It appears from Pope's correspondence with Atterbury, that the stock he had was at one time valued at between twenty and thirty thousand pounds; and that he was one of the lucky few who had "the good fortune to remain with half of what they imagined they had."—"Had you got all you have lost beyond what you ventured," said the good Bishop in reply, "consider that your superfluous gains would have sprung from the ruin of several families that now want necessaries."[1]
[1] Letters to and from Bishop Atterbury, 1782, vol. I. p. 71.
1733.
1. The Laughing Audience. "1733. Recd. Decbr. 18 of the Right Honnble. Lord Biron Half a Guinea being the first Payment for nine Prints 8 of which Represent a Rakes Progress and the 9th a Fair, Which I promise to Deliver at Michaelmass Next on Receiving one Guinea more. Note the Fair will be Deliver'd next Christmass at Sight of this receipt the Prints of the Rakes. Progress alone will be 2 Guineas each set after the Subscription is over."
The words printed in Italicks are in the hand-writing of Hogarth.
2. The Fair[1] [at Southwark]. Invented, painted, and engraved by W. Hogarth.. The show-cloth, representing the Stage Mutiny, is taken from a large etching by John Laguerre (son of Louis Laguerre, the historical painter), who sung at Lincoln's-Inn Fields and Covent-Garden Theatres, painted some of their scenes, and died in 1748. The Stage-Mutineers, or A Playhouse to be let, a tragi-comi farcical-ballad-opera, which was published in 1733, will throw some light on the figures here represented by Hogarth. See also the Supplement to Dodsley's Preface to his Collection of Old Plays, and the "Biographia Dramatica, 1782."
It is remarkable that, in our artist's copy of this etching, he has added a paint-pot and brushes at the feet of the athletic figure with a cudgel in his hand, who appears on the side of Highmore.[2] From these circumstances it is evident that John Ellis the painter (a pupil of Sir James Thornhill, a great frequenter of Broughton's gymnasium, the stages of other prize-fighters, &c.) was the person designed. Ellis was deputy-manager for Mrs. Wilks, and took up the cudgels also for the new patentee. Mr. Walpole observes that Rysbrack, when he produced that "exquisite summary of his skill, knowledge, and judgment," the Hercules now in Mr. Hoare's Temple at Stourhead, modelled the legs of the God from those of Ellis. This statue was compiled from the various limbs and parts of seven or eight of the strongest and best-made men in London, chiefly the bruisers, &c. of the then famous amphitheatre in Tottenham Court road.
In Banks's Works, vol. I. p. 97. is a Poetical Epistle on this print, which alludes to the disputes between the managers of Drury-Lane, and such of the actors as were spirited up to rebellion by Theophilus Cibber, and seceded to The Haymarket in 1733. Cibber is represented under the character of Pistol;[3] Harper under that of Falstaff. The figure in the corner was designed for Colley Cibber the Laureat, who had just sold his share in the play-house to Mr. Highmore, who is represented holding a scroll, on which is written "it cost £.6000." A monkey is exhibited sitting astride the iron that supports the sign of The Rose, a well-known tavern. A label issuing from his mouth contains the words: "I am a gentleman."[4] The Siege of Troy, upon another show-cloth, was a celebrated droll, composed by Elkanah Settle, and printed in 1707; it was a great favourite at fairs. A booth was built in Smithfield this year for the use of T. Cibber, Griffin, Bullock, and H. Hallam; at which the Tragedy of Tamerlane, with The Fall of Bajazet, intermixed with the Comedy of The Miser, was actually represented. The figure vaulting on the rope was designed for Signor Violante, who signalized himself in the reign of Geo. I.; and the tall man exhibited on a show-cloth, was Maximilian, a giant from Upper Saxony. The man flying from the steeple was one Cadman, who, within the recollection of some persons now living, descended in the manner here described from the steeple of St. Martin's into The Mews. He broke his neck soon after, in an experiment of the like kind, at Shrewsbury, and lies buried there in the churchyard of St. Mary Friars, with the following inscription on a little tablet inserted in the church-wall just over his grave.[5] The lines are contemptible, but yet serve to particularize the accident that occasioned his death.