Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, With a Catalogue of His Works

by John Nichols

1735.

1. The Rake's Progress, in eight plates.

Extract from the London Daily Post, May 14, 1735:

"The nine prints from the paintings of Mr. Hogarth, one representing a Fair, and the others a Rake's Progress, are now printing off, and will be ready to be delivered on the 25th of June next.

"Subscriptions will be taken at Mr. Hogarth's, the Golden-Head, in Leicester-fields, till the 23d of June, and no longer, at half a guinea to be paid on subscribing, and half a guinea more on delivery of the prints at the price above-mentioned, after which the price will be two guineas.

"N. B. Mr. Hogarth was, and is, obliged to defer the publication and delivery of the abovesaid prints till the 25th of June next, in order to secure his property, pursuant to an act lately passed both houses of parliament, now waiting for the royal assent, to secure all new invented prints that shall be published after the 24th of June next, from being copied without consent of the proprietor, and thereby preventing a scandalous and unjust custom (hitherto practised with impunity) of making and vending base copies of original prints, to the manifest injury of the author, and the great discouragement of the arts of painting and engraving."

In The Craftsman, soon afterwards, appeared the following advertisement:

"Pursuant to an agreement with the subscribers to the Rake's Progress, not to sell them for less than two guineas each set after publication thereof, the said original prints are to be had at Mr. Hogarth's, the Golden-Head, in Leicester-fields; and at Tho. Bakewell's, print-seller, next Johnson's Court, in Fleet-street, where all other print-sellers may be supplied.

"In four days will be published, copies from the said prints, with the consent of Mr. Hogarth, according to the act of parliament, which will be sold at 2 s. 6 d. each set, with the usual allowance to all dealers in town and country; and, that the the publick may not be imposed on, at the bottom of each print will be inserted these words, viz. 'Published with the consent of Mr. William Hogarth, by Tho. Bakewell, according to act of parliament.'

"N. B. Any person that shall sell any other copies, or imitations of the said prints, will incur the penalties in the late act of parliament, and be prosecuted for the same."

This series of plates, however, as Mr. Walpole observes, was pirated by Boitard on one very large sheet of paper, containing the several scenes represented by Hogarth. It came out a fortnight before the genuine set, but was soon forgotten. The principal variations in these prints are the following:

Plate I. The girl's face who holds the ring is erased, and a worse is put in.[1] The mother's head, &c. is lessened. The shoe-sole, cut from the cover of an ancient family Bible, together with a chest, is added; the memorandum-book removed into another place; the woollen-draper's shop bill,[2] appended to a roll of black cloth, omitted; the contents of the closet thrown more into shade.

In Plate II. are portraits of Figg, the prize-fighter;[3] Bridgeman, a noted gardener; and Dubois, a master of defence, who was killed in a duel by one of the same name, as the following paragraphs in The Grub-street Journal for May 16, 1734, &c. will testify: "Yesterday (May 11) between two and three in the afternoon, a duel was fought in Mary-le-bone Fields, between Mr. Dubois a Frenchman, and Mr. Dubois an Irishman, both fencing-masters, the former of whom was run through the body, but walked a considerable way from the place, and is now under the hands of an able surgeon, who has great hopes of his recovery."

May 23, 1734, "Yesterday morning died Mr. Dubois, of a wound he received in a duel."

The portrait of Handel has been supposed to be represented in the plate before us; but "this," as Sir John Hawkins observes to me, "is too much to say. Mr. Handel had a higher sense of his own merit than ever to put himself in such a situation; and, if so, the painter would hardly have thought of doing it. The musician must mean in general any composer of operas." On the floor lies a picture representing Farinelli, seated on a pedestal, with an altar before him, on which are several flaming hearts, near which stand a number of people with their arms extended, offering him presents: at the foot of the altar is one female kneeling, tendering her heart. From her mouth a label issues, inscribed, "One God, one Farinelli;" alluding to a lady of distinction, who, being charmed with a particular passage in one of his songs, uttered aloud from the boxes that impious exclamation. On the figure of the captain, Rouquet has the following remark: "Ce caractere ne paroit plus Italien qu'Anglois." I am not sufficiently versed in Alsatian annals to decide on the question; but believe that the bully by profession (not assassin, as Rouquet seems to interpret the character) was to be found during the youth of our artist. More have heard and been afraid of these vulgar heroes, than ever met with them. This set of prints was engraved by Scotin chiefly; but several of the faces were touched upon by Hogarth. In the second plate the countenance of the man with the quarter-staves was wholly engraved by Hogarth. In some early proofs of the print, there is not a single feature on this man's face; there is no writing either in the musician's book, or on the label; nor is there the horse-race cup, the letter, or the poem that lies at the end of the label, that being entirely blank. I mention these circumstances to shew that our artist would not entrust particular parts of his work to any hand but his own; or perhaps he had neither determined on the countenance or the inscription he meant to introduce, till the plate was far advanced. With unfinished proofs, on any other account, this catalogue has nothing to do. As the rudiments of plates, they may afford instruction to young engravers; or add a fancied value to the collections of connoisseurs.

In the third plate is Leather-coat,[4] a noted porter belonging to The Rose Tavern, with a large pewter dish in his hand, which for many years served as a sign to the shop of a pewterer on Snow-Hill. In this utensil the posture-woman, who is undressing, used to whirl herself round, and display other feats of indecent activity: "II suffit" (I transcribe from Rouquet, who is more circumstantial) "de vous laisser à deviner la destination de la chandelle. Ce grand plat va servir a cette femme comme à une poularde. Il sera mis au milieu de la table; elle s'y placera sur le dos; et l'ivresse et l'esprit de débauche feront trouver plaisant un jeu, qui de sang-froid ne le paroit guères." Rouquet, in his description of an English tavern, such as that in which our scene lies, mentions the following as extraordinary conveniencies and articles of magnificence: "Du linge toujours blanc[5]—de tables de bois qu'on appelle ici mahogani—grand feu et gratis." Variations: Pontac's head is added in the room of a mutilated Cæsar. Principal woman has a man's hat on. Rake's head altered. Undrest woman's head altered. Woman who spirts the wine, and she who threatens her with a drawn knife, have lower caps, &c.

So entirely do our manners differ from those of fifty years ago, that I much question if at present, in all the taverns of London, any thing resembling the scene here exhibited by Hogarth could be found. That we are less sensual than our predecessors, I do not affirm; but may with truth observe, we are more delicate in pursuit of our gratifications.—No young man, of our hero's fortune and education, would now think of entertaining half a score of prostitutes at a tavern, after having routed a set of feeble wretches, who are idly called our Guardians of the Night.

Plate IV. Rakewell is going to court on the first of March, which was Queen Caroline's birth-day, as well as the anniversary of St. David. In the early impressions a shoe-black steals the Rake's cane. In the modern ones, a large group of blackguards[6] [the chimney-sweeper peeping over the poll boy's cards, and discovering that he has two honours, by holding up two fingers, is among the luckiest of Hogarth's traits] 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;[7] 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 black-guard 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.[8] Not foreseeing, however, the immense demand for his prints, many of them were so slightly executed, as very early to stand in need of retouching. The seventh in particular was so much more slightly executed than the rest, that it sooner wanted renovation, and is therefore to be found in three different states. The rest appear only in two.

In Plate V. is his favourite dog Trump. In this, also the head of the maid-servant is greatly altered, and the leg and foot of the bridegroom omitted.

From the antiquated bride, and the young female adjusting the folds of her gown, in this plate, is taken a French print of a wrinkled harridan of fashion at her toilet, attended by a blooming coëffeuse. It was engraved by L. Surugue in 1745, from a picture in crayons by Coypel, and is entitled, La Folie pare la Decrepitude des ajustemens de la Jeunesse. From the Frenchman, however, the Devonshire-square dowager of our artist has received so high a polish, that she might be mistaken for a queen mother of France.

Mr. Gilpin, in his remarks on this plate, appears not to have fully comprehended the extent of the satire designed in it. Speaking of the church, he observes, that "the wooden post, which seems to have no use, divides the picture disagreeably." Hogarth, however, meant to expose the insufficiency of such ecclesiastical repairs as are confided to the superintendance of parish-officers. We learn, from an inscription on the front of a pew, that "This church was beautified in the Year 1725. Tho. Sice, Tho. Horn, Churchwardens."[9] The print before us came out in 1735 (i. e. only ten years afterwards), and by that time the building might have been found in the condition here exhibited, and have required a prop to prevent part of its roof from falling in.—As a proof that this edifice was really in a ruinous state, it was pulled down and rebuilt in the year 1741.

Fifty years ago, Marybone church was considered at such a distance from London, as to become the usual resort of those who, like our hero, wished to be privately married.

In Plate VI. the fire breaking out, alludes to the same accident which happened at White's, May 3, 1733. I learn from a very indifferent poem descriptive of this set of plates (the title is unfortunately wanting), that some of the characters in the scene before us were real ones:

"But see the careful plain old man,
M——[10], well-known youth to trepan,
To C———sh[11] lend the dear bought pence,
C———sh quite void of common sense,
Whose face, unto his soul a sign,
Looks stupid, as does that within.
A quarrel from behind ensues,
The sure retreat of those that lose.
An honest 'Squire smells the cheat,
And swears the villain shall be beat:
But G——dd wisely interferes,
And dissipates the wretch's fears."

The original sketch in oil for this scene is at Mrs. Hogarth's house in Leicester-fields. The principal character was then sitting, and not, as he is at present, thrown upon his knees in the act of execration.

The thought of the losing gamester pulling his hat over his brows is adopted from a similar character to be found among the figures of the principal personages in the court of Louis XIV. folio. This work has no engraver's name, but was probably executed about the year 1700.

Plate VII. The celebrated Beccaria, in his "Essay on Public Happiness," vol. II. p. 172, observes, "I am sensible there are persons whom it will be difficult for me to persuade: I mean those profound contemplators, who, secluding themselves from their fellow-creatures, are assiduously employed in framing laws for them, and who frequently neglect the care of their domestic and private concerns, to prescribe to empires that form of government, to which they imagine that they ought to submit. The celebrated Hogarth hath represented, in one of his moral engravings, a young man who, after having squandered away his fortune, is, by his creditors, lodged in a gaol. There he sits, melancholy and disconcerted, near a table, whilst a scroll lies under his feet, and bears the following title: 'being a new scheme for paying the debt of the nation. By T. L. now a prisoner in The Fleet.'"

The Author of the poem already quoted, intimates that the personage in the night-gown was meant for some real character:

"His wig was full as old as he,
In which one curl you could not see.
His neckcloth loose, his beard full grown,
An old torn night-gown not his own.
L———, great schemist, that can pay,
The nation's debt an easy way."

In Plate VIII. (which appears in three different states) is a half-penny reversed (struck in the year 1763) and fixed against the wall, intimating, that Britannia herself was fit only for a mad-house. This was a circumstance inserted by our artist (as he advertises) about a year before his death. I may add, that the man drawing lines against the wall just over the half-penny, alludes to Whiston's proposed method of discovering the Longitude by the firing of bombs, as here represented. The idea of the two figures at each corner of the print appears to have been taken from Cibber's statues at Bedlam. The faces of the two females are also changed. That of the woman with a fan, is entirely altered; she has now a cap on, instead of a hood, and is turned, as if speaking to the other.

Mr. Gilpin's opinion concerning this set of prints is too valuable to be omitted, and is therefore transcribed below.[12] The plates were thus admirably illustrated by Dr. John Hoadly.

Plate I.
O 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 in 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, home-felt peace,
Familiar duty without dread,
Instruction from example bred,
Which youthful minds with freedom mend,
And with the father mix the friend?
Uncircumscrib'd by prudent rules,
Or precepts of expensive schools
Abus'd at home, abroad despis'd,
Unbred, unletter'd, unadvis'd;
The headstrong course of youth begun,
What comfort from this darling son?

Plate II.
Prosperity (with harlot's smiles,
Most pleasing when she most beguiles)
How soon, sweet 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, in 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 swol'n Excess,
Mechanic Honour, vicious Taste,
And Fashion in her changing vest.
Plate III.
O vanity of youthful blood,
So by misuse to poison good!
Woman, fram'd for social love,
Fairest gift of powers above;
Source of every houshold 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 show 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 in wild excess?
Plate IV.
O vanity of youthful blood,
So by misuse to poison good!
Reason awakes, and views unbarr'd
The sacred gates he watch'd to guard;
Approaching sees 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 fears, despair, and horrors fraught,
Call back his guilty pleasures dead,
Whom he hath wrong'd, and whom betray'd.
Plate V.
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 show:
Gold can avert the sting of Shame,
In winter's arms create a flame;
Can couple youth with hoary age,
And make antipathies engage.
Plate VI.
Gold, thou bright son of Phœbus, source
Of universal intercourse;
Of weeping Virtue soft redress,
And blessing those who live to bless!
Yet oft behold this sacred truth,
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 tortur'd mind
To an imprison'd body join'd!
Plate VII.
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 confin'd:
No pleasures meet his conscious mind;
No blessings brought from early youth,
But broken faith and wrested truth,
Talents idle and unus'd,
And every trust of Heaven abus'd.
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.
Plate VIII.
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 rule 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 effac'd 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.

On this occasion also appeared an 8vo pamphlet, intituled, "The Rake's Progress, or the Humours of Drury-Lane, a poem in eight canto's, in Hudibrastick verse, being the ramble of a modern Oxonian, which is a compleat key to the eight prints lately published by the celebrated Mr. Hogarth." The second edition with additions, particularly an "epistle to Mr. Hogarth" was "printed for J. Chetwood, and sold at Inigo Jones's-Head against Exeter Change in The Strand, 1735." This is a most contemptible and indecent performance. Eight prints are inserted in some copies of it; but they are only the designs of Hogarth murdered, and perhaps were not originally intended for the decoration of the work already described.

The original paintings, both of the Rake's and Harlot's Progress, were at Fonthill, in Wiltshire, the seat of Mr. Beckford,[13] where the latter were destroyed by a fire, in the year 1755; the former set was happily preserved. Mr. Barnes, of Rippon, in Yorkshire, has the Harlot's Progress in oil. It must, however, be a copy. Mr. Beckford has also twenty-five heads from the Cartoons by Hogarth, for which he paid twenty-five guineas.

There is reason to believe that Hogarth once designed to have introduced the ceremony of a Marriage Contract into the Rake's Progress, instead of the Levee. An unfinished painting of this scene is still preserved. We have here the Rake's apartment as now exhibited in Plate II. In the anti-room, among other figures, we recognize that of the poet who at present congratulates our hero on his accession to wealth and pleasure. The bard is here waiting with an epithalamium in his hand. The Rake has added connoisseurship to the rest of his expensive follies. One of his purchases is a canvas containing only the representation of a human foot. [Perhaps this circumstance might allude to the dissection of Arlaud's Leda. See Mr. Walpole's Anecdotes, &c. vol. IV. p. 39.] A second is so obscure, that no objects in it are discernible. [A performance of the same description is introduced in our artist's Piquet, or Virtue in Danger.] A third presents us with a Madona looking down with fondness on the infant she holds in her arms. [This seems intended as a contrast to the grey headed bride who sits under it, and is apparently past child-bearing.] The fourth is emblematical, and displays perhaps too licentious a satire on transubstantiation. The Blessed Virgin is thrusting her Son down the hopper of a mill, in which he is ground by priests till he issues out in the shape of the consecrated wafer, supposed by Catholicks to contain the real presence. At a table sits a toothless decrepit father, guardian, or match-maker, joining the hand of the rake with that of the antiquated female, whose face is highly expressive of eagerness, while that of her intended husband is directed a contrary way, toward a groom who is bringing in a piece of plate won at a horse-race.[14] On the floor in front lie a heap of mutilated busts, &c. which our spendthrift is supposed to have recently purchased at an auction. The black boy, who is afterwards met with in Plate IV. of Marriage Alamode, was transplanted from this canvas. He is here introduced supporting such a picture of Ganymede as hangs against the wall of the lady's dressing-room in the same plate of the same work.

[1] The face of this female has likewise been changed on the last plate. In the intermediate ones it remains as originally designed. To give the same character two different casts of countenance, was surely an incongruity without excuse.

[2] The inscription on this bill is—"London, bought of William Tothall, Woollen-draper in Covent-Garden." See the corner figure looking over the music in the Rehearsal of the Oratorio of Judith; and note [88] above.

[3] Of whom a separate portrait, by Ellis, had been published by Overton. Figg died in the year 1734. As the taste of the publick is much changed about the importance of the noble Science of Defence, as it was called, and as probably it will never again revive, it may afford some entertainment to my readers, to see the terms in which this celebrated prize-fighter is spoken of by a professor of the art. "Figg was the Atlas of the Sword; and may he remain the gladiating statue! In him strength, resolution, and unparalleled judgement, conspired to form a matchless master. There was a majesty shone in his countenance, and blazed in all his actions, beyond all I ever saw. His right leg bold and firm, and his left, which could hardly ever be disturbed, gave him the surprising advantage already proved, and struck his adversary with despair and panic. He had that peculiar way of stepping in I spoke of, in a parry; he knew his arm, and its just time of moving; put a firm faith in that, and never let his adversary escape his parry. He was just as much a greater master than any other I ever saw, as he was a greater judge of time and measure." Captain John Godfrey's Treatise upon the Useful Science of Defence, 4to, 1747, p. 41. "Mr. Figg," says Chetwood, History of the Stage, p. 60, "informed me once, that he had not bought a shirt for more than twenty years, but had sold some dozens. It was his method, when he fought in his amphitheatre (his stage bearing that superb title), to send round to a select number of his scholars, to borrow a shirt for the ensuing combat, and seldom failed of half a dozen of superfine Holland from his prime pupils (most of the young nobility and gentry made it a part of their education to march under his warlike banner). This champion was generally conqueror, though his shirt seldom failed of gaining a cut from his enemy, and sometimes his flesh, though I think he never received any dangerous wound. Most of his scholars were at every battle, and were sure to exult at their great master's victories, every person supposing he saw the wounds his shirt received. Mr. Figg took his opportunity to inform his lenders of linen of the chasms their shirts received, with a promise to send them home. But, said the ingenious courageous Figg, I seldom received any other answer than D-mn you, keep it!" A Poem by Dr. Byrom, on a battle between Figg and Sutton, another prize-fighter, is in the 6th Volume of Dodsley's Collection of Poems.

[4] Fielding has introduced this porter, under the name of Leathersides, into The Covent-Garden Tragedy, acted in 1732.

Leath.
Two whores, great Madam, must be straight prepar'd,
A fat one for the Squire, and for my Lord a lean.
Mother.
Thou, Leathersides, best know'st such nymphs to find,
To thee their lodgings they communicate.
Go thou procure the girl.

[5] The cleanliness of the English seems to have made a similar impression on the mind of M. De Grosley, who, in his "Tour to London," observes, that "The plate, hearth-stones, moveables, apartments, doors, stairs, the very street-doors, their locks, and the large brass knockers, are every day washed, scowered, or rubbed. Even in lodging-houses, the middle of the stairs is often covered with carpeting, to prevent them from being soiled. All the apartments in the house have mats or carpets; and the use of them has been adopted some years since by the French;" and that "The towns and villages upon the road have excellent inns, but somewhat dear; at these an English lord is as well served as at his own house, and with a cleanliness much to be wished for in most of the best houses of France. The innkeeper makes his appearance only to do the honours of his table to the greatest personages, who often invite him to dine with them."

[6] The chief of these, who wears something that seems to have been a tie-wig, was painted from a French boy, who cleaned shoes at the corner of Hog-Lane.

[7] In the collection of Mr. Steevens only.

[8] He had meditated, however, some additional improvements in the same plate. When he had inserted the storm, he began to consider the impropriety of turning the girl out in the midst of it with her head uncovered; and therefore, on a proof of this print, from which he designed to have worked, he sketched her hat in with Indian ink.

[9] It appears, on examination of the Registers, &c. that Tho. Sice and Tho. Horn are not fictitious names. Such people were really churchwardens when the repairs in 1725 were made. The following inscription on the pew, denoting a vault beneath, is also genuine, and, as far as can be known at present, was faithfully copied in regard to its obsolete spelling.

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

Part of these words, in raised letters, at present form a pannel in the wainscot at the end of the right-hand gallery, as the church is entered from the street.—No heir of the Forset family appearing, their vault has been claimed and used by his Grace the Duke of Portland, as lord of the manor. The mural monument of the Taylors, composed of lead gilt over, is likewise preserved. It is seen, in Hogarth's print, just under the window. The bishop of the diocese, when the new church was built, gave orders that all the ancient tablets should be placed, as nearly as possible, in their former situations.

[10] Old Manners, brother to the late Duke of Rutland.

[11] The old Duke of Devonshire lost the great estate of Leicester abbey to him at the gaming-table. Manners was the only person of his time who had amassed a considerable fortune by the profession of a gamester.

[12] "The first print of this capital work is an excellent representation of a young heir, taking possession of a miser's effects. The passion of avarice, which hoards every thing, without distinction, what is and what is not valuable, is admirably described.—The composition, though not excellent, is not unpleasing. The principal group, consisting of the young gentleman, the taylor, the appraiser, the papers, and chest, is well shaped: but the eye is hurt by the disagreeable regularity of three heads nearly in a line, and at equal distances.—The light is not ill disposed. It falls on the principal figures: but the effect might have been improved. If the extreme parts of the mass (the white apron on one side, and the memorandum-book on the other) had been in shade, the repose had been less injured. The detached parts of a group should rarely catch a strong body of light.—We have no striking instances of expression in this print. The principal figure is unmeaning. The only one, which displays the true vis comica of Hogarth, is the appraiser fingering the gold. You enter at once into his character.—The young woman might have furnished the artist with an opportunity of presenting a graceful figure; which would have been more pleasing. The figure he has introduced, is by no means an object of allurement.—The perspective is accurate, but affected. So many windows, and open doors, may shew the author's learning; but they break the back ground, and injure the simplicity of it.

"The second print introduces our hero into all the dissipation of modish life. We became first acquainted with him, when a boy of eighteen. He is now of age; has entirely thrown off the clownish school-boy; and assumes the man of fashion. Instead of the country taylor, who took measure of him for his father's mourning, he is now attended by French barbers, French taylors, poets, milleners, jockies, bullies, and the whole retinue of a fine gentleman.—The expression, in this print, is wonderfully great. The dauntless front of the bully; the keen eye, and elasticity of the fencing-master; and the simpering importance of the dancing-master, are admirably expressed. The last is perhaps a little outré. The architect[A] is a strong copy from nature.—The composition seems to be entirely subservient to the expression. It appears, as if Hogarth had sketched, in his memorandum-book, all the characters which he has here introduced; but was at a loss how to group them; and chose rather to introduce them in detached figures, as he had sketched them, than to lose any part of the expression by combining them.—The light is ill distributed. It is spread indiscriminately over the print; and destroys the whole—We have no instance of grace in any of the figures. The principal figure is very deficient. There is no contrast in the limbs; which is always attended with a degree of ungracefulness.—The execution is very good. It is elaborate, and yet free.—The satire on operas, though it may be well directed, is forced and unnatural.

"The third plate carries us still deeper into the history. We meet our hero engaged in one of his evening amusements. This print, on the whole, is no very extraordinary effort of genius.—The design is good; and may be a very exact description of the humours of a brothel.—The composition too is not amiss. But we have few of those masterly strokes which distinguish the works of Hogarth. The whole is plain history. The lady setting the world on fire is the best thought: and there is some humour in furnishing the room with a set of Cæsars; and not placing them in order.—The light is ill managed. By a few alterations, which are obvious, particularly by throwing the lady dressing into the shade, the disposition of it might have been tolerable. But still we should have had an absurdity to answer, whence comes it? Here is light in abundance; but no visible source.—Expression we have a little through the whole print. That of the principal figure is the best. The ladies have all the air of their profession; but no variety of character. Hogarth's women are, in general, very inferior to his men. For which reason I prefer the Rake's Progress to the Harlot's. The female face indeed has seldom strength of feature enough to admit the strong markings of expression.

"Very disagreeable accidents often befall 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 lamp-lighter, 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 respect 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 point 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.—I cannot leave this print without remarking the falling band-box. Such representations of quick motion are absurd; and every moment the absurdity grows stronger. You cannot deceive the eye. The falling body must appear not to fall. Objects of that kind are beyond the power of representation.

"Difficulties crowd so fast upon our hero, that at the age of twenty-five, which he seems to have attained in the fifth plate, we find him driven to the necessity of marrying a woman, whom he detests, for her fortune. The composition here is very good; and yet we have a disagreeable regularity in the climax of the three figures, the maid, the bride, and the bride-groom.—The light is not ill distributed. The principal figure too is graceful; and there is strong expression in the seeming tranquillity of his features. He hides his contempt of the object before him as well as he can; and yet he cannot do it. She too has as much meaning as can appear thro' the deformity of her features. The clergyman's face we are all well acquainted with, and also his wig; tho' we cannot pretend to say, where we have seen either. The clerk too is an admirable fellow.—The perspective is well understood; but the church is too small;[B] and the wooden post, which seems to have no use, divides the picture very disagreeably.—The creed lost, the commandments broken, and the poor's-box obstructed by a cobweb, are all excellent strokes of satirical humour.

"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.—In point of light, it is more culpable. There is not shade enough among the figures to balance the glare. If the neck-cloth and weepers of the gentleman in mourning had been removed, and his hands thrown into shade, even that alone would have improved the effect.—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 representing 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. The figure opposing the mad-man is bad: it has a drunken appearance; and drunkenness is not the vice of a gaming table.—The principal figure is ill-drawn. The perspective is formal; and the execution but indifferent: in heightening his expression, Hogarth has lost his spirit.

"The seventh plate, which gives us the view of a jail, has very little in it. Many of the circumstances, which may well be supposed to increase the misery of a confined debtor, are well contrived; but the fruitful genius of Hogarth, I should think, might have treated the subject in a more copious manner. The episode of the fainting woman might have given way to many circumstances more proper to the occasion. This is the same woman, whom the rake discards in the first print; by whom he is rescued in the fourth; who is present at his marriage; who follows him into jail; and, lastly, to Bedlam. The thought is rather unnatural, and the moral certainly culpable.—The composition is bad. The group of the woman fainting is a round heavy mass: and the other group is very ill-shaped. The light could not be worse managed, and, as the groups are contrived, can hardly be improved.—In the principal figure there is great expression; and the fainting scene is well described. A scheme to pay off the national debt, by a man who cannot pay his own; and the attempt of a silly rake, to retrieve his affairs by a work of genius; are admirable strokes of humour.

"The eighth plate brings the fortune of our hero to a conclusion. It is a very expressive representation of the most horrid scene which human nature can exhibit.—The composition is not bad. The group, in which the lunatic is chained, is well managed; and if it had been carried a little further towards the middle of the picture, and the two women (who seem very oddly introduced) had been removed, both the composition, and the distribution of light, had been good.—The drawing of the principal figure is a more accurate piece of anatomy than we commonly find in the works of this master. The expression of the figure is rather unmeaning; and very inferior to the strong characters of all the other lunatics. The fertile genius of the artist has introduced as many of the causes of madness, as he could well have collected; but there is some tautology. There are two religionists, and two astronomers. Yet there is variety in each; and strong expression in all the characters. The self-satisfaction, and conviction, of him who has discovered the longitude; the mock majesty of the monarch; the moody melancholy of the lover; and the superstitious horror of the popish devotee; are all admirable.—The perspective is simple and proper.

"I should add, that these remarks are made upon the first edition of this work. When the plates were much worn, they were altered in many parts. They have gained by the alterations, in point of design; but have lost in point of expression."

[A] The architect. Mr. Gilpin means—the gardener.

[B] I am authorized to observe, that this is no fault in our artist. The old church at Marybone was so little, that it would have stood within the walls of the present one, leaving at the same time sufficient room for a walk round it.

[13] Afterwards twice lord mayor of London. See p. [44].

[14] The same as that introduced in Plate II.

---