesee a man flinging a dog among the crowd by the tail; there a womancrying the dying speech of Thomas Idle, printed the day before hisexecution; and many other things too minute to be pointed out: two, however, we must not omit taking notice of, one of which is the lettingoff a pigeon, bred at the gaol, fly from the gallery, which hastesdirectly home; an old custom, to give an early notice to the keeper andothers, of the turning off or death of the criminal; and that of theexecutioner smoking his pipe at the top of the gallows, whose positionof indifference betrays an unconcern that nothing can reconcile with theshocking spectacle, but that of use having rendered his wretched officefamiliar to him; whilst it declares a truth, which every character inthis plate seems to confirm, that a sad and distressful object loses itspower of affecting by being frequently seen. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 11. 

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN. ]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE XII. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON. 

 "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. " Proverbs, chap. Iii. Ver. 16. 

Having seen the ignominious end of the idle apprentice, nothing remainsbut to represent the completion of the other's happiness; who is nowexalted to the highest honour, that of Lord Mayor of London; thegreatest reward that ancient and noble city can bestow on diligence andintegrity. Our artist has here, as in the last plate, given a loose tohis humour, in representing more of the low part of the Lord Mayor'sshow than the magnificent; yet the honour done the city, by the presenceof the Prince and Princess of Wales, is not forgotten. The variety ofcomic characters in this print serves to show what generally passes onsuch public processions as these, when the people collect to gratifytheir childish curiosity, and indulge their wanton disposition, ornatural love of riot. The front of this plate exhibits the oversettingof a board, on which some girls had stood, and represents them sprawlingupon the ground; on the left, at the back of the scaffold, is a fellowsaluting a fair nymph, and another enjoying the joke: near him is ablind man straggled in among the crowd, and joining in the generalhalloo: before him is a militia-man, so completely intoxicated as not toknow what he is doing; a figure of infinite humour. Though Mr. Hogarthhas here marked out two or three particular things, yet his chiefintention was to ridicule the city militia, which was at this periodcomposed of undisciplined men, of all ages, sizes, and height; some fat, some lean, some tall, some short, some crooked, some lame, and ingeneral so unused to muskets, that they knew not how to carry them. One, we observe, is firing his piece and turning his head another way, atwhom the man above is laughing, and at which the child is frightened. The boy on the right, crying, "A full and true account of the ghost ofThomas Idle, " which is supposed to have appeared to the Mayor, preserves the connexion of the whole work. The most obtrusive figure inhis Lordship's coach is Mr. Swordbearer, in a cap like a reversedsaucepan, which this great officer wears on these grand occasions. Thecompany of journeymen butchers, with their marrow-bones and cleavers, appear to be the most active, and are by far the most noisy of any whograce this solemnity. Numberless spectators, upon every house and atevery window, dart their desiring eyes on the procession; so greatindeed was the interest taken by the good citizens of London in thesecivic processions that, formerly, it was usual in a London lease toinsert a clause, giving a right to the landlord and his friends to standin the balcony, during the time of "the shows or pastimes, upon the daycommonly called the Lord Mayor's Day. "

Thus have we seen, by a series of events, the prosperity of the one andthe downfall of the other; the riches and honour that crown the head ofindustry, and the ignominy and destruction that await the slothful. After this it would be unnecessary to say which is the most eligiblepath to tread. Lay the roads but open to the view, and the travellerwill take the right of course; give but the boy this history to peruse, and his future welfare is almost certain. 

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 

PLATE 12. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON. ]

SOUTHWARK FAIR. 

The subject of the plate under consideration is that of the BoroughFair; a fair held some time since in the Borough of Southwark, thoughnow suppressed. This fair was attended, generally, by the inhabitants oftown and country, and, therefore, was one that afforded great variety;especially as, before its suppression, it was devoted to every thingloose and irregular. A view of the scene, of which the following printis a faithful representation, will affirm this truth. 

The principal view upon the left represents the fall of a scaffold, onwhich was assembled a strolling company, pointed out, by the paperlantern hanging in front, to be that belonging to Cibber and Bullock, ready dressed to exhibit "The Fall of Bajazet. " Here we seemerry-andrews, monkeys, queens and emperors, sinking in one generalconfusion; and, that the crash may appear the greater, the stand beneathis humorously supposed to consist of earthenware and china. Notwithstanding this fatal overthrow, few below are seen to notice it;witness the boys and woman gambling at the box and dice, the uprightmonkey, and the little bag-piper dancing his wooden figures. Above thisscaffold hangs a painting, the subject of which is the stage mutiny;whose figures are as follow:--On one side is Pistol, (strutting andcrying out, "Pistol's alive, ") Falstaff, Justice Shallow, and many othercharacters of Shakspeare. On the other, the manager bearing in his handa paper, on which is written, "it cost 6000_l. _" a scene-painter, whohas laid his brushes aside, and taken up a cudgel; and a woman holdingan ensign, bearing the words, "We'll starve 'em out. " In the corner is aman, quiet and snug, hugging a bag of money, laughing at the folly ofthe rest; and behind, a monkey, perched upon a sign iron, supposed to bethat of the Rose Tavern in Drury-lane, squeaking out, "I am agentleman. " These paintings are in general designed to show what isexhibited within; but this alludes to a dispute that arose at the timewhen this print was published, which was in the year 1733, between theplayers and the patentee of Drury-lane Theatre, when young Cibber, theson of the Laureate, was at the head of the faction. Above, on oneside, is an equilibrist swinging on a slack rope; and on the other, aman flying from the tower to the ground, by means of a groove fastenedto his breast, slipping over a line strained from one place to theother. At the back of this plate is Lee and Harper's great booth, where, by the picture of the wooden horse, we are told, is represented "TheSiege of Troy. " The next paintings consist of the fall of Adam and Eve, and a scene in Punch's opera. Beneath is a mountebank, exalted on astage, eating fire to attract the public attention; while hismerry-andrew behind is distributing his medicines. Further back is ashift and hat, carried upon poles, designed as prizes for the bestrunner or wrestler. In front is a group of strollers parading the fair, in order to collect an audience for their next exhibition; in which is afemale drummer, at that time well known, and remarked for her beauty, which we observe has caught the eye of two countrymen, the one old, theother young. Behind these men is a buskined hero, beset by a MarshalseaCourt officer and his follower. To the right is a Savoyard exhibitingher farthing show; and behind, a player at back sword riding a blindhorse round the fair triumphantly, in all the boast of self-importantheroism, affecting terror in his countenance, glorying in his scars, andchallenging the world to open combat: a folly for which the English wereremarkable. To this man a fellow is directing the attention of a countrygentleman, while he robs him of his handkerchief. Next him is an artfulvillain decoying a couple of unthinking country girls to their ruin. Further back is a man kissing a wench in the crowd; and above, a jugglerperforming some dexterity of hand. Indeed it would be tedious to enterinto an enumeration of the various matter of this plate; it issufficient to remark that it presents us with an endless collection ofspirited and laughable characters, in which is strikingly portrayed thecharacter of the times. 

[Illustration: SOUTHWARK FAIR. ]

GARRICK IN THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD III. 

 Give me another horse, --bind up my wounds, -- Have mercy, Jesu!--Soft; I did but dream. -- O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!-- The lights burn blue!--is it not dead midnight? Cold, fearful drops hang on my trembling flesh. --

Such is the exclamation of Richard, and such is the disposition of hismind at the moment of this delineation. The lamp, diffusing a dimreligious light through the tent, the crucifix placed at his head, thecrown, and unsheathed sword at his hand, and the armour lying on theground, are judicious and appropriate accompaniments. Those who areacquainted with this prince's history, need not be told that he wasnaturally bold, courageous, and enterprising; that when business calledhim to the field, he shook off every degree of indulgence, and appliedhis mind to the management of his affairs. This may account for hisbeing stripped no otherwise than of his armour, having retired to histent in order to repose himself upon his bed, and lessen the fatigues ofthe preceding day. See him then hastily rising, at dead of night, in theutmost horror from his own thoughts, being terrified in his sleep by thedreadful phantoms of an affrighted imagination, seizing on his sword, byway of defence against the foe his disordered fancy presents to him. Sogreat is his agitation, that every nerve and muscle is in action, andeven the ring is forced from his finger. When the heart is affected, howgreat is its influence on the human frame!--it communicates itssensibility to the extreme parts of the body, from the centre to thecircumference; as distant water is put in motion by circles, spreadingfrom the place of its disturbance. The paper on the floor containingthese words, Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold, For Dicken thy master is bought and is sold, brought him by the Duke of Norfolk, saying he found it in his tent, andlying here unattended to, as a mark of contempt, plainly informs us thathowever a man may attempt to steel himself against the arrows ofconscience, still they will find a way to his breast, and shake thesinner even in his greatest security. And indeed we cannot wonder, whenwe reflect on the many murders he was guilty of, deserving the severestpunishment; for Providence has wisely ordained that sin should be itsown tormentor, otherwise, in many cases, the offender would, in thislife, escape unpunished, and the design of heaven be frustrated. ButRichard, though he reached a throne, and by that means was exempt fromthe sufferings of the subject, yet could not divest himself of hisnature, but was forced to give way to the workings of the heart, andbear the tortures of a distracted mind. The expression in his face is amaster-piece of execution, and was a great compliment paid by Mr. Hogarth to his friend Garrick; yet not unmerited, as all that have seenhim in the part must acknowledge the greatness of the actor. The figuresin the distance, two of whom, Like sacrifices by their fires of watch, With patience sit, and inly ruminate The morning's danger, are properly introduced, and highly descriptive. 

The tents of Richmond are so near

 That the fix'd sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other's watch. 

Considered as a whole, the composition is simple, striking, andoriginal, and the figures well drawn. The whole moral tenour of thepiece informs us that conscience is armed with a thousand stings, fromwhich royalty itself is not secure; that of all tormentors, reflectionis the worst; that crowns and sceptres are baubles, compared withself-approbation; and that nought is productive of solid happiness, butinward peace and serenity of mind. 

[Illustration: GARRICK. 

In the Character of Richard the Third. ]

THE INVASION; OR, FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 

In the two following designs, Mr. Hogarth has displayed that partialityfor his own country and contempt for France, which formed a strong traitin his character. He neither forgot nor forgave the insults he sufferedat Calais, though he did not recollect that this treatment originated inhis own ill humour, which threw a sombre shade over every object thatpresented itself. Having early imbibed the vulgar prejudice that oneEnglishman was a match for four Frenchmen, he thought it would be doinghis country a service to prove the position. How far it is either usefulor politic to depreciate the power, or degrade the character of thatpeople with whom we are to contend, is a question which does not comewithin the plan of this work. In some cases it may create confidence, but in others lead to the indulgence of that negligent security by whicharmies have been slaughtered, provinces depopulated, and kingdomschanged their rulers. 

PLATE I. 

FRANCE. 

 With lantern jaws and croaking gut, See how the half-star'd Frenchmen strut, And call us English dogs: But soon we'll teach these bragging foes That beef and beer give heavier blows Than soup and roasted frogs. 

 The priests, inflam'd with righteous hopes, Prepare their axes, wheels, and ropes, To bend the stiff-neck'd sinner; But should they sink in coming over, Old Nick may fish 'twixt France and Dover, And catch a glorious dinner. 

The scenes of all Mr. Hogarth's prints, except The Gate of Calais, andthat now under consideration, are laid in England. In this, havingquitted his own country, he seems to think himself out of the reach ofthe critics, and, in delineating a Frenchman, at liberty to depart fromnature, and sport in the fairy regions of caricature. Were these Gallicsoldiers naked, each of them would appear like a forked radish, with ahead fantastically carved upon it with a knife: so forlorn! that to anythick sight he would be invisible. To see this miserable woe-begonerefuse of the army, who look like a group detached from the main bodyand put on the sick list, embarking to conquer a neighbouring kingdom, is ridiculous enough, and at the time of publication must have had greateffect. The artist seemed sensible that it was necessary to account forthe unsubstantial appearance of these shadows of men, and has hinted attheir want of solid food, in the bare bones of beef hung up in thewindow, the inscription on the alehouse sign, "_Soup maigre au SabotRoyal_, " and the spider-like officer roasting four frogs which he hasimpaled upon his sword. Such light and airy diet is whimsically opposedby the motto on the standard, which two of the most valorous of thisghastly troop are hailing with grim delight and loud exultation. It is, indeed, an attractive motto, and well calculated to inspire thisfamishing company with courage:--"_Vengeance, avec la bonne Bière, etbon boeuf d'Angleterre. _" However meagre the military, the churchmilitant is in no danger of starving. The portly friar is neitheremaciated by fasting nor weakened by penance. Anticipating the glory ofextirpating heresy, he is feeling the sharp edge of an axe, to beemployed in the decollation of the enemies to the true faith. A sledgeis laden with whips, wheels, ropes, chains, gibbets, and otherinquisitorial engines of torture, which are admirably calculated for thepropagation of a religion that was established in meekness and mercy, and inculcates universal charity and forbearance. On the same sledge isan image of St. Anthony, accompanied by his pig, and the plan of amonastery to be built at Black Friars. 

In the back-ground are a troop of soldiers so averse to this Englishexpedition, that their serjeant is obliged to goad them forward with hishalberd. To intimate that agriculture suffers by the invasion havingengaged the masculine inhabitants, two women, ploughing a sterilepromontory in the distance, complete this catalogue of wretchedness, misery, and famine. 

[Illustration: FRANCE. ]

THE INVASION. 

PLATE II. 

ENGLAND. 

 See John the Soldier, Jack the Tar, With sword and pistol arm'd for war, Should Mounseer dare come here; The hungry slaves have smelt our food, They long to taste our flesh and blood, Old England's beef and beer. 

 Britons to arms! and let 'em come, Be you but Britons still, strike home, And, lion-like, attack 'em, No power can stand the deadly stroke That's given from hands and hearts of oak, With Liberty to back 'em. 

From the unpropitious regions of France our scene changes to the fertilefields of England. 

 England! bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shores beat back the envious siege Of wat'ry Neptune. 

Instead of the forlorn and famished party who were represented in thelast plate, we here see a company of well-fed and high-spirited Britons, marked with all the hardihood of ancient times, and eager to defendtheir country. 

In the first group a young peasant, who aspires to a niche in the templeof Fame, preferring the service of Mars to that of Ceres, and thedignified appellation of soldier to the plebeian name of farmer, offersto enlist. Standing with his back against the halberd to ascertain hisheight, and, finding he is rather under the mark, he endeavours to reachit by rising on tiptoe. This artifice, to which he is impelled bytowering ambition, the serjeant seems disposed to connive at--and theserjeant is a hero, and a great man in his way; "your hero always mustbe tall, you know. "

To evince that the polite arts were then in a flourishing state, andcultivated by more than the immediate professors, a gentleman artist, who to common eyes must pass for a grenadier, is making a caricature of_le grand monarque_, with a label from his mouth worthy the speaker andworthy observation, "You take a my fine ships; you be de pirate; you bede teef: me send my grand armies, and hang you all. " The action issuited to the word, for with his left hand this most Christian potentategrasps his sword, and in his right poises a gibbet. The figure and mottounited produce a roar of approbation from the soldier and sailor, whoare criticising the work. It is so natural that the Helen and Briseis ofthe camp contemplate the performance with apparent delight, and, whileone of them with her apron measures the breadth of this herculeanpainter's shoulders, the other, to show that the performance has somepoint, places her forefinger against the prongs of a fork. The littlefifer, playing that animated and inspiring tune, "God save the King, " isan old acquaintance: we recollect him in the March to Finchley. In theback-ground is a serjeant, teaching a company of young recruits theirmanual exercise. 

This military meeting is held at the sign of the Gallant Duke ofCumberland, who is mounted upon a prancing charger, As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, To turn and wield a fiery Pegasus, And witch the world with noble horsemanship. 

Underneath is inscribed "Roast and Boiled every day, " which, with thebeef and beverage upon the table, forms a fine contrast to the _soupmaigre_, bare bones, and roasted frogs, in the last print. The bottlepainted on the wall, foaming with liquor, which, impatient ofimprisonment, has burst its cerements, must be an irresistibleinvitation to a thirsty traveller. The soldier's sword laid upon theround of beef, and the sailor's pistol on the vessel containing the ale, intimate that these great bulwarks of our island are as tenacious oftheir beef and beer, as of their religion and liberty. 

These two plates were published in 1756; but in the London Chronicle forOctober 20, 1759, is the following advertisement: "This day arerepublished, Two prints designed and etched by William Hogarth, onerepresenting the preparations on the French coast for an intendedinvasion; the other, a view of the preparations making in England tooppose the wicked designs of our enemies; proper to be stuck up inpublic places, both in town and country, at this juncture. "

The verses which were inserted under each print, and subjoined to thisaccount, are, it must be acknowledged, coarse enough. They were, however, written by David Garrick. 

[Illustration: ENGLAND. ]

Transcriber's Note. 

The following words were inconsistently hyphenated in the original text:

 down-cast / downcast footboy / foot-boy fore-finger / forefinger half-pence / halfpence

The orthography of the original text has been preserved. In particularthe following words are as they appear in the original:

 antichamber aukwardly corruscations corse Govent Martin Fowkes negociated pannel plaistering pourtrayed sculls stupifies tenour vender

The following words were inconsistently accented in the original text:

 a-la-mode / à-la-mode degagée / dégagée