In Plate V. is his favourite dog Trump. In this, also the head of the maid-servant is greatly altered, and the leg and foot of the bridegroom omitted.
From the antiquated bride, and the young female adjusting the folds of her gown, in this plate, is taken a French print of a wrinkled harridan of fashion at her toilet, attended by a blooming coëffeuse. It was engraved by L. Surugue in 1745, from a picture in crayons by Coypel, and is entitled, La Folie pare la Decrepitude des ajustemens de la Jeunesse. From the Frenchman, however, the Devonshire-square dowager of our artist has received so high a polish, that she might be mistaken for a queen mother of France.
Mr. Gilpin, in his remarks on this plate, appears not to have fully comprehended the extent of the satire designed in it. Speaking of the church, he observes, that "the wooden post, which seems to have no use, divides the picture disagreeably." Hogarth, however, meant to expose the insufficiency of such ecclesiastical repairs as are confided to the superintendance of parish-officers. We learn, from an inscription on the front of a pew, that "This church was beautified in the Year 1725. Tho. Sice, Tho. Horn, Churchwardens."[9] The print before us came out in 1735 (i. e. only ten years afterwards), and by that time the building might have been found in the condition here exhibited, and have required a prop to prevent part of its roof from falling in.—As a proof that this edifice was really in a ruinous state, it was pulled down and rebuilt in the year 1741.
Fifty years ago, Marybone church was considered at such a distance from London, as to become the usual resort of those who, like our hero, wished to be privately married.
In Plate VI. the fire breaking out, alludes to the same accident which happened at White's, May 3, 1733. I learn from a very indifferent poem descriptive of this set of plates (the title is unfortunately wanting), that some of the characters in the scene before us were real ones:
"But see the careful plain old man,
M——[10], well-known youth to trepan,
To C———sh[11] lend the dear bought pence,
C———sh quite void of common sense,
Whose face, unto his soul a sign,
Looks stupid, as does that within.
A quarrel from behind ensues,
The sure retreat of those that lose.
An honest 'Squire smells the cheat,
And swears the villain shall be beat:
But G——dd wisely interferes,
And dissipates the wretch's fears."
The original sketch in oil for this scene is at Mrs. Hogarth's house in Leicester-fields. The principal character was then sitting, and not, as he is at present, thrown upon his knees in the act of execration.
The thought of the losing gamester pulling his hat over his brows is adopted from a similar character to be found among the figures of the principal personages in the court of Louis XIV. folio. This work has no engraver's name, but was probably executed about the year 1700.
Plate VII. The celebrated Beccaria, in his "Essay on Public Happiness," vol. II. p. 172, observes, "I am sensible there are persons whom it will be difficult for me to persuade: I mean those profound contemplators, who, secluding themselves from their fellow-creatures, are assiduously employed in framing laws for them, and who frequently neglect the care of their domestic and private concerns, to prescribe to empires that form of government, to which they imagine that they ought to submit. The celebrated Hogarth hath represented, in one of his moral engravings, a young man who, after having squandered away his fortune, is, by his creditors, lodged in a gaol. There he sits, melancholy and disconcerted, near a table, whilst a scroll lies under his feet, and bears the following title: 'being a new scheme for paying the debt of the nation. By T. L. now a prisoner in The Fleet.'"
The Author of the poem already quoted, intimates that the personage in the night-gown was meant for some real character: