FRONTISPIECE TO TERRÆ FILIUS.
TERRÆ FILIUS.
The work to which this is a frontispiece was written by Nicholas Amhurst, author of the Craftsman, and published in the year 1726. The leading object of this writer is to satirize the Tory principles of the University of Oxford; but as the book does not abound in subjects for the pencil, Hogarth has selected a scene described in No. 33, published 8th May 1721, which contains "Advice to all gentlemen schoolboys, etc., who are designed for the University of Oxford." In the part which forms the subject for this print, the writer thus cautions them:—
"Have a particular regard how you speak of those gaudy things which flutter about Oxford in prodigious numbers in summer time, called 'Toasts;' take care how you reflect on their parentage, their condition, their virtue, or their beauty,—ever remembering that
'Hell has no fury like a woman scorn'd;'
especially when they have spiritual bravoes on their side, to revenge their cause on every audacious contemner of Venus and her altars.
"Not long ago a bitter lampoon was published on the most celebrated of these petticoat professors. As soon as it came out the town was in an uproar, and a very severe sentence was passed upon the author of this anonymous libel, to discover whom no pains were spared. All the disgusted ill-natured fellows in the University were, one after another, suspected upon this occasion. At last, I know not how, it was peremptorily fixed upon one, whether justly or not I cannot say; but the parties offended resolved to make an example of somebody for such an enormous crime, and one of them (more enraged than the rest) was heard to declare, 'that right or wrong, that impudent scoundrel (mentioning his name) should be expelled by G—; and that she had interest enough with the President and Senior Fellows of his College to get his business done.' Accordingly, within a year after this, he was (almost unanimously) expelled from his fellowship, in the presence of some of the persons injured, who came thither to see the execution.
'Felix quam faciunt aliena pericula cautum'
was the thesis pitched upon by the excluding doctors for the under-graduates to moralize upon, in a public exercise upon this occasion; and as it is a very wholesome maxim, I leave it, my little lads, to your serious meditation."
To the figures introduced in this print the original artist has given a spirit worthy of Callot; and the copy hereto annexed has been thought correct and animated.