56. A ticket for the benefit of Spiller the player. He died in the year 1729.
In the plate before us, which possesses no small share of humour, poor Spiller is represented in a melancholy posture. His finances are weighed against his debts, and outweighed by them. His taylor's bill appears to be of great length, and many others for ale, gin, &c. are on the ground near him. A bailiff is clapping him on the shoulder—a prison is in sight—ladies and gentlemen are taking tickets, &c. This very uncommon and beautiful little print is, at present, found only in the collection of Mr. Ireland.
57. St. Mary's Chapel. Five at night. Several performers playing on different instruments. William Hogarth inv. G. Vandergucht sculpt.
This was certainly an ornament at the top of a ticket for a music-meeting. The name of Hogarth is affixed to it, and the whole design might have been his. I do not, however, believe it was so. A few of the figures appear to have been collected from his works by some other hand, rather than grouped by his own. Vandergucht too was so thoroughly a mannerist, and especially in small subjects, that he was rarely faithful to the expressions of countenance he undertook to trace on copper. There is no humour, and indeed little merit of any kind, in this performance. It has not hitherto been met with on the entire piece of paper to which it must originally have belonged.
A print called The Scotch Congregation, by Hogarth, is almost unique, on account of its extreme indecency. One copy of it was in a collection of his works belonging to Mr. Alexander of Edinburgh. He is said to have had it from Mrs. Hogarth. A second copy is reported to exist in the possession of another gentleman. No more impressions of it are known.
A correspondent at Dublin informs me, that in the collection of Dr. Hopkins of that city are the following seven prints by Hogarth:
1. The History of Witchcraft. Humbly dedicated to the Wise. Allegorically modernized. Part the First. Published according to act of Parliament. Hogarth inv. et sculpt.
Half sheet print. At one end, Witches attending the punishment of two human figures; at the other, several at their different occupations.