The date of the print before us has been conjectured from its reference to the Beggar's Opera, and Perseus and Andromeda,[1] both of which were acted in the year already mentioned.
This plate represents the removal of Rich and his scenery, authors, actors, &c. from Lincoln's-Inn Fields to the New House; and might therefore be as probably referred to the year 1733, when that event happened. The scene is the area of Covent Garden, across which, leading toward the door of the Theatre, is a long procession, consisting of a cart loaded with thunder and lightning; performers, &c. and at the head of them Mr. Rich (invested with the skin of the famous dog in Perseus and Andromeda) riding with his mistress in a chariot driven by Harlequin, and drawn by Satyrs. But let the verses at bottom explain our artist's meaning:
Not with more glory through the streets of Rome,
Return'd great conquerors in triumph home,
Than, proudly drawn with Beauty by his side,
We see gay R—-[2] in gilded chariot ride.
He comes, attended by a num'rous throng,
Who, with loud shouts, huzza the Chief along.
Behold two bards, obsequious, at his wheels,
Confess the joy each raptur'd bosom feels;
Conscious that wit by him will be receiv'd,
And on his stage true humour be retriev'd.
No sensible and pretty play will fall[3]
Condemn'd by him as not theatrical.
The players follow, as they here are nam'd,
Dress'd in each character for which they're fam'd.
Quin th' Old Bachelour, a Hero Ryan shows,
Who stares and stalks majestick as he goes.
Walker,[4] in his lov'd character we see
A Prince, tho' once a fisherman was he,
And Massanelo nam'd; in this he prides,
Tho' fam'd for many other parts besides.
Then Hall,[5] who tells the bubbled countrymen
That Carolus is Latin for Queen Anne.
Did ever mortal know so clean a bite?
Who else, like him, can copy Serjeant Kite!
To the Piazza let us turn our eyes,
See Johnny Gay on porters shoulders rise,
Whilst a bright Man of Tast his works despise.[6]
Another author wheels his works with care,
In hopes to get a market at this fair;
For such a day he sees not ev'ry year.
By the Man of Taste, Mr. Pope was apparently designed. He is represented, in his tye-wig, at one corner of the Piazza, wiping his posteriors with the Beggar's Opera. The letter P is over his head. His little sword is significantly placed, and the peculiarity of his figure well preserved.
The reason why our artist has assigned such an employment to him, we can only guess. It seems, indeed, from Dr. Johnson's Life of Gay, that Pope did not think the Beggar's Opera would succeed. Swift, however, was of the same opinion; and yet the former supported the piece on the first night of exhibition, and the latter defended it in his Intelligencer against the attacks of Dr. Herring,[7] then preacher to the Society of Lincoln's-Inn, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. Hogarth might be wanton in his satire; might have founded it on idle report; or might have sacrificed truth to the prejudices of Sir James Thornhill, whose quarrel, on another occasion, he is supposed to have taken up, when he ridiculed The Translator of Homer in a view of "The Gate of Burlington-house."
There are besides some allusions in the verses already quoted, as well as in the piece they refer to, which I confess my inability to illustrate. Those who are best acquainted with the theatric and poetical history of the years 1728, &c. would prove the most successful commentators on the present occasion; but not many can possibly be now alive who were at that period competent judges of such matters.
This print, however, was not only unpublished, but in several places is unfinished. It was probably suppressed by the influence of some of the characters represented in it. The style of composition, and manner of engraving, &c. &c. would have sufficiently proved it to be the work of Hogarth, if the initials of his name had been wanting at the bottom of the plate.
[1] The Perseus and Andromeda, for which Hogarth engraved the plates mentioned in p. [170], was not published till 1730; but there was one under the same title at Drury-Lane in 1728. As both houses took each other's plans at that time, perhaps the Lincoln's-Inn Fields Perseus might have been acted before it was printed.
[2] Rich.
[3] No sensible and pretty play, &c. This refers to Cibber's decision on the merits of some piece offered for representation, and, we may suppose, rejected. In a copy of verses addressed to Rich on the building of Covent Garden Theatre, are the following lines, which seem to allude to the rejection already mentioned: