Plate II. Quin compared Garrick in Othello to the black boy with the tea-kettle,[5] a circumstance that by no means encouraged our Roscius to continue acting the part. Indeed, when his face was obscured, his chief power of expression was lost; and then, and not till then, was he reduced to a level with several other performers. In a copy of this set of plates, one of the two small portraits hanging up in the Jew's bedchamber, is superscribed, Clarke; but without authority from Hogarth. Woolston would likewise have been out of his place, as he had written against the Jewish tenets. Of this circumstance, Hogarth was probably told by some friend, and therefore effaced a name he had once ignorantly inserted.
In Plate III.[6] (as already observed) is the portrait of Sir John Gonson. That Sir John Gonson was the person intended in this print, is evident from a circumstance in the next, where, on a door in Bridewell, a figure hanging is drawn in chalk, with an inscription over it, "Sir J. G." as well as from the following explanation by Rouquet: "La figure, qui paroit entrer sans bruit avec une partie de guet, est un commissaire qui se distinguoit extrêmement par son zèle pour la persecution des filles de joye."
Respecting another circumstance, however, in the third plate, Rouquet appears to have met with some particular information that has escaped me. "L'auteur a saisi l'occasion d'un morceau de beurre qui fait partie du déjeuné, pour l'enveloper plaisamment dans le titre de la lettre pastorale qu'un grand prelat[7] addressa dans ce tems-là à son diocese, & dont plusieurs exemplaires eurent le malheur d'être renvoyés à l'epicier."—The sleeve of the maid-servant's gown in this plate is enlarged, and the neck of a bottle on the table is lengthened.
For variations in Plate IV. see the roof of the room. Shadow on the principal woman's petticoat, and from the hoop-petticoat hanging up in the back ground. The dog made darker. The woman next the overseer has a high cap, which in the modern impressions is lowered.
In Plate V. Roof of the room. Back of the chair. Table. Dr. Misaubin's waistcoat. Name of Dr. Rock on the paper lying on the close-stool. Dish at the fire.
In a despicable poem published in 1732, under the fictitious name of Joseph Gay, and intituled "The Harlot's Progress, which is a key to the six prints lately published by Mr. Hogarth," the two quacks in attendance on the dying woman are called Tan—r and G—m. It is evident from several circumstances, that this Mr. J. Gay became acquainted with our author's work through the medium of a copy.
In Plate VI. the woman seated next the clergyman was designed for Elizabeth Adams, who, at the age of 30, was afterwards executed for a robbery, September 10, 1737. The common print of her will justify this assertion.
If we may trust the wretched metrical performance just quoted, the Bawd in this sixth plate was designed for Mother Bentley.