"In four days will be published, copies from the said prints, with the consent of Mr. Hogarth, according to the act of parliament, which will be sold at 2 s. 6 d. each set, with the usual allowance to all dealers in town and country; and, that the the publick may not be imposed on, at the bottom of each print will be inserted these words, viz. 'Published with the consent of Mr. William Hogarth, by Tho. Bakewell, according to act of parliament.'
"N. B. Any person that shall sell any other copies, or imitations of the said prints, will incur the penalties in the late act of parliament, and be prosecuted for the same."
This series of plates, however, as Mr. Walpole observes, was pirated by Boitard on one very large sheet of paper, containing the several scenes represented by Hogarth. It came out a fortnight before the genuine set, but was soon forgotten. The principal variations in these prints are the following:
Plate I. The girl's face who holds the ring is erased, and a worse is put in.[1] The mother's head, &c. is lessened. The shoe-sole, cut from the cover of an ancient family Bible, together with a chest, is added; the memorandum-book removed into another place; the woollen-draper's shop bill,[2] appended to a roll of black cloth, omitted; the contents of the closet thrown more into shade.
In Plate II. are portraits of Figg, the prize-fighter;[3] Bridgeman, a noted gardener; and Dubois, a master of defence, who was killed in a duel by one of the same name, as the following paragraphs in The Grub-street Journal for May 16, 1734, &c. will testify: "Yesterday (May 11) between two and three in the afternoon, a duel was fought in Mary-le-bone Fields, between Mr. Dubois a Frenchman, and Mr. Dubois an Irishman, both fencing-masters, the former of whom was run through the body, but walked a considerable way from the place, and is now under the hands of an able surgeon, who has great hopes of his recovery."
May 23, 1734, "Yesterday morning died Mr. Dubois, of a wound he received in a duel."
The portrait of Handel has been supposed to be represented in the plate before us; but "this," as Sir John Hawkins observes to me, "is too much to say. Mr. Handel had a higher sense of his own merit than ever to put himself in such a situation; and, if so, the painter would hardly have thought of doing it. The musician must mean in general any composer of operas." On the floor lies a picture representing Farinelli, seated on a pedestal, with an altar before him, on which are several flaming hearts, near which stand a number of people with their arms extended, offering him presents: at the foot of the altar is one female kneeling, tendering her heart. From her mouth a label issues, inscribed, "One God, one Farinelli;" alluding to a lady of distinction, who, being charmed with a particular passage in one of his songs, uttered aloud from the boxes that impious exclamation. On the figure of the captain, Rouquet has the following remark: "Ce caractere ne paroit plus Italien qu'Anglois." I am not sufficiently versed in Alsatian annals to decide on the question; but believe that the bully by profession (not assassin, as Rouquet seems to interpret the character) was to be found during the youth of our artist. More have heard and been afraid of these vulgar heroes, than ever met with them. This set of prints was engraved by Scotin chiefly; but several of the faces were touched upon by Hogarth. In the second plate the countenance of the man with the quarter-staves was wholly engraved by Hogarth. In some early proofs of the print, there is not a single feature on this man's face; there is no writing either in the musician's book, or on the label; nor is there the horse-race cup, the letter, or the poem that lies at the end of the label, that being entirely blank. I mention these circumstances to shew that our artist would not entrust particular parts of his work to any hand but his own; or perhaps he had neither determined on the countenance or the inscription he meant to introduce, till the plate was far advanced. With unfinished proofs, on any other account, this catalogue has nothing to do. As the rudiments of plates, they may afford instruction to young engravers; or add a fancied value to the collections of connoisseurs.
In the third plate is Leather-coat,[4] a noted porter belonging to The Rose Tavern, with a large pewter dish in his hand, which for many years served as a sign to the shop of a pewterer on Snow-Hill. In this utensil the posture-woman, who is undressing, used to whirl herself round, and display other feats of indecent activity: "II suffit" (I transcribe from Rouquet, who is more circumstantial) "de vous laisser à deviner la destination de la chandelle. Ce grand plat va servir a cette femme comme à une poularde. Il sera mis au milieu de la table; elle s'y placera sur le dos; et l'ivresse et l'esprit de débauche feront trouver plaisant un jeu, qui de sang-froid ne le paroit guères." Rouquet, in his description of an English tavern, such as that in which our scene lies, mentions the following as extraordinary conveniencies and articles of magnificence: "Du linge toujours blanc[5]—de tables de bois qu'on appelle ici mahogani—grand feu et gratis." Variations: Pontac's head is added in the room of a mutilated Cæsar. Principal woman has a man's hat on. Rake's head altered. Undrest woman's head altered. Woman who spirts the wine, and she who threatens her with a drawn knife, have lower caps, &c.
So entirely do our manners differ from those of fifty years ago, that I much question if at present, in all the taverns of London, any thing resembling the scene here exhibited by Hogarth could be found. That we are less sensual than our predecessors, I do not affirm; but may with truth observe, we are more delicate in pursuit of our gratifications.—No young man, of our hero's fortune and education, would now think of entertaining half a score of prostitutes at a tavern, after having routed a set of feeble wretches, who are idly called our Guardians of the Night.
Plate IV. Rakewell is going to court on the first of March, which was Queen Caroline's birth-day, as well as the anniversary of St. David. In the early impressions a shoe-black steals the Rake's cane. In the modern ones, a large group of blackguards[6] [the chimney-sweeper peeping over the poll boy's cards, and discovering that he has two honours, by holding up two fingers, is among the luckiest of Hogarth's traits] are introduced gambling on the pavement; near them a stone inscribed Black's, a contrast to White's gaming-house, against which a flash of lightning is pointed. The curtain in the window of the sedan chair is thrown back. This plate is likewise found in an intermediate state;[7] the sky being made unnaturally obscure, with an attempt to introduce a shower of rain, and lightning very aukwardly represented. It is supposed to be a first proof after the insertion of the group of black-guard gamesters; the window of the chair being only marked for an alteration that was afterwards made in it. Hogarth appears to have so far spoiled the sky, that he was obliged to obliterate it, and cause it to be engraved over again by another hand.[8] Not foreseeing, however, the immense demand for his prints, many of them were so slightly executed, as very early to stand in need of retouching. The seventh in particular was so much more slightly executed than the rest, that it sooner wanted renovation, and is therefore to be found in three different states. The rest appear only in two.