Lest any of our readers should from hence suppose we have been guilty of an innacuracy in appropriating this set of prints to the year 1733, &c. it is necessary to observe, that the plates advertised as above, were only a pirated copy of Hogarth's work, and were published before their original.
[2] In The Grub-street Journal for December 6, 1733, appeared the following advertisement: "Lately published, (illustrated with six prints, neatly engraven from Mr. Hogarth's Designs,) The Lure of Venus; or a Harlot's Progress. An heroi-comical Poem, in six Cantos, by Mr. Joseph Gay.
"To Mr. Joseph Gay.
"Sir,
"It has been well observed, that a great and just objection to the Genius of Painters is their want of invention; from whence proceeds so many different designs or draughts on the same history or fable. Few have ventured to touch upon a new story; but still fewer have invented both the story and the execution, as the ingenious Mr. Hogarth has done, in his six prints of a Harlot's Progress; and, without a compliment, Sir, your admirable Cantos are a true key and lively explanation of the painter's hieroglyphicks.
"I am, Sir, yours, &c.
"A. Phillips."
This letter, ascribed to Ambrose Phillips, was in all probability a forgery, like the name of Joseph Gay.
[3] "Mother Needham's Lamentation," was published in May 1731, price 6d.
[4] It seems agreed on by our comic-writers, not to finish the character of a Bawd without giving her some pretence to Religion. In Dryden's Wild Gallant, Mother du Lake, being about to drink a dram, is made to exclaim, "'Tis a great way to the bottom; but heaven is all-sufficient to give me strength for it." The scene in which this speech occurs, was of use to Richardson in his Clarissa, and perhaps to Foote, or Foote's original of the character of Mother Cole.